Author of Il Regno del Sud (1946), an influential first-hand history of the Kingdom of Italy that was set up in Allied territory after the 1943 armistice, Agostino degli Espinosa did much to shape Italian memory of the Allied occupation of Italy. In this article I examine for the first time degli Espinosa’s doubts about Italy’s postwar future, which appear in the margins of his history, and which come to the fore in his fiction. I argue that the critical re-evaluation of the work of this emblematic but understudied figure can shed light on Italy’s divided memories of the Second World War and the Allied occupation.

A new species of Pseudocorax (Lamniformes, Pseudocoracidae), Pseudocorax heteroserratus n. sp., is described from the upper Maastrichtian phosphates of Morocco. This novel taxon is recognized by a large sample of isolated teeth collected from the upper Couche III layer at the Sidi Chennane quarry in the Oulad Abdoun Basin, Khouribga Province, Morocco. P. heteroserratus is differentiated from other Pseudocorax species by bearing a mesiodistally elongated tooth base, broad crown, and highly variable serrations. The variability in number and extent of serrations along the carinae ranges from completely absent to fully serrated and finely to coarsely serrated, raising speculation on broader Pseudocorax phylogenetics and as to whether the genesis of serrations within Pseudocorax occurred in a singular progressive event or rather from two distinct events. The morphological variability within the new species highlights the importance of large sample sizes in selachian odontological studies using isolated teeth.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/a8e2d349-5b2e-4fdd-9e3e-a93a290bf875

Shorter, warmer winters linked to climate change are inviting the northwards expansion of mosquito species (Diptera: Culicidae) and the pathogens they vector. Monitoring can play an important role in helping to mitigate the health impacts of mosquito-borne disease due to changes in regional mosquito species composition. To update the inventory of mosquito species currently residing in Nova Scotia, we sampled adult mosquitoes from 60 locations using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention light traps and collected mosquito larvae from 232 water sources across nine ecozones from May to October in 2021 and 2022. Of the 12 652 mosquitoes collected, we identified 35 species, including eight species not previously recorded in the province: Aedes aurifer (Coquillett), Aedes decticus Howard et al., Aedes pionips Dyar, Aedes hendersoni Cockerell, Aedes sticticus (Meigen), Culiseta minnesotae Barr, Culiseta melanura (Coquillett), and Culex salinarius Coquillett. We have also observed the province-wide expansion of Aedes japonicus (Theobald) since the species’ first detection in Nova Scotia in 2007. Overall, vector species are being detected more frequently in Nova Scotia, highlighting potential changes in disease dynamics as climate change progresses and furthering the need for continued monitoring.

Recent research suggests that bilinguals flexibly adjust distinct types of cognitive control mechanisms to meet the linguistic demands of their language use and exposure contexts. The present study compared two groups of young, Mexican-born, sequential Spanish L1–English L2 bilinguals who reported either separate or integrated use of both languages. Results showed that greater linguistic diversity across social spheres predicted different patterns of engagement in proactive and reactive control for each group. Among separate-context bilinguals, higher linguistic diversity was associated with faster reaction times in both proactive and reactive control, as well as in overall processing speed. Notably, for integrated-context bilinguals, higher linguistic diversity predicted slower responses in proactive control and processing speed. Additionally, a significant relationship emerged between L2 proficiency and accuracy on proactive control trials for separate-context bilinguals. These findings support perspectives emphasizing the interplay between proactive and reactive control as an outcome of bilinguals’ adaptation to contextual linguistic demands. An important implication is that bilingual groups who share the same language pair and are immersed in their L1 environment may nonetheless differ in cognitive performance, with such differences becoming evident when assessed through fine-grained, nonlinguistic cognitive measures.

Noun bias is the tendency to acquire nouns earlier than other syntactic categories. Whether it is universal or language and culture dependent is debated. We investigated noun bias in the receptive lexicon of Palestinian-Arabic-learning infants and examined whether maternal input and cultural values are related to lexicon composition beyond the language’s structural properties. Thirty-one infants (16–24 months) completed a Computerized Comprehension Task in Palestinian Arabic, and mothers described picture narratives to their children, and completed demographic and cultural values questionnaires. Results showed a noun bias in infants’ receptive lexicon. While no significant correlation was found between maternal noun usage and infants’ noun bias, higher verb usage significantly correlated with reduced noun bias. Neither maternal education nor cultural values significantly predicted maternal input composition. These findings suggest that while noun bias exists in Palestinian Arabic, exposure to verbs may moderate it, highlighting the complex interplay between language structure, input, and early lexical development.

This article examines Himizu (2012) by Sono Shion, analyzing the protagonist’s classroom and shanty house as key sites in post-3/11 Japan. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, the study shows how these spaces function as zones where discourses of reconstruction, wa, sontaku, kizuna, and gaman are enforced and contested. While the classroom shifts from ideological apparatus to heterotopia of deviation, the shanty house enables care amid exclusion. Overall, the article advances debates on post-disaster cinema and spatialized trauma.

This article examines women’s storytelling and nanga (harp) performances in nineteenth- and twentiethcentury western Uganda to investigate how these songs shaped community identity and norms. Drawing on musical recordings, archival sources, and interviews, this article demonstrates that these performances functioned as important public histories, teaching audiences about past famines, droughts, climate change, and cattle events. These narratives both chronicled regional histories and provided the shared intellectual material from which community norms and a shared identity could be articulated. Extant scholarship has focused overwhelmingly on how male intellectuals contributed to ideas of race, nation, or ethnicity. This article thus provides an important alternative by showing how women produced histories that contributed to group identity—yet this historical production occurred through musical performances rather than in books, tracts, or petitions. In doing so, this article reintegrates western Ugandan women into narratives of imperial encounters and intellectual history.

Infant self-regulation is shaped by early physiological systems and caregiver-infant co-regulatory interactions. Maternal perinatal (pre- and/or postnatal) depression may affect these processes and infants’ development of this critical construct. However, literature addressing the association between maternal perinatal depression and infant self-regulation has been mixed. We conducted a pre-registered meta-analysis of the association between maternal perinatal depression and several self-regulation constructs (e.g., effortful control, executive function) measured during the first 2 years of life. We included 68 reports comprising 193 effect sizes and 16,722 mother-infant dyads. On average, studies included an equal number of male and female infants, and, for most (68%) studies, most participants were White. Average infant age ranged from 0 – 16 months. Three-level random effects meta-analytic models indicated a small, significant overall association, with higher levels of depression associated with lower self-regulation (r = −.10, 95% CI = −.14, −.06, p < .001). There was substantial heterogeneity in this pooled effect. Subsequent analyses indicated moderation by methodological and conceptual variables. Evidence that maternal perinatal depression is associated with lower infant self-regulation underscores the importance of supporting dyads experiencing perinatal depression. Clarifying this association highlights a critical next step of examining potential causal processes linking maternal and infant well-being.

Judges in Vietnam have increasingly been called upon by the state and society to resolve new social and economic problems. However, the expansion of judicial authority presents a problem for Vietnam’s authoritarian government, which wants courts that can resolve social problems without challenging state interests. This study draws on empirical research to explore whether judges in Vietnam’s authoritarian polity can harness legal reasoning to extend their authority. It uses a novel theoretical framework based on systems theory to understand how judges determine who is entitled to benefit from the law, which norms are appropriate to particular cases, and how such norms might direct them to reach decisions. Data from case studies and interviews with judges reveal that courts in Vietnam are increasingly using legal reasoning to manage the interaction between legal and extralegal norms, which is a decision-making process with the potential to expand judicial authority over socially significant disputes.

Seed respiration is a key metabolic process linked to physiological status. Q2 respiration analysis enables detailed profiling of individual seeds, and combined with multispectral imaging, allows to explore seed-to-seed relationships between respiration and spectral or morphological traits. Thus,the study aims to investigate the relationship between the respiration profiles of individual soybean seeds and their morphological and spectral characteristics, using single-seed respiration analysis and multispectral imaging. Multispectral images were captured from 1,808 seeds using the VideometerLab system, from which 75 features were extracted. The seeds were placed in vials with 0.4% (w/v) agar to induce germination and sealed with caps containing a fluorescent polymer dot. The Q2 analyzer, tracked the oxygen consumption of each seed during germination. Both the VideometerLab and Q2 analyzer data were categorized through hierarchical clustering, and a subpopulation of seeds was selected from three categories of respiration profiles due to computational limitations. The association between respiration patterns and biometric features was analyzed using contingency tables and entropy analysis. The results revealed significant differences in respiration patterns, particularly in autofluorescence excitation-emission at 365/600, 430/700, 450/700 and 470/700 nm, as well as in reflectance at 365, 690 and 405 nm. Notably, 75% of seeds with similar respiration profiles were grouped based on similarities in their biometric characteristics, suggesting a relationship between respiration patterns and biometric features. Additionally, patterns of certain biometric traits indicated that different combinations can lead to similar respiration profiles, highlighting the complexity of evaluating this association.

In 1782, Zhang Peifang, then serving as magistrate in Sizhou, Anhui, returned briefly to his family home in a small village in central Shanxi. While there, he visited a local temple, the Guangyu Shrine, where villagers typically made prayers concerning childbirth, and then penned an inscription in which he makes an elaborate argument about the identity of the temple goddess. Zhang’s stele inscription is an interpretive powerhouse of classical erudition, but moves to a surprising conclusion that reveals complex issues of agency imbricated into the scholar-official’s role as negotiator between the canonical values of the imperial state and the informal institutions and practices of local communities. The inscription records valuable details concerning local religious practices and gender roles, analysis of which can provide nuance to our understanding of the dynamic social tensions below the surface of Watson’s “standardization model.”

Integrating metabolic syndrome (MetS) screening procedures into routine care remains challenging. Traditional anthropometric and body composition assessments, while useful, have drawbacks that limit their application. However, automated anthropometrics produced from smartphone scanning applications may offer a solution. This study aimed to determine whether smartphone-derived anthropometrics could effectively predict both MetS and its severity. A total of 281 participants underwent a MetS screening assessment to determine fasting blood pressure, lipids, glucose and waist circumference and completed a smartphone scanning assessment (MeThreeSixty®) to collect digital anthropometrics. Actual MetS classification and MetS severity (MetSindex), a continuous estimate of MetS progression, were determined using MetS screening data. Then, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression was used to develop a new MetSindex prediction equation in a subset of participants (n 226), which was subsequently tested in the remaining participants (n 55), and MetS classification was predicted from the retained variables using logistic regression. The following equation was produced: Smartphone-predicted MetSindex: −0·8880 + 0·1493(medication use = 1; 0 = no medication use) + 0·0089(weight) + 0·0079(bust circumf.) + 0·0140 (thigh circumf.) – 0·6247(appendage-to-trunk circumf. index), where medication use includes medications for hypertension, dyslipidaemia or hyperglycaemia. The newly developed MetSindex prediction model demonstrated equivalence with actual MetSindex and revealed acceptable agreement (R2:0·72; root mean squared error: 0·42; se of the estimate: 0·22) when evaluated in the testing sample (n 55), although proportional bias was observed (P < 0·001). Smartphone-predicted MetS classification demonstrated acceptable diagnostic performance with an accuracy of 92·7 % and an AUC of 0·89. Smartphone scanning applications can accurately assess MetS prevalence and severity, presenting new possibilities for health screening beyond clinical environments.

The crystal structure of Form A of dequalinium chloride has been solved and refined using synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction data, and optimized using density functional theory techniques. Dequalinium chloride Form A crystallizes in space group P42212 (#94) with a = 26.2671(8), c = 9.1119(4) Å, V = 6,286.9(4) Å3, and Z = 8 at 298 K. Despite the conventional representation of the cation, the ring N atoms are not positively charged. The positive charges are distributed on the ring carbon atoms ortho and para to these N atoms. The central decyl chain conformation is more kinked than the all-trans that might be expected in the solid state, but contains only one unusual torsion angle. The crystal structure consists of an array of dequalinium cations, with chloride anions located in regions between the cations. There are short stacks of roughly parallel rings in multiple directions. There is only one classical hydrogen bond in the structure, N–H···Cl between one of the amino groups and one of the chloride anions. Several C–H···Cl hydrogen bonds are prominent, involving ring, chain, and methyl hydrogen atoms as donors. Particularly noteworthy are the hydrogen bonds from the first and second C atoms at each end of the decyl chain. The powder pattern has been submitted to the International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD) for inclusion in the Powder Diffraction File™ (PDF®).

In this paper, we study partitions of totally positive integral elements $ \alpha $ in a real quadratic field $ K $. We prove that for a fixed integer $ m \geq 1 $, an element with $ m $ partition exists in almost all $ K $. We also obtain an upper bound for the norm of $\alpha$ that can be represented as a sum of indecomposables in at most $m$ ways, completely characterize the $\alpha$’s represented in exactly $2$ ways, and subsequently apply this result to complete the search for fields containing an element with $ m $ partitions for $ 1 \leq m \leq 7 $.

Conflicts about ‘place’ are increasingly shaping the politics of advanced democracies, and voters are ever more divided along the urban-rural divide. However, this does not mean that members of all generations are growing apart. Instead, the urban-rural divide is stronger among younger generations, who are slowly replacing older, less divided ones. To demonstrate this, we combine post-election surveys from Switzerland spanning 28 years with macro data on the municipality level to examine the role of different cohorts in the urban-rural divide using age-period-cohort logistic regressions. The results reveal that the role of place is stronger for newer cohorts, with more recently socialized urbanites holding more progressive immigration attitudes and preferring left-wing parties compared to earlier urban cohorts. In contrast, whereas newer cohorts in urban contexts are less likely to vote for the far-right than their older neighbors, this is not the case for the same cohorts in more rural places. The results help to understand the role of generational replacement in explaining the growing differences between urban and rural citizens in Europe.

We construct large Salem sets avoiding patterns, complementing previous constructions of pattern avoiding sets with large Hausdorff dimension. For a (possibly uncountable) family of uniformly Lipschitz functions $\{f_i:(\mathbb{T}^d)^{n-2} \to \mathbb{T}^d \}$, we obtain a Salem subset of $\mathbb{T}^d$ with dimension $d/(n-1)$ avoiding nontrivial solutions to the equation $x_n-x_{n-1} = f_i(x_1,...,x_{n-2})$. For a countable family of smooth functions $\{f_i: (\mathbb{T}^d)^{n-1} \to \mathbb{T}^d \}$ satisfying a modest geometric condition, we obtain a Salem subset of $\mathbb{T}^d$ with dimension $d/(n-3/4)$ avoiding nontrivial solutions to the equation $x_n= f(x_1,...,x_{n-1})$. For a set $Z \subset \mathbb{T}^{dn}$ which is the countable union of a family of sets, each with lower Minkowski dimension $s$, we obtain a Salem subset of $\mathbb{T}^d$ of dimension $(dn-s)/(n-1/2)$ whose Cartesian product does not intersect $Z$ except at points with non-distinct coordinates.