e-Campaigning in the 2014 European elections : the emphasis on valence issues in a two-dimensional multiparty system

The article explores the relationship between the incentives of parties to campaign on valence issues and the ideological proximity between one party and its competitors. Building from the existing literature, we provide a novel theoretical model that investigates this relationship in a two-dimensional multiparty system. Our theoretical argument is then tested focusing on the 2014 European electoral campaign in the five largest European countries, through an analysis of the messages posted by parties in their official Twitter accounts. Our results highlight an inverse relationship between a party\u2019s distance from its neighbors and its likelihood to emphasize valence issues. However, as suggested in our theoretical framework, this effect is statistically significant only with respect to valence positive campaigning. Our findings have implications for the literature on valence competition, electoral campaigns, and social media

Nash Optimal Party Positions : The nopp R Package

The R package nopp enables computing party/candidate ideological positions that correspond to a Nash equilibrium along a one-dimensional space. It accommodates alternative motivations in (each) party strategy while allowing estimation of the uncertainty around their optimal positions through Monte Carlo or bootstrap procedures

ISIS at Its Apogee: The Arabic Discourse on Twitter and What We Can Learn From That About ISIS Support and Foreign Fighters

We analyze 26.2 million comments published in Arabic language on Twitter, from July 2014 to January 2015, when Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)\u2019s strength reached its peak and the group was prominently expanding the territorial area under its control. By doing that, we are able to measure the share of support and aversion toward the Islamic State within the online Arab communities. We then investigate two specific topics. First, by exploiting the time granularity of the tweets, we link the opinions with daily events to understand the main determinants of the changing trend in support toward ISIS. Second, by taking advantage of the geographical locations of tweets, we explore the relationship between online opinions across countries and the number of foreign fighters joining ISIS

A whiter shade of vase. Discovering the white colors of an ancient Apulian krater through XRPD and Raman spectroscopy

Raman spectroscopy and X-Ray Powder Diffraction were applied in order to characterize the materials used for the manufacturing of an ancient, decorated vase of Apulian manufacturing in 4th century B.C. In this case study, three small fragments from one vase were sampled from pictorial areas in black and white. X-Ray Diffraction on a powdered sample was applied to characterize the composition of ceramic: the analysis allowed the identification of quartz, plagioclase and diopside and consequent hypotheses about the production process. The pictorial decorations in black and white were analysed through Raman spectroscopy. While the pigment constituting the dark areas was identified as maghemite γ-Fe2O3, an iron oxide with spinel structure, which suggests a maghemization oxidative process, in the white decoration it was possible to individuate the presence of both anatase -an allotropic phase of titanium oxide- and α-alumina. The application of alumina as pigment results peculiar and it represents a new knowledge advancement, which is worth of further studies. The combination of anatase and alumina suggested hypotheses about the origin of the starting materials for the white decorations, with reference to the manufacturing period and area. This set of data resulted in new information about the Apulian vase production, enriching the knowledge about a less popular pottery typology and opening new perspectives about commercial and cultural exchanges

The impact of televised sports on adult nonfiction sports publishing

Thyreostats can be used fraudulently to promote a rapid weight increase of breeding animals at low cost. Their severe toxicological effects impose the development of reliable analytical methods to be used in monitoring plans. This work describes an alternative approach to isolate residues of thiouracil, methyl-thiouracil, propyl-thiouracil, phenyl-thiouracil, tapazole and mercaptobenzimidazole from bovine muscle tissue. The developed procedure is based on three steps: i) matrix solid phase dispersion with C18 for the preliminary sample preparation; ii) subcritical water extraction (SWE) at 160°C and 100 bar; iii) clean-up on an Oasis HLB cartridge. The quantitative determination was performed by liquid chromatography-electrospray-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in dual polarity ionization by using internal standardization. The SWE-LC-MS/MS method was validated according to the identification criteria of the Commission decision 2002/657/EC. The relative recoveries ranged from 72% to 97%; within-lab reproducibility was less than 18%. The decision limit and the detection capability of all analytes were below the recommended concentration, set at 10 µg kg−1, but the validation results demonstrated that this method could only be applied for screening of thiouracil and methyl-thiouracil. Besides the analytical advantages related to the use of water as solvent extraction, the procedure allowed significant removal of lipids, whose detrimental effects on instrumentation and MS sensitivity are well-known

Impact of Gravel Dredging Operations on Surface Water Quality in Streams in the Upper Cumberland Basin

This is a report to the USEPA, Kentucky Division of Water and the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, focused on the biologic and morphological impacts of gravel mining in the upper Cumberland basin

Contribution of soft-bodied meiofaunal taxa to Italian marine biodiversity

Meiofauna includes an astonishing diversity of organisms, whose census is far from being complete. Most classic ecological studies have focused on hard-bodied Ecdysozoan taxa (notably Copepoda and Nematoda), whose cuticle allows determination at species-level after fixation, rather than soft-bodied, Spiralian taxa, which most often lose any diagnostic feature in fixed samples. Yet, metabarcoding studies have recently revealed a species-richness of softbodied taxa comparable, and in cases superior, to that of Copepoda and Nematoda together. However, given objective difficulties inherent to their study, which necessarily has to be performed on living individuals, and their limited utilisation for ecological and applicative research, taxonomic expertise on soft-bodied organisms has declined over the years, and diversity of these phyla in most areas of the world is presently completely unknown. Here we present an expert-based survey of current knowledge on the composition and distribution of soft-bodied meiofaunal taxa in Italy, with special references to the predominantly or exclusively meiobenthic phyla Gastrotricha, Gnathostomulida, Platyhelminthes, Rotifera, Xenacoelomorpha, and macrofaunal taxa with conspicuous meiofaunal representatives (Annelida, Mollusca and Nemertea). A total of 638 described species have been reported from Italian coasts; furthermore, the existence of a large number of undescribed species is mentioned. Knowledge of Annelida, Gastrotricha, and Rotifera appears particularly detailed, placing Italy among the best-known country worldwide. In contrast, knowledge of Platyhelminthes and Xenacoelomorpha appears patchy, and limited to few areas. Sampling effort has been uneven, with most species recorded from the Tyrrhenian Sea, while large sections of the Adriatic and Ionian seas have been poorly explored. Results highlight the role that Marine Biological Stations, notably the Zoological Station “Anton Dohrn” in Naples, have had in promoting the study of soft-bodied taxa in Ital

Multiple detection and spread of novel strains of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.177 (B.1.177.75) lineage that test negative by a commercially available nucleocapsid gene real-time RT-PCR

Several lineages of SARS-CoV-2 are currently circulating worldwide. During SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic activities performed in Abruzzo region (central Italy) several strains belonging to the B.1.177.75 lineage tested negative for the N gene but positive for the ORF1ab and S genes (+/+/- pattern) by the TaqPath COVID-19 CE-IVD RT-PCR Kit manufactured by Thermofisher. By sequencing, a unique mutation, synonymous 28948C > T, was found in the N-negative B.1.177.75 strains. Although we do not have any knowledge upon the nucleotide sequences of the primers and probe adopted by this kit, it is likely that N gene dropout only occurs when 28948C > T is coupled with 28932C > T, this latter present, in turn, in all B.1.177.75 sequences available on public databases. Furthermore, epidemiological analysis was also performed. The majority of the N-negative B.1.177.75 cases belonged to two clusters apparently unrelated to each other and both clusters involved young people. However, the phylogeny for sequences containing the +/+/- pattern strongly supports a genetic connection and one common source for both clusters. Though, genetic comparison suggests a connection rather than indicating the independent emergence of the same mutation in two apparently unrelated clusters. This study highlights once more the importance of sharing genomic data to link apparently unrelated epidemiological clusters and to, remarkably, update molecular tests

Biodiversity estimates and ecological interpretations of meiofaunal communities are biased by the taxonomic approach

Accurate assessments of biodiversity are crucial to advising ecosystem-monitoring programs and understanding ecosystem function. Nevertheless, a standard operating procedure to assess biodiversity accurately and consistently has not been established. This is especially true for meiofauna, a diverse community (>20 phyla) of small benthic invertebrates that have fundamental ecological roles. Recent studies show that metabarcoding is a cost-effective and timeeffective method to estimate meiofauna biodiversity, in contrast to morphological-based taxonomy. Here, we compare biodiversity assessments of a diverse meiofaunal community derived by applying multiple taxonomic methods based on comparative morphology, molecular phylogenetic analysis, DNA barcoding of individual specimens, and metabarcoding of environmental DNA. We show that biodiversity estimates are strongly biased across taxonomic methods and phyla. Such biases affect understanding of community structures and ecological interpretations. This study supports the urgency of improving aspects of environmental high-throughput sequencing and the value of taxonomists in correctly understanding biodiversity estimates