The parliamentary election and referendum in Belarus, October 2004

Belarus became an independent state in December 1991 on the dissolution of the USSR; and it became a presidential state under its constitution of March 1994. At the first election under that constitution, in July 1994, Alexander Lukashenko won a convincing mandate with 80% of the vote in a second-round runoff against the then prime minister, Vyacheslav Kebich. Once elected, Lukashenko moved quickly to extend the powers of his office, which soon brought him into conflict with the Belarusian parliament (then known as the Supreme Soviet) and the Constitutional Court. He sought to resolve this by calling a referendum, in May 1995, when a positive vote allowed him to expand his presidential powers. In November 1996, a further and more controversial referendum approved an extension of the presidential term and replaced the parliament with a smaller and wholly subordinate National Assembly (Natsional'noe Sobranie). This was effectively a constitutional coup, which paved the way for the establishment of an increasingly authoritarian regime

The Duma election in Russia, December 2007

No abstract available

Did states' motor voter programs help the Democrats?

The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 required all states to establish "motor voter," mail-in and agency registration procedures prior to the 1996 Presidential election. Using state-level data for the 1976-94 period on party registration, we analyze the party registration impacts of state programs that were precursors to the NVRA. "Active" motor voter programs roughly similar to those mandated by the NVRA are found to significantly increase the proportion of registrants on the rolls who are unaffiliated with either major party. Mail-in registration shows no impact on party registration, while agency registration significantly increases the Democratic share of the two-party registration total -- despite the fact that most agency programs in our sample period were far weaker than NVRA mandates.voting, elections

Evaluating Mobile Device Cleaning Policies in the NHS

Introduction The use of mobile devices within healthcare settings by staff, patients and visitors is widespread and growing. DoH guidance states that patients should be allowed the widest possible use of mobile phones. For staff mobile devices have become an essential aspect of their day-to-day professional and personal lives. There is, however, clear evidence that phones/tablets can be contaminated with pathogens, which may survive for prolonged periods before being transferred onto hands or other surfaces.   Methods A FoI request for “all current policies or guidelines that make reference to the use and management of mobile phones and tablet devices in the healthcare environment, by staff, service users, and visitors – this applies to both personal and institutionally-owned devices”, was sent to NHS institutions across England, Scotland and Wales with a response rate of 96% (n=252).   Results 22% of organisations had no policy in place, with ≈11% stating that this would be considered policy reviews. Organisations that acknowledged the issue responded that staff were informed of disinfection procedures: e.g. ‘the normal cleaning schedule’ or the use of universal sanitizing/detergent wipes. Many organisations referred to their Cleaning and Decontamination policy, however none of these explicitly mentioned mobile devices. Instead, the general advice for electrical devices was to follow manufacturer’s instructions, as using any other process might invalidate warranties. Where specific cleaning policies were in place they advocated the use of ‘general purpose/universal detergent wipes’ without any technical justification. Multiple organisations suggested that existing hand decontamination procedures were sufficient to address this issue.   Discussion There is no consistency in infection control advice regarding the potential risks posed by the use of mobile devices. Regular cleaning may be a solution, but there is little evidence evaluating the available methods. The literature in this field calls for clear evidence-based guidelines for cleaning and disinfecting mobile devices

Design and Assessment for Hybrid Courses: Insights and Overviews

Technology is influencing education, providing new delivery and assessment models. A combination between online and traditional course, the hybrid (blended) course, may present a solution with many benefits as it provides a gradual transition towards technology enabled education. This research work provides a set of definitions for several course delivery approaches, and evaluates five years of data from a course that has been converted from traditional face-to-face delivery, to hybrid delivery. The collected experimental data proves that the revised course, in the hybrid delivery mode, is at least as good, if not better, than it previously was and it provides some benefits in terms of student retention

Hybrid Course Delivery: Impact on Learning and Assessment

Technology is influencing education, blurring the boundaries of delivery modes. A combination between online and traditional teaching style, the hybrid/blended course, may present a solution with many benefits. This paper provides definitions of the different delivery approaches, and then evaluates four years of data from a course that has been converted from traditional face-to-face delivery, to a hybrid system. It is determined that the revised course, in hybrid delivery mode, is at least as good, if not better, than it previously was

GENIE observations of small scale astrophysical processes in star forming regions and quasars

The VLTI/GENIE configuration will operate using at least 4 of the VLTI telescopes (and possibly with one or more of the AT telescopes in the future if adaptive optics become available on them). GENIE effectively can be thought of as a 'smart' coronagraph, enabling high dynamic range imaging to be achieved at moderate spatial resolution, with high rejection of the emission of a central bright point source. However, but this bright source rejection may only provide a rather moderate image quality (due to the few baselines and transfer function on the sky). Operated in this way, only limited image reconstruction is possible since classical radio and millimeter wavelength interferometry techniques are not directly applicable to the outputs of optical interferometers because the absolute phases are generally not measured. However, measurements of visibility and closure phase could lead to situations where image reconstruction becomes possible. This paper addresses the issue of whether there are areas outside of the exoplanet search where it might be able to make a useful impact on astronomy.Comment: Proceedings of the Genie-Darwin Workshop - Hunting for Planet

The Bernstein Memorial Lecture: The First Six Years

CICLOPs, the Center for International & Comparative Law Occasional Papers, could not be launched with a better issue than one dedicated to Duke Law\u27s named lecture series in the field, the Annual Herbert L. Bernstein Memorial Lecture in Comparative Law. Herbert Bernstein was Duke\u27s much-beloved professor of comparative law. The lecture series, established in Prof. Bernstein’s honor after his sudden death in 2001, has drawn leading scholars from all around the world to speak at Duke Law School on comparative law. This first issue of CICLOPs contains the text of the first six lectures, some of them previously published in hard-to-access venues and some not at all. As such, it serves as a tribute not only to Herbert Bernstein, but also to Duke Law\u27s vibrant and active comparative law community, which encompasses both numerous faculty members and also students pursuing Duke\u27s JD/LLM degree in international and comparative law as well as other student groups. The issue contains all lectures in the order in which they were delivered