This study examines the political participation of undocumented Mexican immigrants residing in the United States in Mexican external voting. As international mobility of people has increased globally, scholarly attention has grown concerning how overseas citizens engage in electoral processes in their countries of origin. However, previous studies based on traditional survey methods may have yielded biased results due to the underrepresentation of undocumented immigrants, who are less likely to enroll in survey company panels due to concerns about the potential compromise of their identities. To include this hard-to-reach population and conduct representative sampling, our research employs a method called respondent-driven sampling (RDS), which permits the surveying of a population devoid of a sampling frame. Our analysis of the Mexican case demonstrates that a lack of electoral information, lower levels of education, and heightened distrust of the Mexican government are associated with diminished electoral participation.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a frontline treatment for a range of mental health problems and is increasingly offered as the psychological therapy of choice across the globe. Access to or benefit from this psychological therapy relies on proficiency in the dominant language of the area. However, to meet our clients’ needs in an increasingly mobile, multicultural, and diverse society, it may require adaptation through the use of spoken language interpreters. The benefits of interpreter-mediated CBT for mental health problems remains uncertain. The objective of this review is to systematically identify, evaluate, and integrate the existing empirical literature on interpreter-mediated CBT for mental health problems. A comprehensive search was conducted in July 2024 across CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Scopus. Studies meeting the inclusion criteria resulted in a total of eleven articles being included in the review. The included research shows promise in terms of feasibility and efficacy, but not conclusively. The narrative review enabled the synthesis of recommendations, which have been conceptualised as being at individual, service, and organisational levels. There is limited research and a need for further studies into the influence of other factors such as therapist proficiency, interpreter proficiency, complexity/co-morbidity and service context. Further evaluation should consider controlled trials of interpreter-mediated CBT, while also establishing its efficacy more robustly in regular practice. It should also further explore the experiences and perspectives of the client, interpreter, and therapist regarding the suggested recommendations.

Key learning aims

1. (1) Gain an understanding of the existing evidence on the effectiveness of interpreter-mediated CBT for various mental health problems across diverse populations.

2. (2) Learn about key recommendations emerging from empirical research on the implementation of interpreter-mediated CBT.

3. (3) Acquire clear, practical guidance that can inform the work of interpreters, practitioners, services, and healthcare systems to improve the delivery of interpreter-mediated CBT.

While often described as a unified process imposed by external actors on weak, conflict-ridden countries, international state building increasingly comprises a variety of actors involved in different ways in (re)building a diverse set of institutions. Civilian preferences are often excluded from this fragmented environment. We identify and explicate three dimensions along which postconflict state building meaningfully varies: the actor involved, the type of institution targeted, and the form of involvement. We then examine how variation along each dimension impacts civilians’ state-building preferences with two rounds of original survey experiments fielded in Liberia. We find that Liberians largely prefer state-building processes overseen by a subset of international actors; that they prefer state building focused on security-oriented institutions over non-security-oriented institutions; and that different forms of involvement in the process meaningfully influence their preferences. We also find that these preferences depend on civilians’ characteristics. Ultimately, we provide an initial, conceptual mapping of the diversified landscape of international state building, as well as an empirical “unpacking” of the conditions that may shape civilians’ preferences toward the process.

This article maps out the challenges of public global health communication in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic by providing an overview of the shifting media of health communication from the post-Second World War era to the present. The article explores the communication of science in real-time or live media of film, television, video and digital social media during three emerging infectious-disease (EID) outbreaks to place COVID-19 health communication in historical perspective. Examination of the transition from centralized, top-down communications to distributed, many-to-many, mobile communication illuminates challenges to expertise, authority and control of health narratives and imagery. Through theories of intermediality, the article explores the central function of gaps in communication networks. The article considers three cases of crisis communications amid EIDs: the influenza outbreak of 1957, HIV/AIDS around 1990 and COVID-19 in the early 2020s, and the challenges posed by scientific uncertainty under these circumstances of live, intermedial health communication. The article concludes that ‘liveness’ in intermedial health communications may have an inherently destabilizing effect on scientific authority.

In 2022, an anti-vaccine mandate protest in Canada received millions of dollars in support through online crowdfunding. This event catalyzed political crowdfunding in Canada by demonstrating its ability to disseminate ideological discourse and mobilize collective action. Given its newfound visibility and impact, this study examines the landscape of political crowdfunding in Canada. We examined 60 campaigns from the legal, current events and political categories on the crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo and classified campaigns into: COVID-19-related topics, alternative media and free speech, climate change skepticism, and other political campaigns. Thematic analysis of the interactive discourse between campaign hosts and donors revealed that many campaigns were motivated by defending individual rights and freedoms amidst perceived government overreach, which fuels a distrust towards authority, including the government and mainstream media. Our study suggests that political crowdfunding empowers individuals to symbolically reflect their political and ideological beliefs through financial donations.

True bugs (Hemiptera: Acanthosomatidae, Coreidae, and Pentatomidae) include harmful crop pests affecting global agriculture, with different species displaying distinct optimal conditions for development and using different habitats. Over a 2-year period, this research investigates how habitat variation and altitude can influence the species composition of true bugs and their egg parasitoids in South Tyrol (North Italy), unveiling different trends in their population and diversity across habitats: apple orchards, urban areas, and forests. A total of 25 true bug species were sampled. Urban environments hosted the highest bug abundance, predominantly driven by the invasive Halyomorpha halys, while forests showed a higher prevalence of native species such as Pentatoma rufipes and Palomena prasina. Altitude significantly influenced species composition, with H. halys and P. rufipes abundance negatively and positively correlated with altitude, respectively. A total of 12 parasitoid species (Hymenoptera: Eupelmidae, and Scelionidae) emerged from the field-collected bug eggs, including the exotic Trissolcus japonicus, predominantly associated with H. halys in urban areas. Native parasitoids exhibited higher parasitism rates on native bug species, indicating co-evolutionary relationships. The results give an insight into the ecological dynamics of local true bug species and their egg parasitoids, and highlight the value of natural and urban areas for conserving both hemipteran and parasitoid species richness and abundance.

Healthy diets are unaffordable for billions of people worldwide, with food prices rising in high-, middle- and low-income nations in recent times. Despite widespread attention to this issue, recent actions taken to inform policy prioritisation and government responses to high food inflation have not been comprehensively synthesised. Our review summarises (i) innovative efforts to monitor national food and healthy diet price, ii) new policy responses adopted by governments to address food inflation and (iii) future research directions to inform new evidence. Evidence synthesis. Global. None. We describe how timely food and beverage pricing data can provide transparency in the food industry and identify key areas for intervention. However, government policies that improve food affordability are often short-lived and lack sustained commitment. Achieving meaningful impact will require long-term, cross-sectoral actions that are led by governments to support food security, healthy diets and resilient sustainable food systems. This will necessitate a better understanding of how the political economy enables (or hinders) policy implementation, including through coherent problem framing, mitigating conflicts of interest in policymaking, working together as coalitions and developing and utilising evidence on the food security and related impacts of food pricing and affordability policies. Diverse actors must be better equipped with robust data platforms and actionable policy solutions that improve the affordability of healthy and sustainable diets, including by lowering food prices and addressing the broader socio-political determinants of food insecurity.

Two Xiphinema species, one new and one known, were found from Bushehr province, southern Iran, and are herein described based on morphological and molecular data. These include Xiphinema pedrami sp. nov. and X. basiri, both belonging to the ‘Xiphinema non-americanum group’. The new dagger nematode is characterised by a body length of 3.54–5.00 mm, a lip region separated from the rest of body by a depression, odontostyle 128–148 μm long, 60–89 μm long odontophore, guiding ring at 107–138 μm from anterior end, female tail rounded to dorsally more convex with small bulge and four juvenile stages. Males have one pair of cloacal and three to five ventromedian single supplements. The new species belongs to morphospecies Xiphinema non-americanum group 5, characterised by having two equally developed female genital branches with uterine differentiation in the form of pseudo-Z-organ along with the rhomboid-shaped crystalloid bodies, and a short, rounded tail ending in a peg. The polytomous identification codes of the new species are A4, B2, C5a5b, D6, E56, F4(5), G23, H2, I34, J5a5b, K3, L2. Morphologically, the new species comes close to several known species (namely, X. andalusiense, X. artemisiae, X. baetica, X. hyrcaniense, X. ingens, X. macroacanthum and X. pseudocoxi) belonging to morphospecies group 5. The morphological differences of the new species and the aforementioned species are discussed. The second recovered species, Xiphinema basiri, belongs to the same group and has a pseudo-Z-organ in the shape of globular bodies close to pars dilatata uterus and short, conical, distinctly digitate tail. Integrative diagnosis was completed using molecular data obtained from partial sequences of the D2-D3 region of 28S rDNA, ITS1 rDNA, 18S rDNA, and COI mtDNA genes.

Agencies, boards, and commissions (ABCs) in Canada have a distinct character and set of governance dynamics compared with the conventional public service. ABCs are often conceived to deliver a particular service or regulate or adjudicate matters with some distance from the government of the day, yet (perhaps counter-intuitively) are among the few remaining sites of patronage-like appointments in Canada. This article compiles ABC appointment data (N = 2,248) from the Province of Alberta over two distinct periods—the Notley government (2015–2019) and the Kenney/Smith governments (2019–2024)—to explore the character and patterns of appointments. We find mixed evidence that appointments to ABCs with more formal autonomy are more likely to be politicized. Some metrics also suggest that the conservative party appointees are slightly more often politically connected, particularly in ABCs that reside in high priority policy areas for the appointing government, and in particular in crown corporations and regulatory agencies.

Darwin describes the Origin of Species as 'one long argument'. The exact structure of this argument has been the subject of controversy among philosophers of biology. I will propose a novel analysis that sheds new light on Darwin’s argument. The central claim will be that the evidence that supports the theory of common descent can only satisfactorily support it only after the theory of natural selection has been regarded as an in principle possibility. This account helps us understand some enigmatic features of the structure of the Origin and has consequences for evidentialism and Bayesianism as applied to Darwin’s argument.

I present a heretofore untheorised form of lay science, called extitutional science, whereby lay scientists, by virtue of their collective experience, are able to detect errors committed by institutional scientists and attempt to have them corrected. I argue that the epistemic success of institutional science is enhanced to the extent that it takes up this extitutional criticism. Since this uptake does not occur spontaneously, extitutional interference in the conduct of institutional science is required. I make a proposal for how to secure this epistemically beneficial form of lay interference.

Diabetes mellitus affects about 830 million people worldwide, with 2.5 million diabetes-related deaths per year. The estimated prevalence of diabetes among psychiatric in-patients in the UK is 10%, and the increased risk of poor diabetes-related physical health outcomes among people with a severe mental illness (SMI) is detrimental to their mental health and social functioning. This article uses two fictitious case vignettes inspired by experience in an in-patient psychiatric facility to explore the challenges of managing diabetes in this setting in the UK. The relationship between psychiatric disorders, their symptoms and management of physical health conditions, including health promotion, monitoring and pharmacological therapy, creates a challenge in the optimal management of diabetes. Recommendations for improving diabetes management in people with SMI are divided into those requiring insulin and those not requiring insulin.