Trichinellosis is a global foodborne zoonotic disease. Numerous drugs used in its treatment exhibit inadequate absorption and diminished efficacy against encysted larvae in muscle tissue. Therefore, there is a need for innovative therapeutic agents to treat trichinellosis. Allium sativum (A. sativum), commonly known as garlic, is a bulbous plant that has been historically utilized in the treatment of various ailments. Currently, there is a paucity of data regarding the in vivo efficacy of A. sativum against trichinellosis. This study assessed the antiparasitic, anti-inflammatory, and antiapoptotic effects of A. sativum in murine models, independently or in conjunction with albendazole (ABZ), against the intestinal and muscular stages of trichinellosis. Fifty mice were equally categorized into five groups: negative control, positive control, ABZ, A. sativum, and a combination of ABZ and A. sativum. The effectiveness of the examined drugs was assessed through parasitological, biochemical, histological, and immunohistochemical methodologies. A. sativum resulted in a significant reduction of adult counts by 39.7% and larval counts by 54.4%. The inflammatory cellular infiltrate in the intestine and muscle was significantly reduced. In mice treated with A. sativum, serum levels of IFN-γ exhibited a significant increase, accompanied by a rise in Bcl-2 expression and a notable decrease in COX-2 expression. In conclusion, A. sativum demonstrates potential as a therapeutic agent for treating experimental trichinellosis, particularly during the muscle phase of the disease. It may serve as a safe promising therapy for trichinellosis.

We consider three American policy controversies that have entailed memorable drives to repeal congressional measures. Those drives have targeted the Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition), Section 14b of the Taft–Hartley Act, and the Affordable Care Act. We do not consider the actual conduct of these repeal drives. We consider the overall policy controversies in which the drives have figured. Components of this focus include factors related to political geography, Congress’s deliberative content and style, the U.S. system of vertical federalism, the U.S. system of elections, the role of crises, and the consequences of conflict. One line of takeaway is the following. In each of these three policy enterprises, we see a kind of controversy in which extreme intensity has joined with striking geographic differentiation in views. As a practical matter, the policymaking process in these cases has enrolled a multiplicity of actors, including the states as well as the public, and it has extended across time. All this activity has arguably constituted the policymaking process. In these instances, this is how the country has been making certain of its major decisions—jaggedly and extendedly. A congressional enactment can be just a first draft.

While extensive research exists on general pornography consumption, there is limited focus on the consumption of non-preferred sexual content and its potential associated discomfort. In 2019, a total of 1,133 Spanish men aged between 18 and 40 years (M = 24.78; SD = 5.91) completed a questionnaire regarding their consumption of male–female, female–female, and male–male pornography, the attentional focus, as well as the discomfort they experienced when aroused by such materials. The results were analyzed based on five groups of sexual attraction, ranging from “exclusively heterosexual” to “exclusively gay.” Regardless of sexual attraction, men reported consuming and experiencing arousal by all three types of pornography. Exclusively heterosexual men primarily consumed and were aroused by male–female and female–female pornography, while exclusively gay men preferred male–female and male–male pornography. Men with nonexclusive sexual attraction, especially bisexual men, exhibited high levels of consumption and arousal across all types of pornography evaluated. When watching male–female pornography, exclusively heterosexual men reported focusing more on women, exclusively gay men on men, and men with nonexclusive attractions on interactions among individuals. Male–male pornography material caused the most discomfort. These findings illustrate the variety of experiences of consumption and arousal by pornography, even from featuring non-preferred sexual activities. The study also highlights the associated discomfort, particularly with male–male pornography. Further exploration is needed to understand the phenomenon behind this discomfort, such as internalized desires, and to promote a more flexible understanding of sexual identities to support inclusive and healthy sexual health practices.

The European Union (EU) has embraced the “twin transition” – the simultaneous pursuit of digitalisation and ecological transformation – as a cornerstone of its industrial policy. EU lawmakers argue that digital technologies can advance environmental protection by enhancing environmental monitoring, optimising resource use, and enabling data-driven sustainability efforts. However, this vision tends to overlook the environmental costs of digitalisation, including rising energy and water consumption, intensive resource extraction, and the proliferation of electronic waste. This article critically examines whether EU law is adequately equipped to support a twin transition, drawing on a black-letter analysis of EU legal provisions, as well as insights from science and technology studies and critical environmental law. It posits that, while environmental law plays a significant role in the datafication of the environment and the digitalisation of society, it falls short in regulating digital technology and data in ways that advance sustainability. For the twin transition to evolve beyond a political slogan and deliver real ecological benefits, substantial legal reforms would be required. The regulation of digital technology would have to move beyond corporate self-regulation and disclosure-based models of environmental governance. Data governance should be reoriented to emphasise freedom of access and a more deliberatively restrained approach to data generation.

Tras revisar los datos arqueotanatológicos registrados desde el siglo diecinueve y realizar el análisis bioantropológico de todos los componentes esqueléticos humanos correspondientes, exponemos por primera vez un análisis integral del patrón mortuorio de Palenque-Lakamha’, cuya monumentalización data del Clásico Maya. Describimos la amplia distribución de sepulturas en los diferentes sectores del asentamiento, el elevado número de edificios dedicados a las prácticas funerarias, la preferencia por el uso de cistas, la frecuente colocación de más de un individuo en el mismo espacio sepulcral y la estandarización de la posición extendida en decúbito dorsal, con orientación al norte.

Un aspecto sobresaliente es el reingreso a los sepulcros, particularmente en entierros colectivos, depositados en contenedores de piedra, que presentan remoción, desplazamiento o ingreso de muertos y/o artefactos. Además de la identificación de esta secuencia funeraria que explica la desviación del patrón mortuorio, se propone una interpretación basada en datos etnográficos para entender la interacción entre vivos y muertos.

La distribución de los sepulcros, la prominencia de la actividad post-inhumación y los datos iconográficos y epigráficos sugieren que Palenque-Lakamha’ pudo haber sido un lugar vinculado al pasaje liminal hacia el inframundo, donde la frecuente interacción con los muertos y el importante número de mausoleos permitía entablar diálogos con el sagrado y, por ende, renovar los ciclos cósmicos.

An interesting aspect of the Nicene Creed is that it asks its adherents to not only affirm their belief in God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit but also their belief in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. The call to believe in the Church raises at least two interrelated questions: (1) What does it mean for the Church to be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic? (2) What ought to be the nature of the Christian’s faith in the Church? This paper explores these two questions by drawing on Anselm of Canterbury’s ecclesiology and his well-known approach to the relationship between faith and reason, fides quaerens intellectum. While many have discussed the importance of faith seeking understanding for Anselm as it pertains to God, this paper will focus on how Anselm’s understanding of the interworking of belief and understanding can help us think about what it means to believe in the Church.

The purpose of this retrospective population-based study of adults aged ≥50 years was to examine associations between older age, multimorbidity, and self-rated perceptions of health with frequent emergency department (ED) visits. Using Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) 2015–16 data, a multivariate logistic regression model was generated to evaluate associations between predictor variables and frequent ED use. The study sample included data for 57,138 participants across Canada, equating to approximately 13,091,592 when sampling weights applied. Frequent ED use was associated with older age, male sex, multimorbidity, and lower household income. Lower self-rated levels of health were most strongly associated with frequent ED use. Having a primary health care provider was not a significant predictor in univariate or multivariate analyses. Older adults who are frequent ED attenders are a distinct population whose characteristics need to be understood to target strategies for those who most need them to improve quality care and outcomes.

This study outlines design principles for a generic thermal management system (TMS) using a multi-design point approach. Four TMS configurations were analysed for a regional turboprop and short-haul type aircraft, focusing on total system gross power as an indicator of cost and environmental impact. Mechanisms were introduced to prevent coolant freezing. Results highlight the puller fan configuration as the most beneficial, leveraging temperature differentials and using the Meredith effect for increased operating capability. The ram-air configuration is slightly more efficient than the puller fan configuration for regional aircraft, but only for high system efficiencies and with operational constraints (taxiing in hot day conditions). Dual fan configurations offer significant thrust but also increased mass. The dual fan configuration shows comparable total system gross power to the puller fan for short-haul aircraft in cruise conditions, but not for regional aircraft. The pusher fan is not optimal for both aircraft types since the radiator significantly increases the heat exchanger inlet temperature, which results in higher drawbacks in terms of mass and total system gross power. In conclusion, the study emphasises the necessity to consider all relevant effects in the TMS design, such as drag, mass and efficiency, to allow the design of an optimal overall system.

This paper presents a probabilistic model of loanword accentuation in Japanese, analysing a corpus of 3,017 English-based loanwords. Through corpus analysis and computational modelling, the study reveals that Japanese loanword accentuation involves two distinct types of faithfulness effects, alongside markedness effects. First, there is a significant influence of the stress patterns of English source words and the epenthetic status of loanword syllables. This challenges the common assumption that accents driven by faithfulness are merely sporadic exceptions, highlighting instead a probabilistic interplay between faithfulness and markedness. Second, this study uncovers faithfulness to Japanese speakers’ implicit knowledge of the English stress system. Rather than merely imitating the stress patterns of individual English words, Japanese speakers develop an internalised theory of the English stress system and mimic what they believe is the correct pronunciation according to their internalised theory.

This article explores the role of ideology in shaping Russia’s foreign and security policies, addressing whether it serves as a genuine guiding principle for the ruling elite or merely functions as a strategic tool to legitimise authoritarian rule and challenge the international order. Rather than focusing solely on Vladimir Putin, this study highlights the plurality of elite groups engaged in the production and contestation of strategic ideas. It highlights two key dimensions of ideology’s influence: first, its structural role in shaping elite networks and defining their internal power struggles, particularly among hawkish groups seeking policy influence; second, its instrumental function as a resource exchanged between ideological actors and policymakers, where ruling elites actively promote or demote ideological groups to justify strategic shifts in foreign and security policy. By analysing both the bottom-up diffusion of ideological narratives and the top-down mechanisms of state sponsorship, this research advances a nuanced understanding of how ideology interacts with domestic power dynamics, social environments, and international constraints to shape policy outcomes.

We study a two-dimensional discounted optimal stopping zero-sum (or Dynkin) game related to perpetual redeemable convertible bonds expressed as game (or Israeli) options in a model of financial markets in which the behaviour of the ex-dividend price of a dividend-paying asset follows a generalized geometric Brownian motion. It is assumed that the dynamics of the random dividend rate of the asset paid to shareholders are described by the mean-reverting filtering estimate of an unobservable continuous-time Markov chain with two states. It is shown that the optimal exercise (conversion) and withdrawal (redemption) times forming a Nash equilibrium are the first times at which the asset price hits either lower or upper stochastic boundaries being monotone functions of the running value of the filtering estimate of the state of the chain. We rigorously prove that the optimal stopping boundaries are regular for the stopping region relative to the resulting two-dimensional diffusion process and that the value function is continuously differentiable with respect to the both variables. It is verified by means of a change-of-variable formula with local time on surfaces that the optimal stopping boundaries are determined as a unique solution to the associated coupled system of nonlinear Fredholm integral equations among the couples of continuous functions of bounded variation satisfying certain conditions. We also give a closed-form solution to the appropriate optimal stopping zero-sum game in the corresponding model with an observable continuous-time Markov chain.

Neodiplostomum vaucheri Dubois, 1983 is a digenean trematode originally described from the intestine of the woolly false vampire bat, Chrotopterus auritus (Peters, 1856), in the northwestern Peruvian Amazon. Decades later, it was also reported from the fringe-lipped bat, Trachops cirrhosis (Spix, 1823), in Ecuador. During a helminthological survey of phyllostomid bats at the Kawsay Biological Station in Madre de Dios, southeastern Peruvian Amazonia, specimens of Neodiplostomum Railliet, 1919 were recovered from the intestine of T. cirrhosus. Morphological comparisons with the holotype confirmed these specimens as conspecific with N. vaucheri. Phylogenetic inference supported the morphological identification, recovering the Peruvian isolate with an N. vaucheri isolate from another South American region within the same clade, with strong support (ML = 90; BI = 0.9587). The observed genetic divergence (4.47% under the Kimura two-parameter model and 4.27% based on uncorrected p-distances) in the partial cox1 sequence may indicate cryptic diversity, as previously noted in congeners. This represents the first integrative characterization of a digenean from a bat host in Peru, contributing to our understanding of parasite diversity in neotropical chiropterans. Furthermore, the use of third-generation sequencing technology (Oxford Nanopore) proved effective for generating reliable partial gene sequences, underscoring its applicability in molecular helminthology.

The secretion of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is stimulated by luminal nutrients after meal ingestion. Diet-induced obesity (DIO) may affect nutrient-induced GLP-1 secretion in humans and rodent models. We previously demonstrated that mixed meal-induced GLP-1 secretion is enhanced in rats with DIO compared with normal rats. However, it is unclear to which nutrient the GLP-1 secretion is adaptively enhanced or reduced during the development of DIO. The present study investigated the effect of obesity on the GLP-1 secretion to individual nutrients and further on GLP-1 secretory functions of the proximal and distal small intestine in rats. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a control diet or a high-fat diet with sucrose solution (HFS) for 4–5 weeks. GLP-1 responses to a single oral administration of a liquid diet, dextrin, soyabean oil or whey protein were examined after 4 weeks of dietary intervention. In addition, a liquid diet was administered to the proximal or distal small intestine of anaesthetised rats (control or HFS), and GLP-1 levels in the portal vein plasma were measured. In HFS-fed rats, GLP-1 secretion to dextrin, soyabean oil and whey protein slightly increased compared with those in normal rats. Furthermore, the GLP-1 response to liquid diet administration into the lumen was greater in the distal, but not proximal, small intestine of HFS-fed rats than that in control rats. In rats with DIO, GLP-1 secretion increased, regardless of the type of nutrient. Furthermore, the distal small intestine is responsible for adaptive enhancement of the GLP-1 secretion.

This article examines the Canada-United States Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) in relation to a growing literature on bureaucrats’ role in immigration policy making, while challenging interpretations of the agreement as a “Europeanization” of Canadian policy. Canada is a prototypical liberal “migration state” that balances economic considerations, national security, rights and broader cultural concerns through its immigration regime. We open the “black box” of the state to examine how bureaucratic decision making informed the development of Canada’s asylum system. Drawing on interviews, archival materials and government documents, we show bureaucrats simultaneously sought to manage asylum backlogs and ensure compliance with international obligations while countering advocacy group opposition. The STCA reflects a uniquely Canadian approach to balancing competing imperatives in refugee policy, highlighting the role of bureaucrats in shaping immigration policy within domestic and international constraints. This research contributes to understanding the historical development of migration control policies in liberal democracies.

On October 21, 2022, the Spanish Competition Agency (CNMC) sanctioned the North American pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp & Dohme for abuse of a dominant position. The practice for which it was finally sanctioned consisted of the adoption of a strategy aimed at delaying and making it difficult for another company to enter the Spanish medicines market in order to protect sales for a product marketed exclusively by that company and for which had a patent. This paper analyzes this resolution in an attempt to delimit the difference between the legitimate exercise of the right to effective judicial protection and its abuse.

This article examines transnational appeals for humanitarian intervention to the League of Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the aftermath of the First World War, focusing on conflicts in Ireland, Montenegro and the Rif (Morocco). It analyses how participants and international organisations strategically framed these conflicts, often shifting between designations of ‘civil war’ and ‘imperial war’ to solicit or deflect intervention on humanitarian grounds. Despite public expectations placed on the ICRC and League both organisations were reluctant to intervene against imperial powers, prioritising maintaining the international order over investigating insurgents’ claims. Though insurgents appealed through the rhetoric of ‘humanity’, this was a selective category, reinforcing existing racial and religious hierarchies in Europe. By analysing these conflicts together this article demonstrates that ‘civil war’ was not a fixed category but a fluid and contested concept, instrumentally deployed in the dialogue between belligerents, international organisations and imperial powers.

A finite-time adaptive composite integral sliding mode control strategy based on a fast finite-time observer is proposed for trajectory tracking of the Stewart parallel robot, considering unmodeled uncertainties and external disturbances. First, a global finite-time converging sliding mode surface composed of intermediate variables and integral terms is established to eliminate steady-state tracking errors. Next, a fast finite-time extended state observer is designed to compensate for uncertainties and external disturbances, improving the robustness of the control system. Finally, based on this, a finite-time sliding mode control rate is designed. The gain value is adjusted through an adaptive reaching law to reduce sliding mode chattering, and global finite-time convergence of the system is theoretically proven using Lyapunov theory. Experimental verification shows that the proposed control strategy has stronger robustness to uncertainties and external disturbances, faster error convergence, less chattering, and higher stability accuracy.

The archives of the London Corn Trade Association shed light on how open competitive commodity markets expanded during the First Global Era in spite of hard, non-cooperative geopolitics. This private body, fully controlled by elite merchants, standardised supply, turning grains into fungible commodities; it arbitrated disputes; and it offered to traders standard contracts that integrated the international value chains. Enforcement rested on market power: few merchant houses in the world dared being expelled from the London market. Private rules and contracts thus applied extra-territorially, without being much affected by the political regimes on the ground. But they were also upheld by the London courts and the Bank of England, so that they were both local and global, therefore imperial. Market power, private ordering, and legal pluralism should be seen as a defining feature of Britain’s global economic governance.