Arbitrating Identity: Courts and the Politics of Religious-Liberal Reconciliation in the Middle East

The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Eva Bellin is associate professor of political science at City University of New York, Hunter College. She is a comparativist with specialization in the Middle East and North Africa. Her research interests center on issues of democratization and authoritarian persistence, political and economic reform, civil society, religion and politics, and the politics of cultural change. Bellin is the author of Stalled Democracy: Capital, Labor, and the Paradox of State Sponsored Development (Cornell University Press, 2002). She is currently working on a second book, Arbitrating Identity: High Courts and the Politics of Cultural Reconciliation in Egypt, Israel, and Pakistan, of which her presentation at the Mershon Center is based. In addition to publishing numerous edited books, Bellin has published in a variety of venues including World Politics, Comparative Politics, Political Science Quarterly, Comparative Political Studies, World Development, Foreign Affairs, Middle East Policy. She has served on the editorial board of the journal Comparative Politics since 2005. Bellin has been named a Carnegie Scholar (2006-2008) by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, supporting her research on high courts in the Middle East and Islamic World. She was also named a Fellow (2006-2007) at the Princeton Institute for Regional and International Studies, Democracy and Development Program. Bellin has conducted field work in Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, and Pakistan. She holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University and a B.A. from Harvard University.The Ohio State University. Honors and ScholarsThe Ohio State University. Department of Political ScienceThe Ohio State University. Middle East Studies CenterOhio State University. Mershon Center for International Security StudiesEvent Web page, event photo

Cytosolic CTP Production Limits the Establishment of Photosynthesis in Arabidopsis

CTP synthases (CTPS) comprise a protein family of the five members CTPS1-CTPS5 in Arabidopsis, all located in the cytosol. Specifically, downregulation of CTPS2 by amiRNA technology results in plants with defects in chlorophyll accumulation and photosynthetic performance early in development. CTP and its deoxy form dCTP are present at low levels in developing seedlings. Thus, under conditions of fast proliferation, the synthesis of CTP (dCTP) can become a limiting factor for RNA and DNA synthesis. The higher sensitivity of ami-CTPS2 lines toward the DNA-Gyrase inhibitor ciprofloxacin, together with reduced plastid DNA copy number and 16S and 23S chloroplast ribosomal RNA support this view. High expression and proposed beneficial biochemical features render CTPS2 the most important isoform for early seedling development. In addition, CTPS2 was identified as an essential enzyme in embryo development before, as knock-out mutants were embryo lethal. In line with this, ami-CTPS2 lines also exhibited reduced seed numbers per plant

Comment on Benjamin Smith (2004): 'Oil Wealth and Regime Survival in the Developing World, 1960-1999'

In “Oil Wealth and Regime Survival in the Developing World, 1960-1999“ Benjamin Smith examines the effects of oil wealth, as well as of sudden changes in oil prices, on regime failure, political protest and civil war. He finds that oil wealth is robustly associated with more durable regimes, and significantly related to lower levels of anti-state protest and civil war. In this comment, I discuss Smith's empirical approach - especially his treatment of possible reverse causality between conflict and economic performance, his use of the Polity democracy index, and his choice of the resource dependence variable - and provide suggestions for improvement