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Election Defined
Get PDFIn contract law, an ‘election’ conventionally refers to certain finally binding choices exercised outside of court—including to rescind or affirm and to terminate or affirm a contract. This article proposes a new analysis of ‘election’, as a choice between mutually exclusive powers which destroy one another. One power (eg the power to rescind/terminate) changes the power holder’s legal relations with respect to another by destroying a primary set of rights and the other power. The other power (eg the power to affirm) destroys the former power without affecting any pre-existing set of primary rights. This ‘two power model’ explains why affirmation is binding, and thereby gives the concept of ‘election’ some explanatory value
Predictable atmospheric circulation driver of Eurasian winter temperatures
Get PDFIn contrast to global warming trends, much of Eurasia experienced a winter cooling trend over 1990–2014. Some studies have proposed a causal link between this regional cooling, particularly strong over Siberia, to coincident reductions in Arctic sea-ice extent. However, free-running historical climate models overwhelmingly simulate a forced Eurasian warming signal, leading other studies to suggest that internal variability explains the observed cooling. Here, we use retrospective seasonal climate predictions to highlight a robust dynamical link between Siberian cooling and upstream north-east Atlantic atmospheric circulation changes. Examining the interannual predictability of these circulation patterns, we find spuriously weak but skilful model signals. When these weak dynamical signals are corrected, stronger low-frequency variability in downstream Siberian temperature also emerges, with half of the observed 1990–2014 cooling simulated. Our results suggest that Eurasian decadal climate variability is at least partly driven by a predictable atmospheric circulation response to slowly evolving boundary conditions
National climate change impact assessments underestimate the potential of autonomous adaptation
Get PDFCentral Europe is projected to lose up to 25% of its crop productivity by 2050 because of climate change, posing significant challenges to agricultural systems and food security. Effective adaptation strategies must consider not only domestic impacts but also global climate effects, including international trade dynamics. We performed a multilevel analysis of climate change impacts on agriculture, using the Czech Republic, a landlocked, crop production-based economy with an open market, as a case study. We integrated the global biosphere management model (GLOBIOM) with the gridded global crop model EPIC-IIASA. Climate impacts were projected with five global circulation models under three climate scenarios, with and without CO2 fertilization, and applied in national, EU-regional, and global productivity change scenarios. The results show that national-only assessments underestimate both risks and opportunities: production is projected to decline by up to 9% when global interactions are excluded but to increase by up to 8% when trade and market effects are included. Autonomous adaptation mechanisms, such as cropland reallocation, shifts in management intensity, and trade adjustments, buffer biophysical yield losses and improve economic outcomes. Neglecting global interactions in national climate change assessments increases the risk of maladaptation and policy inefficiencies. The incorporation of international market linkages enhances the ability to design robust adaptation strategies, enabling countries such as the Czech Republic to maximize resilience while minimizing environmental and socioeconomic trade-offs
A multidimensional framework for mapping social need to electronic health records in people with multimorbidity
Get PDFSocial needs are sociocultural and economic factors influencing health and quality of life, including, for example, mobility limitations or financial difficulties. Multimorbidity - the presence of two or more long-term conditions (LTCs) - is an increasing public health challenge, with social needs often compounding the negative health outcomes associated with multimorbidity. In this study, we present a novel multidimensional framework for identifying and characterising social needs within a population-based cohort of adults with multimorbidity in England, utilising data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink. The framework identifies eight critical domains of social needs: activities of daily living, mobility, financial constraints, disability, community care, housing status, social support, and bereavement. More than 100 related variables were captured in the dataset. Among 7,290,716 individuals with multimorbidity, 36.96% reported at least one social need, with the majority of affected individuals being older, female, and experiencing a higher burden of LTCs. The most prevalent social needs were related to community and social care services. Our findings underscore the significant association between social needs and multimorbidity, revealing a disproportionate burden of social needs in this population. This framework offers a systematic approach to quantifying and measuring social needs, providing a foundation for incorporating these factors into clinical care and interventions
Ten-Year Implant Survival and Functional Outcomes Following Combined Medial Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty and Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Systematic Review and Call for High-Quality Comparative Trials
Get PDFBackgroundManaging medial compartment knee osteoarthritis (OA) with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) deficiency, particularly in younger, active patients, remains challenging. Medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) combined with ACL reconstruction (ACLR) (UKACL) has gained interest, yet outcomes remain incompletely defined. This systematic review aims to evaluate the clinical effectiveness, implant survivorship, complications, and patient-reported outcomes after combined UKA and ACLR in end-stage medial OA with ACL deficiency.MethodsWe systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science. Studies reporting outcomes of UKA performed with ACLR were included; case reports, technical notes, and biomechanical studies were excluded. Risk of bias was assessed with ROBINS-I V2. We extracted clinical outcomes, implant survival, complications, radiographic findings, and validated functional scores.ResultsFourteen studies comprising 353 patients met the inclusion criteria. Reported survivorship consistently exceeded 90% at 10 years. Ten revisions were reported, most commonly for lateral OA progression. Overall complication rate was 9.06% with no difference between mobile-bearing and fixed-bearing designs. Mobile-bearing implants had a slightly higher bearing dislocation risk, whereas fixed-bearing designs showed marginally higher polyethylene wear. Functional outcomes improved across studies.ConclusionCombined UKA and ACLR appears effective for younger, active patients with isolated medial OA and ACL deficiency, yielding high survivorship and consistent functional gains. Given heterogeneity among studies, high-quality, long-term randomized trials are needed to refine patient and implant selection.Level of evidenceLevel IV, systematic review of nonrandomized studies. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence
Uniparental analysis of Deep Maniot Greeks reveals genetic continuity from the pre-Medieval era
Get PDFThe Deep Maniots, an isolated population at the southernmost tip of mainland Greece, have drawn scholarly interest for their unique dialect, culture, and patrilineal clan structure. Geographically shielded by the Mani Peninsula, they are thought to have been minimally affected by 6th-century CE migrations that transformed Balkan demography. To investigate their genetic origins, we analysed Y-DNA and mtDNA from 102 Deep Maniots using next-generation sequencing. Paternally, Deep Maniots exhibit an exceptional prevalence (~80%) of West Asian haplogroup J-M172 (J2a), with subclade J-L930 accounting for ~50% of lineages. We identify Bronze Age Greek ancestry in Y-haplogroups nearly absent elsewhere, highlighting their longstanding genetic isolation. The absence of northeast European-related paternal lineages, common in other mainland Greeks, suggests preservation of southern Greece’s pre-Medieval genetic landscape. Y-haplogroup phylogeny reveals strong founder effects dated to ~380–670 CE, while the emergence of clan-based social structure is estimated around 1350 CE, centuries earlier than previously thought. In contrast, maternal lineages display greater heterogeneity, primarily originating from ancient Balkan, Levantine, and West Eurasian sources. These results align with historical and anthropological accounts, showcasing Deep Maniots as a genetic snapshot of pre-Medieval southern Greece, offering new perspectives on population continuity and mobility in the Late Antique eastern Mediterranean
Reconsidering the microwave: a historical analysis of changing attitudes to modernist kitchen technology
Get PDFThe microwave oven can perhaps be considered as the first modernist kitchen invention. However, despite early gastronomic excitement over the potential of the 1940’s technology, there are few chefs or home cooks who celebrate using this kitchen device, despite the majority of kitchens nowadays being fitted with a microwave oven. Many of the safety concerns that were raised against the use of this technology since its widespread arrival in the home kitchen back in the 1970s have proven unfounded. At the same time, however, with the likely continued increase in energy prices (and other energy crises), the microwave oven should perhaps be re-evaluated, given that it constitutes a far more energy-efficient means of warming food than traditional ovens. Microwave cooking also represents a far more efficient means of preserving the nutrient, mineral, and anti-oxidant content in a range of fresh foods (e.g., vegetables). However, changing public perception will likely require a much better understanding of what, exactly, people object to concerning the technology: Is it safety fears, the functional inability to brown foods, the fact that it heats unevenly, or perhaps the sense that it is perceived as a lazy way to prepare (or reheat pre-prepared) food? Nudging people to embrace an energy-efficient form of heating food, and a nutrient-preserving way of cooking vegetables, will though likely require emotional as much as factual arguments
Feasibility of MRI-based assessment of pulmonary vein flow and isovolumic relaxation time for diastolic dysfunction
No full textTransferability of carbon potentials for novel carbon polymorphs
Get PDFChoosing a suitable potential model to study dynamic processes in novel structures is an ambitious task often relying on chemical intuition. This paper addresses this challenge through a case study of diaphites, diamond-graphite nanocomposites, that are the only naturally occurring crystalline form of carbon featuring both sp3 and sp2 hybridized atoms. Since their synthesis is expensive and difficult to control, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of their formation would be highly valuable. However, none of the available carbon potentials explicitly includes diaphites in their parameterization. Here, we benchmark several well-established carbon potentials (Tersoff 1989, Tersoff 1994, REBO-II, LCBOP-I, AIREBO, AIREBO-M, GAP-20, ACE) against ab initio MD (AIMD) at the PBE+D2 level of theory. Comparison of structural labeling disqualified Tersoff 1989, Tersoff 1994, REBO-II, AIREBO, and AIREBO-M. To enable long-timescale simulations on systems of a few thousand atoms, an machine-learning (ML)-AIMD model was developed using AIMD acceleration with an on-the-fly Gaussian approximation potential (GAP). ML-AIMD accurately reproduced AIMD results and was therefore used as a benchmark. Extended testing revealed that ACE is the most transferable and computationally efficient potential for MD simulations of diaphites, reproducing the sp2 fraction across all temperatures at a cost at least four times lower than GAP-20. LCBOP-I performed comparably below 2000 K and remains preferable when computational resources are limited. The presented benchmarking framework efficiently identifies the most suitable potentials and provides a general strategy for selecting MD models for novel materials