A divisão dos regimes políticos em Aristóteles

Trata-se de um estudo sobre a filosofia política de Aristóteles, sobretudo no que toca à divisão dos regimes políticos. Como se sabe, segundo Aristóteles seis são os regimes políticos, três justos (realeza, aristocracia e república) e três corruptos (tirania, oligarquia e democracia). O autor se propõe a demonstrar que a distinção entre essas seis formas de constituição, no pensamento político aristotélico, não é primeiramente pelo número dos que exercem o mando ou pela finalidade com que governam, mas resulta da aplicação de certos princípios à distribuição do poder pelas diversas partes da comunidade política. Assim, a distribuição do poder segundo o estado de liberdade constituiria a democracia; a distribuição segundo o critério da riqueza, a oligarquia; a distribuição segundo o critério da virtude, a aristocracia e a realeza; a exacerbação dos princípios da democracia e da oligarquia culminaria na tirania; e a república ou governo constitucional seria constituída pela combinação harmônica de instituições democráticas, oligárquicas e aristocráticas, resultando no regime mais apropriado à maioria das comunidades políticas.

Real exchange rate volatility, financial crises and nominal exchange regimes

This paper examines the sources of real exchange rate (RER) volatility in eighty countries around the world, during the period 1970 to 2011. Our main goal is to explore the role of nominal exchange rate regimes and financial crises in explaining the RER volatility. To that end, we employ two complementary procedures that consist in detecting structural breaks in the RER series and decomposing volatility into its permanent and transitory components. The results confirm that exchange rate volatility does increase with the global financial crises and detect the existence of an inverse relationship between the degree of flexibility in the exchange rate regime and RER volatility using a de facto exchange rate classification.

Welfare state regimes and gender inequalities in the exposure to work-related psychosocial hazards

Background: Gender inequalities in the exposure to work-related psychosocial hazards are well established. However, little is known about how welfare state regimes influence these inequalities. Objectives: To examine the relationship between welfare state regimes and gender inequalities in the exposure to work-related psychosocial hazards in Europe, considering occupational social class. Methods: We used a sample of 27, 465 workers from 28 European countries. Dependent variables were high strain, iso-strain, and effort-reward imbalance, and the independent was gender. We calculated the prevalence and prevalence ratio separately for each welfare state regime and occupational social class, using multivariate logistic regression models. Results: More female than male managers/professionals were exposed to: high strain, iso-strain, and effort–reward imbalance in Scandinavian [adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR) = 2·26; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1·87–2·75; 2·12: 1·72–2·61; 1·41: 1·15–1·74; respectively] and Continental regimes (1·43: 1·23–1·54; 1·51: 1·23–1·84; 1·40: 1·17–1·67); and to high strain and iso-strain in Anglo-Saxon (1·92: 1·40–2·63; 1·85: 1·30–2·64; respectively), Southern (1·43: 1·14–1·79; 1·60: 1·18–2·18), and Eastern regimes (1·56: 1·35–1·81; 1·53: 1·28–1·83). Conclusion: Gender inequalities in the exposure to work-related psychosocial hazards were not lower in those welfare state regimes with higher levels of universal social protection policies.

Invited commentary: Gender regimes in health systems

In short, what Elisa Chilet has found in her recent thesis dissertation entitled 'Gender bias in clinical research, pharmaceutical marketing and the prescription of drugs', a review of which is published in this issue of the journal, is a significant amount of gender bias.

Transport across two interacting quantum dots: Bulk Kondo, Kondo box, and molecular regimes

We analyze the transport properties of a double quantum dot device with both dots coupled to perfect conducting leads and to a finite chain of N noninteracting sites connecting both of them. The interdot chain strongly influences the transport across the system and the local density of states of the dots. We study the case of a small number of sites, so that Kondo box effects are present, varying the coupling between the dots and the chain. For odd N and small coupling between the interdot chain and the dots, a state with two coexisting Kondo regimes develops: the bulk Kondo due to the quantum dots connected to leads and the one produced by the screening of the quantum dot spins by the spin in the finite chain at the Fermi level. As the coupling to the interdot chain increases, there is a crossover to a molecular Kondo effect, due to the screening of the molecule (formed by the finite chain and the quantum dots) spin by the leads. For even N the two Kondo temperatures regime does not develop and the physics is dominated by the usual competition between Kondo and antiferromagnetism between the quantum dots. We finally study how the transport properties are affected as N is increased. For the study we used exact multiconfigurational Lanczos calculations and finite-U slave-boson mean-field theory at T=0. The results obtained with both methods describe qualitatively and also quantitatively the same physics.

Short Communication Over-Winter Channel Bed Temperature Regimes Generated by Contrasting Snow Accumulation in a High Arctic River

We report experimental results of near-surface winter temperatures along and adjacent to the channel bed of a High Arctic river on Melville Island, Canada. Temperature loggers 5cm below the ground surface in areas where the terrain suggests varying snow accumulation patterns revealed that the maximum winter difference between air and near-surface temperatures ranged from 0 to +30°C during the winter of 2012–13, and that shallow near-surface freezing conditions were delayed for up to 21 days in some locations. Cooling to -10°C was delayed for up to 117 days. Modelled temperature at the top of permafrost indicates that permafrost at locations with thick snow can be up to 8°C warmer than those with thin snow. This thermal evidence for an ameliorated surface environment indicates the potential for substantial extended microbial and biogeochemical cycling during early winter. Rapid thaw of the bed during initiation of snowmelt in spring also indicates a high degree of hydrological connectivity. Therefore, snow-filled channels may contribute to biogeochemical and aquatic cycling in High Arctic rivers.