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    Introduction to The Bloomsbury Handbook of Theories in Childhood Studies

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    The three editors of the volume explain why the book is structured around three sections (subjectivities, relationalities, structures

    Validity, Reliability, and Cross-Cultural Comparability of a Problematic Overstudying Scale across European, North American, and Asian countries

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    Problematic overstudying has been conceptualized as a potential addictive disorder and an early form of work addiction. Previous studies have shown that it is a different phenomenon from healthy learning engagement and is associated with considerable functional impairments. A valid, reliable, and convenient screening measure is warranted to provide cross-culturally comparable and generalizable findings, particularly from large epidemiological studies. The seven-item Bergen Study Addiction Scale (BStAS), based on an addiction framework, was administered alongside learning engagement and anxiety measures in a total sample of 5,884 university students from three continents and five countries: India, Norway, Poland, Portugal, and the United States. The modified five-item version of the scale showed measurement invariance across countries and between genders and allowed for meaningful cross-cultural and gender comparisons. Scores on the BStAS were positively associated with learning engagement, anxiety, and female gender across countries. Clinically significant anxiety levels occurred about 1.7 times more often among students who scored above the cutoff for study addiction. It is concluded that the five-item BStAS is a valid, reliable scale that can be used in different cultures and provides comparable and generalizable results. Future studies with the BStAS may provide greater insight into the nature of problematic overstudying. Paweł A. , Edyta , Aleksandra , Stanisław K. , Mark D. , Anna , Shanmukh , Zuzanna , Halley M. Pontes, Jacob , Steve , Natalia A. & Stål

    The power of multivariate approach in identifying EEG correlates of interlimb coupling

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    Interlimb coupling refers to the interaction between movements of one limb and movements of other limbs. Understanding mechanisms underlying this effect is important to real life because it reflects the level of interdependence between the limbs that plays a role in daily activities including tool use, cooking, or playing musical instruments. Interlimb coupling involves multiple brain regions working together, including coordination of neural activity in sensory and motor regions across the two hemispheres. Traditional neuroscience research took a univariate approach to identify neural features that correspond to behavioural coupling measures. Yet, this approach reduces the complexity of the neural activity during interlimb tasks to one value. In this brief research report, we argue that identifying neural correlates of interlimb coupling would benefit from a multivariate approach in which full patterns from multiple sources are used to predict behavioural coupling. We demonstrate the feasibility of this approach in an exploratory EEG study where participants (n = 10) completed 240 trials of a well-established drawing paradigm that involves interlimb coupling. Using artificial neural network (ANN), we show that multivariate representation of the EEG signal significantly captures the interlimb coupling during bimanual drawing whereas univariate analyses failed to identify such correlates. Our findings demonstrate that analysing distributed patterns of multiple EEG channels is more sensitive than single-value techniques in uncovering subtle differences between multiple neural signals. Using such techniques can improve identification of neural correlates of complex motor behaviours

    Language and sustainable development

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    Book synopsis: This book addresses the importance of language in matters of sustainability and incorporating such concerns in implementing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sustainable language policy must aim to include all groups, including language minorities and marginalized populations, such as refugees and aid recipients, in conditions that allow for their inclusion in making and implementing policy. The book brings together nine studies covering such topics as language and digital resources, sustainable and inclusive multilingual education, national language policy, and language in peacekeeping operations. A final chapter addresses the crucial intersection between sociolinguistics and economics, and the implications of this for development and the SDGs

    Catholic revivals in Britain and Ireland

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    This overview chapter emphasizes an era of Catholic revivalism in Britain and Ireland through the interconnections between Catholics in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. The globalizing, transnational forces at work in the Church further augmented and deepened this connectivity. First, the chapter identifies the demographic, geographic, ethnic, and social-class dimensions of Catholicism in each of the four nations, tracing their evolution over the long nineteenth century. Next, the legal and ecclesial structures that frame the Catholic revivals are examined. A third section explores the laity as co-producers and consumers of this revival through associational cultures and the development of a Catholic periodical press. The chapter concludes with the Church-wide theological and ecclesiological characteristics of this era, often summarized as ultramontane Catholicism, and the importance of membership in the Universal Church to Catholic identities across the United Kingdom

    A new compositional estimate for refractory lower continental crust with implications for the first terrestrial Pb-isotope paradox

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    The lower continental crust, representing up to 50% of the continental mass, is largely inaccessible, making its composition difficult to constrain. Previous composite models based on geophysical evidence and geochemical data of granulite terrains and xenoliths have proposed varying results, from a mafic, relatively refractory lower crust to an intermediate-felsic, more enriched composition. Here, we investigated the mineralogy and geochemistry of predominantly mafic granulite xenoliths from eastern Australia and the Kola Peninsula, Russia, using an in situ analytical approach that minimises host magma contamination. The resulting xenolith compositions are variably and often strongly depleted in most highly incompatible trace elements, including the heat-producing elements. These xenoliths represent an extremely refractory component of the lower continental crust, likely formed after high degrees of partial melting or crystallisation from a depleted source. A lower crust composed solely of this refractory endmember would be too exhausted in heat-producing elements to satisfy heat-flow constraints. However, a volumetrically significant component of the lower crust is this mafic and refractory material, combined with undifferentiated material and a felsic or metapelitic portion. Using geophysical constraints on proportions of refractory (55%), undepleted (38%) and enriched (7%) components, a new estimate for average lower continental crust that satisfies heat flow limits was calculated, including for elements such as Be, B, Cs, W and Tl, where previous estimates relied on very few data. Finally, we show that because much of the lower continental crust is so refractory and depleted in incompatible elements, it is unlikely to be a reservoir that can balance radiogenic isotope (unradiogenic Pb) and trace element ratios (e.g. Rb/Cs, Nb/Ta) for which bulk silicate Earth departs from chondritic ratios

    Anxiety and enjoyment among young teenagers learning English as a foreign language outdoors: a mixed-methods study

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    Purpose: The aim of this study is to explore how outdoor education can influence foreign language anxiety (FLA) and foreign language enjoyment (FLE) when young teenagers are learning a foreign language (FL). We applied a dynamic perspective to investigate if using English in an outdoor context would reduce FLA and boost FLE, leading to a stronger willingness to communicate (WTC) in the FL. Design/methodology/approach: The design was a pre-post intervention study with an experimental group (EG) and a control group (CG). Both groups engaged in fluency-oriented activities during a six-week intervention. The EG conducted the activities outdoors whereas the CG conducted them in their classrooms. A mixed-methods approach was applied collecting data through student questionnaires and group interviews with both students and their English teachers. Observations and recordings of participants’ speech were also conducted. Findings: Statistical analyses indicated a small effect of the intervention for both FLA and FLE but the difference in gain scores between groups was found to be non-significant. The qualitative data revealed a strong appreciation of the outdoor experience in English. Originality/value: Most previous studies have investigated emotions in FL learning inside the classroom. The current study investigates emotions in FL learning among young teenagers in an outdoor environment

    Brexit horror

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    Book synopsis: Substantially reworks accounts of gothic and globalisation, to examine located gothic engagements with global histories and phenomena Provides a comprehensive theorisation of globalgothic in the age of planetary crisis Includes analyses of gothic fiction from six continents Offers a range of new globalgothic approaches, modalities and regional permutations The Edinburgh Companion to Globalgothic is the most substantial exploration to date of gothic fiction in the international context. Examining texts from across six continents, the volume considers how gothic imagines, colludes with or interrogates relationships and phenomena that are planetary in scale. Accordingly, chapters address gothic engagements with – among others – resource imperialism, (ongoing) colonial history, diasporic identity, buckling economic unions, the rise of the internet, enthnonationalism, and entangled systems of gendered, racialised and ecocidal power. In this way, the collection moves decisively beyond the framework of globalisation to identify a range of new globalgothic approaches and modes, overall demonstrating that gothic is a key – though sometimes complicit – register for negotiating the challenges and histories of our uneven global present

    The role of individual differences in resistance to persuasion on memory for political advertisements

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    When people see political advertisements on a polarized issue they take a stance on, what factors influence how they respond to and remember the adverts contents? Across three studies, we tested competing hypotheses about how individual differences in social vigilantism (i.e., attitude superiority) and need for cognition relate to intentions to resist attitude change and memory for political advertisements concerning abortion. In Experiments 1 and 2, we examined participants’ intentions to use resistance strategies to preserve their pre-existing attitudes about abortion, by either engaging against opposing opinions or disengaging from them. In Experiment 3, we examined participants’ memory for information about both sides of the controversy presented in political advertisements. Our results suggest higher levels of social vigilantism are related to greater intentions to counterargue and better memory for attitude-incongruent information. These findings extend our understanding of individual differences in how people process and respond to controversial social and political discourse

    Russian attitudes to human rights

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    Book synopsis: This accessible text explains how Russian law works in all its principal areas. It elucidates the main concepts and frameworks behind Russian law, and uses original legal sources and case law to explain how it operates in practice. The contributors, all of whom are leading experts on Russian law, employ original research to further knowledge of the Russian legal profession, legal culture, judiciary and court systems, providing a scholarly and practical account of Russian law for students and scholars alike. It is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the subject

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