Between 1898 and 1923, a series of disputes erupted among fishing communities in the British Gold Coast Colony (modern-day Ghana) following the introduction of larger and more productive sea fishing nets. All along the coast, fishers debated the environmental and economic consequences of adopting the nets, which debates shifted across African and colonial forums. Focusing on these disputes, this article interrogates the ways in which sites of fishing innovations and experimentation became sites of intense conflict and negotiation throughout the Gold Coast Colony as different groups debated and contested technological change. In the process, voices advocating for caution within the fishing industry were effectively marginalised through the manoeuvring of net advocates while the introduction of colonial arbitration within the realm of fisheries offered new challenges to the authority of African leaders within the marine space.

This article examines the relationship between acts harmful to the enemy (AHTTE) – the first criterion for the loss of special protection for medical units and transports under international humanitarian law – and the requirements for classification as a military objective, which governs the loss of general protection for civilian objects. The analysis begins by clarifying the articulation between special and general protection, then outlines the legal consequences of losing special protection alone. The definition of AHTTE is examined, with particular attention to hospital shielding, and it is then assessed whether such acts always meet the cumulative conditions of Article 52(2) of Additional Protocol I for becoming military objectives: effective contribution to military action and definite military advantage. The article argues that AHTTE do not always meet these conditions, and that certain acts contribute too indirectly or speculatively to justify targeting. The conclusion emphasizes that this analysis does not preclude the application of other rules governing the conduct of hostilities.

Many affluent democracies have pledged to achieve ‘net zero’ greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century. Achieving these targets would denote important national contributions to the international goal of keeping global warming ‘well below’ 2°C as agreed in the 2015 Paris agreement. Yet pursuing the necessary long-term decarbonisation policies influencing individuals’ everyday lives will require a considerable and enduring level of political leadership. But what enables or constrains politicians to perform such leadership? To date, little is known about the factors influencing politicians’ willingness to advocate for decarbonisation measures in the short-term for the long-term gain of climate change mitigation. This study draws on rare data of consumers’ carbon footprints, parliamentary speechmaking, and qualitative elite interviews in a mixed-methods research design to study how the intensity of constituents’ consumption-based carbon emissions influences the decarbonisation-focused behaviour of members of parliament (MPs) in the UK. Our quantitative findings reveal that MPs pay considerably less attention to decarbonisation issues when they represent carbon-intense constituencies. Moreover, this effect is particularly pronounced for Conservative MPs and amplified in marginal seats. The qualitative interview evidence helps to contextualise these quantitative findings, suggesting that MPs consider the decarbonisation of lifestyles a crucial political challenge and that their electoral considerations and party-political contexts play an important role in how they handle this challenge. Overall, our study draws a sobering picture of politicians’ willingness to sacrifice short-term electoral gains for the long-term prospect of net zero, especially for those MPs representing constituencies that could make high-impact contributions to nationwide emission cuts.

The diffusion of agricultural technologies, such as biofortified crops, is often non-linear, characterised by adoption, discontinuation, and re-adoption. This study examines the factors shaping these dynamic patterns for high-iron beans (HIBs) in Uganda. Based on cross-sectional survey data, we employed a multinomial logit model to categorise and analyse farmer adoption status. The results reveal that a combination of socio-economic and institutional factors significantly influences adoption behaviour. Specifically, the gender and age of the household head, as well as participation in off-farm income, were key socio-economic predictors. Regarding institutional factors, access to reliable markets and the presence of payback schemes emerged as the primary drivers. These findings suggest that overcoming adoption barriers requires addressing both the demographics of farmers and systemic constraints. We recommend a strategic pivot towards decentralising seed production by establishing certified community seed enterprises and enhancing training programmes that focus on both agronomic practices and market linkages to ensure the sustained cultivation of HIBs.

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales were isolated from the outlet of a wastewater treatment plant in Kristianstad in southern Sweden, during spring and summer of the year 2024. MALDI-ToF MS identification and subsequent whole-genome sequencing identified eight Klebsiella pneumoniae strains belonging to ST437 and ST873 and 10 Escherichia coli strains belonging to ST167, ST648, ST1284, and ST8346. All strains, except K. pneumoniae ST873, were NDM-5 positive. K. pneumaniae ST437 and E. coli ST8346 carried two carbapenemase genes, blaNDM-5 and blaOXA-181, as well as the extended-spectrum-β-lactamases (ESBL) gene blaCTX-M-15. These two multi-drug-resistant ST variants that are widespread globally, that have previously not been detected in clinical settings in Sweden, are now detected in treated wastewater in a Swedish middle-sized town.

Monitoring snow distribution in alpine terrain is critical for hydrology, avalanche safety, and climate research, yet traditional surveys are costly, hazardous, and spatially sparse. We assess a gondola-mounted, low-cost Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) system (MOLISENS) for repeated snow monitoring in Real-Time Kinematics (RTK)-denied mountain environments. The system fuses lidar, Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), and standalone Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) using a Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) algorithm to generate 3D point clouds along a fixed aerial-lift transect at Hoher Sonnblick, Austria. Six winter runs (March 2023) were processed and compared with summer Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS)-photogrammetry. Intra-system repeatability between same-day scans reached centimetre precision (weighted standard deviation 0.010 m; 95% within $\pm$0.006 m), supporting detection of daily to seasonal changes in snow thickness along the route. Absolute agreement with the UAS reference was limited to decimetre scale, primarily due to registration and standalone GNSS uncertainties rather than sensor range noise. Performance degraded over feature-poor snowfields, and manual segment merging was labor-intensive; consequently, quantitative analyses were restricted to well-constrained segments. Despite these limitations, the results demonstrate the feasibility of gondola-mounted lidar for cost-effective, repeatable snow-thickness mapping.

ShinyItemAnalysis (SIA) is an R package and shiny application for an interactive presentation of psychometric methods and analysis of multi-item measurements in psychology, education, and social sciences in general. In this article, we present a new feature introduced in the recent version of the package, called “SIA modules,” which allows researchers and practitioners to offer new analytical methods for broader use via add-on extensions. SIA modules are designed to integrate with and build upon the SIA interactive application, enabling them to leverage the existing infrastructure for tasks, such as data uploading and processing. They can access and further use a range of outputs from various analyses, including models and datasets. Because SIA modules come in R packages (or extend existing ones), they can be bundled with their datasets, utilize object-oriented systems, or even compiled code. We illustrate the concepts using sample modules from the newly introduced SIAmodules package and other packages. After providing a general overview of building Shiny applications, we describe how to develop the SIA add-on modules with the support of the new SIAtools package. Finally, we discuss the possibilities of future development and emphasize the importance of freely available, interactive psychometric software for disseminating methodological innovations.

This study examines the use of English on signage in the areas surrounding two U.S. military bases in Japan, Yokosuka Navy Base and Yokota Air Base, highlighting the diverse functions of English that emerge through interactions between American residents and Japanese locals. In these areas, including streets that have become tourist destinations for Japanese visitors, various commercial establishments coexist, some offering authentic products and services for Americans, and others commodifying American culture for Japanese tourists. Within these public spaces, English signage, along with other semiotic resources, plays a central role in shaping a uniquely commodified environment infused with American culture. The study identifies two key features of English signage that distinguish these areas from other parts of Japan: (1) the prominence of informational English signage targeting Americans, such as monolingual English traffic signs and church signs, which reflects the dense American population; and (2) the symbolic use of English by Japanese shop owners, which do not signal modernity or globalization as English signage typically does elsewhere in Japan, but instead commodifies American culture to attract Japanese tourists. These uses of English on signage, alongside other semiotic materials, shape a unique visual and cultural landscape, underscoring the multifaceted roles of English in non‑English‑speaking countries like Japan, including both the ‘authentic’ use of English in communication with Americans and the ‘commodified authenticity’ conveyed through English employed by Japanese shop owners to appeal to Japanese audiences.

This article serves as an introduction to the Special Issue section “Measuring and Enhancing Resilience of United States Rural Communities in the Context of Climate Variability.” To set the stage for this section, we review how climate hazards impact rural areas and synthesize insights that emerge across the issue’s four papers, noting their policy relevance and highlighting opportunities for continued research. We argue that emerging data tools can help program designers and policy makers better support the resilience of rural areas, but that doing so remains complicated by heterogeneity in resources and vulnerabilities across rural areas.