The descriptive representation of stigmatized groups has numerous benefits both to group members and society at large. We study the extent to which LGB members of the US Congress provide increased support for LGBT rights. While LGBT substantive representation has been studied extensively, descriptive representation has been examined extensively at only the local and state levels. The absence of research at the federal level is important because federal policy is essential to expanding gay rights. We overcome issues related to the small number of openly LGBT Members of Congress and the few bills either introduced or receiving votes by examining LGB legislators over 24 years (i.e., 6,425 legislator–Congress pairs) using Human Rights Campaign scores. Using Coarsened Exact Matching, we find a substantively small but statistically significant and consistently positive effect: LGB members of Congress are more supportive of LGBT rights than other members with a similar background and from a similar district. The use of matching may provide a useful approach for scholars who are interested in studying the link between descriptive and substantive representation for other small groups.

The Publicity Department of the Austrian Fatherland Front served the Ständestaat regime (1933–38). An elaborate organization on paper, the Fatherland Front's actual work was bound up in the performance of para-fascism and the surveillance of opposing parties. Each of these modes of being mutually reinforced the need for the other and created a unique self-awareness of failure within the movement. As such, the Publicity Department offers a microcosm of the larger challenges of the Ständestaat, which faltered in the face of economic collapse, political violence, and a population largely indifferent to its attempt to secure Austrian sovereignty in the 1930s.

Through a series of example research studies, we illustrate processes in translating case report forms to increase language diversity in study populations while simultaneously highlighting implications for data collection and analyses. The Northwestern University Data Analysis and Coordinating Center manages the translation of participant-facing study documents into languages other than English through a process that has been refined over several years, adjusting for changes in technical capabilities in electronic case report forms. This approach to manage, examine for context, and implement certified case report form translations offers an efficient workflow to streamline data capture in multiple languages.

StopAsianHate protests arose in the West during the COVID-19 pandemic, opposing a perceived increase in hate incidents directed against Asians in general and Chinese people in particular. These events raise a question: what is the nature of attitudinal biases about Chinese people in the English-speaking world today? Here, we seek answers with AI and big data. Using BERT language models pre-trained on massive English-language corpora (books, news articles, Wikipedia, Reddit and Twitter) and a new method for measuring natural-language propositions (the Fill-Mask Association Test, FMAT), we examined three components of attitudinal biases about Chinese people: stereotypes (cognitive beliefs), prejudice (emotional feelings) and discrimination (behavioural tendencies). The FMAT uncovered relative semantic associations between Chinese people and (1) cognitive stereotypes of low warmth (less moral/trustworthy and less sociable/friendly) and somewhat low competence (less assertive/dominant but equally capable/intelligent); (2) affective prejudice of contempt (vs admiration); and (3) behavioural discrimination of active/passive harm (vs help/cooperation). These findings advance our understanding of attitudinal biases towards Chinese people in the English-speaking world.

Leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx) lead solitary lives, mainly associated with sea ice, and they are parasitized by the sucking louse Antarctophthirus ogmorhini, one of the few known marine insects and probably the only group adapted to survive in deep-ocean environments. A challenge for seal lice is that their eggs do not survive underwater, requiring them to complete their life cycle during the host’s reproductive or moulting season. We investigated the infestation parameters of A. ogmorhini in leopard seals on the Danco Coast, Antarctic Peninsula, estimating prevalence and mean abundance, comparing by sex, age class and interannual variability and determining the relationship between these parameters and the body condition of the seals. Over four field seasons (2014, 2015, 2019 and 2020), we collected data from 50 seals: 12 females and 38 males, including 47 adults and 3 juveniles. The overall prevalence (14%) was the lowest recorded for an Antarctic seal, with higher rates in juveniles (33.3%) than adults (12.8%) and in males (15.8%) compared with females (8.3%). Generalized linear models analysis, considering body condition and interannual variability, did not reveal a strong correlation between body condition and lice infestation. Although no strong correlation was found, there is some indication that seals in poorer condition may be more heavily infested.

Among the less considered ‘conversions’ of the Confessions is the conversion of grief. The Confessions traces how Augustine learns to grieve justly and with hope. Augustine’s grief in book four is presented in stark contrast to his grief in book nine. In many ways, these two books serve as a counter image of each other. The striking narrative similarities that Augustine presents between the death of his boyhood friend in book four and that of his mother in book nine serve, however, to highlight the significant differences that Augustine wants to accent between these two experiences of death and grief. Holding these two scenes next to each other allows us to witness another profound conversion of the Confessions, namely, how Augustine learns to grieve profound loss in hope.

What is persuasion and how does it differ from coercion, indoctrination, and manipulation? Which persuasive strategies are effective, and which contexts are they effective in? The aim of persuasion is attitude change, but when does a persuasive strategy yield a rational change of attitude? When is it permissible to engage in rational persuasion? In this paper, I address these questions, both in general and with reference to particular examples. The overall aims are (i) to sketch an integrated picture of the psychology, epistemology, and ethics of persuasion and (ii) to argue that there is often a tension between the aim we typically have as would-be persuaders, which is bringing about a rational change of mind, and the ethical constraints which partly distinguish persuasion from coercion, indoctrination, and manipulation.

Submarine melting is one of the major mechanisms of ice loss from marine-terminating glaciers and ice shelves, but its contribution is yet to be fully understood. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of monitoring melting using passive underwater acoustics, by sensing the loud crackling sound produced during melting due to the release of pressurised ice-trapped bubbles. We profile the acoustic field in glacial bays in Svalbard using a hydrophone array and show that the sound level in the bay contains clues on the melt activity. The sound level’s interpretation is hindered by its spatial variability, which we suppress using a model of melt-induced acoustic activity. Thereby, we show that the sound generated at the glacier terminus is correlated with the ablation rate at the calving glacier front and the water temperature and thus linked to the melt rate. This marks a step forward in using passive acoustics to monitor submarine melt, paving the way for an autonomous, long-term, large-scale monitoring tool providing data that can inform assessments and simulations of ice sheet loss and sea level rise.

A review of Joel Cabrita’s biography of Regina Gelana Twala.

In Nairobi, water rights emerge not through legal recognition alone but through relationships with infrastructurally powerful actors. Residents must engage with specific individuals across institutional levels who control urban water distribution. This explains neighborhood disparities in water access and why some residents secure better supplies than others. The fragmentation of water control challenges traditional legal and normative frameworks of water rights. Understanding how rights are embedded in everyday socio-material relationships is crucial for comprehending how people establish water access and thereby concretize their right to water in practice.

In survey experiments, should all covariates be administered before the experimental treatment? Some scholars argue that post-treatment items should never be used as covariates because the treatment could bias the measurement of those items and disrupt experimental randomization. Other scholars argue certain items—specifically sensitive questions measuring prejudice—should not be administered pre-treatment. They argue if asked pre-treatment, these items may prime respondents in ways that will influence how they engage with the experiment treatment, thereby affecting the overall outcome of the experiment. Using evidence from four studies (two original collections) that vary the placement of sensitive items—pre-treatment, post-treatment, or in a separate wave—we find little evidence that the placement of sensitive items influences the measurement of those items, the experimental outcomes, nor heterogeneously affects the outcome conditional on the treatment. However, we find the placement of sensitive items inconsistently affects the experimental outcome by interacting with both the measurement of the items and the experimental treatment condition. Overall, we find these measures to be robust to where they are administered. It may be best to place items pre-treatment to preserve randomization. If researchers have reason to include sensitive moderators post-treatment, they should transparently discuss this choice and the anticipated trade-offs.

The literature on user trust in social welfare systems appropriately highlights the quality of relationships with frontline workers and the perception of their skills and human qualities, which develop and evolve over time. However, it tends to place less emphasis on users’ perceptions of and experiences with the formal procedures within which these relational processes unfold. With this paper, we aim to contribute to knowledge on user (dis)trust-building by focusing on the microdynamics of its development, which equally considers citizens’ interactions with frontline workers and institutional procedures at various organisational levels. Drawing on empirical research conducted among disadvantaged families seeking support from social services and assistance institutions in the Czech Republic and Serbia, we analyse the narrated experiences and perception-based mechanisms that shape users’ (dis)trust within the dual context of institutional procedures governing access to services, and the relationship with frontline workers.