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Do parties' valence characteristics affect their policy strategies? The verdict of the spatial modeling literature on the positioning effects of valence is mixed on this point. Some spatial studies argue that valence-advantaged parties/candidates should moderate their policies, while others argue that they should radicalize their policies. Empirical cross-national work on this issue has been lacking. Using an original measure of valence and party positioning data compiled by the Comparative Manifesto Project, the period 1976–2003 is analyzed in this article for nine West European countries. The findings suggest that as parties' character-based valence attributes worsen they tend tomoderatetheir Left–Right positions, and there is a notable time lag in parties' responses to changes in their character-based valence attributes.

AbstractThis article examines Ottoman Armenian attitudes toward the Tanzimat reforms, particularly in relation to the situation of provincial Armenians. Even though implementation of the reforms was slow and marked by setbacks, the promises embedded in them raised expectations of change among Armenians in both Istanbul and the provinces. In response, individuals in these areas equipped themselves with knowledge of the language and principles of the Tanzimat. They interpreted and utilized these for their own purposes, sometimes not as the Ottoman government intended. In this sense, the Tanzimat was not merely a top-down state project; it was also pluralized through interactions between the government and its subjects. Exploring how non-Muslims negotiated the Tanzimat enables reconsiderations of the Muslim-elite-centered historiography on the reforms.

C'est avec ironie que l'artiste Dana Wyse détaille des pilules miracles promettant succès et bonheur. Mettant en avant la pression consumériste exercée par les sociétés occidentales, mais également leurs injonctions implicites prescrivant l'être (Guarantee the Heterosexuality of your Child, 1997), ces gélules renvoient à la notion de choix, restreinte à l'intérieur de possibilités discursives préétablies, mais conférant un certain pouvoir aux individus désirant se reconnaître sujets en dehors des normes identitaires (Disco Dan's D.I.Y Sex Change Kit for Men, 2003). Cependant, certaines incongruités mènent le consommateur ou la consommatrice à douter de la véracité du produit et à percevoir l'ambiguïté ironique de l'oeuvre, ce qui favorise une réflexion critique sur les concepts d'authenticité, de devenir et de normes identitaires.

The article examines how the structure of party systems, that is, effective number of political actors, electoral volatility, and shares of dominant party votes and seats, affect the initiation and direction of electoral reform in post-communist democracies. Based on a dataset of electoral rule changes in post-communist democracies from 1992 to 2008, we analyze the frequency and direction of reforms over time. The findings reveal that the frequency of reforms declines with successive electoral cycles but not to the degree suggested by theories of institutional inertia. Countries with high levels of voter volatility are more likely to engage in reforms; however, the findings in this article demonstrate that politicians react to volatility by inconsistently choosing between permissive and restrictive responses.

At its most basic level, this forecast of the 2012 presidential election performed successfully. The model forecasted the reelection of President Obama. With 53.8% of the two-party vote; he ended up with 51.8% (as of November 28, 2012), yielding an error of 2.0 percentage points. Prior to 2012 the average out-of-sample forecasting error was 3.34 points. Here, the model does better than the average of the previous years by almost a point. Running the model with the added data point does not change matters appreciably. The economic item increases slightly and the logged time in the White House item weakens slightly. The overall fit of the model is just a bit lower.

This work is focused on the observation of the influence of cold atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) on a modification of textile samples. The main objective of the experiment is to research wettability change of textiles modified by different exposure times and also the observation of the influence of a modification ageing effect. An ambient air was used as a working gas for DBD plasma. The wettability evaluation was carried out by a drop method, in which an imprint of the dropwas observed on the textile surface during various time intervals. An ageing effect of the modification was monitored within an interval of 28 days. Considerable increase of wettability of all modified samples has been proved. A fibre surface analysis was carried out by means of SEM.

Conference Theme: Educational Reform and Social Change: East-West Dialogue ; 主題: 教育改革與社會變遷 ─ 東西方對話 ; Concurrent Session 1: Panel 2 (CS1.2): paper 5 ; The Conference program's website is located at http://www.fe.hku.hk/cerc/ceshk/doc/Conference%20Program_full.pdf ; Higher education in Korea has been rapidly expanded during last six decades. Not only the tertiary enrollment rate is the highest among OECD countries, but it also shows highest R&D investment recently. Government has adopted strong performance-based policies since 1990s to guarantee the quality of higher education. Despite of growth in higher education issues, higher education research in Korea has been very slowly progressed. There is . ; postprint

Political reforms in 1998 which was followed by afree and democratic elections in 1999, has a fairly fun-damental change relationship patterns that charac-terized the President and the Parliament many politi-cal parties that play a role in the constitutional struc-ture. Because it came back the idea of simplificationis a political party. efforts to simplify the number ofpolitical parties is a must in order to support an effec-tive presidential system of government, while the ef-fort to do that is by simplifying the number of politicalparties naturally through the electoral threshold,tighten the terms of the establishment of political par-ties dismaping it is also the reality that there is cur-rently a clear need for regulation of the coalition sys-tem.

Aboriginal children are currently overrepresented in out-of-home care in Canada; this extends a historical pattern of child removal that began with the residential school system. The overrepresentation of Aboriginal children persists despite legislative and structural changes intended to reduce the number of Aboriginal children in care. Several recent developments suggest potential for improvement in services for Aboriginal children and families in the near future. However, greater information about the structure of Aboriginal child welfare in Canada is needed to support program and policy development. We present a broad overview of the variation in Aboriginal child welfare legislation and standards, service delivery models, and funding formulas across Canadian provinces and territories. We draw on this review to suggest specific priorities for future research.

La Transición fue un periodo en el que la historieta underground floreció, dejando en sus viñetas un importante testimonio de los cambios que había experimentado la figura de la mujer, la sexualidad y los roles de las mujeres. Algunas historietas underground, no obstante, se limitaron a emplear a la mujer como objetos sexuales, pero en otras ocasiones se realizaron historietas con nuevas perspectivas en las que encontramos mujeres artistas ofreciendo su propia visión. ; Underground Spanish comics flourished with Spanish transition to democracy, showing important changes in female representation, sexuality and women roles. Some underground comics showed women as sexual objects but another ones adopted new approaches and offered women artists new opportunities to express their own visions.

How will we tell the story of LGBTQA people at VT in ten, fifteen, or twenty years? Since the 1990s, if not earlier, public universities around the country have gone through various queer pride and affirmation movements. Sometimes highly celebratory, sometimes political, sometimes contentious, sometimes planned and sometimes unexpected, these movements have brought important and powerful changes to educational institutions. In this event involving storytelling and questions about our past and future, we will discuss the possibilities for creating the kind of educational community that not only welcomes people who are LGBTQA, but makes it possible for them to consider VT a top choice. ; Virginia Tech. University Libraries ; DSA ; Multicultural Center ; A presentation, video and discussion

Kadhim's research at Oxford Brookes University into the 'non-targeted effects' of radiation has had extensive conceptual impact leading to reconsideration of the recommended dose limits permissible in both clinical and environmental contexts. Her research has been referenced by major international bodies such as UNSCEAR (United Nations) and has led to her advisory role to UK Government Departments through the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation. Her contribution to the 2013 report to the Department of Health has already impacted health risk assessment and clinical radiotherapy through its recommendations for new lower thresholds of dose levels to protect patient health. This has already contributed to changes in the clinical practice guidelines on low-dose radiation usage for CT scans.

The political perception of New Zealand's broadband market performance as 'poor' has underpinned many significant changes to the telecommunications policy and regulatory environments since 2001. Most recently, this has been manifested in substantial government subsidies by way of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for an ultra-fast broadband (UFB) network that promises to deliver fibre connections with upload/download speeds of 100Mbps/50Mbps to 75% of New Zealanders by 2019. In this context, the paper examines the different PPPs with respect to allocation of task and risks between private and public parties. We conclude that problems with the UFB initiative might emerge as demand risks are not sufficiently specified which might slow broadband adoption in New Zealand.

This article combines both international practice and analytical contributions into a systematic and synthetic presentation of the evolution of peace operations from their modern inception in 1948 to the present. It seeks to serve a didactic purpose in proposing a basic structure for Brazilian scholars' burgeoning debate on peace operations and intervention, rather than a definitive characterization of blue helmet practice. Peace operations' progression is traced through five analytical "generations," each adding a crucial factor distinguishing it from its predecessors. Each generation is placed in relation to changes in the nature of conflict and in the interpretation of the foundational principles of peace operations, and links to broader theoretical issues in International Relations are made explicit at each stage.

We investigate the changes in women's participation patterns across 15 EU countries over the last 20 years using individual data from ECHP and EUSILC databases. Our findings reveal a role of social policies and institutional factors that is stronger than what has so far been assessed. Labor market reforms explain almost 25% of the actual increase in labor force participation for young women, and more than 30% for highly educated women. The effects of labor market reforms on the participation of low skilled women in the labor force are instead surprisingly small. We also find that reforms of the institutional framework towards a model of flexicure labor market are effective in enhancing women labor supply only when deregulation is accompanied by sufficient social compensation.