These three books are strong contributions to contemporary democratic theory. They are, however, very different in tone, intent, and argument and represent a wide range of methodological and philosophical traditions with little overlap. Mary Scudder and Stephen White both draw on a deliberative democracy background with deep roots in Jürgen Habermas’ communicative ethics. They build their arguments in the language of ontology, affective imagery, and aesthetic resonance to paint a picture of the sort of ethos needed to bridge the divide between two competing visions of democracy. Jack Knight and Melissa Schwartzberg offer a more eclectic mix, but rational-choice institutionalism and a type of Madisonian realism certainly feature — as does the postwar no-nonsense pluralism of Robert Dahl, Charles Lindblom, and David Truman. In their view, politics is about power and competing interests, and democratic politics is about the regulation of power and competition in the interest of citizens understood as equals. Bargaining is the key to this regulation. Finally, using the precise tools of analytic philosophy, Adam Lovett argues that empirical social science offers clear evidence that American democracy is so compromised that the state loses its moral authority to command obedience. Under these conditions, he contends, philosophic anarchism is the only defensible position.

Predation is a strong driver of prey behaviour and sympatric species are likely exposed to similar selective predatory pressures. We test the hypothesis that this leads to similar anti-predator behaviours using the widespread Neotropical snake tribe Pseudoboini as our model. We reviewed and compiled documented defensive behaviours for all species, adding new unreported behaviours for three species. We used a cluster analysis to generate a matrix of defensive behaviour dissimilarity between species. We then used a phylogenetic generalized linear mixed model to test how behaviour dissimilarity changed with geographical overlap, similarity in ecological traits, and phylogenetic relatedness. Only 41 species had available data on defensive behaviour, with only 22 of those represented in the phylogeny. We found that similarity in defensive behaviour is significantly (albeit not strongly) correlated with geographical overlap, but only for species with similar body sizes. Phylogenetic relatedness by itself was a poor predictor of behaviour dissimilarity. This corroborates our hypothesis that defensive behaviours are spatially structured at larger scales but that this can be modulated by morphological differences. Testing inter-species ecogeographical differences of defensive behaviour and its implications can be broadly applied to other taxa.

The arrival of COVID-19 in the US during the spring of 2020 cast a spotlight on the issue of vaccinations and their efficacy. School closures and school vaccination policies were among the most contentious arenas of debate as parents, teachers, and policymakers wrestled with how best to respond to the pandemic. Disease in school is not a new topic—our nation has previously faced outbreaks of influenza, polio, measles, and more. A look at the past can teach us much about how to understand the passionate, and sometimes partisan, views about school vaccination. Outside of schools, the anti-vax movement has enjoyed greater visibility and support even as public health officials emphasize the importance of herd immunity and broad vaccinations. The confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary in February of this year makes it likely that the issues of school vaccination and immunization policy will continue to be vigorously debated.

This article offers a fresh examination of the different kinds of labour and labourers in the pseudo-Virgilian Moretum, and argues that the poem lends expression to the difficulty of distinguishing between exploitation and collaboration in any form of production, but particularly in literary production. At its core, this article considers the ways in which the Moretum repeatedly denies readerly attempts to pin down the exact status of, and relationship between, the poem’s two principal characters, Simulus and Scybale. This lack of clarity is important for the poem’s interpretation: if, as many have argued, the Moretum is about poetic labour, then the ambiguous socio-economic status of its central characters should lead critics to ask what the poem is trying to say about the nature of literary production. This article shows that, throughout the Moretum, exploitative labour is presented as collaborative, and vice versa; and this, in turn, allows the poem to raise the question of whether there can ever be collaboration without exploitation in the Roman literary world. By thus reading the Moretum as an exploration of willed and coerced co-production in literature, new light can be shed on the poem’s authorship.

Marbled Teal Marmaronetta angustirostris is a globally threatened species that has been undergoing population declines across much of its range in recent years. This is particularly true in the Middle East and the Caucasus, where the species once commonly bred across much of the region. However, there is a dearth of recent literature and population-level assessments of the species in the countries in this region. For example, the last update of conservation status for Marbled Teal in Armenia was undertaken in 2009 and in Türkiye in 2008. Therefore, this study addresses the urgent need for an updated evaluation of the species’ status in both Armenia and Türkiye. For Armenia, the current population estimate is 8–11 breeding pairs, with a steep decline of 87% between 2003 and 2019. In Türkiye, the species appears to be functionally extirpated from the country due to an absence of breeding in almost a decade and multiple years without any records, with only a handful of wandering individuals detected in recent years. This study highlights the threats facing the species, particularly changes to wetland habitat and quality as well as hunting pressures and illegal poaching. Based on our findings, we propose that the conservation status of Marbled Teal in both countries be updated from “Endangered” to “Critically Endangered”. Finally, we note the conservation requirements for the species in the region and provide a set of recommendations for its protection, including a species recovery plan. Without urgent conservation measures such as the creation of new protected areas and establishment of new populations from released birds, the long-term viability of Marbled Teal populations in the region is in jeopardy.

Polybius claims that equality to speak in public (ἰσηγορία) and freedom of speech (παρρησία) are the fulcrum of a democracy (2.38.6) and hence the most beautiful of political values (6.57.9). But his reasons for valuing them so dearly have remained obscure. This article argues that ἰσηγορία and παρρησία in Polybius maximize the role of persuasion—instead of sheer force—in the polity; that they favour rational decision-making; and that they keep excessive ambition at bay. Those important political goods disappear when the citizens who enjoy ἰσηγορία and παρρησία become tepid in their commitment to the equal right to speak freely. The article argues that, for Polybius, that commitment fades when the citizens take ἰσηγορία and παρρησία for granted, mostly on account of habit (τὸ σύνηθϵς, 6.9.5). Polybius sets himself the task of dishabituating his readers from ἰσηγορία and παρρησία, by showing that they are always fragile.

In the UK, parents receiving working-age social security benefits have been the target of intensifying labour market activation policies, particularly following the introduction of Universal Credit (UC). Concurrently, state support for parents has reduced, and help with childcare is complex and limited. Under UC, parents, and increasingly mothers, are meeting more often with street-level agents, Work Coaches, who are responsible for ‘activating’ parents into work. Work Coaches operate at the interface between the state and citizens, but we know little about street-level implementation of UC. Through analysing interviews with ten Work Coaches and sixty-seven parents, this article draws on a gendered street-level approach to explore how policy limits choices for Work Coaches (by restricting spaces for personalisation) and parents (by rules determining how to manage work and care responsibilities). Within this rigid context, moral assumptions of low-income parents emerge, with increased expectations placed on mothers and outdated assumptions about fathers.

This article re-examines archaic and classical treatment of beer drinking to argue, contra Nelson, that beer in archaic and classical Greek texts is not primarily feminine nor does it necessarily feminize its drinkers. Rather, a review of sympotic lyric, historiography, ethnography and Athenian drama demonstrates that beer is primarily an ethnic marker with no inherent gendered connotations. At the same time, in contexts where definitions of Greek masculinity are being constructed, beer can gain gendered connotations which enhance the ethnic otherness of the beverage and contribute to the definition of the Greek man. Any gendered implications of beer, furthermore, come not from the beverage itself but from the method of consumption, of sucking through a tube of sorts rather than sipping from a cup. This article thus argues that beer in the Archaic and Classical periods marks non-Greek status first and foremost and only secondarily effeminizes drinkers through associations with oral sex in contexts where ideas of masculinity are in play.

This paper describes the evaluation of a simple service adaptation and associated brief training for NHS Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression (NHS TTad) staff on working with autistic people. A simple question regarding whether clients identified themselves as autistic and an associated data system flag was introduced to an NHS TTad service. A brief training regarding the use of the flag, a brief overview of autism and a consideration of general adaptations that might help autistic people was developed. Core outcomes of confidence and therapy self-efficacy were reported for pre-training, immediately post-training and at three months post-training. At three-month follow-up, six therapists were interviewed to explore changes in practice following the training. There were significant changes in confidence and therapeutic self-efficacy post-training that were maintained at three-month follow-up. Therapists report several changes to practice that they related to the training. This is the first paper to describe and evaluate training for therapists in NHS TTad on working with autistic people.

Key learning aims

1. (1) To describe some of the challenges to NHS TTad services in working with autistic people.

2. (2) To describe the system adaptation and therapist training introduced to this service and the approach to evaluation.

3. (3) To report outcomes from the evaluation of the training for NHS TTad therapists in working with autistic adults.

4. (4) To consider further research and practice in the processes to make NHS TTad services more accessible and effective for autistic adults.

The Underworld is a ‘shared space’ for poets and their poems, but one that exists on different timelines to Upperworld spaces, such that it is built on cyclicality rather than linearity. In this article, I explore the cycles within and between the homoerotic Underworld poetry of Tibullus, Domitius Marsus, Ovid and Statius. Using a combination of traditional philology and queer temporal approaches, I show how characters ‘recycle’ through these texts, so that Tibullus’ Marathus cycles into Statius’ Philetus through metapoetic metempsychosis. I begin with the role of the Underworld in Latin poetry, before turning to Tibullus’ death, as commemorated by Ovid and Marsus. Next, I explore how Tibullus ‘kills’ Marathus, so that Ovid can hint at his being in the Underworld. Finally, I turn to Statius’ poem on Philetus to show how it continues the cycles of earlier poetry, before concluding with a discussion of the consequences of Elysium’s queerness.

Molecular evidence (28S DNA) has suggested that Triplotaenia undosa from macropodid marsupials is a species complex. Additional data (cox 1) presented in this study confirmed the hypothesis and a morphological examination of all available specimens identified a new species, T. macropodis sp. nov., in the grey kangaroos Macropus fuliginosus and M. giganteus as well as the tammar wallaby, Notamacropus eugenii, and the red kangaroo, Osphranter rufus. The new species differs in the ratio of the number of testes to the number of female genital complexes. Specimens of T. undosa from the swamp wallaby, Wallabia bicolor, the type host, and the common wallaroo, Osphranter robustus, are each genetically distinct, but the fixed material from O. robustus is too fragmentary to permit a detailed morphological description. An amended description and new illustrations of T. undosa from W. bicolor are provided.