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Electoral integrity is a persistent concern in both established and transitional democracies. Independent Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) have been championed as a key institutional reform measure to strengthen electoral integrity and are now the most common model of electoral management worldwide. Yet, empirical research has found conflicting evidence on the link between formal EMB independence and electoral integrity. We argue that conflicting findings might be driven by the lack of detailed data on EMB institutional design, with most studies using rudimentary classifications of ‘independent’, ‘governmental’ and ‘mixed’ EMBs, without addressing specific dimensions of EMB formal independence such as appointment procedures, budgetary control and formal competences. In this paper we analyse new detailed data on EMB institutional design in 72 countries around the world, develop a more detailed typology of dimensions of de jure EMB independence, and demonstrate how de jure EMB independence affects de facto EMB independence and electoral integrity.

This article is a Commentary on Meinke, 226: 306–325.

Money politics is one of the critical obstacles impairing the electoral contestation. If such an obstacle cannot be conquered, it jeopardizes the path of democratic consolidation. Using the Indonesian election experience, money politics has been the most prevalent issue in the electoral contest. As the public tolerates this issue, it has become a habit and, in turn, it is applied as customary law in society. This article sought to identify any obstacles to mitigating money politics and maps out studies on money politics issues in the Scopus database. The projected design is proposed to mitigate it. Thus, this article has a threefold question: How are obstacles in preventing money politics? What is a global trend in dealing with money politics studies? Which effective design is used to mitigate such an issue? Methodologically, it is qualitative research by applying a multiple case study approach. Hence, it relies on fieldwork focus group discussion and in-depth interviews with targeted respondents nationally. The findings revealed that obstacles could be identified in the regulation, Election Management Bodies and collective culture. Moreover, although scientists have contributed to disseminating money politics, the problems remain unsolved. As an upshot, the projected design is proposed: the regulation reform, a commitment to consolidate the EMBs' integrity, a sustainable political education and the application of participative-based technology information system against to money politics.

BackgroundCardiac amyloidosis (CA) is an infiltrative disease characterised by accumulation of amyloid deposits in the extracellular space of the myocardium—comprising transthyretin (ATTR) and light chain (AL) amyloidosis as the most frequent subtypes. Histopathological proof of amyloid deposits by endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) is the gold standard for diagnosis of CA. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) allows non-invasive workup of suspected CA. We conducted a multi-centre study to assess the diagnostic value of CMR in comparison to EMB for the diagnosis of CA.MethodsWe studied N = 160 patients characterised by symptoms of heart failure and presence of left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy of unknown origin who presented to specialised cardiomyopathy centres in Germany and underwent further diagnostic workup by both CMR and EMB. If CA was diagnosed, additional subtyping based on EMB specimens and monoclonal protein studies in serum was performed. The CMR protocol comprised cine- and late-gadolinium-enhancement (LGE)-imaging as well as native and post-contrast T1-mapping (in a subgroup)—allowing to measure extracellular volume fraction (ECV) of the myocardium.ResultsAn EMB-based diagnosis of CA was made in N = 120 patients (CA group) whereas N = 40 patients demonstrated other diagnoses (CONTROL group). In the CA group, N = 114 (95%) patients showed a characteristic pattern of LGE indicative of CA. In the CONTROL group, only 1/40 (2%) patient showed a “false-positive” LGE pattern suggestive of CA. In the CA group, there was no patient with elevated T1-/ECV-values without a characteristic pattern of LGE indicative of CA. LGE-CMR showed a sensitivity of 95% and a specificity of 98% for the diagnosis of CA. The combination of a characteristic LGE pattern indicating CA with unremarkable monoclonal protein studies resulted in the diagnosis of ATTR-CA (confirmed by EMB) with a specificity of 98% [95%-confidence interval (CI) 92–100%] and a positive predictive value (PPV) of 99% (95%-CI 92–100%), respectively. The EMB-associated risk of complications was 3.13% in this study—without any detrimental or persistent complications.ConclusionNon-invasive CMR shows an excellent diagnostic accuracy and yield regarding CA. When combined with monoclonal protein studies, CMR can differentiate ATTR from AL with high accuracy and predictive value. However, invasive EMB remains a safe invasive gold-standard and allows to differentiate CA from other cardiomyopathies that can also cause LV hypertrophy.

In driving scenarios, traffic sign detection technology frequently suffers from reduced detection accuracy of models due to practical challenges such as tiny object, scale variation, and fluctuating lighting conditions. Specifically, the representational information of tiny traffic signs becomes progressively blurred or even entirely lost as the receptive field expands. Furthermore, existing feature fusion networks place greater emphasis on information integration for conventionally sized objects, thereby exacerbating the insufficiency of fused feature information for small objects. To address the aforementioned issues, we propose an end-to-end traffic sign detection algorithm, termed EMB-RFNet, designed to improve the detection accuracy of small traffic signs. It aggregates multi-scale fine-grained object information by designing a recursive path fusion network. Concurrently, it employs an efficient multi-branch cross-stage partial network to enhance multi-scale feature capture, while utilizing a shallow feature supplementation mechanism to compensate for semantic information loss in small objects. We validate the effectiveness of EMB-RFNet through experiments on the TT100K, GTSDB, and CCTSDB public datasets. Its mAP@0.5 metrics achieve 84.9%, 91.5%, and 84.1% respectively across the three datasets, significantly improving traffic sign detection performance for small objects. This demonstrates the superior capability of EMB-RFNet in traffic sign detection, particularly for detecting small objects.

Methods for reducing power consumption in circuits of finite state machines (FSMs) are discussed in this review. The review outlines the main approaches to solving this problem that have been developed over the last 40 years. The main sources of power dissipation in CMOS circuits are shown; the static and dynamic components of this phenomenon are analyzed. The power consumption saving can be achieved by using coarse-grained methods common to all digital systems. These methods are based on voltage or/and clock frequency scaling. The review shows the main structural diagrams generated by the use of these methods when optimizing the power characteristics of FSM circuits. Also, there are various known fine-grained methods taking into account the specifics of both FSMs and logic elements used. Three groups of the fine-grained methods targeting FPGA-based FSM circuits are analyzed. These groups include clock gating, state assignment, and replacing look-up table (LUT) elements by embedded memory blocks (EMBs). The clock gating involves a separate or joint use of such approaches as the (1) decomposition of FSM inputs and (2) disabling FSM inputs. The aim of the power-saving state assignment is to reduce the switching activity of a resulting FSM circuit. The replacement of LUTs by EMBs allows a reduction in the power consumption due to a decrease in the number of FSM circuit elements and their interconnections. We hope that the review will help experts to use known methods and develop new ones for reducing power consumption. We think that a good knowledge and understanding of existing methods of reducing power consumption is a prerequisite for the development of new, more effective methods to solve this very important problem. Although the methods considered are mainly aimed at FPGA-based FSMs, they can be modified, if necessary, and used for the power consumption optimization of FSM circuits implemented with other logic elements.

In comparison to internal combustion engines, which usually have low frequency, broadband excitations, in electric vehicles, tonal excitations from the electric drivetrain are noticeable and disturbing. As the acoustic and structural dynamic behavior, often referred to as noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH), strongly influences customers’ quality perceptions, optimizing it is a key challenge in development. This study investigates the influence of static rotor–stator eccentricity on the NVH behavior of an electric drivetrain using a transient elastic multibody simulation (eMBS) model incorporating non-linear gear meshing, bearing contact, and electromagnetic forces. The analysis identifies the 36th order excitation of the electric machine as the dominant source, leading to a maximum total acceleration level of 152 dB. Two specific excitation directions were found to reduce this amplitude most effectively. However, varying the amount of static eccentricity in these directions resulted in only minor vibration reductions (<1.5 dB). The findings indicate that the symmetric mode shapes of the cylindrical housing govern the response, indicating that addressing the excitability of housing modes by developing asymmetric housing designs could offer a more effective approach for NVH optimizations of electric drivetrains.

The solute carrier 2 ( SLC2 ) gene family, responsible for hexose and polyol transport, has not been fully characterized in Spodoptera frugiperda , a globally invasive pest. Among this family, the trehalose transporter ( TRET ) genes, the largest and most functionally important subfamily, contribute to energy homeostasis and stress adaptation in insects. Despite their importance, TRET genes’ role in insect responses to bioinsecticide exposure remains largely unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to identify and characterize SLC2 genes, from which TRET genes were validated under bioinsecticidal stress in S. frugiperda. A genome-wide identification of the SLC2 gene family in S. frugiperda was performed using bioinformatics approaches. Third-instar larvae were treated under controlled temperature and light conditions with the technical grade of Emamectin benzoate (EMB) and Spinosad (SPD), along with their solvent acetone (Ac) and negative control (NC). In parallel, field bioassays were conducted using the commercial formulations of both insecticides on second- and fourth-instar larvae. Gene expression levels of selected TRET genes were evaluated using qRT-PCR. A total of 86 putative SfruSLC2 members were identified and analyzed for their structural, functional, and physicochemical properties, confirming their stability as membrane-associated transporters. Laboratory treatments induced dose-dependent toxic symptoms, whereas field applications resulted in 100% mortality within 24 h. qRT-PCR results revealed significant upregulation of TRET genes, with EMB eliciting the highest expression, followed by SPD and Ac. EMB and Ac showed non-linear responses, while SPD induced a more linear pattern. This study provides the first genome-wide characterization of the SLC2 gene family in S. frugiperda and highlights TRET genes as key mediators of energy regulation under bioinsecticide and Ac stress. These findings contribute novel insights into the molecular response mechanisms of S. frugiperda and may support future strategies for sustainable pest control and resistance management.

Ethambutol (EMB) is a first-line anti-tuberculosis drug that is also considered in treatment regimens for infections caused by non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). EMB targets the arabinosyl transferases EmbCAB, which are important for the synthesis of cell wall constituents. To further explore and narrow down the structural variability of EMB, we synthesized three series of new EMB analogs. We tested their activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Mycobacterium abscessus and Mycobacterium intracellulare. Only analogs that very closely resembled EMB showed comparable antimycobacterial activity.

Since the automotive industry is shifting towards electrification, brake-by-wire technologies are becoming more prevalent. However, there has been little research comparing and optimizing brake-by-wire actuators in terms of their energy expenditure and response time. This paper investigates the comparison of three different smart brake-by-wire actuators, Electro-Hydraulic Brakes (EHB), Electro-Mechanical Brakes (EMB), and Electronic Wedge Brakes (EWB), first by defining an objective metric and then using both linear and nonlinear optimization techniques. Modeling of the actuators is performed using the bond graph method. Then, the controllers are designed using a robust control strategy, Youla parameterization. After designing the controllers, two types of optimization are performed on the actuators. Optimizations are performed in two ways: 1. by linearizing the plants and optimizing using their transfer functions and 2. by nonlinear optimization of the plants in the closed-loop following a specific clamp force target. The objective metrics or the cost functions for these optimizations are chosen to be the energy usage of the plants during the closed-loop operation, maximum power requirement, and their dynamic responsiveness. Using this optimization framework, we can show a significant improvement in the energy usage of the actuators and slight improvements in their responsiveness. In the end, the actuators are compared in terms of their energy usage for sets of initial and optimized physical parameters.