We report the discovery of an intervening 21 cm absorption line at z = 0.882 towards the z = 1.284 quasar PKS 0405–385, identified in the First Large Absorption Survey in H i (FLASH). This quasar once displayed the most rapid known intraday variability at radio frequencies, from which it earned the title of ‘the smallest radio quasar’. Although its size was revised upwards soon after based on updated scattering theory, PKS 0405–385 remains an important probe of Galactic plasma, and now also of intervening gas discovered through H i absorption. We present new long-slit spectroscopy spanning both PKS 0405–385 and the candidate host of the intervening H i gas. We identify Mg ii and Fe ii absorption lines in this spectrum consistent with the redshift of the intervening H i, as well as two additional, independent metal-line systems at z = 0.907 and z = 0.966, but we cannot accurately pinpoint the host(s) of this intervening gas in current data. We revisit the radio variability of PKS 0405–385 in light of advances in scintillation theory, as well as extended monitoring with the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Australian SKA Pathfinder, and find a revised linear size ≥ 0.3 pc, but no new evidence of repeating intraday variability.

This study examined the variability of language profiles in Spanish–English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). The data included 529 children between the ages of 5 and 10 years. Eighty-eight of these children were identified as having DLD. A latent profile analysis was conducted based on children’s morphosyntax and semantics performance in Spanish and English. The optimal model identified five different profiles, illustrating the heterogeneity in bilingual development. Children with DLD were observed across all profiles, but most were classified in the only two profiles where lower morphosyntax than semantic performance was observed across languages. These results show the variability in both bilingual children with and without DLD. Additionally, the hallmark deficit of DLD in morphosyntax was confirmed, with the morphological weakness being observed in each of the bilingual children’s languages. Children’s background factors (age, maternal education and language exposure) were associated with profile characteristics.

The First Large Absorption Survey in H i (FLASH) is a large-area radio survey for neutral hydrogen in and around galaxies in the intermediate redshift range $0.4\lt z\lt1.0$, using the 21-cm H i absorption line as a probe of cold neutral gas. The survey uses the ASKAP radio telescope and will cover 24,000 deg$^2$ of sky over the next five years. FLASH breaks new ground in two ways – it is the first large H i absorption survey to be carried out without any optical preselection of targets, and we use an automated Bayesian line-finding tool to search through large datasets and assign a statistical significance to potential line detections. Two Pilot Surveys, covering around 3000 deg$^2$ of sky, were carried out in 2019-22 to test and verify the strategy for the full FLASH survey. The processed data products from these Pilot Surveys (spectral-line cubes, continuum images, and catalogues) are public and available online. In this paper, we describe the FLASH spectral-line and continuum data products and discuss the quality of the H i spectra and the completeness of our automated line search. Finally, we present a set of 30 new H i absorption lines that were robustly detected in the Pilot Surveys, almost doubling the number of known H i absorption systems at $0.4\lt z\lt1$. The detected lines span a wide range in H i optical depth, including three lines with a peak optical depth $\tau\gt1$, and appear to be a mixture of intervening and associated systems. Interestingly, around two-thirds of the lines found in this untargeted sample are detected against sources with a peaked-spectrum radio continuum, which are only a minor (5–20%) fraction of the overall radio-source population. The detection rate for H i absorption lines in the Pilot Surveys (0.3 to 0.5 lines per 40 deg$^2$ ASKAP field) is a factor of two below the expected value. One possible reason for this is the presence of a range of spectral-line artefacts in the Pilot Survey data that have now been mitigated and are not expected to recur in the full FLASH survey. A future paper in this series will discuss the host galaxies of the H i absorption systems identified here.

Substance use and substance use disorders run in families. While it has long been recognized that the etiology of substance use behaviors and disorders involves a combination of genetic and environmental factors, two key questions remain largely unanswered: (1) the intergenerational transmission through which these genetic predispositions are passed from parents to children, and (2) the molecular mechanisms linking genetic variants to substance use behaviors and disorders. This article aims to provide a comprehensive conceptual framework and methodological approach for investigating the intergenerational transmission of substance use behaviors and disorders, by integrating genetic nurture analysis, gene expression imputation, and weighted gene co-expression network analysis. We also additionally describe two longitudinal cohorts — the Brisbane Longitudinal Twin Study in Australia and the Lifelines Cohort Study in the Netherlands. By applying the methodological framework to these two unique datasets, our future research will explore the complex interplay between genetic factors, gene expression, and environmental influences on substance use behaviors and disorders across different life stages and populations.

Research on nutraceutical and dietary interventions in psychiatry has grown substantially, but progress is hindered by methodological inconsistencies and limited reporting standards. To address this, the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research presents the first guidelines on clinical trial design, conduct, and reporting for future clinical trials in this area. Recommendations were developed using a Delphi process including eighteen researchers with considerable clinical trial expertise and experience in either methodology, nutraceutical, or dietary interventions in psychiatry. These guidelines provide forty-nine recommendations for clinical trial design and outcomes, five for trial reporting, and seven for future research priorities. The recommendations included in these guidelines are designed to inform both nutraceutical and dietary clinical trial interventions in Nutritional Psychiatry. Common themes include an emphasis on the importance of a multidisciplinary research team and integration of co-design processes into the conduct and design of clinical research, methods to improve transparency and replicability of trial outcomes, and measures to address common biases in nutrition trials. Furthermore, we provide recommendations for future research including examining a greater variety of nutraceutical and dietary interventions, scalable delivery models, effectiveness and implementation studies, and the need to investigate these interventions in the prevention and management of less studied psychiatric conditions (e.g. schizophrenia and bipolar disorder). Recommendations included within these guidelines are intended to improve the rigor and clinical relevance of ongoing and future clinical trials in Nutritional Psychiatry.

Bird strike accidents are critical threats for aviation safety especially in airport airspaces. Environment friendly solutions are preferred for wildlife managements to achieve harmonic coexistence between airports and surrounding environments. Avian radar systems are the most effective remote sensing approach for long-range and all-weather birds monitoring. Massive historical avian radar datasets and other data sources provide an opportunity to explore relevance between bird behaviour and environments. This paper proposes a bird behaviour characterisation and prediction method to reveal bird behaviour dependency with weather parameters. Bird behaviours are modelled as indices and grades from selected avian radar datasets. Weather dependence are studied from single parameter to multivariable parameters. The random forest model is selected as a behaviour grade prediction model taking four weather parameters as system inputs. Radar datasets for diurnal and nocturnal birds are constructed to validate their behaviour characters and prediction performance, respectively. Experiment results verify the feasibility of bird behaviour prediction using weather parameters, but also reflect some insufficiencies within the proposed method. Data sufficiency and severe weather considerations are also discussed to analyse their impact on prediction accuracy. A more comprehensive prediction model with standardised avian radar data quality and enhanced weather information accuracy is promising to further elevate the application significance of the proposed method.

Background: The fragility index (FI) is the minimum number of patients whose status would have to change from a nonevent to an event to turn a statistically significant result to a non-significant result. We used this to measure the robustness of trials comparing carotid endarterectomy (CEA) to carotid artery stenting (CAS). Methods: A search was conducted in MEDLINE, Embase, and PubMed on RCTs comparing CEA to CAS. The trials need to have statistically significant results and dichotomous primary endpoints to be included. Results: Our literature search identified 10 RCTs which included 9382 patients (4734 CEA, 4648 CAS). The primary end points of all included trials favoured CEA over CAS. The median FI was 9.5 (interquartile range 2.25 - 21.25). All of the studies that reported lost-to-follow-up (LTFU) had LTFU greater than its fragility index, which raises concern that the missing data could change the results of the trial from statistically significant to statistically insignificant. Conclusions: A small number of events (FI, median 9.5) were required to render the results of carotid artery stenosis RCTs comparing CEA to CAS statistically insignificant. All of the studies that reported LTFU had LTFU greater than its fragility index.

Triploid, parthenogenetic forms of the lungfluke, Paragonimus westermani, occur in Japan, Korea and China. The origin(s) of triploidy has been debated over the years. Sequences of two regions in the mitochondrial DNA, i.e. partial lrRNA (16S), and a portion of the non-coding region, were obtained from natural populations of P. westermani. All triploid individuals (Japan, Korea, China) and a single tetraploid individual (China) had identical sequences in the 16S region studied. Some sequence variation was observed among diploids, with those from Taiwan being distinct from the remainder. Both neighbour joining and parsimony trees using the 16S region placed diploid individuals from southwestern Japan close to the triploids and the tetraploid. The fragment amplified from the mitochondrial non-coding region showed dimorphism. One form (type A) consisted of 239bp comprising two identical tracts of 70bp separated by a tract of 93bp. The second form (Type B) consisted of only a single 70bp tract. All diploid individuals from Taiwan, China and Korea possessed type A, while those from Japan were polymorphic; individuals from Oita and Hyogo had type B, those from Chiba had type A, but both types were found in Mie. On the other hand, all of the triploid individuals and two tetraploid individuals possessed type B. Both the form present in the non-coding region and the 16S sequence suggest an affinity between a south-eastern group of diploid populations in Japan and the triploid form. A possible mechanism responsible for the origin of the triploid is discussed.

The lung fluke, Paragonimus westermani (Kerbert, 1878), is widely distributed in Asia, and exhibits much variation in its biological properties. Previous phylogenetic studies using DNA sequences have demonstrated that samples from north-east Asia form a tight group distinct from samples from south Asia (Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia). Among countries from the latter region, considerable molecular diversity was observed. This was investigated further using additional DNA sequences (partial mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) and the second internal transcribed spacer of the nuclear ribosomal gene repeat (ITS2)) from additional samples of P. westermani. Phylogenies inferred from these again found three or four groups within P. westermani, depending on the method of analysis. Populations of P. westermani from north-east Asia use snail hosts of the family Pleuroceridae and differ in other biological properties from populations in south Asia (that use snail hosts of the family Thiaridae). It is considered that the populations we sampled can be divided into two species, one in north-east Asia and the other in south Asia.

The surface excesses of Na and Cl on synthetic imogolite and allophanes with varying Al/Si molar ratios in 0.10 M and 0.01 M NaCl solutions were determined using 22Na and 36Cl as ion probes. The point of zero net charge (PZNC) values ranged from 4.1 to 8.4, increasing with the Al/Si molar ratio for the allophanes, and was highest for imogolite (Al/Si = 2.01). The PZNC values were significantly lower than the point of zero charge (PZC) values previously determined by microelectrophoresis for the same material, indicating that Na resided within the shear plane to a greater extent than Cl. The PZNC values of allophanes were lower than their PZSE values, indicating that permanent charge existed in allophanes, and increased as Al/Si decreased. Conversely, the PZNC of imogolite was higher than its point of zero salt effect (PZSE) determined by potentiometric titration. Adsorption of Cl on imogolite from 0.1 and 0.01 M NaCl solutions below pH 8.4 and of Na from 0.1 M NaCl solutions between pH 5 and 8.4 exceeded the proton charge determined by potentiometric titration. There was no direct evidence of permanent charge in imogolite and excess Cl adsorption could not be entirely explained by simultaneous intercalation of Na and Cl. Isomorphic substitution of Al in tetrahedral sites was shown to increase with decreasing Al/Si by 27Al high-resolution solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra of allophanes, and was absent in imogolite. The chemical shifts of Al(4) and Al(6) were similar in allophanes (63.0–64.7 ppm and 6.1–7.8 ppm, respectively) and the chemical shift of Al(6) was 9.4 in imogolite.

Alcohol use is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. We examined the interactive effects between genome-wide polygenic risk scores for alcohol use (alc-PRS) and social support in relation to alcohol use among European American (EA) and African American (AA) adults across sex and developmental stages (emerging adulthood, young adulthood, and middle adulthood). Data were drawn from 4,011 EA and 1,274 AA adults from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism who were between ages 18–65 and had ever used alcohol. Participants completed the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism and provided saliva or blood samples for genotyping. Results indicated that social support from friends, but not family, moderated the association between alc-PRS and alcohol use among EAs and AAs (only in middle adulthood for AAs); alc-PRS was associated with higher levels of alcohol use when friend support was low, but not when friend support was high. Associations were similar across sex but differed across developmental stages. Findings support the important role of social support from friends in buffering genetic risk for alcohol use among EA and AA adults and highlight the need to consider developmental changes in the role of social support in relation to alcohol use.

Vortex rings are critical for thrust production underwater. In the ocean, self-propelled mesozooplankton generate vortices while swimming within a weakly stratified fluid. While large-scale biogenic transport has been observed during vertical migration in the wild and lab experiments, little focus has been given to the evolution of induced vortex rings as a function of their propagation direction relative to the density gradient. In this study, the evolution of an isolated vortex ring crossing the interface of a stable two-layer system is examined as a function of its translation direction with respect to gravity. The vortex ring size and position are visualized using planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) and the induced vorticity field derived from particle image velocimetry (PIV) is examined. It is found that the production of baroclinic vorticity significantly affects the propagation of vortex rings crossing the density interface. As a result, any expected symmetry between vortex rings travelling from dense to light fluids and from light to dense fluids breaks down. In turn, the maximum penetration depth of the vortex ring occurs in the case in which the vortex propagates against the density gradient due to the misalignment of the pressure and density gradients. Our results have far-reaching implications for the characterization of local ecosystems in marine environments.

Avian radar systems are effective for wide-area bird detection and tracking, but application significances need further exploration. Existing radar data mining methods provide long-term functionalities, but they are problematic for bird activity modelling especially in temporal domain. This paper complements this insufficiency by introducing a temporal bird activity extraction and interpretation method. The bird behaviour is quantified as the activity degree which integrates intensity and uncertainty characters with an entropy weighing algorithm. The method is applicable in multiple temporal scales. Historical radar dataset from a system deployed in an airport is adopted for verification. Temporal characters demonstrate good consistency with understandings from local observers and ornithologists. Daily commuting and roosting characters of local birds are well reflected, evening bat activities are also extracted. Night migration activities are demonstrated clearly. Results indicate the proposed method is effective in temporal bird activity modelling and interpretation. Its integration with bird strike risk models might be more useful for airport safety management with wildlife interference.

Increased access to defensible material wealth is hypothesised to escalate inequality. Market integration, which creates novel opportunities in cash economies, provides a means of testing this hypothesis. Using demographic data collected from 505 households among the matrilineal and patrilineal Mosuo in 2017, we test whether market integration is associated with increased material wealth, whether increased material wealth is associated with wealth inequality, and whether being in a matrilineal vs. patrilineal kinship system alters the relationship between wealth and inequality. We find evidence that market integration, measured as distance to the nearest source of tourism and primary source of household income, is associated with increased household income and ‘modern’ asset value. Both village-level market integration and mean asset value were associated negatively, rather than positively, with inequality, contrary to predictions. Finally, income, modern wealth and inequality were higher in matrilineal communities that were located closer to the centre of tourism and where tourism has long provided a relatively stable source of income. However, we also observed exacerbated inequality with increasing farm animal value in patriliny. We conclude that the forces affecting wealth and inequality depend on local context and that the importance of local institutions is obscured by aggregate statistics drawn from modern nation states.

In this special issue, we have collected 13 articles that offer new vantage points for research on dynamic capabilities. We offer a selection of thought-provoking papers that advance current thinking on dynamic capabilities and provide directions for new inquiries using the dynamic capability framework. The microfoundations of dynamic capabilities have increasingly received interest. This special issue offers a range of conceptual methodological approaches to deepen our understanding of the issues surrounding the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities.