Leonardo Bruni (1377–1444), chancellor of Florence, is today more famous as an initiator of civic humanism and a proponent of early modern republicanism than as a historian of medieval Florence. He owes this position most of all to Hans Baron, who argued that Florentine civic humanism—an exemplary mode of communal existence dedicated to the active life—as found particularly in Bruni's writings, stemmed from the resurgence of interest in antiquity, which pointed forward to a liberating, civilizing, and progressive modernity. Though James Hankins has recently argued that the dual theses of civic humanism and republicanism are mischaracterizations of the larger thrust of Italian Renaissance political thought, the scholarly literature overwhelmingly portrays Leonardo Bruni as incipiently modern and, by definition, un-medieval. But in emphasizing the role of antiquity in Bruni's “modern” thought, scholars have overlooked the importance of medieval history in the formulation and the content of Bruni's arguments. This article seeks to rectify this misappreciation by demonstrating how that quintessential medieval struggle, the conflict between popes and emperors, plays a central role in Bruni's political thought as it is found in the History of the Florentine People, written from 1415/16 to 1444.

In this paper we consider the filtering of partially observed multidimensional diffusion processes that are observed regularly at discrete times. This is a challenging problem which requires the use of advanced numerical schemes based upon time-discretization of the diffusion process and then the application of particle filters. Perhaps the state-of-the-art method for moderate-dimensional problems is the multilevel particle filter of Jasra et al. (SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 55 (2017), 3068–3096). This is a method that combines multilevel Monte Carlo and particle filters. The approach in that article is based intrinsically upon an Euler discretization method. We develop a new particle filter based upon the antithetic truncated Milstein scheme of Giles and Szpruch (Ann. Appl. Prob. 24 (2014), 1585–1620). We show empirically for a class of diffusion problems that, for $\epsilon>0$ given, the cost to produce a mean squared error (MSE) of $\mathcal{O}(\epsilon^2)$ in the estimation of the filter is $\mathcal{O}(\epsilon^{-2}\log(\epsilon)^2)$. In the case of multidimensional diffusions with non-constant diffusion coefficient, the method of Jasra et al. (2017) requires a cost of $\mathcal{O}(\epsilon^{-2.5})$ to achieve the same MSE.

La navegación, la tecnología naval, la vida a bordo y las actividades llevadas a cabo en barcos de época moderna y contemporánea han sido temas ampliamente estudiados dentro de la arqueología marítima y náutica. Sin embargo, el devenir de los náufragos sobrevivientes de accidentes y las correspondientes evidencias materiales en la costa, no fueron abordados en grado semejante. Las investigaciones muestran un desarrollo dispar, destacando los trabajos realizados en el Pacífico occidental. En Latinoamérica, esta problemática se encuentra aún apenas esbozada. El estudio arqueológico de campamentos de náufragos puede aportar información novedosa para conocer las relaciones humanas, interpersonales e intergrupales, en situaciones de crisis. En este artículo, presentamos los primeros resultados del análisis arqueológico-histórico de la materialidad asociada al sitio Faro Segunda Barranca 4, localizado en el Partido de Patagones, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina. A partir de una discusión de las diferentes líneas de evidencia, identificamos los restos como un campamento de náufragos en el marco de la Guerra del Brasil o Guerra de Cisplatina (1825-1828).

We report an unusual variant of obstructed supra cardiac anomalous pulmonary venous drainage where the vertical vein is obstructed by a vice formed between the persistent arterial duct and the left pulmonary artery.

“Later” crusading has become a vibrant field in recent years, with a concern for our core theme, “patterns of conflict and negotiation,” at its center. Often, and rightly enough, those patterns have been focused on matters of high politics and diplomacy, military affairs, papal propaganda, and more. The approach adopted here complements these efforts by modulating their perspectives. This article explores patterns of conflict and negotiation as they played out in the realms of crusading experience, culture, and memory in the wake of the fall of Constantinople (1453) and the siege of Belgrade (1456). It does so through the lens of those particularly rich, but also challenging, fifteenth-century manuscript sources known as “miscellanies.”

Introducing a pair-parameter matrix Mittag–Leffler function, we study the uniqueness and Hyers–Ulam stability to a new fractional nonlinear partial integro-differential equation with variable coefficients and a mixed boundary condition using Banach’s contractive principle as well as Babenko’s approach in a Banach space. These investigations have serious applications since uniqueness and stability analysis are essential topics in various research fields. The techniques used also work for different types of differential equations with initial or boundary conditions, as well as integral equations. Moreover, we present a Python code to compute approximate values of our newly established pair-parameter matrix Mittag–Leffler functions, which extend the multivariate Mittag–Leffler function. A few examples are given to show applications of the key results obtained.

We characterised the soils and vegetation in 15 sets of four quadrats on and around mounds of Macrotermes annandalei (Isoptera, Macrotermitinae) on a plain of deep dystric clay over limestone in Deciduous Dipterocarp Forest in Northern Thailand. Termites have excavated the mounds from the deep calcareous substrate. The mound soils have darker subsoils, larger contents of clays and exchangeable cations, and higher pH values than the surrounding dystric clay loams. The thickets on the mounds are visually different from the surrounding Deciduous Dipterocarp Forest. They have few dipterocarps and are floristically similar to the regionally important Mixed Deciduous Forest. The clear visual differences are confirmed by floristic similarity, cluster, and canonical correspondence analyses for each of the tree, sapling and seedling size classes. The differences between the mound clays and surrounding red clay loams and the associations between soil and forest types are confirmed by ‘t tests’ and the significant correlations of the soil base status with the main floristic axis of the canonical correspondence analyses. Soil variability due to termites and other agents of pedoturbation can significantly contribute to short-range floristic and structural diversity in some dry tropical forests.

Child nutrition, health and development are closely tied to maternal nutrition, health and well-being. The underlying drivers of poor maternal and child nutritional outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa are structural in nature. These risks include social, economic, and environmental factors that together compound vulnerability to poor outcomes. Poverty, as a driver of poor maternal and child health outcomes, is an important determinant that is both a cause and a consequence of malnutrition. The United Nations’ Children’s Fund (UNICEF)’s conceptual model for determinants of maternal and child nutrition outcomes released in 2020, is the agency’s latest iteration of child nutrition frameworks. The model identifies the underlying causes of malnutrition as extending beyond food and diets, to include household level dynamics, maternal factors, and the external environment. The manuscript discusses UNICEF’s conceptual model and its applicability in sub-Saharan Africa. It also considers the evidence on interventions aimed at addressing maternal and child nutrition in the region and the location of social protection among these policy tools, with a special focus on the extent to which these resonate with the conceptual model. It concludes by considering the conditions required for social protection instruments to work in the region and similar settings in the Global South. In this way, the manuscript provides a critical reflection about the role of social protection as a nutrition-sensitive instrument in sub-Saharan Africa, in the context of maternal and child nutrition outcomes.

Genes involved in melanin production directly impact insect pigmentation and can affect diverse physiology and behaviours. The role these genes have on sex behaviour, however, is unclear. In the present study, the crucial melanin pigment gene black was functionally characterised in an urban pest, the German cockroach, Blattella germanica. RNAi knockdown of B. germanica black (Bgblack) had no effect on survival, but did result in black pigmentation of the thoraxes, abdomens, heads, wings, legs, antennae, and cerci due to cuticular accumulation of melanin. Sex-specific variation in the pigmentation pattern was apparent, with females exhibiting darker coloration on the abdomen and thorax than males. Bgblack knockdown also resulted in wing deformation and negatively impacted the contact sex pheromone-based courtship behaviour of males. This study provides evidence for black function in multiple aspects of B. germanica biology and opens new avenues of exploration for novel pest control strategies.

For an odd prime $p$, we consider free actions of $(\mathbb {Z}_{/{p}})^2$ on $S^{2n-1}\times S^{2n-1}$ given by linear actions of $(\mathbb {Z}_{/{p}})^2$ on $\mathbb {R}^{4n}$. Simple examples include a lens space cross a lens space, but $k$-invariant calculations show that other quotients exist. Using the tools of Postnikov towers and surgery theory, the quotients are classified up to homotopy by the $k$-invariants and up to homeomorphism by the Pontrjagin classes. We will present these results and demonstrate how to calculate the $k$-invariants and the Pontrjagin classes from the rotation numbers.

In July 2022, on the sidelines of the 41st Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union and the 4th Mid-Year Coordination Summit in Lusaka, Zambia, Heads of state and government, and leaders of delegations of African Union Member States called on member states, African Union through Africa CDC, and partners to recognize, prioritize, and accelerate the establishment and strengthening of public health emergency operation centers (PHEOCs) in the context of health security and in line with Africa’s new public health order. Implementing the declaration requires a multi-dimensional approach that spans across governance, operational capabilities, partnerships, workforce development, and sustainable financing.