Studying social behaviour of mobile and cryptic marine mammals is challenging, particularly for small species like harbour porpoises whom in many areas tend to be challenging to initially spot and then gain repeated observations. Recently, there has been a rise in the number of observations of harbour porpoises occurring in atypical group sizes that are larger than the typical size of two to three individuals. This behaviour, in conjunction with the evolving availability and usability of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology, is supporting and improving the capture of information on social behaviours. Around Shetland, Scotland, harbour porpoises are sighted from land via opportunistic and systematic surveys year-round with atypical group sizes also observed. To capture information on group size, opportunistic and systematically collected UAV footage were collated and analysed. This revealed sexual approach behaviours in typical group sizes of small groups (two to four individuals), as well as atypical group sizes of medium groups (five to nine individuals), large groups (10 to 19 individuals), and aggregations (≥20 individuals) occur in multiple bays around Shetland. This is the first insight into group sizes and behaviours for the region which was recently designated as an Important Marine Mammal Area (IMMA). Further insight into these social behaviours and group size (e.g. seasonality, site fidelity) could aid harbour porpoise conservation and management within the IMMA and elsewhere.

The suitability of marine limpet shells for radiocarbon dating may depend on potential offsets due to diet and habitat, especially with regard to grazing mollusks on carbonate substrates (Dye 1994; England et al. 2013). A previous study on one grazing limpet species on the coast of Ireland found no offsets from carbonate substrates (Allen et al. 2019), but a similar study from mediterranean coasts found significant offsets on carbonate substrates (Ferguson et al. 2011). We carried out a new study of radiocarbon and stable carbon isotopes, using multiple species of mollusks collected live from the coasts of Gibraltar and Sardinia, from both carbonate and non-carbonate substrates. The 14C results indicate that one species, inhabiting the upper shore, has a significant offset at the carbonate locations. This species, Patella rustica, has adapted to tolerate desiccation and may have biological traits that result in higher metabolic-derived carbon incorporated in its shell. The results of this preliminary study imply that selected species of grazing mollusks are suitable for radiocarbon dating, even in areas of carbonate geology.

This article explores the evolving Chinese representations of Queen Victoria from the First Opium War (1839) to her Diamond Jubilee (1897), beginning with early Qing official histories that deliberately omitted or delegitimized her presence, portraying her implicitly as a female usurper whose rule violated Confucian gender norms and dynastic orthodoxy. Such initial silencing is later juxtaposed with increasingly complex portrayals across a broad spectrum of textual and visual sources, including painting captions, diplomatic travelogues, private poems, newspaper reports, and illustrations. Focusing on envoys like Binchun, whose cautious official diary contrasts with his more admiring private poetry, and Zhang Zuyi, whose pseudonymous writings convey ambivalence and critique, the essay examines how rhetorical strategies were shaped by genre, anonymity, and audience. The analysis also extends to popular and elite print culture, particularly Dianshizhai Pictorial and Shenbao, to trace how Queen Victoria’s image circulated among both literate and semiliterate readers. Throughout, the article argues that acts of translation and mediation—visual, linguistic, and ideological—shaped not only perceptions of the British monarch but also reflected the fractured modernity of the Qing empire. The study contributes to global Victorian studies by foregrounding non-Western receptions and complicating imperial iconography through a Sinocentric lens.

The presence of right-to-left shunt has been proposed as a prominent mechanism of paradoxical embolism in patients with active cancer. We conducted a retrospective observational study including patients presenting to the Ottawa Hospital between January 2020 and December 2022 with ischemic stroke with and without active cancer. Among 491 patients (36.9% female, median age 53), 43 (8.8%) had active cancer, with 12 (27.9%, 95% CI 15–44) having a shunt. Of 448 patients without cancer, 133 (29.7%, 95% CI 25–34) had a shunt. Overall, our finding does not support the hypothesis that cancer-associated stroke is related to right-to-left shunting.