Actor-Partner Interdependence Models (APIM) and Voting Behavior: Methodology and Applications

Recently, the social sciences have witnessed a rising interest in dyadic design, as an efficient way to disentangle mechanisms of interpersonal influence. Despite the relevance of this design to political research, few efforts have been made to collect and efficiently analyze dyadic data. In this article, we suggest the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model as a useful tool to test bidirectional effects in dyadic data on political attitudes and behaviors. The model explicitly assumes that members of a dyad (reciprocally identified as actor and partner) involved in political communication are interdependent and influence each other. We apply the model to estimate the effect of partner's party identification on actor's vote choice, using 1996 Indianapolis\u2013St. Louis dyadic data. Results show that partner's party identification is significantly associated with vote choice. Moreover, we show that influence between dyad members is moderated by their intimacy and that an increased difference in socioeconomic status between dyad members tips the balance of the effect in favor of the individual with more resources. Our conclusions point to the effectiveness of APIM in modeling interdependent asymmetric relations and call for increasing efforts in collecting dyadic data and in developing proper tools for their analysis

Calibrating self-reported church attendance questions in online surveys ; Experimental evidence from the Italian context

Despite widespread use in survey research, the accuracy and validity of self-reported church attendance questions have often been debated. Since the seminal article by Hadaway et al. (1993), that this indicator leads to an overestimation of the number of regular churchgoers has entered common knowledge. However, no systematic work to improve the understanding and command of the measurement instrument has been carried out. This contribution analyses the effect of different formulations of the self-reported church attendance question in online questionnaires, by means of survey experiments on a sample of Italian Catholics. In particular the most common \u2018how often\u2019 version of the question is compared to an alternative version asking how many times respondents went to church in the last month. The experimental results show that, despite criticism, the \u2018how often\u2019 version remains the best option for obtaining information on individual religious practice in survey research. This version is robust to changes in the formulation of answer categories and produces more informative results for respondents with low attendance. Finally, the study supplies evidence consistent with the growing body of literature that underlines the role of religious identity and self-conception in answering questions on church attendance

Believing in Conspiracy Theories : Evidence from an Exploratory Analysis of Italian Survey Data

Beliefs in conspiracy theories have attracted significant international media attention in recent years. This phenomenon has been studied in the US but while anecdotal evidence suggests it is also widespread among the Italian public, little evidence has been collected to assess it empirically. Using data from a 2016 survey, this pioneering study of the Italian case investigates the extent of diffusion of conspiracy theories among Italians and tests several hypotheses concerning individual determinants. The paper finds that conspiracism is indeed widely diffused in Italy. It is negatively associated with education and positively with religiosity, while no correlation is found with political trust. Beliefs in conspiracies are also related to rightwing orientation and support for the populist Five Star Movement

Prevalence of Primary Radiographic Signs of Hip Dysplasia in Dogs

Hip dysplasia is a disabling orthopedic disease in dogs. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the morphological aspects and radiographic changes in the development of hip dysplasia in adult dogs, and to describe the frequency of each radiographic parameter according to each Federation Cynologique Internationale (FCI) grade. Brass descriptive forms for the evaluation of hip dysplasia were obtained from the archive of the Italian Fondazione Salute Animale, and the radiographic evaluation of 642 hips were processed. Sixteen radiographic criteria were assessed, divided into six main parameters: acetabulum, femoral head and its position in the acetabulum, femoral neck, joint space, and Norberg angle. The initial mild alterations were shown in the craniolateral acetabular rim (31.8%), slightly divergent in the joint space in 58.6% of FCI-A. The spherical shape of the femoral head was mildly small/flattened in 56.9% of FCI-B, in addition to a slightly cylindrical-shaped femoral neck (60.5%) and slightly lost contours (55.0%). Changes in acetabular depth (45.0%), and in the cranial acetabular margin (56.7%) were found in FCI-C. The center of the femoral head was lateral to the dorsal acetabular rim in 70.0% of FCI-B; the Norberg angle appeared normal in 70.6% of FCI-B. Elaboration of the radiographic criteria from the Brass descriptive forms allowed for the extrapolation of accurate knowledge regarding morphologic changes in the development of dysplasia by providing detailed information for each individual. In particular, the present survey showed that the morphological alterations of the acetabulum prevailed over those of the femoral head only at the beginning of the development of canine hip dysplasia, and then worsened after the changes occurred in the femoral head and neck

Characterization of FCI (Fédération Cynologique Internationale) Grades for Hip Dysplasia in Five Dog Breeds

Simple Summary Hip dysplasia is one of the most frequently occurring orthopedic diseases in medium to large purebred dogs. For this reason, much attention is paid to screening programs for breeding animals. The Federation Cynologique Internationale uses the same evaluation criteria regardless of breed. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether or not the evolution of a hip pathology in dogs with or without dysplasia was consistent with prior scientific knowledge in five breeds. In addition, whether there were significant radiographic differences between breeds which might require a breed-specific method for assessing the grade of hip dysplasia was investigated. Evaluations of 16 radiographic parameters analyzed using the Brass method were collected from 5 breeds: Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, German Shepherd dogs, Bernese Mountain dogs, and Rottweilers. No significant changes were found among the five breeds regarding the grade of hip dysplasia; however, some significant variations were found in the individual radiographic parameters suggesting that, although the criteria regarded all breeds, there were specific alterations which could be caused by the different morphologies, aptitudes and abilities of each breed. The aim of this retrospective study was to verify whether the radiographic morphologic differences detected within the first three grades of hip dysplasia (A, B, C) of each of the five selected breeds and within the same breeds were statistically significant enough to require a breed-specific evaluation. A total of 422 technical evaluation forms of hip dysplasia (HD) in Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, Rottweilers, Bernese Mountain dogs, and German Shepherd dogs were obtained from the Federation Cynologique Internationale (FCI) archive. The data were evaluated using a descriptive statistical analysis. In Labrador Retrievers, the craniolateral acetabular rim and femoral head position were already altered in unaffected dogs; however, within the various FCI grades, the most severe changes involved the conformation of the femoral neck. All the radiographic parameters of the Golden Retriever hips changed progressively and evenly. Significant radiographic changes between FCI grades were found in the German Shepherd dogs, and the alterations involving the acetabulum were more severe and appeared earlier than in the femoral head and neck. In the Bernese Mountain dogs, the most severe alterations were in the position of the femoral head and joint space while the femoral head and neck showed no significant progression between grades. All the radiographic parameters of non-dysplastic Rottweilers were normal; however, the progression of the primary signs was similar to the other breeds, although with lower severity. In conclusion, no significant prevalence of the radiographic features was observed for any specific breed. However, significant individual breed variations in the primary radiographic parameters were found between dogs with and without dysplasia which could be useful for better understanding the consequences of biomechanical differences between breeds

“Blood Is Thicker Than Water” : Interpersonal Influence, Selection, and the Role of Family in Forging Italians’ Political Agreement

Mechanisms that are known to forge political agreement include interpersonal influence\u2014the process by which people change their ideas according to others\u2019 attitudes\u2014and selection\u2014people\u2019s choice of their discussants according to their discussants\u2019 preferences. Using data obtained from a longitudinal survey, we test how these two processes contribute to changing vote choices or discussants around the 2014 European elections in Italy. Results partly confirm findings from the previous literature, showing influence and selection effects. Moreover, it is suggested that the family contributes crucially in stimulating strategies that result in political agreement. Propensities to maintain agreeable discussants over time and to change voting choice are boosted by exposure to family members

An unusual presentation of genital herpes in a patient affected by lichen sclerosus et atrophicus: A case report and a combined treatment proposal

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Secukinumab-induced subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus

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A homozygous contiguous gene deletion in chromosome 16p13.3 leads to autosomal recessive osteopetrosis in a Jordanian patient

Human malignant autosomal recessive osteopetrosis (ARO) is a genetically heterogeneous disorder caused by reduced bone resorption by osteoclasts. Mutations in the CLCN7 gene are responsible not only for a substantial portion of ARO patients, but also for other forms of osteopetrosis characterized by different severity and inheritance. The lack of a clear genotype/phenotype correlation makes genetic counselling a tricky issue for CLCN7-dependent osteopetrosis. Here we characterize the first homozygous interstitial deletion in 16p13.3, detected by array Comparative Genomic Hybridization (a-CGH) in an ARO patient of Jordanian origin. The deletion involved other genes beside CLCN7, while the proband displayed a classic ARO phenotype; however her early death did not allow more extensive clinical investigations. The identification of this novel genomic deletion involving a large part of the CLCN7 gene is of clinical relevance, especially in prenatal diagnosis, and suggests the possibility that this kind of mutation has been underestimated so far. This data highlights the need for alternative approaches to genetic analysis also in other ARO-causative genes

Church attendance and religious change inEastern Europe (1990-2015)

Eastern Europe is one of the areas where the debate on religious change and individual-level secularization has been recently more intense. The attempt to explain religious developments in this part of Europe has brought to a fierce competition among the main theories of religious change (secularization, individualization and market theory). An additional source of interest for Eastern European countries stems from their heterogeneity, in both religious (e.g. the Catholic rather than the Orthodox tradition) and historical terms (starting from the intensity of the Soviet regime's grip). Finally, literature analysis highlights some inconsistencies among the different authors in assessing church attendance trends, see for example the recent contributions by Brenner (2016), van Ingen and Moor (2015) and Burkimsher (2014): such discrepancies give room to new contributions. The paper aims to contribute to the debate on religious change in Eastern Europe focusing on estimates of church attendance trends for the past twenty-five years. The research design considers more studies simultaneously to enlarge the observation window and get more reliable estimates. To this end, we consider the following comparative and repeated cross-sectional surveys: Eurobarometer (various series), European Social Survey (ESS), European Values Study (EVS), the World Values Survey (WVS), International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Church attendance is available in all these studies and, despite some relevant criticisms, continues to be a key indicator of religious change. At the end of the paper the trends detected for Eastern Europe will be compared to those in Western countries in order to highlight differences and similarities