This essay critically examines the relationship between antiracism, public policy, and liberal democratic accountability standards. Drawing on a set of standards derived from the political philosophies and constitutional structures of liberal democracies, the gap between these ideals and the realities of racial injustice are examined in light of Frederick Douglass’ position on the U.S. Constitution as an anti-slavery document, the persistence of a “racial contract,” and recent conceptualization of antiracism. By grounding antiracist policies in democratic accountability standards and recognizing the gap between the ideal and the real, the essay then examines the contemporary efforts of an “antiwoke” movement to purge policies and practices that focus on social equity and antiracism from government operations and assesses the efficacy of such efforts in light of core democratic standards and American ideals.

Let A be a subset of an additive abelian semigroup S and let $hA$ be the h-fold sumset of A. The following question is considered. Let $(A_q)_{q=1}^{\infty }$ be a strictly decreasing sequence of sets in S and let $A = \bigcap _{q=1}^{\infty } A_q$. When does one have

$$ \begin{align*} hA = \bigcap_{q=1}^{\infty} hA_q \end{align*} $$

for some or all $h \geq 2$?

Through emerging interpretations of individual “medical freedoms,” a panoply of state legislative bills seeks to undermine long-standing public health and health care requirements including recommendations to test, screen, treat, and vaccinate persons. To the extent these bills could upend decades of laws and policies protecting individual and communal health, especially among vulnerable individuals, they threaten the health — and freedoms — of all persons.

The objective is to describe energy, macro-, and micronutrient intake according to Nova food groups and to estimate its association with ultra-processed foods (UPF) energy participation in the diets of children, stratified by age (6–23m/24–59m). A single 24-hour recall from 12,553 children in the Brazilian National Survey on Child Nutrition was used to estimate the relative energy contribution of Nova groups: unprocessed or minimally processed foods and culinary ingredients (G1+G2); processed foods (G3); and UPF (G4). Age-stratified linear regression and 95%CI assessed differences in nutrient intake (per 1,000kcal) across UPF energy quintiles. The G1+G2 group accounted for most of the energy consumed (6–23m: 74.5%; 24–59m: 65.1%) compared to G3 or G4. For both age groups, in the lowest quintile of UFP participation, ≤2% of energy came from UPF, while in the highest quintile, this proportion was >55%; and the G1+G2 group provided most nutrients. In 6–23m, higher UPF quintiles were associated with lower fat [β: -3.1 (-3.6; -2.5)], potassium [β: -49.7 (-67.9; -31.4)], and vitamin A RAE [β: -113.7 (-136.7; -90.6)] intake, but higher calcium [(β: 75.5 (57.6; 93.4)], iron [β: 2.9 (2.5; 3.3)], vitamin A RE [β: 104.3 (72.3; 136.3)], and folate [β: 15.7 (12.0; 19.5)] intake. In 24–59m, nutrient intake generally decreased with increasing UPF quintiles. For 6–23m/24–59m, UPF consumption was positively associated with energy [β: 73.6 (44.6; 102.7); 92.8 (66.7; 118.8), respectively] and carbohydrate [β: 7.3 (5.8; 8.7); 2.3 (1.2; 3.3), respectively], while contributing little to overall micronutrient intake.

The aim of this review was to examine what existing low FODMAP diet (LFD) trials can tell us about whether reductions in FODMAP intake plausibly explain symptom improvement in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Although the LFD is an effective treatment, supported by multiple randomised controlled trials and meta-analyses, the mechanisms through which it exerts its effects remain unclear. Symptom improvement is commonly attributed to reduced FODMAP intake, yet this assumption has rarely been evaluated directly. Using a mediation-informed framework, we examined whether published LFD trials assessed two key elements required to support a mechanistic role for FODMAP intake: whether the intervention altered FODMAP intake (a path), and whether variation in intake was associated with symptom outcomes independent of intervention group (b path). We found that evidence for clinical efficacy has not been matched by equivalent evidence explaining how the diet works. While many trials demonstrate that LFD interventions reduce FODMAP intake, few examine whether differences in intake account for differences in symptom improvement between individuals. As a result, it remains uncertain to what extent symptom benefits are driven by FODMAP reduction itself versus other factors accompanying dietary change. Strengthening future trial design to link dietary intake measurement with mechanistic analysis is essential for informing less restrictive, targeted, and personalised dietary strategies in IBS.

The European Union stands at a crossroads. Its founding promises of peace, convergence, and multilateralism are increasingly strained by debt, migration, sovereignty, and militarization. The introduction to this Special Issue begins with the question: who is the EU for? To stretch this question analytically we move beyond conventional debates on globalization and sovereignty foregrounding the colonial and racialized conditions that shape European integration. Colonialism, we argue, remains operative, structuring the production of race, racism, and anti-Blackness within and beyond Europe. Drawing on radical traditions of thought on colonialism and anti-Blackness, critical political economy, postcolonial theory, and institutional analysis, the introduction reframes the analytic of who the EU is for by showing how the Union’s commitment to universal values coexists with practices that reproduce hierarchies of life and death. We argue that the EU operates as a form of global power that mobilizes race and racism as constitutive mechanisms of legitimacy, authority, mobility, and value. Contemporary militarization, through defense integration, rearmament, and strategic autonomy, intensifies these dynamics by recoding racial hierarchies as security imperatives. Competing responses, from right-wing sovereign internationalism to left critiques of neoliberalism, rarely confront Europe’s colonial and racialized constitutive role in sustaining global inequalities. These unresolved contradictions and failures open up urgent questions about how Europe’s political and economic order continues to reproduce global hierarchies of power. It is precisely this tension that the special issue takes up, responding by engaging the intertwined colonial and racist projects in the EU. The contributors collectively frame crisis as a key site through which colonial violence is reconfigured, displaced, and normalized in contemporary EU governance. In so doing, they reposition the EU not as a neutral arbiter of order, but as an active geopolitical site where racialized and imperial forms of power are continuously produced, contested, and reimagined.

Left ventricular pseudoaneurysm is an exceedingly rare, life-threatening complication following percutaneous balloon aortic valvuloplasty. We report a 1-month-old infant presenting with a large left ventricular pseudoaneurysm after successful valvuloplasty for critical aortic stenosis. Multimodal imaging confirmed the diagnosis. The patient underwent successful surgical resection and bovine pericardial patch repair. This case emphasises the importance of early surgical intervention for favourable outcomes.

We use a recent result of Orevkov and Pakovich [‘On intersection of lemniscates of rational functions’, Arnold J. Math. 11 (2025), 7–26] to obtain a bound on the frequency with which elements in an orbit of polynomial iterations can fall on the unit circle.

We study the long-time behaviour of solutions to a free boundary model in river networks with small water flow speeds. First, we establish the well-posedness of our model. Under suitable assumptions, we then establish a spreading–vanishing dichotomy result for solutions to our model. By introducing a parameter $\sigma $ in the initial data, we derive sharp threshold behaviours.

Efforts to decolonize archaeology have gained significant momentum in the last few decades, but have yet to extend robustly to zooarchaeology. Zooarchaeology is, however, well positioned to make unique contributions to decolonial practice. Drawing on insights from Indigenous studies, animal studies, and models of Indigenous science, we argue that North American zooarchaeology must engage in decolonization if reconstructions of past human–animal relationships are to be robust and ethically grounded. We identify some of the colonial legacies embedded in zooarchaeology’s methods, classifications, and interpretive frameworks, and highlight how these structures constrain knowledge production. We offer a series of interventions and actionable recommendations—from analytical protocols to disciplinary practice—that create pathways for zooarchaeologists to participate in the wider decolonial project.