Despite the recognized importance of older adults ageing in their own homes, the role of public financing in mitigating unmet and under-met home care needs remains under-explored. This study addresses this gap by examining the impact of public financing on home care adequacy among English adults aged over 50, utilizing data from waves 6–9 (2013–2019) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Longitudinal fixed effects and pooled cross-sectional modelling are used to explore the impact of public financing of home care on the unmet and under-met needs of older people. Findings show that individuals with greater limitations in activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), as well as those experiencing cognitive decline, are more likely to receive home care. Importantly, while receipt of publicly financed care is associated with a reduction in unmet needs, it does not necessarily translate to fully met needs, resulting in under-met need and highlighting a crucial distinction between access to and adequacy of care. Comparatively, transitioning from use of publicly financed home care to exclusively informal care is linked with lower odds of reporting under-met needs, suggesting variance in the quality of care provided across funding types. This study not only enriches the existing literature by describing the specific impact of different home care financing mechanisms (publicly financed care versus other types of care) on the unmet and under-met needs of older adults but also underscores the need for policies that ensure care adequacy, not just accessibility.

This article develops the problem of divine domination. Classical theism describes God as essentially all-powerful, sovereign, personal, omnipresent, and a se. If such a being exists, then he dominates humans in virtue of his essential properties. Since dominative relationships are unjust, the divine-human relationship is unjust. I reject solutions to this problem that appeal to humanity’s childlikeness or divine goodness, justice, or greatness. I conclude by gesturing towards what a solution to the problem might require.

Selenodantopaite is a new mineral species discovered in a sample collected from the mine dumps of the abandoned Princ Evžen deposit near Potůčky, the Krušné hory Mts., Czech Republic. Selenodantopaite occurs as anhedral grains, up to 100 μm in size, in a quartz gangue with abundant coffinitized uraninite, chalcopyrite and pyrite; it is also associated with bohdanowiczite, unnamed selenide (Bi,Ag)3(Se,S,Te)4, minerals of the galena–clausthalite solid solution, sphalerite and tennantite-(Fe). Selenodantopaite is dark grey, with metallic lustre. Mohs hardness is ca. ∼3½, calculated density is 7.403 g.cm–3. In reflected light, selenodantopaite is white to light grey; bireflectance and pleochroism are weak, anisotropy is distinct with light bluish white – light purplish brown rotation tints. Internal reflections were not observed. Reflectance values for the four COM wavelengths of selenodantopaite in air [Rmax, Rmin (%) (λ in nm)] are: 48.3, 44.9 (470); 48.8, 45.3 (546); 48.4, 45.1 (589); and 47.7, 44.6 (650). The empirical formulae, based on electron-microprobe analyses, are Cu0.24(4)Ag5.09(7)Fe0.17(5)Pb0.51(4)Bi12.32(21)Se15.11(21)S6.89(21) and Cu0.05(3)Ag5.23(11)Fe0.06(4)Pb0.62(12)Bi12.38(13)Se14.77(16)S7.23(16) for Cu-bearing and Cu-poor variety, respectively. The ideal formula is Ag5Bi13Se22 (Z = 1), which requires (in wt.%) Ag 10.80, Bi 54.41, and Se 34.79, total 100.00. Selenodantopaite is monoclinic, C2/m, with unit-cell parameters a = 13.670(4), b = 4.1400(11), c = 19.282(6) Å, β = 106.385(11)° and V = 1046.9(5) Å3. According to the single-crystal X-ray diffraction data (R1 = 0.0625), the crystal structure of selenodantopaite is isotypic with that of dantopaite and it is composed by two kinds of slabs, parallel to (001), i.e. a PbS-like thick slab and a thin slab, following the classical structural scheme of pavonite homologues. Selenodantopaite is named in accord with its composition and its relationship with dantopaite. The mineral and its name have been approved by the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification of the International Mineralogical Association (2023-092)

The perinatal period has gained increasing attention from developmental psychopathologists; however, experiences during birth have been minimally examined using this framework. The current study aimed to evaluate longitudinal associations between childhood maltreatment, negative birth experiences, and postpartum mental health across levels of self-reported emotion dysregulation and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Expectant mothers (N = 223) participated in a longitudinal study from the third trimester of pregnancy to 7 months postpartum. Participants contributed prenatal resting RSA and completed questionnaires prenatally, 24 hours after birth, and 7 months postpartum. Results indicated that more childhood maltreatment was associated with higher birth fear and postpartum anxiety and depressive symptoms. Resting RSA moderated the association between childhood maltreatment and birth fear, such that more childhood maltreatment and higher resting RSA were associated with increased birth fear. Additionally, self-reported prenatal emotion dysregulation moderated the association between childhood maltreatment and postpartum depressive symptoms, such that more childhood maltreatment and higher emotion dysregulation were associated with increased depressive symptoms. Emotion dysregulation across multiple levels may amplify vulnerability to negative birth experiences and postpartum psychopathology among individuals with childhood maltreatment histories. Thus, emotion dysregulation in the context of trauma-informed care may be worthwhile intervention targets during the perinatal period.

This article connects infrastructural violence to environmental injustice in the South Durban Basin, the industrial hub of the Durban metropolis in South Africa, where escalating ecological difficulties have negatively impacted living standards. The combination of the racially insensitive apartheid regime in South Africa and the harmful effects of toxicity requires a decolonial repair perspective founded on egalitarian dialogue and the inclusion of affected viewpoints and participation. In advocating for this repair framework, this article calls for horizontal discussions that thoroughly examine these issues, which can subsequently facilitate equitable environmental policies, regulations, and laws.

This article argues that, as they are currently designed, UN climate talks fail to address the environmental catastrophe they aim to address. While dialogue is the primary means through which the world’s population can get together, discuss the scope and nature of the problem, and put appropriate measures into action, these talks are, year after year, employed as a way to create the illusion that democratic decision-making occurs. As a result, these kinds of events can only succeed in entrenching positions, exacerbating the impasse at which we currently find ourselves. This, in turn, solidifies the notion that we indeed need to engage in a dialogue about climate change, thus perpetuating a never-ending cycle that protects, under the veneer of planetary engagement, the continuation of capitalist business as usual. The article, therefore, proposes that a dialogic path to finding a solution to the climate catastrophe can only be successful if climate talks are rethought, placing at the helm voices from the most affected populations in the Global South. Otherwise, these talks will continue to fail in making a significant change that ensures the possibility of an environmentally just and viable future for the planet.

The Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have been deemed as variants of concern (VOCs) by the WHO due to their increased transmissibility, severity of illness, and resilience against treatments. Geographically tracking the spread of these variants can help us implement effective control measures. RNA from 8,154 SARS-CoV-2 positive nasal swab samples from a Central Texas hospital collected between March 2020 and April 2023 were sequenced in Temple, TX. Global and U.S. sequencing metadata was obtained from the GISAID database on 3 April 2023. Using sequencing metadata, the growth rate of Alpha, Delta, and the first subvariant of Omicron (BA.1) were obtained as 0.27, 0.3, and 1.08 each. The average time in days to penetrate the US for Alpha, Delta, and Omicron were 269.2, 326.2, and 27.3 days, respectively. Viral sequencing data can be a useful tool to examine the spread of viruses. Each emerging SARS-CoV-2 variant penetrated cities more rapidly as the pandemic progressed. With a high logarithmic growth rate, the Omicron variant penetrated the US more rapidly as the pandemic progressed.

We use a graph to define a new stability condition for algebraic moduli spaces of rational curves. We characterise when the tropical compactification of the moduli space agrees with the theory of geometric tropicalisation. The characterisation statement occurs only when the graph is complete multipartite.

The article highlights the role of partisan ethnography in studying the chains of co-optation of grassroots environmental activism in ecologically and politically sensitive contexts. In Thailand, such chains are often undergoing the process of institutionalization of eco-Buddhist approaches to nature conservation, also concurring with the detachment of grassroots socio-environmental activism from the recent, urban based pro-democracy uprisings. The discussion will focus on the recent history of the eco-politics related to natural resources conservation in the Nan River Basin (Northern Thailand). It will describe how, since the 1980s, eco-Buddhist NGOs, Royal think tanks, international cooperation organizations, and corporate C.S.E.R. programs, which comply with the latter agencies, have systematically tended to manipulate pioneer, grassroots eco-political imagination and the organisational know-how of local environmental activists. These powerful institutional actors demonstrated interest in the Buddhist moralization of local ecological beliefs and praxis as a strategy to afford privileges of access to land, water, and forest resources through forms of internal “green grabbing”. At stake here is the fact that, beyond the grabbing of Thai river basins’ contested landscapes, activists’ radical imaginations and alter-political practices – an intangible component of such landscapes - are subject to a form of intellectual and political grabbing. The anthropological enterprise and the ethnographic encounter, conceived as partisan collaboration, nevertheless show that forms of patient resistance to such structural dynamics of co-optation might also express an unexpected source for the creative rearticulation of dissent and alter-political imaginations.

Hegel’s commentators often attribute to his system some form of apriorism, the view that the system’s content or its justification (or both) are independent of experience and empirical science. In this article, I argue that apriorism conflicts with Hegel’s commitment to cooperation between philosophy and empirical science, as outlined in §§1–18 of the 1830 Encyclopaedia. I do so by attributing two theses to Hegel: scientific cooperation—that knowledge arises through a process of conceptual transformation, involving an intellectual division of labour between philosophy and empirical science; and incompatibility—that scientific cooperation entails a feedback loop between philosophy and empirical science, rendering the concepts of Hegel’s system intrinsically empirically revisable, and so not a priori. Although these two theses hold across all the philosophical sciences, I focus on their application in logic, as it is in logic where apriorist interpretations appear the most justified. Reimagining a scientifically cooperative Hegel not only supports naturalist readings of his system but also reframes the task of philosophical critique. Critique, on the scientific-cooperative reading I propose, aims to exposit the insights, discoveries and theories of the empirical sciences, furthering their ends by ameliorating their conceptual apparatus, not to debunk them.

Plant-based diets (PBD) have been found to be environmentally sustainable and beneficial for health. Observational research showed that higher plant-based diet quality improves health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in adult women, however this is unclear for older adults. This association may be due to anti-inflammatory properties of PBD. Older adults, prone to chronic inflammation, may therefore profit from PBD. We investigated the relation between PBD and HRQoL in older adults of both sexes and tested whether the effects are associated with circulating high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels. We used data of the population-based Lifelines Cohort Study (n = 6,635, mean age = 65.2 years) and a subsample in which hsCRP was measured (n = 2,251, mean age = 65.2 years). We applied a plant-based diet index measuring adherence to a healthful (hPDI) and an unhealthful (uPDI) plant-based diet based on food frequency questionnaires. The RAND-36 questionnaire was applied as measure of HRQoL, from which we derived physical and mental HRQoL. Older adults with the highest adherence to a hPDI had respectively 15% and 12% greater odds for high physical quality of life and mental quality of life. Meanwhile, higher adherence to uPDI was associated with respectively 16% and 13% lower odds for high physical and mental quality of life. An additive but no interactive effect of hsCRP on the association between PBD and HRQoL has been observed. Adherence to a healthful plant-based diet and circulating levels of inflammation are independently associated with physical and mental HRQoL. Mechanisms other than inflammation through which PBD could influence HRQoL may be explored in further research.

This essay uses the history of Cossitt Library—from its founding in 1893 to its renovation and reopening in 2023—to explore how the Southern public library has faced, and continues to face, unique opportunities and challenges for public humanities projects. As a scholar-in-residence at Cossitt from 2020 to 2022, I worked alongside the branch manager, staff librarians, community outreach specialists, local arts organizations, and special collections managers to document the history of Cossitt’s role in the city’s civic life and to create policies and programming that encouraged many different constituencies to see the space as their own. It offers an example of where the qualitative research skills of a humanities scholar can impact both large-scale and targeted public humanities projects.

Ethno-religious nationalism has been an integral part of the Georgian identity since the country regained independence. Since the early 2000s, Georgia has had a constitutionally enshrined pro-European foreign policy, which has been reflected in a strong identification with Europe, its culture, and values. Survey data show that Georgians prefer European and Christian ethnic outgroups to Asian and Muslim ones. These factors could have explained the rise of the far right in Georgia, had Georgia experienced a wave of refugees comparable to EU states in mid-2010s. However, only few people fled from the Syrian civil war to Georgia. Nevertheless, in and around 2016, various far-right groups with a strong anti-liberal ideology appeared in the Georgian public sphere. In 2017, a far-right rally was organized, demanding that the rights of Turkish, Iranian, and Arab business owners and citizens be restricted in Georgia. This was accompanied by violent incidents involving physical abuse and property damage of non-white foreigners. The sudden rise of the far-right political organizations in Georgia gives rise to various questions: Do the far-right ideas have grassroots origins, or was the activation of the far right a top-down process? Which domestic and external factors could have contributed to these developments?

This overview discusses the inverse scattering theory for the Kadomtsev–Petviashvili II equation, focusing on the inverse problem for perturbed multi-line solitons. Despite the introduction of new techniques to handle singularities, the theory remains consistent across various backgrounds, including the vacuum, 1-line and multi-line solitons.

Do citizens prefer national policies that are designed collaboratively over those produced by national government alone? The question is relevant, especially in Latin America, where citizens are sceptical of government’s capacity to address complex problems. In this article, we hypothesize that collaboratively crafted policies will be preferred over those produced by government alone in Argentina and Chile. We design conjoint experiments that ask respondents to choose among three pairs of policies, each of which varies randomly in terms of whether and with whom the government collaborates. We find that citizens in both countries tend to prefer collaboratively produced policies. This is especially the case when citizens have higher levels of trust in the actors with whom the national government collaborates. One important insight of our study is that, despite the costs of collaborative approaches to policymaking, citizen preferences for it could incentivize national governments to invest more resources in collaborative governance.

Increasingly, older adults are redefining retirement by combining part-time employment with pension benefits, that is, becoming ‘working retirees’. This trend highlights socio-economic inequalities: some working retirees use part-time employment as a bridge to full retirement, while others must remain employed to prevent old-age poverty. However, little is known about how these work-retirement transitions unfold over time or the socio-economic factors that shape them. This knowledge gap is problematic because understanding the socio-demographic influences on these trajectories is essential for addressing inequalities in later-life employment and retirement security. This study examines transitions from work to retirement by following individuals from their 50s into their 70s and analysing the socio-demographic factors that differentiate these trajectories. It identifies the various pathways that older workers take when exiting the labour force and analyses how prior life course factors – including education, occupational status, career field, civil status, number of children and disposable income – predict the likelihood of following each work–retirement trajectory. The results reveal two distinct work–retirement trajectories: one reflects status maintenance, with higher income and education, white-collar and often men; the other reflects financial necessity, with lower income, children at home, no partner and often women. More advantaged working retirees experience greater employment changes in late life, highlighting the diversity of late-life careers. These findings suggest a broader range of extended work–life pathways than previously recognized and emphasize the need for policies that account for gendered and economic disparities in work and family responsibilities to ensure equitable and sustainable retirement transitions.

The early stage of seedling establishment is critical to successful ecological restoration and reforestation, and it is partially influenced by herbivory. Aerial vertebrate predators, including birds and bats, can affect plant growth by controlling phytophagous insects. This study explored the effects of excluding birds and bats on the arthropod community during the initial stages of reforestation plots planted with Dipterocarpus alatus in deciduous dipterocarp forest using an exclusion experiment. We hypothesized that birds and bats negatively affect the density and biomass of large-sized arthropods (≥ 1 cm), which are their potential prey, and that excluding these predators may affect seedling growth and leaf damage. The density and biomass of large arthropods significantly increased in the permanent exclosures compared to the control group. No significant difference between the nocturnal and diurnal exclosures was observed. Top-down effects on the biomass of large-sized phytophagous and predatory arthropods were pronounced during the dry season, coinciding with the presence of migratory insectivorous birds. Mesopredator release primarily driven by ants compensated for the absence of birds and bats, preventing immediate increases in herbivory or impacts on seedling growth. These findings highlight the importance of ecological redundancy among predator communities in maintaining herbivory control. Promoting diverse habitats that support both invertebrate and vertebrate predators may enhance the long-term resilience and effectiveness of pest control in ecological restoration efforts.

Recent crises have raised concerns about intergenerational fairness and conflict and claims that older generations imperil the future of young people. These arguments may reflect the political intolerance towards older adults: political ageism. Why and which kinds of young people are more likely to adhere to such views is still uncertain. Prior studies refer to the importance of perceived threats and authoritarian values. We introduce an interaction effect, suggesting that perceived threats temper the impact of authoritarian values on intergenerational blame attribution and discriminatory views against older individuals’ political rights. The analysis of survey data from nine European countries, focusing on respondents aged 18–34, reveals that perceived economic threat rarely relates to increased ageism. Young individuals with authoritarian values are likelier to attribute intergenerational blame and hold politically ageist views. In Sweden and the UK, however, the effect of authoritarian values diminishes when young people perceive economic threats.