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.

An increase in knowledge is usually beneficial but can also highlight misapprehensions of existing data. Such is the case for the Pictish-Norse transition in Northern Scotland in the later first millennium AD. New radiocarbon dates from the key ‘transitional’ settlement of Buckquoy, Orkney, reveal that traits previously published as indicative of incoming Norse influence pre-date the start of the Viking Age, suggesting a greater level of endogenous change than hitherto has been appreciated. Here, the authors underscore the need for a re-evaluation of other settlement sequences across the later Pictish and early Norse periods, reopening many questions about the transition.

To provide a useful contextual backdrop to an exhibition at the Royal College of Psychiatrists this summer, we used a question and answer format to summarise the thoughts of its curator, Gavin Miller. Gavin has chosen 12 books published by Penguin between 1949 and 1975 to illuminate the relationship between psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists and the British media. He reflects on the opportunities and pitfalls that come with the association, the motivations of previous writers and provides practical advice for any media psychiatrists considering such a role in the future. The exhibition is open to visitors to the College building in London.

The First Large Absorption Survey in H i (FLASH) is a large-area radio survey for neutral hydrogen in and around galaxies in the intermediate redshift range $0.4\lt z\lt1.0$, using the 21-cm H i absorption line as a probe of cold neutral gas. The survey uses the ASKAP radio telescope and will cover 24,000 deg$^2$ of sky over the next five years. FLASH breaks new ground in two ways – it is the first large H i absorption survey to be carried out without any optical preselection of targets, and we use an automated Bayesian line-finding tool to search through large datasets and assign a statistical significance to potential line detections. Two Pilot Surveys, covering around 3000 deg$^2$ of sky, were carried out in 2019-22 to test and verify the strategy for the full FLASH survey. The processed data products from these Pilot Surveys (spectral-line cubes, continuum images, and catalogues) are public and available online. In this paper, we describe the FLASH spectral-line and continuum data products and discuss the quality of the H i spectra and the completeness of our automated line search. Finally, we present a set of 30 new H i absorption lines that were robustly detected in the Pilot Surveys, almost doubling the number of known H i absorption systems at $0.4\lt z\lt1$. The detected lines span a wide range in H i optical depth, including three lines with a peak optical depth $\tau\gt1$, and appear to be a mixture of intervening and associated systems. Interestingly, around two-thirds of the lines found in this untargeted sample are detected against sources with a peaked-spectrum radio continuum, which are only a minor (5–20%) fraction of the overall radio-source population. The detection rate for H i absorption lines in the Pilot Surveys (0.3 to 0.5 lines per 40 deg$^2$ ASKAP field) is a factor of two below the expected value. One possible reason for this is the presence of a range of spectral-line artefacts in the Pilot Survey data that have now been mitigated and are not expected to recur in the full FLASH survey. A future paper in this series will discuss the host galaxies of the H i absorption systems identified here.

We present the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) survey conducted with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). EMU aims to deliver the touchstone radio atlas of the southern hemisphere. We introduce EMU and review its science drivers and key science goals, updated and tailored to the current ASKAP five-year survey plan. The development of the survey strategy and planned sky coverage is presented, along with the operational aspects of the survey and associated data analysis, together with a selection of diagnostics demonstrating the imaging quality and data characteristics. We give a general description of the value-added data pipeline and data products before concluding with a discussion of links to other surveys and projects and an outline of EMU’s legacy value.

Online experiments allow researchers to collect datasets at times not typical of laboratory studies. We recruit 2336 participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk to examine if participant characteristics and behaviors differ depending on whether the experiment is conducted during the day versus night, and on weekdays versus weekends. Participants make incentivized decisions involving prosociality, punishment, and discounting, and complete a demographic and personality survey. We find no time or day differences in behavior, but do find that participants at nights and on weekends are less experienced with online studies; on weekends are less reflective; and at night are less conscientious and more neurotic. These results are largely robust to finer-grained measures of time and day. We also find that those who participated earlier in the course of the study are more experienced, reflective, and agreeable, but less charitable than later participants.

Objectives: Understanding how the importance of modifiable risk factors for dementia varies by cognitive status and sex is vital for the development of effective approaches to dementia prevention. We aimed to calculate population attributable fractions (PAFs) for incident dementia associated with sets of risk factors while exploring sex differences in individuals who are cognitively normal (CN) or has mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Methods: Longitudinal data from the Rush University Memory and Aging Project (MAP) were analysed. Included participants were aged over 50 years and were CN or with a diagnosis of MCI at their baseline assessment. Analyses considered fifteen potential dementia risk factors covering cardiometabolic, lifestyle, psychosocial and sensory domains. We used Cox proportional hazard models to estimate the hazard ratios for incident dementia associated with dementia risk factors and calculated weighted PAFs. All analyses were repeated stratified by sex.

Results: The analytical sample comprised 754 cognitively normal participants (77.2% female) and 242 participants with a diagnosis of MCI (71.9% female), of whom 214 (28.4%) and 120 (49.6%) were diagnosed with dementia across the follow-up, respectively. Although the weighted overall PAF was similar for CN (24.7%) and MCI (25.2%) subgroups, sex differences were present in both. Compared to in females, PAFs were higher in males in both CN (42.5% vs. 25.1%) and MCI (51.6% vs 12.3%) subgroups. The profiles of contributing risk factors also varied by sex. In males, the highest PAFs were smoking (11.1%), vision impairment (6.2%) and stroke (6.0%) in CN and smoking (13.3%), physical inactivity (12.9%) and heart attack (7.9%) in MCI. In females, the highest PAFs were unmarried marital status (4.9%), depression (4.1%) and social isolation (3.8%) in CN and vision impairment (4.4%), increased alcohol intake (3.5%) and depression (2.6%) in MCI.

Conclusions: These findings support the notion that dementia risk is modifiable after the onset of MCI. They also highlight the potential benefits of considering an individual’s cognitive status and sex when formulating dementia prevention strategies.

Development and Psychopathology has been a premier resource for understanding stressful childhood experiences and the intergenerational continuity of psychopathology. Building on that tradition, we examined the unique and joint influences of maternal stress on children’s effortful control (age 7) and externalizing behavior (age 11) as transmitted via genetics, the prenatal environment, and the postnatal environment. The sample included N = 561 adopted children and their biological and adoptive parents. Path models identified a direct effect of biological mother life stress on children’s effortful control (β = −.08) and an indirect effect of her life stress on child externalizing behavior via effortful control (β = .52), but no main or indirect effects of biological parent psychopathology, prenatal stress, or adoptive mother adverse childhood experiences (ACES). Adoptive mother ACES amplified the association between biological mother life stress and child effortful control (β = −.08), externalizing behavior (β = 1.41), and the indirect effect via effortful control, strengthening associations when adoptive mothers reported average or high ACES during their own childhoods. Results suggest that novel study designs are needed to enhance the understanding of how life stress gets “under the skin” to affect psychopathology in the offspring of adults who have experienced stress.

Female fertility is a complex trait with age-specific changes in spontaneous dizygotic (DZ) twinning and fertility. To elucidate factors regulating female fertility and infertility, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on mothers of spontaneous DZ twins (MoDZT) versus controls (3273 cases, 24,009 controls). This is a follow-up study to the Australia/New Zealand (ANZ) component of that previously reported (Mbarek et al., 2016), with a sample size almost twice that of the entire discovery sample meta-analysed in the previous article (and five times the ANZ contribution to that), resulting from newly available additional genotyping and representing a significant increase in power. We compare analyses with and without male controls and show unequivocally that it is better to include male controls who have been screened for recent family history, than to use only female controls. Results from the SNP based GWAS identified four genomewide significant signals, including one novel region, ZFPM1 (Zinc Finger Protein, FOG Family Member 1), on chromosome 16. Previous signals near FSHB (Follicle Stimulating Hormone beta subunit) and SMAD3 (SMAD Family Member 3) were also replicated (Mbarek et al., 2016). We also ran the GWAS with a dominance model that identified a further locus ADRB2 on chr 5. These results have been contributed to the International Twinning Genetics Consortium for inclusion in the next GWAS meta-analysis (Mbarek et al., in press).

The International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS) regularly provides high-quality data to produce Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP), and for the maintenance and realisation of the International Terrestrial and Celestial Reference Frames, ITRF and ICRF. The first iteration of the celestial reference frame (CRF) at radio wavelengths, the ICRF1, was adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1997 to replace the FK5 optical frame. Soon after, the IVS began official operations and in 2009 there was a significant increase in data sufficient to warrant a second iteration of the CRF, ICRF2. The most recent ICRF3, was adopted by the IAU in 2018. However, due to the geographic distribution of observing stations being concentrated in the Northern hemisphere, CRFs are generally weaker in the South due to there being fewer Southern Hemisphere observations. To increase the Southern Hemisphere observations, and the density, precision of the sources, a series of deep South observing sessions was initiated in 1995. This initiative in 2004 became the IVS Celestial Reference Frame Deep South (IVS-CRDS) observing programme. This paper covers the evolution of the CRDS observing programme for the period 1995–2021, details the data products and results, and concludes with a summary of upcoming improvements to this ongoing project.

The love story between Chibinda Ilunga and Lueji, one of the best-known legends of Central African history, recounts the genesis of the Mwant Yav dynasty of the Lunda polity. Previous discussions of the narrative pitted symbolic interpretations against historical findings. This article asks why the Lunda love story became so influential from the middle of the nineteenth century. Instead of being an exclusively Lunda genesis narrative, the love story represented the interests and narratives of societies brought together by the caravan trade in Kasai and eastern Angola, including Chokwe, Ambakista, Luba, and Imbangala, all of whom added components to the legend compiled by Portuguese explorer and diplomat Henrique Dias de Carvalho. The legend took on importance as diverse factions competed for political titles and trading profits. In the hands of Carvalho and his informants the love story became a tool to construct a Pax Lunda guaranteed by the Portuguese. By demonstrating the quotidian politics of the love story, the article suggests the utility in the historical contextualization of the telling of oral traditions to appreciate their multiple meanings.

The iron-regulatory hormone hepcidin is transcriptionally up-regulated by gluconeogenic signals. Recent evidence suggeststhat increases in circulating hepcidin may decrease dietary iron absorption following prolonged exercise, however evidence is limited on whether gluconeogenic signals contribute to post-exercise increases in hepcidin. Mice with genetic knockout of regulated in development and DNA response-1 (REDD1) display greater glycogen depletion following exercise, possibly indicating greater gluconeogenesis. The objective of the present study was to determine liver hepcidin, markers of gluconeogenesis and iron metabolism in REDD1 knockout and wild-type mice following prolonged exercise. Twelve-week-old male REDD1 knockout and wild-type mice were randomised to rest or 60 min treadmill running with 1, 3 or 6 h recovery (n = 5–8/genotype/group). Liver gene expression of hepcidin (Hamp) and gluconeogenic enzymes (Ppargc1a, Creb3l3, Pck1, Pygl) were determined by qRT-PCR. Effects of genotype, exercise and their interaction were assessed by two-way ANOVAs with Tukey's post-hoc tests, and Pearson correlations were used to assess the relationships between Hamp and study outcomes. Liver Hamp increased 1- and 4-fold at 3 and 6 h post-exercise, compared to rest (P-adjusted < 0⋅009 for all), and was 50% greater in REDD1 knockout compared to wild-type mice (P = 0⋅0015). Liver Ppargc1a, Creb3l3 and Pck1 increased with treadmill running (P < 0⋅0001 for all), and liver Ppargc1a, Pck1 and Pygl were greater with REDD1 deletion (P < 0⋅02 for all). Liver Hamp was positively correlated with liver Creb3l3 (R = 0⋅62, P < 0⋅0001) and Pck1 (R = 0⋅44, P = 0⋅0014). In conclusion, REDD1 deletion and prolonged treadmill running increased liver Hamp and gluconeogenic regulators of Hamp, suggesting gluconeogenic signalling of hepcidin with prolonged exercise.