Democratic Contestation, Accountability, and Citizen Satisfaction at the Regional Level. CES Germany & Europe Working Papers, No. 04.2, 2004

Democratic theory tells us that competition between political parties fosters more responsive government by disciplining elected leaders. Yet party competition may not always attain the levels desirable for holding leaders accountable, notably at the sub-national level. This paper hypothesizes that variations in competition-induced accountability affect regional, or state, government behavior, and that this variation is reflected in citizen satisfaction with regional government performance. The hypothesis is confirmed using survey data from sixty-eight German state election studies. Specifically, a widening of the gap between the two main parties of each state is shown to affect subsequent individual-level satisfaction negatively. This finding presents a conjecture that should be generalizable to other countries with strong sub-national units

Adaptive error control for finite element approximations of the lift and drag coefficients in viscous flow

We derive estimates for the error in a variational approximation of the lift and drag coefficients of a body immersed into a viscous flow governed by the Navier-Stokes equations. The variational approximation is based on computing a certain weighted average of a finite element approximation to the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations. Our main result is an a posteriori estimate that puts a bound on the error in the lift and drag coefficients in terms of the local mesh size, a local residual quantity, and a local weight describing the local stability properties of an associated dual problem. The weight may be approximated by solving the dual problem numerically. The error bound is thus computable and can be used for quantitative error estimation; we apply it to design an adaptive finite element algorithm specifically for the approximation of the lift and drag coefficients

Domains of the Pavarotti kinesin-like protein that direct its subcellular distribution: effects of mislocalisation on the tubulin and actin cytoskeleton during Drosophila oogenesis

The kinesin-like protein encoded by pavarotti (Pav-KLP) is essential for cytokinesis and associates with the central part of the late mitotic spindle and interphase nuclei in somatic cells (Adams et al., 1988). Here we define regions of the molecule that regulate its subcellular localisation and study the consequences of overexpressing mutant forms of the protein during oogenesis in Drosophila. Pav-KLP normally associates with the oocyte nucleus, but when over-expressed at moderate levels, its GFP tagged form also accumulates in nurse cell nuclei. At high expression levels this leads to loss of the microfilaments that tether these nuclei, so that they block the ring canals and prevent the 'dumping' of nurse cell cytoplasm into the oocyte, which results in sterility. Localisation to these nuclei is prevented by mutations in either the conserved ATP-binding site of the motor domain or the nuclear localisation sequences in the C-terminal domain. Both such mutations lead to the formation of stable arrays of cytoplasmic microtubules and the progressive disruption of the actin cytoskeleton. The latter is evident by a breakdown of the cortical actin causing disruption of cell membranes; this breakdown ultimately results in the accumulation of cytoplasmic aggregates containing tubulin, actin and at least some of their binding proteins. Pav-KLP is also found associated with the ring canals, actin-rich structures built from remnants of the cytokinesis ring. The stalk domain alone is sufficient for the exclusive association of Pav-KLP to these structures, and this has no consequences for fertility. We discuss whether disruption of actin structures by full-length cytoplasmic forms of Pav-KLP is a consequence of the resulting stabilised cytoplasmic microtubules per se or accumulation of the motor protein at ectopic cortical sites to sequester molecules that regulate actin behaviour

Synthesis of Homogeneous Manganese-Doped Titanium Oxide Nanotubes from Titanate Precursors

We report a novel synthesis route of homogeneously manganese-doped titanium dioxide nanotubes in a broad concentration range. The scroll-type trititanate (H(2)Ti(3)O(7)) nanotubes prepared by hydrothermal synthesis were used as precursors. Mn2+ ions were introduced by an ion exchange method resulting Mn(x)H(2-x)Ti(3)O(7). In a subsequent heat-treatment they were transformed into Mn(y)Ti(1-y)O(2) where y=x/(3+x). The state and the local environment of the Mn2+ ions in the precursor and final products were studied by Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) technique. It was found that the Mn2+ ions occupy two positions: the first having an almost perfect cubic symmetry while the other is in a strongly distorted octahedral site. The ratio of the two Mn2+ sites is independent of the doping level and amounts to 15:85 in Mn(x)H(2-x)Ti(3)O(7) and to 5:95 in Mn(y)Ti(1-y)O(2). SQUID magnetometry does not show long-range magnetic order in the homogeneously Mn2+-doped nanotubes.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Stiff oscillatory systems, delta jumps and white noise

Two model problems for stiff oscillatory systems are introduced. Both comprise a linear superposition of N >> 1 harmonic oscillators used as a forcing term for a scalar ODE. In the first case the initial conditions are chosen so that the forcing term approximates a delta function as N tends to infinity, and in the second case so that it approximates white noise. In both cases the fastest natural frequency of the oscillators is O(N). The model problems are integrated numerically in the stiff regime where the time step is of size O(1/N). The convergence of the algorithms is studied in this case in the limit of N tending to infinity and the time step tending to zero. For the white noise problem both strong and weak convergence are considered

Spatial-Temporal Evolution of Drought Characteristics Over Hungary Between 1961 and 2010

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Prepoznavanje faza koje sadrže Fe u mikrostrukturi livene legure AA6026 i njihova evolucija tokom postupka homogenizacije

The Fe-bearing intermetallic phases present in the as-cast AA6026 alloy and their evolution during homogenization treatments at 480-550°C were investigated using optical microscopy, SEM, and TEM techniques in combination with EDS analysis. In addition to the α-Al(Fe,Mn)Si phase with dendritic morphology, two types of plate-like Fe-bearing microconstituents were revealed in the microstructure of the as-cast alloy. The EDS microanalysis and electron diffraction showed that one set of platelets represented thin sections of α-Al(Fe,Mn)Si microconstituent. The other set of plate-like microconstituents was identified as a tetragonal, silicon-rich δ-Al4(Fe,Mn)Si2 phase. The formation of the δ-Al4(Fe,Mn)Si2 phase was attributed to the chemical composition of the alloy. During homogenization, the metastable δ-Al4(Fe,Mn)Si2 transformed into the α-Al(Fe,Mn)Si phase and fragmented. The dendritic α-Al(Fe,Mn)Si microconstituents underwent fragmentation. However, while the α-Al(Fe,Mn)Si microconstituents preserved a b.c.c. crystal lattice throughout the process, the product of the transformation of the δ-Al4(Fe,Mn)Si2 phase exhibited primitive cubic lattice.Ispitivanje prisustva faza koje sadrže Fe u mikrostrukturi livene legure AA6026, kao i njihova evolucija tokom postupaka homogenizacije na temperaturama od 480-550 °C, sprovedena su korišćenjem optičke mikroskopije, skenirajuće elektronske mikroskopije (SEM) i transmisione elektronske mikroskopije (TEM) u kombinaciji sa analizom EDS-a. Osim faze α-Al(Fe,Mn)Si sa dendritskom morfologijom, identifikovane su dve vrste pločastih mikrokonstituenata koji sadrže Fe u mikrostrukturi livene legure. EDS mikroanaliza i elektronska difrakcija pokazali su da jedan skup ploča predstavlja samo tanke sekcije mikrokonstituente α-Al(Fe,Mn)Si. Drugi skup pločastih mikrokonstituenata identifikovan je kao četvrtasta, silicijumom bogata faza δ-Al4 (Fe,Mn)Si2 . Formiranje faze δ-Al4 (Fe,Mn)Si2 povezano je sa hemijskim sastavom legure. Tokom homogenizacije, metastabilna faza δ-Al4 (Fe,Mn)Si2 transformisala se u fazu α-Al(Fe,Mn)Si i fragmentirala. Dendritski mikrokonstituenti α-Al(Fe,Mn)Si takođe su fragmentirali. Međutim, dok su mikrokonstituenti α-Al(Fe,Mn)Si sačuvali kubnu kristalnu rešetku tipa b.c.c. tokom procesa, proizvod transformacije faze δ-Al4 (Fe,Mn)Si2 pokazao je prostu kubnu rešetku

The approximate Loebl-Komlós-Sós conjecture I: The sparse decomposition

In a series of four papers we prove the following relaxation of the Loebl-Komlós-Sós conjecture: For every α > 0 there exists a number k0 such that for every k > k0, every n-vertex graph G with at least (1/2 + α)n vertices of degree at least (1 + α)k contains each tree T of order k as a subgraph. The method to prove our result follows a strategy similar to approaches that employ the Szemerédi regularity lemma: We decompose the graph G, find a suitable combinatorial structure inside the decomposition, and then embed the tree T into G using this structure. Since for sparse graphs G, the decomposition given by the regularity lemma is not helpful, we use a more general decomposition technique. We show that each graph can be decomposed into vertices of huge degree, regular pairs (in the sense of the regularity lemma), and two other objects each exhibiting certain expansion properties. In this paper, we introduce this novel decomposition technique. In the three follow-up papers, we find a suitable combinatorial structure inside the decomposition, which we then use for embedding the tree. © 2017 the authors