Harmony, Law, and Anthropology

A Review of Harmony Ideology: Justice and Control in a Zapotec Mountain Village by Laura Nade

Moral Victories: How Activists Provoke Multilateral Action , by Susan Burgerman, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001, 208 pp., $29.95 paper.

No abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/34848/1/10146_ftp.pd

La calidad de la democracia en América Latina: una visión comparada

[ES] Los estudios sobre la democracia en América Latina han ido más allá del análisis de las transiciones y la consolidación para preocuparse por hacer una evaluación comparativa y confiable de la calidad de la democracia. Esto requiere entender la democracia en términos multidimensionales. Así la calidad de la democracia es un continuo que varía con base al nivel alcanzado en cinco dimensiones interrelacionadas: decisión electoral, participación, respuesta a la voluntad popular, responsabilidad y soberanía. Con base en estas dimensiones el trabajo propone un índice específico para la calidad de la democracia en América Latina que permite no sólo comparar la calidad entre los países de América Latina y confrontarla con un objetivo ideal, sino que también hace posible determinar las fortalezas y debilidades específicas de cada país de la región con respecto a los elementos que conforman cada una de las dimensiones de la calidad de la democracia. Los indicadores utilizados para la construcción del índice incluyen evaluación de expertos, datos estadísticos agregados y encuestas de opinión pública.[EN] Studies on democracy in Latin America have gone beyond attention to transitions and consolidation to a concern with developing reliable comparative assessments of the quality of democracy. This requires conceptualization of democracy in multidimensional terms. Quality of democracy is a continuum that varies along a range of related dimensions: electoral decision, participation, responsiveness, accountability and sovereignty. Working with these dimensions, it is developed an index of quality of democracy in Latin America which allows comparing different countries as well as determining specific strengths and weaknesses of the quality o

Cold collisions of OH and Rb. I: the free collision

We have calculated elastic and state-resolved inelastic cross sections for cold and ultracold collisions in the Rb($^1 S$) + OH($^2 \Pi_{3/2}$) system, including fine-structure and hyperfine effects. We have developed a new set of five potential energy surfaces for Rb-OH($^2 \Pi$) from high-level {\em ab initio} electronic structure calculations, which exhibit conical intersections between covalent and ion-pair states. The surfaces are transformed to a quasidiabatic representation. The collision problem is expanded in a set of channels suitable for handling the system in the presence of electric and/or magnetic fields, although we consider the zero-field limit in this work. Because of the large number of scattering channels involved, we propose and make use of suitable approximations. To account for the hyperfine structure of both collision partners in the short-range region we develop a frame-transformation procedure which includes most of the hyperfine Hamiltonian. Scattering cross sections on the order of $10^{-13}$ cm$^2$ are predicted for temperatures typical of Stark decelerators. We also conclude that spin orientation of the partners is completely disrupted during the collision. Implications for both sympathetic cooling of OH molecules in an environment of ultracold Rb atoms and experimental observability of the collisions are discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 16 figure

Mobile phone-delivered reminders and incentives to improve childhood immunisation coverage and timeliness in Kenya (M-SIMU): a cluster randomised controlled trial

Background As mobile phone access continues to expand globally, opportunities exist to leverage these technologies to support demand for immunisation services and improve vaccine coverage. We aimed to assess whether short message service (SMS) reminders and monetary incentives can improve immunisation uptake in Kenya. Methods In this cluster-randomised controlled trial, villages were randomly and evenly allocated to four groups: control, SMS only, SMS plus a 75 Kenya Shilling (KES) incentive, and SMS plus 200 KES (85 KES = USD$1). Caregivers were eligible if they had a child younger than 5 weeks who had not yet received a first dose of pentavalent vaccine. Participants in the intervention groups received SMS reminders before scheduled pentavalent and measles immunisation visits. Participants in incentive groups, additionally, received money if their child was timely immunised (immunisation within 2 weeks of the due date). Caregivers and interviewers were not masked. The proportion of fully immunised children (receiving BCG, three doses of polio vaccine, three doses of pentavalent vaccine, and measles vaccine) by 12 months of age constituted the primary outcome and was analysed with logbinomial regression and General Estimating Equations to account for correlation within clusters. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01878435. Findings Between Oct 14, 2013, and Oct 17, 2014, we enrolled 2018 caregivers and their infants from 152 villages into the following four groups: control (n=489), SMS only (n=476), SMS plus 75 KES (n=562), and SMS plus 200 KES (n=491). Overall, 1375 (86%) of 1600 children who were successfully followed up achieved the primary outcome, full immunisation by 12 months of age (296 [82%] of 360 control participants, 332 [86%] of 388 SMS only participants, 383 [86%] of 446 SMS plus 75 KES participants, and 364 [90%] of 406 SMS plus 200 KES participants). Children in the SMS plus 200 KES group were significantly more likely to achieve full immunisation at 12 months of age (relative risk 1·09, 95% CI 1·02–1·16, p=0·014) than children in the control group. Interpretation In a setting with high baseline immunisation coverage levels, SMS reminders coupled with incentives significantly improved immunisation coverage and timeliness. Given that global immunisation coverage levels have stagnated around 85%, the use of incentives might be one option to reach the remaining 15%

How does democracy influence citizens' perceptions of government corruption? A cross-national study

We examine the effect of democracy as an institutional context on individuals’ perceptions of government corruption. To do so, we compile an integrated dataset from the Asian, Afro, and Latino Barometer Surveys and use a hierarchical linear regression model. Our primary finding is that the effect of democracy has different effects on ordinary citizens’ perceptions of corruption in different contexts. In general, people in countries with higher levels of democracy tend to perceive their governments to be more corrupt. However, more importantly, conditional models show that in countries with more developed democratic institutions, individuals with stronger democratic values are less likely to perceive the government to be corrupt. Moreover, people in such countries are less likely to assess their government based on their perceptions of economic situation