Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to help solve global problems and be employed “for good.” One area of immense recent investment and interest is the financial technology (“fintech”) sector. Boasting its ability to provide financial services for the underbanked, various startups are developing apps that collect mobile phone data and use machine learning (ML) to provide credit scores – and subsequently, opportunities to access loans – to groups often left out of traditional banking. Based on 25 semi-structured interviews with corporate leaders, data scientists and investors at fintech companies developing and managing ML-based alternative lending apps in low- and middle-income countries, this study delves into the different ways fintechs conceptualize and define fairness, including from both a process (“fair” algorithmic design) and outcome (“fair” credit assessment) perspective. By engaging insights from industry actors, this research reveals the cultural logics, power dynamics and institutional incentives that underpin fairness narratives, including how these dynamics shape gendered outcomes in access to credit. Rather than challenging systemic exclusion, fintechs prioritize scalability and profit over equity, developing and deploying “gender blind” algorithms that perpetuate and legitimize financial disparities under the guise of neutrality and objectivity. Ultimately, fairness in ML-driven lending is shaped by institutional priorities and economic logics, where fairness narratives inadvertently obscure systemic injustices even as ethical innovation is claimed. This paper contributes to the growing field of empirical AI ethics by examining how fairness is defined, contested and operationalized in fintech-driven algorithmic lending and the ensuing implications, before offering a feminist alternative to fairness in ML that centers community voices and sets equity as a normative horizon.

In his book S/Z, French philosopher and literary theorist Roland Barthes applied his five narrative codes – five analytical tools for scrutinising any literary text – to analysing the intersection of various interpretive divisions and cultural discourses in Honoré de Balzac’s novella Sarrasine. Barthes’s five codes are meant to be used as an investigative methodology, and this article implements this system as a means of analysing symmetrical symbolic structures in the narratives of the two operas of Austrian composer Alban Berg: Wozzeck and Lulu. The aim of this endeavour is to present a new outlook on Berg’s method of dramaturgical construction through interdisciplinary connections that juxtapose musicology with literary analysis. This approach presents Berg as a narrative designer of allegories that closely mirror Barthes’s literary critical technique, as exemplified by their shared use of the five codes.

Illegal wildlife trade is a major driver of biodiversity loss, and online platforms are increasingly used to advertise protected wildlife. In Pakistan, raptor trade is increasingly mediated by online marketplaces, reflecting a wider global transition. As a case study, we assessed the online trade in raptors in Pakistan from January 2021 to December 2023 by monitoring groups on the social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and WhatsApp, and local e-commerce websites, using keyword-based searches, with cross-checking to reduce duplication and misidentification. We recorded 310 raptors advertised for sale from 92 seller accounts, representing 24 species across four families. Falconidae comprised 61% of individuals and Accipitridae 37%, with peregrine falcon Falco peregrinus and saker falcon Falco cherrug the most frequently advertised species. A substantial proportion of listings involved species protected under provincial wildlife legislation, as well as species listed under CITES and categorized as threatened on the IUCN Red List. Using a generalized linear model, we found that asking prices were higher for threatened and visitor species. Seller activity was concentrated in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Facebook accounted for the largest share of records, indicating that improved monitoring and enforcement on this platform is a priority. Our findings provide baseline evidence to support demand-reduction outreach, community reporting and capacity building within wildlife agencies, alongside improved online detection tools and updated assessments of raptor population status in Pakistan, particularly for migratory species using the Central Asian Flyway.

This article analyses the shifting narratives surrounding Polish nude activism during its emergence and eventual decline between the 1980s and early 1990s. Drawing on a wide range of sources – from archival records and media reports to oral histories and private archives – this article reconstructs ways in which nude activists negotiated and reacted to the changing social and economic landscape. It examines how naturism was portrayed in late socialist media as a form of social and erotic escapism and sheds light on how activists navigated the new political reality after the regime change, launching their own adult magazines and even founding the Polish Erotic Party. By focusing on this overlooked aspect of Polish history, the article reveals the paradoxical nature of activist narratives under late socialism and highlights the critical role played by gender and sexuality in the daily experiences of political and economic transformation.

The silver-backed chevrotain Tragulus versicolor, categorized as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List, is a poorly known and recently rediscovered ungulate endemic to Vietnam. To better understand its distribution and conservation status, we conducted semi-structured interviews and camera-trap surveys during 2018–2025 across 15 forest sites in five provinces of south-central Vietnam. We deployed 522 cameras at 487 stations, totalling 37,592 camera-trap nights. The silver-backed chevrotain was detected at five sites, including four newly confirmed populations beyond the single previously known population in Nui Chua National Park. The species was found in dry and semi-dry forests, with the highest number of detections in Nui Chua National Park and the Hon Heo peninsula. We failed to record the silver-backed chevrotain in several sites within presumed suitable habitat, and interviews indicated possible local extirpations driven by sustained snaring pressure. Our findings highlight the silver-backed chevrotain’s fragmented distribution, as well as its vulnerability to unsustainable hunting pressure and habitat loss and degradation. Given its limited distribution and the ever-increasing anthropogenic threats, urgent conservation actions are needed, including strengthening in situ protection in remaining strongholds and the establishment of an insurance ex situ population. This study provides the most up-to-date assessment of the status and distribution of the silver-backed chevrotain, and provides a foundation for evidence-based conservation planning for the species.

This study compared mental health problems and psychiatric treatment experiences between mothers of twins and mothers of singletons, controlling for assisted reproductive technology (ART), perceived family support (PFS), and demographic covariates. Participants were 1592 South Korean mothers, including 853 mothers of singletons (M = 36.6 years, SD = 3.6) and 739 mothers of twins (M = 38.3 years, SD = 4.9), who completed an online survey assessing the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), psychiatric treatment experience (PTE), PFS, ART use, and demographic factors. Hierarchical regression, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), and logistic regression analyses were conducted with GHQ as the outcome variable. PTE was analyzed both as a dependent variable and as an independent variable. ART use significantly predicted GHQ scores beyond PFS, PTE, and demographics in both groups. After adjusting for all covariates, mothers of twins had higher GHQ scores than mothers of singletons, although the effect size was small (Cohen’s d = 0.16). Logistic regression revealed that mothers of twins were more than twice as likely to have received psychiatric treatment compared to mothers of singletons (odds ratio = 2.5, 95% CI [1.8, 3.4]). These results indicate that mothers of twins experience greater mental health challenges than mothers of singletons, indicating the importance of tailored mental health screening, prevention, and intervention programs for this vulnerable group.

It is time for evidence-based medicine to evolve and incorporate a fourth pillar of patient-level data. We describe what this pillar includes, how it integrates with existing pillars and its application to mental health treatment. We highlight key challenges and issue a ‘call to action’ for psychiatry and beyond.

This paper examines the effect of post-Brexit UK trade agreements on devolved regulatory autonomy. It does so by: (i) carrying out a comprehensive mapping exercise of the overlaps between such agreements and devolved matters; (ii) analysing the domestic legal framework for the implementation of international trade commitments in devolved law; and (iii) identifying the extent to which trade agreements have affected devolved competences and/or caused substantive changes to devolved legislation. The paper demonstrates that UK trade agreements have rarely resulted in significant changes to devolved legislation. This outcome is attributable not only to the limited regulatory ambition of the agreements concluded so far, but also to the distinctive role played by UK domestic implementing legislation in shaping the scope of devolved autonomy. In particular, it shows how the interaction between international trade commitments and the UK’s implementation framework operates as a ‘double bind’ on devolved autonomy.

This article explores the potential of supported decision-making for helping individuals with intellectual or cognitive disabilities to make value-aligned or authentic decisions with respect to participation in clinical research. We argue that supported decision-making is valuable in this context not merely because it promotes self-determination, but also because it increases the likelihood that individuals’ decisions align with what matters to them. To realize this potential, it is important to recognize and address situations in which individuals with intellectual or cognitive disabilities are at increased risk of making decisions that are contrary to their values. We focus on two such situations in particular: when the individual must integrate multiple, potentially competing values, and when the relevant values are insufficiently specified and require unpacking. These challenges can be met, we propose, by integrating dialectical support — a form of structured, dialogue-based assistance designed to help individuals explore and apply their values — into supported decision-making practices.

We prove the existence of a stationary IARCH (integrated autoregressive conditionally heteroskedastic) process for a class of models with polynomially decaying coefficients.

The reliable assessment of formal thought disorder (FTD), a collection of observable signs of suspected problems in generating organised thoughts, is the cornerstone of interviewing a person with psychosis. A significant gap persists between the success of assessments reported in published FTD rating scales and the practical constraints of a clinical interview. Validated rating scales largely focus on operationalised criteria for describing items; the procedural aspects of how to elicit these signs often remain implicit. We synthesise the principles and procedures of FTD assessment embedded in rating scales, translating their design into a framework for routine clinical use. Systematic employment of several manoeuvres can help elicit FTD signs: conversational stimulation, cognitive loading, social modulation and pointed clarifications to stress-test thought, language and communication processes. By making these procedures explicit, we aim to equip clinicians and trainees with a strategic, measurement theory-informed approach to the psychiatric interview when assessing for FTD.