Genetic influences on political ideologies: twin analyses of 19 measures of political ideologies from five democracies and genome-wide findings from three populations.

Science.gov (United States)

Hatemi, Peter K; Medland, Sarah E; Klemmensen, Robert; Oskarsson, Sven; Littvay, Levente; Dawes, Christopher T; Verhulst, Brad; McDermott, Rose; Nørgaard, Asbjørn Sonne; Klofstad, Casey A; Christensen, Kaare; Johannesson, Magnus; Magnusson, Patrik K E; Eaves, Lindon J; Martin, Nicholas G

2014-05-01

Almost 40 years ago, evidence from large studies of adult twins and their relatives suggested that between 30 and 60% of the variance in social and political attitudes could be explained by genetic influences. However, these findings have not been widely accepted or incorporated into the dominant paradigms that explain the etiology of political ideology. This has been attributed in part to measurement and sample limitations, as well the relative absence of molecular genetic studies. Here we present results from original analyses of a combined sample of over 12,000 twins pairs, ascertained from nine different studies conducted in five democracies, sampled over the course of four decades. We provide evidence that genetic factors play a role in the formation of political ideology, regardless of how ideology is measured, the era, or the population sampled. The only exception is a question that explicitly uses the phrase "Left-Right". We then present results from one of the first genome-wide association studies on political ideology using data from three samples: a 1990 Australian sample involving 6,894 individuals from 3,516 families; a 2008 Australian sample of 1,160 related individuals from 635 families and a 2010 Swedish sample involving 3,334 individuals from 2,607 families. No polymorphisms reached genome-wide significance in the meta-analysis. The combined evidence suggests that political ideology constitutes a fundamental aspect of one's genetically informed psychological disposition, but as Fisher proposed long ago, genetic influences on complex traits will be composed of thousands of markers of very small effects and it will require extremely large samples to have enough power in order to identify specific polymorphisms related to complex social traits.

Personality, Political Behavior, and Political Views about Mexico’s 2012 Presidential Election

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Alejandro Moreno

2014-04-01

Full Text Available People’s electoral behavior is understood as political predispositions and attitudes in specific institutional contexts. Recent scholarly work has included personality as a key explanatory factor in individual-level models of political participation. In this paper we build upon these recent efforts. We utilize the Big Five approach to assess the effects of different personality traits on people’s likelihood of political engagement during the 2012 presidential election in Mexico. We focus on the effects of personality on voting in the election and on individual views about the integrity of the electoral process. We use post election survey data collected for the Comparative National Elections Project in the 2012 Mexican presidential election. Our findings show that extraversion is a critical individual-level factor accounting for the propensity to turnout in this election as well as to encourage political discussion with family members, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.

Personality and Political Preferences Over Time: Evidence From a Multi-Wave Longitudinal Study.

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Ekstrom, Pierce D; Federico, Christopher M

2018-05-27

To investigate how the relations between the Big Five personality traits and political preferences develop over a campaign. We rely on a 6-wave nationwide longitudinal survey from the 2008 U.S. election that included 20,000 respondents. Mean age: 49 (SD=15). 53% of respondents were women, 47% men. 82% were White, 8% Black, 6% Hispanic/Latino, 1% Asian, 1% Native American, and 2% other. Survey weights were applied to approximate a representative sample of the U.S. Ns for reported analyses range from 5,160 to 12,535. First, conscientiousness and openness to experience were significantly associated with changes in outcomes over time, such that individuals higher in conscientiousness and lower in openness tended to become more conservative, identify as more Republican, and evaluate John McCain more favorably relative to Barack Obama. Second, the effects of personality on candidate evaluations were mediated by partisanship and ideology. Finally, we find that the relations between traits and late-campaign candidate evaluations are stronger than those between traits and early-campaign candidate evaluations. Personality plays an important and dynamic role in the formation and change of political preferences over the course of political campaigns-a role which is not entirely visible in cross-sectional analyses. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Two Novel SNPs of PPARγ Significantly Affect Weaning Growth Traits of Nanyang Cattle.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Jieping; Chen, Ningbo; Li, Xin; An, Shanshan; Zhao, Minghui; Sun, Taihong; Hao, Ruijie; Ma, Yun

2018-01-02

Peroxisome-proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) is a key transcription factor that controls adipocyte differentiation and energy in mammals. Therefore, PPARγ is a potential factor influencing animal growth traits. This study primarily evaluates PPARγ as candidate gene for growth traits of cattle and identifies potential molecular marker for cattle breeding. Per previous studies, PPARγ mRNA was mainly expressed at extremely high levels in adipose tissues as shown by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis. Three novel SNPs of the bovine PPARγ gene were identified in 514 individuals from six Chinese cattle breeds: SNP1 (AC_000179.1 g.57386668 C > G) in intron 2 and SNP2 (AC_000179.1 g.57431964 C > T) and SNP3 (AC_000179.1 g.57431994 T > C) in exon 7. The present study also investigated genetic characteristics of these SNP loci in six populations. Association analysis showed that SNP1 and SNP3 loci significantly affect weaning growth traits, especially body weight of Nanyang cattle. These results revealed that SNP1 and SNP3 are potential molecular markers for cattle breeding.

Categorizing Two Taiwanese Major Political Parties From Their Faces: The Influence of Provincial Appearance

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Chien-Kai Chang

2018-03-01

Full Text Available People go beyond the inferences afforded by a person’s observable features to make guesses about personality traits or even social memberships such as political affiliations. The present study extended Hu et al. (2016 to further investigate the influence of provincial appearance on differentiating KMT (Kuomintang and DPP (Democratic Progressive Party candidates by headshot photos with three experiments. In Experiment 1 (Membership categorization task, participants categorized the photos from the pilot study (where the difference between the perceived age of KMT and DPP candidates was reduced and divided into four blocks by their perceived age. We found that participants were able to distinguish KMT from DPP candidates significantly better than chance, even when the perceived age difference between the two parties was minimized. In Experiment 2 (Trait rating task, we asked young and middle-aged adults to rate six traits on candidate’s photos. We found that “provincial appearance” is the core trait differentiating the two parties for both young and older participants, while “facial maturity” is another trait for older participants only. In Experiment 3 (Double categorization task, we asked participants to categorize the photos from the Exp. 1 on their membership (KMT or DPP and on provincial appearance (mainlander or native Taiwanese in two separate sessions. Results showed that young adults were likely to use the “provincial appearance” as the main characteristic cue to categorize candidates’ political membership. In sum, our study showed that Taiwanese adults could categorize the two parties by their headshot photos when age cue was eliminated. Moreover, provincial appearance was the most critical trait for differentiating between KMT and DPP candidates, which may reflect a piece of significant history during the development of the two parties.

State Structure and Political Regime Structure

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Paul – Iulian Nedelcu

2012-05-01

Full Text Available The political regime is the concrete form of organization and functioning of political system andtherefore, the regime means the concrete way of organize, institutionalize and function a political systemand of the exercise of political power by a social-political force in a social community or global socialistem. The political regime is not limited to institutions and state bodies, but it covers the entire politicalsystem. Form of expression in social practice plan is the result of balance of forces between classes ofcitizens, organizations, between them and civil society and politics.Designates the concrete form ofgovernment formation and organization, of state bodies, in aspect of their characteristics and principles, therelations between them and other state bodies, and also as the relationship between them and otherinstitutionalized forms of political systems. Instead, the political regime is an explicit realization ofaxiological operations, a specific hierarchy of values, in general and political values, in particular. Even ifsome elements of the political regime overlap to some extent and in some respects, those of form orstructure of guvernamnt state, thus they dissolve his identity, distinct quality of being specific traits of thepolitical regime.

Effects of physical attractiveness on political beliefs.

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Peterson, Rolfe Daus; Palmer, Carl L

2017-01-01

Physical attractiveness is an important social factor in our daily interactions. Scholars in social psychology provide evidence that attractiveness stereotypes and the "halo effect" are prominent in affecting the traits we attribute to others. However, the interest in attractiveness has not directly filtered down to questions of political behavior beyond candidates and elites. Utilizing measures of attractiveness across multiple surveys, we examine the relationship between attractiveness and political beliefs. Controlling for socioeconomic status, we find that more attractive individuals are more likely to report higher levels of political efficacy, identify as conservative, and identify as Republican. These findings suggest an additional mechanism for political socialization that has further implications for understanding how the body intertwines with the social nature of politics.

Genetic Influences on Political Ideologies: Twin Analyses of 19 Measures of Political Ideologies from Five Democracies and Genome-Wide Findings from Three Populations

Science.gov (United States)

Hatemi, Peter K.; Medland, Sarah E.; Klemmensen, Robert; Oskarrson, Sven; Littvay, Levente; Dawes, Chris; Verhulst, Brad; McDermott, Rose; Nørgaard, Asbjørn Sonne; Klofstad, Casey; Christensen, Kaare; Johannesson, Magnus; Magnusson, Patrik K.E.; Eaves, Lindon J.; Martin, Nicholas G.

2014-01-01

Almost forty years ago, evidence from large studies of adult twins and their relatives suggested that between 30-60% of the variance in social and political attitudes could be explained by genetic influences. However, these findings have not been widely accepted or incorporated into the dominant paradigms that explain the etiology of political ideology. This has been attributed in part to measurement and sample limitations, as well the relative absence of molecular genetic studies. Here we present results from original analyses of a combined sample of over 12,000 twins pairs, ascertained from nine different studies conducted in five democracies, sampled over the course of four decades. We provide evidence that genetic factors play a role in the formation of political ideology, regardless of how ideology is measured, the era, or the population sampled. The only exception is a question that explicitly uses the phrase “Left-Right”. We then present results from one of the first genome-wide association studies on political ideology using data from three samples: a 1990 Australian sample involving 6,894 individuals from 3,516 families; a 2008 Australian sample of 1,160 related individuals from 635 families and a 2010 Swedish sample involving 3,334 individuals from 2,607 families. No polymorphisms reached genome-wide significance in the meta-analysis. The combined evidence suggests that political ideology constitutes a fundamental aspect of one’s genetically informed psychological disposition, but as Fisher proposed long ago, genetic influences on complex traits will be composed of thousands of markers of very small effects and it will require extremely large samples to have enough power in order to identify specific polymorphisms related to complex social traits. PMID:24569950

Correlates of Psychopathic Personality Traits in Everyday Life:Results from a Large Community Survey

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Scott O Lilienfeld

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Although the traits of psychopathic personality (psychopathy have received extensive attention from researchers in forensic psychology, psychopathology, and personality psychology, the relations of these traits to aspects of everyday functioning are poorly understood. Using a large internet survey of members of the general population (N=3398, we examined the association between psychopathic traits, as measured by a brief but well-validated self-report measure, and occupational choice, political orientation, religious affiliation, and geographical residence. Psychopathic traits, especially those linked to fearless dominance, were positively and moderately associated with holding leadership and management positions, as well as high-risk occupations. In addition, psychopathic traits were positively associated with political conservatism, lack of belief in God, and living in Europe as opposed to the United States, although the magnitudes of these statistical effects were generally small in magnitude. Our findings offer preliminary evidence that psychopathic personality traits display meaningful response penetration into daily functioning, and raise provocative questions for future research.

The Significance of Trust in the Political System and Motivation for Pupils' Learning Progress in Politics Lessons

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Landwehr, Barbara; Weisseno, Georg

2016-01-01

Very little research has been conducted on the contribution of political education to learning progress in Germany. Hence, there is a need for intervention studies measuring performance against the theoretical background of a political competence model. This model comprises three constructs: subject knowledge, motivation and attitudes. According…

Cortisol and politics: variance in voting behavior is predicted by baseline cortisol levels.

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French, Jeffrey A; Smith, Kevin B; Alford, John R; Guck, Adam; Birnie, Andrew K; Hibbing, John R

2014-06-22

Participation in electoral politics is affected by a host of social and demographics variables, but there is growing evidence that biological predispositions may also play a role in behavior related to political involvement. We examined the role of individual variation in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) stress axis parameters in explaining differences in self-reported and actual participation in political activities. Self-reported political activity, religious participation, and verified voting activity in U.S. national elections were collected from 105 participants, who were subsequently exposed to a standardized (nonpolitical) psychosocial stressor. We demonstrated that lower baseline salivary cortisol in the late afternoon was significantly associated with increased actual voting frequency in six national elections, but not with self-reported non-voting political activity. Baseline cortisol predicted significant variation in voting behavior above and beyond variation accounted for by traditional demographic variables (particularly age of participant in our sample). Participation in religious activity was weakly (and negatively) associated with baseline cortisol. Our results suggest that HPA-mediated characteristics of social, cognitive, and emotional processes may exert an influence on a trait as complex as voting behavior, and that cortisol is a better predictor of actual voting behavior, as opposed to self-reported political activity. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cortisol and Politics: Variance in Voting Behavior is Predicted by Baseline Cortisol Levels

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French, Jeffrey A.; Smith, Kevin B.; Alford, John R.; Guck, Adam; Birnie, Andrew K.; Hibbing, John R.

2014-01-01

Participation in electoral politics is affected by a host of social and demographics variables, but there is growing evidence that biological predispositions may also play a role in behavior related to political involvement. We examined the role of individual variation in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) stress axis parameters in explaining differences in self-reported and actual participation in political activities. Self-reported political activity, religious participation, and verified voting activity in U.S. national elections were collected from 105 participants, who were subsequently exposed to a standardized (nonpolitical) psychosocial stressor. We demonstrated that lower baseline salivary cortisol in the late afternoon was significantly associated with increased actual voting frequency in six national elections, but not with self-reported non-voting political activity. Baseline cortisol predicted significant variation in voting behavior above and beyond variation accounted for by traditional demographic variables (particularly age of participant in our sample). Participation in religious activity was weakly (and negatively) associated with baseline cortisol. Our results suggest that HPA-mediated characteristics of social, cognitive, and emotional processes may exert an influence on a trait as complex as voting behavior, and that cortisol is a better predictor of actual voting behavior, as opposed to self-reported political activity. PMID:24835544

The political parties and significant personalities of the Bessarabian Zemstvo (1869-1917

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Valentin Tomuleţ

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This article focuses on some parties and significant personalities who worked in the Bessarabian institution of local self-government – Zemstvo (created in 1869 and contributed to the development of the province. The authors found that some nobles united and formed political parties. Parties of the Zemstvo were groups of persons related to the most influential families from Bessarabia. For some of them the Zemstvo served as a platform on which the nobles could solve their problems. It can be said that the Zemstvo was the “alter ego” of the Bessarabian nobility. As a result, in the political life of Bessarabia two main parties were formed – “Young Bessarabia” (“Molodaya Bessarabiya” and “Old Greek Party” (Starogrecheskaya”, which succeeded each other at the helm of power. In the early 1880s, the “Old Greek party” finally defeated its rival and gained full power in the Bessarabian Zemstvo administration. Counselors saw in the Bessarabian Zemstvo an important and reliable instrument for committing abuses. For example, the Head of the Orhei Zemstvo Council Cozac embezzled money from the Zemstvo budget. When the fact of the theft was uncovered, and this was written about in the press, Cozac shot himself. Each group of the nobles included not only people related to certain interest in economic and political life of Bessarabia, but also people related by kinship, acting in the family interests. In 1881-1884, 18 of the 52 provincial councelors were relatives: brothers Semigradov (4 people, brothers Krupensky, brothers Sinadino, brothers Dunca, brothers Cotruta (2 people. The Krupensky family was the most influential family in the Bessarabian Zemstvo. The publicist P. Krushevan wrote in this regard that the Krupensky clan usurped all the power in Bessarabia, and the Governor S. Urusov noted their importance in economic and political life of the province. Many members of the Zemstvo left their mark in the economic, political, and

What Makes a Prime Minister Great?: A Leadership Trait Analysis of the effectiveness of British Prime Ministers from 1902 to 2004

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Samuel R. Rohrer

2014-10-01

Full Text Available What role do the Leadership Trait Analysis (LTA criteria projected by a British Prime Minister (PM have on the perceived effectiveness of their time in office? In this paper, the analysis of 20th-century British PMs utilized automated at-a-distance content analysis and the LTA coding system to determine the conceptual complexity, ability to control events, and need for power scores projected by PMs. The impact these traits had on the perceived effectiveness of the totality of the PMs’ tenure in office, as measured by the 2004 MORI/University of Leeds survey, was then examined via one-tailed ordinary least squares regression. This project provides evidence that British PMs who project traits associated with the LTA measure regarding strong power motivation are significantly viewed as more effective while in office. These findings provide more than a novel historical profile of British PMs. The relationship between effective leadership and LTA traits could be utilized by political campaigns, especially given the introduction of prime ministerial debates, to portray a prime ministerial candidate as more politically effective than his/her competition.

The genetic and environmental foundations of political, psychological, social, and economic behaviors: a panel study of twins and families.

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Hatemi, Peter K; Smith, Kevin; Alford, John R; Martin, Nicholas G; Hibbing, John R

2015-06-01

Here we introduce the Genetic and Environmental Foundations of Political and Economic Behaviors: A Panel Study of Twins and Families (PIs Alford, Hatemi, Hibbing, Martin, and Smith). This study was designed to explore the genetic and environmental influences on social, economic, and political behaviors and attitudes. It involves identifying the psychological mechanisms that operate on these traits, the heritability of complex economic and political traits under varying conditions, and specific genetic correlates of attitudes and behaviors. In addition to describing the study, we conduct novel analyses on the data, estimating the heritability of two traits so far unexplored in the extant literature: Machiavellianism and Baron-Cohen's Empathizing Quotient.

The Personal Foundations of Political Tolerance towards Immigrants

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Freitag, Markus; Rapp, Carolin

2015-01-01

In this paper, we expand previous research on the psychological foundations of attitudes towards immigrants by evaluating the role of the Big Five personality traits with regard to the formation of political tolerance. Following the literature, we elaborate tolerance as a sequential concept...... of rejection and acceptance to uncover differentiating effects of personality on both immigrant-specific prejudices as well as on the assignment of the right to vote as a pivotal political privilege to this group. Using a representative sample of the Swiss population, with its distinctive history related...... to the immigration issue, our two-step Heckman selection models reveal that extroverts and people who score low in agreeableness exhibit negative attitudes towards immigrants. At the same time, only openness to experience is significantly connected to the likeliness of granting immigrants the right to vote....

Cognitive Ability, Principled Reasoning and Political Tolerance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hebbelstrup Rye Rasmussen, Stig; Nørgaard, Asbjørn Sonne

Individuals are not equally politically tolerant. To explain why, individual differences in emotions and threat have received much scholarly attention in recent years. However, extant research also shows that psychological dispositions, habitual cognitive styles, ideological orientation...... and ‘principled reasoning’ influence political tolerance judgments. The extent to which cognitive ability plays a role has not been entertained even if the capacity to think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas and apply abstract ideas to concrete situations is inherent to both principled tolerance judgment...... and cognitive ability. Cognitive ability, we argue and show, adds to the etiology of political tolerance. In Danish and American samples cognitive ability strongly predicts political tolerance after taking habitual cognitive styles (as measured by personality traits), education, social ideology, and feelings...

Do Personality and Organizational Politics Predict Workplace Victimization? A Study among Ghanaian Employees

OpenAIRE

Amponsah-Tawiah, Kwesi; Annor, Francis

2016-01-01

Background: Workplace victimization is considered a major social stressor with significant implications for the wellbeing of employees and organizations. The aim of this study was to examine the influences of employees' personality traits and organizational politics on workplace victimization among Ghanaian employees. Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, data were collected from 631 employees selected from diverse occupations through convenience sampling. Data collection tools were sta...

Psychedelics, Personality and Political Perspectives.

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Nour, Matthew M; Evans, Lisa; Carhart-Harris, Robin L

2017-01-01

The psychedelic experience (including psychedelic-induced ego dissolution) can effect lasting change in a person's attitudes and beliefs. Here, we aimed to investigate the association between naturalistic psychedelic use and personality, political perspectives, and nature relatedness using an anonymous internet survey. Participants (N = 893) provided information about their naturalistic psychedelic, cocaine, and alcohol use, and answered questions relating to personality traits of openness and conscientiousness (Ten-Item Personality Inventory), nature relatedness (Nature-Relatedness Scale), and political attitudes (one-item liberalism-conservatism measure and five-item libertarian-authoritarian measure). Participants also rated the degree of ego dissolution experienced during their "most intense" recalled psychedelic experience (Ego-Dissolution Inventory). Multivariate linear regression analysis indicated that lifetime psychedelic use (but not lifetime cocaine use or weekly alcohol consumption) positively predicted liberal political views, openness and nature relatedness, and negatively predicted authoritarian political views, after accounting for potential confounding variables. Ego dissolution experienced during a participant's "most intense" psychedelic experience positively predicted liberal political views, openness and nature relatedness, and negatively predicted authoritarian political views. Further work is needed to investigate the nature of the relationship between the peak psychedelic experience and openness to new experiences, egalitarian political views, and concern for the environment.

Assessment of Tools for Marker-Assisted Selection in a Marine Commercial Species: Significant Association between MSTN-1 Gene Polymorphism and Growth Traits

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Irma Sánchez-Ramos

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Growth is a priority trait from the point of view of genetic improvement. Molecular markers linked to quantitative trait loci (QTL have been regarded as useful for marker-assisted selection in complex traits as growth. Polymorphisms have been studied in five candidate genes influencing growth in gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata: the growth hormone (GH, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1, myostatin (MSTN-1, prolactin (PRL, and somatolactin (SL genes. Specimens evaluated were from a commercial broodstock comprising 131 breeders (from which 36 males and 44 females contributed to the progeny. In all samples eleven gene fragments, covering more than 13,000 bp, generated by PCR-RFLP, were analyzed; tests were made for significant associations between these markers and growth traits. ANOVA results showed a significant association between MSTN-1 gene polymorphism and growth traits. Pairwise tests revealed several RFLPs in the MSTN-1 gene with significant heterogeneity of genotypes among size groups. PRL and MSTN-1 genes presented linkage disequilibrium. The MSTN-1 gene was mapped in the centromeric region of a medium-size acrocentric chromosome pair.

A genome scan revealed significant associations of growth traits with a major QTL and GHR2 in tilapia

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Feng; Sun, Fei; Xia, Jun Hong; Li, Jian; Fu, Gui Hong; Lin, Grace; Tu, Rong Jian; Wan, Zi Yi; Quek, Delia; Yue, Gen Hua

2014-01-01

Growth is an important trait in animal breeding. However, the genetic effects underpinning fish growth variability are still poorly understood. QTL mapping and analysis of candidate genes are effective methods to address this issue. We conducted a genome-wide QTL analysis for growth in tilapia. A total of 10, 7 and 8 significant QTLs were identified for body weight, total length and standard length at 140 dph, respectively. The majority of these QTLs were sex-specific. One major QTL for growth traits was identified in the sex-determining locus in LG1, explaining 71.7%, 67.2% and 64.9% of the phenotypic variation (PV) of body weight, total length and standard length, respectively. In addition, a candidate gene GHR2 in a QTL was significantly associated with body weight, explaining 13.1% of PV. Real-time qPCR revealed that different genotypes at the GHR2 locus influenced the IGF-1 expression level. The markers located in the major QTL for growth traits could be used in marker-assisted selection of tilapia. The associations between GHR2 variants and growth traits suggest that the GHR2 gene should be an important gene that explains the difference in growth among tilapia species. PMID:25435025

The genetic architecture of economic and political preferences

OpenAIRE

Benjamin, Daniel J.; Cesarini, David; van der Loos, Matthijs J. H. M.; Dawes, Christopher T.; Koellinger, Philipp D.; Magnusson, Patrik K. E.; Chabris, Christopher F.; Conley, Dalton; Laibson, David; Johannesson, Magnus; Visscher, Peter M.

2012-01-01

textabstractPreferences are fundamental building blocks in all models of economic and political behavior. We study a new sample of comprehensively genotyped subjects with data on economic and political preferences and educational attainment. We use dense single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data to estimate the proportion of variation in these traits explained by common SNPs and to conduct genome-wide association study (GWAS) and prediction analyses. The pattern of results is consistent with ...

Orthognathic Surgery Has a Significant Effect on Perceived Personality Traits and Emotional Expressions.

Science.gov (United States)

Mazzaferro, Daniel M; Wes, Ari M; Naran, Sanjay; Pearl, Rebecca; Bartlett, Scott P; Taylor, Jesse A

2017-11-01

The effects of orthognathic surgery go beyond objective cephalometric correction of facial and dental disproportion and malocclusion, respectively. The authors hypothesized that there is tangible improvement following surgery that alters publicly perceived personality traits and emotions. The authors used Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk (MTurk), a crowdsourcing tool, to determine how preoperative and postoperative images of orthognathic surgery patients were perceived on six personality traits and six emotional expressions based on posteroanterior and lateral photographs. Blinded respondents provided demographic information and were randomly assigned to one of two sets of 20 photographs (10 subjects before and after surgery). Data on 20 orthognathic surgery patients were collected from 476 individuals. The majority of participants were female (52.6 percent), 18 to 39 years old (67.9 percent), Caucasian (76.6 percent), had some college or technical training or graduated college (72.7 percent), and had an annual income between $20,000 and $99,999 (74.6 percent). A paired t test analysis found that subjects were perceived significantly more favorably after orthognathic surgery in 12 countenance categories: more dominant, trustworthy, friendly, intelligent, attractive, and happy; and also less threatening, angry, surprised, sad, afraid, and disgusted (p surgery than those earning less (p orthognathic surgery, with both perceived personality traits and emotions deemed more favorable. Additional work is needed to better understand the physiologic underpinnings of such findings. Crowdsourcing technology offers a unique opportunity for surgeons to gather data regarding laypeople's perceptions of surgical outcomes in areas such as orthognathic surgery.

Political significance of knowledge in Southeast Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Slaus, Ivo

2003-02-01

The processes of globalization and transition are inevitable, full of dangers and threats, but offer enormous opportunities. Surveys of public opinion show that citizens are not aware of the fact that their countries are governed by the will of the people and a large majority considers that their country and the world are not going in the right direction. Presently, knowledge is becoming a dominant political power. This article outlines a strategy for building a knowledge-based society to minimize dangers, avoid threats, and take advantage of most of the opportunities, bringing a concrete action plan for Croatia, applicable to countries with similar history and socioeconomic structure.

The significance of communication means of the internet in contemporary politics

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Арам Грачиаевич Восканян

2013-12-01

Full Text Available In the given article on the basis of comparative analysis is studied the dual nature of the widespread approaches to influence of media sphere upon political processes by the example of actual events in western countries and Arab world. The authors investigate mobilization, integration, democratization and intervention capabilities of the modern media sphere. The practices of application of the new media means by the leading countries as specific tools of soft power strategies at national and international levels have been thoroughly analyzed in the article. The authors come to conclusion that in the modern world the functional apparatus of the Internet despite it architectural openness and infinite socio-political potential is limited by the activities of media elites that hinder true civil participation. Untimely proclaimed democratic character of media sphere is weaken by commercialization and consumerism of media space. The category of “feedback” as an important mobilization tool has situational character and has the short-term impact upon political views and perceptions.

Does sociability predict civic involvement and political participation?

Science.gov (United States)

Foschi, Renato; Lauriola, Marco

2014-02-01

In contemporary history as well as in political science, a strong associational life known as sociability is thought to explain the roots of modern democracy by establishing a link between the increasing availability of free time to the middle classes, increasing willingness to gather with others in circles or associations, and increasing social capital. In personality psychology, sociability is related to prosocial behavior (i.e., the need for affiliation, agreeableness, openness, and extraversion), whose importance in different political behaviors is increasingly recognized. In the present article, we carried out 5 studies (N = 1,429) that showed that political and associative sociability (a) can be reliably assessed, can have cross-cultural validity, and are properly associated with general social interest measures and personality domains and facets in the five-factor model; (b) do not overlap with similar concepts used in political psychology to account for political participation (political expertise, political interest, political self-efficacy); and (c) predicted political and nonpolitical group membership as well as observable choices in decision-making tasks with political and nonpolitical outcomes. The results are discussed, taking into consideration the extent to which specific facets of sociability can mediate between general personality traits and measures of civic involvement and political participation in a holistic model of political behavior. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Lateral orbitofrontal cortex links social impressions to political choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Chenjie; Stolle, Dietlind; Gidengil, Elisabeth; Fellows, Lesley K

2015-06-03

Recent studies of political behavior suggest that voting decisions can be influenced substantially by "first-impression" social attributions based on physical appearance. Separate lines of research have implicated the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in the judgment of social traits on the one hand and economic decision-making on the other, making this region a plausible candidate for linking social attributions to voting decisions. Here, we asked whether OFC lesions in humans disrupted the ability to judge traits of political candidates or affected how these judgments influenced voting decisions. Seven patients with lateral OFC damage, 18 patients with frontal damage sparing the lateral OFC, and 53 matched healthy participants took part in a simulated election paradigm, in which they voted for real-life (but unknown) candidates based only on photographs of their faces. Consistent with previous work, attributions of "competence" and "attractiveness" based on candidate appearance predicted voting behavior in the healthy control group. Frontal damage did not affect substantially the ability to make competence or attractiveness judgments, but patients with damage to the lateral OFC differed from other groups in how they applied this information when voting. Only attractiveness ratings had any predictive power for voting choices after lateral OFC damage, whereas other frontal patients and healthy controls relied on information about both competence and attractiveness in making their choice. An intact lateral OFC may not be necessary for judgment of social traits based on physical appearance, but it seems to be crucial in applying this information in political decision-making. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/358507-08$15.00/0.

Linguistic intergroup bias in political communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Anolli, Luigi; Zurloni, Valentino; Riva, Giuseppe

2006-07-01

The Linguistic Intergroup Bias (LIB) illustrates the disposition to communicate positive in-group and negative out-group behaviors more abstractly than negative in-group and positive out-group behaviors. The present research examined the function of language in reinforcing this bias in political communication. To illustrate the LIB, the Linguistic Category Model (LCM) was used, including a nouns category. Because social stereotypes are usually conveyed by nominal terms, the aim was to observe the relationship between stereotypes and language in political communication. Moreover, we were interested in analyzing the psychological processes that drive the LIB. Therefore, we verified whether the LIB is more related to language abstractness than to agent-patient causality. Several political debates and interviews, which took place before the latest Italian provincial elections, were analyzed. Results suggested that the language politicians use in communicating about political groups are conceptualized as stereotypes rather than as trait-based categories. Moreover, it seems that the LIB could not be explained only at a lexical level. Social implications of the present findings in interpersonal relations and causal attribution were discussed.

Quantitative trait loci for fertility traits in Finnish Ayrshire cattle

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Viitala Sirja M

2008-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract A whole genome scan was carried out to detect quantitative trait loci (QTL for fertility traits in Finnish Ayrshire cattle. The mapping population consisted of 12 bulls and 493 sons. Estimated breeding values for days open, fertility treatments, maternal calf mortality and paternal non-return rate were used as phenotypic data. In a granddaughter design, 171 markers were typed on all 29 bovine autosomes. Associations between markers and traits were analysed by multiple marker regression. Multi-trait analyses were carried out with a variance component based approach for the chromosomes and trait combinations, which were observed significant in the regression method. Twenty-two chromosome-wise significant QTL were detected. Several of the detected QTL areas were overlapping with milk production QTL previously identified in the same population. Multi-trait QTL analyses were carried out to test if these effects were due to a pleiotropic QTL affecting fertility and milk yield traits or to linked QTL causing the effects. This distinction could only be made with confidence on BTA1 where a QTL affecting milk yield is linked to a pleiotropic QTL affecting days open and fertility treatments.

Left or right? Sources of political orientation: the roles of genetic factors, cultural transmission, assortative mating, and personality.

Science.gov (United States)

Kandler, Christian; Bleidorn, Wiebke; Riemann, Rainer

2012-03-01

In this study, we used an extended twin family design to investigate the influences of genetic and cultural transmission as well as different sources of nonrandom mating on 2 core aspects of political orientation: acceptance of inequality and rejecting system change. In addition, we studied the sources of phenotypic links between Big Five personality traits and political beliefs using self- and other reports. Data of 1,992 individuals (224 monozygotic and 166 dizygotic twin pairs, 92 unmatched twins, 530 spouses of twins, 268 fathers, and 322 mothers) were analyzed. Genetically informative analyses showed that political attitudes are genetically but not environmentally transmitted from parents to offspring and that a substantial proportion of this genetic variance can be accounted for by genetic variance in personality traits. Beyond genetic effects and genotypic assortative mating, generation-specific environmental sources act to increase twins' and spouses' resemblance in political beliefs. The results suggest multiple sources of political orientations in a modern democracy.

The C(-1019G 5-HT1A promoter polymorphism and personality traits: no evidence for significant association in alcoholic patients

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Zill P

2006-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract The 5HT1A receptor is one of at least 14 different receptors for serotonin which has a role in moderating several brain functions and may be involved in the aetiology of several psychiatric disorders. The C(-1019G 5-HT1A promoter polymorphism was reported to be associated with major depression, depression-related personality traits and suicidal behavior in various samples. The G(-1019 allele carriers are prone to depressive personality traits and suicidal behavior, because serotonergic neurotransmission is reduced. The aim of this study is to replicate previous findings in a sample of 185 Alcohol-dependent individuals. Personality traits were evaluated using the NEO FFI and TCI. History of suicidal behavior was assessed by a standardized semistructured interview (SSAGA. No significant differences across C(-1019G 5-HT1A genotype groups were found for TCI temperament and character traits and for NEO FFI personality scales. No association was detected between this genetic variant and history of suicide attempts. These results neither support a role of C(-1019G 5-HT1A promoter polymorphism in the disposition of personality traits like harm avoidance or neuroticism, nor confirm previous research reporting an involvement of the G allele in suicidal behavior in alcoholics. Significant associations, however, were detected between Babor's Type B with number of suicide attempts in history, high neuroticism and harm avoidance scores in alcoholics.

Resource Windfalls, Political Regimes, and Political Stability

OpenAIRE

Francesco Caselli; Andrea Tesei

2011-01-01

We study theoretically and empirically whether natural resource windfalls affect political regimes. We document the following regularities. Natural resource windfalls have no effect on the political system when they occur in democracies. However, windfalls have significant political consequences in autocracies. In particular, when an autocratic country receives a positive shock to its flow of resource rents it responds by becoming even more autocratic. Furthermore, there is heterogeneity in t...

Associations between animal traits, carcass traits and carcass ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In this study the associations between animal traits, carcass traits and carcass classification within cattle, sheep and pigs slaughtered in a high throughput abattoir were determined. Classes of carcasses from cattle, sheep and pigs delivered for slaughter at this abattoir were recorded and analysed. Significant associations ...

Association between the dopamine D4 receptor gene exon III variable number of tandem repeats and political attitudes in female Han Chinese.

Science.gov (United States)

Ebstein, Richard P; Monakhov, Mikhail V; Lu, Yunfeng; Jiang, Yushi; Lai, Poh San; Chew, Soo Hong

2015-08-22

Twin and family studies suggest that political attitudes are partially determined by an individual's genotype. The dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) exon III repeat region that has been extensively studied in connection with human behaviour, is a plausible candidate to contribute to individual differences in political attitudes. A first United States study provisionally identified this gene with political attitude along a liberal-conservative axis albeit contingent upon number of friends. In a large sample of 1771 Han Chinese university students in Singapore, we observed a significant main effect of association between the DRD4 exon III variable number of tandem repeats and political attitude. Subjects with two copies of the 4-repeat allele (4R/4R) were significantly more conservative. Our results provided evidence for a role of the DRD4 gene variants in contributing to individual differences in political attitude particularly in females and more generally suggested that associations between individual genes, and neurochemical pathways, contributing to traits relevant to the social sciences can be provisionally identified. © 2015 The Author(s).

Association between the dopamine D4 receptor gene exon III variable number of tandem repeats and political attitudes in female Han Chinese

Science.gov (United States)

Ebstein, Richard P.; Monakhov, Mikhail V.; Lu, Yunfeng; Jiang, Yushi; Lai, Poh San; Chew, Soo Hong

2015-01-01

Twin and family studies suggest that political attitudes are partially determined by an individual's genotype. The dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) exon III repeat region that has been extensively studied in connection with human behaviour, is a plausible candidate to contribute to individual differences in political attitudes. A first United States study provisionally identified this gene with political attitude along a liberal–conservative axis albeit contingent upon number of friends. In a large sample of 1771 Han Chinese university students in Singapore, we observed a significant main effect of association between the DRD4 exon III variable number of tandem repeats and political attitude. Subjects with two copies of the 4-repeat allele (4R/4R) were significantly more conservative. Our results provided evidence for a role of the DRD4 gene variants in contributing to individual differences in political attitude particularly in females and more generally suggested that associations between individual genes, and neurochemical pathways, contributing to traits relevant to the social sciences can be provisionally identified. PMID:26246555

Do Personality and Organizational Politics Predict Workplace Victimization? A Study among Ghanaian Employees

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Kwesi Amponsah-Tawiah

2017-03-01

Conclusion: The study demonstrates that compared with personal characteristics such as personality traits, work environment factors such as organizational politics have a stronger influence on the occurrence of workplace victimization.

The effect of shovel trait on Carabelli's trait in Taiwan Chinese and Aboriginal populations.

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, J W; Tsai, P L; Hsiao, T H; Chang, H P; Lin, L M; Liu, K M; Yu, H S; Ferguson, D

1997-09-01

Chinese and other Mongoloid populations differ from Caucasoids by having a high prevalence of shovel trait and a low prevalence of Carabelli's trait. This study was conducted to compare the association between the shovel and the Carabelli's traits between Chinese and aboriginal Mongoloid populations. The research is designed to sample randomly a Chinese population and an aboriginal population having low admixture with neighboring populations. The Mongoloid aboriginal group was from the Bunun tribe who resides in an isolated alpine area in Taiwan. The effects of sex and age on Carabelli's trait were controlled in this study, as was the association between tooth size and Carabelli's trait. Our results show that males had more Carabelli's trait expressed on teeth than females in both of these two Mongoloid populations. The buccolingual diameter of Carabelli's trait teeth was larger than that of teeth without the trait. After controlling for sex, age, and tooth size, the existence of the shovel trait significantly increased the likelihood of having Carabelli's trait, especially in Chinese, which implies another significant ethnic feature for Mongoloid identification.

Deconstructing Kimilsungism: A Political and Ideological Analysis of the North Korean Regime

OpenAIRE

Sangiovanni, John James

2009-01-01

This thesis argues that the North Korean model of government is a unique model that is influenced, to varying degrees, by extreme leftist and rightist doctrines, including Marxism-Leninism, Stalinism, Maoism, fascism, and Nazism; and shares at least some similarities with all these established models. Rather than being a mere political model, the North Korean model is a political religion that incorporates traits of each of the above-noted models with Korean mythology, Confucianism, extreme ...

Political Transmigrants: Rethinking Hmong Political Activism in America

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Nengher N. Vang, Ph.D

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Since the initial resettlement of the Hmong in the United States in the mid-1970s, they have maintained strong political and military relationships with the Lao People‘s Democratic Republic (LPDR. Yet, there is little research on that relationship and the involvement of the Hmong in the United States in political developments in Laos. Most works on Hmong political activism have focused on the electoral participation and representation of Hmong Americans in relation to American domestic politics. In this article, using archival, ethnographic, and interview data that I have collected between 2006 and 2009 in Laos, Thailand, and the United States, I describe and analyze the non-domestic or transnational form of Hmong American political expression and participation. I argue that Hmong political activism in America not only was transnational from the outset, but that their transnational involvement in political developments in Laos and their relations with the Lao PDR government also had a significant impact on their ethnic politics. Many Hmong political activists made their entry into ethnic politics through the door of transnational politics, and many were motivated by transnational political issues to participate in domestic American politics. By exploring their transnational involvement in political developments in Laos and their relations with the Lao PDR government, we get a more complete and dynamic understanding of Hmong political activism in the United States than is possible by focusing exclusively on domestic and electoral participation. Examining their transnational politics also allows us to see the transnationality of not only their culture, identity, and community but also that of their political activities and aspirations.

In search of the moral-psychological and neuroevolutionary basis of political partisanship

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Vitor Geraldi Haase

Full Text Available ABSTRACT In many countries, a radical political divide brings several socially relevant decisions to a standstill. Could cognitive, affective and social (CAS neuroscience help better understand these questions? The present article reviews the moral-psychological and neuroevolutionary basis of the political partisanship divide. A non-systematic literature review and a conceptual analysis were conducted. Three main points are identified and discussed: 1 Political partisan behavior rests upon deep moral emotions. It is automatically processed and impervious to contradiction. The moral motifs characterizing political partisanship are epigenetically set across different cultures; 2 Political partisanship is linked to personality traits, whose neural foundations are associated with moral feelings and judgement; 3 Self-deception is a major characteristic of political partisanship that probably evolved as an evolutionary adaptive strategy to deal with the intragroup-extragroup dynamics of human evolution. CAS neuroscience evidence may not resolve the political divide, but can contribute to a better understanding of its biological foundations.

Quantitative Trait Loci for Fertility Traits in Finnish Ayrshire Cattle

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schulman, Nina F; Sahana, Goutam; Lund, Mogens S

2008-01-01

A whole genome scan was carried out to detect quantitative trait loci (QTL) for fertility traits in Finnish Ayrshire cattle. The mapping population consisted of 12 bulls and 493 sons. Estimated breeding values for days open, fertility treatments, maternal calf mortality and paternal non-return rate...... combinations, which were observed significant in the regression method. Twenty-two chromosome-wise significant QTL were detected. Several of the detected QTL areas were overlapping with milk production QTL previously identified in the same population. Multi-trait QTL analyses were carried out to test...... if these effects were due to a pleiotropic QTL affecting fertility and milk yield traits or to linked QTL causing the effects. This distinction could only be made with confidence on BTA1 where a QTL affecting milk yield is linked to a pleiotropic QTL affecting days open and fertility treatments...

We don't like (to) party : explaining the significance of Independents in Irish political life

OpenAIRE

Weeks, Liam

2008-01-01

The aim of this thesis is to explain the significant presence of Independents (non-party representatives) in the Irish political system. This topic was chosen because parties have a monopoly on parliamentary representation in almost all liberal democracies. Ireland is an exception to this pattern, as independents have been elected to every session of parliament since the foundation of the modern Irish state. There have been very few academic analyses of Independents carried out in relation...

Waste. The political significance of the city’s suppressed other

OpenAIRE

Chrysanthe Constantinou

2015-01-01

MBeneath the city’s achievement as a grand machine of accumulation of matter, in invisibility lies the vast and vague sphere of waste accumulation. In invisibility, a huge network of waste flows is possibly rewriting economies as we know them, reproducing life conditions driven by the politics of wealth. In this parallel territory, recycling is a big business for the few.

Alpha band frequency differences between low-trait and high-trait anxious individuals.

Science.gov (United States)

Ward, Richard T; Smith, Shelby L; Kraus, Brian T; Allen, Anna V; Moses, Michael A; Simon-Dack, Stephanie L

2018-01-17

Trait anxiety has been shown to cause significant impairments on attentional tasks. Current research has identified alpha band frequency differences between low-trait and high-trait anxious individuals. Here, we further investigated the underlying alpha band frequency differences between low-trait and high-trait anxious individuals during their resting state and the completion of an inhibition executive functioning task. Using human participants and quantitative electroencephalographic recordings, we measured alpha band frequency in individuals both high and low in trait anxiety during their resting state, and while they completed an Eriksen Flanker Task. Results indicated that high-trait anxious individuals exhibit a desynchronization in alpha band frequency from a resting state to when they complete the Eriksen Flanker Task. This suggests that high-trait anxious individuals maintain fewer attentional resources at rest and must martial resources for task performance as compared with low-trait anxious individuals, who appear to maintain stable cognitive resources between rest and task performance. These findings add to the cognitive neuroscience literature surrounding the role of alpha band frequency in low-trait and high-trait anxious individuals.

Redistributive Politics in a Political Union

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Citi, Manuele; Justesen, Mogens Kamp

One of the main functions of centralized budgets in federal and political unions is to act as an equalizing mechanism to support economic cohesion. This is also the case with the European Union’s budget, which operates as a redistributive mechanism that counteracts the cross-national and cross...... remarkably over the last decades. In this paper, we investigate how and why the net fiscal position of each member state towards the rest of the EU changes over time. Using a novel panel dataset (1979-2014), we study how some key national and EU-level political and economic variables affect the EU...... find that the political orientation of national governments does not per se influence redistributive politics with in the EU. However, when the unemployment rate is rising, right-wing governments are able to extract significantly larger budgetary benefits....

Waste. The political significance of the city’s suppressed other

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chrysanthe Constantinou

2015-03-01

Full Text Available MBeneath the city’s achievement as a grand machine of accumulation of matter, in invisibility lies the vast and vague sphere of waste accumulation. In invisibility, a huge network of waste flows is possibly rewriting economies as we know them, reproducing life conditions driven by the politics of wealth. In this parallel territory, recycling is a big business for the few.

In search of the moral-psychological and neuroevolutionary basis of political partisanship

Science.gov (United States)

Haase, Vitor Geraldi; Starling-Alves, Isabella

2017-01-01

In many countries, a radical political divide brings several socially relevant decisions to a standstill. Could cognitive, affective and social (CAS) neuroscience help better understand these questions? The present article reviews the moral-psychological and neuroevolutionary basis of the political partisanship divide. A non-systematic literature review and a conceptual analysis were conducted. Three main points are identified and discussed: 1) Political partisan behavior rests upon deep moral emotions. It is automatically processed and impervious to contradiction. The moral motifs characterizing political partisanship are epigenetically set across different cultures; 2) partisanship is linked to personality traits, whose neural foundations are associated with moral feelings and judgement; 3) Self-deception is a major characteristic of political partisanship that probably evolved as an evolutionary adaptive strategy to deal with the intragroup-extragroup dynamics of human evolution. CAS neuroscience evidence may not resolve the political divide, but can contribute to a better understanding of its biological foundations. PMID:29213489

Not so simple: the multidimensional nature and diverse origins of political ideology.

Science.gov (United States)

Feldman, Stanley; Huddy, Leonie

2014-06-01

At odds with Hibbing et al., we argue that political ideology is best explained by at least two dimensions linked to economic and social ideology. In addition, Hibbing et al's claim that conservatism is grounded in a heightened sensitivity to negative outcomes, something closely tied to the personality trait of neuroticism, does not fit with the established personality correlates of political ideology. Conscientiousness and a lack of openness to experience are linked to conservatism but there is no established connection to neuroticism.

MARKETING ON POLITICS AND PUBLIC LEADERSHIP

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Purwanto Purwanto

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This study examines the influence of political marketing and political will on public leadership and individual performance. The sample used is the people in Surabaya as many as 265 with a random sampling method. Amos 21 is used to test the indirect effect by using bootstrap test. The result of the research shows that political marketing and political will have a significant influence to the success of gaining public leadership, political marketing and marketing will have no significant effect on performance, and public le­a­dership has a significant effect on performance. For the indirect influence, political marketing and political will on individual performance are mediated by public leadership.

The Significance of Post-Racial Ideology, Black Political Struggle, and Racial Literacy for Brazilian Anti-Racist Education Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Da Costa, Alexandre Emboaba

2016-01-01

This paper furthers current analysis of anti-racist, critical multicultural, and decolonial educational reforms in Brazil through a focus on the significant role played by post-racial ideology, black politics, and racial literacy in policy design and implementation. The paper first details the ways in which post-racial commonsense and anti-black…

Coping skills: role of trait sport confidence and trait anxiety.

Science.gov (United States)

Cresswell, Scott; Hodge, Ken

2004-04-01

The current research assesses relationships among coping skills, trait sport confidence, and trait anxiety. Two samples (n=47 and n=77) of international competitors from surf life saving (M=23.7 yr.) and touch rugby (M=26.2 yr.) completed the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory, Trait Sport Confidence Inventory, and Sport Anxiety Scale. Analysis yielded significant correlations amongst trait anxiety, sport confidence, and coping. Specifically confidence scores were positively associated with coping with adversity scores and anxiety scores were negatively associated. These findings support the inclusion of the personality characteristics of confidence and anxiety within the coping model presented by Hardy, Jones, and Gould, Researchers should be aware that confidence and anxiety may influence the coping processes of athletes.

Uncovering the political in non-political young muslim immigrant identities

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Niels Nørgaard Kristensen

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The theme of this paper is political identity and participation amongMuslim migrant young people in Denmark. Political identity is analysedby examining students’ political interests and perception of themselves as participants in politics, as well as their rationalities for politics. In order to address the research question ‘What characterizes political identities among Muslim immigrant young people in schools?’ we interviewed eight Muslim students from a Danish upper secondary school and from different national origins. The students’ political orientations seemed quite contradictory, even among those who might readily have been identified as a-political. Despite moderate political interest, all students showed some inclinations to participate in elections or in particular issues. However, they emphasized that their social studies classes primarily provided them with factual knowledge experience, and some students found this knowledge useful. None of the students seemed to experience school as an arena for participation. Consequently, there is first a need to emphasize the significance of a dynamic perspective on the phenomenon of political identity, and second, we need to know how students in school should be regarded as citizens in ‘the making’ or as equal citizens in a participatory arena.

Quantitative trait loci associated with seed and seedling traits in Lactuca.

Science.gov (United States)

Argyris, Jason; Truco, María José; Ochoa, Oswaldo; Knapp, Steven J; Still, David W; Lenssen, Ger M; Schut, Johan W; Michelmore, Richard W; Bradford, Kent J

2005-11-01

Seed and seedling traits related to germination and stand establishment are important in the production of cultivated lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.). Six seed and seedling traits segregating in a L. sativa cv. Salinas x L. serriola recombinant inbred line population consisting of 103 F8 families revealed a total of 17 significant quantitative trait loci (QTL) resulting from three seed production environments. Significant QTL were identified for germination in darkness, germination at 25 and 35 degrees C, median maximum temperature of germination, hypocotyl length at 72 h post-imbibition, and plant (seedling) quality. Some QTL for germination and early seedling growth characteristics were co-located, suggestive of pleiotropic loci regulating these traits. A single QTL (Htg6.1) described 25 and 23% of the total phenotypic variation for high temperature germination in California- and Netherlands-grown populations, respectively, and was significant between 33 and 37 degrees C. Additionally, Htg6.1 showed significant epistatic interactions with other Htg QTL and a consistent effect across all the three seed production environments. L. serriola alleles increased germination at these QTL. The estimate of narrow-sense heritability (h2) of Htg6.1 was 0.84, indicating potential for L. serriola as a source of germination thermotolerance for lettuce introgression programs.

Variance Component Quantitative Trait Locus Analysis for Body Weight Traits in Purebred Korean Native Chicken

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Muhammad Cahyadi

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Quantitative trait locus (QTL is a particular region of the genome containing one or more genes associated with economically important quantitative traits. This study was conducted to identify QTL regions for body weight and growth traits in purebred Korean native chicken (KNC. F1 samples (n = 595 were genotyped using 127 microsatellite markers and 8 single nucleotide polymorphisms that covered 2,616.1 centi Morgan (cM of map length for 26 autosomal linkage groups. Body weight traits were measured every 2 weeks from hatch to 20 weeks of age. Weight of half carcass was also collected together with growth rate. A multipoint variance component linkage approach was used to identify QTLs for the body weight traits. Two significant QTLs for growth were identified on chicken chromosome 3 (GGA3 for growth 16 to18 weeks (logarithm of the odds [LOD] = 3.24, Nominal p value = 0.0001 and GGA4 for growth 6 to 8 weeks (LOD = 2.88, Nominal p value = 0.0003. Additionally, one significant QTL and three suggestive QTLs were detected for body weight traits in KNC; significant QTL for body weight at 4 weeks (LOD = 2.52, nominal p value = 0.0007 and suggestive QTL for 8 weeks (LOD = 1.96, Nominal p value = 0.0027 were detected on GGA4; QTLs were also detected for two different body weight traits: body weight at 16 weeks on GGA3 and body weight at 18 weeks on GGA19. Additionally, two suggestive QTLs for carcass weight were detected at 0 and 70 cM on GGA19. In conclusion, the current study identified several significant and suggestive QTLs that affect growth related traits in a unique resource pedigree in purebred KNC. This information will contribute to improving the body weight traits in native chicken breeds, especially for the Asian native chicken breeds.

Yardstick competition and the political costs of raising taxes: An empirical analysis of Spanish municipalities

OpenAIRE

Bosch Roca, Núria; Solé Ollé, Albert

2004-01-01

We test the "yardstick competition" hypothesis by looking at the effects of property tax increases both in the locality and in other comparable jurisdictions on the incumbents' vote. In order to obtain unbiased estimates of the effects of taxes on voting, we account for national political shocks, ideological preferences of the citizenship and government traits, and we estimate the vote equation using instrumental variables. We also allow various traits of the government (ideology, coalition g...

Unifying the aspects of the Big Five, the interpersonal circumplex, and trait affiliation.

Science.gov (United States)

DeYoung, Colin G; Weisberg, Yanna J; Quilty, Lena C; Peterson, Jordan B

2013-10-01

Two dimensions of the Big Five, Extraversion and Agreeableness, are strongly related to interpersonal behavior. Factor analysis has indicated that each of the Big Five contains two separable but related aspects. The present study examined the manner in which the aspects of Extraversion (Assertiveness and Enthusiasm) and Agreeableness (Compassion and Politeness) relate to interpersonal behavior and trait affiliation, with the hypothesis that these four aspects have a structure corresponding to the octants of the interpersonal circumplex. A second hypothesis was that measures of trait affiliation would fall between Enthusiasm and Compassion in the IPC. These hypotheses were tested in three demographically different samples (N = 469; 294; 409) using both behavioral frequency and trait measures of the interpersonal circumplex, in conjunction with the Big Five Aspect Scales (BFAS) and measures of trait affiliation. Both hypotheses were strongly supported. These findings provide a more thorough and precise mapping of the interpersonal traits within the Big Five and support the integration of the Big Five with models of interpersonal behavior and trait affiliation. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

MARKETING ON POLITICS AND PUBLIC LEADERSHIP

OpenAIRE

Purwanto Purwanto; Eddy Madiono Sutanto; Asmara Indahingwati

2018-01-01

This study examines the influence of political marketing and political will on public leadership and individual performance. The sample used is the people in Surabaya as many as 265 with a random sampling method. Amos 21 is used to test the indirect effect by using bootstrap test. The result of the research shows that political marketing and political will have a significant influence to the success of gaining public leadership, political marketing and marketing will have no significant effec...

The impact of dark tetrad traits on political orientation and extremism: an analysis in the course of a presidential election

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boris Duspara

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Previous research on personality and political attitudes has been conducted in countries where political parties from the center dominate the political system. In the present research (N = 675, we focus on the relationship between the dark side of human personality and political orientation and extremism, respectively, in the course of a presidential election where the two candidates represent either left-wing or right-wing political policies. Narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and everyday sadism were associated with right-wing political orientation, whereas narcissism and psychopathy were associated with political extremism. Moreover, the relationships between personality and right-wing political orientation and extremism, respectively, were relatively independent from each other. Keywords: Political science, Sociology, Psychology

German genes and Turkish traits: ethnicity, infertility, and reproductive politics in Germany.

Science.gov (United States)

Vanderlinden, Lisa K

2009-07-01

This ethnographic study uses the lens of ethnic difference to examine the experience of infertility and the cultural politics of belonging in modern Germany. The data are derived from participant observation and interviews conducted with forty-one ethnic Germans and thirty-three German Turks undergoing biomedical treatment for infertility at a fertility clinic in Berlin (1998-2000). Through their illness narratives, men and women symbolically link their loss of biological parenthood to losses in other life arenas, such as gender identity, social status and cultural acceptance. Results reveal that while both German Turks and ethnic Germans experience disruption and social suffering from their inability to conform to procreative norms, German Turkish sufferers exhibit higher levels of distress, which directly relates to their dual stigma as outsiders in both German Turkish culture and mainstream German culture. The findings suggest that the tensions surrounding individual reproductive practices are reflective of larger national tensions regarding the constitution of the body politic in an increasingly multicultural Germany.

Increased nature relatedness and decreased authoritarian political views after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression.

Science.gov (United States)

Lyons, Taylor; Carhart-Harris, Robin L

2018-01-01

Previous research suggests that classical psychedelic compounds can induce lasting changes in personality traits, attitudes and beliefs in both healthy subjects and patient populations. Here we sought to investigate the effects of psilocybin on nature relatedness and libertarian-authoritarian political perspective in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). This open-label pilot study with a mixed-model design studied the effects of psilocybin on measures of nature relatedness and libertarian-authoritarian political perspective in patients with moderate to severe TRD ( n=7) versus age-matched non-treated healthy control subjects ( n=7). Psilocybin was administered in two oral dosing sessions (10 mg and 25 mg) 1 week apart. Main outcome measures were collected 1 week and 7-12 months after the second dosing session. Nature relatedness and libertarian-authoritarian political perspective were assessed using the Nature Relatedness Scale (NR-6) and Political Perspective Questionnaire (PPQ-5), respectively. Nature relatedness significantly increased ( t(6)=-4.242, p=0.003) and authoritarianism significantly decreased ( t(6)=2.120, p=0.039) for the patients 1 week after the dosing sessions. At 7-12 months post-dosing, nature relatedness remained significantly increased ( t(5)=-2.707, p=0.021) and authoritarianism remained decreased at trend level ( t(5)=-1.811, p=0.065). No differences were found on either measure for the non-treated healthy control subjects. This pilot study suggests that psilocybin with psychological support might produce lasting changes in attitudes and beliefs. Although it would be premature to infer causality from this small study, the possibility of drug-induced changes in belief systems seems sufficiently intriguing and timely to deserve further investigation.

Logistic analysis of the effects of shovel trait on Carabelli's trait in a Mongoloid population.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, P L; Hsu, J W; Lin, L M; Liu, K M

1996-08-01

Mongoloid populations differ from Caucasoids by having a high prevalence of shovel trait and a low prevalence of Carabelli's trait. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of the shovel trait on Carabelli's trait in a Mongoloid population. The research design sought a population that resides in an isolated area and exhibits low admixture with neighboring populations. The Mongoloid group selected for study was the Bunun tribe of aborigines who inhabit an alpine area in Taiwan. The effects of sex and age on Carabelli's trait were controlled in this investigation, as was the association between tooth size and Carabelli's trait. Results show that males were more likely to have Carabelli's trait expressed on teeth than females. The buccolingual diameter of Carabelli's trait teeth was larger than that of teeth without the trait. After adjusting for sex, age, and tooth size, the existence of the shovel trait increased the likelihood of having Carabelli's trait by a factor of three, an effect that is significant.

How Internal Political Efficacy Translates Political Knowledge Into Political Participation

Science.gov (United States)

Reichert, Frank

2016-01-01

This study presents evidence for the mediation effect of political knowledge through political self-efficacy (i.e. internal political efficacy) in the prediction of political participation. It employs an action theoretic approach—by and large grounded on the Theory of Planned Behaviour—and uses data from the German Longitudinal Election Study to examine whether political knowledge has distinct direct effects on voting, conventional, and/or unconventional political participation. It argues that political knowledge raises internal political efficacy and thereby indirectly increases the chance that a citizen will participate in politics. The results of mediated multiple regression analyses yield evidence that political knowledge indeed translates into internal political efficacy, thus it affects political participation of various kinds indirectly. However, internal political efficacy and intentions to participate politically yield simultaneous direct effects only on conventional political participation. Sequentially mediated effects appear for voting and conventional political participation, with political knowledge being mediated by internal political efficacy and subsequently also by behavioural intentions. The mediation patterns for unconventional political participation are less clear though. The discussion accounts for restrictions of this study and points to questions for answer by future research. PMID:27298633

Muslim Political Elite and the Revival of the Left in Indonesian Politics (1996-2001

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad Suhelmi

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract: Based upon elite interviews, document analysis and library research, this study analyses the responses of the Indonesian Muslim political elite to the phenomena of the emergence of the alleged communist Partai Rakyat Demokratik (People’s Democratic Party and the flourishing of the Leftist books in Indonesia during 1996-2001 which is one of the most critical historical phases in Indonesian politics that witnessed significant political changes affecting the life of Indonesians in general and Muslims in particular. The adverse responses of most Muslim political elite to the revival of the Left are basically driven by the interweaving of theological, historical and political factors as well as traumatic historical experience. With the passage of time, there have been significant changes, and strained relations between Islamic political groups and the Leftists have thawed but not eliminated.

The impact of dark tetrad traits on political orientation and extremism: an analysis in the course of a presidential election.

Science.gov (United States)

Duspara, Boris; Greitemeyer, Tobias

2017-10-01

Previous research on personality and political attitudes has been conducted in countries where political parties from the center dominate the political system. In the present research ( N = 675), we focus on the relationship between the dark side of human personality and political orientation and extremism, respectively, in the course of a presidential election where the two candidates represent either left-wing or right-wing political policies. Narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and everyday sadism were associated with right-wing political orientation, whereas narcissism and psychopathy were associated with political extremism. Moreover, the relationships between personality and right-wing political orientation and extremism, respectively, were relatively independent from each other.

Features of Perception of Modern Russian Political Leaders in University Students (A Psychosemantic Research

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Sobkin V.S.

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The paper presents outcomes of a research on features of perception of modern Russian political leaders in young people. A technique of multidimensional semantic differential was employed: the subjects were asked to assess 15 objects (political leaders, 'my ideal', 'ideal leader', 'antipathetic person' and 'Myself' according to 33 personality traits using a seven-point scale. The outcomes suggest that the structure of the students' perception of political leaders is quite simple and is based on three modalities: 'morality', 'power' and 'intelligence'. Comparing these outcomes with the research data obtained in 2004 using the same technique allowed the authors to conclude that the students do not assess modern political leaders according to the moral qualities of the latter, but rather perceive them through the qualities of power associated with social manipulation.

Political participation of registered nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Vandenhouten, Christine L; Malakar, Crystalmichelle L; Kubsch, Sylvia; Block, Derryl E; Gallagher-Lepak, Susan

2011-08-01

Level of political participation and factors contributing to participation were measured among Midwest RNs (n = 468) via an online survey (Cronbach's α = .95). Respondents reported engaging in primarily "low cost" activities (e.g., voting, discussing politics, and contacting elected officials), with fewer reporting speaking at public gatherings, participating in demonstrations, and membership in nursing organizations. Psychological engagement was most predictive (p political participation with the dimensions of political interest, political efficacy, and political information/knowledge highly significant (p political participation (p political content and did not prepare them for political participation. Findings showed that nurse educators and leaders of professional nursing organizations need to model and cultivate greater psychological engagement among students and nurses.

Political Creeping into the Mauaque Resettlement Center Through Dyadic Relationships

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Julieta C. Mallari

2000-06-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses on the characteristically dyadic political culture of Mauaque Resettlement Center, a government organized community of disaster victims (1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption. It attempts to trace and understand the resettlers' proclivity for dyadic means of cooperation, dependency and even political action.The resettlement site is composed basically of three different barangays which retained their "sub-cultures," including their political ethos. What manifest at present are the comfortable reciprocal schemes developed by the resettlers and their leaders which inevitably create either positive or negative consequences relative to the political life of the whole community.To be considered will be the personal followings and system of alliances of the present barangay leaders within the context of the Filipino kinship system. Moreover, the other socio-cultural values and traits of the resettlers which serve as underpinning for their dyadic relationships will also be discussed.Interviewing the individuals concerned, particularly the barangay captains, has been the method employed in gathering the information needed for this qualitative study.

Effect of Perceived Politics and Perceived Support on Bullying and Emotional Exhaustion: The Moderating Role of Type A Personality.

Science.gov (United States)

Naseer, Saima; Raja, Usman; Donia, Magda Bezerra Leite

2016-07-03

Recognizing that bullying can occur in varying degrees of severity, the current study suggest the importance of individual traits in individual perceptions of being targets of bullying and ensuing emotional exhaustion. The present study extends the work environment hypothesis and trait activation theory by a joint investigation of the mediating role of (a) workplace bullying in linking perceived organization politics and perceived organization support with emotional exhaustion and (b) the moderating role of Type A behavioral pattern in influencing the mediation. Using a field sample of 262 employees working in different organizations of Pakistan, this study tested a moderated mediation model. Results were consistent with the hypothesized model, in that workplace bullying mediated the relationship of perceived organization politics and perceived organization support with emotional exhaustion. Type A behavior moderated the perceived politics-bullying, perceived support-bullying, and bullying-emotional exhaustion relationships. The mediation of bullying varied with levels of Type A behavior in these relationships.

Quantitative trait loci analysis of swine meat quality traits

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, H D; Lund, M S; Christensen, O F

2010-01-01

loss, and the Minolta color measurements L*, a*, and b* representing meat lightness, redness, and yellowness, respectively. The families consist of 3,883 progenies of 12 Duroc boars that were evaluated to identify the QTL. The linkage map consists of 462 SNP markers on 18 porcine autosomes...... were estimated from a posterior distribution of the QTL position. In total, 31 QTL for the 6 meat quality traits were found to be significant at the 5% chromosome-wide level, among which 11 QTL were significant at the 5% genome-wide level and 5 of these were significant at the 0.1% genome-wide level...... will be helpful for fine mapping and identifying genes affecting meat quality traits, and tightly linked markers may be incorporated into marker-assisted selection programs...

The politics of carbon taxation - how varieties of policy style matter

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Mikael Skou

2018-01-01

that the share of fossil fuels in the energy mix defines the room for such taxes, nor does it point to a strong role for political partisanship. Rather, it is deep-seated patterns of national policy styles with neo-corporatist traits, providing a protective device for the open economies of small countries, which...... condition the introduction of carbon taxes. The associated routines of decision-making offer coordination mechanisms for proactive macroeconomic policies in which carbon taxation can find a place. Parliamentary democracies with proportional representation, as are common in the smaller countries, provide...... access to the government for political parties that pursue carbon taxation. These in turn sensitise larger political parties to climate concerns, as they benefit from institutionalised practices and routines for problem-solving and consensus-seeking. Carbon taxes tend to get more leeway in coordinated...

MAPPING CHILDREN'S POLITICS: SPATIAL STORIES, DIALOGIC RELATIONS AND POLITICAL FORMATION.

Science.gov (United States)

Elwood, Sarah; Mitchell, Katharyne

2012-03-01

This article confronts a persistent challenge in research on children's geographies and politics: the difficulty of recognizing forms of political agency and practice that by definition fall outside of existing political theory. Children are effectively "always already" positioned outside most of the structures and ideals of modernist democratic theory, such as the public sphere and abstracted notions of communicative action or "rational" speech. Recent emphases on embodied tactics of everyday life have offered important ways to recognize children's political agency and practice. However, we argue here that a focus on spatial practices and critical knowledge alone cannot capture the full range of children's politics, and show how representational and dialogic practices remain a critical element of their politics in everyday life. Drawing on de Certeau's notion of spatial stories, and Bakhtin's concept of dialogic relations, we argue that children's representations and dialogues comprise a significant space of their political agency and formation, in which they can make and negotiate social meanings, subjectivities, and relationships. We develop these arguments with evidence from an after-school activity programme we conducted with 10-13 year olds in Seattle, Washington, in which participants explored, mapped, wrote and spoke about the spaces and experiences of their everyday lives. Within these practices, children negotiate autonomy and self-determination, and forward ideas, representations, and expressions of agreement or disagreement that are critical to their formation as political actors.

Political Regimes, Political Ideology, and Self-Rated Health in Europe: A Multilevel Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Huijts, Tim; Perkins, Jessica M.; Subramanian, S. V.

2010-01-01

Background Studies on political ideology and health have found associations between individual ideology and health as well as between ecological measures of political ideology and health. Individual ideology and aggregate measures such as political regimes, however, were never examined simultaneously. Methodology/Principal Findings Using adjusted logistic multilevel models to analyze data on individuals from 29 European countries and Israel, we found that individual ideology and political regime are independently associated with self-rated health. Individuals with rightwing ideologies report better health than leftwing individuals. Respondents from Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics report poorer health than individuals from social democratic, liberal, Christian conservative, and former Mediterranean dictatorship countries. In contrast to individual ideology and political regimes, country level aggregations of individual ideology are not related to reporting poor health. Conclusions/Significance This study shows that although both individual political ideology and contextual political regime are independently associated with individuals' self-rated health, individual political ideology appears to be more strongly associated with self-rated health than political regime. PMID:20661433

A novel synonymous SNP (A47A of the TMEM95 gene is significantly associated with the reproductive traits related to testis in male piglets

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L. Liu

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Transmembrane protein 95 (TMEM95 is located on the acrosomal membrane of the sperm head involved in the acrosome reaction; thus, it is regarded as affecting spermatogenesis and reproduction traits. The aim of this study was to explore the novel single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs within the pig TMEM95 gene as well as to evaluate their associations with the testicular sizes in male Landrace (LD and Large White (LW breeds. After pool sequencing and bioinformatics analysis, only one novel coding SNP was found in exon 1, namely NC_010454.3: g.341T > C, resulting in a synonymous mutation (A47A. This SNP could be genotyped using the StuI polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP assay. The minor allelic frequencies (MAFs were 0.259 and 0.480 in the LD and LW breeds. Their polymorphism information content (PIC values were 0.310 and 0.375. The LW population was at the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (HWE (p > 0.05, whereas the LD population was not (p < 0.05. Association analyses demonstrated that a significant relationship was found between this A47A polymorphism and testis weight at 40 days of age in the LW population (p  =  0.047, and the heterozygote individuals showed lower testis weight than those with other genotypes. Moreover, this SNP was significantly associated with three testis measurement traits at 15 days of age in the LW population (p < 0.05; the individuals with genotypes TT and TC showed consistently superior testis measurement traits than those with genotype CC. These findings demonstrate that the A47A polymorphism had a significant effect on testis measurement traits, suggesting that the TMEM95 gene could be a candidate gene associated with reproductive traits. These results could contribute to breeding and genetics programs in the pig industry via DNA marker-assisted selection (MAS.

Quantitative trait loci for udder conformation and other udder traits in Finnish Ayrshire cattle

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N.F. SCHULMAN

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Udder traits are important due to their correlation with clinical mastitis which causes major economic losses to the dairy farms. Chromosomal areas associated with udder conformation traits, milking speed and leakage could be used in breeding programs to improve both udder traits and mastitis resistance. Quantitative trait loci (QTL mapping for udder traits was carried out on bovine chromosomes (BTA 9, 11, 14, 18, 20, 23, and 29, where earlier studies have indicated QTL for mastitis. A granddaughter design with 12 Ayrshire sire families and 360 sons was used. The sires and sons were typed for 35 markers. The traits analysed were udder depth, fore udder attachment, central ligament, distance from udder to floor, body stature, fore teat length, udder balance, rear udder height, milking speed, and leakage. Associations between markers and traits were analysed with multiple marker regression. Five genome-wise significant QTL were detected: stature on BTA14 and 23, udder balance on BTA23, rear udder height on BTA11, and central ligament on BTA23. On BTA11 and 14 the suggested QTL positions for udder traits are at the same position as previously detected QTL for mastitis and somatic cell count.;

Northern Ireland: political violence and self-reported physical symptoms in a community sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Cairns, E; Wilson, R

1991-01-01

In order to investigate the possible relationship between physical health and political violence in Northern Ireland a random sample of residents of four electoral areas (two with relatively high violence and two with relatively low violence) was interviewed at home. Each person was asked to rate their health in terms of common physical symptoms, to indicate their use of family doctor and hospital services, and to rate the level of political violence in their neighbourhood. Analysis of covariance (with a measure of psychological well-being, a measure of trait neuroticism plus age and socioeconomic status as covariates) revealed that women reported more physical symptoms than did men, people in the 'high' violence areas reported more symptoms than did those in the 'low' violence areas, while those who rated their own neighbourhood most highly in terms of perceived violence also reported the greatest number of physical symptoms. However, a series of chi 2 tests revealed no association between political violence or perceived political violence and uptake of services.

Identification of Marker-Trait Associations for Lint Traits in Cotton

Science.gov (United States)

Iqbal, Muhammad A.; Rahman, Mehboob-ur-

2017-01-01

Harvesting high quality lint, a long-awaited breeding goal—accomplished partly, can be achieved by identifying DNA markers which could be used for diagnosing cotton plants containing the desired traits. In the present studies, a total of 185 cotton genotypes exhibiting diversity for lint traits were selected from a set of 546 genotypes evaluated for fiber traits in 2009. These genotypes were extensively studied for three consecutive years (2011–2013) at three different locations. Significant genetic variations were found for average boll weight, ginning out turn (GOT), micronaire value, staple length, fiber bundle strength, and uniformity index. IR-NIBGE-3701 showed maximum GOT (43.63%). Clustering of genotypes using Ward's method was found more informative than that of the clusters generated by principal component analysis. A total of 382 SSRs were surveyed on 10 Gossypium hirsutum genotypes exhibiting contrasting fiber traits. Out of these, 95 polymorphic SSR primer pairs were then surveyed on 185 genotypes. The gene diversity averaged 0.191 and the polymorphic information content (PIC) averaged 0.175. Unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA), principal coordinate analysis (PCoA), and STRUCTURE software grouped these genotypes into four major clusters each. Genetic distance within the clusters ranged from 0.0587 to 0.1030. A total of 47 (25.41%) genotypes exhibited shared ancestry. In total 6.8% (r2 ≥ 0.05) and 4.4% (r2 ≥ 0.1) of the marker pairs showed significant linkage disequilibrium (LD). A number of marker-trait associations (in total 75) including 13 for average boll weight, 18 for GOT percentage, eight for micronaire value, 18 for staple length, three for fiber bundle strength, and 15 for uniformity index were calculated. Out of these, MGHES-51 was associated with all the traits. Most of the marker-trait associations were novel while few validated the associations reported in the previous studies. High frequency of favorable

Social Workers and Politics: Lessons from Practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Ginsberg, Leon

1988-01-01

Describes the workings of the political system as it is important to social workers. Discusses three significant issues in politics: (1) the role of money; (2) crises as pervasive political phenomena; and (3) the habituating nature of political participation. (ABL)

Quantitative trait loci for live animal and carcass composition traits in Jersey and Limousin back-cross cattle finished on pasture or feedlot.

Science.gov (United States)

Morris, C A; Pitchford, W S; Cullen, N G; Esmailizadeh, A K; Hickey, S M; Hyndman, D; Dodds, K G; Afolayan, R A; Crawford, A M; Bottema, C D K

2009-10-01

A quantitative trait locus (QTL) study was carried out in two countries, recording live animal and carcass composition traits. Back-cross calves (385 heifers and 398 steers) were generated, with Jersey and Limousin breed backgrounds. The New Zealand cattle were reared on pasture to carcass weights averaging 229 kg, whilst the Australian cattle were reared on grass and finished on grain (for at least 180 days) to carcass weights averaging 335 kg. From 11 live animal traits and 31 carcass composition traits respectively, 5 and 22 QTL were detected in combined-sire analyses, which were significant (P < 0.05) on a genome-wise basis. Fourteen significant traits for carcass composition QTL were on chromosome 2 and these were traits associated with muscling and fatness. This chromosome carried a variant myostatin allele (F94L), segregating from the Limousin ancestry. Despite very different cattle management systems between the two countries, the two populations had a large number of QTL in common. Of the 18 traits which were common to both countries, and which had significant QTL at the genome-wise level, eight were significant in both countries.

The co-occurrence of autistic traits and borderline personality disorder traits is associated to increased suicidal ideation in nonclinical young adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Chabrol, Henri; Raynal, Patrick

2018-04-01

The co-occurrence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is not rare and has been linked to increased suicidality. Despite this significant comorbidity between ASD and BPD, no study had examined the co-occurrence of autistic traits and borderline personality disorder traits in the general population. The aim of the present study was to examine the co-occurrence of autistic and borderline traits in a non-clinical sample of young adults and its influence on the levels of suicidal ideation and depressive symptomatology. Participants were 474 college students who completed self-report questionnaires. Data were analysed using correlation and cluster analyses. Borderline personality traits and autistic traits were weakly correlated. However, cluster analysis yielded four groups: a low traits group, a borderline traits group, an autistic traits group, and a group characterized by high levels of both traits. Cluster analysis revealed that autistic and borderline traits can co-occur in a significant proportion of young adults. The high autistic and borderline traits group constituted 17% of the total sample and had higher level of suicidal ideation than the borderline traits group, despite similar levels of depressive symptoms. This result suggests that the higher suicidality observed in patients with comorbid ASD and BPD may extent to non-clinical individuals with high levels of co-occurrent autistic and borderline traits. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The cultural transformation and political organization of the Ignalina NPP region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Daugirdas, V.

1998-01-01

The Ignalina NPP region which can be identified with the Visaginas region is rather interesting from the point of view of various scientific investigations. Since long time this land has been in the contact zone of Baltic and Slavonic cultures. Most of the newest phenomena of society development are there rather closely related with the building of NPP. In our opinion the Visaginas region is in the initial stage of development at present by its cultural and political-geographical traits it stands out even in the context of Northeast Lithuania. This is a region distinguished by a particularly high variety of political attitudes and cultural contacts. The political view of the present inhabitants of the region is a result of complicated cultural evolution - the cultural orientation determines the political outlook. Though the political views of the Lithuanian population are still in the stage of development we may assert that the East Lithuanian region already in 1990 stood out as a region of left political views. This view is determined by a mixed national composition. The non-Lithuanians have tradition of supporting the left political forces, their political left-expression is more inert. The fact, that the general activity of voters in Visaginas and its region is relatively low, demonstrates the indifference of some voters to the political development of Lithuania. The status of self-government isolated Visaginas both from the life of its region and Lithuania on the whole - not only politically or culturally but administratively as well. The town is converting into a closed social unit. The problem of the cultural integration of Visaginas region remains of topical importance. In order to prevent the self-isolation it is necessary to faster the sense of civil self-expression, encourage the development programs of the region. (author)

Western Political Consulting Techniques and Post-Soviet Political Technology in Political Campaigns in Latvia

OpenAIRE

Bērziņa, Ieva

2012-01-01

Western Political Consulting Techniques and Post-Soviet Political Technology in Political Campaigns in Latvia Ieva Dmitričenko Keywords: political campaignsm political consulting, political technology, parties, marketing, media Political campaigning is an international phenomenon, because there is a free flow of information, knowledge and human resource among practitioners of political campaigning in various countries. As a result political campaigning techniques that have proven to ...

East Europe Report, Political, Sociological and Military Affairs

Science.gov (United States)

1984-09-20

successfully abroad, revealed television to be the most significant factor in the political socialization of the children. Is it legitimate for a...about political socialization facing every society; to find out what the role of the most phenomena in the political world. (This has significance...societal level is felt more strongly in the political socialization process as the children grow older. This is further reinforced by data we

MAPPING CHILDREN’S POLITICS: SPATIAL STORIES, DIALOGIC RELATIONS AND POLITICAL FORMATION

Science.gov (United States)

Elwood, Sarah; Mitchell, Katharyne

2015-01-01

This article confronts a persistent challenge in research on children’s geographies and politics: the difficulty of recognizing forms of political agency and practice that by definition fall outside of existing political theory. Children are effectively “always already” positioned outside most of the structures and ideals of modernist democratic theory, such as the public sphere and abstracted notions of communicative action or “rational” speech. Recent emphases on embodied tactics of everyday life have offered important ways to recognize children’s political agency and practice. However, we argue here that a focus on spatial practices and critical knowledge alone cannot capture the full range of children’s politics, and show how representational and dialogic practices remain a critical element of their politics in everyday life. Drawing on de Certeau’s notion of spatial stories, and Bakhtin’s concept of dialogic relations, we argue that children’s representations and dialogues comprise a significant space of their political agency and formation, in which they can make and negotiate social meanings, subjectivities, and relationships. We develop these arguments with evidence from an after-school activity programme we conducted with 10–13 year olds in Seattle, Washington, in which participants explored, mapped, wrote and spoke about the spaces and experiences of their everyday lives. Within these practices, children negotiate autonomy and self-determination, and forward ideas, representations, and expressions of agreement or disagreement that are critical to their formation as political actors. PMID:25642017

Combining ability of phenological traits and seed yield in spring rapeseed genotypes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rameeh Valiollah

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Six parents and their 15 F2 diallel progenies, totally 21 genotypes, were evaluated for genetic parameters of quantitative characteristics. The traits of interest were growing degree days (GDDs from sowing to the flowering (DDF, to end of flowering (DDE, flowering period (DFP, to maturity (DDM and seed yield (SY. Significant mean squares of general combining ability (GCA was exhibited for DDF, DDE, DFP, DDM and seed yield indicating significant differences of GCA effects of parents for these traits. Significant mean squares of specific combining ability (SCA for all the traits exhibited the importance of non additive genetic effects for the traits. Significant ratio of MS(GCA/MS(SCA and high narrow sense heritability estimates for DDF, DDE, DDM indicating the prime importance of additive genetic effects for controlling these traits. DFP was also less heritable than the other phonological traits, so the efficiency of selection for this trait will be low. All of the combinations with significant negative SCA effects for DDM had at least one parent with significant negative GCA effect for this trait. PF7045/91 with significant positive GCA effect of SY, was best combiner for improving SY. Significant positive correlation between DDM and each of two traits including DDF and DDE, indicating these traits can be used as indirect selection criteria for improving DDM.

Differential heritability of adult and juvenile antisocial traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Lyons, M J; True, W R; Eisen, S A; Goldberg, J; Meyer, J M; Faraone, S V; Eaves, L J; Tsuang, M T

1995-11-01

Studies of adult antisocial behavior or criminality usually find genetic factors to be more important than the family environment, whereas studies of delinquency find the family environment to be more important. We compared DSM-III-R antisocial personality disorder symptoms before vs after the age of 15 years within a sample of twins, rather than comparing across studies. We administered the Diagnostic Interview Schedule Version III-revised by telephone to 3226 pairs of male twins from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry. Biometrical modeling was applied to each symptom of antisocial personality disorder and summary measures of juvenile and adult symptoms. Five juvenile symptoms were significantly heritable, and five were significantly influenced by the shared environment. Eight adult symptoms were significantly heritable, and one was significantly influenced by the shared environment. The shared environment explained about six times more variance in juvenile anti-social traits than in adult traits. Shared environmental influences on adult antisocial traits overlapped entirely with those on juvenile traits. Additive genetic factors explained about six times more variance in adult vs juvenile traits. The juvenile genetic determinants overlapped completely with genetic influences on adult traits. The unique environment (plus measurement error) explained the largest proportion of variance in both juvenile and adult antisocial traits. Characteristics of the shared or family environment that promote antisocial behavior during childhood and early adolescence also promote later antisocial behavior, but to a much lesser extent. Genetic causal factors are much more prominent for adult than for juvenile antisocial traits.

Detection of Quantitative Trait Loci Affecting Fat Deposition Traits in Pigs

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B. H. Choi

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Quantitative trait loci (QTL associated with fat deposition traits in pigs are important gene positions in a chromosome that influence meat quality of pork. For QTL study, a three generation resource population was constructed from a cross between Korean native boars and Landrace sows. A total of 240 F2 animals from intercross of F1 were produced. 80 microsatellite markers covering chromosomes 1 to 10 were selected to genotype the resource population. Intervals between adjacent markers were approximately 19 cM. Linkage analysis was performed using CRIMAP software version 2.4 with a FIXED option to obtain the map distances. For QTL analysis, the public web-based software, QTL express (http://www.qtl.cap.ed.ac.uk was used. Two significant and two suggestive QTL were identified on SSC 6, 7, and 8 as affecting body fat and IMF traits. For QTL affecting IMF, the most significant association was detected between marker sw71 and sw1881 on SSC 6, and a suggestive QTL was identified between sw268 and sw205 on SSC8. These QTL accounted for 26.58% and 12.31% of the phenotypic variance, respectively. A significant QTL affecting IMF was detected at position 105 cM between markers sw71 and sw1881 on SSC 6.

The Prediction of Political Competencies by Political Action and Political Media Consumption

Science.gov (United States)

Reichert, Frank

2014-01-01

Political competencies are often considered a precondition for political action; however, they are not independent of previous political participation, which may also include the frequency and the kind of political media consumption. My research aims at finding out the importance of participation in political activities in the past, as well as…

Civic Political Culture, Participatory Governance and Political ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Prof

This study x-rayed the significance of civic political culture on participatory governance and its .... The literature on participatory governance theory assumes that deliberation is key to effective .... factors and capture all considerations involved in making certain that citizen interests .... vital element in any organization.

Personality and Self-regulation as Determinants of Rational Decision Making in a Political Voting Situation

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Tatiana A. Indina

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The association of self-regulation and personality factors with rational decision making was investigated using an experimental model of political voting. The results revealed different sets of personality characteristics for rational and emotional voters. A self-regulation/personality typology of decision making was then constructed, and traits representing self-regulation, cognition, and personality were examined as predispositions toward rational decision making. As a result, specific connections among these variables were uncovered, through which the primary role of the conscious self-regulation system in the management of rational decision making in a political voting context was established.

Probing Birth-Order Effects on Narrow Traits Using Specification-Curve Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Rohrer, Julia M; Egloff, Boris; Schmukle, Stefan C

2017-12-01

The idea that birth-order position has a lasting impact on personality has been discussed for the past 100 years. Recent large-scale studies have indicated that birth-order effects on the Big Five personality traits are negligible. In the current study, we examined a variety of more narrow personality traits in a large representative sample ( n = 6,500-10,500 in between-family analyses; n = 900-1,200 in within-family analyses). We used specification-curve analysis to assess evidence for birth-order effects across a range of models implementing defensible yet arbitrary analytical decisions (e.g., whether to control for age effects or to exclude participants on the basis of sibling spacing). Although specification-curve analysis clearly confirmed the previously reported birth-order effect on intellect, we found no meaningful effects on life satisfaction, locus of control, interpersonal trust, reciprocity, risk taking, patience, impulsivity, or political orientation. The lack of meaningful birth-order effects on self-reports of personality was not limited to broad traits but also held for more narrowly defined characteristics.

Joint analysis of quantitative trait loci and major-effect causative mutations affecting meat quality and carcass composition traits in pigs.

Science.gov (United States)

Cherel, Pierre; Pires, José; Glénisson, Jérôme; Milan, Denis; Iannuccelli, Nathalie; Hérault, Frédéric; Damon, Marie; Le Roy, Pascale

2011-08-29

Detection of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) affecting meat quality traits in pigs is crucial for the design of efficient marker-assisted selection programs and to initiate efforts toward the identification of underlying polymorphisms. The RYR1 and PRKAG3 causative mutations, originally identified from major effects on meat characteristics, can be used both as controls for an overall QTL detection strategy for diversely affected traits and as a scale for detected QTL effects. We report on a microsatellite-based QTL detection scan including all autosomes for pig meat quality and carcass composition traits in an F2 population of 1,000 females and barrows resulting from an intercross between a Pietrain and a Large White-Hampshire-Duroc synthetic sire line. Our QTL detection design allowed side-by-side comparison of the RYR1 and PRKAG3 mutation effects seen as QTLs when segregating at low frequencies (0.03-0.08), with independent QTL effects detected from most of the same population, excluding any carrier of these mutations. Large QTL effects were detected in the absence of the RYR1 and PRKGA3 mutations, accounting for 12.7% of phenotypic variation in loin colour redness CIE-a* on SSC6 and 15% of phenotypic variation in glycolytic potential on SSC1. We detected 8 significant QTLs with effects on meat quality traits and 20 significant QTLs for carcass composition and growth traits under these conditions. In control analyses including mutation carriers, RYR1 and PRKAG3 mutations were detected as QTLs, from highly significant to suggestive, and explained 53% to 5% of the phenotypic variance according to the trait. Our results suggest that part of muscle development and backfat thickness effects commonly attributed to the RYR1 mutation may be a consequence of linkage with independent QTLs affecting those traits. The proportion of variation explained by the most significant QTLs detected in this work is close to the influence of major-effect mutations on the least affected

Joint analysis of quantitative trait loci and major-effect causative mutations affecting meat quality and carcass composition traits in pigs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iannuccelli Nathalie

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Detection of quantitative trait loci (QTLs affecting meat quality traits in pigs is crucial for the design of efficient marker-assisted selection programs and to initiate efforts toward the identification of underlying polymorphisms. The RYR1 and PRKAG3 causative mutations, originally identified from major effects on meat characteristics, can be used both as controls for an overall QTL detection strategy for diversely affected traits and as a scale for detected QTL effects. We report on a microsatellite-based QTL detection scan including all autosomes for pig meat quality and carcass composition traits in an F2 population of 1,000 females and barrows resulting from an intercross between a Pietrain and a Large White-Hampshire-Duroc synthetic sire line. Our QTL detection design allowed side-by-side comparison of the RYR1 and PRKAG3 mutation effects seen as QTLs when segregating at low frequencies (0.03-0.08, with independent QTL effects detected from most of the same population, excluding any carrier of these mutations. Results Large QTL effects were detected in the absence of the RYR1 and PRKGA3 mutations, accounting for 12.7% of phenotypic variation in loin colour redness CIE-a* on SSC6 and 15% of phenotypic variation in glycolytic potential on SSC1. We detected 8 significant QTLs with effects on meat quality traits and 20 significant QTLs for carcass composition and growth traits under these conditions. In control analyses including mutation carriers, RYR1 and PRKAG3 mutations were detected as QTLs, from highly significant to suggestive, and explained 53% to 5% of the phenotypic variance according to the trait. Conclusions Our results suggest that part of muscle development and backfat thickness effects commonly attributed to the RYR1 mutation may be a consequence of linkage with independent QTLs affecting those traits. The proportion of variation explained by the most significant QTLs detected in this work is close to the

Hospitality, Tourism, and Politics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen W. Litvin

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Government policy has a significant impact on the hospitality and tourism industry, but it is unclear if political leaders fully understand this economic sector when crafting policies. This article offers new research about the direct involvement of industry practitioners in the political process, by analyzing the backgrounds of legislators in the six New England states. The data indicate that only 3% of these legislators have current or former careers related to hospitality and tourism. The author suggests that practitioners should seek election to political office, to better influence government policy.

Emotion Regulation as the Foundation of Political Attitudes: Does Reappraisal Decrease Support for Conservative Policies?

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Lee, Jooa Julia; Sohn, Yunkyu; Fowler, James H.

2013-01-01

Cognitive scientists, behavior geneticists, and political scientists have identified several ways in which emotions influence political attitudes, and psychologists have shown that emotion regulation can have an important causal effect on physiology, cognition, and subjective experience. However, no work to date explores the possibility that emotion regulation may shape political ideology and attitudes toward policies. Here, we conduct four studies that investigate the role of a particular emotion regulation strategy – reappraisal in particular. Two observational studies show that individual differences in emotion regulation styles predict variation in political orientations and support for conservative policies. In the third study, we experimentally induce disgust as the target emotion to be regulated and show that use of reappraisal reduces the experience of disgust, thereby decreasing moral concerns associated with conservatism. In the final experimental study, we show that use of reappraisal successfully attenuates the relationship between trait-level disgust sensitivity and support for conservative policies. Our findings provide the first evidence of a critical link between emotion regulation and political attitudes. PMID:24367583

Emotion regulation as the foundation of political attitudes: does reappraisal decrease support for conservative policies?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jooa Julia Lee

Full Text Available Cognitive scientists, behavior geneticists, and political scientists have identified several ways in which emotions influence political attitudes, and psychologists have shown that emotion regulation can have an important causal effect on physiology, cognition, and subjective experience. However, no work to date explores the possibility that emotion regulation may shape political ideology and attitudes toward policies. Here, we conduct four studies that investigate the role of a particular emotion regulation strategy--reappraisal in particular. Two observational studies show that individual differences in emotion regulation styles predict variation in political orientations and support for conservative policies. In the third study, we experimentally induce disgust as the target emotion to be regulated and show that use of reappraisal reduces the experience of disgust, thereby decreasing moral concerns associated with conservatism. In the final experimental study, we show that use of reappraisal successfully attenuates the relationship between trait-level disgust sensitivity and support for conservative policies. Our findings provide the first evidence of a critical link between emotion regulation and political attitudes.

Linguistic diversity and traffic accidents: lessons from statistical studies of cultural traits.

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Seán Roberts

Full Text Available The recent proliferation of digital databases of cultural and linguistic data, together with new statistical techniques becoming available has lead to a rise in so-called nomothetic studies [1]-[8]. These seek relationships between demographic variables and cultural traits from large, cross-cultural datasets. The insights from these studies are important for understanding how cultural traits evolve. While these studies are fascinating and are good at generating testable hypotheses, they may underestimate the probability of finding spurious correlations between cultural traits. Here we show that this kind of approach can find links between such unlikely cultural traits as traffic accidents, levels of extra-martial sex, political collectivism and linguistic diversity. This suggests that spurious correlations, due to historical descent, geographic diffusion or increased noise-to-signal ratios in large datasets, are much more likely than some studies admit. We suggest some criteria for the evaluation of nomothetic studies and some practical solutions to the problems. Since some of these studies are receiving media attention without a widespread understanding of the complexities of the issue, there is a risk that poorly controlled studies could affect policy. We hope to contribute towards a general skepticism for correlational studies by demonstrating the ease of finding apparently rigorous correlations between cultural traits. Despite this, we see well-controlled nomothetic studies as useful tools for the development of theories.

Linguistic Diversity and Traffic Accidents: Lessons from Statistical Studies of Cultural Traits

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Roberts, Seán; Winters, James

2013-01-01

The recent proliferation of digital databases of cultural and linguistic data, together with new statistical techniques becoming available has lead to a rise in so-called nomothetic studies [1]–[8]. These seek relationships between demographic variables and cultural traits from large, cross-cultural datasets. The insights from these studies are important for understanding how cultural traits evolve. While these studies are fascinating and are good at generating testable hypotheses, they may underestimate the probability of finding spurious correlations between cultural traits. Here we show that this kind of approach can find links between such unlikely cultural traits as traffic accidents, levels of extra-martial sex, political collectivism and linguistic diversity. This suggests that spurious correlations, due to historical descent, geographic diffusion or increased noise-to-signal ratios in large datasets, are much more likely than some studies admit. We suggest some criteria for the evaluation of nomothetic studies and some practical solutions to the problems. Since some of these studies are receiving media attention without a widespread understanding of the complexities of the issue, there is a risk that poorly controlled studies could affect policy. We hope to contribute towards a general skepticism for correlational studies by demonstrating the ease of finding apparently rigorous correlations between cultural traits. Despite this, we see well-controlled nomothetic studies as useful tools for the development of theories. PMID:23967132

Linguistic diversity and traffic accidents: lessons from statistical studies of cultural traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Seán; Winters, James

2013-01-01

The recent proliferation of digital databases of cultural and linguistic data, together with new statistical techniques becoming available has lead to a rise in so-called nomothetic studies [1]-[8]. These seek relationships between demographic variables and cultural traits from large, cross-cultural datasets. The insights from these studies are important for understanding how cultural traits evolve. While these studies are fascinating and are good at generating testable hypotheses, they may underestimate the probability of finding spurious correlations between cultural traits. Here we show that this kind of approach can find links between such unlikely cultural traits as traffic accidents, levels of extra-martial sex, political collectivism and linguistic diversity. This suggests that spurious correlations, due to historical descent, geographic diffusion or increased noise-to-signal ratios in large datasets, are much more likely than some studies admit. We suggest some criteria for the evaluation of nomothetic studies and some practical solutions to the problems. Since some of these studies are receiving media attention without a widespread understanding of the complexities of the issue, there is a risk that poorly controlled studies could affect policy. We hope to contribute towards a general skepticism for correlational studies by demonstrating the ease of finding apparently rigorous correlations between cultural traits. Despite this, we see well-controlled nomothetic studies as useful tools for the development of theories.

First High-Density Linkage Map and Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms Significantly Associated With Traits of Economic Importance in Yellowtail Kingfish Seriola lalandi

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Nguyen H. Nguyen

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The genetic resources available for the commercially important fish species Yellowtail kingfish (YTK (Seriola lalandi are relative sparse. To overcome this, we aimed (1 to develop a linkage map for this species, and (2 to identify markers/variants associated with economically important traits in kingfish (with an emphasis on body weight. Genetic and genomic analyses were conducted using 13,898 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs generated from a new high-throughput genotyping by sequencing platform, Diversity Arrays Technology (DArTseqTM in a pedigreed population comprising 752 animals. The linkage analysis enabled to map about 4,000 markers to 24 linkage groups (LGs, with an average density of 3.4 SNPs per cM. The linkage map was integrated into a genome-wide association study (GWAS and identified six variants/SNPs associated with body weight (P < 5e-8 when a multi-locus mixed model was used. Two out of the six significant markers were mapped to LGs 17 and 23, and collectively they explained 5.8% of the total genetic variance. It is concluded that the newly developed linkage map and the significantly associated markers with body weight provide fundamental information to characterize genetic architecture of growth-related traits in this population of YTK S. lalandi.

First High-Density Linkage Map and Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms Significantly Associated With Traits of Economic Importance in Yellowtail Kingfish Seriola lalandi.

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Nguyen H; Rastas, Pasi M A; Premachandra, H K A; Knibb, Wayne

2018-01-01

The genetic resources available for the commercially important fish species Yellowtail kingfish (YTK) ( Seriola lalandi) are relative sparse. To overcome this, we aimed (1) to develop a linkage map for this species, and (2) to identify markers/variants associated with economically important traits in kingfish (with an emphasis on body weight). Genetic and genomic analyses were conducted using 13,898 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) generated from a new high-throughput genotyping by sequencing platform, Diversity Arrays Technology (DArTseq TM ) in a pedigreed population comprising 752 animals. The linkage analysis enabled to map about 4,000 markers to 24 linkage groups (LGs), with an average density of 3.4 SNPs per cM. The linkage map was integrated into a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and identified six variants/SNPs associated with body weight ( P 5e -8 ) when a multi-locus mixed model was used. Two out of the six significant markers were mapped to LGs 17 and 23, and collectively they explained 5.8% of the total genetic variance. It is concluded that the newly developed linkage map and the significantly associated markers with body weight provide fundamental information to characterize genetic architecture of growth-related traits in this population of YTK S. lalandi .

Political Crowdfunding as concept of political technologies

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Valeria GOLKA

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Political crowdfunding is analyzed as a new concept of political science. The justification of use of crowdfunding technologies not only in business but also in the political sphere is argued. The efficiency, availability, low cost of the new forms of political investment through the development of information and communication technologies are noted. The typology of political crowdfunding is proposed. Political projects promoting domestic crowdfunding platforms are analyzed. Attention is drawn to the problem of legal gaps in the regulation of crowdfunding is studied. The foreign experience of organizing public support (mikroinvestment political projects. It is emphasized that in terms of political theory crowdfunding is based on solidarity. The crowdfunding properties of transforming social capital accumulated by social networks into financial capital are mentioned.

On the Ethnic Origins of African Development: Chiefs and Precolonial Political Centralization

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Michalopoulos, Stelios; Papaioannou, Elias

2015-01-01

We report on recent findings of a fruitful research agenda that explores the importance of ethnic-specific traits in shaping African development. First, using recent surveys from Sub-Saharan African countries, we document that individuals identify with their ethnic group as often as with the nation pointing to the salience of ethnicity. Second, we focus on the various historical and contemporary functions of tribal leaders (chiefs) and illustrate their influence on various aspects of the economy and the polity. Third, we elaborate on a prominent dimension of ethnicity, that of the degree of complexity of pre-colonial political organization. Building on insights from the African historiography, we review recent works showing a strong association between pre-colonial centralization and contemporary comparative development both across and within countries. We also document that the link between pre-colonial political centralization and regional development -as captured by satellite images of light density at night-is particularly strong in areas outside the vicinity of the capitals, where due to population mixing and the salience of national institutions ethnic traits play a lesser role. Overall, our evidence is supportive to theories and narratives on the presence of a “dual” economic and institutional environment in Africa. PMID:27011760

Space, politics, and the political

OpenAIRE

dikec , mustafa

1987-01-01

International audience; Introduction Geography and politics'', Gottmann wrote in 1980, ``have long been in search of each other'' (page 11). Debates in the literature suggest not only that they have found each other, but also that the encounter has instigated, notably in the last decade or so, a body of literature seeking to think space politically, and to think politics spatially. This is not to suggest that previous work on space was apolitical, nor to suggest that previous work on politics...

Identification of molecular markers associated with fruit traits in olive and assessment of olive core collection with AFLP markers and fruit traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Ipek, M; Seker, M; Ipek, A; Gul, M K

2015-03-31

The purpose of this study was to characterize olive core collection with amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers and fruit traits and to determine AFLP markers significantly associated with these fruit characters in olive. A total of 168 polymorphic AFLP markers generated by five primer combinations and nine fruit traits were used to characterize relationships between 18 olive cultivars. Although all olive cultivars were discriminated from each other by either AFLP markers (markers and fruit traits was not significantly correlated (r = 0.13). Partial clustering of olive cultivars by AFLP markers according to their geographical origin was observed. Associations of AFLP markers with fruits were determined using a multiple-regression analysis with stepwise addition of AFLP markers. Significant associations between eight AFLP markers and fruit traits were identified. While five AFLP markers demonstrated significant negative correlation with fruit and stone weight, width and length and total polyphenols (P markers displayed significant positive correlation with α-tocopherol and γ-tocopherol (P molecular markers with fruit traits in olive. Molecular markers associated with morphological and agronomic traits could be utilized for the breeding of olive cultivars. However, the association power of these markers needs to be confirmed in larger populations, and highly correlated markers should then be converted to PCR-based DNA markers such as sequence-characterized amplified region markers for better utilization.

Political Instability and Economic Growth

OpenAIRE

Alberto Alesina; Sule Ozler; Nouriel Roubini; Phillip Swagel

1992-01-01

This paper investigates the relationship between political instability and per capita GDP growth in a sample of 113 countries for the period 1950-1982. We define ?political instability? as the propensity of a government collapse, and we estimate a model in which political instability and economic growth are jointly determined. The main result of this paper is that in countries and time periods with a high propensity of government collapse, growth is significantly lower than otherwise. This ef...

Genetic Characterization of Dog Personality Traits.

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Ilska, Joanna; Haskell, Marie J; Blott, Sarah C; Sánchez-Molano, Enrique; Polgar, Zita; Lofgren, Sarah E; Clements, Dylan N; Wiener, Pamela

2017-06-01

The genetic architecture of behavioral traits in dogs is of great interest to owners, breeders, and professionals involved in animal welfare, as well as to scientists studying the genetics of animal (including human) behavior. The genetic component of dog behavior is supported by between-breed differences and some evidence of within-breed variation. However, it is a challenge to gather sufficiently large datasets to dissect the genetic basis of complex traits such as behavior, which are both time-consuming and logistically difficult to measure, and known to be influenced by nongenetic factors. In this study, we exploited the knowledge that owners have of their dogs to generate a large dataset of personality traits in Labrador Retrievers. While accounting for key environmental factors, we demonstrate that genetic variance can be detected for dog personality traits assessed using questionnaire data. We identified substantial genetic variance for several traits, including fetching tendency and fear of loud noises, while other traits revealed negligibly small heritabilities. Genetic correlations were also estimated between traits; however, due to fairly large SEs, only a handful of trait pairs yielded statistically significant estimates. Genomic analyses indicated that these traits are mainly polygenic, such that individual genomic regions have small effects, and suggested chromosomal associations for six of the traits. The polygenic nature of these traits is consistent with previous behavioral genetics studies in other species, for example in mouse, and confirms that large datasets are required to quantify the genetic variance and to identify the individual genes that influence behavioral traits. Copyright © 2017 by the Genetics Society of America.

Personality, political skill, and job performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blickle, G.; Meurs, J.A.; Zettler, Ingo

2008-01-01

constructs of agreeableness and conscientiousness with political skill predict job performance. Our results supported our hypothesis for the agreeableness-political skill interaction. Additionally, after correcting for the unreliability and restricted range of conscientiousness, we found that its interaction...... with political skill also significantly predicted job performance, although not precisely as hypothesized. Implications of the results and directions for future research are provided....

Past-focused temporal communication overcomes conservatives' resistance to liberal political ideas.

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Lammers, Joris; Baldwin, Matt

2018-04-01

Nine studies and a meta-analysis test the role of past-focused temporal communication in reducing conservatives' disagreement with liberal political ideas. We propose that conservatives are more prone to warm, affectionate, and nostalgic feelings for past society. Therefore, they are more likely to support political ideas-including those expressing liberal values-that can be linked to a desirable past state (past focus), rather than a desirable future state (future focus) of society. Study 1 supports our prediction that political conservatives are more nostalgic for the past than liberals. Building on this association, we demonstrate that communicating liberal ideas with a past focus increases conservatives' support for leniency in criminal justice (Studies 2a and 2b), gun control (Study 3), immigration (Study 4), social diversity (Study 5), and social justice (Study 6). Communicating messages with a past focus reduced political disagreement (compared with a future focus) between liberals and conservatives by between 30 and 100% across studies. Studies 5 and 6 identify the mediating role of state and trait nostalgia, respectively. Study 7 shows that the temporal communication effect only occurs under peripheral (and not central) information processing. Study 8 shows that the effect is asymmetric; a future focus did not increase liberals' support for conservative ideas. A mixed-effects meta-analysis across all studies confirms that appealing to conservatives' nostalgia with a past-focused temporal focus increases support for liberal political messages (Study 9). A large portion of the political disagreement between conservatives and liberals appears to be disagreement over style, and not content of political issues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Cultural effects on the association between election outcomes and face-based trait inferences

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Adolphs, Ralph; Alvarez, R. Michael

2017-01-01

How competent a politician looks, as assessed in the laboratory, is correlated with whether the politician wins in real elections. This finding has led many to investigate whether the association between candidate appearances and election outcomes transcends cultures. However, these studies have largely focused on European countries and Caucasian candidates. To the best of our knowledge, there are only four cross-cultural studies that have directly investigated how face-based trait inferences correlate with election outcomes across Caucasian and Asian cultures. These prior studies have provided some initial evidence regarding cultural differences, but methodological problems and inconsistent findings have complicated our understanding of how culture mediates the effects of candidate appearances on election outcomes. Additionally, these four past studies have focused on positive traits, with a relative neglect of negative traits, resulting in an incomplete picture of how culture may impact a broader range of trait inferences. To study Caucasian-Asian cultural effects with a more balanced experimental design, and to explore a more complete profile of traits, here we compared how Caucasian and Korean participants’ inferences of positive and negative traits correlated with U.S. and Korean election outcomes. Contrary to previous reports, we found that inferences of competence (made by participants from both cultures) correlated with both U.S. and Korean election outcomes. Inferences of open-mindedness and threat, two traits neglected in previous cross-cultural studies, were correlated with Korean but not U.S. election outcomes. This differential effect was found in trait judgments made by both Caucasian and Korean participants. Interestingly, the faster the participants made face-based trait inferences, the more strongly those inferences were correlated with real election outcomes. These findings provide new insights into cultural effects and the difficult question of

Cultural effects on the association between election outcomes and face-based trait inferences.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Chujun; Adolphs, Ralph; Alvarez, R Michael

2017-01-01

How competent a politician looks, as assessed in the laboratory, is correlated with whether the politician wins in real elections. This finding has led many to investigate whether the association between candidate appearances and election outcomes transcends cultures. However, these studies have largely focused on European countries and Caucasian candidates. To the best of our knowledge, there are only four cross-cultural studies that have directly investigated how face-based trait inferences correlate with election outcomes across Caucasian and Asian cultures. These prior studies have provided some initial evidence regarding cultural differences, but methodological problems and inconsistent findings have complicated our understanding of how culture mediates the effects of candidate appearances on election outcomes. Additionally, these four past studies have focused on positive traits, with a relative neglect of negative traits, resulting in an incomplete picture of how culture may impact a broader range of trait inferences. To study Caucasian-Asian cultural effects with a more balanced experimental design, and to explore a more complete profile of traits, here we compared how Caucasian and Korean participants' inferences of positive and negative traits correlated with U.S. and Korean election outcomes. Contrary to previous reports, we found that inferences of competence (made by participants from both cultures) correlated with both U.S. and Korean election outcomes. Inferences of open-mindedness and threat, two traits neglected in previous cross-cultural studies, were correlated with Korean but not U.S. election outcomes. This differential effect was found in trait judgments made by both Caucasian and Korean participants. Interestingly, the faster the participants made face-based trait inferences, the more strongly those inferences were correlated with real election outcomes. These findings provide new insights into cultural effects and the difficult question of

Freshwater Biological Traits Database (Traits)

Science.gov (United States)

The traits database was compiled for a project on climate change effects on river and stream ecosystems. The traits data, gathered from multiple sources, focused on information published or otherwise well-documented by trustworthy sources.

Mixing politics and crime

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Munksgaard, Rasmus; Demant, Jakob Johan

2016-01-01

Background Dread Pirate Roberts, founder of the first cryptomarket for illicit drugs named Silk Road, articulated libertarian political motives for his ventures. Previous research argues that there is a significant political component present or involved in cryptomarket drug dealing which...... is specifically libertarian. The aim of the paper is to investigate the prevalence of political discourses within discussions of cryptomarket drug dealing, and further to research the potential changes of these over the timespan of the study. Methods We develop a novel operationalization of discourse analytic...... concepts which we combine with topic modelling enabling us to study how politics are articulated on cryptomarket forums. We apply the Structural Topic Model on a corpus extracted from crawls of cryptomarket forums encompassing posts dating from 2011 to 2015. Results The topics discussed on cryptomarket...

Life politics, nature and the state: Giddens' sociological theory and The Politics of Climate Change.

Science.gov (United States)

Thorpe, Charles; Jacobson, Brynna

2013-03-01

Anthony Giddens' The Politics of Climate Change represents a significant shift in the way in which he addresses ecological politics. In this book, he rejects the relevance of environmentalism and demarcates climate-change policy from life politics. Giddens addresses climate change in the technocratic mode of simple rather than reflexive modernization. However, Giddens' earlier sociological theory provides the basis for a more reflexive understanding of climate change. Climate change instantiates how, in high modernity, the existential contradiction of the human relationship with nature returns in new form, expressed in life politics and entangled with the structural contradictions of the capitalist state. The interlinking of existential and structural contradiction is manifested in the tension between life politics and the capitalist nation-state. This tension is key for understanding the failures so far of policy responses to climate change. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2013.

Private political archives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Waldemar Chorążyczewski

2010-12-01

of behaviour described in acts. Consequently, they became an inseparable part of Polish political culture of the XVI century, and their collection became indispensable for any politician trying to play a more significant role in public life. It is easy to see some kind of regularity - the bigger role to be played, the bigger scope of archival materials to be used and collected. However, it was characteristic for political archives that their main part was not used until some external necessity and the user's will raised in order to exploit one specific text corresponding to one specific situation.

Cognitive Engagement and Online Political Participation on Social Media among Youths in Malaysia: The Moderating role of Political Knowledge

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Abdulrauf Aishat Adebisi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The role of political knowledge in engendering political participation among youths in a society cannot be overstated. Yet, there is scarcity of research in this area. Thus, this study assessed the moderating role of political knowledge in the relationship between Access to Political Information on Facebook and Twitter (APIFT, Political Interest (PI and Policy Satisfaction (PS with Online Political Participation on Facebook and Twitter (OPPFT. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 238 undergraduate students of Universiti Utara Malaysia. Questionnaire was used to collect data which was analysed using Partial Least Squares-MultiGroup Analysis (PLS-MGA. Results revealed that political knowledge moderated the relationship between access to political information on Facebook and Twitter and political interest with youth online political participation on Facebook and Twitter. However, it did not moderate the relationship between policy satisfaction with youth online political participation on Facebook and Twitter. Generally, these findings suggests that political knowledge plays a significant role in youth online political participation in Malaysia. Consequently, this study has added empirical evidence to predictors of political participation while at the same time contributing to the body of knowledge on online political participation.

Fearless dominance and the U.S. presidency: implications of psychopathic personality traits for successful and unsuccessful political leadership.

Science.gov (United States)

Lilienfeld, Scott O; Waldman, Irwin D; Landfield, Kristin; Watts, Ashley L; Rubenzer, Steven; Faschingbauer, Thomas R

2012-09-01

Although psychopathic personality (psychopathy) is marked largely by maladaptive traits (e.g., poor impulse control, lack of guilt), some authors have conjectured that some features of this condition (e.g., fearlessness, interpersonal dominance) are adaptive in certain occupations, including leadership positions. We tested this hypothesis in the 42 U.S. presidents up to and including George W. Bush using (a) psychopathy trait estimates derived from personality data completed by historical experts on each president, (b) independent historical surveys of presidential leadership, and (c) largely or entirely objective indicators of presidential performance. Fearless Dominance, which reflects the boldness associated with psychopathy, was associated with better rated presidential performance, leadership, persuasiveness, crisis management, Congressional relations, and allied variables; it was also associated with several largely or entirely objective indicators of presidential performance, such as initiating new projects and being viewed as a world figure. Most of these associations survived statistical control for covariates, including intellectual brilliance, five factor model personality traits, and need for power. In contrast, Impulsive Antisociality and related traits of psychopathy were generally unassociated with rated presidential performance, although they were linked to some largely or entirely objective indicators of negative job performance, including Congressional impeachment resolutions, tolerating unethical behavior in subordinates, and negative character. These findings indicate that the boldness associated with psychopathy is an important but heretofore neglected predictor of presidential performance, and suggest that certain features of psychopathy are tied to successful interpersonal behavior.

European Union: Gender and politics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Žunić Natalija

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Political representation is the central issue in contemporary debates on the level of democracy in political institutions and processes in the European Union. Underrepresentation of particular groups in political institutions, decision-making and policy-making processes is perceived as the problem of justice, legitimacy and effectiveness in democratic societies. In this paper, the author analyzes the gender aspects of democratic decision-making processes and political representation of women in the EU member states. The social, historical and political dimension of women's efforts to obtain and promote their civil status and political rights have been the framework for developing the principle of gender equality as one of the founding EU principles. In the past hundred years, one of the most significant trends in politics has been the expansion of formal political representation of women. Yet, even though it has been more than a hundered years since women won their political rights in the 19th and the 20th century (the right to vote and the right to be voted, gender differences in political rights are still a substantial part of debate. Today, women's political representation is still inadequate and their political capacity and power have not been exercised to a sufficient extent (or proportionally through their actual representation in parliament. In March 2012, the European Commisision published a report on gender equality in different areas of social life; the Eurobarometer survey shows that women are generally underrepresented in politics. In national parliaments, only one out of four MPs is a woman. In the European Parliament, three out of ten parliamentarians are women. The statistics shows a huge discrepancy among the EU Member States in terms of women's representation in parliament (44.7% in Sweden as contrasted to 13.3% in Romania. The prevailing view in many studies is that post-industrial democracies are deficient as they have failed

Ethnic Association of Cusp of Carabelli Trait and Shoveling Trait in an Indian Population

Science.gov (United States)

Manju, M; Praveen, R; Umesh, W

2016-01-01

Introduction Variations in the structure of teeth have always been of great interest to the dentist from the scientific as well as practical point of view. Additionally, ever since decades inter trait relationships have been a useful means to categorize populations to which an individual belongs. Aim To determine the association between Cusp of Carabelli and Shoveling Trait in a selected Indian population native of Bangalore city, Karnataka, India. Materials and Methods A cross-sectional study was carried out in 1885 children aged between 7-10 years. Casts of the study subjects were made to study the presence of Cusp of Carabelli of right maxillary permanent molar and shoveling trait of right maxillary permanent central incisor using the Dahlberg’s classification and Hrdliucka’s classification respectively. Linear regression was used to assess the association of cusp of carabelli trait with the tooth dimensions and logistic regression was used to evaluate the association of the carabelli trait with gender and presence/absence of shoveling. Results A 40.5% of subjects had Cusp of Carabelli on first molar and 68.2% had shoveling on upper central incisor. The study revealed positive association between the two traits studied in the population. A significant difference was also found with presence of Cusp of Carabelli and the buccolingual tooth dimension of the maxillary molar (pshoveling trait in the present study population, and this will be valuable in the determination of ethnic origin of an individual. PMID:27135008

Politeness Strategies Used in Text Messaging

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Shahrzad Eshghinejad

2016-03-01

Full Text Available One aspect of short message service (SMS communication through a cell phone is use of politeness strategies. As it is extensively argued that females are more polite language users, the present study sought to describe the strategies used by these two groups and to find out whether there is any significant difference between male and female English as a foreign language (EFL learners in the use of positive and negative politeness strategies in sending SMS to their professors, considering that there is an asymmetric power relation and social distance between them. To this end, a corpus of 300 L1 (Persian and L2 (English request messages was compiled. Results of qualitative and quantitative data analysis showed no significant difference between the two groups. Results of the study have implication in politeness research.

Trait aggression and trait impulsivity are not related to frontal cortex 5-HT2A receptor binding in healthy individuals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

da Cunha-Bang, Sophie; Stenbæk, Dea Siggaard; Holst, Klaus

2013-01-01

age 47.0±18.7, range 23-86) to determine if trait aggression and trait impulsivity were related to frontal cortex 5-HT2A receptor binding (5-HT2AR) as measured with [(18)F]-altanserin PET imaging. Trait aggression and trait impulsivity were assessed with the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (AQ...... and the AQ or BIS-11 total scores. Also, there was no significant interaction between gender and frontal cortex 5-HT2AR in predicting trait aggression and trait impulsivity. This is the first study to examine how 5-HT2AR relates to trait aggression and trait impulsivity in a large sample of healthy......Numerous studies indicate that the serotonergic (5-HT) transmitter system is involved in the regulation of impulsive aggression and there is from post-mortem, in vivo imaging and genetic studies evidence that the 5-HT2A receptor may be involved. We investigated 94 healthy individuals (60 men, mean...

HUBUNGAN ANTARA TRAIT KEPRIBADIAN DAN IKLIM PSIKOLOGIS SEKOLAH DENGAN SELF-EFFICACY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lufiana Harnany Utami

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This research study about the correlation between personality trait and psychological climate with teacher’s self-efficacy. Instruments used are NEO-big five scale from Costa and McCrae, teacher’s self-efficacy scales and psychological climate questionnaire. Data analyzed with statistics regression. The result shows that there is a positive and significant correlation between personality trait and self-efficacy. Traits of extraversion, conscientiousness and openness significantly contribute to self-efficacy while neuroticism and agreeableness have no significant contribution. Besides, there is also positive and significant correlation between psychological climate and self-efficacy. At last, personality traits and psychological climate at school together give contribution to self-efficacy significantly.

Political oil import diversification by financial and commercial traders

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kashcheeva, Mila; Tsui, Kevin K.

2015-01-01

International politics affects the oil trade. But do financial and commercial traders who participate in spot oil trading also respond to changes in international politics? We construct a firm-level dataset for all U.S. oil-importing companies over 1986–2008 to examine how these firms respond to increases in “political distance” between the U.S. and her trading partners, measured by divergence in their UN General Assembly voting patterns. Consistent with previous macro evidence, we first show that individual firms diversify their oil imports politically, even after controlling for unobserved firm heterogeneity. However, the political pattern of oil imports is not entirely driven by the concerns of hold-up risks, which exist when oil transactions via term contracts are associated with backward vertical FDI that is subject to expropriation. In particular, our results indicate that even financial and commercial traders significantly reduce their oil imports from U.S. political enemies. Interestingly, while these traders diversify their oil imports politically immediately after changes in international politics, other oil companies reduce their oil imports with a significant time lag. Our findings suggest that in designing regulations to avoid harmful repercussions on commodity and financial assets, policymakers need to understand the nature of political risk. -- Highlights: •American firms diversify their oil imports politically. •Financial and commercial traders diversify their oil imports politically immediately. •Other oil companies reduce their oil imports with a significant time lag. •Policymakers need to understand the nature of political risk

Politics 2.0: The Use of Social Networks in Argentinean Politics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Natalia Romina Dominguez

2012-02-01

Full Text Available This article is part of a doctoral thesis that analyzes the political use of the communication 2.0, specifically of Facebook and Twitter. The political agent chosen is the President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in the pre electoral period of the first Simultaneous Open and Compulsory Primary. It is important to mention that she is the first Argentinean president to use the social networks with electoral purposes in pursuit of her reelection, given that the development of these communicational tools is recent and previous presidents did not count with them. In order to analyze the use of social networks by the President in a pre-election period, political discourse was analyzed and compared the treatment of electoral information of three traditional mass media-La Nacion, Clarin and Página/12- and the political material, or management review published, shared and retweeted by the political agent chosen. The study found that the agent used its social networking times during the period. The electoral messages aimed to list the qualities of his first management through specific government measures without making campaign promises. Meanwhile, the media published a significant amount of notes linked to the President but was tiny references to electoral publications on social networks.

Path analysis of the productive traits in Sorghum species

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ikanović Jela

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This research studied the phenotypic correlation coefficients between three Sorghum species, namely forage sorghum S. bicolor Moench. (c. NS-Džin, Sudan grass S. sudanense L. (c. Zora and interspecies hybrid S. bicolor x S. sudanense (c. Siloking. The analyses were performed on plant material samples taken from the first cutting, when plants were in the beginning phase of tasseling. The following morphologic traits were studied: plant height, number of leaves per plant, stem leaf weight and mean stem weight. Additionally, their direct and indirect effect on dependent variable green biomass yield was analyzed, for which path coefficients were calculated. This method enables more quality and full insight into relations existing among the studied traits, more precise establishment of cause-effect connections among them, as well as to separate direct from indirect effects of any particular trait on dependent variable, being biomass yield in this case. The analysis of phenotypic coefficients revealed differences in direct and indirect effect of certain traits on dependent variable. Sudan grass had the highest stem (2.281 m and most leaves per plant (7.917. Forage sorghum had the largest leaf weight per plant (49.05 g, while interspecies hybrid had the highest mean stem weight (80.798 g. Variations of these morphologic traits among species were found to be significant and very significant. Morphologic traits - stem height and weight significantly affected sorghum green biomass yield. Leaf number and leaf portion in total biomass were negatively correlated with yield. Cultivars differed significantly regarding morphologic and productive traits. Sudan grass had the lowest green biomass yield, while forage sorghum and interspecies hybrid had significant yield increase.

Scoring of nonmetric cranial traits: a methodological approach

Science.gov (United States)

GUALDI-RUSSO, E.; TASCA, M. A.; BRASILI, P.

1999-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to analyse the replicability of the scoring of discontinuous traits. This was assessed on a sample of 100 skulls from the Frassetto collection (Dipartimento di Biologia Evoluzionistica Sperimentale of Bologna University) analysed through intraobserver comparisons: the discontinuous traits were determined on the same skulls and by the same observer on 3 separate occasions. The scoring was also assessed through interobserver comparisons: 3 different observers performed an independent survey on the same skulls. The results show that there were no significant differences in the discontinuous trait frequencies between the 3 different scorings by the same observer, but there were sometimes significant differences between different observers. Caution should thus be taken in applying the frequencies of these traits to population research. After an indispensable control of material conditions (subject age included), consideration must be given to standardisation procedures between observers, otherwise this may be an additional source of variability in cranial discontinuous trait scoring. PMID:10634693

Cooperation, framing and political attitudes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fosgaard, Toke Reinholt; Hansen, Lars Gårn; Wengström, Erik Roland

This paper shows that political attitudes are linked to cooperative behavior in an incentivized experiment with a large sample randomly drawn from the Danish population. However, this relationship depends on the way the experiment is framed. In the standard game in which subjects give to a public...... good, contributions are the same regardless of political attitudes. In an economically equivalent version, in which subjects take from a public good, left-wingers cooperate significantly more than subjects in the middle or to the right of the political spectrum. Through simulation techniques we find...

Genetic correlations between wool traits and meat quality traits in Merino sheep.

Science.gov (United States)

Mortimer, S I; Hatcher, S; Fogarty, N M; van der Werf, J H J; Brown, D J; Swan, A A; Jacob, R H; Geesink, G H; Hopkins, D L; Edwards, J E Hocking; Ponnampalam, E N; Warner, R D; Pearce, K L; Pethick, D W

2017-10-01

Genetic correlations between 29 wool production and quality traits and 25 meat quality and nutritional value traits were estimated for Merino sheep from an Information Nucleus (IN). Genetic correlations among the meat quality and nutritional value traits are also reported. The IN comprised 8 flocks linked genetically and managed across a range of sheep production environments in Australia. The wool traits included over 5,000 yearling and 3,700 adult records for fleece weight, fiber diameter, staple length, staple strength, fiber diameter variation, scoured wool color, and visual scores for breech and body wrinkle. The meat quality traits were measured on samples from the and included over 1,200 records from progeny of over 170 sires for intramuscular fat (IMF), shear force of meat aged for 5 d (SF5), 24 h postmortem pH (pHLL; also measured in the , pHST), fresh and retail meat color and meat nutritional value traits such as iron and zinc levels, and long-chain omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid levels. Estimated heritabilities for IMF, SF5, pHLL, pHST, retail meat color lightness (), myoglobin, iron, zinc and across the range of long-chain fatty acids were 0.58 ± 0.11, 0.10 ± 0.09, 0.15 ± 0.07, 0.20 ± 0.10, 0.59 ± 0.15, 0.31 ± 0.09, 0.20 ± 0.09, 0.11 ± 0.09, and range of 0.00 (eicosapentaenoic, docosapentaenoic, and arachidonic acids) to 0.14 ± 0.07 (linoleic acid), respectively. The genetic correlations between the wool production and meat quality traits were low to negligible and indicate that wool breeding programs will have little or no effect on meat quality. There were moderately favorable genetic correlations between important yearling wool production traits and the omega-3 fatty acids that were reduced for corresponding adult wool production traits, but these correlations are unlikely to be important in wool/meat breeding programs because they have high SE, and the omega-3 traits have little or no genetic variance. Significant genetic

TRY – a global database of plant traits

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kattge, J.; Diaz, S.; Lavorel, S.

2011-01-01

species richness to ecosystem functional diversity. Trait data thus represent the raw material for a wide range of research from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology to biogeography. Here we present the global database initiative named TRY, which has united a wide range of the plant...... trait research community worldwide and gained an unprecedented buy‐in of trait data: so far 93 trait databases have been contributed. The data repository currently contains almost three million trait entries for 69 000 out of the world's 300 000 plant species, with a focus on 52 groups of traits...... is between species (interspecific), but significant intraspecific variation is also documented, up to 40% of the overall variation. Plant functional types (PFTs), as commonly used in vegetation models, capture a substantial fraction of the observed variation – but for several traits most variation occurs...

From metaphysical to political: Does political culture make Rawls's principle of tolerance morally relativistic?

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Vranić Bojan

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to analyze Rawls's conception of political (public culture, exploring whether his principle of tolerance (Political Liberalism falls in moral relativism. The analysis consists of three sections. Firstly, the author introduces different critical accounts on Rawls's theory and identifies where they go wrong. Secondly, the author delineates the intellectual tradition of social liberalism from which sprang Rawls's conception, showing that he significantly alters the key ideas of dominant liberal justice of the Western world. In the final section of the paper it is argued that Rawls's idea of political culture is a cornerstone of just society and the spring of tolerance, providing arguments in favor of the idea that Rawls's conception of political liberalism is not morally relativistic but it is, however, in line with liberal pluralism.

Political Participation and Power Relations in Egypt

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shehata, Mostafa

2017-01-01

The political use of media in Egypt post-2011 revolution brought about drastic transformations in political activism and power structures. In the context of communication power theory, this article investigates the effects of newspapers and social network sites on political participation...... and political power relations. The research employed a mixed methodology, comprised of a survey of 527 Egyptian youth and semi-structured interviews of 12 political activists and journalists. The results showed a significant relationship between reading newspapers and youth’s political participation......, but not between using social network sites and political participation. In addition, newspapers and social network sites were platforms for a series of conflicts and coalitions that emerged between pro- and anti-revolution actors. Despite the importance of social network sites as key tools for informing...

Politically Active Home Economists: Their Socialization to Politics.

Science.gov (United States)

Ley, Connie J.

1980-01-01

A nationwide study identified a pattern of political socialization for home economists who were politically active. The most outstanding feature of the politically active subjects was their perception that political activity is a professional role. (SK)

The Structuring Principle: Political Socialization and Belief Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Searing, Donald D.; And Others

1973-01-01

Assesses the significance of data on childhood political learning to political theory by testing the structuring principle,'' considered one of the central assumptions of political socialization research. This principle asserts that basic orientations acquired during childhood structure the later learning of specific issue beliefs.'' The…

Factors affecting the reproductive traits of Holstein cows

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Daniella Flavia Vilas Boas

2012-12-01

Full Text Available For dairy cattle breeds, mainly the taurine ones, the selection emphasized for many years the increase in milk yields and, as a consequence, the adaptive and reproductive traits were negatively affected. The aim of this study was to verify the influence of genetic and environmental effects on the reproductive traits in a dairy herd selected for high milk production levels. The data set comprised 1,737 first lactations Holsteins cows of Agrindus Farm, located at Southeastern region of Brazil. The records of the following reproductive traits: calving to first heat interval (CFHI, calving to conception interval (CCI and first to second calving interval (FCI were analyzed as dependent variables by least squares method using GLM procedure (SAS. Linear models were considered including two production levels (1= less than 9,500 kg and 2= more than 9,501 kg of total milk yield, contemporary group (year and months calving, management group, sire of cow, and the sire used to breeding cows, as classificatory variables. As covariates were included for all traits the peak milk yield in lactation (linear effect, age at calving only for CFHI (linear and quadratic effects since this effect was not significant for other traits, and CFHI (linear effect only for FCI. The coefficients of determination represented 24%, 74% and 75%, respectively for CFHI, FCI and CCI models. Production level, peak milk yield and sire effects were significant (P<0.05 for all traits. The average estimated for high and low milk production level were 73 and 79 days, 500 and 601 days, 227 and 330 days for CFHI, FCI and CCI, respectively, suggesting that cows with higher genetic potential for milk had worse reproductive performance. Similarly, lactation peak showed significant effect (P<0.05 for all traits, suggesting higher peaks cows showed also poorer reproductive rates. Sire effect also was a variable that showed significant effect (P<0.01 for all traits, which means that there was

Cultural influences on social feedback processing of character traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Korn, Christoph W; Fan, Yan; Zhang, Kai; Wang, Chenbo; Han, Shihui; Heekeren, Hauke R

2014-01-01

Cultural differences are generally explained by how people see themselves in relation to social interaction partners. While Western culture emphasizes independence, East Asian culture emphasizes interdependence. Despite this focus on social interactions, it remains elusive how people from different cultures process feedback on their own (and on others') character traits. Here, participants of either German or Chinese origin engaged in a face-to-face interaction. Consequently, they updated their self- and other-ratings of 80 character traits (e.g., polite, pedantic) after receiving feedback from their interaction partners. To exclude potential confounds, we obtained data from German and Chinese participants in Berlin [functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)] and in Beijing (behavior). We tested cultural influences on social conformity, positivity biases, and self-related neural activity. First, Chinese conformed more to social feedback than Germans (i.e., Chinese updated their trait ratings more). Second, regardless of culture, participants processed self- and other-related feedback in a positively biased way (i.e., they updated more toward desirable than toward undesirable feedback). Third, changes in self-related medial prefrontal cortex activity were greater in Germans than in Chinese during feedback processing. By investigating conformity, positivity biases, and self-related activity in relation to feedback obtained in a real-life interaction, we provide an essential step toward a unifying framework for understanding the diversity of human culture.

Political discussions with family and friends

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Levinsen, Klaus; Yndigegn, Carsten

2015-01-01

Young people's engagement in political discussions with parents and friends represents a significant component of the political socialization process and can be seen as an activity where they learn some very basic democratic skills. Based on data from qualitative interviews and a questionnaire su...

Toward a knowledge infrastructure for traits-based ecological risk assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Baird, Donald J; Baker, Christopher J O; Brua, Robert B; Hajibabaei, Mehrdad; McNicol, Kearon; Pascoe, Timothy J; de Zwart, Dick

2011-04-01

The trait approach has already indicated significant potential as a tool in understanding natural variation among species in sensitivity to contaminants in the process of ecological risk assessment. However, to realize its full potential, a defined nomenclature for traits is urgently required, and significant effort is required to populate databases of species-trait relationships. Recently, there have been significant advances in the area of information management and discovery in the area of the semantic web. Combined with continuing progress in biological trait knowledge, these suggest that the time is right for a reevaluation of how trait information from divergent research traditions is collated and made available for end users in the field of environmental management. Although there has already been a great deal of work on traits, the information is scattered throughout databases, literature, and undiscovered sources. Further progress will require better leverage of this existing data and research to fill in the gaps. We review and discuss a number of technical and social challenges to bringing together existing information and moving toward a new, collaborative approach. Finally, we outline a path toward enhanced knowledge discovery within the traits domain space, showing that, by linking knowledge management infrastructure, semantic metadata (trait ontologies), and Web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies, we can begin to construct a dedicated platform for TERA science. Copyright © 2010 SETAC.

Humor styles moderate borderline personality traits and suicide ideation.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Neil A; Helle, Ashley C; Tucker, Raymond P; Lengel, Gregory J; DeShong, Hilary L; Wingate, LaRicka R; Mullins-Sweatt, Stephanie N

2017-03-01

The way individuals use humor to interact interpersonally has been associated with general personality, depression, and suicidality. Certain humor styles may moderate the risk for suicide ideation (SI) in individuals who are high in specific risk factors (e.g., thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness). Previous research suggests a relationship between humor styles and borderline personality disorder (BPD) and an increased risk of suicidality and suicide completion in individuals with BPD. Participants (n =176) completed measures of BPD traits, SI, and humor styles. It was hypothesized that BPD traits would be positively correlated with negative humor styles and negatively correlated with positive humor styles, and that humor styles would significantly moderate BPD traits and SI. Results showed that BPD traits were negatively correlated with self-enhancing humor styles and positively correlated with self-defeating humor styles, but that they were not significantly correlated with affiliative or aggressive humor styles. Bootstrapping analyses demonstrated that the affiliative, self-enhancing, and self-defeating humor styles significantly moderated BPD traits and SI, while the aggressive humor style did not. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Strategic political postures and political market orientation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ormrod, Robert P.; Henneberg, Stephan C.

2010-01-01

by developing an integrated concept of political marketing strategy using two complementary frameworks, namely Strategic Political Postures (SPP) and Political Market Orientation (PMO). We introduce the two main concepts and derive for each of the strategic posture-specific PMO profiles as well as inter......Recently, the areas of strategic political marketing and political market orientation have been the subject of several conceptual articles which have provided the theoretical foundations for further empirical work. However, despite the close conceptual relatedness of the proposed concepts......, these have yet to be integrated to provide a more nuanced framework which both researchers and political marketing practitioners can utilise in the development of strategies and offerings with which to achieve their organizational goals. The aim of this conceptual paper is to address this deficit...

Whole Trait Theory

Science.gov (United States)

Fleeson, William; Jayawickreme, Eranda

2014-01-01

Personality researchers should modify models of traits to include mechanisms of differential reaction to situations. Whole Trait Theory does so via five main points. First, the descriptive side of traits should be conceptualized as density distributions of states. Second, it is important to provide an explanatory account of the Big 5 traits. Third, adding an explanatory account to the Big 5 creates two parts to traits, an explanatory part and a descriptive part, and these two parts should be recognized as separate entities that are joined into whole traits. Fourth, Whole Trait Theory proposes that the explanatory side of traits consists of social-cognitive mechanisms. Fifth, social-cognitive mechanisms that produce Big-5 states should be identified. PMID:26097268

How Antisemitic was the Political Catholicism in Croatia-Slavonia around 1900?

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Marija Vulesica

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Before the Croatian-Slavonian parliamentary elections in 1897, two oppositional parties formed the so called United Opposition which was backed by large segments of the clergy. Afraid, variously, of liberalism, the Hungarian church reforms, the ideas of social democracy and the demands for secularization, the United Opposition chose antisemitism as a political means. Supported by the Catholic paper (Katolički list and its editor in chief Stjepan Korenić, who openly called for the clergy to organize politically, they blamed Jews for all the putative threats of the modern world. For the first time an election campaign in Croatia-Slavonia had open antisemitic traits. The author shows the impact of antisemitic ideas within some parts of the Croatian opposition since the 1880s, including political Catholicism and the United Opposition, down to the turn of the century. The paper considers in addition the role of the Catholic newspaper and the press in general in the antisemitic campaign in 1897, as well as in the distribution of antisemitic ideas in the 1880s and 1890s in the Habsburg crownland Croatia-Slavonia.

Quantitative trait loci for behavioural traits in chicken

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buitenhuis, A.J.; Rodenburg, T.B.; Siwek, M.Z.; Cornelissen, S.J.B.; Nieuwland, M.G.B.; Crooijmans, R.P.M.A.; Groenen, M.A.M.; Koene, P.; Bovenhuis, H.; Poel, van der J.J.

2005-01-01

The detection of quantitative trait loci (QTL) of behavioural traits has mainly been focussed on mouse and rat. With the rapid development of molecular genetics and the statistical tools, QTL mapping for behavioural traits in farm animals is developing. In chicken, a total of 30 QTL involved in

Exploring Women's Understanding of Politics, Political Contestation ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Exploring Women's Understanding of Politics, Political Contestation and Gender ... First, researchers will explore women's political leadership and the extent to ... Sign up now for IDRC news and views sent directly to your inbox each month.

Political symbols and political transitions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Herrero de Miñón, Miguel

2006-11-01

Full Text Available Politics, Law and Psychology are fields that come together in the symbolic. This text takes evidence from those three areas to develop an analysis of political symbols and political transitions. The development of the analysis goes through three stages. The first succinctly describes the concept of transition and its meaning. The second closely examines the notion of the symbol, in terms of its definition, to explain aspects that allow us to understand it, characterise it and make its functions clear. Finally, from the author's experience as a witness and as an actor, I suggest three ways of understanding symbols in the processes of political transition: as symbols of change, as symbols of acknowledgment, and as symbols of support.

Political Education as a Means of Political Socialization.

Science.gov (United States)

Grabe, Weronika; Knobelsdorf, Wodzimierz

1980-01-01

This essay describes the dimensions of political socialization with systematic political education as a major component. Both promote individual acceptance of political norms--particularly where government and school systems are tightly linked. The authors argue that political socialization should promote effective citizenship rather than simply…

Is beta-thalassemia trait a protective factor against ischemic cerebrovascular accidents?

Science.gov (United States)

Karimi, Mehran; Borhani Haghighi, Afshin; Yazdani, Maryam; Raisi, Hamideh; Giti, Rahil; Namazee, Mohammad Reza

2008-01-01

In this research, we sought to determine the association between beta-thalassemia trait and ischemic cerebrovascular accident (CVA). In acase-control study, 148 patients with thromboembolic cerebrovascular events were evaluated for the presence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, and beta-thalassemia trait. A total of 156 age- and sex-matched patients with no cardiac or cerebrovascular diseases, serving as the control group, were also investigated for the above-mentioned risk factors. We found that 6.1% of patients with ischemic CVA and 12.2% of the control group had beta-thalassemia trait (P = .066). In male patients, the negative association between ischemic CVA and presence of beta-thalassemia trait was significant (P = .008). In patients, the prevalence of hypertension was also significantly different between those with and without beta-thalassemia trait (P = .01); those with beta-thalassemia trait had a lower mean blood pressure than those without the trait. beta-Thalassemia trait may have a protective effect against ischemic CVA that might be caused by the lower arterial blood pressure observed in those with this trait.

Political Justice, Schooling and Issues of Group Identity

Science.gov (United States)

Keddie, Amanda

2014-01-01

This article explores issues associated with schooling and political justice. Such issues are understood in light of the contention surrounding how Western schooling contexts might best represent marginalised groups--in ways that accord them a political voice. The significance of group identity politics is explored drawing on international debates…

Boycott or buycott?: Internal politics and consumer choices

OpenAIRE

Xavier Cuadras Morató; Josep M. Raya

2014-01-01

Do political tensions affect economic relations? In particular, does politics significantly affect consumer choices? Firms are often threatened by consumer boycotts that pretend to modify their business strategies and behavior. Sometimes these are caused by general political conflicts. The main objective of the paper is to study the consequences of political conflicts between Spain and Catalonia (a region of Spain) and the subsequent boycott calls on sales of Catalan sparkling ...

Quantile-based permutation thresholds for quantitative trait loci hotspots.

Science.gov (United States)

Neto, Elias Chaibub; Keller, Mark P; Broman, Andrew F; Attie, Alan D; Jansen, Ritsert C; Broman, Karl W; Yandell, Brian S

2012-08-01

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) hotspots (genomic locations affecting many traits) are a common feature in genetical genomics studies and are biologically interesting since they may harbor critical regulators. Therefore, statistical procedures to assess the significance of hotspots are of key importance. One approach, randomly allocating observed QTL across the genomic locations separately by trait, implicitly assumes all traits are uncorrelated. Recently, an empirical test for QTL hotspots was proposed on the basis of the number of traits that exceed a predetermined LOD value, such as the standard permutation LOD threshold. The permutation null distribution of the maximum number of traits across all genomic locations preserves the correlation structure among the phenotypes, avoiding the detection of spurious hotspots due to nongenetic correlation induced by uncontrolled environmental factors and unmeasured variables. However, by considering only the number of traits above a threshold, without accounting for the magnitude of the LOD scores, relevant information is lost. In particular, biologically interesting hotspots composed of a moderate to small number of traits with strong LOD scores may be neglected as nonsignificant. In this article we propose a quantile-based permutation approach that simultaneously accounts for the number and the LOD scores of traits within the hotspots. By considering a sliding scale of mapping thresholds, our method can assess the statistical significance of both small and large hotspots. Although the proposed approach can be applied to any type of heritable high-volume "omic" data set, we restrict our attention to expression (e)QTL analysis. We assess and compare the performances of these three methods in simulations and we illustrate how our approach can effectively assess the significance of moderate and small hotspots with strong LOD scores in a yeast expression data set.

Cultural effects on the association between election outcomes and face-based trait inferences.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chujun Lin

Full Text Available How competent a politician looks, as assessed in the laboratory, is correlated with whether the politician wins in real elections. This finding has led many to investigate whether the association between candidate appearances and election outcomes transcends cultures. However, these studies have largely focused on European countries and Caucasian candidates. To the best of our knowledge, there are only four cross-cultural studies that have directly investigated how face-based trait inferences correlate with election outcomes across Caucasian and Asian cultures. These prior studies have provided some initial evidence regarding cultural differences, but methodological problems and inconsistent findings have complicated our understanding of how culture mediates the effects of candidate appearances on election outcomes. Additionally, these four past studies have focused on positive traits, with a relative neglect of negative traits, resulting in an incomplete picture of how culture may impact a broader range of trait inferences. To study Caucasian-Asian cultural effects with a more balanced experimental design, and to explore a more complete profile of traits, here we compared how Caucasian and Korean participants' inferences of positive and negative traits correlated with U.S. and Korean election outcomes. Contrary to previous reports, we found that inferences of competence (made by participants from both cultures correlated with both U.S. and Korean election outcomes. Inferences of open-mindedness and threat, two traits neglected in previous cross-cultural studies, were correlated with Korean but not U.S. election outcomes. This differential effect was found in trait judgments made by both Caucasian and Korean participants. Interestingly, the faster the participants made face-based trait inferences, the more strongly those inferences were correlated with real election outcomes. These findings provide new insights into cultural effects and the

Political party affiliation, political ideology and mortality.

Science.gov (United States)

Pabayo, Roman; Kawachi, Ichiro; Muennig, Peter

2015-05-01

Ecological and cross-sectional studies have indicated that conservative political ideology is associated with better health. Longitudinal analyses of mortality are needed because subjective assessments of ideology may confound subjective assessments of health, particularly in cross-sectional analyses. Data were derived from the 2008 General Social Survey-National Death Index data set. Cox proportional analysis models were used to determine whether political party affiliation or political ideology was associated with time to death. Also, we attempted to identify whether self-reported happiness and self-rated health acted as mediators between political beliefs and time to death. In this analysis of 32,830 participants and a total follow-up time of 498,845 person-years, we find that political party affiliation and political ideology are associated with mortality. However, with the exception of independents (adjusted HR (AHR)=0.93, 95% CI 0.90 to 0.97), political party differences are explained by the participants' underlying sociodemographic characteristics. With respect to ideology, conservatives (AHR=1.06, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.12) and moderates (AHR=1.06, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.11) are at greater risk for mortality during follow-up than liberals. Political party affiliation and political ideology appear to be different predictors of mortality. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Detection of quantitative trait loci for carcass composition traits in pigs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Renard Christine

2002-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract A quantitative trait locus (QTL analysis of carcass composition data from a three-generation experimental cross between Meishan (MS and Large White (LW pig breeds is presented. A total of 488 F2 males issued from six F1 boars and 23 F1 sows, the progeny of six LW boars and six MS sows, were slaughtered at approximately 80 kg live weight and were submitted to a standardised cutting of the carcass. Fifteen traits, i.e. dressing percentage, loin, ham, shoulder, belly, backfat, leaf fat, feet and head weights, two backfat thickness and one muscle depth measurements, ham + loin and back + leaf fat percentages and estimated carcass lean content were analysed. Animals were typed for a total of 137 markers covering the entire porcine genome. Analyses were performed using a line-cross (LC regression method where founder lines were assumed to be fixed for different QTL alleles and a half/full sib (HFS maximum likelihood method where allele substitution effects were estimated within each half-/full-sib family. Additional analyses were performed to search for multiple linked QTL and imprinting effects. Significant gene effects were evidenced for both leanness and fatness traits in the telomeric regions of SSC 1q and SSC 2p, on SSC 4, SSC 7 and SSC X. Additional significant QTL were identified for ham weight on SSC 5, for head weight on SSC 1 and SSC 7, for feet weight on SSC 7 and for dressing percentage on SSC X. LW alleles were associated with a higher lean content and a lower fat content of the carcass, except for the fatness trait on SSC 7. Suggestive evidence of linked QTL on SSC 7 and of imprinting effects on SSC 6, SSC 7, SSC 9 and SSC 17 were also obtained.

Politics Backstage - Television Documentaries, Politics and Politicians

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ib Bondebjerg

2006-09-01

Full Text Available This article deals with "the transformation of visibility" in political discourse on and representation of politics and politicians in resent Dansih television documentaries. Drawing on the theories of Habermas, Meyrowitz and John B. Thompson, it is argued that the political persona on television is moved closer to the individual citizen, creating a sort "mediated quasi-inter- action" giving mediated communication a stronger element of face-to-face interaction. Together with the more pervasive "live" coverage of politics and politicians, this expands media coverage to both the backstage of political processes and the private and personal backstage of politicians, changing the form of democracy and public debate.

Political Efficacy and Participation of Nurse Practitioners.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Rourke, Nancy C; Crawford, Sybil L; Morris, Nancy S; Pulcini, Joyce

2017-08-01

Twenty-eight states have laws and regulations limiting the ability of nurse practitioners (NPs) to practice to the full extent of their education and training, thereby preventing patients from fully accessing NP services. Revisions to state laws and regulations require NPs to engage in the political process. Understanding the political engagement of NPs may facilitate the efforts of nurse leaders and nursing organizations to promote change in state rules and regulations. The purpose of this study was to describe the political efficacy and political participation of U.S. NPs and gain insight into factors associated with political interest and engagement. In the fall of 2015, we mailed a survey to 2,020 NPs randomly chosen from the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners' database and 632 responded (31% response rate). Participants completed the Trust in Government (external political efficacy) and the Political Efficacy (internal political efficacy) scales, and a demographic form. Overall, NPs have low political efficacy. Older age ( p≤.001), health policy mentoring ( p≤.001), and specific education on health policy ( p≤.001) were all positively associated with internal political efficacy and political participation. External political efficacy was not significantly associated with any of the study variables. Political activities of NPs are largely limited to voting and contacting legislators. Identifying factors that engage NPs in grassroots political activities and the broader political arena is warranted, particularly with current initiatives to make changes to state laws and regulations that limit their practice.

Political consumer behaviour among university students in Brazil and Germany: The role of contextual features and core political values.

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Kotzur, Patrick F; Torres, Cláudio V; Kedzior, Karina K; Boehnke, Klaus

2017-04-01

This study investigates the relationship between political consumerism and core political values (CPVs) among university students in Brazil (N = 414) and Germany (N = 222). Despite the prerequisite to endorse values that are compatible with political consumerism, contextual features of one's immediate environment might affect overall levels of political consumerism. Our results show that political consumerism is significantly associated with higher income in Brazil (but not in Germany). After controlling for income, political consumerism was practised more frequently in Germany than in Brazil, in urban compared with rural areas, and was not dependent on gender. The urban-rural split was stronger in Brazil than in Germany. These results confirm our hypothesis that contextual features are associated with political consumerism. Furthermore, the political value Equality positively predicted political consumerism in both countries. In contrast, Traditional Morality and support of Free Enterprise negatively predicted political consumerism, although the effect sizes of these relationships were only small. These results suggest that political consumerism among university students is widespread in Germany but not in Brazil. Interestingly, regardless of its low prevalence in Brazil, political consumerism is positively associated with the CPV of Equality among university students in both countries. © 2015 International Union of Psychological Science.

Multiple-trait estimates of genetic parameters for metabolic disease traits, fertility disorders, and their predictors in Canadian Holsteins.

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Jamrozik, J; Koeck, A; Kistemaker, G J; Miglior, F

2016-03-01

Producer-recorded health data for metabolic disease traits and fertility disorders on 35,575 Canadian Holstein cows were jointly analyzed with selected indicator traits. Metabolic diseases included clinical ketosis (KET) and displaced abomasum (DA); fertility disorders were metritis (MET) and retained placenta (RP); and disease indicators were fat-to-protein ratio, milk β-hydroxybutyrate, and body condition score (BCS) in the first lactation. Traits in first and later (up to fifth) lactations were treated as correlated in the multiple-trait (13 traits in total) animal linear model. Bayesian methods with Gibbs sampling were implemented for the analysis. Estimates of heritability for disease incidence were low, up to 0.06 for DA in first lactation. Among disease traits, the environmental herd-year variance constituted 4% of the total variance for KET and less for other traits. First- and later-lactation disease traits were genetically correlated (from 0.66 to 0.72) across all traits, indicating different genetic backgrounds for first and later lactations. Genetic correlations between KET and DA were relatively strong and positive (up to 0.79) in both first- and later-lactation cows. Genetic correlations between fertility disorders were slightly lower. Metritis was strongly genetically correlated with both metabolic disease traits in the first lactation only. All other genetic correlations between metabolic and fertility diseases were statistically nonsignificant. First-lactation KET and MET were strongly positively correlated with later-lactation performance for these traits due to the environmental herd-year effect. Indicator traits were moderately genetically correlated (from 0.30 to 0.63 in absolute values) with both metabolic disease traits in the first lactation. Smaller and mostly nonsignificant genetic correlations were among indicators and metabolic diseases in later lactations. The only significant genetic correlations between indicators and fertility

European welfare regimes: Political orientations versus poverty

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Josifidis Kosta

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This inquiry analyzes how political orientations shape welfare states and labour market institutions when seeking to reduce poverty. In order to identify effects of these two key variables, we conduct a panel regression analysis that includes two poverty measures: poverty rates before and after social spending. This inquiry considers 14 EU countries, and in the period from 1995 to 2008, which are grouped according to welfare state regimes. We consider Social Democratic, Corporatist, Mediterranean and Liberal welfare state regimes. Panel regression results indicate that political orientation engenders no significant statistically measurable effects on poverty rates before social spending. Effects register, however, as significant when considering poverty rates after social spending. With respect to the first set of results, we advance two key explanations. First, we note a longer period of time is necessary in order to observe actual effects of political orientation on market generated poverty. Second, political parties with their respective programs do not register as influential enough to solve social problems related to income distribution when taken alone. Influences register as indirect and are expressed through changes in employment rates and social spending. The second set of results support the hypothesis that a selected political regime does indeed contribute to poverty reduction. In sum, political orientation and political regime does indeed affect poverty through welfare state institutions, as well as through labour market institutions.

Assessing the Utility of Compound Trait Estimates of Narrow Personality Traits.

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Credé, Marcus; Harms, Peter D; Blacksmith, Nikki; Wood, Dustin

2016-01-01

It has been argued that approximations of narrow traits can be made through linear combinations of broad traits such as the Big Five personality traits. Indeed, Hough and Ones ( 2001 ) used a qualitative analysis of scale content to arrive at a taxonomy of how Big Five traits might be combined to approximate various narrow traits. However, the utility of such compound trait approximations has yet to be established beyond specific cases such as integrity and customer service orientation. Using data from the Eugene-Springfield Community Sample (Goldberg, 2008 ), we explore the ability of linear composites of scores on Big Five traits to approximate scores on 127 narrow trait measures from 5 well-known non-Big-Five omnibus measures of personality. Our findings indicate that individuals' standing on more than 30 narrow traits can be well estimated from 3 different types of linear composites of scores on Big Five traits without a substantial sacrifice in criterion validity. We discuss theoretical accounts for why such relationships exist as well as the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for researchers and practitioners.

Personality and Self-regulation as Determinants of Rational Decision Making in a Political Voting Situation

OpenAIRE

Tatiana A. Indina; Varvara I. Morosanova

2009-01-01

The association of self-regulation and personality factors with rational decision making was investigated using an experimental model of political voting. The results revealed diff erent sets of personality characteristics for rational and emotional voters. A self-regulation/personality typology of decision making was then constructed, and traits representing self-regulation, cognition, and personality were examined as predispositions toward rational decision making. As a result, specifi c co...

Political Science and Political Geography: Neglected Areas, Areas for Development.

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Laponce, J. A.

1983-01-01

Since at least the 1950s, political scientists have tended to ignore the possible contributions of political geography to political science because of a move away from considering spatial factors on political structure. Political scientists need to use more information from geography to enhance their understanding of political power and conflict.…

Effects of Political Knowledge on Political Tolerance

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Hall, John Powell

2018-01-01

Sexual orientation continues to be an explosive issue in American classrooms. Increasing the political knowledge of students can reduce the volatility of this explosive issue by increasing tolerance toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. This relationship between political knowledge and political tolerance has been…

Privatization, political risk and stock market development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Perotti, E.C.; van Oijen, P.H.

1999-01-01

This paper investigates whether privatization in emerging economies has a significant indirect effect on local stock market development through the resolution of political risk. We argue that a sustained privatization program represents a major political test which gradually resolves uncertainty

Frozen shoulder and the Big Five personality traits.

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Debeer, Philippe; Franssens, Fien; Roosen, Isabelle; Dankaerts, Wim; Claes, Laurence

2014-02-01

In the past, several studies have suggested the existence of a "periarthritic personality" in patients with frozen shoulder. We conducted a study to determine differences in personality traits in patients with primary and secondary frozen shoulders. We prospectively evaluated 118 patients (84 women and 34 men; mean age, 53.8 years; SD 7.56) with a frozen shoulder. Of these patients, 48 had an idiopathic frozen shoulder and 70 had a secondary frozen shoulder. Personality traits were determined by the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) scale. This questionnaire measures the 5 major personality traits and is based on the norms determined in a neutral test situation for 2415 controls. Compared with healthy controls, no differences in personality traits were found in patients with primary and secondary frozen shoulder, except for Conscientiousness and Extraversion, for which patients with secondary frozen shoulder scored significantly higher than healthy controls. Patients with primary frozen shoulder scored significantly higher on Openness to Experience than did patients with secondary frozen shoulder; on the other 4 Big Five personality traits, no significant differences were found between patients with primary and secondary frozen shoulder. More specifically, patients with idiopathic frozen shoulder did not score higher on the trait Neuroticism as would be expected from previous publications. Our study results do not indicate that patients with an idiopathic frozen shoulder have a specific personality compared with healthy controls. Only a few differences were found in personality traits when the entire frozen shoulder group was compared with healthy controls and between patients with primary and secondary frozen shoulders. The results of this study suggest that these differences are not sufficient to speak about a specific "frozen shoulder personality." Copyright © 2014 Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Board of Trustees. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights

A modern political education. Nonviolent perspectives

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Claudia SECCI

2016-09-01

Full Text Available he article deals with a nonviolent perspective of political education and with some theories that may conjugate these two domains: Nonviolent Culture and Political Education. Methodologically an approach rooted in the theoretical and bibliographical research has been privileged. The discourse investigates the causes of the actual political disaffection, and follows the purpose to highlight the irrevocable role of a structured nonviolent perspective (like Gandhi’s one, in the rehabilitation of politics. Nonviolence does not remove Marxist elements of legitimation in their entirety – as Gramsci’s theory will highlight – provided that they correspond the “conquest of violence” that needs to succeed first and foremost in the “intimate” individual’s awareness. Moreover, the importance of contemporary ecological theories, which embed the nonviolent perspective in a general epistemological view, will be also discussed to reaffirm the crucial significance of the latter. Through this path, different authors, hailing from diverse backgrounds, such as philosophical, pedagogical and anthropological studies, show meaningful affinities and matching points, presenting, in some case, political education in terms of education and training of the “political emotions”. The reflection highlights the relevance of an expanded political participation and experimentation through praxis, as ways of an actual political education, in the belief that emphasizing the pedagogic dimension of political activity, means nothing less than searching for its deepest fundament.

The Analysis Of Political Marketing Mix In Influencing Image And Reputation Of Political Party And Their Impact Toward The Competitiveness Of Political Party The Survey Of Voters In West Java Province

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Dedeh Maryani

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Recently in Indonesia public trust toward political parties has been decreasing. Most voters tend to be neutral they had better to choose to none. The Experts argued that political competitivness will be high when political parties apply the accurate marketing mix or enhance their image and reputation. The aim of this research is to show how far political marketing mix in influencing the image or the reputation of political party and their impact toward the competitivness of 10 political parties conducted in Province West Java. I use quantitative method with explanatory survey method design. The population in this research is all voters in West Java while the samples are about 400 persons with cluster random sampling. Data analysis in this research is descriptive with Parsial Least Square PLS hypothesis test. PLS describes political marketing mix toward the image and the reputation of political party and their impact toward the competitivness of political party. The result shows that independent variable X political marketing mix gives a positive and significant influence to intervening variables Y1 and Y2 the image and the reputation of political party and dependent variable Y3 political party competitivness their impact to the variable depend on it. The finding in this study is that marketing mix has high influence toward the competitiveness of political party by enhancing the image and the reputation of political party.

Female orgasm rates are largely independent of other traits: implications for "female orgasmic disorder" and evolutionary theories of orgasm.

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Zietsch, Brendan P; Miller, Geoffrey F; Bailey, J Michael; Martin, Nicholas G

2011-08-01

The criteria for "female orgasmic disorder" (FOD) assume that low rates of orgasm are dysfunctional, implying that high rates are functional. Evolutionary theories about the function of female orgasm predict correlations of orgasm rates with sexual attitudes and behavior and other fitness-related traits. To test hypothesized evolutionary functions of the female orgasm. We examined such correlations in a community sample of 2,914 adult female Australian twins who reported their orgasm rates during masturbation, intercourse, and other sexual activities, and who completed demographic, personality, and sexuality questionnaires. Orgasm rates during intercourse, other sex, and masturbation. Although orgasm rates showed high variance across women and substantial heritability, they were largely phenotypically and genetically independent of other important traits. We found zero to weak phenotypic correlations between all three orgasm rates and all other 19 traits examined, including occupational status, social class, educational attainment, extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism, impulsiveness, childhood illness, maternal pregnancy stress, marital status, political liberalism, restrictive attitudes toward sex, libido, lifetime number of sex partners, risky sexual behavior, masculinity, orientation toward uncommitted sex, age of first intercourse, and sexual fantasy. Furthermore, none of the correlations had significant genetic components. These findings cast doubt on most current evolutionary theories about female orgasm's adaptive functions, and on the validity of FOD as a psychiatric construct. © 2011 International Society for Sexual Medicine.

Security aspects of "Geoenergeia" and the significance of energy resources management in international politics

OpenAIRE

VIDAKIS, Ioannis; BALTOS, Georgios

2015-01-01

This paper builds on the tools of geopolitics and geo-economics for analyzing energy resource networks and energy security. To prioritize the role that energy resources play in the interpretation of and decision making in international politics, it proposes the introduction of the Greek language-inspired term "geoenergeia" and a derivative methodology. Unprecedented fluctuations in fuel prices during recent decades and intensifying turmoil in the energy market are all indisputable phenomena t...

Ubiquitous polygenicity of human complex traits: genome-wide analysis of 49 traits in Koreans.

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Jian Yang

Full Text Available Recent studies in population of European ancestry have shown that 30% ~ 50% of heritability for human complex traits such as height and body mass index, and common diseases such as schizophrenia and rheumatoid arthritis, can be captured by common SNPs and that genetic variation attributed to chromosomes are in proportion to their length. Using genome-wide estimation and partitioning approaches, we analysed 49 human quantitative traits, many of which are relevant to human diseases, in 7,170 unrelated Korean individuals genotyped on 326,262 SNPs. For 43 of the 49 traits, we estimated a nominally significant (P<0.05 proportion of variance explained by all SNPs on the Affymetrix 5.0 genotyping array ([Formula: see text]. On average across 47 of the 49 traits for which the estimate of h(G(2 is non-zero, common SNPs explain approximately one-third (range of 7.8% to 76.8% of narrow sense heritability. The estimate of h(G(2 is highly correlated with the proportion of SNPs with association P<0.031 (r(2 = 0.92. Longer genomic segments tend to explain more phenotypic variation, with a correlation of 0.78 between the estimate of variance explained by individual chromosomes and their physical length, and 1% of the genome explains approximately 1% of the genetic variance. Despite the fact that there are a few SNPs with large effects for some traits, these results suggest that polygenicity is ubiquitous for most human complex traits and that a substantial proportion of the "missing heritability" is captured by common SNPs.

Contemporary Political Paranoia, a Case of Political Gnosticism

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Antonio Rivera García

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This article puts forward the concept of political paranoia as a useful category to understand some contemporary manifestations of the pathologies of power. For this aim an interdisciplinary approach has been used, namely, the knowledge provided by psychoanalysis, political philosophy, theology and literary or aesthetic studies. Freud’s and Lacan’s psychoanalysis allows us to understand why the paranoid subject is a megalomaniac and hyperrational subject who wants to be in control of everything. It is a sovereign subject, who has adapted not only to the Society of Control initially defined by Deleuze, but also to a conception of philosophy that aims for totality. After dealing with the close relationship between paranoia and conspiratorial political theory, the article explains the reason why contemporary political paranoia represents a case of the most radical political theology: political Gnosticism. This term stands for a conception of politics that reduces the Other to the condition of an absolute enemy that needs to be eliminated. Lastly, the article establishes a close link between the cure for political paranoia and the assumption of an ontology of incompleteness

Evidences of local adaptation in quantitative traits in Prosopis alba (Leguminosae).

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Bessega, C; Pometti, C; Ewens, M; Saidman, B O; Vilardi, J C

2015-02-01

Signals of selection on quantitative traits can be detected by the comparison between the genetic differentiation of molecular (neutral) markers and quantitative traits, by multivariate extensions of the same model and by the observation of the additive covariance among relatives. We studied, by three different tests, signals of occurrence of selection in Prosopis alba populations over 15 quantitative traits: three economically important life history traits: height, basal diameter and biomass, 11 leaf morphology traits that may be related with heat-tolerance and physiological responses and spine length that is very important from silvicultural purposes. We analyzed 172 G1-generation trees growing in a common garden belonging to 32 open pollinated families from eight sampling sites in Argentina. The multivariate phenotypes differ significantly among origins, and the highest differentiation corresponded to foliar traits. Molecular genetic markers (SSR) exhibited significant differentiation and allowed us to provide convincing evidence that natural selection is responsible for the patterns of morphological differentiation. The heterogeneous selection over phenotypic traits observed suggested different optima in each population and has important implications for gene resource management. The results suggest that the adaptive significance of traits should be considered together with population provenance in breeding program as a crucial point prior to any selecting program, especially in Prosopis where the first steps are under development.

Towards a unified model for leaf trait and trait-environment relationships

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, H.; Harrison, S. P.; Prentice, I. C.; Peng, C.; Yang, Y.

2016-12-01

A widely accepted core set of leaf traits describes key aspects of plant function including the coupling among carbon, nitrogen and water cycles at the leaf, plant and ecosystem scales. Our current research focuses on two questions: (1) what dimensions of correlated variation among traits apply across all vascular plants irrespective of environment; (2) how, and to what extent, can variations in community mean values of leaf traits be predicted along environmental gradients? Based on a large quantitative trait data set covering the major environmental gradients across China, we are tackling these questions via two complementary approaches: multivariate analysis of trait-trait, trait-site, and trait-environment relationships, and the development of conceptual models and testable hypotheses for the dependencies of each trait on other traits and/or specific environmental predictors. Preliminary multivariate analyses suggest the existence of at least two independent axes of variation in leaf traits, and show robust relationships between trait syndromes and growing-season climate variables. A minimal conceptual model then considers nitrogen per unit leaf area (Narea) as a function of leaf mass per unit area (LMA) and carboxylation capacity (Vcmax); LMA as a function of irradiance, temperature and water and/or nutrient stress; Vcmax as a function of irradiance, temperature and the long-term ci:ca ratio (indexed by δ13C); and the ci:ca ratio as a function of vapour pressure deficit, temperature and atmospheric pressure. Each of these dependencies has support from observations, pointing the way towards a comprehensive set of equations to predict community-mean values of core traits in next-generation terrestrial ecosystem models.

The Politics of Legal Arrangements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Leander, Anna

2018-01-01

This article explores the place of formal legal arrangements in the politics surrounding the hybrid, enmeshed public-in-the-private forms of authority this special issue focuses on. It does so by analyzing the significance of one specific legal arrangement, the Duty of Care, for the politics...... and divisions currently organizing debates about the regulation of commercial security as well as about managerialism in international law more generally....

Neurolinguistic programming training, trait anxiety, and locus of control.

Science.gov (United States)

Konefal, J; Duncan, R C; Reese, M A

1992-06-01

Training in the neurolinguistic programming techniques of shifting perceptual position, visual-kinesthetic dissociation, timelines, and change-history, all based on experiential cognitive processing of remembered events, leads to an increased awareness of behavioral contingencies and a more sensitive recognition of environmental cues which could serve to lower trait anxiety and increase the sense of internal control. This study reports on within-person and between-group changes in trait anxiety and locus of control as measured on the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Wallston, Wallston, and DeVallis' Multiple Health Locus of Control immediately following a 21-day residential training in neurolinguistic programming. Significant with-in-person decreases in trait-anxiety scores and increases in internal locus of control scores were observed as predicted. Chance and powerful other locus of control scores were unchanged. Significant differences were noted on trait anxiety and locus of control scores between European and U.S. participants, although change scores were similar for the two groups. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that this training may lower trait-anxiety scores and increase internal locus of control scores. A matched control group was not available, and follow-up was unfortunately not possible.

Are Youth Psychopathic Traits Related to Bullying? Meta-analyses on Callous-Unemotional Traits, Narcissism, and Impulsivity.

Science.gov (United States)

van Geel, Mitch; Toprak, Fatih; Goemans, Anouk; Zwaanswijk, Wendy; Vedder, Paul

2017-10-01

In the current manuscript meta-analyses are performed to analyze the relations between three aspects of psychopathy in youth, Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits, Narcissism, and Impulsivity, and bullying behaviors. The databases PsycINFO, MEDLINE, ERIC, Web of Science and Proquest were searched for relevant articles on bullying and CU traits, Narcissism, or Impulsivity in youth under 20 years of age. Two authors each independently screened 842 studies that were found in the literature search. Two authors independently coded ten studies on bullying and CU (N = 4115) traits, six studies on bullying and Narcissism (N = 3376) and 14 studies on bullying and Impulsivity (N = 33,574) that met the inclusion criteria. Significant correlations were found between bullying and CU traits, Narcissism, and Impulsivity. These results were not affected by publication bias. Anti-bullying interventions could potentially benefit from including elements that have been found effective in the treatment of youth psychopathy.

The politics of insight.

Science.gov (United States)

Salvi, Carola; Cristofori, Irene; Grafman, Jordan; Beeman, Mark

2016-01-01

Previous studies showed that liberals and conservatives differ in cognitive style. Liberals are more flexible, and tolerant of complexity and novelty, whereas conservatives are more rigid, are more resistant to change, and prefer clear answers. We administered a set of compound remote associate problems, a task extensively used to differentiate problem-solving styles (via insight or analysis). Using this task, several researches have proven that self-reports, which differentiate between insight and analytic problem-solving, are reliable and are associated with two different neural circuits. In our research we found that participants self-identifying with distinct political orientations demonstrated differences in problem-solving strategy. Liberals solved significantly more problems via insight instead of in a step-by-step analytic fashion. Our findings extend previous observations that self-identified political orientations reflect differences in cognitive styles. More specifically, we show that type of political orientation is associated with problem-solving strategy. The data converge with previous neurobehavioural and cognitive studies indicating a link between cognitive style and the psychological mechanisms that mediate political beliefs.

The politics of insight

Science.gov (United States)

Salvi, Carola; Cristofori, Irene; Grafman, Jordan; Beeman, Mark

2016-01-01

Previous studies showed that liberals and conservatives differ in cognitive style. Liberals are more flexible, and tolerant of complexity and novelty, whereas conservatives are more rigid, are more resistant to change, and prefer clear answers. We administered a set of compound remote associate problems, a task extensively used to differentiate problem-solving styles (via insight or analysis). Using this task, several researches have proven that self-reports, which differentiate between insight and analytic problem-solving, are reliable and are associated with two different neural circuits. In our research we found that participants self-identifying with distinct political orientations demonstrated differences in problem-solving strategy. Liberals solved significantly more problems via insight instead of in a step-by-step analytic fashion. Our findings extend previous observations that self-identified political orientations reflect differences in cognitive styles. More specifically, we show that type of political orientation is associated with problem-solving strategy. The data converge with previous neurobehavioural and cognitive studies indicating a link between cognitive style and the psychological mechanisms that mediate political beliefs. PMID:26810954

Trait specific expression profiling of salt stress responsive genes in diverse rice genotypes as determined by modified Significance Analysis of Microarrays

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Mohammad Rashed Hossain

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Stress responsive gene expression is commonly profiled in a comparative manner involving different stress conditions or genotypes with contrasting reputation of tolerance/resistance. In contrast, this research exploited a wide natural variation in terms of taxonomy, origin and salt sensitivity in eight genotypes of rice to identify the trait specific patterns of gene expression under salt stress. Genome wide transcptomic responses were interrogated by the weighted continuous morpho-physiological trait responses using modified Significance Analysis of Microarrays. More number of genes was found to be differentially expressed under salt stressed compared to that of under unstressed conditions. Higher numbers of genes were observed to be differentially expressed for the traits shoot Na+/K+, shoot Na+, root K+, biomass and shoot Cl-, respectively. The results identified around sixty genes to be involved in Na+, K+ and anion homeostasis, transport and transmembrane activity under stressed conditions. Gene Ontology (GO enrichment analysis identified 1.36% (578 genes of the entire transcriptome to be involved in the major molecular functions such as signal transduction (>150 genes, transcription factor (81 genes and translation factor activity (62 genes etc. under salt stress. Chromosomal mapping of the genes suggests that majority of the genes are located on chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 6 & 7. The gene network analysis showed that the transcription factors and translation initiation factors formed the major gene networks and are mostly active in nucleus, cytoplasm and mitochondria whereas the membrane and vesicle bound proteins formed a secondary network active in plasma membrane and vacuoles. The novel genes and the genes with unknown functions thus identified provide picture of a synergistic salinity response representing the potentially fundamental mechanisms that are active in the wide natural genetic background of rice and will be of greater use once

Is the political animal politically ignorant? Applying evolutionary psychology to the study of political attitudes.

Science.gov (United States)

Petersen, Michael Bang; Aarøe, Lene

2012-12-20

As evidenced by research in evolutionary psychology, humans have evolved sophisticated psychological mechanisms tailored to solve enduring adaptive problems of social life. Many of these social problems are political in nature and relate to the distribution of costs and benefits within and between groups. In that sense, evolutionary psychology suggests that humans are, by nature, political animals. By implication, a straightforward application of evolutionary psychology to the study of public opinion seems to entail that modern individuals find politics intrinsically interesting. Yet, as documented by more than fifty years of research in political science, people lack knowledge of basic features of the political process and the ability to form consistent political attitudes. By reviewing and integrating research in evolutionary psychology and public opinion, we describe (1) why modern mass politics often fail to activate evolved mechanisms and (2) the conditions in which these mechanisms are in fact triggered.

Linking hydraulic traits to tropical forest function in a size-structured and trait-driven model (TFS v.1-Hydro)

Science.gov (United States)

Christoffersen, Bradley O.; Gloor, Manuel; Fauset, Sophie; Fyllas, Nikolaos M.; Galbraith, David R.; Baker, Timothy R.; Kruijt, Bart; Rowland, Lucy; Fisher, Rosie A.; Binks, Oliver J.; Sevanto, Sanna; Xu, Chonggang; Jansen, Steven; Choat, Brendan; Mencuccini, Maurizio; McDowell, Nate G.; Meir, Patrick

2016-11-01

Forest ecosystem models based on heuristic water stress functions poorly predict tropical forest response to drought partly because they do not capture the diversity of hydraulic traits (including variation in tree size) observed in tropical forests. We developed a continuous porous media approach to modeling plant hydraulics in which all parameters of the constitutive equations are biologically interpretable and measurable plant hydraulic traits (e.g., turgor loss point πtlp, bulk elastic modulus ɛ, hydraulic capacitance Cft, xylem hydraulic conductivity ks,max, water potential at 50 % loss of conductivity for both xylem (P50,x) and stomata (P50,gs), and the leaf : sapwood area ratio Al : As). We embedded this plant hydraulics model within a trait forest simulator (TFS) that models light environments of individual trees and their upper boundary conditions (transpiration), as well as providing a means for parameterizing variation in hydraulic traits among individuals. We synthesized literature and existing databases to parameterize all hydraulic traits as a function of stem and leaf traits, including wood density (WD), leaf mass per area (LMA), and photosynthetic capacity (Amax), and evaluated the coupled model (called TFS v.1-Hydro) predictions, against observed diurnal and seasonal variability in stem and leaf water potential as well as stand-scaled sap flux. Our hydraulic trait synthesis revealed coordination among leaf and xylem hydraulic traits and statistically significant relationships of most hydraulic traits with more easily measured plant traits. Using the most informative empirical trait-trait relationships derived from this synthesis, TFS v.1-Hydro successfully captured individual variation in leaf and stem water potential due to increasing tree size and light environment, with model representation of hydraulic architecture and plant traits exerting primary and secondary controls, respectively, on the fidelity of model predictions. The plant

When politics prevails

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Mads Dagnis; Snaith, Holly

2016-01-01

This article analyses Britain’s quest to negotiate its future membership of the European Union (EU) through the lens of Liberal intergovernmentalism. The article demonstrates that despite the significant economic consequences of a potential Brexit, party political factors have hitherto proven more...

Defining Political Marketing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ormrod, Robert P.

’ and ‘narrow’ interpretations of political marketing, the nature of the political marketing exchange, political relationship marketing and how one can integrate the stakeholder concept into an understanding of political marketing. Finally, we propose a definition of political marketing that differs from......The aim of this working paper is to develop a definition of political marketing that builds on the political rather than commercial marketing literature. This aim is motivated by the need to make explicit our understanding of what political marketing is, a necessary exercise when discussing theory......, concepts and empirical methods in political marketing. We first present five existing definitions of political marketing that have been selected to represent advances in research from the origins of academic research into political marketing in the mid-1970’s to the present day. After this we discuss ‘wide...

Effect of terminal drought stress on morpho-physiological traits of wheat genotypes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baloch, M.J.; Chandio, I.A.

2016-01-01

Development of wheat varieties with low moisture requirements and their ability to withstand moisture stress may cope-up well with the on-coming peril of drought conditions. Ten wheat genotypes including two new strains, PBGST-3, Hero, Bhittai, Marvi, Inqlab, Sarsabz, Abadgar, Kiran, Khirman and PBGST-4 were sown in split plot design with factorial arrangement in four replications at Experimental Field, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Sindh Agricutlure University, Pakistan during 2012-13. The results revealed that water stress caused significant reductions in all morpho-physiological traits. The genotypes differed significantly for all the yield and physiological traits. The interaction of treatments * genotypes were also significant for all the traits except plant height, productive tillers/plant, grains/spike and harvest index, were non-significant which indicated that cultivars responded variably over the stress treatments suggesting that breeders can select the promising genotypes for both stress and non-stress environments. Among the genotypes evaluated Bhittai, Kiran-95, PBGST-3 and Sarsabz showed good performance as minimum reductions occurred under terminal stress conditions for all the traits studied. Hence, above mentioned genotypes were considered as drought tolerant group. The high positive correlations of physiological traits like chlorophyll content and relative water content with almost all yield traits indicated that these physiological traits could serve as reliable criteria for breeding drought tolerance in wheat. The negative correlations of electrolyte leakage with several important yield traits indicated that though this physiological trait has adverse effect on yield attributes, yet it could reliably be used to distinguish between drought tolerant and susceptible wheat genotypes. (author)

Performing Politics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Troy R. E. Paddock

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Walter Benjamin’s observation that fascism turns politics into aesthetics is, by now, a well-worn idea. This article argues that Benjamin’s critique of politics can apply just as much to the modern democratic politics of the United States. Borrowing from Benjamin, Jürgen Habermas, and Carl Schmitt, this article suggests that modern political discourse in the United States does not follow the classical liberal ideal of rational discourse in the marketplace of ideas within the public sphere. Instead, contemporary politics has become spectacle where images and slogans replace thought and debate in a 24/7 news cycle and political infotainment programs. The result is that progressives and conservatives have their own political “ecospheres” which enable them to have their own perspective reinforced, and debate is replaced by straw man arguments and personal attacks.

Politics as Culture: Contribution of Political Science to Democratic Maturity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivan Padjen

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The article discusses the contribution of Croatian political science to the development of democracy in Croatia. The focus of the analysis is the concept of culture which author talks about in five steps. In the first step it is understood in the modern key, in the second step as different for nature and in the third as different from society. In the fourth step author differentiates political culture from political economy and political institutions, but in the fifth part there is an attempt to show culture as a fundamental part of politics, policy and polity. On the basis of these insights author shows that the matrix of Croatian political science is more and more devoted to scientific investigation of politics as culture as both study of political culture and as a source of development as politics as culture.

Political psychology.

Science.gov (United States)

Stone, Susanna; Johnson, Kate M; Beall, Erica; Meindl, Peter; Smith, Benjamin; Graham, Jesse

2014-07-01

Political psychology is a dynamic field of research that offers a unique blend of approaches and methods in the social and cognitive sciences. Political psychologists explore the interactions between macrolevel political structures and microlevel factors such as decision-making processes, motivations, and perceptions. In this article, we provide a broad overview of the field, beginning with a brief history of political psychology research and a summary of the primary methodological approaches in the field. We then give a more detailed account of research on ideology and social justice, two topics experiencing a resurgence of interest in current political psychology. Finally, we cover research on political persuasion and voting behavior. By summarizing these major areas of political psychology research, we hope to highlight the wide variety of theoretical and methodological approaches of cognitive scientists working at the intersection of psychology and political science. WIREs Cogn Sci 2014, 5:373-385. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1293 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Politics for cities, cities for the political. About possibility (and necessity of radical urban politics

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Wiktor Marzec

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Essay faces the problem of determinacy of global capitalism processes for the reality of urban political life. The city is naturally communitarian form of human life and seems to be the place where radical pro-community politics could be undertaken. Already existing and operating forms of power could fruitfully influence the city social relations. Values and norms of conduct are broadly delegated on the urban space and materiality, thus conscious shaping of city space has severe consequences for community life. If a crisis of the political partly has its roots in metamorphoses of the cities, then also remedies, rising from the urban materiality and reestablishing political subjects, could be thought. City, as most real place of political life could be either reduced to the aggregate of consumers or reestablished as a political community. Due to this is the place where undesired course of action could be stopped, hence precisely here the radical democratic politics can emerge.

Childhood abuse, personality traits, and depressive symptoms in adulthood.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Min-Ah; Song, Rira

2017-03-01

This study examined associations among childhood abuse, personality traits, and depressive symptoms in adulthood, and whether and how the effects of childhood abuse on depressive symptoms are mediated by the Big Five personality traits (i.e., extraversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability, agreeableness, and openness). The data were drawn from the 2012 Korean General Social Survey, a nationally representative survey using a multistage area proportional probability sampling method. Random effects regression and the Sobel test were used. Random effects models showed that physical and emotional abuse in childhood significantly increased depressive symptoms in adulthood, even after controlling for personality traits and socio-demographic factors. The coefficients of childhood abuse slightly decreased when personality traits were controlled, suggesting that personality traits mediated the relationship between childhood abuse and depressive symptoms. Among the personality traits, extraversion and emotional stability were negatively associated with depressive symptoms whereas agreeableness was positively associated with depressive symptoms. The results of the Sobel test showed that only emotional stability significantly mediated the effects of childhood abuse on depressive symptoms. Those who were exposed to childhood abuse had lower levels of emotional stability, which, in turn, led to depressive symptoms in adulthood. The findings suggest that childhood abuse may have a long lasting effect on mental health over the life course by influencing the formation of personality traits through developmental periods. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Political Values or the Value of Politics

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Simoska, Emilija

2016-04-01

Full Text Available This essay was motivated by the gap between proclaimed democratic principles and the perceptions of politics which are exhibited by the citizens in transitional countries -more specifically in the Republic of Macedonia. It is based on research data collected in the past few decades, which illustrate that, in their political actions, the citizens are highly motivated by personal benefits and profits, rather than by their internalized values and ideologies. Non-democratic, authoritarian values prevail, while politics is perceived as a value itself, in the most materialistic meaning of the word. It creates a suitable milieu for growth of corruption, nepotism and clientelism. The authors conclude that such a circulus vitsiosus is a corner stone of the Macedonian political regime, and an enormous obstacle for the advancement of the participative, democratic political culture in reality, in spite of its formal acceptance.

Political tug of war

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Morhart, Alexander

2011-07-01

Rapid expansion of the European power grid is essential for the further development of wind and solar energy. The most significant obstacles are not technical, but rather of a political nature. (orig.)

A Political Philosophy Approach to Teaching American Politics.

Science.gov (United States)

Bailey, Kevin E.

1982-01-01

Suggests an alternative to the civic training, political indoctrination, and descriptive presentation approaches used to teaching American government courses. Recommends a political philosophy approach within a framework of elite theory to help students develop a critical perspective on American politics. (DMM)

Political “genotype” as a structural element of political culture

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N. V. Karpova

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the issue of genetic foundations of political culture in the context of the socio-political system changes. The author elaborates the concept of “political genotype” as a sustainable structural element of political culture that determines its content and the possibility of permissible variation. In this paper the main forms of existence of political genotype and its functions are also investigated; and “genetic” mechanism of political culture succession is explored.

Mode and tempo in the evolution of socio-political organization: reconciling ‘Darwinian’ and ‘Spencerian’ evolutionary approaches in anthropology

Science.gov (United States)

Currie, Thomas E.; Mace, Ruth

2011-01-01

Traditional investigations of the evolution of human social and political institutions trace their ancestry back to nineteenth century social scientists such as Herbert Spencer, and have concentrated on the increase in socio-political complexity over time. More recent studies of cultural evolution have been explicitly informed by Darwinian evolutionary theory and focus on the transmission of cultural traits between individuals. These two approaches to investigating cultural change are often seen as incompatible. However, we argue that many of the defining features and assumptions of ‘Spencerian’ cultural evolutionary theory represent testable hypotheses that can and should be tackled within a broader ‘Darwinian’ framework. In this paper we apply phylogenetic comparative techniques to data from Austronesian-speaking societies of Island South-East Asia and the Pacific to test hypotheses about the mode and tempo of human socio-political evolution. We find support for three ideas often associated with Spencerian cultural evolutionary theory: (i) political organization has evolved through a regular sequence of forms, (ii) increases in hierarchical political complexity have been more common than decreases, and (iii) political organization has co-evolved with the wider presence of hereditary social stratification. PMID:21357233

[Political psychology].

Science.gov (United States)

Resch, Mária; Bella, Tamás

2013-04-21

In Hungary one can mostly find references to the psychological processes of politics in the writings of publicists, public opinion pollsters, philosophers, social psychologists, and political analysts. It would be still important if not only legal scientists focusing on political institutions or sociologist-politologists concentrating on social structures could analyse the psychological aspects of political processes; but one could also do so through the application of the methods of political psychology. The authors review the history of political psychology, its position vis-à-vis other fields of science and the essential interfaces through which this field of science, which is still to be discovered in Hungary, connects to other social sciences. As far as its methodology comprising psycho-biographical analyses, questionnaire-based queries, cognitive mapping of interviews and statements are concerned, it is identical with the psychiatric tools of medical sciences. In the next part of this paper, the focus is shifted to the essence and contents of political psychology. Group dynamics properties, voters' attitudes, leaders' personalities and the behavioural patterns demonstrated by them in different political situations, authoritativeness, games, and charisma are all essential components of political psychology, which mostly analyses psychological-psychiatric processes and also involves medical sciences by relying on cognitive and behavioural sciences. This paper describes political psychology, which is basically part of social sciences, still, being an interdisciplinary science, has several ties to medical sciences through psychological and psychiatric aspects.

The Pragmatics of Political Apology in Ghana's Contemporary Politics

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The paper discusses political apology in the 4th republic of Ghanaian contemporary politics from 2013 to 2015. It taps its data from apologetic speeches by political officials and from apologies rendered to politicians. The paper discusses the semantics and pragmatics of political apology. It examines the use of the language ...

Biological significance of dead biomass retention trait in Mediterranean Basin species: an analysis between different successional niches and regeneration strategies as functional groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Baeza, M J; Santana, V M

2015-11-01

Standing dead biomass retention is considered one of the most relevant fuel structural traits to affect plant flammability. However, very little is known about the biological significance of this trait and its distribution between different functional groups. Our aim was to analyse how the proportion of dead biomass produced in Mediterranean species is related to the successional niche of species (early-, mid- and late-successional stages) and the regeneration strategy of species (seeders and resprouters). We evaluated biomass distribution by size classes and standing dead biomass retention in nine dominant species from the Mediterranean Basin in different development stages (5, 9, 14 and 26 years since the last fire). The results revealed significant differences in the standing dead biomass retention of species that presented a distinct successional niche or regeneration strategy. These differences were restricted to the oldest ages studied (>9 years). Tree and small tree resprouters, typical in late-successional stages, presented slight variations with age and a less marked trend to retain dead biomass, while seeder shrubs and dwarf shrubs, characteristic of early-successional stages, showed high dead biomass loads. Our results suggest that the species that tend to retain more dead branches are colonising species that may promote fire in early-successional stages. © 2015 German Botanical Society and The Royal Botanical Society of the Netherlands.

Linking hydraulic traits to tropical forest function in a size-structured and trait-driven model (TFS v.1-Hydro

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B. O. Christoffersen

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Forest ecosystem models based on heuristic water stress functions poorly predict tropical forest response to drought partly because they do not capture the diversity of hydraulic traits (including variation in tree size observed in tropical forests. We developed a continuous porous media approach to modeling plant hydraulics in which all parameters of the constitutive equations are biologically interpretable and measurable plant hydraulic traits (e.g., turgor loss point πtlp, bulk elastic modulus ε, hydraulic capacitance Cft, xylem hydraulic conductivity ks,max, water potential at 50 % loss of conductivity for both xylem (P50,x and stomata (P50,gs, and the leaf : sapwood area ratio Al : As. We embedded this plant hydraulics model within a trait forest simulator (TFS that models light environments of individual trees and their upper boundary conditions (transpiration, as well as providing a means for parameterizing variation in hydraulic traits among individuals. We synthesized literature and existing databases to parameterize all hydraulic traits as a function of stem and leaf traits, including wood density (WD, leaf mass per area (LMA, and photosynthetic capacity (Amax, and evaluated the coupled model (called TFS v.1-Hydro predictions, against observed diurnal and seasonal variability in stem and leaf water potential as well as stand-scaled sap flux. Our hydraulic trait synthesis revealed coordination among leaf and xylem hydraulic traits and statistically significant relationships of most hydraulic traits with more easily measured plant traits. Using the most informative empirical trait–trait relationships derived from this synthesis, TFS v.1-Hydro successfully captured individual variation in leaf and stem water potential due to increasing tree size and light environment, with model representation of hydraulic architecture and plant traits exerting primary and secondary controls, respectively, on the fidelity of model

Political News and Political Consciousness

Science.gov (United States)

Schertges, Claudia

2007-01-01

This article deals with mass media in modern democratic societies, using the example of Israeli news reports in German television (TV) news. Central to this interest are processes of mediating politics: political socialisation and education; that is to say, empowering citizens via TV news to participate in democratic processes. The article…

Detecting Bots on Russian Political Twitter.

Science.gov (United States)

Stukal, Denis; Sanovich, Sergey; Bonneau, Richard; Tucker, Joshua A

2017-12-01

Automated and semiautomated Twitter accounts, bots, have recently gained significant public attention due to their potential interference in the political realm. In this study, we develop a methodology for detecting bots on Twitter using an ensemble of classifiers and apply it to study bot activity within political discussions in the Russian Twittersphere. We focus on the interval from February 2014 to December 2015, an especially consequential period in Russian politics. Among accounts actively Tweeting about Russian politics, we find that on the majority of days, the proportion of Tweets produced by bots exceeds 50%. We reveal bot characteristics that distinguish them from humans in this corpus, and find that the software platform used for Tweeting is among the best predictors of bots. Finally, we find suggestive evidence that one prominent activity that bots were involved in on Russian political Twitter is the spread of news stories and promotion of media who produce them.

Personality traits and life satisfaction among online game players.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Lily Shui-Lien; Tu, Hill Hung-Jen; Wang, Edward Shih-Tse

2008-04-01

The DFC Intelligence predicts worldwide online game revenues will reach $9.8 billion by 2009, making online gaming a mainstream recreational activity. Understanding online game player personality traits is therefore important. This study researches the relationship between personality traits and life satisfaction in online game players. Taipei, Taiwan, is the study location, with questionnaire surveys conducted in cyber cafe shops. Multiple regression analysis studies the causal relationship between personality traits and life satisfaction in online game players. The result shows that neuroticism has significant negative influence on life satisfaction. Both openness and conscientiousness have significant positive influence on life satisfaction. Finally, implications for leisure practice and further research are discussed.

Quantile-Based Permutation Thresholds for Quantitative Trait Loci Hotspots

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Neto, Elias Chaibub; Keller, Mark P.; Broman, Andrew F.; Attie, Alan D.; Jansen, Ritsert C.; Broman, Karl W.; Yandell, Brian S.; Borevitz, J.

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) hotspots (genomic locations affecting many traits) are a common feature in genetical genomics studies and are biologically interesting since they may harbor critical regulators. Therefore, statistical procedures to assess the significance of hotspots are of key

Revisiting the Holy Grail: using plant functional traits to understand ecological processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Funk, Jennifer L; Larson, Julie E; Ames, Gregory M; Butterfield, Bradley J; Cavender-Bares, Jeannine; Firn, Jennifer; Laughlin, Daniel C; Sutton-Grier, Ariana E; Williams, Laura; Wright, Justin

2017-05-01

One of ecology's grand challenges is developing general rules to explain and predict highly complex systems. Understanding and predicting ecological processes from species' traits has been considered a 'Holy Grail' in ecology. Plant functional traits are increasingly being used to develop mechanistic models that can predict how ecological communities will respond to abiotic and biotic perturbations and how species will affect ecosystem function and services in a rapidly changing world; however, significant challenges remain. In this review, we highlight recent work and outstanding questions in three areas: (i) selecting relevant traits; (ii) describing intraspecific trait variation and incorporating this variation into models; and (iii) scaling trait data to community- and ecosystem-level processes. Over the past decade, there have been significant advances in the characterization of plant strategies based on traits and trait relationships, and the integration of traits into multivariate indices and models of community and ecosystem function. However, the utility of trait-based approaches in ecology will benefit from efforts that demonstrate how these traits and indices influence organismal, community, and ecosystem processes across vegetation types, which may be achieved through meta-analysis and enhancement of trait databases. Additionally, intraspecific trait variation and species interactions need to be incorporated into predictive models using tools such as Bayesian hierarchical modelling. Finally, existing models linking traits to community and ecosystem processes need to be empirically tested for their applicability to be realized. © 2016 Cambridge Philosophical Society.

Turkey's EU Quest and Political Cleavages under AKP

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rahigh-Aghsan, Ali

2011-01-01

This article analyses the extent to which the rise of political Islam (Note 1) in Turkey has triggered an intense and polarized debate about the principle eligibility of Turkey to be a full European Union (EU) member state. The Justice and Development Party’s (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi......) The overall political targets of political Islam in Turkey seems less compatible with the traditional Turkish EU quest than formerly (2) The Turkish political Islamic turnaround is contributing to a climate of increasing scepticism in Europe, and presents significant obstacles to EU accession. As a result...

Religious Education for Political Thinking and Citizenship

Science.gov (United States)

Papastephanou, Marianna

2008-01-01

The curricular accommodation of religious education is almost always dissociated from the latter's political significance and the teaching of religious worldviews is often limited to serving social, (multi)culturalist and epistemological purposes. When RE is made relevant to political identity this occurs strictly within the confines of a liberal…

The political reference point: How geography shapes political identity.

Science.gov (United States)

Feinberg, Matthew; Tullett, Alexa M; Mensch, Zachary; Hart, William; Gottlieb, Sara

2017-01-01

It is commonly assumed that how individuals identify on the political spectrum-whether liberal, conservative, or moderate-has a universal meaning when it comes to policy stances and voting behavior. But, does political identity mean the same thing from place to place? Using data collected from across the U.S. we find that even when people share the same political identity, those in "bluer" locations are more likely to support left-leaning policies and vote for Democratic candidates than those in "redder" locations. Because the meaning of political identity is inconsistent across locations, individuals who share the same political identity sometimes espouse opposing policy stances. Meanwhile, those with opposing identities sometimes endorse identical policy stances. Such findings suggest that researchers, campaigners, and pollsters must use caution when extrapolating policy preferences and voting behavior from political identity, and that animosity toward the other end of the political spectrum is sometimes misplaced.

Patients' perspectives on political self-disclosure, the therapeutic alliance, and the infiltration of politics into the therapy room in the Trump era.

Science.gov (United States)

Solomonov, Nili; Barber, Jacques P

2018-05-01

The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the 2016 United States presidential election and ensuing political climate on patients' experiences in psychotherapy. A sample of 604 self-described Democrat and Republican patients from 50 states participated in the study. Results showed that most therapists disclosed their political stance (explicitly or implicitly) and most patients discussed politics with their therapists. 64% of Clinton supporters and 38% of Trump supporters assumed political similarity with their therapist. Stronger patient-reported alliance levels were found for patients who (a) perceived political similarity; (b) reported implicit therapist political disclosure; and (c) found in-session political discussions helpful. Additionally, Clinton (but not Trump) supporters reported significant pre-post-election decreases in expression of positive emotions and increases in both expression of negative emotions and engagement in discussions about socio-political topics. Our findings suggest that the current political climate infiltrates the therapeutic space and affects therapeutic process and content. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Good governance and political culture: A case study of Bangladesh

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Syed Serajul Islam

2016-12-01

Full Text Available In a democratic system it is essential to have a competitive, and a tolerant party system, but Bangladesh has experienced an intolerant and a confrontational party system that has created a deadlock and brought uncertainty to the whole country. Since 1990, except 2014, Bangladesh has witnessed four systematic peaceful free elections, one each--in 1991, 1996, 2001, and 2008. On January 5, 2014, however, a controversial election took place in which major opposition political parties did not participate except the ruling alliance parties. The two dominant parties—the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP and the Awami League (AL—each won two previous free and fair elections, with the BNP winning in1991, and a BNP-led 4-party coalition in 2001, and the AL in 1996, and an AL-led 14 party alliance in 2008. However, from 2014 Bangladesh is heading towards an authoritarian system. All these are happening due to the lack of good governance. This article intends to emphasize that the political culture emanating from the party politics is retarding good governance in Bangladesh. This article argues that the cultural traits developed in the last four decades in various dimensions,, particularly in more recent years, have worked as an “earth-worm” in the fabrics of democracy in Bangladesh preventing ‘good governance’.

Multiple-Trait Genomic Selection Methods Increase Genetic Value Prediction Accuracy

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, Yi; Jannink, Jean-Luc

2012-01-01

Genetic correlations between quantitative traits measured in many breeding programs are pervasive. These correlations indicate that measurements of one trait carry information on other traits. Current single-trait (univariate) genomic selection does not take advantage of this information. Multivariate genomic selection on multiple traits could accomplish this but has been little explored and tested in practical breeding programs. In this study, three multivariate linear models (i.e., GBLUP, BayesA, and BayesCπ) were presented and compared to univariate models using simulated and real quantitative traits controlled by different genetic architectures. We also extended BayesA with fixed hyperparameters to a full hierarchical model that estimated hyperparameters and BayesCπ to impute missing phenotypes. We found that optimal marker-effect variance priors depended on the genetic architecture of the trait so that estimating them was beneficial. We showed that the prediction accuracy for a low-heritability trait could be significantly increased by multivariate genomic selection when a correlated high-heritability trait was available. Further, multiple-trait genomic selection had higher prediction accuracy than single-trait genomic selection when phenotypes are not available on all individuals and traits. Additional factors affecting the performance of multiple-trait genomic selection were explored. PMID:23086217

Citizenship beyond politics: the importance of political, civil and social rights and responsibilities among women and men.

Science.gov (United States)

Bolzendahl, Catherine; Coffé, Hilde

2009-12-01

Previous research has suggested that men are more engaged as citizens than are women. Yet, little is known about gender cleavages across a variety of citizenship norms. To what extent do men and women define citizenship differently? To address that question, this study examines the importance men and women assign various citizenship rights and responsibilities using 2004 ISSP data from 18 Western, industrialized nations. Using a disaggregated approach to understanding definitions of citizenship, we examine political, civil, and social rights and responsibilities. After controlling for a variety of demographic and attitudinal influences, we find that men and women are not different in their views regarding the importance of political responsibilities. However, women do view political rights as significantly more important than do men. Further, in comparison to men, women view both civil and social responsibilities and rights domains as significantly more important.

Genetic variation of seedling traits in a random mating population of sunflower

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Habib, S.

2004-01-01

Forty S/sub 1/ families obtained from a random mating population of sunflower were evaluated in the laboratory for various seedling traits. The objectives of this study were to investigate the extent and nature of genetic variability and to determine the estimates of genotypic and phenotypic correlations among ten seedling traits prevailing in a random mating population of sunflower. The results indicated that significant differences existed among the 40 S/sub 1/ families for all the traits evaluated. Genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation were comparatively high for emergence rate index, root/shoot ratio, dry root weight, fresh root weight and fresh shoot weight. The estimates of broad-sense heritability were high and significant for all the traits. The study of genotypic and phenotypic correlations among these traits revealed that generally, the seedlings which took more time to emerge were vigorous for most of the traits except fresh shoot length. However, rapidly emerging seedlings had higher emergence percentage. The root traits appeared to be better indicators of seedling vigour compared to other traits as these traits exhibited strong and positive genotypic and phenotypic correlations among them. (author)

Party-political and electoral system of Uruguay

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samuel Decresci

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The Oriental Republic of Uruguay is seen by many as a pioneer among Latin American nations to modernize its state and its policy. Since the late nineteenth century to the twentieth, Uruguayan political actors operate significant changes such as the separation of church and state, labor regulation, divorce law, women's vote, etc. Because of this and the progressive modernization, it was called the “Switzerland of the Americas”. Today, it still stands out in this area by regularizing abortion, homoaffective marriage, liberalization and access to marijuana. Moreover, noteworthy that such measures were achieved largely because of governance that the executive enjoys in the midst of this political system. Thus, this work aims to analyze such Uruguayan political system. In short, a political system is understood by the government system, the electoral system and the party system. That said, it will be analyzed in the political scenario of the country, their characteristics, party and election rules, political parties, party dynamics and relations between the powers.

Political Culture and the Nature of Political Participation in Egypt.

Science.gov (United States)

1980-06-01

political socialization . Political-cultural values are gradually internalized within the society and political behavior is largely reflective of...the extent to which the regime used education as a means of political socialization : Socialism is articulated as a Muslim theory of socialism. The head... political socialization except for a brief period during the mobilization program of Ali Sabri. Egypt’s party system has been more relevant for

Mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL in sheep. IV. Analysis of lactation persistency and extended lactation traits in sheep

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lam Mary K

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In sheep dairy production, total lactation performance, and length of lactation of lactation are of economic significance. A more persistent lactation has been associated with improved udder health. An extended lactation is defined by a longer period of milkability. This study is the first investigation to examine the presence of quantitative trait loci (QTL for extended lactation and lactation persistency in sheep. Methods An (Awassi × Merino × Merino single-sire backcross family with 172 ewes was used to map QTL for lactation persistency and extended lactation traits on a framework map of 189 loci across all autosomes. The Wood model was fitted to data from multiple lactations to estimate parameters of ovine lactation curves, and these estimates were used to derive measures of lactation persistency and extended lactation traits of milk, protein, fat, lactose, useful yield, and somatic cell score. These derived traits were subjected to QTL analyses using maximum likelihood estimation and regression analysis. Results Overall, one highly significant (LOD > 3.0, four significant (2.0 Conclusion This study identified ten novel QTL for lactation persistency and extended lactation in sheep, but results suggest that lactation persistency and extended lactation do not have a major gene in common. These results provide a basis for further validation in extended families and other breeds as well as targeting regions for genome-wide association mapping using high-density SNP arrays.

The political reference point: How geography shapes political identity

Science.gov (United States)

Feinberg, Matthew; Tullett, Alexa M.; Mensch, Zachary; Hart, William; Gottlieb, Sara

2017-01-01

It is commonly assumed that how individuals identify on the political spectrum–whether liberal, conservative, or moderate–has a universal meaning when it comes to policy stances and voting behavior. But, does political identity mean the same thing from place to place? Using data collected from across the U.S. we find that even when people share the same political identity, those in “bluer” locations are more likely to support left-leaning policies and vote for Democratic candidates than those in “redder” locations. Because the meaning of political identity is inconsistent across locations, individuals who share the same political identity sometimes espouse opposing policy stances. Meanwhile, those with opposing identities sometimes endorse identical policy stances. Such findings suggest that researchers, campaigners, and pollsters must use caution when extrapolating policy preferences and voting behavior from political identity, and that animosity toward the other end of the political spectrum is sometimes misplaced. PMID:28207906

The political reference point: How geography shapes political identity.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthew Feinberg

Full Text Available It is commonly assumed that how individuals identify on the political spectrum-whether liberal, conservative, or moderate-has a universal meaning when it comes to policy stances and voting behavior. But, does political identity mean the same thing from place to place? Using data collected from across the U.S. we find that even when people share the same political identity, those in "bluer" locations are more likely to support left-leaning policies and vote for Democratic candidates than those in "redder" locations. Because the meaning of political identity is inconsistent across locations, individuals who share the same political identity sometimes espouse opposing policy stances. Meanwhile, those with opposing identities sometimes endorse identical policy stances. Such findings suggest that researchers, campaigners, and pollsters must use caution when extrapolating policy preferences and voting behavior from political identity, and that animosity toward the other end of the political spectrum is sometimes misplaced.

Quantitative Trait Loci Affecting Calving Traits in Danish Holstein Cattle

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thomasen, J R; Guldbrandtsen, B; Sørensen, P

2008-01-01

The objectives of this study were 1) to detect quantitative trait loci (QTL) affecting direct and maternal calving traits at first calving in the Danish Holstein population, 2) to distinguish between pleiotropic and linked QTL for chromosome regions affecting more than one trait, and 3) to detect...

Politics Backstage - Television Documentaries, Politics and Politicians

OpenAIRE

Ib Bondebjerg

2006-01-01

This article deals with "the transformation of visibility" in political discourse on and representation of politics and politicians in resent Dansih television documentaries. Drawing on the theories of Habermas, Meyrowitz and John B. Thompson, it is argued that the political persona on television is moved closer to the individual citizen, creating a sort "mediated quasi-inter- action" giving mediated communication a stronger element of face-to-face interaction. Together...

Party Political Panthers: Hegemonic Tamil Politics and the Dalit Challenge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hugo Gorringe

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The Viduthalai Ciruthaigal Katchi (VCK, Liberation Panther Party has successfully transformed from the largest Dalit movement in Tamil Nadu into a recognised political organisation. Social movement theorists like Gamson (1990 view political recognition and engagement as one of the main aims and successes of social mobilisation. Despite the obvious achievements of the VCK, however, activists and commentators express disappointment or disillusionment with its performance. The Panthers clearly reject the caste hierarchy, but they increasingly adopt hegemonic forms of politics which can undermine their aims. This paper, thus, engages with the questions of movement institutionalisation by tracing the political trajectory of the VCK and charting its resistance to and compliance with Dravidian hegemony. It argues that institutionalisation needs to be understood within particular socio-political contexts and notes how the hegemony of Dravidian politics partly explains the disjuncture between activist and political perceptions. It portrays how the dominant political parties have set the template for what it means to ‘do’ politics in Tamil Nadu which serves as both an opportunity and a constraint for potential challengers.

Response of Korean pine's functional traits to geography and climate.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yichen Dong

Full Text Available This study analyzed the characteristics of Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis functional trait responses to geographic and climatic factors in the eastern region of Northeast China (41°-48°N and the linear relationships among Korean pine functional traits, to explore this species' adaptability and ecological regulation strategies under different environmental conditions. Korean pine samples were collected from eight sites located at different latitudes, and the following factors were determined for each site: geographic factors-latitude, longitude, and altitude; temperature factors-mean annual temperature (MAT, growth season mean temperature (GST, and mean temperature of the coldest month (MTCM; and moisture factors-annual precipitation (AP, growth season precipitation (GSP, and potential evapotranspiration (PET. The Korean pine functional traits examined were specific leaf area (SLA, leaf thickness (LT, leaf dry matter content (LDMC, specific root length (SRL, leaf nitrogen content (LNC, leaf phosphorus content (LPC, root nitrogen content (RNC, and root phosphorus content (RPC. The results showed that Korean pine functional traits were significantly correlated to latitude, altitude, GST, MTCM, AP, GSP, and PET. Among the Korean pine functional traits, SLA showed significant linear relationships with LT, LDMC, LNC, LPC, and RPC, and LT showed significant linear relationships with LDMC, SRL, LNC, LPC, RNC, and RPC; the linear relationships between LNC, LPC, RNC, and RPC were also significant. In conclusion, Korean pine functional trait responses to latitude resulted in its adaptation to geographic and climatic factors. The main limiting factors were precipitation and evapotranspiration, followed by altitude, latitude, GST, and MTCM. The impacts of longitude and MAT were not obvious. Changes in precipitation and temperature were most responsible for the close correlation among Korean pine functional traits, reflecting its adaption to habitat

The politics and anti-politics of social movements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Burchardt, Marian; Patterson, Amy S.; Mubanda Rasmussen, Louise

2013-01-01

's poverty. Religious HIV/AIDS activities must be analysed in a conceptual space between a civil society/politics approach and a service-provider/anti-politics framework. That is, religious mobilisation may at times seek to engage the public realm to shape policies, while at other times it may shun politics...

The politics of researching global health politics

Science.gov (United States)

Rushton, Simon

2015-01-01

In this comment, I build on Shiffman’s call for the global health community to more deeply investigate structural and productive power. I highlight two challenges we must grapple with as social scientists carrying out the types of investigation that Shiffman proposes: the politics of challenging the powerful; and the need to investigate types of expertise that have traditionally been thought of as ‘outside’ global health. In doing so, I argue that moving forward with the agenda Shiffman sets out requires social scientists interested in the global politics of health to be reflexive about our own exercise of structural and productive power and the fact that researching global health politics is itself a political undertaking. PMID:25905482

Facebook, Political Narrative, and Political Change: A Case Study of Palestinian Youth

OpenAIRE

Kenderes, Amanda

2012-01-01

In this dissertation I aim to advance political narrative theory by exploring the use of political narrative on Facebook and the possibility for Facebook to be used among Palestinian youth for political change. To examine the concepts of political narrative and political change, I developed a model for political change based on the changing political narratives which in part prompted the 2011 Egyptian revolution. The model, Political Narrative Perspectives (PNPs), identifies individual and re...

Lexis in Political Ideas on Twitter

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Renugah Ramanathan

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Ideologies in political discourse have been keen research topics as they provide various views of an issue or event. The prominent aspect of ideology is that it attempts to bridge the political activism to the social world that reflects the authenticity of political figures. This study aims to compare the ideological notions in the political tweets of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak (henceforth, Najib and Prime Minister Narendra Modi (henceforth, Modi during the election campaigns. The discourse between both the political premiers are compared in relation to their active participation on Twitter in Asia. Data were collected over a period of 3 months during the election campaigns of both the countries which were from February to April 2013 in Malaysia and January to March 2014 in India. The study follows the qualitative research design by employing Fairclough’s three dimensional model in analyzing the lexical choices and the formation of ideas. The presence of various ideologies in the tweets portray the consensual power of the political leaders as the citizens accepts the former’s principles, ideologies and moral values. Hence, this study is significant because the study increases political awareness among citizens and provides insights on how language is employed by both leaders from different political coalition. Besides, this study produces knowledge that helps society to understand how 140 character can be a powerful tool in disseminating ideas during national elections and making election a success.

'Grounded' Politics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schmidt, Garbi

2012-01-01

play within one particular neighbourhood: Nørrebro in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. The article introduces the concept of grounded politics to analyse how groups of Muslim immigrants in Nørrebro use the space, relationships and history of the neighbourhood for identity political statements....... The article further describes how national political debates over the Muslim presence in Denmark affect identity political manifestations within Nørrebro. By using Duncan Bell’s concept of mythscape (Bell, 2003), the article shows how some political actors idealize Nørrebro’s past to contest the present...... ethnic and religious diversity of the neighbourhood and, further, to frame what they see as the deterioration of genuine Danish identity....

The "chicken-and-egg" development of political opinionsThe roles of genes, social status, ideology, and information.

Science.gov (United States)

Peter, Beattie J D

2017-01-01

Twin studies have revealed political ideology to be partially heritable. Neurological research has shown that ideological differences are reflected in brain structure and response, suggesting a direct genotype-phenotype link. Social and informational environments, however, also demonstrably affect brain structure and response. This leads to a "chicken-and-egg" question: do genes produce brains with ideological predispositions, causing the preferential absorption of consonant information and thereby forming an ideology, or do social and informational environments do most of the heavy lifting, with genetic evidence the spurious artifact of outdated methodology? Or are both inextricably intertwined contributors? This article investigates the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to ideological development using a role-play experiment investigating the development of opinions on a novel political issue. The results support the view that the process is bidirectional, suggesting that, like most traits, political ideology is produced by the complex interplay of genetic and (social/informational) environmental influences.

Political entrepreneurship and bidding for political monopoly

OpenAIRE

Michael Wohlgemuth

2000-01-01

An analytical framework for dealing with political entrepreneurship and reform is proposed which is based on some new combinations of Schumpeterian political economy, an extended version of Tullock's model of democracy as franchise-bidding for natural monopoly and some basic elements of New Institutional Economics. It is shown that problems of insufficient award criteria and incomplete contracts which may arise in economic bidding schemes, also - and even more so - characterise political comp...

Pirate political parties: New democracy or political utopia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karanović Bojana

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Modern society is changing under the influence of IT technologies, more and more we talk about 'digital revolution', and political and economic developments are shaped by computer networks. Undeniably, the Internet has opened new possibilities for socio-political expansion, networking and mobilization. Besides the political establishment, many social movements found their chance in cyberspace recognizing the IT technology as a platform for the development and improvement of their internal and external communication. In this article we will focus on the Pirate Party, movement that has been seriously growing on the European political stage for last several years. Following the example of German Pirate Party we will try to explain the characteristics of the movement, its goals and communication strategies, and political dilemmas which it brings.

Neurological soft signs in Chinese adolescents with antisocial personality traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xin; Cai, Lin; Li, Lingyan; Yang, Yanjie; Yao, Shuqiao; Zhu, Xiongzhao

2016-09-30

The current study was designed to explore the specific relationship between neurologic soft signs (NSSs) and characteristics of antisocial personality traits in adolescents, and to investigate particular NSSs linked to certain brain regions in adolescents with antisocial personality traits. The research was conducted on 96 adolescents diagnosed with ASP traits (ASP trait group) using the ASPD subscale of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire for the DSM-IV (PDQ-4+) and 96 adolescents without traits of any personality disorder (control group). NSSs were assessed using the soft sign subscales of the Cambridge Neurological Inventory. Adolescents with ASP traits showed more motor coordination, sensory integration, disinhibition, and total NSSs than the control group. Seven NSSs, including stereognosia in right hand, finger agnosia and graphesthesia in both hands, left-right orientation, and go/no go stimulus, were significantly more frequent in teenagers with ASP traits. Sensory integration was positively associated with ASP traits. Adolescents with antisocial personality traits might have abnormalities in the central nervous system, and sensory integration might be the particular indicator of antisocial personality disorder. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lifelong Political Socialization, Consciousness and Political Agency in Israel Today

Science.gov (United States)

Michel, Dirk

2007-01-01

This article deals with the nexus between biographical experiences in political extraordinary times of crisis, disaster and terror and their influence on political orientations. At the centre of interest is the reconstruction of political orientations related to two different historical-political groups of Jewish Germans who had immigrated or…

Emotional intelligence predicts peer-rated social competence above and beyond personality traits

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Dorota Szczygieł

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Background This study investigated the relationship between trait emotional intelligence (EI and social competences (SC, which determine effective functioning in three types of social situations: intimate situations, situations of social exposure and situations requiring self-assertion. Social competences were assessed using a peer nomination method. It was hypothesized that trait EI predicts SC above and beyond personality traits. Participants and procedure Data were collected from among 111 adolescents (46.95% girls. The study was conducted among five classes from three public high schools. Participants first completed the Personality Inventory NEO-FFI and the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form (TEIQue-SF. Subsequently, the descriptions of three different persons were presented to the participants. Each description concerned one of the SC: intimate competence, social exposure competence and assertive competence. Participants were asked to nominate three classmates who suited each description best. Results A series of hierarchical regression analyses was performed. Personality traits and trait EI were regressed on each competence. Analyses involved two-step hierarchical regressions, entering personality traits at step 1 and adding trait EI at step 2. The results demonstrated that personality traits explained a substantial portion of the variance in each SC. Beyond these variables, trait EI was significant as a predictor of nominations for each SC, explaining an additional amount of the unique variance. Conclusions The results complement existing evidence that trait EI contributes to successful social functioning. The relationships between trait EI and SC remained statistically significant even after controlling for Big Five variance. The results demonstrate incremental validity of trait EI over and above personality traits.

Personality Traits of Minority Arab Teachers in the Arab Educational System in Israel

Science.gov (United States)

Abu Hussain, Jamal; Abu Hussain, Nadia

2017-01-01

The present research examined the personality traits prevalent among Arab teachers as a minority in the Arab educational system in Israel. Personality traits has much significance in the prediction of human behavior in various situations. Personality traits affect a person's behavior. Usually personality traits do not change, and they are…

Politics, Security, Theory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wæver, Ole

2011-01-01

theory is found to ‘act politically’ through three structural features that systematically shape the political effects of using the theory. The article further discusses – on the basis of the preceding articles in the special issue – three emerging debates around securitization theory: ethics......This article outlines three ways of analysing the ‘politics of securitization’, emphasizing an often-overlooked form of politics practised through theory design. The structure and nature of a theory can have systematic political implications. Analysis of this ‘politics of securitization......’ is distinct from both the study of political practices of securitization and explorations of competing concepts of politics among security theories. It means tracking what kinds of analysis the theory can produce and whether such analysis systematically impacts real-life political struggles. Securitization...

The Political Parties and Political Participation in Rivers State, Nigeria

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The Political Parties and Political Participation in Rivers State, Nigeria: A Case Study of 2015 General Elections. Goddey Wilson. Abstract. The study reviewed the activities of the political parties and its impact on voters' participation in the political activities in Rivers State. In pursuit of this objective, the study generated ...

Public Sphere - Political Advertisement Relationship in Turkey: Analysing Political Advertisements of JDP in General Elections 2011

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erdal Dağtaş

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Public sphere is a social space, open to active individual access and free discussion, rescued from state intervention, where communicative action free from violence and individual benefits is undertaken; and rational-critical discourse is built. Political advertisement is the type advertising which aims at directing voters or the government to a particular action, having them adopt a certain view or approach. The concept of political advertising emerged with the practice of using commercial advertising techniques to promote a party, candidate or an idea. Justice and Development Party (JDP, has been ruling Turkey since 2002. The leader of the party is Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. It is a conservative party and has carried out some practices that could be regarded as negative. Anti-secular attitudes are also among these practices. Thus, analysing the political advertisements of JDP has proved to be interesting. Public sphere studies are mostly conducted through news stories and columns in media. In that sense, it is significant to analyse political advertisements in terms of public sphere. In this study, the political advertisements of the ruling Justice and Development Party (JDP in the process of Turkish General Parliamentary Election, 2011 have been analysed. The political advertisements in question have been analysed via Sabah newspaper. The reason for choosing Sabah is that it supports JDP as an example of partisan press. The samples have been taken from 2 weeks before the elections. Accordingly, as a full-page advertisement is published every day, 14 political advertisement analyses have been conducted in total. Political advertisements have been analysed using qualitative text analysis. As the study follows the path of public place-political advertising relationship, it finds meaning in itself.

Political transition of Albania 1985-1991

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brunilda Duriçi

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Political transition of Albania is a phenomenon that started since the death of Enver Hoxha, the dictator of communist regime in Albania. After the death of Enver Hoxha on 11 April 1985, Ramiz Alia was appointed as his successor, who for 40 years had been at Enver Hoxha’s side as his most trusted man. He succeeded Hoxha for nearly 6 years believing that he would maintain the communist system. Ramiz Alia came on duty as the head of the Albanian state when the economic situation was very precarious. Political and economic legacy led by Hoxha was almost miserable. The country had the severest political system throughout the communist bloc. In a political point of view, the country’s new leader was elected precisely to continue the political legacy of former leader Hoxha. Ramiz Alia was forced to take immediate measures to change the degraded situation. He undertook several reforms to improve the situation in the country. Among other things, Alia expressed the equality of Albanian citizens, freedoms and human rights. Events were passing each other, marking a great historical importance. Among other things, Alia approved the political pluralism giving way to significant social changes. Echoes of these events and the positive developments in the country do not remain outside the attention of internationals. The arrival of political pluralism and the establishment of Democratic Party, the first opposition party in the country and other political entities exposed the European dream of Albanians. Massive movements in the form of protests and rallies, aimed at overturning the communist regime in the country Main objective of this paper is the analysis of the Political transition of Albania 1985-1991.

Peculiar alexithymic traits in burning mouth syndrome: case-control study.

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Marino, Roberto; Picci, Rocco Luigi; Ferro, Giovanni; Carezana, Claudio; Gandolfo, Sergio; Pentenero, Monica

2015-11-01

The present case-control study aims to assess the occurrence of alexithymic traits in burning mouth syndrome (BMS) subjects and to correlate alexithymic traits to anxious and depressive traits in BMS subjects. Prospectively enrolled BMS and control subjects were administered the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Anxiety and depressive traits were assessed using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale and the Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale. Occurrence of alexithymic traits was compared between BMS and control subjects. Correlation tests were used to measure the importance of alexithymic traits related to demographic characteristics, pain intensity (VAS score), and to the other psychometric scores. Fifty-eight BMS subjects (46 females and 12 males) had a mean TAS-20 score significantly higher when compared to controls (p < 0.001; r = 0.72), corresponding to an occurrence rate of alexithymic traits of 79.3 versus 6.9%. Alexithymic traits in BMS subjects were just related to depressive traits (p = 0.02; ρ = 0.31). The high occurrence of alexithymia in BMS is an adjunctive issue in favor of its multifactorial pathogenesis, with a not negligible role for somatization. Clinicians should be aware of the high occurrence of alexithymic traits among BMS subjects as such traits may affect the doctor-patient relationship.

Political innovations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Eva

2017-01-01

are mainly interested in assessing and promoting innovations in public service delivery, but have paid little or no attention to the need for innovations in polity, politics and policy. This article develops a research agenda for studying innovations in political institutions, in the political process...... and in policy outputs. It proposes a number of research themes related to political innovations that call for scholarly attention, and identifies push and pull factors influencing the likelihood that these themes will be addressed in future research....

Corruption, Political Connections, and Municipal Finance

OpenAIRE

Alexander W. Butler; Larry Fauver; Sandra Mortal

2009-01-01

We show that state corruption and political connections have strong effects on municipal bond sales and underwriting. Higher state corruption is associated with greater credit risk and higher bond yields. Corrupt states can eliminate the corruption yield penalty by purchasing credit enhancements. Underwriting fees were significantly higher during an era when underwriters made political contributions to win underwriting business. This pay-to-play underwriting fee premium exists only for negoti...

The Political Economy of Energy Innovation

OpenAIRE

Dasgupta, Shouro; De Cian, Enrica; Verdolini, Elena

2017-01-01

This paper empirically investigates the effects of environmental policy, institutions, political orientation, and lobbying on energy innovation and finds that they significantly affect the incentives to innovate and create cleaner energy efficient technologies. We conclude that political economy factors may act as barriers even in the presence of stringent environmental policy, implying that, to move towards a greener economy, countries should combine environmental policy with a general stren...

Union for International Cancer Control International Session: healthcare economics: the significance of the UN Summit non-communicable diseases political declaration in Asia.

Science.gov (United States)

Akaza, Hideyuki; Kawahara, Norie; Masui, Tohru; Takeyama, Kunihiko; Nogimori, Masafumi; Roh, Jae Kyung

2013-06-01

The Japan National Committee for the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and UICC-Asia Regional Office (ARO) organized an international session as part of the official program of the 71st Annual Meeting of the Japanese Cancer Association to discuss the topic "Healthcare Economics: The Significance of the UN Summit non-communicable diseases (NCDs) Political Declaration in Asia." The presenters and participants discussed the growing cost of cancer in the Asian region and the challenges that are faced by the countries of Asia, all of which face budgetary and other systemic constraints in tackling and controlling cancer in the region. The session benefited from the participation of various stakeholders, including cancer researchers and representatives of the pharmaceutical industry. They discussed the significance of the UN Political Declaration on the prevention and control of NCDs (2011) as a means of boosting awareness of cancer in the Asian region and also addressed the ways in which stakeholders can cooperate to improve cancer control and treatment. Other issues that were covered included challenges relating to pharmaceutical trials in Asia and how to link knowledge and research outcomes. The session concluded with the recognition that with the onset of a super-aged society in most countries in Asia and an increasing focus on quality of life rather than quantity of life, it is more important than ever for all stakeholders to continue to share information and promote policy dialogue on cancer control and treatment. © 2013 Japanese Cancer Association.

Trait space of rare plants in a fire-dependent ecosystem.

Science.gov (United States)

Ames, Gregory M; Wall, Wade A; Hohmann, Matthew G; Wright, Justin P

2017-08-01

The causes of species rarity are of critical concern because of the high extinction risk associated with rarity. Studies examining individual rare species have limited generality, whereas trait-based approaches offer a means to identify functional causes of rarity that can be applied to communities with disparate species pools. Differences in functional traits between rare and common species may be indicative of the functional causes of species rarity and may therefore be useful in crafting species conservation strategies. However, there is a conspicuous lack of studies comparing the functional traits of rare species and co-occurring common species. We measured 18 important functional traits for 19 rare and 134 common understory plant species from North Carolina's Sandhills region and compared their trait distributions to determine whether there are significant functional differences that may explain species rarity. Flowering, fire, and tissue-chemistry traits differed significantly between rare and common, co-occurring species. Differences in specific traits suggest that fire suppression has driven rarity in this system and that changes to the timing and severity of prescribed fire may improve conservation success. Our method provides a useful tool to prioritize conservation efforts in other systems based on the likelihood that rare species are functionally capable of persisting. © 2016 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology.

Autistic and schizotypal traits and global functioning in bipolar I disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Abu-Akel, Ahmad; Clark, Jennifer; Perry, Amy; Wood, Stephen J; Forty, Liz; Craddock, Nick; Jones, Ian; Gordon-Smith, Katherine; Jones, Lisa

2017-01-01

To determine the expression of autistic and positive schizotypal traits in a large sample of adults with bipolar I disorder (BD I), and the effect of co-occurring autistic and positive schizotypal traits on global functioning in BD I. Autistic and positive schizotypal traits were self-assessed in 797 individuals with BD-I recruited by the Bipolar Disorder Research Network. Differences in global functioning (rated using the Global Assessment Scale) during lifetime worst depressive and manic episodes (GASD and GASM respectively) were calculated in groups with high/low autistic and positive schizotypal traits. Regression analyses assessed the interactive effect of autistic and positive schizotypal traits on global functioning. 47.2% (CI=43.7-50.7%) showed clinically significant levels of autistic traits, and 23.22% (95% CI=20.29-26.14) showed clinically significant levels of positive schizotypal traits. In the worst episode of mania, the high autistic, high positive schizotypal group had better global functioning compared to the other groups. Individual differences analyses showed that high levels of both traits were associated with better global functioning in both mood states. Autistic and schizotypal traits were assessed using self-rated questionnaires. Expression of autistic and schizotypal traits in adults with BD I is prevalent, and may be important to predict illness aetiology, prognosis, and diagnostic practices in this population. Future work should focus on replicating these findings in independent samples, and on the biological and/or psychosocial mechanisms underlying better global functioning in those who have high levels of both autistic and positive schizotypal traits. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

When Traits Match States: Examining the Associations between Self-Report Trait and State Mindfulness following a State Mindfulness Induction.

Science.gov (United States)

Bravo, Adrian J; Pearson, Matthew R; Wilson, Adam D; Witkiewitz, Katie

2018-02-01

Previous research has found inconsistent relationships between trait mindfulness and state mindfulness. To extend previous research, we sought to examine the unique associations between self-report trait mindfulness and state mindfulness by levels of meditation experience (meditation-naïve vs. meditation-experienced) and by mindfulness induction (experimentally induced mindful state vs. control group). We recruited 299 college students (93 with previous mindfulness meditation experience) to participate in an experiment that involved the assessment of five facets of trait mindfulness (among other constructs), followed by a mindfulness induction (vs. control), followed by the assessment of state mindfulness of body and mind. Correlational analyses revealed limited associations between trait mindfulness facets and facets of state mindfulness, and demonstrated that a brief mindfulness exercise focused on bodily sensations and the breath elicited higher state mindfulness of body but not state mindfulness of mind. We found significant interactions such that individuals with previous meditation experience and higher scores on the observing facet of trait mindfulness had the highest levels of state mindfulness of body and mind. Among individuals with meditation experience, the strengths of the associations between observing trait mindfulness and the state mindfulness facets increased with frequency of meditation practice. Some other interactions ran counter to expectations. Overall, the relatively weak associations between trait and state mindfulness demonstrates the need to improve our operationalizations of mindfulness, advance our understanding of how to best cultivate mindfulness, and reappraise the ways in which mindfulness can manifest as a state and as a trait.

Putting politics first.

Science.gov (United States)

Hacker, Jacob S

2008-01-01

The greatest lesson of the failure of comprehensive health reform in the early 1990s is that politics comes first. Even the best-laid policy plans are worthless if they lack the political support to pass. Putting politics first means avoiding the overarching mistake of the Clinton reformers: envisioning a grand policy compromise rather than hammering out a real political compromise. It also means addressing the inevitable fears of those who believe that they are well protected by our eroding employment-based system. And it means formulating political strategies that are premised on the contemporary realities of the hyperpolarized U.S. political environment, rather than wistfully recalled images of the bipartisan politics of old.

Religion and Politics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bandak, Andreas

2018-01-01

Religion and politics provide an interesting juxtaposition. On the one hand, both may initially come across as rather self-evident categories, with religion dealing with human perceptions and what people hold as sacred, and politics addressing the control and governance of fellow human beings....... Nonetheless, such a simple opposition should only work as a starting point for an interrogation of both terms and how they have come to look and function as empirical and analytical categories. Focusing on the ways that religion is played out in relation to politics reveals different historical and cultural...... constellations and positions, which can be highlighted as variations of religion as politics, religion in politics, religion out of politics, and religion not politics....

Facebook, Political Narrative, and Political Change: A Case Study of Palestinian Youth

Science.gov (United States)

Kenderes, Amanda M.

2012-01-01

In this dissertation I aim to advance political narrative theory by exploring the use of political narrative on Facebook and the possibility for Facebook to be used among Palestinian youth for political change. To examine the concepts of political narrative and political change, I developed a model for political change based on the changing…

Political Socialization and Political Interest: The Role of School Reassessed

Science.gov (United States)

Koskimaa, Vesa; Rapeli, Lauri

2015-01-01

There is a growing concern about the lack of political interest and engagement among Western youth. This has led to a revival of political socialization studies. One recent finding is that (late) adolescence is key to understanding the development of interest for politics. This study builds on this finding by examining political interest among…

Theorising international monetary relations: three questions about the significance of materiality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Leander

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract This article engages a conversation with Benjamin Cohen by raising three questions about the significance of materiality. The paper's questions focus on how materiality can be included in theorizations so that its political import is not defined away from the outset. The article does this focussing on Cohen's treatment of electronic money and its significance for the Politics of International Monetary Relations. The first question posed is about ontology, the second about agency and the third about the scope of politics. The three questions are raised as a conversation in which arguments and counterarguments are advanced. The questions are therefore posed with Cohen's contributions to theorizing the political significance of materiality as their point of departure. They are formulated as a consequence of bringing these contributions in relation to insights from the Social Studies of Finance. From this perspective it would seem that a more far reaching engagement with materiality (in terms of ontology, agency and epistemology is necessary to capture its political significance for international monetary politics and currency hierarchies. The article does not conclude in conventional fashion but purposefully strives to leave these questions open for discussion.

Correlating single nucleotide polymorphisms in the myostatin gene with performance traits in rabbit

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E.M. Abdel-Kafy

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The Myostatin (MSTN, or Growth and Differentiation Factor 8 (GDF8, gene has been implicated in the double muscling phenomenon, in which a series of mutations render the gene inactive and unable to properly regulate muscle fibre deposition. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs in the MSTN gene have been correlated to production traits, making it a candidate target gene to enhance livestock and fowl productivity. This study aimed to assess any association of three SNPs in the rabbit MSTN gene (c.713T>A in exon 2, c.747+34C>T in intron 2, and c.*194A>G in 3’-untranslated region and their combinations, with carcass, production and reproductive traits. The investigated traits included individual body weight, daily body weight gain, carcass traits and reproductive traits. The 3 SNPs were screened using PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP-based analysis and the effects of the different SNP genotypes and their combinations were estimated in a rabbit population. Additionally, additive and dominance effects were estimated for significant traits. The results found no significant association between the c.713 T>A SNP and all the examined traits. Allele T at the c.747+34C>T SNP was only significantly associated (PG, allele G was significantly associated (PG SNP also had positive effects on most carcass traits. The estimated additive genetic effect for the c.*194A>G SNP was significant (PA and c.747+34C>T, GG at the c.*194A>G SNP correlated with highest values in body weight and daily weight gain. In conclusion, the ‘G’ allele at the c.*194A>G SNP had positive effects on growth and carcass traits and so could be used as a favourable allele in planning rabbit selection. Further population-wide studies are necessary to test the association of the c.*194A>G SNP with carcass traits. We also recommend evaluation of the potential effects of the c.*194A>G SNP on MSTN gene expression.

Exploring Political Alternatives

Science.gov (United States)

Denhardt, Robert B.

1975-01-01

The author distinguishes between the concepts of political socialization and political education. He argues that political socialization has come to dominate both our thinking and our teaching in the area of civic education. Suggestions for promoting political education are included. (DE)

Bangladesh pharmaceutical policy and politics.

Science.gov (United States)

Reich, M R

1994-06-01

An analysis of the politics of Bangladesh pharmaceutical policy in the 1980s shows how significant health policy reforms in developing countries depend on political conditions both inside and outside the country. Bangladesh's drug policy of 1982 illustrates that governments can sometimes change public policy in ways unfavourable to multinational corporations, while the failed health policy reform of 1990 shows that reforms unfavourable to powerful domestic interest groups can be more difficult to achieve, even contributing to a government's downfall. The case provides evidence of basic changes in how the international agenda for health policy is set, especially the growing role of non-governmental organizations in international agencies and national policy debates. Understanding the political patterns of policy reform in Bangladesh has important implications for strategies to affect health policy in developing countries.

Passion, Trait Self-Control, and Wellbeing: Comparing Two Mediation Models Predicting Wellbeing.

Science.gov (United States)

Briki, Walid

2017-01-01

Research has found that passion and trait self-control represented key determinants of wellbeing. Yet, no study to date has attempted to investigate the mediating influences of trait self-control and passion for accounting for the relationships between passion, trait self-control, and wellbeing (dependent variable). Using different frameworks, such as the dualistic model of passion and the neo-socioanalytic theory, the present study proposed two mediation models, considering either trait self-control (model 1) or passion (model 2) as the mediating variable. Five hundred nine volunteers from the United States (326 females and 183 males; M age = 31.74, SD age = 11.05, from 18 to 70 years old), who reported being passionate about a specific activity (e.g., fishing, swimming, blogging; M passion = 5.94, SD passion = 0.89), answered questionnaires assessing harmonious and obsessive passion, trait self-control, and wellbeing (measured through hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing scales). Preliminary analyses revealed that both models were significant ( model 1: absolute GoF = 0.366, relative GoF = 0.971, outer model GoF = 0.997, inner model GoF = 0.973, R 2 = 18.300%, p passion, trait self-control, and wellbeing, and no relationships of obsessive passion with trait self-control and wellbeing. Mediation analyses revealed that trait self-control significantly mediated the relationship between harmonious passion and wellbeing (i.e., partial mediation, VAF = 33.136%). Harmonious passion appeared to significantly mediate the positive effect of trait self-control on wellbeing; however, the size of the mediating effect indicated that (almost) no mediation would take place (i.e., VAF = 11.144%). The present study is the first to examine the relationships between passion, trait self-control, and wellbeing, and supports the view that trait self-control and harmonious passion represent not only adaptive and powerful constructs, but also key determinants of wellbeing. Implications for

The Pragmatics of Political Apology in Ghana’s Contemporary Politics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kofi Agyekum

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The paper discusses political apology in the 4 the republic of Ghanaian contemporary politics from 2013 to 2015. It taps its data from apologetic speeches by political officials and from apologies rendered to politicians. The paper discusses the semantics and pragmatics of political apology. It examines the use of the language of apology, paying attention to expressives, commissives and persuasion, by drawing on the speech act of apology and political discourse analysis (PDA. It concludes that the obligation on the part of the offender to apologise and for the offended to accept the apology and to forgive for socio-political harmony is driven by both the social pact and the Ghanaian communalistic context.

Politics in evaluation: Politically responsive evaluation in high stakes environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Azzam, Tarek; Levine, Bret

2015-12-01

The role of politics has often been discussed in evaluation theory and practice. The political influence of the situation can have major effects on the evaluation design, approach and methods. Politics also has the potential to influence the decisions made from the evaluation findings. The current study focuses on the influence of the political context on stakeholder decision making. Utilizing a simulation scenario, this study compares stakeholder decision making in high and low stakes evaluation contexts. Findings suggest that high stakes political environments are more likely than low stakes environments to lead to reduced reliance on technically appropriate measures and increased dependence on measures better reflect the broader political environment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of collembolan trait performance as effect indicator of environmental change

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krogh, Paul Henning; Petersen, Henning

several significant responses on the species level to the treatments where both taxonomic composition and extent of significant effects varied between the six sites. The basic hypothesis of the present work is that similar groups with respect to traits will respond in a similar manner to environmental...... stress across species of the local community. Furthermore, provided that the composition of traits is similar across Europe the response to environmental stress will also be similar. Hence, traits corresponding to morphological and ecological properties were subject to our analyses of treatment effects...

Exploring autistic traits in anorexia: a clinical study.

Science.gov (United States)

Tchanturia, Kate; Smith, Emma; Weineck, Felicitas; Fidanboylu, Eliz; Kern, Nikola; Treasure, Janet; Baron Cohen, Simon

2013-11-12

The objectives of this study were to explore associations between autistic traits and self-reported clinical symptoms in a population with anorexia nervosa (AN). Experimental and self-report evidence reveals similarities between AN and autism spectrum condition (ASC) populations in socio-emotional and cognitive domains; this includes difficulties with empathy, set-shifting and global processing. Focusing on these similarities may lead to better tailored interventions for both conditions. A cross-sectional independent-groups design was employed. Participants with AN (n = 66) and typical controls (n = 66) completed self-report questionnaires including the Short (10-Item) Version Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ-10) questionnaire (the first time this has been implemented in this population), the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Work and Social Adjustment Scale. Group differences and the relationship between autistic traits and other questionnaire measures were investigated. The AN group had a significantly higher AQ-10 total score and a greater proportion scored above the clinical cut-off than the control group. Seven out of ten AQ-10 items significantly discriminated between groups. In the AN group, levels of autistic traits correlated with a greater self-reported anxiety and depression and a lower ability to maintain close relationships; however, eating disorder symptoms were not associated with autistic traits. Women with anorexia possess a greater number of autistic traits than typical women. AQ-10 items that discriminated between groups related to 'bigger picture' (global) thinking, inflexibility of thinking and problems with social interactions, suggesting that autistic traits may exacerbate factors that maintain the eating disorder rather than cause the eating disorder directly. Using screening instruments may improve understanding of patients' problems, leading to better tailoring of intervention. We

Mixing politics and crime - The prevalence and decline of political discourse on the cryptomarket.

Science.gov (United States)

Munksgaard, Rasmus; Demant, Jakob

2016-09-01

Dread Pirate Roberts, founder of the first cryptomarket for illicit drugs named Silk Road, articulated libertarian political motives for his ventures. Previous research argues that there is a significant political component present or involved in cryptomarket drug dealing which is specifically libertarian. The aim of the paper is to investigate the prevalence of political discourses within discussions of cryptomarket drug dealing, and further to research the potential changes of these over the timespan of the study. We develop a novel operationalization of discourse analytic concepts which we combine with topic modelling enabling us to study how politics are articulated on cryptomarket forums. We apply the Structural Topic Model on a corpus extracted from crawls of cryptomarket forums encompassing posts dating from 2011 to 2015. The topics discussed on cryptomarket forums are primarily centered around the distribution of drugs including discussions of shipping and receiving, product advertisements, and reviews as well as aspects of drug consumption such as testing and consumption. However, on forums whose primary function is aiding operations on a black market, we still observe political matter. We identified one topic which expresses a libertarian discourse that emphasizes the individual's right to non-interference. Over time we observe an increasing prevalence of the libertarian discourse from 2011 to the end of 2013. In the end of 2013 - when Silk Road was seized - we observe an abrupt change in the prevalence of the libertarian discourse. The libertarian political discourse has historically been prevalent on cryptomarket forums. The closure of Silk Road has affected the prevalence of libertarian discourse suggesting that while the closure did not succeed in curtailing the cryptomarket economy, it dampened political sentiments. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Effects of Majoring in Political Science on Political Efficacy

Science.gov (United States)

Dominguez, Casey B. K.; Smith, Keith W.; Williams, J. Michael

2017-01-01

This study tests, and finds support, for the hypotheses that a student who majors in political science will have stronger feelings of political competence and will be more willing to engage in hypothetical political actions than two peer groups: (a) those who major in other fields and (b) those who show an interest in politics but have not studied…

The Political Activity in the Network Environment

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Марианна Юрьевна Павлютенкова

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The rapid development and deep penetration into all areas of modern society of information and communication technologies significantly increase the role of network interactions. Network structures represented primarily social networks, embedded in the public policy process and became one of the key political actors. Online communities take the form of public policy, where the formation of public opinion and political decision-making plays the main role. Networking environment opens up new opportunities for the opposition and protest movements, civic participation, and control of public policy in general. The article gives an insight on the political aspects of social networking, concludes on the trend formation and network's strengthening of the political activity in a wide distribution of e-networking and e-communications.

Quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis of pod related traits in different ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Administrator

2011-09-26

Sep 26, 2011 ... assistant breeding selection. Key words: Soybean, pod traits, QTL, different environments. INTRODUCTION. Yield related traits in soybean are generally controlled by multiple genes and environmental dependent (Kwon and. Torrie, 1964). Epigenetics of genes controlling these traits also affect the yield.

Cosmopolitan political science.

Science.gov (United States)

Grande, Edgar

2006-03-01

Until recently, the term cosmopolitism could rarely be found in modern political science literature. It was only in the 1990s that the term was rediscovered by political scientists in the critical discourse on globalization. In this article, I will explore the full potential of cosmopolitism as an analytical concept for empirical political science. I will argue that the concept of cosmopolitism should not be restricted to the analysis of global politics. Indeed, cosmopolitism has much more to offer for political scientists. Properly understood, it enables--and necessitates--a re-invention of political science in the age of globalization, comparable to the behavioural revolution in political science in the 1950s. Such a paradigmatic shift should be based on a twofold transformation of existing disciplinary boundaries: A removal of the boundary between national (and comparative) and international politics on the one hand; and a re-definition of the boundaries between empirical and normative approaches on the other. As a result, cosmopolitism may serve as a new, critical theory of politics based on the integration of hitherto separated fields and sub-fields.

CHOOSING TEACHING AS A PROFESSION: INFLUENCE OF BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS ON FALLBACK CAREER

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Robert Tomšik

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Personality plays a significant role in influencing motivation for choosing a perspective profession. As empirical evidence confirmed, personality traits conscientiousness, openness to experience, extraversion are in positive correlation with intrinsic motives for choosing teaching as a profession (in negative with personality trait neuroticism, and in negative correlation with extrinsic motivation and fallback career (in positive with personality trait neuroticism. The primary aim of research is to point out the importance of personality traits in career choices via detecting which personality traits are predictors of fallback career. In the research first grade university students (teacher trainees; N = 402 completed the Five Factor Inventory and SMVUP-4-S scale. As results show, Big Five personality traits are in correlation with fallback career and are a significant predictor of fallback career. The Big Five model together explained 17.4% of the variance in fallback career, where personality traits agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience and neuroticism has been shown as a statistically significant predictor of fallback career of teacher trainees.

Political Ideology and Perceptions of Bias Among University Faculty

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Susan Bullers

2010-10-01

Full Text Available The goal of the study was to examine the political ideology and perceptions of bias among the faculty in a university in the southeast U.S.A. Findings regarding the overall dominance of a liberal political ideology as well as ideological differences among disciplines are consistent with previous research. Respondents did distinguish between political dominance and political bias and were relatively accurate in their perceptions of a liberal dominance. Reports of bias were much lower overall but all groups were more likely to report a bias against conservatives than against Liberal and Moderates. Reports of bias against conservatives were quite high among conservatives themselves (48.7%. Conservatives were more likely to report a need to conceal their political beliefs, while Moderates and Liberals were slightly more likely to report harassment or attacks for their political beliefs. The gender differences in political ideology show that women are significantly more likely to hold a liberal political ideology.

ISLAMIC PARTIES AND THE POLITICS OF CONSTITUTIONALISM IN INDONESIA

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Mukrimin Mukrimin

2012-12-01

Full Text Available This article examines the relationship between religion and the state in Indonesia by exploring how Islam is used by political parties to shape the politics. The study shows that Islamic politics is a complementary in both nationhood and statehood in Indonesia. From the early days of the new-born nation-state, Muslims in Indonesia had played significant role in shaping the nation; nonetheless, they have never dominated the political power. Fragmentation among Muslims themselves and internal political parties is among the reason why religious (Islamic parties failed in bringing religious identity to the state arena. Political subordination-inclusion-ignorance-confrontation is the circular game that features Islamic politics in Indonesia. The debatable issue on shari‘ah law, which is frequently used by Islamic parties, always becomes the core problem of the relation between Islam and the state. Even though Islam has played an important role in colouring the Indonesian politics, its existence remains complementary.

Gender-based political harassment and violence: effects on the political work and public roles of women.

Science.gov (United States)

Valverde, María Eugenia Rojas

2010-01-01

This article shows the significance of the problems of political harassment and violence against women in positions of political responsibility in Bolivia. This phenomenon is seen in both rural and urban areas and transcends borders. It has been shown that these attacks constitute a violation of women's civil and political rights and a threat to the physical and mental health of women leaders in Bolivia. Furthermore, there is no punishment of guilty parties, reparation, or moral or material compensation for the women who are affected. In Bolivia, gender-based harassment and violence is a fundamental barrier to women's political participation. However, this phenomenon is still not addressed by government programs and is not part of the public discourse and debate. In spite of the measures taken to promote women's political participation, several different administrations have been unable to guarantee women the capacity to occupy positions of responsibility without being threatened or harassed. The results of our research led to a bill addressing this problem. Subsequently, Ecuador took this bill as an example and replicated it in a legislative initiative. These results show the importance of research by organizations that represent women in preventing unjust situations and health problems.

Political Anthropology and Anthropology of Politics: An Overview

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Suresh Dhakal

2012-06-01

Full Text Available In this short review, I have tried to sketch an overview of historical development of political anthropology and its recent trends. I was enthused to prepare this review article as there does not exist any of such simplified introduction of one of the prominent sub-fields in cultural anthropology for the Nepalis readers, in particular. I believe this particular sub-field has to offer much to understand and explain the recent trends and current turmoil of the political transition in the country. Political anthropologists than any other could better explain how the politics is socially and culturally embedded and intertwined, therefore, separation of the two – politics from social and cultural processes – is not only impossible but methodologically wrong, too. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v5i0.6365 Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol. 5, 2011: 217-34

Teaching gender and politics: Feminist methods in political science

OpenAIRE

Krook, Mona Lena

2009-01-01

Feminist research in political science is marked by two major contributions: (1) introducing the concept of “gender” and (2) expanding the definition of “politics.” Given its origins in feminist theory and activism, it is guided by scholarly and political aims to transform the study and the practice of politics (cf. Hawkesworth 2006). These commitments enable feminist scholars to identify new research questions, as well as to approach traditional topics in novel ways, using a variety of resea...

The political spectacle phenomenon on the political scene of Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Vučetić Vuk

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper will examine the phenomenon of political spectacle in BiH. Our goal is to recognize the structure of political spectacle in BiH political scene and point out the functions and objectives of this relatively new term in the media and the political sphere. In this regard, we have observed a political spectacle as a method of political communication of the rulers to the ruled. A very important element of the political spectacle is the media. With the media promotion of this method of political communication achieves its full capacity. The final outcome of the political spectacle is reflected in manipulating the public. In this way the politicians try to remain in power as long as they can.

Office Politics

Science.gov (United States)

Storm, Paula; Kelly, Robert; deVries, Susann

2008-01-01

People and organizations are inherently political. Library workplace environments have zones of tension and dynamics just like any corporation, often leading to the formation of political camps. These different cliques influence productivity and work-related issues and, at worst, give meetings the feel of the Camp David negotiations. Politics are…

Traits traded off

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rueffler, Claus

2006-01-01

The course of evolution is restricted by constraints. A special type of constraint is a trade-off where different traits are negatively correlated. In this situation a mutant type that shows an improvement in one trait suffers from a decreased performance through another trait. In a fixed fitness

Language and Politics.

Science.gov (United States)

Chimombo, Moira

1999-01-01

Surveys the interrelationship between language and politics. Touches on the context of political discourse, or political culture and ideology in new and old democracies and the reemerging manifestations of totalitarianism, censorship, and linguistic imperialism; then examines selected linguistic features of political discourse and their…

Logistic analysis of shovel and Carabelli's tooth traits in a Caucasoid population.

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, J W; Tsai, P; Liu, K; Ferguson, D

1997-09-19

Caucasoid populations differ from Mongoloids by having a high prevalence of Carabelli's trait and a low prevalence of shovel trait. This study was conducted to investigate the association between the shovel and the Carabelli's traits in a Caucasoid population. The research design sought a Caucasoid population at Milwaukee of Wisconsin in United States. The Caucasoid group selected for study was the European descendant. The effects of sex and age on Carabelli's trait were controlled in this investigation, as was the association between tooth size and Carabelli's trait. Results show that males were more likely to have Carabelli's trait expressed on teeth than females. The buccolingual diameter of Carabelli's trait teeth was larger than that of teeth without the trait. After adjusting for sex, age, and tooth size, the existence of the shovel trait decreased the likelihood of having Carabelli's trait which shows an significant effect.

Slash fandom, sociability, and sexual politics in Putin's Russia

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Sudha Rajagopalan

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Russian slash practices are much more than a protest subculture—a reductionist term that implies an unchanging isolation from other public realms. The political significance of slash practices on the Russian-language Internet, Runet, is more effectively understood by examining how slash and slashers travel from fannish to other public spaces to shape everyday political conversations about sexual politics in Russia.

Political legitimacy and approval of political protest and violence among children and adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Funderburk, C

1975-06-01

A question of general theoretical relevance for political socialization research concerns the role played by basic political orientations in structuring specific political opinions. This report investigates the relationship between beliefs in the legitimacy of political objects and approval of political protest and violence among a sample of children and adolescents. The setting for the research was a Florida town. Four aspects of political legitimacy are defined and measured. Measures of approval of political protest and political violence are distinguished conceptually and empirically. Beliefs in political legitimacy are shown to be of considerable importance in structuring opinions about political violence but have little impact on opinions about protest.

Meaning and significance of

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Ph D Student Roman Mihaela

2011-05-01

Full Text Available The concept of "public accountability" is a challenge for political science as a new concept in this area in full debate and developement ,both in theory and practice. This paper is a theoretical approach of displaying some definitions, relevant meanings and significance odf the concept in political science. The importance of this concept is that although originally it was used as a tool to improve effectiveness and eficiency of public governance, it has gradually become a purpose it itself. "Accountability" has become an image of good governance first in the United States of America then in the European Union.Nevertheless,the concept is vaguely defined and provides ambiguous images of good governance.This paper begins with the presentation of some general meanings of the concept as they emerge from specialized dictionaries and ancyclopaedies and continues with the meanings developed in political science. The concept of "public accontability" is rooted in economics and management literature,becoming increasingly relevant in today's political science both in theory and discourse as well as in practice in formulating and evaluating public policies. A first conclusin that emerges from, the analysis of the evolution of this term is that it requires a conceptual clarification in political science. A clear definition will then enable an appropriate model of proving the system of public accountability in formulating and assessing public policies, in order to implement a system of assessment and monitoring thereof.

The Quality of Accounting Earnings and Change in Political Power Map: Evidence from Indonesia

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Harymawan Iman

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the earnings quality of politically connected firms listed in Indonesian Stock Exchange during 2006-2010. This study compare two definition (Soeharto Dependency Index (SDI and Politically Exposed Person (PEP of political connections to capture the effect of the changes of political power map on the earnings quality of politically connected firms in Indonesia. The finding shows that the quality of accounting earnings of politically connected firms which were formerly closely related to President Soeharto in 1998 are not significantly different to other firms. Furthermore, when this study employ politically exposed person as a proxy of political connections, the findings shows that connected firms have significantly lower quality accounting earnings. Consistent with prior findings, this study shows that change in political power map in Indonesia affect the level of earnings quality of politically connected firms.

Political Budget Cycles

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aaskoven, Lasse; Lassen, David Dreyer

2017-01-01

The political budget cycle—how elections affect government fiscal policy—is one of the most studied subjects in political economy and political science. The key theoretical question is whether incumbent governments can time or structure public finances in ways that improve their chances of reelec......The political budget cycle—how elections affect government fiscal policy—is one of the most studied subjects in political economy and political science. The key theoretical question is whether incumbent governments can time or structure public finances in ways that improve their chances...... on political budget cycles have recently focused on conditions under which such cycles are likely to obtain. Much recent research focuses on subnational settings, allowing comparisons of governments in similar institutional environments, and a consensus on the presences of cycles in public finances...

Political Risk and Foreign Direct Investments in Kosovo

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MSc. Neshat Podvorica

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to present the importance of political risk and its impact on attracting investments, also to analyse policies made by the Kosovo institutions to reduce political risk and increase the FDIs. Attracting of the FDIs is complex because they depend on many factors, and one of the methods that measure political risk is the model used by the PRS Group that includes the flow of the economy through 12 components. Measuring political risk plays an important role in transitional countries, because these are countries that have problems in various fields and also the trust on by the investors is low. As a finding of this study is that Kosovo is estimated to have moderate political risk, and is close to joining the group of countries with low political risk. Challenges faced by Kosovo in reducing political risk are concentrated in several components, which are: socioeconomic, corruption and rule of law components. Kosovo has taken significant steps in improving the conditions for investment, government stability and positioning of the country facing internal and external conflicts.

Validation of the trait anxiety scale for state-trait anxiety inventory in suicide victims and living controls of Chinese rural youths.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jie; Gao, Qi

2012-01-01

This study evaluated the validation of STAI Trait-Anxiety Scale in suicide cases and community living controls in rural China. The participants were 392 suicides and 416 controls. Cronbach's Alpha was computed to evaluate the internal consistency. The Spearman Correlation Coefficient between Trait-Anxiety Scale and other instrument was calculated to evaluate the external validity, and the Exploratory Factor Analysis was used to evaluate the construct validity. The results showed the Cronbach's Alpha was .891 and .787 respectively in case and control groups. Most of the correlations between instruments were significant. We found 2 factors in cases and 3 factors in controls. We could cautiously infer that the Trait Anxiety Scale was an adequate tool to measure trait anxiety through proxy data in suicide victims and living controls in rural China.

Entanglements of Politics and Education in Sri Lanka

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Birgitte Refslund

2011-01-01

In this article I argue that in Sri Lanka the field of education has been a constant and significant element in the relationship between population and politicians, and it plays an important role in most people's experiences and understandings of politics, just as it affects their own political...

Piracy around Africa's west and east coasts: a comparative political ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study of politics, or political science, focuses on both the abstract theories and practical operation of government and politics. The phenomenon of piracy on the east and west coasts of Africa brings an important scholarly issue to the fore, namely the significant roles of non-state actors in national, regional and global ...

The issue of political behaviour in contemporary bio-political discourse

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A. Y. Kravets

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The main topic of the article is the political. During the study it has been found tested that political behaviour is the difficult question to analyse as in bio-politics there are a lot of discussions about genetics and social origins of political behaviour. An integration model of bio-political view of political behaviour has been suggested at the article, which includes both genetics (adaptation, domination and subordination and social factors (education, socialization, the evolution of consciousness. «Homo Politicus» is genetically related with another biological Wight and this definitely influences his behavior in social and political spheres. For instance, every human being as any social primates has genetic inclination to adaptation, domination, subjugation. In case with «Homo Sapiens» this has a form of genetic and social adaptation, political domination and subjugation. The inclination to the domination from one side and to the subjugation to another side is genetically «imprinted» into the nature of the «Homo Politicus». Particularly this two features lie is the basis of his political behavior. However, it is important to mention that, nevertheless the «Homo Sapiens» shares inclination of social primates for hierarchical social organization at the same time he has developed the following capabilities, which are unique in animal world, such as: language, culture and morale. Thus, ideas and values created by the human being have commenced changing of his behavior in social and political sphere. It is important to underline that in above mentioned dichotomy «genetic – culture/morale» such very core analysis element as human brain is absent. According to this, it is has to be mentioned that we keep in mind that the human brain participates in formation of every act or idea, what is fulfilled in the process of the political supervision of subject of management, as well as in the process of social action of management object

500-year periodicity of political instability in the history of ancient Egypt and China. Androgens at work?

Science.gov (United States)

Páles, Emil; Mikulecký, Miroslav

2008-08-01

DISCOVERY: A periodicity of 500 years has been discovered in the political history of ancient Egypt and documented by means of inferential statistics. Periods of chaos and waning of central power (some of them called "intermediate periods") recurred every 500 years. Input for the computation is the mean duration of ruling dynasties calculated per each half century. Fisher's periodogram analysis and Halberg's cosinor regression have been used. A highly significant (p god Nergal. The same periodicity has been described by the Chinese philosopher Mencius in the 3rd century B.C. and attributed to the will of tian (heaven). Egyptians elevated their war god Seth every 500 years and European kings assumed masculine nicknames. This recurring cultural pattern of aggressiveness and strife resembles overall traits of male psyche or mid-life crisis. We suggest to look for an unknown cosmophysical factor impacting the neuroendocrine system of man by raising the levels of androgens periodically. EXPLANATION HYPOTHESES: Sun impacts global weather on Earth, but there is no known significant periodicity of 500 years in solar activity. The Wheeler weather cycle almost fits the cycle of Egyptian political history. But his cold-dry periods seem to lag behind the periods of social destabilization and hence can not cause them. An alternative view (based on idealistic rather than materialistic presuppositions) is, that periodic long-term shifts of archetypes take place within the collective unconscious of mankind independently of external environment.

Race, intelligence and political efficacy among school children.

Science.gov (United States)

Carmines, E G; Baxter, D J

1986-01-01

This paper focuses on the difference in political efficacy found between black and white pre-adults, and assesses a specific explanation of this racial difference, one that combines elements of the intelligence explanation with aspects of the social-deprivation explanation as outlined by Paul Abramson. The explanation suggests that the racial difference in feelings of political effectiveness is due to intelligence which, in turn, is basically a function of the social and economic environment. Focusing on a study of 421 black and white students, it is shown that the predictions from the theory are empirically valid. Most importantly, it is demonstrated that once intelligence is controlled for, there is little or no relationship between race and political efficacy--that is, the black and white students are approximately equal in their levels of political effectiveness. Thus the study lends empirical support to this particular explanation of the racial difference in political efficacy, and suggests, more generally, that intelligence may play a significant role in the political socialization process.

Perceived Organisational Politics, Political Behaviour and Employee ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

facing both private and public sector organisations (Nidhi & Prerna, 2015;. Gotsis & Kortezi ... These studies suggest that organisational politics often interfere with normal ..... Rawls's (1971) theory of justice provides a theoretical foundation for the relationship between ..... Ethical considerations in organisational politics: ...

Exploring Women's Understanding of Politics, Political Contestation ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Exploring Women's Understanding of Politics, Political Contestation and Gender Transformation in the Caribbean. IDRC's Democratic Governance, Women's Rights and Gender Equality initiative is supporting a body of comparative research on whether and how democratic processes and institutions are responding to ...

Moral politics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rapp, Carolin; Traunmüller, Richard; Freitag, Markus

2014-01-01

This article combines the research strands of moral politics and political behavior by focusing on the effect of individual and contextual religiosity on individual vote decisions in popular initiatives and public referenda concerning morally charged issues. We rely on a total of 13 surveys with 1...... American research on moral politics, direct democracies, and the public role of religion....

Ethnic dental analysis of shovel and Carabelli's traits in a Chinese population.

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, J W; Tsai, P L; Hsiao, T H; Chang, H P; Lin, L M; Liu, K M; Yu, H S; Ferguson, D

1999-03-01

Chinese populations differ from Caucasoids by having a high prevalence of shovel trait and a low prevalence of Carabelli's trait. This study was conducted to investigate the association between the shovel and the Carabelli's traits in a Chinese population. The research design investigated a Chinese population that resides in southern Taiwan. The ancestors of this Chinese population migrated to Taiwan from mainland China, mainly from Fukien and Kwangtung. The effects of sex and age on Carabelli's trait were controlled in this investigation, as was the association between tooth size and Carabelli's trait. Results show that males were more likely to have Carabelli's trait expressed on teeth than females. The buccolingual diameter of Carabelli's trait teeth was larger than that of teeth without the trait. After controlling for sex, age, and tooth size, the existence of the shovel trait increased the likelihood of having Carabelli's trait by a factor of five and a half, which is a significant effect.

Analysis of personality traits as a risk factor in crash related trauma.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Vineet; Goyal, Rahul; Singh, Ajai; Sharma, Vineet; Srivastava, Rajeshwer Nath; Kumar, Santosh; Kumar, Ashish

2016-09-01

Due to increasing stress, individual personality traits are becoming a significant contributor to CRT (Crash Related Trauma). In the present study, we hypothesized that there will be no difference in personality characteristics of CRT patients and control subjects and there will be no association between trauma and personality characteristics of CRT patients. A total of 119 cases and 112 controls of age >18 years were selected as per criteria decided. After obtaining ethical clearance, patients presenting to the emergency orthopedic unit were included in the study. After primary management all enrolled subjects were assessed by ICD 10 module screening questionnaire and analyzed for nine personality traits, subject to written informed consent. Of all the cases enrolled 82.35% were males. Impulsive personality trait is found in 84.78% (39/46) cases. There were 46 motorcyclists out of 119 cases enrolled. Most of the personality traits showed a statistical significant association (p personality characteristics which accounted for 84.78% and 82.61% cases respectively. These traits showed a statistical significant association with CRT.

Union Underground: Political Issues. Comparing Political Experiences, Experimental Edition.

Science.gov (United States)

Gillespie, Judith A.; Lazarus, Stuart

This is the third unit to the second-semester "Comparing Political Experiences" course which focuses on a specific, controversial, political issue. The unit analyzes the concept of political maintenance by studying the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) between 1918 and 1975 and its fight to secure mine safety standards. A documentary…

Private traits and attributes are predictable from digital records of human behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Kosinski, Michal; Stillwell, David; Graepel, Thore

2013-04-09

We show that easily accessible digital records of behavior, Facebook Likes, can be used to automatically and accurately predict a range of highly sensitive personal attributes including: sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious and political views, personality traits, intelligence, happiness, use of addictive substances, parental separation, age, and gender. The analysis presented is based on a dataset of over 58,000 volunteers who provided their Facebook Likes, detailed demographic profiles, and the results of several psychometric tests. The proposed model uses dimensionality reduction for preprocessing the Likes data, which are then entered into logistic/linear regression to predict individual psychodemographic profiles from Likes. The model correctly discriminates between homosexual and heterosexual men in 88% of cases, African Americans and Caucasian Americans in 95% of cases, and between Democrat and Republican in 85% of cases. For the personality trait "Openness," prediction accuracy is close to the test-retest accuracy of a standard personality test. We give examples of associations between attributes and Likes and discuss implications for online personalization and privacy.

Ethnicization in Welfare State Politics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hjorth, Frederik Georg

, but also why it is more likely for some issues (such as European integration or crime) than others (such as welfare). The dissertation includes four stand-alone articles illustrating the influence of group identities in political cognition. Compared to the existing literature, they suggest...... is to a significant extent shaped by studies of American public opinion, where public opinion on some issues is widely considered 'racialized', i.e. in part based on attitudes toward racial outgroups. The dissertation examines whether by the same token, political attitudes in universal welfare states can become...... 'ethnicized', i.e. in part based on attitudes toward ethnic outgroups. The existing literature has tended to focus on the issue of welfare, where the expectation is that ethnic diversity will diminish public support. I outline a theoretical framework which explains why political attitudes can be ethnicized...

Political Culture and Covalent Bonding. A Conceptual Model of Political Culture Change

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Camelia Florela Voinea

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Our class of models aims at explaining the dynamics of political attitude change by means of the dynamic changes in values, beliefs, norms and knowledge with which it is associated. The model constructs a political culture perspective over the relationship between macro and micro levels of a society and polity. The model defines the bonding mechanism as a basic mechanism of the political culture change by taking inspiration from the valence bonding theory in Chemistry, which has inspired the elaboration of the mechanisms and processes underlying the political culture emergence and the political culture control over the relationship between macro-level political entities and the micro-level individual agents. The model introduces operational definitions of the individual agent in political culture terms. The simulation model is used for the study of emergent political culture change phenomena based on individual interactions (emergent or upward causation as well as the ways in which the macro entities and emergent phenomena influence in turn the behaviors of individual agents (downward causation. The model is used in the ongoing research concerning the quality of democracy and political participation of the citizens in the Eastern European societies after the Fall of Berlin Wall. It is particularly aimed at explaining the long-term effect of the communist legacy and of the communist polity concept and organization onto the political mentalities and behaviors of the citizens with respect to democratic institutions and political power. The model has major implications in political socialization, political involvement, political behavior, corruption and polity modeling.

Parenting and Politics: Exploring Early Moral Bases of Political Orientation

OpenAIRE

Janoff-Bulman, Ronnie; Carnes, Nate C.; Sheikh, Sana

2014-01-01

Based on Lakoff’s (2002) Strict Father and Nurturant Parent metaphors for political conservatism and liberalism respectively, two studies explored parenting styles, political ideology, and the moral orientations that might link the two. Restrictive parenting (by both mother and father) predicted political conservatism, and this path was mediated by a strong Social Order orientation (Study 1) reflecting, more broadly, an inhibition-based proscriptive morality (Study 2). Political liberalism wa...

Education and Political Development

Science.gov (United States)

Massialas, Byron G.

1977-01-01

Considers how education is related to politics with the focus on political socialization, political recruitment, i.e., the selection and training of political elites, and political integration or nation building of groups of people. (Author/RK)

Association between the ABO locus and hematological traits in Korean

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Hong Kyung-Won

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Recently, genome-wide association studies identified a pleiotropic gene locus, ABO, as being significantly associated with hematological traits. To confirm the effects of ABO on hematological traits, we examined the link between the ABO locus and hematological traits in Korean population-based cohorts. Results Six tagging SNPs for ABO were analyzed with regard to their effects on hematological traits [white blood cell count (WBC, red blood cell count (RBC, platelet (Plat, mean corpuscular volume (MCV, and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC]. Linear regression analyses were performed, controlling for recruitment center, sex, and age as covariates. Of the 6 tagging SNPs, 3 (rs2073823, rs8176720, and rs495828 and 3 (rs2073823, rs8176717, and rs687289 were significantly associated with RBC and MCV, respectively (Bonferroni correction p-value criteria r2s = 0.99. Of the remaining 3 SNPs (rs8176720, rs8176717 and rs687289, rs8176717 generated an independent signal with moderate p-value (= 0.045 when it was adjusted for by rs2073823 (the most significant SNP. We also identified a copy number variation (CNV that was tagged by the SNP rs8176717, the minor allele of which correlated with the deletion allele of CNV. Our haplotype analysis indicated that the haplotype that contained the CNV deletion was significantly associated with MCV (β ± se = 0.363 ± 0.118, p =2.09 × 10-3. Conclusions Our findings confirm that ABO is one of the genetic factors that are associated with hematological traits in the Korean population. This result is notable, because GWASs fail to evaluate the link between a CNV and phenotype traits.

Openness as a predictor of political orientation and conventional and unconventional political activism in Western and Eastern Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Roets, Arne; Cornelis, Ilse; Van Hiel, Alain

2014-01-01

This study provides a comprehensive investigation of the relationship between Openness and political orientation and activism in Europe. Analyses were conducted on the 4 waves of the European Social Survey, including large representative samples in up to 26 European countries (total N > 175,000). In line with previous studies, a robust, positive relationship between Openness and left-wing political orientation was obtained in Western Europe. However, in Eastern Europe, the relationship between Openness and political orientation was weaker, and reversed in 3 out of 4 waves. Moreover, Openness yielded significant positive relationships with unconventional activism and to a lesser degree with conventional activism. The magnitude of the relationship between Openness and activism was dependent on political orientation and region. Stronger associations between Openness and activism were found for those having a left-wing orientation in Western Europe, whereas in Eastern Europe, Openness was somewhat stronger related to activism for those having a right-wing orientation. In the discussion we elaborate on the role of the geopolitical context in the relationship between Openness and political variables.

Political extremism and violence in Denmark 1917-1940

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Chris Holmsted

. Regarding the interwar years, the Danish political parties and conditions had many structural and ideological similarities with the neighboring German Weimar Republic. But more important, the situation also differed significantly in terms of particular historical and actor-based conditions– e.g. in terms...... of generalization, but since the research-subject of political violence, in a Danish context, is largely absent and at best minimal, I have concluded that for the sake of the wider perspective, it is imperative to focus on the framework as a prerequisite for a more detailed study of political violence in Denmark....... Therefore, a crucial question is why did the political extremism and violence of the interwar years not manage to scuttle the Danish democracy? And second, why were both fascist and communist protagonists unsuccessful in subverting parliamentarism through a strategy of political violence? To gain...

How Does Psychoanalysis Help in Reconstructing Political Thought? An Exercise of Interpretation

OpenAIRE

Subramaniam Chandran

2011-01-01

The significance of psychology in studying politics is embedded in philosophical issues as well as behavioural pursuits. For the former is often associated with Sigmund Freud and his followers. The latter is inspired by the writings of Harold Lasswell. Political psychology or psychopolitics has its own impression on political thought ever since it deciphers the concept of human nature and political propaganda. More importantly, psychoanalysis views political thought as a ...

Personality Traits of Substance Users in Bangladesh

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Jotirmoy Roy

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Background: Drug taking behavior and drug dependence is a multi-factorial disorder. Personality is a very important determining factor of drug dependence. Objectives: To find out the possible relationship between personality traits and substance use disorders. Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional and case-control study conducted in the department of Psychiatry of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and Central Drug Addiction Treatment Center, Dhaka for a period of one year (January 2005 to December 2005. From five hundred respondents, 250 had the history of substance use disorders selected as case, and equal number were age, sex, habitat and economic background matched controls were taken. Personality traits of both cases and control were measured by applying Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Results: Mean ± SD psychoticism (8.42±3 vs 4.33±1.8, Neuroticism (11.89±2.3 vs 9.83±2 were significantly higher (P<0.01 in cases than controls. It was found that psychoticism was 2.3 times and neurticism was 1.7 times higher in substance users than that of controls. There were no significant differences of mean distribution of extroversion and lie scales among the cases & controls. This study also revealed that, there was no significant relationship between personality traits and different variables related to substance use except that psychoticism was significantly higher in those substance users who had have positive history of troubles with law than those having no history of trouble with law (8.82±3.2 & 7.95±2.7 respectively. Conclusion: Personality traits may have an influence on persons with substance use disorder which detoriates quality of life. Key words: Drug dependence; Personality; Psychoticism; Neuroticism; Extraversion; Lie scale. DOI: 10.3329/bsmmuj.v3i2.7056BSMMU J 2010; 3(2: 76-81

Celebrity politics: the politics of late modernity?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marsh, D.; t Hart, P.; Tindall, K.

2010-01-01

The academic literature on celebrity politics is rarely systematic; more often it is superficial and anecdotal. In addition, most of the literature focuses either upon classifying different types/categories of celebrity politicians and their roles in politics, or upon the question of whether the

Surface morphology of amygdala is associated with trait anxiety.

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Shuyu Li

Full Text Available Previous neuroimaging studies have suggested a role of amygdala in trait anxiety level, in which amygdala was typically treated as a whole. To date, it remains unknown whether the morphology of specific subregions of amygdala are associated with trait anxiety. Here, we employed a shape analysis approach to locate the association between its morphology and trait anxiety on the surface of amygdala. 24 healthy young participants were included. The boundary of amygdala for each subject was first manually outlined using high-resolution magnetic resonance (MR image, followed by 3D surface reconstruction and parameterization using spherical harmonic description. Two point-wise metrics, direct displacement between the individual surface and atlas surface and its normal projection, were used to quantify the surface morphology of amygdala. Statistical analysis revealed significant correlations between the two surface metrics and trait anxiety levels, which were located around the lateral and central nucleus of right amygdala. Our results provided localized information for the association between amygdala and trait anxiety, and suggested a central role of the lateral and central nucleus of right amygdala on trait anxiety.

Hypomanic personality traits in a community sample of adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Klein, D N; Lewinsohn, P M; Seeley, J R

1996-06-05

The distribution and correlates of hypomanic personality traits were examined in a representative sample of 1709 adolescents. Hypomanic traits were assessed with an abbreviated version of Eckblad and Chapman's (1986) Hypomanic Personality Scale. Hypomanic traits were normally distributed and were slightly but significantly higher among females. Test-retest stability over a mean 14-month interval was 0.54. High scores were associated with elevated lifetime rates of mood, disruptive behavior and substance use disorders. Among subjects with no history of mood disorder, hypomanic traits were associated with a broad range of indices of psychosocial dysfunction, both concurrently and at 1-year follow-up. In addition, hypomanic personality traits predicted increased levels of impairment in a number of areas, including depressive and internalizing symptomatology, over the course of the follow-up. Finally, among subjects with a past history of major depression, hypomanic traits were associated with a higher level of depression at the initial assessment, greater symptomatology and impairment during their worst episode, and higher rates of attempted suicide, comorbid disruptive behavior disorders and recurrent major depressive episodes.

A trauma-like model of political extremism: psycho-political fault lines in Israel.

Science.gov (United States)

Laor, Nathaniel; Yanay-Shani, Alma; Wolmer, Leo; Khoury, Oula

2010-10-01

This study examines a trauma-like model of potentially violent political extremism among Jewish Israelis. We study the psychosocial characteristics of political extremists that may lie at the root of sociopolitical instability and assess personal (gender, stressful life events, Holocaust family background, and political activism) and psychological parameters (self- and political transcendence, perceived political threats, in/out-group identification ratio) that may predict readiness to engage in destructive political behavior. We examine the ideological zeal of various political groups, the relationship between the latter and perceived political threats, and the predictors of extreme political activism. Results showed that the extreme political poles displayed high level of ideological and morbid transcendence. Right extremists displayed higher perceived threats to physical existence and national identity. Left extremists scored highest on perceived moral integrity threat. Higher perceived threats to national identity and moral integrity, risk, and self-transcendence statistically explain morbid transcendence. When fear conjures up extremely skewed sociopolitical identifications across political boundaries, morbid transcendence may manifest itself in destructive political activity. © 2010 Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease.

Spiritual Politics

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Frédéric Rambeau

2015-01-01

Full Text Available According to Foucault, the uprising of the Iranian people in the seventies reveals how much the political force of Islam is due precisely to the fact that it is not principally located in the field of politics, but in that of ethics. Religion (Shiite Islam appears as the guarantee of real change in the very mode of existence. This spiritual politics is marginalized by Marxism, where it is understood as a discontinuity in relation to proper politics, given that the latter is necessarily linked to a strategic rationalization. By indicating, at this juncture of what is intolerable, the living source and the critical impulse of the Foucauldian ethics, this spiritual politics also leads to recognize in the concept of “subjectivation” a dimension that might escape the circle of freedom as determined by a total immanence to power. This conceptual possibility is highly present in the aporias of the Foucauldian concept of the “relation to oneself”, both as a first condition of governmentality and the ultimate point of resistance against any governmentality. It thus reveals the difficulties in relating political to ethical subjectivation.

About green political parties

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Orlović Slobodan P.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In this work the author refers to some legal and political questions in connection with green political parties. Those questions cover: the ideology of green political parties, their number and influence, both in general and in Serbia. The first part of work is generally speaking about political parties - their definition, ideology, role and action. Main thesis in this work is that green political parties, by their appearance, were something new on the political scene. But quickly, because of objective and subjective reasons, they were changing original ideas and were beginning to resemble to all other political parties. In this way, they lost their vanguard and political alternativeness.

Genome-wide Association Study to Identify Quantitative Trait Loci for Meat and Carcass Quality Traits in Berkshire

Science.gov (United States)

Iqbal, Asif; Kim, You-Sam; Kang, Jun-Mo; Lee, Yun-Mi; Rai, Rajani; Jung, Jong-Hyun; Oh, Dong-Yup; Nam, Ki-Chang; Lee, Hak-Kyo; Kim, Jong-Joo

2015-01-01

Meat and carcass quality attributes are of crucial importance influencing consumer preference and profitability in the pork industry. A set of 400 Berkshire pigs were collected from Dasan breeding farm, Namwon, Chonbuk province, Korea that were born between 2012 and 2013. To perform genome wide association studies (GWAS), eleven meat and carcass quality traits were considered, including carcass weight, backfat thickness, pH value after 24 hours (pH24), Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage lightness in meat color (CIE L), redness in meat color (CIE a), yellowness in meat color (CIE b), filtering, drip loss, heat loss, shear force and marbling score. All of the 400 animals were genotyped with the Porcine 62K SNP BeadChips (Illumina Inc., USA). A SAS general linear model procedure (SAS version 9.2) was used to pre-adjust the animal phenotypes before GWAS with sire and sex effects as fixed effects and slaughter age as a covariate. After fitting the fixed and covariate factors in the model, the residuals of the phenotype regressed on additive effects of each single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) under a linear regression model (PLINK version 1.07). The significant SNPs after permutation testing at a chromosome-wise level were subjected to stepwise regression analysis to determine the best set of SNP markers. A total of 55 significant (p<0.05) SNPs or quantitative trait loci (QTL) were detected on various chromosomes. The QTLs explained from 5.06% to 8.28% of the total phenotypic variation of the traits. Some QTLs with pleiotropic effect were also identified. A pair of significant QTL for pH24 was also found to affect both CIE L and drip loss percentage. The significant QTL after characterization of the functional candidate genes on the QTL or around the QTL region may be effectively and efficiently used in marker assisted selection to achieve enhanced genetic improvement of the trait considered. PMID:26580276

Genome-wide Association Study to Identify Quantitative Trait Loci for Meat and Carcass Quality Traits in Berkshire

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asif Iqbal

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Meat and carcass quality attributes are of crucial importance influencing consumer preference and profitability in the pork industry. A set of 400 Berkshire pigs were collected from Dasan breeding farm, Namwon, Chonbuk province, Korea that were born between 2012 and 2013. To perform genome wide association studies (GWAS, eleven meat and carcass quality traits were considered, including carcass weight, backfat thickness, pH value after 24 hours (pH24, Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage lightness in meat color (CIE L, redness in meat color (CIE a, yellowness in meat color (CIE b, filtering, drip loss, heat loss, shear force and marbling score. All of the 400 animals were genotyped with the Porcine 62K SNP BeadChips (Illumina Inc., USA. A SAS general linear model procedure (SAS version 9.2 was used to pre-adjust the animal phenotypes before GWAS with sire and sex effects as fixed effects and slaughter age as a covariate. After fitting the fixed and covariate factors in the model, the residuals of the phenotype regressed on additive effects of each single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP under a linear regression model (PLINK version 1.07. The significant SNPs after permutation testing at a chromosome-wise level were subjected to stepwise regression analysis to determine the best set of SNP markers. A total of 55 significant (p<0.05 SNPs or quantitative trait loci (QTL were detected on various chromosomes. The QTLs explained from 5.06% to 8.28% of the total phenotypic variation of the traits. Some QTLs with pleiotropic effect were also identified. A pair of significant QTL for pH24 was also found to affect both CIE L and drip loss percentage. The significant QTL after characterization of the functional candidate genes on the QTL or around the QTL region may be effectively and efficiently used in marker assisted selection to achieve enhanced genetic improvement of the trait considered.

Genetic analysis of relative traits for a drought-sensitive mutant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gao Kangning; Wang Huaqi

2009-01-01

A drought-sensitive mutant (M616), selected from Handao 616 (HD616) by 60 Co γ-irradiation at 200Gy, was used. Some morphological and yield related traits of M166 and HD616 related to drought resistance were investigated. We further developed F 1 and F 2 reciprocal hybrid combinations derived from the crosses between M616 and HD616, between M616 and IRAT109, respectively, and genetic analysis of 3 traits including plant height, culm width of main stem and seed setting rate on main panicle were camed out. The results showed that M616 showed obviously sensitive to drought stress. Analysis of variance for three traits in upland and paddy between F 1 reciprocal hybrid combinations showed that each trait had no significant difference, and indicated that there were no differences of cytoplasmic hereditary effect. In addition, 3 traits of F 2 populations, were found that the frequency distributions of culm width showed normal distribution, indicating that culm width was polygenic trait, and the frequency distribution of plant height and seed setting rate did not show normal distribution, indicating that the two traits were qualitative-quantitative traits. Genetic analysis of relative traits for a drought-sensitive mutant of upland rice was a basic work for the gene location and cloning. (authors)

The Political Socialization of Youth: Exploring the Influence of School Experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Banks, Michael H.; Roker, Debra

1994-01-01

Examined possible role of educational experience in political socialization by comparing political attitudes of girls (n=127) from similar family backgrounds attending either private or state schools. Found significant differences in political attitudes between two samples. Results led to formation of model of role of school in political…

Comparing Political Journalism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Comparing Political Journalism is a systematic, in-depth study of the factors that shape and influence political news coverage today. Using techniques drawn from the growing field of comparative political communication, an international group of contributors analyse political news content drawn...... Comparing Political Journalism offers an unparalleled scope in assessing the implications for the ongoing transformation of Western media systems, and addresses core concepts of central importance to students and scholars of political communication world-wide....... from newspapers, television news, and news websites from 16 countries, to assess what kinds of media systems are most conducive to producing quality journalism. Underpinned by key conceptual themes, such as the role that the media are expected to play in democracies and quality of coverage...

Prosocial Personality Traits Differentially Predict Egalitarianism, Generosity, and Reciprocity in Economic Games.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Kun; Ferguson, Eamonn; Smillie, Luke D

2016-01-01

Recent research has highlighted the role of prosocial personality traits-agreeableness and honesty-humility-in egalitarian distributions of wealth in the dictator game. Expanding on these findings, we ran two studies to examine individual differences in two other forms of prosociality-generosity and reciprocity-with respect to two major models of personality, the Big Five and the HEXACO. Participants (combined N = 560) completed a series of economic games in which allocations in the dictator game were compared with those in the generosity game, a non-constant-sum wealth distribution task where proposers with fixed payoffs selected the size of their partner's payoff ("generosity"). We further examined positive and negative reciprocity by manipulating a partner's previous move ("reciprocity"). Results showed clear evidence of both generosity and positive reciprocity in social preferences, with allocations to a partner greater in the generosity game than in the dictator game, and greater still when a player had been previously assisted by their partner. There was also a consistent interaction with gender, whereby men were more generous when this was costless and women were more egalitarian overall. Furthermore, these distinct forms of prosociality were differentially predicted by personality traits, in line with the core features of these traits and the theoretical distinctions between them. HEXACO honesty-humility predicted dictator, but not generosity allocations, while traits capturing tendencies toward irritability and anger predicted lower generosity, but not dictator allocations. In contrast, the politeness-but not compassion-aspect of Big Five agreeableness was uniquely and broadly associated with prosociality across all games. These findings support the discriminant validity between related prosocial constructs, and have important implications for understanding the motives and mechanisms taking place within economic games.

Genetic Diversity of Upland Rice Germplasm in Malaysia Based on Quantitative Traits

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M. Sohrabi

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Genetic diversity is prerequisite for any crop improvement program as it helps in the development of superior recombinants. Fifty Malaysian upland rice accessions were evaluated for 12 growth traits, yield and yield components. All of the traits were significant and highly significant among the accessions. The higher magnitudes of genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation were recorded for flag leaf length-to-width ratio, spikelet fertility, and days to flowering. High heritability along with high genetic advance was registered for yield of plant, days to flowering, and flag leaf length-to-width ratio suggesting preponderance of additive gene action in the gene expression of these characters. Plant height showed highly significant positive correlation with most of the traits. According to UPGMA cluster analysis all accessions were clustered into six groups. Twelve morphological traits provided around 77% of total variation among the accessions.

Usage of marketing in politics

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Marić Ivana

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Multi-party political system led to competition between political parties which caused the need for marketing in politics that improves political reputation. Politics, based on rich experience of political practice, used existing, developed methods and techniques of commercial marketing. Political marketing openly admits that politics and politicians are simply goods that are being sold on a political market. Political marketing is a whole way of operation by political parties which ask these questions: how do the voters choose; what affects their preference and how that preference can be influenced. Usage of political marketing in Bosnia and Herzegovina is still not on a satisfactory level but the knowledge about the importance of political marketing is increasing.

Phylogenetic perspectives on reef fish functional traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Floeter, Sergio R; Bender, Mariana G; Siqueira, Alexandre C; Cowman, Peter F

2018-02-01

Functional traits have been fundamental to the evolution and diversification of entire fish lineages on coral reefs. Yet their relationship with the processes promoting speciation, extinction and the filtering of local species pools remains unclear. We review the current literature exploring the evolution of diet, body size, water column use and geographic range size in reef-associated fishes. Using published and new data, we mapped functional traits on to published phylogenetic trees to uncover evolutionary patterns that have led to the current functional diversity of fishes on coral reefs. When examining reconstructed patterns for diet and feeding mode, we found examples of independent transitions to planktivory across different reef fish families. Such transitions and associated morphological alterations may represent cases in which ecological opportunity for the exploitation of different resources drives speciation and adaptation. In terms of body size, reconstructions showed that both large and small sizes appear multiple times within clades of mid-sized fishes and that extreme body sizes have arisen mostly in the last 10 million years (Myr). The reconstruction of range size revealed many cases of disparate range sizes among sister species. Such range size disparity highlights potential vicariant processes through isolation in peripheral locations. When accounting for peripheral speciation processes in sister pairs, we found a significant relationship between labrid range size and lineage age. The diversity and evolution of traits within lineages is influenced by trait-environment interactions as well as by species and trait-trait interactions, where the presence of a given trait may trigger the development of related traits or behaviours. Our effort to assess the evolution of functional diversity across reef fish clades adds to the burgeoning research focusing on the evolutionary and ecological roles of functional traits. We argue that the combination of a

Carcass traits of four rabbit genotypes

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Ajda Kermauner

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Seventy-three rabbits of four genotypes (A - SIKA maternal line; C - SIKA sire line; AxC - hybrids between line A and C; AxCal - crossbreds between line A and the Californian breed were used to evaluate the effect of genotype on carcass traits. Rabbits were weaned at 35 days and slaughtered at 93 days of age. Rabbits were fed standard feed mixture ad libitum. The highest live weight at slaughter and dressing percentage was achieved by line C, and the lowest in line A. Hybrids between line A and C exhibited slightly worse carcass traits than rabbits in line C, but the differences were not statistically significant. The Californian breed gave worse results than crossbreeding with line C, though in most cases the differences between AxC and AxCal were not significant. The differences between genotypes in hind leg tissue composition, pH and meat colour were not statistically significant.

Correlations of hopelessness with motivation and personality traits among Japanese school children.

Science.gov (United States)

Shiomi, K

1995-06-01

Correlations for 628 children in Grades 2, 4, 5, and 6 of scores on hopelessness with measures of motivation for learning and personality traits were investigated. Hopelessness scores significantly correlated with lower scores on motivation. Also, hopelessness scores were significantly correlated with scores on personality traits of schizothymia, nervousness, and self-uncertainty.

Public sphere of politics: between classical grounds and new political actuality

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O. A. Tretyak

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The public sphere of politics as a theoretical concept of modern political science has been discussed in the article. The reasons of the increasing interest to the public sphere is a dominating subject. Studied The phenomenon of the public sphere being a tool of theoretical and methodological definition of the political world’s boundaries has been studied. The value aspects of media activity in the contemporary politics has been investigated. An attempt has been made to establish the potential of political publicity for the qualitative understanding of participatory democracy. The potential of the public sphere in the development of civil society and social capital has been described. The distinction between the public sphere of politics and political communication in the specific conditions of modern transformational societies has been reasonably grounded. The importance of the presence of state power in all spheres of life of the transformational society has been stressed. Such transformation has not been stoped after the liberal market reforms, which had to ensure the existence of a formal representative democracy. The influence of the elite and expert groups being the reason of the absence of really functioning future civil society has been considered. The features of the formation of civil and social activities as a precondition for the democratic political class’ functioning have been studied. The specifics of public political activity being the prerogative of the competent entities’ political broadcasting have been analyzed. The gradual formation of cyber public sphere and its political branch segment has been revealed. Thorough attention has been given to the processes of the public sphere’s politicization which are usual for primarily authoritarian and closed societies.

Political uncertainty and firm risk in China

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Danglun Luo

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The political uncertainty surrounded by the turnover of government officials has a major impact on local economies and local firms. This paper investigates the relationship between the turnover of prefecture-city officials and the inherent risk faced by local firms in China. Using data from 1999 to 2012, we find that prefecture-city official turnovers significantly increased firm risk. Our results show that the political risk was mitigated when new prefecture-city officials were well connected with their provincial leaders. In addition, the impact of political uncertainty was more pronounced for regulated firms and firms residing in provinces with low market openness.

Business success and psychological traits of housing developers

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Mastura Jaafar

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Although the issues on entrepreneurship in the real estate industry are disparaging and have received little interest from global researchers, the significant roles played by the industry players warrant further investigation. The personal traits of the owners/managers are deemed to be the key factors to the business success of housing development firms. This paper examined the main determinants of successful business in the housing development sector under the lens of psychological traits of the owners/managers. To identify the success factors of housing development firms, interviews were conducted on 10 housing developers in Peninsular Malaysia. The study shows the significant psychological traits that distinguish the business success of housing developers compared with those in the existing literature. These factors are (1 high confidence and ambition, (2 vision and foresight, (3 industriousness, (4 perseverance and (5 integrity. As housing development is a risky industry, developers can use these findings as a guideline in managing their business toward superior performance.

Clinicians' Judgments of the Clinical Utility of Personality Disorder Trait Descriptions.

Science.gov (United States)

Crego, Cristina; Sleep, Chelsea E; Widiger, Thomas A

2016-01-01

Proposed for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5) was a five-domain, 25-dimensional trait model that would have constituted a significant part of the diagnostic criteria for each personality disorder. A primary concern with respect to the proposal was that clinicians might find such an approach to be unacceptable. This study provides results from three independent data collections that compared clinicians' clinical utility ratings for each iteration of the DSM-5 dimensional trait assignments, along with an alternative list of traits derived from the Five Factor Form (FFF). The clinicians considered the final trait assignments that were posted for the avoidant, narcissistic, obsessive-compulsive, and schizoid personality disorders to be significantly less acceptable than the original assignments. They also considered the FFF trait assignments to be preferable to the DSM-5 final postings with respect to the avoidant, narcissistic, obsessive-compulsive, dependent, and histrionic personality disorders. The implications of these results for future editions of the diagnostic manual are discussed.

Turkish Political Market and the Perception of Political Parties

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Cihat Polat

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This study attempts to describe the Turkish political market and determine where and how Turkish political parties are perceived by voters. The study uses a two-dimensional map to determine the voter perceptions of the parties in the Turkish political market based on a survey questionnaire applied to 400 young voters. It also investigates whether there are any major differences in the perception of parties in the political space based on voter ideologies. The study finds that young voters have clear perceptions of the positions of Turkish parties. It also finds that voter perceptions of parties vary based on voters’ ideological positions.

Political Campaigns

OpenAIRE

Lilleker, Darren

2017-01-01

Political campaigns are orchestrated attempts by political organizations to garner public support through persuasive communication in order to influence public policy in their favor. This broad definition encapsulates all forms of campaigns from those of neighborhood organizations seeking to influence local politicians to the campaigns of political parties and candidates who seek election to office in order to shape policy themselves. In pluralist democracies, campaigns are crucial for repres...

GlobAl Distribution of GEnetic Traits (GADGET) web server: polygenic trait scores worldwide.

Science.gov (United States)

Chande, Aroon T; Wang, Lu; Rishishwar, Lavanya; Conley, Andrew B; Norris, Emily T; Valderrama-Aguirre, Augusto; Jordan, I King

2018-05-18

Human populations from around the world show striking phenotypic variation across a wide variety of traits. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are used to uncover genetic variants that influence the expression of heritable human traits; accordingly, population-specific distributions of GWAS-implicated variants may shed light on the genetic basis of human phenotypic diversity. With this in mind, we developed the GlobAl Distribution of GEnetic Traits web server (GADGET http://gadget.biosci.gatech.edu). The GADGET web server provides users with a dynamic visual platform for exploring the relationship between worldwide genetic diversity and the genetic architecture underlying numerous human phenotypes. GADGET integrates trait-implicated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from GWAS, with population genetic data from the 1000 Genomes Project, to calculate genome-wide polygenic trait scores (PTS) for 818 phenotypes in 2504 individual genomes. Population-specific distributions of PTS are shown for 26 human populations across 5 continental population groups, with traits ordered based on the extent of variation observed among populations. Users of GADGET can also upload custom trait SNP sets to visualize global PTS distributions for their own traits of interest.

Retrospectively evaluated preinjury personality traits influence postconcussion symptoms.

Science.gov (United States)

Yuen, Kit-Man; Tsai, Yi-Hsin; Lin, Wei-Chi; Yang, Chi-Cheng; Huang, Sheng-Jean

2016-01-01

Postconcussion symptoms (PCS) are not uncommon following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Personality traits have always been viewed as one of the most important explanations for persistent postconcussion symptoms (PPCS). Unfortunately, studies on the association between preinjury personality traits and the PPCS are still limited. This study thus aimed to examine the relationship between the preinjury personality and PCS in patients with mTBI. A total of 106 participants including 53 healthy participants were recruited. All participants complete the modified Checklist of Postconcussion Symptoms and the Health, Personality, & Habit Scale. Participants were evaluated within 4 weeks and at 4 months, respectively, after injury. The results showed patients reported significantly more PCS than healthy participants did within 4 weeks postinjury. A significant positive association between PCS and retrospectively evaluated preinjury personality was found. Specifically, patients who reported that their preinjury personality was depressive or anxious-related presented more PCS. This study might be the first to directly demonstrate that preinjury personality traits are closely linked to PCS reporting in patients with mTBI. Importantly, PCS reporting might be associated with different personality traits at different periods after injuries, and thus, a careful evaluation for personality characteristics is merited after mTBI.

Integration of vessel traits, wood density, and height in angiosperm shrubs and trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez-Cabrera, Hugo I; Schenk, H Jochen; Cevallos-Ferriz, Sergio R S; Jones, Cynthia S

2011-05-01

Trees and shrubs tend to occupy different niches within and across ecosystems; therefore, traits related to their resource use and life history are expected to differ. Here we analyzed how growth form is related to variation in integration among vessel traits, wood density, and height. We also considered the ecological and evolutionary consequences of such differences. In a sample of 200 woody plant species (65 shrubs and 135 trees) from Argentina, Mexico, and the United States, standardized major axis (SMA) regression, correlation analyses, and ANOVA were used to determine whether relationships among traits differed between growth forms. The influence of phylogenetic relationships was examined with a phylogenetic ANOVA and phylogenetically independent contrasts (PICs). A principal component analysis was conducted to determine whether trees and shrubs occupy different portions of multivariate trait space. Wood density did not differ between shrubs and trees, but there were significant differences in vessel diameter, vessel density, theoretical conductivity, and as expected, height. In addition, relationships between vessel traits and wood density differed between growth forms. Trees showed coordination among vessel traits, wood density, and height, but in shrubs, wood density and vessel traits were independent. These results hold when phylogenetic relationships were considered. In the multivariate analyses, these differences translated as significantly different positions in multivariate trait space occupied by shrubs and trees. Differences in trait integration between growth forms suggest that evolution of growth form in some lineages might be associated with the degree of trait interrelation.

Relation between flower head traits and florivory in Asteraceae: a phylogenetically controlled approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Oguro, Michio; Sakai, Satoki

2015-03-01

• While much research has examined the relation between leaf traits and herbivory, very little is known about the interaction between floral traits, particularly biochemical traits, and florivory. We investigated patterns between floral traits and florivory across multiple species using phylogenetic comparative approaches to enhance our understanding of the evolution of plant-florivore interactions.• The relation between the intensity of florivory and five biochemical traits (concentrations of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, water, and total phenolics) and two morphological traits (diameter and number of flower heads) were investigated in wild individuals of 18 native species of Asteraceae. The phylogenetic signals in the morphological traits and intensity of florivory were also tested.• We found that species with higher nitrogen, water, and total phenolics and lower phosphorus concentrations in the flower heads and species with a large number and diameter of flower heads tended to be attacked by florivores. In addition, we found significant phylogenetic signals in florivory and morphological traits.• Our results clearly show that biochemical traits also play important roles in plant-florivore interactions, as previously shown in plant-leaf herbivore interactions. The positive relationship between florivory and total phenolics implies that phenolic compounds in flower heads may not act as a defense in the species. In addition, the observed pattern of signals in florivory might not be solely explained by the signals of the measured traits and other plant traits may also play significant roles in plant-florivore interaction in these species. © 2015 Botanical Society of America, Inc.

Functional traits and root morphology of alpine plants.

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Pohl, Mandy; Stroude, Raphaël; Buttler, Alexandre; Rixen, Christian

2011-09-01

Vegetation has long been recognized to protect the soil from erosion. Understanding species differences in root morphology and functional traits is an important step to assess which species and species mixtures may provide erosion control. Furthermore, extending classification of plant functional types towards root traits may be a useful procedure in understanding important root functions. In this study, pioneer data on traits of alpine plant species, i.e. plant height and shoot biomass, root depth, horizontal root spreading, root length, diameter, tensile strength, plant age and root biomass, from a disturbed site in the Swiss Alps are presented. The applicability of three classifications of plant functional types (PFTs), i.e. life form, growth form and root type, was examined for above- and below-ground plant traits. Plant traits differed considerably among species even of the same life form, e.g. in the case of total root length by more than two orders of magnitude. Within the same root diameter, species differed significantly in tensile strength: some species (Geum reptans and Luzula spicata) had roots more than twice as strong as those of other species. Species of different life forms provided different root functions (e.g. root depth and horizontal root spreading) that may be important for soil physical processes. All classifications of PFTs were helpful to categorize plant traits; however, the PFTs according to root type explained total root length far better than the other PFTs. The results of the study illustrate the remarkable differences between root traits of alpine plants, some of which cannot be assessed from simple morphological inspection, e.g. tensile strength. PFT classification based on root traits seems useful to categorize plant traits, even though some patterns are better explained at the individual species level.

Genome-wide association study on reproductive traits in Jinghai Yellow Chicken.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, G X; Fan, Q C; Wang, J Y; Zhang, T; Xue, Q; Shi, H Q

2015-12-01

To identify molecular markers and candidate genes associated with reproductive traits, a genome-wide analysis was performed in Jinghai Yellow Chickens to analyze body weight at first oviposition (BWF), age at first oviposition (AFE), weight of the egg at first oviposition (FEW), egg weight at the age of 300 days (EW300), number of eggs produced by 300 days of age (EN300), egg hatchability (HA) and multiple selection index for egg production (MSI). The results showed that seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were associated with reproductive traits (Preproductive traits were identified (Preproductive traits will greatly advance the understanding of the genetic basis and molecular mechanisms underlying reproductive traits and may have practical significance in breeding programs for the improvements of reproductive traits in the Jinghai Yellow Chicken. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Destructiveness in Political Discourse

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Яна Александровна Волкова

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Destructiveness is among the fundamental discourse categories that play a significant role in the organization of communicative interaction and define the pragmatics of discourse; its study helps to understand some mechanisms and principles of communication, identify strategies and tactics used by a destructive communicative personality. The relevance of this study is determined by the increasing aggressiveness in various types of discourse, and, accordingly, by the need to extend the knowledge of destructive behavior of a communicative personality. The study is based on the theory of discourse-analysis and theory of destructiveness (Z. Harris, T. van Dijk, A. Buss, E. Fromm, D. Ponton, K. Hacker, R. Wodak. N. Arutyunova, V. Karasik, M. Makarov, E. Sheigal et al. Developing the theory of destructiveness and relying on Erich Fromm’s research (1973, we specify the concept of “destructiveness” in relation to the political discourse and compare it with the related concept of aggressiveness. The paper analyses the category of destructiveness in modern US political discourse, using excerpts from the speeches of the candidates for presidency of 2016. Particular attention is paid to the dominant destructive intention - to harm the reputation of the opponent and reduce his political chances, as well as to the functions of verbal aggression: on the one hand - to discredit the opponent, bring accusations, on the other hand - to poison the audience mind against him/her and arouse the feeling of danger posed by a political opponent. The analysis of verbal and nonverbal means of destructiveness in the US political discourse is carried out. The article concludes that abusive remarks of politicians do not result from spontaneous emotional outburst, but from an elaborated destructive strategy where the agonistic nature of political discourse stipulates the use of instrumental aggression (Buss, 1971 for the sake of the conquest of power, lowering the

The genetic architecture of growth and fillet traits in farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar).

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Tsai, Hsin Yuan; Hamilton, Alastair; Guy, Derrick R; Tinch, Alan E; Bishop, Stephen C; Houston, Ross D

2015-05-19

Performance and quality traits such as harvest weight, fillet weight and flesh color are of economic importance to the Atlantic salmon aquaculture industry. The genetic factors underlying these traits are of scientific and commercial interest. However, such traits are typically polygenic in nature, with the number and size of QTL likely to vary between studies and populations. The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic basis of several growth and fillet traits measured at harvest in a large farmed salmon population by using SNP markers. Due to the marked heterochiasmy in salmonids, an efficient two-stage mapping approach was applied whereby QTL were detected using a sire-based linkage analysis, a sparse SNP marker map and exploiting low rates of recombination, while a subsequent dam-based analysis focused on the significant chromosomes with a denser map to confirm QTL and estimate their position. The harvest traits all showed significant heritability, ranging from 0.05 for fillet yield up to 0.53 for the weight traits. In the sire-based analysis, 1695 offspring with trait records and their 20 sires were successfully genotyped for the SNPs on the sparse map. Chromosomes 13, 18, 19 and 20 were shown to harbor genome-wide significant QTL affecting several growth-related traits. The QTL on chr. 13, 18 and 20 were detected in the dam-based analysis using 512 offspring from 10 dams and explained approximately 6-7 % of the within-family variation in these traits. We have detected several QTL affecting economically important complex traits in a commercial salmon population. Overall, the results suggest that the traits are relatively polygenic and that QTL tend to be pleiotropic (affecting the weight of several components of the harvested fish). Comparison of QTL regions across studies suggests that harvest trait QTL tend to be relatively population-specific. Therefore, the application of marker or genomic selection for improvement in these traits is likely to be

Political determinants of progress in the MDGs in Sub-Saharan Africa

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Atti, Emma; Gulis, Gabriel

2017-01-01

suggest a significant main effect of eco-political and geo-political groups on some of the health variables. Political conflict as measured by FSI and political participation as measured by CLS were stronger predictors of slow progress in reducing under-five mortality rates and maternal mortality ratios......Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) lagged furthest behind in achieving targets for the millennium development goals (MDG). We investigate the hypothesis that its slow progress is influenced by political factors. Longitudinal data on three health MDG indicators: under-five mortality, maternal mortality....... Our findings highlight the need for further research on political determinants of mortality in SSA. Cohesive effort should focus on strengthening countries' political, economic and social capacities in order to achieve sustainable goals beyond 2015....

Practicing Politics: Female Political Scientists as Candidates for Elective Office

Science.gov (United States)

Burrell, Barbara

2012-01-01

In 2007, University of Oklahoma political science professor Cindy Simon Rosenthal was elected mayor of Norman, Oklahoma, after having served as a member of its city council. Was her activity unique within the political science profession among female political scientists? Her election stimulated the curiosity of some of us in the…

Child maltreatment and risk behaviors: The roles of callous/unemotional traits and conscientiousness.

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Carlson, Matthew; Oshri, Assaf; Kwon, Josephine

2015-12-01

Child maltreatment poses significant risk to the development of callous/unemotional traits as well as risk behaviors such as engaging in violence, having sex with strangers, and binge drinking. In the current study, the indirect pathway from child maltreatment to risk behaviors was examined via callous/unemotional traits; whereas the conscientious personality trait was tested as a moderator of this indirect pathway. Young adults and parents (N=361; Mage=19.14, SD=1.44) completed questionnaires on child maltreatment histories, callousness/unemotional traits, personality characteristics, and risk behaviors. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the hypothesized direct, indirect and conditional indirect effects. Findings showed indirect links between the child maltreatment latent factor and physical fighting, having sex with strangers, and binge drinking via callous/unemotional traits. Furthermore, the conscientiousness personality type significantly buffered the connection between callous/unemotional traits and physical fighting, supporting a conditional indirect effects. Callous/unemotional traits are important factors in the underlying mechanism between child maltreatment and risk behaviors among young adults, and conscientiousness serves as a protective factor against violence. Preventive intervention programs and clinicians may benefit from focusing in addressing callous/unemotional traits among youth who report childhood maltreatment experiences as well as targeting conscientiousness as a protective factor. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM POLITICAL IDENTITY: THE SACRED TEXT AND SOCIAL EXPERIENCE

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И В Кудряшова

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The article focuses on the formation of modern Muslim political identity on the macro-po-litical and individual levels. The author explores the relation between its Islamic and state-national levels. It is shown that this relationship is of dynamic nature and that at present both these levels are significantly differentiated: nationalism outgrows the framework of state nationalism and gradually acquires civil dimension, while the Islamic layer, losing its significance as the only source of identification and self-identification for Muslims, acquires new socio-political content. The latter is reflected in the development of “Islamist pluralism”. It is noted that the ascriptive orientations to kin-groups, ethnic groups and clans remain significant and especially vibrant in the times of political turbulence.

Business success and psychological traits of housing developers

OpenAIRE

Mastura Jaafar; Azlan Raofuddin Nuruddin; Syed Putra Syed Abu Bakar

2014-01-01

Although the issues on entrepreneurship in the real estate industry are disparaging and have received little interest from global researchers, the significant roles played by the industry players warrant further investigation. The personal traits of the owners/managers are deemed to be the key factors to the business success of housing development firms. This paper examined the main determinants of successful business in the housing development sector under the lens of psychological traits of...

Relationship between personality traits and perceived internalized stigma in bipolar patients and their treatment partners.

Science.gov (United States)

Bassirnia, Anahita; Briggs, Jessica; Kopeykina, Irina; Mednick, Amy; Yaseen, Zimri; Galynker, Igor

2015-12-15

Internalized stigma of mental disorders has significant negative outcomes for patients with bipolar disorder and their families. The aim of this study is to evaluate the association between personality traits and internalized stigma of mental disorders in bipolar patients and their treatment partners. Five different questionnaires were utilized in this study: (1) Demographic data questionnaire, (2) Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III) for personality traits, (3) Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness (ISMI) for stigma, (4) Self Report Manic Inventory (SRMI) for mania and (5) Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) for depression. The scores of personality traits were combined to create externalizing and internalizing personality trait scores. Results showed that patients with bipolar disorder and their treatment partners both experienced internalized stigma of mental health disorders. There was a significant positive correlation between internalized stigma and internalizing personality traits, but not externalizing traits. In a multi-variate regression analysis, internalizing personality trait score was found to be a significant predictor of internalized stigma. In conclusion, patients with bipolar disorder and their treatment partners perceive higher level of internalized stigma of mental disorders if they have internalizing personality traits. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dual cusped protostylid: Case report and clinical significance

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Preeti Bhattacharya

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Protostylids are superstructures on maxillary or mandibular molars, which have rarely been reported in literature, and the significance of their presence has also been underestimated. The dental practitioners may easily misdiagnose a tooth, with such conical tubercles as malformed tooth. Interestingly, this is neither a malformation nor an anomaly but rather an important morphological trait of an individual. Once in a while, one may come across such a distinct morphological trait without being able to diagnose. To the authors' best knowledge, only one similar case has been reported previously, and the second such case internationally. Bearing all such facts in mind, the authors attempt to educate the readers towards the existence of such a trait so that it can be identified and studied in larger numbers. Hence, it is the authors' endeavor to report an unusual case of dual cusped maxillary protostylid along with its clinical significance.

Beyond Essentialist and Functionalist Analyses of the "Politicisation of Religion": The Evolution of Religious Parties in Political Catholicism and Political Islam

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Joerg Baudner

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The debate about “politics and religion” has already rejected essentialist claims of fundamental differences in the impact of religion on politics in different cultures. This article will argue that political Islam in Turkey and political Catholicism in Italy and Germany adopted remarkably similar patterns of cross-class coalitions and policies for a “reconciliation of capitalism and democracy”. First, religious parties developed as mass integration parties which already encompassed cross-class coalitions. Second, in the aftermath of political and economic crises these parties transformed into catch-all parties with a pronounced neo-liberal agenda which was given a religious justification. Third, at the same time these parties continued to sponsor policies and organizations which cushioned and supplemented an uneven economic development. Fourth, the parties kept traditional family policies which helped attracting a significant female electorate. “Organized religion” provided religious parties with a potential electorate, ancillary organizations and ideological concepts; however, their role in this political evolution changed. The conclusion will discuss whether these findings can be generalized.

Comparing Political Communication

OpenAIRE

Pfetsch, Barbara; Esser, Frank

2012-01-01

This chapter describes the maturation of comparative political communications as a sub-discipline and defines its conceptual core. It then lays out the concept of “political communication system”. At the macro-level, this model captures the patterns of interaction between media and politics as social systems; at the micro-level it captures the interactions between media and political actors as individuals or organizations. Comparative research in this tradition focuses on the structure of pol...

Frequency variations of discrete cranial traits in major human populations. III. Hyperostotic variations.

Science.gov (United States)

Hanihara, T; Ishida, H

2001-09-01

Seven discrete cranial traits usually categorised as hyperostotic characters, the medial palatine canal, hypoglossal canal bridging, precondylar tubercle, condylus tertius, jugular foramen bridging, auditory exostosis, and mylohyoid bridging were investigated in 81 major human population samples from around the world. Significant asymmetric occurrences of the bilateral traits were detected in the medial palatine canal and jugular foramen bridging in several samples. Significant intertrait associations were found between some pairs of the traits, but not consistently across the large geographical samples. The auditory exostosis showed a predominant occurrence in males. With the exception of the auditory exostosis and mylohyoid bridging in a few samples, significant sex differences were slight. The frequency distributions of the traits (except for the auditory exostosis) showed some interregional clinality and intraregional discontinuity, suggesting that genetic drift could have contributed to the observed pattern of variation.

Political Market Orientation: A Framework for Understanding Relationship Structures in Political Parties

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ormrod, Robert P.; Savigny, Heather

2012-01-01

This article is motivated by the growing need to integrate the current political science and marketing literature in order to provide a deeper understanding of the behaviour of political actors and their relationships with relevant stakeholder groups. In our article, we demonstrate how Ormrod...... strive for contextual sensitivity. By adopting this approach it is hoped that the fears noted by political scientists that political marketing is solely concerned with applying standard management models to political parties with the resulting emphasis on communication tactics at election time, together......’s conceptual model of political market orientation complements political science models of party organization by drawing attention to the competing interests of stakeholders in shaping party strategy and organizational structure. We treat parties as a multitude of actors rather than as monolithic entities...

Building Political Participation: The Role of Family Policy and Political Science Courses

Science.gov (United States)

Parrott, Emily

2017-01-01

This mixed-methods study examined the long-term associations between two kinds of politics courses--required political science courses and required family policy courses--and the political participation, knowledge, skill, efficacy, and politically engaged identity of child and family studies alumni. Two special cases were examined: those who…

Political Consciousness but Not Political Engagement: Results from a Service-Learning Study

Science.gov (United States)

Harker, Dave

2016-01-01

How does participation in a service-learning program impact the way students think about politics and political engagement? There are reasons to expect that service-learning can contribute to the development of a political consciousness and the skills necessary for political participation. The author uses participant observation, in-depth…

Managing Political Information: A Malaysian Perspective

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Jamilah Ahmad

2010-07-01

Full Text Available In the development of democratization and the expression of civil and political rights of Malaysian citizens, the pattern of control developed by the regime that is currently in power (Barisan Nasional for the last 50 years in the mass media began to reap the resistance and tend to be ineffective. Malaysian citizens began to demand the Malaysian government to change the pattern of political information management. In addition, the mass media alone is expected to play a more significant role as an intermediary agent in supporting the process of transparency and accountability of government policy. This article shows that the openness of public information is a prerequisite for political democracy in Malaysia to help the government minimize the mis-management of governance policies, especially in finance and resource management.

Genetic parameters for fitness and neonatal behavior traits in sheep.

Science.gov (United States)

Matheson, S M; Bünger, L; Dwyer, C M

2012-11-01

Poor neonatal survival constrains productivity and good welfare. The heritability of survival in sheep is very low, suggesting that genetic progress will be slow. Previously we have shown that a difficult birth and low neonatal lamb vigor are important predictors of future survival. In this study we investigated the heritability of these traits, and their relationship to production traits, as an alternative indirect route to improve lamb survival. Neonatal lamb data from 11,092 animals were collected over 2 years from 290 commercial sheep flocks, using previously developed methods to rapidly assess three traits (birth assistance, lamb vigor, sucking ability) on farm. Heritabilities for neonatal traits were moderate: birth assistance (mean ± standard error; 0.26 ± 0.03), lamb vigor (0.40 ± 0.04) and sucking ability (0.32 ± 0.03). Genetic correlations between neonatal traits were moderate to high, and positive. Heritabilities for production traits were also moderate: 8-week weight (0.27 ± 0.06), 20-week weight (0.39 ± 0.07), ultrasound muscle depth (0.37 ± 0.06). Genetic and phenotypic correlations between the neonatal traits and production traits were not significantly different from zero. However, lambs that were scored as of poor vigor at birth were less likely to be recorded at 8 or 20 weeks, indicating that they may have died. The data demonstrate that the neonatal survival traits of birth assistance, lamb vigor and sucking assistance are moderately heritable when treated as a lamb trait, indicating that selection to target these lamb traits would successfully, and efficiently, improve survival without influencing productivity.

Hidden consequences of political efficacy: Testing an efficacy-apathy model of political mobilization.

Science.gov (United States)

Osborne, Danny; Yogeeswaran, Kumar; Sibley, Chris G

2015-10-01

Political efficacy-the belief that one can influence politics-is a key predictor of people's involvement in social movements. Political institutions that are open to change should, however, be seen as just. Thus, political efficacy may ironically undermine minority group members' support for collective action by simultaneously increasing their belief in the fairness of the system. The current study aims to examine this possibility in a national sample of Māori-New Zealand's indigenous minority population. Participants (N = 399) were Māori (Mage = 44.22; SD = 13.30) women (n = 272) and men (n = 115; unreported = 12) who completed a survey assessing their levels of (a) political efficacy, (b) system justification, and (c) support for the political mobilization of their group, as well as relevant demographic covariates. Consistent with past research, political efficacy had a positive direct effect on participants' support for the political mobilization of Māori. Nevertheless, political efficacy also had a negative indirect effect on political mobilization support via increases in system justification. These results held after controlling for participants' ethnic identification, self-efficacy, and conservatism. Our findings uncover a hidden consequence of political efficacy and show that, while believing that the political system is receptive to change predicts political mobilization, it can also undermine minorities' support for the mobilization of their group. Thus, our results uncover a previously unknown process that maintains inequality between ethnic minority and majority group members. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Alteration of political belief by non- invasive brain stimulation

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Caroline eChawke

2016-01-01

Full Text Available People generally have imperfect introspective access to the mechanisms underlying their political beliefs, yet can confidently communicate the reasoning that goes into their decision making process. An innate desire for certainty and security in ones beliefs may play an important and somewhat automatic role in motivating the maintenance or rejection of partisan support. The aim of the current study was to clarify the role of the DLPFC in the alteration of political beliefs. Recent neuroimaging studies have focused on the association between the DLPFC (a region involved in the regulation of cognitive conflict and error feedback processing and reduced affiliation with opposing political candidates. As such, this study used a method of non- invasive brain simulation (tRNS to enhance activity of the bilateral DLPFC during the incorporation of political campaign information. These findings indicate a crucial role for this region in political belief formation. However, enhanced activation of DLPFC does not necessarily result in the specific rejection of political beliefs. In contrast to the hypothesis the results appear to indicate a significant increase in conservative values regardless of participant’s initial political orientation and the political campaign advertisement they were exposed to.

Alteration of Political Belief by Non-invasive Brain Stimulation

Science.gov (United States)

Chawke, Caroline; Kanai, Ryota

2016-01-01

People generally have imperfect introspective access to the mechanisms underlying their political beliefs, yet can confidently communicate the reasoning that goes into their decision making process. An innate desire for certainty and security in ones beliefs may play an important and somewhat automatic role in motivating the maintenance or rejection of partisan support. The aim of the current study was to clarify the role of the DLPFC in the alteration of political beliefs. Recent neuroimaging studies have focused on the association between the DLPFC (a region involved in the regulation of cognitive conflict and error feedback processing) and reduced affiliation with opposing political candidates. As such, this study used a method of non-invasive brain simulation (tRNS) to enhance activity of the bilateral DLPFC during the incorporation of political campaign information. These findings indicate a crucial role for this region in political belief formation. However, enhanced activation of DLPFC does not necessarily result in the specific rejection of political beliefs. In contrast to the hypothesis the results appear to indicate a significant increase in conservative values regardless of participant's initial political orientation and the political campaign advertisement they were exposed to. PMID:26834603

Politeness Accommodation in E-Mail Requests among Iranian Postgraduate Students of EFL

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Muhammed Parviz

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Computer-mediated communication (CMC offers us a chance to understand how social relationships are built and maintained in an environment in which interlocutors not only lack the paralinguistic features that are vital to face-to- face conversation, but are participating in a medium which has had little time to develop rules of conduct. The present study was an attempt to determine politeness accommodation in e-mail messages among Iranian postgraduate students of EFL. One hundred EFL learners, aged 22-26, participated in this study. Four different message types were constructed and sent to the participants, i.e. messages with verbal politeness markers; messages with structural politeness elements (e. g., salutation and closing remarks; messages with both verbal and structural politeness indicators; finally messages with neither verbal nor structural politeness indicators. Further, the messages varied in their degree of politeness; however, their content was the same. Results showed that the participants accommodated significantly to verbal politeness indicators in the body of a message, and to structural politeness indicators of greeting/salutation. When such indicators were included in messages, the participants responded with significantly more polite messages (greeting and body than when the indicators were absent. The results boost our understanding of CMC with reference to politeness markers, and how they are used by Iranian EFL learners.

Personality traits in patients with cluster headache: a comparison with migraine patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Muñoz, I; Hernández, M S; Santos, S; Jurado, C; Ruiz, L; Toribio, E; Sotelo, E M; Guerrero, A L; Molina, V; Uribe, F; Cuadrado, M L

2016-01-01

Cluster headache (CH) has been associated with certain personality traits and lifestyle features, but there are few studies assessing personality profiles in CH. We aimed to analyze personality traits in patients with CH, and to compare them with those found in migraine. We included all consecutive patients with CH attending 5 outpatient offices between January and December 2013. Personality traits were evaluated using the Salamanca screening test, a validated inventory assessing 11 personality traits grouped in 3 clusters. We analyzed the test results in this population, and compared them with those of a migraine population previously assessed with the same test. Eighty patients with CH (75 men, 5 women; mean age, 43.2 ± 9.9 years) were recruited. The reference population consisted of 164 migraine patients (30 men, 134 women; mean age 36.4 ± 12.7 years). In CH patients, the most frequent personality traits were anancastic (52.5 %), anxious (47.5 %), histrionic (45 %), schizoid (42.5 %), impulsive (32.5 %) and paranoid (30 %). When compared to migraine patients, paranoid (p traits (p = 0.007; χ2 test) were significantly more prevalent in CH patients. In logistic regression analysis the paranoid trait was significantly associated with CH (p = 0.001; OR: 3.27, 95 % CI [1.66-6.43]). According to the Salamanca screening test, personality traits included in cluster A (odd or eccentric disorders) are more prevalent in CH patients than in a population of migraineurs. Larger studies are needed to determine whether certain personality traits are related to CH.

Political learning among youth

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Solhaug, Trond; Kristensen, Niels Nørgaard

2014-01-01

This article focuses on students’ first political learning and explores the research question, what dynamic patterns of political learning can be explored among a selection of young, diverse Danish students’ first political interests? The authors use theories of learning in their analytical......, but are active constructors of their political life. Their emotions and social environment are highly important for their political orientation. It is recommended that further research focus on dynamic learning and on arenas for political learning rather than on “single agent studies.” Recommendations...

Impact of Political News: Evidence from Russia

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Volodin Sergey Nikolayevich

2017-10-01

Full Text Available In recent times political events started to exert more and more significant impact on national financial systems due to sharpening of political problems in various countries. Undoubtedly, their influence can be followed in price dynamics of stocks which are trading in the securities market. The need to understand political news impact on the market as a whole and its separate industries is faced by investors and market agents for proper orientation in market environment. Since this issue provides rather controversial results in different studies, the authors set the aim to investigate the Russian market with the use of GARCH models. Such approach allowed determining precisely the political events’ influence on return and volatility of market assets as well as leverage and clusterization effects. The obtained results may be beneficial for investors, operating in the Russian stock market, other market agents and specialists in the field of financial science.

Political Intersectionality and Democratic Politics in the European Public Sphere

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Siim, Birte

2015-01-01

Public Sphere (EPS). It is inspired by results and reflections from the European Gender Project (EGP) , where intersectionality was used as an approach for analysing negotiations between gender and ethno-national diversity in selected European countries and in relation to the European Public Sphere....... The aim of the essay is to further deepen the theoretical and empirical understanding of intersectionality by reflecting on the relations between political intersectionality and democratic politics from a particular European perspective. It thus confronts theory and research findings concerning...... intersections of gender and ethnic diversity in political life at the national and transnational levels across Europe. In this context, political intersectionality refers to the framing of gender and ethnic diversity by major political actors as well as by activities of women’s and anti-racist organisations...

Parenting and Politics: Exploring Early Moral Bases of Political Orientation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ronnie Janoff-Bulman

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Based on Lakoff’s (2002 Strict Father and Nurturant Parent metaphors for political conservatism and liberalism respectively, two studies explored parenting styles, political ideology, and the moral orientations that might link the two. Restrictive parenting (by both mother and father predicted political conservatism, and this path was mediated by a strong Social Order orientation (Study 1 reflecting, more broadly, an inhibition-based proscriptive morality (Study 2. Political liberalism was associated with a Social Justice orientation, but was not predicted by nurturant parenting in either study. Study 1 included mothers’ reports of their own parenting, and these were correlated with the students’ responses. Findings support a restrictive moral underpinning for conservatism, but raise questions about the assumed unique association between parental nurturance and political liberalism, which is addressed in the discussion.

Measuring critical thinking in a political context | Bester | South ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Secondly, a significant correlation was found between political knowledge and critical thinking abilities in a political context. This implied that critical thinking ability varied directly with the amount of knowledge of the subject required by the problem. Thirdly, the results of the research indicated that gender and environment ...

Defensive traits exhibit an evolutionary trade-off and drive diversification in ants.

Science.gov (United States)

Blanchard, Benjamin D; Moreau, Corrie S

2017-02-01

Evolutionary biologists have long predicted that evolutionary trade-offs among traits should constrain morphological divergence and species diversification. However, this prediction has yet to be tested in a broad evolutionary context in many diverse clades, including ants. Here, we reconstruct an expanded ant phylogeny representing 82% of ant genera, compile a new family-wide trait database, and conduct various trait-based analyses to show that defensive traits in ants do exhibit an evolutionary trade-off. In particular, the use of a functional sting negatively correlates with a suite of other defensive traits including spines, large eye size, and large colony size. Furthermore, we find that several of the defensive traits that trade off with a sting are also positively correlated with each other and drive increased diversification, further suggesting that these traits form a defensive suite. Our results support the hypothesis that trade-offs in defensive traits significantly constrain trait evolution and influence species diversification in ants. © 2016 The Author(s). Evolution © 2016 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Emotions and trait emotional intelligence among ultra-endurance runners.

Science.gov (United States)

Lane, Andrew M; Wilson, Mathew

2011-07-01

The aim of this study was to investigate relationships between trait emotional intelligence and emotional state changes over the course of an ultra-endurance foot race covering a route of approximately 175 miles (282 km) and held in set stages over six days. A repeated measures field design that sought to maintain ecological validity was used. Trait emotional intelligence was defined as a relatively stable concept that should predict adaptive emotional states experienced over the duration of the race and therefore associate with pleasant emotions during a 6-stage endurance event. Thirty-four runners completed a self-report measure of trait emotional intelligence before the event started. Participants reported emotional states before and after each of the six races. Repeated measures ANOVA results showed significant variations in emotions over time and a main effect for trait emotional intelligence. Runners high in self-report trait emotional intelligence also reported higher pleasant and lower unpleasant emotions than runners low in trait emotional intelligence. Findings lend support to the notion that trait emotional intelligence associates with adaptive psychological states, suggesting that it may be a key individual difference that explains why some athletes respond to repeated bouts of hard exercise better than others. Future research should test the effectiveness of interventions designed to enhance trait emotional intelligence and examine the attendant impact on emotional responses to intense exercise during multi-stage events. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The Politics of Budgetary Expenses - Essential Element within the Macroeconomic Politics

OpenAIRE

Cibotariu Irina-ªtefana,; Iancu Eugenia,

2013-01-01

The budgetary politics, regarded as an assembly of state intervention instruments, generated by the forming processes, by taxes and duties, of the budgetary incomes, of budgetary expenses allotment, as well as on ensuring the budgetary equilibriums represent the budgetary politics of the state, directed towards the goals accomplishment, more or less delimited. In this way, the budgetary politics has been dissociated on more components where one of them, meaning the allotment politics or the b...

The Political Representation of Women in Public Policy Management Councils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lígia Helena Hahn Lüchmann

2010-06-01

Full Text Available This work raises some hypotheses to explain the significant presence of women on public policy management councils, which are spaces for discussion and deliberation of policies that have been implemented in Brazil in recent decades. The data about the profile of representatives on these spaces indicates a situation inversely proportional to the low degree of political inclusion of women in traditional spaces of political representation – executive positions, city councils, and state legislatures. There is thus a need to develop new analytical tools to understand the phenomenon of political representation. The data also question a reductive perspective of action and politics, which concludes that there is a low degree of political inclusion of women.

Credit Constraints, Political Instability, and Capital Accumulation

OpenAIRE

Risto Herrala; Rima Turk-Ariss

2013-01-01

We investigate the complex interactions between credit constraints, political instability, and capital accumulation using a novel approach based on Kiyotaki and Moore’s (1997) theoretical framework. Drawing on a unique firm-level data set from Middle-East and North Africa (MENA), empirical findings point to a large and significant effect of credit conditions on capital accumulation and suggest that continued political unrest worsens credit constraints. The results support the view that financ...

Political regimes, political ideology, and self-rated health in Europe: a multilevel analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Huijts, Tim; Perkins, Jessica M; Subramanian, S V

2010-07-22

Studies on political ideology and health have found associations between individual ideology and health as well as between ecological measures of political ideology and health. Individual ideology and aggregate measures such as political regimes, however, were never examined simultaneously. Using adjusted logistic multilevel models to analyze data on individuals from 29 European countries and Israel, we found that individual ideology and political regime are independently associated with self-rated health. Individuals with rightwing ideologies report better health than leftwing individuals. Respondents from Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics report poorer health than individuals from social democratic, liberal, Christian conservative, and former Mediterranean dictatorship countries. In contrast to individual ideology and political regimes, country level aggregations of individual ideology are not related to reporting poor health. This study shows that although both individual political ideology and contextual political regime are independently associated with individuals' self-rated health, individual political ideology appears to be more strongly associated with self-rated health than political regime.

Within-trait heterogeneity in age group differences in personality domains and facets: implications for the development and coherence of personality traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Mõttus, René; Realo, Anu; Allik, Jüri; Esko, Tõnu; Metspalu, Andres; Johnson, Wendy

2015-01-01

The study investigated differences in the Five-Factor Model (FFM) domains and facets across adulthood. The main questions were whether personality scales reflected coherent units of trait development and thereby coherent personality traits more generally. These questions were addressed by testing if the components of the trait scales (items for facet scales and facets for domain scales) showed consistent age group differences. For this, measurement invariance (MI) framework was used. In a sample of 2,711 Estonians who had completed the NEO Personality Inventory 3 (NEO PI-3), more than half of the facet scales and one domain scale did not meet the criterion for weak MI (factor loading equality) across 12 age groups spanning ages from 18 to 91 years. Furthermore, none of the facet and domain scales met the criterion for strong MI (intercept equality), suggesting that items of the same facets and facets of the same domains varied in age group differences. When items were residualized for their respective facets, 46% of them had significant (p < 0.0002) residual age-correlations. When facets were residualized for their domain scores, a majority had significant (p < 0.002) residual age-correlations. For each domain, a series of latent factors were specified using random quarters of their items: scores of such latent factors varied notably (within domains) in correlations with age. We argue that manifestations of aetiologically coherent traits should show similar age group differences. Given this, the FFM domains and facets as embodied in the NEO PI-3 do not reflect aetiologically coherent traits.

Personality traits and psychotic symptoms in recent onset of psychosis patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Sevilla-Llewellyn-Jones, Julia; Cano-Domínguez, Pablo; de-Luis-Matilla, Antonia; Peñuelas-Calvo, Inmaculada; Espina-Eizaguirre, Alberto; Moreno-Kustner, Berta; Ochoa, Susana

2017-04-01

Personality in patients with psychosis, and particularly its relation to psychotic symptoms in recent onset of psychosis (ROP) patients, is understudied. The aims of this research were to study the relation between dimensional and categorical clinical personality traits and symptoms, as well as the effects that symptoms, sex and age have on clinically significant personality traits. Data for these analyses were obtained from 94 ROP patients. The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale were used to assess personality and symptoms. Correlational Analysis, Mann-Whitney test, and, finally, logistic regression were carried out. The negative dimension was higher in patients with schizoid traits. The excited dimension was lower for those with avoidant and depressive traits. The anxiety and depression dimension was higher for patients with dependent traits. The positive dimension was lower for patients with histrionic and higher for patients with compulsive traits. Logistic regression demonstrated that gender and the positive and negative dimensions explained 35.9% of the variance of the schizoid trait. The excited dimension explained 9.1% of the variance of avoidant trait. The anxiety and depression dimension and age explained 31.3% of the dependent trait. Gender explained 11.6% of the histrionic trait, 14.5% of the narcissistic trait and 11.6% of the paranoid trait. Finally gender and positive dimension explained 16.1% of the compulsive trait. The study highlights the importance of studying personality in patients with psychosis as it broadens understating of the patients themselves and the symptoms suffered. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Privatization, political risk and stock market development in emerging economies

OpenAIRE

Perotti, E.C.; van Oijen, P.H.

1999-01-01

This paper investigates whether privatization in emerging economies has a significant indirect effect on local stock market development through the resolution of political risk. We argue that a sustained privatization program represents a major political test that gradually resolves uncertainty over political commitment to a market-oriented policy as well as to regulatory and private property rights. We present evidence suggesting that progress in privatization is indeed correlated with impro...

FENOMENA, FEMINISME DAN POLITICAL SELF SELECTION BAGI PEREMPUAN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nurwani Idris - -

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Democracy needs all participation people in the country, women and men.  The political right for women, as we know was feminism hard and long time struggled, therefore now the women have the high quality live in politic, the economic and social.  All the country in the world have ratificated the PBB of law for political freedom for women as the same as men. Especially in Indonesia now there’s no formal barriers for women leadership, if they select to participate in politics but it was the phenomenon for the women among self selection in politics, the freedom to be participating and children, husband, housing, that still stronger; from which one barrier “self selection” or “culture and religion” responsibility where significantly. Minangkabau women, forward analysis we can aim self selection or children, husband and family responsibility.  It is indisputable that the women’s awareness and struggle in the politics are debt to the feminists’ endless efforts. The feminists have fostered the women to empower themselves by which they reach equal position compared with their counterparts, in nearly all aspects of the social life.   Keywords:  phenomenon, feminism, and political self selection.

From Windfall Sharing to Property Ownership: Prosocial Personality Traits in Giving and Taking Dictator Games

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kun Zhao

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The dictator game is a well-known task measuring prosocial preferences, in which one person divides a fixed amount of windfall money with a recipient. A key factor in real-world transfers of wealth is the concept of property ownership and consequently the related acts of giving and taking. Using a variation of the traditional dictator game (N = 256, we examined whether individual differences under different game frames corresponded with prosocial personality traits from the Big Five (politeness, compassion and HEXACO (Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, eXtraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience (honesty-humility, agreeableness models. In the Big Five model, the effects of prosocial personality traits were generally stronger and more consistent for taking than for giving, in line with a “do-no-harm” explanation, whereby prosocial individuals felt less entitled to and less willing to infringe on the endowments of others. In contrast, HEXACO honesty-humility predicted allocations across both frames, consistent with its broad association with fair-mindedness, and providing further evidence of its role in allocations of wealth more generally. These findings highlight the utility of integrating personality psychology with behavioral economics, in which the discriminant validity across prosocial traits can shed light on the distinct motivations underpinning social decisions.

It's complicated: Facebook users' political participation in the 2008 election.

Science.gov (United States)

Vitak, Jessica; Zube, Paul; Smock, Andrew; Carr, Caleb T; Ellison, Nicole; Lampe, Cliff

2011-03-01

In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, social network sites such as Facebook allowed users to share their political beliefs, support specific candidates, and interact with others on political issues. But do political activities on Facebook affect political participation among young voters, a group traditionally perceived as apathetic in regard to civic engagement? Or do these activities represent another example of feel-good participation that has little real-world impact, a concept often referred to as "slacktivism"? Results from a survey of undergraduate students (N = 683) at a large public university in the Midwestern United States conducted in the month prior to the election found that students tend to engage in lightweight political participation both on Facebook and in other venues. Furthermore, two OLS regressions found that political activity on Facebook (e.g., posting a politically oriented status update, becoming a "fan" of a candidate) is a significant predictor of other forms of political participation (e.g., volunteering for an organizing, signing a paper or online petition), and that a number of factors--including intensity of Facebook use and the political activity users see their friends performing on the site--predict political activity on Facebook. Students' perceptions regarding the appropriateness of political activity on Facebook, as well as the specific kinds of political activities they engaged in and witnessed within the site, were also explored.

Privatization, political risk and stock market development in emerging economies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Perotti, E.C.; van Oijen, P. H.

2001-01-01

This paper investigates whether privatization in emerging economies has a significant indirect effect on local stock market development through the resolution of political risk. We argue that a sustained privatization program represents a major political test that gradually resolves uncertainty over

Privatization, political risk and stock market development in emerging economies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Perotti, E.C.; van Oijen, P.H.

1999-01-01

This paper investigates whether privatization in emerging economies has a significant indirect effect on local stock market development through the resolution of political risk. We argue that a sustained privatization program represents a major political test that gradually resolves uncertainty over

Privatization, political risk and stock market development in emerging economies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Perotti, E.C.; van Oijen, P.H.

1999-01-01

This paper investigates whether privatisation in emerging economies has a significant indirect effect on local stock market development through the resolution of political risk. We argue that a sustained privatisation programme represents a major political test which gradually resolves uncertainty

Political CSR

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jeppesen, Søren; Morsing, Mette

We engage a discussion of political CSR in SMEs in an African context. Based on critical observations on Western MNC CSR action in emerging economies that holds counterproductive implications for social development, political economists have argued that business profit far more than society...... development in local African communities. Our findings extend political CSR research by directing attention to how the corporate influence in developing economies does not only emerge from MNCs but is also established and retained by SMEs CSR work....

Do Gender and Personality Traits Influence Awareness of Deal Sites?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sudzina, Frantisek

2015-01-01

Deal sites exist for a decade now but there are still some people who have not heard about them. The research pre-sented in the paper investigates if gender and personality traits influence awareness of deal sites. Big Five Inventory-10 is used to measure personality traits. The findings...... are that gender does not influence awareness, and neuroticism is the most significant personality trait influencing awareness of deal sites - the more neurotic the person is, the higher is the probability that he or she has never heard of deal sites....

Politics of Inclusion and Empowerment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, John; Siim, Birte

2004-01-01

identities. Politics of empowerment has to do with the agency and mobilisation dimension of social and political change. The title of the book "Politics of Inclusion and Empowerment" address the leitmotiv: namely to discuss plussumgame between politics of inclusion and politics of empowerment......The objective of the book is to analyse different politics of inclusion and empowerment and the different paradigms of inclusion/exclusion in order to underline the close link between politics of scoial equality and politics of recognition of ciultural difference. Politics of inclusion is thus...... theproductive/innovative linkage of politics of redistributuin and politics og resognition, whnich over a longer time span creates sustainable paths of democratic and social development, which increases the capacity to handle both conflicts about economic resources and life-chances and conflicts about...

Executive dysfunction, brain aging, and political leadership.

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, Mark; Franklin, David L; Post, Jerrold M

2014-01-01

Decision-making is an essential component of executive function, and a critical skill of political leadership. Neuroanatomic localization studies have established the prefrontal cortex as the critical brain site for executive function. In addition to the prefrontal cortex, white matter tracts as well as subcortical brain structures are crucial for optimal executive function. Executive function shows a significant decline beginning at age 60, and this is associated with age-related atrophy of prefrontal cortex, cerebral white matter disease, and cerebral microbleeds. Notably, age-related decline in executive function appears to be a relatively selective cognitive deterioration, generally sparing language and memory function. While an individual may appear to be functioning normally with regard to relatively obvious cognitive functions such as language and memory, that same individual may lack the capacity to integrate these cognitive functions to achieve normal decision-making. From a historical perspective, global decline in cognitive function of political leaders has been alternatively described as a catastrophic event, a slowly progressive deterioration, or a relatively episodic phenomenon. Selective loss of executive function in political leaders is less appreciated, but increased utilization of highly sensitive brain imaging techniques will likely bring greater appreciation to this phenomenon. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was an example of a political leader with a well-described neurodegenerative condition (cerebral amyloid angiopathy) that creates a neuropathological substrate for executive dysfunction. Based on the known neuroanatomical and neuropathological changes that occur with aging, we should probably assume that a significant proportion of political leaders over the age of 65 have impairment of executive function.

Engaging with Political Islamists in the Middle East | IDRC ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

But, they have had limited contact with the most vocal advocates for change and main opposition to existing regimes in the region, political Islamists. Moreover, European and North American governments tend to see political Islam as a uniformly negative phenomenon even though there has been a significant evolution in ...

Same Traits, Different Variance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jamie S. Churchyard

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Personality trait questionnaires are regularly used in individual differences research to examine personality scores between participants, although trait researchers tend to place little value on intra-individual variation in item ratings within a measured trait. The few studies that examine variability indices have not considered how they are related to a selection of psychological outcomes, so we recruited 160 participants (age M = 24.16, SD = 9.54 who completed the IPIP-HEXACO personality questionnaire and several outcome measures. Heterogenous within-subject differences in item ratings were found for every trait/facet measured, with measurement error that remained stable across the questionnaire. Within-subject standard deviations, calculated as measures of individual variation in specific item ratings within a trait/facet, were related to outcomes including life satisfaction and depression. This suggests these indices represent valid constructs of variability, and that researchers administering behavior statement trait questionnaires with outcome measures should also apply item-level variability indices.

Political orientations do not cancel out, and politics is not about truth.

Science.gov (United States)

Pfister, Hans-Rüdiger; Böhm, Gisela

2015-01-01

Duarte et al. propose that divergent political biases cancel each other out such that increasing political diversity will improve scientific validity. We argue that this idea is misguided. Their recommendations for improving political diversity in academia bear the danger of imposing political interests on science. Scientific scrutiny and criticism are the only viable remedies for bad science.

Understanding political behavior: Essays in experimental political economy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gago Guerreiro de Brito Robalo, P.M.

2014-01-01

Explaining individual political behavior is one of the big challenges in the social sciences. The work contained in this thesis uses the tools of experimental economics, game theory and decision theory to shed light on political choices. Relaxing the neoclassical assumptions of self-interested

Within-Trait Heterogeneity in Age Group Differences in Personality Domains and Facets: Implications for the Development and Coherence of Personality Traits

Science.gov (United States)

Mõttus, René; Realo, Anu; Allik, Jüri; Esko, Tõnu; Metspalu, Andres; Johnson, Wendy

2015-01-01

The study investigated differences in the Five-Factor Model (FFM) domains and facets across adulthood. The main questions were whether personality scales reflected coherent units of trait development and thereby coherent personality traits more generally. These questions were addressed by testing if the components of the trait scales (items for facet scales and facets for domain scales) showed consistent age group differences. For this, measurement invariance (MI) framework was used. In a sample of 2,711 Estonians who had completed the NEO Personality Inventory 3 (NEO PI-3), more than half of the facet scales and one domain scale did not meet the criterion for weak MI (factor loading equality) across 12 age groups spanning ages from 18 to 91 years. Furthermore, none of the facet and domain scales met the criterion for strong MI (intercept equality), suggesting that items of the same facets and facets of the same domains varied in age group differences. When items were residualized for their respective facets, 46% of them had significant (p traits should show similar age group differences. Given this, the FFM domains and facets as embodied in the NEO PI-3 do not reflect aetiologically coherent traits. PMID:25751273

Anti-intellectualism and political ideology in a sample of undergraduate and graduate students.

Science.gov (United States)

Laverghetta, Antonio; Stewart, Juliana; Weinstein, Lawrence

2007-12-01

To estimate correlations for scores on a student anti-intellectualism scale with scores on a measure of political conservatism, 235 students were given a survey containing a student anti-intellectualism scale, a political conservatism scale, and a demographics questionnaire identifying the participants' sex, college classification, ethnicity, political party affiliation, and self-described political ideology. The political conservatism scale contained two factors, Religiosity and Economic Conservatism, both of which were scored separately in addition to an overall Conservatism score. Students' Anti-intellectualism scores were correlated with Political Conservatism scores (r = .37, p < .01), with Religiosity scores (r = .42, p < .01), and with Economic Conservatism scores (r = .17, p < .05). An analysis of variance indicated a significant difference in students' Anti-intellectualism scores based on college classification (F4,233 = 2.27, p < .04). Specifically, freshman had significantly higher scores than graduate students.

Antiherbivore defenses alter natural selection on plant reproductive traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Ken A; Johnson, Marc T J

2016-04-01

While many studies demonstrate that herbivores alter selection on plant reproductive traits, little is known about whether antiherbivore defenses affect selection on these traits. We hypothesized that antiherbivore defenses could alter selection on reproductive traits by altering trait expression through allocation trade-offs, or by altering interactions with mutualists and/or antagonists. To test our hypothesis, we used white clover, Trifolium repens, which has a Mendelian polymorphism for the production of hydrogen cyanide-a potent antiherbivore defense. We conducted a common garden experiment with 185 clonal families of T. repens that included cyanogenic and acyanogenic genotypes. We quantified resistance to herbivores, and selection on six floral traits and phenology via male and female fitness. Cyanogenesis reduced herbivory but did not alter the expression of reproductive traits through allocation trade-offs. However, the presence of cyanogenic defenses altered natural selection on petal morphology and the number of flowers within inflorescences via female fitness. Herbivory influenced selection on flowers and phenology via female fitness independently of cyanogenesis. Our results demonstrate that both herbivory and antiherbivore defenses alter natural selection on plant reproductive traits. We discuss the significance of these results for understanding how antiherbivore defenses interact with herbivores and pollinators to shape floral evolution. © 2016 The Author(s). Evolution © 2016 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

The politics of biofuels, land and agrarian change: editors' introduction.

Science.gov (United States)

Borras, Saturnino M

2010-01-01

This introduction frames key questions on biofuels, land and agrarian change within agrarian political economy, political sociology and political ecology. It identifies and explains big questions that provide the starting point for the contributions to this collection. We lay out some of the emerging themes which define the politics of biofuels, land and agrarian change revolving around global (re)configurations; agro-ecological visions; conflicts, resistances and diverse outcomes; state, capital and society relations; mobilising opposition, creating alternatives; and change and continuity. An engaged agrarian political economy combined with global political economy, international relations and social movement theory provides an important framework for analysis and critique of the conditions, dynamics, contradictions, impacts and possibilities of the emerging global biofuels complex. Our hope is that this collection demonstrates the significance of a political economy of biofuels in capturing the complexity of the "biofuels revolution" and at the same time opening up questions about its sustainability in social and environmental terms that provide pathways towards alternatives.

Genetic architecture of clinical mastitis traits in dairy cattle

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sahana, Goutam; Guldbrandtsen, Bernt; Lund, Mogens Sandø

2012-01-01

investigate the genetic architecture of clinical mastitis and somatic cell score traits in dairy cattle using a high density (HD) SNP panel. Mastitis, an inflammation of the mammary gland most commonly caused by bacterial infection, is a frequent disease in dairy cattle. Clinical mastitis and somatic cell...... score from first three lactations were studied for association with SNP markers in 4,200 progeny-tested Nordic Holstein bulls. Single trait breeding values were used as phenotypes. All the individuals were genotyped with BovineSNP50 Beadchip. Part of this population was also genotyped with the Bovine...... mixed model analysis. After Bonferroni correction 12, 372 SNP exhibited genome-wide significant associations with mastitis related traits. A total 61 QTL regions on 22 chromosomes associated with mastitis related traits were identified. The SNP with highest effect explained 5.6% of the variance...

PERSONALITY TRAITS AND STRESS LEVELS AMONG SENIOR DENTAL STUDENTS: EVIDENCE FROM MALAYSIA AND SINGAPORE.

Science.gov (United States)

Yusof, Zamros Y M; Hassan, Wan Nurazreena Wan; Razak, Ishak A; Hashim, Siti Marini N; Tahir, Mohd Khairul A M; Keng, Siong Beng

2016-11-01

This study aimed to evaluate the association between dental students’ personality traits and stress levels in relation to dental education programs among senior dental students in University Malaya (UM) in Malaysia and National University of Singapore (NUS). A cross-sectional survey using a self-administered questionnaire was conducted on UM and NUS senior dental students. The questionnaire comprised items on demographic background, the Big Five Inventory Personality Traits (BFIPT) test and a modified Dental Environment Stress (DES) scale. Rasch analysis was used to convert raw data to interval scores. Analyses were done by t-test, Pearson correlation, and Hierarchical regression statistics. The response rate was 100% (UM=132, NUS=76). Personality trait Agreeableness (mean=0.30) was significantly more prevalent among UM than NUS students (mean=0.15, p=0.016). In NUS, Neuroticism (mean=0.36) was significantly more prevalent than in UM (mean=0.14, p=0.002). The DES mean score was higher among NUS (mean=0.23) than UM students (mean=0.07). In UM, Neuroticism was significantly correlated with stress levels (r=0.338, ppersonality traits. The correlation was strongest for personality trait Neuroticism in both schools. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that gender and Neuroticism were significant predictors for students’ stress levels (ppersonality trait were significant predictors for stress levels among selected groups of dental students in Southeast Asia. Information on students’ personality may be useful in new students’ intake, stress management counseling and future program reviews.

Genetic variation of inbreeding depression among floral and fitness traits in Silene nutans

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thiele, Jan; Hansen, Thomas Møller; Siegismund, Hans Redlef

2010-01-01

The magnitude and variation of inbreeding depression (ID) within populations is important for the evolution and maintenance of mixed mating systems. We studied ID and its genetic variation in a range of floral and fitness traits in a small and large population of the perennial herb Silene nutans......, using controlled pollinations in a fully factorial North Carolina II design. Floral traits and early fitness traits, that is seed mass and germination rate, were not much affected by inbreeding (delta0.4). Lack of genetic correlations indicated that ID in floral, early and late traits is genetically...... was statistically significant in most floral and all seed traits, but not in late fitness traits. However, some paternal families had delta...

Correlated evolution of stem and leaf hydraulic traits in Pereskia (Cactaceae).

Science.gov (United States)

Edwards, Erika J

2006-01-01

Recent studies have demonstrated significant correlations between stem and leaf hydraulic properties when comparing across species within ecological communities. This implies that these traits are co-evolving, but there have been few studies addressing plant water relations within an explicitly evolutionary framework. This study tests for correlated evolution among a suite of plant water-use traits and environmental parameters in seven species of Pereskia (Cactaceae), using phylogenetically independent contrasts. There were significant evolutionary correlations between leaf-specific xylem hydraulic conductivity, Huber Value, leaf stomatal pore index, leaf venation density and leaf size, but none of these traits appeared to be correlated with environmental water availability; only two water relations traits - mid-day leaf water potentials and photosynthetic water use efficiency - correlated with estimates of moisture regime. In Pereskia, it appears that many stem and leaf hydraulic properties thought to be critical to whole-plant water use have not evolved in response to habitat shifts in water availability. This may be because of the extremely conservative stomatal behavior and particular rooting strategy demonstrated by all Pereskia species investigated. These results highlight the need for a lineage-based approach to understand the relative roles of functional traits in ecological adaptation.

Interplay Between Politics and Sport in Political Science Theories

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simona Kustec Lipicer

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Times when relations between politics and sports did not exist – be it in everyday practices or within scientific research – is definitely long gone, if they ever even existed. Nevertheless, it seems today that, especially within scientific research, these relations do not receive appropriate attention in the territories of former socialist sports superpowers, being a priori denied and considered as unimportant. That is why the key motive of this article is to initiate a discussion about the relevance of knowledge and research of the relations between politics and sport from two perspectives – the existing world-wide political science research experiences gained so far and already conducted researches in the territory of former Yugoslavia. In doing so, we first theoretically define the context of sports and politics, and then with the use of the literature review method analyse their mutual connectivity in the world and, more narrowly, within the work of the scientific community in the region of former Yugoslavia. Based on the gained conclusions which confirm a tight and constant, but also often abstract and flat-rate understood interplay between both analysed phenomena, a special typology for their in-depth and political-science-focused study is delivered. It is believed that distinctions between political, polity and policy approaches to sport decisively influence the mode of their future interplay.

Genetic diversity of Iranian rice germplasm based on morphological traits

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nade ali bagheri

2009-06-01

Full Text Available Study of genetic diversity of rice is very important for rice breeders. In this study 64 genotypes for 14 agronomic traits were evaluated. Phenotypic variation coefficients of some of traits were high which showed essential variation in this traits. Principal component analysis detected 6 components which explained 74.66 percent of the total variations. The first component was related to generative traits such as number of spiklet per panicle, number of full grain per panicle, date of 50% flowering and length of panicle. In the third component, the date of complete maturity with -0.730 has negative effects on yield. Correlation analysis of morphological traits indicated a negative and significant relationship between early maturity and plant height, which showed early maturity cultivars had higher plant type. Results of stepwise regression analysis for early maturity, indicated that three traits such as date of 50% flowering, number of full grain per panicle and plant height showed higher variation and explained 54.3 percent of total early maturity variations. All traits were classified into 2 groups, by cluster analysis and traits belonged to early maturity classified as a sub-group. Genotypes were classified into 4 groups by using method of Ward,s minimum variance and squared Euclidean distance. Native cultivars from the view point of early maturity and yield components had useful information for rice breeding. Key words: Genetic diversity, rice, morphological traits.

Clinical and personality traits in emotional disorders: Evidence of a common framework.

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Mahaffey, Brittain L; Watson, David; Clark, Lee Anna; Kotov, Roman

2016-08-01

Certain clinical traits (e.g., ruminative response style, self-criticism, perfectionism, anxiety sensitivity, fear of negative evaluation, and thought suppression) increase the risk for and chronicity of emotional disorders. Similar to traditional personality traits, they are considered dispositional and typically show high temporal stability. Because the personality and clinical-traits literatures evolved largely independently, connections between them are not fully understood. We sought to map the interface between a widely studied set of clinical and personality traits. Two samples (N = 385 undergraduates; N = 188 psychiatric outpatients) completed measures of personality traits, clinical traits, and an interview-based assessment of emotional-disorder symptoms. First, the joint factor structure of these traits was examined in each sample. Second, structural equation modeling was used to clarify the effects of clinical traits in the prediction of clinical symptoms beyond negative temperament. Third, the incremental validity of clinical traits beyond a more comprehensive set of higher-order and lower-order personality traits was examined using hierarchical regression. Clinical and personality traits were highly correlated and jointly defined a 3-factor structure-Negative Temperament, Positive Temperament, and Disinhibition-in both samples, with all clinical traits loading on the Negative Temperament factor. Clinical traits showed modest but significant incremental validity in explaining symptoms after accounting for personality traits. These data indicate that clinical traits relevant to emotional disorders fit well within the traditional personality framework and offer some unique contributions to the prediction of psychopathology, but it is important to distinguish their effects from negative temperament/neuroticism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Spiritual Politics, Political Religion, and Religious Freedom in Burma

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gravers, Mikael

2013-01-01

A state of the art artcle on academic work on religion, politics, and religious freedom in Burma......A state of the art artcle on academic work on religion, politics, and religious freedom in Burma...

Building community in international politics: A study of political press conferences

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Aditi Bhatia

2011-04-01

Full Text Available In today’s increasingly globalised yet disconnected world, especially in the contemporary context of a turbulent political landscape, there has been an increasing effort made by socio-political leaders at solidifying alliances and drawing support from different corners of the world in order to neutralize policies. Drawing on a multidimensional framework, in particular, critical discourse analysis and membership categorization analysis, this paper explores the various strategies employed by political leaders, attempting to reconcile disparate perspectives in the face of increasing socio-economic inter-connection and political dependence. More often than not, it was discovered, political leaders drew upon the somewhat “illusory” notion of “international community”, turning it into a tool of persuasion and membership category. In doing so, this paper aims to illustrate how the creation of illusive categories and perceptions are intended as a means of drawing support from diverse political leaders and projecting a united front before scrutinizing press and public.

Astronomy and Politics

Science.gov (United States)

Steele, John M.

The relationship between astronomy and politics is a complex but important part of understanding the practice of astronomy throughout history. This chapter explores some of the ways that astronomy, astrology, and politics have interacted, placing particular focus on the way that astronomy and astrology have been used for political purposes by both people in power and people who wish to influence a ruler's policy. Also discussed are the effects that politics has had on the development of astronomy and, in particular, upon the recording and preservation of astronomical knowledge.

Defining political community

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Sladeček Michal M.

2002-01-01

Full Text Available This paper considers the concept of political community, its constitution and value. The starting point is that the concept of community is not sufficiently recognized in modern political theories, as well as in contemporary liberal theory. In the last two decades communitarian and republican political theory attempted to revitalize this notion. The first part of the paper elaborates on the polemics between these three theoretical orientations. The concluding part examines the possibilities and prospect for stable political community in conditions of pluralism of particular social communities and ethnocultural heterogeneity.

Power and Autistic Traits