Selected Factors Determining the Adoption and Use of Participatory Budgeting in Central and Eastern Europe

This is a summary article of the SJPS thematic issue on participatory budgeting in the Central and Eastern European region. Its authors provide an overview of the diffusion of participatory budgeting, and they classify relevant countries in terms of the pace of this diffusion into four different groups: frontrunners, early majority, later majority, and lagging adopters. In addition, they uncover various diffusion mechanisms that have been used. Since the research articles included in this thematic issue unpack various factors that influence the diffusion of the innovative practice of participatory budgeting in the specific settings of Central and Eastern Europe, the main goal of this article is to sum up their crucial findings and formulate several conclusions, including a few avenues for further research. A clear majority of countries in the region have already collected a relevant amount of experience with the adoption and further use of participatory budgeting. An analysis of the individual experiences reveals that the position and characteristics of mayors, organizational resources, and available capacities, as well as the quality of public trust, are likely to be important factors that determine the adoption and use of participatory budgeting in the region.

A Comparative Study of Three Resolving Parameters of Graphs

Graph theory is one of those subjects that is a vital part of the digital world. It is used to monitor the movement of robots on a network, to debug computer networks, to develop algorithms, and to analyze the structural properties of chemical structures, among other things. It is also useful in airplane scheduling and the study of diffusion mechanisms. The parameters computed in this article are very useful in pattern recognition and image processing. A number d f , w = min d w , t , d w , s is referred as distance between f = t s an edge and w a vertex. d w , f 1 ≠ d w , f 2 implies that two edges f 1 , f 2 ∈ E are resolved by node w ∈ V . A set of nodes A is referred to as an edge metric generator if every two links/edges of Γ are resolved by some nodes of A and least cardinality of such sets is termed as edge metric dimension, e dim Γ for a graph Γ . A set B of some nodes of Γ is a mixed metric generator if any two members of V ∪ E are resolved by some members of B . Such a set B with least cardinality is termed as mixed metric dimension, m dim Γ . In this paper, the metric dimension, edge metric dimension, and mixed metric dimension of dragon graph T n , m , line graph of dragon graph L T n , m , paraline graph of dragon graph L S T n , m , and line graph of line graph of dragon graph L L T n , m have been computed. It is shown that these parameters are constant, and a comparative analysis is also given for the said families of graphs.

Critical Summary and Concluding Remarks

This chapter provides a summary and a systematic synopsis of the theoretical approaches and the empirical results. It gives a comparative overview over the temporal and spatial pattern of the diffusion process and critically reflects the theoretical approaches and the applied methods. A basic insight of this comparative conclusion is that the macro-quantitative approach of network diffusion event history analysis has great benefits for global studies on social policy diffusion, but in-depth case studies still remain important for revealing the diffusion mechanisms. Future research should more systematically combine both perspectives.

Comparing information diffusion mechanisms by matching on cascade size

Do some types of information spread faster, broader, or further than others? To understand how information diffusions differ, scholars compare structural properties of the paths taken by content as it spreads through a network, studying so-called cascades. Commonly studied cascade properties include the reach, depth, breadth, and speed of propagation. Drawing conclusions from statistical differences in these properties can be challenging, as many properties are dependent. In this work, we demonstrate the essentiality of controlling for cascade sizes when studying structural differences between collections of cascades. We first revisit two datasets from notable recent studies of online diffusion that reported content-specific differences in cascade topology: an exhaustive corpus of Twitter cascades for verified true- or false-news content by Vosoughi et al. [S. Vosoughi, D. Roy, S. Aral. Science 359, 1146–1151 (2018)] and a comparison of Twitter cascades of videos, pictures, news, and petitions by Goel et al. [S. Goel, A. Anderson, J. Hofman, D. J. Watts. Manage. Sci. 62, 180–196 (2016)]. Using methods that control for joint cascade statistics, we find that for false- and true-news cascades, the reported structural differences can almost entirely be explained by false-news cascades being larger. For videos, images, news, and petitions, structural differences persist when controlling for size. Studying classical models of diffusion, we then give conditions under which differences in structural properties under different models do or do not reduce to differences in size. Our findings are consistent with the mechanisms underlying true- and false-news diffusion being quite similar, differing primarily in the basic infectiousness of their spreading process.

Impacts of vacancy-induced polarization and distortion on diffusion in solid electrolyte Li 3 OCl

Lithium-rich oxychloride antiperovskites are promising solid electrolytes for enabling next-generation batteries. Here, we report a comprehensive study varying Li + concentrations in Li 3 OCl using ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. The simulations accurately capture the complex interactions between Li + vacancies ( V Li ′ ), the dominant mobile species in Li 3 OCl . The V Li ′ polarize and distort the host lattice, inducing additional non-vacancy-mediated diffusion mechanisms and correlated diffusion events that reduce the activation energy barrier at concentrations as low as 1.5% V Li ′ . Our analyses of discretized diffusion events in both space and time illustrate the critical interplay between correlated dynamics, polarization and local distortion in promoting ionic conductivity in Li 3 OCl . This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Understanding fast-ion conduction in solid electrolytes’.

Perfluorocarbons therapeutics in modern cancer nanotechnology for hypoxia-induced anti-tumor therapy

: With an estimated failure rate of about 90%, immunotherapies that are intended for the treatment of solid tumors have caused an anomalous rise in the mortality rate over the past decades. It is apparent that resistance towards such therapies primarily occurs due to elevated levels of HIF-1 (Hypoxia-induced factor) in tumor cells, which are caused by disrupted microcirculation and diffusion mechanisms. With the advent of nanotechnology, several innovative advances were brought to the fore; and, one such promising direction is the use of perfluorocarbon nanoparticles in the management of solid tumors. Perfluorocarbon nanoparticles enhance the response of hypoxia-based agents (HBAs) within the tumor cells and have been found to augment the entry of HBAs into the tumor micro-environment. The heightened penetration of HBAs causes chronic hypoxia, thus aiding in the process of cell quiescence. In addition, this technology has also been applied in photodynamic therapy, where oxygen self-enriched photosensitizers loaded perfluorocarbon nanoparticles are employed. The resulting processes initiate a cascade, depleting tumour oxygen and turning it into a reactive oxygen species eventually to destroy the tumour cell. This review elaborates on the multiple applications of nanotechnology based perfluorocarbon formulations that are being currently employed in the treatment of tumour hypoxia.