In English pronunciation teaching, the Nativeness Principle has been influential in the curriculum standards, instructional materials, and teachers’ beliefs in China. Even though subtle shifts toward the Intelligibility Principle have been seen since the 2010s, some unresolved questions and challenges about applying the Intelligibility Principle to classroom teaching still need to be answered and addressed, which is the main purpose of this article. Under the 5W1H framework (Who, Why, What, When, Where, and How), the study argues that intelligibility-focused teaching is more realistic and beneficial for Chinese students across age groups. It also explores key phonetic features and accommodation strategies for mutual understanding in pronunciation. It further suggests a phased approach to intelligibility instruction, starting with broad phonetic teaching in early grades and focusing on targeted features in later years, and recommends the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for real-time feedback, while acknowledging that AI feedback can be biased on accents. Finally, the study points out the necessity for guiding teachers and for reliable intelligibility assessments, observing the influence of native-language familiarity on judgments. It calls for further research on explicit training in accommodation strategies, identification of prioritized pronunciation features, biases in AI tools, and context-specific intelligibility benchmarks.

The Young Avestan text Wīdēwdād 8.81–96 deals with the contamination of fire as a result of its use in daily activities, arguing that the pristine purity of this sacred element be restored by bringing each of the polluted fires to an appropriate place. While listing non-ritual uses of fire, this text also gives precious details about the material culture of the speakers of Young Avestan in southern Central Asia during the first millennium BCE. This information is relevant for not only better understanding the history of the region in that period but also tracing the composition of these passages back to the Achaemenid period.

In 795 CE, the Carolingian ruler, Charlemagne, conquered the Central European territories that had been ruled by the Avar steppe people for about two centuries. Carolingian propaganda presented the conquest as a triumph over the ultimate enemies of Christendom and as a triumph that paved the way to Charlemagne’s coronation as the first medieval Western Roman emperor. However, the same ideology made it more difficult to incorporate the newly conquered territories into the new Frankish-Roman empire along the more pragmatic inclusion strategies that Frankish politics had developed over several centuries prior to Charlemagne’s reign for incorporating culturally, legally, and ethnically diverse territories. The conquered Avars, for instance, disappeared as they were unable to maintain their political identity under a Christian Frankish emperor. With the “loss of the Avars,” Carolingian politics lost orientation in the diverse and complex middle grounds of Central Europe, and it became a significant challenge for Charlemagne’s successors to rule the Central European middle grounds throughout the ninth century. The article discusses the complex history of various regime collisions in the ninth century that came to shape the social and political topography of the region along the middle Danube for many centuries to come, even until today.

Patent ductus arteriosus requires accurate delineation when non-invasive anatomical definition is needed. We describe a 10-year-old girl in whom photon-counting CT angiography demonstrated a ductus connecting the descending thoracic aorta and proximal left pulmonary artery. Multiplanar and three-dimensional images defined the diameter, length, and spatial relationships. Photon-counting CT may complement echocardiography when detailed anatomical assessment is required.

Were economic migrants to Latin America able to access the same occupations as locals? We examine 1900s Uruguay, where immigrants accounted for approximately one-fifth of the total population. Historical censuses in Uruguay are very limited, so we rely on random sampling to mine a new individual-level source: Uruguayan civil birth records. We find that the occupations of foreign-born fathers were in general like that of their Uruguayan counterparts, with the important exception of non-manual high-status occupations (especially “rancher,” hacendado), for which being born in Uruguay remained a statistically significant advantage. This reflects both the success and the limits of Uruguay’s relatively egalitarian economy: migrants were readily integrated into a wide range of occupational paths but were less likely to reach the top of the occupational structure, where key resources (notably land) remained concentrated in the hands of a local elite.

How best to rapidly assess the diversity of terrestrial arthropod communities has attracted considerable debate. In particular, what sampling methods should be combined to capture maximum species richness and sampling efficiency in surveys of arthropods. We tested the efficiency and complementarity of a standardised combination of six commonly used sampling methods (Malaise trap, flight intercept trap, pan trap, pitfall trap, Berlese funnel, and sweep net) at 13 locations across Canada. About 55% of species were collected by only one method; Malaise traps, sweep nets, and flight intercept traps contributed the highest diversity. We suggest the combined use of these collecting methods, possibly extended by other methods, for studies that seek to survey the canopy and soil fauna.

State-led financialization has emerged as a salient feature of local governance in China, yet it remains underexplored through the lens of bureaucratic restructuring. This paper traces the evolution of local financial agencies since 2002 through four distinct stages: local financial offices (jinrongban), financial bureaus (jinrongju), financial regulatory bureaus (jinrong jianguanju) and financial commissions (jinrongwei). Initially, local governments established jinrongban to harness financial capital for regional development. By proactively connecting local firms with capital markets to facilitate corporate listings, they embedded financial logic into local governance, reflecting local state-led financialization. Subsequently, the central government formalized these bodies into jinrongju with expanded mandates, deepening state-led financialization. Later, it systematically devolved regulatory responsibilities and renamed them jinrong jianguanju, elevating regulatory functions to a top priority, illustrating how the central government selectively steered the direction of financialization. Ultimately, provincial agencies were reorganized into jinrongwei and stripped of development functions, while city-level counterparts were largely closed, signifying a shift towards central state-led de-financialization. This trajectory was driven by shifting central–local dynamics, as early bottom-up initiatives were superseded by top-down control. The bureaucratic restructuring examined in this study offers new insights into the state-led (de-)financialization of local governance in China.

A solution $(x,y,z) \in \mathbb {Z}^3-\left \{ (0,0,0) \right \}$ to a generalized Fermat equation (1)

$$ \begin{align} A\textsf{x}^{a} + B\textsf{y}^{b} + C\textsf{z}^{c} = 0 \end{align} $$

$\gcd (x,y,z) = 1$

$\chi = \tfrac {1}{a} + \tfrac {1}{b} + \tfrac {1}{c} - 1$

This article examines the correspondence and commercial ventures of Ramón Gil Navarro, an Argentine exile who migrated to California during the Gold Rush of 1849. Drawing on his surviving letters and diaries, the study reconstructs Navarro’s trajectory across the Hispanic American Pacific Axis—linking Chile, Peru, Panama, and California—and highlights the central role of epistolary practices in sustaining business, kinship, and political ties across long distances. Navarro’s letters illuminate the circulation of news, goods, and material objects, while also revealing the anxieties and aspirations of migrants embedded in transnational networks. By analyzing written and oral communication, as well as the complementary role of newspapers and symbolic objects, the article demonstrates how the Gold Rush revitalized Pacific connections that had declined under Bourbon rule. It contributes to historiographical debates on merchant families, exile, and communication in nineteenth-century Latin America, while situating Hispanic actors within broader histories of globalization and the Pacific world.

The Roman Curia is the body of institutions that assist the pope in his ministry as supreme pastor of the Catholic Church. The much-awaited reform of the curia, by means of the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium, gave rise to strong hopes of decentralization and efficiency at the Vatican and the church. However, a close reading of this new norm does not immediately lead to concluding that any more ecclesiastical competences of the Holy See have been transferred to particular churches. Instead, the reform may be characterized as a decentralization of procedures, rather than competences, and a passionate call for the spiritual conversion and professionalism of Vatican officials. The reform is also in line with the type of synodal church that Pope Francis announced from the beginning of his pontificate, in which decisions are made after listening to everyone who is affected by that decision and by everyone who has something to contribute to the discussion. In this article, the author offers, for readers who are not experts in the law or doctrine of the Catholic Church, a discussion of the main changes brought by the reform, their significance, and possible consequences, as well as some recent changes introduced after the election of Pope Leo.