Malnutrition is highly prevalent among oncology patients, with large-scale studies reporting involuntary weight loss in 31–87%, depending on tumour site and disease stage. A combination of nutrition-impact symptoms, reduced oral intake and systemic inflammation lead to poor tolerance to treatment, diminished quality of life and reduced survival. Systemic inflammation is a hallmark of cancer-associated malnutrition and contributes to loss of lean mass and abnormal body composition phenotypes (sarcopenia, cachexia and low muscle density) which may coexist with overweight and obesity. Malnutrition screening tools are widely used to identify patients at risk; however, traditional weight and BMI-based instruments such as the Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST) and Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) frequently misclassify patients with cancer as well-nourished. These tools fail to account for nutrition-impact symptoms, inflammation and muscle wasting. Although obesity is an established cancer risk factor, 40–60% of patients with metastatic disease remain overweight or obese during treatment. When screening tools are BMI-based, high fat stores mask muscle wasting, leading to misclassification of nutritional risk and delayed dietetic referrals. To improve detection, screening tools should incorporate patient-reported symptoms, inflammatory markers and body composition assessment, enabling earlier, proactive nutritional care. Alternatively, it may be time to acknowledge that all cancer patients are inherently ‘at-risk’ of malnutrition and to prioritise universal access to dietetic support from diagnosis through treatment. This review summarises current malnutrition screening and assessment practices in oncology and outlines key considerations for future research and clinical practice.

We study the sets of points where a Lévy function and a translated Lévy function share a given couple of Hölder exponents, and we investigate how their Hausdorff dimensions depend on the translation parameter.

Water scarcity is a growing challenge for sustainable agriculture, particularly in water-intensive crops like rice. This study evaluates the impacts of three irrigation methods; drip irrigation (DI), alternate wetting and drying (AWD), and continuous flooding (CF) on rice yield, water productivity and economic returns over three years. Two irrigation levels (I1: Application of water equal to 25 % of the water between the saturation point and field capacity when the soil moisture was near field capacity, I2: Application of water to field capacity when 25 % of the available water holding capacity was depleted) were applied. Results revealed that irrigation methods and levels significantly influenced rice yield at the 1 % level. The highest average yield (7.95 t/ha) was obtained from CF, followed by AWDI1 (7.60 t/ha) and DI1 (6.39 t/ha). Drip irrigation and AWD reduced water use by 30–57 % compared to CF but resulted in yield losses of 2–52 %. However, the AWDI1 treatment recorded the highest water productivity and net income (US$2455 ha), outperforming CF and DI1. Economic analyses confirmed the viability of AWD and drip irrigation as sustainable alternatives to CF, balancing water conservation with profitability. These methods are particularly effective in regions with limited water availability, offering a sustainable approach to rice cultivation without significant trade-offs in yield quality. This study also underscores the importance of integrating physical and economic indicators when selecting irrigation strategies to ensure food security and resource sustainability in the face of water scarcity.

Circular shunt is a very rare, albeit critical, condition. We present a case of a post-surgical circular shunt that resulted after correction of an anomalous total pulmonary venous connection to the coronary sinus with a persistent left superior vena cava. A left cavo-pulmonary anastomosis was performed; however, she developed heart failure during follow-up. The anastomosis was closed by interventional cardiac catheterisation without complications that led to resolution of heart failure symptoms.

Between 1860 and 1930, the Canada-United States border emerged as a crucial economic boundary. In creating the border, however, Canada and the United States prioritized revenue generation over coherence or uniformity. This priority created an unpredictable barrier for both businesses and individuals. Consuls often focused their attention on understanding the impacts of tariffs, trade volume, and smuggling on transnational commerce. The border’s practical impacts, however, went far deeper. For individuals, the border’s unpredictability shaped everything from how they gave gifts to the ways they supported their families. For businesses, the border impacted profit margins and intellectual property. But it also changed how businesses approached administrative tasks—everything from staff training to who they delegated to fill out paperwork. Although imagined as a federal project, the border’s tolerances for variation ensured that regional and local solutions proliferated. Federal mandates merged with local interests to create an inconsistent barrier of ever-changing heights.

Prognosis is an important aspect of any scientific culture. Speculation and imagination about future knowledge, social organization and technology pervade the practice of science and lend it aim and direction (or at least the appearance of direction). This article is about the development of prognosis in the fiction and popular-scientific writing of Jane Webb Loudon (1800–58), a writer familiar within the history of science for her publications in botany and gardening, if not for her romantic novel The Mummy!, one of the earliest examples of the genre later known as science fiction. I argue that Webb Loudon viewed scientific activity as declining and flourishing throughout human history, and that she anticipated the science of her time would ‘resuscitate’ knowledge and even political structures of past eras (like ancient Egypt). Following the work of Jim Endersby and other historians of science who have worked to reintegrate the role of fiction in our understanding of science culture, I argue that Webb Loudon’s efforts to promote and diffuse her understanding of science and its relation to the future (and past) ought be viewed as informing the cultural meaning of science in the nineteenth century.

The literature on theoretical equivalence in philosophy of physics is replete with physical theories that look quite different but are purportedly equivalent. Plausibly, there might exist a pair of equivalent theories that look different insofar as they existentially quantify over different entities. However, given the preeminence of the quantificational theory of ontological commitment, which tells us to look to quantified entities to inform ontology, such a pair of theories seems to be a problem. In this paper, I argue that there is no good way out of the problem, and I reject the quantificational theory of ontological commitment.

Just as court reporters are the “ears” of the courtroom, court artists are the “eyes” of the courtroom. The adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” shows the importance of the integrity of that image. Because the artist’s sketch can convey information pertaining to the health of a defendant/plaintiff/witness, misrepresentation by the artist must be avoided so as to foster honest journalism. From a bioethics perspective, courtroom art should align to the live, physical (visible) presentation, even if one or more elements of the physical presentation has been fabricated. Similarly, invisible illnesses and symptoms should not be added to courtroom sketches. The court artist has a duty of objectivity and clinical honesty in their artwork. This fosters justice and journalistic integrity.

Contemporary research on politics and elections in Southeast Asia focuses heavily on clientelism in its analysis. Such analyses emphasise the rising importance of “brokers” who connect politicians to voters, often through vote-buying or other forms of corruption and dependency. Here we argue that the broker system can only be a temporary phenomenon, capable of reinforcing clientelistic ties in the short term, but subject to ongoing erosion of the same shifting relationships that made brokers necessary. Indeed, we argue, the broker system is already being replaced by different forms of networks that are less subject to vertical hierarchies and personal ties. This article examines the changing dynamics of political organisation in contemporary Thailand, concentrating on familial dynasties, Red Shirts, and student networks. The study argues that modern communication technologies enabled and political events motivated the creation of new types of networks to challenge the established clientelistic relationships. The Red Shirts network combines vertical patron-client relationships with horizontal, community-focused interactions afforded by modern media. Students’ networks have largely abandoned traditional hierarchical structures in favour of more egalitarian, decentralised, and online-oriented organisational forms. Even familial dynasties, which have relied most heavily on brokers, have begun to adapt new techniques to supplement their use of brokers. The article concludes that emerging participatory political networks, founded on innovative technologies and adaptive strategies and shaped by class, regional, and generational disparities, are transforming political engagement in Thailand and challenging the entrenched clientelistic relations that underpin the current conservative social order.

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel framework for causal selection based on an analysis of different ways in which causes interact. Some causal interactions function to enable the operation of a mechanism, while others modify the behavior or outcome of that mechanism, allowing fine-grained descriptions of causal relationships. Distinguishing between enabling and modifying makes it possible to separate distinct causal functions that are wrongly grouped into an undifferentiated category of background conditions. Drawing on case studies from ecology, the framework offers new insights into why some factors should be cited in explanations while others remain implicit, despite being causally indispensable.

This study proposes a specific channel through which labor markets facilitate firm growth: the occupational alignment between an establishment’s workforce and local skills. Using occupational employment statistics, we construct an index that compares each establishment’s occupational mix to that of its local market. Establishments with higher alignment grow faster in sales and employment. This growth comes primarily through lower adjustment costs and higher capital investment. We also show that the effects are most pronounced in establishments with a higher share of skilled workers and industries with higher idiosyncratic cash flow risk. This employee–firm matching channel helps explain how local labor markets translate into competitive advantage.

Empirically, the effect of corporate tax rates on leverage has been smaller than expected based on trade-off theory. In this article, I show that tax avoidance functions as a non-debt tax shield, reducing the benefits of the debt tax shield. I find that higher tax rates cause higher non-debt tax avoidance, which crowds out the debt tax shield. Moreover, I show that the strength of the relationship between debt and tax rates depends on the level of tax avoidance. A 1-standard-deviation higher tax rate implies 2.8% higher leverage for low tax avoidance firms, but has a negative effect for high tax avoidance firms.