Colchester Museums has collected Roman-period medical instruments from the town since the late nineteenth century. Brought together here, along with items from the town housed in other institutions, their typological links or differences are explored, along with their wide range of uses. They are set in a variety of contexts, including a conquest-period British Doctor’s kit from Stanway, near Colchester, the alloys used in their manufacture, their distribution across the town and its suburbs, the diseases evident from late Romano-British human remains in the town’s cemeteries, and herbal remedies and other treatments. Interpretation of a previously enigmatic collyrium stamp attests to an eye infection not previously recorded in Roman Britain.

Historic accounts often cite mesquite gum as a component of O’odham material culture and medicinal practices. This study reevaluates these claims through chemical analysis of artifacts and reconsiders historical accounts in light of the chemistry of mesquite exudates. Museum artifacts previously identified as containing mesquite gum were instead identified as insect lac, consistent with its use in Hohokam artifacts and suggesting technological continuity. Mesquite polyphenolic exudate—distinct from polysaccharide gum—was identified as the base for carbonaceous black paints and, given its chemical properties, was likely used in traditional medicinal applications. Linguistic distinctions in O’odham terminology reflect a detailed understanding of mesquite resources. These findings highlight the importance of precise material identification in interpreting cultural and technological practices in the American Southwest, as well as the value of reevaluation of museum collections.

Many institutions today promote “Global Asia(s)” and “Global Asian Studies” as both a method and an initiative. As a growing field, these institutions are committed to reimagining the studies of Asia through transnational, comparative, and boundary-crossing approaches. To map its contemporary landscape and identify emerging challenges, this study draws on interviews with ten directors from diverse institutions around the world, each engaged in Global Asia(s)/Global Asian Studies in distinct and pioneering ways. Despite varied contexts, these institutions share strong commitments – particularly a collective dissatisfaction with traditional models of Asian Studies and a common drive to transcend geographic boundaries, the East–West divide, and disciplinary silos. At the same time, local histories, community needs, academic traditions, institutional structures, leadership visions, and available resources shape divergent interpretations and implementations of Global Asia(s). Rather than advancing a unified model, this study emphasizes the field’s plurality and reflexive knowledge production process, arguing that its strength lies in this diversity and ongoing dialogue.

We present a detailed characterisation of radio frequency interference (RFI) in the 2.4 GHz band around Murriyang, CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope. The dominant sources of interference are Wi-Fi and Bluetooth transmissions. We quantify how the intensity and directionality of this RFI vary with time of day and document its evolution over several years. Although most observers currently discard data within this band, our analysis shows that the interference is confined in both time and frequency and can be effectively mitigated. Using 10 seconds of 16-bit voltage data recorded during observations of the Vela Pulsar (PSR J0835—4510), we demonstrate that the majority of the channelised data remain unaffected by RFI. We compare three RFI detection and mitigation algorithms and evaluate their relative performance. All methods perform effectively, and any could be implemented in real time to enable productive use of this observing band. A real time implementation would allow the scientific use of this 128MHz observing band to increase, from almost 70% of the band being completely unusable all of the time, to over 90% of becoming accessible for science. Given its simplicity and efficiency, a basic power-threshold approach offers a relatively straightforward solution.

Recent advances in healthcare and rising life expectancy intensify longevity risk, motivating a deeper understanding of how cause-of-death (COD) rates interact. Using male COD data from 1978 to 2018 in the United States, we develop a copula-based hierarchical framework for seven major causes: cancer, diabetes, external causes, influenza, mental disorders, nephritis, and vascular disease. The framework integrates reconciliation, hierarchical dependence, and long-run equilibrium using a Lee–Carter (LC) setting. More specifically, the LC period indices are estimated under reconciliation penalties and are modeled through a sparse vector error correction model, with dependence captured by a hierarchical Archimedean copula. Two applications illustrate the value of our approach. In out-of-sample forecasting, the framework outperforms the standard LC model by improving the accuracy of aggregate mortality rates. In structural analysis, fitted connectedness reveals that diabetes and vascular disease act as net transmitters of mortality shocks, while cancer and external causes are net receivers. These insights help actuaries, demographers, clinicians, and policymakers enhance mortality forecasting to assess whether prioritizing government interventions for high-transmission causes could potentially maximize overall mortality improvements for society.

We study a nonlinear branching diffusion process in the sense of McKean, i.e. where particles are subjected to a mean-field interaction. We consider first a strong formulation of the problem and we provide an existence and uniqueness result by using contraction arguments. Then we consider the notion of weak solution and its equivalent martingale problem formulation. In this setting, we provide a general weak existence result, as well as a propagation of chaos property, i.e. the McKean–Vlasov branching diffusion is the limit of a large-population branching diffusion process with mean-field interaction.

This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Comprehensive Emotional Eating Scale (CEES) and examined its associations with emotion regulation, cognitive control, cognitive flexibility, and perceived stress in adults. A cross-sectional design was conducted with 1,521 adults aged 18–74 (68% female). The CEES was adapted following standard cross-cultural guidelines, including translation, back-translation, and approval by the original scale developer. Participants also completed the Emotional Appetite Questionnaire (EMAQ), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-16), Cognitive Control and Flexibility Questionnaire (CCFQ), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) assessed construct validity, while internal consistency, convergent validity, and multiple linear regression analyses explored predictors of emotional eating. CFA supported a four-factor structure representing Undereating–Positive Emotions, Undereating–Negative Emotions, Overeating–Positive Emotions, and Overeating–Negative Emotions, with item loadings of 0.48–0.77; one item was removed due to low loading. Internal consistency was high (α = .88–.91), and convergent validity was confirmed via EMAQ correlations. Multiple regression analyses indicated that greater difficulties in emotion regulation, higher perceived stress, lower cognitive control and flexibility, smoking, higher Body Mass Index (BMI), and chronic disease significantly increased emotional eating. Women showed higher undereating-negative emotion and total emotional eating scores, while smoking, higher BMI, and chronic disease elevated scores on specific subscales. The Turkish CEES demonstrates robust psychometric properties and reliably captures multidimensional emotional eating in adults. Psychological and demographic factors increase emotional eating subscales and total scores, supporting the scale’s use in research and clinical settings in Türkiye.