Blended-wing-body (BWB) aircraft with distributed propulsion offers significant potential for aerodynamic efficiency. However, this tightly integrated configuration inherently operates under boundary layer ingestion (BLI) conditions. The ingested thick fuselage boundary layer, coupled with the strong aerodynamic interactions between the S-shaped intake and wing, generates adverse pressure gradients at the inlet alongside low total pressure recovery coefficients and high outlet distortion. This study investigates integrated flow control under high-altitude flight conditions using a BWB aerofoil integrated with a semi-embedded S-shaped intake model, incorporating energy analysis. During cruise, strong adverse pressure gradients between the wing shock wave and intake cause distinct lip separation, resulting in a low total pressure recovery coefficient and high distortion. Distributed dual-row suction generates secondary flow generates distributed secondary flow near the separation point with equivalent energy consumption. This enhances fuselage boundary layer mixing, reduces near-wall adverse pressure gradients and improves the total pressure recovery coefficient. The integration of internal jet control synergistically augments the benefits of external wing suction via distinct spatial mechanisms: central jets replenish core flow kinetic energy to suppress separation and improve the total pressure recovery coefficient, while side jets enhance mixing between separation zones and mainstream flow, mitigating secondary swirl losses and substantially reducing distortion at the aerodynamic interface plane (AIP). Energy analysis confirms that a modest energy input (equivalent to 7.4% of the mainstream kinetic energy) yields a significant increase in intake thrust, while simultaneously reducing total pressure and swirl distortion.

Focusing on case studies of Shrewsbury, Chester, York, Coventry, and Bristol, this article analyzes how the concept of the “historic town” emerged in the first half of the nineteenth century. Traditionally a town’s historic identity had been understood in a legal and institutional sense. By the end of the eighteenth century, however, the use of the term “ancient” or “historic” to describe a town had become less a claim to long-standing privileges and traditional importance than an indication of a particular appearance and atmosphere, redolent of an era that was increasingly referred to as “the olden time.” A historic town offered the promise of a certain kind of historical experience and ambience that could be strategically exploited in order to attract visitors, and their custom, in greater numbers. The “invention” of the historic town was most obviously a response to the rapid changes consequent upon urbanization. But we need also to consider other factors, including changing attitudes toward the past and the broader consumption of history; developments in architectural history, particularly a new appreciation for the vernacular domestic architecture of the early modern period; and the rise of domestic tourism, facilitated by the advent of railway travel. Finally, the invention of the historic town is also a story about the early origins of heritage and the emergence of a preservationist ethos.

This paper revisits the relationship between population growth and economic performance by extending the Solow framework to include land as a fixed factor in a two-sector economy and migration as an endogenous adjustment. Because only agriculture uses land, effective land intensity becomes endogenous to structural transformation, declining as economies diversify. The impact of population growth therefore depends on land scarcity but is mitigated by sectoral reallocation and migration. Using a panel of 152 countries over 1960–2023 and both fixed-effects and system- Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimators, we show that the effect of natural population growth on per-capita income growth is highly conditional. Population growth becomes growth-reducing in agriculture-dependent and land-scarce economies, but this effect is attenuated by lower agricultural shares and land-saving technological progress. Migration further alleviates demographic pressure by reallocating labor away from land-intensive production.

The assumption that family ties devalue caring by making it “women’s work” is commonplace. However, it is deeply problematic for three reasons: care is more than work; both material and immaterial goods are given value through institutional and interpersonal choices; and “family” is not only done in a patriarchal fashion. Each of these limitations can be overcome if giving and receiving care are valued; if so, a just society will be a caring one.

The rapid advancement of the miniaturization techniques for high-frequency transceivers, radars, and communication systems operating in the D-band (110–170 GHz) has positioned circular dielectric waveguides (CDWGs) as a promising transmission-line alternative. Yet, their potential has not been fully exploited. This work fills this gap by introducing novel, compact CDWG-fed lens antenna solutions that deliver excellent gain and impedance matching performance. A low-loss, low-cost, and flexible CDWG made of low-density polyethylene is used to excite dielectric lens antennas of various sizes, contours, and materials, enabling a systematic evaluation of the impact of lens geometry on antenna performance. Through detailed electromagnetic simulations and experimental validations, lenses of different sizes and contours are designed. The proposed CDWG-lens configuration achieves measured broadband matching better than 17 dB and stable high gain across 115–130 GHz. Measured gains of 21–23 dBi for lenses with diameter of 10.6 mm and gain factor of 27–28 dBi for lenses with diameter of 20 mm confirm the high aperture efficiency and novelty of this approach. A strong agreement between the simulation and the measurement results is also observed. These compact and efficient lens antennas combined with the advantages of CDWG feed, can be integrated as a part of advanced system applications in the D-band frequency range like radar sensing and communications.

This article identifies a potential authorial signature in the opening lines of Lucan’s Bellum Ciuile. The adjacent letters LVCAN appear in a central position of emphasis in the poem’s first two lines and constitute the core of a signature that can be extended in multiple directions to form longer intexts such as LVCANI SVM (‘I am Lucan’s’), LV(canus) AN(naeus) M(arcus), LVCANI MVSIS (‘with the Muses of Lucan’) and LVCANI M. VIS CERA DEXTRA (‘the power of M. Lucanus with his right hand on the wax’, or ‘the power of M. Lucanus on the wax on the right-hand side’). The article proposes that this multiform signature is accompanied by signposts to help identify it and that it engages with models of such wordplay in Aratus, Lucretius, Virgil and Ovid.

Pedagogical theology examines Church belief and practice through the lens of learning. The author examines Anglican ecclesial language and discipleship ministry recognition practice through the lens of learning. In this context, empirical parish learning community research findings indicate a link between ministry involvement, ministry leadership and growth in faith. This connection between doing ministry and growth in faith is strengthened when the word ‘lay’ is replaced by the word ‘disciple’ and the word ‘commissioned’ is emphasised. The importance of the sacrament of baptism informs these changes. Through baptism, people become disciples of Jesus; through baptism, disciples have equality of discipleship; through baptism and confirmation, disciples are commissioned. All disciples are given the best opportunity to grow in faith when they do ministry in a church culture which recognises that the primary ordering of ministry occurs in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation.

Richard Abel’s five-volume book series, Defending American Democracy (2025), offers key insights into the transformation of a liberal democracy under modern, legalistic autocratic rule. As an in-depth study of President Donald Trump’s first term in office, it outlines how the Trump administration challenged and subverted laws and legal principles, exploiting the gaps in our democracy exposed by his predecessors. With an executive branch actively working beyond constitutional boundaries, Abel highlights one of the most pressing questions of our day—what do we do now? This review essay aims to respond to part of this question by contributing to emerging scholarship on resistance to autocracy and authoritarianism. It proceeds in two parts. The first part draws from and develops Abel’s accounting of resistance to autocracy in the United States. In doing so, it extracts a generally applicable typology of resistance methods and how they manifest under state repression or persecution. The second part of this essay adapts these categories and raises examples within electoral democracies that are facing similar conditions. In contemplating resistance “success stories” in similarly situated nations, the review essay aims to direct further attention to shared strategies for democratic resilience during a global decline in the rule of law.

In recent decades, populist mobilization has significantly reshaped the European political landscape. Right-wing populist parties have been particularly influential in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe, where they have frequently served in executive cabinet appointments. Drawing on an original data set covering cabinet composition in 12 countries from 1992 to 2019, this study investigates whether radical right-wing and populist governments are as likely as their mainstream counterparts to appoint women to cabinet positions. The findings reveal that radical right parties in government significantly reduce the likelihood of appointing women to cabinet positions, while populist parties don’t have the same effect. Moreover, the degree of populism within governing parties substantially magnifies the exclusion of women from the executive. These results offer new insight into the complexities of populism in the region and its implications for women’s descriptive representation in the executive branch.