This article addresses the concern that democratization may contribute to the reproduction of neo-patrimonialism, rather than to counteract it. The article reports the result of a survey among members of parliament in Ghana regarding their election campaigns. Total spending, sources of funds, and their usage are analysed in the context of the consolidation of liberal democracy. The survey results

Informal investors have proved to be highly valuable for the growth of the firms in which they have invested. Therefore, it is important to understand what motivates potential informal investors to make their initial investment as well as how already active investors develop their entrepreneurial careers. Such an understanding may prove helpful in directing efforts to locate and attract potential

Popular Abstract in Swedish Baserat på ett nytt data material bestående av observationer på 16 variabler i 232 val i Afrika, görs tre olika analyser. Först avvisas ett antal etablerade hypoteser om nutida Afrikansk politik och demokratisering. Sedan påvisas valens självförstärkande och självförbättrande kraft med hänvisning till institutioners interna logik och strukturering av aktörers incitamenThis book is about elections and democracy in newly democratizing countries. Building on a new data set of 5,568 observations in 232 elections, it provides evidence elections have a casual impact on improving the quality of democracy in Africa in more than one way. The study demonstrates multiparty elections do not signal the end of transitions to democracy but rather foster liberalization and hav

A newly developed aluminium-polymer-laminated steel reflector for use in solar concentrators was evaluated with respect to its optical properties, durability, and reflector performance in solar thermal and photovoltaic systems. The optical properties of the reflector material were investigated using spectrophotometer and scatterometry. The durability of the reflector was tested in a climatic test

Sclerosing epithelioid fibrosarcoma (SEF) is a recently described entity. It is a low-grade sarcoma that occurs primarily in the deep soft tissues of the extremities of adults. It may histologically simulate benign lesions such as fibroma and myxoma or malignancies such as sclerosing carcinoma and lymphoma, extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma, clear cell sarcoma of tendons and aponeuroses, and syn

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The smoothness-constrained least-squares method is widely used for two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) inversion of apparent resistivity data sets. The Gauss-Newton method that recalculates the Jacobian matrix of partial derivatives for all iterations is commonly used to solve the least-squares equation. The quasi-Newton method has also been used to reduce the computer time. In this me

The effects of a pesticide mixture (asulam, fluazinam, lambda-cyhalothrin, and metamitron) on aquatic ecosystems were investigated in 20 outdoor aquatic microcosms. Ten of the microcosms simulated mesotrophic aquatic ecosystems dominated by submerged macrophytes (Elodea). The others simulated eutrophic ecosystems with a high Lemna surface coverage (Lemna). This paper describes the fate of the chem

On the basis of text-internal evidence, the article supports the view that the soteriological doctrines of the Bhagavadgītā comprise a structured and progressive system in which partially conflicting elements derived from contemporary religious teachings have been deliberately arranged in hierarchical form, and touches on philological problems in connection with particular passages.

Load balancing is a very important and complex problem in computational grids. A computational grid differs from traditional high performance computing systems in the heterogeneity of the computing nodes and communication links, as well as background workloads that may be present in the computing nodes. There is a need to develop algorithms that could capture this complexity yet can be easily impl

We consider the “minor” and “homeomorphic” analogues of the maximum clique problem, i.e., the problems of determining the largest h such that the input graph (on n vertices) has a minor isomorphic to Kh or a subgraph homeomorphic to Kh, respectively, as well as the problem of finding the corresponding subgraphs. We term them as the maximum clique minor problem and the maximum homeomorphic clique p

We here demonstrate the presence of a plasma membrane-associated phospholipase A(2) (EC 3.1.1.4; PLA(2)) activity in spinach (Spinacia oleracea) leaves. The pH profile of the spinach plasma membrane PLA(2) activity revealed two peaks, one at pH 4.4 and one at pH 5.5. The activity at pH 5.5 had an absolute requirement of Ca2+, with full enzyme activity at 10mumol/L Ca2+. The Ca2+-dependent PLA(2) a

Results from a simulation of p-benzoquinone (PBQ) in water is presented. An explicit solvent representation is used together with a multiconfigurational ab initio quantum chemical method. The electronic n -> pi* transitions are studied in aqueous solution and the two such transitions are both blue-shifted but to different degree. Both non-equilibrium and many-body effects are found to have decisiv