In 2023 the Supreme Court of Mauritius cited human rights and public health arguments to strike down a colonial-era law criminalizing consensual same-sex sex. The parliament of Singapore recently did the same through legislative means. Are these aberrations or a shifting global consensus? This article documents a remarkable shift international legal shift regarding LGBTQ+ sexuality. Analysis of laws from 194 countries across multiple years demonstrates a clear, ongoing trend toward decriminalization globally. Where most countries criminalized same-sex sexuality in the 1980s, now two-thirds of countries do not criminalize under law. Additionally, 28 criminalizing countries in 2024 demonstrate a de facto policy of non-enforcement, a milestone towards legal change that all of the countries that have fully decriminalized since 2017 have taken. This has important public health effects, with health law lessons for an era of multiple pandemics. But amidst this trend, the reverse is occurring in some countries, with a counter-trend toward deeper, harsher criminalization of LGBTQ+ sexuality. Case studies of Angola, Singapore, India, Botswana, Mauritius, Cook Islands, Gabon, and Antigua and Barbuda show many politically- and legally-viable pathways to decriminalization and highlight actors in the executive, legislative, and judicial arenas of government and civil society engaged in legal change.

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) shows spatiotemporal heterogeneity in China. A spatiotemporal filtering model was constructed and applied to HFMD data to explore the underlying spatiotemporal structure of the disease and determine the impact of different spatiotemporal weight matrices on the results. HFMD cases and covariate data in East China were collected between 2009 and 2015. The different spatiotemporal weight matrices formed by Rook, K-nearest neighbour (KNN; K = 1), distance, and second-order spatial weight matrices (SO-SWM) with first-order temporal weight matrices in contemporaneous and lagged forms were decomposed, and spatiotemporal filtering model was constructed by selecting eigenvectors according to MC and the AIC. We used MI, standard deviation of the regression coefficients, and five indices (AIC, BIC, DIC, R2, and MSE) to compare the spatiotemporal filtering model with a Bayesian spatiotemporal model. The eigenvectors effectively removed spatial correlation in the model residuals (Moran’s I < 0.2, p > 0.05). The Bayesian spatiotemporal model’s Rook weight matrix outperformed others. The spatiotemporal filtering model with SO-SWM was superior, as shown by lower AIC (92,029.60), BIC (92,681.20), and MSE (418,022.7) values, and higher R2 (0.56) value. All spatiotemporal contemporaneous structures outperformed the lagged structures. Additionally, eigenvector maps from the Rook and SO-SWM closely resembled incidence patterns of HFMD.

Objectives/Goals: Sexual minority populations (SMPs), including lesbian, gay, and bisexual groups, disproportionately encounter discriminatory experiences due to bi/homonegativity and systemic inequities across various social domains. We aim to understand how the neighborhood-level stressors and resilience sources differed across specific groups in SMPs. Methods/Study Population: Utilizing the NIH All of Us’ cloud-based platform, we selected cohorts self-identifying as gay (n  =  9,454), bisexual (n  =  15,284), lesbian (n = 5267), or straight (n  =  349,748). We explored multiple key measures of neighborhood-level stressors (e.g., neighborhood disorder, neighborhood cohesion, and environment index) and resilience sources (e.g., neighbor cohesion, social support), and other factors (e.g., food insecurity, housing insecurity, and housing instability) by their sexual orientations using analysis of variance or Chi-square analyses. Results/Anticipated Results: Our sample comprised 60.8% females and 37.5% males identifying as non-binary or transgender, with an average age of 55.6 years (SD  =  17.1). The racial composition was 56.0% White, 19.4% Black, 18.7% Hispanic, and 5.9% others (e.g., Asian, multiracial). Compared to straight individuals, SMPs reported high neighborhood stressors (e.g., disorder, worse environment) but lower neighborhood-level resilience sources (e.g., social support, cohesion). In addition, bisexual groups reported highest prevalence of housing insecurity (6.7% vs. 2.3%), housing instability (36.0% vs. 19.6%), and food insecurity (26.57% vs. 12.21%). Discussion/Significance of Impact: SMPs, particularly bisexual individuals, face greater neighborhood stressors and fewer resilience sources than their straight counterparts. These findings call for targeted interventions to address these disparities and promote health equity, using large-scale datasets to inform community-based solutions.

Objectives/Goals: Discriminatory experiences within healthcare settings significantly hinder equitable health access for sexual minority groups (SMPs) in the USA. These discriminatory experiences can manifest in various forms (e.g., refusal of care). We aimed to explore different types of discrimination encountered by SMPs in the healthcare settings. Methods/Study Population: This study utilized secondary data from the NIH All of Us Research Program. For this analysis, we selected cohorts self-identifying as gay (n  =  9,454), bisexual (n  =  15,284), lesbian (n  =  5,267), and straight (n  =  349,748), enabling robust comparisons across SMPs and straight individuals. We employed analysis of variance and Chi-square analyses to assess group differences in healthcare discrimination, using key indicators from the Discrimination in Medical Settings Scale. These indicators captured experiences such as being treated with less respect or courtesy and feeling ignored by healthcare providers, providing a comprehensive view of discriminatory encounters in healthcare settings for SMPs. Results/Anticipated Results: Our analyses revealed that bisexual individuals reported the highest levels of healthcare discrimination (mean  =  3.64, SD  =  2.45), followed by lesbians (mean  =  3.37, SD  =  2.47), other SMPs (mean  =  3.36, SD  =  2.53), gay (mean  =  2.69, SD  =  2.47), and straight participants (mean  =  2.60, SD  =  2.42). Among the seven discrimination indicators, the most reported experience was feeling like a doctor or nurse was not listening, with 76.8% of bisexual participants, 72.3% of lesbians, 68.8% of other SMPs, and 56.9% of gay participants reporting this experience. This was followed by reports of being treated with less respect and being treated with less courtesy in healthcare settings. These findings highlight the pervasive nature of healthcare discrimination among SMPs, particularly bisexual individuals. Discussion/Significance of Impact: SMPs experience higher levels of discrimination in healthcare settings compared to their straight counterparts. Our results underscore the urgent need to foster respectful, inclusive healthcare environments and ensure that healthcare providers are adequately trained to address the unique health needs and experiences of SMPs.

Objectives/Goals: Sexual minority populations report a disproportionately high prevalence of alcohol use, often attributed to coping with bi/homonegativity and systemic inequities across various social domains. This study aims to explore alcohol use patterns and associated neighborhood and individual factors among sexual minority populations (SMPs) using data from the NIH All of US dataset. Methods/Study Population: Alcohol use was assessed using the AUDIT-C (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test—Consumption) scale across a sample of 9,454 gay, 15,284 bisexual, 5,267 lesbian, and 349,748 straight participants. The AUDIT-C measured hazardous alcohol use, and logistic regression models were employed to examine its association with neighborhood-level factors (e.g., socioeconomic status, alcohol outlet density) and individual-level factors (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, income, and education) among SMPs. Interaction terms assessed how these relationships varied by sexual orientation. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess the robustness of the findings, including stratified analyses by gender identity and the exclusion of extreme outliers in alcohol use reporting. Results/Anticipated Results: Our analyses revealed that gay participants had the highest AUDIT-C scores (mean  =  3.60, SD  =  2.27), followed by bisexual (mean  =  3.35, SD  =  2.21), other SMPs (mean  =  3.18, SD  =  2.19), lesbian (mean  =  3.04, SD  =  2.08), and straight individuals (mean  =  3.05, SD  =  2.06). Alcohol use was positively associated with neighborhood disorder (β  =  0.12, 95% CI  =  0.07, 0.17), housing insecurity (β  =  0.14, 95% CI  =  0.03, 0.25), and male gender (β  =  0.98, 95% CI  =  0.96, 1.00). In contrast, neighborhood density (β  =  -0.11, 95% CI  =  -0.15, -0.07), food insecurity (β  =  -0.14, 95% CI  =  -0.20, -0.08), being Black, and identifying as bisexual were negatively associated with alcohol use. Sensitivity analyses determined no significant differences among specfic supgroups. Discussion/Significance of Impact: This study highlights important differences in alcohol use across SMPs and emphasizes the influence of neighborhood-level stressors (e.g., disorder and housing insecurity). These findings underscore the need for addressing social and environmental determinants of alcohol use in SMPs to mitigate the negative impacts of alcohol consumption.

Brown dwarfs are failed stars with very low mass (13 to 75 Jupiter mass), and an effective temperature lower than 2500 K. Their mass range is between Jupiter and red dwarfs. Thus, they play a key role in understanding the gap in the mass function between stars and planets. However, due to their faint nature, previous searches are inevitably limited to the solar neighbourhood (20 pc). To improve our knowledge of the low mass part of the initial stellar mass function and the star formation history of the MilkyWay, it is crucial to find more distant brown dwarfs. Using JamesWebb Space Telescope (JWST) COSMOS-Web data, this study seeks to enhance our comprehension of the physical characteristics of brown dwarfs situated at a distance of kpc scale. The exceptional sensitivity of the JWST enables the detection of brown dwarfs that are up to 100 times more distant than those discovered in the earlier all-sky infrared surveys. The large area coverage of the JWST COSMOS-Web survey allows us to find more distant brown dwarfs than earlier JWST studies with smaller area coverages. To capture prominent water absorption features around 2.7 μm, we apply two colour criteria, F115W – F277W + 1 < F277W – F444W and F277W – F444W > 0.9. We then select point sources by CLASS_STAR, FLUX_RADIUS, and SPREAD_MODEL criteria. Faint sources are visually checked to exclude possibly extended sources. We conduct SED fitting and MCMC simulations to determine their physical properties and associated uncertainties. Our search reveals 25 T-dwarf candidates and 2 Y-dwarf candidates, more than any previous JWST brown dwarf searches. They are located from 0.3 kpc to 4 kpc away from the Earth. The spatial number density of 900-1050 K dwarf is (2.0 ± 0.9) × 10–6 pc–3, 1050–1200 K dwarf is (1.2 ± 0.7) × 10–6 pc–3, and 1200–1350 K dwarf is (4.4 ± 1.3) × 10–6 pc–3. The cumulative number count of our brown dwarf candidates is consistent with the prediction from a standard double exponential model. Three of our brown dwarf candidates were detected by HST, with transverse velocities 12 ± 5 km s–1, 12 ± 4 km s–1, and 17 ± 6 km s–1. Along with earlier studies, the JWST has opened a new window of brown dwarf research in the MilkyWay thick disk and halo.

Psychotic disorders are known to be associated with elevated dopamine synthesis; yet, nondopamine factors may underlie the manifestation of some psychotic symptoms that are nonresponsive to dopamine-blocking agents. One under-explored nondopamine mechanism is neuroplasticity. We propose an account of the course of psychotic symptoms based on the extensive evidence for dopamine facilitation of Hebbian synaptic plasticity in cortical and subcortical memory systems. The encoding of psychotic experiences in autobiographical memory (AM) is expected to be facilitated in the hyperdopaminergic state associated with acute psychosis. However, once such ‘spurious AM of psychosis’ (SAMP) is encoded, its persistence may become dependent more on synaptic factors than dopamine factors. Under this framework, the involuntary retrieval of residual SAMP is postulated to play a key role in mediating the reactivation of symptoms with similar contents, as often observed in patients during relapse. In contrast, with active new learning of normalizing experiences across diverse real-life contexts, supported by intact dopamine-mediated salience, well-integrated SAMP may undergo ‘extinction’, leading to remission. The key steps to the integration of SAMP across psychotic and nonpsychotic memories may correspond to one’s ‘recovery style’, involving processes similar to the formation of ‘non-believed memory’ in nonclinical populations. The oversuppression of dopamine can compromise such processes. We synthesize this line of evidence into an updated dopamine-gated memory framework where neuroplasticity processes offer a parsimonious account for the recurrence, persistence, and progression of psychotic symptoms. This framework generates testable hypotheses relevant to clinical interventions.

Network meta-analysis (NMA), also known as mixed treatment comparison meta-analysis or multiple treatments meta-analysis, extends conventional pairwise meta-analysis by simultaneously synthesizing multiple interventions in a single integrated analysis. Despite the growing popularity of NMA within comparative effectiveness research, it comes with potential challenges. For example, within-study correlations among treatment comparisons are rarely reported in the published literature. Yet, these correlations are pivotal for valid statistical inference. As demonstrated in earlier studies, ignoring these correlations can inflate mean squared errors of the resulting point estimates and lead to inaccurate standard error estimates. This article introduces a composite likelihood-based approach that ensures accurate statistical inference without requiring knowledge of the within-study correlations. The proposed method is computationally robust and efficient, with substantially reduced computational time compared to the state-of-the-science methods implemented in R packages. The proposed method was evaluated through extensive simulations and applied to two important applications including an NMA comparing interventions for primary open-angle glaucoma, and another comparing treatments for chronic prostatitis and chronic pelvic pain syndrome.

We investigate the natural oscillations of sessile drops with a central trapped bubble on a plane using linear potential flow theory, considering both free and pinned contact lines. The system is governed by the contact angle $\alpha$ and the ratio $\tau$ of inner to outer contact line radii. For bubble-containing (BC) hemispherical drops with free contact lines (referred to as free BC semi-drops), the modes mirror half of those in concentric spherical BC drops due to plane symmetry. These modes are labelled ‘plus’ (with greater inner surface deformation) and ‘minus’ (with greater outer surface deformation). As $\tau \to 0$, minus modes converge to those of bubble-free drops. Results show that varying $\alpha$ from $90^\circ$ or pinning the contact line in free BC semi-drops alters the topology of spectral lines, turning original crossings of spectral lines between minus and plus modes into avoided crossings. This shift causes minus and plus modes to form spectral trends with avoided crossings, maintaining their original spectral shapes. In an avoided crossing, two coupled modes cannot be classified as plus or minus due to their comparable inner and outer surface deformations, resulting in mode beating when both are excited, as confirmed by our direct numerical simulations. This study on the impact of inner bubbles on the spectrum may help in predicting bubble size in opaque sessile drops.

This essay argues that modes of conceptualizing global-local entanglements provide a useful lens for looking at the different ways Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects localize in BRI-host countries. The essay draws on recent work on George Ritzer to examine examples of BRI projects where global norms and practices are locally conceived and controlled, in contrast to other cases where the projects barely reflect local culture. Examples of Serbia and Hungary are provided to illuminate these points.

Based on a 4f system, a 0° reflector and a single laser diode side-pump amplifier, a new amplifier is designed to compensate the spherical aberration of the amplified laser generated by a single laser diode side-pump amplifier and enhance the power of the amplified laser. Furthermore, the role of the 4f system in the passive spherical aberration compensation and its effect on the amplified laser are discussed in detail. The results indicate that the amplification efficiency is enhanced by incorporating a 4f system in a double-pass amplifier and placing a 0° reflector only at the focal point of the single-pass amplified laser. This method also effectively uses the heat from the gain medium (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet) of the amplifier to compensate the spherical aberration of the amplified laser.

The propagation of multiple ultraintense femtosecond lasers in underdense plasmas is investigated theoretically and numerically. We find that the energy merging effect between two in-phase seed lasers can be improved by using two obliquely incident guiding lasers whose initial phase is $\pi$ and $\pi /2$ ahead of the seed laser. Particle-in-cell simulations show that due to the repulsion and energy transfer of the guiding laser, the peak intensity of the merged light is amplified by more than five times compared to the seed laser. The energy conversion efficiency from all incident lasers to the merged light is up to approximately 60$\%$. The results are useful for many applications, including plasma-based optical amplification, charged particle acceleration and extremely intense magnetic field generation.

The effect of the polarizations of two counter-propagating relativistic laser pulses interacting with subwavelength thin solid-density foil is investigated. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations and analytical modelling show that the interaction and resulting transverse instability depend strongly on the polarization directions as well as the intensity distribution of the resultant light field in the foil. The left- and right-handed circularly polarized laser pair with the same phase at the common focal spot in the ultrathin foil leads to the strongest distortion of the foil. The fastest growing mode and maximum growth rate depend mainly on the laser intensity. For all polarization and phase-difference combinations, the instability is weakest when the two laser pulses are exactly out of phase at the common focusing point in the foil.

In this paper, we study the rapid transition in Richtmyer–Meshkov instability (RMI) with reshock through three-dimensional double-layer swirling vortex rings. The rapid transition in RMI with reshock has an essential influence on the evolution of supernovas and the ignition of inertial confinement fusion, which has been confirmed in numerical simulations and experiments in shock-tube and high-energy-density facilities over the past few years. Vortex evolution has been confirmed to dominate the late-time nonlinear development of the perturbed interface. However, few studies have investigated the three-dimensional characteristics and nonlinear interactions among vortex structures during the transition to turbulent flows. The coexistence of co-rotating and counter-rotating vortices is hypothesized to induce successive large-scale strain fields, which are the main driving sources for rapid development. The three-dimensional effect is reflected in the presence of local swirling motion in the azimuthal direction, and it decreases the translation velocity of a vortex ring. Large-, middle- and small-scale strain fields are employed to describe the development process of RMI with reshock, e.g. vorticity deposited by the reshock, formation of the coexistence of the co-rotating and counter-rotating vortices, iterative cascade under the amplification of the strain fields and viscous dissipation to internal energy. This provides theoretical suggestions for designing practical applications, such as the estimation of the hydrodynamic instability and mixing during the late-time acceleration phase of the inertial confinement fusion.

Drawing upon research on the visual complexity effect and Dual Coding Theory, this research examined the influence of character properties and the role of individual learner differences in Chinese character acquisition. The participants included 248 Chinese-speaking children in grades 1 through 3 in Taiwan. The study extended the scope of previous research by concurrently examining two types of cognitive processing: activation of verbal codes with nonverbal codes (activation of word form) and activation of nonverbal codes with verbal codes (activation of meaning). Results revealed the asymmetry in the two types of cognitive processing. Regarding the influence of character properties, while characters with less visual complexity and with radical presence are generally more acquirable, the interaction between these two properties was only present in the activation of meaning but not the activation of word form. Individual differences contributing to character acquisition did not mirror each other in the two directions of cognitive processing either. The contribution of radical awareness and visual skills remained the same across grade levels in the activation of meaning but varied with grades and the properties of the characters in the activation of word form. The methodological and theoretical contributions of the study were discussed.

This study employs direct numerical simulations to examine the effects of varying backpressure conditions on the turbulent atomisation of impinging liquid jets. Using the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations, and a volume-of-fluid approach enhanced by adaptive mesh refinement and an isoface-based interface reconstruction algorithm, we analyse spray characteristics in the environments with ambient gas densities ranging from 1 to 40 times the atmospheric pressure under five different backpressure scenarios. We investigate the behaviour of turbulent jets, incorporate realistic orifice geometries and identify significant variations in the atomisation patterns depending on backpressure. Two distinct atomisation types emerge, namely jet-sheet-ligament-droplet at lower backpressures and jet-sheet-fragment-droplet at higher ones, alongside a transition from dilute to dense spray patterns. This variation affects the droplet size distribution and spray dynamics, with increased backpressure reducing the spray's spreading angle and breakup length, while increasing the droplet size variation. Furthermore, these conditions promote distributions that induce rapid, nonlinear wavy motion in liquid sheets. Topological analysis of the atomisation field using velocity-gradient tensor invariants reveals significant variations in topology volume fractions across different regions. Downstream, the droplet Sauter mean diameter increases and then stabilises, reflecting the continuous breakup and coalescence processes, notably under higher backpressures. This research underscores the substantial impact of backpressure on impinging-jet atomisation and provides essential insights for nozzle design to optimise droplet distributions.