Door-to-door canvassing in the European elections: Evidence from a Swedish field experiment

In this paper I report the results from a door-to-door canvassing experiment conducted in Sweden during the 2014 European elections. The canvassing was performed by members of the Social Democratic Party and the experiment closely resembles the partisan nature of most mobilizing campaigns in Europe. The paper is one of the first to provide causal evidence for the mobilizing effectiveness of canvassing outside the United States. Living in a household that was visited by canvassers increases the probability of voting by 3.6 percentage points. This effect is entirely driven by estimates twice as large for occasional and first-time voters. Compared to previous research, the high compliance rate gives precisely estimated effects that are closer to average treatment effects

Crystal Structure of Human Cytosolic 5′-Nucleotidase II INSIGHTS INTO ALLOSTERIC REGULATION AND SUBSTRATE RECOGNITION

Cytosolic 5′-nucleotidase II catalyzes the dephosphorylation of 6-hydroxypurine nucleoside 5′-monophosphates and regulates the IMP and GMP pools within the cell. It possesses phosphotransferase activity and thereby also catalyzes the reverse reaction. Both reactions are allosterically activated by adenine-based nucleotides and 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate. We have solved structures of cytosolic 5′-nucleotidase II as native protein (2.2 A) and in complex with adenosine (1.5A) and beryllium trifluoride (2.15A). The tetrameric enzyme is structurally similar to enzymes of the haloacid dehalogenase (HAD) superfamily, including mitochondrial 5′(3′)-deoxyribonucleotidase and cytosolic 5′-nucleotidase III but possesses additional regulatory regions that contain two allosteric effector sites. At effector site 1 located near a subunit interface we modeled diadenosine tetraphosphate with one adenosine moiety in each subunit. This efficiently glues the tetramer subunits together in pairs. The model shows why diadenosine tetraphosphate but not diadenosine triphosphate activates the enzyme and supports a role for cN-II during apoptosis when the level of diadenosine tetraphosphate increases. We have also modeled 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate in effector site 1 using one phosphate site from each subunit. By comparing the structure of cytosolic 5′-nucleotidase II with that of mitochondrial 5′(3′)-deoxyribonucleotidase in complex with dGMP, we identified residues involved in substrate recognition

Completing the family portrait of the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins: Crystal structure of human Bfl-1 in complex with Bim

AbstractEvasion of apoptosis is recognized as a characteristic of malignant growth. Anti-apoptotic B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) family members have therefore emerged as potential therapeutic targets due to their critical role in proliferating cancer cells. Here, we present the crystal structure of Bfl-1, the last anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family member to be structurally characterized, in complex with a peptide corresponding to the BH3 region of the pro-apoptotic protein Bim. The structure reveals distinct features at the peptide-binding site, likely to define the binding specificity for pro-apoptotic proteins. Superposition of the Bfl-1:Bim complex with that of Mcl-1:Bim reveals a significant local plasticity of hydrophobic interactions contributed by the Bim peptide, likely to be the basis for the multi specificity of Bim for anti-apoptotic proteins

The Crystal Structure of the Dachshund Domain of Human SnoN Reveals Flexibility in the Putative Protein Interaction Surface

The human SnoN is an oncoprotein that interacts with several transcription-regulatory proteins such as the histone-deacetylase, N-CoR containing co-repressor complex and Smad proteins. This study presents the crystal structure of the Dachshund homology domain of human SnoN. The structure reveals a groove composed of conserved residues with characteristic properties of a protein-interaction surface. A comparison of the 12 monomers in the asymmetric unit reveals the presence of two major conformations: an open conformation with a well accessible groove and a tight conformation with a less accessible groove. The variability in the backbone between the open and the tight conformations matches the differences seen in previously determined structures of individual Dachshund homology domains, suggesting a general plasticity within this fold family. The flexibility observed in the putative protein binding groove may enable SnoN to recognize multiple interaction partners

Structural studies of tri-functional human GART

Human purine de novo synthesis pathway contains several multi-functional enzymes, one of which, tri-functional GART, contains three enzymatic activities in a single polypeptide chain. We have solved structures of two domains bearing separate catalytic functions: glycinamide ribonucleotide synthetase and aminoimidazole ribonucleotide synthetase. Structures are compared with those of homologous enzymes from prokaryotes and analyzed in terms of the catalytic mechanism. We also report small angle X-ray scattering models for the full-length protein. These models are consistent with the enzyme forming a dimer through the middle domain. The protein has an approximate seesaw geometry where terminal enzyme units display high mobility owing to flexible linker segments. This resilient seesaw shape may facilitate internal substrate/product transfer or forwarding to other enzymes in the pathway

Fluorescent Discrimination between Traces of Chemical Warfare Agents and Their Mimics

An array of fluorogenic probes is able to discriminate between nerve agents, sarin, soman, tabun, VX and their mimics, in water or organic solvent, by qualitative fluorescence patterns and quantitative multivariate analysis, thus making the system suitable for the inthe- field detection of traces of chemical warfare agents as well as to differentiate between the real nerve agents and other related compounds.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain (Project CTQ2012- 31611), Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Educación y Cultura y Fondo Social Europeo (Project BU246A12-1), the European Commission, Seventh Framework Programme (Project SNIFFER FP7-SEC-2012-312411) and the Swedish Ministry of Defence (no. A403913

Austerity Politics : Is the Electorate Responsible?

This thesis contributes to the public finance literature concerned with fiscal sustainability, and consists of an introduction and four stand-alone essays. The first three essays analyse the reasons why governments accumulate large levels of debt. In the first essay, I find that parties that implement fiscal consolidations are punished by the voters in the following election. However, there does not appear to be a rewarding effect for governments that implement fiscal expansions. The second essay, which is co-authored with Rafael Ahlskog, shows how voter opposition to fiscal consolidation is shaped by moral considerations and feelings of personal responsibility. More precisely, we argue that voters are more likely to refuse fiscal consolidation when they do not feel responsible for the public debt. The third essay argues that misperceptions about the business cycle would have caused fiscal problems even if policy-making was conducted by independent experts. According to my estimates, biased projections have weakened annual budget balances by approximately one per cent of GDP. In the fourth essay, I argue that budgetary mechanisms created to improve fiscal discipline have a bias toward a reduced public sector. Because discretionary decisions are usually required to adjust public expenditures to price and wage increases, periods of rapid growth have repeatedly caused the welfare state to shrink. I use the introduction to discuss the commonalities between the essays and to situate the field of public finance in a broader, historical context

Heltid - en möjlighet? : En studie av deltidsanställningar och personalkostnader i svenska kommuner

Den här uppsatsen undersöker hur andelen deltidsanställningar inom den kommunala verksamheten påverkar kommunernas personalkostnader. Flera regressionsmodeller har använts på ett material bestående av Sveriges samtliga kommuner mellan åren 1998 och 2006. Resultaten har visat att en kommun som minskar andelen deltidsanställda med tio procentenheter beräknas sänka sina personalkostnader med ca 1200 kr per kommuninvånare och år. Modellerna är signifikanta även när de kontrolleras för autokorrelation och relativt hårda antaganden om orsaksriktning och effektens fördröjning. Även deltidsanställningarnas inverkan på kvaliteten i den kommunala verksamheten har studerats. Trots svårigheterna att mäta kvalitet, tyder resultaten på att en minskning av andelen deltidsanställningar förväntas förbättra kvaliteten. Sammantaget visar resultaten att kommuner som erbjuder sina deltidsanställda möjlighet till heltidsanställning kan göra mindre ekonomiska vinster utan att försämra verksamhetens kvalitet. Slutsatsen har inte bara ett värde i sig, utan är även ett viktigt inlägg i diskussionen om de ekonomiska kostnaderna av en lagstiftad rätt till heltidsanställning

Austerity Politics : Is the Electorate Responsible?

This thesis contributes to the public finance literature concerned with fiscal sustainability, and consists of an introduction and four stand-alone essays. The first three essays analyse the reasons why governments accumulate large levels of debt. In the first essay, I find that parties that implement fiscal consolidations are punished by the voters in the following election. However, there does not appear to be a rewarding effect for governments that implement fiscal expansions. The second essay, which is co-authored with Rafael Ahlskog, shows how voter opposition to fiscal consolidation is shaped by moral considerations and feelings of personal responsibility. More precisely, we argue that voters are more likely to refuse fiscal consolidation when they do not feel responsible for the public debt. The third essay argues that misperceptions about the business cycle would have caused fiscal problems even if policy-making was conducted by independent experts. According to my estimates, biased projections have weakened annual budget balances by approximately one per cent of GDP. In the fourth essay, I argue that budgetary mechanisms created to improve fiscal discipline have a bias toward a reduced public sector. Because discretionary decisions are usually required to adjust public expenditures to price and wage increases, periods of rapid growth have repeatedly caused the welfare state to shrink. I use the introduction to discuss the commonalities between the essays and to situate the field of public finance in a broader, historical context

Replication Data for: Disentangling the impact of civil association membership on political participation

These are do-files for replicating all results in the paper "Disentangling the impact of civil association membership on political participation: Evidence from Swedish panel data". The replication material does not include data. See the online appendix for information about how to get access to the required data