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Lead white (basic lead carbonate), before its effective ban in much of Europe from 1989 onwards, was among the most versatile and widespread but also one of the most harmful pigments available. This paper is a critical discussion of the regulation of lead white paint and its consequences from the point of view of conservation and artistic practice in Europe. It looks at who benefited from exemptions to bans, and whether there was resistance to them. Buildings and artworks are both taken into account. The paper discusses nuances in regulation in four European countries which have notable differences in approach (France, Austria, Germany, and the United Kingdom). The centralised regulatory framework of the United Kingdom allows data analysis on the authorised use of the paint since its restriction up to the present day. This dataset shows a steady decrease in the use of the paint by conservators across disciplines. The paper concludes by considering the professional and ethical implications of lead white paint for artists and conservators, in the context of varied regulation and a decline in use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2019 Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market represents an intriguing departure from the anticipated path of liberalisation in public policy. While it includes provisions seemingly aligned with the liberalisation of the Digital Single Market by relaxing digital copyright enforcement, it also introduces mechanisms that bolster digital copyright protection, signalling a shift towards market regulation. This paper explores why and how Jean-Claude Juncker's European Commission proposed a directive featuring robust regulatory elements despite initial promises of copyright deregulation within the Digital Single Market. Combining insights from political economy and political sociology, I examine the concept of 'political work' as the practice of promoting, defending, and implementing a choice of public action. Within this framework, I identify a managerial dimension of political work involving political practices that influence the institutional structure and management of public action. Utilising a qualitative methodology involving twelve in-depth interviews with Commission officials conducted between 2018 and 2021, alongside document analysis, I demonstrate how Jean-Claude Juncker and his cabinet's managerial political work, encompassing organisational reforms within the Commission, played a pivotal role in steering the proposed policy towards regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the polymorphous role of the Chinese provincial government in planning, financing, and constructing intercity railways in the Pearl River Delta region. Provincial governments claim absolute ownership in railway planning and land development surrounding railway stations. Informed by the state-theoretical perspective, we developed a conceptual framework that examines the city-regional governance of Chinese states with an emphasis on their capacity for regulation. Provincial governments selectively bargain with ministries and municipalities during development and they are flexible in the multi-scalar politics of railway projects. Their competence lies in their initiatives to gain knowledge of local land development. Our findings suggest that the polymorphous role of the provincial government extends beyond its usual function as a mediator in central-local relations and that its strategic nature reflects the complexity of China's state powers and regulatory regimes. Meanwhile, local authorities pursue urban growth and central ministries aspire to exert their regulations on localities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethics policies have emerged as a key aspect of the European (post)-Regulatory State. Such policies are designed to create ‘noise’, allowing media and public discourse to mobilise around the ethical lapses of those in power. The regulation of revolving doors (RD), i.e., movements in and out of government positions, is an ethics policy. However, unlike other ethics policies, RD regulation does not make transparency its central feature but constitutes what we call ‘quiet regulation’. Drawing on qualitative document analysis and interviews, we study the quiet regulation of RD for EU Commissioners. We demonstrate that quiet regulation has a dual nature: its public façade relies on independence, judicialised procedures and transparency. Conversely, its day-to-day operation is characterised by self-regulation, soft law and informality. In this way, RD regulation achieves two contradictory aims: functioning as a legitimate ethics policy while simultaneously avoiding the moral outcry that often surrounds ethics policies and the politicisation of RD, thereby normalising RD as ‘administration as usual’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe Zrt/Irt-like protein (ZIP) family consists of ubiquitously expressed divalent d-block metal transporters that play central roles in the uptake, secretion, excretion, and distribution of several essential and toxic metals in living organisms. The past few years has witnessed rapid progress in the molecular basis of these membrane transport proteins. In this critical review, we summarize the research progress at the molecular level of the ZIP family and discuss the future prospects. Furthermore, an evolutionary path for the unique ZIP fold and a new classification of the ZIP family are proposed based on the presented structural and sequence analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractAlthough land use planning in the United States has long privileged single-family homes, the dominance of single-family zoning is weakening. At least eight states have passed laws opening single-family neighborhoods to accessory dwelling units and, in some cases, to middle housing, such as townhouses, duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes. Opponents of laws liberalizing single-family zoning often seek to prohibit for-profit developers from densifying single-family neighborhoods, by restricting development to owner-occupiers. Often these opponents invoke concerns about gentrification and social equity. But for recent zoning reforms to put a meaningful dent in the housing affordability problems confronting many regions, the planning profession must accept that the physical transformation of neighborhoods at scale will require significant, though by no means exclusive, involvement of for-profit builders. In this Viewpoint we explain why the relevant empirical evidence from cities such as Houston (TX), Portland (OR), and Auckland (New Zealand) indicates that single-family zoning reform can foster more affordable types of housing through for-profit development, while allaying fears concerning gentrification and displacement. Cities and states should promote equity and neighborhood stability through tools such as tenant protections, but they should eliminate owner-occupancy restrictions and other regulations that bar for-profit developers from building middle housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article generates new insights into the changing profession of journalism. Empirically, we present the findings of 21 interviews with journalists working in the Irish and UK sports beats on their experiences of online abuse. Conceptually, we address the under-theorising of emotions in journalism by extending the utility and entanglement of emotion work and emotional labour. In doing so, we posit future lines of theoretical enquiry about individual and social regulation. Several key discoveries are presented. First, sports journalism is a distinctive profession because significant authentic emotional work is undertaken. This is only accentuated when online abuse occurs. Journalists are deeply affected by this abuse, personally and professionally. Second, online abuse towards sports journalists is now so ubiquitous as to be habitually accepted, and it has obscured the distinction between public and private spaces. Third, in response, sports journalists have been compelled to develop their own emotional strategies, including self-censorship, to cope with and manage online abuse. The findings presented here also pose practical and existential questions about the sustainability of the profession, especially in the absence of formal institutional supports or even an informal code of practice about how to cope with and respond to online abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Machine learning (ML) is utilized increasingly in health care, and can pose harms to patients, clinicians, health systems, and the public. In response, regulators have proposed an approach that would shift more responsibility to ML developers for mitigating potential harms. To be effective, this approach requires ML developers to recognize, accept, and act on responsibility for mitigating harms. However, little is known regarding the perspectives of developers themselves regarding their obligations to mitigate harms. Methods: We conducted 40 semi-structured interviews with developers of ML predictive analytics applications for health care in the United States. Results: Participants varied widely in their perspectives on personal responsibility and included examples of both moral engagement and disengagement, albeit in a variety of forms. While most (70%) of participants made a statement indicative of moral engagement, most of these statements reflected an awareness of moral issues, while only a subset of these included additional elements of engagement such as recognizing responsibility, alignment with personal values, addressing conflicts of interests, and opportunities for action. Further, we identified eight distinct categories of moral disengagement reflecting efforts to minimize potential harms or deflect personal responsibility for preventing or mitigating harms. Conclusions: These findings suggest possible facilitators and barriers to the development of ethical ML that could act by encouraging moral engagement or discouraging moral disengagement. Regulatory approaches that depend on the ability of ML developers to recognize, accept, and act on responsibility for mitigating harms might have limited success without education and guidance for ML developers about the extent of their responsibilities and how to implement them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contributing to recent academic and public debates on how European democracies should respond to a scenario of "post-truth politics", this article explores the idea of democracy that underlies current regulatory responses in the "European Democracy Action Plan" (EDAP). It offers a conceptual analysis of the institutional narratives in the EDAP illustrating normative expectations of the public sphere and transformations of the basic concepts in the European polity. It revisits the famous Habermasian systemic view of deliberation emphasizing the interconnections of the social and institutional realms through the public sphere in democracies. We argue that previous scholarship has focused too much on the presumed loss of consensus originated from the digital transformations in the public sphere without taking into consideration other institutional changes within the EU. The analysis of the key concepts illustrates the normative expectations of specific measures and shows that there is evidence of a systemic view in the EDAP, with different modes of intervention, partially coherent with Habermas' normative expectations. We conclude that the vision of democracy in the EDAP has been developed for decades to legitimate the EU's development and initiatives, but that it also incorporates a reformulation of some concepts justified by a post-truth scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When does business support corporate transparency laws, and how do they succeed despite opposition from other powerful business groups? Existing research converges on a common causal pathway: Crises increase public issue salience and open windows of opportunity for policy entrepreneurs to pressure politicians into adopting transparency laws. Examining the case of beneficial ownership transparency (BOT) laws, I theorize an alternative causal pathway where past policy decisions mandating information collection by certain industries produce inter-industry divergence in their policy preferences and undermine opposition business lobbying. Civil society groups can then engage in policy entrepreneurship to integrate supportive regulated industries into new coalitions. Large, organizationally diverse 'strange coalitions' increase political pressure on policymakers, leading to the adoption of corporate transparency laws. I conduct a structured, focused comparison of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia as parallel demonstrations of this causal pathway. I combine primary and secondary source documentation with 44 semi-structured interviews to trace failed and successful attempts to adopt BOT laws during the 2010s and early 2020s. I center endogenous feedback processes as a primary cause of transparency, provide further evidence of when firms prefer stronger regulation, and highlight the continued importance of domestic interests in transnational policy issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the sequential interplay between challenges and regulatory processes in high- and low-performing collaborative groups. 66 students from a Finnish higher education institution participated in a collaborative task in groups of three. Approximately 34 h of video data were coded. The sequential analysis revealed that both groups had higher sequential transitions between cognitive regulation and emotional/motivational regulation, rather than cognitive challenges. The high-performing groups demonstrated a stronger sequential link between emotional/motivational regulation and cognitive regulation than the low-performing groups did when faced with cognitive challenges. The study establishes a theoretical grounding and advances our understanding of regulated learning. Since collaborative learning tasks are highly adopted in the higher education context, especially in the Nordic region, this study has practical implications for higher education in these countries and beyond as they seek to develop pedagogical methodologies and customised support to help collaborative groups resolve challenges by initiating regulatory processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of AI-driven or AI-assisted systems in corporate compliance is a novel topic in the business and management literature, only marginally considered by legal academia. While some scholarly pieces have explored the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems to support compliance in the financial sector (eg, for anti-money laundering purposes), the legal implications of deploying AI systems to fulfil corporate compliance tasks has not yet received the attention it deserves. This article approaches the use of AI in corporate compliance and governance through the eyes of a regulator. Its aim is to present how the use of AI compliance systems within corporations can be leveraged by the entities tasked with ensuring the good governance of firms. Concretely, it explores a not-too-distant future, where some of the regulation of corporations can be driven by a mandate to systematically deploy Automated Compliance Management Systems (ACMS) within corporations as a way to enforce and monitor good governance. The article suggests that several of the limitations that regulators are currently facing to ensure the prevention of fraud, corruption or other forms of corporate non-compliance, could be addressed if regulators offered firms the possibility of being continuously monitored by an automated AI-driven system which systematically tracks the corporation’s data footprint. We then explore what is required for such a regulatory approach to be feasible and effective. In our view, regulators must first establish the standards of reliability for those systems (ie, the legal meaning of ‘red flags’ issued by the system of potential violations) and, second, actively supervise how companies react to the outputs of those systems (ie, what companies do when a red flag is raised by the system). In the final part of the article, we offer a more concrete example to the reader. We suggest it could be possible to test such an approach in Australia through regulatory sandboxes for the mining sector, concretely, to monitor compliance with antibribery obligations overseas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractGiven the need for enforceable guardrails for artificial intelligence (AI) that protect the public and allow for innovation, the U.S. Government recently issued a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights which outlines five principles of safe AI design, use, and implementation. One in particular, the right to notice and explanation, requires accurately informing the public about the use of AI that impacts them in ways that are easy to understand. Yet, in the healthcare setting, it is unclear what goal the right to notice and explanation serves, and the moral importance of patient-level disclosure. We propose three normative functions of this right: (1) to notify patients about their care, (2) to educate patients and promote trust, and (3) to meet standards for informed consent. Additional clarity is needed to guide practices that respect the right to notice and explanation of AI in healthcare while providing meaningful benefits to patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers potential strategies to address existing challenges facing health systems in the United States (U.S.). However, the development of the AI market for health care over the past decade also poses risks to public value in the short- and long-term. In this commentary, we describe the nature of large technology companies’ interface with health care in the U.S., outlining their roles in the context of their leadership in the platform economy. First, we describe the risks associated with the potential dominance of Big Tech companies in healthcare and outline the short-term context for regulating AI as it relates to Big Tech’s role in healthcare. We then explore the possibilities of regulatory approaches that might encourage the anticipation of risks and enforcement of responsible technology practices while retaining the goal of enhancing public value as a primary aim of healthcare policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can multiple organizational, social, and political actors effectively address the contemporary challenges of digital political campaigning? We proceed by reviewing the increased theoretical and empirical importance of digital political campaigning. We discuss the new research advances in the field and acknowledge the necessity for interdisciplinary research given the rapidly evolving techniques and the imminent positive and negative risks of digital campaigning. We present a multi-level actor approach for dealing with the risks of digital political campaigning. We outline the contribution of this issue and identify relevant gaps for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, governments are increasingly concerned about the way in which citizens' personal data are collected, processed and used during election campaigns To develop the appropriate tools for monitoring and controlling this new mode of "data-driven campaigning" (DDC) regulators require a clear understanding of the practices involved. This paper provides a first step toward that goal by proposing a new organizational and process-centred operational definition of DDC from which we derive a set of empirical indicators. The indicators are applied to the policy environment of a leading government in this domain – the European Union (EU) – to generate a descriptive "heat map" of current regulatory activity toward DDC. Based on the results of this exercise, we argue that regulation is likely to intensify on existing practices and extend to cover current "cold spots". Drawing on models of internet governance, we argue that this expansion is likely to occur in one of two ways. A "kaleidoscopic" approach, in which current legislation extends to absorb DDC practices and a more "designed" approach that involves more active intervention by elites, and ultimately the generation of a new regulatory regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdfunding and micro-donations for funding political campaigns have been extensively studied, especially in the US. However, digital participatory financing in Europe, with a different regulatory context and relevant public funding, has been investigated less. This article analyses the effects of an innovative and digital-native electoral campaign financing tool: the microcredit. Microcredits consist of small "civil loans" that a political party requests from sympathizers to finance the party's electoral campaign. Based on the case study of the Spanish party Podemos – the first one to implement it – for the period of 2015–2021, we use official data and party documents to explore the consequences of microcredit. We argue, first, that microcredits (and party financing) should be considered another way to differentiate challenger parties from traditional ones. Second, there is a link between the number and amount of microcredits and the political context, not limited to good electoral expectations but also to the polarized political context. Third, microcredits change the structure of campaign funding. Finally, we point out a regulation problem that may deter other parties from adopting this mechanism and present different legal problems (monitoring, data protection, or potential corruption), showing the regulatory issues for adapting to the digitalization of politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the extent to which educational law features and is constructed in the Teaching Council's documentation for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes (2017, 2020) and in the Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers (Code) (2016), and analyses teachers' required knowledge of the law across these documents. Document analysis was used to track changes and provide insights. The findings indicate that teachers' knowledge of educational law has a low profile in the criteria used to review and accredit ITE programmes. Despite significant developments in law related to schools and teachers since 2017, including additional statutory requirements for child protection, the 2020 document does not have a commensurate increase in emphasis on law. Contrastingly, the findings indicate a high profile, and a high bar, for teachers' knowledge of the law in the Code. Recommendations include that the Teaching Council analyse graduates' legal knowledge during registration to ensure that they have the requisite skills to adequately perform as a professional; that the emphasis on educational law be increased in the ITE criteria so that it is aligned with the Code, and that programme providers fulfil their duty of care to students by providing them with adequate standalone modules on educational law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the implementation of the One Sample Strategy (OSS), a co-regulation program aimed at managing mycotoxin risk in Texas maize. Fumonisin-contaminated cereals and oilseeds that contain greater than 5 mg kg−1 of the toxin (B1, B2, and B3) are a risk for equids and rabbits, and levels greater than 60 mg kg−1 are a risk to ruminants. The OSS, previously successful in managing aflatoxin risk in Texas maize, was evaluated for its effectiveness in handling fumonisin risk in maize, specifically as it relates to ruminants. In 2017, 25 analysts across seven firms qualified to participate in the program. To ensure greater accuracy in testing, working control samples were provided to the participating OSS firms with the requirement that their results fall within +/− 20% of the target concentration. Ninety-four percent of the working controls met this specification. The capability to grind maize to the OSS prescribed particle size was met by 100% of participants. To verify testing accuracy, file samples collected from each OSS firm were analysed by UPLC–MS/MS. The 177 fumonisin verification samples analysed by Office of the Texas State Chemist (OTSC) were correlated (r = 0.93) with co-regulation laboratories. Results were plotted in an operating curve to depict type I and type II errors. Error analysis revealed a type I error rate of 13% and type II error rate of 2% for the 5 mg kg−1 guidance level, and 6% and 8%, respectively, for the 60 mg kg−1 guidance level. For 2017, 994 official reports of analysis for fumonisin in whole maize in the Texas High Plains were issued by the seven laboratories that employed 25 OTSC-credentialed analysts. The OSS co-regulation program, supported by a quality systems approach and government regulations, has proven effective in managing fumonisin risk in Texas maize, enhancing both market confidence and livestock safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of gender disparity in de jure rules across the world is relatively well-known. Many studies show that this disparity is detrimental to female labor participation. Our focus is different in that we examine whether firms with females amongst ownership experience elevated time costs and burdens associated with government regulations relative to their male-owned counterparts. In this sense, we are interested in both de facto and de jure differences in governmental regulation. Using firm-level data and two alternative matching methods, our results suggest that firms with at least one female owner report that senior management spends a larger percentage of their time dealing with regulations. We also find that construction permits take approximately 4–7 days longer to obtain for these same firms. Lastly, we find that female-owned firms perceive labor regulations to be a larger obstacle to business operations. In all cases, these effects tend to be largest in countries with the most disparity in de jure rules. However, the gap remains even in the most de jure equal countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Urban citizenship' connotes to statuses and practices centred around the relationship between a locality and (all) individuals present or residing within its territory. This alternative imagination of citizenship (as opposed to formal nation-state citizenship) is based on a presumption of belonging for persons present/resident in the locality (ius domicii) and includes those typically excluded by the nation-state, in a radical vision of equality and non-discrimination. But domestic legal competences of local governments vary significantly across jurisdictions. This article, based on field research in Turkey and Switzerland, explores what role such domestic competences, or the regulation of local governments, plays in facilitating, encouraging, discouraging or obstructing local governments' engagement with radically inclusive urban citizenship practices. First operationalising the concept of 'regulation' and establishing Turkey and Switzerland as low- and high-regulation country contexts respectively, this article identifies four ways in which regulation shapes urban citizenship practices of local governments: (a) by shaping local governments' perception on their own autonomy; (b) by influencing whether local governments engage in legally foreseen or extra-legal practices; (c) by informing whether and how much local governments categorise different groups of rights-holders and; (d) by affecting which scales these urban citizenship practices are exercised in (upwards, downwards, horizontal). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to develop evidence-based policies and infrastructure for diverse Hajj pilgrim needs, aligning with SDGs. Hajj, Islam's fifth pillar, is mandatory for physically, socially, and spiritually capable Muslims, despite ranking the last. Among Indonesians, completing the Hajj holds profound significance. To support the pilgrimage, the government, through the Ministry of Religious Affairs, has established the Integrated Hajj Information System for Saudi Arabia pilgrim coordination. However, the system hasn't fully accommodated people with disabilities (PwDs), a significantly growing number, and primarily aged pilgrims with health issues. Thus, the Indonesian government must endorse tailored provisions, infrastructure, and services respecting PwDs' human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the establishment of banking supervision in Italy and its operation between 1926 and 1936, using a narrative approach based on previously classified documents from the Bank of Italy's Historical Archives. This case is particularly interesting from the international perspective, Italy having been the first European country to assign substantial supervision to its central bank, a few years before the 1929 crisis. Notwithstanding insufficient regulation and a light touch concerning the four major mixed banks, we document considerable enforcement of the law, which went beyond the initial provisions, thanks to the rather proactive supervisory approach adopted by the Bank of Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the interesting discourses that has occurred in Thailand as a result of ChatGPT is how the algorithm is exploited in a growing number of workshops and seminars aimed at teaching how to use, or to 'prompt', the algorithm so as to maximise its potential. On the one hand, the organisers of these workshops aim at profiting from the growing demand for ChatGPT. On the other, there is a sense among the Thai public that they must reap the benefit of the technology for their own purposes. This trend seems to be more prominent in Thailand than in the West, where ChatGPT is viewed more with critical outlook. In this paper, we critically examine the perception of ChatGPT in the Thai context, especially when ChatGPT is used as a topic in these workshops. We will also discuss how this situation should lead to a discussion of how ChatGPT should be regulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the complex landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI) legislation in South Korea, highlighting the tension between rapid technological advancement and societal protection. It traces South Korea's historical emphasis on Information Technology (IT) as an economic growth engine and its recent efforts to navigate the global trend towards AI development and regulation. The article argues that the legislative challenges in Korea are intricately linked to the nation's developmental approach to IT and AI, which often foregrounds economic competitiveness over addressing potential societal harms. This approach reflects a broader discourse that frames the promotion and regulation of emerging technologies as a binary choice between maintaining global competitiveness and mitigating technology's unpredictable impacts. In conclusion, the article calls for a more cautious and deliberative approach to AI regulation, emphasising the importance of inclusive discussions that consider a broader range of AI-related risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-growth firms (HGFs) are important for job creation and productivity growth. We investigate the relationship between product and labour market regulations, as well as the quality of regional governments that implement these regulations, and the development of HGFs across European regions. Using data from Eurostat, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Economic Forum (WEF), and Gothenburg University, we show that both regulatory stringency and the quality of the regional government relate to the regional shares of HGFs. In particular, we find that the effect of labour and product market regulations is moderated by the quality of regional government. Depending on the quality of regional governments, regulations may have a 'good, bad or ugly' influence on the development of HGFs. Our findings contribute to the debate on the effects of regulations and offer important building blocks to develop tailored policy measures that may influence the development of HGFs in a region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses and explains how the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) acquired and retains monopoly and monopsony power over Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in a complex political, legal, regulatory, and financial context. A qualitative and interpretive approach to research underpins a thematic analysis of social media and journalistic content alongside a review of a limited academic literature. It is found that the UFC has acquired and retained monopoly and monopsony power in a context of weak regulation, limited competition, ineffective legal and political intervention, and an absence of unionisation. The three key strategies employed by the UFC to sustain power over MMA were found to be 1. control of athlete labour via restrictive contracts; 2. acquisition of competitor promotions, expertise, and commercial contracts; and 3. building reputation and legitimacy via public relations and lobbying activities. The UFC has employed a combination of legitimate, referent, reward, expert, informational, and coercive power to become the dominant organisation in MMA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored patterns of social interaction and group-level regulation in terms of co- and socially shared regulation in collaborative learning and their relation to learners’ metacognitive task perceptions. 72 secondary school students performed collaborative physics tasks in small groups over multiple 90-minute sessions. Video recordings (∼148.5 h) of collaborative interactions and pre- and post- situated self-reports of learners’ task perceptions were collected. The collaborative sessions were clustered and collaborative interaction patterns were examined. Finally, learners’ task perceptions in the clusters were investigated. The results showed different collaborative interaction patterns and differences in learners’ task perceptions between the clusters. The main finding is that continuous active participation in socioemotional interactions alongside cognitive-focused interactions and appropriate group-level regulation of learning positively influence learners’ perceived task understanding. These findings add to current understanding of collaborative interactions as temporal processes and contribute to practical implications for supporting collaborative interactions to enhance metacognitive skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several emerging technologies afford a specific type of interference with privacy which has not yet been conceptualised: inferring information about mental properties of persons on the basis of physiological or biometric signals, in short: mind probing. This paper conceptualises it, analyses several forms and proposes concrete norms that ban and criminalise it. Facial emotion recognition, neuroimaging, or wearable consumer devices such as smartwatches process biometric data to draw inferences about minds; the prevalence and sophistication of such mind probes will soon increase through AI data analysis. This paper explores how human rights law, the EU General Data Protection Regulation and the EU AI Act address mind probes and shows why the current level of protection appears insufficient. This motivates novel norms banning and criminalising non-consensual biometric-based forms of mind reading, ensuring that at least some parts of the mind remain in principle free from non-consensual mind probing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robust regulation is predictively investigated in time-delay models including uncertainties, non-zero reference, and disturbance. Hence, to handle the complexities induced because of the time-delays, disturbances, and uncertainties, enhancing the transient performance would be a main control goal. To this purpose, the required transient and steady-state specifications are achieved through an integral control structure with adjustable gains. The constraints on the signals and aims of the control algorithm are also described by some linear matrix inequalities. Guaranteeing the stability, a minimisation procedure is found to specify the predictive controller. Several simulations are performed to establish the effectiveness of the introduced plan in comparison with the similar strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workers have often advocated for regulation to protect themselves from labor market threats. Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to transform many jobs in the coming years, especially those of white collar professionals. Yet we know little about the attitudes these and other workers hold or may develop toward the regulation of such technology. We argue that both self-interested and sociotropic concerns likely shape AI regulatory attitudes, and examine these arguments using a survey experiment exposing individuals to information about how technology will affect the work of people engaged in either routine, repetitive tasks or white collar, cognitive tasks. We anticipate that compared to a placebo group, individuals exposed to news about the impact of technology on jobs will favor regulation, and even more strongly when it is their own job type highlighted in the treatment. We find only modest responsiveness to the treatments on average, but observe that individuals with more knowledge of technology are strongly responsive to the AI treatments in the hypothesized manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, regular oversight of United States nursing home activities has been a key strategy to ensure minimum levels of care quality for residents. Oversight activities have included “standard” survey visits – that is, annual unannounced visits by state survey agencies (SSAs) that directly observe resident care and interview nursing home residents and staff. This study provides an overview of these activities, focusing on oversight delays arising from policy changes brought on by the pandemic. Data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service’s (CMS) Quality, Certification and Oversight Reports, Survey Summary Files, and Provider Information Files were used to measure delays in survey completion across SSAs. Study findings reveal delays in inspection activities, which have resulted in a large backlog of uncompleted standard surveys far exceeding regulatory requirements. These delays exist across nursing homes with high and low levels of quality. As SSAs work through the backlog of surveys, they may prioritize the completion of surveys based on prior performance. This precedent may be expanded as CMS explores opportunities to produce processes that target the completion of surveys in the poorest performing nursing homes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interferon epsilon (IFNε) is a unique type I interferon (IFN) that shows distinct constitutive expression in reproductive tract epithelium. Understanding how IFNε expression is regulated is critical for the mechanism of action in protecting the mucosa from infection. Combined computational and experimental investigation of the promoter of IFNε predicted transcription factor binding sites for the ETS family of transcription factors. We demonstrate here that Ifnε is regulated by Elf3, an epithelial restricted member of the ETS family. It is co-expressed with IFNε at the epithelium of uterus, lung and intestine, and we focused on regulation of IFNε expression in the uterus. Promoter reporter studies demonstrated that Elf3 was a strong driver of Ifnε expression; knockdown of Elf3 reduced expression levels of IFNε; Elf3 regulated Ifnε expression and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) confirmed the direct binding of Elf3 to the IFNε promoter. These data show that Elf3 is important in regulating protective mucosal immunity by driving constitutive expression of IFNε to protect mucosal tissues from infection in at least three organ systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sport diversification provides opportunities for individuals to develop physical literacy, establish a growth mindset, become more agile in varied environments, and develop robust strategies to improve performance. One could say the same for biomechanists, who study the control and dynamics of human movements in the context of sport. Through the lens of sport, we have focused on the ongoing interaction between the nervous system, musculoskeletal system, and the environment by using integrated experimental and modelling approaches to study well-practiced, goal-directed tasks in controlled laboratory and realistic field settings. By integrating multiple sources of information in real time to provide timely, relevant, usable, and easy to understand (TRUE) feedback during skill acquisition, we have found these resources also support learning and opportunities for self-discovery of proficiencies by coaches and athletes. Managing multimodal data acquired with emerging technological advances has also benefited from the use of FAIR data management principles, where data are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. By listening, clarifying goals, and exploring together with coaches and athletes, we can bridge the gaps between what we know and what we do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shaping how information and communication technology (ICT) adoption supports sustainable development has become a major challenge for countries worldwide. The concept of a digital ecosystem has recently become prevalent among development organizations to aid diagnoses and guide actions addressing that challenge. However, not only are there various ways in which a digital ecosystem is conceptualized, but its meaning is also blurred with earlier uses in business studies. Against this backdrop, the present paper takes stock of how the digital ecosystem concept has come to be used as a tool to describe the state of ICT adoption in countries and understand ICT impacts on development outcomes. Systematizing existing uses of the concept, the paper distinguishes between a descriptive, enabler-centered, and actor-centered digital ecosystem perspective. It furthermore discusses existing uses of a digital ecosystem and the extent to which they realize the potential added value of this concept for development practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractRNA methylation is a widespread regulatory mechanism that controls gene expression in physiological processes. In recent years, the mechanisms and functions of RNA methylation under diseased conditions have been increasingly unveiled by RNA sequencing technologies with large scale and high resolution. In this review, the fundamental concept of RNA methylation is introduced, and the common types of transcript methylation and their machineries are described. Then, the regulatory roles of RNA methylation, particularly N6-methyladenosine and 5-methylcytosine, in the vascular lesions of ocular and cardiopulmonary diseases are discussed and compared. The ocular diseases include corneal neovascularization, retinopathy of prematurity, diabetic retinopathy, and pathologic myopia; whereas the cardiopulmonary ailments involve atherosclerosis and pulmonary hypertension. This review hopes to shed light on the common regulatory mechanisms underlying the vascular lesions in these ocular and cardiopulmonary diseases, which may be conducive to developing therapeutic strategies in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HERA's landmark Finkel–Johnson article uses lay elicitations about de-minimis and insignificant risk/cost to outline a new risk-assessment paradigm. This response outlines their paradigm's many strengths and raises three main questions and 10 subquestions (Q1–Q10) to help make their paradigm even better. These questions address context-dependent-risk probabilities; single-chemical exposure, joint-multichemical-action risks; and survey respondents' objective numeracy. The response shows chemical body burdens also demonstrate the need for a new paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary purpose of this study is to explore whether a shock to homebuilder sentiment generates similar effects on single-family housing activities across regions in the United States. Our findings show that of the four census regions, the South is the most sensitive to a sentiment shock, whereas the Northeast is the least sensitive. Regional differences in economic as well as noneconomic factors appear to drive the differential impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The threat of digital disinformation is a staple in discourse. News media feature examples of digital disinformation prominently. Politicians accuse opponents regularly of slinging disinformation. Regulators justify initiatives of increasing corporate and state control over digital communication environments with threats of disinformation to democracies. But responsible regulation means establishing a balance between the risks of disinformation and the risks of regulatory interventions. This asks for a solid, empirically grounded understanding of the reach and effects of digital disinformation and underlying mechanisms. This article provides a set of questions that a responsible approach to the regulation of disinformation needs to address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulating disinformation has presented a complicated task to European legislators. The legal instruments that played a part in the fight against disinformation, such as the DSA, the DMA, EMFA and the AI Act are all based on the internal market competence. Some instruments are criticised for their strong take on goals that are not directly related for the economic integration, like the freedom and pluralism of the media (EMFA), or the protection of human rights (DSA, AI Act). Even though the European Union is primarily an economic integration, disinformation was seen as threatening the political stability of the Union: democracy, the rule of law and human rights. Is there a connection with economic integration and these values? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Associations of stress-related coping strategies with lifespan among the general population are understudied. Coping strategies are characterized as being either adaptive or maladaptive, but it is unknown the degree to which variability in tailoring their implementation to different contexts may influence lifespan. Women (N = 54,353; Mage = 47) completed a validated coping inventory and reported covariate information in 2001. Eight individual coping strategies (e.g., Acceptance, Denial) were considered separately. Using a standard deviation-based algorithm, participants were also classified as having lower, moderate, or greater variability in their use of these strategies. Deaths were ascertained until 2019. Accelerated failure time models estimated percent changes and 95% confidence intervals (CI) in predicted lifespan associated with coping predictors. In multivariable models, most adaptive and maladaptive strategies were associated with longer and shorter lifespans, respectively (e.g., per 1-SD increase: Active Coping = 4.09%, 95%CI = 1.83%, 6.41%; Behavioral Disengagement = −6.56%, 95%CI = −8.37%, −4.72%). Moderate and greater (versus lower) variability levels were similarly and significantly related to 8-10% longer lifespans. Associations were similar across age, racial/ethnic, residential income, and marital status subgroups. Findings confirm the adaptive and maladaptive nature of specific coping strategies, and further suggest benefits from both moderate and greater variability in their use for lifespan among women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability made important recommendations about regulating disability service provision. These recommendations included those about: complaints; provider and worker registration; enforcement; resourcing of the regulator; and, quality auditing. This article analyses the Royal Commission's findings, recommendations and commentary and places them in the broader context of regulatory theory, research and practice. The article's concluding comments focus on the trade-offs inherent in regulatory resourcing and enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several U.S. states with high housing costs have recently adopted laws intended to promote infill development. These new laws expand state agencies' supervisory responsibilities to ensure that local governments comply with state mandates. Effective administration of these laws will require state agencies to accurately estimate the amount of new housing that might be created and to target review to the jurisdictions that are failing to meet the relevant requirements. Here we present quantitative tools both for prioritizing review of local plans and zoning ordinances and for estimating future housing development. We applied the tools to the implementation of California laws requiring local governments to amend their zoning ordinances to allow accessory dwelling units on parcels zoned for detached single-family housing development. We provide computer code, written in the open-source statistical computing language R, that implements these tools. Although we present off-the-shelf tools, our proposed tools should supplement other regulatory techniques rather than serving as a substitute. Requirements for local governments to allow infill development should be accompanied by mandates for data collection. With good data, state agencies can use open-source statistical software to create quantitative measures that can help estimate future housing production and set priorities for reviewing local plans and zoning ordinances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers have an increasing demand for fruit and vegetables with high nutritional value worldwide. However, most fruit and vegetables are vulnerable to quality loss and spoilage during processing, transportation, and storage. Among the recently introduced emerging technologies, supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2) has been extensively utilized to treat and maintain fruit and vegetables mainly due to its nontoxicity, safety, and environmentally friendly. SCCO2 technology generates low processing costs and mild processing conditions (temperature and pressure) that allow for the application of CO2 at a supercritical state. This review aimed to summarize the current knowledge on the influence of SCCO2 technology on the quality attributes of fruit and vegetable products, such as physicochemical properties (pH, color, cloud, particle size distribution, texture), sensory quality, and nutritional composition (ascorbic acid, phenolic compounds, anthocyanins, carotenoids, and betalains). In addition, the effects and mechanisms of the SCCO2 technique on endogenous enzyme inactivation (polyphenol oxidase, peroxidase, and pectin methylesterase) were also elucidated. Finally, the prospects of the SCCO2 technique for industrial application was discussed from the economic and regulatory aspect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers some complexities surrounding the determination of child competency in matters of data protection. Focusing on the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) guidelines, the article highlights the apparently pivotal role competency plays in granting children the ability to exercise their data protection rights and interests. The article critically examines the inherent challenges arising from the ICO's approach, emphasising the reliance on data controllers to independently assess the competency of child data subjects. The inherent problematic nature of this approach is scrutinised, shedding light on potential shortcomings and raising questions about the effectiveness and fairness of such assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because fire safety cannot be measured directly, building regulation uses test ratings to determine whether materials and products meet societal expectations. Fire resistance constitutes the most enduring means of gauging fire safety, providing ratings for how elements of structure perform in a standard furnace test. Although it has long been known that this test is unrepresentative of real building fires, fire resistance testing remains central to building regulation because it has proved useful. This utility stems not just from the perceived value of the test metric as a proxy for building fire safety, but also from its role as a boundary object that facilitates regulation amongst diverse practitioners. Although fire science has developed greatly since the fire resistance test standard was defined, fire scientists are no longer a relevant social group; closure around the test standard is now widely embedded in regulations and industry practice. Advances in fire science offer the prospect of first principles fire safety engineering that can enable bespoke building solutions that are more optimised than those embedded in the conservative one-size-fits-all regulations based on fire resistance, but adherence to the fire resistance approach means most practitioners lack sufficient knowledge to make safe use of new design methods. Testing orientated to fundamental understanding has been neglected, presenting an obstacle to the innovative solutions required for the built environment in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bioethical debate about using gene drives to alter or eradicate wild populations has focused mostly on issues concerning short-term risk assessment and management, governance and oversight, and public and community engagement, but has not examined big-picture— 'where is this going?'—questions in great depth. In other areas of bioethical controversy, big-picture questions often enter the public forum via slippery slope arguments. Given the incredible potential of gene drive organisms to alter the Earth's biota, it is somewhat surprising that slippery slope arguments have not played a more prominent role in ethical and policy debates about these emerging technologies. In this article, we examine a type of slippery slope argument against using gene drives to alter or suppress wild pest populations and consider whether it has a role to play in ethical and policy debates. Although we conclude that this argument does not provide compelling reasons for banning the use of gene drives in wild pest populations, we believe that it still has value as a morally instructive cautionary narrative that can motivate scientists, ethicists, and members of the public to think more clearly about appropriate vs. inappropriate uses of gene drive technologies, the long-term and cumulative and emergent risks of using gene drives in wild populations, and steps that can be taken to manage these risks, such as protecting wilderness areas where people can enjoy life forms that have not been genetically engineered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By addressing the growth of digital platforms in Brazil over the past decade, as well as the search for regulation aiming at improving digital workers' conditions, this article discusses regulatory challenges in the face of these companies' increasing economic and political power. With the adoption of the transactional approach of John R. Commons, we discuss the stages and consequences of the spread of digital platforms, highlighting the emergence of new conflicts in driver-platforms and driver-state transactions, thus calling for regulation; as well as the political obstacles of regulation, considering platforms economic power and worker's expectation about their activities under regulation. We argue that these features challenge the regulatory efforts aimed at achieving reasonableness in digital labor transactions, by reducing public pressure towards "better" practices, such as improved working conditions, wages, and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article adopts an institutionalist perspective in order to address the energy transition process and to consider, in particular, the alternative financing mechanisms that would be able to support a structural transformation that is sustainable in the long term. It argues that such a transformation can be regarded in a holistic and broader way as an eco-transition process that involves the whole society and economy and requires a societal public organization. A relevant holistic approach to eco-transition should focus on the institutional conditions that are required for a new sustainable and structural change framework. In this aim, the article points to the features of the transition process that display the characteristics of a public good. The durable provision of such a good calls for the transformation of the financing schemes in force to support green investments beyond the usual opposition between market-friendly and government-guided economic policies. A relevant avenue is to organize the financing of the eco-transition under the supervision of public institutions even though the contribution of private bodies might be valuable according to the rules of long-term non-speculative financial support of markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latest developments in the field of stem cell research and regenerative medicine compiled from publicly available information and press releases from non-academic institutions in February 2024. Tweetable Abstract Regenerative medicine industry news digest, February 2024. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]