The electoral base of the Democratic Party has been transformed over the past generation. Democrats have lost ground in rural America while adding strength in cities and, more recently, suburbs. A major consequence of this shift has been the creation of a “U-shaped” Democratic voting base, with both poorer metro voters and affluent suburbanites siding with the party. This spatial alliance overlays a multi-racial one, as Democrats rely more heavily on voters of color than any other major party in American history. Many analysts have argued that the Democratic Party has managed this sea change by shifting from economic to cultural and identity appeals. This claim is consistent with leading models of two-dimensional party competition, as well as a fair amount of cross-national research on parties of the left and center-left in contemporary knowledge economies. However, we find little evidence for this claim in national Democrats’ messaging (via party platforms and on Twitter), nor, more important, in their actual policy efforts. Instead, we show that even as Democrats have increasingly relied on affluent, educated voters, the party has embraced a more ambitious economic agenda. The national party has bridged the Blue Divide not by foreswearing redistribution or foregrounding cultural liberalism, but by formulating an increasingly bold economic program—albeit one that elides important inequalities within its metro-based multi-racial coalition. Understanding how and why Democrats have taken this path is central to understanding not just the party’s response to its shifting electorate, but the way parties manage coalitional change more broadly.

This study aims to gain a better understanding of the current scope of headache education received in Canadian medical schools. The Women’s College Hospital Centre for Headache at the University of Toronto, Canada, distributed a questionnaire to administrators and physicians involved in medical student education at Canadian medical schools and gathered information surrounding headache education. Overall, the degree of headache education varied between schools in regard to the hours of training that occurred and year the training took place. This survey provides an initial insight into the current standards of headache-specific education in Canadian medical schools.

While individuals’ proactive career behaviors (PCBs) are critical to sustainable career outcomes, knowledge of how and when PCBs translate into these outcomes is limited. Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory and the socially embedded model of thriving, this study examines the psychological process through which PCBs translate into two sustainable career outcomes (i.e., subjective career success and perceived employability). Based on data collected from 228 participants in a Chinese company, our findings reveal that PCBs positively predict subjective career success and perceived employability by fostering thriving at work. Furthermore, the indirect association between PCBs and perceived employability via thriving at work is strengthened when participants’ perception of humble leadership is high. This study extends our knowledge by identifying a psychological mechanism that explains how employees’ PCBs translate into sustainable career outcomes and enriches our understanding of the boundary conditions of PCBs by identifying humble leadership as an important factor.

We evaluated the effectiveness and tolerability of brivaracetam (BRV), an adjunctive antiseizure medication, as a treatment for focal epilepsy in adults. In this prospective study, we enrolled 51 participants from 3 sites across Canada. At 6 months, 68% (26/38) of participants were still taking BRV, among whom 35% (8/23) attained seizure freedom and 48% (11/23) saw their seizure frequency reduced by over 50%. We did not measure any significant change in irritability, quality of life, depression, and anxiety while treated with BRV. Our findings suggest BRV is effective in reducing seizure frequency among adults with focal epilepsy.

The adaptability of hexapods for various locomotion tasks, especially in rescue and exploration missions, drives their application. Unlike controlled environments, these robots need to navigate ever-changing terrains, where ground irregularities impact foothold positions and origin shifts in contact forces. This dynamic interaction leads to varying hexapod postures, affecting overall system stability. This study introduces a posture control approach that adjusts the hexapod’s main body orientation and height based on terrain topology. The strategy estimates ground slope using limb positions, thereby calculating novel limb trajectories to modify the hexapod’s angular position. Adjusting the hexapod’s height, based on the calculated slope, further enhances main body stability. The proposed methodology is implemented and evaluated on the ATHENA hexapod (All-Terrain Hexapod for Environment Adaptability). Control feasibility is assessed through dynamic analysis of the hexapod’s multibody model on irregular surfaces, using computational simulations in Gazebo software. Environmental complexity’s impact on hexapod stability is tested on both a ramp and uneven terrain. Independent analyses for each scenario evaluate the controller’s effect on roll and pitch angular velocities, as well as height variations. Results demonstrate the strategy’s suitability for both environments, significantly enhancing posture stability.

Prior studies have treated employees’ remedial voice as a single-stage phenomenon. However, it is problematic because, in reality, employees often respond to mistreatment in a sequence. This paper aims to add new insights by empirically testing a three-stage process model to explain employees’ remedial voice. Also, this study intends to test important factors in the employees’ remedial voice decision-making process. Based on data obtained by surveying 382 Chinese employees, we found that mistreatment severity, mistreatment source, and employees’ external job opportunities are related to employees’ remedial voice. Our data provides support for a three-stage-process model for remedial voice. We contribute to the gaps in the existing research which largely views employees’ remedial voice as a single ‘snapshot.’ The study also deepens understanding of what factors affect employees’ remedial voice.

The gender and politics literature offers diverse views on the causes of gendered practices and the best methodologies for studying them. This article advances efforts to take stock of and systematize this diversity by grounding the feminist institutionalist perspective in critical realism. The article posits that gendered institutions are real entities with independent powers, while also emphasizing the crucial role that human ideas play in upholding and contesting gendered practices. To faithfully capture gendered institutions and their relationship with human agency, the article promotes the use of the abductive-retroductive research design. This approach allows feminist institutionalist scholars to construct and test multiple competing theories about gendered institutions, drawing from various empirical manifestations of institutional power. These expressions range from observable actions to codified rules, socially shared norms, and other subtle discourses. By shedding light on the principles at the heart of realist-oriented feminist research, this work paves the way for a more standardized and transparent approach to feminist inquiries.

We propose a methodology for normative evaluation when preferences are context-dependent. We offer a precise definition of context-dependence and formulate a normative criterion of self-determination, according to which one situation is better than another if individuals are aware of more potential contexts of a choice problem. We provide two interpretations of our normative approach: an extension of Sugden’s opportunity criterion and an application of Sen’s positional views in his theory of justice. Our proposition is consistent with Muldoon’s and Gaus’ approaches of public reason in social contract theory, which account for the diversity of perspectives in non-ideal worlds.

SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus that has rarely been associated with chylothorax. Patients with Noonan syndrome are at risk for developing chylothorax, especially after cardiothoracic interventions. We present the case of SARS-CoV-2 infection triggering the underlying tendency of a patient with Noonan syndrome to develop chylothorax who did not develop it even after prior cardiothoracic interventions. Patient presented in respiratory distress without hypoxia and was found, on imaging, to have a large right-sided pleural effusion, which was eventually classified as chylothorax. The patient was then started on a low-fat diet. Chest tube drainage substantially reduced the effusion in size, and it remained stable. Our report highlights that SARS-CoV-2 infection can cause the development of a chylothorax or a chylous effusion in patients with Noonan syndrome or among populations with a similar predisposition. A high index of suspicion in vulnerable patients or those not responding to traditional therapy should exist with providers, thus leading to the testing of the fluid to confirm the diagnosis.

We apply an intersectional framework to explore how connections to marginalized communities interact with candidate demographics to shape vote choice in U.S. politics. In an original experiment manipulating candidates’ race, gender, sexuality, and endorsements, we show that endorsements by organizations advocating for marginalized communities shape voter evaluations to the same, if not greater, degree as candidate demographics. Moreover, the effects are particularly pronounced for candidates receiving an endorsement from an LGBT advocacy organization. Attitudes toward marginalized communities are mapped onto candidates with ties to those communities, whether the candidate is a member or not; we call this process associational affect. Identity has a complex role in shaping vote choice, and, absent an investigation of power and interlocking social hierarchies, it alone is insufficient to explain vote choice.