bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Efficacy of oral iron therapy in improving the developmental outcome of pre-school children with non-anaemic iron deficiency: a systematic review
Authors: Abdullah Kawsari , Kendzerska Tetyana , Shah Prakesh , Uleryk Elizabeth , Parkin Patricia C
Published: August 2012

Objective

To systematically review the efficacy and safety of oral Fe therapy in pre-school children (1–5 years) with non-anaemic Fe deficiency, determined by children's developmental and haematological status and the incidence of reported side-effects.

Design

A random-effects model was used to show mean differences with 95 % confidence intervals of developmental and haematological scores between Fe-treated and non-treated groups.

Setting

MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane library and bibliographies of identified articles were searched up to September 2011. Randomized and observational studies were assessed by two reviewers independently. Quality of the trials was assessed on the basis of concealment of allocation, method of randomization, masking of outcome assessment and completeness of follow-up.

Subjects

From the titles of 743 articles, full text review was completed on forty-six and two randomized trials of acceptable quality met the inclusion criteria. The two trials included a total of sixty-nine children.

Results

One study showed a statistically significant difference in the post-treatment Mental Developmental Index score among children who received oral Fe therapyv. no therapy (mean difference = 6·3, 95 % CI 1·5, 11·0,Pvalue not provided). Both studies showed significant improvement in serum ferritin level (μg/l: mean difference = 51·1, 95 % CI 33·6, 68·6,P< 0·01 and mean difference = 17·1, 95 % CI 7·5, 26·6,Pvalue not provided, respectively) in children who received Fe therapy.

Conclusions

Evidence is insufficient to recommend oral Fe therapy to children with non-anaemic Fe deficiency. There is urgent need of conducting adequately powered, randomized trials examining the efficacy of oral Fe therapy in pre-school children with non-anaemic Fe deficiency.
Snack frequency: associations with healthy and unhealthy food choices
Authors: Hartmann Christina , Siegrist Michael , van der Horst Klazine
Published: August 2012

Objective

We examined associations between snack frequency, sociodemographic characteristics, BMI, dietary and eating behaviour. In order to identify whether various subgroups of high-frequency snack consumers exist, we investigated underlying food patterns and lifestyle factors.

Design

The data were based on the Swiss Food Panel Questionnaire of 2010, which included an FFQ, questions relating to sociodemographics and lifestyle factors. Data were examined using ANOVA, regression analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. Gender differences were also investigated in the analysis of the data.

Setting

A sample of 6189 adults participating in the Swiss Food Panel filled in a questionnaire (response rate 30 %).

Subjects

The sample consisted of both men and women, with a mean age of 54·4 (sd 13·5) years.

Results

There was no association between snack frequency and BMI. Consumption frequency of sweets and savouries as well as fruit intake increased with increasing snack frequency. Additionally, three different subgroups of high-frequency snack consumers could be revealed: healthy, moderate and unhealthy dietary-pattern groups. The latter included respondents who were less health-conscious and was characterized by high alcohol consumption frequency, daily breakfast skipping and watching television during the main meal.

Conclusions

High snack frequency occurred in the context of healthy as well as unhealthy dietary behaviour and lifestyle patterns. Women made healthier dietary food choices and were more likely to consume fruits as snacks, while men chose unhealthy foods, such as sweets and savouries, more often.
Health-care access and weight change among young adults: the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study
Authors: Tang Joyce W , Allen Norrina , de Chavez Peter , Goff David C , Kiefe Catarina I , Lewis Cora E , Carnethon Mercedes
Published: August 2012

Objective

Health-care access is associated with improved control of multiple chronic diseases, but the association between health-care access and weight change is unclear. The present study aims to test the association between health-care access and weight change.

Design

The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study is a multicentre population-based prospective study. Weight change was calculated at 3 and 13 years after CARDIA year 7 (1992–1993). Health-care access was defined as no barriers or one or more barriers to access (health insurance gap, no usual source of care, not seeking care due to expense). Intermediary variables evaluated included history of dieting and use of diet pills, meal replacements or weight-control programmes.

Setting

Four cities in the USA.

Subjects

Participants were aged 18–30 years at baseline (1985–1986). Analyses include 3922 black and white men and women with relevant data from CARDIA years 7, 10 and 20 (1992–1993, 1995–1996 and 2005–2006, respectively).

Results

Mean weight change was +2·22 kg (+4·9 lb) by 3 years and +8·48 kg (+18·7 lb) by 13 years, with no differences by health-care access. Being on a weight-reducing diet was not consistently associated with health-care access across examinations. Use of diet pills, meal replacements or organized weight-control programmes was low, and did not vary by health-care access.

Conclusions

Weight gain was high irrespective of health-care access. Public health and clinical approaches are needed to address weight gain.
Public health nutrition workforce development in seven European countries: constraining and enabling factors
Authors: Kugelberg Susanna , Jonsdottir Svandis , Faxelid Elisabeth , Jönsson Kristina , Fox Ann , Thorsdottir Inga , Yngve Agneta
Published: August 2012

Objectives

Little is known about current public health nutrition workforce development in Europe. The present study aimed to understand constraining and enabling factors to workforce development in seven European countries.

Design

A qualitative study comprised of semi-structured face-to-face interviews was conducted and content analysis was used to analyse the transcribed interview data.

Setting

The study was carried out in Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

Subjects

Sixty key informants participated in the study.

Results

There are constraining and enabling factors for public health nutrition workforce development. The main constraining factors relate to the lack of a supportive policy environment, fragmented organizational structures and a workforce that is not cohesive enough to implement public health nutrition strategic initiatives. Enabling factors were identified as the presence of skilled and dedicated individuals who assume roles as leaders and change agents.

Conclusions

There is a need to strengthen coordination between policy and implementation of programmes which may operate across the national to local spectrum. Public health organizations are advised to further define aims and objectives relevant to public health nutrition. Leaders and agents of change will play important roles in fostering intersectorial partnerships, advocating for policy change, establishing professional competencies and developing education and training programmes.
Excessive meat consumption in Brazil: diet quality and environmental impacts
Authors: Carvalho Aline Martins de , César Chester Luiz Galvão , Fisberg Regina Mara , Marchioni Dirce Maria Lobo
Published: August 2012

Objective

To evaluate red and processed meat intake, and the impact meat consumption has on diet quality and the environment.

Design

A large cross-sectional health survey performed in São Paulo, Brazil.

Setting

Diet was assessed by two 24 h dietary recalls. Usual intakes were calculated using the Multiple Source Method. The World Cancer Research Fund recommendation of an average of 71·4 g/d was used as the cut-off point to estimate excessive red and processed meat consumption. To investigate the relationship between meat consumption and diet quality we used the Brazilian Healthy Eating Index Revised. The environmental impact was analysed according to estimates of CO2 equivalent emissions from meat consumption.

Subjects

Brazilians (n 1677) aged 19 years and older were studied.

Results

The mean red and processed meat intake was 138 g/d for men and 81 g/d for women. About 81 % of men and 58 % of women consumed more meat than recommended. Diet quality was inversely associated with excessive meat intake in men. In Brazil alone, greenhouse gas emissions from meat consumption, in 2003, were estimated at approximately 18 071 988 tonnes of CO2 equivalents, representing about 4 % of the total CO2 emitted by agriculture.

Conclusions

The excessive meat intake, associated with poorer diet quality observed, support initiatives and policies advising to reduce red and processed meat intake to within the recommended amounts, as part of a healthy and environmentally sustainable diet.
Privatization, Marketization, and Neoliberalism—The Political Dynamics of Post-Katrina New Orleans
Authors: Farrar Margaret E.
Published: August 2012

Hurricane Katrina was a “disaster” both “natural” and “social.” The storm destroyed a major American city that, like most American cities, was already the site of great inequality and vulnerability. It also dramatically put to the test both the logistical capabilities and the political responsibilities of national, state, and local governmental institutions. The Neoliberal Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, Late Capitalism, and the Remaking of New Orleans is an important collection of essays on the dynamics of “remaking New Orleans” and the limits of that effort. We have thus asked a diverse group of political scientists to review the book, and at the same time to treat it as an opportunity to reflect on two related questions: 1) What are the most important economic, cultural, and political dimensions of the crisis precipitated by Katrina, both for New Orleans and for US cities more generally? 2) What resources does political science as a discipline possess to help us understand these issues, and can political science as a discipline do a better job on this score?—Jeffrey C. Issac, Editor
Privatization, Marketization, and Neoliberalism—The Political Dynamics of Post-Katrina New Orleans
Authors: Trounstine Jessica L.
Published: August 2012

Hurricane Katrina was a “disaster” both “natural” and “social.” The storm destroyed a major American city that, like most American cities, was already the site of great inequality and vulnerability. It also dramatically put to the test both the logistical capabilities and the political responsibilities of national, state, and local governmental institutions. The Neoliberal Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, Late Capitalism, and the Remaking of New Orleans is an important collection of essays on the dynamics of “remaking New Orleans” and the limits of that effort. We have thus asked a diverse group of political scientists to review the book, and at the same time to treat it as an opportunity to reflect on two related questions: 1) What are the most important economic, cultural, and political dimensions of the crisis precipitated by Katrina, both for New Orleans and for US cities more generally? 2) What resources does political science as a discipline possess to help us understand these issues, and can political science as a discipline do a better job on this score?—Jeffrey C. Issac, Editor
American Cities and American Political Science—a Look at Thick Injustice
Authors: Imbroscio David
Published: August 2012

The back cover of Clarissa Rile Hayward and Todd Swanstrom'sJustice and the American Metropolisconcisely lays out a central challenge of contemporary politics: “Today's American cities and suburbs are the sites of ‘thick injustice’—unjust power relations that are deeply and densely concentrated as well as opaque and seemingly intractable. Thick injustice is hard to see, to assign responsibility for, and to change.” The fact that the topic of “urban politics” is not a major theme of political science scholarship both reflects and exacerbates this challenge. And so we have decided to invite a diverse group of social scientists to discuss the book in light of the very big question that it poses: How do American cities look when assessed in terms of their “justice” (or “injustice”), and how might they look if they were assessed in these terms more seriously? In considering this question, discussants have also been asked to consider a related question: How does Americanpolitical sciencelook when assessed in terms of the extent to which it takes the question of urban justice and injustice seriously?—Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor
A Republic of Statutes: The New American Constitution. By William N. Eskridge, Jr. and John Ferejohn. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010. 592p. $85.00.
Authors: Carpenter Daniel
Published: August 2012

For some reason, the vast literatures on liberal republicanism and on American policymaking institutions have never quite had their expected courtship, much less received a proper introduction. This is odd, not least because each literature has always (consciously or less so) borne the problems of the other literature in mind. Much of the literature on republicanism has been undertaken with the idea of explaining the ideational roots of modern Anglo-American institutions (Eric Nelson on republicanism more generally, Karen Orren on contracts and labor arrangements, Jeremy Waldron on legislatures), or with eliciting the programmatic and ethical conclusions to which the philosophy underlying our institutions should lead us (Philip Pettit, Michael Sandel, Waldron again). And as scholars of American legislatures, agencies, and courts continue to document exhaustively the factual behavior of those institutions, many have begun to turn to the matches and mismatches between theoretical promise and institutional realities (Lawrence Jacobs and Robert Shapiro, Richard Hall, Diana Mutz, and most recently Lawrence Lessig). Yet with some very recent exceptions—among them John McCormick's Machiavellian Democracy (2011) and Ira Katznelson's forthcoming volume, Fear Itself, on Congress and American liberalism—the conversation lacks synthetic treatments that take up the themes of both literatures in the same volume. Until now.
When Protest Makes Policy: How Social Movements Represent Disadvantaged Groups. By S. Laurel Weldon. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2011. 244p. $65.00 cloth, $27.95 paper.
Authors: Han Hahrie C.
Published: August 2012

Because social movements exist to challenge entrenched power structures or change prevailing social practices, they claim to represent marginalized or excluded constituencies. Yet as eloquently argued by E. E. Schattschneider, “the flaw in the pluralist heaven is that the heavenly chorus sings with a strong upper-class accent” (The Semisovereign People, 1960, 35). Lacking formal mechanisms of democratic accountability, social movements, like other organized interests, can fall prey to the trap of overrepresenting the privileged. In addition, some scholars have challenged the idea that movements have any durable influence. Even if we believe that movements represent the excluded, what value do they have if their influence is fleeting? These questions problematize the democratic value of social movements and raise questions about the value of protest in shaping policy that affects marginalized interests. Are movements effective pathways to greater democratic inclusiveness, or do they reinforce existing power structures?
Mobilizing Restraint: Democracy and Industrial Conflict in Post-Reform South Asia. By Emmanuel Teitelbaum. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011. 248p. $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.
Authors: Kuhonta Erik Martinez
Published: August 2012

A major debate in the literature on the political economy of development centers on the relationship between regime type and economic development. This debate has been heavily influenced by the East Asian development model, where authoritarianism has often gone hand in hand with high growth rates. In South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, development has been propelled by authoritarian or semidemocratic regimes. One key element of this argument is that the repression of labor under these authoritarian regimes has been especially helpful in states' pursuit of high growth rates because it has ensured political stability and checked societal demands.
Race in America
Authors: Lee Taeku
Published: August 2012

Both the plight of African American young people and their feelings and thoughts about this plight are major issues of concern in U.S. politics. In 2003, the Black Youth Project was launched, with funding by the Ford Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to promote both social scientific analysis and public understanding of these issues (the project has an innovative and engaging Website that can be accessed at http://www.blackyouthproject.com/). Cathy J. Cohen is the principal investigator of the project and, in Democracy Remixed, she draws upon a new national survey of black youth to offer a mixed-method empirical description and theoretical analysis of “black youth and the future of American politics.” In this symposium, a diverse group of political and social scientists have been asked to critically assess the book's account and to comment more broadly on the importance of black youth to the future of American politics.—Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor
Privatization, Marketization, and Neoliberalism—The Political Dynamics of Post-Katrina New Orleans
Authors: Williamson Thad
Published: August 2012

Hurricane Katrina was a “disaster” both “natural” and “social.” The storm destroyed a major American city that, like most American cities, was already the site of great inequality and vulnerability. It also dramatically put to the test both the logistical capabilities and the political responsibilities of national, state, and local governmental institutions. The Neoliberal Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, Late Capitalism, and the Remaking of New Orleans is an important collection of essays on the dynamics of “remaking New Orleans” and the limits of that effort. We have thus asked a diverse group of political scientists to review the book, and at the same time to treat it as an opportunity to reflect on two related questions: 1) What are the most important economic, cultural, and political dimensions of the crisis precipitated by Katrina, both for New Orleans and for US cities more generally? 2) What resources does political science as a discipline possess to help us understand these issues, and can political science as a discipline do a better job on this score?—Jeffrey C. Issac, Editor
Race in America
Authors: Alex-Assensoh Yvette M.
Published: August 2012

Both the plight of African American young people and their feelings and thoughts about this plight are major issues of concern in U.S. politics. In 2003, the Black Youth Project was launched, with funding by the Ford Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to promote both social scientific analysis and public understanding of these issues (the project has an innovative and engaging Website that can be accessed at http://www.blackyouthproject.com/). Cathy J. Cohen is the principal investigator of the project and, in Democracy Remixed, she draws upon a new national survey of black youth to offer a mixed-method empirical description and theoretical analysis of “black youth and the future of American politics.” In this symposium, a diverse group of political and social scientists have been asked to critically assess the book's account and to comment more broadly on the importance of black youth to the future of American politics.—Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor
Race in America
Authors: Warren Mark R.
Published: August 2012

Both the plight of African American young people and their feelings and thoughts about this plight are major issues of concern in U.S. politics. In 2003, the Black Youth Project was launched, with funding by the Ford Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to promote both social scientific analysis and public understanding of these issues (the project has an innovative and engaging Website that can be accessed at http://www.blackyouthproject.com/). Cathy J. Cohen is the principal investigator of the project and, in Democracy Remixed, she draws upon a new national survey of black youth to offer a mixed-method empirical description and theoretical analysis of “black youth and the future of American politics.” In this symposium, a diverse group of political and social scientists have been asked to critically assess the book's account and to comment more broadly on the importance of black youth to the future of American politics.—Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor
Does the US Media Have a Liberal Bias?
Authors: Jamieson Kathleen Hall
Published: August 2012

In Left Turn: How Liberal Bias Distorts The American Mind, Tim Groseclose argues that media effects play a crucial role in American politics. His case rests on three arguments: (1) that journalists tend overwhelmingly to be liberal rather than conservative; (2) that their innate political bias slants their views in empirically measurable ways; and (3) that this bias fundamentally shapes American politics, by bringing US citizens further to the left than they would naturally be. According to Groseclose, in a world where media bias did not exist, American citizens would on average hold views close to those of Ben Stein or Bill O'Reilly. In such a world, John McCain would have defeated Barack Obama by a popular vote margin of 56%—42% in the 2008 presidential election.

In making these claims, Groseclose draws on his own research, and on recent media scholarship by both political scientists and economists, making the broader claim that peer-reviewed social science—which seeks to deal with problems such as endogeneity and selection bias—should be the starting point for public arguments about the role of the media. His book, then, is clearly an effort to bring social scientific arguments into mainstream debates. Groseclose makes no secret of his conservative political leanings—but recent books from left-leaning political scientists such as Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson are equally unapologetic. It is at least plausible that political scientists' typical unwillingness to engage directly in political arguments has weakened the discipline's capacity for public engagement.

In this symposium a diverse group of contributors have been invited to engage with Groseclose's arguments in ways that bring together specific empirical and/or theoretical points and arguments aimed at the broader “political science public sphere” that Perspectives on Politics seeks to nurture. Contributors were asked to consider these five questions: (1): How do we best measure media effects? (2): If media bias exists, what are its plausible sources? (3): Can one use work on media effects to determine what people's views would be in the absence of such bias? (4): Do you agree that American politics is insufficiently representative, and if so what do you consider the primary sources of this problem? (5): What kinds of political and/or media institutions or practices might enhance democratic discourse?—Henry Farrell, Associate Editor
Hiring and Firing Public Officials: Rethinking the Purpose of Elections. By Justin Buchler. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. 272p. $27.95.
Authors: Berger Ben
Published: August 2012

Few books can be called workmanlike as well as exciting, analytic as well as poignant. Hiring and Firing Public Officials achieves those rare pairings by methodically pursuing an academic coup. Justin Buchler aims to replace electoral theory's dominant “market paradigm”—whose pioneers include Joseph Schumpeter (Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 1942) and Anthony Downs (An Economic Model of Democracy, 1957)—with a more accurate “employment model,” and to defend that new model against all manner of attack. Buchler prosecutes his goals doggedly, repetitively, and quite effectively. The result is an intelligent, important new book that may not dazzle but will challenge settled convictions and change more than a few minds. The author's occasionally defensive tone is understandable given the nature of his ambition. His book advocates paradigmatic revolution and, to borrow from Mao Zedong, revolution is not a dinner party.
Response to Daniel Carpenter's review of A Republic of Statutes: The New American Constitution
Authors: Eskridge William N. , Ferejohn John
Published: August 2012

We appreciate Dan Carpenter's thoughtful assessment of our book and are eager to respond to his reflections about the political theory of the republic of statutes. He is right that we did not discuss some highly entrenched statutory schemes that might well deserve small-c constitutional status as superstatutes. Although we do treat the Defense of Marriage Act as a superstatute in our chapter on the antihomosexual constitution and its disentrenchment, we might have included a chapter on the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1938 (along with the many subsequent amendments that helped shape the drug enforcement regime we have today) if we had as many original things to say about the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) administrative constitutionalism as Carpenter did in his book. It would have been a big chapter, too.
Response to Hahrie Han's review of When Protest Makes Policy: How Social Movements Represent Disadvantaged Groups
Authors: Weldon S. Laurel
Published: August 2012

Hahrie Han's review asks how the argument I develop in my book—that social movements can provide a form of democratic representation for marginalized groups—might be applied to movements other than women's movements and issues other than women's issues. In the book, I develop some distinctions between types of groups and types of issues as a way of answering these questions, arguing that social movements are especially important for social change issues (called “progressive” policy issues in more recent work) and for giving voice to systematically disadvantaged (or marginalized) groups. I explain each of these ideas in turn.
Response to S. Laurel Weldon's review of Moved to Action: Motivation, Participation, and Inequality in American Politics
Authors: Han Hahrie
Published: August 2012

I thank Laurel Weldon for her generous and incisive review of my book. Our two books share a common interest in investigating the mechanisms through which marginalized constituencies gain voice in politics. While my book takes a micro, individual perspective, focusing on questions about participation in American politics, Weldon's takes a macro perspective, analyzing the impact of social movements and movement organizations in a comparative context. Thus, while I try to understand the factors that motivate individuals from traditionally marginalized communities to get involved, she asks what happens when they do get involved: Does their participation in movements and movement organizations matter? These divergent perspectives contextualize some of the very helpful questions Weldon raised about my book.
Attention Deficit Democracy: The Paradox of Civic Engagement. By Ben Berger. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011. 216p. $35.00.
Authors: Buchler Justin
Published: August 2012

“Civic engagement” is the cornerstone of democracy, right? Everyone knows we need more civic engagement—everyone, that is, except Ben Berger, whose willingness to argue against convention, particularly when that convention is a key tenet of good governmentism, makes me reflexively sympathetic to his argument. Berger and I both attack foundational assumptions of conventional democratic thought, but we differ in our approaches. I base my arguments on economic theory and quantitative analysis, whereas he bases his arguments primarily on interpretations of canonical theorists, most importantly Hannah Arendt and Alexis de Tocqueville. Ultimately, I am convinced by Berger's argument that civic engagement is a messy concept that cannot be considered an “intrinsic good” for democracy, but like most formal theorists, I needed little convincing because the debate that he characterizes is remarkably similar to one that game theorists held some years ago, and resolved in the same direction. Ironically, then, he may face a more hostile audience from within his own subfield than outside of it.
Privatization, Marketization, and Neoliberalism—The Political Dynamics of Post-Katrina New Orleans
Authors: Manalansan Martin F.
Published: August 2012

Hurricane Katrina was a “disaster” both “natural” and “social.” The storm destroyed a major American city that, like most American cities, was already the site of great inequality and vulnerability. It also dramatically put to the test both the logistical capabilities and the political responsibilities of national, state, and local governmental institutions. The Neoliberal Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, Late Capitalism, and the Remaking of New Orleans is an important collection of essays on the dynamics of “remaking New Orleans” and the limits of that effort. We have thus asked a diverse group of political scientists to review the book, and at the same time to treat it as an opportunity to reflect on two related questions: 1) What are the most important economic, cultural, and political dimensions of the crisis precipitated by Katrina, both for New Orleans and for US cities more generally? 2) What resources does political science as a discipline possess to help us understand these issues, and can political science as a discipline do a better job on this score?—Jeffrey C. Issac, Editor
American Cities and American Political Science—a Look at Thick Injustice
Authors: Portney Kent E.
Published: August 2012

The back cover of Clarissa Rile Hayward and Todd Swanstrom's Justice and the American Metropolis concisely lays out a central challenge of contemporary politics: “Today's American cities and suburbs are the sites of ‘thick injustice’—unjust power relations that are deeply and densely concentrated as well as opaque and seemingly intractable. Thick injustice is hard to see, to assign responsibility for, and to change.” The fact that the topic of “urban politics” is not a major theme of political science scholarship both reflects and exacerbates this challenge. And so we have decided to invite a diverse group of social scientists to discuss the book in light of the very big question that it poses: How do American cities look when assessed in terms of their “justice” (or “injustice”), and how might they look if they were assessed in these terms more seriously? In considering this question, discussants have also been asked to consider a related question: How does American political science look when assessed in terms of the extent to which it takes the question of urban justice and injustice seriously?—Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor
A Theory of Political Parties: Groups, Policy Demands and Nominations in American Politics
Authors: Bawn Kathleen , Cohen Martin , Karol David , Masket Seth , Noel Hans , Zaller John
Published: August 2012

We propose a theory of political parties in which interest groups and activists are the key actors, and coalitions of groups develop common agendas and screen candidates for party nominations based on loyalty to their agendas. This theoretical stance contrasts with currently dominant theories, which view parties as controlled by election-minded politicians. The difference is normatively important because parties dominated by interest groups and activists are less responsive to voter preferences, even to the point of taking advantage of lapses in voter attention to politics. Our view is consistent with evidence from the formation of national parties in the 1790s, party position change on civil rights and abortion, patterns of polarization in Congress, policy design and nominations for state legislatures, Congress, and the presidency.
Democratic Representation and the Constituency Paradox
Authors: Disch Lisa
Published: August 2012

That acts of democratic representation participate in creating the interests for which legislators and other officials purport merely to stand gives rise to the “constituency paradox.” I elucidate this paradox through a critical reading of Hanna Pitkin'sThe Concept of Representation,together with her classic study of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein,Wittgenstein and Justice. Pitkin's core insight into democratic representation is that democratic representation is “quasi-performative”: an activity that mobilizes constituencies by the interests it claims in their name. I develop this insight together with its implications for contemporary scholarship on the political effects of economic equality. I conclude by arguing that the fundamental democratic deficiency of the US political system goes much deeper than its disproportionate responsiveness to wealthy interests; it is a matter of system biases that foster the formation and expression of those interests, while mitigating against mobilization by those Americans who want inequality to be reduced.
Responsive and Responsible Leaders: A Matter of Political Will?
Authors: Persson Anna , Sjöstedt Martin
Published: August 2012

Policy makers and policy-oriented scholars concerned with development and reform commonly appeal to “political will” as a cornerstone of development. We question the circular and voluntaristic view of leadership behavior inherent in such an approach, and argue that—to be more useful for the analysis of development outcomes, as well as for policy design—the discourse on political will should be firmly integrated into a more systematic framework of analysis. In particular, we suggest that it should engage in more active dialogue with the combined insights offered by principal-agent theory and what we refer to as state theory. More specifically, in the framework we develop, the principal-agent framework offers the analytical tools for analyzing leadership behavior at the micro level, while state theory provides crucial insights regarding the macro-level factors shaping leadership behavior. In the end, these two perspectives in tandem have the potential to significantly increase our understanding of empirically observed leadership behavior as well as our theoretical understanding of how the context—and especially the character of underlying social contracts—shapes and constrains “political will.”
Race and Cities: New Circumstances Imply New Ideas
Authors: Hochschild Jennifer
Published: August 2012

Political scientists rightly reject the claim that demography is destiny; political institutions, practices, and choices intervene. Nevertheless, as demography changes, a locality's politics are likely to change as well, which opens opportunities for new research programs. Three demographic changes warrant new analyses: the decline of non-Hispanic whites in most large cities, the variety of non-Anglo groups and immigrants across cities, and regional variations in the racially-inflected dependency ratio. Each demographic change generates political and scholarly controversies: are cities becoming less segregated? Is black politics a useful template for studying the politics of other groups? Is the dependency ratio more likely to exacerbate or ameliorate group conflict? In lieu of answering these questions, I point to the odd normative valences of conservative and progressive scholarship, and urge attention to the ways in which cities can surprise us.
Racial Tragedies, Political Hope, and the Tasks of American Political Science
Authors: Dawson Michael C.
Published: August 2012

The Trayvon Martin tragedy, the optimistic spectacle of the election and inauguration of Barack Obama during late 2008 and early 2009, and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina seemingly represent three very different events with little in common except the claim made by some that all were in some way related to racial politics in the US. Many would consider such a claim weak, noting each event's unique scale and relationship to the politics of race in the US. Yet I argue that that the events are in fact closely linked in fundamental ways that are important not only to political scientists, but, more importantly, to all who care about the health of democracy within the US. Each event demonstrates the massive racial cleavages within the US. Each event illustrates the nature of evolving racial order in the US. Each event illustrates the weaknesses and problems that confront contemporary black politics. And each event thus illuminates key questions that should motivate theoretical and empirical work on race and politics within political science. In this essay, I highlight the themes and processes that tie together these seemingly disparate events, some marked by hope, others by despair. I start by analyzing each event from the standpoint of the persistent, if evolving, racial divide in American public opinion. And I end by arguing that scholars of race and politics often have to adhere to the most rigorous scholarly standards while also fulfilling their duties as citizens.
Culpability, Social Triage, and Structural Violence in the Aftermath of Katrina
Authors: Simmons William Paul , Casper Monica J.
Published: August 2012

Hurricane Katrina and its effects are often talked about in terms of what has been made visible, as if the hurricane swept through and stripped away our structural blinders along with the levees, revealing social disparities within. Here, we focus instead on whom and what Katrina and its aftermath have rendered invisible. We are concerned with how the seen and the not seen have influenced the ways the purported tabula rasa of New Orleans has been (re)constructed and marked since 2005. We engage with recent debates in political science about power, agency, structure, and culpability, arguing that efforts to prioritize the pursuit of culpability over critique in power analyses, such as the approach advocated by Steven Lukes, risk perpetuating structural violence. We employ the concepts of an ocular ethic and social triage to understand why the storm of the century that was supposed to reveal all has in the end left much concealed, with shocking levels of human devastation unaddressed. Only through careful excavation of the ruins can we begin to comprehend the sedimented inequality and layers of vulnerability that structure violence.
From Upper Canal to Lower Manhattan: Memorialization and the Politics of Loss
Authors: Stow Simon
Published: August 2012

The New Orleans Katrina Memorial is located at the upper end of Canal Street, an inexpensive and relatively short trolley car ride from the city's tourist hub in the French Quarter. Despite its ease of access, and close proximity to the more famous cemeteries to which tourists regularly make pilgrimage, the memorial is little visited and largely unknown, even to many of the city's own residents. In this it stands in stark contrast to the National September 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan, which drew its millionth visitor less than four months after its opening on September 12, 2011. Recent work in political theory on memory, mourning, and memorialization—as well as Ancient Greek concerns about the same—point to the ways in which the manner of remembrance, grieving, and commemoration employed by a democratic polity help to shape political outcomes. In what follows, I trace the history and design of the New York City and New Orleans memorials to suggest the ways in which they embody and perpetuate national strategies of remembrance and forgetting, in which injustices perpetratedagainstthe polity are prioritized over injustices perpetratedwithinit. Drawing on John Bodnar's distinction between national and vernacular commemoration, I nevertheless conclude with a counter-intuitive suggestion: that while on anationallevel the public's relative ignorance of the Katrina Memorial is indeed indicative of a polity more concerned with injustices perpetrated against it than within it; on alocallevel the erection and subsequent forgetting of the Katrina Memorial is a manifestation of a mode ofvernacularmemory, mourning and commemoration with far more democratically-productive potential than its counterpart in New York City. In particular, I argue that it cultivates, and historicallyhascultivated, a more forward-looking, progressive, and polyphonic response to loss than the type of dominant national narratives embodied by the 9/11 Memorial. Whereas the latter continually replays the loss in ways that rob the polity of its capacity to move beyond its initial response, the former acknowledges and incorporates the loss while steeling the community for the challenges ahead.
Beyond model fitting SEDs
Authors: Ferreras Ignacio
Published: August 2012

Extracting star formation histories from spectra is a process plagued by numerous degeneracies among the parameters that contribute to the definition of the underlying stellar populations. Traditional approaches to overcome such degeneracies involve carefully defined line strength or spectral fitting procedures. However, all these methods rely on comparisons with population synthesis models. This paper illustrates alternative approaches based on the statistical properties of the information that can be extracted from uniformly selected samples of observed spectra, without any prior reference to modelling. Such methods are more useful with large datasets, such as surveys, where the information from thousands of spectra can be exploited to classify galaxies. An illustrative example is presented on the classification of early-type galaxies with optical spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
Hα and FUV luminosities from a stochastically formed stellar population
Authors: Nidia Lugo Lopez L.  , Gladis Magris C.  , Parravano Antonio
Published: August 2012

It has been observed that the ratio of Hα to FUV luminosity (LHα/LFUV) is lower in low surface brightness galaxies. This behaviour has been attributed to systematic variations of the upper mass end and/or the slope of the Initial Mass Function (IMF) Meurer et al. (2009) and Lee et al. (2009)). However these hypotheses do not explain the observed scatter in luminosity ratio (LHα/LFUV). We present a model for the total LHα and LFUV luminosity arising from a randomly populated IMF following the Salpeter power law and the clustering law of Oey & Clarke (2007).
New HErschel Multi-wavelength Extragalactic Survey of Edge-on Spirals (NHEMESES)
Authors: Holwerda B. W. , Bianchi S. , Baes M. , de Jong R. S. , Dalcanton J. J. , Radburn-Smith D. , Gordon K. , Xilouris M.
Published: August 2012

Edge-on spiral galaxies offer a unique perspective on the vertical structure of spiral disks, both stars and the iconic dark dustlanes. The thickness of these dustlanes can now be resolved for the first time with Herschel in far-infrared and sub-mm emission. We present NHEMESES, an ongoing project that targets 12 edge-on spiral galaxies with the PACS and SPIRE instruments on Herschel. These vertically resolved observations of edge-on spirals will impact on several current topics.

First and foremost, these Herschel observations will settle whether or not there is a phase change in the vertical structure of the ISM with disk mass. Previously, a dramatic change in dustlane morphology was observed as in massive disks the dust collapses into a thin lane. If this is the case, the vertical balance between turbulence and gravity dictates the ISM structure and consequently star-formation and related phenomena (spiral arms, bars etc.). We specifically target lower mass nearby edge-ons to complement existing Herschel observations of high-mass edge-on spirals (the HEROES project).

Secondly, the combined data-set, together with existing Spitzer observations, will drive a new generation of spiral disk Spectral Energy Distribution models. These model how dust reprocesses starlight to thermal emission but the dust geometry remains the critical unknown.

And thirdly, the observations will provide an accurate and unbiased census of the cold dusty structures occasionally seen extending out of the plane of the disk, when backlit by the stellar disk. To illustrate the NHEMESES project, we present early results on NGC 4244 and NGC 891, two well studies examples of a low and high-mass edge-on spiral.
Sources of X-rays from galaxies
Authors: Wang Q. Daniel
Published: August 2012

Galactic X-ray emission is a manifestation of various high-energy phenomena and processes. The brightest X-ray sources are typically accretion-powered objects: active galactic nuclei and low- or high-mass X-ray binaries. Such objects with X-ray luminosities of ≳ 1037 ergs s−1 can now be detected individually in nearby galaxies. The contributions from fainter discrete sources (including cataclysmic variables, active binaries, young stellar objects, and supernova remnants) are well correlated with the star formation rate or stellar mass of galaxies. The study of discrete X-ray sources is essential to our understanding of stellar evolution, dynamics, and end-products as well as accretion physics. With the subtraction of the discrete source contributions, one can further map out truly diffuse X-ray emission, which can be used to trace the feedback from active galactic nuclei, as well as from stars, both young and old, in the form of stellar winds and supernovae. The X-ray emission efficiency, however, is only about 1% of the energy input rate of the stellar feedback alone. The bulk of the feedback energy is most likely gone with outflows into large-scale galactic halos. Much is yet to be investigated to comprehend the role of such outflows in regulating the ecosystem, hence the evolution of galaxies. Even the mechanism of the diffuse X-ray emission remains quite uncertain. A substantial fraction of the emission cannot arise directly from optically-thin thermal plasma, as commonly assumed, and most likely originates in its charge exchange with neutral gas. These uncertainties underscore our poor understanding of the feedback and its interplay with the galaxy evolution.
What makes a galaxy radio-loud?
Authors: Ortega-Minakata R. A. , Torres-Papaqui J. P. , Andernach H. , Coziol R. , Islas-Islas J. M. , Plauchu-Frayn I. , Neri-Larios D. M. , Rojas-Granados M. del C.
Published: August 2012

We compare the Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) of radio-loud and radio-quiet AGNs in three different samples observed with SDSS: radio-loud AGNs (RLAGNs), Low Luminosity AGNs (LLAGNs) and AGNs in isolated galaxies (IG-AGNs). All these galaxies have similar optical spectral characteristics. The median SED of the RLAGNs is consistent with the characteristic SED of quasars, while that of the LLAGNs and IG-AGNs are consistent with the SED of LINERs, with a lower luminosity in the IG-AGNs than in the LLAGNs. We infer the masses of the black holes (BHs) from the bulge masses. These increase from the IG-AGNs to the LLAGNs and are highest for the RLAGNs. All these AGNs show accretion rates near or slightly below 10% of the Eddington limit, the differences in luminosity being solely due to different BH masses. Our results suggests there are two types of AGNs, radio quiet and radio loud, differing only by the mass of their bulges or BHs.
Fitting the full SED of galaxies to put constraints on dust attenuation and star formation determinations
Authors: Buat Veronique , Giovannoli Elodie , Boquien Mederic , Heinis Sébastien
Published: August 2012

The combination of far-IR and UV-optical rest-frame data has proved to be very efficient to extract physical parameters from the SEDs of galaxies. Using Herschel and ancillary data from the Herschel Reference Survey and GOODS-Herschel Key Projects, we show how dust attenuation properties can be estimated inside local galaxies as well as in the distant Universe.