The Paleozoic represents a key time interval in the origins and early diversification of chondrichthyans (cartilaginous fishes), but their diversity and macroevolution are largely obscured by heterogenous spatial and temporal sampling. The predominantly cartilaginous skeletons of chondrichthyans pose an additional limitation on their preservation potential and hence on the quality of their fossil record. Here, we use a newly compiled genus-level dataset and the application of sampling standardization methods to analyze global total-chondrichthyan diversity dynamics through time from their first appearance in the Ordovician through to the end of the Permian. Subsampled estimates of chondrichthyan genus richness were initially low in the Ordovician and Silurian but increased substantially in the Early Devonian. Richness reached its maximum in the middle Carboniferous before dropping across the Carboniferous/Permian boundary and gradually decreasing throughout the Permian. Sampling is higher in both the Devonian and Carboniferous compared with the Silurian and most of the Permian stages. Shark-like scales from the Ordovician are too limited to allow for some of the subsampling techniques. Our results detect two Paleozoic radiations in chondrichthyan diversity: the first in the earliest Devonian, led by acanthodians (stem-group chondrichthyans), which then decline rapidly by the Late Devonian, and the second in the earliest Carboniferous, led by holocephalans, which increase greatly in richness across the Devonian/Carboniferous boundary. Dispersal of chondrichthyans, specifically holocephalans, into deeper-water environments may reflect a niche expansion following the faunal displacement in the aftermath of the Hangenberg extinction event at the end of the Devonian.

This paper discusses the implications of organizational control on the race for technological leadership in merchant empires. I provide an illustrative framework in which poor organizations have reduced incentives to invest, which in turn stifle technology improvements making leaders lag new entrants. In the late sixteenth century, Portugal’s large ships carried more merchandise and were more fitting of the monarch’s grandiose preferences, but they also were more prone to disaster. The merchant-controlled Dutch East India Company however, invested in smaller but more seaworthy vessels conducting more voyages at a much lower loss rate. The surviving historical evidence shows Portugal relying on large ships well into the seventeenth century suggesting her technological edge was gone by the time the Dutch dominated the Indian Ocean.

Broad-spectrum antimicrobials are commonly used without indication and contribute to antimicrobial resistance (AMR). We implemented a syndrome-based stewardship intervention in a community hospital that targeted common infectious syndromes and antipseudomonal beta-lactam (APBL) use. Our intervention successfully reduced AMR, C. difficile rates, use of APBLs, and cost.

Transparency is intimately linked to debates about the ethics, political legitimacy and effectiveness of nudging. This paper provides an overview of empirical studies investigating how changes in the transparency of a nudge affect people's choices and evaluations of the nudge. I conclude that the present literature provides generally consistent evidence supporting that the effectiveness of a nudge does not decrease when choosers are given good opportunity to detect and understand the influence it might have on their choices. However, several conceptual and methodological issues are identified, significantly limiting the scope of the conclusions that can be drawn. The limitations are discussed and organized into six themes, with recommendations provided for how future research may address them.

Offshore wind turbines intend to take a rapidly growing share in the electric mix. The design, installation, and exploitation of these industrial assets are regulated by international standards, providing generic guidelines. Constantly, new projects reach unexploited wind resources, pushing back installation limits. Therefore, turbines are increasingly subject to uncertain environmental conditions, making long-term investment decisions riskier (at the design or end-of-life stage). Fortunately, numerical models of wind turbines enable to perform accurate multi-physics simulations of such systems when interacting with their environment. The challenge is then to propagate the input environmental uncertainties through these models and to analyze the distribution of output variables of interest. Since each call of such a numerical model can be costly, the estimation of statistical output quantities of interest (e.g., the mean value, the variance) has to be done with a restricted number of simulations. To do so, the present paper uses the kernel herding method as a sampling technique to perform Bayesian quadrature and estimate the fatigue damage. It is known from the literature that this method guarantees fast and accurate convergence together with providing relevant properties regarding subsampling and parallelization. Here, one numerically strengthens this fact by applying it to a real use case of an offshore wind turbine operating in Teesside, UK. Numerical comparison with crude and quasi-Monte Carlo sampling demonstrates the benefits one can expect from such a method. Finally, a new Python package has been developed and documented to provide quick open access to this uncertainty propagation method.

Where exactly did Hegel go wrong on race? Moellendorf helpfully tells us that Hegel's treatment of race begins systematically in the Philosophy of Subjective Spirit and that he went wrong philosophically in the use of the biological category of race. This is basically correct but requires precisification. This article considers why Hegel's category of race is not unambiguously biological. Race's biological status can be problematized from the standpoint of contemporary biology and from the standpoint of Hegel's system. The textual placement of Hegel's systematic discussion of race in the philosophy of spirit makes clear that Hegel conceived of race in spiritual terms. Hegel took race to be a biospiritual category. Hegel was clearly committed to the now-controversial proposition that there is such a thing as human biological race, that there is a plurality of biological human races. He regarded race as a robust natural kind. His preferred list of races includes Caucasians, Negros, Mongolian, Malaysians and Americans. One noteworthy feature of his understanding of race's physical aspect was his focus on the formation of the skull and the face. At the same time, he clearly held that there were other deeper physical differences that accounted for the spiritual differences of race. Hegel was perfectly clear that race has a spiritual as well as physical aspect. He held that that the members of racial groups essentially shared certain fundamental, heritable, moral, intellectual and cultural characteristics with one another that they did not share with members of any other race and that these differences were such as to support an objective ranking. This shows that Hegel took the category of race to be the sort of category we today would characterize as ‘racialist’. Hegel's concept of race was the racialist concept of race.

This study investigates the impacts of behavioral finance on stock market volatility. The primary aims are to explain the reasons behind changes in the S&P 500 price within the context of behavioral finance and to analyze investor behavior in response to these changes. To achieve this, the research employs time-series analysis over a 10-year period, focusing on the S&P 500, real interest rates, consumer confidence, market volatility and credit default swaps while considering the effects of behavioral biases. The findings reveal several significant correlations: rising real interest rates negatively affect stocks due to loss aversion and sentiment. Conversely, higher consumer confidence tends to positively influence the stock market, driven by herding behavior and optimism. Additionally, market volatility shows a negative correlation with the S&P 500, influenced by risk aversion, recency bias and herding behavior. Moreover, an increase in credit default swap rates leads to stock market declines, primarily influenced by risk perception, loss aversion and herding behavior.

Financial policymakers increasingly rely on behavioural insights to protect the interests of consumers. However, little is known about how citizens feel about interventions designed to nudge their financial behaviour. Most literature on the acceptability of behavioural interventions focuses on the health domain. To address this gap, we present the results of an experiment on the acceptability of seven financial behavioural interventions (N = 684, members of a panel of the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets). We investigate the role of the agent implementing the intervention (policymaker versus financial company) and perceived effectiveness in relation to the acceptability of these interventions. The acceptability of behavioural interventions in financial decision-making appears to be lower than the acceptability levels found in previous studies. We find no effect of the agent on acceptability. Perceived effectiveness is strongly correlated with acceptability, but only perceived effectiveness in influencing one's own decisions has a consistently positive relationship with acceptability. Perceived effectiveness in influencing others' decisions has either no, a positive, or a negative relationship with acceptability. These results highlight that acceptability appears to be at least partly domain-specific and show that we have only just begun understanding the acceptability of behavioural interventions and its drivers.

Evidence from various empirical study types have converged to show bilingualism's potential for serving as a cognitive and brain reserves contributor. In this article, I contextualize, frame the need for and offer some expanding questions in this endeavor, inclusive of empirical pathways to address them. While the set of variables and questions discussed herein are definitively incomplete, they embody a good starting point for shaping future directions in research that considers the role bilingual language engagement can have for the developing mind and brain, inclusive of how various, non-linear factors impact the descent bilinguals of various types take down the proverbial mountain of life.