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How does the decoloniality debate relate to heritage practice in China? Although postcolonial consciousness has coincided worldwide with persis- tent efforts to pluralize voices and practices in the public sphere and led to a plethora of strategies for initiating a process of decolonization (Lazzari et al., this section), China has remained away from these debates (Li, 2021; Liang, 2022) and maintains an ambivalent and ambiguous relationship with discourses on colonialism. Drawing on examples related to ethnicity and rurality, this essay illustrates the limits of decoloniality in the Chinese context and sheds light on how Chinese cultural heritage practices (re)produce hierarchies and racialized narratives to consolidate the nation. Like the other case studies examined in this special section, China’s position in colonial history allows us to de-center the conversation on decoloniality mainly based on Western history. Yet, China also adopts the hegemonic Western notion of cultural heritage promoted by the UNESCO narratives and imposes its own “authorized heritage discourse” (Smith, 2006) to implement “civilization process” policies (Jacka, 2009) toward marginalized populations, such as ethnic minorities and other subaltern groups of citizens (noneducated, poor, rural, illegal migrants). Consequently, we address this state-led societal transformation through the concept of coloniality, resulting in the celebration of a developed unified Sinicized nation beyond its differences. Cultural heritage is used as a form of social engineering, based on power relations between the state and society, revealing constant tensions between promotion and control. Yet, grassroots forms of appropriation of cultural narratives and alternative heritage practices exist in China that could be likened to decolonial approaches. However, they are more limited forms of resistance and claims for community empowerment, visibility, and rights than reactions induced by decolonial mobilizations worldwide. Relying on the theory of the postcolonial gaze and how the legacies of colonialism continue to structure modernity even after the collapse of colonial empires (Meinhof et al., 2017, 8), we argue that cultural heritage in China is a powerful tool that reproduces as well as reshapes structural inequalities between ethnic and social groups and entrenches them in the official narratives about producing “high-valued” Sinicized citizens to develop a more “harmonious society” and perform the “China Dream” (Zhu & Maags, 2020).

Drawing on fieldwork findings, this paper presents the transformation of Sulaiman-Too Mountain in Osh (Kyrgyzstan), which has been going through a process of culturalisation since the mid-20th century. My aim is to show the museification and heritagisation processes, which has been taking place during the Soviet era and more recently. Accordingly, the site emerges as a palimpsest whose meaning changes with political contexts, combining local and global dynamics.

Snow avalanches pose a constant threat to human lives, property, and infrastructure in mountainous regions worldwide. To efficiently manage avalanche-related hazards and risks, knowledge of past occurrences is crucial. In many mountain regions, archival records on past events are scarce or even completely missing. Therefore, natural archives, such as tree-rings, are widely used as proxies to build century-long snow avalanche chronologies. However, most dendrogeomorphic studies focus on a small number of sites, providing only path-scale reconstructions with limited significance for a larger area. To overcome this problem, in the present study, we analyzed 17 avalanche paths in a small and relatively homogeneous region located in the F˘ag˘araș Mountains, Southern Carpathians, and documented past snow avalanche activity with dendrogeomorphic techniques. Increment cores extracted from 933 Picea abies trees allowed the reconstruction of a total of 174 snow avalanche years across all investigated paths. At the same time, widespread snow avalanche occurrence was identified in the study area. In years such as 1923, 1929, 1988, 1992, 1995, 1997, 2002, and 2005, more than half of the investigated paths experienced at least a major snow avalanche event. Regarding the frequency of event years, we conclude that the mean recurrence interval of widespread/extreme events is 4.1 years. Finally, this study highlights the importance of investigating multiple avalanche paths in a small, homogeneous area to create a better understanding of snow avalanche activity at path- and mountain range-scale.

We develop and implement methods for determining whether relaxing sparsity con- straints on portfolios improves the investment opportunity set for risk-averse investors. We formulate a new estimation procedure for sparse second-order stochastic spanning based on a greedy algorithm and Linear Programming. We show the optimal recovery of the sparse solution asymptotically whether spanning holds or not. From large equity datasets, we estimate the expected utility loss due to possible under-diversification, and find that there is no benefit from expanding a sparse opportunity set beyond 45 assets. The optimal sparse portfolio invests in 10 industry sectors and cuts tail risk when compared to a sparse mean-variance portfolio. On a rolling-window basis, the number of assets shrinks to 25 assets in crisis periods, while standard factor models cannot explain the performance of the sparse portfolios

This study reports a revised geological map and a stratigraphic section of the Hod region. It represents a synthesis of new data and earlier work. New results gathered from field geological mapping and petrographic investigation have clarified the lithological boundaries, textural characteristics, the stratigraphical relationships between various rock formations and spatial distribution and behavior of structural elements. Hod region, located in the eastern part of the eastern Pontides (Artvin district), comprises Jurassic to Cretaceous volcanic and sedimentary sequences with a roughly north-north-east trending, steeply east dipping stratigraphy. These lithological units are Liassic Berta Formation, Dogger Kırgülü Formation and Hızarlıdere Formation, Malm-Lower Cretaceous Öğdem Formation and İnanlı Member, Lower Cretaceous Aşağımaden Formation, Turonian Çatak Formation, Santonian Kızılkaya Formation and Santonian-Campanian Evliyatepe Formation. Among these formations, intermediate to felsic volcanic and volcanosedimentary rocks of Kızılkaya Formation are significant as they host several volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) and epithermal deposits throughout eastern Pontides. Hod Maden Au-Cu deposit which represents one of the highest-grade gold and copper discoveries made globally in recent years is also located in Hod region. Therefore, the revised geological map and stratigraphy presented here are important contributions to the regional geology and essential tools for exploration geologists working in the region.

The violation of Bell inequalities seems to establish an important fact about the world: that it is non-local. However, this result relies on the assumption of the statistical independence of the measurement settings with respect to potential past events that might have determined them. Superdeterminism refers to the view that a local, and determinist, account of Bell inequalities violations is possible, by rejecting this assumption of statistical independence. We examine and clarify various problems with superdeterminism, looking in particular at its consequences on the nature of scientific laws and scientific reasoning. We argue that the view requires a neo-Humean account of at least some laws, and creates a significant problem for the use of statistical independence in other parts of physics and science more generally.