We quantify the importance of endogenous human capital and of selection effects for counterfactual analysis of social security (SS) reforms. The literature typically performs these analyses by using structural models featuring exogenous productivity profiles. However, this approach faces two issues: (i) the estimation of productivity is subject to selection bias, and (ii) productivity is endogenous to the SS reforms. In this paper, we estimate a quantitative overlapping generations model featuring endogenous human capital accumulation using US data. First, we eliminate the SS and find a large positive effect on aggregate effective labor supply (${+}10.31\%$). Next, we build variants of this model to quantify the two issues (i) and (ii). We find that the endogeneity issue (ii) is quantitatively more important than the selection bias issue (i).

Infant sleep quality is increasingly regarded as an important factor for children long-term functioning and adaptation. The early roots of sleep disturbances are still poorly understood and likely involve a complex interplay between prenatal and postnatal factors. This study investigated whether exclusive breastfeeding during the first 6 months moderated the association between maternal prenatal pandemic-related stress (PRS) and sleep problems in 24-months children born during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also explored the potential contribution of maternal postnatal anxiety in these relations. Seventy-eight infants (50% males) and their mothers provided complete data from birth to 24 months. Between 12 and 48 h from birth, maternal PRS during pregnancy was retrospectively reported as well as maternal anxiety and exclusive breastfeeding. Maternal anxiety and exclusive breastfeeding were also reported at 3 and 6 months after childbirth. Children sleep disturbances were reported at 24 months. Bayesian analyses revealed that maternal PRS was positively associated with sleep problems in children who were not exclusively breastfed from birth to 6 months. Findings add to the growing literature on the lasting impact of early pre- and postnatal experiences on child well-being and development.

Debates on the connection between human trafficking and war have been discussed in wars and conflicts across the globe. Russia’s war on Ukraine has brought this relationship to the forefront again, questioning whether trafficking flows have increased, examining the types of trafficking in war, and determining the conditions (if any) that make it flourish. This article examines human trafficking in Ukraine before the war and during limited and total war to determine how governments with robust anti-trafficking institutions negotiate anti-trafficking responses over different stages of war. The main research question of this study aims to determine how different stages of the war in Ukraine have changed human trafficking dynamics and responses over time. Using data from interviews and participant observations from Ukraine, I analyze the different types of human trafficking characteristics and flows, conditions that create vulnerabilities, and prevention tools that have been used in different periods. I theorize that war fundamentally alters human trafficking prevention but a foundation of prevention tools before war means that governments are better able to respond to human trafficking dynamics and flows when war occurs. Ukraine offers a unique and important perspective from which to examine human trafficking dynamics and the consequences of war due to a stable government, external aggressor, and clear path for those fleeing the violence to the European Union. The results show that Ukraine’s strong prevention efforts before the war helped shape responses after the war and full-scale invasion began. The data revealed that human trafficking is a longer-term form of gender-based violence in war because the exploitation is prolonged and there is a delay in identifying victims.

For $\unicode{x3bb}>1$, we consider the locally free ${\mathbb Z}\ltimes _\unicode{x3bb} \mathbb R$ actions on $\mathbb T^2$. We show that if the action is $C^r$ with $r\geq 2$, then it is $C^{r-\epsilon }$-conjugate to an affine action generated by a hyperbolic automorphism and a linear translation flow along the expanding eigen-direction of the automorphism. In contrast, there exists a $C^{1+\alpha }$-action which is semi-conjugate, but not topologically conjugate to an affine action.

Depression is highly prevalent in haemodialysis patients, and diet might play an important role. Therefore, we conducted this cross-sectional study to determine the association between dietary fatty acids (FA) consumption and the prevalence of depression in maintenance haemodialysis (MHD) patients. Dietary intake was assessed using a validated FFQ between December 2021 and January 2022. The daily intake of dietary FA was categorised into three groups, and the lowest tertile was used as the reference category. Depression was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Logistic regression and restricted cubic spline (RCS) models were applied to assess the relationship between dietary FA intake and the prevalence of depression. As a result, after adjustment for potential confounders, a higher intake of total FA [odds ratio (OR)T3 vs. T1 = 1·59, 95 % confidence interval (CI) = 1·04, 2·46] and saturated fatty acids (SFA) (ORT3 vs. T1 = 1·83, 95 % CI = 1·19, 2·84) was associated with a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms. Significant positive linear trends were also observed (P < 0·05) except for SFA intake. Similarly, the prevalence of depression in MHD patients increased by 20% (OR = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.01–1.43) for each standard deviation increment in SFA intake. RCS analysis indicated an inverse U-shaped correlation between SFA and depression (Pnonlinear > 0·05). Additionally, the sensitivity analysis produced similar results. Furthermore, no statistically significant association was observed in the subgroup analysis with significant interaction. In conclusion, higher total dietary FA and SFA were positively associated with depressive symptoms among MHD patients. These findings inform future research exploring potential mechanism underlying the association between dietary FA and depressive symptoms in MHD patients.

The practice of antenatal colostrum expression (ACE), or the extraction of colostrum from the breasts during pregnancy, has an interesting history and continues to evolve. This narrative review aims to describe how perception and practices of ACE have changed over time, summarise the evidence on ACE in maternal and infant care, and highlight areas for future research. The literature demonstrates that ACE is safe for low-risk women when done from around 36 weeks’ gestation. Women should be reassured that the skill of hand expressing is a valuable tool post-birth, regardless of whether they are able to collect colostrum antenatally or not. The collection and storage of colostrum in pregnancy can help avoid formula use in hospital, which may have follow on effects immune function and other areas. Ideally, colostrum collected during pregnancy would be kept safely frozen during the hospital stay and only defrosted and used during the stay if medically indicated, with parents supported through that process. Although ACE does not appear to improve long-term breastfeeding rates at present, it can increase confidence around breastfeeding. Further research in more diverse population groups, long-term breastfeeding and long-term health outcomes of using frozen antenatally expressed colostrum for babies (as compared to formula or fresh colostrum) would be valuable to gain a better understanding of the importance of ACE in maternity care.

Psychosocial factors play an important role in the manifestation of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and accompanying impairment levels in children. In a community sample of 796 children evaluated at 4, 5, and 6 years of age, bidirectional effects were examined for each of three components of parenting (parental support, hostility, scaffolding skills) and ADHD-specific symptoms that are not associated with symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder. Results indicated that (a) age 4 parenting factors were not associated with changes in ADHD-I (inattention) or ADHD-H (hyperactive-impulsive) symptoms in the subsequent year, (b) ADHD-I and ADHD-H symptoms at age 4 were not associated with changes in parenting factors at age 5, (c) age 5 ADHD-I and ADHD-H symptoms were associated with decreases in parental scaffolding skills and increases in parental hostility from ages 5 to 6 years, and (d) parental support at age 5 was associated with a decrease in ADHD-H symptoms at age 6. Findings suggest that ADHD symptoms can lead to poorer parenting attitudes and behavior, while parental support during kindergarten has a small effect on decreasing ADHD-H symptoms over time.

Ba2Bi0.572TeO6±δ and SrLa2NiFeNbO9 ceramics were prepared in polycrystalline form by conventional solid-state reaction techniques in air. The crystal structures of the title compounds were determined at room temperature from X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) data using the Rietveld method. The Ba2Bi0.572TeO6±δ structure crystallizes in a triclinic space group I–1 with unit-cell parameters a = 6.0272(2) Å, b = 6.0367(1) Å, c = 8.5273(3) Å, α = 90.007(7)°, β = 90.061(2)°, and γ = 90.015(4)°. The tilt system of the BiO6 and TeO6 octahedra corresponds to the notation a–b–c–. The crystal structure of the SrLa2NiFeNbO9 compound adopts an orthorhombic Pbnm space group with lattice parameters a = 5.6038(5) Å, b = 5.5988(4) Å, and c = 7.9124(6) Å. The BO6 octahedra (B = Ni/Fe/Nb) sharing the corners in 3D. Along the c-axis, the octahedra are connected by O(1) atoms of (x,y,1/4) positions; while in the ab-plane, they are linked by O(2) atoms of (x,y,z) positions. The bond angle of B–O1–B is 168.7° and that of B–O2–B is 156.3°. The octahedral lattice corresponds to the tilt pattern a–a–c+; it indicates that the octahedra tilt out-of-phase along the a,b-axes and in phase along the c-axis.

Durable mechanical circulatory devices are commonly used to support children and adolescents in end-stage heart failure. However, these patients remain at high risk of acute medical complications, which may lead to significant impairment in functional capacity, altered quality of life, or death. We explore the incorporation of adolescent directives into medical decision-making in this scenario through a clinical case vignette.

In many regions of Canada, knowledge of the distribution of insect species is far from complete. This knowledge gap, known as the Wallacean Shortfall, is often manifest by species records separated by large, often remote areas with no records. Paradoxically, these difficult-to-access areas offer the best opportunity to study unaltered native community assemblages. Such gaps in knowledge are exemplified by ground beetles, a well-known group, yet with record gaps in many unstudied areas of Canada, including Akimiski Island, Nunavut. This postglacial rebound island, located in James Bay, has no permanently occupied human dwellings and almost no human-altered habitat. Using a combination of pitfall-malaise traps, pitfall traps, and hand captures during 2008–2014, we collected 1368 ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) as part of a larger biodiversity survey. We identified 31 species, 29 of which were first territorial records for Nunavut. Our results almost double the number of Carabidae known from Nunavut and extend the known range of eight other species. Seventeen of the species that we caught cannot fly, evidence for colonists arriving on Akimiski on floating debris. Our study fills substantial range gaps and serves as baseline information to detect future change.

This article outlines and tackles two inter-related puzzles regarding the comparatively much less robust human rights impact that the ECOWAS Court (in effect, West Africa’s international human rights court) has had on the generally more democratic legislative/judicial branch of decision-making and action in Nigeria vis-à-vis the generally more authoritarian executive branch within Nigeria, the country that is the source of most of the cases filed before the court. The article then discusses and analyzes the examples and extent of the court’s human rights impact on legislative/judicial branch decision-making and action in that key country. This is followed by the development of a set of analytical, multi-factorial, explanations for the two inter-connected puzzles that animate the enquiry in this article. In the end, the article argues that several factors have combined to produce the comparatively much less robust human rights impact that the ECOWAS Court has had on domestic legislative and judicial decision-making, process, and action in Nigeria, through restricting the extent to which the latter could mobilize more robustly the court’s human rights-relevant processes and rulings.

We recover Reidemeister’s theorem using $\mathcal {C}^{\infty }$ functions and transversality.

This article analyzes the patriotic turn in Holocaust memory politics, exploring the processes through which the narrative of a morally upright national majority has been pitted against transnational entities such as the European Union. The EU is considered to foster multiculturalism, leading to interpretations of what some perceive as national guilt. The article investigates invocations of shame and pride in Czechia and Slovakia, two countries that are often overlooked in works on Holocaust memory politics yet are symptomatic of larger changes in the region and history appropriation in general. Building on research into emotional communities, it traces how and why political actors across the ideological spectrum have adopted notions of pride to mobilize domestic audiences against “accusations” of local guilt and complicity in the Nazi genocides of Jews and Roma. By doing so, our article demonstrates how Holocaust memory has become entangled with Europeanization and highlights the role of emotions in shaping national identity and belonging.

Previous animal studies found beneficial effects of choline and betaine on maternal glucose metabolism during pregnancy, but few human studies explored the association between choline or betaine intake and incident gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). We aimed to explore the correlation of dietary choline or betaine intake with GDM risk among Chinese pregnant women. A total of 168 pregnant women with GDM cases and 375 healthy controls were enrolled at the Seventh People’s Hospital in Shanghai during their GDM screening at 24–28 gestational weeks. A validated semi-quantitative FFQ was used to estimate choline and betaine consumption through face-to-face interviews. An unconditional logistic regression model was adopted to examine OR and 95 % CI. Compared with the controls, those women with GDM incidence were likely to have higher pre-pregnancy BMI, be older, have more parities and have higher plasma TAG and lower plasma HDL-cholesterol. No significant correlation was observed between the consumption of choline or betaine and incident GDM (adjusted OR (95 % CI), 0·77 (0·41, 1·43) for choline; 0·80 (0·42, 1·52) for betaine). However, there was a significant interaction between betaine intake and parity on the risk of GDM (Pfor interaction = 0·01). Among those women with no parity history, there was a significantly inverse correlation between betaine intake and GDM risk (adjusted OR (95 % CI), 0·25 (0·06, 0·81)). These findings indicated that higher dietary betaine intake during pregnancy might be considered a protective factor for GDM among Chinese women with no parity history.