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Toward a common environmental language? Reflections on the “Keywords” project in Bristol
No full textWhen we speak of the environment and environmental change, do we know what we mean? Interdisciplinary conversations frequently reveal different understandings of apparently commonplace terms – “adaptation,” “resilience,” “transitions,” and indeed “environment” itself. As a set of disciplines with strong roots in the study of languages and societies, the environmental humanities are well placed to map obstacles to comprehension and to trace paths towards common understanding. Eppelsheimer, Küchler and Melin have made this argument in relation to “foreign” language education, writing that “opening discussions of ecocriticism and environmental imagination to the aspect of language” can lead to the emergence of “new paths to resilience” (2015). Yet sensitivity to differing understandings of key terms is also crucial for broader environmental education in the humanities (Sze 2016), for policy engagement (Zhang et al. 2019), and for scholars’ ability to develop meaningful relationships with community organisations and other non-academic stakeholders. This article documents an initiative addressing this last point. Between 2021 and 2024, the authors ran a series of workshops involving academics and a range of community organizations. This experience revealed that while accessible and inclusive language is fundamental to establishing productive collaborations between academia and wider society, other factors (such as sustainable funding and creative methods for coproduction) are equally important. The article concludes by suggesting that a "common language" for engaged environmental research must therefore extend beyond words, to include shared images, spaces and practices, in order to achieve concrete outcomes
Building Trust before Losses:Changing China’s Partnership Default Rule from Actual to Subscribed Capital Contributions?
No full textDefault rules for profit and loss allocation in partnerships are almost universally symmetrical, yet this article demonstrates that such symmetry reflects a policymaking bias rooted in behavioural loss aversion. Focusing on China’s Partnership Enterprise Law, we argue that while actual (paid-up) capital is an appropriate benchmark for profit distribution, loss allocation should instead be governed by subscribed capital. Through a law and economics model, we show that actual capital rules disincentivise contributions during downturns, fostering collective inefficiency and eroding partner trust, whereas subscribed capital rules mitigate prisoner’s dilemmas and promote resilience. Case law analysis confirms these dynamics. To strengthen the normative basis of reform, we situate the subscribed capital rule within Chinese cultural philosophy, drawing on Confucian trust, Taoist interdependence, and Buddhist notions of giving and gaining. This interdisciplinary framework offers a novel model for partnership governance that addresses both economic incentives and social cohesion. In so doing, the paper contributes a fundamental rethinking of default rules in partnership law, with implications for comparative law, creditor protection, and global debates on organisational resilience
Everything Is a Robot (and Nothing Is)
No full textWhat is a robot, and who gets to decide? As robots evolve beyond metallic humanoids into drones, inflatable architectures, shape-changing materials, AI agents, and garments, the category itself is breaking apart. Human-Computer Interaction and Human-Robot Interaction are not just responding to this shift, they are actively reshaping it. With its focus on interaction, embodiment, proxemics, aesthetics, and lived experience, HCI offers unique tools to interrogate and redefine the essence of robotics. This two-session workshop brings together researchers, designers, and provocateurs to map emerging definitions, challenge disciplinary boundaries, and build a research roadmap for the future of HCI-driven relational robotics. Together, we will explore what robots are becoming and what they could be when interaction takes center stage
Beyond the Static-World:Lifelong Learning for All-in-One Medical Image Restoration
No full textAll-in-One Medical Image Restoration (MedIR) models offer a promising path towards generalized medical imaging intelligence but face two critical spatiotemporal challenges: 1) Spatial Modality Interference, where conflicting gradients from diverse modalities (e.g., MRI, CT, PET) degrade performance; and 2) a Temporal Static-World Assumption that ignores the continual data streams in real-world clinical settings, leading to catastrophic forgetting. To address this dual challenge, we propose Resilient On-the-fly Medical Enhancement(ROME), a novel lifelong learning framework governed by a "Disentangle-Optimize-Consolidate" paradigm. ROME first resolves the foundational modality conflict via the Modality-Invariant Disentanglement via Adversarial Balancing(MIDAB) module. It establishes a strategic "adversarial balance" between a "content preservation force" and a "modality erasure force" to optimize a disentangled, unified feature manifold. Building on this stable foundation, the Adaptive Feature Consolidation(AFC) module combats forgetting. AFC dynamically locates an optimal feature consolidation point via a prediction network, enforced by a novel Diversity Loss to ensure robust continuous learning. Experiments demonstrate that ROME not only achieves SOTA performance in static settings but also exhibits superior resilience in rigorous domain-incremental benchmarks, reducing the average catastrophic performance degradation by over 10%
Factors associated with adult incarceration among people with opioid use disorder in New South Wales, Australia
No full textBackground and purpose: People with opioid use disorder (OUD) are at elevated risk of incarceration. Understanding factors linked to this risk may support more targeted prevention and intervention efforts. This study used cross-sectional survey data to examine associations with time to first incarceration and repeated incarceration among individuals with OUD. Additionally, we wanted to examine the characteristics of people with opioid dependence who had been incarcerated. Methods: Data were drawn from 297 adults with OUD in NSW, Australia (2023-2024). Participants completed structured interviews covering socio-demographics, substance use, adverse childhood experiences and criminal justice contact. A discrete-time event analysis examined correlates of first adult incarceration from age 18.Results: Overall, 58% of participants reported having been incarcerated. In adjusted models, injecting drug use increased risk of first-time incarceration in any given year (aOR: 3.55, 1.08 – 11.66), as did childhood exposure to household substance use (aOR: 1.80, 1.15–2.82), and being male (aOR: 1.83, 1.24 – 2.69). Greater secondary education reduced incarceration odds (aOR: 0.56, 0.37–0.86). In any given year, younger adults (18–24 years) were at highest risk of incarceration, whereas those aged 35 or older had notably lower odds (aOR: 0.16, 0.09 – 0.29).Conclusions: Injecting drug use, limited education, and childhood exposure to household substance use were associated with higher incarceration risk. There is a need to consider broader social and developmental factors in supporting individuals with OUD. While systemic change is complex, this study adds to the evidence base that can inform more integrated approaches to reducing incarceration risk.</div
<i>Ystorya Dared</i>: The Medieval Welsh Versions of the Trojan War
No full textThis article discusses the medieval Welsh translations of Dares Phrygius’s Latin text De excidio Troiae historia (History of the Fall of Troy), collectively known as Ystorya Dared. It provides and up-to-date overview of the context of translation, the manuscript tradition and the source texts, the structure of the Welsh versions, the language and style of the texts, and some of the main topics emphasised in Welsh. The paper offers some insights into translation strategies through brief comparative analyses