Opinion: Can coalescent models explain deep divergences in the diatoms and argue for the acceptance of paraphyletic taxa at all taxonomic hierarchies?

Although ancestral polymorphisms and incomplete lineage sorting are commonly used at the population level, increasing reports of these models have been invoked and tested to explain deep radiations. Hypotheses are put forward for ancestral polymorphisms being the likely reason for paraphyletic taxa at the class level in the diatoms based on an ancient rapid radiation of the entire groups. Models for ancestral deep coalescence are invoked to explain paraphyly and molecular evolution at the class level in the diatoms. Other examples at more recent divergences are also documented. Discussion as to whether or not paraphyletic groups seen in the diatoms at all taxonomic levels should be recognized is provided. The continued use of the terms centric and pennate diatoms is substantiated with additional evidence produced to support their use in diatoms both as descriptive terms for both groups and as taxonomic groups for the latter because new morphological evidence from the auxospores justifies the formal classification of the basal and core araphids as new subclasses of pennate diatoms in the Class Bacillariophyceae. Keys for higher levels of the diatoms showing how the terms centrics and araphid diatoms can be defined are provided.

Opinion: Can coalescent models explain deep divergences in the diatoms and argue for the acceptance of paraphyletic taxa at all taxonomic hierarchies?

Although ancestral polymorphisms and incomplete lineage sorting are commonly used at the population level, increasing reports of these models have been invoked and tested to explain deep radiations. Hypotheses are put forward for ancestral polymorphisms being the likely reason for paraphyletic taxa at the class level in the diatoms based on an ancient rapid radiation of the entire groups. Models for ancestral deep coalescence are invoked to explain paraphyly and molecular evolution at the class level in the diatoms. Other examples at more recent divergences are also documented. Discussion as to whether or not paraphyletic groups seen in the diatoms at all taxonomic levels should be recognized is provided. The continued use of the terms centric and pennate diatoms is substantiated with additional evidence produced to support their use in diatoms both as descriptive terms for both groups and as taxonomic groups for the latter because new morphological evidence from the auxospores justifies the formal classification of the basal and core araphids as new subclasses of pennate diatoms in the Class Bacillariophyceae. Keys for higher levels of the diatoms showing how the terms centrics and araphid diatoms can be defined are provided.

The ecology of the ePundit: surveying the new opinion-making landscape.

This paper explores hybrid forms of contemporary political opinion-making online, which we name ePunditry. The ePundit utilizes Web 2.0 technologies and networks to distribute their work: changing and challenging the boundaries and hierarchies of the existing opinion space, across multiple platforms. Drawing on the language of media ecology we define and give examples of ePunditry. We also consider the impact of the ePundit upon the wider media landscape, alongside the empowered role of the readership.

THE PHYSICS OF IDEAS: INFERRING THE MECHANICS OF OPINION FORMATION FROM MACROSCOPIC STATISTICAL PATTERNS

In a microscopic setting, humans behave in rich and unexpected ways. In a macroscopic setting, however, distinctive patterns of group behavior emerge, leading statistical physicists to search for an underlying mechanism. The aim of this dissertation is to analyze the macroscopic patterns of competing ideas in order to discern the mechanics of how group opinions form at the microscopic level. First, we explore the competition of answers in online Q&A (question and answer) boards. We find that a simple individual-level model can capture important features of user behavior, especially as the number of answers to a question grows. Our model further suggests that the wisdom of crowds may be constrained by information overload, in which users are unable to thoroughly evaluate each answer and therefore tend to use heuristics to pick what they believe is the best answer. Next, we explore models of opinion spread among voters to explain observed universal statistical patterns such as rescaled vote distributions and logarithmic vote correlations. We introduce a simple model that can explain both properties, as well as why it takes so long for large groups to reach consensus. An important feature of the model that facilitates agreement with data is that individuals become more stubborn (unwilling to change their opinion) over time. Finally, we explore potential underlying mechanisms for opinion formation in juries, by comparing data to various types of models. We find that different null hypotheses in which jurors do not interact when reaching a decision are in strong disagreement with data compared to a simple interaction model. These findings provide conceptual and mechanistic support for previous work that has found mutual influence can play a large role in group decisions. In addition, by matching our models to data, we are able to infer the time scales over which individuals change their opinions for different jury contexts. We find that these values increase as a function of the trial time, suggesting that jurors and judicial panels exhibit a kind of stubbornness similar to what we include in our model of voting behavior.

PART STUDY OF PERCEPTION OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS IN THE LIBRARY COMMUNITY: OPINION (AS) EMPLOYERS (AS) AND GRADUATES (AS) SCHOOL LIBRARY, DOCUMENTATION AND INFORMATION FOR THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

This article provides a brief description of some general aspects of self-evaluation process conducted in the School of Library, Documentation and Information from the National University of Costa Rica, to obtain accreditation from the career of Library and Documentation in 2005 and to achieve re-accreditation in 2009.The objective consists in a comparison between the two evaluation processes from the point of view of two specific sectors, employers and graduates, and presents the views provided by each of them as a partial analysis of the social impact assessment of educational programs in the community librarianship as a first input to raise awareness of the importance of these studies in the institutional and national level.

The frustrated accesion of the European Union to the European Convention of Human Rights: a brief analysis of opinion 2/13 of the Court of Justice of European Union

Trabajo redactado en inglés sobre la última sentencia 2/13, del Tribunal de Justicia de Europa sobre la adhesión de la Unión Europea al Convenio Europeo de Derechos Humanos fundamentales. Análisis de la opinión 2/13 y sus objeciones.

Political ideologies and attitudes towards income inequality in the US: a critical discourse analysis of CNN and Fox News opinion articles

The topic of the thesis is media discourse about current state if income inequality in the US, and political ideologies as influences behind the discourse. The data consists of four opinion articles, two from CNN and two from Fox News. The purpose of the study was to examine how media represents income inequality as an issue, and if the attitudes conveyed are concerned or indifferent. Previous studies have indicated that the level of income is often seen as a personal responsibility, and such perspective can be linked with Republican ideology. In contrast, the Democrats typically express more concern about the consequences of inequality. CNN has been previously considered to have a Democratic bias, and Fox News has been considered to have Republican bias, which is one reason why these two news channels were chosen as the sources of the data. The study is a critical discourse analysis, and the methods applied were sociocognitive approach, which analyzes the social and cognitive factors affecting the discourse, and appraisal framework, which was applied to scrutinize the expressed attitudes more closely by identifyind specific linguistic features. The appraisal framework includes studying such features as affect, judgment and appreciation, which offer a more detailed analysis on the attitudes present in the articles. The sociocognitive approach, additionally, offers a way of analyzing a more broad context affecting the articles. The findings were then compared, to see if there are differences between the articles, or between the news sites with alleged bias. The findings showed that CNN, with alleged Democratic bias, had a more symphatetic attitude towards income inequality, whereas Fox News, with more Republican views, showed clearly less concern towards the issue. Moreover, the Fox News articles had such dubious claims that the underlying ideology behind the articles could be even supporting of income inequality, as it allows the rich to pursue all the wealth they can without having to give anything away. The results, thus, suggest that the political ideologies may a significant effect on media discourse, which, in turn, may have a significant effect on the attitudes of the public towards great issues that could require prompt measures.

Public opinion, social cohesion and the politics of immigration in South Korea

This article analyses public opinion in order to explore the politics of immigration in South Korea. It argues that there are divergent views about immigration and the obligations of the host society to accommodate migrants. Younger, better-educated citizens are representative of a majority that has a generally positive view of immigrants and immigration. A sizeable minority of older and less well-educated citizens, however, is warier of immigration and its effects on South Korean society. Men were more likely than women to have a positive view of immigration, but the differences along gender lines were small. The article also finds that attitudes towards immigration depend to a significant degree on how migrants are described. It thereby highlights the possibility that South Korea’s leaders could use immigration for political gain while also seeking to attract new migrants in order to resolve the country’s economic and demographic problems.

The Australia-United States alliance and the management of elite opinion

This thesis firstly demonstrates that support for the current Australia-United States alliance at the elite level primarily derives from the desire to sustain western control over regional and international affairs and extend Australia’s influence abroad. Secondly, it demonstrates the role of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue in sustaining alliance orthodoxy.

Cycles in public opinion and the dynamics of stable party systems

We study a dynamic model of elections where many parties may enter or exit political competition. At each election a new political leadership arrives for each party. The leadership cannot choose the party's platform (ideological identities are fixed) but must decide whether or not to contest the election. Contesting elections is costly and this cost is higher if the party has recently been inactive. The distribution of voters' ideal policies, or public opinion, changes over time via a Markov process with a state independent persistence parameter. We characterise stable party systems where the set of contestants is invariant to the recent most observed opinion. We show that stable party systems exist only when public opinion is sufficiently volatile, while highly persistent moods lead to instability and change in the party system whenever public opinion changes.

Integrating science through Bayesian Belief Networks : case study of Lyngbya in Moreton Bay

Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) are emerging as valuable tools for investigating complex ecological problems. In a BBN, the important variables in a problem are identified and causal relationships are represented graphically. Underpinning this is the probabilistic framework in which variables can take on a finite range of mutually exclusive states. Associated with each variable is a conditional probability table (CPT), showing the probability of a variable attaining each of its possible states conditioned on all possible combinations of it parents. Whilst the variables (nodes) are connected, the CPT attached to each node can be quantified independently. This allows each variable to be populated with the best data available, including expert opinion, simulation results or observed data. It also allows the information to be easily updated as better data become available ----- ----- This paper reports on the process of developing a BBN to better understand the initial rapid growth phase (initiation) of a marine cyanobacterium, Lyngbya majuscula, in Moreton Bay, Queensland. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Lyngbya blooms in this region have increased in severity and extent over the past decade. Lyngbya has been associated with acute dermatitis and a range of other health problems in humans. Blooms have been linked to ecosystem degradation and have also damaged commercial and recreational fisheries. However, the causes of blooms are as yet poorly understood.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease : can ultrasound assist in early diagnosis of prediabetes and delay progression to type2 diabetes mellitus

Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is a condition that is frequently seen but seldom investigated. Until recently, NAFLD was considered benign, self-limiting and unworthy of further investigation. This opinion is based on retrospective studies with relatively small numbers and scant follow-up of histology data. (1) The prevalence for adults, in the USA is, 30%, and NAFLD is recognized as a common and increasing form of liver disease in the paediatric population (1). Australian data, from New South Wales, suggests the prevalence of NAFLD in “healthy” 15 year olds as being 10%.(2) Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a condition where fat progressively invades the liver parenchyma. The degree of infiltration ranges from simple steatosis (fat only) to steatohepatitis (fat and inflammation) steatohepatitis plus fibrosis (fat, inflammation and fibrosis) to cirrhosis (replacement of liver texture by scarred, fibrotic and non functioning tissue).Non-alcoholic fatty liver is diagnosed by exclusion rather than inclusion. None of the currently available diagnostic techniques -liver biopsy, liver function tests (LFT) or Imaging; ultrasound, Computerised tomography (CT) or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) are specific for non-alcoholic fatty liver. An association exists between NAFLD, Non Alcoholic Steatosis Hepatitis (NASH) and irreversible liver damage, cirrhosis and hepatoma. However, a more pervasive aspect of NAFLD is the association with Metabolic Syndrome. This Syndrome is categorised by increased insulin resistance (IR) and NAFLD is thought to be the hepatic representation. Those with NAFLD have an increased risk of death (3) and it is an independent predictor of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease (1). Liver biopsy is considered the gold standard for diagnosis, (4), and grading and staging, of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Fatty-liver is diagnosed when there is macrovesicular steatosis with displacement of the nucleus to the edge of the cell and at least 5% of the hepatocytes are seen to contain fat (4).Steatosis represents fat accumulation in liver tissue without inflammation. However, it is only called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease when alcohol - >20gms-30gms per day (5), has been excluded from the diet. Both non-alcoholic and alcoholic fatty liver are identical on histology. (4).LFT’s are indicative, not diagnostic. They indicate that a condition may be present but they are unable to diagnosis what the condition is. When a patient presents with raised fasting blood glucose, low HDL (high density lipoprotein), and elevated fasting triacylglycerols they are likely to have NAFLD. (6) Of the imaging techniques MRI is the least variable and the most reproducible. With CT scanning liver fat content can be semi quantitatively estimated. With increasing hepatic steatosis, liver attenuation values decrease by 1.6 Hounsfield units for every milligram of triglyceride deposited per gram of liver tissue (7). Ultrasound permits early detection of fatty liver, often in the preclinical stages before symptoms are present and serum alterations occur. Earlier, accurate reporting of this condition will allow appropriate intervention resulting in better patient health outcomes. References 1. Chalasami N. Does fat alone cause significant liver disease: It remains unclear whether simple steatosis is truly benign. American Gastroenterological Association Perspectives, February/March 2008 www.gastro.org/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5097 Viewed 20th October, 2008 2. Booth, M. George, J.Denney-Wilson, E: The population prevalence of adverse concentrations with adiposity of liver tests among Australian adolescents. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health.2008 November 3. Catalano, D, Trovato, GM, Martines, GF, Randazzo, M, Tonzuso, A. Bright liver, body composition and insulin resistance changes with nutritional intervention: a follow-up study .Liver Int.2008; February 1280-9 4. Choudhury, J, Sanysl, A. Clinical aspects of Fatty Liver Disease. Semin in Liver Dis. 2004:24 (4):349-62 5. Dionysus Study Group. Drinking factors as cofactors of risk for alcohol induced liver change. Gut. 1997; 41 845-50 6. Preiss, D, Sattar, N. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: an overview of prevalence, diagnosis, pathogenesis and treatment considerations. Clin Sci.2008; 115 141-50 7. American Gastroenterological Association. Technical review on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Gastroenterology.2002; 123: 1705-25