bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Les carrières ministérielles au Québec : Existe-t-il des différences entre les femmes et les hommes?
Authors: Tremblay Manon , Stockemer Daniel , Pelletier Réjean , Kerby Matthew 
Published: October 2015

RésuméPuisant dans la littérature sur le processus de nomination au cabinet ainsi que celle sur les carrières ministérielles et les mobilités qu'elles comportent, ce texte examine l'hypothèse selon laquelle le taux de promotion et de rétrogradation ministérielles à l'intérieur d'un cabinet diffère pour les femmes et les hommes. Afin de vérifier cette hypothèse, nous avons constitué une base de données qui intègre les quelques deux cents personnes qui ont servi comme ministres au Conseil exécutif du Québec entre 1976 et 2012. L'analyse quantitative consiste en des statistiques descriptives et des modèles négatifs binominaux; elle prend en considération plusieurs variables telles que l’âge, l’éducation, et les mandats passés en politique. Nos résultats montrent que les carrières ministérielles des femmes et des hommes se déroulent selon une trajectoire commune. De manière plus précise, les femmes et les hommes entament leurs carrières ministérielles avec des responsabilités mineures, mais l'expérience ministérielle s'accumulant, les ministres des deux sexes décrochent des responsabilités de plus en plus importantes. En d'autres mots, les carrières ministérielles des femmes ne sont pas à la traîne de celles des hommes. Ce constat oblige à nuancer l'idée que les carrières ministérielles des femmes seraient moins glorieuses que celles de leurs compagnons.
The current distribution and status of leopardsPanthera pardusin China
Authors: Laguardia Alice , Kamler Jan F. , Li Sheng , Zhang Chengcheng , Zhou Zhefeng , Shi Kun 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThe leopardPanthera pardus, categorized globally as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, has the widest distribution of any wild felid species, although in Asia it has declined dramatically and five subspecies are Endangered or Critically Endangered. In China at least three subspecies have been reported to occur throughout much of the country, and in 1998 the population was estimated to be 1,000. However, recent studies have indicated that leopards have disappeared from large areas, probably as a result of habitat loss, a low prey base and poaching, indicating this species may not be as common in China as previously believed. To examine this we reviewed recent literature and interviewed specialists to determine the current status and distribution of the leopard in China. Our findings indicate that the species has declined dramatically, with confirmation of presence at only 44 sites in 11 provinces, despite extensive surveys. Current populations are small and fragmented, and occur mainly in isolated nature reserves. We estimate a total population of only 174–348P. pardus japonensis(the north Chinese leopard), which is endemic to China, and < 30 individuals for each of the other subspecies whose distributions extend beyond China. We recommend that a separate IUCN assessment be made forP. pardus japonensis, and that this subspecies be categorized as Critically Endangered. Our findings are the first reliable estimates of the current distribution and status of the leopard in China, and provide valuable information that will help guide conservation efforts.
Modular-robotic structures for scalable collective actuation
Authors: Lengiewicz Jakub , Kursa Michał , Hołobut Paweł 
Published: October 2015

SUMMARYWe propose a new class of modular-robotic structures, intended to produce forces which scale with the number of modules. We adopt the concept of a spherical catom and extend it by a new connection type which is relatively strong but static. We examine analytically and numerically the mechanical properties of two collective-actuator designs. The simulations are based on the discrete element method (DEM), with friction and elastic deformations taken into account. One of the actuators is shown to generate forces proportional to its volume. This property seems necessary for building modular structures of useful strength and dimensions.
DECOLONIZATION AND SELF-DETERMINATION
Authors: Stilz Anna 
Published: October 2015

Abstract:While self-determination is a cardinal principle of international law, its meaning is often obscure. Yet international law clearly recognizes decolonization as a central application of the principle. Most ordinary people also agree that the liberation of colonial peoples was a moral triumph. This essay examines three philosophical theories of self-determination’s value, and asks which one best captures the reasons why decolonization was morally required. The instrumentalist theory holds that decolonization was required because subject peoples were unjustly governed, the democratic view holds that decolonization was required because subject peoples lacked democratic representation, and the associative view holds that decolonization was required because subject peoples were unable to affirm the political institutions their colonial rulers imposed on them. I argue that the associative view is superior to competing accounts, because it better reflects individuals’ “maker” interests in participating in shared political projects that they value. The essay further shows that if we accept the associative view, self-determination is not a sui generis value that applies to decolonization alone. Ultimately, our intuitions about decolonization can be justified only by invoking an interest on the part of persistently alienated groups in redrawing political boundaries. The same interest may justify self-determination in additional cases, such as autonomy for indigenous peoples, or greater independence for Scotland or Quebec.
EMERGENCY CLAIMS AND DEMOCRATIC ACTION
Authors: Rubenstein Jennifer C. 
Published: October 2015

Abstract:The straightforward normative importance of emergencies suggests that empirically engaged political theorists and philosophers should study them. Indeed, many have done so. In this essay, however, I argue that scholars interested in the political and/or moral dimensions of large-scale emergencies should shift their focus from emergencies to emergency claims. Building on Michael Saward’s model of a “representative claim,” I develop an account of an emergency claim as a claim that a particular (kind of) situation is an emergency, made by particular actors against particular background conditions to particular audiences, which in turn accept, ignore, or reject that claim. Emergency politics, in turn, consists of many different actors making and not making, accepting, and rejecting, a wide range of overlapping and competing emergency claims. I argue that scholars should shift their focus to emergency claims because doing so helps us see the fraught implications of emergency politics for marginalized groups. I examine three such implications: emergency claims are often “Janus-faced,” meaning that they function simultaneously as “weapons of the weak” and weapons of the strong; they are often regressive, including by discriminating against victims of chronic bad situations, and they often perpetuate and exacerbate existing social hierarchies. Noticing these troubling features of emergency politics raises a question that I do not address here: What might plausible alternatives to emergency politics look like?
THE MORALITY OF SANCTIONS
Authors: Pattison James 
Published: October 2015

Abstract:Economic sanctions have been subject to extensive criticism. They are often seen as indiscriminate, intending the harms that they inflict, and using the suffering of the innocent as a means to enact policy change. Indeed, some reject outright the permissibility of economic sanctions. By contrast, in this essay, I defend the case for economic sanctions. I argue that sanctions are not necessarily morally problematic and, in doing so, argue that sanctions are less morally problematic than is often claimed. I go on to argue that sanctions may sometimes be morally preferable to the leading alternatives and, in particular, to wars and doing nothing. This is in part because sanctions are more likely to distribute fairly the currently inevitable harms to innocents of tackling aggression and mass atrocities. In the final part of the essay, I draw on this point to argue more generally that that we should often favor a “Harm-Distribution Approach” in the ethics of war and peace.
Quality-protected folksonomy maintenance approaches: a brief survey
Authors: Jabeen Fouzia , Khusro Shah 
Published: October 2015

AbstractFolksonomy gives liberty to its users to freely assign chosen keywords as tags, and this is the main reason behind its popularity. Apart from freedom, this system also reflects the collective intelligence of the crowd. However, this freedom and liberty can degrade quality of the folksonomy. It is required that quality of the folksonomy must remain consistently excellent and does not degrade with the passage of time. This is a survey paper, in which we present a brief survey of the research efforts intended to maintain a quality-protected folksonomy. We have organized our paper by looking at the problem from four aspects namely selection of quality tags, tag management features provided by folksonomy applications, folksonomy cleaning and interoperability of tags across platforms. We conclude our review with some of the interesting research topics, which need to be explored further. Our conclusion will be relevant and beneficial for engineers and designers who aim to design and maintain a quality-protected folksonomy.
Resolving conflicts in knowledge for ambient intelligence
Authors: Homola Martin , Patkos Theodore , Flouris Giorgos , Šefránek Ján , Šimko Alexander , Frtús Jozef , Zografistou Dimitra , Baláž Martin 
Published: October 2015

AbstractAmbient intelligence (AmI) proposes pervasive information systems composed of autonomous agents embedded within the environment who, in orchestration, complement human activity in an intelligent manner. As such, it is an interesting and challenging application area for many computer science fields and approaches. A critical issue in such application scenarios is that the agents must be able to acquire, exchange, and evaluate knowledge about the environment, its users, and their activities. Knowledge populated between the agents in such systems may be contextually dependent, ambiguous, and incomplete. Conflicts may thus naturally arise, that need to be dealt with by the agents in an autonomous way. In this survey, we relate AmI to the area of knowledge representation and reasoning (KR), where conflict resolution has been studied for a long time. We take a look at a number of KR approaches that may be applied: context modelling, multi-context systems, belief revision, ontology evolution and debugging, argumentation, preferences, and paraconsistent reasoning. Our main goal is to describe the state of the art in these fields, and to draw attention of researchers to important theoretical issues and practical challenges that still need to be resolved, in order to reuse the results from KR in AmI systems or similar complex and demanding applications.
“Bureaucratic Bargaining”: An American Foreign Policy Simulation
Authors: Hobbs Heidi H. , Moreno Dario V. 
Published: October 2015

The complexities of the governmental machinery and personal perceptions involved in the formulation of American foreign policy are difficult for students to comprehend from the confines of the classroom. Beginning students often enter the study of international relations/political science with a simplistic view of policy making. They tend to accept a priori what Graham Allison (1971) calls the “rational actor model” in which students “package the activities of various officials of a national government as action chosen by a unified actor, strongly analogous to an individual human being.” Students often believe that foreign policy is set by a cohesive group of individuals who share common goals and preferences. The additional tendency to anthropomorphize the state leads undergraduates to write papers in which nation-states are portrayed with such diverse human qualities as sympathy, cruelty, greed, and aggression.Modern scholarship on decision making has expanded beyond this traditional view to encompass differing variables. There is an ongoing debate in the discipline as to what is the most potent variable in American foreign policy. One group of scholars contends that the bureaucratic or role variable is more important. While agreeing that role is a powerful restriction, particularly at the lower levels of the bureaucracy, other scholars argue that the individual perceptions and beliefs of policy makers are more important in the decision-making process.Given the complicated nature of this debate, a creative way to expose beginning students to American foreign policy decision making is through a simulation. Simulations are useful for the study of the decision-making process because the standard lecture-discussion format, which provides a linear overview of the subject, does not adequately communicate the complex structure and multiplicity of factors in operation.
Summary and Analysis of a Survey of Graduate Core Courses in Comparative Politics
Authors: McHenry Dean E. 
Published: October 2015

This paper summarizes the findings of a study of syllabi for the core course in comparative politics offered by a sample of political science departments in the United States with field offerings in comparative politics granting annually more than one Ph.D. These courses are given a variety of names. Some simply specify the subdiscipline, for example, Princeton's “Comparative Politics,” MIT's “Field Seminar in Comparative Politics” or Illinois' “Core Seminar in Comparative Politics.” Others specify the aspect or aspects of the subdiscipline given principal attention, for example, Stanford's “Major Theories in Comparative Politics,” Kentucky's “Comparative Politics: Theory and Method,” or Indiana University's “Seminar in Comparative Politics: Issues and Approaches.” Each is intended to provide graduate students with an understanding of the fundamental ideas of comparative politics. The purposes of the study were to assess the state of the subdiscipline and to facilitate the exchange of ideas among those involved in teaching such core courses. We recognize that a syllabus indicates only a part of what is taught and learned in any course. Nevertheless, syllabi fairly well reflect the topics and scholarly readings deemed most important by teachers in the field.Scholars in the subdiscipline of comparative politics frequently have noted the lack of agreement among comparativists on frameworks, methodologies and subject matter. Macridis and Brown in the 1961 edition of their reader described the field as “in a state of flux” (3). During the 1960s and 1970s, the lack of agreement probably increased. Kaufman and Rosenau in 1977 described the field as then “in a state of ferment” (45).
The Politics of Aging: A Hands-on Approach
Authors: Downes Peggy 
Published: October 2015

Cold, irrefutable demographics clearly signal a traumatic intergenerational shift in political power. Statistics indicate that by the year 2020 political and economic clout will have drained from the middle-aged to the elderly, or more specifically, to the “young-old.” By the time the Baby Boom generation reaches retirement, its cohort could wield enough political and economic influence to alter political-campaign and corporate-marketing strategies, to tip the scales of the candidate selection process, and to dominate most decision-making centers. This process of power recognition and accumulation is now irreversible. The media, marketing departments, and campaign strategists are all struggling to redefine their target audience, to reassess the depth of political involvement, and to reshape their imagery to fit the new reality. Ironically, political science departments appear reluctant to restructure their course offerings so that this dramatic power transfer can be examined from a political perspective at the undergraduate level.We make a statement by what we don't teach—by what we fail to discuss and to dissect. Realizing this, in 1987 Santa Clara University's Center of Education on Aging, in conjunction with the political science department, initiated a senior seminar with a strictly political slant on the aging dilemma. Participants chose to function as an exploratory team in the creation of a “political profile” of the aging in the Santa Clara area. Together with their individual research projects, this profile was to serve as the core of a pilot course—a model which subsequent classes and other colleges might draw upon in structuring their own format.
Write On! Strategies for the Overburdened Instructor
Authors: Cornacchia Eugene J. 
Published: October 2015

Many political science instructors often look for ways to increase the amount of writing in their courses without over-burdening either themselves or their students. The following practical suggestions, none particularly new or innovative, are nonetheless useful for including more writing in undergraduate political science courses. I have successfully used these assignments for several years and they are generally enthusiastically received by students.The underlying theory in my approach is that students are better able to cope with writing when the assignments are briefer and varied, though more frequent. Furthermore, it may be more productive to focus on what students are saying rather than on how they say it (MacAllister, 1982; Sommers, 1982). Adopting such an approach is not to advocate grammatical anarchy. Rather, it recognizes that good, grammatically correct, effective writing must be taught to college students in a manner that is sensitive to their prior experiences and capabilities.A journal is much like a diary (Fulwiler, 1987). In it, students record their thoughts, observations, and feelings about the political world or specific course material. Students may be asked to write about questions or problems they discover in their readings, current political events, or they may be asked to reflect on issues or questions raised in class. The instructor can pose a specific question, or students may be permitted to write about anything (political) they choose.
Improving Undergraduate Writing
Authors: Maranto Robert 
Published: October 2015

Sniping at the desire and ability of undergraduates is common sport at most institutions of higher learning. Get a few professors together, and the talk soon turns to the fluffy heads of our youthful charges. Often we try to outdo each other's dumb student stories. Perhaps less common are special efforts to make things better. It is, after all, easy to complain about the product the high schools send us, but far more difficult to improve it.This is particularly true of student writing ability. Grading papers and essay exams takes time which few of us have. Besides, it can be awfully depressing to confront the mangled sentences of all too many students. It's better, or at least more comforting, to pretend the problem isn't there. At large institutions with credible graduate programs, teaching assistants often allow professors to remain blissfully ignorant of bad undergraduate writing. At smaller, less prestigious schools, there is an analogous temptation to live and die by the multiple guess/short answer format. The students certainly won't complain, and colleagues and administrators are usually busy with problems of their own.
The Techno-Thriller in the Classroom: Red Storm Rising as a Guide to World War III
Authors: Wirtz James J. 
Published: October 2015

Most of the literature in the field of international security studies does not focus on the details of battlefield operations or the use of weapons in combat. The American military is usually left alone to devise effective tank tactics or solutions to the problems encountered as pilots attempt to place bombs on a target. Scholars increasingly realize, however, that theoretical work must reflect the reality of the battlefield and likely operational constraints. For example, recent explorations of the intricacies of nuclear operations have influenced the way analysts view the problem of deterrence. To be useful, theories and policy prescriptions must respond to the prevailing conditions on the battlefield.When it becomes necessary to integrate operational considerations into theoretical work, scholars often turn to members of the military to determine if highly touted weapons perform “as advertised,” or to discover the potential limitations of tactics described in current manuals. Within the constraints created by issues of secrecy, officers and enlisted personnel usually are flattered by the interest taken in their profession and are forthcoming in supplying detailed answers to operational questions. Orgahized tours of military facilities also provide an opportunity to examine military hardware at close range and often lead to a fruitful exchange of ideas, especially after the conclusion of the formal presentations. Still, the information gathered from contacts with soldiers and sailors is largely anecdotal and limited to the general experiences of the individuals questioned.
Talking in the Marketplace: A “New” Approach to Political Philosophy
Authors: Ealy Steven D. 
Published: October 2015

The standard approach to teaching political philosophy involves the transmission of a given body of information, organized either historically (Plato, Aristotle, St. Thomas, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Marx, Nietzsche, etc.) or topically (the state, freedom, equality, human rights, authority, etc.). The aim is to transfer a core of knowledge to the students, whose responsibility is to comprehend the factual material much as they would material in any other course.The historical and topical approaches to political philosophy are useful in that they allow the student to familiarize himself with the great themes of western (or world) civilization, but they have their limitations. The problem of these approaches, to use an expression of Edmund Husserl's is “sedimentation.” The tradition of philosophy is so covered with generations of silt that it is almost impossible to uncover the original experiences that led to the development of philosophy in the first place. To understand Nietzsche you have to understand Marx; to understand Marx you have to understand Hegel; to understand Hegel you have to understand Kant; to understand Kant you have to understand … ad infinitum until we reach … to understand Aristotle you have to understand Plato, and to understand Plato you have to understand Socrates.A second approach to political philosophy is more concerned with encouraging students to engage in philosophical reflection than it is in developing the mastery of scholarship encouraged by the first approach. This second approach returns us to the origins of political philosophy.