Preservice teachers are in the process of constructing their own personal and professional teacher identities. In order to explore questions and assumptions implicit to such an undertaking, this study examined teacher images created by preservice teachers over the course of a 15-year case study, focusing (in this essay) on the results of the clothing and color choices attributed to teachers in the resulting images. Semiotic analyses of these images showed that preservice teachers drew images of teachers that were most often clothed in some interpretation of casual professional clothing. The dominant colors of the rendered clothing were most frequently shades of blue and black. Communicative, cultural, and functional dress codes indicate that these clothing and color choices signify that these preservice teachers saw the teaching profession as one that was conformist, service-oriented, chaste, and modestly prestigious. The examination of preservice teachers’ “teacher” and/or “teaching profession” ideologies through communicative non-verbal cues in their constructed teacher images can be an important part of understanding their beliefs and values about the teaching profession, as well as their professional identity development and career choices.

In this article, we study an optimization problem for a couple including two breadwinners with uncertain life times. Both breadwinners need to choose the optimal strategies for consumption, investment, housing, and life insurance purchasing to maximize the utility. In this article, the prices of housing assets and investment risky assets are assumed to be correlated. These two breadwinners are considered to have dependent mortality rates to include the breaking heart effect. The method of copula functions is used to construct the joint survival functions of two breadwinners. The analytical solutions of optimal strategies can be achieved, and numerical results are demonstrated.

Task-shared psychological treatments play a critical role in addressing the global mental health treatment gap, yet their integration into routine care requires further study. This study evaluated the causal association between an implementation factor of a task-shared psychological treatment and participant outcomes to strengthen the implementation-to-outcome link within global mental health. This secondary analysis utilized cohort data from the Program for Improving Mental Health Care (PRIME) implemented in Sehore, India where trained non-specialist health workers delivered treatment for depression and alcohol use disorder (AUD). Propensity scores and inverse probability of treatment weights examined the impact of mental health service users’ treatment attendance on users’ symptom severity (PHQ-9 scores for depression; AUDIT scores for AUD) at 3 and 12-month follow-ups. Among the 240 patients with depression, higher treatment session attendance led to 1.3 points lower PHQ-9 scores (vs. no attendance) and 2.4 points lower PHQ-9 scores (vs. low attendance) at 3 months, with no significant effects at 12 months. Among the 190 AUD patients, treatment session attendance did not have a significant impact on AUDIT scores. Our findings have implications for enhancing treatment session attendance among those with depression within task-shared psychological treatments.

We present a quantum algorithm based on repeated measurement to solve initial-value problems for nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs), which may be generated from partial differential equations in plasma physics. We map a dynamical system to a Hamiltonian form, where the Hamiltonian matrix is a function of dynamical variables. To advance in time, we measure expectation values from the previous time step and evaluate the Hamiltonian function classically, which introduces stochasticity into the dynamics. We then perform standard quantum Hamiltonian simulation over a short time, using the evaluated constant Hamiltonian matrix. This approach requires evolving an ensemble of quantum states, which are consumed each step to measure the required observables. We apply this approach to the classic logistic and Lorenz systems, in both integrable and chaotic regimes. Our analysis shows that the solutions’ accuracy is influenced by both the stochastic sampling rate and the nature of the dynamical system.

The Cox duration model serves as the basis for more complex duration models like competing risks, repeated events, and multistate models. These models make a number of assumptions, many of which can be assessed empirically, sometimes for substantive ends. We use Monte Carlo simulations to show the order in which practitioners assess these assumptions can impact the model’s final specification, and ultimately, can produce misleading inferences. We focus on three assumptions regarding model specification decisions: proportional hazards (PH), stratified baseline hazards, and stratum-specific covariate effects. Our results suggest checking the PH assumption before checking for stratum-specific covariate effects tends to produce the correct final specification most frequently. We reexamine a recent study of the timing of GATT/WTO applications to illustrate our points.

Dusty plasmas typically contain various species of dust particles, though most studies have focused on homogeneous systems. This paper investigates the propagation of dust acoustic waves in an inhomogeneous dusty plasma with an interface, analysing how plasma inhomogeneity influences wave behaviour. Using scattering and reductive perturbation methods, we show that both transmitted and reflected waves depend strongly on the mass ratio between regions. Dust acoustic waves cannot propagate through a dust lattice when the wavelength is smaller than the lattice constant. At a discontinuous interface, at least one transmitted solitary wave is generated, with its amplitude determined by the mass ratio, while at most one reflected solitary wave can exist. These results underscore the critical role of the mass ratio in wave propagation and suggest a method for estimating dust particle masses and properties by analysing the incident, transmitted and reflected waves.

This article engages with the burgeoning literature on the conceptualization of corruption, a literature animated by the view that failures in anticorruption practice—the limited progress made in tackling global corruption—are in part a consequence of the ways in which corruption is theorized by academics. In response, the article proposes and elaborates a four-dimensional definition of corruption with detailed subdefinitions and seeks to advance thinking in both academic and practitioner circles on how corruption can be most effectively identified in context. The article makes five distinct contributions to live debates in the conceptual literature and clarifies several ambiguities and disagreements that have arisen within it.

First, it presents a set of grounded subdefinitions that make explicit the scope of each dimension of the definition. Second, it recommends applying the four dimensions in a predetermined sequence, enabling uncertainties or gray areas in each dimension to be resolved and clarified by subsequent dimensions. Third, it addresses the much-contested “abuse” dimension, acknowledging not only the flexibility required to identify abuses in different political and social settings but also the need to limit the scope of abuse so that it is not wholly idiosyncratic or relative. Fourth, it incorporates systemic and institutional forms of corruption, which creates an important bridge between individual and institutional approaches to corruption. Finally, it offers a defense for integrating the notion of public interest into the definition, which not only provides additional clarity to the conceptualization but also does justice to the reasons we care about corruption in the first place.

This paper presents a novel approach for simulating plasma instabilities in tokamak plasmas using the piecewise field-aligned finite element method in combination with the particle-in-cell method. Our method traditionally aligns the computational grid, but defines the basis functions in piecewise field-aligned coordinates to avoid grid deformation while naturally representing the field-aligned mode structures. This scheme is formulated and implemented numerically. It also applies to the unstructured triangular meshes in principle. We have conducted linear benchmark tests, which agree well with previous results and traditional schemes. Furthermore, multiple-$n$ simulations are also carried out as a proof of principle, demonstrating the efficiency of this scheme in nonlinear turbulence simulations within the framework of the finite element method.

We construct a Divisia money measure for U.K. households and private non-financial corporations and a corresponding dual user cost index employing a consistent methodology from 1977 up to the present. Our joint construction of both the Divisia quantity index and the Divisia price dual facilitates an investigation of structural vector autoregresssion models (SVARs) over a long sample period of the type of non-recursive identifications explored by Belongia and Ireland (2016, 2018), as well as the block triangular specification advanced by Keating et al. (2019). An examination of the U.K. economy reveals that structures that consider a short-term interest rate to be the monetary policy indicator generate unremitting price puzzles. In contrast, we find sensible economic responses in various specifications that treat our Divisia measure as the indicator variable.

Does the public apply a “double standard” for human rights abuses based on the perpetrator’s alliance status? Research shows that individuals are more supportive of military action against states that violate human rights. However, other studies claim that condemnations of violations are often contingent upon the strategic relationship with the perpetrators. In this paper, we bridge these different strands of literature by examining whether the effect of foreign states’ human rights practices on public support for war depends on the alliance status of the violator. To investigate this interaction, we conducted two preregistered experiments that independently randomized the state’s human rights practices and U.S. alliance status. Both experiments reveal that the alliance status of the human rights violator has a negligible effect on support for war. Consequently, our findings challenge the prevailing notion that the public applies a double standard for human rights violations.

Writing a tribute to Hans Zell is, as I realize while writing, both a personal exercise, a demanding task of research, and, above all, a profound continuation of meaning in relation to a person I admire and consider a friend. These are the reasons why I accepted without hesitation the invitation from Stephanie Kitchen and Terry Barringer to write this tribute. It is, therefore, both an honour and a considerable challenge for me to write this ‘selective’ retrospective, especially as Hans continues to develop his work and to offer new valuable articles and in-depth analyses. It is fascinating, and certainly unique, to think that Hans has been tirelessly publishing his work since 1964. I am also convinced that he will hate reading such a tribute, given that he has always preferred to highlight the work of others and encourage them to follow their own path. I will therefore take full responsibility for this, never mind!

Recent changes to EU fiscal policy, such as the landmark economic governance reform package passed in early 2024, have established a dense ‘coordination space’ that steers crucial social and economic choices at the EU and national levels. This coordination space, however, departs significantly from its historical predecessors. It largely operates within a hard law framework using finance rather than either rules or soft persuasion and peer review as its main tool of influence. In this coordination space, EU law is less a system of uniform rules underlain with sanctions than a negotiation framework where discretion abounds, and rules are never broken but rather ‘adjusted’. As this paper argues, the significance of the coordination space lies not only in its unique governance model and unclear boundaries but rather its increasing centrality to the governance of the EU. As the paper will explore using the rule of law example, even areas of EU law commonly conceived as necessarily insulated from political bargaining are increasingly drawn into the negotiation logic and instruments of coordination, rendering even more crucial a clear understanding of the trade-offs policy coordination implies. By unpacking 8 core features of policy coordination in the 2020s, the paper is therefore devoted to illuminating an expanding battleground within which EU law is being re-defined.

This study explores the leadership dynamics, conflict, and group cohesion during Roald Amundsen’s South Pole expedition, with a particular focus on the critical confrontation between Amundsen and Hjalmar Johansen. Through a dual-method approach that integrates Narrative and Thematic Analysis, the research delves into the diaries and autobiographical writings of key expedition members. The findings reveal that while Amundsen’s authoritative leadership was pivotal to the expedition’s success, it also fostered significant internal conflict, particularly with Johansen. This tension highlights the delicate balance between decisive leadership and the need for inclusiveness in high-stakes environments. The study provides a nuanced understanding of how varying levels of loyalty among team members influenced group dynamics, offering insights that extend beyond the historical context of polar exploration to contemporary leadership challenges in extreme conditions.

Wearable exoskeletons hold the potential to provide valuable physical assistance across a range of tasks, with applications steadily expanding across different scenarios. However, the lack of universally accepted testbeds and standardized protocols limits the systematic benchmarking of these devices. In response, the STEPbySTEP project, funded within the Eurobench framework, proposes a modular, sensorized, reconfigurable staircase testbed designed as a novel evaluation approach within the first European benchmarking infrastructure for robotics. This testbed, to be incorporated into the Eurobench testing facility, focuses on stairs as common yet challenging obstacles in daily life that provide a unique benchmark for exoskeleton assessment.

The primary aim of STEPbySTEP is to propose a modular framework – including a specialized staircase design, tentative metrics, and testing protocols – to aid in evaluating and comparing exoskeleton performance. Here, we present the testbed and protocols developed and validated in preliminary trials using three exoskeletons: two lower-limb exoskeletons (LLEs) and one back-support exoskeleton. The results offer initial insights into the adaptability of the staircase testbed across devices, showcasing example metrics and protocols that underscore its benchmarking potential.

This article examines the intertwined processes between China’s making of anti-slavery laws and the evolution of international legislation against slavery in the early twentieth century. By tracing international interventions into domestic servitude issues in Chinese communities both in China and Southeast Asia, the article analyses how the international legal regime was absorbed into the domestic laws of late Qing and Republican China. Drawing on two threads of scholarly discussion—namely, the histories of humanitarian internationalism and modern China’s legal reform—this article argues that late Qing and Republican jurists intentionally maintained an ambiguous definition of domestic servitude. This ambiguity served to affirm the humanitarian governance of the modern state while simultaneously preserving social customs, in defiance of international law.

In response to tire failures and vehicle rollover accidents, most notably those experienced by Ford Explorers with Firestone Tires, the 106th Congress and President Clinton enacted the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act of 2000. Section 13 of the TREAD Act requires vehicle manufacturers to install tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) that alert drivers when a tire is significantly under-inflated. This paper first discusses the political economy that ultimately led to the final TREAD Act TPMS regulation. Then, relying on the variation of model-year TPMS introduction, I investigate whether and to what extent TPMS reduces all vehicle fatalities and those associated with tire failure and improper inflation. I find that the introduction of TPMS is associated with just over 11 fewer tire failure-related deaths per year, resulting in a net benefit of −$752 million to −$1,876 million (in $2001) per year. I find no change in the number of tire inflation-related fatalities with the introduction of TPMS.