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The evolution of parental care is beneficial if it facilitates offspring performance traits that are ultimately tied to offspring fitness. While this may seem self‐evident, the benefits of parental care have received relatively little theoretical exploration. Here, we develop a theoretical model that elucidates how parental care can affect offspring performance and which aspects of offspring performance (e.g., survival, development) are likely to be influenced by care. We begin by summarizing four general types of parental care benefits. Care can be beneficial if parents (1) increase offspring survival during the stage in which parents and offspring are associated, (2) improve offspring quality in a way that leads to increased offspring survival and/or reproduction in the future when parents are no longer associated with offspring, and/or (3) directly increase offspring reproductive success when parents and offspring remain associated into adulthood. We additionally suggest that parental control over offspring developmental rate might represent a substantial, yet underappreciated, benefit of care. We hypothesize that parents adjust the amount of time offspring spend in life‐history stages in response to expected offspring mortality, which in turn might increase overall offspring survival, and ultimately, fitness of parents and offspring. Using a theoretical evolutionary framework, we show that parental control over offspring developmental rate can represent a significant, or even the sole, benefit of care. Considering this benefit influences our general understanding of the evolution of care, as parental control over offspring developmental rate can increase the range of life‐history conditions (e.g., egg and juvenile mortalities) under which care can evolve. In this manuscript, we summarize four general types of parental care benefits. Care can be beneficial if parents (1) increase offspring survival during the stage in which parents and offspring are associated, (2) improve offspring quality in a way that leads to increased offspring survival and/or reproduction in the future when parents are no longer associated with offspring, (3) directly increase offspring reproductive success when parents and offspring remain associated into adulthood. We additionally suggest and find that parental control over offspring developmental rate might represent a substantial, yet underappreciated, benefit of care.

As cyber-space has become increasingly important for human activities, and intelligent algorithms are widely used in cyber-space, we are rapidly entering an intelligent society. Now, algorithmic enforcement and regulations of law have posed non-negligible issues. As algorithmic enforcement of copyright law was introduced earlier than that of other laws, it provides a helpful observation perspective. The worldwide practice of copyright enforcement has gradually departed from traditional “safe harbor provisions, ” and has emphasized prior examination of shared contents uploaded by Internet service providers’ (ISPs) users through the following three dimensions: automated infringement detection algorithms voluntarily used by the ISPs, heavier judicial liability of ISPs, and updated legislation principles. Thus, innovations and development have stimulated new mechanisms and regulations for enforcing copyright in cyberspace. Algorithmic enforcement of copyright law in an intelligent society is essential and meaningful. The copyright regulation mechanisms should be guided by jurisprudential principles and concepts featuring the principles of (a) legitimate and efficient flow of information, (b) balance between and among algorithmic power, public power and private rights, (c) boosting the sharing economy and the new gig economy, and (d) promoting social governance philosophy of “coconstruction, co-governance and sharing.” These principles are meaningful for creation of a new mechanism for balancing interests between ISPs and their users, and for introducing the pluralistic co-governance mechanism beyond simply practicing “filtering obligations.” In addition, these principles are significant for improving a certification with credibility of copyright status and ownership, and for advancing a mechanism for online collegiate-panel dispute resolution.

The purpose of this article is to review and discuss the factors affecting high pressure processing (HPP) in juices and beverages. The inactivation of microorganisms by HPP depends on numerous factors, including the magnitude of the pressure and the holding time, process temperature, compression and decompression rates, the microbiota, and the intrinsic properties of juices and beverages. Although extensive HPP research has been performed to characterize many of these factors, a number of issues, such as the rates of compression and decompression, still remain unresolved and need further investigation. In addition, some published results are conflicting and do not provide enough evidence to develop juice HPP \"safe-harbor\" parameters to achieve a minimum 5-log reduction of the pertinent microorganism and produce safe fruit juices and beverages.

I examine the recent evolution of the law with respect to repurchase agreements. Repurchase agreements (repo) are short-term debt contracts that were central in the expansion of liquidity during the run-up to the financial crisis. The irresponsible and disruptive lending within the housing market was related to excessive financial institution leverage made possible through repo. A key issue in the law relating to repo is the status of the collateral in the event of bankruptcy of the borrower. I trace the development of this aspect of the law through interpretations of the bankruptcy code by the courts, as well as through legislated changes to the code.

Prior research finds that positive tone in firms' qualitative disclosures increases the risk of shareholder lawsuits. However, federal securities laws provide a safe harbor intended to shield firms' forward-looking statements from legal liability. One implication of this safe harbor is that litigation risk potentially varies between qualitative forward- and non-forward-looking statements. Consistent with this implication, we find that positive tone in forward-looking qualitative statements is significantly less related to the likelihood of subsequent litigation than is positive tone in non-forward-looking qualitative statements. On average, we fail to find a significant association between qualitative forward-looking statements and subsequent litigation. We do find evidence, however, that positive tone in qualitative forward-looking statements relates positively to subsequent litigation in two U.S. circuits in which court rulings reduced safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements. Overall, our results are consistent with the safe harbor effectively shielding firms' qualitative forward-looking statements from litigation risk.

While there are certainly times where it may make sense to create a longer eligibility requirement for a profit-sharing contribution over a shorter salary deferral and match requirement, it may be that contribution formulas could accommodate a similar end goal without adding multiple eligibility requirements. Whether the standard match or non-elective formula is used in plan design is generally dependent on whether profit sharing contributions are intended, or even whether a cash balance plan has layered on top of the 401(k) plan, which usually would make a non-elective formula most efficient. By auto-enrolling at 10 percent of pay, the employer can avoid auto-escalation, use a 3.5 percent match rather than the standard safe harbor 4 percent minimum, and satisfy multiple nondiscrimination tests. If employees were permitted to participate in the plan immediately or at 90 days (where many health and welfare plans are enrolled), and gross compensation is used for contribution calculations, the 401(k) plan would operate with relative ease and possibly have a lower cost than a standard safe harbor match plan, depending on participation.

In critically ill patients, a discrepancy frequently exists between percutaneous oxygen saturation (SpO₂) and arterial blood oxygen saturation (SaO₂), which can lead to potential hypoxemia being overlooked. The aim of this study was to explore the factors related to the discrepancy and to develop an easy-to-use prediction model that uses readily available bedside information to predict the discrepancy and suggest the need for arterial blood gas measurement. This is a prognostic study that used eICU Collaborative Research Database from 2014 to 2015 for model development and MIMIC-IV data from 2008 to 2019 for model validation. To predict the outcome of SpO₂ exceeding SaO₂ by 3% or more, non-invasive, readily available bedside information (patient demographics, vital signs, vasopressor use, ventilator use) was used to develop prediction models with three machine learning methods (decision tree, logistic regression, XGBoost). To make the model accessible, the model was deployed as a web-based application. Additionally, the contribution of each variable was explored using partial dependence plots and SHAP values. From 4,781 admission records in eICU data, a total of 19,804 paired SpO₂ and SaO₂ measurements were used. Among three machine learning models, the XGBoost model demonstrated the best predictive performance with an AUROC of 0.73 and a calibration slope of 0.90. In the validation cohort of MIMIC-IV paired dataset, the performance was AUROC of 0.56. An exploratory model-updating step followed by temporal validation raised performance to AUROC of 0.70 with a calibration slope of 0.85. In both datasets, worse vital signs were associated with the discrepancy (e.g., low blood pressure, low temperature) between SpO₂ and SaO₂. Using non-invasive bedside data, a machine learning model was developed to predict SpO₂–SaO₂ discrepancy and identified vital signs as key contributors. These findings underscore the awareness for hidden hypoxemia and provide the basis of further study to accurately evaluate the actual SaO₂.

[...]the relief generally permits a qualified plan to allow participants to retain inadvertent benefit overpayments without the employer needing to make a corrective payment to the plan (or adopt a plan amendment). [...]certain overpayments are treated as eligible rollover distributions, so that amounts placed in an individual retirement account (IRA) or another qualified plan can remain there. [...]this Notice does not impact the plan sponsor's obligation to make contributions to a plan to meet the minimum funding standards under Code Sections 412 and 430 or to prevent or restore an impermissible forfeiture in accordance with Code Section 411. [...]the plan sponsor must still observe any limitations imposed on it by Code Sections 401(a)(17) and 415, and the plan may enforce these limitations using any method approved by the Secretary of Treasury for recouping benefits previously paid or allocations previously made in excess of the limitations. [...]the following provisions of EPCRS are modified or are no longer applicable with respect to an inadvertent benefit overpayment: * Definition of Overpayment. [...]subject to the exception described in Q&A-6 of the Notice: * If an inadvertent benefit payment is rolled over from an originating plan to a second plan and recoupment of all or a portion of the inadvertent benefit payment is sought, then the amount that is sought and transferred back to the originating plan is treated both as an eligible rollover distribution from the originating plan and as an eligible rollover distribution transferred back to the originating plan. * The portion of an inadvertent benefit overpayment for which recoupment is sought that is not returned to the originating plan is not treated as an eligible rollover distribution.

Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) is a commonly used biomarker for assessing kidney function and neuroendocrine activity. Previous studies have indicated that elevated BUN levels are associated with increased mortality in various critically ill patient populations. The focus of this study was to investigate the relationship between BUN and 28-day mortality in intensive care patients. This was a multi-centre retrospective cohort study that made use of data from the eICU Collaborative Research Database. The primary exposure variable was BUN, and the outcome was 28-day mortality. The following variables were included as covariates: age, gender, BMI, white blood cell count, creatinine, GCS score, APACHE IV score, and diabetes. The statistical analyses included univariate and multivariate logistic regression, as well as generalized additive modelling, which was employed to assess the non-linear relationship between BUN and mortality. A total of 63,757 elderly patients were included in the study, with a 28-day mortality of 6.5%. The univariate analysis indicated that elevated BUN quartiles were associated with an increased risk of mortality. The results of the multivariate analysis further confirmed the non-linear relationship between BUN and mortality. When BUN was less than 32 mg/dL, there was a significant positive association, with an adjusted odds ratio of 1.230 (95% CI: 1.154-1.311, p<0.0001) for every 10 mg/dL increase in BUN. However, when BUN was greater than or equal to 32 mg/dL, BUN level had no significant effect on mortality. BUN showed a nonlinear, threshold correlation with 28-day mortality in critically ill patients. The higher the BUN, the greater the risk of death if the BUN is below the threshold.

Precision exogenous gene knock-in is an attractive field for transgenic Gallus gallus (chicken) generation. In this article, we constructed multiple Precise Integration into Target Chromosome (PITCh) plasmid systems mediated by microhomology-mediated end-joining (MMEJ) for large-fragment integration in DF-1 cells and further assess the possibility of GAPDH (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) as a genomic safe harbor for chickens. We designed three targeted sgRNAs for the all-in-one plasmid at the 3′UTR of GAPDH near the stop codon. The donor-plasmid-carrying microhomology arms correspond to sgRNA and EGFP fragments in the forward and reverse directions. MMEJ-mediated EGFP insertion can be efficiently expressed in DF-1 cells. Moreover, the differences between the forward and reverse fragments indicated that promoter interference does affect the transfection efficiency of plasmids and cell proliferation. The comparison of the 20 bp and 40 bp microhomology arms declared that the short one has higher knock-in efficiency. Even though all three different transgene insertion sites in GAPDH could be used to integrate the foreign gene, we noticed that the G2-20R-EGFP cell reduced the expression of GAPDH, and the G3-20R-EGFP cell exhibited significant growth retardation. Taken together, G1, located at the 3′UTR of GAPDH on the outer side of the last base of the terminator, can be a candidate genomic safe harbor (GSH) loci for the chicken genome. In addition, deleted-in-azoospermia-like (DAZL) and actin beta (ACTB) site-specific gene knock-in indicated that MMEJ has broad applicability and high-precision knock-in efficiency for genetically engineered chickens.