Identity Formation between Structure and Agency – How ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ Relates to Voting Behavior in Contexts of Electoral Realignment

Western Europe is experiencing growing levels of political polarization between parties of the New Left and the Far Right. In many countries, the socio-structural foundations of this divide (class, education, residence) are by now so clear that many interpret this divide as a fully mobilized new electoral cleavage. At the same time, observers have highlighted a growing fragmentation of party systems and the proliferation of new competitors. We suggest to make sense of these contradic- tory developments by focusing on the shared group identities that constitute the “glue” of cleavage formation translating grievances into political antagonisms. Our contribution relies on data from an original online survey fielded in France, Germany, the UK and Switzerland. Respondents an- swered questions on their sense of belonging to a series of social groups, electoral preferences and socio-demographics. On this basis, we are able to show – observationally – that socio-structural categories relate to both socio-economically (e.g. class) and socio-culturally (e.g. cosmopolitanism, lifestyle) connoted group identities, which divide New Left and Far Right voters in surprisingly similar ways across contexts. We then study the extent of social closure and political mobilization at the extremes of the new divide through the analysis of social networks, perceived group align- ments, and perceived representation. Our findings suggest that the new conflict is firmly rooted in socio-economic categories and at the societal level. Its political mobilization happens mostly via culturally connoted identities. What is more, social realignments and closure are highly similar across the four countries. This underscores that party competition remains rooted in structural an- tagonisms even as support for individual parties becomes more volatile. To detect this underlying similarity and stability, it is necessary to focus on voter alignments to ideological party blocs, rather than individual parties

Wüste im Mund : Best Practice Xerostomie

Einleitung: Unter Xerostomie wird eine Mundtrockenheit verstanden, die durch verminderten oder fehlenden Speichelfluss verursacht wird. Häufige Ursachen sind medikamentöse Therapien, Radiotherapie im Kopf- und Halsbereich sowie verschiedene systemische Krankheiten. 34-40% der palliativen Patient:innen mit Krebserkrankung leiden an Xerostomie. Ziel: Ziel des Posters ist es darzustellen, welche Interventionen sich zur Mundbefeuchtung bei Xerostomie-Betroffenen im palliativen Setting eignen. Methode: Es wurde eine systematisierte Literaturrecherche auf PubMed und CINAHL Complete durchgeführt. Mittels Citation Tracking wurden weitere Studien gefunden. Ergebnisse: Eine mögliche Intervention bei Xerostomie ist ein Speicheldrüsen-Stimulanz; ein Produkt, welches den Speichelfluss anregt. Der Wirkstoff Pilocarpin stimuliert die Sekretion der exokrinen Drüsen und fördert somit die Speichelproduktion. Dieser Effekt gelingt nur bei einer Restfunktion der Speicheldrüse. Weitaus häufiger kommt künstlicher Speichelersatz zum Einsatz. Die Wirkungsdauer des flüssigen Speichelersatzes beträgt meist weniger als eine Stunde. Im Vergleich zu flüssigen zeigen die Gel-Produkte eine etwas längere Wirkung. Ein Vergleich der verschiedenen Interventionen wird in der Tabelle 1 dargestellt. Diskussion / Empfehlung für die Praxis: Da kaum Studien zu Xerostomie im palliativen Setting vorhanden sind, wurde auch alternative Settings miteinbezogen. Aufgrund dem geringen Anwendungsintervall scheint Pilocarpin für Patient:innen und Pflegefachpersonen ein zielführendes Produkt zu sein. Da Xerostomie aber häufig auch in der terminalen Phase auftritt, wo das Schlucken von Tabletten nicht mehr möglich ist, und das Produkt unerwünschte systemische Wirkungen wie Nausea und Schweissausbrüche hat, ist dessen Einsatz nicht uneingeschränkt zu empfehlen. Betroffene berichten, dass die Ersatzprodukte oft einen unangenehmen Geschmack aufweisen und daher der Gebrauch von Wasser bevorzugt wird. Um das Ziel der Verbesserung der Lebensqualität zu erreichen, ist eine individuelle Anpassung der Intervention an die (Geschmacks-) Wünsche der Patient:innen notwendig. Schlussfolgerung: Die Evidenzlage ist nicht eindeutig, so dass keine der vorgestellten Interventionen klar priorisiert werden kann. Im Zentrum der Entscheidungsfindung für eine bestimmte Intervention stehen die individuellen Bedürfnisse der Betroffenen

Management von Obstipation im palliativen Setting : Vorschläge für die Umsetzung durch das interprofessionelle Team

Einleitung: Die Palliative Care hat sich zu einem umfassenden Ansatz für die Behandlung von komplexen Symptomen im Spektrum lebenslimitierender Krankheiten entwickelt. Obwohl Obstipation ein häufiges Symptom bei Palliativ-Patient:innen darstellt, scheint bei Health Professionals ein mangelndes Bewusstsein für das Management von Obstipation vorzuliegen. Das Management der Obstipation ist ein multimodaler Ansatz, welcher deren Prävention sowie Behandlung durch Medikation, Flüssigkeits- und Nahrungsaufnahme, Mobilität und Behandlung von obstipationsbedingtem Schmerz beinhaltet (siehe Abb. 1).1 Ziel dieses Managements ist die Wiederherstellung einer aus Patient:innen-Sicht angenehmen Stuhlgewohnheit und die Linderung von Schmerzen, die im Zusammenhang mit Obstipation auftreten können. Fragestellung: Wie kann das interprofessionelle Team das Management von Obstipation im palliativen Setting unterstützen? Methode: In den Datenbanken PubMed und CINAHL Complete wurde eine systematisierte Literaturrecherche durchgeführt. Fünf Studien wurden eingeschlossen. Ergebnisse: Obstipation im palliativen Setting ist aufgrund der veränderten Lebensverhältnisse als ein Langzeitsymptom zu betrachten. Es werden die Interventionen Darm-Massage, Bewegung / Ballaststoffe / Flüssigkeit sowie medikamentöse Interventionen vorgestellt (siehe Tab. 1). Diskussion: Die Interventions-Wahl kann durch fehlende vorherige Durchführung eines geeigneten Assessments sowie Fachwissens-Lücken erschwert sein. Health Professionals sollen Obstipation als interprofessionelle Thematik angehen, wobei auch nicht-medikamentöse Interventionen zum Einsatz kommen sollen. Bedürfnisse und Gewohnheiten der Betroffenen müssen im Management berücksichtigt werden. Schlussfolgerung: Das Symptom Obstipation soll im palliativen Setting im Fokus der Aufmerksamkeit des ganzen interprofessionellen Teams stehen

Company Law and Autonomous Systems: A Blueprint for Lawyers, Entrepreneurs, and Regulators

In discussions of the regulation of autonomous systems, private law — specifically, company law — has been neglected as a potential legal and regulatory interface. As one of us has suggested previously,1 there are several possibilities for the creation of company structures that might provide functional and adaptive legal “housing” for advanced software, various types of artificial intelligence, and other programmatic systems and organizations — phenomena that we refer to here collectively as autonomous systems, for ease of reference. In particular, this prior work introduces the notion that an operating agreement or private entity constitution (such as a corporation’s charter or a partnership’s operating agreement) can adopt, as the acts of a legal entity, the state or actions of arbitrary physical systems. We call this the algorithm-agreement equivalence principle. Given this principle and the present capacities existing forms of legal entities, companies of various kinds can serve as a mechanism through which autonomous systems might engage with the legal system. This paper considers the implications of this possibility from a comparative and international perspective. Our goal is to suggest how, under U.S., German, Swiss and U.K. law, company law might furnish the functional and adaptive legal “housing” for an autonomous system — and, in turn, we aim to inform systems designers, regulators, and others who are interested in, encouraged by, or alarmed at the possibility that an autonomous system may “inhabit” a company and thereby gain some of the incidents of legal personality. We do not aim here to be normative. Instead, the paper lays out a template suggesting how existing laws might provide a potentially unexpected regulatory framework for autonomous systems, and to explore some legal consequences of this possibility. We do suggest that these considerations might spur others to consider the relevant provisions of their own national laws with a view to locating similar legal “spaces” that autonomous systems could “inhabit.

Melting of tantalum at high pressure determined by angle dispersive x-ray diffraction in a double-sided laser-heated diamond-anvil cell

The high pressure and high temperature phase diagram of Ta has been studied in a laser-heated diamond-anvil cell (DAC) using x-ray diffraction measurements up to 52 GPa and 3800 K. The melting was observed at nine different pressures, being the melting temperature in good agreement with previous laser-heated DAC experiments, but in contradiction with several theoretical calculations and previous piston-cylinder apparatus experiments. A small slope for the melting curve of Ta is estimated (dTm/dP = 24 K/GPa at 1 bar) and a possible explanation for this behaviour is given. Finally, a P-V-T equation of states is obtained, being the temperature dependence of the thermal expansion coefficient and the bulk modulus estimated.Comment: 31 pages, 8 figures, to appear in J.Phys.:Cond.Matte

The Swiss Kidney Stone Cohort (SKSC), a longitudinal, multi-centric, observational cohort to study course and causes of kidney stone disease in Switzerland.

Kidney stone disease has a high prevalence worldwide of approximately 10 % of the population and is characterized by a high recurrence rate Kidney stone disease results from a combination of genetic, environmental, and life-style risk factors, and the dissection of these factors is complex. The Swiss Kidney Stone Cohort (SKSC) is an investigator-initiated prospective, multi-centric longitudinal, observational study in patients with kidney stones followed with regular visits over a period of 3 years after inclusion. Ongoing follow-ups by biannual telephone interviews will provide long-term outcome data up to 10 years. SKSC comprises 782 adult patients (age > 18 yrs) with either recurrent stones or a single stone event with at least one risk factor for recurrence. In addition, a control cohort of 207 individuals without kidney stone history and absence of kidney stones on a low-dose CT-scan at enrolment has also been recruited. SKSC includes extensive collections of clinical data, biochemical data in blood and 24 hr urine samples, and genetic data. Biosamples are stored at a dedicated biobank. Information on diet and dietary habits were collected through food frequency questionnaires and standardized recall interviews by trained dieticians with the Globodiet software. SKSC provides an unique opportunity and resource to further study cause and course of kidney disease in a large population with data and samples collected of a homogenous collective of patients throughout the whole Swiss population

Sozialstaatliche Kürzungspolitik in Deutschland: Nur eine Mär? Eine quantitative Gesetzgebungsanalyse 1974–2014

Quantitative analyses on welfare state dynamics have to cope with the “dependent variable problem”, as studies on social spending reach different conclusions than analyses of replacement rate data. This article suggests a way around this problem by presenting results from a fine-grained analysis of welfare state legislation in Germany between 1974 and 2014. We show that the German welfare state has seen both cuts and expansions occur in all decades. Moreover, we show by means of a regression analysis that partisan politics play a role. Supporting the “Nixon-in-China”-thesis, social democratic governments are associated with a higher probability of cutbacks – especially in times of budgetary pressure – whereas expansions are more likely under Christian democratic governments

Mode of socio-economic development and occupational structure: the case of contemporary Russia

The given paper assumes the existence of a correlation between the occupational structure and the mode of social and economic development of a country. It is shown that the modern stage of development in advanced economies could be described by the post-industrial phase with (a) the specific proportions in the occupational structure (predominance of professional managers and technical experts); (b) particular nature of work and the corresponding extent of labor division according to specialization and qualification (highly skilled labor with broad specialization and a new criterion of creativity included within qualifications). Within the certain historical framework these indicators, combined onto the entire scheme, produce the criteria to distinct different types of socio-economic development and arrange them in consistent order. The analysis of occupational structure of Russian population shows that the reforms of 1990s have facilitated the process of deindustrialization alongside with the growth of semi- and low-skilled jobs. According to the scheme, Russia seems to have reached the stage of the development that is similar to one of the 1950–1960s in the USA and the Europe

Contested world order: The delegitimation of international governance

This article argues that the chief challenge to international governance is an emerging political cleavage, which pits nationalists against immigration, free trade, and international authority. While those on the radical left contest international governance for its limits, nationalists reject it in principle. A wide-ranging cultural and economic reaction has reshaped political conflict in Europe and the United States and is putting into question the legitimacy of the rule of law among states