Serious subjects: A test of the seriousness technique to increase participant motivation in political science experiments

A central concern for experimental studies is participant motivation, which is crucial for internal validity. When participants are not committed to the task, internal validity diminishes because responses might not be authentic. This study introduces and tests the seriousness technique as a method for increasing participant investment in political science experiments that use student samples. The seriousness technique aims at creating a sense of responsibility by telling students that their participation is important because science needs quality data. Results from a computer-assisted foreign policy decision-making experiment show that the seriousness technique increased the degree of information participants access during the foreign policy simulation and the time they spent on the study. These findings suggest that political scientists who use student samples in their experiments can nurture serious subjects by employing the seriousness technique. It is argued that the results should be of interest not only to experimentalists but also to all scholars who use human subjects, including survey researchers, in their research

Replication Data for: AIDING STRANGERS: GENERALIZED TRUST AND THE MORAL BASIS OF PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR FOREIGN AID

Why do publics in donor countries support foreign aid? Focusing on material factors, ideology, and identities, the literature has largely neglected the moral basis of foreign aid attitudes. I argue that generalized trust, defined as the belief in the integrity and t rustworthiness of people, is a crucial component of the moral calculus of public s in donor countries. Using data from independently conducted surveys of global (World Values Survey) and American mass publics (Core Values Project Survey), I show that generalized trusters are more likely to aid the have-nots in the world than those who lack trust in people. This finding indicates that the bonds of trust expand the boundaries of global justice. By illuminating the role generalized trust plays in shaping donor public attitudes towards foreign aid, this study helps improve the political economy, ideology, and identity models of aid, contributing to the literatures on foreign aid and foreign policy attitudes, and to theories of cosmopolitan global justice

The Logic of Negative Appeals: Graphic Imagery, Affective Empathy, and Foreign Development Aid

The use of negative visual imagery of the poor to conjure feelings of pity, guilt, and empathy (also called “poverty porn”) is premised on an emotional mechanism that is supposed to elicit compassion and giving behavior, and yet the very emotional nature of the response to this kind of negative imagery can have the exact opposite effect by evoking compassion fatigue and psychological numbing. Our study interrogates this puzzle. Leveraging original data from survey experiments, we show that exposure to negative and personalized images of aid recipients in despair actually increases support for foreign development aid. In contrast, descriptive statistical information about global poverty moves people very little, or not at all. Our findings have implications for understanding the role imagery plays in shaping public opinion on foreign aid and for development communication. This study builds a bridge between research on foreign aid and humanitarian communication. L\u27utilisation d\u27une imagerie visuelle négative des pauvres pour faire apparaître des sentiments de pitié, de culpabilité et d\u27empathie (aussi appelée « pornographie de la misère ») est basée sur un mécanisme émotionnel qui est supposé susciter la compassion et un comportement généreux, et pourtant, la nature très émotionnelle de la réponse à ce type d\u27imagerie négative peut avoir l\u27effet exactement inverse en provoquant une fatigue de compassion et un engourdissement psychologique. Notre étude s\u27interroge sur ce casse-tête. Nous tirons parti de données originales issues d\u27expériences d\u27enquête et montrons que l\u27exposition à des images négatives et personnalisées de bénéficiaires d\u27aide dans le désespoir accroît en réalité le soutien à l\u27aide au développement étranger. À l\u27inverse, les informations statistiques descriptives sur la pauvreté mondiale n’émeuvent que très peu, voire pas du tout, la population. Nos conclusions ont des implications pour la compréhension du rôle que l\u27imagerie joue dans le façonnement de l\u27opinion publique sur l\u27aide internationale et pour la communication du développement. Cette étude établit un pont entre les recherches sur l\u27aide étrangère et les recherches sur les images en communication humanitaire. El uso de imágenes visuales negativas de los pobres para evocar sentimientos de lástima, culpa y empatía (también llamado “pornografía de la pobreza”) se basa en un mecanismo emocional que se supone que provoca compasión y generosidad y, sin embargo, la propia naturaleza emocional de la respuesta a este tipo de imágenes negativas puede tener el efecto exactamente opuesto provocando fatiga por compasión e insensibilidad psicológica. Nuestro estudio cuestiona este enigma. Si aprovechamos la información original de los experimentos de encuestas, mostramos que la exposición a imágenes negativas y personalizadas de beneficiarios de ayuda desesperados en realidad aumenta el apoyo a la ayuda exterior para el desarrollo. En contraste, la información estadística descriptiva sobre la pobreza global conmueve muy poco a las personas o no las conmueve en lo absoluto. Nuestros resultados tienen implicaciones para comprender el papel que desempeñan las imágenes en la formación de la opinión pública sobre la ayuda exterior y la comunicación para el desarrollo. Este estudio construye un puente entre la investigación sobre la ayuda exterior y la investigación sobre las imágenes en la comunicación humanitaria

Investigaton of the neuronal efficacy and EEG source power under steady-state visual stimulation

Understanding the nature of the link between neuronal activity and BOLD signal plays a crucial role i) for improving the interpretability of BOLD images and ii) on the design of more realistic models for the integration of EEG and fMRI. The aim of this study is to investigate the neural mechanism underlying hemodynamic behavior in a series of visual stimulation frequencies and explore possible implications for the neurovascular coupling. We studied the relationship between electrophysiological and hemodynamic measures by performing simultaneous steady state electroencephalography (EEG) and fMRI recordings in a healthy human subject during a series of visual stimulation frequencies (6 Hz, 8 Hz, 1 0 Hz, 1 2 Hz). BOLD amplitudes were computed for voxels within an anatomical mask which was obtained by mapping the significantly active voxels using general linear modelling (GLM) on fMRI data. On the same anatomical map, EEG power time series belonging to the fundamental frequency and its harmonics due to the stimulation are estimated using a distributed source imaging technique. The neuronal efficacies which represent the vascular inputs driving the BOLD response are estimated by use of an extended version of Balloon model. A nonlinear relationship is demonstrated between the mean EEG source powers and the neuronal efficacies driving the BOLD response. The result suggests that BOLD signal which is an indicator of the metabolic demand of both synchronized and non-synchronized neuronal activities; changes independent of EEG activity which is a measure sensitive to the synchronicity of neuronal activity

Idiopathic brain herniation. A report of two paediatric cases.

'Idiopathic' herniation of the brain is a rare entity previously reported in 13 cases. It may be incidentally encountered in neuroimaging studies acquired for various clinical indications. We herein describe two cases of idiopathic brain herniation that were incidentally diagnosed. A 12-year-old boy presented with a six-month history of daytime sleepiness and sudden spells of sleep. Herniation of the left inferior temporal gyrus was revealed in MRI acquired with the suspicion of epilepsy. His overnight polysomnogram and multiple sleep latency tests were compatible with the diagnosis of narcolepsy. The other case, a two-year-old girl, was transferred from an outside hospital due to partial seizures with the fever. Herniation of the precuneal gyrus was encountered in MRI acquired after controlling her seizures with the initiation of phenytoin. The brain herniations of both patients were considered to be inconsistent with their medical conditions, so that they were symptom-free with only medical treatment for following three and six months, respectively. This is a rare presentation of idiopathic brain herniation as an incidental finding that accompanied narcolepsy and epilepsy. Awareness of this entity would avoid excessive surgical and medical treatments

Brain diffusion tensor imaging in children with tuberous sclerosis

Purpose: To evaluate diffusion characteristics of tubers and white matter lesions in children with tuberous sclerosis (TS) using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)

POPULATION GENETIC ANALYSIS OF ATLANTIC BONITO Sarda sarda (BLOCH, 1793) USING SEQUENCE ANALYSIS OF MTDNA D-LOOP REGION

In this study mitochondrial DNA D-loop gene sequencing was used to investigate genetic structure of 11 Atlantic bonito Sarda sarda populations from the Black Sea, Marmara, Aegean, Mediterranean Seas and Adriatic Sea. The total sequence length, variable sites and parsimony informative sites were 868 bp, 12 bp and 7 bp from 222 individuals, respectively. The nucleotide frequencies were 32.55% A, 31.32% T, 14.44% C, and 21.68% G. The total number of haplotypes was 19, and the highest number of different haplotypes was observed in the nortestem Mediterranean (the Iskenderun Bay) sample, and the lowest was observed in the Bulgarian sample. Low genetic diversity was observed within populations, and the mean genetic diversity within populations and the mean genetic divergence between populations were 0.0009 and 0.0013, respectively. In the statistical analysis, S. sarda was divided into three genetically different populations (P<0.001); the Black and Marmara Sea populations comprise one genetic unit, and the Aegean and Mediterranean coast of Turkey populations constitute the genetically different second unit. The Adriatic Sea population from Croatian coast was also genetically different from these two units. The neighbor joining tree revealed three main phylogenetic nodes; in the first node, the Black Sea, Bosphorus and Marmara Sea samples were grouped close together. In the second main node; the Aegean and northeastern Mediterranean Seas samples were clustered close to each other, and the Adriatic Sea sample was far from these samples, but closer to the Aegean and northeastern Mediterranean samples than the Black Sea and Marmara Sea samples

Novel biallelic variants affecting the OTU domain of the gene OTUD6B associate with severe intellectual disability syndrome and molecular dynamics simulations.

AbstractIntellectual developmental disorder with dysmorphic&nbsp;facies, seizures, and distal&nbsp;limb anomalies&nbsp;(IDDFSDA) is an&nbsp;autosomal recessive&nbsp;multisystem disorder caused by compound heterozygous or homozygous variants in the gene&nbsp;OTUD6B.&nbsp;Herein, we describe novel pathogenic compound heterozygous variants in&nbsp;OTUD6B&nbsp;identified via whole-exome sequencing in an index case exhibited the severe IDDFSDA phenotype. The potential&nbsp;pathogenicity&nbsp;of the novel frameshift and missense variants in the index case was investigated using&nbsp;in silico&nbsp;tools. The truncating frameshift variant in one allele was predicted to undergo degradation via nonsense-mediated decay of the mRNA molecule. To predict the severity of the damage to the protein caused by the missense variant in the other allele and its effects on phenotypic severity was further investigated together with a previously reported first homozygous missense variant in the same domain in another patient with a less severe IDDFSDA phenotype using structural modeling and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for the first time. Based on these analyzes, it is anticipated that Tyr216Cys in the earlier reported case with less severe IDDFSDA will lead to localized destabilization, whereas Ile274Arg in the presented index case with the severe IDDFSDA phenotype will lead to significant distortion in the overall fold of OTUD6B. Our findings suggest that compound LOF and ultrarare missense variants may be contribute to the underlying variability expressivity associated with this disorder. In conclusion, our findings support that the clinical severity could be related with the predicted functional severity of the variations in OTUD6B. However, additional functional studies are required.</div