Teddy Brett: Failed Markets, failed states and the Global Recession: Responding to the Financial Crisis

“… the world economy has rarely been in better shape than it is today. [We have] yet again revised upwards expectations for global growth . . . growth in the United States remains rapid . . . there are signs of an upturn in those parts of Western Europe … where growth has been sluggish … The global economy appears to be more resilient … than it was even a short time ago.” (Anne Krueger, First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF 2006

International inequality and the global crisis – Managing markets for sustainable growth

While in our view the concept of a self-regulating market was utopian, and its progress was stopped by the realistic self-protection of society, in their [liberal] view all protectionism was a mistake due to impatience, greed or shortsightedness, but for which, the market would have resolved its difficulties. The question of which of these two views is correct is perhaps the most important problem of recent social history, involving as it does no less than a decision on the claim of economic liberalism to be the basic organising principle in society. Karl Polanyi (1944: 148)

Aid Relationships, Global Governance and the International Crisis – Professor Teddy Brett

Teddy Brett looks at the Gloabl Governance and International Crisis

Professor Teddy Brett: The Idea of Development in Theory and Practice

The idea of development exists to describe two distinct processes – incremental improvements in organisational and technological capacities generated by the normal operation of liberal capitalist institutions in developed countries, (DCs) or processes of structural change in late-comers (LDCs) in the south and east that are still attempting to build them

Current Research into Applications of Tomography for Fusion Diagnostics

Retrieving spatial distribution of plasma emissivity from line integrated measurements on tokamaks presents a challenging task due to ill-posedness of the tomography problem and limited number of the lines of sight. Modern methods of plasma tomography therefore implement a-priori information as well as constraints, in particular some form of penalisation of complexity. In this contribution, the current tomography methods under development (Tikhonov regularisation, Bayesian methods and neural networks) are briefly explained taking into account their potential for integration into the fusion reactor diagnostics. In particular, current development of the Minimum Fisher Regularisation method is exemplified with respect to real-time reconstruction capability, combination with spectral unfolding and other prospective tasks

Current Research into Applications of Tomography for Fusion Diagnostics

Retrieving spatial distribution of plasma emissivity from line integrated measurements on tokamaks presents a challenging task due to ill-posedness of the tomography problem and limited number of the lines of sight. Modern methods of plasma tomography therefore implement a-priori information as well as constraints, in particular some form of penalisation of complexity. In this contribution, the current tomography methods under development (Tikhonov regularisation, Bayesian methods and neural networks) are briefly explained taking into account their potential for integration into the fusion reactor diagnostics. In particular, current development of the Minimum Fisher Regularisation method is exemplified with respect to real-time reconstruction capability, combination with spectral unfolding and other prospective tasks

Recent progress in L-H transition studies at JET: Tritium, Helium, Hydrogen and Deuterium

We present an overview of results from a series of L-II transition experiments undertaken at JET since the installation of the ITER-like-wall (JET-ILW), with beryllium wall tiles and a tungsten divertor. Tritium, helium and deuterium plasmas have been investigated. Initial results in tritium show ohmic L-H transitions at low density and the power threshold for the L-H transition (P-LH) is lower in tritium plasmas than in deuterium ones at low densities, while we still lack contrasted data to provide a scaling at high densities. In helium plasmas there is a notable shift of the density at which the power threshold is minimum ((n) over bar (e,min)) to higher values relative to deuterium and hydrogen references. Above (n) over bar (e,min) (He) the L-H power threshold at high densities is similar for D and He plasmas. Transport modelling in slab geometry shows that in helium neoclassical transport competes with interchange-driven transport, unlike in hydrogen isotopes. Measurements of the radial electric field in deuterium plasmas show that E-r shear is not a good indicator of proximity to the L-H transition. Transport analysis of ion heat flux in deuterium plasmas show a non-linearity as density is decreased below (n) over bar (e,min). Lastly, a regression of the JET-ILW deuterium data is compared to the 2008 ITPA scaling law