Shareholders are not allowed to bring actions for damages due to a fall in share value or loss of dividend, which are “reflective” of their company’s loss. Later, this principle also found its application to “reflective” losses of employees and creditors. The Supreme Court, however, in Marex Financial v Sevilleja, unanimously held that the principle would apply only to shareholders and not to creditors. The article argues that, while the majority opinion in the Marex decision is reasonably balanced, the minority opinion went a step further by even doubting the very existence of the no reflective loss principle without properly appreciating what shareholding entails. If the minority’s position becomes the law, it will jeopardise companies’ existence as separate legal entities with the capacity to decide with respect to their assets. Further, if the protection of the principle is removed, companies’ counterparties will have to worry constantly about facing numerous direct shareholders’ actions, whether they settle the dispute with the company or not. As a result, if the minority view becomes the law, it can potentially make the company a less dependable commercial partner.

Nonfat set yogurts are very popular in Japan because of their health properties, but have the disadvantage of being hard and having large curd particles compared to fat-containing yogurts. We investigated the effect of lactose hydrolysis on nonfat set yogurt to determine whether this technique can improve the sensory evaluation and the texture of a nonfat set yogurt. We prepared nonfat yogurt mixes with 0, 50, 75, and 100% lactose hydrolysis and fermented them. The sensory properties, physical properties, fermentation characteristics, extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) concentration and lactic acid bacteria count were then assessed. The results demonstrated that the lactose hydrolysis rate had no effect on the fermentation time. The 75% lactose hydrolysis increased the EPS concentration and inhibited post-acidification. The 100% lactose hydrolysis increased the number of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus (L. bulgaricus) and further increased the EPS concentration, and despite the increase in the number of L. bulgaricus, the 100% lactose hydrolysis suppressed post-acidification. The results of a sensory evaluation showed that the 100% lactose hydrolysis increased the yogurt's viscosity and overall acceptability and suppressed its acidity. The physical-properties evaluation revealed that when the lactose hydrolysis rate was ≥75%, the curd hardness decreased, and the curd particles became smaller. We inferred that these sensory and physical changes originated from an increase in the EPS concentration, and we thus speculate that a 100% lactose hydrolysis rate before fermentation would be a useful means of solving the hardness and large curd particles of nonfat set yogurt.

While multiple threats to the language, culture, and existence of the 700 members of the Village of Tewa loom (Kroskrity 1993, 2021), this diasporic Pueblo society deploys sociolinguistic resources to generate hope ‘as a moral call’ (Mattingly 2010). Their heritage language is rhematized (Gal & Irvine 2019) to their community identity but now that emblem, and their very existence, has been challenged by the encroachment of English and other crises (including climate change and the pandemic). For Tewa, repairing the situation requires a hopeful ‘reorientation of knowledge and action’ (Miyazaki 2004; Borba 2019) that recontextualizes traditional linguistic practices and language ideologies (Kroskrity 1998). Tewa linguistic and discursive expressions of ‘hope’ are more agentive and directed than their English language counterparts. These practices are examined as forms of what Tuck (2009:417) called generative hope ‘about a present that is enriched by the past and the future’. (Pragmatics, language ideologies, hope)*

This article discusses how the acclaimed twentieth-century author Rosemary Sutcliff drew upon the archaeological record to advance the didactic aspects of her narratives. Sutcliff was aware that she had a platform to instil certain values in her young readership, and these values were repeatedly exhibited by her protagonists, particularly bravery and fortitude in the face of adversity. In many cases, certain objects are passed down through the generations as a symbol of these values. Usually, these items were drawn either directly from the archaeological record or display close parallels with real-world objects. Subsequently, for the readers of Sutcliff's narratives, the real-world version of the artefact, or a similar item, become encoded with these values and serve to inspire them to emulate her heroes.

Regarding the article, ‘Efficacy and safety of a 4-week course of repeated subcutaneous ketamine injections for treatment-resistant depression (KADS study): randomised double-blind active-controlled trial’, we commend Loo et al1 for undertaking the Ketamine for Adult Depression Study (KADS). In the interest of ensuring that accurate and balanced information is presented to healthcare professionals on treatment-resistant depression, we raise several points herein to help clarify and provide additional perspective to the researchers’ interpretation of their findings in the Discussion.

New research in the microregion of Musti (El Krib) in N Tunisia in 2019–2023 has revealed unpublished 2nd–3rd-century AD funerary monuments featuring rich iconography, including a female figure beside the altar and two pigs. These items and other published epigraphic and anepigraphic monuments from the fertile microregion stand out from other tombstones in Roman Africa. Both the type of monument and its relief decoration distinguish these objects. A rare holistic approach, combining historical, epigraphic and iconographic analyses with the results of archaeobotanical and archaeozoological research, will enhance our understanding of the history and agriculture of the Musti microregion and this part of Proconsular Africa during the early Roman Empire.

The rational use of lactobacilli and lysozyme (LZ) could be a simple strategy for boosting key enzyme activities during cheese ripening. This study investigated the effect of the application of LZ on the cell envelopes and metabolic potential of two strains of mesophilic lactobacilli: Lactiplantibacillus plantarum 29 (L29) and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus 77 (L77). An in vitro study of LZ-sensitivity was carried out on the two strains. In L29 (only), the results of turbidity, culturability and physiological profile as well as fluorescence microscopy images and scanning electron micrographs confirmed a high-level of sensitivity to LZ. Therefore, L29 alone or in combination with LZ as well as a cell-free extract of L29 were used as ripening agents in the manufacture of a mature cheese. The release of peptidases in the cheese matrix by the lysis of L29 in situ was validated and associated with positive effects on the cheese quality, especially the increase of hydrophilic peptide levels.

This article investigates the discursive dimensions of the Zika epidemic in Brazil. It focuses on the ways the sanitary crisis is talked about by mothers of babies born with microcephaly—a Zika-related syndrome. We examine the situated ways these mothers refuse the biomedical and bureaucratic scripts that are handed down to them by engaging with their new realities and fostering hope against the grain of bleak prognosis. To do so, we scrutinize a corpus that comprises media reports covering the health emergency and ethnographic interviews. Resorting to strategies such as inverse stories, timespace anchorage, and scalar reversals, mothers of Zika inventively plot against painful scripts while reimagining their kids’ future (as well as theirs) in the present. They hope pragmatist hope without teleology. This chronotopic movement sheds light on how somber plots can be twisted through (re)scaling projects, thus forging hopeful actions. (Hope, narratives, scale, plot, epidemics, agency)

This study explores the experience of concert piano technicians who work on pianos played by the top tier of concert pianists in the world. They identify as craftspeople with a strong sense of vocation, who are autonomous, skilled, yet connected. They consider their pianos to be alive, with their own personalities and agency, needing to be tamed, loved, and negotiated with. The connection between their human fingers and the body of the piano is experienced as one of sensation and vibration rather than conscious thought, leading to ‘flow’. Findings are contextualized through qualitative psychology, Actor Network, and Material Engagement Theory.