In the region of Cyrenaica is located the rural sanctuary of Martuba, where two altars and a set of statues have been discovered that have traditionally been linked to the goddess Isis. However, through a comparison with other elements belonging both to the region and to Numidian and Phoenician-Punic areas, as well as Egypt, this paper defends their identification not with the Egyptian divinity, but with the one with which a process of hybridisation or religious bricolage took place at some point prior to Herodotus, the puissance divine called for convenience ‘Luna’ (Moon). This suggests the presence of two intertwined cultural traditions that have contributed to the formation of an innovative and distinct local reality. The resultant cultural artefact is characterised by a synthesis of influences from dominant cultures, such as Roman and Egyptian, while retaining distinctive elements that are unique to the Libyan-Phoenician tradition.

Neuroimaging research must reflect the diversity of the populations it aims to serve. This scoping review examines the demographic characteristics (age, sex, race and ethnicity, and geographic representation) of participants in brain MRI and positron-emission tomography studies conducted in Quebec, Canada, between 1992 and 2023. A total of 1,549 studies, representing 62,555 participants, were identified through searches of Medline, Embase and Google Scholar, following JBI methodology. The vast majority of studies (92.7%) were conducted in Montreal, with limited representation from other urban centers and almost none from rural areas. Reporting of demographic variables was inconsistent: 22.1% of studies failed to report participant age adequately, and 20.3% did not fully report sex. Race and ethnicity were the most poorly documented, with fewer than 4% of studies reporting this information. Among the 2,396 participants with recorded race and ethnicity, 94.2% were categorized as White, highlighting a significant mismatch with Quebec’s population diversity. Healthy participant samples were largely concentrated in the 20–35 age range, while clinical populations generally aligned with the expected age of disease onset. These findings reveal major gaps in demographic representation and reporting in Quebec-based neuroimaging research. Improving diversity and transparency is essential to ensure that neuroimaging findings are generalizable, equitable and clinically meaningful. We recommend the adoption of standardized demographic reporting formats, such as the Brain Imaging Data Structure, and broader recruitment efforts to capture underrepresented groups, including rural residents and racial and ethnic minorities.

One cannot justifiably presuppose the physical salience of structures derived via decoherence theory based upon an entirely uninterpreted use of the quantum formalism. Non-probabilistic accounts of the emergence of probability via decoherence are unconvincing. An alternative account of the emergence of probability involves the combination of a partially interpreted decoherence model and an averaging of observables with respect to a positive-definite quasi-probability function and neglect of terms of $O\left( \hbar \right)$. Our analysis delimits the context in which the combination of decoherence and a semi-classical averaging allows us to recover a classical probability model within an emergent coarse-grained description.

Despite ongoing affective polarization in the United States, support for Taiwan has somehow remained unscathed; Democrats and Republicans unanimously endorse US-Taiwan foreign policy. This is reflected both in public opinion surveys of American voters and support for Taiwan from elected officials. Theories of foreign policy and public opinion suggest that whether voters take top-down or bottom-up cues on foreign policy, we should expect some level of polarization on a salient issue like Taiwan. Utilizing two preregistered survey experiments in the United States, this study tests how robust bipartisan support for Taiwan persists when Taiwan is framed as either a Republican or Democratic issue. When presented as a partisan issue, do American voters still support Taiwan? Contrary to theoretical expectations, Taiwan presents a complex reality. Some foreign policy issues related to Taiwan can become partisan when framed along party lines while others remain bipartisan. Specifically, support for diplomatic and military policy may be affected by partisan framing, but support for economic policy remains bipartisan. This study contributes to theories of public opinion and foreign policy, particularly for scholars focused on US-Taiwan and US-China relations.

We present a novel method to differentiate stream-like and shell-like tidal remnants of stellar systems in galactic halos using the density-based approach of the clustering algorithm AstroLink. While previous studies lean on observation, phase-space, and action-space based criteria for stream and shell determination, we introduce AstroLink’s ordered-density plot and cluster identification as a viable tool for classification. For a given data set, the AstroLink ordered-density plot reveals the density-based hierarchical clustering structure from which the resultant clusters are identified as being statistically significant overdensities. Using simulations of sub-halo disruptions in an external potential to generate samples of tidal structures, we find that the curvature of the ordered-density plot is positive for stream-like structures and negative for shell-like structures. Comparisons with more standard classification techniques reveal strong agreement on which structures typically fit into stream-like and shell-like categories. Furthermore, we investigate the properties of clustered stream and shell samples in radial phase space and energy-angle space. Given the sensitivity of stellar tidal structures to their host dark matter (DM) halos, the identification and subsequent classification of these structures provide exciting avenues of investigation in galactic evolution dynamics and DM structure formation.

We present a proof-of-principle study of active beam-pointing control for the Zettawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort pulse laser System (ZEUS) using a piezo-actuated 16-inch mirror. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest actively controlled mirror reported in a high-power laser system. A simple proportional feedback control was implemented based on a field-programmable gate array, which reduced the standard deviation of beam-pointing fluctuations by 91% to 0.075 μrad in the horizontal direction and by 78% to 0.25 μrad in the vertical direction. We also demonstrated the elimination of long-term pointing jitter caused by temperature drift using the same apparatus.

Standard conceptions of discrimination cannot account for all that is morally wrong about discrimination, as they cannot explain how individual acts of discrimination wrong not only their direct target but also all members of the targeted social group. In response to this lacuna, I develop a comprehensive account according to which discrimination consists of two interdependent wrongs: to discriminate against B, A must, first, treat B worse than C in a way that is grave enough to make this differential treatment morally wrong; and second, A must do so in a way that is disrespectful to B and to the social group B is perceived to belong to.

This paper shares how a river-walking project in early childhood education created and experimented with two practices diffractively as an effort to do research differently. The year-long study, situated in Western Australia, explored river-child relations while walking with Derbarl Yerrigan/Swan River and was interested in decentring the human and attuning to more-than-human relations through situated practices. Using a feminist environmental framework this project took a non-representational approach to analysing data through two intra-related diffractive concepts: re-turning and re-membering. These concepts grounded the two practices, audiowalking and micromapping, and helped to shape the various forms of experimentation for a diffractive approach to analysis. Audiowalking is a practice that involved creating narrated audio recordings while walking with an intention of layering data from the present with pasts and futures. Micromapping is an embodied and performative practice that reimagined and unsettled place and space through mapping emotional encounters, river relations and the more-than-human. This paper shows how environmental education researchers, particularly those conducting place-based research, can approach research analysis diffractively to disrupt colonial ways of knowing, being and doing research through two practices that take a non-linear conceptualisation of time, embody data and research with worlds.

There are significant welfare concerns regarding the plight of working donkeys (Equus asinus) in developing countries. To-date, however, there has been limited work assessing the welfare of donkeys in many parts of Africa, including Kenya. This study aimed to characterise the unique welfare concerns of working donkeys in Meru County, Kenya. Baseline information was gathered, concerning challenges with feeding, working conditions and disease faced by owners and drivers with differences between pack and cart donkeys investigated. To this end, 102 donkeys underwent evaluation using a Standardised Equine Based Welfare Assessment Tool (SEBWAT) and 58 owners were surveyed. Important welfare concerns, including low body condition scores (BCS) (median [IQR] 2 [1.5, 2.5 out of 5]), hobbling (81/102; 79%) and mutilation wounds (49/102; 48%) were identified in all donkeys. The following categories registered significant physical differences between cart and pack donkeys: signalment (cart 100% male, pack 21% male); BCS (median cart 2.0, pack 1.5); and presence of skin wounds on the neck (cart 30%, pack 0%). Behaviour was assessed with differences noted in chin contact avoidance (cart 56%, pack 97%), tail tuck presence (cart 46%, pack 97%), number of donkeys owned (median cart 2, pack 1), reported administration of de-worming medication by owners (cart 95%, pack 17%), and occurrence of reported illness (cart 81%, pack 38%). This initial survey addresses welfare concerns related to the Meru County donkey population and will serve as a useful benchmark for future assessments as well as targeted interventions, including the introduction of modified carts to the region.

Driving enables older adults to maintain independence and community mobility. Driving plays a pivotal role in the ability to engage in activities, socialize, run errands, and access health care services; yet many people eventually stop driving. This study investigates factors that contribute to transitions from driver to non-driver (i.e., driving status) using data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). Among participants aged 45–85 who reported driving at baseline (n = 30,901), 1.65 percent (n = 510) had stopped driving at follow-up (three years later). Logistic regression identified predictors of this transition, including older age, female sex, lower income, urban residence, poorer self-rated health, difficulties with activities of daily living, low memory scores, and vision problems. These findings highlight the interplay of physical, cognitive, and environmental factors in driving cessation. This research advances understanding of mobility transitions in later life and informs targeted strategies to support older adults as they plan for driving retirement.

Selectivity, the ability to kill weeds without killing the crop, is a challenge for in-row mechanical cultivation, especially in slow-growing crops like carrots [Daucus carota L. ssp. sativus Hoffm. ‘Bolero’]. To gain insight into the optimal tool type and timing for in-row cultivation of different weed species, we adapted an existing model (“Kurstjens model”) to predict “potential efficacy” (PE)—the greatest weed mortality attainable at a given level of crop mortality—based on weed anchorage force and height data, which serve as proxies for tolerance to uprooting and burial. We parametrized the baseline model using data for carrots and five weed species at early growth stages and used the model to predict the PE of idealized tools that bury or uproot in combination with various cultural practices. Under baseline model assumptions, tools that bury had greater PE for grass weeds, and tools that uproot had greater PE for broadleaves. Combining or “stacking” tools that uproot with those that bury had minimal impact on predicted PE for individual weed species, but increased PE on mixed grass–broadleaf weed communities compared with single-tool mechanisms of action. Cultural practices (e.g., stale seedbedding and cultivar choice) that increased carrot anchorage force and height relative to weeds at the time of cultivation greatly increased PE for both mechanisms of action. Our model provides a useful method for predicting the optimal tool mechanism of action and timing for any weed–crop combination.

The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) records a global increase in marine biodiversity that reached maximum diversification rates during the Middle Ordovician. The degree to which the causes of the GOBE are regional or global is a question that must be addressed through analysis of regional data. In this study, stratigraphically constrained field-based data from the Middle Ordovician Simpson Group of Oklahoma were collected to identify temporal trends in body volume and determine whether body volume trends are more closely associated regional or global environmental and diversity changes. Anteroposterior–transverse (AT) volume estimations were produced for rhynchonelliform brachiopods at a bedding-plane level of resolution. Time-series analysis was used to establish temporal trends in brachiopod volume. Volume data were then analyzed alongside paired δ18O, Δ13C, 87Sr/86Sr, taxonomic diversity, and lithologic data using a boosted regression model to identify their relative influence on shell volume through time. Results of these analyses indicate that (1) a rapid pulse of brachiopod volume increase occurred coincident with the main diversification pulse in Simpson Group strata and (2) volume increase was not coupled with an increase in brachiopod volume variance. Volume increase was primarily associated with global-scale factors such as age, δ18O (temperature), 87Sr/86Sr (tectonics), and taxonomic diversity trends; whereas local-scale factors of Δ13C (carbon cycle) and lithologic trends were more weakly associated with local volume trends. Notably, all factors had a nonzero influence over brachiopod volume, indicating that local diversification was influenced by multifaceted interactions among abiotic and biotic controls. These results support the argument that Ordovician diversification included a substantial biotic shift during the Middle Ordovician and support the hypothesis that global factors were dominant, influencing diversification patterns during the main phase of the GOBE.

This article explores how pedagogy focused on affective possibilities of narrative genres can suggest new directions for climate fiction, potentially challenging the dystopian dominance in the climate crisis imaginary. We analyse a corpus of work produced by first year creative writing students. The students were given the task of “mashing” climate fiction with another genre (romance, horror, crime or any other genre of their choice) and asked to reflect on how this changed the emotional affect and tone of their narrative. Many students were still drawn to dystopian visions, reflecting how climate fiction has become entangled with this particular mode of storytelling, but the focus on reader affect resulted in the students adding layers of hope and agency. Many made use of the possibilities offered by genre: the whimsical allegory of fantasy, the critical thinking of realism, the active fear of horror and the comic potential of satire. By giving students the freedom to embed climate change into their preferred genre, and by asking them to consider the affective consequences of their choices, we offer challenges to the dominance of dystopian climate fiction, suggesting a different path to narratively engage with the climate crisis without descending into hopelessness.

Recent times have been hard for global governance, not least for formal intergovernmental organizations (FIGOs). Given changing conditions and their inability to adapt, many observers argue that FIGOs are drifting and losing ground to low-cost institutions (LCIs). We argue that this widespread perception is incomplete and that it dismisses too quickly the durability of FIGOs. We begin by pointing out that not all FIGOs are drifting and that some may even thrive amid transnational crises and power shifts. We then highlight the possibility that in a densely institutionalized global environment, states can substitute one FIGO for another. Thus, even as one FIGO is drifting, other FIGOs, rather than or alongside LCIs, can take the mantle. We identify and exemplify three key motivations for FIGO substitution: overcoming gridlock, enhancing ideological alignment, and policy laundering. During crises and power shifts, some members might paralyze a FIGO, leading to gridlock and prompting other members to cooperate in another FIGO. Power shifts and crises can also motivate dissatisfied FIGO members to pursue parallel activities in a FIGO that better fits their ideological outlook. Policy laundering occurs when members use one FIGO over another to signal political intent. We conclude by exploring the normative implications of FIGO substitution.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has gained regulatory approval as an adjunctive treatment for obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) in adults. However, its application in adolescents remains largely untested. This editorial examines the limited evidence available, focusing on choice of target, stimulation depth and methodological variation. Ethical challenges surrounding the use of rTMS in vulnerable populations, including informed consent and the unknown long-term effects on neurodevelopment, are also discussed. Although rTMS holds promise for treatment-resistant adolescent OCD, a cautious and ethically rigorous approach is essential before wider clinical adoption can be considered.