Scalar inferences (SIs) are upper-bounding inferences associated with the use of semantically lower-bounded scalar expressions. One of the current debates regarding these inferences concerns their inferential pattern, specifically whether SIs are uniform or diverse across scales. This study follows the work on scalar diversity yet introduces two changes: First, we reexamine, from a different perspective, two structural properties of scales identified as accounting for SI diversity (boundedness and distance). Second, we analyze our data using both traditional regression analysis and complementary cluster analysis. The regression analysis demonstrates that our reexamination of the structural properties provides a more effective model, which also emphasizes the relationship between boundedness and distance. Specifically, we propose that boundedness fixes distance. The cluster analysis demonstrates two scale types: given-scales, which have an entrenched scalar construal, trigger SIs robustly; and volatile-scales, which have a fluctuant scalar construal, trigger SIs inconsistently. Building on these two scale types, we propose a necessary distinction between the conceptualization of a scale, which is diverse across different scales, and the actual derivation of the SI, which is uniform for all scales, once a scale has been construed. This distinction, we propose, explains how diversity can coexist alongside uniformity.

Transit-time damping (TTD) is a process in which the magnetic mirror force – induced by the parallel gradient of magnetic field strength – interacts with resonant plasma particles in a time-varying magnetic field, leading to the collisionless damping of electromagnetic waves and the resulting energization of those particles through the perpendicular component of the electric field, $E_\perp$. In this study, we utilize the recently developed field–particle correlation technique to analyse gyrokinetic simulation data. This method enables the identification of the velocity-space structure of the TTD energy transfer rate between waves and particles during the damping of plasma turbulence. Our analysis reveals a unique bipolar pattern of energy transfer in the velocity-space characteristic of TTD. By identifying this pattern, we provide clear evidence of TTD's significant role in the damping of strong plasma turbulence. Additionally, we compare the TTD signature with that of Landau damping (LD). Although they both produce a bipolar pattern of phase-space energy density loss and gain about the parallel resonant velocity of the Alfvénic waves, they are mediated by different forces and exhibit different behaviours as the perpendicular velocity $v_\perp \to 0$. We also explore how the dominant damping mechanism varies with ion plasma beta $\beta _i$, showing that TTD dominates over LD for $\beta _i > 1$. This work deepens our understanding of the role of TTD in the damping of weakly collisional plasma turbulence and paves the way to seek the signature of TTD using in situ spacecraft observations of turbulence in space plasmas.

The need for a planetary approach to healthcare is widely recognised at national and international levels. Social prescribing is becoming an increasingly popular strategy for meeting contemporary social, physical and mental health needs as well as tackling health inequalities. As this is a relatively new and emerging healthcare intervention, a comprehensive and accurate understanding of its impact is essential to support continued improvements in care, develop strategies for scale-up and delivery and justify further funding and investment. Nature-based Social Prescribing (NBSP) has unique potential to affect animal and environmental outcomes as well as human health. The One Health perspective can be used to operationalise and evaluate NBSP. This article presents the Nature-based Social Prescribing Impact Pathways (NaBSPIP) framework, which can be used to guide NBSP design and evaluation to leverage maximum benefit for humans, animals and the environment that we share.

The social protection of platform workers is considered one of the most precarious features and political challenges of this new form of employment. Still, there have only been a few empirical investigations on this issue to date. This article presents an explorative empirical analysis of the social protection of platform workers in Germany – a conservative welfare regime with a strong link between standard employment and institutionalised social protection. On the basis of an online survey amongst 719 self-employed platform workers, we examine how different employment patterns correspond to institutionalised protection against sickness and old age. We empirically explore different protection types and analyse how they differ regarding working conditions in platform work and individual social policy preferences. Findings reveal that conditions of platform work and social protection as well as demands and regulatory preferences vary notably across different clusters of platform workers. Still, the vast majority votes against obligatory social insurances for platform workers and favours self-employment over dependent employment. Against this background, we discuss challenges for future attempts aiming at improving social protection for platform workers. This study adds to the literature by empirically exploring platform workers’ social protection and social policy preferences, which have been overlooked to date.

We present an exploratory cross-linguistic analysis of the quantity of target-child-directed speech and adult-directed speech in North American English (US & Canadian), United Kingdom English, Argentinian Spanish, Tseltal (Tenejapa, Mayan), and Yélî Dnye (Rossel Island, Papuan), using annotations from 69 children aged 2–36 months. Using a novel methodological approach, our cross-linguistic and cross-cultural findings support prior work suggesting that target-child-directed speech quantities are stable across early development, while adult-directed speech decreases. A preponderance of speech from women was found to a similar degree across groups, with less target-child-directed speech from men and children in the North American samples than elsewhere. Consistently across groups, children also heard more adult-directed than target-child-directed speech. Finally, the numbers of talkers present in any given clip strongly impacted children’s moment-to-moment input quantities. These findings illustrate how the structure of home life impacts patterns of early language exposure across diverse developmental contexts.

This paper discusses the social meaning of variation in adnominal gender marking in the Dutch dialect of North Brabant. Previous studies reveal that the masculine gender suffix gains social meaning at the expense of grammatical function. However, it remains unclear what kinds of meanings the suffix can have, and how it becomes part of a Brabantish speech style. Therefore, we present statements from ten focus group interviews featuring 50 younger and older speakers. In these sessions, participants were asked to reflect on hyperdialectal usages of the gender suffix. We argue that the indexicalization of the suffix does not yield one fixed social meaning but rather a range of potential meanings, i.e. indexical field, that can be called upon by individual speakers depending on the context. However, the ranges of potential meanings clearly differ between both age groups, unraveling the different norms associated with the suffix.

This paper hypothesizes that respondents in contingent valuation surveys may form different benefit and cost levels that deviate from the levels specified by the researcher. The conceptual framework investigates potential biases based on the direction of deviations. Survey data on the restoration of wetlands in Tampa Bay show that a significant portion of the respondents deviate from the benefit and cost levels presented in the scenario. Empirical results indicate that willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimates are very sensitive to the perceived benefit and cost levels. Depending on the direction of the deviations, WTP estimates could fluctuate up to +61 percent and −82 percent, compared to the estimate from those who evaluate the scenario at the presented levels.

We use Benford's law to examine the non-random elements of health care costs. We find that as health care expenditures increase, the conformity to the expected distribution of naturally occurring numbers worsens, indicating a tendency towards inefficient treatment. Government insurers follow Benford's law better than private insurers indicating more efficient treatment. Surprisingly, self-insured patients suffer the most from non-clinical cost factors. We suggest that cost saving efforts to reduce non-clinical expenses should be focused on more severe, costly encounters. Doing so focuses cost reduction efforts on less than 10% of encounters that constitute over 70% of dollars spent on health care treatment.

The Mayombe chain of Congo is part of the West Congo Belt, which belonged to the western Gondwana supercontinent. It consists of Paleoproterozoic gneisses and schists that are tectonically stacked and overthrust Neoproterozoic low-grade metamorphic rocks. Although Neoproterozoic context of the chain is relatively well established, the tectono-metamorphic evolution of its Paleoproterozoic basement still under discussion.

Petrography, garnet chemistry and phase equilibria modelling were used to constrain tectono-metamorphic evolution of meta-plutonic and meta-sedimentary rocks from the Western Domain of the Mayombe chain. Microprobe analysis reveals three garnet types: (i) 2-stage garnets with distinct cores (Grt1) and rims (Grt2), (ii) unzoned garnet showing narrow diffusion zones along cracks and rims and (iii) syn-kinematic garnet with normal growth zoning. These complex and simple features of garnet growth are, respectively, related to a polycyclic evolution linked in this area to: (i) the superposition of Eburnean (c. 2000 Ma) and Pan-African (c. 600 Ma) orogenies and (ii) a monocyclic evolution related to a single Pan-African event taking into account ages of the protoliths. The oldest metamorphic assemblage (Eburnean) is preserved in amphibolite facies conditions marked by the first generation of garnet, whereas the younger (Pan-African) event varies from amphibolite facies in the southwest (4–6 kbar, 550°C–600°C) to greenschist facies in the northeast (4–6 kbar at 450°C–550°C) confirming the westward increase in metamorphic grade during the Pan-African event. Mineral equilibria modelling shows also a relatively HP episode culminated at 11.5–12.5 kbar and 525°C–550°C which tectonic environment stills less understood.

In Asian workplaces, effective innovative work behavior (IWB) presents challenges. Knowledge on how Asian leaders can promote employee IWB through their behavioral repertoire is needed. This assumption prompted us to develop and validate the so-called Innovative Leader Survey (ILS), covering a repertoire of leader behaviors by which employee IWB is stimulated in Asia. Study 1 interviewed 60 high-performing leaders and employees on such behaviors, bringing forth three leader-behavioral dimensions and survey items for fostering employee idea generation, promotion, and implementation, labeled Envisioning, Energizing, and Enabling. Study 2 involved 1,037 survey respondents through which we validated these three sets of specific leader behaviors. Study 3, with 287 respondents, established ILS’s discriminant validity while all of its 11 operationalized leader behaviors were found to predict their followers’ IWB after 4 months. Future research with the ILS is proposed to enrich theory and empirical research on the relationship between effective leadership and employees’ IWB in Asian organizations.

Spix’s Macaw Cyanopsitta spixii, extinct in the wild since 2000, was successfully reintroduced in Brazil in 2022, leading to significant progress, including the hatching of wild chicks. However, recent restrictions on further releases by the Brazilian government have put the reintroduction programme into jeopardy. This study updates our 2023 population viability analysis (PVA) to assess the impact of these delayed releases on the wild population. Using six modelled scenarios, we confirm that without annual supplementation of captive-bred birds, the probability of extinction in the wild remains at 100%. Even a one-time release is insufficient to secure population stability. Our results highlight that those annual releases of at least 20 individuals are necessary to ensure long-term viability, with reduced but still essential growth achievable with 10 birds per year. Supplementation of the wild population does not compromise the long-term viability of the well-established captive population. We urge immediate action to resume the release programme in 2024 to prevent the species from once again facing extinction in the wild.

Rattus species pose a significant threat to the Philippines, causing substantial economic losses in agriculture and posing health risks to humans. While Ecologically Based Rodent Management (EBRM) has been developed to mitigate rodent outbreaks, its implementation is challenging, particularly in the face of climate and land use changes. In this study, we aimed to potentially enhance EBRM strategies by utilizing a high-performing modelling approach, MaxEnt, to predict the habitat suitability for Rattus species in the Philippines. This study revealed that forested areas exhibit high suitability for R. tanezumi, R. exulans, and R. everetti, with a notable degree of similarities in their habitat suitability. Furthermore, the model predicted that R. argentiventer, a species with no records in the mainland of Luzon, could potentially find suitable habitats in some areas of these regions, particularly in Central Luzon. Conversely, R. norvegicus was predicted to be highly suitable for areas with high-human population density, such as urban cities. The predictive model deepens our understanding of the interactions between Rattus species and their environments across the Philippines, which is crucial for identifying high-risk areas that require immediate intervention. These results have the potential to enhance the EBRM approach more effectively on a national scale. The EBRM strategy based on the predictive outcomes of the MaxEnt model is not only crucial for the Philippines but also serve as a guiding framework for other regions facing similar challenges with rodent populations.

The use of animals as scientific models is argued to be crucial for producing new scientific and medical knowledge and clinical treatments. However, animal research continues to raise socio-ethical concerns. In recent years, there has been a push for openness amongst the life science community, with the aim of increasing the transparency of animal research to wider publics. Yet, how this push for openness is experienced by those responsible for the care and welfare of research animals requires further study. This paper draws upon qualitative interviews with Named Veterinary Surgeons (NVS) in the UK and explores how they practise openness, avoid openness, and, at times, challenge the way their role is represented within openness agendas. Overall, this social scientific analysis reveals that the current openness agenda has the potential to create tensions for professionals, as they seek to manage regulatory and public imaginaries of the veterinary identity alongside the animal research controversy. The paper concludes by arguing for a culture of dialogue, where openness includes allowing those with responsibilities for animal welfare to express ambivalence or concern about their own role. Finally, the paper calls for sustained academic work on relations between the veterinary profession and wider society, particularly areas that involve contested practices in which care and harm may coincide.