This essay investigates the meaning of “nominal prices” in Adam Smith’s the Wealth of Nations, its contraposition to “real prices,” and the impact of Smith’s nominal prices upon his assessment of the prices of wheat over the centuries. I also consider measure and value in the Wealth of Nations as well as Smith’s threefold standard of measure: labor, wheat, money. Smith chose an unusual measure to investigate prices over time, with nominal prices being referred to a specific quantity of silver. This raises questions about the possible impact of centuries-old debates over debasement and the value of money on Smith’s measurement of value across times.

Music notation has evolved to accommodate music and musical instruments as they have changed over time. However, the rapid advancement of musical technology has not been accompanied by a corresponding development and consensus in notation. This paper examines the challenges faced by notation in representing music written for augmented instruments. We contend that a novel understanding of musical works is necessary and propose a work-concept that recognises the significance of the technology – medium – that composers develop alongside their creations. We emphasise the role of the score within this work-concept model and present an instrumental augmentation system as a case study. Finally, we propose notation guidelines for augmented instruments and argue that standardising notation could facilitate the discovery of common ground that guides the development of augmented instruments and music written for them.

This study examines audience responses to the European virtual idol Noonoouri using an audience reception approach. While Japanese virtual idols have been widely studied, audience reception in European contexts remains underexplored. Using Python-assisted sentiment analysis combined with qualitative thematic analysis of YouTube comments, the study investigates how audiences evaluate Noonoouri’s music and digital persona regarding creativity, legitimacy, and cultural context in European mainstream music. Findings reveal predominantly negative responses, with scepticism regarding emotional expressiveness, originality, and impacts on human creativity, alongside occasional recognition of technical innovation. Audience interpretations clustered into three frameworks: ‘Emotional Authenticity and Affective Engagement’, ‘Authorship, Labour Ethics, and Creativity’, and ‘Cultural Value and European Mainstream Integration’. The results show that virtual idol reception cannot be understood through technical criteria alone; audiences actively negotiate cultural, ethical, and authenticity meanings, providing insight into how legitimacy is constructed for AI-generated music and virtual idols in European popular music contexts.

The results of research on the human remains and artefacts recently discovered at Heaning Wood Bone Cave, Cumbria, UK are reported. A programme of radiocarbon dating has established that the human remains include the earliest so far discovered in northern Britain, the ‘Ossick Lass’, which date between 9290 and 8925 cal BC. The cave was used for burial during three phases in prehistory: one individual dating to the Early Mesolithic, four to the Early Neolithic and two to the Early Bronze Age and is thus an important addition to our developing knowledge about the deposition of human remains in caves in north-west Europe at these dates. Genomic analysis has established that all but one of the sampled individuals were biologically female. Osteological and taphonomic analysis shows that, in each phase, the burial practice seems to have been successive inhumation of the recently deceased body into the vertical entrance of the cave. Artefacts associated with the burials include perforated periwinkle shell beads radiocarbon dated to the Early Mesolithic, a small assemblage of worked stone, including diagnostically Early Neolithic pieces, and sherds of Early Bronze Age Collared Urn pottery.

In this paper, we introduce a new technique to study the distribution in residue classes of sets of integers with digit and sum-of-digits restrictions. From our main theorem, we derive a necessary and sufficient condition for integers with missing digits to be uniformly distributed in arithmetic progressions, extending previous results going back to the work of Erdős, Mauduit and Sárközy. Our approach uses Markov chains and does not rely on Fourier analysis as many results of this nature do. Our results apply more generally to the class of multiplicatively invariant sets of integers. This class, defined by Glasscock, Moreira and Richter using symbolic dynamics, is an integer analogue to fractal sets and includes all missing digits sets. We address uniform distribution in this setting, partially answering an open question posed by the same authors.

Although the concept of sympathy is absent from the Wealth of Nations, this essay argues that it is the foundation that sustains the free market, gives it its moral limits, and enables its greater efficiency. Recognizing this function, which is not difficult to trace in the Wealth of Nations, allows us to understand why public policies that foster sympathetic relationships lead to greater wealth creation, while those that hinder such relationships impede exchange and reduce wealth. Similarly, when changes brought about by progress or personal ambitions and interests inhibit or distort the free play of sympathetic interaction, the awareness that sympathy is the lifeblood of a free society allows us to adjust public policies and restore the framework of security and order that provides the conditions for prosperity, recognition, and happiness for all.

Farman Saeed Sedeeq and Percem Arman’s article aims to develop a framework of AI governance that avoids shortcomings in existing models such as limited enforceability and rigid data-sharing rules. The goal of the weighty undertaking is to develop a “structured yet flexible approach” to balancing AI advancements in public health with ethical imperatives. Three core “pillars” are used for evaluation: ethical accountability, regulatory adaptability, and transparency. The concept of ethical accountability is explored briefly in this commentary.

This article explores female healthcare at the crossroads of bacteriology and obstetric research. Puerperal fever or childbed fever manifested as an epidemic since the nineteenth century, and in both Europe and America, it charted a distinct course for bacteriological research. With the identification of bacteriological causes, new sets of public health regimes were instituted in both regions. The experience of the colonies, however, differed. This paper focusses on how colonial discourse on obstetric nursing, midwifery, clinical hygiene, and maternal healthcare can be positioned in this global history of female health research. The paper explores why, in India, on one hand, bacteriological research in female health suffered in terms of priority (unlike that of cholera and plague) despite the alarming rate of maternal mortality. On the other hand, medical practitioners trained in Europe worked as the conduit through which the bacteriological research of Europe made its way into India. Contemporary documents reveal how colonial prerogatives were channeled through the race theories linked to Indian cultural practices related to midwifery and obstetric nursing, and how the female health discourse was still marred by the notion of tropicality.

The goal of this study is the presentation and evaluation of settlement patterns in the region between the Minoan palatial centres of Knossos and Malia, mainly on the north coast of Heraklion, during the second millennium BCE. The approach is based on new archaeological data from large- and small-scale rescue excavations and supervised digging activities in the context of public or private construction projects. Existing archaeological knowledge of this particular region is also taken into consideration. Following a chronological sequence, a Prepalatial (Middle Minoan [MM] IA) long wall, which is located 250 m south of the hill of Paliochora at Amnissos and belongs to a wider architectural planning of access control from the coast of Amnissos to the hinterland, is presented along with a contemporary rural installation in Stalida. An extensive settlement in the area of the Amirandes Hotel in Kato Gouves is dated mainly to the Protopalatial period and shows close affinities with Malia. Of the same date and cultural orientation is the extensive occupation near Agriana, which continues to exist in the early Neopalatial period. The Minoan settlement at Kastri in Chersonesos is dated to MM IIIB, while an earlier Protopalatial phase was also identified. A number of other sites in the district of Gouves are dated to Late Minoan (LM) III. A unique example of continuous habitation from LM IB to LM IIIB was excavated near the local primary school in Gournes. The decrease of sites in MM IIIB–LM IA and the scarcity of LM IB settlements, in contrast to the density of Protopalatial installations, confirm the centralisation of the habitation model during the late Neopalatial period, probably due to the expansionist policy of Knossos. However, the balance of power of the two palatial centres over the region under discussion shifted through time, with Malia having control of most of the area during the Protopalatial period and Knossos expanding its influence during the Prepalatial, Neopalatial and Final Palatial periods.