Who are the guardians of separatism in Abkhazia and South Ossetia? These de facto states can be seen as self-determination movements or as outgrowths of Russian imperialism. We arbitrate between these competing scripts using a dataset that profiles officials in charge of high politics decision-making inside Georgia’s separatist entities from 1992 through 2020 (N=608). We find that most are sons of

The growth of Sweden’s urban population necessitates new approaches for increasing the sustainability and energy efficiency of multifamily buildings. The development of such approaches will require a holistic and integrated understanding of the factors driving the decision making of both professionals who design buildings and end-users who live in them. This paper, therefore, uses the goal framing

Embedded systems and networked embedded systems play an increasingly important role in today’s society. They are often found in consumer products (e.g., in automotive systems and cellular phones), and are therefore subject to hard economic constraints. The pervasive nature of these systems generates further constraints on physical size and power consumption. These product-level constraints give ri

In this paper, we introduce the tamed stochastic gradient descent method (TSGD) for optimization problems. Inspired by the tamed Euler scheme, which is a commonly used method within the context of stochastic differential equations, TSGD is an explicit scheme that exhibits stability properties similar to those of implicit schemes. As its computational cost is essentially equivalent to that of the w

Intrinsically disordered proteins are distinguished by a lack of distinct three-dimensional structure, existing instead as an ensemble of heterogenous structures. In this research, the effect of crowding on these proteins is investigated using a combined approach of experiment and computer simulation, mainly using coarse-grained simulation models to make simulation computationally feasible at the

This paper presents a theoretical framework for the design and analysis of gradient descent-based algorithms for coverage control tasks involving robot swarms. We adopt a multiscale approach to analysis and design to ensure consistency of the algorithms in the large-scale limit. First, we represent the macroscopic configuration of the swarm as a probability measure and formulate the macroscopic co

Digital activism, political activism mediated by digital technologies, offers the promise of increased visibility and political power for marginalized groups. Yet, this has not been the case outside of a few exceptions such as Black Lives Matter. This paper offers theoretical, conceptual critical research that explores why successful digital activism may elude marginalized groups. We ask why many

The study presented in this article is about the role played by imagination when national and international organisations convey the idea of a dystopian crisis involved in the real transition to a postantibiotic era. The present is an era that can be defined as a time when no new antibiotics are discovered or developed, and existing antibiotics simultaneously become less effective since bacteria d

Vertical ground heat exchangers (GHEs) used with ground source heat pump systems have been constructed in a variety of configurations including single U-tubes, double U-tubes, quadruple U-tubes, and coaxial-type. Selections of vertical GHE other than single U-tubes are often motivated by a desire to decrease the borehole thermal resistance and therefore reduce the required amount of drilling and/o

This article combines the methodological approaches and insights of two scholars working in distinct regions of the early modern world, namely West Africa and Central Asia, to consider border-making outside of Europe before the nation state. Using borders to understand historical developments is not unprecedented and decades of borderland studies have shown how borders result from, and are affecte

Sarcoidosis is a mysterious condition with an etiology that has to date eluded explanation. Innumerable clinical and serological organ- and non-organ-specific autoimmune associations have been reported. Many of the associated conditions are life-threatening but easily manageable if diagnosed early. Due to the long latency that precedes the clinical onset of autoimmune diseases, it is prudent to en

Our chapter engages with language transfer in SLA with particular focus on the area of grammar. We argue that transfer only plays a minor role in the acquisition of grammatical structures. In order to support our claim, we present data from studies with early and intermediate learners of English.

The aim of the present study is twofold: to explore the assessment andintervention practices of Swedish practitioners (mainly Speech and LanguageTherapists: SLTs) for multilingual children with Developmental LanguageDisorders (DLD) and to explore to which extent they perceive themselves asconfident with respect to assessment and intervention. The data comes fromthe Swedish part of the survey by th

We conducted an extensive geophysical field campaign using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) in a former military area at the archaeological site of Nora (South-Western Sardinia). The purpose was to identify a Phoenician, and then Punic and Roman, necropolis of considerable interest, subject of a long-term investigation and currently under excavation. In th

In this work, the effect of a pin as a secondary surface mounted on hydrothermal behavior of impinging jet over a flat plate investigated numerically and experimentally. The transient three-dimensional turbulent flow is simulated by the Renormalization Group (RNG) k − ɛ model. The injection air is pulsed by square waves. In a radial arrangement, several differently shaped pins (i.e., circular, ell

The evolution of sex chromosomes is hypothesized to be punctuated by consecutive recombination cessation events, forming “evolutionary strata” that ceased to recombine at different time points. The demarcation of evolutionary strata is often assessed by estimates of the timing of recombination cessation (tRC) along the sex chromosomes, commonly inferred from the level of synonymous divergence or w