Greater Pertinence Research Articles

A Just Energy Transition and Functional Federalism: The Case of South Africa

Abstract The traditional concern of federalism literature has been both descriptive and prescriptive. How do federalist systems allocate powers among central, regional, and even local governments? How can these powers be divided in a manner that allows for unity and diversity in policymaking and law? These questions are given greater pertinence by the seriousness of climate change and the need for a just transition to lower-carbon economies. Classical federalism, public choice theory, and dynamic energy federalism all have something to offer in the field of clean energy federalism. This article situates the ‘functional federalism’ that arises from South Africa's multi-sphere system of government within these debates. The article explains the system of functional federalism in South Africa and details the tripartite structure (physical, market, and regulatory) of the South African electricity sector. By delineating the complex interactions that have unfolded between governmental and non-governmental actors in the electricity sector in recent times, the article demonstrates that the South African case will be of continuing interest to scholars of federalism.

Equidad, pertinencia y relevancia educativa mediante arte, solar y lengua maya

El artículo analiza cómo la pertinencia, la relevancia y la equidad pueden construirse en un proyecto colaborativo, cuyo centro es el arte, el solar y la lengua maya para transformar la educación primaria desde el ámbito comunitario, implementado en dos comunidades en el estado de Yucatán, en articulación con sus escuelas primarias. Mediante entrevistas con los coordinadores del proyecto, sus talleristas, los docentes de las escuelas y las madres y los padres de familia, así como dibujos-entrevistas con los estudiantes y observación no participante, se obtuvieron los datos cualitativos que son analizados a la luz de las categorías mencionadas. El proyecto ha detonado procesos educativos pertinentes a partir de aprendizajes situados sumados al fortalecimiento de la lengua maya, la reconexión de los niños y las niñas con la tierra, así como mayor vinculación entre las escuelas y las comunidades; también ha propiciado una educación más relevante al contribuir positivamente al logro de los aprendizajes escolares y a una mayor equidad educativa, que ha generado nuevas expectativas sobre la educación de los niños y las niñas, así como aprendizajes in-esperados en el imaginario de las comunidades por asumirse como contextos vulnerados.

New Sequence Design Criteria for Multipath Channels

The merit factor (MF) introduced by Golay has long been accepted as the standard criterion to evaluate and design binary sequences with good anti-multipath property in sonar, radar, and communication systems for its theoretical tightness and practical simplicity. In this paper, we first show that the MF is a biased anti-multipath performance-evaluation metric in theory and, more importantly, that it is not a pertinent sequence design criterion in practice for most binary sequences of practical interest. Then, we propose the weighted MF (WMF) based on a nonuniform weighting of the out-of-phase aperiodic autocorrelation function (ACF) that provides accurate measurement of self-generated interference for the constant-amplitude complex-valued sequences and the nonconstant modulus sequences. Based on the WMF, a list of ldquobadrdquo (of low MFs) binary sequences (lengths 33-95) with better anti-multipath performance than the ldquobestrdquo (known) binary sequences has been designed to verify its greater pertinence over the MF as a sequence design criterion for sonar, radar, and communication systems. Moreover, we extend the weighted correlation model of the WMF to code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems and propose the weighted cross-correlation factor (WCF) to evaluate the sequence set's multiple-access interference (MAI) rejection property in the context of multipath propagation. Theoretical analysis corroborated by simulations confirms that the WCF provides greater practical pertinence and analytical tractability than the current standard criterion.

Evaluation of surgical bed utilization.

IN RECENT years there has been a grow-ing ng concern over the proper use of hospital beds. Injudicious use adds to the sharply increasing costs of hospitalization and delays the admission of another individual in genuine need of hospital care. Certain state-insurance commissioners have begun to insist that Blue Cross plans police admission policies with the threat of refusing the plan a raise in insurance premium. The Medicare law also requires that hospitals carry out bed-utilization studies in order to qualify for the care of Medicare patients. In Monroe County, where the University of Rochester Medical Center is located, there has been a long-standing interest in bed utilization and several studies have been carried out, both within individual hospitals and on a cooperative area-wide basis. However, in most of these studies the questions posed had greater pertinence on a medical than a surgical service. For this reason a group of

Neural correlates of psychophysiological developments in the young organism.

The present data represent one phase of a long-term investigation of the brain stem reticular core and its relation to certain ego functions in which the investigator and his wife have been involved for some years [1–5]. The immediate goal of this study has been an examination of those structural-functional substrates which might underlie psychophysiological development in the newborn. More specifically, and of greater pertinence to the neuropsychiatrist, we have sought developmental clues to mechanisms subserving awareness and the selection of certain sensory data from much more extensive presentations. Although answers to the second problem are not yet obvious, it appears that the form and degree of maturity of the brain significantly determine its ability to respond to, or ignore, certain modes of stimuli. Additionally, with maturation may come loss of ability to react to certain types of stimuli, a suggestion which has been advanced in a different context and on purely clinical grounds by some psychoanalysts [6].