Seeking an adversary: The radical right and the saliency of pro-immigration positions in green party speeches

Western European politics has experienced considerable change since the 1980s, with the emergence of new parties and immigration’s politicisation. However, no studies have examined Green party discussions of immigration, or their interaction with radical right parties. We hypothesise that increases in the radical right’s vote share, and the saliency they attach to immigration, will incentivise Greens to discuss immigration more. We also examine an alternative explanation that how salient immigration is for left- and right-wing parties will affect immigration’s saliency for Greens. We test this by applying structural topic models to parliamentary speeches in the Dutch Tweede Kamer for 2002–2019. We find that Greens react to the radical right, as the latter’s vote share is positively associated with immigration’s saliency for Greens, although radical right immigration saliency’s effect is not robust. Furthermore, we do not find evidence that Greens react to immigration’s saliency in left- or right-wing party speeches.

The effectiveness of the drug Divigel in patients with surgical menopause

Twenty women with surgical menopause aged40-50years received parenteral hormonal replacement therapy with estradiol (preparation Divigel) for the period of 12 months. Twenty healthy women formed the control group. The following indeces were estimated during the study: menopausal Kuppermans index, and the leveloffollicle-stimulatinghormone and estradiol in blood serum. Kuppermans index remarkably decreased in the course of treatment (p0,05). Decrease of FSH level was associated with stable growth of estradiol level (p0,05). The absence of manifested side effects and considerable change of body build index, the possibility of choosingthe minimal effective doze individually allow to apply HRT with Divigel more widely.

Pastor Tillich

This book tells the story of Paul Tillich’s early theological development from his student days until the end of the First World War, set against the backdrop of church politics in Wilhelmine Germany and with particular reference to his early sermons. The majority of Tillich scholarship understands Tillich primarily as a philosophical theologian. But before and during the First World War, Tillich was Pastor Tillich, studying to become a pastor, leading a Christian student group, working periodically as a pastor in Berlin churches, and preaching to soldiers. Arriving in Berlin after the war, Tillich pursued religious socialism and a theology of culture through the 1920s. But the theological basis of these programmes was what Tillich considered his main concern immediately after the war: the theology of doubt. This book, using a wealth of untranslated German sources largely unknown to English-language scholarship, presents the stations of Tillich’s theological development of the notion of the justification of the doubter up to 1919. Distinguishing between Tillich’s later autobiographical statements and the witness of archival sources, a significantly original, contextualized account of Tillich’s early life in Germany emerges. From his days as the conservative son of a conservative Lutheran pastor to the battle-worn chaplain who could even write about ‘faith without God’, Tillich underwent considerable change. This book should therefore speak to any interested in the history of modern theology, as an example of how biography and theology are intertwined.

THE CHALLENGE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN GLOBAL HEALTH IN PANDEMIC TIME

In 1948, with the creation of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Right to Health gained a little more global prominence, since the very purpose of the international entity is to guarantee the highest level of health for all human beings, advocating that the state of physical and mental well-being does not only consist in the absence of diseases or illnesses, but mainly when a set of values and principles are established and available to all individuals, anywhere on the planet (WHO | The Right to Health, 2012). Health in this new millennium must be seen as a global problem. The globalization of health is a good for which we must work in an explicit and programmed way, as it becomes a desirable social purpose, either for its intrinsic value or as a symbol of the predominance of human values over other interests (Oliveira & Cutolo, 2018). In a global context with rapid changes in the disease patterns, the best understanding of the Health context is to consider the broad spectrum of the ecosystem containing the social, economic determinants of health and the diversity of institutional agents, given the considerable change in the global health scenario in recent years (Kickbusch & Berger, 2010). The conception that health should be seen from a comprehensive and plural perspective brings other aspects closer to its effectiveness.

Evaluation of Functional Features of Lignocellulosic Particle Composites Containing Biopolymer Binders

In this research, the assessment of the impact of natural biopolymer binders on selected mechanical and physical properties of lignocellulosic composites manufactured with different resination (12%, 15%, 20%). Different mechanical and physical properties were determined: modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity, internal bonding strength, thickness swelling, water absorption, contact angle, and density profile. Moreover, thermal properties such as thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry were studied for the polymers. The results showed significant improvement of characterized features of the composites produced using biopolymers. However, the rise of the properties was visible when the binder content raised from 12% to 15%. Further increase of biopolymer binder did not imply a considerable change. The most promising biopolymer within the tested ones seems to be polycaprolactone (PCL).

Pandemic effects on public service employment in Australia

The COVID-19 pandemic is sending shockwaves through communities and economies, and public servants have risen to the novel policy challenges in uncharted waters. This crisis comes on top of considerable turmoil for public services in recent decades, with public management reforms followed by the global financial crisis (GFC) leading to considerable change to public sector employment relations and a deprivileging of public servants. The research adopts the lens of the ‘public service bargain’ to examine the effects of the pandemic across Australian public services. How did Australian public service jurisdictions approach public employment in 2020, across senior and other cohorts of employees? How did this pandemic response compare to each jurisdictions’ response to the GFC a decade earlier? The research also reflects more broadly of the impact on public sector employment relations and to what extent pandemic responses have altered concepts of the diminished public service bargain or the notion of governments as model employers? JEL Codes J45

Numerical investigation of ibuprofen removal from pharmaceutical wastewater using adsorption process

In the present study, a mathematical modelling was developed to investigate ibuprofen adsorption from pharmaceutical wastewater into activated carbon and sonicated activated carbon. The developed model was dissolved based on the finite element method. Effect of different operating parameters including particle porosity and diameter as well as ibuprofen diffusion coefficient in solution on the amount of ibuprofen adsorption at different time point and position in the particle were evaluated. It was found good agreement between experimental values and modelling results in terms of ibuprofen adsorption as a function time. The 84.5% and 92.5% of maximum adsorption was achieved for the AC and SAC at the centre of particle after 150 min. Increasing the particle porosity and ibuprofen diffusion coefficient was improved the ibuprofen adsorption into the adsorbent. However, the particle diameter had negative impact on the system performance. There was a decrease in solute adsorption from 84.10 to 7.30 mg/g and from 106 to 15.73 mg/g for the AC and SAC respectively with increasing the particle radius from 173 to 500 µm. Finally, it was concluded that the particle specifications play important role in the adsorption process as it was observed considerable change in the amount of adsorption at different positions in the particle with changing the particle specifications.

Performance Improvement in single-gate organic transistors with contacts at top and bottom: Additional p + region insertion near source and drain

This research explores performance attributes of bottom gate top contact (BGTC) and bottom gate bottom contact (BGBC) organic thin film transistors (OTFT). To upgrade the performance characteristics, a region of 5nm with high concentration of carrier is tallied neighboring contacts. The drain current for BGTC is –18.6μ A as compared to –5.1μ A of BGBC transistor. Also, it is established that the innate attributes of BGTC are better than those of their counterparts, which is typically considered because of the inadequate contact attributes and mediocre semiconductor quality of BGBC OTFT. The analysis showed that upon varying the length of the channel ranging from 5μm to 40μm, there was a significant change in the drain current of BGTC and BGBC devices. For the same values of V GS and V DS (0V to –5V) where drain current in BGTC structure varied from –129.86μ A to –13.69μ A, whereas for their counterparts it ranged from –37.10μ A to –3.76μ A for channel length equal to 5μ m and 40μ m respectively. Also, with the varying doping strength ranging from 1012 cm–3 to 1016 cm–3 for BGBC device, drain current varied from –2.15μ A to –18.52μ A for BGTC whereas for BGBC it varied from –0.19μ A to –7.09μ A keeping V GS and V DS –5 V, yielding that upon varying the doping strength, where for BGTC I D changed by a factor of 8.6, the BGBC device showed a considerable change by a factor of 37.3. Likewise, mobility, threshold voltage, sub-threshold swing and transconductance also showing better performance with the P + insertion. These variations in the innate attributes are primarily due to the deficiency of carriers at the interface of source and channel, leading to a greater drop in the potential, which is more prominent for the bottom gate bottom contact devices.

Transition of Near-Ground Vorticity Dynamics During Tornadogenesis

Although much is known about the environmental conditions necessary for tornadogenesis, the near-ground vorticity dynamics during the tornadogenesis process itself are still somewhat poorly understood. For instance, seemingly contradicting mechanisms responsible for large near-ground vertical vorticity can be found in the literature. Broadly, these mechanisms can be sorted into two classes, one being based on upward tilting of mainly baroclinically produced horizontal vorticity in descending air (here called downdraft mechanism), while in the other the horizontal vorticity vector is abruptly tilted upward practically at the surface by a strong updraft gradient (referred to as in-and-up mechanism). In this study, full-physics supercell simulations and highly idealized simulations show that both mechanisms play important roles during tornadogenesis. Pretornadic vertical vorticity maxima are generated via the downdraft mechanism, while the dynamics of a fully developed vortex are dominated by the in-and-up mechanism. Consequently, a transition between the two mechanisms occurs during tornadogenesis. This transition is a result of axisymmetrization of the pretornadic vortex patch and intensification via vertical stretching. These processes facilitate the development of the corner flow, which enables production of vertical vorticity by upward tilting of horizontal vorticity practically at the surface, i.e. the in-and-up mechanism. The transition of mechanisms found here suggests that early stages of tornado formation rely on the downdraft mechanism, which is often limited to a small vertical component of baroclinically generated vorticity. Subsequently, a larger supply of horizontal vorticity (produced baroclinically or via surface drag, or even imported from the environment) may be utilized, which marks a considerable change in the vortex dynamics.

Malcontents and Monopoly Rents: An Analysis of the Nature and Quality of Discourse Around, and the Drivers of, Policy Change in the New Zealand Electricity Sector

<p>New Zealand’s electricity sector has undergone considerable change in the three decades to 2015. Those changes are part of a broader shift within the political landscape, from state intervention to market dominance and the view of individuals as consumers. An ill-fated policy proposal in 2013 called NZ Power sought to reduce electricity prices, and implement structural reform that would reverse decades of change within the sector. This thesis examines the context in which the reforms to the sector occurred so as to understand better why some policies are successfully implemented and other proposals fail. Specifically, this thesis examines the triumvirate of principal goals the sector has sought to achieve, and the political discourse around them: security of supply, economically efficient prices, and minimising environmental damage. From these insights, a framework is constructed against which future policies can be assessed as to the likelihood of their successful implementation.</p>