This work compares the use of palace diplomacy and propaganda by the rulers of Constantinople and Mexico-Tenochtitlan. It builds on studies of the cultural exchange between the Roman and Sasanian empires from the third to sixth centuries a.d., which led to a diplomatic protocol shared by these two realms. This protocol and Liudprand of Cremona’s account of diplomatic receptions are the basis for comparative analysis. Drawing on Hernando Alvarado Tezozómoc’s Crónica Mexicana and other sixteenth-century sources, this study identifies key characteristics of diplomacy in Mesoamerica. It explores how Mexico-Tenochtitlan employed palace diplomacy and propaganda from the reign of Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina to Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin. Through this analysis, we find that the diplomatic and propaganda objectives of Constantinople and Mexico-Tenochtitlan had distinct focuses. The Byzantine rulers aimed to maintain their existing empire, while the Tenochca rulers sought not only to preserve but also to expand their domain. As a result, Constantinople’s strategy emphasized palace diplomacy, whereas Mexico-Tenochtitlan’s focused more on propaganda. Despite these differences, both approaches share several similarities. Both began with invitations, and their protocols included the same components: visual (architecture, wealth, and terror), ceremonial (including aural, olfactory, gustatory, ludic, haptic, somatic, and terror elements), and diplomatic (interviews and gift exchanges).

Global North countries have pledged to support Global South countries in adapting to climate change. This support can take many forms, including providing aid (in situ) or accepting immigrants (ex situ). Focusing on the Netherlands, a generous climate aid provider with a high share of immigrant population, we explore how domestic support for an overseas adaptation policy package is influenced by levels of migration and aid directed at Global South countries that vary in their location, as well as economic links with and policy proximity to the Netherlands. Using an online forced-choice conjoint experiment, we asked Dutch respondents (n = 1199) to compare two policy packages. We find that respondents support policy packages with: (1) lower numbers of immigrants, (2) lower volumes of aid, and (3) migrants from countries in geographical proximity (Albania) and shared religion (Colombia), but not Pakistan and Somalia. Moreover, they support countries that (4) import from the Netherlands and (5) have pledged to become climate-neutral earlier, a policy priority for the Netherlands.

Over the past half century, paleobiologists have advanced the estimation of phylogenetic relationships among fossil taxa to explore evolutionary patterns in deep time. This study employs a breadth of phylogenetic analyses, specifically divergence time estimations and character rate evolution, within three blastozoan echinoderm clades: Diploporita, Eublastoidea, and Paracrinoidea. Utilizing reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo (rjMCMC) and fossilized birth–death (FBD) models, we investigated evolutionary rates through anatomical subunit partitioning. Results suggest similar rates among the three groups, although Paracrinoidea exhibits elevated rates in several anatomical subunits. The inferred trees largely agree with other recently published analyses, in that the current taxonomy of the group does not reflect true evolutionary relationships. Thus, this study adds to a growing body of literature that highlights the need to revise echinoderm taxonomy. We tested different clock models for each group and found that model choice had strong effects on resulting trees; our findings suggest linked clocks (i.e., the same clocks for all character partitions) had more support than unlinked clocks (i.e., different clocks for different character partitions). These findings indicate a need to carefully consider model choice and rates of evolution when utilizing these types of analyses.

On an Adventide Sunday in 1523, a visitor to Milan’s Duomo witnessed something unexpected. Lay congregants halted high mass by yelling at the priests, demanding that attention remain fixed on their favoured preacher. This and similar episodes are recounted in the Cronica Milanese by the shopkeeper Giovan Marco Burigozzo. Using Burigozzo’s accounts alongside overlooked evidence from the Duomo’s archives, this article traces moments when customary rituals broke down under lay intervention. Such episodes reveal how ordinary congregants experienced, contested and redirected the cathedral’s functions, reshaping the church’s sonic and liturgical space in ways that diverged from its intended purposes.

In a time of polycrisis, internal contestation, and strained transatlantic relations, European identity is timelier and more relevant than ever. Do EU public policies operating in a multilevel governance system contribute to European identity-building, and what can jeopardise the process of identity formation at the level of policy elites? The article adopts a social constructivist and discursive approach and brings to the fore the lacking process of EU socialisation via discursive practices as a key reason leading to failed identity-building. Focusing on EU Cohesion Policy in Wales (UK), Crete (Greece), and Silesia (Poland), the analysis employs primary data and grey literature sources, along with 64 semistructured elite interviews, to show that, despite key differences among the three cases, Cohesion Policy has not contributed significantly to European identity-building among policy elites at different government levels and among the public. This is because the coordinative discourse about EU policies is dominated by ideas about economic goals and practical aspects of policy-making, while the respective communicative discourse is controlled by domestic political elites and the media and is ultimately determined by broader national/regional political cultures about the purpose and limitations of EU membership. Overall, the article contributes to the literature on European identity-building, EU socialisation, and discourse by arguing that the way EU public policies are designed, implemented, and communicated do not favour the achievement of political goals, such as the cultivation of a shared European identity.

Many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are managed by owners, founders, or small leadership teams. The UK government’s Help to Grow Management Programme (HtGM) aims to improve SME growth through leadership and management skills training to increase firm level productivity. The government’s independent evaluation reports for the HtGM programme show that its aims were broadly met, but there is no empirical research that has reviewed the programme. To address this gap, 46 HtGM programme completers were interviewed on their perception of the HtGM outcomes. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and compared to the government’s evaluation reports. This study’s findings show that a variety of programme activities developed skills, knowledge, and management practices, resulting in improved confidence to lead and drive growth. The analysis adds depth to our understanding how this was achieved from the programme, highlighting the benefits of mentoring, networking and cross-collaboration. Follow-up support is recommended for the growth action plan (GAP).

As interest in the thought of Giambattista Vico increases worldwide, the completion of the critical edition of his Scienza Nuova, in its successive versions of 1725, 1730, and 1744, provides an opportunity to reassess the compositional, textual, and editorial history of the work, and to ask further questions about the work’s evolution. This article first outlines the course of the work’s composition, highlighting the complex history of the 1725 version, and the rapidity and extent of the rewriting which resulted in the version of 1730. It reviews the earlier editions of the Scienza Nuova by Ferrari and Nicolini, both of whom subordinated the 1730 version to that of 1744. The critical edition, by contrast, affirms the independence of all three versions: the article outlines the problems involved in editing each of them. It ends by opening up the question: what was Vico doing when he rewrote the work in 1730?

This article discusses the question whether the use of ὄργανον as a title to designate Aristotle’s logical treatises as a unitary bibliographical entity can be traced back to the ancient commentators or emerged as late as in the Renaissance. A review of the ancient and medieval evidence locates the earliest certain traces of this use in the eleventh or twelfth century.

The Atrato slider Trachemys medemi is a freshwater turtle endemic to the Atrato River basin in the Urabá region of north-west Colombia. Although there is limited information about the species, it was provisionally categorized as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List by the IUCN Turtle Taxonomy Working Group in 2021 because of its restricted distribution. This study aimed to estimate the potential distribution of T. medemi, identify relevant climatic factors affecting its geographical range and predict its probable future distribution under different climate change scenarios. We recorded its occurrence along the Atrato River and in the surrounding areas, and we employed an ecological niche modelling approach to predict species distribution based on our field data and literature records. Our model indicated that the aquatic distribution of the Atrato slider encompassed the lower, middle and upper Atrato River. This distribution was influenced by air temperature, water temperature and hydrological slope. Our climate change models predicted a dramatic loss of suitable habitat in future, leading to > 50% reduction in T. medemi populations within 30 years. Considering the threat from climate change together with the cultural tradition of harvesting wild turtles for human consumption, we suggest (1) a conservation focus on areas of potential habitat already protected under the National System of Protected Areas in Colombia, (2) empowering local community-based programmes that protect biodiversity, and (3) encouraging reforestation to improve connectivity amongst habitats in the turtle’s geographical range, particularly in degraded areas.

Geoforensic analyses complement archaeological resource crime investigations, cultural resource damage assessments, and other investigations involving sediments. Civil and criminal litigation may hinge on attributions of sediments recovered from persons, equipment, objects, and localities to specific source deposits, including altered cultural resources. Geoforensic fieldwork often entails fluid interplays among geological, archaeological, and investigative factors, and few scientists have experience working in such contexts. Geoforensic specialists may be tasked to swiftly investigate unfamiliar regions to obtain representative specimens and to present expert reports grounded in scientifically reliable principles and methods. For these reasons, systematic preparation is needed to improve geoforensic fieldwork effectiveness and efficiency. We present recommended procedures and field-tested assets for five pre-fieldwork steps: (1) commit to the teamwork, discretion, and professionalism required for crime scene investigation and case resolution; (2) gather geological and archaeological background information; (3) assemble the sediment sampling tool kit; (4) prepare sediment sampling documentation and specimen collection forms; and (5) obtain necessary permits and law enforcement, landowner, or attorney guidance for participation in crime scene reconnaissance, survey, or resurvey. Completion of these five steps will optimize the prospects for geoforensic contributions to cultural resource damage assessments and to just resolution and remediation of unauthorized cultural resource alterations.

International studies show that school food programmes (SFP) can improve children’s diets but evidence from Canada is nascent. We examined whether SFP are linked to better dietary intake and diet quality among Canadian elementary schoolchildren. This cross-sectional study surveyed 2366 grade 4–8 students (age 9–14 years; 48·9 % girls) from 32 schools in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities in Alberta and Ontario, Canada. Students completed a 24-hour diet recall, recording foods and beverages consumed during school hours (breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack), and their source (school, other). Multivariable linear models examined the association of accessing SFP (≥1 meal/snack provided by school) with student daily intakes of vegetables and fruit, grains and grain products, milk and alternatives, meat and alternatives, free sugars, sodium and diet quality, adjusting for relevant confounders. Only 293 (12·4 %) students accessed SFP. Overall, accessing SFP was associated with higher intake of vegetables and fruit (β = 0·4, 95 % CI = 0·1; 0·7) and better diet quality score (β = 1·8, 95 % CI = 0·7; 3·0). Specifically, morning snacks provided by schools were associated with lower intake of free sugars (β = –8·9, 95 % CI = –16·5; −1·4), while school-provided lunches were associated with higher intake of milk and alternatives (β = 0·5, 95 % CI = 0·2; 0·8). Further, school-provided afternoon snacks were associated with higher intake of vegetables and fruit (β = 1·1, 95 % CI = 0·6; 1·6), lower sodium intake (β = –258·4, 95 % CI = –506·7; −10·0) and better diet quality (β = 3·1, 95 % CI = 1·1; 5·1). One in eight elementary schoolchildren accessed SFP. Students who accessed SFP had better diets, highlighting the potential of SFP (particularly snacks) in improving children’s diets.

Garnet-bearing silicic volcanic rocks are rare in fossil orogens and usually record a transient stage from regional compression to extension. This study reports newly identified 839 ± 3 Ma garnet-bearing dacitic volcanic rocks associated with the Fuchuan ophiolite complex (FOC) in the eastern Jiangnan Orogen (JO), Southeast China. The presence of these unusual rocks provides new constraints on the late Neoproterozoic tectonic evolution of the orogen.

The garnet-bearing dacitic volcanic rocks of the garnets are weakly peraluminous and exhibit trace element and Nd isotopic signatures similar to those of post-orogenic, strongly peraluminous granites in the eastern JO, indicating a similar crustal source. The garnets are almandine-rich (76–79 wt%) and characterized by low CaO (<2.5 wt%), MnO (<2.6 wt%) and TiO2 (<0.1 wt%), consistent with garnets in peraluminous S-type volcanic rocks globally. Integrated petrological, geochemical and zircon Hf isotopic evidence indicates that the primary magma originated from partial melting of a heterogeneous lower-crustal source, comprising both juvenile basaltic and ancient pelitic components. High zircon saturation temperatures (>900°C) further imply the heating of coeval underplating mantle-derived mafic magma, analogous to the mechanism forming ‘hot granites’.

Integrating our findings with regional geology, we propose that the garnet-bearing dacitic volcanic rocks associated with the FOC formed in an ensialic back-arc basin along the southeastern margin of the Yangtze Craton. The occurrence of the garnet-bearing magmatism records the onset of back-arc extension, likely following the ∼880–860 Ma arc–continent collision and subsequent subduction polarity reversal.