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Mechanisms of interventions targeting modifiable factors for dementia risk reduction
No full textThe global prevalence of dementia is increasing. With no widely available and accessible treatments to halt or reverse the progression of dementia, exploring preventative strategies is critical. Lifestyle-based interventions show promise in preventing or delaying dementia onset. However, understanding the complex and multifactorial mechanisms underlying dementia, and how interventions target these pathways, is essential for developing personalized and effective strategies. In this review, we examined the current evidence of the mediating pathways in dementia risk reduction. We focused on mechanisms investigated in single-domain interventions on physical exercise, cognitive training, diet, metabolic/cardiovascular or psycho-social risk factors in line with those combined in the landmark FINGER trial. Additionally, we synthesized existing literature on mechanisms of action in multimodal interventions combining multiple lifestyle changes. Most evidence was identified in relation to neuroimaging biomarkers with positive effects for all intervention components. The evidence among fluid biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders (ADRD) (amyloid-beta peptide (A beta), tau and neurofilament light chain (Nfl)) vascular markers, inflammatory markers, and neurotrophins were less conclusive, though physical exercise consistently appeared to impact several of these pathways. The findings of this review underscore the potential of lifestyle-based interventions in modulating several different types of pathophysiological pathways associated with dementia. As the number of dementia cases reach epidemic proportions, a multifaceted approach is needed. We propose that the next critical step in dementia prevention/risk reduction is to refine existing intervention tools and develop an adaptive platform that integrates different lifestyle interventions tailored to individual risk profiles and needs. Understanding the underlying mechanisms and biomarkers related to modifiable risk factors will be instrumental to optimising these interventions
This Model Are Sick: A Comparative Analysis of In and Out-of-Domain Datasets in NMT-Driven Video Game Localisations
No full textLatterly, although major advancements have been achieved in the field of neural machine translation, its employment within the video game localisation sector has been sorely neglected in the process. As such, owing to the complexity, a smattering of available resources, and creativity necessitated within the sector, research, as well as any supporting literature on the matter, have been sparse and difficult to obtain. The purpose of this thesis is to serve as an advent into the research of the neural machine translation approach to video game localisations. Given the dearth of experimentation and research within the sector, this project attempts to bring forth attention to its necessities, obstacles, and potential implementation. Optimally, our analysis would at once opt to observe the performance of more advanced, high-parameter systems; however such an approach demands access to vast amounts of computational and monetary resources. Instead, our efforts are concerned with evaluating the performance of two from-scratch trained and two fine-tuned model architectures of a reasonable size. Attesting to our model performance via three different evaluation metrics for machine translation, we observe that the performance on the from-scratch trained models is, unsurprisingly, quite poor. The accuracy of our fine-tuned models, particularly the MarianMT architecture, shows promising results pertaining to its ability to at times adhere to the domain at hand, and offer slightly better translations than its non fine-tuned counterpart. This suggests that, given enough data, these models could display a high enough rate of in-domain adaptability to be used in a post-editing workflow. Additionally, we observe that our best-performing fine-tuned model had out-performed the publicly available Google Translate system across both COMET metrics, although its performance is still some ways away of the skyline achieved by large language models such as DeepSeek. Lastly, we discover that certain challenges that plague the field of machine translation, such as gender bias and a high computational overhead, are blatantly present within the video game sector as well
The PLATO mission
No full textPLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is ESA's M3 mission designed to detect and characterise extrasolar planets and perform asteroseismic monitoring of a large number of stars. PLATO will detect small planets (down to <2REarth) around bright stars (<11 mag), including terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars. With the complement of radial velocity observations from the ground, planets will be characterised for their radius, mass, and age with high accuracy (5%, 10%, 10% for an Earth-Sun combination respectively). PLATO will provide us with a large-scale catalogue of well-characterised small planets up to intermediate orbital periods, relevant for a meaningful comparison to planet formation theories and to better understand planet evolution. It will make possible comparative exoplanetology to place our Solar System planets in a broader context. In parallel, PLATO will study (host) stars using asteroseismology, allowing us to determine the stellar properties with high accuracy, substantially enhancing our knowledge of stellar structure and evolution. The payload instrument consists of 26 cameras with 12cm aperture each. For at least four years, themission will perform high-precision photometricmeasurements. Here we review the science objectives, present PLATO's target samples and fields, provide an overview of expected core science performance as well as a description of the instrument and the mission profile towards the end of the serial production of the flight cameras. PLATO is scheduled for a launch date end 2026. This overview therefore provides a summary of the mission to the community in preparation of the upcoming operational phases.For complete list of authors see http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10686-025-09985-9</p
Measurement of the branching fractions of D+ →\u86\u92 K+K-π\u80+π+π-, φπ+π\u80+π\u80-, K0SK+π+π\u80- π0, K0SK+η, and K0SK+ω\u89 decays
No full textUsing 20.3 fb-1 of e+e- collision data collected at a center-of-mass energy of 3.773 GeV with the BESIII detector operating at the BEPCII collider, the branching fractions of three hadronic charm meson decays, D+ → φπ+π+π-, D+ → K0SK+π+π-π0, and D+ → K0S K+ω, are measured for the first time to be (0.54 ± 0.19 ± 0.02) x 10-4, (2.51 ± 0.34 ± 0.14) x 10-4, and (2.02 ± 0.35 ± 0.10) x 10-4, respectively. Futhermore, the branching fractions of D+ → K+K-π+π+π- and D+ → K0SK+η are measured with improved precision, yielding values of (0.66 ± 0.11 ± 0.03) x 10-4 and (2.27 ± 0.22 ± 0.05) x 10-4, respectively.For complete list of authors see http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.092005</p
Assessing the near-surface diffusion of Xe and Kr in Zirconia by time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis
No full textThe diffusion of two volatile fission products, xenon (Xe) and krypton (Kr), in zirconia (ZrO2) is investigated. Samples of Yttria (Y2O3)-stabilised tetragonal ZrO2 were implanted with either Xe or Kr, at 300 key, with a fluence of 1017 at./cm2, and subsequently analysed with time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis (ToF-ERDA) to obtain elemental composition depth profiles. Samples were then annealed at 1200 degrees C for 9 h, and the effect of the annealing was assessed by ToF-ERDA measurements. From these measurements, first-order approximations of diffusion coefficients for Xe and Kr in ZrO2 were derived, using a model based on Fick's second law, these being (1.36 +/- 0.87) x 10-19 m2/s and (2.94 +/- 1.96) x 10-19 m2/s at 1200 degrees C for Kr and Xe respectively. It was shown that ToF-ERDA can provide data to analyse the diffusion of elements in solid sample matrices and that a model based on Fick's Law can predict the diffusion of the implanted ions
How Are Children Involved? Participation of Children in the Process of Matching With Foster Families
No full textChildren have the right to be informed and to express their views on all matters affecting them. When children are placed in foster care, social services are responsible for ensuring that the child receives ‘good care’. This requires a matching process. Matching means that children and foster families must ‘fit together’. Matching can be understood as a multistage process in which the child has the right to participate. With Sweden as the case in point, this article examines children's participation in the matching process and addresses the following research questions: What factors are associated with children's participation? How and when are children involved in the matching process? When children are involved, which aspects of matching are important to them, according to the professionals? Data was drawn from case files in six municipalities (n = 90) and interviews with professionals (n = 50) working with foster care. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were combined to provide a comprehensive understanding. Quantitative analysis shows significant associations between child involvement and certain child characteristics, including gender, age, and whether the child has a diagnosis. Qualitative analysis shows that children's involvement is limited, and when they are involved, it is generally at a late stage in the process
Antimicrobials as cornerstones and quick fixes Zimbabwean in healthcare and society : Health practitioners' critical reflections on two stories of antimicrobial use as part of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) education
No full textAntimicrobials are often presented as key for the sustainability of healthcare as these pharmaceuticals are viewed as critical resources for much of modern medicine. Communicable diseases are a major contributing factor to morbidity and mortality in developing countries. The emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) thus poses a significant challenge to global public health towards controlling these diseases and the SDG 3 Good health and well-being promoting calls for shared responsibility in preserving antimicrobials. This paper aims to explore health practitioners' understandings of the role of antimicrobials in healthcare and society and how this could inform antimicrobial resistance (AMR) education. Using a qualitative participatory research methodology, two participatory research workshops formed the empirical basis for the study and included 25 health practitioners from two major Zimbabwean central hospitals in the latter half of 2023. The focus of the workshops was on participants' engagement with and discussions of two conceptual stories of antimicrobials in healthcare and society, as cornerstones which are key to the sustainability of healthcare and viability of modern medicine, and quick fixes that are used to mitigate but not resolve deeper and structural challenges as part of the Zimbabwean healthcare and society. During the workshops research data was collected through audio recordings supported in the analysis by contemporary field notes as well as written documentation created by the workshop participants. Three interconnected themes were identified as part of the results outlining how participants operationalised the two stories as part of AMR education. These included (i) preventing common infections, (ii) addressing risk factors, and (iii) engaging with societal inequalities. A key result was how the participating health practitioners highlighted the need to reduce reliance on antimicrobials which in turn necessitates a shift in focus towards preventive health actions such as improved hygiene, better water and sanitation as well as improved infection control. Such preventive efforts were furthermore linked in the participants' discussions to structural challenges, including poor housing, limited access to clean water and inaccessible health care that was quoted as crucial to reduce infection risk and thus mitigate the need for antimicrobials in the first place. Bringing the identified themes and in-depth participant discussions together in the discussion, the paper presents a mirror model of antimicrobials in healthcare, highlighting how they are essential resources and cornerstones for healthcare while simultaneously and perpetuating systemic challenges in healthcare and society. The integration of this co-created knowledge as part of AMR education would contribute to a shift from the prevalent focus on preventing resistance to also consider the prevention of infections and the need for antimicrobials, including understanding and addressing the root causes of infections. Such a holistic approach to AMR education could promote more sustainable health practices, linking AMR challenges with broader societal and systemic challenges as part of more effective health educational efforts
Eulerian and Lagrangian electron energisation during magnetic reconnection
No full textElectron energisation by magnetic reconnection has historically been studied in the Lagrangian guiding-centre framework. Insights from such studies include that Fermi acceleration in magnetic islands can accelerate electrons to high energies. An alternative Eulerian fluid formulation of electron energisation was recently used to study electron energisation during magnetic reconnection in the absence of magnetic islands. Here, we use particle-in-cell simulations to compare the Eulerian and Lagrangian models of electron energisation in a set-up where reconnection leads to magnetic island formation. We find the largest energisation at the edges of magnetic islands. There, energisation related to the diamagnetic drift dominates in the Eulerian model, while the Fermi related term dominates in the Lagrangian model. The models predict significantly different energisation rates locally. A better agreement is found after integrating over the simulation domain. We show that strong magnetic curvature can break the magnetic moment conservation assumed by the Lagrangian model, leading to erroneous results. The Eulerian fluid model is a complete fluid description and accurately models bulk energisation. However, local measurements of its constituent energisation terms need not reflect locations where plasma is heated or accelerated. The Lagrangian guiding centre model can accurately describe the energisation of particles, but it cannot describe the evolution of the fluid energy. We conclude that while both models can be valid, they describe two fundamentally different quantities, and care should be taken when choosing which model to use
The modified WHO class is associated with maternal complications in women with congenital heart disease
No full textAims: With a growing population of women with congenital heart disease (CHD), pregnancies in this group are expected to increase. However, pregnancy in women with CHD is associated with increased adverse outcomes for both mother and child. The aim of this study was to evaluate pregnancy and foetal complications in women with CHD and to test their association with the modified WHO (mWHO) classification. Methods and results: Using two national registers, the national register for CHD and the Pregnancy Register, primiparous women giving birth between 2014 and 2019 were identified. Women with CHD, n = 829, and women without CHD, n = 4137, were matched by birth year and municipality in a ∼ 1:5 ratio. The women with CHD were classified according to the mWHO criteria. Caesarean deliveries (25.7 vs. 17.2%, P < 0.001), preterm delivery (10.3 vs. 6.4%, P < 0.001), and preeclampsia (6.2 vs. 4.1%, P = 0.007) were more common in women with CHD compared with controls. Using logistic regression, there was an association between high mWHO class (mWHO III, IV) and caesarean section [odds ratio (OR) 3.4, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.8-6.7], preterm birth (<37 weeks) (OR 8.3, 95% CI 4.1-17.1), and preeclampsia (OR 3.8, 95% CI 1.5-9.9). Conclusion: Pregnancy complications are more common in women with CHD. In women with CHD, the mWHO classification is associated with maternal complications and preterm birth. Thus, large national register data corroborate the advice provided in current guidelines, and the mWHO class is deemed a valuable risk stratification tool in women with CHD
Composite operators in N=4 Super Yang-Mills
No full textWe consider four-point functions of protected, double- and single-trace operators in the large central charge limit. We use superconformal symmetry to disentangle the contribution of protected operators in the partial wave decomposition. With this information, we fix the non-protected part of such correlators up to subleading order in the large central charge expansion. We particularly focus on the triple-trace sector of the correlator and comment on the connection to the holographic description of these correlators