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.

As a racialized group that is subject to discrimination, US Latinxs are often considered “natural” coalitional partners for Black-led civil rights struggles. Although the BLM movement may serve as a potential site for cross-racial coalition building because both Latinxs and Blacks suffer from racial profiling by law enforcement, the development of a shared status across group boundaries hinges on the interpretation by Latinxs of both their personal- and group-level discrimination experiences. Using the 2020 CMPS, I explore how multiple dimensions of Latinx racial group consciousness (perceptions of discrimination, intra- and intergroup commonality, and racial identity) shape their cross-racial alliances with Black social movements. Results from multivariate analysis show that Latinxs who acknowledge Black Americans’ continued struggle against racial discrimination in both American society and the Latinx community are positively oriented toward the BLM movement. Findings also reveal contrasting effects for inter- and intragroup commonality: the former is strongly and consistently predictive of increased support for the BLM Movement, whereas the latter is associated with decreased support. These findings underscore both the opportunities and challenges for Latinx–Black political coalition building.

Balister, the second author, Groenland, Johnston, and Scott recently showed that there are asymptotically $C4^n/n^{3/4}$ many unordered sequences that occur as degree sequences of graphs with $n$ vertices. Combining limit theory for infinitely divisible distributions with a new connection between a class of random walk trajectories and a subset counting formula from additive number theory, we describe $C$ in terms of Walkup’s number of rooted plane trees. The bijection is related to an instance of the Lévy–Khintchine formula. Our main result complements a result of Stanley, that ordered graphical sequences are related to quasi-forests.

This comparative study explores the relationship between political and personal religious attitudes and their impact on reconciliation and tolerance in conflicts. Using survey data from 2,171 respondents across Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia, the research highlights the mediating role of religious conflict perception in shaping attitudes toward reconciliation. The findings challenge deterministic views of religion’s role in protracted conflict, showing that while political–religious attitudes correlate with a rejection of reconciliation, personal religious attitudes do not. Rather, the interplay of religious attitudes, justice perceptions, and conflict narratives shapes these attitudes. In internal political conflicts, the adoption of religious attitudes does not always correlate with intolerance. The study integrates constructivist and instrumentalist perspectives, demonstrating that the role of religion in conflict is context-dependent. It also shows that, regardless of religious affiliation, political and personal religious orientations similarly influence attitudes toward reconciliation and tolerance, offering important insights for intergroup and conflict resolution strategies.

How do citizen interest groups influence policy in domains dominated by political and economic elites? Recent research suggests their success hinges on outsider strategies to pressure policymakers, such as mobilizing public opinion. In contrast, a feminist platform named Platform for Equal and Non-transferable Birth and Adoption Leave (PPiiNA) built insider alliances with female politicians across party lines to make paternity and maternity leave equal and non-transferable in Spain in 2019. This article explores this case in depth by tracing almost 20 years of policy evolution through parliamentary documents and interviews. Against employer opposition and the absence of trade unions, the case corroborates the relevance of women in politics by illustrating how descriptive representation can open insider channels of influence to feminist advocacy groups. Nonetheless, the approval of the reform ultimately depended on left-wing governing power, while policy formulation was dominated by political elites and employer groups, limiting the capacity of cross-partisan feminist alliances to shape final policy output.

Hypoponera Santschi, 1938 is a genus of ponerine ants, well known for its simplified morphology, lacking any clear autopomorphy, and its cosmopolitan distribution. Here, we describe the first Hypoponera in Dominican amber. The discovery of Hypoponera electrocacica new species confirms the long-expected presence of the genus in the Caribbean Miocene. The modern diversity of Hypoponera in the Greater Antilles now stands at five species and two putative subspecies.

UUID: https://zoobank.org/685e8727-72e2-4723-bce3-5d7c53680eee

Indicators of dairy cow welfare are important for the future assessment and improvement of cow welfare on-farm. The objective of this study was to investigate three categories of non-invasive physiological parameters as potential indicators of welfare in dairy cows, namely cumulation of cortisol in the hair, variability in heart rate (HRV), and variability and composition of milk yield, while taking personality traits into account. These indicators were assessed when cows (all primiparous; n = 48) were housed under reference conditions and when exposed to either improving or worsening housing conditions (weekly changes over the course of six weeks). The worsening housing led to an increase in heart rate and a decrease in milk yield. The housing effects on HRV and other milk-derived indicators, however, were affected by the personality traits of activity, fearfulness and sociability. Less active cows, less fearful cows and less social cows all displayed increases in HRV in the improving housing, but more active cows showed against expectations increased HRV in the worsening housing. More fearful cows showed increases in daily milk fluctuations in the worsening housing. These results point to HRV and milk-derived indicators, the latter of which are often routinely collected and that in addition to being non-invasive are also non-intrusive, as providing interesting physiological indicators of dairy cow welfare which will warrant further research.

The past few years have seen a steady flow of articles, reports, and media commentary on China and the Middle East. In both popular and academic discourse, there is a growing debate about whether or when China will play a larger role in the region, and what the implications are for regional and global politics.1 With some exceptions, most of these discussions remain within a framework of US economic, foreign policy, and national security concerns, under the assumption that China’s overriding goal is to replicate or counter American influence. In doing so, the conversations often rely upon the narrow view from Washington and reproduce the underlying logic of US foreign policy. Read through this lens, all Chinese initiatives are either a successful or failed attempt to counter US dominance, and without reference to the Chinese and local perspective, critical details are often lost or misread. This is especially pronounced in media coverage of Sino–Iranian relations, which are often framed as a threat to American interests and global security (often conflated), or as part of a multipolar alternative to a hegemonic world order. Although the political, military, and economic implications of China’s relationship with Iran and the wider region are unquestionably important, closer attention to local sources and perspectives can provide an alternative view that both enriches our understanding and tempers our expectations of China’s role in Iran and in the wider region. This dynamic is clearly visible in the discourse surrounding the Iran–China 25-year cooperation agreement, signed on March 27, 2021.

To address the challenges of low detection accuracy, missed detections, and high false detection rates for small targets in PCB defect detection tasks, this study proposes an enhanced YOLOv8 methodology incorporating feature focusing and multi-scale fusion techniques. Initially, a lightweight GTADH module is integrated into the detection head of YOLOv8, employing a shared convolution and task alignment mechanism to minimize model parameters while enhancing classification and localization accuracy. Subsequently, an adaptive feature-focusing module is introduced into the feature fusion network to bolster the detection capabilities for small targets via multi-scale feature fusion. Finally, the reverse residual moving block (iRMB) and attention mechanisms are combined within the backbone network to facilitate efficient extraction and fusion of feature information, preserving finer details of small targets. Experimental results demonstrate that the Improved YOLO algorithm achieves a 1.3% increase in detection accuracy and a 7.3% enhancement in mAP50:90 evaluation standards compared to the original YOLOv8s algorithm on the PCB defect dataset, while also reducing model size by 60%, thus showcasing its effectiveness in small target detection tasks.