Credibility and intent are important but imprecise legal categories that need to be assessed in criminal trials as neither common nor civil legal systems provide decision-makers with clear rules on how to evaluate them in practice. In this article, drawing on ethnographic data from trials and deliberations in Italian courts and prosecution offices, we discuss the emotive-cognitive dynamics at play in judges’ and prosecutors’ evaluations of credibility and intent, focusing on cases of murder, intimate partner violence and rape. Using sociological concepts of epistemic emotions, empathy, frame and legal encoding, we show that legal professionals use different reflexive practices to either avoid settling on feelings of certainty or overcome doubts when evaluating credibility and intent. Empathy emerges as a multifaceted tool that can either generate certainty or be used deliberately to instigate or overcome doubts. We contribute to the growing body of literature addressing the emotional dynamics of legal decision-making.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the antifungal spectrum of activity, synergy, and mode of action of carboxy-terminally amidated antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) derived from tachyplesin-I (T-I) from the horseshoe crab Tachypleus tridentatus and a lysine-rich analogue of magainin-2 (MSI-94) from the clawed frog Xenopus laevis. In vitro antimicrobial tests against 17 fungal strains demonstrated that the modified AMPs exhibited broad antifungal activity, particularly against filamentous fungi and yeasts relevant to aquaculture and agriculture. Additive antimicrobial activity was observed with the combination of T-I and MSI-94 against Candida albicans and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa, indicating an enhancement of their antiyeast properties. Furthermore, we found that both peptides target the fungal cell surface, increasing membrane permeability and leading to cell death. Overall, our findings highlight the biotechnological potential of aquatic AMPs in developing novel antifungal therapeutics applicable across various fields.

The extracellular matrices, such as the haemolymph, in insects are at the centre of most physiological processes and are protected from oxidative stress by the extracellular antioxidant enzymes. In this study, we identified two secreted superoxide dismutase genes (PxSOD3 and PxSOD5) and investigated the oxidative stress induced by chlorpyrifos (CPF) in the aquatic insect Protohermes xanthodes (Megaloptera: Corydalidae). PxSOD3 and PxSOD5 contain the signal peptides at the N-terminus. Structure analysis revealed that PxSOD3 and PxSOD5 contain the conserved CuZn-SOD domain, which is mainly composed of β-sheets and has conserved copper and zinc binding sites. Both PxSOD3 and PxSOD5 are predicted to be soluble proteins located in the extracellular space. After exposure to different concentrations of sublethal CPF, MDA content in P. xanthodes larvae were increased in a dose-dependent manner; SOD and CAT activities were also higher in CPF-treated groups than that in the no CPF control, indicating that sublethal CPF induces oxidative stress in P. xanthodes larvae. Furthermore, PxSOD3 and PxSOD5 expression levels and haemolymph SOD activity in the larvae were downregulated by sublethal CPF at different concentrations. Our results suggest that the PxSOD3 and PxSOD5 are putative extracellular antioxidant enzymes that may play a role in maintaining the oxidative balance in the extracellular space. Sublethal CPF may induce oxidative stress in the extracellular space of P. xanthodes by reducing the gene expression and catalytic activity of extracellular SODs.

This article analyses the use of adversarial questions in oral hearings conducted by the Parole Board of England and Wales. This is important because the Board is supposed to use an inquisitorial approach to oral hearings, so adversarial questions are examples of where Parole Board members deviate from this norm. The article outlines the work of the Parole Board, the process for carrying out oral hearings and the recent move to increased remote hearings following the Covid-19 pandemic. Using conversation analysis, the research casts light on the relationship between mode of hearing (remote vs. in-person) and adversarial questions and how discourses of blame and responsibility operate in the production of these challenging question types. A chi-square test reveals that adversarial questions are statistically significantly more common in remote hearings, although they remain low in frequency. The article concludes with thoughts on why remote hearings are more conducive to adversarial questions. (Accounts, adversarial questioning, conversation analysis, parole, responsibility)*

The transition in welfare states from compensatory to service-oriented models also implies a shift of the locus of action from the state to local administrations. Cities in particular seek space within national bounds to devise their own policy solutions targeted to city-specific needs as a more responsive government layer, with the prospect of providing more targeted service provision on the basis of locality and proximity principles. Whether such social innovation potential is met depends on scope conditions, such as the learning environment, the design of the decentralisation and the capacity of cities to scale up smaller projects. In this paper, we trace the policy process around local social investment innovations in Amsterdam across three domains: addressing teacher shortages, combatting energy poverty and integrating the long-term unemployed into the labour market. In each of the domains, Amsterdam emerged as a frontrunner and innovator, instigating broader change. The city is at the frontier of societal change and acts as ‘a stopgap’, filling gaps left by national policy default. Overall, the case of Amsterdam shows the importance in adopting a multi-level perspective in studying new dynamics in welfare state transitions.

Exploring the minimum wage policy discontinuities at county borders, we find that minimum wage hikes induce industrial firms to pollute more and reduce their abatement efforts. State ownership mitigates these negative effects, suggesting its role in addressing externality. The adverse environmental impacts are attenuated by the staggered increase in pollution discharge fees across provinces. These effects are stronger for firms with higher minimum wage sensitivity, lower market power, and greater financial constraints, and for firms that are the subsidiaries of nonlisted companies. Overall, our findings highlight the unintended environmental consequences of labor market policies.

Now mostly derided as a musical vandal, the cellist Friedrich Grützmacher (1832–1903) was seen during his lifetime as a noble and serious artist, highly respected as a performer and sought-after as a teacher. His numerous and heavily annotated performing editions – and in particular his pedagogical editions of older works – represent his attempt to preserve and disseminate a style of playing that was referred to at the time as ‘classical’ (classisch or klassisch). While the concept of classic works, as it developed in the nineteenth century, has been studied in depth by Lydia Goehr, William Weber and others, the related yet distinct concept of classical musicianship is relatively unexplored. This chapter traces the cultural resonances of the term ‘classisch’ as it was used in the German-speaking press over the course of Grützmacher’s lifetime, arguing that it represents a complement or parallel to the idea of classic works, with an independent connection to Romantic Idealism and Hellenism. The chapter then examines the performance practice implications of classical musicianship through the lens of Grützmacher’s editions, with a particular focus on a disciplined sense of tempo, a grand and tranquil physical presence, and a highly nuanced use of the bow in the service of musical character. Viewing classical musicianship in this way clears Grützmacher’s editions of the charge of vandalism by challenging us to reconsider the ideal relationship between composer and performer, as well as the fundamental purpose of an edition.

The dividing line between work and non-work structures all contemporary European societies. Decisions on what work is done, by whom, at what price, and under which conditions, shape individual lives and underpin economic, political and social institutions through the production of wealth and inequality. If the dualism of work and non-work invests activities and interaction with meaning and value, producing cultural and social status along the way, it is historically highly contingent. Neither ‘work’ nor ‘non-work’ means the same thing across time and space. Yet, while dialectically dependent on one another, non-work has received far less attention by contemporary historians, who have by and large followed a pattern of identifying work with labour, whether in capitalist or socialist configurations. In contrast, the present forum suggests an integrative perspective in which both the practices and habits of not-working while at work and forms of wageless life beyond unemployment figure prominently.

We identify strong cross-border property rights as a driver for the globalization of innovation. Using 67 million patents from over 100 patent offices, we construct novel measures of the three stages of innovation diffusion: adoption, sourcing, and collaboration. Exploiting staggered bilateral investment treaties (BITs) as shocks to cross-border property rights, we show that signatory countries increase technology adoption and sourcing from each other; they also increase R&D collaborations. The results are particularly strong for countries with weak domestic institutions and technologies with high imitation risks. Increases in R&D-related foreign investments explain most of the results.

This article discusses the role of affect in diasporic belonging, especially when a community is affected by conflict, tracing the ways it circulates in and through discourses and interactions across different generations. Drawing on a linguistic ethnographic project on Greek-Cypriot diaspora, and following recent calls for paying more attention to affect in sociolinguistic analyses, it analyses the communicative dynamics of diasporic affect. Understanding diasporic affect as the circulation and communication of affects/emotions between individuals within a diasporic space, which is—to an extent—regulated by community norms, we analyze the discursive and communicative mechanisms participants used to navigate emotional norms about collective memory, conflict, and diasporic identifications. At the same time, we show how these mechanisms are productive of subjectivities that could either reinforce, disrupt, or redefine these norms. In doing so, we discuss the political implications of diasporic affect and the rules governing its expression and enactment in discourses and communicative practices. (Affect, conflict, diaspora, emotions, interaction, belonging)*

Swelling soils, particularly those rich in smectite, present significant challenges to civil engineering due to their shrinking–swelling behaviour. Lime stabilization is a commonly used practice to address this, but the reactivity of smectite minerals in an alkaline limestone environment differs widely. This study investigates the reactivity of two Moroccan smectite-rich clays – montmorillonite-dominated bentonite and stevensite/saponite-rich bentonite – when treated with aerial lime. Through mineralogical, microstructural and mechanical analyses, this study highlights the distinct behaviour of montmorillonite, which reacts with lime to form calcium silicate hydrate gels, compared to the inert response of stevensite/saponite. Despite its low pozzolanic activity, stevensite-bentonite demonstrates greater mechanical strength, reaching 2.5 MPa in the S3 mixture (90% stevensite-bentonite and 10% lime). This strength is attributed to the formation of calcite through the de-dolomitization of dolomite. The findings reveal different stabilization mechanisms between dioctahedral and trioctahedral smectites, offering new insights for soil stabilization strategies involving these smectite types.

Designing and developing smart antennas with adaptive radiation characteristics is an integral part for present-day communication systems. The versatile capabilities of Time-modulated fourth-dimensional (4D) antenna arrays can provide that crucial adaptability if properly designed. This work discusses an effective analysis of 4D antenna arrays to achieve less-attenuating radiation patterns with simultaneously suppressed sidelobe and sidebands. The 4D arrays offer an additional benefit over standard arrays in the sense that the requisite amplitude tapering to lower the undesired radiations can be accomplished by controlling only the switch ON times of the radiating elements instead of using attenuators. The idea of splitting pulses by keeping the total switch ON durations constant, is exploited here as an additional degree of freedom for beamforming of all the radiation patterns. The unwanted radiations in terms of sidelobes as well as sideband radiations (SRs) at the fundamental and harmonic frequencies, respectively are simultaneously minimized to improve the radiation efficiencies of the 4D array. To address the conflicting aims for the synthesis of radiation patterns, a wavelet-mutation based heuristic method is also proposed. The multi-objective problem in hand is modulated in to a single objective cost function as minimization problem. The proposed outcomes are reported and compared with other state of the art works related to the same domain. Furthermore, a detailed statistical analysis is also provided to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed approach.