The greater implications of Bartelson’s Becoming International

Of all major International Relations (IR) scholars active today, it is Jens Bartelson who has done the most in terms of getting us to rethink our assumptions about the basic building blocks of our field. In a series of very significant books — A Genealogy of Sovereignty (1993), The Critique of the State (2001) and Sovereignty as Symbolic Form (2014)— as well as numerous articles, he has changed our understanding of both the concept of sovereignty and its conceptual history, with serious implications also for the history of ‘the state.’ His 2017 book War in International Thought has led the reader through the evolution of the thinking about war. And his most recent book Becoming International (2024), which is the subject of this review essay, joins Visions of World Community (2009) in getting us to rethink the very basic notion of ‘the international’ and how it came about

Connexin 43 is downregulated in advanced Parkinson’s disease in multiple brain regions which correlates with symptoms

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative condition with the greatest increase in disability globally. Dysfunction of dopaminergic neurons is a well-known PD hallmark; however, changes in astrocytes also accompany PD progression. One aspect of astrocyte biology not yet investigated in PD is their network coupling. To assess this, we focussed on the major astrocytic gap junctional protein connexin 43 (Cx43, GJA1). A dataset of 20 post-mortem late-stage PD brain tissue samples from the cortex and basal ganglia alongside 20 age-matched control sets was collected, accompanied by clinical histories and data on -synuclein, tau, and amyloid-beta pathology. Protein levels and intracellular distribution of Cx43 and other key markers were measured. Computational re-analysis of open-source mRNA sequencing datasets from the striatum and midbrain complemented the original findings. Two novel observations were made: first, profound Cx43 loss in late-stage PD, and second, differential manifestation of this pathology in different brain areas, including those outside of the midbrain substantia nigra – the region that is most commonly used in PD research. Cx43 downregulation in specific regions correlated with non-motor symptoms of PD such as depression and sleep disturbance. Astrocytic tree simplification in the frontal cortex was further observed. In conclusion, astrocytic network decoupling through Cx43 downregulation in PD may contribute to astrocytic dysfunction and PD symptom development

Towards critical, anti-colonial and anti-racist education in national and global contexts

The fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4) of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. With over 122.6 million people worldwide forcibly displaced, and the number of refugees globally reaching 43.7 million by mid-2024, focusing on the importance of refugees accessing lifelong learning has become more urgent than ever. Despite this, refugees have been excluded from SDG-related national development plans, monitoring and reporting, raising questions about how the targets agreed in the Global Compact on Refugees and the SDGs are being implemented and met. Education, migration regulation and border regimes that reproduce injustices are fundamental elements of colonial education and have implications for lifelong learning. Education is often presented as crucial to the “integration” of migrants, including refugee people who have come to England. Nevertheless, the British government’s austerity policies, regarded by some as a form of racism, have underfunded the education system. This has made it more challenging for all learners from low-income families, and specifically refugee people, to access adequate education, amongst other rights. This article begins with a look at the assimilationist and apparent neutrality of approaches to education as sponsored by global and national commitments. The author then briefly discusses education as a practice of oppression, with colonial implications, including presenting perspectives from England and Brasil drawn from qualitative and mixed-methods doctoral and postdoctoral research. The article concludes by proposing approaches to enact education and lifelong learning as a practice of liberation rooted in critical, anti-racist and anti-colonial thinking and praxis

The Importance of Frailty in Stroke and How to Measure It.

The term ‘frailty’ is used frequently in healthcare and has become topical for both research and clinical care. Although many clinicians report an intuition for identifying frailty, there is often uncertainty over what it actually represents, how it can be assessed, and what it may mean for the patient. This article provides a focused introduction to frailty for the stroke clinician-in-training (and for those more experienced), in particular the different approaches to evaluating frailty in the stroke setting

Understanding the socio-spatial distribution of "dark retail" in England: Development of a unique retail location dataset.

Online food delivery services (OFDS) are an increasingly popular way of accessing both ready-to-consume foods and groceries. Such foods are sometimes delivered from facilities not open to the public - so called 'dark retail'. However, there is a lack of data on 'dark retail', which limits understanding of their location, prevalence and growth. We identified different types of dark kitchens (i.e., "virtual brands", "ghost kitchens") and dark grocery stores (i.e., "large dark grocers", "small/independent dark grocers"). Using data on 113,370 unique online food outlets from three major food delivery platforms (Uber Eats, JustEat, and Deliveroo) in England, we created a database of dark retail locations and analysed their socio-spatial distribution. Dark retail accounted for 14 % of all online food outlets, with the majority being virtual brands. Overall, dark retail is more likely to be located in more deprived areas. The extent of dark retail observed highlights the importance of incorporating them into existing regulatory frameworks. Our database and findings provide insights into the socio-spatial distribution of dark retail, which could inform future research and policy development in this area

Case Report: Activated PI3-kinase-δ syndrome and ovarian malignancies: a case series from the European ESID-APDS registry

Activated phosphoinositide-3-kinase-delta (PI3Kδ) syndrome (APDS) is an autosomal dominant inborn error of immunity (IEI) characterized by combined immunodeficiency and immune dysregulation with increased risk for lymphoma and other non-lymphoid malignancies. We describe five patients with ovarian malignancies among 110 female APDS patients participating in the European Society for Immunodeficiencies (ESID) registry and identified three additional cases in the literature. These findings document a relevant predisposition to these non-hematological malignancies in APDS patients

Technology, capitalism, and the social contract

In this article, we draw out implications for the social contract from the increasing use of digital technology. We look first at the particular consequences of digital technology for the employment relationship. We then turn to the consequences for capitalism and identify three particular narratives: in entrenching of capitalism, amendments to capitalism, and post-capitalism. Our aim is to focus on current uses of digital technology and changes that are already present in the workplace and rely on empirical evidence rather than develop speculative ideas about large-scale economic and social change. We conclude with some reflection on ethics and trust

Actually existing smart forests: A proposal for pluralizing eco-technical worlds

The “actually existing smart city” is a familiar figure and concept within smart environments research. Usually, “actually existing” analyses challenge the often-hyperbolic proposals for smart cities by grounding research in built urban conditions. Cities are not exemplars of digital interconnectivity and seamless functioning, many smart cities researchers note. Instead, they are complicated sites of uneven urban development. Such research places speculative urban visions in contrast with empirical conditions to reflect upon and re-evaluate smart city proposals as they hit the ground. Building on this critical research, this article considers how smart environments are proliferating beyond cities to other milieus, including forests. By first reviewing “actually existing” smart cities literature along with “actually existing” references in social and political theory, we consider how to update and advance the “actually existing” analytic by revisiting the perceived rift between speculative and actual environments. Drawing on interviews with smart forest stakeholders, the second part of the article develops three examples of “actually existing” smart forests that demonstrate how inseparable the envisioning, making, and sustaining of smart environments can be. Even more than empirical conditions counteracting fantastical visions, we propose the “actually existing” analytic can be updated and mobilized to examine how plurality, contestation, and democratic participation are at stake not just in the lived conditions of smart environments but also in the abstract and provisional contours of computational technologies as they shape and transform milieus. We suggest that engagement with the plurality of speculations, material conditions, and practices is crucial for ensuring “actually existing” eco-technical worlds and relations are attuned to equity and environmental flourishing

Metareview: a survey of active matter reviews

Abstract In the past years, the amount of research on active matter has grown extremely rapidly, a fact that is reflected in particular by the existence of more than 1000 reviews on this topic. Moreover, the field has become very diverse, ranging from theoretical studies of the statistical mechanics of active particles to applied work on medical applications of microrobots and from biological systems to artificial swimmers. This makes it very difficult to get an overview over the field as a whole. Here, we provide such an overview in the form of a metareview article that surveys the existing review articles and books on active matter. Thereby, this article provides a useful starting point for finding literature about a specific topic. Graphical abstract </jats:sec

What next for tests of the situational model of Situational Action Theory? Recommendations from a systematic review

Situational Action Theory's (SAT) situational model is being increasingly applied to study rule-breaking behaviours. Given this rapidly growing interest, it is timely to review the state of empirical support for the model and identify conceptual and methodological challenges in order to guide future studies in more appropriate tests of the model. This paper systematically reviews 37 quantitative tests of SAT's situational model that were published during the 5 years from 2016 to 2020 to formulate and then answer the following research questions: (1) What samples and offences have been studied to investigate the situational propositions put forward by SAT, and what are the most needed kinds of studies and replications? (2) What is the state of empirical support for SAT's situational model? (3) What are the challenges and what improvements are required for future tests of SAT's situational model? and (4) What clarifications and refinements are a theoretical priority? Overall findings of the review highlight the utility of SAT's situational model in investigating a diversity of rule-breaking behaviours across a range of ages and countries. However, the review also makes clear that when reviewed as a whole, this literature encounters methodological pitfalls and theoretical imprecision. These limitations must be addressed as empirical tests of SAT's complex situational model become increasingly nuanced and highly specified. Thus, building on the findings of the systematic review, the paper explores these complex limitations and specifies the theoretical and methodological refinements required to advance the study of person-environment interaction in acts of rule-breaking.</jats:p