In low-prevalence settings, the epidemiological yield of screening strategies for controlling vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) outbreaks has not been fully established. We retrospectively analysed a prolonged VRE outbreak at a 536-bed tertiary-care hospital in Japan from 2010 to 2021 to evaluate sequential screening strategies across epidemic phases and to identify risk factors for VRE acquisition. Hospital-wide, admission-based, antimicrobial exposure-based, passive, and haemodialysis-targeted screening strategies were implemented over time. Screening yields were compared longitudinally, and a retrospective case–control study was performed using data from the initial hospital-wide screening phase. Molecular epidemiology was assessed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). In total, 169 VRE-positive patients were identified, including seven infections and 162 asymptomatic carriers. Hospital-wide screening in the early epidemic phase showed the highest positivity rate (0.91%), whereas targeted strategies consistently yielded lower rates (0.09–0.34%). Haemodialysis, specific oral care practices, and prior exposure to carbapenems, glycopeptides, and piperacillin/tazobactam were independently associated with VRE acquisition. PFGE revealed substantial genetic diversity, suggesting sustained nosocomial transmission with repeated introductions. Early broad-based screening may be epidemiologically efficient in the initial phase of VRE outbreaks in low-prevalence settings, followed by adaptive refinement for long-term control.

Change point analysis (CPA) detects structural shifts in a response sequence by partitioning it into segments with different statistical properties. This paper proposes three CPA approaches based on the Schwarz information criterion (SIC; hereafter SIC-CPA): response data only, response time (RT) data only, and the combination of response and RT data, to detect the prevalent test speededness in time-limit tests. To comprehensively investigate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed approaches, six simulation studies were conducted under diverse conditions. Simulation results demonstrate that SIC-CPA can effectively enhance the power of change point detection and reduce Type I errors, while improving computational efficiency compared to the likelihood ratio and Wald tests. Moreover, the SIC-CPA combining response and RT data outperforms the SIC-CPA based solely on RTs, and the latter is substantially superior to the SIC-CPA based solely on responses. In addition, SIC-CPA accurately identifies two change points in RT patterns, corresponding to early warm-up and later test speededness. Using an iterative detect–clean–recalibrate procedure, SIC-CPA achieves more reliable Type I error control than likelihood ratio and Wald tests when item parameters are estimated from contaminated data. A real data analysis was conducted to show the application of the proposed approaches.

This Article analyzes the relevance of dissenting opinions issued on the judgments of constitutional courts, particularly the Spanish Constitutional Court, for dialogue between courts—especially the ECtHR—in the field of rights. The interpretative capacity of individual opinions is an important question in the case of the Spanish order, given that Article 10.2 of the Spanish Constitution requires that the rights guaranteed in the Constitution be interpreted in accordance with the treaties on rights signed by Spain. In this sense, the ECHR plays an essential role as the main instrument of interpretative reference in the domestic sphere. Therefore, we have sought to study the capacity of individual opinions to promote new developments in the field of rights based on the bridge generated with the doctrine of the ECtHR and to what extent this can have repercussions on the positions initially defended by the dissenting minority of the Spanish Constitutional Court becoming the majority position defended by the Court. This study is channeled through the freedom of expression in Fragoso Dacosta case because of its relevance in the multilevel context, analyzing the ruling 190/2020 of the Spanish Constitutional Court, December 15, and the ruling of the ECtHR in Fragoso Dacosta v. Spain, June 8, 2023.

Choosing coalition partners is not only about size but also revolves around policy. Although this claim is undisputed at the national and regional levels, the role of ideology in local coalition formation remains contested. This study examines how policy positions and issue salience influence coalition formation after two consecutive elections in 30 municipalities in the Belgian region of Flanders. We apply for the first time the concept of preference tangentiality – the degree to which parties prioritize different policy areas – to the analysis of coalitions at the local level. Our findings reveal that ideological proximity increases parties’ likelihood of forming coalitions, but only to the extent that they do not cooperate with the far-right Vlaams Belang. While preference tangentiality alone does not predict local coalition formation, it becomes important for ideologically coherent executives in which parties must differentiate themselves from their coalition partners. These findings enhance our understanding of policy-related factors in coalition formation at the local level.

Mental health disorders are prevalent among adolescents and evidence suggests that stigma, poor mental health literacy (MHL) and access are key barriers to help-seeking for mental health difficulties in adolescence and throughout life. The study purpose is to assess existing mental health knowledge, stigma and help-seeking behaviour among adolescents in Uganda. A total of 889 secondary school students in Kampala completed standardised self-report questionnaires. The results reveal low-to-moderate levels of mental health knowledge (MAKS, range 12–60, M = 16.35, SD = 5.18, AMHLQ, range 33–138, M = 64.01, SD = 12.98), stigma (RIBS, range 4–20, M = 12.30, SD = 3.52) and prejudice towards people with mental illness (PPMI-TR, range 133–19, M = 73.85, SD = 13.38). Knowledge correlated with stigma (r = 0.166 and r = 0.135, p < 0.01), and with one’s capacity to assess own mental health (SELF-I range 5–25, M = 12.34, SD = 4.4). Adolescents are open to seek help from mental health professionals but reluctant to seek it from most accessible help sources like schoolteachers. The findings provide insights for future mental health-promoting and anti-stigma interventions for adolescents.

To address the increasing need for volunteers in countries experiencing conflict and natural disasters, this study examined young adults’ willingness to volunteer abroad in a “higher risk” country. Young Australian adults (N = 163) completed an online survey of Prototype Willingness Model constructs, risk perceptions, and trust in the organization. Attitude, subjective norm (approval from others), perceived similarity to a typical volunteer, risk susceptibility, risk severity, and trust in the charitable organization significantly predicted volunteer willingness, with trust in the organization influencing a number of the antecedents to volunteer willingness. Risk susceptibility had an unexpected positive relationship with volunteer willingness, highlighting the importance of acceptance of associated risks for openness to volunteering in higher risk settings. This study contributes to our understanding of volunteering abroad in higher risk countries, informing efforts to increase the prevalence of international volunteering, essential to address the imbalance of resources globally.

Face-to-face (F2F) fundraising is employed by nonprofit organizations all around the world. We systematically review 50 years of literature on this technique, focusing on door-to-door and street fundraising, two types that allow for reaching a large, randomly assembled, and heterogeneous group of people, who typically have no personal relationship with recruiters. We provide both a quantitative and qualitative synthesis of 67 articles published in international peer-reviewed academic journals. Our review identifies several recurring research themes, integrates these into a F2F fundraising framework, and delineates articles based on this framework. We classify research themes into two categories: F2F fundraising outcomes (e.g., new donors, donation amount) and factors related to actors or contexts of campaigns affecting these outcomes (e.g., donors’ preferences, persuasion techniques). Articles in this review mainly focus on factors related to actors or context affecting outcomes, with this category being five times more often the primary focus compared to F2F fundraising outcomes. Finally, we create evidence-based guiding questions for fundraising professionals, uncover gaps in existing knowledge, and provide recommendations for future research agenda.

This article investigates phonological complexity by using artificial neural network and Bayesian structural equation models to derive representations of phonological complexity from counts of the segments associated with particular features in languages’ phonemic inventories. These latent representations can then be used alongside principal component analysis to further analyse how interactions between phonological features affect overall complexity, and what phonological complexity patterns a model can detect in a phonological feature data set. The results indicate that the per-feature segment counts investigated tend to contribute positively to a language’s complexity, and that the latent complexity variables approximate a log-normal distribution. This implies that phonological complexifications co-occur with other complexifications diachronically while tending to be more constrained at the upper and lower ends of the complexity range.

Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) is central to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) control, yet its prioritization varies across Africa. We analyzed AMS components of five African National Action Plans on AMR against global and regional policy benchmarks, identifying areas of alignment and critical gaps that should inform future AMR strategies.

We present a neonate with a large vein of Galen malformation and an unusual drainage of the large vein returning blood from the upper half of the body into the right atrium (superior vena cava) into the left atrium. Remarkably, the infant showed no signs of cyanosis, heart failure, or pulmonary hypertension. We suggest this rare anomaly may have provided in-utero protection by offloading blood flow and reducing strain on the fetal heart and lungs.

Prefigurative law reform develops and experiments with ideas about radical legal change. But these ideas are vulnerable to being challenged, including for having failed and for being unreal. This article responds to such charges, drawing on utopian studies for a different account of failure and the not real. Its focus is a speculative legal proposal to “decertify” sex and gender so that they would no longer be assigned, obligatory aspects of legal personhood. The article explores the utopian dimensions of decertification alongside accusations that it is fictive, undesirable, and nonviable. Reading these charges through utopianism reduces their sting since failure and the not real become inevitable, even positive, qualities. At the same time, dichotomies of real/fictive, existent/non-existent, and achievable/unachievable do injustice to prefigurative legal proposals. This article therefore proposes an alternative frame that embraces failure and the not real while reaching beyond their limits: staying “in play.” This combines simulation, disorientation, and falling short with the ambition, hopefulness, and pleasures of utopian praxis. Sutured to a utopian impulse, in play emphasizes the importance of persistence for prefigurative proposals while recognizing that their form may fluctuate and change over time.

In this introduction, we briefly define Canadian philosophy and discuss its importance before introducing the authors who contributed to this special issue and their articles. The history of Canadian philosophy has been understudied, and there is a need for new philosophical work on the challenges facing Canada. Some articles collected in this special issue examine the history of philosophy in Canada, while others subject contemporary issues to philosophical analysis. The contributors to this special issue include Ian H. Angus, Robert Timko, Anna Brinkerhoff, Stefan Lukits, Charles Blattberg, Ronald A. Kuipers, Jérôme Gosselin-Tapp, Delphine T. Raymond, Frédérique Jean, Rémi Poiré, Matthew Robertson, Janet C. Wesselius, and R. Bruce Elder.

This paper analyzes two ideal-type signaling interactions that are fundamental to international relations: reassurance and coercive bargaining. In reassurance, states attempt to signal that their goals are compatible in order to avoid conflict, whereas in coercive bargaining, they attempt to inflate the incompatibility of their goals in order to increase their negotiating leverage over a disputed asset. This article conceptualizes these two types of signaling interaction and delineates semi-overlapping conditions under which each obtains. It then identifies three ways in which credible signaling occurs differently in reassurance versus coercive bargaining. First, the directional effects of power shifts are reversed in each interaction, generating incentives for rising states to misrepresent in reassurance but not in bargaining. Second, whereas signals that are costless to honest, high-resolve senders are widely available in bargaining, the most prominent reassurance signals are typically costly even to honest senders with benign intentions. Third, it is often difficult to infer which issue area motivates senders’ behaviors in reassurance, whereas in bargaining senders have incentives to reveal which issues they prioritize. In combination, these distinctions suggest that reassurance is systematically more difficult than signaling high resolve.

Let $X_1,\ldots, X_n$ be independent integers distributed uniformly on [M], $M\ge 2$. A partition S of [n] into $\nu$ non-empty subsets $S_1,\ldots, S_{\nu}$ is called perfect if all $\nu$ values $\sum_{j\in S_{\alpha}}X_j$ are equal. For a perfect partition to exist, $\sum_j X_j$ has to be divisible by $\nu$. In 2001, for $\nu=2$, Christian Borgs, Jennifer Chayes, and the author proved that, conditioned on $\sum_j X_j$ being even, with high probability a perfect partition exists if $\kappa\;:\!=\; \lim {{n}/{\log M}}>{{1}/{\log 2}}$, and that with high probability no perfect partition exists if $\kappa<{{1}/{\log 2}}$. Responding to a question by George Varghese, we prove that for $\nu\ge 3$ with high probability no perfect partition exists if $\kappa<{{2}/{\log \nu}}$, which is twice as large as the naive threshold $1/\log 3$ for $\nu=3$. We identify the range of $\kappa$ where the expected number of perfect partitions is exponentially high. We show that for $\kappa> {{2(\nu-1)}/{\log[(1-2\nu^{-2})^{-1}]}}$ the total number of perfect partitions is exponentially high with probability $\gtrsim (1+\nu^2)^{-1}$, i.e. below $1/\nu$, the limiting probability that $\sum_j X_j$ is divisible by $\nu$.

This study investigates the use of topological data maps for extracting unique tropical cyclone (TC) wind field features. These maps are presented as graphs generated through a sequence of steps that filter, cluster, and identify data structure, and are used to characterize topological properties and shape in the data. The objective and scope of the method is explored through application to wind fields from the HURDAT2 data set, and its viability for detecting anomalous behavior in TCs is considered. We refer to the resulting graphs as wind field connectivity signatures (WFCS) or collective wind field connectivity map (CWFCM), depending on the data set. Our focus is Hurricane Sandy, where the method successfully identifies a complete 360-degree rotation of the high wind speed radii. This cyclical example of phase rotation of wind speed asymmetries corresponds to a distinct structural property of the graph. These methods have not been previously applied to wind field data and have only seen limited use in atmospheric sciences.

New cosmogenic 10Be exposure ages and a proglacial lake sediment archive provide the first record of local ice cover following the deglaciation of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet (CIS) in southeast Alaska. Exposure ages from Necker Bay corroborate existing evidence for a CIS deglaciation age of ∼15–14 ka from the outer coast of Baranof Island. We date retreat farther inland on the western and eastern flanks of the island to the Early Holocene, providing evidence for an ice cap persisting on Baranof Island ∼3 ka after CIS retreat. Baranof Lake sediment cores document continued local ice cover until ∼10.4 ka, after which glaciers receded to their Holocene minima until ∼8 ka. Glaciers grew through the remainder of the Holocene, reaching their maxima during the last millennium before retreating rapidly during the last century. Remote sensing analysis of glacial change around Baranof Lake from 1948 to 2023 CE shows that the rate of glacier area loss increased by an order of magnitude after 1986 CE, from −0.03 km2/yr to −0.29 km2/yr. This trend in glacier area loss is reflected across Alaska and western Canada, highlighting the sensitivity of Beringian glaciers to climate changes and the significant contribution they will make to sea-level rise this century.

Light pollution – the use of artificial lighting at night (ALAN) – is a growing environmental problem. This article focuses on how the European Union (EU) governs light pollution. A few key points are made. At first glance, the regulatory situation appears to be straightforward: there is no explicit EU governance in this area, as no regulation has been adopted with specific targets to mitigate light pollution. Yet, many EU instruments indirectly affect the growth of light pollution without mentioning the term by name. This article discusses specific examples from the EU Habitats Directive and the Energy Labelling Regulation, amongst others. On the basis of these examples, the article argues that this web of instruments, when considered together, can be conceptualized as ‘shadow’ governance. It concludes that unless light is shed on regulatory spillovers, the current EU regulatory framework will continue to worsen, rather than address, light pollution.