Charge the Cockpit or Die: An Anatomy of Fear-Driven Political Rhetoric in American Conservatism

Subthreshold negative emotions have superseded conscious reason as the initial and strongest motivators of political behavior. Political neuroscience uses the concepts of negativity bias and terror management theory to explore why fear-driven rhetoric plays such an outsized role in determining human political actions. These mechanisms of human anthropology are explored by competing explanations from biblical and evolutionary scholars who attempt to understand their contribution to human vulnerabilities to fear. When these mechanisms are observed in fear-driven political rhetoric, three common characteristics emerge: exaggerated threat, tribal combat, and religious apocalypse, which provide a new framework for explaining how modern populist leaders weaponize negative emotions to meaningfully influence individual convictions, tribal identities, cultural imaginations, and reactions against outgroups and perceived external threats

Liberalizing American Voting Laws: Institutionally Increasing Voter Turnout

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)This paper expands previous research analyzing the impact voting laws have on voter turnout in national elections in the United States. I analyzed voter turnout in the 2008 Presidential Election and the 2010 off year election in all fifty states to see if voting restrictions declined turnout. My results show evidence that the further away from Election Day voter registration ends, the lower voter turnout a state can expect. I also found laws requiring employers to allow employees time off work to vote on Election Day had lower voter turnout rates than the states allowing employer discretion to determine whether an employee can take time off work to vote. Lastly, my paper shows evidence allowing anyone to vote by mail had a significant increase in the 2008 Presidential Election voter turnout rates compared to states requiring an excuse. However, I did not find any statistical significance in the 2010 off year election

Participation and Representation: Does Risk Acceptance Influence the Decision Making of Political Actors?

ABSTRACT Are political actors influenced by their acceptance of risk? By political actors I mean individuals in society or government that have an influence on political outcomes. By risk acceptance I mean the degree to which an individual is comfortable with uncertainty and willing to challenge the status quo. The purpose of the present dissertation is to further enhance scholarly understanding of the causal psychological mechanisms that influence political behavior by considering individual risk acceptance. Kam’s (2012) theoretical framework suggests that risk-accepting individuals are more likely to participate in politics because they seek out exciting and novel activities. She does not, however, find any evidence that the risk accepting are any more likely to vote. I argue that enforced compulsory sanctions provide exciting opportunities for the highly risk accepting to abstain from compulsory elections, but also create higher levels of uncertainty for those with low levels of risk acceptance, which leads to a greater likelihood of voting for the latter but not the former. If you are a risk acceptor, you may be willing to violate the compulsory voting requirement. I also expand Kam’s (2012) theoretical framework in Chapter 5 by considering how risk acceptance influences the decision to protest. I argue that because nondemocracies are more repressive than democracies, the risk accepting may be more likely to protest in non-democratic countries than their less risk-accepting counterparts. On the other hand, low risk-accepting individuals may be more hesitant in their willingness to risk life and limb by challenging the status quo of non-democratic regimes because non-democratic countries are more likely to repress political detractors. Finally, political scholars theorize that legislators are hesitant to make risky decisions in office, yet they provide surprisingly little empirical evidence that risk acceptance influences legislative decision making. In Chapter 6 I use a novel theoretical framework and measure of risk acceptance to predict legislative decision making in the United States House of Representatives

Prevention of Mycobacterium avium Subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) Infection in Balb/c mice by Feeding Lactobacillus acidophilus Strain NP-51®

The immune responses of 390 BALB/c mice fed the probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus strain NP51 ® and infected with Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) were evaluated in a 6-month trial. Mice were randomized to nine treatment groups that fed either viable- or heat-killed NP51 and inoculated with either viable- or heatkilled MAP or sterile phosphate-buffered saline. Feeding the NP51 resulted in higher numbers of T lymphocytes in the spleen including the CD8 + cytotoxic T lymphocytes. In addition, feeding the NP51 lowered the number of immune suppressive T regulatory cells CD4 + CD25 + and CD8 + CD25 + cells in the spleen. Additionally, feeding the NP51 resulted in higher concentration of interferon-gamma in the supernatant of splenocytes cultured in vitro. These results suggest that feeding the NP51 to BALB/c mice might prevent the progression of MAP infection in mice

Dictyostelium Myosin Bipolar Thick Filament Formation: Importance of Charge and Specific Domains of the Myosin Rod

Myosin-II thick filament formation in Dictyostelium is an excellent system for investigating the phenomenon of self-assembly, as the myosin molecule itself contains all the information required to form a structure of defined size. Phosphorylation of only three threonine residues can dramatically change the assembly state of myosin-II. We show here that the C-terminal 68 kDa of the myosin-II tail (termed AD-Cterm) assembles in a regulated manner similar to full-length myosin-II and forms bipolar thick filament (BTF) structures when a green fluorescent protein (GFP) “head” is added to the N terminus. The localization of this GFP-AD-Cterm to the cleavage furrow of dividing Dictyostelium cells depends on assembly state, similar to full-length myosin-II. This tail fragment therefore represents a good model system for the regulated formation and localization of BTFs. By reducing regulated BTF assembly to a more manageable model system, we were able to explore determinants of myosin-II self-assembly. Our data support a model in which a globular head limits the size of a BTF, and the large-scale charge character of the AD-Cterm region is important for BTF formation. Truncation analysis of AD-Cterm tail fragments shows that assembly is delicately balanced, resulting in assembled myosin-II molecules that are poised to disassemble due to the phosphorylation of only three threonines

Susceptibility of Juvenile Steelhead to Avian Predation: the Influence of Individual Fish Characteristics and River Conditions

Identification of the factors that influence susceptibility to predation can aid in developing management strategies to recover fish populations of conservation concern. Predator-prey relationships can be influenced by numerous factors, including prey condition, prey size, and environmental conditions. We investigated these factors by using juvenile steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss from the Snake River (Pacific Northwest, USA), a distinct population segment that is listed as threatened under the U. S. Endangered Species Act. During 2007-2009, steelhead smolts (n = 25,909) were captured, examined for external condition characteristics (e. g., body injuries, descaling, external signs of disease, fin damage, and ectoparasite infestations), marked with passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags, and released to continue their out-migration. Recoveries of PIT tags on a downstream colony of Caspian terns Hydroprogne caspia (n = 913 tags) indicated that steelhead susceptibility to Caspian tern predation increased significantly with decreases in steelhead external condition, decreased water discharge, and decreased water clarity. Susceptibility to Caspian tern predation also increased with increasing steelhead fork length up to 202 mm but then decreased for longer steelhead. Recoveries of PIT tags on a downstream colony of double-crested cormorants Phalacrocorax auritus (n = 493 tags) indicated that steelhead susceptibility to double-crested cormorant predation increased significantly with declining external condition of steelhead, and that steelhead of hatchery origin were more susceptible than their wild counterparts. Results indicate that steelhead susceptibility to avian predation is dependent on fish condition and length and is influenced by river conditions and rearing environment.Keywords: Snake River, Avoidance behavior, Relative vulnerability, Double crested cormorants, Foraging patterns, Chinook salmon, Passive integrated transponders, Caspian terns, Lower Columbia River, Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytsch

Quantifying Avian Predation on Fish Populations: Integrating Predator-Specific Deposition Probabilities in Tag Recovery Studies

Accurate assessment of specific mortality factors is vital to prioritize recovery actions for threatened and endangered species. For decades, tag recovery methods have been used to estimate fish mortality due to avian predation. Predation probabilities derived from fish tag recoveries on piscivorous waterbird colonies typically reflect minimum estimates of predation due to an unknown and unaccounted-for fraction of tags that are consumed but not deposited on-colony (i.e., deposition probability). We applied an integrated tag recovery modeling approach in a Bayesian context to estimate predation probabilities that accounted for predator-specific tag detection and deposition probabilities in a multiple-predator system. Studies of PIT tag deposition were conducted across three bird species nesting at seven different colonies in the Columbia River basin, USA. Tag deposition probabilities differed significantly among predator species (Caspian terns Hydroprogne caspia: deposition probability = 0.71, 95% credible interval [CRI] = 0.51–0.89; double-crested cormorants Phalacrocorax auritus: 0.51, 95% CRI = 0.34–0.70; California gulls Larus californicus: 0.15, 95% CRI = 0.11–0.21) but showed little variation across trials within a species or across years. Data from a 6-year study (2008–2013) of PIT-tagged juvenile Snake River steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss (listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act) indicated that colony-specific predation probabilities ranged from less than 0.01 to 0.17 and varied by predator species, colony location, and year. Integrating the predator-specific deposition probabilities increased the predation probabilities by a factor of approximately 1.4 for Caspian terns, 2.0 for double-crested cormorants, and 6.7 for California gulls compared with traditional minimum predation rate methods, which do not account for deposition probabilities. Results supported previous findings on the high predation impacts from strictly piscivorous waterbirds nesting in the Columbia River estuary (i.e., terns and cormorants), but our findings also revealed greater impacts of a generalist predator species (i.e., California gulls) than were previously documented. Approaches used in this study allow for direct comparisons among multiple fish mortality factors and considerably improve the reliability of tag recovery models for estimating predation probabilities in multiple-predator systems

Cancer of the ampulla of Vater: analysis of the whole genome sequence exposes a potential therapeutic vulnerability

BACKGROUND: Recent advances in the treatment of cancer have focused on targeting genomic aberrations with selective therapeutic agents. In rare tumors, where large-scale clinical trials are daunting, this targeted genomic approach offers a new perspective and hope for improved treatments. Cancers of the ampulla of Vater are rare tumors that comprise only about 0.2% of gastrointestinal cancers. Consequently, they are often treated as either distal common bile duct or pancreatic cancers. METHODS: We analyzed DNA from a resected cancer of the ampulla of Vater and whole blood DNA from a 63 year-old man who underwent a pancreaticoduodenectomy by whole genome sequencing, achieving 37× and 40× coverage, respectively. We determined somatic mutations and structural alterations. RESULTS: We identified relevant aberrations, including deleterious mutations of KRAS and SMAD4 as well as a homozygous focal deletion of the PTEN tumor suppressor gene. These findings suggest that these tumors have a distinct oncogenesis from either common bile duct cancer or pancreatic cancer. Furthermore, this combination of genomic aberrations suggests a therapeutic context for dual mTOR/PI3K inhibition. CONCLUSIONS: Whole genome sequencing can elucidate an oncogenic context and expose potential therapeutic vulnerabilities in rare cancers