The global cultural commons after Cancun: identity, diversity and citizenship

The cultural politics of global trade is a new and unexplored terrain because the public domain of culture has long been associated with national sovereignty. States everywhere have invested heavily in national identity. But in an age of globalization, culture and sovereignty have become more complex propositions, subject to global pressures and national constraints. This paper argues three main points. First, new information technologies increasingly destabilize traditional private sector models for disseminating culture. At the same time, international legal rules have become more restrictive with respect to investment and national treatment, two areas at the heart of cultural policy. Second, Doha has significant implications for the future of the cultural commons. Ongoing negotiations around TRIPS, TRIMS, GATS and dispute settlement will impose new restrictions on public authorities who wish to appropriate culture for a variety of public and private ends. Finally, there is a growing backlash against the WTO’s trade agenda for broadening and deepening disciplines in these areas. These issues have become highly politicized and fractious, and are bound to vex future rounds as the global south, led by Brazil, India and China flexes its diplomatic muscle

Flow Regulation of Cryogenic Fluids : Design of a High-Rangeability Control Valve

To control the mass fl ow, the pressure or the temperature in a cryogenic plant, often cryogenic control valves are used. These valves regulate thanks to the axial movement of a throttling element with defi ned geometry, controlled by a pneumatic actuator and an electro-pneumatic positioner. The electro-pneumatic positioner in combination with a pneumatic actuator drives the valve to the position where the needed opening is being realized. The smoother the relationship of the opening vs. the stroke of the valve is, the more precise the positioner can accomplish its task. In particular in the case, when the same valve should be able to operate in several working points (for example cool down, warm up and cold operation) or with different loads of the plant, the opening vs. stroke curve becomes challenging. It demands to cover a high range of regulation values (high rangeability). In extreme cases, the plant may have a smaller valve for the control of low mass fl ows in parallel to a larger valve, because the needed “rangeability” cannot be reached in only one valve. This contribution shows how a high “rangeability” can be reached in order to cover multiple functions with the same valve and shows the comparison of the calculated values with Kv measurements

Experimental validation of a self-calibrating cryogenic mass flowmeter

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the WEKA AG jointly develop a commercial flowmeter for application in helium cryostats. The flowmeter functions according to a new thermal measurement principle that eliminates all systematic uncertainties and enables self-calibration during real operation. Ideally, the resulting uncertainty of the measured flow rate is only dependent on signal noises, which are typically very small with regard to the measured value. Under real operating conditions, cryoplant-dependent flow rate fluctuations induce an additional uncertainty, which follows from the sensitivity of the method. This paper presents experimental results with helium at temperatures between 30 and 70 K and flow rates in the range of 4 to 12 g/s. The experiments were carried out in a control cryostat of the 2 kW helium refrigerator of the TOSKA test facility at KIT. Inside the cryostat, the new flowmeter was installed in series with a Venturi tube that was used for reference measurements. The measurement results demonstrate the self-calibration capability during real cryoplant operation. The influences of temperature and flow rate fluctuations on the self-calibration uncertainty are discussed

Anion Exchange and Catalytic Functionalization of the Zirconium-Based Metal-Organic Framework DUT-67

[EN] A postsynthetic treatment with diluted solutions of the inorganic HCl or H2SO4 acids was applied to functionalize the eight connected Zr-based metal-organic framework DUT-67 (DUT = Dresden University of Technology). During the treatment, it is possible to remove and exchange the pristine modulator (formate) by Cl(-)or SO(4)(2-)anions. The position of the chlorine in the crystal structure of DUT-67 after HCl treatment could be determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Moreover, by means of the acidic treatment the polarity of the network as well as its Bronsted acid strength are increased, which have a crucial impact on the catalytic performance. The improved catalytic activity of the acid-treated materials was demonstrated in the esterification of levulinic acid with ethanol.This project received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant No. 641887 (project acronym: DEFNET). The Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (program "Severo Ochoa"), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project No. MAT2014-52085-C2-1-P), and the German Research Foundation (Project No. KA 1698/19-1) are also acknowledged for financial support.Drache, F.; García Cirujano, F.; Nguyen, KD.; Bon, V.; Senkovska, I.; Llabrés I Xamena, FX.; Kaskel, S. (2018). Anion Exchange and Catalytic Functionalization of the Zirconium-Based Metal-Organic Framework DUT-67. Crystal Growth & Design. 18(9):5492-5500. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.8b00832S5492550018

Alkaline-earth phosphonate MOFs with reversible hydration-dependent fluorescence

A new rigid tritopic phosphonic ligand, 2,4,6-tris(4-phosphonophenyl)pyridine (H6L), was synthesized and used to assemble isostructural barium (1) and strontium (2) phosphonate metal organic frameworks that exhibit fully reversible and selective water-dependent fluorescence red-shift at room temperature

The Global Cultural Commons after Cancun: Identity, Diversity and Citizenship

The cultural politics of global trade is a new and unexplored terrain because the public domain of culture has long been associated with national sovereignty. States everywhere have invested heavily in national identity. But in an age of globalization, culture and sovereignty have become more complex propositions, subject to global pressures and national constraints. This paper argues three main points. First, new information technologies increasingly destabilize traditional private sector models for disseminating culture. At the same time, international legal rules have become more restrictive with respect to investment and national treatment, two areas at the heart of cultural policy. Second, Doha has significant implications for the future of the cultural commons. Ongoing negotiations around TRIPS, TRIMS, GATS and dispute settlement will impose new restrictions on public authorities who wish to appropriate culture for a variety of public and private ends. Finally, there is a growing backlash against the WTO\u27s trade agenda for broadening and deepening disciplines in these areas. These issues have become highly politicized and fractious, and are bound to vex future rounds as the global south, led by Brazil, India and China flexes its diplomatic muscle

An Empirical Analysis of why the WTO is Broken and cannot be Fixed – yet

This article empirically examines the WTO’s dispute settlement performance over the past decade. Dispute settlement is the most significant deliverable of WTO governance and embodies all that is both problematic and progressive about that international institution. The article analyzes a number of important and unforeseen institutional consequences of the shift from an informal GATT mechanism to the mandatory norms and processes of WTO litigation. The rise to prominence of antidumping trade remedy action, a retaliatory dynamic of dispute settlement and the continued dominance of developed countries at the Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM) has contributed greatly to the current negotiating deadlock.Cet article examine du point de vue empirique la façon dont l’Organisation Mondiale du Commerce (OMC) a géré les différends entre ses membres au cours de la dernière décennie. Un des éléments-clés de cette politique interne a été l’ « Organe de règlement des différends » (ORD) qui représente un des acquis réels de l’OMC dont les procédés restent en même temps largement déterminés par les pays développés. L’article en arrive à la conclusion que ce manque d’équilibre entre ces derniers d’une part et les pays en développement d’autre part est la raison principale de l’échec des négociations du cycle de Doha.Der Aufsatz stellt eine empirische Untersuchung der Streitschlichtungspraxis der WHO innerhalb der letzten zehn Jahre dar. Das Streitschlichtungsverfahren ist die bemerkenswerteste Leistung der WHO-Politik und erhellt zugleich den zukunftsweisenden wie den problematischen Aspekt dieser Institution. Der Artikel untersucht eine Reihe wichtiger, aber unvorhergesehener Konsequenzen des Übergangs von dem informellen GATT-Mechanismus zu dem förmlichen, prozedural geregelten Streitschlichtungsverfahren der WHO. Das Überhandnehmen von Antidumping-Verfahren, die Tendenz zu Vergeltungsstrategien sowie die anhaltende Dominanz der Industrieländer innerhalb der Streitschlichtungsverfahren haben entscheidend zur gegenwärtigen Blockierung der WHO beigetragen