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A fundamental organization design principle is to group interdependent roles into the same subunits to minimize coordination costs. However, observations in organizations, as well as theorizing in other subfields, such as corporate governance, indicate that interdependent roles sometimes perform conflicting functions, suggesting that they should be separated rather than integrated. Building on work in systems theory and axiomatic design theory, we discuss how to reconcile these two perspectives. Our key proposal is to distinguish between ends and means, or functions (e.g., goals or mandates) and structures (e.g., roles). This conceptualization makes it possible for two roles to be simultaneously interdependent in work processes yet conflicted in goals. Our framework leads to a modification of the traditional organization design principle of grouping based on interdependencies. It also suggests an alternative explanation for the division of labor within organizations: Organizations divide labor not only to capture gains from specialization but also to avoid functional conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inhibitory interneurons are pivotal components of cortical circuits. Beyond providing inhibition, they have been proposed to coordinate the firing of excitatory neurons within cell assemblies. While the roles of specific interneuron subtypes have been extensively studied, their influence on pyramidal cell synchrony in vivo remains elusive. Employing an all-optical approach in mice, we simultaneously recorded hippocampal interneurons and pyramidal cells and probed the network influence of individual interneurons using optogenetics. We demonstrate that CA1 interneurons form a functionally interconnected network that promotes synchrony through disinhibition during awake immobility, while preserving endogenous cell assemblies. Our network model underscores the importance of both cell assemblies and dense, unspecific interneuron connectivity in explaining our experimental findings, suggesting that interneurons may operate not only via division of labor but also through concerted activity. Interneurons control the timing of activation of excitatory neurons, but how single interneurons affect synchrony in vivo is unclear. This study shows that CA1 hippocampus interneurons form a functionally connected network that promotes synchrony between pyramidal cells at the single neuron level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction reaction (NO3RR) driven by renewable energy is a promising technology for the removal of nitrate‐containing wastewater. However, the sluggish kinetics resulted from the complex proton‐coupled electron transfer and various intermediates remain the key barriers for large‐scale application of NO3RR. Herein, a tactic is reported to raise rate of NO3RR and increase selectivity to N2 using bimetal catalyst: Co is inclined to act on the key steps needed in NO3RR process, rate‐determining step (RDS: *NO3 to *NO2, the asterisk means intermediates) and the subsequent *N hydrogenation as well as Fe exhibits the efficient activity for the selectivity‐ determining step (SDS: *NO to *N then to N2) via a relay catalysis mechanism. A removal efficiency of 78.5% and an ultra‐long cycle stability of 60 cycles (12 h per cycle) are achieved on FeCo alloy confined with nitrogen‐doped porous carbon nanofibers (FeCo‐NPCNFs). DFT calculations unveil that the introduction of Co active site not only regulates the d‐band center of FeCo alloy, optimizes the adsorption of intermediates, but also has a strong capacity to supply active hydrogen species. Clearly, this study elucidates the effects of bimetallic relay catalysis on the performance of electrocatalytic NO3RR and offers avenues for designing Fe‐based catalysts to realize the nitrogen‐neutral cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper deals with the division of pragmatic labor between two types of wh -interrogatives in Marzahn German (MG). Use of the first type, marked by the enclitic particle n ([ n - int ]), is near obligatory for and confined to canonical, i.e., information-seeking question acts. The second type, lacking n ([∅- int ]), has to be employed in non-canonical questions, such as rhetorical ones. This pattern of apparent markedness-reversal challenges the pretense-based approach to exam questions by Plunze and Zimmermann (2006) (Section 2) and plausibilizes an approach to information-seeking questions in terms of social cost in the sense of Levinson (2012) (Section 3.1). Overall empirical evidence, however, favors an account of n -marking as reinforcement of question act defaults in line with Farkas (2022) (Section 3.2). Section 5 offers a formulation of reinforcement in terms of the "table model" of discourse (Farkas 2022), such that the peculiar status of MG [ n - int ] follows from the prohibition of contextually overriding "basic conventional discourse effects". In the course of the above discussion, we will scrutinize different notions of interrogative sentential force (Sections 1, 2, 5), illustrate the form and workings of several types of non-canonical questions (guess, rhetorical, echo etc.), and analyze question use in the light of institutional settings and interpersonal effects (3.3). • Division of pragmatic labor for [± n ]-marked wh -interrogatives in Marzahn German. • Particle n reserved for information-seeking questions. • Reinforcement of question act defaults with advantages over recording social costs. • Ban on contextual overrides as the special conventional discourse effect of n. • Evidence from exam questions against pretense-based approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT According to the Theory of the Second Best, in non‐ideal circumstances, approximating ideals might be suboptimal (with respect to a specific interpretation of what “approximating an ideal” means). In this paper, I argue that the formal model underlying the Theory can apply to problems in epistemology. Two applications are discussed: First, in some circumstances, second‐best problems arise in Bayesian settings. Second, the division of epistemic labor can be subject to second‐best problems. These results matter. They allow us to evaluate the claim, made by many philosophers, that second‐best problems have import in epistemology (and the specific conditions under which the Theory finds applications). They also allow us to see that talk of “approximating an ideal” is ambiguous, and to clarify the conditions in which approximating an epistemic ideal might be beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The liver has many functions including the regulation of nutrient and metabolite levels in the systemic circulation through efficient transport into and out of hepatocytes. To sustain these functions, hepatocytes display large functional heterogeneity. This heterogeneity is reflected by zonation of metabolic processes that take place in different zones of the liver lobule, where nutrient‐rich blood enters the liver in the periportal zone and flows through the mid‐zone prior to drainage by a central vein in the pericentral zone. Metabolite transport plays a pivotal role in the division of labor across liver zones, being either transport into the hepatocyte or transport between hepatocytes through the blood. Signaling pathways that regulate zonation, such as Wnt/β‐catenin, have been shown to play a causal role in the development of metabolic dysfunction‐associated steatohepatitis (MASH) progression, but the (patho)physiological regulation of metabolite transport remains enigmatic. Despite the practical challenges to separately study individual liver zones, technological advancements in the recent years have greatly improved insight in spatially divided metabolite transport. This review summarizes the theories behind the regulation of zonation, diurnal rhythms and their effect on metabolic zonation, contemporary techniques used to study zonation and current technological challenges, and discusses the current view on spatial and temporal metabolite transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The L‐tryptophan–derived purple pigment violacein (VIO) is produced in recombinant bacteria and studied for its versatile applications. Microbial synthetic co‐cultures are gaining more importance as efficient factories for synthesizing high‐value compounds. In this work, a mutualistic and cross‐feeding Escherichia coli co‐culture is metabolically engineered to produce VIO. The strains are genetically modified by auxotrophies in the tryptophan (TRP) pathway to enable a metabolic division of labor. Therein, one strain produces anthranilate (ANT) and the other transforms it into TRP and further to VIO. Population dynamics and stability depend on the choice of carbon source, impacting the presence and thus exchange of metabolites as well as overall VIO productivity. Four carbon sources (D‐glucose, glycerol, D‐galactose, and D‐xylose) were compared. D‐Xylose led to co‐cultures which showed stable growth and VIO production, ANT‐TRP exchange, and enhanced VIO production. Best titers were ∼126 mg L–1 in shake flasks. The study demonstrates the importance and advantages of a mutualistic approach in VIO synthesis and highlights the carbon source's role in co‐culture stability and productivity. Transferring this knowledge into an up‐scaled bioreactor system has great potential in improving the overall VIO production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instances of multicellularity across the tree of life have fostered the evolution of complex organs composed of distinct cell types that cooperate, producing emergent biological functions. How organs originate is a fundamental evolutionary problem that has eluded deep mechanistic and conceptual understanding. Here I propose a cell- to organ-level transitions framework, whereby cooperative division of labor originates and becomes entrenched between cell types through a process of functional niche creation, cell-type subfunctionalization, and irreversible ratcheting of cell interdependencies. Comprehending this transition hinges on explaining how these processes unfold molecularly in evolving populations. Recent single-cell transcriptomic studies and analyses of terminal fate specification indicate that cellular functions are conferred by modular gene expression programs. These discrete components of functional variation may be deployed or combined within cells to introduce new properties into multicellular niches, or partitioned across cells to establish division of labor. Tracing gene expression program evolution at the level of single cells in populations may reveal transitions toward organ complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the case of present-day Russia, this article proposes a novel way to conceptualize the intelligence-politics nexus, or else, the mutual politicization of intelligence and 'intelligencization' of politics. Recognizing the importance and salience of intelligence in Russia, the author criticizes the paradigm of the 'KGB state', arguing that rather than the FSB's penetration and subsequent capture of the state, we see a symbiosis at work. Inspired by cognitive theories of conceptual integration, the article highlights qualitatively new phenomena that do not stem from either intelligence or state, but are hybrids consisting of more than the sum of the constituent parts. Rather than representing an anachronism or an aberration from the Western norm dictating a strict division of labour between intelligence and politics, the Russian hybrid intelligence state emerges as a postmodern phenomenon. As such, it can carry lessons for the analysis of intelligence-politics relations in other countries, too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many animals inhabit nests that protect them from adverse environments. However, the effects of living in a built or found structure are not limited to protection: the physical space can shape and organize behaviour, particularly in self-organized collective systems. In addition, the geometry of nest space may not be under the animal's control, raising the question whether animals can compensate for the effects that unexpected or suboptimal geometries may have. Here we examine how the shape of a nest cavity affects spatial organization of colonies in the ant Temnothorax rugatulus , a species that adapted to nest cavities of unmodifiable internal dimensions, since they inhabit rock crevices with rigid walls. We show that the emerging spatial relationships of workers, brood, queens and young alates, as well as their relationships and distances to significant points in the nest, are all significantly influenced by nest shape, with the brood distributions most affected. However, we also found that the size of worker spatial fidelity zones, i.e. the areas in the nest that individual workers occupy and that may be key regulators of division of labour, are overall not affected by nest shape. These findings indicate that ants may actively regulate which areas of a nest they occupy and that they may compensate for effects of nest architecture constraints. Physical properties of nests can thus influence the organization of ant colonies, highlighting the need to explore spatial constraints as a direct influence on the organization, movement and communication of evolved or engineered self-organized systems. • Physical space and the constraints it imposes can shape self-organized systems. • We examined how nest geometry affects spatial organization in Temnothorax rugatulus colonies. • Nest shape affected spatial relationships of workers, brood, queens and alates. • Nest shape did not affect the size of worker spatial fidelity zones. • Ants may thus compensate for effects of nest architecture constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study identified the values of 26 Dutch dual-earner fathers underlying their actual division of paid and unpaid work, and the role work decisions favoring their family, referred to as Family Relatedness of Work Decisions (FRWD), and received partner support played in realizing these values. We used the capability approach as theoretical framework to compare individuals on the kind of lives they value, and what constrains or enables them herein. Results showed different patterns in what is valued related to fathers' paid workhours. Work-oriented fathers primarily valued income provision and received substantial partner support in caregiving and housework. Work–family fathers valued gender-equality in the division of labor with support from their partners both in earning and caregiving. Family–work fathers' lack of substantially paid work hampered them in realizing their valued equal division of labor. Our results illustrated that fathers' values shaped their time-allocation in paid and unpaid work, in synergy with FRWD and received partner support. Moreover, FRWD were more closely related to fathers' values than to their employment type. We conclude that partner support needs to be incorporated into the FRWD framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Specialisation and gender theories offer competing hypotheses of whether men's and women's wages rise or fall based on the couple's division of household unpaid and paid labour, and how effects differ across the wage distribution. We test division effects by analysing British panel data using unconditional quantile regression with individual fixed effects, controlling for own hours in housework and employment. We find only high-wage men's wages were significantly greater when their partners specialised in routine housework, and when they were the sole breadwinner. Conversely, low- and high-wage partnered women incurred significant wage penalties as their share of housework exceeded their partners'. Wages for low-wage men and median- and high-wage women also decreased as their share of household employment increased. We conclude only elite partnered men benefit from specialisation. Everyone else is either better off or no worse off with equitable household divisions of paid and unpaid work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The core of human resources is the division of labour of enterprise employees. A human resource allocation method based on the E-CARGO model was designed to improve the development potential of enterprises and balance the preferences of managers and the task execution of employees in human resource allocation. This method was used to analyse the preferences of enterprise managers for employees and describe their preferences using the E-CARGO model. Then the OCAT method was used to mine the relationship between the team execution and the preferences of managers to find the balance between the two. The results showed that the experimental Scheme found the balance between the team execution and the preferences of managers. The original experimental scheme found three balance points, the improved scheme found three balance points, and the improved scheme found one balance point and one balance interval. Among the three experimental schemes, the improvement Scheme 1 achieved the highest execution ability and the shortest time. The research successfully analyses the relationship between the team execution and the preferences of managers in enterprise human resource assignment and puts forward a human resource assignment scheme that takes both into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the Latin American structuralist theory, but advocating for a need of framing the discussions in the current historical context – characterised by financialisation and financial globalisation –, this article investigates the centre-periphery configuration of the global economy with the focus on the monetary-financial sphere. More specifically, it aims to analyse the role of the peripheral countries for the current International Monetary and Financial System (IMFS). In a dialogue with the discussions related to the International Division of Labour (IDL), the article thence proposes and conceptualises the International Division of Finance (IDF), as well as its corresponding structural differentiation and structural tendency. It argues that the IDF is not accidental, but plays a fundamental role in the modus operandi of the reproduction of wealth in international financial circuits. Through an empirical analysis with data from 212 countries for the period 2000-23, the article demonstrates a structural tendency of transfer of wealth from periphery to central countries. Along with the IDL (in its contemporary format), it generates a ‘double-capture of wealth’. As a result, the IDL and the IDF have feedback effects, deepening the subordination, the lack of autonomy for economic policy and the vulnerability of peripheral countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In emotion research, anxiety and fear have always been interconnected, sharing overlapping brain structures and neural circuitry. Recent investigations, however, have unveiled parallel long-range projection pathways originating from the ventral hippocampus, shedding light on their distinct roles in anxiety and fear. Yet, the mechanisms governing the emergence of projection-specific activity patterns to mediate different negative emotions remain elusive. Here, we show a division of labor in local GABAergic inhibitory microcircuits of the ventral hippocampus, orchestrating the activity of subpopulations of pyramidal neurons to shape anxiety and fear behaviors in mice. These findings offer a comprehensive insight into how distinct inhibitory microcircuits are dynamically engaged to encode different emotional states. The mechanisms by which the brain processes the intertwined states of anxiety and fear remain unclear. Here, authors show that distinct inhibitory microcircuits in the ventral hippocampus differentially regulate anxiety and fear behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The division of labor and cooperation are typical behavior patterns of gregarious mammals, but it is unclear whether Brandt's voles exercise a division of labor before overwintering. We observed and recorded the behavioral activities of Brandt's voles (Lasiopodomys brandtii) with an infrared camera and conducted behavioral experiments on individuals with a food-hoarding division. We found that Brandt's voles had two types of hoarding behavior: high food hoarding and low food hoarding. Furthermore, high-food-hoarding individuals had greater spatial memory. The individual division of labor during the hoarding period of Brandt's voles was analyzed, and the personality characteristics of individuals were measured. The goal was to better understand the division of labor among different individuals in hoarding, as well as the emergence and significance of the social division of labor in gregarious animals. Brandt's voles (Lasiopodomys brandtii), one of the main non-hibernating rodent species in the typical grassland of Inner Mongolia, live in groups and have the behavioral habit of hoarding food in underground warehouses in autumn to prepare for the winter food shortage ahead. The division of labor and cooperation are typical behavior patterns of gregarious mammals, but it is unclear whether Brandt's voles exercise a division of labor in food hoarding before overwintering. To explore the division of food hoarding in Brandt's voles during the autumn period, three treatments, namely added food, added food + competition, and control, were set up with three replicates. An infrared camera was positioned to observe and record the behavior of Brandt's voles under different treatments. Next, behavioral experiments regarding food-hoarding division were performed on individuals. The results showed that (1) Brandt's voles had two types of hoarding behavior, namely high food hoarding and low food hoarding, but not all individuals displayed hoarding behavior. (2) In all treatments, feeding behavior, which was the most important type of behavior, accounted for the highest proportion of all behaviors. (3) There was no significant difference in body weight and sex between high- and low-food-hoarding individuals of Brandt's voles, and there was no significant difference between high- and low-food-hoarding individuals in other divisions of labor either. (4) There was no significant difference in inquiry ability between high- and low-food-hoarding groups, but there was a significant difference in spatial memory. High-food-hoarding individuals had greater spatial memory. In summary, Brandt's voles had two types of hoarding behavior: high food hoarding and low food hoarding. Furthermore, high-food-hoarding individuals had greater spatial memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognizing the importance of evidence-based research in informing migration policies and empowering migrant domestic workers (MDWs), this study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of MDW research patterns and trends. Using a descriptive cross-sectional study design, research articles on MDWs were retrieved from the Scopus database. The findings reveal a substantial increase in research output in recent years, with notable contributions from journals in the fields of social sciences and humanities. Key contributors include scholars from the United States, the United Kingdom, and institutions such as the National University of Singapore and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Journals in the field of migration have prominent role in publishing research on MDWs. At the author level, Yeoh, B.S.A, at the National University of Singapore was the most prolific author. Academic activities were the main driver of research and that funding was suboptimal in this field. Highly cited articles focused on topics such as transnational motherhood, the international division of reproductive labor, and the negotiation of citizenship rights. Major research hotspots in the retrieved articles included mental health aspects, caregiving especially of the elderly, and struggles for legal rights. Specific nationalities, such as Filipina/o and Indonesian MDWs, have been the focus of numerous studies, shedding light on their narratives, challenges, and agency within transnational contexts. Overall, this study underscores the urgency of addressing the needs and rights of MDWs, advocate for human rights, and enhance understanding of occupational health and safety in the unique context of domestic work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autistic children have the right to be included in early childhood educational (ECE) settings. Motivated by the need for knowledge of how such education can be developed, this study examined the perspectives of ECE staff (i.e. teachers, child carers, and principals) on interprofessional collaboration regarding identifying and working with autistic children. Qualitative interviews were used. By using Interpretative phenomenological analysis, three themes were found: (1) identifying children, (2) professional collaboration in ECE settings, and (3) collaboration with professions from outside ECE settings. The findings were analysed in light of the concepts of power, jurisdiction, and interprofessional collaboration and discussed in relation to inclusive education. The study found that rigid labour divisions, power imbalances, and lack of knowledge were perceived to hinder collaboration concerning identifying and working with autistic children. The study concludes that future research on interprofessional collaboration is needed to improve inclusive education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entheseal changes are skeletal markers, which are often used in the reconstruction of physical activities. This study investigated patterns of entheseal changes and other activity markers, such as squatting facets and degerative signs at joints in a mortuary population of the Houtaomuga site, Northeast China. Comparisons were conducted between the early period (Neolithic to Early Bronze Age, 8000–2500 BP) and the late period (Late Bronze Age, 2300 BP). Differences between two sexes of the late period were also compared. The results demonstrated that the frequency and severity of entheseal changes and other activity markers differed between early and late populations and between males and females of the late population suggesting subsistence strategies changes and new patterns of sex‐based divisions of labor. This is the first attempt to assess activity changes in fisher–hunter–gatherer populations over a long period of time from ancient China. Results reveal that though the Houtaomuga population maintained the primary subsistence modes of fishing, hunting, and gathering, their entheses elucidate gradual shifts along with reduced activity stress due to sedentary life and intensified sex‐based divisions of labor and the advent of craft specializations, which was likely influenced by climate changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how parliamentary party groups decide who speaks for them on specific issues in parliament. We build on three strands of the literature: the work on the institutional foundations of parliamentary speech; the literature on committee assignments in parliamentary systems which points to different rationales behind parliamentary specialisation and the division of labour; and the literature on issue competition. First, we expect that the party leadership will assign more speaking time on issues that parties 'own' to Members of Parliament (MPs) they favour. Second, we expect an informational rationale regarding the allocation of speaking time by which MPs speak on issues for which they have pre-existing expertise. Third, we expect MPs to speak on issues if they have ties to relevant constituencies outside parliament. We analyse a new data set of all speeches in the Dutch lower house between 1998–2017. The analyses point to the importance of two rationales in the allocation of speaking time: high-status MPs (reflected by their list positions) speak on issues that parties prioritise, and MPs speak on issues on which they have specialised knowledge. Our analyses shed important light on how parliamentary party groups (PPGs) function, specifically how they divide labour within their ranks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper targets the nexus between corruption and money laundering. Scholars and practitioners recently observed how offshore financial centers and financial infrastructures have become central in facilitating corruption and other criminal activities. Offshore vehicles often serve to conceal the connections between business people and politically exposed persons. Secrecy jurisdictions and service providers have emerged as key actors in these illicit schemes. The paper explores the following questions: How do money laundering activities and offshore financial infrastructures sustain corruption? Who are the key actors involved, how do they interact, and their division of labor? How do actors and clusters govern the social-financial web of relations? It applies a combination of social network analysis (SNA) and network ethnography to the corrupt connection between the former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo and the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht Group. The research analyzes publicly available data from the Lava Jato and Ecoteva investigations in Brazil and Peru. It deconstructs the illicit scheme's mechanisms step-by-step, uncovers the functions of different actors and clusters, and illuminates the social norms and informal governance practices that regulate the exchange. The research highlights how the financial infrastructures of the private and public spheres are integrated and analyzes the informal governance system designed to control the transnational corruption network. The study makes it possible to understand how the nexus between corruption and money laundering works. It also supports the emerging understanding of corruption as a collective, transnational and financially advanced phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperation in social animals can lead to collective disease protection beyond individual-level defences, termed 'social immunity.' Social immunity is unconditionally expressed in superorganismal insect colonies with reproductive division of labour between queens and workers. Being obligate altruists, nonreproductive workers fully commit to colony-level disease defence, exhibiting highly specialised and self-sacrificial behaviours. In families of cooperative breeders, all members can reproduce, but offspring delay reproduction to help parents. Here, cooperation, and thus social immunity, is condition-dependent and likely favoured only by high relatedness and low probability of independent reproduction. Inclusive fitness theory is a useful framework to elucidate the relative importance of direct fitness costs of social immunity against indirect fitness benefits of promoting kin health. Socially living animals can counteract disease through cooperative defences, leading to social immunity that collectively exceeds the sum of individual defences. In superorganismal colonies of social insects with permanent caste separation between reproductive queen(s) and nonreproducing workers, workers are obligate altruists and thus engage in unconditional social immunity, including highly specialised and self-sacrificial hygiene behaviours. Contrastingly, cooperation is facultative in cooperatively breeding families, where all members are reproductively totipotent but offspring transiently forgo reproduction to help their parents rear more siblings. Here, helpers should either express condition-dependent social immunity or disperse to pursue independent reproduction. We advocate inclusive fitness theory as a framework to predict when and how indirect fitness gains may outweigh direct fitness costs, thus favouring conditional social immunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the pervasive social constructivist turn, regardless of some exceptions, discussions of race, racialization and racism continue to focus on the relatively essentialist White/non-White binary. In this article, I move from the White/non-White binary to consider the dynamics and practices of racialization, racism and racial conflicts in Japan where there are no phenotypical distinctions between the dominant and the main racialized minority groups – the Burakumin, the Ainu, the Okinawans, the Zainichi Koreans and the Chinese. The main argument made in this article is that in Japan, class and power inequalities generated by colonialism, the division of labour, adoption and the deployment of the dominant Western 19th-century discourse of 'scientific racism' contributed to 'racial formations', 'racial projects' and the construction of the racialized boundaries that fuelled and continue to compete over material and non-material resources. A historical sociology of the permanent dialectic between class and race in Japan is offered in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The power struggle between China and Japan in Asia continues, with their political confrontations extending to foreign aid rivalry. While Japan used to dominate in foreign aid in the region, China has overtaken it with its infrastructure assistance. No formal regional aid and development framework has yet been developed here. However, this article argues that unintentional donor coordination between China and Japan has been realized. The aid provided by the two does not overlap as each country tends to focus on a limited number of recipients, and a natural division of labor originates. Why has their rivalry resulted in aid coordination? This article answers the question by examining the behaviors of Japanese and Chinese aid and finding that, ironically, it is their shared interest in economic infrastructure aid that creates such a situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A remarkable developments in science over the past thirty years has been the development of large databases that support knowledge production, representation and circulation. Increasingly, chains of instruments, people and devices are involved in compiling, organizing and documenting biodiversity data collections. Several digital participatory science initiatives studied between 2013 and 2017 illustrates the diversity of amateur participation using digital technologies at every step of the knowledge process – from contributing local field observations, to identifying species, quality control and validation, to digitizing plant specimens for inclusion in transnational databases. Collaborative platforms and databases emerge as elements that are endowed with a certain performativity through the ordering possibilities they suggest or impose. Attending to practices in these contexts raises questions about organizational innovations and novel forms of division of labor in participatory science. The participation of large numbers of people with varied backgrounds and expertise results in a distributed and less linear type of biodiversity science. As the product of numerous interventions, data are best seen as relational; their authorship or ownership need not be their defining characteristic. Indeed, the data generating technologies and practices of participatory science initiatives themselves generate a kind of untethered relational potential that deserves exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to women's changing roles in labor markets, couples have adopted varied strategies to reconcile career and family needs. Yet, most studies on the gendered division of labor focus almost exclusively on changes either in work or family domain. Doing so neglects the process through which couples negotiate and contest traditional work and family responsibilities. Studies that do examine these tradeoffs have highlighted how work–family strategies range far beyond simple traditional-egalitarian dichotomies but are limited to specific points in time or population subgroups. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and latent-class analysis, this article provides the first population-based estimates of the couple-level tradeoffs inherent in work–family strategies in the United States, documents trends in the share of couples who fall into each of these strategies, and considers social stratification by gender and college education in these trends. Specifically, I identify seven distinct work–family strategies (traditional, neotraditional, her-second-shift, egalitarian, his-second-shift, female-breadwinner, and neither-full-time couples). Egalitarian couples experienced the fastest increase in prevalence among college-educated couples, whereas couples that lacked two full-time earners increased among less-educated couples. Still, about a quarter of all couples adopted "her-second-shift" strategies, with no variation across time, making it the modal work–family strategy among dual-earner couples. The long-run, couple-level results support the view that the gender revolution has stalled and suggest that this stall may be caused partly by strong traditional gender preferences, whereas structural resources appear to facilitate gender equality among a selected few. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address the issue of persistent uneven development from a Marxist perspective. First, we show the conceptual problems in applying the unmodified law of value to the international setting. Second, we propose a generalization of the global law of value by introducing an additional level of abstraction into the global valorization process—national abstract labor. Third, we examine broad cases of internationalization caused by deviations in productivity differences across industries from the average productivity differences across countries. We discover an endogenous national and international dynamic push toward specialization that perpetuates uneven development. The benefits of such specialization are skewed in favor of more developed countries, and the potential for technological improvement created by the global division of labor blocks technological progress in less developed countries. JEL Classification : B14, F00, F63, O14 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biparental care can be favoured when offspring care by both parents provides a stronger fitness incentive to parents than deserting their offspring. In species with precocial offspring, the burden of care is expected to be comparatively low, facilitating desertion by one parent and uniparental care by the abandoned partner. However, care patterns can vary widely between and within precocial species, with some parents deserting their offspring, while other families remain biparental. Understanding the details of the care delivered by males and females in families before desertion is important to provide insight into the mechanisms that influence the stability of biparental care. Here we used detailed behavioural observations from the brood care period to investigate the balance of care between male and female parents in a well-studied precocial shorebird, the Kentish plover, Charadrius alexandrinus , both within families where females subsequently deserted and within families that remained biparental until the offspring were independent. We found that both males and females expressed all care behaviours (brooding, vigilance and brood defence) characteristic of precocial species, and we utilized quantitative mutual entropy analyses to show that the division of parental labour (i.e. care task specialization) was unrelated to the maintenance of biparental care. We also found that while males and females provided broadly similar levels of care, there were subtle differences: females typically delivered slightly more care than males across offspring development, suggesting that sex differences in self-maintenance may underlie sex differences in care. Together our results indicate minor differences in the care patterns of males and females, consistent with theoretical predictions that the division of labour should be limited in populations with frequent desertion and uniparental care. • A division of labour between parents should promote biparental care. • We assessed patterns of brood care in a wild population of Kentish plovers. • Male and female care patterns were similar but females cared slightly more. • The division of labour was not associated with female brood desertion. • Sex differences in care are linked with differences in rates of self-maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Bacterial nanomachines represent remarkable feats of evolutionary engineering, showcasing intricate molecular mechanisms that enable bacteria to perform a diverse array of functions essential to persist, thrive, and evolve within ecological and pathological niches. Injectosomes and bacterial flagella represent two categories of bacterial nanomachines that have been particularly well studied both at the molecular and functional levels. Among the diverse functionalities of these nanomachines, bistability emerges as a fascinating phenomenon, underscoring their dynamic and complex regulation as well as their contribution to shaping the bacterial community behavior during the infection process. In this review, we examine two closely related bacterial nanomachines, the type 3 secretion system, and the flagellum, to explore how the bistability of molecular-scale devices shapes the bacterial eco-pathological life cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of O Social em Questão is the property of Faculdades Catolicas - Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Featured Application: Traffic light scheduling optimisation using a task allocation model based on division-of-labour behaviour as observed in insect colonies. Traffic light scheduling is a critical aspect of traffic management with many recently developed solutions that incorporate computational intelligence approaches. This paper presents a traffic light scheduling algorithm based on a task allocation model that simulates the division of labour among insects in a colony, specifically ant colonies. The developed algorithm switches the green light based on a probability calculated every second from the traffic volume around the traffic light. The application of this algorithm to several benchmark simulated traffic scenarios shows optimal performance compared to five other traffic scheduling algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kant-Studien is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Tijdschrift voor Arbeidsvraagstukken is the property of Amsterdam University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the interpretation of Harriet Martineau's novella "Dawn Island" in the context of free trade and its impact on Britain and the fictional island. The author argues that free trade can be seen as a metaphorical dawn of progress and civilization for both Dawn Island and Britain. The novella explores the transformative effects of trade interactions and the international division of labor, highlighting the benefits and interdependence of global trade systems. The article suggests that Martineau's work contributes to our understanding of economic shifts in nineteenth-century Britain and the broader implications of free trade. Additionally, the article explores the role of women in the anti-corn law movement in 19th-century Britain, focusing on Martineau's novel "Dawn Island." The author examines how Martineau's work challenged traditional gender roles and advocated for free trade. Thorne-Murphy argues that Martineau's novel played a significant role in promoting women's involvement in political and economic issues. This article provides valuable insights into the historical context and the impact of women's participation in the anti-corn law movement. [Extracted from the article]

This article adopts a Durkheimian perspective and employs a socio-pragmatic method of inquiry, with a specific focus on analyzing "scandals" as critical junctures and the interpretations provided by social actors. The aim is to explore the development of corruption as a social issue in Romania over the past four decades. In contrast to two prevailing explanatory approaches in Romania, labeled here as fatalistic and voluntarist, we propose a more reflective approach. This perspective illustrates how the increasing division of labor and the subsequent rise in individualization within social relations have progressively influenced the tendencies and sensitivities of various social groups in Romanian society, particularly regarding what this study refers to as "illegal personal enrichment" (IPE). By focusing on discourse analysis of debates on corruption, this study analyses the evolution of the politicization of corruption--a subject still largely unexplored but highly prevalent in the public sphere--in conjunction with the structural changes in Romanian society. Consequently, three stages can be identified: IPE as a discursive tool for denouncing political adversaries, IEP as a generator of political conflicts, and IEP as a public issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eusocial insects, such as stingless bees (Meliponini), depend on division of labour, overlapping generations, and collaborative brood care to ensure the functionality and success of their colony. Female workers transition through a range of age-specific tasks during their lifespan (i.e., age-polyethism) and play a central role in the success of a colony. These age-specific tasks (e.g., brood care or foraging) often closely coincide with key physiological changes necessary to ensure optimal performance. However, our understanding of how nutrition, age, and polyethism may affect the development of such physiological traits in stingless bees remains limited. Here we show that pollen consumption and age-polyethism govern hypopharyngeal gland (HPG) acini size and protein content in Tetragonula pagdeni. By conducting a controlled laboratory experiment we monitored the effect of pollen consumption on worker bee survival as well as assessed how a pollen diet and age affected their HPG acini width and protein content. Further, we sampled nurses and foragers from field colonies to measure the effect of age-polyethism on HPG acini width. We found that pollen consumption enhanced survival and led to increased HPG acini width and protein content and that HPG acini were as expected largest in nurse bees. Our findings highlight the beneficial effects of an adequate diet for physiological development and health in stingless bees and reveal that age-polyethism is the key factor governing HPG size in worker bees. As HPGs are imperative for collaborative brood care—an essential component of eusociality—the data provide a foundation for future studies to investigate the impact of potential environmental stressors on a critical physiological trait in stingless bees which may serve as a proxy to understand the effects at the colony level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individual differences in size, experience, and task specialization in natural swarms often result in heterogeneity and hierarchy, facilitating efficient and coordinated task accomplishment. Drawing inspiration from this phenomenon, a general strategy is proposed for organizing magnetic micro/nanorobots (MNRs) with apparent differences in size, shape, and properties into cohesive microswarms with tunable heterogeneity, controlled spatial hierarchy, and collaborative tasking capability. In this strategy, disparate magnetic MNRs can be manipulated to show reversible transitions between synchronization and desynchronization by elaborately regulating parameter sets of the rotating magnetic field. Utilizing these transitions, alongside local robust hydrodynamic interactions, diverse heterospecific pairings of disparate magnetic MNRs can be organized into heterogeneous microswarms, and their spatial organization can be dynamically adjusted from egalitarian to leader‐follower‐like hierarchies on the fly, both in open space and complex microchannels. Furthermore, when specializing the disparate MNRs with distinct functions ("division of labor") such as sensing and drug carrying, they can execute precise drug delivery targeting unknown sites in a collaborative sensing‐navigating‐cargo dropping sequence, demonstrating significant potential for precise tumor treatment. These findings highlight the critical roles of attribute differences and hierarchical organization in designing efficient swarming micro/nanorobots for biomedical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yes. I defend this claim against the charge of race reductionism and the charge that ‘white interests’ cannot figure meaningfully into structural explanations of racial inequality. We then distinguish two explanatory roles for white supremacy. The racial role approach attempts to trace the causal effects of white supremacy's normative white/non‐white hierarchy on life chances. The racial materialism approach treats racial inequality as an emergent feature of social orders which depend on conventional racial divisions in labor performance. Each approach emphasizes a different level of explanation for the same basic fact: white interests both drive and are served by racial inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The learning assistant (LA) model supports student success in undergraduate science courses; however, variation in outcomes has led to a call for more work investigating how the LA model is implemented. In this research, we used cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) to characterize how three different instructors set up LA-facilitated classrooms and how LAs' understanding and development of their practices was shaped by the classroom activity. CHAT is a sociocultural framework that provides a structured approach to studying complex activity systems directed toward specific objects. It conceptualizes change within these systems as expansive learning, in which experiencing a contradiction leads to internalization and critical self-reflection, and then externalization and a search for solutions and change. Results: Through analyzing two semi-structured retrospective interviews from three professors and eleven LAs, we found that how the LA model was implemented differed based on STEM instructors' pedagogical practices and goals. Each instructor leveraged LA-facilitated interactions to further learning and tasked LAs with emotionally supporting students to grapple with content and confusions in a safe environment; however, all three had different rules and divisions of labor that were influenced by their perspectives on learning and their objects for the class. For LAs, we found that they had multiple, sometimes conflicting, motives that can be described as either practical, what they described as their day-to-day job, or sense-making, how they made sense of the reason for their work. How these motives were integrated/separated or aligned/misaligned with the collective course object influenced LAs' learning in practice through either a mechanism of consonance or contradiction. We found that each LA developed unique practices that reciprocally shaped and were shaped by the activity system in which they worked. Conclusions: This study helps bridge the bodies of research that focus on outcomes from the LA model and LA learning and development by describing how LA learning mechanisms are shaped by their context. We also show that variation in the LA model can be described both by classroom objects and by LAs' development in dialogue with those objects. This work can be used to start to develop a deeper understanding of how students, instructors, and LAs experience the LA model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heteranthery, the presence of different types of anthers on the same flower, is a floral adaptation that aims to balance the need for pollinators to collect pollen as a food resource while ensuring sufficient pollen for pollination. We investigate the role of heteranthery in the pollination of Senna arnottiana flowers and how it is affected by the behaviour of visiting bee species, with a particular focus on the impact of the invasive bumblebee Bombus terrestris.In three populations of S. arnottiana we measured the size of three sets of anthers and style, stigma–anther separation, pollen quantity and fruit set, and contrasted it with the body size, behaviour, and pollination effectiveness of all floral visitors.Different bee species visited S. arnottiana flowers, and their foraging behaviour varied. Large‐bodied native bees, including Centris cineraria, Caupolicana sp. and Cadeguala occidentalis, preferentially visited short anthers, whereas B. terrestris, an exotic bumblebee, foraged from both short and long anthers without distinction. In addition, B. terrestris contacted the stigma at a lower rate than large‐bodied native bees.Instead of concentrating its pollen‐gathering efforts on the feeding anthers, as predicted by the "division of labor" hypothesis, B. terrestris indiscriminately visited both types of anthers similarly. This behaviour of B. terrestris may disrupt the adaptive significance of heteranthery by mixing the roles of pollination and feeding anthers of S. arnottiana. Therefore, our results highlight the potential disruption of this relationship by exotic pollinators and the need to consider it in conservation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have provided new insights into the role of the microbiome in shaping host behavior. However, the relationship between the temporal division of labor among honey bees (Apis mellifera) and their gut microbial community has not been widely studied. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the link between the gut microbiome and division of labor in honey bees by examining the microbial absolute abundance and relative composition of 7‐day‐old nurse bees and 28‐day‐old forager bees from a natural hive, as well as those of worker bees of the same 14‐day‐old age showing different behaviors in a manipulated hive. We found that forager bees had fewer core bacteria, particularly gram‐positive fermentative genera such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, with Bifidobacterium asteroides being the most sensitive to host behavioral tasks. Our results showed that forager bees have lower gut community stability compared to nurse bees, suggesting that their gut community is more susceptible to invasion by non‐core members. Furthermore, a pollen limitation experiment using caged honey bees indicated that dietary changes during behavioral shifts may be a driving factor in honey bee microbial diversity. This study contributes to a greater understanding of the interaction between the gut microbiome and behavioral tasks and provides a foundation for future assays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In rational decision-making processes, the information interaction among individual robots is a critical factor influencing system stability. We establish a game-theoretic model based on mutual information to address division of labor decision-making and stability issues arising from differential information interaction among swarm robots. Firstly, a mutual information model is employed to measure the information interaction among robots and analyze its influence on the behavior of individual robots. Secondly, employing the Cournot model and the Stackelberg model, we model the diverse decision-making behaviors of swarm robots influenced by discrepancies in mutual information. The intricate decision dynamics exhibited by the system under the disparity mutual information values during the game process, along with the stability of Nash equilibrium points, are analyzed. Finally, dynamic complexity simulations of the game models are simulated under the disparity mutual information values: (1) When ν1 of the game model varies within a certain range, the Nash equilibrium point loses stability and enters a chaotic state. (2) As I(X;Y) increases, the decision-making pattern of robots transitions gradually from the Cournot game to the Stackelberg game. Concurrently, the sensitivity of swarm robotics systems to changes in decision parameter decreases, reducing the likelihood of the system entering a chaotic state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authoritarian populists offer a vision of state. This ideologically fixed imaginary provides an electoral-authoritarian template for how to shape states once in power. Yet not all those called populists are populist. Some are elitist plebeians. They construct themselves as 'the moral elite' above which fights for 'the people' below against 'the corrupt'. I argue that elitist plebeianism contains a distinct vision of government as elected guardianship. Like populists, elitist plebeians advocate extending executive power. Yet they envisage this not as the realization of the people's will, but as the projection of accountability downwards. To them, divisions of power are acceptable as divisions of guardian labour. Rival opinions are not illegitimate, just irrelevant, but opposition is intolerable. Therefore, studies of populist authoritarianism should be revisited. Elitist plebeian visions of state may have been misread as authoritarian populist ones. I examine President Magufuli (Tanzania) as an exemplar and identify other potential elitist plebeians worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Cold War, large-scale urban development projects were launched in Mongolia with technical assistance from various socialist countries – China, East Germany (the GDR), Poland, Czechoslovakia and, above all, the Soviet Union. Looking at the involvement of these dissimilar countries to Mongolia, this article challenges simplistic narratives about bilateral East-South exchanges, and frames socialist development assistance as multilateral, asymmetric and complementary. It argues that some of the iconic projects of socialist development in Mongolia could hardly be called products of any one donor's aid programme, and instead required the cooperation of various providers, collaborating on multiple, interconnected fronts. Such multilateral assistance was marked by highly hierarchical racialised divisions of labour, and created strong interdependencies between various countries involved in Mongolia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital platforms are becoming an important factor in the process of reconfiguration and commodification of social reproduction during the neoliberal phase of capitalism. Developing a theoretical framework merging social reproduction theory and migrant labour regimes, this article argues that the introduction of digital platforms in the care sector is facilitating the expansion of precarised commodification of reproductive activities in a context of social care crisis. Through a mixed-method analysis, combining desk-based research with in-depth interviews of digital care platform work in Spain, the study examines the migrant labour regime of digital care platforms and how they take advantage of the international division of labour and global care chains to further exploit a highly precarious, informalised, feminised and racialised workforce. Our findings reveal that platforms use technology to rapidly access a reserve labour army, thus extracting more surplus value by restricting access to information, controlling the intermediation process and further fragmenting the workforce in reproductive activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to assess the factor structure and the measurement invariance of the Coparenting Relationship Scale (CRS) across 10 countries based on the seven-factor coparenting model (i.e., Coparenting Agreement, Coparenting Closeness, Exposure to Conflict, Coparenting Support, Endorsement of Partner's Parenting; Division of Labor) proposed by Feinberg (2003). The results of research on coparenting from numerous countries have documented its foundational importance for parent mental health, family relationship quality, child development, and psychopathology. Yet, a cross-country perspective is still lacking. Such a perspective can provide insight into which dimensions of coparenting are universally recognized and which are especially prone to variation. A unique multinational data set, comprised of 15 individual studies collected across 10 countries (Belgium, Brazil, China, Israel, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, USA) in nine languages was established (N = 9,292; 51.1% mothers). Measurement invariance analyses were conducted. A six-factor structure (original seven factors minus Division of Labor) of the measure was consistent across the different contexts and measurement invariance was achieved at the configural level. There was no support for metric or scalar invariance. These findings provide a basis for the CRS to be used across countries and should inspire future quantitative and qualitative research in cross-country coparenting research to understand what aspects are universal and what aspects of coparenting are linked to specific material, relational, or ideational conditions that underlie high-quality coparenting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on five waves of longitudinal survey data (N = 520, 51% female, 39% with a university degree, 90% White), this study examined trajectories of women's and men's contributions to cooking, kitchen cleaning, grocery shopping, house cleaning, laundry, and overall housework from Age 25 to 50 years and explored time-invariant (traditional gender role attitudes, homemaker mother, mother and father education assessed at Age 18) and time-varying (raising children at Ages 25, 32, 43, and 50 years) predictors of housework trajectories. Growth curve analyses revealed that women contributed more to all housework tasks than men at Age 25, a gender gap maintained to Age 50. Housework increased to Age 32 and stabilized until Age 43 before declining by Age 50 for women's and men's laundry, women's kitchen cleaning, grocery shopping, and overall housework, and men's house cleaning. There was no change in women's and men's trajectory of cooking meals, women's house cleaning, and men's contributions to kitchen cleaning, grocery shopping, and overall housework. Traditional gender role attitudes, having a homemaker mother, and mother's and father's education inconsistently predicted women's and men's trajectories. Raising children, however, was consistently linked with within-person fluctuations in housework. When raising children, women contributed more than average to housework, whereas when men were raising children, they contributed less than normal. The results highlight a gendered pattern of housework evident in the twenties and persisting well into midlife, with parenthood widening the gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robert Linhart's L'Établi recounts the author's experience of 'établissement' as a young Maoist militant in the months immediately following May '68. Ten years after leaving the École normale supérieure to work and politically organize at the Citroën automobile factory in Choisy, Linhart reflects on his experiences on the assembly line, and his attempts to organize an ultimately unsuccessful wildcat strike from within the factory. This article revisits L'Établi alongside Linhart's littlestudied critical writings on racism, imperialism, and capitalist production in order to foreground two interwoven, yet under-appreciated facets of the work, and Linhart's corpus more broadly: first, Linhart's critique of a dense racial and colonial logic which undergirded the division of labor and maintenance of orderly production in the factory despite the purported demise of the French Empire. And second, the his innovation as not just a political memoirist, but as an inventive literary strategist. To this end, this article focuses on the surprising movements of poetic effervescence which appear throughout L'Établi, which reveal themselves to be thoroughly interwoven with Linhart's anti-imperial, anti-capitalist project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]