Applying a potential across a biomembrane: electrostatic contribution to the bending rigidity and membrane instability

We investigate the effect on biomembrane mechanical properties due to the presence an external potential for a non-conductive non-compressible membrane surrounded by different electrolytes. By solving the Debye-Huckel and Laplace equations for the electrostatic potential and using the relevant stress-tensor we find: in (1.) the small screening length limit, where the Debye screening length is smaller than the distance between the electrodes, the screening certifies that all electrostatic interactions are short-range and the major effect of the applied potential is to decrease the membrane tension and increase the bending rigidity; explicit expressions for electrostatic contribution to the tension and bending rigidity are derived as a function of the applied potential, the Debye screening lengths and the dielectric constants of the membrane and the solvents. For sufficiently large voltages the negative contribution to the tension is expected to cause a membrane stretching instability. For (2.) the dielectric limit, i.e. no salt (and small wavevectors compared to the distance between the electrodes), when the dielectric constant on the two sides are different the applied potential induces an effective (unscreened) membrane charge density, whose long-range interaction is expected to lead to a membrane undulation instability.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, some revisio

Trust in the System? Factors that Impact Citizens’ View of Courts in the United Kingdom

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to test the individual and parliamentary constituency factors that impact the level of trust that British citizens have in the courts.MethodsBy using a Bayesian hierarchical model, this article is able to calculate the effect of variables that exist at both levels.ResultsAt the individual level, the main explanatory variable is the amount of trust a citizen holds for other institutions, and at the constituency level, crime rate has an effect on a citizen's level of trust in the courts.ConclusionPrevious findings related to citizen attitudes and support for courts in the United States transfer well to the United Kingdom.</p

Mechanical Behavior of Cracked Panels Repaired with Bonded Composite Patch

This research focuses on investigating the mechanical behavior of cracked aluminum panels repaired with bonded boron/epoxy composite patches. The effects of crack initiation and growth on the residual strength of the repaired panels are characterized. This research establishes a correlation between damage modes, residual strength and evolution of strain within as well as outside the patch. Monotonic tensile tests on specimens with a perfectly bonded patch were used to determine the base line strength. Likewise, fatigue tests on specimens with a perfectly bonded patch served to establish baseline fatigue life. In addition, several specimens with a perfectly bonded patch were subjected to different fractions of the expected fatigue life, introducing damage, which were quantified by NDE techniques. These specimens were then subjected to a monotonic tensile test to failure in order to characterize the residual strength and the evolution of strain within and outside the patch, and the correlation between the disbonds and strain measurements at various locations on the specimen. This research looks to help in extending the service life of military and commercial aging aircraft, by using bonded composite patches on developing cracks in the structure. Bonded composite patches may be able to replace the crack patching technique of using bolted joints, which have the disadvantage of requiring holes to be machined in the metallic structure, which decreases its load-carrying capacity, creating stress concentrations and sites for crack initiation. In this study it was learned how the strain values increase as the crack grows. And despite differing crack growth rates, the strain values followed the growth of the crack closely throughout all the tests. The effects of overload situations were seen, and how this produces a retardation effect in the rate of growth of the crack

Voter Sex, Party, and Gender-Salient Issues: Attitudes about Sexual Harassment and Brett Kavanaugh in the 2018 Elections

Since the election of President Trump and the dawning of the #MeToo movement, gender-salient issues have had a primary place in recent American politics. This was particularly evident in 2018 in the wake of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings amid accusations that he has sexually assaulted a classmate. Previous research suggests that women should be more concerned about issues like sexual harassment and mobilized to participate in elections in which these issues are prominent. Yet, American politics has become more polarized in the last 25 years, requiring us to re-examine the impact of gender-salient issues on women’s electoral behavior. Employing data from a 2018 ANES pilot study, we examine the relative impact of gender and party on attitudes toward sexual harassment, Brett Kavanaugh, and participation in the 2018 elections. We find that, while gender plays some role in 2018, partisanship is still the dominant influence in these elections.</p

Cross-Pressures on Political Attitudes: Gender, Party, and the #MeToo Movement in the United States

The #MeToo movement has brought heightened attention to issues of sexual harassment and assault in the United States since it burst onto the scene in 2017. Because sexual harassment is an issue that often affects women differently than men, we find a gender gap in support for the #MeToo movement in the contemporary period. Yet, given the polarized nature of our times, a more complete picture of this issue requires that we consider the impact of political party as well. With this approach, we are able to examine several important aspects of these attitudes—differences between women and men, diversity within gender groups, and gender gaps within each party. In doing so, we are also able to identify whether some individuals experience cross-pressures because of their gender and partisan identities. Using American National Election Studies data from 2018 to 2020, we find that partisanship is a significant influence on opinion on this highly gender-salient issue, identifying partisan differences that are larger than the differences between women and men. At the same time, we find that women are more polarized in their attitudes toward #MeToo than are men and that Republican women and Democratic men can exhibit the impact of cross-pressured identities.</p

Blaming Women or Blaming the System? Public Perceptions of Women’s Underrepresentation in Elected Office

While scholars understand some of the reasons for the underrepresentation of women in elected office in the United States, we know almost nothing about what the public sees as the explanation for this reality. We also know relatively little about the degree to which people see women’s underrepresentation as a problem. Drawing on blame attribution theories, we examine whether people believe that there are systematic or individual explanations for the number of women in elected office. As blame explanations often influence positions on outcomes, we also test whether these explanations are related to people’s attitudes toward women in office and their vote choice behaviors in U.S. House races with women candidates present. Using data from a 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) survey, we find differences among people in the blame explanations they make. These explanations are significantly related to attitudes about women in office but do not influence vote choice decisions when women run for office.</p

Pulling up the Drawbridge: Anti-Immigrant Attitudes and Support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) Among Russian-Germans

The most recent scholarship on the Alternative for Germany (AfD) indicates that citizens primarily cast a vote for the party based on anti-immigrant or xenophobic attitudes. Nevertheless, prominent figures from the AfD suggest that many Germany citizens with immigrant backgrounds vote for it - an argument that has been picked up by the media. In this article, we investigate the most likely potential constituency of immigrants that might support the AfD: ethnic German migrants from the former Soviet Union, so-called Russian-Germans. Using the 2017 Immigrant German Election Study (imges), we find that these ethnic German migrants from the former Soviet Union indeed voted for the AfD in relatively large numbers when compared to the overall population. Furthermore, when predicting vote choice, we find that the main predictor of voting for the AfD among Russian-Germans is not political ideology but rather a simple hostility towards new refugees. Crucially, migrants with a Soviet background are more likely to vote for the AfD if they hold the position that there should be no economic or political refugees allowed into the country.</p

Flesh of the Same Flesh: A Study of Voters for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the 2017 Federal Election

Using the 2017 post-election German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES), this article examines the voters for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the 2017 German federal election. We show that AfD voters in 2017 were truly ‘flesh of the same flesh’ of the mainstream German political parties, with the AfD drawing its voters from across the political party spectrum as well as from previous non-voters in 2013. In contrast to previous scholarship, we find that in most respects AfD voters in 2017 did not differ demographically from voters for all other parties, be that in terms of gender, education, employment status, and union membership. Furthermore, we find that AfD voters were not driven by anxiety about their own economic situation: they are no ‘losers of globalisation.’ Instead, AfD voters in 2017 were driven solely by two factors: their attitudes towards immigrants/refugees and anti-establishment sentiment/satisfaction with democracy in Germany.</p