Climate Change and Interpersonal Violence: A Global Estimate and Regional Inequities

This study estimates the predicted impact of climate change on levels of violence in a sample of 57 countries. We sample western and non-western countries and perform a multilevel ARFIMA regression to examine if warmer temperatures are associated with higher levels of homicide. Our results indicate that each degree Celsius increase in annual temperatures is associated with a nearly 6% average increase in homicides. Regional variation in this predicted effect is detected, for example, with no apparent effects in former Soviet countries and far stronger effects found in Africa. This variation indicates that climate change may acutely increase violence in areas that already are affected by higher levels of homicides and other social dislocations

TikTok and Civic Activity among Young Adults

TikTok is known for its lighthearted dance and lip-synch videos, yet videos with the hashtag #politics have garnered nearly 14 billion views. Does young adults’ politically oriented expression on TikTok lead to increased civic engagement offline? TikTok helps incorporate young adults into political social networks that may encourage additional civic activity. In addition, the playful, humorous nature of TikTok-based political expression encourages young adults to develop participatory, political selves. Using data from a 2020 survey of Americans between 18 and 25 years old, we find that posting political videos on TikTok connects with higher offline civic engagement. The results suggest that playful political expression is an important feature for promoting young adult civic engagement

College Students and Online Political Expression During the 2016 Election

While college students traditionally exhibit low levels of political participation and interest in politics, they are more likely to engage in some forms of political expression than their elders. Their greater familiarity with online forms of political expression and engagement potentially lowers their barriers for political involvement. In turn, this potentially draws more young adults into the political process. We compare the precursors of expressive forms of online political engagement to those of talking to someone offline and trying to persuade them to vote for or against a candidate or party among college students. We find that both activities are positively connected with politically-oriented activity on social media, as well as, the frequency with which one reads blogs. We also discover that the mechanisms that explain online political expression are both similar to and different from those that explain offline attempts at persuasion in several key ways

Strategic Behavior and Variation in the Supreme Court’s Caseload over Time

Over the past sixty years, the size of the Supreme Court’s docket has varied tremendously, growing at some points in time and shrinking at others. What accounts for this variation in the size of the docket? We focus on two key strategic factors – the predictability of outcomes within the Court, and whether justices consider the potential actions of other political institutions – and assess whether these factors help to explain the variation in docket size over time. We discover that uncertainty and institutional constraints prevent the Court from choosing cases with complete freedom, even after accounting for other potential influences on the size of the Court’s docket

Meridional Survey of the Central Pacific Reveals Iodide Accumulation in Equatorial Surface Waters and Benthic Sources in the Abyssal Plain

The distributions of iodate and iodide were measured along the GEOTRACES GP15 meridional transect at 152°W from the shelf of Alaska to Papeete, Tahiti. The transect included oxygenated waters near the shelf of Alaska, the full water column in the central basin in the North Pacific Basin, the upper water column spanning across seasonally mixed regimes in the north, oligotrophic regimes in the central gyre, and the equatorial upwelling. Iodide concentrations are highest in the permanently stratified tropical mixed layers, which reflect accumulation due to light-dependent biological processes, and decline rapidly below the euphotic zone. Vertical mixing coefficients (Kz), derived from complementary 7Be data, enabled iodide oxidation rates to be estimated at two stations. Iodide half-lives of 3–4 years show the importance of seasonal mixing processes in explaining north-south differences in the transect, and also contribute to the decrease in iodide concentrations with depth below the mixed layer. These estimated half-lives are consistent with a recent global iodine model. No evidence was found for significant inputs of iodine from the Alaskan continental margin, but there is a significant enrichment of iodide in bottom waters overlying deep sea sediments from the interior of the basin

Calibrating Single-Ended Fiber-Optic Raman Spectra Distributed Temperature Sensing Data

Hydrologic research is a very demanding application of fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing (DTS) in terms of precision, accuracy and calibration. The physics behind the most frequently used DTS instruments are considered as they apply to four calibration methods for single-ended DTS installations. The new methods presented are more accurate than the instrument-calibrated data, achieving accuracies on the order of tenths of a degree root mean square error (RMSE) and mean bias. Effects of localized non-uniformities that violate the assumptions of single-ended calibration data are explored and quantified. Experimental design considerations such as selection of integration times or selection of the length of the reference sections are discussed, and the impacts of these considerations on calibrated temperatures are explored in two case studies

The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2014

The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2014 (IDP2014) is the first publicly available data product of the international GEOTRACES programme, and contains data measured and quality controlled before the end of 2013. It consists of two parts: (1) a compilation of digital data for more than 200 trace elements and isotopes (TEIs) as well as classical hydrographic parameters, and (2) the eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas providing a strongly inter-linked on-line atlas including more than 300 section plots and 90 animated 3D scenes. The IDP2014 covers the Atlantic, Arctic, and Indian oceans, exhibiting highest data density in the Atlantic. The TEI data in the IDP2014 are quality controlled by careful assessment of intercalibration results and multi-laboratory data comparisons at cross-over stations. The digital data are provided in several formats, including ASCII spreadsheet, Excel spreadsheet, netCDF, and Ocean Data View collection. In addition to the actual data values the IDP2014 also contains data quality flags and 1-? data error values where available. Quality flags and error values are useful for data filtering. Metadata about data originators, analytical methods and original publications related to the data are linked to the data in an easily accessible way. The eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas is the visual representation of the IDP2014 data providing section plots and a new kind of animated 3D scenes. The basin-wide 3D scenes allow for viewing of data from many cruises at the same time, thereby providing quick overviews of large-scale tracer distributions. In addition, the 3D scenes provide geographical and bathymetric context that is crucial for the interpretation and assessment of observed tracer plumes, as well as for making inferences about controlling processes

Candidate Qualifications and Gender in U.S. Congressional Elections

Women and men candidates for political office are equally likely to win their elections, yet women face numerous additional disadvantages. What explains this disconnect? We propose two related explanations. First, women candidates are likely to be, on average, better qualified than the men they oppose. Second, women candidates need to be better qualified than men to earn equivalent electoral results. To test our account, we create a unique measure of candidate qualifications that explicitly models the duration and level of office that each candidate has held during their entire political career. We examine all mixed-gender races for the U.S. House of Representatives during the 2004, 2006, and 2008 general elections, and uncover evidence that confirms our theoretical expectations

Creditable Civic Engagement? Aligning Work on Civic Activity with Faculty Incentives

Political scientists frequently study and engage in civic engagement work and the institutions that employ them state that they value these endeavors. Yet, there is a disconnect between valuing and doing this work relative to aligning it with faculty incentives. We discuss our experiences with civic engagement work and how we made it fit into how we are evaluated. We use our experience to motivate recommendations to fellow faculty, institutions, and administrators with respect to how they can do and encourage this work going forward