Party systems, that is, the number and the size of all the parties within a country, can vary greatly across countries. I conduct a principal component analysis on a party seat share dataset of 17 ...advanced democracies from 1970 to 2013 to reduce the dimensionality of the data. I find that the most important dimensions that differentiate party systems are: “the size of the biggest two parties” and the level of “competition between the two biggest parties.” I use the results to compare the changes in electoral and legislative party systems. I also juxtapose the results to previous party system typologies and party system size measures. I find that typologies sort countries into categories based on variation along both dimensions. On the other hand, most of the current political science literature use measures (e.g., the effective number of parties) that are correlated with the first dimension. I suggest that instead of these, indices that measure the opposition structure and competition could be used to explore problems pertaining to the competitiveness of the party systems.
One of the main questions about presidential democracies is to what extent the legislature influences executive governance. However, less well‐known in this literature is the influence of opposition ...parties in policy‐making and government formation processes. We argue that, in multiparty presidential governments, more concentrated opposition forces in the legislature, as opposed to more fragmented, lead to higher government spending and greater chances of coalition formation. Facing more united opposition, presidents who are concerned about passing their agenda in the legislature are willing to pay the price to hold their ruling party or governing coalition together in tighter unity. We test this logic by analyzing data on government spending and cabinet formation in all multiparty presidential democracies in East and Southeast Asia and find strong support for it, controlling for several political and economic variables. Our analysis further shows that chief executives' electoral incentives strongly shape their budget spending and cabinet appointments.
Toxin cargo genes are often horizontally transferred by phages between bacterial species and are known to play an important role in the evolution of bacterial pathogenesis. Here, we show how these ...same genes have been horizontally transferred from phage or bacteria to animals and have resulted in novel adaptations. We discovered that two widespread bacterial genes encoding toxins of animal cells,
(
) and
(
, were captured by insect genomes through horizontal gene transfer from bacteria or phages. To study the function of these genes in insects, we focused on
as a model. In the
subgroup species,
and
are present as singular (
) or fused copies (
) on the second chromosome. We found that
and
genes and encoded proteins were expressed by immune cells, some proteins were localized to the wasp embryo's serosa, and their expression increased following parasitoid wasp infection. Species of the
subgroup are highly resistant to parasitoid wasps, and we observed that
lines carrying null mutations in
and
toxin genes were more susceptible to parasitoids than the wild type. We conclude that toxin cargo genes were captured by these insects millions of years ago and integrated as novel modules into their innate immune system. These modules now represent components of a heretofore undescribed defense response and are important for resistance to parasitoid wasps. Phage or bacterially derived eukaryotic toxin genes serve as macromutations that can spur the instantaneous evolution of novelty in animals.
According to some researchers, animals show different coping styles to deal with stressful situations. In the case of social carnivores, social stress is a substantial part of the overall stress ...load. Previous research has established two extreme (proactive and reactive) coping styles in several animal species, but means of coping with social stress has not yet been investigated in the case of dogs. The aim of this current study was to examine whether (1) experienced working police dogs adopt different coping strategies during a short-term unexpected social challenge presented by a threatening human, (2) whether this affects post-encounter cortisol levels, and (3) whether there is an association between the cortisol response and the behavior (coping strategy) displayed during the threatening approach. Using factor analysis, we have identified three different group of dogs which were characterized by either fearfulness, aggressiveness, or ambivalence and in parallel showed specific differences in their reaction norm when threatened by an approaching stranger. This grouping also allowed to draw possible parallels between aggressiveness and the proactive behavior style and fearfulness and reactive coping style, respectively. In addition, we have revealed a third group of animals which show ambivalent behavior in a social threatening situation.
Remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) can be protective against the damage. However, there is no consensus on the optimal amount of tissue, the number and duration of the ischemic cycles, and the ...timing of the preconditioning. The hemorheological background of the process is also unknown.
To investigate the effects of remote organ ischemic preconditioning on micro-rheological parameters during liver ischemia-reperfusion in rats.
In anesthetized rats 60-minute partial liver ischemia was induced with 120-minute reperfusion (Control, n = 7). In the preconditioned groups a tourniquet was applied on the left thigh for 3×10 minutes 1 hour (RIPC-1, n = 7) or 24 hours (RIPC-24, n = 7) prior to the liver ischemia. Blood samples were taken before the operation and during the reperfusion. Acid-base, hematological parameters, erythrocyte aggregation and deformability were tested.
Lactate concentration significantly increased by the end of the reperfusion. Erythrocyte deformability was improved in the RIPC-1 group, erythrocyte aggregation increased during the reperfusion, particularly in the RIPC-24 group.
RIPC alleviated several hemorheological changes caused by the liver I/R. However, the optimal timing of the RIPC cannot be defined based on these results.
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