This article reflects on aspects of the ecclesiastical landscape in southern Byzacena and western Tripolitania. The aim is to highlight the conditions of creation and the process of evolution of the ecclesiastical landscape in a territory with a particular geographical identity. In this context, the approach is based on three clearly defined conditions: first, the factors favourable to the appearance and then the development of Christianity in this space; secondly that its main episcopal seats were divided into three essential sets –the bishoprics of the ecclesiastical district called by late sources Arzugitana,the seats of the Gafsa region, and those of the coastal plains of Aradh and Jfara; finally, the particularities of the ecclesiastical landscape with its imprecise boundaries between ecclesiastical and administrative subdivisions and the low representation of Tripolitania in African councils and religious tolerance.

Après un endormissement remontant à la période prépandémique, la pratique conventionnelle du Canada en matière d’investissement connaît un regain de vigueur en 2023. L’adoption de codes de conduite pour les arbitres et les juges constitue le premier résultat tangible des discussions en cours au Groupe de travail III de la Commission des Nations Unies pour le droit commercial international (CNUDCI) sur la réforme du règlement des différends entre investisseurs et États (RDIE).1 Le redémarrage du programme de conclusion d’accords sur la promotion et la protection des investissements étrangers (APIE) permet de mettre en application pour la première fois l’APIE-type du Canada de 2021.2 Sur le plan du contentieux d’investissement, le 30 juin 2023 marque la fin du régime transitoire de RDIE de l’Accord entre le Canada, les États-Unis et le Mexique (ACÉUM).3 Bien que le Canada et les États-Unis ne font pas l’objet d’une avalanche de réclamations avec la fin du RDIE dans leurs rapports réciproques, une controverse importante subsiste dans plusieurs affaires pendantes quant à la portée de ce régime transitoire. Par ailleurs, le contentieux impliquant les investisseurs canadiens à l’étranger montre un nouveau visage en 2023 avec les deux premières réclamations de la part de sociétés d’État. Les codes de conduite de la CNUDCI font l’objet d’une analyse détaillée dans la chronique cette année. Un tour d’horizon des principaux autres faits marquants de 2023 est d’abord effectué en ce qui concerne la pratique conventionnelle et la pratique contentieuse du Canada.

We investigated the effect of adding 3 levels of sodium bicarbonate (SB: 0, 0.74 and 1.47% of total mixed ration (TMR) dry matter) to a low-roughage TMR (20.8% wheat silage, 9% wheat hay and 2.3% clover hay) on feed intake, production (milk and milk-component yields), whole-tract apparent digestibility, rumen pH and rumination time. After 2 wk of receiving the same TMR, 42 mid-lactation multiparous cows were blocked into groups of 3 according to their dry matter intake and energy-corrected milk (ECM) yield and divided into 3 treatment groups. The experimental rations were fed for 7 wk while monitoring intake, production and rumination. Rumen pH was measured after 6 h without access to feed and 6 h after feeding (at 0600 and 1500 h) every other week, and feces samples were taken for whole-tract apparent digestibility at wk 7. Dietary SB level did not affect intake, ECM yield, digestibility or efficiency. Dietary SB concentration negatively correlated with daily rumination time but did not affect rumen pH measured before or after feeding. Lactating cows may, therefore, increase their rumination time to compensate for lack of buffer but overall, removing SB from a wheat-based, low roughage TMR does not impair intake or milk or milk-component yields.

This paper presents a review of new research carried out within the borders of modern Albania in the last 10 years. It offers a roughly geographical outline – albeit incomplete – of recent discoveries from prehistory to the Middle Ages and attempts to place them in the wider context of current research in the field. Beyond pointing the reader to newly published surveys, archaeological excavations, and bodies of materials, it aims at giving an overall picture of the type and range of available data, current trends, choice of methodologies and approaches, and possible lines of enquiry within a key region for the archaeology of the Balkans and the Mediterranean as a whole.

This Research Communication describes the frequency of occurrence of P. fluorescens, P. putida and P. aeruginosa in raw goat milk stored at 4 and 9°C, to evaluate the spoilage potential and capacity of these species and the presence of the aprX gene, responsible for the synthesis of metalloprotease aprX. Samples of raw goat milk stored at 4 and 9°C for 72 h were plated on Pseudomonas CFC agar base (25°C for 48 h). The presence of P. fluorescens, P. putida, P. aeruginosa and aprX gene were confirmed by polymerase chain reaction. The isolates were evaluated for their proteolytic and lipolytic spoilage capacity and potential using milk agar (10%) and tributyrin agar base (1%), respectively (21°C for 72 h). A total of 184 strains of Pseudomonas spp. were obtained. At both temperatures, P. fluorescens was the most frequent, mostly proteolytic, and the only one to express high proteolytic and lipolytic potentials. Regardless of the temperature, all isolated strains of P. putida were lipoproteolytic, with a predominance of protease synthesis. Strains of P. aeruginosa (4,3%) were isolated occasionally (4.3% of total isolates) but only at 4°C, and 75% of these were lipoproteolytic. The storage temperature of raw goat milk influenced the frequency of P. aeruginosa, but not its spoilage potential. The presence of the aprX gene was verified in most strains isolated from all species at the two temperatures evaluated, although some of these strains did not express proteolytic capacity. Most isolates of Pseudomonas spp. showed lipoproteolytic capacity, which emphasizes the importance of ensuring low initial populations of this genus in raw chilled goat milk when it is used to produce dairy products.

Emil Boroghină founded the Shakespeare Festival in Craiova in 1994 with the longer-term intention of making it an international festival of significant, indeed world, standing. This article, written in honour of Boroghină and dedicated to him, offers an overview of the Festival’s programming and related details from its triennial period to its present biennial existence. It draws particular attention to Boroghină’s selected outstanding directors (‘great directors, great productions’, in his words, and the title of one of his editions) without, however, losing sight of the Festival’s varied theatre activities, especially in the celebratory year of 2024.