An assessment of systemic inflammation and nutritional status may form the basis of a framework to examine the prognostic value of cachexia in patients with advanced cancer. The objective of the study was to examine the prognostic value of the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition criteria, including BMI, weight loss (WL) and systemic inflammation (as measured by the modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (mGPS)), in advanced cancer patients. Three criteria were examined in a combined cohort of patients with advanced cancer, and their relationship with survival was examined using Cox regression methods. Data were available on 1303 patients. Considering BMI and the mGPS, the 3-month survival rate varied from 74 % (BMI > 28 kg/m2) to 61 % (BMI < 20 kg/m2) and from 84 % (mGPS 0) to 60 % (mGPS 2). Considering WL and the mGPS, the 3-month survival rate varied from 81 % (WL ± 2·4 %) to 47 % (WL ≥ 15 %) and from 93 % (mGPS 0) to 60 % (mGPS 2). Considering BMI/WL grade and mGPS, the 3-month survival rate varied from 86 % (BMI/WL grade 0) to 59 % (BMI/WL grade 4) and from 93 % (mGPS 0) to 63 % (mGPS 2). When these criteria were combined, they better predicted survival. On multivariate survival analysis, the most highly predictive factors were BMI/WL grade 3 (HR 1·454, P = 0·004), BMI/WL grade 4 (HR 2·285, P < 0·001) and mGPS 1 and 2 (HR 1·889, HR 2·545, all P < 0·001). In summary, a high BMI/WL grade and a high mGPS as outlined in the BMI/WL grade/mGPS framework were consistently associated with poorer survival of patients with advanced cancer. It can be readily incorporated into the routine assessment of patients.

Dans la littérature existante, les auteurs associent l'absence et la non-récurrence des intrusions militaires dans le champ politique à la peur des sanctions d'un éventuel échec, à des nominations militaires sélectives sur la base identitaire, à la mise en place de contrepoids militaires, à l'institutionnalisation d'un régime de privilèges militaires et au sens de professionnalisme de l'armée. Partant du postulat que les militaires sont des acteurs rationnels dont la loyauté et la fidélité peuvent évoluer en fonction des conjonctures et des « fenêtres d'opportunités » qui se présentent à eux, cet article montre que ces facteurs ont un pouvoir explicatif limité et soutient qu'une surveillance efficace – aussi bien des militaires que des acteurs sociopolitiques qui peuvent leur donner un prétexte d'intrusion dans le champ politique – est le facteur déterminant. Au-delà de la non-occurrence du coup d’État, cette explication contribue à la littérature sur les stratégies de survie autoritaire. Cette littérature met un accent exclusif sur la répression, la cooptation et la légitimation ; or, la surveillance s'entremêle avec ces stratégies, et ce sont leurs effets combinés qui créent les conditions de la persistance autoritaire.

Juvenile hormone (JH) regulates multiple physiological functions in insects including growth, metamorphosis, and reproduction. Juvenile hormone epoxide hydrolase (JHEH) and juvenile hormone esterase (JHE) are degradative enzymes that metabolise JH, and JH receptor (methoprene-tolerant, Met) functions in the regulation of female reproduction and vitellogenesis. In this study, JH titres in Coccinella septempunctata adult females were determined using ultra high-performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry; the JH titres ranged from 0.03 to 0.16 ng g−1 in 5- to 30-day-old female adults. JHEH, JHE, and Met expression were studied in different reproductive stages of C. septempunctata females by quantitative real-time PCR. JHEH transcription levels were highest in 25-day-old female adults and were 1.93-fold higher than expression levels in 5-day-old adults. JHEH and JHE expression levels were inhibited by the addition of JH to the artificial diet. Met expression in C. septempunctata supplied with 3 μl JH in artificial diet was similar to Met transcription in females supplied with an aphid diet, and the results showed that supplementation with 3 μl JH in 582.2 g of artificial diet was the most suitable for reproductive regulation of C. septempunctata. The results of this study provide important insights for the improvement of C. septempunctata artificial diets.

We characterize the functions with ‘small’ bounded mean oscillation (BMO) norm by establishing the precise connection between the space BMO and class $A_\infty$ of Muckenhoupt weights. We prove that there exists a universal constant $c^*_2$ such that $\Vert f \Vert_{BMO} \lt c^*_2$ if and only if $\exp f \in A_2$, where $c^*_2$ is the sharp constant in the John and Nirenberg inequality. Similarly, in dimension one, we prove that $\Vert f \Vert_{BLO} \lt 1$ if and only if $\exp f \in A_1$. As application we introduce a structure of metric space in $A_\infty$ and prove that the closed unit ball of $A_\infty$ is a Banach space.

In this paper, we show existence of bountiful examples of Gorenstein local rings A and B such that there is a triangle equivalence between the stable categories CM(A), CM(B).

McCullough and Trent generalize Beurling–Lax–Halmos invariant subspace theorem for the shift on Hardy space of the unit disk to the multi-shift on Drury–Arveson space of the unit ball by representing an invariant subspace of the multi-shift as the range of a multiplication operator that is a partial isometry. By using their method, we obtain similar representations for a class of invariant subspaces of the multi-shifts on Hardy and Bergman spaces of the unit ball or polydisk. Our results are surprisingly general and include several important classes of invariant subspaces on the unit ball or polydisk.

The canopy of forests as the ‘last biotic frontier’ has often been neglected in insect biodiversity studies because it is harder to access compared to the understorey, even in relatively well-known temperate ecosystems. We investigated the diversity, abundance, and body size patterns of macromoths (Lepidoptera) in the canopy and understorey in a central European deciduous forest. We collected moths at two sites during 19 trapping nights and three lunar phases between July and September 2021 using a weak ultraviolet light emitting diode (LED) lamp (LepiLED mini). Overall, we captured 4368 individuals (165 species) from 11 families. Based on a number of metrics, richness and diversity was significantly lower in the canopy than in the understorey. Non-metric multidimensional scaling ordinations show that communities largely overlap, but the proportion of species that only occur in the understorey was higher. While Noctuidae and Erebidae species were abundant in both strata, Geometridae species were most frequently observed in the understorey. We identified 16 indicator species for the understorey but only three for the canopy. Forewing length of moths in the canopy was on average 1.7 mm longer than of those in the understorey. Overall, the understorey is far more important for moths than the canopy in a temperate forest. The canopy is dominated by fewer and larger species and probably has a higher proportion of dispersers.

Une littérature importante en politique canadienne porte sur le(s) régionalisme(s) à l’échelle du pays, mais les dynamiques régionales intraprovinciales demeurent sous-étudiées. Dans cet article, nous analysons la géographie politique de l'opinion publique au Québec, où l'accent a été mis sur le « mystère de Québec », selon lequel la région de Québec se distingue du reste de la province, par exemple, en affichant des tendances conservatrices plus marquées. Nous produisons l'analyse la plus détaillée à ce jour des variations régionales des attitudes politiques au Québec, en comparant l'électorat de treize régions. Nos résultats mettent en évidence des variations régionales importantes tout en précisant et nuançant notre compréhension du « mystère de Québec ». Par exemple, la région est plus conservatrice sur la dimension économique et moins favorable à l'indépendance du Québec, mais pas plus conservatrice sur les attitudes culturelles. Nous concluons en offrant une perspective renouvelée sur les études régionales, suggérant l'existence d'autres « mystères » régionaux au moins aussi importants.

Most studies aiming to quantify carbon stocks in tropical forests have focused on aboveground biomass, omitting carbon in soils and woody debris. Here, we quantified carbon stocks in soils up to 3 m depth, woody debris, and aboveground and belowground tree biomass for the 25-ha Amacayacu Forests Dynamics plot in the northwestern Amazon. Including soils to 3 m depth, total carbon stocks averaged 358.9 ± 24.2 Mg C ha−1, of which soils contributed 53%, biomass 44.2%, and woody debris 2.7%. When only including soils to 0.5 m depth, carbon stocks diminished to 222.1 Mg C ha−1 and biomass became the largest contributor. Among 1-ha subplots, total carbon stocks were correlated with soil carbon stocks at ≥0.5 m depth, belowground biomass of all trees, and aboveground biomass of trees ≥60 cm DBH. Our results support the assumption of biomass as the likely largest carbon source associated with land use change in northwestern Amazonia. However, mining and erosion following land use change could also promote a significant release of carbon from soil, the largest carbon stock. To improve the global carbon balance, we need to better quantify total carbon stocks and dynamics in tropical forests beyond aboveground biomass.

In his proof of the irrationality of $\zeta (3)$ and $\zeta (2)$, Apéry defined two integer sequences through $3$-term recurrences, which are known as the famous Apéry numbers. Zagier, Almkvist–Zudilin, and Cooper successively introduced the other $13$ sporadic sequences through variants of Apéry’s $3$-term recurrences. All of the $15$ sporadic sequences are called Apéry-like sequences. Motivated by Gessel’s congruences mod $24$ for the Apéry numbers, we investigate congruences of the form $u_n\equiv \alpha ^n \ \pmod {N_{\alpha }}~(\alpha \in \mathbb {Z},N_{\alpha }\in \mathbb {N}^{+})$ for all of the $15$ Apéry-like sequences $\{u_n\}_{n\ge 0}$. Let $N_{\alpha }$ be the largest positive integer such that $u_n\equiv \alpha ^n\ \pmod {N_{\alpha }}$ for all non-negative integers n. We determine the values of $\max \{N_{\alpha }|\alpha \in \mathbb {Z}\}$ for all of the $15$ Apéry-like sequences $\{u_n\}_{n\ge 0}$. The binomial transforms of Apéry-like sequences provide us a unified approach to this type of congruences for Apéry-like sequences.

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a method of solid-state welding used to connect difficult-to-weld materials, such as aluminium alloy and magnesium alloy that cannot be joined using conventional welding techniques. This paper investigates the impact of FSW parameters on the corrosion characteristics of friction stir-welded AA2014-T6 aluminium alloy. Experiments were conducted in accordance with the Taguchi L9 orthogonal array by varying tool rotation speed, weld speed, and axial force across three levels. The FSW joints of the aluminium alloy AA2014-T6 were subjected to corrosion test using the electro-chemical workstation CHI660C. The Tafel plots and the corrosion rates were obtained from the corrosion tests. It was observed from the analysis of variance (ANOVA) results of the corrosion rates, that the tool rotation speed is the most persuading factor in controlling the corrosion rate. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of the corroded samples were analysed for the presence of pitting spots and its density.

Bagrada bug, Bagrada hilaris (Burmeister) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), is an invasive pest of cole crops in the United States. Because it also feeds on widespread weeds and persists in natural habitats surrounding crop fields, conventional control strategies are often ineffective at providing long-term control. One egg parasitoid, Gryon aetherium Talamas (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae), is a promising biological control candidate because of its ability to parasitise B. hilaris buried eggs. Recently, adventive populations of G. aetherium were recovered from sentinel eggs in California along with a native egg parasitoid, Ooencyrtus californicus Girault (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae). A better understanding of these parasitoid species’ spatial preference for foraging and their possible competitive interactions will help evaluate their host suppression potential. We compared the foraging abilities of these two parasitoid species for eggs deposited below and above ground. We also investigated the effect of interspecific competition on host suppression and the ability of O. californicus to parasitise eggs previously parasitised by G. aetherium. G. aetherium parasitised naturally and manually buried eggs, whereas O. californicus did not. In another experiment, O. californicus parasitised eggs glued to cards, but not in the presence of sand. Results suggest that G. aetherium may be negatively affected by the presence of O. californicus, and there was a slight but significant reduction in total host mortality when the parasitoids were present together. However, the inability of O. californicus to forage in soil likely limits negative interactions between these two species, and the two parasitoids may ultimately complement each other.

Let H be a real Hilbert space and $\Phi :H\to H$ be a $C^1$ operator with Lipschitzian derivative and closed range. We prove that $\Phi ^{-1}(0)\neq \emptyset $ if and only if, for each $\epsilon>0$, there exist a convex set $X\subset H$ and a convex function $\psi :X\to \mathbf {R}$ such that $\sup _{x\in X}(\|x\|^2+\psi (x))-\inf _{x\in X}(\|x\|^2+\psi (x))<\epsilon $ and $0\in \overline {{\mathrm {conv}}}(\Phi (X))$.