In leaning forward to better see the details of a Breughel wedding scene, an elderly man with thick glasses bumped his head on the wooden frame. He saw stars. “Careful, that painting is irreplaceable,” the guard said. “Please stand back a few feet.”

The eruption of protests within consolidated authoritarian regimes is an infrequent event seen by many scholars as resulting from the separatist intentions of a regional elite enabled by autonomy. In this article, by analysing the July 2022 protest events in Karakalpakstan we challenge this assumed link and instead propose that the emergence of large-scale protests formed as a grassroots reaction to the symbolic loss of the region’s nominal autonomy, state repression, and the detention of popular activists. Based on semi-structured interviews in Karakalpakstan, research findings reveal a moderate and mostly non-separatist approach to the Karakalpak question and a high interconnection with Uzbekistan. The existence of an authoritarian regime in Uzbekistan and its repression mechanisms can provide a straightforward explanation of non-resistant character of Karakalpak population. However, the research showed the strong notion of Karakalpak identity, not being transformed into political demands if Uzbekistan does not harm it.

This paper proposes new origins for tense vowels in Tangut by integrating textual analysis of Tangut texts with comparative data from both Gyalrongic and other Sino-Tibetan languages. It uncovers two previously unreported sources of vowel tensing in compounding: the collective prefix (*S-) and the compound linker (*-S-). Both morphemes left only a few traces, indicating their antiquity and productivity in earlier stages. The collective *S- could be an inherited morpheme which finds parallels in Tibetan, whereas the compound linker *-S- emerged as a stage of morphological merging in West Gyalrongic with (an) obscure origin(s). These findings not only advance our understanding of the origins of Tangut tense vowels but also offer insights into Sino-Tibetan nominal morphology.

Let $g(x)=x^3+ax^2+bx+c$ and $f(x)=g(x^3)$ be irreducible polynomials with rational coefficients, and let $ {\mathrm{Gal}}(f)$ be the Galois group of $f(x)$ over $\mathbb {Q}$. We show $ {\mathrm{Gal}}(f)$ is one of 11 possible transitive subgroups of $S_9$, defined up to conjugacy; we use $ {\mathrm{Disc}}(f)$, $ {\mathrm{Disc}}(g)$ and two additional low-degree resolvent polynomials to identify $ {\mathrm{Gal}}(f)$. We further show how our method can be used for determining one-parameter families for a given group. Also included is a related algorithm that, given a field $L/\mathbb {Q}$, determines when L can be defined by an irreducible polynomial of the form $g(x^3)$ and constructs such a polynomial when it exists.

How do different regime types execute a security response during a pandemic? We interrogate the politics of monopolistic securitization which we argue to have significantly directed and influenced the COVID-19 policy strategies adopted in the ‘democratic’ United Kingdom (UK) and ‘authoritarian’ Thailand. Despite their stark political differences, we contend that the British and Thai states’ parallel resort to monopolistic securitization as an overarching pandemic approach effectively made them ‘functionally similar’ by producing security responses that differed only in magnitude and scale but not in kind. Integrating securitization and democratic standards violations frameworks, we find out that the British and Thai authorities’ monopolistic securitization of COVID-19 initially constrained the intersubjective process required to socially construct the pandemic as a primary existential threat endangering both countries. This significantly diminished their public audiences’ individual/agential and collective/institutional capacity to deliberate the immediate emergency measures they unilaterally deployed, particularly during the pandemic’s early stages. Consequently, whether it was in the UK with a supposedly robust democracy or in Thailand with at best a hybrid regime if not outright authoritarian, the security responses that emerged constituted varying types and degrees of violations within the illiberal-authoritarian spectrum. Nevertheless, as the pandemic progressed, the fundamental deliberative-iterative mechanism underpinning securitization enabled the British and Thai public audiences to gradually reclaim their role and space, allowing them to challenge the appropriateness and legitimacy of the existing emergency measures, thereby weakening the states’ monopolistic control over the process.

In Michigan, United States of America, where Asian parasitoids were released to manage emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), we monitored four native parasitoids that also attack the invasive beetle – Atanycolus cappaerti Marsh and Strazanac, A. simplex (Cresson), and Spathius laflammei Provancher (all Hymenoptera: Braconidae), and Phasgonophora sulcata Westwood (Hymenoptera: Chalcididae) – using yellow pan traps and tree dissections. Adult A. cappaerti, followed by A. simplex, had the broadest seasonal activity, S. laflammei was captured primarily in the first half of the growing season, and P. sulcata was restricted to mid-summer. Adult abundances of native species varied among years but, except for P. sulcata, were never significantly lower than the established Asian emerald ash borer larval parasitoids, Tetrastichus planipennisi Yang (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) and Spathius galinae Belokobylskij and Strazanac (Hymenoptera: Braconidae). Densities of emerald ash borer larvae parasitised by A. cappaerti or P. sulcata did not differ significantly from those of the two Asian species. Although adult A. simplex and S. laflammei were frequently captured, we did not confirm parasitisation of any emerald ash borer larvae by these two species, suggesting that they rarely attack emerald ash borer. We did not find any negative correlations between adult or immature parasitoid abundance of any parasitoid species, suggesting that any interspecific competition that may be occurring is negligible.

Formal membership in a state has been an essential political status for well over a century. It is typically gained at birth, either jus soli or jus sanguinis. Jus soli assigns nationality by birth in a nation's territory; jus sanguinis assigns children their parents’ nationality. This article provides an alternative intellectual history of the modern dominance of these principles for attributing nationality. Contrary to prior scholarship, soli and sanguinis were not restatements of existing principles. The soli/sanguinis binary was a nineteenth-century invention. Old-regime European empires attributed membership in the community under one or another single natural law principle. Parentage and birthplace were mostly evidence of conformity. In the early nineteenth century, officials in multiple jurisdictions began prioritizing positive law above natural law and transformed parentage and birthplace into competing principles for assigning nationality. This movement crystallized in 1860 when Charles Demolombe introduced jus soli and jus sanguinis to nationality law as competing, ostensibly ancient legal traditions. The framework spread quickly because it was a useful way to assign nationality despite states’ conflicting approaches to political membership. Yet, as its role in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) helps illustrate, the invented tradition has also obscured our understanding of more complex historical dynamics.

A long-range, compact, wideband Ultra High Frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) tag is proposed. The design features a triangular patch, designed to achieve wideband impedance matching. The tag exhibit −10 dB bandwidth from 753 to 917 MHz with a substrate thickness of 1.575 mm. The overall size of the tag is 121 × 30 × 1.575 mm3. The gain and bandwidth for varying substrate thickness is investigated. Further, two parasitic strips are designed alongside the patch to operate the tag more effectively at Federal Communications Commission (FCC) band in simultaneous with European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) band with increased read range. With parasitic strips, the tag exhibits −10 dB bandwidth from 766.5 to 896.5 MHz and 905 to 943.6 MHz which covers the bandwidth requirements in Europe, Asia, and North America. A prototype of the proposed tag is fabricated and experimentally tested with the RFID Higgs 4 IC. The tag provides a read range of over 14 m in 865–870 MHz and 13 m in 902–928 MHz when the tag is operated in free space and a read range of over 10.2 m in 865–870 MHz range and 10.3 m in 902–928 MHz range when mounted on a metallic surface of size of 200 × 200 m2 . The performance parameters of the designed tag are also compared with some commercially available designs.

Species of the genus Corynosoma (Acanthocephala: Polymorphida) mainly parasitize marine mammals and rarely marine birds, and are of veterinary and medical importance due to causing corynosomiasis in wildlife and humans. However, the current knowledge of the mitochondrial genomes and mitogenomic phylogeny of this group remains very insufficient. In the present study, the complete mitochondrial genomes of C. bullosum (von Linstow, 1892) and C. evae Zdzitowiecki, 1984 were sequenced and annotated for the first time. Both mitogenomes comprise 12 protein-coding genes (missing atp8), 22 tRNA genes, and 2 ribosomal RNAs (rrnS and rrnL), plus 2 non-coding regions (NCR1 and NCR2). Corynosoma bullosum has the largest mitogenome (14,879 bp) of any polymorphid species reported so far, while C. evae has the smallest (13,947 bp), except for Sphaerirostris lanceoides (Petrochenko, 1949). Comparative mitogenomic analysis also revealed the presence of distinct discrepancies in A + T content and gene rearrangement across the families Polymorphidae, Centrorhynchidae, and Plagiorhynchidae. Moreover, phylogenetic analyses based on the concatenated amino acid sequences of 12 protein-coding genes strongly supported the monophyly of the order Polymorphida and a close affinity between the families Polymorphidae and Centrorhynchidae in Polymorphida. The present mitogenomic phylogeny provides additional evidence for a sister relationship between the genera Corynosoma and Bolbosoma and demonstrated that C. evae has a closer relationship with C. villosum than C. bullosum in the genus Corynosoma.

The data volumes generated by theWALLABY atomic Hydrogen (HI) survey using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) necessitate greater automation and reliable automation in the task of source-finding and cataloguing. To this end, we introduce and explore a novel deep learning framework for detecting low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) HI sources in an automated fashion. Specifically, our proposed method provides an automated process for separating true HI detections from false positives when used in combination with the Source Finding Application (SoFiA) output candidate catalogues. Leveraging the spatial and depth capabilities of 3D ConvolutionalNeuralNetworks (CNNs), our method is specifically designed to recognize patterns and features in three-dimensional space, making it uniquely suited for rejecting false positive sources in low SNR scenarios generated by conventional linear methods. As a result, our approach is significantly more accurate in source detection and results in considerably fewer false detections compared to previous linear statistics-based source finding algorithms. Performance tests using mock galaxies injected into real ASKAP data cubes reveal our method’s capability to achieve near-100% completeness and reliability at a relatively low integrated SNR ∼ 3 – 5. An at-scale version of this tool will greatly maximise the science output from the upcoming widefield HI surveys.

This study explores the relationship between alter centrality in various social domains and the perception of linguistic similarity within personal networks. Linguistic similarity perception is defined as the extent to which individuals perceive others to speak similarly to themselves. A survey of 126 college students and their social connections (n = 1035) from the French-speaking region of Switzerland was conducted. We applied logistic multilevel regressions to account for the hierarchical structure of dyadic ties. The results show that alters holding central positions in supportive networks are positively associated with perceived linguistic similarity, while those who are central in conflict networks show a negative association. The role of ambivalence yielded mixed results, with a positive and significant association emerging when ambivalence was linked to family members.

Neurorights are widely discussed as a means of protecting phenomena like cognitive liberty and freedom of thought. This article is especially interested in example cases where these protections are sought in light of fast-paced developments in neurotechnologies that appear capable of reading the mind in some significant sense. While it is prudent to take care and seek to protect the mind from prying, questions remain over the kinds of claims that prompt concerns over mind reading. The nature of these claims should influence how exactly rights may or may not offer justifiable solutions. Overall, the exploration of neurotechnological mind reading questions here will come in terms of philosophical accounts of mental content and neuroreductionism. The contribution will be to present a contextualization of questions arising from ‘mind-reading’ neurotechnology, and appraisal of if or how neurorights respond to them.

We present the first nonlinear results on the problem of non-rotating thermal convection in an internally heated full sphere. A nonlinear stability analysis by the energy method yields that, at least for no-slip boundary conditions, the critical Rayleigh numbers for linear stability and nonlinear stability coincide. We then explore different ranges of the parameter regime using direct numerical simulations. We first report on the system behaviour for a fixed Prandtl number of unity and both stress-free and no-slip boundary conditions up to very high forcing, reaching Rayleigh number $Ra=2\times 10^{12}$, approximately 250 million times the critical value ($Ra_c$) for the onset of convection under no-slip conditions. For both boundary conditions, we observe a scaling for the advective heat transfer measured by the Nusselt number $Nu$ close to $Nu \sim Ra^{1/4}$. This is consistent with a scaling prediction that we formulate analogously to the classical scaling in Rayleigh–Bénard convection. We then investigate the Prandtl number dependence at low to intermediate forcing for stress-free boundary conditions in the ranges $0.1 \leq Pr \leq 30$ and $Ra_c=3091\leq Ra \leq 3\times 10^5 \approx 100Ra_c$. We find five distinct dynamical regimes depending on the Prandtl number, describe each regime individually and issue heuristic interpretations of the system behaviour where possible.

We carry out timing and spectral studies of the Be/X-ray binary pulsar GX 304-1 using NuStar and XMM-Newton observations. We construct the long-term spin period evolution of the pulsar which changes from a long-term spin-up (∼ 1.3 × 10−13 Hz s−1) to a long-term spin-down (∼ −3.4 × 10−14 Hz s−1) trend during a low luminosity state (∼ 1034–35 erg s−1). A prolonged low luminosity regime (LX ∼ 1034–35 erg s−1) was detected during 2005-2010 and spanning nearly five years since 2018 December. The XMM-Newton and NuStar spectra can be described with a power law plus blackbody model having an estimated luminosity of ∼ 2.5 × 1033 erg s−1 and ∼ 3.6 × 1033 erg s−1 respectively. The inferred radius of the blackbody emission is about 100-110 m which suggests a polar-cap origin of this component. From long-term ultraviolet observations of the companion star, an increase in the ultraviolet signatures is detected preceding the X-ray outbursts. The spectral energy distribution of the companion star is constructed which provides a clue of possible UV excess when X-ray outbursts were detected from the neutron star compared to the quiescent phase. We explore plausible mechanisms to explain the long-term spin-down and extended low luminosity manifestation in this pulsar. We find that sustained accretion from a cold disc may explain the prolonged low luminosity state of the pulsar since December 2018 but the pulsar was undergoing normal accretion during the low luminosity period spanning 2005-2010.