Captivity is a complex phenomenon in international politics with a broad range of purposes, functions, and consequences. Existing scholarship suggests that states use captivity, for example, to facilitate hostage or prisoner exchanges, to extract material rewards, or, in the case of human shields, for deterrence purposes. This article argues that states may use captivity to deter not only traditional military threats emanating from other states, but also perceived threats to regime security posed by non-state actors, including individuals, and that emotions are central to this process. The argument is illustrated through three empirical vignettes that show how the Chinese government has detained foreign academics, publishers, and NGO workers engaged in activities seen as threatening regime security. Detention is interpreted as attempts to deter such actors. While fear is often seen as key to successful deterrence, the article indicates that paying attention to other emotions can help better understand deterrence failure. Specifically, because captivity, and deterrence, involve the denial of the captive’s agency and may trigger feelings of humiliation and shame, it can backfire as the target of deterrence efforts might seek to act to regain agency.

The confession, as its name suggests, presents the personal, and often private, experience of the author, as we see in Rousseau’s well-known confessions which intend to expose his private self to public scrutiny. Bell’s confessional writing, however, is employed as a rhetorical means to serve his public purpose of political theorizing, since what the author intends to emphasize is not his private world, or even his personal experience as “a minor bureaucrat,” but to explore “the inner workings of Chinese academia and to draw implications for China’s broader political system” (3). Instead of a chronological reckoning of the history of the author’s life as an academic leader, Dean from Shandong has singled out several interconnected topics as a series of recollection of events Bell experienced in his five-year deanship to illustrate what he perceived as the important aspects of the Chinese culture in general and academic life in particular. The first-person narration, with its self-mocking style, foreshadows his intention behind the narrative, namely, his way of doing political theorizing as a political scientist. According to Northrop Frye, the confession is “introverted” and “thematic.”1 Bell’s confessions seem to be more thematic than introverted, “I invoke my personal experience only if it sheds light on social and political life in contemporary China, with its contradictions, diversity, and charm” (18).

Let X be a smooth proper rigid analytic space over a complete algebraically closed field extension K of $\mathbb {Q}_p$. We establish a Hodge–Tate decomposition for X with G-coefficients, where G is any commutative locally p-divisible rigid group. This generalizes the Hodge–Tate decomposition of Faltings and Scholze, which is the case $G=\mathbb {G}_a$. For this, we introduce geometric analogs of the Hodge–Tate spectral sequence with general locally p-divisible coefficients. We prove that these spectral sequences degenerate at $E_2$. Our results apply more generally to a class of smooth families of commutative adic groups over X and in the relative setting of smooth proper morphisms $X\rightarrow S$ of seminormal rigid spaces. We deduce applications to analytic Brauer groups and the geometric p-adic Simpson correspondence.

Constitutional democracies face significant threats. Such threats are countered by various theories of militant democracy and non-militant democratic self-defence, using a wide range of repressive, educational and social policy tools. The article introduces an alternative perspective on democratic self-defence policies, emphasising integration as a key component in maintaining the resilience of the constitutional community and draws on Rudolf Smend’s integration theory. It explores how constitutional design through its structures, powers, procedures, rituals and symbols shapes community cohesion and strengthens the constitutional order by deliberately using emotions.

Monocrotaline (MCT) induces lung injury and pulmonary hypertension (PH) by a mechanism that is in part due to oxidative stress. The purpose of this study was to determine how MCT affected nutrient antioxidants retinol and alpha-tocopherol in a rat lung and liver. Rats were fed a purified diet (AIN-93G) one-week prior to a subcutaneous injection of MCT (60 mg/kg) and remained on the diet throughout the study. Three weeks after injection, the animals were euthanized, and the lungs and livers were analyzed for retinol, alpha-tocopherol, phospholipid (PL), and cholesterol content. Lung retinol concentrations were significantly lower in MCT-treated rats, 2.0 ± 1.2 (nmol/g lung) vs. vehicle control (VEH), 5.8 ± 1.4 (P < 0.01). However, liver retinol concentrations were not significantly different, 3.3 ± 1.3 vs. 2.5 ± 0.9 nmol/g liver. Alpha-tocopherol was significantly greater in MCT-treated rats in the lung, 145 ± 24 vs. 99 ± 13 nmol/g lung (P < 0.001), and liver, 107 ± 30 vs. 47.7 ± 4.8 nmol/g liver (P < 0.001). Phospholipid and cholesterol were significantly lower in the lung of the MCT-treated group, but not significantly different in the liver. In conclusion, retinol along with phospholipid, and cholesterol were decreased in the lungs whereas alpha-tocopherol was elevated in the lungs and liver in response to MCT. These findings along with others suggest a novel mechanistic link between MCT-induced oxidative stress, lung vitamin A depletion, inflammation and the impairment of alveolar cell proliferation and repair. Pulmonary retinol is important in the pathogenesis of MCT-induced lung injury.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) agriculture of the southern United States is plagued by strong biotic competition with several species in the Echinochloa genus. Despite clear genomic differences between barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) P. Beauv.] and junglerice (Echinochloa colona (L.) Link], the two major Echinochloa agricultural weeds are nearly indistinguishable phenotypically. This inability to reliably differentiate the species has led farmers to treat the group as a single species, often resulting in ineffective weed control efforts. In this study, we first develop a simple chloroplast-anchored PCR-based restriction enzyme assay to differentiate between E. colona and the other Echinochloa species of agricultural concern. Applying this assay, we identify a strong bias towards E. colona in 2024 rice field collections from eastern Arkansas. Finally, we evaluate anecdotal reports of interspecific hybridization between species and find no evidence. Despite the drawbacks of the maternally inherited nature of the chloroplast, the availability of this species determinant assay will help USDA and academia extension agents and stakeholders to make educated, species-specific decisions about precision chemical weed control and field management.

Friends and popular peers are important sources of influence across the transition into adolescence. The present study examines the assertion that the magnitude of influence from friends and popularity-based norms varies across behavioral domains. Participants were 543 (268 girls, 275 boys) students from 29 5th–8th grade (ages 10 to 14) classrooms in three Lithuanian public middle schools. Most were ethnic Lithuanians. Self-reports of socioemotional adjustment, including emotional problems, lack of emotional clarity, problem behaviors, social media use, and weight concerns, were collected in the fall and winter of a single academic year, approximately three months apart. Popularity and academic achievement were assessed through peer nominations. Top-ranked best friends were identified from outgoing nominations. Status-based norms, calculated separately for each socioemotional adjustment variable in the fall (Time 1), represented popularity-weighted classroom averages. Results from longitudinal Group Actor-Partner Interdependence Model analyses indicated that best friends and status-based norms exerted differing amounts of influence over different behaviors. When both were included in the same model (with shared effects removed), best friends influenced emotional problems, lack of emotional clarity, and problem behaviors. Among older adolescents, best friends also influenced academic achievement. Status-based norms influenced social media use and, among older adolescents, weight concerns.

It is well established that attitudes towards immigration are linked to policy preferences and voting behaviour. However, we lack insights on the relevance of the other side of the migration coin: emigration. This is especially pertinent in the European Union (EU), which guarantees free movement of persons and where large-scale mobility gained momentum following the Eastern enlargement (East to West) and the euro crisis (South to North). Drawing on a 2021 survey conducted in nine peripheral EU countries, this study investigates whether concerns about emigration shape electoral behaviour. Findings indicate that such concerns reduce support for governing parties, but only among individuals with high levels of political trust, highlighting trust as a key moderating factor. At the country level, concerns about emigration favour radical-right parties, though not exclusively. In fact, the politicization of emigration can potentially benefit (or disadvantage) a range of parties depending on national political conditions.

In his book The Work of the Holy Spirit, Kuyper begins (in the original Dutch version) with an extensive reference to John Owen. This raises the question of his relationship to Owen. Is his theology derived from John Owen? This study outlines Owen’s view of regeneration. We then consider how Kuyper developed his theology of regeneration. It appears that the metaphor of the ‘seed’ is central to his understanding of the new birth. The seed can retain its germinating capacity for years and only then sprout. When we compare this metaphor with Owen, it appears that Kuyper uses a concept that John Owen also uses, but he elaborates in a completely different way so that it ultimately becomes a different concept.

Mugane (1997) identifies two types of individual-denoting nominalizations in Gĩkũyũ (Bantu): the [mu… a]-type and the [mu… i]-type. He argues that the [mu… i]-type nominalizations are phrasal and that the [mu… a]-type nominalizations exhibit a puzzling nature, displaying both lexical and syntactic properties. This study examines Mugane’s characterization, revisiting the notion of a lexicon-syntax divide. Applying Wood’s (2023) Complex Head analysis, I demonstrate that we can explain the [mu… a]-type nominalizations within a syntactic framework without resorting to the lexicon. The analysis reveals that the puzzle is resolvable and that syntax can account for both types of nominalizations in Gĩkũyũ.

Neuromorphic vision-based robotic tactile sensors fuse touch and vision, enabling manipulators to efficiently grip and identify objects. Precise robotic manipulation requires early detection of slips on the grasped object, which is crucial for maintaining grip stability and safety. Modern closed-loop feedback technologies use measurements from neuromorphic vision-based tactile sensors to control and prevent object slippage. Unfortunately, most of these sensors measure and report data-based rather than model-based information, resulting in less efficient control capabilities. This work proposes physical and mathematical modeling of an in-house-developed neuromorphic vision-based robotic tactile sensor that utilizes a protruded marker design to demonstrate the model-based approach. This sensor is mounted on the UR10 robotic manipulator, enabling manipulation tasks such as approaching, pressing, and slipping. The neuromorphic vision-based robotic tactile sensor-derived mathematical model revealed first-order system behavior for three manipulation-related actions under study. Experimental robotic manipulator grasping work is conducted to verify and validate the sensor’s derived mathematical FOS model. Two data analysis approaches, temporal and spatial–temporal model based, are adopted to classify the manipulator-sensor actions. A long short-term memory (LSTM) temporal classifier is engineered to exploit the sensor’s derived model. Also, the LSTM spatial–temporal classifier is designed using an event-weighted centroid of the region-of-interest features. Both LSTM methods successfully identified the robotic actions performed with an accuracy of more than 99%. Additionally, quantitative slip rate estimation is carried out based on centroid estimation, and qualitative assessment of pressing force is performed using a fuzzy logic classifier.

Lorenz dominance is a classical criterion for comparing income distributions with respect to inequality and social welfare. However, its binary nature, in which one distribution either dominates another or does not, often leads to inconclusive results when empirical Lorenz curves intersect. To overcome this limitation, we introduce the Lorenz dominance index (LDI), a continuous measure that quantifies the extent to which one Lorenz curve lies above another. The LDI provides an interpretable assessment based on the population, allowing for the evaluation of partial or near dominance and improving its usefulness in empirical settings. We derive the asymptotic distribution of the LDI and propose a nonparametric bootstrap procedure to construct confidence intervals and perform inference. Monte Carlo simulations confirm the estimator’s strong performance in finite samples and its nominal coverage. An application to household income data from China highlights the practical value of the LDI in distributional analysis.