Symbolic Policies versus European Reconciliation: the Hungarian ‘Status Law’

International audienceThis chapter is organized as follows. First, it puts the Status Law back in the context of Hungarian symbolic policies and the development of European standards for minority protection after the Cold War. Agenda-setting at the COE and the OSCE is then analyzed to show how the originally bilateral controversy quickly became a ‘European problem’. The third part of the chapter underlines that the circulation of European standards between these European agencies was intrinsically ambiguous. At the international level, each organization interpreted these norms according to its own history, identity and resources, while at the national level politicians contested the ‘European solutions’ that they felt were being imposed on them

Triaxial orbit-based modelling of the Milky Way Nuclear Star Cluster

We construct triaxial dynamical models for the Milky Way nuclear star cluster using Schwarzschild's orbit superposition technique. We fit the stellar kinematic maps presented in Feldmeier et al. (2014). The models are used to constrain the supermassive black hole mass M_BH, dynamical mass-to-light ratio M/L, and the intrinsic shape of the cluster. Our best-fitting model has M_BH = (3.0 +1.1 -1.3)x10^6 M_sun, M/L = (0.90 +0.76 -0.08) M_sun/L_{sun,4.5micron}, and a compression of the cluster along the line-of-sight. Our results are in agreement with the direct measurement of the supermassive black hole mass using the motion of stars on Keplerian orbits. The mass-to-light ratio is consistent with stellar population studies of other galaxies in the mid-infrared. It is possible that we underestimate M_BH and overestimate the cluster's triaxiality due to observational effects. The spatially semi-resolved kinematic data and extinction within the nuclear star cluster bias the observations to the near side of the cluster, and may appear as a compression of the nuclear star cluster along the line-of-sight. We derive a total dynamical mass for the Milky Way nuclear star cluster of M_MWNSC = (2.1 +-0.7)x10^7 M_sun within a sphere with radius r = 2 x r_eff = 8.4 pc. The best-fitting model is tangentially anisotropic in the central r = 0.5-2 pc of the nuclear star cluster, but close to isotropic at larger radii. Our triaxial models are able to recover complex kinematic substructures in the velocity map.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Case selection and causal inferences in qualitative comparative research

Traditionally, social scientists perceived causality as regularity. As a consequence, qualitative comparative case study research was regarded as unsuitable for drawing causal inferences since a few cases cannot establish regularity. The dominant perception of causality has changed, however. Nowadays, social scientists define and identify causality through the counterfactual effect of a treatment. This brings causal inference in qualitative comparative research back on the agenda since comparative case studies can identify counterfactual treatment effects. We argue that the validity of causal inferences from the comparative study of cases depends on the employed case-selection algorithm. We employ Monte Carlo techniques to demonstrate that different case-selection rules strongly differ in their ex ante reliability for making valid causal inferences and identify the most and the least reliable case selection rules

Cloaked Facebook pages: Exploring fake Islamist propaganda in social media

This research analyses cloaked Facebook pages that are created to spread political propaganda by cloaking a user profile and imitating the identity of a political opponent in order to spark hateful and aggressive reactions. This inquiry is pursued through a multi-sited online ethnographic case study of Danish Facebook pages disguised as radical Islamist pages, which provoked racist and anti-Muslim reactions as well as negative sentiments towards refugees and immigrants in Denmark in general. Drawing on Jessie Daniels’ critical insights into cloaked websites, this research furthermore analyses the epistemological, methodological and conceptual challenges of online propaganda. It enhances our understanding of disinformation and propaganda in an increasingly interactive social media environment and contributes to a critical inquiry into social media and subversive politics

A Supermassive Black Hole in an Ultracompact Dwarf Galaxy

Ultracompact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) are among the densest stellar systems in the universe. These systems have masses up to 200 million solar masses, but half light radii of just 3-50 parsecs. Dynamical mass estimates show that many UCDs are more massive than expected from their luminosity. It remains unclear whether these high dynamical mass estimates are due to the presence of supermassive black holes or result from a non-standard stellar initial mass function that causes the average stellar mass to be higher than expected. Here we present the detection of a supermassive black hole in a massive UCD. Adaptive optics kinematic data of M60-UCD1 show a central velocity dispersion peak above 100 km/s and modest rotation. Dynamical modeling of these data reveals the presence of a supermassive black hole with mass of 21 million solar masses. This is 15% of the object's total mass. The high black hole mass and mass fraction suggest that M60-UCD1 is the stripped nucleus of a galaxy. Our analysis also shows that M60-UCD1's stellar mass is consistent with its luminosity, implying many other UCDs may also host supermassive black holes. This suggests a substantial population of previously unnoticed supermassive black holes.Comment: Author's version of paper appearing in 18 September issue of Nature, available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature13762 ; 9 pages, 9 figures including methods & supplementary information section

X-ray and radio observations of central black holes in nearby low-mass early-type galaxies: Preliminary evidence for low Eddington fractions

We present new radio and X-ray observations of two nearby ($< 4$ Mpc) low-mass early-type galaxies with dynamically-confirmed central black holes: NGC 5102 and NGC 205. NGC 5102 shows a weak nuclear X-ray source and has no core radio emission. However, for the first time we demonstrate that it shows luminous extended radio continuum emission in low-resolution, low-frequency ($< 3$ GHz) data, consistent with jet lobes on scales $\gtrsim 100$ pc formed from past accretion and jet activity. By contrast, in new, extremely deep, strictly-simultaneous Very Large Array and Chandra observations, no radio or X-ray emission is detected from the black hole in NGC 205. We consider these measurements and upper limits in the context of the few other low-mass early-type galaxies with dynamically-confirmed black holes, and show that the mean ratio of bolometric to Eddington luminosity in this sample is only $\textrm{log} \, (L_{\rm bol}/L_{\rm Edd}) = -6.57\pm0.50$. These Eddington ratios are lower than typical in a comparison sample of more massive early-type galaxies, though this conclusion is quite tentative due to our small sample of low-mass galaxies and potential biases in the comparison sample. This preliminary result is in mild tension with previous work using less sensitive observations of more distant galaxies, which predict higher X-ray luminosities than we observe for low-mass galaxies. If it is confirmed that central black holes in low-mass galaxies typically have low Eddington ratios, this presents a challenge to measuring the occupation fraction of central black holes with standard optical emission line, X-ray, or radio surveys.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in Ap

A questionnaire elicitation of surgeons' belief about learning within a surgical trial

PMID: 23145113 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] PMCID: PMC3493499 Free PMC ArticlePeer reviewedPublisher PD

Glomerular epithelial cell products stimulate mesangial cell proliferation in culture

Glomerular epithelial cell products stimulate mesangial cell proliferation in culture. Glomerular epithelial cells (GEC) and mesangial cells (MC) are both involved in glomerular diseases. To elucidate potential interactions between these glomerular cell types, we examined whether products of GEC affect the proliferative activity of MC. We found that cultured rat GEC secrete soluble factors into the supernate (GEC-CM) that induce proliferation of quiescent rat MC. The mitogenic activity was trypsin sensitive and partially heat-labile. Biochemical analysis of GEC-CM by gel filtration HPLC, reverse phase HPLC, and isoelectric focusing revealed at least three mitogenic fractions as well as inhibitory activity present in GEC-CM. Competitive binding assays with 125I-labeled PDGF did not show significant amounts of PDGF in GEC-CM. The biochemical features of the GEC-derived MC growth factors are distinct from IL-6, PDGF, bFGF, and endothelin, previously described GEC-derived MC growth factors. Additionally, significant contributions of known growth factors such as IL-1, IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, TNFα, TGFβ, and GM-CSF are unlikely. The results indicate that GEC produce several biochemically-distinct MC growth regulators. While these epithelial cell-derived mitogens for MC require further characterization, they may play an important role in the regulation of MC replication, such as during embryogenesis and glomerular disease

Inequality and violent crime: evidence from data on robbery and violent theft

This article argues that the link between income inequality and violent property crime might be spurious, complementing a similar argument in prior analysis by the author on the determinants of homicide. In contrast, Fajnzylber, Lederman & Loayza (1998; 2002a, b) provide seemingly strong and robust evidence that inequality causes a higher rate of both homicide and robbery/violent theft even after controlling for country-specific fixed effects. Our results suggest that inequality is not a statistically significant determinant, unless either country-specific effects are not controlled for or the sample is artificially restricted to a small number of countries. The reason why the link between inequality and violent property crime might be spurious is that income inequality is likely to be strongly correlated with country-specific fixed effects such as cultural differences. A high degree of inequality might be socially undesirable for any number of reasons, but that it causes violent crime is far from proven