The weakening of traditional social cleavages in predicting political preferences does not mean that group membership for detecting political behaviour no longer exists—it may only be the case that the boundaries of these groups need to be redefined. Using original and unique data, this article investigates the relevance of lifestyle for capturing and delineating social groups sharing political attitudes. Logistic regression machine learning models test how lifestyle predicts political behaviour alongside conventional sociodemographic variables. K-means clustering identifies three Quebecer lifestyle profiles and their relationship to sociodemographic features. Findings show lifestyle better predicts voting intentions and lifestyle clusters significantly associated with vote choice, even after controlling for sociodemographics. This research reassesses the weakening of socio-structural influences and the importance of contextual and individual variables in understanding political behaviour.

This essay examines how the interplay between diagnostic machines and patient experience reshaped the meaning of testing validity, through a 1926 malpractice lawsuit in colonial Shanghai. It traces how complaints of dizziness, a seemingly mundane side effect of new glasses, escalated into a legal and epistemic dispute over the validity of a vision test. Weaving together competing perspectives presented in court, the essay uncovers discrepancies between the examiner’s observations, the machine’s readings and the patient’s embodied experience. These clashes expose the fragility of the new regime of ‘scientific testing’ in the global city of Shanghai, which claimed authority from the emerging profession of optometry and a diagnostic machine known as the retinoscope. The case, I argue, marks an inflection point in the history of testing, as patient experience was recalibrated through new machines, re-legitimized in novel ways, and transformed into a generative feature of diagnostic practice itself.

We welcome the Letter to the Editor and their thoughtful commentary on our recently published study examining temporal trends in overweight and obesity among schoolchildren in Porto Velho, Rondônia, Brazil, from 2006 to 2024. We fully concur with their central argument: the evidence base on child and adolescent nutrition in the Amazon region remains heavily reliant on cross-sectional and repeated cross-sectional designs, with longitudinal cohort studies representing a critical and largely unmet need. Our own findings underscore the urgency of building the longitudinal infrastructure necessary to identify causal determinants of these trends. The Amazon basin, home to approximately 40 million people across nine countries and over 300 indigenous ethnic groups, presents a uniquely complex socio-ecological context marked by rapid urbanisation, nutrition transition, environmental exposures and profound structural inequities that cross-sectional evidence alone cannot adequately characterise. We endorse the authors’ call for the prioritisation of long-term longitudinal studies and, in particular, their vision of multi-centre, transnational Amazonian cohorts supported by multi-country funding. We further propose that our established school-based surveillance infrastructure in Western Amazonia could serve as a meaningful foundation for future binational or multi-site collaborative research. We invite the authors to explore this possibility and look forward to contributing to a broader, coordinated research agenda aimed at improving child and adolescent health across the Amazon basin.

Displaced persons with non-communicable diseases (NCD) face challenges in disease management and increased risk of mental health problems. This randomized controlled trial assessed the impact of psychotherapy treatment (Common Elements Treatment Approach [CETA]) on hypertension and diabetes mellitus medication adherence (primary) and mental and physical health outcomes (secondary) among displaced Myanmar adults with poor medication adherence in a Thai shelter community. Treatment participants received weekly CETA for 4–12 weeks; comparison participants had access to routine psychosocial support. Eligible participants were chronic disease patients with <70% medication adherence over prior month. Data were collected at baseline, 3 and 6 months. Of 650 adults screened, 283 (43.5%) met eligibility criteria and 224 consented (CETA n = 112, comparison n = 112) to participate; 73 (32.6%) reported elevated mental health symptoms. At 6-month follow-up, medication adherence improved in both arms, with greater improvements among CETA participants (MARS-5: 0.55, 95% CI: 0.07 to 1.02, p = 0.023). CETA significantly reduced mental health symptoms among those with elevated symptoms at baseline (−3.06, 95% CI: −5.19 to −0.93, p = 0.005). The high rate of mental health symptoms and the impact of CETA on NCD medication adherence supports integration of mental health services into NCD care systems.

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) (formerly known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease) is the most prevalent liver disease globally. Emerging evidence suggests MASLD-related metabolic and inflammatory processes may disrupt frontostriatal–limbic circuits, contributing to alterations in cognitive and reward-related brain function. This systematic review aimed to examine whether MASLD is associated with changes in cognitive functioning and reward-related processes, and whether these changes correspond to structural and functional brain alterations. A systematic search of PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar was conducted from inception to November 11, 2025, using terms related to MASLD, cognition, and reward. Eligible studies included adult MASLD populations and observational designs assessing cognitive and/or reward outcomes. Studies involving neuropsychiatric or neurological disorders or medications known to affect cognition were excluded. Fourteen studies (eight cross-sectional, four cohort or case–control, and two Mendelian randomization) found MASLD significantly associated with poorer attention, executive function and memory, often proportional to disease severity. Neuroimaging studies reported significant reductions in cortical thickness, hippocampal and white matter volume, increased white matter hyperintensities, and cerebrovascular dysfunction (p < 0.05), most pronounced in executive and visuospatial regions. Limited evidence suggested alterations in small-to-moderate circuits, including nucleus accumbens dysfunction and reduced hippocampal–orbitofrontal connectivity. MASLD is associated with cognitive impairment, reward-related neural systems, and structural and cerebrovascular brain alterations. These findings reinforce its characterization as a multisystem condition affecting brain health and neuropsychiatric risk. Longitudinal studies with standardized criteria and confounder adjustment are needed to clarify causal mechanisms.

Changes in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic included emergency benefit allotments and operation waivers. Using five expenditure-based measures of the nutritional quality of food purchases, we tested whether changes in SNAP during the first year of the pandemic were associated with better nutritional quality of food purchases by participating households with children relative to income-eligible nonparticipating households. Most nutritional quality measures declined from 2019 (pre-pandemic) to 2020 (pandemic) with larger decreases for SNAP households. SNAP participation was associated with small negative differences for nutritional quality of food purchases from stores.

During the winter of 1929–30, Russian persecution of religious believers aroused considerable public indignation in Britain. This article considers why the Labour government refused to make formal complaints to the Soviet government, and why protests against the persecution soon subsided. A Christian Protest Movement failed to gain support from many church leaders, because of its right-wing political associations. English church leaders arranged their own protests and a day of special intercessions, causing some friction with the government; but in what might be termed ‘Christian realism’, they accepted that there were principled and practical limits to government actions.

This quantitative study develops and validates a novel Culturally Responsive Blended Learning Success (CR-BLS) model for evaluating technology-enhanced EFL instruction effectiveness in collective educational contexts. Conducted at a Chinese university, the research examined an intelligent blended learning ecosystem integrating three widely adopted platforms (U-Campus, GradingNet, and Learning Hub) for content delivery, assessment, and collaboration in College English instruction. The CR-BLS model extends a widely recognized seven-factor quality framework by integrating three culturally grounded moderators: hierarchical teacher–student relationships, collective learning orientation, and examination-driven motivation. The proposed model was empirically validated through data collection from 1,816 non-English major undergraduates engaged with the blended learning ecosystem using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Results revealed that the proposed quality factors explained 71.4% of the variance in perceived satisfaction, 54.2% in perceived usefulness, and 34.1% in system use. Learner quality and instructor quality significantly influenced both perceived satisfaction and usefulness, while educational system quality primarily affected system use. Furthermore, perceived usefulness, satisfaction, and system use collectively accounted for 64.7% of the variance in perceived learning benefits. Cultural moderators demonstrated significant influence on the relationships between quality dimensions and learning outcomes, enhancing the proposed model’s contextual validity for collective educational environments. This study contributes to both theoretical advancement and practical implementation of blended learning systems in collective educational settings.

People experiencing homelessness (PEH) are at increased risk of tuberculosis (TB) infection and progression to TB disease. Data on TB infection prevalence among hospitalised PEH in low-incidence countries remain limited. This study aimed to estimate TB infection prevalence and describe associated demographic and clinical characteristics among PEH admitted to an urban tertiary hospital in Dublin, Ireland. A prevalence study was conducted between November 2023 and March 2025 using an opt-out screening model. Hospitalised PEH were offered interferon gamma release assay (IGRA) testing on admission. Demographic and clinical data were collected, and positive IGRA results were assessed clinically and radiographically to exclude active TB disease. Estimated lifetime risk of progression to TB disease was calculated using a validated risk-modelling algorithm.Among 118 PEH screened, 13 (11%) were IGRA-positive and 3 (2.5%) had indeterminate results. The cohort was predominantly male (77%) with a mean age of 46 years. Non–Irish-born individuals had higher IGRA positivity than Irish-born participants (23.8% vs 8.3%, p = .054). Substance and alcohol use disorders were common, over half had previous incarceration, and one-third were sleeping rough at admission. Among IGRA-positive individuals, the mean estimated lifetime risk of progression to TB disease was 6.96% (SD 3.3). These findings support strengthened, integrated TB prevention strategies for PEH.

We extend the notion of T-duality to manifolds endowed with non-principal torus actions. The singularities of the torus action are controlled by a certain Lie algebroid, called the elliptic tangent bundle. Using this Lie algebroid, we explain how certain invariant generalized complex structures can be transported via T-duality. Along the way, we use the elliptic tangent bundle to define connections for these torus actions, and give new insight into the classification of such actions by Haefliger-Salem.

In recent years, scholarly research has highlighted the valuable insights that can be gained from analysing government policies on prostitution. This becomes an even more pertinent issue when the period under consideration is the Fascist ventennio, when Italy was governed by a deeply patriarchal and anti-feminist regime. Drawing on unpublished archival material, this article provides a comprehensive analysis of the regime’s position on prostitution. In an attempt to present themselves as progressive, Fascist authorities opted to ‘tolerate’ prostitution for the sake of public health and order rather than authorise it. Mussolini thus made strategic use of brothels, entrusting them with the role of safeguarding not only health and safety, but also the ‘defence of the race’, in both the home country and the colonies. Within this regulated system, which was entrusted to police officers and doctors susceptible to corruption, prostitutes were considered inferior and repressed. However, the severe restriction of freedoms and rights affected all women.

No effective preemergence or postemergence herbicides are currently available to use on sugar beets for managing kochia and Palmer amaranth that are resistant to glyphosate and acetolactate synthase. To evaluate a new herbicide option, field experiments were conducted to assess the efficacy of a preemergence application of metamitron to sugar beet crops. Studies were carried out in Lingle, Wyoming, and Scottsbluff, Nebraska, in 2019. Studies were repeated in 2020 at the Scottsbluff location, and two locations in Oregon, Nyssa and Ontario. Cycloate (4.03 kg ai ha−1), ethofumesate (1.58 kg ai ha−1), metamitron (2.82, 5.63, and 7 kg ai ha−1), and metamitron + ethofumesate (5.63 + 1.58 kg ai ha−1) were applied preemergence. Metamitron (5.63 kg ai ha−1) + ethofumesate (1.58 kg ai ha−1) was applied preemergence followed by (fb) ethofumesate (1.58 kg ai ha−1) or acetochlor (1.26 kg ai ha−1) applied at the 2 to 4 true-leaf (TL) stage of sugar beet, ethofumesate or acetochlor at the 2 to 4 TL and 6 to 8 TL stages, and ethofumesate fb acetochlor at the 2 to 4 TL and 6 to 8 TL stages, respectively. A nontreated control and weed-free check (glyphosate applied at 2 to 4 TL and 6 to 8 TL stages of sugar beet) were included for treatment comparison. Ethofumesate applied alone preemergence provided ≤65% control of Palmer amaranth, common lambsquarters, and redroot pigweed relative to ≥95% control when metamitron (5.63 kg ai ha−1) was applied as a tank mixture partner. Any treatment containing metamitron (≥5.63 kg ai ha−1) provided ≥80% control of common lambsquarters, redroot pigweed, and Palmer amaranth, but not kochia. When kochia was not present, any herbicide combination that contained metamitron (≥5.63 kg ai ha−1) provided similar sugar beet root yield and recoverable sugar as glyphosate-based treatments. Based on the findings of this research, metamitron (≥5.63 kg ai ha−1) applied preemergence will control Palmer amaranth, common lambsquarters, and redroot pigweed until other herbicides, such as those that inhibit very-long-chain fatty acids, can be applied at the 2 TL stage of sugar beet.

This paper examines Harrisons and Crosfield’s Quilon operations in interwar South India to highlight the role of site specificity in shaping global firms. Unlike most British companies headquartered in major colonial port cities, Harrisons and Crosfield established its Indian base in Quilon, a small town with strategic access to estates and backwaters but limited infrastructure. Situating the case within debates on multinational enterprise and colonial business, the paper argues that geography and foreignness were central to the firm’s longevity, shaping both opportunities and limits to expansion.

Prenatal and early-life exposures may contribute to lifelong hypertension risk. We examined the relationships between an individual’s birth weight or preterm birth status with their 1) risk for hypertension and 2) related quantitative blood pressure measures [mean systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and 30-second pulse] among post-menopausal women from the Women’s Health Initiative observational cohort. At study entry, birth weight and preterm birth status were self-reported by category (<6 lbs., 6–7 lbs. 15 oz., 8–9 lbs. 15 oz., or ≥10 lbs.; ≥4 weeks premature or full term). Prevalent and incident hypertension status were self-reported; baseline SBP, DBP, and 30-second pulse were measured by trained study staff. Linear, logistic, and Cox-proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate associations between birth weight and preterm birth and blood pressure outcomes. After adjustments, participants born weighing <6 lbs. had a higher mean SBP and were at increased risk for prevalent and incident hypertension compared to participants born at a normal birth weight (6–7 lbs. 15 oz.). Women born weighing ≥10 lbs. had a lower mean SBP and were at lower risk for prevalent and incident hypertension when compared to participants born at a normal birth weight. Compared to participants born full term, those born preterm were at increased risk for prevalent and incident hypertension; however, this relationship was weaker when stratifying by birth weight. Long-term follow-up or targeted counseling may be required for individuals born prematurely or at lower birth weights to prevent hypertension and associated cardiovascular outcomes.