According to certain views about human ontology, the way we seem is very different from the way we are. The appearances are a threat to such views. Here I take up and defuse the threat to one such view.

Pure immaterialism says that each of us is wholly immaterial. The appearances suggest otherwise. I argue that despite the fact that we might sometimes appear to be at least partly material, and that we can be perceptually justified in believing something solely on the basis of having a perceptual experience as of its being the case, none of us is ever perceptually justified in believing that we are even partly material (or that we’re not). Bottom line: we might be able to know whether we’re material, but we can’t know just by looking.

Meta-analyses demonstrate that the quality of early attachment is modestly associated with peer social competence (r = .19) and externalizing behavior (r = −.15), but weakly associated with internalizing symptoms (r = −.07) across early development (Groh et al., Child Development Perspectives, 11(1), 70–76, 2017). Nonetheless, these reviews suffer from limitations that undermine confidence in reported estimates, including evidence for publication bias and the lack of comprehensive assessments of outcome measures from longitudinal studies in the literature. Moreover, theoretical claims regarding the specificity of the predictive significance of early attachment variation for socioemotional versus academic outcomes had not been evaluated when the analyses for this report were registered (but see Dagan et al., Child Development, 1–20, 2023; Deneault et al., Developmental Review, 70, 101093, 2023). To address these limitations, we conducted a set of registered analyses to evaluate the predictive validity of infant attachment in two landmark studies of the Strange Situation: the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (MLSRA) and the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD). Across-time composite assessments reflecting teacher report, mother report, and self-reports of each outcome measure were created. Bivariate associations between infant attachment security and socioemotional outcomes in the MLSRA were comparable to, or slightly weaker than, those reported in the recent meta-analyses, whereas those in the SECCYD were weaker for these outcomes. Controlling for four demographic covariates, partial correlation coefficients between infant attachment and all socioemotional outcomes were r ≤ .10 to .15 in both samples. Compositing Strange Situations at ages 12 and 18 months did not substantively alter the predictive validity of the measure in the MLSRA, though a composite measure of three different early attachment measures in the SECCYD did increase predictive validity coefficients. Associations between infant attachment security and academic skills were unexpectedly comparable to (SECCYD) or larger than (MLSRA) those observed with respect to socioemotional outcomes.

In this paper, we prove a rigidity result for the product metric on the product of spheres $S^1\times S^{n-1}$.

Modal logic enjoys topological semantics that may be traced back to McKinsey and Tarski, and the classification of topological spaces via modal axioms is a lively area of research. In the past two decades, there has been interest in extending topological modal logic to the language of the mu-calculus, but previously no class of topological spaces was known to be mu-calculus definable that was not already modally definable. In this paper, we show that the full mu-calculus is indeed more expressive than standard modal logic, in the sense that there are classes of topological spaces (and weakly transitive Kripke frames), which are mu-definable but not modally definable. The classes we exhibit satisfy a modally definable property outside of their perfect core, and thus we dub them imperfect spaces. We show that the mu-calculus is sound and complete for these classes. Our examples are minimal in the sense that they use a single instance of a greatest fixed point, and we show that least fixed points alone do not suffice to define any class of spaces that is not already modally definable.

It has become universal to claim a relationship between social cohesion and quality public childcare. The more we invest in our children, the better the return later in life. We explore how childcare is used to strengthen social life by comparing the state role in civilising childcare as described in policy and educational guidelines. At one level, we find that policy intentions are framed by the idea of using childcare to reduce inequalities between people and social groups, and at another by the idea of civilising children to adapt to existing social structures. The analysis unfolds these two sets of intentions by showing how pedagogical ideas of child development become linked to the ways two very different states – Brazil and Denmark – formulate and organise ECEC policies as well as using childcare to bridge between people and social groups, and to civilising children to adapt to existing social structures.

Loneliness among older adults is a leading health and social concern globally and in Canada, including racialized and minoritized groups. Although previous studies have explored loneliness among ethnic minoritized groups in Canada, little is known about the constellating factors contributing to loneliness among native-born and immigrant Black older adults (BOAs) in Canada and their unique ways of dealing with the experience. Our study explores the constellating factors shaping loneliness experiences among BOAs living in Ontario. Using a narrative approach, we purposively selected and interviewed 13 BOAs. Time as a driver of change, a sense of belonging reinforced through place identity, and challenges of making a new home were dominant themes. Our finding highlights the need for increased cultural sensitivity at the micro and macro levels, which will improve a sense of belonging and reduce loneliness among racialized immigrant older adults.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreaks in long-term care facilities are often correlated with high case fatality rates. We describe the association of administration of an mRNA booster with the control of an outbreak. Our findings highlight the possibility of vaccine booster early in an outbreak as a promising method to mitigate the spread of infection.

On 24 January 1960 nine police were killed in the African settlement of Cato Manor when residents turned on officers conducting a liquor patrol. On 5 September 1961, nine men convicted of the killings were hanged in Pretoria's Central Prison. These deaths produced contrasting narratives, one by the apartheid state and then decades later, another by the current African National Congress government. Apartheid police and judicial authorities vilified the accused as the worst kind of killers who wantonly slaughtered the representatives of law and order. Sixty years later, these murderers of the apartheid period were resurrected as martyrs and their remains were interred at Heroes Arch, a resting place for many antiapartheid activists. Moving past these binary versions allows us to consider a more mundane story that underscores the South African state's commitment to a model of policing that generated an unmatched degree of persecution in colonial Africa.

Cave carbonate mineral deposits (speleothems) contain trace elements that are intensively investigated for their significance as palaeoclimate and environmental proxies. However, chlorine, which is abundant in marine and meteoric waters, has been overlooked as a potential palaeo-proxy, while cosmogenic 36Cl could, in principle, provide a solar irradiance proxy. Here, total Cl concentrations analysed from various speleothems were low (3–14 mg/kg), with variations linked to crystal fabrics. High-resolution synchrotron radiation micro X-ray fluorescence (μ-XRF) trace element mapping showed Cl often associated with Na, Si, and Al. We propose that speleothems incorporate Cl in two fractions: (1) water soluble (e.g., fluid inclusions) and (2) water insoluble and strongly bound (e.g., associated with detrital particulates). However, disparities indicated that alternate unidentified mechanisms for Cl incorporation were present, raising important questions regarding incorporation of many trace elements into speleothems. Our first measurements of 36Cl/Cl ratios in speleothems required large samples due to low Cl concentrations, limiting the potential of 36Cl as a solar irradiance proxy. Critically, our findings highlight a knowledge gap into how Cl and other trace elements are incorporated into speleothems, how the incorporation mechanisms and final elemental concentrations are related to speleothem fabrics, and the significance this may have for how trace elements in speleothems are interpreted as palaeoclimate proxies.

Few older adults discuss their end-of-life care wishes with their physician, and even fewer minorities do this. We explored physicians’ experience with advance care planning (ACP) including the barriers/facilitating factors encountered when initiating/conducting ACP discussions with South Asians (SA), one of Canada’s largest minorities. Eleven primary care physicians (PC) and 11 hospitalists with ≥ 15 per cent SA patients ≥ 55 years of age were interviewed: 10 in 2020, 12 in 2021. Thematic analysis of transcripts indicated that cultural and communication barriers, physician’s specialization, SA older adults’ lack of ACP awareness, and decision-making deference to family and physicians were barriers to ACP discussions. Although the COVID-19 pandemic impacted physicians’ practices, contrary to our hypothesis most reported no change in frequency of ACP discussions. Although ACP discussions were viewed as best conducted by PC physicians, only 55 per cent had ACP training and only 64 per cent had used ACP tools. Training in ACP facilitation, concerning ACP tool usage, and training in patient–physician communication are recommended.

An inscription in the name of a Kushan king, Wima Takto (circa 90–113 CE), has recently been discovered by the archaeologist Muhsin Bobomulloev of the National Museum of Tajikistan and his colleagues. The new inscription, found in the Almosi Gorge with other inscriptions in an ‘unknown script’, confirms the identity of Wima Takto, the second king of the Kushan Dynasty, which ruled a large territory stretching from Central Asia to North India in the first four centuries CE. The history of this dynasty is pieced together from inscriptions, coins, and archaeology, and fleeting references in Chinese sources. Each new inscription adds another piece to the jigsaw of Kushan history, revealing a powerful state in control of the central lands of the ancient Silk Road. This article positions the new inscription within the current understanding of Kushan history and the status of Wima Takto.

We prove the existence of $\mathrm {GSpin}_{2n}$-valued Galois representations corresponding to cohomological cuspidal automorphic representations of certain quasi-split forms of ${\mathrm {GSO}}_{2n}$ under the local hypotheses that there is a Steinberg component and that the archimedean parameters are regular for the standard representation. This is based on the cohomology of Shimura varieties of abelian type, of type $D^{\mathbb {H}}$, arising from forms of ${\mathrm {GSO}}_{2n}$. As an application, under similar hypotheses, we compute automorphic multiplicities, prove meromorphic continuation of (half) spin L-functions and improve on the construction of ${\mathrm {SO}}_{2n}$-valued Galois representations by removing the outer automorphism ambiguity.

La costa del Pacífico de los Andes meridionales tiene una larga historia ocupacional que muestra una diversificación regional hacia el Holoceno medio y tardío. La costa del centro norte de Chile tuvo una importante ocupación cazadora-recolectora entre 6000 y 2000 cal aP, que difiere de las observadas en áreas vecinas por sus características ambientales e históricas. Los estudios de contextos funerarios revelan que estos grupos experimentaron una expansión demográfica y vivieron conflictos sociales durante este período. Sin embargo, el énfasis en la importancia de los contextos funerarios entre 6000 y 2000 cal aP ha limitado nuestro conocimiento de las estrategias medioambientales de estos grupos y el uso de los recursos costeros. Esta investigación examina evidencias recuperadas de contextos residenciales y funerarios del sitio Punta Teatinos (Bahía de Coquimbo, costa centro norte de Chile, 29°S) para evaluar las estrategias de uso ambiental aplicadas. El estudio de estas evidencias —incluyendo estratigrafía, fechados radiocarbónicos, material lítico, malacológico y zooarqueológico; microfósiles, cálculos dentales, isótopos estables y arte rupestre— indican una explotación de recursos costeros, a los que se sumaron otros de origen terrestre. Aunque no se identificaron cambios temporales en la explotación de los recursos costeros, las pruebas también indican cambios en la constitución de los paisajes históricos y de las redes sociales extrarregionales.

A New Du Boisian Sociology has recently clarified, elevated, and synthesized Du Bois’s sociological contributions. We argue that more systematic and detailed study of Du Bois’s research methodologies, with an eye towards their contemporary applicability, can further strengthen this body of scholarship. Here we begin this effort with sustained attention to Du Bois’s use of quantitative data and methods during a productive and illustrative period around the turn of the twentieth century (1898–1902). This adds a level of depth and specificity to a subset of existing Du Bois scholarship that has more generally noted quantitative inquiry as one aspect of Du Bois’s social-scientific approach of mixed-methods triangulation. We detail how and why Du Bois developed an inductive, theoretically generative approach to his research on race. This orientation appears, at first glance, to be a misfit for contemporary quantitative sociology, which is currently skewed towards deductive theory testing and causal inference. We demonstrate that Du Bois’s quantitative methodology invites sociologists to return to exploratory, descriptive, and theoretically generative quantitative research based on creative syntheses of primary and secondary data that span generations and levels of institutional and geographic aggregation. Such data can, among other possibilities, assess within- and between-race comparisons and intersections of race with factors including class, gender, age, place, and time. Our study also enters Du Bois, as historical precedent, into current debates regarding quantification’s productive role, if any, in social science research on race/racism and other axes of systemic inequality.