Regional elections in Russia:instruments of authoritarian legitimacy or instability?

This study examines three rounds of regional assembly and gubernatorial elections in Russia which took place in September 2015, 2016 and 2017. In particular, it examines the ways in which the regime has manipulated the elections to guarantee the victory of United Russia. The study shows that the Kremlin has adopted a new electoral strategy. Rather than engaging in the risky business of outright fraud during the vote count, which was an important factor in sparking mass protests against the regime, in the wake of the 2011 elections to the State Duma, the authorities have decided to concentrate their efforts on preventing opposition parties and candidates from registering for the elections. Whilst other forms of electoral malpractice have continued to be practiced, such as coercing or bribing voters to turn out and vote for United Russia, promoting “carousel voting” (multiple voting by groups of mobilised citizens), or ballot stuffing, much more focus has been paid in these elections on manipulating the registration process in favour of United Russia. As is clearly demonstrated, scores of opposition candidates and party lists, have been prevented from competing because of problems with their registration documents. However, whilst this strategy has helped United Russia win large majorities in all of the gubernatorial and assembly elections, it has also created lacklustre and predictable contests, and this in turn has led to a sharp decline in turnout, particularly in the gubernatorial elections. There is a real danger that these low levels of turnout may gradually erode the legitimacy of United Russia, embolden the opposition, and threaten the stability of the regim

Federalism and democratisation in Russia

The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe has encouraged political scientists to re-examine the comparative literature on democratisation. A vast literature has now been produced comparing transitions from authoritarianism and democratisation in different parts of the world. However, there are two major omissions in the transition literature. First, the focus of research has primarily been on national level politics, and second, the relationship between federalism and democracy has largely been overlooked. This study seeks to redress this imbalance by moving the focus of research from the national level to the vitally important processes of institution building and democratisation at the local level and to the study of federalism and democratisation in Russia. Federal states are much more difficult to set up than unitary ones, and forging a new federal system at the same time as privatising the economy and trying to radically overhaul the political system has clearly made Russia's transition triply difficult. This book builds on Cameron Ross' earlier work, 'Regional Politics in Russia', by combining theoretical perspectives with empirical work to provide a comparative analysis of the electoral systems, party systems and governmental systems in the ethnic republics and regions and to assess the impact of theses different institutional arrangements on democratisation and federalism. Overall, this study argues that Russia's weak and asymmetrical form of federalism has played a major role in thwarting the consolidation of democracy. Federalism and democratisation in Russia exist in contradiction rather than harmony. In a vicious circle authoritarianism at the centre has been nourished by authoritarianism in the regions and vice versa. 'Elective dictatorships' and 'delegative democracies' are now well entrenched in many republics and authoritarian regimes are firmly established in a majority of the regions. This book will be vital reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of Russian politics and democratisation

Federalism and democratisation in Russia

The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe has encouraged political scientists to re-examine the comparative literature on democratisation. A vast literature has now been produced comparing transitions from authoritarianism and democratisation in different parts of the world. However, there are two major omissions in the transition literature. First, the focus of research has primarily been on national level politics, and second, the relationship between federalism and democracy has largely been overlooked. This study seeks to redress this imbalance by moving the focus of research from the national level to the vitally important processes of institution building and democratisation at the local level and to the study of federalism and democratisation in Russia. Federal states are much more difficult to set up than unitary ones, and forging a new federal system at the same time as privatising the economy and trying to radically overhaul the political system has clearly made Russia's transition triply difficult. This book builds on Cameron Ross' earlier work, 'Regional Politics in Russia', by combining theoretical perspectives with empirical work to provide a comparative analysis of the electoral systems, party systems and governmental systems in the ethnic republics and regions and to assess the impact of theses different institutional arrangements on democratisation and federalism. Overall, this study argues that Russia's weak and asymmetrical form of federalism has played a major role in thwarting the consolidation of democracy. Federalism and democratisation in Russia exist in contradiction rather than harmony. In a vicious circle authoritarianism at the centre has been nourished by authoritarianism in the regions and vice versa. 'Elective dictatorships' and 'delegative democracies' are now well entrenched in many republics and authoritarian regimes are firmly established in a majority of the regions. This book will be vital reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of Russian politics and democratisation

Distribution, habitat preferences and population sizes of two threatened tree ferns, Cyathea cunninghamii and Cyathea x marcescens, in south-eastern Australia

The distribution, population sizes and habitat preferences of the rare tree ferns Cyathea cunninghamii Hook.f. (Slender Tree Fern) and F1 hybrid Cyathea x marcescens N.A.Wakef. (Skirted Tree Fern) in south-eastern Australia are described, together with the extension of the known distribution range of Cyathea cunninghamii from eastern Victoria into south-eastern New South Wales. Floristic and ecological data, encompassing most of the known habitat types, vegetation associations and population sizes, were collected across 120 locations. Additional information was sought from literature reviews, herbarium collections and field surveys of extant populations. Cyathea cunninghamii is widespread, with the majority of populations occurring in Tasmania and Victoria, one population in south-eastern NSW and a disjunct population in south-eastern Queensland; Cyathea x marcescens is confined to south and eastern Victoria and south and north eastern Tasmania. Both taxa occur on King Island in Bass Strait. Both taxa have a near coastal distribution with most populations occurring in sub-coastal hinterland and escarpment forests with a median altitude of 288 m. Hierarchical cluster analysis of floristic data across the species’ geographic range identified six vegetation communities ranging from rainforest to damp sclerophyll forest. Their micro-habitat preferences were consistently identified as steeply incised gullies of minor headwater streams of coastal and sub-coastal ranges with a plentiful moisture regime and geomorphic protection from extreme stream flow events, flooding and bank scouring. Sporophyte recruitment was associated with exposed soil of stream banks and edges of constructed walking tracks. Population sizes of both taxa are small with the majority of populations consisting of less than five adult individuals, with total populations of Cyathea cunninghamii and Cyathea x marcescens estimated at 919 and 221 mature individuals respectively. Population extinctions in Victoria and Tasmania have primarily been associated with outlier populations in regions subject to agricultural land clearance, habitat modification and changes to fire regimes in crown forests. Nonanthropogenic mortality was associated with land slips, tree falls and stream bank scouring by flood water. Conservation of the hybrid Cyathea x marcescens necessitates the preservation of habitats where both Cyathea cunninghamii and Cyathea australis occur in close proximity to substrates suitable for spore germination. In future, molecular techniques may prove useful for field identification of juvenile stages, facilitating selection of progeny of Cyathea cunninghamii and Cyathea x marcescens for cultivation and re-introduction to sites of previous or possible future extinctions

Transcriptional regulatory networks in the mouse hippocampus

Magister Scientiae - MScNeurological diseases are socially disabling and often mortal. To efficiently combat these diseases, a deep understanding of involved cellular processes, gene functions and anatomy is required. However, differential regulation of genes across anatomy is not sufficiently well understood. This study utilized large-scale gene expression data to define the regulatory networks of genes expressing in the hippocampus to which multiple disease pathologies may be associated. Specific aims were: ident i fy key regulatory transcription factors (TFs) responsible for observed gene expression patterns, reconstruct transcription regulatory networks, and prioritize likely TFs responsible for anatomically restricted gene expression. Most of the analysis was restricted to the CA3 sub-region of Ammon’s horn within the hippocampus. We identified 155 core genes expressing throughout the CA3 sub-region and predicted corresponding TF binding site (TFBS) distributions. Our analysis shows plausible transcription regulatory networks for twelve clusters of co-expressed genes. We demonstrate the validity of the predictions by re-clustering genes based on TFBS distributions and found that genes tend to be correctly assigned to groups of previously identified co-expressing genes with sensitivity of 67.74% and positive predictive value of 100%. Taken together, this study represents one of the first to merge anatomical architecture, expression profiles and transcription regulatory potential on such a large scale in hippocampal sub-anatomy.South Afric

Recent STAR results on W production and asymmetry in polarized p→+p→ collisions at √r = 500 GeV

The production of W± bosons in longitudinally polarized proton + proton collisions at RHIC is a unique way to study the flavor-dependent spin structure of the proton, since at leading order it couples directly and exclusively to specific quark flavor pairings: u + [bar over d] → W[superscript +] and [bar over u] + d → W[superscript -]. Measurement of the longitudinal single-spin asymmetry of the electron decay daughters in W production is sensitive to the polarizations of the quarks involved. Results from the first proton-proton collisions at √r = 500 GeV in 2009 are presented, along with a discussion of the forward-rapidity tracking upgrade

Non-singular representations of the gravitational potential

textPines’ and Gottlieb’s Formulations for the gravitational potential provides expressions for the gravitational potential, U, and its derivatives in a co-ordinate system that produces non-singular values. This report summarizes the origin of the singularities due to the spherical co-ordinate system and a discussion of the methods by which the singularity produced by the conventional representation of the gravitational potential is removed by the implementations described in this report.Aerospace Engineerin

Appraisal Strategies for Machine-Readable Case Files

The increasing use of computers in both administrative record keeping and in social science research challenges archivists to reevaluate previous appraisals of many types of records. The creation of computerized data bases which contain information from legal, criminal, medical, welfare, and other investigatory, regulatory, client, and personnel files has brought case files into this group of records which must be reappraised. Although they may include the same subject matter as textual case files, machine-readable case files may be appraised differently because of the media on which they are recorded and the amount of information they contain. This new media greatly reduces some of the problems in preserving and using textual case files--for example, large volume, slow and tedious access, and protection of privacy