Fox News pushes Democrats and Republicans to bemore conservative, especially around election time

Since it premiered in 1996, Fox News has become the most watched cable news network in America, pushing forward a partisan view which has been critical of President Obama and the Democratic Party. But does Fox News actually influence the way that we are governed? In new research which examines how House members vote, Kevin Arceneaux, Martin Johnson, René Lindstädt and Ryan Vander Wielen find that when Fox News is available in members’ constituencies, they are more likely to adopt more conservative policy positions – whether they are Republican or Democrat. They also find that this effect is most pronounced around election time, and is nearly nonexistent immediately after elections

Beyond broad strokes: sociocultural insights from the study of ancient genomes

The amount of sequence data obtained from ancient samples has dramatically expanded in the last decade, and so have the type of questions that can now be addressed using ancient DNA. In the field of human history, while ancient DNA has provided answers to long-standing debates about major movements of people, it has also recently begun to inform on other important facets of the human experience. The field is now moving from mostly fixating on large-scale supra-regional studies to also taking a more local perspective, shedding light on socioeconomic processes, inheritance rules, marriage practices and technological diffusion. In this review, we summarize recent studies showcasing these types of insights, focusing on methods used to infer sociocultural aspects of human behaviour. This often involves working across disciplines that have, until recently, evolved in separation. We argue that multidisciplinary dialogue is crucial for a more integrated and richer reconstruction of human history, as it can yield extraordinary insights about past societies, reproductive behaviors and even lifestyle habits that would not have been possible to obtain otherwise

Building an eScience Thesaurus for Librarians: A Collaboration Between the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, New England Region and an Associate Fellow at the National Library of Medicine

Objective: In response to the growing interest and adoption of eScience roles by librarians, those from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, New England Region (NN/LM NER) and an Associate Fellow from the National Library of Medicine collaborated to build an eScience Thesaurus. The Thesaurus will introduce librarians to terminology and concepts in eScience, point to relevant literature and resources on data and digital research topics, and provide links to interviews with librarians and experts working in eScience-related roles. The eScience Thesaurus is a starting place for librarians to find the vocabulary to research the background, resources, and tools necessary for developing their capacity to provide eScience-related services. Methods: The Associate Fellow completed a review of eScience-related literature to identify the seminal publications for the originations of these terms and concepts as they apply to libraries. Next, the Associate Fellow worked with the NN/LM NER to compile an environmental scan of resources that would be useful and applicable for librarians, and created a scope document and record structure. The team interviewed prominent librarians working in eScience roles and experts that have created digital tools and services used by the library community. Finally, the team sent the Thesaurus records out to five members of the advisory and editorial review boards from the eScience Portal for New England Librarians for evaluation. Results: The eScience Thesaurus is now hosted on the eScience Portal for New England Librarians’ website. It provides a comprehensive list of more than 50 different terminologies and concepts, with links to seminal and relevant literature, resources, grants, and interviews on a variety of eScience-related topics. Conclusion: The eScience Thesaurus is an evolving resource; as the field expands and more eScience-related terms are adopted by the library and information science community, the Portal will enable its users to electronically submit new vocabulary and records to the Thesuarus, thus preserving it as a go-to eScience resource for librarians

One Sea but many Routes to Sail. The early maritime dispersal of Neolithic crops from the Aegean to the western Mediterranean

This paper explores the first maritime westward expansion of crops across the Adriatic and the northern coast of the western Mediterranean. Starting in Greece at c.6500 cal BC and following the coastline to the Andalusian region of Spain at c.4500 cal BC, the presence of the main cereal, pulse, oil and fibre crops are recorded from 122 sites. Patterns in the distribution of crops are explored through ubiquity scores, correspondence analysis and Simpson's diversity index. Our findings reveal changes in the frequencies of crops as farming regimes developed into Europe, and show how different crops followed unique trajectories. Fluctuations in the diversity of the crop spectrum between defined areas are also evident, and may serve to illustrate how founder effects can explain some of the patterns evident in large-scale spatio-temporal evaluations. Within the broader westward expansion of farming, regionalism and multi-directional maritime networks described through archaeological materials are also visible in the botanical recordsERc Consolidator Grant StG-31371

Revisiting mycophenolate mofetil for steroid‐refractory acute graft‐versus‐host disease: Is higher dosing effective in children?

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112292/1/petr12536.pd

One sea but many routes to Sail. The early maritime dispersal of Neolithic crops from the Aegean to the western Mediterranean.

This paper explores the first maritime westward expansion of crops across the Adriatic and the northern coast of the western Mediterranean. Starting in Greece at c.6500 cal BC and following the coastline to the Andalusian region of Spain to c.4500 cal BC, the presence of the main cereal, pulse, oil and fibre crops are recorded from 122 sites. Patterns in the distribution of crops are explored through ubiquity scores, correspondence analysis and Simpson's diversity index. Our findings reveal changes in the frequencies of crops as farming regimes developed in Europe, and show how different crops followed unique trajectories. Fluctuations in the diversity of the crop spectrum between defined areas are also evident, and may serve to illustrate how founder effects can explain some of the patterns evident in large-scale spatio-temporal evaluations. Within the broader westward expansion of farming, regionalism and multi-directional maritime networks described through archaeological materials are also visible in the botanical records

The spatiotemporal spread of human migrations during the European Holocene

The European continent was subject to two major migrations of peoples during the Holocene: the northwestward movement of Anatolian farmer populations during the Neolithic and the westward movement of Yamnaya steppe peoples during the Bronze Age. These movements changed the genetic composition of the continent’s inhabitants. The Holocene was also characterized by major changes in vegetation composition, which altered the environment occupied by the original hunter-gatherer populations. We aim to test to what extent vegetation change through time is associated with changes in population composition as a consequence of these migrations, or with changes in climate. Using ancient DNA in combination with geostatistical techniques, we produce detailed maps of ancient population movements, which allow us to visualize how these migrations unfolded through time and space. We find that the spread of Neolithic farmer ancestry had a two-pronged wavefront, in agreement with similar findings on the cultural spread of farming from radiocarbon-dated archaeological sites. This movement, however, did not have a strong association with changes in the vegetational landscape. In contrast, the Yamnaya migration speed was at least twice as fast, and coincided with a reduction in the amount of broad-leaf forest and an increase in the amount of pasture and natural grasslands in the continent. We demonstrate the utility of integrating ancient genomes with archaeometric datasets in a spatiotemporal statistical framework, which we foresee will enable future studies of ancient populations movements, and their putative effects on local fauna and flora

A genetic management toolkit: hormonal and behavioural research towards the development of artificial insemination technology in the African wild dog (Lycaon pictus)

African wild dogs have a complex pack structure with separate male and female dominance hierarchies in which reproduction is typically exclusive to the alpha male and female. Current efforts to maintain genetic diversity involve translocation of live animals in captivity, a process that involves the combination of male and female single-sex groups to form a new social pack. Due to their complex social structure, such introductions are difficult: regularly leading to aggression and injuries to the animals. Moreover, this may not result in breeding among genetically valuable individuals if they do not become dominant. To overcome these translocation-associated problems of intra-pack aggression our team has studied a number of facets of basic reproduction as well as stress and behavioural management in African wild dogs with the goal of developing strategies for semen cryopreservation and artificial insemination as a key to the introduction of new genes into existing stable packs (Van den Berghe et al. 2012, Anim Reprod Sci 133, 1-9). We began by establishing detailed reproductive and adrenal hormone profiles from multiple females in several reproductive states in both captive and free-ranging populations. Faecal samples from captive females in four European institutions and from wild males and females in South Africa were analysed for oestradiol, progestagens, testosterone and glucocorticoids. Captive data demonstrated that female wild dogs have reproductive characteristics similar to other canids, such as spontaneous ovulation and obligate pseudopregnancy. Almost all adult females became pseudopregnant, implying that the mechanism of reproductive suppression in this sex is likely to be behavioural rather than physiological. This was supported by data from free-ranging populations. Adrenal activity in captive and free-ranging animals was measured by faecal cortisol metabolites. Captive females had higher concentrations than free-ranging females. Glucocorticoid concentrations were more variable in captive individuals, whereas in both wild males and females, they were highest during gestation and denning. Adrenal activity in males, but not females, was also affected by age, with the highest glucocorticoid concentrations measured in yearlings. We have also investigated the use of dog appeasing pheromone (DAP) collars to down-regulate aggression associated with the formation of new packs in captivity. Our initial findings indicate that DAP may reduce baseline stress levels in females and, when applied during regrouping of same-sex individuals, results in a relative reduction in observed levels of aggression. Building on these findings, work is underway to develop a semen bank and artificial insemination techniques. Although reproductive suppression in females is likely to be behavioural, the effect of dominance on male fertility is still unresolved. We have begun investigating the relationship between hierarchy and sperm quality across the seasons. This will guide our development of a robust semen collection and freezing protocol that will permit the establishment of a high-quality semen bank. We are also progressing with non-invasive techniques to predict ovulation for timed artificial insemination of females. These techniques must first be established in captivity before our ultimate goal to implement them as tools for genetic meta-population management in semi-captive and free-ranging populations