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Realistic composite vehicles with 2, 3, 5 and 9 axles, consisting of a truck with one or two trailers, are addressed in this paper by computational models for vehicle–bridge interaction analysis.

The vehicle–bridge interaction (VBI) models are formed by sets of 2-D rigid blocks interconnected by mass, damping and stiffness elements to simulate their suspension system. The passage of the vehicles is performed at different speeds. Several rolling surface profiles are admitted, considering the maintenance grade of the pavement. The spectral density functions are generated from an experimental database to form the longitudinal surface irregularity profiles. A computational code written in Phyton based on the finite element method was developed considering the Euler–Bernoulli beam model.

Several models of composite heavy vehicles are presented as manufactured and currently travel on major roads. Dynamic amplification factors are presented for each type of composite vehicle.

The VBI models for compound heavy vehicles are 2-D.

This work contributes to improving the safety and lifetime of the bridges, as well as the stability and comfort of the vehicles when passing over a bridge.

The structural response of the bridge is affected by the type and size of the compound vehicles, their speed and the conservative grade of the pavement. Moreover, one axle produces vibrations that can be superposed by the vibrations of the other axles. This effect can generate not usual dynamic responses.

The purpose of this study is to examine the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative’s (NEITI) ineffectiveness in delivering public accountability to Nigerian citizens. Although this failure is recognised in prior literature, the authors contend that NEITI’s role is obscured by one-sided links to external factors.

The conceptual framework presented in this study is built around Dillard and Vinnari’s (2019) distinction between different accountability systems and Brown and Dillard’s (2020) complimentary insights on the technologies of hubris and humility. The analytical framework draws from Grant and Keohane’s (2005) modes of accountability, which the authors use to articulate conflicting accountability demands (to-whom and for-what) of NEITI’s operating relationships. Combined, the authors analyse official documents, media, reports and interview responses from members of NEITI’s National Stakeholders Working Group.

This study surfaces a variety of intersecting interests across NEITI’s operational relationships. Some of these interests are mutually beneficial like that of Donors and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. Others run counter to each other, such as NEITI’s relationship to the Presidency which illustrates a key source of NEITI’s ineffectiveness. In discussing these interests, the authors articulate their connection to NEITI’s design as an accountability system and its embedded limitations.

The authors provide incremental understanding of prior insight regarding NEITI’s ineffectiveness by drawing attention to its fundamental design as an accountability system and its failure to deliver public accountability. To illuminate these failures, the authors also map NEITI’s competing accountability demands – the nexus of accountability – to demonstrate the complex socio-political reality within which NEITI is expected to operate. The authors posit that NEITI’s ineffectiveness has as much to do with NEITI itself, as it does with external factors like the quality of information disclosed and the unique Nigerian context.

Democratic renewal in Sri Lanka as well as a cross the Global South depends on strengthening democratic social movements within varieties of patrimonial capitalism. Patrimonial capitalism, emphasising patron–client relations, coincide with weakening democratic institutional cultures and practices. The dominant corruption/anti-corruption narrative is bracketed with elite class strategies aimed at negotiating a ‘managed corruption’. The realm of representative politics creating consent for patrimonial capitalism is shaped by: ethnic and class relations; the weakening of working-class parties; patriarchal cultures within parties; links with criminal networks; opaque finances and the integration of mainstream media with party patronage.

Democratising the realm of representative politics points towards democratic social movements. The internal dynamics of social movements, their relationships with political parties and collective learning are significant factors that shapes the strategic orientation of social movements. State repression of social movements highlights the need for demilitarisation and the abolition of prisons. The global sense of this local struggle relates to transforming financial markets and platform economies towards notions of financial and digital commons. The integration of different realms of politics, such as representative, movement, life and emancipatory politics, is vital for reinforcing solidarity as the basis for counter-hegemonic struggles.

The proposal takes as a reference of the post-pandemic context corresponding to Cuba, likewise, it includes experiences from Peru and Argentina, mainly in the field of education. In the epistemic order, enclaves of the theory of culture in its humanist aspect corresponding to cultural identity were adopted. Methodologically, we adhere to the critical interpretative paradigm, integrating results of the authors’ social practice and critical review of sources, mainly contributions from critical theory. The exposed analyses contribute to base theoretical-methodological criteria aimed at reducing gender and racial gaps, and other inequalities determined by conditions that historically become inequities in access to development. Political theoretical criteria are proposed for the implementation of inclusive public policies in the area of education and productive activity, overcoming gender, and racial gaps in the post-pandemic context. As a result, it contributes to promoting the overcoming of the effects of racism and sexism in the pandemic context as well as enabling the development of cultural identity from actions aimed at the cultural integration of identity expressions neglected due to racial and gender conditions. As a result, it contributes to promote the overcoming of the effects of racism and sexism in the pandemic context; as well as to enable the development of cultural identity from actions aimed at the cultural integration of identity expressions neglected due to racial and gender conditions.

The Whole Child Initiative (WCI) was developed over the past 15 years as a blueprint to promote long-term development and success of all children, as well as their families and communities. This chapter describes three aspects of the WCI model: (a) the need for a public health approach to sustainable, communitywide change targeting the whole child; (b) a clear, future-oriented vision for equipping educators, caregivers, and service providers with the skills and attitudes required to deliver high-quality instruction; and (c) the infusion of social and emotional learning practices to transform environments in which youth live and play. We provide examples of how schools, communities, and families can come together to create a common culture fostering stable and nurturing relationships essential for enhancing youth well-being. We close with recommended “super strategies” – low-cost, simple, and effective practices that can be broadly implemented to keep every child healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged in the community at large.

This paper aims to examine key obligations of states to persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) under the right to health framework in the context of COVID-19. As a case study, it also describes the state of health in places of detention in the Philippines during the pandemic, with an end view of providing granular recommendations for prison policy reforms.

Relevant rules under international human rights law related to places of detention were thematically analyzed to articulate the scope of the right to health of PDLs. To describe the state of places of detention in the Philippines, this paper relied on archival research of news from selected local mainstream and specialized media.

The right to health framework provides a foundation for the response to COVID-19 in places of detention. Key concerns include increase in the number of infections, vulnerabilities in physical and mental health, and the spread of infection among correctional staff. Long-standing structural constraints and limited health information compound the threat of COVID-19. The Philippines must comply with its human rights obligations to PDLs to effectively address COVID-19-related concerns.

Policy reforms in Philippine places of detention must include application of community standards on physical and mental health, implementation of emergency release and application of non-custodial measures for long-term prison decongestion.

This is one of the few papers to analyze human rights in health care in places of detention during a pandemic, as nuanced in the context of the Philippines.

This paper aims to analyze what Samarco and Brazilian magazines speak and say about Mariana’s environmental crime. Discover their doxa in this subject. Interpret the speakings, sayings and doxas through the theories of the treadmills of production, crime and law.

It is a qualitative and documental research and a narrative analysis. Regarding the documents: 45 were from public authorities, 14 from Samarco Mineração S.A. and 73 from Brazilian magazines. Theoretically, the authors resorted to Bourdieusian sociology (speaking, saying and doxa) and the treadmills of production, crime and law theories.

Samarco: speaking – mission statements; saying – detailed information and economic and financial concerns; doxa – assistance discourse. Brazilian magazines: speaking – external agents; saying – agreements; doxa – attribution, aggravations, historical facts, impacts and protests.

The absence of discussions that addressed this fatality, with its respective consequences, from an agenda that exposed and denounced how it exacerbated race, class and gender inequalities.

Regarding Mariana’s environmental crime: Samarco Mineração S.A. speaks and says through the treadmill of production theory and supports its doxa through the treadmill of crime theory, and Brazilian magazines speak and say through the treadmill of law theory and support their doxa through the treadmill of crime theory.

To provoke reflections on the relationship between the mining companies and the communities where they settle to develop their productive activities.

Concerning environmental crime in perspective, submit it to a theoretical interpretation based on sociological references, approach it in a debate linked to environmental criminology, and describe it through narratives exposed by the guilty company and by Brazilian magazines with high circulation.

In the current chapter, we discuss the shape and contours of the field of probation in Romania as they appear in scientific literature and mass media, focusing on the concerns academics and professionals have voiced about Romanian probation. We analyse the timeframe from 2014 to 2021, after the introduction of the country’s New Penal Code (NPC). We structure our argument as follows. The chapter begins with a short incursion into the historiography of probation as a field in Romania. The focus, however, is on the adoption of a NPC in 2014, as this was a significant moment that led to changes for both probation workers and probationers. While we present the first 25 years since probation was instituted in Romania in 1997 as a period of experiments, trials and errors, we aim to highlight the development and consolidation that occurred in the period after 2014 (see Durnescu 2008, 2015; Preda, 2015a, 2017; Sandu, 2016). The NPC was intended to bring forward a reconfiguration of the probation system in Romania (Preda, 2015b). Beyond the promise of the NPC, the 2014–2021 period is one where probation edges into the public sphere via extensive media coverage, including the considerable number of probationers or a string of protests by probation counsellors who felt overworked and overwhelmed. We continue the chapter by analysing the composition and the dynamics of the probation population, always looking beyond the mere numbers to other analytic markers (i.e. numbers of obligations and lengths of the probation period). We conclude the chapter by arguing that our discussion of the ‘weight’ of supervision adds to the current understanding of mass supervision by looking at the aggregated impact that different social, political, penal and cultural factors have on probation practice. In other words, large caseloads, limited human resources, precarious material conditions and negative organisational cultures are likely to generate supervision experiences that can be better interpreted by looking and thinking beyond numbers.

Research indicates a long historical connection between racism and nationalist ideologies. This connection has been highlighted in the resurgence of exclusionary nationalism in recent years, across many multicultural societies. This chapter discusses the notions of race, ethnicity and nation, and critically examines how racism shapes contemporary manifestations of nationalist discourse across the world. It explores the historical role of settler-colonialism, imperial expansions and the capitalist development in shaping the racial/ethnic aspect of nationalist development. Moreover, it provides an analysis of the interconnections between the racialisation of minorities, exclusionary ideologies and the consolidation of ethno-nationalist tropes. This chapter further considers the impact of demographic changes in reinforcing anti-migrant exclusionary sentiments. This is examined in connection with emerging nativist discourse, exploring how xenophobic racism has shaped and is shaped by nostalgic nationalism based on the sanitisation of the legacies of Empire and colonialism.