The new damselfly family Shundeagrionidae is proposed for Shundeagrion cheni n. gen. n. sp. from the Paleocene of the Sanshui Basin, South China. This new family is unique in a combination of wing venation characters that are separately encountered in other extant and fossil groups. Together with the extinct groups Dysagrionidae, Sieblosiidae, Whetwhetaksidae, Menatlestidae, Latibasaliidae, Euarchistigmatinae, and Eodysagrioninae, the Shundeagrionidae n. fam. is the eighth major group of Paleogene damselflies with large wings, very long postnodal area, and nodus relatively basally recessed. It confirms that an important diversification occurred worldwide among the damselflies during the Paleocene and Eocene. These relatively ancient groups were progressively replaced by the modern families of large calopterygoid damselflies during the Oligocene and the Miocene, leading to the modern faunas.

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Geochemical and 40Ar/39Ar age analyses of a new exposure of a previously destroyed volcanic ash locality within the Airport Terrace above the Middle Popo Agie River in Lander, Wyoming, allows us to re-establish it as Lava Creek A from the last major eruption of the Yellowstone caldera, with a weighted mean age of 628.2 ± 4.1 ka. Confirmation of the ash as Lava Creek more firmly establishes correlation of the terrace with the WR-7 terraces along the Wind River that contain Lava Creek ash and with outwash correlated to the Sacagawea Ridge type moraine at Dinwoody Lakes. By projecting the Airport Terrace gradient upstream, we show that it grades to the previously mapped terminus of the Sacagawea Ridge valley glacier. Additionally, 10Be boulder-exposure ages of ca. 521, ca. 554, and ca. 556 ka from Sacagawea Ridge moraines in nearby canyons support more closely constraining the Sacagawea Ridge glaciation here to Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 16, which corresponds with recent evidence for an advance of the Laurentide Ice Sheet at this time in the U.S. midcontinent.

This study aims to illustrate a process approach for the calculation of minimum dietary diversity (MDD) indicators for interpretation of dietary diversity (DD) scores and to validate the MDD indicator as a proxy for adequate micronutrient intake using an existing dataset for 2 to younger than 10-year-old South African children. The DD scores were derived from nine food groups, adjusted from the ten food groups for women of reproductive age by combining pulses, nuts and seeds. Three reference methods were used to inspect micronutrient adequacy, namely the mean adequacy ratio and the mean probability of adequacy (MPA) using a single 24-h recall, and the MPA derived from usual intake using more than one 24-hour recall in a sub-sample. Adequacy threshold levels and candidate MDD indicators were inspected and validated using several performance criteria. Results show that the mean and median DD scores were 3·6 and 3·1, respectively. The resulting MDD indicators varied between 3 and 4 out of nine food groups favouring the identification of children with adequate and inadequate intake, respectively, depending on the method used and the age group. Our results and those from others furthermore support a simplified method or ‘rule of thumb’ for the determination of an MDD indicator to establish the integer values below and above the median of the DD scores. We conclude that finding a valid MDD indicator can be done using different methodologies and that results underscore the potential of a simplified method for determining an MDD indicator.

Maladaptive daydreaming is a distinct syndrome in which the main symptom is excessive vivid fantasising that causes clinically significant distress and functional impairment in academic, vocational and social domains. Unlike normal daydreaming, maladaptive daydreaming is persistent, compulsive and detrimental to one’s life. It involves detachment from reality in favour of intense emotional engagement with alternative realities and often includes specific features such as psychomotor stereotypies (e.g. pacing in circles, jumping or shaking one’s hands), mouthing dialogues, facial gestures or enacting fantasy events. Comorbidity is common, but existing disorders do not account for the phenomenology of the symptoms. Whereas non-specific therapy is ineffective, targeted treatment seems promising. Thus, we propose that maladaptive daydreaming be considered a formal syndrome in psychiatric taxonomies, positioned within the dissociative disorders category. Maladaptive daydreaming satisfactorily meets criteria for conceptualisation as a psychiatric syndrome, including reliable discrimination from other disorders and solid interrater agreement. It involves significant dissociative aspects, such as disconnection from perception, behaviour and sense of self, and has some commonalities with but is not subsumed under existing dissociative disorders. Formal recognition of maladaptive daydreaming as a dissociative disorder will encourage awareness of a growing problem and spur theoretical, research and clinical developments.

Recent interest in reducing budget deficits raises questions regarding the impact on legislative bargaining of cuts versus increases in government spending. Using an experimental design where the outcomes are theoretically isomorphic results in significant differences in bargaining outcomes: There are longer delays in reaching agreement with cuts than with increases, along with which legislative types get their proposals passed. These results can be attributed to a change in agents’ reference point in conjunction with differential responses to gains versus losses.

The asymptotic normal distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator of Cronbach's alpha (under normality) is derived for the case when no assumptions are made about the covariances among items. The asymptotic distribution is also considered for the special case of compound symmetry and compared to the exact distribution.

Aviation passenger screening has been used worldwide to mitigate the translocation risk of SARS-CoV-2. We present a model that evaluates factors in screening strategies used in air travel and assess their relative sensitivity and importance in identifying infectious passengers. We use adapted Monte Carlo simulations to produce hypothetical disease timelines for the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 for travelling passengers. Screening strategy factors assessed include having one or two RT-PCR and/or antigen tests prior to departure and/or post-arrival, and quarantine length and compliance upon arrival. One or more post-arrival tests and high quarantine compliance were the most important factors in reducing pathogen translocation. Screening that combines quarantine and post-arrival testing can shorten the length of quarantine for travelers, and variability and mean testing sensitivity in post-arrival RT-PCR and antigen tests decrease and increase with the greater time between the first and second post-arrival test, respectively. This study provides insight into the role various screening strategy factors have in preventing the translocation of infectious diseases and a flexible framework adaptable to other existing or emerging diseases. Such findings may help in public health policy and decision-making in present and future evidence-based practices for passenger screening and pandemic preparedness.

Fossils are more and more used in phylogenetic evolutionary studies either for clade calibration, or as terminals in a dataset including morphological characters. The strength of these methodological advances relies however on the quality and completeness of the fossil record. For crickets (Insecta, Orthoptera, Gryllidea), few ancient (pre-Cenozoic) well-preserved fossils are known, except for isolated wings often classified in purely fossil groups and a few fossils found in Cretaceous amber. Here, we present two remarkable fossils from mid-Cretaceous amber of France, that were imaged using X-ray synchrotron microtomography and exhibit an exquisite preservation allowing description with a precision similar to that of extant taxa. Palaeonemobius occidentalis Laurent and Desutter-Grandcolas, gen. nov., sp. nov. and Picogryllus carentonensis Josse and Desutter-Grandcolas, gen. nov., sp. nov. are the oldest representatives of the Nemobiinae and Podoscirtinae subfamilies of the Trigonidiidae and Oecanthidae families respectively. P. carentonensis Josse and Desutter-Grandcolas, gen. nov., sp. nov. is also the smallest adult male with a full stridulatory apparatus ever documented in crickets (body length 3.3 mm), and the first taxon of the cricket clade for which male genitalia can be partly described. We discuss the significance of Cretaceous fossils of crickets for future evolutionary studies of this clade.

The Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is one of the most important Cenozoic climatic events shaping modern biodiversity, yet reconstructions of its palaeobiomes remain controversial. Here we describe Gesomyrmex gallicus sp. nov., a new, extinct species of the ant genus Gesomyrmex Mayr, 1868, based on minor and major workers preserved in the early Eocene amber of Oise, France. Although there are only seven known extant species in the genus, all confined to warm and humid forests of SE Asia, the fossil record of Gesomyrmex indicates that the genus once radiated across Eurasia. The new species therefore provides direct evidence that this radiation likely co-occurred with the PETM. This observation constrains palaeoclimatic reconstructions of the Early Eocene by requiring the presence of an extensive, homogeneous and interconnected rainforest-like biome across palaeo-Eurasia, a scenario otherwise corroborated by pollen assemblages. The phases of regression of warm and humid forests and the widening of dry biomes probably occurred later during the Eocene, in between hyperthermals, and were probably less extensive than some computer models predicted.

Sub-Antarctic Marion Island's glacial history has acted as a control on abiotic terrestrial processes and the colonization and distribution of biotic species found on the island today. Recent chronological studies have shown an early deglaciation of the island and identified new geomorphological features associated with past ice dynamics. These permit a reassessment of ice extent during and after the island's last local glacial maximum. In this paper, we provide a revised reconstruction of the island's palaeo-ice extent by using a geomorphology-based approach to delineate palaeo-ice margins and demarcate possible glacial basins. The model presented here provides the needed spatial context for future studies on the variations in the distribution of species (e.g. microorganisms and plant species) and abiotic processes and forms (e.g. soil development and periglacial landforms). In addition, it highlights areas that require improved geophysical assessment in order to produce a more complete island-scale reconstruction of former ice extents (e.g. the west coast).

Terrestrial fossils from the Palaeogene of Tibet could help us to better understand the past climate and environment in this area. We herein report a new late Eocene non-marine fossil site from southern Nima Basin, central Tibet, SW China, including abundant insects and fishes. These fossils are similar to those from the late Eocene (∼39.5–37 Ma) Lunpola–Nima sediment depo-centres in sharing the dominating aquatic bug Aquarius lunpolaensis and cyprinid fishes. Chalcolestes tibetensis sp. nov., the oldest representative of the modern family Lestidae, is described. Lestidae were previously only recorded in Western Europe, and the oldest records were from the uppermost Eocene of France and the UK. The present discovery demonstrates that Lestidae already had a broad distribution during the Eocene and probably originated much earlier. The recent representatives of Chalcolestes occur in the low-altitude ponds or lakes of Western Palaearctic. Together with the other freshwater fossils in this site, this new discovery indicates a humid climate and low altitude for the Nima Basin and nearby basins in the middle part of the Bangong Nujiang suture zone.