Understanding Congressional Responsiveness.

This dissertation addresses a simple question: Why are some members of congress very responsive to the ideological preferences of their constituency while others appear to ignore their constituency? Although numerous scholars have explored this issue, they have consistently: (1) limited their analyses to the influence of member characteristics while ignoring the potentially significant influence of constituent factors and (2) failed to test a single comprehensive model of congressional responsiveness that considers the full range of member and constituent factors hypothesized to influence variation in congressional responsiveness. This dissertation directly addresses these two problems by developing and testing a comprehensive model of congressional representation that focuses on both the influence of constituent and member conditions on variation in congressional representation. Specifically, I examine the influence of electoral margins, congressional retirement, electoral proximity, congressional seniority, constituency homogeneity, and constituency political engagement. My analyses suggest that constituent conditions play a significant role in explaining variation in congressional responsiveness. In particular, I find that members from relatively homogeneous and politically engaged constituencies are significantly more responsive to the preferences of their constituents. I argue that this is because relatively homogeneous constituencies send relatively consistent signals regarding their preferences, while politically engaged constituencies are more likely to make their preferences known and punish members of congress who are not responsive to them. Surprisingly, I find that the influence of member conditions on variation in congressional responsiveness appears to be minimal and their influence varies between chambers of congress. Ultimately, I conclude, much of the variation exhibited in congressional representation is not random, but rather systematically associated with various member and constituent characteristics. Moreover, constituent factors play a vital role in this process and future research by congressional scholars must recognize this role if they are to fully understand the factors that influence congressional representation

Emergent patterns of cellular phenotypes in health and disease

The cellular framework that constitutes the building blocks of every living organism undergoes significant changes and transformations throughout its live time. In humans, many processes that involve these cellular changes can greatly influence the healthspan and survival of individuals, two of such processes include: aging and cancer. The two related, yet independent processes both arise due to the deterioration of ‘naïve’ cellular function, and the deficiency—later inability, of cells to properly regulate its physiology. Published studies have demonstrated a bi-phasic relationship between cancer and aging. With the incidences of cancer increasing with increasing age, followed by a plateau point and subsequent decrease; with cancer-type dependent shifts in this plateau point with age. There are a multitude of factors that affect the initiation and rate of progression of these cellular changes, and they stem from both intrinsic factors—such as the individuals’ underlying molecular and phenotypic profiles (i.e. genetics and protein expressions)—and extrinsic factors, such as lifestyle and environmental influences. To gain better understanding of these two naturally occurring processes, I took a piece-wise approach and asked two overarching questions. In regards to aging I asked how does the biochemical and biophysical features of cells construct the phenotypic portrait of human aging, and cane it be used to determine the biological age of individuals? Likewise, in regards to cancer: how does the cells’ physical properties associate with cancer progression and metastasis, and can it predict metastatic state based on the features of individual cells? In the first part of this study, I focus on human aging. Many studies have shown that there are marked changes in the cells’ molecular profiles and phenotypic behaviors with increasing age. To better understand this I procured a cohort of primary dermal fibroblasts and measured various aspects of the cellular biochemical framework (cell secretions, DNA damage response and DNA organization, cytoskeletal content and organization, and ATP content), as well as cellular biophysical features (morphology, motility, wound closure, traction strength, and cytoplasmic rheological properties). With this comprehensive approach, I was able to quantify age-dependent changes in various cellular features, and use these features to further predict biological age with a high degree of certainty. Knowing the biological age of an individual is important, since it is now apparent from the literature that the biological age is a better predictor of human healthspan and longevity than their corresponding chronological age. Secondly, according to the American Cancer Society, two out of every five persons in the US will develop cancer during his/her lifetime, with ninety percent of cancer-related deaths resulting from metastases, i.e. the migration of cancer cells from the primary tumor to distal sites in other organs. Since the completion of the Human Genome Project, researchers have focused on trying to understand the genetic basis of metastasis in an effort to better predict disease progression and uncover new therapeutic targets. However, possibly due to the inherent heterogeneity of cancer, no genetic signatures that clearly delineate cells from the primary tumors versus cells from metastatic sites have been found. Recent estimates suggest that millions of cells are shed from a primary tumor site each day, yet, progression to metastatic disease often take years, suggesting that metastasis is a highly inefficient process. From a biophysical perspective, I reasoned that in order to successfully overcome the difficult multi-step metastatic cascade—invasion and migration through the dense, tortuous stromal matrix, intravasation, survival of shear forces of blood flow, successful re-attachment to blood vessel walls, colonization at distal sites, and reactivation following dormancy—metastatic cells may share precise sets of physical properties. And these key physical properties (which can be thought of as the ensemble effects of it’s genetic, epigenetic and proteomic profiles, etc.) may contribute to the progression and diminished response to therapeutics exhibited by metastatic cells. Using a cohort of 13 clinically annotated PDAC (Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma) patient samples, cells were subjected to a phenotyping platform that I have co-developed—htCP (high-throughput cell phenotyping). This study revealed that using biophysical features described by the variations in the cellular morphological features, I was able to discover a phenotypic signature for metastasis, demonstrated in pancreatic and breast cancers, for both 2D and 3D environments

Maximizing AUV slow speed performance

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Ocean Engineering, 1997.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-104).by Phillip J. LeBas.M.S

Low Dose Leishmania major Promotes a Transient T Helper Cell Type 2 Response That Is Down-regulated by Interferon γ–producing CD8+ T Cells

An unresolved issue in the field of T helper (Th) cell development relates to the findings that low doses of antigen promote Th2 cell development in vitro, whereas several classic in vivo studies suggest the opposite. Here we resolve this paradox by studying the early immune response in mice after infection with different doses of Leishmania major. We found that low parasite doses induced a Th2 response in C57BL/6 (B6) mice, whereas high doses induced a Th1 response. However, the Th2 response in low dose–infected mice was transient and the animals healed. The appearance of a Th1 response after low dose infection was dependent upon the concomitant activation of interferon γ–producing CD8+ T cells. In the absence of CD8+ T cells, the Th2 response was maintained. However, either neutralization of interleukin (IL)-4 or administration of IL-12 promoted a Th1 response after low dose infection of CD8-deficient mice, indicating that the required role for CD8+ T cells was limited to modulation of CD4+ T cell responses. Thus, the discrepant results seen between in vivo and in vitro studies on the effects of antigen dose on Th cell differentiation may depend upon whether CD8+ T cells participate in the immune response

Parents’ Self-Reported Attachment Styles: A Review of Links with Parenting Behaviors, Emotions, and Cognitions

For decades, attachment scholars have been investigating how parents’ adult attachment orientations relate to the ways in which they parent. Traditionally, this research has been conducted by developmental and clinical psychologists who typically employ the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) to measure adult attachment. However, dating back to the mid-1990s, social and personality psychologists have been investigating how self-reported adult attachment styles relate to various facets of parenting. The literature on self-reported attachment and parenting has received less attention than AAI research on the same topic and, to date, there is no comprehensive review of this literature. In this article, we review more than 60 studies of the links between self-reported attachment styles and parenting, integrate the findings to reach general conclusions, discuss unresolved questions, and suggest future directions. Finally, we discuss the potential benefits to the study of parenting of collaborations among researchers from the developmental and social attachment research traditions.https://doi.org/10.1177/108886831454185

Contributions of attachment theory and research: A framework for future research, translation, and policy

Attachment theory has been generating creative and impactful research for almost half a century. In this article we focus on the documented antecedents and consequences of individual differences in infant attachment patterns, suggesting topics for further theoretical clarification, research, clinical interventions, and policy applications. We pay particular attention to the concept of cognitive “working models” and to neural and physiological mechanisms through which early attachment experiences contribute to later functioning. We consider adult caregiving behavior that predicts infant attachment patterns, and the still-mysterious “transmission gap” between parental Adult Attachment Interview classifications and infant Strange Situation classifications. We also review connections between attachment and (a) child psychopathology; (b) neurobiology; (c) health and immune function; (d) empathy, compassion, and altruism; (e) school readiness; and (f) culture. We conclude with clinical–translational and public policy applications of attachment research that could reduce the occurrence and maintenance of insecure attachment during infancy and beyond. Our goal is to inspire researchers to continue advancing the field by finding new ways to tackle long-standing questions and by generating and testing novel hypotheses.https://doi.org/10.1017/S095457941300069

Use of the p-values as a size-dependent function to address practical differences when analyzing large datasets

Biomedical research has come to rely on p-values as a deterministic measure for data-driven decision-making. In the largely extended none hypothesis significance testing for identifying statistically significant differences among groups of observations, a single p-value is computed from sample data. Then, it is routinely compared with a threshold, commonly set to 0.05, to assess the evidence against the hypothesis of having non-significant differences among groups, or the none hypothesis. Because the estimated p-value tends to decrease when the sample size is increased, applying this methodology to datasets with large sample sizes results in the rejection of the none hypothesis, making it not meaningful in this specific situation. We propose a new approach to detect differences based on the dependence of the p-value on the sample size. We introduce new descriptive parameters that overcome the effect of the size in the p-value interpretation in the framework of datasets with large sample sizes, reducing the uncertainty in the decision about the existence of biological differences between the compared experiments. The methodology enables the graphical and quantitative characterization of the differences between the compared experiments guiding the researchers in the decision process. An in-depth study of the methodology is carried out on simulated and experimental data. Code availability at https://github.com/BIIG-UC3M/pMoSS.This work was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, under Grants TEC2015-73064-EXP, TEC2016-78052, and PID2019-109820RB-I00, MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/, co-fnanced by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), "A way of making Europe" (AMB); BBVA Foundation under a 2017 Leonardo Grant for Researchers and Cultural Creators (AMB); the US National Institutes of Health under Grants UO1AG060903 (DW, JMP), P30AG021334 (JMP) and U54CA143868 (DW); the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. 1746891 (AS, DW). We also want to acknowledge the support of NVIDIA Corporation with the donation of the Titan X (Pascal) GPU used for this research. We thank Claire Jordan Brooks, Prof. Joachim Goedhart (University of Amsterdam), Laura Nicolás-Sáenz, Pedro Macías-Gordaliza and Prof. Naomi Altman (Pennsylvania State University) for their constructive comments and fruitful discussions

Stability of Attachment Style in Adolescence: An Empirical Test of Alternative Developmental Processes

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Jones, J.D., Fraley, R.C., Ehrlich, K.B., Stern, J.A., Lejuez, C.W., Shaver, P.R. and Cassidy, J. (2018), Stability of Attachment Style in Adolescence: An Empirical Test of Alternative Developmental Processes. Child Dev, 89: 871-880., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12775 . This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.Few studies have examined stability and change in attachment during adolescence. This 5-year longitudinal study (a) examined whether prototype or revisionist developmental dynamics better characterized patterns of stability and change in adolescent attachment (at T1, N = 176; M age = 14.0 years, SD = 0.9), (b) tested potential moderators of prototype-like attachment stability, and (c) compared attachment stability in adolescence to stability in adulthood. The results supported the prototype model, which assumes that there is a stable, enduring factor underlying stability and change in attachment. Exploratory moderation analyses revealed that family conflict, parental separation or divorce, minority status, and male sex might undermine the prototype-like stability of adolescent attachment. Stability of attachment was lower in adolescence relative to adulthood.https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.1277

African linguistics across the disciplines: Selected papers from the 48th Annual Conference on African Linguistics

Since the hiring of its first Africanist linguist Carleton Hodge in 1964, Indiana University’s Department of Linguistics has had a strong and continuing presence in the study of African languages and linguistics through the work of its faculty and of its graduates on the faculties of many other universities. Research on African linguistics at IU has covered some of the major language groups spoken on the African continent. Carleton Hodge’s work on Ancient Egyptian and Hausa, Paul Newman’s work on Hausa and Chadic languages, and Roxanna Ma Newman’s work on Hausa language structure and pedagogy have been some of the most important studies on Afro-Asiatic linguistics. With respect to Niger-Congo languages, the work of Charles Bird on Bambara and the Mande languages, Robert Botne’s work on Bantu structure (especially tense and aspect), Samuel Obeng and Colin Painter’s work on Ghanaian Languages (phonetics, phonology, and pragmatics), Robert Port’s studies on Swahili, and Erhard Voeltz's studies on Bantu linguistics are considered some of the most influential studies in the sub-field. On Nilo Saharan languages, the work of Tim Shopen on Songhay stands out. IU Linguistics has also forwarded theoretical work on African languages, such as John Goldsmith’s seminal research on tone in African languages. The African linguistics faculty at IU have either founded or edited important journals in African Studies, African languages, and African linguistics, including Africa Today, Studies in African Linguistics, and Journal of African Languages and Linguistics. In 1972, the Indiana University Department of Linguistics hosted the Third Annual Conference of African Linguistics. Proceedings of that conference were published by Indiana University Publications (African Series, vol. 7). In 1986, IU hosted the Seventeenth Annual Conference of African Linguistics with Paul Newman and Robert Botne editing the proceedings in a volume entitled Current Approaches to African Linguistics, vol. 5. In 2016, Indiana University hosted the 48th Annual Conference on African Linguistics with the theme African Linguistics Across the Disciplines. Proceedings of that meeting are published in this volume. The papers presented in this volume reflect the diversity of opportunities for language study in Africa. This collection of descriptive and theoretical work is the fruit of data gathering both in-country and abroad by researchers of languages spoken across the continent, from Sereer-sin in the west to Somali in the northeast to Ikalanga in the south. The range of topics in this volume is also broad, representative of the varied field work in country and abroad that inspires research in African linguistics. This collection of papers spans the disciplines of phonology (both segmental and suprasegmental), morphology (both morphophonological and morphosyntactic), syntax, semantics, and language policy. The data and analyses presented in this volume offer a cross-disciplinary view of linguistic topics from the many under-resourced languages of Africa

African linguistics across the disciplines: Selected papers from the 48th Annual Conference on African Linguistics

Since the hiring of its first Africanist linguist Carleton Hodge in 1964, Indiana University’s Department of Linguistics has had a strong and continuing presence in the study of African languages and linguistics through the work of its faculty and of its graduates on the faculties of many other universities. Research on African linguistics at IU has covered some of the major language groups spoken on the African continent. Carleton Hodge’s work on Ancient Egyptian and Hausa, Paul Newman’s work on Hausa and Chadic languages, and Roxanna Ma Newman’s work on Hausa language structure and pedagogy have been some of the most important studies on Afro-Asiatic linguistics. With respect to Niger-Congo languages, the work of Charles Bird on Bambara and the Mande languages, Robert Botne’s work on Bantu structure (especially tense and aspect), Samuel Obeng and Colin Painter’s work on Ghanaian Languages (phonetics, phonology, and pragmatics), Robert Port’s studies on Swahili, and Erhard Voeltz's studies on Bantu linguistics are considered some of the most influential studies in the sub-field. On Nilo Saharan languages, the work of Tim Shopen on Songhay stands out. IU Linguistics has also forwarded theoretical work on African languages, such as John Goldsmith’s seminal research on tone in African languages. The African linguistics faculty at IU have either founded or edited important journals in African Studies, African languages, and African linguistics, including Africa Today, Studies in African Linguistics, and Journal of African Languages and Linguistics. In 1972, the Indiana University Department of Linguistics hosted the Third Annual Conference of African Linguistics. Proceedings of that conference were published by Indiana University Publications (African Series, vol. 7). In 1986, IU hosted the Seventeenth Annual Conference of African Linguistics with Paul Newman and Robert Botne editing the proceedings in a volume entitled Current Approaches to African Linguistics, vol. 5. In 2016, Indiana University hosted the 48th Annual Conference on African Linguistics with the theme African Linguistics Across the Disciplines. Proceedings of that meeting are published in this volume. The papers presented in this volume reflect the diversity of opportunities for language study in Africa. This collection of descriptive and theoretical work is the fruit of data gathering both in-country and abroad by researchers of languages spoken across the continent, from Sereer-sin in the west to Somali in the northeast to Ikalanga in the south. The range of topics in this volume is also broad, representative of the varied field work in country and abroad that inspires research in African linguistics. This collection of papers spans the disciplines of phonology (both segmental and suprasegmental), morphology (both morphophonological and morphosyntactic), syntax, semantics, and language policy. The data and analyses presented in this volume offer a cross-disciplinary view of linguistic topics from the many under-resourced languages of Africa