US politics is living a tense period of transformation. Approaching the presidential elections of 2024, many commentators question the fate of the US representative democracy and its political system. Political scientists have largely contributed to the critical analysis of the US case. A special mention goes to Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson. The two scholars have marked the last two decades of US political science with a brilliant reconstruction of the American crisis and some of its key trends: the progressive increase of inequality; the mounting role of business lobbies; the decline of the US political economy and the erosion of the federal institutions. The present research note reviews three key books that shed light on contemporary US political economy through a typical political science approach. The value of these books goes well beyond the originality of the analysis of US politics. The books remind us the importance of three theoretical domains that marked political science and that merit to be further developed: interest group theory, neo-institutionalism and historical theories of democratization. Then, they shed light on the current dramatic tensions over representative democracies, well beyond the US exceptionalism. Hacker and Pierson provide an illuminating analysis of democratic tensions and give insights for the future research agenda of scholars of western political economies (including Italy and Europe). The books eventually outline some interesting methodological lines of future research.

This Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus special issue on “The Comfort Women as Public History” concludes with documentary filmmaker Miki Dezaki in conversation with Edward Vickers and Mark R. Frost. Dezaki's film Shusenjo, released in 2018, examines the controversy over “comfort women” within Japan, as well as its implications for Korea-Japan relations. Dezaki, himself Japanese-American, also devotes considerable attention to the growing ramifications of this controversy within the United States, as an instance of the increasing international significance of the comfort women issue. In this discussion, he, Frost and Vickers reflect on the messages of the film, the experience of making and distributing it, and what this reveals about the difficulty - and importance - of doing public history in a manner that respects the complexity of the past.

We argue that the post-Fukushima nuclear safety debates in the United States and Europe fundamentally altered the definition of nuclear safety. In the United States, the industry effectively took control by strengthening technical measures as the solution to nuclear safety concerns. In France, technical solutions were part of the process, but they were less dominant than in the United States and were overshadowed by larger organizational shuffles. The European Union, in contrast, engaged in a drawn-out debate over the very definition of nuclear safety, resulting in a stress test initiative that, while cumbersome and frustrating to many, included truly deliberative elements and ultimately revealed just how precarious the definitions of control and nuclear safety were.

Calls for reparations and apologies for crimes committed during the 1930s/40s war in Asia have been major points of contention in East Asia's public memory since at least the 1980s. In recent years, a “history/memory war” over the “comfort women” issue has intensified. At the same time, the battleground has also shifted to the terrain of “heritage” and has increasingly taken on a global dimension. This paper considers an increasingly significant arena for East Asian memory wars, involving diaspora communities in Western countries. Its particular focus is the coordinated “comfort women” activism of Korean American and other Asian American diaspora groups in certain regions of the United States. While their decades-long activism has produced a ‘memory boom’ in its own right and resulted in raising the political profile of Asian Americans, I argue that this has also come at the cost of straining to breaking point post-war arrangements for symbolizing and cementing US-Japanese reconciliation. The paper builds on existing research to delineate the expanding scope of Asia's memory wars and introduces new insights into some of the US activists' inter-ethnic alliance building that underscores the increasingly global nature of these memory conflicts as well as the potentially lasting repercussions for societies far beyond East Asia.

The present study drew on data provided by 179 clergymen and 226 clergywomen to discuss the psychological type and temperaments profile of stipendiary parochial clergy serving in The Episcopal Church (USA) and to set this profile alongside 591 clergymen and 486 clergywomen serving in the Church of England. The data indicated a similar profile for Anglican clergy on both sides of the Atlantic, with preferences for introversion, intuition, feeling and judging. In terms of temperament, in the USA 41% of clergymen were SJ, 38% NF, 17% NT and 4% SP; 43% of clergywomen were NF, 41% SJ, 13% NT and 2% SP.

The study evaluated the association between ultra-processed foods (UPF) and nutrient intake and identified the socio-demographic characteristics associated with UPF consumption among a nationally representative sample of middle-older adults. Dietary assessment was collected in 2013 using a validated FFQ. The Nova system was used to classify food and drinks into UPF. The percentage of dietary energy from UPF was calculated and used throughout the analyses, and average nutrient intake across quintiles of UPF was evaluated. The determinants associated with the dietary caloric contribution of UPF intake were investigated using linear regression models. A cross-sectional analysis of a nationally representative study of Americans over the age of 50, the Health and Retirement Study, was conducted. The analysis included 6220 participants. The mean age was 65 (se 0·28) years, with 55 % being female. UPF intake accounted for 51 % (se 0·25) of total intake. An increase in the percentage of (%UPF) consumption was correlated with an increase in calories, carbohydrates, saturated fat and sugar, and a decrease in fibre, vitamins and minerals. %UPF intake was inversely associated with being Hispanic, higher income, physical activity, vegetarian diet and Mediterranean diet but positively associated with very low food insecurity. UPF represented half of the calories consumed. A higher %UPF intake was associated with a lower nutrient profile, suggesting decreasing %UPF intake as a strategy to improve the nutritional quality of middle-older adults. A few socio-demographic factors were associated with %UPF, which would help in planning strategies to reduce UPF consumption.

The clay mineralogy of soil samples from the Morrow Plot Experiment (University of Illinois, Urbana Campus) was investigated. Analysis of soil samples taken at various intervals between 1913 and 1996 indicates that there is a significant influence of cropping method on the clay minerals in the soils. Curve decomposition methods were used to identify and follow the evolution of the different clay minerals: mica, illite and two randomly mixed-layered illite-smectite phases. The most striking difference is seen for continuous corn and corn-oats-hay rotations. Little change in clay mineralogy is seen in the rotation plot while a significant loss of illitic material from different phases was noted for the continuous-corn cultivation plots. Use of NPK fertilizer since 1955 appears to restore the clay mineralogy in continuous-corn cropping compared to that of the 1913 samples. From these data it appears that the I-S minerals play the role of a K buffer, becoming K-poor when the soil cannot furnish enough K from mineral reserves of detrital phases and K-rich when the soil is able to release enough K to enter into the I-S minerals, where it is available during a growing season, for plant growth.

The processes of post-socialist transformation, especially large-scale migration from Eastern Europe to the Western hemisphere, are creating an ‘expansion of space’ from the local to the supra-local. This process involves the expansion of personal-, familial- and friendship-based networking practices which acquire significance as transnational mobile livelihoods and as significant dimensions of urban dynamics in global cities like Chicago. What are the networks, attachments and social bonds of Eastern European migrants in Chicago? Ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Chicago in 2013 among recent Lithuanian immigrants brought out the importance of a cultural identity of East European-ness involving contested loyalties and limited integration. While living locally, Lithuanian immigrants are expected both to be bound to the ethnic community and to be immersed in the multicultural life-style of the mega city. However the research has shown that livelihoods and social relations among ‘one's own people’ are involved in trans-ethnic networks and that the bonds of intimacy and the alliances among ‘one's own people’ run through homeland roots and patrimonial linkages rather than through the citizenship loyalties of the state (the United States and/or Lithuania). The circle of ‘one's own people’ implies extensive reciprocity and social networking among ‘friends’ and co-workers based on ‘one's own resourcefulness’ a kind of social capital. Thus, ‘sharing important acquaintances’ ought to involve ‘doing favours’ and livelihood experiences transplanted from oversees are practised in Chicago as ‘local’ life-styles and are used for transnational networking, securing in the process the social status of those involved.

Applying the balanced affect model of clergy psychological wellbeing, as conceptualised by the Francis Burnout Inventory (FBI) and operationalised by The Index of Balanced Affect Change (TIBACh), this study explored the impact of seven sets of variables on individual differences in perceived changes in positive affect and negative affect among 737 clergy in the USA serving in the Episcopal Church during the Covid-19 pandemic. The seven sets of variables were: personal, psychological, contextual, ministry-related, church orientation, theological stance, and attitudinal. The data supported the balanced affect model of clergy psychological wellbeing by demonstrating how different variables predicted individual differences in negative affect and in positive affect. For example, clergywomen showed no differences from clergymen in terms of positive affect, but higher levels of negative affect; active self-supporting and retired clergy showed no differences from stipendiary clergy in terms of positive affect, but lower levels of negative affect; Evangelical clergy showed no differences in negative affect, but higher levels in positive affect. The balanced affect model provides insights into how clergy may be better supported during a pandemic.

Cotype material of stibiogoldfieldite from the Mohawk mine, Goldfield, Nevada, USA, has been examined in order to collect single-crystal X-ray diffraction data of Te-rich stibiogoldfieldite and to characterise the associated Ag–Bi–(S,Se) phase. Tellurium-rich stibiogoldfieldite, with empirical formula (Cu11.30Ag0.03)Σ11.33(Sb0.80As0.57Bi0.06Te2.57)Σ4.00(S12.83Se0.20)Σ13.03, is cubic, space group I$\bar{4}$3m, with unit-cell parameters a = 10.2947(3) Å and V = 1091.04(10) Å3. Its crystal structure has been refined to R1 = 0.0161 for 397 unique reflections with Fo > 4σ(Fo) and 25 refined parameters. The structure refinement confirmed the occurrence of a vacancy at the M(2) site, in agreement with the substitution M(2)Cu+ + X(3)(Sb/As)3+ = M(2)□ + X(3)Te4+. The Ag–Bi–(S,Se) phase was identified as the 6P homologue of the pavonite series, namely dantopaite. Its empirical formula is Cu1.36Ag4.39Pb0.12Bi12.62Sb0.06(S14.01Se7.91Te0.08), showing an exceptionally high Se content. Unit-cell parameters of Se-bearing dantopaite are a = 13.518(2), b = 4.0898(6), c = 18.984(3) Å, β = 106.816(6)°, V = 1004.7(3) Å3 and space group C2/m. The crystal structure was refined to R1 = 0.0504 for 1230 unique reflections with Fo > 4σ(Fo) and 82 refined parameters. The metal excess (~0.55 atoms per formula unit) of this pavonite homologue is mainly due to the accumulation of Ag and Cu in the thin slab of the crystal structure, whereas the high Se content is related to the partial replacement of S occurring preferentially in the thick PbS-like slab. Domains richer in Se and Pb in dantopaite, with empirical formula Cu0.89Ag4.50Pb0.49Bi12.53Sb0.07(S11.26Se10.74), were also identified, as grains up to 30 μm in size intimately intergrown with bohdanowiczite, indicating the possibility of a wide Se-to-S substitution in dantopaite.

Orthoamphibole, clinoamphibole and magnetite are common minerals in altered rocks associated spatially with Palaeoproterozoic volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits in Colorado, USA and metamorphosed to the amphibolite facies. These altered rocks are dominated by the assemblage orthoamphibole (anthophyllite/gedrite)–cordierite–magnetite±gahnite±sulfides. Magnetite also occurs in granitoids, banded iron formations, quartz garnetite, and in metallic mineralisation consisting of semi-massive pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and sphalerite with subordinate galena, gahnite and magnetite; amphibole also occurs in amphibolite. The precursor to the anthophyllite/gedrite–cordierite assemblages was probably the assemblage quartz–chlorite formed from hydrothermal ore-bearing fluids (~250° to 400°C) associated with the formation of metallic minerals in the massive sulfide deposits.

Element–element variation diagrams for amphibole, magnetite and ilmenite based on LA-ICP-MS data and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for orthoamphiboles and magnetite show a broad range of compositions which are primarily dependent upon the nature of the host rock associated spatially with the deposits. Although discrimination plots of Al/(Zn+Ca) vs Cu/(Si+Ca) and Sn/Ga vs Al/Co for magnetite do not indicate a VMS origin, the concentration of Al+Mn together with Ti+V and Sn vs Ti support a hydrothermal rather than a magmatic origin for magnetite. Principal Component Analyses also show that magnetite and orthoamphibole in metamorphosed altered rocks and sulfide zones have distinctive eigenvalues that allow them to be used as prospective pathfinders for VMS deposits in Colorado. This, in conjunction with the contents of Zn and Al in magnetite, Zn and Pb in amphibole, ilmenite and magnetite, the Cu content of orthoamphibole and ilmenite, and possibly the Ga and Sn concentrations of magnetite constitute effective exploration vectors.