L-theanine, an amino acid found in tea; and caffeine, found in tea and coffee, are claimed to enhance attention. We conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled, counterbalanced, two-way crossover trial to determine the acute effects of a high-dose L-theanine-caffeine combination on neurobehavioural (reaction time) and neurophysiological [P3b cognitive event-related potential (ERP)] measures of selective attention in acutely sleep-deprived healthy adults. Thirty-seven overnight sleep-deprived healthy adults (aged 22-30 years, 21 men) completed a computerised traffic-scene-related visual stimulus discrimination task before and 50 minutes after ingesting 200 mg L-theanine-160 mg caffeine combination, or a placebo. The task involved selectively responding to imminent accident scenes (20% probability) while ignoring randomly intermixed, more frequent safe scenes (80% probability). A 32-channel EEG was recorded concurrently to derive ERPs. The L-theanine-caffeine combination significantly improved the hit rate (P = 0.02) and target-distractor discriminability (P = 0.047), compared to the placebo. Although both L-theanine-caffeine combination (△ = 52.08 ms, P < 0.0001) and placebo (△ = 13.97 ms, P = 0.024) improved reaction time to accident scenes, the pre-post-dose reaction time improvement of the L-theanine-caffeine combination was significantly greater than that of placebo (△ = 38.1 ms, P = 0.003). Compared to the placebo, the L-theanine-caffeine combination significantly increased the amplitudes and reduced the latencies of P3b ERP component. Our findings suggest that L-theanine-caffeine combination improves the accuracy and speed of deploying selective attention to traffic scenarios in sleep-deprived individuals. This improvement is brought about by greater and faster neural resource allocation in the attentional networks of the brain.

Data on the distribution of iodine in the urine and breast milk of lactating women are limited. This study aimed to establish a formula to assess iodine status in lactating women by evaluating the fractional iodine excretion in urine and breast milk. A 3-day 24-h iodine metabolism survey in 2021-2023 was conducted on 54 pairs of lactating women and infants in Tianjin and Luoyang, China. We used the 24-h dietary record and salt weighing method to assess daily iodine intake (DII). Iodine excretion in breast milk and urine was measured. The median 24-h UIC and BMIC were 135.06μg/L and 150.26µg/L, respectively. When the DII was between 240μg/d and 600μg/d, the predicted value of fractional breast milk iodine excretion (FBMIE)was 31.48% (95%CI: 27.16—36.22%). When the daily iodine excretion (DIE) was between 258μg/d and 476μg/d, the fractional urine iodine excretion (FUIE) (59.09%) and FBMIE (40.91%) were stable. DII can be derived from the spot UIC as follows: UIC(μg/L) × (0.0009 L/h/kg×24 h/d) × body weight (kg)÷0.59÷0.94=DII(μg/d). In conclusion, lactating women with adequate iodine delivered approximately 31.48% of the DII to their infants. A stable proportion (59.09%) of iodine excretion was discharged through urine, which was used to assess the iodine status based on the spot UIC of lactating women. This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04492657).

For every positive integer n, we introduce a set ${\mathcal {T}}_n$ made of $(n+3)^2$ Wang tiles (unit squares with labeled edges). We represent a tiling by translates of these tiles as a configuration $\mathbb {Z}^2\to {\mathcal {T}}_n$. A configuration is valid if the common edge of adjacent tiles has the same label. For every $n\geq 1$, we show that the Wang shift ${\Omega }_n$, defined as the set of valid configurations over the tiles ${\mathcal {T}}_n$, is self-similar, aperiodic and minimal for the shift action. We say that $\{{\Omega }_n\}_{n\geq 1}$ is a family of metallic mean Wang shifts, since the inflation factor of the self-similarity of $\Omega _n$ is the positive root of the polynomial $x^2-nx-1$. This root is sometimes called the n-th metallic mean, and in particular, the golden mean when $n=1$, and the silver mean when $n=2$. When $n=1$, the set of Wang tiles ${\mathcal {T}}_1$ is equivalent to the Ammann aperiodic set of 16 Wang tiles.

As extreme political views gain popularity and acceptability, the conditions under which media exposure to extreme right views contributes to this process, and strategies to counter media-induced persuasion and normalisation effects remain unclear. Using population-based survey experiments leveraging real-world interviews with extreme right activists on Sky News UK and Australia, we test whether media exposure leads to higher agreement with extreme right statements. We also test whether exposure affects perceptions of how many others agree with these statements. Our findings are consistent across both countries: exposure to uncritical interviews increases agreement with extreme statements and perceptions of broader support in the population. Testing the media strategy in the UK, we find that critical interviewing tarnishes the activist’s image and reduces effects, but still heightens perceived support for extreme statements. This study identifies a mechanism through which extreme political ideas spread and offers insights into media strategies to counteract persuasion and normalisation effects.

Increasing numbers of children and young people (CYP) are presenting with common mental health difficulties. In 2017, the UK government outlined a service transformation plan which led to the development and implementation of Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs), to deliver evidence-based interventions in schools for mild to moderate mental health difficulties. This service evaluation aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of individual interventions delivered by MHST practitioners trained to deliver low-intensity cognitive behavioural interventions to CYP with mild to moderate mental health difficulties, within one service based in the South East of England. Four hundred and fifty-nine CYP engaged in an individual intervention delivered by MHST practitioners between January 2021 and December 2022. Interventions were delivered either online via video call or face-to-face. All children and their parents/carers were invited to complete two routine outcome measures (Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS), and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)) at baseline and post-intervention. Outcome data demonstrated significant improvements across all child- and parent-rated RCADS anxiety and depression scales. Significant improvements were also shown for both child- and parent-rated SDQ total difficulties and impact scores. These all showed effect sizes ranging from medium to large. Girls presented higher scores pre- and post-intervention compared with boys apart from the OCD subscale; gender was not a predictor of improvement in the majority of analyses. Individual, low-intensity cognitive behavioural interventions delivered in this MHST service were effective in reducing symptoms of emotional and behavioural difficulties in CYP with mild to moderate mental health difficulties.

Key learning aims

1. (1) Understand the context of Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) as an early intervention service within school settings.

2. (2) Learn about the impact of MHST-delivered interventions on symptoms of emotional and behavioural difficulties in children and young people.

3. (3) To gain an understanding of how boys and girls may respond differently to MHST-delivered interventions.

Cosmogenic 7Be and 10Be are effective tracers for studying atmospheric dynamics and Earth’s surface processes, with over 90% of these isotopes reaching the surface via wet deposition. However, the characteristics and influencing factors of 7Be and 10Be wet deposition remain unclear in different regions, limiting the precision of these nuclides as tracers of environmental change. This study analyzes the annual variation of 7Be and 10Be wet deposition in Xi’an and examines the impact of precipitation on their deposition. Ultra-trace levels of 7Be and 10Be in precipitation were synchronously measured using state-of-the-art accelerator mass spectrometry. One-year (July 30, 2020 to September 3, 2021), high-frequency (individual rain events) and time-synchronized series of observations of 7Be and 10Be wet deposition data (n = 49) were analyzed. The total annual wet deposition fluxes of 7Be and 10Be in central China (34.22°N, 109.01°E) for 2020/21 were (218 ± 24) × 108 atoms·m–2·yr–1 and (314 ± 16) × 108 atoms·m–2·yr–1, respectively. Precipitation amount, intensity, and duration were quantitatively analyzed for their effects on total wet deposition flux, mean concentration, washout ratio, deposition velocity, and scavenging coefficient of 7Be and 10Be during individual rain events. The results indicate that precipitation amount is the most significant factor influencing the wet deposition flux of both nuclides.

Montesquieu’s philosophy of moderate government offers only a qualified endorsement of commercial republics. Recent scholarship has increasingly recognized the extent to which he advocated a monarchy balanced by an aristocracy. This article explicates Montesquieu’s understanding of honor as a vital aristocratic motive and one more consistently favorable to liberty than mercantile self-interest. It then compares this argument to the constitutionalism of the American Federalists. Whereas Publius attempts to create a balance of powers on the basis of representing aggregates of individuals, Adams throughout his writings affirms Montesquieu’s assumption that the impulse for honor creates enduring hierarchies in society, which must be explicitly accounted for in constitutional design. It concludes by suggesting that, amid today’s concerns about oligarchy, inequality, and populism, Adams’s realism points toward a healthier relationship between elites and people.

This article delves into the often-overlooked scholar Robert Greene, a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, who authored works in both religion and natural philosophy. Greene made significant contributions to the debate on the interplay between reason and faith, with his primary target being John Locke, whose epistemology and views on the relationship between reason and faith he considered detrimental to religion. This article examines Greene’s criticism of Locke’s views on the relationship between reason and faith within its institutional context, shedding new light on Locke’s early reception at the University of Cambridge.

A block of ice in a box heated from below and cooled from above can (partially) melt. Vice versa, a box of water with less heating from below or more cooling from above can (partially) re-solidify. This study investigates the asymmetric behaviours between such melting and freezing processes in this Rayleigh–Bénard geometry, focusing on differences in equilibrium flow structures, solid–liquid interface morphology, and equilibrium mean interface height. Our findings reveal a robust asymmetry across a range of Rayleigh numbers and top cooling temperature (i.e. hysteretic behaviour), where the evolution of freezing shows a unique ‘splitting event’ of convection cells that leads to a non-monotonic height evolution trend. To characterise the differences between melting and freezing, we introduce an effective Rayleigh number and the aspect ratio for the cellular structures, and apply the heat flux balance and the Grossmann–Lohse theory. Based on this, we develop a unifying model for the melting and freezing behaviour across various conditions, accurately predicting equilibrium states for both phase-change processes. This work provides insights into the role of convective dynamics in phase-change symmetry-breaking, offering a framework applicable to diverse systems involving melting and freezing.

In East Jerusalem, the vast majority of Palestinians contest the legitimacy of the Israeli state’s claim to sovereignty. This necessarily affects how Palestinians engage with the state in pursuit of goods and services. But how? Using data from 55 interviews and original observational and experimental survey data from a representative sample of East Jerusalemites, I show that civilians’ engagement with each good, service, and institution of the state is a function of their perceptions of the state’s legitimacy, or right to rule, in that sector. Civilians will avoid engagement with goods, services, and institutions that explicitly affirm the state’s claims to monopolized sovereign rule, without forsaking essential goods and services. This article empirically illustrates that the same individual will make different choices with respect to each state sector, and in doing so builds on the burgeoning recognition of sector-level choices in the citizen claim-making literature.

Turbulence driven by gyrokinetic instabilities is largely responsible for transport in magnetic fusion devices. To estimate this turbulent transport, integrated modelling codes often use mixing length estimates in conjunction with reduced models of the linearized gyrokinetic equation. One common method of formulating and solving the linearized gyrokinetic eigenvalue problem equation uses a Ritz variational principle, particularly in the local collisionless limit. However, the variational principle as typically stated in the literature is mathematically incorrect. In this work, we derive a mathematically correct form of the variational principle that applies to local linear collisionless gyrokinetics in general geometry with electromagnetic effects. We also explicitly derive a weak form of the gyrokinetic field equations suitable for numerical applications.

The shape of a free-surface slump of viscoplastic material supported by an oblique barrier on an inclined plane is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The barrier is sufficiently tall that it is not surmounted by the viscoplastic fluid, and a focus of this study is the largest volume of rigid viscoplastic fluid that can be supported upstream of it. A lubrication model is integrated numerically to determine the transient flow as the maximal rigid shape is approached. Away from the region supported by the barrier, the viscoplastic layer attains a uniform thickness in which the gravitational stresses are in balance with the yield stress of the material. However, closer to the barrier, the layer thickens and the barrier bears the additional gravitational loading. An exact solution for the rigid shape of the viscoplastic material is constructed from the steady force balance and computed by integrating Charpit’s equations along characteristics that emanate from the barrier wall. The characteristics represent the late-time streamlines of the flow as it approaches the rigid shape. The exact solution depends on a single dimensionless group, which incorporates the slope inclination, the barrier width and the fluid’s yield stress. It is shown that the shape is insensitive to the transient flow from which it originates. The force exerted by the slump is calculated for different barrier shapes. The results of new laboratory experiments are reported; these show that although convergence to the final rigid state is slow, there is good agreement with the experimental measurements at long times.

The primary policy response to population aging in advanced economies has been to raise the mandatory retirement age. However, these policies have reignited calls for differentiated retirement ages that take into account variations in work intensity. This paper utilises microdata to examine the relevance and feasibility of this concept in Europe. It first quantifies career arduousness using SHARE wave 7 retrospective ISCO4-digit data on careers in combination with US O*NET working conditions data. Then, using SHARE follow-up data collecting (bad)health and death information about wave 7 respondents, it estimates (healthy) life expectancy by career arduousness decile, combining econometrics and life table methods. Findings reveal a life expectancy gap between the least and most arduous careers of 4to 4.2 years. Healthy life expectancy differences are slightly larger, ranging from 6.9 to 9.1 years. Also, women’s healthy life expectancy seems to be somewhat more impacted by arduousness.

With increased global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals and degraded observation environments, the correctness of ambiguity resolution is disturbed, causing unexpected real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning solutions. This paper presents an improved fault detection and exclusion (FDE) method based on the generalized least squares (GLS) model. The correlated GLS model is constructed by regarding double-differencing (DD) integer ambiguities as the known parameters. Meanwhile, the validity of residuals as crucial components of fault detection could be enhanced by the iterative re-weighted least squares (IRLS) method rather than the least squares (LS) without robustness. A static test with artificial faults and a dynamic test with natural faults were carried out, respectively. By analyzing test statistics of the enhanced FDE algorithm and comparing its positioning errors with those from the classical LS, it is shown that our method can provide high-precision and high-reliability RTK solutions facing wrong DD fixed ambiguities due to observation faults.

What is the nature of America’s liberal inheritance? These days, prominent political thinkers—pro-liberals, anti-liberals, and postliberals alike—seem to agree, following Louis Hartz, that American liberalism is individualist, Enlightenment liberalism grounded in Lockean teachings. This is a mistake. We would do better to understand American political thought as defined not just by Enlightenment liberalism but also by Exodus liberalism, the latter of which has been expressed primarily (though not exclusively) in African American political thought. It is in the complex interplay between these two liberal traditions that we can better understand the nature of, and the possibilities for, American liberalism and American politics. This essay tells part of the story of how political scientists came to neglect Exodus liberalism, then envisions a more comprehensive approach to American political thought—a desegregated American political thought.