Majoritarian electoral systems are more prone to gerrymandering than proportional systems

Gerrymandering, the practice of redrawing electoral boundaries in order to benefit one or more electoral actor, has a long and infamous history. Here, Ferran Martinez i Coma and Ignacio Lago look at the under-explored area of gerrymandering in a comparative perspective and what link there is between its prevelence and the electoral system in use, finding it more likely to take place in majoritarian systems such as First Past the Post – the system used in UK General Elections

A Recursion-Theoretic Characterization of the Probabilistic Class PP

Probabilistic complexity classes, despite capturing the notion of feasibility, have escaped any treatment by the tools of so-called implicit-complexity. Their inherently semantic nature is of course a barrier to the characterization of classes like BPP or ZPP, but not all classes are semantic. In this paper, we introduce a recursion-theoretic characterization of the probabilistic class PP, using recursion schemata with pointers

More Than Mortar: Glia as Architects of Nervous System Development and Disease

Glial cells are an essential component of the nervous system of vertebrates and invertebrates. In the human brain, glia are as numerous as neurons, yet the importance of glia to nearly every aspect of nervous system development has only been expounded over the last several decades. Glia are now known to regulate neural specification, synaptogenesis, synapse function, and even broad circuit function. Given their ubiquity, it is not surprising that the contribution of glia to neuronal disease pathogenesis is a growing area of research. In this review, we will summarize the accumulated evidence of glial participation in several distinct phases of nervous system development and organization—neural specification, circuit wiring, and circuit function. Finally, we will highlight how these early developmental roles of glia contribute to nervous system dysfunction in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorder

Ion-water cluster molecular dynamics using a semiempirical intermolecular potential

Classical Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations have been performed to describe structural and dynamical properties of the water clusters forming around the Na + and K + . The dynamics of K + and Na + was investigated for small water clusters [K(H 2 O) n ] + and [Na(H 2 O) n ] + (n = 3 - 8), isolated in gas phase following the structure transformation through isomerizations between the accessible energy minima. The extent to which a classical molecular simulation accurately predicts properties depends on the quality of the force field used to model the interactions in the fluid. This has been explored by exploiting the flexibility of the Improved Lennard-Jones (ILJ) function in describing the long-range interaction of ionic water system

Towards a European master programme on global software engineering

This paper presents a European Master programme on global software engineering (SE), being put forward by four leading institutions from Sweden, UK, Netherlands and Italy. The Global SE European Master (GSEEM) programme aims to provide students with an excellence in SE based on sound theoretical foundations and practical experience, as well as prepare them to participate in global development of complex and large software systems. GSEEM has been designed with three noteworthy aspects: 1) Three specialization profiles in which the consortium excels: Software Architecting, Real-time Embedded Systems Engineering, and Web Systems and Services Engineering. 2) Two market-driven routes: "professional" to work as professionals, and "scientific" to continue the education towards research degrees. 3) An innovative concept of "shared modules", delivered together by multiple institutions. Four types of shared modules are foreseen: "parallel" twin modules which run remotely between universities, "shifted" modules which teach SE concepts incrementally with shifts in study locations and timeline ,"complementary" modules in which complementary SE concepts are taught in parallel through shared projects, and "common" modules which share the presentations and the project. The profiles realize "integrated knowledge" by complementing partial knowledge available at partner institutions. The paper explains how GSEEM achieves the objectives of educating global software engineers

Análisis discriminante: aplicación a la búsqueda de variables relacionadas con la capacidad de exportar

[Resumen] El objetivo marcado en el presente trabajo es mostrar la utilidad que la aplicación de la Estadística tiene en áreas de conocimiento de la titulación de Grado en Economía. Para desarrollar este propósito se estudia uno de los métodos de Análisis multivariante, concretamente el Análisis discriminante. Esta técnica estadística permite examinar las distinciones entre grupos existentes mediante el análisis de variables y su contribución a la diferenciación de ellos; a su vez también es posible predecir la pertenencia de nuevas observaciones a esos grupos. Las aplicaciones de este método en la economía son numerosas y de todas ellas se trata de hallar una posible explicación al comportamiento de empresas manufactureras españolas a la hora de realizar o no exportaciones en un determinado año. Debido a los abundantes enfoques de esa explicación, el estudio se centra en la “Teoría de los Recursos y Capacidades de la empresa”, incluyendo en el análisis distintas variables directamente relacionadas con esa teoría y dando respuesta a qué recursos internos empresariales tienen una mayor influencia para la exportación. Las variables empleadas en el análisis proceden de la “Encuesta sobre Estrategias Empresariales” realizada en dos años distintos, 2006 y 2010, con la finalidad de intentar observar cambios experimentados tras la crisis económica.[Abstract] The main objective of this thesis is to show the usefulness of applied Statistics in knowledge areas related to our degree in Economics. In order to carry out this purpose, a technique from Multivariate analysis is studied, namely the Discriminant analysis; explaining its characteristics, criteria and its decision process. This statistical method allows for direct examination of different existing groups through analysing variables and their contribution to the differentiation of the groups themselves. Furthermore, it also renders possible the prediction of new observations belonging to these groups. The functions of this method in the economy are numerous and from all of them, a way to explain the behavior of manufacturing companies whether to export or not in a certain year, is selected. Due to the abundant approaches of that explanation, the study centers around the “Resource-based Theory of Competitive Advantage”, including different variables in the analysis, directly connected to this theory and responding to the question of which internal resources of a business have a bigger impact on the export. The variables applied for the analysis are derived from the “Encuesta sobre Estrategias Empresariales” realized in two different years, 2006 and 2010, with the aim of trying to observe possible changes after the economic crisis.Traballo fin de grao (UDC.ECO). Economía. Curso 2014/201

The 2004 election in Spain : terrorism, accountability, and voting

In this paper the electoral consequences of the Islamist terrorist attacks on March 11, 2004 are analysed. According to a quantitative analysis based on a post-electoral survey, we show the causal mechanisms that transform voters' reactions to the bombings into a particular electoral behaviour and estimate their relevance in the electoral results on March 14, 200

Mutually supportive implementation of the Nagoya Protocol and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture: A workshop for selected countries under the UNDP coordinated project “Strengthening human resources, legal frameworks, and institutionalcapacities to implement the Nagoya Protocol”

Bioversity International, the UNDP-GEF Project “Strengthening human resources, legal frameworks, and institutional capacities to implement the Nagoya Protocol” and the Secretariat of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) co-organized a workshop in FAO, Rome, 21-23 November 2017 with the title “Mutually Supportive Implementation of the Nagoya Protocol and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture”. 32 participants from 17 countries participated in the workshop. The main objective was to explore and promote practical approaches and tools to implement both instruments within countries in mutually supportive ways. Legislative, administrative and policy measures were considered by participants. Experts’ presentations were complemented by participatory analyses of practical case studies and hypothetical scenarios where the interface between the Nagoya Protocol and the ITPGRFA can raise legal and procedural issues