Political Science and Economics

Calcium and magnesium atoms were cocondensed with aromatic heterocycles containing five-and six-membered rings in the presence of THF at 77 K. In the case of calcium the cocondensation with five-membered heterocyclic compounds resulted in C–H bond activations and led to ...

Two novel [2+2] metallo-assemblies based on a guanosine-substituted terpyridine ligand (1) coordinated to palladium(II) (2a) and platinum(II) (2b) are reported. These supramolecular assemblies have been fully characterized by NMR spectroscopy, ESI mass spectrometry and elemental analyses. The palladium(II) complex (2a) has also been characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction studies confirming that the system is a [2+2] metallo-rectangle in the solid state. The stabilities of these [2+2] assemblies in solution have been confirmed by DOSY studies as well as by variable temperature 1 H NMR spectroscopy. The ability of these di-nuclear complexes to interact with quadruplex and duplex DNA was investigated by Fluorescent Intercalator Displacement (FID) assays, Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) meting studies, and electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). These studies have shown that both these assemblies interact selectively with quadruplex DNA (human telomeric DNA and the G-rich promoter region of c-Myc oncogene) over duplex DNA, and are able to induce dimerization of parallel G-quadruplex structures. Table of Contents Legend The synthesis and DNA binding properties of two novel [2+2] metallo-rectangles are reported. We show by spectroscopic and mass spectrometric techniques that these complexes bind selectively to quadruplex DNA even in the presence of excess duplex DNA.

Marriner Eccles is often seen as an early defender of Keynesian ideas. In that respect, it is generally accepted that he considered monetary policy of secondary importance, and that as a result he allowed the Federal Reserve to be submitted to the interests of the Treasury. In this view, the Federal Reserve after 1935 acquired new instruments to command monetary policy, but it did not change its behavior significantly. Further, his defense of the Federal Reserve-Treasury accord in 1951 is sometimes seen as a reversal of his previous policy stances. This paper claims that proper understanding of Eccles' views is necessary to appreciate the changes in monetary policy during the Great Depression and World War II. Rather than a hands-off central banker, that submitted the Fed to the Treasury, a more proper depiction of Eccles tenure at the Fed would be as a Main Street chairman.

After experiencing steady development over the past three decades, agenda-setting research appears to be in a period of flux. This paper discusses three current and critical problems that agenda-setting research has been facing recently: the problems of process, identity, and environment. These problems are critical because each has implications that might call into question the value of agenda-setting theory. The process problem concerns the nature of the agenda-setting process, specifically, the degree to which the agenda-setting process is automatic and unthinking. The identity problem asks whether the new concept of attribute agenda setting will become indistinguishable from framing or traditional persuasion research. The environment problem asks if the development of communication technology and the subsequent growth in the number and variety of news outlets will minimize the impact of media agenda setting at the social level, leading to fragmentation of the public agenda. After examining each of the problems, I suggest that the agenda-setting perspective is still worth pursuing, and I present an agenda that agenda-setting research should address for its future development.

This paper examines how mass media in Japan influenced upon the public awareness of the global environmental issues during and prior to the Earth Summit (UNCED) in 1992. Our survey revealed substantial public concern about environmental issues in Japan. Content analysis of television news during the UNCED, however, found relatively weak relationship between the salient environmental issues of the audience and the portrayal of environmental issues in television news during the UN CED. An agenda-setting study of the newspapers during and before the UN CED showed a gradual and cumulative nature of the effects rather than the immediate effects. The amount of television viewing and the attitudes toward environmental tax showed positive association, after controlling for demographic variables, which suggested cultivation effects of the media.