This paper reviews research from the field of language teaching into post observation feedback i.e. the discussion that takes place after an observer has watched a pre-service or in-service teacher’s lesson. Post observation feedback is discussed with reference to four main themes: (1) perceptions of feedback; (2) reflection; (3) relationships (with two sub-themes of identity and facework); and (4) observer training. This review indicates that while the fields of language teaching and applied linguistics are leading research into post observation feedback, there remains important and interesting avenues for future research, which are discussed in this paper.

A mantle cloak with a novel unit cell design is proposed for the scattering suppression of cylindrical metasurfaces. The proposed cloak is designed for an electrically small cylindrical object. The Mie Theory is employed to calculate the surface impedance of the mantle cloak, which plays a critical role in determining the optimal design parameters. The unit cell parameters necessary for the design are obtained by analyzing the surface impedance. Bistatic Radar Cross-Section (RCS) analyses have been conducted for the cloaked and uncloaked cases of cylinders. The designed cylinder demonstrated remarkable scattering suppression at the operating frequency. Furthermore, the results obtained from the novel unit cell design are compared with findings in the literature, underscoring the improved cloaking performance achieved with the new design. As a demonstration, a single-layer novel unit cell cloaked cylinder is constructed with a total radius equal to 13 percent of the free-space wavelength, a total length corresponding to 1.94 times the free-space wavelength, and a dielectric spacer thickness of 1.27 percent of the free-space wavelength. This single-layer novel unit cell mantle cloak achieves a 16.65 dB total RCS reduction at 3.1 GHz, with a notable decrease in scattering at the operational frequency in all directions.

This study examines the extent to which personal agency is manifest in diplomacy. While current research in IR tends to adopt the representative framework when studying the power of individuals in advancing state goals, our study highlights moments at which personal agency and diplomatic agency part ways. Based on ethnographic observations at the State of Israel’s presidential residence – we recorded and transcribed 27 conversations between the president and designated ambassadors to Israel during credential ceremonies – we seek to uncover manifestations of personal agency. This is achieved by adopting the most sensitive framework for studying social interactions, conversation analysis, applying the concept of footing (first coined by Goffman) to identify how diplomats shift agencies and how they perform personal agency in the flow of diplomatic interactions. The application of these analytical tools to the study of diplomatic interactions enriches our understanding of how diplomacy is practised and challenges the prevailing notion that personal agency is negligible in the face of overwhelming structural forces. This shift in perspective suggests that scholars need to re-evaluate the place of agency in diplomacy, highlighting the critical role of individual actors in international politics.

One of the most robust empirical findings in political science is that in multiparty democracies cabinet ministries are distributed in rough proportion to parties’ legislative seat shares, a pattern known as Gamson’s Law. Yet existing research often overlooks the fact that portfolio and seat shares are compositional—mutually dependent parts of a whole. Standard methods treat them as unconstrained, risking bias, misleading uncertainty estimates, and flawed inference. Unfortunately, the most common strategy for handling compositions—the additive log-ratio (ALR) transformation combined with seemingly unrelated regression (SUR)—fails when the number and identity of compositional elements (like parties) vary across cases. We propose the isometric log-ratio (ILR) transformation—new to political science—as an alternative that both respects compositional geometry and adapts to differing compositional structures. Monte Carlo simulations show that ILR sharply outperforms standard approaches, reducing bias, improving coverage probability, and increasing statistical power. While we apply it to portfolio allocation, ILR provides a general solution for modeling compositional outcomes with other potential uses, including in electoral competition, where ALR+SUR has required strong assumptions or ad hoc adjustments. Using this improved methodology, we find that seat–portfolio proportionality is weaker overall than conventionally reported and varies substantially across governments.

Theoretical analysis of an energy barrier model for the electrical properties of a biological membrane yields new results. Discontinuities at the membrane-solution interfaces are crucial and receive careful attention, as does the polarization charge density due to electroneutral but polarized ion distributions. The topics explored include the equilibrium and time-dependent Nernst potential, the resting potential, the capacitance-resistance equation for membrane voltage, and large electrical effects on osmosis (bulk volume flow). The generalization of Nernst–Hartley salt diffusion to the diffusion of mixed salts as a necessary tool is accomplished. The electric field inside the membrane is especially strong at the membrane-solution interfaces. The analysis of the resting potential differs from the Goldman–Hodgkin–Katz formulation but predicts realistic numerical values for animal cells and also captures the effect of switching sodium and potassium ion permeabilities. An analysis of the physical basis of bulk water flow in the presence of impermeant and permeant ions, that is, Donnan osmosis, reveals large ion charge effects that have not previously been considered. The equation derived here for Donnan osmotic flow helps to explain why the action of the sodium pump is essential for the prevention of excessive osmotic stress on cellular membranes.

Critical discussion of empire and imperialism has become a key theme in international relations. Much confusion, however, is generated by a lack of consensus on the meaning of imperialism. This paper offers one avenue for clarifying the terms of debate by reconstructing the conceptual history of imperialism from its inception in the late nineteenth century to post-war IR theory. In its initial formulation at the turn of the twentieth century, the theory of imperialism sought to analyse the interplay of capitalist development and geopolitical conflict in the formation and reproduction of international hierarchies. Immediately after World War I, however, an intellectual counter-revolution narrowed the concept into a synonym of colonialism, or the formal rule and administration of subject territory. As anti-colonial struggles won independence in the post-war period, imperialism was increasingly understood as a thing of the past. The paper argues that this conceptual narrowing remains an obstacle to contemporary theorizing, and that a rereading of the classical theories can strengthen contemporary IR frameworks. A key implication of this argument is that renewing the theory of imperialism in IR entails a reintegration of political economy and security studies.

Silica enrichment in cratonic peridotites, expressed as high modal contents of orthopyroxene is a common yet enigmatic feature of Archean lithospheric mantle. Less widely recognised, silica depletion, expressed as high olivine content is also present in some locations. Although high-pressure melting alone cannot account for the full range of observed silica contents, open-system interaction between mantle melts and lithospheric peridotite offers a viable alternative. We present results from high-pressure (5 GPa), high-temperature (1600–1690°C) multi-anvil experiments designed to investigate the reaction between Al-depleted komatiitic melts and both fertile and moderately depleted peridotite. Using hybrid and reaction-couple experimental configurations, we track mineralogical and compositional changes across controlled thermal gradients within the experimental capsules. Modal and compositional data reveal a two-stage reaction process. Stage 1 involves high-temperature olivine precipitation from primitive Al-depleted komatiitic melts interacting with peridotite to produce olivine-rich residues with high MgO/SiO2 and low Al2O3/ SiO2. As a result of olivine removal, the coexisting melt becomes enriched in SiO2. In stage 2, the now silica-enriched komatiite melt reacts with residual olivine (±clinopyroxene and garnet) to form orthopyroxene at moderate temperature, increasing the bulk SiO2 content. Residue bulk compositions from olivine-rich zones resemble high-Mg# garnet dunites from Archean lithosphere, whereas orthopyroxene-rich zones are analogues to natural silica-rich cratonic peridotites. Coexisting melts evolve from komatiitic toward picritic compositions as the reaction progresses. We infer that reactive porous flow of komatiitic melts through depleted lithosphere can simultaneously generate silica-depleted and silica-enriched, refractory residues and diversify melt compositions, providing a process-based framework for the chemical and textural diversity of cratonic mantle.

We model attitude stability and constraint, using a dynamic discrete choice framework for multiple attitudes, to identify influential attitudes within attitude systems. Its value-added includes insights about different sources of (in)stability, the direction of causation between attitudes, and their relative degree of influence; capturing time-invariant individual traits with a multiple factor structure; and addressing the ordinal nature of attitudinal measures, together with heterogeneity in time intervals between interviews, across waves, and people. We examine five core political attitudes concerning how people view the political world and their role in it. Most of their variance reflects infrequently-changing individual characteristics and time-specific effects. Permanent heterogeneity plays a modest role. External efficacy is most influential concerning evaluations of the external political world, while internal efficacy is influential for views on one’s role in politics. Another application examines the role of ideological and party identification on attitudes toward government spending and immigration. The attitudes form a weakly constrained attitude system. Party identification is the most influential, through spillovers to ideological identification. Party and ideological identifications are stable, time-invariant traits explaining most of their variance, with transitory shocks that hint at measurement error and/or expressive responding. Issue attitudes are unstable, driven mainly by transitory shocks.