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Cooperative
Kinds of Cooperative Terms modified by Cooperative Selected AbstractsDES ANNALES DE LA REGIE DIRECTE AUX ANNALES DE L'ECONOMIE PUBLIQUE, SOCIALE ET COOPERATIVE: UN SIECLE DE METAMORPHOSES D'UNE REVUE ECONOMIQUE INTERNATIONALEANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 3-4 2008Eric Geerkens First page of article [source] FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS AND TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY: SOME EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FOR ITALIAN PRODUCERS' COOPERATIVESANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2010Ornella Wanda Maietta ABSTRACT,:,In this paper, we test the extent to which producers' cooperatives can experience an increase in technical efficiency following a tightening of financial constraints. This hypothesis is tested on a sample of Italian conventional and cooperative firms for the wine production and processing sector, using frontier analysis. The results support the hypothesis that increasing financial pressure can affect positively the cooperatives efficiency. [source] BANKING MARKET STRUCTURE, CREATION AND ACTIVITY OF FIRMS: EARLY EVIDENCE FOR COOPERATIVES IN THE ITALIAN CASEANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2009Francesca Gagliardi ABSTRACT,:,This paper investigates whether local differences in banking competition impact on the creation and activity of firms, with a special focus on cooperatives. The empirical analysis, implemented on a sample of Italian firms, reveals non-monotonic effects of bank market power on firm creation and activity. In regard to the former, a bell-shaped relationship is found for both cooperative and non-cooperative firms, suggesting that a moderately concentrated banking market favours firms' creation. A less homogeneous pattern characterizes firms' activity: a bell-shaped parabola is still found for non-cooperative firms, while a U-shaped relationship emerges for cooperatives, showing that active coops benefit from relatively more intense banking competition. [source] Inalienable Commodities: The Production and Circulation of Silver and Patrimony in a Mexican Mining CooperativeCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2002Elizabeth Emma Ferry First page of article [source] Patterned Wettability Transition by Photoelectric Cooperative and Anisotropic Wetting for Liquid ReprographyADVANCED MATERIALS, Issue 37 2009Dongliang Tian An approach to address the precise controllable patterned wettability transition on the superhydrophobic aligned photoconductive nanorod-array surface via a photoelectric cooperative wetting process is described. This work is promising to gear up the application of locally confining liquids at a desired location, such as liquid reprography by patterned-light illumination. [source] Footwear Style and Risk of Falls in Older AdultsJOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 9 2004Thomas D. Koepsell MD Objectives: To determine how the risk of a fall in an older adult varies in relation to style of footwear worn. Design: Nested case-control study. Setting: Group Health Cooperative, a large health maintenance organization in Washington state. Participants: A total of 1,371 adults aged 65 and older were monitored for falls over a 2-year period; 327 qualifying fall cases were compared with 327 controls matched on age and sex. Measurements: Standardized in-person examinations before fall occurrence, interviews about fall risk factors after the fall occurred, and direct examination of footwear were conducted. Questions for controls referred to the last time they engaged in an activity broadly similar to what the case was doing at the time of the fall. Results: Athletic and canvas shoes (sneakers) were the styles of footwear associated with lowest risk of a fall. Going barefoot or in stocking feet was associated with sharply increased risk, even after controlling for measures of health status (adjusted odds ratio=11.2, 95% confidence interval (CI)=2.4,51.8). Relative to athletic/canvas shoes, other footwear was associated with a 1.3-fold increase in the risk of a fall (95% CI=0.9,1.9), varying somewhat by style. Conclusion: Contrary to findings from gait-laboratory studies, athletic shoes were associated with relatively low risk of a fall in older adults during everyday activities. Fall risk was markedly increased when participants were not wearing shoes. [source] A Population-Based Osteoporosis Screening Program: Who Does Not Participate, and What Are the Consequences?JOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 7 2004Diana S. M. Buist PhD Objectives: To describe differences in osteoporosis risk factors and rates of fracture and antiresorptive therapy use in women who did and did not participate in an osteoporosis screening program. Setting: Group Health Cooperative, a health maintenance organization in western Washington state. Participants: A total of 9,268 women (aged 60,80) who were not using any antiresorptive therapy were invited to participate in an osteoporosis screening program. This study compares the 35% who participated with the 65% who did not. Design: This observational cohort study of women invited to participate in a randomized, controlled trial of an osteoporosis screening program provided all participants with personalized feedback on their risk of osteoporosis. Some participants also received bone density testing. Automated administrative data were used to examine differences between participants and nonparticipants in fracture outcomes and medication initiation before and after invitation. Results: Baseline fracture rates did not differ between participants and nonparticipants. After age adjustment, nonparticipants had a higher hip fracture rate (14.1 vs 8.3 per 1,000) and a lower rate of initiating any antiresorptive therapy (10.3 vs 17.9 per 100) than participants after an average of 28 to 29 months of follow-up. Conclusion: Participants had reduced hip fracture rates and increased initiation of antiresorptive therapy compared with nonparticipants. It was not possible to determine whether participating in the screening program, unmeasured confounding, or selection bias accounted for differences in hip fracture or therapy initiation rates. These results suggest that women who do not participate in osteoporosis screening should be pursued to idenepsy individuals who could benefit from primary and secondary osteoporosis prevention. [source] Validating the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) in the postgraduate context: are health care professionals ready for IPL?MEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 5 2006Ross Reid Aims, This paper describes the process of validating the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) for use with postgraduate health care professionals. Context, The RIPLS questionnaire has proved useful in the undergraduate context, enabling tutors to assess the readiness of students to engage in interprofessional learning (IPL). With the drive in the National Health Service (NHS) to deliver health care in interprofessional teams, it seems logical to ask whether postgraduate education should, or could, be delivered successfully in interprofessional contexts. As a preliminary to undertaking an extended IPL project, the researchers tested the validity of the RIPLS tool in the postgraduate health care context. Method, A modified version of the RIPLS questionnaire was administered to all general practitioners, nurses, pharmacists and allied health professionals in the Dundee Local Health Care Cooperative (LHCC) (n = 799). A total of 546 staff responded (68%). Results, Three factors, comprising 23 statements, emerged from the statistical analysis of the survey data, namely, teamwork and collaboration, sense of professional identity and patient-centredness. The internal consistency measure was 0.76. Analysis of variance suggested some key differences between the different professions in respect of the factors. Conclusions, The RIPLS questionnaire was validated for use in the postgraduate context, thus providing researchers with a tool for assessing health professionals' attitudes towards interprofessional learning at practice level, community health partnership level or at a national level of education and training. Significant differences between professional groups should be taken into account in designing any interprofessional learning programme. [source] From Cooperative to Opportunistic Federalism: Reflections on the Half-Century Anniversary of the Commission on Intergovernmental RelationsPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 5 2006Tim Conlan In 1955, the Commission on Intergovernmental Relations,the Kestnbaum Commission,embellished the intellectual framework of cooperative federalism and laid out a policy agenda for promoting it. Since then, our intergovernmental system has evolved from a predominantly cooperative federal,state,local system to one characterized by corrosive opportunistic behavior, greater policy prescriptiveness, eroding institutional capacity for intergovernmental analysis, and shifting paradigms of public management. These trends threaten to undermine effective intergovernmental relations and management. Recent developments, however, offer some promise for building new institutions of intergovernmental analysis, more effective paradigms of intergovernmental public management, and greater horizontal cooperation. [source] An anthropologist in the world revolutionANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 6 2009Keith Hart Keith Hart argues that the rapid development of digital communications has triggered a world revolution that anthropologists must join. Everyone's trajectory through this transition is particular to them, so he tells the story through his own personal experience over the last two decades. He shows how a recent initiative, the Open Anthropology Cooperative, expresses the potential of our moment in history. Anthropologists have a lot to gain, professionally and as human beings, from opening up to this revolution. [source] Pricing-to-market in NSW rice export marketsAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL & RESOURCE ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2001Garry Griffith The Ricegrowers' Cooperative Limited is a single-desk seller of NSW Japonica rice on the export market. Confidential monthly price data supplied by the Cooperative were used to examine ,pricing-to-market' in four of its major export markets. The hypothesis of a competitive market was rejected. The Cooperative has been able to vary mark-ups over different markets and with respect to the importer's currency in each market. The exchange rate results in particular suggest that the Cooperative has been able to exercise market power to obtain price premiums. [source] Cooperative and Competitive Binding in Synergistic Mixtures of Thermobifida fuscaCellulases Cel5A, Cel6B, and Cel9ABIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS, Issue 4 2002Tina Jeoh Synergism between cellulases facilitates efficient hydrolysis of microcrystalline cellulose. We hypothesize that the effects of synergism, observed as enhanced extents of hydrolysis, are related to cellulase binding to the substrate in mixtures. In this study, direct measurements of bound concentrations of fluorescence-labeled T. fuscaCel5A, Cel6B, and Cel9A on bacterial microcrystalline cellulose were used to study binding behaviors of cellulases in binary component reactions. The accuracy of the determination of fluorescence-labeled cellulase concentrations in binary component mixtures was in the range of 7,9%. Data at 5 °C show that binding levels of cellulases in mixture reactions are only 22,70% of the binding levels in single component reactions. At 50 °C, however, most of the cellulase components in the same mixtures bound to extents of 40,126% higher than in the corresponding single component reactions. The degrees of synergistic effect (DSE) observed for the reactions at 50 °C were greater than 1, indicating that the components in the mixture acted synergistically, whereas DSE < 1 was generally observed for the reactions at 5 °C indicating anti-synergistic behavior. Degrees of synergistic binding (DSB) were also calculated, where anti-synergistic mixtures had DSB < 1 and synergistic mixtures had DSB>1. We conclude that the lower extents of binding at 5 °C are due to competition for binding sites by the cellulase components in the mixtures and the enhanced binding extents at 50 °C are due to increased availability of binding sites on the substrates brought about by the higher extents of hydrolysis. [source] Cooperative 2:1 Binding of a Bisphenothiazine to Duplex DNACHEMBIOCHEM, Issue 6 2008Frédéric Rosu Dr. DNA,drug dimers: Drugs based on the phenothiazine scaffold have a wide variety of therapeutic applications and are also used as DNA photosensitizers. Highly cooperative formation of a 2:1 complex was revealed by electrospray mass spectrometry experiments, and a structural model is proposed. This bisphenothiazine scaffold can therefore be exploited for future design of new minor groove binding agents having photosensitizing properties. [source] Wine, Ethnography, and French HistoryCULTURE, AGRICULTURE, FOOD & ENVIRONMENT, Issue 1-2 2004Associate Professor Kolleen M. Guy Vintages and Traditions: An Ethnohistory of Southwest French Wine Cooperatives. Robert C. Ulin. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996. Cultivating Dissent: Work, Identity, and Praxis in Rural Languedoc. Winnie Lem. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999. [source] Producing a Modern Agricultural Frontier: Firms and Cooperatives in Eastern Mato Grosso, BrazilECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2006Wendy Jepson Abstract: In economic geography, explanations of emerging agricultural frontier regions are dominated by two theoretical perspectives: land-rent theory and political economy. This article advances current research by applying concepts from new institutional economics to reconcile these models. Drawing from a case of frontier expansion in eastern Mato Grosso state, I focus the debate on an institutional perspective. Two organizations, a colonization firm and an agricultural cooperative, are examined. The combined activities of cooperatives and firms reduced the overall costs of production in regions that are defined by high transactions costs (for example, land-tenure insecurity, poor links to the market, and imperfect information) and risk. Each organization linked individual farmers to necessary resources for commercial farming (for instance, land, capital, technology, and markets) and provided an organizational context for farmers to respond to land-tenure conflict and land degradation. The consequence was an increase in the marginal productivity of land, which translated into an expanded commercial agricultural frontier. [source] An economic analysis of California raisin export promotionAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2003Harry M. Kaiser The effectiveness of the California raisin industry's export promotion programs in Japan and in the United Kingdom is addressed in this article. An econometric import demand equation was estimated for each of the two foreign markets. The results indicate that the export promotion programs have increased the demand for California raisins in both Japan and the United Kingdom. The benefit-cost ratios for the Japanese and the United Kingdom markets were computed to be 5:1 and 15:1, respectively; indicating that the benefit of export promotion in terms of expanding export revenue was greater than the cost of the programs. Optimality analysis suggest that, while the current export promotion spending level in Japan is about optimal, the industry should explore the option of investing more money in its export promotion activities in the United Kingdom. [EconLit citations: Q130: Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness; Q170: Agriculture in International Trade; Q180: Agricultural Policy; Food Policy.] © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 19: 189,201, 2003. [source] Impact of cooperatives on smallholders' commercialization behavior: evidence from EthiopiaAGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2008Tanguy Bernard Propensity score matching; Program evaluation; Market participation; Cooperatives Abstract This article examines the impact of marketing cooperatives on smallholder commercialization of cereals using detailed household data in rural Ethiopia. We use the strong government role in promoting the establishment of cooperatives to justify the use of propensity score matching to compare households that are cooperative members to similar households in comparable areas without cooperatives. The analysis reveals that although cooperatives obtain higher prices for their members, they are not associated with a significant increase in the overall share of cereal production sold commercially by their members. However, these average results hide considerable heterogeneity across households. In particular, we find that smaller farmers tend to reduce their marketed output as a result of higher prices, whereas the opposite is true for larger farmers. [source] Purchasing Cooperatives for Small Employers: Performance and ProspectsTHE MILBANK QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2000Elliot K. Wicks Health insurance purchasing cooperatives were established in the early to mid-1990s for the purpose of making health insurance more affordable and accessible for small employers. Extensive interviews at six cooperatives reveal that while some cooperatives enrolled large numbers of small employers, most have won only small market shares and a number have struggled for survival, not always successfully. They have allowed small employers to offer individual employees choice of health plans, but none has been able to sustain lower prices than are available in the conventional market. Among the important impediments to their success are limited support from health plans and conflicts over the role of insurance agents. [source] The effect of modified roofing on the milk yield and reproductive performance of heat-stressed dairy cows under hot-humid conditionsANIMAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 5 2010Sriapa KHONGDEE ABSTRACT The objective was to measure the effects of cooling techniques (shade cloth vs. normal roof) on performance and physiology of 16 Friesian crossbred cows (87.5% Holstein Friesian × 12.5% Brahman) located at Sakol Nakhon Livestock Research and Testing Station, Department of Livestock Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (Sakol Nakhon, Thailand). They were divided randomly into two groups of eight. The two groups were used to evaluate the effects of modified roofing (normal roof fitted with woven polypropylene shade cloth) on the subjects' milk yield and reproductive performance under hot humid conditions. Results indicated that the modified roofing offered a more efficient way to minimize heat stress than the normal roof. The difference was sufficient to enable the cows to have a significantly lower mean rectal temperature and respiration rate (38.56°C, 61.97 breaths/min) than that of the cows housed under normal roofing (39.86°C; 85.16 breaths/min). The cows housed under modified roofing produced more milk (P < 0.05) but did not differ significantly in reproductive performance from the cows housed under normal roofing. [source] Identification as a Trust-Generating Mechanism in CooperativesANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2001Svein Ole Borgen It is commonly held that trust is a crucial mechanism for coordination and control in cooperatives. The elusive nature of trust is also emphasised. What seems to be less discussed is where trust and distrust come from, as well as the shifting conditions under which trust is developed, maintained and sometimes disposed of. This article explores one trust-making mechanism which seems to be of particular interest in cooperatives and other membership-based organisations. The mechanism in question is members' identification to the cooperative organizations. The empirical test supports the proposition that strong identification is a significant trust-making mechanism in cooperative organizations. [source] Cooperative Credit in Spain: An Analysis of Credit Sections of CooperativesANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2001Ricardo Server Izquierdo The long history and deep-rooted tradition of co-operative credit in Spain (credit co-operatives and credit sections of co-operatives) and the lack of detailed studies of the latter suggest the need to reflect on them and highlight their potential. This study examines the ways in which the credit sections can access the financial markets, describes their financial and economic structure and the sources of their income and expenditure and analyses their competitiveness in terms of efficiency. [source] The Relationship Between Agricultural Cooperatives and the State in Sweden: The Legislative ProcessANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2000M. Fregidou-Malama On the basis of interviews made with twenty seven leading personalities from cooperatives and government institutions, it is identified, that two main dimensions, the economic and the social, are emphasized by different interest groups involved in the cooperative process. It is also indicated that the relationship between state and cooperatives, in varying degrees, combines these two basic dimensions over time in the actual cooperative law and thus focuses on one dimension, neglecting the other. Relationship is meant to anchor the economic and the social values of cooperatives in the political process, and enable them to be accepted. In conclusion, it can be argued that the state can influence the character of cooperatives by selecting specific actors in specific processes. For this reason, in order to secure a sustainable autonomous development of cooperatives, it is important to synthesize and take into consideration different interests in future relations between cooperatives and the state. [source] Cooperatives and the Commodity Political Agenda: A Political Economy ApproachCANADIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2002Ellen Goddard Historically, major agricultural cooperatives in Canada have been intimately involved in commodity policy issues. Large cooperatives were created because farmers were upset about the perceived lack of competition in buying farm inputs or selling farm outputs. Often, the resulting cooperative was the organization farmers saw as the logical organization to represent their view of commodity policy or competition policy. As cooperatives grew and diversified, the ability to represent their members coherently across policy issues was hampered. For processing cooperatives in the supply-managed sector, the requirement that the cooperative be the political arm of industry, process product, and provide maximum returns to producer members made for a complicated objective function. This paper focuses on the twin objectives of providing efficient member services and performing political lobbying in a public choice framework. The results are illustrated by the recent history of a supply-managed further-processing cooperative and a diversified grain cooperative. [source] The influence of health threat communication and personality traits on personal models of diabetes in newly diagnosed diabetic patientsDIABETIC MEDICINE, Issue 8 2007V. L. Lawson Abstract Background, Personal models of diabetes, i.e. patients' beliefs about symptoms, treatment effectiveness, consequences (impact on life, seriousness) and emotional response to possible short- and long-term complications, have been associated with diabetes self-care behaviours. Little work has examined potential determinants of personal models. Aims, To examine the influence of health threat communication and personality traits on personal models in newly diagnosed patients. Methods, Newly diagnosed patients (n = 158; 32 Type 1 and 126 Type 2) completed the Big Five Personality Inventory, Diabetes Health Threat Communication Questionnaire (DHTCQ), Personal Models of Diabetes Interview-Adapted (PMDI) and Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised (IPQ-R). Results, Emotional responses to diabetes (PMDI) were associated with perceptions of a more threatening health message (22% explained variance), less emotional stability (5%) and the presence of dependent children (3%). Emotional representations (IPQ-R) were associated with a threatening health message (6%) and less emotional stability (15%). An adverse view of consequences (PMDI) was predicted by a more threatening/less reassuring health message (15%), less emotional stability (6%) and Type 1 diabetes (4%). Consequences (IPQ-R) were predicted by perceptions of a more threatening health message (20%), being less agreeable/cooperative (7%) and having dependent children (4%). Treatment effectiveness beliefs (PMDI) were associated with perceptions of a more reassuring health message (31%), younger age (3%) and more openness/intellect (2%). Conclusions, Personal models of diabetes are influenced by health threat communication, demographic and personality factors. These findings support the concept of tailoring health messages to the needs of individual patients and provide information on factors to be taken into account in the education process. [source] FAST AND ROBUST INCREMENTAL ACTION PREDICTION FOR INTERACTIVE AGENTSCOMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, Issue 1 2005Jonathan Dinerstein The ability for a given agent to adapt on-line to better interact with another agent is a difficult and important problem. This problem becomes even more difficult when the agent to interact with is a human, because humans learn quickly and behave nondeterministically. In this paper, we present a novel method whereby an agent can incrementally learn to predict the actions of another agent (even a human), and thereby can learn to better interact with that agent. We take a case-based approach, where the behavior of the other agent is learned in the form of state,action pairs. We generalize these cases either through continuous k -nearest neighbor, or a modified bounded minimax search. Through our case studies, our technique is empirically shown to require little storage, learn very quickly, and be fast and robust in practice. It can accurately predict actions several steps into the future. Our case studies include interactive virtual environments involving mixtures of synthetic agents and humans, with cooperative and/or competitive relationships. [source] C-Kit receptor (CD117) expression on myeloblasts and white blood cell counts in acute myeloid leukemiaCYTOMETRY, Issue 1 2004Jolanta Wo Abstract Background The c-Kit receptor is considered to play a crucial role in hematopoiesis. Induction of mobilization of hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow requires cooperative signaling through c-Kit and c-Kit ligand pathway, and these interactions are important in the retention of stem cells within the bone marrow. Therefore, we analyzed c-Kit density on the leukemic myeloblasts of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in relation to white blood cell count (WBC) in the peripheral blood. Methods Bone marrow aspirates collected from patients with AML and bone marrow aspirates and leukapheresis products after granulocyte colony-stimulating factor blood mobilization from adult volunteers were studied. To determine the level of c-Kit receptor expression, we applied quantitative (relative fluorescence intensity and antibody binding per cell) cytometric methods. Results Our data showed negative correlation between the level of c-Kit expression intensity on myeloblasts and the number of leukocytes in blood of AML patients. The c-Kit receptor density on myeloblasts in patients with low WBC was significantly stronger than that on myeloblasts in patients with high WBC. In the latter patient group, the density c-Kit receptor on myeloblasts was similar to that on CD34+ cells in mobilized peripheral blood. Conclusions The obtained data suggest an involvement of c-Kit receptor in the regulation of leukemic myeloblasts egress to the peripheral blood. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Producing a Modern Agricultural Frontier: Firms and Cooperatives in Eastern Mato Grosso, BrazilECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2006Wendy Jepson Abstract: In economic geography, explanations of emerging agricultural frontier regions are dominated by two theoretical perspectives: land-rent theory and political economy. This article advances current research by applying concepts from new institutional economics to reconcile these models. Drawing from a case of frontier expansion in eastern Mato Grosso state, I focus the debate on an institutional perspective. Two organizations, a colonization firm and an agricultural cooperative, are examined. The combined activities of cooperatives and firms reduced the overall costs of production in regions that are defined by high transactions costs (for example, land-tenure insecurity, poor links to the market, and imperfect information) and risk. Each organization linked individual farmers to necessary resources for commercial farming (for instance, land, capital, technology, and markets) and provided an organizational context for farmers to respond to land-tenure conflict and land degradation. The consequence was an increase in the marginal productivity of land, which translated into an expanded commercial agricultural frontier. [source] Credit and debt in Indonesia, 860,1930: from peonage to pawnshop, from Kongsi to cooperative , Edited by David Henley and Peter BoomgardECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 2 2010PIERRE VAN DER ENG No abstract is available for this article. [source] The European Union in international environmental negotiations: an analysis of the Stockholm Convention negotiationsENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2009Tom Delreux Abstract This article focuses on the way the European Union acted as a negotiating party during the international negotiations leading to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (1998,2000). Starting from a principal,agent model, the article discusses how the EU participated in these negotiations and how the internal decision-making process developed. It argues that the EU was able to negotiate in a unified and influential way by defending a common position, which was expressed by a flexible negotiation arrangement, at the international level. Three features of the EU decision-making process engendered such a strong EU negotiation arrangement: homogeneous preferences among the actors in the EU, symmetrically distributed information among them and a cooperative and institutionally dense decision-making context. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Optical, Magnetic and Structural Properties of the Spin-Crossover Complex [Fe(btr)2(NCS)2]·H2O in the Light-Induced and Thermally Quenched Metastable StatesEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF INORGANIC CHEMISTRY, Issue 36 2007Vincent Legrand Abstract [Fe(btr)2(NCS)2]·H2O [btr = 4,4,-bis(1,2,4-triazole)] is thearchetype of highly cooperative and low-dimensional spin-crossover complexes, which exhibit low-spin (LS) to high-spin (HS) light-induced conversion at very low temperature. The structural reorganizations related to the light-induced and thermally induced LS,HS transitions were characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction below the relaxation temperature (T = 15 K < TLIESST) and at 130 K within the thermal hysteresis loop. We show that the LIESST and thermal spin transitions lead to the same structural variations, namely an elongation of the Fe,N bonds by 0.18 Å (Fe,NNCS) and 0.20 Å (Fe,Nbtr), on going from LS to HS, together with a reorientation of the NCS group by nearly 13°. The atomic displacement amplitudes, derived from the crystal structures, indicate lattice vibration modes of larger amplitudes and correlatively lower vibration frequencies in the HS state. The deformation of the crystal lattice as a function of temperature and laser excitation was quantitatively analyzed in terms of the HS and LS thermal-expansion (,HS and ,LS) and spin-transition spontaneous-strain (,) tensors. The eigendirections and eigenvalues of the , and , tensors correlate well with the weak and strong interactions in the solid and are responsible for the high cooperativity and low-dimensional behaviour. Magnetic and spectroscopic measurements were performed in all the different spin states and related to the structural findings. (© Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2007) [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||