Joyce Havstad has argued in this journal that the argument from inductive risk is deductively valid and sound. As far as we know, this is the best reconstruction of the argument in the literature. Unfortunately, it suffers from a small flaw that renders the argument invalid. We identify this flaw, show that it is superficial, and show that a small amendment to the argument rescues the claim of its validity.

How does context influence individuals’ misinformation about socially marginalized groups? Scholarship has long found that one’s geographical and social environment are important determinants for one’s political attitudes. But how these contexts shape individuals’ levels of misinformation about stigmatized groups remains an open and pressing question, especially given the swift rise of misinformation in recent years. Using three original surveys, we find that individuals who report more contact with a diverse group of individuals were significantly less likely to be misinformed. These findings are particularly pronounced among white Americans. Moreover, contrary to the popular belief that where one lives is a strong determinant of racial attitudes, we also find that partisan and racial context did not meaningfully shape misinformation. These findings shed light on the factors that helps us to understand the misinformation that exists about this sizable share of U.S. society.

In this paper, a single-layer band-stop frequency selective surface (FSS) by combination of Mike Kastle unit and square ring unit is proposed to achieve wide angular stable shielding. Owing to the rotational symmetry of the structure, the designed FSS is insensitive to polarization. By the combination design, the wide angular stability can be achieved as the incident angle increases from 0° to 85°, with only a maximum frequency deviation of 0.012 GHz. Meanwhile, the mechanism of the proposed FSS is investigated by the parametric analysis of equivalent circuit model. The prototype was manufactured and measured to verify the design and simulation analysis, and the measurement results were in good agreement with the simulation results.

As a discipline centered on power, political science provides an important window into potential responses to episodes of heightened attention to long-standing racial violence and inequality in the United States. During the summer of 2020, political science departments, like many other entities, issued public statements in response to the brutal murder of George Floyd and the long and ongoing history of deadly violence against Black people at the hands of law enforcement. This paper examines these statements, providing a descriptive analysis of themes raised and types of commitments to action. Rhetorical responses to racism constitute important sites for understanding how discursive power is deployed. Ultimately, we observe that proposed solutions contained in statements are not commensurate with the structural understanding of racism encapsulated in statements. These statements suggest that the status quo prevails even among those who study power. We document limited commitments to addressing racism in political statements.

Obesity can increase the risk of postoperative complications. Despite increased demand for patients living with obesity to lose weight prior to common surgical procedures, the impact of intentional weight loss on surgical outcomes is largely unknown. We aimed to conduct a pilot study to assess the feasibility of a full-scale randomised controlled trial (RCT) to examine the effect of preoperative dietitian-led Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD) Clinic on surgical outcomes in gynaecology and general surgeries. Between August 2021 and January 2023, a convenience sample of adults living with obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) awaiting gynaecology, laparoscopic cholecystectomy and ventral hernia repair procedures were randomised to dietitian-led VLCD (800–1000 kcal using meal replacements and allowed foods), or control (no dietary intervention), 2–12 weeks preoperatively. Primary outcome was feasibility (recruitment, adherence, safety, attendance, acceptability and quality of life (QoL)). Secondary outcomes were anthropometry and 30-d postoperative outcomes. Outcomes were analysed as intention-to-treat. Fifty-one participants were recruited (n 23 VLCD, n 28 control), mean 48 (sd 13) years, 86 % female, and mean BMI 35·8 (sd 4·6) kg/m2. Recruitment was disrupted by COVID-19, but other thresholds for feasibility were met for VLCD group: high adherence without unfavourable body composition change, high acceptability, improved pre/post QoL (22·1 ± 15 points, < 0·001), with greater reductions in weight (–5·5 kg VLCD v. −0·9 kg control, P < 0·05) waist circumference (–6·6 cm VLCD v. +0·6 control, P < 0·05) and fewer 30-d complications (n 4/21) than controls (n 8/22) (P > 0·05). The RCT study design was deemed feasible in a public hospital setting. The dietitian-led VLCD resulted in significant weight loss and waist circumference reduction compared with a control group, without unfavourable body composition change and improved QoL.

Scholars, policymakers, and citizens alike remain invested in the impact of infectious diseases worldwide. Studies have found that emerging diseases and disease outbreaks burden global economies and public health goals. This article explores the potential link between measles outbreaks and various forms of civil unrest, such as demonstrations, riots, strikes, and other anti-government violence, in four central African countries from 1996 to 2005. Using a difference-in-differences model, we examine whether disease outbreaks have a discernible impact on the prevalence of civil unrest. While our findings indicate that the relationship between disease and civil unrest is not as strong as previously suggested, we identify a notable trend that warrants further investigation. These results have significant implications for health and policy officials in understanding the complex interplay between state fragility, civil unrest, and the spread of disease.

Whole-body tissue protein turnover is regulated, in part, by the postprandial rise in plasma amino acid concentrations, although minimal data exist on the amino acid response following non-animal-derived protein consumption. We hypothesised that the ingestion of novel plant- and algae-derived dietary protein sources would elicit divergent plasma amino acid responses when compared with vegan- and animal-derived control proteins. Twelve healthy young (male (m)/female (f): 6/6; age: 22 ± 1 years) and 10 healthy older (m/f: 5/5; age: 69 ± 2 years) adults participated in a randomised, double-blind, cross-over trial. During each visit, volunteers consumed 30 g of protein from milk, mycoprotein, pea, lupin, spirulina or chlorella. Repeated arterialised venous blood samples were collected at baseline and over a 5-h postprandial period to assess circulating amino acid, glucose and insulin concentrations. Protein ingestion increased plasma total and essential amino acid concentrations (P < 0·001), to differing degrees between sources (P < 0·001), and the increase was further modulated by age (P < 0·001). Postprandial maximal plasma total and essential amino acid concentrations were highest for pea (2828 ± 106 and 1480 ± 51 µmol·l−1) and spirulina (2809 ± 99 and 1455 ± 49 µmol·l−1) and lowest for chlorella (2053 ± 83 and 983 ± 35 µmol·l−1) (P < 0·001), but were not affected by age (P > 0·05). Postprandial total and essential amino acid availabilities were highest for pea, spirulina and mycoprotein and lowest for chlorella (all P < 0·05), but no effect of age was observed (P > 0·05). The ingestion of a variety of novel non-animal-derived dietary protein sources elicits divergent plasma amino acid responses, which are further modulated by age.

If advanced high school English classrooms remain some of the few spaces where young people, especially young people of color, might read the Victorian novel, what opportunities for political work might we expect, innovate, demand from those encounters? Drawing from experiences directing LitLabs, immersive, site-specific, design-based approaches to studying literature with South LA teens, the author argues for expanding the geographies literary works reference to include readers’ embodiment in place so that Victorian studies can strengthen and nurture a sense of place for readers often displaced by engagements with the Western literary canon. The essay traces the conflicted, but rewarding, processes for reading literature with an agenda for placekeeping, as one avenue for producing a self-affirming communal consciousness among readers as users of urban space. The essay turns to David Copperfield, where a typical mode of individualized, absorptive reading is contrasted to LitLabs’ model of “emplaced reading” through its adaptations of a core urban humanities “fused practice” of thick-mapping.

Municipal and state governments are often constitutionally bound to ask voters to approve new government debt through voting on bond referendums. Generally, politicians expect voters to balk at higher-cost bonds and be more willing to approve lower-cost bonds. However, there is minimal research on how the amount of a bond affects voter support. We implement a survey experiment that presents respondents with hypothetical ballots, in which the cost of proposed bonds, the number of bonds on the ballot, and the order in which they are presented, are all randomized. Our results suggest that support is not responsive to the amount of the bond, even when the cost is well outside what is typical and within the bounds of what the government can afford. In contrast, we find other aspects of the ballot matter significantly more for bond referendum approval. The more bonds on the ballot and being placed lower on the ballot both reduce support significantly.

By exploring how the taxation of sex work is interpreted and explained, this article aims to expand theoretical and empirical understandings of tax imaginaries – the collectively formed meanings ascribed to taxes, taxpaying, and the purposes they serve – and how gender is mobilised in their construction. It argues that tax imaginaries created and circulated through online expert commentaries on the taxation of prostitution in Italy discredit sex workers through well-established stigmatising gendered tropes, trivialise the predicaments that they face as taxpayers, and ignore or dismiss systemic ambiguities and discriminations that disadvantage sex workers as citizens. Old prejudices against sex workers are thus reinforced and new ones constituted through these tax imaginaries, while the social inequality and marginalisation experienced by sex workers is obscured.