Individual States Research Articles

Improving the AML/CFT system within the framework of the RMS of the subject of a financial and credit institution: shortcomings and vulnerabilities

The article is devoted to the analysis of the shortcomings and vulnerabilities of the AML/CFT system (countering the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime and the financing of terrorism) within the framework of the risk management system (RMS) of the subject of a financial and credit organization (FCO). In the context of globalization and the increasing complexity of financial transactions, traditional approaches to AML/CFT are becoming insufficient, which requires improving risk management systems taking into account new challenges. Attention is focused on the fact that today the issue of money laundering and financing of terrorist activity is a global threat to the financial security of both individual states and the entire global economic system. In addition, this study emphasizes that according to the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation, in the context of the transformation of modern society and increasing international uncertainty, it is necessary to increase the efficiency of using existing achievements and competitive aspects of the country, taking into account long-term trends in global development. The article examines the key shortcomings of the AML/CFT system within the framework of the FCO RMS, including the lack of a unified approach to risk assessment, insufficient integration of AML/CFT into general risk management processes, lack of resources and staff qualifications, as well as difficulties in applying new technologies in combating money laundering and terrorist financing. The paper analyzes the impact of these shortcomings on the effectiveness of the AML/CFT system and identifies key vulnerabilities that can be used by criminals for money laundering and terrorist financing. The article offers recommendations for improving the AML/CFT system within the framework of the FCO RMS, including the introduction of more effective risk assessment methods, improved control and monitoring processes, staff training and the introduction of new technologies into the AML/CFT system.

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) display gaze alternation and referential communication in an impossible task

Gaze cues play a vital role in conveying critical information about objects and locations necessary for survival, such as food sources, predators, and the attentional states of conspecific and heterospecific individuals. During referential intentional communication, the continuous alternation of gaze between a communicative partner and a specific object or point of interest attracts the partner's attention towards the target. This behaviour is considered by many as essential for understanding intentions and is thought to involve mental planning. Here, we investigated the behavioural responses of seven bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) that were given an impossible task in the presence of two experimenters (a ‘commanding experimenter’ and a ‘non-commanding experimenter’), whose attentional state towards the dolphins varied. We found that the dolphins spontaneously displayed gaze alternation, specifically triadic referential pointing, only when the human commanding experimenter was facing them. However, they ceased to alternate their gaze between the impossible object and the commanding experimenter when the experimenter had their back turned. Notably, the dolphins' behaviour differed from general pointing and gaze, as their triadic sequence occurred within a narrow time window. These findings suggest that the dolphins were sensitive to human attentional cues and utilized their own gaze cue (pointing) as a salient signal to attract the attention of the commanding experimenter towards a specific location.

Defense Resources Implications of the Conflict in Ukraine on European Countries

Abstract The conflict in Ukraine has determined significant shifts in European defence and security paradigms. This paper focuses on the European Union (EU) has reacted to the crisis on its borders, examining the evolution of EU defence spending, procurement policies, and cooperation agreements in the wake of the conflict, analysing the impact on both individual member states and collective EU initiatives. The aim of this paper is to examine how the conflict in Ukraine influenced the European Union countries in terms of defence spending and defence policies. The objectives of the paper consist in identifying the main changes in the defence expenditures of the European Union Countries, overall and in terms of destination of expenditures and highlighting the main changes on terms of procurement policies and cooperation agreements generated by the events in Ukraine.

Improved detection of tryptic immunoglobulin variable region peptides by chromatographic and gas-phase fractionation techniques

The polyclonal repertoire of circulating antibodies potentially holds valuable information about an individual's humoral immune state. While bottom-up proteomics is well suited for serum proteomics, the vast number of antibodies and dynamic range of serum challenge this analysis. To acquire the serum proteome more comprehensively, we incorporated high-field asymmetric waveform ion-mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) or two-dimensional chromatography into standard trypsin-based bottom-up proteomics. Thereby, the number of variable region (VR)-related spectra increased 1.7-fold with FAIMS and 10-fold with chromatography fractionation. To match antibody VRs to spectra, we combined de novo searching and BLAST alignment. Validation of this approach showed that, as peptide length increased, the de novo accuracy decreased and BLAST performance increased. Through in silico calculations on antibody repository sequences, we determined the uniqueness of tryptic VR peptides and their suitability as antibody surrogate. Approximately one-third of these peptides were unique, and about one-third of all antibodies contained at least one unique peptide.

Experimental manipulation of food availability and macroparasite prevalence reveal differential effects on space use in wild rodents.

Research Highlight: Mistrick, J., Veitch, J. S. M., Kitchen, S. M., Clague, S., Newman, B. C., Hall, R. J., Budischak, S. A., Forbes, K. M., & Craft, M. E. (2024). Effects of food supplementation and helminth removal on space use and spatial overlap in wild rodent populations. Journal of Animal Ecology. http://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14067. The spread of pathogens has been of long-standing interest, even before dramatic outbreaks of avian influenza and the coronavirus pandemic spiked broad public interest. However, the dynamics of pathogen spread in wild populations are complex, with multiple effects shaping where animals go (their space use), population density and, more fundamentally, the resultant patterns of contacts (direct or indirect) among individuals. Thus, experimental studies exploring the dynamics of contact under different sets of conditions are needed. In the current field study, Mistrick etal. (2024) used a multifactorial experimental design, manipulating food availability and individual pathogen infection state in wild bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus). They found that while food availability, individual traits and seasonality can affect how far individual voles moved, the degree of overlap between individual voles remained largely the same despite a high variation in population density-which itself was affected by food availability. These results highlight how biotic and abiotic factors can shape patterns of space use and balance the level of spatial overlap through multiple pathways.

Double Dutch: Illumina/GRAIL, Article 22 and the General Court

This article explores the jurisdictional issues underlying the decision of the European Commission to review Illumina’s acquisition of GRAIL. It marked the first the time the Commission investigated an acquisition where the target had no activities in the EU; nor indeed any nexus to any individual Member State. The decision to review a concentration where the target had no EU revenues was premised on a re-interpretation of Article 22(1) of the EU Merger Regulation, which allows Member States to request the Commission to examine a concentration. This interpretation is intended to expand the jurisdictional reach of the regulation to capture transactions involving companies with low turnover, but high competitive potential in the internal market, in cases where neither EU nor any Member State merger control thresholds are met. The General Court upheld the Commission’s position on Article 22 jurisdiction, but the judgment is on appeal to the Court of Justice. This article argues that the Court should overturn the earlier ruling on the basis that the GC was mistaken in its approach to Article 22, in view of its history and purpose. It also considers that flaws in the conduct of the procedure which deprived the merging parties of due process warranted an annulment of the decision to open an investigation. Moreover, this article calls out the incompatibility of the Commission’s application of Article 22 in Illumina/GRAIL with international law concepts of comity, fairness and sovereignty.

Food waste and the EU target: effects on the agrifood systems’ sustainability

ABSTRACT The reduction of food losses and waste is part of the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (target 12.3) and, consequently, is one of the EU’s political priority in the field of circular economy. In this framework, the target 12.3 of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development stated, by 2030, a not quantified reduction in post-harvest losses and a halving of food waste at the retail and consumers levels; while the EU Commission has recently set the target, by 2030, of reducing by 10% food losses occurred at the stage of processing and manufacturing and by 30% food waste occurred at the stage of retail and consumption. Food losses and waste should primarily be considered an expression of inefficiency of agricultural production processes determining several environmental, social and economic impacts. The quantification of food losses and waste is still an unsolved problem so much so that, in EU; currently available data are only related to the period 2020–2021 and, in many cases, are based on estimates and are not uniform in individual Member States. This makes reliable predictions of results achievable by the European Union particularly difficult. The aim of this paper is to analyze whether the plan of losses and waste reduction established by the EU Commission is able to both ensure the achievement of 2030 Agenda target 12.3 and to make a contribution to improving the sustainability of agri-food systems. In doing so, in addition to Eurostat data on losses and waste, the EU-Commission projections and the latest results of recent studies on environmental, social and economic impact of food losses and waste in EU were used, including indicators on hidden costs of agrifood systems developed by FAO. What observed shows that the EU-Commission reduction plan, if implemented, should result in a reduction of losses and waste inadequate for complying with the recommendation given by the target 12.3. Furthermore, the EU-Commission’s decision not to provide for losses reduction at the agricultural stage should significantly limit environmental benefits, given that much of the negative environmental impacts (GHG, land and water use, etc.) are ascribable to this stage as are, according to FAO estimates, hidden environmental costs. Besides limiting environmental benefits, the EU-Commission reduction plan, focusing only on the food losses and waste reduction in the final stage of supply food chain, could lead to negative social and economic impacts caused by a decline in the demand, which will reduce supply, jobs losses and GDP reduction. The conclusion on this, is that the reduction of food losses and waste is an issue that cannot be addressed separated but needs to be included in a wider program of integrated and complementary measures as a whole clearly aimed at realizing forms of circular economy.

Investigating oral microbiome profiles in patients with cleft lip and palate compared with the healthy control

BackgroundPatients with cleft lip and palate (CLP) have an oronasal communication differed from the closed state in healthy individuals, leading to a unique oral microbiome. This study aimed to determine if variances in the oral microbiota persist among CLP patients who have received treatments for the closure of these fistulas compared to the microbiota of healthy individuals.MethodsSaliva samples were collected from a cohort comprising 28 CLP patients (CLP group) and 30 healthy controls (HC group). Utilizing 16S rRNA sequencing on the Illumina NovaSeq platform, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the diversity and composition of the oral microbiota.ResultsThe analysis of the microbiota in the saliva samples revealed a total of 23 microbial phyla, 38 classes, 111 orders, 184 families, 327 genera and 612 species. The alpha diversity with microbial abundance and evenness indicated the significant difference between the CLP and HC groups. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and the ADONIS test further supported the presence of distinct microorganisms between the two groups. The CLP group displayed elevated abundances of Neisseria, Haemophilus, Porphyromonas, and Granulicatella, as indicated by LefSe analysis. Conversely, Rothia, Veillonella, and Pauljensenia exhibited significant reductions in abundance in the CLP group. The results of the PICRUSt analysis indicated significant differences in the relative abundance of 25 KEGG pathways within the CLP group. Through Spearman correlation analysis, strong associations between Rothia, Veillonella, and Pauljensenia and 25 functional pathways linked to CLP were identified.ConclusionFindings of this study offer a thorough comprehension of the microbiome profiles of CLP patients after the restoration of oronasal structure and are anticipated to present innovative concepts for the treatment of CLP.

GLOBAL MONITORING OF FINANCIAL INDICATORS OF DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION AS A PREREQUISITE FOR WARNING OF FINANCIAL CRISES

Despite the existing developments that reveal the problems of the financial sector and financial innovations, it is worth focusing our research on such points. It is worth doing detailed monitoring of financial indicators at the level of many countries from different parts of the world, which reflect the state of financial innovation. In addition, a relevant study related to the monitoring of financial indicators is the analysis of indicators on which the stable development of society depends. It is also worth not only displaying the dynamics of financial indicators over a long period of time, but also trying to show the forecast values of such indicators in the coming years. It is this approach that will allow us to form a certain vision regarding the prevention of financial crises in the future. The article examines the indicators of net lending, gross debt and cyclically adjusted balance of payments of the countries for the period 2007-2024, and also indicates the corresponding forecast indicators for 2025-2027. The monitoring was carried out and the prospects for the development of the field of financial innovations for the countries for 2007-2027 were determined. We also investigated the need to track and understand current financial innovations that will allow us to counteract the manifestations of financial crises in the future. It was confirmed as a result of research into the state of innovation of individual states (in particular, the Fintech sphere) that precisely those countries that invest in the development of scientific and technical developments have the opportunity to develop the economy faster. It is established that the financial sector of innovation has changed significantly from the model of traditional corporate banks to powerful ecosystems of banking and non-banking markets. It has been confirmed that the prospects for the development of Blockchain technology in the field of finance are that such technology will allow the financial sector to further develop in the direction of security, stability and reliability, and therefore prevent the occurrence of financial crises in the future. It was revealed that financial innovations can exist and develop at the same time and other financial indicators can deteriorate (increase in debt and budget imbalance). Therefore, in order to understand and prevent crises, it is worth developing an appropriate level of tracking and forecasting the smallest changes in financial indicators at the global level.

COMMISSIONERS METHOD FOR LAST SURVIVOR WHOLE LIFE INSURANCE RESERVES WITH GOMPERTZ LAW

Life insurance plays an important role in protecting one’s life in terms of financial risks. The right required reserve is one aspect that should be secured to obtain a good company’s financial health. A study reported that insufficient reserve is one of the primary causes of insolvency issues among bankrupted insurance companies. Therefore, this study aims to use the Commissioners method in calculating the reserve of the last-survivor whole life insurance policy The Gompertz mortality law is used to estimate Indonesian death probability of age . Gompertz law is employed due to its practical convenience in dealing with continuous case calculation. Linear Least Square Method will be utilized to estimate the Gompertz parameters and . This study uses secondary data from Indonesian Mortality Table IV published by OJK. The result of this study is that the reserve of multiple life status policies, such as last-survivor insurance, depends on the states of individuals of each pair. In this study, the reserve has the highest amount in cases where only the male person is alive. Average Relative Error values of the estimated Gompertz to the TMI IV show that the overall accuracy exhibits a deviation of up to 1.67%. MAPE values of Gompertz show that the estimated model best fits the TMI IV for the interval age of 0-60.

Factorial structure of the Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States in help-seeking individuals: mapping the structure and the prediction of subsequent transition to psychosis

ObjectivesThe aim of the current study was 3-fold: 1) to examine the factorial structure of the Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States (CAARMS) in help-seeking individuals undergoing an assessment on suspicion of psychosis risk; 2) to investigate the association of CAARMS factors with functioning; 3) and to test the association of any derived factors with the longitudinal outcome of transition to psychosis.MethodsThe study included 101 patients. First, a principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted using the Varimax rotation method. A minimum initial eigenvalues of greater than or equal to 1.0, analysis of Scree plots, percentage of variance explained by each component, reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) of factors above 0.7 and Parallel Analysis were the criteria used to determine the appropriate number of factors Second, Spearman correlations were run to analyze the relationship between CAARMS factors and sociodemographic and functional variables (i.e. age, schooling, Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale-SOFAS- and Health of the Nation Outcome Scales-HoNOS- scores). Third, we performed a Logistic regression analysis to evaluate the association between baseline CAARMS factors and the risk of transition to psychosis at the 6-month follow-up.ResultsA total of 101 consecutive patiens were recruited. We found that: 1) a 6 factor model solution as the most appropriate, jointly accounting for 65% of the variance; 2) factors 1 (“negative-interpersonal”), 2 (“cognitive-disorganization”), 3 (“positive”), and 4 (“motor-physical changes”) were negatively correlated with SOFAS total score; factors 1, 2, and 3 showed positive correlations with HoNOS total score; factors 2 and 3 present similar patterns of correlations, factor 3 manifesting the strongest association with HoNOS symptoms, HONOS and SOFAS total score. Both factors 5 and 6 show significant associations with HoNOS behavioral impairment; 3) after 6 months 28 participants (30.1%) converted to psychosis. Factors 2 and 3 were positively associated with the risk of transition to psychosis; whereas, the factor 5 (“affective factor”) was negatively associated with the outcome variable.ConclusionsIt is thus crucial to recognize the type and severity of psychopathology in help-seeking individuals in order to intensive clinical monitoring of subclinical psychopathology risk profiles, and design specific care pathways.

On Some Issues of Modeling the Economic Efficiency of Measures Implemented by Subjects of Public Control as a Criterion for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Their Activities

Annotation. This article is devoted to the analysis of the need to model a system for assessing the economic efficiency of activities implemented by subjects of public control. In the modern world, the existence and development of individual independent and sovereign states is determined by the level of democracy in the organization and functioning of the apparatus of public power, which in its activities must take into account the interests and needs of the entire population of a particular country, or its overwhelming majority. In this regard, the role and importance of the entire set of civil society institutions in ensuring democratic regimes in individual national states is increasing. In the Russian Federation, the most important institution of civil society at the present stage is the institution of public control. The work substantiates the place and role of this institution of civil society as a legal guarantee of the system of constitutional rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of individuals and legal entities, the rights and legitimate interests of certain categories of legal entities. The authors formalized and analyzed the main factors influencing the effectiveness of the processes of organizing and conducting public control events. The work examines the main problems and prospects for increasing the performance of subjects of public control in the Russian Federation. It is substantiated that one of the main conditions for increasing the effectiveness of the functioning of the institution of public control is the need to assess the effectiveness of the activities of the entire system of subjects of public control in Russia. The work has developed and substantiated the author’s definition of the concepts "effectiveness of activities of subjects of public control", "model for assessing the economic efficiency of activities implemented by subjects of public control". The main features of these concepts, their essence and content are investigated and analyzed. The article formulates and substantiates a model for assessing the economic efficiency of activities implemented by subjects of public control (since it is the most important criterion for assessing the performance of subjects of public control in particular, as well as the institution of public control itself in general), which is a systemic set of quantitative and qualitative criteria.

An economic evaluation of first-line cryoballoon ablation versus antiarrhythmic drug therapy for the treatment of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation from a Danish healthcare perspective

Abstract Background As demonstrated in three randomized clinical trials (RCTs), initial rhythm control with first-line pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) using cryoballoon ablation decreases atrial arrhythmia recurrence compared to antiarrhythmic drug (AAD) therapy in patients with symptomatic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF). Purpose To assess the cost-effectiveness of first-line cryoablation versus first-line AADs in a Danish healthcare setting. Methods Data from 703 participants with symptomatic PAF enrolled into Cryo-FIRST, STOP AF First and EARLY-AF RCTs were used to estimate risk equations (rate of ablation, AF recurrence and resolution, AF-related hospital attendance in addition to health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) utilities). These were then incorporated into a cost-effectiveness model (CEM) . The Danish cost data was derived from published Danish literature, DRG tariffs and pharmaceutical list prices in Denmark. Where parameters could not be derived, inputs were sourced from published literature or expert opinion. The CEM consisted of a decision tree (one-year time horizon) and a Markov model (three-month cycle length) hybrid, with a lifetime (40 years) time horizon. The CEM is from the perspective of the Danish healthcare system. Health benefits were expressed in quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and all costs and benefits were discounted at 3%. As there is no official cost-effectiveness threshold in Denmark, the UK threshold of £20,000 (~€23,200) was assumed. Input uncertainty within the CEM was explored using probabilistic sensitivity analysis. The results presented include data from the initial 12-week blanking period for all studies. Results The three-monthly rate of AF symptom recurrence had a reduction, on average, of 46.7% (p<0.001) in those treated with cryoablation. In addition, the cryoablation arm had a 72.8% (p<0.001) reduction in the monthly rate of receiving an ablation following initial treatment. The average cryoablation patient was also associated with a 4.3% (p=0.025) increase in their HRQoL. Finally, there was no difference in the rate of AF symptom resolution in those who failed initial treatment. Base case results per patient are presented in Table 1. Cryoablation was shown to be dominant when compared to AADs (0.159 more QALYs and €2,519 less costly), with a 99.96% probability of being cost-effective at a willingness-to-pay threshold of ~€23,200 per QALY gained. Individuals in both arms of the model were also expected to receive ~1.2 ablations over a lifetime horizon. Nonetheless, there was a 45% relative reduction in time spent in symptomatic AF states for individuals who were initially treated with cryoablation. Scenario analysis results are presented in Table 2. Cryoablation remained cost-effective over AADs in all scenarios conducted. Conclusions Initial rhythm control with cryoballoon ablation is cost-effective (dominant) when compared to AADs in the Danish healthcare system.Table 1:Key results (per patient)Table 2.Deterministic scenario analysis

Artificial Public Administration – Myth or Reality?

The computerization of public administration tasks is a reality. In contrast, the intelligence of public administration is shrouded in myths. For many decades, administrative science has contributed to the clarification of this distinction. Digital constitutionalism and technology-oriented administrative law doctrine have recently been added to this research. The basic regulations, proposed and adopted within individual states, in the European Union and in international organizations, whether it concerns the protection of personal data, cyber security, or artificial intelligence, do establish new tasks for public administration, but they affect methods rather than forms of administrative activity. Emerging technology raises concerns about the ability to understand artificial reasoning and its methods of classification, personalization, and prediction. It is questionable to assume that all actions can be quantified and thus everything becomes objective. Technology compounds the situation and has its own imperative.

High variability in self-pay pricing for vasectomy and vasectomy reversal in the United States.

In the United States (US) men who undergo vasectomy and/or vasectomy reversal (vasovasotomy) are likely to pay out-of-pocket for these procedures. We characterized the publicly disclosed pricing of both procedures with a focus on variability in self-pay prices. We queried all US hospitals for publicly disclosed prices of vasectomy and vasovasotomy. We assessed interhospital variability in self-pay pricing and compared hospitals charging high (≥75th percentile) and low (≤25th percentile) self-pay prices for either procedure. We also examined trends in pricing after the 2022 US Supreme Court decision that allowed individual states to ban abortion. Of 6692 hospitals, 1375 (20.5%) and 281 (4.2%) disclosed self-pay prices for vasectomy and vasovasotomy, respectively. There was a 17-fold difference between the 10th and 90th percentile self-pay prices for vasectomy ($421-$7147) and a 39-fold difference for vasovasotomy ($446-$17,249). Compared with hospitals charging low (≤25th percentile) self-pay prices for vasectomy or vasovasotomy, hospitals charging high (≥75th percentile) prices were larger (median 150 vs. 59 beds, p < 0.001) and more likely to be for-profit (31.2% vs. 7.8%, p < 0.001), academic-affiliated (52.7% vs. 23.1%, p < 0.001), and located in an urban zip code (70.1% vs. 41.3%, p < 0.001). From October 2022 to April 2023, the median self-pay price of vasectomy increased by 10% (from $1667 to $1832) while the median self-pay price of vasovasotomy decreased by 16% (from $3309 to $2786). We found large variability in self-pay pricing for vasectomy and vasectomy reversal, which may serve as a barrier to the accessibility of male reproductive care.

Unravelling the Mechanism of CO2 Activation: Insights Into Metal-Metal Cooperativity and Spin-Orbit Coupling with {3d-4f} Catalysts.

Converting CO2 into useful chemicals using metal catalysts is a significant challenge in chemistry. Among the various catalysts reported, transition metal lanthanide hybrid {3d-4f} complexes stand out for their superior efficiency and site selectivity. However, unlike transition metal catalysts, understanding the origin of this efficiency in lanthanides poses a challenge due to their orbital degeneracy, rendering the application of DFT methods ineffective. In this study, we employed a combination of density functional theory (DFT) and ab initio CASSCF/RASSI-SO calculations to explore the mechanism of CO2 conversion to cyclic carbonate using a 3d-4f heterometallic catalyst for the first time. This work unveils the importance of 3d and 4f metal cooperativity and the role of individual spin-orbit states in dictating the overall efficiency of the catalyst.

Stress in autism (STREAM): A study protocol on the role of circadian activity, sleep quality and sensory reactivity.

Mental health issues are markedly increased in individuals with autism, making it the number one research priority by stakeholders. There is a crucial need to use personalized approaches to understand the underpinnings of mental illness in autism and consequently, to address individual needs. Based on the risk factors identified in typical mental research, we propose the following themes central to mental health issues in autism: sleep difficulties and stress. Indeed, the prevalence of manifold circadian disruptions and sleep difficulties in autism, alongside stress related to sensory overload, forms an integral part of autistic symptomatology. This proof-of-concept study protocol outlines an innovative, individualised approach towards investigating the interrelationships between stress indices, sleep and circadian activation patterns, and sensory sensitivity in autism. Embracing an individualized methodology, we aim to collect 14 days of data per participant from 20 individuals with autism diagnoses and 20 without. Participants' sleep will be monitored using wearable EEG headbands and a sleep diary. Diurnal tracking of heart rate and electrodermal activity through wearables will serve as proxies of stress. Those objective data will be synchronized with subjective experience traces collected throughout the day using the Temporal Experience Tracing (TET) method. TET facilitates the quantification of relevant aspects of individual experience states, such as stress or sensory sensitivities, by providing a continuous multidimensional description of subjective experiences. Capturing the dynamics of subjective experiences phase-locked to neural and physiological proxies both between and within individuals, this approach has the potential to contribute to our understanding of critical issues in autism, including sleep problems, sensory reactivity and stress. The planned strives to provide a pathway towards developing a more nuanced and individualized approach to addressing mental health in autism.

All-optical spin access via a cavity-broadened optical transition in on-chip hybrid quantum photonics

Hybrid quantum photonic systems connect classical photonics to the quantum world and promise to deliver efficient light-matter quantum interfaces while leveraging the advantages of both, the classical and the quantum, subsystems. However, combining efficient, scalable photonics and solid-state quantum systems with desirable optical and spin properties remains a formidable challenge. In particular, the access to individual spin states and coherent mapping to photons remains unsolved for hybrid systems. In this paper, we demonstrate all-optical initialization and readout of the electron spin of a negatively charged silicon-vacancy center in a nanodiamond coupled to a silicon nitride photonic crystal cavity. We characterize relevant parameters of the coupled emitter-cavity system and determine the silicon-vacancy center’s spin-relaxation and spin-decoherence rate. Our results mark a key step towards the realization of a hybrid spin-photon interface based on silicon nitride photonics and the silicon-vacancy center’s electron spin in nanodiamonds with potential use for quantum networks, quantum communication, and distributed quantum computation. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

A predictor-informed multi-subject bayesian approach for dynamic functional connectivity.

Dynamic functional connectivity investigates how the interactions among brain regions vary over the course of an fMRI experiment. Such transitions between different individual connectivity states can be modulated by changes in underlying physiological mechanisms that drive functional network dynamics, e.g., changes in attention or cognitive effort. In this paper, we develop a multi-subject Bayesian framework where the estimation of dynamic functional networks is informed by time-varying exogenous physiological covariates that are simultaneously recorded in each subject during the fMRI experiment. More specifically, we consider a dynamic Gaussian graphical model approach where a non-homogeneous hidden Markov model is employed to classify the fMRI time series into latent neurological states. We assume the state-transition probabilities to vary over time and across subjects as a function of the underlying covariates, allowing for the estimation of recurrent connectivity patterns and the sharing of networks among the subjects. We further assume sparsity in the network structures via shrinkage priors, and achieve edge selection in the estimated graph structures by introducing a multi-comparison procedure for shrinkage-based inferences with Bayesian false discovery rate control. We evaluate the performances of our method vs alternative approaches on synthetic data. We apply our modeling framework on a resting-state experiment where fMRI data have been collected concurrently with pupillometry measurements, as a proxy of cognitive processing, and assess the heterogeneity of the effects of changes in pupil dilation on the subjects' propensity to change connectivity states. The heterogeneity of state occupancy across subjects provides an understanding of the relationship between increased pupil dilation and transitions toward different cognitive states.

No place to hide: The public attribution of responsibility for policy failures of international organisations

Abstract Who is held responsible when international organisations (IOs) fall short of public expectations? Scholarship on IO blame avoidance assumes that member states can hide behind IOs. As clarity of responsibility is assumed to be lacking in IOs, public responsibility attributions (PRA) will usually target the IO rather than individual member states. We argue, by contrast, that even in complex IOs such as the European Union (EU), clarity of responsibility is not always lacking. Therefore, whether the IO in general or individual member states become the main target of public blame attributions depends on the type of IO policy failure. In cases of failures to act and failures to comply, the responsibility of individual member states is comparatively easy to identify, and they thus become the main blame target. Only in cases of failures to perform clarity of responsibility is lacking, and the IO will become the main target of public blame attributions. To assess the plausibility of this‘failure hypothesis’, we study public blame attributions in two cases of EU foreign policy failures and two cases of EU environmental policy failures.