We give an interpretation of the semi-infinite intersection cohomology sheaf associated with a semisimple simply connected algebraic group in terms of finite-dimensional geometry. Specifically, we describe a procedure for building factorization spaces over moduli spaces of finite subsets of a curve from factorization spaces over moduli spaces of divisors, and show that, under this procedure, the compactified Zastava space is sent to the support of the semi-infinite intersection cohomology (IC) sheaf in the factorizable Grassmannian. We define ‘semi-infinite t-structures’ for a large class of schemes with an action of the multiplicative group, and show that, for the Zastava, the limit of these t-structures recovers the infinite-dimensional version. As an application, we also construct factorizable parabolic semi-infinite IC sheaves and a generalization (of the principal case) to Kac–Moody algebras.

We present microsecond-resolution, coherently dedispersed, polarimetric measurements of 35 fast radio bursts (FRBs) detected during the Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients (CRAFT) incoherent sum (ICS) survey with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). We find a wide diversity of time–frequency morphology and polarisation properties broadly consistent with those of currently known non-repeating FRBs. The high S/N and fine time-resolution of our data however reveals a wealth of new information. Key results include (i) the distribution of scattering timescales, ${{{\unicode{x03C4}}_\textrm{obs}}}$, is limited purely by instrumental effects, with no downturn at high ${{{\unicode{x03C4}}_\textrm{obs}}}$ as expected from a log-normal distribution; (ii) for the 29 FRBs with known redshift, there is no detectable correlation between ${{{\unicode{x03C4}}_\textrm{obs}}}$ and dispersion measure (DM) fluctuations about the Macquart relation, in contrast to expectations from pulsar scattering–DM relations; (iii) all FRBs probably have multiple components, and at least a large fraction have variable PA, the identification of which is limited by scattering; (iv) at least half of all FRBs exhibit PA microstructure at 200 $\mu{}$s–200 ns timescales, with behaviour most closely resembling a sub-category of Crab main pulses; (v) that there is a break in the FRB circular polarisation distribution at Stokes $V \gtrsim 20$%, which is suggestive of a discrete sub-population.

A growing number of oncology treatments, such as bevacizumab, are used across multiple indications. However, in health technology assessment (HTA), their clinical and cost-effectiveness are typically appraised within a single target indication. This approach excludes a broader evidence base across other indications. To address this, we explored multi-indication meta-analysis methods that share evidence across indications.

We conducted a simulation study to evaluate alternative multi-indication synthesis models. This included univariate (mixture and non-mixture) methods synthesizing overall survival (OS) data and bivariate surrogacy models jointly modeling treatment effects on progression-free survival (PFS) and OS, pooling surrogacy parameters across indications. Simulated datasets were generated using a multistate disease progression model under various scenarios, including different levels of heterogeneity within and between indications, outlier indications, and varying data on OS for the target indication. We evaluated the performance of the synthesis models applied to the simulated datasets in terms of their ability to predict OS in a target indication.

The results showed univariate multi-indication methods could reduce uncertainty without increasing bias, particularly when OS data were available in the target indication. Compared with univariate methods, mixture models did not significantly improve performance and are not recommended for HTA. In scenarios where OS data in the target indication is absent and there are also outlier indications, bivariate surrogacy models showed promise in correcting bias relative to univariate models, though further research under realistic conditions is needed.

Multi-indication methods are more complex than traditional approaches but can potentially reduce uncertainty in HTA decisions.

Jury selection in the US involves voir dire, an examination process wherein prospective jurors are questioned about their potential for fairness or bias. Such inquiries are hampered by social desirability pressures inhibiting admissions of bias. Analogous pressures hamper survey interviews, but since voir dire examinations are unscripted their study can reveal how desirability pressures are addressed through naturally occurring variations in question design. This article combines sequential and distributional analyses of >100 transcribed question-answer sequences targeting juror fairness/bias, and documents various tendencies and preferences in question design. Court officials focus on bias rather than fairness by default, and the predominant bias-targeting questions are mitigated through: (i) indirect references to bias, (ii) diffusion of responsibility for bias, and (iii) projecting bias as minimal or unlikely. The findings shed light on the social dynamics of jury selection and, more broadly, how question design practices are adapted for inquiry into sensitive subjects. (Questions, law, voir dire, juries, social desirability bias, conversation analysis)

Tao (2018) showed that in order to prove the Lonely Runner Conjecture (LRC) up to $n+1$ runners it suffices to consider positive integer velocities in the order of $n^{O(n^2)}$. Using the zonotopal reinterpretation of the conjecture due to the first and third authors (2017) we here drastically improve this result, showing that velocities up to $\binom {n+1}{2}^{n-1} \le n^{2n}$ are enough.

We prove the same finite-checking result, with the same bound, for the more general shifted Lonely Runner Conjecture (sLRC), except in this case our result depends on the solution of a question, that we dub the Lonely Vector Problem (LVP), about sumsets of n rational vectors in dimension two. We also prove the same finite-checking bound for a further generalization of sLRC that concerns cosimple zonotopes with n generators, a class of lattice zonotopes that we introduce.

In the last sections we look at dimensions two and three. In dimension two we prove our generalized version of sLRC (hence we reprove the sLRC for four runners), and in dimension three we show that to prove sLRC for five runners it suffices to look at velocities adding up to $195$.

To live meaningfully, we can’t just be receptacles for the right sorts of activities – it has to matter that it’s us living our lives. Something is missing in valuable activities, if the same value could be achieved by anyone who performs the task. Meaningfulness requires that it be our own ideals, personalities, and priorities contributing to the value of what we do. Recognizing this can shed light on our relationship with meaning in three ways. First, it shows a distinctive reason that autonomy is important: what we do without autonomy will lack meaning. Second, it helps us understand a challenge we encounter when facing trade-offs between different types of meaning, navigating between opportunities to have a few of our characteristics matter widely (e.g., as a filmmaker or an activist) and intimate contexts in which much more of who we are matters to a small group of people. Finally, if living meaningfully involves our central characteristics shaping what’s valuable about our actions, then discovering pre-set purposes (e.g., from fate, God, or the cosmos) might actually undermine our capacity to live meaningful lives.

Cadastral data reveal key information about the historical organization of cities but are often non-standardized due to diverse formats and human annotations, complicating large-scale analysis. We explore as a case study Venice’s urban history during the critical period from 1740 to 1808, capturing the transition following the fall of the ancient Republic and the Ancien Régime. This era’s complex cadastral data, marked by its volume and lack of uniform structure, presents unique challenges that our approach adeptly navigates, enabling us to generate spatial queries that bridge past and present urban landscapes. We present a text-to-programs framework that leverages large language models to process natural language queries as executable code for analyzing historical cadastral records. Our methodology implements two complementary techniques: a SQL agent for handling structured queries about specific cadastral information, and a coding agent for complex analytical operations requiring custom data manipulation. We propose a taxonomy that classifies historical research questions based on their complexity and analytical requirements, mapping them to the most appropriate technical approach. This framework is supported by an investigation into the execution consistency of the system, alongside a qualitative analysis of the answers it produces. By ensuring interpretability and minimizing hallucination through verifiable program outputs, we demonstrate the system’s effectiveness in reconstructing past population information, property features and spatiotemporal comparisons in Venice.

Suicide remains a global public health crisis, claiming over 800,000 lives each year and leaving millions more to struggle with attempts, ideation, or the ripple effect of loss. Traditional prevention strategies often focus on crisis intervention and identifying “warning signs,” but these approaches overlook the many who suffer in silence. Drawing on personal experience of suicide loss and a decade-long journey toward suicide literacy, the author argues for a reframing of suicide prevention. She challenges stigma-driven assumptions, underscores the power of honest storytelling, and introduces the concept of “preemptive, protective conversations” as a vital upstream prevention tool. By empowering ordinary people to become suicide prevention advocates equipped with knowledge, compassion, and a willingness to talk openly, we can build stronger connections, dismantle stigma, and create a broader societal safety net. Suicide is preventable, and each of us has a role to play in saving lives.

Climate anxiety is a profound psychological, and even spiritual, problem of our times. The predicted and unpredictable consequences of climate change can cast a shadow of fear and doubt over our sense of the imminent and far future. The best cure to climate anxiety is the development of courage. Courage means upholding something noble in the face of one’s fears. In this article I explore what it means to be courageous in the face of the climate crisis.

This article critiques certain factions of the Iranian diaspora opposition for embracing retrotopia–a romanticized, imagined past that reflects present despair and future anxiety. Instead of supporting Iran’s civil society, some rely on foreign powers, promote archaic nationalism and monarchist nostalgia, or advance ethnic exceptionalism, thereby distorting the emancipatory ideals of the Zan, Zendegi, Azadi (WLF) movement. Their rhetoric often glorifies war, employs exclusionary and patriarchal discourses, and undermines pluralism, gender equality, and indigenous democratic change. These factions are identifiable as an “opposition against the movement,” obstructing rather than advancing emancipatory change. The Israeli-American war on Iran (June 2025) further exposed their alignment with external aggression, as well as their strategic confusion, ethical bankruptcy, and detachment from Iran’s grassroots post–Islamist vision of pluralism, inclusivity, and peaceful coexistence.

This article surveys the life and work of Benjamin Clough (1791–1853), Wesleyan Methodist missionary to Ceylon, focusing on his contributions to the study of Pali and Buddhism. It attempts to show that he inaugurated the Western study of Pali and that he should be recognised as one of the most important early scholars of Buddhism.

This article analyzes the diasporic dimensions of the 2022 Jina Revolutionary Momentum and its transnational resonance in Berlin, where more than 80,000 protestors gathered in solidarity with events in Iran. It argues that the momentum is best understood not as a continuation of previous movements but as a revolutionary rupture that generates new horizons of possibility through the politics of care, contrasting fear as the regime’s dominant affective frame. Drawing on affect theory, the article explores how the revolutionary imaginary transformed both the Iranian diaspora and indirectly Berlin itself into sites of revolutionary performance. By situating the Iranian diasporic activism in the city’s longer history as a node for exiled revolutionary activity, the analysis highlights how diasporic activism influenced the national imaginary, fostered transnational solidarities, and reshaped the meaning of Kharej (abroad) from one of exclusion to one of affection within a broader revolutionary geography.

The Lower Palaeozoic successions of the Southern Uplands of Scotland are well known for graptolitic shales such as those of Dob’s Linn and Hartfell Score. Less well known are the Ordovician shelly fossils, predominately preserved in mudstones and conglomerates of the Sandbian Kirkcolm Formation at Kilbucho and Wallace’s Cast. Rare carbonate facies from the Wrae Limestone within the Tweeddale Member, Shinnel Formation preserve limestone olistoliths containing probable shelly faunas and conodonts from an otherwise unknown source. Trilobites, brachiopods and conodonts from the Southern Uplands have been the subject of some recent research, but other shelly faunas have received less attention. These include the mollusc faunas, consisting mainly of bivalves and gastropods. A review of the mollusc fauna supports faunal evidence from brachiopods that the Kirkcolm Formation was close to Pomeroy, Tyrone and sampled deeper water environments than was originally thought.