In 2015, President Xi Jinping proclaimed the principle of the Sinicization of religions. Since then, it has become the Communist Party's guiding thought in religious governance. However, so far little is known about how it is perceived by everyday religious practitioners, especially Christians. Based on textual analysis of speeches and writings by leaders of the Catholic Church in China, and 50 in-depth interviews with Catholic practitioners from the mainland and Hong Kong, this paper examines how Catholics (en)counter the public transcript created by the state. Church leaders at the national level publicly embrace Sinicization and appropriate the Church's teaching on inculturation, another transcript, as its justification. However, the everyday practitioners interviewed for this study refused to embrace this discourse. Instead, they adopted one of three discursive strategies: rejection, evasion and empathy. All fell short of endorsing the state's discourse. The findings suggest that the Church's transcript enables Catholic practitioners to critically (en)counter the state's transcript.

Unethical behavior among US judges, including sexual misconduct and other forms of discriminatory behavior, is becoming increasingly publicized. These controversies are particularly concerning given the important role judges play in shaping policy pertaining to individual rights. We argue that types of misconduct serve as a signal to the public about potential threats judges may pose to people, particularly groups of people who are marginalized. We use a survey experiment that introduces a judge who has engaged in misconduct to measure if the type of misconduct will influence attitudes on whether the judge poses a threat to the rights of women, racial minorities, and ethnic minorities. Interestingly, we find that judges accused of discriminatory misconduct toward one group are viewed as a threat to rights across the board and are seen as less able to rule fairly on matters pertaining to marginalized people more generally.

Dietary fatty acids (FA) affect metabolic risk factors. The aim of this study was to explore if changes in dietary fat intake during energy restriction were associated with plasma FA composition. The study also investigated if these changes were associated with changes in liver fat, liver stiffness and plasma lipids among persons with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Dietary and plasma FA were investigated in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (n 48) previously enrolled in a 12-week-long open-label randomised controlled trial comparing two energy-restricted diets: a low-carbohydrate high-fat diet and intermittent fasting diet (5:2), to a control group. Self-reported 3 d food diaries were used for FA intake, and plasma FA composition was analysed using GC. Liver fat content and stiffness were measured by MRI and transient elastography. Changes in intake of total FA (r 0·41; P = 0·005), SFA (r 0·38; P = 0·011) and MUFA (r 0·42; P = 0·004) were associated with changes in liver stiffness. Changes in plasma SFA (r 0·32; P = 0·032) and C16 : 1n-7 (r 0·33; P = 0·028) were positively associated with changes in liver fat, while total n-6 PUFA (r −0·33; P = 0·028) and C20 : 4n-6 (r −0·42; P = 0·005) were inversely associated. Changes in dietary SFA, MUFA, cholesterol and C20:4 were positively associated with plasma total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol. Modifying the composition of dietary fats during dietary interventions causes changes in the plasma FA profile in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. These changes are associated with changes in liver fat, stiffness, plasma cholesterol and TAG. Replacing SFA with PUFA may improve metabolic parameters in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients during weight loss treatment.

Foods consumed at lower eating rates (ER) lead to reductions in energy intake. Previous research has shown that texture-based differences in eating rateER can reduce meal size. The effect size and consistency of these effects across a wide range of composite and complex meals differing considerably in texture and varying in meal occasion have not been reported. We determined how consistently texture-based differences in ER can influence food and energy intake across a wide variety of meals. In a crossover design, healthy participants consumed twelve breakfast and twelve lunch meals that differed in texture to produce a fast or slow ER. A breakfast group (n = 15) and lunch group (n = 15) completed twelve ad libitum meal sessions each (six ‘fast’ and six ‘slow’ meals), where intake was measured and behavioural video annotation was used to characterise eating behaviour. Liking did not differ significantly between fast and slow breakfasts (P = 0·44) or lunches (P = 0·76). The slow meals were consumed on average 39 % ± 9 % (breakfast) and 45 % ± 7 % (lunch) slower than the fast meals (both P < 0·001). Participants consumed on average 22 % ± 5 % less food (84 g) and 13 % ± 6 % less energy (71 kcal) from slow compared with fast meals (mean ± SE; P < 0·001). Consuming meals with a slower ER led to a reduction in food intake, where an average decrease of 20 % in ER produced an 11 % ± 1 % decrease in food intake (mean ± SE). These findings add to the growing body of evidence showing that ER can be manipulated using food texture and that this has aits consistent effect on food and energy intake across a wide variety of Hedonically equivalent meals.