International Collaboration in Science and the Formation of a Core Group

International collaboration as measured by co-authorship relations on refereed papers grew linearly from 1990 to 2005 in terms of the number of papers, but exponentially in terms of the number of international addresses. This confirms Persson et al.'s (2004) hypothesis of an inflation in international collaboration. Patterns in international collaboration in science can be considered as network effects, since there is no political institution mediating relationships at that level except for the initiatives of the European Commission. During the period 2000-2005, the network of global collaborations appears to have reinforced the formation of a core group of fourteen most cooperative countries. This core group can be expected to use knowledge from the global network with great efficiency, since these countries have strong national systems. Countries at the periphery may be disadvantaged by the increased strength of the core

Where Is Science Going?

Do researchers produce scientific and technical knowledge differently than they did ten years ago? What will scientific research look like ten years from now? Addressing such questions means looking at science from a dynamic systems perspective. Two recent books about the social system of science, by Ziman and by Gibbons, Limoges, Nowotny, Schwartzman, Scott, and Trow, accept this challenge and argue that the research enterprise is changing. This article uses bibliometric data to examine the extent and nature of changes identified by these authors, taking as an example British research. We use their theoretical frameworks to investigate five characteristics of research said to be increasingly pervasive-namely, application, interdisciplinarity, networking, internationalization, and concentration of resources. Results indicate that research may be becoming more interdisciplinary and that research is increasingly conducted more in networks, both domestic and international; but the data are more ambiguous regarding application and concentration. CR - Copyright © 1996 Sage Publications, Inc

Social Inequality and Diversity of Families Working Report (April 2010)

In this state‐of‐art report we focus on some of the more relevant issues from the perspective of social inequality and families within and across European societies. We begin by addressing the three main topics included in this existential field by the Family Platform Project: migration, poverty, family violence. Additionally, we will look at two key issues which are important in contextualizing and discussing the above‐mentioned topics. First, we will summarize recent trends in social inequality in European societies. Secondly, we will review some of existing research on the relationship between social inequalities and families, by examining the impact of social inequality on family forms and dynamics as well as the transmission and reproduction of inequalities within families. Social inequality shapes family life, but families and their members must also be seen as actors in the system of inequality (transmitting inequalities to subsequent generations, reproducing them within the home and through their networks, and resisting the effects of inequality). Research review in this existential field was carried out separately on each of the abovementioned topics. Migration, poverty and family violence are large and autonomous fields of research which do not have common theoretical and methodological underpinnings or empirical data sets. For this report it was therefore important to grasp the major trends and findings within each research topic before moving on to broader conclusions on research into social inequalities and diversity of families in Europe.FAMILYPLATFORM (SSH‐2009‐3.2.2 Social platform on research for families and family policies): funded by the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme for 18 months (October 2009 – March 2011)

Active Citizenship and Representation in Europe: Towards Transnational Democracy?

Facts and views around the European Year of Citizens 2013

From the Group of Twenty to the Group of Two: The Need for Harmonizing Derivatives Regulation Between the United States and the European Union

Wireless Sensor Networks are often deployed in great numbers spanning large, sometimes hard to reach and hostile, areas with the aim of monitoring environmental conditions through the use of different sensors. Due to decreasing costs of ownership (e.g. non-proprietary protocols), recent advances in processor, radio, and memory technologies and the engineering of increasingly smaller sensing devices, the availability and area of application for wireless sensor networks have steadily been increasing. Sigma Technology Development Stockholm AB raised the question as to whether a wireless sensor network, running an open-source operating system and communicating over IPv6, could be used in the field of smart autonomous irrigation? The company also required a proof-of-concept system for demonstration purposes and to identify if the design choices made were suitable for an actual implementation. There are numerous of design decisions that have to be made when constructing an irrigation system: the back-end set-up, which irrigation algorithms to use, what hardware to choose and how to communicate? This thesis therefore focuses on the overall system design of a wireless sensor network in the field of irrigation and highlights the trade-offs being made and their pros and cons. Two improvements related to the existing technology and the proof-of-concept system are presented in this thesis. Firstly, the recommendation to use clustered self-healing routing despite claimed power consumption issues. Secondly, a new technique to minimize power consumption, by dynamically changing the sleep interval on the sensor nodes with the help of weather data. Furthermore, the proof-of-concept system is constructed and analysed to assess whether the system design choices made are valid for a real-life deployment.Trådlösa sensor nätverk används för att övervaka lokala miljöförändringar med hjälp av olika sorters sensorer. På grund av nedåtgående driftkostnader (ökad tillgänglighet av open-source mjukvara) och framsteg inom processor-, radio-, och datorminnesteknolgi har både tillgängligheten och användningsområdena för trådlösa sensornätverk stadigt ökat. Sigma Technology Development AB ställde frågan huruvida ett trådlöst sensornätverk, som använder sig av ett open-source operativsystem och kommunicerar över IPv6, kunde användas inom smart konstbevattning? Företaget ville även att ett proof-ofconcept system utvecklades för demonstration samt för att kunna avgöra om de designval som gjorts är lämpliga att använda i en verklig implementation. Det finns en mängd designval som måste göras när man konstruerar ett bevattningsystem: back-end lösningen, vilka bevattningsalogritmer som ska användas, vilken hårdvara som ska användas samt hur kommunikationen mellan noderna ska upprättas? Det här examensarbetet fokuserar därför på den övergripande systemdesigen av ett trådlöst sensornätverk inom konstbevattning, utvärderar och avgör vilka kompromisser som måste göras samt för- och nackdelarna med dessa val. Examensarbetet presenterar vidare två förbättringar på det utvecklade konceptsystemet som inte heller finns på marknanden. Först rekommenderas användandet av robusta självläkande routing protokoll trots påstådda energiförbrukningsproblem. Sedan föreslås även en teknik som minimerar energiåtgången genom att dynamiskt ändra hur länge sensornoden befinner sig i ’sleep mode’, detta med hjälp av insamlad väderdata. Slutligen så konstrueras och analyseras proof-of-concept systemet för att utvärdera om dessa designval är lämpliga för en implementering i det verkliga livet

The future of the European Union : desmisting the debate

Includes "Notes on Contributors"Does Europe have a collective future, or will the coming years be marked by increasingly incoherent developments within the heterogeneous EU? There is no denying that the second decade of this century has seen a strong mood shift away from the inter-dependence and concerted actions that guided Europe’s national governments since the end of World War II, and then since the fall of the Berlin Wall. What connections, if any, are there between the paroxysms of Brexit in the UK and the varying shades of populism in continental Europe? The common denominator may simply be the painful economic pressures resulting from waning global competitiveness. It is clear that the high ideals of the European project no longer exert the same political pull. The EU’s dreams of progressing almost seamlessly from a trading zone to a shared political economy are not being realised. Where are the convergence policies that would exert centripetal rather than centrifugal forces? Where is the appetite for reforms leading to political union, and whatever happened to the idea of Europeans speaking with one voice? If the EU continues along its present path, the verdict of history may well be that it achieved little more than the welter of regulations needed to ensure trade flows. In geopolitical terms, Europe as a major player on the world stage may have been an illusion largely created by aggregating national statistics.peer-reviewe