Online music streaming and the platforms that enable it are a relatively new phenomenon in music practice, at least when measured against the timescales of music history. They involve not only very specific and structurally decisive financial arrangements (multi-sided markets, financialization), but also depend deeply on technological affordances that did not exist in their current form less than a generation ago — most notably recommender systems. The two books at the centre of this review, Computing Taste: Algorithms and the Makers of Music Recommendation by Nick Seaver and Streaming Music, Streaming Capital by Eric Drott, together illuminate many non-obvious yet crucial structural conditions of contemporary music streaming as a networked, lived practice distributed across humans, technology, finance, and culture.

Article 292 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) establishes a procedure of limited jurisdiction, directed at securing the prompt release of detained vessels and crews upon the posting of a reasonable bond or other security. The jurisprudence of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) has nevertheless repeatedly invoked ‘considerations of humanity’ and ‘international standards of due process of law’ in applying that procedure. This article examines the role and content of due process within the law of prompt release. It argues that due process is a necessary implication of the prompt release regime itself, arising from the object of the regime and operating within the strict limits of Article 292. Through an analysis of the Tribunal’s jurisprudence, informed by principles of international human rights law, the article identifies three domains in which due process is engaged: the timing of release, the fixing of a reasonable bond and the process by which confiscation is effected. It contends that attention to procedural fairness in these contexts neither enlarges the Tribunal’s jurisdiction nor entails review of the merits of domestic enforcement action. Rather, it gives effect to the balance struck by UNCLOS between coastal State enforcement powers and the protection of navigational freedoms.

Racial and ethnic minorities are underrepresented at all levels of U.S. politics. Yet, the 2020 Census reports that people of color constitute the majority of Americans under 18, and could thus serve as a pool of descriptive candidates in the near future. We study how race and age intersect in the first of multiple steps that may lead to election: interest in running for office. Using the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Postelection Survey, we first show that Black and Latino Americans are more interested in running for office than are White and Asian Americans. This observed ambition gap cannot be accounted for by standard explanations like socioeconomic disparities, ideology, political interest, and broad civic engagement. Rather, it is explained by differences among age cohorts: younger Black and Latino Americans are more interested in running for office, due to having been disproportionately engaged in recent movements advocating racial justice. We conclude that differences in political ambition between racial and ethnic groups do not explain the underrepresentation of Black and Latino Americans; rather, by drawing on the untapped ambition found among younger, more diverse cohorts, future recruitment efforts for the next generation of politicians can help translate this potential into representational parity in U.S. politics.

This study describes the Serkinskaya faunal complex of the Siberian lower Cambrian Kessyusa Group, which includes a fragment of gnathobase, several scalids of priapulid-like organisms, various morphotypes of spines, organic films with outgrowths, and other organic remains. Organic microfossils that we identified as gnathobase fragments (a jaw-like fragment and a robust spine with porous structure) were studied via Raman spectroscopy, and phase distribution maps were constructed to identify different kerogens. The jaw-like fragment has heterogeneity on the surface of the microfossil and can be interpreted as reflecting differential preservation of two different layers of the cuticle. The age of these remains is estimated to be Cambrian Fortunian to Stage 2 (Vendian–Cambrian, possibly Tommotian), which makes the identification of gnathobase fragments one of the oldest known occurrences of evidence for durophagy. These findings confirm the presence of filter-feeding, deposit-feeding (priapulids), vertical mixing of the sediment in the first centimeter, predation pressure (cuticle with outgrowths), and possible durophagy in the earliest Cambrian.

Electoral reform efforts in the United States are widespread, yet little is known about how Americans evaluate alternative electoral systems or their consequences. We address this gap using conjoint and vignette experiments to study how Americans assess electoral reforms based on their implications for the number of parties and the degree of ideological polarization in the U.S. House of Representatives. Focusing on democratic voice, governability, and responsiveness, our designs emphasize party-system outcomes rather than technical institutional features that may be difficult for citizens to understand. We find that Americans are strongly averse to reforms that generate pronounced legislative polarization, even when it might be expected to enhance democratic voice. Findings pertaining to multipartism are more mixed, with some evidence that respondents respond positively to moderate departures from the two-party system. Perceived gains in voice and responsiveness do not generally compensate for losses in governability, except under arrangements that avoid polarization.

The article reconstructs the missing debate between the Latin American theory of dependencia and the US theory of interdependence. It explores a set of central works in both schools of thought spanning 50 years of scholarship. It puts forward three main claims. First, dependencia shares a common interest with Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye’s Power and Interdependence in theorizing the consequences that stem from asymmetrical relationships. Second, this common interest fades away with the transition from Power and Interdependence toward neoliberal institutionalism. Third, following the 2008 financial crisis, interest in structural asymmetries has reemerged through a new generation of researchers who are engaging with dependencia, as well as through the critique that US scholars of “weaponized interdependence” make against neoliberal institutionalism. The paper concludes by outlining how a debate between recent scholarship on dependencia and weaponized interdependence would look against the backdrop of the “hierarchy turn” in international relations theory.

Seafood gained prominence as a southern flavor in middle-period China. Among the southern products that piqued gourmets’ fancy, the pufferfish as a deadly delicacy presented a special case. How did it come to acquire its contentious reputation? This article traces the process that transformed it from a dangerous ancient killer to an alluring treat by the early twelfth century. Its shifting cultural stature was propelled by demographic and geographical reconfigurations, negotiations between northern and southern culinary traditions, and the literati effort to collect and classify natural knowledge. Along the way, diverse encounters and experiences with different pufferfishes were coalesced into one uniform category hetun (“river-piglet”), connoting at once danger and delicacy. The metamorphosis of the pufferfish demonstrated the interplay between literary, medical, geographical, and natural knowledge across genres in middle-period Chinese history.

This study proposes a single feedline technique that results in a wide axial ratio bandwidth (ARBw) of a circularly polarized filtering antenna. The antenna is designed to operate at 4.65 GHz. The design employed a rectangular radiator and two quarter-wavelength resonators. The two components are integrated using a single feedline and proximity coupling. The quarter-wavelength resonators excite the second mode polarization on the coupled rectangular radiator. The combination of width and length of the radiator, as well as the gap between the second resonator and radiator, equalized the two modes' e-fields’ magnitude. The design requires no additional delay circuit, for the gap between the second resonator and radiator provides both selectivity and a 90° phase shift delay. The proposed design has a wide ARBw of 10.10% and an impedance bandwidth of 9.04%. The use of two resonators results in a gain curve resembling a bandpass filter response, with a maximum gain of 7.6 dBic. The antenna is fabricated and measured to validate the proposed method, and the measurement results align well with the simulation results.

No man has seen God (1943) was the masterpiece of the Chinese Protestant theologian Wu Yaozong (1893–1979). This article retraces Wu’s leftward intellectual turn in the preceding years, which culminated in the book’s attempt to reconcile Christianity and Communism. Originally a follower of American liberal Christianity, Wu embraced Stalinism after the mid-1930s. His case testifies to an alternative afterlife of American liberal Christianity, the Socialist character of which had become moribund in America, but found new vitality in China through Wu’s Stalinist reappropriation. Today, Wu’s development of the American liberal tradition lives on in different Chinese Christian communities worldwide.

The period-$1$ gait is a stable, efficient, and predictable walking pattern for bipedal robots, which is crucial for achieving precise control, energy optimization, and maintaining balance in complex environments. This study investigates the control of chaotic and multi-period gaits in a bipedal robot with impulsive actuation, focusing on the stabilization of such gaits into period-1 gaits and the expansion of their stable parameter regions. Three main contributions are presented: (1) stabilizing chaotic gaits to period-$1$ gaits using the Ott–Grebogi–Yorke (OGY) and bifurcation control methods; (2) converting multi-period gaits (e.g., period-$2$ and period-$4$) into period-$1$ gaits via bifurcation control; and (3) extending the stable parameter range of period-$1$ gaits by optimizing pulse thrust parameters. The bifurcation control method, though energy-intensive, proves more reliable than OGY method in preventing falls. Analytical and numerical results demonstrate that adjusting pulse thrust parameter $C$ significantly expands the stability domain, enhancing robustness against disturbances and parameter variations. The bifurcation control method proposed in this study is implemented via a constant thrust increment and validated through numerical simulations, which makes it easy to be applied in controller design. It provides both a theoretical foundation and a practical control scheme for achieving stable and efficient gait design in bipedal robots with impulsive actuation.