What counts as a human and as a proper human life has been a lifelong preoccupation of our species. Today it is digitalism, technology, and AI triggering renewed nightmares and hopeful dreams around being human. Through an examination of Samantha Schweblin’s novel “Little Eyes” (Kentukis in the original), I show how humanities are crucial to (i) keep track of what is new and old in these shifts and (ii) maintain a vigorous public sphere that is qualitatively different from gamified individual and social relations. The result is the defense of an idea of public life that stands beyond our individual private desires, marking a stark contrast with a vision of society in which we relate to others and the public as we would to toys we play with.

In recent elections across major destination countries in the developed world, migration has become a major issue of political salience. Japan has traditionally been an outlier to the trend, but migration did become a major topic driving public opinion in the 2025 Upper House election. This article explores the overall political salience of migration in Japan, focusing primarily on how the ruling coalition managed public discourse as it pushed through major reforms over the past decade, why it lost control of the narrative in the recent election, and what this means for the politics of migration in Japan going forward.

Polychrony is a virtual or artificial tempor[e]ality that is constructed by the fine augmentation or tempering of a natural set of latencies that articulate a complex networked acoustic. The art is to optimise the alignment of these disjunct temporalities as they merge in a new chronotopic fusion. This fooling with Mother Nature, however, does not come without consequences: due to the significant latency effects intrinsic to a planetary-scale network, a phenomenon called topo-rhythmia emerges. Toporhythms are derived simply as a feature of communication over distance; they are the multiple versions of a rhythm that occur at each node of a networked piece due to the temporal offsets caused by delay. To work with this feature more intentionally, rather than as an accident of relativity, we must tune or temper the network latency. Tempering is a general tactic for ontological negotiation, bringing observers and complex systems into some kind of coherency. The purpose of this article is to explore the tempering of musical time-space on networks and how that underlies the notational practices (and the alien compositional assumptions) built upon this novel orientation.

Machine learning (ML)-driven reduced-order modelling is applied to accelerate steady-state convergence in three-dimensional, nonlinear, flux-driven two-fluid simulations of boundary plasma turbulence. A parametric scan of plasma resistivity, heating and density sources is performed to generate comprehensive datasets across various turbulent regimes for model training and validation. To efficiently manage and interpret these datasets, we apply the proper orthogonal decomposition technique to reduce the dimensionality of key plasma quantities such as plasma density, temperature, electric potential and vorticity. Data-driven models are trained to map physical parameters to low-dimensional representation, enabling the rapid generation of quasi-steady-state plasma profiles. The results demonstrate that density, temperature and electric potential are qualitatively well captured with a relatively low number of bases, whereas vorticity requires a larger number of bases due to its fine spatial structures. A comparison between ML-generated restarts and simulations from scratch demonstrates a significant computational advantage of the ML approach, reducing simulation time by up to a factor of three. This hybrid framework, combining data-driven reduced-order modelling with first-principles simulations, highlights the potential of ML to accelerate plasma turbulence modelling, making high-fidelity simulations more computationally feasible for large-scale fusion devices, such as ITER and DEMO.

The US major-party presidential nominating conventions are an essential platform for a political party’s branding and messaging for upcoming presidential and congressional elections. The conventions also can provide revenue and media attention to their host cities and, consequently, convention fundraising has grown substantially in recent decades. Convention fundraising rules were changed in 2014, tripling the limit for contributions to a party’s campaign funds and removing limits on contributions to host-city committees. Although we do not expect these changes to affect individual donors, we expect corporations, banks, and labor unions to have taken advantage of these new rules. Elections since 2014, however, have been unusual in many ways—for instance, in the relationship between the nominees and their parties and, in 2020, the public health precautions required to hold conventions. This study examines developments in political-party convention fundraising since 2014, focusing on the relationships among candidates, their parties, and the cities where conventions have been held. To make this determination, funding reports were collected for the 2000–2024 election cycles. The article explores changes in the characteristics of convention donors—their other contributions and their relationships to candidates, party committees, and host cities—and notes variations that might be attributable to the nominees or the host cities. It considers whether the new convention-funding rules have matured sufficiently that it is possible to make broad claims about the effects of the rules themselves.

Biochar, when used as soil amendment, could enhance soil health, plant growth, and farm profitability while offsetting adverse effects of environmental pollution. Yet the adoption rate of biochar among agricultural producers remains extremely low. Message framing has been shown to play an important role in forming positive attitudes and generating desirable outcomes. To understand the effect of message framing in promoting biochar, we conducted a randomized experiment through an online survey of crop producers located in Eastern South Dakota. The results showed that participants who read a message about the benefits of adopting biochar from an economic perspective expressed higher interest in learning about biochar; no such effect was observed among participants who read a message about the benefits of adopting biochar from a stewardship perspective. Compared with the control group, economic and stewardship frames increased farmers’ likelihood of adopting biochar in the next 5 years, by 10.6% and 10.8%, respectively. Our findings illustrate the importance of message framing in encouraging farmers to adopt conservation practices that are rarely used. To promote future adoption of conservation practices such as biochar, it is important to highlight both economic and stewardship benefits when conveying information to farmers.

The objective of this study was to develop and validate an educational comic book designed to promote healthy eating among caregivers of young children. The study was conducted in four phases: (1) literature review and script development; (2) creation of the initial version of the comic book, including illustrations, layout and design, and calculation of the Flesch Readability Index (FI); (3) expert validation of the initial version and calculation of the Content Validity Index (CVI); and (4) adaptation of the comic book based on expert suggestions, recalculation of the FI, and pilot testing (CVI) with a lay population. A total of 64 volunteers participated in the validation process, including 14 expert judges and 50 caregivers responsible for feeding children aged 0 to 5 years. Statistical analysis included descriptive measures and inferential testing using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The FI score for the initial version was 85.0%, indicating a reading level classified as “easy to understand.” After expert evaluation, the CVI reached 94%, reflecting high agreement among participants. In the revised version, the FI remained high at 84.7%, reinforcing the “easy to understand” reading level, while the CVI increased to 98% following the pilot test, demonstrating strong consensus among participants. A significant improvement in knowledge regarding healthy eating was observed after reading the comic book (p < 0.05). The comic book was validated for appearance, content and readability, showing a positive impact on caregivers’ knowledge about healthy eating practices. It represents an accessible and effective resource that can be integrated into community-based nutrition education programmes.

We tested whether people engage in proportional thinking when comparing the value of the lives of people in different countries, specifically, whether people consider a certain number of lost lives in a smaller country to be equivalent to the loss of a larger number of lives in a country with a larger population. We found evidence for this form of proportional thinking in Study 1, and in Studies 2–3 we further observed that it is modulated by motivated reasoning: In Study 2, there was more proportional thinking when it benefited the ingroup (1 ingroup life equals 4 outgroup lives) than when it benefited the outgroup (1 outgroup life equals 4 ingroup lives). In Study 3, there was more proportional thinking when it benefited the victim in a war (1 victim life equals 4 aggressor lives) than when both countries were victims. Study 3 also showed that this form of proportional thinking is more prevalent when thinking about collectives (1,000 lives in the smaller country are equivalent to 4,000 lives in the larger country) versus individuals (1 life in the smaller country is equivalent to 4 lives in the larger country).

The creation of the Administrative Review Tribunal represents a critical redesign of Australia’s federal administrative review system. In this article, we draw on a novel dataset from the Kaldor Centre Data Lab to question the government’s justifications for retaining separate codified procedures and other restrictive rules for the new tribunal’s migration and protection jurisdictions. Our data analysis reveals that historically, there is no evidence that the codification of procedures increases the efficiency or certainty of decision-making. This approach may in fact have the opposite effect, contributing to both inefficiencies and unfairness for applicants. The government’s decision to retain separate procedures for migration and protection applicants represents a missed opportunity and may undermine the new tribunal’s objectives.

Botanical supplements occupy a regulatory grey area between food and medicine within the European Union, a situation that has given rise to a series of interrelated challenges. This paper highlights regulatory dysfunctions across several dimensions: definitional voids in EU food law, unclear food–medicine classification boundaries, fragmented market access rules, and inadequate safety monitoring systems. These regulatory gaps impose costs on business operators, restrict consumer access, and result in uneven protection across Member States. The article also focuses on safety concerns, which are, however only one element of this broader puzzle. To address such systemic difficulties, the paper proposes the introduction of harmonised pre-market notification and post-market surveillance mechanisms, with a specific focus on botanical supplements. These measures could help reconcile market accessibility with stronger consumer protection while supporting innovation. Admittedly, they may not resolve all regulatory challenges, particularly the thousands of health claims that remain on hold. Nevertheless, they might offer a practical foundation for addressing long-term, often overlooked safety concerns related to botanicals. It remains to be seen whether they could also contribute to resolving the interconnected regulatory issues in this sector, potentially paving the way for broader reform.

Since the 1970s, the concepts of ‘systemic context’ and ‘archaeological context’, developed within the framework of behavioural archaeology by Michael Schiffer, have significantly influenced archaeological reasoning and language. However, these fundamental theoretical foundations have undergone few substantial changes over the years, and a re-evaluation of the notion of systemic context could prove beneficial, especially for archaeologists working on deeply stratified sites that have hosted human occupation for centuries, such as urban sites. This paper proposes a shift from the current understanding of systemic context to a palimpsestic perspective, wherein multiple systemic contexts are viewed as sequential time-slices. Each slice represents a living system within a specific time frame, varying in width depending on the accuracy of our chronological phasing. By replacing a single, non-temporally defined systemic context with a sequence of chronologically framed systemic contexts, each characterized by distinct cultural and ecological attributes, we can better address issues that are typical of studying urban sites from both archaeological (residuality, false residuality, phasing, etc.) and historical perspectives (rhythms of change, urban development or contraction, etc.).

For each integer $d\geq 2$, let $\mathrm {M}_d$ denote the moduli space of maps $f: \mathbb {P}^1\to \mathbb {P}^1$ of degree d. We study the geometric configurations of subsets of postcritically finite (or PCF) maps in $\mathrm {M}_d$. A complex-algebraic subvariety $Y \subset \mathrm {M}_d$ is said to be PCF-special if it contains a Zariski-dense set of PCF maps. Here we prove that there are only finitely many positive-dimensional irreducible PCF-special subvarieties in $\mathrm {M}_d$ with degree $\leq D$. In addition, there exist constants $N = N(D,d)$ and $B = B(D,d)$ so that for any complex algebraic subvariety $X \subset \mathrm {M}_d$ of degree $\leq D$, the Zariski closure $\overline {X \cap \mathrm {PCF}_d}$ has at most N irreducible components, each with degree $\leq B$. We also prove generalizations of these results for points with small critical height in $\mathrm {M}_d(\overline {\mathbb {Q}})$.

This study investigates consumer preferences for two emerging food waste reduction technologies – gene editing and all-natural spray coating – applied to apples. Using a discrete choice experiment with a nationally representative sample of U.S. consumers (n = 413), we estimate willingness to pay for gene-edited apples, spray-coated apples, and untreated apples. A generalized mixed logit model in willingness to pay space reveals that consumers exhibit the highest WTP for gene-edited apples ($2.45/lb), followed by spray-coated apples ($2.37/lb), with untreated apples valued least ($1.79/lb). Latent Class Analysis identifies three consumer segments: Price-Sensitive Skeptics, Sustainability-Oriented Consumers, and Selective Technology Adopters. Sustainability-Oriented Consumers showed the strongest support for both technologies, while Selective Technology Adopters displayed a clear preference for gene editing. Behavioral attitudes, rather than demographic variables, were the main drivers of segmentation. These findings suggest that tailored marketing strategies and policy interventions, including sustainability messaging, pricing incentives, and educational outreach, can support the adoption of food waste-reducing technologies. Overall, consumers are receptive to both gene-edited and spray-coated apples, though concerns about biotechnology and price sensitivity remain. Results offer insights for producers, retailers, and regulators aiming to enhance fresh produce sustainability and reduce food waste along the supply chain.