Political power in political economy lacks standardized metrics. This study introduces a measurement method combining individual legislators' power with firms' political contributions. This corporate political power measure explains federal contracting success. Results show local politicians representing firms' operational areas provide greater contracting benefits than powerful national politicians. Federal representatives support local firms to boost constituent employment and re-election prospects. Additionally, firms strategically reallocate contributions toward more electable politicians when experiencing political power decline, demonstrating adaptive behavior in maintaining influence.
This paper aims to examine a moderated mediation model of consumers' financial distress and spending behavior through anxiety moderated by income. Data from 826 consumers in the United States were collected, and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied to analyze the hypothesized relationships in the research model. The findings indicated a positive impact of financial distress on anxiety, subsequently resulting in reduced spending behavior. Importantly, the analysis revealed that consumers' income levels did not exhibit moderating effects on the correlation between financial distress and consumer anxiety. Furthermore, it was observed that income did not play a moderating role in the relationship between consumer anxiety and consumer spending behavior. We contribute to consumer behavior research by offering theoretical and contextual insights into spending behavior. Additionally, we provide managerial recommendations for marketers in the context of consumer financial distress.
Purpose Tinnitus and hearing loss are the most prevalent service-related auditory disabilities among American veterans. Previous studies have examined gray matter or white matter alterations in tinnitus and hearing loss relative to healthy controls, but typically in isolation, and none of them have focused specifically on a military-affiliated population. Methods We employed voxel-based morphometry to assess gray matter differences and diffusion tensor imaging to evaluate white matter integrity in tinnitus and/or hearing loss compared to controls in a sample of 68 military-affiliated adults (56 men, 10 women, two identifying as 'other' gender). Additionally, we conducted an exploratory, hypothesis-generating effect size analysis to describe the magnitude of group differences. Results Combined tinnitus and hearing loss was associated with decreased gray matter volume in the thalamus. White matter integrity was reduced in the forceps minor, right superior longitudinal fasciculus, and left inferior longitudinal fasciculus. Hearing loss alone was associated with white matter orientation changes in the right anterior thalamic radiation, left supe-rior longitudinal fasciculus, and right corticospinal tract. Larger effect sizes were noted in white matter comparisons across tinnitus, hearing loss, and combined conditions, suggesting that white matter differences may be of greater magnitude than gray matter alterations. Conclusion These findings advance the understanding of the neural correlates of tinnitus and hearing loss in the military population, an understudied group with a high prevalence of tinnitus and hearing loss. They also present preliminary effect size estimates that may inform future studies on the neural correlates of tinnitus and hearing loss, indicating a larger overall magnitude in white matter and more subtle contributions from gray matter.
We applied marital stress and stability frameworks to investigate how spousal, family, and friend dynamics contribute to marital instability risks during the first 16 years of marriage. Using longitudinal data from the Early Years of Marriage Project and a within-person approach, we examined how family and friend relationships temper or amplify marital risks in couples' more troublesome years. We also considered the sociocultural contexts of gender and race. Both spouses from 373 newlywed mixed-gender couples (199 Black American, 174 White American couples) completed questionnaires in Years 1, 3, 7, and 16 of marriage. Dyadic multilevel models showed marital distress and instability increased over time, while spousal responsiveness, friend support, and family support decreased across the 16 years. Wives also had poorer marital and family evaluations than husbands. In the years with less responsiveness or more marital distress, having low family support or high family-related tension intensified negative marital effect; in contrast, having more family support or less family-related tension helped protect marriages. Nevertheless, marital instability risks were lowest in years with less distress or more spousal responsiveness, regardless of family support or tension. The benefits of spousal responsiveness and negative effects of family-related tension were particularly potent for Black spouses, showing strong marital and family effects on instability, for better or worse. These findings demonstrate that more positive and less negative marital dynamics may protect spouses from unsupportive or strained families. In contrast, lacking supportive family ties may be especially harmful to spouses in less responsive or more distressing marriages.
Phenothiazine is a heteroaromatic molecule capable of various noncovalent interactions, including halogen bonding and pi-stacked association. Despite its broad use in functional materials and pharmaceutical ingredients, a systematic comparison of these interaction modes has been lacking. Here, we report a combined experimental and computational study of intermolecular interactions of phenothiazine with a prototypical halogen-bond (HaB) donor (tetrabromomethane), planar pi-electron acceptors (tetracyanopyrazine and tetrafluoro-p-benzoquinone), and multifunctional species capable of both interaction types (iodo- and bromo-3,5-dinitrobenzenes). X-ray structural analysis revealed that CBr4 forms exclusively C-Br & centerdot;& centerdot;& centerdot;pi halogen bonds with the aromatic rings of phenothiazine, whereas all pi-acceptors yield alternating donor-acceptor stacks characterized by multiple short contacts indicative of multicenter interactions. Notably, co-crystals of iodo- and bromodinitrobenzenes with phenothiazine display only pi-stacked architectures. Density-functional calculations showed that isolated HaB complexes involving N, S, or pi sites of phenothiazine possess comparable binding energies (approximate to-3 kcal mol-1), whereas pi-stacked complexes are substantially stronger (approximate to-9-12 kcal mol-1). QTAIM, NCI, NBO, and energy-decomposition analyses indicated that while amounts of charge transfer in halogen-bonded and pi-stacked complexes are comparable, the enhanced stability of the latter originates primarily from a large dispersion contribution. These results rationalize the solid-state preference for pi-stacking over halogen bonding in systems where both motifs are accessible and clarify the hierarchy and physical origin of noncovalent interactions involving phenothiazine, providing guidance for the design of supramolecular assemblies and functional materials based on this versatile electron donor.
