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Abolition Coalitions: Campaigning against the Death Penalty in Early Twentieth-Century Canada
No full textAccounts of the death penalty’s abolition in Canada in 1976 invariably trace its origin to the man who presented five private members’ abolition bills in the 1910s: Member of Parliament Robert Bickerdike (1843–1928). Characterized as a lone campaigner, his failure inspired later abolitionists, including John Diefenbaker. Death penalty scholars have thus far treated Bickerdike similarly, without exploring his motivations, arguments, tactics, and allies. This article examines the religious and secular rationales of Bickerdike’s opposition to the death penalty and demonstrates how he attracted and joined supporters of his cause, including trade unionists, suffragists, and prisoner welfare advocates, who lobbied for clemency, particularly in cases of women and youths sentenced to death. Their unsuccessful campaign to save Filumena Lassandro from execution in 1923 inspired a eugenically tinged abolition bill, tabled in 1924, which also failed. Despite the civilizationist, chivalric, ethnocentric, and ableist biases in Bickerdike’s and his allies’ abolitionism, their emphasis on the rights of the accused and their criticism of unequal access to justice laid the groundwork for the social justice movements and rights lobbying of the 1950s and 1960s, not just the campaign to the abolish the death penalty.Peer-reviewe
Submission in Response to Queensland Treasury’s Review of the National Energy Retail Law (Queensland) Regulation 2014 – Discussion Paper
No full textThis submission was made to Queensland Treasury’s Review of the National Energy Retail Law (Queensland) Regulations in June 2025. The regulations apply or modify how the National Energy Customer Framework operates in Queensland and the purpose of the review was to ensure that the regulations remain relevant and effective. This submission, made jointly with the First Nations Clean Energy Network, advocates for regulatory reforms that would enable public retail performance reporting for card-operated meter households (i.e. the local name for prepayment meters). It highlights the need for public reporting to align with policy commitments including the First Nations Clean Energy Strategy and National Agreement on Closing the Gap
A comparative study of child-directed language across five cultures based on data from the <i>Acquisition Sketch Project</i>
No full textThroughout the history of child language acquisition research, the study of child-directed language (CDL) has attracted significant attention. In particular, there has been considerable debate regarding the characteristic features of CDL and their universality/variability across the world’s languages. Yet, although data from many languages have been analyzed, the totality of the crosslinguistic coverage is still poor. In this paper, we report on an analysis of CDL across five diverse languages and cultures: Murrinhpatha (Southern Daly, non-Pama Nyungan), Pitjantjatjara (Pama-Nyungan), Qaqet (Baining), Tagalog (Western Austronesian), and Inuktitut (Inuit-Yupik-Unangan). Using data collected for the Acquisition Sketch Project, an initiative in which Barb was a core member, we find both striking commonalities and clear differences in CDL across our target languages. The findings are consistent with the argument that CDL emerges as a set of culturally mediated behavioural practices, with some features being more commonly observed than others. The findings underline the value of the Acquisition Sketch approach in widening the evidence base of the field of child language acquisition, one of Barb’s major contributions to the field.Australian Research Council.Peer-reviewe
Freedom in the Well-ordered Republic
No full textFrank Lovett provides a fine account of civic republicanism but focuses too
exclusively on freedom as a property of choices. The account can be improved if
room is also made, as it was by figures in the long republican tradition, for
freedom as a property of persons. The well-ordered republic is a regime that
enables citizens to count equally as free persons both in relation to one another
and in relation to their government.Peer-reviewe
EEG during dynamic facial emotion processing reveals neural activity patterns associated with autistic traits in children
No full textAltered brain connectivity and atypical neural oscillations have been observed in autism, yet their relationship with autistic traits in nonclinical populations remains underexplored. Here, we employ electroencephalography to examine functional connectivity, oscillatory power, and broadband aperiodic activity during a dynamic facial emotion processing task in 101 typically developing children aged 4 to 12 years. We investigate associations between these electrophysiological measures of brain dynamics and autistic traits as assessed by the Social Responsiveness Scale, 2nd Edition (SRS-2). Our results revealed that increased facial emotion processing–related connectivity across theta (4 to 7 Hz) and beta (13 to 30 Hz) frequencies correlated positively with higher SRS-2 scores, predominantly in right-lateralized (theta) and bilateral (beta) cortical networks. Additionally, a steeper 1/f-like aperiodic slope (spectral exponent) across fronto-central electrodes was associated with higher SRS-2 scores. Greater aperiodic-adjusted theta and alpha oscillatory power further correlated with both higher SRS-2 scores and steeper aperiodic slopes. These findings underscore important links between facial emotion processing-related brain dynamics and autistic traits in typically developing children. Future work could extend these findings to assess these electroencephalography-derived markers as potential mechanisms underlying behavioral difficulties in autism.The opinions expressed in this article are the authors\u2019 own and do not reflect the views of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government. This work was supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (PGE; FT160100077). LMO is supported by the NIMH Intramural Research Program (ZIAMH002955). This work was supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (PGE; FT160100077). LMO is supported by the NIMH Intramural Research Program (ZIAMH002955).Peer-reviewe
Cold molecular gas in the hot nuclear wind of the Milky Way
No full textUsing the Large Millimeter Telescope and the SEQUOIA 3 mm focal plane array, we have searched for molecular line emission from two atomic clouds associated with the Fermi Bubble of the Milky Way. Neither 12CO nor 13CO J=1a- 0 emission is detected from the H I cloud, MW-C20. 12CO J=1a- 0 emission is detected from MW-C21 that is distributed within 11 clumps with most of the CO luminosity coming from a single clump. However, we find no 13CO emission to a 3I σ brightness temperature limit of 0.3 K. Using this limit and RADEX non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) excitation models, we derive H2 column density upper limits of (0.4a- 3)×1021 cm- 2 for a set of physical conditions and a H2 to 12CO abundance ratio of 104. Model CO-to-H2 conversion factors are derived for each set of physical conditions. We find the maximum value is 1.6×1020 cm- 2/(K km s- 1). Increasing [H2/12CO] to 105 to account for photodissociation and cosmic ray ionization increases the column density and X(CO) upper limits by a factor of 10. Applying these X(CO) limits to the CO luminosities, the upper limit on the total molecular mass in MW-C21 is 132±2 M⊙, corresponding to <27% of the neutral gas mass. For the three clumps that are fully resolved, lower limits to the virial ratios are 288±32, 68±28, and 157±39, which suggest that these structures are bound by external pressure to remain dynamically stable over the entrainment time of 2×106 years or are being disrupted by shear and expansion over the clump crossing times of 3- 8×105 years. The observations presented in this study add to the growing census of cold gas entrained within the Galactic Center wind.This work would not have been possible without the longterm financial support from the Mexican Humanities, Science and Technology Funding Agency, CONAHCYT (Consejo Nacional de Humanidades, Ciencias y Tecnolog\u00EDas), and the US National Science Foundation (NSF), as well as the Instituto Nacional de Astrof\u00EDsica, \u00D3ptica y Electr\u00F3nica (INAOE) and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (UMass). The operation of the LMT is currently funded by CONAHCYT grant #297324 and NSF grant #2034318. The data described in this paper include LMT observations conducted under the scientific programs, 2023-S1-UM-16 and 2024-S1-MX-2. The LMT welcomes acknowledgement of the scientific and technical support offered by the LMT staff during the observations and generation of data products provided to the authors. This work made use of Astropy ( http://www.astropy.org ): a community-developed core Python package and an ecosystem of tools and resources for astronomy (Astropy Collaboration 2013, 2018, 2022). LL acknowledges the support of UNAM-DGAPA PAPIIT grants IN108324 and IN112820 and CONACYT-CF grant 263356. E.D.T was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under grant agreement #10104075. This research was partially funded by the Australian Government through an Australian Research Council Australian Laureate Fellowship (project number FL210100039 awarded to NM-G). The NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated by Associated Universities, Inc.Peer-reviewe
Smallholder decision-making and its misalignment with sustainable development goal 2 (Zero Hunger)
No full textThe success of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) depends on alignment between global aims and local decisionmaking. Presently missing are analyses that explain how local decision-making determines efforts to prompt transformational change. Specific to SDG2 (i.e., Zero Hunger), disregard for local decision-making manifests an endemic misrepresentation of agricultural extension as a means for achieving increased ‘production and/or productivity’. Engagements were undertaken with 390 cassava farming households in Northwest Cambodia, enabling analysis of how smallholders determine the success of global efforts to intensify production. The findings uncover the adoption of ‘ngeay sruol’ farming (translation: convenience), defined as low-input and low-cost decision-making guided by risk-aversion. Both individually
and collectively, smallholders lower their risk-taking and thereby refuse extension seeking to increase production and productivity. The smallholders remain open to production and productivity, but not when required to assume significant risk to their lives and livelihoods. Going beyond generic calls for improved global-local alignment or value chain access, ngeay sruol demonstrates the deterministic, past-future prefiguration of smallholder agency, which is likely to be encountered by top-down efforts to feed the world by 2030.Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions. This research was funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), as part of the project, \u201CNext generation agricultural extension: Social relations for practice change\u201D (SSS/2019/138).Peer-reviewe
Exergaming in Augmented Living Spaces
No full textExercise is essential for a healthy lifestyle. It can increase energy and stamina, improve sleep and mental health, and reduce the risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions. Yet, many people do not engage in enough physical activity. Common barriers include lack of time, motivation, discipline, access to facilities, financial constraints, cultural factors, personal circumstances, and medical conditions. Exercising at home can help overcome many of these barriers. However, a key challenge with home-based exercise is low adherence. An alternative approach that can improve adherence is the use of exercise video games (exergames), which can enhance enjoyment and reduce perceived exertion through the immersive and distracting nature of gameplay. Despite this, popular exergaming systems are not always safe or inclusive. Many games offer limited immersion, which is critical for maintaining motivation.
This thesis investigates how augmented reality (AR) head-mounted displays (HMDs) can support more engaging, inclusive, and immersive home-based exergaming. Using a design research methodology, we conducted four studies. The first study involved semi-structured interviews with potential users and senior physiotherapists to identify suitable home exercises, home objects, and general strategies for augmenting them. The second study involved design activities on Snapchat followed by focus group discussions with participant-driven photo elicitation, to identify more specific augmentation strategies.
Building on these insights, the third study translated the findings into practical and playable exergame concepts. Using a research-through-design approach, we conducted ideation and low-fidelity prototyping activities to create two initial exergame concepts and develop a method for designing immersive AR experiences that incorporate tangible objects. The final study served as a boundary-testing exploration to examine whether our earlier findings could extend to a rehabilitation context. Specifically, we conducted an online workshop with a group of researchers and experts with lived experience of Multiple Sclerosis, to assess whether AR HMD exergames could facilitate in-home rehabilitation in addition to regular exercise.
Together, our studies contributed to recommendations and design guidelines on suitable home exercises for AR environments, home objects that can be augmented to facilitate in-home exercising, and how they should be augmented to provide tailored support for different exercises. They also led to the development of a novel ideation method for immersive AR experiences involving tangible objects, two initial exergame concepts, and recommendations specific to the rehabilitation context.
We synthesised these findings to establish key areas of consideration in designing home-based exergames for AR HMDs, and developed a design framework, which we applied to produce a final exergame concept. Our design framework can be used to create additional exergames options. As more exergames are created to support a variety of home-based exercises and user interests across different rooms, we envision the emergence of a rich library of exergames that can be used to assemble personalised exercise programs tailored to the user's diverse needs, abilities, interests, and home environment. The outcomes of our research have the potential to break down barriers to exercise, significantly increase physical activity levels, and contribute to healthier lifestyles among individuals
The Fourth National Goal of Papua New Guinea’s Constitution and the Frieda River Mine Project
No full textThe Frieda River mine project is currently at the final approval stage. The developer presented the proposal as a potential nation-building project for Papua New Guinea (PNG). While the proposal is before the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (CEPA), debates are intensifying among politicians, local communities, and international observers as to whether the project should continue. Recently, seven Sepik members of parliament (MPs) signed a letter to the prime minister urging the development of the mine. In contrast, other MPs — such as East Sepik Governor Allen Bird and Yangoru-Saussia MP Richard Maru — strongly opposed it, highlighting the serious environmental risks involved (Kanu 11/11/2025). We join in this debate to examine the proposed Frieda mine project and raise questions surrounding the underlying values enshrined in the Fourth National Goal of the PNG constitution, concerning natural resources and the environment. We explore how the Frieda mine project contradicts the fourth goal, undermining the eco-spiritual values that underpin it, and we make three recommendations regarding the project.Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trad
The Prime Minister must seize the historical narrative: Albanese's political challenges and the Voice impact
No full textPopular political histories typically reduce multi-layered events down to single dimensions - flat rationales that sit easily in the public mind.Not peer-reviewe