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We evaluate the impact of climate shocks on the well-being of farmer households in a Small Island Developing State in the Pacific, the Solomon Islands. We find that both subjective (self-assessed exposure to climate shocks) and objective (number of past dry spells) indicators of environmental stress significantly reduce the quality of life among households. Household well-being is more severely affected for farmers living in poor dwellings (e.g., those with thatched roofs signaling shelters less resistant to environmental shocks), with below median income or durable assets, living in isolated areas and not being members of agricultural associations. Furthermore, households affected by climate shocks experience a significantly higher proportion of nutritional problems. These findings support the hypothesis of a strong correlation between climate shocks, household well-being and nutritional status, advocating for the relevance of global climate adaptation policies such as loss and damage funds, as well as prevention strategies.
In recent years, a large amount of scholarship has been written about St Thomas Aquinas’s views on free will and determinism. This paper is an attempt to bring some Thomist views of libertarian free will into dialogue with analytic philosopher Peter van Inwagen and his ‘mysterianism’ about free will. The thesis of this paper is that Thomist libertarians about free will are committed to Peter van Inwagen’s mysterianism about free will. The paper intends to accomplish this aim by showing how recent accounts of Thomist libertarianism cannot defeat the intuitive strength of van Inwagen’s ‘Replay argument’. The significance of this conclusion is that some Thomists are committed to mysterianism and that mysterianism is a legitimate position a Thomist can hold. This also provides evidence that the Thomist tradition can grow and be nourished by engagement with contemporary analytic philosophy.
Institutional designers of judiciaries often want to provide the appearance of impartiality. As a result, many collegial courts issue per curiam rulings in which judges’ votes are not public. An extensive scholarship, however, provides evidence that ideology and mechanisms of retention affect judicial decision-making. Do per curiam rulings actively mitigate or provide cover for ideological and career-oriented judicial decision-making? I argue that – when serving as the rapporteur (opinion-writer) – a judge on a civil law per curiam court can steer their panel towards the outcome their appointer prefers. When their appointing government turns over, nonetheless, a judge is not compelled to change their decision-making to be in line with their new government, as per curiam rulings protect them from retaliation. An analysis of decisions at the Court of Justice of the European Union provides evidence for this account.
OpenAI is a research organization founded by, among others, Elon Musk, and supported by Microsoft. In November 2022, it released ChatGPT, an incredibly sophisticated chatbot, that is, a computer system with which humans can converse. The capability of this chatbot is astonishing: as well as conversing with human interlocutors, it can answer questions about history, explain almost anything you might think to ask it, and write poetry. This level of achievement has provoked interest in questions about whether a chatbot might have something similar to human intelligence and even whether one could be conscious. Given that the function of a chatbot is to process linguistic input and produce linguistic output, we consider that the most interesting question in this direction is whether a sophisticated chatbot might have inner speech. That is: might it talk to itself, internally? We explored this via a conversation with ‘Playground’, a chatbot which is very similar to ChatGPT but more flexible in certain respects. We put to it questions which, plausibly, can only be answered if one first produces some inner speech. Here, we present our findings and discuss their philosophical significance.
Given a perfect field $k$ with algebraic closure $\overline {k}$ and a variety $X$ over $\overline {k}$, the field of moduli of $X$ is the subfield of $\overline {k}$ of elements fixed by field automorphisms $\gamma \in \operatorname {Gal}(\overline {k}/k)$ such that the Galois conjugate $X_{\gamma }$ is isomorphic to $X$. The field of moduli is contained in all subextensions $k\subset k'\subset \overline {k}$ such that $X$ descends to $k'$. In this paper, we extend the formalism and define the field of moduli when $k$ is not perfect. Furthermore, Dèbes and Emsalem identified a condition that ensures that a smooth curve is defined over its field of moduli, and prove that a smooth curve with a marked point is always defined over its field of moduli. Our main theorem is a generalization of these results that applies to higher-dimensional varieties, and to varieties with additional structures. In order to apply this, we study the problem of when a rational point of a variety with quotient singularities lifts to a resolution. As a consequence, we prove that a variety $X$ of dimension $d$ with a smooth marked point $p$ such that $\operatorname {Aut}(X,p)$ is finite, étale and of degree prime to $d!$ is defined over its field of moduli.
This article presents new empirical evidence about the impact of Jihadist terrorist attacks on far-right preferences using the “unexpected event during survey” research design. This strategy allows us to match individual-level data from the European Social Survey (ESS) to data on Jihadist terrorist attacks to compare respondents’ party preferences before and after a terrorist attack during the same survey period in the Netherlands, Sweden, France, and Germany. We theorise and test three distinct hypotheses about how different combinations of attitudinal changes including out-group prejudice and trust in institutions impact far-right preferences. We find no statistically significant effects. Analyses of the two indirect mechanisms— i.e., prejudice and trust—yield mixed results consistent with the null effect on far-right party preferences. By showing that terrorist attacks are unlikely to decisively change party support despite attracting significant public attention and affecting political attitudes, our results challenge the argument that Jihadist terrorism necessarily benefits the far-right and highlight the importance of null effects for overcoming confirmation bias in the study of voting behaviour.
Examining intercession and anamnesis in the Anglican Eucharist first, a theology of the world in which its brokenness as embraced by the compassion of Christ, is seen to undergird intercession, whereby a ‘natural’ link is found with the anamnesis. Turning to the historical background of relationship between these two topics – in the Early Church, noted are two particular forms as recorded by Justin Martyr and Cyril of Jerusalem; in the English Reformation, it is seen that intercession was maintained as a part of the canon (and therefore had some connection with the anamnesis), and then, the modern period displays a departure in Anglican provinces from the Reformation order with only a loose principle, or none, maintained in its position between Word and Sacrament. The retrieval of Christ overcoming the powers of evil in his redemptive work, as recorded in Hippolytus’ liturgical form, has made its way into the modern liturgy, providing implications for the connection between anamnesis and intercession. The liturgiology of the Orthodox Church strengthens the theme. Present concerns regarding the Anglican practice of Eucharistic intercession are raised and improvements are suggested. It is concluded that, theologically, intercession and anamnesis hold an intimate connection in the Eucharist.
To optimize flapping foil performance, in the current study we apply deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to plan foil non-parametric motion, as the traditional control techniques and simplified motions cannot fully model nonlinear, unsteady and high-dimensional foil–vortex interactions. Therefore, a DRL training framework is proposed based on the proximal policy optimization algorithm and the transformer architecture, where the policy is initialized from the sinusoidal expert display. We first demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed DRL-training framework, learning the coherent foil flapping motion to generate thrust. Furthermore, by adjusting reward functions and action thresholds, DRL-optimized foil trajectories can gain significant enhancement in both thrust and efficiency compared with the sinusoidal motion. Last, through visualization of wake morphology and instantaneous pressure distributions, it is found that DRL-optimized foil can adaptively adjust the phases between motion and shedding vortices to improve hydrodynamic performance. Our results give a hint of how to solve complex fluid manipulation problems using the DRL method.
This short article aims to strengthen Hume's case against the rationality of believing in religious miracles by incorporating certain lessons borrowed from the growing literature on the history and psychology of magic tricks.
Although not studied by the generative approach (Shlonsky 2017), the embedded Wh- in situ clause nevertheless belongs to the French language spoken in a large amount of areas, and, we believe, to “français tout court” (Blanche-Benveniste & Jeanjean 1987): until now, it has mainly been studied in Quebec (Lefebvre & Maisonneuve 1982; Blondeau & Ledegen 2021) and in Reunion Island (Ledegen 2007a, 2007b, 2007c, 2016; Ledegen & Martin 2020), but it has recently been massively attested in the Multicultural Paris French project in the suburbs of Paris (Gardner-Chloros & Secova 2018) and Strasbourg (Marchessou 2018). These new data could be read as a language contact, as a recent linguistic change, or as a long-established “popular” structure (Guiraud 1966), different analytical hypotheses that will be detailed in this study. These recent data also argue in favour of the methodology of ecological corpora, obtained within the framework of a strong acquaintanceship and located at the pole of communicative proximity (Koch & Oesterreicher 2001). The examination of various existing corpora will reveal the structural functioning of the structure and contrast the corpora following the modes of interaction, the oral or written medium, as well as on the chronological axis.
The Eager Formation (Cambrian Stage 4) of the Cranbrook area, British Columbia, contains abundant, sometimes beautifully preserved, trilobites and rare non-biomineralized taxa. Trilobites were first reported just over a century ago but have received little research attention, resulting in uncertainty in the number and identity of species within the assemblage and ambiguity in the age of the fauna. The trilobites of the Eager Formation in the Cranbrook area are described herein based largely upon material collected in 2015. A minimum of eight (and perhaps up to 11) trilobite species are recognized. The four species of olenelloids (Olenellus santuccii Webster n. sp., Olenellus? schofieldi, Mesonacis eagerensis, and Wanneria cranbrookense Webster n. sp.) are by far the most abundant elements of the fauna. At least two, and perhaps as many as five, species of dorypygid are present, as are two species of “ptychoparioids”. Paucity and poor preservational quality of specimens mean that the various dorypygid and “ptychoparioid” species are left in open nomenclature. Trilobite diversity in the Cranbrook Lagerstätte is comparable to that within other Lagerstätten from Cambrian Stage 4 (Series 2) of Laurentia. The diversity and abundance of trilobites, combined with biostratinomic and trace fossil data, suggest that the assemblage is autochthonous and/or parautochthonous, and that the local environment was at least periodically able to support a “typical” benthic trilobite community. The age of the Cranbrook Lagerstätte is constrained to lie within the middle Dyeran Stage of Laurentia, within what was a substantial stratigraphic gap in the distribution of Burgess Shale-type Lagerstätten.
Employing a developmental psychopathology framework, we tested the utility of the hormesis model in examining the strengthening of children and youth through limited levels of adversity in relation to internalizing and externalizing outcomes within a brain-by-development context.
Methods:
Analyzing data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study (N = 11,878), we formed latent factors of threat, deprivation, and unpredictability. We examined linear and nonlinear associations between adversity dimensions and youth psychopathology symptoms and how change of resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in the default mode network (DMN) from Time 1 to Time 5 moderates these associations.
Results:
A cubic association was found between threat and youth internalizing problems; low-to-moderate family conflict levels reduced these problems. Deprivation also displayed a cubic relation with youth externalizing problems, with moderate deprivation levels associated with fewer problems. Unpredictability linearly increased both problem types. Change in DMN rsFC significantly moderated the cubic link between threat levels and internalizing problems, with declining DMN rsFC levels from Time 1 to Time 5 facilitating hormesis. Hormetic effects peaked earlier, emphasizing the importance of sensitive periods and developmental timing of outcomes related to earlier experiences.
Conclusions:
Strengthening through limited environmental adversity is crucial for developing human resilience. Understanding this process requires considering both linear and nonlinear adversity-psychopathology associations. Testing individual differences by brain and developmental context will inform preventive intervention programming.
Friendships are a potential factor that influence maltreated children’s risk for psychopathology. This systematic review examined (1) how friendships influence the association between child maltreatment and psychopathology and (2) developmental differences in how friendships influence this association. Four databases were searched. Inclusion criteria were primary study, quantitative, measures of maltreatment and friendship up to the age of 18 years, measures of psychopathology up to the age of 24 years, and a non-maltreated sample. Exclusion criteria were qualitative, reviews or meta-analyses, no distinction between maltreatment and other trauma, and no differentiation between friendships and other support. Risk of bias was assessed. Data were narratively synthesized. Two hundred thirty-five articles were retrieved for full review. Fourteen met inclusion criteria (N = 98,676 participants). Eleven of the fourteen studies found that some aspect of friendships influenced the association between maltreatment and psychopathology, with positive qualities generally decreasing risk and negative qualities increasing risk for psychopathology. However, peer support exacerbated maltreated children’s risk for psychopathology in two studies. Only three studies assessed friendship prior to adolescence, which precluded conclusions regarding developmental differences. Future research should consider developmental differences and use findings and validated measures from the peer relations literature to better understand how friendships influence maltreated youth’s vulnerability to psychopathology.