94 research outputs found
Extending political participation in China: new opportunities for citizens in the policy process
Authoritarian political systems are portrayed as offering few opportunities for citizens to participate in politics â particularly in the policy process. This paperâs contribution is to set out new mechanisms that enable Authoritarian political systems are portrayed as offering few opportunities for citizens to participate in politics â particularly in the policy process. This paperâs contribution is to set out new mechanisms that enable Chinese citizens to evaluate government performance, contribute to decision-making, shape policy agendas and feed back on implementation. Based on fieldwork in the city of Hangzhou, we argue that the local party-state orchestrates citizen participation in the policy process, but members of the public nevertheless do have influence. Political participation is widening in China, but it is still controlled. It is not yet clearly part of a process of democratization, but it does establish the principle of citizen rights to oversee the government
Egyptâs 2011â2012 parliamentary elections: Voting for religious vs. secular democracy?
This study investigates whether individualsâ attitudes towards democracy and
secular politics have any influence on voting behavior in Egypt. Based on data
from a survey conducted immediately after the Egyptian parliamentary elections
in January 2012, this study finds that Egyptiansâ attitudes towards democratic
governance were quite negative around the parliamentary elections, yet Egyptians
still endorsed democracy as the ideal political system for their country. However,
empirical findings suggest that support for democracy has a limited impact on
electoral results. On the other hand, the main division in Egyptian society around
the first free and fair parliamentary elections was the religious-secular cleavage. As
people support secular politics more, they become significantly less likely to vote
for Islamist parties. These results illustrate that preferences in regard to the type
of democracy â either a liberal and secular or a religious democracy â were
the main determinant of the historic 2012 elections in Egypt
Echocardiography-derived total atrial conduction time (PA-TDI duration): risk stratification and guidance in atrial fibrillation management
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a major cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. To early detect and to avoid AF-related complications, several cardiac imaging modalities and approaches aim to quantify the severity of the underlying atrial cardiomyopathy (i.e., the extent of atrial remodeling). However, most established cardiac imaging modalities just incorporate single components of atrial remodeling and do not reflect the complete multifactorial process, which may contribute to their limited predictive value. Echocardiography-derived PA-TDI duration is a sophisticated echocardiographic parameter to assess total atrial conduction time and directly reflects both electrical and structural changes to the atria. Therefore, PA-TDI duration provides a more comprehensive quantification of the extent of atrial remodeling than other imaging modalities. In this article we review the role of PA-TDI duration as a marker of atrial remodeling and summarize the available data on PA-TDI duration to identify patients at risk for AF, as well as to guide AF management. Moreover, we discuss how to assess PA-TDI duration and provide recommendations on the implementation of PA-TDI duration into routine clinical care. Graphic abstractCardiolog
A microscopic 2D lattice model of dimer granular compaction with friction
We study by Monte Carlo simulation the compaction dynamics of hard dimers in
2D under the action of gravity, subjected to vertical and horizontal shaking,
considering also the case in which a friction force acts for horizontal
displacements of the dimers. These forces are modeled by introducing effective
probabilities for all kinds of moves of the particles. We analyze the dynamics
for different values of the time during which the shaking is applied to
the system and for different intensities of the forces. It turns out that the
density evolution in time follows a stretched exponential behavior if is
not very large, while a power law tail develops for larger values of .
Moreover, in the absence of friction, a critical value exists which
signals the crossover between two different regimes: for the
asymptotic density scales with a power law of , while for
it reaches logarithmically a maximal saturation value. Such behavior smears out
when a finite friction force is present. In this situation the dynamics is
slower and lower asymptotic densities are attained. In particular, for
significant friction forces, the final density decreases linearly with the
friction coefficient. We also compare the frictionless single tap dynamics to
the sequential tapping dynamics, observing in the latter case an inverse
logarithmic behavior of the density evolution, as found in the experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 15 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.
Identity and integration of Russian speakers in the Baltic states: a framework for analysis
Following a review of current scholarship on identity and integration patterns of Russian speakers in the Baltic states, this article proposes an analytical framework to help understand current trends. Rogers Brubaker's widely employed triadic nexus is expanded to demonstrate why a form of Russian-speaking identity has been emerging, but has failed to become fully consolidated, and why significant integration has occurred structurally but not identificationally. By enumerating the subfields of political, economic, and cultural âstancesâ and ârepresentationsâ the model helps to understand the complicated integration processes of minority groups that possess complex relationships with âexternal homelandsâ, ânationalizing statesâ and âinternational organizationsâ. Ultimately, it is argued that socio-economic factors largely reduce the capacity for a consolidated identity; political factors have a moderate tendency to reduce this capacity, whereas cultural factors generally increase the potential for a consolidated group identity
Portuguese Ministers, 1851-1999: Social Background and Paths to Power
DisponĂvel em:
http://193.136.113.6/Opac/Pages/Search/Results.aspx?SearchText=UID=bb8aa8d5-c6b6-466a-81bb-fe8a67693cee&DataBase=10449_UNLFCSHThis paper provides an empirical analysis of the impact of regime changes in the composition and patterns of recruitment of the Portuguese ministerial elite throughout the last 150 years. The âout-of-typeâ, violent nature of most regime transformations accounts for the purges in and the extensive replacements of the political personnel, namely of the uppermost officeholders. In the case of Cabinet members, such discontinuities did not imply, however, radical changes in their social profile. Although there were some significant variations, a series of salient characteristics have persisted over time. The typical Portuguese minister is a male in his midforties, of middle-class origin and predominantly urban-born, highly educated and with a state servant background. The two main occupational contingents have been university professors - except for the First Republic (1910-26) - and the military, the latter having only recently been eclipsed with the consolidation of contemporary democracy. As regards career pathways, the most striking feature is the secular trend for the declining role of parliamentary experience, which the democratic regime did not clearly reverse. In this period, a technocratic background rather than political experience has been indeed the privileged credential for a significant proportion of minister
Microsatellite Variation in Red-Winged Blackbirds (\u3ci\u3eAgelaius phoeniceus\u3c/i\u3e)
Territorial male red-winged blackbirds from five locations in the United States and Canada were genotyped using a suite of six microsatellite loci. Each population possessed unique alleles, but numbers of alleles per locus (range = 7.3â8.8) and expected multilocus heterozygosities (range = 0.76â0.80) were similar in all populations. Significant overall allele frequency differences were detected between some population pairs, and some pairwise Fst values were significant (but small). However, Fst among populations, although significant, was also small (0.009). Despite revealing low levels of population structure, the high multilocus polymorphism indicates these loci will be valuable in the genetic analysis of behavior and reproductive strategies in this species
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