The literature on user trust in social welfare systems appropriately highlights the quality of relationships with frontline workers and the perception of their skills and human qualities, which develop and evolve over time. However, it tends to place less emphasis on users’ perceptions of and experiences with the formal procedures within which these relational processes unfold. With this paper, we aim to contribute to knowledge on user (dis)trust-building by focusing on the microdynamics of its development, which equally considers citizens’ interactions with frontline workers and institutional procedures at various organisational levels. Drawing on empirical research conducted among disadvantaged families seeking support from social services and assistance institutions in the Czech Republic and Serbia, we analyse the narrated experiences and perception-based mechanisms that shape users’ (dis)trust within the dual context of institutional procedures governing access to services, and the relationship with frontline workers.

Due to the complexity of urban and rural drainage systems, although many types of robots have been designed for this purpose, the mainstream pipeline inspection robots are currently dominated by four-wheeled designs. In this study, the shortcomings of four-wheeled pipeline robots were analyzed, including poor passability, difficulties in spatial positioning and orientation, and the limited effectiveness of conventional two-degree-of-freedom observation systems. Based on these issues, the spatial pose mathematical model of the four-wheeled robot inside the pipeline was investigated, along with the spatial geometric constraints and speed characteristics during cornering. This study was intended to reveal the spatial geometric parameter limitations and the kinematic characteristics of the four-wheeled pipeline robot under these constraints, providing corresponding recommendations. To address the issue of the outdated two-degree-of-freedom vision component, a three-degree-of-freedom visual component was designed, and forward kinematics analysis was conducted using Standard-Denavit-Hartenberg parametric modeling, revealing its motion speed and characteristics. Based on this visual component, a new concept of in-pipeline robot vision was proposed, providing new references for the design of four-wheeled pipeline robots.

This introductory article challenges foundational assumptions that structure how international legal theory conceptualizes “the Global.” The prevailing approach remains anchored in a Eurocentric legacy that conflates the earth with a geometrically spherical, chronometrically linear, and cartographically fixed model of space and time. This triad has rendered “the Global” an ostensibly objective terrain—embodied by an iconic World Map of states that is presumably atheoretical and transhistorical. I argue this is a form of “misplaced concreteness,” which constrains international legal thought as it confronts increasingly fluid and non-contiguous patterns of global ordering that have become difficult to visualize via the reigning cartographic imaginary. Further, it ignores how “the Global” was constructed by multiple and intersecting types of power, which together manifested demarcations, borders, territories and states as proclaimed mimetic reflections of planetary reality. As contemporary challenges—ranging from e.g. climate change to cyber governance—create trans-territorial or planetary scales of consequence, time is ripe to unfold international legal theory beyond the legacy of a priori conceptualization. Accordingly, the special issue encourages bottom-up, practice-oriented approaches, inviting international lawyers to explore how global spatiality and temporality are actively (re)produced across diverse legal contexts—from mobility regimes and global value chains to counterterrorism forums and planetary systems. Rather than treating “the Global” as a fixed totality or singular map, this special issue reframes it as a historically engineered concept, shaped by ongoing practices of geo-political, geo-economic and legal world-making.

While geological and paleoanthropological studies at Laetoli have focused on the relatively fossiliferous Ndolanya and Laetolil beds, Laetoli’s younger Naibadad and Olpiro beds provide an important record of Pleistocene volcanism, tectonics, and landscape evolution in northern Tanzania. This study documents the mineralogical and geochemical compositions of their tephra using EPMA of glass and phenocrysts, and their ages using 40Ar/39Ar geochronology. Naibadad Beds tephra is rhyolitic or trachytic, compositionally distinct from the underlying Ndolanya and overlying Olpiro beds in their mineral assemblages and glass and phenocryst compositions. The Naibadad Beds can be divided into chronostratigraphic clusters as follows: Lower (2.189–2.154 Ma), Middle (2.115–2.104 Ma), and Upper (2.036–2.004 Ma). Most Naibadad Beds tephra could not be compositionally differentiated, although the basal Naibadad Beds tuff is unique in having both trachytic glass and andradite garnet. The uppermost Naibadad Beds tuff at Locality 23 has rhyolitic glass and aenigmatite like Olduvai Gorge’s Naabi ignimbrite and a similar age (2.033 Ma and 2.004 Ma, respectively), although they differ in feldspar and augite composition and are likely not from the same eruption. The lack of direct correlatives between Olduvai and Laetoli, which both derived tephra from Ngorongoro over the same time interval, is likely explained by paleotopography.

This paper examines Britain’s process of electrification following a disruptive stock market boom and bust in 1882. This is done by noting the companies that raise finance on British stock exchanges, the amounts raised, and the returns earned on that money. It also examines the impact of the Lighting Act of 1882, finding that the Act inhibited investment, but with important exceptions. We find the Act was not a barrier to entrepreneurs alert to the possibilities of electrification. However, the limited British electrical investment after the 1882 crash was more heavily and successfully concentrated on supplying electricity to end users than on developing electrical equipment. When electrification began in earnest after 1888, upon the amendment of the 1882 Lighting Act, there existed only a very weak engineering base to support it, leading to slow, expensive, and unimaginative electrification.

This study marks the first update on Malaysia’s marine tardigrades after more than 50 years, presenting both the discovery of a new species, Batillipes malaysianus sp. nov., and a new record, Batillipes rotundiculus. The specimens were collected from the intertidal zone at Pantai Pancur Hitam, Labuan, Malaysia, during two separate sampling efforts. Despite extensive sampling, the density of marine tardigrades in the area was found to be exceptionally low, with only a single specimen of B. malaysianus sp. nov. and a limited number of other Batillipes individuals collected. The new species, B. malaysianus sp. nov., is distinguished by unique morphological features, including setae scattered across the ventral cuticle – a trait not observed in any other species of the genus – and constricted primary clavae, a characteristic absent in other species of the B1 toe arrangement group. Additionally, B. rotundiculus represents the first confirmed record of this species in Malaysia, expanding its known distribution. This study also updates the global species count of Batillipes to 42, incorporating recent taxonomic changes and this new addition. An updated dichotomous key for the genus is provided, incorporating all species described to date. These findings underscore the importance of exploring understudied marine habitats and highlight the potential for discovering more tardigrade species in Malaysia.

This study advances neorealist theory by examining how systemic constraints shape state behavior through economic statecraft, focusing on China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Iran’s strategic calculations. Employing methodological triangulation – network analysis, discourse examination, and institutional assessment – this research explores the strategic logic underpinning the China-Iran engagement. For Iran, the BRI emerges as a mechanism for institutional resilience and sanctions circumvention, though its integration remains constrained by systemic limitations and regional competition. For China, the BRI serves as a geopolitical infrastructure strategy to expand influence and secure resources, despite concerns over economic sustainability. By framing economic statecraft as a strategic response to systemic constraints, this study challenges conventional materialist and militaristic paradigms of international relations. It critically assesses the generalizability of BRI partnerships, illustrating how states, bound by structural limitations, use economic instruments to reshape their strategic environments. Ultimately, the research offers nuanced insight into emerging power dynamics in a multipolar world, extending beyond traditional power-centric models.

R. Pavlov and S. Schmieding [On the structure of generic subshifts. Nonlinearity 36 (2023), 4904–4953] recently provided some results about generic $\mathbb {Z}$-shifts, which rely mainly on an original theorem stating that isolated points form a residual set in the space of $\mathbb {Z}$-shifts such that all other residual sets must contain it. As a direction for further research, they pointed towards genericity in the space of $\mathbb {G}$-shifts, where $\mathbb {G}$ is a finitely generated group. In the present text, we approach this for the case of $\mathbb {Z}^d$-shifts, where $d \ge 2$. As it is usual, multidimensional dynamical systems are much more difficult to understand. In light of the result of R. Pavlov and S. Schmieding, it is natural to begin with a better understanding of isolated points. We prove here a characterization of such points in the space of $\mathbb {Z}^d$-shifts, in terms of the natural notion of maximal subsystems that we also introduce in this article. From this characterization, we recover the result of R. Pavlov and S. Schmieding for $\mathbb {Z}^1$-shifts. We also prove a series of results that exploit this notion. In particular, some transitivity-like properties can be related to the number of maximal subsystems. Furthermore, we show that the Cantor–Bendixon rank of the space of $\mathbb {Z}^d$-shifts is infinite for $d>1$, while for $d=1$, it is known to be equal to one.

This paper presents a general approach to synthesizing closed-loop robots for machining and manufacturing of complex quadric surfaces, such as toruses, helicoids, and helical tubes. The proposed approach begins by employing finite screw theory to describe the motion sets generated by prismatic, rotational, and helical joints. Subsequently, generatrices and generating lines are put forward and combined for type synthesis of serial kinematic limbs capable of generating single-DoF translations along spatial curves and two-DoF translations on complex quadric surfaces. Following this manner, the two-DoF translational motion patterns on these complex quadric surfaces are algebraically defined and expressed as finite screw sets. Type synthesis of close-loop robots having the newly defined motion patterns can thus be carried out based upon analytical computations of finite screws. As application of the presented approach, closed-loop robots for machining toruses are synthesized, resulting in four-DoF and five-DoF standard and derived limbs together with their corresponding assembly conditions. Additionally, brief descriptions of robots for machining helicoids and helical tubes are provided, along with a comprehensive list of all the feasible limbs for these kinds of robots. The robots synthesized in this paper have promised applications in machining and manufacturing of spatial curves and surfaces, enabling precise control of machining trajectories ensured by mechanism structures and achieving high precision with low cost.

Funisia dorothea Droser in Droser and Gehling, 2008 is an inferred metazoan-grade tubular organism, endemic to the Ediacara Member, Rawnsley Quartzite, of South Australia (~555–550 Myr), which is characterized by a hollow, elongate body constructed of uniserially repeating modular elements and is one of the most abundantly reported members of the Ediacara biota. Thus, Funisia Droser in Droser and Gehling, 2008 has broad significance for developing understanding of the Ediacara biota and provides a large dataset for testing hypotheses on the biological traits of Ediacaran tubular organisms. This study investigates size changes in Funisia’s modular elements to provide further insight into the paleobiology of this organism through the development of a holistic growth model. Results demonstrate that growth in Funisia was highly regulated to maintain uniform modular element width along the length of an individual and, thereby, an overall cylindrical form despite increasing module width throughout ontogeny. The growth model proposed here is compared with the pre-established growth model for another modular Ediacaran tubular organism, Wutubus annularis Chen et al., 2014, demonstrating that the two taxa had distinct growth patterns and disparate autecological strategies, despite a shared constructional morphology.

This article argues that the infrastructural and regulatory politics of Accra’s town council in the early twentieth century highlight competing and transforming understandings of ‘neighbour’ and ‘neighbourhood’. British officials and their elite African allies on the town council championed new forms of physical, social and economic infrastructure, which they touted as ‘modern’ improvements that would bring Accra in line with other major cities and improve life for its inhabitants. Accra residents did not reject all reform or innovation, but they did insist that urban development take place on their terms and in ways that would support their interests, informed by indigenous notions of civic virtue, social responsibility, moral community and spatial organization.