Correction to: Taxing Higher Incomes: What Makes the High-Income Earners Consent to More Progressive Taxation in Latin America?

Political Behavior - The article Taxing Higher Incomes: What Makes the High-Income Earners Consent to More Progressive Taxation in Latin America?, written by Sarah Berens and Armin von Schiller,...     

The Rebirth of Water as a Weapon: IS in Syria and Iraq

The so-called Islamic State (IS) has increasingly used water as a weapon in order to further its political and military aims in Syria and Iraq. In this water-scarce region, IS has retained water and cut off crucial supplies, flooded large areas as well as contaminated resources. The capture of large dams in the Euphrates and Tigris basin has made it possible to deploy the water weapon even more effectively and in a frequent, systematic, consistent and flexible manner. Measures to counter this weaponisation effectively have been limited to military means. However, several internal constraints create a dilemma for IS as its state-building ambitions conflict with the consequences of the weaponisation of water. The rebirth of using the water weapon in Syria and Iraq raises questions about protecting water infrastructures in conflict and post-conflict settings.     

Resisting democracy assistance: Who seeks and receives technical election assistance?

Why are some developing countries less open to technical election assistance than to election observation? My argument about who seeks and receives technical election assistance is two-fold, taking into account the incentives of recipients and providers. On the recipient side, governments are less likely to request technical assistance when the political costs are high (autocracy) or the benefits low (strong electoral institutions). On the provider side, international organizations are less likely to provide such technical assistance when the government appears to lack political will for reform and full project implementation is unlikely. Statistical analyses of global data on technical election assistance by the United Nations covering 130 countries from 1990 to 2003 support this argument about political cost-benefit calculations in considering technical assistance. Case examples from Guyana, Indonesia, Haiti, and Venezuela illustrate some of these dynamics. My findings suggest that seemingly complementary international interventions (observation and technical support) can create different incentives for domestic and international actors. This helps explain why some countries tend to agree more often to election observation than to technical election assistance.     

Quantification of mitochondrial DNA in human blood cells using an automated detection system

The 4977 bp deletion of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) accumulates in postmitotic tissues with advancing age. The purpose of our study was to detect and quantify these deletion even in blood cells with a high turnover activity. Whole venous blood, isolated human platelets and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were collected from 10 unrelated donors aged 20-71 years and total DNA was extracted. PCR was performed for total and mutated mtDNA using two different primer pairs and two fluorogenic probes labeled with the fluorescent dyes FAM and VIC. Specific PCR products were generated, detected and quantified in a real-time PCR. The amplification products of total and deleted mtDNA could be detected in each sample and did not exhibit any differences in the amount of the deleted mtDNA in whole blood, human platelets or PBMCs. Our data did not show any accumulation of the 4977 bp deletion with increasing age as it was observed for several other tissues.