UC Merced Study Shows Grammar Impacts Voter Support for Candidates

Politicians spend millions of dollars each year formulating effective campaign messages, but they may not always focus on the right details. A recent study conducted by a UC Merced professor suggests they may want to pay closer attention to the fine-grained details of those messages.

UC Merced cognitive science Professor Teenie Matlock and Indiana University post-doctoral research fellow Caitlin M. Fausey recently discovered that verb forms can have significant impacts on how voters view a candidate’s past negative actions. The researchers studied people’s attitudes about a fictitious political candidate after reading sentences that were phrased with imperfective (verb+ing) or perfective (verb+ed). Students from UC Merced and Stanford University participated in the experiments.

A key finding of the research is that people felt the candidate was likely to fail in a bid for re-election if the action was in the imperfective form.

“These findings provide novel insights about how language can shape thought in the political realm,” the authors wrote. Most research on political messages focuses on language yoked to partisan issues or word-level phenomena.

In their paper, “Can Grammar Win Elections?,” Matlock and Fausey argue that using the imperfective form in political messages can amplify politicians’ negative past actions, such as “accepting hush money” or “having an affair” because voters infer that such negative actions may continue. In contrast, the perfective implies that these actions may be “over and done with.”

UC Merced Professor Finds Natural Collaboration with Australian University

UC Merced Professor Jay Sharping will be collaborating with the University of Adelaide in Australia to test optical fiber made of soft glass. Optical fibers carry all of our voice and data information, but the vast majority of devices are made from just one or two types of glass. There are, however, literally thousands of different types of glass that one can choose from.

The University of Adelaide is one of only a few universities that can fabricate this type of optical fiber, and UC Merced has a lab well-suited for studying the way light behaves as it propagates through optical fibers.

“It’s a pretty natural pairing,” Sharping explained. “I’m interested in new and different types of optical fiber and they are looking for compelling reasons to make them.”

Most optical fiber isn’t made with soft glass because it isn’t good for transporting data over long distances. It does have the potential to be useful for other applications such as data encryption and laser microscopy.

Using extremely shorts bursts from a laser one can optically stimulate living cells without damaging or killing them, allowing researchers to learn more about them.

The Australian Research Council funded the collaboration for three years. Sharping is in the midst of applying for a grant from the National Sciences Foundation to further support the work.

Senior Enjoys Opportunities at UC Merced

Modesto native Edirin Egbikuadje spent the past summer applying mechanical engineering knowledge in the lab working to figure out how to keep heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) running more efficiently.

For Egbikuadje, the ability to conduct research as an undergraduate has been the most important experience at UC Merced.

“My experience has been amazing,"he said. “I really like the community here. Small feel, everybody knows your name.”

New Program to Help Cities Address Climate Change

Many large cities in the Valley, including Sacramento, Stockton and Fresno, have already started planning for climate change. But smaller cities often lack the financial resources or staff time to commit to these programs or hire consultants.

A new program organized by the Great Valley Center — a partner of the University of California, Merced — will offer free assistance to local governments in the San Joaquin Valley to help them develop an inventory of their greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately offer recommendations on how each city can reduce the amount of energy used in its own operations.

The Green Communities Program, funded by PG&E and the California Public Utilities Commission and implemented with the help of ICLEI: Local Governments for Sustainability, will pay interns from UC Merced, University of the Pacific and California State University, Stanislaus, to work with staff members in participating cities.

Thus far, cities that have signed on to participate in the Green Communities Program are Modesto, Turlock, Ceres, Patterson, Oakdale, Riverbank, Hughson, Waterford, Newman and Livingston. Stanislaus County and the cities of Los Banos and Sanger are also looking into the program.

The Great Valley Center interns will use meter information to assess energy use while also interviewing city staff members about solid waste management, sewage treatment, landfill emissions and even commuting practices. They will then offer customized recommendations based on the findings.

In addition to helping those cities plan for climate change, the program also gives cities an opportunity to become leaders in sustainability, setting an example for their residents and neighboring towns.

UC Merced Student Group Connects Women in Science, Engineering

Although its name may suggest otherwise, UC Merced’s Women in Science and Engineering is open to men and women and students of all disciplines. Its mission is to “generate and promote equal opportunities for women in diverse science and engineering disciplines.”

“It’s nice to have that reinforcement – that you’ll struggle (in some classes) – but that you’ll make it through,” said undergraduate management major and group founder Patricia Dugan. “That’s a message everyone wants to hear.”

Dugan was talking last semester about forming some sort of group with Professor Sayantani Ghosh, who suggested they consider starting a Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) group on campus. During the summer, Dugan identified the mission of the group and gained guidance and final approval from Ghosh and School of Natural Sciences Dean Maria Pallavicini, who acts as founding faculty mentor.

“WiSE should be considered a source of information for incoming students, a platform for forming friendships and social ties with peers for current students and a stepping stone for information on future career development for ones about to graduate,” Dugan said.

UC Merced WiSE has 10 officers from across UC Merced’s three schools and 20 members. It has been holding weekly tea-time conversations as well as monthly meetings that feature faculty speakers. Recently, Professor Mayya Tokman was the featured speaker. She discussed her journey and gave the audience inspirational advice through her own successes.

Cognitive science Professor Teenie Matlock spoke Nov. 2, and soil biogeochemistry Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe will speak in December.

UC Merced, UCSF Study: Having Oral Sex Increases Likelihood for Intercourse Among Teens

Half of teens who have oral sex during the ninth grade will have intercourse by the end of the 11th grade, and most sexually active teenagers will begin engaging in oral sex and sexual intercourse within the same six-month period, according to findings from a new survey conducted by researchers at UCSF and UC Merced.

The study is the first to track teens' sexual behavior over time to determine whether oral sex increases the likelihood of having sexual intercourse or acts as a protective measure delaying the onset of further sexual activity. The data, explain the researchers, yield important information about adolescent sexual development and the need to deliver more comprehensive sex education programs.

"Health care providers, health educators and parents need to not be shy about discussing oral sex with teens," said Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, PhD, senior author of the study and a professor of pediatrics at UCSF. "I see most of the health policies out there and guidelines for preventive services talking about sex generally, but they do not specify oral sex. That is an important distinction because teens don't consider oral sex to be sex, and many are not aware of the risks involved."

Among teens who reported becoming sexually active during the three-year study, most said they had intercourse for the first time after or within the same six-month period of initiating oral sex. According to Halpern-Felsher, this indicates oral sex is influencing the onset of riskier sexual behavior, underscoring the need to encourage open, honest discussion about sexual activity.

"Our study demonstrates that through its relationship with intercourse, oral sex contributes to the total risk associated with sexual activity among teens, including sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy," said Anna V. Song, PhD, first author of the study and an assistant professor of psychological sciences at UC Merced. "Understanding teen sexual behavior is so important because incorrect assumptions about how and why teens engage in sex can undermine interventions that aim to curb these negative outcomes."