The Political Affiliation Demographics of the Student Body

There is little question that higher education within the United States is largely perceived as a liberal organ. Indeed, within both the professorate and the student body, the liberal demographic has maintained a steady and often dramatic majority. A modest liberalization effect has been found among students across the nation, and those within the social sciences have exhibited greater-than-average liberal-to-conservative ratios. Stemming from both stereotypes and general data, many politically conservative affiliates have trumpeted their political ideologues as the alienated, maligned, and even persecuted minority. From accusations of liberal indoctrination to the dismissal of opposing views, many conservatives have heatedly spoken against the nationwide institution of higher learning. Naturally, like-individuals associate with one another, and quite predictably, collegiate learning has revealed an at times compact conservative minority within specific colleges and universities, even to the point of reaching a prominent majority within these few institutions. It was hypothesized that Cedarville University, consistent with data from 2004, would reveal a strong conservative majority. While results upon polling were relatively consistent with this hypothesis, the demographic spread was unexpectedly consistent with results revealed in the 2004 original study. Moreover, the recent data revealed several statistically significant trends that prompted multiple hypotheses. A biannual survey is encouraged for future research in order to comprehensively examine the political affiliation trends of a unique student body

Editorial

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Shifting death to their alternatives : the case of toll motorways

A renewed interest on the use of tolls for funding motorways and regulating their demands has been recovered in the last years. However, less attention has been put to the road safety effects derived from this policy. Although toll motorways show quality levels equal or above free motorways, charging users for the use of better infrastructure shifts some traffic to their low quality adjacent alternatives. In the present study we test whether charging for the use of the better road might negatively affect road safety in the worst adjacent road. The results confirm our hypothesis opening a new concern

Lowering blood alcohol content levels to save lives : the european experience

Road safety has become an increasing concern in developed countries due to the significant amount of mortal victims and the economic losses derived. Only in 2005 these losses rose to 200.000 million euros, a significant amount - approximately the 2% of its GDP- that easily justifies any public intervention. One tool used by governments to face this challenge is the enactment of stricter policies and regulations. Since drunk driving is one of the most important concerns of public authorities on this field, several European countries decided to lower their illegal Blood Alcohol Content levels to 0.5 mg/ml during the last decade. This study evaluates for the first time the effectiveness of this transition using European panel-based data (CARE) for the period 1991-2003 using the Differences-in-Differences method in a fixed effects estimation that allows for any pattern of correlation (Cluster-Robust). My results show the existence of positive impacts on certain groups of road users and for the whole population when the policy is accompanied by some enforcement interventions. Moreover, a time lag of more than two years is found in that effectiveness. Finally, I also assert the importance of controlling for serial correlation in the evaluation of this kind of policies

Co-translational protein targeting facilitates centrosomal recruitment of PCNT during centrosome maturation in vertebrates.

As microtubule-organizing centers of animal cells, centrosomes guide the formation of the bipolar spindle that segregates chromosomes during mitosis. At mitosis onset, centrosomes maximize microtubule-organizing activity by rapidly expanding the pericentriolar material (PCM). This process is in part driven by the large PCM protein pericentrin (PCNT), as its level increases at the PCM and helps recruit additional PCM components. However, the mechanism underlying the timely centrosomal enrichment of PCNT remains unclear. Here, we show that PCNT is delivered co-translationally to centrosomes during early mitosis by cytoplasmic dynein, as evidenced by centrosomal enrichment of PCNT mRNA, its translation near centrosomes, and requirement of intact polysomes for PCNT mRNA localization. Additionally, the microtubule minus-end regulator, ASPM, is also targeted co-translationally to mitotic spindle poles. Together, these findings suggest that co-translational targeting of cytoplasmic proteins to specific subcellular destinations may be a generalized protein targeting mechanism

Alpine rockwall erosion patterns follow elevation-dependent climate trajectories

Mountainous topography reflects an interplay between tectonic uplift, crustal strength, and climate-conditioned erosion cycles. During glaciations, glacial erosion increases bedrock relief, whereas during interglacials relief is lowered by rockwall erosion. Here, we show that paraglacial, frost cracking and permafrost processes jointly drive postglacial rockwall erosion in our research area. Field observations and modelling experiments demonstrate that all three processes are strongly conditioned by elevation. Our findings on catchment scale provide a potential multi-process explanation for the increase of rockwall erosion rates with elevation across the European Alps. As alpine basins warm during deglaciation, changing intensities and elevation-dependent interactions between periglacial and paraglacial processes result in elevational shifts in rockwall erosion patterns. Future climate warming will shift the intensity and elevation distribution of these processes, resulting in overall lower erosion rates across the Alps, but with more intensified erosion at the highest topography most sensitive to climate change

The Impact in the Costs of Raising a Child on Parents’ Decision to Have Children

Singapore is the second country within the Asia Pacific that had the lowest birth rate percentiles in 2020, which calls for immediate attention. The objective of the research is to determine whether the cost of raising a child will affect the decision of having children in Singapore. The focal area of analysis is due to the gaps that were identified within past literature that had little to no data concerning the studied relationship. Therefore, the contribution is the bridging of the literature. The analysis will be concentrated on 34 OECD countries and a selection of non-OECD countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Thailand. The independent variables are the cost of raising children, cost of living, and income (GDP), and the dependent variable is the birth rate. A line graph will be used to analyze the performance of birth rate, regression analysis to identify factors that have influenced the birth rate, and a t-test to examine any statistically significant differences in the birth rate between developed and developing countries. The results aim to show if the costs of raising a child in Singapore have an effect on a parent’s decision of having children

Dust Reddening in SDSS Quasars

We explore the form of extragalactic reddening toward quasars using a sample of 9566 quasars with redshifts 0<z<2.2, and accurate optical colors from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We confirm that dust reddening is the primary explanation for the red ``tail'' of the color distribution of SDSS quasars. Our fitting to 5-band photometry normalized by the modal quasar color as a function of redshift shows that this ``tail'' is well described by SMC-like reddening but not by LMC-like, Galactic, or Gaskell et al. (2004) reddening. Extension to longer wavelengths using a subset of 1886 SDSS-2MASS matches confirms these results at high significance. We carry out Monte-Carlo simulations that match the observed distribution of quasar spectral energy distributions using a Lorentzian dust reddening distribution; 2% of quasars selected by the main SDSS targeting algorithm (i.e., which are not extincted out of the sample) have E_{B-V} > 0.1; less than 1% have E_{B-V} > 0.2, where the extinction is relative to quasars with modal colors. Reddening is uncorrelated with the presence of intervening narrow-line absorption systems, but reddened quasars are much more likely to show narrow absorption at the redshift of the quasar than are unreddened quasars. Thus the reddening towards quasars is dominated by SMC-like dust at the quasar redshift.Comment: 29 pages including 8 figures. AJ, September 2004 issu