Diverse, popular, and growing in importance: Voter Advice Applications and the 2015 General Election

In advance of the 2015 General Election, there are now more Voter Advice Applications (VAA’s) than ever before. These websites provide users with a list of policy-based questions, allowing them to match themselves to a political party. Dr Matthew Wall argues that the VAA’s on offer display a range of characteristics and crucial methodological differences

Association Analysis of Class II Division 2 Malocclusion and Two Genes Linked to Hypodontia (MSX1 and PAX9)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)Purpose of the Study: Determine if there is an association of the CII/D2 malocclusion and genes linked to hypodontia, namely PAX9 and MSX1. Methods and Materials: One hundred probands with CII/D2 and one hundred non-CII/D2 with no hypodontia were enrolled in this study. Clinical exam, photographs, models, radiographs, and saliva were gathered. DNA was isolated from the saliva and sent for genetic analysis. Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) from the PAX9 and MSX1 genes were analyzed using the LightCycler® 480 to verify the presence of each with the CII/D2 malocclusion. A Hardy-Weinberg test was used to screen for genotyping errors, then a chi-square test was used to evaluate the association of the SNP genotypes. A p-value of 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The Hardy-Weinberg test showed no significant differences between observed and expected counts thus we used them for association analysis. Chi-square analysis indicated no significant association between CII/D2 and the MSX1 rs3821949 and the PAX9 1955734 genotypes. Although a p-value of 0.06 for the PAX9 rs8004560 suggested association, it was considered a grey area and insufficient to conclude that there was significant association. Since the SNP PAX9 rs8004560 was insufficient, additional statistical analysis was also performed on the PAX9 rs8004560 genotype of the CII/D2 affected subjects reported to have hypodontia of any tooth including third molars and excluding third molars. A chi-square test yielded a p-value of 0.08 on the analysis of CII/D2 with hypodontia for any permanent tooth except third molars, which suggested association, but insufficient to conclude a significant association. All other analyses indicated a lack of association of the PAX9 rs8004560 SNP. Conclusions: There is no significant association of CII/D2 and the SNPs MSX1 rs3821949 and PAX9 rs1955734. There is a suggestion that there is an association of the SNP PAX9 rs8004560 and CII/D2. There is a suggestion that there is an association of SNP PAX9 rs8004560 and CII/D2 subjects with hypodontia of any tooth except third molars

Enhanced Dynamometer for Conducting Long-Term Brake Wear Testing

The purpose of this project is to develop an automated control system for two constant torque dynamometers Krauss Friction Tester Type RWS60A – Serial no. 080 built in Orangeburg, West Germany recently obtained by FDP Friction Science. This control system will be efficient, effective, safer, and meet the standards of modern day technologies. Currently, the machines are outdated, obsolete, and unable to operate. Therefore, to bring the dynamometers back into full operation and be competitive in today’s industry a new control system that meets industry expectations must be implemented. For this reason, a programmable logic controller from Automationdirect named ClickPLC is being utilized. This industrial computer control system will continuously monitor the state of input for the device while determining the desired outputs based on a ladder logic program written by the control system designers. To create interference between the operator and the machine a C-more touch panel human machine interference from Automationdirect will be use. The HMI will provide a graphical interface designed to interchange and display graphics, animation and data from the PLC by touching the screen. The HMI will be programed accordingly to replace pushbuttons, switches, meters and any other analog input devices. This will streamline the brake life testing process down to a one-man operation for cost effectiveness.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/capstone/1196/thumbnail.jp

COVID-19 and viral anti-Asian racism: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of memes and the racialization of the COVID-19 pandemic

This article examines how internet memes both enacted and reproduced racialization of the COVID-19 pandemic. We were motivated to undertake this work by a surge in hatred towards and violence against people with East Asian heritage following the outbreak of COVID-19. We focus on memes because of their ubiquity in contemporary culture and their capacity to both reflect and shape discourses. We conduct a multimodal critical discourse analysis of two prominent memes – juxtaposing a ‘top-down’ process of meme selection and distribution (the sharing of ‘The Kung-Flu Kid’ meme on Instagram by Donald Trump Jr) with a ‘bottom-up’ process (the ‘Corona-chan’ meme that originated on the website 4chan). We situate our study in a growing literature on politicized memes, challenging an emerging consensus that lauds ‘bottom-up’ memes as a democratizing force enabling resistance to hegemony, inequality and injustice. While we do not reject this characterization outright, we add nuance, showing that racialized memetic discourses around COVID-19 were propagated both from the top-down and from the bottom up. We conclude that memes are particularly powerful communicative tools in racialized discourse because their use of polysemy, humour and cultural reference allows them to subvert the mechanisms that sanction openly racist statements

Voters can be influenced by voter advice websites, but they do not follow the guidance blindly

Voter advice websites, where voters are matched with parties that share similar views to their own, have started to appear in the UK after becoming popular in the Netherlands and other countries. In this post Matt Wall, André Krouwel and Thomas Vitiello discuss a new site launched for the European Parliament elections and consider how influential these services can be on the choices voters make at the ballot box

Examining the Utility of the Function Acquisition Speed Test (FAST) for Assessing Social Biases

The current research was focused on assessing the utility of a new behaviour-analytic implicit Function Acquisition Speed Test (FAST), for the proxy measurement of real-world social attitudes. In Experiment 1, the FAST was administered to a sample of men and women to assess the strength of verbal relations (attitudes) regarding gender biases. An explicit measure of attitudes towards gender was also administered as part of a strategy to establish preliminary convergent validity for the FAST. In the domain of gender attitudes, the FAST scores for gender bias converged with those of the explicit measure. However, while male participants self-reported a greater level of gender bias than the females, the cohort as a whole was not found to be gender-biased using the implicit measure, nor were the females when considered alone. This finding was interpreted in terms of System Justification Theory (SJT) as part of a conceptual bridge building exercise between behaviour analysis and mainstream social psychology. The predictions of this theory were also employed to rationalise the need for Experiment 2. Experiment 2 was a replication of Experiment 1 within the context of racial bias amongst a sample of White and Non-White adult participants. The results showed that the cohort as a whole showed a significant implicit pro-White bias, in line with the predictions of SJT, as did the Non-White cohort when considered alone. This provided the FAST with a degree of predictive validity against conceptual frameworks within the literature. In addition, divergent validity was established through the expected lack of correlation between self-reports of racial bias and FAST scores. It was concluded that the FAST may represent an acceptable behaviour-analytic alternative to social cognitive implicit test methods and may be useful in sensitive research contexts in which self-reports are likely to be unreliable

Characterization of transposon insertion mutants in desulfovibrio vulgaris hilderborough by sequencing genomic DNA [abstract]

Abstract only availableTn5 transposon mutagenesis occurs by a mechanism in which a segment of DNA (transposon) encoded in a plasmid is inserted into genomic DNA (the target) by a conservative (cut-and-paste) mechanism. When the insertion position is in a coding sequence or regulatory region of DNA, the insertion results in a mutation. The plasmid pRL27 encodes a mini-Tn5 transposon, Tn5 transposase, and kanamycin resistance, (Metcalf, William W. et al, 2002 Arch Microbiol 178 :193-201) and was used to transform Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough by electroporation. Transposon insertion mutants were identified by their ability to grow in the presence of kanamycin. To identify the insertion sites of the transposons, in theory one should be able to sequence from the transposon into chromosomal DNA and identify the mutation site by comparison with the known genome. Unlike sequencing of plasmid DNA or PCR products, direct genomic sequencing has a limited success rate. Direct genomic sequencing is sensitive to DNA quality, interference of secondary DNA structures, salt concentration, and the availability of primer binding sites. Because of these difficulties, in our attempts to identify insertion sites of mini-Tn5, we examined template DNA quality as well as modifying sequencing reaction conditions. Our objective is to develop an effective, reliable method for sequencing genomic DNA to identify where transposon insertion sites have occurred in each mutant.Department of Energy Genomics: Genomes to Life Progra