The Political Economy: Political Attitudes and Economic Behavior

It has long been recognized that voters bring their political behaviors in line with economic assessments. Recent work, however, suggests that citizens also engage in economic behaviors that align with their confidence—or lack thereof—in the political system. This alignment can happen consciously or, as we suggest, unconsciously, in the same way that positivity carries over to other behaviors on a micro-level. Using monthly time series data from 1978 to 2008, we contribute further evidence of this relationship by demonstrating that political confidence affects consumer behavior at the aggregate level over time. Our analyses employ measures more closely tied to the theoretical concepts of interest while simultaneously accounting for the complex relationships between subjective and objective economic indicators, economic behavior, political attitudes, and the media. Our results suggest that approval of the president not only increases the electorate’s willingness to spend money, but also affects the volatility of this spending. These findings suggest that the economy is influenced by politics beyond elections, and gives the “Chief Economist” another avenue by which they can affect the behavior of the electorate

Political opportunism, position taking, and court-curbing legislation.

Although there is extensive scholarship on court-curbing efforts directed at the U.S. Supreme Court, much less is known about bills targeting the lower federal courts. This article argues that members of Congress also engage in position taking with respect to the U.S. Courts of Appeals, by proposing legislation to divide up the Ninth Circuit. Over seven decades, no other circuit has attracted as much court-curbing legislation as the Ninth Circuit, and yet no bill has succeeded. What accounts for this persistent focus on one court? We argue that bill sponsors are motivated primarily by electoral considerations and capitalize on the perception of the Ninth Circuit as an extremely liberal court. Using an original dataset of all bills to split the Ninth Circuit, we find that sponsorship of splitting bills is linked to legislator party, ideology, and state public mood relative to California, and that only conservative, Republican members of Congress are responsive to performance-related indicators, such as caseload increases and Supreme Court oversight. The results suggest that our current understanding of court curbing as it applies to the Supreme Court can be extended to new judicial contexts

Inspection, diagnosis and modelling of Azurara church in the north of Portugal

Santa Maria de Azurara church is a XVI century church in Portugal, classified as a national monument since 1910. The building shows not only the influence of the Manueline architectural style (Portuguese late Gothic style), but also Baroque and Mannerism styles. Presently, the church presents some structural and non-structural problems, so an inspection and diagnosis of the main building pathologies was carried out. This process was assisted by non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques which included sonic tests, ground penetrating radar (GPR) and Schmidt hammer for masonry elements and Pilodyn and ultrasonic pulse velocity for the timber elements. In addition, scanning electron microscope and x-ray diffraction analysis were used for mortar and stone characterization. Furthermore, dynamic identification tests were performed. Numerical analysis was performed to assess the nonlinear behaviour of the structure under different load conditions. In order to create an accurate model, material properties were estimated from the non-destructive tests and the dynamic properties were used to calibrate the model. A nonlinear static analysis (pushover) considering both vertical and horizontal loading was carried out in order to obtain the maximum load factor for the structure

Dissolved organic radiocarbon in the central Pacific Ocean

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Druffel, E. R. M., Griffin, S., Wang, N., Garcia, N. G., McNichol, A. P., Key, R. M., & Walker, B. D. Dissolved organic radiocarbon in the central Pacific Ocean. Geophysical Research Letters, 46(10), (2019):5396-5403, doi:10.1029/2019GL083149.We report marine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations, and DOC ∆14C and δ13C values in seawater collected from the central Pacific. Surface ∆14C values are low in equatorial and polar regions where upwelling occurs and high in subtropical regions dominated by downwelling. A core feature of these data is that 14C aging of DOC (682 ± 86 14C years) and dissolved inorganic carbon (643 ± 40 14C years) in Antarctic Bottom Water between 54.0°S and 53.5°N are similar. These estimates of aging are minimum values due to mixing with deep waters. We also observe minimum ∆14C values (−550‰ to −570‰) between the depths of 2,000 and 3,500 m in the North Pacific, though the source of the low values cannot be determined at this time.We thank Jennifer Walker, Xiaomei Xu, and Dachun Zhang for their help with the stable carbon isotope measurements; John Southon and staff of the Keck Carbon Cycle AMS Laboratory for their assistance and advice; the support of chief scientists Samantha Siedlecki, Molly Baringer, Alison Macdonald, and Sabine Mecking; the guidance of Jim Swift and Dennis Hansell for shared ship time; and Sarah Bercovici for collecting water on the GoA cruise. We appreciate the comments of Christian Lewis and Niels Hauksson on this manuscript. This work was supported by NSF (OCE‐141458941 to E. R. M. D. and OCE‐0824864, OCE‐1558654, and Cooperative Agreement OCE1239667 to R. M. K. and A. P. M.), the Fred Kavli Foundation, the Keck Carbon Cycle AMS Laboratory, and the NSF/NOAA‐funded GO‐SHIP Program. This research was undertaken, in part, thanks to funding from the Canada Research Chairs program (to B. D. W.) and an American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund New Directions grant (55430‐ND2 to E. R. M. D. and B. D. W.). Data from the P16N cruises are available in Table S2 in the Supporting Information and at the Repeat Hydrography Data Center at the CCHDO website (http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/oceans/index.html) using the expo codes 3RO20150329, 3RO20150410, and 3RO20150525. There are no real or perceived financial conflicts of interests for any author.2019-11-0

Síndrome de Burnout y su relación con el desempeño docente de los docentes de Comunicación Audiovisual de una universidad privada de Lima en el 2020-I

Se realizó el trabajode investigación con el objetivo dedeterminar la correlación entre el síndrome de burnout y el desempeño docente en profesores de pregrado de la carrera de comunicación audiovisual de una universidad privada de Lima 2020-I. Se utilizó una metodología de enfoque cuantitativo,alcance correlacional y diseñono experimental de tipo transeccional.Se aplicó a una muestra de 57 docentes el Maslach Burnout Inventory(MBI) para conocer el índice de burnout y se evaluó el desempeño docente utilizando la encuesta académica propia de la universidad. Los valores encontrados fueron analizados utilizando la prueba de correlación de Spearman. Además, se realizaron entrevistas semi estructuradas para precisar la información recabada de manera cuantitativa. Los resultados demuestran que no existe correlación entre el síndrome de burnout y el desempeño docente obteniéndose un coeficiente de correlación de -.051. De la misma forma, no se encontró una asociación entre las dimensiones del burnout con el desempeño docente. Sin embargo, el análisis del discurso revela la existencia de factores asociados al síndrome de burnout que condicionan de forma negativa el desempeño docente, tales como la sobrecarga laboral en la modalidad virtual, dificultades para realizar el seguimiento a estudiantes y la falta de conexión a nivel humano y personal; así como también evidencia la presencia de elementos que afectan el desempeño de forma positiva, como la generación de vínculo con los estudiantes a través del compromiso y acompañamientos extracurriculares, el logro de objetivos académicos, el reconocimiento y valoración del desempeño docente, y la visión positiva del propio trabajo.This research was carried out with the aim of determining the correlation between burnout syndrome and teaching performance in undergraduate professors of the communications program in a private university in Lima 2020-I. A methodology of quantitative approach, correlational scope and non-experimental design of a transverse type was used. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was applied to a sample of 57 teachers to assess the burnout index,and the teacher performance was evaluated using the university's own academic survey.The found data wasanalyzed using the Spearman correlation test. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted to specify the information collected in quantitative way. The results show that there is no correlation between burnout syndrome and teaching performance, obtaining a correlation coefficient of -.051. In thesame way, no association was found between the dimensions of burnout with teacher performance. However, the dis course analysis reveals the existence of factors associated with the burnout syndrome that negatively condition teaching performance, such as work overload in the virtual modality, difficulties in monitoring students,and lack of connection at human and personal levels; as well as evidence of the presence of elements that affect performance in a positive way, such as the creation of bond with students through commitment and extracurricular support, the achievement of academic objectives, the recognition and assessment of teaching performance, and a positive vision of one’sown work.Campus Lima Centr

Turnout, Information and Heuristics in the Scottish Health Board Elections: ‘Getting a CV with No Job Description’

British public services have traditionally been overseen by appointees. The idea that many of these posts should be filled by direct election, as a means of increasing engagement with local communities and accountability to them, appears to be gaining traction. In Health Board election pilots in 2010, the Scottish government replaced appointees to regional Health Boards (serving six-figure populations) with popularly elected members. The government attempted to maintain the insulation of Health Boards from party politics by restricting the use of partisan labels. Voters were deprived of a heuristic that usually helps them to decide how to cast their votes. Many electors did not vote, while others sought alternative heuristics. Interviewees simultaneously decried partisan politics, lack of information and low turnout by the rest of the population. These dislikes seem to conflict with each other. Moreover, the experience shows how the heuristics available to voters can shape democratic governance.</p

Rare coding variants and X-linked loci associated with age at menarche.

More than 100 loci have been identified for age at menarche by genome-wide association studies; however, collectively these explain only ∼3% of the trait variance. Here we test two overlooked sources of variation in 192,974 European ancestry women: low-frequency protein-coding variants and X-chromosome variants. Five missense/nonsense variants (in ALMS1/LAMB2/TNRC6A/TACR3/PRKAG1) are associated with age at menarche (minor allele frequencies 0.08-4.6%; effect sizes 0.08-1.25 years per allele; P<5 × 10(-8)). In addition, we identify common X-chromosome loci at IGSF1 (rs762080, P=9.4 × 10(-13)) and FAAH2 (rs5914101, P=4.9 × 10(-10)). Highlighted genes implicate cellular energy homeostasis, post-transcriptional gene silencing and fatty-acid amide signalling. A frequently reported mutation in TACR3 for idiopathic hypogonatrophic hypogonadism (p.W275X) is associated with 1.25-year-later menarche (P=2.8 × 10(-11)), illustrating the utility of population studies to estimate the penetrance of reportedly pathogenic mutations. Collectively, these novel variants explain ∼0.5% variance, indicating that these overlooked sources of variation do not substantially explain the 'missing heritability' of this complex trait.UK sponsors (see article for overseas ones): This work made use of data and samples generated by the 1958 Birth Cohort (NCDS). Access to these resources was enabled via the 58READIE Project funded by Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council (grant numbers WT095219MA and G1001799). A full list of the financial, institutional and personal contributions to the development of the 1958 Birth Cohort Biomedical resource is available at http://www2.le.ac.uk/projects/birthcohort. Genotyping was undertaken as part of the Wellcome Trust Case-Control Consortium (WTCCC) under Wellcome Trust award 076113, and a full list of the investigators who contributed to the generation of the data is available at www.wtccc.org.uk ... The Fenland Study is funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council, as well as by the Support for Science Funding programme and CamStrad. ... SIBS - CRUK ref: C1287/A8459 SEARCH - CRUK ref: A490/A10124 EMBRACE is supported by Cancer Research UK Grants C1287/A10118, C1287/A16563 and C1287/A17523. Genotyping was supported by Cancer Research - UK grant C12292/A11174D and C8197/A16565. Gareth Evans and Fiona Lalloo are supported by an NIHR grant to the Biomedical Research Centre, Manchester. The Investigators at The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust are supported by an NIHR grant to the Biomedical Research Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. Ros Eeles and Elizabeth Bancroft are supported by Cancer Research UK Grant C5047/A8385. ... Generation Scotland - Scottish Executive Health Department, Chief Scientist Office, grant number CZD/16/6. Exome array genotyping for GS:SFHS was funded by the Medical Research Council UK. 23andMe - This work was supported in part by NIH Award 2R44HG006981-02 from the National Human Genome Research Institute.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from NPG via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms875