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The focus of this book has been on the impact that leaders’ personalities and other personal traits may have had from time to time, not on their parties or governments, but on individual voters’ willingness to vote for them and consequently on the outcomes of the elections that they contest. The line of argument usually runs: (1) voters have likes and dislikes of leaders and candidates; (2) on the basis of those likes and dislikes, voters form overall evaluations of leaders and candidates; (3) voters’ overall evaluations of leaders and candidates have a considerable bearing – perhaps a decisive bearing – on how they actually vote. The argument then usually continues (4) because voters’ overall evaluations of leaders and candidates have a considerable bearing on the votes of individuals, they also, therefore, often have a bearing on the outcomes of whole elections; arguments (1) and (2) are not disputed, but arguments (3) and (4) are. A table is presented setting out the editor’s best estimates of which elections over the past four decades in each of the six countries studied (United States, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Russia) have, and have not been, decided by voters’ comparative evaluations of the main political parties’ candidates; these estimates are discussed with respect to each country, and various conclusions drawn. Overall, the table suggests that there are some elections in which the leaders’ and candidates’ personalities have proved decisive, and the distinguishing features of these elections are discussed. However, the core finding of the book is that personality factors determine election outcomes far less often then is usually supposed.

This is an introductory chapter, which starts with a general discussion of whether leaders’ personalities really matter in determining the outcome of democratic elections, and then considers a number of preliminary points before the country analyses are presented in the following six chapters. The first point is to differentiate between the indirect influences a leader can have on voters and an election outcome (via his influence on his political party or government or administration) and the direct influence of a candidate’s personality or personal characteristics; this book is about the latter. The second point is to define what is meant by ‘personality or personal characteristics’, and the next two points are a discussion of why leaders’ attributes might, or might not, be thought to matter. The fifth point is to suggest analytical strategies for disentangling the effects of leaders’ personalities or personal characteristics from other factors; the three advanced are the experimental, improved–prediction and counterfactual strategies. Next, previous analytical findings are presented for the six countries studied in the book (United States, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Russia), and finally, hypotheses are offered for explaining when the impact of candidates’ personalities or personal characteristics might be greatest.

A widely held belief concerning democratic elections is that the votes of many individuals are influenced by their assessments of the competing candidates’ personalities and other personal characteristics and that, as a consequence, the outcomes of entire democratic elections are often decided by ‘personality factors’ of this type. Experts on the electoral politics of six countries – the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Russia – set out to assess how far this emphasis on personality and personal characteristics is actually warranted by the available empirical evidence. Using a variety of methodologies, the authors seek to isolate and weigh the role played by personality both in influencing individual voters’ behaviour and in deciding election outcomes. They conclude that, even with regard to the United States, the impact of personality on individual voters’ decisions is usually quite small and that, more often than not, it cancels out. They also conclude that, largely for those reasons, the number of elections whose outcomes have been determined by voters’ assessments of the candidates is likewise quite small : much smaller than is usually supposed. Moreover, there are no signs that the importance of personality factors in determining election outcomes is increasing over time.

Horse breeders have long had to rely on stud books and trial and error. Now geneticists are upping the stakes

In rat dorsal root ganglion neurons, activation of kappa- and mu-opioid receptors decreases N-type calcium current, whereas a constitutively active form of protein kinase C (PKC; i.e., PKM, a PKC catalytic subunit fragment) increases N-type calcium current. PKC also attenuates inhibition of calcium current by several G protein-linked neurotransmitter systems. We examined the effects of activation of endogenous PKC by 4beta-phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) and dialysis of cells with PKM and a pseudosubstrate inhibitor PKC(19-31) (PKC-I) on kappa- and mu-opioid-mediated inhibition of calcium current, calcium current amplitude, and rundown. PMA modestly increased peak calcium current and substantially reduced calcium current "rundown," effects blocked by PKC-I. In contrast, PKC-I decreased calcium current and increased current rundown. PMA attenuated morphine-, dynorphin A-, and U50, 488- but not pentobarbitol-related inhibition of calcium current. Similar effects were seen with intracellular dialysis of PKM. Intracellular PKC-I did not block opioid inhibition of calcium current but did reverse PMA and PKM effects on opioid receptor coupling to calcium channels. Because neither PMA nor PKM changed the proportion of omega-CgTX-inhibited current, their effects were not due to a decrease in the proportion of N-type current. After omega-CgTX treatment, there were no differences in the dynorphin A effects on control and PMA- or PKM-treated neurons, suggesting that PKC primarily affected coupling to N-type calcium channels. These data suggest that in acutely dissociated rat dorsal root ganglion neurons, endogenous PKC is required for maintenance of calcium current, may play a role in regulation of neuronal calcium channels, and could be involved in tolerance and/or cross-talk inhibition of opioid responsiveness.

Anthony King finds himself on some of the wilder shores of synthetic biology at Dublin's Science Gallery.

This study examined the incidence and significance of catheter-induced atrioventricular nodal block (AVNB) during a radiofrequency ablation procedure that uses stiff large-tip steerable ablation catheters. AVNB was noted in 10 (1.6%) of 613 consecutive patients undergoing radiofrequency ablation therapy for atrioventricular nodal (AVN) reentrant tachycardia (592 patients) or atrioventricular reentry tachycardia incorporating a midseptal accessory pathway (21 patients). Of these 10 patients, 9 underwent AVN modification for AVN reentrant tachycardia and 1 for ablation of a midseptal accessory pathway. One patient had two episodes of AVNB during two sessions undertaken because of recurrence of tachycardia. No patient had a preexisting conduction defect before the study. In all 10 patients, AVNB was transient, and it lasted for a mean of 9.1 ± 19 minutes. It occurred during positioning of the ablation catheter in the junctional area before (8 patients) or after (2 patients) the start of radiofrequency current applications. Complete AVNB was noted on six occasions, second-degree AVNB on four occasions, and first-degree AVNB on one occasion. All blocks were associated with narrow QRS ventricular beats and with a site of block proximal to the His bundle. The mean ventricular heart rate during AVNB was 60 ± 23 beats/min. Two patients had transient asystole, with one having loss of consciousness. No patient required special treatment for heart block. One-to-one conduction resumed after repositioning of the catheters, and the subsequent ablation procedure was successfully completed in 8 of the 10 patients. During a follow-up of 20 ± 12 months, none of the patients had severe dizziness or syncope, and none required implantation of a permanent pacemaker. In conclusion, transient AVNB due to mechanical injury occurs during positioning of a stiff large-tip steerable ablation catheter in the junctional area. Delivery of radiofrequency current to the site that provokes catheter-induced AVNB should be avoided.

Among 652 patients with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome who underwent radiofrequency ablation in this laboratory, 139 (21%) were found to have a total of 146 posteroseptal accessory pathways. Ablation was conducted by the regular transvenous or transaortic approach; ablation from cardiac venous structures was used only if regular approaches were unsuccessful. Of the 146 posteroseptal accessory pathways, 94 were successfully ablated from the left posteroseptal region and 45 from the right posteroseptal region. In 3, successful ablation of the accessory pathway required delivery of the current to the proximal coronary sinus, and in 1 it required delivery of the current to both the atrial and ventricular aspects of the tricuspid valve at the right posteroseptum. Thus, the accessory pathway was successfully ablated in 143 (98%) of 146 instances or in 136 (98%) patients. In 3 patients, ablation was unsuccessful despite delivery of current to the left posteroseptum, the right posteroseptum, the proximal coronary sinus, and the middle cardiac vein. Seventy-seven (57%) patients with an initial success, including 9 patients with resumed preexcitation or recurrence of paipitations, underwent a follow-up electro-physiologic study 90 +/- 72 days after ablation. Of these 9 patients, the initial successful ablation site was the right posteroseptum in 7 and the left posteroseptum in 2. The accessory pathways were ablated successfully by subsequent trials in 8 patients, whereas in 1 the accessory pathway was severely damaged. Thus radiofrequency ablation of posteroseptal accessory pathways can be achieved by the regular transvenous or transaortic approach; delivery of current to the coronary sinus or middle cardiac vein is unnecessary in most patients.

Anthony King enters a parallel city that teems with hackers innovating for the public good.

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A passive distributed vibration absorber that utilizes multiple discrete mass elements and a viscoelastic layer and that effectively attenuates vibration in modally dense structures excited by a broadband input noise excitation. and is tunable to multiple natural frequencies in such modally dense vibrating structures including low frequencies.

A Dublin exhibition inspires a practical approach to water sustainability, finds Anthony King.

Anthony King delights in a Wyoming exhibition focusing on the landscapes and wildlife in the migratory corridor between Yellowstone and Yukon.

Genetics and artificial intelligence figure prominently in an unsettling Dublin exhibition, discovers Anthony King.

This study reports data from four experiments exploring the interplay of meta‐linguistic analyzes and lower level tasks with the goal of understanding how judgments of vocal aesthetics and voice typicality affect voice and phoneme processing. In the first, speakers of west coast North American English rated the attractiveness of 60 American English voices. Results from this experiment were compared against the following ones. In the second experiment listeners were asked to rate the typicality of each voice for its sex. Ratings for both showed a strong correlation, suggesting that vocal attractiveness and voice typicality are related. In the next experiment listeners were asked to quickly classify the voices as male or female. Faster reaction times correlated with judgments of higher typicality, but not with attractiveness. Finally a group of listeners were asked to classify the vowels produced by the voices. Here a correlation was found with both rating tasks such that listeners were faster at vowel clas...

Anthony King explores a Dublin exhibition that exposes the controversies of synthetic biology.

This study explores fine‐grained phonetic vocal characteristics that underpin vocal attractiveness. In general, while it is well known that F0 plays a major role in such judgments [see, e.g., Riding et al. (2006)] there is a distinct lack of more detailed examinations of the phenomenon [see Zuta (2007) for a notable exception]. Moreover, the term “attractiveness” is generally ill‐defined and conflated with other terms (such as “pleasantness”). Therefore, the specific goal of this study is to replicate and extend such studies by including a large number of talkers, more detailed acoustic measures, and better definition the term “attractiveness”. Specifically, 60 talkers from California (30 female) produced isolated words controlled for phonetic content. These voices will be played to listeners who will judge the attractiveness of each talker. Ratings of these talkers will be compared against these acoustic measures: duration, average F0, F0 variation, spectral tilt, jitter, vowel space area, long term averaged spectrum, VOT, spectral mean of frication, and spectral peak of frication. The semantic value of “attractiveness” will be explored in follow‐up questionnaires asking more detailed questions. Results will be compared against previous studies and will be discussed in terms of possible universal and culture‐specific features.

This work presents an overview of two high performance acoustic products from DuPont™ with various case studies on lowering low frequency noise transmission using DuPont™ LoWave™, low‐weight thin blanket with enhanced low frequency performance, and lowering noise with cleanable, dust free sound absorptive panels protected by DuPont™ Tyvek®, a distinctive flash spun plexifilamentary film‐fibril sheet, combining excellent barrier properties and characteristic porous structure to make it acoustically transparent in the voice frequency range.

Low frequency noise is a significant annoyance at very low amplitudes, particularly when outdoor community noise from mechanical equipment penetrates commercial and residential building structures. Mid and high frequencies are selectively attenuated by the exterior walls. However, mitigation of the low frequency noise has been very challenging due to the longer wavelength and higher energy. This work presents case studies of an advanced acoustical material in typical metal panels to mitigate community noise from outdoor mechanical equipment. These advanced materials were developed with a unique combination of patented acoustical and vibration absorbing technology, based of distributed absorbers, layered with standard acoustic materials. The materials provide enhanced low frequency noise (below 300 Hz) over state of the art 10 cm metal panels filled with the fiberglass absorber. The case studies demonstrate superior acoustic performance in low frequency without substantial increase in weight.

Mechanical equipment (fans, chillers, motors) produces airborne and structure‐borne noise with a significant low frequency component. However, in many applications, mitigation of the low frequency noise requires implementation of significant mass barrier in combination with an air space. This work presents case studies on the use of a novel lightweight and thin acoustical material to mitigate low frequency noise from mechanical equipment. This advanced material, based on patented distributed absorber technology, was used to treat the metal housing of the mechanical equipment. The novel material effectively increased transmission loss of the metal housing below 300 Hz. The total noise reduction was 10‐14 dB (A) with 5 dB improvement over typical flexible acoustical blankets below 300 Hz.