Quid-pro-quo or no? Targeted electoral distribution in Brazil

Scholarship on clientelism typically defines the practice as the contingent exchange of goods and services for political support, but many fail to adequately consider, both theoretically and empirically, the quid-pro-quo aspect of this relationship. In this dissertation, I describe and document the differences between clientelism and other forms of targeted, non-contingent distribution, showing evidence that the two are distinct strategies that can coexist in the same electoral space. To explore this topic, I collected original qualitative and quantitative evidence from Brazil, a country whose politicians, for reasons not yet fully understood, employ a wide variety of campaign strategies. During the 2018 general elections, I spent months with legislative election campaigns, interviewed dozens of ordinary voters, activists, and community leaders, and implemented two original nationwide surveys which focused on a series of vignette and conjoint experiments. The empirical results provide three main contributions. First, I estimate that politicians offer handouts (non-contingent electoral gifts) just as often as they make vote buying offers (contingent electoral exchanges), though the former has only recently emerged as a concept in political science. The distinction is important, because results also show that the two types of distribution are targeted toward different types of voters (based on socioeconomic class). Second, I find that voters disapprove of nonprogrammatic forms of distribution that are coercive over voters' electoral decisions. This is the first empirical documentation that voters reject "perverse accountability," the idea that politicians monitor the voting behavior of their constituents. Finally, I find that voters who see few ideological differences between major parties are more likely to approve of and receive handouts. This provides support for a novel explanation of why politicians choose to give electoral gifts without demanding anything in return: handouts simply help candidates differentiate themselves when there are many competitors and/or ideological appeals are ineffective. Overall, this study significantly improves our understanding of citizen-elite linkages in middle-income democracies.LimitedAuthor requested closed access extension (OA after 2yrs) via Additional Restricted Access Extension for

Vergleich von zerebraler Nahinfrarotspektroskopie und einer Kombination von Weißlichtspektrometrie und Laser-Doppler-Spektroskopie bei postoperativen Säuglingen auf der Intensivstation

Nichtinvasive Messmethoden der zerebralen Sauerstoffgewebesättigung (cSO2), wie die Nahinfrarotspektroskopie oder die „Oxygen to see“-Methode (O2C) finden in der Behandlung von Kindern mit angeborenen Herzfehlern immer mehr Beachtung. Durch ein deutlich verbessertes Therapieregime erreichen über 85% der Kinder mit angeborenem Herzfehler inzwischen das Erwachsenenalter. Die vorliegende Arbeit soll zwei Messmethoden zur zerebralen Sauerstoffgewebesättigung evaluieren und vergleichen

Tolerance for Postponing Elections in Crisis Conditions

Election postponements occur around the world for a variety of reasons, but they became especially widespread during the Covid-19 pandemic. Little is known how the public perceives and reacts to such democratic delays. To shed light on this topic, we included a question module in the 2021 AmericasBarometer about tolerance for alterations to democracy during periods of crisis. The data reveal that tolerance for election postponements is quite high. Further, through a wording experiment, we find that the public is more willing to accept such a delay during a health emergency vis-à-vis an alternative condition (widespread violence). We contextualize these findings by comparing them with attitudes about a more extreme anti-democratic disruption: a coup d’etat by security forces. Coups are significantly less popular than election postponements, especially during a health emergency. The results improve our understanding of public appetite for authoritarianism during periods of crisis

A Compromise between Neutrino Masses and Collider Signatures in the Type-II Seesaw Model

A natural extension of the standard $SU(2)_{\rm L} \times U(1)_{\rm Y}$ gauge model to accommodate massive neutrinos is to introduce one Higgs triplet and three right-handed Majorana neutrinos, leading to a $6\times 6$ neutrino mass matrix which contains three $3\times 3$ sub-matrices $M_{\rm L}$, $M_{\rm D}$ and $M_{\rm R}$. We show that three light Majorana neutrinos (i.e., the mass eigenstates of $\nu_e$, $\nu_\mu$ and $\nu_\tau$) are exactly massless in this model, if and only if $M_{\rm L} = M_{\rm D} M_{\rm R}^{-1} M_{\rm D}^T$ exactly holds. This no-go theorem implies that small but non-vanishing neutrino masses may result from a significant but incomplete cancellation between $M_{\rm L}$ and $M_{\rm D} M_{\rm R}^{-1} M_{\rm D}^T$ terms in the Type-II seesaw formula, provided three right-handed Majorana neutrinos are of ${\cal O}(1)$ TeV and experimentally detectable at the LHC. We propose three simple Type-II seesaw scenarios with the $A_4 \times U(1)_{\rm X}$ flavor symmetry to interpret the observed neutrino mass spectrum and neutrino mixing pattern. Such a TeV-scale neutrino model can be tested in two complementary ways: (1) searching for possible collider signatures of lepton number violation induced by the right-handed Majorana neutrinos and doubly-charged Higgs particles; and (2) searching for possible consequences of unitarity violation of the $3\times 3$ neutrino mixing matrix in the future long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments.Comment: RevTeX 19 pages, no figure

The time dimension of neural network models

This review attempts to provide an insightful perspective on the role of time within neural network models and the use of neural networks for problems involving time. The most commonly used neural network models are defined and explained giving mention to important technical issues but avoiding great detail. The relationship between recurrent and feedforward networks is emphasised, along with the distinctions in their practical and theoretical abilities. Some practical examples are discussed to illustrate the major issues concerning the application of neural networks to data with various types of temporal structure, and finally some highlights of current research on the more difficult types of problems are presented

Common Culture: Rediscovering Public Space in American Cities

The influence of public spaces in urban life is an issue that has been apparent since the development of ancient cities. Opportunities to socialize, interact, and exchange ideas in these spaces allow members of a community to participate in the development of their city. These opportunities occur more frequently when public space is accessible to everyone. In American cities, the impact of public space has been diminished and limited due to the overabundance of automobiles and has directed civic life to the streets and privately controlled areas. By understanding the relationship between civic architecture and public engagement, this thesis aims to provide spaces which incorporate civic pride, civic dignity, and the common ground of a cities citizens in relation to different scales of user interaction. The goal of the design is to provide spaces which collectively contribute to a sense of community, expression of diversity, and the discovery of a city’s common culture

Selected Training Exemplars for Neural Network Learning

The dissertation of Mark Plutowski is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm: Co-Chair Co-Chai