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European Project (european + project)
Selected AbstractsDoes Italy's plight threaten European Monetary Union?ECONOMIC OUTLOOK, Issue 3 2005Article first published online: 27 JUL 200 The Italian economy is in a mess. GDP is expected to contract by 0.6% this year and the budget deficit is heading towards 4% of GDP , it is hard to see a way out of the mire. And after the rejection of the European constitution in France and the Netherlands, questions are being asked about the very future of the European project. With Italy fundamentally uncompetitive across a whole range of both price and non-prices measures, and with an industrial structure ill-equipped to deal with the challenges of globalisation, Italy's long-term membership of the Euro is being debated. This article by Keith Church sets out Italy's problems and argues that, if the economy stagnates for a prolonged period, pressure to leave EMU will become irresistible. This can be avoided if the government finally implements structural reforms instead of continually ,muddling through'. At the same time, the ECB needs to realise the urgency of the current situation and start to show greater flexibility. [source] Self-Regulated Learning in Technology-Enhanced Learning Environments: lessons of a European peer reviewEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, Issue 3-4 2006KARL STEFFENS This article first describes the state-of-the-art of model building and empirical research in the field of self-regulated learning (SRL) and then focuses on self-regulated learning in Technology-Enhanced Learning Environments (TELEs). We present recent research results obtained in a European project (TELEPEERS) in the context of which we evaluated TELEs in a peer review manner with respect to their potential for supporting self-regulated learning. In addition, data were obtained on a sample of TELEPEERS students working in these environments and comparative analyses were made across the European project partners. [source] Comparison of greenhouse gas fluxes and nitrogen budgets from an ombotrophic bog in Scotland and a minerotrophic sedge fen in FinlandEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE, Issue 5 2010J. Drewer Northern peatlands cover approximately 4% of the global land surface area. Those peatlands will be particularly vulnerable to environmental and climate change and therefore it is important to investigate their total greenhouse gas (GHG) budgets, to determine the feedback on the climate. Nitrogen (N) is known to influence the GHG budget in particular by affecting the methane (CH4) balance. At two peatland sites in Scotland and Finland GHG fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide (N2O) and nitrogen fluxes were measured as part of the European project ,NitroEurope'. The Scottish site, Auchencorth Moss, was a GHG sink of ,321, ,490 and ,321 g CO2 eq m,2 year,1 in 2006, 2007 and 2008, respectively, with CO2 as the dominating GHG. In contrast, the dominating GHG at the Finnish site, Lompolojänkkä, was CH4, resulting in the site being a net GHG source of +485 and +431 g CO2 eq m,2 year,1 in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Therefore, Auchencorth Moss had a negative global warming potential (GWP) whilst Lompolojänkkä had a positive GWP over the investigated time period. Initial results yielded a positive N budget for Lompolojänkkä of 7.1 kg N ha,1 year,1, meaning the site was gaining nitrogen, and a negative N budget for Auchencorth Moss of ,2.4 kg N ha year,1, meaning the site was losing nitrogen. [source] Moment of Stasis: The Successful Failure of a Constitution for EuropeEUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 3 2009Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos The 2005 French and Dutch negative votes on the Constitution open up a space of conceptualisation, not only of Europe's relation to its demos, but significantly to its failures. Through a critical analysis of mainly Niklas Luhmann's systems theory, the article proposes taking a distance from traditional constitutional dogmatics that are no longer capable of dealing with the paradox of contemporary society, and more specifically with the eventual resurgence of the European project as one of absence and stasis: the two terms are used to explain the need, on the one hand, to maintain the ,absent community' of Europe, and, on the other, to start realising that any conceptualisation of the European project will now have to take place in that space of instability and contingency revealed by the constitutional failure. The relation between law and politics, the location of a constitution, the distinction between social and normative legitimacy, the connection between European identity and demos, and the concept of continuity between constitutional text and context are revisited in an attempt to trace the constitutional failure as the constitutional moment par excellence. [source] The Limited Modesty of SubsidiarityEUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 3 2005N. W. Barber In the process of discussing the European principle, a contrast is drawn with the Catholic principle of subsidiarity and with the rival doctrine of national self-determination. It is argued that the European principle is a central part of the Union's constitutional identity, and, as such, crucial to an understanding of the European project. [source] Design and comparison of different flux-switch synchronous machines for an aircraft oil breather applicationEUROPEAN TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRICAL POWER, Issue 6 2005Yacine Amara This paper presents a design procedure of a flux,switch synchronous machine for an aircraft oil breather application. This work is part of a European project called ,Power Optimised Aircraft'. The aim of this project is to replace some mechanical equipment by electromechanical devices to improve performance and reduce power consumption. The structure under study was developed at SATIE laboratory and it is based on the flux-switch principle. The permanent magnets are located in the stator, and the rotor is entirely passive. The study described in this paper is limited to the electromagnetic design. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Free movement, equal treatment and workers' rights: can the European Union solve its trilemma of fundamental principles?INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 6 2009Jon Erik Dølvik ABSTRACT This article analyses the trilemma the EU is facing concerning three fundamental principles on which the Community rests: free movement of services and labour; non-discrimination and equal treatment, and the rights of association and industrial action. With rising cross-border flows of services and (posted) labour after the Eastward enlargement, the conflict between these rights has triggered industrial disputes and judicial strife. In the view of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), highlighted in the Laval Quartet, some principles are more fundamental than others. Tracing the ,dual track' along which European integration has evolved, whereby supranational market integration has been combined with national semi-sovereignty in industrial relations and social policies, our claim is that the supremacy of free movement over basic social rights implied by the ECJ judgments is leading Europe in a politically and socially unsustainable direction. To prevent erosion of the European Social Models and of popular support for European integration, the politicians have to reinsert themselves into the governance of the European project. A pertinent start would be to ensure that the rising mass of cross-border service workers in Europe become subject to the same rights and standards as their fellow workers in the emerging pan-European labour market. [source] ,Dark Matter': Institutional Constraints and the Failure of Party-based Euroscepticism in GermanyPOLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2002Charles Lees The article is built on four propositions. First, there is a latent potential within the German polity for the mobilisation of what remains a significant level of popular unease about aspects of the ongoing process of European integration. Second, at present this potential is unfulfilled and, as a result, Euroscepticism remains the ,dark matter' of German politics. Third, the absence of a clearly stated Eurosceptical agenda is not due to the inherent ,enlightenment' of the German political class about the European project, but rather is the result of systemic disincentives shaping the preferences of rational acting politicians. Finally, these systemic disincentives are to be found within the formal institutions of the German polity. The key ideas here are of ,hard' versus ,soft' Eurosceptical narratives, sustained versus heresthetic agendas, and ,polis constraining' versus ,polis shaping' strategies for their promotion. Political agents' choice of strategy depends on the nature of the institutional setting within which they are operating. The institutional configuration of the Federal Republic provides poor returns for party-based Euroscepticism. The mobilisation of popular unease about aspects of European integration remains an unattractive option for rational acting political agents. [source] Europe at the MillenniumPOLITICS, Issue 2 2000Mary Kaldor This article argues that the future of the European project depends on the capacity to maintain security. It traces the link between security and political institutions in the case of nation states and, subsequently, blocs. The security of nation states and blocs was defined in terms of the defence of borders against an external enemy and the preservation of law and order within borders. Today, the distinction between internal and external has broken down; ,new wars' are a mixture of war, organised crime and violations of human rights. Security can only be maintained through the extension of law and order beyond borders , through enlargement, migration and citizenship policies, and effective humanitarian intervention. Any other approach could lead to a reversal of the process of integration. This type of security policy is likely to be associated with a very different type of polity. [source] Features of Kansei Engineering Characterizing its Use in Two Studies: Men's Everyday Footwear and Historic FootwearQUALITY AND RELIABILITY ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL, Issue 6 2006Carolyn van Lottum Abstract The consumer goods sector is increasingly competitive with many manufacturers now operating in a global market. The growing numbers of on-line stores and product review Web sites have given the consumer new ways to compare and contrast product features before making a choice. The need for manufacturers to understand and interpret the wishes of their target consumer has led to the development of a number of techniques aimed at bringing the ,voice of the customer' into the design process. These have been successfully used by European manufacturers to identify quality and functional features critical to their customer base. However, an approach called Kansei engineering developed in the Far East uses the voice of the customer in a different way, identifying subjective emotional requirements as opposed to quality/functional requirements. Using Kansei engineering, it is possible to incorporate consumer emotion into the product design process, creating products that appeal to customers on a subjective level. This paper outlines the results of two field studies carried out as part of KENSYS, a Fifth Framework European project examining the use of Kansei engineering and product semantics as a suitable tool for European small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Sovereign nations and global markets: modern British Conservatism and hyperglobalismBRITISH JOURNAL OF POLITICS & INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Issue 3 2002David Baker In this article we seek to trace through the major stands of British Euroscepticism and concentrate, in particular, on the importance of a powerful ,hyperglobalist' Eurosceptical strand within British Conservatism. We investigate the British Conservatives' recent divisions over European integration, against the background of the party's increasingly marginal status in British party politics. The piece also draws on findings from two recent surveys of the attitudes of British parliamentarians to European integration, carried out by the Members of Parliament Project for the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). We explore how Conservative divisions of opinion are related in part to particular understandings of globalisation and regionalisation and attempt to show how globalist ideology has unexpectedly re,emphasised and bolstered the traditional nationalism of the Tory party and caused an increasingly hostile attitude amongst many British Conservatives towards the European project as it is presently constituted. We also examine recent attempts to map British Conservative Euroscepticism on to continental varieties using a mixture of ideological positioning and party system (Taggart 1998), arguing that this ignores the extent to which British Eurosceptics advance unique (in EU member state terms) hyperglobalist (rather than isolationist or protectionist) arguments in objecting to further European integration. [source] 4141: Visual phenotyping at the "Institut Clinique de la Souris"ACTA OPHTHALMOLOGICA, Issue 2010MJ ROUX Purpose Visual diseases come in many flavors, with a large variety of affected tissues (eye anterior segment, retina, optic nerve, cortex ,), ages of onset, rate of progression and causal factors. In Western countries, if the majority of these diseases are now curable, millions of people are still affected by blindness or low vision, as many retinal diseases (age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma,) still lack efficient treatments. In a facility devoted to mouse phenotyping as the Mouse Clinic Institute (MCI), it is thus of major importance to propose an efficient visual phenotyping platform, to pick up visual defects in screened mutants, to assess the beneficial effects of potential treatments or the eventual adverse effects of drugs targeting the CNS. Methods Methods: Mouse mutant lines from the Eumodic European project, as well as lines from specific academic projects, go through clinical observation (slit lamp, fundus imaging) in the context of a behavioral phenotyping pipeline, or are assessed in more details with angiography, optomotor response, electroretinography, retinal histology and/or immunohistochemistry. Results To illustrate the possibilities offered by the MCI visual phenotyping platform, we will present results obtained from various projects, as well as the validation of electroretinography protocols to follow dark adaptation and the effect of acute drug injections. Conclusion In an environment allowing for an in depth phenotyping, from behavior to biochemistry, metabolism and cardiology, the MCI visual phenotyping platform provides a comprehensive set of tests to get the most out of genetically modified mice. [source] Intersegment handover performance in integrated terrestrial satellite systemsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING, Issue 6 2002M. Leo Abstract To achieve a global cellular network, integration among segments offering different coverage (indoor, outdoor and global) must be pursued. Of course, the possibility to hold the call switching among different segments must be guaranteed. Hence, efficient algorithms to perform intersegment handover (ISHO) must be implemented. The paper aims at analysing some ISHO procedures developed in the frame of some European projects and other proposed in the literature, in a scenario with satellite and terrestrial segments interworking to achieve a worldwide cellular coverage. Performance evaluation will be carried out for different system configurations utilizing a dynamic satellite constellation simulator in the time domain. The impact of the distance user-gateway on performance will be addressed. For each procedure, the execution delay and its complementary cumulative distribution have been evaluated for different constellation geometries at different distances from the gateway. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The New Mega-Projects: Genesis and ImpactsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2008FERNANDO DIAZ ORUETA Abstract Critiques of urban renewal and large-scale developments were prominent in the period 1960,80. In particular, they emphasized the negative environmental and social consequences of these schemes and especially attacked them for displacing low-income and ethnically different populations. In the 1980s and 1990s, we saw a decline in such projects in many places, responding to popular protest and intellectual dissent, along with a new emphasis on preservation. More recently, however, we see the revival of mega-projects, often connected with tourism and sports development and incorporating the designs of world-famous architects. Frequently these are on landfill or abandoned industrial sites. The symposium for which this is an introduction shows the growing convergence of North American and European projects. This convergence is visible in their physical form, their financing, and in the role played by the state in a world marked by neoliberalism. At the same time, the new projects do display a greater environmental sensitivity and commitment to urbanity than the modernist schemes of an earlier epoch. Résumé Dans la période 1960,1980, les critiques sur les aménagements à grande échelle et les grandes rénovations urbaines étaient fréquentes. Elles soulignaient notamment les conséquences environnementales et sociales néfastes de ces programmes, en leur reprochant en particulier de déplacer les populations à faible revenu ou d'appartenance ethnique différente. Dans les années 1980 et 1990, ces projets se sont faits plus rares dans bien des endroits, répondant à la contestation populaire et au désaccord des intellectuels, parallèlement à une préoccupation nouvelle pour la préservation. Dernièrement, pourtant, les mégaprojets ont réapparu, souvent associés à un aménagement touristique ou sportif et intégrant des créations d'architectes de renommée mondiale. Ils se situent fréquemment sur le site d'anciennes décharges ou usines abandonnées. Le symposium dont ce texte sert d'introduction montre la convergence croissante des projets nord-américains et européens, convergence que l'on constate dans leur forme physique, leur financement et dans le rôle que joue l'État dans un monde empreint de néolibéralisme. En même temps, les nouveaux projets affichent une sensibilitéà l'environnement et un engagement vis-à-vis de l'urbanité plus marqués que les programmes modernistes antérieurs. [source] | ||||||||||||||||