Ethno-embedded institutionalism: the impact of institutional repertoires on ethnic violence

Hitherto, the relationships between political institutions and ethnopolitical (in)stability typically have been analysed by investigating the effects of single, formal political institutions such as electoral systems or state structures (see e.g. Reynolds 2002; Roeder and Rothchild 2005). My doctoral thesis criticises this research focus on two different yet equally relevant accounts: First, the tendency to single out the effects of individual institutions is based on the implicit – and as I claim: wrong – assumption that political institutions can be treated as separate entities and that it is only of secondary relevance of which broader set of institutions they form part. Second, despite studies which highlight the relevance of informal political institutions (see e.g. Sisk and Stefes 2005; Varshney 2002), they have received far less attention in the academic debate so far. ‘Ethno-Embedded Institutionalism’ describes a new approach to the study of institutional incentives for ethnic violence which goes beyond the mere focus on single, formal political institutions by highlighting the effects of both institutional combinations and informal political institutions on the risk of ethnic civil war. To test the relevance of ‘Ethno-Embedded Institutionalism’, I use a grievance-based explanation of intrastate violence and binary time-series-cross-section analysis based on a personally designed dataset that covers 174 countries between 1955 and 2007. I present statistical evidence that high levels of corruption on the one hand, and institutional combinations of presidentialism, a majoritarian electoral system for the legislature and a unitary state structure on the other increase the risk of large-scale ethnic violence. Overall, my thesis contributes to the academic debate in three relevant regards: i) by conceptualising and testing Ethno-Embedded Institutionalism; ii) by describing a grievance-based explanation of large-scale ethnic violence which clearly identifies the key values of political representation; and iii) by presenting the EEI Dataset as the first comprehensive data source for the systematic statistical analysis of institutional incentives for ethnic civil war

Prevalence and Severity of Pain in Cancer Patients in Germany

Pain is a common symptom in cancer patients, restricts daily life activities and reduces survival time. Identification of sociodemographic, medical and psychological correlates of pain among cancer patients in Germany could help identify subgroups most in need of pain management. In this multicenter, epidemiologic cross-sectional study, we assessed pain prevalence and severity, quality of life (QoL) and psychological distress in a sample of 3,745 cancer patients across all tumor entities. In total, 37.9% patients suffered from cancer-related pain and 56.1% suffered from non-specific pain. Younger, female, less educated and unemployed patients reported pain more frequently and more severe pain (p < 0.001). Pain was associated with distress, depression, anxiety, QoL, tumor stage (p < 0.001), and time since diagnosis (p = 0.012). Pain assessment and pain management should be a routine part of cancer treatment and cancer survivorship care plans

Heat Exchanger Design and Testing for a 6-Inch Rotating Detonation Engine

This thesis explains the design and testing of a water-cooled rotating detonation engine (RDE) run on hydrogen and air. The change in water temperature as it cooled the engine was used to find the steady heat rate into the containing walls of the detonation channel. The engine successfully ran four times for 20 seconds each. The steady-state heat rate was measured to be 2.5% of the propellant lower heating value (LHV) into the outer wall and 7.1% of LHV into the inner wall. Additionally, a quick-response resistance temperature detector (RTD) was used in an uncooled RDE of similar dimension to the cooled RDE to estimate the transient heat flux profile in the detonation channel. The average heat flux into the outer wall near the base of the channel was measured to be four times greater than the average heat flux over the entire cooled wall at steady-state, indicating the heat flux decreases significantly with axial distance. In addition, the large difference in heat absorption between the inner and outer cooled walls indicates that the heat flux into the inner wall is greater than that into the outer wall

The death of Boand and the recensions of Dindṡenchas Érenn

The death of Boand is found in both prose and verse in the Dindṡenchas. Three poems, labelled Boand I, II, and III by E.J. Gwynn, have survived in various sources. In the first section of this paper, I provide an analysis of the relationship of these poems to one another. This section also includes an edition and translation of a short poem, here called ‘Boand A’, from Oxford Bodl. MS Laud 610, which has a close connection to Boand I. In the second section, I discuss changes which occur between variants of the prose article on Boand. The outcome of the present enquiry demonstrates how studying individual Dindṡenchas articles broadens our knowledge of the dynamics and growth of the entire corpus. The results of this investigation also have an impact on our understanding of the recensions of the Dindṡenchas

Detecting Fake Reviews: Just a Matter of Data

Along with the ever-increasing portfolio of products online, the incentive for market participants to write fake reviews to gain a competitive edge has increased as well. This article demonstrates the effectiveness of using different combinations of spam detection features to detect fake reviews other than the review-based features typically used. Using a spectrum of feature sets offers greater accuracy in identifying fake reviews than using review-based features only, and using a machine learning algorithm for classification and different amounts of feature sets further elucidates the difference in performance. Results compared by benchmarking show that applying a technique prioritizing feature importance benefits from prioritizing features from multiple feature sets and that creating feature sets based on reviews, reviewers and product data can achieve the greatest accuracy

Quantitative Validation of a Habitat Suitability Index for Oyster Restoration

Habitat suitability index (HSI) models provide spatially explicit information on the capacity of a given habitat to support a species of interest, and their prevalence has increased dramatically in recent years. Despite caution that the reliability of HSIs must be validated using independent, quantitative data, most HSIs intended to inform terrestrial and marine species management remain unvalidated. Furthermore, of the eight HSI models developed for eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) restoration and fishery production, none has been validated. Consequently, we developed, calibrated, and validated an HSI for the eastern oyster to identify optimal habitat for restoration in a tributary of Chesapeake Bay, the Great Wicomico River (GWR). The GWR harbors a high density, restored oyster population, and therefore serves as an excellent model system for assessing the validity of the HSI. The HSI was derived from GIS layers of bottom type, salinity, and water depth (surrogate for dissolved oxygen), and was tested using live adult oyster density data from a survey of high vertical relief reefs (HRR) and low vertical relief reefs (LRR) in the sanctuary network. Live adult oyster density was a statistically-significant sigmoid function of the HSI, which validates the HSI as a robust predictor of suitable oyster reef habitat for rehabilitation or restoration. In addition, HRR had on average 103–116 more adults m−2 than LRR at a given level of the HSI. For HRR, HSI ≥ 0.3 exceeded the accepted restoration target of 50 live adult oysters m−2. For LRR, the HSI was generally able to predict live adult oyster densities that meet or exceed the target at HSI ≥ 0.3. The HSI indicated that there remain large areas of suitable habitat for restoration in the GWR. This study provides a robust framework for HSI model development and validation, which can be refined and applied to other systems and previously developed HSIs to improve the efficacy of native oyster restoration

Continuous-Flow Asymmetric Hydrogenation of the β-Keto Ester Methyl Propionylacetate in Ionic Liquid–Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Biphasic Systems

A continuous-flow process for the asymmetric hydrogenation of methyl propionylacetate as a prototypical β-keto ester in a biphasic system of ionic liquid and supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) is presented. An established ruthenium/2,2′-bis(diphenylphosphino)-1,1′-binaphthyl (BINAP) catalyst was immobilised in an imidazolium-based ionic liquid while scCO2 was used as mobile phase transporting reactants in and products out of the reactor. The use of acidic additives led to significantly higher reaction rates and enhanced catalyst stability albeit at slightly reduced enantioselectivity. High single pass conversions (>90%) and good enantioselectivity (80–82% ee) were achieved in the first 80 h. The initial catalyst activity was retained to 91% after 100 h and to 69% after 150 h time-on-stream, whereas the enantioselectivity remained practically constant during the entire process. A total turnover number of ∼21,000 and an averaged space-time yield (STYav) of 149 g L−1 h−1 were reached in a long-term experiment. No ruthenium and phosphorus contaminants could be detected via inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) in the product stream and almost quantitative retention by the analysis of the stationary phase was confirmed. A comparison between batch-wise and continuous-flow operation on the basis of these data is provided