This article uses the literature on subnational undemocratic regimes (SURs) and regime juxtaposition in Latin America to gain analytical leverage on the recent process of subnational democratic erosion in the United States. Based on a review of five key dimensions of federalism, we argue that the institutional landscape for the emergence and continuity of SURs is, comparatively speaking, more favorable in the US than in any of Latin America’s three federations (Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico). In addition to showing how federal structures are more detrimental for subnational democracy in the US, we assess how the two main theoretical approaches that have been developed to understand SURs in Latin America and elsewhere can be applied to the US.

Antenatal steroids (ANS) are one of the most widely prescribed medications in pregnancy, being administered to women at risk of preterm delivery. In the setting of preterm delivery at or below 35 weeks’ gestation, systematic review data show ANS reduce perinatal morbidity and mortality, primarily by promoting fetal lung maturation. However, with the expanding use of this intervention has come a growing appreciation for the potential off-target, adverse effects of ANS therapy on wider fetal development. We undertook a narrative literature review of the animal and clinical literature to assess current evidence for adverse effects of ANS exposure and fetal development. This review presents a summary of the evidence relating to the potential for wide-ranging, off-target, adverse effects of ANS therapy on fetal development and programming. We highlight an urgent need for further animal and clinical studies investigating the effects of ANS on the fetal immune, cardiovascular, renal and hepatic systems given a current sparsity of evidence. We also strongly suggest an emphasis on open disclosure, discussion and education of clinicians and patients with regard to the potential benefits and risks of ANS therapy, particularly in late preterm and term gestations where infants derive relatively few benefits from these drugs. We also propose further studies on the optimisation of ANS therapy through improved patient selection and improved dosing regimens based on a pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic informed understanding of ANS action on the fetal lung.

The murder of George Floyd in May 2020 sparked a wave of Black Lives Matter protests in many cities throughout the United States. Protesters’ demands ranged from constraints on police use of force to defunding and disbanding the police altogether. These have led some to worry about the possibility of a “Ferguson Effect,” where police withdraw from policing, and in particular discretionary stops and searches, with deleterious consequences for crime. Drawing on data from four cities, we evaluate whether the 2020 BLM protests impacted police behavior, and whether changes in policing negatively impacted public safety. Regression discontinuity-in-time estimates suggest that although depolicing followed the BLM protests, in some respects the quality of policing improved, and public safety was not clearly impacted. Our findings have important implications for research on policing, social movements, and structural inequality in cities.

The four Piano Sonatas by W. A. Mozart with freely composed additional accompaniment for a Second Piano by Edvard Grieg (EG 113) were first published in 1879–80 but were not heard by English concertgoers until 5 March 1890, when both Agathe Backer-Grøndahl and Anton Hartvigson opened separate recitals in London with Grieg's version of the Fantasy in C minor K475, the latter following it with the Sonata in F major K533/494. This coincidence is noteworthy not only because Grieg's additions appeared to flaunt the prevailing expectation of fidelity to classical works, but also because Mozart's solo keyboard music was rarely included in professional recitals. Focusing on Backer-Grøndahl and Hartvigson's concerts, this article considers Grieg's additions not merely as ‘arrangements’ but also as a performance practice subject to a range of interpretations by recitalists and different sections of the audience. The article begins by placing the transformation of the additions from teaching aids into concert repertoire in the context of similar supplements to classic works and concurrent attitudes to Mozart's piano music. The next section examines the mixed reception of Backer-Grøndahl and Hartvigson's recitals, situating this within contemporary debates about the role of fidelity in modern performances of historic works and its relationship with dominant conceptions of musical taste. While critics condemned the use of Grieg's additions, several disdainfully noted that they were well received by the rest of the audience. The final section attempts to account for this discrepancy by considering the widespread perception of Grieg's additions as Norwegian ‘national music’, a popular genre of exoticist parlour music that critics disparagingly associated with a mass audience of young, female players and considered inferior to ‘international’ classics. The article concludes by reflecting on how these factors might have informed Backer-Grøndahl's decision to perform Mozart's music with Grieg's additions.

Russia’s 2014 seizure of parts of Ukraine, notably the Crimean Peninsula, set in motion a flurry of legal activity. Ukraine’s “lawfare” strategy, which aims to fight Russia via international legal means, included explicit encouragement of Ukrainian investors to file disputes under the Ukraine-Russia Bilateral Investment Treaty. We consider the resulting Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) arbitrations, the first instances of ISDS in which state parties to the treaty are actively engaged in armed conflict. Although Ukrainian actors have consistently won at ISDS arbitrations, Ukraine moved to formally withdraw from the treaty a year after the full-scale Russian invasion of 2022. Developments before and since the invasion point to the diverging interests between commercial actors and their home states, the weakness of ISDS as a tool during wartime, and a reconsideration of treaty-based commitments to international investor protections. We highlight the implications of these events for several literatures in international relations.

The topic of impersonalization has received a lot of attention in the literature, but the focus has mostly been on a limited number of strategies, such as the use of personal and indefinite pronouns and passive constructions. Impersonal strategies have thus far been examined using: (i) grammars, (ii) corpora, and (iii) language-based questionnaires. These methods suffer from several shortcomings if one wants to study the range of impersonal strategies. The present article aims to argue for a new way of investigating impersonal strategies that complements the other approaches, by reporting on the results of a visual questionnaire. More precisely, it discusses a visual questionnaire completed by speakers of Dutch and Afrikaans to determine whether this method is a satisfactory way of studying impersonal strategies and to also examine and compare the impersonal strategies of the two languages.*

The crystal structure of sparsentan has been solved and refined using synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction data and optimized using density functional theory techniques. Sparsentan crystallizes in space group P-1 (#2) with a = 11.4214(8), b = 12.0045(9), c = 14.1245(12) Å, α = 97.6230(22), β = 112.4353(16), γ = 110.2502(11)°, V = 1599.20(6) Å3, and Z = 2 at 298 K. The crystal structure consists of an isotropic packing of dimers of sparsentan molecules, linked by N–H···O=S hydrogen bonds. Several intra- and intermolecular C–H···O and C–H···N hydrogen bonds also link the molecules. The powder pattern has been submitted to the International Centre for Diffraction Data for inclusion in the Powder Diffraction File™ (PDF®).

Hymenopteran parasitoids are an understudied group of insects despite being important in biological control programs globally. Little is known about the ability of parasitoids to control the passionvine hopper (Scolypopa australis (Walker); PVH), which was introduced to New Zealand (NZ) in the 1800s and has since become a major economic pest of kiwifruit. However, in their native Australia, this species has not reached pest status, likely due to the presence of associated parasitoids. Understanding the ecology of parasitoids associated with PVH in their native range is a critical step in identifying potential biological control agents that could be used in NZ. In this study, PVH presence and occupancy on different plant species was determined and the PVH parasitoid fauna of NZ compared with the Australian fauna. Collections were undertaken in and around Melbourne, Australia, between December 2021 and May 2023 in public and private gardens, roadside verges and parklands. Parasitoids were reared from the nymphs and eggs of PVH and identified. Ten species of parasitoid were discovered to parasitise PVH, eight of which were new host records. Three parasitoids, Dryinus koebelei, Neodryinus nelsoni, and Neodryinus koebelei, were reared from PVH nymphs and seven parasitoids were reared from PVH eggs: Ablerus sp., Anastatus sp., Centrodora sp., Cheilonoeurus sp., Ooencyrtus sp., and unknown species belonging to the families Figitidae and Platygastridae. These new data have made a significant contribution to understanding the ecology of PVH in their native range.

We provide a complete classification of Teichmüller curves occurring in hyperelliptic components of the meromorphic strata of differentials. Using a non-existence criterion based on how Teichmüller curves intersect the boundary of the moduli space we derive a contradiction to the algebraicity of any candidate outside of Hurwitz covers of strata with projective dimension one, and Hurwitz covers of zero residue loci in strata with projective dimension two.

Edible goods are not usually considered suitable for archiving. This short article introduces an unconventional archive of images relating to design, book, costume, and performance history. Each image in this archive depicts an intricately decorated biscuit (cookie) set inspired by historical artifacts or styles. I began making these biscuits during the pandemic as a way of engaging with material culture while traditional archives and museums were closed, and I now perform this work as a form of close reading. I also collaborate with heritage organizations to make biscuit sets that share collection items with online audiences. This work has contributed to my own research process while celebrating the collections of a broad range of British archives.

Built in Gif-sur-Yvette in the 1950s, the phytotron of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique provided plant physiologists with a set of enclosed growth rooms in which several climatic constituents of the environment could be simultaneously and separately controlled. This article examines the polyvalence of the French phytotron to explore the economic and political entanglements of experimental reasoning in mid-twentieth-century plant physiology. As Gif scientists embraced phytotrons as a means for developing an ‘experimental bioclimatology’, not only did they introduce into the laboratory an understanding of climate as a complex of agents likely to affect plant life, but also they sought to map scientific findings on productive pursuits during a period of intense agricultural modernization. The horticultural and agronomic applications envisaged were aimed at the timing of climate-sensitive biological events, but also at the expansion of productive areas within and outside metropolitan France, particularly in the context of late colonial and international dry-land development agendas. This case study of phytotronists’ agricultural imagination highlights a techno-scientific conception of climate steeped in biology, tied to the limits and potential of plant life in time and space, and regarded as either a deficiency to be corrected or a resource to be harnessed.