A robust literature on the professional advancement of Chinese officials has paid comparatively little attention to an important elite group: the foreign policy bureaucracy. We introduce original data documenting over 11,000 career assignments of 1,357 senior officials in the foreign ministry from 1949 to 2023 and leverage these data to offer the first systematic analysis of who rises to the top of China’s foreign affairs system. We find that diplomats who spend a greater share of their careers in postings abroad are less likely to be promoted to higher ranks than diplomats who remain at home – and that these patterns persisted even after the professionalization of the foreign affairs bureaucracy. Meanwhile, the analysis finds only mixed evidence that diplomatic performance assists promotion. The data and analysis draw attention to the unique challenges of professional advancement in bureaucracies charged with managing China’s foreign relations.

This article explores the representation of women electric guitarists on Instagram. It examines the ways in which their practices as electric guitarists are represented and surveys the spectrum of gender expressions represented on Instagram. It also considers the interconnectedness between these representations and their significance. The research findings are based on textual analysis of the Instagram content of sixteen electric guitarists of varying ages, success levels, and career stages. The findings show that Instagram is a platform through which a multiplicity of representations of women electric guitarists can be observed that can contribute to a deeper, more nuanced understanding and narrative. This article demonstrates that Instagram is an important site of analysis in its ability to contribute to shaping the discourses around gender and the electric guitar and the normalisation of diverse individuals occupying this role.

A random temporal graph is an Erdős-Rényi random graph $G(n,p)$, together with a random ordering of its edges. A path in the graph is called increasing if the edges on the path appear in increasing order. A set $S$ of vertices forms a temporal clique if for all $u,v \in S$, there is an increasing path from $u$ to $v$. Becker, Casteigts, Crescenzi, Kodric, Renken, Raskin and Zamaraev [(2023) Giant components in random temporal graphs. arXiv,2205.14888] proved that if $p=c\log n/n$ for $c\gt 1$, then, with high probability, there is a temporal clique of size $n-o(n)$. On the other hand, for $c\lt 1$, with high probability, the largest temporal clique is of size $o(n)$. In this note, we improve the latter bound by showing that, for $c\lt 1$, the largest temporal clique is of constant size with high probability.

Music streaming platforms are complex socio-technical infrastructures that co-construct cultural production, distribution, and reception. Different contributions have highlighted that artists, producers, and operators may implement optimisation processes, based on their algorithmic imaginaries, to align their music to the modes of listening and categorisation imposed by algorithmic media. Drawing on thirty-nine semi-structured interviews with producers, songwriters, recording industry professionals, and listeners who are heavy users of streaming platforms, this paper reconstructs the social life of a platform-optimised song. Bridging perspectives from science and technology studies and media studies, we investigate the network of relations between human and non-human actors that contribute to the circulation of a platform-optimised song during a four-phase life cycle: creation, industry mediation, platform mediation, and reception. The findings highlight multiple forms of power asymmetries at each stage, recursive dynamics, the erosion of artistic autonomy, and the collaboration of humans and non-human agents to transform music tracks into datafied products.

This article reappraises the early intellectual formation of the medieval “lex mercatoria” thesis: the idea that the international merchants of medieval Europe (or perhaps beyond) enjoyed a universal, autonomous, and customary body of commercial law created and administered by themselves. The debate over its existence, raging for at least 120 years, shows no signs of slowing, in part because the idea is of undoubted usefulness to both proponents (so-called “mercatorists”) and critics. The article offers a new account of the origins of this idea and looks to disaggregate different mercatorist conceptions. Revising the conventional genealogy that traces the theory through the work of Berthold Goldman to the nineteenth-century German scholar Levin Goldschmidt, who is much misunderstood in Anglophone scholarship, it argues that the idea’s powerful re-emergence in the second half of the twentieth century was mediated through two distinct channels, one centred around the British-German jurist Clive Schmitthoff and the other around the British historian William Mitchell. The latter yoked Goldschmidt’s emphasis on the medieval merchant class as a source of legal innovation to a thoroughly Anglophone concept: the “law merchant”. Critics, however, have engaged primarily with Schmitthoff’s conception, whose “strong” mercatorist argument was not only unusually forthright but reoriented the debate to focus on commercial law’s supposed autonomy from the law of territorial states, an even less plausible proposition in historical terms.

The two-spined deepwater cardinalfish, Epigonus bispinosus Okamoto & Gon 2018 is documented for the first time from the Arabian Sea (n= 2) (137.4–151.1 mm SL). The specimens were caught by a demersal shrimp trawl operated along the Kerala coast at a depth of 250–420 m. This species was previously recorded in South Africa and northern Madagascar regions. The present study also provides the first molecular information on E. bispinosus based on mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I and 16S ribosomal RNA genes. Detailed taxonomic identification, and molecular and phylogenetic analysis are described.

English words and phrases have been creatively adopted, adapted, and appropriated by Persian speakers, resulting in a Persianized form of English that is widely used in daily conversations in Iran. This article aims to identify and describe various English loanwords and phrases commonly integrated into everyday Persian discourse, reflecting Iran’s sociolinguistic globalization. The research is guided by two key questions: How do Iranians Persianize English words and phrases in daily conversations? And what broader patterns emerge in this Persianization process? To address these questions, a qualitative analysis was conducted to examine the prevalence and patterns of English loanwords in Iranian discourse. The findings suggest that Persianized English creates a hybrid mode of expression that blends Persian linguistic traditions with contemporary English influences, shaping identity and communication within Iranian society. The study concludes by recommending further research on the effects of Persianized English on public discourse, media, education, and the daily cultural practices of Iranians.

We present a method for narrowing nonparametric bounds on treatment effects by adjusting for potentially large numbers of covariates, using generalized random forests. In many experimental or quasi-experimental studies, outcomes of interest are only observed for subjects who select (or are selected) to engage in the activity generating the outcome. Outcome data are thus endogenously missing for units who do not engage, and random or conditionally random treatment assignment before such choices is insufficient to identify treatment effects. Nonparametric partial identification bounds address endogenous missingness without having to make disputable parametric assumptions. Basic bounding approaches often yield bounds that are wide and minimally informative. Our approach can tighten such bounds while permitting agnosticism about the data-generating process and honest inference. A simulation study and replication exercise demonstrate the benefits.

Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, the first Cuban, Latin American, and person of African descent to travel to space, has experienced a significant evolution in his persona since his historic flight aboard Soyuz 38 in 1980. This article explores three pivotal phases in this transformation: first, his portrayal in the media as a pioneering Cuban cosmonaut, which positioned him among the socialist elite of the Space Age; second, the controversy regarding the identity of the first Black person in space, which brought renewed attention to Tamayo’s achievements; and third, the ongoing reconfiguration of his image through social-media platforms, allowing for broader engagement with diverse audiences. By applying the principles of persona analysis to a multilinguistic set of historical documents and images related to Tamayo, this study illustrates the malleability of his self-fashioning for different audiences and how it has adapted to reflect changing sociopolitical contexts and the evolving landscape of public representation in the digital age.

This article theorises Indigenous feminist relational freedom that emphasises the ways in which relations and structures of domination disproportionately impact women and gender-diverse people, including through gender-based violence and environmental harm. The theory of relational freedom critiques both one-dimensional conceptions of Indigenous relationality and the conventional framing of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination through the lens of non-interference, a concept rooted in political autonomy grounded in liberal thought. While non-interference correctly emphasises the need for Indigenous autonomy from state intervention, it falls short in addressing the deeper aspects of Indigenous freedom. Western interference has long impacted Indigenous life, which has led Indigenous self-determination discourses to focus on avoiding state intervention. However, while this emphasis on political autonomy is valid, it does not account for structural forms of domination, particularly underlying inequalities that perpetuate subordination within these structures. These structures range from state institutions that dispossess Indigenous communities to internal systems of gender-based domination that marginalise Indigenous women and LGBTQ+ individuals. The persistence of these structures significantly impedes the full realisation of Indigenous self-determination. The article ultimately theorises Indigenous feminist relational freedom within broader frameworks of feminist relational autonomy and citizenship and Indigenous gift relations, exploring practical approaches for applying the principles of relational freedom within Indigenous governance.

Interfacial interactions, including adhesion and friction, directly affect the ability of the robot system to interact with the external environment, such as the realization of operation and motion functions. Bionics provides guidance for the active control of interface forces. Creatures such as geckos, tree frogs, octopuses, and beetles have developed delicate topological structures and smart control strategies during long-term evolution, facilitating their ability to adhere to, manipulate, capture, and traverse various surfaces across diverse environments. Inspired by the advantages of high strength, adaptability, controllability, durability, and no residue, biomimetic controllable adhesion structures, materials, and systems have been developed, showing a wide range of potential applications in reversible attachment, flexible locomotion, and dexterous grasping. In this paper, the mechanisms and theoretical models of various biological reversible adhesion systems in nature are summarized. Then the design criteria, optimization method, and preparation technology of the artificial adhesion structures based on van der Waals interaction, capillary force, negative pressure, and mechanical interlocking mechanisms are reviewed. In particular, the adhesion/load ratio and the switch ratio of adhesive materials and structures are highlighted to evaluate the adhesion ability and controllability of various designs. The applications of biomimetic controllable adhesion structures and systems in robotics manipulation and locomotion are presented. Finally, the conclusion and possible future direction are discussed.

Drawing on focus groups conducted with musicians based in England, we discuss how musicians with backgrounds in different genres evaluate the effects of a range of music-related digital platforms on musicians and music culture. Alongside criticisms, some of them familiar from recent public debate and academic research, we identify a number of more ambivalent and even positive perspectives on the platformisation of music. We analyse the divided responses of our focus group participants under three main headings: attitudes towards music streaming platforms and record labels; attitudes towards social media and short video platforms, in particular, their use as promotional and branding mechanisms; and attitudes towards the abundance of data available to musicians from these various kinds of digital platforms. In our concluding comments, we consider the possible objection that musicians’ ambivalent and sometimes positive appraisals might represent misguided or mistaken perspectives concerning the effects of platformisation.

This study explores an emerging yet under-researched group within the Chinese bureaucratic system: grassroots female civil servants. Although there is a growing focus in academia on female officials in China, existing research mainly concentrates on the gender representation and career pathways of high-ranking female officials. This research delves into the work and life choices faced by female civil servants in local governments. Despite official discourse advocating for gender equality, interviews with 21 female public servants from a poverty-stricken county in northern China reveal that the demands of local government work and gender norms impose a double burden on them. Although the civil service is known for its stability, these women often have to put in extra effort into demanding and exhausting jobs, frequently sacrificing promotion opportunities to balance family and caregiving responsibilities. However, they seldom express dissatisfaction with this situation, reflecting the entrenched nature of gender role perceptions. This study provides a new explanation for the underrepresentation of female officials at higher levels from a grassroots perspective and reveals the impact of overloaded bureaucratic work on career mobility.