Over the course of the eighteenth century, Russian rulers released dozens of decrees about petitions. First, the decrees regulated the format of petitions, emphasizing their formulaic nature and moving them away from the personal appeals with supplication and abasement that were present in earlier centuries. These decrees recognized that petitions were essential to the administrative functioning of the imperial Russian state but saw them as akin to forms or applications. Second, the decrees stated firmly that petitioners should not approach the ruler directly. In part, these decrees reflect the rulers’ irritation at being endlessly bothered by personal requests, but Russia’s rulers also gave a more serious justification for the ban on personal appeals: they had established the rule of law, which meant that their subjects did not need to bother them personally and instead should clearly know other authorities—courts, governors—to address for aid. While efforts to change the format of petitions largely succeeded, efforts to curtail petitions directly to the ruler largely failed. That failure likely reflects several factors: inefficiencies in the judicial or administrative system, contradictory laws that still made space for petitions because they were useful, and because they held the promise of getting help quickly.

An account of human subjectivity is built up from an analysis of the fundamental human desire for God. In conversation with Karl Rahner and Blaise Pascal, it is argued that this desire does not have any conceivable conditions of satisfiability. This leads to an account of human beings as fundamentally distractible, fragmented, opaque to themselves and non-self-identical; however, none of these are viewed as essentially problematic, arising instead out of the basic human–God relation rather than from a fallen condition. A range of implications for ethics and social criticism are briefly suggested.

In this paper, we initiate the study of higher rank Baumslag–Solitar (BS) semigroups and their related C*-algebras. We focus on two rather interesting classes—one is related to products of odometers and the other is related to Furstenberg’s $\times p, \times q$ conjecture. For the former class, whose C*-algebras are studied in [32], we here characterize the factoriality of the associated von Neumann algebras and further determine their types; for the latter, we obtain their canonical Cartan subalgebras. In the rank 1 case, we study a more general setting that encompasses (single-vertex) generalized BS semigroups. One of our main tools in this paper is from self-similar higher rank graphs and their C*-algebras.

As part of a larger campaign to end diversity, equity, and inclusion, President Donald Trump’s recent Executive Order 14173 eliminated EO 11246 “Equal Employment Opportunity.” In this brief, we provided background on the often-misunderstood EO 11246 and discuss the potential implications of its reversal considering previous state legislation banning affirmative action and the current political context.

Intelligibility is often seen as a paradigmatic goal for overcoming epistemic oppression. Understanding oppression helps to undo structures of ignorance and to create the grounds for moral, political, and legal arguments that protect marginalized people from being silenced. This is especially crucial for those who experience sexual and gendered violence, as they often struggle both to understand their own experiences and to make others understand them. In this paper, I argue that social epistemologists and feminist standpoint theorists often focus in an unvariegated way on intelligibility, inadvertently reinforcing reliance on carceral structures—systems that tend to reproduce harm and violence for survivors. This concern is particularly relevant in feminist anti-rape politics, where the pressure to make experiences legible often intersects with calls for carceral solutions, which fail to address the root causes of harm and maintain cultures of sexual and gender violence. To remedy this, I propose a new epistemological framework that preserves the importance of intelligibility while challenging carceral reliance. Instead of focusing solely on comprehension, I suggest approaching intelligibility as a process of navigating layers of social legibility, allowing for alternatives that better support survivors and resist carceral thinking.

In the UK, some devolved governments such as in Scotland have taken a distinctive approach to implementing public service reforms. In this article, we explore the key enablers and constraints of outcome-based initiatives at the sub-national level. Drawing on a formative evaluation of the delivery of the Social Bridging Finance model, this study contributes to understanding results-oriented funding models and pluralist governance in welfare services beyond Scotland in three key ways. First, it emphasises the critical role of independent, multi-year grant funding in enabling more equitable and collaborative relationships between public bodies and the third sector. By reducing financial risk, such mechanisms challenge traditional state-led financing models. Second, it highlights the dual role of contractual agreements – supporting early sustainability discussions but revealing limitations when legal enforceability is weak. This points to the relevance of informal and relational accountability in outcome-based commissioning. Third, the study identifies the importance of collaboratively developed success criteria. The diverse experiences revealed in this study emphasise the need for flexibility, shared ownership and continuous learning – particularly given public sector responsibility for service continuity.

With the steady improvement in the efficacy of Ozaki technique in children over the past decade, it is more active and widely used in children with aortic valve disease. Ozaki technique has obvious advantages over traditional prosthetic valve replacement. It preserves the natural motion of the aortic annulus, preserves the coordination of the left ventricle, the sinus of Valsalva and the aorta, naturally dilates the aortic root during systole, restores the physiological laminar flow pattern, and retains the continuous growth potential of the aortic annulus. It has good early and mid-term valve durability, no need for anticoagulation, short learning curve time, easy to promote, suitable for a wide range of people, and significant economic benefits, especially in developing countries with serious shortage of medical resources but a large number of CHD patients. Theoretically, Ozaki techniques can be considered in patients of all ages (adults and children) and in those with acquired and congenital aortic valve disease, including those with previous mechanical, bioprosthetic, or Ross procedures. We currently support the concept of using Ozaki technique as a surgical repair method for children with severe aortic valve disease, but the specific strategy should be made individually according to the patient’s condition. This article reviews the past and present, surgical indications, surgical procedures, advantages, prognosis, and prospects of Ozaki technique in treating aortic valve disease in children.

The essay deals with the rape component of the Muslim Turkish massacres of Christian Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians during the years between 1894 and 1924 and the pertinent archival sources. During the three bouts of massacre, amounting to staggered genocides, in 1894–1896, 1915–1916 and 1920–1924, in which the Muslim Turks, under Ottoman imperial governments and, subsequently, under Ataturk’s Nationalist/republican rule, murdered some two million Christians, tens of thousands of Christian women were raped and/or forcibly abducted to Muslim households and Islamized. While almost all Turkish official records of these events have been destroyed or slicked away, archives in the West - US, German, French and British state archives and archives of missionary societies then operating in Asia Minor - are open to researchers and abound with materials that describe and analyze the massacres and the rapes and abductions that accompanied them. The essay lays out what happened and why, and how researchers have traced what happened.

Patients with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) have increased risk of hepatoblastoma (HB). We report monozygotic twins with HB in a FAP family. To explore genetic alterations in the HBs of the twins, we carried out whole exome sequencing (WES), RNA-seq, and immunohistochemical analyses of the tumors. Additional multiregional digital PCR was performed to profile clonality of each tumor. To determine a pathogenic germline variant in APC, Sanger sequencing was applied for the twins, the father, and the siblings of the father. A pathogenic variant of the APC gene was identified in the father as well as the twins. The WES of the HBs in the twins identified somatic mutations, including an NRAS mutation in the tumor of the first infant (C1), and an ACVR2A mutation in the tumor of the second infant (C2). No somatic mutations were identified in the genes associated with the Wnt signaling pathway. However, accumulation of β-catenin was found in the C1 and C2 tumors by immunohistochemical staining, suggesting activation of the Wnt signaling pathway. Digital PCR analysis revealed that the NRAS mutation was found in multiregional specimens of C1 and those of C2. The ACVR2A mutation was found in multiregional specimens of C2, whereas the mutation was also identified in those of C1. The existence of a shared somatic mutation may suggest that microchimerism took place in the development of HBs through the utero-placental circulatory system. Importantly, the initiation of tumorigenesis is thought to occur during the fetal period after organ development of the liver.

David Phillips (2011) and Thomas Hurka (2014a, 2014b) argue that Sidgwick’s critique of deontology contains three serious flaws. First, it has no force against moderate deontologies composed of prima facie duties rather than unconditional duties. Second, Sidgwick’s preferred principles fail to meet the very criteria by which he rejects deontological principles. Third, Sidgwick’s employment of his key maxim of Rational Benevolence equivocates between all-things-considered and other-things-equal formulations. I defend Sidgwick against all three criticisms. (1) While some of Sidgwick’s arguments apply only to absolute deontology, others apply to moderate versions as well. (2) Although Sidgwick’s preferred principles do not fare perfectly against his criteria, they still fare better than the deontological principles. (3) The suggestion that Sidgwick relies on an all-things-considered formulation of Rational Benevolence is based on a misunderstanding of the structure of his argument. The upshot is that Sidgwick’s overarching line of argument is stronger than recent critics suggest.