Does a Disadvantaged Candidate Choose an Extremist Position?

Does a disadvantaged candidate always choose an extremist program? When does a less competent candidate have an incentive to move to extreme positions in order to differentiate himself from the more competent candidate? Recent works answer by the affirmative (Groseclose 1999, Ansolabehere and Snyder 2000, Aragones and Palfrey 2002, 2003). We consider a two candidates electoral competition over public consumption, with a two dimensional policy space and two dimensions of candidates heterogeneity. In this setting, we show that the conclusion depends on candidates relative competences over the two public goods and distinguish between two types of advantages (an absolute advantage and comparative advantage in providing the two public goods). ...French Abstract : Cet article traite de l'entrée dans une industrie dans laquelle les firmes partagent une réputation collective. Premièrement, nous montrons que l'entrée libre n'est pas socialement optimale, il existe un besoin de régulation à travers l'imposition d'un standard minimum de qualité (par exemple). Deuxièmement, nous montrons qu'un standard minimum de qualité peut inciter des firmes à entrer sur le marché. Contrairement à la pensée commune, un standard minimum de qualité ne doit pas être toujours considéré comme une barrière à l'entrée.CANDIDATE QUALITY; EXTREMISM; PUBLIC GOODS CONSUMPTION

Political Cycles : Issue Ownership and the Opposition Advantage

We propose a two dimensional infinite horizon model of public consumption in which investments are decided by a winner-take-all election. Investments in the two public goods create a linkage across periods. We follow the idea of issue ownership introduced by Petrocik (1996) in considering parties with different specialties. We show that the incumbent party vote share decreases the longer it stays in power. The median voter is generally not indifferent between the two parties and, when she is moderate enough, no party can maintain itself in power for ever. This result holds when the parties' main objective is to win the election and is compatible with a large range of candidates sub-objectives, that may change from one election to the next. Finally, the more parties are specialized and the more public policies have long-term effects, the more political cycles are likely to occur. ...French Abstract : Nous proposons un modèle de consommation publique à horizon infini. Les investissements engagés dans la fourniture de deux biens publics sont déterminés par les élections. Ces investissements créent un lien entre les élections successives. Nous suivons l'idée introduite par Petrocik (1996) selon laquelle les partis "possèdent" certains thèmes, en considérant qu'ils ont des spécialités différentes. Nous montrons que la part des voix du parti au pouvoir décroît entre deux élections. L'électeur médian n'est généralement pas indifférent entre les deux partis et, lorsqu'il est suffisamment modéré, aucun parti ne peut se maintenir indéfiniment au pouvoir. Ce résultat est valide lorsque l'objectif principal des partis est de gagner l'élection et est compatible avec un grand ensemble de sous objectifs, qui peuvent changer d'une élection à l'autre. Finalement, plus les partis sont spécialisés et plus les politiques ont des effets de long terme, plus les cycles politiques sont susceptibles d'apparaître.CYCLES; ALTERNATION; ISSUE OWNERSHIP; PUBLIC GOODS; OPPOSITION

Sécheresse et Guerre Civile en Afrique Sub-Saharienne

D'après le Groupe d'experts Intergouvernemental sur l'Evolution du Climat (GIEC), les changements climatiques vont engendrer un accroissement du nombre d'évènements climatiques atypiques à travers le monde, tels les sécheresses et les inondations. Ces anomalies climatiques pourraient avoir des conséquences désastreuses pour les pays ayant des problèmes d'accès à l'eau potable ou dont l'économie dépend de l'agriculture locale. Des études récentes affirment même que la sécheresse est une des causes des guerres civiles. Le cas le plus emblématique est le Darfour. Il fait consensus sur le fait que la sécheresse a été l'un des facteurs de la guerre civile, même si le conflit avait aussi une composante ethnique. Dans notre étude, on montre que le lien entre précipitations, températures et guerre civile obtenu dans la littérature peut être dû à des chocs planétaires non liés à des variations climatiques. Le problème provient du fait qu'il n'est pas possible de distinguer les effets des variations climatiques annuelles des autres phénomènes planétaires tels que des changements politiques de grande échelle comme la fin de la guerre froide ou des variations macroéconomiques globales comme la crise financière. Lorsqu'on tient compte de ce type de facteurs, les variations de précipitation et de température ont un effet beaucoup plus faible et non significatif sur le risque de guerre civile. L'utilisation de l'indice de Palmer, une mesure locale de la sécheresse qui décrit l'impact du manque d'eau sur les conflits sociaux d'une façon plus satisfaisante que les mesures de précipitation et de température, permet de montrer que l'effet de la sécheresse sur le risque de guerre civile est faible mais positif

Integral Field Spectroscopy of the Central Regions of 3C 120: Evidence of a Past Merging Event

IFS combined with HST WFPC imaging were used to characterize the central regions of the Seyfert 1 radio galaxy 3C 120. We carried out the analysis of the data, deriving intensity maps of different emission lines and the continua at different wavelengths from the observed spectra. Applying a 2D modeling to the HST images we decoupled the nucleus and the host galaxy, and analyzed the host morphology. The host is a highly distorted bulge dominated galaxy, rich in substructures. We developed a new technique to model the IFS data extending the 2D modeling. Using this technique we separated the Seyfert nucleus and the host galaxy spectra, and derived a residual data cube with spectral and spatial information of the different structures in 3C 120. Three continuum-dominated structures (named A, B, and C) and other three extended emission line regions (EELRs, named E1, E2 and E3) are found in 3C 120 which does not follow the general behavior of a bulge dominated galaxy. We also found shells in the central kpc that may be remnants of a past merging event in this galaxy. The origin of E1 is most probably due to the interaction of the radio-jet of 3C 120 with the intergalactic medium. Structures A, B, and the shell at the southeast of the nucleus seem to correspond to a larger morphological clumpy structure that may be a tidal tail, consequence of the past merging event. We found a bright EELR (E2) in the innermost part of this tidal tail, nearby the nucleus, which shows a high ionization level. The kinematics of the E2 region and its connection to the tidal tail suggest that the tail has channeled gas from the outer regions to the center.Comment: 55 pages, 18 figures and 5 tables Accepted by AP

Les stratégies de contrôle de la qualité sanitaire dans les Organisations de Producteurs de tomates

Our paper deals with free-riding issues in product safety control at the collective marketing level. It focuses on the empirical findings of the exhaustive face to face survey that has been conducted in 2007 by the authors with the quality managers of the tomato growers'unions of France. Our survey was supported by the National Tomato Charter, a regrouping of most of the French tomato growers'unions. Its aim was to identify the differences in monitoring and enforcement practices at the collective marketing level and to search for any group size effect on such practices. A main finding of our paper is that, beyond public regulation and collective rules imposed by the National Tomato Charter, POs implement voluntary control rules for a better control of free riding behavior within the group. Such additional rules differ both in monitoring intensity (measured by the number of pesticide residue analysis performed voluntarily by the group) and in sanction level (applied in case of deviation to the collective rule). Differences in safety control are not only triggered by customers specific requirements but also by group size (measured by the number of growers within the group). Eventually, our paper draws some perspectives for a more in-depth analysis of free riding issues. First, it calls for paying more attention to factors such as intra-group heterogeneity and differences in customers requirements. Second, it underlines the need for a more extensive analysis which includes safety control practices at the production level and wonders whether such practices are a complement or a substitute of control practices at the marketing level. ...French Abstract : Ce texte aborde les problèmes d'action collective dans le contrôle de la qualité sanitaire des produits avant leur mise en marché par les Organisations de Producteurs. Il est une synthèse des résultats de l'enquête menée auprès des responsables qualité de l'ensemble des OP adhérant à la Charte Nationale Tomate sur leurs pratiques de contrôle de la qualité sanitaire des tomates. L'enquête a eu le soutien des responsables de la Charte Nationale Tomate, qui regroupe la quasi-totalité de la production organisée en France. Elle avait pour objectif d'identifier la diversité des pratiques de contrôle au sein des OP et de mesurer l'effet de la "taille de l'OP" sur les modalités de contrôle mises en place. L'enquête montre qu'au-delà des règles communes imposées par la réglementation et la Charte Nationale Tomate, les OP mettent en place des démarches de contrôle diversifiées qui se différencient à la fois par l'importance de la surveillance (mesurée en nombre d'analyses de résidus de pesticides) et par le niveau des sanctions appliquées en cas de dérogation à la règle adoptée. Elle explique enfin la diversité de ces démarches, non seulement par les exigences de la clientèle mais aussi par la taille du groupe (mesurée par le nombre de producteurs). Notre rapport se termine par une discussion sur les améliorations à apporter à ce premier travail. Des précisions sont à apporter tout d'abord sur l'hétérogénéité intra et inter groupes et sur les niveaux d'exigences de la clientèle. Un complément d'analyse est ensuite nécessaire pour mieux caractériser l'effort de contrôle en amont du produit, au niveau de la production et pour étudier la complémentarité ou la substituabilité des deux types de contrôle: contrôle sur les pratiques en production, contrôle sur le produit.PRODUCERS' UNIOS; FREE-RIDING; MONITORING; ENFORCEMENT; CONTROL; PESTICIDE RESIDUES; TOMATO; FRANCE; ORGANISATIONS DE PRODUCTEURS; PASSAGER CLANDESTIN; SANCTION; CONTROLE; RESIDUS DE PESTICIDES; TOMATE

Targeting the Stress-Induced Protein NUPR1 to Treat Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

Cancer cells activate stress-response mechanisms to adapt themselves to a variety of stressful conditions. Among these protective mechanisms, those controlled by the stress-induced nuclear protein 1 (NUPR1 ) belong to the most conserved ones. NUPR1 is an 82-residue-long, monomeric, basic and intrinsically disordered protein (IDP), which was found to be invariably overexpressed in some, if not all, cancer tissues. Remarkably, we and others have previously showed that genetic inactivation of the Nupr1 gene antagonizes the growth of pancreatic cancer as well as several other tumors. With the use of a multidisciplinary strategy by combining biophysical, biochemical, bioinformatic, and biological approaches, a trifluoperazine-derived compound, named ZZW-115, has been identified as an inhibitor of the NUPR1 functions. The anticancer activity of the ZZW-115 was first validated on a large panel of cancer cells. Furthermore, ZZW-115 produced a dose-dependent tumor regression of the tumor size in xenografted mice. Mechanistically, we have demonstrated that NUPR1 binds to several importins. Because ZZW-115 binds NUPR1 through the region around the amino acid Thr68, which is located into the nuclear location signal (NLS) region of the protein, we demonstrated that treatment with ZZW-115 inhibits completely the translocation of NUPR1 from the cytoplasm to the nucleus by competing with importins

Sabotage in Contests: A Survey

A contest is a situation in which individuals expend irretrievable resources to win valuable prize(s). ‘Sabotage’ is a deliberate and costly act of damaging a rival’s' likelihood of winning the contest. Sabotage can be observed in, e.g., sports, war, promotion tournaments, political or marketing campaigns. In this article, we provide a model and various perspectives on such sabotage activities and review the economics literature analyzing the act of sabotage in contests. We discuss the theories and evidence highlighting the means of sabotage, why sabotage occurs, and the effects of sabotage on individual players and on overall welfare, along with possible mechanisms to reduce sabotage. We note that most sabotage activities are aimed at the ablest player, the possibility of sabotage reduces productive effort exerted by the players, and sabotage may lessen the effectiveness of public policies, such as affirmative action, or information revelation in contests. We discuss various policies that a designer may employ to counteract sabotage activities. We conclude by pointing out some areas of future research

ZZW-115-dependent inhibition of NUPR1 nuclear translocation sensitizes cancer cells to genotoxic agents

Establishing the interactome of the cancer-associated stress protein Nuclear Protein 1 (NUPR1), we found that it binds to several hundreds of proteins, including proteins involved in nuclear translocation, DNA repair, and key factors of the SUMO pathway. We demonstrated that the NUPR1 inhibitor ZZW-115, an organic synthetic molecule, competes with importins for the binding to the NLS region of NUPR1, thereby inhibiting its nuclear translocation. We hypothesized, and then proved, that inhibition of NUPR1 by ZZW-115 sensitizes cancer cells to DNA damage induced by several genotoxic agents. Strikingly, we found that treatment with ZZW-115 reduced SUMOylation of several proteins involved in DNA damage response (DDR). We further report that the presence of recombinant NUPR1 improved the SUMOylation in a cell-free system, indicating that NUPR1 directly stimulates the SUMOylation machinery. We propose that ZZW-115 sensitizes cancer cells to genotoxic agents by inhibiting the nuclear translocation of NUPR1 and thereby decreasing the SUMOylation-dependent functions of key proteins involved in the DDR

Retrospective evaluation of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in 68 dogs

BACKGROUND: There is a lack of clinical data on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in dogs. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: To investigate signalment, clinical signs, diagnostic findings, and survival in dogs with HCM. ANIMALS: Sixty-eight client-owned dogs. METHODS: Retrospective multicenter study. Medical records were searched between 2003 and 2015. The diagnosis of left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy was made by echocardiographic examination. RESULTS: Three hundred and forty-five dogs with LV hypertrophy were identified, of which 277 were excluded. The remaining 68 dogs were 0.3 to 14 years old and predominantly <10 kg (85%), and without a sex predilection. Twenty-four % were Shih Tzu and 24% terrier breeds. Most (80%) had a systolic heart murmur. Owner-determined exercise intolerance (37%) and syncope (18%) were most commonly reported signs. The majority (84%) of dogs had symmetrical LV hypertrophy, whereas asymmetrical septal and LV free wall hypertrophy was observed in 9% and 6% of dogs, respectively. Isolated basal interventricular septal hypertrophy was not observed. Commonly recorded were systolic anterior motion of the mitral valve (60%) and LV diastolic dysfunction (89% of dogs where diastolic function was evaluated). Six dogs died unexpectedly, and 3 developed congestive heart failure. Known survival times were between 1 day and 114 months after diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in dogs should be considered as a differential diagnosis if LV hypertrophy is identified. Small breed dogs are overrepresented, and it is uncommon for dogs with HCM to develop CHF although sudden death can occur

Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma is the most common T-cell lymphoma in two distinct French information data sets.

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