Most research on political identities studies how individuals react to knowing others’ political allegiances. However, in most contexts, political views and identities are hidden and only inferred, so that projected beliefs and identities may matter as much as actual ones. We argue that individuals engage in motivated political projection: the identities people project onto target individuals are strongly conditional on the valence of that target. We test this theoretical proposition in two pre-registered experimental studies. In Study 1, we rely on a unique visual conjoint experiment in Britain and the USA that asks participants to assign partisanship and political ideology to heroes and villains from film and fiction. In Study 2, we present British voters with a vignette that manipulates a subject’s valence and solicits (false) recall information related to the subject’s political identity. We find strong support for motivated political projection in both studies, especially among strong identifiers. This is largely driven by negative out-group counter-projection rather than positive in-group projection. As political projection can lead to the solidification of antagonistic political identities, our findings are relevant for understanding dynamics in group-based animosity and affective polarization.

Illiberal actors in Western democracies increasingly exploit the superficial defence of liberal values like gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights to demonize ethnic out-groups, portraying Muslims as inherently opposed to Western values. This paper investigates whether this stereotype reflects widespread public beliefs and asks: is the stereotypical view of the Muslim community as an illiberal ‘bogeyman’ endorsed by citizens? Leveraging an original double-list experiment design that minimizes sensitivity bias, we identify population-level estimates of this stereotype in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, and the USA. Our cross-national results reveal a pervasive and ubiquitous stereotype of Muslims as a threat to LGBTQ+ communities across Western democracies. The implications of these findings are concerning as they signal that societal tolerance of ethnic out-groups across liberal democracies remains tainted by prejudicial stereotypes. The results also underscore the alarming electoral potential of far-right parties that exploit homonationalist and femonationalist stereotype-based threat perceptions to their political advantage.

Observations of radiocarbon (14C) in Earth’s atmosphere and other carbon reservoirs are important to quantify exchanges of CO2 between reservoirs. The amount of 14C is commonly reported in the so-called Delta notation, i.e., Δ14C, the decay- and fractionation-corrected departure of the ratio of 14C to total C from that ratio in an absolute international standard; this Delta notation permits direct comparison of 14C/C ratios in the several reservoirs. However, as Δ14C of atmospheric CO2, Δ14CO2 is based on the ratio of 14CO2 to total atmospheric CO2, its value can and does change not just because of change in the amount of atmospheric14CO2 but also because of change in the amount of total atmospheric CO2, complicating ascription of change in Δ14CO2 to change in one or the other quantity. Here we suggest that presentation of atmospheric 14CO2 amount as mole fraction relative to dry air (moles of 14CO2 per moles of dry air in Earth’s atmosphere), or as moles or molecules of 14CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere, all readily calculated from Δ14CO2 and the amount of atmospheric CO2 (with slight dependence on δ13CO2), complements presentation only as Δ14CO2, and can provide valuable insight into the evolving budget and distribution of atmospheric 14CO2.

Marine radiocarbon (14C) ages are an important geochronology tool for the understanding of past earthquakes and tsunamis that have impacted the coastline of New Zealand. To advance this field of research, we need an improved understanding of the radiocarbon marine reservoir correction for coastal waters of New Zealand. Here we report 170 new ΔR20 (1900–1950) measurements from around New Zealand made on pre-1950 marine shells and mollusks killed by the 1931 Napier earthquake. The influence of feeding method, living depth and environmental preference on ΔR is evaluated and we find no influence from these factors except for samples living at or around the high tide mark on rocky open coastlines, which tend to have anomalously low ΔR values. We examine how ΔR varies spatially around the New Zealand coastline and identify continuous stretches of coastline with statistically similar ΔR values. We recommend subdividing the New Zealand coast into four regions with different marine reservoir corrections: A: south and western South Island, ΔR20 –113 ± 33 yr, B: Cook Strait and western North Island, ΔR20 –171 ± 29 yr, C: northeastern North Island, ΔR20 –143 ± 18 yr, D: eastern North Island and eastern South Island, ΔR20 –70 ± 39 yr.

Can nativist attitudes condition support for LGBT+ rights? The sustained advance in pro-LGBT+ attitudes in the West often contrasts with the greening of anti-immigrant sentiment propagated by nativist supply-side actors. We argue that these parallel trends are causally connected, theorizing that exposure to sexually conservative ethnic out-groups can provoke an instrumental increase in LGBT+ inclusion, particularly among those hostile toward immigration. Leveraging experiments in Britain and Spain, we provide causal evidence that citizens strategically liberalize their levels of support for LGBT+ rights when opponents of these measures are from the ethnic out-group. In a context where sexuality-based liberalism is nationalized, increasing tolerance toward LGBT+ citizens is driven by a desire among nativist citizens to socially disidentify from those out-groups perceived as inimical to these nationalized norms. Our analyses provide a critical interpretation of positive trends in LGBT+ tolerance with instrumental liberalism masking lower rates of genuine shifts in LGBT+ inclusion.

Background: Saccade and pupil responses are potential neurodegenerative disease biomarkers due to overlap between oculomotor circuitry and disease-affected areas. Instruction-based tasks have previously been examined as biomarker sources, but are arduous for patients with limited cognitive abilities; additionally, few studies have evaluated multiple neurodegenerative pathologies concurrently. Methods: The Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative recruited individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia, progressive supranuclear palsy, or Parkinson’s disease (PD). Patients (n=274, age 40-86) and healthy controls (n=101, age 55-86) viewed 10 minutes of frequently changing video clips without instruction while their eyes were tracked. We evaluated differences in saccade and pupil parameters (e.g. saccade frequency and amplitude, pupil size, responses to clip changes) between groups. Results: Preliminary data indicates low-level behavioural alterations in multiple disease cohorts: increased centre bias, lower overall saccade rate and reduced saccade amplitude. After clip changes, patient groups generally demonstrated lower saccade rate but higher microsaccade rate following clip change to varying degrees. Additionally, pupil responses were blunted (AD, MCI, ALS) or exaggerated (PD). Conclusions: This task may generate behavioural biomarkers even in cognitively impaired populations. Future work should explore the possible effects of factors such as medication and disease stage.

An ever-expanding scientific literature highlights the impact of the prenatal environment on many areas of biology. Across all major farmed species, experimental studies have clearly shown that prenatal experiences can have a substantial impact on outcomes relevant to later health, welfare and productivity. In particular, stress or sub-optimal nutrition experienced by the mother during pregnancy has been shown to have wide-ranging and important effects on how her offspring cope with their social, physical and infectious environment. Variation in the conditions for development provided by the reproductive tract or egg, for instance by altered nutritional supply or hormonal exposure, may therefore explain a large degree of variation in many welfare- and productivity-relevant traits. The scientific literature suggests a number of management practices for pre-birth/hatch individuals that could compromise their later welfare. Such studies may have relevance for the welfare of animals under human care, depending on the extent to which real life conditions involve exposure to these practices. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of extending the focus on animal welfare to include the prenatal period, an aspect which until recently has been largely neglected.

Background: Eye movements reveal neurodegenerative disease processes due to overlap between oculomotor circuitry and disease-affected areas. Characterizing oculomotor behaviour in context of cognitive function may enhance disease diagnosis and monitoring. We therefore aimed to quantify cognitive impairment in neurodegenerative disease using saccade behaviour and neuropsychology. Methods: The Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative recruited individuals with neurodegenerative disease: one of Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease, or cerebrovascular disease. Patients (n=450, age 40-87) and healthy controls (n=149, age 42-87) completed a randomly interleaved pro- and anti-saccade task (IPAST) while their eyes were tracked. We explored the relationships of saccade parameters (e.g. task errors, reaction times) to one another and to cognitive domain-specific neuropsychological test scores (e.g. executive function, memory). Results: Task performance worsened with cognitive impairment across multiple diseases. Subsets of saccade parameters were interrelated and also differentially related to neuropsychology-based cognitive domain scores (e.g. antisaccade errors and reaction time associated with executive function). Conclusions: IPAST detects global cognitive impairment across neurodegenerative diseases. Subsets of parameters associate with one another, suggesting disparate underlying circuitry, and with different cognitive domains. This may have implications for use of IPAST as a cognitive screening tool in neurodegenerative disease.

What is the effect of external economic intervention on political support and economic evaluations? We argue that economic interventions systematically worsen support for governing institutions and much of this is mediated through updating economic perceptions, at least during the Eurozone crisis. We evidence this with two analyses. First, we provide the first quasi-experimental evidence to show that intervention worsened both political support and economic evaluations. Second, we conduct a mediation analysis using Eurobarometer data to quantify how much of the effect of intervention is mediated by economic evaluations. This has broader implications for understanding how citizens react to international integration, international cues, and the process of forming judgements of political support.

This paper presents a compilation of atmospheric radiocarbon for the period 1950–2019, derived from atmospheric CO2 sampling and tree rings from clean-air sites. Following the approach taken by Hua et al. (2013), our revised and extended compilation consists of zonal, hemispheric and global radiocarbon (14C) data sets, with monthly data sets for 5 zones (Northern Hemisphere zones 1, 2, and 3, and Southern Hemisphere zones 3 and 1–2). Our new compilation includes smooth curves for zonal data sets that are more suitable for dating applications than the previous approach based on simple averaging. Our new radiocarbon dataset is intended to help facilitate the use of atmospheric bomb 14C in carbon cycle studies and to accommodate increasing demand for accurate dating of recent (post-1950) terrestrial samples.

Acid-alkali-acid (AAA) pretreatment is widely used to clean terrestrial plant macrofossil samples for radiocarbon (14C) dating. There is wide variation amongst laboratories in the AAA method details and less rigorous AAA pretreatment is often used on fragile or small samples. Yet there is little evidence as to the efficacy of the different methods and whether the use of less rigorous methods is justified. We investigated four variations of AAA pretreatment: acid only (no alkali wash); room temperature AAA; “standard” AAA at 85°C; and “aggressive” AAA at 85°C with alkali washes repeated until no discoloration was detected. We tested six different terrestrial macrofossils from four different locations and ranging in age from mid-Holocene to the Last Glacial Maximum. Our results demonstrate that while acid only is not always sufficient to remove young material, there is no difference in 14C age of samples pretreated by any of the AAA variants. We also observed mass loss of 85–90% in the standard and aggressive AAA pretreatments, and much more modest mass loss in the room temperature AAA pretreatment. Therefore, we conclude that room temperature AAA pretreatment is optimal to remove contaminating material from fragile terrestrial macrofossils while retaining the majority of the authentic sample material.

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: The goals of this study were (1) to evaluate the effect of proarrhythmic drugs on calcium transient and (2) to use three-dimensional human engineered cardiac tissue (hECT) technology to evaluate cardiac contractile properties in response to pharmacological challenge with proarrhythmic drugs. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Calcium transient was measured in subject-specific iPSC-CMs by using the IonOptix system in Sotalol treated vs. untreated conditions. We fabricated human engineered cardiac tissues (hECT) in a custom designed bioreactor using low- and high-sentitive subject-specific iPSC-CMs. Contractile function of the hECT was evaluated at baseline and after Sotalol [300 µM] administration. The change in beat rate was recorded under spontaneous beating conditions; changes in other twitch parameters, including time to relaxation, were recorded under electrical stimulation. Time to relaxation served as an indicator of action potential duration (APD), which has a temporal correlation with the QT interval. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: The low-sensitive iPSC-CM showed a considerable drop in overall peak height of the calcium transient, in the presence of 100 µM Sotalol. The high-sensitive line, however, showed a more pronounced drop in peak height. Sotalol treatment also induced a more pronounced increase in the exponential decay time constant (tau) in the high-sensitive line compared to the low-sensitive line. The hECT fabricated with high sensitive hiPSC-CM showed a larger decrease in spontaneous beat rate in response to Sotalol (0.41 vs 0.23 fold decrease), with a higher increase in time to relaxation (1.8 vs 1.3 fold increase), compared to hECT from low sensitive hiPSC-CM. Moreover, while the low-sensitive hECT showed a positive correlation between time to relaxation and developed force, as expected after Sotalol stimulation; the high-sensitive hECT failed to show a positive inotropic response. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Our findings suggest subject-specific iPSC-CMs and hECT, can be used to model functional abnormalities observed in diLQTS in response to Sotalol, and offer novel insights into human-based screening assays for toxic drug reactions. Success of this study may help identify key components underlying diLQT susceptibility to ultimately develop novel therapeutic agents.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer globally. CRC risk is increased by obesity, and by its lifestyle determinants notably physical inactivity and poor nutrition. Obesity results in increased inflammation and oxidative stress which cause genomic damage and contribute to mitochondrial dysregulation and CRC risk. The mitochondrial dysfunction associated with obesity includes abnormal mitochondrial size, morphology and reduced autophagy, mitochondrial biogenesis and expression of key mitochondrial regulators. Although there is strong evidence that increased adiposity increases CRC risk, evidence for the effects of intentional weight loss on CRC risk is much more limited. In model systems, energy depletion leads to enhanced mitochondrial integrity, capacity, function and biogenesis but the effects of obesity and weight loss on mitochondria in the human colon are not known. We are using weight loss following bariatric surgery to investigate the effects of altered adiposity on mitochondrial structure and function in human colonocytes. In summary, there is strong and consistent evidence in model systems and more limited evidence in human subjects that over-feeding and/or obesity result in mitochondrial dysfunction and that weight loss might mitigate or reverse some of these effects.

While the North American archaeological record signals the presence of early humans along the northeastern Pacific coast by the Late Pleistocene, we know little about the technological systems employed by these coastally oriented colonizing groups. We here report the discovery of the earliest unequivocal evidence for the use and manufacture of shell fishhooks in the western hemisphere. Four single-piece shell fishhooks dating to the terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene transition (between ~11,300 and 10,700 cal B.P.) have been excavated on Isla Cedros, Baja California, Mexico. One hook is directly dated at 9495 ± 25 B.P. with a marine reservoir–corrected age of 11,165–9185 cal B.P. Radiocarbon ages associated with three other shell fishhooks range between 8900 ± 25 B.P. and 10,415 ± 25 B.P, while median ages for the earliest contexts confirm occupation of the island by at least 12,600–12,000 cal B.P. The stratigraphic levels from which the fishhooks were recovered contained a diverse assemblage of fish remains, including deepwater species, indicative of boat use. Thus, some of the earliest known inhabitants of the Pacific coast of the Americas employed shell hook and line technology for offshore marine fishing at least by the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, if not earlier.

Combining atmospheric Δ14CO2 data sets from different networks or laboratories requires secure knowledge on their compatibility. In the present study, we compare Δ14CO2 results from the Heidelberg low-level counting (LLC) laboratory to 12 international accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) laboratories using distributed aliquots of five pure CO2 samples. The averaged result of the LLC laboratory has a measurement bias of –0.3±0.5‰ with respect to the consensus value of the AMS laboratories for the investigated atmospheric Δ14C range of 9.6 to 40.4‰. Thus, the LLC measurements on average are not significantly different from the AMS laboratories, and the most likely measurement bias is smaller than the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) interlaboratory compatibility goal for Δ14CO2 of 0.5‰. The number of intercomparison samples was, however, too small to determine whether the measurement biases of the individual AMS laboratories fulfilled the WMO goal.

An explanation is provided for the disruptive instability in diverted tokamaks when the safety factor $q$ at the 95 % poloidal flux surface, $q_{95}$ , is driven below 2.0. The instability is a resistive kink counterpart to the current-driven ideal mode that traditionally explained the corresponding disruption in limited cross-sections (Shafranov, Sov. Phys. Tech. Phys., vol. 15, 1970, p. 175) when $q_{edge}$ , the safety factor at the outermost closed flux surface, lies just below a rational value $m/n$ . Experimentally, external kink modes are observed in limiter configurations as the current in a tokamak is ramped up and $q_{edge}$ decreases through successive rational surfaces. For $q_{edge}<2$ , the instability is always encountered and is highly disruptive. However, diverted plasmas, in which $q_{edge}$ is formally infinite in the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model, have presented a longstanding difficulty since the theory would predict stability, yet, the disruptive limit occurs in practice when $q_{95}$ , reaches 2. It is shown from numerical calculations that a resistive kink mode is linearly destabilized by the rapidly increasing resistivity at the plasma edge when $q_{95}<2$ , but $q_{edge}\gg 2$ . The resistive kink behaves much like the ideal kink with predominantly kink or interchange parity and no real sign of a tearing component. However, the growth rates scale with a fractional power of the resistivity near the $q=2$ surface. The results have a direct bearing on the conventional edge cutoff procedures used in most ideal MHD codes, as well as implications for ITER and for future reactor options.

Intrinsic rhythmic electrical activity in the brain, such as the hippocampal theta rhythm, might serve important roles in normal cognition. Lesions to the medial septal nuclei, or to the fimbria/fornix, disrupt the hippocampal theta rhythm and lead to memory impairment. We have superimposed an artifical stimulating rhythm to the hippocampus of rats with prior lesion of the fornix, during testing in the Morris water maze. This intervention improves performance in a test of working memory, and lends support to the view that intrinsic rhythmic activity may play an important role in normal physiology, and in certain disease states.