The Internationalization of Finance and Defense in Postcommunist Poland

Poland; political economy; NATO; economic policy; institutionalisation; international relations; socialization; security/external

"Married, Single, or Gay?" Queerying and Trans-forming the Practices of Assisted Human Reproduction Services

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) people in North America have historically been categorized as “disfavoured reproducers” and, through various legal, social, and political means, have been denied the right to parent. The past 30 years, however, have been marked by staggering social, legal, and political change in relation to LGBTQ families and people across the LGBTQ spectrum in Canada are increasingly making use of Assisted Human Reproduction (AHR) services as part of their family-building processes. However, despite significant gains in social and legal recognition for LGBTQ people in Canada, LGBTQ people are often unhappily marginalized when they seek reproductive assistance and are brought under the rubric of a highly medicalized, profit-making system within which their bodies, and families, most often do not fit. Drawing on 40 qualitative interviews from the CIHR-funded Creating Our Families project, which was designed to explore the experiences of LGBT people with AHR services in Ontario, this dissertation explores the ways that LGBTQ identities and kinship structures are often misrecognized and, in many cases, unintelligible in the fertility clinic context. The assumptions of the heterosexual matrix, in alliance with the culture of the fertility industry, can result in violations or ruptures to the personhood of queer and trans people as they make their way through the clinic. The strategies that people adopt in order to enhance their flow through the clinic can at times contribute to these violations. The dissertation explores the contours of a more ethical relation between LGBTQ people and fertility clinics, and finally, considers some pedagogical issues related to what is at stake when health care providers are asked to adopt a stance of “not-knowing” that recognizes the radical alterity of the Other.

Choosing the Lesser of Two Evils: Explaining Multinational Banking Groups’ Push for Supranational Oversight in the EU

European Union SeriesFor decades before the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, West European nation-states maintained close political ties to their banks. Banks enjoyed regulatory forbearance and limited competition, while states cultivated national banking champions and a ready constituency for government debt. Europe’s economic crisis and the regulatory response have largely upended this erstwhile symbiotic relationship between many banks and their home states, however. In the debate since 2012 over European Banking Union, even within a framework of stricter regulation and centralized supervision in the European Central Bank, a surprising source of support for supranational authority has been from Europe’s multinational banking groups. This paper explains why banks, once beholden to and beneficiaries of national regulation and supervision, have opted instead to lobby for much more European-level oversight. I argue that states sowed the seeds of their own political marginalization vis-à-vis banks by encouraging, first, banks’ domestic consolidation and then their outward expansion. As banks became more international in orientation (and as a greater share of their revenue came from foreign markets) they became more interested in a single rulebook and consolidated supervisory authority, even at the expense of national forbearance. The paper thus argues that for multinational banking groups (but not their domestically-oriented counterparts) European Banking Union and “more Europe” generally represented the lesser of two evils when compared to continued national control.Pendant des décennies avant la crise financière mondiale de 2008, les États-nations d’Europe de l’ouest ont maintenu des liens politiques étroits avec leurs banques. Celles-ci ont bénéficié d’un assouplissement en matière de régulation et d’une concurrence limitée tandis que les États ont cultivé au niveau national des champions bancaires et ont préparé leur électorat à la dette gouvernementale. Cependant, la crise économique européenne et les réponses en matière de régulation ont largement renversé cette relation autrefois symbiotique entre plusieurs banques et leur État. Dans le débat sur l’Union bancaire européenne depuis 2012, les groupes bancaires multinationaux européens ont soutenu de façon surprenante l’idée d’une autorité supranationale, malgré un cadre de régulation plus strict, et d’une supervision centralisée de la Banque centrale européenne. Ce texte explique pourquoi les banques, autrefois redevables et bénéficiaires de la régulation et de la supervision nationale, ont opté en faveur de plus de surveillance européenne. Je montre que les États ont semé les graines de leur propre marginalisation politique vis-à-vis des banques, en encourageant, d'abord, la consolidation nationale des banques et ensuite, leur expansion externe. Comme les banques ont développé une orientation vers l’international (et qu’une plus grande part de leurs revenus provenaient des marchés étrangers), elles ont été davantage intéressées par un ensemble unique de règles et une autorité de surveillance consolidée, même aux dépens de la tolérance nationale. Ce texte soutient ainsi que pour des groupes bancaires multinationaux (et non pas leurs homologues orientés nationalement), l'Union bancaire européenne et "plus d'Europe" ont été généralement un moindre mal en comparaison d’un contrôle national continu.CÉRIUM ; Commission européenn

The Expression of Circadian Rhythms in the Non-Diapausing Mosquito Culex pipiens f. molestus

Mosquitos within the Culex pipiens species complex are primary vectors of West Nile virus in North America. The most common member of this complex in New Jersey, Cx. pipiens f. pipiens, is adapted to a temperate climate and females enter a diapause state as adults each winter. In contrast, its co-occurring sister taxon, Cx. pipiens f. molestus, is unable to enter the diapause state and both males and females continue feeding and breeding during winter months. Females additionally continue to lay eggs. The molestus form can do so because it is highly adapted to urban environments and is predominantly found in manmade underground locations. Prior studies have shown that the genes associated with circadian rhythms (i.e. ‘clock genes’) also influence the photoperiodic induction of diapause in Cx. pipiens. Here I investigated whether New World Cx. pipiens f. molestus maintains circadian rhythms despite its inability to enter a diapause state. The adult emergence of mosquitos reared in 12:12 light:dark, constant light, and constant dark had circular means in or around early scotophase (dark period). The adult emergence of mosquitos reared in the contrasting cycle of 12:12 dark:light had a circular mean after lights on, which was scotophase in the incubator. These results indicate that circadian rhythms in New World Cx. pipiens f. molestus are entrained by environmental cues during the larval period. Genetic analysis using BLASTn compared the expression of known clock genes in Cx. pipiens f. molestus and the closely related species Cx. quinquefasciatus. All known clock genes were expressed in Cx. pipiens f. molestus and suggest that the lack of diapause in these mosquitos is unlikely to be caused by major inactivating mutations in known clock genes

In Pursuit of Liberalism

Though the fall of the Soviet Union opened the way for states in central and eastern Europe to join the world of market-oriented Western democracies, the expected transitions have not been as easy, common, or smooth as sometimes perceived. Rachel A. Epstein investigates how liberal ideas and practices are embedded in transitioning societies and finds that success or failure depends largely on creating a social context in which incentives held out by international institutions are viewed as symbols of an emerging Western identity in the affected country.Epstein first explains how a liberal worldview and institutions like the European Union, World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization go hand-in-hand and why Western nations assume that a broad and incremental program of incentives to join will encourage formerly authoritarian states to reform their political and economic systems. Using Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Ukraine as case studies, she demonstrates the limits of conditionality in the face of national social perceptions and elucidates the three key points around which a consensus within the state must emerge before international institutions can expect liberalization: domestic officials must be uncertain about how changing policies will affect their interests; the status of international and domestic institutions must not be in jeopardy; and the proposed polices must seem credible. In making her case, Epstein cleverly bridges the gap between the rationalist and constructivist schools of thought.Offering new data on and fresh interpretations of reforming central bank policies, privatizing banks with foreign capital, democratizing civil-military relations, and denationalizing defense policy, In Pursuit of Liberalism extends well beyond the scope of previous book-length studies

Pathways to Catching Up and Falling Behind

In this paper we seek to explain why bank performance has varied so dramatically during and after the financial crisis on Europe’s periphery, both across states and within them. Our dependent variable is bank performance defined in terms of credit provision and banks’ contribution to financial stability. Our independent variable is the particular mix at play between political/social purpose and what we call ‘market authority’ - the importance of market incentives, signals and pricing within a particular financial ‘ecosystem’. “Economic nationalism” or the politicization of local and regional banks has often imbued banks with social and political goals, serving the economy at different levels, and is one major source of political/social purpose. But the latter must be constrained by market authority. We argue that for optimal bank performance, economic nationalism or political/social purpose must be constrained by market authority, otherwise a political logic (e.g. cronyism, a lack of professionalism, and deficits in banking expertise) can easily subvert or distort credit provision and undermine financial stability

Random strings and tt-degrees of Turing complete C.E. sets

We investigate the truth-table degrees of (co-)c.e.\ sets, in particular, sets of random strings. It is known that the set of random strings with respect to any universal prefix-free machine is Turing complete, but that truth-table completeness depends on the choice of universal machine. We show that for such sets of random strings, any finite set of their truth-table degrees do not meet to the degree~0, even within the c.e. truth-table degrees, but when taking the meet over all such truth-table degrees, the infinite meet is indeed~0. The latter result proves a conjecture of Allender, Friedman and Gasarch. We also show that there are two Turing complete c.e. sets whose truth-table degrees form a minimal pair.Comment: 25 page

Finding Consensus on Integrating Neuroeducation into Trauma-Informed Counseling Practice: A Delphi Study

A Delphi Study was carried out to investigate what experts considered essential components for integrating neuroeducation into trauma-informed counseling practice. After initial recruitment, a total of 14 trauma-informed counseling experts participated in a 4-round Delphi Study, in which main areas of brain education and associated educational methods were identified. Additionally, a richer description of the perceived impact of neuroeducation on clients was discussed. The results of this Delphi Study support the integration of a number of neuroeducation topics and methods into trauma-informed counseling practice and further support the need for incorporation of neuroeducation into counselor education and supervision