Nomination

Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to an office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list.

Politics

In the context of elections for public office, a candidate who has been selected by a political party is said to be the party's nominee. The selection is typically accomplished either based on one or more primary elections or by means of a political party convention or caucus, according to the rules of the party and any applicable election laws.

Public statements of support for a candidate's nomination are known as endorsements or testimonials.

In some jurisdictions the nominee of a recognized political party is entitled to appear on the general election ballot paper. Candidates who are unaffiliated with any political party are typically required to submit a nominating petition in order to gain ballot access. In others all candidates have to meet nomination rules criteria to stand.

Subspecies

In biological classification, subspecies (abbreviated "subsp." or "ssp."; plural: "subspecies") is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, or a taxonomic unit in that rank. A subspecies cannot be recognized independently: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or at least two (including any that are extinct).

Under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, the subspecies is the only taxonomic rank below that of species that can receive a name. Under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, other infraspecific ranks, such as variety may be named. In bacteriology, there are recommendations but not strict requirements for recognizing other important infraspecific ranks.

A taxonomist decides whether to recognize a subspecies or not. A common way to decide is that organisms belonging to different subspecies of the same species are capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring, but they do not usually interbreed in nature due to geographic isolation, sexual selection, or other factors. The differences between subspecies are usually less distinct than the differences between species.

NOMINATE (scaling method)

NOMINATE (an acronym for Nominal Three-Step Estimation) is a multidimensional scaling application developed by political scientists Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal in the early 1980s to analyze preferential and choice data, such as legislative roll-call voting behavior. As computing capabilities grew, Poole and Rosenthal developed multiple iterations of their NOMINATE procedure: the original D-NOMINATE method, W-NOMINATE, and most recently DW-NOMINATE (for dynamic, weighted NOMINATE). In 2009, Poole and Rosenthal were named the first recipients of the Society for Political Methodology's Best Statistical Software Award for their development of NOMINATE, a recognition conferred to "individual(s) for developing statistical software that makes a significant research contribution."

Procedure

The main procedure is an application of multidimensional scaling techniques to political choice data. Though there are important technical differences between these types of NOMINATE scaling procedures; all operate under the same fundamental assumptions. First, that alternative choices can be projected on a basic, low-dimensional (often two-dimensional) Euclidean space. Second, within that space, individuals have utility functions which are bell-shaped (normally distributed), and maximized at their ideal point. Because individuals also have symmetric, single-peaked utility functions which center on their ideal point, ideal points represent individuals' most preferred outcomes. That is, individuals most desire outcomes closest their ideal point, and will choose/vote probabilistically for the closest outcome.