Value orientation, left-right placement and voting

In this article we try to disentangle the constraints between traditional lines of political polarization (left-right placement) and newer distinctions (materialist/postmaterialist values) among mass publics. It is shown that voting or party preference is most clearly related to the left-right placement of the respondents. However, this placement is directly and strongly dependent on the materialist/postmaterialist orientation, while background variables like education, income and age are linked to voting via this value orientation. The materialist/postmaterialist orientation appears to be the present-day interpretation of the dominant political conflict in advanced industrial society. Although alignments and orientations count for a substantive part of the variance in voting, the power of these models to predict the actual vote of people turns out to be rather poor

Complexes of block copolymers in solution: tree approximation

We determine the statistical properties of block copolymer complexes in solution. These complexes are assumed to have the topological structure of (i) a tree or of (ii) a line-dressed tree. In case the structure is that of a tree, the system is shown to undergo a gelation transition at sufficiently high polymer concentration. However, if the structure is that of a line-dressed tree, this transition is absent. Hence, we show the assumption about the topological structure to be relevant for the statistical properties of the system. We determine the average size of the complexes and calculate the viscosity of the system under the assumption that the complexes geometrically can be treated as porous spheres

Somatosensory and nociceptive changes in chronic post-stroke shoulder pain

Preliminary results from a cross-sectional study that investigated the relation between the presence of post-stroke shoulder pain and somatosensory and nociceptive changes are presented. The main finding is that both abnormal somatosensation and nociception are more frequently observed in stroke patients with pain as compared to pain-free stroke patients and healthy controls

Cortical processing of electrocutaneous stimuli in chronic stroke patients: a relationship with post-stroke shoulder pain.

Cerebral stroke is often associated with changes in cognitive-evaluative and somatosensory functions which may play a role in the development and maintenance of post-stroke pain

The effect of phase transitions on the droplet size distribution in homogeneous isotropic turbulence

We investigate the dynamics of an ensemble of discrete aerosol droplets in a homogeneous, isotropic turbulent flow. Our focus is on the stationary distribution of droplet sizes that develops as a result of evaporation and condensation effects. For this purpose we simulate turbulence in a domain with periodic boundary conditions using pseudo-spectral discretization. We solve in addition equations for the temperature and for a scalar field, which represents the background humidity against which the size of the droplets evolves. We apply large-scale forcing of the velocity field to reach a statistically steady state. The droplets are transported by the turbulent field while exchanging heat and mass with the evolving temperature and humidity fields. In this Euler-Lagrange framework, we assume the droplets volume fraction to be sufficiently low to allow one-way coupling of the droplets and turbulence dynamics. The motion of the droplets is time-accurately tracked. The Stokes drag force is included in the equation of motion of the individual droplets. The responsiveness of the droplets to small turbulent scales is directly related to the size of the individual spherical droplets. We perform direct numerical simulation to ultimately obtain the probability density function of the evolving radius of the droplets at different points in time with characteristic heat and mass transfer parameters. We determine the gradual convergence of the distribution function to its statistically stationary state for forced homogeneous, isotropic turbulence

The generation of resonant turbulence for a premixed burner

Is it possible to optimize the turbulent combustion of a low swirl burner by using resonance in turbulence? To that end an active grid is constructed that consists of two perforated disks of which one is rotating, creating a system of pulsating jets, which in the end can be used as a central blocking grid of a low swirl burner. The turbulence originating from this grid is studied by hot wire anemometry to see if there is a frequency for maximal response. Although no resonant enhancement of the turbulent kinetic energy or the dissipation rate is observed, the results for the two different sets of disks show that significant turbulent fluctuations are introduced mainly in the energy containing range and partially in the inertial sub range. These fluctuations represent up to 25% of the total turbulent energy and are not caused by pulsations of the mean flow

Supplier-induced demand for physiotherapy in the Netherlands

Empirical studies of supplier-induced demand in health care have mostly concentrated on the analysis of physician behaviour. In this article, the focus is on the economic determinants of physiotherapist behaviour in The Netherlands. It is shown that relative prices work as strong incentives to alter the mix of services supplied, conform to the model of revenue maximization under a production constraint. However, the time-series analysis also gives some indication that this ability to influence the demand for their services to increase hourly income is not fully exploited. The latter finding is inconsistent with pure income maximization but rather points to a trade-off between loss of revenue and demand manipulation. The fact that the choice of therapy varies with the pressure on provider incomes does cast some doubt on the appropriateness of the chosen patterns of treatment in terms of effectiveness

Modeling and simulation of phase-transitions in multicomponent aluminum alloy casting

The casting process of aluminum products involves the spatial distribution of alloying elements. It is essential that these elements are uniformly distributed in order to guarantee reliable and consistent products. This requires a good understanding of the main physical mechanisms that affect the solidification, in particular the thermodynamic description and its coupling to the transport processes of heat and mass that take place. The continuum modeling is reviewed and methods for handling the thermodynamics component of multi-element alloys are proposed. Savings in data-storage and computing costs on the order of 100 or more appear possible, when a combination of data-reduction and data-representation methods is used. To test the new approach a simplified model was proposed and shown to qualitatively capture the evolving solidification front