Annulment proceedings and multilevel judicial conflict

This open access book provides an exhaustive picture of the role that annulment conflicts play in the EU multilevel system. Based on a rich dataset of annulment actions since the 1960s and a number of in-depth case studies, it explores the political dimension of annulment litigation, which has become an increasingly relevant judicial tool in the struggle over policy content and decision-making competences. The book covers the motivations of actors to turn policy conflicts into annulment actions, the emergence of multilevel actors’ litigant configurations, the impact of actors’ constellations on success in court, as well as the impact of annulment actions on the multilevel policy conflicts they originate from

Sampling and Inference for Beta Neutral-to-the-Left Models of Sparse Networks

Empirical evidence suggests that heavy-tailed degree distributions occurring in many real networks are well-approximated by power laws with exponents $\eta$ that may take values either less than and greater than two. Models based on various forms of exchangeability are able to capture power laws with $\eta < 2$, and admit tractable inference algorithms; we draw on previous results to show that $\eta > 2$ cannot be generated by the forms of exchangeability used in existing random graph models. Preferential attachment models generate power law exponents greater than two, but have been of limited use as statistical models due to the inherent difficulty of performing inference in non-exchangeable models. Motivated by this gap, we design and implement inference algorithms for a recently proposed class of models that generates $\eta$ of all possible values. We show that although they are not exchangeable, these models have probabilistic structure amenable to inference. Our methods make a large class of previously intractable models useful for statistical inference.Comment: Accepted for publication in the proceedings of Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI) 201

A constructive version of Birkhoff's ergodic theorem for Martin-L\"of random points

A theorem of Ku\v{c}era states that given a Martin-L\"of random infinite binary sequence {\omega} and an effectively open set A of measure less than 1, some tail of {\omega} is not in A. We first prove several results in the same spirit and generalize them via an effective version of a weak form of Birkhoff's ergodic theorem. We then use this result to get a stronger form of it, namely a very general effective version of Birkhoff's ergodic theorem, which improves all the results previously obtained in this direction, in particular those of V'Yugin, Nandakumar and Hoyrup, Rojas.Comment: Improved version of the CiE'10 paper, with the strong form of Birkhoff's ergodic theorem for random point

Minimal quadratic forms for the function field of a conic in characteristic 22

In this note, we construct explicit examples of $F_Q$-minimal quadratic forms of dimension $5$ and $7$, where $F_Q$ is the function field of a conic over a field $F$ of characteristic $2$. The construction uses the fact that any set of $n$ cyclic $p$ algebras over a field of characteristic $p$ can be described using only $n+1$ elements of the base field. It also uses a general result that provides an upper bound on the Witt index of an orthogonal sum of two regular anisotropic quadratic forms over a henselian valued field

Jet substructure as a new Higgs search channel at the LHC

It is widely considered that, for Higgs boson searches at the Large Hadron Collider, WH and ZH production where the Higgs boson decays to b anti-b are poor search channels due to large backgrounds. We show that at high transverse momenta, employing state-of-the-art jet reconstruction and decomposition techniques, these processes can be recovered as promising search channels for the standard model Higgs boson around 120 GeV in mass.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Studying the Pc(4450) resonance in J/psi photoproduction off protons

The LHCb has reported the observation of a resonancelike structure, the Pc(4450), in the J/psi p invariant masses. In our work, we discuss the feasibility of detecting this structure in J/psi photoproduction, e.g. in the measurements that have been approved for the experiments in Hall A/C and in Hall B with CLAS12 at JLab. Also the GlueX Collaboration has already reported preliminary results. We take into account the experimental resolution effects, and perform a global fit to world J/psi photoproduction data in order to study the possibility of observing the Pc(4450) signal in future JLab data. We present a first estimate of the upper limit for the branching ratio of the Pc(4450) into the J/psi p channel, and we study the angular distributions of the differential cross sections. This will shed light on the nature and couplings of the Pc(4450) structure in the future photoproduction experiments.Comment: NSTAR 2017 conference proceeding

Professional football clubs retail branding strategies

Purpose: While some football clubs are recognised as popular brands, little is known about the way they leverage their brand in their merchandise retailing. This study draws on brand equity and supply chain management to address this gap by investigating retail branding strategies used by professional football clubs. In particular, it analyses the type of product merchandised, the reasons for selling certain products and the ways through which football clubs merchandise, including their partners in distribution channels. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach was undertaken involving content analysis of 22 Scottish professional football clubs&rsquo; websites and annual reports, and semi-structured interviews with seven football clubs retail managers and four supply chain partners. Transcribed data was coded and thematically organised through an inductive process using the qualitative data analysis software NVivo 10.&nbsp; Findings: Three types of merchandise have been identified, basic, fashion and short season. Building brand equity is considered the main motive for retailing merchandise. Some football clubs use intermediaries or outsourcers to respond to sudden consumer demands and to ensure high levels of service, whereas others have an integrated supply chain which allows for greater control.&nbsp; Research limitations/implications: This paper contributes to the discussion on the role of retailing in football club brand equity. It suggests initiating intermediaries in the distribution channels to build brand equity thus enabling clubs to become more responsive to consumer demand.&nbsp; Originality/value: This is the first paper to look at retail branding strategies of professional football clubs

Particle-in-cell modelling of relativistic laser-plasma interaction with the adjustable damping, direct implicit method

Implicit particle-in-cell codes offer advantages over their explicit counterparts in that they suffer weaker stability constraints on the need to resolve the higher frequency modes of the system. This feature may prove particularly valuable for modeling the interaction of high-intensity laser pulses with overcritical plasmas, in the case where the electrostatic modes in the denser regions are of negligible influence on the physical processes under study. To this goal, we have developed the new two-dimensional electromagnetic code ELIXIRS (standing for ELectromagnetic Implicit X-dimensional Iterative Relativistic Solver) based on the relativistic extension of the so-called Direct Implicit Method [D. Hewett and A. B. Langdon, J. Comp. Phys. \textbf{72}, 121(1987)]. Dissipation-free propagation of light waves into vacuum is achieved by an adjustable-damping electromagnetic solver. In the high-density case where the Debye length is not resolved, satisfactory energy conservation is ensured by the use of high-order weight factors. In this paper, we first present an original derivation of the electromagnetic direct implicit method within a Newton iterative scheme. Its linear properties are then investigated through numerically solving the relation dispersions obtained for both light and plasma waves, accounting for finite space and time steps. Finally, our code is successfully benchmarked against explicit particle-in-cell simulations for two kinds of physical problems: plasma expansion into vacuum and relativistic laser-plasma interaction. In both cases, we will demonstrate the robustness of the implicit solver for crude discretizations, as well as the gains in efficiency which can be realized over standard explicit simulations