During the early twentieth century, Catalonia experienced a period of great cultural and musical development through the Noucentisme movement, which aimed to elevate its national culture to a symbol of high art. The xeremies (shawms) of the cobla ensemble, which played the sardana genre, were integrated into symphonic and chamber repertoire. This required the technical improvement of the tible (treble) and tenora (tenor) xeremies, but also encouraged the invention of new instruments in the shawm family. The barítona (baritone shawm) was premiered in 1930 by the Banda Municipal de Barcelona and represents a milestone in Catalan music in the tumultuous period before the Spanish Civil War.

Synthetic datasets, artificially generated to mimic real-world data while maintaining anonymization, have emerged as a promising technology in the financial sector, attracting support from regulators and market participants as a solution to data privacy and scarcity challenges limiting machine learning (ML) deployment. This article argues that synthetic data’s effects on financial markets depend critically on how these technologies are embedded within existing ML infrastructural ‘stacks’ rather than on their intrinsic properties. We identify three key tensions that will determine whether adoption proves beneficial or harmful: (1) data circulability versus opacity, particularly the ‘double opacity’ problem arising from stacked ML systems, (2) model-induced scattering versus model-induced herding in market participant behavior, and (3) flattening versus deepening of data platform power. These tensions directly correspond to core regulatory priorities around model risk management, systemic risk, and competition policy. Using financial audit as a case study, we demonstrate how these tensions interact in practice and propose governance frameworks, including a synthetic data labeling regime to preserve contextual information when datasets cross organizational boundaries.

This pilot cross-sectional study, conducted in two public hospitals in Malawi, assessed gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in pregnant women attending antenatal clinics and compared their dietary quality and food group consumption before and during pregnancy. The study targeted women aged 18 to 49 years within 24 to 28 weeks of gestation. GDM was diagnosed according to the International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Group criteria and assessed dietary quality before and during pregnancy using a 30-day qualitative food frequency questionnaire. We compared changes in dietary quality and specific food group mean scores using paired t-tests at p < 0.05. Of the 508 women enrolled, 22.7% were diagnosed with GDM. The overall diet quality significantly decreased during pregnancy compared to before; a similar trend was observed in women diagnosed with GDM compared to those without GDM (p < 0.0001). Among women with GDM, the mean score of the following food groups significantly (p < 0.05) decreased during pregnancy: cruciferous vegetables, deep orange vegetables and tubers, citrus fruits, deep orange fruits, other fruits, nuts and seeds, poultry, fish, low fat dairy, whole grains, and liquid oils and significantly (p < 0.05) increased in the following food groups; red meat, processed meat, sugar-sweetened beverages, sweets, sugary snacks and ice cream. In conclusion, GDM is prevalent in Malawian women enrolled in this study and is coupled with inadequate dietary quality, especially during pregnancy. Since dietary quality is pivotal to GDM management, more in-depth longitudinal dietary studies are needed to inform nutritional interventions to prevent and better manage GDM.

Child maltreatment increases the risk of emotional and behavioral problems, yet many children demonstrate resilience, functioning better than expected given their level of maltreatment exposure. Although resilience is a dynamic process shaped by children’s social support, including friendships, how different patterns of resilience and friendship support unfold together across development remains unclear. To better understand this process, we examined how patterns of emotional resilience, behavioral resilience, and friendship support co-develop across childhood and adolescence. We used group-based multi-trajectory modeling with data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (N = 6, 518, 51% female) to identify distinct patterns of emotional and behavioral resilience (doing better-than-expected given their level of maltreatment exposure) and friendship support, across five timepoints from ages 6 to 17 years. We identified five trajectory groups. Nearly half the sample maintained high emotional and behavioral resilience and friendship support across development. While resilience trajectories varied, friendship support was generally high across groups. Most children followed trajectories of high resilience and perceived friendship support. Even among children with lower emotional and/or behavioral resilience trajectories, friendship support remained high, an encouraging finding. Future research should examine how children’s other relationships (e.g., with parents and siblings) unfold alongside resilience.

The main objective of this study was to analyse the changes of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversities shown by bird assemblages at two contrasting vegetational types in Southern Mexico. Our main hypothesis was that we would find a higher diversity in Tropical Dry Forest (TDF) than in Oak Woodland (OW) due to a monotonic decrease in diversity with altitude. During eleven months, we surveyed both vegetation types to record bird species and abundances. We established points and simultaneously carried out 5-minutes count and soundscape recordings. We quantified our sampling effort by means of the sample coverage and calculated Hill numbers to express alpha and beta diversities. Contrary to our expectations, in terms of alpha taxonomic and functional diversities, the OW had consistently higher values than the TDF. After accounting for abundance data, we found a marked decrease in phylogenetic and taxonomic beta diversity, but an increase in functional diversity compared to the presence/absence matrix. The low beta phylogenetic diversity combined with the high beta functional diversity suggests that a small set of closely related species could have evolved in the dry slopes of the area, and by the action of niche differentiation developed different functional traits. The high functional beta diversity indicates a high complementarity between the avifaunas of each vegetation type, which is relevant in terms of conservation.

Unilateral absence of the pulmonary artery is a rare congenital defect requiring advanced imaging for diagnosis. We present two cases with a connection between a patent ductus arteriosus remnant and the left pulmonary artery. Therapeutic approaches, including imaging findings and management strategies, are discussed to highlight diagnostic and treatment considerations.

Flutter in lightweight airfoils under unsteady flows presents a critical challenge in aeroelastic stability and control. This study uncovers phase-dependent effects that drive the onset and suppression of flutter in a freely pitching airfoil at low Reynolds number. By introducing targeted impulsive stiffness perturbations, we identify critical phases that trigger instability. Using phase-sensitivity functions, energy-transfer metrics and dynamic mode decomposition, we show that flutter arises from phase lock-on between structural and fluid modes. Leveraging this insight, we design an energy-optimal, phase-based control strategy that applies transient heaving motions to disrupt synchronisation and arrest unstable growth. This minimal, time-localised control suppresses subharmonic amplification and restores stable periodic motion.

A modification of the semi-empirical theory of stratified turbulent flow, which includes an equation for the density fluctuations (the potential energy of turbulence), is applied to describe the effect of internal gravity waves (IWs) on the small-scale turbulence. After considering the periodic IWs, special attention is paid to the action of internal solitons, such as the classical Gardner solitons and a strongly nonlinear solitary wave regularly observed in the Oregon Bay of the USA. It is confirmed that the presence of potential energy allows the existence of finite turbulence at any Richardson number.

Balloon-expandable MyVal OCTACOR valves were evaluated in 3D-printed conduits under simulated flow. The 20 mm valve functioned from 16–24 mm, rupturing at 27 mm. The 29 mm expanded to 33 mm with mild insufficiency. Findings suggest OCTACOR valves may support repeated valve-in-valve procedures, with the 20 mm showing greater versatility for small-infant mitral replacements and as a potential alternative to Melody valves.

This study evaluated the effects of replacing ground corn with cassava root silage (CRS) in the supplement of grazing dairy cows on production yield, physicochemical characteristics, sensory attributes, and profitability of Minas Frescal cheese. Ten primiparous Girolando cows, with a mean weight of 373.45 ± 63.55 kg, a mean milk production of 12.48 ± 1.58 kg/d, and 76 days of lactation, were distributed into two 5 × 5 Latin squares. The animals were placed in the following five treatments: I, grazing without supplementation (WOS); II to V, grazing receiving 5 kg of dry matter (DM) of supplement without CRS (0 g/kg DM CRS) and with 260, 520 and 780 g/kg DM of CRS. Inclusion level of CRS did not affect (P > 0.067) physicochemical characteristics, sensory attributes, and production yield of cheese. However, cheese produced from supplemented animals had greater levels of protein (P = 0.025) and individual cheese production (kg of cheese/animal/day; P < 0.001) compared to WOS animals. Finally, the inclusion of CRS at up to 520 g/kg DM maximized cheese production by 0.73 kg of cheese/animal/day and gross revenue by 3.49 US$/animal/day, compared to WOS animals. In conclusion, replacement of ground corn with CRS in the supplement of dairy cows did not impact physicochemical characteristics and sensory attributes of Minas Frescal cheese. In addition, inclusion of CRS at up to 520 g/kg DM replacing ground corn in the supplement may be a suitable strategy for enhancing the profitability of Minas Frescal cheese production.

A critical step in systematic reviews involves the definition of a search strategy, with keywords and Boolean logic, to filter electronic databases. We hypothesize that it is possible to screen articles in electronic databases using large language models (LLMs) as an alternative to search equations. To investigate this matter, we compared two methods to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in electronic databases: filtering databases using the Cochrane highly sensitive search and an assessment by an LLM.

We retrieved studies indexed in PubMed with a publication date between September 1 and September 30, 2024 using the sole keyword “diabetes.” We compared the performance of the Cochrane highly sensitive search and the assessment of all titles and abstracts extracted directly from the database by GPT-4o-mini to identify RCTs. Reference standard was the manual screening of retrieved articles by two independent reviewers.

The search retrieved 6377 records, of which 210 (3.5%) were primary reports of RCTs. The Cochrane highly sensitive search filtered 2197 records and missed one RCT (sensitivity 99.5%, 95% CI 97.4% to100%; specificity 67.8%, 95% CI 66.6% to 68.9%). Assessment of all titles and abstracts from the electronic database by GPT filtered 1080 records and included all 210 primary reports of RCTs (sensitivity 100%, 95% CI 98.3% to100%; specificity 85.9%, 95% CI 85.0% to 86.8%).

LLMs can screen all articles in electronic databases to identify RCTs as an alternative to the Cochrane highly sensitive search. This calls for the evaluation of LLMs as an alternative to rigid search strategies.

In this work, we discuss the challenges related to the preliminary investigation of high repetition rate (HRR) experiments in the field of high energy density (HED) physics, and we present the results of preparation experiments done at the Prague Asterix Laser System (PALS) laser facility conducted with the aim of defining the needed developments in target design, real-time diagnostics and data collection needed to meet HRR requirements. Although the PALS laser facility is not an HRR facility, it has served as a valuable test bed for advancing diagnostic techniques and refining target design in preparation for HRR experimental platforms. HRR operation will result in improved statistical errors of the experimental results, in particular for experiments related to equation of state studies in extreme conditions.

Against the status quo, this article argues for the right to renounce state citizenship while remaining a resident. To motivate this argument, it presents a dilemma: if long-term residents can choose not to naturalize, why cannot citizens renounce their status without leaving? This article rejects one way out of this dilemma—making citizenship mandatory for long-term residents—and proceeds to make the positive case for the right to renounce citizenship. It argues for the value of citizenship renunciation as an expressive political act, distinct from territorial exit, which allows individuals to sever political ties while maintaining social membership. This form of political exit enables citizens to express their detachment from the state without the costs of emigration. This article explores the implications of this proposal for democratic consent, legitimate authority, and collective citizen responsibility for state action, arguing that a right to renounce without emigration enhances autonomy and democratic legitimacy.

This research note introduces a new publicly available dataset identifying which federal candidates are out as LGBTQ2S+. The dataset comprises 4,201 candidates who ran in 2015, 2019 and 2021 for the five parties that won seats in the House of Commons. In this research note, we describe the replicable procedure we followed to identify out LGBTQ2S+ candidates, which involved systematic individual candidate searches. This procedure identified 176 LGBTQ2S+ candidates in total, which is more than in previous datasets. We illustrate how the data can be used by documenting how LGBTQ2S+ candidates changed over time relative to straight cisgender candidates. This dataset will allow researchers to examine a range of questions about LGBTQ2S+ representation as well as conduct intersectional analyses.