Advancing measures of innovation in the United States

This paper introduces major themes addressed in this special issue, which is based on NSF's Division of Science Resources Statistics (SRS) workshop Advancing Measures of Innovation—Knowledge Flows, Business Metrics, and Measurement Strategies, held on June 6-7, 2006 near Washington, D.C. The first two sections describe the workshop and provide a brief background on R & D and innovation metrics. The last section introduces the papers. They are based on selected workshop presentations along with additional invited papers.

Interests groups in Parliament: Exploring MPs’ interest affiliations (2000‐2011)

This research note presents an innovative dataset of Swiss MPs’ interest ties between 2000‐2011. The longitudinal analysis shows that the average number of interest ties per MP has more than doubled: from 3.5 in 2000 to 7.6 in 2011. Since the mid‐2000s, public interest groups have accounted for approximately one out of two ties between MPs and interest groups, showing the strongest increase during the period. However, when looking at the most present individual groups, important business groups dominate and appear well connected with the governmental parties of the political right. Finally, interest groups are also able to forge themselves a strategic presence within the parliamentary committees that are the most relevant for their policy issues. Next research steps include the assessment of the (un)biased access of interest groups to the parliamentary venue and their policy influence.     

Direct and Indirect Xenophobic Attacks: Unpacking Portfolios of Identity

Political Behavior - Political threats are typically conceptualized by scholars as targeting particular groups of people. We call for also conceptualizing threats as political attacks directed...     

La crisis de la deuda soberana y la reforma del artículo 135 de la constitución española

The following piece of paper is a critical approach to the amendment of the Article 135 of the Spanish Constitution, by means of which the principle of balanced budget and the restricting of the public expenditure are constitutionalized. This work consists of four different paragraphs: the first one, in which a chronological approach to the debt crisis in the Eurozone and the reform of the Article 135 of the Constitution are carried out; the second one, where the new features that the current Article 135 contain are presented; the third one, in which the critical analysis of the 2011 constitutional reform is now developed (around tour fundamental axes: content, procedure, time and purpose and significance); and the fourth one resulting with a number of final considerations.     

Mounting the Summit

<正>Women’s empowerment and peacekeeping missions get African Union leaders’attentionA head of state escaping arrest,Hollywood glamor,and rambling presidential soliloquies.Not the setting of a movie,but the points for which the 25th African Union(AU)Summit,held in South Africa’s Johannesburg from June 7 to 15,is likely to be remembered.While leaders gathered to discuss pressing issues of peace and security,gender equality,     

Commotio cordis as a result of a fight: Report of a case considered to be imprudent homicide

Commotio cordis is a clinic-pathological syndrome related to sudden death in young people involved in sports activities. It has been described, mainly, in athletes without previous cardiac anomalies who received a minor blow to the chest which produces ventricular fibrillation and cardiac arrest in the absence of structural damage to the ribs, sternum, or heart. There are few reported cases of commotio cordis associated with violent, non-sports related actions, which are commonly considered to be imprudent homicides. We present the case of a 20-year-old man, who was kicked in the chest during a fight; he suddenly collapsed although advanced cardio-respiratory resuscitation started shortly. Autopsy showed no cardiac lesions concluding that death was due to commotio cordis (blunt trauma to the chest). Toxicological analysis determined the presence of 5.14 mg/L benzoylecgonine in blood. On the basis of medico-legal investigation, the official prosecution considered the death to be imprudent homicide and the aggressor was sentenced to 4 years in prison. We emphasize the importance of the knowledge of the death circumstances through the witnesses’ testimony, prior to beginning the autopsy, to confirm this important medico-legal diagnosis. Arrhythmogenic effects of cocaine and its contribution in the production of these deaths are also exposed.     

A Calming Influence

A shimmering movement rustles millions of leaves and the trees seem to have taken on a life of their own.There was no wind blowing,which could only mean one thing.Birds—lots of them.The thousands of egrets that infest the dense forest at the entrance to the mystical Qingcheng Mountain are more