Citizens’ opinions about politicians are shaped by their perceptions of politicians’ personalities, characters, and traits. While prior research has investigated the traits voters value in politicians, less attention has been given to the traits politicians project in their public communication. This may stem from challenges in defining politicians’ public personality traits and measuring them at scale using computational text analysis. To address this challenge, we propose a computational approach that builds on public statements (personality cues) to infer politicians’ personalities from textual data. To do so, we operationalize two key political traits—agency and communion—using a theory-driven, domain-specific framework. We then compare various computational text analysis methods for extracting these traits from a large corpus of politicians’ parliamentary speeches, social media posts, and interviews. We validate our approach using a comprehensive set of human-labeled data, functional tests, and analyses of how prominently personality traits appear in the statements of German politicians and in the 2024 U.S. presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Our findings indicate that prompting based techniques, particularly those leveraging advanced models such as DeepSeek-V3, outperform supervised and semisupervised methods. These results point to promising directions for advancing political psychology.

Flavour enhancement has been identified as a potential strategy to counteract the loss of taste in pureed foods(1,2), making them more palatable and recognisable for older people(3). However, it is unclear whether flavour enhancement with protein fortification of pureed diets can influence appetite and dietary intake. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore the influence of flavour-enhanced and protein-enriched pureed meals on perceived appetite, palatability, and intake in older people.

Forty-one healthy older people were recruited in Reading, UK to partake in a randomised, crossover study involving three study days. Participants consumed a standard breakfast, followed by one of three ad-libitum pureed lunches (high protein (HP), high-protein-with-aroma (HP-Aro) or low-protein (LP)) and three hours later an ad-libitum pureed buffet-style meal. Intake of the ad-libitum meals were measured by weighing food leftovers, perceived appetite and palatability were rated using a visual analogue scale and remaining intakes for the day assessed using food diaries.

SPSS was used to carry out all statistical analysis. Differences in energy and macronutrient intake between the three ad-libitum pureed lunch meals were examined using repeated measures analysis of variances (RM-ANOVA) with pair-wise comparisons (Bonferroni corrected). This test was also applied to assess the effects of these meals on subsequent intake at the ad-libitum buffet meal and total day intake. Post-lunch appetite sensations were analysed using Friedman’s test with Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Changes in self-reported palatability ratings between the three pureed lunch meals were evaluated using RM-ANOVA with pair-wise comparisons (Bonferroni corrected). Statistical significance was accepted at p<0.05 in all analysis.

Participants’ intake of ad-libitum pureed lunch was significantly higher when they consumed the HP+Aro pureed meal compared to the HP and LP pureed meals (p<0.001). Protein fortification with or without flavour enhancement significantly reduced energy intake (EI) and macronutrient intake at subsequent ad-libitum meal (p<0.001). Even though protein fortification did not affect EI for the rest of the day, it led to greater total protein intake (p<0.001). However, participants had higher total EI, carbohydrate and fat intake across the study day when they had LP pureed lunch compared to when they had HP pureed lunch (p<0.001) but no difference occurred between the LP and HP + Aro conditions (p=0.72).

Protein fortification led to significantly greater satiety (p<0.001) and fullness (p=0.04) post lunch. Palatability ratings were significantly improved with flavour enhancement (p<0.05).

The study suggested that intakes and liking of pureed meals are greater through the combination of flavour enhancement and protein fortification among older people. Also, although protein fortification could suppress appetite which might lead to reduced EI across the whole day, this may be mitigated by the combined addition of the flavour enhancer.

High intakes of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have been associated with adverse health outcomes including weight gain, cardiometabolic disease and cancer(1,2). However, the limitations of NOVA highlight the need for a novel classification which captures food properties and features of processing that drive these health outcomes. Proposed mechanisms underlying the associations between UPF and health include energy density and hyperpalatability(3,4). Within the US food system, the prevalence of both energy dense and hyperpalatable foods is increasing, and there is moderate overlap between foods identified by each definition(5). The aim of this study was to characterise the energy density and hyperpalatability of foods and habitual diets consumed by UK adults.

Logged dietary data, baseline characteristics and body composition were analysed from ZOE PREDICT 1 UK participants (n= 1001; NCT03479866)(6). Weighted logged dietary data, including more than 12,000 foods (beverages excluded), from participants with ≥2 free-living days (n=891) were included. Energy density (kcal/g) for all foods and participant diets was calculated. Hyperpalatable foods (HPF) were classified using a data-defined definition(7) and percentage energy intake (%EI) from HPFs were calculated. Differences in energy density and hyperpalatability were examined across top and bottom tertiles of energy intake.

In the PREDICT 1 cohort (n=891, 73% females, (mean±SD) age 46±12 years and BMI 26±4.9 kg/m2) 55% of foods were high in energy density (>2 kcal/g), 49% were defined as HPFs and 35% were both energy dense and hyperpalatable. Across participants’ habitual diets (beverages excluded), the average energy density was 2.1±1.0 kcal/g and proportion of energy consumed from HPFs was 48±16 %EI. There was a significant difference across tertiles of energy intake (low versus high) in the energy density of diets (kcal/g) and contribution of energy from HPFs (%EI) (P<0.05 for all).

This analysis provides valuable insights into the energy density and hyperpalatability of habitual diets in the PREDICT 1 cohort, demonstrating overlap between these features. Further work is required to understand the independent and combined role of these factors, and additional proposed mechanisms underlying the negative health effects associated with processing, such as food texture, energy-intake-rate, and additives and non-culinary ingredients. A novel classification should build on NOVA by encompassing the food properties and features of processing that drive adverse health outcomes. Policy makers must consider the role of these factors to ensure nutritionally beneficial and affordable foods are not penalised without appropriate scientific justification.

This article investigates the dynamics of microcredit in late-medieval Italy by examining the case of fourteenth-century Vercelli and its surrounding rural area. Drawing on an extensive corpus of notarial sources, it highlights how credit networks were sustained not only by elite bankers and merchants but also by less prominent actors embedded in everyday social and economic life. Two case studies – the baker Enrico da Greggio and the priest Salerno Ferraroto – illustrate the role of small-scale lenders and borrowers in structuring a dense web of transactions. Their activities reveal how personal trust, proximity and reciprocity enabled access to liquidity through loans, rents and credit, often mediated by the Sant’Andrea monastery and hospital. Far from marginal, these practices constituted a vital infrastructure of support for urban and rural populations alike, allowing individuals of modest means to become active participants in the circulation of capital. By analysing these intertwined networks, the article underscores the significance of documentary practices in shaping the economy of trust and credit. The study ultimately argues that grassroots credit systems were central to the functioning of late-medieval urban society, challenging narratives that privilege only large-scale or institutional forms of credit.

With the global population set to reach 9.8 billion by 2050, including a doubling of adults aged ≥60 years old(1,2), sustainable dietary transitions are increasingly urgent. One postulated solution is controlled environment agriculture (CEA) vertical farming (VF), defined as plant factories in which environmental conditions are intricately controllable(3).

VF affords opportunities to reduce climate impact, such as reductions in water and land use(4). Further, it allows for tailoring the nutritional profiles of food through methods such as light manipulation and agronomic biofortification(5,6). This is especially relevant to older adults, with their inherent specific nutritional needs and the role of diet in healthy ageing(7). However, older adults have high rates of food neophobia(8) that may hinder acceptance of novel VF produce. This study assessed the acceptability of VF in UK older adults.

An online survey within a UK older adult cohort (≥60 years old) (n=680) assessed knowledge, sentiment scores (SS), and attitudes (Likert scales) towards VF. Willingness to pay (WTP) and purchasing likelihood for VF products were also assessed. Sentiment scores were generated using text highlighting(9). Data were analysed across genders and the index of multiple deprivation (IMD). Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis were used for non-normally distributed data. Two-way repeated measures ANOVA and two-factor MANOVA were used where applicable. Purchasing likelihood was evaluated using ordinal regression.

Knowledge of VF was low (44%), with fewer participants (23.6%) understanding CEA VF. Total SS were ambivalent (8.8), with no significant gender or IMD differences. However, sentences concerning sustainable benefits, e.g. yield, land and water use, were positive (range; 14-23). Females showed more positive SS for tailoring VF to support older adults’ nutritional needs (p=0.012). Attitudes (from Likert scale) were mostly neutral, with females slightly more favourable towards environmental concerns (p=0.008) and food fortification (p=0.03). WTP for VF produce was slightly higher (£0.016) than for conventionally produced foods (p < 0.001), with no significant differences between genders and IMD. 43% of participants were more likely to purchase VF produce, while 10% were less likely. Lower-income households (0.59 OR; 0.40–0.88, p=0.008); lack of knowledge of food fortification (0.62 OR; 0.42–0.89, p=0.011) and those with the more negative SS, SS Q1 (0.45 OR; 0.29 – 0.71, p=0.046) and SS Q2 (0.65 OR; 0.43 – 0.99, p<0.001) where significantly less likely to purchase VF produce.

Low knowledge and negative sentiment towards VF, coupled with low WTP, pose significant barriers to adopting VF food products in older adults. Socio-economic factors like income also affect purchasing likelihood, potentially exacerbating current health gaps. Increasing VF awareness and improving attitudes whilst reducing VF production costs could help promote its adoption in this demographic.

Event history analysis (EHA) revolutionized the study of policy diffusion. However, many diffusion studies are snapshots of a policy’s spread. This begs the question of what we are learning from studies of (often) incomplete diffusion. The simple question that we ask – when should a diffusion study be conducted? – is complex to answer. We offer insight into this question using literature on EHA and empirical observation. We use data from the State Innovation and Policy Diffusion database on 83 policies that were adopted by at least 42 states to demonstrate how key results change as the observation window changes. We conclude with advice on how to approach modeling and interpreting incomplete policy diffusion in the future.

This article examines how the ideological outlook of the British worker co-operative movement gradually assumed a neoliberal character. Drawing on methods from conceptual history, it traces the evolution of the movement’s key ideas and explores the changing language in which they were expressed. Central to this shift was the emergence of a social-enterprise discourse that reframed an earlier New Left commitment to pursuing worker control “in and against the market” as a conviction that such control could be achieved only “in and through” market participation. The study centres on the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM), a national federation of worker co-operatives active in Britain between 1971 and 2001. It uses items published by ICOM, material from numerous archives, and oral interviews conducted with some of those involved in the federation’s final years.

As cities in the Global South gain visibility in global forums – engaging in climate negotiations, forming alliances and aligning with development goals – their legal and economic status remains structurally ambivalent. This article challenges the idea that these cities are becoming full international legal actors. Instead, we argue that they possess a ‘borderline international legal personality’: conditionally included in global regimes through mechanisms that reinforce long-standing asymmetries. Central to this dynamic is the notion of ‘creditworthiness’, now a key metric of development. Tools like sub-sovereign credit ratings pressure cities to prioritise investor confidence over local needs. These interventions promise international agency but often deepen financial dependency. We call for a re-reading of urban internationalism, attentive to the in-between status of Global South cities – caught between aspiration and discipline. Any emancipatory urban agenda must confront the financialisation of local governance and centre debt justice, autonomy and institutional reform.

This forum contribution considers the complexities and importance of gender in the historiography of LGBTQ+ college students. After a brief introduction, we focus on four key areas in the existing historiography: women’s romantic relationships in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, higher education leaders’ enforcement of gender norms and purges of LGBTQ+ students through the mid-twentieth century, the gender dynamics within LGBTQ+ student organizations from the 1970s onward, and trans and other LGBTQ+ students’ expansion of gender possibilities, including through the use of drag. In so doing, we argue that gender analysis is important to the historiography of LGBTQ+ students, though most often that analysis has been implicit rather than explicit. Considering both the gaps in our historical knowledge and the rising attacks on LGBTQ+ individuals, we contend that continued gendered analyses are not only warranted but also needed.

Gerschenkron (1962) argued that public institutions such as the State Bank of the Russian Empire spurred the country’s industrialization. We test this assertion by exploiting plant-level variation in access to State Bank branches using a unique geocoded factory data set. Employing an identification strategy based on geographical distances between banks and factories, our results show improved access to public banking encouraged faster growth in factory-level revenue, mechanization, and labor productivity. In line with theories of late industrialization, we also find evidence that public credit mattered more in regions where commercial banks were fewer and markets were smaller.

Despite the considerable attention paid to Adam Smith’s ethical theory over the past quarter of a century, at least one area of his thought remains outstanding for the lack of interest it has received: Part V of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, “Of the Influence of Custom and Fashion upon the Sentiments of Moral Approbation and Disapprobation.” This is unfortunate, however, insofar as there are good reasons for thinking that Part V is important to Smith’s project. This essay substantiates this importance by placing Smith’s intervention in the context of David Hume’s earlier attempts to wrestle with the problem of moral relativism. The connections between Hume and Smith on this matter have not previously been explored, yet doing so is crucial for gaining a more complete appreciation of Smith’s moral thought. Beyond this historical intervention, however, I also contend that neither Smith nor Hume offer satisfactory answers to the philosophical challenge posed by moral relativism. Despite remaining the two outstanding theorists in the tradition of ethical sentimentalism, both Smith and Hume fall short on this score. Insofar as moral relativism remains a challenge to ethical sentimentalists today, proponents of this tradition must look elsewhere for solutions.

We say that a computable structure $\mathcal {A}$ is computably categorical if for every computable copy $\mathcal {B}$, there exists a computable isomorphism $f:\mathcal {A}\to \mathcal {B}$. This notion can be relativized to a degree $\mathbf {d}$ by saying that a computable structure $\mathcal {A}$ is computably categorical relative to $\mathbf {d}$ if for every $\mathbf {d}$-computable copy $\mathcal {B}$ of $\mathcal {A}$, there exists a $\mathbf {d}$-computable isomorphism $f:\mathcal {A}\to \mathcal {B}$. A key part of this thesis is to study the behavior of this notion of categoricity in the computably enumerable degrees.

The main theorem in Chapter $1$ states that given any computable partially ordered set P and any computable partition $P=P_0\sqcup P_1$, there exists an embedding h of P into the c.e. degrees and a computable graph $\mathcal {G}$ which is computably categorical, computably categorical relative to all degrees in $h(P_0)$, and is not computably categorical relative to any degree in $h(P_1)$. We also show that by using largely the same techniques alongside a standard construction of minimal pairs, we can embed a four-element diamond lattice into the c.e. degrees in the style of the main result of Chapter $1$.

We then apply some of the techniques used in this thesis to study the behavior of this notion in the context of generic degrees in Chapter $2$. Additionally, we show that several classes of structures admit a computable example that witnesses the pathological behavior of categoricity relative to a degree as seen in Chapter $1$’s main theorem.

Lastly, in the context of reverse mathematics, we investigate the reverse mathematical strength of a topological principle named $\mathsf {wGS}^{\operatorname {cl}}$, a weakened version of the Ginsburg–Sands theorem which states that every infinite topological space contains one of the following five topologies as a subspace, with $\mathbb {N}$ as the underlying set: discrete, indiscrete, cofinite, initial segment, or final segment.

Abstract prepared by Java Darleen Villano

E-mail: java.villano@utoronto.ca

URL: https://javavillano.github.io/thesisfinal.pdf