Research on campaign finance suggests that Americans prefer candidates who are not funded by Political Action Committees (PACs). However, prior research has not examined how perceptions of a candidate who is PAC-funded vs. PAC-free might differ for racial minority and female candidates compared to White, male candidates. Using experimental vignettes, we test the causal impact of PAC funding, race, and gender on voter perceptions of the candidate. We find that refusing PAC funds, for example, is associated with appearing more ethical and more likely to work for voters’ interests over special interests, less corrupt, and more capable of winning elections. However, we show that race, more than gender, interacts with PAC funding to impact voter perceptions. We find that White female and male candidates benefit the most from PAC refusal. While Black female and male candidates receive little or no significant change in perceptions, Black PAC-funded candidates are perceived favorably compared to White PAC-funded candidates. Our results have implications for White and Black political candidates considering their funding strategies. Additionally, we contribute to existing literature by showing that refusing PAC funds status does not signal the same qualities for all candidates.

Although the use of local breeds is recommended by organic regulations, breed comparisons performed under organic production conditions with similar production intensities are scarce. Therefore, we compared data of local and widely used Holstein dairy cattle breeds from 2011 to 2015 regarding production, fertility and health from German and Swedish organic farms with similar management intensities within country. In Germany, the energy-corrected total milk yield tended to be lower in the local breed Original Angler Cattle (AAZ, 5193 kg) compared to the modern German Holstein Friesian breed (HO, 5620 kg), but AAZ showed higher milk fat and protein contents (AAZ v. HO: 5.09% v. 4.18% and 3.61% v. 3.31%, respectively). In Sweden, the widely used modern Swedish Holstein (SH) breed had the highest milk yield (9209 kg, fat: 4.10%, protein: 3.31%), while the local Swedish Polled (SKB) showed highest milk yield, fat and protein contents (6169 kg, 4.47%, 3.50%, respectively), followed by the local breed Swedish Red (SRB, 8283 kg, 4.33%, 3.46%, respectively). With regard to fertility characteristics, the German breeds showed no differences, but AAZ tended to have less days open compared to HO (−17 days). In Sweden, breeds did not differ with regard to calving interval, but both local breeds showed a lower number of days open (−10.4 in SRB and −24.1 in SKB compared to SH), and SKB needed fewer inseminations until conception (−0.5 inseminations) compared to SH. Proportion of test day records with a somatic cell count content of ≥100 000 cells per ml milk did not reveal breed differences in any of the two countries. German breeds did not differ regarding the proportion of cows with veterinary treatments. In Sweden, SRB showed the lowest proportion of cows with general veterinary treatment as well as specific treatment due to udder problems (22.8 ± 6.42 and 8.05 ± 2.18, respectively), but the local breed SKB did not differ from SH in either of the two traits. In Sweden, we found no breed differences regarding veterinary treatments due to fertility problems or diagnosis of claw or leg problems during claw trimming. Our results indicate a stronger expression of the antagonism between production and functional traits with increasing production intensity. Future breed comparisons, therefore, need to consider different production intensities within organic farming in order to derive practical recommendations as to how to implement European organic regulations with regard to a suitable choice of breeds.

On 1 December 2011 the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide ice-core project reached its final depth of 3405 m. The WAIS Divide ice core is not only the longest US ice core to date, but is also the highest-quality deep ice core, including ice from the brittle ice zone, that the US has ever recovered. The methods used at WAIS Divide to handle and log the drilled ice, the procedures used to safely retrograde the ice back to the US National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) and the methods used to process and sample the ice at the NICL are described and discussed.

A K-band (18-25 GHz) reflected-wave ruby maser (Moore and Clauss 1979) has been borrowed from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory for radio astronomy use on the NASA 64-m antenna of the Deep Space Network at the Tidbinbilla Tracking Station, near Canberra. The purpose of the installation is to provide additional sensitive spectral line, continuum, and VLBI capabilities in the southern hemisphere. Previous measurements at 22.3 GHz (λ = 13.5 mm) determined that the Tidbinbilla 64-m antenna has a peak aperture efficiency of ˜22%, a well-behaved beam shape and consistent pointing (Fourikis and Jauncey 1979). Before installing the maser on the antenna a cooled (circulator) switch was added to provide a beam-switching capability, and a spectral line receiver following the maser was incorporated. The system was assembled and tested at JPL in late 1980 and installed at Tidbinbilla early in 1981. We give here a brief description and present some of the first line observations made in February and March 1981. Extensive line and continuum observations are planned with the present system and a program is under way to determine the telescope pointing characteristics.

G. cerea larvae feed upon the ovules and capsule of Pedicularis canadensis. Distribution of the fly coincides closely with its plant host. Adult flies are active in spring during the plant’s flowering period. Both sexes of flies are predaceous on small insects. Details of mating and oviposition behavior are elaborated. After feeding, larvae form puparia in the soil around roots of the host and undergo protracted diapause. All activities of the single generation per year are closely attuned to host plant’s cycle. Distribution of G. incisurata appears to closely follow that of its hosts. Larvae feed upon the flower parts of three species of Penstemon (hirsutus, digitalis, and calycosus). Duration of adult and larval activity periods along with behavior closely parallels G. cerea. In view of known host plant preferences in the Scatophaginae, it is suggested the way in which adaptation of Gimnomera to members of the Scrophulariaceae has been established is via the parasitic or hemiparasitic members of this plant family.

This species is a member of the Delininae whose species with known life histories all attack plants belonging to the Liliaceae and Orchidaceae. Eggs are laid singly or in groups of up to 15 eggs on the abaxial surface of Veratrum viride leaves. Larvae produce extensive blotch mines as they feed upon the mesophyll layer. Puparia are formed in the soil, and the pupa is the overwintering stage of this univoltine species. A table outlining larval attributes of the Scatophaginae and Delininae is given.

Egg masses and eggs of Sialis hasta, S. iola, S. joppa, S. infumata, S. aequalis, S. vagans, S. glabella, S. mohri, S. velata, and S. itasca are described using SEM micrographs. Diagnostic characteristics of chorion surface and micropylar structure and a key for specific determination of eggs of these 10 species are given. Oviposition is confined to leaves and twigs near or overhanging water. Eggs are oriented either vertically or horizontally in the egg mass, and hatch in 5 to 10 days in the laboratory. Hatching larvae are aided by an egg burster which tears the chorion and aids in removing the embryonic envelope.

In this paper we present a newly developed one-dimensional hydrodynamic simulation code and use it to determine the shock evolution in flyer plate impact experiments. The code is Lagrangian with artificial viscosity and uses shock Hugoniot data in its equation-of-state calculations instead of SESAME data tables. First shock calculations for transparent targets show a good agreement with theoretical predictions, making the code suitable for designing future flyer impact experiments at the Nevada Terawatt Facility.

The Stellar Observations Network Group (SONG) is being developed as a network of 1-meter spectroscopic telescopes designed for and primarily dedicated to asteroseismology. It is patterned after the highly successful GONG project. The Danish prototype telescope will be installed in Tenerife in early 2011. Ultimately we hope to have as many as 8 identical nodes providing continuous high-resolution spectroscopic observations for targets anywhere in the sky. The primary scientific goals of SONG are asteroseismology and the search for Earth-mass exoplanets. The spectroscopic requirements for these programs push the limits of current technology, but the resulting spectrograph design will enable many secondary science programs with less stringent requirements. Doppler imaging of starspots can be accomplished using continuous observations over several stellar rotations using identical instrumentation at each node. It should be possible to observe the evolution of starspot morphology in real-time, for example. We discuss the design and status of the SONG project in general, and we describe how SONG could be used to probe short timescale changes in stellar surface structure.

Sepedon h. hispanica was collected in freshwater marshes in southern Spain and reared through its entire life-cycle in the laboratory.

Larvae of this species differ from those of the twenty-one other reared species of Sepedon in not normally invading water, feeding as parasitoids throughout the first half of larval life (that is, permitting their food snails to live for several days), and in restricting their diet to the genus Succinea during that time.

Each newly hatched larva of S. h. hispanica crawls between the mantle and foot of a living Succinea elegans, S. pfeifferi or S. putris and remains there while developing into or completely through the second larval instar.

After the death of the first food snail the larva becomes predatory and loses its host specificity. Then it attacks a wide range of pulmonate snails, kills each victim quickly, and destroys a series of individuals belonging to species of Succinea, Lymnaea and Physa.

Adults of S. ruficeps and S. scapularis were reared from larvae and pupae collected in Ethiopia.

The larvae of both African species are aquatic predators which kill and consume various pulmonate snails unselectively. They are equivalent ecologically to all other larvae of Sepedon previously described.

The egg, three larval instars, and puparium of S. h. hispanica, and the mature larvae and puparia of S. ruficeps and S. scapularis, are described and figured.

A key is presented to immature stages of the Palaearctic species of Sepedon.

We wish to thank Dr W. C. Frohne, Alaska Methodist University, Anchorage, Alaska for collecting and rearing Sepedon ruficeps and S. scapularis. Dr E. Morales Agacino, Instituto Espanol de Entomologia, Madrid; Dr M. Mendizabol, Dr J. Verdejo and D. J. Paris Lopez, Instituto de Acclimatacion, Almeria; and Professor Dr I. Docavo Alberti and Dr B. Llopis Minguez, University of Valencia, aided during the senior author's field-work in Spain. We thank Dr J. Verbeke, Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique, for determinations and distributional data; Mr L. W. Stratton, Harpenden, England, and Dr H. J. Walter, Dayton, Ohio, Museum of Natural History, for determinations of Gastropoda; and Mrs L. Lyneborg, Zoological Museum, Copenhagen, for Fig. 25.

Patterns of Late/Terminal Formative period (ca. 500 B.C.–A.D. 300) ceramic exchange in Oaxaca are examined through instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). Samples of 453 Late/Terminal Formative period sherds were submitted to the Missouri University Research Reactor for INAA to determine elemental composition. The sherds came from 20 excavated sites and two surveys in the following regions: the Valley of Oaxaca, Mixteca Alta, Mixteca Baja, lower Río Verde Valley, and Cuicatlán Cañada. Selected for the study were vessel fragments from three recognized paste categories: grayware (gris), fine brownware (café fino), and creamware (crema). We also sampled clays and sherds from known sources in four modern pottery-making towns in the Oaxaca Valley. The research adds to the INAA database for Oaxaca by identifying the chemical signatures of six source groupings that we can link to specific regions and, in two cases, to particular source zones within regions. The evidence from chemical composition and typology indicates continuity in resource use and production practices in both Atzompa and Coyotepec from pre-Hispanic into modern times. The data show that the exchange of ceramics in Late/Terminal Formative Oaxaca was multidirectional, with ceramics imported both to and from the Oaxaca Valley.

The transport of high-current heavy-ion beams in plasma channels is a promising option for the final transport in a heavy-ion fusion reactor, since it simplifies the construction of the reactor chamber significantly. Our experiments at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung demonstrate the creation of 1 m long stable plasma channels and the transport of heavy-ion beams. The article outlines the experimental setup used at GSI and reports the results of beam transport measurements using these long channels. The experiments demonstrate good beam transport properties of the channel, indicating that channel transport is a viable alternative to neutralized-ballistic transport.

We present the architecture and data model for TEXTRACT, a robust, scalable and configurable document analysis framework. TEXTRACT has been engineered as a pipeline architecture, allowing for rapid prototyping and application development by freely mixing reusable, existing, language analysis plugins and custom, new, plugins with customizable functionality. We discuss design issues which arise from requirements of industrial strength efficiency and scalability, and which are further constrained by plugin interactions, both among themselves, and with a common data model comprising an annotation store, document vocabulary and a lexical cache. We exemplify some of these by focusing on a meta-plugin: an interpreter for annotation-based finite state transduction, through which many linguistic filters can be implemented as stand-alone plugins. The framework and component plugins have been extensively deployed in both research and industrial environments, for a broad range of text analysis and mining tasks.

Recently we have demonstrated the potential of Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) for the fabrication of advanced luminescent photonic crystal (PC) structures based on the inverse opal architecture.[1–3] PC's offer efficiency enhancement, decreased threshold, and other enhancements that improve phosphor performance. 3D PC structures are being extensively modeled, revealing that changes in the structures such as shifting the distribution of dielectric material can significantly improve photonic band gap (PBG) properties. For example, in the inverted “shell” structure, the width of the PBG can be increased from 4.25% to 8.6%.[4] Similarly, the PBG width can also be increased to 9.6% by formation of a non-close-packed structure.[5] Using the FDTD method, we have found that the PBG in a TiO2 non-closed packed structure can be as high as 5%. The performance of these structures depends critically on precisely and accurately placed high dielectric material. Using ALD, we have demonstrated infiltration of TiO2 films with extremely smooth surfaces (0.2–0.4 nm RMS roughness) while maintaining a high level of control over the infiltration coating thickness, enabling formation of composite infiltrated and inverse opals with nano-scale precision.

Here we report progress in fabrication of multi-layered and non-close packed PCs using ALD. Two and three-layer inverse opals were formed by the deposition of thin layers of ZnS:Mn and TiO2 in stacked configuration, each exhibiting luminescence when excited by UV light. Evidence for modification of the emission characteristics by high order PBGs (gaps other than between the 2nd and 3rd bands) has been observed. In addition, non-close packed inverse opals have been formed by infiltrating heavily sintered silica opals with TiO2, etching the spheres with hydrofluoric acid, and backfilling the resulting inverse opal. Resulting structures were characterized using specular reflectance and transmission, photoluminescence, and SEM. This work demonstrates the enormous potential that ALD offers for the realization of high performance photonic crystal structures.