The popularity of green, social and sustainability-linked bonds (GSS bonds) continues to rise, with circa US$939 billion of such bonds issued globally in 2023. Given the rising popularity of ESG-related investment solutions, their relatively recent emergence, and limited research in this field, continued investigation is essential. Extending non-traditional techniques such as neural networks to these fields creates a good blend of innovation and potential. This paper follows on from our initial publication, where we aim to replicate the S&P Green Bond Index (i.e. this is a time series problem) over a period using non-traditional techniques (neural networks) predicting 1 day ahead. We take a novel approach of applying an N-BEATS model architecture. N-BEATS is a complex feedforward neural network architecture, consisting of basic building blocks and stacks, introducing the novel doubly residual stacking of backcasts and forecasts. In this paper, we also revisit the neural network architectures from our initial publication, which include DNNs, CNNs, GRUs and LSTMs. We continue the univariate time series problem, increasing the data input window from 1 day to 2 and 5 days respectively, whilst still aiming to predict 1 day ahead.

Optimising stellarators for quasisymmetry leads to strongly reduced collisional transport and energetic particle losses compared with unoptimised configurations. Although stellarators with precise quasisymmetry have been obtained in the past, it remains unclear how broad the parameter space is where good quasisymmetry may be achieved. We study the range of aspect ratios and rotational transform values for which stellarators with excellent quasisymmetry on the boundary can be obtained. A large number of Fourier harmonics is included in the boundary representation, which is made computationally tractable by the use of adjoint methods to enable fast gradient-based optimisation and by the direct optimisation of vacuum magnetic fields, which converge more robustly compared with solutions from magnetohydrostatics. Several novel configurations are presented, including stellarators with record levels of quasisymmetry on a surface, three field period quasiaxisymmetric stellarators with substantial magnetic shear, and compact quasisymmetric stellarators at low aspect ratios similar to tokamaks.

We present a framework for analysing plasma flow in a rotating mirror. By making a series of physical assumptions, we reduce the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations in a three-dimensional cylindrical system to a one-dimensional system in a shallow, cuboidal channel within a transverse magnetic field, similar to the Hartmann flow in ducts. We then solve the system both numerically and analytically for a range of values of the Hartmann number and calculate the dependence of the plasma flow speed on the thickness of the insulating end cap. We observe that the mean flow overshoots and decelerates before achieving a steady-state value, a phenomenon that the analytical model cannot capture. This overshoot is directly proportional to the thickness of the insulating end cap and the external electric field, with a weak dependence on the external magnetic field. Our simplified model can act as a benchmark for future simulations of the supersonic mirror device CMFX (centrifugal magnetic fusion experiment), which will employ more sophisticated physics and realistic magnetic field geometries.

The present paper explores a connection between two concepts arising from different fields of mathematics. The first concept, called vine, is a graphical model for dependent random variables. This concept first appeared in a work of Joe (1994), and the formal definition was given later by Cooke (1997). Vines have nowadays become an active research area whose applications can be found in probability theory and uncertainty analysis. The second concept, called MAT-freeness, is a combinatorial property in the theory of freeness of logarithmic derivation modules of hyperplane arrangements. This concept was first studied by Abe-Barakat-Cuntz-Hoge-Terao (2016), and soon afterwards investigated further by Cuntz-Mücksch (2020).

In the particular case of graphic arrangements, the last two authors (2023) recently proved that the MAT-freeness is completely characterized by the existence of certain edge-labeled graphs, called MAT-labeled graphs. In this paper, we first introduce a poset characterization of a vine. Then we show that, interestingly, there exists an explicit equivalence between the categories of locally regular vines and MAT-labeled graphs. In particular, we obtain an equivalence between the categories of regular vines and MAT-labeled complete graphs.

Several applications will be mentioned to illustrate the interaction between the two concepts. Notably, we give an affirmative answer to a question of Cuntz-Mücksch that MAT-freeness can be characterized by a generalization of the root poset in the case of graphic arrangements.

During the Late Classic (a.d. 600–900), Maya stone monuments from the Western Lowlands documented people with the sajal title. This position was associated with corporate group leaders who acted as governors of secondary sites, supervised warfare-related activities, and manufactured and distributed goods. The increase in records, along with the elaboration of monuments by sajals with differing narratives from those of the rulers, has been identified as a contributing factor to the regional political instability that led to the abandonment of Classic Maya capitals. This article aims to analyze monuments from the political spheres of Yaxchilan, Piedras Negras, and Palenque using a discourse analysis approach to identify the discursive strategies sajals used to showcase and strengthen their hierarchical positions. To accomplish this, I will analyze the discourse in relation to the intermediality of monuments to examine how sajals rivaled the rulers of these cities. Additionally, I will explore the correlation between these discourses and the sociopolitical transformations that preceded the regional collapse in the ninth century a.d.

The article was inspired by Justice Alito's selective and often misleading use of the medieval history of abortion law to justify the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Hoping to offer a corrective view of the larger conversation about abortion during the premodern era, this article hopes to drive home a number of points. First, modern authorities need to acknowledge that the word “abortion” (aborsus) meant something different then than it does now. Second, at its origins, abortion was conceived as a crime against husbands, and thus it falls into a larger body of misogynous law designed to protect men and their heirs from women who exploited their reproductive potential to trick men out of their rightful inheritance. And third, medieval laws against those who provided abortions labeled them as witches or poisoners. Medieval laws about abortion are thus intertwined with fears of the devil and of the woman's body as poison.

We prove discrete-to-continuum convergence for dynamical optimal transport on $\mathbb{Z}^d$-periodic graphs with cost functional having linear growth at infinity. This result provides an answer to a problem left open by Gladbach, Kopfer, Maas, and Portinale (Calc Var Partial Differential Equations 62(5), 2023), where the convergence behaviour of discrete boundary-value dynamical transport problems is proved under the stronger assumption of superlinear growth. Our result extends the known literature to some important classes of examples, such as scaling limits of $1$-Wasserstein transport problems. Similarly to what happens in the quadratic case, the geometry of the graph plays a crucial role in the structure of the limit cost function, as we discuss in the final part of this work, which includes some visual representations.

COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) studies are limited in low- and middle-income countries. A case-control study was conducted among COVID-19 and other pneumonia patients admitted to a hospital in the Philippines during the pre-Omicron and Omicron periods. To elucidate factors associated with in-hospital death, 1782 COVID-19 patients were assessed. To estimate absolute VE for various severe outcomes, 1059 patients were assessed (869 [82.1%] COVID-19 cases; 190 [17.9%] controls). Factors associated with in-hospital death included older age, tuberculosis (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.45 [95% confidence interval {95% CI} 1.69–3.57]), HIV (aOR 3.30 [95% CI 2.03–5.37]), and current smokers (aOR 2.65 [95% CI 1.72–4.10]). Pre-Omicron, the primary series provided high protection within a median of 2 months (hospitalization: 85.4% [95% CI 35.9–96.7%]; oxygen requirement: 91.0% [95% CI 49.4–98.4%]; invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV): 97.0% [95% CI 65.7–99.7%]; death: 96.5% [95% CI 67.1–99.6%]). During Omicron, the primary series provided moderate-high protection within a median of 6–9 months (hospitalization: 70.2% [95% CI 27.0–87.8%]; oxygen requirement: 71.4% [95% CI 29.3–88.4%]; IMV: 72.7% [95% CI −11.6–93.3%]; death: 58.9% [95% CI −82.8–90.8%]). Primary series VE against severe COVID-19 outcomes was consistently high for both pre-Omicron and Omicron in a setting where approximately half of the vaccinees received inactivated vaccines.

We show that for $\mathrm {C}^*$-algebras with the global Glimm property, the rank of every operator can be realized as the rank of a soft operator, that is, an element whose hereditary sub-$\mathrm {C}^*$-algebra has no nonzero, unital quotients. This implies that the radius of comparison of such a $\mathrm {C}^*$-algebra is determined by the soft part of its Cuntz semigroup.

Under a mild additional assumption, we show that every Cuntz class dominates a (unique) largest soft Cuntz class. This defines a retract from the Cuntz semigroup onto its soft part, and it follows that the covering dimensions of these semigroups differ by at most $1$.

Weed-suppression benefits of cover crops (CCs) have long been recognized; however, the specific ability of CCs to suppress highly epidemic Amaranthus spp. (Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri S. Watson), redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus L.), smooth pigweed (Amaranthus hybridus L.), and waterhemp [Amaranthus tuberculatus (Moq.) Sauer]) has not been widely discussed. The objective of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the implications of CC management decisions (CC type, planting and termination methods, residue fate after termination, and in-season weed management plan) on Amaranthus spp. weed density (ASWD) and Amaranthus spp. weed biomass (ASWB) compared with no CC (NCC) in temperate regions, including the United States and Canada. We found 41 studies conducted across the United States and Canada and extracted 595 paired observations. The results indicate that CCs reduced the ASWD by 58% in the early season (0 to 4 wk after crop planting [WAP]), by 48% in the midseason (5 to 8 WAP), and by 44% in the late season (>8 WAP). Similarly, CCs reduced ASWB by 59%, 55%, and 37% in the early, mid-, and late season, respectively. Meta-regression analysis showed CCs terminated within 2.5 wk of crop planting reduced ASWD by ≥50%. CC biomass required to reduce ASWD and ASWB by 50% was 4,079 kg ha−1 for ASWD and 5,352 kg ha−1 for ASWB. Among CC types, grasses and mixtures reduced ASWD by 60% and 77% in early season, 53% and 59% in midseason, and 44% and 47% in late season. Legume CCs were effective only during the early season (47% ASWD reduction), while brassicas did not affect ASWD. CC residues remaining on the soil surface were more effective for reducing ASWD than incorporation. CCs did not affect ASWD or ASWB compared with NCC when herbicides were used for in-season weed management. In general, CCs were found to reduce ASWD and ASWB and therefore can be used as an effective tool for integrated management of Amaranthus spp.

Animal agriculture employs approximately one-eighth of world’s human population and results in the slaughter of over 160 billion animals annually, representing perhaps the most extensive intertwining of human and animal lives on the planet. In principle, close, intersubjective relationships (involving shared attention and mental states) between humans and the animals in agriculture are possible, though these are infrequently studied and are unlikely to be achieved in farming, given systemic constraints (e.g. housing and management). Much scientific research on human-animal relationships within agriculture has focused upon a fairly restricted range of states (e.g. reducing aversive human-animal interactions within standard systems, toward improving productivity and reducing injuries to workers). Considering human-animal relations along a continuum, we review scholarship supporting the rationale for expanding the range of relationships under consideration in animal welfare research, given the impacts these relationships can have on both animals and stockpersons, increasing consumer demand for humane food products, and the goal of providing animals under our care with good lives. Looking toward traditions that encourage taking the perspective of, and learning from non-humans, we provide entry points to approaches that can enable animal welfare research to expand to investigate a broader range of human-animal relationship states. By showing the potential for close mutually beneficial human-animal relationships, this line of research highlights pathways for understanding and improving the welfare of animals used in agriculture.

The article examines hope as employed in short political speeches given by a Palestinian resident and activist, Mr. Saleh Diab, to a small audience of Jewish-Israelis, during the weekly Sheikh Jarrah protest in East Jerusalem. Informed by linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics, hope is viewed contextually as a resource or affordance that enables indexical connection-projection from the narrative time of the present to a future that is yet unforeseeable (yet-to-become, Derrida 1990/1992). The analysis of future-facing utterances highlights the indexical semiotics that underlie hope, connecting collaborative political action performed here-and-now in the occupied Palestinian neighborhood to its future ramifications. Examining Saleh's employment of hope points at its essential moral and affective entanglement. The article seeks to contribute to a sociolinguistic understanding of hope, as collaboratively and consistently sustained (specifically within the Israeli-Palestinian context), and more broadly to supply a clearer view of the sociolinguistics of grassroot political activism resisting oppressive regimes. (Narrative, time, indexicality, Israel-Palestine, Sheikh Jarrah, protest, demonstration, political discourse)1

The rapid and efficient removal of weeds is currently a research hotspot. With the integration of robotics and automation technology into agricultural production, intelligent field-weeding robots have emerged. An overview of the development status of weeding robots based on bibliometric and scientific mapping methods is presented. Two key technologies of weeding robots are summarized, and the research progress of precision-spraying weeding robots, mechanical weeding robots, and thermal weeding robots with laser devices, categorized by weeding method, is reviewed. Finally, a summary and an outlook on the future development trends of intelligent field-weeding robots are provided, aiming to offer a reference for further promoting the development of weeding robots.

This article presents a constructional analysis of the uses of left-peripheral so in Early New High German. This element is known as a resumptive element, which takes up an adverbial clause and integrates it into a main clause. While this seems a valid analysis for constructions with preposed adverbial clauses, it is not compatible when so is preceded by adverbs or main clauses.

First, a quantitatively informed picture is presented. A network is proposed that centers around a prototype in which so connects a protasis and apodosis when so follows verb-final and verb-initial clauses. Second, it is argued that so following verb-second clauses is loosely connected to this network. Finally, it is considered whether and to what degree the use of so following adverbs should be analyzed in the same way as so following adverbial clauses. It is argued that patterns with adverbs are not in paradigmatic relation with adverbial clauses. Moreover, their function is different, as they are backward-oriented and take up earlier constituents.

We evaluated herbicides for controlling the annual grass ventenata [Ventenata dubia (Leers) Coss.], with particular interest in indaziflam, a preemergence cellulose biosynthesis inhibitor. In 2016, indaziflam was applied postemergence alone and in mixture with glyphosate, imazapic, propoxycarbazone-sodium, or rimsulfuron to an improved pasture in southwestern Montana. A non-sprayed control was included for comparison purposes. Canopy cover of each species was assessed annually for 7 yr; cover was grouped by life-form and longevity, and species richness was calculated. Five years (2021) after treatment, the seedbank was assessed. Our results indicated that treatments including indaziflam reduced V. dubia cover 1 to 3 yr and even up to 6 yr after application, with V. dubia cover being zero or close to zero. However, at 7 yr (2023) after treatment, V. dubia was low across all treatments, including the non-sprayed control. Perennial grasses and forbs and annual forbs were generally unaffected by any treatment and did not increase in cover over the 7 yr, even though V. dubia decreased. Two years after treatment, species richness was lowest in treatments that included indaziflam, but at 7 yr, species richness was similar across all treatments. Indaziflam depleted the monocot and dicot seedbank, with fewer than 5 seedlings of any species emerging from treatments that included indaziflam, while other treatments resulted in 60 to 165 seedlings per sample (40 cm3 of soil). In summary, at our study site, a single application of indaziflam controlled V. dubia for 6 yr, appeared to deplete the seedbank at 5 yr, and cover of perennial and annual vegetation and species richness was unaffected. By the end of the study, though, V. dubia cover appeared to be influenced by factors other than herbicide treatments, possibly variable precipitation over time, an exclusion of grazing, and competitive perennial grasses dominating the site.

We propose a novel and unified sampling scheme, called the accelerated group sequential sampling scheme, which incorporates four different types of sampling scheme: (i) the classic Anscombe–Chow–Robbins purely sequential sampling scheme; (ii) the accelerated sequential sampling scheme; (iii) the relatively new k-at-a-time group sequential sampling scheme; and (iv) the new k-at-a-time accelerated group sequential sampling scheme. The first-order and second-order properties of this unified sequential sampling scheme are fully investigated with two illustrations on minimum risk point estimation for the mean of a normal distribution and on bounded variance point estimation for the location parameter of a negative exponential distribution. We also provide extensive Monte Carlo simulation studies and real data analyses for each illustration.