History, Heritage, or Propaganda: Should Confederate Monuments Come Down?

Why did Charlottesville’s confederate monuments, which had been of little interest to white nationalists, suddenly become a rallying ground for them, neo-Confederates and alt-right activists? And why are others demanding these monuments be removed? Are they history worth preserving, or are they white nationalist propaganda packaged as heritage that distorts history for the sake of social control? This teach-in will explore the political, economic, historical and cultural meaning of confederate monuments so that you can better understand the deeper issues underlying this debate and decide for yourself

Here’s Looking at You: Public- Versus Elite-Driven Models of Presidential Primary Elections

Objective. This study advances the presidential primary literature in two ways. First, since many studies in this literature advocate for more detailed theoretical development, we incorporate an interdisciplinary approach by utilizing social contagion theory from the field of sociology. Second, presidential primaries do not adequately explore what role the public plays during the invisible primary. We thus incorporate Google Trends data into presidential primary models to account for the relative amount of public attention for each presidential primary candidate. Methods. We use fixed effects regression to determine the impact of public attention on a candidate’s share of the contested primary vote (CPV). Results. We find that increased public attention leads to higher levels of support for a candidate in the Iowa caucuses, New Hampshire primary, and CPV. Conclusion. These findings illustrate the extra-voting role the public plays in presidential primary elections and helps us further distinguish how party elites, voters, and candidates uniquely determine the selection of our executive

Life of the Party: Social Networks, Public Attention, and the Importance of Shocks in the Presidential Nomination Process

We examine the effects of shocks on the invisible Presidential primary in the United States. First, we build on existing models using an algorithm simulating social network shocks. Findings show that positive shocks significantly aid the lead candidate’s chances of winning in the invisible primary. Negative shocks, however, are less detrimental to a lead candidate than positive shocks are helpful, as the leader is often able to survive a negative shock and still emerge victorious. Broad empirical tests demonstrate the importance of shocks as well. Beyond the importance of shocks, findings also suggest that Presidential candidate success in the invisible primary owes more to public- than elite-driven factors

Catch Me if You Can: Using a Threshold Model to Simulate Support for Presidential Candidates in the Invisible Primary

The invisible primary is an important time in United States Presidential primary politics as candidates gain momentum for their campaigns before they compete formally in the first state caucus (Iowa) and primaries (e.g. New Hampshire). This critical period has not been possible to observe, hence the name. However, by simulating networks of primary followers, we can explicate hypotheses for how messages travel through networks to affect voter preferences. To do so, we use a threshold model to drive our simulated network analysis testing spread of public support for candidates in invisible primaries. We assign voter thresholds for candidates and vary number of voters, attachment to candidates and decay. We also vary social graph structure and model. Results of the algorithm show effects of size of lead, an unwavering base of support, and information loss

Large Five State Health System Standardizes Stroke Patient Education While Significantly Improving Health Literacy

https://digitalcommons.psjhealth.org/other_pubs/1053/thumbnail.jp

Cost Analysis of Implementing Standardized Stroke Patient Education Materials in a Large Five State Health System

https://digitalcommons.psjhealth.org/other_pubs/1052/thumbnail.jp

Decentralization policies and clean water practitioners: using hollow fiber membrane water filters to reduce the prevalence of GI-related symptoms and diagnoses in rural Honduras

Illnesses caused by dirty water are still prevalent in developing countries, resulting in significant health problems. This study explores how hollow fiber membrane point-of-use filters can reduce the prevalence of gastrointestinal (GI)-related symptoms and diagnoses. We summarize the current approach and policies regarding clean water in Honduras, which is marked by decentralization, and note the resulting challenges for clean water provision. To highlight how this works in practice, we combine medical brigade diagnosis data with survey data to explore the effect of point-of-use water filters on the prevalence of GI-related symptoms and diagnoses in rural south-central Honduras. Using OLS and penalized logistic regression, we find that hollow fiber membrane filters are effective in reducing GI-related diseases. Specifically, they reduce the number of GI-related symptoms by 0.30, and specifically those patients complaining of stomach aches (39 percent), diarrhea (39 percent), and vomiting (70 percent). We also find that they reduce the likelihood of a patient receiving an infectious disease/parasitic diagnosis (48 percent in all patients and 87 percent in children under the age of 13 years). These results have significant implications on those working with non-profit and non-governmental organizations to bring clean water to those living in developing nations