What do we mean by backlash against rights? How does backlash vary? What explains its variation? Although backlash is recognized as a crucial problem in the legal mobilization literature, it is treated as a residual category. This paper proposes a conceptual apparatus and research agenda for its identification and analysis. We propose a definition of backlash that distinguishes it from ordinary legal mobilization, and identify key dimensions along which backlash varies – actors, realms, tactics, goals, and outcomes. We propose typologies to explore how backlash differs across these dimensions. For each dimension, we offer criteria to distinguish between the different forms of backlash, use examples to illustrate their particularities, and propose hypotheses regarding the factors that may explain variation. The main innovation of our approach is the concept of veiled backlash, which occurs in the backdoor of state agencies when regressive networks have dominant influence thereon. We claim that veiled backlash often employs pseudolegal tactics, which are difficult to detect and challenge, thus increasing the likelihood of backlash’s success. We further argue that veiled backlash tends to be cumulative; it has the ambitious goal of curtailing pro-rights policies or state agencies, yet it can go unnoticed because it relies on tactics that appear like ordinary legal mobilization.

This paper adopts a sociosemiotic perspective to examine how normative consensus and legitimacy are constructed in global artificial intelligence (AI) governance discourse. Drawing on a corpus of forty-seven international normative documents, the study identifies an emerging cross-textual consensus around three core principles – Safety, Human-centric and Fairness – and analyses how these are semiotically encoded. The findings reveal tensions between state and non-state actors, and between semiotic agreement and practical implementation. For instance, ‘Safety’ is often framed through securitisation discourse, while ‘Human-centric’ is increasingly grounded in international human rights frameworks. The study further shows that discursive strategies such as nominalisation help establish surface-level consensus but introduce ambiguity that undermines enforceability. By conceptualising governance texts as dynamic semiotic systems, this research moves beyond the hard law–soft law dichotomy, revealing global AI regulation as a contested arena of meaning-making. It offers a theoretical basis for advancing more inclusive and operational governance models.

The shared-syntax argument of bilingual language representations has support from studies of cross-linguistic structural priming. However, more research needs to be conducted to support the grammatical co-activation hypothesis. The current study investigates the behavioral patterns of bilingual grammatical co-activation in comprehension, taking into account the age of immersion (AoI), which significantly affects the performance of bilinguals. Specifically, we tested 114 native speakers of English: 84 English–French bilinguals (53 early and 31 late learners of French) and 30 functional English monolinguals with a grammatical maze task using English stimuli manipulated with the two opposing English and French rules of adverb placement. Early bilinguals with an AoI earlier than 7 appear to be more accepting of the French adverb placement while reading English sentences. This suggests that earlier bilinguals are more likely to show co-activation (and competition) of the two languages. Results support the shared-syntax system of bilingual grammatical representations.

Our research set out to determine how the distinctive social ethos and tactile appeal of physical modular synthesisers could be transferred into extended reality contexts. Employing a ‘netnographic’ approach, the research examined content drawn from social media platforms including YouTube, Discord and Reddit. Particular attention was given to an analysis of ‘PatchWorld’ as the most prominent commercially available virtual modular synthesis tool. Additionally, ‘OpenSoundLab’, an open-source mixed-reality modular sound laboratory that was developed in earlier research, was adapted to allow multi-user sessions in mixed reality (MR), both locally co-located or remotely. Commercial standalone headsets were handed out to three artists in order to observe how they translate their patch and performance practices into extended realities. Distributing both the headsets and software functioned as a form of ‘cultural probe’, enabling the collection of detailed user experiences and acting as a prompt for informed conversations. Through this process, the evaluation yielded evidence that some of the most valued aspects of using physical modular systems can be translated to virtual modular systems, especially since these share a similar – if not greater – potential for creative and social immersion in a spatial instrument.

We analyzed the determinants and potential of U.S. agricultural exports to South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Southern African countries by employing a stochastic frontier gravity model. Our estimated results suggest that importers’ GDP, institutional quality, globalization level, and participation in Trade and Investment Framework Agreement significantly promote U.S. exports, while geographic distance and landlocked status act as major constraints. The derived technical efficiency scores reveal considerable underperformance of U.S. exports. We recommend that the United States can expand and strengthen its Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, institutional cooperation, interconnectedness, and direct policy focus toward countries with the largest export gaps.

Planar particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements were conducted to investigate turbulent flows through a square duct roughened by transverse rectangular ribs of four blockage ratios (${\textit{Br}}=0.1$, 0.15, 0.2 and 0.25) at a bulk Reynolds number of ${\textit{Re}}_b = 9400$. In contrast to the classical two-dimensional (2-D) rib-roughened boundary-layer flows, the turbulent flow studied here is intrinsically three-dimensional (3-D) and inhomogeneous, complicated by not only the internal shear layers (ISLs) triggered by the rib crests, but also the intense interaction of the four boundary layers developing over duct sidewalls. It is observed that turbulent motions near the rib crest are mainly dominated by the ejection and sweep events. As the blockage ratio increases, the magnitudes of Reynolds stresses near the rib crest increase significantly attributed to enhanced sweep events and large-scale flapping motions. The results of temporal auto-correlations and spatial two-point auto-correlations show that both temporal and spatial integral scales of turbulence structures are dominated by the streamwise velocity fluctuations, which increase as the rib height increases. Based on proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analyses, it is interesting to observe that the ISL near the rib crest is dominated by both the low- and high-frequency flapping motions characteristic of the first POD mode.

A potentially powerful argument for police abolition appeals to root causes of crime. The root causes of crime are (e.g.) poverty and inequality caused by capitalism. By targeting crime at the roots, we can render the police obsolete and abolish them. I argue here that the root cause argument fails. Despite the suggestive metaphor, the fundamental causes of crime are deep and valuable, or in other words not uproot-able. They are essential to us, or we have good reason not to uproot them. To show this, I develop some simple models or recipes for crime inspired by Thomas Hobbes’s model of conflict in the state of nature and by contemporary theories of crime. The models suggest that at best we can manage these causes, and in turn the resulting crime. There is, however, no hope of fundamental reforms that do away with the need for social monitoring and sanctioning, or policing.

The Fremouw Formation of the Central Transantarctic Mountains preserves the southernmost record of Early to Middle Triassic terrestrial ecosystems that developed in the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction. Although the well-studied vertebrate fossil assemblage in the lower member of the Fremouw Formation provides a detailed snapshot of subpolar ecosystems immediately following the end-Permian mass extinction, the nature of how long these earliest Triassic communities persisted at the southern extremes of Pangaea is virtually unknown. Importantly, the timing and extent of the major faunal turnover between the lower and upper members of the Fremouw Formation have been obscured by the paucity of fossil specimens historically recovered from the middle member. Here, we describe the first vertebrate assemblage from the middle member of the Fremouw Formation, including occurrences of procolophonids (including Procolophon trigoniceps) and archosauromorphs (including Prolacerta broomi), as well as infilled vertebrate burrow casts referrable to the ichnogenus Reniformichnus. We also summarize and expand on lithostratigraphic shifts between the lower, middle and upper members of the Fremouw Formation. Although the sample size of vertebrate body fossils is small compared to the lower and upper members of the Fremouw Formation, we discuss the evidence for a taphonomic shift between the lower and middle members of the Fremouw Formation that favours preservation of smaller-bodied taxa and individuals in the latter. Together, these preliminary data add crucial context to the persistence of subpolar vertebrate communities in the earliest Mesozoic.

This article examines the creation in the early 1710s of a library at the Dublin military hospital for old soldiers known as the Royal Hospital Kilmainham (RHK). It shows that the library was created after an appeal by the master of the RHK, describes the books in the collection, and examines the gifts from a significant pool of seventy-one high-status men and women across Ireland from which the collection was constructed. It considers why the library was created at this time and its use during the two centuries that would elapse before the final closure of the hospital in the wake of Irish independence. This article is the first ever examination of the physical books and makes significant use of the minute books of the board of the RHK and its sub-committees, manuscript records that historians have tended to assume were lost or destroyed after the evacuation of British troops from the twenty-six counties.

This article explores the macroeconomic consequences of a sharp US dollar depreciation against the backdrop of high US policy uncertainty, fiscal imbalances and growing geopolitical fragmentation. Using the NiGEM global macroeconomic model, we simulate three scenarios: (1) a combined shock to currency and investment risk premia; (2) a broad-based currency risk premium shock and (3) a currency risk premium shock specifically benefiting the euro. The first scenario results in a global slowdown, with pronounced effects on the US economy. In contrast, the latter two scenarios suggest potential gains for the Euro Area, conditional on the euro’s enhanced international role. Realising such gains would require measures to increase the supply and liquidity of Euro Area safe assets. The analysis also highlights risks beyond the model’s scope, including the potential for a financial crisis triggered by a sudden loss of confidence in the US dollar.

In Mandarin Chinese, numeral classifiers form a grammatical category that is syntactically obligatory when a noun is modified by a numeral or a demonstrative. The appropriate choice of a classifier is associated with the semantic properties of its corresponding noun and is context dependent. Experience with language is needed to learn these patterns, but little is known about how classifiers are structured in children’s language environments. We compared the frequency and distribution of classifier phrases in four corpora: child-directed speech, children’s television shows, children’s books, and adult-directed speech. Classifier usage in children’s books was more diverse than in both child-directed and adult speech. Books contained more specific classifiers that co-occurred with a higher proportion of unique nouns, whereas everyday speech relied on more generic classifiers. Books therefore provide access to classifier–noun combinations that are rare in speech. Implications for language development and language processing are discussed.

For survivors of domestic violence, public safety net benefits, including housing, food, and cash assistance, are often critical resources in establishing independent, safe lives. Using a reflexive thematic analysis of qualitative data from a local housing programme collected from August 2023 to January 2024, this study explores the intersection of trauma-informed care (TIC) and administrative burden within public safety net programmes for survivors of domestic violence. Findings demonstrate that barriers to accessing and participating in the public safety net, including learning, compliance, and psychological costs, hinder survivors’ recovery and stability, and clash with TIC principles. Conversely, TIC-aligned practices at the local housing programme, including strong case management, peer support, and flexible programming, mitigate these challenges. Research and policy implications related to how the integration of TIC principles can ease administrative burden in the public safety net are discussed.

Scimitar syndrome is a rare CHD involving anomalous pulmonary venous drainage and lung hypoplasia. Severe cases complicate single ventricle palliation, prompting a shift to transplantation. Our case series highlights suboptimal outcomes despite this shift, emphasising the need for further research to optimise treatment in this challenging population.

The effectiveness of ultrasonic absorptive coatings (UACs) in achieving delay in turbulent transition on a hypersonic boundary layer over a 3$^\circ$ half-angle cone was investigated under flight-like free-stream disturbance conditions. Tests were conducted at the Boeing/AFOSR Mach 6 Quiet Tunnel at Purdue University for four free-stream Reynolds numbers ranging from $9.0\times 10^6\,$ to $14.3 \times 10^6\,\rm m^{-1}$. Silicon-carbide-coated carbon foams with pore densities of 60, 100 and 200 pores per inch (X0.6, X1, X2) were fabricated as three frustums to vary streamwise location and porous section length. Solid–porous configurations were constructed to analyse the effect of foam length and position. Axisymmetric direct numerical simulations (DNS) and linear-stability theory (LST) analysis were performed to support the experimental findings, modelling the porous foams as time-domain impedance boundary conditions. The UACs influence boundary-layer transition primarily by modifying wall impedance and providing acoustic absorption to weaken second-mode resonance. All porous foams exhibited this behaviour, with the X1 foam achieving the most effective transition delay, strongly dependent on placement. Downstream positioning (59.2–74.3 cm) produced a 13.6 % relative delay, whereas upstream extension (44.1–74.3 cm) led to initial stabilisation followed by a downstream overshoot in second-mode amplitude. The X0.6 and X2 foams showed similar trends. Both LST and DNS predict attenuation of the high-frequency second-mode band and delayed amplification of adjacent low-frequency modes, explaining the overshoot and placement sensitivity. A detailed comparison of $N$-factors shows excellent agreement among experiment, LST and DNS, reinforcing the validity of the combined methodology and the consistency of the identified instability mechanisms.

In this article, we investigate the p-rank stratification of the moduli space of curves of genus g that admit a double cover to a fixed elliptic curve E in characteristic $p>2$. We show that the closed p-rank strata of this moduli space are equidimensional of the expected dimension. We also show the existence of a smooth double cover of E of all the possible values of the p-rank on this moduli space.