Indigenous peoples belong to the most underprivileged groups worldwide. To address this situation, countries in Latin America and beyond increasingly recognize Indigenous rights constitutionally. However, these constitutional rights are not implemented equally everywhere. This could relate to the corresponding ordinary law—or lack thereof. Here I ask, under which conditions are Indigenous peoples represented in ordinary legislation? To answer this question, I collected the original INDILEX dataset on the status of Indigenous peoples and their rights in the legislation of sixteen Latin American countries (1979–2018). Building on the political representation literature, I contrast descriptive representation with political allies, social movements, and favorable context factors as determinants of the substantive representation of Indigenous peoples. The analysis shows that leftist presidents and a broad constitutional mandate are key predictors of Indigenous rights legislation. The role of Indigenous civil society and democracy depends on the time frame and operationalization choice.

This study examines whether women politicians address violence against women (VAW) more effectively than their male counterparts at the local level in Mexico. Using a regression discontinuity design that leverages close mayoral elections, we find that women mayors reduce some of the most egregious violent crimes committed against women, with estimates suggesting a 64.7% reduction in homicides of women over their 3-year terms. As evidence of potential mechanisms, we find that women mayors actively work to combat VAW, appoint more women to leadership and support roles, and expand specialized services for crime victims. These findings suggest that women’s representation in local politics may be an important factor in advancing women’s safety.

The central role of creativity in product engineering is evident in the generation of solutions with high innovative potential. Even in times of artificial intelligence being creative is still a skill in which the human outperforms the machine. Product engineering activities often take place in distributed environments, which elevates the importance of creative tasks due to the unique challenges these settings present. Furthermore, these distributed environments frequently involve intercultural teams. With intercultural team settings come additional benefits but also challenges. To support the creative processes of intercultural, distributed product engineering teams, the cultural synergy spectrum (CSS) method has been developed. The CSS method is designed to assist distributed product engineering teams with being creative while being culturally sensitive. To achieve this goal, mutual understanding is enhanced, and learning within the team is promoted. Using five phases to lead the participants through a creative process, the CSS starts with a warm-up, followed by building a knowledge baseline. The third phase is targeted at cultural learning, after which the creativity phase starts. Here, the actual problem-solving takes place. The final phase is for reflection and feedback. This study seeks to validate the CSS method’s effectiveness through application in a partially distributed team. Two teams, consisting of mechanical engineers in a research group at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, collaborated to address a practical problem using this method. The team is primarily Chinese as a follow-up to previous validation iterations that were done with teams with more diverse backgrounds, but who lived in Germany. To ensure that this bias due to the intercultural experience of living in another country is overcome, this study is performed with researchers in China with little intercultural experience. The CSS was applied successfully, proving that the CSS is suitable for the partially distributed or hybrid setting in which it was applied and for the team that applied it. The participants made use of the option to include additional tools and improvements to the method, like a more comprehensive warm-up.

Jellyfish are widely distributed throughout the world’s oceans. However, understanding jellyfish species’ distributions remains poor. Here, we addressed this knowledge gap by applying an approach that uses citizen science observations to inform collection of samples which then undergo molecular analysis. Doing so allowed us to confirm the presence of the jellyfish Cyanea purpurea in the waters of Hong Kong SAR for the first time. Due to morphological overlap in Cyanea species, DNA analysis confirmed specimen identification. Samples were taken from 19 jellyfish individuals for subsequent DNA analysis. Ten samples (53%) were confirmed as C. purpurea, two samples (10%) were identified as Cyanea nozakii, and seven samples (37%) were not able to be identified. The combined application of citizen science and DNA analysis has proven effective in confirming the presence of C. purpurea in Hong Kong waters. This approach of using citizen science observations to inform the collection of samples for subsequent molecular analysis could be transferrable to other similar situations in which identification based solely on morphology is insufficient, potentially enhancing our ability to recognise species occurrence.

Technological developments and affordable price structures have increased the usage of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) across almost all sectors, hence increasing demand. Since UAVs can fly and perform various tasks without requiring a human operator, the most dangerous and time-consuming tasks previously performed by humans in many sectors are now accomplished by using UAVs. The increased use of UAVs has also introduced critical safety and security risks, including airspace congestion, collisions and malicious use, and therefore, identifying and assessing the risks associated with UAVs and finding ways to mitigate them is of great importance. This qualitative study investigates the safety and security risks posed by the increased use of UAVs and discusses ways to mitigate these risks. Semi-structured interviews with aviation professionals, including pilots, air traffic controllers and academicians, were conducted, and the collected data were analysed by using MAXQDA 24 qualitative analysis software. The results indicate that 86% of participants emphasised air traffic density as a major safety concern, while 71% underlined the need for dedicated air corridors and robust legal frameworks to reduce collision risks. These insights suggest that the safe integration of UAVs into current aviation systems demands a multifaceted strategy involving regulatory interventions, such as clearly defined UAV flight zones and essential technological enhancements. Overall, the study underscores the urgent need for coordinated efforts–legal, technological, and inter-institutional–to ensure the secure incorporation of UAVs into national airspace.

One of the most devastating and costly consequences of CM is that it persists across generations. Yet, we know little about whether there is intergenerational continuity of diverse dimensions of CM exposure (e.g., chronicity, multi-subtype) or unique patterns of exposure. This is a critical gap, given evidence that different forms of CM confer unique consequences. To enhance our understanding of intergenerational continuity of CM, the current study applied a multidimensional framework to be the first to investigate whether unique forms of CM exposure (characterized by the subtypes and whether multi-type exposure occurred) exhibited homotypic/heterotypic patterns of intergenerational continuity. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify patterns of CM exposure in mothers and their offspring (aged 8–13) who were part of a high-risk, economically disadvantaged sample of maltreated and nonmaltreated youth (N = 1240). Four distinct classes of CM exposure were identified in both mothers (“Single-Subtype without Sexual Abuse”; “Sexual Abuse”, “Multi-Subtype Exposure”; and “No Maltreatment”) and offspring (“No Maltreatment”; “Single Type-Neglect”; “Single Type-Abuse”; and “Chronic, Multi-type”). Patterns of homotypic and heterotypic intergenerational continuity were identified, with a pattern of multi-type exposure emerging as an enduring form of exposure across generations. Implications for preventive interventions are discussed. Intergenerational continuity of multidimensional patterns of child maltreatment exposure: A person-centered approach

A brief introduction to this special issue on theme of experimental philosophy of religion—the project of taking the tools and resources of the human sciences and bringing them to bear on important issues within philosophy of religion, toward philosophical ends.

This study explores the link between receiving basic income support (BIS) and political alienation in Germany, with a focus on political trust and satisfaction with democracy. We argue that receiving BIS is associated with experiences of material and social exclusion and impairs subjective social integration. Against the background of major structural welfare reforms in recent decades, we assume that BIS recipients are likely to attribute responsibility for their socio-economic disadvantages to the wider political system. We use data from the Panel Study Labour Market and Social Security (PASS) for the years 2019–2021 and employ multivariate regression analysis. We find that political alienation is more likely to occur among recipients of BIS, especially long-term recipients, than among non-recipients. Social exclusion is an important mechanism: With a higher risk of material deprivation and fewer opportunities for social participation and civic engagement than non-recipients, BIS recipients are more likely to experience subjective social exclusion, which, in turn, contributes to their political alienation. Moreover, our study offers indications that trustful and supportive interactions with welfare authorities can mitigate tendencies of political alienation among BIS recipients.