This article explores the concept of partnerships in public humanities as both a process and a vital outcome. Drawing from experiences within a classroom environment, where university students and community members learned and engaged together, we identify three key precepts for sustaining effective community-university partnerships: centering human relationships, leveraging institutionalization, and redistributing risk. These strategies do not aim to avoid the challenges inherent in collaboration but rather use complexities as opportunities for deeper engagement. We argue that community-university partnerships should themselves be viewed as a valuable and meaningful form of public humanities.

There are few studies on what diet mothers following a vegan diet (VD; or strict plant-based diet) choose for their children and how the child’s diet is implemented in everyday life. The present study aimed to explore choices that mothers following a VD make regarding their child’s diet and feeding practices, and what determines these choices. Mothers on a VD whose youngest child was <4 years old were recruited via social media or newsletters about a VD. Participants (N=28) were between 27 and 45 years old and had been adhering to a VD between 0.5 and 23 years. Online semi-structured interviews based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. A hybrid thematic analysis approach was used to identify themes that emerged from the data. Mainly driven by ethical considerations of eating animal products, 21 (75%) women chose a VD for their child(ren). When the participant’s partner followed a vegetarian diet (VEGD) or omnivorous diet (OMD), most women chose a VEGD (N=4) or OMD (N=3) for their child as well. Overall, women indicated to make well-considered choices regarding children’s diet and related feeding practices. Determinants for the dietary choice for their children involved various motivations, attitudes, norms, facilitating/hindering factors and knowledge. In conclusion, driven mainly by ethical motivations, most women on a VD chose this diet for their children as well. Despite experiencing several hindering factors and acknowledging the potential negative effects of a VD, mothers seemed to make well-considered choices concerning their child’s diet.

Cover crops are an important management tool for organic vegetable farmers, but selection of individual cover crop species can lead to a tradeoff between agroecosystem services provisioned. In contrast, cover crop mixtures may provide multiple ecosystem services simultaneously, known as multifunctionality. This study evaluated the performance of browntop millet (Urochloa ramosa; BTM), buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum; BW), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata; CP), and sunnhemp (Crotalaria juncea; SH) in monocultures, two three-way mixtures (3-CP = browntop millet, buckwheat, and cowpea; 3-SH = browntop millet, buckwheat, and sunnhemp), and a four-way mixture containing all evaluated cover crop species (4-W). An autumn cabbage vegetable crop (Brassica oleracea var. Caraflex) was grown following cover crop termination. To evaluate the cover crop treatments and explore the applicability of some tenets of biodiversity theory to cover crop mixtures, we monitored the ecosystem services of weed suppression, inorganic nitrogen provisioning, vegetable yield, and habitat for microorganisms. Overall, the cover crop mixtures evaluated were able to combine the benefits of the individual species in the mixture and provision the sought ecosystem services, although they did not exceed the performance of the best monocultures. Weed suppression was similar between mixtures and the top performing monoculture, BTM in 2022 and BW in 2023. The high productivity of browntop millet in mixtures, accounting for on average 74% of 3-CP biomass and 56% of 4-W biomass, when seeded at 20% and 25% its full rate, respectively, likely drove weed suppression in mixtures. In 2022, cabbage yield following 3-SH and 4-W was similar to the legume monocultures. Due to the suppression of cowpea in 3-CP from interspecific competition, 3-CP plots had a lower cabbage yield than the legume monocultures and were similar to BTM and Control. Soil microbial biomass, used to measure habitat for microorganisms, was 18% higher following mixtures compared to monocultures in the first year, although no differences were found in the second year. The seeding rate proportions used in the three-way mixtures, 60% of the legume full rate and 20% of the full rate of both browntop millet and buckwheat, achieved the target of a C:N ratio ≤30:1 and can be recommended when based on appropriate seeding rates for a given area. Tailoring future cover crop mixture research to questions of seeding rate thresholds and interspecific competition will improve complementarity and the provisioning of multiple ecosystem services in mixtures, offering valuable, practical guidance to growers.

We present an agent-based model to study how the structure of a scientific network could affect the public uptake of science and how this impact is influenced by scientific uncertainty and affinity bias. For unbiased agents, a highly connected scientific network decreases the probability that the public favors the correct theory. For biased agents, however, a moderately connected scientific network causes the public to favor the correct theory more often. This results from the competition between the scarcity of information (for poorly connected agents) and the spread of misleading information (for highly connected agents). Adding more scientists strengthens both effects.

This article defends informed preference satisfaction theories of welfare against the most influential objections put forward in the economic and philosophy of science literatures. The article explicates and addresses in turn: the objection from inner rational agents; the objection from unfeasible preference reconstruction; the objection from dubious normative commitments; the objection from conceptual ambiguity; and the objection from conceptual replacement. My defence does not exclude that preference satisfaction theories of welfare face significant conceptual and practical challenges. Still, if correct, it demonstrates that philosophers/welfare economists are justified in relying on specific versions of such theories, namely informed preference satisfaction theories.

Is gender violence considered a part of advancing Indigenous self-determination in Alaska? What are the key jurisdictional, institutional, infrastructural, and community level challenges in combating violence against Alaska Native women? Few studies have considered the relationship between gender violence and Alaska Native sovereignty. I address this gap by employing the theory of relational Indigenous self-determination and drawing on research interviews with Indigenous women in Alaska and analyzing the data in light of two recent legislative changes: the 2022 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and the legislation that formally recognizes Alaska Native tribes in the state of Alaska. The findings demonstrate that persistent questions about Alaska Native jurisdiction stemming from the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) limit considering violence against Indigenous women and Indigenous self-determination as issues that need to be addressed in tandem.

We use recent advances in polynomial diffusion processes to develop a continuous-time joint mortality model for the actuarial valuation and risk analysis of life insurance liabilities. The model considers the stochastic nature of future mortality improvements and introduces a common subordinator for the marginal survival processes, resulting in a nontrivial dependence structure between the survival of pairs of individuals. Polynomial diffusion processes can be used to derive closed-form formulae for standard actuarial quantities. The model fits well with a classic dataset provided by a Canadian insurer and can be used to evaluate products issued to multiple lives, as shown through numerical applications.

Anosognosia, commonly understood as a lack of insight, renders individuals with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder unable to understand that they are living with a disease, often resulting in a refusal to accept treatment. Typically, to impose involuntary commitment in an effort to obtain treatment, an individual must be a danger to others or themselves. Even if involuntary commitment is imposed, however, an individual may remain competent to refuse medication—despite symptoms of anosognosia and an inability to understand that they are ill. This article examines the existing legal theories of competency and informed consent and proposes a statutory definition of competency that encompasses the specific needs of people with anosognosia, while considering the significant interests at stake when taking away an individual’s right to choose or refuse treatment.

This article provides an overview of individuals with schizophrenia who become unhoused and explores current approaches to managing this severe illness in those who often do not want care or believe they need it. Individuals with schizophrenia and who are unhoused face numerous adverse consequences including premature mortality and increased rates of suicide. There is a dearth of research evidence demonstrating efficacy of the Housing First (HF) model and harm reduction approach in decreasing psychotic symptoms in individuals with schizophrenia. Ensuring medication adherence in individuals with psychosis, both housed and unhoused, is important to prevent delays in untreated psychosis and chronic deterioration.

Subject pronoun interpretation in native Spanish has generally been approached under the Position of Antecedent Strategy, a parsing strategy which claims that null pronouns bias toward subject antecedents and overt pronouns toward object antecedents. While some studies align with the predicted patterns, others present mixed evidence. To further clarify this, our study tests the offline interpretation of null and overt subject pronouns in 55 native Peninsular Spanish speakers. We additionally tested the role played by different temporal subordinating conjunctions (mientras “while” vs. cuando “when”) in modulating subject pronoun interpretation preferences. Our findings reveal that overt pronouns bias toward object antecedents independently from the subordinating conjunction. Conversely, null pronouns bias toward subject antecedents, but their interpretation is influenced by the type of subordinating conjunction, with higher rates of subject interpretations in the mientras “while” condition. These results lend support to theoretical accounts such as the Form-Specific Multiple-Constraints approach, which asserts that referring expressions are subject to different constraints and to varying degrees. These findings thus extend beyond purely structural accounts and underscore the complexity of subject pronoun interpretation in Spanish.

In Hong Kong, the basic joint enterprise principle is recognised as an independent basis for attributing criminal liability. Although the principle has been recognised by the highest courts of the United Kingdom, Australia, and Hong Kong at different times, this article suggests that it does not have a historical foundation in common law. This article further argues that the basic joint enterprise principle (i) has no practical utility as it completely overlaps with traditional accessorial liability and the inchoate offence of conspiracy; (ii) necessarily requires the court to engage in circular reasoning; (iii) is unable to deal with situations of evidential uncertainty; and (iv) unjustifiably disrupts the principal-accessory distinction under common law. It is therefore recommended that the basic joint enterprise principle be abolished.

In 1946, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was formed to promote peace through education and cross-cultural understanding. In the postwar atomic age, American leaders saw UNESCO and education for world citizenship as critical to the prevention of future war, the promotion of a new pluralistic vision, and the development of a well-informed society. A hyper-local case study, this article follows the story of Milton S. Eisenhower, leading UNESCO delegate and president of Kansas State College, and the series of progressive reforms he pursued to promote democracy, citizenship, and global peacebuilding at a rural land-grant college in the center of the former “isolationist belt” of America. This article traces the impact of these curricular reforms, the UNESCO campus-community partnership they inspired, and the subsequent peacebuilding movement that agitated for humanitarian action, civic participation, and desegregation from 1947 to 1950.

In recent decades, ethicists have engaged with new developments in human reproductive technologies from a variety of angles. Yet there has been relatively little effort to problematize the concept of reproduction itself. In this paper, we examine the question of what reproduction is and its relationship with biology. We show that reproduction is commonly assumed to entail biological parenthood—an assumption that we term “the biological reproduction paradigm.” Drawing on Sally Haslanger’s analysis of the biological/social division between sex and gender, we suggest that the concept of reproduction is socially constructed, despite its apparently biological nature. In turn, we argue that the supposed necessity of the relationship between reproduction and biological parenthood leads to a situation in which access to a variety of medical, legal, and social goods is constrained on the basis of spurious, inconsistent, and undertheorized assumptions. Finally, we note that, given the socially constructed nature of reproduction, we cannot take it for granted that the term “reproduction” signifies the same thing among different interlocutors and in different contexts.