Social Democracy, Globalization and Governance: Why is there no European Left Program in the EU? CES Germany & Europe Working Papers, No. 00.6, April 2000

This paper addresses globalization and governance in the EU by attempting to generate some plausible hypotheses that might explain the policy choices of the 12 out of 15 European democratic left governments. With all of the discussion in recent years of a democratic deficit, and then need to maintain a "social Europe," why have these governments not produced more explicit left-wing policies? It suggests three possible hypotheses to account for this apparently mysterious outcome. Hypothesis #1: They want to but they can't. Hypothesis #2: They don't want to because they aren't really left anymore. Hypothesis #3: They could, but they all are suffering from a fundamental failure of imagination. The paper explores each of these hypotheses in two ways. First it examines the initial years of the Schröder government in Germany apparently, pursuing each of these three hypotheses and different times during this period. Then it looks more systematically and comparatively and each of the three hypotheses by including analysis both of Germany and several other EU member states. The larger goal of this work is to provoke discussion and research on what role left political movements can actually play. Is it even reasonable to expect such a group of nation states to develop innovative forms of cross-national governance? Or are new and/or revised forms of representation and governance beyond traditional nation-state models

Internal Acoustics of the ISS and Other Spacecraft

It is important to control the acoustic environment inside spacecraft and space habitats to protect for astronaut communications, alarm audibility, and habitability, and to reduce astronauts' risk for sleep disturbance, and hear-ing loss. But this is not an easy task, given the various design trade-offs, and it has been difficult, historically, to achieve. Over time it has been found that successful control of spacecraft acoustic levels is achieved by levying firm requirements at the system-level, using a systems engineering approach for design and development, and then validating these requirements with acoustic testing. In the systems engineering method, the system-level requirements must be flowed down to sub-systems and component noise sources, using acoustic analysis and acoustic modelling to develop allocated requirements for the sub-systems and components. Noise controls must also be developed, tested, and implemented so the sub-systems and components can achieve their allocated limits. It is also important to have management support for acoustics efforts to maintain their priority against the various trade-offs, including mass, volume, power, cost, and schedule. In this extended abstract and companion presentation, the requirements, approach, and results for controlling acoustic levels in most US spacecraft since Apollo will be briefly discussed. The approach for controlling acoustic levels in the future US space vehicle, Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), will also be briefly discussed. These discussions will be limited to the control of continuous noise inside the space vehicles. Other types of noise, such as launch, landing, and abort noise, intermittent noise, Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) noise, emergency operations/off-nominal noise, noise exposure, and impulse noise are important, but will not be discussed because of time limitations

International Space Station Acoustics - A Status Report

It is important to control acoustic noise aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to provide a satisfactory environment for voice communications, crew productivity, alarm audibility, and restful sleep, and to minimize the risk for temporary and permanent hearing loss. Acoustic monitoring is an important part of the noise control process on ISS, providing critical data for trend analysis, noise exposure analysis, validation of acoustic analyses and predictions, and to provide strong evidence for ensuring crew health and safety, thus allowing Flight Certification. To this purpose, sound level meter (SLM) measurements and acoustic noise dosimetry are routinely performed. And since the primary noise sources on ISS include the environmental control and life support system (fans and airflow) and active thermal control system (pumps and water flow), acoustic monitoring will reveal changes in hardware noise emissions that may indicate system degradation or performance issues. This paper provides the current acoustic levels in the ISS modules and sleep stations and is an update to the status presented in 2011. Since this last status report, many payloads (science experiment hardware) have been added and a significant number of quiet ventilation fans have replaced noisier fans in the Russian Segment. Also, noise mitigation efforts are planned to reduce the noise levels of the T2 treadmill and levels in Node 3, in general. As a result, the acoustic levels on the ISS continue to improve

Proposal for a lunar tunnel-boring machine

A need exists for obtaining a safe and habitable lunar base that is free from the hazards of radiation, temperature gradient, and micrometeorites. A device for excavating lunar material and simultaneously generating living space in the subselenian environment was studied at the conceptual level. Preliminary examinations indicate that a device using a mechanical head to shear its way through the lunar material while creating a rigid ceramic-like lining meets design constraints using existing technology. The Lunar Tunneler is totally automated and guided by a laser communication system. There exists the potential for the excavated lunar material to be used in conjunction with a surface mining process for the purpose of the extraction of oxygen and other elements. Experiments into lunar material excavation and further research into the concept of a mechanical Lunar Tunneler are suggested

In-Flow Acoustic Sensor

An acoustic sensor for measuring acoustic waves contained in fluid flow flowing over the sensor is introduced. The acoustic sensor reduces any unwanted self-noise associated with the flowing fluid by providing a nose cone having proper aerodynamic properties and by positioning the diaphragm of a microphone of the sensor at a location where any unwanted noise is at a relatively low level. The nose cone has a rounded, blunt or even sharp tip neither of which creates any major disturbances in the flowing fluid which it intercepts

Improved in-flow acoustic sensor

An acoustic sensor for measuring acoustic waves contained in fluid flowing over the sensor is described. The acoustic sensor reduces any unwanted self-noise associated with the flowing fluid by providing a nose cone having proper aerodynamic properties and by positioning the diaphragm of a microphone of the sensor at a location where any unwanted noise is at a relatively low level. The nose cone has a rounded, blunt or even sharp tip, neither of which creates any major disturbances in the flowing fluid which it intercepts

Relaxation in the electrical properties of amorphous selenium based photoconductors

Time-of-Flight (TOF) and Interrupted-Field Time-of-Flight (IFTOF) measurements were performed repeatedly on several different samples of amorphous Selenium (a-Se) alloys as they aged from deposition or after annealing above the glass transition temperature (Tg) in order to examine the relaxation of the electrical properties. The mobility was found to relax slightly, but the relaxation did not fit well to a stretched exponential. The increase in the mobility for electrons was significantly more than the increase in mobility for holes in all sample compositions measured. For electrons, the mobility increased by 20-40%, whereas for holes, the mobility only increased by less than 10%. The relaxation of the lifetime, on the other hand, fit well to a stretched exponential. Furthermore, the overall increase in lifetime as it relaxed was much greater than the increase in the mobility. The average increase in lifetime was 85% for holes and 45% for electrons. The stretched exponential fits consisted of two important factors: the structural relaxation time ôsr and the stretching factor â. For a given a-Se alloy, ôsr was approximately the same for relaxation from both immediately after sample deposition, and annealing above Tg, indicating that the relaxation is readily repeatable and has the same physical origin. The relaxation was found to be dependent on the a-Se alloy composition. While the general shape of the relaxation was consistently a stretched exponential, ôsr increased with increasing arsenic (As) concentration in the alloy, while â remained constant between 0.6-0.7. Additionally, ôsr was found to be the same for both electron and hole relaxations for a given composition. Thus, the relaxation in both the electron and hole lifetime seems to be controlled by the same structural relaxation process, that is, the electron and hole traps are structural in origin

Analysis of Noise Exposure Measurements Acquired Onboard the International Space Station

The International Space Station (ISS) is a unique workplace environment for U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts to conduct research and live for a period of six months or more. Noise has been an enduring environmental physical hazard that has been a challenge for the U.S. space program since before the Apollo era. Noise exposure in ISS poses significant risks to the crewmembers, such as; hearing loss (temporary or permanent), possible disruptions of crew sleep, interference with speech intelligibility and communication, possible interference with crew task performance, and possible reduction in alarm audibility. Acoustic measurements were made onboard ISS and compared to requirements in order to assess the acoustic environment to which the crewmembers are exposed. The purpose of this paper is to describe in detail the noise exposure monitoring program as well as an assessment of the acoustic dosimeter data collected to date. The hardware currently being used for monitoring the noise exposure onboard ISS will be discussed. Acoustic data onboard ISS has been collected since the beginning of ISS (Increment 1, November 2001). Noise exposure data analysis will include acoustic dosimetry logged data from crew-worn dosimeters during work and sleep periods and also fixed-location measurements from Increment 1 to present day. Noise exposure levels (8-, 16- and 24-hr), LEQ, will also be provided and discussed in this paper. Future directions and recommendations for the noise exposure monitoring program will be highlighted. This acoustic data is used to ensure a safe and healthy working and living environment for the crewmembers onboard the ISS

Innovative Approach for Developing Spacecraft Interior Acoustic Requirement Allocation

The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) is an American spacecraft for carrying four astronauts during deep space missions. This paper describes an innovative application of Power Injection Method (PIM) for allocating Orion cabin continuous noise Sound Pressure Level (SPL) limits to the sound power level (PWL) limits of major noise sources in the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) during all mission phases. PIM is simulated using both Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) and Hybrid Statistical Energy Analysis-Finite Element (SEA-FE) models of the Orion MPCV to obtain the transfer matrix from the PWL of the noise sources to the acoustic energies of the receivers, i.e., the cavities associated with the cabin habitable volume. The goal of the allocation strategy is to control the total energy of cabin habitable volume for maintaining the required SPL limits. Simulations are used to demonstrate that applying the allocated PWLs to the noise sources in the models indeed reproduces the SPL limits in the habitable volume. The effects of Noise Control Treatment (NCT) on allocated noise source PWLs are investigated. The measurement of source PWLs of involved fan and pump development units are also discussed as it is related to some case-specific details of the allocation strategy discussed here