Aortic valve disease in children is a hot topic in the field of cardiac surgery. The surgical treatment of aortic valve disease in children is affected by age, severity of the disease, and technology. The main purpose of surgical repair is to improve the symptoms of children and avoid or delay prosthetic valve replacement and reoperation as much as possible. At the same time, surgical repair should take into account the sustainability of the surgical effect and the growth ability of the aortic valve after surgery. At present, there is still a lack of a consistent surgical treatment concept and a universal surgical treatment strategy. Based on the current published literature, we conclude that for children younger than 1 year, valve repair is the first choice to avoid premature valve replacement. However, for experienced medical centres and surgeons, the Ross procedure can be attempted to treat aortic valve disease in children younger than 1 year and the long-term effect is comparable to aortic repair. In children older than 1 year, overall outcomes were similar with repair and the Ross procedure. When an acceptable intraoperative result was achieved, the outcomes of repair were favourable. However, when the intraoperative result of repair was suboptimal, the Ross procedure showed better results. For patients with suboptimal aortic valve repair, contraindications to the Ross procedure, and unwillingness to take anticoagulants, Ozaki procedure may also be an option to delay mechanical valve replacement. Compared with aortic valve repair and the Ross procedure, mechanical or homograft aortic valve replacement has a poor prognosis and is considered as a last resort option for surgical treatment of aortic valve disease in children. This article reviews the current status, advantages and disadvantages, and suitable population of several different surgical procedures for aortic valve disease in children.

Seabirds play an important role as top consumers in the food web and can be used as biomonitors for exposure to pollutants. Erythrocyte nuclear abnormalities (ENAs) represent one of the most important ways to detect genomic damage associated with environmental degradation and pollution. This study investigates the number of ENAs in three populations of two species of Leucocarbo shags. Blood samples from the Antarctic shag (Leucocarbo bransfieldensis) breeding on the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands and the South Georgia shag (Leucocarbo georgianus) breeding on the South Orkney Islands were analysed. The results revealed evidence of genomic damage in all individuals, with a mean number of ENAs of 26.54 and 43.51/10 000 red blood cells for Antarctic and South Georgia shags, respectively. Thus, the shags from the Orkney Islands showed a higher number of erythrocyte abnormalities, whereas no significant differences were observed among shag populations across the Antarctic Peninsula and South Shetland Islands. These results suggest that, in the northern part of the region, shags might be more exposed to pollutants. They also provide the first reference values for cytogenetic damage in this species and establish a critical baseline for future biomonitoring efforts.

Los estudios sobre la relación entre música y fuerzas militares suelen estar mediados por enfoques tradicionales que analizan la música marcial o sus usos para los fines de la institución. Sin embargo, existe una producción musical de integrantes activos y retirados de las fuerzas militares que no es marcial, que no necesariamente está institucionalizada y que se aleja de los usos y temáticas que usualmente se asocian a la música militar. El estudio de estas producciones complejiza y enriquece los enfoques tradicionales sobre la relación entre música y fuerzas militares. Este texto presenta los hallazgos de la recopilación y análisis de 463 canciones compuestas y/o interpretadas por militares activos y retirados en Colombia entre 1989 y 2021, junto con entrevistas a algunos de estos artistas. Los hallazgos sugieren que abordar este tipo de música, que pocas veces es reconocida como ‘militar’, permite conocer la perspectiva del soldado como individuo en contextos de guerra y posconflicto; facilita la comprensión de la relación entre música institucional y no institucional y los distintos usos que se le da; y abre líneas de investigación sobre la forma en la que estas producciones entran en diálogo con géneros musicales, identidades regionales y el mercado artístico en el que participan.

If elections are fair and free, citizens should accept their results regardless of the party or candidate they voted for. The evaluation of democracy should not be tainted by ‘winning’ or ‘losing’ an election. However, research on ‘losers’ consent’ has demonstrated that winners evaluate the functioning of democracy more positively than losers. We argue that the effect of losing is even more pronounced for populist voters. For them, winning and losing is indicative of the functioning of the democratic system itself. To demonstrate this, we use cross-sectional data from the Comparative Studies of Electoral Systems as well as panel data from Germany and the Netherlands for longitudinal analysis. We show that the more populist a citizen is, the stronger the effect losing is on the level of satisfaction with democracy.

In this rejoinder, we engage with the recent International Theory symposium on Global IR, situating it within the broader literature and outlining intellectual pathways for advancing Global IR’s agenda. We explore how the main critiques identified by the symposium – namely, essentialism, geo-epistemologies, disciplinary reformism, and ahistoricism – have been and can be further addressed through recent developments in Global IR. This rejoinder is not an attempt to prioritise one version of Global IR over another; rather, it emphasises that Global IR comes in multiple versions, and these versions should continue to be a collective work in progress. Our engagement with the evolving debates in Global IR seeks to fulfil the promise of a more global and diverse discipline.