Suchergebnisse

Abstract
Many people assume that Franco-American relations since 1776 have been far more harmonious than those of the United States' relationship with Great Britain. After all, France fought on the side of the new aspiring republic in the American War of Independence against a colonial power. Although still a country ruled by a king, France itself became a republic shortly after the American Declaration of Independence was ratified. But in fact, France and the United States (and the colonies that preceded them) have often had poor relations. In his book Sister Republics: Security Relations between America and France, David Haglund asks why security relations between France and the United States been so fractious since the beginning of the American republic, and even well before it. He debunks the generally accepted mythology and its attendant symbology of two sister republics. The French-built and donated Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor and the statue of General Lafayette on the Seine opposite the Quai d'Orsay in Paris are misleading. In truth any special relationship between France and the United States has been special on the whole in its lack of mutual liking, even respect. Haglund traces this difficult, even suboptimal, relationship over three centuries and shows how the weight of history still continues to upset Franco-American relations regularly.

This is a powerpoint presentation presented at a conference. ; We remain dependent on combustion sources for many of our essential energy systems, continuously improving technologies to minimise the negative impacts of the energy use on our environment. Local air quality in urban areas is of particular concern and has led to increasingly stringent legislation being applied to the energy sector. Reduction of particulate emissions from combustion sources is being effectively tackled through pre-combustion approaches (e.g. fuel quality), through combustion optimisation and by implementing exhaust gas aftertreatment systems such as monolithic ceramic particulate filters. Although a wide range of types of particulate filters exist, they all require cleaning to avoid excessive pressure drops across the substrate as the amount of trapped particulates increase. Typically this is done through oxidation of the trapped particles, requiring filters that are capable of withstanding high temperatures, high temperature gradients and both reducing and oxidising environments. Significant opportunities exist within the industry to improve vehicle efficiency and reduce cost by developing new and improved regeneration systems. Medium (>1000 K) and high temperature (>10,000 K) plasma technologies for particulate filter regeneration are introduced with a particular focus on their interaction with porous ceramic substrates. When used effectively, no observable damage is present. However, there exists engineering conflicts between minimising energy consumption, achieving fast regeneration and maintaining substrate durability. This conflict is presented showing the limits of current technology. It identifies two clear opportunities. Firstly, the recent application of pulsed plasmas to cordierite substrates demonstrates the opportunities for developing lower thermal requirement (and potentially lower cost substrates). Secondly, how advances in local substrate thermal characteristics can enable significant improvements in efficacy of oxidative plasma solutions.

This article reports results of a content analysis of 372 print and televised media stories about young voters during the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign. Despite an extensive media database search, findings indicate a surprisingly limited amount of media coverage of the youth vote. Results indicate that in the sample of stories addressing young voters, young voters were the prominent focus of 58% of the sample, a moderate reference in 24%, and a negligible mention in 18% of stories. Framing of young voters and youth-voter mobilization efforts were more positive than negative in tone (39% to 11% and 51% to 9%, respectively) during the campaign. However, media coverage presented a mixed opinion of the young-voter turnout, with 33% of stories framing the turnout positively and 34% framing turnout negatively. Implications of media framing and coverage are discussed and future research ideas are presented.