Explaining Facebook Support in the 2008 Congressional Election Cycle

This study investigates what explains the level of support candidates generate on Facebook and what strategic assessments campaigns are making about this community of (potential) supporters. Based on data collected about 814 major party candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008, it appears that the Facebook community responds to the same array of factors in the larger political environment as the general public when registering its collective judgments about candidate viability through Facebook support. Results of the multiple regression analyses show that the amount of campaign contributions raised is the most important variable explaining Facebook support, especially for challengers and open seat candidates. In addition, Democrats have more supporters than Republicans, and incumbents more than challengers or candidates for open seats. A competitive race increases supporter numbers for non-incumbents. When Congressional districts have with a high percentage of college educated citizens it increases candidates’ supporters, but a high percentage of young citizens diminishes their numbers. Finally, candidates who have active Facebook pages, either because of their own updating of content or as a result of postings by current supporters, generate more new supporters as a result. Campaigns that do not engage in an activity that is relatively common and easy to do (video uploads)are penalized in Facebook supporter numbers. Degree of effort works in reverse for user generated activities: candidates who have more low effort wall posts generate more Facebook supporters; those with more high effort fan photo postings do not end up with significantly more supporters

Fish Oil Increases the Duodenal Flow of Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and trans-11 18:1 and Decreases 18:0 in Steers via Changes in the Rumen Bacterial Community

Ruminant fat is rich in SFA, partly due to the biohydrogenation of dietary PUFA to SFA in the rumen. This process can be inhibited by the dietary inclusion of fish oil. The only bacteria isolated from the rumen capable of converting PUFA to SFA are closely related to Clostridium proteoclasticum. The aim of this study was to investigate if a correlation could be found in vivo between dietary fish oil inclusions and the composition of the ruminal bacterial community and specifically of C. proteoclasticum. Six Hereford × Friesian steers, prepared with ruminal and duodenal cannulae, received grass silage plus 1 of 3 concentrates resulting in total dietary fish oil contents of 0, 1, or 3% of dry matter. A dual flow marker technique was employed to estimate the relative flow of fatty acids. Steers fed the 3% fish oil diet had 100% increases in trans 18:1 flow, whereas 18:0 flow declined to 39% of steers fed the control diet. 16S ribosomal RNA-based denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis profiles obtained from ruminal digesta showed major changes in the bacterial community within steers fed the 3% fish oil diet. Quantitative PCR indicated only a weak relation between numbers of C. proteoclasticum and 18:0 flow between treatments and in individual steers (P < 0.05, but the percentage variance accounted for only 22.8) and did not provide unambiguous evidence that numbers of C. proteoclasticum in the rumen dictate the ratios of SFA:PUFA available for absorption by the animal. Understanding which microbes biohydrogenate PUFA in the rumen is key to developing novel strategies to improve the quality of ruminant products

Determinants of Mobile Broadband Diffusion: A Focus on Developing Countries

Past research on the broadband digital divide indicates a widening divide in which developing countries are falling further behind countries in the developed world. In response to this problem, the World Bank has advocated a mobile first strategy for developing countries. Unfortunately, there is little understanding of what determines mobile broadband adoption or diffusion in developing countries. In this paper, we begin to address this problem by exploring to what extent policy, regulation, government, and governance affect mobile broadband diffusion in the developing world. Our results show that when controlling for distribution and level of income, there is greater mobile diffusion in developing (i.e., non-OECD) countries that encourage competition in their telecommunication industries and practice sound governance in their public sector. Although governance is an important determinant of mobile broadband diffusion, we find no evidence that political structure (i.e., the level of democracy) matters. We also find that regulation of telecommunications licensing is associated with decreased access to mobile broadband. Further examination of our data suggest that national governments have either modernized and streamlined this regulatory measure or are performing important functions related to mobile services (e.g., spectrum allocation) without the need to regulate licenses for telecommunication service providers. We discuss these important results in light of prior literature and suggest new avenues of research that stem from our findings.