The Issue Focus of Online and Television Advertising in the 2016 Presidential Campaign

Theories of campaign issue emphasis were developed in a pre-digital era. How well do these theories explain spending in the current era, when digital media allow for targeting of specific types of voters? In this research, we compare how the 2016 campaigns, both primary and general election, deployed television advertising with how they deployed online advertising. We suggest that, because online messages are targeted to specific viewer profiles much more than television messages, television ads should be more likely to discuss highly salient issues and valance issues than online ads. To test these ideas, we rely upon data from the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracked all televised political ads that aired in 2016, and our coding of data from Pathmatics, a company that tracks online advertising. We find, contrary to our expectations, that the predictors of issue discussion online and on television are largely similar

Physics-Informed Deep Learning to Reduce the Bias in Joint Prediction of Nitrogen Oxides

Atmospheric nitrogen oxides (NOx) primarily from fuel combustion have recognized acute and chronic health and environmental effects. Machine learning (ML) methods have significantly enhanced our capacity to predict NOx concentrations at ground-level with high spatiotemporal resolution but may suffer from high estimation bias since they lack physical and chemical knowledge about air pollution dynamics. Chemical transport models (CTMs) leverage this knowledge; however, accurate predictions of ground-level concentrations typically necessitate extensive post-calibration. Here, we present a physics-informed deep learning framework that encodes advection-diffusion mechanisms and fluid dynamics constraints to jointly predict NO2 and NOx and reduce ML model bias by 21-42%. Our approach captures fine-scale transport of NO2 and NOx, generates robust spatial extrapolation, and provides explicit uncertainty estimation. The framework fuses knowledge-driven physicochemical principles of CTMs with the predictive power of ML for air quality exposure, health, and policy applications. Our approach offers significant improvements over purely data-driven ML methods and has unprecedented bias reduction in joint NO2 and NOx prediction

Mafb lineage tracing to distinguish macrophages from other immune lineages reveals dual identity of Langerhans cells

Current systems for conditional gene deletion within mouse macrophage lineages are limited by ectopic activity or low efficiency. In this study, we generated a Mafb-driven Cre strain to determine whether any dendritic cells (DCs) identified by Zbtb46-GFP expression originate from a Mafb-expressing population. Lineage tracing distinguished macrophages from classical DCs, neutrophils, and B cells in all organs examined. At steady state, Langerhans cells (LCs) were lineage traced but also expressed Zbtb46-GFP, a phenotype not observed in any other population. After exposure to house dust mite antigen, Zbtb46-negative CD64(+) inflammatory cells infiltrating the lung were substantially lineage traced, but Zbtb46-positive CD64(−) cells were not. These results provide new evidence for the unique identity of LCs and challenge the notion that some inflammatory cells are a population of monocyte-derived DCs

Does Forced Voting Result in Political Polarization?

This paper estimates the effects of the compulsory voting laws on individuals´ political orientations though a regression discontinuity framework. The identification comes from Brazil´s dual voting system – voluntary and compulsory – whose exposure is determined based on citizens’ dates of birth. Using self-collected data, we find that compulsory voting has sizable effects on individuals´ political preferences, making them more likely to identify with a political party and to become oriented towards ideological extremes

Emerging Viruses in the Felidae: Shifting Paradigms

The domestic cat is afflicted with multiple viruses that serve as powerful models for human disease including cancers, SARS and HIV/AIDS. Cat viruses that cause these diseases have been studied for decades revealing detailed insight concerning transmission, virulence, origins and pathogenesis. Here we review recent genetic advances that have questioned traditional wisdom regarding the origins of virulent Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) diseases, the pathogenic potential of Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) in wild non-domestic Felidae species, and the restriction of Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV) mediated immune impairment to domestic cats rather than other Felidae species. The most recent interpretations indicate important new evolutionary conclusions implicating these deadly infectious agents in domestic and non-domestic felids

The effects of thermal acclimation on cardio-respiratory performance in an Antarctic fish (Notothenia coriiceps).

The Southern Ocean has experienced stable, cold temperatures for over 10 million years, yet particular regions are currently undergoing rapid warming. To investigate the impacts of warming on cardiovascular oxygen transport, we compared the cardio-respiratory performance in an Antarctic notothenioid (Notothenia coriiceps) that was maintained at 0 or 5°C for 6.0-9.5 weeks. When compared at the fish's respective acclimation temperature, the oxygen consumption rate and cardiac output were significantly higher in 5°C-acclimated than 0°C-acclimated fish. The 2.7-fold elevation in cardiac output in 5°C-acclimated fish (17.4 vs. 6.5 ml min-1 kg-1) was predominantly due to a doubling of stroke volume, likely in response to increased cardiac preload, as measured by higher central venous pressure (0.15 vs. 0.08 kPa); tachycardia was minor (29.5 vs. 25.2 beats min-1). When fish were acutely warmed, oxygen consumption rate increased by similar amounts in 0°C- and 5°C-acclimated fish at equivalent test temperatures. In both acclimation groups, the increases in oxygen consumption rate during acute heating were supported by increased cardiac output achieved by elevating heart rate, while stroke volume changed relatively little. Cardiac output was similar between both acclimation groups until 12°C when cardiac output became significantly higher in 5°C-acclimated fish, driven largely by their higher stroke volume. Although cardiac arrhythmias developed at a similar temperature (~14.5°C) in both acclimation groups, the hearts of 5°C-acclimated fish continued to pump until significantly higher temperatures (CTmax for cardiac function 17.7 vs. 15.0°C for 0°C-acclimated fish). These results demonstrate that N. coriiceps is capable of increasing routine cardiac output during both acute and chronic warming, although the mechanisms are different (heart rate-dependent versus primarily stroke volume-dependent regulation, respectively). Cardiac performance was enhanced at higher temperatures following 5°C acclimation, suggesting cardiovascular function may not constrain the capacity of N. coriiceps to withstand a warming climate