The Topics Treated so Far in Encyclopaedia Iranica Under the General rubric of languages and the language sciences may be subdivided as follows, with an approximate tally of the articles devoted to each subtopic: 1. Iranian languages and dialects (34; 9 languages, 25 dialects and dialect groups). 2. Relevant non-Iranian languages and dialects and language areas (19; 10 languages, 9 areas). 3. Scholars, authors, works (36; 26 persons, 10 works). 4. Technical terms, genres and etymologies (12). The articles range in length from a few lines to twenty columns or more, some with subdivisions, some in themselves being subdivisions of larger articles. Obviously it is impracticable to mention more than one hundred articles individually. The following overview will attempt an appraisal of each category and its salient components, referring to particular articles as illustrative of the whole.

Infants with complex cyanotic CHD can become symptomatic from insufficient pulmonary blood supply following either ductal closure or due to outflow tract obstruction. Blalock–Taussig shunt mortality remains significant and recent studies have highlighted the advantages of using transcatheter alternatives. We present here our experience in changing our primary choice of palliation from the Blalock–Taussig shunt to transcatheter palliation with either a ductal stent or, if antegrade flow is present, a right ventricular outflow tract stent.

This is a retrospective, single-unit cohort study. Eighty-seven infants underwent palliation for insufficient pulmonary blood flow at under 3 months of age between 2012 and 2019. On an intention-to-treat basis, 29 underwent insertion of a Blalock–Taussig shunt, 36 duct stents, and 22 right ventricular outflow tract stents at median ages of 15, 9, and 32 days, respectively, and median weights of 3.3, 3.1, and 3.1 kg, respectively. No primary Blalock–Taussig shunts have been performed in our institution since 2017.

At 30-days there had been one death in each group (univariable p = 0.93) and deaths prior to repair totalled three in the shunt group, four in the ductal stent group, and two in the right ventricular outflow tract stent group (univariable p = 0.93). Reintervention on the pulmonary circuit prior to next stage of surgery was more frequent in those undergoing transcatheter intervention, reaching statistical significance by logrank (p = 0.012).

In conclusion, within this work we provide further evidence of the safety and efficacy of transition from a primary surgical to primary transcatheter palliation pathway in infants with insufficient pulmonary blood supply.

Selenium is an essential micronutrient with biochemical and cellular effects through activities of 25 selenocysteine-containing selenoproteins. Selenoproteins are anti-inflammatory and have antioxidant properties. Severe selenium deficiency causes muscle weakness and atrophy in humans however the effects of moderate selenium deficiency are unclear. The aims of this study are twofold: 1) to determine dietary selenium intakes and contributing food sources in very old adults and; 2) to determine whether dietary selenium intakes are associated with 5-year trajectories of muscle function: hand-grip strength (HGS) and Timed-Up-and-Go (TUG).

Cross-sectional (baseline) and prospective (1.5, 3 and 5-year follow-up) analyses of 845 participants aged 85 years from the Newcastle 85 + study were assessed for HGS and TUG performance using standardized protocols (Antoneta et al. 2016). Baseline dietary intakes were assessed using 24-hour multiple pass recall methods on two separate days (Mendonça et al. 2016). The top selenium food contributors (~90%) and the adequacy of intakes were determined i.e. those with intakes < LRNI, between the LRNI and RNI and > RNI. Linear mixed models explored the associations between selenium intake categories and time on the prospective, 5-year change in HGS and TUG in all participants, males and females.

Median intakes of selenium were 39, 48 and 35μg for all participants, males and females, respectively. Selenium intakes were below the LRNI in 51% of participants (median 27μg) whilst 15% had intakes ≥ the RNI (median 85μg). Only 13.3% of females and 16.9 % of males met the RNI. The top selenium contributors were cereals (46%), meat (22%), fish (10%), milk (6%), eggs (4%) and potatoes (3%) making up 91% of selenium intakes. Those with the lowest intakes had 2.72 kg lower HGS and 2.36s slower TUG compared to those with higher intakes (P < 0.005). There was no association between selenium intake in HGS or TUG, but time had a significant effect on the rate of change over 5-years in both parameters (P < 0.001).

Overall these results show that poor dietary selenium intakes are common in very old adults and that cereal and cereal products are major sources of selenium in this population. Whilst low selenium intakes are associated with worse HGS and TUG performance in the cross-sectional analysis, no significant associations were observed in the prospective analyses.

Prior evolutionary theory provided reason to suspect that measures of development and reproduction would be correlated with antisocial behaviours in human and non-human species. Behavioural genetics has revealed that most quantitative traits are heritable, suggesting that these phenotypic correlations may share genetic aetiologies. We use genome-wide association study data to estimate the genetic correlations between various measures of reproductive development (N = 52 776–318 863) and antisocial behaviour (N = 31 968). Our genetic correlation analyses demonstrate that alleles associated with higher reproductive output (number of children ever born, rg = 0.50, P = 0.0065) were positively correlated with alleles associated with antisocial behaviour, whereas alleles associated with more delayed reproductive onset (age at first birth, rg = −0.64, P = 0.0008) were negatively associated with alleles linked to antisocial behaviour. Ultimately, these findings coalesce with evolutionary theories suggesting that increased antisocial behaviours may partly represent a faster life history approach, which may be significantly calibrated by genes.

Enlist™ cotton contains the aad-12 and pat genes that confer resistance to 2,4-D and glufosinate, respectively. Thirty-three field trials were conducted focused on Enlist cotton injury from glufosinate as affected by cotton growth stage, application rate, and single or sequential applications. Maximum injury from a single application of typical 1X (542 g ae ha-1) and 2X use rates was 3 and 13%, respectively, regardless of growth stage. Injury from sequential applications of 1X or 2X rates was equivalent to single applications. Similar injury was observed with four commercial formulations of glufosinate. Cotton yield was never affected by glufosinate. This research demonstrates Enlist™ cotton has robust resistance to glufosinate at rates at least twice the typical use rate when applied once or twice at growth stages ranging from 2 to 12 leaves.

Recent work on the morality of hell spans the various subdisciplines of theology, with the ironic exception of theological ethics. An adequate defence of hell requires a positive account of how God's eternally tormenting some humans is beautiful, just and worthy of worship. This suggests a short-term and long-term task. The short-term task, which this article pursues, tests whether an adequate moral theory is available by evaluating three possible candidates, the third of which is the most interesting, as it offers a historicist defence of hell: we believe hell is cruel only because of aversions to cruel and unusual punishment that emerged in modernity. Nonetheless, all three defences are inadequate, suggesting a longer term goal: we need either better moral theories or better accounts of hell, as well as greater analytic clarity regarding theological statements of the form, I want doctrine y to be true but believe doctrine x is true.