This article develops an original account of the value of authenticity for meaning in life that explains how and when acting authentically enhances meaning in life. I argue that we appropriate meaningful actions by acting authentically, contra Joseph Raz’s (2001) position that appropriation occurs through attachments. Authentic actions are distinctly owned by the individual and the more a meaningful action is appropriated, the more it contributes to the meaning in their life. Considering authenticity as an enhancing factor for a meaningful life refines accounts of meaning in life and strengthens objectivist approaches against objections. The value authenticity holds for meaning in life is furthermore not susceptible to the critique of immoral or self-centered authenticity.

This study examines how political constraints influence happiness using entropy balancing on data from 125 countries over the period 2006–2021. The findings reveal a positive and statistically significant relationship. A one-standard-deviation increase in political constraints (0.233) is associated with an approximate 0.10-unit increase in happiness, corresponding to a standardised effect of 0.092 standard deviations. While this absolute effect size is modest, as is typical for macro-institutional variables, it carries population-level relevance when contextualised within the subjective well-being literature. These results remain robust across alternative measures of political constraints, diverse model specifications, heterogeneity analyses, and alternative estimation methods. Finally, we identify political and economic freedom, control of corruption, the rule of law, income redistribution, and employment as the main channels through which political constraints affect citizens’ happiness.

Optimal infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices are essential for ensuring child growth, development, and survival. However, comprehensive evidence on IYCF knowledge, practices, and their determinants among rural mothers in Bangladesh remains limited. This study aimed to assess IYCF knowledge and practices and to identify the factors associated with these outcomes among rural mothers in Bangladesh. This study utilised data from the third round of the Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS), focusing on rural mothers aged 15–49 years with children aged 0–23 months. A total of 873 samples were included in the study. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses were utilised to investigate the prevalence and determinants of IYCF knowledge and practices. Findings revealed that only 30.3% of mothers had adequate IYCF knowledge, and an equal proportion adhered to overall IYCF practices. Multivariate regression analysis showed that maternal education, geographic region, and household wealth quintile were significant predictors of IYCF knowledge. Breastfeeding practices were associated with the child’s age, place of delivery, geographic region, household wealth, and maternal IYCF knowledge. Complementary feeding practices were mainly influenced by the child’s age, sex, and household wealth quintile. Overall adherence to recommended IYCF practices was significantly associated with the child’s age and geographic region. This study reveals persistently low IYCF knowledge and overall IYCF practices among rural mothers in Bangladesh. Strengthening maternal education, promoting community-based nutrition counselling, expanding access to health services in underserved regions, and targeting low-income households with tailored support are essential to improve child feeding practices.

During the 2024–2025 impeachment protests in South Korea, practices associated with K-pop fandom entered the civic sphere, as concert light sticks, fan chants, and online mobilization were recontextualized as forms of democratic expression. This article examines how affective intensities cultivated within K-pop fandom are reorganized into collective action and democratic values. Drawing on Greimas’s (1987) generative trajectory of meaning, the study develops a four-level analytical framework—affect, passion, narrative, and value—to trace how affective experience becomes civic practice. The framework is applied to 2,218 narrative statements collected from 118 Korean K-pop fans through an open-ended survey. The analysis shows that fandom is grounded in sensory intensities generated by sound, light, rhythm, and collective immersion. These affects evolve into modalized passions such as responsibility and indignation, motivating practices including donations, boycotts, and participation in demonstrations, through which fans become collective civic actors. As these practices accumulate, they stabilize into ethical and political values, particularly solidarity and democratic responsibility. The study conceptualizes K-pop fandom as a semiotic economy in which affect, practice, and value circulate, demonstrating how fandom can function as an affective infrastructure for democratic meaning-making.

This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of the gastric nematode Ollulanus tricuspis in domestic cats in Samsun province, Türkiye, and to perform molecular phylogenetic analysis of the obtained isolates. Following the initial diagnosis of O. tricuspis in a domestic cat presenting with chronic vomiting, stomach contents from 50 necropsied cats were microscopically examined for a broader survey. The ITS-1, 5.8S, and ITS-2 gene regions of the parasites obtained from positive samples were amplified and sequenced using PCR. Phylogenetic analyses were performed using the maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) analyses. The prevalence of O. tricuspis in the examined samples was determined to be 6%. Literature data show a wide variation in global prevalence, ranging from 0.2% (USA) to 42% (Australia). This study is the first report to reveal the presence of O. tricuspis at the molecular level in Türkiye.

This article examines the political ecology of water and ethnic conflict in Kirkuk, Iraq. Kirkuk is an internally disputed frontier territory, controlled by the federal government of Iraq but claimed by Kurdish nationalists. Kirkuk contains some of Iraq’s largest oil fields and most productive agricultural lands. In recent decades Kirkuk has also faced water shortages tied to global climate change. The article deploys survey data, supplemented by qualitative historical research, to evaluate framing of environmental security and the relationship between water insecurity, ethnic conflict, and governance. We find that commitments to competing programs for territorial control in Kirkuk correlate with different framing of ecological risk factors. Arabic-speaking respondents frame water scarcity as a matter for the federal government. Kurdish-speaking respondents prefer to enlist the Kurdistan Regional Government or local politicians to deal with water scarcity, undercutting federal jurisdiction. These findings cast doubt on environmental security and peacebuilding theories which suggest that ecological scarcity can spur inter-ethnic cooperation toward sustainability. Rather, commitment to different ethnoterritorial programs justify different perspectives on ecological change. At a policy level, these findings show that political conciliation must come before progress in environmental peacebuilding.

This study evaluated the in vitro activity and mode of action of ethanolic extracts (Et) and respective different polarity fractions (hexane, ethyl acetate (EA), butanol, aqueous) from basidiomes and mycelium of Pleurotus djamor against Haemonchus contortus eggs, using the egg hatching test. After incubation (concentration gradient from 20 to 3600 μg/mL), emerged larvae and eggs were observed and counted, differentiating between morulated eggs (ME) and larvated eggs (LE). Effective concentrations required to inhibit 50% or 90% (EC50; EC90) of hatching, and their respective 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were determined. Extracts and fractions obtained from basidiomes exhibited lower EC50 (P < 0.05) than those obtained from the mycelium, except for the hexane basidiome fraction, which showed less activity compared to the mycelium fraction. Both butanol fractions presented similar EC50 (~140 μg/mL). Polar mycelium materials exhibited a higher proportion of LE, while the hexane fraction demonstrated an ovicidal effect (abundant ME), and the EA fraction was inactive. The low EC50 of extracts and fractions of basidiomes and mycelium confirmed that P. djamor is a promising non-conventional anthelmintic that should be evaluated under in vivo conditions with small ruminants. The EC50 values were better than most tropical plant materials reported to date.

In the Amazon region, Arapaima gigas holds significant gastronomic and cultural value compared to other fish species due to its large size. This fish is home to various helminth species that parasitise primarily its gastrointestinal organs. During the 2023 dry season, a total of 60 gastrointestinal organs from A. gigas specimens were collected from a fisheries management program conducted by local residents within the Mamirauá Reserve. For gastric parasitological analysis, each organ was separated in containers, and the parasites were recovered, washed, and fixed in 70% alcohol for analysis by light and scanning electron microscopy. Additionally, stomach samples of the hosts infected with parasites were fixed in 10% formalin for histopathological examination. 16% of the parasitised fish presented ulcerative areas in the gastric mucosa of varying degrees. Microscopically, a severe inflammatory reaction with infiltration of eosinophils, lymphocytes, and macrophages was observed, associated with co-infection by Goezia spinulosa and Neoterranova serrata. Additionally, morphological and morphometric data aided by scanning electron microscopy for N. serrata were added.

Discrimination of vowel and consonant pairs is influenced by their order, known as perceptual asymmetry, and recent research suggests a similar effect for lexical tones. This study tested whether discrimination of two consecutive tones is easier when a dynamic contour tone (e.g., rising/falling) precedes a static-level tone (e.g., low/high) than vice versa. Thai-speaking children aged 4, 6, and 8 years and adults completed an AX task with four tone pairs in dynamic–static and static–dynamic orders. Adults showed no perceptual asymmetry, possibly due to ceiling effects. However, children in all three age groups discriminated dynamic–static pairs better than static–dynamic pairs. Although tone discrimination improved across age groups, the magnitude of the dynamic–static over static–dynamic advantage remained stable. These findings reveal a dynamic–static bias in tone perception that emerges before age four and remains stable into the school years. Implications for segmental asymmetries and theories of speech perception are discussed.