This study introduces the development and cross-cultural validation of the Compassion at Work Leadership Behavior Inventory (CAW-LBI), a novel hetero-evaluative tool aimed at assessing compassionate leadership behaviors according to the three-dimensional model proposed by Kanov et al. The present research consists of two studies. The first study involved two samples of Italian workers (N = 431) assessing the scale’s psychometric properties, including its factor structure through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, internal reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity. The results supported the hypothesized three-factor structure, with the best fit for a 9-item scale. The scale demonstrated excellent internal consistency, with high Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega values. AVE, CR, and the Fornell–Larcker criteria were satisfactory regarding convergent and discriminant validity. In addition, the scale showed significant and appropriate Pearson’s correlations with other related measures. The second study includes 225 Spanish workers, confirming the 9-item structure and supporting all the findings from the first study. Further analysis showed strong measurement invariance across samples, indicating that the CAW-LBI reliably captures compassionate leadership behaviors in different cultural contexts. These results suggest that the CAW-LBI is a robust tool for assessing compassionate leadership in various organizational and cultural contexts, offering a valuable contribution to leadership research.

Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) is a noninvasive technique engaging vagal afferents that may enhance cognition, but results vary across domains and samples. Following PRISMA, seven databases (inception–October 2025) plus registries and gray literature were searched. Random-effects meta-analyses (REML; Hedges’ g) were complemented by Bayesian hierarchical models and sensitivity analyses. Fifty-three studies were included; 30 contributed quantitative data (>1,500 participants). taVNS was associated with improved cognitive performance overall (g = 0.41, 95% CI: 0.30–0.53; I2 = 51.4%). Effects were moderate for executive functions (g = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.27–0.65; I2 = 9.5%) and cognitive flexibility/learning (g = 0.53, 95% CI: 0.32–0.75; I2 = 52.9%), and small for working memory/attention (g = 0.19, 95% CI: 0.04–0.33; I2 = 14.9%). Social cognition/emotion regulation showed larger but imprecise effects (k = 3; g = 0.80, 95% CI: 0.07–1.52; I2 = 82.1%). Clinical samples benefited similarly (k = 7; g = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.31–0.79; I2 = 29.5%), with no difference from healthy cohorts (β = −0.001, p = .994). High-intensity protocols (>1.0 mA) yielded larger effects; mode, duration, and site were not moderators. Bayesian models supported effects (P [μ > 0] ≥ 0.93). taVNS is associated with statistically significant improvements in cognitive performance, strongest for executive control and adaptive learning. We propose a Vagal Neurocognitive Integration Model linking LC-NE arousal modulation to prefrontal control. Future diagnosis-specific, adequately powered trials with multimodal neuroimaging should refine mechanisms and dose–response.

‘Teaching about Transatlantic Slavery’ was a three-year professional development project for teachers centring on the Historic Collections of Balliol College, University of Oxford, and the Museum of the American Revolution (MOAR) in Philadelphia. The project grew out of Balliol’s 2021 exhibition, ‘Slavery in the Age of Revolution’, which was inspired by the work of Fellows Sudhir Hazareesingh, Black Spartacus: the epic life of Toussaint Louverture (2020) and Marisa J. Fuentes, Dispossessed Lives: enslaved women, violence and the archive (2016). This paper discusses how we approached the aims of the project, telling a fuller history by foregrounding the role of Black people in the struggle for abolition and increasing awareness of the lasting impact of transatlantic slavery on the way we live and think today. We will address how some of the challenges of working with the material in Balliol’s collections became project strengths when we learnt to navigate bias and acknowledge and elaborate on the gaps and erasures in the historical record. We also acknowledge the diverse range of people who contributed and their importance to the consequent depth and effectiveness of the project. ‘Teaching about Transatlantic Slavery’ reached forty teachers and educators from the USA and the UK and has had lasting impact. The programme allowed teachers to practise teaching with objects, artwork, and primary source documents, deepen their subject knowledge, and develop skills for engaging in sensitive and difficult conversations around complex topics.

Cotton and soybean with tolerance to 2,4-D, glufosinate, and glyphosate offer useful options for managing herbicide-resistant weeds, especially Palmer amaranth, but effective late-season weed management depends on herbicide program design and timing. In 2019 and 2020, field experiments at two North Carolina locations compared herbicide programs built on preemergence (PRE) herbicides (fomesafen + acetochlor), followed by an early postemergence (EPOST, glufosinate) application and/or a late postemergence (LPOST, 2,4-D + glyphosate). Control was assessed 7–8 weeks after planting, and yields were standardized within environment to the maximum observed yield to allow direct comparison of herbicide programs across crops. Overall, programs that included a herbicide applied LPOST (PRE+LPOST, EPOST+LPOST, or PRE+EPOST+LPOST) controlled weeds completely and prevented yield losses. Herbicides applied PRE+EPOST frequently provided a slightly lower control than LPOST herbicide programs, and PRE herbicide alone consistently resulted in the lowest control. Lower early-season rainfall in 2019 coincided with reduced PRE herbicide performance and wider differences among herbicide programs, whereas earlier, greater rainfall in 2020 increased weed control consistent with improved PRE herbicide soil incorporation. Weed control in soybean was often greater than in cotton with PRE+EPOST in the drier year, consistent with faster canopy closure. Weed species responded similarly across programs, though PRE-only control of morningglories was generally 20–30 % lower than for Palmer amaranth and annual grasses. Relative yield reflected differences in weed control; plots without herbicides exhibited 70–90% losses, whereas herbicide programs with LPOST treatments achieved maximum yields. Results support pairing PRE residuals with sequential herbicides applied POST in herbicide programs, and highlight the value of herbicides applied LPOST to mitigate escapes of late-emerging weeds and avoid yield losses.

Analysis of fracture networks in horizontally bedded limestone and shale in the Eastern Shelf of the Permian Basin of west-central Texas was performed to investigate the lithologic and mineralogic controls on fracture networks. The results show that opening-mode fracturing is sensitive to mineralogy as a primary control and that opening-mode fracturing depends on total clay and calcite percentages. Systematically fractured beds in this study all have >80% calcite, <9% quartz and <7.5% total clay minerals, whereas beds with <80% calcite, >9% quartz and >6% clay minerals are unfractured. Depositional-texture-based lithologic classifications (grainstone, packstone, wackestone, mudstone) based on proportions of carbonate grains and carbonate mud, although extremely convenient and important for interpreting depositional environments of carbonate rocks, are not robust predictors of fracturing. The reason for this is the sensitivity of rock strength to mineralogy – in carbonate rocks, particularly the clay mineral versus calcite content. Our results show that a mineralogic threshold approach may be valuable for opening-mode fracture prediction in limestone and shale.

Our goal is to provide simple and practical algorithms in higher-order Fourier analysis which are based on spectral decompositions of operators. We propose a general framework for such algorithms and provide a detailed analysis of the quadratic case. Our results reveal new spectral aspects of the theory underlying higher-order Fourier analysis. Along these lines, we prove new inverse and regularity theorems for the Gowers norms based on higher-order character decompositions. Using these results, we prove a spectral inverse theorem and a spectral regularity theorem in quadratic Fourier analysis.

In this paper, we analyze the potential harms of everyday self-help discourse, particularly in contexts of systemic oppression. After analyzing the core principles of self-help, such as the power of positive thinking, eliminating negative thinking, gratitude, self-knowledge for self-improvement, and individual choice and responsibility, we argue that self-help discourse is likely to perpetuate different forms of harm in conditions of oppression. First, we argue that, when used in contexts of systemic oppression, self-help discourse contributes to victim-blaming. Secondly, we highlight that the harms of self-help discourse include epistemic and affective dimensions. On the epistemic front, self-help discourse carries epistemic risks, including testimonial smothering and hermeneutical injustice, by discouraging the expression of certain perspectives and lived experiences. On the affective front, self-help discourse reinforces oppression by adding emotional burdens to the oppressed, dismissing their emotional experiences, and imposing the emotional norms of the dominant group. Finally, we revisit the principles of self-help, and show how they contribute to the highlighted harms, particularly by reinforcing victim-blaming, and epistemic and affective forms of injustice.

We introduce and study Liouville number groups, namely additive subgroups of the real numbers in which every nonzero element is a Liouville number. Using continued-fraction methods and linear independence over the field of algebraic numbers, we establish the existence of large families of such groups with rich algebraic and topological structure. We prove that there exist $(2^{\mathfrak {c}}) $ pairwise distinct Liouville number groups generated by strong Liouville numbers and that, among these, there are $(2^{\mathfrak {c}})$ pairwise nonhomeomorphic groups. We further show that there exist continuum many countable Liouville number groups, each generated by countably many strong Liouville numbers and homeomorphic, as topological spaces, to the rational numbers. In addition, we prove that no subgroup of the real numbers is homeomorphic to the space of Liouville numbers, thereby highlighting a strong topological distinction between the space of Liouville numbers and Liouville number groups.