People vote because they’re worried others will think less of them if they don’t.

For many, the benefits of voting are not immediately obvious. So why do people turn out on Election Day? Some have suggested that people vote because they are worried that others will view them less favorably if they do not. Using experimental evidence from a national survey, David Doherty, Gregory Huber, Alan Gerber and Conor Dowling set out to test this theory. Their results suggest that people’s expectations that others will think less of them if they fail to vote are well-founded

Do Perceptions of Ballot Secrecy Influence Turnout? Results from a Field Experiment

Although the secret ballot has long been secured as a legal matter in the United States, formal secrecy protections are not equivalent to convincing citizens that they may vote privately and without fear of reprisal. We present survey evidence that those who have not previously voted are particularly likely to voice doubts about the secrecy of the voting process. We then report results from a field experiment where we provided registered voters with information about ballot secrecy protections prior to the 2010 general election. We find that these letters increased turnout for registered citizens without records of previous turnout, but did not appear to influence the behavior of citizens who had previously voted. These results suggest that although the secret ballot is a long-standing institution in the United States, providing basic information about ballot secrecy can affect the decision to participate to an important degree.

Reporting guidelines for experimental research: A report from the experimental research section standards committee.

The standards committee of the Experimental Research section was charged with preparing a set of reporting guidelines for experimental research in political science. The committee defined its task as compiling a set of guidelines sufficient to enable the reader or reviewer to follow what the researcher had done and to assess the validity of the conclusions the researcher had drawn. Although the guidelines do request the reporting of some basic statistics, they do not attempt to weigh in on statistical controversies. Rather, they aim for something more modest but nevertheless crucial: to ensure that scholars clearly describe what it is they did at each step in their research and clearly report what their data show. In this paper, we discuss the rationale for reporting guidelines and the process used to formulate the specific guidelines we endorse. The guidelines themselves are included in Appendix 1

NKG7 enhances CD8+ T cell synapse efficiency to limit inflammation

Cytotoxic lymphocytes are essential for anti-tumor immunity, and for effective responses to cancer immunotherapy. Natural killer cell granule protein 7 (NKG7) is expressed at high levels in cytotoxic lymphocytes infiltrating tumors from patients treated with immunotherapy, but until recently, the role of this protein in cytotoxic lymphocyte function was largely unknown. Unexpectedly, we found that highly CD8+ T cell-immunogenic murine colon carcinoma (MC38-OVA) tumors grew at an equal rate in Nkg7+/+ and Nkg7-/- littermate mice, suggesting NKG7 may not be necessary for effective CD8+ T cell anti-tumor activity. Mechanistically, we found that deletion of NKG7 reduces the ability of CD8+ T cells to degranulate and kill target cells in vitro. However, as a result of inefficient cytotoxic activity, NKG7 deficient T cells form a prolonged immune synapse with tumor cells, resulting in increased secretion of inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF). By deleting the TNF receptor, TNFR1, from MC38-OVA tumors, we demonstrate that this hyper-secretion of TNF compensates for reduced synapse-mediated cytotoxic activity against MC38-OVA tumors in vivo, via increased TNF-mediated tumor cell death. Taken together, our results demonstrate that NKG7 enhances CD8+ T cell immune synapse efficiency, which may serve as a mechanism to accelerate direct cytotoxicity and limit potentially harmful inflammatory responses

Mitochondrial arginase-2 is essential for IL-10 metabolic reprogramming of inflammatory macrophages.

Mitochondria are important regulators of macrophage polarisation. Here, we show that arginase-2 (Arg2) is a microRNA-155 (miR-155) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) regulated protein localized at the mitochondria in inflammatory macrophages, and is critical for IL-10-induced modulation of mitochondrial dynamics and oxidative respiration. Mechanistically, the catalytic activity and presence of Arg2 at the mitochondria is crucial for oxidative phosphorylation. We further show that Arg2 mediates this process by increasing the activity of complex II (succinate dehydrogenase). Moreover, Arg2 is essential for IL-10-mediated downregulation of the inflammatory mediators succinate, hypoxia inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) and IL-1β in vitro. Accordingly, HIF-1α and IL-1β are highly expressed in an LPS-induced in vivo model of acute inflammation using Arg2-/- mice. These findings shed light on a new arm of IL-10-mediated metabolic regulation, working to resolve the inflammatory status of the cell

The IDENTIFY study: the investigation and detection of urological neoplasia in patients referred with suspected urinary tract cancer - a multicentre observational study

Objective To evaluate the contemporary prevalence of urinary tract cancer (bladder cancer, upper tract urothelial cancer [UTUC] and renal cancer) in patients referred to secondary care with haematuria, adjusted for established patient risk markers and geographical variation. Patients and Methods This was an international multicentre prospective observational study. We included patients aged ≥16 years, referred to secondary care with suspected urinary tract cancer. Patients with a known or previous urological malignancy were excluded. We estimated the prevalence of bladder cancer, UTUC, renal cancer and prostate cancer; stratified by age, type of haematuria, sex, and smoking. We used a multivariable mixed-effects logistic regression to adjust cancer prevalence for age, type of haematuria, sex, smoking, hospitals, and countries. Results Of the 11 059 patients assessed for eligibility, 10 896 were included from 110 hospitals across 26 countries. The overall adjusted cancer prevalence (n = 2257) was 28.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] 22.3–34.1), bladder cancer (n = 1951) 24.7% (95% CI 19.1–30.2), UTUC (n = 128) 1.14% (95% CI 0.77–1.52), renal cancer (n = 107) 1.05% (95% CI 0.80–1.29), and prostate cancer (n = 124) 1.75% (95% CI 1.32–2.18). The odds ratios for patient risk markers in the model for all cancers were: age 1.04 (95% CI 1.03–1.05; P < 0.001), visible haematuria 3.47 (95% CI 2.90–4.15; P < 0.001), male sex 1.30 (95% CI 1.14–1.50; P < 0.001), and smoking 2.70 (95% CI 2.30–3.18; P < 0.001). Conclusions A better understanding of cancer prevalence across an international population is required to inform clinical guidelines. We are the first to report urinary tract cancer prevalence across an international population in patients referred to secondary care, adjusted for patient risk markers and geographical variation. Bladder cancer was the most prevalent disease. Visible haematuria was the strongest predictor for urinary tract cancer

Carnivals of Reaction?: Irish Modernist Novelists and the Free State Counter-Revolution.

This dissertation is a study of Irish modernist novelists and of the pro-state and counterrevolutionary themes found in their works. These novels, in so far as they are concerned with political questions, are generally ambivalent about the post-1922 settlement in Ireland. This ambivalence has been often overlooked in recent criticism which has tended to suggest that Irish modernism was, in the post-independence period as much as in the period of revolutionary agitation which had preceded it, a force for imagining and creating alternative Irelands. Hence this thesis critically engages with Irish postcolonial critics such as Declan Kiberd, in demonstrating how the creation of the Free State in fact radically altered the context of Irish modernist literary production. I here explore the linkages between formal experimentation and counter-revolutionary politics in novels by four writers, James Joyce, Eimar O’Duffy, Brian O’Nolan, and Kate O’Brien. I argue that in works such as King Goshawk and the Birds, At Swim-Two-Birds, and The Land of Spices, as well as in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, we can apprehend an appreciation of the actual achievements of the movement for Irish political independence. While these achievements are often understood by these authors to be flawed and insecure, and to be always under the threat of collapse, they are nevertheless animated to varying degrees by an ambition to protect and develop the legacies of 1922 settlement

CCES 2016, Team Module of University of Mississippi (OLE MISS)

This dataverse contains the data and supporting documents for the CCES 2016 University of Mississippi. This project was supported by the National Science Foundation, Grant Number SES-1559125

Merging the concepts of community and infrastructure resilience

As a result of climate change cities face challenges of growing complexity and uncertainties including increasing magnitude and volume of droughts, storms and flooding among other extreme weather events. Traditional risk management, based on probabilistic quantitative methods, are no longer sufficient to address the unpredictability and magnitude of these events. These challenges are further complicated by the increased interdependency of many of society\u27s urban systems which presents a fundamental challenge to even the most comprehensive risk analysis. In response to this problem urban resilience has grown in popularity as a way to address the impacts of climate change and to maintain the functionality of urban systems during disaster events. However urban resilience remains siloed in its application to either built infrastructure systems or the communities they support and there is a significant gap in the literature as to how these two resilience types can be brought together. The early integration of resilience into the design of critical infrastructure systems management is needed to complement the existing knowledge-base of risk analysis and to address the emerging issues associated with complexity and uncertainty. This thesis argues for the significance of resilience in urban development and the necessity for practitioners to engage with the emerging concept of viewing critical infrastructure as part of a wider complex socio-technical system (STS). The research aims to develop and trial professional approaches to embed resilience within design processes through an empirical contribution with the development of a Resilience Management Framework (RMF). This framework aims to provide decision makers with a baseline measurement of STS resilience and suggests how resilience capabilities may be improved. The framework is tested with a case study which helps to develop practical pathways to resilience attainment. This study is complemented by expert interviews which aim to elicit effective and practical approaches to the implementation of conditions for urban resilience. The study identified sources of resilience and resilience dynamics that require management in the context of STS management. The thesis is concluded with a discussion on the importance of new professional tools for facilitating the delivery of resilient systems and with the conclusions of the study