The illusion of choice: the European Union and the trade-labour linkage

Why has the European Union refrained from pushing for economic sanctions in the promotion of labor standards? In this paper we argue that a cost-effectiveness approach is not fully capable to grasp this decision. The effectiveness of the different instruments the EU has at its disposal are constrained by the internal and external context where decisions on labor-standards have been taken. The internal context suggests that what we observe is the emanation of the ‘lowest common denominator’ on which a consensus could be found, i.e. the normative underpinnings on which all member states can agree. Alternatively, the EU’s decisions are shaped by the perceptions that negotiating partners hold on the motivations behind such decisions. In this paper, we focus mostly on the discussions held at the multilateral level

The future of EU trade negotiations: what has been learned from CETA and TTIP?

What lessons have been drawn by the EU from the CETA and TTIP trade negotiations? Johan Adriaensen argues that the trade package contained in Jean-Claude Juncker's State of the Union speech presented a coherent vision for how EU trade negotiations could move forward, with avenues for discontent at future agreements to be channelled through representative institutions. However, implementing these ideas will be far from straightforward, and it is unclear whether the EU will be able to prevent the kind of opposition to future trade agreements that it experienced in both the CETA and TTIP cases

Quantitative NMR monitoring of liquid ingress into repellent heterogeneous layered fabrics

Fabrics which are water repellent and repellent to other liquids are often constructed using multiple layers of material. Such a construction is preferable to a single layer of a liquid-repellent textile because, under the action of an applied pressure, ingress of a liquid through the first layer can be halted by the second or subsequent layers. In the quantitative investigation of this problem, current techniques provide limited information on the progress and distribution of the liquid as it ingresses into a fabric. Moreover, many techniques require that the material is delaminated prior to analysis, and cannot be conducted in real time to measure the progress of a liquid through the textile substrate. In this work we demonstrate that unilateral NMR, which allows signal to be collected from a volume of interest in a material residing above the instrument, can be a powerful tool to quantitatively monitor the ingress of a liquid through a layered sample exhibiting pronounced heterogeneities in repellency. A known volume of oil was placed on the top of a model textile sample composed of three 80 μm thick layers. Spatially resolved one dimensional vertical NMR profiles of the system were acquired as a function of the pressure vertically applied to the top of the sample. These profiles show that the absolute liquid volume present in each layer of textile can routinely be measured within 4 min with a spatial resolution of 15 μm. If each individual layer exhibits different repellency to the test liquid, the complexity of the dynamics of the ingress can be investigated in great detail. An elegant application of the unilateral instrument was obtained in which the sensitive volume matched the region of interest of the individual layers of the textile under investigation

Irony, Humour and Cynicism in Relation to Memory: a Contrastive Analysis between the Argentinian and the Mexican Literary Field

Making fun of traumatic experiences is a delicate issue. However, Freud has worked on the cathartic function of the joke (1905), and Andréa Lauterwein, in her edited volume Rire, Mémoire, Shoah (2009) insisted on the presence and relevance of laughter in the memory of the Shoah. In the context of Latin American literature, the presence of laughter and irony is still less prominent than in the context of the Holocaust, both in the cultural field and in the academic context. A logical reason is that the experiences of violence in the subcontinent are recent or even ongoing. In this paper I focus on the way in which irony, humour and cynicism manifest themselves in two different cases: the Argentinean memory of the last dictatorship (1976-1983) and the Mexican war on drugs as it was declared by Felipe Calderón (2006-2012)

Simple individual-based models effectively represent Afrotropical forest bird movement in complex landscapes

Reliable estimates of dispersal rates between habitat patches (i.e. functional connectivity) are critical for predicting long-term effects of habitat fragmentation on population persistence. Connectivity measures are frequently derived from least cost path or graph-based approaches, despite the fact that these methods make biologically unrealistic assumptions. Individual-based models (IBMs) have been proposed as an alternative as they allow modelling movement behaviour in response to landscape resistance. However, IBMs typically require excessive data to be useful for management. Here, we test the extent to which an IBM requiring only an uncomplicated set of movement rules [the 'stochastic movement simulator' (SMS)] can predict animal movement behaviour in real-world landscapes. Movement behaviour of two forest birds, the Cabanis's greenbul Phyllastrephus cabanisi (a forest specialist) and the white-starred robin Pogonocichla stellata (a habitat generalist), across an Afrotropical matrix was simulated using SMS. Predictions from SMS were evaluated against a set of detailed movement paths collected by radiotracking homing individuals. SMS was capable of generating credible predictions of bird movement, although simulations were sensitive to the cost values and the movement rules specified. Model performance was generally highest when movement was simulated across low-contrasting cost surfaces and when virtual individuals were assigned low directional persistence and limited perceptual range. SMS better predicted movements of the habitat specialist than the habitat generalist, which highlights its potential to model functional connectivity when species movements are affected by the matrix. Synthesis and applications. Modelling the dispersal process with greater biological realism is likely to be critical for improving our predictive capability regarding functional connectivity and population persistence. For more realistic models to be widely applied, it is vital that their application is not overly complicated or data demanding. Here, we show that given relatively basic understanding of a species' dispersal ecology, the stochastic movement simulator represents a promising tool for estimating connectivity, which can help improve the design of functional ecological networks aimed at successful species conservation

Controlling covert integration in EU politics

Without the prospect of new treaty revisions, integration in the European Union is often believed to come at a standstill. However, recent research suggests that deepening integration still continues, albeit in more covert ways. The risk associated with such covert integration is that it is not mandated by the member states and may thus have a major backlash on the legitimacy of the European project. This paper argues that such fears may be unfounded. Building on prior insights of the principal-agent model in the context of European integration, we argue that any shift in the nexus of decision-making towards the supranational level is accompanied with the installation of control mechanisms. This takes the form of informal governance and increased oversight. The plausibility of this argument is probed on the EU’s propensity to negotiate deep and comprehensive trade agreements. Insights are complemented from the Open-Skies agreement and the role of the European Central Bank during the Eurozone-crisis

Naar een nieuwe wegencategorisering in Vlaanderen : een studie naar de basis voor een robuuster netwerk

De wegencategorisering in Vlaanderen waarvan de principes eind vorige eeuw vastgelegd werden in het Ruimtelijk Structuurplan Vlaanderen is aan herziening toe. Enerzijds omdat andere beleidskaders zowel omtrent ruimtelijke ordening als mobiliteit in ontwikkeling zijn. Anderzijds omwille van inhoudelijke redenen: het gaat daarbij zowel om een aantal zwaktes die inherent zijn aan het vigerende systeem en de manier waarin het werd toegepast als om een aantal nieuwe mobiliteitsuitdagingen waartoe ook de structurele uitbouw van het wegennet moet bijdragen. De Vlaamse overheid heeft daarom een studie laten uitvoeren om de bestaande categorisering door te lichten en te verbeteren. Het wegennet moet slimmer, robuuster en veiliger. Lees dit ook als: het wegennetwerk moet multimodaler worden geconcipieerd. De finaliteit van de studie was een bijgesteld netwerkconcept voor Vlaanderen, verder uitgewerkt in een synthesekaart. In dit artikel wordt een inzicht gegeven in deze studie, de kaart zelf kan gezien de fase waarin de besluitvorming van de nieuwe categorisering zich bevindt (nog) niet toegelicht worden. Waar wel uitvoerig kan worden ingegaan is hoe de vier principes die eraan ten grondslag liggen werden uitgewerkt. Het gaat daarbij om de multimodaliteit, hiërarchie en flexibiliteit onder vorm van regimes en om ruimtelijke inpassing. Door het aantal categorieën van negen nu te herleiden tot zes en ze te groeperen in drie netwerkniveaus wordt tevens een vereenvoudiging doorgevoerd. Die vereenvoudiging is niet alleen administratief van belang maar zou ook voor de weggebruiker een eenduidiger te interpreteren verkeerssysteem moet opleveren. Administratieve vereenvoudiging kan ook bereikt worden door de beslissingsstructuur voor de selectie enerzijds vast te leggen in een vooraf bepaald selectietraject, en anderzijds af te slanken. Een belangrijke verantwoordelijkheid zal bij de Vervoerregio’s liggen, die het interlokale netwerk zullen selecteren maar ook een adviserende rol hebben voor wegen op nationaal, regionaal en lokaal niveau. De verdere politieke besluitvorming over de nieuwe wegencategorisering is afhankelijk van de aan de gang zijnde regeringsvorming

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) ST398 associated with clinical and subclinical mastitis in Belgian cows

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is infrequently reported in mastitis. Yet, as in many other countries, the prevalence of methicillin resistance among S. aureus from mastitis is currently unknown in Belgium. To elucidate this, the presence of mecA was investigated in 118 S. aureus strains originating from diagnostic mastitis milk samples from 118 different farms experiencing S. aureus mastitis. MRSA strains were characterized by disk diffusion susceptibility testing, spa-typing, MLST and SCCmec-typing. In an additional study, four MRSA-positive farms were selected to assess the in-herd prevalence of MRSA, by sampling all cows in lactation. Isolated MRSA strains were similarly characterized. The mecA gene was detected in 11 (9.3%) of the 118 S. aureus isolates, indicating that nearly 10% of the Belgian farms suffering from S. aureus mastitis have an MRSA problem. The in-herd prevalence varied between 0% and 7.4%. Characterization of the MRSA strains showed that they were all resistant to tetracycline. Additional resistances to macrolides, lincosamides and aminoglycosides were frequently detected. The strains were ST398, spa-types t011 or t567 and had SCCmec-type IVa or V, proving that they belong to the emerging livestock-associated MRSA (LA-MRSA) strains of CC398. Our study shows that after detection in Belgian pigs, horses and poultry, LA-MRSA has also attained Belgian cattle. It is the first report on frequent isolation of LA-MRSA from bovine infections. As the in-herd isolation rate resembles that of regular S. aureus in farms experiencing S. aureus mastitis, the multi-resistance of LA-MRSA strains may cause future treatment problems.status: publishe