Birth cohort studies provide invaluable data on topics across the lifecourse, including health, education, socioeconomic conditions, and well-being. As a result, they are an important resource for biosocial researchers to answer numerous complex research questions. However, despite being positioned as representative of their national or regional context, cohort studies often fail to capture the experience of marginalised groups.

One such group is sexual and gender minority (or LGBTQ+) people who, until very recently, have been largely invisible in birth cohorts. This is despite huge social and attitudinal changes in the last fifty years and clear evidence of the social, political, economic, and health and well-being disparities experienced compared to heterosexual cisgender people. However, due to small numbers, opportunities for quantitative analysis are limited and result in the neglect of LGBTQ+ data even when it is captured.

This article presents a brief overview of how queer lives have (and have not) been captured by standard data collection and analysis techniques in the British birth cohort studies. Then, using a cohort born in 1970, the authors explore the possibilities of person-centred mixed-method pen portraits to improve understanding of this group’s life trajectories.

The South Asian region, including India, faces an increased prevalence of illicit drug use. Key challenges include rising opioid use, injecting drug use and spread of stimulant use from some pockets to other regions of the country. Challenges faced are poor surveillance, lack of evidence-based and structured prevention programmes, wide treatment gaps and inadequate social capital for reintegration of substance users into society. The drug control efforts in India have resulted in an improved drug offence surveillance system, increased community awareness, a growing network of drug treatment centres and resource-building measures. India has made pioneering efforts in the field of harm reduction in the South Asian region. The steps taken have the potential of applicability across other South Asian, as well as most low- and middle-income, countries around the world.

Systematic reviews play important roles but manual efforts can be time-consuming given a growing literature. There is a need to use and evaluate automated strategies to accelerate systematic reviews. Here, we comprehensively tested machine learning (ML) models from classical and deep learning model families. We also assessed the performance of prompt engineering via few-shot learning of GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 large language models (LLMs). We further attempted to understand when ML models can help automate screening. These ML models were applied to actual datasets of systematic reviews in education. Results showed that the performance of classical and deep ML models varied widely across datasets, ranging from 1.2 to 75.6% of work saved at 95% recall. LLM prompt engineering produced similarly wide performance variation. We searched for various indicators of whether and how ML screening can help. We discovered that the separability of clusters of relevant versus irrelevant articles in high-dimensional embedding space can strongly predict whether ML screening can help (overall R = 0.81). This simple and generalizable heuristic applied well across datasets and different ML model families. In conclusion, ML screening performance varies tremendously, but researchers and software developers can consider using our cluster separability heuristic in various ways in an ML-assisted screening pipeline.

This article links the human concern for relative social standing with technological developments, and the future of work. We argue that to the extent that the desire for social status retains its importance in human behaviour, technological advancements affecting the production of goods and services will not necessarily lead to a diminishment of the demand for human labour. This essay makes two principal contributions. First, it links two different literatures: that regarding status-driven consumption, and that regarding the effects of technological change on labour markets. Second, it offers an alternative justification for the conclusion that radical technological shocks will not eliminate the importance of work.

This paper presents and analyzes antipassive constructions in the Mayan language Kaqchikel. Through various syntactic tests, we show that antipassive constructions differ from both active transitive and Agent Focus structures in that they do not syntactically project a DP-sized object. Thus, we should think of antipassives as a type of unergative. When an object seems to disappear or become less important in an antipassive, this is not a special feature of antipassives – it is simply what happens in any intransitive structure. In other words, the ‘suppression’ or ‘demotion’ of thematic object is not an inherent characteristic of the construction but rather a byproduct of its intransitive nature. To better understand how transitive and intransitive constructions function cross-linguistically, we propose a novel framework for categorizing the functional heads v and Voice. We show that the external argument behaves differently in transitive versus intransitive clauses, appearing in different structural positions, which is backed up by evidence from causatives in Kaqchikel and scope patterns in other languages. While transitive and passive structures include a Voice projection, Agent Focus and antipassive structures do not. We compare our analysis to previous work on antipassives and explore what our findings might mean for understanding antipassives in other languages.

Bilingual speakers are prompted to remain in a single language, switch between languages, or codeswitch by regulating the concurrent activation of their language systems and adapting to the demands of the communicative context. Unlike studies that compare language switching in bilinguals in distinct interactional and geographical contexts, this study investigates heritage bilinguals who may be required to manage their home and societal languages differently within the course of a day. We examined how this variation affects linguistic and cognitive factors in spoken production. Critically, picture naming in Spanish and English appeared to rely on different mechanisms of cognitive control: greater reliance on proactive control led to decreased performance in Spanish picture naming but increased performance in English. Although convergent with findings that L2-immersed bilinguals prefer proactive control strategies, the findings with heritage bilinguals suggest that recruitment of cognitive control during speech planning is more dynamic than has been previously reported.

Limited evidence on relative effectiveness is common in Health Technology Assessment (HTA), often due to sparse evidence on the population of interest or study-design constraints. When evidence directly relating to the policy decision is limited, the evidence base could be extended to incorporate indirectly related evidence. For instance, a sparse evidence base in children could borrow strength from evidence in adults to improve estimation and reduce uncertainty. In HTA, indirect evidence has typically been either disregarded (‘splitting’; no information-sharing) or included without considering any differences (‘lumping’; full information-sharing). However, sophisticated methods that impose moderate degrees of information-sharing have been proposed. We describe and implement multiple information-sharing methods in a case-study evaluating the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and value of further research of intravenous immunoglobulin for severe sepsis and septic shock. We also provide metrics to determine the degree of information-sharing. Results indicate that method choice can have significant impact. Across information-sharing models, odds ratio estimates ranged between 0.55 and 0.90 and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios between £16,000–52,000 per quality-adjusted life year gained. The need for a future trial also differed by information-sharing model. Heterogeneity in the indirect evidence should also be carefully considered, as it may significantly impact estimates. We conclude that when indirect evidence is relevant to an assessment of effectiveness, the full range of information-sharing methods should be considered. The final selection should be based on a deliberative process that considers not only the plausibility of the methods’ assumptions but also the imposed degree of information-sharing.

This essay argues that what distinguishes a negatively valenced phenomenal experience from suffering is an ability to make meaning of the experience. In this sense, intellectual ability influences the extent and nature of suffering. But this connection is not a straightforward one, since intellectual ability cuts both ways. On the one hand, those with higher levels of intellectual functioning are better able to make meaning of negative experiences, thereby reducing their suffering. On the other, intellectual ability can influence the depth and breadth of one’s negative experiences, thereby increasing suffering. This means that we cannot make any assumptions about a person’s susceptibility to suffering based on their level of intellectual functioning alone.

This article presents a novel framework for analysing the politics of eco-social policies, focusing on the political conflicts surrounding this third generation of social risks. We distinguish two key dimensions of conflict: an ideational approach dimension, which focuses on conflicts among political actors over the possible synergies and trade-offs between social and ecological goals and their potential integration through eco-social policies, and a design dimension with several sub-dimensions related to the formulation and implementation of eco-social policies. To illustrate the merit of this analytical framework, we apply it to the analysis of party manifestos for the 2021 German federal election. Our findings reveal a striking divergence in the first dimension: While most parties emphasise the synergy potential of eco-social policies, albeit to varying degrees, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) stands out by opposing this narrative. The second dimension largely reflects established welfare positions, with centre-left and left-wing parties advocating state involvement and social consumption (the Social Democratic Party of Germany [SPD], the Greens, and The Left) and selective/needs-oriented measures (SPD and The Left) to a greater extent than centre-right parties (Christian Democratic Union of Germany [CDU]/Christian Social Union in Bavaria [CSU] and Free Democratic Party [FDP]). Furthermore, pro-growth approaches dominate, but there are signs that positions on degrowth policies may emerge as a significant conflict line in the future. Our analysis shows that eco-social policy conflicts are multidimensional, partly reshaping the political landscape around welfare policies, and are about not only how eco-social policies should be designed but whether they can and should be pursued at all.

The development of father leave policies marks a critical step toward gender equality in family policy. Despite promising policy developments, father leave policies continue to face resistance and negative feedback from various stakeholders, constraining their development. Their implementation has exhibited considerable variation across countries, ranging from mere symbolic gestures to substantive reforms. This article provides a comprehensive framework for understanding their evolution, emphasising that progress depends not solely on public support but on a mix of factors, including electoral competition, policy diffusion, negative feedback, and crises. The contrasting outcomes observed in South Korea and the Czech Republic highlight how similar drivers can produce divergent policy responses, challenging the view that drivers (like crises or electoral competition) have a predictable effect on policy change. This complexity necessitates a re-evaluation of existing theoretical frameworks to more accurately reflect the intricate dynamics at play in policy development.

Effect modification occurs when a covariate alters the relative effectiveness of treatment compared to control. It is widely understood that, when effect modification is present, treatment recommendations may vary by population and by subgroups within the population. Population-adjustment methods are increasingly used to adjust for differences in effect modifiers between study populations and to produce population-adjusted estimates in a relevant target population for decision-making. It is also widely understood that marginal and conditional estimands for non-collapsible effect measures, such as odds ratios or hazard ratios, do not in general coincide even without effect modification. However, the consequences of both non-collapsibility and effect modification together are little-discussed in the literature.

In this article, we set out the definitions of conditional and marginal estimands, illustrate their properties when effect modification is present, and discuss the implications for decision-making. In particular, we show that effect modification can result in conflicting treatment rankings between conditional and marginal estimates. This is because conditional and marginal estimands correspond to different decision questions that are no longer aligned when effect modification is present. For time-to-event outcomes, the presence of covariates implies that marginal hazard ratios are time-varying, and effect modification can cause marginal hazard curves to cross. We conclude with practical recommendations for decision-making in the presence of effect modification, based on pragmatic comparisons of both conditional and marginal estimates in the decision target population. Currently, multilevel network meta-regression is the only population-adjustment method capable of producing both conditional and marginal estimates, in any decision target population.

The integration of geotechnical and geophysical well logs, along with biostratigraphic and sediment analyses of borehole Schoten (northern Belgium), provides a better characterization of the glauconite-rich sandy Miocene successions near their type sections. It also provides a way to correlate the latter with more distal areas along the southern North Sea Basin. In the Schoten area, the Rupelian Boom Formation is unconformably overlain by the Lower to Middle Miocene Berchem Formation, which is in turn unconformably overlain by the Upper Miocene Diest Formation (Borsbeek Member). The Berchem Formation is formally subdivided into the Edegem, Kiel and Antwerpen members, which can be identified on the gamma-ray log of borehole Schoten. Sediment analyses show that the glauconite content and the local presence of phosphatic nodules are the main factors contributing to the fluctuating gamma-ray values. For the first time, the geophysical log signatures of the members of the Berchem Formation were correlated across large areas and major fault systems, which shows the regional significance of the boundaries between these members. Indeed, the boundary between the Edegem Member and the Kiel Member corresponds with the boundary between the Dutch Veldhoven and Groote Heide formations, known as the Early Miocene Unconformity. The overall higher gamma-ray values for the middle Miocene Antwerpen Member and equivalents in the upper part of the Dutch Groote Heide Formation are likely related to the eustatic sea level highs during the Miocene Climatic Optimum.

In the first months of the Spanish Civil War, the Spanish doctor Frederic Duran Jordà developed a new method of blood transfusion which overcame the era of direct arm-to-arm transfusions. While Duran was experimenting in Barcelona and the Aragon front, hundreds of foreign doctors came to Spain with the help of internationalist associations and offered their services to the Republican government. The Czechoslovak Dr Karel Holubec entered Spain in May 1937 and practiced in a mobile hospital funded by the Czechoslovak Committee to Aid Democratic Spain, receiving blood from Duran’s laboratory. This article aims to study how Duran and Holubec transferred the method of blood transfusion to Czechoslovakia through interpersonal contact, conferences, and performances. This paper argues that while individual actors played a crucial role in the diffusion of medical practices, this circulation was determined by a unique historical and socio-political framework. The Spanish Civil War, the International Brigades, and the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany were not only the historical context of medical innovation but an integral part of it.

This qualitative interview-based study examines metaphysical views of natural scientists (n = 35), focusing on the relationship of self to the universe. We use as a framework the idea of oneness, the view that the universe is fundamentally one thing. We examine how scientists situate their positions on religion and ultimate reality engaging with this concept. Our main research questions are: (1) How do natural scientists conceive of ultimate reality? What is their ontological picture of the world/universe? (2) How do natural scientists relate their spiritual, religious, and ethical outlook to their scientific topic(s) of study? Participants hold a sophisticated range of views that are influenced both by religious self-identification and disciplinary field. They regularly turn to philosophy and theology to guide their forays into ultimate reality, including philosophical and theological traditions such as Daoism, Buddhism, Calvinism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and ancient philosophy. We found that natural sciences and humanities do not compete, but are complementary when it comes to meaning-making.