Proportionality and Party Success in Europe

This thesis consists of four articles and an introductory section. The main research questions in all the articles are about proportionality and party success in Europe, at European, national or district levels. Proportionality in this thesis denotes the proximity of seat shares parties receive compared to their respective vote shares, after the electoral system’s allocation process. This proportionality can be measured through numerous indices that illustrate either the overall proportionality of an electoral system or a particular election. The correspondence of a single party’s seat shares to its vote shares can also be measured. The overall proportionality is essential in three of the articles (1, 2 and 4), where the system’s performance is studied by means of plots. In article 3, minority party success is measured by advantage-ratios that reveal single party’s winnings or losses in the votes to seat allocation process. The first article asks how proportional are the European parliamentary (EP) electoral systems, how do they compare with results gained from earlier studies and how do the EP electoral systems treat different sized parties. The reasons for different outcomes are looked for in explanations given by traditional electoral studies i.e. electoral system variables. The countries studied (EU15) apply electoral systems that vary in many important aspects, even though a certain amount of uniformity has been aspired to for decades. Since the electoral systems of the EP elections closely resemble the national elections, the same kinds of profiles emerge as in the national elections. The electoral systems indeed treat the parties differentially and six different profile types can be found. The counting method seems to somewhat determine the profile group, but the strongest variables determining the shape of a countries’ profile appears to be the average district magnitude and number of seats allocated to each country. The second article also focuses on overall proportionality performance of an electoral system, but here the focus is on the impact of electoral system changes. I have developed a new method of visualizing some previously used indices and some new indices for this purpose. The aim is to draw a comparable picture of these electoral systems’ changes and their effects. The cases, which illustrate this method, are four elections systems, where a change has occurred in one of the system variables, while the rest remained unchanged. The studied cases include the French, Greek and British European parliamentary systems and the Swedish national parliamentary system. The changed variables are electoral type (plurality changed to PR in the UK), magnitude (France splitting the nationwide district into eight smaller districts), legal threshold (Greece introducing a three percent threshold) and counting method (d’Hondt was changed to modified Sainte-Laguë in Sweden). The radar plots from elections after and before the changes are drawn for all country cases. When quantifying the change, the change in the plots area that is created has also been calculated. Using these radar plots we can observe that the change in electoral system type, magnitude, and also to some extent legal threshold had an effect on overall proportionality and accessibility for small parties, while the change between the two highest averages counting method had none. The third article studies the success minority parties have had in nine electoral systems in European heterogeneous countries. This article aims to add more motivation as to why we should care how different sized parties are treated by the electoral systems. Since many of the parties that aspire to represent minorities in European countries are small, the possibilities for small parties are highlighted. The theory of consociational (or power-sharing) democracy suggests that, in heterogeneous societies, a proportional electoral system will provide the fairest treatment of minority parties. The OSCE Lund Recommendations propose a number of electoral system features, which would improve minority representation. In this article some party variables, namely the unity of the minority parties and the geographical concentration of the minorities were included among possible explanations. The conclusions are that the central points affecting minority success were indeed these non-electoral system variables rather than the electoral system itself. Moreover, the size of the party was a major factor governing success in all the systems investigated; large parties benefited in all the studied electoral systems. In the fourth article the proportionality profiles are again applied, but this time to district level results in Finnish parliamentary elections. The level of proportionality distortion is also studied by way of indices. The average magnitudes during the studied periodrange from 7.5 to 26.2 in the Finnish electoral districts and this opens up unequal opportunities for parties in different districts and affects the shape of the profiles. The intra-country case allows the focus to be placed on the effect of district magnitude, since all other electoral systems are kept constant in an intra-country study. The time span in the study is from 1962 to 2007, i.e. the time that the districts have largely been the same geographically. The plots and indices tell the same story, district magnitude and electoral alliances matter. The district magnitude is connected to the overall proportionality of the electoral districts according to both indices, and the profiles are, as expected, also closer to perfect proportionality in large districts. Alliances have helped some small parties to gain a much higher seat share than their respective vote share and these successes affect some of the profiles. The profiles also show a consistent pattern of benefits for the small parties who ally with the larger parties.

Support for a demographically based selection method at University: The role of competition

Building on the instrumental model of group conflict (IMGC), the present experiment investigates the support for discriminatory and meritocratic method of selections at university in a sample of local and immigrant students. Results showed that local students were supporting in a larger proportion selection method that favors them over immigrants in comparison to method that consists in selecting the best applicants without considering his/her origin. Supporting the assumption of the IMGC, this effect was stronger for locals who perceived immigrants as competing for resources. Immigrant students supported more strongly the meritocratic selection method than the one that discriminated them. However, contrasting with the assumption of the IMGC, this effect was only present in students who perceived immigrants as weakly competing for locals' resources. Results demonstrate that selection methods used at university can be perceived differently depending on students' origin. Further, they suggest that the mechanisms underlying the perception of discriminatory and meritocratic selection methods differ between local and immigrant students. Hence, the present experiment makes a theoretical contribution to the IMGC by delimiting its assumptions to the ingroup facing a competitive situation with a relevant outgroup. Practical implication for universities recruitment policies are discussed.

Method development for the simultaneous determination of methylmercury and inorganic mercury in seafood

This paper reports the method development for the simultaneous determination of methylmercury MeHgþ) and inorganic mercury (iHg) species in seafood samples. The study focused on the extraction and quantification of MeHgþ (the most toxic species) by liquid chromatography coupled to on-line UV irradiation and cold vapour atomic fluorescence spectroscopy (LC-UV-CV-AFS), using HCl 4 mol/L as the extractant agent. Accuracy of the method has been verified by analysing three certified reference materials and different spiked samples. The values found for total Hg and MeHgþ for the CRMs did not differ significantly from certified values at a 95% confidence level, and recoveries between 85% and 97% for MeHgþ, based on spikes, were achieved. The detection limits (LODs) obtained were 0.001 mg Hg/kg for total mercury, 0.0003 mg Hg/kg for MeHgþ and 0.0004 mg Hg/kg for iHg. The quantification limits (LOQs) established were 0.003 mg Hg/kg for total mercury, 0.0010 mg Hg/kg for MeHgþ and 0.0012 mg Hg/kg for iHg. Precision for each mercury species was established, being 12% in terms of RSD in all cases. Finally, the developed method was applied to 24 seafood samples from different origins and total mercury contents. The concentrations for Total Hg, MeHg and iHg ranged from 0.07 to 2.33, 0.003-2.23 and 0.006-0.085 mg Hg/kg, respectively. The established analytical method allows to obtain results for mercury speciation in less than 1 one hour including both, sample pretreatment and measuring step.

Flexible Multibody Simulation Approach in the Dynamic Analysis of Bone Strains Activity

The objective of this study is to show that bone strains due to dynamic mechanical loading during physical activity can be analysed using the flexible multibody simulation approach. Strains within the bone tissue play a major role in bone (re)modeling. Based on previous studies, it has been shown that dynamic loading seems to be more important for bone (re)modeling than static loading. The finite element method has been used previously to assess bone strains. However, the finite element method may be limited to static analysis of bone strains due to the expensive computation required for dynamic analysis, especially for a biomechanical system consisting of several bodies. Further, in vivo implementation of strain gauges on the surfaces of bone has been used previously in order to quantify the mechanical loading environment of the skeleton. However, in vivo strain measurement requires invasive methodology, which is challenging and limited to certain regions of superficial bones only, such as the anterior surface of the tibia. In this study, an alternative numerical approach to analyzing in vivo strains, based on the flexible multibody simulation approach, is proposed. In order to investigate the reliability of the proposed approach, three 3-dimensional musculoskeletal models where the right tibia is assumed to be flexible, are used as demonstration examples. The models are employed in a forward dynamics simulation in order to predict the tibial strains during walking on a level exercise. The flexible tibial model is developed using the actual geometry of the subject’s tibia, which is obtained from 3 dimensional reconstruction of Magnetic Resonance Images. Inverse dynamics simulation based on motion capture data obtained from walking at a constant velocity is used to calculate the desired contraction trajectory for each muscle. In the forward dynamics simulation, a proportional derivative servo controller is used to calculate each muscle force required to reproduce the motion, based on the desired muscle contraction trajectory obtained from the inverse dynamics simulation. Experimental measurements are used to verify the models and check the accuracy of the models in replicating the realistic mechanical loading environment measured from the walking test. The predicted strain results by the models show consistency with literature-based in vivo strain measurements. In conclusion, the non-invasive flexible multibody simulation approach may be used as a surrogate for experimental bone strain measurement, and thus be of use in detailed strain estimation of bones in different applications. Consequently, the information obtained from the present approach might be useful in clinical applications, including optimizing implant design and devising exercises to prevent bone fragility, accelerate fracture healing and reduce osteoporotic bone loss.

Development of a systematic computer vision-based method to analyse and compare images of false identity documents for forensic intelligence purposes-Part I: acquisition, calibration and validation issues

Following their detection and seizure by police and border guard authorities, false identity and travel documents are usually scanned, producing digital images. This research investigates the potential of these images to classify false identity documents, highlight links between documents produced by a same modus operandi or same source, and thus support forensic intelligence efforts. Inspired by previous research work about digital images of Ecstasy tablets, a systematic and complete method has been developed to acquire, collect, process and compare images of false identity documents. This first part of the article highlights the critical steps of the method and the development of a prototype that processes regions of interest extracted from images. Acquisition conditions have been fine-tuned in order to optimise reproducibility and comparability of images. Different filters and comparison metrics have been evaluated and the performance of the method has been assessed using two calibration and validation sets of documents, made up of 101 Italian driving licenses and 96 Portuguese passports seized in Switzerland, among which some were known to come from common sources. Results indicate that the use of Hue and Edge filters or their combination to extract profiles from images, and then the comparison of profiles with a Canberra distance-based metric provides the most accurate classification of documents. The method appears also to be quick, efficient and inexpensive. It can be easily operated from remote locations and shared amongst different organisations, which makes it very convenient for future operational applications. The method could serve as a first fast triage method that may help target more resource-intensive profiling methods (based on a visual, physical or chemical examination of documents for instance). Its contribution to forensic intelligence and its application to several sets of false identity documents seized by police and border guards will be developed in a forthcoming article (part II).

Mind the Gap. Do Proportional Electoral Systems Foster a More Equal Representation of Women and Men, Poor and Rich ?

Female gender and low income are two markers for groups that have been historically disadvantaged within most societies. The study explores two research questions related to their political representation: 1) Are parties ideologically biased towards the ideological preferences of male and rich citizens? 2) Does the proportionality of the electoral system moderate the degree of underrepresentation of women and poor citizens in the party system? A multilevel analysis of survey data from 24 parliamentary democracies indicates that there is some bias against those with low income and, at a much smaller rate, women. This has systemic consequences for the quality of representation, as the preferences of the complementary groups differ. The proportionality of the electoral system influences the degree of underrepresentation: specifically, larger district magnitudes help closing the considerable gap between rich and poor.

Fast and sensitive supercritical fluid chromatography - tandem mass spectrometry multi-class screening method for the determination of doping agents in urine.

This study shows the possibility offered by modern ultra-high performance supercritical fluid chromatography combined with tandem mass spectrometry in doping control analysis. A high throughput screening method was developed for 100 substances belonging to the challenging classes of anabolic agents, hormones and metabolic modulators, synthetic cannabinoids and glucocorticoids, which should be detected at low concentrations in urine. To selectively extract these doping agents from urine, a supported liquid extraction procedure was implemented in a 48-well plate format. At the tested concentration levels ranging from 0.5 to 5 ng/mL, the recoveries were better than 70% for 48-68% of the compounds and higher than 50% for 83-87% of the tested substances. Due to the numerous interferences related to isomers of steroids and ions produced by the loss of water in the electrospray source, the choice of SFC separation conditions was very challenging. After careful optimization, a Diol stationary phase was employed. The total analysis time for the screening assay was only 8 min, and interferences as well as susceptibility to matrix effect (ME) were minimized. With the developed method, about 70% of the compounds had relative ME within the range ±20%, at a concentration of 1 and 5 ng/mL. Finally, limits of detection achieved with the above-described strategy including 5-fold preconcentration were below 0.1 ng/mL for the majority of the tested compounds. Therefore, LODs were systematically better than the minimum required performance levels established by the World anti-doping agency, except for very few metabolites.

A new method for intraoperative localization of epilepsy focus by means of a gamma probe

Objective To evaluate the utility of a new multimodal image-guided intervention technique to detect epileptogenic areas with a gamma probe as compared with intraoperative electrocorticography. Materials and Methods Two symptomatic patients with refractory epilepsy underwent magnetic resonance imaging, videoelectroencephalography, brain SPECT scan, neuropsychological evaluation and were submitted to gamma probe-assisted surgery. Results In patient 1, maximum radioactive count was initially observed on the temporal gyrus at about 3.5 cm posteriorly to the tip of the left temporal lobe. After corticotomy, the gamma probe indicated maximum count at the head of the hippocampus, in agreement with the findings of intraoperative electrocorticography. In patient 2, maximum count was observed in the occipital region at the transition between the temporal and parietal lobes (right hemisphere). During the surgery, the area of epileptogenic activity mapped at electrocorticography was also delimited, demarcated, and compared with the gamma probe findings. After lesionectomy, new radioactive counts were performed both in the patients and on the surgical specimens (ex-vivo). Conclusion The comparison between intraoperative electrocorticography and gamma probe-assisted surgery showed similarity of both methods. The advantages of gamma probe include: noninvasiveness, low cost and capacity to demonstrate decrease in the radioactive activity at the site of excision after lesionectomy.

A new alternative method for testing skin irritation using a fresh human skin model

La dermatite irritative est décrite comme une réaction réversible, non immunologique caractérisée par des lésions d'aspect très variable, allant de la simple rougeur jusqu'à la formation de bulles voire d'une nécrose, accompagnée de prurit ou d'une sensation de brûlure suite à I' application d'une substance chimique. Le teste de prédiction d'irritation cutanée est traditionnellement depuis les années 1940 le Test de Draize. Ce test consiste en l'application d'une substance chimique sur une peau rasée de lapin pendant 4h et de regarder à 24h si des signes cliniques d'irritations sont présents. Cette méthode critiquable autant d'un point de vue éthique que qualitative reste actuellement le teste le plus utilisé. Depuis le début des années 2000 de nouvelles méthodes in vitro se sont développées tel que le model d'épiderme humain recombiné (RHE). Il s agit d'une multicouche de kératinocyte bien différencié obtenu depuis une culture de don d'ovocyte. Cependant cette méthode en plus d'être très couteuse n'obtient au mieux que 76% de résultat similaire comparé au test in vivo humain. Il existe donc la nécessité de développer une nouvelle méthode in vitro qui simulerait encore mieux la réalité anatomique et physiologique retrouvée in vivo. Notre objectif a été de développer cette nouvelle méthode in vitro. Pour cela nous avons travaillé avec de la peau humaine directement prélevée après une abdominoplastie. Celle ci après préparation avec un dermatome, un couteau dont la lame est réglable pour découper l'épaisseur souhaitée de peau, est montée dans un système de diffusion cellulaire. La couche cornée est alors exposée de manière optimale à 1 ml de la substance chimique testée pendant 4h. L'échantillon de peau est alors fixé dans du formaldéhyde pour permettre la préparation de lames standards d'hématoxyline et éosine. L'irritation est alors investiguée selon des critères histopathologiques de spongioses, de nécroses et de vacuolisations cellulaires. Les résultats de ce.tte première batterie de testes sont plus que prometteurs. En effet, comparé au résultat in vivo, nous obtenons 100% de concordance pour les 4 même substances testes irritantes ou non irritantes, ce qui est supérieur au model d épiderme humain recombiné (76%). De plus le coefficient de variation entre les 3 différentes séries est inférieur à 0.1 ce qui montre une bonne reproductibilité dans un même laboratoire. Dans le futur cette méthode va devoir être testée avec un plus grand nombre de substances chimiques et sa reproductibilité évaluée dans différents laboratoires. Mais cette première evaluation, très encourageante, ouvre des pistes précieuses pour l'avenir des tests irritatifs.

Therapeutic benefits of body percussion using the BAPNE method

Body percussion using to the BAPNE method is a means of cognitive stimulation with multiple applications. The aim of this research is to assess their full potential as a source of therapy. The methodology used is theoretical in nature and makes use of a wide bibliography to find evidence for its therapeutic effect. In essence, body percussion can be seen to lead to improvements in three areas. the Physical, as it stimulates awareness of the body, control of movement and muscular strength, coordination and balance; the Mental, as it improves concentration, memory and perception; and finally Socio-affective, as it helps to build egalitarian relationships and leads to a decrease in anxiety in social interactions. This means of therapy has several different uses and it is targeted at different groups. In the present investigation we categorise them into five main groups: individuals with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease; individuals with learning disorders such as dyslexia or ADHD; patients affected by diseases of the spinal cord, cranial neuropathies and trauma (Neurorehabilitation); and for the treatment of addictive behavior (addiction); and depressive disorders or anxiety disorders.After thorough analysis, we have found scientific evidence that the therapeutic body percussion using the BAPNE method improves the quality of life of patients and it is an important factor in stabilizing the development of different diseases.In addition, evidence involving certain biological indicators (in control and experimental groups, and through a pre-test and post-test) show its effect on levels of stress and anxiety (reduction of cortisol), as well as improvement of social relations as a result of working as a group (increased levels of oxytocin), and improvements seen in self-esteem and in a variety of personal aspects through the Aspects of Identity questionnaire.

LC-MS method development and comparison of sampling materials for the analysis of organic gunshot residues

This study aimed at comparing the efficiency of various sampling materials for the collection and subsequent analysis of organic gunshot residues (OGSR). To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that sampling devices were investigated in detail for further quantitation of OGSR by LC-MS. Seven sampling materials, namely two "swab"-type and five "stub"-type collection materials, were tested. The investigation started with the development of a simple and robust LC-MS method able to separate and quantify molecules typically found in gunpowders, such as diphenylamine or ethylcentralite. The evaluation of sampling materials was then systematically carried out by first analysing blank extracts of the materials to check for potential interferences and determining matrix effects. Based on these results, the best four materials, namely cotton buds, polyester swabs, a tape from 3M and PTFE were compared in terms of collection efficiency during shooting experiments using a set of 9 mm Luger ammunition. It was found that the tape was capable of recovering the highest amounts of OGSR. As tape-lifting is the technique currently used in routine for inorganic GSR, OGSR analysis might be implemented without modifying IGSR sampling and analysis procedure.

A nonparametric method for the measurement of size diversity with emphasis on data standardization

The most suitable method for estimation of size diversity is investigated. Size diversity is computed on the basis of the Shannon diversity expression adapted for continuous variables, such as size. It takes the form of an integral involving the probability density function (pdf) of the size of the individuals. Different approaches for the estimation of pdf are compared: parametric methods, assuming that data come from a determinate family of pdfs, and nonparametric methods, where pdf is estimated using some kind of local evaluation. Exponential, generalized Pareto, normal, and log-normal distributions have been used to generate simulated samples using estimated parameters from real samples. Nonparametric methods include discrete computation of data histograms based on size intervals and continuous kernel estimation of pdf. Kernel approach gives accurate estimation of size diversity, whilst parametric methods are only useful when the reference distribution have similar shape to the real one. Special attention is given for data standardization. The division of data by the sample geometric mean is proposedas the most suitable standardization method, which shows additional advantages: the same size diversity value is obtained when using original size or log-transformed data, and size measurements with different dimensionality (longitudes, areas, volumes or biomasses) may be immediately compared with the simple addition of ln k where kis the dimensionality (1, 2, or 3, respectively). Thus, the kernel estimation, after data standardization by division of sample geometric mean, arises as the most reliable and generalizable method of size diversity evaluation

Estudo da Determinação dos Grupos Silanóis ( º Si-OH) em Sílica: Aplicação à Materiais de Recheio Utilizados em Cromatografia Gasosa

A simple chemical method has been developed to quantify the silanol groups (º Si-OH) in silica as well as in coated chromatographic supports for use in packed - column Gas Chromatography. After adsorption of 10 mg/mL methylene blue, centrifuging action and filtration, the absorbance of the solution was inversely proportional to the silanol quantity. The difference between the absorbance of the pure solution and that of the solid - free filtrate was related to the silica weight, yielding a quantitative analysis of these groups.