PTB

• BRAUNSCHWEIG, Germany, Jan. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- MPI Corporation's Advanced Semiconductor Test (AST) Division, a pioneer in on-wafer testing solutions, today announced a landmark achievement in RF calibration technology.
• Collaborating with the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Germany, the division has successfully achieved full traceability in characterizing a commercially-available calibration substrate up to 110 GHz and set a new industry benchmark.
• This achievement, spearheaded by Dr. Andrej Rumiantsev, Director of RF Technology at MPI-AST, represents a significant leap for the entire RF product line provided by MPI product line.
• The fully traceable characterization paves the way for more accurate, reliable, and universally accepted high-frequency measurements, essential for cutting-edge technologies like 5G.

• Such developments might send a signal to European politicians to lean further to the right in a scramble to save votes.
• Yet our latest research, published this month, shows that politicians’ perceptions may not actually reflect voters’ true interests and opinions.

866 officials surveyed

• On questions related to state intervention in the economy, gun control, immigration, or abortion, the majority of both Republicans and Democratic representatives surveyed believed that a greater share of citizens supported right-wing policies than what public-opinion data revealed.
• We were curious whether conservative bias in politicians’ perceptions of public opinion was limited to American politics or was a broader phenomenon.
• To explore this, we interviewed 866 politicians in four democracies that whose political systems differ from each other and from that of the United States: Belgium, Canada, Germany and Switzerland.
• In all four countries, and on a majority of issues, politicians consistently overestimate the share of citizens who hold right-wing views.

The result of lobbying?

• We tested this explanation in our studied countries, but could not find evidence to support it.
• The right-wing citizens in our sample are not more politically active, and therefore visible, than their left-wing counterparts.
• Yet the idea that politicians’ information environment might be skewed to the right can find support in other work.
• The observed conservative bias might also be associated with what social psychologist call “pluralistic ignorance” (i.e., misperceptions of others’ opinions).

A threat to representative democracy

• Irrespective of the sources of the conservative bias, the fact that it is persistently present in a variety of different democratic systems has major implications for the well-functioning of representative democracy.
• Representative democracy builds upon the idea that elected politicians are responsive to citizens, meaning that they by and large attempt to promote policy initiatives that are in line with people’s preferences.
• A 2020 study in Switzerland has shown that a sustained use of direct democracy might help politicians better understand public opinion.

• As XCHARGE is committed to keeping high standards of product quality, it periodically submits new releases to comply with international accuracy tests.
• The approved solution will be applied also to other XCHARGE's DC and HPC chargers in the future.
• The "Eichrecht" conformity proved once again that XCHARGE stays on par with world-class manufacturers and puts emphasis on high precision quality for its business partners.
• As Red Dot Award 2016 winner, C6EU is a revolutionary Smart DC Charger designed to meet the future charging demand in commercial and public use with the maximum output power up to 200kW.

• Miljan Gutovic, Region Head Europe Middle East Africa: I am excited to add Cantillana to the Holcim family as another step in our expansion of Solutions & Products, advancing Strategy 2025 Accelerating Green Growth.
• This addition strengthens our presence in Europe even further, especially in building renovation and energy efficiency solutions.
• Holcim is the company behind some of the worlds most trusted brands in the building sector including ACC, Aggregate Industries, Ambuja Cement, Disensa, Geocycle, Holcim, Lafarge and Malarkey Roofing Products.
• Holcim is 70,000 people around the world who are passionate about building progress for people and the planet through four business segments: Cement, Ready-Mix Concrete, Aggregates and Solutions & Products.