The Mental Health Bill, 2025, proposes to remove autism and learning disability from the scope of Section 3 of the Mental Health Act, 1983 (MHA). The present article represents a professional and carer consensus statement that raises concerns and identifies probable unintended consequences if this proposal becomes law. Our concerns relate to the lack of clear mandate for such proposals, conceptual inconsistency when considering other conditions that might give rise to a need for detention and the inconsistency in applying such changes to Part II of the MHA but not Part III. If the proposed changes become law, we anticipate that detentions would instead occur under the less safeguarded Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards framework, and that unmanaged risks will eventuate in behavioural consequences that will lead to more autistic people or those with a learning disability being sent to prison. Additionally, there is a concern that the proposed definitional breadth of autism and learning disability gives rise to a risk that people with other conditions may unintentionally be unable to be detained. We strongly urge the UK Parliament to amend this portion of the Bill prior to it becoming law.

Aims: This study through systematic review approaches and meta-analysis aimed to determine safe drug options for treating male sexual dysfunction due to erectile dysfunction by comparing sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil, mirodenafil, coenzyme Q and testosterone.

Methods: Systematic review methodology was used to retrieve data from complete database searches done in PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Randomized controlled trials research designs with adult male participants who presented with erectile dysfunction on sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil, mirodenafil, coenzyme Q and testosterone were included as part of the review. The Cochrane Risk of Bias version 2.0 was utilized by two independent reviewers for assessing bias risk and extracting data. Sensitivity analysis was used to reduce the risk of bias.

Results: Phosphodiesterase inhibitors type 5 (PDE 5) are the most effective medications for erectile dysfunction (ED). Participants on sildenafil had effective erections between 77–84% at doses of 50–100 mg and tadalafil emerged as the “Weekend pill” because of its 36-hour maximum effect duration of action. The concentration-focused activity along with higher potency values of vardenafil make it superior to other PDE5 inhibitors. The newly developed therapeutic medication mirodenafil exhibits better PDE5 selectivity than existing drugs within its operational mechanism. Minor variations were noted as a cohort of participants preferred tadalafil above sildenafil. Testosterone supplementation is beneficial for when monotherapy with a PDE5 inhibitor has not been effective.

Conclusion: Being the first-line treatment for erectile dysfunction, PDE5 inhibitors should be prescribed based on the distinctive pharmacological attributes they possess. Medical treatment selection methods must take into account both the need of patients as well as their preference. The recent introduction of mirodenafil medication has opened new possibilities in the medical treatment of ED. The effectiveness of ED treatment brings optimistic outcomes to the quality of life to hundreds of millions of men across the globe and further studies will drive medical progress to improved treatment modalities including stem cell therapy.

People with intellectual disability experience significant health inequality, and consequently poor health outcomes. Although research can facilitate change, there is a risk of researchers propagating inequity by selecting methods that exclude people with some forms of intellectual disability. We argue for participatory research methods that enable inclusion.

The study estimates the contribution of changes in world prices, exchange rates, and trade policies in explaining the variability of domestic prices under the scenario of incomplete transmission of changes and a counterfactual scenario of complete pass-through. We utilize data from the Indian wheat market for the period 2006–09 and 2017–20. The findings reveal an improvement in the pass-through of changes from the landed price to domestic markets. The price transmission elasticity increased from 50% in 2006/07–2008/09 to 67% during 2017/18–2019/20. The policy response to rising (declining) global prices of decreasing (increasing) import tariffs had a significant effect on prices. The variation in exchange rate offsets the impact of declining or rising global prices on domestic prices.

The hydrodynamic analysis of motion of small particles (e.g. proteins) within lipid bilayers appears to be naturally suitable for the framework of two-dimensional Stokes flow. Given the Stokes paradox, the problem in an unbounded domain is ill-posed. In his classical paper, Saffman (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 73, 1976, pp. 593–602) proposed several possible remedies, one of them based upon the finite extent of the membrane. Considering a circular boundary, that regularisation was briefly addressed by Saffman in the isotropic configuration, where the particle is concentrically positioned in the membrane. We investigate here the hydrodynamic problem in bounded membranes for the general case of eccentric particle position and a rectilinear motion in an arbitrary direction. Symmetry arguments provide a representation of the hydrodynamic drag in terms of ‘radial’ and ‘transverse’ coefficients, which depend upon two parameters: the ratio $\lambda$ of particle to membrane radii and the eccentricity $\beta$. Using matched asymptotic expansions we obtain closed-form approximations for these coefficients in the limit where $\lambda$ is small. In the isotropic case ($\beta = 0$) we find that the drag coefficient is $4\pi /(\ln ({1}/{\lambda })- {1})$, contradicting the value $4\pi /(\ln ({1}/{\lambda })- {1}/{2})$ obtained by Saffman. We explain the oversight in Saffman’s argument.

Let $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ with $d\geq 2$ be a bounded domain of class ${\mathcal C}^{1,\beta }$ for some $\beta \in (0,1)$. For $p\in (1, \infty )$ and $s\in (0,1)$, let $\Lambda ^s_{p}(\Omega )$ be the first eigenvalue of the mixed local–nonlocal operator $-\Delta _p+(-\Delta _p)^s$ in Ω with the homogeneous nonlocal Dirichlet boundary condition. We establish a strict Faber–Krahn-type inequality for $\Lambda _{p}^s(\cdot )$ under polarization. As an application of this strict inequality, we obtain the strict monotonicity of $\Lambda _{p}^s(\cdot )$ over the annular domains and characterize the rigidity property of the balls in the classical Faber–Krahn inequality for $-\Delta _p+(-\Delta _p)^s$.

There has been a growing recognition of the significant role played by the human gut microbiota in altering the bioavailability as well as the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic aspects of orally ingested xenobiotic and biotic molecules. The determination of species-specific contributions to the metabolism of biotic and xenobiotic molecules has the potential to aid in the development of new therapeutic and nutraceutical molecules that can modulate human gut microbiota. Here we present “GutBugDB,” an open-access digital repository that provides information on potential gut microbiome-mediated biotransformation of biotic and xenobiotic molecules using the predictions from the GutBug tool. This database is constructed using metabolic proteins from 690 gut bacterial genomes and 363,872 protein enzymes assigned with their EC numbers (with representative Expasy ID and domains present). It provides information on gut microbiome enzyme-mediated metabolic biotransformation for 1439 FDA-approved drugs and nutraceuticals. GutBugDB is publicly available at https://metabiosys.iiserb.ac.in/gutbugdb/.

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a method of solid-state welding used to connect difficult-to-weld materials, such as aluminium alloy and magnesium alloy that cannot be joined using conventional welding techniques. This paper investigates the impact of FSW parameters on the corrosion characteristics of friction stir-welded AA2014-T6 aluminium alloy. Experiments were conducted in accordance with the Taguchi L9 orthogonal array by varying tool rotation speed, weld speed, and axial force across three levels. The FSW joints of the aluminium alloy AA2014-T6 were subjected to corrosion test using the electro-chemical workstation CHI660C. The Tafel plots and the corrosion rates were obtained from the corrosion tests. It was observed from the analysis of variance (ANOVA) results of the corrosion rates, that the tool rotation speed is the most persuading factor in controlling the corrosion rate. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of the corroded samples were analysed for the presence of pitting spots and its density.

In November 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care published guidance, entitled ‘Baroness Hollins’ Final Report: My Heart Breaks – Solitary Confinement in Hospital Has no Therapeutic Benefit for People with a Learning Disability and Autistic People’. The report's commendable analysis of the problems and identification of the areas where practice should be improved is unfortunately not matched by many of its recommendations, which appear to be contrary to evidence-based approaches. The concerns are wide-ranging, from the use of the term ‘solitary confinement’ for current long-term segregation (LTS) and seclusion, to presumption that all LTS and seclusion is bad, to holding clinicians (mainly psychiatrists) responsible for events beyond their locus of control. Importantly, there is a no guidance on how to practically deliver the recommendations in an evidence-based manner. This Feature critically appraises the report, to provide a comprehensive summary outlining potential positive impacts, identifying specific concerns and reflecting on best practice going forward.

Floods often displace people and exacerbate their access to finance, affecting the livelihood of daily wage workers in least-developed countries. In August 2017, Nepal experienced the heaviest rainfall in more than 60 years, severely flooding about 80 per cent of the land in the southern part of the country. Using the two-way fixed effects approach and an event study design, we evaluate the impact of severe flooding on the wages of agricultural workers. We show that the 2017 floods resulted in a 9–10 per cent decrease in cash wages among agricultural households while in-kind wages of agricultural laborers increased significantly after the floods, implying that in-kind wages helped mitigate the adverse effects of floods on cash wages. We also investigate changes in assistance, loan-seeking behavior, loan repayment, and collection behavior as mechanisms leading to the risk-mitigating behavior by farmers.

X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterization of Si powder was carried out using synchrotron and laboratory sources. Microstructural (size-strain) analyses of XRD patterns were carried out using the Rietveld refinement method. Experimentally observed super-Lorentzian shapes of the XRD peaks of Si powder were examined using multimodal profile fitting and bimodal model was found to be adequate. The two components obtained using a bimodal approach are referred as narrow and broad profiles based on their estimated relative peak widths. Peak shapes of crystallite size-dependent parts of narrow and broad profiles were found to be almost Gaussian and Lorentzian in nature, respectively. The simultaneous presence of such peak shapes corresponding to a bimodal microstructure is uncommon in literature. Therefore, in order to explore the role of different natures of XRD peak shapes (size dependent) of the bimodal profiles of Si, detailed microstructural analysis was carried out using the complementary method of whole powder pattern modeling (WPPM) and found to be related to the variance of crystallites' size distribution. Additionally, the effect of instrument resolution (laboratory and synchrotron sources) on the microstructural parameters was also studied. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the morphology of Si powder and correlate with the microstructural findings of XRD methods.

We introduce a bivariate tempered space-fractional Poisson process (BTSFPP) by time-changing the bivariate Poisson process with an independent tempered $\alpha$-stable subordinator. We study its distributional properties and its connection to differential equations. The Lévy measure for the BTSFPP is also derived. A bivariate competing risks and shock model based on the BTSFPP for predicting the failure times of items that undergo two random shocks is also explored. The system is supposed to break when the sum of two types of shock reaches a certain random threshold. Various results related to reliability, such as reliability function, hazard rates, failure density, and the probability that failure occurs due to a certain type of shock, are studied. We show that for a general Lévy subordinator, the failure time of the system is exponentially distributed with mean depending on the Laplace exponent of the Lévy subordinator when the threshold has a geometric distribution. Some special cases and several typical examples are also demonstrated.