Ireland has a long-standing voluntary private health insurance market (PHI) which is regulated to meet the public policy objective of achieving risk solidarity to promote affordability of PHI. Under the regulations underpinning the market, many features are common to those of universal mandatory health insurance markets, that have wider equity objectives of ensuring universal equitable access to care for everyone. The market acts a complete/partial alternative to the public health system, and has been criticised for leading to a two-tier system with consequent implications for equity. To improve equity, these criticisms led to the adoption of a new public health reform plan, called Sláintecare, which seeks to build towards equal access to services based on patient need and not their ability to pay. Given this context, this paper re-examines how might the current voluntary health insurance system be adapted to meet the central Sláintecare objective of increasing health coverage on an equitable basis. It does so by considering to what extent does Ireland meet the preconditions for equity and efficiency under the Enthoven managed competition model. It provides a roadmap for the use of health insurance as a tool for bring this equity.

Archaeogenetics, the study of ancient DNA, can reveal powerful insights into kinship and the movement of individuals in (pre)history. Here, the authors report on the identification of two individuals with genetic profiles consistent with recent sub-Saharan African ancestry, both of whom were buried in early-medieval cemeteries in southern Britain. Focusing primarily on a sub-adult female from Updown in Kent, the authors explore the societal and cultural contexts in which these individuals lived and died, and the widening geographic links indicated by their presence, pointing back to the Byzantine reconquest of North Africa in AD 533–534.

The increasing destruction of cultural heritage in conflict zones has exposed the shortcomings of current crisis response frameworks. Traditional, state-led mechanisms have struggled to address the complexities and rapid developments of modern warfare, leading to the emergence of more flexible, decentralized approaches. In this context, civil society organizations (CSOs) have emerged as key actors, stepping in to address the shortcomings of national governments and international heritage institutions. This article explores the evolving role of CSOs in emergency cultural heritage protection, focusing on Heritage for Peace (H4P) and its interventions in Syria, Sudan, and Gaza. Through case study analysis, this research examines the logistical, ethical, and operational challenges faced by H4P, and presents a model of its strategic interventions in emergency contexts. This model illustrates the opportunities and constraints inherent in crisis environments, including mobility and safety risks, alongside structural challenges in cultural heritage protection, such as limited funding and short-term project cycles that hinder sustainability. The research advocates placing the local population at the center of emergency strategies, strengthening local partnerships, implementing proactive preparedness measures, and strengthening international cooperation mechanisms.

Situated at the intersection of language rights, nation-building processes, and security issues, this article analyzes language policies in Ukraine in the three decades since its independence (1991–2021). It traces the legal evolution and decisions of the Ukrainian Constitutional Court, identifying the specific ideological approaches towards language issues that emerge in such a development. We distinguish four periods in the evolution of Ukrainian laws, highlighting how these stages reflect specific ontological and societal (in)securities and related securitization processes, and their intersection with the process of nation-building and the role assigned to the Ukrainian language in such a process. In this way, the article discusses how, in light of the Soviet legacy and Russian kin-state activism and geopolitical agenda, Ukraine has moved to adopt a more assertive nationalizing approach to language issues that aim at promoting Ukrainian as the state language. Russia’s aggressive actions accelerated the ongoing nation-building process, interplaying with the relevance assigned to the Ukrainian language for the Ukrainian nation-state as well as the country’s ontological and societal (in)securities. In this way, our contribution complements our understanding of language policies, bringing to light the connections of their evolution and variations with how security concerns affect nation-building processes.

In From Survival Cannibalism to Climate Politics (2025) as well as in Law and Politics from the Sea (2024) Mann proposes the ‘commonist lifeboat’ as a political metaphor for the age of climate change. This response to Itamar Mann’s re-reading of Regina vs. Dudley and Stephens proposes a materialist reading of his political theory of the ‘commonist lifeboat’, arguing that the lifeboat may be a metaphorical and practical site from which alternatives to our current ways of doing and thinking about politics in times of climate crisis might emerge. The text brings Mann’s lifeboat into conversation with my own and other scholars’ work on radical vessels – historical and contemporary – in order to demonstrate and expand its analytical capacity as a more-than-metaphorical term. Building on Mann’s use of the lifeboat as a metaphor and a site of maritime custom, I propose to understand the ‘commonist lifeboat’ also as a material container that operates in a specific material environment: the sea. I argue that a focus on the materiality of the sea and of the lifeboat may point to political practice, community and customs yet to be invented, which may help us navigate the turbulent political environment of our time.

We give a simple diagrammatic proof of the Frobenius property for generic fibrations that does not depend on any additional structure on the interval object such as connections.

The global population is ageing rapidly, emphasising the need to understand the decision-making processes of older adults regarding potential care transitions. Gerontological research has focused on healthcare decisions, with less information on living situation choices of older adults. This review explored older adults’ experiences with their involvement in decision-making processes related to transitioning into care facilities in the United Kingdom. From a systematic search of articles, nine were reviewed using thematic narrative synthesis. Four themes with nine subthemes were identified: Involvement in decision-making (Exclusion of older adults, Usefulness of involvement), The necessity of moving (Triggers for moves, The role of family), Timely planning (Helpfulness of planning, Planning avoidance), and Factors for choosing a care home (Non-quality factors, Quality factors, Continuity of life). These themes highlighted the issue of inadequate involvement of older adults in decision-making, often resulting in negative consequences like regret and difficulty settling into new care settings. The necessity of moving arose from sudden events or increased support needs. Some older adults acknowledged the necessity due to declining health or to spare family burden, while relatives grappled emotionally, postponing the choice. Timely planning was found to be beneficial practically and emotionally, facilitating smoother transitions. However, participants would rarely plan and discuss such matters early. Older adults focused on personal experiences and trusted sources rather than publicly available information when considering Factors for choosing a care home. The findings show the need for greater inclusion of older adults in decisions related to their care and the importance of early planning and providing preferred types and formats of information to aid decisions. Future research should focus on a better understanding of older adults’ preferences for successful involvement in care decisions, with support and guidance for others involved in the decisions.

This article provides the general psychiatrist with a pragmatic guide to working confidently and productively in the emergency department (ED). The focus is on effectively navigating the distinctive physical environment, personnel, systems, time pressures, legal boundaries, special challenges and broad scope of practice applicable to this setting to maximally support both patients and staff. It brings to the reader’s attention special considerations at all stages of workflow, including pre-assessment preparations, the assessment process and ongoing planning. It considers common requests and the application of mental health law (in England and Wales) associated with both capacity assessment and involuntary care. Finally, it explores unique challenges associated with risk assessment, physical health advocacy and management of conflict in the ED setting. The specific systems described are those of the UK’s National Health Service, but the principles involved are universal.

Anticipating policy instrument preferences can be an important step in policy design to address pressing sustainability problems. But studying preferences for policy instruments is a difficult task because sustainability problems involve a non-negligible degree of trade-offs and uncertainty. We therefore study the role of actors’ underlying ideologies (policy core beliefs) and risk attitudes in forming their preferences for different instruments. Combining the advocacy coalition framework with multi-attribute utility theory, both ideologies and attitudes toward uncertain policy consequences can influence instrument preferences. So far, policy studies literature has paid little attention to trade-offs between policy core beliefs or risk attitudes. Using Bayesian regression models on data from actors in Swiss pesticide risk reduction policy, we found that attitudes toward trade-offs and risk are indeed relevant to explain preferences for different regulatory and market-based instruments addressing agricultural pesticide use. Therefore, when designing policies for sustainability problems, considering the relative importance of policy core beliefs for different actors can help to find effective and broadly supported solutions. In addition, risk attitudes should be considered when policy design involves more coercive and stimulative policy instruments.

Carbon capture technologies are considered essential for addressing global warming issues. To date, various capture technologies have been extensively investigated in the literature, both through experimental studies and simulations. This paper aims to briefly review the most recent advancements in the modeling of various CO2 capture processes. The progress in technologies, including chemical absorption, physical absorption, adsorption, membrane-based separation and chemical looping processes, is discussed. Existing evaluation results obtained from various simulation studies are summarized and compared. In addition to the advancements in each technology, the future research trends and the challenges that need to be addressed in the field of process modeling are identified.

Previous L1 syntactic processing studies have identified the crucial left frontotemporal network, whereas research on L2 syntactic processing has shown that learner factors, such as L2 proficiency and linguistic distance, can modulate the related networks. Here, we developed a function-word-based jabberwocky sentence reading paradigm to investigate the neural correlates underlying Chinese L2 syntactic processing. Twenty Chinese L2 Korean native speakers were recruited in this fMRI study. Chinese proficiency test scores and Chinese-Korean syntactic similarity scores were measured to quantify the learner factors, respectively. The imaging results revealed an effective left frontoparietal network involving superior parietal lobule (SPL), posterior inferior frontal gyrus (pIFG) and precentral gyrus (PreCG). Moreover, the signal intensity of SPL as well as the connectivity strength between SPL and PreCG significantly correlated with the learner factors. These findings shed light on the neurobiological relationships between L1 and L2 syntactic processing and on the modulation of L2 learner factors.