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Much of today's public discourse on crime cases take place on online platforms, as long chains of high-speed posts: speculations, analyses, and laments, as well as ironic, sarcastic, and derogatory comments. These give excellent (and yet risky) possibilities to engage in homemade investigation, with other posters as instant reviewers and audiences. In this article, we explore the interactional origin of case-related familiarity, evidence and authority in crime discussions on the Swedish platform Flashback. Through Internet data and interviews, we show how online sleuths interact digitally with one another so that familiarity with the case is performed, leads and evidence suggested, and investigative authority recognized. We argue that an interactionist and ethnographic approach is needed to uncover such recurring processes in online crime case discussions. The accomplishment of sleuthing is highly dependent on others' shifting responses, and is, therefore, a "bumpy" path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clay sealings (cretulae) have traditionally been assumed to have been used in ancient administrative systems to secure the shipment of commodities and to account for their receipt. However, research in Western Asia has revealed that they were primarily used as a complex administrative tool in the management of storehouses and the goods they contained, ensuring the personal accountability of the individuals under whose seal or combination of seals particular items were stored. Although stamp seals are relatively common finds in the Indus Civilization, clay sealings are not as numerous as in contemporaneous sites throughout Western Asia. This rarity has led to speculation about the actual use of seals in the Indus Civilization. However, the study of an exceptional assemblage of clay sealings found at the Indus site of Lothal in Gujarat, India, has shed light on the function and use of these objects in the Indus Civilization. In particular, the stratigraphic analysis of the discovery context has made it possible to consider the existence of an administrative archive comparable to those excavated in Western Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the turn of the millennium, the practice of sport has changed significantly as more and more people leave club sports in favor of self-organized sports. A common feature of this change is the need of other spatial conditions than traditional sport facilities. Simultaneously, self-organized sports have largely been overlooked within policy and programs seeking to improve today's sport facilities. The aim of this narrative review is therefore to provide a comprehensive understanding of self-organized sports and their social-spatial needs. From the databases SCOPUS, SportDiscus and ProQuest Social Sciences 66 articles are linked together for reinterpretation and development of three theoretical discussions that are accompanied by Deleuze's philosophy of immanence: The flatness, motion, and the responsivity of self-organized sports. Taking these theoretical aspects into account, it is concluded that self-organized sports need not fully defined places open for unpredictable encounters and that enable speculations of what can be created. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To align with the global goal of keeping temperature below 2∘C, a market-based initiative, “Emissions Trading System” (ETS), has been developed to mitigate climate change. However, while the carbon allowances traded at the ETS are mostly held and traded by polluting companies, financial actors engage in “speculation”, activities that might be detrimental to the functioning of the ETS have also invested in the ETS. By drawing from the big data archive of Google Trends, we construct a news-based speculation index to proxy for the role of speculation in the dynamics of carbon pricing. Given our preliminary finding of inherent volatility and the mixed-frequency nature of the dataset, we employ the GARCH-MIDAS econometric technique to test the hypothesis that an all-inclusive framework that reflects the emission compliance and emissions non-compliance dynamics of the ETS is the most accurate approach to modeling carbon prices. We show that higher speculation in the ETS fosters higher long-term volatility in carbon prices, that speculation is a good predictor of carbon prices, and that its positive impact on carbon price returns makes the ETS an attractive investment opportunity. We provide a data-driven framework upon which the growing debate about whether the behavior of the non-compliance emission actors in the ETS endangers or benefits the functioning of the ETS can be evaluated empirically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital mediation profoundly shapes how cultural geographers understand and encounter nature. Practice-based engagements with digitally mediated natures pose methodological, aesthetic and ethical questions for cultural geographers. Reflecting on a conference held in Bonn, Germany, in July 2022, which brought together a host of artists, practitioners, researchers and designers working at the human-technology-nature interface, this paper introduces the special issue, Digital Ecologies in Practice. The paper reflects on the key themes which cut across contributing articles and sketches a framework for methodologically – and practice – inclined geographers. Specifically, we draw out the ways in which practice-based engagements with digital technologies and processes of digitisation afford novel modes of sensing, speculating and remediating natures that have implications for the doing of both digital ecologies and cultural geographies as fields of research and domains of critical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been learned over the last half century regarding the molecular and genetic changes that take place during cardiac development. As yet, however, these advances have not been translated into knowledge regarding the marked changes that take place in the anatomical arrangements of the different cardiac components. As such, therefore, many aspects of cardiac development are still described on the basis of speculation rather than evidence. In this review, we show how controversial aspects of development can readily be arbitrated by the interested spectator by taking advantage of the material now gathered together in the Human Developmental Biology Resource; HDBR. We use the material to demonstrate the changes taking place during the formation of the ventricular loop, the expansion of the atrioventricular canal, the incorporation of the systemic venous sinus, the formation of the pulmonary vein, the process of atrial septation, the remodelling of the pharyngeal arches, the major changes occurring during formation of the outflow tract, the closure of the embryonic interventricular communication, and the formation of the ventricular walls. We suggest that access to the resource makes it possible for the interested observer to arbitrate, for themselves, the ongoing controversies that continue to plague the understanding of cardiac development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal. The views expressed in this Forum article do not necessarily reflect the views of ASCE or the Editorial Board of the journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from the big data archive of Google Trends, we innovatively construct a novel data set, the composite news-based speculation index, to proxy for the role of speculation in the predictability of carbon prices. We employ a theory-based multi-factor predictive framework to test the hypothesis that both emission compliance and emission noncompliance dynamics of the ETS matter in the predictability of carbon prices. We show that speculation is a good predictor of carbon prices. We find the robustness of the forecasting power of speculation in the predictability of carbon prices evident for both in-sample and out-of-sample forecasts and across different forecast horizons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to an understanding of work-intensive entrepreneurial lives as part of analysing the intensification of work in society. It offers an empirical extension of Foucauldian analyses, which attribute commitment to work to the influence of neoliberal enterprise discourse while often neglecting the material conditions of entrepreneurial work. The article draws on moderate constructionism and materialist discourse analysis to offer an account that pays attention to discourse and material realities. This ethnographic study shows how participants evoked norms of enterprise discourse to explain their commitment to work. However, they also understood these norms to be fundamentally shaped by their material conditions. The major contribution of the article is to show that the interpenetration of discursive norms with the investment logic of enterprise tends to displace boundaries between work and personal life and shift temporal arrangements of work from work–life 'balance' to prospects of free time in the imagined future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at cognition from the perspective of Yaśovijaya-sūri’s Jaina-tarka-bhāṣā. Considering the nature of sensory cognition (mati-jñāna), represented by the four stages (sensation, speculation, perceptual judgement, retention) and of verbal cognition (śruta-jñāna), it reflects on the form and rendering of the word as a raw, physical sound or the meaningful particle of language linked to an infinite number of other such particles, deeply rooted in reliance on linguistic convention. The author considers here what properties such cognition recognises and relates to them especially in light of the theory of viewpoints, providing a contribution to reflections on its meaning. The other questions posed in the article are: which prerequisites are met by people between whom this kind of communication takes place and what role do the scriptures play? Yaśovijaya-sūri’s thought is set in the broader context (Siddhasena Divākara, Jinabhadra Gaṇi, Vādideva-sūri, Dharmabhūṣana, Vinayavijaya Gaṇi), with emphasis of his sources of inspiration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of derivatives in the context of the recent crisis in the UK pension system, specifically in liability-driven investment schemes. It unveils derivatives' role as instruments that multiply and propagate losses among market participants once specific events (worst-case scenarios) materialise. This article questions the role of derivatives as risk-management and risk-diversification tools, given their employment, in this case as in others before, for speculative purposes. Critically, with speculation came higher than desirable levels of leverage that these financial products elicited, causing in the process a series of systemic concerns. While much criticism has been directed at post-2008 regulation, and particularly at clearing and margin requirements, this article proposes a broader view of the problems posed by derivatives in the different contexts of their applications. More specifically, attention is drawn to legal doctrines that could be redeployed for the purpose of mitigating the speculative nature of derivatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies the recurring expression 'scope and method/s' in three published lectures by Henry Sidgwick, Halford Mackinder and James George Frazer between 1885 and 1921. It tracks transdisciplinary connections between the thought and practice of late nineteenth-century philosophy, economic science and geography, and early twentieth-century anthropology, thereby illuminating shifting perceptions, and applications, of historical geographical knowledge and imaginations in a broader speculative evolutionary epistemological scheme. At a time when science and humanities subjects were thought to be diverging, it shows that metaphorical uses of optical instruments helped draw synoptic spatio-temporal frames of reference which shaped transdisciplinary and trans -institutional practices. • Speculates about the metaphorical uses of optical instruments in satiotemoral frames of reference. • Presents a projected line of sight between Henry Sidgwick, Halford Mackinder and James George Frazer. • Suggests historical geographical conceptual frameworks were important to philosophy and political economy and anthropology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses unique South Korean data to demonstrate whether the public disclosure of audit hour (effort) information influences investor sentiment, proxied by stock price volatility. Over the 2005–2018 sample period, empirical results show that clients that secure increasing levels of audit hours enjoy lower stock price volatility. Furthermore, incrementally higher levels of audit hours reduce stock price volatility to a greater extent for Big4 clients, compared to Non-Big4 clients. Results are consistent after performing various additional tests including endogeneity, fixed/year effects, and after controlling for the audit fee premium effect. The aforementioned findings are interpreted from an audit demand theory perspective. More specifically, following South Korea's unique audit hour disclosure policy, market participants can make audit quality assertions using audit hour information, which influences investment/disinvestment speculation. Given that audit hour information reporting is rare internationally, the results have important audit policy and business planning implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article seeks to delineate the often misunderstood idea of speculation that has conceptually been converted from an epitome of pure thought into an economic category of profitability and self-interest. But to define speculation already means to pose a problem. In Augustine speculation designates the mutual relationship between reflection and the mirrored appearance of God's gaze. This dictates an unattainable task of catching God's gaze, which is more inward than my innermost self and which models our thoughts accordingly. Such extimate activity as defined by Lacan is the formal condition for the construction of visibility and is inscribed into contemplation. The article postulates that this fundamental discrepancy was also the foundation upon which Hegel carved a positive determination of thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, there has been much speculation to understand whether (and how) it was possible to go below the diffraction limit. An advance in knowledge was achieved with the development of microwave techniques. In fact, more than fifty years after the publication of Toraldo's article dealing with this topic, some experimental measurements in the range of microwaves confirmed the validity of his model. Since some measurements were performed in the region of near field, while Toraldo's model refers to the far field, the need for a theoretical analysis in the framework of the Fresnel optics arose. The main goal of the present paper is to describe the problem of propagation in the near field (Fresnel optics) by using the same theoretical model already proposed by Toraldo. In order to test the validity of this new approach, the theoretical model has been compared with the FEKO simulation. The comparison of the theoretical model with the FEKO simulation in the far field for an open pupil (an open circular aperture) shows perfect agreement, as expected. We will demonstrate that there is also good agreement in the near field, although it is limited to the region around the main lobe, which is usually the region of main physical interest. Moving away from the main lobe, namely away from the optical axis, the agreement becomes less significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A debate over whether children's nonfiction should "speculate" was launched in 2011. Understood within the context of changing demands on children's nonfiction, it reveals a contested construction of childhood and suggests that the rules of critical engagement might be different in different genres of children's nonfiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the study is to explore the motives of investors to invest in derivative markets. It is a quantitative study where a survey method was used to collect data from the investors using a probability sampling method. The data was analyzed using PLS-SEM to test the conceptual model. The results of the study show that speculation, hedging, and financial literacy are strong predictors of investors' motives to invest in the derivatives market. The R2 was O.447 implying speculation, hedging, and financial literacy explain 44.7% of the variance of the dependent variable, that is, the motives of investors to invest in equity derivatives, and the adjusted R-square is O.432 (43.2%) which validates the model. Few studies explore the reasons to invest in derivatives using secondary data. However, to the best of the author's knowledge studies exploring the motives of investors are rare, and there have been none using primary data from an Indian perspective. The study provides empirical evidence that could be useful to companies, investors, brokers, and policymakers to understand the motives of investors to invest in derivatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the activities of the gendarmerie railway police in ensuring compliance by freight carriers with prohibitions and restrictions on the export of certain raw materials and goods during World War I. Based on documentary materials, it reveals the content of the state policy of the Russian Empire regarding measures to halt the supply of essential resources to the Central Powers’ armies. The study of the administrative documentation of the railway police indicates that particular attention was paid to monitoring freight transport at border stations. The issue of police support for the stable functioning of railways under wartime conditions is explored. Gendarmerie officers facilitated the prioritization of military cargo movement along steel corridors. A critical responsibility of the gendarmerie was uncovering collusion among railway employees and shippers to manipulate train speeds for illicit speculative profit amid commodity shortages. The study concludes that the gendarmerie railway police played a significant role in overseeing the legality of freight transport during World War I. However, amid the disorganization of state mechanisms and deepening crises in Russian society, ensuring uninterrupted and effective railway operations proved impossible.

The objective of the study is to explore the motives of investors to invest in derivative markets. It is a quantitative study where a survey method was used to collect data from the investors using a probability sampling method. The data was analyzed using PLS-SEM to test the conceptual model. The results of the study show that speculation, hedging, and financial literacy are strong predictors of investors’ motives to invest in the derivatives market. The R2 was 0.447 implying speculation, hedging, and financial literacy explain 44.7% of the variance of the dependent variable, that is, the motives of investors to invest in equity derivatives, and the adjusted R-square is 0.432 (43.2%) which validates the model. Few studies explore the reasons to invest in derivatives using secondary data. However, to the best of the author’s knowledge studies exploring the motives of investors are rare, and there have been none using primary data from an Indian perspective. The study provides empirical evidence that could be useful to companies, investors, brokers, and policymakers to understand the motives of investors to invest in derivatives.

A debate over whether children’s nonfiction should “speculate” was launched in 2011. Understood within the context of changing demands on children’s nonfiction, it reveals a contested construction of childhood and suggests that the rules of critical engagement might be different in different genres of children’s nonfiction.

Abstract This paper uses speculative methods as a way of imagining futures for higher education in open, non-predictive ways. The complexity and ‘unknowability’ of the highly technologised, environmentally damaged and politically degraded futures we seem to be facing can mean that our conversations about the future of higher education have a tendency to spiral too quickly into dystopianism and hopelessness. Speculative methods can help open up new kinds of conversation capable of supporting active and fundamental hope. Working within a postqualitative framework, we argue that such approaches support the collaborative imagining of multiple alternatives, and represent a way of advocating for those that are preferable. The paper presents a series of speculative scenarios and microfictions focusing on worlds ruptured by climate change, artificial intelligence, revolution and the technological enhancement of humans, connecting each of these to current critical research focused on climate crisis, ‘big tech’, rising global injustice and ‘big pharma’. It emphasises the vital contribution and place of higher education within such futures, and advocates for speculative methods as an approach to maintaining hope.

We use a sample of Chinese firms to examine the impact of local gambling preference on corporate financialization. Our findings suggest that when a firm is located in a region with stronger gambling preference, it commits more corporate financialization. Specifically, strong opportunism and high risk-taking ability are the main mechanisms. In addition, we provide evidence based on gambling psychology that 'house money effect' and 'break-even effect' strengthen the positive relationship between gambling preference and entity corporate financialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The natural capacity of marine sediments to capture, sequester, and store organic carbon has been recognized by researchers and policy makers for its potential to mitigate against climate change. As a result, Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and Marine Protected Area (MPA) designation processes increasingly aim to protect "blue carbon" stored in marine sediments by reducing anthropogenic activities that disturb the seabed (e.g., bottom trawling). In this research, we engaged with coastal residents around Dundalk Bay, Ireland to explore public perceptions of the presence and management of carbon-storing marine sediments in the context of the multifaceted relationship between communities and the environment. This has not been previously studied in an empirical setting. Given the largely "unknown" character of this source of blue carbon, we theorized that speculation played a key role in sustaining emerging perceptions of the sediments, by creating a link with existing place meanings. We used interviews (n = 12) and a focus group (n = 7). Reflexive thematic analysis of the data showed that local residents associated multiple, overlapping meanings with Dundalk Bay. We found evidence that speculative mechanisms such as analogy and experiential knowledge were used to bridge between existing place meanings and emerging perceptions of carbon-storing marine sediments, which also helped indicate the valence of people's feelings about the sediments. We found different views about the presence of the sediments, and residents varied in their prioritization of measures to protect either nature or economic activity in the bay. Because of scientific knowledge gaps related to the distribution and character of marine sediments and the impacts of anthropogenic activity, participants stressed the need for further research and a careful approach to the management of the bay and its sediments. Our work reiterates the importance of recognizing existing people-place connections to understand potential responses to changes in the use and/or management of marine environments. This can help achieve a more engaged and socially acceptable MSP process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here I look to some work in the historical sciences in order to draw out some of the epistemic benefits of "speculative narratives," which bears on some more general epistemic benefits of speculative reasoning. Due to the contingent nature of much historical evidence, some degree of speculative reasoning is necessary to get the epistemological ball rolling in the historical sciences, and I argue that speculative narratives provide the necessary sort of frameworking apparatus for doing precisely this. I use contemporary work on the first peopling of the Americas (the "Clovis First Debate") for illustration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to clarify Mendelssohn's stance on speculative philosophy by connecting the conflict between common sense and speculation with the notion of approval-drive. It argues that Mendelssohn identifies a principle of existence in the faculty of approval, aligning common sense with the divine nature, thereby challenging the skepticism inherent in metaphysical speculation. By invoking God's creative impetus, Mendelssohn demonstrates that the ontologically abundant world conceived by common sense is more consistent with the divine nature than the ontologically impoverished worlds envisioned by metaphysicians. This approach positions Mendelssohn within the tradition of Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz, emphasizing the role of the divine intellect as the guarantee of the accord between perceived and actual reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this communication, the single-element version of the fractional Maxwell model (single FMM) is adopted to quantify the observed behaviour of the interfacial dilational viscoelasticity. This mathematical tool is applied to the results obtained by the oscillating drop method for aqueous solutions of ethyl lauroyl arginate (LAE). The single FMM adequately fits the experimental results, fairly well characterizing the frequency dependence of the modulus and the inherent phase-shift angle of the complex physical quantity, i.e., the interfacial dilational viscoelasticity. Further speculations are envisaged to apply the FMM to step perturbations in the time domain, allowing for the same parameter set as in the frequency domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on fieldwork in Facebook support groups, in this article I explore how people, now patients, learnt to live with Barrett’s esophagus, a risk state or “precancer” for a type of esophageal cancer. This diagnosis brought the possibility of both facing and averting cancerous futures into the present. Far from passive recipients, members worked to foreground speculations of “wanted futures” in which prompt surveillance successfully prevented cancer deaths, transforming cancer risk into an opportunity for hope. Speculation here was an ambivalent and active process, involving not only the “observation of potentiality,” but the opening up and foreclosing of both desirable and undesirable potentialities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on fertility in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) remains a subject of much speculation. This article reports monthly birth registration data from 18 United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) program countries, all predominantly LMICs, both before and after the onset of the COVID pandemic. Despite disruptions in family planning services in many of these countries during the early months of the pandemic, monthly birth data show no observable impact of COVID‐19 on births in four countries (Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cuba, Georgia), a short‐term decline then rebound in six countries (Brazil, Colombia, Kosovo, Serbia, Thailand, Ukraine), a relatively longer decline in six countries (Bolivia, Bhutan, Moldova, Mongolia, Oman, Qatar), and a brief increase before reverting to pre‐COVID levels in two countries (Sao Tome and Principe, Peru). This is not unlike the heterogeneous effects reported from high‐income countries. Nonetheless, the lack of birth registration data from the least developed countries, particularly those in Africa, reminds us of the urgent need to improve coverage and completeness of birth registration to monitor and understand future fertility dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of birth trauma places a psychophysical knot at the center of the constitution of the psyche tied to maternal space. What does it mean that the maternal is seen as a site of trauma and regressive desire? How do women experience being this place? While Freud's neglect of the importance of the mother and hyper-emphasis on the father has been visited and re-visited, from the angle of birth trauma, an idea he fought against fearsomely, we begin to witness something important concerning his efforts to move away from this battleground. Not to erase the mother, but to leave something Real there intact. Revisiting three wild speculations on the psychoanalytic meaning of birth, I ask about this maternal knot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that mystery products can be appealing to consumers and can motivate interest and purchase. In this paper, we examine a different benefit of these offerings—their effect on driving conversation. We propose that such products can prompt a conversation due to their ability to motivate joint speculation, or the process of thinking about possible resolutions of the uncertainty with others. We define this novel driver of conversation, delineate it from related constructs, and situate it in the literature. We then provide initial evidence for the proposed theory in seven studies (n = 2835), demonstrating that mystery products increase the desire for conversation (Studies 1, 3–4, Supplemental Studies A–C) and generate joint speculation (Studies 2–4, Supplemental Study B–C). We also rule out alternative explanations (such as information acquisition and savouring, Study 3; novelty, Supplemental Study B). These effects, however, are attenuated for closed‐minded consumers (Study 4), who are less open to considering multiple perspectives and thereby less interested in joint speculation. We conclude with directions for future research and implications for marketers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Other effective area‐based conservation measures (OECMs) create opportunities for a wide range of area‐based conservation strategies. As countries seek to integrate OECMs into conservation planning, it is useful to consider the types of areas that might meet the formal criteria. To support this goal, I analyzed the different types of measures discussed as possible OECMs in the literature, identifying a wide range of measures, far more diverse than those currently recognized as OECMs. There was a strong emphasis on measures with conservation as a secondary management objective, with most studies being supportive of the potential to balance biodiversity conservation and sustainable resource use. However, many studies have highlighted the need to ensure biodiversity outcomes are achieved and sustained, and that appropriate governance and management structures are in place. Concerns were raised about measures associated with resource extraction, such as fisheries and forestry, which were often considered incompatible with conservation. Very few studies offered a nuanced discussion of specific measures or evaluated whether sites offer conservation outcomes, leaving clear knowledge gaps in translating speculation into evidence. Nevertheless, the current literature offers a strong starting point from which to target potential case studies to build the evidence base necessary to advance OECMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the Harvard lectures of 1924–1925, Alfred North Whitehead proposed that our various intellectual activities amounted to an attempt to understand the world and our experiences through hypothesizing. He explained the importance of hypothesis in scientific research and extended the idea of hypothesis to the philosophical method called "speculative philosophy." For Whitehead, philosophy was the attempt to formulate general hypotheses that can transcend disciplines. This paper is intended to explore the possible influence of Victorian philosophers on Whitehead. Victorian philosophers such as John Herschel, William Whewell, and John Stuart Mill discussed the role of hypothesis in scientific discovery. Was Whitehead aware of this tradition? Was he influenced by it? This article indicates that Whitehead at least indirectly inherited the Victorian idea of hypothesis, notably in the thought of Whewell, as mediated by Charles Darwin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) are one of the most celebrated investment vehicles in recent years. Relative to traditional IPOs, SPACs are much more cash-strapped and speculative. Resultantly, the scope for SPACs remains sparse for certain segments of the financial system notwithstanding the SPAC euphoria surrounding the financial markets: one notable exception is Islamic banking and finance. The Islamic banking business model is based upon the ethical ontologies and epistemologies – informed by the divine sources of Quran and Sunnah: the Shariah – operating with the mandate to promote socio-economic justice through a fair redistribution of wealth while embargoing speculative trading or investments and adopting a risk-sharing model between economic agents. Unsurprisingly, – owing to the speculative nature of SPACs – the Islamic finance industry remains reluctant to participate in the SPAC-mania despite the frenzy engulfing global securities markets. This work addresses the misaligned incentives inherent in a conventional SPAC structure and proposes alternative SPAC structure terms i.e., the iSPAC, which potentially mitigates the noted misaligned incentives and offers less dilutive SPAC terms to shareholders. Specifically, iSPAC structure terms address the issues of speculation (gharar), information asymmetry, and transparency in the pre-IPO phase, which may lead to adverse selection and moral hazard. Equally, the proposed structure reconciles post-IPO operational and investment-related risks such as the treatment of proceeds, interest rate (riba), opportunity costs, and management costs in consort with unethical behavior i.e. cashing-out opportunities that may lead to uneven redistribution of wealth thereby, widening the socio-economic voids in the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origins of the postapocalyptic genre are debatable, but modern fictional accounts involving a small band of survivors in the aftermath of a devastating global catastrophe seem to date from the 1880s. This article traces the postapocalyptic imagination to the American West in this era, considering especially the instability and volatility that characterized San Francisco and other Western locales in the wake of the midcentury Gold Rush. The boom-and-bust nature of enterprise in the region encouraged speculation about rapid accumulation and sudden annihilation. Robert Duncan Milne, a Scottish American author who wrote for San Francisco periodicals, emerged as one of the first figures in the world to pen a postapocalyptic fiction. And Milne's work in turn inspired succeeding influential authors, leading eventually to books by Jack London, George R. Stewart, and Kim Stanley Robinson. This article argues that the American West might thus be considered the birthplace of the modern postapocalyptic imagination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We trace the rumour that two undeveloped regions were to be administratively merged into Beijing, which is the capital of China. Applying a difference-in-difference approach, we find that housing listing prices in the two undeveloped regions declined by 25.1% after local governments clarified the rumour. Our results are robust after considering possible confounders such as contemporary housing market policies, business cycles and migrations. The price reduction caused by the rumour collapse averages to 347–396 thousand yuan, a comparable number to the value of 'Hukou' in Beijing. Finally, we show that herding and speculation accelerate the price bust after the rumour collapses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses speculative methods as a way of imagining futures for higher education in open, non-predictive ways. The complexity and 'unknowability' of the highly technologised, environmentally damaged and politically degraded futures we seem to be facing can mean that our conversations about the future of higher education have a tendency to spiral too quickly into dystopianism and hopelessness. Speculative methods can help open up new kinds of conversation capable of supporting active and fundamental hope. Working within a postqualitative framework, we argue that such approaches support the collaborative imagining of multiple alternatives, and represent a way of advocating for those that are preferable. The paper presents a series of speculative scenarios and microfictions focusing on worlds ruptured by climate change, artificial intelligence, revolution and the technological enhancement of humans, connecting each of these to current critical research focused on climate crisis, 'big tech', rising global injustice and 'big pharma'. It emphasises the vital contribution and place of higher education within such futures, and advocates for speculative methods as an approach to maintaining hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overview of circumstances in which twins take the place of their co-twin is presented. Various explanations and speculations are proposed for understanding twins' willingness to do so in certain situations. This section is followed by reviews of timely twin research, namely single versus multiple embryo transfer; neurimaging of twins with periventricular nodular heterotopia; a twin dietary comparison; and a new book of twin-related readings from Hungary. The final portion of this article concerns human interest stories that both inform and entertain. They involve valedictorian and salutatorian twins; a mother delivering twins at age seventy; twins reunited by TikTok; a new film about twins with selective mutism; and twins becoming doctors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT) processors provide improvement over the traditional out-of-order superscalar architecture by allowing instructions from several independent threads to execute out-of-order concurrently. Maintaining the accuracy of values read from and written to memory is a great bottleneck for processor performance, as loads must stall execution until all prior store addresses are known or risk reading invalid data. Prior research in this area has mainly focused on superscalar architecture, as such, it is only natural to extend memory dependence speculation techniques to an SMT architecture. In this paper, we allow for loads among threads to execute as soon as their addresses are resolved without checking for prior memory address conflicts. Stores also perform a check on all later loads to see if any read was too early due to an address match, if so, the processor state is recovered, and the load re-issued. This aggressive technique allows for the greatest potential instructions per clock cycle gains over predictive techniques as the pipeline is never stalled for loads. Our simulations show that an overall IPC gain up to 12% and 10% is possible for both 4-threaded and 8-threaded workloads respectively. Conversely, a maximum overall IPC loss of at least 2.3% and 2% for 4-threaded and 8-threaded workloads respectively was also observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on authorship, pedagogy, and the future of the profession. Scholars were invited to submit speculative pieces on the subject, exploring topics such as the role of large language models (LLMs) in shaping our understanding of authorship, the capabilities of AI in creative writing, and the influence of AI on literary criticism and pedagogy. The essays also consider the challenges and opportunities presented by AI in fields like linguistics, translation studies, and higher education. The authors hope that these discussions will offer readers new perspectives on the intersection of AI and the humanities. Additionally, the article highlights the recent academic work of an individual in the field of literature and language, including their published essays in various scholarly journals and their role as an associate editor at Poetics Today. This information may be useful for library patrons conducting research in these specific areas. [Extracted from the article]

Through an "inter(con)textual reading" (Maraj), this essay explores the resonances and generative incongruences between two prominent metaphors that reflect the thought/feeling/praxis of two of the modern era's most significant revolutions – "the common wind" from the Haitian revolution and the "wind from below" from the Zapatista revolution. My goal is to think within/across/beyond these revolutions via the methods, epistemologies, and imaginaries that flow within these shared metaphors – in the common wind from below – and speculate on how the seeds and meanings carried therein might take root and grow into something beyond what the disciplines and world currently offer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have been done in the field of predicting the Volatility of Commodities; however, very little or no analysis has been conducted on any sector, industry, or indices to identify which model is best to understand the asset's characteristics, as there is a hypothesis that all financial time series can be interpreted by implementing the same model. The primary objective is to identify different tools developed by the researchers in estimating impulsive clustering and leverage effects. A comparison will be made among the available tools of the GARCH family models to suggest the best tool to forecast and calculate volatility with the least error. The data used are historical time series data of Indian base metal indices, i.e., Aluminum (AL), Copper (CO), Lead (LE), Nickel (NI), and Zinc (ZI) from NSE for a period from 1st June 2012 to 31st August 2022 from the official website of NSE of India. The study compared and attempted to identify which GARCH family model is suitable to measure the volatility clustering and leverage effect in Indian base metal indices by reducing the chances of error. The study has revealed that the GRACH asymmetric models, while approximating and predicting the financial time series, can enhance the model's output when it has a high frequency. Here, the asymmetric GARCH models (TARCH, CGARCH, EGARCH, and PARCH) better predict volatility than classic models. This study is original in its approach, as a previous study stated the presence of volatility or leverage effect by implementing any one tool. However, this study will compare available tools to suggest which is appropriate for which sector. This analysis will support future researchers and practitioners in evaluating volatility clustering and the effect of leverage by implementing the appropriate GARCH family model without believing in a hypothesis that a single model is good enough to predict volatility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an abiding scepticism in normative theory that individual responsibility for global injustice lies outside commonsense moral thought because it is not grounded in an intuitive conception of human agency. Despite the grim realities of injustice in an interconnected world, this scepticism holds that human beings cannot properly internalise a nonrestrictive view of responsibility because it cuts against their experience of agency in the world. Against this view, this article argues that individual responsibility for the realisation of global justice is supported by a pervasive, and socio-politically influenced, feature of the phenomenology of agency: moral imagination. Moral imagination connects actions which are within the domain of an ordinary life to larger projects of social and political change. Since there is no compelling reason for the scope of those projects to be restricted, there is an accessible understanding and experience of the phenomenology of agency which grounds individual global responsibility in the real world. I call this a dynamic phenomenology of agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]