Examining collusion and voting biases between countries during the Eurovision song contest since 1957

The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is an annual event which attracts millions of viewers. It is an interesting activity to examine since the participants of the competition represent a particular country's musical performance that will be awarded a set of scores from other participating countries based upon a quality assessment of a performance. There is a question of whether the countries will vote exclusively according to the artistic merit of the song, or if the vote will be a public signal of national support for another country. Since the competition aims to bring people together, any consistent biases in the awarding of scores would defeat the purpose of the celebration of expression and this has attracted researchers to investigate the supporting evidence for biases. This paper builds upon an approach which produces a set of random samples from an unbiased distribution of score allocation, and extends the methodology to use the full set of years of the competition's life span which has seen fundamental changes to the voting schemes adopted. By building up networks from statistically significant edge sets of vote allocations during a set of years, the results display a plausible network for the origins of the culture anchors for the preferences of the awarded votes. With 60 years of data, the results support the hypothesis of regional collusion and biases arising from proximity, culture and other irrelevant factors in regards to the music which that alone is intended to affect the judgment of the contest.Comment: to be published in JASS

Negative Application Conditions for Reconfigurable Algebraic High-Level Systems

This paper introduces negative application conditions for reconfigurable algebraic high-level systems. These are algebraic high-level systems, i.e. algebraic high-level nets with an initial marking, together with a set of rules for changing the system dynamically. Negative application conditions are a control structure for restricting the application of a rule if a certain structure is present. The use of negative application conditions is motivated in a short example. Subsequently, the underlying theory is sketched and the most significant results are presented. Finally, the example is resumed and the main results and their usefulness within the example are discussed

Reconfigurable Petri Systems with Negative Application Conditions

Diese Arbeit führt negative Anwendungsbedingungen (NACs) für verschiedene Typen von rekonfigurierbaren Petri Systemen ein. Dies sind Petri Systeme mit einer Menge von Transformationsregeln, die eine dynamische Veränderung des Petri Systems ermöglichen. Negative Anwendungsbedingungen sind eine Kontrollstruktur um die Anwendung einer Regel zu verbieten, wenn eine bestimmte Struktur vorhanden ist. Wie in [Lam07] und [LEOP08] vorgestellt, sind schwach adhäsive HLR Kategorien mit negativen Anwendungsbedingungen schwach adhäsive HLR Kategorien mit drei zusätzlichen, ausgezeichneten Morphismenklassen und einigen zusätzlichen Eigenschaften. Diese Eigenschaften werden benötigt, um Ergebnisse wie das Lokale Church-Rosser Theorem, das Parallelismustheorem, das Vollständigkeitstheorem der kritischen Paare, das Nebenläufigkeitstheorem, das Einbettungs- und das Erweiterungstheorem und das Lokale Konfluenz Theorem für die Benutzung mit negativen Anwendungsbedingungen zu verallgemeinern. Das Hauptziel dieser Arbeit besteht darin nachzuweisen, dass die Kategorien PTSys der P/T Systeme, AHLNet der AHL Netze, AHLSystems der AHL Systeme und PTSys(L) der L-gelabelten P/T Systeme schwach adhäsive HLR Kategorien mit negativen Anwendungsbedingungen sind. Dafür werden diese Kategorien formal eingeführt und die dafür benötigten Eigenschaften detailliert bewiesen. Zusätzlich wird die praktische Anwendung der erzielten Ergebnisse in Form von Fallstudien dargelegt.This thesis introduces negative application conditions (NACs) for varied kinds of reconfigurable Petri systems. These are Petri systems together with a set of transformation rules that allow changing the Petri system dynamically. Negative applications are a control structure for restricting the application of a rule if a certain structute is present. As introduced in [Lam07] and [LEOP08], (weak) adhesive high-level replacement (HLR) categories with negative application conditions are (weak) adhesive HLR categories with three additional distinguished morphism classes and some additional properties. These properties are required for generalizing results like Local Church- Rosser Theorem, Parallelism Theorem, Completeness Theorem of Critical Pairs, Concurrency Theorem, Embedding and Extension Theorem and Local Confluence Theorem for the use of negative application conditions. The main goals of this thesis are proving that the categories PTSys of P/T systems, AHLNet of algebraic high-level (AHL) nets, AHLSystems of AHL systems and PTSys(L) of L-labeled P/T systems are weak adhesive HLR categories with negative application conditions. Therefore, these categories are formally introduced and the required properties are proven in detail. Additionally, the practical application of the achieved results is presented in form of case studies

Thorough QT study of the effect of intravenous amisulpride on QTc interval in Caucasian and Japanese healthy subjects.

AIM: The D2 /D3 antagonist amisulpride has shown promising efficacy against postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) at low doses. We investigated whether intravenous amisulpride has an effect on the QTc interval in a formal Thorough QT study (TQT). METHODS: This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo and positive-controlled, four-way crossover study. Forty healthy Caucasian and Japanese subjects were included to receive a single administration of 5 mg and 40 mg of i.v. amisulpride or a single oral dose of moxifloxacin or placebo per period. RESULTS: The therapeutic dose of 5 mg amisulpride was associated with a slight, transient increase in mean ΔΔQTcF, from 2.0 ms prior to dosing to a peak of 5 ms (90% CI: 2.8, 7.1 ms) at 8 min, decreasing to 2.1 ms at 30 min after dosing. The supra-therapeutic dose of 40 mg given at twice the infusion rate was associated with prolongation in ΔΔQTcF peaking at 23.4 ms (90% CI: 21.3, 25.5 ms) at the end of infusion (8 min), returning below 10 ms within 1.5 h. Assay sensitivity was confirmed; ΔΔQTcF had increased by 12.3 ms (90% CI 10.1, 14.6 ms) at 4 h post-dose. The PK-PD relationship revealed no differences between Caucasian and Japanese subjects (p-value > 0.5). CONCLUSIONS: Amisulpride has a plasma concentration-dependent effect on the QTc interval. The proposed therapeutic dose for management of PONV does not lead to a prolongation of QTcF above the threshold of regulatory concern, while such effect could not be excluded for the supratherapeutic dose

Self-assembled fibre optoelectronics with discrete translational symmetry

Fibres with electronic and photonic properties are essential building blocks for functional fabrics with system level attributes. The scalability of thermal fibre drawing approach offers access to large device quantities, while constraining the devices to be translational symmetric. Lifting this symmetry to create discrete devices in fibres will increase their utility. Here, we draw, from a macroscopic preform, fibres that have three parallel internal non-contacting continuous domains; a semiconducting glass between two conductors. We then heat the fibre and generate a capillary fluid instability, resulting in the selective transformation of the cylindrical semiconducting domain into discrete spheres while keeping the conductive domains unchanged. The cylindrical-to-spherical expansion bridges the continuous conducting domains to create ∼10⁴ self-assembled, electrically contacted and entirely packaged discrete spherical devices per metre of fibre. The photodetection and Mie resonance dependent response are measured by illuminating the fibre while connecting its ends to an electrical readout.National Science Foundation (U.S.). Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (Program) (DMR-1419807)United States. Army Research Office. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (contract number W911NF-13-D-0001)United States. Air Force Medical Servic

A general model of resonance capture in planetary systems: First and second order resonances

Mean motion resonances are a common feature of both our own Solar System and of extrasolar planetary systems. Bodies can be trapped in resonance when their orbital semi-major axes change, for instance when they migrate through a protoplanetary disc. We use a Hamiltonian model to thoroughly investigate the capture behaviour for first and second order resonances. Using this method, all resonances of the same order can be described by one equation, with applications to specific resonances by appropriate scaling. We focus on the limit where one body is a massless test particle and the other a massive planet. We quantify how the the probability of capture into a resonance depends on the relative migration rate of the planet and particle, and the particle's eccentricity. Resonant capture fails for high migration rates, and has decreasing probability for higher eccentricities. More massive planets can capture particles at higher eccentricities and migration rates. We also calculate libration amplitudes and the offset of the libration centres for captured particles, and the change in eccentricity if capture does not occur. Libration amplitudes are higher for larger initial eccentricity. The model allows for a complete description of a particle's behaviour as it successively encounters several resonances. We discuss implications for several scenarios: (i) Planet migration through gas discs trapping other planets or planetesimals in resonances. (ii) Planet migration through a debris disc. (iii) Dust migration through PR drag. The Hamiltonian model will allow quick interpretation of the resonant properties of extrasolar planets and Kuiper Belt Objects, and will allow synthetic images of debris disc structures to be quickly generated, which will be useful for predicting and interpreting disc images made with ALMA, Darwin/TPF or similar missions. [Abridged]Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures; accepted to MNRA

Representativeness of point-wise phenological Betula data collected in different parts of Europe

Peer reviewe

High resolution spectroscopy of methyltrioxorhenium: towards the observation of parity violation in chiral molecules

Originating from the weak interaction, parity violation in chiral molecules has been considered as a possible origin of the biohomochirality. It was predicted in 1974 but has never been observed so far. Parity violation should lead to a very tiny frequency difference in the rovibrational spectra of the enantiomers of a chiral molecule. We have proposed to observe this predicted frequency difference using the two photon Ramsey fringes technique on a supersonic beam. Promising candidates for this experiment are chiral oxorhenium complexes, which present a large effect, can be synthesized in large quantity and enantiopure form, and can be seeded in a molecular beam. As a first step towards our objective, a detailed spectroscopic study of methyltrioxorhenium (MTO) has been undertaken. It is an ideal test molecule as the achiral parent molecule of chiral candidates for the parity violation experiment. For the 187Re MTO isotopologue, a combined analysis of Fourier transform microwave and infrared spectra as well as ultra-high resolution CO2 laser absorption spectra enabled the assignment of 28 rotational lines and 71 rovibrational lines, some of them with a resolved hyperfine structure. A set of spectroscopic parameters in the ground and first excited state, including hyperfine structure constants, was obtained for the antisymmetric Re=O stretching mode of this molecule. This result validates the experimental approach to be followed once a chiral derivative of MTO will be synthesized, and shows the benefit of the combination of several spectroscopic techniques in different spectral regions, with different set-ups and resolutions. First high resolution spectra of jet-cooled MTO, obtained on the set-up being developed for the observation of molecular parity violation, are shown, which constitutes a major step towards the targeted objective.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure