Elite Candidates Research Articles

Election Optimizer Algorithm: A New Meta-Heuristic Optimization Algorithm for Solving Industrial Engineering Design Problems

This paper introduces the election optimization algorithm (EOA), a meta-heuristic approach for engineering optimization problems. Inspired by the democratic electoral system, focusing on the presidential election, EOA emulates the complete election process to optimize solutions. By simulating the presidential election, EOA introduces a novel position-tracking strategy that expands the scope of effectively solvable problems, surpassing conventional human-based algorithms, specifically, the political optimizer. EOA incorporates explicit behaviors observed during elections, including the party nomination and presidential election. During the party nomination, the search space is broadened to avoid local optima by integrating diverse strategies and suggestions from within the party. In the presidential election, adequate population diversity is maintained in later stages through further campaigning between elite candidates elected within the party. To establish a benchmark for comparison, EOA is rigorously assessed against several renowned and widely recognized algorithms in the field of optimization. EOA demonstrates superior performance in terms of average values and standard deviations across the twenty-three standard test functions and CEC2019. Through rigorous statistical analysis using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test at a significance level of 0.05, experimental results indicate that EOA consistently delivers high-quality solutions compared to the other benchmark algorithms. Moreover, the practical applicability of EOA is assessed by solving six complex engineering design problems, demonstrating its effectiveness in real-world scenarios.

Presidential Threshold Polemic in the 2019 Election and Before the 2024 Election Contest in Indonesia

The application of the presidential threshold in the presidential nomination election in Indonesia gave rise to various controversies and became a topic of discussion in the country's political system. This research wants to see the presidential threshold polemic in the 2019 election and before the 2024 election contestation in Indonesia. The type of research used is normative legal research. The findings in the 2019 election of the presidential threshold polemic that occurred were a number of political parties objecting to a high threshold, restrictions on the freedom of the people/the best sons and daughters who wanted to advance in the presidential election, the public were given choices that were not varied, weakened the presidential system and contradicted the 1945 Constitution Then the polemic leading up to the 2024 election, namely: elite candidates dominating, alternative candidates are limited, consideration of the Constitutional Court is problematic, article 222 of the law is contrary to article 6A (2) of the 1945 Constitution and democratic space is now limited.

Resting-state heart rate variability after stressful events as a measure of stress tolerance among elite performers.

Introduction: A common trait of elite performers is their ability to perform well when stressed by strong emotions such as fear. Developing objective measures of stress response that reliably predict performance under stress could have far-reaching implications in selection and training of elite individuals and teams. Prior data suggests that (i) Heart rate and heart rate variability (HR/HRV) are associated with stress reaction, (ii) Higher basal sympathetic tone prior to stressful events is associated with higher performance, and (iii) Elite performers tend to exhibit greater increase in parasympathetic tone after a stressful event. Methods: The current study assesses the predictive utility of post-stressful event HR/HRV measures, an under-studied time point in HR/HRV research, in the context of military personnel selection. Specifically, we examined the relationship between a comprehensive set of HR/HRV measures and established questionnaires related to stress tolerance, experimental evaluation of executive function during stress induction, and ecologically valid selection assessment data from a week-long Special Operations Forces selection course (N = 30). Results: We found that post-stressful event HR/HRV measures generally had strong correlations with the neuroticism facet of the NEO personality inventory as well as the general and distress facets of the defensive reactivity questionnaire. HR/HRV measures correlated reliably with a change in executive function measured as a decrease in verbal fluency with exposure to a well-validated stressor. Finally, we observed a divergent pattern of correlation among elite and non-elite SOF candidates. Specifically, among elite candidates, parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) measures correlated positively and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) measures correlated negatively with evaluation of stress tolerance by experts and peers. This pattern was not present in non-elite candidates. Discussion: Our findings demonstrate that post-stressful event HR/HRV data provide an objective non-invasive method to measure the recovery and arousal state in direct reaction to the stressful event and can be used as metrics of stress tolerance that could enhance selection of elite individuals and teams.

Inclusive candidate selection and corruption: evidence from Spanish regions

High corruption perceptions among voters have been shown to have dire consequences for political participation, trust in institutions and ability to solve collective action problems. Research on corruption focussed on macro- and micro-level explanations to explain persistent corruption in developed countries. This article adds a new meso-level variable to the picture: party primaries. While until recently selection of candidates was the privilege of narrow party elites, many Western European parties have introduced primaries to select candidates for public offices. This study posits that this attempt at increasing intraparty democracy has negative consequences regarding corruption perceptions and suggests three mechanisms through which primaries increase corruption perceptions among supporters of parties that use them. First, primaries can be perceived as a means of ‘window-dressing’, second, primaries can suffer from vote buying, and third, candidates in primaries have incentives to campaign on anti-elitism to distinguish themselves from party elite candidates, increasing corruption salience. The theoretical argument is tested using a novel dataset on primaries in Spanish regions and corruption perceptions in a difference-in-difference design. The results support the hypothesis that primaries increase corruption perceptions among supporters of parties that use them and hint that this result is driven by the process of competitive primaries rather than a restriction of competition.

Konstelasi kekuatan partai politik dalam pemilu serentak tahun 2019 di Kabupaten Pemalang

The general election is a contestation involving political parties and individuals in a democracy, where various processes and details follow. The result of the election is a number of vote which are then converted into seats in the legislature or the electability of the elite. These two results the become materials that are constantly being studied and analyzed, of course with various basid research objectives. The number of good votes obtained by political parties, legislative candidates, regional elite candidates to the president is rich in meaning and shows a variety of studies. Figures obtained by political parties both of the national level, especially at the regional level, have variouse aspect, such as strength of the party the power of the political machine or the level of competition in the region. These meanings are quite reasonable because the number of party votes, especially in the regoins, shows the dynamics closest to the vasiouse phenomena of the competition between political parties themselves. The study of the vote acquisition of political parties in regions, especially the districts, is a micro study developed by the electoral district (Daerah Pemilihan/Dapil). This constituency is the main point for cq’s vote. Seats in the regional legislature as well as evidence of the strength of political parties in the electoral district. Many variations appear when reading the vote count, of course, because each electoral district has has certain characteristics that tend to be relatively different. This study focuse on the vote acquisition of political parties in the electoral district in Pemalang Regency, Central Java. Pemalang Regency is located in the North West part of Central Java, and is crossed by national arterial road known as The Pantura (Pantai Utara Jawa). The large base political parties is PDI P, PKB, Gerindra, P Golkar, PPP and PKS, a political party strength which is also manifesd in the national political map. The vote gain of political parties are the looked at per eletoral district and then compared between parties, and the result is a vairety of variations as a result of the local poltical prosesses of each different electoral district.

Elite Pipelines: How Elite School Ties Are Reflected in Interfirm Employee Migration

Recent research has pointed to pipelines, or sequenced hiring of individuals from the same source organizations over time, as a common practice employed by firms to reduce labor market imperfections and create human capital resource advantages. We extend this literature by considering how pipelines may emerge not just out of strategic intent but also out of informal social processes reflecting network transitivity and homophily. Using bipartite social network analysis techniques in a sample of 110 public U.S. electronics component manufacturers, we argue and find evidence for transitive effects between firms’ employee-based ties to elite educational institutions and the formation of interfirm employee pipelines. We demonstrate that pipelines are more likely to form between firms that both hire educational elites, especially when those firms share ties to the same elite schools and when those shared elite schools are executives’ alma mater(s). We also find that these effects tend to be more pronounced when the focal firm has higher growth potential, encouraging mobility by attracting potential elite candidates and facilitating the two-way matching process in labor markets. Our theory and findings contribute to a better understanding of informal processes underlying pipeline formation and specifically demonstrate how hiring tendencies may lead to closed recruiting networks characterized by elite replication.

Refugee Migration and the Politics of Redistribution: Do Supply and Demand Meet?

Voter demand for less redistribution in the face of mass migration maps into actual outcomes insofar as politicians supplying these policies respond to it. We study whether establishing new asylum-seeker centers influences redistributive outcomes in Finnish local elections --a country where municipalities have a significant control over fiscal policies. The sudden and unprecedentedly large inflow of asylum-seekers in the fall 2015 and the resulting establishment of asylum centers allows for a difference-in-differences design. We examine simultaneously supply and demand for redistribution by focusing both on candidates' policy positions and also voters' preferences. On the supply side, we find that, on average, candidates do not respond to the presence of refugees by adopting anti-redistributive positions. Our estimates are precise enough to rule out even fairly small effects. In contrast, on the demand side, there is evidence of various voter responses against redistribution (and in favor of the anti-immigration party), on average suggesting that representative democracy filters the mapping of voter preferences on policy outcomes. But this political disequilibrium comes at the price of a \textit{populist backlash}: we find decreased support for insider elite candidates. We probe the mechanism behind the backlash: in the localities more intensely exposed to refugee migration, we observe also a supply-side response (candidates oppose redistribution) while a demand response is less heterogeneous. In the municipalities where the gap between demand and supply is wider also the backlash is larger.

Breeding New Cultivars for the Australian Macadamia Industry

In 2017, five new cultivars specifically selected for Australian conditions were released. These were developed from an improvement program initiated by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in the early 1990s. Progeny seeds were produced by crossing industry standard cultivars with other cultivars with elite kernel production per unit projected canopy area. Seedlings were planted at two densities (2 m and 4 m along rows) in field trials at Bundaberg in 1997 and 1998, and Northern New South Wales in late 1997, along with replicated plants of parents grafted onto seedling rootstocks. Trials were assessed for commencement of flowering, growth, yield, kernel recovery, and components of kernel quality over 8 years. Best linear unbiased predictions of clonal values were obtained for each individual progeny using a pedigree-based mixed linear model. A bio-economic model was used to estimate economic weights for a selection index of clonal values to identify elite candidates. Final approval of 20 candidates for second-stage assessment was made by an industry committee using selection index rankings and observations of tree field performance and kernel quality.

Phenotypic identity, similarity and stability for selection of tomatoes ( Lycopersicon esculentum L.) cultivars in South-western Nigeria

Abstract Landraces contains useful genes which can be tapped to advance breeding programmes. Their genetic potentials are only discovered when evaluated over time and space along with elite candidates. In this study, seven tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) landraces were evaluated along with Cal-J (an improved tomato variety) in a randomized complete block design for two years at the National Horticultural Crop Research Institute, Ibadan, Nigeria. The eight cultivars showed significant (P ≥ 0.05) variation in mean performances for ten quantitative traits; with consistent and significant (P ≥ 0.05) outperformances by USI/2/15 (a landrace) over other genotypes. Broadsense heritability was highest (84%) in plant height and least (30%) in leaf width. The genotypic proportion of the phenotypic coefficient of variation was highest (95%) in fruit weight while the highest (7.11) repeatability was observed in fruit width. Fruit length and width exhibited positive and significant (P ≥ 0.05) correlations with the other characters. Plant height, number of branches, leaf length and fruit width were identified to be most discriminatory among the genotypes at P ≥ 0.05. Cal-J, USI/3/15 and USI/7/15 were most similar, with mean similarity coefficient of 0.911. The most distant genotypes (USI/1/15 and USI/2/15) had a similarity value of 0.01. USI/3/15 and USI/5/15 showed high stability for fruit length; however, USI/5/15 further depicted high stability for fruit width. Both genotypes had bi = 1 and S2di with minimum deviation from regression. The eight genotypes were distinct. They can serve as useful genetic resources for tomato vigour and yield improvement through breeding.

Race, Resources, and Representation

What explains the persistence of racial or ethnic inequalities in descriptive representation in the absence of strongly politicized racial or ethnic cleavages? This article uses new data to demonstrate a substantial racial gap between voters and politicians in Brazil. The authors show that this disparity is not plausibly due to racial preferences in the electorate as a whole, for instance, deference toward white candidates or discrimination against nonwhites, and that barriers to candidate entry or discrimination by party leaders do not likely explain the gap. Instead, they document persistent resource disparities between white and nonwhite candidates, including large differences in personal assets and campaign contributions. The findings suggest that elite closure—investments by racial and economic elites on behalf of elite candidates—help perpetuate a white political class, even in the absence of racialized politics. By underscoring this avenue through which representational disparities persist, the article contributes to research on elite power in democratic settings.

Improving prediction accuracy and selection of open-pollinated seed-lots in Eucalyptus dunnii Maiden using a multivariate mixed model approach

Multivariate mixed models can be used to combine complex data into a single-step analysis to improve prediction accuracy of open-pollinated seed lots for all attributes and candidates, and identify elite seed lots. Data available for genetic selection may be complex and unbalanced; however, utilisation of all available information for prediction of genetic value may improve prediction accuracy to better identify elite candidates for selection. This study aimed to develop, implement and evaluate a single-step multivariate mixed model for complex and unbalanced data and use the results to identify elite candidates. Multivariate mixed models were developed and applied to a case study of seed-orchard open-pollinated Eucalyptus dunnii families grown in progeny trials in Australia and Uruguay to identify elite seed lots for biofuel utilisation. This approach combined all available data across trials and ages and included models of spatial variation to predict OP seed lot values for growth and wood quality attributes. Predictions were used to estimate response to selection and correlations between breeding values of parents predicted from their own performance and seed lot values predicted from the progeny trials. Prediction accuracy was highest for a single-step multivariate model. Prediction of seed lot values using this model indicated that selection of the best 12.5 % resulted in a gain of 30 % in cellulose content, and breeding value of parents predicted from own performance was only weakly correlated with seed lot performance in progeny trials. Single-step multivariate approaches provide the most accurate prediction of genetic value for all attributes, for all candidates, and hence leads to greater selection response. In eucalypts, gain from selection using seed lot values predicted from progeny trials will be greater than from selection using breeding values of parents predicted from their own performance.

Gifts and Promises: Patronage Democracy in a Decentralised Indonesia

AbstractCan democracy exist in a social structure marred with patron-client networks? How do we define the situation in which democratic elections occur in tandem with the dyadic relations between elites and followers? "Gifts and Promises" sheds a light into the Indonesian local politics after decentralization. Despite the central state's effort towards democratization, such as sponsoring direct elections for district leaders, the local politics depicted patron-client relations between the elite candidates and the voters. Benefiting from the direct elections, the elites competed for political power in the regions by mobilizing ethno-religious sentiments and utilizing money-politics. The voters, in return, behave as clients as they seek to gain material benefits from their preferred candidates in exchange for political loyalty. However, the direct elections also created a novelty in patron-client relations: the opinion of the clients, now voters, became crucial in determining new leaders. The article reveals that, as voters, the clients had the opportunity to examine the qualities of candidates based on traditional "elite capitals". Taking the examples from three districts in North Sumatra, the article shows that the direct elections allow common people to behave as citizens (voters) and clients interchangeably. This condition propagated the system of Patronage Democracy, in which clientelistic practices exist side by side with democratization and continue to challenge the notion of Indonesian citizenship.

BREEDING AND SELECTION OF PRUNUS ROOTSTOCKS AT THE AULA DEI EXPERIMENTAL STATION, ZARAGOZA, SPAIN

The selection and study of the performance of rootstocks for stone fruit species has been and remains one of the main tasks of the Department of Pomology of the Aula Dei Experimental Station. Initial selection was made from spontaneous Prunus germplasm, mainly open-pollinated, growing in Spain. In the first years, this selection programme included rooting ability as an important trait. Other main objectives were tolerance to calcareous soils and graft compatibility with a wide range of cultivars in the nursery. Elite candidates during these initial screens were virus tested, propagated and tested with a limited number of scion cultivars. Trees were planted in the field and grown under normal management techniques for the area, with records kept for several years, in which growth and fruiting were evaluated. Following this long process, several clonal rootstocks have been released and some of them are already under extensive commercial exploitation: the peach x almond hybrids 'Adafuel' and 'Adarcias', the pollizo plum 'Adesoto', the plum rootstock 'Adara' and the myrobalan 'Ademir'. Currently, the Prunus breeding programme is mainly directed to obtaining new stone fruit rootstocks from hybridisation within Prunus related species and selecting for specific adaptation to unfavourable Mediterranean environments. Good adaptation to replant sites, tolerance to chlorosis and waterlogging, resistance to nematodes and other soil borne pathogens, and graft compatibility are considered priority traits.

Candidate Recruitment and the Development of Russian Political Parties, 1993-99

This article tracks the candidate recruitment behavior of three continuous Russian parties across three State Duma elections from 1993 to 1999 - the KPRF, LDPR and Yabloko. These parties were selected for inclusion in this analysis because they were the only Russian parties successfully to contest all three parliamentary elections in the 1990s. There are three principal findings: (1) all three parties exhibited a trend towards recruiting more elite candidates to stand for election, especially in rural districts, and this is most pronounced in the case of the KPRF and LDPR; (2) the differences between parties in terms of recruiting elite candidates to stand for district elections has lessened over time; (3) not all parties `recognize' their constituencies; only the KPRF has concentrated its nominations in districts where its voter support is strongest.

Excellence Achievement-Striving in Fighter Pilots on Supersonic Aircraft

The aeronautical profession of fighter pilots on supersonic aircraft is strongly connected to the motivation, performance and excellence achievement-striving. The supersonic pilot represents the highest and most desirable position in the air force. Research showed that their selection is made by choosing the potential elite candidates after testing the physical, mental abilities and personality traits specific to this profession. The present research examined the personality trait of conscientiousness with achievement-striving facet in fighter pilots on supersonic aircrafts, by using the “IPIP NEO” (International Personality Item Pool NEO) based on Big Five by comparison of two groups, one of fighter pilots on supersonic aircraft and one of non-pilots. The results indicated that fighter pilots on supersonic aircraft have higher level of excellence achievement striving in their performance, they tend to be more competitive to become the best and the desire for victory is needed in their highly risky air missions.