This article introduces a novel empirical method for estimating the ideological orientations of U.S. regulatory agencies across different presidential administrations. Employing a measurement model based on item response theory and analyzing data on planned regulations from the Unified Agenda and the president’s discretionary review of those regulations, as implemented by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the study provides dynamic estimates of agency ideal points from the Clinton through the Trump administrations. The model uses NOMINATE ideal points of presidents to link the estimated agency ideal points to legislative ideal points. The resulting estimates correlate positively with existing measures of agency ideology, highlight controversial regulators, and demonstrate that agency ideologies shift over time due to emerging issues that divide the parties. The study also finds that agencies located ideologically closer to the president are more productive, as evidenced by their regulatory output.

Kurt Gödel proved that it is not possible to characterize intuitionistic propositional logic (${IPL}$) by means of finite and deterministic truth-tables. After extending the same result with respect to non-deterministic matrices (Nmatrices), we provide a semantical characterization of ${IPL}$ by means of a $3$-valued Nmatrix with a restricted set of valuations. This structure allows to define an algorithm to delete unsound rows from the non-deterministic truth-tables generated for each formula, which constitutes a new and very simple decision procedure for ${IPL}$. This method can be seen as truth-tables in a broader sense, and a way to overcome Gödel’s limiting result.

In this article, we give a boundary rigidity result on some fibered domains. As an application, we obtain the boundary rigidity for holomorphic self-maps on bounded symmetric domains with an interior fixed point.

Levoatriocardinal vein is a rare venous anomaly occasionally presenting as a bidirectional shunt in structurally normal hearts. We describe two unique systemic connections of levoatriocardinal vein without intracardiac defects, one causing paradoxical embolism via the hemiazygos vein, and the other draining from the left jugular vein to the pulmonary vein, requiring surgical correction to preserve cerebral venous return.

In this paper, I investigate how parents should talk to their children about injustice. In doing so, I use the non-ideal theory debate in political philosophy to show how the questions traditionally asked there can give substantive guidance to parents. I also contribute to that debate by showing how attention to injustice conversations (a) leads us to ask new questions and develop new modelling tools; (b) can help us to resolve the questions traditionally asked in the debate in a more direct way; and (c) can serve as a model for bringing together substantive and methodological questions in non-ideal theory.

Previous studies have shown that low-fat diet (LFD) is associated with various health benefits, and that lipid and fatty acid metabolism is linked to telomere shortening. However, no epidemiological studies have examined the association between LFD and telomere length (TL). Dietary information was collected using 24-h recalls among 6981 adults from a nationwide cross-sectional study. Diet quality was assessed using overall LFD, healthful LFD (hLFD) and unhealthful LFD (uLFD). TL was measured using quantitative PCR. Linear regression was employed to evaluate the association between LFD and log-transformed TL, and ordinal logistic regression was performed to assess the association of LFD with ordinal quintiles of TL in descending order. In both fully adjusted linear and ordinal regression models, higher overall LFD (Tertile 3 v. Tertile 1: percentage change = 2·48 %, 95 % CI: 0·60 %, 4·40 %, Ptrend = 0·003; OR = 0·79, 95 % CI: 0·68, 0·93; Ptrend = 0·001) and hLFD (Tertile 3 v. Tertile 1: percentage change = 2·71 %, 95 % CI: 0·87 %, 4·58 %; Ptrend = 0·002; OR = 0·84, 95 % CI: 0·72, 0·97; Ptrend = 0·003) scores were significantly associated with longer TL. The positive association between hLFD and TL was observed in other racial/ethnic groups, but not in non-Hispanic whites (Pinteraction < 0·005). There was no significant association between uLFD and TL in all the models. Our results suggest that LFD rich in high-quality carbohydrates, unsaturated fat and plant protein is associated with longer TL and underscore the need to consider the quality and dietary sources of the macronutrients.

This article rethinks the political project of transforming sexual desire and the norms that regulate it, aiming to reduce oppression and marginalization in intimate life. In the wake of recent feminist revivals of this project, such as Amia Srinivasan’s The Right to Sex (2021), I analyze the limitations of two dominant frameworks: ‘disciplinary’ models, which overestimate our capacity to regulate desire, and ‘liberatory’ models, which assume the existence of an authentic, pre-political core of desire that can be freed from power. I argue that both models are flawed, promoting respectively the illusion of total control and prelapsarian fantasies. To move beyond them, I turn to Theodor W. Adorno’s concept of natural history, which challenges the fixity of desire without assuming its infinite malleability. Specifically, drawing on Adorno and his interpreters, I show the natural history provides a framework for conceptualizing agency and transformation that neither negates the constraints shaping desire nor forecloses the possibility of its active reconfiguration. This approach, I suggest, offers a critical foundation for feminist efforts to rethink and reshape desire.

The Indonesian government has alternately ignored and respected the customary land rights of local people in its land policies since colonial times. Since the start of democratisation at the end of the 1990s, the trend to uphold customary land rights has become apparent at the national level. This study examines their status in the field, using the case of land grabbing on Padang Island, Riau Province, Indonesia. The findings include the company’s continued practice of purchasing land areas from local people at a lower price, not as compensation, because the company has not yet recognised the customary land rights. However, the local people contest the negotiation for a higher price through the newly introduced transparent practice of land transactions, involving village officers. The recommendation by the Mediation team to respect customary land rights is thus still a work in progress.

Although the Mixteca region has witnessed a long period of human occupation from before village societies were established to the present, traditional archaeological narratives tend to simplify this history by emphasizing singular points of origin and radical moments of change. Based on decolonial perspectives, we examine how persistence may be a more suitable framework for understanding the long history of human occupation in the region. Using information from three archaeological projects, this article analyzes the enduring histories of household practices at the site of Etlatongo in the Nochixtlan Valley. We focus on the construction of domestic spaces over three different periods in the long occupation of the site: during the latter half of the Early Formative (1400–1000 BC), the late Middle Formative (500–300 BC), and the Postclassic (AD 900–1500s). By analyzing the changing continuities of domestic practices at Etlatongo, this study contributes to scholarship examining the persistence of Indigenous communities in Mesoamerica.

The electrohydrodynamic force of a surface dielectric barrier discharge (SDBD) has been well-developed for flow control applications during recent decades. In the present paper, a geometrical modification of the SDBD plasma actuator has been applied to induce a vectorised normal flow at the trailing edge of a NACA0015 aerofoil. The pitot-tube velocity measurements of the normal jet along its propagation direction revealed formation of vortices at the centre of the electrode distance played a role in flow control authority of the jet. The aerodynamic operation of the double-SDBD structure as a virtual flap was assessed versus a single counter-flow jet of a floating structure at pre- and post-stall angles of attack at low Reynolds numbers. It was found that at small angles of attack, the steady counter-flow gives the most effectiveness of lift enhancement in low velocity, whereas in the higher velocity the unsteady one results in more efficacy. The efficiency of both steady and unsteady normal jets increased considerably at high angles such that a lift coefficient improvement of 38% was achieved at $\alpha = 14^\circ $. In the higher velocity, the plasma induced vertical flow acts like a Gurney flap, causing lift increase at high angles by affecting the vortical structures at the trailing edge. Evaluating the obtained results recommended employment of the induced normal flow as a virtual flap at high angles of attack in the unsteady actuation mode.

Cash transfer programmes have achieved widespread adoption across developing countries, yet evidence on their effectiveness in the Middle East and North Africa remains comparatively limited. This systematic review examines four central questions: whether transfer effectiveness shows threshold effects whereby modest amounts alter behaviour while substantial poverty reduction requires larger transfers; how supply-side service capacity constraints mediate the effectiveness of demand-side incentives; how conflict and displacement influence programme sustainability; and how programme design features interact with patriarchal structures to shape women’s empowerment. Database searches spanning 2000–2024 identified 270 experimental or quasi-experimental studies with quantitative outcomes. Narrative synthesis examined heterogeneity across transfer amounts, programme design, and contexts. Results indicate non-linear threshold effects: modest transfers (5–10 per cent of household income) alter behaviour through framing mechanisms, whereas meaningful poverty reduction requires transfers of 15–20 per cent or more. Demand-side incentives produce counterproductive outcomes when supply-side capacity binds. Humanitarian assistance improves consumption temporarily but effects dissipate within —four to ten months absent sustainable livelihood pathways. Financial resources alone do not guarantee women’s empowerment; complementary interventions addressing social norms and legal frameworks appear necessary. These findings suggest the imperative of calibrating transfer magnitudes to programme objectives while recognising empowerment requires interventions transcending monetary provision.

There is a gap in the understanding of meal patterns offered to students targeted by the National School Feeding Programme (PNAE). This study aimed to identify and analyse the menu patterns planned in schools participating in the PNAE. This observational cross-sectional study was carried out from a database consisting of 557 weekly menus from primary schools across Brazilian municipalities. We used factor analysis (FA) with principal components analysis (PCA) to identify menu patterns. Nutritional quality assessment of the menus was based on the Revised School Feeding Menu Quality Index (IQCAE-R). Differences in nutritional quality and associations with sociodemographic factors were analysed using the Kruskal–Wallis test, followed by Wilcoxon post hoc testing with Bonferroni correction. Two menu patterns were identified: (1) ‘Traditional’, predominantly composed of cereals and pasta, roots and tubers, legumes, vegetables, and meats and eggs; and (2) ‘Snack’, with a higher occurrence of bread, cakes, and biscuits, milk and dairy products, chocolate powder, and coffee and tea. The ‘Traditional’ pattern, consisting of food items commonly found in Brazilian food culture, and the ‘Snack’ pattern, characterised by the presence of sweets and highly processed foods, showed significant relationships with sociodemographic variables and nutritional quality of menus. Stimulating schools to provide meals that resemble the ‘Traditional’ pattern may contribute to the adoption of healthier dietary patterns, thus benefiting and strengthening health promotion through PNAE.