The commercial peace theory maintains that trade fosters peace because trade makes conflict more costly. However, focusing on dyadic trade or overall trade integration, previous studies provide an ...inaccurate picture of the material incentives that states face in the event of military conflict. Some, but not all, third parties create economic costs for combatants. In this article, I develop the idea of Extended Dependence. I argue that trade with a potential target’s allies promotes peace because those states may reduce trade with the challenger following military intervention, punish it by imposing economic sanctions, or undermine its ability to access alternative markets. Empirical analyses that cover 1951–2010 strongly support my arguments. Trade dependence on the prospective target or on the target’s nonaggression-pact partners, however, does not yield a similar effect. This article advances our understanding of how economic linkages and security institutions can work together to diminish interstate conflict.
The slang term "pimping" is widely recognized by learners and educators in the clinical learning environment as the act of more senior members of the medical team publicly asking questions of more ...junior members. Although questioning as a pedagogical practice has many benefits, pimping, as described in the literature, evokes negative emotions in learners and leads to an environment that is not conducive to adult learning. Medical educators may employ pimping as a pedagogic technique because of beliefs that it is a Socratic teaching method. Although problems with pimping have previously been identified, no alternative techniques for questioning in the clinical environment were suggested. The authors posit that using the term "pimping" to describe questioning in medical education is harmful and unprofessional, and they propose clearly defining pimping as "questioning with the intent to shame or humiliate the learner to maintain the power hierarchy in medical education." Explicitly separating pimping from the larger practice of questioning allows the authors to make three recommendations for improving questioning practices. First, educators should examine the purpose of each question they pose to learners. Second, they should apply historic and modern interpretations of Socratic teaching methods that promote critical thinking skills. Finally, they should consider adult learning theories to make concrete changes to their questioning practices. These changes can result in questioning that is more learner centered, aids in the acquisition of knowledge and skills, performs helpful formative and summative assessments of the learner, and improves community in the clinical learning environment.
Scholars often assume that courts in authoritarian regimes cannot credibly protect foreign investors’ interests because these institutions lack judicial independence. In this article, we construct a ...novel data set on multinational corporations’ litigation activities in Chinese courts from 2002 to 2017. This supports the first systematic case-level analysis of foreign firms’ lawsuit outcomes in an authoritarian judiciary. We find that foreign companies frequently engage in litigation in authoritarian courts. Moreover, we theoretically and empirically distinguish between two types of government–business ties in terms of their effectiveness in incentivizing the host state to protect foreign investors’ interests. We argue that ad hoc, personal political connections deliver only trivial lawsuit success for multinational enterprises, while formal corporate partnerships with regime insiders can lead the state to structurally internalize foreign investors’ interests. In particular, we demonstrate that joint venture partnerships with state-owned enterprises help foreign firms obtain more substantial monetary compensation than other types of multinational enterprises. By contrast, the personal political connections of foreign firms’ board members do not foster meaningful judicial favoritism. These findings are robust to tests of alternative implications, matching procedures, and subsample robustness checks. This article advances our understanding of multinational corporations’ political risk in host countries, government–business relations, and authoritarian judicial institutions.
The Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM) is a new type of non-volatile memory based on the resistive memory device. Researchers are currently moving from resistive device development to memory ...circuit design and implementation, hoping to fabricate memory chips that can be deployed in the market in the near future. However, so far the low manufacturing yield is still a major issue. In this paper, we propose defect and fault models specific to RRAM, i.e., the Over-Forming (OF) defect and the Read-One-Disturb (R1D) fault. We then propose a March algorithm to cover these defects and faults in addition to the conventional RAM faults, which is called March C*. We also develop a novel squeeze-search scheme to identify the OF defect, which leads to the Stuck-At Fault (SAF). The proposed test algorithm is applied to a first-cut 4-Mb HfO 2 -based RRAM test chip. Results show that OF defects and R1D faults do exist in the RRAM chip. We also identify specific failure patterns from the test results, which are shown to be induced by multiple short defects between bit-lines. By identifying the defects and faults, designers and process engineers can improve the RRAM yield in a more cost-effective way.
Characteristic modes of arbitrary 2-D periodic systems are analyzed using scattering parameter data. This approach bypasses the need for periodic integral equations and allows for characteristic ...modes to be computed from generic simulation or measurement data. Example calculations demonstrate the efficacy of the method through comparison against a periodic method of moments (MoM) formulation for a simple, single-layer conducting unit cell. The effect of vertical structure and electrical size on the number of modes is studied, and its discrete nature is verified with example calculations. A multiband polarization-selective surface and a beamsteering metasurface are presented as additional examples.
PDF
