Pre-electoral coalitions and cabinet stability in presidential systems

Previous research on coalition stability in presidential systems has relied to a substantial extent on the parliamentary literature. By focusing on the post-electoral bargaining environment, these approaches have neglected the key role played by pre-electoral agreements formed around the winning presidential candidate in the making and breaking of coalitions under presidentialism. We claim that cabinets derived from pre-electoral coalition should foster trust and reduce uncertainty regarding partners’ future behaviour. However, the positive effect of pre-electoral coalitions over cabinet duration is conditional on cabinet status, that is, the control of a legislative majority or near majority. Therefore, we argue that pre-electoral coalition cabinets holding a majority or near majority of seats will be more durable than purely post-electoral majority coalitions, whereas minority pre-electoral coalition cabinets congruent should endure less than minority post-electoral coalition cabinets. We test these hypotheses using a dataset of pre- and post-electoral coalitions in 11 Latin American countries.

The New Entrepreneurs and Organizational Advocacy

Chapter 5 turns toward one associative aspect of corporate elite political engagement. Specifically, it examines how SV150+ CEOs and founders use private foundations to further their philanthropic interests. What proportion of SV150+ corporate elites acts philanthropically through private foundations? What issues do their foundations support? Are there any discernible patterns to SV150+ elite foundation giving? And how often does SV150+ philanthropic giving wander into political territory? Do private foundations associated with our CEOs and founders support political organizations to any substantial extent? And if they do, what types of organizations working on what types of issues do they support? The data presented in Chapter 5 connect nicely with ongoing work on the role of wealthy elites in addressing societal problems and steering social and political change.

Sweden: Non-binding Rules against the Pandemic – Formalism, Pragmatism and Some Legal Realism

Swedish measures to fight the spread of COVID-19 differ from the strategies used in other comparable countries. In contrast to the lockdown approach that has been applied in many European countries, the Swedish strategy has been based to a substantial extent on individuals taking responsibility under non-binding recommendations. This contribution explores the Swedish strategy from a constitutional and administrative law perspective, highlighting the tension between the formalist system for delegating norms under the Swedish Constitution and the pragmatic use of non-binding rules such as the “General Recommendations” adopted by the Public Health Agency. The article concludes that the official use of soft law instruments is confusing from a legal perspective, because non-binding rules do not offer the traditional formal mechanisms for legal protection, the publication of norms or accountability. The legal-realist approach of the Supreme Administrative Court’s case law, however, has the potential of balancing some of the unfortunate effects arising from the Swedish combination of formalism and pragmatism.

Electoral incentives to coalition formation in multiparty presidential systems

Coalition theories of presidential regimes have frequently assumed coalition formation is a mostly post-electoral phenomenon. We challenge this view by showing that pre-electoral bargaining shapes to a substantial extent minority presidents’ disposition to cooperate with the legislature by forming a majority cabinet. Examining a dataset of pre- and post-electoral coalitions from 18 Latin American countries, we find that majority coalition cabinets are more likely to occur when elected presidents form pre-electoral coalitions (PECs), to the extent that pre-electoral agreements create stronger incentives for cooperation, by relying on a broader set of rewards than any post-electoral agreement. Moreover, we find that the likelihood of majority coalition formation increases as the share of PEC seats increases, thus reducing the need to engage in post-electoral bargaining. Our findings carry important implications for the study of cabinet formation in presidential regimes by introducing pre-electoral agreements as a key determinant of cabinet formation.

Hierarchy in the Avidity and Cross-reactivity of Anti-citrullinated Protein Antibodies in the Serum of Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis

BackgroundFine specificity of anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs), in which cross-reactivity exists, varies among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but it is unclear whether the mechanism of ACPA production is same or different among individuals. Since avidity of serum antibody reflects the direction of immune response, we compared the levels of avidity and cross-reactivity between various ACPAs in a cohort of RA patient.MethodsSera from 180 RA patients positive for anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) 2 antibody were screened for positivity of antibodies against CCP1, and citrullnated fibrinogen (cFib), enolase (cEno), and vimentin (cVim) peptides. Avidity of the four ACPAs, and some autoantibodies and antibodies against foreign antigens was determined by an elution assay using sodium thiocyanate solution. Cross-reactivity between different ACPAs was estimated by measuring the inhibition of binding by competitor peptides. ResultsThe prevalence of anti-CCP1, anti-cFib, anti-cEno, and anti-cVim antibodies in the anti-CCP2-positive RA cohort were 37.7%, 38.3%, 15.6%, and 23.9%, respectively. The avidity of ACPAs, except for anti-cVim antibody, was significantly lower than that of antibodies against foreign antigens, while there was a large variety in the avidity of other autoantibodies. At individual levels, the avidity of anti-cVim was significantly higher than that of other ACPAs, and there was a significant correlation in the avidity of anti-CCP and anti-cFib antibodies. Substantial extent of cross-reactivity was seen between different ACPAs, which also showed a fixed hierarchy.ConclusionThe fixed hierarchy in the avidity and cross-reactivity between different ACPAs suggests that the mechanism underlying ACPA production is common to all RA patients. Presence of a dominant antigen that induces whole ACPA response is speculated.

Development of Enzymatic Microtoxicity Test for the Toxicity Assay of Chlorophenolic Compounds

Enzymes are proteins that serve as catalysts of biological reactions in the animal, plant, and microbial cells. They are quite specific concerning with regard to their substrates. Enzymes lower the activation energy and increase the rate of biochemical reactions. According to the type of reaction catalyzed, enzymes are currently subdivided into six classes, namely oxidoreductases, hydrolases, transferases, lyases, isomerases, and ligases. The effects of toxic chemicals and chlorophenolic compounds on enzyme activity are determined by fast, useful, and simple enzymatic methods. These methods can be carried out in low volumes and automatically using equipment such as a spectrophotometer, fluorometer and scintillation counters. In this study, a new microtoxicity test was developed with the use of the fungal and bacterial β-galactosidase enzyme. In the toxicity experiments, the effects of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (2,4,6 TCP), 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4 DCP) and 4-chlorophenol (4 CP) over the β-galactosidase enzyme activity were investigated. In this study, the bacterial and fungal β-galactosidase enzyme was found to be effective in determining the detoxification of some chlorinated phenolic compounds, 2,4,6-TCP, 2,4-DCP, and 4-CP, through the treatment with laccase enzyme. The inhibitor effect of toxic compounds on the activity of the β-galactosidase enzyme was examined. As a result of the studies, 61% inhibition for 2,4,6-TCP, 58% inhibition for 2,4-DCP and 47% inhibition for 4-CP was observed. Mikrotoxicity test system developed in our laboratory which works principally based on inactivation of β-galactosidase activity by toxic chlorinated phenolics, was used for toxicity detection. Data obtained from microtoxicity tests have shown that the dechlorination of chlorinated phenolics with laccase has resulted in the loss of toxic potentiality of these chemicals to a substantial extent. We thought that this study is to be an important contribution to bioremediation science and environmental technology with a new biotechnological approach.

Variability of forwarder truckload parameters in the Pryazha forestry division of the Republic of Karelia (Russia): A computer experiment

The goal of the present research is to analyze parameters of a bundle of logs for various models of forwarders in the Pryazha division of forestry of the Republic of Karelia. The investigated parameters were mass and volume of a bundle of logs, stacking factor of the bundle and the number of wood assortments in the bundle. The following models of forwarders have been investigated: John Deere 1210E, John Deere 1110E, Ponsse Elk, Ponsse Wisent, Amkodor 2661-01, Rottne F13D, Rottne F15D, Rottne F18D. We estimated the parameters of bundles formed from spruce sawlog 6.1 m long and bundles formed from spruce pulpwood 4 m long. Data on stem forms from harvester recorders have been collected to assess the parameters of a bundle of logs. Parameters of bundles have been determined based on computer experiment. The experiment consists of the following steps: random selection of the stem from the database; simulation of the cut-to-length process; simulation of log stacking process; calculation of parameters of a bundle of logs. We found that parameters of bundles vary to a quite substantial extent. Average variability of a bundle of logs formed of 6.1 m long spruce sawlog is 4.5 t, variability of the volume is 5.8 m3, and variability of the number of wood assortments in a bundle is 49 pcs. For a bundle made up of 4 m long spruce pulpwood variability of mass is on average 2.8 t, that of volume – 2.09 m3, that of the number of wood assortments – 57 pc. The presented results can inform transportation of wood on cutting areas, planning timber harvesting, as well as development new logging machines.

An Assessment of Disaster Loss and Damage in Nepal

A disaster is a natural or manmade hazard resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life or drastic change to the environment. Due to diverse geographical coverage, Nepal is prone to various geological and hydro-meteorological hazards. This paper tries to show the types of disaster, losses and damages induced by disaster and analyze the trend and geographical distribution of disaster in Nepal. This study is based on the secondary data sources. Disaste r events data were collected from NSET and other government research papers, library etc. 26,665 events were reported during a 45 year and 43,868 people were died, 2,828 people were missing by disaster. Fire, flood landslide, accident and thunderstorms are major disasters in terms of occurrences and Earthquake, flood, and landslide are the major disasters in terms of damages and losses. The trend of disaster events is gradually increasing from the 1971 to 2000 but after 2000 the trend of disaster is drastically increasing to 2016. Annually 593 disaster events have occurred in Nepal. The data of impacts caused by the disasters also reveal that the estimated annual economic loss is increasing with the increasing frequency of disasters. The number of natural disasters as well as the number of corresponding casualties, injured and affected people, and economic loss is steadily on the rise. Tarai and Hilly districts are highly vulnerable than Mountain districts and Hill and Tarai region are most affected than Mountain region due different disaster in Nepal. The Tarai and some central hill districts are most vulnerable in terms of disasters occurrences. Among the seven provinces, province no 3 recorded the highest number of human deaths and disasters occurrences.

Fibre architecture modification to improve the tensile properties of flax-reinforced composites

As far as the tensile properties of natural fibres as reinforcements for composites are concerned, flax fibres will stay at the top-end. However, an efficient conversion of fibre properties into their corresponding composite properties has been a challenge, due to the fibre damages through the conventional textile methods utilised to process flax. These techniques impart disadvantageous features onto fibres at both micro- and meso-scale level, which in turn degrade the mechanical performances of flax fibre-reinforced composites (FFRC). Undulation of fibre is one of those detrimental features, which occurs during traditional fibre extraction from plant and fabric manufacturing routes. The undulation or waviness causes micro-compressive defects or ‘kink-bands’ in elementary flax fibres, which significantly undermines the performances of FFRC. Manufacturing flax fabric with minimal undulation could diminish the micro-compressive defects up to a substantial extent. In this research, nonwoven flax tapes of highly aligned flax fibres, blended with a small proportion of polylactic acid have been manufactured deploying a novel technique. Composites reinforced from those nonwoven tapes have been compared with composites reinforced with woven Hopsack fabrics and warp knitted unidirectional fabrics from flax, comprising undulating fibres. The composites reinforced with the highly aligned tapes have shown 33% higher fibre-bundle strength, and 57% higher fibre-bundle stiffness in comparison with the composites reinforced with Hopsack fabric. The results have been discussed in the light of fibre undulation, elementary fibre individualisation, homogeneity of fibre distribution, extent of resin rich areas and impregnation of the fibre lumens.

Trajectories of Well-Being in Later Life

Well-being is a core concept for both individuals, groups and societies. Greater understanding of trajectories of well-being in later life may contribute to the achievement and maintenance of well-being for as many as possible. This article reviews two main approaches to well-being: hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, and shows that it is not chronological age per se, but various factors related to age that underlie trajectories of well-being at older ages. Next to the role of genes, heritability and personality traits, well-being is determined to a substantial extent by external circumstances and resources (e.g., health and social relationships), and to malleable individual behaviors and beliefs (e.g., self-regulatory ability and control beliefs). Although many determinants have been identified, it remains difficult to decide which of them are most important. Moreover, the role of some determinants varies for different indicators of well-being, such as positive affect and life satisfaction. Several prominent goal- and need-based models of well-being in later life are discussed, which explicate mechanisms underlying trajectories of well-being at older ages. These are the model of Selection, Optimization, and Compensation, the Motivational Theory of Lifespan Development, Socio-emotional Selectivity Theory, Ryff’s model of Psychological Well-Being, Self-Determination Theory, and Self-Management of Well-being theory. Also, interventions based on these models are reviewed, although not all of them address older adults. It is concluded that the literature on well-being in later life is enormous, and, together with various conceptual models, offers many important insights. Still, the field would benefit from more theoretical integration, and from more attention to the development and testing of theory-based interventions. This remains a challenge for the science of well-being in later life, and could be an important contribution to the well-being of a still growing proportion of the population.