Suchergebnisse

International audience ; The effective management of an event involving the exposure of a large number of people to radioactive material requires a mechanism for fast triage of exposed people. BOOSTER is a project founded by the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme, addressing this requirement. It is a capability project designed to provide an integrated system which could easily be deployed and used. For this purpose, the BOOSTER consortium, relying on the expertise of seven members, researches and develops new approaches to allow an effective and fast management of most kind of nuclear threats. BOOSTER System was designed to help first responders mitigate the crisis by providing the necessary information to quickly assess the radiological situation, to support triage staff in performing an efficient and fast categorization of the potentially affected victims, and to give medical staff crucial information for further treatment at medium or long term post-accident.

Successful coordination of Requirements Engineering and Testing (RET) is crucial in large-scale software engineering. If the activities involved in RET are not aligned, effort is inevitably wasted, and the probability of delivering high quality software products in time decreases. Previous work has identified sixteen challenges in aligning RET in a case study of six companies. However, all six case companies selected for the study are active in proprietary software engineering. In this experience report, we discuss to what extent the identified RET alignment challenges apply to the development of a large information system for managing grants from the European Union. We confirm that most of the findings from previous work also apply to the public sector, including the challenges of aligning goals within an organization, specifying high-quality requirements, and verifying quality aspects. Furthermore, we emphasize that the public sector might be impacted by shifting political power, and that several RET alignment challenges are amplified in multi-project environments.

10 p.- 5 fig. ; Oenococcus oeni is the main lactic acid bacterium that carries out the malolactic fermentation in virtually all red wines and in some white and sparkling wines. Oenococcus oeni possesses an array of metabolic activities that can modify the taste and aromatic properties of wine. There is, therefore, industrial interest in the proteins involved in these metabolic pathways and related transport systems of this bacterium. In this work, we report the characterization of the O. oeni ATCC BAA-1163 proteome. Total and membrane protein preparations from O. oeni were standardized and analysed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Using tandem mass spectrometry, we identified 224 different spots corresponding to 152 unique proteins, which have been classified by their putative function and subjected to bioinformatics analysis ; This work was supported by European Union grant FP7-2008-FOOD-211441 BIAMFOOD and by grant AGL2012-40084-C03-01 from the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness ; Peer reviewed

International audience ; The effective management of an event involving the exposure of a large number of people to radioactive material requires a mechanism for fast triage of exposed people. BOOSTER is a project founded by the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme, addressing this requirement. It is a capability project designed to provide an integrated system which could easily be deployed and used. For this purpose, the BOOSTER consortium, relying on the expertise of seven members, researches and develops new approaches to allow an effective and fast management of most kind of nuclear threats. BOOSTER System was designed to help first responders mitigate the crisis by providing the necessary information to quickly assess the radiological situation, to support triage staff in performing an efficient and fast categorization of the potentially affected victims, and to give medical staff crucial information for further treatment at medium or long term post-accident.

The electromagnetic radiation emitted by mobile phones and base antennas can penetrate tissues of the human head, and can be absorbed and transformed into heat. Due to the increase of mobile telephony, there is interest in studying its effects on human health. An analysis of the medical literature from 1996 to 2013 was carried out through internet searches using Medline and PubMed. Using mathematical modeling, the effect of 0.9GHz frequency was studied. The finite difference model was used to predict specific absorption ratios in W·m-2. The finite element model was based on a horizontal section of a 10 years old child head at eye level. Two dimensional analysis and a minimum thickness were used. The finite difference model predicted specific absorption ratios reaching 0.72W·m-2, while 2.0 is admitted by the European Union. Calculations of absorption obtained from finite element predictions (to determine the displacement of the electric field) showed a better match for the 2009 version

Information on production methods (genetic modification (GM) or organic production) and locations (country of origin) are commonly found on food package labels. Both pieces of information may be used as a proxy for food safety and (perceived) quality by consumers. Our study investigates the interactive effects between information on production method and country-of-origin labeling (COOL) by conducting choice experiments in the European Union, United States and Japan. This study also investigates the effect of information about potential benefits of biotechnology on consumer acceptance of GM foods. Results indicate that consumers preferred GM foods produced domestically to GM foods imported from foreign countries, and individuals with information on consumer benefits, producer benefits, and environmental benefits were willing to pay more than individuals without information in some cases, but the effect of information varied by type of information, location, and the country of origin of the products.

The 10th EUROFRAME1 Conference on economic policy issues in the European Union was held in Warsaw on 24 May 2013. The Conference topic was: "Towards a better governance in the EU?". Twelve of the papers given at the Conference are released in this issue of the Revue de l'OFCE/Debates and Policies. The euro is a unique experience in modern economic history. Can a single currency be shared between countries with different cyclical situations, structural problems and economic strategies? Is a single currency consistent with independent domestic fiscal policies? In 1992, EU countries answered 'yes' to these questions by signing the Maastricht Treaty. Starting from then, euro area governance was characterized by independent domestic fiscal policies however constrained to fulfil several criteria (public deficit below 3% of GDP, public debt below 60% of GDP), a single monetary policy entrusted to an independent central bank, the absence of public debt guarantee and fiscal solidarity between member states (.).

Marvin Goodfriend's (2014) insightful, informative and provocative work explains concisely and convincingly why the Fed needs rules and boundaries. This paper reviews the broader institutional design problem regarding the effectiveness of the central bank in practice and confirms the need for rules and boundaries. The framework proposed for improving the Fed incorporates key elements that have already been adopted in the European Union. The case of ELA provision by the ECB and the Central Bank of Cyprus to Marfin-Laiki Bank during the crisis, however, suggests that the existence of rules and boundaries may not be enough to limit harmful discretion. During a crisis, novel interpretations of the legal authority of the central bank may be introduced to create a grey area that might be exploited to justify harmful discretionary decisions even in the presence of rules and boundaries. This raises the question how to ensure that rules and boundaries are respected in practice.

The processes of socio-economic development are continuously accompanied by the process of population aging. It is seen as a growing of the percentage share of people aged 65 and over in the general population. It covers the majority of European Union countries and also refers to Poland. The objective of the paper is to analyze the population aging phenomenon in spatial perspective. The study was carried out for 66 subregions (NUTS 3) and covered the period 1995-2012. Poland is characterized by a strong spatial diversification regarding the senior citizens share and its growth rate, and also determinants exerting impact on the demographic aging processes. The demographically youngest and slowest aging population lives in south-eastern and also central Poland. The most intensive population aging processes are seen in the selected subregions of south-western Poland. Here, we observe extremely low fertility, demographically old working-age population and also significant migration outflow of younger people.

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to contribute to the understanding of the broader effects of monitoring practices in the European Union. The empirical setting is Solvit, a Commission‐initiated network tasked with informal resolution of misapplications of internal market directives by national authorities. All Member States must operate a Solvit centre within their administrations. Using a governmentality approach, the article investigates the normative underpinnings of the technologies deployed by Solvit and the experts which operate them. A survey study of the Solvit network shows the development of an EU identity and a cognitive judicialization which contributes to a depoliticization of issues. This allows Solvit to expand its remit from ex post monitoring to ex ante regulation. While a governance instrument can be designed for a delimited task, a governmentality approach highlights more general mechanisms by which such an instrument's influence and reach may be extended beyond its modest appearances.

AbstractIn this article, an alternative eurobond approach is developed by applying an asset‐backed security (ABS) transaction to a pool of eurozone sovereign bonds. Based on the new approach two different rules to distribute the associated interest gains are analyzed. Within the ABS structure a special purpose vehicle buys a portfolio of eurozone sovereign bonds (pooling) and issues a set of subordinated eurobonds with varying risk and rating (tranching). A large share of less risky securities is created as structuring concentrates the default risk in one part of the capital structure. A trust fund covers first losses in case of a country default. This approach has three major advantages. First, all eurozone countries can gain from eurobonds. These benefits are driven by partial liability, which also limits moral hazard, and the distribution of interest gains to all participating countries. Second, the approach is very flexible and quickly implementable. Finally, it is in line with European Union law.

AbstractThis article suggests that the literature on how the European Union (EU) diffuses its norms externally and that on how it diffuses them internally should be linked. Therefore, the focus is on a field where the EU is described as a 'normative' power: climate change. The article analyzes how EU climate norms are diffused to new Member States. It argues that there are two roads to state socialization: through civil servants participating in EU work, and via domestic norm entrepreneurs. The empirical analysis is based on how four of the Member States that joined the EU in 2004–07 worked with the Climate and Energy Package of 2008–09. With the exception of one of the countries, there are few indications of an ongoing socialization process among them. For the EU as a normative power it is important to reflect upon why the underlying EU climate norms are rejected in the studied countries.

Why have the negotiations of a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union taken so long? We argue that the delay is in good part the result of a weakly designed process for intergovernmental decision making: the role for provincial and territorial governments in international trade negotiations is still too limited and does not extend to final decisions about the text of any agreement. The limited role for provinces and the fact that there is no process that requires them to formally commit to an agreement leave open the real possibility that one or more provinces could choose not to fully implement any deal that is concluded. As a result, provinces possess negotiating leverage vis-à-vis Ottawa, thereby making it difficult for the federal government to agree to the trade-offs—which are of a geographical nature in CETA's case—that are necessary for reaching a positive agreement.

According to principal-agent theory, states (the principals) delegate the implementation of a legalized agreement to an international organization (the agent). The conventional wisdom about states' capacity to control international organizations is that differences among the member states impede control and consequently enhance the agent's autonomy, whereas agreement allows for effective control and limited autonomy. Contrary to this conventional wisdom, this article argues that conflicts among states need not always impede effective control. On the contrary: if an international organization comprises a sufficient number of policies, there are gains from the exchange of control over its portfolios that are of special sensitivity to different member states. As a result, international organizations exhibit informal spheres of national control, or national fiefdoms. The article demonstrates the theory's plausibility using the example of the European Union and other international organizations. It has implications for the literature on delegation and informal governance.

AbstractThis article investigates the rules and practices pertaining to visa regimes and the crossing of borders across the European Union, Israel and the Palestinian territories. Their consideration as three interlinked entities rests on the high degree of EU–Israeli interdependence, the EU's deep involvement in the Palestinian territories and Israel's control over the latter. The article evidences the existence of variegated borders regimes applying to different categories of Israelis, Palestinians and EU citizens, together with Israel's outstanding prerogatives in defining these practices. The analysis suggests conceptualizing the space comprising the EU and Israel/Palestine as overlapping borderlands, with Israel and the territories emerging as a single, yet highly fragmented, space in which borders are alternative expressions of power relations in protracted conflicts. With the EU being drawn into prevailing conflict dynamics, the type and extent of EU–Israeli–Palestinian interconnectedness thus undermine the coherent implementation of Brussels' mainly bilateral policies towards Israel and the territories.