In British North America, imperial sovereignty required peripheral cooperation in public finance. However, because of limited coercive British state capacity, local colonial assemblies and town governments operated with substantial autonomy. The interests of colonial subjects did not align exactly with those of politicians and military officers in the center of British imperial authority in London. Short term success in colonial war between 1754 and 1763 required policies that incentivized colonists to buy into the imperial project. After 1758, Parliament and royal departments managed to incentivize greater provincial participation and resource allocation to the military by co-opting existing colonial merchant networks using lucrative public contracts. The contracts requested a small number of merchant firms in colonial cities take on large debts to circulate notes of credit in exchange for commissions. Merchant financiers could use these notes to pay for military expenses. The contracts promised bullion remittances from England to cover the debts, but these funds ultimately proved insufficient to cover outstanding obligations. Failures to remit led to a colonial credit crisis between 1762 and 1768 which shook colonists’ faith in the credibility of the British fiscal state in the decade leading up to the American Revolution.

Intensifying storms and inter-annual El Niño events may increase psychological stress and worsen mental health. This study examines the relationship between flood exposure and long-term mental health symptoms among adolescents and young people in Peru, the world’s most affected country by El Niño. We analyzed community and self-reported survey data from the Young Lives Study to contrast mental health in 2016 among youth who lived in communities that experienced or did not experience flooding between 2013 and 2016. We pre-processed data on 1344 individuals in 93 communities, using optimal full matching on Mahalanobis distance with a propensity score caliper, and estimated relative risks to mental health scores in the general population of young people and among gender-stratified groups via quasi-Poisson regression. Exposure to floods did not yield conclusive differences in mental health scores in this sample. Further evidence is needed on mental health patterns over time, the influence of exposure severity, and the impact of disaster relief on symptomology in mounting an effective global health response.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between nutrition knowledge and nutritional adequacy among Japanese university students. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018 at a university located in Hyogo Prefecture, Kobe, Japan, and 801 students from various academic disciplines were enrolled. Eligible participants were students aged more than 18 years, encompassing all years of study. Nutrition knowledge data were obtained using a nutrition knowledge questionnaire (NKQ) for Japanese adults. Participants were classified into three nutrition knowledge groups according to their total NKQ scores [mean ± standard deviation; all (64.7 ± 15.4%), low (48.1 ± 13.8%), medium (68.3 ± 2.8%), and high (78.5 ± 4.2%)]. Participants reported their dietary habits in the preceding month using a brief self-administered diet history questionnaire. Differences in nutritional adequacy among groups were determined using logistic regression and covariance analyses, adjusted for potential confounding factors. The adequacy of each nutrient was quantified as the proportion of participants with nutrient intake that fell outside the reference range. Although the intakes of only a few nutrients and foods were associated with nutrition knowledge, the total number of nutrients below the estimated average requirement was lower in the high nutrition knowledge group (3.1 ± 2.7) than in the low nutrition knowledge group (3.6 ± 2.9) (P = 0.046). In conclusion, the nutrition knowledge level of Japanese university students is associated with nutritional adequacy but may partially affect eating habits. Future longitudinal studies must clarify the causal and dose-response relationships between nutrition knowledge and dietary habits.

Racism permeates societies globally, including within Germany’s educational system. Specifically, people from the SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa) region experience anti-Muslim racism. This study explores how racially minoritized parents subjected to the asylum system navigate racist discourse within societal and institutional structures, focusing on their strategies of resistance and accommodation. Guided by a social constructionist epistemology, interviews were conducted with 11 parents migrating from regions and countries with a majority of Muslim residents. Utilizing reflexive thematic analysis, four themes were constructed: Language as an exclusion and excuse mechanism, Meaning-making of being racialized, Good Migrant, and Going the extra mile. The analysis highlights the dialectical tension parents experience as they navigate racist discourse within social and institutional structures. Parents resisted by challenging school practices, defending “cultural norms”, and advocating for their children’s educational opportunities. Simultaneously, they strategically accommodated by stressing gratefulness, assimilation, and praising German systems. This research illuminates how racially minoritized parents navigate oppressive systems and racist discourse, emphasizing the interplay between resistance and accommodation. It underscores the importance of recognizing informal resistance within societal constraints, offering a nuanced perspective through the resistance and accommodation framework. Additionally, it informs policy and social responses to migration by elucidating racialization and oppression dynamics.

This study attempted to determine whether or not the educational curriculum is adjusted in state primary schools to meet the educational needs of Syrian refugee children, whether in-service training related to refugee children’s education was provided, and what the educational needs of refugee students were. The sample was composed of 294 primary school teachers and 372 Syrian refugee students in Türkiye. The data were analysed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 24 and converted to percentage and frequency tables. The results indicated that the central curriculum and the teacher competencies were inadequate to meet the educational needs of the refugee children. It was also concluded that refugee students typically came from low socio-economic and educational backgrounds, however these students maintained a positive perspective toward education and were dedicated to fulfilling their student responsibilities such as attending school regularly and completing their homework. Some recommendations for future research and practices are presented.

Research on second language (L2) speech learning suggests that incidental perception training can lead to the establishment of non-native phonological categories. The present study contributes to this line of enquiry by investigating how this training is mediated by individual differences in working memory capacity and domain-general auditory processing abilities. In our study, 130 native British English speakers without prior knowledge of Portuguese were randomly assigned to trained or untrained conditions. All participants completed a visual digit span task and an auditory processing test battery. We observed improvements from pretest to post-test in production only, but since both groups improved, these gains cannot be attributed to the incidental perception training. The analysis of the ID measures further confirms the important role played by auditory processing abilities in L2 speech learning. However, more research is needed to better understand the role of incidental perception training and the mediating role of cognitive aptitudes.

Chi jiu zhi ji Tang zhi wu (赤鳩之集湯之屋, “[When] Red Doves Gathered on Tang’s house”) is an excavated Chu manuscript that belongs to the Tsinghua University bamboo slips collection. The manuscript concerns several important early Chinese figures such as Tang and Yi Yin, while also featuring rich supernatural elements. Many studies have focused on “shamanism elements” depicted in the tale or defined the genre of the text as xiaoshuo. This article offers a reexamination of Chi jiu and the above assumptions by contextualizing the text within its original three-text manuscript. The article reveals how early compilers constructed a chronological sequence to frame an overarching narrative in a heterogeneous compilation, and further generates a unique narrative regarding the extraordinary status of Yi Yin the founding minister. In its conclusion, the paper draws attention to potential alternative narratives about the minister-ruler relationship in early China, and also places Chi jiu in the context of early compilation practices. Additionally, it considers possible parallels between the Chi jiu story and two of the Grimms’ Tales, viewing Chi jiu within folklore studies.

Lexical proficiency is a multifaceted phenomenon that greatly impacts human judgments of writing quality. However, the importance of collocations’ contribution to proficiency assessment has received less attention than that of single words, despite collocations’ essential role in language production. This study, therefore, investigated how aspects of collocational proficiency affect the ratings that examiners give to English learner essays. To do so, collocational features related to sophistication and accuracy were manipulated in a set of argumentative essays. Examiners then rated the texts and provided rationales for their choices. The findings revealed that the use of lower-frequency words significantly and positively impacted the experts’ ratings. When used as part of collocations, such words then provided a small yet significant additional boost to ratings. Notably, there was no significant effect for increased collocational accuracy. These findings suggest that low-frequency words within collocations are particularly salient to examiners and deserving of pedagogic focus.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) provides independent scientific advice to EU risk managers on a wide range of food safety issues and communicates on existing and emerging risks in the food chain. This advice helps to protect consumers, animals and the environment. Data are essential to EFSA’s scientific assessments. EFSA collects data from various sources including scientific literature, biological and chemical monitoring programmes, as well as food consumption and composition databases. EFSA also assesses data from authorisation dossiers for regulated products submitted by industry. To continue delivering the highest value for society, EFSA keeps abreast of new scientific, technological and societal developments. EFSA also engages in partnerships as an essential means to address the growing complexity in science and society, and to better connect and integrate knowledge, data and expertise across sectors. This paper provides insights into EFSA’s data related activities and future perspectives in the following key areas of EFSA’s 2027 strategy: one substance-one assessment, combined exposure to multiple chemicals, environmental risk assessment, new approach methodologies, antimicrobial resistance and risk-benefit assessment. EFSA’s initiatives to integrate societal insights in its risk communication are also described.

Ulrich von Hutten (1488–1523), a renowned sixteenth-century German humanist, documented the symptoms of the epidemic that swept through Europe starting around 1495, commonly known as the French Disease. While it has traditionally been associated with venereal syphilis, Dutch tropical physician Willem F. R. Essed proposed in 1933, largely unnoticed to this day, that this new disease might instead be tropical yaws. This study establishes a clear link between Hutten’s reported symptoms and yaws, especially in its secondary and tertiary stages. The skeleton discovered in 1968 on Ufnau Island in Lake Zurich where Hutten died and was buried, exhibits distinct bone manifestations of ancient treponematosis with a pattern more consistent with yaws than syphilis. Furthermore, the correspondence between Hutten’s main symptoms and the lesions observable on the 1968 skeleton further confirms the identification of these human remains. The historical evidence of yaws significantly contributes to our understanding of this early modern epidemic.

The implementation of a circular bioeconomy in the construction industry is a necessary strategy to tackle our global climate crisis. With any single solution having practical and environmental limitations, it is clear that creating a material palette of renewable biogenic building materials will expands access to bio-based construction. Photosynthetic organisms, including marine biomass such as seaweeds and microalgae, utilise solar energy to sequester CO₂, producing biomolecules that can be harnessed for a variety of biomaterials. Organisms such as mussels and oysters mineralise carbon into shells that are often dis-carded as residues. These second and third-generation feedstocks present an opportunity to decarbonise the construction industry. However, we need to better understand how to renew our relationship to this resource in a sustainable manner. This question seeks to explore how we can design and fabricate with, and for, blue biomass materials

Pakistani Tablighis, practitioners of the transnational Islamic piety movement the Tablighi Jamaat, say that Muslims have abandoned religion (din) and been led astray by the world (dunya) and this has thrust the world into a state of moral chaos (fitna). They insist that only their form of face-to-face preaching (dawat) can remedy this situation. Drawing on Bakhtin’s (1981) notion of chronotope, or distinct imaginaries of space and time, anthropologists have argued that chronotopes produce a “plot structure” for social interaction that instantiates different social persona and forms of agency. In this article, I argue that dawat is organized around a chronotope of piety that encourages deference to others as well as defers the realization of piety to the future, thereby creating a self-limiting and self-regulating form of pious authority that Tablighis see as the basis for the creation and moral reproduction of the Islamic community. Pious authority takes on political significance as an alternative form of sovereignty against the backdrop of religious and political fragmentation engendered by state- and market-driven Islamization in Pakistan.