Reflexive environmental law (REL) enables an understanding of how law builds potential for private company reflexivity. Reflexivity helps to avoid lock-in, and enhances learning and self-organization to resolve complex sustainability challenges. Thus far, REL theory has excluded traditional command-and-control regulation as a form of REL. This limits the potential of REL to understand how legislation can drive reflexivity and create more effective governance. Our framework expands the definition of REL and sets out six types of regulatory instrument found in legislation that may, or may not, constitute forms of REL. The framework comprises three reflexive drivers – autonomy, accountability, and adjustability – and, under these, eleven REL techniques. Through examples taken from European environmental legislation, we explain the drivers’ relationship with different regulatory instruments. This taxonomy empowers regulators and scholars to understand both the reflexive potential of regulatory instruments and the possibility to make instruments more reflexive in specific contexts.

Motivated by the sharp increases in public spending following the global financial crisis, we employ the GMM Panel VAR approach at annual frequency between 2004 and 2014 to investigate the dynamic response of alternative income distribution variables to shocks imposed on tax revenues and three key components of social expenditures: social protection, health, and education. We confirm the potential of fiscal policy to reduce income inequality in the medium to longer run, but point to the differential approaches to pursue such a goal in middle- versus high-income countries. We find that the particular expenditure component under consideration matters in terms of the dynamic effect on inequality and on different parts of the income distribution, as well as in terms of the implied time profile. In middle-income countries, positive education spending shocks are the most effective in achieving better distributional outcomes over a medium run of several years. By contrast, in high-income countries, positive health spending and tax shocks have a more pronounced favorable dynamic distributional effect.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for depression, but a significant minority of clients are difficult to treat, including those with histories of relational trauma. The model of Beck et al. (1979) proposes that adverse childhood experiences lead to negative core beliefs, and these create a susceptibility to depression. However, Beck’s model does not identify trauma as a subset of adverse experiences. An alternative view is that traumatised clients internalise conflicting representations of self and it is conflict, interacting with trauma memories, that creates a vulnerability for depression. In this formulation, methods from the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) could be incorporated into the treatment of depression, to emotionally process trauma memories and resolve self-identity conflicts. The aims of this study were to: (1) report the treatment of a 67-year-old man with recurrent depression and a history of prolonged relational trauma, and (2) to explore how memory processing from the treatment of PTSD can be incorporated into the treatment of recurrent depression. A single case observational design was used in the long-term treatment of a depressed traumatised client. The client received 47 individual sessions over 19 months in routine clinical practice in a tertiary CBT service. He completed repeated measures of mood, memory intrusions and sleep disruption. The client responded well to treatment with clinically significant improvements across measures of mood, memory and sleep. The effects were sustained over an 18-month follow-up. Memory processing was successfully integrated into a high-intensity treatment for recurrent depression. This is a promising approach for depressed clients with histories of relational trauma.

This article explores the notion of immortality in Jaina philosophy by focusing on the problem of the persistence of the self. It considers the concept of persistence within the broader context of Jaina metaphysics and its specific application to living beings. The article analyses the relationship between the immaterial self and its material body to determine which aspects of living beings can be deemed immortal or persisting beyond death. It also investigates the state of liberation as an immortal condition. Drawing from the Tattvârtha-sūtra and four of its commentaries, the article demonstrates the complexity of the Jaina treatment of the issue of the self's persistence over time and its commitment to the doctrine of non-one-sidedness. It also shows that Jaina philosophers deal with this critical philosophical problem in a way that reflects their engagement with the intellectual debates of their time.

Let M be a short extender mouse. We prove that if $E\in M$ and $M\models $“E is a countably complete short extender whose support is a cardinal $\theta $ and $\mathcal {H}_\theta \subseteq \mathrm {Ult}(V,E)$”, then E is in the extender sequence $\mathbb {E}^M$ of M. We also prove other related facts, and use them to establish that if $\kappa $ is an uncountable cardinal of M and $\kappa ^{+M}$ exists in M then $(\mathcal {H}_{\kappa ^+})^M$ satisfies the Axiom of Global Choice. We prove that if M satisfies the Power Set Axiom then $\mathbb {E}^M$ is definable over the universe of M from the parameter $X=\mathbb {E}^M\!\upharpoonright \!\aleph _1^M$, and M satisfies “Every set is $\mathrm {OD}_{\{X\}}$”. We also prove various local versions of this fact in which M has a largest cardinal, and a version for generic extensions of M. As a consequence, for example, the minimal proper class mouse with a Woodin limit of Woodin cardinals models “$V=\mathrm {HOD}$”. This adapts to many other similar examples. We also describe a simplified approach to Mitchell–Steel fine structure, which does away with the parameters $u_n$.

Snails and freshwater fish were examined from four ponds in the Meinung township in which Clonorchis sinensis was known to be endemic 18 years ago. No metacercariae were found in 478 Tilapia nilotica, whereas of 451 Ctenopharyngodon idellus examined, 16.2%, 3.3% and 0.9% were found to be infected with Haplorchis pumilio, H. taichui and Clonorchis sinensis, respectively. In addition, there were some unidentified metacercariae in 12.0% of Ctenopharyngodon idellus examined. Overall, no positive correlation between infection rates and sizes of infected fish was shown. Six species of snails were collected in this survey and two frequently-occurring snails, Melanoides tuberculata and Thiara granifera were commonly infected with H. pumilio. Reasons for the prevalence of Haplorchis species and the absence of Clonorchis sinensis in fish and snail hosts in a previously reported endemic area for human clonorchiasis are discussed.

What normative compass can appropriately ground a theory for contemporary “non-Western” societies? This question has become urgent amid the pressure to decolonize political science and academia. The hybridity of numerous contemporary non-Western societies means that political theorists cannot refuse to engage with either Western-originated or premodern Indigenous concepts and ways of thinking that bear on the local public culture. However, these normative strands alone are unsuitable for grounding a contemporary theory. This methodological dilemma can be overcome if theorists adopt normative hybridity as a methodological stance. Normative hybridity suggests that hybridity is not only a feature of the theorist’s context of reference but should also be their modus operandi. Normative hybridity already underpins relevant works in contemporary Confucian political theory. Drawing from these works, I illustrate three methods to apply normative hybridity to theory building. This novel methodological approach uniquely addresses current political theory discussions and influences non-Western policymaking.

What was the impact of urban political structure on preindustrial wealth inequality? I document that more closed political institutions were associated with higher inequality in a panel of early-modern German cities. To investigate the mechanisms behind that macro-relationship, I construct a unique individual-level panel dataset on personal wealth and political office-holding in the city-state of Nördlingen (1579–1700). I employ a difference-in-differences setting to show that political elites enriched themselves substantially, increasing inequality. To address endogeneity concerns, I exploit the Thirty-Years’ War as a shock to elites’ potential for enrichment from public office. Officials manipulated this crisis to enrich themselves further.

This essay examines an 1877 Gujarati translation of Queen Victoria's Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands. It was the work of M. M. Bhownaggree, later a British MP. The essay explores the circumstances under which Bhownaggree undertook the translation, its content, and its intended audience. It closes with some observations on the book's place in the history of Indian royalism, the place of Indian royalism in the development of modern Gujarati literature, and the interplay of the Gujarati identity that was emerging in the latter part of the nineteenth century with both royalism and Indian nationalism.

For more than 80 years, the scientific community has extensively used International Centre for Diffraction Data's (ICDD®) Powder Diffraction File (PDF®) for material characterization, including powder X-ray diffraction analysis. Historically, PDF was made available for two major material types: one for inorganic analysis and the other for organic analysis. In the early years of the PDF, this two-material approach was implemented due to limited computer capabilities. With Release 2024, ICDD provides a comprehensive database consisting of the entire PDF in one database called PDF-5+, comprised of more than one million entries (1,061,898). The PDF-5+ with a relational database (RDB) construct houses extensive chemical, physical, bibliographic, and crystallographic data, including atomic coordinates and raw data, enabling qualitative and quantitative phase analysis. This wealth of information in one database is advantageous for phase identification, materials characterization, and several data mining applications in materials science. A database of this size needs rigorous data curation and structural and chemical classifications to optimize pattern search/match and characterization methods. Each entry in the PDF has an editorially assigned quality mark. An editorial comment will describe the reason if an entry does not meet the top-quality mark. The editorial processes of ICDD's quality management system are unique in that they are ISO 9001:2015 certified. Among several classifications implemented in PDF-5+, subfiles (such as Bioactive, Pharmaceuticals, Minerals, etc.) directly impact the search/match in minimizing false positives. Scientists with specific field expertise continuously review these subfiles to maintain their quality. This paper describes the features of PDF with an emphasis on the newly released PDF-5+.