Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the US electorate, yet they are significantly under-represented in political office. How do predominantly immigrant groups like Asian Americans close this representation gap? We build on existing theories of minority representation and immigrant assimilation by highlighting the importance of a group’s political incorporation into American society. We argue that the representation of minority immigrant groups in political office requires social integration and the acquisition of civic resources, processes that can take considerable time. Using new data on Asian American state legislators spanning half a century, we find that immigration in prior decades is associated with greater political representation, while contemporaneous population size has either no independent impact or a negative one. Other indicators of immigrant social integration, including citizenship status, language ability, education, and income, also predict the likelihood of co-racial representation in political office. Our results suggest political representation gaps of immigrant groups narrow over time, though this may be a non-linear process. Our findings also imply that the least integrated members of immigrant groups are the most likely to be affected by representational deficits.

Bollywood films, the highly commercial films by Indian producers for Indian audiences, have always been Hindi-dominant, and despite the increased incorporation of English over time, the speech of urban elite main characters remains Hindi matrix. This is at odds with the code-switching patterns of urban elites in other Indian media, such as chat shows, and spoken conversation, where switching among such speakers is often English dominant. Young urban elites may use English in isolation; their Bollywood equivalents sometimes do so also, but always with standard syntax. In this article we show how for Bollywood films, English without code-switching typically occurs in the speech of anglicised minorities such as Goan Catholics; furthermore, their English is indexed by the morphosyntactic features of Indian English. This contrasts with usage outside film, where Indian English features have been shown to be broadly distributed. This conservatism of Bollywood speech reflects conflicting attitudes towards an endonormative variety of English within India.

After the two world wars, numerous Germans were forcibly removed or fled their homelands in eastern Europe, resettling in Germany. In both postwar periods, the Weimar Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany established compensation systems to indemnify the material losses and damages suffered by these refugees: the Gewaltschädengesetze (Violent Damages Laws) of 1921 and the Lastenausgleichsgesetz (Equalization of Burdens Law) of 1952. The article offers a unique comparative insight into the functioning of the two compensation mechanisms, examining six cases of applicants (or their heirs) who lost their homes twice in their lives and applied for compensation twice: first after the end of the First World War and then following the Second World War. The diachronic comparison reveals the complex nature of German national belonging, the persistence of the term Volksgemeinschaft in modern German history, and the role of class status in the context of compensation after both wars.

The current study aimed to test the association between traumatic events and psycholgocial wellbeing among Palestinians, and to explore whether mattering, anti-ant-mattering, and posttraumatic growth (PTG) moderate the association between these two variables. A total of 610 Palestinian adults participated in the study, comprising 220 males and 390 females. Participants were recruited using online methods, including emails, social media, and advertisements. Results of correlational analysis revealed that traumatic events showed a negative correlation with PTG (r = −.19, p < .01), psychological well-being (r = −.22, p < .01), and mattering (r = −.17, p < .01). In contrast, traumatic events were positively associated with anti- mattering (r = .18, p < .01). Results of regression analysis showed that psychological well-being was negatively predicted by traumatic events and anti-mattering, while it was positively predicted by mattering and PTG. The current study emphasizes the importance of creating interventions that promote PTG, allowing Palestinians to transform their traumatic experiences into opportunities for personal and communal development. Additionally, enhancing self-mattering is strongly associated with psychological well-being and resilience. Encouraging Palestinians to feel valued and connected to their communities may help mitigate the negative effects of prolonged trauma, ultimately leading to better mental health outcomes.

The anthropic principle (AP) states that “what we can expect to observe must be restricted by the conditions necessary for our presence as observers”. But the phrase “our presence as observers” cannot be uniquely interpreted in the context of the theories within which AP is meant to be understood and applied: namely, for effective theories. We thus describe and defend a reformulation of AP, which we dub the effective observation principle (EOP). EOP describes what we can expect to observe in physical settings by considering our ‘observational situation’ (and not, specifically, ‘observers’)—understood solely in terms of effective theories.

Zambia has recently witnessed the removal of four High Court judges within a period of less than two years, raising questions about the country’s commitment to judicial independence. This article examines the extent to which the current legal framework governing the removal of judges in Zambia coheres with the principles of judicial accountability and independence. Drawing upon insights from relevant international standards and scholarly literature, the article posits that the removal of judges is not only a necessary mechanism for judicial accountability but should also be seen as an essential safeguard for judicial independence. Its analysis suggests that some of the grounds for removal and the lack of adequate procedural safeguards within the current legal framework pose threats to both judicial accountability and independence. The article concludes with a call for necessary legal reform, urging policymakers to bring the framework in line with relevant international standards.

Many academics today struggle with their role in the climate and ecological crisis. Increasing numbers take to the streets to demand stronger climate measures, not just as citizens, but as scientists and scholars. How should we conceptualize and evaluate such actions? I examine the responsibilities of academics in the context of the climate and ecological crisis. I offer a defense of academic climate activism that is grounded in membership of the academic community and its special position in the climate crisis, not in the specific expertise of individual scholars. We have a responsibility, as members of the academic community, to listen to our colleagues’ warnings, let their message sink in, reflect on it, and let it move us to action. Such action can take many forms, including collective action. In a context where such warnings are actively thwarted, participating in protest as an academic is not necessarily undemocratic, nor at odds with professional integrity.

Collective deliberation plays a central role in both decision-making and judgment formation. Despite increasing research interest in this topic in philosophy and political science, a unified approach and a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon are still lacking. This challenge stems, in part, from the conceptual ambiguity surrounding collective deliberation. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of collective deliberation by proposing a conceptual elaboration on its meaning. Employing Carnap’s method of explication, I take the ordinary uses of the term as the explicandum and develop the concept of collective deliberation as shared reasoning (explicatum). More precisely, collective deliberation is characterized as shared reasoning embedded within a broader joint activity on the part of the group and applied in response to questions that require argumentation. Shared reasoning is further clarified in terms of its necessary conditions and objectives. Finally, the concept of collective deliberation as shared reasoning is evaluated against key criteria of theoretical adequacy (i.e., simplicity, similarity, exactness, and fruitfulness). I argue that the proposed concept enhances theoretical development, fosters theoretical unification, and advances our understanding of collective deliberation.

Increasing numbers of Americans are affected by serious mental illness and severe substance use disorders. While funding has increased for the treatment of these conditions in recent years, increases in service needs have outstripped resources. Further, too often those living with these conditions are incarcerated, held for inordinate periods without treatment in emergency departments, and/or relegated to the streets as part of the burgeoning numbers of homeless in the United States. These conditions require innovative approaches to care that should include integrated medical care and community resources to decrease isolation and to improve the response to crises as they occur. There are numerous opportunities already in place that, used appropriately, can improve outcomes for some of our most vulnerable people and will improve community living for all. This perspective describes available resources that can better address the mental health and substance use crisis facing the American people.

We show that every $(n,d,\lambda )$-graph contains a Hamilton cycle for sufficiently large $n$, assuming that $d\geq \log ^{6}n$ and $\lambda \leq cd$, where $c=\frac {1}{70000}$. This significantly improves a recent result of Glock, Correia, and Sudakov, who obtained a similar result for $d$ that grows polynomially with $n$. The proof is based on a new result regarding the second largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of a subgraph induced by a random subset of vertices, combined with a recent result on connecting designated pairs of vertices by vertex-disjoint paths in $(n,d,\lambda )$-graphs. We believe that the former result is of independent interest and will have further applications.

Eleven chert samples from various geographical and geological locations and ages were heat treated, with two of the samples also undergoing in situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) during heat treatment. Characterisation was performed using X-ray fluorescence (XRF), XRD and Raman spectroscopy. The results indicated that the presence of moganite in cherts is independent of whether they are quartzitic or cristobalitic/tridymitic. After heating, cherts cannot be differentiated into these two types using XRD, as all the samples might contain quartz, cristobalite and tridymite. Heat treatment induced transformations in both siliceous and non-siliceous phases, forming new crystalline phases. The observed transformations at 1000°C agree with the literature data. The combination of XRD and Raman spectroscopy is crucial for comprehensive chert analysis, with Raman methods detecting lower concentrations and textural variations than XRD. A correlation exists between chert type (quartzitic or cristobalitic/tridymitic), i.e. mineralogy and age, but not between elemental composition and age. In situ XRD during heating shows distinct crystalline transformations. These transformations can affect significantly the properties of the cherts and has implications for conservation and provenance studies of archaeological tools. The analytical tools used to characterise the mineralogy of cherts are a fast and efficient alternative to conventional petrographic microscopy, especially in the case of heat-treated cherts.