Infants learn language through the back-and-forth interactions with their parents where they \"serve\" by uttering sounds, gesturing, or looking and parents \"return\" in prompt (i.e., close in time) and meaningful (i.e., semantically relevant to the object of interest) ways. In a sample of 9-month-old infants (n = 148) and their mothers and fathers (n = 296 parents) from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds, we examined the associations between \"serve and return\" (SR) parent-child interactions and children\'s language skills at 18 and 24 months. We also examined the moderation effects between maternal and paternal SR interactions on language outcomes. SR interactions were transcribed and coded from videotaped parent-child toy play activities during home visits. We report three findings. First, mothers who provided more meaningful responses to their child\'s serves at 9 months had children with higher expressive language scores at 18 months. Second, fathers\' prompt responses (i.e., within 3 s) at 9 months were associated with higher receptive language scores at 18 months, but their meaningful responses were negatively associated with receptive language scores at 24 months. Third, the negative association between fathers\' meaningful responses and children\'s receptive language scores was reduced (compensated) when mothers\' meaningful responses were high. Findings show that infants in ethnically and socioeconomically diverse families engage in frequent SR interactions with both mothers and fathers, who make unique contributions to infants\' language development. We discuss implications for programs and policies that aim to promote early language development and reduce gaps in school readiness.

Although their perspectives and approaches vary, existing criminological theories are all based on the deterministic optimism that the crucial causes of criminal behavior must exist and can be uncovered. However, no key factor can fully explain the causes of criminal behavior. All factors that directly affect the occurrence of criminal behavior are important, and contingency is always at work. More feasible crime prevention and control measures can be proposed only considering the contingency factor. The aim of this study is to point out the limitations of the deterministic view of existing criminological theories that explain the causes of crime after knowing the results, and simultaneously to propose the contingency model with viable alternative solutions.

A single non-contingent dose of cocaine reinstates extinguished lever pressing behavior in rats trained to self-administer cocaine. This represents a model of relapse in cocaine use disorder and the number of lever presses has been the standard measure. Lever pressing behavior during self-administration occurs only when cocaine levels are below the satiety threshold and above the remission/priming threshold, a range termed the compulsion zone. Calculated cocaine levels at the time of each lever press during an FR1 self-administration session and following a single non-contingent dose of cocaine were compared. The mean latency to lever pressing behavior was dose dependent and ranged from 1 to 11 min after cocaine doses of 2 or 12 μmol/kg, respectively. This is consistent with higher cocaine doses producing levels above satiety threshold that take more time to fall back to that threshold. The level of cocaine when lever pressing occurred was similar whether cocaine was self-administered or after a single dose of cocaine. The number of lever presses after a single cocaine dose was variable and poorly dose dependent. The latency to the start of lever pressing behavior is a more reliable dependent measure than the number of lever presses. In addition, lever pressing behavior occurs only when cocaine levels are within the compulsion zone. The compulsion zone theory not only explains maintained cocaine self-administration behavior, but also explains the reinstatement of lever pressing behavior in response to a single non-contingent cocaine dose.

Modern social sciences arose during a period of classical modernity in which discovering universal rules between distinct phenomena was the most prominent criterion of scientific knowledge. Social phenomena were considered in the form of isolated, determined, standardized, and regulated objects whose knowledge, like that of the natural sciences, depended on the understanding of universal laws. The accidental and the contingent were eliminated in favor of universal laws. With the intensifying of modernity and the transition to late and liquid modernity, and by suspending many dominant cognitive categories, this kind of essentialist foundationalism was attacked by a variety of anti/non-foundationalist criticism that subscribed to either plural grounds or groundlessness, a bottomless ground in which scientific knowledge at a high level lost its significance. This predicament has given rise to several biases and antinomies in modern social theory. By addressing some of these predicaments and antinomies, including foundationalism/non(anti-)foundationalism, agency/structure, the individual/society, essentialism/relativism, and universalism/singularism, the present article strives to propose the idea of social configurations as a solution to overcome them, and through this endeavor, it is indicated that considering these configurations can effectively explain emerging and interrelated global phenomena. By prioritizing the conditions of possibility for social phenomena, and taking into account their contingency, as well as the incompleteness and partiality of their foundations, social configurations are considered as units at the level of the particular whose relationality, indeterminacy, interdependence, and fluidity constitute their central features.

Researchers need approaches for analyzing complex phenomena when assessing contingency relationships where specific conditions explain an outcome only when combined with other conditions. Using a mixed methods design, we paired configurational methods and qualitative thematic analysis to model contingency in veteran community reintegration outcomes, identifying combinations of conditions that led to success or lack of success in community reintegration among US military veterans. This pairing allowed for modeling contingency at a detailed level beyond the capabilities of either approach alone. Our analysis revealed multiple contingent relationships at work in explaining reintegration, including social support, purpose, cultural adjustment, and military separation experiences. This study contributes to the field of mixed methods by pairing a mathematical cross-case method with a qualitative method to model contingency.

Researchers in applied ethics, and some areas of bioethics particularly, aim to develop concrete and appropriate recommendations for action in morally relevant real-world situations. When proceeding from more abstract levels of ethical reasoning to such concrete recommendations, however, even with regard to the very same normative principle or norm, it seems possible to develop divergent or even contradictory recommendations for action regarding a certain situation. This may give the impression that such recommendations would be arbitrary and, hence, not well justified. Against this background, we, first, aim at showing that ethical recommendations for action, although being contingent in some sense, are not arbitrary if developed appropriately. For this purpose, we examine two types of contingencies arising in applied ethics reasoning based on recent examples of recommendations for action in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, we refer to a three-step model of ethical reasoning towards recommendations for actions. This, however, leaves open the question of how applied ethics may cope with contingent recommendations for action. Therefore, in a second step, we analyze the role of bridge principles for developing ethically appropriate recommendations for action, i.e., principles which connect normative claims with relevant empirical information to justify certain recommendations for action in a given morally relevant situation. Finally, we discuss some implications for reasoning and reporting in empirically informed ethics.

This paper takes as its point of departure Merleau-Ponty\'s assertion: \"everything will have to begin again, in politics as well as in philosophy\". In pursuing his later work, Merleau-Ponty signalled the need for a reconfiguration of his philosophical vision, so it was no longer caught in Cartesianism and the philosophy of consciousness. This required a turn towards ontology through which he consolidated two key ideas: firstly, a pervasive interdependence articulated in his reversibility thesis and the ontology of \'flesh\'; secondly, a radical contingency at the heart of existence. This paper interrogates the political implications of these ideas, and specifically regarding humanism and human progress. Relatedly, I address the question - how might recognitions of ontological interdependence and radical contingency support a flourishing democracy? Merleau-Ponty\'s early political work concerned the issues of his day - Nazism, Marxism and the status of humanism - and did not engage extensively with these emerging onto-political concerns. Nonetheless, there are indicative reflections in the writings and interviews; the political implications of his ontological interrogations become more thematic in the later works. There is no rupture between the earlier and later works regarding his philosophical vision, although he later distanced himself from Marxism with revelations of the gulags under Stalin and the Korean War. The overarching claim of this paper - we need to rethink politics from the ground up beginning with ontology; ontology is political and the political is intrinsically ontologically informed. Getting the ontology \'right\' is a matter of discovery and not theory choice.

Intersubjectivity refers to two non-verbal intersubjective relations infants experience during their first year that are precursors to the emergence of words. Trevarthen, a pioneer in the study of intersubjectivity, referred to those relations as primary and secondary intersubjectivity. The former, a dyadic coordination between the infant and her caregiver, begins at birth. The latter, a triadic coordination that develops around 9 months, allows the infant and a caregiver to share attention to particular features of the environment. Secondary intersubjectivity is crucial for an infant\'s ability to begin to produce words, at around 12 months. Much research on the social and cognitive origins of language has focused on secondary intersubjectivity. That is unfortunate because it neglects the fact that secondary intersubjectivity and the emergence of words are built on a foundation of primary intersubjectivity. It also ignores the evolutionary origins of intersubjectivity and its uniquely human status. That unique status explains why only humans learn words. This article seeks to address these issues by relating the literature on primary intersubjectivity, particularly research on bi-directional and contingent communication between infants and mothers, to joint attention and ultimately to words. In that context, we also discuss Hrdy\'s hypothesis about the influence of alloparents on the evolution of intersubjectivity.

In day-to-day life, we often choose between pursuing familiar behaviors that have been rewarded in the past or adjusting behaviors when new strategies might be more fruitful. The dorsomedial striatum (DMS) is indispensable for flexibly arbitrating between old and new behavioral strategies. The way in which DMS neurons host stable connections necessary for sustained flexibility is still being defined. An entry point to addressing this question may be the structural scaffolds on DMS neurons that house synaptic connections. We find that the non-receptor tyrosine kinase Proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 (Pyk2) stabilizes both dendrites and spines on striatal medium spiny neurons, such that Pyk2 loss causes dendrite arbor and spine loss. Viral-mediated Pyk2 silencing in the DMS obstructs the ability of mice to arbitrate between rewarded and non-rewarded behaviors. Meanwhile, the overexpression of Pyk2 or the closely related focal adhesion kinase (FAK) enhances this ability. Finally, experiments using combinatorial viral vector strategies suggest that flexible, Pyk2-dependent action involves inputs from the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), but not the ventrolateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Thus, Pyk2 stabilizes the striatal medium spiny neuron structure, likely providing substrates for inputs, and supports the capacity of mice to arbitrate between novel and familiar behaviors, including via interactions with the medial-prefrontal cortex.

BACKGROUND: After the publication of a 2014 consensus statement regarding mass critical care during public health emergencies, much has been learned about surge responses and the care of overwhelming numbers of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gaps in prior pandemic planning were identified and require modification in the midst of ongoing surges throughout the world.
METHODS: The Task Force for Mass Critical Care (TFMCC) adopted a modified version of established rapid guideline methodologies from the World Health Organization and the Guidelines International Network-McMaster Guideline Development Checklist. With a consensus development process incorporating expert opinion to define important questions and extract evidence, the TFMCC developed relevant pandemic surge suggestions in a structured manner, incorporating peer-reviewed literature, \"gray\" evidence from lay media sources, and anecdotal experiential evidence.
RESULTS: Ten suggestions were identified regarding staffing, load-balancing, communication, and technology. Staffing models are suggested with resilience strategies to support critical care staff. ICU surge strategies and strain indicators are suggested to enhance ICU prioritization tactics to maintain contingency level care and to avoid crisis triage, with early transfer strategies to further load-balance care. We suggest that intensivists and hospitalists be engaged with the incident command structure to ensure two-way communication, situational awareness, and the use of technology to support critical care delivery and families of patients in ICUs.
CONCLUSIONS: A subcommittee from the TFMCC offers interim evidence-informed operational strategies to assist hospitals and communities to plan for and respond to surge capacity demands resulting from COVID-19.