This study uses electropalatography to examine linguopalatal contact differences between Japanese geminate and singleton consonants of various lingual places and manners of articulation. The analysis of over 8,000 tokens of these consonants produced by five Japanese speakers in three sets of stimuli (varying by the word lexical status, contrastive focus, and position within an utterance) showed significantly stronger constrictions for geminates of all places and manners, except for alveolopalatal fricatives. The geminate-singleton differences were the largest for alveolar and alveolopalatal nasals, while being the smallest for alveolopalatal affricates and velar stops. Durational differences between geminates and singletons were quite robust and tended to positively correlate with linguopalatal contact differences for most geminate and singleton consonants. No clear contact or durational differences were observed across the datasets, suggesting that the realization of the contrast is affected minimally by lexical status and position in the utterance. The findings for Japanese geminates are further discussed in the context of articulatory studies of similar contrasts in other languages.

The study of vowel quality has traditionally been based on single-point formant frequency measurements. There is considerable evidence now acknowledging spectral change as an essential part of the vowel system. Previous descriptions of Singapore English vowels have generally been impressionistic, with few offering detailed analysis of vowel quality and based on single-point formant frequency measurements at that. Collectively, they converge on the observations that the target monophthong pairs /i, ɪ/, /u, ʊ/, /ɔ, ɒ/, /ɑ, ʌ/, /æ, ɛ/ and /ɜ, ə/ are each realized as conflated single vowel sounds and the target diphthongs /ɛi/, /ɛə/ and /oʊ/ are monophthongized, with some overlap with the monophthongs listed above. This study analyzes the inherent spectral change of Singapore English vowels based on a dataset from the National Speech Corpus and examines possible contrast in duration between its tense-lax vowel pairs with the aim of providing an update on the description of its vowel system. Contrary to past conclusions, the present study finds no clear conflation of the monophthong pairs /i, ɪ/, /u, ʊ/, /ɔ, ɒ/, /ɑ, ʌ/ and /ɜ, ə/, or the reduction of /ɛə/. However, results do show the conflation of /æ/ and /ɛ/, and the monophthongization of /ɛi/ and /oʊ/.

The “Concession to Avicenna,” also known as the seventh chapter of De substantia orbis, is one of Averroes’s several philosophical attempts to reconcile between the corporeality of the celestial bodies and their eternity. The “Concession” contains a brief and rare nod of approval to Avicenna, which prompted the title under which it circulated. The work, lost in Arabic, survives in Ṭodros Ṭodrosi’s Hebrew translation from 1340, from which Abraham de Balmes’s subsequent Latin translation was made in the early sixteenth century. The present contribution offers, for the first time, an edition of the text in Hebrew and its original Latin translation (before its editorial revision for the 1525 editio princeps), alongside an introduction, a philosophical analysis of the argument, an English translation, and a glossary.

With a growing body of research exploring how employees perceive and respond to human resource management (HRM) practices, the strategic HRM field faces the challenge of assessing how insights have evolved and which theoretical perspectives have shaped them. This study presents a bibliometric review of 292 empirical research on employee perceptions of HRM practices, focusing on (1) the major research interests explored, (2) the theoretical perspectives applied, and (3) their evolution over the last 25 years. The analysis reveals a reoccurring emphasis on performance-oriented variables, such as engagement, suggesting a tendency to rely on quantifiable outcomes while sidelining alternative constructs like employee well-being. It also highlights the dominance of a limited set of theoretical perspectives commonly applied, with alternative perspectives remaining underutilised. By mapping how topical areas and theories intersect, this study refines the classification of theoretical perspectives and contributes to a more critical understanding of the strategic HRM field. Potential implications are discussed to outline actionable recommendations for future research.

This paper documents how the advent of the limited liability corporation contributed to the diffusion of steam technology during Sweden’s industrialization. Using longitudinal establishment-level data, we show that incorporation sharply raised the probability that industrial establishments adopted steam. Incorporation facilitated technology adoption partly by enabling smaller establishments to expand to a greater scale, where the use of steam became feasible. These results highlight that low barriers to incorporation may be an important lever for facilitating the diffusion of new technologies.

In the middle of the nineteenth century in cities and towns across North India a popular craze for the sitar drove untold numbers of amateur enthusiasts to seek instruction in Hindustani raga music from the only available source: the Muslim hereditary professional performers known as ustads. A long record of statements excoriating the ustads has generally been dismissed by contemporary scholars as colonially inspired propaganda that served a Hindu identitarian vision of music reform and institution-building for the incipient nation. This article accesses a collection of Urdu-language music instruction texts produced between 1863 and 1915 to offer a contrasting interpretation: the depiction of ustads as ignorant, ill-mannered, and addicted is propounded first and foremost by Muslim authors unconcerned with nationalism, but invested in opening the Hindustani music tradition to the uninitiated amateur. Close readings of narrative anecdotes from these texts alongside the 1910 and 1914 Marathi-language works of famed scholar and music reformer Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (1860–1936) reveal a continuity of concerns across language, region, and religious community. Bhatkhande and the earlier Urdu authors share not only their frustration with the half-trained and ill-behaved ‘fly-by-night’ ustad, but also their reverence for the masterful ustads whose reputations were threatened by the unchecked presence of charlatans in their midst.

Only a minority with mental disorders worldwide receive treatment with negligible coverage of interventions to prevent associated impacts, prevent mental disorders or promote mental well-being. Reasons include insufficient public mental health (PMH) skills and training. An electronic search found limited availability of PMH courses globally. Improved access to PMH training informed by a core curriculum will support sustainable reduction of mental disorders, promotion of population mental health well-being and broad associated impacts across sectors. Regular assessment of PMH training coverage and impact will support sustainable progress.

The World of Sugar, Ulbe Bosma’s compelling historical narrative on how sugar became a global commodity, and the accompanying introductory article in the International Review of Social History raise many fascinating points for further reflection and debate. In this commentary, I wish to highlight several points that resonate strongly with my own work at the Transnational Institute (TNI), a global think tank based in Amsterdam that connects social movements with academics and policymakers. These points of reflection are informed by TNI’s mission and practice of “scholar-activism”: the fact that we seek not only to interpret the world, but also to change it for the better, in particular for those exploited and oppressed classes and social groups. As my work principally involves collaboration with transnational agrarian movements, I pay particular attention to areas of Bosma’s analysis that carry implications for rural working people and for agrarian and environmental justice. This includes the role of sugar in the global land rush, the rise of sugar cane as a “flex crop and commodity”, and the ways in which “rural sugars” can be supported in peasant- and smallholder-based economies and livelihood strategies.

This article establishes a foundation for the development of Marxist approaches to European Union (EU) law. While Marxist scholarship has engaged with European integration throughout its history, it has largely overlooked the legal architecture of the EU. Conversely, EU legal studies have remained largely insulated from Marxist thought, even as critical approaches have begun to gain traction. Bridging this mutual neglect, the article argues that EU law must be understood not as a neutral or technocratic system, but as a central element of capitalist social relations both in Europe, and in terms of Europe’s wider integration in the global market. In this way, EU law is bound up with processes of accumulation, imperialism, and racialised social reproduction. Drawing on key currents within Marxist theory, the article situates EU law within the historical dynamics of capitalist development, demonstrating how a materialist legal analysis can deepen and enrich existing critiques of European integration.

Cette note de recherche vise à offrir une première introduction aux enjeux de la recherche par sondage, en particulier lorsqu’on utilise des données provenant de panels non probabilistes, comme les sondages en ligne. Nous expliquons le concept clé d’ignorabilité, qui aide à comprendre comment les biais de sélection peuvent affecter les résultats, et comment certaines techniques statistiques – comme la post-stratification et le raking – peuvent tenter de les corriger. À l’aide de simulations, nous montrons dans quels contextes ces méthodes peuvent fonctionner, et dans quels cas elles échouent. Les résultats suggèrent que les sondages non probabilistes présentent des limites importantes pour produire des estimations valides, mais qu’il existe aussi des pistes pour en améliorer l’usage, surtout dans le contexte actuel où ces données sont de plus en plus courantes en sciences sociales.

The authors examine the 1910, 1920, 1930, and 1940 US censuses to identify demographic characteristics of children who resided in public and private institutions for minors, with special attention to patterns of racial segregation and exclusion. The article focuses on public and private institutions founded exclusively to serve children and youth and also on correctional institutions for children and adults. The authors found racial segregation in private institutions, underrepresentation of children of color in both private and public institutions, and overrepresentation of boys of color in correctional institutions for minors and adults. They also identified a historical pattern, with few exceptions, of excluding girls of color from all types of public and private institutions.

This paper examines the impact of weather conditions on wheat production in the Florence and Siena regions in the early modern age, emphasizing the need to contextualize this influence within historical, geographical, and economic frameworks. Our quantitative findings suggest that, on average, hotter and wetter spring and summer weather conditions were beneficial for wheat yields in early modern Tuscany, though this relationship holds true only within a certain optimal range; otherwise, extreme conditions are detrimental. However, the boundaries between optimal and non-optimal conditions vary based on the historical, economic, and geographical context, ultimately determining the level of agricultural productivity. Specifically, we argue that two macro causes – primary production factors and the degree of market volatility – play a crucial role in shaping the effects of weather on agricultural outcomes. First, soil conditions, technology (broadly defined), and capital-labour ratios are the most significant determinants of agricultural productivity. Second, competitive and integrated markets, when supported by countercyclical institutions – in our case, the annona system – can mitigate the negative consequences of adverse weather by reducing the resulting volatility. Where such institutions are weak or absent, speculation (i.e., hoarding), driven by price expectations under high volatility, may arise and amplify disruptions.

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder with heterogeneous outcomes that depend heavily on symptom stability as a prerequisite for psychosocial rehabilitation and reintegration. Long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIs) are a relevant treatment tools that can help advance meaningful outcomes through improved antipsychotic adherence and relapse prevention, deliver pharmacokinetic advantages less achievable with oral formulations, improve patient autonomy, increase functioning, and reduce the risk of premature mortality even more than oral antipsychotics. However, LAIs remain largely underutilized. Non-modifiable and modifiable risk factors for relapse are summarized, potential advantages and disadvantages of LAIs are reviewed, and myths and misconceptions regarding LAIs are outlined and contrasted with evidence. This information is crucial when engaging in shared decision-making and motivational interviewing to educate patients and caregivers about the treatment option of LAIs, including in early illness stages. Since the first episode and early phases of schizophrenia are a defining time, choosing treatments with the greatest potential for improved outcomes is key. In adults with multi-episode schizophrenia, LAIs have shown superiority over oral antipsychotics for relapse/hospitalization and a variety of multiple other efficacy, effectiveness, functionality, and survival metrics. Additionally, LAIs have shown superiority over oral antipsychotics in patients with first-episode/ or early-phase illness, at least in meaningful subgroups of studies and patients that point toward superiority in settings, individuals, and treatment paradigms that more closely match clinical care. Based on this evidence, hesitancies to discuss and offer LAIs in clinical care need to be overcome, framing LAIs not as a last resort but a viable first-line/earlyphase treatment option that can meaningfully transform the long-term course of schizophrenia.

Parental criminality is a risk factor for crime, but little is known about why some individuals exposed to this risk refrain from crime. We explored associations of resting heart rate (RHR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), cognitive ability (CA), and psychological functioning (PF) with criminal convictions among men with a convicted parent, accounting for unmeasured familial factors in sibling analyses. Data were obtained from Swedish registers, including all men born in Sweden between 1958 and 1992 with a convicted parent (N = 495,109), followed for up to 48 years. The potential protective factors were measured at mandatory conscription. Outcomes were conviction of any, violent, and non-violent crime. Survival analyses were used to test for associations, adjusting for measured covariates and unmeasured familial factors. Higher levels of RHR, SBP, CA, and PF were associated with reduced risk of criminality after adjusting for covariates. RHR associations were largely explained by familial factors. CA and PF associations were not due to sibling-shared confounders, in line with a causal interpretation. SBP results, indicating a protective effect against non-violent crime, warrant further investigation.

Continuous monitoring of the mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet is crucial to assess its contribution to the rise of sea levels. The GRACE and GRACE-FO missions have provided monthly estimates of the Earth’s gravity field since 2002, which have been widely used to estimate monthly mass changes of ice sheets. However, there is an 11 month gap between the two missions. Here, we propose a data-driven approach that combines atmospheric variables from the ERA5 reanalysis with GRACE-derived mass anomalies from previous months to predict mass changes. Using an auto-regressive structure, the model is naturally predictive for shorter times without GRACE/-FO observations. The results show a high r2-score (> 0.73) between model predictions and GRACE/-FO observations. Validating the model’s ability to reproduce mass anomalies when observations are available builds confidence in estimates used to bridge the GRACE and GRACE/-FO gap. Although GRACE and GRACE-FO are treated equally by the model, we see a decrease in model performance for the period covered by GRACE-FO, indicating that they may not be as well-calibrated as previously assumed. Gap predictions align well with mass change estimates derived from other geodetic methods and remain within the uncertainty envelope of the GRACE-FO observations.

Newgrange, the Neolithic monument and centerpiece of the Brú na Bóinne UNESCO World Heritage complex, is a high-profile example of prehistoric societies’ observation of, and reverence for, solar events. Comparatively little is known about how these concepts were remembered by those using Newgrange over subsequent millennia. While excavations have uncovered large quantities of later material culture, debate continues about what these subsequent activities represent. We combine zooarchaeological, radiocarbon, and isotopic evidence to assess the nature and seasonality of human–animal–environment relationships at Newgrange. Results show a concentration of feasting activity, focused on pigs, dating to 2600–2450 BC and indicate that most pigs were slaughtered shortly after a period of rapid, pannage-fueled weight gain. This seasonal specificity indicates feasting likely occurred in the weeks around the winter solstice and suggests that, centuries after passage tomb construction ended, practices at Newgrange continued to focus on the general winter solstice timeframe. We also connect a unique isotopic signature for mast (tree nuts) with pannage husbandry, a pattern that should allow for reinterpretation of archaeological pig diets and human–woodland relationships across Europe.