NLA University College

This article examines a central ethical transformation in contemporary regimes of algorithmic safety: the disappearance of discrete sites where responsibility can appear. While current governance frameworks emphasize oversight, monitoring, and auditability, the architectures through which large language models are trained and deployed reorganize decision-making into continuous processes of probabilistic optimization. As a result, responsibility becomes increasingly difficult to locate, even though human actors remain present within training and evaluation pipelines. Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s account of judgment, action, and the public appearance of responsibility, the article develops a theoretical framework for understanding this transformation. Arendt’s distinction between discrete acts of judgment and the statistical administration of behavior provides a lens through which contemporary safety infrastructures can be analyzed. The article introduces the concept of post-agential governance to describe systems in which power operates without requiring actors who publicly appear as the authors of specific decisions. Three symptomatic indicators of this condition are examined: the absence of named signatories in safety releases, the displacement of normative reasoning by engineering vocabularies of tuning and drift, and the reliance on aggregate metrics to address representational harms. Finally, the article proposes institutional mechanisms that could restore identifiable moments of responsibility in algorithmic governance, including authorization tokens attached to model deployment events.

Contemporary frameworks of algorithmic accountability typically assume that responsibility persists under conditions of sociotechnical complexity, even when it becomes opaque or distributed. This article builds on a recent argument that under optimization‑driven governance responsibility does not merely become hidden but fails to arise [14], and develops the institutional structure that argument requires. Drawing on an externalist reading of Arendt, I argue that minimal publicly attributable responsibility depends on three jointly necessary conditions: discreteness, authorship, and publicness. I then identify four mechanisms by which optimization‑driven systems erode them: iterative output generation, metric substitution, procedural diffusion, and temporal continuity. The four are derived from the three rather than enumerated as a parallel list. The framework is demonstrated through the Australian Robodebt scheme, a deterministic system in which automated welfare debt notices were issued without identifiable decisions, attributable authors, or contestable forums. A brief extension shows that the framework holds, and strengthens, when applied to probabilistic and generative architectures. The article closes with three concrete design principles, event‑marking, authorship preservation, and deliberative apertures, aimed at preserving the institutional form decisions must take if anyone is to answer for them.

Background/Objectives: Melatonin (MEL) promotes sleep and recovery, while caffeine (CAF) enhances alertness and performance. Despite their common use among athletes, their potential interaction remains underexplored. This study examined the effects of MEL and CAF, administered separately or in combination, on sleep, physical performance, physiological, biochemical, and perceptual responses in trained males. Methods: In a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled crossover study, fourteen trained males (22.4 ± 2.9 years) underwent four conditions, designed to isolate the effects of each substance and their interaction: (1) PLA + PLA: placebo before sleep and placebo in the morning; (2) PLA + CAF: placebo before sleep and caffeine (3 mg·kg-1) in the morning; (3) MEL + PLA: melatonin (6 mg) before sleep and placebo in the morning; and (4) MEL + CAF: melatonin before sleep followed by caffeine in the morning. One hour after the morning ingestion, participants performed the 5 m shuttle run test (5mSRT). Blood samples were collected pre- and post-exercise to assess markers of muscle damage (creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, aspartate aminotransferase, and alanine aminotransferase) and inflammation (C-reactive protein). Peak heart rate (HRpeak) and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were recorded throughout the test. Sleep was assessed only during the night following melatonin or placebo ingestion. Results: No differences were observed in sleep parameters between conditions (p > 0.05). Total distance in the 5mSRT increased following MEL + CAF and PLA + CAF conditions compared with PLA + PLA. Moreover, MEL + CAF reduced muscle damage and inflammation markers compared with PLA + PLA, MEL + PLA, and PLA + CAF conditions (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The ingestion of nocturnal MEL and next-day CAF was associated with improvements in certain high-intensity exercise performance outcomes, along with changes in muscle damage and inflammation.

Background/Objectives: Although creatine (Cr) supplementation is well established for enhancing strength exercise adaptations, limited evidence exists regarding whether the timing of a single Cr dose relative to exercise acutely influences performance and related physiological and perceptual responses. This study examined whether the timing of a single dose of Cr ingestion relative to a strength exercise session influences acute strength and power performance, cognitive function, perceptual responses, and selected blood biomarkers in physically active men. Methods: In a randomized, placebo-controlled crossover design, 11 physically active men (26.09 ± 4.39 years) completed five experimental conditions: Cr ingested before exercise (CrB), during exercise (CrD), and after exercise (CrF), placebo (PL), and a no-supplement control. Participants ingested 0.1 g·kg-1 body mass of monohydrate Cr or placebo. Each condition included a standardized strength training session, where bench press (BP) and back squat (BSQ) performance was assessed as the total external load lifted (kg) across six sets performed at 80% of 1-RM for each exercise. Countermovement jump (CMJ) performance, Profile of Mood States (POMS), cognitive performance (digit cancelation test), perceived exertion (RPE), perceived recovery scale (PRS), Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), and blood markers of muscle damage and renal function were assessed after the resistance training session. Data were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA or non-parametric equivalents, with post hoc comparisons adjusted for multiple testing. Results: There was a significant main effect of condition for both BP (F = 4.91, ηp2 = 0.33, p = 0.035) and BSQ performance (F = 33.22, ηp2 = 0.77, p < 0.001), with greater performance under the CrB condition compared with PL and control (p < 0.05). A significant effect of condition was also observed for creatine kinase (χ2 (4) = 12.22, p = 0.016) and creatinine concentrations (χ2 (4) = 17.75, p = 0.001). Blood creatine kinase concentrations were greater under CrF conditions than control (p = 0.013) and PL (p = 0.041). Moreover, creatinine concentration was lower under the CrB condition compared to CrD (p = 0.033), CrF (p = 0.003), and the control (p = 0.021). No differences were observed for CMJ performance, cognitive performance, POMS, RPE, PRS, DOMS, or the remaining biochemical markers across treatments. Conclusions: Pre-exercise creatine ingestion (without loading phase) was associated with greater acute strength performance compared with other timing conditions. However, the findings are exploratory and have to be confirmed with a higher sample size and robust placebo/control structures.

This study investigated the acute effects of different protein sources consumed at sahur on anaerobic power and strength performances in trained male combat sport athletes during Ramadan fasting. Using a single blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, counterbalanced crossover study design, 24 male combat sports' athletes (mean age: 27.3 ± 3.8 years, Tier 3 national level) completed four experimental conditions: (1) non-fasting control, (2) fasting + placebo (maltodextrin), (3) fasting + whey protein isolate (WPI), and (4) fasting + micellar casein (MC). In each condition, a standardized sahur meal (6.3-7.7 kcal/kg body weight) and supplementation (0.4 g/kg for WPI/MC and 0.4 g/kg for Placebo) were administered. Physical Performances was assessed 11-13 hours post-sahur (or 3-5 hours post-lunch for control) including the Wingate anaerobic test, bench press, leg press, and countermovement jump (CMJ), and handgrip strength tests. Ramadan fasting significantly lowered Wingate peak power, mean power, and bench press strength compared to the non-fasting control. MC supplementation reduced these declines, outperforming WPI and the placebo in peak power and mean power, and surpassing the placebo in bench press strength, although not WPI. Leg press, countermovement jump, and handgrip strength showed no significant differences across conditions. MC supplementation at sahur provides partial protection against fasting-induced declines in anaerobic power and upper body endurance, but does not fully restore performance to non-fasting levels. These findings emphasize the importance of protein timing and selection in mitigating performance decrements during Ramadan fasting, highlighting the need for further research on optimal nutritional strategies for athletes training and competing under fasting conditions.