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Basic-needs sufficientarianism
Get PDFBasic-needs sufficientarianism holds that everyone should have enough in the sense of having their basic needs satisfied. Though a common form of sufficientarianism, basic-needs sufficientarianism is underexplored even by its proponents. This article significantly advances understanding of basic-needs sufficientarianism in three respects. First, it identifies basic-needs sufficientarians’ stances on key issues such as whether basic needs are of fundamental or instrumental value, the grounding of that value, the weighting assigned to basic needs, and the treatment of subthreshold distribution. Second, it argues that the common commitment of these theories to the fundamental value of basic needs is unsustainable whether it is grounded in the universality of basic needs or their connection with autonomy. Third, it proposes an instrumental
form of basic-needs sufficientarianism that is truer to the core motivation of ensuring everyone has sufficient food, water, clothing, shelter, sanitation and healthcare while offering an appealing and theoretically grounded approach to the contested question of sufficientarian subthreshold distribution
Commercial baby foods: nutrition, marketing and motivations for use—a narrative review
Get PDFA growing body of research on commercial baby foods (CBFs) has reported nutritional composition, marketing, and labelling concerns. We aimed to review and consolidate the evidence on CBFs marketed for children 0–36 months in the UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand to inform UK policy by highlighting key issues with the current retail offer. A systematic search conducted on PubMed and Web of Science on three topics: (1) Nutritional Composition, Flavour Profile and Texture, (2) Marketing and Labelling, and (3) Parental Choice and Preferences. Studies on CBFs were included if conducted in English in specified countries, age, and published between 2019 and 2024. Out of 3143 studies screened, 31 full papers were separated into three topics and reviewed. Topic 1: Out of all products sampled, 56% were puréed and 18% were snacks. The median sugar content per 100 g (IQR) were 10.4 g (1.0) in purées, 20.3 g (9.9) in snacks, and 14.7 g (14.4) in cereals. Nearly half of all products contained added or free sugars (n = 13 studies), and 62% when looking at snacks alone (n = 6 studies). Topic 2: Six out of 9 studies had ‘no added sugar’ claims, and eight studies reported finding claims related to health or nutrition. Topic 3: All studies reported that health/development/nutrition were motivations to purchase CBFs, and 75% mentioned ‘baby's enjoyment’, ‘convenience/time’, and ‘safety’. Purées and snacks dominate the CBF market and are often high in sugars. Marketing claims are misleading and exploit parents' fears to motivate use
Organic material-derived activated carbon for ecofriendly mulberry paper supercapacitor
Get PDFPaper has gained increasing attention as promising flexible substrate for deformable energy storage systems. However, since low mechanical strength and chemical resistance of commercial paper limited its practical application, mulberry paper (MP) has alternatively studied, which exhibits high holocellulose content, hydrophilicity, and strong bonding with active material. Herein, we prepared activated carbon (AC) using a one of common waste, orange peel (OP), and coated it on MP with additional coating of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), thereby, fabricating hybrid-coated MP for supercapacitor. The prepared AC exhibited enlarged surface area from 1.774 to 986.010 m2/g, and increased total pore volume of 0.639 cm3/g. Furthermore, additional coating of pseudocapacitive material enhanced electrochemical performance. Specific areal capacitance increased approximately 2.3 times, especially showing 78.95 ± 3.04 mF/cm2 under scan rate of 100 mV/s. Moreover, fabricated electrode exhibited enhanced energy density of 3.01 µW h/cm2 at current density of 0.5 mA/cm2, thereby, complementing low energy density of electric double layer (EDL) capacitive material. This approach, which combines biomass-derived AC and MP with hybrid PEDOT:PSS coating, presents a promising pathway for next-generation sustainable energy storage systems
The application of neutron imaging to examine ethene hydrogenation over a carbon-supported palladium catalyst
Get PDFThe combination of a heterogeneous catalyst operating within a defined reactor comes within the domain of reaction engineering, which takes cognisance of combined roles for both the catalyst and the reactor to define the overall operational system. One technique which is demonstrating much promise in investigating reaction engineering issues is neutron imaging. The technique is skewed towards monitoring hydrogen and hydrogenous species so, with hydrogen being ubiquitous in industrial organic chemistry and the penetrating power of the neutrons, neutron imaging can monitor hydrogen concentrations distributed throughout steel reactors whilst the reaction is taking place. In this way, neutron imaging can be used to assess the homogeneity of active catalyst beds and, additionally, determine how hydrogen is being partitioned throughout the catalyst bed as a function of time-on-stream. These are important parameters in the reaction engineering of catalytic systems involving transformations of hydrogen containing species. The article commences by reviewing the handful of existing neutron imaging studies in this field, then progresses to describe the application of the neutron imaging technique to investigate ethene hydrogenation over a 5 wt% Pd/C powder catalyst at 333 K and ambient pressure in a rectangular stainless-steel reactor. Modulations of the incident gas stream are seen to lead to spatially resolvable fronts moving across the bed and illustrate the diffusion of reagents from the reactor inlet across to the reactor exit. Thus, the investigation reveals spatially and temporally resolved elementary reactions that contribute to the hydrogenation process
Experimental investigation into the onset of stall on tiltrotor blades in propeller mode
Get PDFThis paper presents the results of a wind tunnel investigation into the stall of tiltrotor blades in propeller mode. Blades were instrumented with fully bridged axial and shear strain gauges, so that the flap bending and torsional strains could be monitored at two radial locations each. The power demand of the propeller was analysed by measuring the motor torque. The propeller was tested in a range of conditions, varying blade pitch angles, advance ratios, and rotational frequencies to clearly assess the blade stall boundary. Stall was identified by analysing the torque data, and both the steady and unsteady content of the strain gauge data. As the pitch angle was increased, a more sudden development of stall was observed when varying the rotational frequency at constant advance ratio than when increasing the advance ratio at constant rotational speed
Habitat suitability for tropical Asian stingless bees across anthropogenic landscapes
No full textStingless bees are key pollinators of both wild plants and crops in tropical Asia and are exploited for honey production and pollination services. Despite their importance, little is known about their habitat preferences in anthropogenic landscapes. We aimed to identify critical environmental variables influencing the distribution of six genera of Asian stingless bees as well as the overall stingless bee community, to identify suitable and core anthropogenic habitats, and to identify priority habitats for conservation in Thailand. We adopted a range of modeling approaches to estimate habitat suitability based on key environmental variables such as landscape features, climate, topography, and vegetation. Our results indicate that the habitat suitability for stingless bee community is strongly influenced by landscape factors including distance to nearest forest, proportions of paddy fields, forest, field crops, and villages. Among the six genera studied, Tetragonula showed the largest areas of suitable anthropogenic habitats. This may be because Tetragonula is the most diverse and widespread of all Old World stingless bees. For the overall stingless bee community, suitable anthropogenic habitats (defined as areas with a probability of occurrence > 0.195, with this threshold determined by maximizing the sum of sensitivity and specificity), and core anthropogenic habitats (defined as areas with a probability of occurrence > 0.9), accounted for 19.06% and 0.09% of the country’s area, respectively. Approximately 2% of the country’s land are considered high-priority habitats that are suitable for at least 4 genera of stingless bees (defined as areas with a probability of occurrences > 0.5) across human-modified landscapes. However, since this study could not distinguish between wild and managed populations, the findings likely reflect both the ability of stingless bees to persist in human-modified landscapes and the potential influence of beekeeping activities
Problem optimization of ray tracing through the crystalline lens of the eye with an artificial neural network and Grey Wolf optimizer
No full textRay tracing through the crystalline lens of the eye is a complex optical problem traditionally
tackled by mathematical techniques that may lack optimal accuracy. This paper introduces
a novel method that integrates the Grey Wolf optimizer (GWO) with an artificial neural
network (ANN), termed ANNGWO, to enhance the precision of ray tracing through the lens.
The ANNGWO approach involves defining a cost function with a multi-layer neural network
incorporating three activation functions: Log-sigmoid, Radial basis, and Tan-sigmoid. GWO is
then employed to optimize this cost function, effectively simulating the intricate geometry of
the crystalline lens. The methodology includes designing a multi-layer ANN with the activation
function to model the ray tracing problem.This is followed by constructing the cost function
by formulating the unsupervised error function for the equation and its initial conditions.
Subsequently, GWO is utilized to minimize this cost function, thereby enhancing the accuracy of
the simulation. The performance of ANNGWO is compared with traditional methods, including
the Laplace decomposition method (LDM), multi-step differential transform method (MDTM),
and the fourth-order Runge–Kutta method (RKM). Numerical experiments demonstrate that
ANNGWO significantly improves accuracy. For instance, the mean absolute error (AE) using
the Log-sigmoid activation function is 6.869 × 10−2 for 10 neurons. Best-case AE values range
from 3.390 × 10−4 to 1.169 × 10−2
, outperforming traditional methods. Additionally, ANNGWO
exhibits consistently lower standard deviation of absolute error across all time steps, reflecting
enhanced stability. Compared to LDM, MDTM, and RKM, ANNGWO achieves a significant
reduction in error, underscoring its superior precision and reliability. The method’s ability to
avoid local minima and its robust convergence behavior make it a powerful tool for simulating
light movement in the eye, with promising applications in vision research and ocular imagin
Social network characteristics associated with mid-to-older aged adults’ co-engagement in physical activity
Get PDFObjectives:
Physical activity is associated with a greater quantity and quality of social connections. Participating in physical activity with others (co-engagement) has dual physical and social benefits that can promote healthy ageing. We aimed to understand the social network characteristics of mid-to-older aged adults associated with co-engagement in physical activity.
Methods:
Adults aged 55–75 years completed a social network survey (3679 social contacts reported by 140 participants). Multilevel modelling was used to identify the characteristics of participants, social contacts, and relationships that were predictive of co-engagement in physical activity.
Results:
Network size and relationship quality were not associated with co-engagement. Similarity in age, greater interaction frequency, closer geographic proximity, and shorter relationship length were associated with higher odds of co-engagement.
Discussion:
For co-engagement, the quality and quantity of relationships were less important than the convenience and accessibility of relationships, particularly newer relationships. As such, co-engagement ties can be understood as part of a dynamic social convoy which fulfil a specific function at a specific life stage. An understanding of naturally occurring tendencies for co-engagement may be utilised to identify leverage points for the development of interventions
Climate change on a fluid earth: the movement of matter in the spaces of global politics
Get PDFThe dominant understandings of space that inform International Relations (IR) theories struggle to account for the material dynamism of the natural environment. From neo-realism through to constructivism and post-structuralist IR perspectives, the natural environment is relegated to the background of analysis as the seemingly stable backdrop against which humans do global politics. Supporting this relegation is an associated tendency among IR theorists to view nature abstractly, rather than materially, in alignment with the cartographic imagination. Meanwhile, realist scholars adhering to the tenets of classical geopolitics foreground the natural environment as a factor in global politics yet view it as ontologically static and materially deterministic in its effects. In an era of unprecedented spatial flux amid human-induced climate change, this article seeks to contribute to ongoing efforts in IR and political geography to develop alternative spatial frameworks that can account for the natural environment’s material dynamism and instability. To do so, the article adopts a post-humanist framework that centres matter’s ontological fluidity and mobility. By affording primacy to matter-in-motion, it is argued, a richer understanding of space as performatively produced through relational processes can be developed, where attention is attuned not only to what matter ‘does’, but also how it moves
Obesity substantially impacts rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases: time to act
Get PDFObesity is a major health problem and risk factor for many chronic health conditions, including rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs). Around 7 in 10 adults with RMD live overweight or with obesity. Obesity not only increases the risk of developing RMDs. It worsens disease activity, pain, and fatigue; impairs treatment responses; and thereby reduces quality of life and physical function. Further, obesity can amplify or drive several comorbidities that are more prevalent in RMDs including hypertension, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. Moreover, reciprocal risk arises since RMDs make it harder to be physically active and maintain a healthy weight, especially in the context of an obesogenic environment. In this viewpoint, we review relevant evidence to suggest obesity
confers distinctive, important challenges in care and daily living for many patients with RMDs. With the advent of several highly effective drugs for obesity, we also highlight research needs including that for robust clinical trials to test the efficacy and effectiveness of these therapies as part of the management of inflammatory RMDs, as primary agent or adjuvant to immune targeted therapeutics. Implementing such weight management strategies should provide a muchneeded holistic approach to the care of our patients
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