Giving animals the opportunity to exercise agency can improve their welfare, but horse owners and researchers may not be aware of the growing body of agency research in other animals, and studies on agency and choice in horses are scattered across disciplines and not connected to each other or to broader theory. This paper summarises research findings on management of domestic horses through the lens of animal agency and explores the potential applications of research on choice, control, and challenge in animals to improve the welfare of horses.

Transfemoral prosthesis users demonstrate a higher fall rate due to tripping than able-bodied controls in previous laboratory studies. In particular, early swing demonstrates the greatest disparity, where able-bodied controls typically utilize an elevating strategy to cross the obstacle in the same stride that the perturbation occurs, rather than the lowering strategy, where swing is ended prematurely and the obstacle is crossed in the following stride. However, due to the passive nature of most commercial knee prostheses, the elevating strategy is largely inaccessible to prosthesis users, potentially contributing to the increased fall rate in early swing. To investigate the effects of reintroducing the elevating strategy to transfemoral prosthesis users, a bimodal stumble recovery controller was developed for a powered knee prosthesis that utilized the elevating and lowering recovery strategies, selected based on the post-impact kinematics of the prosthesis. The Bimodal controller was compared to a unimodal controller that only used the lowering strategy. Three transfemoral prosthesis users underwent a series of treadmill-based obstacle perturbations with each controller following an acclimation period. All participants successfully used the elevating response in the early swing phase. On average, the elevating response reduced the disturbance to participants’ trunk kinematics and the reliance on harness support. While the Bimodal controller sometimes resulted in a recovery strategy mismatch for two participants, the mismatch still resulted in outcome metrics comparable to the unimodal controller. Overall, results suggest that the inclusion of the elevating and lowering strategies may improve stumble recovery outcomes for some transfemoral prosthesis users.

Backward control is an obligatory interpretational dependency between an overt controller and a nonovert controllee in which the controllee is structurally superior to the controller: Meg persuaded Δi[Roni to give up]. It contrasts with ordinary forward control, in which the controller is structurally higher: Meg persuaded Roni [Δi to give up]. Although backward control has been previously documented (Polinsky & Potsdam 2002a), clear cases are rare. This article presents an alternation between forward and backward object control in the Austronesian language Malagasy and argues for the backward-control structure. Backward control is thus a reality and needs to be incorporated into any comprehensive theory of control. The article argues against an analysis of backward control that identifies the controllee as the null pronominal pro.

The ability of multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to perform accurately in windy environments is crucial for extended use in outdoor applications. To design UAVs to operate in these environments, most studies have focused on static performance metrics such as thrust-to-weight ratio and endurance, without directly considering closed-loop control performance. This work develops a simplified metric that serves as a predictor for achievable disturbance rejection performance, enabling efficient UAV design selection without requiring full-scale nonlinear simulations. A reduced-order model is introduced to capture key aerodynamic and actuation characteristics, allowing for rapid evaluation of UAV configurations. The metric is validated against high-fidelity nonlinear simulations, demonstrating strong correlation with actual control performance. By bridging the gap between UAV structural optimization and closed-loop control behavior, this approach provides a practical tool for integrating disturbance rejection capabilities into UAV design processes. The practical utility of this metric is supported by experimental findings from related wind tunnel studies of fully-actuated UAVs, which demonstrate that actual disturbance rejection performance aligns with the trends predicted by the simplified correlation function.

Continuum robots inspired by biological life forms are favored for their flexibility, compliance, and adaptability to confined environments. However, flexible structure and coupled dynamics include challenges, especially under external forces. This paper presents a dynamic-model-based control framework for a two-section planar-to-spatial tendon-driven continuum manipulator (P2S-TDCM), which integrates a comprehensive Euler–Lagrange model that accounts for tendon stiffness, viscous damping, and backbone flexibility. A genetic algorithm (GA)-optimized PID controller is designed and tested on deterministic and robustness-oriented tuning modes. To further enhance real-time robustness against external disturbances, an online disturbance observer (DOB) is integrated into the control loop to estimate and compensate for unmeasured external wrenches. Numerical results showed that the robust tuning strategy achieved consistently lower RMSE (up to ∼ 25% improvement compared to the deterministic approach) and reduced sensitivity to parameter uncertainties such as vertebra mass by ±2%, backbone Young’s modulus by ±5% under external tip forces. Experimental validation of the deterministic controller further confirmed the model’s accuracy and feasibility. The combined GA-PID-DOB framework improves trajectory tracking stability and disturbance rejection, establishing a robustness-oriented control for P2S-TDCM. This work demonstrates that integrating DOB-based compensation with GA-optimized control enhances robustness and 3D trajectory tracking in TDCMs. Future work will extend the framework to account for distributed external forces along the manipulator body and explore adaptive or learning-based controllers for real-time uncertainty compensation.

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of different intermittent fasting regimens on metabolic parameters in healthy rats and compare them with caloric restriction. A total of fifty adult male Wistar rats (±90 days old) were randomised into 5 groups: control group (CON), caloric restriction group (CR), time-restricted feeding group (TRF), alternate-day fasting (ADF) group and alternate-day modified fasting group (ADMF). ADF and ADMF stood out for improving the metabolic parameters in healthy rats by presenting improvements in glucose parameters, greatest weight loss (ADF v. CON: −16·50 (sd 6·16) g; effect size = −5·34; 95 % CI: −7·05, −3·04; P < 0·001; ADMF v. CON: –21·88 (sd 6·66) g; effect size = −5·83; 95 % CI: −7·66, −3·36; P < 0·001) and higher HDL (ADF v. CON: 141·50 (sd 10·17) mg/dl; effect size = 3·03; 95 % CI: 1·01, 4·45; P < 0·001; ADMF v. CON: 133·10 (sd 5·94) mg/dl; effect size = 3·37; 95 % CI: 1·22, 4·86; P = 0·004). Additionally, ADMF presented a smaller adipocyte area among the fasting regimens (13·92 (sd 2·06) area/µm2; effect size = −4·20; 95 % CI: −5·45, −2·66; P < 0·001 v. CON), in addition to presenting muscle fibre hypertrophy (71·20 (sd 5·16) area/µm2; effect size = 2·93; 95 % CI: 1·57, 4·05; P < 0·001 v. CON), followed by ADF (adipocyte area: 19·25 (sd 0·87) area/µm2; effect size = −2·19; 95 % CI: −3·12, −1·12; P = 0·003 v. CON; muscle fibre: 53·80 (sd 6·61) area/µm2; effect size = 2·93; 95 % CI: 1·57, 4·05; P = 0·566 v. ADMF). The ADF and ADMF groups were more effective among the intermittent fasting regimens analysed in promoting improvements in metabolic parameters in healthy rats.

Funding relationships in nonprofit management are increasingly defined by a philosophy of rational management, characterized by measurement of outputs and benchmarking, which represents an audit culture system (Burnley, Matthews, & McKenzie, 2005). There is concern that these approaches are constantly undermining the mission of community service nonprofit organizations (Darcy, 2002). In this research, we analyzed the management of funding relationships by examining dynamics within a nonprofit funding relationship in New Zealand. Through focus groups we explored the relationship between 17 representatives from nonprofit organizations and four Board members of a funding Trust. The management of this funding relationship was characterized by an appreciation of the diverse nature of nonprofit organizations, a balance between trust and control, and communication. We suggest that elements of these dynamics could be incorporated into nonprofit funding relationships in order to challenge an over-reliance on audit culture systems, and to re-establish relationships characterized by interaction between nonprofit organizations and their funders. Finally, we call for future research in this area.

In the 20 years after its introduction, the principal-agent model has seen increasing use to study political processes in virtually all policy domains in which the EU is active. Relaxing the strict assumptions that guided the original economic applications has greatly widened the scope for potential applications. This very phenomenon has also created an existential challenge to the model’s contemporary use, which is combining the reductionist aims of the model (from which it derives its strength) with the complex empirical settings to which it is increasingly applied. To facilitate this balancing exercise, we propose a two-step approach to principal-agent analysis, in which the mapping of the principal-agent proof relation is separated from the effective analysis that examines the reasons, modalities and consequences of delegation and control in the EU. In doing so, we show how the principal-agent model can continue to provide new insights at the various stages of the research process.

This study seeks to evaluate whether interorganizational trust and interpersonal trust influence the nature of state control in Brazilian public/non-profit partnerships (PNPs) by considering the social organization model with a non-profit partner that did not evolve organically from civil society as an equal and interdependent partner but instead was engineered by the state. We conducted qualitative research on two PNPs and analysed their historical trajectories through participant observation, documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with the state and non-profit partners as well as other actors involved indirectly in the PNPs. Our findings call into question the assumption of current studies that trust tends to be built over time and reveal that PNPs embedded in state-dominant and low-social-capital contexts are more vulnerable to the effects of interpersonal trust. This vulnerability influences the volatile patterns of the PNPs’ trajectories and leads to strong informal state-partner control as reflected by PNP disruptions and lower levels of interorganizational trust.

This article draws on concepts of trust to analyse recent policies affecting public/third sector relationships, examining competition, ‘command and control’ mechanisms and the community turn in shaping cultures of relationships. Drawing on examples from empirical studies in two English inner-city areas we explore ways in which power and controls exerted through dominant organisational cultures and arrangements undermine independent approaches, innovation and organisational learning across sectors. State bodies have taken trust in their actions as given while shifting responsibilities for service delivery and risks of failure to others. We argue that increasing market cultures and regulation have damaged cross-sector trust promoting divisive interests and risk-averse behaviours, restricting the local autonomy, innovation and community action presumed in the Big Society agenda. We conclude by highlighting issues that need to be addressed to ensure future collaboration with community-based providers; these include a focus on the processes and relational spaces which enable alternatives.

Alpha-ketoglutarate (AKG) is a well-known intermediate of the tricarboxylic acid cycle and plays an important role in the catabolism of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs: leucine, isoleucine, and valine). While previous study suggested that AKG enhances glucose metabolism, its effect on the adaptation of muscles and adipocytes has not been well studied in diabetic condition. This study aimed to determine whether AKG improves glucose metabolism in the skeletal muscles and adipose tissues in diabetic mice. Male institute of cancer research mice were divided into control, diabetic, and diabetic + AKG groups. Diabetes (DM) was induced by a high fat diet consumption and streptozotocin (STZ) injection. Mice in the DM + AKG group were administered 1% AKG in drinking water for 6 weeks. The non-fasting plasma glucose level was significantly higher in the diabetic group than that in the control and DM + AKG groups (P < 0.05). No significant difference was observed in glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) protein levels in the muscles between the DM and DM + AKG groups. AKG supplementation attenuated the decrease in peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator 1 alpha and GLUT4 protein levels in inguinal and epididymal adipose tissues in diabetic condition. In conclusion, the study findings suggested that AKG supplementation increased protein levels related to mitochondrial biogenesis and glucose transporters in adipocyte tissue accompanied with improved whole-body glucose metabolism in STZ and high-fat diet-induced diabetic mice.

Learning has recently played a vital role in control engineering, producing numerous applications and facilitating easier control over systems; however, it has presented serious challenges in flight learning for unmanned platforms. Iterative learning control (ILC) is a practical method for cases needing repetition in control loops. This work focuses on the ILC of a quadrotor flight. An unstable flight might lead to a crash in the system and stop the iterations; hence, a base controller, the state-dependent Riccati equation (SDRE), is selected to stabilize the drone in the first loop. The ILC acts on top of the SDRE to increase the precision and force the system to learn to track trajectories better. The combination of ILC and SDRE was tested for stationary (fixed-base) systems without the risk of crashes; nonetheless, its implementation on a flying (mobile) system is reported for the first time. The gradient descent method shapes the training criteria for error reduction in the ILC. The proposed design is implemented on simulation and a real flight of a quadrotor in a series of tests, showing the effectiveness of the proposed input law. The nonlinear and optimal structure of the base controller and the complex iterative learning programming were challenges of this work, which were successfully addressed and demonstrated experimentally.