Shapes of Commitment: Forms of State Support to Nonviolent Mass Resistance

Nonviolent mass movements are an important and increasingly ubiquitous element of interstate politics in the 21st century. Diverse states - democratic, autocratic, rich, and developing – all have supported movements in some form. Explaining the convergence of such state actors on support for usually pro-democratic mass resistance challenges our existing scholarly frameworks. Using a new dataset, I reconcile the differing explanations of foreign assistance to movements that political science would offer with deep descriptive analysis pursued inductively. First, I propose a conceptual foundation for external support, couching an individual state’s support as the manifestation of an outcome-oriented foreign policy and offering five different categories of support types. To better compare amongst states supporters globally, though, I offer a way to detect the nature of a state’s commitment to a supported movement based on the costs it assumes when providing assistance. In a heuristic case study, I examine the South African Anti-Apartheid movement and find that the most committed states offered diverse forms of support and had engaged domestic constituencies. I extrapolate from the broader South Africa findings to conduct a global analysis of support to movements between 2000-2014, which yields three ideal types of state supporters: willing revisionists, institutional stewards, and grievance legitimizers. The data reveal new dynamics in international politics. Most prominently, I show that in the face of a mass movement, countries most amenable to a disruption in the status quo tend to limit direct involvement, while offering loud condemnations. Meanwhile, states most interested in the promotion of democracy work with the afflicted government quietly behind the scenes

Polígonos mágicos, círculos lullianos y otros problemas insalubres

Estudiamos ciertos sistemas de ecuaciones diofantinas asociados a polígonos y diversos problemas relacionados. Estos últimos comparten con aquellos propiedades fuertemente adictivas, motivo por el cual se advierte al lector sobre el potencial peligro que para su salud representa la lectura de este trabajo

Clinical Characteristics and Management of Children with Ureteropelvic Junction Obstruction and Severe Vesicoureteral Reflux: Preliminary Results

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the physiopathology of isolated or coexisting ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJ-O) and high-grade vesicoureteral reflux (VUR), including the clinical characteristics and management.Summary background data: The association between UPJ-O and VUR was reported more frequently in boys with high-grade VUR; however, the physiopathology of concomitant UPJ-O and VUR is still unknown. Primary pyeloplasty, followed by ureteral reimplantation, if needed, has been widely accepted, although VUR should be treated first (most often by endoscopic treatment) in the presence of a functional obstruction.Methods: We reviewed the charts of 78 children with isolated or coexisting high-grade VUR/UPJ-O. Among the children, 14 had isolated UPJ-O, 16 had high-grade VUR/ UPJ-O, and 48 had high-grade VUR. Children with other urological or extrarenal conditions were excluded.Results: Patients with isolated UPJ-O showed significantly different clinical characteristics compared with the other two groups of patients with high-grade VUR. Among the patients of group 2, 3/13 (23%) showed progression from functional to obstructive UPJ-O after endoscopic treatment. All of them underwent secondary pyeloplasty, which was complicated at follow-up by VUR recurrence needing further endoscopic injection.Conclusion: We suggest that UPJ-O in high-grade VUR patients is just a complication of severe VUR that produces structural changes in predisposed children. The treatment of children with associated high-grade VUR/UPJ-O may be complicated by the progression of urinary flow obstruction or VUR recurrence after pyeloplasty. Endoscopic treatment of high-grade VUR is associated with a high rate of VUR recurrence in children requiring subsequent pyeloplasty.Keywords: Children, Endoscopic Treatment, Ureteropelvic Junction Obstruction, Vesicoureteral Reflu

Prototipo de simulador de tráfico vehicular

Durante las últimas décadas se ha visto un notable crecimiento en las investigaciones dedicadas a solucionar distintos problemas de transporte. Dentro de estos problemas, el desarrollo de sistemas de control vehicular se ha convertido en uno de los más estudiados. Este aumento de interés en los problemas de tránsito se debe al creciente aumento de vehículos, lo cual produce serios problemas de congestión en centros urbanos, además de efectos nocivos cada vez más notorios. En la siguiente sección se describen los distintos modelos existentes para la representación del flujo vehicular. En la sección 3 se mencionan las modificaciones que se realizaron a dichos métodos sobre la base del modelo car-following para representar la dinámica de los vehículos. En la sección 4 se describe la manera de modelar la red de transporte. En la sección 5 se describe la representación gráfica implementada para visualizar el comportamiento del modelo de simulación. Finalmente, en la sección 6 se presentan las conclusiones y posibles trabajos futuros.Eje: Computación Gráfica, Visualización e ImágenesRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Prototipo de simulador de tráfico vehicular

Durante las últimas décadas se ha visto un notable crecimiento en las investigaciones dedicadas a solucionar distintos problemas de transporte. Dentro de estos problemas, el desarrollo de sistemas de control vehicular se ha convertido en uno de los más estudiados. Este aumento de interés en los problemas de tránsito se debe al creciente aumento de vehículos, lo cual produce serios problemas de congestión en centros urbanos, además de efectos nocivos cada vez más notorios. En la siguiente sección se describen los distintos modelos existentes para la representación del flujo vehicular. En la sección 3 se mencionan las modificaciones que se realizaron a dichos métodos sobre la base del modelo car-following para representar la dinámica de los vehículos. En la sección 4 se describe la manera de modelar la red de transporte. En la sección 5 se describe la representación gráfica implementada para visualizar el comportamiento del modelo de simulación. Finalmente, en la sección 6 se presentan las conclusiones y posibles trabajos futuros.Eje: Computación Gráfica, Visualización e ImágenesRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Un estimador de estados basado en el Common Information Model

En la actualidad existen un gran número de problemas aplicados al monitoreo, control y optimización de la utilización de los sistemas eléctricas de potencia considerando acciones a corto plazo. Para que los resultados de estos algoritmos sean válidos y ayuden a la correcta operación del sistema eléctrico, los mismos deben ser ejecutados con datos validados y los mismos corresponderse con el estado real de la red. En el presente trabajo se desarrolla un Estimador de Estados para cumplir este objetivo. El mismo está basado en el Common Information Model (CIM), el cual es un estándar para el modelado de datos aplicado por varias compañías del sector. La integración de ambos conceptos permite que las empresas compartan información, lo cual es muy ventajoso a la hora de estimar el estado de la red debido al alto grado de integración que presentan las empresas del sector eléctrico. La solución propuesta provee una librería que permite desarrollar algoritmos fácilmente. A su vez, se muestran resultados numéricos obtenidos de aplicar el sistema desarrollado a distintas redes de prueba definidas por la IEEE.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Sleeping Beauty: Anesthesia May Promote Relapse in Dogs With Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma in Complete Remission After Chemo-Immunotherapy

Surgery-induced stress and anesthesia-related immunosuppression are believed to play a critical role in human oncology patients. Studies have hypothesized that anesthesia influences patients' outcome, promoting tumor recurrence and metastasis. Aim of the study was to investigate whether anesthesia promoted relapse in dogs with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Medical records were searched for dogs with DLBCL, that were in complete remission (CR) after the same chemo-immunotherapy protocol. Dogs receiving anesthesia were included if the procedure was performed while in CR. Time to relapse (TTR) was obtained via Kaplan–Meier method. Association between anesthesia and relapse was assessed using a nested case-control design and estimated using conditional logistic regression. Sixty-one dogs with DLBCL were included. Overall median TTR was 329 days (95% CI, 281–377). Forty-eight (79%) dogs relapsed during the study period, while 13 (21%) were still in CR at data analysis closure. Eighteen (30%) dogs received anesthesia with opioids, propofol, and isoflurane or sevoflurane. The relative risk of lymphoma relapse for dogs undergoing anesthesia was significantly higher compared with dogs not undergoing anesthesia, with an odds ratio of 3.09 (P = 0.019) on multivariable analysis. Anesthesia may promote relapse in dogs with DLBCL treated with chemo-immunotherapy, although a role of perioperative stress cannot be ultimately excluded. Considering the high frequency of anesthetic procedures required for diagnostic and therapeutic protocols among oncology patients, it is of utmost interest to characterize the effects of single anesthetic agents on the immune system. Further prospective studies are needed to better define the impact of anesthesia on patients' outcome

Serum Oxytocin, Cortisol and Social Behavior in Calves: A Study in the Impossible Task Paradigm

In this study, we explored the correlations between circulating levels of oxytocin, cortisol, and different social behaviors toward humans in 26 Italian Red Pied calves (all females, with an average age of 174 ± 24 days) using the impossible task paradigm. This paradigm has proved fruitful in highlighting the effect of socialization on the willingness to interact with humans in several domesticated species. The test consists of the violation of an expectation (recovering food from an experimental apparatus) while a caregiver and a stranger are present. Immediately after the end of the test (less than one minute), blood was collected from the coccygeal vein. Statistics were performed by the Spearman’s rank correlation; significant differences were adjusted according to Bonferroni’s correction. Cortisol correlates positively (ρ = 0.565; p < 0.05) with the latency of behaviors directed at the caregiver, and the duration of behaviors directed at the apparatus correlates negatively with both the caregiver (ρ = −0.654; p < 0.05) and a stranger (ρ = −0.644; p < 0.05). Contrary to what is reported in the literature on cows, no correlations were found between oxytocin levels and direct behaviors toward the caregiver. This highlights a different behavioral strategy between calves and cows when placed in front of an impossible task

Fully Metal-Coated Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscopy Probes with Spiral Corrugations for Superfocusing under Arbitrarily Oriented Linearly Polarised Excitation

We study the effect of a spiral corrugation on the outer surface of a fully metal-coated scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) probe using the finite element method. The introduction of a novel form of asymmetry, devoid of any preferential spatial direction and covering the whole angular range of the originally axisymmetric tip, allows attaining strong field localization for a linearly polarised mode with arbitrary orientation. Compared to previously proposed asymmetric structures which require linearly polarised excitation properly oriented with respect to the asymmetry, such a configuration enables significant simplification in mode injection. In fact, not only is the need for the delicate procedure to generate radially polarised beams overcome, but also the relative alignment between the linearly polarised beam and the tip modification is no longer critical