Maternal mental health represents a significant global health burden, not only in terms of maternal wellbeing, but also for the impact it has on child development. The relationship between maternal mental health and deleterious environmental exposures to the fetus is one mechanism of risk transmission. This study utilizes network analysis to a) explore how maternal mental health is associated with a wide array of fetal exposures, and b) examine how these exposures cluster together. A total of 485 pregnant women were recruited from the Mercy Hospital for Women in Melbourne, Australia between 2011–2017, as part of the Mercy Pregnancy and Emotional Wellbeing Study (MPEWS). The MPEWS includes measures of mental health diagnosis and symptoms, psychotropic medication, smoking, alcohol, substance use, and a wide range of lifestyle factors in the first and third trimesters of pregnancy. Regularized Partial Correlation Modelling was used to examine the network of relationships between maternal mental health and fetal exposures due to environmental factors, lifestyle and medications. For women diagnosed with mental health disorders there are relatively higher rates of exposure to smoking, anxiety and depression symptoms, psychotropic medications, pregnancy health conditions and less than optimal lifestyle factors. Factors such as physical exercise and folate supplementation show strong patterns of partial correlation. Trait anxiety emerged as the central variable in the network with the highest strength of relationship to all other exposure variables. The current study shows the value of approaching fetal exposures as a complex network of associated aspects of maternal lifestyle, mental health and environment. Viewing exposures together may assist clinical and public health interventions to target multiple associated risk factors, rather than the current focus on individual exposures. The preconception and perinatal periods offer important opportunities for the prevention of teratogenic fetal exposures and the promotion of a healthy start to life.

Since the 1990s, there has been a proliferation of cultural festivals across West Africa. In this article, we argue that border festivals are distinctive. They take on the work of cultural codification in a context where borders often magnify differences between partitioned communities. They also help to shape border governance, because, as moments of exception, they provide a platform on which it is possible to variously criticize and lobby politicians. The article compares two festivals on the Ghana–Togo border – Agbamevoza in partitioned Agotime and Godigbeza in Aflao – and reveals contrasting dynamics. In Agotime, festival organizers (who largely reside in Accra) have managed to involve the border agencies. In a context where crossings have been relatively unhindered, demands have focused on external support to develop the kente weaving industry. In Aflao, by contrast, harassment by border officials, extended closures of the border and decisions to re-route traffic away from the border crossing with Lomé have created friction. In 2022, there were explicit demands for freedom of movement and for recognition of Aflao as a transnational community that embodied the spirit of regional integration.

This research communication hypothesizes that superstimulation with follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) would not impact behavior and performance of Holstein cows. The objectives were to investigate the effect of FSH superstimulation on follicular dynamics, animal behaviour, body surface temperature and milk yield of Holstein cows. Cows were blocked by parity and body condition score (BCS), and within a block, they were assigned randomly to receive either normal saline (CON = 7) or 500 IU of FSH (n = 8). The estrous cycle of cows was synchronized by using two injections of prostaglandin F2-alpha (PG), 11 days apart. The dominant follicle was ablated at the time of the second PG injection, and an intra-vaginal controlled internal drug release (CIDR) was inserted (day 0). Two days later, FSH treatment was initiated and continued for 3 days in six equal doses of 83.33 IU after 12 h. Follicles were counted and their sizes were measured from day-0 to day-5. Behavior, including activity and feeding time, was recorded using SmartTag Neck from day 0 to 6. The surface temperatures of the eye, shoulder, flank, and vulva were measured by using infrared thermal imaging every 12 h from day-2 to day-5. Milk was recorded from day-0 to day-6. Mixed effects models were used to analyse the data using SAS statistical software. The number of small and medium follicles did not differ between treatments. However, FSH-treated cows had a more (P = 0.01) large and total follicles compared with CON cows. FSH treatment did not affect activity, feeding time, body surface temperature, or milk yield. In conclusion, FSH superstimulation increased the number of large follicles but did not influence behaviour, body surface temperature, or performance in dairy cows.

Metabolomics of faecal samples offers a non-invasive method to monitor gastrointestinal (GI) development and microbial activity in dairy heifers during key physiological transitions. In this longitudinal study, faecal metabolites from 10 Holstein heifers were analyzed from birth to first calving using targeted metabolomics. Faecal samples were collected at 12 h post-birth, week 6 (pre-weaning), week 14 (weaning), 8 months (post-weaning), and at first calving (26 ± 2.3 months). Calves were fed 3.8 L of colostrum within 2 h of birth, followed by 6 L of maternal transition milk for 5 days, then 6 L of milk replacer twice daily. Group housing began at 14 days. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) showed distinct temporal clustering of faecal metabolites. Heatmap analysis revealed significant metabolite alterations, particularly between pre- and post-weaning stages. A linear mixed-effects model identified significant stage effects for all 17 amino acids. Of the 55 biogenic amines and amino acid-related metabolites, 48 significantly differed across stages. Elevated amino acids and polyamines early in life reflected colostrum intake and immature digestion, decreasing post-weaning, indicating improved nutrient absorption and rumen functionality. Increased microbiota-derived compounds, including β-alanine, serotonin, and indole derivatives, reflected microbial colonization and co-regulation with the host. Elevated dopamine, homocysteine, and phenylethylamine in late gestation indicated neuroactive and redox adaptations. Overall, faecal metabolite profiles provide insights into metabolic remodelling related to nutrition, GI maturation, and reproductive development, highlighting faecal metabolomics as a useful non-invasive tool for monitoring heifer development.

The site of Stublina, first excavated in 1956 by Milutin Garašanin of the Institute of Archaeology and Radoslav Galović of the National Museum Belgrade is located at the southeast outskirts of the Supska village near the town of Ćurpija, in Central Serbia. Its location on the edge of the flood plain of the Central Balkans’ major waterway, the Velika Morava River, places it on a major corridor extending south to north, linking southern Europe and the Aegean with the Pannonian plains in the north. Based on material finds, the site predominantly belongs to the Late Neolithic and is attributable to the so-called Vinča culture complex; however, sporadic finds of Early Neolithic Starčevo type pottery and Late Medieval burials were also reported. The results of the excavation were published in a single monograph in 1979, containing information on roughly half of the excavated area. However, radiocarbon dating was never performed on the site. The site of Stublina, containing evidence for the life span of the so-called Vinča culture complex in the Velika Morava River basin, one of the most important corridors during the entire Neolithic period of Southeast Europe, is a valuable chronological beacon based on its vast material record of pottery fragments, traditionally used to construct relative chronological sequences in the past. In this paper, we present the results of contextual radiocarbon dating using Bayesian chronological modeling with 28 new AMS 14C radiocarbon dates, selected from the material archive located in the depos of the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade. The samples were chosen from stratigraphically well-defined contexts published in the 1979 Garašanin and Garašanin volume on Supska. These contexts provide secure chronological order of layers and features, representing the entire life span of the site in the Late Neolithic period. Our results provide strong validation for archival records originating from old archaeological excavations and breathe new life into their potential for contemporary archaeological research, using techniques and methods unavailable at the time of their creation.

US control over the Panama Canal symbolised Washington’s dominance in Latin America. The Torrijos–Carter Treaties of 1977, concluding years of negotiations, marked a turning point by transferring control over the Canal to Panama. This work focuses on the crucial May 1977 round of negotiations, a pivotal yet underexplored period, whose outcome laid the foundation for the treaties, addressing key issues such as control over the Canal Zone and the neutrality of the Canal. This study addresses gaps in the existing literature through newly available archival sources, offering a more detailed understanding of the negotiations that shaped the future of the Panama Canal.

The heating effect of electromagnetic waves in ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRFs) in magnetic confinement fusion device is different in different plasma conditions. In order to evaluate the ICRF heating effect in different plasma conditions, we conducted a series of experiments and corresponding TRANSP simulations on the EAST tokamak. Both simulation and experimental results show that the effect of ICRF heating is poor at low core electron density. The decrease in electron density changes the left-handed electric field near the resonant layer, resulting in a significant decrease in the power absorbed by the hydrogen fundamental resonance. However, quite a few experiments must be performed in plasma conditions with low electron density. It is necessary to study how to make ICRF heating best in low electron density plasma. Through a series of simulation scans of the parallel refractive index (n//) of the ICRF antenna, it is concluded that the change of the ICRF antenna n// will lead to the change of the left-handed electric field, which will change the fundamental absorption of ICRF power by the hydrogen minority ions. Fully considering the coupling of ion cyclotron wave at the tokamak boundary and the absorption in the plasma core, optimizing the ICRF antenna structure and selecting appropriate parameters such as parallel refractive index, minority ion concentration, resonance layer position, plasma current and core electron temperature can ensure better heating effect in the ICRF heating experiments in the future EAST upgrade. These results have important implications for the enhancement of the auxiliary heating effect of EAST and other tokamaks.

The Connecting People and Community for Living Well initiative recognizes that communities, specifically multisector community teams, are a critical part of the provision of programs and supports for those affected by dementia. Effective collaboration and building and supporting the collective well-being of these multisector community teams is key to their success and sustainability. This research sought to understand what supports the well-being of community teams. Focus groups were conducted with multisector community teams who support those impacted by dementia from across four rural communities. The research team used thematic analysis to identify patterns emerging within and across focus groups. The findings highlighted three areas of importance: the need for a resource to support teams to measure, monitor, and describe the impact of their actions; ongoing support from a system-level team; and the development of local and/or provincial policy and infrastructure that supports sustaining collaborative community-based work.

Implementing changes to digital health systems in real-life contexts poses many challenges. Design as a field has the potential to tackle some of these. This article illustrates how design knowledge, through published literature, is currently referenced in relation to the implementation of digital health. To map design literature’s contribution to this field, we conducted a scoping review on digital health implementation publications and their use of references from nine prominent design journals. The search in Scopus and Web of Science yielded 382 digital health implementation publications, of which 70 were included for analysis. From those, we extracted data on publication characteristics and how they cited the design literature. The 70 publications cited 58 design articles, whose characteristics were also extracted. The results show that design is mainly cited to provide information about specific design methods and approaches, guidelines for using them and evidence of their benefits. Examples of referenced methods and approaches were co-design, prototyping, human-centered design, service design, understanding user needs and design thinking. The results thus show that design knowledge primarily contributed to digital health implementation with insights into methods and approaches. In addition, our method showcases a new way for understanding how design literature influences other fields.

This paper presents a Hammir tandem mirror confinement performance analysis based on Realta Fusion’s first-of-a-kind model for axisymmetric magnetic mirror fusion performance. This model uses an integrated end plug simulation model including, heating, equilibrium and transport combined with a new formulation of the plasma operation contours (POPCONs) technique for the tandem mirror central cell. Using this model in concert with machine learning optimization techniques, it is shown that an end plug utilizing high temperature superconducting magnets and modern neutral beams enables a classical tandem mirror pilot plant producing a fusion gain Q > 5. The approach here represents an important advance in tandem mirror design. The high-fidelity end plug model enables calculations of heating and transport in the highly non-Maxwellian end plug to be made more accurately. The detailed end plug modelling performed in this work has highlighted the importance of classical radial transport and neutral beam absorption efficiency on end plug viability. The central cell POPCON technique allows consideration of a wide range of parameters in the relatively simple near-Maxwellian central cell, facilitating the selection of more optimal central cell plasmas. These advances make it possible to find more conservative classical tandem mirror fusion pilot plant operating points with lower temperatures, neutral beam energies and end plug performance requirements than designs in the literature. Despite being more conservative, it is shown that these operating points have sufficient confinement performance to serve as the basis of a viable fusion pilot plant provided that they can be stabilized against magnetohydrodynamic and trapped particle modes.

This study examined the capacity of ChatGPT-4 to assess L2 writing in an accurate, specific, and relevant way. Based on 35 argumentative essays written by upper-intermediate L2 writers in higher education, we evaluated ChatGPT-4’s assessment capacity across four L2 writing dimensions: (1) Task Response, (2) Coherence and Cohesion, (3) Lexical Resource, and (4) Grammatical Range and Accuracy. The main findings were (a) ChatGPT-4 was exceptionally accurate in identifying the issues across the four dimensions; (b) ChatGPT-4 demonstrated more variability in feedback specificity, with more specific feedback in Grammatical Range and Accuracy and Lexical Resource, but more general feedback in Task Response and Coherence and Cohesion; and (c) ChatGPT-4’s feedback was highly relevant to the criteria in the Task Response and Coherence and Cohesion dimensions, but it occasionally misclassified errors in the Grammatical Range and Accuracy and Lexical Resource dimensions. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of ChatGPT-4 as an assessment tool, informing future research and practical applications in L2 writing assessment.

The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) provides independent advice on nutrition and related health matters to UK government organisations. In keeping with its commitment to openness and transparency, SACN follows a set ‘Framework’ to ensure a prescribed and consistent approach is taken in all its evidence evaluations. Following an update of the SACN Framework in 2020, which addressed some straightforward issues, the SACN Framework subgroup was established in 2021 to consider more complex matters that were not addressed in the 2020 update. The SACN Framework subgroup considered four main topics for update: (1) the different types of evidence evaluations produced by SACN, (2) interpretation of statistical data, (3) tools for assessment of study quality and (4) tools to assess the certainty of a body of evidence for exposure–outcome relationships. The Framework subgroup agreed clear definitions and processes for the different types of evidence evaluations produced by SACN and agreed that interpretation of P values should be informed by consideration of study size, power and methodological quality. The subgroup recommended use of the AMSTAR 2 tool for quality assessment of evidence from systematic reviews and use of the Grading of recommendations, assessment, development and evaluation approach to assess the certainty of evidence. The updated Framework was published in January 2023. This was followed by publication of a further update in October 2024. As a ‘living’ document, the Framework will be subject to regular review by the Framework subgroup and continue to evolve in line with best practice.

As an antiquarian at the beginning of the age of professional scholarship, Francis Douce (1737–1834) has enjoyed a mixed reputation, exemplified by Meg Twycross’s account of his influence on beliefs regarding the origins of the Towneley Plays. Widely-read and embedded in a network of like-minded enthusiasts, Douce does not appear to have recorded his insights for publication, but he nevertheless participated in what might be considered scholarly exchange. This article will pay attention to the annotations that Douce made in the margins of – and on sheets tipped into – French-language books published before 1600. It will look at what sort of features attracted Douce’s attention (primarily bibliographical, but also some relating to the content of the books he was reading). It will consider where Douce was getting his information about the works he collected and will note instances where Douce revisited and revised his opinions, evaluating the extent to which he was up-to-date with contemporary advances. Where Douce expresses his own opinion, this article will examine whether this opinion has been supported by later scholars. In short, what do the annotations tell us about the state of scholarship in the first decades of the nineteenth century?