The Effects of Physical and Chemical Modulating Agents on the Induction of Vaccine-Induced Immune Responses

After the development of the viral-based prostate cancer vaccine, Ad5-PSA, much research has been orientated to help enhance the induced immune response by combining the vaccine with physical and chemical modulating agents, more specifically the polymers polyethylenimine (PEI), chitosan, and chitosan coated with CD3 complex antibodies; all previously shown to stimulate an immune response as isolated gene carriers. To compare the vaccine-induced immune responses between the naked vaccine and the polymer-vaccine combinations, a mouse model using the ovalbumin- specific Ad-OVA vaccine was tested using intracellular cytokine staining (ICS), tetramer staining, and cytotoxic T-cell lymphocyte assays to measure the activation of CD8+ T-cells, interferon gamma proteins (INFƒ×), and the induced cytotoxicity to ovalbumin. The Ad-OVA vaccine combined with both chitosan and chitosan with CD3 complex antibodies, both natural polymers, were found to induce similar immune responses to the naked vaccine while the vaccine combined with the synthetic polymer, PEI, diminished the immune response.

The Moderating Role of Electoral Pressure on Congressional Ideological Polarization: A Cross-Sectional Time-Series Analysis

Reelection and self-interest are recurring themes in the study of our congressional leaders. To date, many studies have already been done on the trends between elections, party affiliation, and voting behavior in Congress. However, because a plethora of data has been collected on both elections and congressional voting, the ability to draw a connection between the two provides a very reasonable prospect. This project analyzes whether voting shifts in congressional elections have an effect on congressional voting. Will a congressman become ideologically more polarized when his electoral margins increase? Essentially, this paper assumes that all congressmen are ideologically polarized, and it is elections which serve to reel congressmen back toward the ideological middle. The election and ideological data for this study, which spans from the 56th to the 107th Congress, finds statistically significant relationships between these two variables. In fact, congressman pay attention to election returns when voting in Congress. When broken down by party, Democrats are more exhibitive of this phenomenon, which suggest that Democrats may be more likely to intrinsically follow the popular model of representation. Meanwhile, it can be hypothesized that insignificant results for Republicans indicate that Republicans may follow a trustee model of representation.

Ottoman Tax Registers (Tahrir Defterleri)

The Ottoman government obtained current information on the empire's sources of revenue through periodic registers called tahrir defterleri. These documents include detailed information on tax-paying subjects and taxable resources, making it possible to study the economic and social history of the Middle East and Eastern Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Although the use of these documents have been typically limited to the construction of local histories, adopting a more optimistic attitude toward their potential and using appropriate sampling procedures can greatly increase their contribution to historical scholarship. They can be used in comprehensive quantitative studies and in addressing questions of broader historical significance or larger social scientific relevance.