The emphasis is on the deterioration of the participation of the political institutions and politicians before the citizenry in Costa Rica, which shows a process of exhaustion, loss of legitimacy of institutions and actors. This process goes back a few decades and shows no sign, in the short term, of the emergence of new structures in the political system. This paper systematizes the morphology of exhaustion and identifies the trends in which the reform can be based. Such reform should be based on constitutional engineering and should support the political reform process from the tendencies of change that are expressed in the political system. Published in Revista Derecho Electoral, December 2013. In Spanish only.

In a genuine effort to protect patients from adverse events, regulatory burdens and research rigidity in clinical trials have increased to a point at which such protection is outweighing the benefits, and actually harming patients who are unable to be involved in clinical trials.

Countries around the Persian Gulf are falling behind with regard to renewables, both for technical and for political reasons. And they need to diversify — just like the rest of us — if they are going to keep local consumption from using up too much of the oil they would rather sell.

Allowing the producer-dominated market to set drug prices has spiraled the cost of cancer drugs out of control. Drug pricing can be reduced while preserving the profit-making incentive, by linking price to a true measure of quality: preservation and meaningful prolongation of life.

Altering the Medicare policy on injectable drugs is one way to reduce Medicare expenditures. Allowing self-administration will also free up hospital and clinic capacity for other patients.

This article focuses on three early cases of the Arab Spring — Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco — to discuss causes and likely outcomes, gender dynamics, prospects for genuine democratization, and the connection between feminist movements and democratization. A comparative and international perspective highlights similarities and differences across the Arab cases and between the Arab Spring and other "democracy waves."

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By Karen E. Hoffman, Jiangong Niu, Sharon H…

By Bruce Y. Lee, Kristina M. Bacon, Maria Elena Bottazzi and Peter J. Hotez

Abstract

Background: As Chagas disease…

The evolution of revenue efficiency of national oil companies (NOCs) is examined using data on 61 oil companies from 2001-09. Published by The Energy Journal.

Abstract

Kingpin strategies— the targeting of the top-levels of terrorist or drug trafficking organization hierarchies—…