A Comparative Analysis of Gender and Public Opinion on Democracy in Poland, Romania, and the United States, 1995-2020

Research on attitudes toward democracy in Poland and Romania is timely given 2019’s three-decade anniversary of freedom from communism in Central and Eastern Europe. The U.S. makes an interesting comparison case given its history involving the American Dream and the Dream’s essential component of democracy. Using the World Values Surveys and a conceptual framework linking gender and democracy attitudes, we examine beliefs about democracy in Poland, Romania, and the U.S. between 1990 and 2020. Findings show significant cross-country, cross-time, and cross-gender variation on most of the belief measures and, contrary to much previous research, Americans do not always provide the strongest support for democracy. We conclude that simple assumptions about American exceptionalism on democracy attitudes are often inaccurate, as are assumptions that women are universally more positive about democracy than men. Consensus on democracy related attitudes in Romania and Poland is also not supported by our results, suggesting that unique historical, political, and socio-economic experiences among formerly communist nations play an important role in shaping beliefs about democracy

Evolution of pathogenicity and sexual reproduction in eight Candida genomes

Candida species are the most common cause of opportunistic fungal infection worldwide. Here we report the genome sequences of six Candida species and compare these and related pathogens and non-pathogens. There are significant expansions of cell wall, secreted and transporter gene families in pathogenic species, suggesting adaptations associated with virulence. Large genomic tracts are homozygous in three diploid species, possibly resulting from recent recombination events. Surprisingly, key components of the mating and meiosis pathways are missing from several species. These include major differences at the mating-type loci (MTL); Lodderomyces elongisporus lacks MTL, and components of the a1/2 cell identity determinant were lost in other species, raising questions about how mating and cell types are controlled. Analysis of the CUG leucine-to-serine genetic-code change reveals that 99% of ancestral CUG codons were erased and new ones arose elsewhere. Lastly, we revise the Candida albicans gene catalogue, identifying many new genes.publishe

Economic Sector and Job Satisfaction

In this article the relationship between economic sector and job satisfaction is explored. Given the absence of previous research, a framework relying on job satisfaction, dual labor market, and economic-segmentation literature is used to create two alternative hypotheses. If the externally defined objective characteristics of jobs are the critical factor in producing job satisfaction, then the “better” jobs in the core sector will result in job satisfaction differences favoring workers in the core. If individual needs and characteristics and the “fit” between these and job rewards are the critical factors in producing job satisfaction, then the workers in the core do not necessarily have an advantage; in fact the reverse may be true. These two hypotheses are tested using data from the 1973 Quality of Employment survey and two alternate measures of economic sector. Findings support the second hypothesis in that workers in the peripheral (or local and regional) sector have significantly higher levels of reported job satisfaction than those in the core (or monopoly) sector. We conclude that researchers need to consider economic sector as a source of variation in job satisfaction in addition to more conventional structures at the job and organizational level. Paradoxically, a consideration of economic sector may contribute to our understanding of the processes by which individual characteristics and job characteristics combine to create satisfied workers. © 1987, SAGE PUBLICATIONS. All rights reserved

Religion, Politics, and Issue Polarization in the United States Congress, 1959-2013

In this study we examine whether, and if so how, the confluence of religion and party has impacted voting in the U.S Congress over the past half century. We address two primary questions: first, has religion contributed to the growing political partisanship among members of Congress over this period, and second, if so, are these cleavages reflected in congressional voting patterns? We answer both questions in the affirmative

The generation of definitive endoderm from human embryonic stem cells on 3D biodegradable poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) scaffolds and its comparison to those generated on 2D monolayer cultures

The generation of insulin producing cells from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) has shown great promise as a cellular replacement therapy for the treatment of Type 1 Diabetes. Mature functional β-cell surrogates however, have yet to be successfully generated in vivo. One approach to potentially improve current differentiation protocols is the use of 3 dimensional (3D) scaffolds, which has been shown to enhance cellular function and differentiation potential. The present study aimed to explore the feasibility of using single cell preparations of pluripotent hESCs seeded onto laminin or Matrigel coated 3D poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) scaffolds to derive definitive endoderm, the first vital stage of endoderm tissue differentiation. Our results demonstrated that hESCs which were induced to differentiate on laminin or Matrigel coated 3D scaffolds can be successfully coaxed to differentiate into definitive endoderm. The cells that were cultured on laminin or Matrigel coated 3D scaffolds expressed significantly higher levels of the key endoderm transcription factors SOX17 and FOXA2 in comparison to those differentiated on 2D monolayers. On Matrigel coated 3D scaffolds, the differentiated cells expressed lower levels of the endoderm surface marker CXCR4 and anterior endoderm marker CER in comparison to its monolayer counterpart. Together, the results of this study demonstrated the positive effect of 3D cultures on endoderm commitment from hESCs over traditional monolayer cultures. Furthermore, the definitive endoderm produced on Matrigel coated scaffolds may have a more posterior phenotype in comparison to those derived from monolayers. This may have an effect on later stages of pancreatic differentiation and warrants further detailed investigations