bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Ranking Political Science Programs: A View from the Lower Half
Authors: Katz Richard S. , Eagles Munroe
Published: May 2006

In an age of diminished resources for higher education, the ranking of programs takes on special significance, particularly for programs that rate poorly in the eyes of their peers. Before cost-conscious administrators use the apparent precision of the National Research Council's 1995 ratings to justify rewarding highly rated programs, and penalizing those that fared less well, an analysis of the factors that contribute to ratings success—particularly department size—draws attention to the importance of factors that lie outside the range of departmental control.

Our motivation is only partly ‘academic’. As members of a faculty that rated poorly in this exercise (UB political science ranked 72nd out of the 98 programs surveyed on faculty quality and tied for 48th on “effectiveness”), we have a special interest in reminding our colleagues, and especially our administrators, that our less-than-stellar performance reflects a variety of considerations, only some of which are our “fault.”

Rating academic departments as the NRC has done by relying on peer perceptions (nearly 8,000 graduate-faculty members participated in the ratings survey) involves tapping into a complex set of social processes that are not easily measured. However, we contend that the outcome of this process can be modeled successfully and parsimoniously with a six-variable model of the “determinants of ratings success.” We estimate the parameters of this six-variable model in this article, and show that the most statistically robust and important predictor of ratings success—department size—reflects a characteristic of departments that is beyond their control, and has no direct bearing on the quality of the members of the departments concerned, while a second important indicator—the proportion of full professors—is at least in part similarly beyond departmental control. Our confidence that this model taps central features in the ratings game is enhanced by the consistency of its performance in explaining the ratings of other social science departments.
Changing Post-Totalitarian Values in Russia through Public Deliberation Methodology
Authors: Frost Sheri , Makarov Denis
Published: May 2006

Public Deliberation Methodology (PDM) developed from activities sponsored by the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, which engages in research to enhance the practice of politics. Politics, generally understood, encompasses public activities that help create the kind of communities, the kind of country, and the kind of world order where people are interested and involved in governing and strengthening civil society.

PDM establishes an environment for interaction and exchange of ideas about improving the quality of political participation. Deliberative issues forums, which are the center-piece of PDM, are designed to help citizens act on common problems after making joint decisions. The forums employ a particular kind of discourse called “deliberation” or “deliberative dialogue.” Deliberation prompts collective cognitive reasoning by discouraging self-centered thinking and encouraging the reaching of shared and reflective judgments.

By engaging in deliberative dialogue, participants move beyond the limits of partisan politics and the simple airing of grievances. In a deliberative issues forum, people come together to talk through specific issues with the help of a moderator and an issue-specific guide. The guide presents options for resolving selected issues and outlines the pros and cons of each course of action in terms of its personal value. The tension created by being made to choose one of many viable options leads to deliberation and civic learning.

In this article we describe a PDM experiment sponsored by the political science department of Moscow State Pedagogical University and the Foundation for the Development of Civic Culture.
Untangled Web: Internet Use during the 1998 Election
Authors: Dulio David A. , Goff Donald L. , Thurber James A.
Published: May 2006

During the 1996 election cycle, candidates for public office began to use the Internet as a campaign tool (Browning 1996; Casey 1996; Rash 1997). As Internet use grew among the general population, it was reasonable to expect that the 1998 election cycle would see increased use of this new medium by political candidates, and new methods and techniques developed to exploit its capabilities.

In increasing numbers, House and Senate candidates campaigned along the information superhighway in 1998. While very few candidates had web sites in previous elections (Browning 1996), by October 1998 more than two-thirds of the candidates for U.S. Senate and for U.S. House open seats had established web sites. In the past, candidate web sites were little more than digital yard signs (Casey 1996). In 1998, candidates made use of their sites to solicit small-dollar contributions however better, particularly by using them.

Like it or not, the Internet is now a campaign tool that many campaigns employ. Therefore, we believe the manner in which it is used needs to be investigated. In this article we pay particular attention to candidates' solicitation of campaign contributions over the Internet. Our analysis is mostly descriptive as we try to summarize the Internet activity of candidates in a sample of Senate and House races during 1998.
Explaining Success and Failure in the 1998 Midterm Elections: Comparing the Influence of Swing Voters and Core Party Supporters
Authors: Abramowitz Alan I.
Published: May 2006

In the aftermath of a disappointing showing in the 1998 midterm elections, Republican party leaders and strategists have been debating what went wrong on November 3, and what the party needs to do differently in the future. Two competing explanations for the election results appear to be emerging from this debate (Berke 1998).

According to one explanation, favored by party moderates, Republicans lost ground in 1998 because moderate and independent swing voters were alienated by the party's conservative image and by the partisan tone of the presidential impeachment inquiry. The lesson to be learned from the 1998 elections, according to the proponents of this theory, is that the GOP needs to move toward the center and seek compromises with moderate Democrats.

In sharp contrast, some conservatives attribute Republican losses in the midterm elections to their party's failure to energize its partisan and ideological base. In order to be successful, these conservatives argue, the GOP needs to mobilize a larger proportion of its base by taking clear positions on issues and aggressively pursuing a conservative agenda.

One way to test the validity of these competing theories is to examine data from the 1998 voter exit polls. These polls were conducted in every state holding a Senate or gubernatorial election except Alaska and Hawaii (CNN 1998).
The Impact of Term Limits on Legislative Behavior: An Examination of a Transitional Legislature
Authors: Caress Stanley M.
Published: May 2006

Twenty-two states have established state legislative term limits since 1990 and several others are considering similar action. Legislative term limits, intended to force a continuous turnover in a legislature's membership, can produce a number of consequences seldom considered in the voluminous rhetorical literature on the subject. Several unanticipated ramifications have occurred in California's political system, for instance, since its adoption of term limits. California's experience suggests that term limits can influence legislators' early retirement rates, as well as the incidence of special elections, and can also produce alternative legislator career paths.

While there is an abundance of conflicting rhetoric surrounding the issue, there is a paucity of empirical research to support the various contentions. Term limit advocates use only theoretical arguments to support their claims that restricting tenure of office makes legislators more sensitive to constituent desires and thus more reflective of public opinion (Jacob 1994). Historical references, but no empirical evidence, serve term limit proponents who suggest that limited incumbent time in office makes legislative bodies more deliberative (Will 1994). Term limit opponents similarly utilize only speculation when arguing that limited tenure of office handicaps effective governing (Cain 1994) and decreases needed policy-making expertise (Eastland 1993; Kesler 1994). None of these claims are supported by reliable, empirically verified data.
Choosing Canada? The 1995 Quebec Sovereignty Referendum
Authors: Clarke Harold D. , Kornberg Allan
Published: May 2006

In his recent book on the many puzzles of Canadian nationalism, Richard Gwyn (1995, 9) notes that more Canadians (97%) cite their own country as the best in the world than do citizens of any other country. Notwithstanding this coup and the fact that Canada is one of the world's oldest continuously functioning democracies, in an October 30, 1995 referendum, the citizens of Quebec were again asked (as they had been in May, 1980) to voteouiornonon a proposal that would secure the political independence of Quebec. Although Quebeckers rejected the 1980 sovereignty proposal by a three to two margin, the 1995 sovereignty proposal failed by the proverbial eyelash. Why a country described by British writer Jan Morris as “all in all, on the whole, the most admirable on earth” (cited in Gwyn 1995, 51) should periodically appear on the brink of falling apart is a question that has engaged us because of our longstanding interest in the conditions under which democratic political systems are sustained over time.

It can be argued that many of the conditions associated with the emergence and development of a democracy were already obtained in 1867 when the new Dominion of Canada was created by an act of the British parliament.Inter alia, these included a Westminster-model parliamentary government, the rule of law, nascent political parties and free, competitive elections. However, as we have argued elsewhere (Kornberg and Clarke 1992, 12–19), the downside of “Confederation” (as the establishment of the Canadian state is termed) was that it either laid the groundwork for, or exacerbated, many of the national integration problems Canada has experienced.
The Struggle for American Culture
Authors: Morone James A.
Published: May 2006

Is there an American political culture? Do Americans share a set of attitudes and assumptions powerful enough to shape their politics? A generation ago, most social scientists thought so. Important books bore titles like The American Mind (Henry Steel Commager 1950), The American Political Tradition (Richard Hofstadter 1948), or The Americans: The National Experience (Daniel Boorstin 1965). Critics occasionally damned the cultural consensus for its suffocating homogeneity (Hingham 1959), but few questioned its existence.

Today, agreement over a shared American culture has vanished. Some observers insist that it is still going strong. Americans, they argue, remain deeply committed to their core beliefs—things like individualism, equal opportunity, political rights, and government bashing. (Greenstone 1986, 1993; Huntington 1981) Others fear that centrifugal cultural forces bode serious trouble. America increasingly “belittles unum and glorifies pluribus,” writes Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Ethnic militancy “nourishes prejudices, magnifies differences, and stirs antagonisms…. Will the Center hold? or will the melting pot give way to the Tower of Babel” (1993 17–18)? And still others cheer precisely the diversity that Schlesinger laments. American political culture, they argue, was more the hegemony of the powerful than any real harmony among the people. From this perspective, that “Babel” is the welcome sound of overlooked voices. (Thelen and Hoxie 1994; Fox and Lears 1993; Foner 1990)
The South and the 1996 Elections
Authors: Bullock Charles S.
Published: May 2006

The most remarkable change in American politics in recent generations has been the emergence of partisan competition that has transformed the once solidly Democratic South. After almost a century of unswerving Democratic loyalty, the South gave near unanimous support to GOP presidential nominees in four of five elections between 1972 and 1988 which gave rise to the belief that the GOP had a lock on the region's electoral votes (Black and Black 1992). In 1992, Bill Clinton picked the lock and made off with four states; however, the South remained George Bush's strongest region. Nonetheless, 1992 was the best presidential year for Democrats since 1976 when Georgian Jimmy Carter carried the region, except for Virginia.

Beneath the tidal wave that saw Democrats win only 51 of 553 electoral votes from the 11 southern states from 1980 through 1992, are several currents. One element has been the seeping of GOP influence further down the ticket. Initial Republican successes in the South came in voting for president even as most southerners steadfastly supported state and local Democrats. No longer, however, do GOP presidential nominees like Richard Nixon sweep the South's electoral votes while Republicans manage to win only a third of the congressional seats and half as many state legislative seats. Nonetheless differences remain in the success of the GOP for various levels of offices and variations persist in the degree of support given the two parties by different groups in the South.
The Evolving Politics of the Christian Right
Authors: Moen Matthew C.
Published: May 2006

A recent essay by Ralph Reed (19%), Executive Director of the Christian Coalition, proves that religious conservatives are still divided over the propriety of political activism, nearly two decades after the rise of the Christian Right. Reed's principal message is that the Christian Right must be willing to compromise to retain its political relevance, but his admonition at the end is that “at heart, what America needs is not political revolution but spiritual renewal.” Which matters more, collective political goals or individual spiritual commitment? Which better serves religious conservatives, practicing or eschewing politics? Those questions have bedeviled religious conservatives throughout the 20th century, (Jelen 1991; Wilcox 1992) with the theological fault line running so deep that Christian-Right leaders still straddle the fissure.

Reed's essay also illuminates some of the political tensions within the Christian Right. He argues for a pragmatic approach to politics, criticizing “purists” for their exclusionary language, inflammatory rhetoric on the social issues, and immutable goals in the face of certain defeat. He suggests “the religious right must give ground or risk irrelevance,” calling for language in the 1996 Republican Party platform that stresses the moral dimension of abortion, but drops the long-standing plank calling for a constitutional amendment banning the procedure.
Does Television Erode Social Capital? A Reply to Putnam
Authors: Norris Pippa
Published: May 2006

During the past thirty-five years many commentators have expressed concern about declining support for the American political system, noting familiar evidence of the steady erosion in electoral turnout (Stanley and Niemi 1995, 78; Teixeira 1992), falling participation in political parties (Rosenstone and Hansen 1993), plummeting levels of political trust (Lipset and Schneider 1987), and weakening civic engagement (Putnam 1995a). Evidence for declining confidence in American government is well-established. The standard National Election Study measures show that in 1954 three-quarters of the American public trusted government in Washington to do what was right ‘just about always or most of the time’. By 1994, a quarter of the public proved as trusting. Moreover how far Americans trust each other—or social trust—has also fallen by more than a third since the early sixties (Uslaner 1995; Putnam 1995a).

Not all the evidence points in the same direction, and some alternative forms of political activity may have risen over time (Verba et al. 1995, 70–71). Moreover comparative research (Klingemann and Fuchs 1995) provides no evidence for a uniform secular decline in electoral turnout and confidence in government across advanced democracies, as sometimes assumed by observers. Nevertheless it is widely believed that American democracy has been experiencing a crisis of legitimacy, with angry voters disillusioned by Washington politics as usual.
Searching Presidential Documents On-Line: Advantages and Limitations
Authors: Shaw Greg M. , Shapiro Robert Y. , Jacobs Lawrence R.
Published: May 2006

Along with the need for heightened skills in managing huge amounts of information, the use of new electronic resources requires its own caution: researchers should not allow the ease of information gathering to tempt them to rely exclusively on these electronic sources. The rapidly growing online data and information are at best incomplete and at worst inaccurate. Despite potential problems, researchers can minimize the ill effects of on-line sources and ultimately benefit tremendously from their use. The speed and easy access of these sources enable researchers to gather enormous amounts of information quickly and to conduct far more comprehensive searches for particular types of materials than is feasible or even possible by more traditional means.

Drawing on our experience gathering White House communications regarding health care during the 103rd Congress, we offer some advice and warnings about electronic document gathering. Because of the variations in software and changes in communications technology, however, we do not provide here a step-by-step on-line user's manual. Rather, we offer some technical pointers in accessing the on-line archives.
Life Before Polls: Ohio Politicians Predict the 1828 Presidential Vote
Authors: Kernell Samuel
Published: May 2006

Candidates covet votes. They exert extraordinary effort and expend vast resources seeking to win as many votes as possible. Yet, the costly pursuit of votes occurs under great uncertainty concerning both the strategic correctness of their positions on issues and the efficiency of their campaigns. Of course, prudent candidates dedicate some resources to learning how voters are responding to their appeals, generally by commissioning polls of public opinion.

Candidates' early adoption of scientific survey technology (Converse 1987) and the important role polls play in modern campaigns invite the question of how candidates ever got on without them. Before polls, did public opinion reside on a vast terra incognita on which candidates staked out issue positions oblivious to the whereabouts of the median voter? If so, campaigns must have been riddled with mistakes and inefficiency. John G. Greer (1991) made just this argument in claiming that the absence of accurate information about shifts in the electorate's preferences allowed political parties to be blindsided by what became realigning elections.

The historical record offers few clues as to the extent to which nineteenth-century candidates labored under strategic ignorance. Yet, accounts of politicos and pundits alike tallying newspaper endorsements and carefully gauging attendance at campaign rallies do survive. However questionable these indicators' validity, even to contemporaries, they represented some of the few quantifiable barometers of voter sentiment available to that era's politicians. Some candidates kept “their ear to the ground” (a nineteenth-century dictum) by engaging in more active forms of voter research.
The Congressional Budget Process in an Era of Surpluses
Authors: Taylor Andrew J.
Published: May 2006

How the federal government's fiscal health has improved! As recently as 1992, the United States experienced its largest ever current-dollar annual unified budget deficit of $290 billion. At the close of its last fiscal year, on September 30 1999, the nation's government recorded a budget surplus of $124 billion. More significantly, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has projected healthy on—budget surpluses—that is, no money will have to be taken out of the Social Security trust fund and revenues will still exceed expenditures—well into the second decade of the new century.

The causes of this turnaround are well understood. The record-long economic expansion of the 1990s has boosted revenues dramatically, the end of the Cold War lowered the demand for defense spending, and the budget legislation of 1990, 1993, and 1997 generally cut spending and raised taxes (Parks 2000; Schick 2000).

What Washington does with the extra money depends greatly on electoral outcomes over the coming years. Congressional Republicans—along with their party's presidential candidate, Texas Governor George W. Bush—have promised tax cuts, while Democrats have called for higher levels of domestic discretionary spending. But there are areas of agreement. Both parties wish to protect the Social Security trust fund in a so-called “lock box” and both have expressed their commitment to pay off the publicly-held debt. It is likely, therefore, that future incarnations of divided government might protect the surplus by producing a default fiscal policy based primarily on these two proposals.
Service Learning in Political Science: An Introduction
Authors: Battistoni Richard M.
Published: May 2006

Over a decade has passed since the practice called “service learning” began its ascendance in higher education. While internships have long been used as an experiential teaching tool in the discipline, it is only recently that political scientists have grappled with using community-based service experiences as vehicles for teaching students about politics. In many ways, political scientists have led the way in advancing the theory and practice of service learning, publishing one of the first volumes in the AAHE series on service learning in the disciplines (Battistoni and Hudson 1997), and designing and reporting pioneering efforts to link service to the academic curriculum (e.g., Barber and Battistoni 1993; Beamer 1998; Koulish 1998; Ehrlich 1999). Tony Robinson's essay in this volume stands as yet another bold attempt to challenge political scientists to “do politics” through advocacy-based community service work.

This symposium is offered to advance service learning yet further. The featured authors highlight recent research on the impact of service learning on students' political knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, and draw new connections between service learning and important perspectives in political science scholarship and teaching.

The first essay, by Mary Hepburn, Richard Niemi, and Chris Chapman, thoroughly details current research on how service learning affects the civic outcomes traditionally advanced by college-level political scientists. They draw lessons from the research about what service learning does and does not do for political education, and also raise important questions for future political science research.
Service Learning in College Political Science: Queries and Commentary
Authors: Hepburn Mary A. , Niemi Richard G. , Chapman Chris
Published: May 2006

Community service is widely advocated as a method for advancing civic awareness and citizen responsibility in both secondary schools and colleges. Use of service learning in higher education has been promoted nationwide by academic, political, professional, and business leaders through such organizations as Campus Compact, American Association for Higher Education, Commission on Civic Renewal, and Corporation for National and Community Service (Bringle, Games, and Malloy 1999). In some cases, service has been institutionalized in colleges. Tufts University, for example, has added a College of Citizenship and Public Service through which students from various departments can complete a certificate program that integrates active service and citizenship studies into their major course of study (Zernike 2000). A recent report estimates that nearly two million students participate in service learning at four-year public and private institutions of higher education, and almost half of all community colleges offer service learning courses (Shumer and Cook 1999). Service learning has been applied in college courses as diverse as freshman composition, education, sociology, anthropology, business, and public policy.

But does service learning—and community service more generally—help students learn about politics and government? And, what research is needed to determine whether service, in fact, contributes to students' civic education? Having recently completed an analysis of national survey data on secondary school students' participation in community service and its relationship to civic education (see Niemi, Hepburn, and Chapman 2000), we now turn to examining the implications of service learning for college political science teaching and research.
What Should Be Learned through Service Learning?
Authors: Carpini Michael X. Delli , Keeter Scott
Published: May 2006

Service learning is typically distinguished from both community service and traditional civic education by the integration of study with hands-on activity outside the classroom, typically through a collaborative effort to address a community problem (Ehrlich 1999, 246). As such, service learning provides opportunities and challenges for increasing the efficacy of both the teaching and practice of democratic politics. To better understand these opportunities and challenges, it is necessary to make explicit the goals of service learning and to consider how these goals intersect those of more traditional approaches to teaching about government and politics. We believe that one place these sometimes competing models could find common ground is in the learning of factual knowledge about politics.

Underlying the pedagogy of service learning are the beliefs that a central mission of civic education is to produce active, engaged citizens and that this mission is more likely to be accomplished by allowing young Americans to directly experience “politics” as part of their education. As noted by Frantzich and Mann, this view is very compatible with the stated mission of the American Political Science Association:

The founding of the [APSA] in 1903 marked the evolution of political science as a distinct academic discipline in colleges and universities. At the time, two educational objectives were claimed for the emerging discipline: citizenship and training for careers in public service…. For the student, direct experience was recommended to supplement formal instruction in government and politics. (1997, 193)
Political Science and Political Philosophy: An Uneasy Relation
Authors: Smith Steven B.
Published: May 2006

From its very beginnings political science has been a complex discipline torn in conflicting directions. Consider Aristotle's Politics, the first book that looks like a contemporary political science monograph. In the book, Aristotle presented two opposing strands of argument that he managed with tolerable success to hold together. On the one hand, Aristotle treated the study of politics as a branch of practical knowledge, its aim being action (praxis), not theory. Political action is always contextual or circumstantial, the action of particular agents faced with a particular set of circumstances. Therefore, the student of politics needs to be concerned above all with learning the art of political judgment, with how to think and deliberate well under specific circumstances. Aristotle wrote the Politics for men situated in popular assemblies, courts of law, and councils of war. He presented politics as inseparable from rhetoric, the art of public persuasion. Aristotle believed that the perspective of the political theorist should not depart too far from that of the citizen or statesman.

Yet, at the same time, Aristotle acknowledged that politics is a form of knowledge with its own distinctive subject matter and set of truth claims. Good student of Plato's that he was, Aristotle saw himself as turning the study of politics into a science (episteme) inasmuch as it constituted the search for a comprehensive or general explanation of some particular branch of knowledge.
History, Myth Making, and Statistics: A Short Story about the Reapportionment of Congress and the 1990 Census
Authors: Anderson Margo , Fienberg Stephen E.
Published: May 2006

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness …. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to fulfil it.

—George Santayana, 1905-06

Those who are familiar with the “equal proportions” formula used to reapportion the U.S. House of Representatives each decade are aware how sensitive it is to small changes in states' population data. In 1990, this sensitivity took on new significance as statisticians and politicians debated the merits of adjusting the decennial census data to correct for the differential undercount. The “official” apportionment results from the 1990 Census were published in December 1990, and the reapportionment of Congressional seats among the states proceeded on the basis of those data. Adjusted census results were released in July 1991. These data would have changed the reapportionment of Congress and shifted two seats in the House: one each from the states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to the states of California and Arizona.

Adding to the complexity of the debates about which set of data to use, and in the midst of the ensuing litigation between New York City and the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau discovered a computer coding error in the adjusted data estimates and issued “revised adjusted data” in January 1992.
Rejoinder to Anderson and Fienberg
Authors: Brunell Thomas L.
Published: May 2006

In “History, Myth Making, and Statistics,” Anderson and Fienberg purport to have debunked one of the “myths” opponents of statistically adjusting census counts repeatedly invoke. The authors strive to show that critics have misplaced blame on a computer coding error for artificially inflating the national undercount by more than one million people and producing adjusted state population totals that would have provided justifications for shifting one or two House seats inappropriately. Rather, Anderson and Fienberg argue, an ad hoc decision to collapse the number of post-strata from 1392 to 357 led analysts to produce inaccurate numbers.

Far from discrediting the criticism, however, Anderson and Fienberg provide compelling evidence that both the computer error and the adjustment model itself produced numbers that would have led to a malapportionment of House seats. The authors report the 1990 apportionment based on official census numbers in their Table 1, the apportionment based on the incorrectly adjusted census numbers in their Table 5, and the apportionment based on the “corrected” (no computer error and with 1392 poststrata) adjusted counts in their Table 6. Note that the incorrectly adjusted apportionment differs from the actual apportionment by two seats and the correctly adjusted apportionment differs from the actual by two seats.
Partisan Politics at Work: Sampling and the 2000 Census
Authors: Anderson Margo , Fienberg Stephen E.
Published: May 2006

In his preceding article, Brunell offers some background on Census 2000, the use of sampling and adjustment in a census context, the magnitude of the differential undercount from prior censuses, and the debate over the use of sample-based adjustments to the count. Much of his description of Census 2000 is correct, as far as it goes. It is what he leaves out that is problematic. His omissions lead him to draw the wrong conclusions about the undercount and the methodology for correcting it.

The origins of the peculiar American institution of the decennial census can be traced to the Founding Fathers and the federal Constitution of 1787. When the leaders of the American Revolution met in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 and decided to apportion seats in the new House of Representatives among the states “according to their respective numbers,” they invented a fundamental new instrument of republican government. The infant U.S. government of the Confederation Era had trouble raising taxes and making decisions, in part because representatives in the Continental Congress voted by states and the states were of very disparate sizes and populations. The framers recognized the need for another policy-making mechanism that took account of the fact that states deserved different numbers of representatives and, hence, votes in the House and Electoral College. The answer was the census, a periodic count of the population and consequent redistribution of House seats and economic resources to reflect the relative sizes of the populations of the states.
How Congress Does the Difficult
Authors: Waldman Sidney
Published: May 2006

Legislators in democratic countries find it relatively easy to do certain things. For example, they typically have little problem reducing taxes or increasing benefits for a majority of citizens. However, should they attempt to raise taxes or cut benefits for the majority, they will probably encounter opposition, even if taking such measures is necessary for the public good. How members of democratically elected legislatures manage to accomplish unpopular and politically difficult tasks is worth examining. In this article, I illustrate how members of the U.S. Congress have “done the difficult”–i.e., passed laws or instituted programs, often in the public interest, that were unpopular with the voters or would have been were they known to the public–and consider why the legislators were able to take the actions they did.

Determining how members of Congress make unpopular but necessary policy decisions is difficult because members themselves will not emphasize when they deviate from the public's will and how they are able to do so. After all, most of them are more interested in getting reelected than in being perceived as courageous and resourceful statesmen. Even the most civic-minded legislator may avoid calling attention to unpopular votes after realizing cynical and skeptical voters are unlikely to reward him for making difficult choices in the public's interest. Consequently, to reduce the likelihood that the action will be highlighted, unpopular legislation is often enacted in obscure and technical ways.
Nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase‐2 is the ecto‐ATPase of type I cells in taste buds
Authors: Bartel Dianna L. , Sullivan Susan L. , Lavoie Élise G. , Sévigny Jean , Finger Thomas E.
Published: May 2006

The presence of one or more calcium‐dependent ecto‐ATPases (enzymes that hydrolyze extracellular 5′‐triphosphates) in mammalian taste buds was first shown histochemically. Recent studies have established that dominant ecto‐ATPases consist of enzymes now called nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolases (NTPDases). Massively parallel signature sequencing (MPSS) from murine taste epithelium provided molecular evidence suggesting that NTPDase2 is the most likely member present in mouse taste papillae. Immunocytochemical and enzyme histochemical staining verified the presence of NTPDase2 associated with plasma membranes in a large number of cells within all mouse taste buds. To determine which of the three taste cell types expresses this enzyme, double‐label assays were performed with antisera directed against the glial glutamate/aspartate transporter (GLAST), the transduction pathway proteins phospholipase Cβ2 (PLCβ2) or the G‐protein subunit α‐gustducin, and serotonin (5HT) as markers of type I, II, and III taste cells, respectively. Analysis of the double‐labeled sections indicates that NTPDase2 immunoreactivity is found on cell processes that often envelop other taste cells, reminiscent of type I cells. In agreement with this observation, NTPDase2 was located to the same membrane as GLAST, indicating that this enzyme is present in type I cells. The presence of ecto‐ATPase in taste buds likely reflects the importance of ATP as an intercellular signaling molecule in this system. J. Comp. Neurol. 497:1–12, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Neonatal deafness results in degraded topographic specificity of auditory nerve projections to the cochlear nucleus in cats
Authors: Leake Patricia A. , Hradek Gary T. , Chair Leila , Snyder Russell L.
Published: May 2006

We previously examined the early postnatal maturation of the primary afferent auditory nerve projections from the cat cochlear spiral ganglion (SG) to the cochlear nucleus (CN). In normal kittens these projections exhibit clear cochleotopic organization before birth, but quantitative data showed that their topographic specificity is less precise in perinatal kittens than in adults. Normalized for CN size, projections to the anteroventral (AVCN), posteroventral (PVCN), and dorsal (DCN) subdivisions are all significantly broader in neonates than in adults. By 6–7 postnatal days, projections are proportionate to those of adults, suggesting that significant refinement occurs during the early postnatal period. The present study examined SG projections to the CN in adult cats deafened as neonates by ototoxic drug administration. The fundamental organization of the SG‐to‐CN projections into frequency band laminae is clearly evident despite severe auditory deprivation from birth. However, when normalized for the smaller CN size in deafened animals, projections are disproportionately broader than in controls; AVCN, PVCN, and DCN projections are 39, 26, and 48% broader, respectively, than predicted if they were precisely proportionate to projections in normal hearing animals. These findings suggest that normal auditory experience and neural activity are essential for the early postnatal development (or subsequent maintenance) of the topographic precision of SG‐to‐CN projections. After early deafness, the basic cochleotopic organization of the CN is established and maintained into adulthood, but the CN is severely reduced in size and the topographic specificity of primary afferent projections that underlies frequency resolution in the normal central auditory system is significantly degraded. J. Comp. Neurol. 497:13–31, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Regulation of histone acetyltransferase activity of p300 and PCAF by proto‐oncogene protein DEK
Authors: Ko Soo-Il , Lee In-Seon , Kim Ji-Young , Kim Sung-Mi , Kim Dong-Wook , Lee Kyu-Sun , Woo Kyung-Mi , Baek Jeong-Hwa , Choo Jong-Kil , Seo Sang-Beom
Published: May 2006

The proto‐oncogene protein DEK has been implicated in the t(6;9) chromosomal translocation associated with a subtype of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), which results in the formation of a DEK‐CAN fusion protein. Histone acetylation is an important post‐translational modification which is involved in transcriptional regulation. In this study, we report that the acidic domain containing protein DEK interacts with histones and exerts a potent inhibitory effect on both p300 and PCAF‐mediated histone acetyltransferase activity and transcription. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation assays, we have demonstrated that the recruitment of DEK to the appropriate promoter induces the histone H3 and H4 hypoacetylation of chromatin. Collectively, our data illustrate the important regulatory role played by protein DEK in transcriptional regulation, and suggest that transcription‐regulating acidic domain regions may play a role in leukemogenesis.
Gas slug ascent through changes in conduit diameter: Laboratory insights into a volcano‐seismic source process in low‐viscosity magmas
Authors: James M. R. , Lane S. J. , Chouet B. A.
Published: May 2006

Seismic signals generated during the flow and degassing of low‐viscosity magmas include long‐period (LP) and very‐long‐period (VLP) events, whose sources are often attributed to dynamic fluid processes within the conduit. We present the results of laboratory experiments designed to investigate whether the passage of a gas slug through regions of changing conduit diameter could act as a suitable source mechanism. A vertical, liquid‐filled glass tube featuring a concentric diameter change was used to provide canonical insights into potentially deep or shallow seismic sources. As gas slugs ascend the tube, we observe systematic pressure changes varying with slug size, liquid depth, tube diameter, and liquid viscosity. Gas slugs undergoing an abrupt flow pattern change upon entering a section of significantly increased tube diameter induce a transient pressure decrease in and above the flare and an associated pressure increase below it, which stimulates acoustic and inertial resonant oscillations. When the liquid flow is not dominantly controlled by viscosity, net vertical forces on the apparatus are also detected. The net force is a function of the magnitude of the pressure transients generated and the tube geometry, which dictates where, and hence when, the traveling pressure pulses can couple into the tube. In contrast to interpretations of related volcano‐seismic data, where a single downward force is assumed to result from an upward acceleration of the center of mass in the conduit, our experiments suggest that significant downward forces can result from the rapid deceleration of relatively small volumes of downward‐moving liquid.
India and Sunda plates motion and deformation along their boundary in Myanmar determined by GPS
Authors: Socquet Anne , Vigny Christophe , Chamot‐Rooke Nicolas , Simons Wim , Rangin Claude , Ambrosius Boudewijn
Published: May 2006

Using a regional GPS data set including ∼190 stations in Asia, from Nepal to eastern Indonesia and spanning 11 years, we update the present‐day relative motion between the Indian and Sundaland plates and discuss the deformation taking place between them in Myanmar. Revisiting measurements acquired on the Main Boundary Thrust in Nepal, it appears that points in southern Nepal exhibit negligible deformation with respect to mainland India. Including these points, using a longer time span than previous studies, and making an accurate geodetic mapping in the newest reference frame allows us to refine the present‐day Indian motion. Our results confirm that the current motion of India is slower than predicted by the NUVEL‐1A model, and in addition our India‐Eurasia motion is significantly (∼5 mm/yr) slower than previous geodetic determinations. This new Indian motion, combined with a refined determination of the Sundaland motion, gives way to a relative India‐Sunda angular velocity of 20.2°N, 26.1°E, 0.370°/Myr in ITRF2000, predicting a relative motion of 35 mm/yr oriented N10° at the latitude of Myanmar. There, the Sagaing Fault accommodates only 18 mm/yr of right‐lateral strike slip, only half of the shear component of motion. We present two models addressing how and where the remaining deformation may occur. A first model of distributed deformation implies convergence on the Arakan subduction (the northern continuation of the now famous Sumatra‐Andaman Trench) and wrench faulting in the Arakan wedge. The second model uses localized deformation, where deformation observed west of the Sagaing Fault is entirely due to elastic loading on a faster and oblique Arakan subduction (23 mm/yr). This latter model predicts that a major earthquake ofMw8.5 may occur every century on this segment of the subduction.
Vortical motion in the head of an axisymmetric gravity current
Authors: Patterson M. D. , Simpson J. E. , Dalziel S. B. , van Heijst G. J. F.
Published: May 2006

A series of experiments that examine the initial development of an axisymmetric gravity current have been carried out. The experiments highlight the growth of a ring vortex that dominates the dynamics of the gravity current’s early time propagation. In particular, the experiments show three distinct stages of early time development that have previously been described as the “initial phase” of a gravity current. The first phase of the early time development is dependent on the fractional depth of the lock release, followed by a secondary phase wherein the frontal speed is approximately constant and a third phase of reducing speed. The second phase of the gravity current’s propagation comes to an abrupt end with the breakdown of the ring vortex at a clearly defined position. All of the experimental results show the development of a complex flow field where the generation and collapse of a ring vortex dominate the gravity current’s early time propagation. The complexity of the flow field and the dependence of the propagation speed on the presence of the ring vortex in the head of the gravity current highlights the unsuitability of shallow-water modeling for axisymmetric lock releases at early times.
The unsteady drag force on a cylinder immersed in a dilute granular flow
Authors: Bharadwaj Rahul , Wassgren Carl , Zenit Roberto
Published: May 2006

This paper presents results from hard-particle discrete element simulations of a two-dimensional dilute stream of particles accelerating past an immersed fixed cylinder. Simulation measurements of the drag force Fd are expressed in terms of a dimensionless drag coefficient, Cd=Fd∕[12ρνU2(D+d)], where ρ is the particle density, ν is the upstream solid fraction, U is the upstream instantaneous velocity, and D and d are the cylinder and particle diameters, respectively. Measurements indicate that the cylinder’s unsteady drag coefficient does not vary significantly from its steady (nonaccelerating) drag coefficient for both frictionless and frictional particles implying that the added mass for the flow is negligible. However, the drag coefficient is larger than its nominal value during an initial transient stage, during which a shock wave develops in front of the cylinder. Once the shock has developed, the drag coefficient remains constant despite the stream’s acceleration. The duration of the shock development transient stage is a function of the number of particle/cylinder collisions.
BAli-Phy: simultaneous Bayesian inference of alignment and phylogeny
Authors: Suchard Marc A. , Redelings Benjamin D.
Published: May 2006

Summary: BAli-Phy is a Bayesian posterior sampler that employs Markov chain Monte Carlo to explore the joint space of alignment and phylogeny given molecular sequence data. Simultaneous estimation eliminates bias toward inaccurate alignment guide-trees, employs more sophisticated substitution models during alignment and automatically utilizes information in shared insertion/deletions to help infer phylogenies.

Availability: Software is available for download at .

Contact:  msuchard@ucla.edu
PROXIMO—a new docking algorithm to model protein complexes using data from radical probe mass spectrometry (RP-MS)
Authors: Gerega Sebastien K. , Downard Kevin M.
Published: May 2006

The design and implementation of a new algorithm, known as PROXIMO for protein oxidation interface modeller, is described to predict the structure of protein complexes using data generated in radical probe mass spectrometry (RP-MS) experiments. Photochemical radiolysis and discharge sources can be used to effect RP-MS in which hydroxyl radicals are formed directly from the bulk solvent on millisecond timescales and react with surface accessible residues in footprinting-like experiments. The algorithm utilizes a geometric surface fitting routine to predict likely structures for protein complexes. These structures are scored based on a correlation between the measured solvent accessibility of oxidizable residue side chains and oxidation shielding data obtained by RP-MS. The algorithm has been implemented to predict structures for the ribonuclease S-protein–peptide and calmodulin–melittin complexes using RP-MS data generated in this laboratory. The former is in close agreement with the high-resolution experimental structure available.

Contact:  kdownard@usyd.edu.au