Denison University

About: Denison University is a education organization based out in Granville, Ohio, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Politics. The organization has 921 authors who have published 1828 publications receiving 41060 citations. The organization is also known as: Denison & DU.

Equality for all? White Americans' willingness to address inequality with Asian and African Americans.

Abstract: White Americans' willingness to engage in dialogues about intergroup commonalities and power inequalities with Asian and African Americans were examined in two experiments. Because Whites perceive that African Americans experience greater discrimination than do Asian Americans, we predicted that they would be more willing to engage in dialogues that would interrogate injustice and inequality with them. We also explored the role of common in-group identity (as Americans) on willingness for dialogue about inequality. In both studies, Whites were less interested in engaging in power talk with Asian Americans than with African Americans, but the difference in willingness for commonality talk was smaller. Asian Americans were perceived as experiencing lower levels of discrimination (Studies 1 and 2) and identify less with America (Study 2) both of which predicted lower willingness for power talk with them. Common in-group identity manipulations had marginal effects on willingness for power talk with African Americans and no effect on power talk with Asian Americans. Implications for improving social disparities between various groups were discussed.

Probing forebrain to hindbrain circuit functions in Xenopus.

Abstract: The vertebrate hindbrain includes neural circuits that govern essential functions including breathing, blood pressure and heart rate. Hindbrain circuits also participate in generating rhythmic motor patterns for vocalization. In most tetrapods, sound production is powered by expiration and the circuitry underlying vocalization and respiration must be linked. Perception and arousal are also linked; acoustic features of social communication sounds-for example, a baby's cry-can drive autonomic responses. The close links between autonomic functions that are essential for life and vocal expression have been a major in vivo experimental challenge. Xenopus provides an opportunity to address this challenge using an ex vivo preparation: an isolated brain that generates vocal and breathing patterns. The isolated brain allows identification and manipulation of hindbrain vocal circuits as well as their activation by forebrain circuits that receive sensory input, initiate motor patterns and control arousal. Advances in imaging technologies, coupled to the production of Xenopus lines expressing genetically encoded calcium sensors, provide powerful tools for imaging neuronal patterns in the entire fictively behaving brain, a goal of the BRAIN Initiative. Comparisons of neural circuit activity across species (comparative neuromics) with distinctive vocal patterns can identify conserved features, and thereby reveal essential functional components.

Putting personality in context: determinants of research productivity and impact in political science

Abstract: Research on the determinants of scholarly productivity is flourishing, driven both by long-standing curiosity about its wide variation, and by recent concern over race and gender inequalities. Beyond standard structural and demographic determinants of research output, some studies point to the role of individual psychology. We contribute to scholarship on personality and productivity by showing not only that personality matters, but when and for whom. Using an original, representative study of faculty from one discipline, political science, we propose and test several hypotheses about the “Big Five” personality determinants of productivity, as gauged through counts of publications, H-index scores, and citations. Controlling for a large number of familiar determinants (e.g., race, gender, rank, and institutional incentives), we find that conscientiousness predicts productivity, but that its effects are conditioned by openness to experience. More precisely, we discover that these two personality traits have compensatory effects, such that openness to experience and conscientiousness each matter most in the absence of the other. In addition, personality has heterogeneous impacts on productivity across different contexts; conscientiousness more strongly affects scholarly output in research-oriented institutions, while collaboration reduces the penalty associated with lack of conscientiousness.

Intrinsic Brightness Temperatures of AGN Jets

Abstract: We present a new method for studying the intrinsic brightness temperatures of the parsec-scale jet cores of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Our method uses observed superluminal motions and observed brightness temperatures for a large sample of AGN to constrain the characteristic intrinsic brightness temperature of the sample as a whole. To study changes in intrinsic brightness temperature, we assume that the Doppler factors of individual jets are constant in time as justified by their relatively small changes in observed flux density. We find that in their median-low brightness temperature state, the sources in our sample have a narrow range of intrinsic brightness temperatures centered on a characteristic temperature, T_int = 3 x 10^10 K, which is close to the value expected for equipartition, when the energy in the radiating particles equals the energy stored in the magnetic fields. However, in their maximum brightness state, we find that sources in our sample have a characteristic intrinsic brightness temperature greater than 2 x 10^11 K, which is well in excess of the equipartition temperature. In this state, we estimate the energy in radiating particles exceeds the energy in the magnetic field by a factor of ~ 10^5. We suggest that the excess of particle energy when sources are in their maximum brightness state is due to injection or acceleration of particles at the base of the jet. Our results suggest that the common method of estimating jet Doppler factors by using a single measurement of observed brightness temperature and/or the assumption of equipartition may lead to large scatter or systematic errors in the derived values.

Use of Fourier Shape Analysis in Zircon Petrogenetic Studies

Abstract: Zircon morphology has long been an important parameter in the study of petrogenesis in igneous and metamorphic rocks and provenance in sedimentary rocks. Fourier shape analysis is a much more sensitive technique for morphological analysis than the more widely used elongation ratio. Secondly, subtle variations in shape can also be determined by Fourier shape analysis. Zircon populations from three compositionally similar granitic plutons from the Western Intrusive Series of the Sierra Nevada batholith differ significantly in average morphology as determined by Fourier shape analysis. This technique resolves a two-dimensional shape into multiple shape components (harmonics) with each component making an independent contribution to the total shape. Seven of the nine harmonics analyzed are statistically significant in orthogonal comparisons of the zircon populations. Information carried by each harmonic should be of use in determining the significance of zircon morphology in petrogenetic studies and will prove especially useful where differences are subtle.