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Behind the black boxes of algorithms promoting or adding friction to posts, technical design decisions made to affect behavior, and institutions stood up to make decisions about content online, it can be easy to lose track of the heteromation involved, the humans spreading disinformation and, on the other side, moderating or choosing not to moderate it. This can be aptly shown in the case of the spread of misinformation on WhatsApp during Brazil’s 2018 general elections. Since WhatsApp runs on a peer-to-peer architecture, there was no algorithm curating content according to the characteristics or demographics of the users, which is how filter bubbles work on Facebook. Instead, a human infrastructure was assembled to create a pro-Bolsonaro environment on WhatsApp and spread misinformation to bolster his candidacy. In this paper, we articulate the labor executed by the human infrastructure of misinformation as hetoromation.
Seventy years after the end of World War Two, Germany enjoys mostly excellent relations with the rest of Europe, where the history of wartime hostilities is largely a non-issue. The same cannot be said for Japan and its neighbors in Northeast Asia. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee will begin meeting in Bonn on June 28 to consider this year's nominations for World Heritage status, and a Tokyo-sponsored package called “Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution” is attracting intense attention. Seven of the two dozen properties that make up Japan's proposal, carefully defined as covering the years from 1850 to 1910, later became the scene of wartime forced labor by Koreans, Chinese and Allied POWs, a history unmentioned in the proposal. For this reason South Korea and China are urging that the UNESCO committee reject the Japanese nomination.
Partial remission after major depressive disorder (MDD) is common and a robust predictor of relapse. However, it remains unclear to which extent preventive psychological interventions reduce depressive symptomatology and relapse risk after partial remission. We aimed to identify variables predicting relapse and to determine whether, and for whom, psychological interventions are effective in preventing relapse, reducing (residual) depressive symptoms, and increasing quality of life among individuals in partial remission. This preregistered (CRD42023463468) systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis (IPD-MA) pooled data from 16 randomized controlled trials (n = 705 partial remitters) comparing psychological interventions to control conditions, using 1- and 2-stage IPD-MA. Among partial remitters, baseline clinician-rated depressive symptoms (p = .005) and prior episodes (p = .012) predicted relapse. Psychological interventions were associated with reduced relapse risk over 12 months (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.60, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.43–0.84), and significantly lowered posttreatment depressive symptoms (Hedges’ g = 0.29, 95% CI 0.04–0.54), with sustained effects at 60 weeks (Hedges’ g = 0.33, 95% CI 0.06–0.59), compared to nonpsychological interventions. However, interventions did not significantly improve quality of life at 60 weeks (Hedges’ g = 0.26, 95% CI -0.06 to 0.58). No moderators of relapse prevention efficacy were found. Men, older individuals, and those with higher baseline symptom severity experienced greater reductions in symptomatology at 60 weeks. Psychological interventions for individuals with partially remitted depression reduce relapse risk and residual symptomatology, with efficacy generalizing across patient characteristics and treatment types. This suggests that psychological interventions are a recommended treatment option for this patient population.
Phylogenetic analysis demonstrates that Kuamaia lata, a helmetiid euarthropod from the lower Cambrian (Series 2, Stage 3) Chengjiang Konservat-Lagerstätte, nests robustly within Artiopoda, the euarthropod clade including trilobitomorphs. Microtomography of new specimens of K. lata reveals details of morphology, notably a six-segmented head and raptorial frontal appendages, the latter contrasting with filiform antennae considered to be a diagnostic character of Artiopoda. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrate that a raptorial frontal appendage is a symplesiomorphy for upper stem-group euarthropods, retained across a swathe of tree space, but evolved secondarily in K. lata from an antenna within Artiopoda. The phylogenetic position of K. lata adds support to a six-segmented head being an ancestral state for upper stem- and crown-group euarthropods.
Drawing on Roman Catholic and ecumenical expertise, this article takes an honest look at the experiences and hopes of those abused. Many in the churches assume that victims seek financial compensation or legal redress. However, research indicates that many victims primarily seek truth and justice as a means of closure and that their struggles with church leadership arise when truth and justice are repeatedly withheld. This makes forgiveness near-impossible and often results in the victim being re-traumatized by the systemic re-abuse they experience. Ultimately, there is no substitute for full and genuine meeting with victims, which requires the church to lay aside its power and authority and engage with humility and proper deference to the victims abused at the hands of the church. Without such openness, the victims cannot move on, and neither can the churches.
Foliar-applied postemergence applications of glufosinate are often applied to glufosinate-resistant crops to provide nonselective weed control without significant crop injury. Rainfall, air temperature, solar radiation, and relative humidity near the time of application have been reported to affect glufosinate efficacy. However, previous research may have not captured the full range of weather variability to which glufosinate may be exposed before or following application. Additionally, climate models suggest more extreme weather will become the norm, further expanding the weather range to which glufosinate can be exposed. The objective of this research was to quantify the probability of successful weed control (efficacy ≥85%) with glufosinate applied to some key weed species across a broad range of weather conditions. A database of >10,000 North American herbicide evaluation trials was used in this study. The database was filtered to include treatments with a single postemergence application of glufosinate applied to waterhemp [Amaranthus tuberculatus (Moq.) Sauer], morningglory species (Ipomoea spp.), and/or giant foxtail (Setaria faberi Herrm.) <15 cm in height. These species were chosen because they are well represented in the database and listed as common and troublesome weed species in both corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] (Van Wychen 2020, 2022). Individual random forest models were created. Low rainfall (≤20 mm) over the 5 d before glufosinate application was detrimental to the probability of successful control of A. tuberculatus and S. faberi. Lower relative humidity (≤70%) and solar radiation (≤23 MJ m−1 d−1) on the day of application reduced the probability of successful weed control in most cases. Additionally, the probability of successful control decreased for all species when average air temperature over the first 5 d after application was ≤25 C. As climate continues to change and become more variable, the risk of unacceptable control of several common species with glufosinate is likely to increase.
Single-stranded nucleic acid (ssNA) binding proteins must both stably protect ssNA transiently exposed during replication and other NA transactions, and also rapidly reorganize and dissociate to allow further NA processing. How these seemingly opposing functions can coexist has been recently elucidated by optical tweezers (OT) experiments that isolate and manipulate single long ssNA molecules to measure conformation in real time. The effective length of an ssNA substrate held at fixed tension is altered upon protein binding, enabling quantification of both the structure and kinetics of protein–NA interactions. When proteins exhibit multiple binding states, however, OT measurements may produce difficult to analyze signals including non-monotonic response to free protein concentration and convolution of multiple fundamental rates. In this review we compare single-molecule experiments with three proteins of vastly different structure and origin that exhibit similar ssNA interactions. These results are consistent with a general model in which protein oligomers containing multiple binding interfaces switch conformations to adjust protein:NA stoichiometry. These characteristics allow a finite number of proteins to protect long ssNA regions by maximizing protein–ssNA contacts while also providing a pathway with reduced energetic barriers to reorganization and eventual protein displacement when these ssNA regions are diminished.
It is impossible to view the news at present without hearing talk of crisis: the economy, the climate, the pandemic. This book asks how these larger societal issues lead to a crisis with work, making it ever more precarious, unequal and intense. Experts diagnose the nature of the problem and offer a programme for transcending above the crises.
The relationship between psychosis and violence is often construed focusing on a narrow panel of factors; however, recent evidence suggests violence might be linked to a complex interplay of biopsychosocial factors among forensic psychiatric patients with psychosis (FPPP). This review describes violence incidents in FPPP, the factors associated with violence, and relevant implications.
Methods
This review was conducted following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guideline. Databases, including CINAHL, EMBASE, Medline/PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science, were searched for eligible studies that examined violence among adult FPPP. Screening of reports and data extraction were completed by at least two independent reviewers.
Results
Across the 29 included studies, violence was consistently related to prior contact with psychiatric services, active psychotic symptoms, impulsivity, adverse experiences, and low social support. However, FPPP who reported violence varied in most other biopsychosocial domains, suggesting the underlying combinatorial effects of multiple risk factors for violence rather than individual factors. Variability in violence was addressed by stratifying FPPP into subgroups using composite/aggregate of identifiable factors (including gender, onset/course of illness, system-related, and other biopsychosocial factors) to identify FPPP with similar risk profiles.
Conclusions
There are multiple explanatory pathways to violence in FPPP. Recent studies identify subgroups with underlying similarities or risk profiles for violence. There is a need for future prospective studies to replicate the clinical utility of stratifying FPPP into subgroups and integrate emerging evidence using recent advancements in technology and data mining to improve risk assessment, prediction, and management.
Foliar-applied postemergence herbicides are a critical component of corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] weed management programs in North America. Rainfall and air temperature around the time of application may affect the efficacy of herbicides applied postemergence in corn or soybean production fields. However, previous research utilized a limited number of site-years and may not capture the range of rainfall and air temperatures that these herbicides are exposed to throughout North America. The objective of this research was to model the probability of achieving successful weed control (≥85%) with commonly applied postemergence herbicides across a broad range of environments. A large database of more than 10,000 individual herbicide evaluation field trials conducted throughout North America was used in this study. The database was filtered to include only trials with a single postemergence application of fomesafen, glyphosate, mesotrione, or fomesafen + glyphosate. Waterhemp [Amaranthus tuberculatus (Moq.) Sauer], morningglory species (Ipomoea spp.), and giant foxtail (Setaria faberi Herrm.) were the weeds of focus. Separate random forest models were created for each weed species by herbicide combination. The probability of successful weed control deteriorated when the average air temperature within the first 10 d after application was <19 or >25 C for most of the herbicide by weed species models. Additionally, drier conditions before postemergence herbicide application reduced the probability of successful control for several of the herbicide by weed species models. As air temperatures increase and rainfall becomes more variable, weed control with many of the commonly used postemergence herbicides is likely to become less reliable.
Weeds are one of the greatest challenges to snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) production. Anecdotal observation posits certain species frequently escape the weed management system by the time of crop harvest, hereafter called residual weeds. The objectives of this work were to (1) quantify the residual weed community in snap bean grown for processing across the major growing regions in the United States and (2) investigate linkages between the density of residual weeds and their contributions to weed canopy cover. In surveys of 358 fields across the Northwest (NW), Midwest (MW), and Northeast (NE), residual weeds were observed in 95% of the fields. While a total of 109 species or species-groups were identified, one to three species dominated the residual weed community of individual fields in most cases. It was not uncommon to have >10 weeds m−2 with a weed canopy covering >5% of the field’s surface area. Some of the most abundant and problematic species or species-groups escaping control included amaranth species such as smooth pigweed (Amaranthus hybridus L.), Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri S. Watson), redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus L.), and waterhemp [Amaranthus tuberculatus (Moq.) Sauer]; common lambsquarters (Chenopodium album L.); large crabgrass [Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop.]; and ivyleaf morningglory (Ipomoea hederacea Jacq.). Emerging threats include hophornbeam copperleaf (Acalypha ostryifolia Riddell) in the MW and sharppoint fluvellin [Kickxia elatine (L.) Dumort.] in the NW. Beyond crop losses due to weed interference, the weed canopy at harvest poses a risk to contaminating snap bean products with foreign material. Random forest modeling predicts the residual weed canopy is dominated by C. album, D. sanguinalis, carpetweed (Mollugo verticillata L.), I. hederacea, amaranth species, and A. ostryifolia. This is the first quantitative report on the weed community escaping control in U.S. snap bean production.
Epidemiological and clinical trial evidence indicates that n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) intake is cardioprotective. Nevertheless, claims that n-6 PUFA intake promotes inflammation and oxidative stress prevail. This narrative review aims to provide health professionals with an up-to-date evidence overview to provide the requisite background to address patient/client concerns about oils containing predominantly unsaturated fatty acids (UFA), including MUFA and PUFA. Edible plant oils, commonly termed vegetable oils, are derived from vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruits and cereal grains. Substantial variation exists in the fatty acid composition of these oils; however, all are high in UFA, while being relatively low in saturated fatty acids (SFA), except for tropical oils. Epidemiological evidence indicates that higher PUFA intake is associated with lower risk of incident CVD and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Additionally, replacement of SFA with PUFA is associated with reduced risk of CVD and T2DM. Clinical trials show higher intake of UFA from plant sources improves major CVD risk factors, including reducing levels of atherogenic lipids and lipoproteins. Importantly, clinical trials show that increased n-6 PUFA (linoleic acid) intake does not increase markers of inflammation or oxidative stress. Evidence-based guidelines from authoritative health and scientific organisations recommend intake of non-tropical vegetable oils, which contain MUFA and n-6 PUFA, as part of healthful dietary patterns. Specifically, vegetable oils rich in UFA should be consumed instead of rich sources of SFA, including butter, tallow, lard, palm and coconut oils.
In writing about work, and the crisis of work, we must of course establish what we mean by ‘work’. In previous books, we offered a history of the varied sociological definitions of work, noted that there has been a long-term trend in the social sciences to equate work with paid employment – thus ignoring the enormous contribution that unpaid work makes to our socio- economic landscape – and pointed to how work and employment contribute to identities, both individual and collective (Bradley et al, 2000; Erickson et al, 2009; Williams et al, 2013). While the focus of this book is on paid work, involving jobs people undertake in return for wages or salaries, the importance of unpaid household and caring tasks, often carried out by women, should not be overlooked. Perhaps most importantly, there are notable connections between unpaid domestic work and paid employment. People in part- time jobs – primarily women – often value the opportunity to combine paid work with unpaid household responsibilities, not just childcare tasks but also caring for older family members (Rubery et al, 2016). Another complicating factor is that work which is unpaid household labour when undertaken by a family member – domestic cleaning for example – becomes paid employment when a cleaner is hired from outside the family and rewarded with a wage. In distinguishing between paid and unpaid work, then, it is the social relations that structure the work and how it is undertaken, rather than the specific nature of the work tasks themselves, that are important (Budd, 2011).
In capitalist societies, paid work fulfils some important economic functions. The employment relationship, in which a worker takes up employment with an employer in return for a wage or salary, provides the employer with a resource which, managed appropriately, can be used to realize added value from the tasks undertaken. Paid employment of this kind also provides workers with an income, necessary for their subsistence. Importantly, though, work matters, not just on account of its economic value – both for employers and workers, in different ways – but also for myriad other social and psychological reasons, including identity formation and the development of citizenship (Budd, 2011).
In exploring the crisis of contemporary work, it is essential to examine the experiences and activities of the trade unions. There is a widespread understanding that unions, as collective organizations of workers, play a crucial part in ensuring that workers are well treated and have their interests represented effectively at work. Trade unions use their bargaining power to leverage pressure on employers to treat workers fairly, pay them appropriately and provide them with decent working conditions. During 2022–23, the popularity of Mick Lynch, the General Secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union in the UK, was based on his success in articulating the interests of the RMT's members in the media, especially their demands for higher pay and to maintain properly staffed train services and stations, amid a series of strikes on the railways.
Many of the profound problems workers currently experience – extensive insecurity and precarity (see Chapter 3), for example, and commodification pressures (see Chapter 4) – would not have become so acute if the trade unions had been stronger in recent years. Powerful trade unions capable of organizing and mobilizing workers to ensure their rights and protections are defended, and to advance them where necessary, clearly matter (Livingston, 2021). In the hospitality sector, for example, an industry marked by low pay and poor conditions, trade unions have helped workers benefit from higher pay (Papadopolous and Ioannou, 2023).
In general, though, since the 1980s trade unions have themselves been in crisis. This chapter begins by explaining how the crisis of trade unionism, one that is particularly manifest in reduced union membership, was a product of neoliberalization before examining how the unions have sought to respond to the crisis by looking to revitalize themselves. After 2020, the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic provided unions with opportunities to build back stronger. Moreover, one key way the trade unions have sought to demonstrate their relevance is by engaging with environmental issues and responding to the climate crisis. Unions are playing a key role in facilitating a ‘just transition’ to a net- zero world by ensuring that workers’ interests are represented in the process of change, even though this has generated some notable tensions and challenges.
In other chapters, we explain why we believe that various crises which are at work – the adverse consequences of neoliberalization, the challenges posed by environmental degradation and the climate emergency and the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic – have contributed to a crisis of work. In this chapter, we place this crisis of work in broader perspective, centred on its economic and political dimensions. As we explain, the crisis of work we are concerned with in this book intersects with various other crises, in particular those arising from a dysfunctional economy and labour market and the unstable, turbulent and volatile nature of contemporary politics. The important point about these various crises is that they are not just consequences of the troublesome nature of paid employment but also contribute to it, fuelling the antagonism that lies at the heart of the contemporary crisis of work.
The first substantive topic we focus on in this chapter concerns the economic dimension of the crisis of work, drawing particularly on evidence from the UK. We highlight the dysfunctional nature of the economy and the labour market, pointing to the connections between economic stagnation, labour shortages, weak earnings growth and the ‘cost- of- living crisis’ that escalated during the early 2020s. The crisis of work is thus tied up with the vicissitudes of a neoliberal, overly financialized economic model which is inimical to sustainable growth.
We then move on to consider the crisis- ridden nature of contemporary politics, including the crisis of democracy, and its intersections with the troublesome nature of work. Generally, governments have played a notable part in advancing neoliberalization, particularly in relation to work and employment relations. But workers’ expectations of greater protection, particularly in the context of COVID-19, have challenged the legitimacy of a neoliberal model that favours deregulated labour markets, employers’ flexibility and weak trade unions. The consequence is a more volatile and turbulent political environment, one where support for traditional left- of-centre social democracy has waned. Moreover, ‘populist’ far- right politics has increasingly thrived in settings where, because of neoliberalization, working people feel more insecure and threatened.
The crisis of work with which we are concerned in this book is a product of some notable crises that are at work, namely the harmful consequences of intensified neoliberal capitalism, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the escalating climate emergency. In this final chapter we consider the prospects for transcending the crisis, starting with an emphasis on how work can be made fairer, healthier and greener, particularly by means of a more empowered workforce, represented by stronger trade unions.
Fairer, healthier and greener work – empowered workers and unions
In a context of greater pressures for re- regulation, and amid escalating activism and contention, market fundamentalism may itself be in crisis (see Chapter 8), as people reject the profoundly exploitative model of work with which it is associated. They are increasingly rejecting prolonged wage stagnation and aspiring to improved employment rights and protections. Whether or not a shift in the balance of power away from capital and towards labour is occurring (O’Connor, 2022b), there is clearly a growing expectation that moderating employers’ flexibility is desirable and that workers should be better valued. Indeed, the demands of a ‘just transition’ for the purpose of tackling the climate crisis makes transcending neoliberal capitalism and the – socially and environmentally – unsustainable model of work and employment which characterizes it all the more imperative.
In the field of work and employment relations, there are incipient signs of a greater concern with workers’ interests. Consider, for example, the growing attention being devoted to the ‘good work’ agenda, based on the idea, first of all, of determining certain measures of job quality – for example, pay and rewards, job design, health, safety and well- being and voice – and then advancing ways of improving them (Dobbins, 2022b). The growth in the number of employers who have voluntarily chosen to pay workers a ‘real’ living wage demonstrates the potential effectiveness of interventions driven by a corporate commitment to operating ethically (Heery et al, 2023). The importance of such efforts, along with calls to address other troublesome aspects of contemporary work, through demands for a four- day week, for example, or for workers to have greater scope to ‘disconnect’ from their work outside of standard working hours, should not be disregarded. These things can make a positive difference to people's working lives.
We are surrounded by crises and have lived with, and in, crisis for a long time. The legacy of the multiple crises of the Cold War still haunts our geopolitical landscape; in the UK, our National Health Service is ‘in crisis’; we are told we are facing a ‘crisis of immigration’; we experience mental health crises; there is a ‘homelessness crisis’; the global financial system went into crisis in 2007–8. We could go on. However, we need a sense of perspective and proportion to understand our crisis- ridden world if we are to find ways out of crisis. While there are many ways to conceptualize crisis, and to view crises across a historical perspective, in our current situation the crises we face, be they ‘natural’ or caused by humans, have a common cause in the fundamental operation and antagonisms of capitalism.
In this book, we argue that the changing world of work must be understood in the context of three crises: the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate emergency. These three crises are interrelated and have considerable consequences for people's lives. We argue that these three crises combine to form a ‘polycrisis’ (see Tooze, 2021) which has far- reaching consequences for the world of work and employment. There is a synergy at play here: the polycrisis emerges from the fundamental antagonisms of capitalism and affects work; work is the fundamental generator of the profits of the capitalist system that we are embedded within.
While any crisis may have localized effects on economic relations, two of the major crises discussed in this book – the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate emergency – and their global reach offer the probability of major long- term disruptions to the economy, the third crisis that we explore here. We will view this contemporary conjuncture through the lens of work and employment, and we suggest that work itself is in a state of crisis, a consequence of the economic, epidemiological and environmental crises which themselves are a consequence of the fundamental antagonisms of capitalism.
There is, clearly, much that is badly wrong with work (Pettinger, 2019), not least because of the cocktail of crises we describe in this book.