The aim of this paper is to extend the expanded degeneration construction of Li and Wu to obtain good degenerations of Hilbert schemes of points on semistable families of surfaces, as well as to discuss alternative stability conditions and parallels to the GIT construction of Gulbrandsen, Halle and Hulek and logarithmic Hilbert scheme constructions of Maulik and Ranganathan. We construct a good degeneration of Hilbert schemes of points as a proper Deligne-Mumford stack and show that it provides a geometrically meaningful example of a construction arising from the work of Maulik and Ranganathan.

Recently, flow-reversal mechanisms in Rayleigh–Bénard (RB) convection and controlling strategies via modifying local temperature boundaries have received increasing attention due to the impact on heat-transfer efficiency and extreme eruption events. We consider an alternative possibility of altering fluid density: an added scalar field that induces double-diffusive convection, implemented by imposing local iso-concentration bands on the horizontal plates. In addition to the Rayleigh number (${\textit{Ra}}$) and Prandtl number (${\textit{Pr}}$), the system is governed by the Lewis number ($Le$), buoyancy ratio ($Br$), normalised bandwidth ($\delta$) and normalised band-centre-to-midline distance ($c$). We examine the influence of $\delta$ and $c$ on flow reversal at ${\textit{Ra}}=5\times 10^7$, ${\textit{Pr}}=2$, $Le =1$ and ${\textit{Br}}=1.5$. Paired bands effectively reduce reversal frequency, with stronger suppression for larger $\delta$; the optimal band position is $c=0.2$. Fourier mode analysis reveals a previously underappreciated role of the $3\times 3$ roll structure in reversal suppression, whose mean energy correlates positively with the single-roll structure. In standard RB convection, turbulence destabilises the symmetric $2\times 2$ roll configuration, causing frequent reversals owing to competition with asymmetric (1, 1) and (3, 3) modes. The concentration bands enhance the (1, 1) and (3, 3) modal energies, especially at the optimal band position, producing a steady mean flow structure comprising a large-scale circulation and four corner rolls. Despite the local boundary modification, scaling laws for the response parameters (Nusselt number (${\textit{Nu}}$) and Reynolds number (${\textit{Re}}$)) remain close to standard RB convection: ${\textit{Nu}}\sim Ra^{1/3}$ and ${\textit{Re}}\sim Ra^{4/9}Pr^{-2/3}$. These findings demonstrate an effective approach to suppress flow reversal and alter heat transfer efficiency.

Canada has a history of unjust injury inflicted on innocents by institutions, by collectives, and by individuals in personal relationships. There is widespread consensus in Canadian society that a proper response to such injury is an apology. I argue that for moral repair to take place the apology is not a good place to start. Explicit apologies conceal systemic social, political, and hermeneutic questions: by speaking out, they silence. As an alternative, I propose forgiveness, which I fill with meaning drawn from a particular Canadian perspective of diversity and recency in nation building.

Learning is crucial for humans and other animals to acquire knowledge, enhancing survival and reproduction. In particular, individual and social learning allow populations to accumulate knowledge across generations. Here, we examine how stochasticity in the production and social acquisition of knowledge influences the evolution of learning strategies and cumulative knowledge. Using a mathematical model where learning is stochastic, we show that learning stochasticity enhances cumulative knowledge by generating variability in knowledge levels. This allows selection to enhance population knowledge: individuals who acquire more knowledge by chance are more likely to survive and reproduce, and therefore to transmit their knowledge to the next generation. As knowledge accumulates, social learning exemplars tend to possess more of it, favoring greater time investment in social learning. Because social learning provides access to substantially more knowledge when learning is stochastic, selection also favors the evolution of greater investment into learning, at the expense of a fecundity cost. Moreover, when knowledge enhances fecundity but not survival, learning stochasticity favors learning from parents rather than other adults, because learning stochasticity increases uncertainty about exemplar knowledge, making parenthood a cue for possessing fecundity-enhancing knowledge. Finally, when learning occurs predominantly from parents, learning stochasticity itself is favored by selection.

The Kovrizhka sites are some of the most studied and highly informative for the entire northern Cis-Baikal region of Siberia and illustrate the history and development of ancient cultures in the Vitim area during the Late Upper Paleolithic to Early Neolithic. To better understand human settlement practices during this time, we constructed a model of Late Quaternary landscape formation and human occupation in the Vitim River valley based on a geomorphological study and radiocarbon dating of archaeological sites Kovrizhka I–VI in the Baikal-Pathom Highlands. The model reconstructs human habitation of the valley from 19.9 to 6.7 ka and connects settlement patterns to general landscape features, stone (mineral) and food resources, the flood regime of the Vitim River, and dynamics of landscape formation. A secondary focus of this study is to assess the timing and geomorphological remnants of megafloods originating from breakthroughs of the Muya (Vitim) glacial paleolake in Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 3 and 2, and their impact on human settlement. The last megaflood could not have been later than the earliest settlement on Kovrizhka II (19.9 ka). However, erosive flood activity is observed at all stages, especially a shift in floods at the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary.

Shock tube experiments are essential in understanding the environment encountered by hypersonic vehicles. Such experiments provide information used to determine rate constants of chemical, relaxation and radiative processes taking place in non-equilibrium plasmas. These constants are significant drivers of uncertainty in surface heat flux predictions. Recent work has shown that flow non-uniformities in real shock tube experiments can be misinterpreted as a need to alter these parameters; however, no comprehensive model exists to decouple the effects. We show that there is a rigorous method to achieve this by using experimental measurements as boundary conditions and including their effects via reverse time integration. This method improves over previous implementations by rigorously enforcing conservation laws, incorporating two-temperature, non-equilibrium thermochemistry and explicitly modelling both forward- and backward-running sound waves in the shock tube test slug through a method of characteristics formulation. This approach allowed the effect of shock speed variation in highly non-equilibrium tests, specifically those relevant to Titan entry, to be studied for the first time. A validation study showed that properties predicted by the method were found to agree with results from a viscous, two-dimensional axisymmetric Navier–Stokes solver within 1.5 %. When applied to shock tube test cases from the EAST and T6 facilities for simulation of lunar return and Titan entry representative conditions, the method offered improved agreement with experimentally measured oxygen 777 nm and 240–440 nm radiance, respectively, when compared with previous implementations, particularly towards the rear of the test slug where forward-running sound waves from the driver become influential.

This memorial essay introduces the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics special issue on supported decision-making in research by honoring David T. Wasserman (1953–2025), a major organizer of the NIH workshop from which the issue emerged and a coauthor of two papers in the volume. It situates supported decision-making in research as an emerging approach that aims to make participation by people with cognitive disabilities possible without displacing their agency through default reliance on legally authorized representatives. The essay highlights Wasserman’s distinctive contribution to this developing area. He sought a position that is respectful while remaining clear eyed about exploitation risks and about well-intentioned practices that can undermine a participant’s interests, especially in hard cases where meaningful authorization is fragile. Drawing on the two coauthored papers in the issue and on colleagues’ recollections, the essay emphasizes Wasserman’s commitment to conceptual clarity, workable institutional design, and mentorship through collaboration. It closes by reflecting on his intellectual virtues, humor, and lasting influence on disability bioethics and research ethics.

How much information do we need when estimating multilingual children’s relative language exposure? In the current study, we compared three different estimates at varying levels of detail: (i) global estimates per language, (ii) the average of per-speaker estimates, weighted for the time the child spends with each speaker, and (iii) estimates obtained using the Experience Sampling Method, which consisted of five surveys a day across 7 days. Data were collected from 102 multilingual children (ages 3–9 years) in the Netherlands. We found that the three exposure estimates were highly correlated and that there were only small differences in how well they correlated with children’s vocabulary knowledge. Discrepancies between estimates were largely unrelated to participant characteristics such as children’s age or the number of languages spoken at home. We conclude that the simplest estimates (i.e. global estimates) may be sufficiently reliable as a measure of multilingual children’s language exposure at home.

This study explores partial synchronisation in turbulent channel flows using sequential variational data assimilation with sparse observations, emphasising the roles of model and observation uncertainties. Unlike previous work that focused on synchronisation using direct numerical simulation, this study considers synchronisation under imperfect models and noisy data. In the first part, a synchronisation map is constructed, revealing invariance with respect to variations in the predictive model, Reynolds number and mesh resolution. Full synchronisation emerges above a critical level of equivalent observation density. At lower observation densities, modal synchronisation is observed, where the energies of dominant modes evolve independently of initial conditions. As data become sparser, the system transitions to a non-synchronisation regime, with assimilated flows exhibiting minimal correlation with the observations. The second part of this study uses the master flow interpolated from down-sampled sparse observations. The delay-coordinate strategy is introduced to enhance the modal synchronisation. Results indicate that the optimal $\sigma$ lies near the threshold between modal synchronisation and non-synchronisation. This demonstrates that the modal synchronisation serves as a critical prerequisite for leveraging historical information in data assimilation to improve the accuracy of turbulence reconstruction. These findings extend the scope of synchronisation theory and provide valuable guidance for advancing data assimilation methodologies.

This study explores antimicrobial use (AMU) in a voluntary sample of Canadian adult hematology/oncology wards between 2018 and 2023. Although use of third- and fourth-generation cephalosporins significantly increased, overall AMU decreased by 25%. As trends change over time, ongoing surveillance is needed to guide AMU optimization in this high-risk setting.

There is little consensus on how to regulate information giving in reproductive donation – using donated gametes (eggs, sperm) to have children. Should gamete donors be anonymous or should donor-conceived individuals have access to their donor’s identity, and at what age? What information should be available about donor siblings and other donor relations? And, crucially, how should this information giving be appropriately managed and regulated? Before we can answer these questions, we need to first understand what reproductive donation is. This paper sets out options for how reproductive donation can be conceptualized and develops a typology of different approaches, by categorizing reproductive donation into two main models: the biomedical and the psychosocial. These models provide a conceptual framework, a useful heuristic, for both understanding reproductive donation and critiquing regulation and oversight. The purpose of this paper is not to take a stand on which model is optimal; this is a matter for further debate. Rather, it provides clarification of what is at stake, and this can form the basis for coherent and justifiable approaches to the oversight and regulation of reproductive donation, instead of the patchwork of provisions that currently exist in many jurisdictions.

Previous research has identified intermarriage as an important factor in immigrant integration, but what affects immigrants’ willingness to intermarry or support intermarriage? A significant and understudied aspect of attitudes toward intermarriage among immigrants is the role of religion. We focus on a particular group of immigrants, Bhutanese refugees, for whom religious persecution featured prominently in their forced migration and resettlement in the US. Using an individual-level survey, we explore factors affecting their attitudes toward intermarriage. Specifically, we analyze the impact of social interactions, socioeconomic conditions, and demographic factors on resettled Bhutanese refugees’ attitudes toward intermarriage. Results indicate that, in addition to age, income, and English proficiency, resettled refugees who spend more time interacting with individuals from outside of their own ethnic, cultural, and religious group are more likely to support intermarriage. Social interactions may allow refugees to overcome religious restrictions and advance refugee integration into American society through intermarriage.

This article examines the transformative impact of large language models (LLMs) on online content moderation, revealing a critical gap between platforms’ rule-based policies and their AI-driven enforcement mechanisms. Using Facebook’s hate speech moderation policies and practices as a case study, we identify a paradox: while content policies are increasingly rule-oriented, AI-driven enforcement seems to operate in a standard-like manner. This disconnect creates transparency, consistency and accountability challenges relating to the delineation of online freedom of expression that are not addressed in the literature, and require attention and mitigation. In this specific context, we introduce the concept of ‘rules by the millions’ to describe how AI systems actually operate through generating vast networks of micro-rules that evade traditional regulatory oversight. This phenomenon disrupts the conventional rules-versus-standards framework used in legal theory, raising urgent questions about the adequacy of current AI governance mechanisms. Indeed, the rapid adoption of LLMs in content moderation has outpaced the human capacity to monitor them, creating a pressing need for adaptive frameworks capable of managing the evolving capacities of AI.

In compressible gas–particle flows the dispersion of particle clouds driven by a blast is widely observed in extreme natural and engineering scenarios. Whereas prior research has primarily focused on planar shock or blast-driven configurations, this study investigates a gas–particle system combining a finite-source blast with supersonic inflow. Accordingly, the compressible multiphase particle-in-cell method is employed to simulate the flow. The resulting waves including main shock, contact surface and secondary shock are parametrically investigated, where the main shock radius follows an approximate power law to time. Driven primarily by the drag force, a simplified two-stage scaling law for spanwise leading particle dispersion is derived: a time-squared dependence during the blast-dominated stage and growth behaviour ranging from linear to logarithmic in the subsequent flow-impingement stage. Furthermore, four dispersion morphologies are identified: compressed, uniform, eroded and jetting, each explained by specific wave–particle interaction mechanisms. Finally, a phase diagram correlating these morphologies with the inflow Mach number, Stokes number and pressure ratio is constructed. These findings reveal the coupled mechanisms in gas–particle systems driven by a blast and supersonic inflow, providing a predictive basis for impulse effects and particle dispersion.

This paper analyses one of the early and probably underestimated institutional lenders in northern Europe, the Church, using Sweden as a case study. Lending escalated from the 1770s onwards, making the church the dominant institutional lender in the mid-18th century. As other institutional lenders became stronger, lending declined. The success of church funds was a result of their strong local presence, being controlled by parishioners and overwhelmingly used by them, certainly by freehold farmers and local officials, and in the second half of the nineteenth century also by the landless. Even townspeople can be found among the borrowers. However, in previous studies of borrowing based on probate inventories, loans from the church have been scarce, leading to the conclusion that the church played a minor role as a lender. By combining probate inventories and church accounts, we can show that the church was an important lender in certain areas, but that most loans were medium-term and taken early in the life cycle, and therefore rarely visible in probate inventories, which were predominantly made after middle-aged or old people.

This article examines Charles Bell’s experimental practices by drawing historiographical attention away from the priority disputes over the spinal nerve functions for which he was most famous. I argue that Bell’s primary research interest was the expression of emotions. To this end, he developed a programme of vivisection that explored the underlying mechanisms of emotion. However, this also resulted in a profound contradiction between his experimental practices and his worldview – conducting painful experiments on beloved animals despite moral revulsion towards animal experimentation. This opens up three interconnected areas. Firstly, it allows an exploration of disciplinary identity in medicine, particularly the way that disciplines demanded specific practices and behaviours. Secondly, vivisection more generally required methods and ethics that opposed the growing anti-cruelty voice. Here, a combination of animal choice and the importation of techniques from the slaughterhouses was critical. Thirdly, vivisectors navigated a complex emotional landscape between their professional obligations and broader cultural sensibilities. These three areas are linked together using Boddice’s concept of moral economies, the affective frameworks that structured feelings. Particularly important were the sentimental and Romantic economies, both of which impacted Bell and his research. At the same time, Bell always struggled to reconcile the tensions between his disciplinary identity and his sentimental and Romantic beliefs, ultimately leading him to abandon experimentation after his assistant John Shaw’s death. I conclude by identifying the guarantees provided by character for licensing ostensibly cruel behaviours, thus allowing for the maintenance of probity within competing moral economies.