Search

International audience; Who registers to vote? Although extensive research has examined the question of who votes, our understanding of the determinants of political participation will be limited until we know who is missing from the voter register. Studying voter registration in lower-income settings is particularly challenging due to data constraints. We link the official voter register with a complete social network census of 16 villages to analyze the correlates of voter registration in rural Uganda, examining the role of individual-level attributes and social ties. We find evidence that social ties are important for explaining registration status within and across households. Village leaders-and through them, household heads-play an important role in explaining the registration status of others in the village, suggesting a diffuse process of social influence. Socioeconomic factors such as income and education do not explain registration in this setting. Together these findings suggest an alternate theory of participation is required.

Elections in the MENA often occur in authoritarian context and secure relatively high levels of participation. The youth, however, participates far less. Low youth participation is not necessarily due to a lack of interest in politics. Youths are less likely to vote but are also more likely to take part in demonstrations and protests. While research on electoral participation in non-democracies has mostly focused on either patronage linkages or on a small set of demographics to account for participation gaps in authoritarian settings, we depart from this literature by by looking at more proximate barriers to voting; namely, knowledge gaps that reduce voting's (perceived) benefit and administrative barriers that increase the cost of voting. We conduct a field experiment on the Moroccan youth to study the effects of a non-partisan, online educational campaign that aims at decreasing the perceived cost and increasing the apparent benefit of voting, as well as providing information policy positions of their potential representatives in the context of the September 2021 general election.

Young citizens in many democracies, and more so in electoral autocracies, turn out to vote at relatively low rates. Low youth participation arguably contributes to political parties' tendency to de-prioritize the youth's policy preferences. We analyze the effect of three low-cost, scalable, theoretically-grounded, online interventions designed to encourage young Moroccans to turn out and cast an informed vote ahead of the 2021 parliamentary elections. Those interventions aimed at (1) lowering the cost of participation by providing information about the voting registration process, (2) increasing the expected benefit of voting by providing information about the stakes of the election, and about (3) the distance between respondents’ policy preferences and political parties' policy platforms. We find that while all three interventions failed to increase youth turnout on average, the two treatments designed to increase expected benefits increased turnout intentions for likely `compliers:’ those who, prior to treatment assignment, were unsure about whether to vote. Moreover, providing information about parties' policy platforms durably increased their support for the party that best represented their preferences, ultimately leading to better-informed voting. Consistent with probabilistic voting models with voting costs, the effect of the party-platforms treatment is concentrated among those who rated the party that our treatment deemed most congruent from a policy perspective as one of their two favorite parties. Contributing to information processing theories, we also find that party updating followed a form of motivated reasoning even in a context with weak party institutionalization.

Background The vascular access represents a crucial phase in the management of complications related to the implantation of devices. After the use of the axillary vein, which allows the elimination of intrathoracic complications as well as the subclavian crush of the catheters, the ultrasound–guided approach could represent the next step for the reduction of vascular complications. Experience All implants performed (n = 86) by an independent operator who implemented ultrasound to minimize complications related to central access were reviewed. During the first phase, the ultrasound–guided approach involved the study of vascular accesses before the start of the implant. The assessment took place before the preparation of the sterile field, for the localization of the axillary approach and for the study of the anatomical variants. It was immediately followed by the use of skin marks. The use of markers made it possible to attempt surgical isolation of the cephalic vein as a first approach. In case of failure, or the need for multiple accesses, the transition to central access could be facilitated by the presence of skin markers. This approach have not significantly modified the probability of successful axillary vein puncture without the use of venography (75% vs 71%, p NS). In the last phase all implants were performed with ultrasound–guided puncture with sterile technique before skin incision (n = 26). The procedures involved dual chamber (61%), single chamber (19%), CRTD (11%), dual chamber ICD. Ultrasound showed all cases of hypoplastic cephalic vein (15%). In the first three months of implementation, the success rate was 71.4% with 1 self–healing case of apical pneumothorax. In the following months the success rate rapidly increased to 94.1% (p Conclusions The ultrasound study of the accesses performed before the incision allows to identify the anatomy and to define the course of the axillary vascular system and its relationships. When performed with a sterile approach, it allows direct ultrasound–guided puncture before the surgical incision, with a high success rate from the early stages of implementation.

Supplemental Material, sj-pdf-1-cps-10.1177_00104140211036048 for Who Registers? Village Networks, Household Dynamics, and Voter Registration in Rural Uganda by Romain Ferrali, Guy Grossman, Melina R. Platas, and Jonathan Rodden in Comparative Political Studies

The impacts of money in US politics have long been debated. Building on principal-agent models, we test whether and to what degree companies’ political donations lead to their favored treatment in federal procurement. We expect the impact of donations on favoritism to vary by the strength of control by political principals over their bureaucratic agents. We compile a comprehensive dataset of published federal contracts and registered campaign contributions for 2004–15. We develop risk indices capturing tendering practices and outcomes likely characterized by favoritism. Using fixed effects regressions, matching, and regression discontinuity analyses, we find confirming evidence for our theory. A large increase in donations from $10,000 to $5m (in USD) increases favoritism risks by about 1/4th standard deviation (SD). These effects are largely partisan, with firms donating to the party that holds the presidency showing higher risk. Donations influence favoritism risks most in less independent agencies: the same donation increases the risk of favoritism by an additional 1/3rd SD in agencies least insulated from politics. Exploiting sign-off thresholds, we demonstrate that donating contractors are subject to less scrutiny by political appointees.

Do social networks matter for the adoption of new forms of political participation? We develop a formal model showing that the quality of communication that takes place in social networks is central to understanding whether a community will adopt forms of political participation where benefits are uncertain and where there are positive externalities associated with participation. Early adopters may exaggerate benefits, leading others to discount information about the technology's value. Thus, peer effects are likely to emerge only where informal institutions support truthful communication. We collect social network data for sixteen Ugandan villages where an innovative mobile-based reporting platform was introduced. Consistent with our model, we find variation across villages in the extent of peer effects on technology adoption, as well as evidence supporting additional observable implications. Impediments to social diffusion may help explain the varied uptake of new and increasingly common political communication technologies around the world.

A diverse family (37 compounds) of cis-4-alkoxydiorganylprolinol derivatives has been prepared and evaluated in organocatalysis for the first time. The combined use of high throughput experimentation (HTE) techniques with efficient analytical methods has led to the identification of two superior catalysts for the enantioselective addition of succinimide to α,β-unsaturated aldehydes. Further optimization of the reaction conditions with design of experiments (DoE) techniques established the catalyst of choice for the considered aza-Michael reaction, the corresponding adducts (12 examples) being obtained in good yields and excellent enantioselectivities (succinimide and maleimide donors). The synthetic versatility of these Michael adducts is illustrated by a two-step sequence leading to enantiopure 1,3-amino alcohols.

For public officials, the decision to engage in corruption is embedded into a broader set of career considerations. In contrast to politicians, bureaucrats usually enjoy lifelong tenure. As such, bureaucrats may respond differently to punctual events such as anti-corruption audits. In this paper, we propose a model of corruption with career concerns. We show that because bureaucrats have a long time horizon, anti-corruption audits may have long- and short-term effects, triggering either permanent or temporary reductions in corruption. We test the model on a program shown to be effective – randomized audits in Brazilian municipalities. Considering the effects of 10 years of audits on the careers of over 275 thousand municipal officials, we find that audits failed to trigger either short- or long-term deterrence from corruption. Our estimates show that audits only led to a 4 percent overall reduction in corruption, and ultimately cannot substitute for long-term improvements in the institutional environment.

Background: Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) may detect the origin and/or abnormal course of coronary epicardial vessels. We describe a novel TTE pattern specific for the anomalous origin of a left coronary vessel from the right coronary sinus and a posterior course and its prevalence in an unselected population of ambulatory patients. Methods: We prospectively studied 3692 consecutive patients who performed a routine TTE. In these subjects we looked for an abnormal finding that we found associated with the anomalous aortic origin of a coronary artery. Computed Tomography of the Coronary Arteries (CTCA) was performed in each suspected case. Results: We found a TTE aspect suggestive for a coronary anomaly and a retroaortic course in 16 subjects out of the 3298 studied (0,48%). CTCA invariably confirmed the presence of the anomaly. In 15 out of the 16 patients the left coronary vessel originating from the right coronary sinus (RCS) was the left circumflex artery (LCX). In the remaining patient the anomalous vessel was the left main coronary artery . Conclusions: We found a TTE sign specific for a particular kind of coronary anomaly. By using TTE it is possible to detect the retroaortic course of an anomalous left coronary vessel originating from the RCS. This pattern was found to be rare but pathognomonic for this specific kind of congenital anomaly. The ability to detect this specific kind of coronary anomaly by TEE may be relevant to the patient in some cases thus representing useful clinical information.

Do social networks matter for the adoption of new forms of political participation? We develop a formal model showing that the quality of communication that takes place in social networks is central to understanding whether a community will adopt forms of political participation where benefits are uncertain and where there are positive externalities associated with participation. Early adopters may exaggerate benefits, leading others to discount information about the technology's value. Thus, peer effects are likely to emerge only where informal institutions support truthful communication. We collect social network data for sixteen Ugandan villages where an innovative mobile-based reporting platform was introduced. Consistent with our model, we find variation across villages in the extent of peer effects on technology adoption, as well as evidence supporting additional observable implications. Impediments to social diffusion may help explain the varied uptake of new and increasingly common political communication technologies around the world.

A diverse family (37 compounds) of cis‐4‐alkoxydiorganylprolinol derivatives has been prepared and evaluated in organocatalysis for the first time. The combined use of high throughput experimentation (HTE) techniques with efficient analytical methods has led to the identification of two superior catalysts for the enantioselective addition of succinimide to α,β‐unsaturated aldehydes. Further optimization of the reaction conditions with design of experiments (DoE) techniques established the catalyst of choice for the considered aza‐Michael reaction, the corresponding adducts (12 examples) being obtained in good yields and excellent enantioselectivities (succinimide and maleimide donors). The synthetic versatility of these Michael adducts is illustrated by a two‐step sequence leading to enantiopure 1,3‐amino alcohols

ResumeIntroduction Plusieurs tests permettent d’evaluer l’adaptation a l’effort des patients atteints de BPCO. Le test de la montee des escaliers (ME) a ete le moins etudie. Nous posons l’hypothese qu’il represente un effort sous-maximal pour ces patients. Methode Nous avons compare certains parametres metaboliques et ventilatoires de fin d’effort entre la ME et l’EFX sur cyclo-ergometre chez 10 patients. Resultats Parmi les parametres etudies, le RER, la V’CO2, le lactate et la V’E sont significativement inferieurs au pic de ME (p

Among all tested complexes, the complex CUC is very active in different solvents and tolerates a wide range of functional groups.