Europa vor Gericht: die EU-Außenpolitik und der Internationale Strafgerichtshof

'Dass die EU nicht unbedingt ein fragmentierter und zahnloser Papiertiger sein muss, zeigten die europäischen Außenminister gerade in ihrer geschlossenen Haltung zur Auslieferung Ratko Mladics an das UNO-Kriegsverbrechertribunal in Den Haag. Auch eine andere Haager Institution, der Internationale Strafgerichtshof (IStGH) und die proaktive Rolle der EU in dessen Entstehungsprozess, gilt vielen Beobachtern als positiver Beleg für die politischen Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten, die sich der Friedensmacht Europa trotz oftmals stockender Vergemeinschaftung, fehlender Ressourcen und Zwangsmittel eröffnen. Im vorliegenden Report zeichnen die Autorinnen die Geschichte des IStGH nach und beschäftigen sich mit der Frage, wieso die EU ausgerechnet in diesem transatlantischen Konfliktfall gegen erhebliche Widerstände der USA große Geschlossenheit demonstrierte und das Statut von Rom - politische Grundlage des Strafgerichtshofes - auch zügig entwickelt und umgesetzt hat. Dabei zeigen die Autorinnen auf, dass die Gemeinsame Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik (GASP) der EU mehr als ein institutionelles Forum zur Abstimmung der Interessen der Mitglieder ist. Geteilte Prinzipien der Demokratie, Menschen- und Grundrechte, sowie prozedurale Normen, wie regelmäßige gegenseitige Konsultationen, verhalfen den zu Anfang der Verhandlungen durchaus von verschiedenen Interessen geleiteten Mitgliedern zu einem für alle tragfähigen Kompromiss. Diese Einigkeit innerhalb der EU kann nun auch Drittländer ermutigen, sich der Drohkulisse der USA zu widersetzen. Hier mahnen die Autorinnen an, die EU müsse noch konkretere Hilfe in Aussicht stellen, um diesen Ländern bei Ausfällen von Militär- oder Entwicklungshilfe zur Seite stehen zu können.' (Autorenreferat

From self-organization in relativistic electron bunches to coherent synchrotron light: observation using a photonic time-stretch digitizer

In recent and future synchrotron radiation facilities, relativistic electron bunches with increasingly high charge density are needed for producing brilliant light at various wavelengths, from X-rays to terahertz. In such conditions, interaction of electrons bunches with their own emitted electromagnetic fields leads to instabilities and spontaneous formation of complex spatial structures. Understanding these instabilities is therefore key in most electron accelerators. However, investigations suffer from the lack of non-destructive recording tools for electron bunch shapes. In storage rings, most studies thus focus on the resulting emitted radiation. Here, we present measurements of the electric field in the immediate vicinity of the electron bunch in a storage ring, over many turns. For recording the ultrafast electric field, we designed a photonic time-stretch analog-to-digital converter with terasamples/second acquisition rate. We could thus observe the predicted link between spontaneous pattern formation and giant bursts of coherent synchrotron radiation in a storage ring.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Physically-based thermal simulation of large scenes for infrared imaging

Rendering large scenes in the thermal infrared spectrum requires the knowledge of the surface temperature distribution. We developed a workflow starting from raw airborne sensor data yielding to a physically-based thermal simulation, which can be used for rendering in the infrared spectrum. The workflow consists of four steps: material classification, mesh generation, material parameter assignment, and thermal simulation. This paper concerns the heat transfer simulation of large scenes. Our thermal model includes the heat transfer types radiation, convection, and conduction in three dimensions within the object and with its environment, i.e. sun and sky in particular. We show that our model can be solved by finite volume method and it shows good agreement with experimental data of the CUBI object. We demonstrate our workflow for sensor data from the City of Melville and produce reasonable results compared to infrared sensor data. For the large scene, the temperature simulation finished in appropriate time of 252 sec. for five day-night cycles

Age-Related Changes of Plasma Bile Acid Concentrations in Healthy Adults—Results from the Cross-Sectional KarMeN Study

Bile acids (BA) play an important role in lipid metabolism. They facilitate intestinal lipid absorption, and BA synthesis is the main catabolic pathway for cholesterol. The objective of this study was to investigate associations of age, sex, diet (fat intake) and parameters of lipid metabolism (triglycerides, LDL, HDL, body fat content) with fasting plasma BA concentration of healthy individuals. Fasting plasma samples from a cross-sectional study were used to determine the concentrations of 14 BA using an LC-MS stable isotope dilution assay. Triglycerides, LDL and HDL were analyzed by standard clinical chemistry methods and body fat content was measured with a DXA instrument. The dietary fat intake of the 24 h period prior to the sampling was assessed on the basis of a 24 h recall. Subsequent statistical data processing was done by means of a median regression model. Results revealed large inter-individual variations. Overall, higher median plasma concentrations of BA were observed in men than in women. Quantile regression showed significant interactions of selected BA with age and sex, affecting primarily chenodeoxycholic acid and its conjugates. No associations were found for LDL and the amount of fat intake (based on the percentage of energy intake from dietary fat as well as total fat intake). Additional associations regarding body fat content, HDL and triglycerides were found for some secondary BA plasma concentrations. We conclude that age and sex are associated with the fasting plasma concentrations. Those associations are significant and need to be considered in studies investigating the role of BA in the human metabolism