Estimation of the parameters of q-Gaussian distributions in the standard map

We present a novel methodology for estimating the parameters of the q-Gaussian distribution within the framework of non-extensive statistical mechanics, applied to the standard map (Chirikov-Taylor map) across its chaotic, regular, and integrable regimes. Our approach combines a genetic algorithm with multi-objective optimization, simultaneously minimizing the discrepancy between the numerical probability density function (PDF) and the q-Gaussian while enforcing normalization to unit area. This framework yields highly accurate parameter estimates, revealing optimal q and b values that provide an exceptional fit to the numerical PDFs. Notably, the estimated q values differ from previous reports, highlighting the sensitivity of parameter inference to fitting methodology. For the integrable case (K=0), we uncover a striking asymptotic scaling law: q approaches its theoretical value of 2 extremely slowly with iteration number, following a power-law trend that implies an extraordinarily large number of iterations are required for convergence. Overall, our results demonstrate that the proposed method robustly captures the statistical properties of the standard map across different dynamical regimes and suggest its potential for broader applications to other deterministic dynamical systems, offering new insights into the emergence of non-extensive statistical behavior

Beautiful Fertility in the Eighteenth Century

This chapter considers the relationship between fertility, health and beauty in eighteenth-century England and France, situating everyday assumptions within a wider scientific and colonial context. Drawing on medical treatises, recipes books, fortune-telling guides and fairy tales, this chapter argues that discussions about beautiful fertility—which centered on fertility identification, embodied morality and infant care—revealed broader anxieties about national morality and strength

Effects of the 2023 Poole Harbour oil spill on sediment bacterial communities and ecosystem functioning

In March 2023, approximately 27 t of fluid from an oil and gas reservoir (containing approximately 85 % water and 15 % crude oil spilt from a fractured pipeline beneath Ower Bay creek, entering Poole Harbour (Dorset, UK). This event provided a unique opportunity to investigate the impacts of hydrocarbon contamination on microbial communities in-situ in a temperate coastal, shallow, fine sediment environment. Our aims were to quantify hydrocarbon concentrations (via gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC–MS)) and effects on microbial community structure and functional potential (via metagenomic sequencing) to understand the capacity for microbial biodegradation across the impacted region. Hydrocarbon contamination was localised to the Spill Site (approximately an area of 1500 m2) at the head of the creek, with minimal impact at the Mid Point (164 m from the Spill Site) and End Point (387 m from the Spill Site) and with no indication of contamination at Brownsea Island located in the heart of the harbour. By October 2023, n-alkane and 4–5 ring PAH concentrations had declined to background levels, highlighting the combined effects of the remediation response and natural hydrocarbon biodegradation at the Spill Site. Clear changes in bacterial community structure were observed in the seven months following the spill, with notable hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria i.e. Anaerolinea, Thiobacillus and Dechloromonas favouring the Spill Site, suggesting a significant increase in anaerobic biodegradation occurred as a result of significant increase in assA (anaerobic alkylsuccinate synthase), abcA (anaerobic benzene carboxylase) and ahyA (anaerobic alkane hydroxylase) genes. Overall, 24 alkane and aromatic hydrocarbon degradation genes, from both aerobic and anaerobic degradation pathways, were identified from contigs throughout the study site, being present within 48 out of 221 Metagenome-Assembled Genomes (MAGs), highlighting the sites capacity for hydrocarbon biodegradation under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions

Green Instructions: Intelligent Lighting via Real-Time Chlorophyll Fluorescence Feedback: Enhancing Yield and Energy Efficiency in Controlled Environment Agriculture."

Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) delivers increased crop production per unit land, contributing to resilient food systems amidst challenges of climate change, population growth and urbanization. However, high energy costs and the associated carbon footprint for using LED lighting imposes substantial barriers to the widespread adoption of CEA. While light is indispensable for growth, critically its utilization by crops throughout the photoperiod remains sub-optimal, reducing photosynthetic efficiency and wasting energy. Here we have developed and demonstrated a novel real-time plant bio-feedback system that enables crops to directly ‘communicate’ optimal lighting requirements. Continuous non-invasive monitoring of photochemistry elicited decreased demand for light by basil at the end of the photoperiod, which, delivered by our system, improved yield per unit power. Specifically, our innovative approach increased yield by 13.5 % and reduced energy consumption per unit fresh mass by 6.2 %, delivering a 17 % decrease in CO2 required to generate fresh mass yield. Application of this technique at scale can significantly improve resource management of CEA, supporting the productivity, profitability and sustainability of this food industry

Independent Directors in Family PLCs in the Majority World - Insights from a Middle Eastern Country

This paper critically examines the concept of board member ‘independence’ by drawing on Max Weber’s notion of traditionalism to theorise its practice in non-Western or Majority World contexts. Using family-owned public limited companies (PLCs) in Kuwait as a case study, we explore how cultural norms, political-economic histories, and kinship-based authority structures shape the recruitment, roles, and influence of supposedly independent committee members. Based on qualitative data - including interviews, archival materials, and field observations - we find that independence is largely symbolic. Independent members are often selected through Diwaniya-based social networks and valued more for their loyalty and discretion than for providing impartial oversight. The relationship between family owners and independent members reflects Weber’s chief–subject model, with board processes grounded in personalist logics rather than the institutional rationalities of Western capitalist governance. This study contributes to the corporate governance literature by rethinking independence through a cultural-political lens and calls for policies and research that promote context-sensitive, decolonial approaches to governance in the Majority World

Regulating bodily states and emotions: the influence of child and caregiver factors on emotional eating in 18-month-old toddlers.

Parental feeding practices, child temperament, and poor emotion regulation abilities are central factors associated with Emotional Eating (EE) during childhood (3-10 years). Yet, it is poorly understood how children develop EE behaviours in early life. This experimental study investigated the influences of parental and child factors on early expression of EE behaviours in 18-month-old toddlers (N = 71). Toddlers attended the lab twice. After eating lunch to satiation, we manipulated internal emotional states and examined how toddlers regulated their responses to a mildly stressful (experimental) task compared to a control task, using the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery "attractive toy behind a barrier" task. Immediately after, an Eating in the Absence of Hunger (EAH) protocol was administered. Toddlers' behaviours during each task were coded, along with measuring the energy consumption of snack food items. We found that experimental condition alone did not predict EE. However, toddlers exhibiting higher behavioural reactivity to changes in emotional state showed higher EE and consumed more energy. Higher parental use of food to regulate emotions predicted fewer calories EAH. Child eating traits were not found to be predictive of EE in the absence of hunger. We conclude that EE is a behaviour performed by some toddlers, yet an emotional perturbation alone is not enough to elicit EE at this developmental stage. Having a temperament that results in high behavioural reactivity to the situation and poor emotional regulation abilities may facilitate EE's occurrence. Future research should further investigate how both individual and situational factors interact to inform the development of EE in early life

Online detection of hardware Trojan enabled packet tampering attack on network-on-chip: A Bayesian approach

Hardware Trojans (HTs), proven difficult to be detected and removed at the offline post-silicon stage, can secretly launch dangerous packet tampering attacks on the network-on-chip (NoC) of a many-core chip. In this paper, we present an online HT detection scheme that is based on continuous, on-the-fly assessment of how likely any single node in the NoC includes an HT. In specific, the scheme first collects the routing path information of any data packet flowing through the NoC. The probability of a node being infected with HTs will next be determined based on each packet’s authentication result and this probability is iteratively updated through Bayesian analysis. A node shall be marked as a high-risk node, if its probability of infection exceeds a threshold, and all the high-risk nodes thus discovered will be bypassed by any future traffic. Since the proposed scheme only needs end-to-end authentication, as opposed to costly hop-to-hop authentication, the hardware overhead is kept low. To help further reduce the bandwidth and computation overheads, three approximate schemes are also proposed. Experiments have confirmed that the proposed HT detection methods can effectively locate the malicious nodes and thus reduce the infection rate to below 5%

Young Women Aspirants and Gendered Ageism in Nigeria’s Political Parties

This chapter explores how formal rules and informal norms interact to shape the political recruitment of young women. When formal rules are changed to engender inclusive political participation, party leaders consciously or unconsciously utilize informal practices to preserve the status quo of exclusionary politics that ensures male hegemonic dominance. This chapter uses the critical case of Nigeria’s 2019 and 2023 elections, the first two elections since the #NotTooYoungtoRun law that reduced the candidacy ages, to highlight how the intersection of formal regulations and informal networks maintains male party dominance in candidate selection. Drawing on qualitative data sources, arguments are made to highlight how existing formal rules reinforce gender and youth disadvantage, making formal concessions of little to no effect on gender parity

Manifoldness of services firms: Did R&D lead to better performance after the global financial crisis?

While prior research on service innovation has primarily emphasized R&D drivers and the characteristics of novel service offerings, limited attention has been given to how R&D impacts firm performance across distinct service sub-sectors—particularly during and after periods of economic disruption such as the global financial crisis (GFC). Adopting a service systems framework, this study classifies service firms according to two dimensions: the degree of service intangibility and the extent of customer involvement. Leveraging an unbalanced panel dataset spanning 2003 to 2013, the analysis investigates how returns on R&D investments vary across different service industry categories and how these patterns shift in the aftermath of the GFC. Results indicate that R&D yields positive returns across both classification criteria, though the effect is more pronounced for firms delivering intangible services and those with intensive customer participation. Post-GFC, however, the advantage of R&D investment appears greater among firms offering more tangible services. Moreover, service providers characterized by high customer engagement continued to derive superior R&D benefits in the post-crisis era. These insights contribute to both theoretical advancement and managerial practice, while also suggesting several avenues for future inquiry