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The connection between populism and democracy is widely researched. Most of the literature focuses on populist actors (e.g., parties, leaders, and governments) as it examines the intricacies of this relationship. Some of the resulting takeaways have become embedded firmly in scholarship and are currently considered accepted knowledge across the discipline. Scholars have only recently started focusing on the individual-level relationship between populism and democracy. As a result, our knowledge remains limited and is often based on the assumption that what holds for populist actors also will hold for populist citizens. The first part of this article briefly reviews the state of the art on the individual-level relationship between populism and democracy. Drawing from this review, we identify several theoretical and empirical gaps and limitations in the literature that future research should address. We conclude that contemporary scholarship has made important contributions, but more nuanced and targeted research is necessary to comprehensively understand the intricacies between populism and democracy on the individual level.
Previous studies have shown that mothers of naturally conceived dizygotic (DZ) twins tend to be taller, older, and smoke more than mothers of naturally conceived monozygotic (MZ) twin and mothers of singletons. Here, we investigate whether mothers of naturally conceived DZ twins differ from mothers who conceived their DZ twins after medically assisted reproduction (MAR) in eight maternal traits related to fertility based on observational survey data. We include data from 33,648 mothers from the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR) and 1660 mothers of twins from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBA). We contrast mothers of naturally conceived DZ twins with mothers of MAR DZ twins. Next, we further segment the MAR group into mothers who underwent hormonal induction of ovulation but not in vitro fertilization (IVF) and those who IVF twins, comparing them both to each other and against the mothers of naturally conceived DZ twins. Mothers of naturally conceived DZ twins smoke more often, differ in body composition, have a higher maternal age and have more offspring before the twins than mothers of MZ twins. Compared to MAR DZ twin mothers, mothers of naturally conceived DZ twins have fewer miscarriages, lower maternal age and increased height, more offspring and are more often smokers. BMI before the twin pregnancy is similar in both natural and MAR DZ twin mothers. Mothers who received hormonal induction of ovulation (OI) have a lower maternal age, fewer miscarriages, and a higher number of offspring before their twin pregnancy than twin mothers who received IVF and/or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatments. Our study shows that twin mothers are a heterogenous group and the differences between twin mothers should be taken into account in epidemiological and genetic research that includes twins.
Mental Health problems and substance misuse during pregnancy constitute a serious social problem due to high maternal-fetal morbidity (Cook et al, 2017; JOCG, 39(10) ,906-915) and low detection and treatment rates (Carmona et al. Adicciones. 2022;34(4):299-308)
Objectives
Our study aimed to develop and test the feasibility and acceptability of a screening and treatment clinical pathway in pregnancy, based on the combination of e-Health tools with in-person interventions and, secondly, describe the prevalence of mental illness and substance use problems in this population.
Methods
1382 pregnant women undergoing her first pregnancy visit were included in a tailored clinical pathway and sent a telematic (App) autoapplied questionnaire with an extensive battery of measures (WHO (Five) Well-Being [WHO-5],Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9], General Anxiety Disorder [GAD-7], Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test [AUDIT], Drug Abuse Screening Test [DAST], Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale [C-SSRS] and specifically designed questions on self-harm and psychopharmacological drugs).
Patients who did not respond to the questionnaire on their own received a counseling call.
Based on the screening results, patients were classified into five groups according to severity (Figure 1) and assigned a specific action pathway (Figure 2) that included a range of intervention intensity that goes from an individual psychiatric appointment to no intervention.
Results
Of the 1382 women included in the clinical pathway, 565(41%) completed the evaluation questionnaires. Of these, 205 (36%) were screened as positive (Grades III,IV or V. Table 1) and 3(0.5%) were classified as needing urgent care. Of the patients offered on-line groups (100), 40% (40) were enrolled in them.Table 1:
Grade distribution of those screened as positives
Grade III
97 (17,2%)
Grade IV
105 (18,6%)
Grade V
3 (0,5%)
Concerning prevalence rates, 73 (12,9%) patients endorsed at least moderate anxiety according to GAD-7 (≥10), 65 (11,5%) endorsed at least moderate depression according to PHQ-9 (≥ 10), 17 were positive on DAST (3%) and 63 (11%) patients scored above the threshold in AUDIT-C(≥ 3) for alcohol use.
Image:
Image 2:
Conclusions
High prevalence rates suggest that effective detection and treatment mechanisms should be integrated into usual care. The use of standardized clinical pathways can help with this aim, allowing better clinical management and referral to treatment, but still face challengues to increase retention. The use of e-health tools offers the opportunity to improve accessibility and therapeutic outcomes through online interventions.
Laser-driven ion acceleration is well established using solid targets mainly in the target normal sheath acceleration regime. To follow the increasing repetition rate available on high-intensity lasers, the use of high-density gas targets has been explored in the past decade. When interacting with targets reaching densities close to the critical one, the laser pulse can trigger different acceleration mechanisms such as Collisionless Shock Acceleration (CSA) or hole boring. Particle-in-cell simulations using ideal target profiles show that CSA can accelerate a collimated, narrow energy spread and few hundreds of megaelectronvolts ion beam on the laser axis. Nevertheless, in real experiments, the laser will not only interact with an overcritical, thin plasma slab with sharp density gradients, but also with lower density regions surrounding the core of the gas jet, extending to several hundreds of micrometres. The interaction of the laser with these lower density wings will lead to nonlinear effects that will reduce the available energy to drive the shock in the high-density region of the target. Optically tailoring this target could mitigate that issue. Recent experiments conducted on different laser facilities aimed at testing several tailoring configurations. We first tested a scheme with a copropagating picosecond prepulse to create a lower density plasma channel to facilitate the propagation of the main pulse, while the second one was a transverse tailoring driven by nanosecond laser pulses to generate blast waves and form a high-density plasma slab. The main results will be presented here and the methods compared.
The objective of this study was to determine factors associated with testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 among healthcare personnel. Secondary objectives were to assess representativeness of recruited participants and the effectiveness of a multiple-contact protocol for recruiting healthcare personnel in this COVID-19 study.
Design:
Survey study, conducted as part of an observational test-negative study of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness.
Setting:
University of Utah Health system, including both inpatient and outpatient facilities.
Participants:
Clinical and non-clinical healthcare personnel at University of Utah Health. 1456 were contacted and 503 (34.5%) completed the survey. Cases were all eligible employees testing positive for COVID-19, with 3:1 randomly selected, matched controls (test negative) selected weekly.
Methods:
Online survey.
Results:
Significant differences in the demographics of participants and the source population were observed; e.g., nursing staff comprised 31.6% of participants but only 23.3% of the source population. The multiple-contact recruitment protocol increased participation by ten percentage points and ensured equal representation of controls. Potential exposure to illness outside of work was strongly predictive of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 (OR = 3.74; 95% CI: 2.29, 6.11) whereas potential exposure at work was protective against testing positive (OR: 0.51, 95% CI: 0.29, 0.88).
Conclusions:
Carefully designed recruitment protocols increase participation and representation of controls, but bias in participant demographics still exists. The negative association between potential workplace exposure and positive test suggests testing bias in the test-negative design. Healthcare personnel’s potential exposures to COVID-19 outside of the workplace are important predictors of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity.
The recognition of dementia as a multifactorial disorder encourages the exploration of new pathways to understand its origins. Social health might play a role in cognitive decline and dementia, but conceptual clarity is lacking and this hinders investigation of associations and mechanisms. Social health might provide a new perspective on social connectedness. The objective is to develop a conceptual framework for social health to advance conceptual clarity in future studies and to identify potentially modifiable risk and protective factors in the “Social Health And Reserve in the Dementia patient journey (SHARED)” project.
Methods:
The methods include the process of building the conceptual framework. We used the following steps: underpinning for concept advancement, concept advancement by the development of a conceptual model, and exploration of its potential feasibility.
Results:
Underpinning of the concept drew from a synthesis of theoretical, conceptual and epidemiological work, and resulted in the definition of social health as well-being that relies on capacities both of the individual and the social environment. In the conceptual framework the abstract definition has been elaborated into more precisely defined domains at both the individual and the social environmental levels. This allowed to identify domain related social health characteristics or markers in epidemiological data bases and to investigate associations between these markers and cognitive decline and dementia. The associated social health markers represent potentially modifiable risk and protective factors. Examples are “social engagement” in the participation domain at the individual level, and “frequency of contact” in the structure domain, “exchange of support” in the function domain and “loneliness” in the appraisal domain at the environmental level. The conceptual framework facilitated identification of domain related markers in the SHARED project, thus showing its potential feasibility.
Discussion:
The conceptual framework provides guidance for future research and facilitates identification of potentially modifiable risk and protective factors. These may shape new avenues for preventive interventions. We highlight the paradigm of social health in dementia as a priority for dementia research.
The ability to quickly refresh gas-jet targets without cycling the vacuum chamber makes them a promising candidate for laser-accelerated ion experiments at high repetition rate. Here we present results from the first high repetition rate ion acceleration experiment on the VEGA-3 PW-class laser at CLPU. A near-critical density gas-jet target was produced by forcing a 1000 bar H$_2$ and He gas mix through bespoke supersonic shock nozzles. Proton energies up to 2 MeV were measured in the laser forward direction and 2.2 MeV transversally. He$^{2+}$ ions up to 5.8 MeV were also measured in the transverse direction. To help maintain a consistent gas density profile over many shots, nozzles were designed to produce a high-density shock at distances larger than 1 mm from the nozzle exit. We outline a procedure for optimizing the laser–gas interaction by translating the nozzle along the laser axis and using different nozzle materials. Several tens of laser interactions were performed with the same nozzle which demonstrates the potential usefulness of gas-jet targets as high repetition rate particle source.
People presenting to hospital in a crisis of mental ill-health usually present via Emergency Departments, and are often admitted for brief interventions. Unlike drug treatments, the evidence base for brief non-pharmacological interventions has not been systematically evaluated.
Objectives
1. To describe brief non-pharmacological interventions used in Emergency Departments and inpatient psychiatric units, for those in a crisis of mental ill-health, and evaluate the study types and outcome measures used to evaluate them;
2. To conduct a systematic review of this evidence
Methods
We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), CINAHL, DARE, Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and relevant government and non-government organisation websites for peer reviewed journal articles, including both qualitative and quantitative articles. Interventions were sorted into Categories and Types to manage heterogeneity.
Results
We found 47 studies. Interventions were highly varied, and we created a taxonomy to understand this heterogeneity. Most studies were quasi-experimental trials (n=26; 55%) or qualitative studies (n=13; 27%) and only 8 RCTs (17%). Twelve were high quality (26%). Interventions were mostly found to have no effect on measured outcomes, though outcome measures may not have been best suited to expected domains of change.There was a broad range of outcome foci reflecting inconsistency in goals of interventions. No interventions were found to reduce the incidence of self-harm on the inpatient ward. One study suggests that inpatient safety planning may reduce readmission rates. Aggression-related outcomes for inpatient sensory modulation rooms were equivocal. Brief admissions with psychotherapy may reduce suicide attempt repetition and re-hospitalization, whereas brief admissions without psychotherapy may improve function but not re-hospitalization rates. Face-to-face psychoeducation for panic in the ED was associated with a reduction in ED presentation rates, but brochure-only psychoeducation may increase ED presentation rates.
Conclusions
This review found little evidence to guide much of what clinicians do for people in crisis in hospital. There is a need to develop a framework for brief non-pharmacological interventions, address the quality and size of studies, and identify consistent outcome measures for non-pharmacological interventions. The data is insufficient to make clear recommendations for appropriate brief non-pharmacological interventions for people in crisis in Emergency Departments and Psychiatric Inpatient Units. Multiple promising interventions are available for further study, however there is a dearth of research and more rigorous testing is needed.
Nicholas Carnes continues the focus on media and information, examining how local newspapers cover incumbents and challengers. Some voters may value information about the pre-election employment history of candidates, for instance, if voters believe Congress would benefit from members with a range of socioeconomic classes and work experiences. What do the media actually say about employment histories? Carnes examines the coverage of 32thirty-two House incumbents and their challengers running for reelection in 2006 (or their most recent contested election), selected to oversample those with a working- class background prior to taking office. Content analysis reveals that occupational backgrounds rarely receive much coverage. The backgrounds of challengers are more newsworthy, but overall coverage of this aspect remains modest. Instead, coverage near elections focuses on incumbent party, issue positions, and performance in office. This lack of information about class background is arguably problematic for descriptive representation, particularly if it would shape voter choices were it more frequently provided.
In Chapter 8, Gregory Huber and Patrick Tucker provide a critical overview of the role of media in informing citizens about candidates. They identify important developments in the media landscape, including the decline in local print media, the expansion of national newspapers and cable TV into local markets, and the growth of the Internet. The chapter begins by discussing the theoretical relationship between these developments and the nature of coverage of politics, focusing on how this shapes the incentives of both incumbents and individuals running for office. Then turning to a review of prior empirical work, the authors highlighting areas where we currently lack a solid empirical foundation, for example, local television coverage and more recent newspaper coverage. Finally, they propose an agenda for a unified cross-media data collection project on citizens’ political informational environments vis-à-vis Congress.
Chapter 4, by Patrick Egan and Markus Prior, continues with the examination of electoral accountability and the psychology of citizen evaluation of incumbents by using R. Douglas Arnold’s The Logic of Congressional Action as a springboard. The authors carefully explicate Arnold’s assumptions about voter psychology and then evaluate them in light of recent scholarship and political developments. In their account, tighter voter association between incumbents and parties, decreased information about incumbents and policy outcomes, and heightened motivated reasoning require significant modification of Arnold’s classic assumptions. Still, they argue, a realistic appreciation of the new voter psychology of accountability does not imply Westminster-style accountability of legislators based exclusively on party labels. The real consequences of policies continue to matter to voters. But, the changes do imply that party labels and primaries matter more than formerly.
Part IV focuses on the role of private interests in shaping political accountability. In Chapter 12, Eleanor Neff Powell, Devin Judge-Lord, and Justin Grimmer examine the relationship among financial contributions to congressional members, constituency interests regarding energy regulation, and congressional oversight of the bureaucracy. The authors analyze a novel dataset of over 6,000 communications between legislators and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) from 2000 to 2018. This analysis suggests that Republican legislators are more likely to write to FERC on behalf of energy companies while Democrats are more likely to write to FERC on behalf of individual constituents, who overwhelmingly oppose energy company interests. The energy sector increasingly funnels campaign contributions primarily to Republican candidates, with Democratic candidates receiving about a third as much as their Republican counterparts. Finally, consistent with the argument that private interests influence congressional oversight, the authors find a statistically significant positive association between energy sector contributions and pro-business communications by legislators.
In the first chapter in Part III, Frances Lee shifts the focus from elections to governing in the context of contemporary American politics. She examines the strategies of coalition leaders in Congress, who now operate in a world of highly polarized congressional parties. She scrutinizes the two major legislative efforts of the 115th Congress (2017-18): tax reform and the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act. Lee finds that coalition leaders used many of the same techniques as in earlier periods. In particular, coalition leaders substantially modified their proposals to reduce the costs imposed on the constituents of legislators whose votes they needed. Similarly, leaders deployed procedural tactics to break the linkage between Congressional action and painful policy effects. These efforts were successful on tax reform but ultimately failed with the efforts to repeal the ACA, and Lee finds the failure was related to the traceable costs of the proposed policy change. She concludes that although polarization has arguably created new challenges for enacting major legislation, the strategies of coalition builders exhibit a good deal of continuity.
With Chapter 6, the volume shifts its focus to the role of the media in creating an informational environment that affects voters’ ability to hold elected officials accountable. Opening Part II, Brandice Canes-Wrone and Michael Kistner exploit variation across districts and over time in the congruence between local newspaper markets and House members’ districts. Using this variation, the authors estimate the effect of media coverage on the link between candidate ideology and election outcomes. For incumbents, who have track records of roll- call voting in Congress, differences in coverage only modestly affect the relationship between incumbent ideology and election outcomes. For challengers, however, reduced coverage is associated with a substantial reduction in both the penalty for ideological extremity and the reward for ideological moderation. The authors also find, consistent with the decline of local media and the rise of the internet, that the effect of local newspaper congruence may have decreased over time. Overall, media coverage and information are important in accountability, but in surprisingly subtle ways.
In Chapter 3, Eric M. Patashnik, Patrick Tucker, and Alan S. Gerber employ evidence from two original survey experiments to explore voter responses to representatives’ actions. In the first set of experiments, voters learn that their representative has claimed credit for bringing the district a grant. But how do voters evaluate the lawmaker’s performance? Do they rely on the absolute size of the grant, or on its size relative to other grants when allocating rewards and punishment to a representative? The authors find that individuals are responsive to information about the relative, but not absolute, size of grants, and are more inclined to punish legislators for delivering below-average grants than reward them for securing above-average ones. The second set of experiments manipulates information about different kinds of benefits, and shows respondents react more strongly to information about specific policies than abstract ones. Together, the results indicate that citizens’ ability to hold representatives accountable depends on citizens’ ability to put policy actions into a concrete context they find meaningful.
Opening Part I, Josh Clinton, Michael Sances, and Mary Sullivan examine the extent to which constituents evaluate incumbents based on their policy actions in office. The authors focus on situations in which representatives cast a vote contrary to the constituent’s views and present two different analyses. First, they examine the universe of issues in the 2008-2017 Congressional Cooperative Election Study (CCES) surveys, which include items designed to relate constituents’ policy preferences to specific roll- call votes in the House. Second, they conduct an in-depth analysis of legislative activity around the Affordable Care Act (ACA), investigating how members of different demographic groups vary in holding House members accountable for policy positions. In both analyses, partisan labels exert a substantial, independent effect on voter evaluations, but issue positions nonetheless matter. Moreover, the ACA analysis indicates that policy effects are larger among wealthier individuals. The findings imply that despite the increasing role of partisanship in U.S. elections, issue representation remains an important force in voter evaluation of incumbents.