77 research outputs found
Models of Party Democracy : Patterns of Party Regulation in Post-War European Constitutions
This article investigates the ways in which political parties are codified in modern democratic constitutions, providing a unique cross-sectional and longitudinal overview of the patterns of party constitutionalization in post-war Europe. Although the constitutions of western liberal democracies traditionally have paid little attention to the role of parties, evidence suggests that in contemporary democracies, both old and new, they are increasingly accorded a formal constitutional status. Little is known, however, about the substantive content of their constitutional position or about the normative connotations of their constitutional codification. In this article, we demonstrate that there is a clear correlation between the nature and the intensity of party constitutionalization and the newness and historical experience of democracy and that, with time, the constitutional regulation of the extra-parliamentary organization and the partiesâ rights and duties has gained in importance at the expense of their parliamentary and electoral roles. The analysis furthermore suggests that three distinct models of party constitutionalization can be identified â Defending Democracy, Parties in Public Office, and Parties as Public Utilities â each of which is related to a particular conception of party democracy
ANYCaRE: a role-playing game to investigate crisis decision-making and communication challenges in weather-related hazards
This study proposes a role-playing experiment to explore the value of modern
impact-based weather forecasts on the decision-making process to (i)Â issue
warnings and manage the official emergency response under uncertainty and
(ii)Â communicate and trigger protective action at different levels of the
warning system across Europe. Here, flood or strong-wind game simulations
seek to represent the players' realistic uncertainties and dilemmas
embedded in the real-time forecasting-warning processes. The game was first
tested in two scientific workshops in Finland and France, where European
researchers, developers, forecasters and civil protection representatives
played the simulations. Two other game sessions were organized afterwards
(i)Â with undergraduate university students in France and (ii)Â with Finnish
stakeholders involved in the management of hazardous weather emergencies.
First results indicate that multi-model developments and crowdsourcing tools
increase the level of confidence in the decision-making under pressure. We
found that the role-playing approach facilitates interdisciplinary
cooperation and argumentation on emergency response in a fun and interactive
manner. The ANYCaRE experiment was proposed, therefore, as a valuable learning
tool to enhance participants' understanding of the complexities and
challenges met by various actors in weather-related emergency management.</p
NMDAR inhibition-independent antidepressant actions of ketamine metabolites
Major depressive disorder afflicts ~16 percent of the world population at some point in their lives. Despite a number of available monoaminergic-based antidepressants, most patients require many weeks, if not months, to respond to these treatments, and many patients never attain sustained remission of their symptoms. The non-competitive glutamatergic N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist, (R,S)-ketamine (ketamine), exerts rapid and sustained antidepressant effects following a single dose in depressed patients. Here we show that the metabolism of ketamine to (2S,6S;2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine (HNK) is essential for its antidepressant effects, and that the (2R,6R)-HNK enantiomer exerts behavioural, electroencephalographic, electrophysiological and cellular antidepressant actions in vivo. Notably, we demonstrate that these antidepressant actions are NMDAR inhibition-independent but they involve early and sustained α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid (AMPA) receptor activation. We also establish that (2R,6R)-HNK lacks ketamine-related side-effects. Our results indicate a novel mechanism underlying ketamineâs unique antidepressant properties, which involves the required activity of a distinct metabolite and is independent of NMDAR inhibition. These findings have relevance for the development of next generation, rapid-acting antidepressants
Comprendre les comportements face Ă un risque modĂ©rĂ© dâinondation. Etude de cas dans le pĂ©riurbain toulousain (Sud-Ouest de la France)
Les espaces urbanisĂ©s soumis Ă des risques modĂ©rĂ©s dâinondation pour les vies humaines sont souvent peu considĂ©rĂ©s dans les Ă©tudes sur la vulnĂ©rabilitĂ© aux risques naturels en dĂ©pit des enjeux quâils reprĂ©sentent en termes de gestion de crise. Comment les riverains y font-ils face au danger et quelles sont leurs « bonnes raisons » dâagir? A partir de lâĂ©tude socio-gĂ©ographique de deux inondations rĂ©centes (2000 et 2003) dans la pĂ©riphĂ©rie toulousaine (Sud-Ouest de la France), nous montrons que les caractĂ©ristiques de lâalĂ©a dans les vallĂ©es Ă©tudiĂ©es influencent les reprĂ©sentations du risque et par consĂ©quent les motivations Ă se protĂ©ger. Face au risque majeur, la vulnĂ©rabilitĂ© sociale se trouve ainsi augmentĂ©e. Pour amĂ©liorer la rĂ©silience des populations, il convient dâadapter la communication sur les risques: personnaliser lâinformation, amĂ©liorer la comprĂ©hension de lâĂ©vĂ©nement vĂ©cu et mobiliser de nouvelles formes de mĂ©diation entre gestionnaires et riverains
Is Scotland a Westminster-style Majoritarian Democracy or a Scandinavian-style Consensus Democracy? A Comparison of Scotland, the UK and Sweden
Peer reviewedPostprin
A multi-component flood risk assessment in the Maresme coast (NW Mediterranean)
Coastal regions are the areas most threatened by natural hazards, with floods being the most frequent and significant threat in terms of their induced impacts, and therefore, any management scheme requires their evaluation. In coastal areas, flooding is a hazard associated with various processes acting at different scales: coastal storms, flash floods, and sea level rise (SLR). In order to address the problem as a whole, this study presents a methodology to undertake a preliminary integrated risk assessment that determines the magnitude of the different flood processes (flash flood, marine storm, SLR) and their associated consequences, taking into account their temporal and spatial scales. The risk is quantified using specific indicators to assess the magnitude of the hazard (for each component) and the consequences in a common scale. This allows for a robust comparison of the spatial risk distribution along the coast in order to identify both the areas at greatest risk and the risk components that have the greatest impact. This methodology is applied on the Maresme coast (NW Mediterranean, Spain), which can be considered representative of developed areas of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. The results obtained characterise this coastline as an area of relatively low overall risk, although some hot spots have been identified with high-risk values, with flash flooding being the principal risk process
Les crues rapides : problÚme d'échelles et de société
International audienc
Conduite Ă contre-courant et crues rapides, le conflit du quotidien et de l'exceptionnel
National audienceLa spĂ©cificitĂ© des facteurs de crues rapides rĂ©side dans les Ă©chelles spatiales et temporelles et la gamme d'intensitĂ©s mobilisĂ©es. Ainsi dans le cas des crues rapides, les processus hydrologiques se produisent aux mĂȘmes Ă©chelles spatiales et temporelles que les prĂ©cipitations intenses qui les gĂ©nĂšrent
Inter-disciplinary post-event surveys to disentangle hazard from vulnerability in the impacts of Mediterranean flash-flood events
International audienc
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