Next-generation X-ray satellite telescopes such as XRISM, NewAthena and Lynx will enable observations of exotic astrophysical sources at unprecedented spectral and spatial resolution. Proper interpretation of these data demands that the accuracy of the models is at least within the uncertainty of the observations. One set of quantities that might not currently meet this requirement is transition energies of various astrophysically relevant ions. Current databases are populated with many untested theoretical calculations. Accurate laboratory benchmarks are required to better understand the coming data. We obtained laboratory spectra of X-ray lines from a silicon plasma at an average spectral resolving power of $\sim$7500 with a spherically bent crystal spectrometer on the Z facility at Sandia National Laboratories. Many of the lines in the data are measured here for the first time. We report measurements of 53 transitions originating from the K-shells of He-like to B-like silicon in the energy range between $\sim$1795 and 1880 eV (6.6–6.9 Å). The lines were identified by qualitative comparison against a full synthetic spectrum calculated with ATOMIC. The average fractional uncertainty (uncertainty/energy) for all reported lines is ${\sim}5.4 \times 10^{-5}$. We compare the measured quantities against transition energies calculated with RATS and FAC as well as those reported in the NIST ASD and XSTAR’s uaDB. Average absolute differences relative to experimentally measured values are 0.20, 0.32, 0.17 and 0.38 eV, respectively. All calculations/databases show good agreement with the experimental values; NIST ASD shows the closest match overall.

Clinical and preclinical data about perinatal inflammation show its implication in brain injuries leading to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). For instance, Group B Streptococcus (GBS) chorioamnionitis generates autistic manifestations in the progeny. However, the precise way(s) how chorioamnionitis exerts its noxious effect on the central nervous system remains to be define. The pathogen-induced inflammatory response effects on the permeability of the blood brain barrier (BBB) have been documented in the mature brain. No study deals with the effect of GBS-induced chorioamnionitis, on the fetal BBB, even though it is one of the most common infection affecting the fetal environment. Given that dysfunctions of several key cells and molecules from the BBB seem to be involved in the pathogenesis of ASD from genetic and/or environmental origins, we hypothesized that pathogen-induced chorioamnionitis affects structurally and functionally the BBB. We used a well-established preclinical model of GBS chorioamnionitis leading to ASD phenotype in male offspring. We document a significant decrease of albumin permeability of the BBB in the white and gray matters of fetuses exposed versus unexposed to GBS chorioamnionitis. In line with this result, a significant increase in the expression of claudin-5 – component of tight junctions of the BBB – is detected in endothelial cells from BBB exposed to chorioamnionitis. Altogether, our results show that beyond genetic determinants, environmental factors such as bacterial infections affect the integrity of the BBB and might be involved in the fetal programming of ASD.

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.

In Africa, harps exhibit significant morphological diversity, yet their historical trajectory remains largely underexplored. Phylogenetic reconstruction methods offer valuable tools for understanding this diversity and the relationships between groups of harps. This study is among the first to apply one of these methods, cladistics, to the morphology of a musical instrument, analyzing 318 harps and 83 characters. We present a well-resolved phylogenetic tree, which shows several clades corresponding to geo-cultural regions, in alignment with ethnomusicological classifications. We show that this tree robustly represents the patterns of vertical transmission in the cultural evolution of harp morphology across Africa, despite the limited contribution of several tested characters. Additionally, a comparison with previous research reveals that characters coding decorations exert a minimal influence on the vertical evolution of these musical instruments. These findings provide valuable insights into the cultural evolution of harps on a continental scale, offering a clearer understanding of their diversity and revealing major evolutionary mechanisms.

We investigate and compare the evolution of two aspects of culture, languages and weaving technologies, amongst the Kra-Dai (Tai-Kadai) peoples of southwest China and southeast Asia, using Bayesian Markov-Chain Monte Carlo methods to uncover phylogenies. The results show that languages and looms evolved in related but different ways, and bring some new insights into the diaspora of the Kra-Dai speakers across southeast Asia. We found that the languages and looms used by Hlai speakers of Hainan are outgroups in both linguistic and loom phylogenies, and that the looms used by speakers of closely related languages tend to belong to similar types. However, we also found discrepancies at a deep level between linguistic subgroups and loom types, in particular among widely dispersed South-Western Tai speakers, and we discuss possible reasons for this.

Several hypotheses are employed to describe the fluctuating motions within nozzles and to analytically predict combustion noise generation mechanisms. One of these assumptions is that of a calorifically perfect gas mixture, where $c_p$ is constant. Nonetheless, a realistic flow rather encompasses heat capacities $c_p$ that vary with temperature, i.e. $c_p = c_p(T)$, such that the mixture is called thermally perfect. The influence of the mixture assumptions on noise generation mechanisms is re-examined in this paper. To do so, the quasi one-dimensional Euler equations for multi-species, isentropic and non-reactive flow are considered within the nozzle. Their linearisation yields a new prediction model in addition to showing a new entropy-to-entropy coupling mechanism. Relying on either the assumption of low frequencies or the Magnus’ expansion methodology, two analytical solutions are derived and studied. Validation of these two prediction models is then provided relying on unsteady simulations of axisymmetric nozzles with superimposed incident waves. To generalise previous results, parametric studies are performed considering various nozzle flow geometries. Variations of up to $10\,\,\%$ are exhibited in a choked flow nozzle between the two mixtures, especially for the indirect entropy noise and the entropy-to-entropy transmission moduli.

Recent investigations in north-west Arabia have revealed that many major oases in the region were enclosed by a network of monumental walls. Confirmation of four newly identified walled oases demonstrates that this Walled Oases Complex had a substantial impact on long-term socioeconomic development in the region.

The documentation of sound art installation has received scant research attention. This ARTICLE investigates the sensory experience of spatial audio recordings of two sound art installations: Écosystème(s) by Estelle Schorpp and Générateur Stochastique by Jean-Pierre Gauthier. Interactive listening sessions WERE CONDUCTED with participants from different fields of expertise: sound artists, sound engineers, new media and sound art curators, and new media and sound art conservators. Listening sessions were followed by semi-structured interviews questioning the selection of significant positions in time and space in the recordings. The analysis revealed a broad range of listening strategies which expand the literature on documentation frameworks. This research shows the potential for methodologically including the sensory experience in the documentation of sound art installations and discusses the use of spatial recording as a tool for the specification of documentation in a multi-expertise context.

Japan Focus introduction. China's share in international trade more than tripled from less than 2% in 1985 to about 7% in 2005. By 2004, China was the world's third largest exporter and it is expected to become the leader by the beginning of the next decade. Gaulier, Lemoine and Ünal-Kesenci provide new perspective on China's surge and its repercussions for the restructuring of Asian and world economy and trade.

This article delves into the dynamics of inviscid annular supersonic jets, akin to those exiting converging–diverging nozzles in over-expanded regimes. It focuses on the first azimuthal Fourier mode of flow fluctuations and examines their behaviour with varying mixing layer parameters and expansion regimes. The study reveals that two unstable Kelvin–Helmholtz waves exist in all cases, with the outer-layer wave being more unstable due to differences in the velocity gradient. The inner-layer wave is more sensitive to changes in base flow and extends beyond the jet, potentially contributing to nozzle resonances. The article also investigates upstream propagating guided-jet modes, which are found to be robust and not highly sensitive to changes in base flow, which makes them essential for understanding jet dynamics. A simplified model is used to obtain ideal base flows but with realistic shape in order to study the effects of varying nozzle pressure ratios on the dynamics of the waves supported by the jet.

This work is a numerical study of a transitional shock wave boundary layer interaction (SWBLI). The main goal is to improve our understanding of the well-known low-frequency SWBLI unsteadiness and especially the suspected role of triadic interactions in the underlying physical mechanism. To this end, a direct numerical simulation is performed using a high-order finite-volume scheme equipped with a suitable shock capturing procedure. The resulting database is then extensively post-processed in order to extract the main dynamical features of the interaction zone dynamics (involved characteristic frequencies, characteristics of the vortical structures, etc.). The dynamical organisation and space–time evolution of the flow at dominant frequencies are then further characterised by mean of an spectral proper orthogonal decomposition analysis. In order to study the role of triadic interactions occurring in the interaction region, a bispectral mode decomposition analysis is applied to the database. It allows us to extract the significant triadic interactions, their location and the resulting physical spatial modes. Strong triadic interactions are detected in the downstream part of the separation bubble whose role on the low-frequency unsteadiness is characterised. All the results of the various analyses are then discussed and integrated to formulate a possible mechanism fuelling low-frequency SWBLI unsteadiness.

Ichthyosauria, Plesiosauria, and Metriorhynchidae were apex predators in Mesozoic oceanic trophic networks. Previous stable oxygen isotope studies suggested that several taxa belonging to these groups were endothermic and that some of them were homeothermic organisms. However, these conclusions remain contentious owing to the associated uncertainties regarding the δ18O value and oxygen isotope fractionation relative to environmental seawater. Here, we present new bioapatite phosphate δ18O values (δ18Op) of Ichthyosauria, Plesiosauria, and Metriorhynchidae (Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous) recovered from mid- to high paleolatitudes to better constrain their thermophysiology and investigate the presence of regional heterothermies. The intraskeletal δ18Op variability failed to reveal distinct heterothermic patterns within any of the specimens, indicating either intrabody temperature homogeneity or an overriding diagenetic overprint of the original biological δ18Op bone record. Body temperature estimates have been reassessed from new and published δ18Op values of well-preserved isolated teeth, recently revised Mesozoic latitudinal δ18O oceanic gradients, and 18O-enrichment factors of fully aquatic air-breathing vertebrates. Our results confirm that Ichthyosauria were homeothermic endotherms (31°C to 41°C), while Plesiosauria were likely poikilothermic endotherms (27°C to 34°C). The new body temperature estimates of the Metriorhynchidae (25°C to 32°C) closely follow ambient temperatures and point to poikilothermic strategy with no or little endothermic ability. These results improve our understanding of Mesozoic marine reptile thermoregulation and indicate that due to their limited body temperature variations, the δ18Op values from Ichthyosauria fossil remains could be used as valuable archives of Mesozoic oceans δ18Osw values that may help improve paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic reconstructions.

Bilinguals use languages strategically and make decisions differently depending on the language context. Here, we explored whether verbal feedback modulates language use and risk-taking in bilinguals engaged in a coin-drawing game that incentivises lying. In the game, participants announced bets in Chinese or English, and feedback on the outcome of the current bet was given in the same language. They selected Chinese over English after receiving positive feedback in Chinese, and no language difference was found when feedback was provided in English. They also tended to take more risks after receiving positive than negative feedback. Furthermore, participants were more likely to switch from one language to the other following negative feedback as compared to positive feedback, and when telling the truth, they were faster after negative than positive feedback. Thus, the language in which bilinguals receive feedback constrains language use, which may have implications for understanding interactions in multilingual communities.

The gift-exchange game is a form of sequential prisoner's dilemma, developed by Fehr et al. (1993), and popularized in a series of papers by Ernst Fehr and co-authors. While the European studies typically feature a high degree of gift exchange, the few U.S. studies provide some conflicting results. We find that the degree of gift exchange is surprisingly sensitive to an apparently innocuous change—whether or not a comprehensive payoff table is provided in the instructions. We also find significant and substantial time trends in responder behavior.