A Relative Impact Ranking of Political Studies In Ireland

Against a background of the Irish government’s concerns with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and the British government’s wishes for a more quantitative Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), our study conducts a relative impact assessment of the study of politics, government, political science, and international relations in Ireland. Impact is measured as citations from the publications of permanent staff in eight Irish politics departments, based on data compiled in April 2008 from two leading academic indexes – ISI’s Web of Science and Scopus – as well as the now popular Google Scholar. We discuss some of the criticisms that naturally arise in a study of this nature. Then, following similar exercises in other disciplines (e.g. economics), we use the impact measures to compare and rank individual scholars as well as departments. We also explore the extent to which the choice of different indexes, and different measures, influences the results that we obtain. While there are differences, in particular between indexes based purely on articles and those that access books and other material, the results from the different indexes are strongly correlated.

European Parliament elections and EU governance

The decision to establish direct elections to the European Parliament was intended by many to establish a direct link between the individual citizen and decision making at the European level. Elections were meant to help to establish a common identity among the peoples of Europe, to legitimise policy through the normal electoral processes and provide a public space within which Europeans could exert a more direct control over their collective future. Critics disagreed, arguing that direct elections to the European Parliament would further undermine the sovereignty of member states, and may not deliver on the promise that so many were making on behalf of that process. In particular, some wondered whether elections alone could mobilise European publics to take a much greater interest in European matters, with the possibility of European elections being contested simply on national matters. Evaluating these divergent views, the subject of this article is to review the literature on direct elections to the European Parliament in the context of the role these elections play in governance of the European Union. The seminal work by Reif and Schmitt serves as the starting point of our review. These authors were the first to discuss elections to the European Parliament as second-order national elections. Results of second-order elections are influenced not only by second-order factors, but also by the situation in the first-order arena at the time of the second-order election. In the 30 years and six more sets of European Parliament elections since the publication of their work, the concept has become the dominant one in any academic discussion of European elections. In this article we review that work in order to assess the continuing value of the second-order national election concept today, and to consider some of the more fruitful areas for research which might build on the advance made by Reif and Schmitt. While the concept has proven useful in studies of a range of elections beyond just those for the European Parliament, including those for regional and local assemblies as well as referendums, this review will concentrate solely on EP elections. Concluding that Reif and Schmitt’s characterisation remains broadly valid today, the article allows that while this does not mean there is necessarily a democratic deficit within the EU, there may be changes that could be made to encourage a more effective electoral process

Phase Space Reconstruction and Nonlinear Equilibrium Dynamics in the United States Beef Market

This paper investigates dynamic interactions in the US beef market using phase space reconstruction, which has been developed to analyze nonlinear dynamical systems. This approach provides important and unique empirical insights into consumers behavior in the beef market. Our results from a phase space reconstruction analysis demonstrate distinct differences between intertemporal short run impacts from food safety outbreaks (e.g., E. Coli) and longer run health effects (e.g., cholesterol). Adjustments due to factors such as cholesterol are permanent changes and do not affect the manner by which people consume, while consumers react to food safety scares by adjusting consumption for a short period of time and then returning to their normal steady state cycle of consumption.nonlinear time series, phase space reconstruction, food safety, health effects, Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing,

An On-Line Virtual Environment For Teaching Statistical Sampling And Analysis

Regardless of the related discipline, students in statistics courses invariably have difficulty understanding the connection between the numerical values calculated for end-of-the-chapter exercises and their usefulness in decision making. This disconnect is, in part, due to the lack of time and opportunity to actually design the experiments and collect the data. The prototypes proposed in this project were developed to allow students to design experiments and collect data in relevant settings without the impediments to real data collection. The virtual environments attempt to replicate real situations of interest in which students can design and run experiments, devise alternative sampling strategies, analyze the results of experiments, and relate the result to the original experiment. The setting and underlying data set detailed in this paper were developed to allow students to experience a wide range of statistical concepts typically found in introductory statistic courses, such as basic descriptive statistics, estimation, hypothesis testing, ANOVA, and regression. Assessments of student knowledge after using this approach have shown marked increases in students understanding of statistical concepts, especially confidence intervals and hypothesis testing. Specific details about the data set are provided as are suggestions for using it in an introductory statistics class. Potential uses and examples for a variety of disciplines are also included

The Dostoevsky 3D Printing Project

The Dostoevsky 3D printing project grew out of a series of energetic conversations with Carol Apollonio and Brian Armstrong at the 2016 ASEEES Conference in Washington D.C. The bobble head that we devised would serve not only as a prize at the 2017 Duke-UNC Dostoevsky Games in Durham, but also as a prospective merchandise offering for the North American Dostoevsky Society. These items can be manufactured by anyone with access to a 3D printer

Pesticide Partitioning In Louisiana Wetland Aand Ricefield Sediment

Pesticides are used globally and are often found within bodies of water. The EPA investigates the potential environmental impact through computer modeling in order to help mitigate some of the regulatory burden of pesticide fate investigation. Currently when pesticides enter a water body, the Exposure Analysis Modeling System (EXAMS) estimates partitioning depth as 5 cm and assumes equal distribution. This assumption was tested with a wide variety of pesticides with varying Koc ranges and water solubilities. Savillex 150 ml Teflon tubes were filled with wetland and ricefield sediments with fresh and seawater as the aqueous phase. The seven pesticides tested included, quinclorac, bentazon, 2,4-D, atrazine, dicloran, flutolanil, and trifluralin had reported Koc ranges as low as 20 and as high as 15800. Pesticides were sprayed onto the top layer of water and allowed to partition over 24 hours. Once suspended, 0.5 cm segments were sonicated and analyzed by Agilent 1260 Infinity High Performance Liquid Chromatography. Normalized applied mass percentages were calculated by comparison to pesticide standards that ran simultaneously with all samples. The majority of pesticides were found in the overlying water layer and within the first 0.5 cm of sediment. Salinity of the aqueous phase was shown to increase pesticide sediment concentration, but did not increase partitioning depth

Studies of Intestinal Lymphoid Tissue. XI – The Immunopathology of Cell-Mediated Reactions in Gluten Sensitivity and Other Enteropathies

Computerised image-analysis was used to quantitate small intestinal mucosae from celiac sprue and dermatitis herpetiformis patients, Gambian children with tropical-sprue-like malabsorption, first-degree celiac sprue relatives, and treated celiac sprue patients during challenge with a peptic-tryptic digest of gluten. A wide range of mucosal appearances was observed. Typically, \u27flat\u27 lesions (Type 2) revealed a reduced number of epithelial lymphocytes that were large and mitotically active. At the other extreme, mucosal architecture was relatively well preserved (Type 1) but surface epithelium contained an expanded population of small, non-mitotic lymphocytes, with or without crypt hyperplasia. Similar changes were observed in one-third of celiac relatives and following small dose gluten challenge. Larger dose challenges revealed a transition from Type 1 to Type 2 lesions over a 5-day period. Studies in a few patients over 2-4 years showed a similar type of progression. A major feature of this sequence was early appearance of crypt hypertrophy while villi persisted, indicating a role for factors other than increased loss of enterocytes from surface epithelium. These changes parallel the T lymphocyte-mediated events in graft-versus-host reactions in animals. It is thus concluded that the spectrum of immunopathologic changes observed in gluten sensitivity is fundamentally a cell-mediated effect, the degree of change being controlled by host genetic factors. In becoming flat, it appears obligatory for the mucosa to evolve through the earlier Type 1 lesion in which crypt hypertrophy is a prominent response

Floristic dynamics of Appalachian pine-oak forests over a prescribed fire chronosequence

Vegetation dynamics after prescribed fire were modeled on three mountains in the George Washington National Forest representing a chronosequence of conditions since burning: pre-burn, and 1, 2 and 12 years post-treatment. Vegetation structure was more affected by environmental and spatial (burn intensity) gradients than by time since burning. Significant fire effects occurred on southwest aspects and upper slopes, especially among the sapling and shrub strata. Pine and oak regeneration abundance was not affected by fire but shade tolerant tree seedlings decreased, and shade intolerant seedlings increased in importance as a result. Percent cover and richness of herbaceous species increased, partly due to the post-fire germination and growth of various forbs and graminoids. Fire did not affect the abundance of exotic invasive species, but its effects on Ailanthus altissima were inconclusive. Low overstory mortality and prolific sprouting of ericaceous shrubs suggests that understory vegetation effects from single burns are temporary