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“WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, AND IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”. The slogan from George Orwell’s “1984” dystopia appears to capture the state of Russia’s 2014 official discourse quite accurately. This has not gone unnoticed by public and academic spectators in and outside Russia: while Bild magazine is counting Putin’s lies in his recent ARD interview, a Zeit article declares Russia itself to be a post-modern “lie”...
"European" interventions
(2017)
Last week, this year’s ISA conference brought together over 5000 scholars and exhibitors from all over the world to discuss all things international, political, scholarly, hold meetings, get lunch together, and party at Mardi Gras (it was in New Orleans, after all!). Similar to last year, a lot of this discussing took also place on Twitter. Scholars-slash-tweeps rallied around the hashtag #isa2015 to talk to each other online about great (and not so great) panels, trends in IR scholarship, gender bias in academia, and (not surprisingly for an academic conference) coffee. Who was most active during ISA2015 on Twitter? What were the most hotly debated topics online? When did ISAlers tweet?
4 June 2013 marked the formal launch of the third generation of the Equator Principles (EP III) and the tenth anniversary of the EPs – enough reasons for evaluating the EPs initiative from an economic ethics and business ethics perspective. This chapter deals with the following questions: What has been achieved so far by the EPs? Which reform steps need to be adopted to further strengthen the EPs framework? Can the EPs be regarded as a role model in the field of sustainable finance and CSR? The first part explains the term EPs and introduces the keywords related to the EPs framework. The second part summarises the main characteristics of the newly-released third generation of the EPs. The third part critically evaluates EP III from an economic ethical and business ethics perspective. The chapter concludes with a summary of the main findings.
In many European countries poverty migration and its impact on the European continent are currently widely discussed topics. Many seem to forget about grave migration problems taking place in Asia, where in Hong Kong, for example, the working and living conditions for approximately 320,000 foreign domestic workers (mostly women) are often intolerable.
A rather disillusioned observation was recently made during a pan-Africa conference: Africa women consider new information and communication technologies as "futuristic" rather than a tool for development to be used today. If initiatives are not taken now to thwart this attitude, activities by women in Africa to promote sustainable development that also benefit them will take event longer. This will be especially true in regions on the continent where English is not the common language.
Detailed mass balance food web models were constructed to compare ecosystem characteristics for three Alaska regions: the eastern Bering Sea (EBS), the Gulf of Alaska (GOA), and the Aleutian Islands (AI). This paper documents the methods and data used to construct the models and compares ecosystem structure and indicators across models. The common modeling framework, including biomass pool and fishery definitions, resulted in comparable food webs for the three ecosystems which showed that they all have the same apex predator—the Pacific halibut longline fishery. However, despite the similar methods used to construct the models, the data from each system included in the analysis clearly define differences in food web structure which may be important considerations for fishery management in Alaska ecosystems. The results showed that the EBS ecosystem has a much larger benthic influence in its food web than either the GOA or the AI. Conversely, the AI ecosystem has the strongest pelagic influence in its food web relative to the other two systems. The GOA ecosystem appears balanced between benthic and pelagic pathways, but is notable in having a smaller fisheries catch relative to the other two systems, and a high biomass of fish predators above trophic level (TL) 4, arrowtooth flounder and halibut. The patterns visible in aggregated food webs were confirmed in additional more detailed analyses of biomass and consumption in each ecosystem, using both the single species and whole ecosystem indicators developed here.
The distribution of linguistic structures in the world is the joint product of universal principles, inheritance from ancestor languages, language contact, social structures, and random fluctuation. This paper proposes a method for evaluating the relative significance of each factor — and in particular, of universal principles — via regression modeling: statistical evidence for universal principles is found if the odds for families to have skewed responses (e.g. all or most members have postnominal relative clauses) as opposed to having an opposite response skewing or no skewing at all, is significantly higher for some condition (e.g. VO order) than for another condition, independently of other factors.
Nestling growth and development studies have been a topic of interest for a greater part of the last century (Sutton 1935, Walkinshaw 1948) and continue to be of interest today. This is not surprising since studies on nestling growth can provide a wealth of biological information that has larger implications for avian management and conservation. Despite this history of studying nestling development, basic information is still limited or absent for many species. Many questions remain unanswered, and contradictory conclusions are often found in the literature (Starck and Ricklefs 1998a). Therefore, much information on aging and development can still be gained from studying the development patterns of similar species and from comparative studies, across avian orders (Minea et al. 1982, Saunders and Hansen 1989, Carsson and Hörnfeldt 1993). Additionally, nestling growth studies can yield insight into the effects of different nesting strategies on productivity (O’Connor 1978), as well as the impacts of parental effort and environmental variables on fitness (Ross 1980, Ricklefs and Peters 1981, Magrath 1991). Since low reproductive success may play a significant role in the declines of many North American passerines (Sherry and Holmes 1992, Ballard et al. 2003), a better understanding of the factors that influence reproductive success is a vital component of avian conservation (Martin 1992). Data on nestling aging can be used to improve nest survival estimates (Dinsmore 2002, Nur et al. 2004), providing information that can be used to more precisely age nests (Pinkowski 1975, Podlesack and Blem 2002), (Jones and Geupel 2007). Indeed, the relatively short time period young spend developing in the nest is a critical part of a bird’s life cycle and a nestling’s developmental path can affect its survival to independence, its survival as an adult, and its future reproductive success.
In the last years, much effort went into the design of robust anaphor resolution algorithms. Many algorithms are based on antecedent filtering and preference strategies that are manually designed. Along a different line of research, corpus-based approaches have been investigated that employ machine-learning techniques for deriving strategies automatically. Since the knowledge-engineering effort for designing and optimizing the strategies is reduced, the latter approaches are considered particularly attractive. Since, however, the hand-coding of robust antecedent filtering strategies such as syntactic disjoint reference and agreement in person, number, and gender constitutes a once-for-all effort, the question arises whether at all they should be derived automatically. In this paper, it is investigated what might be gained by combining the best of two worlds: designing the universally valid antecedent filtering strategies manually, in a once-for-all fashion, and deriving the (potentially genre-specific) antecedent selection strategies automatically by applying machine-learning techniques. An anaphor resolution system ROSANA-ML, which follows this paradigm, is designed and implemented. Through a series of formal evaluations, it is shown that, while exhibiting additional advantages, ROSANAML reaches a performance level that compares with the performance of its manually designed ancestor ROSANA.
Hackethal and Schmidt (2003) criticize a large body of literature on the financing of corporate sectors in different countries that questions some of the distinctions conventionally drawn between financial systems. Their criticism is directed against the use of net flows of finance and they propose alternative measures based on gross flows which they claim re-establish conventional distinctions. This paper argues that their criticism is invalid and that their alternative measures are misleading. There are real issues raised by the use of aggregate data but they are not the ones discussed in Hackethal and Schmidt’s paper. JEL Classification: G30
A second Yalta
(2014)
We study the following problem: given x element Rn either find a short integer relation m element Zn, so that =0 holds for the inner product <.,.>, or prove that no short integer relation exists for x. Hastad, Just Lagarias and Schnorr (1989) give a polynomial time algorithm for the problem. We present a stable variation of the HJLS--algorithm that preserves lower bounds on lambda(x) for infinitesimal changes of x. Given x \in {\RR}^n and \alpha \in \NN this algorithm finds a nearby point x' and a short integer relation m for x'. The nearby point x' is 'good' in the sense that no very short relation exists for points \bar{x} within half the x'--distance from x. On the other hand if x'=x then m is, up to a factor 2^{n/2}, a shortest integer relation for \mbox{x.} Our algorithm uses, for arbitrary real input x, at most \mbox{O(n^4(n+\log \alpha))} many arithmetical operations on real numbers. If x is rational the algorithm operates on integers having at most \mbox{O(n^5+n^3 (\log \alpha)^2 + \log (\|q x\|^2))} many bits where q is the common denominator for x.
A tale of two lost archives
(2009)
The long-run consumption risk model provides a theoretically appealing explanation for prominent asset pricing puzzles, but its intricate structure presents a challenge for econometric analysis. This paper proposes a two-step indirect inference approach that disentangles the estimation of the model's macro-economic dynamics and the investor's preference parameters. A Monte Carlo study explores the feasibility and efficiency of the estimation strategy. We apply the method to recent U.S.\data and provide a critical re-assessment of the long-run risk model's ability to reconcile the real economy and financial markets. This two-step indirect inference approach is potentially useful for the econometric analysis of other prominent consumption-based asset pricing models that are equally difficult to estimate.
This is the 26. article in our series Trouble on the Far-Right.
In Poland, the long lasting culture war1 over gender roles and religion has been easily framed by the far right into Samuel Huntington’s concept of the “clash of civilizations”. A well-known juxtaposition used in right-wing propaganda: ‘civilization of life’ vs. ‘civilization of death’ in reference to anti-abortion and pro-choice movements respectively is now used to refer to Christians and Muslims. The role of Polish women and the right to abortion remain in the center of the conflict of modernity.
In Europe, the far right heats up the moral panic caused by fear of terrorism, pointing to Muslims as a threat to ‘European’ liberties, especially women’s and LGBT rights. The assaults on women celebrating New Year’s Eve on the streets of Cologne, serve Pegida and many nationalist organizations in Europe as a proof of Arab’s attitude to ‘Western’ expressions of femininity. This argument in the anti-immigration discourse of the far right is well-grounded in nationalists’ ideal of a strong man defending ‘his’ woman. Although, the task might be understood literally, in the context of the assaults in Cologne, protecting wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of the nation has a broader symbolic meaning. Scholars interested in relationship between gender and nation, state that in nationalists discourse women symbolize the nation and are bearers of values.2 In islamophobic discourse female citizens of Europe signify Europeans’ equality and freedom...
To preserve the required beam quality in an e+/e- collider it is necessary to have a very precise beam position control at each accelerating cavity. An elegant method to avoid additional length and beam disturbance is the usage of signals from existing HOM-dampers. The magnitude of the displacement is derived from the amplitude of a dipole mode whereas the sign follows from the phase comparison of a dipole and a monopole HOM. To check the performance of the system, a measurement setup has been built with an antenna which can be moved with micrometer resolution to simulate the beam. Furthermore we have developed a signal processing to determine the absolute beam displacement. Measurements on the HOM-damper cell can be done in the frequency domain using a network analyser. Final measurements with the nonlinear time dependent signal processing circuit has to be done with very short electric pulses simulating electron bunches. Thus, we have designed a sub nanosecond pulse generator using a clipping line and the step recovery effect of a diode. The measurement can be done with a resolution of about 10 micrometers. Measurements and numerical calculations concerning the monitor design and the pulse generator are presented.
Guerillas win as long as they do not lose, and government forces lose as long as they do not win. In Afghanistan, this adage holds, once again, true. Western civilian and military leaders want us to believe that insurgents and criminals are running out of options. Indeed, after much initial stuttering, NATO has transformed into a veritable counter-insurgency machine, with the United States shouldering most of the burden. Casualties among the Taliban and other enemies of NATO are enormous. Enormous, too, is the coalition of NATO and Afghan troops, approaching half a million soldiers and militia-types.
AFK-EUPRA – 13 : feminist interventionism, postcolonial critique and non-western feminist approaches
(2017)
Europe’s reaction to the recent upheavals in North Africa clearly exposed one thing: The EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), including its Security and Defence branch (CSDP), were steamrolled by a multitude of overtly national policies. The resulting cacophony of views made a mockery of the aspiration to present a united European position to external players. It also thwarts the claim of the EU being a more credible security actor in the wake of the Lisbon Treaty reforms. While commentators have moaned about a CFSP and CSDP ‘fatigue’ for quite some time now, the likelihood that what used to be the most dynamic EU policy field of the last decade will enter a period of prolonged hibernation never seemed as high...
We consider Schwarz maps for triangles whose angles are rather general rational multiples of pi. Under which conditions can they have algebraic values at algebraic arguments? The answer is based mainly on considerations of complex multiplication of certain Prym varieties in Jacobians of hypergeometric curves. The paper can serve as an introduction to transcendence techniques for hypergeometric functions, but contains also new results and examples.
Always forward, never back
(2018)
Stem cells are the therapeutics of the future, but to use them to their full potential we first need to understand how they function within the body. Professor Michael Rieger of the Goethe University Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany is working to understand the complex intricacies of stem cell replication and behaviour.
An analysis of the UK's counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST, and the challenges in its evaluation
(2016)
The UK’s Counter-Terrorism strategy, known as CONTEST, is recognized as one of the most successful soft-focus strategies in the world, with an intended emphasis on community support and what have become known as ‘Prevent’ (or counter-extremism) measures. In all, there are four limbs to CONTEST: PREVENT, PROTECT, PURSUE and PREPARE. While there is much crossover between these areas, for example policing activities take place in all four limbs, each one has a specific focus with its own intrinsic goals. This article intends to provide an overview of CONTEST, and to explore the challenges of evaluating counter-terrorism strategies in general. In doing so, I intend to show that while robust and independent evaluation of CONTEST has not been undertaken from a quantitative approach, some level of evaluation has taken place and can be taken into consideration when moving forward with future analysis of the strategy...
Beethoven's Ninth in Bailey Hall the other evening, April 20, ending in an instant standing ovation by a clearly enchanted audience, was an unforgettable experience. And, like all such truly extraordinary events that are marked not only by artistic merit, but draw their power from the circumstances surrounding their creation or performance, it recalled others and enhanced their significance. I was reminded of a stellar performance on Christmas Day of 1989, only weeks after the unexpected fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, that haunting date in German history. Few people believed it would ever happen. But now, suddenly, reunification in justice and freedom, as the truncated old national anthem phrases it, was within reach.
Indo-European is a branch of Indo-Uralic which was radically transformed under the influence of a North Caucasian substratum when its speakers moved from the area north of the Caspian Sea to the area north of the Black Sea (cf. Kortlandt 2007b). As a result, Indo-European developed a minimal vowel system combined with a very large consonant inventory including glottalized stops, also grammatical gender and adjectival agreement, an ergative construction which was lost again but has left its traces in the grammatical system, especially in the nominal inflection, a construction with a dative subject which was partly preserved in the historical languages and is reflected in the verbal morphology and syntax, where it gave rise to new categories, and a heterogeneous lexicon. The Indo-Uralic elements of Indo-European include pronouns, case endings, verbal endings, participles and derivational suffixes. In the following I shall give an overview of the grammar of Proto-Indo-European as it may have been spoken around 4000 BC in the eastern Ukraine, shortly after the ancestors of the Anatolians left for the Balkans (for more recent developments I refer to Beekes 1995).