In this paper, we prove the following result advocating the importance of monomial quadratic relations between holomorphic CM periods. For any simple CM abelian variety A, we can construct a CM abelian variety B such that all non-trivial Hodge relations between the holomorphic periods of the product $A\times B$ are generated by monomial quadratic ones which are also explicit. Moreover, B splits over the Galois closure of the CM field associated with A.

This article presents the first examination and analysis of a fabric fragment with hunting motif discovered in the Uighur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang in present-day northwest China, which has been carbon 14 dated to the Tang dynasty. This study assesses the value of this fragment by considering its artistic features and cultural significance. The fabric patterns are partially incomplete, a hexagonal structure is discernible, and it contains motifs of Central Asian figures hunting on horseback. The iconographic method was used to analyze the pattern, color, and composition of the fabric. It was concluded that the cultural background and aesthetic qualities of the fabric reflect the fusion of Persian, Islamic, and Chinese Tang dynasty cultures, reflecting the profound cultural exchanges between Iran and China. This research exemplifies the mutual cultural exchange between two civilizations, Iran and China, highlighting Iran’s important contribution to the world.

In contemporary Thai politics, the rhetoric of “superwoman” (ผู้หญิงเก่ง) has gained prominence. This paper theorises the intersection of gender, politics, and neoliberalism within the Thai context. While neoliberalism reinforces precarity, it also fosters flexibility, empowerment, and autonomy for some. To understand the origins of the “superwoman” rhetoric, I employ a qualitative method that involves interviewing Thai women MPs who are in the Committee that oversees activities including children, young adults, women, elderly, persons with disabilities, ethnic groups, and gender diverse individuals (คณะกรรมาธิการกิจการเด็ก เยาวชน สตรี ผู้สูงอายุ ผู้พิการ กลุ่มชาติพันธุ์ และผู้ที่มีความหลากหลายทางเพศ). It emerges that some women politicians embody neoliberal selves (Chen 2013), where the central neoliberal principle involves treating homo economicus as the model of personhood. Their bodily dispositions align with the pursuit of individual choices, led by entrepreneurial activity in a capitalist commodifying culture. I examine the interplay between neoliberalism and Thai women politicians as immanent neoliberal subjects who epitomise hegemonic femininity (Baer 2016; Chen 2013) while simultaneously working toward political changes. While literature on neoliberalism and gender focuses on how women distance themselves from the politics of the collective and unchanged structural inequalities, Thai women politicians embody and manoeuvre normative femininity (where opulence symbolises their agency) while also working toward mobilising political change.

José Medina famously argues that privileged groups are prone to epistemic vices, while belonging to an oppressed group often is accompanied by epistemic virtue. In this paper, I will nuance this picture by arguing that members of marginalized groups are also disposed to develop many of the same epistemic vices as everybody else, and also that there are specific, character-forming features of oppression that may dispose one to a specific kind of epistemic vice I call “epistemic hopelessness.” In light of this, I show that Medina’s argument about the distribution of epistemic vice and virtue based on oppression and marginalization only holds if we describe the epistemic virtues that members of marginalized groups are disposed to as reliably made available through collective group efforts. Thus, this paper nuances our understanding of the epistemic obstacles that prevent us from accessing knowledge of oppression, even for those with direct experience of oppression, without being epistemically defeatist about our capacity to access knowledge about injustices.

This essay examines Aquinas’s views on necessity in the created world. Although Aquinas holds that all created being is contingent upon God’s free act of creation, he nevertheless maintains that there are aspects of the created world that cannot be otherwise. This raises difficult questions about how such necessities arise in a contingent world and how they relate to God’s power. Aquinas’s analysis is complicated by his view that “necessity” is said in many ways. In various contexts, he distinguishes between absolute, natural, material, conditional, intrinsic, and extrinsic necessity. The essay offers a roadmap through these diverse kinds of created necessity, clarifying their sources and interrelations. It also considers the diverse ways Aquinas deploys the term “absolute necessity” in different contexts and explores how created necessities relate to God’s power.

Fossils can reveal large differences between the geographic range that a species could potentially inhabit and the more restricted realized distribution where individuals presently occur. Extant great penguins (Aptenodytes Miller, 1778) include emperor and king penguins, which have polar and subpolar ranges, respectively. New evidence now reveals that the fundamental niche for great penguins includes much warmer environments. Here, we report the first skull of an extinct great penguin that lived in Zealandia during the mid-Piacenzian Warm Period (mPWP) when global temperatures were ~3°C above those of the preindustrial era. Because estimated sea-surface temperatures in Zealandia during the mPWP were 10–20°C warmer than those experienced by living emperor and king penguins, we hypothesize that the exclusion of great penguins from lower latitudes today reflects constraints more complex than climate pressures alone. Terrestrial predation might be an overlooked factor because Aptenodytes appears to have gone extinct in Zealandia coincident with the arrival of large raptors like Haast’s eagle, Hieraaetus moorei (Haast, 1872), and Forbes’ harrier, Circus teauteensis Forbes, 1892.

The conventional literature suggests that the Chinese party-state has further strengthened social control and reinforced stability maintenance through expanded grassroots delegation. However, drawing on fieldwork interviews, government reports and media coverage, this article demonstrates that initiatives aimed at delegating power may actually weaken the government’s substantive responsiveness, thereby hindering the everyday management of disputes. The inherent tension of decentralization within a centralized political system leads to an uneven distribution of incentives and resources among agents at various levels. While more logistical powers (such as surveillance and mundane daily services) are allocated to grassroots governments, most decision-making and coercive powers (law enforcement and court rulings) remain in the hands of district-level functional departments. Grassroots officials are increasingly required to take broad responsibility for resolving citizen complaints, yet they face significant obstacles in mobilizing the relevant functional departments to address these issues. The reduced efficiency of problem-solving at the grassroots level not only increases the burden on grassroots bureaucrats to appease aggrieved citizens but also diminishes the effectiveness of initial efforts to contain routine grievances and prevent their escalation. This poses greater challenges for higher-level governments in balancing control and inclusivity, as well as in maintaining the legitimacy of state-sanctioned participatory institutions and the regime.

This review examines the relationship between diet and functional dyspepsia (FD), a prevalent disorder of gut–brain interaction affecting 8% of the global population and characterised by postprandial fullness, early satiety and epigastric pain or burning. Despite 40–70% of FD patients reporting symptom onset within minutes of eating, standardised dietary recommendations remain limited. The pathophysiological mechanisms underlying food-related symptoms in FD involve complex interactions between altered gastric accommodation and emptying, visceral hypersensitivity, duodenal immune activation and small intestinal microbial dysbiosis. Current evidence most strongly supports dietary lipids as potent triggers of dyspeptic symptoms, likely mediated through cholecystokinin pathways and heightened visceral sensitivity. Additionally, emerging research indicates potential benefits of fermentable carbohydrate restriction, with the low FODMAP (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols) diet showing promise particularly for patients with postprandial distress syndrome. Other dietary factors such as alcohol, coffee, food chemicals, bioactive compounds and meal patterns may also influence FD symptoms though current evidence remains insufficient to inform clinical practice. While existing evidence provides a foundation for understanding diet–symptom relationships in FD, significant gaps remain in translating mechanistic insights into personalised dietary recommendations. Future research should focus on developing evidence-based dietary strategies tailored to FD subtypes, ensuring nutritional adequacy while addressing the complex interplay between nutrient sensing, duodenal immune activation and gut microbiota in symptom generation.

This study aimed to identify the best automatic milking system (AMS) parameters and monitoring data for early detection of clinical mastitis in dairy cows and to determine the earliest possible detection within 30 days with the highest predictive accuracy. From August 2021 to February 2022, 55 Holstein cows were monitored for mastitis using physical examination, positive California mastitis test (CMT) and the AMS manufacturer’s software (Delpro®) criteria: milk electrical conductivity ≥ 5.37 mS/cm, milk yield ≤ 80%, somatic cell count (SCC) > 200,000 cells/mL and Mastitis Detection Index (MDi) ≥ 2.0. For every cow suspected of mastitis, two other lactating cows were randomly chosen for evaluation to provide a comparison with healthy herd companions. In total, 129 inspections were evaluated: 39 with clinical mastitis and 90 without. Data on milking, milk composition and production from the AMS, and behavioural data from monitoring collars were summarized for the 30 days leading up to the mastitis diagnosis. Thirty measurement parameters were analysed using generalized linear models. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were calculated. In the final model, significant parameters included: milk production per day (kg), SCC (cells/mL), average flow mean (kg/min), average conductivity (mS/cm), average flow peak (kg/min), average production per milking (kg), milking duration (s), rumination (min/day), panting (min/day) and feeding activity (min/day). From −30 to −10 days, accuracy, sensitivity and specificity varied without a defined pattern. However, from day −9, there was stabilization of the evaluated parameters. Results showed an average accuracy of 79.2%, a sensitivity of 82.5%, a specificity of 78.7%, a positive predictive value of 41.5% and a negative predictive value of 92.2% in predicting mastitis occurrence. In conclusion, using AMS parameters and behavioural data from monitoring collars, it was possible to predict clinical mastitis in dairy cows in an AMS with a 9-day advance notice.

The purpose of this study was to confirm reduced training metrics previously associated with a ketogenic low-carbohydrate (CHO) high-fat diet (LCHF) and investigate their attenuation with caffeine supplementation. At baseline, n 21 elite race-walkers followed a high CHO availability (HCHO) diet and performed a tempo hill session (14 km with a 450 m elevation gain). Athletes were then assigned to either the HCHO or LCHF in a parallel groups design for 3 weeks, where the 14 km tempo hill session was repeated each week. On weeks 2 and 3, in a randomised crossover allocation, all participants received 3 mg/kg caffeine or placebo (gum), 20 min before the session. Race-walking speed, heart rate, ratings of perceived exertion, blood metabolites and Stroop word-colour test metrics were collected. Although LCHF athletes walked faster at baseline compared with HCHO (P = 0·049), the HCHO group improved by week 2 (P = 0·009) and week 3 (P = 0·007), whereas the LCHF group was significantly slower in Week 1 (P < 0·001) and Week 2 (P = 0·026) compared with baseline. During the 14 km hill session, within-group analysis shows that athletes walked significantly faster (P = 0·010) and at a higher percentage of vVO2max (P = 0·007) when using caffeine compared with a placebo. Between-group differences remained present, with HCHO athletes walking at a higher percentage of vVO2max than those adhering to the LCHF diet (P = 0·035). No interaction between supplement treatment and dietary group occurred (P = 0·640). Caffeine supplementation partially reversed the performance impairment associated with an LCHF diet, but training quality remained lower than the combination of caffeine and high CHO availability.