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Serving the living and the dead: An integrated approach to Copper Age ceramic production and cultural dynamics in Campania, Southern Italy
Get PDFThis study explores the contribution of large scale integrated pottery analysis to the definition of broader cultural processes and, more specifically, highlights for the first time changes in the role and demand for ceramic objects during the Copper Age in Southern Italy. To identify such trends and drivers of change this study applies a holistic approach to ceramic production integrating typological analysis typical of the Italian tradition with a broader, theoretically informed, technological approach involving macroscopic observations and archaeometric analyses. The study area is Campania, in Southern Italy, where four multi-phase sites were selected spanning through the whole Copper Age (roughly 3800−2100 BC). This study represents the first large scale archaeometric programme on Copper Age contexts from southern Italy and allows us to detect and relatively dating technological innovations (such as the use of moulds and advances in the control of firing) as well as strong manufacturing traditions never previously fully characterised for Copper Age Southern Italy. The combination of typological and technological analyses of different ceramic assemblages highlighted the emergence in the Early/Middle Copper Age of a selected branch of production for complex funerary vessels deposed in collective graves linked to serving and consuming liquids. Towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC, important socio-economic and cultural dynamics led to a radical change in funerary practices in Central and Southern Italy and in the practical and symbolic role of ceramics in these contexts. Ceramic manufacture became more varied with no evidence of a dedicated funerary production, in fact, only few ceramic vessels, also common in domestic contexts, were generally deposed in single flat graves. This typological, productive and also symbolic disruption led to theorise a shift from a ‘ritual’ to a ‘functional’ demand for ceramic production, embedded in the cultural processes ongoing in this period. This integration of multiple lines of evidence (context, typology and technology) highlights how research on ceramics can contribute to the definition and understanding of larger phenomena at a regional and wider scale such as demands of production as well as symbolic, and economic drivers of change
Mangrove sediments reveal drivers of Late Holocene sea-level change in the equatorial Pacific Ocean
Get PDFProxy relative sea level (RSL) reconstructions offer context for historical observations and future projections. Unlike many sites in the equatorial Pacific Ocean where Late Holocene RSL fell from a high stand, the subsiding volcanic islands of Pohnpei and Kosrae in Micronesia experienced continuous RSL rise, allowing mangrove sediment accumulation. Through sedimentological, geochemical, and palynological techniques alongside radiocarbon dating, we reconstruct RSL over the past ∼3000 years. On Pohnpei, RSL rose 3.6 ± 0.17 m since 1270 BCE and on Kosrae RSL rose 1.9 ± 0.33 m since 310 BCE. Our findings indicate subsidence rates of 1.3 mm/y for Pohnpei and 1.1 mm/y for Kosrae, consistent with contemporary rates, but greater than expected based on current understanding of the lifespan of ocean islands. These new estimates do not significantly alter existing twenty-first-century RSL projections for Pohnpei but given the similarity in predicted and reconstructed RSL histories between Pohnpei and Kosrae, we anticipate that for planning purposes, future RSL rise at Kosrae will resemble that of Pohnpei. Our work integrates these reconstructions into an updated global mean sea-level curve, emphasizing the value of Late Holocene proxy data from under-represented regions
The scaling of game-changer business models to address societal grand challenges
Get PDFPurpose: This viewpoint paper aims to identify and illustrate the underlying logics of game-changer business models and situate them within the broader academic discourse on sustainable business model innovation and international business. This paper also examines the factors that influence the potential and actual scaling of these models.Design/methodology/approach: This paper examines 17 cases identified as game-changers from the existing literature, the World Investment Forum’s Game Changers Summit and by scanning the outcomes of high-profile business competitions. These organizations aim to develop innovative solutions to address issues such as food security, climate change, plastic pollution, waste management, water security, sanitation, economic growth and the energy crisis.Findings: The authors identify six recurring patterns or “logics” that characterize these game-changers: place-based solutions scalable through global relevance; leveraging the opportunities provided by advanced technologies; a “land-to-lab” approach for innovation; multi-stakeholder collaboration; the ability to tap into multiple funding sources; and a blend of vision, science and management capabilities.Originality/value: The authors highlight how the meaning attached to particular terms, such as game-changers, can evolve over time. The findings and the subsequent theorizing outline how the concept of game-changers overlaps and differs from other concepts such as sustainable business models, blue ocean and disruptive innovators. By deriving observable logics from these cases, the authors provide a frame of reference to facilitate the comparison of findings across time and space regardless of how these business models are labeled
Mapping Discrimination in LLM-driven HR Systems
No full textThe United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) prioritise inclusive and fair employment. However, AI-powered recruitment tools—particularly Large Language Models (LLMs)—raise concerns about potential demographic bias. This paper presents a controlled synthetic dataset and methodology to measure how sensitive attributes (e.g., race, gender, age) influence candidate rankings and pairwise comparisons in LLM-based hiring pipelines. Specifically, we generated a balanced dataset of 1,000 synthetic candidate profiles (each including a cover letter) and evaluated it using 28 frontier LLMs, including proprietary (e.g., OpenAI GPT, Gemini, Grok, Claude) and opensource (e.g., Llama, GigaChat) models. Synthetic data eliminates real-world demographic/occupational confounders, ensuring observed disparities reflect only LLMs’ intrinsic behaviour. Results show professional attributes (e.g., skills, experience) are primary ranking drivers, with 76%–80% statistically significant; however, 8%–9% of demographic attributes exhibit persistent, significant biases across multiple LLMs.We develop a “bias map” quantifying LLM performance, emphasising that mitigating even minor biases in automated hiring is critical to avoid perpetuating employment inequities and uphold the UN SDGs’ inclusive vision
Finding d-cuts in graphs of bounded diameter, graphs of bounded radius and H-free graphs
No full textPerspectives on Wisdom. An Exploration in the History of Philosophy from West to East
No full textWisdom has been understood in different ways across time and space. Since antiquity, wisdom has been considered the defining trait of the philosopher. Wisdom has been conceived as practical or theoretical, useful or for its own sake. Contemplation, meditation, and theoretical speculation are some of the activities that have been attributed to the wise both in the Western and in the Eastern traditions. In our current time, there seems to be a desperate need of wise people, especially of wise political leaders and wise collective thinking. But who are the wise? What is this type of thinking that we call wisdom? What is its use (if any)?The volume answers these questions by fostering a dialogue among different fields: ancient Greek philosophy, Islamic philosophy, early Chinese philosophy, Indian philosophy, Buddhist Zen philosophy, early modern European philosophy, and neuroscience.What emerges is a multifarious view of wisdom that highlights how this complex notion can be grasped only in conversations among different fields. The book is accessible to a wide range of readers both specialised scholars in the fields represented in the volume as well as students and readers interested in an interdisciplinary perspective on wisdom
Random periodic solutions of SDEs driven by α-stable processes: existence, uniqueness and numerical approximations
Get PDFOn a rigidity property for quadratic gauss sums
Get PDFLet N be a large prime and let c > 1/4. We prove that if f is a ±1-valued multiplicative function, such that the exponential sums S f (a) := 1≤n<N f (n)e(na/N), a (mod N) satisfy the "Gauss sum-like" approximate dilation symmetry property 1 N a (mod N) |S f (ap) − f (p)S f (a)| 2 = o(N), uniformly over all primes p ≤ N c then f coincides with a real character modulo N at almost all n < N. As a consequence, taking f to be the Liouville function we connect this exponential sums property to the location of real zeros of L(s, χ) close to s = 1, for χ the Legendre symbol modulo N. Assuming the L-functions of primitive Dirichlet characters modulo N have a sufficiently wide zero-free region (of "Littlewood type"), we also show a more general result in which c may be taken arbitrarily close to 0
Evidence of Feedback Effects in Low-luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei Revealed by JWST Spectroscopy
Get PDFThis Letter presents an analysis of the infrared (∼3–28 μm) spectra extracted from the nuclear (r < 150 pc) regions of four low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGN), observed by JWST NIRSpec/integral field unit and MIRI/Medium Resolution Spectroscopy as an extension of the Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey. We find that, compared to higher-luminosity AGN, these low-luminosity AGN exhibit distinct properties in their emission of ionized gas, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and molecular hydrogen (H2). Specifically, the low-luminosity AGN exhibit relatively weak high ionization potential lines (e.g., [Ne V] and [O IV]), and the line ratios suggest that fast radiative shocks (with vs of ∼100s km s−1) are the primary excitation source of ionized gas therein. Under the low-excitation conditions of their nuclear regions, these low-luminosity AGN generally exhibit a higher fraction of PAHs with large size (NC ≳ 200), reflecting the preferential destruction of smaller PAH molecules by AGN feedback. Furthermore, the H2 transitions in these low-luminosity AGN are not fully thermalized, with slow, plausibly jet-driven molecular shocks (with vs ≤ 10 km s−1) likely being the extra excitation source. Taken together with results from the literature, these findings indicate that feedback operates in both low- and high-luminosity AGN, although its impact varies with AGN luminosity. In particular, systematic variations in PAH band ratios are found across AGN, demonstrating the differing influence of feedback in AGN of varying luminosities and highlighting the potential of PAH band ratios as diagnostics for distinguishing kinetic- and radiative-mode AGN feedback
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