In recent years, concerns about misinformation in the media have skyrocketed. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that various news outlets are disseminating ‘fake news’ for political purposes. But when the information contained in mainstream media news reports provides no clear clues about its truth value or any indication of a partisan slant, do people rely on the congeniality of the news outlet to judge whether the information is true or false? In a survey experiment, we presented partisans (Democrats and Republicans) and ideologues (liberals and conservatives) with a news article excerpt that varied by source shown (CNN, Fox News, or no source) and content (true or false information), and measured their perceived accuracy of the information contained in the article. Our results suggest that the participants do not blindly judge the content of articles based on the news source, regardless of their own partisanship and ideology. Contrary to prevailing views on the polarization and politicization of news outlets, as well as on voters' growing propensity to engage in ‘partisan motivated reasoning,’ source cues are not as important as the information itself for partisans on both sides of the aisle.

This article documents the development of a community-based drug intervention for low- to mild-risk drug users who surrendered as part of the Philippine government's anti-drug campaign. It highlights the importance of developing evidence-informed drug recovery interventions that are appropriate to the Asian culture and to developing economies. Interviews and consultations with users and community stakeholders reveal the need for an intervention that would improve the drug recovery skills and life skills of users. Evidence-based interventions were adapted using McKleroy and colleagues’ (2006) Map of Adaptation Process (MAP) framework. The resulting intervention reflected the country's collectivist culture, relational values, propensity for indirect and non-verbal communication, and interdependent self-construal. The use of small groups, interactive and creative methodologies, and the incorporation of music and prayer also recognised the importance of these in the Philippine culture.

Small, irregular terraces on hillslopes, or terracettes, are common landscape features throughout west central China. Despite their prevalence, there is limited understanding of the nature of these topographic features, the processes that form them, and the role humans played in their formation. We used an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the geology, ecology, and cultural history of terracette development within Jiuzhaigou National Park, Sichuan Province, China. Terracettes occur on south facing, 20° slopes at 2500 m elevation, which appears to coincide with places people historically preferred to build villages. Ethnographic interviews suggest that traditional swidden agricultural cycles removed tree roots, causing the loess sediments to lose cohesion, slump, and the terrace risers to retreat uphill over time. This evidence is supported by landslide debris at terracette faces. Archaeological analysis of terracette sites reveal remains of rammed spread soil structures, bones, stone tools, and ceramics dating from at least 2200 years before present within a distinct paleosol layer. Radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating of terracette sediments ranged in age from between 1500 and 2000 14C yr BP and between 16 and 0.30"ka, respectively. These multiple lines of evidence indicate a long history of human habitation within Jiuzhaigou National Park and taken together, suggest strong links between terracette formation and human-landuse interactions.

China's tuigeng huanlin or “Returning Farmland to Forest” (RFFP) program has been widely praised as the world's largest and most successful payment for ecosystem services program, as well as a major contributor to China's dramatic increase in forest cover from perhaps as low as 8% in 1960 to about 21% today. By compensating rural households for the conversion of marginal farmland to forestland and financing the afforestation of barren mountainsides, the program, in addition to expanding forestland, aims to reduce soil erosion and alleviate poverty. This paper presents qualitative and quantitative studies conducted on the local implementation of RFFP in three diverse townships in Sichuan. We find the actual results to be more mixed than the official figures would indicate. Though there have been some positive results, we identify problems with site and species selection, compensation for land taken out of cultivation, shift of labor to off-farm activities, and monitoring of replanted sites, which challenge the ecological and economic impacts of these programs and reveal much of the effort of the program has been misdirected. We suggest that efforts are misplaced because of the top-down, panacea nature of the program, which in turn is a feature of Chinese bureaucratic management.

Environmental Practice 15:350–366 (2013)

Plague is thought to have killed millions during three catastrophic pandemics. Primary pneumonic plague, the most severe form of the disease, is transmissible from person-to-person and has the potential for propagating epidemics. Efforts to quantify its transmission potential have relied on published data from large outbreaks, an approach that artificially inflates the basic reproductive number (R0) and skews the distribution of individual infectiousness. Using data for all primary pneumonic plague cases reported in the USA from 1900 to 2009, we determined that the majority of cases will fail to transmit, even in the absence of antimicrobial treatment or prophylaxis. Nevertheless, potential for sustained outbreaks still exists due to superspreading events. These findings challenge current concepts regarding primary pneumonic plague transmission.

Multiferroics, the study of materials which possess ferromagnetic and ferroelectric ordering in a single phase, has become an area of prominent research. Moreover, this behavior has been extensively studied in materials which possess a perovskite crystal structure such as BiFeO3 and YMnO3. Due to their weak saturation magnetic moment, many rare-earth orthoferrites are currently of extreme interest. Utilizing a solid-state reaction between Y2O3 and Fe2O3 we have developed the rare-earth orthoferrite YFeO3 and conducted a bulk material study to determine this material’s availability for thin film multiferroic research. The absence of Y2O3 and Fe2O3 impurities was confirmed using Copper-Kα XRD. Examination of the dependence of the magnetization M on the temperature T was conducted to determine the reliability of multiferroic behavior across varying temperatures in conjunction with the investigation of the dependence of M on the electric field strength H. Results clearly display ferromagnetic behavior in our bulk material, providing ample evidence that our bulk material is an excellent candidate for thin film studies. Future studies on multiferroic YFeO3 thin films grown via pulsed laser deposition on Lanthanum Aluminate substrates will be conducted. Detailed data will be provided via XRD and SQUID to confirm magnetic properties while impurities are non-existent in our thin films.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2010 in Portland, Oregon, USA, August 1 – August 5, 2010.

Two Lepidopterous leafminers have been observed on sweet potato at Koronivia, Fiji. The Gracillariid Acrocercops prosacta Meyr. is the more abundant species in most areas but populations of a Lyonetiid, Bedellia ipomoeae Bradley, reach damaging levels in fields sprayed with dieldrin for control of weevils (Cylas formicarius elegantulus (Summers) and Euscepes postfasciatus (Fairm.)). Such treatment is shown to reduce parasitisation of B. ipomoeae by a species of Apanteles near A. tapatapaoanus Fullaway and of A. prosacta, by another Braconid, a species of Mesocoelus near M. acrocercopsis Mues. However, outbreaks of B. ipomoeae could not be attributed to such reduction. Elimination of ant predation by the dieldrin sprays was more likely to have initiated the outbreaks.

Sprays containing malathion, diazinon, or dieldrin killed larvae, but not pupae, of B. ipomoeae. Outbreaks of B. ipomoeae can probably be prevented by relying on cultural methods to control weevils or by intensifying insecticide applications to control both B. ipomoeae and the weevils.

Observations were made in Fiji on the ecology and control of two Delphacid planthoppers on rice, Sogatella furcifera (Horv.) and Nilaparvata lugens (Stål), the latter species having apparently been responsible for a devastating outbreak in 1959. The studies covered three rice seasons, 1961, 1962, and 1963, most of the research being done at Koronivia in the south-eastern part of Viti Levu. Samples were taken of planthoppers and their natural enemies in dryland (drilled) and wetland (transplanted) rice, as well as in rice seed-beds and areas with grass or mixed rice and grass. Insecticides applied at standard dosages were tested against the planthoppers.

It was shown that S. furcifera was most common on young rice and that N. lugens predominated on older rice. Sogatella kolophon (Kirk.), long placed in the genus Sogata and confused with Sogatella furcifera, was abundant only in grassy areas. Populations of N. lugens and, to a lesser extent, of S. furcifera, were apt to reach damaging levels on transplanted rice growing in pools of standing water after a dry period. In drilled fields, the predatory Mirid Cyrtorhinus lividipennis vitiensis Usinger provided effective control by destroying eggs of N. lugens, and, by the time the rice was six months old, it usually outnumbered the females of N. lugens. Parasitism of planthopper eggs by Mymarids, Trichogrammatids, and Eulophids was very low. Parasitism of adults of S. furcifera and S. kolophon by Elenchid Strepsipterons averaged about ten per cent, and that by Dryinid wasps less than one per cent. Adults of N. lugens were virtually free from parasitism but were sometimes infected by fungi. Factors influencing outbreaks are discussed. These include the amount of rainfall, the type of cultivation, the age of the rice crop, the species composition of the planthopper populations, and the relative abundance of Cyrtorhinus.

Insecticidal concentrates tested against both S. furcifera and N. lugens included malathion 50 per cent, emulsifiable concentrate, diazinon 20 per cent, e.c., Bogor 30 per cent, e.c., DDT 20 per cent, e.c., dieldrin 15 per cent, e.c., and Sevin 80 per cent, wettable powder. Dieldrin-resistant strains of N. lugens appeared during 1961, the third season in which dieldrin and BHC had been widely used. The other five materials gave good results, DDT being the least expensive and the most persistent, although it took more than 24 hours to reduce the plant-hopper populations. It was concluded that rice should be closely watched from its third to the end of its sixth month and that 50 oz. of DDT 20 per cent. e.c. in 50 gallons of water per acre, or an equivalent formulation of some other insecticide, should be sprayed on the rice stems if the planthopper density should exceed 10 per stem. Other possible measures for controlling rice planthoppers would include the introduction of Dryinid wasps parasitising N. lugens, the development of rice varieties resistant to planthopper attacks, and the use of controlled flooding in high-bunded fields, but on present evidence the first two appear to hold little promise of success.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2008 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, August 3 – August 7, 2008

People worry about the public-relations presidency: an institutional pattern of action giving high priority to public support, especially as shown by the opinion polls. These worries have been accentuated by actions in the White House and news media. “I don't live by the polls,” Bush told reporters early in 1990, parrying the implication that he did live by them. Daily polls that benefitted the White House were taken during the six months before the Gulf War by the Wirthlin Group (Ronald Reagan's second-term pollster) on behalf of “Citizens for a Free Kuwait.” These included very sophisticated tracking and feedback devices. Bush, in fact, became the first president to mention his own popularity polls in a State of the Union address in January 1992. Yet, Bush could as well have accused reporters of living by the polls. Each change in his public approval ratings was accompanied by featured news stories. At the close of the war, even before the planes had returned to their bases, commentators began speculating on how soon the president's popularity would fall.

Several things stand out from Bush's approval ratings in his first three years in office. His polls were strikingly high in absolute terms and relative to the polls of his predecessors at the same points in their administrations. Another notable feature was that they were more erratic. Where Reagan's polls changed by more than five percentage points only twice in the same period, Bush's changed by this amount 13 times, leading modern presidents in this kind of fluctuation. Bush's approval ratings climbed with the invasion of Panama in January 1990, fell the next month, and then fell further.

The advantage of incumbency has long intrigued students of congressional elections. Whether measured at individual or aggregate levels, by re-election rates or voting margins, the advantage has been striking: simply knowing that there is an incumbent in the contest supplies a major predictor of the vote. The person in office – the incumbent – is overwhelmingly likely to win re-election and to win by larger margins than victorious non-incumbents.

The article analyzes congressional elections research following from the 1978 National Election Study. In a field where basic information was lacking, the study constitutes a major data collection effort. Results should be taken as tentative, with serious work on measurement and conceptualization remaining. Nevertheless, a number of important preliminary findings can be identified. Voters' evaluations of the congressional candidates, House and Senate, have a major influence on the vote, separate from incumbency and party and more important than presidential evaluations or other evaluations. While House incumbents receive the strongest positive support on a number of measures, there is little negative perception of any candidate in congressional contests. Finally, there are major differences found for Senate and House challengers, in voter recognition and information, but no major differences for Senate and House incumbents. House challengers stand apart from all other candidates in their degree of visibility and contact with voters. The article discusses the implications of these findings and indicates priorities for future research.

The seniority system in the American Congress exhibits many characteristics of its parent institution. Both are held to be powerful, durable, and somewhat peculiar. Both celebrate age, tradition, and a particular kind of experience. They are skeptical of new things – whether policies, computerized information systems, or newly elected members. Both can be attacked for sluggishness, defense of the status quo, and lack of vigor and merit in leadership. The family resemblance goes further. Both have been century-long targets of criticism and attempts at reform. And both have resisted these attacks by doing what they do best – by simply outlasting the reform attempts and the reformers.