In 2010, the United States Congress placed a moratorium on earmarks – congressionally mandated spending projects. But did the earmark moratorium actually rid public policy of earmarks? I use earmark ...data and 2010–2020 state-level highway funding metrics to examine the relationship between previously expired transportation earmarks and federal highway funding during the earmark moratorium. Earmarks in the 2005 surface transportation law (SAFETEA-LU) continued to benefit certain states in 2020, even though the projects technically expired in 2009. This is because the funding “formulas” established by all post-2009 surface transportation laws were fully determined by the highway allocation percentage each state received in the preceding year, inclusive of earmarks. Further, I find the relationship between SAFETEA-LU earmarks and state funding disparities strengthened from 2010 to 2020, meaning the expired earmarks increased in policy significance during the moratorium. Highly earmarked states became even more advantaged after the earmarks were institutionalised into the highway funding formula.
As appropriations earmarks return to Congress, every legislator faces a decision: pursue or refuse congressionally mandated federal spending projects. This decision is likely influenced by public ...messaging concerns. We theorize that both credit claiming for federal projects and position taking against spending projects (“pork busting”) can benefit legislators as they look to improve future electoral returns. We field a nationally representative survey experiment to estimate the effect of credit‐claiming and pork‐busting messages on the perceived effectiveness, fiscal responsibility, and overall approval of an unnamed member of Congress. We find that respondents are likely to penalize the representative's approval assessment when presented with an out‐party message strategy. Conversely, respondents are likely to increase the representative's personal trait assessments when presented with an in‐party message strategy. We expand on these results in an additional analysis and find that these trends persist when controlling for other partisan and demographic factors. We discuss our results in light of traditional expectations, potential mechanisms, and future directions for related research.
We present the frequency-dependent geminal-screened electron–hole interaction kernel (FD-GSIK) method for describing electron–hole correlation in electronically excited many-electron systems. The ...FD-GSIK is a parameter-free, first-principles method derived from excited-state wave function that was both frequency-dependent and r12-explicitly correlated. The FD-GSIK avoids using unoccupied orbitals for kernel construction by performing an infinite-order summation of particle-hole excitation and representing it as a compact real-space operator. It bypasses the computationally demanding steps of evaluation, storage, and transformation of atomic-orbital integrals by directly evaluating molecular orbital integrals in real space using the stratified Monte Carlo method. We demonstrate and discuss the advantages of this method by presenting excitation and electron–hole binding energies of large nanoparticles including Pb140S140, Pb140Se140, Cd144Se144, and Cd72S72.
The overarching goal of this work is to investigate the size-dependent characteristics of the ionization potential of PbS and CdS quantum dots. The ionization potentials of quantum dots provide ...critical information about the energies of occupied states, which can then be used to quantify the electron-removal characteristics of quantum dots. The energy of the highest-occupied molecular orbital is used to understand electron-transfer processes when invesigating the energy-level alignment between quantum dots and electron-accepting ligands. Ionization potential is also important for investigating and interpreting electron-detachment processes induced by light (photoelectron spectra), external voltage (chemiresistance), and collision with other electrons (impact ionization). Accurate first-principles calculations of ionization potential continue to be challenging because of the computational cost associated with the construction of the frequency-dependent self-energy operator and the numerical solution of the associated Dyson equation. The computational cost becomes prohibitive as the system size increases because of the large number of 2particle-1hole (2p1h) and 1particle-2hole (1p2h) terms needed for the calculation. In this work, we present the Stratified Stochastic Enumeration of Molecular Orbitals (SSE-MO) method for efficient construction of the self-energy operator. The SSE-MO method is a real-space method and the central strategy of this method is to use stochastically enumerated sampling of molecular orbitals and molecular-orbital indices for the construction of the 2p1h and 1p2h terms. This is achieved by first constructing a composite MO-index Cartesian coordinate space followed by transformation of the frequency-dependent self-energy operator to this composite space. The evaluation of both the real and imaginary components of the self-energy operator is performed using a stratified Monte Carlo technique. The SSE-MO method was used to calculate the ionization potentials and the frequency-dependent spectral functions for a series of PbS and CdS quantum dots by solving the Dyson equation using both single-shot and iterative procedures. The ionization potentials for both PbS and CdS quantum dots were found to decrease with increasing dot size. Analysis of the frequency-dependent spectral functions revealed that for PbS quantum dots the intermediate dot size exhibited a longer relative lifetime whereas in CdS the smallest dot size had the longest relative lifetime. The results from these calculations demonstrate the efficacy of the SSE-MO method for calculating accurate ionization potentials and spectral functions of chemical systems.
Extraneous neuroscience information improves ratings of scientific explanations, and affects mock juror decisions in many studies, but others have yielded little to no effect. To establish the ...magnitude of this effect, we conducted a random-effects meta-analysis using 60 experiments from 28 publications. We found a mild but highly significant effect, with substantial heterogeneity. Planned subgroup analyses revealed that within-subjects studies, where people can compare the same material with and without neuroscience, and those using text, have stronger effects than between-subjects designs, and studies using brain image stimuli. We serendipitously found that effect sizes were stronger on outcomes of evaluating satisfaction or metacomprehension, compared with jury verdicts or assessments of convincingness. In conclusion, there is more than one type of neuroscience explanations effect. Irrelevant neuroscience does have a seductive allure, especially on self-appraised satisfaction and understanding, and when presented as text.
Conventional wisdom has long assumed veteran status to be a beneficial credential for political candidates, but the evidence is mixed on the direct association between military experience and ...electoral success. Rather than a uniformly advantageous candidate characteristic, we argue veteran status is best understood as an influential source cue and issue ownership factor that can be capitalized on by effective campaign messaging. We outline three potential mechanisms through which veteran candidates unlock electoral gains – solidified issue ownership, enhanced trait ownership, and increased salience of advantageous policy issues. We test these expectations with two online survey experiments, randomizing a fictional candidate’s veteran status and the policy topic discussed in campaign messaging. We find veteran candidates can use a combination of veteran cues and policy messaging to gain an advantage over nonveterans. However, veteran candidates stand to benefit most by talking about crime rather than national defense, as a ceiling effect limits veterans’ ability to enhance their service-related issue and trait ownership ratings by messaging on national defense. By reconceptualizing military service as an effective communication tool rather than a uniformly advantageous biographical line, we clarify the substantial electoral value of veteran status in American politics. More broadly, our findings show that voters respond not just to individual cues derived from partisanship or a candidate’s background, but to the interaction of these cues with campaign messaging.
The US Congress is unrepresentative of the people it serves, and reforming campaign finance law may be a path toward a more representative institution. We examine public opinion toward allowing ...candidates to use campaign funds for child care, theorizing gender conditions support due to the unequal burden child care places on women. Using an experiment, we find people are more supportive of candidates using campaign funds for child care when the hypothetical candidates are women. Women respondents are especially likely to vary their support for the policy based on candidate gender. This project is the first to explore public support for allowing candidates to use campaign funds for personal expenses, contributing to our understanding of support for reform that could transform the types of candidates willing to run.
The aim of the F2 study was to verify whether a prospective collection of data would enable the development of a more accurate prognostic index for follicular lymphoma (FL) by using parameters which ...could not be retrospectively studied before, and by choosing progression-free survival (PFS) as principal end point.
Between January 2003 and May 2005, 1,093 patients with a newly diagnosed FL were registered and 942 individuals receiving antilymphoma therapy were selected as the study population. The variables we used for score definition were selected by means of bootstrap resampling procedures on 832 patients with complete data. Procedures to select the model that would minimize errors were also performed.
After a median follow-up of 38 months, 261 events for PFS evaluation were recorded. beta2-microglobulin higher than the upper limit of normal, longest diameter of the largest involved node longer than 6 cm, bone marrow involvement, hemoglobin level lower than 12 g/dL, and age older than 60 years were factors independently predictive for PFS. Using these variables, a prognostic model was devised to identify three groups at different levels of risk. The 3-year PFS rate was 91%, 69%, and 51% for patients at low, intermediate, and high risk, respectively (log-rank = 64.6; P < .00001). The 3-year survival rate was 99%, 96%, and 84% for patients at low, intermediate, and high risk, respectively (P < .0001).
Follicular Lymphoma International Prognostic Index 2 is a simple prognostic index based on easily available clinical data and may represent a promising new tool for the identification of patients with FL at different risk in the era of immunochemotherapy.
CB1 antagonists, including rimonabant (SR 141716A), hold considerable therapeutic potential in the reduction of appetite and lipogenesis and in improving the metabolic profile of obese individuals ...and those with diabetes. However, rimonabant has not been approved in the USA because of its numerous side-effects, including depression and anxiety. Because of this, it is expected that fewer attempts will be made to introduce CB1 antagonists into the market. However, a 'second generation' of compounds has produced promising results in animal models in terms of these side-effects, and may pave the way toward new development and clinical testing of compounds that lack the side-effects of rimonabant. This new generation includes neutral CB1 antagonists, which likely have less intrinsic activity than clinically tested drugs, and peripherally restricted compounds. The current paper reviews the behavioral profile of rimonabant and related compounds, including a similarity in hypophagic effects with putative neutral antagonists and peripherally restricted antagonists. Emerging evidence of a lack of effects in models of nausea, anxiety, and depression is discussed. It is concluded that, with increasing emphasis on modeling the more troublesome side-effects of CB1 antagonists, safe, efficacious therapeutic targets may emerge. Further rigorous preclinical testing should be carried out.
