The Coming Multi-Order World

The article shows that the current international system is changing towards a completely new form of international system, conceptualized as a multi-order system. The suggestion for a multi-order world stands in contrast to three current narratives about the future global order expressed through a multipolar narrative; a multi-partner narrative and a multi-culture narrative. The article demonstrates that although each narrative points to a plausible future, neither fully captures what lies ahead. Using English School concepts such as order, international society, international system and primary and secondary institutions, the article reveals a conception of the coming international system as a system consisting of several different ‘orders’ (or international societies) nested within an overall international system. In the coming ‘multi-order world’, the liberal order will continue, and may even be strengthened internally, but its global reach will be a thing of the past. Moreover, the challenge in a multi-order world will be to forge new forms of relationships between composite and diverse actors across complex lines of division and convergence. Scholars and policy-makers should note that the coming multi-order world will be radically different, requiring new thinking and new institutions and the acceptance of diversity in both power and principle

Preparing for NATO’s Warsaw Summit: The Challenges of Adapting to Strategic Change

This report is about how NATO might adapt to a shifting strategic environment. The strategic environment that is currently unfolding seems likely to be characterized by complexity and increased diversity in both power and principle. The report focuses on how the Alliance needs to respond to the on-going changes by moving forward at the upcoming Warsaw Summit from the decisions taken at the September 2014 summit in Wales. The report starts from the premise that, although the decisions taken in Wales were important and long overdue, they are not sufficient to facilitate NATO’s continued adaptation to a fundamentally changed strategic environment. The challenge for NATO in the future will be to find a way to contribute to European and global security in a strategic environment in which the Alliance and ‘the West’ have a diminished role among new and (re)-emerging actors and in which liberal values and Western principles for order-making can no longer be assumed to be universal. The report suggests that NATO should assume the development of a future strategic environment that can best be described as a ‘multi-order world’. NATO should prepare for such a multi-order world by collective defence initiatives from the Wales Summit and by revitalizing NATO’s partnership policy. The report suggests that ‘going back to basics’ by concentrating on collective defense would be an inappropriate response, as the new strategic environment requires the Alliance to undertake change in all of its three core tasks if it is to remain relevant in a ‘multi-order world’

The CERN Detector Safety System for the LHC Experiments

The Detector Safety System (DSS), currently being developed at CERN under the auspices of the Joint Controls Project (JCOP), will be responsible for assuring the protection of equipment for the four LHC experiments. Thus, the DSS will require a high degree of both availability and reliability. After evaluation of various possible solutions, a prototype is being built based on a redundant Siemens PLC front-end, to which the safety-critical part of the DSS task is delegated. This is then supervised by a PVSS SCADA system via an OPC server. The PLC front-end is capable of running autonomously and of automatically taking predefined protective actions whenever required. The supervisory layer provides the operator with a status display and with limited online reconfiguration capabilities. Configuration of the code running in the PLCs will be completely data driven via the contents of a "Configuration Database". Thus, the DSS can easily adapt to the different and constantly evolving requirements of the LHC experiments during their construction, commissioning and exploitation phases.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP03), La Jolla, Ca, USA, March 2003, 5 pages, PDF. PSN THGT00

Rapid characterization of the ultraviolet induced fiber Bragg grating complex coupling coefficient as a function of irradiance and exposure time

We report the application of optical frequency domain reflectometry and a discrete-layer-peeling inverse scattering algorithm to the spatial characterization of the UV induced complex coupling coefficient during fiber Bragg grating growth. The fiber grating is rapidly characterized using this technique to give irradiance dependent growth as a function of exposure time, thereby providing the complete characterization of the coupling coefficient in the form of a "growth surface," which is related to the fiber's photosensitivity. We compare measurements of fiber Bragg grating growth in SMF-28 when exposed to continuous wave 244 nm irradiation from 0 to 90 W cm(-2) for exposure times up to 3230 s with a selection of other fibers including high germanium concentration fiber and erbium doped fiber. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America

Efficient large-scale multiplexing of fiber Bragg grating and fiber Fabry-Perot sensors for structural health monitoring applications

Fiber Bragg gratings have been demonstrated as a versatile sensor for structural health monitoring. We present an efficient and cost effective multiplexing method for fiber Bragg grating and fiber Fabry-Perot sensors based on a broadband mode-locked fiber laser source and interferometric interrogation. The broadband, pulsed laser source permits time and wavelength division multiplexing to be employed to achieve very high sensor counts. Interferometric interrogation also permits high strain resolutions over large frequency ranges to be achieved. The proposed system has the capability to interrogate several hundred fiber Bragg gratings or fiber Fabry-Perot sensors on a single fiber, whilst achieving sub-microstrain resolution over bandwidths greater than 100 kHz. Strain resolutions of 30n epsilon/Hz(1/2) and 2 n epsilon/Hz(1/2) are demonstrated with the fiber Bragg grating and fiber Fabry-Perot sensor respectively. The fiber Fabry-Perot sensor provides an increase in the strain resolution over the fiber Bragg grating sensor of greater than a factor of 10. The fiber Bragg gratings are low reflectivity and could be fabricated during the fiber draw process providing a cost effective method for array fabrication. This system would find applications in several health monitoring applications where large sensor counts are necessary, in particular acoustic emission

Frequency response of underwater ultrasonic transducers in the near field using polarimetric polarization maintaining fiber sensors

Near-field ultrasonic response (50-2000 kHz) of an underwater 1-3 piezocomposite transducer is experimentally investigated using a polarimetric polarization maintaining fiber sensor. Measured outputs from our sensor and a reference hydrophone are observed to be comparable

Instrumented transducer for study of the bat echolocation process

Evolution has enabled the bat to echolocate with ease and efficiency, to the extent that the bats capabilities far exceed the most technologically advanced manmade systems. Such capabilities reinforce mans intrigue in the animal kingdom. In studying bats we aspire to quantify and understand their inherent skills in the hope of transferring them to engineering systems. In trying to further our understanding of the animal kingdom it is often the case that we try to replicate or mimic what the animal is doing. In terms of echolocation it is thought that a bat emits a signal and retains memory of an exact copy to be used in conjunction with the returning echo to reveal information about the target. To emulate the vocalisation and auditory system of a bat it is necessary to both accurately generate and detect sound waves

MEMS-actuated wavelength drop filter based on microsphere whispering gallery modes

MEMS-enabled tuneable optical coupling between optical microsphere resonators and optical fibre waveguides is reported. We describe the design, fabrication and experimental characterization of a MEMS platform, based on electrothermal actuators, which controls the resonator-to-waveguide separation. We compare the simulated and experimental displacements of the actuators in an unloaded and loaded state, where the load is a 1 mm optical spherical resonator. We then demonstrate the proof of concept application of selective wavelength dropping using the MEMS platform by modulating the coupling between the spherical resonator and a tapered optical fibre waveguide