Governments will soon be talking about ‘benefit cheats’ and ‘scroungers’ – political scientists should do the same

The Covid-19 pandemic is expected to create significant unemployment across Europe. Carlo Knotz writes that if past-crises are anything to go by, there is a high likelihood this could revive political debates about benefit fraud and disincentives to work. He argues that political scientists should aim to play a central role in these debates to explain the trade-offs that come with reforming benefit systems, and the dynamics and drivers of public concern about the unemployed

Mechanical control of spin-orbit splitting in GaAs and InGaAs epilayers

Time-resolved Kerr rotation spectroscopy as a function of pump-probe distance, voltage and magnetic field is used to measure the momentum-dependent spin splitting energies in GaAs and InGaAs epilayers. The strain of the samples can be reproducibly controlled in the cryostat using three- and four-point bending applied with a mechanical vise. We find that the magnitude of the spin splitting increases linearly with applied tension and voltage. A strain-drift diffusion model is used to relate the magnitude of the measured spin-orbit splitting to the amount of strain in the sample.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Getting Tough on Unemployment : Essays on the politics of unemployment benefit reform in affluent democracies

The advanced democracies of Europe, North America, and Australasia have gotten tough on unemployment. Since the mid- to late-1970s, they started to put greater pressure on the unemployed by reducing the time for which unemployment benefits were paid, by imposing stricter job-search requirements, by extending the range of jobs considered suitable for claimants, and by tightening the penalties for non-compliance with these rules. This dissertation addresses several important gaps in the existing research on the politics of these ‘demanding’ reforms. It overcomes a key limitation of previous research, the lack of systematic comparative data, by drawing on two novel datasets on demanding unemployment benefit reforms. Four essays provide novel insights about the changes that have been introduced, about the determinants of voter attitudes, and about the roles of economic conditions and the type of government. The first paper shows that, while the unemployed are indeed under greater pressure to seek and accept work, this has not led to a complete erosion of claimant rights. Not only are many rules and provisions now formulated more precisely, making enforcement more predictable, but some protective provisions have actually been strengthened. The second paper shows that tighter sanctions are introduced in order to address the concerns of voters about overspending on social protection in austere times. The third paper shows that politically weak governments tend to compensate those who are hurt by demanding reforms by expanding labor market training programs, while this is not the case for governments who are in a stronger position. The fourth and final paper shows that the attitudes of voters toward demanding reforms are driven by different considerations, depending on whether such reforms are being introduced or not

Pinning a Domain Wall in (Ga,Mn)As with Focused Ion Beam Lithography

We utilize a focused beam of Ga+ ions to define magnetization pinning sites in a ferromagnetic epilayer of (Ga,Mn)As. The nonmagnetic defects locally increase the magneto-crystalline anisotropy energies, by which a domain wall is pinned at a given position. We demonstrate techniques for manipulating domain walls at these pinning sites as probed with the giant planar Hall effect (GPHE). By varying the magnetic field angle relative to the crystal axes, an upper limit is placed on the local effective anisotropy energy.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Biblijne podstawy teologii zaślubin z Bogiem – punkt wyjścia dla teologii małżeństwa

The article presents the outline of the theology of marriage between God and man. Italian theologian, Giorgio Mazzanti, introduces the theology of marriage through an interpretation of the symbol of man and woman on four levels of meaning. Each of those levels is revealing more and more of God’s reality. The foundations for theology of marriage created by Mazzanti include: definition of symbol, selection of appropriate events from the Holy Scripture, and presentation of relations between them according to the meaning of the defined symbol. These three elements enable Mazzanti to introduce the theology of marriage synthetically, joining it with christology, mariology, sacramentology, eschatology, and biblical anthropology. Mazzanti does not interpret the particular biblical pericopes inventively; still, the context itself; created thanks to the symbol joining the love of God with human love, introduces a certain innovation into the interpretation of the redemptive events.According to Mazzanti, the symbol, which enables one to take the path of initiation into the mystery of God’s presence in a human life, is a relationship of man and woman. The history of redemption consecutively shows new meanings of the symbol hidden in the first, literal meaning. These reveal the mystery of God’s presence in a human life. A new couple appears – Jesus Christ, Son of God and Maria, Mother of God, second Adam and second Eve. Thanks to this couple, one is able to interpret more profoundly the mystery of God in a life of man and woman. The next level of interpreting the symbol of man and woman is Christ and Church as the betrothed couple, who invite one to the marriage feast in Heaven in a love relationship of all the saints married to God. A love relation between man and woman understood as a symbol revealing a more profound reality might be interpreted on new, deeper and deeper levels of meaning. This message can be found in the following symbols: man–woman; Adam–Eve; God–People of God, Jesus–Maria, Son–Mother; Betrothed Groom–Betrothed Bride, Christ–Church, God–the Redeemed.Artykuł przedstawia zarys teologii zaślubin człowieka z Bogiem. Włoski teolog Giorgio Mazzanti tworzy teologię zaślubin poprzez interpretację symbolu mężczyzny i kobiety na czterech poziomach znaczeń. Każde z tych znaczeń odsłania coraz pełniej Boską rzeczywistość. Stworzony przez Mazzantiego fundament dla teologii zaślubin obejmuje: określenie symbolu, dobór odpowiednich wydarzeń z Pisma Świętego i pokazanie związku między nimi zgodnie ze znaczeniem ustalonego symbolu. Te trzy elementy pozwalają Mazzantiemu na syntetyczne przedstawienie teologii małżeństwa połączonej z chrystologią, mariologią, sakramentologią, eschatologią i antropologią biblijną. Mazzanti nie interpretuje poszczególnych perykop biblijnych w sposób nowatorski, jednak kontekst wytworzony przez symbol łączący miłość Boga z miłością ludzką wprowadza pewną nowość w interpretację wydarzeń zbawczych.Według Mazzantiego symbolem, który pozwala rozpocząć drogę inicjacji w tajemnicę obecności Boga w życiu człowieka jest związek mężczyzny i kobiety. W trakcie historii zbawienia pojawiają się nowe odsłony znaczenia symbolu ukryte w pierwszym dosłownym znaczeniu. Odsłaniają one tajemnicę obecności Boga w życiu człowieka. Pojawia się nowa para: Jezus Chrystus, Syn Boga i Maria, Matka Boga, drugi Adam i druga Ewa. Ta para pozwala nam jeszcze głębiej odczytać tajemnicę Boga w życiu mężczyzny i kobiety. Kolejnym poziomem odczytania symbolu mężczyzny i kobiety jest Chrystus Oblubieniec i Kościół Oblubienica, którzy wprowadzają nas na ucztę weselną w niebie w miłosnym związku wszystkich świętych zaślubionych z Bogiem. Miłosna relacja mężczyzny i kobiety rozumiana jako symbol odsłaniający nam głębszą rzeczywistość może być interpretowana na nowych, coraz głębszych poziomach znaczeń. Taki przekaz można odnaleźć w symbolach: mężczyzna–kobieta; Adam–Ewa; Bóg–Lud Boży, Jezus–Maria, Syn–Matka; Oblubieniec–Oblubienica, Chrystus–Kościół, Bóg–zbawiona ludzkość

Sometimes needs change minds: Interests and values as determinants of attitudes towards state support for the self-employed during the COVID-19 crisis.

This contribution investigates public attitudes toward providing financial help to the self-employed, a less well-researched area in the otherwise vibrant literature on welfare state attitudes. We analyse to what extent the self-employed themselves soften their general anti-statist stance in times of need, and how the public thinks about supporting those who usually tend to oppose government interventions. To answer these questions, we study public attitudes towards providing financial aid to the self-employed during the lockdowns adopted in response to the COVID pandemic in Switzerland, using survey data collected in the spring and in the autumn of 2020. The results show that most respondents favour the provision of financial support. In addition, the self-employed are the staunchest supporters of the more generous forms of help, like non-refundable payments. We conclude that, when exposed to significant economic risk, need and interests override ideological preferences for less state intervention

Entropy bound for time reversal markers

Considering positive observables with specific symmetries under path reversal yields a bound for entropy production, in terms of the deviation of the observable mean from equilibrium, or, equivalently, in terms of the difference of the mean measured in forward and backward dynamics. It is fundamentally different than known relations such as the thermodynamic uncertainty relation. The bound is met exactly for a two state process. We further exemplify the relation for a trapped active Brownian particle. This relation is not limited to Markov chains or specific dynamics.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

50 anos de memória

O presente artigo tem como objetivo delinear a trajetória do Programa de Pós-Graduação da PUC de São Paulo, que celebra seus 50 anos em 2022. Para isso, foi elaborado um panorama geral tanto da história da educação superior no Brasil como das reformas universitárias que pautaram a criação e desenvolvimento deste Programa. A narração dos fatos e eventos que marcaram o Programa de Pós-Graduação da PUC-SP baseou-se, em grande medida, na memória não só das autoras, mas também naquela de diversos colegas. O artigo ganha especial relevo em um contexto de profunda crise pela qual passa a produção de conhecimento científico no Brasil