In a more polarized era more and more citizens are structuringtheir beliefs along ideological lines, just as politicians do

While politics in the US has long been split along the left-right, liberal-conservative spectrum, most academics have assumed that these divisions had historically not percolated through to how most Americans see themselves. In new research which draws on election data, Caitlin E. Jewitt and Paul N. Goren find that people are now more able to structure their beliefs along the left-right dimension than they were in 1980. As debates between political elites have become more polarized, many more Americans who are ideologically engaged are now thinking about issues and organizing their policy positions just as politicians do

A unified theory of value-based reasoning and U.S. public opinion

Public opinion research shows that American citizens utilize domain-specific political values to guide opinion formation in the key issue areas that comprise the American political agenda. One set of political values operates on economic welfare opinions, a different set of values applies to cultural issue positions, a third set shapes foreign policy preferences, and so on in other policy domains. Drawing on Shalom Schwartz’s theory of basic human values, this paper argues that two socially focused values—self-transcendence and conservation—guide opinion formation across all major policy domains. By contrast, the personally focused values of self-enhancement and openness-to-change should play a more limited role in preference formation. These hypotheses are tested using data from a novel 2011 national survey and the 2012 General Social Survey. The statistical results affirm expectations. We show that self-transcendence and conservation values predict scores on symbolic ideology, economic conservatism, racial conservatism, cultural conservatism, civil liberties, and foreign policy opinions. Self-enhancement and openness-to-change values play a modest role in shaping preferences

Taking Foreign Policy Personally: Personal Values and Foreign Policy Attitudes

Previous research has shown that on issues of foreign policy, individuals have “general stances,” “postures,” “dispositions” or “orientations” that inform their beliefs toward more discrete issues in international relations. While these approaches delineate the proximate sources of public opinion in the foreign policy domain, they evade an even more important question: what gives rise to these foreign policy orientations in the first place? Combining an original survey on a nationally representative sample of Americans with Schwartz’s theory of values from political psychology, we show that people take foreign policy personally: the same basic values we know people use to guide choices in their daily lives also travel to the domain of foreign affairs, offering one potential explanation why people who are otherwise uninformed about world politics nonetheless express coherent foreign policy beliefs

I Believe More in the Ability of the Small Person to Make Big Changes : Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship to Promote Public Health in Israel.

Social entrepreneurship has grown worldwide in recent decades as it attempts to create and implement innovative solutions to social and environmental issues through business strategies. The aim of this study was to explore what motivates public health social entrepreneurs to act, the challenges and barriers they face, achievements, and competencies required for success. As such, we interviewed 15 social entrepreneurs in Israel. Budget issues, regulatory barriers, and struggles against powerful companies were the frequent barriers to success. The interviewees indicated several achievements at the health policy level by positioning and becoming an authority in the field, positively influencing other people\u27s lives. They highlighted the importance of creativity, determination and courage, leadership, and the ability to persevere in the face of overwhelming adverse odds as essential for the social entrepreneur\u27s success. Social entrepreneurship in public health is essential when struggling with health disparities. Nevertheless, recognizing that social entrepreneurship is not a substitute for methodological government planning and accountability is crucial

Three-month-olds, but not newborns, prefer own-race faces

Adults are sensitive to the physical differences that define ethnic groups. However, the age at which we become sensitive to ethnic differences is currently unclear. Our study aimed to clarify this by testing newborns and young infants for sensitivity to ethnicity using a visual preference (VP) paradigm. While newborn infants demonstrated no spontaneous preference for faces from either their own- or other-ethnic groups, 3-month-old infants demonstrated a significant preference for faces from their own-ethnic group. These results suggest that preferential selectivity based on ethnic differences is not present in the first days of life, but is learned within the first 3 months of life. The findings imply that adults’ perceptions of ethnic differences are learned and derived from differences in exposure to own- versus other-race faces during early developmen

BRG1 co-localizes with DNA replication factors and is required for efficient replication fork progression

For DNA replication to occur, chromatin must be remodeled. Yet, we know very little about which proteins alter nucleosome occupancy at origins and replication forks and for what aspects of replication they are required. Here, we demonstrate that the BRG1 catalytic subunit of mammalian SWI/SNF-related complexes co-localizes with origin recognition complexes, GINS complexes, and proliferating cell nuclear antigen at sites of DNA replication on extended chromatin fibers. The specific pattern of BRG1 occupancy suggests it does not participate in origin selection but is involved in the firing of origins and the process of replication elongation. This latter function is confirmed by the fact that Brg1 mutant mouse embryos and RNAi knockdown cells exhibit a 50% reduction in replication fork progression rates, which is associated with decreased cell proliferation. This novel function of BRG1 is consistent with its requirement during embryogenesis and its role as a tumor suppressor to maintain genome stability and prevent cancer

Dissemination of Cephalosporin Resistance Genes between Escherichia coli Strains from Farm Animals and Humans by Specific Plasmid Lineages

Third-generation cephalosporins are a class of β-lactam antibiotics that are often used for the treatment of human infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria, especially Escherichia coli. Worryingly, the incidence of human infections caused by third-generation cephalosporin-resistant E. coli is increasing worldwide. Recent studies have suggested that these E. coli strains, and their antibiotic resistance genes, can spread from food-producing animals, via the food-chain, to humans. However, these studies used traditional typing methods, which may not have provided sufficient resolution to reliably assess the relatedness of these strains. We therefore used whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to study the relatedness of cephalosporin-resistant E. coli from humans, chicken meat, poultry and pigs. One strain collection included pairs of human and poultry-associated strains that had previously been considered to be identical based on Multi-Locus Sequence Typing, plasmid typing and antibiotic resistance gene sequencing. The second collection included isolates from farmers and their pigs. WGS analysis revealed considerable heterogeneity between human and poultry-associated isolates. The most closely related pairs of strains from both sources carried 1263 Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) per Mbp core genome. In contrast, epidemiologically linked strains from humans and pigs differed by only 1.8 SNPs per Mbp core genome. WGS-based plasmid reconstructions revealed three distinct plasmid lineages (IncI1- and IncK-type) that carried cephalosporin resistance genes of the Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase (ESBL)- and AmpC-types. The plasmid backbones within each lineage were virtually identical and were shared by genetically unrelated human and animal isolates. Plasmid reconstructions from short-read sequencing data were validated by long-read DNA sequencing for two strains. Our findings failed to demonstrate evidence for recent clonal transmission of cephalosporin-resistant E. coli strains from poultry to humans, as has been suggested based on traditional, low-resolution typing methods. Instead, our data suggest that cephalosporin resistance genes are mainly disseminated in animals and humans via distinct plasmids

Are we ready to track climate-driven shifts in marine species across international boundaries? - A global survey of scientific bottom trawl data

Marine biota are redistributing at a rapid pace in response to climate change and shifting seascapes. While changes in fish populations and community structure threaten the sustainability of fisheries, our capacity to adapt by tracking and projecting marine species remains a challenge due to data discontinuities in biological observations, lack of data availability, and mismatch between data and real species distributions. To assess the extent of this challenge, we review the global status and accessibility of ongoing scientific bottom trawl surveys. In total, we gathered metadata for 283,925 samples from 95 surveys conducted regularly from 2001 to 2019. We identified that 59% of the metadata collected are not publicly available, highlighting that the availability of data is the most important challenge to assess species redistributions under global climate change. Given that the primary purpose of surveys is to provide independent data to inform stock assessment of commercially important populations, we further highlight that single surveys do not cover the full range of the main commercial demersal fish species. An average of 18 surveys is needed to cover at least 50% of species ranges, demonstrating the importance of combining multiple surveys to evaluate species range shifts. We assess the potential for combining surveys to track transboundary species redistributions and show that differences in sampling schemes and inconsistency in sampling can be overcome with spatio-temporal modeling to follow species density redistributions. In light of our global assessment, we establish a framework for improving the management and conservation of transboundary and migrating marine demersal species. We provide directions to improve data availability and encourage countries to share survey data, to assess species vulnerabilities, and to support management adaptation in a time of climate-driven ocean changes.En prensa6,86

Evaluation of the glycemic effect of methotrexate in psoriatic arthritis patients with metabolic syndrome: A pilot study

Methotrexate (MTX) is a systemic immunosuppressant drug used for the treatment of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Previous studies demonstrated a potential association between psoriasis and diabetes mellitus, obesity, atherosclerosis, hypertension, eventuating into metabolic syndrome. This study aimed at exploring the glycemic effects of MTX in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients. In this prospective cross-sectional study, 27 patients with PsA were evaluated. The status of PsA and presence of accompanying metabolic syndrome was determined by standard criteria and indices. Blood indicators including HbA1c, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, fasting blood sugar, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, and C-reactive protein were examined before and 12 weeks after MTX therapy. There were no significant changes between HbA1c levels before and after MTX therapy in both genders (men: P=0.131, women: P=0.803). In addition, HbA1c levels in PsA patients with metabolic syndrome were not different before and after treatment (P=0.250). Finally, HbA1c levels did not change in PsA patients without metabolic syndrome before and after therapy (P=0.506). MTX in PsA patients does not appear to have hyperglycaemic effects in the short-term and can be safely used in patients with metabolic syndrome and diabetes

Neogene Uplift and Magmatism of Anatolia: Insights from Drainage Analysis and Basaltic Geochemistry

It is generally agreed that mantle dynamics have played a significant role in generating and maintaining the elevated topography of Anatolia during Neogene times. However, there is much debate about the relative importance of subduction zone and asthenospheric processes. Key issues concern onset and cause of regional uplift, thickness of the lithospheric plate, and the presence or absence of temperature and/or compositional anomalies within the convecting mantle. Here, we tackle these interlinked issues by analyzing and modeling two disparate suites of observations. First, a drainage inventory of 1,844 longitudinal river profiles is assembled. This geomorphic database is inverted to calculate the variation of Neogene regional uplift through time and space by minimizing the misfit between observed and calculated river profiles subject to independent calibration. Our results suggest that regional uplift commenced in the east at 20 Ma and propagated westward. Secondly, we have assembled a database of geochemical analyses of basaltic rocks. Two different approaches have been used to quantitatively model this database with a view to determining the depth and degree of asthenospheric melting across Anatolia. Our results suggest that melting occurs at depths as shallow as 60 km in the presence of mantle potential temperatures as high as 1400°C. There is evidence that potential temperatures are higher in the east, consistent with the pattern of sub-plate shear wave velocity anomalies. Our combined results are consistent with isostatic and admittance analyses and suggest that elevated asthenospheric temperatures beneath thinned Anatolian lithosphere have played a first order role in generating and maintaining regional dynamic topography and basaltic magmatism