University of California, Santa Cruz

About: University of California, Santa Cruz is a education organization based out in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Galaxy & Population. The organization has 15541 authors who have published 44120 publications receiving 2759983 citations. The organization is also known as: UCSC & UC, Santa Cruz.

The Uncertain Relationship between Transparency and Accountability

Abstract: The concepts of transparency and accountability are closely linked: transparency is supposed to generate accountability. This article questions this widely held assumption. Transparency mobilizes the power of shame, yet the shameless may not be vulnerable to public exposure. Truth often fails to lead to justice. After exploring different definitions and dimensions of the two ideas, the more relevant question turns out to be: what kinds of transparency lead to what kinds of accountability, and under what conditions? The article concludes by proposing that the concept can be unpacked in terms of two distinct variants. Transparency can be either 'clear' or 'opaque, while accountability can be either 'soft' or 'hard'.

Isotopic reconstruction of past continental environments

Abstract: ▪ Abstract Vertebrate fossils and continental sediments provide a rich record of variations in the isotopic composition of surface environments. To interpret these records, a greater understanding of isotopic sources, as well as fractionations associated with animal physiology, soil geochemistry, and diagenesis, has been essential. Tooth enamel and fish otoliths yield subannual records of surface environments, whereas soil minerals may integrate signals over many thousands of years. Carbon isotope variations in fossil vertebrates and soils record changes in the structure of vegetation and the isotope composition and concentration of atmospheric CO2. Oxygen isotope variations may be indirectly related to climate, through reconstruction of the oxygen isotope composition of meteoric water, or directly related to temperature, through application of oxygen isotope paleothermometry to soil minerals or otoliths. In Africa, nitrogen isotope variations show promise as a proxy for rainfall abundance, though the gen...

Amygdala Responses to Emotionally Valenced Stimuli in Older and Younger Adults

Abstract: As they age, adults experience less negative emotion, come to pay less attention to negative than to positive emotional stimuli, and become less likely to remember negative than positive emotional materials. This profile of findings suggests that, with age, the amygdala may show decreased reactivity to negative information while maintaining or increasing its reactivity to positive information. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess whether amygdala activation in response to positive and negative emotional pictures changes with age. Both older and younger adults showed greater activation in the amygdala for emotional than for neutral pictures; however, for older adults, seeing positive pictures led to greater amygdala activation than seeing negative pictures, whereas this was not the case for younger adults.