Transformative embodied cognition

How should accounts that stress the embodied, embedded and engaged character of human minds accommodate the role of rationality in human subjectivity? Drawing on Matthew Boyle’s contrast between ‘additive’ and ‘transformative’ conceptions of rationality, I argue that contemporary work on embodied cognition tends towards a problematic ‘additivism’ about the relationship between mature human capacities to think and act for reasons, and sensorimotor capacities to skillfully engage with salient features of the environment. Additivists view rational capacities to reason and reflect as a distinct ‘layer’ or ‘storey’ of human cognition, with a normative structure that differs from that of the sensorimotor coping skills which support it. I argue that emphasizing the embodied and engaged character of human minds is better combined with a ‘transformative’ conception of rationality – one which holds that acquiring abilities to give and ask for reasons transforms the normative structure of our unreflective embodied dealings with the environment. And I argue that a transformative embodied cognitive science of human rationality is not only possible, but underway. Integrating existing work on embodied cognition with work on the cultural and developmental contexts that shape human minds suggests how human immersion in culture transforms the structure of sensorimotor engagements by bringing about the communicability and negotiability of the meanings to which those engagements attune us

Teaching Data Science to Diverse Learners: A Hybrid and Interdisciplinary Approach

This paper describes the development and delivery of an introductory data science course designed for interdisciplinary master's students studying in a hybrid format, without advanced mathematics prerequisites. The course addresses the increasing need for data science skills among non-specialists, preparing them to tackle real-world challenges. It focuses on a hands-on, problem-led approach that emphasizes practical applications of data analysis and supports engagement among students from diverse academic backgrounds. The course teaches Python programming through Jupyter notebooks as the core tool for analyzing data and employs additional support tools to aid learning and assessment. This structure aims to build foundational data science skills and foster students' confidence in working with data.</p

The interplay between loyalty and legitimacy in blockchain-based metaverses:The case of Decentraland

This article explores the role of legitimacy in fostering user loyalty in open-source blockchain-based metaverses which offer an innovative alternative to the exit-and-loss logic of large centralized platforms. Specifically, we ask: how do perceptions about the legitimate governance blockchain-based metaverses shape users’ decisions to exit, use their voice, or remain loyal to the platform? Conceptually, we ground our analysis in Albert Hirschman's framework of exit, voice, and loyalty – where legitimacy is hypothesized to serve as an important precondition of loyalty. Drawing on a qualitative case study of Decentraland, we find that legitimacy and loyalty seem to exhibit a bidirectional, mutually reinforcing relationship which changes depending on the type of user in question and is significantly shaped by individual's economic self-interest. Highly invested users, for instance, demonstrated performative loyalty and engaged in self-legitimizing practices to convince other users and external actors that the governance of Decentraland was legitimate, thereby indirectly preserving the financial value of their investments. This paper expands the application of Hirschman's framework to the novel domain of blockchain-based metaverses and contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between legitimacy and loyalty in decentralized digital platforms with in-built economies

Implications of respiratory syncytial virus seasonality for the timing of passive immunisation scenarios in Latin America and the Caribbean – a cross-sectional modelling study

Background: The variation in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) seasonality presents challenges for the timing of RSV prophylaxis. Prevention policies must consider seasonal dynamics to protect infants from severe RSV infections. We evaluated the timing and impact of passive immunisation on birth cohorts in Latin America and the Caribbean, accounting for RSV seasonality, duration of protection and uptake.Methods: We characterised the 2010-2019 RSV seasonality by climate region using a moving averages-based method and surveillance data and identified newborns eligible for passive RSV immunisation under varied assumptions of protection duration and strategies. Lastly, we explored different intervention time windows and estimated RSV-associated acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) averted among newborns. Findings: In 2010-2019, 28 countries reported 317,951 RSV-positive respiratory samples (12.6% RSV positivity). RSV epidemics followed a south-to-north progression, with onset ranging from March to November in subtropical climates, and year-round epidemics in the tropics.Seasonal immunisation benefited newborns born during January-September in temperate countries, while those born year-round in the tropics benefited from immunisation during at least one epidemic. Year-round vaccination covered newborns for at least one season; long-acting monoclonal antibodies (mAb) administered at five months to infants of immunised mothers extended protection through the remaining season. Year-round campaigns suited tropical climates. At 80% coverage, 61.3% (95% CI 60.7-67) and 55% (95% CI 55.0-56.0) RSV-ALRI cases among 0-&lt;12 months were averted through mAb in exemplar temperate and tropical countries, respectively. In subtropical countries, combined RSV maternal vaccination and long-acting mAb averted 57.3% (95%CI:56.8-57.8) of RSV-ALRI. Efficiency per 100,000 doses administered varied minimally across strategies. Conclusions: RSV climatic variations underscored the importance of surveillance in tailoring the timing and extent of annual campaigns. RSV seasonality informs the selection of interventions. Public health initiatives can enhance prevention for newborns by defining optimal windows for immunising at-risk-infants. <br/

Geochemistry of mantle peridotites and chromitites from Upper Cretaceous ophiolites in NW Türkiye: Insights into abyssal to forearc mantle settings

This paper presents new data on whole-rock and mineral chemistry, trace elements of clinopyroxene (Cpx) and chromite, along with detailed petrographic observations of mantle peridotites and chromitites from the NW Anatolian (Harmancık-Orhaneli, Bursa) ophiolites to better understand contrasting geochemical signatures and different stages of lithospheric evolution along the İzmir-Ankara-Erzincan Ocean (İAEO) in northern Türkiye. The mantle peridotites, characterized by abundant high-grade podiform chromitites in Harmancık and banded chromitites in Orhaneli, are particularly notable. The mantle rocks include depleted- lherzolites, Cpx-rich harzburgites, harzburgites, Cpx-poor harzburgites, and dunites. Compositional variations in the mantle peridotites from both Harmancık and Orhaneli reflect continuous evolution driven by melt depletion and metasomatic enrichment occurring in both mid-ocean ridge (MOR) and supra-subduction zone (SSZ) environments. Our modeling suggests that the depleted lherzolites and Cpx-rich harzburgites in the Harmancık area are residues of anhydrous MOR-type melting of a fertile mid-ocean ridge mantle (FMM), with partial melting degrees of approximately 12–17% and 15–22%, respectively. In contrast, the harzburgites, Cpx-poor harzburgites, and dunites in the Harmancık area represent residues after 20–25% partial melting of a depleted MORB-type mantle, which itself was a residue following around 22% partial melting of an FMM during subduction initiation in the Late Cretaceous. The mantle peridotites in the Orhaneli area are comparatively more depleted, comprising Cpx-rich harzburgites, harzburgites, and dunites. This is supported by highly depleted rare earth element (REE) contents, similar to SSZ-type peridotites, indicating residues after 20–35% partial melting of a depleted MORB-type mantle (DMM). Furthermore, the compositions of parental magmas, as well as the trace element contents of chromites from the high-Cr chromitites and associated dunites in both Harmancık and Orhaneli, suggest that they were generated from boninitic melts in a supra-subduction zone (SSZ) environment. All the data suggests that the peridotites with high-grade podiform chromitites in the Harmancık region form the deeper mantle levels, whereas the banded chromitites within extensive dunite bodies in the Orhaneli region suggests proximity to the Moho transition zone, derived from the İAE Ocean in Late Cretaceous

How do borrower ESG performance and risks matter to banks?

We examine how two distinct Environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures—disclosure-based ESG performance and event-driven ESG risks—affect the cost of bank loans. Using an international sample, we find that borrowers with higher ESG risks face significantly higher loan spreads, while stronger ESG performance is associated with lower spreads. The cost-saving effect of ESG performance depends on ESG risk but not vice versa. Our analysis suggests that these relationships operate through mitigating information asymmetry and signalling borrower quality. Furthermore, matching between lenders’ and borrowers’ ESG profiles moderates banks’ pricing strategies, particularly in the risk dimension: ESG-aligned borrower–lender pairs are more likely to form lending relationships and secure loans at lower spreads. These findings provide new evidence on the pricing of different ESG dimensions in the loan market and highlight the role of lender–borrower ESG compatibility in shaping credit terms

Suppression of bacterial cell death underlies the antagonistic interaction between ciprofloxacin and tetracycline

Antibiotic combinations aim to maximise drug treatment efficiency and minimise resistance evolution, but a full understanding of their effect on bacterial cells is lacking. The interaction between the DNA-damaging antibiotic ciprofloxacin and the translation inhibitor tetracycline is antagonistic, resulting in a weaker effect on bacterial growth than expected from each drug individually. Whilst this antagonism has been analysed at the population level, it has not been investigated at the single-cell level. We used a microfluidic device to quantify the antagonism between ciprofloxacin and tetracycline in single bacterial cells under three nutrient conditions. Improved growth results from increased survival of cells under the drug combination compared to ciprofloxacin alone. This effect depends on the initial drug-free growth rate, with better suppression in nutrient-rich conditions. Quantifying the DNA damage response (SOS response) revealed two sub-populations among cells that died upon ciprofloxacin treatment. The larger low-SOS sub-population, which showed increased survival compared to high-SOS cells, explains the stronger antagonistic effect in nutrient-rich conditions. Our results underscore the importance of single-cell quantification in understanding bacterial responses to antibiotic combinations

Tissue-specific consequences of tag fusions on protein expression in transgenic mice

Genetic fusion of protein tags is widely used to study protein functions in vivo. It is well known that tag fusion can cause unwanted changes in protein stability, but whether this is an inherent property of the tagged protein, or can be influenced by the cell and tissue environment, is unclear. Using a series of genome edited mouse models, we show that tag-dependent changes in protein expression can vary across different primary cell and tissue contexts. In one case (Ncaph2), a C-terminal auxin inducible degron fusion strongly increased protein stability in some tissues but decreased it in others. Destabilisation resulted from tissue-specific ‘leakage’ of the auxin-inducible degron, which depended on TIR1 expression, and occurred selectively in the small intestine where basal concentrations of auxin / indole-3-acetic acid can reach levels that are sufficient to trigger protein degradation in cultured cells. Stabilisation occurred in post-mitotic cells via an endogenous degradation signal situated at the Ncaph2 C-terminus, which normally undergoes activation upon cell cycle exit, but is inactivated by C-terminal tag fusion. Our results highlight the underappreciated importance of cell and tissue environment in determining the consequences of tag fusions on protein expression, which may be particularly important in animal models that contain diverse cell types

Assembling global security law and the politics of scale-making:The Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF)

This article rethinks ‘the global’ by analysing the emergence and growth of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF), an informal platform of multilateral counterterrorism co-operation which has been instrumental in the making of post-9/11 global security law and governance. It problematises and empirically analyses how global scale is enacted through the socio-material practices of translation and assemblage that have been deployed in the construction, maintenance and extension of the GCTF governance network. Drawing from interviews with policy experts and GCTF members, and from participant-observation in GCTF and UN events, the article contributes to the theme of the Special Issue and wider legal debates about the spatiotemporal dynamics of global law and governance by critically analysing how global scale is fabricated in practice and unpacking the politics of GCTF’s global scale-making processes. Focusing on specific techniques and norm-creation processes of the GCTF, like watch-listing toolkits and ‘good-practice’ documents on foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) and countering violent extremism (CVE), the article analyses how translation, problematisation and enrolment practices have assembled the GCTF as an ‘apolitical’ global security governance body. Our approach opens novel possibilities for socio-legal research on the politics of scale-making and critiquing global security power in action through empirical attention to its assemblage practices