Intra-Campaign Changes in Voting Preferences: The Impact of Media and Party Communication

An increasing number of citizens change and adapt their party preferences during the electoral campaign. We analyze which short-term factors explain intra-campaign changes in voting preferences, focusing on the visibility and tone of news media reporting and party canvassing. Our analyses rely on an integrative data approach, linking data from media content analysis to public opinion data. This enables us to investigate the relative impact of news media reporting as well as party communication. Inherently, we overcome previously identified methodological problems in the study of communication effects on voting behavior. Our findings reveal that campaigns matter: Especially interpersonal party canvassing increases voters’ likelihood to change their voting preferences in favor of the respective party, whereas media effects are limited to quality news outlets and depend on individual voters’ party ambivalence.     

The many lives and deaths of Sofia Kovalevskaia: approaches to women's role in scholarship and culture in grmany at the turn of the twentieth century

This article examines the ways in which the scientific work, life, and death of Sofia Kovalevskaia, the first female professor of mathematics in modern Europe, were represented in approaches to women's role in scholarship and culture in Germany at the turn of the twentieth century. Kovalevskaia's greatest scholarly successes and early death coincided with the period of most intense debate on women's admission to higher education in Germany, and her example came to be extensively discussed by supporters and opponents alike. The various ways in which the story of the woman mathematician was portrayed were symptomatic of what was at stake in the question of women's entry to university in the German Empire.     

Beyond evidence versus truthiness: toward a symmetrical approach to knowledge and ignorance in policy studies

Policy Sciences - Current political developments in established liberal democracies in both Europe and North America have fundamentally called into question the normative relations between truth,...     

Why Do Adolescents Overestimate Their Peers' Smoking Prevalence? Correlates of Prevalence Estimates Among California 8th-Grade Students

Adolescents' estimates of their peers' smoking prevalence can influence their own smoking behavior. However, it is not clear how these prevalence estimates are formed, or what factors influence their accuracy. This study used data from a statewide sample of 5870 8th-grade adolescents in California to examine the correlates of smoking prevalence estimates. Best friends' smoking accounted for the largest proportion of the variance in prevalence estimates. Other significant correlates included female gender, actual smoking prevalence in the student's school, perceptions of smoking on TV, perceived access to cigarettes, low academic performance, cigarette offers, and ethnicity. The variables in the model accounted for 23.8% of the variance in smoking prevalence estimates. Adolescents with smokers in their social networks and schools may be especially susceptible to smoking, because their peers' smoking may give them the impression that smoking is more normative and prevalent than it actually is.     

Representation of cerebral bridging veins in infants by postmortem computed tomography

The postmortem diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, a severe form of child abuse, may be difficult, especially when no other visible signs of significant trauma are obvious. An important finding in shaken baby syndrome is subdural haemorrhage, typically originating from ruptured cerebral bridging veins. Since these are difficult to detect at autopsy, we have developed a special postmortem computed tomographic (PMCT) method to demonstrate the intracranial vein system in infants. This method is minimally invasive and can be carried out conveniently and quickly on clinical computed tomography (CT) systems. Firstly, a precontrast CT is made of the infant's head, to document the original state. Secondly, contrast fluid is injected manually via fontanel puncture into the superior sagittal sinus, followed by a repeat CT scan. This allows the depiction of even very small vessels of the deep and superficial cerebral veins, especially the bridging veins, without damaging them. Ruptures appear as extravasation of contrast medium, which helps to locate them at autopsy and examine them histologically, whenever necessary.     

Can process conditionality enhance aid effectiveness?

Can process conditionality enhance poverty reduction in developing countries? We address this question in a political-economic framework with political distortions on the recipient and the donor side. Process conditionality is a useful tool only if the international financial institutions hold all necessary information to assess the political situation in recipient countries and to select the true representatives of the poor into a participatory process. If they do not hold this information or if bureaucratic interests reduce their incentive to acquire this information, process conditionality loses its effectiveness.     

The Political Economy of the Enhanced HIPC-Initiative

Only three years after its endorsement bythe World Bank and the IMF, the HeavilyIndebted Poor Country (HIPC) – Initiativewas considerably altered and enhanced. Thispolicy shift can be explained as a resultof utility maximization behavior bynational and international politicians,international bureaucrats and NGO. Apolitico-economic model suggests that theoverall rise of HIPC default risk and thesymbolic value of the year 2000 have beenthe two major determinants of changes involume, eligibility, and conditionalityrequirements.