Stocks that are expensive to borrow underperform significantly and for long periods of time. Every share must be held by an investor who does not lend it out and, hence, loses money. I find no evidence that investors hold these stocks in anticipation of lending them in the future. Instead, investors appear to hold these stocks for short-term trading. When turnover is high, high-fee stocks are overpriced and underperform. When turnover is low, high-fee stock prices are low, and they earn positive returns. More Robinhood investors hold shares when turnover is high than when it is low.

The cattle feeding industry is sandwiched between relatively volatile commodity markets, and efficiency is critical. Changing prices for feedstuffs may cause substitution and output effects, in turn impacting technical efficiency. Using Kansas feedlot data, we estimate the effects of feed prices on cattle performance, focusing on the feed conversion ratio, average daily gain, and days on feed. Results show that several feed prices do indeed impact technical efficiency. These results have implications for management adapting to changing feed prices. Further, there are policy implications for programs that may impact commodity prices.

There is a high demand for cultural weed management strategies targeting Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri S. Watson) in furrow-irrigated rice (Oryza sativa L.) production due to overreliance on herbicides and the lack of a continual flood to prevent weed emergence. Amaranthus palmeri has been shown to reduce corn (Zea mays L.), cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] yields when it interferes with the crop. However, minimal research has been conducted to assess the ability of this weed species to impact rice grain yield. The manipulation of rice seeding rate to enhance rice canopy formation and favor the crop over the weed has not been fully explored. Hence, research was conducted to (1) evaluate the effect of rice density on A. palmeri emergence, rice canopy cover, and relative yield; and (2) determine the impact of A. palmeri density and aboveground biomass on rice grain yield. A natural population of A. palmeri was allowed to emerge at varying densities throughout the growing season within furrow-irrigated rice. Amaranthus palmeri plants caused 12% to 87% yield loss at densities ranging from 1 to 20 plants m−2, and yield loss was 45% to 80% for plants weighing 200 to 800 g m−2. When furrow-irrigated rice was sown at various densities, crop canopy cover increased as rice plant density increased. Most A. palmeri emergence occurred within the first 4 wk after rice emergence, before canopy formation could have an effect. Amaranthus palmeri emergence beyond 5 wk after rice emergence decreased as rice plant density and canopy cover increased. These results indicate that A. palmeri has the potential to cause severe yield loss and that residual herbicides will be vital for A. palmeri management in a furrow-irrigated rice system, due to the continual emergence of weeds up to crop canopy formation.

We prove that the satisfaction relation $\mathcal {N}\models \varphi [\vec a]$ of first-order logic is not absolute between models of set theory having the structure $\mathcal {N}$ and the formulas $\varphi $ all in common. Two models of set theory can have the same natural numbers, for example, and the same standard model of arithmetic $\left \langle {\mathbb N},{+},{\cdot },0,1, <\right \rangle $, yet disagree on their theories of arithmetic truth; two models of set theory can have the same natural numbers and the same arithmetic truths, yet disagree on their truths-about-truth, at any desired level of the iterated truth-predicate hierarchy; two models of set theory can have the same natural numbers and the same reals, yet disagree on projective truth; two models of set theory can have the same $\left \langle {H}_{\omega _2},{\in }\right \rangle $ or the same rank-initial segment $\left \langle {V}_\delta ,{\in }\right \rangle $, yet disagree on which assertions are true in these structures.

On the basis of these mathematical results, we argue that a philosophical commitment to the determinateness of the theory of truth for a structure cannot be seen as a consequence solely of the determinateness of the structure in which that truth resides. The determinate nature of arithmetic truth, for example, is not a consequence of the determinate nature of the arithmetic structure ${\mathbb N}=\{\,{0,1,2,\ldots }\,\}$ itself, but rather, we argue, is an additional higher-order commitment requiring its own analysis and justification.

Women’s political representation is a key indicator of peace and stability in postconflict states, but we do not yet fully understand the factors that lead to sustained increases in women’s representation after conflict. This article proposes and tests a new variable affecting changes in women’s legislative representation in postconflict states: types of women’s participation in the peace process. Using multivariate regressions, this study finds that local women’s participation in high-influence roles and in both Track I and II processes significantly increases women’s representation after conflict, while international women in peace processes do not. Women’s movements only increase women’s representation after conflict in combination with local women in peace processes. These findings illustrate one important outcome of local women’s inclusion in peace processes and highlight the importance of inclusive peace processes for postconflict democratic outcomes.

The story of opera in what was once the Austro-Hungarian Empire tends to be particularly convoluted, given the complexity of the region’s history and its political twists and turns. It is perhaps not a stretch to say that nowhere else in Europe had the same level of interest in opera and art music combined with the remarkable mutability of borders, governments and nationalist allegiances across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; indeed, as the three books discussed here show in great detail, opera was a key reason for, and indicator of, the social and political ferment of Habsburg Central Europe. Ranging across a chronological scope that stretches from the eighteenth century into the twenty-first, each book explores operatic life in one of three important regional capitals: Vienna, Prague and Budapest, with occasional departures to other places like Brno/Brünn, Sarajevo and Lviv/Lwów/Lemberg. Each volume focuses on the work of a single canonic composer: Richard Strauss (1864–1949), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91) and Jacques Offenbach (1819–80), though in the final case calling the works discussed Offenbach’s is tenuous at best. Finally, each book uses the lens of reception history, exploring the context for operatic creation and performance, and how the meanings of the various operas examined here – Die Frau ohne Schatten (1917), Don Giovanni (1787), Orphée aux enfers (1858) and others – changed according to the shifts in various political, cultural and social environments over time.

In this article, I argue racialized EU externalization interacts with and reinforces the anti-Black racism within Tunisia’s border regime. I analyze EU–Tunisia relations through the lens of racial capitalism, arguing that Tunisia’s cooperation with external actors, including on migration matters, is connected to maintaining models of capitalist accumulation and punishing dissent. The aim of this contemporary cooperation is not to prevent the mobility of migrants entirely, but to limit, control, and exploit it. Both the EU and Tunisia suspend different racialized migrant groups in a situation of irregularity and precarity to create and maintain exploitable labor, while avoiding the political unpopularity of “regularizing” migrants. We are seeing the violent and deadly consequences of intensified racialized border regimes both within Europe, in the context of a contemporary crisis of neoliberalism, and in post-transition Tunisia, faced with its own overlapping social, political, and economic crises. Thus, by exploring the entanglements of racialized bordering practices that operate across the Mediterranean, I go beyond reductive state-by-state analysis, revealing EU externalization as part of a broader project of racialized bordering essential to global racial capitalism.

It is difficult to disentangle, in EU merger control, between issues of law (subject to full review by the EU courts) and complex economic assessments (controlled for manifest errors). This article discusses, and puts in context, the judgement of the Court of Justice in CK Telecoms. It explains why some of the interpretative choices made by the ECJ open the door to the transformation of the nature and intensity of judicial review in EU merger control. Where the meaning of an interpretation of a legal concept can only be figured out ex post (that is, after performing complex assessments), the control of administrative action may become, de facto, deferential and process-oriented (as opposed to substance-oriented). Leaving constitutional considerations aside, this shift would have the advantage of giving the European Commission the necessary policy space to test new doctrines and act nimbly in a changing economic and technological landscape. On the other hand, it may come at the expense of legal certainty and may not necessarily increase the quality of decision-making.

A longstanding question is to characterize the lattice of supersets (modulo finite sets), $\mathcal {L}^*(A)$, of a low$_2$ computably enumerable (c.e.) set. The conjecture is that $\mathcal {L}^*(A)\cong {\mathcal E}^*$. In spite of claims in the literature, this longstanding question/conjecture remains open. We contribute to this problem by solving one of the main test cases. We show that if c.e. A is low$_2$ then A has an atomless hyperhypersimple superset. In fact, if A is c.e. and low$_2$, then for any $\Sigma _3$-Boolean algebra B there is some c.e. $H\supseteq A$ such that $\mathcal {L}^*(H)\cong B$.

Fisheries industry plays a crucial role in addressing food and nutrition security challenges in developing countries. This study examines the dynamics of price pass-through along the spatial markets in Sri Lanka. Findings reveal that Colombo and Kandy markets are the main driver of price pass-through due to their strategic locations and advanced infrastructure. We further identify that one standard deviation positive price shock in Colombo and Kandy markets has an immediate significant impact on other regional markets. Policies related to improving transportation and cold storage facilities can help to reduce reliance on central markets for nationwide distribution.

Armed conflicts create severe risks to human security, including food insecurity, often in contexts where state-based regulation is compromised. This paper examines how private actors – specifically food retailers in Ukraine – have become crucial de facto regulators in managing this risk during the war. We ask: in a regulatory vacuum, how do social expectations and corporate risk management practices shape the governance of essential goods? Drawing on thirty-six semi-structured interviews with Ukrainian residents and a thematic content analysis of 280 public social media posts and comments (Feb 2022 – Dec 2024), we investigate how social expectations function as a form of social regulation, shaping corporate conduct. We find that stakeholders expect companies not only to mitigate their own operational impacts but also to actively address the negative human rights consequences of the conflict itself. Based on these findings, we propose an empirically grounded model of “heightened human rights due diligence” (hHRDD) as an adaptive risk regulation framework. This model offers critical policy guidance for the implementation of instruments like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), particularly for defining corporate responsibilities in conflict-affected and high-risk areas.

The global energy transition carries significant geopolitical implications. This study examines how Chinese exports of critical electrical goods and geopolitical risk influence national energy transitions, focusing on lithium and rare earth production, pricing and oil markets. Using a Global Vector Autoregressive model across 12 major economies (2012–2019), with emphasis on Australia, China and the United States, the analysis shows that Chinese geopolitical risk affects the consumption of electrical goods, renewable energy deployment and critical mineral production. Empirical findings reveal that reliance on Chinese electrical goods creates strategic dependencies, making other countries vulnerable to shifts in China’s energy strategy. While oil prices are less relevant for most economies’ transitions, they remain central to the United States. The results highlight both the geopolitical risks and cooperative potential embedded in the global shift to clean energy.

Mandatory calorie labelling was introduced in out-of-home (OOH) food sector outlets during 2022 in England. Previous research in North America has found that labelled energy content can be underestimated for packaged and quick-serve foods, but no study has evaluated the accuracy of OOH food sector menu calorie labelling in response to the mandatory policy introduced in England. N 295 menu items from a range of outlet types (e.g. cafes, pubs, restaurants) and menu categories (e.g. starters and sides, main, dessert) were sampled. Bomb calorimetry was used to quantify energy content, and the reported energy content on menus was recorded. Consistency of measured energy was assessed by sampling the same items across outlets of the same business (n 50 menu items). Differences between reported and measured energy content were tested through Wilcoxon signed rank tests, and a linear model examined correlates of the difference. Mean measured kilocalories (kcal) were significantly lower than reported kcal (–16·70 kcal (±149·19), V = 16 920, P < 0·01 and r = 0·182). However, both over- (23 % of menu items) and under-estimation (11 %) by > 20 % of measured energy content were common, and the averaged absolute percentage difference between reported and measured values was 21 % (±29 %). Discrepancy between measured and reported energy content was more common in some outlet types (pubs), and reported energy content was substantially different (> 20 %) to measured energy content for 35 % of sampled menu items. There may be significant inaccuracies in reported energy content of calorie labelled menu items in English food outlets subject to mandatory calorie labelling.

We study the evolution of collisionless plasmas that, due to their macroscopic evolution, are susceptible to the firehose instability, using both analytic theory and hybrid-kinetic particle-in-cell simulations. We establish that, depending on the relative magnitude of the plasma $\beta$, the characteristic time scale of macroscopic evolution and the ion-Larmor frequency, the saturation of the firehose instability in high-$\beta$ plasmas can result in three qualitatively distinct thermodynamic (and electromagnetic) states. By contrast with the previously identified ‘ultra-high-beta’ and ‘Alfvén-inhibiting’ states, the newly identified ‘Alfvén-enabling’ state, which is realised when the macroscopic evolution time $\tau$ exceeds the ion-Larmor frequency by a $\beta$-dependent critical parameter, can support linear Alfvén waves and Alfvénic turbulence because the magnetic tension associated with the plasma’s macroscopic magnetic field is never completely negated by anisotropic pressure forces. We characterise these states in detail, including their saturated magnetic-energy spectra. The effective collision operator associated with the firehose fluctuations is also described; we find it to be well approximated in the Alfvén-enabling state by a simple quasi-linear pitch-angle scattering operator. The box-averaged collision frequency is $\nu _{\textrm {eff}} \sim \beta /\tau$, in agreement with previous results, but certain subpopulations of particles scatter at a much larger (or smaller) rate depending on their velocity in the direction parallel to the magnetic field. Our findings are essential for understanding low-collisionality astrophysical plasmas including the solar wind, the intracluster medium of galaxy clusters and black hole accretion flows. We show that all three of these plasmas are in the Alfvén-enabling regime of firehose saturation and discuss the implications of this result.

Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars that emit radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio to $\gamma$-rays. We use the rapid binary population synthesis suite COMPAS to model the Galactic population of canonical pulsars. We account for both radio and $\gamma$-ray selection effects, as well as the motion of pulsars in the Galactic potential due to natal kicks. We compare our models to the catalogues of pulsars detected in the radio, and those detected in $\gamma$-rays by Fermi, and find broad agreement with both populations. We reproduce the observed ratio of radio-loud to radio-quiet $\gamma$-ray pulsars. We further examine the possibility of low spin-down luminosity ($\dot{E}$) pulsars emitting weak, unpulsed $\gamma$-ray emission and attempt to match this with results from a recent $\gamma$-ray stacking survey of these pulsars. We confirm the correlation between the latitude of a pulsar and its $\dot{E}$ arises due to natal kicks imparted to pulsars at birth, assuming that all pulsars are born in the Galactic disk.

Large-aperture gratings are core components for pulse compression in kilojoule petawatt laser systems. The wavefront or amplitude error originating from fabrication and assembly of these gratings can be transformed into near-field modulation during propagation of the laser pulse. In severe cases, near-field modulation would induce laser damage on gratings and downstream optics. In this study, a three-dimensional near-field propagation model is developed based on ray tracing and diffraction propagation theory, allowing one to quantify the effect of each grating in the compressor independently. We investigate near-field propagation properties of the mosaic grating-based compressor in detail; the impacts of periodic wavefront error and mosaic gap error of the mosaic grating on near-field modulation are analyzed and evaluated, with two measured wavefronts introduced for further analysis. This work offers theoretical insights for estimating the fabrication requirement of gratings and reducing the risk of laser damage.