We perform a general study of the structure of locally compact modules over compactly generated abelian groups. We obtain a dévissage result for such modules of the form ‘compact-by-sheer-by-discrete’, and then study more specifically the sheer part. The main typical example of a sheer module is a polycontractible module, that is, a finite direct product of modules, each of which is contracted by some group element. We show that every sheer module has a ‘large’ polycontractible submodule, in some suitable sense. We apply this to the study of compactly generated metabelian groups. For instance, we prove that they always have a maximal compact normal subgroup, and we extend the Bieri–Strebel characterization of compactly presentable metabelian groups from the discrete case to this more general setting.

Victor Pelevin’s novel Generation P has attracted both popular and academic interest for its ability to capture the zeitgeist of Russia in the 1990s and a generation searching for a new identity in the ruins of the Soviet Union. However, one element has been largely ignored by scholars: the role of fungi and, specifically, the entheogenic mukhomor. Here we discuss the history of mukhomor in the Russian context and demonstrate how Pelevin’s representations of mukhomor advance the novel’s critique regarding the reinvention of Russia’s identity after the fall of the Soviet Union. We argue that via its mukhomor-induced hallucinations, the novel ironizes the imperial narratives which sought to restore a mythical but allegedly authentic Russian past. The novel plays with the idea that if there is a future that can qualify as authentically Russian, then it should be one where the very notion of Russianness is abandoned. What renders this future authentically Russian is the genetic origin of mukhomor in the Russian hinterland, the very element which enables a vision of the world as such, devoid of symbolic order and of all identities.

In their article, Drabiak et al. review the state laws and ethical debates related to the determination of death by neurologic criteria, analyze the recent 2023 American Academy of Neurology practice guidelines, and make policy recommendations. We call this review ‘just’ because the article correctly focuses on the chief ethical, legal, and medical issue in this debate — namely whether patients declared dead by neurological criteria are actually dead, along with the need to improve integrity, honesty, trust, and residency education and training to reduce moral distress and achieve moral certainty in declaring patients dead, initiating organ procurement, and communicating these realities to patient families/surrogates. As the authors invite the reader to comprehend, it should no longer be considered a minority or fringe opinion that determinations of brain death are rife with false positives, inadvertent misdiagnoses, violations of informed consent, and, ultimately, dissent from the law. For the sake of justice, one would do well to heed these words.

Undoubtedly, the imperial coinage of Faustina the Younger is the largest surviving primary source for the portraiture and public image of the empress, and excellent work on the subject has already been done.1 Martin Beckmann (B.) sets out to reevaluate the coinage, portraits, and public image of Faustina the Younger, primarily based on a die study of her gold coinage (aurei) from the imperial mint in Rome.2 Die studies are a time-consuming and tedious task, but the results often allow us to better understand the workings of the mint and the (relative) chronology of coins and the images they carry. This is of primary importance for the coins of imperial women, as they are not dated. Moreover, the attribution and chronology of the sculptured portraits almost entirely depends on the coins. Only a correct interpretation of the numismatic evidence allows us to securely establish the relative and absolute chronology of Faustina’s portraiture.

Duties of beneficence are general, impersonal obligations to promote the welfare and meet the needs of strangers. Many laypeople and philosophers presume that duties of beneficence are primarily met through volunteering or donating to various causes. More recently, some business ethicists and activists in the effective altruist camp have argued that social enterprise can be a way to exercise beneficence. This essay argues that most of us exercise beneficence, and discharge many or perhaps all of our duties of beneficence, by holding normal jobs and doing normal productive work.

Research findings in cognitive and affective neuroscience, along with psychology and anthropology, can be used to explore the theatrical benefits and dangers of church/temple performances. They involve animal-human drives as primary and social emotions, expressed through patriarchal, maternal, memorial, and supportive/trickster networks in the brain’s staging of self and Other consciousness. Thus, “inner/outer theatre” (brain and social) networks are reflected in the apparent spirits and divine figures of earlier cultures, which relate to Christian images and performance ideals.