While migration can provide economic opportunities and remittances for rural households, it may also lead to loss of skilled labor and disrupt farm operations. This study examines the impact of rural-urban migration on technical efficiency in Ghana, using robust methodology that combines propensity score matching with a difference-in-differences, selectivity-corrected stochastic frontier model. Analysis is based on panel data from 1,056 farm maize households. Results show that migration significantly improves technical efficiency and maize output. Migration history, farm characteristics, and education shape this relationship. Strengthening extension services and promoting the best farming practices are vital for improving smallholder productivity and efficiency.

Using ICESat-2 and ArcticDEM strips we track height change in a glacial basin in northern Ellesmere Island Canada. The surface topography dips towards the middle of the basin and ArcticDEM differences show a 1–3 m increase in 2020 summer surface height over an area of 8–10 km2. ICESat-2 heights confirm that each melt season (2019–2024), the height change of melt water at the basin edge matches that over ice in the basin middle. The summer height increase happens at the same time as an upstream drop in surface elevation suggesting yearly episodic subglacial water movement from upstream to a downstream subglacial lake. Melt water drainage occurs in the fall to a particular elevation and apparently follows a path at the northern edge of the basin. These data illustrate subglacial melt water movement both spatially and temporally in rarely obtained detail and are consistent with data from two NASA IceBridge passes.

The bispectrum, being sensitive to non-Gaussianity and mode coupling of cosmological fields induced by non-linear gravitational evolution, serves as a powerful probe for detecting deviations from general relativity (GR). The signatures of modified gravity in the bispectrum are even more pronounced in redshift space, where anisotropies from peculiar velocities provide unbiased information on higher-order properties of gravity. We investigate the potential of all non-zero angular multipoles $B_l^m$ of redshift space bispectrum across all possible triangle configurations to probe degenerate higher-order scalar tensor (DHOST) theory. We show that the higher-order multipoles of the bispectrum with $l=2,4,6$ are more sensitive to the modifications in gravity than the spherically averaged monopole moment $l=0$. These multipoles demonstrate remarkable sensitivity to the higher-order growth history, which varies across triangle configurations, with acute triangles generally being the most sensitive to modification in GR. The values of various multipoles exhibit opposite signs in modified gravity compared to those predicted in GR, which serves as a robust indicator of the deviation from GR. We demonstrate that, unlike $l=2$ and 4 multipoles, the $l=6$ multipoles with $m\leq 4$ are not affected by the quadratic bias and second-order tidal bias parameters, emphasising the need to leverage their capabilities in analyses. The $(l=6, m \gt 4)$ multipoles fail to capture the second-order growth, while all $l=8$ multipoles lack any independent information regarding modified gravity in both linear and nonlinear regimes.

This paper investigates Herodotus’ allusions to democratic tenets dear to fifth-century Athens in Books 7 and 8 and how democracy is there suggested as an actionable possibility for all peoples. The paper also explores what Herodotus might have thought about democracy and how reflecting on it was a means for him to examine his own writing (section II). A discussion of Herodotus’ broad meditations on democracy in 7.10, 7.101–3, and 8.140–3 considers their historiographic and practical implications, showing that the Athenian democratic tenets Herodotus may have had as references formed a nucleus from which he elaborated a complex view of democracy, i.e., as a peaceful counterpart to imperialism (section III). Section IV examines some trade-offs and implications one may derive from the intertwining of allusions to democracy and the writing of history. The paper’s chief conclusions are summarized in section V: that the use of allusions allows Herodotus to discuss constituent parts of a democracy, not only those specific to the Athenian democracy, but also those appropriate to all possible forms of democracy.

Inscribed Greek verse epitaphs were produced in relatively high numbers in the city of Rome under the Principate. Although many were made for slaves and freedmen, their use was not confined to them. The individuals who opted to use them made a deliberate choice to emphasize their Greek cultural identity. They may have had several motives, but often the deceased or their (grand)parents had migrated from the eastern parts of the Roman empire to Rome, voluntarily or involuntarily. By presenting themselves as Greek in their language and use of mythological exempla, they claimed the paideia (‘education’) and culture associated with the Greek literary past. Yet despite the heavy emphasis on Greekness, the epigrams also display an awareness of the Roman context in which they were set up. Greek epigrams formed excellent vehicles to navigate the cultural ambiguities of ‘being Greek’ in Rome, and this explains why Rome became a major production centre of Greek funerary epigram.

New, well-preserved specimens of the paracrinoids Wellerocystis and Implicaticystis provide new morphological data. All specimens originate from reef facies in the Kimmswick Limestone (Upper Ordovician, Sandbian–Katian) at a single locality near St Louis, Missouri, USA. Wellerocystis is characterized by an ovoid theca largely composed of imperforate plates arranged in vertical columns lacking pore-structures but with fine granular sculpture; four recumbent branched uniserial ambulacra with up to seven branches in total; a mouth frame of four plates, one of which also contributes to the periproct frame; a sinuous hydropore; and circular gonopore. The stem is unknown; its facet is small and circular, similar to that of Platycystites. Implicaticystis is characterized by a circular, heteromorphic stem, ovoid theca composed of externally concave, perforate plates with foerstepores, internal pararhombs, and a mouth frame of three plates plus two lateral plates each bearing two facets for erect, uniserial, hemipinnate pseudoarms. Foerstepores connect to tubes that pass through the theca near plate sutures. Internal lamellae of pararhombs support thecal plates much as A-frames support ridged rooves. Erect versus recumbent and branched ambulacra evolved repeatedly in pelmatozoans so both are less useful in classifying paracrinoids than presence or absence of unique pore-structures. The sister group of paracrinoids could have included Columbocystis, rhipidocystids, and cryptocrinitids. Columbocystis is commonly mentioned in discussions in this context, but its asymmetrical facets suggest it had biserial feeding appendages, unlike uniserial paracrinoid appendages.

This paper argues that the problem of unconceived alternatives (PUA), originally formulated as a much-noted intervention in the realist/antirealist debate about scientific theories, has notable implications for discussions of hypotheses concerning ultimate reality – particularly for the debate about so-called (alternative) concepts of God in both philosophy of religion and theology. Despite the substantial differences between scientific theories and concepts of God, or other hypotheses concerning ultimate reality, certain common strategies for establishing their central claims as true show surprising similarities in their vulnerability to the PUA. The main thesis advanced is that inferences that the central claims of a given concept of God are (probably or approximately) true are unreliable if, and to the extent to which, that concept of God is accepted on the basis of, and its central claims are arrived at and justified through, inferences to the best explanation or eliminative inferences. If the argument is successful, then if theological realism in the form of realist theism is to be maintained, the central claims of concepts of God must be based also on other epistemic grounds.

Workaholism and overcommitment are often defined as irrational or obsessive attachments to work, characterized by excessive work investment with negative consequences for health and well-being. However, the relationship between these constructs remains underexplored. In this study, we hypothesized that workaholism and overcommitment represent different stages of the same work addiction dynamic, with overcommitment mediating the relationship between workaholism and burnout. Additionally, we proposed that job satisfaction reinforces this addiction dynamic, strengthening the relationship between workaholism and overcommitment over time. Utilizing data from a three-wave longitudinal study (time-lag = 1 month) involving Italian employees, we tested a moderated mediation model. Our findings indicated that overcommitment at T2 fully mediated the relationship between workaholism at T1 and job burnout at T3. Moreover, job satisfaction at T2 significantly moderated this pathway, suggesting that higher job satisfaction leads to a stronger relationship between workaholism and overcommitment over time. In conclusion, our study highlights the exacerbating effect of job satisfaction on the link between workaholism and overcommitment, which can, in turn, increase employees’ burnout. This research represents the first longitudinal examination of workaholism and overcommitment as stages within the same process, rather than as distinct constructs.

The climatic conditions, particularly the sources of precipitation that enabled extensive glacial growth during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in the European Alps, remain poorly constrained. Here, we apply an inversion method to reconstruct equilibrium line altitude (ELA) fields using glacier footprints, such as the moraines deposited by Alpine glaciers during the LGM. By employing a machine-learning emulator trained on outputs from a glacier-evolution model, we predict glacier maximal thickness. The emulator is integrated into a gradient-based inversion scheme to derive ELA fields consistent with LGM footprints. The results show that the reconstructed ELA fields align with those from previous studies, validating the robustness of our approach. Unlike existing inversion methods, our approach is more general and avoids restrictive assumptions. Notably, by incorporating the transient response of glaciers to climate variability (we do not assume steady state), we show that the cold spell period is crucial for interpreting the reconstructed climate patterns—an aspect previously overlooked. Our findings provide new insights into climatic variability during the LGM, particularly concerning the interaction between precipitation patterns and the cold spell period. Furthermore, the computational efficiency of our method makes it applicable to large-scale paleoclimate reconstructions based on glacier footprints.

A highly diversified fauna of brachyurans is described from the lower Eocene Serraduy Formation of Huesca, northeastern Spain. Fifteen new and first-reported taxa of brachyurans are described including three new genera, ten new species, and five taxa in open nomenclature. New taxa include: Carpilius feldmanni n. sp., Ceronnectes rugosus n. sp., Eohexapus simplex n. sp., Galenopsis ossoi n. sp., Matutsalen rotundus n. gen. n. sp., Microboschettia elegans n. gen. n. sp., Parhalimede antiqua n. sp., Locomius parthenopimimus n. gen. n. sp., Liocarcinus tridentatus n. sp., and Xanthilites robustus n. sp. Five additional genera have been recognized from fragmented material only including Alponella sp., Lovaroides sp., Paromola sp., ?Rhinolambrus sp., and ?Spinirostrimaia sp. Moreover, based on new specimens, we provide new data on Ilerdapatiscus guardiae and Aragolambrus collinsi. New information supports previous considerations about reef settings that are comparable to modern reef ecosystems as environments of diversified decapod crustaceans in the early Eocene.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/a5426acb-1d14-4e37-a843-922c940ac5b2