Behavioral models are instrumental for studying human cognition, yet many inferences derived from such models fail to generalize. We argue that this is driven in part by the increasing complexity of behavioral models, where non-linearities and discontinuities create dynamic parameter interactions that limit the generalizability of inferences across different contexts, experiments, and datasets. We first demonstrate the problems that arise from parameter dependency. We then propose a new methodological framework for understanding the generalizability of behavioral modeling results using multivariate sampling distributions for the model parameters. We derive and validate novel sampling distributions for complex non-linear behavioral models by transforming the mimicry between different parameter values into the chances of one set of parameters being inferred from data generated by another set of parameters. Our approach is computationally scalable to evaluate how model estimates change across the parameter space and different experiments, which can limit the generalizability of experimental results. We then apply our approach to current behavioral models, revealing new theoretical insights. Using our approach, we reinterpret results from recent modeling work in decision-making and category learning. We conclude by discussing the implications of our proposed framework for building stronger, more generalizable psychological research and theory through behavioral modeling.

Within the space of monotheistic options, trinitarian monotheism holds a puzzling place. It asserts that God is a single being who is, somehow, also three distinct persons. This form of monotheism has regularly been charged with being either inconsistent, unintelligible, or undermotivated – and possibly all three. While recent explorations of trinitarian monotheism have tended to rely on work in metaphysics, this paper turns to the philosophy of mind, showing that functionalist theories of mind prove to be surprisingly hospitable to trinitarian monotheism. This paper will address only the inconsistency and unintelligibility objections, showing that if role-functionalism (or something near enough) is both consistent and conceivable, then it is both consistent and conceivable that: God is a single being who is exactly three distinct persons because there is one primary divine person who interacts with exactly one system-sharing re-realisation of his own person-type.

Calving from tidewater glaciers and ice shelves is an important component of global mass balance and may contribute significantly to future sea-level rise. Current prognostic ice-sheet models cannot predict future calving losses because they lack a robust calving law. We argue that the key to finding a general calving law is to recognise that calving glaciers are stochastic dynamic systems that exhibit self-organisation. Collectively, calving events have statistical properties that reflect underlying fragmentation processes. These reflect distinct styles of calving and give rise to persistent patterns of advance and retreat, including fluctuations around pinning points and periods of instability and transition. These patterns motivate a stochastic calving function scaled to the stress within the ice, which we demonstrate in a set of model experiments with Elmer/Ice, for synthetic geometries representative of a Greenland outlet glacier and an Antarctic ice shelf. Self-organising behaviour emerges spontaneously from the model, including expected calving-size distributions and system convergence on quasi-stable states. The model simulates calving behaviour over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales and produces short calving cycles for a Greenland-type geometry and long cycles for an Antarctic shelf-type geometry. The long-standing calving law problem may yield to this kind of approach.

Many of Yi In-sŏng’s works, including On an Autumn Day and Room in Summer, depict tropical plants and exotic vegetation. Although the specific types of foliage he portrayed remain unclear, Yi’s use of foreign foliage clearly conveys the allure of exotic scenery. Beginning in the 1930s, coinciding with Japan’s expansion into the South Sea region, images of palm trees and exotic plants found their way into colonial Korean homes. This article investigates the emergence of the practice of portraying ‘others’ in colonial Korea, with a particular focus on the artworks of Yi In-sŏng. Yi was a renowned Western-style painter during the colonial period in Korea, celebrated for his depictions of exotic landscapes and vibrant foreign flora. While Yi’s work is often characterized as an expression of Korean ‘local colour’, this article, instead, explores Yi as an urban bourgeois and delves into his appreciation for exotic elements in his work. By contextualizing the depiction of diverse rural flora and exotic interior decorations in Yi’s urban intellectual cosmopolitanism, this article discusses how the practice of imagining ‘others’ emerged in colonial Korea during the 1930s.

Critical thinking is supported by a rich and diverse literature, with particularly close ties to argumentation theory and informal logic. It has often been presented in terms of a set of skills and dispositions, with the latter exemplified through the figure of an ideal critical thinker. These accounts of the relevant dispositions are intuitive and tend to emphasize openness, clarity, and a concern for truth. Seemingly running against this impression, it is argued here that an ideal critical thinker can willfully engage in fallacious argumentation. This surprising possibility is grounded in the distinction between thinking and arguing, with the literature on critical thinking being implicitly and rightly limited to the former. The argument draws on an established account of critical thinking dispositions, a simple supporting view of the nature of dispositions, and analogies to familiar phenomena like lying. The result complements existing work on the subject in terms of what a critical thinker should do, contributing to our understanding of the conceptual boundaries of critical thinking and argumentation proper.

By a result of Scott [16], each countable structure for a countable language L is described up to isomorphism by an $L_{\omega _1\omega }$-sentence, called a Scott sentence. We consider structures that are countably infinite. By a result of A. Miller [11], no such structure has a $\Sigma _2$ Scott sentence, so having a $\Pi _2$ Scott sentence is as simple as possible. A result of Montalbán [12] yields a nice characterization of the structures that (for a fixed countable language) have a $\Pi _2$ Scott sentence. Computable infinitary formulas involve c.e. disjunctions and conjunctions, so they are in a sense comprehensible. Therefore, we set out to characterize the structures that (for a fixed computable language) have a computable $\Pi _2$ Scott sentence. We found some examples and some partial results. However, it turns out that (for most languages) there is no nice characterization of the class. The index set is $\Pi ^1_1$-complete.

Academia, though not immediately associated with preserving humanity in war, has been instrumental in advancing international humanitarian law (IHL). Since the 1864 Geneva Convention, scholars have supported the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) by promoting IHL, researching it, and helping the law develop. In a world facing 130 armed conflicts, rising polarization and dehumanization, and a paradoxical mix of interest in and disillusionment with IHL, academia’s role is more vital than ever. Despite its contributions, however, limited scholarship exists on how academia has supported the ICRC in preserving humanity in war by contributing to IHL. How has academia promoted this body of law? How has research strengthened IHL as the cornerstone legal framework that it is today? What role have academics played in its normative development? This article explores these questions, examining academia’s endeavours to promote IHL through education, advocacy and public engagement; its research efforts to consolidate IHL, clarifying it and supporting its implementation; and its contributions to IHL’s development, from involvement in treaty-making to proposing new norms. The piece also calls for reforms in IHL education to enhance its impact, advocates for multidisciplinary and ethical research focused on compliance and other pressing issues, and urges greater inclusion of academia in structures and processes aimed at developing the law. Finally, the article concludes by issuing a call to action for States, universities and academics, and outlining pathways to collectively strengthen IHL and uphold humanity in war.

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 Samanta 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.

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.