This article interrogates the ways in which two political books written by elites in the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) take different tacks to represent their party as trustworthy, responsible, and competent against the background of the liberal opposition's political difficulties since 2012. Focusing on two books published in the lead-up to the 2021 general election by former Prime Minister Kan Naoto and then-leader of the CDP Edano Yukio, it argues that the liberal opposition parties in Japan are, on top of the more commonly understood institutional pressures, constrained by demands that the narrative is a conventionally satisfying one when crafting claims about their viability as an alternative to government.

Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) children are at high-risk neurodevelopmentally due to the prevalence of infectious disease, nutritional deficiencies and compromised caregiving. However, few mental health screening measures are readily available for general use. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) has been used as a mental health screening measure in the SSA, but its psychometric properties are not well understood. Five hundred and sixty-six mothers completed the SDQ for their 6-year-old children in rural Benin north of Cotonou. These were mothers who had been part of a malarial and intestinal parasite treatment program and micronutrient fortification intervention program during pregnancy for these children. Their study children (N = 519) completed the computerized Tests of Variables of Attention (TOVA-visual) as a performance-based screening assessment of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders. In evaluating the relationship between the SDQ and TOVA, we controlled for maternal risk factors such as depression, poor socioeconomic status and educational level, along with the child’s schooling status. TOVA measures of impulsivity were significantly related to SDQ emotional and hyperactivity/inattention difficulties. TOVA inattention was related to SDQ emotional difficulties. The triangulation of maternal risk factors (e.g., depression), the SDQ and the TOVA can provide effective screening for mental health issues in SSA children.

Magnetic reconnection leads to the formation of island-shaped magnetic structure(s). Due to disagreement between theoretical evaluations of the characteristic reconnection time and observations, it is commonly accepted that the collisionality (or resistivity) is too low to explain magnetic reconnection phenomena in fusion plasmas. Thus, magnetic reconnection still raises many open questions. The work presented here aims to improve the fundamental knowledge about ‘the life of a magnetic island’. Here, in the light of the many works of the last 70 years, a new paradigm for understanding magnetic reconnection in fusion plasmas is proposed. The life of a magnetic island (whatever its scale) follows three phases: the origin, the growth and the saturation. The possible physical mechanisms at play in these three phases will be investigated. First, for the island origin, typical time scales in link with magnetic reconnection will be evaluated for three tokamaks of different sizes (TCV, WEST and JET) to verify if magnetic reconnection is such an unexplained phenomenon in fusion plasmas. Second, for the island drive, the richness of possible mechanisms leading to ‘rapid’ magnetic island growth in fusion devices will be presented for small and large scales. Third comes the island saturation step. Results on the prediction of a large island width at saturation are presented and discussed.

Background: The molecular and epidemiological landscape of C. difficile infection (CDI) has evolved markedly in the last decade; however, limited information is available contrasting differences between adult and pediatric populations. We describe a multicenter study evaluating healthcare-associated (HA) and community-associated (CA) adult and pediatric-CDI identified in the Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program (CNISP) network from 2015 to 2022. Methods: Hospitalized patients with CDI were identified from up to 84 hospitals between 2015–2022 using standardized case definitions. Cases were confirmed by PCR, cultured, and further characterized using ribotyping and E-test. We used two-tailed tests for significance (p≤0.05). Results: Of 30,817 cases reported, 29,245 were adult cases [HA-CDI (73.2%), CA-CDI (26.8%)] and 1,572 were pediatric cases [HA-CDI (77.7%), CA-CDI (22.3%)]. From 2015 to 2022, HA-CDI rates decreased 19.7% (p=0.007) and 29.4% (p=0.004) in adult and pediatric populations, respectively (Figure 1). CA-CDI rates remained relatively stable in the adult population (p=0.797), while decreasing 60.7% in the pediatric population (p=0.013). Median ages of adult and pediatric patients were 70 (interquartile range (IQR), 58–80) and seven (IQR, 3–13) years, respectively. Thirty-day all-cause mortality was significantly higher among adult vs. Pediatric CDI patients (11.0% vs 1.4%, p < 0.0001). No significant differences in other severe outcomes were found. Ribotyping and susceptibility data were available for 4,620 samples: 3,558 adult (77.0%) and 1,062 pediatric (23.0%). The predominant adult and pediatric ribotypes (RT) were 106 (12.2/16.2%), 027 (11.4/3.2%), and 014 (8.8/8.2%). Overall, RT027 prevalence significantly decreased from 17.9% in 2015 to 3.2% in 2022 (p=0.003), while RT106 increased from 8.5% to 14.4%. Resistance rates among adult and pediatric isolates were similar for all antimicrobials tested except moxifloxacin (16.2% vs. 6.2%, p < 0.0001, respectively). Adult moxifloxacin resistance decreased from 30% to 6.3% from 2015 to 2022 (p=0.006). Adults with moxifloxacin-resistant CDI were older (median: 74 vs. 69 years, p < 0.001) and had higher thirty-day all-cause mortality (13% vs. 9.8%, p=0.041) and recurrence (10% vs. 5.7%, p < 0.001) compared to those with moxifloxacin non-resistant CDI, while these trends were not observed in pediatric patients. Among RT027 strains, moxifloxacin resistance decreased from 91.0% in 2015 to 7.1% in 2022. There was one metronidazole-resistant pediatric sample in 2018 and no resistance to vancomycin or tigecycline in either population. Conclusion: We have found differences in the epidemiological and molecular characteristics of adult and pediatric CDI, with higher thirty-day all-cause mortality among adults. Overall, RT106 has replaced RT027 as the predominant ribotype with a concomitant decrease in fluoroquinolone resistance.

The numerous testaments on papyrus provide a valuable basis for an investigation of legal language around διαθήκη in the Pauline letters. Of particular importance is the ancient practice of revoking wills, which I consider to be the legal frame of reference for the recipients of the Pauline letters to grasp expressions like καινὴ/παλαιὰ διαθήκη. In the Corinthian correspondence the conformity to the current legal practice is evident, but in Galatians Paul turns the whole procedure upside down, manipulating in the construction of his argument not only the practice of testamentary cancellation, but also the traditional connection of Abraham with circumcision. We are compelled to a text-internal solution of the problem in Gal 3.15–17 by the fact that the papyrological evidence shows clearly that no other type of document than the ordinary revocable διαθήκαι can be taken into consideration. This approach is not compilatory, as it is often the case when dealing with documentary papyri applied to New Testament texts, but heuristic, with the purpose of elaborating new exegetical insights in old controversies.

Over the last decade, substantial progress has been made in understanding the topology of quasi-two-dimensional (2-D) non-equilibrium fluid flows driven by ATP-powered microtubules and microorganisms. By contrast, the topology of three-dimensional (3-D) active fluid flows still poses interesting open questions. Here, we study the topology of a spherically confined active flow using 3-D direct numerical simulations of generalized Navier–Stokes (GNS) equations at the scale of typical microfluidic experiments. Consistent with earlier results for unbounded periodic domains, our simulations confirm the formation of Beltrami-like bulk flows with spontaneously broken chiral symmetry in this model. Furthermore, by leveraging fast methods to compute linking numbers, we explicitly connect this chiral symmetry breaking to the entanglement statistics of vortex lines. We observe that the mean of linking number distribution converges to the global helicity, consistent with the asymptotic result by Arnold [In Vladimir I. Arnold – Collected Works (ed. A.B. Givental, B.A. Khesin, A.N. Varchenko, V.A. Vassiliev & O.Y. Viro), pp. 357–375. Springer]. Additionally, we characterize the rate of convergence of this measure with respect to the number and length of observed vortex lines, and examine higher moments of the distribution. We find that the full distribution is well described by a k-Gamma distribution, in agreement with an entropic argument. Beyond active suspensions, the tools for the topological characterization of 3-D vector fields developed here are applicable to any solenoidal field whose curl is tangent to or cancels at the boundaries of a simply connected domain.

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has been used to characterize the bonding state of Cu2+, Si4+, Al3+, and O2− ions in structural (octahedral and interlamellar) or adsorbed position in phyllosilicates. Five smectites, 5 kaolinites, and 1 chrysocolla with Cu(II) in known positions (octahedral, interlamellar, or surface adsorbed) have been investigated. Their spectra were compared with those of pure Cu metal and of pure Cu(I) and Cu(II) oxides.

The line for Cu 2p3/2 (binding energy of 935.4 eV) and well-defined shake-up lines (binding energy of about 943 eV) observed after 1 hr of X-ray irradiation are characteristic of Cu(II) in phyllosilicate octahedral sites. But due to the photoreduction effect, they show Cu(I) oxidation states (Cu 2p3/2, binding energy of 933.2 eV and near absence of shake-up lines) for the phyllosilicates with adsorbed Cu or in interlamellar positions. The kinetics of photoreduction distinguishes octahedral from interlamellar positions, and the latter from a surface adsorbed position. The enlargement of the FWHM (full width at half maximum) of XPS lines has been used to describe crystallochemical parameters linked to local ordering around the probe cations. Crystallization produces decreasing O 1 s and Cu 2p (octahedral cation) line widths but has no effect on the Si 2p (tetrahedral cation) line width. The enlargement of FWHM for all ion lines of the lattice is linked to the nature (Cu > Mg > Al) and the number and amount of structural cations in the phyllosilicates.

Two clay minerals, a dioctahedral, Na-montmorillonite from Wyoming and a trioctahedral, synthetic Na-laponite, were exchanged by cupric (Cu(II)) ions and subsequently heated at 100 °C intervals up to 500 °C. The resulting materials were analyzed by chemical analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), cation exchange capacity (CEC) measurements, combined thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TGA-DTA), infrared (IR) spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Montmorillonite exhibits a well-known Hoffmann-Klemen effect in that, when heated, cupric (Cu) ions migrate into the lacunae of the octahedral sheet, where they compensate the negative charge deficit of the clay layer. In the case of laponite, CEC measurements and spectroscopic measurements reveal that Cu ions migrate into the octahedral sheet where they replace Li and Mg ions. After heating at 200 °C, approximately half the interlayer Cu ions are exchanged. The exchange appears to be 1 Cu for 1 Li, resulting in a slight decrease of the negative charge of the layer. After heating at 300 °C, the remaining Cu ions are exchanged by either 1 Mg or 2 Li, which does not result in any further charge reduction. At 400 °C, some of the extracted Mg remigrates into the structure and exchanges some Li (1 Mg for 2 Li). The final product at 400 or 500 °C is then a Li-laponite with Cu(II) in the octahedral sheet.

Children who receive cochlear implants develop spoken language on a protracted timescale. The home environment facilitates speech-language development, yet it is relatively unknown how the environment differs between children with cochlear implants and typical hearing. We matched eighteen preschoolers with implants (31-65 months) to two groups of children with typical hearing: by chronological age and hearing age. Each child completed a long-form, naturalistic audio recording of their home environment (appx. 16 hours/child; >730 hours of observation) to measure adult speech input, child vocal productivity, and caregiver-child interaction. Results showed that children with cochlear implants and typical hearing were exposed to and engaged in similar amounts of spoken language with caregivers. However, the home environment did not reflect developmental stages as closely for children with implants, or predict their speech outcomes as strongly. Home-based speech-language interventions should focus on the unique input-outcome relationships for this group of children with hearing loss.

The current study aimed to investigate the cardiovascular effects of epicatechin, a flavonoid found in green tea and cocoa, in attenuating complications associated with metabolic syndrome in diet-induced obese rats. Male Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats aged 16 weeks were fed either standard rat chow or given a high-fat-high-carbohydrate (HFHC) diet for 20 weeks. Epicatechin treatment (5 mg/kg/d) was administered to a subset of WKY rats commencing at week 8 of the 20 week HFHC feeding period. Body weights, food, water and energy intakes, blood pressure, heart rate and glucose tolerance were measured throughout the treatment period. Oxidative stress and inflammatory markers, lipid levels, cardiac collagen deposition, cardiac electrical function, aortic and mesenteric vessel reactivity were examined after the treatment. Twenty weeks of HFHC feeding in WKY rats resulted in the development of metabolic syndrome indicated by the presence of abdominal obesity, dyslipidaemia, glucose intolerance and increased blood pressure. Epicatechin treatment was found to enhance the oxidative stress status in HFHC groups through an increase in serum nitric oxide levels and a decrease in 8-isoprostane concentrations. Furthermore, WKY-HFHC rats displayed a decrease in IL-6 levels. The lipid profiles in HFHC groups showed improvement, with a decrease in LDL-cholesterol and TAG and an increase in HDL-cholesterol levels observed in WKY-HFHC rats. However, epicatechin was not effective in preventing weight gain, glucose intolerance or hypertension in HFHC fed rats. Overall, the results of this study suggest that epicatechin has the potential to improve the underlying mechanisms associated with metabolic syndrome in obese rats.

This is the first comprehensive publication of the Knaresborough 1864 hoard of copper-alloy vessels and tools. A consideration of the circumstances of the hoard’s discovery, along with a biographical account of Thomas Gott (the man who deposited the hoard in the Yorkshire Museum), for the first time enables a case to be made for a findspot. A consideration of the vessels and other objects establishes the hoard as one of the most unusual assemblages of its kind from late Roman Britain. pXRF analysis of the vessels sheds light on their composition. Finally, a discussion of the hoard places it within the international context of late Roman deposition practices.