Although forensic psychiatrists are often asked to comment on a defendant's capacity to form the necessary mens rea for their alleged offence, little has been written on how mental disorders map onto legal concepts of mens rea, particularly those of intention. In this article we explore legal concepts of mens rea and the relevance of mental disorders and alcohol intoxication. We briefly consider philosophical approaches to intentional action and a variety of common mental disorders. We conclude that despite the presence of significant psychopathology it is rare for mental disorders to cause a defendant to lack the ability to form mens rea. Experts should therefore be cautious about coming to the conclusion that they do lead to a lack of capacity to form mens rea and should make clear the limits of their expertise, given the difficulty of translating clinical mental states into legal concepts of liability.

In 1920, the Syrian Congress at Damascus ratified a democratic constitution that would have been beyond the dreams of activists in the 2011 Arab Spring. Under the leadership of the leading Islamic reformer of the day, Sheikh Rashid Rida, the constitution disestablished Islam as a state religion, guaranteed one-third of parliamentary seats to non-Muslim minorities, and promised autonomy to the majority Christian territory of Mount Lebanon. Unlike the Ottoman constitution that had once reigned in Greater Syria, the Syrian document granted the preponderance of power to parliament, not the monarch. Nonetheless, the British and French colluded in the willful destruction of this nascent democracy. And with League of Nations’ support, they divided the Syrian Arab Kingdom into sectarian mandatory states. By stripping Syrian Arabs of a self-determined political community, Europeans denied them the “right to have rights,” as Hannah Arendt argued. The political backlash against European rule transformed the minority question in Syria into a polarized and violent contest, leading to the sectarian conflicts that overwhelmed Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine in the remainder of the 20th century.

Climate change is no longer a problem for future generations and the impact is already taking a toll in many parts of the world. Climate change has already caused substantial, and increasingly irreversible, damage to ecosystems. All these issues combined will inevitably lead to an increase in human suffering and forced displacement. This has significant ramifications for health care systems. In this editorial we outline how climate change is already impacting both physical and mental health. Health professionals have a role to play in addressing this great challenge of our time. Health professionals should reflect on how to promote means of climate change mitigation and adaptation within their spheres of influence – clinical, education, advocacy, administration, and research.

To reconstruct behavioural changes that underpin evolutionary transitions between solitary and eusocial behaviour, we need detailed behavioural information about both solitary and eusocial species. Most behavioural studies of sweat bees have focused on sociality. We addressed the lack of detailed information about solitary species using pinned specimens of Lasioglossum leucozonium (Schrank) and L. zonulum (Smith) from Ontario (2003–2019) and Alberta (2016). We used weekly abundance of trapped bees to evaluate flight phenology (univoltine versus bivoltine), delineating two phases of flight activity, P1 and P2, before and after the first appearance of males, and evaluated female traits related to reproduction (body size, wear, and ovary development). All populations were confirmed to be solitary. The Ontario L. leucozonium and Alberta L. zonulum were univoltine, with P1 and P2 females being similar in size but P2 females more worn and with less-developed ovaries. Ontario L. zonulum were bivoltine, with P2 females being larger, more worn, and having more ovary development than P1 females, a unique pattern among bivoltine sweat bees. Contrasting observations between univoltine and bivoltine populations support the contention that solitary reproduction is not necessarily “simple” and that detailed information is needed to illuminate behavioural changes during bee social evolution.

Multiple welfare states are re-emphasising the need for street-level bureaucrats’ (SLBs) discretion to stimulate responsive service provision. However, little is known about how SLBs with diverse backgrounds in inter-departmental settings deliberate what it means to use discretion well when different rules, eligibility criteria, and interpretations apply to a client. We address this gap by investigating the stories that participants of a Dutch policy experiment told each other to justify which clients should be granted a flexible interpretation of entitlement categories amid scarcity. We found that ‘caretakers’ used the ‘victim of circumstances’ and ‘good citizen’ plot-type to convince ‘service providers’ that the use of discretion was the right thing to do, whereas the latter used the ‘not needy enough’ or ‘the irresponsible citizen’ plot-type for contestation. Our analysis shows that storytelling helped SLBs to make sense of and bring cohesion to complex situations. Moreover, the analysis shows how stories can have a strong emotional appeal and create a sense of urgency to act collectively, yet can also create divisions and opposition among SLBs. As such, storytelling influences how SLBs think and feel about the client, themselves, and each other, and influences how discretion is used at the front-line of public policy.

This article focuses on Bramshill, Hampshire, one of the most important country houses of the early modern period. From 1605 Bramshill was the home of Edward la Zouche (1556–1625), 11th Baron Zouche – a major courtier during the reigns of Elizabeth i and James i – and was reworked in phases up to and just beyond his death. Based on rare-surviving documents from the 1630s as well as analysis of the house’s fabric, this article reconstructs Bramshill’s plan and interiors as they existed in the late Jacobean and Caroline years. It reveals the arrangement of two significant state apartments – for king and queen – and also the lodgings of the owner, his family and guests, as well as service areas. The rich source material additionally allows the furnishings to be analysed. By using Bramshill as an example, the article aims to shed light on English country houses of similar size and date. The early modern period is important as representing an apogee in the history of country house building – reflecting the ambition of owners such as Lord Zouche and the popularity of the royal progress. Visitors to Bramshill in the early seventeenth century included James i, Charles i and Queen Henrietta Maria.

In loving memory of my beloved miniature dachshund Maddie (16 March 2002 – 16 March 2020). We consider nonlocal differential equations with convolution coefficients of the form

\[{-}M\Big(\big(a*(g\circ |u|)\big)(1)\Big)u''(t)=\lambda f\big(t,u(t)\big),\quad t\in(0,1), \]

$g$

$M$

$M$

$f$

The newly designed HVE gas interface enables the AMS measurement of carbon samples in CO2 form. The CO2, e.g. resulting from the sample combustion in an elemental analyzer, is adsorbed in a zeolite trap and subsequently transferred to a motor-driven syringe. Once diluted with He, the gas mixture is transferred into the ion source of the AMS system. A carbon ion beam is formed in the ion source and mass-analyzed by the AMS system, resulting in 13C/12C and 14C/12C isotopic ratios. The HVE gas interface features two traps and two syringes to maximize the sample throughput, which results in more than 10 samples per hour. The first performance results of CO2 gas sample AMS measurements that were performed with the HVE gas interface in combination with the HVE 210 kV AMS system are presented in this paper. The measurements show that the gas interface contribution to the 14C/12C background is in the 10–15 level and to the precision is at or below 1%.

We study whether the increased adoption of available automation technologies allows economies to avoid the negative effect of aging on per capita output. We develop a quantitative theory in which firms choose to which extent they automate in response to a declining workforce and rising old-age dependency. An important element in our model is the integration of two capital types: automation capital that acts as a substitute to human labor, and traditional capital that is a complement to labor. Empirically, our model's predictions largely match data regarding automation (robotization) density across OECD countries. Simulating the model, we find that aging-induced automation only partially compensates the negative growth effect of aging in the absence of technical progress in automation technology. One reason is that automated tasks are no perfect substitutes for non-automated tasks. A second reason is that automation raises the interest rate and thus inhibits positive behavioral reactions to aging (later retirement and investment in human capital). Moreover, increased automation generates a falling net labor share of income and rising welfare inequality. We evaluate alternative policy responses to cope with this inequality.