Candidate States Research Articles

Higher-energy triplet-pair states in polyenes and their role in intramolecular singlet fission

Probing extended polyene systems with energy in excess of the bright state ($1{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{1}{B}_{u}^{+}$/${S}_{2}$) band edge generates triplets via singlet fission. This process is not thought to involve the $2{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{1}{A}_{g}^{\ensuremath{-}}$/${S}_{1}$ state, suggesting that other states play a role. Using density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations of the Pariser-Parr-Pople-Peierls Hamiltonian, we investigate candidate states that could be involved in singlet fission. We find that the relaxed $1{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{1}{B}_{u}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ and $3{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{1}{A}_{g}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ singlet states and $1{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{5}{A}_{g}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ quintet state lie below the ${S}_{2}$ state. The $1{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{1}{B}_{u}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, $3{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{1}{A}_{g}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, and $1{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{5}{A}_{g}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ states are all thought to have triplet-pair character, which is confirmed by our calculations of bond dimerization, spin-spin correlation, and wave function overlap with products of triplet states. We thus show that there is a family of singlet excitations (i.e., $2{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{1}{A}_{g}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, $1{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{1}{B}_{u}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, $3{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{1}{A}_{g}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, $\ensuremath{\cdots}$), composed of both triplet-pair and electron-hole character, which are fundamentally the same excitation, but have different center-of-mass energies. The lowest energy member of this family, the $2{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{1}{A}_{g}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ state, cannot undergo singlet fission. But higher-energy members (e.g., the $3{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{1}{A}_{g}^{\ensuremath{-}}$) state, owing to their increased kinetic energy and reduced electron-lattice relaxation, can undergo singlet fission for certain chain lengths.

International assistance, donor interests, and state capture in the Western Balkans

ABSTRACT Despite the enormous inflow of international assistance to the Western Balkans over the last 25 years, the intended state-building efforts have only had partial success and great concerns have been raised over the problems of state capture, weak governance, poor rule of law and widespread corruption at a high level throughout the region. The paper identifies the patterns of international assistance and examines the extent to which donor aid allocations have been driven by concerns for recipients’ need and merit, or by donor self-interest. The analysis reveals that while donor allocations have on the whole reflected need, they have not reflected merit to the same extent, suggesting that international assistance may have facilitated domestic political elites’ engagement in practices of rent-seeking and state capture. With a few exceptions, EU donors and EU Institutions have not allocated their aid to motivate adherence to EU norms in candidate and potential candidate states in the region. The paper concludes that the ‘Samaritans dilemma’ is alive and well in the Western Balkans, and that donors have chosen to mostly overlook poor governance behaviour among recipients in order to prioritise assistance to the neediest countries while pursuing their own foreign policy concerns.

Parallel heuristic search strategy based on a Bayesian approach for simultaneous recognition of contaminant sources and aquifer parameters at DNAPL-contaminated sites

In this study, we develop a parallel heuristic search strategy based on a Bayesian approach for simultaneously recognizing groundwater contaminant sources and aquifer parameters (unknown variables) at sites contaminated with dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs). The parallel search strategy is time-consuming because thousands of simulation models must run in order to calculate the likelihood. Various stand-alone surrogate systems for the simulation models have been established, but they also have unavoidable limitations. Thus, we develop an optimal combined surrogate system by combining Gaussian process, kernel extreme learning machine, and support vector regression methods using a differential evolution algorithm with a variable mutation rate based on the rand-to-best/1/bin strategy, thereby improving the approximation accuracy of the surrogate system to the simulation model and significantly decreasing the high computational cost. Utilizing the optimal combined surrogate system reduced the CPU time by more than 400 times. In the iterative parallel heuristic search process, each round of iteration involves determining the candidate points and state transitions. The Monte Carlo approach is used widely for selecting candidate point, but this approach does not readily converge to the posterior distribution for unknown variables when the probability density function types are complex with weak search ergodicity. In order to improve the search ergodicity, we develop a particle swarm optimization algorithm with a non-linear decreasing inertia weight and Metropolis criterion, which is more suitable for unknown variables with complex probability density functions. The recognition results are obtained simultaneously when the iterative process terminates. We assess our proposed approaches based on a hypothetical case study at a three-dimensional site contaminated with DNAPLs. The results demonstrate that the parallel heuristic search strategy is helpful for the simultaneous recognition of DNAPL contaminant sources in groundwater and aquifer parameters.

Geography, Military Balance, and the Defence of NATO's Borderlands

Abstract The enlargement of NATO and the defence of its borders have occupied an important place in the security debate in the last few years. This study discusses the situation of the NATO members and candidate states which are most directly exposed to Russian military power. After analysing the cases of the three Baltic republics, Norway, Georgia, and Ukraine, I conclude with a paradox; although NATO is on the aggregate level stronger, it cannot hope to guarantee the security of its eastern borderlands. This reality could push these states to bandwagon with Russia.

Optical Gating of Photoluminescence from Color Centers in Hexagonal Boron Nitride.

We report on multicolor excitation experiments with color centers in hexagonal boron nitride at cryogenic temperatures. We demonstrate controllable optical switching between bright and dark states of color centers emitting around 2 eV. Resonant, or quasi-resonant, excitation of photoluminescence also pumps the color center, via a two-photon process, into a dark state, where it becomes trapped. Repumping back into the bright state has a step-like spectrum with a defect-dependent threshold between 2.25 and 2.6 eV. This behavior is consistent with photoionization and charging between optically bright and dark states of the defect. Furthermore, a second zero phonon line, detuned by +0.4 eV, is observed in absorption with orthogonal polarization to the emission, evidencing an additional energy level in the color center.

Electron irradiation effects on superconductivity in PdTe2 : An application of a generalized Anderson theorem

Low temperature ($\sim$ 20~K) electron irradiation with 2.5 MeV relativistic electrons was used to study the effect of controlled non-magnetic disorder on the normal and superconducting properties of the type-II Dirac semimetal PdTe$_2$. We report measurements of longitudinal and Hall resistivity, thermal conductivity and London penetration depth using tunnel-diode resonator technique for various irradiation doses. The normal state electrical resistivity follows Matthiessen rule with an increase of the residual resistivity at a rate of $\sim$0.77$ \mu \Omega$cm/$(\textrm{C}/\textrm{cm}^2)$. London penetration depth and thermal conductivity results show that the superconducting state remains fully gapped. The superconducting transition temperature is suppressed at a non-zero rate that is about sixteen times slower than described by the Abrikosov-Gor'kov dependence, applicable to magnetic impurity scattering in isotropic, single-band $s$-wave superconductors. To gain information about the gap structure and symmetry of the pairing state, we perform a detailed analysis of these experimental results based on insight from a generalized Anderson theorem for multi-band superconductors. This imposes quantitative constraints on the gap anisotropies for each of the possible pairing candidate states. We conclude that the most likely pairing candidate is an unconventional $A_{1g}^{+-}$ state. While we cannot exclude the conventional $A_{1g}^{++}$ and the triplet $A_{1u}$, we demonstrate that these states require additional assumptions about the orbital structure of the disorder potential to be consistent with our experimental results, e.g., a ratio of inter- to intra-band scattering for the singlet state significantly larger than one. Due to the generality of our theoretical framework, we think that it will also be useful for irradiation studies in other spin-orbit-coupled multi-orbital systems.

Tracking objects with partial occlusion by background alignment

Visual object tracking is a challenging and fundamental research topic in the field of computer vision. Recent years, many subspace-learning based methods have been proposed for visual object tracking with promising results. These methods reconstruct candidate states by a set of basis vectors and select the best state with minimum reconstruction error. It is well known that the accuracy of reconstructed results is seriously affected by partial occlusion. Besides, updating with occlusions is likely to mislead the tracker to drift away. Existing methods either do not consider these situations or find occlusion regions only by current observation and reconstruction. In fact, occlusion regions usually come from the background regions in previous frames, which are neglected in existing methods. Under this assumption, a novel object tracking algorithm called Partial Occlusion by Background Alignment (POBA) is proposed, which aims to find the best candidate state with an accurate occlusion mask. The POBA tracker treats current observation as a combination of object appearance and occlusion regions. The object appearance is modelled by basis vectors through incremental PCA over grayscale images. Then the occlusion region is reconstructed from last frame under the assumption that the backgrounds between two consecutive frames are almost identical. Besides, most candidate states are different from the object obviously, which can be filtered by some predefined occlusion masks so that computational complexity can be further reduced. Finally, the POBA tracker was analyzed on 8 challenge sequences and evaluated on two challenging datasets including OTB2015 and Temple Color. It gets an AUC of 0.456, a success rate score of 0.538 and a precision score of 0.626 in OPE on OTB2015 dataset. All indicators are increased by more than 23% compared with the 6 classical trackers.

Improving Simulation Efficiency of MCMC for Inverse Modeling of Hydrologic Systems With a Kalman‐Inspired Proposal Distribution

AbstractBayesian analysis is widely used in science and engineering for real‐time forecasting, decision making, and to help unravel the processes that explain the observed data. These data are some deterministic and/or stochastic transformations of the underlying parameters. A key task is then to summarize the posterior distribution of these parameters. When models become too difficult to analyze analytically, Monte Carlo methods can be used to approximate the target distribution. Of these, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods are particularly powerful. Such methods generate a random walk through the parameter space and, under strict conditions of reversibility and ergodicity, will successively visit solutions with frequency proportional to the underlying target density. This requires a proposal distribution that generates candidate solutions starting from an arbitrary initial state. The speed of the sampled chains converging to the target distribution deteriorates rapidly, however, with increasing parameter dimensionality. In this paper, we introduce a new proposal distribution that enhances significantly the efficiency of MCMC simulation for highly parameterized models. This proposal distribution exploits the cross covariance of model parameters, measurements, and model outputs and generates candidate states much alike the analysis step in the Kalman filter. We embed the Kalman‐inspired proposal distribution in the DiffeRential Evolution Adaptive Metropolis algorithm during burn‐in and present several numerical experiments with complex, high‐dimensional, or multimodal target distributions. Results demonstrate that this new proposal distribution can greatly improve simulation efficiency of MCMC. Specifically, we observe a speedup on the order of 10–30 times for groundwater models with more than 100 parameters.

Quantum stabilization of microcavity excitation in a coupled microcavity–half-cavity system

We analyze the quantum dynamics of a two-level emitter in a resonant microcavity with optical feedback provided by a distant mirror (i.e., a half-cavity) with a focus on stabilizing the emitter-microcavity subsystem. Our treatment is fully carried out in the framework of cavity quantum electrodynamics. Specifically, we focus on the dynamics of a perturbed dark state of the emitter to ascertain its stability (existence of time oscillatory solutions around the candidate state) or lack thereof. In particular, we find conditions under which multiple feedback modes of the half cavity contribute to the stability, showing certain analogies with the Lang-Kobayashi equations, which describe a laser diode subject to classical optical feedback.

Automatic State Machine Reconstruction From Legacy Programmable Logic Controller Using Data Collection and SAT Solver

Nowadays an increasing number of industries are considering moving toward being Industry 4.0 compliant. But this transition is not straightforward: transfer to new system can lead to significant production downtime, resulting in delays and cost overruns. The best way is systematic seamless transition to newer and advanced technologies that Industry 4.0 offers. This article proposes a framework based on automatic synthesis methods that learns the behavior of an existing legacy programmable logic controller (PLC) and generates state machines that can be incorporated into IEC 61499 function blocks. Proposed algorithms are based on Boolean satisfiability (SAT) solvers. The first algorithm accepts a set of noisy PLC traces and produces a set of candidate state machines that satisfy the traces. The second algorithm accepts error-free traces and synthesizes a modular controller that may be distributed across several physical devices. The toolchain architecture is exemplified on a laboratory scale Festo mechatronic system.

PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA IN THE EUROPEAN UNION-TURKEY RELATIONS: EFFECT OF VISA LIBERALISATION DIALOGUE

The European Union is rather successful at making regulations and law whose influence go beyond the European territory, as these acts are widely considered as common standards. One of them is about personal data protection. The European Union accepted a new regulation on the protection of personal data which was put in practice in May 2018, after a long period of discussions. The regulation was accepted for the replacement of laws about data protection in member and candidate states. As a European Union candidate country, Turkey started a visa liberation dialogue with the European Union in 2013. Personal data protection issue has been one of the most crucial subjects of the visa liberation process and considered as an important requirement which must be fulfilled by Turkey. In this respect, the study will elaborate the European Union’s regulation on new personal data protection under the case of Turkey’s visa liberalisation dialogue. In the first chapter, the historical development of personal data protection, the European Union data protection regulation and current situation will be analysed. In the second chapter, the study will elaborate the issue of data protection under the case of visa liberation dialogue between Turkey and the European Union. In the last chapter, aiming to reveal the differences between General Data Protection Regulation and Turkish data protection legislation, Turkey’s cohesion to the European Union’s data protection regulation within the frame of visa liberation dialogue will be dealt. In this context, differentiating from present studies and researches in the literature, this study asserts that visa liberalisation dialogue catalyses Turkey’s compliance with the European Union’s data protection standards.

From lever to club? Conditionality in the European Union during the financial crisis

ABSTRACT How did the European Union come to develop so many instruments of conditionality during the Eurozone debt crisis, despite the well-documented limitations of such measures in other contexts? This article argues that major EU actors – Council, Commission, and Central Bank – were influenced by their own recent and positive experiences with conditionality, especially in the EU’s enlargement in the early 2000s and the early phase of the global financial crisis. However, despite the promise of conditional instruments in these two earlier episodes, further EU reliance on conditional policies has not brought the positive outcomes the main European institutions had hoped for. As EU institutions turned to harder and harder forms of conditionality in the Euro crisis, they relearned many of the familiar negative lessons of conditionality and ultimately had to concede that the apparent success of its conditionality tools in the two earlier phases was exceptional. The article documents the evolution of conditionality over these periods, showing how EU conditionality instruments changed over time, beginning as a ‘lever’ to assist the accession of candidate states in the enlargement period, and evolving into a ‘club’ used to impose macroeconomic discipline in the late 2000s. It shows why this approach to the Euro crisis failed and was ultimately downgraded as Eurozone policy shifted in favour of monetary measures in which conditionality played only a marginal role.

Mind the Gap: Issues of Legality in the EU’s Conceptualisation of the Rule of Law in Its Enlargement Policy

The article critically examines the EU’s conceptualisation of the rule of law in its enlargement practice. Two main arguments will be advanced. First, it will be argued that legality is a core element of the rule of law, and adherence to it is a fundamental characteristic of any institutional order governed by the rule of law, as evidenced in the Treaty (Article 2 TEU) and as acknowledged in the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice. Secondly, it will be shown that the EU’s pre-accession process does not sufficiently address this rule of law element, to the extent that a) its main focus is alignment with the acquis, and b) changes made to domestic legislation are measured in terms of quantity and not quality. It will be demonstrated that this generates problems of legality in the candidate states, including legal inflation, instability, lack of generality of law and coherence, as well as problems of enforcement. It will be asserted that even though this is recognised by the Commission, over the years the EU has not amended its methodology, thereby failing to recognise that ensuring respect for the rule of law is not merely a process of adoption of a corpus of rules, but rather a complex process of adaptation to a particular value system. The article continues by arguing that the quality and complexity of the acquis leave considerable room for improvement, while at the same time raising questions as to its suitability as an instrument for development in the (potential) candidate countries. As a conclusion, some policy reflections will be offered on how these issues could be better addressed. Keywords: EU rule of law, legality, EU enlargement, EU acquis, quantitative approach, benchmarking. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution − Non-Commercial − No Derivatives 4.0 International License. Suggested citation: L Louwerse, ‘Mind the Gap: Issues of Legality in the EU’s Conceptualisation of the Rule of Law in its Enlargement Policy’ (2019) 15 CYELP 27.

Psychological support of fly-in/fly-out labour for construction companies working in Far North

The paper focuses on the methods of selecting personnel for work shifts at the construction enterprise in the extreme conditions of the Far North. The paper attempts to suggest ways of staff psychological support during the selection of candidates. Methods and means of psychological support of the adaptation period of shift workers are proposed, based on the analysis of changes in the level of efficiency and the psycho-functional state of the staff when working shifts in the severe northern region. Further recommendations are given on the application of methods to improve the process of adaptation to extraordinary living conditions at various stages of a shift work period. The paper investigates and determines the dependence of the efficiency of personnel on such indicators as the time of adaptation to shift work conditions with intense physical exertion, temperament, physical qualities, psycho-emotional state and age of candidates. The methods of teaching personnel self-control skills are proposed, the main components of psychological support for staff adaptation are highlighted. In conclusions, the main risk groups when selecting candidates for senior positions of personnel working shifts in the conditions of the Far North are identified.

Model Predictive Torque Control With SVM for Five-Phase PMSM Under Open-Circuit Fault Condition

This article proposes a novel model predictive torque control combined with space vector modulation (SVM) to enhance the fault-tolerant performance of a five-phase permanent magnet synchronous motor under open circuit fault. Inherited the merits of MPC and SVM, a joint control of different subspaces and enhancement of steady-state performance can be achieved by the proposed strategy. For the harmonic regulation, the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x–y</i> currents are predicted and restricted together with the torque and the stator flux-linkage. The SVM method is implemented in terms of the voltage vector selection and synthesis. The nonzero switching states, which generate a larger voltage vector in the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">α–β</i> subspace, are selected as the candidate states to suppress the harmonic voltage. During the vector synthesis process, two arbitrary voltage vectors in the quadrant where the desired voltage vector locates are considered as the active voltages. Consequently, the best vector synthesis and dwell time are obtained by optimizing the cost function. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been validated by comparative experiments.

RL-RRT: Kinodynamic Motion Planning via Learning Reachability Estimators From RL Policies

This letter addresses two challenges facing samplingbased kinodynamic motion planning: a way to identify good candidate states for local transitions and the subsequent computationally intractable steering between these candidate states. Through the combination of sampling-based planning, a Rapidly Exploring Randomized Tree (RRT) and an efficient kinodynamic motion planner through machine learning, we propose an efficient solution to long-range planning for kinodynamic motion planning. First, we use deep reinforcement learning to learn an obstacle-avoiding policy that maps a robot's sensor observations to actions, which is used as a local planner during planning and as a controller during execution. Second, we train a reachability estimator in a supervised manner, which predicts the RL policy's time to reach a state in the presence of obstacles. Lastly, we introduce RL-RRT that uses the RL policy as a local planner, and the reachability estimator as the distance function to bias tree-growth towards promising regions. We evaluate our method on three kinodynamic systems, including physical robot experiments. Results across all three robots tested indicate that RL-RRT outperforms state of the art kinodynamic planners in efficiency, and also provides a shorter path finish time than a steering function free method. The learned local planner policy and accompanying reachability estimator demonstrate transferability to the previously unseen experimental environments, making RL-RRT fast because the expensive computations are replaced with simple neural network inference.

342 Smartphone and Wrist-Wearable-Based Biomarkers of Pain Severity After Emergency Department Discharge: Preliminary Results From the AURORA Study

Adverse posttraumatic neuropsychiatric sequelae (APNS) such as posttraumatic pain cause great suffering in civilian trauma survivors and military personnel and are traditionally evaluated using self-report symptoms alone. Objective biobehavioral indicators are needed to more fully characterize posttraumatic phenotypes, gain new insights into pathophysiologic mechanisms, better understand patient experiences, and improve the assessment of patient recovery. Identifying objective biobehavioral indicators of APNS is a goal of the ongoing AURORA study, a ∼40 million-dollar effort funded by NIH, the DoD, and foundation and industry partners. AURORA performs serial assessments of neurocognitive, physiologic, digital phenotype, psychophysical, neuroimaging, and genomic domains in thousands of individuals who present to the ED after trauma exposure. The present analysis performed initial screening for state biomarkers of pain severity during the first eight weeks after trauma in an initial study sample (=867). Pain severity was assessed using latent variables developed from self-report questions administered via the Mindstrong smartphone App at six timepoints during the first eight weeks after trauma. State biomarkers were screened from two domains: heart rate variability (HRV) data were obtained from the Verily Study Watch, provided to all participants at the time of ED discharge, and activity metrics derived from the Mindstrong app. Associations between changes in pain severity and changes in candidate state biomarkers over time were assessed using Pearson correlation. In screening analyses, a number of promising state biomarkers of pain severity were identified from both HRV and activity domains. Promising state biomarkers included measures of heart rate variability (eg, elevations in high frequency power, p<.04), reduced sympathovagal balance (p < .0056) and measures of within-subject activity (time spent at home, p<.0087), distance traveled during day (p<.004), farthest distance traveled from home (p<.0024), time spent in the most frequent location during the day (p<.0088) and during the weekends (p<.0103). These preliminary analyses suggest that state biomarkers of APNS outcomes such as pain can be identified. The results of further derivation analysis within a larger subsample will be presented at the conference.

Association Between Declined Offers of Deceased Donor Kidney Allograft and Outcomes in Kidney Transplant Candidates

In the United States, substantial disparities in access to kidney transplant exist for wait-listed candidates with end-stage renal disease. The implications of transplant centers' willingness to accept kidney offers for access to transplant and mortality outcomes are unknown. To determine the outcomes for wait-listed kidney transplant candidates after the transplant center's refusal of a deceased donor kidney offer. This cohort study obtained data from the United Network for Organ Sharing Potential Transplant Recipient data set on all deceased donor kidney offers in the United States made between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2015. The final study cohort included adult patients who were wait-listed for kidney transplant and received at least 1 allograft offer during the study period (N = 280 041). Data analysis was conducted from June 1, 2018, to March 30, 2019. Candidate state of residence. Waiting list outcome event groups included received deceased donor allograft, received living donor allograft, died while on the waiting list, removed from the waiting list without a transplant, or still on the waiting list at the end of follow-up. Among the 280 041 kidney transplant candidates included in the study, the mean (SD) age at wait-listing was 51.1 (13.1) years, and male patients were predominant (171 517 [61.2%]). In this cohort, 81 750 candidates (29.2%) received a deceased donor kidney allograft, 30 870 (11.0%) received a living donor allograft, 25 967 (9.3%) died while on the waiting list, and 59 359 (21.2%) were removed from the waiting list. Overall, 10 candidates with at least 1 previous allograft offer died each day during the study period. Time to first offer was similar for candidates who received deceased donor kidney allograft compared with those who died while waiting (median [interquartile range {IQR}] time, 79 [16-426] days vs 78 [17-401] days, respectively). Deceased donor allograft recipients had a median of 17 offers (IQR, 6-44) over 422 days (IQR, 106-909 days), whereas candidates who died while waiting received a median of 16 offers (IQR, 6-41) over 651 days (IQR, 304-1117 days). Most kidneys (84%) were declined on behalf of at least 1 candidate before being accepted for transplant. As reported by centers, organ or donor quality concerns accounted for 8 416 474 (92.6%) of all declined offers, whereas offers were infrequently refused because of patient-related factors (232 193 [2.6%]), logistical limitations (49 492 [0.5%]), or other concerns. The odds of death after an offer and the median number of offers received prior to death varied considerably by state. This study found that transplant candidates appeared to receive a large number of viable deceased donor kidney offers that were refused on their behalf by transplant centers, potentially exacerbating the detrimental consequences of the organ shortage; increased transparency in organ allocation process and decisions may improve patient-centered care and access to kidney transplant.

Balkan Candidate Countries Running for Fiscal Consolidation: Legal Frameworks vs. Economic Results

The subject of this paper is four Balkan countries (Albania, Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro) that are determined to join the European Union. More particularly, it looks at their work towards accomplishing the political, legal and economic requirements for the EU. Thus, the legislation with the EU Fiscal Compact is the prime focus. Methodologically, the research is based on an assessment of fiscal and monetary legal documents, evaluating the stages of accomplishing the harmonization with the EU’s conditions. Further, cross‑section analyses are made by in putting selected indicators; additionally, the authors compare the four countries’ achievements. The EU’s rigorous fiscal rules are being quietly bypassed, but more frequently by existing member states than the candidate states; this statement is founded on legal and economic arguments, with mathematical estimations. Consequently, the authors question the political courage and financial capacity of the examined countries to cope with the fiscal compact of the superior EU 28 members. The answers are supported with numerous analyses of EU Reports for each country, as well as tables and figures that compare the states’ results and economic achievements vs. EU fiscal consolidation rules. The EU 28 average is givenin addition as a comparison. The conclusion gives across analysis between the four countries and the EU 28 member states, with accompanying argumentation to the main statement about the legal and economic developments of the examined Balkan countries as well as a future prognosis.

The low-lying electronic states of HfO2− and HfO2: A symmetry adapted cluster–configuration interaction (SAC-CI) study

The low-lying doublet states of the HfO2− anion and low-lying triplet excited states of the HfO2 molecule were studied using the SAC-CI method. The vertical excitation spectrum of HfO2− was calculated. Four valence-bound states (X2A1, 12B1, 22A1, and 12B2(II)) and one dipole-bound state (2A1(DB)) of HfO2− were found. The vertical electron detachment energies (VDEs) from the ground electronic state of HfO2− to the triplet excited states of HfO2 were obtained. These VDEs were compared with previous photoelectron spectra of HfO2−, and possible candidate states for the unassigned bands were found. The equilibrium geometries of the valence-bound states of HfO2− and some selected triplet excited states of HfO2 were optimized. The adiabatic relative energies of these electronic states were obtained. Density functional theory (BPW91) was also applied to compute some electronic states of HfO2− and HfO2 for comparison.