Sedimentation of drops has been widely investigated, although a relatively small number of studies have accounted for the presence of a bounding wall, presumably because of the associated analytical difficulties. In addition, these drops almost always contain impurities in the form of surfactants, which alter the interfacial properties, thereby changing the flow characteristics and the settling dynamics. Therefore, a more physically accurate description of settling should account for both the presence of a bounding wall as well as surfactants, a paradigm that remains poorly addressed. As such, here we analyse the effect of surfactants on a drop settling towards a solid wall in the limit of small deformation. We only account for the interfacial transport of the surface impurities and use bipolar coordinates to represent the fluid motion. Assuming the surfactant transport to be diffusion dominated, asymptotic solutions for the velocity field are derived and are subsequently used to analyse the settling dynamics and deformation of the drop. We show that the surfactants slow down the drop and may either augment or reduce the deformation by a small amount depending on the location of the drop. The effect of surfactant becomes most prominent near the wall, wherein the drop experiences the largest hydrodynamic drag. The changing flow patterns caused by the wall also redistributes the surfactant around the interface, resulting in asymmetric depletion and accumulation near the poles. Our results might have potential significance in areas such as separation processes as well as droplet based microfluidics.

We numerically investigated the phenomenon of non-Gaussian normal diffusion of a Brownian colloidal particle in a periodic array of planar counter-rotating convection rolls. At high Péclet numbers, normal diffusion is observed to occur at all times with non-Gaussian transient statistics. This effect vanishes with increasing the observation time. The displacement distributions decay either slower or faster than a Gaussian function, depending on the flow parameters. The sign of their excess kurtosis is related to the difference between two dynamical time scales, namely, the mean exit time of the particle out of a convection roll and its circulation period inside it.

IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts is a new accounting standard currently expected to come into force on 1 January 2023. It supersedes IFRS 4 Insurance Contracts. IFRS 17 establishes key principles that entities must apply in all aspects of the accounting of insurance contracts. In doing so, the Standard aims to increase the usefulness, comparability, transparency and quality of financial statements.

A fundamental concept introduced by IFRS 17 is the contractual service margin (CSM). This represents the unearned profit that an entity expects to earn as it provides services. However, as a principles-based standard, IFRS 17 results in entities having to apply significant judgement when determining the inputs, assumptions and techniques it uses to determine the CSM at each reporting period.

In general, the Standard resolves broad categories of mismatches which arise under IFRS 4. Notable examples include mismatches between assets recorded at current market value and liabilities calculated using fixed discount rates as well as inconsistencies in the timing of profit recognition over the duration of an insurance contract. However, there are requirements of IFRS 17 that may create economic or accounting mismatches of its own. For example, new mismatches could arise between the measurement of underlying contracts and the corresponding reinsurance held. Additionally, mismatches can still arise between the measurement of liabilities and the assets that support the liabilities.

This paper explores the technical, operational and commercial issues that arise across these and other areas focusing on the CSM. As a standard that is still very much in its infancy, and for which wider consensus on topics is yet to be achieved, this paper aims to provide readers with a deeper understanding of the issues and opportunities that accompany it.

Corticosteroid therapy has become an important modality of treatment for diseases in which rapid control of immunoinflammatory processes is required. However, one of the serious, but less known adverse effect of this therapy is cardiac arrhythmias. This includes both tachyarrhythmias and bradyarrhythmias. Corticosteroid use may also be associated with electrolyte imbalances like hypokalaemia by its mineralocorticoid activity. Those side effects are mainly seen with high-dose intravenous methyl-prednisolone or oral pulse dose prednisolone therapy. Here we report our experience in a child with warm idiopathic autoimmune haemolytic anaemia who developed sinus bradyarrhythmias and treatment refractory hypokalaemia during low-dose steroid therapy with reduction in heart rate by 60% of baseline.

The objective of this research was to investigate the factors of assessment that students undergoing authentic assessment perceived to be significant regarding their academic achievement. This project advanced past research by the authors which found that the academic achievement of seafarer students was significantly higher in a formatively implemented authentic assessment compared with a summative traditional assessment. The academic achievement (assessment scores) was based on the students’ performance in analysing information presented in a real-world context (authentic assessment) as opposed to the analysis of information presented devoid of a real-world context (traditional assessment). Using the data obtained from students undergoing the authentic assessment, this project correlated their perceptions of authenticity for factors of assessment to their scores in the associated task. Stage 1 focused on deriving the factors conceptually from the definition of the authentic assessment by the authors, based on which a perception survey questionnaire was designed. Stage 2 extracted new factors through a factor analysis conducted using the software SPSS. Both stages of investigation found that the factor of transparency of criteria was a significant predictor of the students’ academic achievement.