896 research outputs found
Enhancing centralized enforcement of EU law : Pandora's toolbox ?
State compliance with EU Law is crucial to the very existence of the Union. Traditionally, it has been secured through a combination of strong "private" and of weak "centralized" enforcement. However, this arrangement is no longer perceived to be sufficient. By endowing the Union with new tools vis-à-vis its Member States - penalties, conditionality, and the like - current reforms try to complement symbolic sanctioning with real "consequences". The goal is to reinforce the authority of EU Law. In this article, we question whether the new toolbox is fit for the purpose, or whether it risks to produce adverse effects which might even go as far as upsetting the Union's constitutional template
Diffusion of energetic particles in turbulent MHD plasmas
In this paper we investigate the transport of energetic particles in
turbulent plasmas. A numerical approach is used to simulate the effect of the
background plasma on the motion of energetic protons. The background plasma is
in a dynamically turbulent state found from numerical MHD simulations, where we
use parameters typical for the heliosphere. The implications for the transport
parameters (i.e. pitch-angle diffusion coefficients and mean free path) are
calculated and deviations from the quasi-linear theory are discussed.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Transport of Cosmic Rays in Chaotic Magnetic Fields
The transport of charged particles in disorganised magnetic fields is an
important issue which concerns the propagation of cosmic rays of all energies
in a variety of astrophysical environments, such as the interplanetary,
interstellar and even extra-galactic media, as well as the efficiency of Fermi
acceleration processes. We have performed detailed numerical experiments using
Monte-Carlo simulations of particle propagation in stochastic magnetic fields
in order to measure the parallel and transverse spatial diffusion coefficients
and the pitch angle scattering time as a function of rigidity and strength of
the turbulent magnetic component. We confirm the extrapolation to high
turbulence levels of the scaling predicted by the quasi-linear approximation
for the scattering frequency and parallel diffusion coefficient at low
rigidity. We show that the widely used Bohm diffusion coefficient does not
provide a satisfactory approximation to diffusion even in the extreme case
where the mean field vanishes. We find that diffusion also takes place for
particles with Larmor radii larger than the coherence length of the turbulence.
We argue that transverse diffusion is much more effective than predicted by the
quasi-linear approximation, and appears compatible with chaotic magnetic
diffusion of the field lines. We provide numerical estimates of the Kolmogorov
length and magnetic line diffusion coefficient as a function of the level of
turbulence. Finally we comment on applications of our results to astrophysical
turbulence and the acceleration of high energy cosmic rays in supernovae
remnants, in super-bubbles, and in jets and hot spots of powerful
radio-galaxies.Comment: To be published in Physical Review D, 20 pages 9 figure
Census politics in deeply divided societies
Population censuses in societies that are deeply divided along ethnic, religious or linguistic lines can be sensitive affairs – particularly where political settlements seek to maintain peace through the proportional sharing of power between groups. This brief sets out some key findings from a research project investigating the relationship between census politics and the design of political institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kenya, Lebanon and Northern Ireland
SmartEx: a case study on user profiling and adaptation in exhibition booths
An investigation into user profiling and adaptation with exhibition booth as a case study is reported. First a review of the field of exhibitions and trade fairs and a summary introduction to adaptation and profiling are given. We then introduce three criteria for the evaluation of exhibition booth: effectiveness, efficiency and affect. Effectiveness is related the amount of information collected, efficiency is a measurement of the time taken to collect the information, and affect is the perception of the experience and the mood booth visitors have during and after their visit. We have selected these criteria to assess adaptive and profiled exhibition booths, we call smart exhibition (SmartEx). The assessment is performed with an experiment with three test conditions (non-profiled/non adaptive, profiled/non-adaptive and profiled adaptive presentations). Results of the experiment are presented along discussion. While there is significant improvements of effectiveness and efficiency between the two-first test conditions, the improvement is not significant for the last test condition, for reasons explained. As for the affect, the results show that it has an under-estimated importance in people minds and that it should be addressed more carefully
Further investigation of a relic neutralino as a possible origin of an annual-modulation effect in WIMP direct search
We analyze the annual-modulation effect, measured by the DAMA Collaboration
with the new implementation of a further two-years running, in the context of a
possible interpretation in terms of relic neutralinos. We impose over the set
of supersymmetric configurations, selected by the annual-modulation data, the
constraints derived from WIMP indirect measurements, and discuss the features
of the ensuing relic neutralinos. We critically discuss the sources of the main
theoretical uncertainties in the analysis of event rates for direct and
indirect WIMP searches.Comment: 29 pages, 12 figures, typeset with ReVTeX. In order to reduce size,
the version on the archive has low resolution figures. A full version of the
paper can be found at http://www.to.infn.it/~fornengo/papers
Dependence of direct neutron capture on nuclear-structure models
The prediction of cross sections for nuclei far off stability is crucial in
the field of nuclear astrophysics. We calculate direct neutron capture on the
even-even isotopes Sn and Pb with energy levels,
masses, and nuclear density distributions taken from different
nuclear-structure models. The utilized structure models are a
Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov model, a relativistic mean field theory, and a
macroscopic-microscopic model based on the finite-range droplet model and a
folded-Yukawa single-particle potential. Due to the differences in the
resulting neutron separation and level energies, the investigated models yield
capture cross sections sometimes differing by orders of magnitude. This may
also lead to differences in the predicted astrophysical r-process paths.
Astrophysical implications are discussed.Comment: 25 pages including 12 figures, RevTeX, to appear in Phys. Rev.
?We all Black innit??: Analysing relations between African and African-Caribbean groups in Britain
‘We all Black innit?’ examines ‘intra ethnic’ relationships between second and third generation members of British African and British African Caribbean groups, located in two key urban settings (London and Birmingham). Through unstructured interviews, it explores ways in which positive informal/formal ‘race based coalitions’ (Rogers 2004), have been forged, partly as a result of supporting and celebrating each other’s contributions to professionality (e.g education and work), and popular culture (e.g music and sports). Moreover, it discusses how members of these generations have come to embrace difference and commonalities in terms of ‘histories language and culture’ (Hall 1988:5), and the role of ‘pan ethnicity’ in facilitating these positive relationships. There is, however, acknowledgement of ‘intra ethnic’ tensions existing between these groups, largely resulting from historical (and often negative) stereotypes of each other’s cultural attributes (Mwakigale 2009, Fanon 1952), and competition for scare socio-economic resources, intensified by allocation along colour or ethnic lines (Malik 2012). The findings suggest that although this appears to have been a greater issue for migrant generations who arrived in Britain, especially between the post war era and the 1980s, to an extent it has impacted on ‘intra ethnic’ relations between the second and third generations. In the main, however, it would seem that the mutual respect between younger generations of British African and British African Caribbean people, has grown with time
The EU’s stability-democracy dilemma in the context of the problematic accession of the Western Balkan states
The accession of the remaining six Western Balkan states into the EU is shrouded in much uncertainty. Despite Croatia finally traversing the difficult path to eventual membership in 2013, not one of the remaining Western Balkan countries can claim to be on a definite pathway to membership today. An increasingly prevalent argument is that the EU’s engagement with its neighbourhoods has faltered because its strategies have been undermined by an inherent stability-democracy dilemma. This article examines the EU’s engagement with the Western Balkans and finds that although the EU tried to transcend this dilemma, in reality, a tension between stability and democracy was present with the former generally receiving more attention in policymaking. This led to not only a lack of tangible democratization amongst the Western Balkan states, but further uncertainty about their accession prospects. By 2018, it was clear that the EU’s engagement with the Western Balkans needed a rethink, resulting in a new approach: the ‘Six Flagship Initiatives’. However, given the apprehensiveness of some member states (especially France) coupled with the presence of outsiders such as Russia and China in the area, the accession prospects of the six non-EU Western Balkan states remains blurred
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