This paper explores changes in the commissioning, contracting and provision of NHS-funded cataract surgery in England over the last decade, focusing on the growing role of independent sector providers (ISPs). In recent years, there has been a dramatic rise in NHS-funded cataract surgery (from almost 417,000 cases in 2018/19 to about 650,000 in 2023/24) with the ISP share increasing from 22 to 57 per cent. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining quantitative analysis of over 4.6 million NHS-funded hospital admissions for cataract surgery (2013–2024) and qualitative interviews with senior NHS and ISP stakeholders. Interviews were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The shift to ISPs was largely unplanned, driven by long NHS waiting lists, favourable payment tariffs, and low barriers to entry for new providers. ISPs’ involvement has contributed to reduced waiting times and improved productivity, potentially due to specialised infrastructure and incentive structures. However, concerns exist about contract management, service quality, and value for money. The study highlights the need for improved service commissioning, tariff reform, stronger contractual oversight, and effective monitoring to ensure quality and value. These findings have broader implications for healthcare systems balancing competition, patient choice, and public–private delivery models in elective care.

We consider the Brown measure of $a+\mathfrak {c}$, where a lies in a commutative tracial von Neumann algebra $\mathcal {B}$ and $\mathfrak {c}$ is a $\mathcal {B}$-valued circular element. Under certain regularity conditions on a and the covariance of $\mathfrak {c}$ this Brown measure has a density with respect to the Lebesgue measure on the complex plane which is real analytic apart from jump discontinuities at the boundary of its support. With the exception of finitely many singularities this one-dimensional spectral edge is real analytic. We provide a full description of all possible edge singularities as well as all points in the interior, where the density vanishes. The edge singularities are classified in terms of their local edge shape while internal zeros of the density are classified in terms of the shape of the density locally around these points. We also show that each of these countably infinitely many singularity types occurs for an appropriate choice of a when $\mathfrak {c}$ is a standard circular element. The Brown measure of $a+\mathfrak {c}$ arises as the empirical spectral distribution of a diagonally deformed non-Hermitian random matrix with independent entries when its dimension tends to infinity.

In the Early Modern period, many Chinese people undertook temporary or permanent overseas migrations from the Qing empire (1644-1911) to labour and trade. These circulations were almost entirely organized by translocal kinship networks with little to no involvement from the imperial state itself. In fact, in its earlier years the Qing Dynasty actively sought to prevent or delimit the activities of these migratory networks. Not surprisingly then, the relationship between these networks and the Qing state has often been framed as inherently antagonistic. In this paper, I explore the evolution of this relationship over the 17th and 18th centuries, with particular consideration towards the ways it influenced and was influenced by the circulation of technologies. I argue that as the dynasty expanded and its security anxieties declined, it increasingly found a place for diaspora within the framework of the Qing’s nebulous claim to rulership over ‘all under heaven’. I find that the state was forced at times to collaborate with migrant networks in the construction of a quasi-protectionist system that met key needs for both. This transformation had important consequences for technology transfer, especially in the fields of ship-building, cash crop agriculture, and mining.

A growing body of literature has reported on the gendered impact of COVID-19. Unemployment and income loss are two consequences of the pandemic that disproportionately impacted women. Studies have shown that these consequences are associated with the rise in unpaid care work (UCW) following the implementation of public health measures to curb the spread of COVID-19. Around the world, UCW is largely the responsibility of women, including in Latin America, where there is a strong cultural value placed on caregiving roles. This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of the social protection measures introduced in Colombia and Costa Rica during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing on core themes of feminist political economy and Elson’s (New Labor Forum, 26(2), 52–61, 2017) Three R Framework to reflect on whether and how measures incorporated care-sensitive approaches and on the factors shaping the countries’ diverging responses. Of the two jurisdictions compared in this paper, Costa Rica’s social protection measures afforded greater visibility and support for UCW. We offer a discussion of potential factors contributing to Costa Rica’s care-sensitive approach, including a robust pre-pandemic social protection infrastructure, better integration of the informal economy into social protection measures, and greater representation of women in politics. Insights from this analysis can inform enhancements of social protection systems in Colombia, Costa Rica, and other comparable jurisdictions across Latin America, while also contributing to pandemic preparedness and more gender-responsive approaches to future global health crises.

Political tolerance of others’ civil liberties is an essential and everyday condition of democratic politics without which citizens cannot engage constructively with those of different views. In this paper, we combine insights from political theory and political behaviour to develop and test the concept of ‘partisan intolerance’. We conceptualize partisan intolerance as the gap between a person’s willingness to interfere with contentious activities by in-partisans versus the same activities by out-partisans. Using two pre-registered experiments, we find high levels of partisan intolerance in Britain. Moreover, while partisan intolerance is not associated with abstract measures of political tolerance, we find a strong association with affective partisan polarization. Our findings thus suggest that increasing affective polarization among partisans is accompanied by a high degree of intolerance towards their opponents’ basic civil liberties such as freedom of speech and the right to protest.

What can be learned about pandemic preparedness from greater attention to perspectives of people who live in regions labelled as ‘hotspots’ for disease outbreaks? And how might such attention require us to reconfigure science, policy, and practice – as part of a broader shifting of power in pandemics? These are the questions that motivate and are explored through the papers in this special issue on pandemic preparedness, for which this paper serves as Introduction. All the contributions to this special issue present perspectives, experiences, and reflections from African settings, drawing on research co-designed and conducted in close engagement with local communities or in dialogue with African scientists and public health actors. They approach biosocial questions from the concerns of the disciplinary fields of social, medical, and political anthropology, of engaged interdisciplinary social science, and, crucially, of embedded, ‘grassroots’ fieldwork by researchers who have grown up with the communities they are studying. The team bringing these complementary areas of expertise came together for a collaborative programme on ‘Pandemic preparedness: local and global concepts and practices in tackling disease threats in Africa’ supported by a collaborative award from the Wellcome Trust during 2018–2023. This special issue thus forms part of wider advocacy for rethinking pandemic preparedness and for the value of anthropology in informing its meanings and practices, now more than ever.

This article analyses multiple visions and perspectives offered by Chinese-speaking Muslim intellectuals during the Republican era (1912–1949) concerning their status as a Muslim community by looking into their debates on the modernization and secularization of the Turkish Republic under the Kemalist regime. The transformation of the multi-ethnic and religious Qing empire into a Republican Chinese nation-state presented new challenges to the ruling elite, intellectuals, and minority communities. This article explores how Chinese Muslims navigated the complex intellectual landscape as alternative visions and ideologies concerning nation-building, ethnic autonomy, religion, and modernity emerged in China. The article focuses on how Han Chinese intellectuals, the Kuomintang (KMT) elite, and Chinese Muslims selectively interpreted Turkish modernization in different ways to promote their socio-political cause. It analyses the overlaps and the complex, nuanced differences between Chinese Muslim interpretations of Turkey as a success story of the awakened modern Muslim and the KMT ruling elites’ view of Turkey in the 1930s as a model of developmental authoritarianism, highlighting Turkey’s success in establishing a homogenous nation-state that superseded religion with a sanctified state ideology. The article thus demonstrates how Chinese Muslim intellectuals responded to the KMT state’s increasingly authoritarian rule in the 1930s during the Japanese invasion and the subsequent era of the Civil War when the Chinese Communist Party emerged as a powerful alternative to KMT rule and ideology.

Wheat protein is essential to end-use products including bread and noodles. Protein levels vary based on weather, growing conditions, and production practices. This research identifies and quantifies the relationship between wheat prices and protein levels for seven Kansas crop reporting districts during 2001–2023. Results of a quadratic panel regression model demonstrate that local wheat prices are influenced by both (1) the absolute level of wheat protein in the local Crop Reporting District and (2) the local level of wheat protein relative to the overall wheat protein level in the rest of the State.

This piece expresses an anger and frustration with the limits of modern European philosophy in relation to the spiritual. I question what theoretical comfort or liberatory potential can be provided by postmodernism, especially within feminist philosophy, in times of great violence and insecurity. I explore how the knower/known dichotomy places some researchers in a dual, sometimes contradictory, epistemological position as a ripple effect of the coloniality of knowledge. Ultimately, I ask what price we pay for knowledges that are ignored or dismissed in order to maintain the illusion of secular reason and the hegemony of European thought.

Family caregivers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) provide the lion’s share of care for their relatives with severe mental health conditions amid vast treatment gaps. Yet, their lived experiences are not adequately explored. This systematic review synthesizes evidence on the lived experiences, priorities and needs of these caregivers across diverse LMIC settings. We analyzed 76 articles identified across nine databases. Data were synthesized using thematic analysis. The synthesis identified five themes: (1) the journey to understanding, (2) familial commitment to care, (3) the unrelenting burden of caregiving, (4) Forging resilience: strategies of enduring care and (5) voiced needs and priorities. The early attempts to understand the illness take the family on a journey from initial uncertainty to experiential learning. Familial commitment to care is often rooted in moral obligation and system neglect, but this sustained effort leads to an immense caregiving toll. The burden is profoundly gendered, disproportionately affecting women, who commonly face isolation and burnout. Caregivers often navigate pervasive, multidimensional stigma that restricts the entire family’s social and economic future. Despite these challenges, resilience is fostered through faith, peer support and active inclusion of the person in family routines. Caregivers urgently prioritized mental health services that offer knowledge about the illness, active and respectful involvement in treatment planning, practical caregiving skills and support groups. The pressing need for economic support was also expressed. This review underscores the need for global mental health endeavors to recognize and respond to unsupported family caregiving. Family focused interventions have the potential to modify the home environment in ways that support recovery for the person and alleviate many of the caregiving challenges faced by the family. Alongside this, initiatives are needed to address economic precarity and facilitate social inclusion of the family unit.

This paper explores the importance and implications of a multivocal and ethnographic approach to archaeological praxis and interpretation of artefacts. Drawing from post-colonial and archaeological disenfranchisement perspectives, an attempt has been made to review the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and other agencies’ strategies and their resultant hegemonic dominance over archaeological sites and narratives, thus marginalizing local and indigenous narratives and knowledge systems. Focusing on certain Jain heritage sites of Purulia, biased conservation and preservation strategies have been observed along with the collection of neighbouring local community narratives which revealed a sense of apathy towards archaeological authorities along with a sense of pride towards the material revealing the disenfranchisement of material heritage. The paper thus explicates the importance of the inclusion of multivocality and ethnographic methodologies into the archaeological praxis, allowing for the inclusion of minority narratives and recognizing the importance of multiple ontologies and epistemes.

Successful use of word-formation strategies is fundamental for children’s language development and vocabulary expansion (Clark, 2009, First language acquisition. Cambridge University Press). Notably, English-speaking children tend to use compounding (i.e., the joining of two roots/free morphemes) to form new words, a word-formation device highly productive in English. In contrast, Polish-speaking children rely more on derivation (i.e., the addition of an affix/bound morpheme to a root), a device which is highly productive in Polish. Less is known about how bilingual children apply word-formation devices. Thus, monolingual (English) and bilingual (English/Polish) children completed a word-formation task designed to elicit compounding (root, synthetic) and derivation (noun, verb, adjective). Results showed that bilingual children tested in Polish used more derivation and less compounding than children tested in English (monolingual, bilingual). These findings and others are discussed in terms of how bilingual children’s input and testing languages may influence their use of word-formation devices.

A graph is called Rank-Ramsey if (i) Its clique number is small, and (ii) The adjacency matrix of its complement has small rank. We initiate a systematic study of such graphs. Our main motivation is that their constructions, as well as proofs of their non-existence, are intimately related to the famous log-rank conjecture from the field of communication complexity. These investigations also open interesting new avenues in Ramsey theory. We construct two families of Rank-Ramsey graphs exhibiting polynomial separation between order and complement rank. Graphs in the first family have bounded clique number (as low as $41$). These are subgraphs of certain strong products, whose building blocks are derived from triangle-free strongly-regular graphs. Graphs in the second family are obtained by applying Boolean functions to Erdős-Rényi graphs. Their clique number is logarithmic, but their complement rank is far smaller than in the first family, about $\mathcal{O}(n^{2/3})$. A key component of this construction is our matrix-theoretic view of lifts. We also consider lower bounds on the Rank-Ramsey numbers, and determine them in the range where the complement rank is $5$ or less. We consider connections between said numbers and other graph parameters, and find that the two best known explicit constructions of triangle-free Ramsey graphs turn out to be far from Rank-Ramsey.