20,764 research outputs found
When Do Opponents of Gay Rights Mobilize? Explaining Political Participation in Times of Backlash against Liberalism
Existing research suggests that supporters of gay rights have outmobilized their opponents, leading to policy changes in advanced industrialized democracies. At the same time, we observe the diffusion of state-sponsored homophobia in many parts of the world. The emergence of gay rights as a salient political issue in global politics leads us to ask, âWho is empowered to be politically active in various societies?â What current research misses is a comparison of levels of participation (voting and protesting) between states that make stronger and weaker appeals to homophobia. Voters face contrasting appeals from politicians in favor of and against gay rights globally. In an analysis of survey data from Europe and Latin America, we argue that the alignment between the norms of sexuality a state promotes and an individualâs personal attitudes on sexuality increases felt political efficacy. We find that individuals who are tolerant of homosexuality are more likely to participate in states with gay-friendly policies in comparison with intolerant individuals. The reverse also holds: individuals with low education levels that are intolerant of homosexuality are more likely to participate in states espousing political homophobia
Biodiversity informatics: the challenge of linking data and the role of shared identifiers
A major challenge facing biodiversity informatics is integrating data stored in widely distributed databases. Initial efforts have relied on taxonomic names as the shared identifier linking records in different databases. However, taxonomic names have limitations as identifiers, being neither stable nor globally unique, and the pace of molecular taxonomic and phylogenetic research means that a lot of information in public sequence databases is not linked to formal taxonomic names. This review explores the use of other identifiers, such as specimen codes and GenBank accession numbers, to link otherwise disconnected facts in different databases. The structure of these links can also be exploited using the PageRank algorithm to rank the results of searches on biodiversity databases. The key to rich integration is a commitment to deploy and reuse globally unique, shared identifiers (such as DOIs and LSIDs), and the implementation of services that link those identifiers
Unifying Parsimonious Tree Reconciliation
Evolution is a process that is influenced by various environmental factors,
e.g. the interactions between different species, genes, and biogeographical
properties. Hence, it is interesting to study the combined evolutionary history
of multiple species, their genes, and the environment they live in. A common
approach to address this research problem is to describe each individual
evolution as a phylogenetic tree and construct a tree reconciliation which is
parsimonious with respect to a given event model. Unfortunately, most of the
previous approaches are designed only either for host-parasite systems, for
gene tree/species tree reconciliation, or biogeography. Hence, a method is
desirable, which addresses the general problem of mapping phylogenetic trees
and covering all varieties of coevolving systems, including e.g., predator-prey
and symbiotic relationships. To overcome this gap, we introduce a generalized
cophylogenetic event model considering the combinatorial complete set of local
coevolutionary events. We give a dynamic programming based heuristic for
solving the maximum parsimony reconciliation problem in time O(n^2), for two
phylogenies each with at most n leaves. Furthermore, we present an exact
branch-and-bound algorithm which uses the results from the dynamic programming
heuristic for discarding partial reconciliations. The approach has been
implemented as a Java application which is freely available from
http://pacosy.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/coresym.Comment: Peer-reviewed and presented as part of the 13th Workshop on
Algorithms in Bioinformatics (WABI2013
Single-level resonance parameters fit nuclear cross-sections
Least squares analyses of experimental differential cross-section data for the U-235 nucleus have yielded single level Breit-Wigner resonance parameters that fit, simultaneously, three nuclear cross sections of capture, fission, and total
Prospects of Detecting Baryon and Quark Superfluidity from Cooling Neutron Stars
Baryon and quark superfluidity in the cooling of neutron stars are
investigated. Observations could constrain combinations of the neutron or
Lambda-hyperon pairing gaps and the star's mass. However, in a hybrid star with
a mixed phase of hadrons and quarks, quark gaps larger than a few tenths of an
MeV render quark matter virtually invisible for cooling. If the quark gap is
smaller, quark superfluidity could be important, but its effects will be nearly
impossible to distinguish from those of other baryonic constituents.Comment: 4 pages, 3 ps figures, uses RevTex(aps,prl). Submitted to Phys. Rev.
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Closed conformal Killing-Yano tensor and geodesic integrability
Assuming the existence of a single rank-2 closed conformal Killing-Yano
tensor with a certain symmetry we show that there exist mutually commuting
rank-2 Killing tensors and Killing vectors. We also discuss the condition of
separation of variables for the geodesic Hamilton-Jacobi equations.Comment: 17 pages, no figure, LaTe
Agnesi Weighting for the Measure Problem of Cosmology
The measure problem of cosmology is how to assign normalized probabilities to
observations in a universe so large that it may have many observations
occurring at many different spacetime locations. I have previously shown how
the Boltzmann brain problem (that observations arising from thermal or quantum
fluctuations may dominate over ordinary observations if the universe expands
sufficiently and/or lasts long enough) may be ameliorated by volume averaging,
but that still leaves problems if the universe lasts too long. Here a solution
is proposed for that residual problem by a simple weighting factor 1/(1+t^2) to
make the time integral convergent. The resulting Agnesi measure appears to
avoid problems other measures may have with vacua of zero or negative
cosmological constant.Comment: 26 pages, LaTeX; discussion is added of how Agnesi weighting appears
better than other recent measure
An approach to software cost estimation
A general procedure for software cost estimation in any environment is outlined. The basic concepts of work and effort estimation are explained, some popular resource estimation models are reviewed, and the accuracy of source estimates is discussed. A software cost prediction procedure based on the experiences of the Software Engineering Laboratory in the flight dynamics area and incorporating management expertise, cost models, and historical data is described. The sources of information and relevant parameters available during each phase of the software life cycle are identified. The methodology suggested incorporates these elements into a customized management tool for software cost prediction. Detailed guidelines for estimation in the flight dynamics environment developed using this methodology are presented
Quark matter in compact stars?
Ozel, in a recent reanalysis of EXO 0748-676 observational data
(astro-ph/0605106), concluded that quark matter probably does not exist in the
center of compact stars. We show that the data is actually consistent with the
presence of quark matter in compact stars.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX; New title and overall rewrite to reflect version
published in Nature. Conclusions unchange
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