\u3ci\u3eBreard\u3c/i\u3e and the Federal Power to Require Compliance with ICJ Orders of Provisional Measures

Among the puzzling aspects of the Breard episode was the Clinton administration\u27s claim that the decision whether or not to comply with the Order of the International Court of Justice requiring the postponement of Breard\u27s execution lay exclusively in the hands of the Governor of Virginia. The ICJ\u27s Order provided that [t]he United States should take all measures at its disposal to ensure that Angel Francisco Breard is not executed pending the final decision in these proceedings. The Clinton administration argued that the Order was not binding, but it also took the position that, even if the order were binding, there would be no authority in the federal Government to require a postponement of the execution

Dynamics of gene expression and the regulatory inference problem

From the response to external stimuli to cell division and death, the dynamics of living cells is based on the expression of specific genes at specific times. The decision when to express a gene is implemented by the binding and unbinding of transcription factor molecules to regulatory DNA. Here, we construct stochastic models of gene expression dynamics and test them on experimental time-series data of messenger-RNA concentrations. The models are used to infer biophysical parameters of gene transcription, including the statistics of transcription factor-DNA binding and the target genes controlled by a given transcription factor.Comment: revised version to appear in Europhys. Lett., new titl

Voter Turnout in Direct Democracy: Theory and Evidence

We analyse voter turnout as a function of referendum types. An advisory referendum produces advice that a legislature may or may not take into account when choosing between two alternatives, whereas a binding referendum generates a decisive decision. In theory, voter turnout should be higher under binding than advisory referendums, higher in small than large electorates and higher in close than less close referendums. These predictions are corroborated by evidence from 230 local referendums in Norway. For example, a shift from an advisory to a semi-binding referendum leads to an average increase in voter turnout by 11.5 percentage points.Voting Behaviour; Referendum Types; Rational Choice

Comparing legislative mechanisms for SEA screening and decision-making: Austrian and Australian experiences

Austrian and Australian approaches to strategic environmental assessment (SEA) are compared with particular emphasis upon the legal basis for the initial phase of agreement/screening and the final stage of SEA decision-making and implementation. In Austrian SEA, screening is compulsory and the outcome leads only to recommendations, meaning that the SEA results have to be considered, but are not binding for the approval decision. In Australia engagement in SEA is largely voluntary but the process results in legally binding conditions of approval that can be applied to relevant actions arising from an assessed policy, plan or programme; the incentive for proponents to participate voluntarily is that subsequent project level activities may be exempt from further assessment processes. Compulsory SEA in Australia also provides a legally certain outcome, a factor of benefit to proponents. Examples of SEAs are provided to demonstrate the operation of the respective stages in the two countries. In Austria compulsory screening results in a lot of energy being spent avoiding triggering a full SEA. Although Australian proponents have been somewhat cautious in volunteering for SEA of their activities, there are signs that this is changing. We argue that the regulatory framework characteristics are a key determinant of the behaviour of proponents and the competent authority in practice and subsequently of SEA potential and outcomes. Consideration of the construct of the regulatory framework for SEA screening and decision-making provides a useful point of reflection for practitioners attempting to understand the effectiveness of SEA processes in a given jurisdiction

On Weight Matrix and Free Energy Models for Sequence Motif Detection

The problem of motif detection can be formulated as the construction of a discriminant function to separate sequences of a specific pattern from background. In computational biology, motif detection is used to predict DNA binding sites of a transcription factor (TF), mostly based on the weight matrix (WM) model or the Gibbs free energy (FE) model. However, despite the wide applications, theoretical analysis of these two models and their predictions is still lacking. We derive asymptotic error rates of prediction procedures based on these models under different data generation assumptions. This allows a theoretical comparison between the WM-based and the FE-based predictions in terms of asymptotic efficiency. Applications of the theoretical results are demonstrated with empirical studies on ChIP-seq data and protein binding microarray data. We find that, irrespective of underlying data generation mechanisms, the FE approach shows higher or comparable predictive power relative to the WM approach when the number of observed binding sites used for constructing a discriminant decision is not too small.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure and 4 table

Ultrasensitivity in phosphorylation-dephosphorylation cycles with little substrate

Cellular decision-making is driven by dynamic behaviours, such as the preparations for sunrise enabled by circadian rhythms and the choice of cell fates enabled by positive feedback. Such behaviours are often built upon ultrasensitive responses where a linear change in input generates a sigmoidal change in output. Phosphorylation-dephosphorylation cycles are one means to generate ultrasensitivity. Using bioinformatics, we show that in vivo levels of kinases and phosphatases frequently exceed the levels of their corresponding substrates in budding yeast. This result is in contrast to the conditions often required by zero-order ultrasensitivity, perhaps the most well known means for how such cycles become ultrasensitive. We therefore introduce a mechanism to generate ultrasensitivity when numbers of enzymes are higher than numbers of substrates. Our model combines distributive and non-distributive actions of the enzymes with two-stage binding and concerted allosteric transitions of the substrate. We use analytical and numerical methods to calculate the Hill number of the response. For a substrate with [Formula: see text] phosphosites, we find an upper bound of the Hill number of [Formula: see text], and so even systems with a single phosphosite can be ultrasensitive. Two-stage binding, where an enzyme must first bind to a binding site on the substrate before it can access the substrate's phosphosites, allows the enzymes to sequester the substrate. Such sequestration combined with competition for each phosphosite provides an intuitive explanation for the sigmoidal shifts in levels of phosphorylated substrate. Additionally, we find cases for which the response is not monotonic, but shows instead a peak at intermediate levels of input. Given its generality, we expect the mechanism described by our model to often underlay decision-making circuits in eukaryotic cells

COMMUNICATION AND COORDINATION IN THE LABORATORY COLLECTIVE RESISTANCE GAME

This paper presents a laboratory collective resistance (CR) game to study how different forms of non-binding communication among responders can help coordinate their collective resistance against a leader who transgresses against them. Contrary to the predictions of analysis based on purely self-regarding preferences, we find that non-binding communication about intended resistance increases the incidence of no transgression even in the one-shot laboratory CR game. In particular, we find that the incidence of no transgression increases from 7 percent with no communication up to 25-37 percent depending on whether communication occurs before or after the leader’s transgression decision. Responders’ messages are different when the leaders can observe them, and the leaders use the observed messages to target specific responders for transgression.Communication, Cheap Talk, Collective Resistance, Laboratory Experiment, Social Preferences

Empowering children in politics: evaluating a participative democratic programme

The objective of this study was to evaluate a participative democracy programme called Ágora infantil, carried out with students between the ages of 10 and 12. As in participatory budgets, the process is based on the research-action model (Lewin, 1946) and consists of the city council opening up decision-making on a part of the municipal budget or a concrete policy to the children of the municipality. This process of diagnosis, prioritization and decision-making was completed over the course of 5 to 7 sessions during school hours and implemented by the Coglobal association. Once the participants make a decision, the city council carries out the project selected in the municipality (the decision made is binding). The main goal of Ágora Infantil is to generate psychological empowerment and wellbeing amongst its participants, and to measure the effects of this programme on children’s psychological empowerment. To this end, we used Zimmerman´s model (Zimmerman, 1995; Zimmerman, 2000). The operationalization of the strengthening was based on: 1) knowledge of local politics (as a component of the interactional dimension of psychological empowerment) and 2) the self-perception of being able to influence the future of the municipality (component of the intrapersonal dimension of psychological empowerment). In addition, wellbeing was evaluated through the perception of being heard (Casas y Bello, 2012) and trust in the city council.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

A global decision-making model via synchronization in macrocolumn units

Poster presentation: Introduction We here address the problem of integrating information about multiple objects and their positions on the visual scene. A primate visual system has little difficulty in rapidly achieving integration, given only a few objects. Unfortunately, computer vision still has great difficultly achieving comparable performance. It has been hypothesized that temporal binding or temporal separation could serve as a crucial mechanism to deal with information about objects and their positions in parallel to each other. Elaborating on this idea, we propose a neurally plausible mechanism for reaching local decision-making for "what" and "where" information to the global multi-object recognition. ..