Inequality and Electoral Accountability: Class-Biased Economic Voting in Comparative Perspective

Do electorates hold governments accountable for the distribution of economic welfare? Building on the finding of “class-biased economic voting” in the United States, we exam- ine how OECD electorates respond to alternative distributions of income gains and losses. Drawing on individual-level electoral data and aggregate election results across 15 advanced democracies, we examine whether lower- and middle-income voters defend their distributive interests by punishing governments for concentrating income gains among the rich. We find no indication that non-rich voters punish rising inequality, and substantial evidence that electorates positively reward the concentration of aggregate income growth at the top. Our results suggest that governments commonly face political incentives systematically skewed in favor of inegalitarian economic outcomes. At the same time, we find that the electorate’s tolerance of rising inequality has its limits: class biases in economic voting diminish as the income shares of the rich grow in magnitude

Whose News? Class-Biased Economic News in the United States

There is substantial evidence that voters’ choices are shaped by assessments of the state of the economy and that these assessments, in turn, are influenced by the news. But how does the economic news track the welfare of different income groups in an era of rising inequality? Whose economy does the news cover? Drawing on a large new dataset of US news content, we demonstrate that the tone of the economic news strongly and disproportionately tracks the fortunes of the richest households, with little sensitivity to income changes among the non-rich. Further, we present evidence that this pro-rich bias emerges not from pro-rich journalistic preferences but, rather, from the interaction of the media’s focus on economic aggregates with structural features of the relationship between economic growth and distribution. The findings yield a novel explanation of distributionally perverse electoral patterns and demonstrate how distributional biases in the economy condition economic accountability

Averting evolutionary suicide from the tragedy of the commons

In a tragedy of the commons, individual competition over a resource can reduce the resource itself, and thus reduce the fitness of the whole group. An extreme example is evolutionary suicide, which is predicted to occur when the selfish interests of free-riders and cheaters overwhelm cooperative behaviors, and the social good on which they depend ceases to exist. Case studies cite many different and seemingly interacting factors for success. Here we propose an equation-based theoretical model to predict changes in this balance, which determine whether the tragedy of the commons is observed in a particular scenario. Using survey data from 20 Balinese subaks, we explore the explanatory power of two theoretical traditions that are currently used to analyze commons management institutions, revealing multiple regimes with correlated responses to environmental threats. To explore case studies from a comparative perspective requires both theory and methods that can account for differences between regimes and explore transitions between them

Engaging Undergraduates in Science Research: Not Just About Faculty Willingness.

Despite the many benefits of involving undergraduates in research and the growing number of undergraduate research programs, few scholars have investigated the factors that affect faculty members' decisions to involve undergraduates in their research projects. We investigated the individual factors and institutional contexts that predict faculty members' likelihood of engaging undergraduates in their research project(s). Using data from the Higher Education Research Institute's 2007-2008 Faculty Survey, we employ hierarchical generalized linear modeling to analyze data from 4,832 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty across 194 institutions to examine how organizational citizenship behavior theory and social exchange theory relate to mentoring students in research. Key findings show that faculty who work in the life sciences and those who receive government funding for their research are more likely to involve undergraduates in their research project(s). In addition, faculty at liberal arts or historically Black colleges are significantly more likely to involve undergraduate students in research. Implications for advancing undergraduate research opportunities are discussed

From planning the port/city to planning the port-city : exploring the economic interface in European port cities

In last three decades, planning agencies of most ports have institutionally evolved into a (semi-) independent port authority. The rationale behind this process is that port authorities are able to react more quickly to changing logistical and spatial preferences of maritime firms, hence increasing the competitiveness of ports. Although these dedicated port authorities have proven to be largely successful, new economic, social, and environmental challenges are quickly catching up on these port governance models, and particularly leads to (spatial) policy ‘conflicts’ between port and city. This chapter starts by assessing this conflict and argue that the conflict is partly a result of dominant—often also academic—spatial representations of the port city as two separate entities. To escape this divisive conception of contemporary port cities, this chapter presents a relational visualisation method that is able to analyse the economic interface between port and city. Based on our results, we reflect back on our proposition and argue that the core challenge today for researchers and policy makers is acknowledging the bias of port/city, being arguably a self-fulfilling prophecy. Hence, we turn the idea of (planning the) port/city conflicts into planning the port-city’s strengths and weaknesses

Quantum transport in quantum networks and photosynthetic complexes at the steady state

Recently, several works have analysed the efficiency of photosynthetic complexes in a transient scenario and how that efficiency is affected by environmental noise. Here, following a quantum master equation approach, we study the energy and excitation transport in fully connected networks both in general and in the particular case of the Fenna-Matthew-Olson complex. The analysis is carried out for the steady state of the system where the excitation energy is constantly "flowing" through the system. Steady state transport scenarios are particularly relevant if the evolution of the quantum system is not conditioned on the arrival of individual excitations. By adding dephasing to the system, we analyse the possibility of noise-enhancement of the quantum transport.Comment: 10 pages, single column, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Plos On

Primary Language and Receipt of Recommended Health Care Among Hispanics in the United States

BackgroundDisparities in health care services between Hispanics and whites in the United States are well documented.ObjectiveThe objective of the study was to determine whether language spoken at home identifies Hispanics at risk for not receiving recommended health care services.DesignThe design of the study was cross-sectional, nationally representative survey of households.PatientsThe patients were non-Hispanic white and Hispanic adults participating in the 2003 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.MeasurementsWe compared receipt of ten recommended health care services by ethnicity and primary language adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, health status, and access to care.ResultsThe sample included 12,706 whites and 5,500 Hispanics. In bivariate comparisons, 57.0% of whites received all eligible health care services compared to 53.6% for Hispanics who spoke English at home, 44.9% for Hispanics who did not speak English at home but who were comfortable speaking English, and 35.0% for Hispanics who did not speak English at home and were uncomfortable speaking English (p < .001). In multivariate logistic models, compared to non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics who did not speak English at home were less likely to receive all eligible health care services, whether they were comfortable speaking English (risk ratio [RR] 0.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.74-0.97) or not (RR 0.84, 95% CI 0.68-0.95).ConclusionsSpeaking a language other than English at home identified Hispanics at risk for not receiving recommended health care services, whether they were comfortable in speaking English or not. Identifying the mechanism for disparities by language usage may lead to interventions to reduce ethnic disparities

Neural Correlates of Visual Aesthetics – Beauty as the Coalescence of Stimulus and Internal State

How do external stimuli and our internal state coalesce to create the distinctive aesthetic pleasures that give vibrance to human experience? Neuroaesthetics has so far focused on the neural correlates of observing beautiful stimuli compared to neutral or ugly stimuli, or on neural correlates of judging for beauty as opposed to other judgments. Our group questioned whether this approach is sufficient. In our view, a brain region that assesses beauty should show beauty-level-dependent activation during the beauty judgment task, but not during other, unrelated tasks. We therefore performed an fMRI experiment in which subjects judged visual textures for beauty, naturalness and roughness. Our focus was on finding brain activation related to the rated beauty level of the stimuli, which would take place exclusively during the beauty judgment. An initial whole-brain analysis did not reveal such interactions, yet a number of the regions showing main effects of the judgment task or the beauty level of stimuli were selectively sensitive to beauty level during the beauty task. Of the regions that were more active during beauty judgments than roughness judgments, the frontomedian cortex and the amygdala demonstrated the hypothesized interaction effect, while the posterior cingulate cortex did not. The latter region, which only showed a task effect, may play a supporting role in beauty assessments, such as attending to one's internal state rather than the external world. Most of the regions showing interaction effects of judgment and beauty level correspond to regions that have previously been implicated in aesthetics using different stimulus classes, but based on either task or beauty effects alone. The fact that we have now shown that task-stimulus interactions are also present during the aesthetic judgment of visual textures implies that these areas form a network that is specifically devoted to aesthetic assessment, irrespective of the stimulus type

HER2 testing in breast cancer: Opportunities and challenges

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is overexpressed in 15-25% of breast cancers, usually as a result of HER2 gene amplification. Positive HER2 status is considered to be an adverse prognostic factor. Recognition of the role of HER2 in breast cancer growth has led to the development of anti-HER2 directed therapy, with the humanized monoclonal antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin (R)) having been approved for the therapy of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Clinical studies have further suggested that HER2 status can provide important information regarding success or failure of certain hormonal therapies or chemotherapies. As a result of these developments, there has been increasing demand to perform HER2 testing on current and archived breast cancer specimens. This article reviews the molecular background of HER2 function, activation and inhibition as well as current opinions concerning its role in chemosensitivity and interaction with estrogen receptor biology. The different tissue-based assays used to detect HER2 amplification and overexpression are discussed with respect to their advantages and disadvantages, when to test (at initial diagnosis or pre-treatment), where to test (locally or centralized) and the need for quality assurance to ensure accurate and valid testing results

Vitamin D supplementation and breast cancer prevention : a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials

In recent years, the scientific evidence linking vitamin D status or supplementation to breast cancer has grown notably. To investigate the role of vitamin D supplementation on breast cancer incidence, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials comparing vitamin D with placebo or no treatment. We used OVID to search MEDLINE (R), EMBASE and CENTRAL until April 2012. We screened the reference lists of included studies and used the “Related Article” feature in PubMed to identify additional articles. No language restrictions were applied. Two reviewers independently extracted data on methodological quality, participants, intervention, comparison and outcomes. Risk Ratios and 95% Confident Intervals for breast cancer were pooled using a random-effects model. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I2 test. In sensitivity analysis, we assessed the impact of vitamin D dosage and mode of administration on treatment effects. Only two randomized controlled trials fulfilled the pre-set inclusion criteria. The pooled analysis included 5372 postmenopausal women. Overall, Risk Ratios and 95% Confident Intervals were 1.11 and 0.74–1.68. We found no evidence of heterogeneity. Neither vitamin D dosage nor mode of administration significantly affected breast cancer risk. However, treatment efficacy was somewhat greater when vitamin D was administered at the highest dosage and in combination with calcium (Risk Ratio 0.58, 95% Confident Interval 0.23–1.47 and Risk Ratio 0.93, 95% Confident Interval 0.54–1.60, respectively). In conclusions, vitamin D use seems not to be associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer development in postmenopausal women. However, the available evidence is still limited and inadequate to draw firm conclusions. Study protocol code: FARM8L2B5L