Are people who are more knowledgeable and interested in trade policy more likely to change their preferences regarding trade agreements compared to their less knowledgeable and less interested counterparts on receiving new information from politicians? This study responds to this question by developing a framework that distinguishes knowledge from interest and assesses it using an original survey conducted on voters during the 2020 US election campaign. Assessing whether information about trade agreements provided by political elites shifts individuals’ trade preferences and whether knowledge and interest condition susceptibility to such information reveals that people knowledgeable and interested in trade policy are less likely to change their original preference. Together, the results sharpen the existing theories by establishing knowledge and interest as moderators of trade opinion change in low-salience trade settings.

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is the most prevalent liver condition worldwide, affecting approximately 30% of the population globally. MASLD often coexists with hypertension, central obesity, type 2 diabetes and dyslipidaemia, yet globally, national treatment strategies are still being established. Pharmacological options are limited and lifestyle modification to achieve weight loss through combining diet, physical activity (PA) and structured exercise remains the cornerstone of MASLD management. The Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) is an evidence-based dietary approach for MASLD prevention and treatment; however, its application in culturally and linguistically diverse, non-Mediterranean populations requires adaptation. In fact, the need for cultural adaptation for all lifestyle interventions (diet, PA and sleep) needs better acknowledgement and implementation. There are limited interventions which combine all lifestyle behaviours and even fewer that consider cultural safety and appropriateness. Furthermore, limited healthcare staffing resources, geographical location and health system pressures highlight the need for more accessible and cost-effective delivery methods. This review summarises evidence on MedDiet for MASLD in multicultural populations, explores the synergistic benefits of combining with PA and sleep interventions and provides practical recommendations for culturally tailored approaches. Finally, we outline future directions for research and healthcare delivery, emphasising the urgent need for holistic, culturally safe, culturally responsive, efficient and digitally enabled strategies to address the growing global burden of MASLD.

This study analyses the role of selected Catholic, Protestant, and Islamic faith-based organizations (FBOs) as political actors in the context of local refugee politics in Germany. We conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with leaders from local FBOs and examined the data via structured content analysis. The empirical material provided information on three aspects: the self-perceived role as political actors, contacts with political decision-makers, and the perception of the FBO’s means in and influence on (local) political decision-making. Most religious leaders do ascribe a political role to their activities in refugee aid. However, the goals and strategies of this role vary markedly, revealing patterns across the three religious groups. We argue that these differences can be interpreted against the background of the historically evolved role of different faiths in Germany. The study offers new insights into how FBOs engage in politics, advocating for their positions in local refugee and integration policies.

The boundary problem (BP) asks who ought to be included by democratic procedure. Initially articulated as a challenge for democratic citizenship, the BP is later reframed as a difficulty faced by the ‘democratiing AI' (DAI) agenda. By mapping different senses of DAI, this article aims to provide a resolution to the BP in the context of DAI. In particular, it notes that DAI shifts our attention away from a crucial factor to make ethical decisions around AI: the power disparities within organizations that put employees advancing ethical AI in a vulnerable position. In this context, I show that workplace democracy provides a more promising normative aspiration than the DAI agenda, although some elements of the latter, such as its emphasis on subjecting tech firms to greater democratic control, serve to mitigate certain problems that workplace democracy is unable to address, for example, when members of tech firms unanimously prioritise ethically concerning AI practices.

In The Image of God (2022), Eleonore Stump seeks to address a residual problem that remains even after a successful theodicy, namely the problem of mourning. The problem of mourning concerns the appropriateness of certain evaluative responses (such as grief or disappointment) with respect to the world that contains suffering. To answer this problem, Stump seeks to demonstrate how lives with suffering are maximally great precisely because they contain suffering: some person S’s most glorious self is to be located in her participating in the sufferings of Christ and thereby magnifying God’s love in herself. This paper identifies a problem with Eleonore Stump’s solution to the problem of mourning, namely valorisation: Stump’s solution entails that there is a type of suffering that is constitutive of value and therefore a reason-giving end in it itself. Valorisation is something we should avoid. I therefore present a different solution to the problem of mourning that is based on the incommensurability of S’s best lives. After this I address one final issue – the problem of preference – that is in the neighbourhood of Stump’s problem of mourning. I argue that if S’s best lives are incommensurate, we can reject the preference problem as incoherent.

A magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) shock is a discontinuity through which plasma flows, while the mass, momentum and energy are conserved, and the entropy increases. In a collisionless system, the entropy is strictly constant along the phase-space trajectory. The MHD required entropy increase is attributed to dissipative processes causing relaxation to local thermodynamic equilibrium. The search for such dissipative processes in the shock observations usually explores variations of the entropy density or entropy per particle across the shock front. We show that both quantities may increase or decrease across the shock front even when the entropy is strictly conserved. Entropy production should be assessed using the entropy flux density.

The paper discusses the possibility of dust particles containing living bacteria ejected from Earth reaching Europa and landing on its surface. It is shown that, taking certain factors into account, over a period of 30 − 80 Myr (the estimated age of Europa’s ocean), Jupiter’s moon would have been impacted by approximately 3 × 1023 to 8 × 1023 particles in total, within which a bacterium could have survived. In the paper, we discuss the possibility of dust grains entering liquid water beneath the surface.

The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies across corporate value chains has exposed fundamental gaps in traditional approaches to ensuring respect for human rights. This article analyzes the transition from fragmented compliance mechanisms to unified governance models that seek to embed human rights standards within AI deployment, focusing in particular on the European Union’s regulatory framework and its global implications. A central focus is placed on the EU’s AI Act, which introduces the Fundamental Rights Impact Assessment (FRIA) as the first mandatory evaluation mechanism for selected high-risk AI systems. We demonstrate that FRIA marks a significant regulatory innovation. Alongside FRIA, we examine the Council of Europe’s voluntary HUDERIA methodology, which while conceptually aligned with FRIA, enables organizations to undertake comprehensive rights assessment across their entire AI portfolio. We argue that the convergence of mandatory (FRIA) and voluntary (HUDERIA) frameworks strengthens corporate responsibility for human rights in AI, extending ethical obligations where legal norms may not reach. However, we also highlight the real-world challenges to universalizing these standards – growing regulatory divergence between the EU’s rights-driven approach and the US innovation-focused “America’s AI Action Plan.” The resulting tension threatens the global harmonization of human rights protections in AI.

The structural optimisation of aircraft wings remains a critical task in modern, lightweight aeronautical design, where computational efficiency must be balanced against modeling fidelity. To that end, this paper presents an automated framework for the parametric finite element modeling (FEM) and surrogate-based optimisation (SBO) of an aircraft wing using MSC Patran and Nastran. The geometry and structural layout of the wing are generated through Patran Command Language (PCL) scripting, enabling fully parametric control of ribs, spars, stringers and thickness distributions. The automated model is then linked to MSC Nastran for static, global linear buckling and dynamic aeroelastic (flutter) analyses. To reduce the computational cost associated with repeated commercial FEM-based evaluations, surrogate models are constructed and used to drive the structural optimisation process. The framework is demonstrated on a representative high aspect-ratio wing structure, showing significant reductions in design cycle time while maintaining accuracy in predicting mass and performance metrics. The results highlight the potential of integrating surrogate modeling with commercial FEM software in an automated workflow, offering a practical and scalable approach for aerospace structural design and optimisation.

Previous studies indicate that in the United States, the effects of climate change disproportionately impact communities of color. Accordingly, we would expect racial/ethnic minorities to express greater concern over the environment than white Americans. However, racial/ethnic minorities are not monolithic. Therefore, we examine how intersectional identities within racial groups by partisanship and gender shape attitudes on the environment using the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey and the Climate Change in the American Mind (cross-sectional study 2008-2022). Our findings indicate that racial/ethnic minorities are more supportive of policies to combat climate change and are more likely to believe in climate change than white Americans. Latine and Asian American/Pacific Islanders also exhibit higher levels of anxiety about climate change compared to white Americans. In terms of intersectional identities, we find consistent partisan differences for Latine and White individuals, whereas gender and racial identity are inconsistent.

A novel family of $Ku$-band highly selective multi-band bandpass filters (BPFs) realized using groove-gap-waveguide (GGW) technology is presented. The conceived multi-band BPF structures are derived from a quasi-elliptic-type single-band prototype by applying a split-type single-to-multi-band frequency transformation. The baseline single-band prototype incorporates extracted GGW-rectangular-cavity sections at both the input and output accesses, which are preserved in the multi-band extension as multi-cavity tails. These extracted cavities enable the generation of multiple stopband transmission zeros (TZs) to obtain steep-attenuation characteristics in fully inductive-coupling filter structures without the need for cross-coupling mechanisms. Theoretical design examples of fourth-order dual-band and sixth-order triple-band filtering responses are developed using the coupling-routing-diagram formalism. These examples demonstrate the versatility of the proposed multi-band BPF approach in terms of bandwidths and center frequencies for passbands, spectral symmetry or asymmetry, and out-of-band TZ placement. For experimental-validation purposes, a proof-of-concept GGW dual-band BPF prototype exhibiting fourth-order passbands centered at 14 and 14.4 GHz and five stopband TZs is designed, manufactured, and measured. A compact two-layer vertically stacked GGW configuration is adopted for its physical implementation, confirming the practical feasibility of the proposed architecture. In addition, electromagnetic-simulation-based sensitivity analyses are performed to assess fabrication robustness, and a quantitative comparison with prior-art designs is provided to evaluate the RF-performance merits of the developed Ku band GGW dual-band BPF.

How do political lotteries affect choices and outcomes? We study the monthly lotteries used to assign all legislators to deliberation committees in 19th century Belgium. We focus on the period of democratization around the entry of a new, third, and Socialist party. We ask whether random, more extensive exposure to certain MP types affected voting over all roll-call votes between 1892 and 1902, i.e. debating more Socialists, more incumbents, or more of those from majority Flemish-speaking districts. We find small but significant exposure effects on rebelling against the party majority, against the deliberative ideal but along government-opposition logic. Legislatures may similarly limit lottery’s potential today.

Women with severe mental illnesses (SMI) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) appear to have poorer sexual and reproductive health (SRH) compared to women without SMI and men with SMI. Previous research suggests that women with SMI experience higher rates of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, sexual violence and variable contraceptive use. This review seeks to identify key barriers and facilitators affecting access to SRH services for women with SMI in LMICs by systematically synthesizing relevant research. A qualitative systematic review was conducted using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology. Electronic searches were made on July 31, 2024, in MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO and citation tracking covering the period from 2004 to 2024. Studies conducted in LMICs that explored barriers and facilitators for accessing SRH services for women aged 18 years or older diagnosed with SMI were included. Data extraction and methodological quality assessments were completed and findings were compiled using the JBI meta-aggregation approach. The confidence of these findings was evaluated using the ConQual method. Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria. Four synthesized findings were: (a) Variable knowledge of SRH and low risk perception hinder access to SRH care for women with SMI; (b) Service availability shapes access to SRH care for women with SMI; (c) Restricted autonomy and exclusion from health decisions prevent women with SMI from accessing SRH care that reflects their needs and rights; and (d) Stigma and gendered expectations around mental illness and sexuality, reinforced by societal norms, discourage care-seeking for the SRH needs of women with SMI. All of these findings were assessed to have moderate confidence. Women with SMI in LMICs face distinct challenges in accessing SRH services. By considering the multifaceted barriers and facilitators identified in this review, policymakers can create more targeted and equitable interventions that improve accessibility of SRH services for this population.

In a recent work of Moreno-Fernandez, Wierstra and the present author [‘A recognition principle for iterated suspensions as coalgebras over the little cubes operad’, Preprint, 2022, arXiv:2210.00839], a coendomorphism operad in the category of pointed topological spaces endowed with the wedge sum was introduced. In this paper, we construct an analogue completely internal to the category of simplicial sets with the goal of defining simplicial coalgebras. As an application, we show that simplicial n-fold suspensions are coalgebras up to coherent homotopy over the Barratt–Eccles $E_n$-operad provided they have finitely many nondegenerate simplices.