Various theories have been proposed in the field of second language (L2) sentence processing research and have significantly advanced our understanding of the mechanisms underlying L2 sentence interpretation processes. However, many existing theories have only been formulated verbally, and little progress has been made towards formal modelling. Formal modelling offers several advantages, including enhancing the clarity and verifiability of theoretical claims. This paper aims to address this gap in the literature by introducing formal computational modelling and demonstrating its application in L2 sentence processing research. Through practical demonstrations, the paper also emphasises the importance of formal modelling in the formulation and development of theory.

Intelligent Reflecting Surface (IRS) technology operating at mm-wave frequencies is promising for 6G applications. However, this technique faces the challenge of beam splitting, as beams cannot be directed accurately at all frequencies. To enhance system performance and lessen the beam spillting effect, the IRS is developed using phase shifters and time delay modules, as the problem is analyzed in this paper. The results of the simulation revealed that the proposed system, which is based on sub-surface IRS and time delay modules, successfully overcomes the packet splitting challenge effectively. The proposed architecture was 94.5% better in gain compared with the traditional architecture. The results explained a 54% improvement in data rate when time delay is used in the Phase-shift-Time delay-Phase delay (PTDP) system compared to the conventional design. Moreover, the use of 2-bit phase shifting alone in the proposed design was appropriate to realize close to optimal performance due to the system capability to direct power in the desired direction through the use of precoding technology, which compensates for losses resulting from beam splitting.

This paper sets up a small open economy two-agent model and addresses the size of output multiplier of government spending associated with taxation either on constrained households or on unconstrained households. The paper shows that the tax financing rule matters to real resource allocations in the small open economy with flexible prices and equal tax burden at the steady state, contrasting to the finding of Monacelli and Perotti (2011) in closed economies. The output multiplier in open economies is larger than the multiplier in closed economies when taxes are levied on constrained households, while the reverse holds under taxations on unconstrained households.

This study explored whether lifestyle therapy that promoted adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet as a treatment for depression led to environmental co-benefits. Participants (n 75 complete case) were Australian adults in the Curbing Anxiety and Depression using Lifestyle Medicine non-inferiority, randomised controlled trial, which showed that lifestyle therapy was non-inferior to psychotherapy in reducing depressive symptoms, when delivered in group format via video conferencing over an 8-week treatment period. In this secondary analysis, we hypothesised that the lifestyle arm would be superior to the psychotherapy arm in reducing the environmental impact of self-reported diet over time. Dietary intake derived from FFQ at baseline and 8 weeks was transformed into environmental impact scores by calculating global warming potential (GWP)*. GWP* was calculated for total dietary intake and distinct food groups (Australian Dietary Guidelines and NOVA classifications). Within-arm changes in GWP* over time were calculated using the median difference. Neither arm showed significant changes. Between-arm differences in percentage change in GWP* scores over time were analysed using generalised estimating equations models. No between-arm difference for total GWP* score was found (β = 11·06 (–7·04, 29·15)). When examining distinct food groups, results were mixed. These novel findings contribute to the sparse evidence base that has measured the environmental impact of diets in a clinical trial context. Whilst lifestyle therapy that reduced depressive symptoms did not have clear environmental benefits relative to psychotherapy, nutritional counselling that focuses on the environmental impact of food choices may drive more pronounced planetary co-benefits.

The objective of this paper is to devise a set of principles and practices that can break with the temporalities of current pharmaceutical markets, and on this basis sketch a social contract for a new (temporal) political economy of pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceutical futures are, in my analysis, doubly predetermined by standard arguments around pharmaceutical patenting and pricing: they are narrated as a consequence of “past” investments to be recouped, but they are also predetermined on a particular “future perfect,” where past investment successes and promises to maintain the status quo determine the course of action of future investors. This double colonization of the future, in my analysis, eliminates any scope for meaningful change. Making this often implicit temporality of pharmaceutical markets explicit may allow to better take into account multiple temporalities in regulating this space. Chiefly among them are patients’ temporalities, which typically get overridden by the peculiar timelines of patent-based markets. The mRNA vaccine market serves as an illustration of the theoretical arguments raised, and I discuss four strategies that could lead toward a new temporal political economy of pharmaceutical markets: temporally sensitive policymaking; decolonizing the future through narrower patents; delinking patents from their asset condition; and pharmaceutical commons.

Stone carvings in the context of Ottoman-era Greece play an important role in folklore studies as well as vernacular architecture. They are associated with the history of itinerant stonemasons, their beliefs, as well as the cultural milieu of the building’s owners. However, research rarely contextualises them within the framework of the Ottoman era and the identities of local people who dwelled in these spaces. This contribution first provides an overview of interpretations put forward by scholars in diverse disciplines (folklore, architecture, heritage). It then offers a critical evaluation of these interpretations according to contemporary trends in Ottoman studies, combining methodologies from multiple disciplines, ranging from innovative theoretical concepts to interpretive drawings and photogrammetry. To do so we focus on case studies from the Ottoman-era Bektashi heritage of Konitsa (north-west Greece), including the house of Hussein Sisko, Hamko’s mansion, as well as the gate of Hagios Nikolaos, which incorporates stone carvings from an Ottoman-era mansion in secondary use. We advance an interpretation of stone carvings as narratives reflecting the multiconfessional identities of the liminal Ottoman provinces of the south-west Balkans. Taking as an example the two series of stone carvings from the gates of Hamko’s mansion, we propose that they are best viewed as forms of storytelling, reflecting the identity of the Bektashi owners, as warriors of the faith, while also vaguely expressing the values of the in-house rituals of the same dervish network (tarikat). Furthermore, on the basis of a proposed rearrangement of the stone carvings at the church of Hagios Nikolaos to reflect their original meaning when they were adorning the mansion of Elmaz Bey, we argue for potential multiple and multiconfessional understandings of such carvings, as well as temporal connotations that are easily forgotten, arguments that open new research avenues when placed in the context of the body of literature that argues for the long-lasting survival of meanings.

Monitoring wildlife populations in vast, remote landscapes poses significant challenges for conservation and management, particularly when studying elusive species that range across inaccessible terrain. Traditional survey methods often prove impractical or insufficient in such environments, necessitating innovative technological solutions. This study evaluates the effectiveness of deep learning for automated Bactrian camel detection in drone imagery across the complex desert terrain of the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. Using YOLOv8 and a dataset of 1479 high-resolution drone-captured images of Bactrian camels, we developed and validated an automated detection system. Our model demonstrated strong detection performance with high precision and recall values across different environmental conditions. Scale-aware analysis revealed distinct performance patterns between medium- and small-scale detections, informing optimal drone flight parameters. The system maintained consistent processing efficiency across various batch sizes while preserving detection quality. These findings advance conservation monitoring capabilities for Bactrian camels and other wildlife in remote ecosystems, providing wildlife managers with an efficient tool to track population dynamics and inform conservation strategies in expansive, difficult-to-access habitats.

Sugar beet root damage at harvest promotes sucrose losses of circa 0.1 – 0.4 % day–1 in storage. However, root response to environmental stresses at harvest and their consequential rates of damage are not known. We investigated the effects of temperature and water stress at harvest on root resilience to damage and tissue strength. Water (irrigated to field capacity and non-irrigated) and temperature (cold and mild) treatments were imposed on physiologically mature sugar beet plants for seven weeks prior to and for three days after harvesting, respectively. Water status at harvest significantly affected relative water content (RWC) (p < 0.001), root weight (p < 0.001) and root width (p < 0.001). RWC was positively correlated to surface damage (R2 = 0.43, p = 0.02), root tip damage (R2 = 0.42, p = 0.03), tissue compression (R2 = 0.41, p = 0.05) and tissue puncture (R2 = 0.46, p = 0.01). Tissue damage was not affected by root tissue temperature of 4 °C compared to 12 °C. We conclude that sugar beet damage at harvest is not influenced by root temperatures over the range commonly observed in the UK and temperate production areas. However, higher water status at harvest, such as would be observed in a wet season, increases root tip and surface damage. These findings will help to inform optimum harvesting conditions to minimize sugar loss from the sugar beet crop.

The American public is increasingly affectively polarized. A growing body of research has associated affective polarization with two key phenomena: ideological polarization and social group sorting. Although there is ample evidence that social group sorting, particularly along racial and ethnic lines, is driving Republicans’ affect toward the Democratic Party, it is not clear how it shapes Democrats’, particularly White Democrats’, feelings toward the predominantly White Republican Party. We propose a third model that bridges these two theoretical approaches, a racial ideology model that helps explain Democrats’ feelings toward the Republican Party. Specifically, we argue that Democrats increasingly dislike Republicans because Republicans are seen as standing in opposition to racially progressive policies. Using a preregistered conjoint experiment, we find that Americans across party lines see Republicans as opposing efforts to reduce racial inequality and that this perception is associated with negative affect toward the Republican Party among both White and non-White Democrats.

This paper aims at reexamining external sustainability in a dynamic framework for nine European Monetary Union (EMU) countries during the period 1970–2021. We extend the approach of Bohn (1998) to a time-varying external reaction function. The main advantage of our empirical strategy is that it captures the dynamics of the external reaction function, by accounting for the main sources of heterogeneity among EMU countries and by including common factors like financial globalization and global risk aversion. To estimate the model, we employ a fully fledged state-space framework, which extends the simple model generally used in this literature to a panel-data time-varying parameter framework, combining fixed (common and country-specific) and varying components. Our results show an evident interplay between real and financial variables, the latter progressively increasing their importance. Although heterogeneous, the adjustment to external imbalances in most EU countries is jointly driven by the level reached in the stock of net foreign assets together with the degree of risk aversion and financial openness.

This paper considers the practical application of the metaphor of “good boundaries” for working towards better interspecies relationships and multispecies cultures. Engaged philosophical methods are employed in the context of the author’s family farm with attentiveness towards both multispecies and colonial politics. The analysis centers interspecies relational dynamics across a spectrum of liminal forms of life on “the property,” in the “homestead,” and under the guise of “stewardship.” The paper concludes that the metaphor of good boundaries helps to generate better multispecies entanglements by (i) growing our capacity for ecological thinking, (ii) directing our attention to moral failure, and, at times, (iii) disrupting anthropocentric colonial ideologies and practices.