This study explored the intimacy-power patterns in Chinese direct criticism and how this may reflect native Chinese speakers’ consideration of rapport management. With data retrieved from BCC, a representative corpus of modern Chinese, the analyses identified the intimacy degree and power relativity of the interlocutors where direct criticism was used. Results revealed that native Chinese speakers use direct criticism mostly in close and equal relationships followed by distant and equal ones; also, direct criticism with different criticizing markers manifests their uniqueness that close and equal relationships appeared more in criticism with “你太(nitai) + adj.”, “我看你(wokanni)” and “你真是(nizhenshi)” while distant and equal relationships appeared more frequently in criticism with “你这(nizhe) + n. /adj.”. These results reflect that native Chinese speakers adopt rapport-maintaining/rapport-enhancing orientations by using criticism more often in close and equal relationships, together with their tendency to ignore rapport, especially in distant and equal relationships. To conclude, this study reveals the patterns of intimacy-power relationships in Chinese speakers’ usage of direct criticism, which reflects their awareness of rapport management. Overall, it provides insights into our understanding of the nature of the speech act of criticism.

This paper examines two responses to the global constitutional crises in the twentieth century, with a focus on a comparison between Carl Schmitt, a notorious German political theorist and critic of liberal constitutionalism and Zhang Junmai, a constitutionalist in Republican China. After the First World War, both Germany and China experienced constitutional crises, which prompted critical reflections among intellectuals. My paper is the first to discover and examine the latent element of Carl Schmitt in Zhang Junmai’s acceptance of the Weimar Constitution. My research shows that Zhang’s 1930 article, “Hugo Preuss (Author of the New German Constitution), His Concept of the State and His Position in the History of German Political Theory” (德國新憲起草者柏呂斯之國家觀念及其在德國政治學說史上之地位) is his Chinese translation of Carl Schmitt’s 1930 article, “Hugo Preuss: His Concept of the State and His Position in German State Theory” (“Hugo Preuss: Sein Staatsbegriff und seine Stellung in der deutschen Staatslehre”). Instead of simply regarding Zhang’s writing as plagiarism, my paper interrogates the gaps between Carl Schmitt’s original text and Zhang’s translation. By examining the intertextual relation between Carl Schmitt and Zhang Junmai, this paper reveals a latent aspect of the spectrum of Constitutionalism in the twentieth century and shows a special dialogue between a German critic of constitutionalism and a Chinese constitutionalist.

Law enforcement institutions in India are undergoing fundamental media technological transformations, integrating digital media technologies into crime investigation, documentation, and presentation methods. This article seeks to understand these transformations by examining the curious case of 65-B certificates, a mandatory paper document that gatekeeps and governs the life of new media objects as evidence in the Indian legal system. In exploring the tensions that arise when bureaucratic institutions change their means of information production, the article reflects on the continued stubborn presence of paper at this transformative juncture in the life of legal institutions. By studying the role of paper in bureaucratic practices, analyzing jurisprudential debates and case law surrounding 65-B certificates, and thinking through some scattered ethnographic encounters around these certificates involving police officers, forensic scientists, and practicing lawyers, this article argues that despite ongoing digital transformations, law essentially remains a technology of paper.

Drawing from Erving Goffman's seminal work on face-to-face interaction, this article introduces the concepts of digital face-work and the digital interaction in order to make sense of digital interaction. The theoretical framework emphasizes the sociotechnical aspects of face-work, portraying digital platforms not merely as spaces for interaction but as active participants co-shaping users’ face-work. Focusing on the political arena, the study examines how politicians use digital platforms to construct and maintain their digital face in relation to ‘small scandals’. Through a case study of Flemish nationalist politician, Theo Francken, trying to save face after a scandal erupted, it illustrates the complexities of digital face-work in a hybrid media system. The article underscores the challenges of managing face in the digital landscape, where context collapse and platform directives complicate self-presentation strategies. It also explores the interplay between individual agency and platform dynamics in shaping the digital interaction order. (Digital face, digital interaction order, political scandals, small scandals)

A 16-year-old male with newly diagnosed granulomatosis with polyangiitis presented to the emergency room with chest pain. He was found to have a myocardial infarction involving the right coronary artery and the left circumflex artery. He underwent mechanical thrombectomy and stent placement without significant sequelae. This is a rare complication associated with granulomatosis with polyangiitis.

Using two counter-propagating ultra-intense laser interactions with a solid target, we conducted a study on the generation of electron-positron pairs via the multi-photon Breit–Wheeler (BW) process and trident process. These processes were simulated using the particle-in-cell (PIC) code EPOCH. Our proposed scheme involves irradiating two targets with two counter-propagating lasers. High-energy photons are produced when hot electrons collide with the reflected laser pulse at the target's front, leading to electron and positron pair production. In the single-target scenario, electron bunches are extracted from the target by the p-polarized laser electromagnetic field and accelerated by the laser ponderomotive force before colliding with the counter-propagating laser. However, using two targets enhances pair creation compared with the single-target set-up. We observed that in two-target configurations, the increased number of high-energy gamma-rays contributes to higher-energy electron–positron generation. Additionally, the generation of hot electrons is also more pronounced in this scheme. Consequently, the laser demonstrates higher efficiency in generating gamma photons and positrons in the dual-target set-up, which is beneficial for investigating high-energy pair production and gamma-ray emission. The generated positrons exhibit a density of the order of $10^{27}\,\text {m}^{-3}$ and can be accelerated to energies of 1.5 GeV. The involvement of hot electrons in the target is crucial for generating high-energy photons and positrons. The maximum pair yield reaches $8 \times 10^9$ for the BW process and $10^8$ for the trident process. Notably, the total laser energy conversion efficiencies to electrons, $\gamma$-rays and positrons show improvement in the dual-target configuration. Specifically, the laser energy absorbed by positrons increases from 11.62 % in Case A to 13.12 % in Case B. These enhancements in conversion efficiency and electron/positron density have significant practical implications in experimental set-ups. In both the BW and trident processes, the two-target set-up dominates, highlighting its effectiveness. We also compared the strengths of both approaches, suggesting that these simple models of implementing two targets can be used in experiments as well.