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Network meta-analysis (NMA) provides a powerful framework for synthesizing evidence across multiple interventions, accommodating both direct and indirect comparisons. However, effectively visualizing the complex, multidimensional results, such as effect magnitudes, uncertainty, p-values, and treatment rankings, remains a significant challenge. Outputs such as relative treatment effects, uncertainty, statistical significance, and treatment rankings are often reported separately, making it difficult for researchers and stakeholders to synthesize findings efficiently. We introduce plate plot, an innovative approach for visualizing key outcomes from NMA in a single, compact format. It enables simultaneous display of point estimates, confidence or credible intervals, significance levels, and surface under the cumulative ranking curve values, thereby facilitating clearer interpretation and communication of NMA findings. Using an example dataset, we demonstrate how the plate plot displays multiple relevant metrics to compare the efficacy and acceptability of various antidepressant interventions in a single, intuitive plot. The plate plot, generated effortlessly via the open-source nmaplateplot R package, enables users to generate customizable, publication-ready graphics with minimal programming. This tool enhances the ability to holistically evaluate and interpret complex comparative effectiveness data, supporting better-informed decision-making in research and clinical practice.
Why do we see such strong backlashes against carbon taxes in rural areas? In this article, we focus on the role of perceptions in rural communities that the government unfairly advantages the urban centres of political and economic power. We argue that when people living in rural areas perceive of unequal treatment by the state, they are less supportive of carbon taxes, because they believe that carbon taxes unfairly punish those that have already been disadvantaged by the state. We carry out a survey with a representative sample of around 3000 respondents from the United Kingdom to test our argument. We provide observational and experimental evidence showing that for those living in rural areas, increased perceptions of unequal treatment by the state reduce the perceived fairness of carbon taxes and substantially lower support for carbon taxation. Our results suggest that tackling deep-rooted resentments around unequal treatment in rural areas is crucial for building broad public support for carbon taxation.
Altered stress responses are closely linked to mental disorders, but the role of brain structure in acute cortisol responses to psychosocial stress remains underexplored, particularly in healthy individuals. Previous studies, with predominantly small samples, primarily focused on selected limbic regions and functional measures. Thus, this study investigates associations between brain structure and cortisol responses to psychosocial stress, exploring if hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis reactivity can be predicted from brain morphology.
Methods
Our study included 291 subjects (157 females, 18–62 years) and consisted of two parts. First, a confirmatory analysis examined associations between specific cortical surface area, thickness, and subcortical volume with stress-induced cortisol increases using Permutation Analysis of Linear Models (PALM). Second, we conducted an exploratory whole-brain vertex-wise analysis, followed by out-of-sample prediction of cortisol increases from structural measures.
Results
We found consistent negative associations between cingulate cortex (CC) sub-structures and acute cortisol increases. In PALM- and whole-brain analysis, a smaller surface area of the left rostral and caudal anterior cingulate cortex (cACC), posterior cingulate cortex, and right cACC were associated with higher cortisol stress responses, particularly in males. The left cACC surface area emerged as the most promising predictor in machine learning analyses. Additionally, other fronto-limbic structures were also associated with or predictive of acute cortisol reactivity.
Conclusions
Our findings demonstrate that cortical and subcortical structural measures, particularly smaller surface areas of the CC, predict acute hormonal stress responses. Notably, the left cACC emerged as the most consistent predictor, emphasizing its important role in stress reactivity.
Studies frequently view Black populations as homogenous, disregarding important diversity within this population. Furthermore, nativity can be key to distinguishing health risks among this population. Yet few researchers have examined these distinctions using body roundness index (BRI), a measure of central adiposity. We assessed the relationship between nativity and BRI among non-Hispanic Black people in the United States (US) using cross-sectional data from the 2011–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). BRI was calculated using height, weight, and waist circumference. Nativity was categorized as US-born and foreign-born. Multilinear regression analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between BRI and nativity, controlling for demographic characteristics and Healthy Eating Index scores. The average age and BRI score of participants were 44.74 ± 0.46 and 5.36 ± 0.04, respectively. Among eligible participants (3341), 9.6% were foreign-born (n = 322). In multivariate regression models adjusting for covariates, men had significantly lower BRI scores than women (4.67 ± 0.04 versus 5.96 ± 0.05; β = −1.25; t61 = 24.60; P < 0.0001), and BRI increased with age (β = 0.02; t61 = 9.17; P < 0.0001). US-born Black people had significantly higher BRI scores compared to their foreign-born counterparts (5.40 ± 0.04 versus 5.00 ± 0.09; β = −0.36; t61 = −3.99; P = 0.0002). Results suggest that nativity is associated with central adiposity, with potential implications for cardiometabolic disease risk.
Our article aims to show how right-wing women in positions of power like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are able to manipulate feminism to their political advantage. Stemming from our previous study on Meloni’s particular brand of conservative feminism, we analyze the disorienting ability of the right to appropriate and manipulate the traditional language of the left. We are interested in this creation of confusion through rhetorical somersaults on the Italian political stage, specifically how the right appropriates feminist language and themes to further neoliberal economics, neoconservative morals, and a nationalist agenda that is hostile to women, nonwhite people, migrants, and LGBTQIA+ communities. As a case study, we offer an analysis of the ideas of one of Italy’s most prominent gender-critical feminists, Marina Terragni, who challenges assumptions about feminism’s ties to the left. Promoting a strictly binary vision, Terragni highlights the fault lines in the relationship between traditional and progressive feminism.
This article offers a critical literature review on the debate on constitutional identity, combining a synthesis of existing literature with a critical reframing of the concept’s theoretical and methodological foundations. While constitutional identity has become increasingly prominent in legal and political debates – particularly within the European Union – its meanings and functions remain contested. The article develops a typology of approaches to constitutional identity, distinguishing two main strands. First, it examines constitutional identity as a legal doctrinal notion. In this sense, identity can function either as a static concept – anchored in an unchanging normative core that limits political or legal interference – or as a dynamic concept, shaped through interactions between domestic constitutional orders and external legal ideas and practices. Second, the article turns to the descriptive use of constitutional identity, understood as a way to explain how a political community understands itself through its constitution. This part surveys key philosophical debates, including how constitutional identity negotiates sameness and difference, how it evolves over time, how it relates to competing conceptions of the constitutional subject, and how it is constructed through narrative, symbolism, and social practice. The article concludes by arguing that if constitutional identity is not a fixed essence but a dialogical and constructed assemblage of identities, then its study must go beyond the legal domain. It calls for a deepening of the interdisciplinary research agenda that includes insights from philosophy, sociology, discourse theory, and literary studies.
The present study aimed to explore sleep diary-derived parameters and sleep measures as mediators of the effects of the Transdiagnostic Intervention for Sleep and Circadian Dysfunction (TSC) on psychological outcomes. A secondary analysis of a two-arm randomized controlled trial of a group-based TSC for major depressive disorder was conducted. The participants included 152 adults (mean age = 34.0; 79.6% female) who were randomized into either the TSC or care-as-usual group. Mediation analysis indicated that reduction in insomnia symptom severity (standardized indirect effects: −0.06 to −0.17), sleep disturbance (−0.04 to −0.22), and sleep-related impairment (−0.04 to −0.17) was significantly mediated by sleep diary-derived sleep parameters. The treatment effects on depressive symptoms (standardized indirect effects: −0.05 to −0.10), anxiety symptoms (−0.04 to −0.07), fatigue (−0.05 to −0.09), functional impairment (−0.06 to −0.09), and quality of life (0.04 to 0.08) were sequentially mediated by sleep parameters and insomnia symptom severity. However, the severity of insomnia symptoms alone (magnitudes of standardized indirect effects: 0.09–0.17) but not sleep parameters alone (0.00–0.07) mediated the treatment effects on psychological outcomes, indicating that sleep parameters need to influence subjective sleep measures to sequentially affect psychological outcomes. These results underscore the critical roles of subjective sleep measures in clinical improvements within a sleep-targeted intervention.
This paper examines relationships between AI occupational exposure and workforce patterns in U.S. federal agencies from 2019–2024. Using administrative employment data, we document systematic associations between agencies’ concentrations of AI-exposed occupations and employment dynamics. Agencies with higher AI exposure exhibit declining routine employment shares, expanding expert roles, and wage compression effects. We develop a theoretical framework incorporating institutional constraints distinguishing public organisations: employment protections, standardised compensation systems, and political oversight. The model features strategic interactions between budget-maximising directors and electoral-sensitive overseers, predicting workforce evolution under institutional constraints. Our identification exploits fixed occupational exposure scores, so observed changes in agency-level exposure reflect workforce composition shifts rather than measurement artefacts. Patterns suggest agencies with greater AI-susceptible occupations experience reallocation rather than displacement, providing insights for understanding technological change in institutionally constrained environments and informing governance frameworks balancing modernisation with democratic accountability.
The differential susceptibility model suggests that the same children who are more susceptible to peer rejection are also more susceptible to peer acceptance. Testing this within-child assumption, we examined whether a subgroup of children exists who are more reactive to both rejection and acceptance, and whether higher levels of sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) characterize this subgroup. We randomly assigned 455 preadolescents (Mage = 10.86, 49.5% boys) to receive either counterbalanced rejection and acceptance feedback (experimental group) or neutral feedback (control group) from online fictitious peers, and assessed their emotional, self-esteem, attributional, and behavioral responses. Results revealed two subgroups of children showing elevated emotional or self-esteem reactivity to both rejection and acceptance, supporting within-child differential susceptibility. However, SPS did not distinguish these subgroups or moderate children’s responses to peer feedback – suggesting limited support for SPS as a differential susceptibility marker to experimentally manipulated peer acceptance and rejection.
Under the notion of the twin transition, the green and digital transitions were conceptualised as a synergetic pair that should pave the way for a globally competitive green and digital Europe. But are European digital and environmental laws truly twins within the EU’s regulatory strategy, suggesting parallel approaches? In this article, we take a formal approach, focusing on regulatory instruments that are employed in both areas and their defining characteristics. While the twin transition in some respects blurs the boundaries between environmental and digital law, including through the integration of environmental considerations into digital regulations, we adopt an analytical distinction between the two domains. Through a series of steps, we identify key differences that set both regulatory approaches apart and help us understand the different trajectories the transitions have taken. Contrary to the often-invoked claim that form is substance, the analysis reveals that the choice of regulatory instruments does not inherently determine substantive policy choices, thereby underscoring the necessity of their comparative examination. Ultimately, the article argues that fostering dialogue between the two policy fields may yield valuable insights into how regulatory tools can be adapted and deployed across domains.
This article examines how Iranian intellectuals negotiated Western science and technology under semi-colonial sovereignty: a formally independent state constrained by unequal power. I argue that these negotiations operated through translation not only as linguistic transfer but as a recursive set of practices—adoption, reworking, and refusal—through which intellectuals repositioned science within Iranian political life as its authority shifted from universal reason to militarized power to developmental urgency. Using Frantz Fanon as a comparative framework, I identify four overlapping modes: (1) nineteenth-century epistemic translation, when science was framed as a route to reform; (2) early twentieth-century regulation of the “performative translator,” when translation became a site of linguistic, epistemic, and gendered policing; (3) mid-century emancipatory translation, shaped by the global militarization of science; and (4) iterative remembrance in the 1970s, when translation became a practice of insurgent authorship through cycles of forgetting and reactivation. The paper’s central paradox is that later thinkers strategically inhabited the position long maligned as the “performative translator”—the Europhile dandy or fokoli, later refigured and pathologized as the gharbzadeh (West-struck)—to claim new forms of insurgent authorship, even as such projects risked forging new orthodoxies. Tracing the genealogy of the fokoli, I show how debates over performative translation organized conflicts over method, authority, and epistemic nationalism. Ultimately, I argue that the reappropriation of the fokoli’s maligned position reveals decolonization not as a clean rupture but as an ongoing metabolization of inherited materials. The article contributes to decolonial thought, translation studies, and the global intellectual history of science by reframing semi-colonial modernity as a struggle over epistemic authority conducted through the labor of translation.
Physical dormancy (PY), resulting from a water-impermeable seed coat, regulates germination timing in many angiosperms, including Dodonaea viscosa L. (Sapindaceae), a woody shrub widely distributed in tropical to warm temperate regions and coastal and inland habitats. Although PY has been previously documented in D. viscosa, the precise anatomical structure acting as the site for water entry, i.e., water gap, during dormancy release remains unclear. This study investigated the water gap’s morphology and function using microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and imbibition assays. It also evaluate the effects of liquid nitrogen (LN₂) freeze–thaw cycles on seed coat integrity, dormancy break, and viability. Seeds possess a distinct hilar slit, which opens in response to hot-water treatment and serves as the exclusive water gap. Imbibition experiments showed that treated seeds (hot water , 10s) increased nearly 100% in mass over seven days, while control seeds absorbed no water. Further, covering the hilar slit with Vaseline restricted water uptake, confirming the absence of water-gap complex. Because the water gap opening was a small circular structure without any lid-like covering, it is classified as Type II. Seeds subjected to one or more liquid nitrogen (LN₂) freeze–thaw cycles experienced extensive seed coat cracking and severe damage to the embryo and cotyledons, leading to reduced viability and little to no germination. These findings demonstrate that while hot-water treatment effectively breaks dormancy, LN₂ exposure causes extensive mechanical injury and is ineffective for dormancy alleviation in D. viscosa. Thus, cryopreservation of some PY should be considered with caution.
Shame and guilt are similar yet distinct self-conscious emotions that often facilitate the attainment of social goals and motivate behaviors that promote social acceptance. Recent studies have shown that individuals with autism or high autistic traits may tend to exhibit higher shame-proneness and lower guilt-proneness. This study examined whether this profile of self-conscious emotions can be explained by the functional organization of the brain using resting-state fMRI. Autistic traits, shame- and guilt-proneness and whole-brain resting-state fMRI data were measured in 45 neurotypical individuals. Our results revealed that the positive association between autistic traits and shame-proneness was mediated by resting-state functional connectivity between the right frontal pole and several regions among the cortical midline structures, including the precuneus, anterior cingulate and posterior cingulate. Additionally, functional connectivity between the right frontal pole and precuneus was found to mediate the negative association between autistic traits and guilt-proneness. These findings highlight the role of the cortical midline structures as a key neural substrate underlying differential experiences of negative self-conscious emotions among individuals with high autistic traits.
Sociolegal research has long found that most people “lump” their problems rather than pursue legal remedies. This study examines how social media transforms legal consciousness and mobilization. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 100 families who experienced the same birth injury, and 37 legal and medical professionals, we analyze how online communities shape perceptions of medical injury, blame attribution, and legal action. We find that parents often experience profound guilt, believing they are responsible for their child’s injury. However, participation in online support groups reframes their understanding of the injury, shifting their guilt toward medical providers and fostering legal claims. Our findings show that social media serves as a new “structuring structure,” shaping legal consciousness across geographic and social class boundaries. Social media serves as a powerful force in shaping parents’ perceptions of their child’s injuries as legally actionable, challenging existing assumptions about why people do or do not pursue legal action. By examining how online communities facilitate the transformation from guilt to blame and encourage legal mobilization, this study contributes to broader sociolegal debates about the role of digital technologies in shaping contemporary legal consciousness.
The impact of imported firearms on Southeast Asian states has been a topic of much debate, but is often discussed in relatively general terms. This article uses the archive of the Dutch East India Company to analyse the importation of muskets into late seventeenth century Ayutthaya, which took the form of diplomatic gifting, as well as their intended uses. Muskets are found to have been used mainly for the suppression of internal popular revolts, which was aided by extremely strict gun control aimed at keeping firearms a royal monopoly. The importation of these guns was responsive to immediate need and stopped once revolts became less frequent. The volume of the trade between 1658 and 1709 is found to have been surprisingly low.