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Isotopic evidence for changing diet and agriculture in China from the Neolithic to the Early Han period (10-2 ka BP)
Get PDFThis paper examines changing subsistence practices from the Neolithic to the Early Han Dynasty across diverse cultural regions of China. Using a large corpus of stable isotopic data from the literature (N human = 3492; N animal = 2919), we trace spatial and temporal shifts in staple crop use and livestock management. Isotopic evidence reveals marked regional variation in crop-livestock integration from the Neolithic through the Bronze Age. During the Early and Middle Neolithic, isotopic evidence indicates pig husbandry based on the C4-plant millet was primarily confined to the Middle Yellow River region, contrasting with an extensive pig management system in the West Liao River and Shandong regions predominantly based on C3-plants. From ∼5.5 ka BP, millet agriculture and pig husbandry diffused into the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Hexi Corridor, and western Sichuan. Despite the rapid and widespread adoption of millet agriculture in these agriculturally marginal zones, the overall utilization of pigs and the exploitation of millet-based pig feeding practices remained restricted, especially during the Bronze Age. After 5 ka BP, the introduction of non-native domesticates—such as sheep, goats, cattle, wheat, and barley—gave rise to two distinct agropastoral trajectories between the core agricultural zones and peripheral regions of northern China. In the Middle Yellow River region, an intensive agricultural system based on millet cultivation and pig husbandry persisted, with cattle and sheep rapidly integrated into existing fodder regimes but remaining supplementary to the dominant economy. By contrast, the arid northwestern regions underwent a significant shift toward a mixed agropastoral economy centered on C3 crops (e.g., wheat and barley) and ruminant livestock, particularly sheep/goat. These regional differences highlight how local ecologies and resource availability shaped flexible but regionally distinct trajectories of crop and livestock integration in prehistoric northern China
Intensive X-Ray/UVOIR continuum reverberation mapping of the Seyfert AGN MCG +08–11–11
No full textWe present results from intensive ( daily) 3-month-long X-ray, UV, and optical monitoring of the bright Seyfert active galactic nucleus (AGN) MCG +08–11–11 with Swift, supported by optical–infrared ground-based monitoring. The 12 resultant well-sampled light curves are highly correlated; the X-ray-to-UV correlation is the highest yet recorded in a Seyfert galaxy. The lags increase with wavelength, as expected from reprocessing of central high-energy emission by surrounding material. Our lag spectrum is much shallower than that obtained from an optical monitoring campaign conducted a year earlier, when MCG +08–11–11 was approximately four times brighter. After filtering out long-term trends in the earlier optical light curves we recover shorter lags consistent with our own, demonstrating concurrent reverberation signals from different spatial scales and the luminosity dependence of the measured lags. We use our lag spectrum to test several physical models, finding that disc reprocessing models cannot account for the observed ‘excess’ lags in the u and r–i bands that are highly indicative of the Balmer and Paschen continua produced by reprocessing in the broad-line region (BLR) gas. The structure seen in both the variable (rms) and lag spectra, and the large time delay between X-ray and UV variations ( d) suggest that the BLR is the dominant reprocessor. The hard X-ray spectrum () and faint red UV–optical spectrum indicate that the Eddington accretion ratio is low: . The bolometric luminosity then requires that the black hole mass is substantially greater than current reverberation mapping estimates
The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution
No full textThe societal effects of children’s learning in cultural evolution have been underexplored. Here, we investigate using agent-based models how a propensity for early exploration in childhood contributes to cultural adaptation and the evolution of long human childhood. Using a complex cultural task, we implemented a two-stage strategy for exploring this space—children explore broadly, and are more likely to learn new behaviours, while adults exploit behaviours already known, incrementally improving them. We found that populations that followed this two-stage strategy achieved higher payoffs in the long term than populations using the two exploration strategies in a random order. Our models point at a ‘just right’ length of childhood—neither too long, nor too short—allowing individuals enough time to explore before exploiting what they learned. Social learning increased payoffs when agents could copy individuals of a variety of ages, but reduced the benefit of early exploration. Payoffs decreased under environmental change, especially for long childhoods, because adults did not have enough time to recover between bouts of change
Occurrence, nature, impact and possible causal mechanisms of hallucinations across sensory modalities in people with an ultra-high risk of psychosis.
No full textStudies of unusual sensory experiences, like hallucinations, in people at risk of psychosis usually focus on auditory experiences. This study explored how common experiences across a range of sensory modalities were in people at an ultra-high risk of developing psychosis. Particular attention was paid to the number of modalities reported and their impact. It was hypothesised that people reporting a greater number of modalities of hallucinations would report greater levels of general distress, more delusional ideation, lower emotional well-being and poorer functioning. In addition, the contribution of sleep problems and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in the reporting of hallucinations in different modalities was explored. A single-group cross-sectional design was used. People at an ultra-high risk of developing psychosis completed measures of hallucinations, delusions, general distress, functioning, emotional well-being, trauma and sleep. Nearly all participants reported hallucinations in the auditory domain. They also reported a range of other unusual sensory experiences, with visual and somatic/tactile hallucinations being reported by over half. Single sensory experiences or unimodal hallucinations were less common than hallucinations in two or more modalities, which were reported by 88% of the participants. The number of modalities of hallucinations was significantly associated with greater general distress, delusional ideation, reduced emotional well-being and to some extent functioning. PTSD and sleep were identified as potential causal factors for hallucinations across modalities. Psychological therapies need to account for these experiences and could feasibly target them with treatments that focus on sleep or trauma. [Abstract copyright: © 2026 British Psychological Society.
Unraveling the Nexus of Corporate Political Engagement and Greenwashing in Global Markets
No full textA Modified Poisson Mixture Approach to Risk and Intensity of School Violent Victimization, 1976–2023
No full textViolent victimization remains a persistent problem in U.S. schools, yet existing estimates often underestimate its extent due to missing measures of repeat victimization, unspecified risk, and reliance on incident counts. Using 48 waves of nationally representative, repeated cross-sectional data from Monitoring the Future (1976–2023; pooled N = 251,055 12th graders; 46.5% male; 11.5% Black), this study employs modified Poisson mixture models to analyze four types of school violent victimization – threatened or injured, with or without a weapon – measured as grouped and right-censored (GRC) counts. The models estimate incidence and decompose it into risk and intensity. Results reveal that despite declining violent victimization since the 1990s, intensity rises, indicating increased repeat victimization among those at risk. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds – including those from non-intact families and with lower GPAs – are more likely to experience repeat victimization. The findings underscore the persistence of school violence and its role in reproducing social inequality
‘The land of the glorious fjords … is so easily accessible’: Infrastructure and Identity in Travel Guides to Norway, 1870–1920
No full textAs Norway became an increasingly popular destination in the latter half of the nineteenth century, British travellers turned to guidebooks to structure their travel. Guidebooks to Norway were published in international series by John Murray, Thomas Cook and Baedeker, but also by local travel agents such as Thomas Bennett. Norway seemed to offer an escape from the urban and industrial, yet travellers relied on modern networks of transport and infrastructure. The 1916 guide, Sunlit Norway, was published by the Bergen Steamship Line and the Norwegian State Railways. Visual and textual depictions of infrastructure are prominent and this involvement of transport companies also suggests that the use of certain forms of infrastructure was not simply assumed but actively encouraged. Considering guidebooks as a form of travel writing shows how this travel was fundamentally transnational and highlights the involvement of local people in tourist practices. The presence – or absence – of local people in travel guides provides insight into the impact of tourism on local communities. It also complicates the representations of Norway found in travelogues and travel guides in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, reemphasising the modern and alternative ideas of the nation
Coherent and Dynamic Small Polaron Delocalization in CuFeO 2
Get PDFSmall polarons remain a bottleneck in realizing efficient transition metal oxide devices. Routes to engineer small polaron coupling to electronic states and lattice modes to control carrier localization remain unclear. Here, we measure small polaron formation in CuFeO2 using transient extreme ultraviolet reflection spectroscopy and compare to theoretical predictions in realistically parametrized Holstein models, demonstrating that polaron localization depends on coupling to high-frequency versus low-frequency phonon bath components. We measure small polaron formation on a comparable ∼100 fs timescale to other Fe(III) compounds. Dynamic delocalization of the polaron follows formation through a coherent lattice expansion between Fe–O layers and charge-sharing with surrounding Fe(IV) states. Simulations reveal two major factors dictate polaron formation timescales: phonon density and reorganization energy distributions between acoustic and optical modes, matching experimental findings. Our work shows how electronic-structural coupling in a polaron-host material can be leveraged to suppress polaronic effects for various applications
Advancing Accounting Education: The Role of AI Technologies
No full textThe rapid development of technologies has significantly influenced higher education around the world over the past decade. Especially in recent years, the advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have introduced various opportunities, while posing a range of challenges to educators in universities. In accounting education, the implication of such an advanced technology is complicated yet lacks insightful discussions. This chapter focuses on typical AI language technology (i.e., ChatGPT) and analyses its impact on accounting education. Accounting modules can be divided into two types. One equips students with skills and knowledge of preparing and assuring financial reports for accounting information users. The other type of module instructs students in learning how to use accounting information for various business decision-making. We seek to do comparative and comprehensive analyses of the application of ChatGPT for student learning and assessments between these two types of modules and their implications for teaching. In this way, we shed light on how advanced technology is shaping the future of accounting education and contribute to the ongoing debate on the integration of AI in educational settings
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