“Relativistic thermodynamics” should be understood not as a generalization of a non-relativistic theory but as an application of a general thermodynamic framework, neutral as to spacetime setting and allowing arbitrary conserved quantities, to the specific case of relativity. That framework gives an unambiguous result as to the thermodynamics of relativistically moving systems (an answer coinciding with Einstein’s, and Planck’s, original results). Thermodynamic temperature is unambiguously defined as rate of change of energy with entropy at constant momentum; that said, its operational significance is limited and other measures of energy/entropy covariance, which incorporate momentum transfer, are often more useful.

With the advancement in the embryo culture media, which supports nutrient requirements of embryos up to 5 to 6 days, there’s a chance to select more viable embryos, which are more likely to result in pregnancy, compared to earlier stages. Also, there is a controversy regarding the frozen embryo transfer compared to the fresh type. To compare the chemical pregnancy rates between fresh embryo transfer (ET), and frozen embryo transfer (FET), on day 3 (cleavage), and day 4 (morula) of development. In this retrospective study, data of 242 fresh and 758 frozen embryo transfer cycles were obtained in one infertility center in Isfahan, Iran. The study’s groups were assigned based on the day of fresh or frozen embryo transfer (day 3, or day 4 embryos) and the embryo grading. Chemical pregnancy was the main outcome measurement (implantation rates). The chemical pregnancy rate was higher in the good quality frozen embryo day 3 and transfer on day 4 group (40.1%). This rate was near the results of transferring the good quality frozen embryo on day 4 (39.2 %). There was no significant difference in the chemical pregnancy rate related to the number of transferred embryos (p = 0.55). The higher PRs, when the embryos were transferred on day 4, provided further support for the morula stage embryo transfer, possibly because of better synchrony with the endometrium. It is concluded that morula/compact embryos are good candidates for embryo transfer, which simultaneously reduces the number of transferred embryos.

Depuis le lancement en 2016 du mégaprojet d'exploitation minière à ciel ouvert de l’« Arc minier de l'Orénoque » au Venezuela, plusieurs groupes armés appelés sindicatos ont pris possession de certains territoires d'extraction. En faisant nôtre la définition wéberienne de l’État, nous formons l'hypothèse selon laquelle le groupement politique du sindicato présent sur l'un de ces territoires, celui de Las Claritas, peut être qualifié d’État embryonnaire. Poursuivant alors les interrogations de Bourdieu sur l’émergence de l’État, nous cherchons à documenter le processus d’étatisation et à témoigner de la façon dont les « bandits » deviennent des « princes ». Basée sur une démarche ethnographique et documentaire, notre recherche nous conduit à mettre en avant quatre mécanismes participant au processus d’étatisation : l'institutionnalisation, la monopolisation, la légitimation et la démarcation.

A growing number of states are adopting a feminist foreign policy (FFP). While this change has excited much scholarly attention, the process by which countries decide to adopt FFP remains unclear: How can we explain their journey toward the formal adoption of FFP? What factors create an environment in which these states were willing (and able) to declare their foreign policy feminist? We bring together literature on FFP and foreign policy change to identify the factors that lead to the uptake of FFP. The roles of a favorable domestic context, policy entrepreneurs, a new governing coalition, and the international context for feminism are highlighted as having clear impact on the decision to adopt FFP. The paper focuses on two different cases: Sweden, which pioneered the idea of FFP until a rollback on its position following domestic elections in 2022, and Chile, which only adopted FFP in 2022.

Conditioning on variables affected by treatment can induce post-treatment bias when estimating causal effects. Although this suggests that researchers should measure potential moderators before administering the treatment in an experiment, doing so may also bias causal effect estimation if the covariate measurement primes respondents to react differently to the treatment. This paper formally analyzes this trade-off between post-treatment and priming biases in three experimental designs that vary when moderators are measured: pre-treatment, post-treatment, or a randomized choice between the two. We derive nonparametric bounds for interactions between the treatment and the moderator under each design and show how to use substantive assumptions to narrow these bounds. These bounds allow researchers to assess the sensitivity of their empirical findings to priming and post-treatment bias. We then apply the proposed methodology to a survey experiment on electoral messaging.

We assessed the hospital environment as a reservoir of vancomycin-resistant E. faecium (VRE) and compared environmental VRE isolates to bloodstream infection E. faecium isolates. We identified distinct environmental and patient reservoirs, with the environment dominated by vanB VRE. Environment-clinical reservoir spillover accounted for 292/895 (33%) of putative transmission links.

During his life, Friedrich Hayek drastically changed his evaluation of Aristotle’s role in the history of political and economic thought. Initially considering Aristotle as one of the forerunners of the liberal tradition, he then came to consider Aristotle’s philosophy as the source of collectivist thought. By examining both published and unpublished materials, this article shows that Hayek’s attack on Aristotle in The Fatal Conceit is authentic and puts Hayek’s affirmations on Aristotle in the context of his intellectual development. Hayek’s rejection of Aristotle can be related to his increasing emphasis on the abstract nature of the rules governing complex phenomena. However, this does not explain why Hayek felt compelled to take such a stance on an ancient philosopher who was highly esteemed in the school he belonged to. Hayek’s abandonment of the established view on the Aristotelian roots of the Austrian school can be better understood by considering the intellectual environment of his time. His eventual adoption of Karl Popper’s point of view on Aristotle meant taking a stance against Karl Polanyi’s democratic socialism and distancing himself from Wilhelm Röpke’s Catholic conservatism.

A tantalizing open problem, posed independently by Stiebitz in 1995 and by Alon in 1996 and again in 2006, asks whether for every pair of integers $s,t \ge 1$ there exists a finite number $F(s,t)$ such that the vertex set of every digraph of minimum out-degree at least $F(s,t)$ can be partitioned into non-empty parts $A$ and $B$ such that the subdigraphs induced on $A$ and $B$ have minimum out-degree at least $s$ and $t$, respectively.

In this short note, we prove that if $F(2,2)$ exists, then all the numbers $F(s,t)$ with $s,t\ge 1$ exist and satisfy $F(s,t)=\Theta (s+t)$. In consequence, the problem of Alon and Stiebitz reduces to the case $s=t=2$. Moreover, the numbers $F(s,t)$ with $s,t \ge 2$ either all exist and grow linearly, or all of them do not exist.

The article pioneers the examination of “hustle kingdoms”: illegal cybercrime training academies in West Africa. It explores these entities as innovative and adaptive institutions that emerge in response to systemic socio-economic strain. This article provides a unique analysis of hustle kingdoms by situating their emergence within the region’s socio-economic, cultural and technological trajectories. It does so by assessing the contemporary manifestation of these cybercrime academies with history in mind to understand the past that created them. It highlights how these cybercrime training academies have evolved from earlier forms, thereby showcasing a unique form of deviant innovation. It contributes to existing literature by addressing the critical gap in the scholarly discourse surrounding these entities and their historical evolution. Drawing on Merton’s strain theory, this historical scholarly endeavour examines how systemic barriers to education and employment have fostered deviant innovation, transforming hustle kingdoms from early fraud enterprises into sophisticated, global cybercrime networks. The analysis highlights the structural disparities that sustain their operations by juxtaposing these academies with conventional educational frameworks. The findings offer novel insights into the intersection of inequality, cultural narratives and technological adaptation, positioning hustle kingdoms as both products and catalysts of systemic strain.

Artificial sweeteners are used to reduce energy intake, but studies suggest that consumption during pregnancy may impact the offspring’s risk of overweight. In this longitudinal cohort study, we aimed to examine the association between consumption of artificially sweetened or sugar-sweetened beverages during pregnancy and offspring overweight from birth to 18 years in the Danish National Birth Cohort. A total of 101 042 pregnancies were enrolled in the Danish National Birth Cohort from 1996 to 2002. Follow-up was conducted throughout pregnancy, childhood and adolescence. Additionally, 72 821 women completed an FFQ during pregnancy, reporting intake of beverages sweetened with artificial sweeteners or sugar. Offspring height and weight were obtained during childhood and adolescence. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to estimate the OR for overweight concerning maternal beverage consumption. Analyses were adjusted for risk factors for childhood overweight, including maternal age, pre-pregnancy BMI, physical activity and smoking in pregnancy, healthy eating index, paternal BMI, socio-economic status and duration of breastfeeding. We found increased odds of overweight in 7-, 11-, 14- and 18-year-old offspring whose mothers reported drinking ≥ 1 artificially sweetened beverage daily during pregnancy compared with no consumption (18 years: adjusted OR 1·26 (95 % CI 1·12, 1·42)). We found decreased adjusted odds of overweight in 11- and 18-year-old offspring whose mothers reported drinking ≥ 1 sugar-sweetened beverage daily during pregnancy compared with no consumption. We found that consumption of artificially sweetened beverages during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of overweight in childhood and adolescence after adjustment for risk factors for childhood overweight.

We establish two new truncated identities for theta series. Their partition-theoretic interpretations are also given.

Detrimental impacts of early ecological adversity on children’s development are known, but our understanding of their mechanisms and factors contributing to multifinality of developmental trajectories triggered by adversity is incomplete. We examined longitudinal pathways from ecological adversity parents experienced when children were infants, measured as a cumulative index of fine-grained scores on several ecological risks, to children’s future self-regulation (SR) in 200 U.S. Midwestern community families (96 girls). Parents’ observed power-assertive styles were modeled as mediators, and their negative internal working models (IWMs) of the child, coded from interviews – as moderators. Both were assessed twice, at 16 months and at 3 years, to inform our understanding of their developmental timing. Children’s SR was reported by parents and observed at 4.5 years. Path analyses revealed moderated mediation in mother-child relationships: A path from higher early ecological adversity to elevated power assertion to children’s poorer SR was significant only for mothers with highly negative IWMs of the child. Maternal negative IWMs assessed early, at 16 months, moderated the link between ecological adversity and power assertion. Once elevated, maternal power assertion was stable through age 3 and not moderated by IWM at age 3. There were no significant effects in father-child relationships.

This History of Education Society Presidential Address considers Blackfoot education and how psychologist Abraham Maslow attempted to make sense of it after his six-week stay at the Siksika reserve in 1938. Maslow encountered an educated, secure people at Siksika, who had a fully formed system of education grounded in reverence for children, stories, ceremonies, songs, language, humor, land, and connection, all of which had been tested over millennia. Though he might not have been able to interpret what he was seeing and hearing as fully as would a member of the Blackfoot community, what he experienced stuck with him, and can be read as the basis for the theories he presented as the hierarchy of needs and self-actualization. As Maslow learned, Blackfoot history is an education history, which Blackfoot Elders sought to document and keep for generations not yet born.

Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is a significant pest of Capsicum annuum (Solanales: Solanaceae) and exhibits intraspecific differentiation within populations. To investigate the adaptability of Hap3 and Hap17 A. gossypii to various C. annuum varieties, including ‘Lvzhou101’ (LZ), ‘Lashen’ (LA), ‘Saierweilvtianjiao’ (SE), ‘Haimaihongri’ (HM), ‘Chaotianjiao’ (CT), and ‘Luosijiangjun’ (LS), we employed life tables to analyse growth and population parameters post-feeding and conducted petri dish host choice experiments to assess the host plant preference of A. gossypii. Survival rates of A. gossypii varied significantly across C. annuum varieties. Notably, Hap3 and Hap17 thrived on ‘LZ’ but failed to establish populations on ‘LA’. The net reproductive rate (R0), average generation time (T), and intrinsic rate of increase (rm) differed markedly between Hap3 and Hap17 across C. annuum varieties. Feeding on ‘LZ’ resulted in a significantly higher R0 value (26.49) for Hap3 relative to other varieties. The T (7.60 days) and rm (0.27) values for Hap3 on ‘SE’ were superior to those observed on other C. annuum varieties. These findings indicate that ‘SE’ is the optimal host for Hap3 growth, while ‘LZ’ best supports Hap17. Both haplotypes exhibited the lowest adaptability to ‘LA’. Therefore, the utilisation capacity of A. gossypii populations on C. annuum demonstrates differentiation, and the resistance levels among C. annuum varieties to A. gossypii vary. This differentiation can inform targeted management strategies for aphid infestations on pepper crops.