Specimens of Tulaneia amabilia Runnegar and Horodyski n. gen n. sp. (previously Ernietta plateauensis Pflug) discovered by RJH in 1991 at a site in the Montgomery Mountains near Johnnie, Nevada, are described for the first time. All of the material from the original locality was from float, but its stratigraphic position within the lowest siliciclastic to dolostone interval of the lower member of the Wood Canyon Formation (LMWCF) was confirmed by subsequent discoveries. Because the upper part of the LMWCF contains Treptichnus pedum (Seilacher), the Ediacaran–Cambrian boundary has long been drawn at its first appearance. However, in the Esmeralda Member of the Deep Spring Formation in the White-Inyo Mountains, California, and at Mount Dunfee, Nevada, another Cambrian ichnofossil, ‘Plagiogmus’, which is now Psammichnites gigas arcuatus (Roedel), is found just beneath the nadir of the basal Cambrian isotope excursion (BACE). Because the nadir of the BACE excursion is older than ca. 539 Ma in Mexico, the oldest occurrences of Treptichnus pedum in the LMWCF are latest—not earliest—Fortunian in age, and there is no need to reduce the age of the eon boundary from ca. 539 to ca. 533 Ma. Tulaneia resembles Ernietta and other erniettomorphs in being composed of tubular modules with planar common surfaces, but its overall shape was tabular and unidirectional rather than sack or frond shaped. We also illustrate and briefly describe other trace and body fossils from the LMWCF and re-illustrate previously published specimens of Psammichnites gigas arcuatus in order to document its earliest occurrence in the Great Basin.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/117efe63-c3b8-4c42-8a27-83af05630f48

Exploration expeditions were conducted for 2 consecutive years in the subtropical region of North India to collect the untapped genetic diversity of Bael. A total of 15 accessions having unique traits of horticultural importance were collected and conserved in the field gene bank. Conserved germplasm was characterized for 3 consecutive years. Considerable variability was found in the morphological characters and biochemical traits. Fruit length ranged from 10.15 to 17. 68 cm, fruit circumference varied from 33.45 to 56.32 cm and fruit weight varied from 0.71 to 2.48 kg. Shell thickness was found to vary from 2.11 to 3.62 mm, whereas shell weight varied from 230 to 580 g/fruit. Number of seed sacs per fruit was found to vary from 11.17 to 15.72 and number of seeds per fruit varied from 68.00 to 113.17. Minimum seed weight was 7.04 g/fruit, whereas maximum 14.55 g/fruit. Ample variability was found in fruit yield of collected germplasm which ranged from 18.85 to 39.26 kg per plant at 16–18 years of age. Distinctive variability in biochemical traits was also found. Total soluble solids in fruit pulp were 34.92–41.13% Brix, total sugars 11.49–22.16%, acidity 0.36–0.53%, vitamin ‘C’ 9.89–17.20 mg/100 g, total carotenoids 1.43–2.40 mg/100 g and total tannins 2.50–3.58%. Available genetic diversity may be utilized for crop improvement programme.

What do different ways of seeing the world mean for actors engaged in peacemaking? Through the case of Cameroon, I illustrate the critical yet often-overlooked role of one’s conceptions of self in the world – how actors see the world and their positions within it – in shaping peace processes. Considering the growing debate over the conceptualisation of the world order as anarchic or hierarchical and foregrounding Cameroonian articulations, I examine how notions of hierarchy and hypocrisy are constitutive of the conflict actors’ perceptions of the world and condition their engagements in foreign-led mediation concerning the Anglophone Crisis. Drawing on over 60 interviews, including those with Cameroonian ruling party members, opposition politicians, and individuals leading the armed separatist movement, I explain how considerations of self-image and status are powerful drivers of behaviours and not aspects that can be dismissed as ‘irrational’ or ‘overly sensitive’; rather, various Cameroonian actors deploy themes of hierarchy and hypocrisy in highly rational and intentional ways to further their aspirations. Inspired by Historical International Relations and reverse ethnography, the article challenges the presentist bias in much of today’s analysis of global politics and offers a historically conscious explanation of conflict parties’ behaviour in mediation.

Cable-driven parallel robots (CDPRs) have been widely used as motion executers for their large workspace and lower inertia. However, there are few studies on structural optimization design considering its stability. This paper proposes a stability optimization method based on force-position workspace for a reconfigurable cable-driven parallel robot (RCDPR). First, the structural optimization analysis of RCDPR is carried out. Then, the forces distribution algorithm based on the feasibility of real-time control is determined, and the boundary contour algorithm (BCA) of the RCDPR force feasible workspace (FFW) on the central plane is proposed. Second, the stiffness and cables driving force space (CFS) models of RCDPR are established. Subsequently, the stability evaluation function is established to optimize the structure of RCDPR, which uses FFW and main task feasible workspace (MFW) as carriers and stiffness and CFS as weights. Finally, an experimental prototype of the developed robot is constructed, and motion performance and workspace verification experiments are conducted. The results demonstrate that the developed RCDPR has good motion accuracy and stable workspace, and the results also verify the feasibility of the stability evaluation function and BCA.

Focusing on the metropolitan cities of Seoul, Korea and London, England, this paper seeks to provide a better understanding of the role of cities and local social policy in addressing responses to and impacts of the pandemic, as well as in governing a place-based approach to pandemic recovery, human security, and inclusive and sustainable growth. It draws on a critical human security perspective and the application of a multi-scalar governance and territorial matrix for local social policy and social infrastructure to highlight the complex and multisectoral social and public policy challenges facing both Seoul and London in the aftermath of the pandemic as well as the overlapping, intersectional, and multi-layered insecurities, how they have evolved and strategies to address them. The study draws on secondary data sources, workshops, and qualitative interviews with key city stakeholders in both cities conducted between February 2022 and July 2023.

Contrary to the conventional view that minority regimes are vulnerable to breakdown, many of these regimes exhibit remarkable durability. From 1900 to 2015, minority autocracies that exclude a single majority ethnic group (e.g., regimes in Bahrain, Syria, and Apartheid South Africa) remained in power twice as long as other autocracies. This article argues that this durability is rooted in their unique ethno-political configuration, which enables them to foster a largely unconditional loyalty due to the ruling minority’s fear of being subjected to majoritarian rule. Such loyalty endows them with an exceptional capacity to withstand major challenges by fostering in-group demobilization and policing, pro-regime countermobilization, and coethnic elite loyalty. This article employs a multi-method approach, using a novel dataset of minority regimes and a case study of Bahrain based on original interviews. The findings highlight the conditions under which ethnic group loyalty can play a central role in autocratic survival.

The work presents an approach to the meaning(s) of dignity in the constitutional field that focuses, first and foremost, on answering the question: what is dignity? Four ways of characterising the notion are described, relying, where relevant, on the input obtained beyond the legal field – especially in that of philosophy. Although each of them accounts for a different kind of human property, an important commonality among them is stressed, which provides a pathway to understand the place of dignity as a constitutional end within a material approach to constitutions.

The founding figures, advocates and engineers of the early Space Age are frequently hailed as ‘fathers’, ‘forebears’, ‘prophets’, ‘pioneers’, ‘visionaries’ and ‘heroes’, employing hagiographic, gendered and indiscriminate tropes that lack analytical value. Inspired by persona and celebrity studies, this introduction proposes an alternative approach to comprehend the historical significance and historiographical prominence attributed to global ‘rocket stars’ Qian Xuesen (1911–2009) in China, Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) in Sri Lanka, Vikram Sarabhai (1919–71) in India, Sigmund Jähn (1937–2019) in East Germany, Ulf Merbold (1941–) in West Germany and Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez (1942–) in Cuba covered in this special issue. Replacing ‘great-men’ hagiography with a theoretically grounded focus on celebrification processes and the making of national patriarchs from without – from person to persona – enhances nuance and reduces cliché in understanding the role technocelebrities played in the production of outer space as a key phantasmagoria of the twentieth century. As these six space personas operated and starred in geographical contexts distinct and distant from the spaceflight superpowers, the special issue advances the notion of a global Space Age as an alternative to the conventional bipolar Cold War variant and offers a foundation for its budding historicization.