We investigate the consequences of periodic, on–off glucose infusion on the glucose–insulin regulatory system based on a system-level mathematical model with two explicit time delays. Studying the effects of such infusion protocols is mathematically challenging yet a promising direction for probing the system response to infusion. We pay special attention to the interplay of periodic infusion with intermediate-time-scale, ultradian oscillations that arise as a result of the physiological response of glucose uptake and back-release into the bloodstream. By using numerical solvers and numerical continuation software, we investigate the response of the model to different infusion patterns, explore how these patterns affect the overall levels of glucose and insulin, and how this can lead to entrainment. By doing so, we provide a road-map of system responses that can potentially help identify new, less-invasive, test strategies for detecting abnormal responses to glucose uptake without falling into lockstep with the infusion pattern.

In the early months of 2020, governments faced the rapid spread of COVID-19. To navigate the storm of conflicting information about the danger posed by this new disease, countries sought guidance about when and how to respond to it. We argue that the World Health Organization (WHO) played a central role in the diffusion of policies against COVID-19 by exercising leadership. We develop the concept of leadership as a diffusion mechanism to explain how the WHO influenced governments to close schools and workplaces and cancel public events within weeks, despite its lack of strong enforcement mechanisms. Results from five event-history models show the significance of the WHO’s pandemic declaration on March 11, 2020 that mobilized countries to adopt the measures recommended by the organization. However, that declaration did not affect the diffusion of policies that the WHO advised against adopting.

The “EU Vaccines Strategy” launched by the European Commission in June 2020 aimed to ensure vaccine safety, equitable access, affordability, swift distribution, and global solidarity for COVID-19 vaccines. This study critiques the Commission’s centralized procurement approach, focusing on Advance Purchase Agreements (APAs) through a literature review, policy analysis, and a case study of the EU-AstraZeneca’s APA. It identifies critical challenges, including transparency deficits, accountability gaps, and anticompetitive practices by vaccine producers that undermine equitable access. Drawing on these insights, the study proposes the FACER Framework — Fairness, Accountability, Competition Law, Ethics of Innovation, and Resilience — a novel model integrating the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) oversight with ethical principles. By embedding legal and moral accountability, FACER offers EU policymakers a robust tool to enhance vaccine strategy and equity in future health crises.

Esta investigación, que conjunta el análisis de evidencia etnohistórica y arqueológica, aborda la presencia de la Triple Alianza en provincias de la Huaxteca meridional ubicadas entre Veracruz y Puebla, particularmente en aquellas que fueron afectadas de manera incisiva mediante ocupación territorial como lo fueron Tzicoac, Metlaltoyuca y Tetzapotitlan. Se hace énfasis en los aspectos geográficos de estas localidades pues la empresa militarista de intervención no fue fácil si se atiende a la dificultad de sus accesos (cuyas ubicaciones contaron con barrancas naturales, colinas bajas y cercos de piedra levantados para prevenirse en las guerras). Se explica cómo el dominio de Tzicoac, Metlaltoyuca y Tetzapotitlan permitió el control de redes comerciales hacia la costa y tierra adentro, posibilitando el acceso a otras provincias del norte y sur de la Huaxteca. Metlaltoyuca, además, pudo tener relevancia especial por ser el lugar donde tentativamente se molían las cargas de maíz tributadas para ser trasladadas ya procesadas hacia el Altiplano.

Research demonstrates that English- and French-speaking Canadians differ in a wide range of attitudes, including their political preferences, their vision of the Canadian federation and their national identity. In this article, we ask whether individual bilingualism is associated with a decrease in the attitudinal differences between anglophones and francophones. Using survey data collected in the summer of 2023, we attempt to determine whether knowledge of the French language is related to an increase in the responsiveness of English-speaking citizens toward issues that typically preoccupy French-speaking Canadians. Our analyses suggest that knowledge of French as a second language is strongly linked to the political preferences of Canadian citizens but does not bridge the attitudinal gap between Canada’s two main language groups. These results highlight the relevance of considering the different languages that people speak—and not just their mother tongue—to understand their political attitudes.

To address the problems of accuracy degradation, localization drift, and even failure of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithms in unstructured environments with sparse geometric features, such as outdoor parks, highways, and urban roads, a multi-metric light detection and ranging (LiDAR) SLAM system based on the fusion of geometric and intensity features is proposed. Firstly, an adaptive method for extracting multiple types of geometric features and salient intensity features is proposed to address the issue of insufficient sparse feature extraction. In addition to extracting traditional edge and planar features, vertex features are also extracted to fully utilize the geometric information, and intensity edge features are extracted in areas with significant intensity changes to increase multi-level perception of the environment. Secondly, in the state estimation, a multi-metric error estimation method based on point-to-point, point-to-line, and point-to-plane is used, and a two-step decoupling strategy is employed to enhance pose estimation accuracy. Finally, qualitative and quantitative experiments on public datasets demonstrate that compared to state-of-the-art pure geometric and intensity-assisted LiDAR SLAM algorithms, our proposed algorithm achieves superior localization accuracy and mapping clarity, with an ATE accuracy improvement of 28.93% and real-time performance of up to 62.9 ms. Additionally, test conducted in real campus environments further validates the effectiveness of our approach in complex, unstructured scenarios.

The openness of decision-makers to be influenced by and invest in proposals for policy reform is not constant. Timing is key, as are the diversity and depth of interests, levels of knowledge, and nature of the policy challenge itself; these can all affect how governments absorb information that might fall beyond the usual cost-benefit assessments of day-to-day policymaking. This essay explores how and when the policy environment provides opportunities to introduce a more nuanced discussion of competing moral values in migration governance and, critically, the new policy directions to which they might give rise. In doing so, it will utilize a range of examples from national, EU, and global debates of the past decade, to highlight moments when a dilemmas approach has been—or could have been—useful to effect policy change. Stressing ethical dilemmas can influence migration policymakers when the conditions are right.

Today’s controversies about territorial access and rights of refugees and the cohesion of the nation-state can be traced back to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and Kant’s ideas about hospitality. Seyla Benhabib has argued that the resulting dilemma can be softened and bridged through “democratic iterations,” and that the EU deliberation offers a suitable perspective. However, the complex construction of the EU asylum framework has led to a paradox of highly regulated rights and closed borders, and to disappointment and opposition. The sudden opening of borders and free choice for the Ukrainian victims of Russian aggression open a new perspective to address the dilemma, in line with EU principles of free choice and openness.

Scholars have regularly debated the question of how the Galli, priests of Magna Mater/Cybele, fit into the Roman social milieu. Several have argued (citing Domitian’s legislation) that membership of the Galli was restricted to foreign citizens, whilst others have argued that the chief priests—the Archigalli—were Roman citizens, while the ‘lower’ Galli were non-citizens, thus separating the Galli and the Archigalli within the Cybele cult. These views remain prevalent in modern discussions on the cult, and have not undergone significant scrutiny or analysis. By assessing these views as well as the existing material and literary evidence for the Galli, this article argues that the Archigalli and the Galli were indistinct in terms of behaviour and affiliation. Moreover, this article uses archaeological and literary evidence to suggest that the Galli most likely included Roman citizens among their members, contrasting with the prevailing view of them as foreign residents in Rome.

Theories of liberal justice depend upon ideas of how much we can expect ordinary people to be motivated by the moral interests of others; there are limits to the motivational power of such notions as altruism and sympathy. This means, however, that the theories of justice we have may have difficulty in understanding how to rightly respond to the moral claims that might emerge in the face of widespread migration in response to climate change. This essay argues that liberal states may face a dilemma in response to this migration—one in which a state must do what cannot be justified toward either the migratory or the sedentary. This claim, further, might represent a new site of intergenerational injustice, in which future generations are given political problems to which our best theories of political justice can provide little assistance.