If you were a candidate in an election, would you prefer more support from voters or less? Put another way: would you prefer that your campaign staff persuade more voters to vote for you, or fewer? These questions seem silly, because of course you would want more support from voters. Surprisingly, when using certain voting methods it is actually possible for more voter support to produce a worse result for a candidate; such an outcome is a type of monotonicity paradox. In [1], we searched for various types of monotonicity paradoxes in 1079 single-transferable vote (STV) elections from a database of Scottish local government elections. The purpose of this article is to present in detail two of the most interesting elections revealed by our search. These two elections are arguably the most paradox-riddled real-world political ranked choice elections ever documented, perhaps rivalled only by four single-winner examples from the United States: the 2009 mayoral election in Burlington, Vermont ([2, 3]); a 2021 city council race in Minneapolis, Minnesota [4]; the 2022 Special Election for US House in Alaska [5]; and the 2022 District 4 School Director election in Oakland, California [6]. The first election we present is the 2017 council election in the Buckie Ward of the Moray Council Area, which demonstrated the most extreme instance of a committee size monotonicity paradox ever observed in an actual election. The second election is the 2012 council election in the Steòrnabhagh a Tuath Ward of the Nah-Eileanan Siar Council Area, which demonstrated upward and downward monotonicity paradoxes, as well as a no-show paradox. To contextualise these elections, as part of our discussion we indicate how often these kinds of paradoxes occur in Scottish local government elections.

Laween is among several Palestinian theatre cooperatives established over the last decade, which have not received sufficient attention from theatre scholars. Born out of the struggle of living under Israeli apartheid, the repression of the Palestinian Authority, and alienation from NGO theatres, whose work has been depoliticized by reliance on foreign funding, the emergence of these theatre cooperatives represents a significant change in the Palestinian cultural landscape. Working with a renewed cultural and political consciousness, Laween seeks to reflect collectively on, and resist the various forms of oppression experienced by, the Palestinian community. The ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, together with Israeli military and settler violence in the West Bank, make it more pertinent than ever to rethink what ‘cultural resistance’ means in the Palestinian context and to give attention to the community initiatives grappling with the brutal realities of ethnic cleansing through art. The interview here with two of the founding members of Laween, Mousa Nazzal and Hamza Al-Bakri, discusses the development, challenges, and envisaged future of this Palestinian theatre cooperative.

Meeting the buffer requirements of concentrate-fed dairy cows is a challenging task. We evaluated the effect of supplementing different feed additives to diets containing K2CO3 on feed intake, nutrient digestion and milk production of dairy cows. Eight peak lactation high yielding Holstein cows were used in a replicated 4 × 4 Latin square design with 4 periods of 21 d (14 d for diet adaptation and 7 d for sampling and data collection). Treatments comprised control (a diet containing a rumen buffer with the active component of K2CO3 at 6% of dietary dry matter (DDM) and containing 10% K); yeast, the control diet supplemented with live Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast (0.06% of DDM); essential oils (EO), the control diet supplemented with essential oils (0.02% of DDM) and; peptides, the control diet supplemented with biogenic peptides (0.16% of DDM). Feed intake was greater (P < 0.001) in the yeast treatment (33.2 kg/d) compared to the others (30.9 to 32.1 kg/d). Dry matter and starch digestibilities were similar across the treatments. Cows that were supplemented with EO had a greater energy-corrected milk yield than control, and those supplemented with yeast and peptides were intermediate. Milk protein production was greater (P < 0.01) in EO and peptide treatments than in the control, with yeast treatment intermediate. In high-concentrate diets containing K2CO3, supplementing with yeast increased feed intake while supplementing wth essential oils increased energy-corrected milk yield, with small effects on milk protein yield.

This article reflects on aspects of the ecclesiastical landscape in southern Byzacena and western Tripolitania. The aim is to highlight the conditions of creation and the process of evolution of the ecclesiastical landscape in a territory with a particular geographical identity. In this context, the approach is based on three clearly defined conditions: first, the factors favourable to the appearance and then the development of Christianity in this space; secondly that its main episcopal seats were divided into three essential sets –the bishoprics of the ecclesiastical district called by late sources Arzugitana,the seats of the Gafsa region, and those of the coastal plains of Aradh and Jfara; finally, the particularities of the ecclesiastical landscape with its imprecise boundaries between ecclesiastical and administrative subdivisions and the low representation of Tripolitania in African councils and religious tolerance.

Après un endormissement remontant à la période prépandémique, la pratique conventionnelle du Canada en matière d’investissement connaît un regain de vigueur en 2023. L’adoption de codes de conduite pour les arbitres et les juges constitue le premier résultat tangible des discussions en cours au Groupe de travail III de la Commission des Nations Unies pour le droit commercial international (CNUDCI) sur la réforme du règlement des différends entre investisseurs et États (RDIE).1 Le redémarrage du programme de conclusion d’accords sur la promotion et la protection des investissements étrangers (APIE) permet de mettre en application pour la première fois l’APIE-type du Canada de 2021.2 Sur le plan du contentieux d’investissement, le 30 juin 2023 marque la fin du régime transitoire de RDIE de l’Accord entre le Canada, les États-Unis et le Mexique (ACÉUM).3 Bien que le Canada et les États-Unis ne font pas l’objet d’une avalanche de réclamations avec la fin du RDIE dans leurs rapports réciproques, une controverse importante subsiste dans plusieurs affaires pendantes quant à la portée de ce régime transitoire. Par ailleurs, le contentieux impliquant les investisseurs canadiens à l’étranger montre un nouveau visage en 2023 avec les deux premières réclamations de la part de sociétés d’État. Les codes de conduite de la CNUDCI font l’objet d’une analyse détaillée dans la chronique cette année. Un tour d’horizon des principaux autres faits marquants de 2023 est d’abord effectué en ce qui concerne la pratique conventionnelle et la pratique contentieuse du Canada.

We investigated the effect of adding 3 levels of sodium bicarbonate (SB: 0, 0.74 and 1.47% of total mixed ration (TMR) dry matter) to a low-roughage TMR (20.8% wheat silage, 9% wheat hay and 2.3% clover hay) on feed intake, production (milk and milk-component yields), whole-tract apparent digestibility, rumen pH and rumination time. After 2 wk of receiving the same TMR, 42 mid-lactation multiparous cows were blocked into groups of 3 according to their dry matter intake and energy-corrected milk (ECM) yield and divided into 3 treatment groups. The experimental rations were fed for 7 wk while monitoring intake, production and rumination. Rumen pH was measured after 6 h without access to feed and 6 h after feeding (at 0600 and 1500 h) every other week, and feces samples were taken for whole-tract apparent digestibility at wk 7. Dietary SB level did not affect intake, ECM yield, digestibility or efficiency. Dietary SB concentration negatively correlated with daily rumination time but did not affect rumen pH measured before or after feeding. Lactating cows may, therefore, increase their rumination time to compensate for lack of buffer but overall, removing SB from a wheat-based, low roughage TMR does not impair intake or milk or milk-component yields.