Short-selling constraints are common in financial markets, while physical assets such as housing often lack markets for short-selling altogether. As a result, investment decisions are often restricted by such constraints. This paper studies asset prices in behavioral heterogeneous-belief models with short-selling constraints and arbitrarily many belief types. We provide conditions on beliefs such that short-selling constraints bind for different types, along with analytic expressions for price and demands that allow us to construct fast solution algorithms relevant for a wide range of models. An application studies how an alternative uptick rule, as in the United States, affects price dynamics and wealth distribution in a market with many belief types in evolutionary competition. In a numerical example, we highlight a scenario in which a modified version of the alternative uptick rule, triggered by smaller percentage falls in price, reduces both asset mispricing and wealth inequality relative to the current regulation. As extensions, we show how our method applies to multiple asset markets with short-selling constraints, additional heterogeneities, and price setting by a market maker.

Is it possible to achieve almost riskless, nonfluctuating investment payoffs in the long run, at a fraction of the traditional funding requirement, using equity investments? What is their shortfall risk? These questions are motivated by the need to increase yields, while limiting the variability of investment results. We show how to use contingent claims, denominated in units of a stock index, to achieve an almost riskless investment outcome. To control the risk of the proposed hedge portfolios, we introduce an overfunded scheme and show its reliability using bootstrapping. Results show that a modest amount of overfunding is an effective risk-management approach that brings the probability of not achieving the target to less than 1 percent. Our results are based on the use of the minimal market model and a change of numeraire. Robustness tests support their validity under different market specifications.

Most public opinion research in China uses direct questions to measure support for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and government policies. These direct question surveys routinely find that over 90 per cent of Chinese citizens support the government. From this, scholars conclude that the CCP enjoys genuine legitimacy. In this paper, we present results from two survey experiments in contemporary China that make clear that citizens conceal their opposition to the CCP for fear of repression. When respondents are asked directly, we find, like other scholars, approval ratings for the CCP that exceed 90 per cent. When respondents are asked in the form of list experiments, which confer a greater sense of anonymity, CCP support hovers between 50 per cent and 70 per cent. This represents an upper bound, however, since list experiments may not fully mitigate incentives for preference falsification. The list experiments also suggest that fear of government repression discourages some 40 per cent of Chinese citizens from participating in anti-regime protests. Most broadly, this paper suggests that scholars should stop using direct question surveys to measure political opinions in China.

Childhood maltreatment (CM) is experienced by ∼40% of all children at major personal and societal costs. The divergent associations between emotional, physical, and sexual abuse or neglect in childhood and differences in adult emotional functioning and regulation were examined in terms of daily emotion intensity, variability, instability, inertia, and diversity, reported over 30 days by 290 Dutch aged 19-73. Participants described their abuse/neglect experiences retrospectively using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Dissecting CM effects on adult emotion dynamics may inform theories on the ontogenesis and functioning of emotions, on effects of abuse and neglect, to better understand (dys)functional emotional development, and to prevent their adverse sequelae. Structural equation models (SEM) showed that most types of CM were associated with specific patterns of emotion dynamics, and only emotional abuse had no unique effects on the emotional dynamic indices. Emotional neglect was associated with most measures of emotion dynamics (i.e., less intense, variable, unstable, and diverse emotions). Sexual abuse associated with increases and physical neglect decreases in negative affect variability and instability. Physical abuse was associated with inertia but with a small effect size. Social contact frequency did not mediate much of the relationship between CM types and emotion dynamics.

Meta-analysis is used to test a variant of a Developmental Origins of Adult Health and Disease (DOHaD)’s conjecture known as predictive adaptive response (PAR). According to it, individuals who are exposed to mismatches between adverse or constrained in utero conditions, on the one hand, and postnatal obesogenic environments, on the other, are at higher risk of developing adult chronic conditions, including obesity, type 2 diabetes (T2D), hypertension and cardiovascular disease. We argue that migrant populations from low and middle to high-income countries offer a unique opportunity to test the conjecture. A database was constructed from an exhaustive literature search of peer-reviewed papers published prior to May 2021 contained in PUBMED and SCOPUS using keywords related to migrants, DOHaD, and associated health outcomes. Random effects meta-regression models were estimated to assess the magnitude of effects associated with migrant groups on the prevalence rate of T2D and hypertension in adults and overweight/obesity in adults and children. Overall, we used 38 distinct studies and 78 estimates of diabetes, 59 estimates of hypertension, 102 estimates of overweight/obesity in adults, and 23 estimates of overweight/obesity in children. Our results show that adult migrants experience higher prevalence of T2D than populations at destination (PR 1.48; 95% CI 1.35–1.65) and origin (PR 1.80; 95% CI 1.40–2.34). Similarly, there is a significant excess of obesity prevalence in children migrants (PR 1.22; 95% CI 1.04–1.43) but not among adult migrants (PR 0.89; 95% CI 0.80–1.01). Although the total effect of migrant status on prevalence of hypertension is centered on zero, some migrant groups show increased risks. Finally, the size of estimated effects varies significantly by migrant groups according to place of destination. Despite limitations inherent to all meta-analyses and admitting that some of our findings may be accounted for alternative explanations, the present study shows empirical evidence consistent with selected PAR-like conjectures.

Chile’s 2021–22 Constitutional Convention was the first in the world to feature mechanisms that guaranteed gender parity among constituents (Arce and Suárez-Cao 2021). This was not an easy win. Feminist activists and women politicians pushed for gender parity in 2020-21 in a country that had adopted gender quotas relatively late (Figueroa 2021; Reyes-Housholder, Suárez-Cao, and Le Foulon 2023; Suárez-Cao 2023; personal interview #1, April 21, 2023). Reserving seats for Indigenous groups and using other mechanisms to allow space for independent constituents further broadened the convention’s ostensible inclusiveness. After the September 2022 rejection of the 2021–22 Constitutional Convention’s draft, political parties immediately started over by crafting an elite-controlled process. Lawmakers—this time with surprising speed—again coalesced around the idea that an equal number of men and women should write the new draft.

A new species of the cyclorhagid genus Meristoderes is described. Meristoderes zmaj sp. n. is distinguished from its congeners by its unique arrangement of spines and tubes. It possesses acicular spines on segments 4, 6 and 8 in middorsal position and on segments 6–9 in lateroventral position; and tubes on segment 2 in subdorsal, midlateral and ventrolateral position, on segment 5 in lateroventral position and on segment 10 in laterodorsal position. With the formal description of M. zmaj sp. n., the number of species within the genus is increased to 10. In addition, the appearance of a new species and its accompanying fauna within the North-Eastern Adriatic Sea fauna, extensively studied by Kinorhyncha taxonomists, is discussed.

Since its organization in the mid-twentieth century, Colonial Williamsburg (CW) has been an important site for the consolidation of powerful narratives of American exceptionalism, patriotism, and the so-called consensus history of the American Revolution. This article looks at the role that music and performance has played in this historiography, taking as its primary texts two films produced by CW: The Story of a Patriot (1957) and The Music of Williamsburg (1960). With musical contributions by Bernard Herrmann and Alan Lomax, respectively, these films offer an opportunity to analyze the relationship between history and politics in the early Cold War era. Although The Story of a Patriot reflects a static and essentially conservative portrayal of American exceptionalism, the more liberal inclusiveness of The Music of Williamsburg showcases the fraught power dynamics of attempting to showcase historical Black music making in a patriotic context.

This paper goes beyond Katz–Sarnak theory on the distribution of curves over finite fields according to their number of rational points, theoretically, experimentally, and conjecturally. In particular, we give a formula for the limits of the moments measuring the asymmetry of this distribution for (non-hyperelliptic) curves of genus $g\geq 3$. The experiments point to a stronger notion of convergence than the one provided by the Katz–Sarnak framework for all curves of genus $\geq 3$. However, for elliptic curves and for hyperelliptic curves of every genus, we prove that this stronger convergence cannot occur.

The work aimed to evaluate the effect of lactic acid bacteria, natamycin and hexanoic acid on the fermentation quality, aerobic stability and in vitro digestibility of total mixed ration (TMR) silages containing water bamboo sheath leaves. The treatments were as follows: (1) no additives (control, C), (2) lactic acid bacteria (L), (3) natamycin (N), (4) hexanoic acid (H), (5) lactic acid bacteria + natamycin (LN), (6) lactic acid bacteria + hexanoic acid (LH). Silos were opened and silages were evaluated to assess fermentation quality, aerobic stability and in vitro digestibility. All TMR silages were well-preserved as indicated by dominant lactic acid content, low ammonia nitrogen/total nitrogen, trace propionic acid and negligible butyric acid contents. All additives improved the fermentation quality and in vitro digestibility, evidenced by higher lactic acid/acetic acid ratio, lactic acid, acetic acid, water-soluble carbohydrate contents and lactic acid bacteria count, and lower pH, aerobic bacteria and yeast counts. The LN had the highest lactic acid, acetic acid, lactic acid/acetic acid ratio, in vitro gas production and in vitro digestibility. During aerobic exposure, the LN silage had the highest lactic acid and acetic acid contents, and the lowest pH among all TMR silages. The LN and LH prolonged aerobic stability, reaching 85.5 and 81.5 h, respectively. The LN is recommended to improve the fermentation quality, aerobic stability and in vitro digestibility of TMR prepared with water bamboo sheath leaves.

In the Great War, home front schemes in support of wartime causes included the making and transportation of what were called smellies: homemade tokens and commercial gifts that invoked supposedly traditional British scents. For volunteers, this entailed the collection and distribution of homemade lavender and verbena bags as an allegedly effective—and practical—means of aiding those injured at the front. For others, like commercial perfumers, this meant the production of scented commodities like lavender water and eau de Cologne for transport to troops overseas. In both cases, supporters mobilized the symbolic power of perfumed items to promote a fictitious version of rural, white, English life that could allegedly be resumed after the conflict. These campaigns obscured the social, racial, gendered, and material realities of war. What resulted was a profoundly limited definition of British smells and, by extension, their idealized British recipients: white, English-born servicemen from across classes. While perfumed gifts were designed to comfort these select recipients and bring a sense of order to the front, accounts of gifts’ production and reception ultimately reveal fractures—and failures—in the deployment of national smells to order the disordered smellscapes of war.

In Hong Kong, the percentage of older drug users has increased over the last two decades. However, the motivations behind their drug-use behaviours have received little research attention. This study focuses on older drug users who are enrolled in methadone treatment programmes but still use illicit drugs (mixed use). Some studies in the criminological literature and government discourse consider drug users to be passive and lacking self-control. However, in-depth interviews in with 25 older mixed users (aged over 50 years) in Hong Kong revealed that mixed use is one of the various strategies they actively employ to improve their self-perceived quality of life. Using the framework of the selective optimization with compensation model, this study (1) describes the strategies older mixed users adopt as active agents to improve their self-perceived quality of life while coexisting with their addiction; and (2) explains how these strategies were affected and constrained by Hong Kong’s prohibitionist drug policy. I infer that prohibitionist drug policies that emphasize on total drug abstinence may fail to cater to the needs of older drug users who have undergone several relapses and treatments in their lifetimes and do not think they can give up using drugs. This study also provides evidence to show how some drug users may act as active agents to manage and coexist with their addiction, and their agency seems to be constrained by the wider drug policy implemented in Hong Kong.