Search results for "CRA"

Young People and Political Activism in Moldova

2020

The election of a Socialist and pro-Russian candidate in December 2016 as president of Moldova marks a new turn in Moldovan politics. This is in contrast with the pro-Western attitudes of the previous government. Political instability and changing international orientations, as emphasized by this article, are partly due to political alternative victories of parties supported by different social groups. Focusing on young people's activism, the article underlines the differentiation between the political success made possible by street protests in April 2009 and the political failure in December 2016. The findings may add a new explanation to Moldova's permanent instability.

Comparing Freedom House Democracy Scores to Alternative Indices and Testing for Political Bias: Are US Allies Rated as More Democratic by Freedom Hou…

2014

AbstractSeveral scholars have criticized the Freedom House democracy ratings as being politically biased. Do countries indeed incorrectly receive better ratings that have stronger political ties with the United States? This article tests whether differences between a number of alternative indices of democracy and the FH ratings can be explained in a systematic manner by variables that record relationships between the US and the countries under investigation. Differentiating between the periods before 1988 and after 1989, strong and consistent evidence of a substantial bias in the FH ratings is obtained for the former period. For the latter period, the estimates are less consistent, but stil…

Corporealising a Healthy Democracy? Inequality, Bodies and Participation

2019

Socio-economic inequality is associated with differentiated levels of health and poor health affects political participation; inequalities are embodied in political life. This contribution, focusin...

2018

This article presents the experiences and problems of the Indonesian parliament, or DPR (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat), during the transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one, in 1999–20...

Where Democrats Disagree: Citizens’ Normative Conceptions of Democracy

2017

While support for the essential norms of liberal electoral democracy is high in almost all developed democracies, there is arguably also a gap between democratic aspirations and democratic practice, leading to dissatisfaction among citizens. We argue that citizens may hold very different normative conceptions of democracy which are equally compatible with support for liberal democracy, but lead to different expectations where institutional design and democratic practice are concerned. Satisfaction with democracy may thus depend on congruence between such normative conceptions and institutionally entrenched norms. Drawing on survey data from Germany with a comprehensive item battery on attit…

The consequences of supply gaps in two‐dimensional policy spaces for voter turnout and political support: The case of economically left‐wing and cult…

2019

Parties with left-wing positions on economic issues and right-wing (i.e., authoritarian) positions on cultural issues have been historically largely absent from the supply side of the policy space of Western European democracies. Yet, many citizens hold such left-authoritarian issue attitudes. This article addresses the hypotheses that left-authoritarian citizens are less likely to vote, less satisfied with the democratic process and have lower levels of political trust when there is a left-authoritarian supply gap. Using data for 14 Western European countries from the European Social Survey 2008 in the main analysis, it is shown that left-authoritarians are less likely to vote and exhibit …

Soils from an iron and steel scrap storage yard remediated with aided phytostabilization

2018

Overview of the History of the Cranial Nerves: From Galen to the 21st Century

2018

Throughout history the description and classification of the cranial nerves has been linked to the development and characteristics of anatomy and the role that it played as a tool in providing rationality to medicine, together with social, cultural, religious, and philosophical factors. Anatomists were interested in the cranial nerves, but they disagreed on their number and their paths. We can divide the history of the cranial nerves into three different periods: the first, early or macroscopic period; the second or microscopic period; and the third period or ontogenesis and genoarchitecture. The main aim of this article is to show how the description and knowledge of the cranial nerves wer…

Genome-wide association meta-analysis highlights light-induced signaling as a driver for refractive error

2018

Skin affections after sulfur mustard (SM) exposure include erythema, blister formation and severe inflammation. An antidote or specific therapy does not exist. Anti-inflammatory compounds as well as substances counteracting SM-induced cell death are under investigation. In this study, we investigated the benzylisoquinoline alkaloide berberine (BER), a metabolite in plants like berberis vulgaris, which is used as herbal pharmaceutical in Asian countries, against SM toxicity using a well-established in vitro approach. Keratinocyte (HaCaT) mono-cultures (MoC) or HaCaT/THP-1 co-cultures (CoC) were challenged with 100, 200 or 300 mM SM for 1 h. Post-exposure, both MoC and CoC were treated with 1…

Intracortical facilitation within the migraine motor cortex depends on the stimulation intensity. A paired-pulse TMS study

2018

Abstract Introduction Connectivity within the primary motor cortex can be measured using the paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) paradigm. This evaluates the effect of a first conditioning stimulus on the motor evoked potential (MEP) elicited by a second test stimulus when different interstimulus intervals are used. Aim of the present study was to provide, in patients suffering from migraine without aura (MwoA), additional information on intracortical facilitation (ICF), short intracortical inhibition (SICI), and long intracortical inhibition (LICI), using different intensities of the test stimulus (TS). Methods We enrolled 24 patients with episodic MwoA and 24 age- and sex…