Political Ideology Modifies the Effect of Glass Cliff Candidacies on Election Outcomes for Women in American State Legislative Races (2011-2016).

Research on glass cliff political candidacies shows that compared to men, women are more likely to run for office in districts where they are likely to lose. We examined if party differences in whether female candidates face these worse conditions in the United States could account for persistent and growing party and state variation in women's representation. Using election data from 2011 to 2016, we compared Republican versus Democratic candidacies at the state legislative level. We found that women in both parties faced glass cliffs in House races, but not in the Senate. For Republican women, glass cliff conditions accounted for worse election outcomes, but Democratic women were more likely to win when these conditions were considered. Variation in party by state measures of glass cliff effects were also found to explain state variation in women's office holding. We found that for Democrats, more women win when more women run, but for Republicans, more women win only when the seats they face are more winnable. These results point to the role of polarized traditional versus progressive political ideologies in structuring the motives which underlie glass cliff conditions for women in politics, suggesting that practical solutions be tailored to party. To overcome the growing gap in women's representation, current efforts to increase the quantity of women running would be complemented by a focus on improving the quality of contests they face, with Republican women most likely to benefit. Further research attending to the multiple sources of variation which impact gendered election outcomes can inform more targeted solutions for advancing equality. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0361684321992046.

ǂUsigu: A mixed-method lexical study of character description in Khoekhoegowab.

Personality psychology relies heavily on evidence from North America and Europe. Lexical studies, based on the rationale that the most important psychological distinctions between people will be encoded in the natural languages, can provide input from underrepresented contexts by defining locally relevant personality concepts and their structure. We report the results of a psycholexical study in Khoekhoegowab, the most widely spoken of southern Africa's (non-Bantu) click languages. It includes the largest sample of any lexical study conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa, is the first anywhere to include qualitative interviews to systematically assess the interpretability of terms, and is one of few to rely on a more representative community sample of adults rather than students. Refinement of the survey included frequency-of-use ratings by native speakers from throughout Namibia and input on relevance to personality by those with a psychology degree. The survey was administered by interview to 622 participants by a team of 15 schoolteachers of Khoekhoegowab. The 11 dimensions of the optimal local model were labeled: Intemperance, Prosocial Diligence, Intrusive Gossip, Good Nature, Bad Temper, Predatory Aggression, Haughty Self-Respect, Vanity/Egotism, and Fear versus Courage. A Big One model of evaluation was strongly replicated. Moderate replication was found for the Big Two, Pan-Cultural Three, and a hypothesized pan-African model based on prior lexical results in 2 languages. Replication criteria were not achieved for the Big Five, Big Six, or South African Personality Inventory models. What results suggest about the local cultural context and about culturally specific aspects of the imported models are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Diversification of ergot alkaloids in natural and modified fungi.

Several fungi in two different families--the Clavicipitaceae and the Trichocomaceae--produce different profiles of ergot alkaloids, many of which are important in agriculture and medicine. All ergot alkaloid producers share early steps before their pathways diverge to produce different end products. EasA, an oxidoreductase of the old yellow enzyme class, has alternate activities in different fungi resulting in branching of the pathway. Enzymes beyond the branch point differ among lineages. In the Clavicipitaceae, diversity is generated by the presence or absence and activities of lysergyl peptide synthetases, which interact to make lysergic acid amides and ergopeptines. The range of ergopeptines in a fungus may be controlled by the presence of multiple peptide synthetases as well as by the specificity of individual peptide synthetase domains. In the Trichocomaceae, diversity is generated by the presence or absence of the prenyl transferase encoded by easL (also called fgaPT1). Moreover, relaxed specificity of EasL appears to contribute to ergot alkaloid diversification. The profile of ergot alkaloids observed within a fungus also is affected by a delayed flux of intermediates through the pathway, which results in an accumulation of intermediates or early pathway byproducts to concentrations comparable to that of the pathway end product.

Heterologous expression of lysergic acid and novel ergot alkaloids in Aspergillus fumigatus.

Different lineages of fungi produce distinct classes of ergot alkaloids. Lysergic acid-derived ergot alkaloids produced by fungi in the Clavicipitaceae are particularly important in agriculture and medicine. The pathway to lysergic acid is partly elucidated, but the gene encoding the enzyme that oxidizes the intermediate agroclavine is unknown. We investigated two candidate agroclavine oxidase genes from the fungus Epichloë festucae var. lolii × Epichloë typhina isolate Lp1 (henceforth referred to as Epichloë sp. Lp1), which produces lysergic acid-derived ergot alkaloids. Candidate genes easH and cloA were expressed in a mutant strain of the mold Aspergillus fumigatus, which typically produces a subclass of ergot alkaloids not derived from agroclavine or lysergic acid. Candidate genes were coexpressed with the Epichloë sp. Lp1 allele of easA, which encodes an enzyme that catalyzed the synthesis of agroclavine from an A. fumigatus intermediate; the agroclavine then served as the substrate for the candidate agroclavine oxidases. Strains expressing easA and cloA from Epichloë sp. Lp1 produced lysergic acid from agroclavine, a process requiring a cumulative six-electron oxidation and a double-bond isomerization. Strains that accumulated excess agroclavine (as a result of Epichloë sp. Lp1 easA expression in the absence of cloA) metabolized it into two novel ergot alkaloids for which provisional structures were proposed on the basis of mass spectra and precursor feeding studies. Our data indicate that CloA catalyzes multiple reactions to produce lysergic acid from agroclavine and that combining genes from different ergot alkaloid pathways provides an effective strategy to engineer important pathway molecules and novel ergot alkaloids.

Chemotypic and genotypic diversity in the ergot alkaloid pathway of Aspergillus fumigatus.

Aspergillus fumigatus is an opportunistic human pathogen that synthesizes a group of mycotoxins via a branch of the ergot alkaloid pathway. This fungus is globally distributed, and genetic data indicate that isolates recombine freely over that range; however, previous work on ergot alkaloids has focused on a limited number of isolates. We hypothesized that A. fumigatus harbors variation in the chemotype of ergot alkaloids and genotype of the ergot alkaloid gene cluster. Analysis of 13 isolates by high performance liquid chromatography revealed four distinct ergot alkaloid profiles or chemotypes. Five isolates completed the A. fumigatus branch of the ergot alkaloid pathway to fumigaclavine C. Six independent isolates accumulated fumigaclavine A, the pathway intermediate immediately before fumigaclavine C. One isolate accumulated only the early pathway intermediates chanoclavine-i and chanocla-vine-i aldehyde, and one isolate lacked ergot alkaloids altogether. A genetic basis for each of the observed chemotypes was obtained either by PCR analysis of the ergot alkaloid gene cluster or through sequencing of easL, the gene encoding the prenyl transferase that reverse prenylates fumigaclavine A to fumigaclavine C. Isolates also exhibited differences in pigmentation and sporulation. The ergot alkaloid chemotypes were widely distributed geographically and among substrate of origin.

Walking stride rate patterns in children and youth.

PURPOSE: To describe walking activity patterns in youth who are typically developing (TD) using a novel analysis of stride data and compare to youth with cerebral palsy (CP) and arthrogryposis (AR). METHOD: Stride rate curves were developed from 5 days of StepWatch data for 428 youth ages 2 to 16 years who were TD. RESULTS: Patterns of stride rates changed with age in the TD group (P = .03 to < .001). Inactivity varied with age (P < .001); peak stride rate decreased with age (P < .001). Curves were stable over a 2-week time frame (P = .38 to .95). Youth with CP and AR have lower stride rate patterns (P = .04 to .001). CONCLUSION: This is the first documentation of pediatric stride-rate patterns within the context of daily life. Including peak stride rates and levels of walking activity, this single visual format has potential clinical and research applications.

Characterisation of variant alleles at the HumD21S11 locus implies unique Australasian genotypes and re-classification of nomenclature guidelines.

Several variant alleles of the HumD21S11 locus have only been reported in Australasian population samples. Fifteen such alleles were observed in Caucasian and Australian Aborigine sub-population databases compiled from residents of the state of Western Australia. Each variant was sequenced to authenticate the allelic designation and determine the structural conformation. Nine novel structural variants are described. The structure of the repeat region of these rare alleles combined with the STR designation brings aspects of the HumD21S11 nomenclature guidelines into question, in particular the designation of common incomplete repeats (or "0.2's"). The conformation of the sequences provides evidence in support of a genetic relationship between the Australian Aborigine and the Papuan people.