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The Speed of Light in the General Theory of Relativity
No full textThe assumption that a varying speed of light is allowed within the context of General Relativity appears occasionally in the physics literature. It is indicated why this assumption is not supported.Peer-reviewe
Fifty Years of Nation-Making: A Dictionary of Papua New Guinea Dictionary of Biography
No full textNot peer-reviewe
Libs 'break glass' but their crisis will take years to fix
No full textWe learnt several things from the selection of former deputy, Sussan Ley, as the new leader of a defiantly male Liberal Party.Not peer-reviewe
Opening of the North Atlantic Ocean and the rise of Scandinavian mountains
No full textLarge-scale topography is usually associated with tectonic plate boundaries, but the Scandinavian mountains (Scandes) are located far from any active tectonic setting, and their origin is unknown. We demonstrate that the Precambrian lithospheric structure of Fennoscandia controlled both the Cenozoic ocean opening and mountain rise in the North Atlantic region. Our new seismic receiver function analysis reveals a block of thick continental crust formed by Proterozoic crustal stacking. We propose that this block created a wide continental shelf bounded by two transform fault systems during continental breakup. This geometry resulted in the formation of lithospheric steps at the continental margin on both sides of the stacked crustal structure, coinciding with the highest Southern and Northern Scandes. We propose that edge-driven convection at these steps caused the mountain rise. This study presents a general model for the formation of high elevation behind passive margins.This study received support from Independent Research Fund Denmark, grants nos. 4002-00138, 4002-00552B (H. Thybo), and 4002-00553B 211 (H. Thybo, A. Makushkina), and Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement 793824 from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 scheme (B. Tauzin)Peer-reviewe
Populism and Institutional Fortitude: Philippine Engagement With International Law And Institutions During The Duterte Administration
No full textThis article examines the Philippines' engagement with international law and institutions under Duterte's populist presidency. While populism is often associated with hostility toward multilateralism, this case study reveals a more nuanced dynamic. The article argues that state engagement under populist administrations is more complex than assumed, and populist rhetoric does not uniformly dictate international behaviour. Using a novel conceptual framework and empirical data, it analyzes the Philippines' multilateral interactions in human rights, trade, and health. Duterte's government displayed ritualistic engagement with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), constructive engagement with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Health Organization (WHO), and destructive disengagement from the International Criminal Court (ICC). Key themes include the divergence between rhetoric and action, instrumental use of institutions for domestic priorities, and the critical filtering role of domestic institutions. These findings offer broader insights as to how populist states balance domestic imperatives with international commitments, offering broader insights into the interplay between populism, foreign policy, and multilateralism.Peer-reviewe
Plain language summary: does enzalutamide treatment with or without leuprolide improve outcomes and affect quality of life in patients with high-risk biochemical recurrence?
No full textPlain Language Summary: What is this summary about? This is a plain language summary of two research articles originally published in the New England Journal of Medicine and NEJM Evidence. The EMBARK study included patients with a type of advanced prostate cancer called non-metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer (nmCSPC) and high-risk biochemical recurrence (BCR). These patients experience a quick rise in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels after prostate cancer surgery or radiation treatment. Patients with a shorter PSA doubling time (PSADT) have quickly rising PSA levels. The patients from EMBARK had a short PSADT of 9 months or less, and their prostate cancer had not spread to other parts of the body. Prostate cancer treatments that lower testosterone levels, such as leuprolide, are widely used in patients with nmCSPC and high-risk BCR. In the EMBARK study, researchers wanted to know if enzalutamide treatment with or without leuprolide improved outcomes compared with leuprolide and placebo in patients with nmCSPC and high-risk BCR. Researchers also looked at the safety of these medicines and their effect on quality of life. What were the results? Researchers found that patients who received enzalutamide with or without leuprolide had a longer time until cancer spread to other parts of the body or death. It also took longer for their PSA levels to rise further and for them to start a new prostate cancer treatment. No new side effects were seen in the enzalutamide groups beyond those already known for enzalutamide. The most common side effects in all groups were hot flash, tiredness, and joint pain. The common side effects in the enzalutamide alone group were gynecomastia and breast tenderness. The median time that it took until patients had a confirmed drop in overall quality of life was similar between the enzalutamide combination, the enzalutamide alone, and the leuprolide plus placebo groups. What do the results of the study mean? Enzalutamide with or without leuprolide improved outcomes in patients with nmCSPC and high-risk BCR without making overall quality of life worse. The amount and type of side effects in the enzalutamide groups were similar to the findings from past studies. These results may help doctors and patients choose the right treatment for nmCSPC and high-risk BCR. Who should read this article? This summary is for anyone interested in knowing more about this topic, regardless of background, knowledge, or education. This is an abstract of the Plain Language Summary of Publication article. View the full Plain Language Summary PDF of this article to read the full-text.This study was sponsored by Pfizer Inc. and Astellas Pharma Inc., the co-developers of enzalutamide.Peer-reviewe
Three Essays in Life Cycle Modelling
No full textThis thesis explores critical aspects of discrete-time life-cycle modeling, focusing on optimization techniques and decision-making strategies for retirement planning and portfolio management. It is composed of three essays, each addressing distinct but interrelated challenges in life-cycle financial models.
The first essay establishes a proof of monotonicity between pre-decision and post-decision state variables, with particular focus on the savings function, in the context of stochastic portfolio optimization using the Endogenous Gridpoint Method (EGM). Establishing this proof reinforces the theoretical validity of applying EGM in this setting and helps ensure that a key structural condition, namely monotonicity, is satisfied. This extends the method's applicability to a broader class of problems involving stochastic portfolio returns and addresses a gap in prior literature where this assumption was often left unverified.
The second essay investigates a life-cycle retirement planning problem, comparing four different investment strategies: Self-Management with Dynamic Investment, Self-Management with Benchmark Investment, Hire-Management with Flexible Allocation, and Hire-Management with Alpha Focus. Using dynamic programming techniques, this study optimizes investment allocation and consumption patterns during the Defined Contribution accumulation phase, leading to a life annuity purchase at retirement. The results show that while delegated investment options can enhance a worker's retirement outcome, higher fund fees in the US market and associated agency cost may limit their value.
The third essay explores the application of the Least-Squares Monte Carlo (LSMC) method to life-cycle utility-based models in retirement savings, a field where its use has been relatively limited. By comparing LSMC's computational efficiency and accuracy with traditional dynamic programming method (i.e., Value Function Iteration), the study highlights its potential to improve decision-making in post-retirement financial planning, particularly in optimizing investment, consumption, and annuitization strategies.
Together, these essays contribute to the literature on life-cycle financial planning by offering new insights into the mathematical and computational techniques that enhance decision-making for both individuals and financial institutions
Subjective and objectives measures of frailty among adults with advanced chronic kidney disease: a cross-sectional analysis of clinician misclassification
No full textBackground: Frailty is a recognisable clinical measure of impaired physiological reserve and vulnerability to adverse outcomes that is validated among patients with kidney disease. Practice patterns reveal inconsistent use of objective frailty measures by nephrologists, with clinicians prioritising subjective clinical impressions, possibly risking misclassification and discrimination. Aims: The aim of this study was to examine correlations between subjective and objective measures of frailty in a cohort of patients attending routine nephrologist review. Methods: Eighty-nine participants attending scheduled review with their primary treating nephrologist (n = 6) were included in cross-sectional analysis. Measured frailty based on Fried phenotype and subjective clinician impression were assessed for congruence using Pearson's correlation analysis and ĸ statistic. Ordinal logistic regression examined patient demographics associated with perceived frailty. Misclassification was explored using descriptive statistics and contingency table analysis. Results: Frailty and prefrailty were prevalent by both objective and subjective means of assessment with minimal correlation between clinician impression and measured Fried phenotype (r = 0.50, P = 0.00, ĸ = 0.25, P = 0.00). Subjective clinician impression misclassified half of participants, influenced by surrogate frailty measures including female sex, comorbidity and reliance on a walking aid. Clinicians were equally likely to over-classify prefrailty as to under-recognise established frailty, with no evidence of systemic misclassification bias. Subjective clinican impression of frailty had a positive predictive value of 19.1% and a negative predictive value of 56.2%. Conclusions: Nephrologists' reliance on subjective clinical impressions that overlook or misclassify prefrailty offers incomplete prognostic assessment and potentially misses opportunities for early intervention.The authors would like to acknowledge the patient participants of the Department of Renal Medicine, Canberra Health Services and the individual nephrologists who made this study possible. This work was conducted on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal people. We acknowledge their ongoing connection to the lands and their Elders past, present and emerging.Peer-reviewe
Medicago truncatula supernodulation mutants sunn4 and lss show enhanced seed yield and seed nitrogen allocation from nitrogen fixation under low nitrogen availability
No full textBackground and Aims: Symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legumes has an energetic cost, which the host controls through inhibition of nodulation in response to externally available nitrogen. Autoregulation of nodulation (AON) mutants supernodulate, even in the presence of sufficient nitrogen. Here, we tested whether three AON mutants of Medicago truncatula, sunn4, rdn1-1 and lss, display fitness costs due to supernodulation, and to what extent this is dependent on the supply of nitrogen. Methods: We grew wild type (WT) and AON mutants under controlled conditions with a supply of either 0.5 or 2 mM of 15N-labelled nitrate until seed maturation, and determined biomass, seed yield, tissue N content, and N derived from nitrogen fixation. Plants were either inoculated with Sinorhizobium meliloti or left uninoculated. Results: The sunn4 and lss, but not rdn1-1 mutant showed significantly higher seed yield than the WT plants in the low (0.5 mM) nitrate treatment, but only if they were inoculated with rhizobia. The mutants allocated significantly higher proportion of N derived from nitrogen fixation to seeds. At the higher (2 mM) nitrate concentration, mutants and WT showed similar biomass and N derived from nitrogen fixation. Conclusions: We conclude that, despite the higher potential energetic cost of supernodulation, nodulated sunn4 and lss AON mutants can have a fitness advantage (higher yield and biomass) under low N due to higher nitrogen fixation over the whole growth period, and that they allocate more fixed N and more biomass into their seeds than WT plants, at least under controlled conditions.Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions. The study was funded through the Australian Research Council grant DP120102970.Peer-reviewe