, we presented empirical evidence that political parties in Western European democracies tend to shift their ideological orientations in response to shifts in voters' policy preferences, as suggested by the model of "dynamic representation" developed by Stimson, MacKuen, and Erikson (1995; see also Erikson, MacKuen, and Stimson 2002). Here, we extend this analysis to consider whether the type of party makes a difference. Specifically, we explore whether the members of party families who present either an extreme ideology (such as Communist and extreme nationalist parties) or James Adams is associate professor of political science, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616 (jfadams@ucdavis.edu). Michael Clark is a Ph.D. candidate in political science, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9420 (mcl@umail.ucsb.edu). Lawrence Ezrow is a postdoctoral fellow of political science, Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (lj.ezrow@fsw.vu.nl). Garrett Glasgow is assistant professor of political science, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9420 (glasgow@polsci.ucsb.edu).Authors are listed in alphabetical order. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the 2004 annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association and at a 2004 departmental symposium at the University of Texas at Austin. We thank Neal Beck, Melvin Hinich, Jonathan Katz, Orit Kedar, Gary King, George Krause, Jeff Lewis, Michael Lewis-Beck, Michael McDonald, Bonnie Meguid, Lorelei Moosbrugger, and three anonymous referees for helpful comments. Any remaining errors are the authors' sole responsibility. a noncentrist "niche" ideology (i.e., the Greens) respond differently to shifts in public opinion than do the political elites who represent mainstream or catch-all parties such as Labor, Socialist, Social Democratic, Liberal, Conservative, and Christian Democratic parties. We label the members of the Communist, Green, and extreme nationalist party families as niche parties.Our study, which encompasses eight Western European party systems over the period 1976-1998, produces two central findings. First, we conclude that while mainstream parties' policy shifts during this period corresponded strongly to shifts in public opinion, niche parties

The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend the classic study of vowel acoustics by Peterson and Barney (PB) [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 24, 175-184 (1952)]. Recordings were made of 45 men, 48 women, and 46 children producing the vowels /i,I,e, epsilon,ae,a, [symbol: see text],O,U,u, lambda,3 iota/ in h-V-d syllables. Formant contours for F1-F4 were measured from LPC spectra using a custom interactive editing tool. For comparison with the PB data, formant patterns were sampled at a time that was judged by visual inspection to be maximally steady. Analysis of the formant data shows numerous differences between the present data and those of PB, both in terms of average frequencies of F1 and F2, and the degree of overlap among adjacent vowels. As with the original study, listening tests showed that the signals were nearly always identified as the vowel intended by the talker. Discriminant analysis showed that the vowels were more poorly separated than the PB data based on a static sample of the formant pattern. However, the vowels can be separated with a high degree of accuracy if duration and spectral change information is included.

Previous research explains the evolution of parties' ideological positions in terms of decision rules that stress the uncertainty of the political environment. The authors extend this research by examining whether parties adjust their ideologies in response to two possible influences: shifts in public opinion, and past election results. Their empirical analyses, which are based on the Comparative Manifesto Project's codings of parties' post-war programmes in eight West European nations, suggest that parties respond to shifts in public opinion, but that these effects are only significant in situations where public opinion is clearly shifting away from the party's policy positions. By contrast, no evidence is found here that parties adjust their ideologies in response to past election results. These findings have important implications for parties' election strategies and for models of political representation.The study of party policy platforms has been the focus of two very different research traditions. One approach, epitomized by the work of the Comparative Manifesto Project, involves empirical examinations of party platforms. The second approach, which may be traced back to Anthony Downs and before, is spatial modelling. Spatial modellers typically assume that parties compete for votes from an issue-oriented electorate, and attempt to deduce the policies that parties will present in order to win elections. These two research traditions have evolved largely independently of each other.Participants in the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP) are concerned with determining the content of parties' policy proposals, as well as how these policies evolve over time. Specifically, through comparative coding of parties' election programmes the CMP assigns positions to parties along a variety of policy dimensions. To date, this coding procedure has been applied to over 1,500 programmes, in about thirty democracies, during the post-war period. Spatial modellers, by contrast, typically assume that parties maximize votes, or, in multiparty systems, that they maximize their chances of obtaining membership in the governing coalition. The general quest is for a policy equilibrium during a single election period -i.e., a set of party platforms such that no party can improve its position by changing its policies, given the policies of its rivals.The spatial maps of parties' policy movements published by the CMP reveal dynamic patterns that spatial modellers, with their focus on party equilibrium during single election periods, rarely attempt to explain. This gap in the literature is unfortunate, because many critical issues relating to our understanding of political parties, elections and representation

Social integration and support can have profound effects on human survival. The extent of this phenomenon in non-human animals is largely unknown, but such knowledge is important to understanding the evolution of both lifespan and sociality. Here, we report evidence that levels of affiliative social behaviour (i.e. 'social connectedness') with both same-sex and opposite-sex conspecifics predict adult survival in wild female baboons. In the Amboseli ecosystem in Kenya, adult female baboons that were socially connected to either adult males or adult females lived longer than females who were socially isolated from both sexes-females with strong connectedness to individuals of both sexes lived the longest. Female social connectedness to males was predicted by high dominance rank, indicating that males are a limited resource for females, and females compete for access to male social partners. To date, only a handful of animal studies have found that social relationships may affect survival. This study extends those findings by examining relationships to both sexes in by far the largest dataset yet examined for any animal. Our results support the idea that social effects on survival are evolutionarily conserved in social mammals.

Heavy-resistance exercise utilizing very short rest periods is commonly used by body builders to prepare for competition. The purpose of this study was to compare the acute responses of this type of heavy-resistance exercise protocol in competitive body builders (BB) and power lifters (PL). Nine male BB and eight PL were matched for age, size and experience. A ten-station heavy-resistance exercise protocol was used. Each subject performed three sets of 10 repetition maximum (RM) with 10-s rest between sets and alternated 30-s and 60-s rest periods between exercises. No differences were observed in total work between the groups, but BB used a significantly (P less than 0.05) higher percentage of their 1 RM in the bench press and leg press exercises. Heart rate, ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), and lactate levels were obtained during the exercise protocol; significant (P less than 0.05) increases were observed above rest for these variables. RPE was significantly correlated with lactate levels (r = 0.84). Plasma epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine, cortisol, and lactate levels significantly increased from pre- to 5 min post-exercise. Mean plasma volumes were reduced -16.6 (+/- 3.64)% and -20.6 (+/- 8.32)% following the exercise protocol for BB and PL, respectively. Significant (P less than 0.05) decreases in eosinophil counts were observed following exercise. No significant differences were observed between BB and PL for any of the physiologic responses measured. PL exhibited a higher incidence (100%) of clinical symptoms of dizziness and nausea compared to BB (11.1%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)