Genomic and cDNA clones derived from the gene (dodA) coding for DOPA dioxygenase, a key enzyme in the betalain pathway, were obtained from the basidiomycete Amanita muscaria. A cDNA library was established in the phage lambda ZapII and dodA clones were isolated using polyclonal antibodies raised against the purified enzyme. Their identity was confirmed by comparison of the deduced amino acid sequence with the sequence of several tryptic peptide fragments of DOPA dioxygenase. The gene coded for a 228-amino acid protein that showed no homology to published sequences. The coding region was interrupted by five short introns. Regulation was shown to occur at the transcriptional level; the mRNA accumulated to high levels only in the coloured cap tissue. dodA was found to be a single-copy gene in A. muscaria. To our knowledge, this is the first gene from the betalain pathway to be cloned. It encodes a type of aromatic ring-cleaving dioxygenase that has not been previously described.

A low level of voter turnout and a certain alienation of citizens from politics are well‐known challenges to many modern democracies. At the same time a special type of political website called Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) attracts millions of voters all over Europe. They offer voters a new approach for choosing candidates or political parties to vote for. VAAs seem to be particularly popular among young voters. In this article we try to assess whether these tools have the potential to increase voter turnout and whether they could be used to improve civic educational programs. We do this based on data from Switzerland and the Swiss VAA smartvote.

Online voting advice applications (VAAs) have become popular across Europe with millions of voters using them during electoral campaigns. Despite their popularity, little is known about their impact on their users' electoral choices. Based on survey data from voters using the Swiss VAA smartvote, we present findings on the direct impact on the actual votes of VAA users and whether the voting recommendations led them to adapt their previous vote choices. Our findings suggest that there is a tendency toward swing voting among smartvote users, most prominently among younger voters. Moreover, we find that smartvote users who were very surprised by the outcome of their voting recommendations were also more inclined to change their party choices. Furthermore, we examine the directional change of the initial voting preferences of those voters who stated that the tool had influenced their voting decisions. Our findings are valid only for a self-selected sample of smartvote users; thus, we discuss necessary steps for improvement in future VAA research.

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The use of the Internet now has a specific purpose: to find information. Unfortunately, the amount of data available on the Internet is growing exponentially, creating what can be considered a nearly infinite and ever-evolving network with no discernable structure. This rapid growth has raised the question of how to find the most relevant information.Many different techniques have been introduced to address the information overload, including search engines, semantic web, and recommender systems, among others.Recommender systems are computer-based techniques that are used to reduce information overload and recommend products likely to interest a user when given some information about the user's profile. This technique is mainly used in eCommerce to suggest items that fit a customer's purchasing tendencies.The use of recommender systems for eGovernment is a research topic that is intended to improve the interaction among public administrations, citizens, and the private sector through reducing information overload on eGovernment services. More specifically, eDemocracy aims to increase citizens' participation in democratic processes through the use of information and communication technologies.In this chapter, an architecture of a recommender system that uses fuzzy clustering methods for eElections is introduced. In addition, a comparison with the smartvote system, a Web-based Voting Assistance Application (VAA) used to aid voters in finding the party or candidate that is most in line with their preferences, is presented.