Making a Place for Alternative Technologies: The Case of Agricultural Bio‐Inputs in Argentina

This article characterizes the ways in which the actors in charge of designing and implementing public policies intervene to promote the emergence of alternatives to problematic technologies. It is based on a case study conducted in Argentina that focuses on initiatives to promote the development of biological agricultural inputs in the context of increasingly controversial chemical inputs. The study spotlights the political, institutional, and semantic efforts made by policy makers and public administrations to ensure these new inputs find their way into organizations and onto their agendas. Their work consists in attenuating the boundaries between chemical and biological inputs, and reducing opposition by creating categories and organizations that downplay potential dissension and highlight the possible coexistence of technological paradigms. Contrary to what the injunctions of technological substitution suggest, we show that putting alternative technologies on the public agenda depends largely on their inclusion in institutional and regulatory infrastructures originally designed for technologies that are likely to decline. More broadly, it relies on the construction of continuity between the two types of technologies.     

The Space Between: Demonization of Opponents and Policy Divergence

Prior research on policy conflicts indicates a tendency among policy actors to misperceive the influence of actors engaged in policy debates based on the degree of distance between their relative policy positions. This research develops a measure for assessing the degree and direction of the misperception effect. This measure is then utilized as a dependent variable to assess the relationship between theoretically relevant factors and the degree to which actors will exaggerate the influence of their opponents and allies. The research uses original survey data of policy actors engaged in the debate over hydraulic fracturing in New York. The results indicate misperceptions of relative influence are prevalent and most associated with the experience of a policy loss and holding relatively extreme policy beliefs. The findings provide new insight into factors that influence the demonization of political opponents. These insights are timely in the context of polarized debates over environmental and energy policy in the United States.     

Does online voting change the outcome? Evidence from a multi-mode public policy referendum

Do online and offline voters differ in terms of policy preferences? The growth of Internet voting in recent years has opened up new channels of participation. Whether or not political outcomes change as a consequence of new modes of voting is an open question. Here we analyze all the votes cast both offline (n = 5.7 million) and online (n = 1.3 million) and compare the actual vote choices in a public policy referendum, the world's largest participatory budgeting process, in Rio Grande do Sul in June 2014. In addition to examining aggregate outcomes, we also conducted two surveys to better understand the demographic profiles of who chooses to vote online and offline. We find that policy preferences of online and offline voters are no different, even though our data suggest important demographic differences between offline and online voters.     

Identifying the Causes of Issue Attention and Policy Change: Evidence from U.S. Offshore Oil and Natural Gas Drilling Policy, 2008

The flow of attention in the policy process is dynamic and disruptive. While we know changes in issue attention often result in policy change, the causal mechanisms underlying the different stages of the attention allocation process remain unclear. This article uses Punctuated Equilibrium Theory to examine an underdeveloped aspect of issue attention within policy‐making institutions: how specific policy indicators influence the entry and exit of issues on policy‐making agendas. Partisan issue attention in the House of Representatives is used to analyze a significant change to U.S. offshore oil and natural gas drilling policy in 2008. The results highlight how historically high gasoline prices precipitated a shift in attention to offshore drilling and subsequent policy change. Moreover, gasoline prices Granger‐cause attention to energy policy in partisan speeches over time. The analysis further reveals how competing policy frames and a salient focusing event shaped congressional and public discourse, leading to subsequent changes in attention. Taken together, the findings broaden our understanding of the policy process by identifying the specific forces behind the entry and exit of issues on the policy‐making agenda.     

米尔斯基和他的《俄国文学史》

"公爵同志"米尔斯基是20世纪二三十年代欧美和苏联文学界、知识界的重要人物之一,他充满突转的生活经历和坚忍不拔的文学活动构成文坛的一段传奇,甚或那一代俄国知识分子之命运的缩影和象征。他用英文撰写的《俄国文学史》被纳博科夫称为"用包括俄语在内的所有语言写就的最好一部俄国文学史",所谓"米尔斯基文学史"因其"折中主义"的文学史观、主客观统一的批评手法和极富个性的话语风格而独树一帜,被视为西方俄国文学研究的奠基之作,长期被欧美高校斯拉夫系用作俄国文学史教材,其影响历久不衰。     

Virtual anthropology: a preliminary test of macroscopic observation versus 3D surface scans and computed tomography (CT) scans

Virtual anthropology (VA) is based on applying anthropological methods currently used to analyse bones to 3D models of human remains. While great advances have been made in this endeavour in the past decade, several interrogations concerning how reliable these models are and what their proper use should be remain unanswered. In this research, a fundamental assumption of VA has been investigated: if the way we perceive and apply an anthropological method is truly similar when looking at bones macroscopically and through various 3D media. In order to answer, 10 skulls of known age and sex were scanned using a computed tomography (CT) scanner and a 3D surface scanner. Two observers separately applied a defined staging method to eight suture sites on these skulls, first looking at the bone macroscopically, then at the 3D surface scan, and finally on the CT scan. Two rounds of observation were carried out by each observer. Intra- and inter-observer error were evaluated, and two sample t-tests used to evaluate if the different types of medium used yielded significantly different observations. The results show a high degree of inter-observer error, and that data obtained from 3D surface scans differ from macroscopic observation (confidence level 95%, P ≤ 0.05). CT scans, in these settings, yielded results comparable to those obtained through macroscopic observations. These results offer many possibilities for future research, including indications on the kind of anthropological methods and anatomical landmarks that might be reliably transferable to the virtual environment. All current methods used in traditional anthropology should be tested, and if they prove unreliable, new techniques to analyse bones from virtual models should be developed.

Key points

• Large discrepancies between observation on dry bones and computer-generated 3D models (surface scans or CT scans) could lead to the re-evaluation of the suitability of traditional anthropological methods for application on 3D models.
• This preliminary study evaluates whether macroscopic, 3D surface scans, and CT scans viewings generate different observations.
• The results indicate that the data are not always coherent across all three media of observation.
• Explanations include the aspect given to the bone by the 3D software, differences between handling bones in real life versus on a computer, and level of expertise of the observers.

     

中国化妆品动物试验立法完善——与欧盟立法比较

对化妆品进行安全性评价及数据分析，离不开动物试验。欧盟最早通过立法规范化妆品动物试验，对他国相关立法具有重要的指导和借鉴意义。中国作为世界第三大化妆品市场，如果不禁止化妆品动物试验，不仅将面临化妆品动物福利贸易壁垒，而且无法进口未经动物试验的化妆品。中国应通过立法鼓励化妆品生产商使用动物“替代方法”研发新产品，并逐步禁止化妆品动物试验。     

以“4+3”管理手段为载体 探索采油厂基层队内部市场管理新途径

大庆油田有限责任公司第三采油厂在基层单位运用市场手段,探索实施"4+3"内部市场管理法。"4+3",即构建4个内部模拟市场,完善三项配套措施。实行"4+3"内部市场化管理模式两年来,基层队发生了深刻变化:员工自觉性明显提高;员工学习技术热情明显提高;员工挖潜增效意识明显提高;基层生产管理水平明显提高。     

华东地区汉族人群D2S1399和D5S2500基因座的遗传多态性研究

目的研究D2S1399和D5S2500基因座在中国华东地区汉族群体遗传多态性。方法应用PCR、聚丙烯酰胺垂直电泳及银染技术检测D2S1399和D5S2500基因座的遗传多态性。结果D2S1399和D5S2500基因座在中国华东汉族群体分别检出11个和9个等位基因,其观察杂合度(Ho)分别为0.745和0.807,多态信息含量(PIC)分别为0.850和0.750,个体识别能力(DP)分别为0.958和0.917,非父排除率(PE)分别为0.554和0.643。结论D2S1399和D5S2500两个基因座是高度多态性STR基因座,在法医学中有重要应用价值。