There are myriad techniques industry actors use to shape the public understanding of science. While a naive view might assume these techniques typically involve fraud or outright deception, the truth is more nuanced. This paper analyzes industrial distraction, a common technique where industry actors fund and share research that is accurate, often high-quality, but nonetheless misleading on important matters of fact. This involves reshaping causal understanding of phenomena with distracting information. Using case studies and causal models, we illustrate how this impacts belief and decision making even for rational learners, informing science policy and debates about misleading content.

Birds are often used as ecological indicators because they are widely distributed across diverse habitats and display distinct behavioural responses to environmental changes. The Endangered Grey Crowned Crane Balearica regulorum is regarded as a flagship species of Africa’s wetland and grassland habitats, both of which are undergoing substantial transformation to alternative land uses. The delayed reproductive strategies and habitat specialisation of this crane species makes them more vulnerable to extinction, but this risk is further compounded by data paucity. We employed traditional and contemporary survey methods to collect breeding metrics to calculate stage transition probabilities (i.e. egg–hatchling, hatchling–juvenile) and to identify possible macro-environmental factors that either promote or hinder their reproductive output in a key agricultural area in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We found that Grey Crowned Cranes have a low hatching rate of 38.4% (95% confidence interval 29.3–48.4%) and show that this low hatching rate is exacerbated under high rainfall intensity. Multivariate analyses and multi-model inference revealed that successful nest-sites were generally associated with larger open water-bodies, greater distances from shore, and increased proximity to secondary roads, buildings, and natural grasslands. Although increased agricultural activities might promote greater foraging opportunities, the overall breeding outcomes of this species were poor in this key agricultural region. Our findings stress the urgent need for further fine-scale data collection and monitoring activities to better inform conservation strategies for this species. We also encourage future studies to focus on aspects affecting Grey Crowned Crane breeding in regions where proximity to human activities is inevitable.

Anaemia continues to be a major public health challenge in developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study estimated the proportion of anaemia cases that could be potentially prevented among children aged 6-59 months in Togo. Data from the 2017 national Malaria Indicator survey in Togo, the last one conducted to date, was used for this study. Maternal, child and household data were collected using a standard questionnaire administered face-to-face by trained interviewers. Haemoglobin tests were conducted for children and their mothers. A total of 2796 children were included in the analyses. The prevalence of anaemia was 75.0% (95% confidence interval, CI: 72.5-88.0). Factors associated with childhood anaemia were: age [(adjusted prevalence ratio, aPR=1.46 (CI: 1.37-1.56) for 6-23 months and aPR=1.23 (1.14-1.32) for 24-42 months, ref: 43-59 months], a later birth order (≥4th position) [aPR=1.11 (1.03-1.19), ref: 1st-2nd position], malaria in children [aPR=1.30 (1.22-1.38)], maternal age ≤25 [aPR=1.17 (1.08-1.27), ref: ≥35 years], maternal anaemia [aPR=1.13 (1.07-1.19)], lack of maternal education [aPR=1.10 (1.02-1.18), ref: ≥secondary], number of children under 5 in household [aPR=1.07 (1.00-1.14) for ≥3, ref: 0-1], unimproved sanitation facilities [aPR=1.12 (1.02-1.22)] and low/middle household incomes [aPR=1.16 (1.04-1.30) and aPR=1.13 (1.01-1.26), respectively, ref: high]. The population-attributable fraction was estimated at 8.2% (6.3-10.1%) for child-related modifiable factors, 11.1% (5.7-16.3%) for maternal-related factors, 15.8% (8.6-22.5%) for household-related factors, and 30.9% (24.0-37.2%) for the combination of all modifiable factors. This study highlighted a high prevalence of childhood anaemia in Togo and showed that a high proportion of this could be prevented.

This article investigates whether environmental planning law can demonstrate ethical responsibility for its role in settler colonialism. Planning law contributes to settler colonialism by diminishing, excluding, and eliminating alternative views of land that are fundamental to First Nations culture, philosophy, and law/lore. The article adopts a transnational legal frame that recognizes and promotes First Nations as sovereign. The investigation is focused primarily on the planning law system in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, while being guided by interpretations and applications of the rights of First Nations peoples by courts in Canada. It is argued that state planning law in NSW fails to give effect to ethical responsibility because its operation continues to dominate and marginalize Aboriginal legal culture by eroding the necessary ontological and epistemic relationships with land. However, there is potential for change. Opportunities to disrupt settler colonialism have emerged through bottom-up litigation, which has promoted interpretations, applications, and implementation of law that can be performed in ways that resonate with Canadian case law. While the absence of treaty or constitution-based rights protection in NSW and Australia means that the transplant is not seamless, the article argues that laws should not be interpreted and applied in ways that perpetuate settler colonialism where alternative interpretations can lead to a different outcome.

This paper considers the planar N-body problem with a quasi-homogeneous potential given by

$$ \begin{align*}W = \sum_{1\leq k<j\leq N} \left[ \frac{ m_k m_j}{\|\boldsymbol{r}_k-\boldsymbol{r}_j\|} +\frac{m_k m_j C_{jk}}{\|\boldsymbol{r}_k-\boldsymbol{r}_j\|^p} \right], \end{align*} $$

where $ m_k>0 $ are the masses and $C_{jk}= C_{kj}$ are nonzero real constants, and the exponent g being $ p> $1. Generalizing techniques of the classical N-body problem, we first characterize the periodic solutions that form a regular polygon (relative equilibria) with equal masses ($m_k= m$, $k=1, \ldots , N$) and equal constants $C_{jk}= C$, for all $j, k=1, \ldots , N$ (for short, N-gon solutions). Indeed, for $C>0$ we prove that there exists a unique regular N-gon solution for each fixed positive mass m. In contrast, for the case $C <0$, we demonstrate that there can be a maximum of two distinct regular N-gon solutions for a fixed positive mass m. More precisely, there is a range of values for the mass parameter m for which no solutions of the form of an N-gon exist. Furthermore, we examine the linear stability of these solutions, with a particular focus on the special case $ N=3 $, which is fully characterized.

After some preliminary remarks about Plato’s use of the adverb nun, I explain what the nun is by offering a close textual analysis of the key passage in which it is explicitly addressed (Parm. 151e3–153b7). Its metaxu nature, between duration and limit, requires one to consider another temporal notion of the second part of the Parmenides that is metaxu, namely the exaiphnês. I explain why the nun does not conceptually overlap with the exaiphnês, arguing moreover that there is no model where both notions fit, but rather a model accounting for a switch and another one accounting for continuous change.

Northern Ireland has been without a Childcare Strategy for more than a decade – the only region in the United Kingdom (UK) that does not have one. As a devolved responsibility, progress in childcare has been significantly limited, and there is currently no government-funded childcare provision available. This is compared to England, Scotland, and Wales, where investment to expand provision has been introduced to help parents meet the cost of childcare by providing funded entitlement. This article examines and discusses policy developments in early education and childcare in Northern Ireland and the other UK nations. It is argued that the lack of progress by the Northern Ireland Executive to develop a Childcare Strategy overlooks it’s economic and social importance and reflects how childcare continues to be underfunded and undervalued.

Western Zhou Dynasty (ca. 1046–771 BC) was established soon after conquering the Shang Dynasty (ca. 1600–1046 BC) and brought about the earliest enfeoffment system in Chinese history. Yan was one of the vassal states of the same clan as Zhou. According to historical records, the capital of Yan state was located near Yan mountain, which is now known as the Liulihe site in the Fangshan District, Beijing. This study carries out the high-precision dating of two newly discovered Western Zhou Dynasty noble tombs at the Liulihe site. The man in tomb M1902 participated in the groundbreaking ceremony of Yan’s capital according to inscriptions on the bronze vessel found in this tomb. Samples of different materials, especially different parts of human skeletons from the tombs, were selected to form a sample series in chronological order. Wiggle-matching models were established in OxCal program based on the growth and development time of different teeth and bones of human skeletons. More accurate ages were acquired for the death of the individuals. The results indicate that the most probable distribution range of the death date of the individual in M1902 is about 1045–1010 BC. The radiocarbon dates of M1902 give important chronological information about the founding of Yan state, and they are very close to those of the year in which King Wu of Zhou conquered the Shang Dynasty.

South Africa has seen a surge in child offending. Child offenders commit violent crimes such as armed robbery, housebreaking, rape and murder. Conversely, not all child offenders commit violent crimes. Many child offenders are detained for minor charges such as shoplifting, theft and possession of illegal substances. Most of these children face numerous levels of adversity, including poverty, dysfunctional households and limited parental involvement. Responses to child criminal behaviour accentuate rehabilitation through measures such as diversion. Narrative accounts of children in conflict with the law who underwent mentorship programmes, as a diversion initiative, are scarce and underrepresented. Through a qualitative inquiry, 13 children who completed the National Youth Development Outreach (NYDO) Centre’s Mentoring Diversion Programme were interviewed and data were analysed thematically. Findings provided insight into the participants’ background and context, the mentor–mentee relationship, responsibility, effectiveness of the programme, and aftercare support. This paper contributes to scientific research and is conducive to curtailing child offending.

According to Eich, “the history of political thinking about money” accumulates in “layers of crisis,” since crises provoke “an openness to new ideas” that interrupts the calm reproduction of meaning (xiii–xiv). Couldn’t we apply this insight to the history of critical democratic theory? Running through and beneath its explicit excavation of the political thought attending and provoked by monetary crises of the past, Eich’s book also turns up traces of what we could call a crisis of democracy and a crisis of critique. I attend to these traces to ask what we might learn from Eich’s book about the limits and internal tensions of critical theory.

The Currency of Politics should: change the way political theorists understand their texts and contexts; lead to the reworking of their concepts and events; and ultimately alter the very subject matter that constitutes their field. For too long the subfield of political theory, along with the whole discipline of political science, has been complicit in the bankrupt project of neoclassical economics. I call modern economics bankrupt because its founding assumptions and fundamental models have repeatedly been proved false, untenable, and unproductive for our understanding of the economic forces and relations that partially constitute the capitalist social orders in which we live. I call political science (and acutely, political theory) complicit because in hiving off economic questions—or worse, “the economy”— and leaving those issues to economists we have reified the very dichotomy between politics and economics that capitalism itself instantiates and exacerbates.1

For finite nilpotent groups $J$ and $N$, suppose $J$ acts on $N$ via automorphisms. We exhibit a decomposition of the first cohomology set in terms of the first cohomologies of the Sylow $p$-subgroups of $J$ that mirrors the primary decomposition of $H^1(J,N)$ for abelian $N$. We then show that if $N \rtimes J$ acts on some non-empty set $\Omega$, where the action of $N$ is transitive and for each prime $p$ a Sylow $p$-subgroup of $J$ fixes an element of $\Omega$, then $J$ fixes an element of $\Omega$.