Coalition politics and the making of Indian foreign policy: a new research program

ABSTRACT

Do Indian regional parties influence foreign policy and under which conditions? Some foreign policy studies have shown that certain coalition-building configurations have facilitated the inclusion of the concerns of small parties in the foreign policy debate. Other works have looked at the role of decentralization and federal power-arrangement in providing more control to political sub-units over the external affairs of a state. Those separate scholarships provide interesting insights to account for the multi-level nature of coalition-building in a federal and pluralistic polity like India. Bridging these two literatures, I argue that the interdependence of regional and national coalition building processes (visible in federal settings) create locked-in alliances between national parties and regional parties which affect foreign policymaking. In these contexts, India’s national parties have to, under certain conditions, take into account the preferences of regional parties when designing foreign policies. This article looks at the hypothesized causal mechanisms and expectations through two illustrative case studies of India’s foreign policy.     

Methods for detection and confirmation of Hematide™/peginesatide in anti-doping samples

Since the 1990's, cheating athletes have abused substances to increase their oxygen transport capabilities; among these substances, recombinant EPO is the most well known. Currently, other investigational pharmaceutical products are able to produce an effect similar to EPO but without having chemical structures related to EPO; these are the synthetic erythropoiesis stimulating agents (ESAs). Peginesatide (also known as Hematide?) is being developed by Affymax and Takeda and, if approved by regulatory authorities, could soon be released on the international market. To detect potential athletic abuse of this product and deter athletes who consider cheating, we initiated a collaboration to implement a detection test for anti-doping purposes. Peginesatide is a synthetic, PEGylated, investigational, peptide-based erythropoiesis-stimulating agent that is designed and engineered to stimulate specifically the erythropoietin receptor dimer that governs erythropoiesis. It is undetectable using current anti-doping tests due to its lack of sequence homology to EPO. To detect and deter potential abuse of peginesatide, we initiated an industry/antidoping laboratory collaboration to develop and validate screening and confirmation assays so that they would be available before peginesatide reaches the market. We describe a screening ELISA and a confirmation assay consisting of immune-purification followed by separation with SDS-PAGE and revelation with Western double blotting. Both assays can detect 0.5 ng/mL concentrations of peginesatide in blood samples, enabling detection for several days after administration of a physiologically relevant dose. This initial report describes experimental characterization of these assays, including testing with a blinded set of samples from a clinical study conducted in healthy volunteers.     

Restrictions of the sale of pharmaceuticals and medical devices such as contact lenses over the internet and the free movement of goods

In the light of new case law development, this article examines whether national restrictions on the online sale of pharmaceuticals and medical devices such as contact lenses are consistent either with EU secondary law, either with Article 34 TFEU that prohibits measures having equivalent effect to quantitative restrictions on imports. In particular, this article focuses on an analysis of two judgments on this important issue delivered by the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2003 and 2010, namely the Deutscher Apothekerverband decision and the Ker-Optika decision.     

Medical responsibility in the operating room: the example of an amniotic fluid embolism

Amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) continues to be one of the most feared complications of pregnancy. A healthy 32-year-old woman died during delivery after a normal 39-week third pregnancy. The family filed a complaint with a criminal court as the causes of death appeared unclear. No risk factor associated with AFE was identified. Clinical presentation was typical, including sudden onset of cardiovascular and respiratory symptoms. Autopsy confirmed the histological diagnosis of amniotic embolism and excluded an iatrogenic cause of death or anesthetic malpractice. This article highlights the value of both antemortem records and histological features in establishing the diagnosis of AFE and demonstrates the fundamental importance of autopsy in an unexpected death related directly or indirectly to a medical procedure.     

Does Television Personalise Voting Behaviour? Studying the Effects of Media Exposure on Voting for Candidates or Parties

Scholars have long argued that politics has become personalised throughout the post Second World War era. Increasingly, focus shifts from policy to politicians' personal traits. The media – particularly television, it is argued – is the driving force in the process by focusing more on individual politicians and their personal traits than parties and their policy proposals. Empirically, it is not known whether the personalisation of media content affects the political behaviour of voters. Based on survey data from the 2009 Danish local elections (N = 3,336), this article explores the determinants of preferential voting – that is, voting for a specific candidate rather than a party. The findings show that institutional factors and individual characteristics are far better predictors of personalised voting behaviour than any measure of media exposure – and that viewing the main national news bulletins, as well as reading regional newspapers, have a similar positive effect. Thus, the study provides answers to the highly debated but rarely studied question of whether and how the media possibly personalise politics with regard to voting behaviour.     

Does punishment of minor sexual offences deter rapes? Longitudinal evidence from France

Using original French panel data, this paper investigates the relevance of the broken windows theory in case of an offence category featured by the absence of monetary benefits. Estimates from random and fixed effects models highlight the deterrent effect of sanctions for rapes and minor sexual offences. The enforcement activity of rapes is the most deterrent factor both for rapes and other sexual offences, compared with the rapes- and minor sexual offences-reducing impact of an increase in the enforcement activity for minor sexual offences. Our results cast doubt on the broken windows theory. From a normative perspective, it would be more efficient to deter the authors of rapes rather than those of less severe sexual offences.     

Arthropods of Forensic Importance on Pig Carrion in the Coahuilan Semidesert,Mexico

Abstract: This is the first report of an ongoing research to establish a sarcosaprophagous arthropod database in the Coahuilan semidesert. Seven pigs (Sus scrofa L.) were used as human models to determine succession in an open urban area during the 2007 winter–spring period. Arthropods were collected manually and from pitfall traps. Carcass biomass loss, as well as arthropod colonization, was recorded during 71 days postmortem. Five decomposition stages were identified during which most abundant orders were found to be Diptera, Coleoptera, and Hymenoptera. Lucilia sericata (Meigen), Chrysomya rufifacies (Macquart), Necrobia rufipes (DeGeer), Dermestes maculatus (DeGeer), Pheidole hyatti Emery, and Pogonomyrmex rugosus Emery stood out as dominant species.