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With numbers of very old adults (85+ years) expected to increase, and very old adults often being excluded from research and clinical trials, further knowledge about depressive disorders, antidepressant treatment and mortality among this demographic is of pressing importance.
Aims
To investigate the impact of depressive disorders and antidepressant treatment on 2-year mortality among very old adults and to explore any differences between men and women.
Method
This cross-sectional study used data from the Umeå 85+/Gerontological Regional Database home visit interviews. The data were collected between 2000 and 2017. The total sample consisted of 2551 participants, of whom 918 had a depressive disorder. Logistic and Cox regression models were used to explore factors associated with depressive disorders and time to death. Mortality rates were illustrated and analysed using Kaplan–Meier curves and log-rank tests.
Results
Having a depressive disorder both with and without antidepressant treatment was associated with increased risk of death within 2 years for both men and women. No survival differences were found between responders and non-responders to treatment. Depressive disorders were significant predictors of 2-year mortality in men. Antidepressant treatment was not independently associated with mortality.
Conclusion
Depressive disorders are significantly associated with increased 2-year mortality among very old adults, especially men, and measures to reduce mortality are urgently needed. Further exploration of the effects of antidepressant treatment among very old adults is warranted.
This study examines multilevel barriers to women’s participation and contribution to the process manufacturing industry in an emerging economy. We employed an exploratory multiple-case study approach, and 24 semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior corporate managers. Drawing on the behavioral reasoning theory, intellectual capital-based view, and institutional theory-based view, the findings highlighted several individual, organizational, sociocultural, infrastructure, and institutional barriers at micro, meso, and macro levels that inhibited female participation in the manufacturing sector. This study is one of the early empirical investigations to examine the obstacles hindering women’s contributions to the process manufacturing industry in an emerging country, applying three theoretical lenses – behavioral reasoning theory, intellectual capital-based view, and institutional theory-based view. Furthermore, the insights gained from the study contribute to the literature on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the operations management domain by developing a multilevel integrative model of barriers to women’s participation in the manufacturing sector.
Observations of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) at low radio frequencies play an important role in understanding the Galactic pulsar population and characterising both their emission properties and the effects of the ionised interstellar medium on the received signals. To date, only a relatively small fraction of the known MSP population has been detected at frequencies below 300 MHz, and nearly all previous MSP studies at these frequencies have been conducted with northern telescopes. We present a census of MSPs in the SMART pulsar survey, covering declinations south of $+30^{\circ}$ at a centre frequency of $154\,\mathrm{MHz}$. We detected 40 MSPs, with 11 being the first published detections below $300\,\mathrm{MHz}$. For each detection, we provide coherently dedispersed full-polarimetric integrated pulse profiles and mean flux densities. We measured significant Faraday rotation measures for 25 MSPs and identified apparent phase-dependent RM variations for three MSPs. Comparison with published profiles at other frequencies supports previous studies suggesting that the pulse component separations of MSPs vary negligibly over a wide frequency range due to their compact magnetospheres. We observe that integrated pulse profiles tend to be more polarised at low frequencies, consistent with depolarisation due to superposed orthogonal polarisation modes. The results of this census will be a valuable resource for planning future MSP monitoring projects at low frequencies and will also help to improve survey simulations to forecast the detectable MSP population with SKA-Low.
Telomere shortening is shared by all psychiatric disorders and is hypothesized as resulting from decreased telomerase activity (TA) or expression of the TERT (Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase) gene.
Methods
A search in four English databases was conducted from inception to November 2024 to evaluate the association between psychiatric disorders and telomerase activity (TA) or TERT gene expression in peripheral blood. We performed two separate meta-analyses to generate pooled effect size (ES) for TA and TERT gene expression, followed by meta-regression.
Results
The systematic review included 16 studies, 14 of which were included in the meta-analyses. When considering all psychiatric disorders, no associations were found for TA (ES = 0.08 [−0.50–0.67], p = 0.78 – I-squared = 95%), nor TERT gene expression (ES = 0.00 [−0.56–0.57], p = 0.99 – I-squared = 91%). However, TA was elevated in mood disorders (ES = 0.61 [0.06–1.16] – p = 0.03), while decreased in non-mood disorders (ES = −0.70 [−1.37 – −0.03] – p = 0.04). ES for TA were larger in mood disorders as compared to other disorders (p = 0.003).
Conclusions
This meta-analysis shows that psychiatric disorders – taken together – are not associated with peripheral blood TA or TERT gene expression. Nevertheless, we find that TA is increased in depressive disorders (unipolar or bipolar), whereas decreased in non-mood psychiatric disorders. The paucity of studies and small sample sizes are important limitations, especially for TERT gene expression. Further research is needed, incorporating a broader spectrum of psychiatric disorders and larger sample sizes.
We evaluated performance-based differences in neuropsychological functioning in older adults (age 65+) across the dementia continuum (cognitively intact, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia) according to recent cannabis use (past six months).
Method:
A sample of 540 older adults from a well-characterized observational cohort was included for analysis. Participants completed a standardized questionnaire assessing cannabis use in the six months prior to the study visit and completed a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment. We used traditional cross-sectional analyses (multivariate, univariate) alongside causal inference techniques (propensity score matching [PSM]) to evaluate group differences according to recent cannabis use status. We also examined whether cannabis-related problem severity, a risk factor for cannabis use disorder (CUD), was associated with cognitive outcomes among those reporting recent cannabis use.
Results:
Approximately 11% of participants reported using cannabis in the prior six months, with the median user consuming cannabis two to four times per month. Participants with recent cannabis use performed similarly across all five domains of neuropsychological functioning compared to those with no cannabis use. Among older adults reporting recent cannabis use, those with elevated risk for CUD demonstrated lower memory performance.
Conclusions:
These preliminary results are broadly consistent with other findings indicating that low-frequency cannabis use among older adults, including those along the dementia continuum, is generally well tolerated from a cognitive perspective. However, among older adults who used cannabis, elevated symptoms of CUD may negatively impact memory performance. Future research should explore how variations in cannabis use patterns, individual characteristics, and clinical phenotypes influence cognitive outcomes.
As the number of working parents rises, employers are increasingly called upon to support employees’ work–family (WF) obligations. Grounded in conservation of resources theory, we examined how providing varying degrees of parental support (paid vs. unpaid leave and family-supportive vs. -unsupportive leadership) is mutually beneficial to employee and organizational well-being – the ultimate criterion for organizational science. Participants (N = 538) were randomly assigned to read vignettes that varied the amount of parental support provided for expectant working parents. We tested whether WF benefits fairness perceptions moderated the indirect effects of parental support on felt obligation through job-related anxiety. Findings supported our proposed moderated-mediation model, with the most positive effects when full parental support was provided to individuals with high fairness perceptions. Our research highlights the value of providing both paid leave and family-supportive leadership, while also considering employees’ fairness perceptions, to reap the most gains of employee and organizational well-being.
We show that the derived categories of perverse Nori motives investigate and mixed Hodge modules are the derived categories of their constructible hearts. This enables us to construct $\infty$-categorical lifts of the six operations. As a result, we obtain realisation functors from the category of Voevodsky étale motives to the derived categories of perverse Nori motives and mixed Hodge modules that commute with the operations. We also prove that if a motivic t-structure exists then Voevodsky étale motives and the derived category of perverse Nori motives are equivalent. Finally, we give a presentation of the indization of the derived category of perverse Nori motives as a category of modules in Voevodsky étale motives.
Salt is a commodity valued for nutrition; seasoning, drying, and storing food; tanning hides; and its social and economic role in exchange systems. This study reports on salt caches and manufactured disks from Middle Holocene (∼5500–4000 cal BP) archaeological sites on the north coast of Peru. During this period, salt extraction occurred at a time of rising sea levels and wetland development in the littoral of the Chicama Valley, where maritime foragers and farmers cohabited and probably exchanged salt and marine products with inland populations for exotic food crops, minerals, and other resources. The findings here add to a growing body of archaeological evidence on the environments, techniques, and uses of salt extraction by early precontact societies.
The evolution of the CJEU’s jurisprudence has led to the emergence of a distinct, sector-specific notion of economic activity in the context of services delivered within public healthcare systems. This interpretation diverges markedly from the general framework applied in other sectors. This form of conceptual dualism lacks a clear normative foundation in the provisions of the TFEU and poses a potential challenge to the integrity of the role assigned to services of general economic interest under both the Treaty and established CJEU case law. Significantly, the exclusion of practically all activities within public healthcare systems from the ambit of EU competition law has the potential to generate significant distortions of competition. This is particularly relevant in the context of healthcare systems, such as that of Poland, which exhibit a mixed structure and where public and private providers engage in substantial competition.
This study investigates the role of English in Bali’s tourism‑driven economy, focusing on investment in English learning among Balinese tour guides. It examines the intersection of economic, social, and cultural factors shaping language acquisition, comparing learners of English at the grassroots who rely on formal, informal, or mixed methods of acquisition. Using Darvin and Norton’s (2015) investment model, the study explores how ideology, identity, and capital influence English learning trajectories. Data were collected through questionnaires and semi‑structured interviews with six Balinese tour guides, representing diverse linguistic biographies and learning contexts. Findings reveal that despite systemic barriers, learners of English at the grassroots demonstrate resilience and adaptability by leveraging social and cultural capital. While some depend on informal interactions, others access formal education or combine both approaches to enhance their opportunities. The study underscores the vital role of English as a tool for economic and social mobility in Bali’s international tourism industry, while also investigating the investment elements that shape learners’ trajectories.
Democratic decision-making processes tend to take less account of future interests than of present ones, thereby jeopardizing not least the foundations of future democracy. Democratic short-termism causes considerable problems, especially when decisions made now have serious consequences for the future and can hardly be reversed. Thus, the current climate protection legislation, which is far too weak worldwide, threatens to impose unbearable and unjust burdens on people in the future and deprive them of any political leeway for shaping their own policies, thus also undermining the very basis of democracy. In general, it is one of the functions of constitutional law to help overcome such short-termism of decision-making processes. However, in the case of climate protection, this is difficult because the veto power of constitutional law and constitutional courts has comparatively little impact here—for reasons related to the factual characteristics of climate protection. Nevertheless, constitutional law and courts have their own potential in climate protection that needs to be further developed in order to overcome some of the democratic short-termism.
Introducing the Special Issue on “Judging under Pressure,” this Article sets out three interlinked challenges facing constitutional courts, broadly understood: persisting inequalities, the climate crisis, and rising autocratization. The Articles in this Special Issue identify, analyze, and prescribe a set of judicial responses and strategies when judging under pressure. Some reimagine and recalibrate the role of judges, while others respond with doctrinal and theoretical innovation; yet, throughout, there is a recognition of judicial constraints and institutional fragility.
The international solidarity principle is a crucial legal norm of international society. It helps guide state conduct and facilitate cooperation among international actors to respond to global challenges and uphold human rights. The European Union (EU) and its Member States have argued that their bilateral agreements with non-EU countries to prevent irregular migration to Europe is a demonstration of international solidarity that fulfils their obligations to asylum seekers and refugees. However, the EU’s interpretation of international solidarity in these arrangements has been contested. This article argues that the EU has strategically interpreted the international solidarity principle to fit in with, and complement, its migration deterrence policy framework. It posits that the EU’s interpretation abuses the international solidarity principle as it aims to separate the solidarity principle from the realisation of human rights, thereby hurting, instead of benefitting, asylum seekers and refugees. This article makes an important contribution to understanding how the solidarity principle is interpreted between EU and non-EU partners, and the intimate connection between solidarity and the realisation of human rights. More importantly, it demonstrates how the interpretation and evasion of the international solidarity principle has been shaped by, and shaped to fit, the EU’s migration externalisation policy framework.
For some sixty years, the dominant narrative of the financial crisis of 1931 and Great Depression has been one of failure of central banks to cooperate and act as lenders of last resort. This historical narrative has become dominant and led to a marginalization of understanding the Great Depression as a result of an inherent instability of capitalism. Rather than arguing that one or the other of these narratives is true, in this article I examine how contemporary actors made retrospective sense of the European financial crisis of 1931 and how they used that history to shape lessons for uncertain futures. My approach is based on the concepts of sensemaking and narrative emplotment under radical uncertainty. The article shows that most contemporaneous actors were positive in their assessment of central banks and that they focused mostly on short-term capital flows and the interconnectedness of the financial system as well as structural issues going back to the Versailles Treaty in making sense of the crisis.
Who has been considered human by the humanities? Along with its emancipatory potential, the humanities have historically also been related to imperial states whose military conquests have implicated the dehumanization of other peoples. Many times, the humanities have offered foundational narratives sustaining imperial projects. This essay takes a constructivist epistemology to explore the concept of humanism, and how it has emerged and changed in different contexts, beginning with the Roman idea of humanitas that focused on civilization to legitimize domination. A critique of colonial Christian humanism reveals how it was used to justify violence against those defined as non or less human, be they women, Africans, or indigenous people. The historical exclusion of many groups from educational institutions and knowledge production shows how the humanities have perpetuated hierarchies of power that, ironically, dehumanized. Movements such as the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, which sought to reform the humanities, continued to favor a Eurocentric culture. This essay advocates for an intercultural approach to the humanities, one that frees itself from imperialism and promotes inclusive dialogues among peoples. This effort must go beyond overcoming Eurocentrism. It must also overcome anthropocentrism to incorporate a more respectful relationship with Nature, recognizing the cultural practices of indigenous peoples, who have maintained a more conscious and harmonious link with beyond human lifeways.
We simulate the formation of a condensate on a sphere, generated by an inverse energy cascade originating from a stochastic forcing at spherical harmonic wavenumber $ l_{\!f} \gg 1$. The condensate forms as two pairs of oppositely signed vortices lying on a great circle that is randomly rotating in three dimensions. The vortices are separated by $ 90^\circ$ and like signed vortices are located at opposite poles. We show that the configuration is the maximum energy solution to a Hamiltonian dynamical system with a single degree of freedom. An analysis in wavenumber space reveals that interactions between widely separated scales of motions dominate the formation process. For comparison, we also perform freely decaying simulations with random initial conditions and prescribed spectra. The late time solutions consist of four coherent vortices, similar to the solutions of the forced simulations. However, in the freely decaying simulations the vortex configuration is not stationary but exhibits periodic motions.
Nearly half a century ago, Allison Blakely produced Russia and the Negro: Blacks in Russian History and Thought. The landmark text explored Black people’s lives and experiences in the Russian empire and the Soviet Union and how non-Black people in those spaces received them and conceptualized blackness from the seventeenth century to the 1980s. Since its publication, many of the Black characters and historical episodes adorning Russia and the Negro have become the terrains or mainstays of scholarly debates about Black life and experiences and ideas of blackness in Slavic, eastern, southeastern, and central European, as well as Eurasian societies.1 Roughly two decades later, others took up the mantel.