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The Rule of Law in Red and Blue: Affective Polarization and Support for Legal Institutions in the United States
No full textA defining feature of democracies is an independent legal system, where elites and the public alike accept the broader legitimacy of its actions, even if they run counter to political preferences. Existing scholarship suggests that public support for rule of law institutions is rooted in perceptions of procedural fairness. However, amid increasing levels of affective polarization, we posit a partisan presidential heuristic wherein citizens\u27 views of legal institutions are influenced by their partisanship and signals from the president. Through multiple experiments, we demonstrate that support for two key institutions-the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice-is substantially derived from the intersection of one\u27s partisan identity and their partisan proximity to the president. These effects are strongest among respondents exhibiting high levels of affective partisanship. Our results suggest that in forming perceptions of the rule of law, partisan politics is increasingly competing with perceptions of procedural fairness, thereby subverting support for legal institutions in the United States
The Trauma of Language Learning and Self-Translation in Elena Ferrante and Jhumpa Lahiri
No full textElena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet (2011–2014) and Jhumpa Lahiri’s first work in Italian, In altre parole (In Other Words, 2015) can both be read as ‘language memoirs’, for they both posit language, language acquisition, and self-translation as central narrative events as well as sites for identity construction and reinvention of the self. In this essay I juxtapose Ferrante’s and Lahiri’s works to argue that both authors explore the traumatic encounter between a repressed or unlearned native/mother tongue and an adoptive language which is also the very language of their texts and the very proof of their linguistic mastery. The essay draws on trauma studies and translation theory to examine the lexical, structural, and thematic dimensions of what I define as ‘dialect trauma’ in Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels and to analyse the recurring rhetoric of linguistic incompetence or what I term ‘language imperfection trauma’ in Lahiri’s In altre parole. I contend that ‘dialect trauma’ in Ferrante’s Quartet manifests as Elena Greco’s recurring metalinguistic glosses which compulsively re-enact Elena’s traumatic memory on the level of her literary language. I then propose that Lahiri’s ‘language imperfection trauma’ can be located in her repeated attempts to pose and pass as Italian, all the while documenting her own language learning practice. My analysis puts in conversation depictions of language acquisition and the exiled or migrant self, representations of trauma, and translingual writing
Utilizing Supervised Machine Learning Models for Opioid Hotspot Prediction
No full textThe opioid crisis in the USA has been identified as a significant crisis over the past several decades, with documented opioid overdose deaths reaching 400,000 between 1999 and 2018. In particular, Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin, contributed to around 31,000 deaths, comprising 65% of all opioid overdose fatalities by 2018 (Marks et al., 2021; 2022). Overdose epidemics have been geographically concentrated, time-specific, and drug-specific, stretching back several years.The current research attempts to train and investigate multiple supervised machine learning models using unrestricted datasets ranging from 2012 to 2021 in order to identify the most effective predictable model for opioid overdose death rates across U.S. counties. We utilized publicly available databases with county-level estimates to derive predictors as fixed effects in our modeling method.The ultimate goal is to use the predictions as a guide tool for strategic decision-making in the investment and allocation of public health services, particularly in hotspot counties, to proactively prevent future risk. Currently, these models demonstrate the remarkable capability to predict rates up to three years in advance, providing a valuable tool for proactive public health interventions. The study is also investigating the social, economic, and demographic features influencing these outcomes, aiming to prioritize and understand their significance. The research findings highlight that among the trained models, the random forest exhibited the best performance given the available data. The results also indicate that population, employee capacity, and annual payroll are some of the most significant socio-economic factors influencing the outcomes. This knowledge enhances our understanding of the complex dynamics associated with the subject matter
Transcriptomic analysis of L-arabinose treatment on E. coli biofilm and planktonic cells
No full textIn nature, bacteria dynamically shift between a stationary (biofilm) state and a mobile (planktonic) state to maintain an ecological advantage. Within the biofilm, sedentary microorganisms are embedded in an extracellular polymeric substance (EPS), a protective barrier of self-produced macromolecules, leading to heightened antibiotic resistance. Biofilm formation and composition are heavily impacted by the nutrient sources available in the environment. We aim to understand how the transcriptome of PHL628 Escherichia coli is remodeled when exposed to L-arabinose and how that remodeling influences biofilm formation and composition. Through the examination of these modifications, affected signaling and metabolic pathways are identified that can promote or eradicate biofilms. To investigate these changes, we employ quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and RNA-seq to assess the expression of genes related to arabinose metabolism, acid stress, and biofilm formation. Notably, araE, a proton symport permease that facilitates the primary mechanism of arabinose import across the bacterial membrane, is highly upregulated in both planktonic and biofilm populations. We are also investigating the modulation of csgA and fimA, both of which encode proteins that play a role in the formation of extracellular structures that enhance bacterial adhesion to surfaces, in response to arabinose treatment at 28 ºC. Additionally, we are exploring genes involved in acid stress response in planktonic populations at 28 and 37 ºC. These findings characterize how L-arabinose remodels the bacterial transcriptome and provide insight into how the metabolism of this sugar intersects with the growth and composition of biofilm
Characterizing striatal patch-dopamine interactions in freely-moving mice
No full textSelecting appropriate actions and updating behaviors based on outcomes is a crucial process for all animals. This function is largely associated with the neurotransmitter dopamine and controlled by a deep brain region called the striatum. Striatum is a major target of substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) dopamine neurons and regulates reward learning and goal-directed behaviors. Interestingly, the striatum contains specialized regions called ‘patches’ (or striosomes) with distinct gene expression profiles compared to the surrounding ‘matrix’ tissues. Striatal patches project to SNc dopamine neurons and suppress dopamine release, acting as a negative feedback loop, making them well-suited as a putative candidate for sculpting circuit-level communications. With the difference in connectivity, we hypothesize that striatal patches exhibit unique functions in behavioral regulation. This research project focuses on characterizing striatal patch-dopamine interactions in freely-moving mice, using fluorophore-based biosensors and fiber photometry recording techniques. This approach allows us to monitor subsecond striatal patch- and matrix- specific neuronal activities and extracellular dopamine levels during behaviors. Previous literature has revealed the role of striatum in locomotion, and we further examined if striatal patch activity is different compared to matrix activity during movement in an open field. Moreover, we assessed the role of striatal patches in responding to conditioned stimuli and establishing the dopamine Reward Prediction Error (RPE) through a Pavlovian conditioning test in a Skinner box. Together, this work will provide novel insight into how the striatum and dopamine systems coordinate their activity to modify ongoing actions
Power and Emotion Perception from Faces and Bodies
No full textThe Face-Body Congruency Effect (FBCE) refers to the phenomenon whereby individuals are less accurate when categorizing emotional expressions from faces or bodies when the expression is paired with an incongruent emotional cue. Civile and Obhi (2016) discovered that priming individuals to feel powerful decreased the steepness of the FBCE for those individuals. The current research sought to simultaneously replicate these findings and investigate the mechanisms driving the effect. In this study, participants were randomly assigned to a power-priming condition or a control group and then asked to complete two emotion-recognition tasks in a randomized order. One task asked participants to quickly identify emotion from facial expressions while ignoring sometimes incongruent body language, and the other task asked participants to quickly identify emotion from bodies while ignoring sometimes incongruent facial expressions. Results indicated an overall effect of the FBCE, however in the face-recognition task, individuals were surprisingly more accurate at identifying faces when body language was incongruent. Individuals were also more accurate in the face task than the body task overall. No impact of power priming was identified in any analyses. Potential explanations for these results including the sample’s unusual relationship with power, issues with stimulus materials or faulty methods are discussed along with directions for future research
The Role of A♭ in the Funeral March from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”
No full textTracing the treatment of A♭ offers a productive avenue for understanding and interpreting the second movement of Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony (1803). This C-minor movement features A-flat at its most vulnerable, angry, surprising, darkly humorous, and touching moments. Digging deeper into the movement’s form and harmony reveals that A-flat also helps push this work toward its secondary keys of E-flat major and F minor, both of which define formal boundaries in the movement. Finally, telling the story of A-flat accesses many of the emotions one can imagine Beethoven feeling in 1802–1803, especially given the window into his state of mind provided by the 1802 Heiligenstadt Testament
