Administration of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Protectorate

Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty. November 1908

Elite Collusion in Indonesia

After a largely successful post­authoritarian transition, Indonesia has experienced democratic backsliding since the 2010s. this backsliding accelerated under the presidency of Joko Widodo (2014­2024), but it has not yet pushed the Indonesian polity into a full­blown autocracy. I argue that Indonesia’s specific pathway to democratic backsliding prefigured this outcome. While elites have colluded to share power and allow the president to engage in executive aggrandizement, they have set limits to the latter’s potential authoritar­ ian ambitions. For example, they rejected Widodo’s attempt to extend his time in power beyond the con­ stitutionally allowed two terms. thus, elites have both produced executive aggrandizement and contained its scope. this pattern has protected Indonesian democ­ racy from a full collapse, but it has produced a gradual decline, reducing the chances of democratic revitali­ zation through formal or contentious politics.Peer-reviewe

A new era of technology-infused retailing

To understand the progression of retailing research, this article presents a topic modeling study of retailing-related research published in Journal of Business Research (JBR) over the past 50 years. We trace both where retailing has come from and where it is going. Building on 13 retailing-related research themes published in JBR, the authors identify five emerging themes growing in importance: Omnichannel retailing, Retail technologies (including point-of-sale (POS) systems, digital displays, robots and artificial intelligence (AI)), Experiential retailing, Online shopping behavior, and Social commerce. Seven themes, which remained stable in their importance over the last decades, are considered as core retailing topics: Retail atmospherics, Retail strategy & performance, Consumer perceptions, Sensory marketing, Retail store/brand image, Retail relationships & loyalty, and Organizational orientations. One theme, Shopping motives & patronage, is shown to have declined in JBR publications. Deeper dives into the five emerging topics showcase technology-infused retailing and help reveal avenues for continued research.Peer-reviewe

Shortages of benzathine benzylpenicillin G in Australia highlight the need for new sovereign manufacturing capability

Laurens Manning is supported by a Medical Research Future Fund Investigator Grant (2020 Better penicillins, better hearts: improving secondary prevention of rheumatic heart disease; Emerging Leadership 2 APP1197177). Rosemary Wyber is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leadership 2 Fellowship (GNT2025252). No funding agency had any role in study design, data collection, analysis or interpretation, reporting or publication.Peer-reviewe

Enzalutamide with standard first-line therapy for metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer

Peer-reviewe

Natural variation in FLOWERING LOCUS C and FLOWERING LOCUS M underlies the weak temperature sensitivity of the Arabidopsis accession Ellershausen

Natural variants of key floral regulator genes underly the adaptation of plant populations to diverse environmental conditions. We identified Ellershausen (El-0) as an early flowering Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) accession with decreased sensitivity to changes in temperature and photoperiod. Expression levels of FLOWERING LOCUS M (FLM), including its major splice variants FLM-β and FLM-δ, were dramatically lower in El-0 than in Col-0 or Killean (Kil-0) accessions at different temperatures. The first intron of FLMEl−0 contains a ∼5.7-kb LINE transposon insertion, as in Kil-0, together with several single-nucleotide polymorphisms. However, El-0 flowered earlier than Kil-0 at 23 °C or 16 °C under long-day conditions and at 23°C under short-day conditions. Introducing a genomic copy of FLMCol−0 into El-0 moderately delayed flowering, suggesting that an additional player(s) is involved in the temperature-insensitive flowering of El-0. Accordingly, expression levels of FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) and MADS AFFECTING FLOWERING 5 (MAF5) were lower in El-0. Genome resequencing data revealed polymorphisms including deletions in FLCEl−0 and MAF5El−0. β-Glucuronidase activity was weaker in pFLCCol−0:gFLCEl−0-GUS transgenic seedlings than in pFLCCol−0:gFLCCol−0-GUS seedlings, suggesting that polymorphisms in FLCEl−0 result in lower FLCEl−0 transcript levels. Consistent with low FLC expression levels, El-0 plants did not flower earlier following vernalization. Our results suggest that natural variants of these repressor genes in El-0 may facilitate successful adaptation to relatively cooler climates.This work was supported by a Korea University Grant and by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Koreangovernment (MSIT) (no. 2022R1A3B1078180 and RS-2023–00221182)to J.H.A. and a Brain Pool Program (BP) grant (RS-2023–00263673) to Z.NPeer-reviewe

Association between risk propensity and substance use

Background: Substance use and its related disorders represent a significant global health concern. Risk propensity has been identified as a factor influencing substance use. Methods: Multilevel meta-analysis was applied to quantitatively synthesise studies examining the associations between risk propensity and substance use and to identify potential factors that influence these relationships. Results: A total of 323 effect sizes, 186 independent samples, and 148 studies were included in this meta-analysis. The results showed that risk propensity was statistically positively associated with substance use (r = 0.116), as well as with all three main types of substances, including tobacco (r = 0.092), alcohol (r = 0.114), and drugs (r = 0.115). Such a link was not significantly different across substance types. Moderator analyses showed that the type of risk propensity assessments and age of the study samples moderated the association between risk propensity and one or more types of substance use. Conclusions: The findings underscore the importance of considering the role of risk propensity in the initiation of substance use and developing early interventions to prevent substance use. Future interventions could consider early detection and targeted intervention for young people with a heightened risk propensity.The work was supported by the National University of Singapore Start-Up Grant.Peer-reviewe

The elderly among the oldest

We performed a detailed spectroscopic analysis of three extremely metal-poor RR Lyrae stars, exploring uncharted territories at these low metallicities for this class of stars. Using high-resolution spectra acquired with HARPS-N at TNG, UVES at VLT, and PEPSI at LBT, and employing Non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (NLTE) spectral synthesis calculations, we provide abundance measurements for Fe, Al, Mg, Ca, Ti, Mn, and Sr. Our findings indicate that the stars have metallicities of [Fe/H] = - 3.40 ± 0.05, - 3.28 ± 0.02, and - 2.77 ± 0.05 for HD 331986, DO Hya, and BPS CS 30317-056, respectively. Additionally, we derived their kinematic and dynamical properties to gain insights into their origins. Interestingly, the kinematics of one star (HD 331986) is consistent with the Galactic disc, while the others exhibit Galactic halo kinematics, albeit with distinct chemical signatures. We compared the [Al/Fe] and [Mg/Mn] ratios of the current targets with recent literature estimates to determine whether these stars were either accreted or formed in situ, finding that the adopted chemical diagnostics are ineffective at low metallicities ([Fe/H]≲- 1.5). Finally, the established horizontal branch evolutionary models, indicating that these stars arrive at hotter temperatures on the Zero-Age Horizontal Branch (ZAHB) and then transition into RR Lyrae stars as they evolve, fully support the existence of such low-metallicity RR Lyrae stars. As a consequence, we can anticipate detecting more of them when larger samples of spectra become available from upcoming extensive observational campaigns.This research was supported by the Munich Institute for Astro-, Particle and BioPhysics (MIAPbP) which is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy - EXC-2094 - 390783311. M.M. and M.S.B. acknowledge support from the Agencia Estatal de Investigaci\u00F3n del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci\u00F3n (MCIN/AEI) under the grant \"RR Lyrae stars, a lighthouse to distant galaxies and early galaxy evolution\" and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) with reference PID2021-127042OB-I00. This article is based on observations made with the IAC80 operated on the island of Tenerife by the Instituto de Astrof\u00EDsica de Canarias in the Spanish Observatorio del Teide. SB acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council under grant number DE240100150. GI acknowledges support for this project from \"La Caixa\" Foundation (ID 100010434) under grant agreement \"LCF/BQ/PI24/12040020\". AB acknowledges support for this project from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 865932-ERCSNeX. C.E.M.-V. is supported by the international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSF NOIRLab, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. National Science Foundation, on behalf of the Gemini partnership of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the Republic of Korea, and the United States of America. Part of this work is based on archival data, software or online services provided by the Space Science Data Center - ASI. In particular, the GaiaPortal access tool was used for this research (https://gaiaportal.ssdc.asi.it). We would like to express our gratitude to the reviewer for their thorough examination of the manuscript and for their insightful comments and suggestions, which have enhanced the quality of our work. This research was supported by the Munich Institute for Astro-, Particle and BioPhysics (MIAPbP) which is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany\u2019s Excellence Strategy \u2013 EXC-2094 \u2013 390783311. M.M. and M.S.B. acknowledge support from the Agencia Estatal de Investigaci\u00F3n del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci\u00F3n (MCIN/AEI) under the grant \u201CRR Lyrae stars, a lighthouse to distant galaxies and early galaxy evolution\u201D and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) with reference PID2021-127042OB-I00. This article is based on observations made with the IAC80 operated on the island of Tenerife by the Instituto de Astrof\u00EDsica de Canarias in the Spanish Observatorio del Teide. SB acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council under grant number DE240100150. GI acknowledges support for this project from \u201CLa Caixa\u201D Foundation (ID 100010434) under grant agreement \u201CLCF/BQ/PI24/12040020\u201D. AB acknowledges support for this project from the European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 865932-ERC-SNeX. C.E.M.-V. is supported by the international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSF NOIRLab, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. National Science Foundation, on behalf of the Gemini partnership of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the Republic of Korea, and the United States of America. Part of this work is based on archival data, software or online services provided by the Space Science Data Center \u2013 ASI. In particular, the GaiaPortal access tool was used for this research ( https://gaiaportal.ssdc.asi.it ). We would like to express our gratitude to the reviewer for their thorough examination of the manuscript and for their insightful comments and suggestions, which have enhanced the quality of our work.Peer-reviewe

Methodology for constraining ultralight vector bosons with gravitational wave searches targeting merger remnant black holes

Ultralight bosons are a hypothetical class of particles predicted under various extensions of Standard Model physics. As a result of the superradiance mechanism, we expect ultralight bosons, should they exist in certain mass ranges, to form macroscopic clouds around rotating black holes, so that we can probe their existence by looking for the long-transient gravitational wave emission produced by such clouds. In this paper, we propose a statistically robust framework for constraining the existence of ultralight vector bosons in the absence of detecting such a signal from searches targeting merger remnant black holes, effectively marginalizing over the uncertainties present in the properties of the target black holes. We also determine the impact of weak kinetic mixing with the ordinary photon and vector mass generation through a hidden Higgs mechanism on the constraining power of these searches. We find that individual follow-up searches, particularly with the next-generation gravitational wave detectors, can probe regions of parameter space for such models where robust constraints are still lacking.We thank Junwu Huang and Masha Baryakhtar for many insightful discussions. The authors are grateful for computational resources provided by the LIGO Laboratory and supported by National Science Foundation Grants No. PHY-0757058 and No. PHY-0823459. This research is supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), Projects No. CE170100004 and No. CE230100016. L.\u2009S. is also supported by the Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, Project No. DE240100206. W.\u2009E. acknowledges support from a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant and an Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities Early Researcher Award. This research was supported in part by Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Research at Perimeter Institute is supported in part by the Government of Canada through the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and by the Province of Ontario through the Ministry of Colleges and Universities. This research was enabled in part by support provided by SciNet () and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (). This research has made use of data or software obtained from the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center (), a service of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the Virgo Collaboration, and KAGRA. This material is based upon work supported by NSF\u2019s LIGO Laboratory which is a major facility fully funded by the National Science Foundation, as well as the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) of the United Kingdom, the Max-Planck-Society (MPS), and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for support of the construction of Advanced LIGO and construction and operation of the GEO600 detector. Additional support for Advanced LIGO was provided by the Australian Research Council. Virgo is funded, through the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO), by the French Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) and the Dutch Nikhef, with contributions by institutions from Belgium, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Monaco, Poland, Portugal, and Spain. KAGRA is supported by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) in Japan; National Research Foundation (NRF) and Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) in Korea; Academia Sinica (AS) and National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) in Taiwan.Peer-reviewe

Sputter deposition and plasma modification of tungsten alloys for nuclear fusion applications

The ITER reactor aims to be first thermonuclear fusion device to demonstrate net fusion power. Critical plasma-facing components in the reactor will be made of tungsten, but helium plasma irradiation is known to embrittle tungsten metal. A future reactor will therefore need an alternative material to extend the lifetime of the components. This thesis investigated the use of tungsten alloy films as a plasma-facing material for a future reactor. Tantalum and chromium were chosen as the alloying elements, and 60 − 100 nm films were manufactured using magnetron sputter deposition at a variety of alloy concentrations. Tungsten alloy films are known to deposit in an undesirable A15 crystal phase. The films were heat treated at 650◦C for 1 hour, 2 hours and 4 hours to induce and investigate the phase transition from A15 to BCC structure. X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed the presence of an A15 structure prior to annealing. The A15 phase was very stable in comparison with past results, requiring over 2 hours at 650◦C to transition to BCC. This was speculated to be linked to oxygen trapped in the films during deposition. The phase transition was slower in alloyed films than a pure tungsten control, with the retarding effect of tantalum stronger than chromium, which suggested the alloying atoms further stabilised the deposited A15 structure. Resistivity of the films saw a reduction with annealing time characteristic of the phase transition. The annealed alloy films were then exposed to helium plasma in the Magnetised Plasma Interaction Experiment at 300◦C, 500◦C and 800◦C. Surface morphology changes were tracked with secondary electron imaging. At 800◦C, surface pits were seen, which were larger in a pure tungsten film than in low concentration alloy films. Advanced surface roughening was observed in the chromium films, while a high concentration tantalum film had no surface damage at all. X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed these trends, and showed an increase in microstrain with the surface roughening in the chromium alloys. These results suggest W-Ta alloy films may have superior irradiation resistance than W-Cr alloy films, but more work is needed to confirm the trends in alloy concentration