The scholarship on satisfaction with democracy has increased significantly in recent decades, with scholars investigating how democratic satisfaction influences political attitudes and behaviors as well as the individual and contextual determinants of citizens’ satisfaction with democracy. To our knowledge, however, scholars omitted to examine the democratic satisfaction of politicians. Making use of survey data from the Comparative Candidates Survey, this research note addresses this gap in the literature. As a first step in this endeavor, we pose two objectives. First, we want to compare levels of democratic satisfaction across citizens and politicians in different countries to evaluate whether mass-elite gaps are apparent. Second, we want to replicate core findings from the research on citizens but with politicians. As such, we examine two hallmark findings in the literature on democratic satisfaction with respect to the role of ideological extremism/nicheness and the winner-loser gap at elections. Our study contributes to the growing literature on elites’ attitudes and behaviors and identifies some of the conditions that favor and undermine politicians’ satisfaction with democracy. This is a crucial research endeavor given elites’ influence on public opinion and democratic stability.

Northwestern Iberia was inhabited by communities whose only settlement model was the hillfort throughout the Iron Age. In archaeological terms, these people are included in the so-called ‘Castro Culture’. These communities experienced social and material changes at the end of the Iron Age. From the second century bc onwards, a more hierarchical and complex social system, together with a process of monumentalization and sophistication of the architecture of the settlements, was adopted. More specifically, in the region between the Douro and Miño rivers, a series of highly original subterranean constructions have been documented. Unique in the archaeological record of the European Iron Age, the function of sites has been much debated, with the most accepted use as steam bath. In this article, these buildings are analysed from a performative approach, to understand their meaning and function in the context of the landscape of the hillforts.

A growing literature finds high returns to firms with legislative connections. Less attention has been paid to returns from bureaucratic connections and to organizations beyond for-profit firms. Using data recording the first postbureaucracy position occupied by all former civil servants in Japan, I reveal a bifurcated job market for former bureaucrats. High-ranking officials from elite economic ministries are more likely to join for-profit firms, where they generate returns such as increased government loans and positive stock market reactions. Lower-ranking officials are more likely to join nonprofits linked to government ministries, which receive higher-value contracts when former bureaucrats are in leadership roles. These patterns suggest that while firms wish to hire bureaucrats who can deliver tangible benefits, ministries also shape revolving door pathways by directing benefits to ensure long-term career value for civil servants. These findings reframe revolving door dynamics as the result of both firm-driven demand and bureaucratic incentives.

Emotional appeals are a common manipulation tactic, and it is broadly assumed that emotionality increases belief in misinformation. However, past work often confounds the use of emotional language per se with the type of factual claims that tend to be communicated with emotion. In two experimental studies, we test the effects of manipulating the level of emotional language in false headlines while holding the factual claim constant. We find that, in the absence of a fact-check, the high-emotion version of a given factual claim was believed significantly less than the low-emotion version; in the presence of a fact-check, belief was comparatively low regardless of emotionality. A third experiment found that decreased belief in high-emotionality claims is greater for false claims than true claims, such that emotionality increases truth discernment overall. Finally, we analyze the social media platform X’s Community Notes program, in which users evaluate claims (‘Community Notes’) made by others. We find that Community Notes with more emotional language are less likely to be rated helpful. Our results suggest that, rather than being an effective tool for manipulating people into believing falsehoods, emotional language induces justified skepticism.

Over the past 800 years, a far-flung sugar commerce has connected distant points in Eurasia, and, from the fifteenth century, it encompassed the Atlantic Worlds as well. It offers an excellent field of study for global historians keen to focus on connections and anxious to avoid the pitfalls of methodological nationalism. Moreover, it is a showcase of the tremendous flexibility and adaptability of global sugar capitalism that became more powerful with every successive crisis. The World of Sugar is about sugar capitalism in a broad sense, including the many resistances and sidesteps, and it takes notice of its cultural and ideological dimensions. The aim was to write a singular history driven by a variety of actors that together shape this world of sugar. But, as in every theatre, some perform bigger roles than others.

Dispute resolution provisions are routinely found in the boilerplate section of all types of contracts, ranging from negotiated paper agreements to website Terms of Service. The law permits the parties to a contract to change the default rules that would otherwise govern their transaction, including how any disputes will be resolved. The ability of the parties to change default rules demonstrates the deference of contract law to individual autonomy and private ordering. Consent is central and essential to both. Despite the legal significance of consent, its meaning is elusive. In one sense, the “meaning of consent” refers to its implications and the legal and moral consequences that derive from consent. In the other, and more complex sense, the “meaning of consent” refers to its very nature. Drawing upon my previous work on consent and contracts, this Article discusses these two meanings of consent and how they are interdependent. It will also examine consent specifically in the context of dispute resolution clauses.

During the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2000–1500 BC), the Carpathian Basin witnessed new cultural groups characterized by distinctively different pottery styles and burial rites but unified by the occupation of sites surrounded by ditches or combinations of ditches and ramparts (Bóna 1975; Kovács 1984; Sørensen and Rebay-Salisbury 2008). Due to their long occupation, many such sites are classified as multi-layered settlements (Gogâltan et al. 2014; Jaeger 2016). Despite extensive research, there remains a lack of detailed information on the absolute chronology, spatial development, and chronological relationships between settlement occupation and fortification construction (Jaeger 2016; Staniuk 2021). Most site chronologies are based on funerary ceramic typologies associated with broad temporal ranges and high uncertainties (Jaeger 2016; Staniuk 2021). Kakucs-Turján is only one of nearly 190 multilayered Middle Bronze Age (MBA) settlements in the Carpathian Basin with a tripartite division of space (Harding 2018; Jaeger 2016) (Figure 1). This, combined with its high-resolution archaeological record makes it ideal for investigating the diachronic relationship between MBA habitations and fortifications (Filatova 2020; Staniuk 2020).

This study addresses the urgent need for low-carbon energy transition (LCET) in the Global South, where vulnerability to climate change is high and most countries have ratified the Paris Agreement and Nationally Determined Contributions. It emphasizes the importance of research in supporting this transition, particularly through the lens of digital technologies. Despite its relevance, existing studies on the topic remain limited and fragmented. This study reviews the literature on digital infrastructure in LCET, identifies key gaps and ambiguities and offers insights to inform future research and policymaking in the Global South.

The conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) is essential for global food and nutrition security, climate resilience and sustainable agriculture. This study presents a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework applied across 20 countries in the Global South to assess the state of ex situ PGRFA conservation. Using mixed methods, we collected quantitative and qualitative data on genebank performance, validated operational status, and identified specific needs of genebanks. Our findings demonstrate the practical use of this M&E framework for genebanks to assess efficiency and effectiveness in genebank management, while also guiding targeted capacity development and context-specific interventions to address persistent challenges. We recommend adopting the approaches described in this study, including genebank reviews and the review checklist, to support more systematic and evidence-based assessment of genebanks. Aligning national efforts with global conservation objectives will help generate actionable recommendations to strengthen genebanks and ensure the long-term conservation and availability of PGRFA.

In times of crisis, the role of the mayor encompasses not only political and administrative functions but also ethical and identity-oriented aspects, with the aim of strengthening relations with the community. This dual profile offers the opportunity to reassert their institutional role. In this context, our research analyses the leadership style of mayors during the Covid-19 pandemic through case studies of five mayors in Sicily, a region of Italy characterised by significant structural economic deficits. The research makes an original contribution to the study of crisis leadership by integrating two areas of analysis: communication and political strategies. These reveal different attempts to reconcile operational responses to crises with the need for communication to encourage the community’s acceptance of strict rules and compliance. In particular, this research highlights crisis response strategies that reflect different ways of relating to the community, suggesting new avenues of analysis that can guide future research.

Causal language is essential for children’s language development, helping them understand and explain the reasons behind events. This study focuses on children’s causal language production and the role of parental input, aiming to (1) investigate differences in maternal and paternal language use, (2) analyse children’s causal language production across tasks and communication partners, and (3) examine the relationship between parental input and children’s causal language skills. Sixty children aged 4–5 and their parents participated in dyadic sessions, which included free play, guided play, and storytelling tasks. Results showed that fathers used more causal language than mothers during free play, and children also produced more causal language with their fathers in this context compared to storytelling. Overall, both maternal and paternal causal language inputs were linked to children’s causal language production, highlighting the significant influence of parental input on language development.

In September 2024, BASF Canada introduced a new premixture of pyroxasulfone and encapsulated saflufenacil to control weeds in corn production. Limited research has been conducted to determine the biologically effective dose of this new premixture for the control of common lambsquarters, redroot pigweed, and green foxtail. A total of six field experiments were conducted over 2 yr (2022 and 2023) at three locations in southwestern Ontario to determine the ED50 of pyroxasulfone + encapsulated saflufenacil needed to control these three weed species. Assessment of visible weed control 8 wk after emergence determined the ED50 for redroot pigweed, common lambsquarters, and green foxtail control to be 170, 219, and 240 g ai ha−1, respectively. The results of this study conclude that a higher dose of pyroxasulfone + encapsulated saflufenacil is necessary for agronomically acceptable control (>80%) of these three weed species than the proposed rate (146 to 245 g ai ha−1) listed on the product label.

The economic valuation of recreational ecosystem services is challenging due to difficulties in obtaining geo-tagged information of users. The objective of this study is to validate crowdsourced and user-generated content in order to predict visitation patterns to 16 national parks in Spain. The results may serve to encourage its utilization in the study of recreational demand in other countries, particularly developing countries, where on-site visitor information may be limited or expensive to gather. The present article employs a negative binomial regression model to evaluate the validity of two sources of data: Flickr and mobile phones. The accuracy of predictions exhibited variation across the 16 parks, indicating that site-specific characteristics, such as the seasonality of visitation patterns, may be of significance. The utilization of mobile phone data for modelling visitors yielded enhanced predictive capacity, as shown by the goodness of fit of the estimated models.

This article synthesizes the insights of all contributors to the Bremen symposium and the contributions to this Special Issue, seeking to identify key themes and ideas for advancing a coherent regulatory approach to consent in dispute resolution agreements. By highlighting both shared concerns and divergent legal techniques, the project aimed at informing future scholarly and policy debates on this critical issue of contract law and private international law.

There are a growing number of new tools designed to predict suicide risk. One, OxSATS, developed in Oxford (UK) using Swedish data, produces a probabilistic risk of suicide in people who have self-harmed. It is accompanied by a web-based calculator, and states that it can ‘accurately predict 12-month risk of suicide’. It represents a departure from longstanding research arguing that risk prediction provides insufficient information to be clinically useful.

We analyse the use of OxSATS from a clinician’s perspective using eight illustrative vignettes. For each, we use the OxSATS online tool to calculate the 12-month risk of suicide and consider how clinicians might interpret or act on the results. We highlight several potential harms to patients arising from the tool’s use.

In our discussion, we explore broader limitations of OxSATS and similar tools, some of which are insidious. These tools can shift resources towards perceived higher-risk patients, often older men, diverting attention away from prevention, younger women and even the treatment of mental illness. Their reductionist approach misunderstands the complexity and stochastic nature of suicide. Tools tend to be disliked by patients and can subvert a clinician’s role away from helping patients, towards mitigating perceived risk.

We conclude that tools such as OxSATS should be treated with significant caution and require careful scrutiny before being considered for clinical use. At present, psychosocial assessments and understanding patients’ narratives remain at the heart of good care for suicidal patients.