Power Play: Mediation in Symmetric and Asymmetric International Crises

This study engages with the question: Do different types of natural disasters—droughts, earthquakes, floods, storms, and others—trigger political instability? It revisits an ongoing debate over the nature of association between disasters and conflict and reassesses this relationship using the model of conflict developed by the Political Instability Task Force as well as its data, measures of political instability, and methods of assessment. The study finds only marginal support for the impact of certain types of disasters on the onsets of political instability. The preexisting country-specific conditions, including the resilience of a state's institutions to crisis, account for most of the variance in the dependent variable. Once the characteristics of a state's political regime are taken into account, the effect of disasters weakens or disappears completely, suggesting that natural disasters become catalysts of political instability in only those states which are already prone to conflict.     

Distinguishing Characteristics of Robotic Writing

Advances in robotic handwriting technology create new challenges for forensic document examiners. In the past, devices such as the autopen were used to replicate signatures of government officials and corporate companies. In today's technology, companies such as Bond utilize robots to create written documents, which mimic natural patterns of handwriting. They generate customizable written samples by simulating pen movements and letter formations. Four forensic document examiners were given various reproduced questioned documents and utilized a modified ACE‐V (analysis, comparison, evaluation, verification) methodology to determine their genuineness. Examiners were able to make a distinction between the human writing samples and the skilled robotic equivalents. Several distinct features that are not seen in natural handwriting, such as even pen pressure and the superimposition of letterforms were observed in the robotic samples. Careful examination of identifying features of the Bond produced documents resulted in an opinion of nongenuineness.     

Multiple Symmetric Lipomatosis

A significant number of medicolegal deaths involve ethanol. Deaths may be related to the acute, intoxicating effects of ethanol, either in decedents or within persons responsible for causing the deaths of others. Additionally, deaths may be related to chronic alcoholism. A chronic alcoholic may display characteristic external features which allow an observer, such as a forensic pathologist or other physician, to conclude that he/she is probably an alcoholic. Herein, the authors report two decedents with a rare condition known as “multiple symmetric lipomatosis” (MSL), which has a strong correlation with chronic alcoholism. Identification of the peculiar features associated with MSL should prompt the forensic pathologist to consider chronic alcoholism as a probable diagnosis.     

Effort,incentives, and culture in the Czech Senate

This paper uses the natural experiment of seat allocation in the first Czech Senate to assess the effects of incentives on legislative effort. Contrary to previous work using similar research designs, the incentive of longer terms has little effect on the effort levels of legislators. This may reflect the parliamentary context, the newness of the Czech Senate, or, most interestingly, political culture.     

An experimental investigation of voter myopia in economic evaluations

A prevalent assumption in the economic voting literature is that voters’ retrospective evaluations are based on very recent outcomes only, that is, they are myopic. I test this assumption by drawing on a population-based survey experiment from Turkey. Turkey presents a good opportunity to explore voters’ time horizons for economic voting: the long tenure of the same single-party government entailed periods of both good and poor performance, and its overall record to date has been better than its immediate predecessors. I find that voters can provide divergent assessments of incumbent’s performance in managing the economy over different time periods that are in line with the country’s macroeconomic trajectory. Moreover, voters’ evaluations of the incumbent’s performance during its entire tenure have a stronger effect on economic vote than their shorter-term evaluations, defying voter myopia. I provide evidence that long-term outcomes might weigh heavier in voters’ considerations than commonly assumed.     

西方自然法学派主要权利理论解读

社会法学派是现代西方法学派的主要派别之一,其本质是现实主义法学。权利理论来源于庞德的社会学法学,其基本理论主张表现为对过去法律权利制度的批判,重视“实际的法”而排斥“书本的法”。对其主要代表人物庞德、塞尔兹尼克和卢曼的权利理论进行解读,明确法律的任务或作用并不是创造利益,而只是承认、确定、实现和保障利益或权利,从而使法律成为调整和控制社会经济的有力工具,追求社会利益的最大化和社会秩序的条理化。     

天然气水合物—21世纪新能源

天然气水合物俗称"可燃冰",是一种具有巨大潜能的新型非常规能源资源.据科学家预测,它在自然界中的储量约为石油、煤炭、天然气总和的2倍.文中介绍了天然气水合物的储藏、科学研究情况及其作为一种新能源的优越性.     

“善良的“还是“无害的“——诺齐克政治哲学中的道德约束

在古代社会,“善良的“是国家对个人的要求.洛克在反对中世纪教会专制和绝对君主论的基础上提出:自由人在契约的基础上建立或废黜政府是合理的,因此,国家对个人的要求是受到大多数人对国家的要求限制的.诺齐克在洛克的基础上进一步提出:人的自由只有在自然权利的道德边际约束下产生的国家中才能得到保障,只有国家对个人自由权利的无害,才能确保个人对他人的无害.因此,国家对自由人的要求只能是“无害的“而不是“善良的“,“善良的“只能是个人对自己生活的道德要求.诺齐克没能解决当一个人无法保障自己的自然权利时,国家如何保障其自然权利的问题.只有建立在历史唯物主义基础上的道德边际约束递减律,才能有效解决这一问题.     

论庄子的生态环境伦理思想

作为伦理学发展的重要前沿之一的生态环境伦理,已经成为关系人类生存发展的重要理论领域.而早在庄子的思想中就已经存在着许多优秀的生态环境伦理思想.如"物无贵贱"、"道法自然"、"物我两忘"等等.这些思想对今天生态环境伦理的研究,有着十分重要的意义.     

鸡大肝和大脾病的组织病理学研究

对大肝和大脾（ＢＬＳ）病自然感染病鸡和２组人工发病鸡进行了组织病理学观察，结果表明，肝和脾是ＢＬＳ病的主要靶器官，组织病理学特征表现为肝和脾组织变性、坏死以及大量淋巴细胞、浆细胞和巨噬细胞呈围管性、结节状或弥漫性增生。人工接种病例显示，ＢＬＳ病的动态发展过程中肝细胞从颗粒变性、脂肪变性发展为坏死。在疾病的不同阶段出现不同的细胞增生，初期以淋巴细胞、浆细胞增生为主，中期以巨噬细胞增生为主，稍后又出现以淋巴细胞为主的增生反应，最后细胞增生停止。脾在细胞增生方面与肝一致。