Votes and Vetoes: The Political Determinants of Commercial Openness

Societal theories of trade policy stress the importance of domestic interest groups, whereas statist theories focus on the effects of domestic institutions. Debates over the relative merits of these approaches have been fierce, but little systematic empirical research has been brought to bear on the relative merits of these theories. In this paper, we argue that, while societal and statist factors are generally regarded as having independent and competing effects, it is more fruitful to view the influence of each type of factor as conditional on the other. As societal explanations contend, deteriorating macroeconomic conditions are a potent source of protectionist pressures. The extent to which such conditions reduce commercial openness, however, depends centrally on the domestic institutions through which societal pressures must filter to influence policy. Two institutional features stand out. First, in states marked by greater fragmentation and more “veto points,” it is harder to change existing policies because any number of actors can block such change. Consequently, we expect the effects of macroeconomic conditions on trade policy to be weaker in fragmented states than in those characterized by a highly centralized national government. Second, we expect both fragmentation and the societal pressures stemming from the economy to have a more potent impact on trade policy in democracies than in other regimes, since the electoral constraints facing democratic leaders force them to respond to demands made by key segments of society. The results of our statistical tests covering more than one hundred countries during the period from 1980 to 2000 strongly support these arguments.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40098/3/wp712.pd

Boundary fermion currents and subleading order chiral anomaly in the AdS/CFT correspondence

We construct a wave-functional whose argument couples to boundary fermion currents in the AdS/CFT correspondence. Using this we calculate the contributions from bulk fermions to the chiral anomaly that give the subleading order term in the exact $N$-dependence of the chiral anomaly of ${\cal N}=4$ SYM. The result agrees with the calculation of Bilal & Chu.Comment: 6 page

Votes and Vetoes: The Political Determinants of Commercial Openness

Societal theories of trade policy stress the importance of domestic interest groups, whereas statist theories focus on the effects of domestic institutions. Debates over the relative merits of these approaches have been fierce, but little systematic empirical research has been brought to bear on the relative merits of these theories. In this paper, we argue that, while societal and statist factors are generally regarded as having independent and competing effects, it is more fruitful to view the influence of each type of factor as conditional on the other. As societal explanations contend, deteriorating macroeconomic conditions are a potent source of protectionist pressures. The extent to which such conditions reduce commercial openness, however, depends centrally on the domestic institutions through which societal pressures must filter to influence policy. Two institutional features stand out. First, in states marked by greater fragmentation and more “veto points,” it is harder to change existing policies because any number of actors can block such change. Consequently, we expect the effects of macroeconomic conditions on trade policy to be weaker in fragmented states than in those characterized by a highly centralized national government. Second, we expect both fragmentation and the societal pressures stemming from the economy to have a more potent impact on trade policy in democracies than in other regimes, since the electoral constraints facing democratic leaders force them to respond to demands made by key segments of society. The results of our statistical tests covering more than one hundred countries during the period from 1980 to 2000 strongly support these arguments.Protectionism, openness, veto players, veto points, positive political theory, unemployment, trade

On including quality in applied automatic gait recognition

Many gait recognition approaches use silhouette data. Imperfections in silhouette extraction have a negative effect on the performance of a gait recognition system. In this paper we extend quality metrics for gait recognition and evaluate new ways of using quality to improve a recognition system. We demonstrate use of quality to improve silhouette data and select gait cycles of best quality. The potential of the new approaches has been demonstrated experimentally on a challenging dataset, showing how recognition capability can be dramatically improved. Our practical study also shows that acquiring samples of adequate quality in arbitrary environments is difficult and that including quality analysis can improve performance markedly

Topological Twistons in Crystalline Polyethylene

We introduce an alternate model to describe twistons in crystalline polyethylene. The model couples torsional and longitudinal degrees of freedom and appears as an extension of a model that describes only the torsional motion. We find exact solutions that describe stable topological twistons, in good agreement with the torsional and longitudinal interactions in polyethylene.Comment: Latex, 10 pages; some stylistic corrections, to appear in Chemical Physics Letter

The Evaluation of Encapsulated \u3ci\u3eMegasphaera elsdenii\u3c/i\u3e in an Accelerated Beef Step-Up Program and an Acidosis Challenge Model and the Evaluation of RAMP Versus a Traditional Forage Grain Adaptation Strategy on Methane and Respired Carbon Dioxide

A metabolism experiment (Exp 1) was conducted to evaluate daily feeding of encapsulated Megasphaera elsdenii (M. elsdenii) NCIMB 41125 along with a one-time drench of 1×1011 CFU of M. elsdenii on dry matter intake (DMI), in-vitro lactate utilization, volatile fatty acid (VFA), and lactate concentration. Treatments consisted of steers which were fed no M. elsdenii (CONTROL), steers drenched with the commercial dose 1×1011 CFU of M. elsdenii (LactiproNXT) on d 1 of the experiment and received no other M. elsdenii (DRENCH), and steers drenched with a commercial dose of LactiproNXT on d 1 of the experiment and received 1×106 CFU of encapsulated M. elsdenii daily as a top dress (LOW), 1×107 CFU of encapsulated M. elsdenii daily as a top dress (MEDIUM), and 1×108 CFU of encapsulated M. elsdenii daily as a top dress (HIGH). CONTROL was stepped-up to a finisher diet in 18 d and DRENCH, LOW, MEDIUM, and HIGH were stepped-up in 9 d. During the step-up, there were no differences in DMI; however, cattle fed M. elsdenii had increased butyrate by 3% compared to CONTROL. After an acidosis event, DMI increased by 4.6% for LOW, MEDIUM, and HIGH steers compared to DRENCH. Steers fed M. elsdenii daily tended to have a 30% greater utilization of lactate compared to CONTROL. After an acidosis event, cattle fed M. elsdenii daily had a 10% increase in VFA concentration compared to DRENCH. An accelerated step-up was possible with DRENCH and daily feeding of M. elsdenii. A drench and daily feeding of M. elsdenii may have a positive effect during and after an acidosis event. A finishing experiment (Exp 2) was conducted to evaluate RAMP compared with a traditional forage adaptation program on methane (CH4) emissions and respired carbon dioxide (CO2), performance, and carcass characteristics of beef cattle. Steers were utilized in 2 adaptation treatments, using 100% RAMP or 43% forage during step 1. All cattle were adapted to the same finishing diet over 22 d. Feeding RAMP during step 1 resulted in 12% decrease in CH4, in g/d and a 18% lower CH4:CO2. Steers fed RAMP during step 1 had an 8% increase in CO2 g/d due to greater digestibility compared to traditional forage diet. Steers fed RAMP spent 45% less time ruminating and eating compared to CONTROL during step 1. For emissions while on the common finishing diet, steers that had been adapted using RAMP had a 9% lower CH4, in g/d, 8% lower in CH4 g/kg DMI, and a lower CH4:CO2 suggesting a carryover effect from adaptation. Steers adapted with RAMP tended to have a greater HCW. Feeding RAMP to cattle during the grain adaptation phase resulted in a 12% decrease in CH4, which carried over to 9% less CH4 during the finishing phase. Advisors: James C. MacDonald and Galen E. Erickso

Transgender Focused Clothing Drive

Description of the clothing drive held in honor of the Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st, 2022. This drive was held to provide the transgender and non-binary community around ECU a chance to obtain clothes for free to help better align with their preferred style of presentation. As it finished, the drive came to a successful end, and hopefully will be continued in the future

Building Hope: A Community + Water Initiative, La Villa de San Francisco, Honduras

It is my contention that through activating participatory design and community engagement strategies, in conjunction with innovative construction methods that address issues of resource scarcity, the standard of living and level of accessibility to critical resources in impoverished portions of Honduras can be drastically improved. The newly provided model of construction can be done it such a way that it is cost effective in its building method, and provides highly sought after scarce critical resources. This allows participants to allocate more of their finances towards other necessary resources they normally would not be able to acquire. A new community center designed to address the issues of resource scarcity and job opportunities will stand as a first built model with the intent that the methods of construction and innovations employed will be replicated in further applications. The center will be innovative in its construction in such a way that it recognizes local building practices, and brings some new ideas to them allowing for a method of construction that is both improved and more affordable. The center will also take a fresh look at ways the community can address issues of food and water through architectural innovations. The intent is that the success of the center’s combined interventions will encourage local people to replicate the design ideas in their own residential applications. This will improve the quantity of resources available in the community and also start to build a new job market for installing the newly desirable systems. Resource scarcity has wreaked havoc on the typical Honduran villages’ sense of community. Hondurans are in constant competition with their neighbors for scarce critical resources required to sustain life. These resources include, food, water, shelter, and employment opportunities. Violent conflict often arises within communities as individuals compete with their neighbors for the basic necessities required to sustain life. While architecture alone cannot solve all the issues that contribute to the problem of violence, a new center with a program that builds community and provides needed resources stands to potentially curb neighborhood conflict and begin the community healing process. The center stands as not only a replicable model, but also as an immediate community element to bring neighbors back together physically in daily interactions and emotionally in the new resources being provided

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThe different negative events that people experience may threaten distinct forms of adaptive functioning. A growing literature on the narrative study of self and well-being suggests that one way people may resolve adaptive functioning threats is through narrative meaning-making. However, past research shows that meaning-making is not always linked to salutary effects. Meaning-making may be most likely to restore adaptive functioning when people's narratives address specific threats associated with specific types of negative event. However, we know little about the types of threats that may be tied to different negative events. The current studies used an online, experimental, repeated measures design to test which types of adaptive functioning threats are linked to what types of negative events. Understanding whether particular adaptive functioning threats are tied to specific negative events may provide a framework for theorizing about the most beneficial types of meanings to be made when narrating specific negative events. Participants spent 2 minutes recalling four negative events: actor/competence, target/competence, actor/relatedness, target/relatedness (event order was randomized). Afterwards, each participant responded to a battery of adaptive functioning measures. Study 1 examined these topics in an undergraduate student sample. Study 2 examined these topics using a community sample of MTurk workers who ranged from 20 to 69 years of age. In addition to testing the extent to which different types of threats arise in different types of events, we also tested the extent to which individual differences mitigated threat-level perceived. In Study 1, we examined the impact of psychological well-being and emotional stability on levels of threat. In Study 2, we also examined age as an individual difference. Different negative events led to distinct adaptive functioning threats when individual differences were not accounted for. However, the majority of the variance in levels of perceived threat was explained by individual differences in well-being, emotional stability, and age. Overall, this pattern of findings suggests the importance of idiographic methods for understanding how people perceive negative events. Furthermore, the pattern suggests that beneficial meaning-making is likely a person-specific, as opposed to event-specific, process