Economic and political hybridity: Patrimonial capitalism in the post-Soviet sphere

AbstractHybridity in non-democratic states can be economic as well as political. Economic hybridity is produced by the same kind of pressures that create political hybridity, but the relationship between economic and political hybridity has not been as much studied by political scientists. This article uses the concept of patrimonial capitalism to look at economic hybridity, its stability and relationship to political hybridity. Using examples from Russia and other former Soviet states it argues that economic hybridity is unstable and that it has a potentially negative affect on political stability generally

Ladder-like optical conductivity in the spin-fermion model

In the nested limit of the spin-fermion model for the cuprates, one-dimensional physics in the form of half-filled two-leg ladders emerges. We show that the renormalization group flow of the corresponding ladder is towards the d-Mott phase, a gapped spin-liquid with short-ranged d-wave pairing correlations, and reveals an intermediate SO(5)$\times$SO(3) symmetry. We use the results of the renormalization group in combination with a memory-function approach to calculate the optical conductivity of the spin-fermion model in the high-frequency regime, where processes within the hot spot region dominate the transport. We argue that umklapp processes play a major role. For finite temperatures, we determine the resistivity in the zero-frequency (dc) limit. Our results show an approximate linear temperature dependence of the resistivity and a conductivity that follows a non-universal power law. A comparison to experimental data supports our assumption that the conductivity is dominated by the antinodal contribution above the pseudogap.Comment: 11+2 pages, 8 figure

Prenatal programming of neuroendocrine reproductive function

It is now well recognized that the gestational environment can have long-lasting effects not only on the life span and health span of an individual but also, through potential epigenetic changes, on future generations. This article reviews the “prenatal programming” of the neuroendocrine systems that regulate reproduction, with a specific focus on the lessons learned using ovine models. The review examines the critical roles played by steroids in normal reproductive development before considering the effects of prenatal exposure to exogenous steroid hormones including androgens and estrogens, the effects of maternal nutrition and stress during gestation, and the effects of exogenous chemicals such as alcohol and environment chemicals. In so doing, it becomes evident that, to maximize fitness, the regulation of reproduction has evolved to be responsive to many different internal and external cues and that the GnRH neurosecretory system expresses a degree of plasticity throughout life. During fetal life, however, the system is particularly sensitive to change and at this time, the GnRH neurosecretory system can be “shaped” both to achieve normal sexually differentiated function but also in ways that may adversely affect or even prevent “normal function”. The exact mechanisms through which these programmed changes are brought about remain largely uncharacterized but are likely to differ depending on the factor, the timing of exposure to that factor, and the species. It would appear, however, that some afferent systems to the GnRH neurons such as kisspeptin, may be critical in this regard as it would appear to be sensitive to a wide variety of factors that can program reproductive function. Finally, it has been noted that the prenatal programming of neuroendocrine reproductive function can be associated with epigenetic changes, which would suggest that in addition to direct effects on the exposed offspring, prenatal programming could have transgenerational effects on reproductive potential

Alcohol Restraint Television Advertisements Targeted At Adolescents : A Three-way Comparison Of Reinforcement Styles On Attitude To The Advertisement, Attitude To The Cause And Attitude To The Act

Adolescent binge-drinking is an area of great concern in Australia as it is with many other developed countries around the world. Every year in Australia, Commonwealth and State health authorities invest considerable resources into trying to address this issue and the results have been described as being at best, mixed. Health promotion initiatives such as school programmes, media promotion and health programmes coupled w1th restrictions on supply of alcohol are all used to try and curb the incidence of adolescent binge drinking. In recent years television advertising has specifically been used to try and curb the incidence of adolescent binge-drinking behaviour. The aim of this study was to look more closely at the likely effectiveness of those advertising executions that are now commonly used to influence adolescents\u27 attitudes and behaviours toward alcohol. To this end, three advertising executions were presented to 720 Perth school students who were mostly aged between 14-15 years old. The three advertising executions differed in that one was of a positive appeal execution type, one was of a negative advertising execution type, and the other was of a \u27combination\u27 negative/positive advertising execution type. After a review of the literature the expectation was that the combination advertising execution would most likely be the most effective advertising executions. The findings of this study were however, different to expectation. It was found that the negative execution performed similarly or perhaps even marginally better than the combination execution. In contrast, the positive execution appeared to carry less impact with adolescent audiences suggesting that of the three execution styles it is probably the least effective method for communicating to adolescents about alcohol restraint. In addition to these investigations into advertising executions other background research was also conducted. This research explored adolescent attitudes toward the whole idea of anti-binge drinking advertising. This area of investigation was thought to be important because marketing theory suggests that advertising requires positive attitudes from it\u27s audiences to work at an optimum level. For example, it has been suggested that a positive attitude toward an advertisement not only makes the audience more receptive but it also makes consumers more approving of the product (or in this case the cause), and mane likely to act on the information. Adolescents were generally found to be concerned about alcohol abuse and seemed to be generally supportive of health promotion initiatives. These finding have therefore been discussed in this dissertation keeping in mind those findings regarding the three advertising executions. It is believed that studies such as this are of importance to our communities. It is for example, anticipated that the results from such studies have the potential to assist health promotion planners to plan their health promotion strategies mane effectively in future. It should be added too, the implications of studies such as these are that health promotion planners will not only be assisted in the future in the area of adolescent binge-drinking but also in other areas of health such as in the areas of illicit drug use, smoking or diet and exercise strategies

Motion of a distinguishable impurity in the Bose gas: Arrested expansion without a lattice and impurity snaking

We consider the real time dynamics of an initially localized distinguishable impurity injected into the ground state of the Lieb-Liniger model. Focusing on the case where integrability is preserved, we numerically compute the time evolution of the impurity density operator in regimes far from analytically tractable limits. We find that the injected impurity undergoes a stuttering motion as it moves and expands. For an initially stationary impurity, the interaction-driven formation of a quasibound state with a hole in the background gas leads to arrested expansion -- a period of quasistationary behavior. When the impurity is injected with a finite center of mass momentum, the impurity moves through the background gas in a snaking manner, arising from a quantum Newton's cradle-like scenario where momentum is exchanged back-and-forth between the impurity and the background gas.Comment: v1: 13 pages, 10 figures; v2: 14 pages, 13 figures and change of titl

Umklapp scattering as the origin of TT-linear resistivity in the normal state of high-TcT_c cuprate superconductors

The high-temperature normal state of the unconventional cuprate superconductors has resistivity linear in temperature $T$, which persists to values well beyond the Mott-Ioffe-Regel upper bound. At low-temperature, within the pseudogap phase, the resistivity is instead quadratic in $T$, as would be expected from Fermi liquid theory. Developing an understanding of these normal phases of the cuprates is crucial to explain the unconventional superconductivity. We present a simple explanation for this behavior, in terms of umklapp scattering of electrons. This fits within the general picture emerging from functional renormalization group calculations that spurred the Yang-Rice-Zhang ansatz: umklapp scattering is at the heart of the behavior in the normal phase.Comment: v1 6+1 pages, 4 figures; v2 6+2 pages, 4 figures; v3 6 + 2.5 pages, 5 figure