International Attitudes Toward the U.S., NATO and Russia in a Time of Crisis

This Pew Research Center analysis focuses on public opinion of the United States, Russia and NATO in 17 countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. The report draws on nationally representative surveys of 19,903 adults from Feb. 14 to May 11, 2022. All surveys were conducted over the phone with adults in Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea. Surveys were conducted face to face in Poland and Israel and online in Australia.Data collection began a week prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Japan. All other countries began fieldwork the same day as or shortly after the invasion. Due to the time it takes to translate, program and test questions on our international surveys, we prioritized gathering data at the start of this significant international event rather than delaying, or pausing, fieldwork to add questions specifically about the war or the actions taken by world leaders in response. Analysis focuses on ratings of Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, the countries they lead and NATO as the war in Ukraine was unfolding. In this report, the data is discussed in the context of over a decade of cross-national trends.Views of Russia and NATO also include data from the United States. We surveyed 3,581 U.S. adults from March 21 to 27, 2022, after the start of the war in Ukraine. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center's American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories

Seven-in-Ten Americans Now See Russia as an Enemy

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led to a dramatic shift in American public opinion: 70% of Americans now consider Russia an enemy of the United States, up from 41% in January. And on this topic, Democrats and Republicans largely agree, with 72% of Democrats and 69% of Republicans describing Russia as an enemy.A new Pew Research Center survey, conducted March 21-27, finds that just 7% of U.S. adults have an overall favorable opinion of Russia. Only 6% express confidence in its leader, President Vladimir Putin. In contrast, 72% have confidence in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

What People Around the World Like And Dislike About American Society and Politics

As Pew Research Center surveys have documented, the United States' global reputation has shifted dramatically over the past two decades, often improving or declining depending on who is in the White House and the foreign policies they pursue. At the same time, many other factors have continued to shape how people see the U.S., including its vast cultural reach, its economic model and its divisive politics. A survey of 17 advanced economies highlights the complexity of America's international image. People in other publics find much to admire about the U.S., but they see many problems as well. Americans, for their part, also see both strengths and weaknesses in their society

Social Media Seen as Mostly Good for Democracy Across Many Nations, But U.S. is a Major Outlier

As people across the globe have increasingly turned to Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and other platforms to get their news and express their opinions, the sphere of social media has become a new public space for discussing – and often arguing bitterly – about political and social issues. And in the mind of many analysts, social media is one of the major reasons for the declining health of democracy in nations around the world.However, as a new Pew Research Center survey of 19 advanced economies shows, ordinary citizens see social media as both a constructive and destructive component of political life, and overall most believe it has actually had a positive impact on democracy. Across the countries polled, a median of 57% say social media has been more of a good thing for their democracy, with 35% saying it has been a bad thing.There are substantial cross-national differences on this question, however, and the United States is a clear outlier: Just 34% of U.S. adults think social media has been good for democracy, while 64% say it has had a bad impact. In fact, the U.S. is an outlier on a number of measures, with larger shares of Americans seeing social media as divisive

Germany and the United States: Reliable Allies. But Disagreement on Russia, Global Leadership and Trade

This Pew Research Center report, in association with Bertelsmann Foundation, examines American and German attitudes toward each other and their respective geopolitical roles. This report is based on telephone surveys in the United States and Germany. In the U.S., interviews were conducted February 26 to March 1, 2015 among a national sample of 1,003 persons, 18 years of age or older. In Germany, interviews were conducted February 24-25, 2015 among a national sample of 963 persons, 18 years of age or older. For more details, see survey methods and topline results

Developing and evaluating a tool to measure general practice productivity : a multimethod study

Background Systems for measuring the performance of general practices are extremely limited. Objectives The aim was to develop, pilot test and evaluate a measure of productivity that can be applied across all typical general practices in England, and that may result in improvements in practice, thereby leading to better patient outcomes. Methods Stage 1 – the approach used was based on the Productivity Measurement and Enhancement System (ProMES). Through 16 workshops with 80 general practice staff and 72 patient representatives, the objectives of general practices were identified, as were indicators that could measure these objectives and systems to convert the indicators into an effectiveness score and a productivity index. This was followed by a consensus exercise involving a face-to-face meeting with 16 stakeholders and an online survey with 27 respondents. An online version of the tool [termed the General Practice Effectiveness Tool (GPET)] and detailed guidance were created. Stage 2 – 51 practices were trained to use the GPET for up to 6 months, entering data on each indicator monthly and getting automated feedback on changes in effectiveness over time. The feasibility and acceptability of the GPET were examined via 38 telephone interviews with practice representatives, an online survey of practice managers and two focus groups with patient representatives. Results The workshops resulted in 11 objectives across four performance areas: (1) clinical care, (2) practice management, (3) patient focus and (4) external focus. These were measured by 52 indicators, gathered from clinical information systems, practice records, checklists, a short patient questionnaire and a short staff questionnaire. The consensus exercise suggested that this model was appropriate, but that the tool would be of more benefit in tracking productivity within practices than in performance management. Thirty-eight out of 51 practices provided monthly data, but only 28 practices did so for the full period. Limited time and personnel changes made participation difficult for some. Over the pilot period, practice effectiveness increased significantly. Perceptions of the GPET were varied. Usefulness was given an average rating of 4.5 out of 10.0. Ease of use was more positive, scoring 5.6 out of 10.0. Five indicators were highlighted as problematic to gather, and 27% of practices had difficulties entering data. Feedback from interviews suggested difficulties using the online system and finding time to make use of feedback. Most practices could not provide sufficient monthly financial data to calculate a conventional productivity index. Limitations It was not possible to create a measure that provides comparability between all practices, and most practices could not provide sufficient financial data to create a productivity index, leaving an effectiveness measure instead. Having a relatively small number of practices, with no control group, limited this study, and there was a limited timescale for the testing and evaluation. Implications The GPET has demonstrated some viability as a tool to aid practice improvement. The model devised could serve as a basis for measuring effectiveness in general practice more widely. Future work Some additional research is needed to refine the GPET. Enhanced testing with a control sample would evaluate whether or not it is the use of the GPET that leads to improved performance

Iron Deficiency and Acute Seizures: Results from Children Living in Rural Kenya and a Meta-Analysis

There are conflicting reports on whether iron deficiency changes susceptibility to seizures. We examined the hypothesis that iron deficiency is associated with an increased risk of acute seizures in children in a malaria endemic area

Investigating the Cellular Control and Biological Consequences of Prion Formation in Yeast

Proteins are macromolecules that must fold correctly to perform their functions in cells. Cells use several quality control systems to ensure proteins fold correctly. For example, chaperones are proteins that help to prevent other proteins from misfolding. Prions are a subset of misfolded proteins that are self-propagating and are infectious, thus transforming correctly folded proteins into their prion counterparts. Yeast are used as model organisms since they share many genes with humans but are easier to manipulate experimentally. Whereas human prions cause diseases, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, yeast prions sometimes provide benefits to the cell. Previous studies in our lab have shown that when certain chaperones are functioning normally in yeast, prion formation is reduced. Whether the human homologs of these chaperones can similarly suppress prion formation is unknown

Global Public Opinion in an Era of Democratic Anxiety

As democratic nations have wrestled with economic, social and geopolitical upheaval in recent years, the future of liberal democracy has come into question. In countries across the globe, democratic norms and civil liberties have deteriorated, while populists have enjoyed surprising success at the ballot box. Newly democratic nations have struggled, while more-established, once self-assured democracies have stumbled, exposing long-simmering weaknesses in their social fabrics and institutional designs.These trends have been well-documented by organizations such as the Economist Intelligence Unit, Freedom House, International IDEA and the Varieties of Democracy project (V-Dem), which measure and track the quality of democracy around the world. Public opinion researchers have also focused on these issues by examining how citizens think about democracy and its alternatives. At Pew Research Center, we've applied a comparative, cross-national lens to explore global trends in attitudes toward political representation and individual rights

Investigating the Cellular Control and Biological Consequences of Prion Formation in Yeast

Proteins are macromolecules that must fold correctly to perform their functions in cells. Cells use several quality control systems to ensure proteins fold correctly. For example, chaperones are proteins that help to prevent other proteins from misfolding. Prions are a subset of misfolded proteins that are self-propagating and are infectious, thus transforming correctly folded proteins into their prion counterparts. Yeast are used as model organisms since they share many genes with humans but are easier to manipulate experimentally. Whereas human prions cause diseases, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, yeast prions sometimes provide benefits to the cell. Previous studies in our lab have shown that when certain chaperones are functioning normally in yeast, prion formation is reduced. Whether the human homologs of these chaperones can similarly suppress prion formation is unknown. To test whether this is the case, I am engineering yeast in which some chaperones have been replaced with their human counterparts, to assess whether the human chaperones inhibit prion formation. I have successfully engineered yeast containing one such chaperone, although the planned prion formation assays were derailed by the COVID-19 outbreak. Additionally, to explore whether prions give yeast an advantage growing in various conditions, I performed growth competition experiments in which prion-containing cells competed with their genetically identical prion-free counterparts, with the abundance of each cell type assessed each day over multiple days. Preliminary results confirm that the prion-containing cells out-compete their prion-free counterparts in the presence of the fermentable carbon source, glucose, whereas it is the opposite result in the presence of the non-fermentable carbon sources, glycerol and lactic acid