Political Polarization and Intolerance of Intolerance

Scholarly research linking conservatism to intolerance is widespread (McAdams et al, 2008; Jost et al, 2003): however, relatively little attention is paid to the impact of intolerance on the liberal side. Nevertheless, mounting empirical research and popular journalism suggests that intolerance works both ways, but that liberals are not aware of their own intolerance. Building on survey methodology used by Crawford and Pilanski (2014), the present study uses a scale of ideological consistency, intolerance judgments across a range of issues, and perceived intolerance, to explore both the intolerance levels and perceived intolerance levels of liberals and conservatives, as well as additional variables associated with intolerance. Most notably, the study demonstrates preliminary findings suggesting that even though liberals are objectively no more tolerant than conservatives, they perceive themselves to be so. In an era of intensifying ideological divide and hostility, these findings may be used to inspire further research into an apparent intolerance perception gap among liberals as a contributing factor in political polarization

The Global Garment Industry and the Informal Economy:Critical Issues for Labor Rights Advocates

CCC_04_09_informal_labour_seminar_discussion_paper_CCC.pdf: 1679 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Dimensions of products of hyperbolic spaces

We give estimates on asymptotic dimensions of products of general hyperbolic spaces with following applications to the hyperbolic groups. We give examples of strict inequality in the product theorem for the asymptotic dimension in the class of the hyperbolic groups; and examples of strict inequality in the product theorem for the hyperbolic dimension. We prove that R is dimensionally full for the asymptotic dimension in the class of the hyperbolic groups

Bioavailability of pesticides in freshwater sediments

In ecological risk assessment standardized sediment toxicity tests are used to predict the hazard of chemicals for sediment-living organisms. Feeding is a prerequisite in these long-term tests to avoid starvation of test organisms. Therefore, added food particles may act as vectors for the test compound. The importance of food particles as vectors, however, is dependent on several factors, for example, sorption and major uptake routes. In this thesis, laboratory experiments on the importance of pesticide sorption and uptake routes for the bioavailability to the midge Chironomus riparius in sediment toxicity test setups were performed. A feeding selectivity study showed that larvae almost exclusively fed on added food particles, and highly neglected sediment particles. Additionally, experiments on the sorption of the insecticide lindane, showed that food and peat particles (used in artificial sediment) efficiently sorbed lindane (>95% after 48 h). The binding strength of lindane was weak, facilitating particulate uptake. However, the uptake from dissolved lindane was higher than the uptake from particles. From this we concluded that toxicity may be underestimated in spiked-sediment scenarios, where hydrophobic pesticides sorb to the sediment and larvae to a large extent feed on uncontaminated food particles. Conversely, in a spiked-water scenario, the food particles may act as vector, resulting in a facilitated particulate uptake, in addition to the uptake from water. Sediment organic matter affects sorption, and thus bioavailability of pesticides. Pyrethroid toxicity was much higher in artificial sediment than in a natural sediment, indicating the simplicity and shortcomings of using artificial sediments. Interestingly, the sediment quality highly affected bioavailability in spiked-water. For example, C. riparus larvae in sediments with low organic matter content and exposed to spiked-water pyrethroids, showed lower survival, slower development, and increased adult size, than those in sediments with higher organic matter. The pyrethroid deltamethrin, showed an LC50-value (28 d) for C. riparius larvae in artificial sediment of 16 pg/L and 11 µg/kg for water- and sediment exposures, respectively, i.e. toxic effects occurred at concentrations lower than the detection limits for high-tech analytical methods. This thesis contributes to a wider understanding of processes affecting bioavailability in freshwater sediments, and in particular in standardized sediments used in toxicity testing. The understanding of test compound sorption and bioavailability is crucial for sound interpretations of toxicity tests and for the general credibility of such tests

"Laws of Forgiveness: Obama, Mandela, Derrida"

Excerpt from Routledge Companion to Transnational American Studies, edited by Nina Morgan, Alfred Hornung, and Takayuki Tatsum

Broadband Infrastructure and Unemployment - Evidence for Germany

Online job search is becoming increasingly prominent and is viewed to improve the efficiency of the search process. OLS results suggest a negative association of DSL availability with unemployment rates across German municipalities. However, the roll-out of DSL networks is not random. This paper exploits the fact that the availability of DSL connections depends on a municipality’s distance to the closest interconnection point to the pre-existing voice-telephony network. Instrumental-variable results using this distance as an instrument for DSL availability do not confirm the effect of DSL availability on unemployment

WHO special project for pharmaceuticals in Newly Independent States (NIS) : strategic approaches

The Special Project on Pharmaceuticals in the Newly Independent States (NIS), which includes all former USSR countries except the Baltic countries, was established within the WHO European Office (Copenhagen, Denmark) in 1993 to meet the specific needs of countries in transition from the soviet to the market-oriented economy.peer-reviewe