Cross-national partisan effects on agenda stability

Studies of policy attention find only mixed support for a partisan impact, instead showing that policy attention reacts more to world events. Yet, a rigorous examination of the ways in which change in the partisan composition of government matters for the distribution of policies across issues has yet to be completed in a cross-national framework. Combining data on policy output from the Comparative Agendas Project, we present a detailed investigation of parties’ effect on agenda stability in six advanced industrial democracies over time. We consider parties as dynamic organizations by arguing that parties’ organizational characteristics and goals interact with their electoral context to determine their impact on policy attention. The results show that parties’ influence on the policy agenda depends on economic conditions, the type of government, the government’s seat share, and the number of parties in the governing cabinet, particularly following a major transition in government

Adiposity, Dysmetabolic Traits, and Earlier Onset of Female Puberty in Adolescent Offspring of Women With Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Clinical Study Within the Danish National Birth Cohort

OBJECTIVE Offspring of pregnancies affected by gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are at increased risk of the development of type 2 diabetes. However, the extent to which these dysmetabolic traits may be due to offspring and/or maternal adiposity is unknown. We examined body composition and associated cardiometabolic traits in 561 9- to 16-year-old offspring of mothers with GDM and 597 control offspring. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We measured anthropometric characteristics; puberty status; blood pressure; and fasting glucose, insulin, C-peptide, and lipid levels; and conducted a DEXA scan in a subset of the cohort. Differences in the outcomes between offspring of mothers with GDM and control subjects were examined using linear and logistic regression models. RESULTS After adjustment for age and sex, offspring of mothers with GDM displayed higher weight, BMI, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), systolic blood pressure, and resting heart rate and lower height. Offspring of mothers with GDM had higher total and abdominal fat percentages and lower muscle mass percentages, but these differences disappeared after correction for offspring BMI. The offspring of mothers with GDM displayed higher fasting plasma glucose, insulin, C-peptide, HOMA-insulin resistance (IR), and plasma triglyceride levels, whereas fasting plasma HDL cholesterol levels were decreased. Female offspring of mothers with GDM had an earlier onset of puberty than control offspring. Offspring of mothers with GDM had significantly higher BMI, WHR, fasting glucose, and HOMA-IR levels after adjustment for maternal prepregnancy BMI, and glucose and HOMA-IR remained elevated in the offspring of mothers with GDM after correction for both maternal and offspring BMIs. CONCLUSIONS In summary, adolescent offspring of women with GDM show increased adiposity, an adverse cardiometabolic profile, and earlier onset of puberty among girls. Increased fasting glucose and HOMA-IR levels among the offspring of mothers with GDM may be explained by the programming effects of hyperglycemia in pregnancy. </jats:sec

K2-370 b: a strongly irradiated sub-Neptune transiting a very active solar-type star

Funding: The authors acknowledge financial contribution from the agreement ASIINAF n.2018-16-HH.0. They gratefully acknowledge support from the Italian Space Agency (ASI) under contract 2018-24-HH.0 "The Italian participation to the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC)" in collaboration with the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics. AVF acknowledges the support of the IOP through the Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund. ACC acknowledges support from STFC consolidated grant number ST/V000861/1, and UKSA grant number ST/X002217/1. XD acknowledges the support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement SCORE No 851555) and from the Swiss National Science Foundation under the grant SPECTRE (No 200021_215200). FPE would like to acknowledge the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for supporting research with HARPS-N through the SNSF grants nr. 140649, 152721, 166227, 184618 and 215190. This research was funded in part by the UKRI, (Grants ST/X001121/1, EP/X027562/1).We report on the detailed characterisation of K2-370 b, a transiting sub-Neptune on a 2.14-d orbit around the chromospherically active G-type dwarf HD 284521 (Teff = 5662 ± 44 K, =-4.49). The system parameters are derived based on a global fit to K2, TESS and CHEOPS photometry, and HARPS-N and HARPS radial velocities (RVs). A Gaussian process regression analysis is performed simultaneously to the orbital fit of the RVs of K2-370 to effectively model the strong stellar rotation signal with a period of 13.5 ± 0.05 d and measure the planetary RV signal with semi-amplitude Kb = 5.6 ± 0.7 m s−1. We find that K2-370 b has a radius of 2.67 ± 0.05 R⊕ and a mass of 11.1 ± 1.4 M⊕. With an estimated equilibrium temperature Teq ∼ 1480 K, K2-370 b is the second-hottest sub-Neptune with a highly precise mass determination around primaries with Teff > 5500 K. The resulting density of 3.2 ± 0.4 g cm−3 implies that K2-370 b either retains a significant (∼2 per cent by mass) H-rich atmosphere or its interior contains a high (∼ 40 per cent) water-mass fraction.Peer reviewe

K2-370 b:a strongly irradiated sub-Neptune transiting a very active solar-type star

We report on the detailed characterisation of K2-370 b, a transiting sub-Neptune on a 2.14-d orbit around the chromospherically active G-type dwarf HD 284521 (eff = 5662 ± 44 K, &lt; log ′ &gt;= −4.49). The system parameters are derived based on a global fit to K2, TESS and CHEOPS photometry, and HARPS-N and HARPS radial velocities (RV). A Gaussian process regression analysis is performed simultaneously to the orbital fit of the RVs of K2-370 to effectively model the strong stellar rotation signal with a period of 13.5 ± 0.05 d and measure the planetary RV signal with semi-amplitude = 5.6 ± 0.7 m s−1. We find that K2-370 b has a radius of 2.67 ± 0.05 ⊕ and a mass of 11.1 ± 1.4 ⊕. With an estimated equilibrium temperature eq ∼ 1480 K, K2-370 b is the second-hottest sub-Neptune with a highly precise mass determination around primaries with eff &gt; 5500 K. The resulting density of 3.2±0.4 g cm−3 implies that K2-370 b either retains a significant (∼ 2% by mass) H-rich atmosphere or its interior contains a high (∼ 40%) water-mass fraction

Six pelagic seabird species of the North Atlantic engage in a fly-and-forage strategy during their migratory movements

Funding Information: We thank all the fieldworkers for their hard work collecting data. Funding for this study was provided by the Norwegian Ministry for Climate and the Environment, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association along with 8 oil companies through the SEATRACK project (www. seapop. no/ en/ seatrack). Fieldwork in Norwegian colonies (incl. Svalbard and Jan Mayen) was supported by the SEAPOP program (www.seapop.no, grant no. 192141). The French Polar Institute (IPEV project 330 to O.C.) supported field operation for Kongsfjord kittiwakes. The work on the Isle of May was also supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (Award NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCaPE programme delivering National Capability). We thank Maria Bogdanova for field support and data processing. Finally, we thank 3 anonymous reviewers for their help improving the first version of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

TESS and ESPRESSO discover a super-Earth and a mini-Neptune orbiting the K-dwarf TOI-238

The number of super-Earth and mini-Neptune planet discoveries has increased significantly in the last two decades thanks to transit and radial velocity surveys. When it is possible to apply both techniques, we can characterise the internal composition of exoplanets, which in turn provides unique insights on their architecture, formation and evolution. We performed a combined photometric and radial velocity analysis of TOI-238 (TYC 6398-132-1), which has one short-orbit super-Earth planet candidate announced by NASA's TESS team. We aim to confirm its planetary nature using radial velocities taken with the ESPRESSO and HARPS spectrographs, to measure its mass and to detect the presence of other possible planetary companions. We carried out a joint analysis by including Gaussian processes and Keplerian orbits to account for the stellar activity and planetary signals simultaneously. We detected the signal induced by TOI-238 b in the radial velocity time-series, and the presence of a second transiting planet, TOI-238 c, whose signal appears in RV and TESS data. TOI-238 b is a planet with a radius of 1.402$^{+0.084}_{-0.086}$ R$_{\oplus}$ and a mass of 3.40$^{+0.46}_{-0.45}$ M$_{\oplus}$. It orbits at a separation of 0.02118 $\pm$ 0.00038 AU of its host star, with an orbital period of 1.2730988 $\pm$ 0.0000029 days, and has an equilibrium temperature of 1311 $\pm$ 28 K. TOI-238 c has a radius of 2.18$\pm$ 0.18 R$_{\oplus}$ and a mass of 6.7 $\pm$ 1.1 M$_{\oplus}$. It orbits at a separation of 0.0749 $\pm$ 0.0013 AU of its host star, with an orbital period of 8.465652 $\pm$ 0.000031 days, and has an equilibrium temperature of 696 $\pm$ 15 K. The mass and radius of planet b are fully consistent with an Earth-like composition, making it likely a rocky super-Earth. Planet c could be a water-rich planet or a rocky planet with a small H-He atmosphere.Comment: 33 pages, 31 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication at A&

Committee autonomy in parliamentary systems – coalition logic or congressional rationales?

The Institutions of Politics; Design, Workings, and implications ( do not use, ended 1-1-2020