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The literature on voter turnout focuses on the determinants of the electorate’s
vote supply. There is growing recognition, however, that the
demanders of votes—candidates, political parties, and interest groups—have
strong incentives to invest resources in mobilizing support on Election Day.
The authors test the hypothesis that corruption rents increase the value of
holding public office and, hence, elicit greater demand-side effort in building
winning coalitions. Analyzing a pooled time-series data set of public officials
convicted of misusing their offices between 1979 and 2005, we find, after controlling
for other influential factors, that governmental corruption raises
voter turnout rates in gubernatorial elections.

Chronic pain is highly prevalent in older adults and often negatively
associated with health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This study
compared HRQoL, including physical health and mental health, in
persons of differing ethnicities, and identified factors associated with
pain intensity and HRQoL in ethnically diverse older adults. Older
adults with chronic pain from four ethnic groups (African Americans,
Afro-Caribbeans, Hispanics, and European Americans) were recruited
from the Florida Atlantic University Healthy Aging Research Initiative
(HARI) registry. The Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36
(SF-36) was used to evaluate HRQoL, including functional status,
emotional well-being, and social functioning. Of 593 persons in the
four ethnic groups in the registry, 174 met the inclusion criteria (pain
level of four or higher on an 11-point scale, lasting 3 months or
longer). Among these 174, African Americans reported the highest
level of pain intensity, followed by Afro-Caribbeans, Hispanics, and
European Americans. Hispanics reported the highest physical health
scores and the lowest mental health scores. In contrast, African
Americans reported the highest mental health scores and the lowest
physical health scores. Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed
that ethnicity, lower physical health scores, and lower mental
health scores were significantly (p # .01) associated with pain intensity.
Understanding ethnic variations in response to pain intensity
may address gaps in knowledge about HRQoL to reduce disparities in
optimal care. Health care providers should consider ethnic norms and
cultural diversity to provide optimal interventions for this population.

Current research in prosthetic device design aims to mimic natural movements using a feedback
system that connects to the patient's own nerves to control the device. The first step in
using neurons to control motion is to make and maintain contact between neurons and the
feedback sensors. Therefore, the goal of this project was to determine if changes in electrode
resistance could be detected when a neuron extended a neurite to contact a sensor.
Dorsal root ganglia (DRG) were harvested from chick embryos and cultured on a collagencoated
carbon nanotube microelectrode array for two days. The DRG were seeded along
one side of the array so the processes extended across the array, contacting about half of
the electrodes. Electrode resistance was measured both prior to culture and after the two
day culture period. Phase contrast images of the microelectrode array were taken after two
days to visually determine which electrodes were in contact with one or more DRG neurite
or tissue. Electrodes in contact with DRG neurites had an average change in resistance of
0.15 MΩ compared with the electrodes without DRG neurites. Using this method, we determined
that resistance values can be used as a criterion for identifying electrodes in contact
with a DRG neurite. These data are the foundation for future development of an autonomous
feedback resistance measurement system to continuously monitor DRG neurite outgrowth
at specific spatial locations.

The process of amyloid-β (Aβ) amyloid formation is pathologically linked to Alzheimer’s disease
(AD). The identification of Aβ amyloids and intermediates that are crucial players in the
pathology of AD is critical for exploring the underlying mechanism of Aβ aggregation and the
diagnosis of the disease. Herein, we performed a gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-based study to detect
the formation of Aβ amyloid fibrils and oligomers. Our results demonstrate that the intensity of
the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) absorption band of the AuNPs is sensitive to the quantity of
Aβ40 amyloids. This allows the SPR assay to be used for detection and semi-quantification of
Aβ40 amyloids, and characterization of the kinetics of Aβ amyloid formation. Furthermore, our
study demonstrates that the SPR band intensity of the AuNPs is sensitive to the presence of
oligomers of both Aβ40 and an Aβ40 mutant, which forms more stable oligomers. The kinetics of
the stable oligomer formation of the Aβ40 mutant can also be monitored following the SPR band
intensity change of AuNPs. Our results indicate that this nanoparticle based method can be used
for mechanistic studies of early protein self-assembly and fibrillogenesis.

The process of amyloid-β (Aβ) fibril formation is genetically and pathologically linked to
Alzheimer's disease (AD). Thus, a selective and sensitive method for the quantification of Aβ
amyloid fibrils in complex biological samples enables a variety of hypotheses to be tested. Herein
we report the basis for a quantitative in vitro kinetic aggregation assay that detects seeding competent
Aβ aggregates in mammalian cell culture media, in Caenorhabditis elegans lysate and
in mouse brain homogenate. Sonicated, proteinase K treated Aβ-fibril-containing tissue
homogenates or cell culture media were added to an initially monomeric Aβ1–40 reporter peptide
to seed an in vitro nucleated aggregation reaction. The reduction in the half time (t50) of the
amyloid growth phase is proportional to the quantity of seeding-competent Aβ aggregates present
in the biological sample. An ion exchange resin amyloid isolation strategy from complex
biological samples is demonstrated as an alternative to improve the sensitivity and linearity of the
kinetic aggregation assay.

Intellectuals of the 20th century bore witness to society’s injustices. They viewed and commented on erosion of rights
and humankind’s callousness to itself. For example, Huxley’s Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited illustrate with contempt a society that had renounced personal individuality and rejected freedom, choosing a drugged totalitarian state set adrift from any sense of morality. Huxley’s work is a familiar touchstone, in that it presupposed a world that seems increasingly real to us, even though a faithful portrayal of the future was hardly Huxley’s intent. Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 soberly reminded the world of the wages of intolerance to divergent ideas, in envisioning a government solidifying its hold on power by banishing the spectrum of human emotion in literature and mass media. Forster’s ambitious short story “The Machine Stops” countered the naiveté of a positive equal utopia, with a world cruel in its homogenization and dependent on a deified machine for all facets of its existence. In each instance, government is an ominous, questionable character. Technology, in these texts and in today’s world, is a foundational element with muddled aims—a rich virtual society on one hand, but frightening levels of assimilation, control, and loss of interpersonal communication and privacy in the crumbling arena of the real on the other. In this article, a future technology-led existence is examined through the lenses of these fictional works.

Includes correspondences to editors.