Energy Relations in Russia: Administration, Politics and Security

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Makarychev, Andrey

2005-01-01

This chapter analyses energy relations through a prism of three interlinked concepts: administration, politics and security. This triad describes the basic approaches to questions about technical, politicised and securitised energy. These three concepts are logically linked to one another and represent an elementary matrix; a prism through which…

Notes on Political Philosophy and Contemporary International Relations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mahoney, Daniel

1987-01-01

Describes the post World War II development of the discipline of international relations, stating that it helped reinvigorate interest in the tradition of political philosophy. Examines shortcomings, such as its division into realist and idealist camps, and discusses the works and ideologies of people such as Morgenthau, Aron, and Beitz. (GEA)

Expression and Organization of Geographic Spatial Relations Based on Topic Maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, H. J.; Wang, H.; Cui, T. J.; Guo, J. F.

2017-09-01

Spatial Relation is one of the important components of Geographical Information Science and Spatial Database. There have been lots of researches on Spatial Relation and many different spatial relations have been proposed. The relationships among these spatial relations such as hierarchy and so on are complex and this brings some difficulties to the applications and teaching of these spatial relations. This paper summaries some common spatial relations, extracts the topic types, association types, resource types of these spatial relations using the technology of Topic Maps, and builds many different relationships among these spatial relations. Finally, this paper utilizes Java and Ontopia to build a topic map among these common spatial relations, forms a complex knowledge network of spatial relations, and realizes the effective management and retrieval of spatial relations.

Morality and its relation to political ideology: the role of promotion and prevention concerns.

PubMed

Cornwell, James F M; Higgins, E Tory

2013-09-01

Our research investigated whether promotion concerns with advancement and prevention concerns with security related to moral beliefs and political ideology. Study 1 found that chronic prevention and promotion focus had opposite relations to binding foundation endorsement (as measured by the Moral Foundations Questionnaire), that is, positive for prevention and negative for promotion, and opposite relations to political ideology, that is, more conservative for prevention and more liberal for promotion, and the relation between focus and political ideology was partially mediated by binding foundation endorsement. Study 2 showed that promotion and prevention, even as situationally induced states, can contribute to differences in binding foundation endorsement, with prevention producing stronger endorsement (compared with a control) and promotion producing weaker endorsement.

Spatial Relation Predicates in Topographic Feature Semantics

USGS Publications Warehouse

Varanka, Dalia E.; Caro, Holly K.

2013-01-01

Topographic data are designed and widely used for base maps of diverse applications, yet the power of these information sources largely relies on the interpretive skills of map readers and relational database expert users once the data are in map or geographic information system (GIS) form. Advances in geospatial semantic technology offer data model alternatives for explicating concepts and articulating complex data queries and statements. To understand and enrich the vocabulary of topographic feature properties for semantic technology, English language spatial relation predicates were analyzed in three standard topographic feature glossaries. The analytical approach drew from disciplinary concepts in geography, linguistics, and information science. Five major classes of spatial relation predicates were identified from the analysis; representations for most of these are not widely available. The classes are: part-whole (which are commonly modeled throughout semantic and linked-data networks), geometric, processes, human intention, and spatial prepositions. These are commonly found in the ‘real world’ and support the environmental science basis for digital topographical mapping. The spatial relation concepts are based on sets of relation terms presented in this chapter, though these lists are not prescriptive or exhaustive. The results of this study make explicit the concepts forming a broad set of spatial relation expressions, which in turn form the basis for expanding the range of possible queries for topographical data analysis and mapping.

Testing a Social Ecological Model for Relations between Political Violence and Child Adjustment in Northern Ireland

PubMed Central

Cummings, E. Mark; Merrilees, Christine E.; Schermerhorn, Alice C.; Goeke-Morey, Marcie C.; Shirlow, Peter; Cairns, Ed

2013-01-01

Relations between political violence and child adjustment are matters of international concern. Past research demonstrates the significance of community, family and child psychological processes in child adjustment, supporting study of inter-relations between multiple social ecological factors and child adjustment in contexts of political violence. Testing a social ecological model, 300 mothers and their children (M= 12.28 years, SD = 1.77) from Catholic and Protestant working class neighborhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland completed measures of community discord, family relations, and children’s regulatory processes (i.e., emotional security) and outcomes. Historical political violence in neighborhoods based on objective records (i.e., politically motivated deaths) were related to family members’ reports of current sectarian and non-sectarian antisocial behavior. Interparental conflict and parental monitoring and children’s emotional security about both the community and family contributed to explanatory pathways for relations between sectarian antisocial behavior in communities and children’s adjustment problems. The discussion evaluates support for social ecological models for relations between political violence and child adjustment and its implications for understanding relations in other parts of the world. PMID:20423550

Testing a social ecological model for relations between political violence and child adjustment in Northern Ireland.

PubMed

Cummings, E Mark; Merrilees, Christine E; Schermerhorn, Alice C; Goeke-Morey, Marcie C; Shirlow, Peter; Cairns, Ed

2010-05-01

Relations between political violence and child adjustment are matters of international concern. Past research demonstrates the significance of community, family, and child psychological processes in child adjustment, supporting study of interrelations between multiple social ecological factors and child adjustment in contexts of political violence. Testing a social ecological model, 300 mothers and their children (M = 12.28 years, SD = 1.77) from Catholic and Protestant working class neighborhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland, completed measures of community discord, family relations, and children's regulatory processes (i.e., emotional security) and outcomes. Historical political violence in neighborhoods based on objective records (i.e., politically motivated deaths) were related to family members' reports of current sectarian antisocial behavior and nonsectarian antisocial behavior. Interparental conflict and parental monitoring and children's emotional security about both the community and family contributed to explanatory pathways for relations between sectarian antisocial behavior in communities and children's adjustment problems. The discussion evaluates support for social ecological models for relations between political violence and child adjustment and its implications for understanding relations in other parts of the world.

The Politics of Education: From Political Science to Multidisciplinary Inquiry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Kenneth K.

1994-01-01

Discusses how political science has shaped educational politics. Examines educational politics' contribution to political science theory-building, highlighting federalism, multiple power centers, race relations, and democratic schooling issues. Explores why educational politics researchers diverge from the new political science paradigm (the…

Conflict and Change in a Bifurcated Community: Anglo - Mexican-American Political Relations in a South Texas Town.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Michael Victor

Factors tending to inhibit the development and efficacy of Mexican American interest-oriented political activity, Anglo-Mexican American political relations, and other related factors are examined in this Master's thesis. The stated objective of the study is to provide insights as to how these factors influenced the political situation on 2…

Does Family Experience Influence Political Beliefs? Relation between Interparental Conflict Perceptions and Political Efficacy in Late Adolescence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Serek, Jan; Lacinova, Lenka; Macek, Petr

2012-01-01

The study examined the relation between adolescents' interparental conflict perceptions and their political efficacy regarding local issues. Longitudinal data (age 15 and 17) from 444 adolescents were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results showed that young people experiencing frequent interparental conflict reported an increase in…

Age-related similarities and differences in monitoring spatial cognition.

PubMed

Ariel, Robert; Moffat, Scott D

2018-05-01

Spatial cognitive performance is impaired in later adulthood but it is unclear whether the metacognitive processes involved in monitoring spatial cognitive performance are also compromised. Inaccurate monitoring could affect whether people choose to engage in tasks that require spatial thinking and also the strategies they use in spatial domains such as navigation. The current experiment examined potential age differences in monitoring spatial cognitive performance in a variety of spatial domains including visual-spatial working memory, spatial orientation, spatial visualization, navigation, and place learning. Younger and older adults completed a 2D mental rotation test, 3D mental rotation test, paper folding test, spatial memory span test, two virtual navigation tasks, and a cognitive mapping test. Participants also made metacognitive judgments of performance (confidence judgments, judgments of learning, or navigation time estimates) on each trial for all spatial tasks. Preference for allocentric or egocentric navigation strategies was also measured. Overall, performance was poorer and confidence in performance was lower for older adults than younger adults. In most spatial domains, the absolute and relative accuracy of metacognitive judgments was equivalent for both age groups. However, age differences in monitoring accuracy (specifically relative accuracy) emerged in spatial tasks involving navigation. Confidence in navigating for a target location also mediated age differences in allocentric navigation strategy use. These findings suggest that with the possible exception of navigation monitoring, spatial cognition may be spared from age-related decline even though spatial cognition itself is impaired in older age.

Social and Political Thinking in Children: Implications for Law-Related Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wyner, Nancy B.

The paper reviews literature dealing with children's social and political development and examines how changing orientations in child development research relate to citizenship education. The paper is intended for use by elementary school educators as they develop and implement citizenship education and law-related education programs. The paper is…

The political economy of diagnosis-related groups.

PubMed

Bertoli, Paola; Grembi, Veronica

2017-10-01

A well-established political economic literature has shown as multi-level governance affects the inefficiency of public expenditures. Yet, this expectation has not been empirically tested on health expenditures. We provide a political economy interpretation of the variation in the prices of 6 obstetric DRGs using Italy as a case study. Italy offers a unique institutional setting since its 21 regional governments can decide whether to adopt the national DRG system or to adjust/waive it. We investigate whether the composition and characteristics of regional governments do matter for the average DRG level and, if so, why. To address both questions, we first use a panel fixed effects model exploiting the results of 66 elections between 2000 and 2013 (i.e., 294 obs) to estimate the link between DRGs and the composition and characteristics of regional governments. Second, we investigate these results exploiting the implementation of a budget constraint policy through a difference-in-differences framework. The incidence of physicians in the regional government explains the variation of DRGs with low technological intensity, such as normal newborn, but not of those with high technological intensity, as severely premature newborn. We also observe a decrease in the average levels of DRGs after the budget constraint implementation, but the magnitude of this decrease depends primarily on the presence of physicians among politicians and the political alignment between the regional and the national government. To understand which kind of role the relevance of the political components plays (i.e., waste vs. better defined DRGs), we check whether any of the considered political economy variables have a positive impact on the quality of regional obstetric systems finding no effect. These results are a first evidence that a system of standardized prices, such as the DRGs, is not immune to political pressures. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Lessons of Coalition Politics. Sino-American Security Relations.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-02-01

levels of trade; greater cultural , scientific, and athletic exchanges; and a general improvement in the atmosphere of interstate relations. But...facilities, and intergovernmental understandings. Tokyo and Washing- ton have accumulated substantial working experience in the manage- ment of an...considerations shed light on the internal political dynamic at work within the PRC policy process. The Chinese tried to portray their security and

An Empirical Exploration of Factors Related to Adolescents' Political Efficacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levy, Brett L. M.

2013-01-01

Political scientists have found that one of the strongest predictors of political participation is political efficacy, the belief that individuals' actions can influence political processes. Prior research indicates that political efficacy increases through various experiences, such as discussions of public issues, but it does not explain why or…

Spatial transformation abilities and their relation to later mathematics performance.

PubMed

Frick, Andrea

2018-04-10

Using a longitudinal approach, this study investigated the relational structure of different spatial transformation skills at kindergarten age, and how these spatial skills relate to children's later mathematics performance. Children were tested at three time points, in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade (N = 119). Exploratory factor analyses revealed two subcomponents of spatial transformation skills: one representing egocentric transformations (mental rotation and spatial scaling), and one representing allocentric transformations (e.g., cross-sectioning, perspective taking). Structural equation modeling suggested that egocentric transformation skills showed their strongest relation to the part of the mathematics test tapping arithmetic operations, whereas allocentric transformations were strongly related to Numeric-Logical and Spatial Functions as well as geometry. The present findings point to a tight connection between early mental transformation skills, particularly the ones requiring a high level of spatial flexibility and a strong sense for spatial magnitudes, and children's mathematics performance at the beginning of their school career.

Lifelong Political Socialization, Consciousness and Political Agency in Israel Today

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michel, Dirk

2007-01-01

This article deals with the nexus between biographical experiences in political extraordinary times of crisis, disaster and terror and their influence on political orientations. At the centre of interest is the reconstruction of political orientations related to two different historical-political groups of Jewish Germans who had immigrated or…

The floating houses of Sintang City: space, resources and political nexus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lubis, M. S.; Harjoko, T. Y.; Susanto, D.

2018-03-01

Sintang is a city in the interior of West Kalimantan, located at the confluence of two large rivers, Kapuas River and Melawi River. Growing from the river’s edge, the present Sintang still maintains its riverine culture in the form of floating houses (‘rumah lanting’), as its legacy of the past, when rivers played important role as main transportation routes for political and economic activities. This paper explores several concepts related to power, space, and resources, to examine the complexity of life of lanting dwellers, conducted at two locations of lanting houses that spread around Sintang urban area: Pasar Sungai Durian and Pasar Inpres. The results show that there are two main factors affecting the life as well as the spatiality of lanting dwellers: First, the relationship with river’s ecology and river’s behavior, and second, the linkages with the activities on the mainland, where both of them are strongly influenced by political and economic considerations. The impact of changes in the river’s ecology and behavior on the lanting dwellers has shown how government policies affected the rivers and thus, the lanting communities. The key contribution of this study is a clear depiction of the political and power relations in the context of spatiality and resources on the riverine culture, especially the lanting communities along Kapuas and Melawi River in Sintang City, which tends to reveal the marginalization of the lanting community among the other urban community. So far, there has been no serious and detailed studies about the politics of space in relation to nature and resources and local livelihoods in the area. This paper wishes to explore the challenges to strive for a livable and just place for river community in the future.

Education and Political Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Massialas, Byron G.

1977-01-01

Considers how education is related to politics with the focus on political socialization, political recruitment, i.e., the selection and training of political elites, and political integration or nation building of groups of people. (Author/RK)

Panama: Political and Economic Conditions and U.S. Relations

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-11-27

States via Panama. As a result, U.S. officials cancelled the former president’s U.S. tourist visa in November 1999.1 Moscoso Government (1999-2004) In...Panama: Political and Economic Conditions and U.S. Relations Congressional Research Service Summary With five successive elected civilian governments ...taking a heavy-handed approach toward governing and for not being more consultative. At times, strong public protests have resulted in President

Office Politics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Storm, Paula; Kelly, Robert; deVries, Susann

2008-01-01

People and organizations are inherently political. Library workplace environments have zones of tension and dynamics just like any corporation, often leading to the formation of political camps. These different cliques influence productivity and work-related issues and, at worst, give meetings the feel of the Camp David negotiations. Politics are…

A model relating Eulerian spatial and temporal velocity correlations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cholemari, Murali R.; Arakeri, Jaywant H.

2006-03-01

In this paper we propose a model to relate Eulerian spatial and temporal velocity autocorrelations in homogeneous, isotropic and stationary turbulence. We model the decorrelation as the eddies of various scales becoming decorrelated. This enables us to connect the spatial and temporal separations required for a certain decorrelation through the ‘eddy scale’. Given either the spatial or the temporal velocity correlation, we obtain the ‘eddy scale’ and the rate at which the decorrelation proceeds. This leads to a spatial separation from the temporal correlation and a temporal separation from the spatial correlation, at any given value of the correlation relating the two correlations. We test the model using experimental data from a stationary axisymmetric turbulent flow with homogeneity along the axis.

Perspectives on Political Geography in AP® Human Geography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leib, Jonathan; Smothers-Marcello, Jody

2016-01-01

Two trends have remade the field of political geography over the past quarter-century. First, a revision of taken-for-granted concepts that amounted to "spatial determinism." Second, pioneering many new and emerging concepts such as political ecology. Both trends are important contributions to the evolving section of the AP Human…

No vacancy: the political geography of immigration control in advanced industrial countries.

PubMed

Money, J

1997-01-01

This article presents a unique framework for analyzing the politics of immigration control in developed countries and reviews related political theories. The author describes distinctive patterns of immigration in selected OECD countries and standard explanations. The author argues that the costs and benefits of immigration are spatially unevenly distributed and explains how spatial concentrations affect costs and benefits, as well as how local conditions, population, and the business community create support for and opposition to immigration. Evidence from Great Britain is used to support the framework. Control of immigration is due to the power of local constituencies in creating and maintaining a national political coalition. Local constituency preferences are a systematic, but not exclusive, feature that underpin the politics of immigration control. Other factors may have periodic impacts. The case of Great Britain, during 1955-81, illustrates the importance of disaggregated analysis. Cross national analyses will reveal the variation in level of impact. Japan and Germany, with similar economic and political histories, indicate substantial differences in net demand for immigration. Conditions, such as high, rapidly increasing immigration proportions, access to social services, and higher unemployment, may lead to hostility and less community support for immigration. The theory is based on native-immigrant competition over scarce resources, variable business support depending upon the flexibility of local markets and potential for capital mobility, and the dynamics of party competition as influenced by underlying structural conditions.

Event-related potential evidence suggesting voters remember political events that never happened

PubMed Central

Federmeier, Kara D.; Gonsalves, Brian D.

2014-01-01

Voters tend to misattribute issue positions to political candidates that are consistent with their partisan affiliation, even though these candidates have never explicitly stated or endorsed such stances. The prevailing explanation in political science is that voters misattribute candidates’ issue positions because they use their political knowledge to make educated but incorrect guesses. We suggest that voter errors can also stem from a different source: false memories. The current study examined event-related potential (ERP) responses to misattributed and accurately remembered candidate issue information. We report here that ERP responses to misattributed information can elicit memory signals similar to that of correctly remembered old information—a pattern consistent with a false memory rather than educated guessing interpretation of these misattributions. These results suggest that some types of voter misinformation about candidates may be harder to correct than previously thought. PMID:23202775

Political Socialization and Reactions to Immigration-Related Diversity in Rural America

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gimpel, James G.; Lay, J. Celeste

2008-01-01

We explore the roots of tolerance for immigration-related diversity from a political socialization perspective. Among rural adolescent respondents, we find that attitudes toward immigrants are surprisingly variable along a number of important dimensions: anticipated socioeconomic status, family longevity in the community, and employment in…

ERP correlates of anticipatory attention: spatial and non-spatial specificity and relation to subsequent selective attention.

PubMed

Dale, Corby L; Simpson, Gregory V; Foxe, John J; Luks, Tracy L; Worden, Michael S

2008-06-01

Brain-based models of visual attention hypothesize that attention-related benefits afforded to imperative stimuli occur via enhancement of neural activity associated with relevant spatial and non-spatial features. When relevant information is available in advance of a stimulus, anticipatory deployment processes are likely to facilitate allocation of attention to stimulus properties prior to its arrival. The current study recorded EEG from humans during a centrally-cued covert attention task. Cues indicated relevance of left or right visual field locations for an upcoming motion or orientation discrimination. During a 1 s delay between cue and S2, multiple attention-related events occurred at frontal, parietal and occipital electrode sites. Differences in anticipatory activity associated with the non-spatial task properties were found late in the delay, while spatially-specific modulation of activity occurred during both early and late periods and continued during S2 processing. The magnitude of anticipatory activity preceding the S2 at frontal scalp sites (and not occipital) was predictive of the magnitude of subsequent selective attention effects on the S2 event-related potentials observed at occipital electrodes. Results support the existence of multiple anticipatory attention-related processes, some with differing specificity for spatial and non-spatial task properties, and the hypothesis that levels of activity in anterior areas are important for effective control of subsequent S2 selective attention.

Teachers' Spatial Anxiety Relates to 1st-and 2nd-Graders' Spatial Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gunderson, Elizabeth A.; Ramirez, Gerardo; Beilock, Sian L.; Levine, Susan C.

2013-01-01

Teachers' anxiety about an academic domain, such as math, can impact students' learning in that domain. We asked whether this relation held in the domain of spatial skill, given the importance of spatial skill for success in math and science and its malleability at a young age. We measured 1st-and 2nd-grade teachers' spatial anxiety…

Is the political animal politically ignorant? Applying evolutionary psychology to the study of political attitudes.

PubMed

Petersen, Michael Bang; Aarøe, Lene

2012-12-20

As evidenced by research in evolutionary psychology, humans have evolved sophisticated psychological mechanisms tailored to solve enduring adaptive problems of social life. Many of these social problems are political in nature and relate to the distribution of costs and benefits within and between groups. In that sense, evolutionary psychology suggests that humans are, by nature, political animals. By implication, a straightforward application of evolutionary psychology to the study of public opinion seems to entail that modern individuals find politics intrinsically interesting. Yet, as documented by more than fifty years of research in political science, people lack knowledge of basic features of the political process and the ability to form consistent political attitudes. By reviewing and integrating research in evolutionary psychology and public opinion, we describe (1) why modern mass politics often fail to activate evolved mechanisms and (2) the conditions in which these mechanisms are in fact triggered.

Civil-Military Relations in Post-Conflict Sri Lanka: Successful Civilian Consolidation in the Face of Political Competition

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-12-01

RELATIONS IN POST -CONFLICT SRI LANKA: SUCCESSFUL CIVILIAN CONSOLIDATION IN THE FACE OF POLITICAL COMPETITION by Chaminda Athapattu Mudalige P...CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS IN POST -CONFLICT SRI LANKA: SUCCESSFUL CIVILIAN CONSOLIDATION IN THE FACE OF POLITICAL COMPETITION 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 6...new conceptualization framework, Ministry of Defense, Sri Lanka military, post -conflict, nation- building, reconstruction, rehabilitation, and

Sexual Orientation-Related Differences in Virtual Spatial Navigation and Spatial Search Strategies.

PubMed

Rahman, Qazi; Sharp, Jonathan; McVeigh, Meadhbh; Ho, Man-Ling

2017-07-01

Spatial abilities are generally hypothesized to differ between men and women, and people with different sexual orientations. According to the cross-sex shift hypothesis, gay men are hypothesized to perform in the direction of heterosexual women and lesbian women in the direction of heterosexual men on cognitive tests. This study investigated sexual orientation differences in spatial navigation and strategy during a virtual Morris water maze task (VMWM). Forty-four heterosexual men, 43 heterosexual women, 39 gay men, and 34 lesbian/bisexual women (aged 18-54 years) navigated a desktop VMWM and completed measures of intelligence, handedness, and childhood gender nonconformity (CGN). We quantified spatial learning (hidden platform trials), probe trial performance, and cued navigation (visible platform trials). Spatial strategies during hidden and probe trials were classified into visual scanning, landmark use, thigmotaxis/circling, and enfilading. In general, heterosexual men scored better than women and gay men on some spatial learning and probe trial measures and used more visual scan strategies. However, some differences disappeared after controlling for age and estimated IQ (e.g., in visual scanning heterosexual men differed from women but not gay men). Heterosexual women did not differ from lesbian/bisexual women. For both sexes, visual scanning predicted probe trial performance. More feminine CGN scores were associated with lower performance among men and greater performance among women on specific spatial learning or probe trial measures. These results provide mixed evidence for the cross-sex shift hypothesis of sexual orientation-related differences in spatial cognition.

Producing Spatial Words Is Not Enough: Understanding the Relation between Language and Spatial Cognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Hilary E.; Vlach, Haley A.; Simmering, Vanessa R.

2017-01-01

Prior research has investigated the relation between children's language and spatial cognition by assessing the quantity of children's spatial word production, with limited attention to the context in which children use such words. This study tested whether 4-year-olds children's (N = 41, primarily white middle class) adaptive use of task-relevant…

Individual differences in spatial relation processing: effects of strategy, ability, and gender

PubMed Central

van der Ham, Ineke J. M.; Borst, Gregoire

2011-01-01

Numerous studies have focused on the distinction between categorical and coordinate spatial relations. Categorical relations are propositional and abstract, and often related to a left hemisphere advantage. Coordinate relations specify the metric information of the relative locations of objects, and can be linked to right hemisphere processing. Yet, not all studies have reported such a clear double dissociation; in particular the categorical left hemisphere advantage is not always reported. In the current study we investigated whether verbal and spatial strategies, verbal and spatial cognitive abilities, and gender could account for the discrepancies observed in hemispheric lateralization of spatial relations. Seventy-five participants performed two visual half field, match-to-sample tasks (Van der Ham et al., 2007; 2009) to study the lateralization of categorical and coordinate relation processing. For each participant we determined the strategy they used in each of the two tasks. Consistent with previous findings, we found an overall categorical left hemisphere advantage and coordinate right hemisphere advantage. The lateralization pattern was affected selectively by the degree to which participants used a spatial strategy and by none of the other variables (i.e., verbal strategy, cognitive abilities, and gender). Critically, the categorical left hemisphere advantage was observed only for participants that relied strongly on a spatial strategy. This result is another piece of evidence that categorical spatial relation processing relies on spatial and not verbal processes. PMID:21353361

Political psychology.

PubMed

Stone, Susanna; Johnson, Kate M; Beall, Erica; Meindl, Peter; Smith, Benjamin; Graham, Jesse

2014-07-01

Political psychology is a dynamic field of research that offers a unique blend of approaches and methods in the social and cognitive sciences. Political psychologists explore the interactions between macrolevel political structures and microlevel factors such as decision-making processes, motivations, and perceptions. In this article, we provide a broad overview of the field, beginning with a brief history of political psychology research and a summary of the primary methodological approaches in the field. We then give a more detailed account of research on ideology and social justice, two topics experiencing a resurgence of interest in current political psychology. Finally, we cover research on political persuasion and voting behavior. By summarizing these major areas of political psychology research, we hope to highlight the wide variety of theoretical and methodological approaches of cognitive scientists working at the intersection of psychology and political science. WIREs Cogn Sci 2014, 5:373-385. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1293 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A step into the anarchist's mind: examining political attitudes and ideology through event-related brain potentials.

PubMed

Dhont, Kristof; Van Hiel, Alain; Pattyn, Sven; Onraet, Emma; Severens, Els

2012-03-01

The present study investigates patterns of event-related brain potentials following the presentation of attitudinal stimuli among political moderates (N=12) and anarchists (N=11). We used a modified oddball paradigm to investigate the evaluative inconsistency effect elicited by stimuli embedded in a sequence of contextual stimuli with an opposite valence. Increased late positive potentials (LPPs) of extreme political attitudes were observed. Moreover, this LPP enhancement was larger among anarchists than among moderates, indicating that an extreme political attitude of a moderate differs from an extreme political attitude of an anarchist. The discussion elaborates on the meaning of attitude extremity for moderates and extremists. © The Author (2011). Published by Oxford University Press.

The Relation between Childhood Spatial Activities and Spatial Abilities in Adulthood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doyle, Randi A.; Voyer, Daniel; Cherney, Isabelle D.

2012-01-01

This study investigated the relation between childhood spatial activities and cognitive gender differences in adults through the validation of the Childhood Activities Questionnaire developed by Cherney and Voyer (2010). A sample of 403 (133 males, 270 females) undergraduates in Introductory Psychology courses at University of New Brunswick, NB,…

Rivers as Political Boundaries: Peru and its Dynamic Borders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abad, J. D.; Escobar, C.; Garcia, A. M. P.; Ortals, C.; Frias, C. E.; Vizcarra, J.

2014-12-01

Rivers, although inherently dynamic, have been chosen as political boundaries since the beginning of colonization for several reasons. Such divisions were chosen namely for their defensive capabilities and military benefits, and because they were often the first features mapped out by explorers. Furthermore, rivers were indisputable boundaries that did not require boundary pillars or people to guard them. However, it is important to understand the complexities of a river as a boundary. All rivers inevitably change over time through processes such as accretion, deposition, cut-off, or avulsion, rendering a political boundary subject to dispute. Depending upon the flow, size, and surrounding land, a river will migrate differently than others. As these natural features migrate one country loses land while another gains land leading to tension between legal rigidity and fluid dynamism. This in turn can manifest in social disruption due to cultural differences, political upheaval, or conflict risk as a result of scarce water resources. The purpose of this research is to assess the temporal and spatial variability of the political boundaries of Peru that follow rivers. Peru shares borders with Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, and Ecuador. A large part of its northern border with Colombia follows the Putumayo River and later the Amazon River. Part of its eastern border with Brazil follows the Yavari River and later the Yaquirana River. These rivers are natural features used as political boundaries yet they differ in how each migrates. By means of a spatial and temporal analysis of satellite images it was possible to obtain erosion and deposition areas for the Putumayo River, the portion of the Amazon River that is part of the Peruvian boundary, the Yavari River, and the Yaquirana River. The erosion and deposition areas were related to land distribution among Peru, Colombia, and Brazil. By examining the Digital Elevation Model one can see how the altitude of the

A step into the anarchist’s mind: examining political attitudes and ideology through event-related brain potentials

PubMed Central

Van Hiel, Alain; Pattyn, Sven; Onraet, Emma; Severens, Els

2012-01-01

The present study investigates patterns of event-related brain potentials following the presentation of attitudinal stimuli among political moderates (N = 12) and anarchists (N = 11). We used a modified oddball paradigm to investigate the evaluative inconsistency effect elicited by stimuli embedded in a sequence of contextual stimuli with an opposite valence. Increased late positive potentials (LPPs) of extreme political attitudes were observed. Moreover, this LPP enhancement was larger among anarchists than among moderates, indicating that an extreme political attitude of a moderate differs from an extreme political attitude of an anarchist. The discussion elaborates on the meaning of attitude extremity for moderates and extremists. PMID:21421734

Aggregating Political Dimensions: Of the Feasibility of Political Indicators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanin, Francisco Gutierrez; Buitrago, Diana; Gonzalez, Andrea

2013-01-01

Political indicators are widely used in academic writing and decision making, but remain controversial. This paper discusses the problems related to the aggregation functions they use. Almost always, political indicators are aggregated by weighted averages or summations. The use of such functions is based on untenable assumptions (existence of…

Political Ideology, Trust, and Cooperation

PubMed Central

Balliet, Daniel; Tybur, Joshua M.; Wu, Junhui; Antonellis, Christian; Van Lange, Paul A. M.

2016-01-01

Theories suggest that political ideology relates to cooperation, with conservatives being more likely to pursue selfish outcomes, and liberals more likely to pursue egalitarian outcomes. In study 1, we examine how political ideology and political party affiliation (Republican vs. Democrat) predict cooperation with a partner who self-identifies as Republican or Democrat in two samples before (n = 362) and after (n = 366) the 2012 US presidential election. Liberals show slightly more concern for their partners’ outcomes compared to conservatives (study 1), and in study 2 this relation is supported by a meta-analysis (r = .15). However, in study 1, political ideology did not relate to cooperation in general. Both Republicans and Democrats extend more cooperation to their in-group relative to the out-group, and this is explained by expectations of cooperation from in-group versus out-group members. We discuss the relation between political ideology and cooperation within and between groups. PMID:29593363

Spatial taxation effects on regional coal economic activities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yang, C.W.; Labys, W.C.

1982-01-01

Taxation effects on resource production, consumption and prices are seldom evaluated especially in the field of spatial commodity modeling. The most commonly employed linear programming model has fixed-point estimated demands and capacity constraints; hence it makes taxation effects difficult to be modeled. The second type of resource allocation model, the interregional input-output models does not include a direct and explicit price mechanism. Therefore, it is not suitable for analyzing taxation effects. The third type or spatial commodity model has been econometric in nature. While such an approach has a good deal of flexibility in modeling political and non-economic variables, itmore » treats taxation (or tariff) effects loosely using only dummy variables, and, in many cases, must sacrifice the consistency criterion important for spatial commodity modeling. This leaves model builders only one legitimate choice for analyzing taxation effects: the quadratic programming model which explicitly allows the interplay of regional demand and supply relations via a continuous spatial price constructed by the authors related to the regional demand for and supply of coal from Appalachian markets.« less

Exploration as a mediator of the relation between the attainment of motor milestones and the development of spatial cognition and spatial language.

PubMed

Oudgenoeg-Paz, Ora; Leseman, Paul P M; Volman, M Chiel J M

2015-09-01

The embodied-cognition approach views cognition and language as grounded in daily sensorimotor child-environment interactions. Therefore, the attainment of motor milestones is expected to play a role in cognitive-linguistic development. Early attainment of unsupported sitting and independent walking indeed predict better spatial cognition and language at later ages. However, evidence linking these milestones with the development of spatial language and evidence regarding factors that might mediate this relation are scarce. The current study examined whether exploration of spatial-relational object properties (e.g., the possibility of containing or stacking) and exploration of the space through self-locomotion mediate the effect of, respectively, age of sitting and age of walking on spatial cognition and spatial language. Thus, we hypothesized that an earlier age of sitting and walking predicts, respectively, higher levels of spatial-relational object exploration and exploration through self-locomotion, which in turn, predict better spatial cognition and spatial language at later ages. Fifty-nine Dutch children took part in a longitudinal study. A combination of tests, observations, and parental reports was used to measure motor development, exploratory behavior (age 20 months), spatial memory (age 24 months), spatial processing (age 32 months), and spatial language (age 36 months). Results show that attainment of sitting predicted spatial memory and spatial language, but spatial-relational object exploration did not mediate these effects. Attainment of independent walking predicted spatial processing and spatial language, and exploration through self-locomotion (partially) mediated these relations. These findings extend previous work and provide partial support for the hypotheses about the mediating role of exploration. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Got political skill? The impact of justice on the importance of political skill for job performance.

PubMed

Andrews, Martha C; Kacmar, K Michele; Harris, Kenneth J

2009-11-01

The present study examined the moderating effects of procedural and distributive justice on the relationships between political skill and task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) among 175 supervisor-subordinate dyads of a government organization. Using Mischel's (1968) situationist perspective, high justice conditions were considered "strong situations," whereas low justice conditions were construed as "weak situations." We found that when both procedural and distributive justice were low, political skill was positively related to performance. Under conditions of both high procedural and high distributive justice, political skill was negatively related to performance. Finally, under conditions of low distributive justice, political skill was positively related to OCB, whereas under conditions of high distributive justice, political skill had little effect on OCB. These results highlight the importance of possessing political skill in weak but not strong situations.

Spatial relationships between alcohol-related road crashes and retail alcohol availability.

PubMed

Morrison, Christopher; Ponicki, William R; Gruenewald, Paul J; Wiebe, Douglas J; Smith, Karen

2016-05-01

This study examines spatial relationships between alcohol outlet density and the incidence of alcohol-related crashes. The few prior studies conducted in this area used relatively large spatial units; here we use highly resolved units from Melbourne, Australia (Statistical Area level 1 [SA1] units: mean land area=0.5 km(2); SD=2.2 km(2)), in order to assess different micro-scale spatial relationships for on- and off-premise outlets. Bayesian conditional autoregressive Poisson models were used to assess cross-sectional relationships of three-year counts of alcohol-related crashes (2010-2012) attended by Ambulance Victoria paramedics to densities of bars, restaurants, and off-premise outlets controlling for other land use, demographic and roadway characteristics. Alcohol-related crashes were not related to bar density within local SA1 units, but were positively related to bar density in adjacent SA1 units. Alcohol-related crashes were negatively related to off-premise outlet density in local SA1 units. Examined in one metropolitan area using small spatial units, bar density is related to greater crash risk in surrounding areas. Observed negative relationships for off-premise outlets may be because the origins and destinations of alcohol-affected journeys are in distal locations relative to outlets. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

How Internal Political Efficacy Translates Political Knowledge Into Political Participation

PubMed Central

Reichert, Frank

2016-01-01

This study presents evidence for the mediation effect of political knowledge through political self-efficacy (i.e. internal political efficacy) in the prediction of political participation. It employs an action theoretic approach—by and large grounded on the Theory of Planned Behaviour—and uses data from the German Longitudinal Election Study to examine whether political knowledge has distinct direct effects on voting, conventional, and/or unconventional political participation. It argues that political knowledge raises internal political efficacy and thereby indirectly increases the chance that a citizen will participate in politics. The results of mediated multiple regression analyses yield evidence that political knowledge indeed translates into internal political efficacy, thus it affects political participation of various kinds indirectly. However, internal political efficacy and intentions to participate politically yield simultaneous direct effects only on conventional political participation. Sequentially mediated effects appear for voting and conventional political participation, with political knowledge being mediated by internal political efficacy and subsequently also by behavioural intentions. The mediation patterns for unconventional political participation are less clear though. The discussion accounts for restrictions of this study and points to questions for answer by future research. PMID:27298633

Extending the the behavioral immune system to political psychology: are political conservatism and disgust sensitivity really related?

PubMed

Tybur, Joshua M; Merriman, Leslie A; Hooper, Ann E Caldwell; McDonald, Melissa M; Navarrete, Carlos David

2010-10-26

Previous research suggests that several individual and cultural level attitudes, cognitions, and societal structures may have evolved to mitigate the pathogen threats posed by intergroup interactions. It has been suggested that these anti-pathogen defenses are at the root of conservative political ideology. Here, we test a hypothesis that political conservatism functions as a pathogen-avoidance strategy. Across three studies, we consistently find no relationship between sensitivity to pathogen disgust and multiple measures of political conservatism. These results are contrasted with theoretical perspectives suggesting a relationship between conservatism and pathogen avoidance, and with previous findings of a relationship between conservatism and disgust sensitivity.

Asymmetric coding of categorical spatial relations in both language and vision.

PubMed

Roth, J C; Franconeri, S L

2012-01-01

Describing certain types of spatial relationships between a pair of objects requires that the objects are assigned different "roles" in the relation, e.g., "A is above B" is different than "B is above A." This asymmetric representation places one object in the "target" or "figure" role and the other in the "reference" or "ground" role. Here we provide evidence that this asymmetry may be present not just in spatial language, but also in perceptual representations. More specifically, we describe a model of visual spatial relationship judgment where the designation of the target object within such a spatial relationship is guided by the location of the "spotlight" of attention. To demonstrate the existence of this perceptual asymmetry, we cued attention to one object within a pair by briefly previewing it, and showed that participants were faster to verify the depicted relation when that object was the linguistic target. Experiment 1 demonstrated this effect for left-right relations, and Experiment 2 for above-below relations. These results join several other types of demonstrations in suggesting that perceptual representations of some spatial relations may be asymmetrically coded, and further suggest that the location of selective attention may serve as the mechanism that guides this asymmetry.

New social movements and political process: The politics of hydroelectric power in Switzerland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lehmann, Luzia M.

This dissertation analyzes the mobilization and impact of the ecology movement mobilizing against and challenging hydroelectric power plants in the Alps. It argues that the political process model is the most fruitful framework for such a study, linking a political system's structural constraints and opportunities to movement action via organizational resources. The mobilization process resulting in movement impact is conceived as an interactive process among social movements, authorities, other opponents, and potential counter movements. The case study method is then used to analyze three action campaigns launched against hydro power plants in Graubunden since the 1970s: Ilanz I and II, Greina, and Curciusa. In terms of the movement's narrow goal of preventing a plant, Ilanz I and II is a failure, Greina a success, and Curciusa ambiguous. Yet the author defines movement impact more broadly, including procedural, reactive and proactive substantive impact, and structural impact, changes in the alliance/conflict system, and social learning. Based on the evidence from the case studies, these factors affect movement outcome positively: visibility in the media and framing the debate, adjusting the target level and movement repertoire to the opportunity structure and the spatial concentration of the issue, proactivity, and organizational resources with a well developed division of labor, internal communication, and a non-partisan alliance system at all levels. There are two main conceptual contributions. First, the author analyzes the political opportunity structure at all levels of the federal polity--the national, cantonal, and communal--as well as the interplay among the levels. The fact that the cantonal and communal levels exhibit more elements of closure than the national level helps explain differences in movements' organizational resources, movement repertoire, targeting of movement action, and thus movement impact. Second, the author develops the spatial

The effect of regional politics on regional life expectancy in Italy (1980-2010).

PubMed

Jonker, Marcel F; D'Ippolito, Edoardo; Eikemo, Terje A; Congdon, Peter D; Nante, Nicola; Mackenbach, Johan P; Kamphuis, Carlijn B M

2017-03-01

The evidence on the association between politics and health is scarce considering the importance of this topic for population health. Studies that investigated the effect of different political regimes on health outcomes show inconsistent results. Bayesian time-series cross-section analyses are used to examine the overall impact of regional politics on variations in Italian regional life expectancy (LE) at birth during the period 1980-2010. Our analyses control for trends in and unobserved determinants of regional LE, correct for temporal as well as spatial autocorrelation, and employ a flexible specification for the timing of the political effects. In the period from 1980 to 1995, we find no evidence that the communist, left-oriented coalitions and Christian Democratic, centre-oriented coalitions have had an effect on regional LE. In the period from 1995 onwards, after a major reconfiguration of Italy's political regimes and a major healthcare reform, we again find no evidence that the Centre-Left and Centre-Right coalitions have had a significant impact on regional LE. The presented results provide no support for the notion that different regional political regimes in Italy have had a differential effect on regional LE, even though Italian regions have had considerable and increasing autonomy over healthcare and health-related policies and expenditures.

Political Attitude Congruence between Politically Active Parents and College-Age Children: An Inquiry into Family Political Socialization.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, L. Eugene

A brief introductory review of the literature reveals that research on family influence in the development of political orientations in adult children is inconclusive. This study focused on highly politicized families and examines: (1) the relative influence of family emotional climate versus family political climate; and (2) the relative…

Alberta's 2002 Teacher Strike: The Political Economy of Labor Relations in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barnetson, Bob

2010-01-01

In 2002, approximately two thirds of school teachers in the Canadian province of Alberta went on strike. Drawing on media, government and union documents, this case study reveals some contours of the political economy of labor relations in education that are normally hidden from view. Among these features are that the state can react to worker…

A Feminist Posthumanist Political Ecology of Education for Theorizing Human-Animal Relations/Relationships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lloro-Bidart, Teresa

2017-01-01

This paper contributes to a nascent conversation in environmental education (EE) research by using ethnographic data and extant theory to develop a feminist posthumanist political ecology of education for theorizing human-animal relations/relationships. Specifically, I (1) engage feminist methodologies and theories; (2) give epistemological and…

Relating mesocarnivore relative abundance to anthropogenic land-use with a hierarchical spatial count model

USGS Publications Warehouse

Crimmins, Shawn M.; Walleser, Liza R.; Hertel, Dan R.; McKann, Patrick C.; Rohweder, Jason J.; Thogmartin, Wayne E.

2016-01-01

There is growing need to develop models of spatial patterns in animal abundance, yet comparatively few examples of such models exist. This is especially true in situations where the abundance of one species may inhibit that of another, such as the intensively-farmed landscape of the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of the central United States, where waterfowl production is largely constrained by mesocarnivore nest predation. We used a hierarchical Bayesian approach to relate the distribution of various land-cover types to the relative abundances of four mesocarnivores in the PPR: coyote Canis latrans, raccoon Procyon lotor, red fox Vulpes vulpes, and striped skunk Mephitis mephitis. We developed models for each species at multiple spatial resolutions (41.4 km2, 10.4 km2, and 2.6 km2) to address different ecological and management-related questions. Model results for each species were similar irrespective of resolution. We found that the amount of row-crop agriculture was nearly ubiquitous in our best models, exhibiting a positive relationship with relative abundance for each species. The amount of native grassland land-cover was positively associated with coyote and raccoon relative abundance, but generally absent from models for red fox and skunk. Red fox and skunk were positively associated with each other, suggesting potential niche overlap. We found no evidence that coyote abundance limited that of other mesocarnivore species, as might be expected under a hypothesis of mesopredator release. The relationships between relative abundance and land-cover types were similar across spatial resolutions. Our results indicated that mesocarnivores in the PPR are most likely to occur in portions of the landscape with large amounts of agricultural land-cover. Further, our results indicated that track-survey data can be used in a hierarchical framework to gain inferences regarding spatial patterns in animal relative abundance.

Are Categorical Spatial Relations Encoded by Shifting Visual Attention between Objects?

PubMed Central

Uttal, David; Franconeri, Steven

2016-01-01

Perceiving not just values, but relations between values, is critical to human cognition. We tested the predictions of a proposed mechanism for processing categorical spatial relations between two objects—the shift account of relation processing—which states that relations such as ‘above’ or ‘below’ are extracted by shifting visual attention upward or downward in space. If so, then shifts of attention should improve the representation of spatial relations, compared to a control condition of identity memory. Participants viewed a pair of briefly flashed objects and were then tested on either the relative spatial relation or identity of one of those objects. Using eye tracking to reveal participants’ voluntary shifts of attention over time, we found that when initial fixation was on neither object, relational memory showed an absolute advantage for the object following an attention shift, while identity memory showed no advantage for either object. This result is consistent with the shift account of relation processing. When initial fixation began on one of the objects, identity memory strongly benefited this fixated object, while relational memory only showed a relative benefit for objects following an attention shift. This result is also consistent, although not as uniquely, with the shift account of relation processing. Taken together, we suggest that the attention shift account provides a mechanistic explanation for the overall results. This account can potentially serve as the common mechanism underlying both linguistic and perceptual representations of spatial relations. PMID:27695104

Are Categorical Spatial Relations Encoded by Shifting Visual Attention between Objects?

PubMed

Yuan, Lei; Uttal, David; Franconeri, Steven

2016-01-01

Perceiving not just values, but relations between values, is critical to human cognition. We tested the predictions of a proposed mechanism for processing categorical spatial relations between two objects-the shift account of relation processing-which states that relations such as 'above' or 'below' are extracted by shifting visual attention upward or downward in space. If so, then shifts of attention should improve the representation of spatial relations, compared to a control condition of identity memory. Participants viewed a pair of briefly flashed objects and were then tested on either the relative spatial relation or identity of one of those objects. Using eye tracking to reveal participants' voluntary shifts of attention over time, we found that when initial fixation was on neither object, relational memory showed an absolute advantage for the object following an attention shift, while identity memory showed no advantage for either object. This result is consistent with the shift account of relation processing. When initial fixation began on one of the objects, identity memory strongly benefited this fixated object, while relational memory only showed a relative benefit for objects following an attention shift. This result is also consistent, although not as uniquely, with the shift account of relation processing. Taken together, we suggest that the attention shift account provides a mechanistic explanation for the overall results. This account can potentially serve as the common mechanism underlying both linguistic and perceptual representations of spatial relations.

Tracking Politics with POWER

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moreira, Silvio; Batista, David S.; Carvalho, Paula; Couto, Francisco M.; Silva, Mario J.

2013-01-01

Purpose: POWER is an ontology of political processes and entities. It is designed for tracking politicians, political organizations and elections, both in mainstream and social media. The aim of this paper is to propose a data model to describe political agents and their relations over time. Design/methodology/approach: The authors propose a data…

Spatializing Environmental Education: Critical Territorial Consciousness and Radical Place-Making in Public Schooling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stahelin, Nicolas

2017-01-01

In this case study of an environmental education (EE) program run in public schools of Rio de Janeiro, I use a constructivist spatial analytic to interrogate notions of space, place, and territory in critical EE practices. I examine the connections between socioenvironmental relations, counter-hegemonic political activity, and education by delving…

Teaching Political Science with Chillers and Thrillers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neuse, Steven M.

1980-01-01

Discusses using popular detective and espionage fiction in courses related to area politics, international relations, political terrorism, socialization, and bureaucratic politics. Suggests several novels and ways in which they may be integrated into courses. (KC)

Political activities of social workers: addressing perceived barriers to political participation.

PubMed

Rocha, Cynthia; Poe, Bethanie; Thomas, Veliska

2010-10-01

This article reviews the literature on political participation of social workers and the variables that promote or impede political advocacy. Early research in the 1980s and 1990s most often reported education, feelings of efficacy, having a macro-type job, and being a member of a national association as factors that determine greater political participation. Since the late 1990s, organizational and legal issues have surfaced more prominently as barriers to political participation by social workers. This article addresses barriers to participation, such as not feeling competent to perform policy-related tasks and perceived legal barriers.It then analyzes the actual restrictions that nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations and publicly employed social workers face in lobbying and partisan politics. The article summarizes the activities that are legally allowed in these areas and concludes that social workers can be more politically active than they often realize.

Political regimes, political ideology, and self-rated health in Europe: a multilevel analysis.

PubMed

Huijts, Tim; Perkins, Jessica M; Subramanian, S V

2010-07-22

Studies on political ideology and health have found associations between individual ideology and health as well as between ecological measures of political ideology and health. Individual ideology and aggregate measures such as political regimes, however, were never examined simultaneously. Using adjusted logistic multilevel models to analyze data on individuals from 29 European countries and Israel, we found that individual ideology and political regime are independently associated with self-rated health. Individuals with rightwing ideologies report better health than leftwing individuals. Respondents from Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics report poorer health than individuals from social democratic, liberal, Christian conservative, and former Mediterranean dictatorship countries. In contrast to individual ideology and political regimes, country level aggregations of individual ideology are not related to reporting poor health. This study shows that although both individual political ideology and contextual political regime are independently associated with individuals' self-rated health, individual political ideology appears to be more strongly associated with self-rated health than political regime.

Institutions, Politics, and Mental Health Parity

PubMed Central

Hernandez, Elaine M.; Uggen, Christopher

2013-01-01

Mental health parity laws require insurers to extend comparable benefits for mental and physical health care. Proponents argue that by placing mental health services alongside physical health services, such laws can help ensure needed treatment and destigmatize mental illness. Opponents counter that such mandates are costly or unnecessary. The authors offer a sociological account of the diffusion and spatial distribution of state mental health parity laws. An event history analysis identifies four factors as especially important: diffusion of law, political ideology, the stability of mental health advocacy organizations and the relative health of state economies. Mental health parity is least likely to be established during times of high state unemployment and under the leadership of conservative state legislatures. PMID:24353902

Modeling Political Populations with Bacteria

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cleveland, Chris; Liao, David

2011-03-01

Results from lattice-based simulations of micro-environments with heterogeneous nutrient resources reveal that competition between wild-type and GASP rpoS819 strains of E. Coli offers mutual benefit, particularly in nutrient deprived regions. Our computational model spatially maps bacteria populations and energy sources onto a set of 3D lattices that collectively resemble the topology of North America. By implementing Wright-Fishcer re- production into a probabilistic leap-frog scheme, we observe populations of wild-type and GASP rpoS819 cells compete for resources and, yet, aid each other's long term survival. The connection to how spatial political ideologies map in a similar way is discussed.

Lived experience of economic and political trends related to globalization.

PubMed

Cushon, Jennifer A; Muhajarine, Nazeem; Labonte, Ronald

2010-01-01

A multi-method case study examined how the economic and political processes of globalization have influenced the determinants of health among low-income children in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. This paper presents the results from the qualitative interview component of the case study. The purpose of the interviews was to uncover the lived experience of low-income families and their children in Saskatoon with regards to political and economic trends related to globalization, an important addition to the usual globalization and health research that relies primarily on cross-country regressions in which the personal impacts remain hidden. In-depth phenomenological interviews with 26 low-income parents of young children (aged zero to five) who were residents of Saskatoon. A combination of volunteer and criterion sampling was used. Interview questions were open-ended and based upon an analytical framework. Analysis proceeded through immersion in the data, a process of open coding, and finally through a process of selective coding. The larger case study and interviews indicate that globalization has largely not been benefiting low-income parents with young children. Low-income families with young children were struggling to survive, despite the tremendous economic growth occurring in Saskatchewan and Saskatoon at the time of the interviews. This often led to participants expressing a sense of helplessness, despair, isolation, and/or anger. Respondents' experiences suggest that globalization-related changes in social conditions and public policies and programs have great potential to negatively affect family health through either psychosocial effects in individuals and/or decreased levels of social cohesion in the community.

Language supports young children's use of spatial relations to remember locations.

PubMed

Miller, Hilary E; Patterson, Rebecca; Simmering, Vanessa R

2016-05-01

Two experiments investigated the role of language in children's spatial recall performance. In particular, we assessed whether selecting an intrinsic reference frame could be improved through verbal encoding. Selecting an intrinsic reference frame requires remembering locations relative to nearby objects independent of one's body (egocentric) or distal environmental (allocentric) cues, and does not reliably occur in children under 5 years of age (Nardini, Burgess, Breckenridge, & Atkinson, 2006). The current studies tested the relation between spatial language and 4-year-olds' selection of an intrinsic reference frame in spatial recall. Experiment 1 showed that providing 4-year-olds with location-descriptive cues during (Exp. 1a) or before (Exp. 1b) the recall task improved performance both overall and specifically on trials relying most on an intrinsic reference frame. Additionally, children's recall performance was predicted by their verbal descriptions of the task space (Exp. 1a control condition). Non-verbally highlighting relations among objects during the recall task (Exp. 2) supported children's performance relative to the control condition, but significantly less than the location-descriptive cues. These results suggest that the ability to verbally represent relations is a potential mechanism that could account for developmental changes in the selection of an intrinsic reference frame during spatial recall. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Political Regimes, Political Ideology, and Self-Rated Health in Europe: A Multilevel Analysis

PubMed Central

Huijts, Tim; Perkins, Jessica M.; Subramanian, S. V.

2010-01-01

Background Studies on political ideology and health have found associations between individual ideology and health as well as between ecological measures of political ideology and health. Individual ideology and aggregate measures such as political regimes, however, were never examined simultaneously. Methodology/Principal Findings Using adjusted logistic multilevel models to analyze data on individuals from 29 European countries and Israel, we found that individual ideology and political regime are independently associated with self-rated health. Individuals with rightwing ideologies report better health than leftwing individuals. Respondents from Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics report poorer health than individuals from social democratic, liberal, Christian conservative, and former Mediterranean dictatorship countries. In contrast to individual ideology and political regimes, country level aggregations of individual ideology are not related to reporting poor health. Conclusions/Significance This study shows that although both individual political ideology and contextual political regime are independently associated with individuals' self-rated health, individual political ideology appears to be more strongly associated with self-rated health than political regime. PMID:20661433

Politicizing science: conceptions of politics in science and technology studies.

PubMed

Brown, Mark B

2015-02-01

This essay examines five ideal-typical conceptions of politics in science and technology studies. Rather than evaluating these conceptions with reference to a single standard, the essay shows how different conceptions of politics serve distinct purposes: normative critique, two approaches to empirical description, and two views of democracy. I discuss each conception of politics with respect to how well it fulfills its apparent primary purpose, as well as its implications for the purpose of studying a key issue in contemporary democratic societies: the politicization of science. In this respect, the essay goes beyond classifying different conceptions of politics and also recommends the fifth conception as especially conducive to understanding and shaping the processes whereby science becomes a site or object of political activity. The essay also employs several analytical distinctions to help clarify the differences among conceptions of politics: between science as 'political' (adjective) and science as a site of 'politics' (noun), between spatial-conceptions and activity-conceptions of politics, between latent conflicts and actual conflicts, and between politics and power. The essay also makes the methodological argument that the politics of science and technology is best studied with concepts and methods that facilitate dialogue between actors and analysts. The main goal, however, is not to defend a particular view of politics, but to promote conversation on the conceptions of politics that animate research in social studies of science and technology.

The political solidarity model of social change: dynamics of self-categorization in intergroup power relations.

PubMed

Subasic, Emina; Reynolds, Katherine J; Turner, John C

2008-11-01

Social and political change involves a challenge to the status quo in intergroup power relations. Traditionally, the social psychology of social change has focused on disadvantaged minority groups collectively challenging the decisions, actions, and policies of those in positions of established authority. In contrast, this article presents a political solidarity model of social change that explores the process by which members of the majority challenge the authority in solidarity with the minority. It is argued that political solidarity as a social change process involves a contest between the authority and the minority over the meaning of a shared (higher order) identity with the majority. When identity ceases to be shared with the authority and becomes shared with the minority, majority challenge to authority in solidarity with the minority becomes possible. The model's contributions to existing social psychological approaches to social change are also discussed.

Preferred mental models in reasoning about spatial relations.

PubMed

Jahn, Georg; Knauff, Markus; Johnson-Laird, P N

2007-12-01

The theory of mental models postulates that individuals infer that a spatial description is consistent only if they can construct a model in which all the assertions in the description are true. Individuals prefer a parsimonious representation, and so, when a description is consistent with more than one possible layout of entities on the left-right dimension, individuals in our culture prefer to construct models working from left to right. They also prefer to locate entities referred to in the same assertion as adjacent to one another in a model. And, if possible, they tend to chunk entities into a single unit in order to capture several possibilities in a single model. We report four experiments corroborating these predictions. The results shed light on the integration of relational assertions, and they show that participants exploit implicit constraints in building models of spatial relations.

Analysis of Spatial Voting Patterns: An Approach in Political Socialization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klimasewski, Ted

1973-01-01

Passage of the 26th Amendment gave young adults the right to vote. This study attempts to further student understanding of the electoral process by presenting a method for analyzing spatial voting patterns. The spatial emphasis adds another dimension to the temporal and behavioral-structural approaches in studying the American electoral system.…

Converging modalities ground abstract categories: the case of politics.

PubMed

Farias, Ana Rita; Garrido, Margarida V; Semin, Gün R

2013-01-01

Three studies are reported examining the grounding of abstract concepts across two modalities (visual and auditory) and their symbolic representation. A comparison of the outcomes across these studies reveals that the symbolic representation of political concepts and their visual and auditory modalities is convergent. In other words, the spatial relationships between specific instances of the political categories are highly overlapping across the symbolic, visual and auditory modalities. These findings suggest that abstract categories display redundancy across modal and amodal representations, and are multimodal.

The Relation between Civic Education and Political Attitudes and Behavior: A Two-Year Panel Study among Belgian Late Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dassonneville, Ruth; Quintelier, Ellen; Hooghe, Marc; Claes, Ellen

2012-01-01

It is generally assumed that civic education efforts will have a positive effect on the political attitudes and behaviors of adolescents and young adults. In the present study, we distinguish among formal civic education, an open classroom climate, and active learning strategies, and we explore their relation with political interest, efficacy,…

The American School in the Political Socialization Process.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ehman, Lee H.

1980-01-01

Studies on the effects of schooling on the political socialization of American youth are reviewed. School-level and classroom-level attributes are related to four political socialization outcomes: political knowledge; political attitudes and values; attitudes toward political participation; and participation in political or quasi-political…

Spatial Resolution Requirements for Traffic-Related Air Pollutant Exposure Evaluations

PubMed Central

Batterman, Stuart; Chambliss, Sarah; Isakov, Vlad

2014-01-01

Vehicle emissions represent one of the most important air pollution sources in most urban areas, and elevated concentrations of pollutants found near major roads have been associated with many adverse health impacts. To understand these impacts, exposure estimates should reflect the spatial and temporal patterns observed for traffic-related air pollutants. This paper evaluates the spatial resolution and zonal systems required to estimate accurately intraurban and near-road exposures of traffic-related air pollutants. The analyses use the detailed information assembled for a large (800 km2) area centered on Detroit, Michigan, USA. Concentrations of nitrogen oxides (NOx) due to vehicle emissions were estimated using hourly traffic volumes and speeds on 9,700 links representing all but minor roads in the city, the MOVES2010 emission model, the RLINE dispersion model, local meteorological data, a temporal resolution of 1 hr, and spatial resolution as low as 10 m. Model estimates were joined with the corresponding shape files to estimate residential exposures for 700,000 individuals at property parcel, census block, census tract, and ZIP code levels. We evaluate joining methods, the spatial resolution needed to meet specific error criteria, and the extent of exposure misclassification. To portray traffic-related air pollutant exposure, raster or inverse distance-weighted interpolations are superior to nearest neighbor approaches, and interpolations between receptors and points of interest should not exceed about 40 m near major roads, and 100 m at larger distances. For census tracts and ZIP codes, average exposures are overestimated since few individuals live very near major roads, the range of concentrations is compressed, most exposures are misclassified, and high concentrations near roads are entirely omitted. While smaller zones improve performance considerably, even block-level data can misclassify many individuals. To estimate exposures and impacts of traffic-related

The relation between body semantics and spatial body representations.

PubMed

van Elk, Michiel; Blanke, Olaf

2011-11-01

The present study addressed the relation between body semantics (i.e. semantic knowledge about the human body) and spatial body representations, by presenting participants with word pairs, one below the other, referring to body parts. The spatial position of the word pairs could be congruent (e.g. EYE / MOUTH) or incongruent (MOUTH / EYE) with respect to the spatial position of the words' referents. In addition, the spatial distance between the words' referents was varied, resulting in word pairs referring to body parts that are close (e.g. EYE / MOUTH) or far in space (e.g. EYE / FOOT). A spatial congruency effect was observed when subjects made an iconicity judgment (Experiments 2 and 3) but not when making a semantic relatedness judgment (Experiment 1). In addition, when making a semantic relatedness judgment (Experiment 1) reaction times increased with increased distance between the body parts but when making an iconicity judgment (Experiments 2 and 3) reaction times decreased with increased distance. These findings suggest that the processing of body-semantics results in the activation of a detailed visuo-spatial body representation that is modulated by the specific task requirements. We discuss these new data with respect to theories of embodied cognition and body semantics. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Career success implications of political skill.

PubMed

Todd, Samuel Y; Harris, Kenneth J; Harris, Ranida B; Wheeler, Anthony R

2009-06-01

The authors investigated the individual characteristic of political skill and its relation to 5 different career-related outcomes (total compensation, promotions, career satisfaction, life satisfaction, and perceived external job mobility). They examined data obtained from a sample of 191 employees working a wide range of occupations. The results reveal that political skill is associated with 4 of the 5 outcomes. In addition, they examined the 4 dimensions of political skill and found that the networking ability dimension dominates the relations with the examined outcomes. The authors discuss practical implications, limitations, and directions for future research.

Does Changing the Reference Frame Affect Infant Categorization of the Spatial Relation BETWEEN?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quinn, Paul C.; Doran, Matthew M.; Papafragou, Anna

2011-01-01

Past research has shown that variation in the target objects depicting a given spatial relation disrupts the formation of a category representation for that relation. In the current research, we asked whether changing the orientation of the referent frame depicting the spatial relation would also disrupt the formation of a category representation…

22 CFR 130.6 - Political contribution.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... services to or for the use of the armed forces of a foreign country or international organization. Taxes... Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT OF STATE INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC IN ARMS REGULATIONS POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS... candidate, committee, political party, political faction, or government or governmental subdivision, or any...

Small worlds in space: Synchronization, spatial and relational modularity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brede, M.

2010-06-01

In this letter we investigate networks that have been optimized to realize a trade-off between enhanced synchronization and cost of wire to connect the nodes in space. Analyzing the evolved arrangement of nodes in space and their corresponding network topology, a class of small-world networks characterized by spatial and network modularity is found. More precisely, for low cost of wire optimal configurations are characterized by a division of nodes into two spatial groups with maximum distance from each other, whereas network modularity is low. For high cost of wire, the nodes organize into several distinct groups in space that correspond to network modules connected on a ring. In between, spatially and relationally modular small-world networks are found.

Converging Modalities Ground Abstract Categories: The Case of Politics

PubMed Central

Farias, Ana Rita; Garrido, Margarida V.; Semin, Gün R.

2013-01-01

Three studies are reported examining the grounding of abstract concepts across two modalities (visual and auditory) and their symbolic representation. A comparison of the outcomes across these studies reveals that the symbolic representation of political concepts and their visual and auditory modalities is convergent. In other words, the spatial relationships between specific instances of the political categories are highly overlapping across the symbolic, visual and auditory modalities. These findings suggest that abstract categories display redundancy across modal and amodal representations, and are multimodal. PMID:23593360

Asbestos-Related Disorders in Germany: Background, Politics, Incidence, Diagnostics and Compensation.

PubMed

Baur, Xaver

2018-01-16

There was some limited use of asbestos at end of the 19th century in industrialized countries including Germany, but its consumption dramatically increased after World War II. The increase in use and exposure was followed by the discovery of high numbers of asbestos-related diseases with a mean latency period of about 38 years in Germany. The strong socio-political pressure from the asbestos industry, its affiliated scientists and physicians has successfully hindered regulatory measures and an asbestos ban for many years; a restrictive stance that is still being unravelled in compensation litigation. This national experience is compared with the situation in other industrialized countries and against the backdrop of the constant efforts of the WHO to eliminate asbestos-related diseases worldwide.

The Politics of Encyclopaedias

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fozooni, Babak

2012-01-01

The paper assesses the political credibility of three encyclopaedias (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopedia of Marxism and Wikipedia) in relation to three chosen topics (Friedrich Engels's biography; the political philosophy of fascism; and, the discipline of social psychology). I was interested in discerning how entries are represented and…

The Abilities of Understanding Spatial Relations, Spatial Orientation, and Spatial Visualization Affect 3D Product Design Performance: Using Carton Box Design as an Example

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liao, Kun-Hsi

2017-01-01

Three-dimensional (3D) product design is an essential ability that students of subjects related to product design must acquire. The factors that affect designers' performance in 3D design are numerous, one of which is spatial abilities. Studies have reported that spatial abilities can be used to effectively predict people's performance in…

The Development of Categorical and Coordinate Spatial Relations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bullens, Jessue; Postma, Albert

2008-01-01

Two classes of spatial relations can be distinguished in between and within object representations. Kosslyn [Kosslyn, S. M. (1987). "Seeing and imagining in the cerebral hemispheres: A computational approach." "Psychological Review," 94, 148-175] suggested that the right hemisphere (RH) is specialized for processing coordinate (metric) spatial…

The political economy of urban homicide: assessing the relative impact of gender inequality on sex-specific victimization.

PubMed

DeWees, Mari A; Parker, Karen F

2003-02-01

This research examines the ways in which the changing political economy of urban areas has contributed differently to the homicide victimization rates of females and males across US cities. Recent research, while relatively limited, has presented disparate results regarding the effect of gender inequality on urban sex-specific victimization. Our work further explores this relationship by taking into account relative gender disparities in income, education, labor market opportunities, and politics in an examination of sex-specific homicide victimization in 1990. Key to this current investigation is the evaluation of feminist and lifestyle arguments that suggest that structural gender inequality has a unique effect on female victimization. Overall, our findings reveal gender inequality to be a significant predictor of both male and female urban homicide. While these findings suggest mixed support for theoretical arguments regarding gender inequality, further analyses reveal significant differences in specific types of gender inequality on victimization patterns across genders. These additional results highlight the need for greater attention toward both methodological and theoretical issues when examining the interconnections between gender, political economy, and violence in research.

Parasite stress and pathogen avoidance relate to distinct dimensions of political ideology across 30 nations.

PubMed

Tybur, Joshua M; Inbar, Yoel; Aarøe, Lene; Barclay, Pat; Barlow, Fiona Kate; de Barra, Mícheál; Becker, D Vaughn; Borovoi, Leah; Choi, Incheol; Choi, Jong An; Consedine, Nathan S; Conway, Alan; Conway, Jane Rebecca; Conway, Paul; Adoric, Vera Cubela; Demirci, Dilara Ekin; Fernández, Ana María; Ferreira, Diogo Conque Seco; Ishii, Keiko; Jakšić, Ivana; Ji, Tingting; van Leeuwen, Florian; Lewis, David M G; Li, Norman P; McIntyre, Jason C; Mukherjee, Sumitava; Park, Justin H; Pawlowski, Boguslaw; Petersen, Michael Bang; Pizarro, David; Prodromitis, Gerasimos; Prokop, Pavol; Rantala, Markus J; Reynolds, Lisa M; Sandin, Bonifacio; Sevi, Bariş; De Smet, Delphine; Srinivasan, Narayanan; Tewari, Shruti; Wilson, Cameron; Yong, Jose C; Žeželj, Iris

2016-11-01

People who are more avoidant of pathogens are more politically conservative, as are nations with greater parasite stress. In the current research, we test two prominent hypotheses that have been proposed as explanations for these relationships. The first, which is an intragroup account, holds that these relationships between pathogens and politics are based on motivations to adhere to local norms, which are sometimes shaped by cultural evolution to have pathogen-neutralizing properties. The second, which is an intergroup account, holds that these same relationships are based on motivations to avoid contact with outgroups, who might pose greater infectious disease threats than ingroup members. Results from a study surveying 11,501 participants across 30 nations are more consistent with the intragroup account than with the intergroup account. National parasite stress relates to traditionalism (an aspect of conservatism especially related to adherence to group norms) but not to social dominance orientation (SDO; an aspect of conservatism especially related to endorsements of intergroup barriers and negativity toward ethnic and racial outgroups). Further, individual differences in pathogen-avoidance motives (i.e., disgust sensitivity) relate more strongly to traditionalism than to SDO within the 30 nations.

Parasite stress and pathogen avoidance relate to distinct dimensions of political ideology across 30 nations

PubMed Central

Tybur, Joshua M.; Inbar, Yoel; Aarøe, Lene; Barclay, Pat; Barlow, Fiona Kate; de Barra, Mícheál; Becker, D. Vaughn; Borovoi, Leah; Choi, Incheol; Choi, Jong An; Consedine, Nathan S.; Conway, Alan; Conway, Jane Rebecca; Conway, Paul; Adoric, Vera Cubela; Demirci, Dilara Ekin; Fernández, Ana María; Ferreira, Diogo Conque Seco; Ishii, Keiko; Jakšić, Ivana; Ji, Tingting; van Leeuwen, Florian; Lewis, David M. G.; Li, Norman P.; McIntyre, Jason C.; Mukherjee, Sumitava; Park, Justin H.; Pawlowski, Boguslaw; Petersen, Michael Bang; Pizarro, David; Prodromitis, Gerasimos; Prokop, Pavol; Rantala, Markus J.; Reynolds, Lisa M.; Sandin, Bonifacio; Sevi, Bariş; De Smet, Delphine; Srinivasan, Narayanan; Tewari, Shruti; Wilson, Cameron; Yong, Jose C.; Žeželj, Iris

2016-01-01

People who are more avoidant of pathogens are more politically conservative, as are nations with greater parasite stress. In the current research, we test two prominent hypotheses that have been proposed as explanations for these relationships. The first, which is an intragroup account, holds that these relationships between pathogens and politics are based on motivations to adhere to local norms, which are sometimes shaped by cultural evolution to have pathogen-neutralizing properties. The second, which is an intergroup account, holds that these same relationships are based on motivations to avoid contact with outgroups, who might pose greater infectious disease threats than ingroup members. Results from a study surveying 11,501 participants across 30 nations are more consistent with the intragroup account than with the intergroup account. National parasite stress relates to traditionalism (an aspect of conservatism especially related to adherence to group norms) but not to social dominance orientation (SDO; an aspect of conservatism especially related to endorsements of intergroup barriers and negativity toward ethnic and racial outgroups). Further, individual differences in pathogen-avoidance motives (i.e., disgust sensitivity) relate more strongly to traditionalism than to SDO within the 30 nations. PMID:27791090

Age-related differences in the use of spatial and categorical relationships in a visuo-spatial working memory task.

PubMed

Dai, Ruizhi; Thomas, Ayanna K; Taylor, Holly A

2018-01-30

Research examining object identity and location processing in visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) has yielded inconsistent results on whether age differences exist in VSWM. The present study investigated whether these inconsistencies may stem from age-related differences in VSWM sub-processes, and whether processing of component VSWM information can be facilitated. In two experiments, younger and older adults studied 5 × 5 grids containing five objects in separate locations. In a continuous recognition paradigm, participants were tested on memory for object identity, location, or identity and location information combined. Spatial and categorical relationships were manipulated within grids to provide trial-level facilitation. In Experiment 1, randomizing trial types (location, identity, combination) assured that participants could not predict the information that would be queried. In Experiment 2, blocking trials by type encouraged strategic processing. Thus, we manipulated the nature of the task through object categorical relationship and spatial organization, and trial blocking. Our findings support age-related declines in VSWM. Additionally, grid organizations (categorical and spatial relationships), and trial blocking differentially affected younger and older adults. Younger adults used spatial organizations more effectively whereas older adults demonstrated an association bias. Our finding also suggests that older adults may be less efficient than younger adults in strategically engaging information processing.

The political downside of dual identity: group identifications and religious political mobilization of Muslim minorities.

PubMed

Martinovic, Borja; Verkuyten, Maykel

2014-12-01

Research on the political mobilization of ethnic minorities has shown that dual ethno-national identification facilitates involvement in political action on behalf of the ethnic group. This study extends this research by proposing that a dual identity can impede political mobilization on behalf of another relevant in-group--the religious community - especially if this in-group is not accepted by the wider society. Using a sample of 641 Muslims of Turkish origin living in Germany and the Netherlands, dual ethno-national identity (Turkish-German/Turkish-Dutch) was examined in relation to religious Muslim identification and religious political mobilization. Dual identity was expected to be indirectly related to lower mobilization via decreased religious group identification. Further, this mediating process was predicted to be stronger for Turkish Muslims who perceived relatively high religious group discrimination. In both countries we found support for the mediating hypothesis, however, the moderating role of discrimination was confirmed only for the Netherlands. Turkish-Dutch identification was associated with lower support for religious political mobilization because of lower Muslim identification only for Turkish-Dutch participants who perceived high levels of discrimination. These findings indicate that a strong dual (ethno-national) identity can undermine minority members' support for political rights and actions on behalf of a third relevant in-group, and therefore qualify the social psychological benefits of the dual identity model. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

The Sixth "P"--Politics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fink, Dean

2013-01-01

Invitational theory presents the concept of invitations as related to five factors: people, places, policies, programs, and processes (Purkey & Schmidt, 1990). In this article, the author proposes the addition of a sixth "P," politics. The assumption is that without addressing the political aspect of schools and school systems,…

POLITICS OF UNIVERSITY INVOLVEMENT IN SOCIAL CHANGE.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

CAMPBELL, ALAN K.

THE AUTHOR DISCUSSES THE UNIVERSITY'S ROLE IN SOCIAL CHANGE FROM THE POLITICAL VIEWPOINT. BY EXAMINING OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM AS IT RELATED TO UNIVERSITY INVOLVEMENT, HE INDICATES THE POLITICAL RAMIFICATIONS OF SUCH INVOLVEMENT AND SHOWS THE KIND OF INVOLVEMENT THAT IS POLITICALLY POSSIBLE. HE PINPOINTS THE DIFFICULTIES CIVIC ADMINISTRATORS AND…

Political Science--Yugoslav Theory and Practice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spadijer, Balsa

1979-01-01

Examines political science teaching and research in Yugoslavia and relates developments within the teaching of this discipline to the Yugoslav social and political system. Concludes that political science activities should aim toward reinforcing the trend toward socialist self-management. Journal availability: see SO 507 303. (Author/DB)

A web-based spatial decision support system for spatial planning and governance in the Guangdong Province

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Qitao; Zhang, Hong-ou; Chen, Fengui; Dou, Jie

2008-10-01

After three decades' rapid economic development, Guangdong province faces to thorny problems related to pollution, resource shortage and environmental deterioration. What is worse, the future accelerated development, urbanization and industrialization also comes at the cost of regional imbalance with economic gaps growing and the quality of life in different regions degrading. Development and Reform Commission of Guangdong Province (GDDRC) started a spatial planning project under the national frame in 2007. The prospective project is expected to enhance the equality of different regions and balance the economic development with environmental protection and improved sustainability. This manuscript presents the results of scientific research aiming to develop a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) for this spatial planning project. The system composes four modules include the User interface module (UIM), Spatial Analyze module (SAM), Database management module (DMM) and Help module (HM) base on ArcInfo, JSP/Servlet, JavaScript, MapServer, Visual C++ and Visual Basic technologies. The web-based SDSS provides a user-friendly tool for local decision makers, regional planners and other stakeholders in understanding and visualizing the different territorial dimensions of economic development against sustainable environmental and exhausted resources, and in defining, comparing and prioritizing specific territorially-based actions in order to prevent non-sustainable development and implement relevant politics.

Deconstructing Building Blocks: Preschoolers' Spatial Assembly Performance Relates to Early Mathematics Skills

PubMed Central

Verdine, Brian N.; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathryn; Newcombe, Nora S.; Filipowicz, Andrew T.; Chang, Alicia

2013-01-01

This study focuses on three main goals: First, 3-year-olds' spatial assembly skills are probed using interlocking block constructions (N = 102). A detailed scoring scheme provides insight into early spatial processing and offers information beyond a basic accuracy score. Second, the relation of spatial assembly to early mathematics skills was evaluated. Spatial skill independently predicted a significant amount of the variability in concurrent mathematics performance. Finally, the relationship between spatial assembly skill and socioeconomic status, gender, and parent-reported spatial language was examined. While children's performance did not differ by gender, lower-SES children were already lagging behind higher-SES children in block assembly. Furthermore, lower-SES parents reported using significantly fewer spatial words with their children. PMID:24112041

Language supports young children’s use of spatial relations to remember locations

PubMed Central

Miller, Hilary E.; Patterson, Rebecca; Simmering, Vanessa R.

2016-01-01

Two experiments investigated the role of language in children’s spatial recall performance. In particular, we assessed whether selecting an intrinsic reference frame could be improved through verbal encoding. Selecting an intrinsic reference frame requires remembering locations relative to nearby objects independent of one’s body (egocentric) or distal environmental (allocentric) cues, and does not reliably occur in children under 5 years of age (Nardini, Burgess, Breckenridge, & Atkinson, 2006). The current studies tested the relation between spatial language and 4-year-olds’ selection of an intrinsic reference frame in spatial recall. Experiment 1 showed that providing 4-year-olds with location-descriptive cues during (Exp. 1a) or before (Exp. 1b) the recall task improved performance both overall and specifically on trials relying most on an intrinsic reference frame. Additionally, children’s recall performance was predicted by their verbal descriptions of the task space (Exp. 1a control condition). Non-verbally highlighting relations among objects during the recall task (Exp. 2) supported children’s performance relative to the control condition, but significantly less than the location-descriptive cues. These results suggest that the ability to verbally represent relations is a potential mechanism that could account for developmental changes in the selection of an intrinsic reference frame during spatial recall. PMID:26896902

ICTs and Political Life.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robbin, Alice; Courtright, Christina; Davis, Leah

2004-01-01

Presents a literature review that covers the following topics related to information and communications technologies (ICTs): (1) theories of ICTs and how they frame political life; (2) normative democratic theory and concepts; (3) e-political life; and (4) research on e-government, e-governance, and e-democracy; (Contains 276 references.) (MES)

Gender differences in emotions, forgiveness and tolerance in relation to political violence.

PubMed

Conejero, Susana; Etxebarria, Itziar; Montero, Ignacio

2014-01-01

This study, which forms part of a broader research project, analyzes gender differences in: the intensity of diverse emotions, the justification of violence, attitudes towards the terrorist group ETA, forgiveness and tolerance. Participants comprised 728 people (45.5% men and 54.5% women) resident in either Basque Country or Navarra (Spain), representative of all national identities and political ideologies existing in this context. An ad hoc questionnaire was designed and administered between November 2005 and February 2006, a short time before ETA declared a ceasefire. Women reported more intensity in fear for political reasons and scored higher in two of the six measures of empathy included in the study (empathy with prisoners and empathy with those who suffer and think like oneself). Men scored higher in positive emotionality, indifference and Schadenfreude. Women perceived apology and forgiveness as more necessary elements for achieving peace than men. These results suggest that it may be beneficial for women to play a more prominent role in relation to the resolution of intergroup conflicts such as the one existing in the Basque Country.

The Relative Importance of Spatial Versus Temporal Structure in the Perception of Biological Motion: An Event-Related Potential Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hirai, Masahiro; Hiraki, Kazuo

2006-01-01

We investigated how the spatiotemporal structure of animations of biological motion (BM) affects brain activity. We measured event-related potentials (ERPs) during the perception of BM under four conditions: normal spatial and temporal structure; scrambled spatial and normal temporal structure; normal spatial and scrambled temporal structure; and…

The Prediction of Political Competencies by Political Action and Political Media Consumption

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reichert, Frank

2014-01-01

Political competencies are often considered a precondition for political action; however, they are not independent of previous political participation, which may also include the frequency and the kind of political media consumption. My research aims at finding out the importance of participation in political activities in the past, as well as…

Political Gerontology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Estes, Carroll L.

1978-01-01

This essay examines the dominant perspectives and themes in political gerontology, why some problems are highlighted and others relatively ignored, and the potential consequences of such channeling of knowledge. (Author/AM)

Compassionate liberals and polite conservatives: associations of agreeableness with political ideology and moral values.

PubMed

Hirsh, Jacob B; DeYoung, Colin G; Xiaowen Xu; Peterson, Jordan B

2010-05-01

Political conservatism has been characterized by resistance to change and acceptance of inequality, with liberalism characterized by the polar opposite of these values. Political attitudes are heritable and may be influenced by basic personality traits. In previous research, conservatism (vs. liberalism) has been associated positively with Conscientiousness and negatively with Openness-Intellect, consistent with the association of conservatism with resistance to change. Less clear, however, are the personality traits relating to egalitarianism. In two studies, using a personality model that divides each of the Big Five into two aspects, the present research found that one aspect of Agreeableness (Compassion) was associated with liberalism and egalitarianism, whereas the other (Politeness) was associated with conservatism and traditionalism. In addition, conservatism and moral traditionalism were positively associated with the Orderliness aspect of Conscientiousness and negatively with Openness-Intellect. These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of personality's relation to political attitudes and values.

Group Threat and Policy Change: The Spatial Dynamics of Prohibition Politics, 1890-1919.

PubMed

Andrews, Kenneth T; Seguin, Charles

2015-09-01

The authors argue that group threat is a key driver of the adoption of new and controversial policies. Conceptualizing threat in spatial terms, they argue that group threat is activated through the joint occurrence of (1) proximity to threatening groups and (2) the population density of threatened groups. By analyzing the adoption of county and state "dry laws" banning alcohol from 1890 to 1919, they first show that prohibition victories were driven by the relative strength of supportive constituencies such as native whites and rural residents, vis-à-vis opponents such as Irish, Italian, or German immigrants or Catholics. Second, they show that threat contributed to prohibition victories: counties bordering large immigrant or urban populations, which did not themselves contain similar populations, were more likely to adopt dry laws. Threat arises primarily from interactions between spatially proximate units at the local level, and therefore higher-level policy change is not reducible to the variables driving local policy.

Perceptions of political leaders.

PubMed

David Schmitz, J; Murray, Gregg R

2017-01-01

Partisan identification is a fundamental force in individual and mass political behavior around the world. Informed by scholarship on human sociality, coalitional psychology, and group behavior, this research argues that partisan identification, like many other group-based behaviors, is influenced by forces of evolution. If correct, then party identifiers should exhibit adaptive behaviors when making group-related political decisions. The authors test this assertion with citizen assessments of the relative physical formidability of competing leaders, an important adaptive factor in leader evaluations. Using original and novel data collected during the contextually different 2008 and 2012 U.S. presidential elections, as well as two distinct measures obtained during both elections, this article presents evidence that partisans overestimate the physical stature of the presidential candidate of their own party compared with the stature of the candidate of the opposition party. These findings suggest that the power of party identification on political behavior may be attributable to the fact that modern political parties address problems similar to the problems groups faced in human ancestral times.

Are Categorical Spatial Relations Encoded by Shifting Visual Attention between Objects?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yuan, Lei; Uttal, David; Franconeri, Steven

2016-01-01

Perceiving not just values, but relations between values, is critical to human cognition. We tested the predictions of a proposed mechanism for processing categorical spatial relations between two objects--the "shift account" of relation processing--which states that relations such as "above" or "below" are extracted…

Identity Politics, the Ethos of Vulnerability, and Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brunila, Kristiina; Rossi, Leena-Maija

2018-01-01

In this article, identity politics is understood as a form of politics stressing collective but malleable group identities as the basis of political action. This notion of identity politics also allows thinking of identity as intersectional. The focus of this article, and a problem related to identity politics, is that when discussed in the…

Relative Contribution of Perception/Cognition and Language on Spatial Categorization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choi, Soonja; Hattrup, Kate

2012-01-01

This study investigated the relative contribution of perception/cognition and language-specific semantics in nonverbal categorization of spatial relations. English and Korean speakers completed a video-based similarity judgment task involving containment, support, tight fit, and loose fit. Both perception/cognition and language served as resources…

The political (and physiological) divide: Political orientation, performance monitoring, and the anterior cingulate response.

PubMed

Weissflog, Meghan; Choma, Becky L; Dywan, Jane; van Noordt, Stefon J R; Segalowitz, Sidney J

2013-01-01

Our goal was to test a model of sociopolitical attitudes that posits a relationship between individual differences in liberal versus conservative political orientation and differential levels of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) responsivity. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) while participants who varied along a unidimensional liberal-conservative continuum engaged in a standard Go/NoGo task. We also measured component attitudes of political orientation in the form of traditionalism (degree of openness to social change) and egalitarianism (a preference for social equality). Generally, participants who reported a more liberal political orientation made fewer errors and produced larger ACC-generated ERPs (the error-related negativity, or ERN and the NoGo N2). This ACC activation, especially as indicated by a larger NoGo N2, was most strongly associated with greater preference for social equality. Performance accuracy, however, was most strongly associated with greater openness to social change. These data are consistent with a social neuroscience view that sociopolitical attitudes are related to aspects of neurophysiological responsivity. They also indicate that a bidimensional model of political orientation can enhance our interpretation of the nature of these associations.

Local Politics and the Demand for Public Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Colburn, Christopher B.; Horowitz, John B.

2003-01-01

Uses a political fragmentation index to calculate how political power affects educational spending in Virginia. Compares different political voices relative to each other, examines the role of power distribution, and considers political fragmentation across several dimensions. Along with traditional demand variables, interest group pressures…

Deconstructing Building Blocks: Preschoolers' Spatial Assembly Performance Relates to Early Mathematical Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Verdine, Brian N.; Golinkoff, Roberta M.; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathryn; Newcombe, Nora S.; Filipowicz, Andrew T.; Chang, Alicia

2014-01-01

This study focuses on three main goals: First, 3-year-olds' spatial assembly skills are probed using interlocking block constructions (N = 102). A detailed scoring scheme provides insight into early spatial processing and offers information beyond a basic accuracy score. Second, the relation of spatial assembly to early mathematical skills…

Visual attention and the apprehension of spatial relations: the case of depth.

PubMed

Moore, C M; Elsinger, C L; Lleras, A

2001-05-01

Several studies have shown that targets defined on the basis of the spatial relations between objects yield highly inefficient visual search performance (e.g., Logan, 1994; Palmer, 1994), suggesting that the apprehension of spatial relations may require the selective allocation of attention within the scene. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that depth relations might be different in this regard and might support efficient visual search. This hypothesis was based, in part, on the fact that many perceptual organization processes that are believed to occur early and in parallel, such as figure-ground segregation and perceptual completion, seem to depend on the assignment of depth relations. Despite this, however, using increasingly salient cues to depth (Experiments 2-4) and including a separate test of the sufficiency of the most salient depth cue used (Experiment 5), no evidence was found to indicate that search for a target defined by depth relations is any different than search for a target defined by other types of spatial relations, with regard to efficiency of search. These findings are discussed within the context of the larger literature on early processing of three-dimensional characteristics of visual scenes.

Spatial analysis of alcohol-related motor vehicle crash injuries in southeastern Michigan.

PubMed

Meliker, Jaymie R; Maio, Ronald F; Zimmerman, Marc A; Kim, Hyungjin Myra; Smith, Sarah C; Wilson, Mark L

2004-11-01

Temporal, behavioral and social risk factors that affect injuries resulting from alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes have been characterized in previous research. Much less is known about spatial patterns and environmental associations of alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes. The aim of this study was to evaluate geographic patterns of alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes and to determine if locations of alcohol outlets are associated with those crashes. In addition, we sought to demonstrate the value of integrating spatial and traditional statistical techniques in the analysis of this preventable public health risk. The study design was a cross-sectional analysis of individual-level blood alcohol content, traffic report information, census block group data, and alcohol distribution outlets. Besag and Newell's spatial analysis and traditional logistic regression both indicated that areas of low population density had more alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes than expected (P < 0.05). There was no significant association between alcohol outlets and alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes using distance analyses, logistic regression, and Chi-square. Differences in environmental or behavioral factors characteristic of areas of low population density may be responsible for the higher proportion of alcohol-related crashes occurring in these areas.

Teachers' Political Attitudes: Implications for Political Socialization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Funderburk, Charles; Shaw, Paul C.

1976-01-01

This article describes a study in Pennsylvania which examined three political attitudes of public school teachers: alienation, political cynicism, and commitment to democratic values. Data analysis shows that teachers hold political beliefs supportive of the established political order. (Author/AV)

The Political Economy of Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carnoy, Martin

1985-01-01

The political economy of education treats education as a factor shaped by the power relations between different economic, political, and social groups. Specific topics discussed include the economic value of education, education as an allocator of economic roles, education and social class, education and income distribution, and education and…

Feminism and Political Radicalism.

PubMed

Fowler, Marguerite Gilbert; Fowler, Robert L; Van De Riet, Hani

1973-03-01

The political attitudes of 50 feminist women in relation to "feminism" as a dimension were examined and contrasted with those of 50 of their contemporary female peers. They were administered the Attitudes Toward Feminism Belief-Pattern Scale (3), the Conservatism-Radicalism Opinionnaire (4), and a questionnaire providing biographical information and personal opinions regarding various timely political and feminine issues. The feminist women and their peers were found to differ significantly in the attitudinal dimensions of feminism and political conservatism-radicalism. The feminist women manifested more feminism than their peers, as well as being more politically radical. Feminism as a dimension was also found to be positively correlated with political radicalism. Both goups were also compared in their sentiments and opinions on several noteworthy issues; e.g., the potential influence of the women's vote in en- hancing the status of women. Surprisingly, the feminist women and their peers failed to differ on some of the more salient of these. In order to understand and appreciate the feminist personality, the forces potentiating the Women's movement, and the apparent similarities and differences between the feminist women and their peers, the variables of feminism, political conservatism-radicalism, and activism seem to deserve consideration.

A Matter of Balance: Motor Control is Related to Children’s Spatial and Proportional Reasoning Skills

PubMed Central

Frick, Andrea; Möhring, Wenke

2016-01-01

Recent research has shown close links between spatial and mathematical thinking and between spatial abilities and motor skills. However, longitudinal research examining the relations between motor, spatial, and mathematical skills is rare, and the nature of these relations remains unclear. The present study thus investigated the relation between children’s motor control and their spatial and proportional reasoning. We measured 6-year-olds’ spatial scaling (i.e., the ability to reason about different-sized spaces), their mental transformation skills, and their ability to balance on one leg as an index for motor control. One year later (N = 126), we tested the same children’s understanding of proportions. We also assessed several control variables (verbal IQ and socio-economic status) as well as inhibitory control, visuo-spatial and verbal working memory. Stepwise hierarchical regressions showed that, after accounting for effects of control variables, children’s balance skills significantly increased the explained variance in their spatial performance and proportional reasoning. Our results suggest specific relations between balance skills and spatial as well as proportional reasoning skills that cannot be explained by general differences in executive functioning or intelligence. PMID:26793157

Drugs at the campsite: Socio-spatial relations and drug use at music festivals.

PubMed

Dilkes-Frayne, Ella

2016-07-01

Music festivals have received relatively little research attention despite being key sites for alcohol and drug use among young people internationally. Research into music festivals and the social contexts of drug use more generally, has tended to focus on social and cultural processes without sufficient regard for the mediating role of space and spatial processes. Adopting a relational approach to space and the social, from Actor-Network Theory and human geography, I examine how socio-spatial relations are generated in campsites at multiple-day music festivals. The data are drawn from ethnographic observations at music festivals around Melbourne, Australia; interviews with 18-23 year olds; and participant-written diaries. Through the analysis, the campsite is revealed as a space in process, the making of which is bound up in how drug use unfolds. Campsite relations mediate the formation of drug knowledge and norms, informal harm reduction practices, access to and exchange of drugs, and rest and recovery following drug use. Greater attendance to socio-spatial relations affords new insights regarding how festival spaces and their social effects are generated, and how they give rise to particular drug use practices. These findings also point to how festival harm reduction strategies might be enhanced through the promotion of enabling socio-spatial relations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The political context of AIDS-related stigma and knowledge in a South African township community

PubMed Central

Forsyth, Brian; Vandormael, Alain; Kershaw, Trace; Grobbelaar, Janis

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the presentation of AIDS-related stigma and knowledge within the political context of the South African government’s response to the AIDS epidemic. It was during the 2000 - 2004 period that key government officials publicly challenged the orthodox views of HIV/AIDS, with the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, actively positing the primary role of poverty and other socio-economic stressors in the progression of the AIDS epidemic. This discursive position had real-time effects for AIDS policy-making and ultimately delayed the implementation of a national antiretroviral (ARV) rollout programme. Consequently this position was criticised by commentators in the media and elsewhere for contributing to an already widespread climate of AIDS stigmatisation and misinformation. To shed more light on these claims we conducted a survey in 2005 in Atteridgeville, a South African township, and compared results with those of a similar survey conducted shortly after ARV medications became available in 2004. Results indicated a reduction in AIDS stigma levels across the 1-year period, and that those participants who endorsed contentious political views (such as those expressed by key government officials) were more likely to have a higher level of AIDS-related stigma than those who disagreed. Nevertheless, this study cautions against drawing a causal relationship between the South African government’s position and AIDS-stigmatising attitudes, and suggests that further political and social factors be accounted for in an attempt to gain a fuller understanding of this seemingly complex relationship. PMID:18709210

The political context of AIDS-related stigma and knowledge in a South African township community.

PubMed

Forsyth, Brian; Vandormael, Alain; Kershaw, Trace; Grobbelaar, Janis

2008-07-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the presentation of AIDS-related stigma and knowledge within the political context of the South African government's response to the AIDS epidemic. It was during the 2000 - 2004 period that key government officials publicly challenged the orthodox views of HIV/AIDS, with the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, actively positing the primary role of poverty and other socio-economic stressors in the progression of the AIDS epidemic. This discursive position had real-time effects for AIDS policy-making and ultimately delayed the implementation of a national antiretroviral (ARV) rollout programme. Consequently this position was criticised by commentators in the media and elsewhere for contributing to an already widespread climate of AIDS stigmatization and misinformation. To shed more light on these claims we conducted a survey in 2005 in Atteridgeville, a South African township, and compared results with those of a similar survey conducted shortly after ARV medications became available in 2004. Results indicated a reduction in AIDS stigma levels across the 1-year period, and that those participants who endorsed contentious political views (such as those expressed by key government officials) were more likely to have a higher level of AIDS-related stigma than those who disagreed. Nevertheless, this study cautions against drawing a causal relationship between the South African government's position and IDS-stigmatizing attitudes, and suggests that further political and social factors be accounted for in an attempt to gain a fuller understanding of this seemingly complex relationship.

Relation of Spatial Skills to Calculus Proficiency: A Brief Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cromley, Jennifer G.; Booth, Julie L.; Wills, Theodore W.; Chang, Briana L.; Tran, Nhi; Madeja, Michael; Shipley, Thomas F.; Zahner, William

2017-01-01

Spatial skills have been shown in various longitudinal studies to be related to multiple science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) achievement and retention. The specific nature of this relation has been probed in only a few domains, and has rarely been investigated for calculus, a critical topic in preparing students for and in STEM…

Labor Unions and Political Parties in Belgium

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lorwin, Val R.

1975-01-01

The balance of power inside the dominant socialist and Catholic blocs in Belgium, which were once incontestably led by the political elites, has been shifting toward the trade unions. Regionalism has fragmented the political system far more than the industrial relations system; the unions' political influence will continue in importance. (Author)

Unified Pairwise Spatial Relations: An Application to Graphical Symbol Retrieval

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santosh, K. C.; Wendling, Laurent; Lamiroy, Bart

In this paper, we present a novel unifying concept of pairwise spatial relations. We develop two way directional relations with respect to a unique point set, based on topology of the studied objects and thus avoids problems related to erroneous choices of reference objects while preserving symmetry. The method is robust to any type of image configuration since the directional relations are topologically guided. An automatic prototype graphical symbol retrieval is presented in order to establish its expressiveness.

Language, Perception, and the Schematic Representation of Spatial Relations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amorapanth, Prin; Kranjec, Alexander; Bromberger, Bianca; Lehet, Matthew; Widick, Page; Woods, Adam J.; Kimberg, Daniel Y.; Chatterjee, Anjan

2012-01-01

Schemas are abstract nonverbal representations that parsimoniously depict spatial relations. Despite their ubiquitous use in maps and diagrams, little is known about their neural instantiation. We sought to determine the extent to which schematic representations are neurally distinguished from language on the one hand, and from rich perceptual…

Face and politeness in pharmacist-physician interaction.

PubMed

Lambert, B L

1996-10-01

This study used Brown and Levinson's theory of politeness to gain a better understanding of the factors that influence pharmacists' messages to physicians. Specifically, perceived differences in power and social distance between pharmacist and physician were expected to influence the amount of politeness observed in pharmacists' messages. The effects of age, sex and practice context were also examined. Written messages were gathered from 210 community pharmacists and 112 hospital pharmacists in response to a hypothetical drug allergy scenario. Messages were segmented into independent clauses, and independent clauses were classified according to the politeness strategy used to make allergy reports and alternative drug recommendations respectively. Content analysis of the messages in relation to demographic variables revealed that age and practice context were significantly associated with the overall level of politeness of alternative drug recommendations, but not with overall politeness of allergy reports. Demographic factors were significantly related to perceptions of power and social distance, but, contrary to Brown and Levinson's prediction, these perceptions were not associated with variation in politeness. Regardless of other factors, recommendations were made more politely than reports. Implications for pharmacists' professional roles and identities are discussed.

Individual Differences in Spatial Relation Processing: Effects of Strategy, Ability, and Gender

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Ham, Ineke J. M.; Borst, Gregoire

2011-01-01

Numerous studies have focused on the distinction between categorical and coordinate spatial relations. Categorical relations are propositional and abstract, and often related to a left hemisphere advantage. Coordinate relations specify the metric information of the relative locations of objects, and can be linked to right hemisphere processing.…

Communicating Climate Uncertainties: Challenges and Opportunities Related to Spatial Scales, Extreme Events, and the Warming 'Hiatus'

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Casola, J. H.; Huber, D.

2013-12-01

Many media, academic, government, and advocacy organizations have achieved sophistication in developing effective messages based on scientific information, and can quickly translate salient aspects of emerging climate research and evolving observations. However, there are several ways in which valid messages can be misconstrued by decision makers, leading them to inaccurate conclusions about the risks associated with climate impacts. Three cases will be discussed: 1) Issues of spatial scale in interpreting climate observations: Local climate observations may contradict summary statements about the effects of climate change on larger regional or global spatial scales. Effectively addressing these differences often requires communicators to understand local and regional climate drivers, and the distinction between a 'signal' associated with climate change and local climate 'noise.' Hydrological statistics in Missouri and California are shown to illustrate this case. 2) Issues of complexity related to extreme events: Climate change is typically invoked following a wide range of damaging meteorological events (e.g., heat waves, landfalling hurricanes, tornadoes), regardless of the strength of the relationship between anthropogenic climate change and the frequency or severity of that type of event. Examples are drawn from media coverage of several recent events, contrasting useful and potentially confusing word choices and frames. 3) Issues revolving around climate sensitivity: The so-called 'pause' or 'hiatus' in global warming has reverberated strongly through political and business discussions of climate change. Addressing the recent slowdown in warming yields an important opportunity to raise climate literacy in these communities. Attempts to use recent observations as a wedge between climate 'believers' and 'deniers' is likely to be counterproductive. Examples are drawn from Congressional testimony and media stories. All three cases illustrate ways that decision

The role of right frontal brain regions in integration of spatial relation.

PubMed

Han, Jiahui; Cao, Bihua; Cao, Yunfei; Gao, Heming; Li, Fuhong

2016-06-01

Previous studies have explored the neural mechanisms of spatial reasoning on a two-dimensional (2D) plane; however, it remains unclear how spatial reasoning is conducted in a three-dimensional (3D) condition. In the present study, we presented 3D geometric objects to 16 adult participants, and asked them to process the spatial relationship between different corners of the geometric objects. In premise-1, the first two corners of a geometric shape (e.g., A vs. B) were displayed. In premise-2, the second and third corners (e.g., B vs. C) were displayed. After integrating the two premises, participants were required to infer the spatial relationship between the first and the third corners (e.g., A and C). Finally, the participants were presented with a conclusion object, and they were required to judge whether the conclusion was true or false based on their inference. The event-related potential evoked by premise-2 revealed that (1) compared with 2D spatial reasoning, 3D reasoning elicited a smaller P3b component, and (2) in the right frontal areas, increased negativities were found in the 3D condition during the N400 and late negative components (LNC). These findings imply that higher brain activity in the right frontal brain regions were related with the integration and maintenance of spatial information in working memory for reasoning. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Interest in politics modulates neural activity in the amygdala and ventral striatum.

PubMed

Gozzi, Marta; Zamboni, Giovanna; Krueger, Frank; Grafman, Jordan

2010-11-01

Studies on political participation have found that a person's interest in politics contributes to the likelihood that he or she will be involved in the political process. Here, we looked at whether or not interest in politics affects patterns of brain activity when individuals think about political matters. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we scanned individuals (either interested or uninterested in politics based on a self-report questionnaire) while they were expressing their agreement or disagreement with political opinions. After scanning, participants were asked to rate each political opinion presented in the scanner for emotional valence and emotional intensity. Behavioral results showed that those political opinions participants agreed with were perceived as more emotionally intense and more positive by individuals interested in politics relative to individuals uninterested in politics. In addition, individuals interested in politics showed greater activation in the amygdala and the ventral striatum (ventral putamen) relative to individuals uninterested in politics when reading political opinions in accordance with their own views. This study shows that having an interest in politics elicits activations in emotion- and reward-related brain areas even when simply agreeing with written political opinions. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Children's attention to task-relevant information accounts for relations between language and spatial cognition.

PubMed

Miller, Hilary E; Simmering, Vanessa R

2018-08-01

Children's spatial language reliably predicts their spatial skills, but the nature of this relation is a source of debate. This investigation examined whether the mechanisms accounting for such relations are specific to language use or reflect a domain-general mechanism of selective attention. Experiment 1 examined whether 4-year-olds' spatial skills were predicted by their selective attention or their adaptive language use. Children completed (a) an attention task assessing attention to task-relevant color, size, and location cues; (b) a description task assessing adaptive language use to describe scenes varying in color, size, and location; and (c) three spatial tasks. There was correspondence between the cue types that children attended to and produced across description and attention tasks. Adaptive language use was predicted by both children's attention and task-related language production, suggesting that selective attention underlies skills in using language adaptively. After controlling for age, gender, receptive vocabulary, and adaptive language use, spatial skills were predicted by children's selective attention. The attention score predicted variance in spatial performance previously accounted for by adaptive language use. Experiment 2 followed up on the attention task (Experiment 2a) and description task (Experiment 2b) from Experiment 1 to assess whether performance in the tasks related to selective attention or task-specific demands. Performance in Experiments 2a and 2b paralleled that in Experiment 1, suggesting that the effects in Experiment 1 reflected children's selective attention skills. These findings show that selective attention is a central factor supporting spatial skill development that could account for many effects previously attributed to children's language use. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Political party affiliation, political ideology and mortality

PubMed Central

Pabayo, Roman; Kawachi, Ichiro; Muennig, Peter

2018-01-01

Background Ecological and cross-sectional studies have indicated that conservative political ideology is associated with better health. Longitudinal analyses of mortality are needed because subjective assessments of ideology may confound subjective assessments of health, particularly in cross-sectional analyses. Methods Data were derived from the 2008 General Social Survey-National Death Index data set. Cox proportional analysis models were used to determine whether political party affiliation or political ideology was associated with time to death. Also, we attempted to identify whether self-reported happiness and self-rated health acted as mediators between political beliefs and time to death. Results In this analysis of 32 830 participants and a total follow-up time of 498 845 person-years, we find that political party affiliation and political ideology are associated with mortality. However, with the exception of independents (adjusted HR (AHR)=0.93, 95% CI 0.90 to 0.97), political party differences are explained by the participants’ underlying sociodemographic characteristics. With respect to ideology, conservatives (AHR=1.06, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.12) and moderates (AHR=1.06, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.11) are at greater risk for mortality during follow-up than liberals. Conclusions Political party affiliation and political ideology appear to be different predictors of mortality. PMID:25631861

The biological roots of political extremism.

PubMed

Keene, Justin Robert; Shoenberger, Heather; Berke, Collin K; Bolls, Paul D

2017-01-01

Recent research has revealed the complex origins of political identification and the possible effects of this identification on social and political behavior. This article reports the results of a structural equation analysis of national survey data that attempts to replicate the finding that an individual's negativity bias predicts conservative ideology. The analysis employs the Motivational Activation Measure (MAM) as an index of an individual's positivity offset and negativity bias. In addition, information-seeking behavior is assessed in relation to traditional and interactive media sources of political information. Results show that although MAM does not consistently predict political identification, it can be used to predict extremeness of political views. Specifically, high negativity bias was associated with extreme conservatism, whereas low negativity bias was associated with extreme liberalism. In addition, political identification was found to moderate the relationship between motivational traits and information-seeking behavior.

Political Trust and Sophistication: Taking Measurement Seriously.

PubMed

Turper, Sedef; Aarts, Kees

2017-01-01

Political trust is an important indicator of political legitimacy. Hence, seemingly decreasing levels of political trust in Western democracies have stimulated a growing body of research on the causes and consequences of political trust. However, the neglect of potential measurement problems of political trust raises doubts about the findings of earlier studies. The current study revisits the measurement of political trust and re-examines the relationship between political trust and sophistication in the Netherlands by utilizing European Social Survey (ESS) data across five time points and four-wave panel data from the Panel Component of ESS. Our findings illustrate that high and low political sophistication groups display different levels of political trust even when measurement characteristics of political trust are taken into consideration. However, the relationship between political sophistication and political trust is weaker than it is often suggested by earlier research. Our findings also provide partial support for the argument that the gap between sophistication groups is widening over time. Furthermore, we demonstrate that, although the between-method differences between the latent means and the composite score means of political trust for high- and low sophistication groups are relatively minor, it is important to analyze the measurement characteristics of the political trust construct.

Politically Active Home Economists: Their Socialization to Politics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ley, Connie J.

1980-01-01

A nationwide study identified a pattern of political socialization for home economists who were politically active. The most outstanding feature of the politically active subjects was their perception that political activity is a professional role. (SK)

Perspectives of Teacher Candidates on the Statements Related to Effect of Politics on Lecturers and Educational Administrators' Competence of Ensuring Unity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Demirel, Ihsan Nuri

2018-01-01

This study aims to find out the attitude of teacher candidates of Agri I.Ç. University Faculty of Education who study at the Department of Elementary Turkish Education to the statements related to effect of politics on lecturers and educational administrators' competence of ensuring unity. A-) The statements accepted as effect of politics on…

Integration at the round table: marine spatial planning in multi-stakeholder settings.

PubMed

Olsen, Erik; Fluharty, David; Hoel, Alf Håkon; Hostens, Kristian; Maes, Frank; Pecceu, Ellen

2014-01-01

Marine spatial planning (MSP) is often considered as a pragmatic approach to implement an ecosystem based management in order to manage marine space in a sustainable way. This requires the involvement of multiple actors and stakeholders at various governmental and societal levels. Several factors affect how well the integrated management of marine waters will be achieved, such as different governance settings (division of power between central and local governments), economic activities (and related priorities), external drivers, spatial scales, incentives and objectives, varying approaches to legislation and political will. We compared MSP in Belgium, Norway and the US to illustrate how the integration of stakeholders and governmental levels differs among these countries along the factors mentioned above. Horizontal integration (between sectors) is successful in all three countries, achieved through the use of neutral 'round-table' meeting places for all actors. Vertical integration between government levels varies, with Belgium and Norway having achieved full integration while the US lacks integration of the legislature due to sharp disagreements among stakeholders and unsuccessful partisan leadership. Success factors include political will and leadership, process transparency and stakeholder participation, and should be considered in all MSP development processes.

Integration at the Round Table: Marine Spatial Planning in Multi-Stakeholder Settings

PubMed Central

Olsen, Erik; Fluharty, David; Hoel, Alf Håkon; Hostens, Kristian; Maes, Frank; Pecceu, Ellen

2014-01-01

Marine spatial planning (MSP) is often considered as a pragmatic approach to implement an ecosystem based management in order to manage marine space in a sustainable way. This requires the involvement of multiple actors and stakeholders at various governmental and societal levels. Several factors affect how well the integrated management of marine waters will be achieved, such as different governance settings (division of power between central and local governments), economic activities (and related priorities), external drivers, spatial scales, incentives and objectives, varying approaches to legislation and political will. We compared MSP in Belgium, Norway and the US to illustrate how the integration of stakeholders and governmental levels differs among these countries along the factors mentioned above. Horizontal integration (between sectors) is successful in all three countries, achieved through the use of neutral ‘round-table’ meeting places for all actors. Vertical integration between government levels varies, with Belgium and Norway having achieved full integration while the US lacks integration of the legislature due to sharp disagreements among stakeholders and unsuccessful partisan leadership. Success factors include political will and leadership, process transparency and stakeholder participation, and should be considered in all MSP development processes. PMID:25299595

The politics of EPSDT policy in the 1990s: policy entrepreneurs, political streams, and children's health benefits.

PubMed

Sardell, A; Johnson, K

1998-01-01

The Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) program, which was designed to ensure that Medicaid-eligible children receive comprehensive health services, is the only national attempt to provide a right to these services. The political factors that have shaped national EPSDT policy during the past decade are described, based on a conceptual framework developed by John W. Kingdon. The analysis focuses on the roles of two distinct sets of policy entrepreneurs: child health advocates and fiscally conservative governors. Their activities are described in relation to the larger political environment, or "political stream," from the period of the expansion of Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women and children in the late 1980s to the enactment of a new State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 1997. The relative saliency of eligibility and benefit issues in children's health policies had a major influence on the politics and outcomes.

Political Discourse and Its Sociolinguistic Variables

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reyes-Rodriguez, Antonio

2008-01-01

Linguistically, political discourses have generally been discussed within qualitative approaches (e.g., Blackledge, 2005; Chilton, 2004; Chomsky, 2004; van Dijk, 2005; Wodak, 2002). This paper presents tools to design a quantitative research relating political speech with sociolinguistic variables. Notions such as Accommodation Theory (Giles &…

Investigation of the marked and long-standing spatial inhomogeneity of the Hungarian suicide rate: a spatial regression approach.

PubMed

Balint, Lajos; Dome, Peter; Daroczi, Gergely; Gonda, Xenia; Rihmer, Zoltan

2014-02-01

In the last century Hungary had astonishingly high suicide rates characterized by marked regional within-country inequalities, a spatial pattern which has been quite stable over time. To explain the above phenomenon at the level of micro-regions (n=175) in the period between 2005 and 2011. Our dependent variable was the age and gender standardized mortality ratio (SMR) for suicide while explanatory variables were factors which are supposed to influence suicide risk, such as measures of religious and political integration, travel time accessibility of psychiatric services, alcohol consumption, unemployment and disability pensionery. When applying the ordinary least squared regression model, the residuals were found to be spatially autocorrelated, which indicates the violation of the assumption on the independence of error terms and - accordingly - the necessity of application of a spatial autoregressive (SAR) model to handle this problem. According to our calculations the SARlag model was a better way (versus the SARerr model) of addressing the problem of spatial autocorrelation, furthermore its substantive meaning is more convenient. SMR was significantly associated with the "political integration" variable in a negative and with "lack of religious integration" and "disability pensionery" variables in a positive manner. Associations were not significant for the remaining explanatory variables. Several important psychiatric variables were not available at the level of micro-regions. We conducted our analysis on aggregate data. Our results may draw attention to the relevance and abiding validity of the classic Durkheimian suicide risk factors - such as lack of social integration - apropos of the spatial pattern of Hungarian suicides. © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Political Differences in Past, Present, and Future Life Satisfaction: Republicans Are More Sensitive than Democrats to Political Climate

PubMed Central

Mandel, David R.; Omorogbe, Philip

2014-01-01

Previous research finds that Republicans report being happier or more satisfied with their lives than Democrats. Using representative American samples from 2002, 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2010, we tested a Person × Situation interactionist account in which political affiliation (Democrat, Republican) and political climate (favorable when the president in office is of the same party) are proposed to affect past, present, and anticipated future life satisfaction. Meta-analyses of related tests of key hypotheses confirmed that (a) life satisfaction was greater when the political climate was favorable rather than unfavorable and (b) Republicans were more sensitive to political climate than Democrats. As predicted, Republicans also were more politically polarized than Democrats. Taken together, the findings indicate that, compared to Democrats, Republicans are more apt to self-identify in political terms, and core aspects of their subjective well-being are more easily affected by the outcome of political events. PMID:24901253

Revisiting the role of language in spatial cognition: Categorical perception of spatial relations in English and Korean speakers.

PubMed

Holmes, Kevin J; Moty, Kelsey; Regier, Terry

2017-12-01

The spatial relation of support has been regarded as universally privileged in nonlinguistic cognition and immune to the influence of language. English, but not Korean, obligatorily distinguishes support from nonsupport via basic spatial terms. Despite this linguistic difference, previous research suggests that English and Korean speakers show comparable nonlinguistic sensitivity to the support/nonsupport distinction. Here, using a paradigm previously found to elicit cross-language differences in color discrimination, we provide evidence for a difference in sensitivity to support/nonsupport between native English speakers and native Korean speakers who were late English learners and tested in a context that privileged Korean. Whereas the former group showed categorical perception (CP) when discriminating spatial scenes capturing the support/nonsupport distinction, the latter did not. An additional group of native Korean speakers-relatively early English learners tested in an English-salient context-patterned with the native English speakers in showing CP for support/nonsupport. These findings suggest that obligatory marking of support/nonsupport in one's native language can affect nonlinguistic sensitivity to this distinction, contra earlier findings, but that such sensitivity may also depend on aspects of language background and the immediate linguistic context.

Spatial Relational Memory in 9-Month-Old Macaque Monkeys

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lavenex, Pierre; Lavenex, Pamela Banta

2006-01-01

This experiment assesses spatial and nonspatial relational memory in freely moving 9-mo-old and adult (11-13-yr-old) macaque monkeys ("Macaca mulatta"). We tested the use of proximal landmarks, two different objects placed at the center of an open-field arena, as conditional cues allowing monkeys to predict the location of food rewards hidden in…

Political Education as a Means of Political Socialization.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grabe, Weronika; Knobelsdorf, Wodzimierz

1980-01-01

This essay describes the dimensions of political socialization with systematic political education as a major component. Both promote individual acceptance of political norms--particularly where government and school systems are tightly linked. The authors argue that political socialization should promote effective citizenship rather than simply…

Comparable Rest-related Promotion of Spatial Memory Consolidation in Younger and Older Adults

PubMed Central

Craig, Michael; Wolbers, Thomas; Harris, Mathew A.; Hauff, Patrick; Della Sala, Sergio; Dewar, Michaela

2017-01-01

Flexible spatial navigation depends on cognitive mapping, a function that declines with increasing age. In young adults, a brief period of post-navigation rest promotes the consolidation/integration of spatial memories into accurate cognitive maps. We examined (1) whether rest promotes spatial memory consolidation/integration in older adults and (2) whether the magnitude of the rest benefit changes with increasing age. Young and older adults learned a route through a virtual environment, followed by a 10min delay comprising either wakeful rest or a perceptual task, and a subsequent cognitive mapping task, requiring the pointing to landmarks from different locations. Pointing accuracy was lower in the older than younger adults. However, there was a comparable rest-related enhancement in pointing accuracy in the two age groups. Together our findings suggest that (i) the age-related decline in cognitive mapping cannot be explained by increased consolidation interference in older adults, and (ii) as we grow older rest continues to support the consolidation/integration of spatial memories. PMID:27689512

Spatial Rotation and Recognizing Emotions: Gender Related Differences in Brain Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jausovec, Norbert; Jausovec, Ksenija

2008-01-01

In three experiments, gender and ability (performance and emotional intelligence) related differences in brain activity--assessed with EEG methodology--while respondents were solving a spatial rotation tasks and identifying emotions in faces were investigated. The most robust gender related difference in brain activity was observed in the lower-2…

Psychedelics, Personality and Political Perspectives.

PubMed

Nour, Matthew M; Evans, Lisa; Carhart-Harris, Robin L

2017-01-01

The psychedelic experience (including psychedelic-induced ego dissolution) can effect lasting change in a person's attitudes and beliefs. Here, we aimed to investigate the association between naturalistic psychedelic use and personality, political perspectives, and nature relatedness using an anonymous internet survey. Participants (N = 893) provided information about their naturalistic psychedelic, cocaine, and alcohol use, and answered questions relating to personality traits of openness and conscientiousness (Ten-Item Personality Inventory), nature relatedness (Nature-Relatedness Scale), and political attitudes (one-item liberalism-conservatism measure and five-item libertarian-authoritarian measure). Participants also rated the degree of ego dissolution experienced during their "most intense" recalled psychedelic experience (Ego-Dissolution Inventory). Multivariate linear regression analysis indicated that lifetime psychedelic use (but not lifetime cocaine use or weekly alcohol consumption) positively predicted liberal political views, openness and nature relatedness, and negatively predicted authoritarian political views, after accounting for potential confounding variables. Ego dissolution experienced during a participant's "most intense" psychedelic experience positively predicted liberal political views, openness and nature relatedness, and negatively predicted authoritarian political views. Further work is needed to investigate the nature of the relationship between the peak psychedelic experience and openness to new experiences, egalitarian political views, and concern for the environment.

The Decline in Diffuse Support for National Politics: The Long View on Political Discontent in Britain.

PubMed

Jennings, Will; Clarke, Nick; Moss, Jonathan; Stoker, Gerry

2017-09-01

This research note considers how to track long-term trajectories of political discontent in Britain. Many accounts are confined to using either survey data drawn from recent decades or imperfect behavioral measures such as voting or party membership as indicators of political disengagement. We instead develop an approach that provides the long view on political disaffection. We first consider time-series data available from repeated survey measures. We next replicate historic survey questions to observe change in public opinion relative to earlier points in time. Finally, we use Stimson's (1991) dyad-ratios algorithm to construct an over-time index of political discontent that combines data from multiple poll series. This reveals rising levels of political discontent for both specific and diffuse measures of mass opinion. Our method and findings offer insights into the rising tide of disillusionment afflicting many contemporary democracies.

Political party affiliation, political ideology and mortality.

PubMed

Pabayo, Roman; Kawachi, Ichiro; Muennig, Peter

2015-05-01

Ecological and cross-sectional studies have indicated that conservative political ideology is associated with better health. Longitudinal analyses of mortality are needed because subjective assessments of ideology may confound subjective assessments of health, particularly in cross-sectional analyses. Data were derived from the 2008 General Social Survey-National Death Index data set. Cox proportional analysis models were used to determine whether political party affiliation or political ideology was associated with time to death. Also, we attempted to identify whether self-reported happiness and self-rated health acted as mediators between political beliefs and time to death. In this analysis of 32,830 participants and a total follow-up time of 498,845 person-years, we find that political party affiliation and political ideology are associated with mortality. However, with the exception of independents (adjusted HR (AHR)=0.93, 95% CI 0.90 to 0.97), political party differences are explained by the participants' underlying sociodemographic characteristics. With respect to ideology, conservatives (AHR=1.06, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.12) and moderates (AHR=1.06, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.11) are at greater risk for mortality during follow-up than liberals. Political party affiliation and political ideology appear to be different predictors of mortality. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Unraveling the Complexity of Critical Consciousness, Political Efficacy, and Political Action Among Marginalized Adolescents.

PubMed

Diemer, Matthew A; Rapa, Luke J

2016-01-01

This research examines the complex patterns by which distinct dimensions of critical consciousness may lead marginalized adolescents toward distinct forms of political action. Structural equation modeling was applied to nationally representative data from the Civic Education Study (2,811 ninth graders; Mage  = 14.6), first establishing the measurement invariance of constructs across samples of poor or working class African American and Latino/a adolescents. Perceptions of societal inequality and aspirational beliefs that society ought to be more equal differentially predicted expected voting, conventional political action, and social action-while controlling for civic achievement and with nuances between ethnic and racial groups. Contrary to hypotheses and extant scholarship, political efficacy did not mediate or moderate relations between critical reflection and disparate forms of political action. © 2015 The Authors. Child Development © 2015 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Regional and Temporal Variation in Methamphetamine-Related Incidents: Applications of Spatial and Temporal Scan Statistics

PubMed Central

Sudakin, Daniel L.

2009-01-01

Introduction This investigation utilized spatial scan statistics, geographic information systems and multiple data sources to assess spatial clustering of statewide methamphetamine-related incidents. Temporal and spatial associations with regulatory interventions to reduce access to precursor chemicals (pseudoephedrine) were also explored. Methods Four statewide data sources were utilized including regional poison control center statistics, fatality incidents, methamphetamine laboratory seizures, and hazardous substance releases involving methamphetamine laboratories. Spatial clustering of methamphetamine incidents was assessed using SaTScan™. SaTScan™ was also utilized to assess space-time clustering of methamphetamine laboratory incidents, in relation to the enactment of regulations to reduce access to pseudoephedrine. Results Five counties with a significantly higher relative risk of methamphetamine-related incidents were identified. The county identified as the most likely cluster had a significantly elevated relative risk of methamphetamine laboratories (RR=11.5), hazardous substance releases (RR=8.3), and fatalities relating to methamphetamine (RR=1.4). A significant increase in relative risk of methamphetamine laboratory incidents was apparent in this same geographic area (RR=20.7) during the time period when regulations were enacted in 2004 and 2005, restricting access to pseudoephedrine. Subsequent to the enactment of these regulations, a significantly lower rate of incidents (RR 0.111, p=0.0001) was observed over a large geographic area of the state, including regions that previously had significantly higher rates. Conclusions Spatial and temporal scan statistics can be effectively applied to multiple data sources to assess regional variation in methamphetamine-related incidents, and explore the impact of preventive regulatory interventions. PMID:19225949

Social Studies: Economics, International Relations, and Political Science. Latin American Curriculum Units for Junior and Community Colleges.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glade, William P.; Baldwin, Emily

These three self-contained units of study will help community college students learn about the economics, international relations, and politics of Latin America. Each unit can be used independently and contains introductory notes for instructors, student materials, and a bibliography. Students are expected to read and discuss the reading…

The Politics of EPSDT Policy in the 1990s: Policy Entrepreneurs, Political Streams, and Children's Health Benefits

PubMed Central

Sardell, Alice; Johnson, Kay

1998-01-01

The Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) program, which was designed to ensure that Medicaid-eligible children receive comprehensive health services, is the only national attempt to provide a right to these services. The political factors that have shaped national EPSDT policy during the past decade are described, based on a conceptual framework developed by John W. Kingdon. The analysis focuses on the roles of two distinct sets of policy entrepreneurs: child health advocates and fiscally conservative governors. Their activities are described in relation to the larger political environment, or “political stream,” from the period of the expansion of Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women and children in the late 1980s to the enactment of a new State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 1997. The relative saliency of eligibility and benefit issues in children’s health policies had a major influence on the politics and outcomes. PMID:9614420

Morality and politics: Comparing alternate theories.

PubMed

Miles, Andrew; Vaisey, Stephen

2015-09-01

Debates about the American "culture wars" have led scholars to develop several theories relating morality to political attitudes and behaviors. However, researchers have not adequately compared these theories, nor have they examined the overall contribution of morality to explaining political variation. This study uses nationally representative data to compare the utility of 19 moral constructs from four research traditions - associated with the work of Hunter, Lakoff, Haidt, and Schwartz - for predicting political orientation (liberalism/conservatism). Results indicate that morality explains a third of the variation in political orientation - more than basic demographic and religious predictors - but that no one theory provides a fully adequate explanation of this phenomenon. Instead, political orientation is best predicted by selected moral constructs that are unique to each of the four traditions, and by two moral constructs that crosscut them. Future work should investigate how these moral constructs can be synthesized to create a more comprehensive theory of morality and politics. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Spatial Fluctuations of the Intergalactic Temperature-Density Relation After Hydrogen Reionization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keating, Laura C.; Puchwein, Ewald; Haehnelt, Martin G.

2018-04-01

The thermal state of the post-reionization IGM is sensitive to the timing of reionization and the nature of the ionizing sources. We have modelled here the thermal state of the IGM in cosmological radiative transfer simulations of a realistic, extended, spatially inhomogeneous hydrogen reionization process, carefully calibrated with Lyα forest data. We compare these with cosmological simulations run using a spatially homogeneous ionizing background. The simulations with a realistic growth of ionized regions and a realistic spread in reionization redshifts show, as expected, significant spatial fluctuations in the temperature-density relation (TDR) of the post-reionization IGM. The most recently ionized regions are hottest and exhibit a flatter TDR. In simulations consistent with the average TDR inferred from Lyα forest data, these spatial fluctuations have a moderate but noticeable effect on the statistical properties of the Lyα opacity of the IGM at z ˜ 4 - 6. This should be taken into account in accurate measurements of the thermal properties of the IGM and the free-streaming of dark matter from Lyα forest data in this redshift range. The spatial variations of the TDR predicted by our simulations are, however, smaller by about a factor two than would be necessary to explain the observed large spatial opacity fluctuations on large (≥ 50 h-1 comoving Mpc) scales at z ≳ 5.5.

Spatial fluctuations of the intergalactic temperature-density relation after hydrogen reionization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keating, Laura C.; Puchwein, Ewald; Haehnelt, Martin G.

2018-07-01

The thermal state of the post-reionization IGM is sensitive to the timing of reionization and the nature of the ionizing sources. We have modelled here the thermal state of the IGM in cosmological radiative transfer simulations of a realistic, extended, spatially inhomogeneous hydrogen reionization process, carefully calibrated with Ly α forest data. We compare these with cosmological simulations run using a spatially homogeneous ionizing background. The simulations with a realistic growth of ionized regions and a realistic spread in reionization redshifts show, as expected, significant spatial fluctuations in the temperature-density relation (TDR) of the post-reionization IGM. The most recently ionized regions are hottest and exhibit a flatter TDR. In simulations consistent with the average TDR inferred from Ly α forest data, these spatial fluctuations have a moderate but noticeable effect on the statistical properties of the Ly α opacity of the IGM at z ˜ 4-6. This should be taken into account in accurate measurements of the thermal properties of the IGM and the free-streaming of dark matter from Ly α forest data in this redshift range. The spatial variations of the TDR predicted by our simulations are, however, smaller by about a factor of 2 than would be necessary to explain the observed large spatial opacity fluctuations on large (≥50 h-1 comoving Mpc) scales atz ≳ 5.5.

Disentangling fine motor skills' relations to academic achievement: the relative contributions of visual-spatial integration and visual-motor coordination.

PubMed

Carlson, Abby G; Rowe, Ellen; Curby, Timothy W

2013-01-01

Recent research has established a connection between children's fine motor skills and their academic performance. Previous research has focused on fine motor skills measured prior to elementary school, while the present sample included children ages 5-18 years old, making it possible to examine whether this link remains relevant throughout childhood and adolescence. Furthermore, the majority of research linking fine motor skills and academic achievement has not determined which specific components of fine motor skill are driving this relation. The few studies that have looked at associations of separate fine motor tasks with achievement suggest that copying tasks that tap visual-spatial integration skills are most closely related to achievement. The present study examined two separate elements of fine motor skills--visual-motor coordination and visual-spatial integration--and their associations with various measures of academic achievement. Visual-motor coordination was measured using tracing tasks, while visual-spatial integration was measured using copy-a-figure tasks. After controlling for gender, socioeconomic status, IQ, and visual-motor coordination, and visual-spatial integration explained significant variance in children's math and written expression achievement. Knowing that visual-spatial integration skills are associated with these two achievement domains suggests potential avenues for targeted math and writing interventions for children of all ages.

Effects of Political Knowledge on Political Tolerance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, John Powell

2018-01-01

Sexual orientation continues to be an explosive issue in American classrooms. Increasing the political knowledge of students can reduce the volatility of this explosive issue by increasing tolerance toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. This relationship between political knowledge and political tolerance has been…

Facebook's Spiral of Silence and Participation: The Role of Political Expression on Facebook and Partisan Strength in Political Participation.

PubMed

Kim, Mihee

2016-12-01

This study investigated how Facebook's spiral of silence influences political participation. For doing so, this study focused on the roles of politically expressive activities on Facebook and individuals' levels of partisan strength. An online survey (N = 277) was conducted with Facebook users. Results showed that a perceived hostile opinion climate on Facebook was negatively associated with political expression on Facebook, which, in turn, was positively related with political participation. This indirect relationship was conditioned by the degree of Facebook users' partisan strength. Those with weak or moderate levels of partisan strength were less likely to express their minority views, which led to decrease their political participation in the real world. Such indirect relationship was not the case for those with high levels of partisan strength. Theoretical and political implications of these findings were discussed.

Executive dysfunction, brain aging, and political leadership.

PubMed

Fisher, Mark; Franklin, David L; Post, Jerrold M

2014-01-01

Decision-making is an essential component of executive function, and a critical skill of political leadership. Neuroanatomic localization studies have established the prefrontal cortex as the critical brain site for executive function. In addition to the prefrontal cortex, white matter tracts as well as subcortical brain structures are crucial for optimal executive function. Executive function shows a significant decline beginning at age 60, and this is associated with age-related atrophy of prefrontal cortex, cerebral white matter disease, and cerebral microbleeds. Notably, age-related decline in executive function appears to be a relatively selective cognitive deterioration, generally sparing language and memory function. While an individual may appear to be functioning normally with regard to relatively obvious cognitive functions such as language and memory, that same individual may lack the capacity to integrate these cognitive functions to achieve normal decision-making. From a historical perspective, global decline in cognitive function of political leaders has been alternatively described as a catastrophic event, a slowly progressive deterioration, or a relatively episodic phenomenon. Selective loss of executive function in political leaders is less appreciated, but increased utilization of highly sensitive brain imaging techniques will likely bring greater appreciation to this phenomenon. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was an example of a political leader with a well-described neurodegenerative condition (cerebral amyloid angiopathy) that creates a neuropathological substrate for executive dysfunction. Based on the known neuroanatomical and neuropathological changes that occur with aging, we should probably assume that a significant proportion of political leaders over the age of 65 have impairment of executive function.

Recognizing the Political in Implementation Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDonnell, Lorraine M.; Weatherford, M. Stephen

2016-01-01

The widely publicized opposition to the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is in marked contrast to its relatively uncontroversial development and adoption--a contrast that points to the importance of understanding how the politics of enactment differs from the politics of implementation. In this article, we draw on the…

(Im)Politeness in Cross-Cultural Encounters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

House, Juliane

2012-01-01

In this article I will first discuss the notions of "politeness" and "impoliteness" including a multilevel model of politeness and impoliteness that relates universal levels to culture- and language-specific ones. Given this framework and my earlier postulation of a set of parameters along which members of two linguacultures differ in terms of…

Relating Dopaminergic and Cholinergic Polymorphisms to Spatial Attention in Infancy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Markant, Julie; Cicchetti, Dante; Hetzel, Susan; Thomas, Kathleen M.

2014-01-01

Early selective attention skills are a crucial building block for cognitive development, as attention orienting serves as a primary means by which infants interact with and learn from the environment. Although several studies have examined infants' attention orienting using the spatial cueing task, relatively few studies have examined…

Integrating international relations and environmental science course concepts through an interactive world politics simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Straub, K. H.; Kesgin, B.

2012-12-01

During the fall 2012 semester, students in two introductory courses at Susquehanna University - EENV:101 Environmental Science and POLI:131 World Affairs - will participate together in an online international relations simulation called Statecraft (www.statecraftsim.com). In this strategy game, students are divided into teams representing independent countries, and choose their government type (democracy, constitutional monarchy, communist totalitarian, or military dictatorship) and two country attributes (industrial, green, militaristic, pacifist, or scientific), which determine a set of rules by which that country must abide. Countries interact over issues such as resource distribution, war, pollution, immigration, and global climate change, and must also keep domestic political unrest to a minimum in order to succeed in the game. This simulation has typically been run in political science courses, as the goal is to allow students to experience the balancing act necessary to maintain control of global and domestic issues in a dynamic, diverse world. This semester, environmental science students will be integrated into the simulation, both as environmental advisers to each country and as independent actors representing groups such as Greenpeace, ExxonMobil, and UNEP. The goal in integrating the two courses in the simulation is for the students in each course to gain both 1) content knowledge of certain fundamental material in the other course, and 2) a more thorough, applied understanding of the integrated nature of the two subjects. Students will gain an appreciation for the multiple tradeoffs that decision-makers must face in the real world (economy, resources, pollution, health, defense, etc.). Environmental science students will link these concepts to the traditional course material through a "systems thinking" approach to sustainability. Political science students will face the challenges of global climate change and gain an understanding of the nature of

Edward Said and the Cultural Politics of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rizvi, Fazal; Lingard, Bob

2006-01-01

This introductory essay to this special issue of Discourse on Edward Said and the cultural politics of education provides an overview discussion of four inter-related themes representing the wideranging scope of Said's academic and political writings. The first of these themes relates to his idea of Orientalism, through which Said sought to…

Scaling local species-habitat relations to the larger landscape with a hierarchical spatial count model

USGS Publications Warehouse

Thogmartin, W.E.; Knutson, M.G.

2007-01-01

Much of what is known about avian species-habitat relations has been derived from studies of birds at local scales. It is entirely unclear whether the relations observed at these scales translate to the larger landscape in a predictable linear fashion. We derived habitat models and mapped predicted abundances for three forest bird species of eastern North America using bird counts, environmental variables, and hierarchical models applied at three spatial scales. Our purpose was to understand habitat associations at multiple spatial scales and create predictive abundance maps for purposes of conservation planning at a landscape scale given the constraint that the variables used in this exercise were derived from local-level studies. Our models indicated a substantial influence of landscape context for all species, many of which were counter to reported associations at finer spatial extents. We found land cover composition provided the greatest contribution to the relative explained variance in counts for all three species; spatial structure was second in importance. No single spatial scale dominated any model, indicating that these species are responding to factors at multiple spatial scales. For purposes of conservation planning, areas of predicted high abundance should be investigated to evaluate the conservation potential of the landscape in their general vicinity. In addition, the models and spatial patterns of abundance among species suggest locations where conservation actions may benefit more than one species. ?? 2006 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Linguistic intergroup bias in political communication.

PubMed

Anolli, Luigi; Zurloni, Valentino; Riva, Giuseppe

2006-07-01

The Linguistic Intergroup Bias (LIB) illustrates the disposition to communicate positive in-group and negative out-group behaviors more abstractly than negative in-group and positive out-group behaviors. The present research examined the function of language in reinforcing this bias in political communication. To illustrate the LIB, the Linguistic Category Model (LCM) was used, including a nouns category. Because social stereotypes are usually conveyed by nominal terms, the aim was to observe the relationship between stereotypes and language in political communication. Moreover, we were interested in analyzing the psychological processes that drive the LIB. Therefore, we verified whether the LIB is more related to language abstractness than to agent-patient causality. Several political debates and interviews, which took place before the latest Italian provincial elections, were analyzed. Results suggested that the language politicians use in communicating about political groups are conceptualized as stereotypes rather than as trait-based categories. Moreover, it seems that the LIB could not be explained only at a lexical level. Social implications of the present findings in interpersonal relations and causal attribution were discussed.

Linguistic Legitimation of Political Events in Newspaper Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ali, Marwah Kareem; Christopher, Anne A.; Nordin, Munif Zarirruddin Fikri B.

2016-01-01

This paper examines the discursive structures employed in legitimizing the event of U.S. forces withdrawal from Iraq and identifies them in relation to linguistic features. It attempts to describe the relation between language use and legitimation discursive structures in depicting political events. The paper focuses on the political event of U.S.…

The spatial reliability of task-irrelevant sounds modulates bimodal audiovisual integration: An event-related potential study.

PubMed

Li, Qi; Yu, Hongtao; Wu, Yan; Gao, Ning

2016-08-26

The integration of multiple sensory inputs is essential for perception of the external world. The spatial factor is a fundamental property of multisensory audiovisual integration. Previous studies of the spatial constraints on bimodal audiovisual integration have mainly focused on the spatial congruity of audiovisual information. However, the effect of spatial reliability within audiovisual information on bimodal audiovisual integration remains unclear. In this study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the effect of spatial reliability of task-irrelevant sounds on audiovisual integration. Three relevant ERP components emerged: the first at 140-200ms over a wide central area, the second at 280-320ms over the fronto-central area, and a third at 380-440ms over the parieto-occipital area. Our results demonstrate that ERP amplitudes elicited by audiovisual stimuli with reliable spatial relationships are larger than those elicited by stimuli with inconsistent spatial relationships. In addition, we hypothesized that spatial reliability within an audiovisual stimulus enhances feedback projections to the primary visual cortex from multisensory integration regions. Overall, our findings suggest that the spatial linking of visual and auditory information depends on spatial reliability within an audiovisual stimulus and occurs at a relatively late stage of processing. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

A public health framework to translate risk factors related to political violence and war into multi-level preventive interventions.

PubMed

De Jong, Joop T V M

2010-01-01

Political violence, armed conflicts and human rights violations are produced by a variety of political, economic and socio-cultural factors. Conflicts can be analyzed with an interdisciplinary approach to obtain a global understanding of the relative contribution of risk and protective factors. A public health framework was designed to address these risk factors and protective factors. The framework resulted in a matrix that combined primary, secondary and tertiary interventions with their implementation on the levels of the society-at-large, the community, and the family and individual. Subsequently, the risk and protective factors were translated into multi-sectoral, multi-modal and multi-level preventive interventions involving the economy, governance, diplomacy, the military, human rights, agriculture, health, and education. Then the interventions were slotted in their appropriate place in the matrix. The interventions can be applied in an integrative form by international agencies, governments and non-governmental organizations, and molded to meet the requirements of the historic, political-economic and socio-cultural context. The framework maps the complementary fit among the different actors while engaging themselves in preventive, rehabilitative and reconstructive interventions. The framework shows how the economic, diplomatic, political, criminal justice, human rights, military, health and rural development sectors can collaborate to promote peace or prevent the aggravation or continuation of violence. A deeper understanding of the association between risk and protective factors and the developmental pathways of generic, country-specific and culture-specific factors leading to political violence is needed.

Education, Politics and Sino-Japanese Relations: Reflections on a Three-Year Project on "East Asian Images of Japan"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vickers, Edward

2014-01-01

Drawing on a recent collaborative and interdisciplinary study of East Asian Images of Japan, this article discusses contemporary Chinese portrayals of Japan, their political context, and their significance for Sino-Japanese relations. It questions some widely-held assumptions concerning the extent of "thought control" in an authoritarian…

Learning to Be Canadian: Political Socialization in Canada.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Close, David

1988-01-01

Examines the concept of political socialization and the sources of distinctiveness in Canadian political life. Focuses on relations between French and English Canada, regional differences, governmental machinery, civic education, and media influences. (DB)

Building on What You Have Learned: Object Construction Skill during Infancy Predicts the Comprehension of Spatial Relations Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marcinowski, Emily C.; Campbell, Julie Marie

2017-01-01

Object construction involves organizing multiple objects into a unified structure (e.g., stacking blocks into a tower) and may provide infants with unique spatial information. Because object construction entails placing objects in spatial locations relative to one another, infants can acquire information about spatial relations during construction…

Validity of the Internal-External Scale in its Relationship with Political Position

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silvern, Louise

1975-01-01

Previous studies have shown a relationship between left wing political beliefs and externality on Rotter's Scale. By examining the validity of Rotter's Scale in relation to political position, no evidence was found relating political position to locus of control. (DEP)

Spatial Relative Risk Patterns of Autism Spectrum Disorders in Utah

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bakian, Amanda V.; Bilder, Deborah A.; Coon, Hilary; McMahon, William M.

2015-01-01

Heightened areas of spatial relative risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD), or ASD hotspots, in Utah were identified using adaptive kernel density functions. Children ages four, six, and eight with ASD from multiple birth cohorts were identified by the Utah Registry of Autism and Developmental Disabilities. Each ASD case was gender-matched to…

Hierarchical spatial models for predicting pygmy rabbit distribution and relative abundance

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wilson, T.L.; Odei, J.B.; Hooten, M.B.; Edwards, T.C.

2010-01-01

Conservationists routinely use species distribution models to plan conservation, restoration and development actions, while ecologists use them to infer process from pattern. These models tend to work well for common or easily observable species, but are of limited utility for rare and cryptic species. This may be because honest accounting of known observation bias and spatial autocorrelation are rarely included, thereby limiting statistical inference of resulting distribution maps. We specified and implemented a spatially explicit Bayesian hierarchical model for a cryptic mammal species (pygmy rabbit Brachylagus idahoensis). Our approach used two levels of indirect sign that are naturally hierarchical (burrows and faecal pellets) to build a model that allows for inference on regression coefficients as well as spatially explicit model parameters. We also produced maps of rabbit distribution (occupied burrows) and relative abundance (number of burrows expected to be occupied by pygmy rabbits). The model demonstrated statistically rigorous spatial prediction by including spatial autocorrelation and measurement uncertainty. We demonstrated flexibility of our modelling framework by depicting probabilistic distribution predictions using different assumptions of pygmy rabbit habitat requirements. Spatial representations of the variance of posterior predictive distributions were obtained to evaluate heterogeneity in model fit across the spatial domain. Leave-one-out cross-validation was conducted to evaluate the overall model fit. Synthesis and applications. Our method draws on the strengths of previous work, thereby bridging and extending two active areas of ecological research: species distribution models and multi-state occupancy modelling. Our framework can be extended to encompass both larger extents and other species for which direct estimation of abundance is difficult. ?? 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation ?? 2010 British Ecological Society.

Whose Heartland? The Politics of Place in a Rural-Urban Interface

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Masuda, Jeffrey R.; Garvin, Theresa

2008-01-01

This article advances a conceptualization of the rural-urban interface that is centred on a historically and spatially informed politics of place situated within local-global connections. The research is a case study of an inter-municipal development plan called Alberta's Industrial Heartland. Located near the City of Edmonton, in Alberta, Canada,…

Moral and Political Identity and Civic Involvement in Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Porter, Tenelle J.

2013-01-01

In the USA, civic involvement in adolescence includes political and nonpolitical activities. Given that identities can motivate behavior, how do political and moral identities relate to civic activity choices? In this study, high school students ("N" = 1578) were surveyed about their political and nonpolitical civic actions and their…

Albert Einstein and Friedrich Dessauer: Political Views and Political Practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goenner, Hubert

In this case study I compare the political views of the physicists Albert Einstein and Friedrich Dessauer between the first and second world wars, and I investigate their translation into concrete political practice. Both departed from their roles as experts in physics in favor of political engagement. The essence of Einstein's political practice seems to have been a form of political participation in exerting moral influence on people and organizations through public declarations and appeals in isolation from political mass movements. Dessauer exerted political influence both through public office (as a member of Parliament for the Catholic Center Party) and by acquiring a newspaper. The different political practice of both Einstein and Dessauer were unsuccessful in thwarting the Nazi takeover.

A Political Philosophy Approach to Teaching American Politics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bailey, Kevin E.

1982-01-01

Suggests an alternative to the civic training, political indoctrination, and descriptive presentation approaches used to teaching American government courses. Recommends a political philosophy approach within a framework of elite theory to help students develop a critical perspective on American politics. (DMM)

[Political psychology].

PubMed

Resch, Mária; Bella, Tamás

2013-04-21

In Hungary one can mostly find references to the psychological processes of politics in the writings of publicists, public opinion pollsters, philosophers, social psychologists, and political analysts. It would be still important if not only legal scientists focusing on political institutions or sociologist-politologists concentrating on social structures could analyse the psychological aspects of political processes; but one could also do so through the application of the methods of political psychology. The authors review the history of political psychology, its position vis-à-vis other fields of science and the essential interfaces through which this field of science, which is still to be discovered in Hungary, connects to other social sciences. As far as its methodology comprising psycho-biographical analyses, questionnaire-based queries, cognitive mapping of interviews and statements are concerned, it is identical with the psychiatric tools of medical sciences. In the next part of this paper, the focus is shifted to the essence and contents of political psychology. Group dynamics properties, voters' attitudes, leaders' personalities and the behavioural patterns demonstrated by them in different political situations, authoritativeness, games, and charisma are all essential components of political psychology, which mostly analyses psychological-psychiatric processes and also involves medical sciences by relying on cognitive and behavioural sciences. This paper describes political psychology, which is basically part of social sciences, still, being an interdisciplinary science, has several ties to medical sciences through psychological and psychiatric aspects.

Women and Politics in Latin America: Perspectives and Limits of the Institutional Aspects of Women's Political Representation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Del Campo, Esther

2005-01-01

This article attempts to offer a general panorama of some issues related to political representation of women in Latin America. Specifically, it analyzes the advances made in the representation of women in politics during the 1990s. It offers a descriptive analysis of national cases in Latin America from an institutional focus. In spite of the…

The politics of biofuels, land and agrarian change: editors' introduction.

PubMed

Borras, Saturnino M

2010-01-01

This introduction frames key questions on biofuels, land and agrarian change within agrarian political economy, political sociology and political ecology. It identifies and explains big questions that provide the starting point for the contributions to this collection. We lay out some of the emerging themes which define the politics of biofuels, land and agrarian change revolving around global (re)configurations; agro-ecological visions; conflicts, resistances and diverse outcomes; state, capital and society relations; mobilising opposition, creating alternatives; and change and continuity. An engaged agrarian political economy combined with global political economy, international relations and social movement theory provides an important framework for analysis and critique of the conditions, dynamics, contradictions, impacts and possibilities of the emerging global biofuels complex. Our hope is that this collection demonstrates the significance of a political economy of biofuels in capturing the complexity of the "biofuels revolution" and at the same time opening up questions about its sustainability in social and environmental terms that provide pathways towards alternatives.

Political Alienation among Migrant Youths: Exploring the Mechanisms of Political Alienation and Acculturation among Migrant Youths in Norwegian Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solhaug, Trond

2012-01-01

This article addresses the following question: What characterizes the mechanisms of political alienation among non-Western immigrant students, and how might these mechanisms be related to student's acculturation attitudes? A theory of political alienation and acculturation is applied. Substantial quantitative data from Norwegian upper secondary…

Ontology-Based Retrieval of Spatially Related Objects for Location Based Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haav, Hele-Mai; Kaljuvee, Aivi; Luts, Martin; Vajakas, Toivo

Advanced Location Based Service (LBS) applications have to integrate information stored in GIS, information about users' preferences (profile) as well as contextual information and information about application itself. Ontology engineering provides methods to semantically integrate several data sources. We propose an ontology-driven LBS development framework: the paper describes the architecture of ontologies and their usage for retrieval of spatially related objects relevant to the user. Our main contribution is to enable personalised ontology driven LBS by providing a novel approach for defining personalised semantic spatial relationships by means of ontologies. The approach is illustrated by an industrial case study.

An age-related deficit in spatial-feature reference memory in homing pigeons (Columba livia).

PubMed

Coppola, Vincent J; Flaim, Mary E; Carney, Samantha N; Bingman, Verner P

2015-03-01

Age-related memory decline in mammals has been well documented. By contrast, very little is known about memory decline in birds as they age. In the current study we trained younger and older homing pigeons on a reference memory task in which a goal location could be encoded by spatial and feature cues. Consistent with a previous working memory study, the results revealed impaired acquisition of combined spatial-feature reference memory in older compared to younger pigeons. Following memory acquisition, we used cue-conflict probe trials to provide an initial assessment of possible age-related differences in cue preference. Both younger and older pigeons displayed a similarly modest preference for feature over spatial cues. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Political News and Political Consciousness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schertges, Claudia

2007-01-01

This article deals with mass media in modern democratic societies, using the example of Israeli news reports in German television (TV) news. Central to this interest are processes of mediating politics: political socialisation and education; that is to say, empowering citizens via TV news to participate in democratic processes. The article…

Hemispheric lateralization in top-down attention during spatial relation processing: a Granger causal model approach.

PubMed

Falasca, N W; D'Ascenzo, S; Di Domenico, A; Onofrj, M; Tommasi, L; Laeng, B; Franciotti, R

2015-04-01

Magnetoencephalography was recorded during a matching-to-sample plus cueing paradigm, in which participants judged the occurrence of changes in either categorical (CAT) or coordinate (COO) spatial relations. Previously, parietal and frontal lobes were identified as key areas in processing spatial relations and it was shown that each hemisphere was differently involved and modulated by the scope of the attention window (e.g. a large and small cue). In this study, Granger analysis highlighted the patterns of causality among involved brain areas--the direction of information transfer ran from the frontal to the visual cortex in the right hemisphere, whereas it ran in the opposite direction in the left side. Thus, the right frontal area seems to exert top-down influence, supporting the idea that, in this task, top-down signals are selectively related to the right side. Additionally, for CAT change preceded by a small cue, the right frontal gyrus was not involved in the information transfer, indicating a selective specialization of the left hemisphere for this condition. The present findings strengthen the conclusion of the presence of a remarkable hemispheric specialization for spatial relation processing and illustrate the complex interactions between the lateralized parts of the neural network. Moreover, they illustrate how focusing attention over large or small regions of the visual field engages these lateralized networks differently, particularly in the frontal regions of each hemisphere, consistent with the theory that spatial relation judgements require a fronto-parietal network in the left hemisphere for categorical relations and on the right hemisphere for coordinate spatial processing. © 2015 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Spatial Structure of Planform Migration - Curvature Relation of Meandering Rivers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guneralp, I.; Rhoads, B. L.

2005-12-01

Planform dynamics of meandering rivers have been of fundamental interest to fluvial geomorphologists and engineers because of the intriguing complexity of these dynamics, the role of planform change in floodplain development and landscape evolution, and the economic and social consequences of bank erosion and channel migration. Improved understanding of the complex spatial structure of planform change and capacity to predict these changes are important for effective stream management, engineering and restoration. The planform characteristics of a meandering river channel are integral to its planform dynamics. Active meandering rivers continually change their positions and shapes as a consequence of hydraulic forces exerted on the channel banks and bed, but as the banks and bed change through sediment transport, so do the hydraulic forces. Thus far, this complex feedback between form and process is incompletely understood, despite the fact that the characteristics and the dynamics of meandering rivers have been studied extensively. Current theoretical models aimed at predicting planform dynamics relate rates of meander migration to local and upstream planform curvature where weighting of the influence of curvature on migration rate decays exponentially over distance. This theoretical relation, however, has not been rigorously evaluated empirically. Furthermore, although models based on exponential-weighting of curvature effects yield fairly realistic predictions of meander migration, such models are incapable of reproducing complex forms of bend development, such as double heading or compound looping. This study presents the development of a new methodology based on parametric cubic spline interpolation for the characterization of channel planform and the planform curvature of meandering rivers. The use of continuous mathematical functions overcomes the reliance on bend-averaged values or piece-wise discrete approximations of planform curvature - a major limitation

Political motivations for intra-European migration

PubMed Central

Flipo, Aurore

2016-01-01

Motivations for migrating within the European Union have mainly been attributed to economic, career and lifestyle choices. This article suggests that political dissatisfaction is also an important motivator of recent intra-European migration. In our analysis of in-depth interviews with Romanian migrants in Spain and with Spanish migrants in Norway, we found a common emphasis on the political dimensions of their decision to migrate. In the interviews, the economic component of migration was often related to bad governance and negative perceptions of the state. The similarities of Spanish and Romanian migration narratives are especially striking because Spain and Romania represent substantially different migratory, political and economic contexts. However, migration is more obviously intertwined with conventional acts of political protest in the Spanish case. We suggest that differences in democratic contexts are pivotal in people’s reactions to and framing of their deep dissatisfaction with domestic politics, as found in many European countries today. PMID:28751786

Political motivations for intra-European migration.

PubMed

Bygnes, Susanne; Flipo, Aurore

2017-08-01

Motivations for migrating within the European Union have mainly been attributed to economic, career and lifestyle choices. This article suggests that political dissatisfaction is also an important motivator of recent intra-European migration. In our analysis of in-depth interviews with Romanian migrants in Spain and with Spanish migrants in Norway, we found a common emphasis on the political dimensions of their decision to migrate. In the interviews, the economic component of migration was often related to bad governance and negative perceptions of the state. The similarities of Spanish and Romanian migration narratives are especially striking because Spain and Romania represent substantially different migratory, political and economic contexts. However, migration is more obviously intertwined with conventional acts of political protest in the Spanish case. We suggest that differences in democratic contexts are pivotal in people's reactions to and framing of their deep dissatisfaction with domestic politics, as found in many European countries today.

Shared Cultural History as a Predictor of Political and Economic Changes among Nation States.

PubMed

Matthews, Luke J; Passmore, Sam; Richard, Paul M; Gray, Russell D; Atkinson, Quentin D

2016-01-01

Political and economic risks arise from social phenomena that spread within and across countries. Regime changes, protest movements, and stock market and default shocks can have ramifications across the globe. Quantitative models have made great strides at predicting these events in recent decades but incorporate few explicitly measured cultural variables. However, in recent years cultural evolutionary theory has emerged as a major paradigm to understand the inheritance and diffusion of human cultural variation. Here, we combine these two strands of research by proposing that measures of socio-linguistic affiliation derived from language phylogenies track variation in cultural norms that influence how political and economic changes diffuse across the globe. First, we show that changes over time in a country's democratic or autocratic character correlate with simultaneous changes among their socio-linguistic affiliations more than with changes of spatially proximate countries. Second, we find that models of changes in sovereign default status favor including socio-linguistic affiliations in addition to spatial data. These findings suggest that better measurement of cultural networks could be profoundly useful to policy makers who wish to diversify commercial, social, and other forms of investment across political and economic risks on an international scale.

The political reference point: How geography shapes political identity.

PubMed

Feinberg, Matthew; Tullett, Alexa M; Mensch, Zachary; Hart, William; Gottlieb, Sara

2017-01-01

It is commonly assumed that how individuals identify on the political spectrum-whether liberal, conservative, or moderate-has a universal meaning when it comes to policy stances and voting behavior. But, does political identity mean the same thing from place to place? Using data collected from across the U.S. we find that even when people share the same political identity, those in "bluer" locations are more likely to support left-leaning policies and vote for Democratic candidates than those in "redder" locations. Because the meaning of political identity is inconsistent across locations, individuals who share the same political identity sometimes espouse opposing policy stances. Meanwhile, those with opposing identities sometimes endorse identical policy stances. Such findings suggest that researchers, campaigners, and pollsters must use caution when extrapolating policy preferences and voting behavior from political identity, and that animosity toward the other end of the political spectrum is sometimes misplaced.

45 CFR 73.735-1007 - Political activity.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Political activity. 73.735-1007 Section 73.735-1007 Public Welfare DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL ADMINISTRATION STANDARDS OF CONDUCT Provisions Relating to Experts, Consultants and Advisory Committee Members § 73.735-1007 Political activity...

14-Month-Old Infants Form Novel Word-Spatial Relation Associations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Casasola, Marianella; Wilbourn, Makeba Parramore

2004-01-01

This study explored 14-month-old infants' ability to form novel word-spatial relation associations. During habituation, infants heard 1 novel word (e.g., "teek") while viewing dynamic containment events (i.e., Big Bird placed in a box) and, on other habituation trials, a second novel word (e.g., "blick") while viewing dynamic support events (i.e.,…

The Ecology of Legal Practice and Political Participation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hourani, Benjamin T.

1970-01-01

Considers how lawyers relate themselves to politics by investigating whether the variations in the work situation of lawyers and their position in the hierarchy of the profession affect their political activity and some aspects of their perceptions. (Author)

The political reference point: How geography shapes political identity

PubMed Central

Feinberg, Matthew; Tullett, Alexa M.; Mensch, Zachary; Hart, William; Gottlieb, Sara

2017-01-01

It is commonly assumed that how individuals identify on the political spectrum–whether liberal, conservative, or moderate–has a universal meaning when it comes to policy stances and voting behavior. But, does political identity mean the same thing from place to place? Using data collected from across the U.S. we find that even when people share the same political identity, those in “bluer” locations are more likely to support left-leaning policies and vote for Democratic candidates than those in “redder” locations. Because the meaning of political identity is inconsistent across locations, individuals who share the same political identity sometimes espouse opposing policy stances. Meanwhile, those with opposing identities sometimes endorse identical policy stances. Such findings suggest that researchers, campaigners, and pollsters must use caution when extrapolating policy preferences and voting behavior from political identity, and that animosity toward the other end of the political spectrum is sometimes misplaced. PMID:28207906

Spatial anxiety relates to spatial abilities as a function of working memory in children.

PubMed

Ramirez, Gerardo; Gunderson, Elizabeth A; Levine, Susan C; Beilock, Sian L

2012-01-01

Spatial ability is a strong predictor of students' pursuit of higher education in science and mathematics. However, very little is known about the affective factors that influence individual differences in spatial ability, particularly at a young age. We examine the role of spatial anxiety in young children's performance on a mental rotation task. We show that even at a young age, children report experiencing feelings of nervousness at the prospect of engaging in spatial activities. Moreover, we show that these feelings are associated with reduced mental rotation ability among students with high but not low working memory (WM). Interestingly, this WM × spatial anxiety interaction was only found among girls. We discuss these patterns of results in terms of the problem-solving strategies that boys versus girls use in solving mental rotation problems.

Performing Refugee Policy in Politics and Theatre

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, David

2008-01-01

This essay provides a brief account of selected performances of Australian refugee policy in the domains of politics and theatre. In the domain of politics, it considers rhetorical performances by government ministers and military personnel in relation to the so-called "children overboard" scandal of 2001, and the scandal's parliamentary…

The politics of researching global health politics

PubMed Central

Rushton, Simon

2015-01-01

In this comment, I build on Shiffman’s call for the global health community to more deeply investigate structural and productive power. I highlight two challenges we must grapple with as social scientists carrying out the types of investigation that Shiffman proposes: the politics of challenging the powerful; and the need to investigate types of expertise that have traditionally been thought of as ‘outside’ global health. In doing so, I argue that moving forward with the agenda Shiffman sets out requires social scientists interested in the global politics of health to be reflexive about our own exercise of structural and productive power and the fact that researching global health politics is itself a political undertaking. PMID:25905482

Panama: Political and Economic Conditions and U.S. Relations

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-04-22

governments , the Central American nation of Panama has made notable political and economic progress since the 1989 U.S. military intervention that ousted the...society groups for taking a heavy-handed approach toward governing and for not being more consultative. The country experienced labor unrest in July...2010 after the government approved legislation that would have weakened labor laws in several respects, but the government ultimately agreed to

Does sociability predict civic involvement and political participation?

PubMed

Foschi, Renato; Lauriola, Marco

2014-02-01

In contemporary history as well as in political science, a strong associational life known as sociability is thought to explain the roots of modern democracy by establishing a link between the increasing availability of free time to the middle classes, increasing willingness to gather with others in circles or associations, and increasing social capital. In personality psychology, sociability is related to prosocial behavior (i.e., the need for affiliation, agreeableness, openness, and extraversion), whose importance in different political behaviors is increasingly recognized. In the present article, we carried out 5 studies (N = 1,429) that showed that political and associative sociability (a) can be reliably assessed, can have cross-cultural validity, and are properly associated with general social interest measures and personality domains and facets in the five-factor model; (b) do not overlap with similar concepts used in political psychology to account for political participation (political expertise, political interest, political self-efficacy); and (c) predicted political and nonpolitical group membership as well as observable choices in decision-making tasks with political and nonpolitical outcomes. The results are discussed, taking into consideration the extent to which specific facets of sociability can mediate between general personality traits and measures of civic involvement and political participation in a holistic model of political behavior. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

The Spatial Release of Cognitive Load in Cocktail Party Is Determined by the Relative Levels of the Talkers.

PubMed

Andéol, Guillaume; Suied, Clara; Scannella, Sébastien; Dehais, Frédéric

2017-06-01

In a multi-talker situation, spatial separation between talkers reduces cognitive processing load: this is the "spatial release of cognitive load". The present study investigated the role played by the relative levels of the talkers on this spatial release of cognitive load. During the experiment, participants had to report the speech emitted by a target talker in the presence of a concurrent masker talker. The spatial separation (0° and 120° angular distance in azimuth) and the relative levels of the talkers (adverse, intermediate, and favorable target-to-masker ratio) were manipulated. The cognitive load was assessed with a prefrontal functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Data from 14 young normal-hearing listeners revealed that the target-to-masker ratio had a direct impact on the spatial release of cognitive load. Spatial separation significantly reduced the prefrontal activity only for the intermediate target-to-masker ratio and had no effect on prefrontal activity for the favorable and the adverse target-to-masker ratios. Therefore, the relative levels of the talkers might be a key point to determine the spatial release of cognitive load and more specifically the prefrontal activity induced by spatial cues in multi-talker situations.

Cartographical Imaginations: Spatiality, Adult Education and Lifelong Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, Richard; Cervero, Ron; Clarke, Julia; Morgan-Klein, Brenda; Usher, Robin; Wilson, Arthur

Recent empirical and theoretical literature in cultural geography, feminist and postcolonial philosophy, cultural studies, and political economy, was explored in an examination of the significance of spatiality to the changes taking place in the policy, practice, and study of adult education and lifelong learning. The following were among the key…

Teaching Introduction to International Politics with Film

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valeriano, Brandon

2013-01-01

This article is an overview of a comprehensive film-based course that covers basic topics appropriate for an introduction to international relations (or world politics) course. Film provides a new and novel perspective by which to view international interactions. I explore how various aspects of international politics are covered by movies with…

Political Skill: Principals' Self-Perception of Political Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hinkle, Christine M.

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe and determine the degree to which elementary school, middle school, and high school principals perceive their political skill, as measured by the Political Skill Inventory (PSI). A second purpose of the study was to determine if there was a difference for the perceived political skill of…

[Anthropologic foundation and psychologic consequences of political orientation toward right or left. An existential-psychoanalytic study on the phenomenology of political radicalism].

PubMed

Schneemann, N

1975-05-01

The author searches for an explanation for the fact that an originally only spatial and not "loaded" pair of concepts like "right and left" could gain in our time such high-tension content in political terms. He suspected underlying anthropologic connections and tried to elucidate them with existential analysis. He found that the basis can be seen in the physical constitution of man. Physical experience first transmits the concepts of right and left. The "asymmetric" symmetry of our bilateral physical organisation makes experiencing right and left possible. On this basis the mental concepts of our existence would be imposed in noethic-ethic categories. And these would become active in our political world. This is demonstrated on a case of H.E. Richter. Following Richter'd ideas the psychodynamic rules of political-structural disparities could be shown. The "rights" as repressors dominate the "lefts" as the depressed which now protest in their dispair. As extreme forms the two polarized radicals who now fanatically stylize the other as the enemy, will fight to the death their own denied opposite side psychodynamically. Bizarre ideal visions lead to legalization of terror and brutality. As missing how they are linked in psychiatric terminology paranoid types result extending to the formation of genuine (political) obsessions. For both catathymia of outlook and language are characteristic which show eminent loss of a picture of the world.

Relations between Spatial Distribution, Social Affiliations and Dominance Hierarchy in a Semi-Free Mandrill Population

PubMed Central

Naud, Alexandre; Chailleux, Eloise; Kestens, Yan; Bret, Céline; Desjardins, Dominic; Petit, Odile; Ngoubangoye, Barthélémy; Sueur, Cédric

2016-01-01

Although there exist advantages to group-living in comparison to a solitary lifestyle, costs and gains of group-living may be unequally distributed among group members. Predation risk, vigilance levels and food intake may be unevenly distributed across group spatial geometry and certain within-group spatial positions may be more or less advantageous depending on the spatial distribution of these factors. In species characterized with dominance hierarchy, high-ranking individuals are commonly observed in advantageous spatial position. However, in complex social systems, individuals can develop affiliative relationships that may balance the effect of dominance relationships in individual's spatial distribution. The objective of the present study is to investigate how the group spatial distribution of a semi-free ranging colony of Mandrills relates to its social organization. Using spatial observations in an area surrounding the feeding zone, we tested the three following hypothesis: (1) does dominance hierarchy explain being observed in proximity or far from a food patch? (2) Do affiliative associations also explain being observed in proximity or far from a food patch? (3) Do the differences in rank in the group hierarchy explain being co-observed in proximity of a food patch? Our results showed that high-ranking individuals were more observed in proximity of the feeding zone while low-ranking individuals were more observed at the boundaries of the observation area. Furthermore, we observed that affiliative relationships were also associated with individual spatial distributions and explain more of the total variance of the spatial distribution in comparison with dominance hierarchy. Finally, we found that individuals observed at a same moment in proximity of the feeding zone were more likely to be distant in the hierarchy while controlling for maternal kinship, age and sex similarity. This study brings some elements about how affiliative networks and dominance

Relations between Spatial Distribution, Social Affiliations and Dominance Hierarchy in a Semi-Free Mandrill Population.

PubMed

Naud, Alexandre; Chailleux, Eloise; Kestens, Yan; Bret, Céline; Desjardins, Dominic; Petit, Odile; Ngoubangoye, Barthélémy; Sueur, Cédric

2016-01-01

Although there exist advantages to group-living in comparison to a solitary lifestyle, costs and gains of group-living may be unequally distributed among group members. Predation risk, vigilance levels and food intake may be unevenly distributed across group spatial geometry and certain within-group spatial positions may be more or less advantageous depending on the spatial distribution of these factors. In species characterized with dominance hierarchy, high-ranking individuals are commonly observed in advantageous spatial position. However, in complex social systems, individuals can develop affiliative relationships that may balance the effect of dominance relationships in individual's spatial distribution. The objective of the present study is to investigate how the group spatial distribution of a semi-free ranging colony of Mandrills relates to its social organization. Using spatial observations in an area surrounding the feeding zone, we tested the three following hypothesis: (1) does dominance hierarchy explain being observed in proximity or far from a food patch? (2) Do affiliative associations also explain being observed in proximity or far from a food patch? (3) Do the differences in rank in the group hierarchy explain being co-observed in proximity of a food patch? Our results showed that high-ranking individuals were more observed in proximity of the feeding zone while low-ranking individuals were more observed at the boundaries of the observation area. Furthermore, we observed that affiliative relationships were also associated with individual spatial distributions and explain more of the total variance of the spatial distribution in comparison with dominance hierarchy. Finally, we found that individuals observed at a same moment in proximity of the feeding zone were more likely to be distant in the hierarchy while controlling for maternal kinship, age and sex similarity. This study brings some elements about how affiliative networks and dominance

Spatial Relationships of Auroral Particle Acceleration Relative to High Latitude Plasma Boundaries

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ghielmetti, Arthur G.

1997-01-01

This final report describes the activities under NASA contract to Lockheed Missiles and Space Company. It covers the period from 10-1-94 to 12-31-97. The objective of this investigation is to identify and characterize the spatial relationships of auroral particle acceleration features relative to the characteristic transition features in the surrounding polar ionospheric plasmas. Due to the reduced funding level approved for this contract, the original scope of the proposed work was readjusted with the focus placed on examining spatial relationships with respect to particle structures.

The relative influence of habitat amount and configuration on genetic structure across multiple spatial scales

PubMed Central

Millette, Katie L; Keyghobadi, Nusha

2015-01-01

Despite strong interest in understanding how habitat spatial structure shapes the genetics of populations, the relative importance of habitat amount and configuration for patterns of genetic differentiation remains largely unexplored in empirical systems. In this study, we evaluate the relative influence of, and interactions among, the amount of habitat and aspects of its spatial configuration on genetic differentiation in the pitcher plant midge, Metriocnemus knabi. Larvae of this species are found exclusively within the water-filled leaves of pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea) in a system that is naturally patchy at multiple spatial scales (i.e., leaf, plant, cluster, peatland). Using generalized linear mixed models and multimodel inference, we estimated effects of the amount of habitat, patch size, interpatch distance, and patch isolation, measured at different spatial scales, on genetic differentiation (FST) among larval samples from leaves within plants, plants within clusters, and clusters within peatlands. Among leaves and plants, genetic differentiation appears to be driven by female oviposition behaviors and is influenced by habitat isolation at a broad (peatland) scale. Among clusters, gene flow is spatially restricted and aspects of both the amount of habitat and configuration at the focal scale are important, as is their interaction. Our results suggest that both habitat amount and configuration can be important determinants of genetic structure and that their relative influence is scale dependent. PMID:25628865

The relative influence of habitat amount and configuration on genetic structure across multiple spatial scales.

PubMed

Millette, Katie L; Keyghobadi, Nusha

2015-01-01

Despite strong interest in understanding how habitat spatial structure shapes the genetics of populations, the relative importance of habitat amount and configuration for patterns of genetic differentiation remains largely unexplored in empirical systems. In this study, we evaluate the relative influence of, and interactions among, the amount of habitat and aspects of its spatial configuration on genetic differentiation in the pitcher plant midge, Metriocnemus knabi. Larvae of this species are found exclusively within the water-filled leaves of pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea) in a system that is naturally patchy at multiple spatial scales (i.e., leaf, plant, cluster, peatland). Using generalized linear mixed models and multimodel inference, we estimated effects of the amount of habitat, patch size, interpatch distance, and patch isolation, measured at different spatial scales, on genetic differentiation (F ST) among larval samples from leaves within plants, plants within clusters, and clusters within peatlands. Among leaves and plants, genetic differentiation appears to be driven by female oviposition behaviors and is influenced by habitat isolation at a broad (peatland) scale. Among clusters, gene flow is spatially restricted and aspects of both the amount of habitat and configuration at the focal scale are important, as is their interaction. Our results suggest that both habitat amount and configuration can be important determinants of genetic structure and that their relative influence is scale dependent.

Chile: Political and Economic Conditions and U.S. Relations

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-09-22

RN) and the rightist Independent Democratic Union (Unión Demócrata Independiente , UDI). A third coalition, the “Broad Party of the Socialist Left...independents and members of the Regionalist Party of Independents (Partido Regionalista de los Independientes , PRI), who are unaffiliated with either of the...Wilde, “Piñera Won. Will he uphold Chile’s post -Pinochet moral legacy?” Christian Science Monitor, January 18, 2010. Chile: Political and Economic

The Politics of Management Knowledge.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clegg, Stewart R., Ed.; Palmer, Gill, Ed.

This book recognizes the political nature of management knowledge, as a discourse produced from, and reproducing, power processes within and between organizations. Critical examinations of certain current management theories--lean production, excellence, entrepreneurship--are examples of relations of power that intermingle with relations of…

Some Correlates of Media Political Advertising Credibility.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Einsiedel, E. F.; Casey, William

Data collected as part of a larger survey that focused on the 1978 gubernatorial race in New York State were used in a study of political advertising and media credibility. Specifically, the study examined the factors that influence an individual's rating of the helpfulness of political advertising and related these factors to voting patterns. A…

The politics of relative deprivation: A transdisciplinary social justice perspective.

PubMed

Fu, Mengzhu; Exeter, Daniel J; Anderson, Anneka

2015-05-01

Relative deprivation was defined by Townsend (1987, p. 125) as "a state of observable and demonstrable disadvantage, relative to the local community or the wider society or nation to which an individual, family or group belongs". This definition is widely used within social and health sciences to identify, measure, and explain forms of inequality in human societies based on material and social conditions. From a multi-disciplinary social science perspective, we conducted a systematic literature review of published material in English through online database searches and books since 1966. We review the concept and measurement of relative 'deprivation' focussing on area-based deprivation in relation to inequities in health and social outcomes. This paper presents a perspective based in Aotearoa/New Zealand where colonisation has shaped the contours of racialised health inequities and current applications and understandings of 'deprivation'. We provide a critique of Townsend's concept of deprivation and area-based deprivation through a critical, structural analysis and suggest alternatives to give social justice a better chance. Deprivation measures used without critical reflection can lead to deficit framing of populations and maintain current inequities in health and social outcomes. We contend therefore that the lack of consideration of (bio)power, privilege, epistemology and (bio)politics is a central concern in studies of deprivation. Our review highlights the need for the academy to balance the asymmetry between qualitative and quantitative studies of deprivation through trans-disciplinary approaches to understanding deprivation, and subsequently, social and health inequities. We recommend that deprivation research needs be critically applied through a decolonising lens to avoid deficit framing and suggest that there is space for a tool that focuses on measuring the unequal distribution of power and privilege in populations. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All

Winnicott and Arendt: bridging potential and political spaces.

PubMed

LaMothe, Ryan

2014-04-01

In this article, the author seeks to bridge analytic theory, which is used as an interpretive framework to understand patients' psychic lives, and political philosophy, which accounts for individuals living a life in common as citizens. Specifically, I address how we can understand the relation between the psychosocial space of a parent(s) and child interaction, which becomes part of the child's psychic life, and the political space between and within citizens. The underlying claim is that there is a correlation between political space and the space between parent and child. I use an emended version of Donald Winnicott's concept of potential space and political philosopher Hannah Arendt's notion of the space of appearances to suggest connections between the consulting room and political space.

Putting politics first.

PubMed

Hacker, Jacob S

2008-01-01

The greatest lesson of the failure of comprehensive health reform in the early 1990s is that politics comes first. Even the best-laid policy plans are worthless if they lack the political support to pass. Putting politics first means avoiding the overarching mistake of the Clinton reformers: envisioning a grand policy compromise rather than hammering out a real political compromise. It also means addressing the inevitable fears of those who believe that they are well protected by our eroding employment-based system. And it means formulating political strategies that are premised on the contemporary realities of the hyperpolarized U.S. political environment, rather than wistfully recalled images of the bipartisan politics of old.

Facebook, Political Narrative, and Political Change: A Case Study of Palestinian Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kenderes, Amanda M.

2012-01-01

In this dissertation I aim to advance political narrative theory by exploring the use of political narrative on Facebook and the possibility for Facebook to be used among Palestinian youth for political change. To examine the concepts of political narrative and political change, I developed a model for political change based on the changing…

Political Socialization and Political Interest: The Role of School Reassessed

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koskimaa, Vesa; Rapeli, Lauri

2015-01-01

There is a growing concern about the lack of political interest and engagement among Western youth. This has led to a revival of political socialization studies. One recent finding is that (late) adolescence is key to understanding the development of interest for politics. This study builds on this finding by examining political interest among…

Digital hydrologic networks supporting applications related to spatially referenced regression modeling

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brakebill, John W.; Wolock, David M.; Terziotti, Silvia

2011-01-01

Digital hydrologic networks depicting surface-water pathways and their associated drainage catchments provide a key component to hydrologic analysis and modeling. Collectively, they form common spatial units that can be used to frame the descriptions of aquatic and watershed processes. In addition, they provide the ability to simulate and route the movement of water and associated constituents throughout the landscape. Digital hydrologic networks have evolved from derivatives of mapping products to detailed, interconnected, spatially referenced networks of water pathways, drainage areas, and stream and watershed characteristics. These properties are important because they enhance the ability to spatially evaluate factors that affect the sources and transport of water-quality constituents at various scales. SPAtially Referenced Regressions On Watershed attributes (SPARROW), a process-based ⁄ statistical model, relies on a digital hydrologic network in order to establish relations between quantities of monitored contaminant flux, contaminant sources, and the associated physical characteristics affecting contaminant transport. Digital hydrologic networks modified from the River Reach File (RF1) and National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) geospatial datasets provided frameworks for SPARROW in six regions of the conterminous United States. In addition, characteristics of the modified RF1 were used to update estimates of mean-annual streamflow. This produced more current flow estimates for use in SPARROW modeling.

Visuo-spatial orienting during active exploratory behavior: Processing of task-related and stimulus-related signals.

PubMed

Macaluso, Emiliano; Ogawa, Akitoshi

2018-05-01

Functional imaging studies have associated dorsal and ventral fronto-parietal regions with the control of visuo-spatial attention. Previous studies demonstrated that the activity of both the dorsal and the ventral attention systems can be modulated by many different factors, related both to the stimuli and the task. However, the vast majority of this work utilized stereotyped paradigms with simple and repeated stimuli. This is at odd with any real life situation that instead involve complex combinations of different types of co-occurring signals, thus raising the question of the ecological significance of the previous findings. Here we investigated how the brain responds to task-related and stimulus-related signals using an innovative approach that involved active exploration of a virtual environment. This enabled us to study visuo-spatial orienting in conditions entailing a dynamic and coherent flow of visual signals, to some extent analogous to real life situations. The environment comprised colored/textured spheres and cubes, which allowed us to implement a standard feature-conjunction search task (task-related signals), and included one physically salient object that served to track the processing of stimulus-related signals. The imaging analyses showed that the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) activated when the participants' gaze was directed towards the salient-objects. By contrast, the right inferior partial cortex was associated with the processing of the target-objects and of distractors that shared the target-color and shape, consistent with goal-directed template-matching operations. The study highlights the possibility of combining measures of gaze orienting and functional imaging to investigate the processing of different types of signals during active behavior in complex environments. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploring Political Alternatives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Denhardt, Robert B.

1975-01-01

The author distinguishes between the concepts of political socialization and political education. He argues that political socialization has come to dominate both our thinking and our teaching in the area of civic education. Suggestions for promoting political education are included. (DE)

Exploring the relation between spatial configuration of buildings and remotely sensed temperatures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Myint, S. W.; Zheng, B.; Kaplan, S.; Huang, H.

2013-12-01

While the relationship between fractional cover of buildings and the UHI has been well studied, relationships of how spatial arrangements (e.g., clustered, dispersed) of buildings influence urban warming are not well understood. Since a diversity of spatial patterns can be observed under the same percentage of buildings cover, it is of great interest and importance to investigate the amount of variation in certain urban thermal feature such as surface temperature that is accounted for by the inclusion of spatial arrangement component. The various spatial arrangements of buildings cover can give rise to different urban thermal behaviors that may not be uncovered with the information of buildings fraction only, but can be captured to some extent using spatial analysis. The goal of this study is to examine how spatial arrangements of buildings influence and shape surface temperature in different urban settings. The study area selected is the Las-Vegas metropolitan area in Nevada, located in the Mojave Desert. An object-oriented approach was used to identify buildings using a Geoeye-1 image acquired on October 12, 2011. A spatial autocorrelation technique (i.e., Moran's I) that can measure spatial pattern (clustered, dispersed) was used to determine spatial configuration of buildings. A daytime temperature layer in degree Celsius, generated from Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) image, was integrated with Moran's I values of building cover and building fractions to achieve the goals set in the study. To avoid uncertainty and properly evaluate if spatial pattern of buildings has an impact on urban warming, the relation between Moran's I values and surface temperatures was observed at different levels according to their fractions (e.g., 0-0.1, 0.5-0.6, 0.9-1). There is a negative correlation exists between spatial pattern of buildings and surface temperatures implying that dispersed building arrangements elevate surface temperatures

Politics in evaluation: Politically responsive evaluation in high stakes environments.

PubMed

Azzam, Tarek; Levine, Bret

2015-12-01

The role of politics has often been discussed in evaluation theory and practice. The political influence of the situation can have major effects on the evaluation design, approach and methods. Politics also has the potential to influence the decisions made from the evaluation findings. The current study focuses on the influence of the political context on stakeholder decision making. Utilizing a simulation scenario, this study compares stakeholder decision making in high and low stakes evaluation contexts. Findings suggest that high stakes political environments are more likely than low stakes environments to lead to reduced reliance on technically appropriate measures and increased dependence on measures better reflect the broader political environment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Parental Socioeconomic Status and the Neural Basis of Arithmetic: Differential Relations to Verbal and Visuo-spatial Representations

PubMed Central

Demir, Özlem Ece; Prado, Jérôme; Booth, James R.

2015-01-01

We examined the relation of parental socioeconomic status (SES) to the neural bases of subtraction in school-age children (9- to 12-year-olds). We independently localized brain regions subserving verbal versus visuo-spatial representations to determine whether the parental SES-related differences in children’s reliance on these neural representations vary as a function of math skill. At higher SES levels, higher skill was associated with greater recruitment of the left temporal cortex, identified by the verbal localizer. At lower SES levels, higher skill was associated with greater recruitment of right parietal cortex, identified by the visuo-spatial localizer. This suggests that depending on parental SES, children engage different neural systems to solve subtraction problems. Furthermore, SES was related to the activation in the left temporal and frontal cortex during the independent verbal localizer task, but it was not related to activation during the independent visuo-spatial localizer task. Differences in activation during the verbal localizer task in turn were related to differences in activation during the subtraction task in right parietal cortex. The relation was stronger at lower SES levels. This result suggests that SES-related differences in the visuo-spatial regions during subtraction might be based in SES-related verbal differences. PMID:25664675

The Effects of Majoring in Political Science on Political Efficacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dominguez, Casey B. K.; Smith, Keith W.; Williams, J. Michael

2017-01-01

This study tests, and finds support, for the hypotheses that a student who majors in political science will have stronger feelings of political competence and will be more willing to engage in hypothetical political actions than two peer groups: (a) those who major in other fields and (b) those who show an interest in politics but have not studied…

Cosmopolitan political science.

PubMed

Grande, Edgar

2006-03-01

Until recently, the term cosmopolitism could rarely be found in modern political science literature. It was only in the 1990s that the term was rediscovered by political scientists in the critical discourse on globalization. In this article, I will explore the full potential of cosmopolitism as an analytical concept for empirical political science. I will argue that the concept of cosmopolitism should not be restricted to the analysis of global politics. Indeed, cosmopolitism has much more to offer for political scientists. Properly understood, it enables--and necessitates--a re-invention of political science in the age of globalization, comparable to the behavioural revolution in political science in the 1950s. Such a paradigmatic shift should be based on a twofold transformation of existing disciplinary boundaries: A removal of the boundary between national (and comparative) and international politics on the one hand; and a re-definition of the boundaries between empirical and normative approaches on the other. As a result, cosmopolitism may serve as a new, critical theory of politics based on the integration of hitherto separated fields and sub-fields.

Mentoring Nurses in Political Skill to Navigate Organizational Politics

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Objective. The aim of this study was to describe and analyze the correlations between mentoring functions and political skill development among nurses who have earned or are candidates for a Ph.D. or doctorate of nursing practice (DNP) degree. Background. The healthcare system is in flux; future generations of Ph.D. and DNP nurse leaders will be required to demonstrate political acumen. Political skill to navigate organizational politics has had limited research within nursing. Methods. A cross-sectional research design using a web-based survey of 222 nurses who have earned or are candidates for a Ph.D. or DNP. This study utilized two validated tools to measure mentoring functions and political skill. Results. The response rate was 52% (n = 115) of which 86 were Ph.D. and 29 were DNPs. An informal mentoring relationship was described by 62% of the respondents and formal mentoring by 35% of the protégés; only 25% (n = 74) established a mentoring contract. Mentoring score showed significance for total political skill and moderate effect on the networking ability. The mentoring functions of advocacy, career development facilitation, learning facilitation, and friendship were found to correlate significantly with total political skill scores. Conclusions. This study established a benefit for nurses who have earned or are candidates for a Ph.D. or DNP from mentoring to support political skill development. PMID:27777798

'Our struggles are bigger than the World Cup': civic activism, state-society relations and the socio-political legacies of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

PubMed

Cornelissen, Scarlett

2012-06-01

South Africa's hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup saw a large number of public demonstrations, strikes and other forms of civic campaigning. World Cup activism was both preceded and followed by extensive and intensifying public unrest and industrial action that in the period before the tournament, threatened to derail the event. This paper assesses the motivations, forms and implications of the activism during South Africa's staging of the FIFA finals and interprets them against the larger context of shifting state-society relations in the country. There are two purposes to the analysis. First, to explore the underlying internal social forces that gave shape to the protests at the time, and the possible influence of the exogenous politics of mega-event social mobilization. Second, the implications and outcomes of these dynamics for longer term socio-political processes in the country are considered. The activism displayed many of the features of the politics of contestation of sport mega-events today. Importantly, however, the activism stemmed from a particular systemic dynamic and reflected changing relations in the post-apartheid political community. Therefore, while the World Cup was used as a strategic opportunity by many advocacy groups, it was one that rather fleetingly and ambivalently presented an additional platform to such groups in an otherwise on-going set of political battles. Rather than a strong case study of sport's transformative capacity, the civic campaigning during South Africa's World Cup demonstrates the way a sport mega-event can be used as a strategic entry point by civil society groups in their engagement with the state, although this can occur with greater or lesser success. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2012.

Conceptual and methodological challenges to measuring political commitment to respond to HIV

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Researchers have long recognized the importance of a central government’s political “commitment” in order to mount an effective response to HIV. The concept of political commitment remains ill-defined, however, and little guidance has been given on how to measure this construct and its relationship with HIV-related outcomes. Several countries have experienced declines in HIV infection rates, but conceptual difficulties arise in linking these declines to political commitment as opposed to underlying social and behavioural factors. Methods This paper first presents a critical review of the literature on existing efforts to conceptualize and measure political commitment to respond to HIV and the linkages between political commitment and HIV-related outcomes. Based on the elements identified in this review, the paper then develops and presents a framework to assist researchers in making choices about how to assess a government's level of political commitment to respond to HIV and how to link political commitment to HIV-related outcomes. Results The review of existing studies identifies three components of commitment (expressed, institutional and budgetary commitment) as different dimensions along which commitment can be measured. The review also identifies normative and ideological aspects of commitment and a set of variables that mediate and moderate political commitment that need to be accounted for in order to draw valid inferences about the relationship between political commitment and HIV-related outcomes. The framework summarizes a set of steps that researchers can follow in order to assess a government's level of commitment to respond to HIV and suggests ways to apply the framework to country cases. Conclusions Whereas existing studies have adopted a limited and often ambiguous conception of political commitment, we argue that conceiving of political commitment along a greater number of dimensions will allow researchers to draw a more complete

Combining Multiple Forms Of Visual Information To Specify Contact Relations In Spatial Layout

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sedgwick, Hal A.

1990-03-01

An expert system, called Layout2, has been described, which models a subset of available visual information for spatial layout. The system is used to examine detailed interactions between multiple, partially redundant forms of information in an environment-centered geometrical model of an environment obeying certain rather general constraints. This paper discusses the extension of Layout2 to include generalized contact relations between surfaces. In an environment-centered model, the representation of viewer-centered distance is replaced by the representation of environmental location. This location information is propagated through the representation of the environment by a network of contact relations between contiguous surfaces. Perspective information interacts with other forms of information to specify these contact relations. The experimental study of human perception of contact relations in extended spatial layouts is also discussed. Differences between human results and Layout2 results reveal limitations in the human ability to register available information; they also point to the existence of certain forms of information not yet formalized in Layout2.

Gender, risk assessment, and political ambition.

PubMed

Sweet-Cushman, Jennie

2016-01-01

In the United States, women have long held the right to vote and can participate fully in the political process, and yet they are underrepresented at all levels of elected office. Worldwide, men's dominance in the realm of politics has also been the norm. To date, scholars have focused on supply-side and demand-side explanations of women's underrepresentation but differences in how men and women assess electoral risk (the risk involved in seeking political office) are not fully explained. To fill this gap, I explore how evolutionary theory offers insights into gendered differences in political ambition and the evaluation of electoral risk. Using the framework of life-history theory, I hypothesize that both cognitive and environmental factors in human evolution, particularly as they relate to sexual selection and social roles, have shaped the psychology of ambition in gendered ways affecting contemporary politics. Cognitive risk-assessment mechanisms evolving in the hominid line came to be expressed differently in females and males, in women and men. These gendered expressions plausibly reflect differentiable environmental pressures in the past and may help explain behaviors in and barriers to women's electoral political activity in the present. If so, then the success of efforts to increase such activity - or, regressively, to suppress it - may be better understood.

Language and Politics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chimombo, Moira

1999-01-01

Surveys the interrelationship between language and politics. Touches on the context of political discourse, or political culture and ideology in new and old democracies and the reemerging manifestations of totalitarianism, censorship, and linguistic imperialism; then examines selected linguistic features of political discourse and their…

Linking subordinate political skill to supervisor dependence and reward recommendations: a moderated mediation model.

PubMed

Shi, Junqi; Johnson, Russell E; Liu, Yihao; Wang, Mo

2013-03-01

In this study, we examined the relations of subordinate political skill with supervisor's dependence on the subordinate and supervisor reward recommendation, as well as mediating (interaction frequency with supervisor) and moderating (supervisor political behavior) variables of these relations. Our theoretical model was tested using data collected from employees in a company that specialized in construction management. Analyses of multisource and lagged data from 53 construction management team supervisors and 296 subordinates indicated that subordinate political skill was positively related to supervisor reward recommendation via subordinate's interaction frequency with supervisor. Although interaction frequency with a supervisor was also positively related to the supervisor's dependence on the subordinate, the indirect effect of subordinate political skill on dependence was not significant. Further, both the relationship between subordinate political skill and interaction frequency with a supervisor and the indirect relationships between subordinate political skill and supervisor reward recommendation were stronger when supervisors exhibited more political behavior.

Race and Politics Rip into the Urban Superintendency.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rist, Marilee C.

1990-01-01

Heightened racial and ethnic-group politics and increasingly rocky board-superintendent relations are making the urban superintendency increasingly untenable. The politics of urban school governance can stymie even the best candidates. To survive, big-city superintendents need a thick hide, sensitivity to diversity, charisma, self-confidence,…

Political Advertising: A Roadblock in Teaching Social Studies Students the Importance of Truthful Political Communication to a Democratic Society

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martinson, David L.

2009-01-01

The author contends that too much political advertising is a form of public relations "spin" in which the truth is sacrificed and the political process damaged as a result. The goal of much of this advertising too frequently focuses on transmitting "disinformation" that, while perhaps not technically a lie, is intended not to inform the public but…

The challenges of marine spatial planning in the Arctic: Results from the ACCESS programme.

PubMed

Edwards, Rosemary; Evans, Alan

2017-12-01

Marine spatial planning is increasingly used to manage the demands on marine areas, both spatially and temporally, where several different users may compete for resources or space, to ensure that development is as sustainable as possible. Diminishing sea-ice coverage in the Arctic will allow for potential increases in economic exploitation, and failure to plan for cross-sectoral management could have negative economic and environmental results. During the ACCESS programme, a marine spatial planning tool was developed for the Arctic, enabling the integrated study of human activities related to hydrocarbon exploitation, shipping and fisheries, and the possible environmental impacts, within the context of the next 30 years of climate change. In addition to areas under national jurisdiction, the Arctic Ocean contains a large area of high seas. Resources and ecosystems extend across political boundaries. We use three examples to highlight the need for transboundary planning and governance to be developed at a regional level.

Religiosity and conservatism revisited: relating a new religiosity measure to the two main conservative political ideologies.

PubMed

Duriez, Bart

2003-04-01

The relation between the two religiosity dimensions which Wulff (1997) described (Exclusion vs Inclusion of Transcendence and Literal vs Symbolic) and two conservative political ideologies (Cultural and Economic Conservatism) was investigated in a sample of 714 students, a heterogeneous sample of 262 adults, and a sample of 301 religiously affiliated adults gathered in Flanders (Belgium). Both Exclusion vs Inclusion of Transcendence and Literal vs Symbolic were expected to relate only to Cultural Conservatism. Analysis supported these hypotheses, providing further evidence for the close association between religiosity and Cultural Conservatism and the validity of the Post-Critical Belief scale as a measure of Wulff's dimensions of religiosity.

Automobile Politics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paterson, Matthew

2006-11-01

The car, and the range of social and political institutions which sustain its dominance, play an important role in many of the environmental problems faced by contemporary society. But in order to understand the possibilities for moving towards sustainability and 'greening cars', it is first necessary to understand the political forces that have made cars so dominant. This book identifies these forces as a combination of political economy and cultural politics. From the early twentieth century, the car became central to the organization of capitalism and deeply embedded in individual identities, providing people with a source of value and meaning but in a way which was broadly consistent with social imperatives for mobility. Projects for sustainability to reduce the environmental impacts of cars are therefore constrained by these forces but must deal with them in order to shape and achieve their goals. Addresses the increasingly controversial debate on the place of the car in contemporary society and its contribution to environmental problems Questions whether automobility is sustainable and what political, social and economic forces might prevent this Will appeal to scholars and advanced students from a wide range of disciplines including environmental politics, political economy, environmental studies, cultural studies and geography

Political legitimacy and approval of political protest and violence among children and adolescents.

PubMed

Funderburk, C

1975-06-01

A question of general theoretical relevance for political socialization research concerns the role played by basic political orientations in structuring specific political opinions. This report investigates the relationship between beliefs in the legitimacy of political objects and approval of political protest and violence among a sample of children and adolescents. The setting for the research was a Florida town. Four aspects of political legitimacy are defined and measured. Measures of approval of political protest and political violence are distinguished conceptually and empirically. Beliefs in political legitimacy are shown to be of considerable importance in structuring opinions about political violence but have little impact on opinions about protest.

Shared Cultural History as a Predictor of Political and Economic Changes among Nation States

PubMed Central

Matthews, Luke J.; Passmore, Sam; Richard, Paul M.; Gray, Russell D.; Atkinson, Quentin D.

2016-01-01

Political and economic risks arise from social phenomena that spread within and across countries. Regime changes, protest movements, and stock market and default shocks can have ramifications across the globe. Quantitative models have made great strides at predicting these events in recent decades but incorporate few explicitly measured cultural variables. However, in recent years cultural evolutionary theory has emerged as a major paradigm to understand the inheritance and diffusion of human cultural variation. Here, we combine these two strands of research by proposing that measures of socio-linguistic affiliation derived from language phylogenies track variation in cultural norms that influence how political and economic changes diffuse across the globe. First, we show that changes over time in a country’s democratic or autocratic character correlate with simultaneous changes among their socio-linguistic affiliations more than with changes of spatially proximate countries. Second, we find that models of changes in sovereign default status favor including socio-linguistic affiliations in addition to spatial data. These findings suggest that better measurement of cultural networks could be profoundly useful to policy makers who wish to diversify commercial, social, and other forms of investment across political and economic risks on an international scale. PMID:27110713

Health technology assessment in four countries: response from political science.

PubMed

Chinitz, David

2004-01-01

Four studies, each on health technology assessment (HTA) in a different country, are presented in this volume. Conveying differing levels of sensitivity to political aspects of HTA, their storylines are similar in terms of the importance of the institutional structures that produce HTA and mediate its influence on health policy decision making. Regarding the internal politics of HTA, the latter appears to have developed in a relatively depoliticized environment, supported by a dense and varied web of institutional sites for funding, production, and consumption of HTA, buffered from the capricious impacts of electoral politics. Regarding external politics, HTA in all the countries began with relatively politically innocuous studies of technologies recognized to be of major import to national health systems or researcher-initiated studies. However, with increased focus in health systems on explicit determination of health benefits baskets, the role of HTA has become more high profile. This means that political accountability for the entire HTA process will increase. The implication is that future management of HTA programs will require self-conscious attention to the building of institutions capable of handling the delicate process of integrating science and politics in health policy.

Metacommunity composition of web-spiders in a fragmented neotropical forest: relative importance of environmental and spatial effects.

PubMed

Baldissera, Ronei; Rodrigues, Everton N L; Hartz, Sandra M

2012-01-01

The distribution of beta diversity is shaped by factors linked to environmental and spatial control. The relative importance of both processes in structuring spider metacommunities has not yet been investigated in the Atlantic Forest. The variance explained by purely environmental, spatially structured environmental, and purely spatial components was compared for a metacommunity of web spiders. The study was carried out in 16 patches of Atlantic Forest in southern Brazil. Field work was done in one landscape mosaic representing a slight gradient of urbanization. Environmental variables encompassed plot- and patch-level measurements and a climatic matrix, while principal coordinates of neighbor matrices (PCNMs) acted as spatial variables. A forward selection procedure was carried out to select environmental and spatial variables influencing web-spider beta diversity. Variation partitioning was used to estimate the contribution of pure environmental and pure spatial effects and their shared influence on beta-diversity patterns, and to estimate the relative importance of selected environmental variables. Three environmental variables (bush density, land use in the surroundings of patches, and shape of patches) and two spatial variables were selected by forward selection procedures. Variation partitioning revealed that 15% of the variation of beta diversity was explained by a combination of environmental and PCNM variables. Most of this variation (12%) corresponded to pure environmental and spatially environmental structure. The data indicated that (1) spatial legacy was not important in explaining the web-spider beta diversity; (2) environmental predictors explained a significant portion of the variation in web-spider composition; (3) one-third of environmental variation was due to a spatial structure that jointly explains variation in species distributions. We were able to detect important factors related to matrix management influencing the web-spider beta

Visual objects and universal meanings: AIDS posters and the politics of globalisation and history.

PubMed

Stein, Claudia; Cooter, Roger

2011-01-01

Drawing on recent visual and spatial turns in history writing, this paper considers AIDS posters from the perspective of their museum 'afterlife' as collected material objects. Museum spaces serve changing political and epistemological projects, and the visual objects they house are not immune from them. A recent globally themed exhibition of AIDS posters at an arts and crafts museum in Hamburg is cited in illustration. The exhibition also serves to draw attention to institutional continuities in collecting agendas. Revealed, contrary to postmodernist expectations, is how today's application of aesthetic display for the purpose of making 'global connections' does not radically break with the virtues and morals attached to the visual at the end of the nineteenth century. The historicisation of such objects needs to take into account this complicated mix of change and continuity in aesthetic concepts and political inscriptions. Otherwise, historians fall prey to seductive aesthetics without being aware of the politics of them. This article submits that aesthetics is politics.

Visual Objects and Universal Meanings: AIDS Posters and the Politics of Globalisation and History

PubMed Central

STEIN, CLAUDIA; COOTER, ROGER

2011-01-01

Drawing on recent visual and spatial turns in history writing, this paper considers AIDS posters from the perspective of their museum ‘afterlife’ as collected material objects. Museum spaces serve changing political and epistemological projects, and the visual objects they house are not immune from them. A recent globally themed exhibition of AIDS posters at an arts and crafts museum in Hamburg is cited in illustration. The exhibition also serves to draw attention to institutional continuities in collecting agendas. Revealed, contrary to postmodernist expectations, is how today’s application of aesthetic display for the purpose of making ‘global connections’ does not radically break with the virtues and morals attached to the visual at the end of the nineteenth century. The historicisation of such objects needs to take into account this complicated mix of change and continuity in aesthetic concepts and political inscriptions. Otherwise, historians fall prey to seductive aesthetics without being aware of the politics of them. This article submits that aesthetics is politics. PMID:23752866

Organizational politics, participation in decision-making, and job satisfaction.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1992-04-01

The study tested two hypotheses: (a) that organizational politics as measured by the Kacmar and Ferris (1991) Perceptions of Organizational Politics Scale would be negatively related to feelings of job satisfaction; and (b) that participation in deci...

High cognitive reserve is associated with a reduced age-related deficit in spatial conflict resolution

PubMed Central

Puccioni, Olga; Vallesi, Antonino

2012-01-01

Several studies support the existence of a specific age-related difficulty in suppressing potentially distracting information. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether spatial conflict resolution is selectively affected by aging. The way aging affects individuals could be modulated by many factors determined by the socieconomic status: we investigated whether factors such as cognitive reserve (CR) and years of education may play a compensatory role against age-related deficits in the spatial domain. A spatial Stroop task with no feature repetitions was administered to a sample of 17 non-demented older adults (69–79 years-old) and 18 younger controls (18–34 years-old) matched for gender and years of education. The two age groups were also administered with measures of intelligence and CR. The overall spatial Stroop effect did not differ according to age, neither for speed nor for accuracy. The two age groups equally showed sequential effects for congruent trials: reduced response times (RTs) if another congruent trial preceded them, and accuracy at ceiling. For incongruent trials, older adults, but not younger controls, were influenced by congruency of trialn−1, since RTs increased with preceding congruent trials. Interestingly, such an age-related modulation negatively correlated with CR. These findings suggest that spatial conflict resolution in aging is predominantly affected by general slowing, rather than by a more specific deficit. However, a high level of CR seems to play a compensatory role for both factors. PMID:23248595

Origin of political conflict in Arctic wilderness areas

Treesearch

James N. Gladden

2002-01-01

There are several important factors related to political conflict associated with arctic wilderness areas: scientific studies, economic interests, ethnic identities, geographic differences, and national histories. How groups with an interest in these wilderness areas inject their values into these factors stimulates political debate with each other and with stewarding...

Union Underground: Political Issues. Comparing Political Experiences, Experimental Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillespie, Judith A.; Lazarus, Stuart

This is the third unit to the second-semester "Comparing Political Experiences" course which focuses on a specific, controversial, political issue. The unit analyzes the concept of political maintenance by studying the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) between 1918 and 1975 and its fight to secure mine safety standards. A documentary…

Key Spatial Relations-based Focused Crawling (KSRs-FC) for Borderlands Situation Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hou, D. Y.; Wu, H.; Chen, J.; Li, R.

2013-11-01

Place names play an important role in Borderlands Situation topics, while current focused crawling methods treat them in the same way as other common keywords, which may lead to the omission of many useful web pages. In the paper, place names in web pages and their spatial relations were firstly discussed. Then, a focused crawling method named KSRs-FC was proposed to deal with the collection of situation information about borderlands. In this method, place names and common keywords were represented separately, and some of the spatial relations related to web pages crawling were used in the relevance calculation between the given topic and web pages. Furthermore, an information collection system for borderlands situation analysis was developed based on KSRs-FC. Finally, F-Score method was adopted to quantitatively evaluate this method by comparing with traditional method. Experimental results showed that the F-Score value of the proposed method increased by 11% compared to traditional method with the same sample data. Obviously, KSRs-FC method can effectively reduce the misjudgement of relevant webpages.

Psychoactive substances and the political ecology of mental distress

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

The goal of this paper is to both understand and depathologize clinically significant mental distress related to criminalized contact with psychoactive biotic substances by employing a framework known as critical political ecology of health and disease from the subdiscipline of medical geography. The political ecology of disease framework joins disease ecology with the power-calculus of political economy and calls for situating health-related phenomena in their broad social and economic context, demonstrating how large-scale global processes are at work at the local level, and giving due attention to historical analysis in understanding the relevant human-environment relations. Critical approaches to the political ecology of health and disease have the potential to incorporate ever-broadening social, political, economic, and cultural factors to challenge traditional causes, definitions, and sociomedical understandings of disease. Inspired by the patient-centered medical diagnosis critiques in medical geography, this paper will use a critical political ecology of disease approach to challenge certain prevailing sociomedical interpretations of disease, or more specifically, mental disorder, found in the field of substance abuse diagnostics and the related American punitive public policy regimes of substance abuse prevention and control, with regards to the use of biotic substances. It will do this by first critically interrogating the concept of "substances" and grounding them in an ecological context, reviewing the history of both the development of modern substance control laws and modern substance abuse diagnostics, and understanding the biogeographic dimensions of such approaches. It closes with proposing a non-criminalizing public health approach for regulating human close contact with psychoactive substances using the example of cannabis use. PMID:22257499

Individual Differences in Spatial Text Processing: High Spatial Ability Can Compensate for Spatial Working Memory Interference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meneghetti, Chiara; Gyselinck, Valerie; Pazzaglia, Francesca; De Beni, Rossana

2009-01-01

The present study investigates the relation between spatial ability and visuo-spatial and verbal working memory in spatial text processing. In two experiments, participants listened to a spatial text (Experiments 1 and 2) and a non-spatial text (Experiment 1), at the same time performing a spatial or a verbal concurrent task, or no secondary task.…

Digital Hydrologic Networks Supporting Applications Related to Spatially Referenced Regression Modeling

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brakebill, J.W.; Wolock, D.M.; Terziotti, S.E.

2011-01-01

Digital hydrologic networks depicting surface-water pathways and their associated drainage catchments provide a key component to hydrologic analysis and modeling. Collectively, they form common spatial units that can be used to frame the descriptions of aquatic and watershed processes. In addition, they provide the ability to simulate and route the movement of water and associated constituents throughout the landscape. Digital hydrologic networks have evolved from derivatives of mapping products to detailed, interconnected, spatially referenced networks of water pathways, drainage areas, and stream and watershed characteristics. These properties are important because they enhance the ability to spatially evaluate factors that affect the sources and transport of water-quality constituents at various scales. SPAtially Referenced Regressions On Watershed attributes (SPARROW), a process-based/statistical model, relies on a digital hydrologic network in order to establish relations between quantities of monitored contaminant flux, contaminant sources, and the associated physical characteristics affecting contaminant transport. Digital hydrologic networks modified from the River Reach File (RF1) and National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) geospatial datasets provided frameworks for SPARROW in six regions of the conterminous United States. In addition, characteristics of the modified RF1 were used to update estimates of mean-annual streamflow. This produced more current flow estimates for use in SPARROW modeling. ?? 2011 American Water Resources Association. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Developmental dyscalculia is related to visuo-spatial memory and inhibition impairment☆

PubMed Central

Szucs, Denes; Devine, Amy; Soltesz, Fruzsina; Nobes, Alison; Gabriel, Florence

2013-01-01

Developmental dyscalculia is thought to be a specific impairment of mathematics ability. Currently dominant cognitive neuroscience theories of developmental dyscalculia suggest that it originates from the impairment of the magnitude representation of the human brain, residing in the intraparietal sulcus, or from impaired connections between number symbols and the magnitude representation. However, behavioral research offers several alternative theories for developmental dyscalculia and neuro-imaging also suggests that impairments in developmental dyscalculia may be linked to disruptions of other functions of the intraparietal sulcus than the magnitude representation. Strikingly, the magnitude representation theory has never been explicitly contrasted with a range of alternatives in a systematic fashion. Here we have filled this gap by directly contrasting five alternative theories (magnitude representation, working memory, inhibition, attention and spatial processing) of developmental dyscalculia in 9–10-year-old primary school children. Participants were selected from a pool of 1004 children and took part in 16 tests and nine experiments. The dominant features of developmental dyscalculia are visuo-spatial working memory, visuo-spatial short-term memory and inhibitory function (interference suppression) impairment. We hypothesize that inhibition impairment is related to the disruption of central executive memory function. Potential problems of visuo-spatial processing and attentional function in developmental dyscalculia probably depend on short-term memory/working memory and inhibition impairments. The magnitude representation theory of developmental dyscalculia was not supported. PMID:23890692

22 CFR 1203.735-211 - Activities relating to private organizations and politics.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... Political Science Association, the American Economic Association, the American Foreign Service Association... Federal employee of the executive branch to use the employee's official authority or influence for the...

22 CFR 1203.735-211 - Activities relating to private organizations and politics.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... Political Science Association, the American Economic Association, the American Foreign Service Association... Federal employee of the executive branch to use the employee's official authority or influence for the...

22 CFR 1203.735-211 - Activities relating to private organizations and politics.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... Political Science Association, the American Economic Association, the American Foreign Service Association... Federal employee of the executive branch to use the employee's official authority or influence for the...

22 CFR 1203.735-211 - Activities relating to private organizations and politics.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... Political Science Association, the American Economic Association, the American Foreign Service Association... Federal employee of the executive branch to use the employee's official authority or influence for the...

22 CFR 1203.735-211 - Activities relating to private organizations and politics.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... Political Science Association, the American Economic Association, the American Foreign Service Association... Federal employee of the executive branch to use the employee's official authority or influence for the...

Reflexivity as Methodology: An Approach to the Necessarily Political Work of Senior Groups

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warwick, Robert; Board, Douglas

2012-01-01

Research into senior groups and their political nature has serious gaps. We claim that participants in the process are best placed to be both researchers and, with others, the subject of research. Here we illustrate the shortcomings of current methodologies, such as action research, due to the spatial separation and detemporalisation between what…

The Political Self: How Identity Aligns Preferences With Epistemic Needs.

PubMed

Federico, Christopher M; Ekstrom, Pierce D

2018-06-01

Numerous studies have indicated that the need for closure predicts political preferences. We examined a potential moderator of this relationship: political-identity centrality, or the extent to which individuals' political preferences are central to their self-concept. We tested three hypotheses. First, we predicted that need for closure would be more strongly related to political identity (symbolic ideology and party identification; Hypothesis 1) and issue positions (operational ideology; Hypothesis 2) among individuals who see their political preferences as more self-central. Then we predicted that the stronger relationship between need for closure and issue positions among individuals high in centrality would be accounted for by stronger relationships between need for closure and political identity and between political identity and issue positions (Hypothesis 3). Data from a nationally representative survey provide evidence for these hypotheses, suggesting that the relationship between epistemic needs and political preferences differs as a function of how self-relevant politics is.

Transformative Relation of Kinematical Descriptive Quantities Defined by Different Spatial Referential Frame, Its Property and Application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Ji

2012-08-01

Quantitative transformations between corresponding kinetic quantities defined by any two spatial referential frames, whose relative kinematics relations (purely rotational and translational movement) are known, are presented based on necessarily descriptive definitions of the fundamental concepts (instant, time, spatial referential frame that distinguishes from Maths. Coordination, physical point) had being clarified by directly empirical observation with artificially descriptive purpose. Inductive investigation of the transformation reveals that all physical quantities such as charge, temperature, time, volume, length, temporal rate of the quantities and relations like temporal relation between signal source and observer as such are independent to spatial frames transformation except above kinematical quantities transformations, kinematics related dynamics such as Newton ’ s second law existing only in inertial frames and exchange of kinetic energy of mass being valid only in a selected inertial frame. From above bas is, we demonstrate a series of inferences and applications such as phase velocity of light being direct respect to medium (including vacuum) rather than to the frame, using spatial referential frame to describe any measurable field (electric field, magnetic field, gravitational field) and the field ’ s variation; and have tables to contrast and evaluate all aspects of those hypotheses related with spacetime such as distorted spacetime around massive stellar, four dimension spacetime, gravitational time dilation and non - Euclid geometry with new one. The demonstration strongly suggests all the hypotheses are invalid in capable tested concepts ’ meaning and relations. The conventional work on frame transformation and its property, hypothesized by Voigt, Heaviside, Lorentz, Poincare and Einstein a century ago with some mathematical speculation lacking rigorous definition of the fundamental concepts such as instant, time, spatial reference

Openness as a predictor of political orientation and conventional and unconventional political activism in Western and Eastern Europe.

PubMed

Roets, Arne; Cornelis, Ilse; Van Hiel, Alain

2014-01-01

This study provides a comprehensive investigation of the relationship between Openness and political orientation and activism in Europe. Analyses were conducted on the 4 waves of the European Social Survey, including large representative samples in up to 26 European countries (total N > 175,000). In line with previous studies, a robust, positive relationship between Openness and left-wing political orientation was obtained in Western Europe. However, in Eastern Europe, the relationship between Openness and political orientation was weaker, and reversed in 3 out of 4 waves. Moreover, Openness yielded significant positive relationships with unconventional activism and to a lesser degree with conventional activism. The magnitude of the relationship between Openness and activism was dependent on political orientation and region. Stronger associations between Openness and activism were found for those having a left-wing orientation in Western Europe, whereas in Eastern Europe, Openness was somewhat stronger related to activism for those having a right-wing orientation. In the discussion we elaborate on the role of the geopolitical context in the relationship between Openness and political variables.

A trauma-like model of political extremism: psycho-political fault lines in Israel.

PubMed

Laor, Nathaniel; Yanay-Shani, Alma; Wolmer, Leo; Khoury, Oula

2010-10-01

This study examines a trauma-like model of potentially violent political extremism among Jewish Israelis. We study the psychosocial characteristics of political extremists that may lie at the root of sociopolitical instability and assess personal (gender, stressful life events, Holocaust family background, and political activism) and psychological parameters (self- and political transcendence, perceived political threats, in/out-group identification ratio) that may predict readiness to engage in destructive political behavior. We examine the ideological zeal of various political groups, the relationship between the latter and perceived political threats, and the predictors of extreme political activism. Results showed that the extreme political poles displayed high level of ideological and morbid transcendence. Right extremists displayed higher perceived threats to physical existence and national identity. Left extremists scored highest on perceived moral integrity threat. Higher perceived threats to national identity and moral integrity, risk, and self-transcendence statistically explain morbid transcendence. When fear conjures up extremely skewed sociopolitical identifications across political boundaries, morbid transcendence may manifest itself in destructive political activity. © 2010 Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease.

What price politics? Scientists and political controversy.

PubMed

Nye, M J

1999-01-01

There is a long tradition within scientific communities that encourages governments, patrons and citizens to enlist scientific expertise in the service of the public good. However, since the 17th century, scientists who have engaged in public political controversy have often been judged harshly by scientific colleagues, as well as by political adversaries. Some prominent scientists were politically active in Germany, France and England during the 1920s and 1930s; controversial stands were taken by the British physicist P.M.S. Blackett and the American chemist Linus C. Pauling against their countries' nuclear weapons policy following the Second World War.

Radical Hope and Teaching: Learning Political Agency from the Politically Disenfranchised

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edgoose, Julian

2009-01-01

If teaching is a political act, how can teachers hope to make a difference through their work? In this review essay, Julian Edgoose explores this question of hope in relation to three recent books: David Halpin's "Hope and Education," Jonathan Kozol's "Letters to a Young Teacher," and Jonathan Lear's "Radical Hope." Halpin describes how hope comes…

Temporal, Spatial and Embodied Relations in the Teacher's Day at School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holland, Janet; Gordon, Tuula; Lahelma, Elina

2007-01-01

In this paper, we draw on a cross-cultural ethnographic study conducted in two secondary schools in Helsinki (Finland), and two in London (UK). In our analysis of everyday life in schools, space is not merely a backdrop to activities that take place, it also shapes processes and activities, and spatial relations are simultaneously temporal. Here,…

Women, Demography, and Politics: How Lower Fertility Rates Lead to Democracy.

PubMed

Sommer, Udi

2018-04-01

Where connections between demography and politics are examined in the literature, it is largely in the context of the effects of male aspects of demography on phenomena such as political violence. This project aims to place the study of demographic variables' influence on politics, particularly on democracy, squarely within the scope of political and social sciences, and to focus on the effects of woman-related demographics-namely, fertility rate. I test the hypothesis that demographic variables-female-related predictors, in particular-have an independent effect on political structure. Comparing countries over time, this study finds a growth in democracy when fertility rates decline. In the theoretical framework developed, it is family structure as well as the economic and political status of women that account for this change at the macro and micro levels. Findings based on data for more than 140 countries over three decades are robust when controlling not only for alternative effects but also for reverse causality and data limitations.

Political repression, civil society and the politics of responding to AIDS in the BRICS nations.

PubMed

Gómez, Eduardo J; Harris, Joseph

2016-02-01

The policy responses to human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) nations have played out amid radically different political environments that have shaped state-civil society relations in critical ways. In contrasting these different environments, this article offers the first comparison of the policy response to AIDS in the BRICS nations and seeks to understand the way in which political context matters for conditioning the response to a major epidemic. Using a comparative historical approach, we find that while collaborative state-civil society relations have produced an aggressive response and successful outcomes in Brazil, democratic openness and state-civil society engagement has not necessarily correlated with an aggressive response or better outcomes in the other cases. Response to the epidemic has been worst by far in democratic South Africa, followed by Russia, where in the former, denialism and antagonistic state-civil society relations fuelled a delayed response and proved extremely costly in terms of human lives. In Russia, a lack of civil societal opportunity for mobilization and non-governmental organization (NGO) growth, political centralization and the state's unwillingness to work with NGOs led to an ineffective government response. Top-down bureaucratic rule and a reluctance to fully engage civil society in democratic India substantially delayed the state's efforts to engage in a successful partnership with NGOs. Nevertheless, China has done surprisingly well, in spite of its repressive approach and narrow engagement with civil society. And in all cases, we find the relationship between state and civil society to be evolving over time in important ways. These findings suggest the need for more research on the links between democratic openness, political repression and policy responses to epidemics. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press in

Islam, religiosity, and immigrant political action in Western Europe.

PubMed

Just, Aida; Sandovici, Maria Elena; Listhaug, Ola

2014-01-01

The issues of migration and immigrant political integration in western democracies have become increasingly intertwined with debates on religion, particularly Islam. To date, however, we have surprisingly little systematic research on how religious beliefs are related to immigrants' political engagement. In this study, we argue that religion has a capacity to mobilize immigrants politically but the strength of this relationship depends on immigrant generation, religiosity, and the type of religion. Using survey data collected as part of the European Social Survey (ESS) 2002-2010 in 18 West European democracies, our analyses reveal that religion is indeed linked to political engagement of immigrants in a complex way: while belonging to a religion is generally associated with less political participation, exposure to religious institutions appears to have the opposite effect. Moreover, we find that, compared to foreign-born Muslims, second-generation Muslim immigrants are not only more religious and more politically dissatisfied with their host countries, but also that religiosity is more strongly linked to their political engagement. This relationship, however, is limited to uninstitutionalized political action. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Political epidemiology: strengthening socio-political analysis for mass immunisation - lessons from the smallpox and polio programmes.

PubMed

Taylor, S

2009-01-01

Control and reduction of infectious diseases is a key to attaining the Millennium Development Goals. An important element of this work is the successful immunisation, especially in resource-poor countries. Mass immunisation, most intensively in the case of eradication, depends on a combination of reliable demand (e.g. public willingness to comply with the vaccine protocol) and effective supply (e.g. robust, generally state-led, vaccine delivery). This balance of compliance and enforceability is, quintessentially, socio-political in nature - conditioned by popular perceptions of disease and risk, wider conditions of economic development and poverty, technical aspects of vaccine delivery, and the prevailing international norms regarding power relations between states and peoples. In the past 100 years, three out of six disease eradication programmes have failed. The explanations for failure have focused on biotechnical and managerial or financial issues. Less attention is paid to socio-political aspects. Yet socio-political explanations are key. Eradication is neither inherently prone to failure, nor necessarily doomed in the case of polio. However, eradication, and similar mass immunisation initiatives, which fail to address social and political realities of intervention may be. A comparison of the smallpox and polio eradication programmes illustrates the importance of disease-specific socio-political analysis in programme conceptualisation, design, and management.

Politics and Educational Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merritt, Richard L.; Coombs, Fred S.

1977-01-01

Provides a brief analysis of educational policymaking processes in terms of how they underscore the political basis of educational decisions. Examines four approaches to explaining collective decisions--rational decisionmaking theory, pluralist theory, systems analysis, and cybernetic theory--to explore how each might relate in quite different…

Age-related changes in rostral basal forebrain cholinergic and GABAergic projection neurons: Relationship with spatial impairment

PubMed Central

Bañuelos, C.; LaSarge, C. L.; McQuail, J. A.; Hartman, J. J.; Gilbert, R. J.; Ormerod, B. K.; Bizon, J. L.

2013-01-01

Both cholinergic and GABAergic projections from the rostral basal forebrain have been implicated in hippocampal function and mnemonic abilities. While dysfunction of cholinergic neurons has been heavily implicated in age-related memory decline, significantly less is known regarding how age-related changes in co-distributed GABAergic projection neurons contribute to a decline in hippocampal-dependent spatial learning. In the current study, confocal stereology was used to quantify cholinergic (choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) immunopositive) neurons, GABAergic projection (glutamic decarboxylase 67 (GAD67) immunopositive) neurons, and total (NeuN immunopositive) neurons in the rostral basal forebrain of young and aged rats that were first characterized on a spatial learning task. ChAT immunopositive neurons were significantly but modestly reduced in aged rats. Although ChAT immunopositive neuron number was strongly correlated with spatial learning abilities among young rats, the reduction of ChAT immunopositive neurons was not associated with impaired spatial learning in aged rats. In contrast, the number of GAD67 immunopositive neurons was robustly and selectively elevated in aged rats that exhibited impaired spatial learning. Interestingly, the total number of rostral basal forebrain neurons was comparable in young and aged rats, regardless of their cognitive status. These data demonstrate differential effects of age on phenotypically distinct rostral basal forebrain projection neurons, and implicate dysregulated cholinergic and GABAergic septohippocampal circuitry in age-related mnemonic decline. PMID:22817834

Incorporating spatial context into the analysis of salmonid habitat relations: Chapter 18

USGS Publications Warehouse

Torgersen, Christian E.; Baxter, Colden V.; Ebersole, J.L.; Gresswell, Bob; Church, Michael; Biron, Pascale M.; Roy, Andre G.

2012-01-01

In this response to the chapter by Lapointe (this volume), we discuss the question of why it is so difficult to predict salmonid-habitat relations in gravel-bed rivers and streams. We acknowledge that this cannot be an exhaustive treatment of the subject and, thus, identify what we believe are several key issues that demonstrate the necessity of incorporating spatial context into the analysis of fish-habitat data. Our emphasis is on spatial context (i.e., scale and location), but it is important to note that the same principles may be applied with some modification to temporal context, which is beyond the scope of this chapter.

Cross-National Gender Gaps in Political Knowledge

PubMed Central

Fortin-Rittberger, Jessica

2016-01-01

Although the majority of studies on political knowledge document lingering gender-based differences in advanced industrial democracies, most contributors have drawn such conclusions from a single or a handful of countries, using limited batteries of political information items. Exploiting a pooled data set of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems encompassing 106 post-election surveys in forty-seven countries between 1996 and 2011, this article demonstrates that survey instrument–related factors, such as question format and content, as well as the overall difficulty of questions, are more consequential in shaping the size of gender gaps in political knowledge than institutional factors, such as electoral rules or opportunity structures. The research design of this article draws from almost three hundred different items measuring factual political knowledge using the broadest country coverage and most comprehensive approach to measurement to date. PMID:27524874

The politics of disaster - Nicaragua.

PubMed

Bommer, J

1985-12-01

The occurrence of natural disasters, such as floods and earthquakes, are, in themselves, beyond oar control. However, careful preparation before such events, and the correct management of the problem once it occurs, can both lead to major redaction of the suffering involved. Disaster preparation and emergency planning are both inextricably linked to politics and economics, both on a national and an international scale. Disasters themselves raise a number of issues of a political or economic nature, and die response to a natural disaster both in the short and the long term is largely determined by the political relations within a country, and between that country and the international community. This paper examines these issues by taking the examples of the earthquake of Managua, Nicaragua in 1972 and the flooding that occurred in Nicaragua in 1982. These two natural disasters occurred under different administrations in Nicaragua, and tills allows some interesting comparisons.

Participating in Political Activities: Political Systems, Unit Three. Comparing Political Experiences, Experimental Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillespie, Judith A.; Patrick, John J.

The third unit to the first-semester course, "Comparing Political Experiences," provides 16 activities to help 12th-grade students acquire in-depth knowledge of various kinds of political activities, such as decision making, leadership, communication, and participation. The activities and readings are divided into six sections which…

Associations between Femininity and Women's Political Behavior during Midlife

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cole, Elizabeth R.; Sabik, Natalie J.

2010-01-01

The contention that femininity makes women unsuited for political participation has roots in feminist theory and political science. This study investigated whether the desirable and undesirable dimensions of femininity, corresponding to Feminine Interpersonal Relations (FIR: warmth, nurturance, and interpersonal appeal) and Feminine Self-Doubt…

Plants, People, and Politics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Galston, Arthur W.

1970-01-01

Advocates that some established botanists should become involved in social and political problems to which botanical expertise is relevant. Discusses food production in relation to world population growth, indicating problems on which botanical knowledge and research should be brought to bear. Discusses herbicides and plant growth regulators as…

Object-Spatial Visualization and Verbal Cognitive Styles, and Their Relation to Cognitive Abilities and Mathematical Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haciomeroglu, Erhan Selcuk

2016-01-01

The present study investigated the object-spatial visualization and verbal cognitive styles among high school students and related differences in spatial ability, verbal-logical reasoning ability, and mathematical performance of those students. Data were collected from 348 students enrolled in Advanced Placement calculus courses at six high…

Cross-Cultural Variation in Political Leadership Styles

PubMed Central

Paramova, Petia; Blumberg, Herbert

2017-01-01

Guided by gaps in the literature with regard to the study of politicians the aim of the research is to explore cross-cultural differences in political leaders’ style. It compares the MLQ (Avolio & Bass, 2004) scores of elected political leaders (N = 140) in Bulgaria and the UK. The statistical exploration of the data relied on multivariate analyses of covariance. The findings of comparisons across the two groups reveal that compared to British political leaders, Bulgarian leaders were more likely to frequently use both transactional and passive/avoidant behaviours. The study tests Bass’s (1997) strong assertion about the universality of transformational leadership. It contributes to the leadership literature by providing directly measured data relating to the behaviours of political leaders. Such information on the characteristics of politicians could allow for more directional hypotheses in subsequent research, exploring the contextual influences within transformational leadership theory. The outcomes might also aid applied fields. Knowledge gained of culturally different leaders could be welcomed by multicultural political and economic unions, wherein understanding and allowances might aid communication. PMID:29358986

Cross-Cultural Variation in Political Leadership Styles.

PubMed

Paramova, Petia; Blumberg, Herbert

2017-11-01

Guided by gaps in the literature with regard to the study of politicians the aim of the research is to explore cross-cultural differences in political leaders' style. It compares the MLQ (Avolio & Bass, 2004) scores of elected political leaders (N = 140) in Bulgaria and the UK. The statistical exploration of the data relied on multivariate analyses of covariance. The findings of comparisons across the two groups reveal that compared to British political leaders, Bulgarian leaders were more likely to frequently use both transactional and passive/avoidant behaviours. The study tests Bass's (1997) strong assertion about the universality of transformational leadership. It contributes to the leadership literature by providing directly measured data relating to the behaviours of political leaders. Such information on the characteristics of politicians could allow for more directional hypotheses in subsequent research, exploring the contextual influences within transformational leadership theory. The outcomes might also aid applied fields. Knowledge gained of culturally different leaders could be welcomed by multicultural political and economic unions, wherein understanding and allowances might aid communication.

The Decline in Diffuse Support for National Politics

PubMed Central

Jennings, Will; Clarke, Nick; Moss, Jonathan; Stoker, Gerry

2017-01-01

Abstract This research note considers how to track long-term trajectories of political discontent in Britain. Many accounts are confined to using either survey data drawn from recent decades or imperfect behavioral measures such as voting or party membership as indicators of political disengagement. We instead develop an approach that provides the long view on political disaffection. We first consider time-series data available from repeated survey measures. We next replicate historic survey questions to observe change in public opinion relative to earlier points in time. Finally, we use Stimson’s (1991) dyad-ratios algorithm to construct an over-time index of political discontent that combines data from multiple poll series. This reveals rising levels of political discontent for both specific and diffuse measures of mass opinion. Our method and findings offer insights into the rising tide of disillusionment afflicting many contemporary democracies. PMID:29731522

Developmental dyscalculia is related to visuo-spatial memory and inhibition impairment.

PubMed

Szucs, Denes; Devine, Amy; Soltesz, Fruzsina; Nobes, Alison; Gabriel, Florence

2013-01-01

Developmental dyscalculia is thought to be a specific impairment of mathematics ability. Currently dominant cognitive neuroscience theories of developmental dyscalculia suggest that it originates from the impairment of the magnitude representation of the human brain, residing in the intraparietal sulcus, or from impaired connections between number symbols and the magnitude representation. However, behavioral research offers several alternative theories for developmental dyscalculia and neuro-imaging also suggests that impairments in developmental dyscalculia may be linked to disruptions of other functions of the intraparietal sulcus than the magnitude representation. Strikingly, the magnitude representation theory has never been explicitly contrasted with a range of alternatives in a systematic fashion. Here we have filled this gap by directly contrasting five alternative theories (magnitude representation, working memory, inhibition, attention and spatial processing) of developmental dyscalculia in 9-10-year-old primary school children. Participants were selected from a pool of 1004 children and took part in 16 tests and nine experiments. The dominant features of developmental dyscalculia are visuo-spatial working memory, visuo-spatial short-term memory and inhibitory function (interference suppression) impairment. We hypothesize that inhibition impairment is related to the disruption of central executive memory function. Potential problems of visuo-spatial processing and attentional function in developmental dyscalculia probably depend on short-term memory/working memory and inhibition impairments. The magnitude representation theory of developmental dyscalculia was not supported. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Jobs and Engines: Political Issues. Comparing Political Experiences, Experimental Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillespie, Judith A.; Lazarus, Stuart

This is the fourth unit to the 12th-grade second-semester "Comparing Political Experiences" course which focuses on specific controversial political issues. The unit analyzes the concept of political development by examining the Cummins Engine Company and employee job security during the company's growth into a multinational corporation.…

Practicing Politics: Female Political Scientists as Candidates for Elective Office

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burrell, Barbara

2012-01-01

In 2007, University of Oklahoma political science professor Cindy Simon Rosenthal was elected mayor of Norman, Oklahoma, after having served as a member of its city council. Was her activity unique within the political science profession among female political scientists? Her election stimulated the curiosity of some of us in the…

Clean Air Now: Political Issues. Comparing Political Experiences, Experimental Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillespie, Judith A.; Lazarus, Stuart

The fourth unit to the second-semester "Comparing Political Experiences" course focuses on a specific, controversial, political issue. Using a documentary approach, this unit analyzes the concept of political change by examining the changes in Riverside, California, as that community confronts the issue of smog. The unit is divided into…

"Acceptance of the Limits of Knowability in Oneself and Others": Performative Politics and Relational Ethics in the Primary School Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Teague, Laura

2015-01-01

This paper takes up Judith Butler's calls to suspend the desire to completely know the other, and discusses these in relation to the pedagogic relationship in the classroom. It draws upon existing accounts of performative reinscription as a politics to disrupt exclusionary schooling practices and discusses these alongside Butler's theories of…

Qualitative Differences in the Representation of Spatial Relations for Different Object Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Eric E.; Brooks, Brian E.

2004-01-01

Two experiments investigated whether the representations used for animal, produce, and object recognition code spatial relations in a similar manner. Experiment 1 tested the effects of planar rotation on the recognition of animals and nonanimal objects. Response times for recognizing animals followed an inverted U-shaped function, whereas those…

Political Consciousness but Not Political Engagement: Results from a Service-Learning Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harker, Dave

2016-01-01

How does participation in a service-learning program impact the way students think about politics and political engagement? There are reasons to expect that service-learning can contribute to the development of a political consciousness and the skills necessary for political participation. The author uses participant observation, in-depth…

Building Political Participation: The Role of Family Policy and Political Science Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parrott, Emily

2017-01-01

This mixed-methods study examined the long-term associations between two kinds of politics courses--required political science courses and required family policy courses--and the political participation, knowledge, skill, efficacy, and politically engaged identity of child and family studies alumni. Two special cases were examined: those who…

Hidden consequences of political efficacy: Testing an efficacy-apathy model of political mobilization.

PubMed

Osborne, Danny; Yogeeswaran, Kumar; Sibley, Chris G

2015-10-01

Political efficacy-the belief that one can influence politics-is a key predictor of people's involvement in social movements. Political institutions that are open to change should, however, be seen as just. Thus, political efficacy may ironically undermine minority group members' support for collective action by simultaneously increasing their belief in the fairness of the system. The current study aims to examine this possibility in a national sample of Māori-New Zealand's indigenous minority population. Participants (N = 399) were Māori (Mage = 44.22; SD = 13.30) women (n = 272) and men (n = 115; unreported = 12) who completed a survey assessing their levels of (a) political efficacy, (b) system justification, and (c) support for the political mobilization of their group, as well as relevant demographic covariates. Consistent with past research, political efficacy had a positive direct effect on participants' support for the political mobilization of Māori. Nevertheless, political efficacy also had a negative indirect effect on political mobilization support via increases in system justification. These results held after controlling for participants' ethnic identification, self-efficacy, and conservatism. Our findings uncover a hidden consequence of political efficacy and show that, while believing that the political system is receptive to change predicts political mobilization, it can also undermine minorities' support for the mobilization of their group. Thus, our results uncover a previously unknown process that maintains inequality between ethnic minority and majority group members. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Personal values and political activism: a cross-national study.

PubMed

Vecchione, Michele; Schwartz, Shalom H; Caprara, Gian Vittorio; Schoen, Harald; Cieciuch, Jan; Silvester, Jo; Bain, Paul; Bianchi, Gabriel; Kirmanoglu, Hasan; Baslevent, Cem; Mamali, Catalin; Manzi, Jorge; Pavlopoulos, Vassilis; Posnova, Tetyana; Torres, Claudio; Verkasalo, Markku; Lönnqvist, Jan-Erik; Vondráková, Eva; Welzel, Christian; Alessandri, Guido

2015-02-01

Using data from 28 countries in four continents, the present research addresses the question of how basic values may account for political activism. Study 1 (N = 35,116) analyses data from representative samples in 20 countries that responded to the 21-item version of the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ-21) in the European Social Survey. Study 2 (N = 7,773) analyses data from adult samples in six of the same countries (Finland, Germany, Greece, Israel, Poland, and United Kingdom) and eight other countries (Australia, Brazil, Chile, Italy, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, and United States) that completed the full 40-item PVQ. Across both studies, political activism relates positively to self-transcendence and openness to change values, especially to universalism and autonomy of thought, a subtype of self-direction. Political activism relates negatively to conservation values, especially to conformity and personal security. National differences in the strength of the associations between individual values and political activism are linked to level of democratization. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Is love colorblind? Political orientation and interracial romantic desire.

PubMed

Eastwick, Paul W; Richeson, Jennifer A; Son, Deborah; Finkel, Eli J

2009-09-01

The present research examined the association of political orientation with ingroup favoritism in two live romantic contexts. In Study 1, White participants had sequential interactions with both a White and Black confederate and reported their romantic desire for each. In Study 2, both White and Black participants speed-dated multiple potential romantic partners and reported whether they would be interested in meeting each speed-dating partner again. In both studies, White participants' political conservatism positively predicted the strength of the ingroup-favoring bias: White conservatives were less likely than White liberals to desire Black (interracial) relative to White potential romantic partners. In contrast, Black participants' political conservatism negatively predicted the strength of the ingroup-favoring bias: Consistent with system-justification theory, Black conservatives were more likely than Black liberals to desire White (interracial) relative to Black potential romantic partners. Political orientation may be a key factor that influences the initiation of interracial romantic relationships.

Politics as Social History: Political Cartoons in the Gilded Age.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, Rebecca

1999-01-01

Provides analyses of four political cartoons in order to suggest approaches to Gilded Age politics that reveal key issues, such as gender, religion, and ethnicity, as well as the struggles over material resources in a stratified economy. Maintains that political cartoons assist students in understanding the ideology of a past era. (CMK)

The Children's Political Checklist.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coalition for Children and Youth, Washington, DC.

The purpose of this guide is to provide background and focus material for political action regarding several areas of concern related to children and their families: unemployment and the working parent, supports for family economic stability, health and family services, and the environment and the working parent. Each chapter presents brief…

Power Versus Affiliation in Political Ideology: Robust Linguistic Evidence for Distinct Motivation-Related Signatures.

PubMed

Fetterman, Adam K; Boyd, Ryan L; Robinson, Michael D

2015-09-01

Posited motivational differences between liberals and conservatives have historically been controversial. This motivational interface has recently been bridged, but the vast majority of studies have used self-reports of values or motivation. Instead, the present four studies investigated whether two classic social motive themes--power and affiliation--vary by political ideology in objective linguistic analysis terms. Study 1 found that posts to liberal chat rooms scored higher in standardized affiliation than power, whereas the reverse was true of posts to conservative chat rooms. Study 2 replicated this pattern in the context of materials posted to liberal versus conservative political news websites. Studies 3 and 4, finally, replicated a similar interactive (ideology by motive type) pattern in State of the State and State of the Union addresses. Differences in political ideology, these results suggest, are marked by, and likely reflective of, mind-sets favoring affiliation (liberal) or power (conservative). © 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Language between Bodies: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding Linguistic Politeness in American Sign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roush, Daniel R.

2011-01-01

This article proposes an answer to the primary question of how the American Sign Language (ASL) community in the United States conceptualizes (im)politeness and its related notions. It begins with a review of evolving theoretical issues in research on (im)politeness and related methodological problems with studying (im)politeness in natural…

Owl, Fox, Donkey or Sheep: Political Skills for Managers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baddeley, Simon; James, Kim

1987-01-01

The authors describe development of a model useful for teaching political skills in the management curriculum. The model contains two dimensions relating to (1) the skill of "reading" an organization's politics and (2) the skills that individuals carry that predispose them to act in a certain way. (Author/CH).

Visual-spatial abilities relate to mathematics achievement in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure

PubMed Central

Crocker, N.; Riley, E.P.; Mattson, S.N.

2014-01-01

Objective The current study examined the relationship between mathematics and attention, working memory, and visual memory in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure and controls. Method Fifty-six children (29 AE, 27 CON) were administered measures of global mathematics achievement (WRAT-3 Arithmetic & WISC-III Written Arithmetic), attention, (WISC-III Digit Span forward and Spatial Span forward), working memory (WISC-III Digit Span backward and Spatial Span backward), and visual memory (CANTAB Spatial Recognition Memory and Pattern Recognition Memory). The contribution of cognitive domains to mathematics achievement was analyzed using linear regression techniques. Attention, working memory and visual memory data were entered together on step 1 followed by group on step 2, and the interaction terms on step 3. Results Model 1 accounted for a significant amount of variance in both mathematics achievement measures, however, model fit improved with the addition of group on step 2. Significant predictors of mathematics achievement were Spatial Span forward and backward and Spatial Recognition Memory. Conclusions These findings suggest that deficits in spatial processing may be related to math impairments seen in FASD. In addition, prenatal alcohol exposure was associated with deficits in mathematics achievement, above and beyond the contribution of general cognitive abilities. PMID:25000323

Visual-spatial abilities relate to mathematics achievement in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure.

PubMed

Crocker, Nicole; Riley, Edward P; Mattson, Sarah N

2015-01-01

The current study examined the relationship between mathematics and attention, working memory, and visual memory in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure and controls. Subjects were 56 children (29 AE, 27 CON) who were administered measures of global mathematics achievement (WRAT-3 Arithmetic & WISC-III Written Arithmetic), attention, (WISC-III Digit Span forward and Spatial Span forward), working memory (WISC-III Digit Span backward and Spatial Span backward), and visual memory (CANTAB Spatial Recognition Memory and Pattern Recognition Memory). The contribution of cognitive domains to mathematics achievement was analyzed using linear regression techniques. Attention, working memory, and visual memory data were entered together on Step 1 followed by group on Step 2, and the interaction terms on Step 3. Model 1 accounted for a significant amount of variance in both mathematics achievement measures; however, model fit improved with the addition of group on Step 2. Significant predictors of mathematics achievement were Spatial Span forward and backward and Spatial Recognition Memory. These findings suggest that deficits in spatial processing may be related to math impairments seen in FASD. In addition, prenatal alcohol exposure was associated with deficits in mathematics achievement, above and beyond the contribution of general cognitive abilities. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Concepts: Integrating population survey data from different spatial scales, sampling methods, and species

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dorazio, Robert; Delampady, Mohan; Dey, Soumen; Gopalaswamy, Arjun M.; Karanth, K. Ullas; Nichols, James D.

2017-01-01

Conservationists and managers are continually under pressure from the public, the media, and political policy makers to provide “tiger numbers,” not just for protected reserves, but also for large spatial scales, including landscapes, regions, states, nations, and even globally. Estimating the abundance of tigers within relatively small areas (e.g., protected reserves) is becoming increasingly tractable (see Chaps. 9 and 10), but doing so for larger spatial scales still presents a formidable challenge. Those who seek “tiger numbers” are often not satisfied by estimates of tiger occupancy alone, regardless of the reliability of the estimates (see Chaps. 4 and 5). As a result, wherever tiger conservation efforts are underway, either substantially or nominally, scientists and managers are frequently asked to provide putative large-scale tiger numbers based either on a total count or on an extrapolation of some sort (see Chaps. 1 and 2).

Globalization and multi-spatial trends in the coverage of protected-area conservation (1980-2000).

PubMed

Zimmerer, Karl S; Galt, Ryan E; Buck, Margaret V

2004-12-01

This study is focused on the global expansion of protected-area coverage that occurred during the 1980--2000 period. We examine the multi-scale patterning of four of the basic facets of this expansion: i) estimated increases at the world-regional and country-level scales of total protected-area coverage; ii) transboundary protected areas; iii) conservation corridor projects; and iv) type of conservation management. Geospatial patterning of protected-area designations is a reflection of the priorities of global conservation organizations and the globalization of post-Cold War political and economic arrangements. Local and national-level factors (political leadership and infrastructure) as well as international relations such as multilateral and bilateral aid combine with these globalization processes to impact the extent, type, and location of protected-area designations. We conclude that the interaction of these factors led to the creation and reinforcement of marked spatial differences (rather than tendencies toward worldwide evenness or homogenization) in the course of protected-area expansion during the 1980--2000 period.

Organizational Politics, Social Network, and Knowledge Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Hyun Jung; Kang, Sora; Lee, Jongwon

This research identifies the social relationship and structure among members as well as organization’s political inclination, through which, it also identifies the current status of knowledge management. The result shows that the socio-technological factors (individual, knowledge and IT factors) affect knowledge transfer and the knowledge transfer influences performance and that the members’ relationship based on the political inclination of the organization has a major moderating effect on the above two relation.

Political Status of Native Indian Women: Contradictory Implications of Canadian State Policy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fiske, Jo-Anne

1995-01-01

Explores the ambiguous nature of Canadian Native women's political status in relation to men within the internal political processes of Indian reserve communities. Examines linkages among economic factors, domestic organization, and political process, and the disruption of Indian women's lives by state intervention (particularly federal laws…

Children's Spatial Thinking: Does Talk about the Spatial World Matter?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pruden, Shannon M.; Levine, Susan C.; Huttenlocher, Janellen

2011-01-01

In this paper we examine the relations between parent spatial language input, children's own production of spatial language, and children's later spatial abilities. Using a longitudinal study design, we coded the use of spatial language (i.e. words describing the spatial features and properties of objects; e.g. big, tall, circle, curvy, edge) from…

Political orientations do not cancel out, and politics is not about truth.

PubMed

Pfister, Hans-Rüdiger; Böhm, Gisela

2015-01-01

Duarte et al. propose that divergent political biases cancel each other out such that increasing political diversity will improve scientific validity. We argue that this idea is misguided. Their recommendations for improving political diversity in academia bear the danger of imposing political interests on science. Scientific scrutiny and criticism are the only viable remedies for bad science.

Sex Differences in the Relation between Math Performance, Spatial Skills, and Attitudes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ganley, Colleen M.; Vasilyeva, Marina

2011-01-01

Sex differences have been previously found in cognitive and affective predictors of math achievement, including spatial skills and math attitudes. It is important to determine whether there are sex differences not only in the predictors themselves, but also in the nature of their relation to math achievement. The present paper examined spatial…

Activist model of political party growth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeffs, Rebecca A.; Hayward, John; Roach, Paul A.; Wyburn, John

2016-01-01

The membership of British political parties has a direct influence on their political effectiveness. This paper applies the mathematics of epidemiology to the analysis of the growth and decline of such memberships. The party members are divided into activists and inactive members, where all activists influence the quality of party recruitment, but only a subset of activists recruit and thus govern numerical growth. The activists recruit for only a limited period, which acts as a restriction on further party growth. This Limited Activist model is applied to post-war and recent memberships of the Labour, Scottish National and Conservative parties. The model reproduces data trends, and relates realistically to historical narratives. It is concluded that the political parties analysed are not in danger of extinction but experience repeated periods of growth and decline in membership, albeit at lower numbers than in the past.

Political dynamics determined by interactions between political leaders and voters.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bernard, Michael Lewis; Bier, Asmeret; Backus, George A.

2010-03-01

The political dynamics associated with an election are typically a function of the interplay between political leaders and voters, as well as endogenous and exogenous factors that impact the perceptions and goals of the electorate. This paper describes an effort by Sandia National Laboratories to model the attitudes and behaviors of various political groups along with that population's primary influencers, such as government leaders. To accomplish this, Sandia National Laboratories is creating a hybrid system dynamics-cognitive model to simulate systems- and individual-level political dynamics in a hypothetical society. The model is based on well-established psychological theory, applied to both individualsmore » and groups within the modeled society. Confidence management processes are being incorporated into the model design process to increase the utility of the tool and assess its performance. This project will enhance understanding of how political dynamics are determined in democratic society.« less

The Political Science of Information. Pratt Portfolio No. 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Breivik, Patricia Senn, Ed.

This collection of essays focuses on group social and political action as it relates to libraries and their environments. The introduction discusses the group-concept approach to studying library and information science. The essays are case studies of interest group politics, including: (1) the imprisonment of a librarian who refused to give…

Differentiating Spatial Memory from Spatial Transformations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Street, Whitney N.; Wang, Ranxiao Frances

2014-01-01

The perspective-taking task is one of the most common paradigms used to study the nature of spatial memory, and better performance for certain orientations is generally interpreted as evidence of spatial representations using these reference directions. However, performance advantages can also result from the relative ease in certain…

The association between county political inclination and obesity: Results from the 2012 presidential election in the United States.

PubMed

Shin, Michael E; McCarthy, William J

2013-11-01

We examined whether stable, county-level, voter preferences were significantly associated with county-level obesity prevalence using data from the 2012 US Presidential election. County voting preference for the 2012 Republican Party presidential candidate was used as a proxy for voter endorsement of personal responsibility approaches to reducing population obesity risk versus approaches featuring government-sponsored, multi-sectoral efforts like those recommended by the Centers for Disease Control Centers for Disease Control (CDC, 2009). Cartographic visualization and spatial analysis were used to evaluate the geographic clustering of obesity prevalence rates by county, and county-level support for the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 U.S. presidential election. The spatial analysis informed the spatial econometric approach employed to model the relationship between political preferences and other covariates with obesity prevalence. After controlling for poverty rate, percent African American and Latino populations, educational attainment, and spatial autocorrelation in the error term, we found that higher county-level obesity prevalence rates were associated with higher levels of support for the 2012 Republican Party presidential candidate. Future public health efforts to understand and reduce obesity risk may benefit from increased surveillance of this and similar linkages between political preferences and health risks. © 2013.

Astronomy and Politics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steele, John M.

The relationship between astronomy and politics is a complex but important part of understanding the practice of astronomy throughout history. This chapter explores some of the ways that astronomy, astrology, and politics have interacted, placing particular focus on the way that astronomy and astrology have been used for political purposes by both people in power and people who wish to influence a ruler's policy. Also discussed are the effects that politics has had on the development of astronomy and, in particular, upon the recording and preservation of astronomical knowledge.

A spatial analysis of health-related resources in three diverse metropolitan areas

PubMed Central

Smiley, Melissa J.; Diez Roux, Ana V.; Brines, Shannon J.; Brown, Daniel G.; Evenson, Kelly R.; Rodriguez, Daniel A.

2010-01-01

Few studies have investigated the spatial clustering of multiple health-related resources. We constructed 0.5-mile kernel densities of resources for census areas in New York City, NY (n=819 block groups), Baltimore, MD (n=737), and Winston-Salem, NC (n=169). Three of the four resource densities (supermarkets/produce stores, retail areas, and recreational facilities) tended to be correlated with each other, whereas park density was less consistently and sometimes negatively correlated with the others. Blacks were more likely to live in block groups with multiple low resource densities. Spatial regression models showed that block groups with higher proportions of black residents tended to have lower supermarket/produce, retail, and recreational facility densities, although these associations did not always achieve statistical significance. A measure that combined local and neighboring block group racial composition was often a stronger predictor of resources than the local measure alone. Overall, our results from three diverse U.S. cities show that health-related resources are not randomly distributed across space and that disadvantage in multiple domains often clusters with residential racial patterning. PMID:20478737

Political violence, collective functioning and health: A review of the literature

PubMed Central

Sousa, Cindy A.

2013-01-01

Political violence is implicated in a range of mental health outcomes, including PTSD, depression, and anxiety. The social and political contexts of people’s lives, however, offer considerable protection from the mental health effects of political violence. In spite of the importance of people’s social and political environments for health, there is limited scholarship on how political violence compromises necessary social and political systems and inhibits individuals from participating in social and political life. Drawing on literature from multiple disciplines, including public health, anthropology, and psychology, this narrative review uses a multi-level, social ecological framework to enhance current knowledge about the ways that political violence affects health. Findings from over 50 studies were analyzed and used to build a conceptual model demonstrating how political violence threatens three inter-related domains of functioning: individual functioning in relationship to their environment; community functioning and social fabric; and governmental functioning and delivery of services to populations. Results illustrate the need for multilevel frameworks that move beyond individual pathology towards more nuanced conceptualizations about how political violence affects health; findings contribute to the development of prevention programs addressing political violence. PMID:24133929

Political violence, collective functioning and health: a review of the literature.

PubMed

Sousa, Cindy A

2013-01-01

Political violence is implicated in a range of mental health outcomes, including PTSD, depression, and anxiety. The social and political contexts of people's lives, however, offer considerable protection from the mental health effects of political violence. In spite of the importance of people's social and political environments for health, there is limited scholarship on how political violence compromises necessary social and political systems and inhibits individuals from participating in social and political life. Drawing on literature from multiple disciplines, including public health, anthropology, and psychology, this narrative review uses a multi-level, social ecological framework to enhance current knowledge about the ways that political violence affects health. Findings from over 50 studies were analysed and used to build a conceptual model demonstrating how political violence threatens three inter-related domains of functioning: individual functioning in relationship to their environment; community functioning and social fabric; and governmental functioning and delivery of services to populations. Results illustrate the need for multilevel frameworks that move beyond individual pathology towards more nuanced conceptualizations about how political violence affects health; findings contribute to the development of prevention programmes addressing political violence.

The Construction of Visual-spatial Situation Models in Children's Reading and Their Relation to Reading Comprehension

PubMed Central

Barnes, Marcia A.; Raghubar, Kimberly P.; Faulkner, Heather; Denton, Carolyn A.

2014-01-01

Readers construct mental models of situations described by text to comprehend what they read, updating these situation models based on explicitly described and inferred information about causal, temporal, and spatial relations. Fluent adult readers update their situation models while reading narrative text based in part on spatial location information that is consistent with the perspective of the protagonist. The current study investigates whether children update spatial situation models in a similar way, whether there are age-related changes in children's formation of spatial situation models during reading, and whether measures of the ability to construct and update spatial situation models are predictive of reading comprehension. Typically-developing children from ages 9 through 16 years (n=81) were familiarized with a physical model of a marketplace. Then the model was covered, and children read stories that described the movement of a protagonist through the marketplace and were administered items requiring memory for both explicitly stated and inferred information about the character's movements. Accuracy of responses and response times were evaluated. Results indicated that: (a) location and object information during reading appeared to be activated and updated not simply from explicit text-based information but from a mental model of the real world situation described by the text; (b) this pattern showed no age-related differences; and (c) the ability to update the situation model of the text based on inferred information, but not explicitly stated information, was uniquely predictive of reading comprehension after accounting for word decoding. PMID:24315376

Expert-Novice Differences in the Understanding and Explanation of Complex Political Conflicts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, David K.; Read, Stephen J.

2005-01-01

We compare the structure and content of political experts' knowledge with that of novices. We were particularly interested in whether experts would show more causal and historical reasoning in explaining political events, as well as whether their knowledge was structured in the form of a narrative. Eight relative political experts (advanced…

Engaging Adolescents in Politics: The Longitudinal Effect of Political Socialization Agents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quintelier, Ellen

2015-01-01

Starting from a political socialization perspective, this study examined the development of political participation during adolescence and early adulthood. We explore the effect of parents, peers, school media, and voluntary associations on political participation. Self-reported data were collected from 3,025 Belgian adolescents at three points in…

The role of spatial selective attention in working memory for locations: evidence from event-related potentials.

PubMed

Awh, E; Anllo-Vento, L; Hillyard, S A

2000-09-01

We investigated the hypothesis that the covert focusing of spatial attention mediates the on-line maintenance of location information in spatial working memory. During the delay period of a spatial working-memory task, behaviorally irrelevant probe stimuli were flashed at both memorized and nonmemorized locations. Multichannel recordings of event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to assess visual processing of the probes at the different locations. Consistent with the hypothesis of attention-based rehearsal, early ERP components were enlarged in response to probes that appeared at memorized locations. These visual modulations were similar in latency and topography to those observed after explicit manipulations of spatial selective attention in a parallel experimental condition that employed an identical stimulus display.

Speaking Politely, Kindly, and Beautifully: Ideologies of Politeness in Japanese Business Etiquette Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunn, Cynthia Dickel

2013-01-01

In recent years, politeness theory has increasingly focused on speakers' own conceptualizations of polite behavior, viewing politeness concepts as a type of language ideology. This article examines the construction of Japanese politeness concepts in the business etiquette training provided for new employees in Japanese companies. Drawing on…

Genetic influences on political ideologies: twin analyses of 19 measures of political ideologies from five democracies and genome-wide findings from three populations.

PubMed

Hatemi, Peter K; Medland, Sarah E; Klemmensen, Robert; Oskarsson, Sven; Littvay, Levente; Dawes, Christopher T; Verhulst, Brad; McDermott, Rose; Nørgaard, Asbjørn Sonne; Klofstad, Casey A; Christensen, Kaare; Johannesson, Magnus; Magnusson, Patrik K E; Eaves, Lindon J; Martin, Nicholas G

2014-05-01

Almost 40 years ago, evidence from large studies of adult twins and their relatives suggested that between 30 and 60% of the variance in social and political attitudes could be explained by genetic influences. However, these findings have not been widely accepted or incorporated into the dominant paradigms that explain the etiology of political ideology. This has been attributed in part to measurement and sample limitations, as well the relative absence of molecular genetic studies. Here we present results from original analyses of a combined sample of over 12,000 twins pairs, ascertained from nine different studies conducted in five democracies, sampled over the course of four decades. We provide evidence that genetic factors play a role in the formation of political ideology, regardless of how ideology is measured, the era, or the population sampled. The only exception is a question that explicitly uses the phrase "Left-Right". We then present results from one of the first genome-wide association studies on political ideology using data from three samples: a 1990 Australian sample involving 6,894 individuals from 3,516 families; a 2008 Australian sample of 1,160 related individuals from 635 families and a 2010 Swedish sample involving 3,334 individuals from 2,607 families. No polymorphisms reached genome-wide significance in the meta-analysis. The combined evidence suggests that political ideology constitutes a fundamental aspect of one's genetically informed psychological disposition, but as Fisher proposed long ago, genetic influences on complex traits will be composed of thousands of markers of very small effects and it will require extremely large samples to have enough power in order to identify specific polymorphisms related to complex social traits.

The Study of LGBT Politics and Its Contributions to Political Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mucciaroni, Gary

2011-01-01

Although the study of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) politics appears to be widely accepted within political science, a recent survey of political scientists reported some skepticism about its legitimacy and scholarly worth (Novkov and Barclay 2010). This article examines potential concerns about LGBT studies and draws attention to the…

Political Learning among Youth: Exploring Patterns of Students' First Political Awakening

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solhaug, Trond; Kristensen, Niels Nørgaard

2013-01-01

This article focuses on students' first political learning and explores the research question, "What dynamic patterns of political learning can be explored among a sample of young, diverse Danish students' first political interests?" The authors use theories of learning in their analytical approach to students' stories. A group of 10…

Who SoTLs Where? Publishing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Political Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamann, Kerstin; Pollock, Philip H.; Wilson, Bruce M.

2009-01-01

Political science, as a discipline, is a relative newcomer to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). We examine authorship patterns of SoTL articles in "PS: Political Science & Politics," the "Journal of Political Science Education," and "International Studies Perspectives" from 1998-2008. Our findings indicate more collaborative SoTL…

Psychiatric institutions, their architecture, and the politics of regional autonomy in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

PubMed

Topp, Leslie

2007-12-01

This paper examines the planning process and architecture of two public psychiatric institutions built around 1900 in Trieste and Lower Austria. From 1864, the building of new asylums was the responsibility of Crown land governments, which by the end of the nineteenth century had emerged as sites of power and self-presentation by minority groups and new political parties. At the same time, the area of asylum planning was establishing itself as a branch of asylum psychiatry and promoting the idea of the asylum as model settlement, contributing to social reform. I analyse the interaction of psychiatrists, architects and government officials involved in planning the two institutions in the context of Crown land governments' self-positioning within the empire and internationally (especially in relation to Italy and Germany). The Trieste asylum planners were working for a government controlled by Italian nationalists, but their desire for a 'modern' asylum turned them towards German models. The Christian Social government in Lower Austria sought to supplant Germany as the leader in this branch of science. The spatial arrangement and visual articulation of the two asylums is interpreted in the context of the interaction of psychiatry and the politics of regional autonomy.

Spatial indeterminacy and power sector carbon emissions accounting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiusto, J. Scott

Carbon emission indicators are essential for understanding climate change processes, and for motivating and measuring the effectiveness of carbon reduction policy at multiple scales. Carbon indicators also play an increasingly important role in shaping cultural discourses and politics about nature-society relations and the roles of the state, markets and civil society in creating sustainable natural resource practices and just societies. The analytical and political significance of indicators is tied closely to their objective basis: how accurately they account for the places, people, and processes responsible for emissions. In the electric power sector, however, power-trading across geographic boundaries prevents a simple, purely objective spatial attribution of emissions. Using U.S. states as the unit of analysis, three alternative methods of accounting for carbon emissions from electricity use are assessed, each of which is conceptually sound and methodologically rigorous, yet produces radically different estimates of individual state emissions. Each method also implicitly embodies distinctly different incentive structures for states to enact carbon reduction policies. Because none of the three methods can be said to more accurately reflect "true" emissions levels, I argue the best method is that which most encourages states to reduce emissions. Energy and carbon policy processes are highly contested, however, and thus I examine competing interests and perspectives shaping state energy policy. I explore what it means, philosophically and politically, to predicate emissions estimates on both objectively verifiable past experience and subjectively debatable policy prescriptions for the future. Although developed here at the state scale, the issues engaged and the carbon accounting methodology proposed are directly relevant to carbon analysis and policy formation at scales ranging from the local to the international.

The science of human security: a response from political science.

PubMed

Roberts, David

2008-01-01

The concept of human security has developed in significance in the last decade to the point that its meaning and validity is hotly contested in the field of international relations, security, and development studies. A key consideration relates to its ambiguity at best and its amorphousness at worst. Medical scholarship proposes approaches that may render more meaningful the concept. However, collaboration and co-operation between political scientists and medical practitioners offers even greater potential to this vital programme. The latter offer the technical and methodological skills and approaches lacking in political science, whilst the former develop political frameworks to shift the causal focus towards human, institutional and structural agency in mass avoidable global civilian mortality.

The role of medial temporal lobe in retrieving spatial and nonspatial relations from episodic and semantic memory.

PubMed

Ryan, Lee; Lin, Chun-Yu; Ketcham, Katie; Nadel, Lynn

2010-01-01

This study examined the involvement of medial temporal lobe, especially the hippocampus, in processing spatial and nonspatial relations using episodic and semantic versions of a relational judgment task. Participants studied object arrays and were tested on different types of relations between pairs of objects. Three prevalent views of hippocampal function were considered. Cognitive map theory (O'Keefe and Nadel (1978) The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map. USA: Oxford University Press) emphasizes hippocampal involvement in spatial relational tasks. Multiple trace theory (Nadel and Moscovitch (1997) Memory consolidation, retrograde amnesia and the hippocampal complex Curr Opin Neurobiol 7:217-227) emphasizes hippocampal involvement in episodic tasks. Eichenbaum and Cohen's ((2001) From Conditioning to Conscious Recollection: Memory Systems of the Brain. USA: Oxford University Press) relational theory predicts equivalent hippocampal involvement in all relational tasks within both semantic and episodic memory. The fMRI results provided partial support for all three theories, though none of them fit the data perfectly. We observed hippocampal activation during all relational tasks, with increased activation for spatial compared to nonspatial relations, and for episodic compared to semantic relations. The placement of activation along the anterior-posterior axis of the hippocampus also differentiated the conditions. We suggest a view of hippocampal function in memory that incorporates aspects of all three theories. Copyright 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Politics of the aged: orientations and behavior in major liberal democracies.

PubMed

Edinger, L J

1985-01-01

Do the political outlook and electoral behavior of the elderly differ notably from that of younger adults in leading capitalist democracies? A cross-national examination of poll data suggests that on the whole they do not. Among the aged certain cross-national differences in rates of political participation beyond voting may be related to differences in national socio-political structures as well as differences in individual attributes.

Political ideologies and health-oriented beliefs and behaviors: an empirical examination of strategic issues.

PubMed

Murrow, J J; Coulter, R L; Coulter, M K

2000-01-01

The area of health care has been called the most important political issue of the 1990s. Attitudes toward health care reform, increasing health costs, and defensive medical practices have been examined in the public press and by academicians. In addition, a substantial amount of research has been directed toward the improvement of individual personal health due to changes in personal health-related habits and behaviors. To date, there are relatively few studies which have attempted to examine the political tendencies of a nationwide sample of respondents as they relate to personal health-related beliefs and behaviors. This article explores the consumer's views on critical questions relating to health orientations and political tendencies. The results indicate a divergence between the political orientations of respondents and their beliefs and behaviors associated with health and wellness. Implications for policy-makers are discussed.

How Do Five American Political Science Textbooks Deal with the Economic Dimension?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Madsen, Poul Thois

2011-01-01

Politics and economics interact. As a consequence, political science textbooks must often relate to the economic dimension--implicitly or explicitly. But we know very little about how these textbooks relate to economics. Are they merely unreflective customers of neoclassical economics or do they strive for a cross-disciplinary approach? An…

Spatial variations in estimated chronic exposure to traffic-related air pollution in working populations: A simulation

PubMed Central

Setton, Eleanor M; Keller, C Peter; Cloutier-Fisher, Denise; Hystad, Perry W

2008-01-01

Background Chronic exposure to traffic-related air pollution is associated with a variety of health impacts in adults and recent studies show that exposure varies spatially, with some residents in a community more exposed than others. A spatial exposure simulation model (SESM) which incorporates six microenvironments (home indoor, work indoor, other indoor, outdoor, in-vehicle to work and in-vehicle other) is described and used to explore spatial variability in estimates of exposure to traffic-related nitrogen dioxide (not including indoor sources) for working people. The study models spatial variability in estimated exposure aggregated at the census tracts level for 382 census tracts in the Greater Vancouver Regional District of British Columbia, Canada. Summary statistics relating to the distributions of the estimated exposures are compared visually through mapping. Observed variations are explored through analyses of model inputs. Results Two sources of spatial variability in exposure to traffic-related nitrogen dioxide were identified. Median estimates of total exposure ranged from 8 μg/m3 to 35 μg/m3 of annual average hourly NO2 for workers in different census tracts in the study area. Exposure estimates are highest where ambient pollution levels are highest. This reflects the regional gradient of pollution in the study area and the relatively high percentage of time spent at home locations. However, for workers within the same census tract, variations were observed in the partial exposure estimates associated with time spent outside the residential census tract. Simulation modeling shows that some workers may have exposures 1.3 times higher than other workers residing in the same census tract because of time spent away from the residential census tract, and that time spent in work census tracts contributes most to the differences in exposure. Exposure estimates associated with the activity of commuting by vehicle to work were negligible, based on the

Encoding and retrieval of landmark-related spatial cues during navigation: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Wegman, Joost; Tyborowska, Anna; Janzen, Gabriele

2014-07-01

To successfully navigate, humans can use different cues from their surroundings. Learning locations in an environment can be supported by parallel subsystems in the hippocampus and the striatum. We used fMRI to look at differences in the use of object-related spatial cues while 47 participants actively navigated in an open-field virtual environment. In each trial, participants navigated toward a target object. During encoding, three positional cues (columns) with directional cues (shadows) were available. During retrieval, the removed target had to be replaced while either two objects without shadows (objects trial) or one object with a shadow (shadow trial) were available. Participants were informed in blocks about which type of retrieval trial was most likely to occur, thereby modulating expectations of having to rely on a single landmark or on a configuration of landmarks. How the spatial learning systems in the hippocampus and caudate nucleus were involved in these landmark-based encoding and retrieval processes were investigated. Landmark configurations can create a geometry similar to boundaries in an environment. It was found that the hippocampus was involved in encoding when relying on configurations of landmarks, whereas the caudate nucleus was involved in encoding when relying on single landmarks. This might suggest that the observed hippocampal activation for configurations of objects is linked to a spatial representation observed with environmental boundaries. Retrieval based on configurations of landmarks activated regions associated with the spatial updation of object locations for reorientation. When only a single landmark was available during retrieval, regions associated with updating the location of oneself were activated. There was also evidence that good between-participant performance was predicted by right hippocampal activation. This study therefore sheds light on how the brain deals with changing demands on spatial processing related purely

Spatial access to restaurants and grocery stores in relation to frequency of home cooking.

PubMed

Pinho, Maria Gabriela M; Mackenbach, Joreintje D; Charreire, Hélène; Oppert, Jean-Michel; Bárdos, Helga; Rutter, Harry; Compernolle, Sofie; Beulens, Joline W J; Brug, Johannes; Lakerveld, Jeroen

2018-01-16

Little is known about the relation between the neighbourhood food environment and home cooking. We explored the independent and combined associations between residential neighbourhood spatial access to restaurants and grocery stores with home cooking in European adults. Data of 5076 participants of the SPOTLIGHT study were collected across five European countries in 2014. Food retailers were classified into grocery stores (supermarkets and local food shops) and restaurants (full-service restaurants, fast food and take-away restaurants, café/bars). We used multinomial logistic regression models to test the associations between tertiles of spatial access to restaurants and spatial to access grocery stores and the outcome 'frequency of home cooking' categorized into 0-3; 4-5; and 6-7 days/week. Additive interaction analysis was used to test the combined association between access to grocery stores and to restaurants with home cooking. Mean age was 52.3 years; most participants were women (55.5%) and completed higher education (53.8%). Residents with highest access to restaurants had a reduced likelihood of home cooking 6-7 days/week (vs. 0-3 days/week) (relative risk ratio (RRR) 0.42; 95%CI = 0.23-0.76) when compared with lowest access to restaurants. No association was found for spatial access to grocery stores. Additive interaction analysis showed that individuals with medium access to grocery stores and highest access to restaurants had the lowest likelihood (RRR = 0.29, 95%CI = 0.10-0.84) of cooking 6-7 days/week when compared to individuals with lowest access to restaurants and highest access to grocery stores. Greater neighbourhood spatial access to restaurants was associated with lower frequency of home cooking, largely independent of access to grocery stores.

Political activism and mental health among Black and Latinx college students.

PubMed

Hope, Elan C; Velez, Gabriel; Offidani-Bertrand, Carly; Keels, Micere; Durkee, Myles I

2018-01-01

The current study investigates the utility of political activism as a protective factor against experiences of racial/ethnic (R/E) discrimination that negatively affect stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms among Black and Latinx college freshmen at predominately White institutions. Data come from the Minority College Cohort Study, a longitudinal investigation of Black and Latinx college students (N = 504; 44% Black). We conducted multiple regression analyses for each mental health indicator and tested for interaction effects. For Black and Latinx students, the relationship between R/E microaggressions and end of freshman year stress varied by political activism. For Black students, the relationship between R/E microaggressions and end of the year anxiety varied by political activism. There was a significant interaction effect for depressive symptoms among Latinx students. Political activism serves as a protective factor to mitigate the negative effect of R/E discrimination on stress and depressive symptoms for Latinx students. For Black students, higher levels of political activism may exacerbate experiences of R/E microaggressions and relate to more stress and anxiety compared with Black students who are less politically involved. Findings point to the need for a deeper understanding of phenomenological variation in experiences of microaggressions among R/E minorities and how students leverage political activism as an adaptive coping strategy to mitigate race-related stress during college. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

The relation between children’s constructive play activities, spatial ability, and mathematical word problem-solving performance: a mediation analysis in sixth-grade students

PubMed Central

Oostermeijer, Meike; Boonen, Anton J. H.; Jolles, Jelle

2014-01-01

The scientific literature shows that constructive play activities are positively related to children’s spatial ability. Likewise, a close positive relation is found between spatial ability and mathematical word problem-solving performances. The relation between children’s constructive play and their performance on mathematical word problems is, however, not reported yet. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether spatial ability acted as a mediator in the relation between constructive play and mathematical word problem-solving performance in 128 sixth-grade elementary school children. This mediating role of spatial ability was tested by utilizing the current mediation approaches suggested by Preacher and Hayes (2008). Results showed that 38.16% of the variance in mathematical word problem-solving performance is explained by children’s constructive play activities and spatial ability. More specifically, spatial ability acted as a partial mediator, explaining 31.58% of the relation between constructive play and mathematical word problem-solving performance. PMID:25101038

Head related transfer functions measurement and processing for the purpose of creating a spatial sound environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pec, Michał; Bujacz, Michał; Strumiłło, Paweł

2008-01-01

The use of Head Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) in audio processing is a popular method of obtaining spatialized sound. HRTFs describe disturbances caused in the sound wave by the human body, especially by head and the ear pinnae. Since these shapes are unique, HRTFs differ greatly from person to person. For this reason measurement of personalized HRTFs is justified. Measured HRTFs also need further processing to be utilized in a system producing spatialized sound. This paper describes a system designed for efficient collecting of Head Related Transfer Functions as well as the measurement, interpolation and verification procedures.

Viewpoint in the Visual-Spatial Modality: The Coordination of Spatial Perspective

PubMed Central

Pyers, Jennie E.; Perniss, Pamela; Emmorey, Karen

2015-01-01

Sign languages express viewpoint-dependent spatial relations (e.g., left, right) iconically but must conventionalize from whose viewpoint the spatial relation is being described, the signer's or the perceiver's. In Experiment 1, ASL signers and sign-naïve gesturers expressed viewpoint-dependent relations egocentrically, but only signers successfully interpreted the descriptions non-egocentrically, suggesting that viewpoint convergence in the visual modality emerges with language conventionalization. In Experiment 2, we observed that the cost of adopting a non-egocentric viewpoint was greater for producers than for perceivers, suggesting that sign languages have converged on the most cognitively efficient means of expressing left-right spatial relations. We suggest that non-linguistic cognitive factors such as visual perspective-taking and motor embodiment may constrain viewpoint convergence in the visual-spatial modality. PMID:26981027

Viewpoint in the Visual-Spatial Modality: The Coordination of Spatial Perspective.

PubMed

Pyers, Jennie E; Perniss, Pamela; Emmorey, Karen

2015-06-01

Sign languages express viewpoint-dependent spatial relations (e.g., left, right) iconically but must conventionalize from whose viewpoint the spatial relation is being described, the signer's or the perceiver's. In Experiment 1, ASL signers and sign-naïve gesturers expressed viewpoint-dependent relations egocentrically, but only signers successfully interpreted the descriptions non-egocentrically, suggesting that viewpoint convergence in the visual modality emerges with language conventionalization. In Experiment 2, we observed that the cost of adopting a non-egocentric viewpoint was greater for producers than for perceivers, suggesting that sign languages have converged on the most cognitively efficient means of expressing left-right spatial relations. We suggest that non-linguistic cognitive factors such as visual perspective-taking and motor embodiment may constrain viewpoint convergence in the visual-spatial modality.

Undergraduate Research-Methods Training in Political Science: A Comparative Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parker, Jonathan

2010-01-01

Unlike other disciplines in the social sciences, there has been relatively little attention paid to the structure of the undergraduate political science curriculum. This article reports the results of a representative survey of 200 political science programs in the United States, examining requirements for quantitative methods, research methods,…

Libraries, Policy, and Politics in a Democracy: Four Historical Epochs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jaeger, Paul T.; Gorham, Ursula; Sarin, Lindsay C.; Bertot, John Carlo

2013-01-01

This article explores the historical relationships between libraries, policy, and politics in the United States. Far too often, policy and political discussions related to libraries have little historical context. While libraries have long viewed themselves as a pillar of democracy by supporting informed, educated, and engaged citizenry, political…

Political Parody and Public Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hariman, Robert

2008-01-01

Parody and related forms of political humor are essential resources for sustaining democratic public culture. They do so by exposing the limits of public speech, transforming discursive demands into virtual images, setting those images before a carnivalesque audience, and celebrating social leveling while decentering all discourses within the…

On medicine and politics.

PubMed Central

Krakauer, E.

1992-01-01

This paper explores the relationship between medicine and politics, between medical management of the human body and governmental management of the body politic. It argues that the increasing complexity both of society and of governmental administration of society in the modern age has made it impossible completely to separate medicine from politics. It demonstrates that, along with great potential for social benefit, "medico-politics" brought with it great danger; much harm has been done purportedly to heal the body politic. The paper concludes by suggesting a way for physicians to minimize this danger. Images FIG. 1 PMID:1285451

Genetic Influences on Political Ideologies: Twin Analyses of 19 Measures of Political Ideologies from Five Democracies and Genome-Wide Findings from Three Populations

PubMed Central

Hatemi, Peter K.; Medland, Sarah E.; Klemmensen, Robert; Oskarrson, Sven; Littvay, Levente; Dawes, Chris; Verhulst, Brad; McDermott, Rose; Nørgaard, Asbjørn Sonne; Klofstad, Casey; Christensen, Kaare; Johannesson, Magnus; Magnusson, Patrik K.E.; Eaves, Lindon J.; Martin, Nicholas G.

2014-01-01

Almost forty years ago, evidence from large studies of adult twins and their relatives suggested that between 30-60% of the variance in social and political attitudes could be explained by genetic influences. However, these findings have not been widely accepted or incorporated into the dominant paradigms that explain the etiology of political ideology. This has been attributed in part to measurement and sample limitations, as well the relative absence of molecular genetic studies. Here we present results from original analyses of a combined sample of over 12,000 twins pairs, ascertained from nine different studies conducted in five democracies, sampled over the course of four decades. We provide evidence that genetic factors play a role in the formation of political ideology, regardless of how ideology is measured, the era, or the population sampled. The only exception is a question that explicitly uses the phrase “Left-Right”. We then present results from one of the first genome-wide association studies on political ideology using data from three samples: a 1990 Australian sample involving 6,894 individuals from 3,516 families; a 2008 Australian sample of 1,160 related individuals from 635 families and a 2010 Swedish sample involving 3,334 individuals from 2,607 families. No polymorphisms reached genome-wide significance in the meta-analysis. The combined evidence suggests that political ideology constitutes a fundamental aspect of one’s genetically informed psychological disposition, but as Fisher proposed long ago, genetic influences on complex traits will be composed of thousands of markers of very small effects and it will require extremely large samples to have enough power in order to identify specific polymorphisms related to complex social traits. PMID:24569950

Single-trial classification of auditory event-related potentials elicited by stimuli from different spatial directions.

PubMed

Cabrera, Alvaro Fuentes; Hoffmann, Pablo Faundez

2010-01-01

This study is focused on the single-trial classification of auditory event-related potentials elicited by sound stimuli from different spatial directions. Five naϊve subjects were asked to localize a sound stimulus reproduced over one of 8 loudspeakers placed in a circular array, equally spaced by 45°. The subject was seating in the center of the circular array. Due to the complexity of an eight classes classification, our approach consisted on feeding our classifier with two classes, or spatial directions, at the time. The seven chosen pairs were 0°, which was the loudspeaker directly in front of the subject, with all the other seven directions. The discrete wavelet transform was used to extract features in the time-frequency domain and a support vector machine performed the classification procedure. The average accuracy over all subjects and all pair of spatial directions was 76.5%, σ = 3.6. The results of this study provide evidence that the direction of a sound is encoded in single-trial auditory event-related potentials.

The Longitudinal Effects of Chronic Mediated Exposure to Political Violence on Ideological Beliefs About Political Conflicts Among Youths.

PubMed

Gvirsman, Shira Dvir; Huesmann, L Rowell; Dubow, Eric F; Landau, Simha F; Boxer, Paul; Shikaki, Khalil

This study examines the effects of chronic (i.e., repeated and cumulative) mediated exposure to political violence on ideological beliefs regarding political conflict. It centers on these effects on young viewers, from preadolescents to adolescents. Ideological beliefs refers here to support of war, perception of threat to one's nation, and normative beliefs concerning aggression toward the out-group. A longitudinal study was conducted on a sample of Israeli and Palestinian youths who experience the Israeli-Palestinian conflict firsthand ( N = 1,207). Two alternative hypotheses were tested: that chronic exposure via the media increases support for war and aggression and elevates feeling of threat, or that chronic exposure via the media strengthens preexisting beliefs. Results demonstrated that higher levels of exposure were longitudinally related to stronger support for war. Regarding normative beliefs about aggression and threat to one's nation, mediated exposure reinforced initial beliefs, rendering the youths more extreme in their attitudes. These results mostly support the conceptualization of the relation between media violence and behaviors as "reciprocally determined" or "reinforcing spirals." The results are also discussed in light of the differences found between the effect of exposure to political violence firsthand and exposure via the media.

The influence of liberal political ideology on nursing science.

PubMed

Browne, A J

2001-06-01

Previous notions of science as impartial and value-neutral have been refuted by contemporary views of science as influenced by social, political and ideological values. By locating nursing science in the dominant political ideology of liberalism, the author examines how nursing knowledge is influenced by liberal philosophical assumptions. The central tenets of liberal political philosophy - individualism, egalitarianism, freedom, tolerance, neutrality, and a free-market economy - are primarily manifested in relation to: (i) the individualistic focus of our science; (ii) our view of society as essentially egalitarian and equitable; (iii) our preference for politically neutral knowledge development, and (iv) an economy of knowledge development that supports rather than challenges the status quo. I argue that exposing, rather than ignoring, the liberal ideological values inherent in nursing science will render these assumptions open to debate, stimulate ongoing development of critically oriented knowledge, and increase our capacity to influence the social, political and economic determinants of health.

Maintaining Identity Political Culture In Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fauzi, AM; Sudrajat, A.; Affandi, A.; Raditya, A.

2018-01-01

This study investigates the portrayal of traditional political cultures in West Kalimantan Province, a growing of election process. Results showed that Political life in Indonesia leads to modern political culture after experiencing a change of paradigm of political life. Political life in Indonesia leads to modern political culture after experiencing a change of paradigm of political life. Beginning Indonesia’s independence in the Old Order Phase, the politics used using the ideological paradigm, subsequent to the New Order Period used the political paradigm of unification and simplification of political parties but in practice it became the strategy of the State’s rulers to facilitate subjugating its citizens. After entering the reform era, several phenomena of political culture are displayed, some are using modern paradigm by giving women the widest possible role in political parties, and so on. Besides that there is the opposite of displaying and practicing traditional political culture, this is as it runs in West Borneo Province. The change of political culture in the modern direction is different from the political culture of the citizens in terms of who will be chosen, most West Borneo Province residents determine their political choice by using traditional patterns.

International Contexts for Political Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harber, Clive

1991-01-01

Uses international examples of the ways in which political learning takes place--indoctrination, political socialization, and political education--to suggest that open and democratic political education is not common, even in democracies. (SK)

Political Issues Skills Kit: Comparing Political Experiences, Experimental Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillespie, Judith A.; Lazarus, Stuart

Designed to be an integral part of the second-semester "Comparing Political Experiences" course, this skills kit provides supplementary student activities for four documentary "Political Issues" units. The kit is divided into three sections on skills. The analytical skill section provides exercises on six analytical skills…

Sex Complexity and Politics in Black Dogs by Ian McEwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abbasiyannejad, Mina; Talif, Rosli

Ian McEwan's Black Dogs (BD) is a story of socio-political conflict during the critical era of the Cold War. Black Dogs is riddled with party (political) domination and its outcomes in society. Europe is still suffering the consequences of the Second World War, perhaps the biggest war of the twentieth century. In the aftermath of such worldwide upheaval, the conflicts that were in tandem with the scramble for political domination emerged in diverse ways, affecting nations and their human populations. Systematic sexual assault during the war years showed that sex was used both for intimidation and humiliation. This study attempts to picture the multidimensional aspects of politics which are practically related to the most intimate human relationship, that is, sex. It pictures how personal is equated with the political and vice versa. The theory of sexual politics is the theoretical framework used to scrutinize power-structure relationship. By reviewing the major conflicts in such a scenario, as the Cold War, and societal restriction, this study concludes that conflict in the macrocosm (world and society) affects the microcosm (individual) in McEwan's Black Dogs. It provides a rather broad picture of politics and sexuality and highlights the stresses of wider society on human dysfunctional relationships. Rape as a tactic of war for a political goal demonstrates another aspect of sex. Reviewing the period in which the story takes place and relating it to the conflicts in society, the study goes beyond simple cause and effect problems among individuals and portrays a holistic view of sexuality and society.

Political engagement as an element of social recovery: a qualitative study.

PubMed

Bergstresser, Sara M; Brown, Isaac S; Colesante, Amy

2013-08-01

Taking a qualitative approach, this study sought to describe consumer attitudes toward political participation and the association between political engagement and social recovery. This study used data from seven focus groups of self-identified consumers of mental health services in the New York City area (N=52). Attitudes and behaviors related to voting and other forms of political engagement were identified and classified according to grounded theory, with a focus on the relationship between political engagement and broader social functioning, participation, and recovery. Participants described the symbolic meaning of voting and political participation in terms of connection to social inclusion versus exclusion. Participants described political participation as a component of empowerment for minority groups in general, including persons who use mental health services and those from racial-ethnic minority groups. Qualitative studies of the symbolic meanings of political participation are an important component of understanding the broad yet interconnected dimensions of social recovery.

Disgust and the politics of sex: exposure to a disgusting odorant increases politically conservative views on sex and decreases support for gay marriage.

PubMed

Adams, Thomas G; Stewart, Patrick A; Blanchar, John C

2014-01-01

Disgust has been implicated as a potential causal agent underlying socio-political attitudes and behaviors. Several recent studies have suggested that pathogen disgust may be a causal mechanism underlying social conservatism. However, the specificity of this effect is still in question. The present study tested the effects of disgust on a range of policy preferences to clarify whether disgust is generally implicated in political conservatism across public policy attitudes or is uniquely related to specific content domains. Self-reported socio-political attitudes were compared between participants in two experimental conditions: 1) an odorless control condition, and 2) a disgusting odor condition. In keeping with previous research, the present study showed that exposure to a disgusting odor increased endorsement of socially conservative attitudes related to sexuality. In particular, there was a strong and consistent link between induced disgust and less support for gay marriage.

Political disempowerment among older people in Hong Kong.

PubMed

Kam, P K

2000-01-01

The democratic elections that took place in Hong Kong before and after 1997 presented a unique opportunity for older people, politicians and government officials to take action to promote the participation of older people. There were, however, few significant projects undertaken to this end. This paper reports on recent research on political participation of older people in Hong Kong which found that they were active in voting but they were passive in other forms of participation. Factors affecting participation are more significantly related to politicians' mobilization than to civic education or work done by centres for the elderly. In the field, there is little awareness of using more effective strategies to address older people's political powerlessness. Strategies identified include: educational talks in local elderly centres, mock election games and meeting with candidates from different political parties. All these activities were locally based and not well articulated, and there were few concerted efforts to promote the political power and influence of older people at the central level. The present situation of older people in Hong Kong remains one of political powerlessness and the piecemeal strategies used to address the issue have so far had little impact. This paper suggests that political powerlessness is not a natural result of old age. It is a problem which is socially constructed. An analysis of the factors shaping this situation is presented. It also presents some suggested strategies for gerontological practice in promoting political empowerment among older people in Hong Kong.

Nonpolitical Images Evoke Neural Predictors of Political Ideology

PubMed Central

Ahn, Woo-Young; Kishida, Kenneth T.; Gu, Xiaosi; Lohrenz, Terry; Harvey, Ann; Alford, John R.; Smith, Kevin B.; Yaffe, Gideon; Hibbing, John R.; Dayan, Peter; Montague, P. Read

2014-01-01

Summary Political ideologies summarize dimensions of life that define how a person organizes their public and private behavior, including their attitudes associated with sex, family, education, and personal autonomy [1, 2]. Despite the abstract nature of such sensibilities, fundamental features of political ideology have been found to be deeply connected to basic biological mechanisms [3–7] that may serve to defend against environmental challenges like contamination and physical threat [8–12]. These results invite the provocative claim that neural responses to nonpolitical stimuli (like contaminated food or physical threats) should be highly predictive of abstract political opinions (like attitudes toward gun control and abortion) [13]. We applied a machine-learning method to fMRI data to test the hypotheses that brain responses to emotionally evocative images predict individual scores on a standard political ideology assay. Disgusting images, especially those related to animal-reminder disgust (e.g., mutilated body), generate neural responses that are highly predictive of political orientation even though these neural predictors do not agree with participants’ conscious rating of the stimuli. Images from other affective categories do not support such predictions. Remarkably, brain responses to a single disgusting stimulus were sufficient to make accurate predictions about an individual subject’s political ideology. These results provide strong support for the idea that fundamental neural processing differences that emerge under the challenge of emotionally evocative stimuli may serve to structure political beliefs in ways formerly unappreciated. PMID:25447997

Nonpolitical images evoke neural predictors of political ideology.

PubMed

Ahn, Woo-Young; Kishida, Kenneth T; Gu, Xiaosi; Lohrenz, Terry; Harvey, Ann; Alford, John R; Smith, Kevin B; Yaffe, Gideon; Hibbing, John R; Dayan, Peter; Montague, P Read

2014-11-17

Political ideologies summarize dimensions of life that define how a person organizes their public and private behavior, including their attitudes associated with sex, family, education, and personal autonomy. Despite the abstract nature of such sensibilities, fundamental features of political ideology have been found to be deeply connected to basic biological mechanisms that may serve to defend against environmental challenges like contamination and physical threat. These results invite the provocative claim that neural responses to nonpolitical stimuli (like contaminated food or physical threats) should be highly predictive of abstract political opinions (like attitudes toward gun control and abortion). We applied a machine-learning method to fMRI data to test the hypotheses that brain responses to emotionally evocative images predict individual scores on a standard political ideology assay. Disgusting images, especially those related to animal-reminder disgust (e.g., mutilated body), generate neural responses that are highly predictive of political orientation even though these neural predictors do not agree with participants' conscious rating of the stimuli. Images from other affective categories do not support such predictions. Remarkably, brain responses to a single disgusting stimulus were sufficient to make accurate predictions about an individual subject's political ideology. These results provide strong support for the idea that fundamental neural processing differences that emerge under the challenge of emotionally evocative stimuli may serve to structure political beliefs in ways formerly unappreciated. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Political participation of registered nurses.

PubMed

Vandenhouten, Christine L; Malakar, Crystalmichelle L; Kubsch, Sylvia; Block, Derryl E; Gallagher-Lepak, Susan

2011-08-01

Level of political participation and factors contributing to participation were measured among Midwest RNs (n = 468) via an online survey (Cronbach's α = .95). Respondents reported engaging in primarily "low cost" activities (e.g., voting, discussing politics, and contacting elected officials), with fewer reporting speaking at public gatherings, participating in demonstrations, and membership in nursing organizations. Psychological engagement was most predictive (p < .001) of political participation with the dimensions of political interest, political efficacy, and political information/knowledge highly significant (p < .001). Resources (time/money/civic skills) significantly contributed to political participation (p < .001). Less than half (40%) felt they could impact local decisions, and fewer (32%) felt they could impact state or national government decisions. Most respondents (80%) indicated their nursing courses lacked political content and did not prepare them for political participation. Findings showed that nurse educators and leaders of professional nursing organizations need to model and cultivate greater psychological engagement among students and nurses.

The Effects of Face Inversion on the Perception of Long-Range and Local Spatial Relations in Eye and Mouth Configuration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sekunova, Alla; Barton, Jason J. S.

2008-01-01

A recent study hypothesized a configurational anisotropy in the face inversion effect, with vertical relations more difficult to process. However, another difference in the stimuli of that report was that the vertical but not horizontal shifts lacked local spatial references. Difficulty processing long-range spatial relations might also be…

Age-Related Effects of Study Time Allocation on Memory Performance in a Verbal and a Spatial Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krueger, Lacy E.

2012-01-01

Past studies have suggested that study time allocation partially mediates age relations on memory performance in a verbal task. To identify whether this applied to a different material modality, participants ages 20-87 completed a spatial task in addition to a traditional verbal task. In both the verbal and the spatial task, increased age was…

Teaching American Politics through Student Projects: Electoral Reform Issues and Political Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alper, Donald K.; Hogan, Eugene

1979-01-01

Describes two projects which involve college students in political science courses on American politics in doing research and giving class reports on proposals for reforming the electoral college and the electoral process. Findings indicate that students participating in the projects become more aware of political realities and learn how to use…

Identifying Flood-Related Infectious Diseases in Anhui Province, China: A Spatial and Temporal Analysis

PubMed Central

Gao, Lu; Zhang, Ying; Ding, Guoyong; Liu, Qiyong; Jiang, Baofa

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to explore infectious diseases related to the 2007 Huai River flood in Anhui Province, China. The study was based on the notified incidences of infectious diseases between June 29 and July 25 from 2004 to 2011. Daily incidences of notified diseases in 2007 were compared with the corresponding daily incidences during the same period in the other years (from 2004 to 2011, except 2007) by Poisson regression analysis. Spatial autocorrelation analysis was used to test the distribution pattern of the diseases. Spatial regression models were then performed to examine the association between the incidence of each disease and flood, considering lag effects and other confounders. After controlling the other meteorological and socioeconomic factors, malaria (odds ratio [OR] = 3.67, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.77–7.61), diarrhea (OR = 2.16, 95% CI = 1.24–3.78), and hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection (OR = 6.11, 95% CI = 1.04–35.84) were significantly related to the 2007 Huai River flood both from the spatial and temporal analyses. Special attention should be given to develop public health preparation and interventions with a focus on malaria, diarrhea, and HAV infection, in the study region. PMID:26903612

Student School Elections and Political Engagement: A Cradle of Democracy?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saha, Lawrence J.; Print, Murray

2010-01-01

Studies have found that prior involvement in student politics while in school seems to be a good predictor of adult political engagement. While most studies of adults have obtained retrospective data on participation in school elections, there have been few studies of students about this activity. We contribute to this latter relatively unexplored…

Getting Politically Active

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shaw, Robert J.

2003-01-01

Projects can, and do, succeed because of politics. And they can fail due to politics, as well. Politics does not have to be a dirty word, if it means working closely and openly with customers and stakeholder s; it is an essential approach that requires continuous dedication of time and attention. Project management is a people industry. Gainin g the trust of your followers will grant you more influence than any formal authority.

Relationship between perceived politeness and spectral characteristics of voice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ito, Mika

2005-04-01

This study investigates the role of voice quality in perceiving politeness under conditions of varying relative social status among Japanese male speakers. The work focuses on four important methodological issues: experimental control of sociolinguistic aspects, eliciting natural spontaneous speech, obtaining recording quality suitable for voice quality analysis, and assessment of glottal characteristics through the use of non-invasive direct measurements of the speech spectrum. To obtain natural, unscripted utterances, the speech data were collected with a Map Task. This methodology allowed us to study the effect of manipulating relative social status among participants in the same community. We then computed the relative amplitudes of harmonics and formant peaks in spectra obtained from the Map Task recordings. Finally, an experiment was conducted to observe the alignment between acoustic measures and the perceived politeness of the voice samples. The results suggest that listeners' perceptions of politeness are determined by spectral characteristics of speakers, in particular, spectral tilts obtained by computing the difference in amplitude between the first harmonic and the third formant.

Spatial Processing in Infancy Predicts Both Spatial and Mathematical Aptitude in Childhood.

PubMed

Lauer, Jillian E; Lourenco, Stella F

2016-10-01

Despite considerable interest in the role of spatial intelligence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) achievement, little is known about the ontogenetic origins of individual differences in spatial aptitude or their relation to later accomplishments in STEM disciplines. The current study provides evidence that spatial processes present in infancy predict interindividual variation in both spatial and mathematical competence later in development. Using a longitudinal design, we found that children's performance on a brief visuospatial change-detection task administered between 6 and 13 months of age was related to their spatial aptitude (i.e., mental-transformation skill) and mastery of symbolic-math concepts at 4 years of age, even when we controlled for general cognitive abilities and spatial memory. These results suggest that nascent spatial processes present in the first year of life not only act as precursors to later spatial intelligence but also predict math achievement during childhood.

Automatic processing of political preferences in the human brain.

PubMed

Tusche, Anita; Kahnt, Thorsten; Wisniewski, David; Haynes, John-Dylan

2013-05-15

Individual political preferences as expressed, for instance, in votes or donations are fundamental to democratic societies. However, the relevance of deliberative processing for political preferences has been highly debated, putting automatic processes in the focus of attention. Based on this notion, the present study tested whether brain responses reflect participants' preferences for politicians and their associated political parties in the absence of explicit deliberation and attention. Participants were instructed to perform a demanding visual fixation task while their brain responses were measured using fMRI. Occasionally, task-irrelevant images of German politicians from two major competing parties were presented in the background while the distraction task was continued. Subsequent to scanning, participants' political preferences for these politicians and their affiliated parties were obtained. Brain responses in distinct brain areas predicted automatic political preferences at the different levels of abstraction: activation in the ventral striatum was positively correlated with preference ranks for unattended politicians, whereas participants' preferences for the affiliated political parties were reflected in activity in the insula and the cingulate cortex. Using an additional donation task, we showed that the automatic preference-related processing in the brain extended to real-world behavior that involved actual financial loss to participants. Together, these findings indicate that brain responses triggered by unattended and task-irrelevant political images reflect individual political preferences at different levels of abstraction. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Aesthetics, Affect, and Educational Politics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Means, Alex

2011-01-01

This essay explores aesthetics, affect, and educational politics through the thought of Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Ranciere. It contextualizes and contrasts the theoretical valences of their ethical and democratic projects through their shared critique of Kant. It then puts Ranciere's notion of dissensus to work by exploring it in relation to a…

Orwell on Language and Politics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joseph, John E.

2000-01-01

Newspeak, the engineered language of George Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four," is discussed in the context of Orwell's wider views on language and politics and the need for linguistic intervention as part of the struggle against tyranny, and the related or opposed ideas of some of Orwell's contemporaries and Saussure. Orwell worried…

Moral foundations and political attitudes: The moderating role of political sophistication.

PubMed

Milesi, Patrizia

2016-08-01

Political attitudes can be associated with moral concerns. This research investigated whether people's level of political sophistication moderates this association. Based on the Moral Foundations Theory, this article examined whether political sophistication moderates the extent to which reliance on moral foundations, as categories of moral concerns, predicts judgements about policy positions. With this aim, two studies examined four policy positions shown by previous research to be best predicted by the endorsement of Sanctity, that is, the category of moral concerns focused on the preservation of physical and spiritual purity. The results showed that reliance on Sanctity predicted political sophisticates' judgements, as opposed to those of unsophisticates, on policy positions dealing with equal rights for same-sex and unmarried couples and with euthanasia. Political sophistication also interacted with Fairness endorsement, which includes moral concerns for equal treatment of everybody and reciprocity, in predicting judgements about equal rights for unmarried couples, and interacted with reliance on Authority, which includes moral concerns for obedience and respect for traditional authorities, in predicting opposition to stem cell research. Those findings suggest that, at least for these particular issues, endorsement of moral foundations can be associated with political attitudes more strongly among sophisticates than unsophisticates. © 2015 International Union of Psychological Science.

Do spatial patterns of urbanization and land consumption reflect different socioeconomic contexts in Europe?

PubMed

Salvati, Luca; Zambon, Ilaria; Chelli, Francesco Maria; Serra, Pere

2018-06-01

Land-use changes and urban sprawl have transformed European cities, with a direct impact on both metropolitan structures and socioeconomic functions. However, these processes tend to be relatively different across countries, being influenced by place-specific factors associated to socioeconomic, historical, political and cultural factors that influence decisions on the use of land. Considering 155 metropolitan areas in 6 European macro-regions, the present study investigates spatial patterns of land consumption profiling cities according to a large set of territorial variables, with the final objective to identify relevant socioeconomic dimensions characteristic of recent processes of urban growth. Investigating the socioeconomic background underlying land-use changes in metropolitan regions allows identification of place-specific factors improving the design of effective strategies containing land consumption in different European urban typologies. An exhaustive analysis of land-use changes at regional and local spatial scales contributes to find alternative policies for land-use efficiency and long-term environmental sustainability. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The politics of socioeconomic status: how socioeconomic status may influence political attitudes and engagement.

PubMed

Brown-Iannuzzi, Jazmin L; Lundberg, Kristjen B; McKee, Stephanie

2017-12-01

Socioeconomic status is hypothesized to be one factor informing political attitudes and actions. Presumably, this relationship is rooted in economic self-interest, with individuals preferring policies that would benefit them financially. In addition, these economic policy preferences are assumed to translate into political action. However, the relationships between socioeconomic status and political attitudes and behavior, as well as the psychological mechanisms associated with those relationships, are not straightforward. Here, we briefly review the current state of knowledge on the relationships between socioeconomic status and political attitudes and behavior. Overall, the research suggests that while socioeconomic status informs political attitudes toward economic policies, these attitudes may not correlate with complementary political behavior. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Analyzing Tax Policy: A Resource Guide. Economics-Political Science Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swartz, Thomas R.

Part of a series which offers educational resources and teaching techniques related to major social issues to high school social studies classroom teachers, the guide focuses on political and economic aspects of tax policy in the United States. The document is presented in three major chapters. Chapter I explores how economic and political science…

Comparing Political Experiences (CPE).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillespie, Judith A.; Patrick, John J.

The rationale, goals, curriculum components, instructional strategies, and curriculum development process of a two-semester, secondary-level political science course, "Comparing Political Experiences," are described in this paper. Developed as part of the High School Political Science Curriculum Project at Indiana University, the major…

Political Education in School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dag, Nilgun; Sozer, Mehmet Akif; Sel, Burcu

2015-01-01

Political education is a term with negative associations and triggering prejudiced approaches and discourses--maybe some paranoid thoughts--like "keep politics away from education!" in the minds of several people. This article deals with "political education" phenomenon almost never discussed and made subject to scientific…

What is Political Psychology?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deutsch, Morton

1983-01-01

Political psychology is the study of the bidirectional interaction of political and psychological processes. This academic discipline was founded after the First World War by Harold D. Lasswell. The content of political psychology is discussed and illustrative studies of the field are briefly summarized. (CS)

Analyzing Political Television Advertisements.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burson, George

1992-01-01

Presents a lesson plan to help students understand that political advertisements often mislead, lie, or appeal to emotion. Suggests that the lesson will enable students to examine political advertisements analytically. Includes a worksheet to be used by students to analyze individual political advertisements. (DK)

Adaptation as a political process: adjusting to drought and conflict in Kenya's drylands.

PubMed

Eriksen, Siri; Lind, Jeremy

2009-05-01

In this article, we argue that people's adjustments to multiple shocks and changes, such as conflict and drought, are intrinsically political processes that have uneven outcomes. Strengthening local adaptive capacity is a critical component of adapting to climate change. Based on fieldwork in two areas in Kenya, we investigate how people seek to access livelihood adjustment options and promote particular adaptation interests through forming social relations and political alliances to influence collective decision-making. First, we find that, in the face of drought and conflict, relations are formed among individuals, politicians, customary institutions, and government administration aimed at retaining or strengthening power bases in addition to securing material means of survival. Second, national economic and political structures and processes affect local adaptive capacity in fundamental ways, such as through the unequal allocation of resources across regions, development policy biased against pastoralism, and competition for elected political positions. Third, conflict is part and parcel of the adaptation process, not just an external factor inhibiting local adaptation strategies. Fourth, there are relative winners and losers of adaptation, but whether or not local adjustments to drought and conflict compound existing inequalities depends on power relations at multiple geographic scales that shape how conflicting interests are negotiated locally. Climate change adaptation policies are unlikely to be successful or minimize inequity unless the political dimensions of local adaptation are considered; however, existing power structures and conflicts of interests represent political obstacles to developing such policies.

Adaptation as a Political Process: Adjusting to Drought and Conflict in Kenya's Drylands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eriksen, Siri; Lind, Jeremy

2009-05-01

In this article, we argue that people’s adjustments to multiple shocks and changes, such as conflict and drought, are intrinsically political processes that have uneven outcomes. Strengthening local adaptive capacity is a critical component of adapting to climate change. Based on fieldwork in two areas in Kenya, we investigate how people seek to access livelihood adjustment options and promote particular adaptation interests through forming social relations and political alliances to influence collective decision-making. First, we find that, in the face of drought and conflict, relations are formed among individuals, politicians, customary institutions, and government administration aimed at retaining or strengthening power bases in addition to securing material means of survival. Second, national economic and political structures and processes affect local adaptive capacity in fundamental ways, such as through the unequal allocation of resources across regions, development policy biased against pastoralism, and competition for elected political positions. Third, conflict is part and parcel of the adaptation process, not just an external factor inhibiting local adaptation strategies. Fourth, there are relative winners and losers of adaptation, but whether or not local adjustments to drought and conflict compound existing inequalities depends on power relations at multiple geographic scales that shape how conflicting interests are negotiated locally. Climate change adaptation policies are unlikely to be successful or minimize inequity unless the political dimensions of local adaptation are considered; however, existing power structures and conflicts of interests represent political obstacles to developing such policies.

Political conservatism, rigidity, and dogmatism in American foreign policy officials: the 1966 Mennis data.

PubMed

Kemmelmeier, Markus

2007-01-01

Researchers have established a relationship between political orientation and cognitive styles (A. Chirumbolo, 2002; J. T. Jost, J. Glaser, A. W. Kruglanski, & F. Sulloway, 2003a, 2003b; M. Kemmelmeier, 1997). In this article, the author examined whether this finding is true in the political elite, whether the relationship is linear or curvilinear, and whether interest in politics moderates the relationship between political orientation and cognitive styles. He used a 1966 sample of American foreign policy officials (N = 95) to examine the relationship between self-described conservatism and party identification and individual differences in rigidity and dogmatism. Rigidity was related to self-described conservatism, but this relationship was only significant among participants high in political interest, whereas dogmatism was unconditionally related to party identification. All relationships were linear and did not contain a curvilinear component.

Use of Self-to-Object and Object-to-Object Spatial Relations in Locomotion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xiao, Chengli; Mou, Weimin; McNamara, Timothy P.

2009-01-01

In 8 experiments, the authors examined the use of representations of self-to-object or object-to-object spatial relations during locomotion. Participants learned geometrically regular or irregular layouts of objects while standing at the edge or in the middle and then pointed to objects while blindfolded in 3 conditions: before turning (baseline),…

Spatializing Marxist Educational Theory: School, the Built Environment, Fixed Capital and (Relational) Space

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ford, Derek R.

2014-01-01

Over the last two decades, educational theory has begun to incorporate analyses of space where formerly temporal considerations dominated. In this article, Marxist educational theory is spatialized by considering the school as (1) a form of fixed capital, (2) a crucial aspect of the built environment and (3) a relational space. The author begins…

Higher Education and the Practice of Democratic Politics: A Political Education Reader. Kettering Political Education Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murchland, Bernard, Ed.

This book is a collection of essays on political education for democratic citizenship in higher education developed out of meetings over 5 years of a small group of faculty, administrators and students who gathered to discuss the way academia was educating young people for political responsibility. Following a foreword and an introduction by…

Political economy challenges in nutrition.

PubMed

Balarajan, Yarlini; Reich, Michael R

2016-11-05

Historically, implementing nutrition policy has confronted persistent obstacles, with many of these obstacles arising from political economy sources. While there has been increased global policy attention to improving nutrition in recent years, the difficulty of translating this policy momentum into results remains. We present key political economy themes emanating from the political economy of nutrition literature. Together, these interrelated themes create a complex web of obstacles to moving nutrition policy forward. From these themes, we frame six political economy challenges facing the implementation of nutrition policy today. Building awareness of the broader political and economic issues that shape nutrition actions and adopting a more systematic approach to political economy analysis may help to mitigate these challenges. Improving nutrition will require managing the political economy challenges that persist in the nutrition field at global, national and subnational levels. We argue that a "mindshift" is required to build greater awareness of the broader political economy factors shaping the global nutrition landscape; and to embed systematic political economy analysis into the work of stakeholders navigating this field. This mindshift may help to improve the political feasibility of efforts to reform nutrition policy and implementation-and ensure that historical legacies do not continue to shape the future.

A spatial reference frame model of Beijing based on spatial cognitive experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jie; Zhang, Jing; Liu, Yu

2006-10-01

Orientation relation in the spatial relation is very important in GIS. People can obtain orientation information by making use of map reading and the cognition of the surrounding environment, and then create the spatial reference frame. City is a kind of special spatial environment, a person with life experiences has some spatial knowledge about the city where he or she lives in. Based on the spatial knowledge of the city environment, people can position, navigate and understand the meaning embodied in the environment correctly. Beijing as a real geographic space, its layout is very special and can form a kind of new spatial reference frame. Based on the characteristics of the layout of Beijing city, this paper will introduce a new spatial reference frame of Beijing and use two psychological experiments to validate its cognitive plausibility.

Disgust and the Politics of Sex: Exposure to a Disgusting Odorant Increases Politically Conservative Views on Sex and Decreases Support for Gay Marriage

PubMed Central

Adams, Thomas G.; Stewart, Patrick A.; Blanchar, John C.

2014-01-01

Disgust has been implicated as a potential causal agent underlying socio-political attitudes and behaviors. Several recent studies have suggested that pathogen disgust may be a causal mechanism underlying social conservatism. However, the specificity of this effect is still in question. The present study tested the effects of disgust on a range of policy preferences to clarify whether disgust is generally implicated in political conservatism across public policy attitudes or is uniquely related to specific content domains. Self-reported socio-political attitudes were compared between participants in two experimental conditions: 1) an odorless control condition, and 2) a disgusting odor condition. In keeping with previous research, the present study showed that exposure to a disgusting odor increased endorsement of socially conservative attitudes related to sexuality. In particular, there was a strong and consistent link between induced disgust and less support for gay marriage. PMID:24798457

Intentional switching in auditory selective attention: Exploring age-related effects in a spatial setup requiring speech perception.

PubMed

Oberem, Josefa; Koch, Iring; Fels, Janina

2017-06-01

Using a binaural-listening paradigm, age-related differences in the ability to intentionally switch auditory selective attention between two speakers, defined by their spatial location, were examined. Therefore 40 normal-hearing participants (20 young, Ø 24.8years; 20 older Ø 67.8years) were tested. The spatial reproduction of stimuli was provided by headphones using head-related-transfer-functions of an artificial head. Spoken number words of two speakers were presented simultaneously to participants from two out of eight locations on the horizontal plane. Guided by a visual cue indicating the spatial location of the target speaker, the participants were asked to categorize the target's number word into smaller vs. greater than five while ignoring the distractor's speech. Results showed significantly higher reaction times and error rates for older participants. The relative influence of the spatial switch of the target-speaker (switch or repetition of speaker's direction in space) was identical across age groups. Congruency effects (stimuli spoken by target and distractor may evoke the same answer or different answers) were increased for older participants and depend on the target's position. Results suggest that the ability to intentionally switch auditory attention to a new cued location was unimpaired whereas it was generally harder for older participants to suppress processing the distractor's speech. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Research on Extension of Sparql Ontology Query Language Considering the Computation of Indoor Spatial Relations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, C.; Zhu, X.; Guo, W.; Liu, Y.; Huang, H.

2015-05-01

A method suitable for indoor complex semantic query considering the computation of indoor spatial relations is provided According to the characteristics of indoor space. This paper designs ontology model describing the space related information of humans, events and Indoor space objects (e.g. Storey and Room) as well as their relations to meet the indoor semantic query. The ontology concepts are used in IndoorSPARQL query language which extends SPARQL syntax for representing and querying indoor space. And four types specific primitives for indoor query, "Adjacent", "Opposite", "Vertical" and "Contain", are defined as query functions in IndoorSPARQL used to support quantitative spatial computations. Also a method is proposed to analysis the query language. Finally this paper adopts this method to realize indoor semantic query on the study area through constructing the ontology model for the study building. The experimental results show that the method proposed in this paper can effectively support complex indoor space semantic query.

Space versus Place in Complex Human-Natural Systems: Spatial and Multi-level Models of Tropical Land Use and Cover Change (LUCC) in Guatemala

PubMed Central

López-Carr, David; Davis, Jason; Jankowska, Marta; Grant, Laura; López-Carr, Anna Carla; Clark, Matthew

2013-01-01

The relative role of space and place has long been debated in geography. Yet modeling efforts applied to coupled human-natural systems seemingly favor models assuming continuous spatial relationships. We examine the relative importance of placebased hierarchical versus spatial clustering influences in tropical land use/cover change (LUCC). Guatemala was chosen as our study site given its high rural population growth and deforestation in recent decades. We test predictors of 2009 forest cover and forest cover change from 2001-2009 across Guatemala's 331 municipalities and 22 departments using spatial and multi-level statistical models. Our results indicate the emergence of several socio-economic predictors of LUCC regardless of model choice. Hierarchical model results suggest that significant differences exist at the municipal and departmental levels but largely maintain the magnitude and direction of single-level model coefficient estimates. They are also intervention-relevant since policies tend to be applicable to distinct political units rather than to continuous space. Spatial models complement hierarchical approaches by indicating where and to what magnitude significant negative and positive clustering associations emerge. Appreciating the comparative advantages and limitations of spatial and nested models enhances a holistic approach to geographical analysis of tropical LUCC and human-environment interactions. PMID:24013908

Talking Politics, Practicing Citizenship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacKinnon, Mary Pat

2008-01-01

The message emerging from a recent research series on youth civic and political participation is clear: today's youth are not disengaged from associational and small "p" political life, but they are increasingly disenchanted with formal political institutions and practices. Generation Y (those born after 1979) has less formal political…

Becoming independent: political participation and youth transitions in the Scottish referendum.

PubMed

Breeze, Maddie; Gorringe, Hugo; Jamieson, Lynn; Rosie, Michael

2017-12-01

Sociological debates on youth engagement with electoral politics play out against a backdrop of supposed 'decline' in civic participation (e.g. Putnam , Norris, ), in turn contextualized by theories of individualization in 'late' or 'reflexive' modernity (Beck, Giddens). However, the enfranchisement of 16 and 17 year olds in the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum catalysed remarkably high levels of voter turnout among this youngest group, and was accompanied by apparently ongoing political engagement. We explored this engagement among a strategic sample of young 'Yes' voters, in the immediate aftermath of this exceptional political event. Analysis of qualitative interview data generated an unanticipated finding; that interviewees narrated their political engagement biographically, articulated their referendum participation reflexively, and located their new political ideas, allegiances and actions in the context of their own transitions to 'independent' adulthood. This inspired us to rethink young people's political engagement in relation to youth transitions. Doing so enables a synthesis of divergent strands in the sociology of youth, and offers new insights into the combinations of 'personal' agentic and 'political' structural factors involved in young people's politicization. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2017.

Spatially distributed model calibration of flood inundation guided by consequences such as loss of property

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pappenberger, F.; Beven, K. J.; Frodsham, K.; Matgen, P.

2005-12-01

Flood inundation models play an increasingly important role in assessing flood risk. The growth of 2D inundation models that are intimately related to raster maps of floodplains is occurring at the same time as an increase in the availability of 2D remote data (e.g. SAR images and aerial photographs), against which model performancee can be evaluated. This requires new techniques to be explored in order to evaluate model performance in two dimensional space. In this paper we present a fuzzified pattern matching algorithm which compares favorably to a set of traditional measures. However, we further argue that model calibration has to go beyond the comparison of physical properties and should demonstrate how a weighting towards consequences, such as loss of property, can enhance model focus and prediction. Indeed, it will be necessary to abandon a fully spatial comparison in many scenarios to concentrate the model calibration exercise on specific points such as hospitals, police stations or emergency response centers. It can be shown that such point evaluations lead to significantly different flood hazard maps due to the averaging effect of a spatial performance measure. A strategy to balance the different needs (accuracy at certain spatial points and acceptable spatial performance) has to be based in a public and political decision making process.

Altered Cortico-Striatal–Thalamic Connectivity in Relation to Spatial Working Memory Capacity in Children with ADHD

PubMed Central

Mills, Kathryn L.; Bathula, Deepti; Dias, Taciana G. Costa; Iyer, Swathi P.; Fenesy, Michelle C.; Musser, Erica D.; Stevens, Corinne A.; Thurlow, Bria L.; Carpenter, Samuel D.; Nagel, Bonnie J.; Nigg, Joel T.; Fair, Damien A.

2012-01-01

Introduction: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) captures a heterogeneous group of children, who are characterized by a range of cognitive and behavioral symptoms. Previous resting-state functional connectivity MRI (rs-fcMRI) studies have sought to understand the neural correlates of ADHD by comparing connectivity measurements between those with and without the disorder, focusing primarily on cortical–striatal circuits mediated by the thalamus. To integrate the multiple phenotypic features associated with ADHD and help resolve its heterogeneity, it is helpful to determine how specific circuits relate to unique cognitive domains of the ADHD syndrome. Spatial working memory has been proposed as a key mechanism in the pathophysiology of ADHD. Methods: We correlated the rs-fcMRI of five thalamic regions of interest (ROIs) with spatial span working memory scores in a sample of 67 children aged 7–11 years [ADHD and typically developing children (TDC)]. In an independent dataset, we then examined group differences in thalamo-striatal functional connectivity between 70 ADHD and 89 TDC (7–11 years) from the ADHD-200 dataset. Thalamic ROIs were created based on previous methods that utilize known thalamo-cortical loops and rs-fcMRI to identify functional boundaries in the thalamus. Results/Conclusion: Using these thalamic regions, we found atypical rs-fcMRI between specific thalamic groupings with the basal ganglia. To identify the thalamic connections that relate to spatial working memory in ADHD, only connections identified in both the correlational and comparative analyses were considered. Multiple connections between the thalamus and basal ganglia, particularly between medial and anterior dorsal thalamus and the putamen, were related to spatial working memory and also altered in ADHD. These thalamo-striatal disruptions may be one of multiple atypical neural and cognitive mechanisms that relate to the ADHD clinical phenotype. PMID:22291667

The Role of Political Theory in the Teaching of Political Science in Mexico.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suarez-Iniguez, Enrique

1989-01-01

Discusses three major problems within the field of political science in Mexico: the dearth of classes offered, lack of consensus on the content of courses, and the very limited role of political theory. Provides charts and statistics on the state of political science in the country. (RW)

The Longitudinal Effects of Chronic Mediated Exposure to Political Violence on Ideological Beliefs About Political Conflicts Among Youths

PubMed Central

Gvirsman, Shira Dvir; Huesmann, L. Rowell; Dubow, Eric F.; Landau, Simha F.; Boxer, Paul; Shikaki, Khalil

2015-01-01

This study examines the effects of chronic (i.e., repeated and cumulative) mediated exposure to political violence on ideological beliefs regarding political conflict. It centers on these effects on young viewers, from preadolescents to adolescents. Ideological beliefs refers here to support of war, perception of threat to one's nation, and normative beliefs concerning aggression toward the out-group. A longitudinal study was conducted on a sample of Israeli and Palestinian youths who experience the Israeli-Palestinian conflict firsthand (N = 1,207). Two alternative hypotheses were tested: that chronic exposure via the media increases support for war and aggression and elevates feeling of threat, or that chronic exposure via the media strengthens preexisting beliefs. Results demonstrated that higher levels of exposure were longitudinally related to stronger support for war. Regarding normative beliefs about aggression and threat to one's nation, mediated exposure reinforced initial beliefs, rendering the youths more extreme in their attitudes. These results mostly support the conceptualization of the relation between media violence and behaviors as “reciprocally determined” or “reinforcing spirals.” The results are also discussed in light of the differences found between the effect of exposure to political violence firsthand and exposure via the media. PMID:26997852

Summer spatial patterning of chukars in relation to free water in Western Utah

USGS Publications Warehouse

Larsen, R.T.; Bissonette, J.A.; Flinders, J.T.; Hooten, M.B.; Wilson, T.L.

2010-01-01

Free water is considered important to wildlife in arid regions. In the western United States, thousands of water developments have been built to benefit wildlife in arid landscapes. Agencies and researchers have yet to clearly demonstrate their effectiveness. We combined a spatial analysis of summer chukar (Alectoris chukar) covey locations with dietary composition analysis in western Utah. Our specific objectives were to determine if chukars showed a spatial pattern that suggested association with free water in four study areas and to document summer dietary moisture content in relation to average distance from water. The observed data for the Cedar Mountains study area fell within the middle of the random mean distance to water distribution suggesting no association with free water. The observed mean distance to water for the other three areas was much closer than expected compared to a random spatial process, suggesting the importance of free water to these populations. Dietary moisture content of chukar food items from the Cedar Mountains (59%) was significantly greater (P < 0.05) than that of birds from Box Elder (44%) and Keg-Dugway (44%). Water developments on the Cedar Mountains are likely ineffective for chukars. Spatial patterns on the other areas, however, suggest association with free water and our results demonstrate the need for site-specific considerations. Researchers should be aware of the potential to satisfy water demand with pre-formed and metabolic water for a variety of species in studies that address the effects of wildlife water developments. We encourage incorporation of spatial structure in model error components in future ecological research. ?? Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.

Cultural Appropriation of Political Participation and Concepts of Democracy in Greece

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, Georgia; Andritsopoulou, C.

2003-01-01

The present work explores aspects of political thinking of Greek adolescents in relation to civic education. The chapter aims to investigate the relationship of social and political education, as taught in high-school, to students' concepts and attitudes centering on the way students (a) formulate attitudes towards anticipated political…

Working-memory performance is related to spatial breadth of attention.

PubMed

Kreitz, Carina; Furley, Philip; Memmert, Daniel; Simons, Daniel J

2015-11-01

Working memory and attention are closely related constructs. Models of working memory often incorporate an attention component, and some even equate working memory and attentional control. Although some attention-related processes, including inhibitory control of response conflict and interference resolution, are strongly associated with working memory, for other aspects of attention the link is less clear. We examined the association between working-memory performance and attentional breadth, the ability to spread attention spatially. If the link between attention and working memory is broader than inhibitory and interference resolution processes, then working-memory performance might also be associated with other attentional abilities, including attentional breadth. We tested 123 participants on a variety of working-memory and attentional-breadth measures, finding a strong correlation between performances on these two types of tasks. This finding demonstrates that the link between working memory and attention extends beyond inhibitory processes.

Has Political Science Ignored Religion?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kettell, Steven

2012-01-01

A common complaint from political scientists involved in the study of religion is that religious issues have been largely overlooked by political science. Through a content analysis of leading political science and sociology journals from 2000 to 2010, this article considers the extent of this claim. The results show that political science…

Postmaterialism and young people's political participation in a time of austerity.

PubMed

Henn, Matt; Oldfield, Ben; Hart, James

2017-08-30

Recent trends suggest that young people in Britain are refraining from engaging in formal political processes. At the same time, they are increasingly expressing support for, and turning toward, a new and diverse range of non-institutionalized forms of political action in order to actualize their interests. Using Inglehart's ideas on postmaterialism, we consider whether this apparent rejection of mainstream politics in favour of less conventional - and sometimes radical - forms of political action is changing over time in Britain, reflecting fluctuating economic conditions witnessed over the last two decades. We do this by comparing results from surveys of British 18 year olds conducted in 2002 during an era of relative global prosperity, and then in 2011 at the height of the current global crisis. The findings suggest that British young postmaterialists are considerably more likely than materialists to participate in and support both institutionalized and non-institutionalized forms of political action. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2017.

Political Education in Hungary.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Szabo, Mate

1989-01-01

The contradictions of political education in East European socialist countries based on the Hungarian experience are explored in this paper. Divided into three parts, the first part gives a brief sketch of institutionalized political education, while the second concerns the crisis of Hungary's political education emerging in the 1980s. In the…

Political Ideology, Trust, and Cooperation: In-group Favoritism among Republicans and Democrats during a US National Election.

PubMed

Balliet, Daniel; Tybur, Joshua M; Wu, Junhui; Antonellis, Christian; Van Lange, Paul A M

2018-04-01

Theories suggest that political ideology relates to cooperation, with conservatives being more likely to pursue selfish outcomes, and liberals more likely to pursue egalitarian outcomes. In study 1, we examine how political ideology and political party affiliation (Republican vs. Democrat) predict cooperation with a partner who self-identifies as Republican or Democrat in two samples before ( n = 362) and after ( n = 366) the 2012 US presidential election. Liberals show slightly more concern for their partners' outcomes compared to conservatives (study 1), and in study 2 this relation is supported by a meta-analysis ( r = .15). However, in study 1, political ideology did not relate to cooperation in general. Both Republicans and Democrats extend more cooperation to their in-group relative to the out-group, and this is explained by expectations of cooperation from in-group versus out-group members. We discuss the relation between political ideology and cooperation within and between groups.

Political violence, health, and coping among Palestinian women in the West Bank.

PubMed

Sousa, Cindy A

2013-10-01

Political violence poses a considerable threat to the health of individuals. Protective factors, however, may help people to build resilience in the face of political violence. This study examined the influence of lifetime and past 30-day experiences of political violence on the mental and physical health of adult Palestinian women from the West Bank (N = 122). Two hypotheses were examined: (a) Reports of political violence exposure would be related to reports of poorer physical and mental health and (b) several coping variables (proactive coping; self-reliance; reliance on political, family, and religious support; and political or civic engagement) would function as moderators of the effects of political violence, buffering or weakening its effects on physical and mental health outcomes. Both lifetime and past 30-day measures of political violence were positively correlated with posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Proactive coping, reliance on self, and political or civic engagement significantly interacted with political violence to affect health in a counterintuitive direction; those with higher scores on these more internalized and individualistic coping strategies demonstrated worse health as political violence increased. Reliance on religious support, and, in particular, support from and participation in activities of religious institutions, emerged as a significant protective factor. Results underscore the importance of looking not only at whether political violence affects health, but also at how the relationships between political violence and health might occur, including the potential protective influence of resources within people's social environments. © 2013 American Orthopsychiatric Association.

Political partisanship influences perception of biracial candidates' skin tone

PubMed Central

Caruso, Eugene M.; Mead, Nicole L.; Balcetis, Emily

2009-01-01

People tend to view members of their own political group more positively than members of a competing political group. In this article, we demonstrate that political partisanship influences people's visual representations of a biracial political candidate's skin tone. In three studies, participants rated the representativeness of photographs of a hypothetical (Study 1) or real (Barack Obama; Studies 2 and 3) biracial political candidate. Unbeknownst to participants, some of the photographs had been altered to make the candidate's skin tone either lighter or darker than it was in the original photograph. Participants whose partisanship matched that of the candidate they were evaluating consistently rated the lightened photographs as more representative of the candidate than the darkened photographs, whereas participants whose partisanship did not match that of the candidate showed the opposite pattern. For evaluations of Barack Obama, the extent to which people rated lightened photographs as representative of him was positively correlated with their stated voting intentions and reported voting behavior in the 2008 Presidential election. This effect persisted when controlling for political ideology and racial attitudes. These results suggest that people's visual representations of others are related to their own preexisting beliefs and to the decisions they make in a consequential context. PMID:19934033

Political partisanship influences perception of biracial candidates' skin tone.

PubMed

Caruso, Eugene M; Mead, Nicole L; Balcetis, Emily

2009-12-01

People tend to view members of their own political group more positively than members of a competing political group. In this article, we demonstrate that political partisanship influences people's visual representations of a biracial political candidate's skin tone. In three studies, participants rated the representativeness of photographs of a hypothetical (Study 1) or real (Barack Obama; Studies 2 and 3) biracial political candidate. Unbeknownst to participants, some of the photographs had been altered to make the candidate's skin tone either lighter or darker than it was in the original photograph. Participants whose partisanship matched that of the candidate they were evaluating consistently rated the lightened photographs as more representative of the candidate than the darkened photographs, whereas participants whose partisanship did not match that of the candidate showed the opposite pattern. For evaluations of Barack Obama, the extent to which people rated lightened photographs as representative of him was positively correlated with their stated voting intentions and reported voting behavior in the 2008 Presidential election. This effect persisted when controlling for political ideology and racial attitudes. These results suggest that people's visual representations of others are related to their own preexisting beliefs and to the decisions they make in a consequential context.

Politeness in Interlanguage Pragmatics of Complaints by Indonesian Learners of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wijayanto, Agus; Laila, Malikatul; Prasetyarini, Aryati; Susiati, Susiati

2013-01-01

Complaint is intrinsically an abusive act which tends to offend the complainees. In spite of this complainers could consider politeness when they still intend to maintain a good relationship with the complainees. This paper investigated politeness strategies involved in complaints relating to different social status levels and social distances.…

The New Right and family politics.

PubMed

Somerville, J

1992-05-01

Political concern for the family has historically been intermittent; the present context is that there are considerable consequences for individuals, families, and personal life. Socioeconomic and cultural changes brought the rise of the New Right; The Thatcher (UK) and Reagan (US) administrations were committed to strengthening the traditional family. The emergence of the family as a social problem and the political agenda are discussed. The costs of liberalism were felt in a recessionary economy. The US political agenda of Carter to hold a White House Conference on the American Family never materialized. Reagan used the restoration of the traditional American family as a way to get the economy back on its feet. Moral crusaders and the new evangelical Christian movement merged with the political right; the "Gang of Four" (Republican Party right) politicians involved morally conservative communities normally outside the political area into the New Right. Grass roots organizations were mobilized on the Right. The British situation is explained; differences existed in that there were no antiabortion and moral lobby groups tied to the Right although their influence was felt. Pressure group politics is relatively novel to Britain. The Moral Majority in the US and right wing pressure groups on the Tory government are but 1 part of the New Right; it is characterized as populist, proclaiming the Radical Conservatism of Adam Smith and Edmund Burke. The approach in this article is to show the complex interactions of theory, biography, and public opinion in the practical politics of the New Right. Policy outcomes are not predictable because of ideological differences in New Right attitudes toward the family. The attitudes of the moral order and the family is exemplified in the work of Roger Scruton's neoconservative stand on social order, Robert Nozick's Kantian proposition that human beings are ends with natural inviolable rights of individual freedom, Hayak and Friedman

Teaching International Politics in High School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

English, Raymond, Ed.

Approaches to teaching about international politics and avenues to peace should be realistic and pragmatic rather than based on generalities about global education and peace education. This volume contains essays on international economic relations, cultural and linguistic understanding, and the conflict of ideologies and value systems in…

Spatial language and converseness.

PubMed

Burigo, Michele; Coventry, Kenny R; Cangelosi, Angelo; Lynott, Dermot

2016-12-01

Typical spatial language sentences consist of describing the location of an object (the located object) in relation to another object (the reference object) as in "The book is above the vase". While it has been suggested that the properties of the located object (the book) are not translated into language because they are irrelevant when exchanging location information, it has been shown that the orientation of the located object affects the production and comprehension of spatial descriptions. In line with the claim that spatial language apprehension involves inferences about relations that hold between objects it has been suggested that during spatial language apprehension people use the orientation of the located object to evaluate whether the logical property of converseness (e.g., if "the book is above the vase" is true, then also "the vase is below the book" must be true) holds across the objects' spatial relation. In three experiments using sentence acceptability rating tasks we tested this hypothesis and demonstrated that when converseness is violated people's acceptability ratings of a scene's description are reduced indicating that people do take into account geometric properties of the located object and use it to infer logical spatial relations.

Political economy analysis for tobacco control in low- and middle-income countries.

PubMed

Bump, Jesse B; Reich, Michael R

2013-03-01

Tobacco is already the world's leading cause of preventable death, claiming over 5 million lives annually, and this toll is rising. Even though effective tobacco control policies are well researched and widely disseminated, they remain largely unimplemented in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). For the most part, control attempts by advocates and government regulators have been frustrated by transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) and their supporters. One reason tobacco is so difficult to control is that its political economy has yet to be adequately understood and addressed. We conducted a review of the literature on tobacco control in LMICs using the databases PubMed, EconLit, PsychInfo and AGRICOLA. Among the over 2500 papers and reports we identified, very few explicitly applied political economy analysis to tobacco control in an LMIC setting. The vast majority of papers characterized important aspects of the tobacco epidemic, including who smokes, the effects of smoking on health, the effectiveness of advertising bans, and the activities of TTCs and their allies. But the political and economic dynamics of policy adoption and implementation were not discussed in any but a handful of papers. To help control advocates better understand and manage the process of policy implementation, we identify how political economy analysis would differ from the traditional public health approaches that dominate the literature. We focus on five important problem areas: information problems and the risks of smoking; the roles of domestic producers; multinational corporations and trade disputes in consumption; smuggling; the barriers to raising taxes and establishing spatial restrictions on smoking; and incentive conflicts between government branches. We conclude by discussing the political economy of tobacco and its implications for control strategies.

The role of political affiliation in employment decisions: A model and research agenda.

PubMed

Roth, Philip L; Goldberg, Caren B; Thatcher, Jason B

2017-09-01

Organizational researchers have studied how individuals identify with groups and organizations and how this affiliation influences behavior for decades (e.g., Tajfel, 1982). Interestingly, investigation into political affiliation and political affiliation similarity in the organizational sciences is extremely rare. This is striking, given the deep political divides that exist between groups of individuals described in the political science literature. We draw from theories based on similarity, organizational identification, and person-environment fit, as well as theoretical notions related to individuating information, to develop a model, the political affiliation model (PAM), which describes the implications of political affiliation and political similarity for employment decisions. We set forth a number of propositions based on PAM, to spur future research in the organizational sciences for a timely topic which has received little attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).