Americans increasingly confront policy messages not from high-profile political figures but from everyday citizens. Much is known about the effects of racial source cues from well-known political figures with salient racial identities. Less is known about how subtle racial cues from non-recognizable sources affect Americans’ support for policies that are race-targeted and those that are not. In this paper, I conduct a randomized experiment that varies a cue of the source’s racial identity and the type of policy for which the source advocates. I uncover little evidence for the hypothesis that subtle racial source cues activate racial attitudes that lead Americans to racialize policies that are (at least explicitly) race-neutral. I find instead that subtle cues of a Black vs. White source decrease support only for race-targeted policies. I reason that two mechanisms possibly driving this effect are: (1) subtle racial source cues become salient for only race-targeted policies, thereby activating racial stereotypes for these policies but not others, and (2) Black sources are perceived as less objective policy messengers when the policy explicitly aims to rectify injustices against Black Americans. More generally, the paper’s overall findings suggest that subtle racial cues of who advocates for race-targeted policies matter for whether such policies can garner the public support they presumably need to come to fruition.

In land use policymaking, institutions for resident participation are common but often associated with stark inequalities. We argue that the observed connection between participatory institutions and political inequality arises due to the circumstances in which participatory institutions are established – not due to participation itself. In a formal model, residents of two districts compete to oppose a locally costly (but socially beneficial) proposal. Participatory institutions allow residents to send a costly signal of their preferences to a politician. The politician only establishes participatory institutions when they are moderately biased toward one district. When extremely biased, the politician unilaterally benefits one district at the other’s expense; when sufficiently egalitarian, the politician allows each district to approve or veto projects themselves. We relate these results to the changing structure of urban politics in the wake of the Great Society. Despite justified concerns about inequalities in participation, eliminating participatory institutions may actually increase unequal policy outcomes.

While an experimental colony of rice root aphids, Rhopalosiphum rufiabdominale (Sasaki) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) was being reared, hymenopteran parasitoids found their way into the colony and caused substantial aphid mortality. We identified the parasitoids as Aphelinus varipes (Förster) (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) and further investigated the ability of A. varipes to parasitise rice root aphids and cannabis aphids, Phorodon cannabis Passerini (Hemiptera: Aphididae), both pests of commercial cannabis plants, Cannabis sativa Linnaeus (Cannabaceae). In experiments with different densities of aphid hosts, female A. varipes parasitised both rice root aphids and cannabis aphids. The rate of parasitism did not exceed 21% for either aphid species but may exceed this in unconstrained operational settings. Aphelinus varipes should be investigated further as a potential biocontrol agent of rice root aphids and cannabis aphids.

Coffee is a widely consumed beverage, which has been extensively studied for its potential effects on health. We aimed to map genetic evidence for the effect of habitual coffee consumption on health. We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CINAHL and two preprint repositories from inception to 30/09/2022, and included 59 studies, spanning 160 disease or biomarker associations. We evaluated the articles for certainty of evidence using a modified GRADE tool and robustness of the associations by comparing MR sensitivity analyses. Coffee consumption was associated with smaller grey matter brain volume in one study, and there was probable evidence for an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease and younger age of onset of Huntington’s disease. MR studies provided probable evidence for an association with increased risk of esophageal and digestive cancers but protective effects for hepatocellular carcinomas and ovarian cancer. We found probable evidence for increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, menopausal disorders, glaucoma, higher total cholesterol, LDL-C and ApoB, and lowered risk of migraines, kidney disease, and gallstone disease. Future studies should aim to understand underlying mechanisms of disease, expand knowledge in non-European cohorts, and develop quality assessment tools for systematic reviews of MR studies.