How Republicans and Democrats enhanced inequality by undermining financial regulation

Tackling inequality has become a clarion call for politicians on both the right and the left. But in order to address the problem, we need to have better insights into how the current levels of economic equality became so entrenched. In new research which examines nearly 100 years of data, Nathan J. Kelly and Eric Keller find that financial deregulation has contributed to America’s dramatic shift toward greater income concentration. They write that for most of the 20th century, Democratic control of the Senate made financial regulation more likely, but that from the 1980s, onwards, partly due to growing campaign contributions from the financial sector, the party converged with the Republicans’ neoliberal enthusiasm for deregulation

Religion and Latino Partisanship in the United States

This paper examines the interplay between religion, ethnicity, and the partisanship of Latinos in the United States. Using pooled data from the 1990-2000 National Election Studies, we assess denominational affiliation and religious commitment as explanations of partisanship. We show that there is more religious diversity among Latinos than is usually acknowledged in studies of Latino politics and that the political importance of religion among Latinos has not been adequately assessed because variation beyond a Catholic/non-Catholic dichotomy has been ignored. We demonstrate that variation in Latino religious affiliation has important political implications

Measuring Progress with Normalized Energy Intensity

Energy standard ISO 50001 will require industries to quantify improvement in energy intensity to qualify for certification. This paper describes a four-step method to analyze utility billing, weather, and production data to quantify a company\u27s normalized energy intensity over time. The method uses 3-pararameter change-point regression modeling of utility billing data against weather and production data to derive energy signature equations. The energy signature equation is driven by typical weather and production data to calculate the \u27normal annual consumption\u27, NAC, and divided by typical production to calculate \u27normalized energy intensity\u27 NEI. These steps are repeated on sequential sets of 12 months of data to generate a series of \u27sliding\u27 NEIs and regression coefficients. The method removes the effects of changing weather and production levels, so that the change in energy intensity is a sole function of changing energy efficiency. Deficiencies of other methods of calculating NEI are identified. The method is demonstrated in a case study example

The Role of Social Movements in the Macro Political System

One of the central concepts in the study of social movements is that of the “Protest Cycle” (e.g., Tarrow 1998). The imagery of the Cycle is that of heightened protests, across issue areas and groups. Scholars have connected its rise to openings in the Political Opportunity Structure, which signals to early risers that the time may be ripe for collective action (e.g., Tarrow 1998). We find it striking that this core idea in the social movements literature has not been connected more explicitly to the literature on public opinion. This is especially striking because social movement scholars have begun to explicitly address the role of public opinion in their models (e.g., Soule and Olzak 2004; Soule and King 2006). Suppose that ideological social movements, taken as a whole, rise and fall across time in a predictable fashion. Perhaps the effects of these movements on public opinion and policy are also predictable, as some have argued (e.g., Burstein and Linton 2002). In that case, social movements play a vital role in connecting public opinion to policy. How can this be the case? Public opinion can be summarized as policy mood (e.g. Erikson, MacKuen and Stimson 2002). It turns out that at the national level, people’s preferences regarding the degree to which they think government should be more or less active moves over time in liberal and conservative directions. Policy mood causes national election outcomes, which in turn causes how liberal or conservative the legislation is that Congress passes. Policy mood should matter for social movements, as well . Dynamic policy mood presents social movement organizers with opportunities; when policy mood is liberal, liberal social movements have more of an opportunity to be successful because the issues they care about will receive more support from the American people (Soule and Olzak 2004). Liberal social movements will then rise, leading to greater policy success (the opposite will be true for conservative social movements). However, the activism of these rising social movements leads to an ideological backlash, which in turn moves public mood in the opposite direction in an effort to find balance. We test our hypotheses using a data set of public protest events that records protest events for each day from 1960 to 1995 ( see a data source summary in Soule and Davenport 2009 ). The evidence supports our hypotheses, indicating that social movements play an important role in the macro political system

A novel NGS library preparation method to characterize native termini of fragmented DNA.

Biological and chemical DNA fragmentation generates DNA molecules with a variety of termini, including blunt ends and single-stranded overhangs. We have developed a Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) assay, XACTLY, to interrogate the termini of fragmented DNA, information traditionally lost in standard NGS library preparation methods. Here we describe the XACTLY method, showcase its sensitivity and specificity, and demonstrate its utility in in vitro experiments. The XACTLY assay is able to report relative abundances of all lengths and types (5' and 3') of single-stranded overhangs, if present, on each DNA fragment with an overall accuracy between 80-90%. In addition, XACTLY retains the sequence of each native DNA molecule after fragmentation and can capture the genomic landscape of cleavage events at single nucleotide resolution. The XACTLY assay can be applied as a novel research and discovery tool for fragmentation analyses and in cell-free DNA

Moving forward with time series analysis

In a recent Research and Politics article, we showed that for many types of time series data, concerns about spurious relationships can be overcome by following standard procedures associated with cointegration tests and the general error correction model (GECM). Matthew Lebo and Patrick Kraft (LK) incorrectly argue that our recommended approach will lead researchers to identify false (i.e., spurious) relationships. In this article, we show how LK\u27s response is incorrect or misleading in multiple ways. Most importantly, when we correct their simulations, their results reinforce our previous findings, highlighting the utility of the GECM when estimated and interpreted correctly

Congressional gridlock helps to make income inequality worse

Last December, President Obama warned of ‘dangerous and growing inequality’ in America, reflecting growing concerns that inequality is increasing, especially in relation to other countries. Peter K. Enns, Nathan J. Kelly, Jana Morgan, Thomas Volscho and Christopher Witko investigate the role of what they argue is a major contributing factor to rising inequality: the tendency for the current political and economic conditions to maintain the policy status quo. They argue that the increasing political polarization that makes it harder for Congress to pass laws in turn contributes to rising inequality, especially when inequality is already growing rapidly

Male Savannah Sparrows Provide Less Parental Care With Increasing Paternity Loss

Male parental care can significantly affect fledging success and, therefore, is a strong target of both natural and sexual selection. However, for songbird species that exhibit extra-pair paternity, males may reduce parental care based on how much paternity they have lost in a brood. We studied Passerculus sandwichensis (Savannah Sparrow) male parental care relative to the proportion of extra-pair young in the nest, to see if males adjusted care in response to increasing loss of paternity. Males brought less food (mass) with increasing rates of extra-pair paternity, although male provisioning did not influence fledging success. These results contrast with a previously published study of an island population of this species, where males provided more parental care with increased loss of paternity. We hypothesize that high rates of annual survival in this mainland population, where males have a greater potential for reproduction in future years, may explain this difference in behavior

Accounting for observation processes across multiple levels of uncertainty improves inference of species distributions and guides adaptive sampling of environmental DNA

Understanding factors that influence observation processes is critical for accurate assessment of underlying ecological processes. When indirect methods of detection, such as environmental DNA, are used to determine species presence, additional levels of uncertainty from observation processes need to be accounted for. We conducted a field trial to evaluate observation processes of a terrestrial invasive species (wild pigs‐ Sus scrofa) from DNA in water bodies. We used a multi‐scale occupancy analysis to estimate different levels of observation processes (detection, p): the probability DNA is available per sample (θ), the probability of capturing DNA per extraction (γ), and the probability of amplification per qPCR run (δ). We selected four sites for each of three water body types and collected 10 samples per water body during two months (September and October 2016) in central Texas. Our methodology can be used to guide sampling adaptively to minimize costs while improving inference of species distributions. Using a removal sampling approach was more efficient than pooling samples and was unbiased. Availability of DNA varied by month, was considerably higher when water pH was near neutral, and was higher in ephemeral streams relative to wildlife guzzlers and ponds. To achieve a cumulative detection probability \u3e90% (including availability, capture, and amplification), future studies should collect 20 water samples per site, conduct at least two extractions per sample, and conduct five qPCR replicates per extraction. Accounting for multiple levels of uncertainty of observation processes improved estimation of the ecological processes and provided guidance for future sampling designs

Exploring the Future of Human Factors Education; Online Learning, MOOCs, Next Generation Standards, and the Technological Skills We Need to Impart

The objective of this panel was to examine how the future of human factors education is changing given the influx of technology, a push for online learning, and adapting to the changing market. The panel will begin by Heather Lum briefly giving an overview and the precipice for this discussion panel. The panelists then provided their views and experiences regarding this topic. Kelly Steelman will discuss the potential for MOOCs and other online formats to create faster and more flexible postgraduate programs. Christina Frederick will discuss her perspectives on the technological skills we should be equipping our human factors graduates with to be successful. Nathan Sonnenfeld will give his unique take on this as an undergraduate student currently obtaining a human factors education. Susan Amato-Henderson will discuss the Next Generation Science Standards and the ramifications for educators. Lastly, Thomas Smith will focus on the advantages and disadvantages of online learning at the K-12 level. Dr. Lum will foster discussion among the panelists and questions from the general audience. Discussion time: 90 minutes