This article explores the early development of Japan’s recording industry, focusing on locally driven “minor transnational engagements” between emerging Japanese record companies and foreign recording experts. The initial phase of Japan’s recording history mirrored the pattern in most countries from the early 1900s, with major record companies organizing international recording expeditions equipped with new acoustic disc recording technology. However, it was homegrown firms in the 1910s, especially the Nipponophone Company (Nihon Chikuonki Shōkai 日本蓄音器商會), that positioned themselves as the main producers of Japanese titles and gramophones. In the second half of the 1920s, the industry evolved further with the introduction of electrical recording technology, and Japanese record companies embraced it by partnering with international labels to establish multinational ventures. With a focus on the acoustic recording era of the 1910s and early 1920s, this article investigates Nipponophone’s recruitment of foreign recording experts, who not only shared their technical knowledge but also served as strategic conduits for expanding the company’s presence across regional and international markets. Nipponophone and other domestic record companies grew through expert collaborations and secondhand emulation. Their efforts, rather than global campaigns led by the multinational major labels, played a decisive role in shaping Japan’s early recording industry.

During the Imjin War (1592–1598), a new type of warfare centered on the harquebus was introduced into Korea. This led to the formation of a new infantry-based military composed largely of harquebusiers. Existing scholarship on the military change of Korea in this period has primarily focused on the emergence of the standing army. However, most of the troops were militiamen, similar to those of the prewar military. This article examines the broader contours of Korea’s military organization during this transformative period, with particular attention to the composition and roles of the forces. To be sure, a new standing army unit was organized, but its proportion was small both in absolute numbers and in participation in actual warfare. Instead, the militia continued to constitute the core of the Korean military and carried out the majority of wartime operations. The Korean court did not intend to raise a standing army as the new center of military power. This was due to its strong ideological commitment to the militia system and the actual military environment that Korea was facing. The Korean case presents a distinctive example of how the introduction of harquebus could coexist with the persistence of militia-based military structures.

Loneliness is a major psychological challenge in older adulthood, contributing to increased risks of depression, anxiety, and mortality. Conversational agents – technologies that interact with users via natural language – have emerged as potential tools to support psychological well-being in later life. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the effects of autonomous conversational agents, including robotic and nonrobotic systems, on loneliness, as well as social isolation, depression, and anxiety in older people without cognitive impairment. Seventeen studies with pre–post intervention data were included. Nine used physically embodied robots and eight employed nonrobotic agents, such as personal voice assistants, chatbots, or screen-based embodied agents. Due to the limited number of high-quality comparison studies, all meta-analyses were based on within-group pre–post comparisons. Meta-analytic results showed mild to moderate improvements in loneliness (standardized mean changes using change score [SMCC] = 0.350, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.180–0.520) and depression (SMCC = 0.464, 95% CI: 0.327–0.602), with no study reporting symptom worsening. No study included validated measures of social isolation, and only one assessed anxiety. These findings indicate that conversational agents may offer scalable support for older adults’ mental health, with potential especially for reducing loneliness and depression. Nonetheless, methodological limitations, including lack of blinded outcome assessment, inconsistent reporting, and heterogeneous intervention designs, underscore the need for more rigorous research. Advances in large language models may further enhance the responsiveness and relevance of these technologies for supporting psychological well-being in aging populations.

Focusing on Iberian rye, we explain how social opinion about crops can influence botanical scholars’ studies and breeding engineers’ research. Rye was an essential plant in some agricultural systems of the Iberian Peninsula for centuries because of its resistance. However, despite rye’s superiority over other cereals in adverse environments, its inferior position compared to wheat regarding food preferences helps to explain a lower consumption and an overall adverse social reputation. The early botanical investigation that formed the basis of later scientific research reflected this appreciation. Thus, with such weak foundations, given the lack of interest, when Iberian rye engineering began to develop in the 20th century, it looked abroad to find varieties of agronomic interest, barely studying native landraces. Analysing this phenomenon is a significant step towards drawing attention to a multifunctional plant adapted to the territory, which can offer solutions to present food and environmental challenges.

Cotton production in the Texas High Plains faces significant challenges due to water scarcity resulting from uneven rainfall patterns and declining levels of the Ogallala aquifer. Deficit or reduced irrigation is one of the most common water management strategies to increase water use efficiency and cotton productivity in the region. However, deficit irrigation can affect the efficacy of herbicides on weeds. This study investigates how varying irrigation levels affect herbicide efficacy on weeds in cotton production systems. A two-year field study was conducted at Texas Tech University Quaker Research Farm in 2023 and 2024. The experiment was randomized three times in a split-plot design with two irrigation levels: I1 [100% crop evapotranspiration (ETc) replacement] and I2 [50% ETc replacement] as the main plot factor and different pre-emergent (PRE) and post-emergent (POST) herbicide combinations as the subplot factor. Results indicated that reducing the irrigation level to I2 did not affect the total weed density or biomass production but resulted in decreased Palmer amaranth height and biomass production compared to I1. Among herbicide treatments, acetochlor, prometryn, or S-metolachlor PRE fb glyphosate + acetochlor, prometryn, or S-metolachlor POST provided the most effective weed control, reducing total weed density, Palmer amaranth weed density and biomass compared to the untreated control and to PRE alone. Although I2 resulted in lower plant height in both years than I1, it produced comparable cotton biomass and lint yield. Among the herbicide treatments, PRE fb glyphosate + residual herbicide POST yielded significantly higher lint yield than the untreated control in both years. In conclusion, the study demonstrates that deficit irrigation is an effective water conservation technique that maintains cotton yield and herbicide efficacy. Additionally, using PRE fb POST herbicide combinations, farmers can achieve effective weed control and sustain cotton productivity in semi-arid regions.

Triplet pregnancies are linked to a higher risk of maternal and fetal complications compared to twins and singletons. Chorionicity has been suggested as a key factor influencing perinatal and maternal outcomes in triplet pregnancies; however, more evidence is needed to clarify its role. This study aimed to assess the impact of chorionicity on adverse maternal, fetal, and neonatal outcomes in triplet pregnancies. This retrospective observational study was conducted on triplet pregnancies delivered between 2010 and 2025 at Florence University Hospital, a tertiary referral maternity center. A total of 77 triplet pregnancies were included, 51 trichorionic and 26 nontrichorionic, resulting in the delivery of 214 newborns. Maternal characteristics and obstetric, fetal, and neonatal complications were compared based on chorionicity. Multivariate logistic regression analyses identified complications most strongly associated with chorionicity, after adjusting for maternal age, mode of conception, and gestational age at delivery. Women with nontrichorionic triplet pregnancies had higher risks of delivering earlier and postpartum hemorrhage. Their newborns had significantly lower birth weights, a greater need for neonatal intensive care admission and respiratory support, and higher rates of hypoglycemia and sepsis. The multivariate logistic regression confirmed nontrichorionicity as an independent factor associated with earlier delivery and postpartum hemorrhage. Chorionicity plays an essential role in determining the prognosis of triplet pregnancies. Nontrichorionic pregnancies are strongly linked to earlier delivery, lower birth weights, and increased neonatal complications. These findings are useful for counseling patients, helping them understand specific risks based on chorionicity, although intensive prenatal care remains critical for all triplet pregnancies.

We present an explicit geometric invariant theory construction which produces both the minimal resolution of the type $D_4$ surface singularity, and also the orbifold resolution. Our construction is based on a Tannakian approach which is in principle applicable to larger groups.

Catatonia can be associated with a diverse range of conditions, including autoimmune encephalitis. Although rare, autoimmune encephalitis accounts for a significant proportion of catatonia cases with autoimmune aetiologies. In instances where autoimmune mechanisms are suspected, autoantibody testing is a key component of the diagnostic evaluation. However, test results should always be interpreted in conjunction with clinical findings. This article highlights the diagnostic challenges involved, advocating for structured diagnostic algorithms and timely initiation of immune therapy in carefully selected cases – particularly when antibody confirmation is absent. It revisits the paper, ‘Retrospective chart review of cases with steroid-responsive catatonia: exploring a potential autoimmune etiology’.

This article examines the lexicon for “gift” in the Gāndhārī epigraphical corpus, focusing on three key word-forms: G. dana-, danamuha- and deyadhaṃma-. These terms, which denote the meaning of “gift”, appear 36, 111 and 14 times respectively (both as single words and as compound constituents) in Gāndhārī inscriptions currently recorded in the CKI. Despite their frequent appearance, existing scholarship has primarily restricted itself to identifying their synonymous functions or analysing their grammatical construction in the case of the two compounds. No comprehensive study has yet catalogued all occurrences of these word-forms, traced their semantic development or examined the reasons behind their changing usage over time. This article addresses this gap by providing a complete inventory of the occurrences of these word-forms in the Gāndhārī epigraphical corpus and examining their use in non-Gāndhārī sources. It also presents a semantic analysis, exploring their synchronic and diachronic relationships within Gāndhārī inscriptions.

Debate about borderline personality disorder (BPD) has intensified, with some proposing its absorption into complex post-traumatic stress disorder and others questioning whether the diagnosis is harmful. These debates often obscure the central issue of construct validity. This paper evaluates whether BPD constitutes a coherent clinical entity. Drawing on Robins and Guze’s classic diagnostic validators – symptom specificity, heritability, course of illness, biological markers and treatment response – the evidence demonstrates that BPD is a robustly validated psychiatric disorder that should be retained in future classification systems. Concerns about stigma and dimensional models are considered but do not undermine its empirical grounding.

Executive attention, an underlying mechanisms enabling self-regulation, can be behaviorally indicated by post-error slowing (PES) – a delay in reaction time following an error. PES develops during early childhood – plausibly shaped by genetic and environmental factors. We tested whether mothers’ and children’s PES predicted their post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms during a real-life stressful situation, and how each one’s PTSD symptoms moderated the other’s. Ninety-five kindergarten-aged children and mother pairs participated. In T1, participants’ PES was measured during a laboratory task. About 1.5 years afterwards, six months after a national traumatic event, mothers reported their own and their child’s PTSD symptoms (T2). Key findings show that for mothers with high PTSD symptoms, children with more developed PES at T1 showed less PTSD symptoms at T2. In contrast, for mothers with low PTSD symptoms, children’s PES was unrelated to their PTSD symptoms. For mothers of children with high PTSD symptoms, those with less developed PES at T1 showed high PTSD symptoms at T2. Mothers of children with low symptoms showed no such relation. The models explained 61.1% of children’s and 51% of mothers’ PTSD symptoms. These findings provide evidence for the protective effect of self-regulation against PTSD, and the mutual dyadic moderating effects of its manifestation.

Contemporary historians of philosophy almost universally embrace the idea that the young Plato had a close, personal relationship with the historical Socrates. Many refuse to countenance a similar status for Plato’s contemporary, Xenophon. This note takes as its focus a novel argument intended to support the claim that Xenophon was never on intimate terms with Socrates or even privy to reliable information about him. The reply offered here has implications far beyond this apparently narrow focus, however, and points to pervasive biases in Socratic studies generally that remain in sore need of correction.

In this paper, I attempt to interpret Kant’s early reported thesis that the historical practice of senicide (i.e., killing the elderly) among certain Inuit communities constituted a ‘loving service’ and was ‘to some degree justified’ insofar as it was carried out to prevent one’s parents from facing a ‘more ignominious death’. On my interpretation, Kant’s verdict on Inuit senicide sheds new light on a core idea within his mature ethics – that persons are obligated to preserve themselves for as long as they remain a subject of duty. As I argue, Kant’s verdict implies that those subject to senicide were no longer bound by the duty of self-preservation insofar as they were no longer able to live as persons with inviolable moral dignity. If my argument holds, this invites further exploration of the relationship between Kant’s notion of dignity and the duty of self-preservation in the broader context of end-of-life decision-making.

Metacercariae of Diplostomum spp. are globally distributed pathogens that infect the eyes and brains of fish and lampreys, including populations in northern latitudes. This study investigated the species diversity and distribution of Diplostomum in juvenile Atlantic salmon Salmo salar and brown trout Salmo trutta from 11 rivers in northwestern Russia. Phylogenetic analyses revealed two diplostomid species: ‘D. mergi’ Lineage 3 and D. numericum. It is the first record of these species in the Russian part of the Arctic. These species, previously recorded in Western/Central Europe and Russian Karelia, likely spread via major migratory flyways of their avian definitive hosts. The species composition of Diplostomum metacercariae in riverine salmonids of the studied region was notably poorer than in lacustrine salmonids from other Arctic localities. The haplotype distributions of recorded Diplostomum species showed no spatial structuring, consistent with broad-scale dispersal processes.

Contention about representations of history and the purposes of History education has long surrounded Japanese History textbooks. From 2012, the ascent of powerful nationalist Prime Minister Abe Shinzō raised questions about possible political pressures on textbook content. This article analyzes recent market-leading junior high school and high school History textbooks to discover how pedagogical format and content related to controversial topics or national identity have changed since 2012. It finds that leading junior high school textbooks have largely maintained their representation of controversial topics, while developing investigative, analytic pedagogical approaches. Coverage of some aspects of ethnic and cultural diversity within Japan has increased. Following the implementation of a new curriculum from 2022, some high school textbooks for the new compulsory subject “Integrated History” facilitate a more analytic, “disciplinary” pedagogy than previously evident in compulsory high school History. Nonetheless, an “enhancing collective memory” approach to History pedagogy remains central throughout secondary education. These developments suggest that power over History education in Japan is distributed between a range of actors. The state, the market, and social pressures all influence the content of History textbooks in Japan.