In election years, ballot box success for governors also helps presidential candidates, but not the other way around

The US is not just electing a new president in 2016 – in 12 states voters will also be able to choose their next governor. In new research, Amuitz Garmendia Madariaga and H. Ege Ozen examine how presidential and gubernatorial candidates’ electoral fortunes are intertwined. They find that voters are more likely to cast a straight ticket ballots in presidential election years, and that successful gubernatorial candidates actually provide a vote boost for presidential candidates at the state level, not the other way around

Looking for two-sided coattail effects: Integrated parties and multilevel elections in the U.S.

In the context of the American federalism, integrated parties provide the necessary coordination mechanism for state and federal politicians to be electorally successful. This argument rests on the assumption that voters are able to observe the benefits of voting a straight ticket. We test this individual level explanation by using the CCES data. Moreover, at the aggregate level, we measure the so-called ‘two-sided’ coattail effects in concurrent multilevel elections in the U.S. since 1960. By using a simultaneous equation model, we estimate the reciprocal relationship between presidential and gubernatorial vote shares at the state level. While we find no consistent presidential coattails, we reveal robust and significant gubernatorial coattail effects on state-level presidential vote, underscoring the role of multilevel forces within parties in democratic federations

El poder político territorial

Este artículo se centra en tres acontecimientos relacionados —la fallida negociación presupuestaria, las elecciones locales y autonómicas, y la polémica en torno a la congelación de las entregas a cuenta a las comunidades autónomas— con el fin de analizar la evolución, estado actual y principales retos a los que se enfrenta el poder político territorial en España, cuarenta años después de su constitución democrática

Passing the buck? Responsibility attribution and cognitive bias in multilevel democracies

<p>This paper explores the effect of national partisanship and Euroscepticism on individuals’ causal responsibility attribution in European multilevel democracies. It is particularly focused on the average differences in responsibility attribution in federal and non-federal states, as well as in countries belonging to different European Union enlargement waves. Using a pooled dataset of the 2004, 2009, and 2014 European Election Studies, results show that when poor economic outcomes are at stake, partisans of the national incumbent in federal states are more likely to assign responsibility to regional governments following a blame-attribution logic, while this logic is absent in non-federal states. Likewise, Eurosceptic individuals are more likely to assign responsibility to European authorities when they hold negative views of the economy and they belong to countries that have been European Union members for a longer period.</p

HLA-B*38:02:01 Predicts Carbimazole/Methimazole-Induced Agranulocytosis

Thioamides antithyroid-drugs (ATDs) are important in hyperthyroid disease management. Identification of the susceptibility locus of ATD-induced agranulocytosis is important for clinical management. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 20 patients with ATD-induced agranulocytosis and 775 healthy controls. The top finding was further replicated. A single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs185386680, showed the strongest association with ATD-induced agranulocytosis in GWAS (odds ratio (OR) = 36.4; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 12.8-103.7; P = 1.3 × 10-24) and replication (OR = 37; 95% CI = 3.7-367.4; P = 9.6 × 10-7). HLA-B*38:02:01 was in complete linkage disequilibrium with rs185386680. High-resolution HLA typing confirmed that HLA-B*38:02:01 was associated with carbimazole (CMZ)/methimazole (MMI)-induced agranulocytosis (OR = 265.5; 95% CI = 27.9-2528.0; P = 2.5 × 10-14), but not associated with propylthiouracil (PTU). The positive and negative predictive values of HLA-B*38:02:01 in predicting CMZ/MMI-induced agranulocytosis were 0.07 and 0.999. Approximately 211 cases need to be screened to prevent one case. Screening for the risk allele will be useful in preventing agranulocytosis in populations in which the frequency of the risk allele is high. © 2015, The American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics

Sustainable Development, Ecological Complexity, and Environmental Values

Sustainable Development, Ecological Complexity, and Environmental Values contributes to expanding the idea of sustainability by integrating different thematic issues related to sustainable development in its threefold consideration (economic, social, and environmental) with regard to the case of the Basque Country. On the global scale, changes have clearly accelerated; ecological and social sustainability are two facets of the same changing reality. First, social sustainability depends on ecological sustainability. If we continue degrading nature's capacity to produce the ecosystems' services (water filtration, climate stabilization, etc) and resources (food, materials), both individuals and nations will be affected by growing pressures and increasing conflicts, as well as by threats to public health and personal safety. Second, ecological sustainability depends on social sustainability, a socially unjust and unfair system wiht an ever-increasing population that is not able to have its needs met will necessarily lead to environmental collapse. In addition, human behavior and the social dynamic often lie at the heart of social and ecological problems. It must be, therefore, assumed that there will not be sustainable development if sustainable societies do not first exist. A sustainable society has the challenge of developing human capital. In this book, these global questions are treated as they relate to specific place and context, the Basque Country and its modern institutions.This book was published with generous financial support from the Basque Government.Introduction—Ignacio Ayestarán and Miren Onaindia ? 1. An Evaluation of Ecosystem Services as a Base for the Sustainable Management of a Region by Miren Onaindia and Gloria Rodríguez-Loinaz ? 2. An Evaluation of Millennium Ecosystems from the Basque Country by Igone Palacios, Izaskun Casada-Arzuaga, Iosu Madariaga, and Xabier Arana ? 3. Climate Change: Activities of the EOLO Group at the University of the Basque Country by Agustín Ezcurra, Jon Sáenz, and Gabriel Ibarra-Berastegi ? 4. The Environmental Value of the Karstic Landscape of the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve: The Asnarre Promontory (Bizkaia) by Arantza Aranburu, Laura Damas-Mollá, Patxi García-Garmilla, Iñaki Yusta, M. Arriolabengoa, Peru Iridoy, and Eneko Iriarte ? 5. Recent Environmental Transformation of the Bilbao Estuary: Natural and Anthropogenic Processes by Alejandro Cearreta, Maria Jesús Irabien, and Eduardo Leorri ? 6. The Landscape of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country: The Evolution of Forest Systems by Lorena Peña and Ibone Amezaga ? 7. Critical Theories of Sustainable Development by Eguzki Urteaga ? 8. Bases for the Transition toward a Sustainable Economy by Roberto Bermejo, David Hoyos, and Eneko Garmendia ? 9. Environmental Values, the Epistemology of Complex Problems, and Postnormal Science in the Face of Global Change by Ignacio Ayestáran ? 10. Science, Gender, and Sustainable Development by Teresa Nuño Angós ? 11. Environmental Education as Training: A Case Study at the University of the Basque Country by Araitz Uskola Ibarluzea ? 12. Social Values and Sustainable Practices among Basque Inshore Fishermen by Pío Pérez Aldasoro ? 13. Sustainable Development and the Values of Well-Being and Globalization by Eduardo Rubio Ardanaz, Juan Antonio Rubio-Ardanaz, and Xiao Fang ? Index ? List of Contributor

Replication Data for: Going public against institutional constraints? Analyzing the online presence intensity of 2014 European Parliament election candidates

Political parties and candidates have not been immune to the changes that the Internet and social media have introduced in electoral campaigns. Yet, as the use of digital media by political elites is becoming a norm in the United States, in Europe, the decision to develop an online presence depends on the cross-national differences regarding candidates’ constraints and incentives. European Parliament elections present an exceptional comparative opportunity to measure this potential diversity. Using an original database on the online presence of more than 5000 candidates competing under the label of incumbent parties in 2014, we demonstrate that there are two relevant groups of nonadopters, and that candidates’ online campaign intensity varies significantly depending on incumbency and the ballot structure in their countries