The effects of particle size on the optical properties and surface roughness of a glass-balloon-filled black paint

The effects of particle size on the optical properties and surface roughness of a glass-balloon-filled, carbon-pigmented paint were studied in order to develop a diffuse-reflecting, low-total-reflectance, low-outgassing black paint. Particle sizes ranged between 20 microns and 74 microns. Surface roughness was found to increase with increasing particle size. Relative total reflectance at near-normal incidence (MgO standard) of the filled paints was less than for the unfilled paint between 230 nm and 1800 nm. Total absolute reflectance at 546 nm decreased with increasing particle size at grazing angles of incidence. Near-normal, total emittance was greater for the filled paints than for the unfilled paint. Specularity decreased with increasing particle size over the range studied

Unconventional protests: partisans and independents outside the Republican and Democratic national conventions

Protests at national party conventions are an important setting in which political parties and social movements challenge one another. This article examines the motivations of participants in these events. Drawing upon data from surveys of protesters outside the 2008 national party conventions, it focuses on how partisan and independent political identifications correspond with the reasons that individuals give for protesting. The results demonstrate that there are some conditions under which independents place a greater focus on issues than do partisans and under which partisans place a greater focus on presidential candidates than do independents. However, there are also conditions under which independents are inclined to work alongside partisans, such as trying to stop the election of a threatening candidate and in championing an issue outside their opposing party’s convention. The article argues that micro-level partisan identifications are thus likely to affect the broader structure of party coalitions. These considerations promise to become increasingly relevant as social movements – such as the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter – launch new campaigns against or within established parties

Non-targeted metabolomics in sport and exercise science

Metabolomics incorporates the study of metabolites that are produced and released through physiological processes at both the systemic and cellular level. Biological compounds at the metabolite level are of paramount interest in the sport and exercise sciences, although research in this field has rarely been referred to with the global ‘omics terminology. Commonly studied metabolites in exercise science are notably within cellular pathways for ATP production such as glycolysis (e.g. pyruvate and lactate), β-oxidation of free fatty acids (e.g. palmitate) and ketone bodies (e.g. β-hydroxybutyrate). Non-targeted metabolomic technologies are able to simultaneously analyse the large numbers of metabolites present in human biological samples such as plasma, urine and saliva. These analytical technologies predominately employ nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Performing experiments based on non-targeted methods allows for systemic metabolite changes to be analysed and compared to a particular physiological state (e.g. pre/post-exercise) and provides an opportunity to prospect for metabolite signatures that offer beneficial information for translation into an exercise science context, for both elite performance and public health monitoring. This narrative review provides an introduction to non-targeted metabolomic technologies and discusses current and potential applications in sport and exercise science

Solidariedade nacional ou vontade colectiva de defesa

The Million Mom March (favoring gun control) and Code Pink: Women for Peace (focusing on foreign policy, especially the war in Iraq) are organizations that have mobilized women as women in an era when other women's groups struggled to maintain critical mass and turned away from non-gender-specific public issues. This article addresses how these organizations fostered collective consciousness among women, a large and diverse group, while confronting the echoes of backlash against previous mobilization efforts by women. We argue that the March and Code Pink achieved mobilization success by creating hybrid organizations that blended elements of three major collective action frames: maternalism, egalitarianism, and feminine expression. These innovative organizations invented hybrid forms that cut across movements, constituencies, and political institutions. Using surveys, interviews, and content analysis of organizational documents, this article explains how the March and Code Pink met the contemporary challenges facing women's collective action in similar yet distinct ways. It highlights the role of feminine expression and concerns about the intersectional marginalization of women in resolving the historic tensions between maternalism and egalitarianism. It demonstrates hybridity as a useful analytical lens to understand gendered organizing and other forms of grassroots collective action

Bell inequality for pairs of particle-number-superselection-rule restricted states

Proposals for Bell inequality tests on systems restricted by superselection rules often require operations that are difficult to implement in practice. In this paper, we derive a new Bell inequality, where pairs of states are used to by-pass the superselection rule. In particular, we focus on mode entanglement of an arbitrary number of massive particles and show that our Bell inequality detects the entanglement in the pair when other inequalities fail. However, as the number of particles in the system increases, the violation of our Bell inequality decreases due to the restriction in the measurement space caused by the superselection rule. This Bell test can be implemented using techniques that are routinely used in current experiments.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures; v2 is the published versio

The partisan ties of lobbying firms

This article examines lobbying firms as intermediaries between organized interests and legislators in the United States. It states a partisan theory of legislative subsidy in which lobbying firms are institutions with relatively stable partisan identities. Firms generate greater revenues when their clients believe that firms’ partisan ties are valued highly by members of Congress. It hypothesizes that firms that have partisan ties to the majority party receive greater revenues than do firms that do not have such ties, as well as that partisan ties with the House majority party lead to greater financial returns than do partisan ties to the Senate majority party. These hypotheses are tested using data available under the Lobbying Disclosure Act from 2008 to 2016. Panel regression analysis indicates that firms receive financial benefits when they have partisan ties with the majority party in the House but not necessarily with the Senate majority party, while controlling for firm-level covariates (number of clients, diversity, and organizational characteristics). A difference-in-differences analysis establishes that Democratically aligned lobbying firms experienced financial losses when the Republican Party reclaimed the House in 2011, but there were no significant differences between Republican and Democratic firms when the Republicans reclaimed the Senate in 2015

Competition, Concentration, and Consumer Welfare in the Deregulated Airline Industry

“Turbulent is the best way to describe the airline industry of the 1990s. Since deregulation in 1978, terms such as air wars, hubs, frequent-flyer, and, of course, Chapter 11, have become a familiar part of airline discussions. Long gone are the days of a bloated, unresponsive, complacent industry that must verify its every move with Washington bureaucrats. Although the level of uncertainty and instability in the airline industry has increased since the days of government regulation, most observers agree that deregulation has had some success (Sandler 1988, p. 332). However, it remains an open question as to whether or not the deregulated airline industry is headed in the direction of the public interest. This article will explore and evaluate changes that have taken place in the airline industry since deregulation. The first section takes a step back to review the history of regulation and the reasons policymakers chose to deregulate the industry. The second examines empirical data concerning concentration and con testability. The third and fourth sections consider the dynamics of the industry in the context of structural changes and strategic developments, such as hubs and frequent-flyer programs. Finally, recommendations are made for changes in public policy to improve consumer welfare

Protest at the center of American politics

Recognizing the increasing ubiquity of protest in the United States, this article considers why protest has become so central to American politics. It argues that three factors contribute substantially to this situation: institutional illegitimacy, political polarization, and decentralization of communications media. Institutional illegitimacy means that Americans are less likely to trust the prevailing system of government, such as selecting the president through the Electoral College, making them more likely to believe that protest is necessary to have their voices heard. Political polarization coincides with having elected officials on the extremes of the political spectrum, rather than toward the moderate center. Citizens are thus more likely to be dissatisfied with elected officials and to turn out to protest them. Decentralization of communications media, especially social media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram), allows activists to communicate with one another more readily and, therefore, to organize protests quickly and with few financial resources. These conditions are unlikely to change in the near future outside of a major partisan realignment. Recent protests organized by Black Lives Matter and related groups, in response to the deaths of George Floyd and many other African Americans, illustrate the contemporary nature of activism, social movements, and protest in the United States

Multiplex Networks and Interest Group Influence Reputation: An Exponential Random Graph Model

Interest groups struggle to build reputations as influential actors in the policy process and to discern the influence exercised by others. This study conceptualizes influence reputation as a relational variable that varies locally throughout a network. Drawing upon interviews with 168 interest group representatives in the United States health policy domain, this research examines the effects of multiplex networks of communication, coalitions, and issues on influence reputation. Using an exponential random graph model (ERGM), the analysis demonstrates that multiple roles of confidant, collaborator, and issue advocate affect how group representatives understand the influence of those with whom they are tied, after accounting for homophily among interest groups

Getting Rid of the Old Gas-Guzzler: The Federal Gasoline Tax as a Tool of Public Policy

On August 9, 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton signed into law a 4.3 cents per gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax. This increase, which brought the new federal tax level to 15.4 cents per gallon, was chosen from a menu of alternate options for energy taxation, including a British Thermal Unit (BTU) based tax and a tax on sulfur emissions. The increase was met with considerable political resistance and only passed by a narrow margin-2 votes in the House of Representatives and a tie broken in the Senate by the Vice President-after a protracted ten month debate. Although it has been estimated that the increased gasoline tax will raise $25 billion per year in tax revenues (D\u27Amato 1993, p. S7730), its passage seems to have been motivated primarily by a desire to achieve environmental and public policy objectives. In this article I will explore the economic rationale behind use of the federal gasoline tax, examine whether additional gasoline taxes are needed in the United States, employ economic reasoning to consider some of the tax\u27s possible effects, and consider ways in which stated policy objectives might be achieved more effectively