bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Evaporation controls contact-dependent bacterial killing during surface-associated growth
Authors: Han Miao , Ruan Chujin , Wang Gang , Johnson David R
Published: February 2025

Many bacteria employ contact-dependent killing mechanisms, which require direct physical contact with a target cell, to gain an advantage over competitors. Here, we hypothesize that evaporation-induced fluid flows determine the number of contacts between attacking and target cells, thus controlling killing efficacy. To test this, we experimentally manipulated the strength of the coffee ring effect (CRE) and measured the consequences on killing mediated by the type VI secretion system (T6SS). The CRE is caused by evaporation-induced fluid flows that move water and cells from the center to the periphery of a liquid droplet, consequently concentrating cells at the periphery. We found that the CRE significantly increases the number of contacts between attacking (Vibrio cholerae) and target (Escherichia coli) cells and enhances the ability of V. cholerae to kill and out-compete E. coli. We corroborated our findings with individual-based computational simulations and demonstrated that increased cell densities at the droplet periphery caused by the CRE increase killing. We further found that the T6SS firing rate, lethal hit threshold, and lysis delay significantly affect killing when the CRE is strong. Our results underscore the importance of evaporation-induced fluid flows in shaping bacterial interactions and controlling competitive outcomes.
Uncertain fate of pelagic calcifying protists: a cellular perspective on a changing ocean
Authors: Shemi Adva , Gal Assaf , Vardi Assaf
Published: February 2025

Pelagic calcifying protists such as coccolithophores and foraminifera represent an important microbial component of the marine carbon cycle. Although their calcitic shells are preserved in oceanic sediments over millennia, their resilience in the future decades is uncertain. We review current literature describing the response of calcifying protists to ocean acidification and temperature warming. We examine these key ecological and biogeochemical processes through the cellular perspective, exploring the physiological, metabolic, and molecular responses of calcifying protists. Ocean acidification is a chemical process that takes place in the seawater outside the cell, whereas protists calcify inside a modified cellular microenvironment. The function of these calcification compartments depends on cellular response to ocean acidification, such as maintaining pH homeostasis. The response of calcifying protists to ocean acidification and temperature warming is species-specific, with no unifying trends but rather a range of sensitivity levels. Coccolithophores and foraminifera display physiological sensitivity that may hamper their ecological success in comparison to non-calcifying species. Yet, certain species may be more adaptable, especially when comparing to highly vulnerable calcifying molluscs as pteropods. As the molecular machinery mediating cellular calcification is not fully resolved, as well as the functional role of the calcitic shell, our ability to predict the fate of calcifying microorganisms in a warmer, more acidic ocean is limited. We propose the urgent need to expand the study of these model systems by advancing cell biology approaches, to better understand the impact of climate change on microbial food webs in the ocean.
Multivalent interactions of Septin 6 promote the establishment of epithelial cell polarity
Authors: Fu Weihong , Wang Xueying , Rafiq Mussarat , Shao Hengyi , Wang Cunyu , Wang Dongmei , Tao Changlu , Fu Chuanhai , Zieger Barbara , Liu Xing , Yao Xuebiao , Zhang Liangyu
Published: February 2025

Septins, components of the fourth cytoskeleton, play an indispensable role in establishing and maintaining epithelial cell polarity. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the dynamic assembly of higher-order septin structures and the establishment of epithelial cell polarity remain elusive. Here, we show that septins form a previously unrecognized dynamic structure with liquid-like properties in polarized MDCK cells. We identified Septin 6 (SEPT6) as the key human septin that undergoes liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) both in vitro and in vivo through weak, multivalent interactions mediated by its C-terminal tail. SEPT6 mutants defective in LLPS in vitro also fail to support adherens junction integrity and cell polarity establishment in 2D and 3D cell cultures. Our findings indicate that weak, multivalent interactions are essential for the assembly of higher-order septin structures in cells. We propose that these interactions, in conjunction with conventional interactions between folded domains, generate partially ordered septin assemblies that support the apical–basal axis and lumen formation in metazoans.
Chemsex and compulsive sexual behavior among sexual minority men
Authors: Jennings Todd L , Gleason Neil , Nieblas Frankie , Borgogna Nicholas C , Kraus Shane W
Published: February 2025

Introduction

Chemsex, or the use of specific psychoactive substances to enhance or prolong sexual encounters, is increasingly prevalent among sexual minority men and is linked to adverse health outcomes.

Aim

This study examines the co-occurrence of chemsex and compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD) among sexual minority men and whether this co-occurrence is connected to mental and sexual health concerns.

Methods

A sample of 289 sexual minority men (223 gay men and 66 bisexual men), recruited primarily through the dating/hookup application Grindr, completed measures of chemsex participation, CSBD, substance use disorder symptoms, and health outcomes. CSBD was measured with the Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder Scale-7 (CSBD-7), which uses a psychometrically validated cut–off for identifying individuals who are at high risk of experiencing CSBD.

Results

Chemsex participation (15.2%) and falling above the CSBD-7 cut–off (34.3%) were prevalent, with 9.3% of participants endorsing both. Chemsex, compared to alcohol and marijuana use during sex, was more strongly associated with sexual and mental health outcomes. Individuals reporting chemsex and/or falling above the CSBD-7 cut–off, experienced greater depression and anxiety compared to those without these concerns. However, only individuals reporting the co–occurrence of chemsex and CSBD endorsed greater sexual health concerns, such as condomless anal sex and HIV infection. Participants only endorsing chemsex were not included in the analyses due to low frequency.

Discussion

This study suggests that chemsex and CSBD co–occur and are connected to negative health outcomes, such as depression and condomless anal sex. Notably, differences in sexual health concerns (i.e., condomless anal sex, HIV infection, and the use of poppers and erectile dysfunction medications during sex) were only identified when participants endorsing chemsex were included in analyses, suggesting that CSBD's connection to sexual risk may arise from a subset of individuals struggling with chemsex. Lastly, chemsex, popper use, and erectile dysfunction medication use during sex appear more strongly connected to CSBD than marijuana or alcohol use during sex. Future research is needed using larger samples, longitudinal approaches, and more refined measures of chemsex.
Extraction of H i gas with bulk motions in the disk of galaxies
Authors: Oh Se-Heon , Wang Jing
Published: February 2025

We propose a new method for extracting bulk motion gases in the disk of a galaxy from H i data cubes, offering improvements over classical techniques like moment analysis and line profile fitting. Our approach decomposes the line-of-sight velocity profiles into multiple Gaussian components, which are then classified into (underlying and dominant) bulk and non-bulk motion gases based on criteria such as H i surface density, velocity dispersion, kinetic energy, and rotation velocity. A 2D tilted-ring analysis is employed to refine the kinematical parametres of the galaxy disk, ensuring robust extraction of the bulk motion gases. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this method using the H i data cubes of NGC 4559 from the WSRT-HALOGAS survey, distinguishing between bulk and non-bulk gas components. From this, we find that approximately 50 % of the H i gas in NGC 4559 is classified as non-bulk, possibly linked to processes such as stellar feedback. This work provides a robust framework for analysing H i kinematics of galaxies from high sensitivity H i observations of galaxies like MeerKAT-MHONGOOSE and FAST-FEASTS and allows us to best exploit the kinematic information of the complex gas dynamics within galaxy disks.
CSST Large Scale Structure Analysis Pipeline: III. Emission-line Redshift Measurement for Slitless Spectra
Authors: Sui Jipeng , Zou Hu , Yang Xiaohu , Zheng Xianzhong , Wen Run , Gu Yizhou , Ding Weiyu , Feng Lu , Guo Hong , Guo Wei-Jian , Han Yunkun , Jing Yipeng , Li Cheng , Li Wenxiong , Liu Shufei , Shen Zhixia , Singh Gaurav , Wang Jiali , Wei Peng , Xiao Yunao , Xue Suijian , Zhan Hu , Zhang Pengjie , Zhao Gongbo
Published: February 2025

The China Space Station Telescope (CSST) is a forthcoming space-based optical telescope designed to co-orbit with the Chinese Space Station. With a planned slitless spectroscopic survey spanning a broad wavelength range of 255 − 1000 nm and an average spectral resolution exceeding 200, the CSST holds significant potential for cosmic large-scale structure analysis. In this study, we focus on redshift determinations from slitless spectra through emission line analysis within the CSST framework. Our tailored redshift measurement process involves identifying emission lines in one-dimensional slitless spectra, aligning observed wavelengths with their rest-frame counterparts from prominent galaxy emissions, and calculating wavelength shifts to determine redshifts accurately. To validate our redshift measurement algorithm, we leverage simulated spectra generated by the CSST emulator for slitless spectroscopy. The outcomes demonstrate a remarkable redshift completeness exceeding 95 per cent for emission line galaxies (ELGs), alongside a purity surpassing 85 per cent. The redshift uncertainty remains impressively below than ∼0.001. Notably, when concentrating on galaxies with more than three matched emission lines, the completeness of ELGs and the purity of measurable galaxies can reach 98 per cent and 97 per cent, respectively. Furthermore, we explore the influence of parameters like magnitude, spectral signal-to-noise ratio, and redshift on redshift completeness and purity. The discussion also delves into redshift degeneracies stemming from emission-line matching confusion. Our developed redshift measurement process will be applied to extensive simulated datasets and forthcoming CSST slitless spectroscopic observations for further cosmological and extragalactic analyses.
Core Outcome Sets for Meningioma In Clinical studies (COSMIC): an international patient & healthcare professional consensus for research studies
Authors: Millward Christopher P , Armstrong Terri S , Bell Sabrina , Brodbelt Andrew R , Bulbeck Helen , Dirven Linda , Grundy Paul L , Islim Abdurrahman I , Javadpour Mohsen , Keshwara Sumirat M , Koszdin Shelli D , Marson Anthony G , McDermott Michael W , Melingm Torstein R , Oliver Kathy , Plaha Puneet , Preusser Matthias , Santarius Thomas , Srikandarajah Nisaharan , Taphoorn Martin J B , Turner Carole , Watts Colin , Weller Michael , Williamson Paula R , Zadeh Gelareh , Zamanipoor Najafabadi Amir H , Jenkinson Michael D ,   EORTC BTG, ICOM, EANO, SNO, RANO-PRO, BNOS, SBNS, BIMS, TBTC, International Brain Tumour Alliance, Brainstrust, Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada, and the COSMIC: Intervention Collaborative and COSMIC: Observation Collaborative.
Published: February 2025

Background

Core Outcome Sets (COS) define the minimum outcomes that should be measured and reported in all clinical trials for a specific health condition or health area. The aim was to develop two COS for intracranial meningioma to be used in future clinical studies: COSMIC: Intervention for effectiveness trials and COSMIC: Observation for studies of incidental/untreated meningioma.

Methods

A study advisory group was formed with representation from international stakeholder groups: EORTC BTG, ICOM, EANO, SNO, RANO-PRO, BNOS, SBNS, BIMS, TBTC, International Brain Tumour Alliance, and Brainstrust. Outcomes of potential relevance to key stakeholders were identified and rationalized to populate two eDelphi surveys. Participants were recruited internationally and asked to rate each outcome on its importance for inclusion in the COS. The two final COS were ratified through two, one-day, online consensus meetings.

Results

The COSMIC: Intervention eDelphi survey contained 25 items and was completed by 199 participants. Following the consensus meeting, 15 outcomes were included. The COSMIC: Observation eDelphi survey contained 17 items and was completed by 129 participants. 16 outcomes were included. Eight core outcomes were common to both COS; tumour growth, physical, emotional, and neurocognitive functioning, overall quality of life, progression-free survival, meningioma-specific mortality and overall survival. Role and social functioning were core outcomes in COSMIC: Observation but not COSMIC: Intervention.

Conclusions

Uptake of these COS in relevant future meningioma clinical studies will ensure that stakeholder-determined, critically important outcomes are consistently measured and reported across similar clinical studies.
A Spanish-language Adaptation of the Brief Wisconsin Inventory of Smoking Dependence Motives among Mexican and Mexican-American Adults Who Smoke
Authors: Castro Yessenia , Velasquez Jose E , Guerra Zully C , Londoño Tatiana , Moore John R , Heydarian Nazanin M
Published: February 2025

Introduction

The smoking pattern of Latino smokers differs from non-Latino white smokers such that physical dependence may not be a strong motivator for smoking among Latinos. Multidimensional measures of dependence may be more useful, but there is a lack of psychometrically sound multidimensional Spanish-language measures. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of a Spanish-language adaptation of the Brief Wisconsin Inventory of Dependence Motives (Brief WISDM) for use among Spanish-speaking Latino smokers in the U.S.

Methods

287 Spanish-speaking Mexican-origin smokers in the U.S. responded to a revised set of Spanish Brief WISDM items. Confirmatory factor analyses and model trimming procedures were conducted with 144 participants randomly selected from the sample. The resulting scale was replicated with the remaining 143 participants. Tests of concurrent validity examined each subscale’s ability to statistically predict relevant smoking patterns.

Results

Model trimming resulted in a 19-item, six-factor scale with acceptable fit (χ2=227.03 p<.0001; RMSEA=.07, CFI=.93, TLI=0.92, SRMR=0.05). The final model retained factors Automaticity, Craving, Social/Environmental Goads, Taste, and Weight Control. Items from Affective Enhancement and Cognitive Enhancement were combined to form one factor. Concurrent validity was largely supported in both samples.

Conclusions

This study helps address the need for a valid and reliable multidimensional Spanish language measure of commercial tobacco dependence.

Implications

A valid measure of dependence allows for the conduct of research that could lead to novel, culturally relevant knowledge of the processes involved in smoking initiation, maintenance, cessation and relapse among an understudied population.
Low migratory flight altitudes may explain increased collision risk for Scolopax minor (American Woodcock)
Authors: Berigan Liam , Clements Sarah , Darling Rachel , Fish Alexander , Roth Amber , Balkcom Greg , Carpenter Bobbi , Costanzo Gary , Duguay Jeffrey , Filkins Kayleigh , Graham Clayton , Harvey William , Hook Michael , Howell Douglas , Maddox Seth , McWilliams Scott , Meyer Shawn , Nichols Theodore , Pollard J Bruce , Roy Christian , Sausville David , Slezak Colby , Stiller Josh , Straub Jacob , Tetreault Mathieu , Washington Dawn , Williams Lisa , Blomberg Erik
Published: February 2025

Understanding bird migration at low altitudes is critical to evaluating risk of collision with obstacles. Recent advances in satellite tracking technologies allow quantifying use of low altitudes by small migrating birds with a high level of precision, allowing species-level inference into potential collision risk based on flight altitude. Scolopax minor (American Woodcock) is suspected to be a low altitude migrant due to its frequent collisions with buildings, and subsequent mortality during migration may be contributing to population declines. We investigated migratory flight altitudes using satellite transmitters deployed on woodcock in 2020–2024 and examined how flight altitudes compare to the heights of common airspace obstacles. Each transmitter recorded a nocturnal GPS location with an altitude reading every 1–3 days during fall and spring migrations. We implemented a Bayesian hierarchical mixture model to identify whether locations were recorded on the ground or during flight, isolate measurement error, and describe the distribution of flight altitudes. We found that migrating woodcock fly at mean altitudes of 379 m above ground level, flying higher during spring (mean: 444 m, 95% credible interval: 333–578 m) than fall (338 m, 95% CRI: 267–423 m). Woodcock flight altitudes were frequently lower than could be observed using weather radar (27% of observations), and 57% of observations fell within the altitude range of ≥1 airspace obstacle. Our results suggest that woodcock fly at altitudes lower than reported for most nocturnal migrants, which likely contributes to their vulnerability to obstacle collisions. Scolopax minor provide an example of how vulnerability to obstacle collisions during nocturnal migratory flights are often species-specific, and mitigation efforts should incorporate measures aimed at reducing collisions during both diurnal stopovers and nocturnal migratory flights to effectively reduce bird collision mortality.
Introduction
Authors: Austin Michael L.
Published: February 2025

This introductory chapter briefly discusses the history and development of music videos, long before the launch of MTV in August 1981, including the history of representation in music videos. It also investigates the role of hegemony and how power and the politics of representation of race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexual orientation, and so on have played a role in the ways in which “others” are represented in music videos. Further, it provides an initial definition and discussion of cultural appropriation, and describes the ways in which dominant cultures often use it to misrepresent others in music videos and how marginalized groups can use “redemptive appropriation” as a way to represent themselves.
China Dolls and Polynesian Beefcakes
Authors: Austin Michael L.
Published: February 2025

This chapter examines some of the controversies surrounding the misuse of Asian aesthetics in Western music videos by non-Asian artists both through genuine, however misguided, interest in Asian culture and through unfortunate misappropriations and misrepresentations of members of the AAPI community. The chapter begins with a discussion of the fraught history of the AAPI community in the West, and the United States in particular, including the historical roots of a number of negative stereotypes found in various audiovisual media; conversely, it also addresses so-called “positive” stereotypes, such as the “model minority” myth, which is often used to excuse or explain away discrimination and misrepresentation of the AAPI community. As with other chapters, this one concludes with a brief discussion of music videos created by Asians and Pacific Islanders in which they represent themselves and their experiences and celebrate their own culture.
Authoritarian Absorption
Authors: Long Yan
Published: February 2025

This book portrays the rebuilding of China’s pandemic response system through its anti-HIV/AIDS battle from 1978 to 2018. Central to this history is the influence of foreign interventions, which challenged the post-socialist state’s ignorance of infectious diseases and pushed it toward professionalizing public health bureaucrats and embracing more liberal, globally aligned intervention measures. This transformation involved a mix of confrontation and collaboration among transnational organizations, the Chinese government, and grassroots movements, which turned epidemics into a battleground for enhancing the state’s domestic control and international status. Foreign interveners heavily relied on mobilizing China’s AIDS movement and orienting activists toward knowledge-focused epistemic activities to propel the insertion of Western rules, knowledge, and practices into the socialist systems. Yet, Chinese bureaucrats played this game to their advantage by absorbing some AIDS activist subgroups—notably urban HIV-negative gay men—along with their foreign-trained expertise into the state apparatus. This move allowed them to expand bodily surveillance while projecting a liberal facade for the international audience. The book argues against a binary view of Western liberal interventions as either success or failure, suggesting instead the paradoxical outcomes of such efforts. On one hand, they can bolster public health institutions in an authoritarian context, a development pivotal to China’s subsequent handling of COVID-19 and instrumental in advancing the rights of specific groups, such as urban gay men. On the other hand, these interventions may reinforce authoritarian control and further marginalize certain populations—such as rural people living with HIV/AIDS and female sex workers—within public health systems.
Introduction
Authors: Long Yan
Published: February 2025

How does an authoritarian state oscillate between neglecting and emphasizing an epidemic? How does it dismantle or innovate bureaucratic arrangements controlling its transmission? Whose suffering becomes policy-worthy and whose is overlooked? This opening chapter outlines these central questions of the book, moving beyond conventional domestic factors to introduce a novel framework that examines the dynamic interactions among transnational interveners, government agencies, and local activists in driving the evolution of China’s epidemic control systems. Utilizing eleven-year longitudinal multi-sited ethnography, it demonstrates how foreign interventions promoting liberal reforms can be generative of authoritarian health institutions, either directly through shaping bureaucrats, or indirectly through mobilizing domestic social movements. This generative framework highlights organizational and knowledge dynamics, rather than money and power, in explaining the remarkable impact of seemingly weak transnational AIDS organizations on China.
Victims Unseen
Authors: Long Yan
Published: February 2025

Through vivid oral history interviews, this chapter explores why victims infected with HIV through polluted blood remained silent instead of seeking redress in the 1990s. Moving beyond the conventional focus on stigma, the chapter reveals how community trust and connectedness—often considered panaceas for health problems—can facilitate the spread of epidemics and conceal abuse. Strong social ties in rural China helped recruit villagers into government-sponsored blood trade by normalizing risks in selling plasma. The subsequent outbreak caused not only physical destruction but also social disintegration, turning people against each other in their tight-knit communities. Deprived of their status as innocent victims, infected villagers were unable to take collective action. The institutional ignorance discussed in Chapter 1 worked in tandem with local community relations to condition the distribution of pain, conceal the government’s responsibility, and diminish the victims’ will to be recognized.
Bureaucratic Feasting on AIDS Projects
Authors: Long Yan
Published: February 2025

This chapter shifts the focus to the government side and examines why Chinese health bureaucrats, despite the Chinese Communist Party’s aversion to foreign influences, enthusiastically adopted transnational knowledge, rules, and practices in epidemic control between 2004 and 2009. While disruptive to some other agencies, external interventions provided unprecedented resources and opportunities that catalyzed the growth of the Chinese health bureaucracy. This led to a shift in the Chinese public health sector from a morality-oriented socialist contagion model to a technocracy-oriented projectified contracting model centering on short-term project contracts. Health officials were drawn to the demonstration of professional expertise through standardization and quantification, leading to a shift in their normative orders, evaluative standards, and administrative routines. However, their attempts to selectively embrace foreign technical elements while dodging the democratic values and civil society engagement demanded by transnational entities stirred more conflict.
Alternative Futures and a Future Unknown
Authors: Jackson Ashley , Stewart Andrew
Published: February 2025

This chapter builds on the preceding examination of the mindset of the British political elite at the end of the war in terms of beliefs, policies, and expectations. Along with Chapter 4 it looks at more indirect, underlying factors that broaden our understanding of the elite’s approach to the future and the context in which plans were made. The first factor is short-termism caused by the emergency of war, meaning that even the immediate future could not be discerned with clarity; it was all about the here and now. The sheer weight and stress of war work dulled Whitehall’s senses and absorbed so much capacity that serious planning for the future was given short shrift. The second factor is the availability, and the plausibility, of alternative futures. During the war British leaders and policymakers operated in a climate in which numerous future scenarios appeared possible, scenarios that differed radically from what came to pass and what we have come to know as the post-war story. The prospect of ‘the future’ did little to dent the elite’s conviction that their country could prosper in the post-war world. This was because the future was barely glimpsed amid the din of war, and because a range of futures other than one defined by national decline and decolonization appeared plausible.
The Colonial Empire, British Thinking, and International Debate
Authors: Jackson Ashley , Stewart Andrew
Published: February 2025

This chapter considers the war’s impact on the colonial empire, the fifty-plus colonies and protectorates presided over by the Colonial Office. The chapter offers a recapitulation of some of the ground covered in Part I regarding major trends affecting the colonial empire, and British policy towards it. British colonial policy was centred on the development and welfare thinking that had evolved in the 1930s, and the pledge of gradual progress towards self-government within the imperial structure. War challenged this leisurely approach by internationalizing colonial issues and amplifying criticisms from nationalists and Americans, the British inviting pressure upon themselves by signing up to the egalitarian principles embodied in the Atlantic Charter and UN declaration. The situation was made worse by ignominious defeats and the loss of colonies to the Japanese. However, the British were confident they could deal with these challenges without significant damage to the integrity and long-term viability of the colonial empire. What they needed to do was to stick to the policies articulated in the later 1930s—the goals of self-government and development and welfare—and that would see them through. With careful planning dictated by Whitehall, and the big government and state planning initiatives called forth by war, they could deliver development that would satisfy the needs of colonial peoples, and support the post-war world order. A healthy and modernizing colonial empire would also aid British economic recovery, and by the end of the war it was considered vital to Britain’s continuance as a great power.
Primary Intersubjectivity, Vocal Turn Taking Coordination, and the Development of Language
Authors: Beebe Beatrice , Terrace Herbert
Published: February 2025

This chapter elaborates on one of Colwyn Trevarthen’s most important theoretical contributions—that language emerges from an infant’s prelinguistic communicative competence during primary intersubjectivity. Primary intersubjectivity includes proto-conversation—an infant’s innate ability to coordinate vocalizations, facial expressions, and gestures with a parent. This coordination is seen in correspondences in form, timing, and intensity through coupled rhythms. We specifically address the coordination of the rhythms of turn-taking during primary intersubjectivity and we argue that turn-taking itself is a key aspect of the development of language. We review research that links turn-taking to the development of areas of the brain specialized for language. We also offer an evolutionary hypothesis about how the capacity for intersubjectivity was established in our ancestors.
Intersubjective Conversations
Authors: Marwick Helen
Published: February 2025

This chapter focuses on a range of research and theoretical perspectives on adult–infant and infant–infant conversations inspired by Colwyn Trevarthen’s theory of intersubjectivity. The chapter encompasses early seminal work on pre-linguistic reciprocal conversations underpinned by prosodic systems, such as intonation, voice quality, pace, and kinaesthetic expressiveness, and traces the theoretical and practical insights from this to our understanding of more recent theories of concordant intersubjectivity, interpersonal emotional positioning, referential representation, and imaginative creation. It explores intersubjective connections and intersubjective perceptual affordances and processes and highlights their role in underpinning pragmatic understanding in language and communication, conversational implicature, symbolic representation, and pretence. It outlines future directions of research in adult–infant and infant–infant conversations resting on the impact of insights revealed by intersubjectivity theory.
Colwyn Trevarthen’s Theoretical Ideas, Vitality, and Values
Authors: Kennedy Hilary , Simpson Raymond
Published: February 2025

This chapter is a celebration of Colwyn Trevarthen’s generosity in sharing and his joy in human interaction and connections. It describes Colwyn’s major contribution to the creation of Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) in the early 1990s and to sustaining VIG development through to the early 2020s. VIG is a video feedback programme that helps parents understand and nurture their child by responding to their initiatives in their own unique and positive ways. Raymond Simpson explains to importance of ‘co-operative intersubjectivity’ to the underlying principles of VIG and describes the history of VIG development in Scotland. Hilary Kennedy highlights current key VIG developments in parents with mental health concerns and their babies, supporting parents where babies have been born pre-term, in Child Protection Situations (a new data collection system), and lastly how VIG has been successfully adapted to be effective online with clients and for training.
Connected Cooperative Companionship Grounds Children’s Dance into Morality
Authors: Narvaez Darcia
Published: February 2025

Humanity’s evolved nest or evolved developmental niche offers the companionship care that meets basic needs and fosters human cooperation. Humans have multiple basic needs that must be fulfilled to optimize normal development, and to foster and maintain health and wellbeing. Meeting basic needs is part of our species’ wellness-promotion pathway, generating successful adaptations among our ancestors over millions of years. Colwyn Trevarthen shows us that infants demonstrate our inherent dynamic social nature as embodied creatures and how companionship cultivates a cooperative, socially oriented human being. Connected cooperative companionship provides the optimal facilitating environment for social and moral development, which in early life matches the infant’s inborn vitality and readiness for relationship. The evolved nest builds relational attunement and connectedness through extensive affection and breastfeeding, multiple responsive relationships, immersion in nature, and play. As can be observed from societies in which basic needs are met, the results are thriving individuals-in-relationship.
The energy-momentum tensor
Authors: Lancaster Tom , Blundell Stephen J.
Published: February 2025

The right-hand side of Einstein’s equation is supplied by the energy-momentum tensor, discussed in Chapter 12, which encodes the energy-momentum of matter fields. In flat spacetime the local conservation of energy-momentum can be expressed via the important constraint ▽⋅T=0. The same expression holds in curved spacetime.
The Friedmann equations
Authors: Lancaster Tom , Blundell Stephen J.
Published: February 2025

In the previous chapter we have investigated the possible geometries describing homogeneous, isotopic spacetimes with constant curvature and in Chapter 17 we fill these with matter. Filling the Robertson-Walker universes with a perfect fluid gives us the Friedmann equations for the evolution of the scale factor a(t) with time. These can be given in terms of the dust, radiation and vacuum-energy content of the universe.
Orbits in the Schwarzschild geometry
Authors: Lancaster Tom , Blundell Stephen J.
Published: February 2025

We determine the possible orbits allowed by a Schwarzschild metric in Chapters 23. The precession of the perihelion of Mercury is one of the classical tests of general relativity that can be explained by this theory, which predicts results in excellent agreement with observation.
Differential forms
Authors: Lancaster Tom , Blundell Stephen J.
Published: February 2025

In Chapter 32, we proceed to upgrade our basic mathematical machinery to provide a modern treatment of differential forms. Differential forms can be built from 1-forms using the wedge product.
Riemann curvature revisited
Authors: Lancaster Tom , Blundell Stephen J.
Published: February 2025

In Chapter 35 we once again encounter curvature, but now from a thoroughly modern point of view. Geodesic deviation can be calculated geometrically by considering the condition that the Lie derivative vanishes. The Ricci tensor represents the part of the Riemann tensor that has a focussing effect on volumes. The Weyl tensor represents the parts left over, which have a distorting effect on light rays.
Forms, chains, and Stokes’ theorem
Authors: Lancaster Tom , Blundell Stephen J.
Published: February 2025

In Chapter 38, we see how this new approach gives insights into how we understand integrals in physics. All integrals can be expressed as an integral over a differential form. The integral expresses the inner product of the n-form and the n-vector that represents the surface over which the integral is carried out. The general surfaces over which we integrate are chains. The boundaries of chains are found with the boundary operator. An important result is that the boundary of a boundary is zero. Stokes’ theorem is an essential part of our geometrical description of the conservation of charge in electromagnetism, and also of the constraints on curvature caused by the geometry of spacetime.
Gravitational waves
Authors: Lancaster Tom , Blundell Stephen J.
Published: February 2025

The weak-field ideas developed in the previous chapter help us to discuss gravitational radiation. Sources of gravitational waves and the method of their detection are also discussed.
Higher dimensional spacetime
Authors: Lancaster Tom , Blundell Stephen J.
Published: February 2025

Kaluza-Klein theory combines electromagnetism and gravitation via their gauge structure by introducing an extra spatial dimension, resulting in a (4+1)-dimensional spacetime.
From classical to quantum gravity
Authors: Lancaster Tom , Blundell Stephen J.
Published: February 2025

We discuss various theories that have been developed to unify general relativity and quantum mechanics in order to produce a theory of quantum gravity. These include string theory and loop quantum gravity.
Complementing Export Regulation with Criminal Accountability
Authors: Hamilton Tomas
Published: February 2025

Chapter 2 evaluates the legal and political constraints on export regulation, from the perspective of International Criminal Law’s distinctiveness. It critiques the failure of the existing export system to prevent weapons from reaching the perpetrators of atrocities, and its inability to provide ex post facto accountability. It draws on studies of the US, UK, France, and the Netherlands to reveal enforcement issues and the pervasive influence of foreign policy, referencing the Dutch prosecutions of Van Anraat and Kouwenhoven in the ‘unlawful trade’ and exports to Saudi Arabia in the ‘lawful trade’. Although the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and the EU Common Position have developed standards to prevent atrocity, fundamental differences remain, between punishing an export offence and complicity in an extraterritorial international crime. The chapter argues that International Criminal Law could complement and reinforce the current state-centric regime of export regulation, by providing some degree of criminal accountability.
Dismantling the Death Penalty
Authors: Costanzo Mark
Published: February 2025

Dismantling the Death Penalty is a succinct, accessible, and lively overview of research on the costs and consequences of capital punishment. Professor Costanzo uses diverse sources of information, including closing arguments from murder trials; interviews with jurors; statistical analyses of murder rates; survey data; and quotes from defendants, politicians, and the families of victims, to understand the effects and effectiveness of the death penalty. Each chapter answers an essential question: How do juries decide who is sentenced to death? Do executions deter potential murderers? Does the public support the death penalty? Is it “cruel and unusual”? Is it cheaper than life imprisonment? How serious are errors and biases in the system? Is the death penalty morally justified? Although the emphasis is on social scientific research, this comprehensive analysis also places the practice of killing murderers in historical, political, and moral context. The opening chapter chronicles the long, bloody history of executions and changes in how, when, and why we kill criminals. The closing chapter evaluates the politics and future of capital punishment as well as alternatives to executing murderers.
Is Killing Murderers Morally Justified?
Authors: Costanzo Mark
Published: February 2025

Compelling evidence show that the death penalty is costly, arbitrary, discriminatory, prone to error, and without deterrent value. In response, those who support its use often rely on moral philosophy to bolster their arguments. They argue that capital punishment is not only morally legitimate, but also morally necessary. And although questions of fact—questions about cost, deterrence, fairness, and public opinion—can be analyzed using relevant data, the question of whether the death penalty is ethically justified cannot be easily resolved. Because some believe that the state is morally or religiously compelled to kill those who kill, then troublesome questions about how the death penalty is administered, its costs, and the consequences of capital punishment are peripheral and without the power to refute a moral imperative.
Ethical Naturalism and the Problem of Normativity
Authors: Copp David
Published: February 2025

This book explicates and defends ethical naturalism. It explains the naturalist’s position, why it is important, and why it is plausible even though it faces serious objections. The book answers in detail many such objections, including Moore’s and Parfit’s objections, and including the “just too different” objection. Underlying many of the objections, and motivating them, is the view that ethical naturalism is unable to account for the normativity of the ethical facts and properties that it postulates. This is the normativity objection, and the book as a whole deals with this objection. The book argues that ethical naturalism is able to answer the objection, and, surprisingly, that it is in a better position to explain the nature of normativity than its alternatives, such as nonnaturalism, constructivism, expressivism, and so on. The book evaluates various answers that ethical naturalists can offer to the challenge to explain what normativity consists in. It deals with technical issues about metaphysical analysis and grounding, both metaphysical grounding and normative grounding. It examines Cornell realism, the Canberra program, Neo-Humean Subjectivism, Neo-Aristotelian Naturalism, and Pluralist-Teleology.
Some Alternatives to Ethical Naturalism
Authors: Copp David
Published: February 2025

This chapter discusses eight alternatives to ethical naturalism. Some are realist but not naturalist. Some are irrealist. Some are difficult to categorize, but since they are not clear examples of naturalism, this chapter also considers them. The theories discussed are standard nonnaturalism (e.g., G. E. Moore, David Enoch, William FitzPatrick), Meinongian theories (e.g., John Skorupski, T. M. Scanlon), non-ontological success theories (Derek Parfit), error theory (e.g., J. L. Mackie, Jonas Olson), fictionalism (e.g., Richard Joyce), expressivism (e.g., Simon Blackburn, Allan Gibbard), constructivism (e.g., Christine Korsgaard, Sharon Street), and constitutivism (e.g., Michael Smith, David Velleman). These theories are evaluated primarily on the basis of whether they are able to provide a plausible objectualist account of robust normativity. The chapter argues that none of them can do this.
Morality and Discourse
Authors: Haugh Michael , Reiter Rosina Márquez
Published: February 2025

Questions of morality are not new in research on language and social interaction, but have received increasing attention as part of the broader moral turn in the humanities and social sciences. The aim of this chapter is to provide an introduction to research on how morality unfolds and gets practically done in discourse, and the implications of this for the empirical analysis and theorization of morality. After providing a brief overview of the moral turn in studies of discourse and interaction, the chapter highlights some of the key findings that have emerged from these various strands of research. It then outlines some of the key conceptual foundations for the study of morality in discourse. This is followed by an overview of the four parts of this volume and each of the contributions therein, in which attention is drawn to the ways in which morality is approached in these essays.
Negotiating Moral Responsibility for Remedying Troubles
Authors: Alshammari Bandar , Haugh Michael
Published: February 2025

Talking about or reporting troubles to others can make a range of different responses relevant, including a remedy or offer of assistance. However, one practical question facing interactants is what their moral responsibilities with respect to responding to those troubles are. This chapter focuses on cases where the troubles being reported are also hearable as complaints, and how moral responsibility for remedying those troubles-complaints is negotiated in telephone-mediated and copresent institutional encounters between Saudi and Australian coparticipants. It is proposed that negotiating moral responsibilities concerns questions about both who is culpable for those troubles (moral responsibility as culpability), and who is responsible for remedying those troubles (moral responsibility as remediability). The analysis of these encounters shows that the negotiation of culpability for the troubles-complaint is done in ways that eschew imputations of blame being directed at either the troubles-teller or troubles-recipient, but nevertheless holds the latter responsible for remedying those troubles.
Mothering Morality in the Everyday Violence of Domestic Abuse
Authors: Trinch Shonna
Published: February 2025

In this chapter it is argued that children are a locus for moral stance-making and stance-taking in women’s narratives of domestic abuse. Building on analysis of protective order application interviews between Latina women and sociolegal interviewers informed by Membership Categorization Analysis (MCA), this chapter examines how women and their abusive partners get constructed as moral and immoral characters—in their categories of mothers and fathers—vis-à-vis their positioning toward their children in their narratives. Instances of mundane morality are gleaned from the ways in which women and their abusive partners are framed, where descriptions occur, and what descriptions are doing. Discursive techniques such as topic management, references to emotion, claims of responsibility, and blame attribution as well as the interviewers’ cooperative and disapproving silences are analyzed in the turn-taking accomplished (and thwarted) to see how women take moral stances as mothers in their narratives of abuse.
Morality at the Abyss
Authors: Silva Daniel N.
Published: February 2025

This chapter draws from fieldwork in Complexo do Alemão, a group of favelas in Rio de Janeiro where some 80,000 residents live. It investigates the discursive constitution of moral authority by Black activists. The author demonstrates that moral authority here depends on modern juridical formations, in particular human rights law and discourse. The chapter presents two case studies unpacking the situated and historically specific construction of authoritative tropes—Blackness, peripheral membership, local registers—that contextually come to inhabit critical stances to the criminalization of poverty and Black youths. Further, the case studies entertain grassroot modes of countersurveillance and valorization of local forms of life, with important effects for (in)securitization in Rio de Janeiro. Fundamentally, the discursive construction of moral authority that the author unpacks resists a “morality at the abyss,” that is, a set of justifications and rationalizations for the elimination of the Other alongside their communicative and cultural practices.
Biblical Explanations of Exile
Authors: Kraemer David
Published: February 2025

This chapter discusses the “traditional” Jewish understanding of exile, asking where it originated and how it became so powerful. The answer lies in the experience of ancient Israel, who saw their kingdom conquered and population exiled. Working with received traditions, they formulated their sacred history to predict and explain this dismal outcome, which, thanks to what the sacred history proposed, was not an end but a beginning. The chapter examines key texts from the Torah, which threaten such a punishment, then the Bible’s historical books and prophets, which see the Babylonian exile as punishment for the wickedness of the Israelites. It asks about the enduring power of this system, which places divine reward and punishment at the center of Israelite fate.
Zion in Babylon
Authors: Kraemer David
Published: February 2025

This chapter discusses the confident assertions of diaspora life and prerogative articulated by rabbis in the Babylonian Talmud. When the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed in 70 ce, Jews had to find new ways to live their relationship with God. The group that formulated those new ways was the rabbis, who imagined a Judaism that could flourish without a Temple, even far from the Land of Israel. The most important site of this development was Babylon, where the rabbis created a document that defined Judaism for centuries—the Talmud. The Talmud made diaspora Jewish life richer than could have been imagined, while expressing new views regarding “exile” that influenced Jews for generations. The opinions expressed in the Talmud do much to undermine the centrality of Zion and assert the legitimacy of the diaspora.