We propose a deep reinforcement learning (RL) framework designed to optimize the hedging of specific, user-defined risk factors—referred to as targeted risks—in financial instruments affected by multiple sources of uncertainty. Our methodology uses Shapley value decompositions to establish source of risk grouping’s contribution to the projected contract cash flows, providing a clear attribution of the profit and loss to distinct risk categories. Leveraging this decomposition, we apply deep RL to hedge only the targeted risks, while leaving non-targeted risks mostly unaffected. In addition, we introduce a joint neural network architecture in which the agent network utilizes risk estimates from a risk measurement neural network to stabilize the hedging strategy, taking into account local risk dynamics. Numerical experiments show that our approach outperforms traditional methods, such as delta hedging and traditional deep hedging, significantly reducing targeted risks in variable annuities while maintaining flexibility for broader applications.

Cognitive diagnostic models (CDMs) provide fine-grained diagnostic feedback by modeling the relationship between latent attributes and item responses. Two key components required for CDM implementation are the Q-matrix, which links items to attributes, and the attribute hierarchy, which defines prerequisite relationships among attributes. In many practical settings, both structures are specified by experts based on cognitive theory. In this article, we propose a novel Bayesian estimation method that simultaneously learns the Q-matrix, the attribute hierarchy, and the parameters of the deterministic inputs, noisy “and” gate (DINA) model. We develop a Metropolis–Hastings within Gibbs algorithm and integrate a mini-batch strategy to improve computational efficiency. We conducted a series of simulation studies to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm under varying conditions, including sample size, test length, hierarchy structure, mini-batch size, and threshold settings. The results demonstrate strong recovery rates for both latent structures and item parameters, confirming the accuracy and robustness of our method. A real data application further illustrates the utility of the proposed framework in uncovering interpretable diagnostic structures. Our findings offer practical guidance for researchers seeking to implement CDMs when both the Q-matrix and attribute hierarchy are unknown.

Characters are central to narrative theory but remain under-specified in computational work, where they are often reduced to clusters of words or vectors. We propose an operationalizable ontology of characterization that bridges narratological theory and NLP. From BERT-based clustering of character descriptions, we derive 17 classes of attributes (actions, emotions, traits, relations, possessions, etc.), validated through manual annotation ($k = 0.77$) and automatic classification (64% accuracy vs. 12% baseline). Applied to character similarity tasks for French fiction, our framework outperforms existing models. By aligning narratological insights with computational methods, we move toward a representation of fictional characters as structured, comparable entities for large-scale literary analysis.

We investigate the developmental consequences of slave-raiding in Eastern Europe, the largest source of slaves in the early modern world after West Africa. Drawing on a wide-ranging new dataset, we estimate that at least five million people were captured from hundreds of locations across Eastern Europe between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. We hypothesize that, over time, raids encouraged an economically advantageous process of defensive state-building linked to raided societies’ resistance to and lack of integration into the slave trade. Using difference-in-differences and instrumental variables strategies, we find that exposure to raids is positively associated with long-run urban growth and related indicators of demographic and commercial development. Consistent with our posited mechanism, raided areas constructed more robust defensive infrastructures and attained higher levels of military, administrative, and fiscal capacity. Our findings suggest that the structure of slave production conditions its developmental legacies, cautioning against drawing generalizations from the African context.

This paper examines how tourism served as a vehicle for informal political propaganda in postwar Taiwan under Guomindang (GMD) rule. Following the Second World War, when the GMD began governing Taiwan, the government recognized tourism’s potential for ideological projection and national legitimation. Through analysis of tourism promotional materials, policy documents, and news reports from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia, this paper demonstrates how Taiwan deliberately positioned itself as the authentic guardian of ‘Cultural China’ within a competitive regional context. The GMD government strategically deployed Chinese cultural traditions and landmarks as tourism attractions to establish Taiwan’s cultural legitimacy, particularly targeting overseas Chinese communities through ‘returning home tourism’ initiatives that framed Taiwan as the authentic homeland for all ethnic Chinese. Significantly, while Hong Kong promoted itself under the banner ‘The Orient is Hong Kong’ primarily to Western tourists, Taiwan’s dual strategy sought to attract both international visitors interested in experiencing ‘mysterious China’ and overseas Chinese through tourism experiences that showcased ‘Free China’ or ‘Cultural China’. This approach constituted a systematic attempt to legitimize Taiwan’s claim to represent China proper, even as its formal diplomatic position deteriorated in the 1970s. The paper argues that Taiwan’s tourism strategy represented a deliberate political calculation that transcended economic objectives, transforming cultural tourism into a powerful tool for asserting sovereignty and maintaining international relevance despite growing diplomatic isolation.

We study private equity involvement (or lack thereof) in the long-term care (LTC) sector and its recent developments in the United States, Ireland and Poland. Based on the similarities and differences across these countries’ LTC systems, which can be treated as ideal types of the variety in typical models of LTC systems, we develop a systematic approach to the analysis of private equity engagement in the sector. Specifically, we define the comparison criteria as follows: the debates about the role and place of private equity in LTC; the extent of private equity investments in LTC; the reasons for private equity entry into the LTC sector; the business strategies of private equity firms; the regulations relative to private equity in LTC. Our case study comparison demonstrates that policy responses to population aging and care needs are deeply political processes, leading to a variety of solutions shaped by institutional legacies, cultural contexts, and the power dynamics between states, markets, and civil society.

The broad-leaved Zornia, Zornia latifolia Sm. (Fabaceae), is a perennial herb, known for reported psychoactive and medicinal properties, with a native range from Argentina to South Texas and some West Indian islands. There is disagreement on the status of Z. latifolia in Florida concerning whether it is a native species, an established non-native species, or a waif (i.e., a non-native species growing outside cultivation, but not maintaining a viable population). In Florida, there is only one published record of Z. latifolia growing outside cultivation, in Hillsborough County, but multiple records of this species cultivated for research. I observed extensive populations of Z. latifolia in St Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, and Orange counties, and confirmed observations posted online from Hillsborough County. Based on the recentness of its first record of growing outside cultivation in Florida (2015), its substantial persistent populations at multiple locations in peninsular Florida, and its occurrence primarily in and adjacent to mowed areas, Z. latifolia appears to be an established non-native species in the state. Whether it becomes a major invasive species in Florida remains to be seen.

Do voters take into account the deaths of family members and close friends when evaluating the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic—particularly when that response is problematic or even negligent—as in the case of Mexico under the Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) administration? Using data from the 2021 Mexican Election Study, this research shows that opposition partisans who lost close friends or relatives to COVID-19 are more likely to evaluate the government’s response to the pandemic negatively. In contrast, National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) partisans do not hold accountable their co-partisan government. They are no more likely to evaluate the government’s response negatively, even when they experience the same losses. Experimental evidence further shows that MORENA partisans do not lower their evaluations of government performance after being informed about the country’s high COVID-19 mortality. They are also more likely to underestimate the number of COVID-19 deaths in the country, even after being presented with official mortality figures. These findings underscore how partisanship can cloud accountability, leading some voters to dismiss objective information and to judge government performance primarily through the lens of partisan loyalty. Partisanship can distort the accountability mechanism at the core of retrospective voting even during a major health crisis.

Following the proclamation of constitutionalism on 23 July 1908, villagers throughout the Ottoman Empire occupied and reclaimed çiftlik (plantation) lands from which they had previously been dispossessed. This article approaches the Ottoman 1908 Revolution as part of the “global wave of constitutional revolutions” by shifting the historiographical focus of the 1908 revolution from urban to agrarian spaces. It investigates a series of land occupations that emerged across the Ottoman çiftlik geography, conceptualizing them as the “constitutionalism of the dispossessed.” I argue that this constitutionalism of the dispossessed was a response to what I call the “order of dispossession” that emerged in the late nineteenth century: a class project of çiftlik owners reacting to global economic, imperial fiscal, and local ecological crises that aimed to subordinate labor to the circuits of global capital. Furthermore, this article discusses the failure of the constitutionalism of the dispossessed in the face of a social counter-revolution by çiftlik owners, which culminated in the codification of imperial property law. It demonstrates that the post-revolutionary government—having been concerned with the credibility of the empire in European credit markets for new loans to sustain the empire in fiscal crisis—desired the restoration of the order that the çiftlik owners insisted upon, and which the circuits of global capital required. This article ultimately offers a fresh and radical history of the Ottoman 1908 revolution and counter-revolution, suggesting a novel perspective to understand the modes of protest of the dispossessed in response to the imperatives of global capital.

We present a unified construction of perfectoid towers from specific prisms which covers all the previous constructions of (p-torsion-free) perfectoid towers. By virtue of the construction, perfectoid towers can be systematically constructed for a large class of rings with Frobenius lift. Especially, any Frobenius lifting of a reduced $\mathbb {F}_p$-algebra has a perfectoid tower.

Evidence on the association between self-esteem and suicide risk (SR) among adolescents in Latin America is limited. To address this gap, we examined this association in secondary school students from northern Peru. We performed an analytical cross-sectional study based on secondary data collected in 2022 from 1,314 adolescents attending 5 secondary schools. SR was assessed using the Plutchik Suicide Risk Scale, while self-esteem was measured with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Prevalence ratios (PRs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated through Poisson regression with robust variance, both in crude and adjusted models. The study population comprised 54.2% males, with the majority (69%) in middle adolescence. Low self-esteem was identified in 44.7% of participants, while 29.4% presented average self-esteem. Overall, 33.3% of adolescents reported SR (95% CI: 30.8–36.0). In crude analyses, both average and low self-esteem were associated with a higher prevalence of SR compared with high self-esteem (PR = 2.30 and PR = 4.11, respectively). In adjusted models, average self-esteem was associated with a 42% higher prevalence (PR = 1.42) and low self-esteem with a 67% higher prevalence (PR = 1.67). One in three adolescents presented an SR, underscoring the need to integrate school- and community-based programs that promote self-esteem within suicide prevention.