Does free trade result in higher GDP per capita: An International Perspective

 The theory of comparative advantage suggests that free trade increases overall world production of goods and services and it is a positive sum game in which all participating countries realise economic gains. The evaluation of data from a number of countries in this study demonstrates a strong correlation between a country’s level of trade freedom (according to its Trade Freedom Index) and its GDP per capita. There are exceptions to this trend in countries that have experienced social or political unrest. This is consistent with research into the relationship between economic freedom and GDP growth which suggest that levels of economic freedom (of which trade freedom is a component) in a country impact upon growth subject to social, economic or political climate in these countrie

Footing the bill : evaluating local government funding mechanisms for sidewalk infrastructure in Austin, Texas

The City of Austin is missing almost half of its sidewalk network and 80% of existing sidewalks are in poor condition. Expanding the city’s sidewalk network has repeatedly been recognized as an important component of Austin’s larger mobility goals, but how the city will fund this effort is unclear. The city’s Sidewalk Master Plan estimates that building out and repairing the entire network will take almost 200 years at current funding levels. Austin’s sidewalk investments are primarily being funded by bond money, but is depending solely on bond funding for sidewalk infrastructure advisable? Bonds are a form of borrowing not a revenue generating mechanism. Having a revenue generating mechanism dedicated to active transportation investments can help achieve multimodal transportation goals sooner. However, local governments are often constrained in their ability to implement such mechanisms due to state authorization laws. Given that sidewalks are primarily a local responsibility, the inability to generate revenue at the local level for transportation projects can severely hamper walkability goals. This report highlights examples of local governments that are using revenue generating mechanisms to fund pedestrian infrastructure and evaluates the potential implementation of such mechanisms in Austin, TX. Using a qualitative case study design, this study investigates the different approaches used in the following locations: Ithaca, NY; Fort Wayne, IN; Seattle, WA; and San Antonio, TX. Funding mechanisms used in these case study cities include special assessment districts, local income taxes, property tax assessments, and sales taxes. The report finds that each city has had varying degrees of success with their funding mechanism, with three of the four case study cities generating more sidewalk funding per capita than bond funding alone in Austin, TX. Of the different mechanisms evaluated, dedicated property tax assessments and special assessment districts are the best options for addressing Austin’s sidewalk needs. However, state preemption laws in Texas make implementing these mechanisms difficult. Examples of best practices highlighted in this report should be used by local officials to lobby for more autonomy when it comes to funding local transportation needs.Community and Regional Plannin

Dynamics of Constitutionalism Between Democracy and Authoritarianism as a Complex Adaptive System

International democratization of authoritarian states has created a complex political dynamic pitting the goal of democratic diffusion against the objective of maintaining dictatorial power. By enacting legal reforms while episodically upholding rights or freedoms, amid repression, semi-authoritarian regimes generate diverse political grievances for obtaining constitutional rights and observations of those rights. Semi-authoritarian regimes have developed new tactics of manipulation of information exchange to address these grievances. This dissertation argues that to model semi-authoritarian constitutionalism, scholars must tackle complex multi-level interactions of aggrieved sub-national and state actors under influences of democratization. This dissertation develops a theory, and testable hypotheses, of semi-authoritarian resilience modeled as a complex adaptive system of systems (CASoS). This approach emphasizes concepts such as initial conditions, system structure, information exchange, and emergent phenomena. Using the logic of abduction, through iteration between theory and empirical evidence, a parsimonious explanation is inferred with policy implications for reexamining how democracy is fostered across borders on multiple levels. A multi-level, multi-dimensional representation of interactions across the systems demonstrates a non-monotonic relationship between mobilization, grievance, and repression over time in which a convergence of preferences for more immediate, partial democratic reforms lowers mobilization under semi-authoritarianism, but incentivizes some groups to mobilize outside the existing constitutional system. This dissertation’s pragmatic, multi-method research design explores implications of the developed model over time in the Ottoman Empire and Republic of Turkey, from 1876 to present, and also spatially in contemporary Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis, a theory of a constitutional semi-authoritarian dynamic of cycles through phases of repression, reform, and rights over time is developed as an emergent phenomenon of the CASoS. Citizens’ discourse over constitutional reform in public communication processes in Turkey is analyzed using Structural Topic Modeling to understand stealth authoritarian resilience through information exchange and control. Finally, the evolution of Kurdish groups making constitutional claims for self-determination and their cooperation across borders in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, under various influences of democratization, is analyzed as an inter-organizational network, demonstrating the adaptive mechanisms that can deepen sub-national grievances, prolonging conflict, but enhancing the resilience of constitutional semi-authoritarianism

Factors Associated with Sustained Exergaming: Longitudinal Investigation.

International audienceBACKGROUND: Exergaming is technology-driven physical activity (PA) which, unlike traditional video game play, requires that participants be physically active to play the game. Exergaming may have potential to increase PA and decrease sedentary behavior in youth, but little is known about sustained exergaming.OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were to describe the frequency, correlates, and predictors of sustained exergaming.METHODS: Data were available in AdoQuest (2005-11), a longitudinal investigation of 1843 grade 5 students in Montréal, Canada. This analysis used data from grade 9 (2008-09) and 11 (2010-11). Participants at Time 1 (T1; mean age 14 years, SD 0.8 ) who reported past-week exergaming (n=186, 19.1% of AdoQuest sample) completed mailed self-report questionnaires at Time 2 (T2; mean age 16 years, SD 0.8). Independent sociodemographic, psychological, and behavioral correlates (from T2)/predictors (from T1 or earlier) were identified using multivariable logistic regression.RESULTS: Of 186 exergamers at T1, 81 (44%) reported exergaming at T2. Being female and having higher introjected regulation (ie, a type of PA motivation indicative of internalizing PA as a behavior) were independent correlates. None of the predictors investigated were associated with sustained exergaming.CONCLUSIONS: Almost half of grade 9 exergamers sustained exergaming for 2 years. Exergaming may be a viable approach to help adolescents engage in and sustain PA during adolescence. Sex and PA motivation may be important in the sustainability of exergaming

Hawkes binomial topic model with applications to coupled conflict-Twitter data

We consider the problem of modeling and clustering heterogeneous event data arising from coupled conflict event and social media data sets. In this setting conflict events trigger responses on social media, and, at the same time, signals of grievance detected in social media may serve as leading indicators for subsequent conflict events. For this purpose we introduce the Hawkes Binomial Topic Model (HBTM) where marks, Tweets and conflict event descriptions are represented as bags of words following a Binomial distribution. When viewed as a branching process, the daughter event bag of words is generated by randomly turning on/off parent words through independent Bernoulli random variables. We then use expectation–maximization to estimate the model parameters and branching structure of the process. The inferred branching structure is then used for topic cascade detection, short-term forecasting, and investigating the causal dependence of grievance on social media and conflict events in recent elections in Nigeria and Kenya

Is learning being supported when information is provided to informal carers during inpatient stroke rehabilitation? A qualitative study

Purpose: To explore how health professionals provide information to informal carers during inpatient stroke rehabilitation and whether these practices align with adult learning principles. Methods: Informal carers and survivors of stroke who had completed inpatient rehabilitation, and health professionals working in inpatient stroke rehabilitation were interviewed. Directed qualitative content analysis was conducted using an adult learning model, to determine how closely reported practices aligned to adult learning principles. Results: 14 carers, 6 survivors of stroke and 17 health professionals participated. Carers (79% female, 57% spouse/partner) reported having incomplete knowledge during rehabilitation, lacking information about mechanisms of stroke recovery, rehabilitation processes, long-term effects of stroke, and navigating post-discharge services. Health professionals supported carers to address their learning needs related to safety of caring for stroke survivors. Carers indicated they were responsible for their own non-safety related learning. Health professionals tended not to check carers’ understanding of information provided nor offer learning opportunities beyond written or verbal information. Conclusions: Health professionals consistently provide certain information to carers during inpatient rehabilitation, but adult learning principles are not routinely applied when information is provided. Fostering adult learning among informal carers may improve preparedness of carers to support stroke survivors after discharge from inpatient rehabilitation. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Red Nuggets at z~1.5: Compact passive galaxies and the formation of the Kormendy Relation

We present the results of NICMOS imaging of a sample of 16 high mass passively evolving galaxies with 1.3<z<2, taken primarily from the Gemini Deep Deep Survey. Around 80% of galaxies in our sample have spectra dominated by stars with ages >1 Gyr. Our rest-frame R-band images show that most of these objects have compact regular morphologies which follow the classical R^1/4 law. These galaxies scatter along a tight sequence in the Kormendy relation. Around one-third of the massive red objects are extraordinarily compact, with effective radii under one kiloparsec. Our NICMOS observations allow the detection of such systems more robustly than is possible with optical (rest-frame UV) data, and while similar systems have been seen at z>2, this is the first time such systems have been detected in a rest-frame optical survey at 1.3<z<2. We refer to these compact galaxies as "red nuggets". Similarly compact massive galaxies are completely absent in the nearby Universe. We introduce a new "stellar mass Kormendy relation" (stellar mass density vs size) which isolates the effects of size evolution from those of luminosity and color evolution. The 1.1 < z < 2 passive galaxies have mass densities that are an order of magnitude larger then early type galaxies today and are comparable to the compact distant red galaxies at 2 < z < 3. We briefly consider mechanisms for size evolution in contemporary models focusing on equal-mass mergers and adiabatic expansion driven by stellar mass loss. Neither of these mechanisms appears able to transform the high-redshift Kormendy relation into its local counterpart. Comment: Accepted version (to appear in ApJ

Attention bias to emotional faces varies by IQ and anxiety in Williams syndrome

Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) often experience significant anxiety. A promising approach to anxiety intervention has emerged from cognitive studies of attention bias to threat. To investigate the utility of this intervention in WS, this study examined attention bias to happy and angry faces in individuals with WS (N=46). Results showed a significant difference in attention bias patterns as a function of IQ and anxiety. Individuals with higher IQ or higher anxiety showed a significant bias toward angry, but not happy faces, whereas individuals with lower IQ or lower anxiety showed the opposite pattern. These results suggest that attention bias interventions to modify a threat bias may be most effectively targeted to anxious individuals with WS with relatively high IQ