There has been concern regarding the consumption of fruit juices because of the high levels of naturally occurring sugars they contain, which could rapidly elevate glycaemic response and increase the risk of cardiometabolic diseases. We conducted two trials in which each volunteer ingested (1) white bread with 200 ml of two types of orange juice (OJ) prepared from ‘Moro’ and ‘Pera’ varieties (MOJ and POJ) – the former containing anthocyanins – and the same juices alone; and (2) 200 ml of POJ or MOJ followed by a sandwich made with white bread, plus light cheese or butter, and also the same juices alone. Capillary blood was collected over 120 min, and glucose and insulin levels were analysed. In the cross-over clinical design with healthy volunteers, we observed that both OJ does not increase blood glucose and insulin, even when co-consumed with other typical breakfast foods in Brazil. In conclusion, OJ does not elevate postprandial glycaemic responses to the meal while providing additional sugars and nutrients.

Since the 1950s, the United Nations (UN) has designated days (e.g., World Wetland Day), years (e.g., Year of the Gorilla) and decades (e.g., Decade on Biodiversity) with a commonly stated goal to raise awareness and funding for conservation-oriented initiatives, and these Days, Years and Decades of ‘…’ (hereafter ‘DYDOs’) continue. However, the effectiveness of these initiatives to achieve their stated objectives and to contribute to positive conservation outcomes is unclear. Here we used a binary analysis change model to evaluate the effectiveness of UN conservation-oriented DYDOs observed between 1974 and 2020. We also examined four case studies to understand the different strategies employed to meet specified conservation goals. We found that DYDOs apparently contributed to positive conservation outcomes when they were tied to social media campaigns and/or when they were strategically situated in current events or global discourse. Although the outcomes of DYDOs were varied, those with longer timescales and those that engaged local communities were more likely to be successful. We suggest that DYDO organizers should identify all possible paths of action through the lens of the change model outlined in this paper to strengthen the value and effectiveness of these initiatives in the future. Using this approach could help ensure that resources are used efficiently and effectively, and that initiatives yield positive conservation outcomes that benefit people and nature.

The article presents a previously unknown hymn in praise of Marduk, the Esagil, Babylon and the Babylonians. It contains unparalleled descriptions of the healing powers of Marduk, the splendor of Babylon, the spring borne by the Euphrates to the city’s fields and the generosity of the Babylonians themselves. The text survives in 20 manuscripts, from the 7th to the 2nd/1st centuries BCE, and it can be shown that it was a fixture in the school curriculum of the time. The author of this highly accomplished piece immortalized his devotion to his city, gods, and people in words that resonated until the final decades of cuneiform culture.

A pressure-gradient-induced laminar separation bubble (LSB) was examined using wind-tunnel experiments, direct numerical simulations (DNS) and linear local/global stability analysis. The LSB was experimentally generated on a flat plate using the favourable-to-adverse pressure gradient imposed by an inverted modified NACA $64_3-618$ airfoil. Direct numerical simulation was performed using boundary conditions extracted from a steady precursor simulation of the entire flow field. Despite good agreement in the upstream boundary layer with the experiment, DNS exhibited an approximately 25 % longer mean separation bubble, attributed to an earlier onset of transition due to the free-stream turbulence (FST) in the experiment. Introducing a very low level of isotropic FST in the DNS, similar to that measured in the experiment, caused earlier transition, decreased the mean bubble length and led to a remarkably good agreement between the DNS and experiments. Differences were observed for the dominant frequencies in the experiment and DNS, but both were within the band of most amplified frequencies predicted by LST. Proper orthogonal decomposition confirmed that dominant coherent structures from DNS and experiments are related to the inviscid Kelvin–Helmholtz instability and have similar characteristics despite slight differences in frequency. Local and global stability and dynamic mode decomposition analysis corroborated the convective nature of the dominant two-dimensional (2-D) instability and showed that the LSB is globally unstable to a range of 3-D wavenumbers, in agreement with 3-D structures observed in experiments. Results confirmed the strong impact of very low FST levels on the LSB and indicate a close agreement of the time-averaged and instability characteristics between the experiments and DNS.

One of the main objectives of ecological research is to enhance our understanding of the processes that lead to species extinction. A potentially crucial extinction pattern is the dependence of contemporary biodiversity dynamics on past climates, also known as “climate legacy”. However, the general impact of climate legacy on extinction dynamics is unknown. Here, we conduct a systematic review to summarize the effect of climate legacies on extinction dynamics. We find that few works studying the relationship between extinction dynamics and climate include the potential impact of climate legacies (10%), with even fewer studies reaching beyond merely discussing them (3%). Among the studies that quantified climate legacies, six out of seven reported an improved fit of models to extinction dynamics, with most also describing substantial impacts of legacy effects on extinction risk. These include an increase in extinction risk of up to 40% when temperature changes add to a long-term trend in the same direction, as well as substantial effects on species’ adaptations, population dynamics and juvenile recruitment. Various ecological processes have been identified in the literature as potential ways in which climate legacies could affect the vulnerability of modern ecosystems to anthropogenic climate change, including niche conservatism, physiological thresholds, time lags and cascading effects. Overall, we find high agreement that climate legacy is a crucial process shaping extinction dynamics. Incorporating climate legacies in biodiversity assessments could be a key step toward a better understanding of the ecological consequences arising from climate change.

A total of 2848 denarii from the Nietulisko Małe Hoard, one of the largest hoards of Roman coins found in Poland, were digitised and documented using reflectance transformation imaging, highlighting the potential for this technology in numismatic research.

Let G be a finite group whose order is not divisible by the characteristic of the ground field $\mathbb {F}$. We prove a decomposition of the Hochschild homology groups of the equivariant dg category $\mathscr {C}^G$ associated with the action of G on a small dg category $\mathscr {C}$ which admits finite direct sums. When, in addition, the ground field $\mathbb {F}$ is algebraically closed this decomposition is related to a categorical action of $\text {Rep}(G)$ on $\mathscr {C}^G$ and the resulting action of the representation ring $R_{\mathbb {F}}(G)$ on $HH_\bullet (\mathscr {C}^G)$.

The incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in spherical coordinates are solved using a pseudo-spectral method to simulate the problem of spherical Couette flow. The flow is investigated for a narrow-gap ratio with only the inner sphere rotating. We find that the flow is sensitive to the initial conditions and have used various initial conditions to obtain different branches of the bifurcation curve of the flow. We have identified three different branches dominated respectively by axisymmetric flow, travelling wave instability and equatorial instability. The axisymmetric branch shows unsteadiness at large Reynolds numbers. The travelling wave instability branch shows spiral instability and is prominent the near poles. The travelling wave instability branch further exhibits a reversal in the propagation direction of the spiral instability as the Reynolds number is increased. This branch also exhibits a multi-mode equatorial instability at larger Reynolds numbers. The equatorial instability branch exhibits twin jet streams on either side of the equator, which become unstable at larger Reynolds numbers. The flow topology on the three branches is also investigated in their phase space and found to exhibit chaotic behaviour at large Reynolds numbers on the travelling wave instability branch.

Island-endemic arthropods are understudied species and likely to be highly threatened with extinction. Analysis of IUCN Red List assessments can be used to highlight important microhabitats requiring conservation for the effective management of island-endemic arthropod biodiversity. We synthesized information on the 296 island-endemic arthropod species assessed as Critically Endangered as of April 2024, the geography of the islands to which they are endemic, and the broad threats they face. These species comprised 33 taxonomic orders, across which an average of 53% of species were limited entirely to tiny, confined areas of habitat: caves, high elevation areas, isolated pools or sea stacks. These micro-refugia are most utilized by crustaceans and least utilized by myriapods. Caves and pools are the most important habitats on temperate islands where habitat degradation threatens crustaceans. On small tropical islands where arachnids and hexapods are threatened by invasive species, refugia are mostly in high elevation areas. Sea stacks appear to be effective refugia from invasive species only for threatened island-endemics with notable long-distance dispersal adaptation. None of the refugia appear effective in sustaining arthropod species immediately threatened by climate change. Using the interaction between arthropod life history, habitat and threats, it is possible to generalize micro-refugia that (1) should be immediately targeted for management, and (2) could yield undescribed or presumed-extinct species. Prioritizing such refugia for management and research can guide efficient expenditure of local capacity. In our case study, on Ascension Island, micro-refugia for seven endemic arthropods covered < 0.1% of the island's total area.

Millions of young girls in Nigeria have continued to suffer the negative consequences of early marriage such as discontinuation of education and restricting them from achieving their full potential. Successive Nigerian governments have therefore deployed different strategies over the years to mitigate the practice, particularly in the northern part of the country. This study analysed the changes in the pattern of child marriage across space-time in Nigeria using a dataset obtained from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey conducted between 2003 and 2018 at a consecutive interval of 5 years. A Bayesian spatio-temporal random effect model with inference based on integrated nested laplace approximation was considered. Whereas the findings demonstrate a reduction in the practice of child marriage over time everywhere in the country, the prevalence remains highest in States such as Kogi, Niger, Federal Capital Territory Abuja, Taraba, and Kaduna, all in the northern part of the country despite the policies, program and interventions by international organisations, Child Right Acts, and Non-governmental organisations. Over the fifteen years, only slight changes were recorded in the Southwest region. Furthermore, higher levels of education, urban residency, household wealth, being a Yoruba, or belonging to a Christian religious group were found to lower the chances of child marriage. State-specific strategic planning would be useful in deploying suitable local solutions to reduce child marriage in Nigeria.

Cognitive diagnosis models (CDMs) have been popularly used in fields such as education, psychology, and social sciences. While parametric likelihood estimation is a prevailing method for fitting CDMs, nonparametric methodologies are attracting increasing attention due to their ease of implementation and robustness, particularly when sample sizes are relatively small. However, existing consistency results of the nonparametric estimation methods often rely on certain restrictive conditions, which may not be easily satisfied in practice. In this article, the consistency theory for the general nonparametric classification method is reestablished under weaker and more practical conditions.