Tetflupyrolimet is a novel herbicide that inhibits dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH), interfering with de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis in susceptible plants. While tetflupyrolimet efficacy for preemergence grassy weed control in rice (Oryza sativa L.) and managed turfgrass systems has been explored, there is minimal information regarding effects that edaphic factors may have on activity, particularly those pertaining to soil hydraulics. Dose–response experiments revealed 6- to 8-fold differences in tetflupyrolimet activity on annual bluegrass (Poa annua L.) due to soil texture, with higher activity reported following applications to sand compared with clay loam. Higher tetflupyrolimet activity in sand could be related to matric potential, as activity following applications to plants growing in sand exceeded that observed on clay loam across a wide range of volumetric water contents (15% to 60%). Once volumetric water content increased to ≥ 80%, no differences in tetflupyrolimet activity were detected between soils, suggesting that post-application irrigation could mitigate potential reductions in efficacy on finer-textured soils when moisture is limited. These findings underscore that soil texture and, consequently, moisture retention affect tetflupyrolimet activity to the extent that application rates could vary based on soil texture in turfgrass systems. Further research exploring a broader range of soil types and field conditions is warranted to refine tetflupyrolimet rate recommendations based on soil type.

How do secular and religious national role conceptions (NRCs) influence interstate rivalry? To explore this, we examine the rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia, two theocratic states. Drawing on scholarship that integrates power politics and religion, we examine how instrumental motivations shape religion-based policymaking. Using semantic network and regression analyses on data from eight official Twitter/X accounts of Iranian and Saudi foreign policy officials (2015–2021), we find that both states’ officials strategically use secular and religious NRCs in response to foreign policy roles adopted by their rival. Our findings underscore the coexistence of these NRCs and their selective application in managing rivalry. Methodologically, the study contributes to foreign policy analysis research by employing quantitative semantic analysis of social media data. It also offers a novel lens for understanding Iran-Saudi competition and the broader intersection of religion and foreign policy.

Let Fn be the free group on $n \geq 2$ generators. We show that for all $1 \leq m \leq 2n-3$ (respectively, for all $1 \leq m \leq 2n-4$), there exists a subgroup of ${\operatorname{Aut}(F_n)}$ (respectively, ${\operatorname{Out}(F_n)}$), which has finiteness of type Fm but not of type $FP_{m+1}(\mathbb{Q})$; hence, it is not m-coherent. In both cases, the new result is the upper bound $m= 2n-3$ (respectively, $m = 2n-4$), as it cannot be obtained by embedding direct products of free noncyclic groups, and certifies higher incoherence up to the virtual cohomological dimension and is therefore sharp. As a tool of the proof, we discuss the existence and nature of multiple inequivalent extensions of a suitable finite-index subgroup K4 of ${\operatorname{Aut}(F_2)}$ (isomorphic to the quotient of the pure braid group on four strands by its centre): the fibre of four of these extensions arise from the strand-forgetting maps on the braid groups, while a fifth is related with the Cardano–Ferrari epimorphism.

Precise control of the laser focal position in the relativistic laser–plasma interaction is crucial for electron acceleration, inertial confinement fusion, high-order harmonic generation, etc. However, conventional methods are characterized by limited tunability and rapid divergence of the relativistic laser pulse after passing through a single focal point. In this work, we propose a novel plasma lens with a density gradient to achieve laser focusing in a tunable focal volume. The capacity depends on the modification of the phase velocity of the incident seed laser propagating in plasma. By modifying the plasma density gradient, one can even achieve an off-axis focusing plasma lens, allowing the laser to be focused further at an adjustable focus. Based on this new type of optical device, a beam-splitting array is also proposed to leverage this unique focusing mechanism for the generation of strong axial magnetic fields (>1000 T). Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate that the seed laser with a focal spot of $9\ \unicode{x3bc} \mathrm{m}$ passing through the density varying plasma lens exhibits a focused laser with a focal spot of approximately $2.3\ \unicode{x3bc} \mathrm{m}$ and an 18 times enhancement of the laser intensity. The approach has considerable potential for applications in several areas, including laser-driven particle acceleration, X/$\gamma$-ray emission, strong magnetic field generation, etc.

Cet article examine le rôle des travailleurs de la guerre grecs, souvent qualifiés de « mercenaires », dans la transmission des cultures du Proche-Orient et de l’Égypte vers la Grèce entre le viiie et le vie siècle av. J.-C., ainsi que l’influence de leurs activités sur la construction de leur propre identité ethnique. Il s’ouvre par une discussion sur la terminologie savante appliquée aux travailleurs de la guerre étrangers, depuis la Grèce antique jusqu’à l’époque contemporaine, en soulignant ses ambiguïtés et ses limites. Les sources pertinentes attestant la présence et les activités de ces travailleurs de la guerre grecs en Méditerranée orientale sont ensuite présentées dans une perspective comparative, à partir d’études de cas tirées d’autres périodes, avec une attention particulière portée à l’armée des rois néo-assyriens et au rôle des Scandinaves dans l’armée byzantine de la dynastie macédonienne. Enfin, un panorama plus large des formations et des subdivisions ethniques au sein des armées impériales, s’appuyant sur des études de cas provenant de l’Antiquité, du Moyen Âge et d’époques ultérieures, sert de point de départ à une réévaluation du processus de formation d’une identité ionienne dans la Méditerranée orientale archaïque.

This article aims to highlight the tragic consequences of excessive corporal punishment in Ghana and contribute to global discussions on the prevention and reform of related policies. Through a media surveillance study, 25 child homicides associated with corporal punishment were identified in Ghana between 2007 and 2024. These cases were analysed using criminological methods. The findings revealed that four of the deaths occurred in school settings, while 21 took place in domestic environments. Public reactions to these fatalities were consistently swift and overwhelmingly negative. The victims ranged in age from 18 months to 20 years old. Among the perpetrators, stepmothers were disproportionately represented. Methods of punishment included physical striking with hands, sticks, canes and shoes. In school settings, infractions leading to punishment included classroom disturbances, disruptions during school worship, and poor academic performance on tests and homework. At home, infractions ranged from a toddler’s delayed ability to walk, self-defecation, failure to clean up vomit and alleged theft of money to the loss of money entrusted to a child during an errand. While the majority of cases reported the apprehension of perpetrators by law enforcement, the media did not provide information regarding the dispositions and judicial outcomes of these cases. A summary of each homicide is provided to highlight the essential elements of the crime.

Equality law has developed into a mature and sophisticated field of law across jurisdictions. At the same time, inequality too has bourgeoned. This Article explores this paradox. It argues that the widening gulf between equality law and persisting inequalities can be addressed through a ‘structural turn’ in equality law. The structural turn is imagined in contrast with the liberal view which sees the harm of inequality/discrimination as something inflicted by and against individuals or collectivities through specific acts or omissions. The structural view places individual victims and perpetrators within the broader dimensions of the social, economic, legal, political, psychic and cultural contexts in which they exist and the power relations within them. The way these dimensions interact with each other and against the relationships of power within them, reveals how structural harm is occasioned. This Article argues that structural harm need not only be treated as a product of structures, including a structure such as equality law, but as the target of equality law which is open to not only enacting structural harm but also structural change.

In the volatile year 1968, just weeks after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, an editor in the Roanoke World-News noted a strange new pop cultural phenomenon. Christian folk and rock music had arrived. Jonathan Guest, an Anglican pastor from Liverpool, and Chuck Hess, a Roanoke, Virginia man, had begun to perform for teen groups and college students. “We are reaching young people in their idiom with their type of music,” Chuck exclaimed. Put simply, Chuck believed that “if Christianity is to be relevant, it must be relevant today, and we think we can make it so with new forms of music and lyrics.” (World-News, June 29, 1968) Others who joined the early God rock craze included the shambling amateur pop rock group the Crusaders, the psychedelic rockers Mind Garage, and the young rockabilly gospel shouter Isabel Baker. From these inauspicious beginnings, Christian pop music would develop into a billion-dollar industry by the 1990s.

Environmental governance, often characterized as a tug-of-war between central ambitions and local reluctance, provides a valuable lens for examining the dynamics of China’s central–local relations and their impact on policy processes, enhancing our understanding of both the changes and continuities of the Xi Jinping era. By analysing the eco-transformation of waste management through the framework of political steering theory, this article presents a nuanced avoidance strategy used by local governments, which we term minimum compliance. This strategy allows local authorities to cope with and sidestep centrally mandated policies while avoiding the consequences of policy failure. This study enriches the discourse on China’s central–local relations by exploring why top-level design has not reduced policy implementation deviations. It also highlights how local governments in the Xi era evade policy responsibilities in their daily operations and hedge against political pressure.

We provide upper bounds for the Assouad spectrum $\dim_A^\theta(\mathrm{Gr}({\kern2pt}f))$ of the graph of a real-valued Hölder or Sobolev function f defined on an interval $I \subset \mathbb{R}$. We demonstrate via examples that all of our bounds are sharp. In the setting of Hölder graphs, we further provide a geometric algorithm which takes as input the graph of an $\alpha$-Hölder continuous function satisfying a matching lower oscillation condition with exponent $\alpha$ and returns the graph of a new $\alpha$-Hölder continuous function for which the Assouad $\theta$-spectrum realizes the stated upper bound for all $\theta\in (0,1)$. Examples of functions to which this algorithm applies include the continuous nowhere differentiable functions of Weierstrass and Takagi.

This Article explores the reach of Section 9 of South Africa’s democratic Constitution which entrenches the right to equality before the law and equal protection and benefit of the law in the light of the long legacy of apartheid geography. It argues that the equality clause has had its most profound impact in relation to areas of the law where discrimination is embedded in legal rules, perhaps most notably in the field of family law, and that it has had less impact in addressing patterns of material inequality that run along racial lines but that are not directly furthered by legislation or legal rules. It identifies some of the reasons why the equality clause is less effective at addressing patterns of racial inequality that arise from social and economic practices.

A widely made claim in academic scholarship is that the governance of solar geoengineering is characterised by gaps in international law and the absence of regulatory mechanisms. This article presents a more nuanced perspective on this claim. Instead of focusing on one comprehensive regime to govern solar geoengineering (whether its use or its non-use), we adopt a multi-dimensional impact approach to consideration of solar radiation modification (SRM) technologies and their governance. We outline the diverse array of adverse impacts that any SRM governance regime would need to contend with, and map how many of these impacts fall within the purview of existing international institutions and obligations. We conclude that any future SRM governance regime would need to build upon or at least not contravene these existing obligations. While our analysis thus modifies the claim of gaps in international law relating to SRM governance, it also suggests that the fragmented yet comprehensive coverage of diverse impacts does not mean that global coordination to govern deployment of SRM is already in place. Instead, the fragmented web of institutions and principles that exists provides room largely for restrictive SRM governance, in order to prevent adverse impacts within core areas of concern.

“Blackness” in the meaning under discussion here is too elusive to consistently discern because it defies clear definition. For instance, it was not Africans who designated themselves as “black,” nor even as Africans, since their self-identification was with their own respective cultures. The concepts the term “blackness” evokes are mainly what others have associated with Africans and other people of Black African descent. In many respects the purveyors of the trans-Saharan and Atlantic slave trades committed the greatest identity theft in world history. When the concept of “blackness” is brought to earth, a common thread that runs through it is a struggle over personal and group identities. It is also at times cloaked in other cultural behavior such as xenophobia. The original European attitudes evincing “blackness” were significantly influenced by Christian tradition surrounding the so-called Curse of Ham, an age-old myth concerning human beings of darker complexion that was shared by the Judeo-Christian and Islamic religious traditions and came to foster racist concepts positing inherent inferiority of Black Africans in many modern societies. Especially pertinent here, the Russian Primary Chronicle of the early twelfth century begins with an overview of the genesis of nations based on this Hamitic myth.1 Therefore, because of shared Christian traditions, Russians and other Slavs spread this concept alongside western Europeans even in the period before close direct contacts with the west were established. This is the broader historical background of the themes treated in this timely collection of essays “Blackness in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Societies.”

En el recinto sagrado de Mexico-Tenochtitlan, capital del imperio mexica (Azteca), se han recuperado 18 vasijas trípodes con aletas al interior de diversos contextos rituales. El estudio cuidadoso de sus atributos iconográficos, formales y contextuales revela que estos objetos estaban vinculados directamente con el pulque (una bebida alcohólica producida con la savia fermentada del maguey) y sus deidades, además de descifrar su función ritual dentro del discurso simbólico de este importante espacio de la ciudad. Se concluye que estas vasijas reflejan dos aspectos simbólicos del pulque, los cuales están determinados por la materia prima con la que fueron elaboradas. Las vasijas de cerámica se vinculan con la fertilidad, la vida, la música y los juegos; mientras que las de piedra verde están relacionadas con la noche, la muerte, el sacrificio y la guerra. Estas vasijas fueron un símbolo estandarizado entre la sociedad mexica, además que fueron ampliamente reproducidas en manuscritos y otros objetos arqueológicos, resaltando su importancia y el vínculo constante con las deidades del pulque.

This study explores the experiences of Russian relocants in Turkey, focusing on their migration trajectories through overlapping waves of shock, relocation, and partial mobilization, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Initially, Turkey was an attractive destination due to its visa-free access, air connectivity, affordable cost of living, and established post-Soviet community. However, among the nearly one million people who fled Russia, many relocants – primarily young, educated, and entrepreneurial individuals from the information technology sector and oppositional groups – face various uncertainties in Turkey. Drawing on findings from a qualitative study, this research first examines the migration journeys of Russian relocants through their self-narratives, tracing the waves of the exodus in 2022. It then critically analyzes the legal, economic, and social uncertainties they encounter in Turkey. Finally, it explores how the physical and virtual “bubbles” formed in İstanbul function as coping mechanisms to navigate these challenges. Blending staying and returning, bubbles function as temporary “in-between” spaces, allowing Russian relocants to encounter Turkey’s novelties, while maintaining a “transnational double presence” through ongoing ties to their homeland, resulting in a form of “functional adaptation.”

The basic facts and law relating to the Gaza Marine offshore gas resources located in two fields in Gaza’s exclusive economic zone are clear cut. Gaza, its land and sea, forms part of Palestine, a state party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Under UNCLOS, the State of Palestine possesses all sovereign prerogatives, including title over, and exploration of, Gaza Marine, on the same footing as any other state party. Palestine can claim and delimit the maritime zones off Gaza, which it did pursuant to its accession to UNCLOS. Accordingly, Palestine can grant contracts to any state or company to explore Gaza’s gas fields. Preventing Palestine from exercising its sovereign maritime rights and exploiting its resources is due to a succession of unlawful Israeli policies dating to the beginning of the occupation in 1967, which have kept Gaza undeveloped, followed by a complete Israeli blockade imposed since 2007, including on Gaza’s air, land, and sea. These continuing wrongful acts, in turn, triggers the state responsibility of Israel towards Palestine as an injured state, with its attendant legal consequences. Thus, Israel must cease its wrongful acts by lifting the Gaza blockade, removing the unlawful restrictions on Palestine’s usage of its maritime zones and its access to, and use of, natural resources. Israel must also compensate Palestine for the losses sustained from denying the exploration of its natural gas.