Throughout this themed section we have examined a number of key social policy challenges in relation to the role that taxation measures and choices play, or can play, in shaping responses to them. The following is a list of learning and research resources on topics that are central to these themes. For the most part, we have focused on recently published contributions.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most prevalent co-occurring conditions amongst cognitively unimpaired autistic people. The evidence-based treatment for social anxiety known as cognitive therapy for SAD (CT-SAD) may to an extent be beneficial to autistic people, but adaptations for autistic people are recommended to increase its effectiveness. The present study aimed to co-produce and pilot an adapted SAD treatment protocol for autistic people based on the Clark and Wells (1995) model, including assessing its feasibility and acceptability. A bespoke 12-week CBT online group intervention was created to meet the needs of autistic people with a diagnosis of SAD. The treatment protocol was created collaboratively with autistic people. It was piloted with seven adult participants (three males, four females) with autism or self-identified autism who completed the group intervention targeting SAD symptoms. With regard to feasibility, we met our initial aims of recruiting our intended sample size of a minimum of six participants for the intervention with an attendance rate of at least 80% of sessions. The excellent completion and attendance rates, respectively 100% and 95%, indicate that the intervention was acceptable to our participants. These findings extend previous research and support the continued adaptation of CBT interventions for autistic people. Furthermore, the evidence of feasibility indicates that further study to evaluate the efficacy of this group intervention is warranted.

Key learning aims

1. (1) To reflect on social anxiety, autism and identify ways to improve the delivery of cognitive therapy for autistic people.

2. (2) To identify useful adaptations to cognitive therapy for autistic people.

3. (3) To learn how to deliver group cognitive therapy remotely for autistic people who present with social anxiety.

This article addresses classical issues in conversation analysis related to the overall structural organization of social interaction, achieved through opening and closing sequences. While the integrity and autonomy of social interaction are most often oriented to by participants in single interactions, the study of some institutional interactions shows that forms of porosity between encounters do exist, in which one encounter impinges on another. This is the case of encounters-in-a-series, in which a new encounter is opened as the previous is not yet closed. The article examines interactions in which participants orient to the preservation of the integrity of successive encounters, contrasted with cases in which the initiation of the opening of a new encounter happens during or before the closing of the previous, and discusses how and when this is treated as normatively delicate or not, within the participants’ local endogenous analysis of the overall structural organization of the interaction. (Social interaction, conversation analysis, multimodality, overall structural organization, opening, closing, encounters-in-a-series, porosity)

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a significant zoonotic helminthic disease with considerable public health and economic impact in endemic regions. We aimed to analyse the climatic and environmental factors affecting the human CE cases in North Khorasan Province, northeast Iran. Using a geographic information system, we map the addresses of 316 hospitalised CE patients from 2012 to 2022 and examined the influence of climatic variables, altitude, and land cover on CE case distribution. Data were analysed using logistic regression models. Most patients were female (58.9%) and aged 21–60 years (67.4%), with liver involvement being the most common (57.3%). The multivariate model identified urban settings, irrigated and dry farms, soil temperature, and humidity as the most important geoclimatic determinants, respectively. In contrast, gardens, moderate and excellent rangelands, minimum, maximum, and mean air temperatures, and rainfall were only found to be significant factors in univariate models. High-risk areas for CE include urban and suburban regions, surrounding fields, and pastures where stray dogs and wild canids roam, livestock husbandries are present, and residents consume unsanitised vegetables. Additionally, areas with lower soil and weather temperatures and higher humidity conditions that may enhance the survival of E. granulosus eggs dispersed by canids were identified as high-risk zones. Health managers can use these findings to prioritise control programs and allocate limited resources to these areas, ultimately reducing the future incidence of CE.

This article offers the first systematic analysis of the role that violence played in the management of apprentices, and the gendered dynamics of violence in English apprenticeship more broadly. It does so through an examination of 195 petitions that apprentices or their supporters submitted to the Middlesex and Westminster Sessions, which sought the cancellation of their indentures on grounds of ‘immoderate correction’. It offers a quantitative overview of the surviving petitions, examining the proportion that featured allegations of violence, the terms and level of detail in which violence was described, and its relationship to apprentices’ other stated grievances. It moves on to reconstruct the factors that could prompt masters and mistresses to mete out correction (as well as their commentaries on their perceived right to do so) and the tactics that petitioners used in crafting their complaints to legal authorities. Although female apprentices complained about violence at a disproportionate rate to their male peers, the material considered here suggests that their petitions did so in comparatively formulaic and restricted terms. The final section considers what implications this might have for our understandings of violence, gender and apprenticeship, and a genre of document – the petition – that provides access to these issues.

Conduct disorder is a psychological condition marked by persistent patterns of rule-breaking, aggression and disregard for societal norms. As pornography consumption becomes increasingly prevalent among young adults, concerns have emerged regarding its potential psychological and social implications. This study explores how pornography consumption may contribute to conduct disorder symptoms among young adults through an in-depth qualitative analysis. Using a case-study approach, four individuals with a history of frequent pornography consumption and behavioural issues linked to conduct disorder were selected. Data were collected through detailed interviews, focusing on their experiences, behavioural patterns and psychological effects. The analysis revealed that prolonged exposure to certain types of pornography was associated with increased impulsivity, aggression and rule-breaking tendencies. Participants also reported social and emotional challenges, further reinforcing conduct disorder symptoms. This study suggests that specific patterns of pornography consumption may play a role in the development or worsening of conduct disorder symptoms. Recognizing these behavioural links is crucial for creating effective prevention and intervention strategies, especially for young adults at risk of engaging in deviant or criminal behaviour.

Aircraft maintenance is a multifaceted process that requires highly skilled, qualified and experienced personnel. Effective maintenance processes optimise aircraft operational lifespan, minimise lifecycle costs and improve reliability by reducing the probability of unexpected maintenance events. The initial diagnostic phase relies on detailed visual inspections conducted by certified technicians. Following inspections, data assessment leads to the development of a comprehensive maintenance plan, along with the sourcing of necessary resources and spare parts. As the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) sector transitions into the era of Industry 4.0, there is a growing emphasis on integrating data analytics and cyber-physical systems into maintenance practices. A key objective in this evolution is the adoption of robotic systems for inspection tasks. This shift requires the reconfiguration of formal inspection procedures to ensure compatibility with robotic operations. Moreover, it is critical to address the specific requirements of robotics and to incorporate smart hangar technologies that take advantage of real-time data to improve both efficiency and effectiveness in maintenance operations. This study provides a comprehensive review of the MRO landscape and maintenance checks, with a particular focus on robotic aircraft inspection systems, navigation and smart hangar infrastructure. The discussion concludes with an examination of defect detection methods using machine vision along with relevant metrics to compare with human performance.

Calls to defund the police gained prominence with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and take various forms. Depending on what will be defunded, the idea has attracted support from different parts of the political spectrum. The politicized nature of the debate often cuts short reflection on how best to assess proposals to defund the police. This article takes up that task. It begins by developing a typology of defund measures: abolitionist cuts, abolitionist reallocation, disaggregative cuts, and disaggregative reallocation. It then outlines a framework to evaluate policing and defund measures, drawing on criteria from the ethics of defensive force. Since policing relies on force, it faces a high justificatory bar and must satisfy the principles of just aim, proportionality, and necessity. The state should not fund unjustified forms of policing that violate those principles. Different violations, though, demand different policy responses.

The remote center of motion (RCM) mechanism is one of the key components of minimally invasive surgical robots. Nevertheless, the most widely used parallelogram-based RCM mechanism tends to have a large footprint, thereby increasing the risk of collisions between the robotic arms during surgical procedures. To solve this problem, this study proposes a compact RCM mechanism based on the coupling of three rotational motions realized by nonlinear transmission. Compared to the parallelogram-based RCM mechanism, the proposed design offers a smaller footprint, thereby reducing the risk of collisions between the robotic arms. To address the possible errors caused by the elasticity of the transmission belts, an error model is established for the transmission structure that includes both circular and non-circular pulleys. A prototype is developed to verify the feasibility of the proposed mechanism, whose footprint is further compared with that of the parallelogram-based RCM mechanism. The results indicate that our mechanism satisfies the constraints of minimally invasive surgery, provides sufficient stiffness, and exhibits a more compact design. The current study provides a new direction for the miniaturization design of robotic arms in minimally invasive surgical robots.