Quantitative studies of policy responsiveness are liable to overstate the fairness and quality of democratic governance, because they neglect to account for forms of capture and distortion by powerful groups that are more difficult to operationalize and measure. The field essay by Christopher Wlezien that surveys these studies is comprehensive and generally fair, but it nevertheless shares the blind spots of that literature as a whole, and therefore dismisses realist skepticism (such as that of Achen and Bartels) too quickly. By properly situating this literature within broader discussions of democratic values and political equality, this response aims to recenter the big picture – and highlight what may be concealed when we give too much weight to policy responsiveness.

This paper investigates the feasibility of using mycelium colonization to upcycle household waste, specifically cat litter and spent coffee grounds, into large-scale screening elements through 3D printing and toolpath-informed design. The study introduces a composite that repurposes cat litter, a household waste that is typically sent directly to landfill, as a substrate for fungal growth within additively manufactured forms. By eliminating casting molds and employing continuous fractal toolpaths, the fabrication approach reduces secondary material waste while enabling space-filling, intricate geometries with parametrically controlled spacing that supports mycelium growth. This process extends existing biofabrication precedents through increasing geometric complexity. The research develops a repeatable workflow integrating material circularity, mycelium colonization, 3D printing, and computational fractal design to support scalable biofabrication. Prototypes were produced and evaluated at three incremental scales: 9 cm, 15.24 cm, and 22.86 cm. This work contributes to the biodesign community by demonstrating a resource-efficient method for transforming cat litter into biodegradable screening panels within a circular material system.

Research that assesses individual judges’ ability to shape decisions typically focuses on courts that publish separate votes and opinions. Yet, many courts issue per curiam judgments that do not permit public dissent. To overcome this limitation, we use a convolutional neural network (CNN) to model the variation in judges’ expressed preferences from language in aggregated judgments. Specifically, we construct a CNN to analyze the written judgments of judge-rapporteurs and opinions of advocates-general from the Court of Justice of the European Union. Along a pro-/anti-EU dimension, we estimate how judgments differ within (1) each case relative to the advocate-general’s opinion, and (2) each judge-rapporteur, which captures how judges alter their writing across cases. Our results provide novel empirical support for theoretical models of European judicial decision-making: more pro-EU opinions driven by the Court, not the advocate-general or the judge-rapporteur, are associated with larger chambers and stronger external signals of compliance.

Neonates are highly susceptible to infection, a major cause of neonatal death, given their immature immune system. Comprehensive studies examining multiple immune-response-related proteins in relation to neonatal infection are scarce. We conducted a nested case-control study within the Shenzhen Baoan Birth and Twin (SZBBTwin) cohort, measuring 92 immune-response-related proteins in cord plasma of 149 twins (including 34 discordant twin pairs) with proximity extension assay. All twins were followed for clinical diagnoses of infection from birth until 27 days of age. Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to determine differentially abundant proteins (DAPs) between infected and noninfected neonates, the predictive performance of which was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curves, and their functions and pathways were annotated through enrichment analysis. Logistic regression was used to assess the associations between levels of proteins and risk of neonatal infection. Finally, five DAPs (ITGA11, FCRL6, DDX58, SH2D1A, and EDAR) were identified for neonatal infection, and the area under the curve of the five DAPs achieved 0.835 for infection prediction. Enrichment analysis indicated that five DAPs were mainly involved in immune function and cell binding, and they were mainly enriched in the nuclear factor kappa-B pathway. A higher level of ITGA11 was associated with an increased risk of neonatal infection in all twins (OR 3.00; 95% CI [1.33, 6.78]) and discordant twin pairs (OR 5.50; 95% CI [1.20, 25.23]). In conclusion, multiple immune-response-related proteins in cord plasma, particularly ITGA11, are associated with the risk of neonatal infection in twins.

Extending Singh’s theory of cultural “super-attractors,” this commentary examines the Intensive Care Unit as a living model of the cultural manifold. In this high-acuity clinical environment, patients, families, and clinicians unconsciously reconstruct cultural super-attractors through ritual, cooperation, and shared humanitarian goals. Integrating psychiatric consultation reveals how these attractors transform unconscious adaptation into structured healing and recovery.

Breast cancer represents one of the main causes of mortality among women, and the consumption of bioactive compounds seems to contribute to improving the prognosis of the disease. However, the relationship between polyphenol intake and breast cancer has not yet been fully elucidated. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between polyphenol intake and breast cancer mortality, survival, and recurrence. This is an observational study with a prospective sample of 95 women, followed up for an average of 11.5 years. Intake of polyphenols was assessed using a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) and estimated using the Phenol-Explorer® database. Cox proportional hazard models were used to investigate the associations. Survival curves were calculated using Kaplan-Meier analysis. An inverse association was found between the intake of total polyphenols, phenolic acids, and lignans, and the risk of breast cancer-specific mortality (HR= 0.20, 95% CI [0.05-0.80]; HR= 0.09, 95% CI [0.01-0.50]; HR= 0.15, 95% CI [0.04-0.63], respectively). Phenolic acids also showed an inverse association with breast cancer recurrence (HR= 0.35, 95% CI [0.13-0.98]) and all-cause mortality (HR= 0.23, 95% CI [0.07 - 0.77]). Coffee was the major contributor to total polyphenol, phenolic acid, and lignan intake. Total polyphenol intake was associated with longer survival when breast cancer mortality was considered (p=0.048). In conclusion, higher intake of polyphenols was associated with lower breast cancer-specific mortality. In addition, phenolic acids were associated with lower all-cause mortality and breast cancer recurrence. Further studies are needed to confirm these associations.

This paper develops an interdisciplinary perspective, which combines ideas from anthropology, sociolinguistics and interface design, on how AI chatbots project recognizable social identities. Specifically, it brings together Silvio’s notion of animation, the social practices through which “humanness” is projected onto nonhuman entities, and Blommaert’s notion of enoughness, the idea that the authenticity of linguistic performances is a matter not of the accuracy of a performance but of how audiences collectively evaluate it as socially recognizable. The analysis draws on a corpus of metapragmatic artifacts posted on social media sites related to ChatGPT’s advanced voice mode and Sesame.ai’s hyper-realistic voice interface. Analysis of these artifacts reveals how designers, users and AI systems co-produce boundaries of authenticity through the deployment and uptake of linguistic and discursive features such as accent and stance. In doing so, they continually recalibrate what counts as culturally competent performances, shaping emergent norms of identity and sociality around AI. The paper highlights how humanness and culturality are distributed across technical systems, corporate discourse, and human interlocutors, with important implications for understanding how generative AI reproduces cultural stereotypes by drawing on the linguistic labor of users.

Recent quantitative work on the variable [g]\~{}[ŋ] alternation in compounds of certain dialects of Japanese has revealed token frequency of the compound as a whole, and of the compound’s second member in its freestanding form, to be important predictors of the alternation. We propose a formal phonological analysis that integrates usage-based factors like frequency with the action of the phonological grammar, extending mechanisms of lexicon–grammar interaction previously proposed in the context of Lexical Conservatism. We demonstrate that our model fits the experimental data better than – or at least comparably to – a theoretically naïve statistical model proposed in previous work. Based on the success of our modelling, we discuss the role of token frequency in phonological patterning more broadly, and how the mechanism that we propose might be extended to unify a range of contradictory frequency-dependent processes that have been observed in the literature.

In this commentary, we argue that aesthetic chills provide empirical evidence for Singh’s subjective functionalism. These pleasurable and measurable somatic events mark dopaminergic-mediated validation when cultural artifacts resonate with cognitive architecture. Research demonstrates chills can be predicted, induced, and therapeutically deployed for depression. This transforms aesthetics from ornamental to functional, revealing how feeling drives cultural transmission while enabling interventions.

Prioritising invasive species is crucial for managing invasions and mitigating impacts on biodiversity globally, yet most efforts are concentrated in the Global North, with significant gaps in the Global South. In the absence of region-specific assessments, land managers in the Global South often rely on broad global priority frameworks, whose relevance at smaller spatial scales remains uncertain. In addition to of spatial scale, robust prioritisation frameworks should incorporate multiple dimensions of species distribution and impact. To help fill this gap, in this study we used complementary approaches: herbarium-based and expert assessments to evaluate the distribution and impact of invasive plant species in a biodiversity hotspot in India. We scored species across different dimensions of impact, and generated a composite score that was used to rank and prioritise the invasive species. To understand the concordance of rankings across scales, we compared our regional rankings with national and global rankings for these species. We identified seventy-nine invasive plant species in the Northern Western Ghats and Konkan region, which revealed a ten-fold difference in their spatial extent. Expert assessments indicated that only few species had high scores across the different distribution and impact dimensions, while most had low to moderate scores. The results show that distribution-related dimensions were correlated, but impact-associated dimensions remained independent, highlighting the need to include both in prioritisation frameworks. Although most regional species were included in national and global invasive species lists, their priority rankings differed at these different scales. Overall, our study underscores the importance of integrating both distribution and impact dimensions for species prioritisation and highlights the importance of local-scale assessments for effective invasive species management.

Throughout the Mediterranean region, adherence to the Mediterranean diet is decreasing especially among young people. The Mediterranean diet is the most studied dietary pattern with proven health benefits, especially regarding the prevention of non-communicable diseases at a time when their incidence is increasing worldwide. It has also been recognized as a sustainable diet model with multiple interdependent benefits on social, cultural, environmental, and economic dimensions. Faced with the challenge of promoting adherence to the Mediterranean diet, a Joint Med Diet Task Force of CIHEAM, FENS, and IUNS was formed to set the path for reversing the erosion of the Mediterranean diet heritage, by promoting its benefits, as a way of living, as defined by UNESCO. In this paper, the rationale and propositions of the Joint Task Force are described for the development of a voluntary code of conduct for promoting the adherence of the Mediterranean diet, and sustainable diets per se, addressed to all interested stakeholders and rights holders, linking food consumption and production, toward sustainable food systems transformation in the Mediterranean and beyond.

Evidence on the association between coffee consumption timing patterns and metabolic syndrome (MetS) prevalence remains limited. This cross-sectional study analyzed data from 11632 participants aged 20 years or older in eight National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cycles (2003-2018), to examine how coffee consumption timing patterns and their combination with coffee amount relate to MetS. Coffee consumption timing patterns were identified using K-means clustering. Two timing patterns were identified: morning-concentrated and evenly distributed. Survey-weighted logistic regression was used to examine associations between timing patterns and MetS prevalence, adjusting for sociodemographic, lifestyle, and dietary covariates. The morning-concentrated pattern was significantly associated with lower prevalence of MetS (OR: 0.80, 95% CI: 0.68, 0.96) compared with non-drinkers, while the evenly distributed pattern showed no significant association. Results were robust across multiple sensitivity analyses. Combined analysis revealed that the morning-concentrated pattern was consistently associated with lower MetS prevalence across all intake levels. Stratified analyses showed stronger inverse associations among women, individuals with normal weight/underweight or overweight, and those aged ≤ 40 years, with significant effect modification by body mass index (BMI; P for interaction < 0.001) and age (P for interaction = 0.006) groups. These observational findings suggest that the timing of coffee consumption, particularly the morning-concentrated pattern, may be inversely associated with MetS prevalence.