This article revisits the editorial history of the Babylonian (Akkadian) version of the Bīsotūn (Behistun) Inscription (DB) to establish the extent of the surviving text in light of a re-examination of the inscription at Mount Bīsotūn (Behistun). Questions arising about the reliability of the standard edition presented in Von Voigtlander (1978) prompted a critical review of her new readings, which significantly expand the text by approximately two-thirds compared to what previous commentators recorded and what is visible on the rock face today. The article focuses on the results of this scrutiny, supported by information from Von Voigtlander’s correspondence with George G. Cameron and Matthew W. Stolper, highlighting the implications of their discussions.

This essay argues that the United States’ expansive use of financial sanctions—leveraging dollar-clearing chokepoints and global networks—has paradoxically accelerated pressures toward the erosion of the liberal economic order. As sanctions proliferate, targets move from short-term evasion to building alternative infrastructures, such as China’s RMB settlement system (CIPS), BRICS financial mechanisms, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and barter-based trade, thereby fostering governance decoupling from US-led systems. Drawing on structural power and institutionalist insights, I show how sanctions catalyze parallel economic ecosystems that fragment the financial architecture and, over time, erode US leverage and dollar centrality—even as the dollar remains dominant. I emphasize heterogeneous switching costs, with near-term change concentrated in the “plumbing” (messaging, clearing, legal venue) rather than in core reserve functions, and sketch two possible futures-bifurcated rival blocs versus pluralistic coexistence—calling on scholars and policymakers to rethink coercive statecraft in light of sanctions’ long-term institutional legacies.

In recent decades, numerous excavations have been conducted at prehistoric sites in northwestern Iran, and the results of these studies have contributed to the development of a chronological framework for the region. The early Chalcolithic period in this area is referred to as the Dalma or Hasanlu X period. Various theories have been proposed regarding the chronological span of this culture, yet challenges and debates about its dating remain. The Belachak 3 site is one of the settlements attributed to this period, excavated by the first author of this article. The excavation results indicate that the site was temporarily occupied. The pottery recovered from this site closely resembles the ceramics found at well-known Dalma sites such as Dalma Tepe and Nad Ali Beig. This article aims first to explore the relative and absolute chronology of the Belachak 3 site. Subsequently, it evaluates the dating of this culture based on the absolute chronology of this and other Chalcolithic sites in western and northwestern Iran. For dating Belachak 3, five animal bones were sent to the Poznań Radiocarbon Laboratory. The results indicate that the site was occupied around 5000–4700 BCE. Additionally, based on the pottery findings and absolute dating, it can be suggested that the Dalma culture likely emerged in the late 6th millennium BCE and became widespread across large areas of western and northwestern Iran from around 5000 BCE onward.

The thesis is thematically divided into two parts: Algebraic closures of certain subfields of the reals (Part I) and Paradoxical sets of reals (Part II). Part I investigates a folklore result about the forcing extension by one Cohen real: the transcendence degree of the reals over the set of reals in the ground model is of cardinality $\mathfrak {c}$ (in the extension). We extend this to the case in which more Cohen reals are added, obtaining the following result:Theorem A.

Let X be a finite set of mutually generic Cohen reals over V. In $V[X]$, consider the minimum field $F\subseteq \mathbb {R}$ such that $F\supseteq \bigcup _{Y\subsetneq X} \mathbb {R}^{V[Y]}$. Then, in $V[X]$ the transcendence degree of $\mathbb {R}$ over F is continuum.

In Part II, we consider some paradoxical sets of reals and study their interaction with the Axiom of Choice. Informally, paradoxical sets are subsets of $\mathbb {R}^n$ that can be constructed using the Axiom of Choice. In this work we focus on the following examples of paradoxical sets: Hamel bases of $\mathbb {R}$ as a $\mathbb {Q}$-vector space, two-point sets or Mazurkiewicz sets, and partitions of $\mathbb {R}^3$ into unit circles (PUC). The known proofs of existence of these objects rely on a transfinite induction on a well-order of the reals.

The main question considered through this work is the following: Can we recover some weakening of the Axiom of Choice from the existence of a particular paradoxical set? This thesis gives negative answers for different versions of this question, changing the particular paradoxical set, and the weakening of the Axiom of Choice considered. Furthermore, the main contribution of this thesis is the development of a framework that produces some of these answers and recovers other known results of similar form. In particular we obtain the following applications:Theorem B.

There is a model of $\mathsf {ZF}+\mathsf {DC}$ with a Hamel basis and no free ultrafilter on $\omega $.

Abstract prepared by Azul Fatalini

E-mail: A.L.Fatalini@leeds.ac.uk

URL: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-53948487632

Current affiliation: UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

There have been three generations of foreign, comparative, and international law (FCIL) librarians in the United States (US) in the postwar era. FCIL librarians of the first generation were foreign lawyers who emigrated to the US after World War II. Those of the second generation were American lawyer-librarians who built the infrastructure of FCIL librarianship into what it is today. The third generation of FCIL librarians includes the authors of this article. We perform many of the same research tasks as our predecessors, but we do so primarily online through an ever-evolving array of new and emerging technologies. This article discusses some core skills of FCIL librarianship that have remained constant over three generations and highlights some select “cool tools” that FCIL librarians of each generation have utilized to perform their work.

We provide a homotopy equivalence for the loop space of the polyhedral product associated with a simplicial complex formed via the polyhedral join operation, and give sufficient conditions under which this loop space is a finite-type product of spheres and loops on spheres.

Carbon occurs as organic and inorganic matter in numerous complex forms and mixtures. Thermal separation of sample mixtures (e.g. sediment or soil), coupled with radiocarbon analysis, is a valuable approach for investigating the source, residence time, or age of different carbon components. At the NEIF Radiocarbon Laboratory we have built equipment for thermally separating samples for radiocarbon analysis using ramped oxidation. The original instrumentation has been successfully tested and validated for the purpose of partitioning samples based on their temperature of thermal decomposition, and for reliable radiocarbon measurement of different sample components. However, the original configuration of our instrument has limitations; a single analysis takes 2–3 hours, and an operator must be present to manually isolate samples from the required temperature ranges. To address this, we have upgraded our ramped oxidation equipment to include computer-controlled solenoid valves. These are activated according to a user-defined sampling scheme which enables autonomous collection of thermally partitioned samples. Here, we describe the latest improvements and present thermograms showing compatibility with the previous version of our equipment. This includes measurements of the radiocarbon background of the equipment, and results for known 14C-content radiocarbon standards. These demonstrate the reliability of the new configuration of our equipment for radiocarbon measurements.

The intelligible world of machines and predictive modelling is an omnipresent and almost inescapable phenomenon. It is an evolution where human intelligence is being supported, supplemented or superseded by artificial intelligence (AI). Decisions once made by humans are now made by machines, learning at a faster and more accurate rate through algorithmic calculations. Jurisprudent academia has undertaken to argue the proposition of AI and its role as a decision-making mechanism in Australian criminal jurisdictions. This paper explores this proposition through predictive modelling of 101 bail decisions made in three criminal courts in the State of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Indicatively, the models’ statistical performance and accuracy, based on nine predictor variables, proved effective. The more accurate logistic regression model achieved 78% accuracy and a performance value of 0.845 (area under the curve; AUC), while the classifier model achieved 72.5% accuracy and a performance value of 0.702 (AUC). These results provide the groundwork for AI-generated bail decisions being piloted in the NSW jurisdiction and possibly others within Australia.

Recently, there has been a large number of works on bilinear sums with Kloosterman sums and on sums of Kloosterman sums twisted by arithmetic functions. Motivated by these, we consider several related new questions about sums of Kloosterman sums parametrised by square-free and smooth integers. Some of our results are presented in the much more general setting of trace functions.

This article examines how concentrated corporate power in the technology sector reshapes repression and human rights harm, arguing that an integrated Business and Human Rights (BHR) and Transitional Justice (TJ) approach is needed. It identifies three persistent gaps in BHR practice—regulatory fragmentation, limited access to remedy and Global North dominance—and demonstrates how TJ principles, particularly victim-centred participation, Global South leadership and transformative reparations, can address these challenges. Drawing on Latin American experiences with truth-seeking, reparations and corporate accountability, the article develops a hybrid BHR–TJ framework designed to confront power asymmetries, strengthen remedies and embed guarantees of non-repetition in global governance. The argument positions this integration as a forward-looking response to the structural harms of the digital economy, offering tools to move beyond proceduralism towards systemic corporate accountability. By combining BHR’s regulatory tools with TJ’s participatory and transformative approaches, the article contributes a novel accountability model for the digital era.