Explanations, and in particular explanations which provide the reasons why their conclusion is true, are a central object in a range of fields. On the one hand, there is a long and illustrious philosophical tradition, which starts from Aristotle, and passes through scholars such as Leibniz, Bolzano and Frege, that give pride of place to this type of explanation, and is rich with brilliant and profound intuitions. Recently, Poggiolesi [25] has formalized ideas coming from this tradition using logical tools of proof theory. On the other hand, recent work has focused on Boolean circuits that compile some common machine learning classifiers and have the same input-output behavior. In this framework, Darwiche and Hirth [7] have proposed a theory for unveiling the reasons behind the decisions made by Boolean classifiers, and they have studied their theoretical implications. In this paper, we uncover the deep links behind these two trends, demonstrating that the proof-theoretic tools introduced by Poggiolesi provide reasons for decisions, in the sense of Darwiche and Hirth [7]. We discuss the conceptual as well as the technical significance of this result.

The transformation of the Birnirk culture into the Thule culture is essential in reconstructing the emergence of modern Inuit across Alaska and the larger Bering Strait. To this end, two adjacent semi-subterranean houses of late Birnirk and early Thule affiliation, respectively, at the Rising Whale (KTZ-304) site at Cape Espenberg were recently excavated and dated by radiocarbon and tree-ring measurements. We present the Bayesian analysis of the resulting large series of dates, demonstrating the lack of contemporaneity between the two features: the Birnirk house was occupied in the late twelfth to early thirteenth centuries AD, whereas the occupation of the Thule house occurred in the second half of the thirteenth into the early fourteenth century. With the increased precision made possible by coupling dendrochronology with radiocarbon, our results place the Birnirk-Thule transition more that 200 years later than the generally accepted date of AD 1000. A transition in the second half of the thirteenth century has major implications for the timing of Thule presence along the coast of Alaska and for their migration into the Alaska interior. It aligns with a thirteenth-century migration into the western Canadian Arctic and farther east and a brief early or “initial” Thule period.

We study removals of “credit ceilings,” quantitative limits on bank credit supply imposed by many countries until the 1980s. Exploiting differences in loan types affected, we find that these removals predict increases in bank credit, residential investment, house prices, and bank stock prices, followed by reversals, recessions, and banking crises. These effects are separate from those of other financial deregulations. Overall, our results suggest that credit supply shocks do not simply amplify existing fragilities but can initiate economic boom-and-bust cycles on their own.

In response to stagnated repatriation efforts in the 32 years since the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) became law, a proposed rule to revise implementation regulations was entered into the federal register in October 2022; 181 written comments on the proposed changes were submitted to regulations.gov, representing input from Native nations, the general public, universities, museums, and other individuals and entities engaged in NAGPRA work. Although the comments were publicly available, their quantity and format presented barriers to access. Interested parties could search for and read individual comments, but it was difficult to get an overall impression of demographic or feedback trends among respondents. I undertook a rigorous, independent analysis of the submitted written comments with the goals of (1) providing NAGPRA practitioners with a “snapshot” view of attitudes toward the proposed regulations; (2) considering more closely the responses of NAGPRA stakeholders, in particular Native nations; (3) summarizing the shared and specific concerns of Native respondents; and (4) highlighting the degree to which those concerns were addressed in the issuance of the Final Rule. I hope that this analysis helps focus the lens of NAGPRA praxis in the present moment more squarely on the needs and concerns of the descendant communities most affected by the Act.

Good air quality is a critical determinant of public health, influencing life expectancy, respiratory health, work productivity, and the prevention of chronic diseases. This study presents a novel approach to classifying the Air Quality Index (AQI) using deep learning techniques, specifically convolutional neural networks (CNNs). We collected and curated a dataset comprising 11,000 digital images from three distinct regions in Indonesia—Jakarta, Malang, and Semarang—ensuring uniformity through standardized acquisition settings. The images were categorized into four air quality classes: good, moderate, unhealthy for sensitive groups, and unhealthy. We designed and implemented a CNN architecture optimized for AQI classification. The model achieved an impressive accuracy of 99.81% using K-fold cross-validation. In addition, the model’s interpretative capabilities were examined using techniques such as Grad-CAM, providing valuable insights into how the CNN identifies and classifies air quality conditions based on image features. These findings underscore the effectiveness of CNNs for AQI classification and highlight the potential for future work to incorporate a more diverse set of digital images captured from various perspectives to enhance dataset complexity and model robustness. The dataset is publicly accessible at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15727522.

Using a nationally representative US sample of 9,623 adults from 26 countries of ancestries, we investigate the role of culture in explaining the gender gap in financial literacy. We find that (i) the smaller the gender gap in financial literacy in the country of ancestry, the higher the financial understanding of women in the US relative to men and (ii) higher patience and lower altruism in the country of ancestry are associated with greater financial literacy in the US for men but not women. Even after controlling for gender variation in these preferences, country-of-ancestry gender gap in financial literacy remains strongly associated with women’s higher financial literacy, especially for knowledge of inflation and risk diversification. This finding suggests that gender differences in financial literacy are shaped by social constructs.

The Oxford English dictionary’s earliest citation for the coinages Baxterianism and Baxterian to refer to the distinctive ecclesiological and theological thought of the seventeenth-century Puritan divine Richard Baxter is dated 1835, with no examples of use after 1839. This is incorrect. These, and related terms, originated in the 1650s and were in regular use during the intervening 185 years (as well as thereafter to the present day). This essay traces the changing signification and usage of these terms from the religious controversies of the seventeenth-century through the development of denominational identities and of a moderate tradition within eighteenth-century dissent that contributed to the development of Unitarianism.

Despite the lesser preservation of bat fossils compared to karstic sites, fluviolacustrine deposits are of crucial importance for assessing the local palaeodiversity of bats. This was confirmed by three faunas from the upper Miocene of Slovakia (Borský Svätý Jur, MN9; Studienka A, MN9; Krásno, MN11), which comprise seven species—Miostrellus cf. Miostrellus noctuloides (Lartet, 1851), Myotis cf. Myotis murinoides (Lartet, 1851), ‘Otonycteris’ sp. indet., Miniopterus sp. indet., Vespertilionidae gen. indet. sp. indet. 1, Vespertilionidae gen. indet. sp. indet. 2, and Rhinolophus cf. Rhinolophus grivensis Depéret, 1892. Bats represent ~ 1.40% of the small mammal remains from Borský Svätý Jur, ~ 0.25% of those from Studienka A, and ~ 1.78% of those from Krásno. The MN11 fauna from Krásno consists of six distinct species, which is unusual for a Miocene fluviolacustrine deposit. Most likely, this is the consequence of the relatively high frequency of bats in the taphocoenosis, therefore providing a more complete and more accurate picture of the Carpathian late Miocene bat faunas. This material encourages the study of fluviolacustrine deposits to unravel the cryptic diversity of Neogene taxa.

This paper critically assesses the effectiveness of the EU AI Act in regulating artificial intelligence in higher education (AIED), with a focus on how it interacts with existing education regulation. It examines the growing use of high-risk AI systems – such as those used in admissions, assessment, academic progression, and exam proctoring – and identifies key regulatory frictions that arise when AI regulation and education regulation pursue overlapping but potentially conflicting aims. Central to this analysis is the concept of human oversight: while the AI Act frames oversight as a safeguard for accountability and fundamental rights, education regulation emphasises the professional autonomy of teachers and their role in maintaining pedagogical integrity. Yet, the regulatory role of teachers in AI-mediated environments remains unclear. Applying Mousmouti’s effectiveness test, the paper evaluates the AI Act along four dimensions – purpose, coherence, results, and structural integration with the broader legal framework – and argues that legal effectiveness in this context requires a more precise alignment between AI and education regulation.