The field of Quaternary entomology has focused primarily on the study of beetles (Coleoptera) and, to a lesser degree, nonbiting midges (Diptera: Chironomidae). Beetles typically predominate because they have heavily sclerotised exoskeletons, and they are abundant in a great variety of habitats. Because of taphonomy and scarcity, other Quaternary invertebrates have been less studied. Only a few records of fleas (Siphonaptera) and mites (Acari) are reported from Pleistocene deposits that span the Seward Peninsula in Alaska, United States of America, to the Klondike goldfields in central Yukon Territory, Canada. Grasshoppers (Orthoptera) and thrips (Thysanoptera) have not been reported previously from Quaternary deposits across the Arctic’s Beringia region. However, recent extensive sampling of Arctic ground squirrel, Urocitellus parryii Richardson (Rodentia: Sciuridae), middens from permafrost deposits of the Klondike goldfields has yielded specimens from each of these underrepresented invertebrate groups. Here, we present records of fleas (Oropsylla alaskensis Baker (Ceratophyllidae)), mites (including Fusacarus Michael (Astigmata: Glycyphagidae) and cf. Haemogamasus Berlese (Mesostigmata: Laelapidae)), and the first records of grasshoppers (Acrididae: Gomphocerinae) and thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) from Beringia from six middens spanning approximately 80 000–13 500 years BP. We also provide brief reviews of the fossil history of each major taxon.

How did one become an astronomer in imperial China? Where did one start? What texts did would-be astronomers study, and what criteria did they have to meet? Combining the regulation of the Yuan (1271–1368) Bureau of Astronomy with biographies of astronomers who worked in different sections of the Bureau, this paper explores the physical, technical, and literary skills required for this profession in late medieval China. It underscores the pivotal role of family in training astronomers and offers fresh insights into the relationship between bureaucracy and science in imperial China.

Several studies have indicated a potential inverse association between caffeine intake from dietary sources – assessed through dietary questionnaires – and uric acid (UA) levels. However, to date, no study has examined the relationship between urinary caffeine metabolites, which serve as a reliable biomarker of caffeine intake and UA levels. Our aim was to evaluate the association between caffeine metabolites in urine and serum UA levels. A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011–2012, involving 1252 individuals aged 20–80 years. The study assessed caffeine and fourteen metabolites in spot urine samples, as well as serum UA levels. Hyperuricaemia was defined as UA levels exceeding 7·0 mg/dl for men and 6·0 mg/dl for women. In logistic regression analyses, theobromine (OR: 0·99, 95 % CI: 0·980, 0·999), 3-methyluric acid (OR: 0·91, 95 % CI: 0·837, 0·996), 7-methyluric acid (OR: 0·99, 95 % CI: 0·989, 0·998) and 3-methylxanthine (OR: 0·99, 95 % CI: 0·992, 0·999) were associated with decreased odds of hyperuricaemia. In linear regression analyses, paraxanthine (β = −0·004, P = 0·006), theobromine (β = −0·004, P =< 0·001), 7-methyluric acid (β = −0·003, P = 0·003), 3,7-dimethyluric acid (β = −0·029, P = 0·024), 3-methylxanthine (β = −0·001, P = 0·038) and 7-methylxanthine (β = −0·001, P = 0·001) were inversely associated with serum UA levels. In conclusion, our results indicate that several urinary caffeine metabolites are inversely associated with UA levels. These findings should be interpreted with caution due to the small magnitude of the observed associations.

When kidney transplantation evolved from an experimental into a clinical treatment of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the 1960s, it was conceptualised as a collaborative therapy. Before specific immunosuppressants were introduced in the 1980s, the best chances for patient and graft survival were expected from finding ‘good’ matches between donor and recipient tissues. Therefore, the pioneers of clinical transplantation in Europe started to recombine their growing patient pools. They created trans-border organ exchange organisations such as Eurotransplant and Intertransplant, based on shared patient databases.

The article traces international and transnational co-operation in kidney exchange using the example of state-socialist Germany. How did the German Democratic Republic (GDR) get involved with the interconnected networks of knowledge, data, and organ exchange in ESRD treatment? In what ways did the domestic system of kidney transplantation depend on intra- and trans-bloc exchange? How did the GDR profit, and what did it have to offer on an international scale, both in the First and the Second World? The article sheds light on the under-explored transplantation history of the socialist East and thereby investigates the possibilities and limits of trans-bloc collaboration in Cold War Europe.

Over the last decade, a range of international actors has moved away from direct forms of intervention to protect civilian populations in favor of “bottom-up” approaches that emphasize external support for civilian self-protection (CSP). While this indirect action is often perceived to be less costly, more legitimate, and potentially more effective, we argue that external support for CSP is a “risky business” that presents a significant dilemma for international governmental and nongovernmental organizations. Drawing on literature from sociology, economics, and civil war studies, we conceptualize and categorize the risks of unintended consequences that could accompany external support for CSP and suggest why they are likely to arise in this context. We then empirically explore whether and how these risks manifest with an in-depth study of four purposively selected organizations supporting CSP in their programming. We also assess whether and how organizational type matters for the prevalence of these consequences and how the risk of their occurrence is managed. Our analysis shows that, across a range of conflict settings, all four organizations encountered unintended consequences of three main kinds: increased vulnerability and insecurity for local communities, challenges to organizational mandates and values, and strained relations with key protection stakeholders. International actors supporting CSP thus confront the dilemma of seeking to enhance their effectiveness and legitimacy by “localizing” protection, but potentially create new challenges and perverse effects and/or compromise their organizational identity in the process. While this dilemma is inherent in all external protection assistance, our study highlights the importance of actor embeddedness: organizations that are more proximate to the communities they work with are in a better position to minimize these unintended consequences and manage the risks associated with supporting CSP. These findings contribute to ongoing debates about civilian protection in comparative politics, international relations, and humanitarian studies, but also offer concrete insights for practitioners engaged in support for CSP. More broadly, our study could have implications for other policy areas where the legitimacy of so-called top down approaches is being questioned and where these approaches are giving way to the empowerment of local actors and processes.

In this article, I explore videogames, language ideologies, and vernacular theory. Specifically, I examine the politics of language in Sid Meier’s Civilization, with an emphasis on the representation of toponymy and the renaming of places after conquest. Civilization players lead quasi-imperial states, capture ‘cities’ from opponents, and rename them. Despite limitations in the game code, players use online forums to develop their understanding of the politics of toponymy. I argue that they participate in ‘vernacular theorising’ to critically engage with language-ideological premises coded into Civilization. In doing so, they sometimes make politically sophisticated and progressive observations, while also accepting problematic premises that structure their in-game engagement with language. I offer a deep engagement with theories of interpretation and ideology, which is vital for exploring how players negotiate ludic language ideologies, itself an important problem for the future of the field given the stature of videogames in popular culture. (Language ideologies, videogames, postcolonialism)*

Do-support involves the mandatory inclusion of the auxiliary do, historically bleached of semantic meaning and now serving purely morphosyntactic functions. While extensively researched in English since Ellegård (1953), its counterpart in Scots has received less attention (although see Meurman-Solin 1993; Gotthard 2019, 2024a). This article investigates whether early Scots do exhibited similar functions to English ‘intermediate do’, as analysed by Ecay (2015), before stabilising into its current role, as this would indicate that the emergence of do-support is more likely to be an independent development in Scots. This investigation aims to gauge the likelihood of Scots do-support resulting from contact with Southern English during anglicisation, the process which saw English forms favoured over Scots in Scottish writing. Proportions of affirmative and negative declarative do from the Parsed Corpus of Scottish Correspondence (1540–1750; Gotthard 2024b) are measured across various syntactic contexts, with results assessed against criteria for contact-induced change. The social context and timing of the rise of Scots do suggest do-support being a transfer from Southern English, but its intermediate do qualities compromise this analysis. However, the presence of an intermediate do in Scots might represent a northward diffusion of such a grammar from English into Scots.

The role of the gut microbiome in infant development has gained increasing interest in recent years. Most research on this topic has focused on the first three to four years of life because this is a critical period for developing gut-brain connections. Prior studies have identified associations between the composition and diversity of the gut microbiome in infancy and markers of temperament, including negative affect. However, the specific microbes affected, and the directionality of these associations have differed between studies, likely due to differences in the developmental period of focus and assessment approaches. In the current preregistered study, we examined connections between the gut microbiome, assessed at two time points in infancy (2 weeks and 18 months), and negative affect measured at 30 months of age in a longitudinal study of infants and their caregivers. We found that infants with higher gut microbiome diversity at 2 weeks showed more observed negative affect during a study visit at 30 months. We also found evidence for associations between specific genera of bacteria in infancy and negative affect. These results suggest associations between specific features of the gut microbiome and child behavior may differ based on timing of gut microbiome measurement.

The radiocarbon (14C) specific activity was measured in vegetation and atmosphere in Ramnicu Valcea, Romania. On the sampling location operates a nuclear installation, namely “Experimental Pilot for Separation of Tritium and Deuterium” (PESTD), a semi-industrial installation designed for the detritiation of heavy water moderator of CANDU reactors and a 315 MW coal-fired thermoelectric power plant. Because one of the important releases of PESTD is gaseous radioactive effluent, the baseline of radiocarbon was a must for the environmental program. On the other hand, due to the Suess effect, a relative decrease of the radiocarbon-specific activity on a local scale is expected as a result of the dilution of the carbon isotopic mixture by fossil carbon. All the measurements were done by liquid scintillation counting and direct absorption method. It can be observed that the specific activity of 14C was similar for both types of samples investigated. The variations encountered are generally within the limit of uncertainty associated with the 14C. The average radiocarbon-specific activity recorded has the following values: 0.226 ± 0.016 Bq/gC for the vegetation and 0.228 ± 0.016 Bq/gC for the atmosphere. The results have a clear decreasing trend, but due to local influence caused by the continuous production of fossil CO2, cannot be observed 14C seasonal variations. A strong correlation between radiocarbon activity in air and vegetation was highlighted.