253 research outputs found
Adapting authoritarianism: institutions and co-optation in Egypt and Syria
No full textThis PhD thesis compares Egypt and Syria’s authoritarian political systems. While the tendency in social science political research treats Egypt and Syria as similarly authoritarian, this research emphasizes differences between the two systems with special reference to institutions and co-optation. Rather than reducibly understanding Egypt and Syria as sharing similar histories, institutional arrangements, or ascribing to the oft-repeated convention that “Syria is Egypt but 10 years behind,” this thesis focuses on how events and individual histories shaped each states current institutional strengthens and weaknesses. Specifically, it explains the how varying institutional politicization or de-politicization affects each state’s capabilities for co-opting elite and non-elite individuals.
Beginning with a theoretical framework that considers the limited utility of democratization and transition theoretical approaches, the work underscores the persistence and durability of authoritarianism. Chapter two details the politicized institutional divergence between Egypt and Syria that began in the 1970s. Chapter three and four examines how institutional politicization or de-politicization affects elite and non-elite individual co-optation in Egypt and Syria. Chapter five discusses the study’s general conclusions and theoretical implications.
This thesis’s argument is that Egypt and Syria co-opt elites and non-elites differently because of the varying degrees of institutional politicization in each governance system. Rather than view one country as more politically developed than the other, this work argues that Syria’s political institutions are more politicized than their Egyptian counterparts. Syria’s political arena is, thus, described as politicized-patrimonialism. Syria’s politicized-patrimonial arena produces uneven co-optation of elites and non-elites as they are diffused through competing institutions. Conversely, the Egyptian political arena remains highly personalized as weak institutions and individuals are manipulated and molded according to the president’s ruling clique. This is referred to as personalized-patrimonialism. As a consequence, Egypt’s political establishment demonstrates more flexibility in ad hoc altering and adapting its arena depending on the emergence of crises.
This study’s theoretical implications suggest that, contrary to modernization and democratization theory’s adage that institutions lead to a political development, politicized institutions within a patrimonial order actually hinder regime adaptation because consensus is harder to achieve and maintain. It is within this context that Egypt’s de-politicized institutional framework advantages its top political elite. In this reading of Egyptian and Syrian politics, Egypt’s personalized political arena is more adaptable than Syria’s. These conclusions do not indicate that political reform is a process underway in either state
Losses of NG2 and NeuN immunoreactivity but not astrocytic markers during early reperfusion following severe focal cerebral ischemia
No full textDiane R. Lee, Stephen C. Helps, Ian L. Gibbins, Michael Nilsson, Neil R. Sim
Testing Theories of Discrimination: Evidence from "Weakest Link"
No full textIn most settings, it is difficult to measure discrimination, and even more challenging to distinguish between competing theories of discrimination (taste-based versus information-based). Using contestant voting behavior on the television game show Weakest Link, one can in principle empirically address both of these questions. On the show, contestants answer questions and vote off other players, competing for a winner-take-all prize. In early rounds, strategic incentives encourage voting for the weakest competitors. In later rounds, the incentives reverse, and the strongest competitors become the logical target. Controlling for other observable characteristics including the number of correct answers thus far, both theories of discrimination predict that in early rounds, excess votes will be made against groups targeted for discrimination. In later rounds, however, taste-based models predict continued excess votes, whereas statistical discrimination predicts fewer votes against the target group. Empirically, I find some evidence of information-based discrimination towards Hispanics (i.e., other players perceive them as having low ability) and taste-based discrimination against older players (i.e., other players treat them with animus). There is little in the data to suggest discrimination against women and Blacks.
Fluorocitrate-mediated astroglial dysfunction causes seizures
No full textPublished in Journal of Neuroscience Research, 2003; 74 (1):160-166 at www.interscience.wiley.comA role for astroglia in epileptogenesis has been hypothesised but is not established. Low doses of fluorocitrate specifically and reversibly disrupt astroglial metabolism by blocking aconitase, an enzyme integral to the tricarboxylic acid cycle. We used cerebral cortex injections of fluorocitrate, at a dose that we demonstrated to inhibit astroglial metabolism selectively, to determine whether astroglial disturbances lead to seizures. Rats were halothane-anesthetized, and 0.8 nmol of sodium fluorocitrate was injected into the cerebral cortex. Extradural electroencephalogram (EEG) electrodes were implanted, after which the anesthesia was ceased and the animals were observed. In all experiments, 14 of 15 fluorocitrate-treated animals exhibited epileptiform EEG discharges, with some animals exhibiting convulsive seizures. Discharges commenced as early as 30 min postfluorocitrate injection. Intraperitoneal octanol, but not halothane by inhalation, given to test the possible participation of gap junctions in EEG discharge generation, blocked or delayed the occurrence of discharges after fluorocitrate. These results indicate that focal cerebrocortical astroglial dysfunction leads to focal epileptiform discharges and sometimes to convulsive seizures and that the process possibly depends on effects mediated by gap junctions.John O. Willoughby, Lorraine Mackenzie, Marita Broberg, Anna E. Thoren, Andrei Medvedev, Neil R. Sims, Michael Nilsso
Big Ridge - early Jackson County school
No full textThis photograph shows a class standing in front of Big Ridge School in Glenville, North Carolina. After the school burned in 1922, the Board of Education ordered that the school be rebuilt at an April 1923 meeting. Mabel Edwards was the school principal from 1924 to 1925. Information on the school’s consolidation or closing is unknown. The following are the names of identified students and teachers in this photograph: (first row) J. B. Galloway, Raymond Wilson, Alvin Nicholson, Earnest Pressly, Neil Burgas ; (second row) Eva Brown (teacher), Bessie Hooper, Matthew Wilson, Cassie Wilson, Emma Jamison, Irma Henderson ; (third row) Della Wilson, Ollie Bryson, Rose Henson, Emma Lonniz, Effie Bryson, Lula Wilson, Lizzie Wilson, Elsie Monteith ; (fourth row) Sam Wilson, Earnest Wilson, [Weaver] Wilson, Edd Wilson, Bert Sims, Tom Moss, Ruff Lusk, [Dyre] Lusk, Walter Wilson, Walter Monteith, Lawton Henderson, John Bird (teacher on the end)
Inhibition of Nitric Oxide Synthase with 7-Nitroindazole does not Modify Early Metabolic Recovery Following Focal Cerebral Ischemia in Rats
No full textNitric oxide has been strongly implicated in the development of tissue infarction in response to focal cerebral ischemia. Nitric oxide and its derivatives can inhibit components of the electron transport chain, providing a likely target for these substances in ischemic and post-ischemic brain. Lactate content is increased during post-ischemic reperfusion in tissue destined to become infarcted, consistent with impairment of mitochondrial respiration. To investigate the possible involvement of nitric oxide in generating these changes, we have tested the effect of 7-nitroindazole, a nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor, on the content of lactate and other metabolites during early reperfusion following temporary focal ischemia. This treatment inhibited total NOS by approximately 50%. However, the treatment did not significantly affect the marked increases in lactate in post-ischemic brain nor did it alter the recovery of other energy-related metabolites. These findings indicate that inhibition of oxidative metabolism is probably not the primary site of the deleterious effects of nitric oxide and derivatives during early post-ischemic reperfusion
Increased mitochondrial permeability in response to intrastriatal N-methyl-D-aspartate : detection based on accumulation of radiolabel from[3h]deoxyglucose
No full text233 SPRING ST, NEW YORK, USA, NY,
1001
Machinic Phylum and Architecture
No full textThe chapter draws on the anti-substantivist and anti-hylomorphic legacy of two significant Deleuze and Guattari’s interlocutors: Raymond Ruyer and Gilbert Simondon. Ruyer vehemently opposed the logic of mechanicism with- out regressing to (active) vitalism. His masterpiece Neofinalism, yet to be fully appreciated in architectural circles, is an ode to multiplicity or ‘absolute form’. The title is to be read as a challenge to the hegemony of the step-by-step causation and partes-extra-partes mereology. According to Ruyer, non-locality is the key, not only to the question of subjectivity, but to the problem of life itself. Simon- don too shies away from the metaphysics of presence. For him, the process of individuation cannot be grasped on the basis of the fully formed individual. In other words, the knowledge of individuation is the individuation of knowledge. Simondon’s highest ambition in On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects was to integrate culture and technics (tekhne). The conviction that culture need not be antagonistic to technology is particularly pertinent to the ecologies of architecture. In the second half of the chapter, the affordance theory meets contemporary neurosciences.Theory, Territories & Transition
Highly selective and prolonged depletion of mitochondrial glutathione in astrocytes markedly increases sensitivity to peroxynitrite
No full text11 DUPONT CIRCLE, NW, STE 500, WASHINGTON,
USA, DC, 2003
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