Gut and Stadmüller (2021, 2022) initiated the study of the elephant random walk with limited memory. Aguech and El Machkouri (2024) published a paper in which they discuss an extension of the results by Gut and Stadtmüller (2022) for an ‘increasing memory’ version of the elephant random walk without stops. Here we present a formal definition of the process that was hinted at by Gut and Stadtmüller. This definition is based on the triangular array setting. We give a positive answer to the open problem in Gut and Stadtmüller (2022) for the elephant random walk, possibly with stops. We also obtain the central limit theorem for the supercritical case of this model.

We explore the interplay between $\omega $-categoricity and pseudofiniteness for groups, and we conjecture that $\omega $-categorical pseudofinite groups are finite-by-abelian-by-finite. We show that the conjecture reduces to nilpotent p-groups of class 2, and give a proof that several of the known examples of $\omega $-categorical p-groups satisfy the conjecture. In particular, we show by a direct counting argument that for any odd prime p the ($\omega $-categorical) model companion of the theory of nilpotent class 2 exponent p groups, constructed by Saracino and Wood, is not pseudofinite, and that an $\omega $-categorical group constructed by Baudisch with supersimple rank 1 theory is not pseudofinite. We also survey some scattered literature on $\omega $-categorical groups over 50 years.

Making informed clinical decisions based on individualised outcome predictions is the cornerstone of precision psychiatry. Prediction models currently employed in psychiatry rely on algorithms that map a statistical relationship between clinical features (predictors/risk factors) and subsequent clinical outcomes. They rely on associations that overlook the underlying causal structures within the data, including the presence of latent variables, and the evolution of predictors and outcomes over time. As a result, predictions from sparse associative models from routinely collected data are rarely actionable at an individual level. To be actionable, prediction models should address these shortcomings. We provide a brief overview of a general framework for the rationale for implementing causal and actionable predictions using counterfactual explanations to advance predictive modelling studies, which has translational implications. We have included an extensive glossary of terminology used in this paper and the literature (Supplementary Box 1) and provide a concrete example to demonstrate this conceptually, and a reading list for those interested in this field (Supplementary Box 2).

At least since Aristotle defined human beings as “political animals,” politics in the Western tradition has largely been defined in anthropocentric terms. Politics was a realm of distinctively human endeavors, while nonhuman nature remained outside. Nature might impinge on or set limits to political action, but was conceived as constitutively outside of politics. However else nonhuman entities might engage with humans or each other, these relations or engagements were not understood as political. Until quite recently, Western political theory was decidedly anthropocentric. The rise of environmental problematics, and particularly the political salience of the global climate crisis, however, have made the idea of a constitutive separation between (nonhuman) nature and (human) politics less tenable. Not only the material manipulation of the nonhuman world, but also its conceptual framing, are increasingly understood as political projects.1 At the same time, Western political thought has become increasingly open to non-Western cosmologies that do not posit a rigid divide between human and non- (or more-than-) human worlds. Environmental (or green) political theory has become an increasingly robust subdiscipline,2 and political theory, like a number of other humanities disciplines, has undergone an “animal turn.”3 Three of the four recent books under consideration form part of this latter animal turn while Sharon Krause’s Eco-Emancipation is firmly situated in the field of environmental political theory.

This is the expanded written version of the James Madison Lecture delivered on September 6, 2024, at the APSA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA. I grapple with the pressing question before us as social scientists and as citizens: How and why have US politics and governance arrived at the present juncture where long-standing constitutional practices and democratically responsive governance are very much at stake? My answer focuses on what I see as the prime driver of the current crisis: the recent radicalization of the Republican Party and its allies, as they have pursued two forms and phases of antidemocratic politics. The first version involves maximum use of legal hardball steps that stretch existing laws and rules to disadvantage partisan opponents (I also call this approach “McConnellism” in honor of its chief practitioner, outgoing GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky). The second approach targets political competitors and government operations with extralegal harassment, threats of violence, and even actual violence. Drawing on my own research with many collaborators, as well as from many excellent studies by colleagues in political science and beyond, I will dissect the elite and popular roots of recent Republican embrace of both forms of antidemocratic politics.

We examine a common pool resource (CPR) where appropriations deteriorate the quality of the resource and, thus, its impact on the exploitation of the CPR. We focus on two settings: (i) firms use the CPR without abatement efforts, and (ii) abatement is allowed. We provide comparisons between these two settings and identify socially optimal appropriation levels. We find that (i) higher quality of the CPR could induce firms to overuse the resource, and (ii) first-period appropriations with abatement decrease in the regeneration rate. However, abatement induces an overuse of the resource when the quality of the CPR improves.

Given a number field $\mathbb {K} \subset \mathbb {C}$ that is not contained in $\mathbb {R}$, we prove the existence of a dense set (with respect to the topology of local uniform convergence) of entire maps $f \colon \mathbb {C} \rightarrow \mathbb {C}$ whose preperiodic points and multipliers all lie in $\mathbb {K}$. This contrasts with the case of rational maps. In addition, we show that there exists an escaping quadratic-like map that is not conjugate to an affine escaping quadratic-like map and whose multipliers all lie in $\mathbb {Q}$.

Imagining oneself in another’s position can soften animus and promote empathy. When one’s loved ones have intense contact with carceral institutions, it can provoke a sense of injustice and political mobilization. Drawing on these insights, I design a survey experiment which assigns respondents to a no-treatment condition, an informational control, an egocentric perspective-taking exercise (imagining they are incarcerated), or a surrogate perspective-taking exercise (imagining someone close to them is incarcerated). I test the effects of the treatments on attitudes toward prisoner release and a semi-behavioral measure—whether respondents write a message to their sheriff in support of release. Relative to the no-treatment condition, the informational control doesn’t elicit changes. However, egocentric and surrogate perspective-taking can increase pro-release attitudes and mobilize respondents to write in support of release. These results push forward the literature on punitive attitudes by considering what forces might mobilize Americans against the carceral state.

When deciding whether to support a military operation, do citizens in democracies weigh whether soldiers themselves support the operation? Recent research has concluded that, in the United States, public support for military operations rests in part on people’s beliefs that soldiers favor their own deployment. However, it is not known whether this finding extends beyond the United States to democracies with diverse national citizenship discourses and threat profiles, and its theoretical basis is not well understood. This article addresses both these gaps. Using novel survey data and an experiment in four democracies with divergent citizenship traditions—France, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States—we show that, in all four nations, support for military operations depends significantly on whether people believe that soldiers themselves favor the operation. We highlight two reasons: (1) battlefield performance (respondents think that soldiers who favor their mission fight better), and (2) soldier consent (humans’ capacity for empathy makes them sensitive to whether soldiers are willingly sent into harm’s way). This article has significant implications for debates on public support for the use of military force, the nature of citizenship in modern democracies, and contemporary militarism.

With the green, circular, and low-carbon concept, eco-industrial parks are regarded as key drivers for maximizing environmental and economic benefits. Based on the panel data of 276 cities in China from 2007 to 2018, this paper regards the establishment of eco-industrial parks as a quasi-natural experiment, and employs the difference-in-differences method to test the impact of eco-industrial parks on urban haze pollution. We find that eco-industrial parks significantly reduce urban haze pollution and the conclusion holds with robustness tests. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the effect of eco-industrial parks on haze pollution is more pronounced in eastern and resource-based cities. Finally, mechanism analysis indicates that eco-industrial parks reduce urban haze pollution mainly by promoting technological innovation, upgrading industrial structure, and strengthening urban environmental regulations.

This paper examines the development of the University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies (IAS), arguing that the landscape of decolonial epistemology is more complex than is often assumed. Drawing on new archival documents it maps out the different landscape of ideas regarding its decolonial origins — phase one (1948–50), phase two (1954–61), and phase three (1960–63) — not only to elucidate problems of defining what decolonial work should entail but also as a historical study of how people associated with the IAS contributed to defining and activating a decolonial project. It shows Nkrumah’s specific instrumentality to its emergence through an African-centred or “Afroepistemic” approach to African Studies. It also highlights how the decolonial imperative was shaped by different historical moments.

Selenolaurite, ideally RuSe2, is a new mineral, the first natural ruthenium selenide. It was discovered in an assemblage with Se-bearing moncheite. Both form xenomorphic inclusions in the crystal aggregates of Os–Ir–Ru minerals found at the Ingul gold placer, Urals, Russia. In addition a mineral with selenolaurite composition was found as a euhedral inclusion within grains of Pt–Fe alloy with isoferroplatinum composition at the Kazan gold placer. These placers are situated in the Chelyabinsk district, South Urals, Russia. The selenolaurite from the Ingul placer forms interstitial grains with maximum size of section of 0.05–0.1 mm. Crystals of the selenolaurite from the Kazan placer reach 20 µm in size. Selenolaurite is grey with metallic lustre and is isotropic. Reflectance values [R (%) for COM approved wavelengths (nm)] are 45.8(470), 44.3(546), 43.8(589) and 43.1(650). The chemical composition of the holotype from the Ingul placer corresponds to the empirical formula (Ru0.99Ir0.05)Σ1.04(Se1.92Te0.03S0.01)Σ1.96. Selenolaurite is the selenium-dominant analogue of laurite, RuS2 with a pyrite-type structure. It is cubic, space group Pa3̅, a = 5.9424(2) Å, V = 209.84 2) Å3, Z = 4 and Dcalc. = 8.415 g·cm–3 (calculated on the basis of empirical formula and unit-cell parameters refined by the Rietveld method). The crystal structure has been refined from the powder data to RB = 0.0067. The strongest lines of the powder X-ray diffraction pattern [d(Å), (I), (hkl)] are: 3.434(41)(111), 2.973(90)(200), 2.6580(100)(210), 2.4264(84)(211) and 1.7913(87)(311). The possible sources of a Ru–Se mineralisation in the South Urals are ophiolitic ultramafic rocks enriched in Ru and depleted with sulfur.