2,154 research outputs found
Do Governments Sway European Court of Justice Decision-making?: Evidence from Government Court Briefs
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is commonly described as a powerful international force for legal integration. Indeed, past studies indicate that the ECJ has developed a supranational legal order that trumps national law in a broad range of economic policy areas. But this depiction of an autonomous Court driving European integration beyond the desires of the member-states is dubious. We would expect the Court, whose existence depends on an international treaty and whose authority depends on national enforcement, to have strong incentives to decide cases with an eye to concerns of national governments. We argue that past studies -- which were based on a small number of case studies -- cannot demonstrate whether the Court is or is not sensitive to member-state interests. Based on novel dataset of all ECJ decisions over three years, we develop an empirical test of member-state influence on ECJ decisions and demonstrate that the Court does temper its decisions to accommodate member-state concerns.
Elemental Abundances in NGC 3516
We present RGS data from an XMM-Newton observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy
NGC 3516, taken while the continuum source was in an extreme low state. The
spectrum shows numerous emission lines including the H-like lines of C, N and O
and the He-like lines of N, O and Ne. These data show that the N lines are far
stronger than would be expected from gas of solar abundances. Based on our
photoionization models, we find that N is overabundant compared to C, O and Ne
by at least a factor of 2.5. We suggest this is the result of secondary
production of N in intermediate mass stars, and indicative of the history of
star formation in NGC 3516.Comment: 19 pages, 3 color figures. ApJ in pres
National Party Politics and Supranational Politics in the European Union: New Evidence from the European Parliament
Political parties play an important role in structuring political competition at different levels of governance in the European Union (EU). The political parties that contest national elections also participate in the EU legislative institutions, with the governing parties at the national level participating in the Council of Ministers and a broad range of national parties represented in the European Parliament (EP). Recent research indicates that national parties in the EP have formed ideological coalitions -- party groups -- that represent transnational political interests. These party groups appear to manage legislative behavior such that national interests -- which dominate the Council of Ministers -- are subjugated to ideological conflict. In this paper, we demonstrate that the roll-call vote evidence for the impact of party groups in the EP is misleading. Because party groups have incentives to select votes for roll call so as to hide or feature particular voting patterns, the true character of political conflict is never revealed in roll calls.
Mariner c-64- trapped radiation detector, unit 25 final engineering report, 17 may 1963 - 30 dec. 1964
Trapped radiation detector for Mariner C progra
The (In)Effectiveness of Incentives - A Field Experiment on the Adoption of Personal Electronic Health Records
Medication errors are the third-leading cause of death in the US; however, a large number of these cases could be prevented through better medication management. The aging population and the associated high number of individuals taking multiple medications regularly makes medication management even more important. Personal electronic health records (PHRs) can improve medication management significantly and thus increase patient safety. Despite unequivocal benefits for individuals, healthcare professionals, governments, insurers, and employers, the adoption rate of PHRs remains low. Therefore, we seek to identify measures that motivate individuals to adopt PHRs. Drawing on justice theory, we show that incentives in terms of personalization, as well as the signal of fair information practices, increase the adoption rate of PHRs. These effects are mediated by perceived benefits and privacy concerns, respectively. Based on counterintuitive findings on the effects of monetary compensation we start a discussion on the complexity and context-dependency of different incentives
A 10 kpc Scale Seyfert Galaxy Outflow: HST/COS Observations of IRAS F22456-5125
We present analysis of the UV-spectrum of the low-z AGN IRAS-F22456-5125
obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space
Telescope. The spectrum reveals six main kinematic components, spanning a range
of velocities of up to 800 km s-1, which for the first time are observed in
troughs associated with CII, CIV, NV, SiII, SiIII, SiIV and SIV. We also obtain
data on the OVI troughs, which we compare to those available from an earlier
FUSE epoch. Column densities measured from these ions allow us to derive a
well-constrained photoionization solution for each outflow component. Two of
these kinematic components show troughs associated with transitions from
excited states of SiII\ and CII. The number density inferred from these
troughs, in combination with the deduced ioinization parameter, allows us to
determine the distance to these outflow components from the central source. We
find these components to be at a distance of ~ 10 kpc. The distances and the
number densities derived are consistent with the outflow being part of a
galactic wind.Comment: 52 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ March 25, 201
One dimensional chain of quantum molecule motors as a mathematical physics model for muscle fibre
A quantum chain model of many molecule motors is proposed as a mathematical
physics theory on the microscopic modeling of classical force-velocity relation
and tension transients of muscle fibre. We proposed quantum many-particle
Hamiltonian to predict the force-velocity relation for the slow release of
muscle fibre which has no empirical relation yet, it is much more complicate
than hyperbolic relation. Using the same Hamiltonian, we predicted the
mathematical force-velocity relation when the muscle is stimulated by
alternative electric current. The discrepancy between input electric frequency
and the muscle oscillation frequency has a physical understanding by Doppler
effect in this quantum chain model. Further more, we apply quantum physics
phenomena to explore the tension time course of cardiac muscle and insect
flight muscle. Most of the experimental tension transients curves found their
correspondence in the theoretical output of quantum two-level and three-level
model. Mathematically modeling electric stimulus as photons exciting a quantum
three-level particle reproduced most tension transient curves of water bug
Lethocerus Maximus.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, Arguments are adde
The AGN Outflow in the HDFS Target QSO J2233-606 from a High-Resolution VLT/UVES Spectrum
We present a detailed analysis of the intrinsic UV absorption in the central
HDFS target QSO J2233-606, based on a high-resolution, high S/N (~25 -- 50)
spectrum obtained with VLT/UVES. This spectrum samples the cluster of intrinsic
absorption systems outflowing from the AGN at radial velocities v ~ -5000 --
-3800 km/s in the key far-UV diagnostic lines - the lithium-like CNO doublets
and H I Lyman series. We fit the absorption troughs using a global model of all
detected lines to solve for the independent velocity-dependent covering factors
of the continuum and emission-line sources and ionic column densities. This
reveals increasing covering factors in components with greater outflow
velocity. Narrow substructure is revealed in the optical depth profiles,
suggesting the relatively broad absorption is comprised of a series of multiple
components. We perform velocity-dependent photoionization modeling, which
allows a full solution to the C, N, and O abundances, as well as the velocity
resolved ionization parameter and total column density. The absorbers are found
to have supersolar abundances, with [C/H] and [O/H] ~0.5 -- 0.9, and [N/H] ~
1.1 -- 1.3, consistent with enhanced nitrogen production expected from
secondary nucleosynthesis processes. Independent fits to each kinematic
component give consistent results for the abundances. The lowest-ionization
material in each of the strong absorbers is modeled with similar ionization
parameters. Components of higher-ionization (indicated by stronger O VI
relative to C IV and N V) are present at velocities just redward of each
low-ionization absorber. We explore the implications of these results for the
kinematic-geometric-ionization structure of the outflow.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, emulateapj, accepted for publication in Ap
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