During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, women from Northern Rio Grande pueblos joined Ndee communities in western Kansas, where they made a local version of unpainted Tewa red ware. We investigate potential slip materials in the eastern High Plains and adjacent Central Plains, using CIELAB color data to graph red hue variation in collected pigments and slipped archaeological ceramics from 14SC1 and 14SC304. Although use of the CIELAB color system by archaeologists is well established, our approach is unique in its use of a* and b* graphs to describe and compare hue. Our graphs illustrate hue variation between red and yellow on the color wheel, facilitating comparisons and communicating color patterns more effectively than is possible using the Munsell system. We demonstrate that potters could have reproduced the red hues of Northern Rio Grande red ware in the different geological landscape of the Great Plains. Our collected pigments systematically vary in hue by geological formation or system. Two sampled geological formations in the eastern High Plains and adjacent Central Plains include pigments that fire to the “right” red, or the red hues of Northern Rio Grande red slips, and potters may have used one or both.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) seems to grow in popularity by the day, but central considerations like best practices, standardized metrics, and a demonstrable positive impact on people and the environment are almost nonexistent. Yet, in the United States’ regulatory framework, one thing about ESG does seem clear—its instrumental role in value sustainability for investors. Drawing on postcolonial, decolonial, and radical Black theoretical perspectives, this article argues that the ability of ESG to capitalize on socioecological considerations is no accident. This critical analysis characterizes ESG as a paradigmatic example of the extractive nature of racial capitalist political economies like the United States. The article contends that ESG, much like the overarching liberal capitalist economy, is antithetical to the collective liberation project that is central to the radical Black tradition. In service of the imaginative worldmaking praxis that motivates this critical approach, the article offers a preliminary radical Black political economic framework.

In this paper, we prove the following result advocating the importance of monomial quadratic relations between holomorphic CM periods. For any simple CM abelian variety A, we can construct a CM abelian variety B such that all non-trivial Hodge relations between the holomorphic periods of the product $A\times B$ are generated by monomial quadratic ones which are also explicit. Moreover, B splits over the Galois closure of the CM field associated with A.

This article presents the first examination and analysis of a fabric fragment with hunting motif discovered in the Uighur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang in present-day northwest China, which has been carbon 14 dated to the Tang dynasty. This study assesses the value of this fragment by considering its artistic features and cultural significance. The fabric patterns are partially incomplete, a hexagonal structure is discernible, and it contains motifs of Central Asian figures hunting on horseback. The iconographic method was used to analyze the pattern, color, and composition of the fabric. It was concluded that the cultural background and aesthetic qualities of the fabric reflect the fusion of Persian, Islamic, and Chinese Tang dynasty cultures, reflecting the profound cultural exchanges between Iran and China. This research exemplifies the mutual cultural exchange between two civilizations, Iran and China, highlighting Iran’s important contribution to the world.

As the global population ages, the prevalence of cognitive decline is rising, creating urgent demand for proactive strategies that support brain health and healthy ageing. Ergothioneine, a unique dietary amino-thione absorbed via the OCTN1 transporter, has recently gained attention for its potential as a neuroprotective, longevity-promoting compound. This review synthesizes growing evidence from observational, interventional and mechanistic studies. Observational data consistently associate low blood ergothioneine levels with cognitive impairment, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular disorders, frailty and mortality. Interventional trials in older adults suggest that ergothioneine supplementation may improve cognition, memory, sleep quality and stabilize neurodegeneration biomarkers, with no safety concerns at doses up to 25 mg/day. Mechanistic studies reveal that ergothioneine acts through multiple pathways: mitigating oxidative stress, reducing neuroinflammation, preserving mitochondrial function and potentially modulating neurogenesis and NAD+ metabolism, although some mechanisms require further investigation. Beyond cognition, ergothioneine shows promise in supporting other physiological systems relevant to ageing, including cardiovascular, metabolic, gut, eye, auditory, liver, kidney, immune, skin and lung health. Together, current evidence positions ergothioneine as a promising nutritional intervention for promoting cognitive resilience and systemic health in ageing, although larger, long-term interventional trials are needed to confirm causality and optimize use.

The discovery of cleavers and Levallois lithics around the Goab playa in eastern Iran suggests that this region holds significant potential for the study of early human societies and for investigating new hominin dispersal routes to other parts of the world, such as Eastern Asia.

In contemporary Thai politics, the rhetoric of “superwoman” (ผู้หญิงเก่ง) has gained prominence. This paper theorises the intersection of gender, politics, and neoliberalism within the Thai context. While neoliberalism reinforces precarity, it also fosters flexibility, empowerment, and autonomy for some. To understand the origins of the “superwoman” rhetoric, I employ a qualitative method that involves interviewing Thai women MPs who are in the Committee that oversees activities including children, young adults, women, elderly, persons with disabilities, ethnic groups, and gender diverse individuals (คณะกรรมาธิการกิจการเด็ก เยาวชน สตรี ผู้สูงอายุ ผู้พิการ กลุ่มชาติพันธุ์ และผู้ที่มีความหลากหลายทางเพศ). It emerges that some women politicians embody neoliberal selves (Chen 2013), where the central neoliberal principle involves treating homo economicus as the model of personhood. Their bodily dispositions align with the pursuit of individual choices, led by entrepreneurial activity in a capitalist commodifying culture. I examine the interplay between neoliberalism and Thai women politicians as immanent neoliberal subjects who epitomise hegemonic femininity (Baer 2016; Chen 2013) while simultaneously working toward political changes. While literature on neoliberalism and gender focuses on how women distance themselves from the politics of the collective and unchanged structural inequalities, Thai women politicians embody and manoeuvre normative femininity (where opulence symbolises their agency) while also working toward mobilising political change.