Shaping public opinion about regional integration: the rhetoric of justification and party cues

The article investigates how justifications used by politicians to explain their positions on policies of regional integration shape public opinion about these policies. I argue that support for a policy position increases when politicians tailor their justifications to the expectations of their audience; and I suggest that this happens even when party cues offer a less effortful way of forming opinions. I test my theoretical expectations in laboratory experiments with diverse samples, which manipulate party cues and justifications for a policy of European integration. I find that citizens use justifications and cues to form opinions. The relative importance of the two factors depends on individual dispositions and political context. In a non-competitive context (study 1), politically invested citizens use cues, while uninvested citizens use justifications. In a competitive context (study 2), the opinions of politically invested citizens are shaped by both factors, while the opinions of uninvested citizens become erratic

A diploid wheat TILLING resource for wheat functional genomics

Citation: Rawat, N., . . . & Gill, B. (2012). A diploid wheat TILLING resource for wheat functional genomics. BMC Plant Biology, 12(1), 205. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2229-12-205Background: Triticum monococcum L., an A genome diploid einkorn wheat, was the first domesticated crop. As a diploid, it is attractive genetic model for the study of gene structure and function of wheat-specific traits. Diploid wheat is currently not amenable to reverse genetics approaches such as insertion mutagenesis and post-transcriptional gene silencing strategies. However, TILLING offers a powerful functional genetics approach for wheat gene analysis. Results: We developed a TILLING population of 1,532 M[subscript 2] families using EMS as a mutagen. A total of 67 mutants were obtained for the four genes studied. Waxy gene mutation frequencies are known to be 1/17.6 - 34.4 kb DNA in polyploid wheat TILLING populations. The T. monococcum diploid wheat TILLING population had a mutation frequency of 1/90 kb for the same gene. Lignin biosynthesis pathway genes- COMT1, HCT2, and 4CL1 had mutation frequencies of 1/86 kb, 1/92 kb and 1/100 kb, respectively. The overall mutation frequency of the diploid wheat TILLING population was 1/92 kb. Conclusion: The mutation frequency of a diploid wheat TILLING population was found to be higher than that reported for other diploid grasses. The rate, however, is lower than tetraploid and hexaploid wheat TILLING populations because of the higher tolerance of polyploids to mutations. Unlike polyploid wheat, most mutants in diploid wheat have a phenotype amenable to forward and reverse genetic analysis and establish diploid wheat as an attractive model to study gene function in wheat. We estimate that a TILLING population of 5, 520 will be needed to get a non-sense mutation for every wheat gene of interest with 95% probability

New approaches to model and study social networks

We describe and develop three recent novelties in network research which are particularly useful for studying social systems. The first one concerns the discovery of some basic dynamical laws that enable the emergence of the fundamental features observed in social networks, namely the nontrivial clustering properties, the existence of positive degree correlations and the subdivision into communities. To reproduce all these features we describe a simple model of mobile colliding agents, whose collisions define the connections between the agents which are the nodes in the underlying network, and develop some analytical considerations. The second point addresses the particular feature of clustering and its relationship with global network measures, namely with the distribution of the size of cycles in the network. Since in social bipartite networks it is not possible to measure the clustering from standard procedures, we propose an alternative clustering coefficient that can be used to extract an improved normalized cycle distribution in any network. Finally, the third point addresses dynamical processes occurring on networks, namely when studying the propagation of information in them. In particular, we focus on the particular features of gossip propagation which impose some restrictions in the propagation rules. To this end we introduce a quantity, the spread factor, which measures the average maximal fraction of nearest neighbors which get in contact with the gossip, and find the striking result that there is an optimal non-trivial number of friends for which the spread factor is minimized, decreasing the danger of being gossiped.Comment: 16 Pages, 9 figure

Adoption of BIM by architectural firms in India: technology–organization–environment perspective

Building information modelling (BIM) is being heralded as a remarkable innovation in the built environment sector with expectations of lofty sector-wide improvements. Some countries have shown remarkable levels of uptake of BIM, along the way documenting some evidence of benefits stemming from BIM. However, countries such as India and China are late entrants in the BIM adoption journey and are seeing a slower adoption rate. This study develops a model using the technology–organization–environment framework to study the factors influencing BIM adoption by architectural firms in India and reasons for this slow adoption. The proposed model of BIM adoption is tested using the partial least square method against responses collected from 184 industry professionals based in India. Findings reveal that the adoption of BIM by Indian architectural firms is at the ‘experimentation’ stage with variables such as expertise, trialability, and management support exhibiting a strong positive influence on BIM adoption. The study also explains the status of BIM adoption in India with the help of a multi-level social construct, which places the level of BIM adoption in India between the micro- and meso-levels of organizational scales. Similarities and dissimilarities with previous findings are discussed in the paper to highlight the findings of this study. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Grou

Microguards and micromessengers of the genome

The regulation of gene expression is of fundamental importance to maintain organismal function and integrity and requires a multifaceted and highly ordered sequence of events. The cyclic nature of gene expression is known as ‘transcription dynamics’. Disruption or perturbation of these dynamics can result in significant fitness costs arising from genome instability, accelerated ageing and disease. We review recent research that supports the idea that an important new role for small RNAs, particularly microRNAs (miRNAs), is in protecting the genome against short-term transcriptional fluctuations, in a process we term ‘microguarding’. An additional emerging role for miRNAs is as ‘micromessengers’—through alteration of gene expression in target cells to which they are trafficked within microvesicles. We describe the scant but emerging evidence that miRNAs can be moved between different cells, individuals and even species, to exert biologically significant responses. With these two new roles, miRNAs have the potential to protect against deleterious gene expression variation from perturbation and to themselves perturb the expression of genes in target cells. These interactions between cells will frequently be subject to conflicts of interest when they occur between unrelated cells that lack a coincidence of fitness interests. Hence, there is the potential for miRNAs to represent both a means to resolve conflicts of interest, as well as instigate them. We conclude by exploring this conflict hypothesis, by describing some of the initial evidence consistent with it and proposing new ideas for future research into this exciting topic

Thinking dispositions for teaching : enabling and supporting resilience in context

Preparing pre-teachers for an increasingly challenging teaching profession is a complex work and requires teacher educators to engage in the careful design of both programmes and professional learning opportunities. This chapter explores how an explicit focus on thinking dispositions that enable effective teaching are developed in a Master of Teaching (Secondary) programme. This programme, delivered on-site at a secondary school, included carefully constructed teaching opportunities to support development of thinking dispositions. Ways of thinking and the impact they have on feelings, actions and beliefs will be examined along with how the implementation of our thinking dispositions framework supports the development of resilience in challenging teaching and learning contexts

Colouration in amphibians as a reflection of nutritional status : the case of tree frogs in Costa Rica

Colouration has been considered a cue for mating success in many species; ornaments in males often are related to carotenoid mobilization towards feathers and/or skin and can signal general health and nutrition status. However, there are several factors that can also link with status, such as physiological blood parameters and body condition, but there is not substantial evidence which supports the existence of these relationships and interactions in anurans. This study evaluated how body score and blood values interact with colouration in free-range Agalychnis callidryas and Agalychnis annae males. We found significant associations between body condition and plasmatic proteins and haematocrit, as well as between body condition and colour values from the chromaticity diagram. We also demonstrated that there is a significant relation between the glucose and plasmatic protein values that were reflected in the ventral colours of the animals, and haematocrit inversely affected most of those colour values. Significant differences were found between species as well as between populations of A. callidryas, suggesting that despite colour variation, there are also biochemical differences within animals from the same species located in different regions. These data provide information on underlying factors for colouration of male tree frogs in nature, provide insights about the dynamics of several nutrients in the amphibian model and how this could affect the reproductive output of the animals

TP53 and MDM2 single nucleotide polymorphisms influence survival in non-del(5q) myelodysplastic syndromes

Abstract:P53 is a key regulator of many cellular processes and is negatively regulated by the human homolog of murine double minute-2 (MDM2) E3 ubiquitin ligase. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of either gene alone, and in combination, are linked to cancer susceptibility, disease progression, and therapy response. We analyzed the interaction of TP53 R72P and MDM2 SNP309 SNPs in relationship to outcome in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Sanger sequencing was performed on DNA isolated from 208 MDS cases. Utilizing a novel functional SNP scoring system ranging from +2 to -2 based on predicted p53 activity, we found statistically significant differences in overall survival (OS) (p = 0.02) and progression-free survival (PFS) (p = 0.02) in non-del(5q) MDS patients with low functional scores. In univariate analysis, only IPSS and the functional SNP score predicted OS and PFS in non-del(5q) patients. In multivariate analysis, the functional SNP score was independent of IPSS for OS and PFS. These data underscore the importance of TP53 R72P and MDM2 SNP309 SNPs in MDS, and provide a novel scoring system independent of IPSS that is predictive for disease outcome

Gender and sexual orientation differences in cognition across adulthood : age is kinder to women than to men regardless of sexual orientation

Despite some evidence of greater age-related deterioration of the brain in males than in females, gender differences in rates of cognitive aging have proved inconsistent. The present study employed web-based methodology to collect data from people aged 20-65 years (109,612 men; 88,509 women). As expected, men outperformed women on tests of mental rotation and line angle judgment, whereas women outperformed men on tests of category fluency and object location memory. Performance on all tests declined with age but significantly more so for men than for women. Heterosexuals of each gender generally outperformed bisexuals and homosexuals on tests where that gender was superior; however, there were no clear interactions between age and sexual orientation for either gender. At least for these particular tests from young adulthood to retirement, age is kinder to women than to men, but treats heterosexuals, bisexuals, and homosexuals just the same