Transparency and Accountability: Empirical Results for US States

Recent formal models of accountability allow us to make different conditional predictions about how transparency affects voters’ willingness to reelect incumbents and acceptance of higher taxes. We review two models and investigate empirical implications derived from or related to them, using panel data from 1972-2000 for U.S. state budget process transparency, gubernatorial elections, and tax increases in a small structural model. We do not find that budget transparency has a direct effect on incumbent retention, but we do find clear evidence that increased transparency dampens the negative effect of tax increases on retention of incumbent governors. Independent of this, we also find that increased transparency leads to greater fiscal scale. We suggest some possible directions for future models based on our results.Governmen

Information/Control – Control in the Age of Post-Truth: An Introduction

Guest editors Stacy E. Wood, James Lowry, and Andrew J Lau introduce the issue on Information/Control – Control in the Age of Post-Truth

Natural variation in abiotic stress responsive gene expression and local adaptation to climate in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Gene expression varies widely in natural populations, yet the proximate and ultimate causes of this variation are poorly known. Understanding how variation in gene expression affects abiotic stress tolerance, fitness, and adaptation is central to the field of evolutionary genetics. We tested the hypothesis that genes with natural genetic variation in their expression responses to abiotic stress are likely to be involved in local adaptation to climate in Arabidopsis thaliana. Specifically, we compared genes with consistent expression responses to environmental stress (expression stress responsive, "eSR") to genes with genetically variable responses to abiotic stress (expression genotype-by-environment interaction, "eGEI"). We found that on average genes that exhibited eGEI in response to drought or cold had greater polymorphism in promoter regions and stronger associations with climate than those of eSR genes or genomic controls. We also found that transcription factor binding sites known to respond to environmental stressors, especially abscisic acid responsive elements, showed significantly higher polymorphism in drought eGEI genes in comparison to eSR genes. By contrast, eSR genes tended to exhibit relatively greater pairwise haplotype sharing, lower promoter diversity, and fewer nonsynonymous polymorphisms, suggesting purifying selection or selective sweeps. Our results indicate that cis-regulatory evolution and genetic variation in stress responsive gene expression may be important mechanisms of local adaptation to climatic selective gradients

Sensing and control in dual-recycling laser interferometer gravitational-wave detectors

We introduce length-sensing and control schemes for the dual-recycled cavity-enhanced Michelson interferometer configuration proposed for the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO). We discuss the principles of this scheme and show methods that allow sensing and control signals to be derived. Experimental verification was carried out in three benchtop experiments that are introduced. We present the implications of the results from these experiments for Advanced LIGO and other future interferometric gravitational-wave detectors

Amphipoda Crustacea IV. Families Aristiidae, Cyphocarididae, Endevouridae, Lysianassidae, Scopelocheiridae, Uristidae

(150pp.

Quantification of methane emissions from UK biogas plants

The rising number of operational biogas plants in the UK brings a new emissions category to consider for methane monitoring, quantification and reduction. Minimising methane losses from biogas plants to the atmosphere is critical not only because of their contribution of methane to global warming but also with respect to the sustainability of renewable energy production. Mobile greenhouse gas surveys were conducted to detect plumes of methane emissions from the biogas plants in southern England that varied in their size, waste feed input materials and biogas utilization. Gaussian plume modelling was used to estimate total emissions of methane from ten biogas plants based on repeat passes through the plumes. Methane emission rates ranged from 0.1 to 58.7 kg CH4 hr-1, and the percentage of losses relative to the calculated production rate varied between 0.02 and 8.1%. The average emission rate was 15.9 kg CH4 hr-1, and the average loss was 3.7%. In general, methane emission rates from smaller farm biogas plants were higher than from larger food waste biogas plants. We also suggest that biogas methane emissions may account for between 0.4 and 3.8%, with an average being 1.9% of the total methane emissions in the UK excluding the sewage sludge biogas plants

Mechanism of age-dependent susceptibility and novel treatment strategy in glutaric acidemia type I

Glutaric acidemia type I (GA-I) is an inherited disorder of lysine and tryptophan metabolism presenting with striatal lesions anatomically and symptomatically similar to Huntington disease. Affected children commonly suffer acute brain injury in the context of a catabolic state associated with nonspecific illness. The mechanisms underlying injury and age-dependent susceptibility have been unknown, and lack of a diagnostic marker heralding brain injury has impeded intervention efforts. Using a mouse model of GA-I, we show that pathologic events began in the neuronal compartment while enhanced lysine accumulation in the immature brain allowed increased glutaric acid production resulting in age-dependent injury. Glutamate and GABA depletion correlated with brain glutaric acid accumulation and could be monitored in vivo by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy as a diagnostic marker. Blocking brain lysine uptake reduced glutaric acid levels and brain injury. These findings provide what we believe are new monitoring and treatment strategies that may translate for use in human GA-I

Ensemble Properties of Comets in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

We present the ensemble properties of 31 comets (27 resolved and 4 unresolved) observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This sample of comets represents about 1 comet per 10 million SDSS photometric objects. Five-band (u,g,r,i,z) photometry is used to determine the comets' colors, sizes, surface brightness profiles, and rates of dust production in terms of the Af{\rho} formalism. We find that the cumulative luminosity function for the Jupiter Family Comets in our sample is well fit by a power law of the form N(< H) \propto 10(0.49\pm0.05)H for H < 18, with evidence of a much shallower fit N(< H) \propto 10(0.19\pm0.03)H for the faint (14.5 < H < 18) comets. The resolved comets show an extremely narrow distribution of colors (0.57 \pm 0.05 in g - r for example), which are statistically indistinguishable from that of the Jupiter Trojans. Further, there is no evidence of correlation between color and physical, dynamical, or observational parameters for the observed comets.Comment: 19 pages, 8 tables, 11 figures, to appear in Icaru

Diurnal, seasonal, and annual trends in atmospheric CO₂ at southwest London during 2000-2012:Wind sector analysis and comparison with Mace Head, Ireland

In-situ measurements of atmospheric CO have been made at Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL) in Egham (EGH), Surrey, UK from 2000 to 2012. The data were linked to the global scale using NOAA-calibrated gases. Measured CO varies on time scales that range from minutes to inter-annual and annual cycles. Seasonality and pollution episodes occur each year. Diurnal cycles vary with daylight and temperature, which influence the biological cycle of CO and the degree of vertical mixing. Anthropogenic emissions of CO dominate the variability during weekdays when transport cycles are greater than at weekends. Seasonal cycles are driven by temporal variations in biological activity and changes in combustion emissions. Maximum mole fractions (μmol/mol) (henceforth referred to by parts per million, ppm) occur in winter, with minima in late summer. The smallest seasonal amplitude observed, peak to trough, was 17.0ppm CO in 2003, whereas the largest amplitude observed was 27.1ppm CO in 2008.Meteorology can strongly modify the CO mole fractions at different time scales. Analysis of eight 45° wind sectors shows that the highest CO mole fractions were recorded from the E and SE sectors. Lowest mole fractions were observed for air masses from the S and SW. Back-trajectory and meteorological analyses of the data confirm that the dominant sources of CO are anthropogenic emissions from London and SE England. The largest annual rate of increase in the annual average of CO, 3.26ppmyr (

Fluxes and fate of dissolved methane released at the seafloor at the landward limit of the gas hydrate stability zone offshore western Svalbard

Widespread seepage of methane from seafloor sediments offshore Svalbard close to the landward limit of the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ) may, in part, be driven by hydrate destabilization due to bottom water warming. To assess whether this methane reaches the atmosphere where it may contribute to further warming, we have undertaken comprehensive surveys of methane in seawater and air on the upper slope and shelf region. Near the GHSZ limit at ?400 m water depth, methane concentrations are highest close to the seabed, reaching 825 nM. A simple box model of dissolved methane removal from bottom waters by horizontal and vertical mixing and microbially mediated oxidation indicates that ?60% of methane released at the seafloor is oxidized at depth before it mixes with overlying surface waters. Deep waters are therefore not a significant source of methane to intermediate and surface waters; rather, relatively high methane concentrations in these waters (up to 50 nM) are attributed to isopycnal turbulent mixing with shelf waters. On the shelf, extensive seafloor seepage at &lt;100 m water depth produces methane concentrations of up to 615 nM. The diffusive flux of methane from sea to air in the vicinity of the landward limit of the GHSZ is ?4–20 ?mol m?2 d?1, which is small relative to other Arctic sources. In support of this, analyses of mole fractions and the carbon isotope signature of atmospheric methane above the seeps do not indicate a significant local contribution from the seafloor source