Who Can Deviate from the Party Line? Political Ideology Moderates Evaluation of Incongruent Policy Positions in Insula and Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Political polarization at the elite level is a major concern in many contemporary democracies, which is argued to alienate large swaths of the electorate and prevent meaningful social change from occurring, yet little is known about how individuals respond to political candidates who deviate from the party line and express policy positions incongruent with their party affiliations. This experiment examines the neural underpinnings of such evaluations using functional MRI (fMRI). During fMRI, participants completed an experimental task where they evaluated policy positions attributed to hypothetical political candidates. Each block of trials focused on one candidate (Democrat or Republican), but all participants saw two candidates from each party in a randomized order. On each trial, participants received information about whether the candidate supported or opposed a specific policy issue. These issue positions varied in terms of congruence between issue position and candidate party affiliation. We modeled neural activity as a function of incongruence and whether participants were viewing ingroup or outgroup party candidates. Results suggest that neural activity in brain regions previously implicated in both evaluative processing and work on ideological differences (insula and anterior cingulate cortex) differed as a function of the interaction between incongruence, candidate type (ingroup versus outgroup), and political ideology. More liberal participants showed greater activation to incongruent versus congruent trials in insula and ACC, primarily when viewing ingroup candidates. Implications for the study of democratic representation and linkages between citizens’ calls for social change and policy implementation are discussed

The density of seawater solutions at one atmosphere as a function of temperature and salinity

The relative density (d – d0) of diluted and evaporated standard seawater solutions have been determined at one atmosphere with a magnetic float densimeter and a suspension balance from 0.5 to 40‰ salinity and 0 to 40°C…

Deliberative Public Engagement with Science: An Empirical Investigation

experimental manipulations of deliberative engagement; nanotechnology public policy issues; education-oriented communications; experimental social science; science, technology and society; innovation policy; cognitive-affective engagement; polarization of public attitude

Deliberative Public Engagement with Science: An Empirical Investigation

The purpose of this book is to share some results and the data from four studies in which we used experimental procedures to manipulate key features of deliberative public engagement to study the impacts in the context of deliberations about nanotechnology. In this chapter, we discuss the purpose of this book, which is to advance science of public engagement, and the overarching question motivating our research: What public engagement methods work for what purposes and why? We also briefly review existing prior work related to our overarching goal and question and introduce the contents of the rest of the book. Given the potential for negative—or at least controversial—effects of new technologies upon the societies in which various publics must live, what could be more democratic than promoting public involvement in decisions about those new technologies? Unless, of course, it turns out that public involvement, which can sometimes be costly, is ineffective, unnecessary, or actually makes things worse. Some have suggested this may be the case (e.g., Sunstein, 2000, 2002), but, for better or worse, public engagement with and about new technologies is happening all around us. Our interest in studying such public engagement—the topic of this book—is to learn how to design it for the better

Association of acculturation with cardiac structure and function among Hispanics/Latinos: a cross-sectional analysis of the echocardiographic study of Latinos.

OBJECTIVE:Hispanics/Latinos, the largest immigrant population in the USA, undergo the process of acculturation and have a large burden of heart failure risk. Few studies have examined the association of acculturation on cardiac structure and function. DESIGN:Cross-sectional. SETTING:The Echocardiographic Study of Latinos. PARTICIPANTS:1818 Hispanic adult participants with baseline echocardiographic assessment and acculturation measured by the Short Acculturation Scale, nativity, age at immigration, length of US residence, generational status and language. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES:Echocardiographic assessment of left atrial volume index (LAVI), left ventricular mass index (LVMI), early diastolic transmitral inflow and mitral annular velocities. RESULTS:The study population was predominantly Spanish-speaking and foreign-born with mean residence in the US of 22.7 years, mean age of 56.4 years; 50% had hypertension, 28% had diabetes and 44% had a body mass index &gt;30 kg/m2. Multivariable analyses demonstrated higher LAVI with increasing years of US residence. Foreign-born and first-generation participants had higher E/e' but lower LAVI and e' velocities compared with the second generation. Higher acculturation and income &gt;20K were associated with higher LVMI, LAVI and E/e' but lower e' velocities. Preferential Spanish-speakers with an income <20K had a higher E/e'. CONCLUSIONS:Acculturation was associated with abnormal cardiac structure and function, with some effect modification by socioeconomic status

Epigenetic control of EMT/MET dynamics: HNF4α impacts DNMT3s through miRs-29

Background and aims: Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the reverse mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET) are manifestations of cellular plasticity that imply a dynamic and profound gene expression reprogramming. While a major epigenetic code controlling the coordinated regulation of a whole transcriptional profile is guaranteed by DNA methylation, DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) activities in EMT/MET dynamics are still largely unexplored. Here, we investigated the molecular mechanisms directly linking HNF4α, the master effector of MET, to the regulation of both de novo of DNMT 3A and 3B. Methods: Correlation among EMT/MET markers, microRNA29 and DNMT3s expression was evaluated by RT-qPCR, Western blotting and immunocytochemical analysis. Functional roles of microRNAs and DNMT3s were tested by anti-miRs, microRNA precursors and chemical inhibitors. ChIP was utilized for investigating HNF4α DNA binding activity. Results: HNF4α silencing was sufficient to induce positive modulation of DNMT3B, in in vitro differentiated hepatocytes as well as in vivo hepatocyte-specific Hnf4α knockout mice, and DNMT3A, in vitro, but not DNMT1. In exploring the molecular mechanisms underlying these observations, evidence have been gathered for (i) the inverse correlation between DNMT3 levels and the expression of their regulators miR-29a and miR- 29b and (ii) the role of HNF4α as a direct regulator of miR-29a-b transcription. Notably, during TGFβ-induced EMT, DNMT3s' pivotal function has been proved, thus suggesting the need for the repression of these DNMTs in the maintenance of a differentiated phenotype. Conclusions: HNF4α maintains hepatocyte identity by regulating miR-29a and -29b expression, which in turn control epigenetic modifications by limiting DNMT3A and DNMT3B levels

Gender Differences in Bile Acids and Microbiota in Relationship with Gender Dissimilarity in Steatosis Induced by Diet and FXR Inactivation.

This study aims to uncover how specific bacteria and bile acids (BAs) contribute to steatosis induced by diet and farnesoid X receptor (FXR) deficiency in both genders. A control diet (CD) and Western diet (WD), which contains high fat and carbohydrate, were used to feed wild type (WT) and FXR knockout (KO) mice followed by phenotyping characterization as well as BA and microbiota profiling. Our data revealed that male WD-fed FXR KO mice had the most severe steatosis and highest hepatic and serum lipids as well as insulin resistance among the eight studied groups. Gender differences in WD-induced steatosis, insulin sensitivity, and predicted microbiota functions were all FXR-dependent. FXR deficiency enriched Desulfovibrionaceae, Deferribacteraceae, and Helicobacteraceae, which were accompanied by increased hepatic taurine-conjugated cholic acid and β-muricholic acid as well as hepatic and serum lipids. Additionally, distinct microbiota profiles were found in WD-fed WT mice harboring simple steatosis and CD-fed FXR KO mice, in which the steatosis had a potential to develop into liver cancer. Together, the presented data revealed FXR-dependent concomitant relationships between gut microbiota, BAs, and metabolic diseases in both genders. Gender differences in BAs and microbiota may account for gender dissimilarity in metabolism and metabolic diseases

Deliberative Public Engagement with Science: An Empirical Investigation

experimental manipulations of deliberative engagement; nanotechnology public policy issues; education-oriented communications; experimental social science; science, technology and society; innovation policy; cognitive-affective engagement; polarization of public attitude

The Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey. I. Survey Overview and a Catalog of >2000 Galaxy Clusters at z ≃ 1

We present the Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey (MaDCoWS), a search for galaxy clusters at 0.7 ≾ z ≾ 1.5 based upon data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission. MaDCoWS is the first cluster survey capable of discovering massive clusters at these redshifts over the full extragalactic sky. The search is divided into two regions—the region of the extragalactic sky covered by Pan-STARRS (δ > −30°) and the remainder of the southern extragalactic sky at δ < −30° for which shallower optical data from the SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey is available. In this paper, we describe the search algorithm, characterize the sample, and present the first MaDCoWS data release—catalogs of the 2433 highest amplitude detections in the WISE–Pan-STARRS region and the 250 highest amplitude detections in the WISE–SuperCOSMOS region. A total of 1723 of the detections from the WISE–Pan-STARRS sample have also been observed with the Spitzer Space Telescope, providing photometric redshifts and richnesses, and an additional 64 detections within the WISE–SuperCOSMOS region also have photometric redshifts and richnesses. Spectroscopic redshifts for 38 MaDCoWS clusters with IRAC photometry demonstrate that the photometric redshifts have an uncertainty of σ_z /(1 + z) 0.036. Combining the richness measurements with Sunyaev–Zel'dovich observations of MaDCoWS clusters, we also present a preliminary mass–richness relation that can be used to infer the approximate mass distribution of the full sample. The estimated median mass for the WISE–Pan-STARRS catalog is M_(500) = 1.6^(+0.7)_(-0.8) x 10^(14) M_⊙, with the Sunyaev–Zel'dovich data confirming that we detect clusters with masses up to M_(500) ~ 5 × 10^(14) M_⊙ (M_(200) ~ 10^(15) M_⊙)