The paper uses the material and conceptual figure of dust and matter out of place to amplify more-than-human perspectives of time, to trace the changing orientations and ethos of a site. Dust contains a complex mixture of inorganic and organic material, made up of an exuberance of microbial life such as Penicillium, Aspergillus and Cladosporium and around 20 other fungal sources. We are interested in dust as a material and metaphorical device to situate and critique temporality and the way we narrate and investigate the past and future, from a non-human, microbial point of view. Dust implies residual matter, a contradiction to order often associated with dirt. It indicates something that needs to be removed, or rearranged, something that is “out of place,” an element that does not fit. Dust also indicates time and space and signals movement and life: dust hosts a medley of non-human particles and microbial communities that engage in their own worldmaking practices. The paper brings together methods of “un-cleaning” with archival research and spatial methods of 3D scanning, modelling and mapping, as an opportunity to decentre human hubris and explore the ways in which non-humans have and continue to inhabit “our” spaces.

Classifications of mental disorders reflect much more the minds of psychiatrists than the patients’ minds since these classifications are more focused on the interests of stakeholders (including governmental agencies, advocacy groups, medical insurance, and pharmaceutical companies) than on the experiences of patients. We live in times of rapid socio-cultural changes, and respective changes in the forms of mental suffering are increasingly characterized by fragmentariness and episodicity. These new forms of suffering may escape nosographic framing based on the identification of symptoms and syndromes. A paradigm shift in the psychiatric nosography is necessary. The way forward could be to enhance the ability of clinicians to grasp the “fragments” provided by patients rather than aggregations of symptoms. “Existential knots” can manifest themselves in these fragments to be used as “floating buoys” for clinical navigation, in the absence of exhaustive and detailed “maps” of the symptoms and syndromes that afflict patients. A tentative collection of these existential knots is provided, building on and extending the legacy of existential philosophy and phenomenological psychopathology.

The two first reflections on the politics of money you will see in Eich’s book, a substantial intervention (indeed, the notes are fully one-third the length of the main text itself), come from the visual arts and poetry. Commented upon at the end of his book, the cover image comes from Otis Kaye’s simultaneously playful and biting memento of the Met’s 1961 purchase of Rembrandt’s shimmering 1653 painting, Aristotle with a Bust of Homer. At some 2.3 million dollars, it was the most expensive museum purchase of all time. And Kaye (who seems to have lost most of his own savings in the great crash of 1929) offers both an homage, recreating the main figure of Aristotle with his hand on the bust of a representation of Homer, and a mordant reflection. The trompe l’oeil qualities of paper money in the painting hark back to earlier inflationary economics with the French revolutionary assignats, whose history found renewed interest among those trying to account for German hyperinflation and the Great Depression. Similarly, around Kaye’s edges, the dark intensity of Rembrandt’s background peels away to reveal utilitarian paneling, into which are fixed and interlaced wodges of cash, alongside other symbols of money making. The Heart of the Matter is more than just a wry reflection on the imbrication of art and commerce, or of Rembrandt interpretation—fleeting worldly fame, or lasting reputation. For while its truth seems superficially obvious—that the art world and the art market are inseparable—it is not entirely clear what sort of lesson we are supposed to learn about money. It is on the surface and under it, the base and the superstructure, form and content, style as well as substance. Is it telling us that a society where money is king is one that cannot see the truth of things, or that money, or at least the having of it, is what allows us not to think about it too much?

We surveyed 111 institutions’ practices for screening and decolonization of Staphylococcus aureus in presurgical patients. Institutions commonly utilize universal, targeted, or no decolonization strategies. Frequently reported products were nasal mupirocin, chlorhexidine gluconate bathing, and nasal povidone-iodine. Practice variability indicates opportunities to define optimal strategies.

We investigate whether firm-level political connections affect the allocation of exemptions from tariffs imposed on $US 550 billion of Chinese goods imported to the United States annually beginning in 2018. Evidence points to politicians not only rewarding supporters but also punishing opponents: Past campaign contributions to the party controlling (in opposition to) the executive branch increase (decrease) approval likelihood. Our findings point to quid pro quo arrangements between politicians and firms, as opposed to the “information” channel linking political access to regulatory outcomes.

As Kathleen Graves argues in her 2023 article, the belief that students learn best when teachers deliver a curriculum exactly as written is a common fallacy, based on an underlying assumption that ‘the institutional curriculum is the most important determinant of what happens in the classroom’ (p. 200). Graves stresses that, in reality, the institutional curriculum itself does not guarantee effective learning and that, instead, it is up to teachers to modify, adapt, or ‘enact’ the curriculum for it to make sense and work effectively in each unique context (p. 200). In our roles as academic writing instructors at a university in Japan, we are simultaneously teachers and curriculum developers. As such, we were drawn to this article and have examined how Graves’ ideas relate to our teaching beliefs and experiences. In this response article, we first discuss issues caused by an overemphasis on the institutional as well as on the enacted curricula. We then highlight the importance of building a program culture that invites open dialogue about how teachers creatively adapt a given curriculum in order to involve teachers meaningfully in course development.

The memory of the early-1940s Greek famine has rarely been researched. A narrative attributing full responsibility to the Axis occupying forces, mostly Germans, and focusing almost exclusively on the 1941–2 ordeal of Athens was shaped by 1950. This became the official collective (cultural) memory and remained largely unchanged until the early twenty-first century. The financial crisis that Greece experienced since 2009 further enhanced this memory, bringing the focus exclusively on the German responsibility. This article interrogates the adult fiction works that dealt with this famine in the period 1950–2019, exploring whether these reflect the official collective memory and its changes. Furthermore, it explores how fiction has dealt with two aspects of the famine that are not included in the official collective memory: the black market and famine prostitution. The selected fiction works are utilised as ‘archives’ of the collective memory that prevailed at the time of their writing.

Entrenched ethnoracial hierarchies that persist alongside formal democratic rules threaten commitments to democracy. Previous research has shown how marginalization and oppression harm minoritized group members, but has rarely considered the potential harm entrenched group-based hierarchies pose for democratic society overall. This paper offers two innovations. First, we argue that ethnoracial hierarchies have society-wide implications. Entrenched systems of ethnoracial marginalization undermine support for democracy and respect for democratic rights, even among members of privileged groups. Second, group consciousness conditions the effects of ethnoracial hierarchy among minoritized group members. Specifically, when minoritized individuals hold a structural dimension of group consciousness, they tend to sustain commitments to democracy. Insights from interviews with Indigenous and Afrodescendant activists and policy makers conducted during field research in Peru facilitate development of these theoretical expectations. Subsequent analysis of survey data cross-nationally throughout Latin America and over time in Bolivia demonstrates that ethnoracial hierarchies are associated with weaker democratic commitments across society, while reducing these hierarchies strengthens support for democracy. Among minoritized group members, however, structural group consciousness helps to mitigate these negative effects. This paper contributes a theoretical framework and empirical evidence concerning the challenges ethnoracial hierarchies pose for democratic commitments not only among those who belong to minoritized groups, but for people across society.

Human activity recognition (HAR) is a vital component of human–robot collaboration. Recognizing the operational elements involved in an operator’s task is essential for realizing this vision, and HAR plays a key role in achieving this. However, recognizing human activity in an industrial setting differs from recognizing daily living activities. An operator’s activity must be divided into fine elements to ensure efficient task completion. Despite this, there is relatively little related research in the literature. This study aims to develop machine learning models to classify the sequential movement elements of a task. To illustrate this, three logistic operations in an integrated circuit (IC) design house were studied, with participants wearing 13 inertial measurement units manufactured by XSENS to mimic the tasks. The kinematics data were collected to develop the machine learning models. The time series data preprocessing involved applying two normalization methods and three different window lengths. Eleven features were extracted from the processed data to train the classification models. Model validation was carried out using the subject-independent method, with data from three participants excluded from the training dataset. The results indicate that the developed model can efficiently classify operational elements when the operator performs the activity accurately. However, incorrect classifications occurred when the operator missed an operation or awkwardly performed the task. RGB video clips helped identify these misclassifications, which can be used by supervisors for training purposes or by industrial engineers for work improvement.

How do term limits affect dyadic ideological representation? Despite reformers’ claims that term limits should improve legislators’ connections to their constituents, much empirical political science research suggests that term limits actually break that electoral connection. In this study, I use a regression discontinuity design to measure the ideological gap in how Democrats and Republicans represent evenly matched districts and then explore how this gap varies across settings with and without state legislative term limits in effect. Across a number of specifications, my results are consistent with term limits exacerbating rather than improving dyadic representation. This study contributes to a growing scholarly consensus that term limits do not improve, and may worsen, state legislative representation.

A hospital-based cross-sectional study involving children aged 2–15 years attending the obesity clinic of a tertiary care hospital from January 2016 to March 2018 was carried out to study carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) and its association with cardiometabolic risk factors in children with overweight and obesity. Secondary objective was to compare children with elevated (EcIMT) and normal cIMT (NcIMT). Out of 223 patients enrolled for the study, 102 (45·7 %) had EcIMT. Mean cIMT of the study participants was 0·41 (sd 0·13) mm. Median alanine transaminase levels (27 v. 24, P= 0·006) and proportion of patients with fatty liver (63·7 % v. 48·8 %, P= 0·025) and ≥ 3 risk factors (80·4 % v. 66·1 %, P= 0·003) were higher in the EcIMT group compared with NcIMT group. Proportion of patients with hypercholesterolemia (36·4 % v. 16 %, P= 0·024), elevated LDL-cholesterol (38·6 % v. 16 %, P= 0·013), low HDL-cholesterol (40·9 % v. 20 %, P= 0·027) and dyslipidemia (84·1 % v. 58 %, P= 0·006) was higher in the pubertal EcIMT group and those with fatty liver (63·8 % v. 45·1 %, P= 0·034) was higher in the prepubertal EcIMT group compared with pubertal and prepubertal NcIMT groups, respectively. No significant correlations were observed between cIMT and various cardiometabolic parameters. Our finding of EcIMT in nearly half of the study participants including young children is very concerning as these children are at increased risk of atherosclerotic CVD in adulthood. Interventions starting at a young age are important when trajectories are likely to be more malleable and adverse cardiometabolic phenotypes and subclinical atherosclerosis are reversible.

Kant begins the 1781 Preface of the Critique of Pure Reason with a history of metaphysics told as a sequence of failed political regimes. This history has been largely passed over both in the literature on Kant’s metaphysics and in that on his political philosophy. This article provides an interpretation of Kant’s history of metaphysical regimes as a way of exploring the political themes and aims of the First Critique. Kant’s opening narrative articulates the role his critique of metaphysics plays in establishing the possibility of a lawful order of reason that defends morality against threats arising from reason’s theoretical dissatisfaction. The political history of metaphysics presented in the A Preface reveals Kant’s understanding of the public role philosophy must undertake in the context of the modern crisis of reason.

The export of ornamental fishes from Malawi has received limited attention regarding its sustainability or the conservation status of any threatened species involved in this trade. To identify any species that require specific management actions, we used a negative binomial regression model to examine the relationship between the number of exported fish and year of export, adjusted for fish prices and the number of fish exporters. We also examined the correlation between export volume trends and the conservation status of fish species. We identified three groups of fish species based on their export volume trends: species with no trends, with decreasing trends and with increasing trends. There was no significant correlation between export volume trends and the conservation status of fish species. The export volume trends of individual species appear to be related to the number of exporters, price and, potentially, anthropogenic factors affecting fish populations. Based on our findings we recommend the inclusion of ornamental fishery management issues in a revised Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy. This should include strategies to control overexploitation of species with declining export volume trends, and conservation of threatened species and a ban on their export. We recommend further research to establish the population status of the exploited fish species and to identify any other factors linked to the volume trends of ornamental fish exports.

As mid-southern U.S. rice producers continue to adopt furrow-irrigated rice (FIR) production practices, supplementary management efforts will be vital in combating Palmer amaranth due to the extended germination period provided by the lack of a continual flood. Previous research has revealed the ability of cover crops to suppress Palmer amaranth emergence in corn, cotton, and soybean production systems; however, research on cover crop weed control efficacy in rice production is scarce. Therefore, trials were initiated in Arkansas in 2022 and 2023 to evaluate the effect of cover crops across five site years on rice emergence, groundcover, grain yield, and total Palmer amaranth emergence. The cover crops evaluated were cereal rye, winter wheat, Austrian winterpea, and hairy vetch. Cover crop biomass accumulation varied by site year, ranging from 430 to 3,440 kg ha-1, with cereal rye generally being the most consistent producer of high-quantity biomass across site years. Rice growth and development were generally unaffected by cover crop establishment; however, all cover crops reduced rice emergence by up to 30% in one site year. Rice groundcover was reduced by 13% from cereal rye in one site year two weeks before heading but cover crops did not impact rough rice grain yield in any of the site years. Palmer amaranth emergence was reduced by 19 and 35% with cereal rye relative to the absence of a cover crop when rice was planted in April in Marianna and May in Fayetteville, respectively. In most trials, Palmer amaranth emergence was not reduced by a cereal cover crop. In most instances, legume cover crops resulted in less Palmer amaranth emergence than without a cover crop. Based on these results, legume cover crops appear to provide some suppression of Palmer amaranth emergence in FIR while having a minimal effect on rice establishment and yield.

Spiral galaxies are ubiquitous in the local Universe. However, the properties of spiral arms in them are still not well studied, and there is even less information concerning spiral structure in distant galaxies. We aim to measure the most general parameters of spiral arms in remote galaxies and trace their changes with redshift. We perform photometric decomposition, including spiral arms, for 159 galaxies from the HST COSMOS and JWST CEERS and JADES surveys, which are imaged in optical and near-infrared rest-frame wavelengths. We confirm that, in our representative sample of spiral galaxies, the pitch angles increase, and the azimuthal lengths decrease with increasing redshift, implying that the spiral structure becomes more tightly wound over time. For the spiral-to-total luminosity ratio and the spiral width-to-disc scale length ratio, we find that band-shifting effects can be as significant as, or even stronger than, evolutionary effects. Additionally, we find that spiral structure becomes more asymmetric at higher redshifts.

According to Fricker’s (2007) seminal account, an epistemic injustice is done when, based on prejudice, a hearer ascribes to a speaker a level of credibility below what they deserve. When prejudice results in credibility excess, however, Fricker contends no similar injustice takes place. In this paper, I will challenge the second of these claims. Using a modified version of Zollman’s (2007) two-armed bandit model, I will show how the systematic over-ascription of credibility within a dominant group can produce epistemic advantages for that group relative to non-group members.

A citywide boil water notice necessitated an alternative solution for treating contaminated water. We report our experience using portable reverse osmosis machines to treat the municipal water to provide purified water to patient care areas where non-sterile water was needed, preventing interruptions in services like elective surgeries.