Accurate prediction of bridge crack evolution is essential for infrastructure safety assurance and maintenance optimization. This study develops an interpretable machine learning framework to predict the expansion of cracks on the main beam in small- and medium-span highway beam bridges and identify the underlying mechanisms of structural deterioration. A comprehensive database was constructed from inspection and monitoring records of over 100 bridges, featuring critical degradation indicators, including crack density (CD) and maximum crack width (MCW). Following data preprocessing and feature selection through correlation analysis, three machine learning algorithms, that is, support vector regression (SVR), random forest (RF), and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), were implemented and evaluated using statistical metrics (R2, RMSE, and MAE). The XGBoost model demonstrated superior predictive performance with R2 values of 0.9433 and 0.9413 for MCW and CD, respectively, reducing RMSE by up to 66.8% and MAE by up to 72% compared to alternative models. SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) analysis revealed that four factors, namely, vehicle load (VL), annual average daily truck traffic (ADTT), bridge age (BA), and annual average daily traffic (ADT), collectively contributed 61.45 ± 2.35% to crack development, with VL (19.7%) being the most influential factor. These findings identify excessive traffic loading and aging as the dominant drivers of crack propagation in beam bridges, providing valuable insights for targeted maintenance strategies and bridge management.

Previous studies document links between early-life exposures and life-cycle outcomes, but fewer examine how local labor market shocks during early life affect old-age male mortality. This article studies this relationship using a large-scale deindustrialization shock: the decline of New England’s textile industry during the 1920s and 1930s. Consistent with prior work, we find small effects on migration and limited changes in counties’ sociodemographic composition after deindustrialization. Using Social Security Administration death records linked to the 1900–1940 historical censuses and difference-in-differences event studies, we find reduced longevity among men born in highly exposed counties, especially among non-migrant families and those in non-urban areas. The estimates imply intent-to-treat effects of about 3.6 months, while treatment-on-the-treated calculations suggest longevity reductions of about 4.2 years for children of affected families. Using 1950–1960 census data, we also find reductions in schooling, high school completion, and socioeconomic standing.

This paper explores the implications of Jīva Gosvāmī’s (sixteenth century) Bhedābheda Vedānta for the contemporary philosophical debate on consciousness, thereby contributing to the broader and growing interest in the insights that Indian traditions may bring to current discussions in the philosophy of mind. More specifically, I develop here a metaphysical, coarse-grained partial reconstruction of Jīva’s thought, arguing that it can be interpreted as a distinctive form of priority cosmopsychism, which I term śakti-based Vedānta cosmopsychism. Needless to say, this involves both a terminological and a taxonomical task, as I seek to clarify how key aspects of Jīva’s thought can be articulated through the conceptual framework and vocabulary of contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of mind. In the final part of the paper, I turn to a more fine-grained analysis, examining the implications of śakti-based Vedānta cosmopsychism for central issues in the philosophy of consciousness, including the causal exclusion problem and the explanatory gap problem, here framed as the individuation problem. I also address some few objections, among them a cosmopsychist formulation of the Vedāntic problem of imperfection.

In recent years, proposals for legislatures composed of ordinary citizens have attracted renewed attention. Political theorists have advanced diverse arguments for transferring legislative powers traditionally reserved for elected officials to randomly selected citizens, appealing to fairness, equality, and protection against corruption, as well as to improved representation and collective problem-solving. Yet these arguments hinge on a contested assumption: that citizens can competently legislate and resist capture by experts or interest groups. This paper examines the 2019–2020 French Citizens’ Convention for Climate (CCC) as a proof of concept for citizen lawmaking. Drawing on firsthand observations we argue that the CCC’s design effectively transformed its 150 members into de facto legislators. We develop the concept of the “citizen-legislator,” refining Mark Warren’s (2009) notion of the “citizen-representative,” and propose criteria for evaluating the quality of citizens’ legislative outputs. Finally, we identify the normative principle “citizens on top, experts on tap” as crucial to the Convention’s ability to preserve citizen autonomy and prevent capture. The CCC, we conclude, demonstrates the feasibility of involving ordinary citizens qua legislators in more inclusive and participatory forms of democratic governance.

This article focuses on outlining formalized Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) training efforts at the undergraduate level. Since 2022, the Center for Archaeology and Society Repository (CASR) at Arizona State University has offered a four-semester NAGPRA learning track designed to prepare students for careers in NAGPRA. Recognizing the shortage of trained practitioners entering the field and the limited incorporation of NAGPRA education in anthropology curricula, the learning track integrates classroom learning, intensive mentorship, and hands-on experience with active repatriation work. Each semester builds progressively from a foundation of collections care and NAGPRA principles, to advanced repatriation tasks, then project management, and finally implementing repatriation in a setting outside of CASR. The program emphasizes a respectful approach to skills competency within a supportive environment that interweaves student needs with repatriation goals. Lessons learned highlight the need for planning, dedicated supervision, and a repatriation process tailored to student integration to ensure meaningful student learning, professional readiness, and NAGPRA project advancement. The CASR NAGPRA learning track serves as a model for other institutions seeking to implement a NAGPRA educational program. The combination of experiential learning, direct participation in compliance processes, and discussion topics prepares students for a career in repatriation and fields beyond.

The objective of this study was to characterise chronic stress in gestating sows (n = 66; parity 0–6) housed within the same facility, assigned to gestation stalls or group pens (25 sows per pen) within two days of breeding until day 111 (± 1.4) of gestation using hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) as a biological marker of longer-term stress. Hair was shaved from the right hip at day 6.0 (± 3.8), day 37, day 74, and day 111 of gestation; day 37 and day 111 samples were analysed for cortisol. Housing system, parity class (0–1 [n = 23], 2–3 [n = 17], and 4–6 [n = 26]), and their interactions were explored. Stall-housed parity 0–1 females had higher HCC than all other females regardless of housing system, suggesting that gilts and parity 1 females in stall housing may experience greater chronic stress during gestation.

Acquiring morphology poses a considerable challenge in second language acquisition (SLA), highlighting the need to explore methods that facilitate this task for L2 learners. One potential facilitator is salience, which is theorized to aid language acquisition by directing learners’ attention to certain linguistic elements. To empirically investigate the impact of one type of salience, perceptual salience, a text-based eye-tracking experiment was conducted with 68 L1 Dutch speakers who read 240 sentences in Englishti, an English-based semi-artificial language featuring perceptually high-salient (-ulp) and low-salient (-o) morphemes according to length. Learning context was manipulated with participants being either assigned to an intentional or an incidental paradigm. The task consisted of two phases: a learning phase involving input flooding of the target morphemes followed by content-related questions, and a testing phase where participants completed a grammaticality judgment task on Englishti sentences, half of which were familiar from the learning phase and half of which were new. The results revealed a significant influence of salience, mediated by learning context and English proficiency, on fixation durations, thus empirically confirming the effect of perceptual salience on attention allocation in L2 morphology acquisition.

Polysubstance use is increasingly the norm among adolescents who use substances, yet research and clinical frameworks remain concentrated in single-substance models. This narrative conceptual editorial highlights key emerging literature on the conceptual inconsistencies and methodological challenges in polysubstance use research, particularly in the context of shifting cannabis legislation and adolescent vulnerability. A lack of definitional consensus, regarding the number of substances, timing of engagement, and intent of substances used, undermines the comparability of findings and the effectiveness of interventions. Adolescent polysubstance use is shaped by developmental, social, and structural factors, with cannabis and nicotine frequently overlooked despite their prevalence. This editorial addresses three linked gaps: definitional inconsistencies, insufficient attention to timing and intent of co-use, and the continued dominance of single-substance research frameworks. Therefore, we argue for clearer definitions, inclusive research designs, and interdisciplinary approaches.

From 1948 until 1967, Israel banned German language films, plays, and vocal music. Largely forgotten today, this article unravels the shifting contours of the ban—the only formal ban ever instituted by Israel on Germany—and unearths its rationales. It does so by focusing on the government agency in charge of formulating and administering the ban, the Film and Theatre Review Board. The article makes four arguments. First, the ban sought to protect the feelings of Holocaust survivors specifically, and Israeli society generally. Traumatized by the Holocaust, Israeli censors wished to remove any reminders of Germany from the public sphere. Second, the fluctuations of the ban tracked diplomatic developments with Germany and the changing sentiments in Israel toward postwar Germany. Third, the ban contributed to a discourse of national dignity and honor, bolstering the argument in favor of an independent Jewish state. Finally, the ban positioned the Board as an entity that claimed to speak for Jews, downplaying demands by Israeli Jews who wanted to consume German culture. As such, the ban should be viewed as an act of nation building and as an important component in the construction of a new Israeli identity, distinct from and independent of the diaspora Jew.