Queen's University at Kingston, commonly known as Queen's University or simply Queen's, is a public research university in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Queen's holds more than 1,400 hectares (3,500 acres) of land throughout Ontario and owns Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England. Queen's is organized into ten undergraduate, graduate, and professional faculties and schools.The Church of Scotland established Queen's College in October 1841 via a royal charter from Queen Victoria. The first classes, intended to prepare students for the ministry, were held 7 March 1842 with 13 students and two professors. In 1869, Queen's was the first Canadian university west of the Maritime provinces to admit women. In 1883, a women's college for medical education affiliated with Queen's University was established after male staff and students reacted with hostility to the admission of women to the university's medical classes. In 1912, Queen's ended its affiliation with the Presbyterian Church, and adopted its present name. During the mid 20th century, the university established several faculties and schools, and expanded its campus with the construction of new facilities. Queen's is a co-educational university with more than 23,000 students and over 131,000 alumni living worldwide. Notable alumni include government officials, academics, business leaders and 57 Rhodes Scholars.
In 2019, Sivaraman conjectured that every Pk-free graph has cop number at most k-3. In the same year, Liu proved this conjecture for (Pk, claw)-free graphs. Recently Chudnovsky, Norin, Seymour, and Turcotte proved this conjecture for P5-free graphs. For k >= 6 the conjecture remains widely open. Let the E graph be the claw with two subdivided edges. We show that all (Pk,E )-free graphs have cop number at most [k-1 2 1 +3, which improves and generalizes Liu's result for (Pk, claw)-free graphs. We also prove that if G is a graph whose longest path is order p, then G has cop number at most [ 23p 1 + 3. This improves a bound of Joret, Kaminski, and Theis. Our proof relies on demonstrating that all (Pk, claw, butterfly, C4, C5)-free graphs have cop number at most [k-1 3 1 +3. (c) 2026 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) is a key member of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) family, playing a vital role in the innate immune response of crustaceans by regulating the expression of antimicrobial peptide (AMP) genes. This research aimed to isolate and characterize a JNK gene from Macrobrachium rosenbergii designated as MrJNK. The full-length cDNA of MrJNK consisted of 1455 bp with an open reading frame (ORF) of 1266 bp encoding 421 amino acids containing a conserved serine/threonine protein kinase catalytic (S_TKc) domain. The phylogenetic tree of JNK proteins indicated that MrJNK and JNK from M. nipponense (MnJNK) were closely related, and were classified within the same clade as other JNK proteins from various crustacean species. The expression analysis by real-time RT-PCR showed that MrJNK was expressed in all examined tissues demonstrating the highest expression in the hemocyte. Following an immune challenge with Aeromonas hydrophila, the transcriptional levels of MrJNK were significantly upregulated in gill, hepatopancreas, hemocyte, muscle, and intestine. The functional role of MrJNK was investigated using RNA interference (RNAi) assay. Knockdown of MrJNK by dsRNA resulted to significant downregulation of anti-lipopolysaccharide factor 5 (ALF5), crustin (Crs), mannose-binding lectin (MBL), lysozyme (Lyz), and prophenoloxidase (proPO) transcripts. In addition, the cumulative mortality rate in MrJNK-silenced M. rosenbergii was significantly increased after A. hydrophila injection. Moreover, the expression levels of two antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and three immune-related genes were significantly inhibited after silencing MrJNK by dsRNA and A. hydrophila injection in prawns. These results indicate that MrJNK is required for normal transcription of these immune-related genes and is involved in the innate immune response of M. rosenbergii at the transcriptional level.
The HELIX detector is a balloon-borne instrument designed to measure the flux of light (Z < 11) cosmic-ray isotopes. In this paper we describe the initial configuration of HELIX, optimized for measurements in the energy range from approximately 0.2 GeV per nucleon to beyond 3 GeV per nucleon. In addition to a spectrometer, which is based on a one-tesla superconducting magnet and a drift-chamber tracker, HELIX employs scintillator-based time-of-flight counters and a ring-imaging Cherenkov detector, allowing event-by-event reconstruction of primary particle mass, charge, and magnetic rigidity.
The longevity of three linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) geomembranes (GMBs) with thicknesses of 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 mm exposed to a pH 13.5 pregnant liquor solution representative of some of the highly alkaline gold and silver heap-leaching solutions was investigated for over 14 years. The GMBs were manufactured from nominally the same resin; however, the 1.5 mm GMB was produced from a different resin lot and with a different antioxidant formulation. Changes in key index properties of samples immersed at 85, 75, and 65 degrees C were monitored, including oxidative induction time, high-load melt index, tensile break properties, and stress-crack resistance. Based on the observed laboratory degradation rates, Arrhenius modelling was used to project the time to nominal failure (tNF) for all three GMBs. The results show that the 1.5 mm-thick GMB exhibited the best overall performance, with tNF projections increasing from the 1.0 mm to the 2.0 mm and to the 1.5 mm GMB. Immersed in the same pH 13.5 solution, the 1.5 mm LLDPE had a longer tNF than a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) GMB of the same thickness. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.
When reaching with a mirror reversed visuomotor distortion, the magnitude and direction of the distortion vary with target location. Previous research examining learning to reach with mirror reversed distortions have demonstrated engagement of explicit processes when large distortions are introduced. It remains to be determined whether explicit processes are also engaged when learning to reach with a relatively small mirror reversed distortion. Across two experiments, we examined the engagement of explicit processes (i.e., motor and perceptual awareness of reaching strategies) when learning to reach with a small (20°) mirror reversed distortion and whether this learning generalizes to novel targets. Learning to reach with a mirror reversed distortion was compared to learning to reach with a small visuomotor rotation, in which cursor feedback was rotated 20° relative to hand motion at each target. Participants in the mirror reversed group engaged both motor and perceptual awareness when reaching with the distortion and learning generalized to novel targets. While participants in the visuomotor rotation group learned to reach with the visuomotor rotation distortion, they did not engage either motor or perceptual awareness and there was no evidence of generalization to novel targets. Reaction times were longer for the mirror reversed group compared to the visuomotor rotation group, consistent with engagement of explicit processes. Together, these findings suggest that learning to reach with a small mirror reversed distortion is supported by motor and perceptual awareness that generalize to novel targets.
