Indigenous Studies seeks to affirm the distinct worth of “Indigenous Knowledge” and to question, as colonial, the privileging of Western Knowledge. How should Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu be taught, after it has been persuasively criticised by Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe in Farmers or Hunter-Gatherers? The Dark Emu Debate. Australia’s “culture wars” have encouraged readings that sharply distinguish the two books’ theses, and this paper attempts to soften that polarity. After noting a point of convergence between Dark Emu and Farmers or Hunter-Gatherers? I outline two ways to think about knowledge that may help answer the question: How should Dark Emu be taught? Paul A. Cohen distinguishes among three ways that we can know the past: as event, as experience, and as myth. Martin Nakata considers the relationship between Indigenous experience and university-authorised critique. This paper seeks to draw out what is useful in each author: an acceptance that our thinking about the past is both mythical and critical. We can teach Dark Emu as “myth” without equating myth with error.

Disasters, both natural and human-made, pose significant challenges to public health systems worldwide. This Research Letter examines the latest strategies and interventions in disaster preparedness and response. Our study highlights key practices that enhance the readiness and resilience of healthcare professionals and communities against disasters. The strategies reviewed include comprehensive emergency planning, simulation exercises, continuous education, interagency coordination, community engagement, and technological advancements. Our findings underscore the importance of multifaceted approaches that significantly improve disaster preparedness and response outcomes. This research provides valuable insights into effective disaster management practices and establishes an important foundation for future studies.

This paper draws attention to the untapped potential of international law (IL) in understanding how security communities develop. It focuses, among others, on ‘transnational legal processes’ – a key overlooked variable – by highlighting what international relations (IR) theory can learn from IL. In so doing, the paper contributes to the literature in three ways. First, it proposes a definition and conceptualisation of regional norms in the study of security communities. Second, by pointing out legal and judicial factors that facilitate or hinder the legal internalisation of regional norms, and consequently affect the development of a security community, it suggests new important research questions that can help broaden the ontology of security communities and bring theoretical heft to the fundamental concept of peaceful change. Third, the paper discusses how and under what conditions regional norms contribute to maintaining reasonable expectations of peaceful change not only at the systemic or state elite level, but equally at the domestic societal level.

Indoor positioning systems (IPS) are essential for mobile robot navigation in environments where global positioning systems (GPS) are unavailable, such as hospitals, warehouses, and intelligent infrastructure. While current surveys may limit themselves to specific technologies or fail to provide practical application-specific details, this review summarizes IPS developments directed specifically towards mobile robotics. It examines and compares a breadth of approaches that vary across non-radio frequency, radio frequency, and hybrid sensor fusion systems, through the lens of performance metrics that include accuracy, delay, scalability, and cost. Distinctively, this work explores emerging innovations, including synthetic aperture radar (SAR), federated learning, and privacy-aware AI, which are reshaping the IPS landscape. The motivation stems from the’ increasing complexity and dynamic nature of indoor environments, where high-precision, real-time localization is essential for safety and efficiency. This literature review provides a new conceptual, cross-border pathway for research and implementation of IPS in mobile robotics, addressing both technical and application-related challenges in sectors related to healthcare, industry, and smart cities. The findings from the literature review allow early career researchers, industry knowledge workers, and stakeholders to provide secure societal, human, and economic integration of IPS with AI and IoT in safe expansions and scale-ups.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread disruption to early childhood education and care services worldwide, affecting children’s well-being and placing unprecedented caregiving burdens on families. This paper compares the childcare-related social policy responses in three countries representing distinct welfare regimes: South Korea (Productivist/East Asian), France (Conservative-Corporatist), and the UK (Liberal). Focusing on four key domains – ECEC services, family leave, work environment, and financial support – it examines how each country addressed childcare challenges during the pandemic. The findings show that, while some similarities emerged in responding to shared challenges, the policy responses diverged considerably. These differences were shaped not only by pandemic-specific health strategies but also by pre-existing welfare structures and childcare systems. France utilised its strong public infrastructure and introduced special childcare leave; Korea expanded temporary family leave and financial aid while relying heavily on informal care; and the UK prioritised employment protection with limited direct caregiving support. The study underscores the importance of institutional flexibility and multi-layered care systems in building crisis-resilient childcare policies.

State consent is the primary mechanism by which international legal rules are generated and amended and by which states undertake legal obligations. The focus on state consent is celebrated for its strong protection of state sovereignty and for expressing the will of states. The main purpose of this article is to raise some doubts about this understanding of the value of state consent. I argue that far from protecting state sovereignty, unrestricted state consent can undermine it. I show that it is false to think that the virtually unlimited freedom to act protected by state consent safeguards state sovereignty in an environment in which every other state possesses the same unlimited freedom to act. I suggest one possible way of reconceiving state consent in line with existing trends in international law to increase the scope of nonconsensual mechanisms for making international legal rules.

We investigate whether election results are associated with emotional reactions among voters across democracies and under what conditions these responses are more intense. Building on recent work in comparative politics, we theorize that emotional intensity is stronger after elections involving populist candidates and highly polarized parties. We test these expectations with a big-data analysis of emotional reactions on parties’ Facebook posts during 29 presidential elections in 26 democracies. The results show that ideological polarization of political parties might intensify emotional reactions, but there is no clear relationship with the presence of populist candidates.

The production and circulation of common wares during the late antique period in North Africa has been largely overlooked by past scholarship, despite their potential to shed light on late antique production, workshop organisation and regional ceramic economies. This paper provides the first detailed study of a distinctive type of late antique, wheelmade common ware, the so-called African ‘painted ware’ (APW). It first presents a critical overview of the distribution of painted wares and their typology, decoration and chronology based on existing publications. It then develops a typology of vessel shapes, but also decoration patterns based on a large, well-preserved assemblage of painted ceramics recently excavated by the DAI, INP and UCL at the archaeological sites of Bulla Regia and Chimtou in the Medjerda valley, Tunisia. To understand the composition, technology and provenance of the wares, petrographic and chemical analysis was conducted on 57 painted sherds from the two sites. The results suggest the existence of a production centre in the Medjerda Valley, with potters using local calcareous clay tempered with sand, while the decoration was obtained using iron-based pigments. Comparison with published painted wares at other sites contributes to an initial insight into regional distribution patterns of the painted ware.

Water hyacinth is an invasive aquatic plant that has been associated with major negative economic and ecological impacts in water systems worldwide, including Rwanda, since its establishment in the country in the 1960s. While biological control is considered the most sustainable management method, the success of biocontrol agents depends on various abiotic factors, with temperature being critical. This study assessed the suitability of potential water hyacinth biocontrol agents such as: Neochetina weevils, Megamelus scutellaris Berg (Hemiptera: Delphacidae), and Cornops aquaticum Bruner (Orthoptera: Acrididae) for regions with a temperate climate by testing their thermal boundaries. Using thermal physiology limits and CLIMEX modelling, we found that Neochetina eichhorniae Warner and N. bruchi Hustache (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) had lower thermal minimums (CTmin) of 2.4°C and 2.6°C, respectively, compared to Megamelus scutellaris (4.7°C) and Cornops aquaticum (6.2°C). CLIMEX modelling predicted the suitability of Neochetina weevils and C. aquaticum across Rwanda, while M. scutellaris appeared unsuitable for the colder northern regions of the country but appropriate for the central and eastern regions. These findings suggests that the historical failure of Neochetina weevils introduced to Rwandan water bodies in 2000 was not due to temperature extremes. Rather, other factors such as release numbers or water quality may have played a role. This study provides crucial information for future biocontrol efforts in Rwanda and similar temperate regions, highlighting the importance of pre-release thermal tolerance assessments and climate modelling to predict biocontrol agent establishment and efficacy.

I discuss and clarify the relationship between the recent wave of “intrinsic” coordinate-free approaches to Maxwell gravitation and the coordinate-based discussions of Saunders (2013) and Wallace (2020).

Does democratic satisfaction drive voter turnout, or does voting increase satisfaction with democracy? This paper explores the satisfaction-participation nexus in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), where democratic dissatisfaction is prominent. It tests preregistered hypotheses using a five-wave panel survey from the Czech 2023 presidential election and a pooled dataset from five CEE countries. Unlike previous studies from Western Europe, it finds evidence for both mechanisms: pre-election satisfaction correlates with participation, but, simultaneously, voters experience a stronger election-related increase in satisfaction than abstainers. Further analyses reveal that the strong increases in satisfaction are driven by election winners and begin already during the election campaign. Our findings highlight the specificities of the satisfaction-participation link and elections’ legitimizing effects in newer democracies.

Dietary patterns enriched in fermentable fibre (such as inulin) and inorganic nitrate are linked to cardiovascular benefits, possibly mediated by gut microbiota-derived bioactive compounds including short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and nitric oxide (NO). However, the potential synergistic effects remain unclear. We conducted a randomised, double-blind, crossover study to investigate the acute effects of inulin (15 g; INU), nitrate (400 mg; NO3−), and their combination (INU + NO3−) on plasma nitrate and nitrite levels, SCFAs, and blood pressure (BP) in 20 adults. Plasma nitrate and nitrite were significantly elevated following INU + NO3− and NO3− compared to INU (p < 0.001). Plasma SCFAs were increased after INU + NO3− and INU, but the incremental AUC was not statistically significant, likely due to large inter-individual variability. No significant main effects were observed on BP; however, inverse correlations were identified between peak plasma nitrite and diastolic BP (rs = −0.61, p = 0.004) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) (rs = −0.59, p = 0.005) following INU + NO3−. Peak nitrate concentrations were inversely correlated with diastolic BP following NO3− (rs = −0.47, p = 0.004). Co-supplementation with inulin and nitrate did not enhance plasma nitrate/nitrite or BP beyond nitrate alone but modulated SCFA profiles, suggesting potential interactions between fibre fermentation and nitrate metabolism for cardiovascular health.