Strategic Candidates Research Articles

A Fucose-Containing Sulfated Polysaccharide from Spatoglossum schröederi Potentially Targets Tumor Growth Rather Than Cytotoxicity: Distinguishing Action on Human Melanoma Cell Lines.

Natural substances are strategic candidates for drug development in cancer research. Marine-derived molecules are of special interest due to their wide range of biological activities and sustainable large-scale production. Melanoma is a type of skin cancer that originates from genetic mutations in melanocytes. BRAF, RAS, and NF1 mutations are described as the major melanoma drivers, but approximately 20% of patients lack these mutations and are included in the triple wild-type (tripleWT) classification. Recent advances in targeted therapy directed at driver mutations along with immunotherapy have only partially improved patients' overall survival, and consequently, melanoma remains deadly when in advanced stages. Fucose-containing sulfated polysaccharides (FCSP) are potential candidates to treat melanoma; therefore, we investigated Fucan A, a FCSP from Spatoglossum schröederi brown seaweed, in vitro in human melanoma cell lines presenting different mutations. Up to 72h Fucan A treatment was not cytotoxic either to normal melanocytes or melanoma cell lines. Interestingly, it was able to impair the tripleWT CHL-1 cell proliferation (57%), comparable to the chemotherapeutic cytotoxic drug cisplatin results, with the advantage of not causing cytotoxicity. Fucan A increased CHL-1 doubling time, an effect attributed to cell cycle arrest. Vascular mimicry, a close related angiogenesis process, was also impaired (73%). Fucan A mode of action could be related to gene expression modulation, in special β-catenin downregulation, a molecule with protagonist roles in important signaling pathways. Taken together, results indicate that Fucan A is a potential anticancer molecule and, therefore, deserves further investigation.

Cause and Effect in Political Polarization: A Dynamic Analysis

Political polarization is an important and enduring puzzle. Complicating attempts at explanation is that polarization is not a single thing. It is both a description of the current state of politics today and a dynamic path that has rippled across the political domain over multiple decades. In this paper we provide a simple model that is consistent with both the current state of polarization in the U.S. and the process that got it to where it is today. Our model provides an explanation for why polarization appears incrementally and why it was elites who polarized first and more dramatically whereas mass polarization came later and has been less pronounced. The building block for our model is voter behavior. We take an ostensibly unrelated finding about how voters form their preferences and incorporate it into a dynamic model of elections. On its own this change does not lead to polarization. Our core insight is that this change, when combined with the response of strategic candidates, creates a feedback loop that is able to replicate many features of the data. We explore the implications of the model for other aspects of politics and trace out what it predicts for the future course of polarization

Usage of two-stage Integrating Data Envelopment Analysis to Propose the Best Strategic Alliance: A Case of the Green Logistics Providers

In the wave of internationalization, many companies use strategic alliance like an approach to expand and strengthen their businesses. Strategic alliance is also considered to be a highly intelligent approach in green logistics for environment and e-commerce growing quickly and effectively because this is the critical concern worldwide to balance the economic development with the environmental protection. However, a suitable methodology to evaluate and analyze performance of partners is a critical and significant issue for top managers to have effective decisions making for business strategy including alliance strategy in the future. This will improve business performance and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions among the hot trend of development of green logistics providers. Over past to future forecasting, this paper tries to propose a new approach of data envelopment analysis (DEA) based on grey forecasting and neural network, helping the target company – CSX Corporation make a well-considered decision to select the best strategic alliance candidates. The results indicate that Hub Group Inc. and Con-way Freight are the very best candidates for CSX to have strategic alliances. This combination is suggested not only good for the target company but also beneficial for the partners as well. This is a new studying method in both academic research studies and practical applications by combining Grey theory, neural network and DEA model which probably gives a better “past-present-future” insights into evaluation performance of an industry.

政党の公認戦略と地元候補

政党の公認戦略と地元候補

In silico prediction of linear B-cell epitopes for S1 protein of two Iranian 793/B isolates and their changes after 90 serial passaging.

Neutralizing, serotype-specific, and hemagglutination-inhibiting antibodies against infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) are induced by epitopes in the S1 protein. Most changes in the virus genome due to mutation and recombination during serial passaging in embryonated chicken eggs occur in the S1 gene. In the current study, we tried to predict the potential linear B-cell epitopes of the S1 subunit of two Iranian 793/B isolates and then we analyzed their changes at passage level 90 due to mutations at this passage level. To predict linear B-cell epitopes of the S1 protein belonging to two Iranian 793/B isolates, we used two online epitope prediction programs called BepiPred and ABCpred. Some of the most important features of proteins including antigenicity, physicochemical properties, and secondary structure composition were analyzed. The predicted epitopes were studied between wild viruses and their passage level 90 viruses. We identified 15 potential linear B-cell epitopes among which six epitopes had the highest scores of physicochemical properties and antigenicity. Due to amino acid substitutions, seven predicted epitopes had different amino acid sequences at passage level 90. Among eight epitopes with no amino acid substitution at passage level 90, three epitopes had the highest scores. These three conserved epitopes including NH2-NQLGSCPLTGMI-COOH, NH2-GNFSDGFYPFTNSSLVKD-COOH, and NH2-GPIQGGC-COOH might be strategic and potential candidates for use in designing epitope-based vaccine researches. In conclusion, based on scores of physicochemical properties and antigenicity, it seemed that the sequence of most epitopes in wild viruses might be more antigenic and immunogenic compared to their sequence in viruses of passage 90.

A comprehensive review of bioactive peptides obtained from animal byproducts and their applications.

Livestock generates high quantities of residues, which has become a major socioeconomic issue for the meat industry. This review focuses on the identification of bioactive peptides (BPs) in animal byproducts and meat wastes. Firstly, the main bioactivities that peptides can have will be described and the methods for their evaluation will be discussed. Secondly, the various origins of these BPs will be studied. Then, the techniques and tools for the generation of BPs will be detailed in order to discuss, in the final part, how peptides could be used and assimilated. BPs possess diverse biological activities and can be strategic candidates for substituting synthetic molecules. In silico potentiality studies are a helpful tool to understand and predict BPs released from proteins and their potential activities. However, in vitro validation is often required. Although BP use is compelled by strict regulations in relation to the field of application, they are also limited by their low bioavailability and bioaccessibility. Therefore, it is important to test peptide stability during gastrointestinal digestion. Protective strategies have been discussed since their use could improve the stability and effectiveness of BPs.

Extreme idealism and equilibrium in the Hotelling\u2013Downs model of political competition

In the classic Hotelling–Downs model of political competition, no pure strategy equilibrium with three or more strategic candidates exists when the distribution of voters’ preferred policies is unimodal. I study the effect of introducing two idealist candidates to the model who are non-strategic (i.e., fixed to their policy platforms), while allowing for an unlimited number of strategic candidates. Doing so, I show that equilibrium is restored for a non-degenerate set of unimodal distributions. In addition, the equilibria have the following features: (1) the left-most and right-most candidates (i.e., extremists) are idealists; (2) strategic candidates never share their policy platforms, which instead are spread out across the policy space; and (3) if more than one strategic candidate enters, the distribution of voter preferences must be asymmetric. I also show that equilibria can accommodate idealist fringes of candidates toward the extremes of the political spectrum.

Multisegmented Nanowires: a Step towards the Control of the Domain Wall Configuration

Cylindrical nanowires synthesized by controlled electrodeposition constitute excellent strategic candidates to engineer magnetic domain configurations. In this work, multisegmented CoNi/Ni nanowires are synthesized for tailoring a periodic magnetic structure determined by the balance between magnetocrystalline and magnetostatic energies. High-resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy confirms the segmented growth and the sharp transition between layers. Although both CoNi and Ni segments have similar fcc cubic crystal symmetry, their magnetic configuration is quite different as experimentally revealed by Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) imaging. While the Ni segments are single domain with axial magnetization direction, the CoNi segments present two main configurations: a single vortex state or a complex multivortex magnetic configuration, which is further interpreted with the help of micromagnetic simulations. This original outcome is ascribed to the tight competition between anisotropies. The almost monocrystalline fcc structure of the CoNi segments, as revealed by the electron diffraction patterns, which is atypical for its composition, contributes to balance the magnetocrystalline and shape anisotropies. The results of MFM measurements performed under in-plane magnetic field demonstrate that it is possible to switch from the multivortex configuration to a single vortex configuration with low magnetic fields.

Candidate Identity and Strategic Communication: Analyzing the Influence of Race, Gender, and Party on Candidate Issue Ownership

When women and racial minorities run for office, they face significant disadvantages. Voters prefer the leadership traits of men and view minority candidates as lacking competence and intelligence (Huddy and Feldman, 2009; Lawless, 2004; Tesler, 2013). Voters also use stereotypes to attribute ideological positions (Mcdermott, 1998). I argue that candidates are aware of the race and gender stereotypes they may face, and that candidates effectively deal with these stereotypes through use of both issue ownership and compensation for potential trait ownership deficits. For example, women and minorities are more concerned about their electoral viability, and employ strategies to quell their anxieties (Pearson and McGhee, 2013). Providing information about candidate qualifications and positions can attenuate the effects of voter attitudes (Ditonto et al., 2014; Mo, 2014). But how do strategic candidates deliver information about their qualifications and issue positions? What messages are prioritized? I expand upon the broader literature by assessing the influence of race and gender on the strategic communication of candidates. To accomplish this, I introduce a novel dataset built from the campaign website texts of 2,434 candidates who ran for office in the 2014 election cycle. Using Structural Topic Modeling and Latent Dirichlet Allocation, I find that female and racial minority candidates differ from their male and White counterparts in policy engagement. Moreover, they differ in use of thematic frames and expositions of competency. Women and racial minority candidates respond to deficits in voter perceptions by discussing their background, endorsements, work ethic, fundraising and election.

Two-stage elections, strategic candidates, and campaign agendas

Candidates employ strategies that depend on the electorate involved and the opponent(s) they face. In two-stage elections — elections that include both a primary and a general election — candidates must balance the need to satisfy their party's electorate and defeat their primary opponent(s) with the need to appeal to the electorate as a whole in order to defeat their general election opponent. That balance will depend on whether the primary stage is contested or not. We evaluate how candidates in 56 U.S. Senate and gubernatorial campaigns respond to these considerations by analyzing the bundles of issues candidates emphasize in their campaign advertising. As expected, electoral competition leads candidates to emphasize similar issues over the course of their campaigns. As a result, candidates involved in contested primaries adopt a mixed strategy, responding both to their primary election opponents and their eventual general election opponent during the primary-election phase of the contest.

Incumbent vulnerability and entry in gubernatorial elections: The case of former governors

The vulnerability hypothesis predicts strategic, quality candidates only challenge weak incumbents. House election studies support this hypothesis. State level analyses produce mixed results. We test whether incumbent vulnerability affects the entry of one kind of strategic actor – former governors. Former governors are an ideal test case. Having already served in the state's highest office, they represent the highest quality and perhaps most strategic candidates who run for state office. Our results show that performance in the previous election, one measure of incumbent vulnerability, does not affect former governor entry. However, incumbent vulnerability measured as recent economic performance and number of other quality candidates appearing in a former governor's party primary does affect entry in general elections.

Agenda Control in the 2008 Presidential Debates

Research indicates that, when engaging their opponents, strategic candidates will draw (and redraw) lines of conflict, pulling attention to their advantaged topics. But do these expectations hold up in debates, where candidates are at the mercy of those asking the questions? And do strategic debate behaviors matter? This study draws on past literature to hypothesize the specific types of agenda-control behaviors we should see in debates. These hypotheses are tested in the 2008 presidential debates, using quantitative content analysis to examine candidate agenda setting, issue framing, and tone. The results show that both Obama and McCain used all three means of agenda control to continually displace the line of conflict in their favor. These findings offer empirical support for theories of strategic agenda control and heighten our understanding of agenda setting, framing, and tone as agenda-control mechanisms. Additionally, media and public opinion data suggest these debate agenda-control behaviors had real effects during the 2008 election.

Inostamycin enhanced TRAIL-induced apoptosis through DR5 upregulation on the cell surface

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) has been considered as a possible therapeutic agent for cancer treatment. This is because of its selective cytotoxicity against various cancer cells without a detrimental effect on normal cells. However, recent studies have reported that the potential application of TRAIL in cancer therapy is limited, as many cancer cells have been found to be resistant to TRAIL. Therefore, small molecule compounds that potentiate the cytotoxicity of TRAIL would be strategic candidates for therapeutic applications in combination with TRAIL. Here we found that a combined treatment of inostamycin and TRAIL synergistically induced caspase-dependent apoptosis in HCT116 cells. Inostamycin upregulated DR5, and a knockdown of DR5 suppressed the apoptosis that was synergistically induced by co-treatment with inostamycin and TRAIL. Moreover, inostamycin increased the expression of DR5 on the cell surface. Therefore, inostamycin-increased cell surface expression of DR5 may have contributed to the enhancement of TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Our study suggests that combined treatment with inostamycin and TRAIL may offer a strategy to overcome TRAIL resistance in tumor cells.

MORALITY, MARKETS, AND THE ASC: 2011 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS TO THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CRIMINOLOGY*

This Presidential Address explores the possibilities for fruitful multilevel theorizing in criminology by proposing an integration of insights from situational action theory (SAT), a distinctively micro‐level perspective, with insights from institutional anomie theory (IAT), a distinctively macro‐level perspective. These perspectives are strategic candidates for integration because morality plays a central role in both. IAT can enrich SAT by identifying indirect causes of crime that operate at the institutional level and by highlighting the impact of the institutional context on the perception‐choice process that underlies crime. Such multilevel theorizing can also promote the development of IAT by revealing the “micro‐instantiations” of macro‐level processes and by simulating further inquiry into the social preconditions for institutional configurations that are conducive to low levels of crime. Finally, drawing on Durkheim's classic work on occupational associations, I point to the potential role of professional associations such as the American Society of Criminology in promoting and sustaining a viable moral order in the advanced capitalist societies.

Strategic Candidates, Campaign Dynamics, and Campaign Advertising in Gubernatorial Races

AbstractPolitical campaigns are dynamic struggles between candidates to define the informational context for voters. Although much research describes how campaigns unfold or explores their effects on voters, less attention has been given to developing and testing a dynamic theory of candidate interaction during campaigns. In this study, the authors examine three different theories of candidate behavior, testing each using data on the TV advertisements aired in 23 gubernatorial elections held in 2002. The analysis examines both the total advertising efforts and the total negative advertising efforts of candidates in these races, differentiating between candidates based on partisanship, incumbency status, and whether they won or lost. The authors find support for all three theories, demonstrating their complementary nature and the value of analyzing campaigns as dynamic processes.

Party Strategy or Candidate Strategy

Under the single non-transferable vote (SNTV), political parties are faced with the strategic problem of matching the number of candidates to their vote total. Running either too many or too few candidates may lose a seat that could otherwise have been won. Many studies have confirmed that Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) solved this strategic problem relatively well and ran close to the optimal number of candidates. Each of these studies makes the standard unitary actor assumption that the LDP can be understood as if it were a single individual maximizing its total number of seats in the Diet. Even though these unitary actor models have produced an impressive account of LDP nomination policy, I argue for an alternative decentralized model based on candidate strategy. The primary mechanism producing the optimal number of LDP candidates per district is not strategic decision-making by the party headquarters, but competition among strategic candidates. Political parties are organizations and therefore capable of unitary action, but parties are also arenas for competition among factions and candidates. The LDP was not a coherent organization but rather an open arena for candidate competition.

Turnout, Polarization, and Duverger's Law

We reexamine the impact of abstention due to alienationon policy outcomes and the choices of strategic candidates. We establish the existence of a unique equilibrium under plurality rule in which only two candidates enter, choose divergent policy positions, and deter subsequent entry. This equilibrium is simultaneously consistent with the dual empirical regularities of Duverger's Law and policy divergence. Driving our results is the observation that when abstention is included, a third candidate optimally enters the election by differentiating himself from the incumbent candidates, consistent with entry observed in practice. Our results confirm that not only are the platforms of candidates important to the turnout decisions of voters, but that the turnout decisions of voters are important to platform positions. The model provides a causal mechanism linking these two variables, offering a theoretical basis for the decrease in turnout and increase in polarization experienced in the United States after the 1...

Context-dependent voting and political ambiguity

In recent decades psychologists have shown that the standard model of individual choice is often violated. One regularly observed violation is that choices are influenced by the decision context. To incorporate these effects into politics, we introduce a theory of context-dependent voting and apply it to the puzzle of why candidates are so frequently ambiguous in their policy pronouncements. We show that context-dependent voters develop a taste for ambiguity, even when they evaluate distances quadratically and exhibit traditional risk aversion. Turning to aggregate effects, we incorporate context-dependent voting into a model of electoral competition and show that strategic candidates respond in equilibrium to context-dependent voters by offering ambiguous platforms, thereby affecting the policy outcome.

Signaling Character in Electoral Competition

We study a one-dimensional Hotelling-Downs model of electoral competition with the following innovation: a fraction of candidates have “character” and are exogenously committed to a campaign platform; this is unobservable to voters. Character is desirable, and a voter's utility is a convex combination of standard policy preferences and her assessment of a candidate's character. This structure induces a signaling game between strategic candidates and voters, since a policy platform affects voters' utilities not only directly, but also indirectly through inferences about a candidate's character. The model generates a number of predictions, starting with a failure of the median voter theorem. (JEL D72, D82)

Signaling Character in Electoral Competition

We study a one dimensional Hotelling-Downs model of electoral competition with the following innovation: a fraction of candidates have character and are exogenously committed to a campaign platform; this is unobservable to voters. However, character is desirable, and a voter's utility is a convex combination of standard policy preferences and her assessment of a candidate's character. This structure generates a signaling game between strategic candidates and voters, since a policy platform not only affects voters' utilities directly, but also indirectly through inferences about a candidate's character. The model generates a number of predictions, starting with a failure of the median voter theorem. We argue that the results help explain why candidates sometimes choose non-median platforms, and moreover, why a majority of voters can rationally vote for a non-centrist candidate.