The uniting of Europe and the foundation of EU studies: revisiting the neofunctionalism of Ernst B. Haas

This article suggests that the neofunctionalist theoretical legacy left by Ernst B. Haas is somewhat richer and more prescient than many contemporary discussants allow. The article develops an argument for routine and detailed re-reading of the corpus of neofunctionalist work (and that of Haas in particular), not only to disabuse contemporary students and scholars of the normally static and stylized reading that discussion of the theory provokes, but also to suggest that the conceptual repertoire of neofunctionalism is able to speak directly to current EU studies and comparative regionalism. Neofunctionalism is situated in its social scientific context before the theory's supposed erroneous reliance on the concept of 'spillover' is discussed critically. A case is then made for viewing Haas's neofunctionalism as a dynamic theory that not only corresponded to established social scientific norms, but did so in ways that were consistent with disciplinary openness and pluralism

Untersuchungen zur Zuchtstrategie in Schweizer Bio-Braunviehbetrieben

A survey on 1000 organic dairy cattle farms was done to obtain information on the state of breeding affairs in Switzerland. The response of 60% of returned questionnaires was very high. Milk performance data were average for organic as well as for traditionally managed farms. The farmers weighted functional traits to be very important in breeding. The bulls used on organic farms were compared with the bulls used on traditional farms. A total of 25067 organic and 28003 traditional matings of Swiss Braunvieh was analysed. The comparison of breeding values of the sires showed that in the scope of selection strategies the functional traits were not as important. It is concluded that organic farmers persecute an organic breeding strategy but in the particular mating it is not implemented. On one hand the chosen organic breeding strategy has to be reconsidered and on the other hand there seems to be a backlog in consulting and sensitizing the farmers

Order by disorder from non-magnetic impurities in a two-dimensional quantum spin liquid

We consider doping of non-magnetic impurities in the spin-1/2, 1/5-depleted square lattice. This structure, whose undoped phase diagram offers both magnetically ordered and spin-liquid ground states, is realized physically in CaV_4O_9. Doping into the ordered phase results in a progressive loss of order, which becomes complete at the percolation threshold. By contrast, non-magnetic impurities introduced in the spin liquids create a phase of weak but long-ranged antiferromagnetic order coexisting with the gapped state. The latter may be viewed as a true order-by-disorder phenomenon. We study the phase diagram of the doped system by computing the static susceptibility and staggered magnetization using a stochastic series-expansion quantum Monte Carlo technique.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Superconductivity in the Cuprates as a Consequence of Antiferromagnetism and a Large Hole Density of States

We briefly review a theory for the cuprates that has been recently proposed based on the movement and interaction of holes in antiferromagnetic (AF) backgrounds. A robust peak in the hole density of states (DOS) is crucial to produce a large critical temperature once a source of hole attraction is identified. The predictions of this scenario are compared with experiments. The stability of the calculations after modifying some of the original assumptions is addressed. We find that if the dispersion is changed from an antiferromagnetic band at half-filling to a tight binding $cosk_x + cosk_y$ narrow band at $=0.87$, the main conclusions of the approach remain basically the same i.e. superconductivity appears in the $d_{x^2 - y^2}$-channel and $T_c$ is enhanced by a large DOS. The main features distinguishing these ideas from more standard theories based on antiferromagnetic correlations are here discussed.Comment: RevTex, 7 pages, 5 figures are available on reques

Nyquist method for Wigner-Poisson quantum plasmas

By means of the Nyquist method, we investigate the linear stability of electrostatic waves in homogeneous equilibria of quantum plasmas described by the Wigner-Poisson system. We show that, unlike the classical Vlasov-Poisson system, the Wigner-Poisson case does not necessarily possess a Penrose functional determining its linear stability properties. The Nyquist method is then applied to a two-stream distribution, for which we obtain an exact, necessary and sufficient condition for linear stability, as well as to a bump-in-tail equilibrium.Comment: 6 figure

Cost-effectiveness analysis of the New South Wales adult drug court program

In New South Wales, Australia, a cost-effectiveness evaluation was conducted of an adult drug court (ADC) program as an alternative to jail for criminal offenders addicted to illicit drugs. This article describes the program, the cost-effectiveness analysis, and the results. The results of this study reveal that, for the 23-month period of the evaluation, the ADC was as cost-effective as were conventional sanctions in delaying the time to the first offense and more cost-effective in reducing the frequency of offending for those outcome measures selected. Although the evaluation was conducted using the traditional steps of a cost-effectiveness analysis, because of the complexity of the program and data limitations it was not always possible to adhere to textbook procedures. As such, each step involved in undertaking the cost-effectiveness analysis is discussed, highlighting the key issues faced in the evaluation. © 2004 Sage Publications