DIPL 6403 NA The European Union External Policies

The purpose of this course is to explore the changing role and influence of the European Union (EU) as an international actor on the global stage. The focus is on the EU\u27s external relations with non-member states and non-state actors and its emerging role in world affairs. Since the EU is less than a unitary state actor and more than a conventional international organization, particular attention will be given to the elements of its international “actorness”, decision-making processes, specific policy instruments and impact through an examination of such selected policy areas as (im)migration, development and humanitarian assistance, trade, and the environment More specifically, the aims of the course are to enable students to: develop a conceptual, and practical understanding of the European Union as a distinct and unique international actor in world politics; be cognizant of the role of EU members and non-Union members in the development and exercise of the EU external authority; become familiar with academic and political debates about the workings of EU institutions and decision-making processes through the EU articulates and exerts its external authority; comprehend the problems facing the Union at the beginning of the twenty-first century, especially the implications of enlargement for its international role in the future

In the skies over Sofia:Place(s) in displacement for Syrian women in Bulgaria

This article shows that policy categories such as “refugees” and “migrants” fail to capture the complex reasons why people move during conflict and how they experience place(s) in displacement. Drawing on ethnographic interviews conducted in the summer of 2021, we explore the ways in which three Syrian women, whose lives have been affected by displacement in complex ways, emplace themselves in Sofia. Although policymakers consider Bulgaria a transit country for refugees on the so-called Western Balkan route, some Syrians have stayed after 2011. Their choice can only be understood in the context of longstanding trade and marital migrations encompassing the Mediterranean and its hinterlands, and we thus develop a mobile and dynamic understanding of Syrians’ acts of emplacement: they may be localized in Sofia, but they also unfold against the backdrop of transnational networks. However, we do not romanticize ideas of constant fluidity. Rather, we put place back into displacement, demonstrating that women’s lives and migratory projects are shaped by the places they pass through, and that they leave an imprint on transitory and more permanent homes, workplaces, and neighborhoods in Sofia, with all the tensions and contradictions that this entails.</p

Synthesis and Characterization of Ordered and Disordered Mesoporous Alumina as High-Performance Molybdenum-99 Adsorbents

Molybdenum-99 (99Mo) is the parent radioisotope of technetium-99m (99mTc),an essential medical radioisotope for diagnostic agents in nuclear medicine.In 99Mo/99mTc generator, a chromatography column system with 99Mo adsorbent as afiller is usually used to produce 99mTc in hospitals. However, it is still challenging to find high-performance adsorbentsfor Mo adsorption.We have synthesized both ordered and disordered mesoporous alumina and compared their performance as 99Mo adsorbents. These materials were prepared via a soft-templated method using a triblock copolymer as the template, followed by air calcination at 400°C.The amount of nitric acid (HNO3) and the drying time were adjusted systematically to synthesize the ordered mesoporous alumina. The obtained ordered and disordered mesoporous alumina were characterized by low-and wide-angle X-ray diffractions (XRD), nitrogen adsorption-desorption, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The 99Mo adsorption capacities of these materials were evaluated by using the batch method. The experimental results show that the ordered mesoporous alumina hasa higher 99Mo adsorption capacity of 72.06 mg(Mo)g-1 than the disordered mesoporous alumina (50.12 mg(Mo)g-1). The results indicate the excellent potential of ordered mesoporous alumina as an adsorbent for the 99Mo/99mTc generator column

Κοινωνική καινοτομία και τοπική αυτοδιοίκηση. Μελέτη περίπτωσης: Δήμος Αθηναίων και το έργο συνΑθηνά

Στην παρούσα αναφορά γίνεται ανασκόπηση του ερευνητικού πεδίου της κοινωνικής καινοτομίας με έμφαση στην τοπική αυτοδιοίκηση. Οι κύριοι στόχοι αυτής της μελέτης είναι να διερευνήσει πώς η οικονομική κρίση, οι περιορισμένοι πόροι και η έλλειψη υποδομών κινητοποίησαν την Κοινωνία Πολιτών ως προς την παροχή κρίσιμων κοινωνικών υπηρεσιών στην πόλη και όλο αυτό σε συνεργασία με το δημόσιο και τον ιδιωτικό τομέα να μετουσιωθεί σε έργα κοινωνικής καινοτομίας. Ως μελέτη περίπτωσης αναλύεται ο Δήμος Αθηναίων και το έργο συνΑθηνά.This dissertation analyses the social innovation in Greece and emphasizes in the social innovation initiatives in local government level. Main objectives of this present study are to explore how an economic crisis, the limited resources and the lack of infrastructure has emerged community and citizens activities to deliver critical social services to the city with the cooperation of the public and private sector. Under this Thesis the Municipality of Athens and the synAthina project are analyzed as a case study

Computational Modeling of Solvent Effect on Fluorescence Spectra. Implications to the Fluorescent State Structure

The financial support of the National Science Fund of Bulgaria (Contract DN 19/11, 10.12.2017) is gratefully acknowledged

Design and Photophysics of 2-Vinyl Quinazolin-4-ones

The reported work has been carried out under Contract DN 19/11, 10.12.2017, with the National Science Fund of Bulgaria

Status and Performance of New Silicon Stripixel Detector for the PHENIX Experiment at RHIC: Beta Source, Cosmic-rays and Proton Beam at 120 GeV

We are constructing a Silicon Vertex Tracker detector (VTX) for the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. Our main motivation is to enable measurements of heavy flavor production (charm and beauty) in p+p, p+d and A+A collisions. Such data will illuminate the properties of the matter created in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. The measurements also will reveal the distribution of gluons in protons from p+p collisions. The VTX detector consists of four layers of barrel detectors and covers |eta|< 1.2, and almost a 2pi in azimuth. The inner two silicon barrels consist of silicon pixel sensors; their technology accords with that of the ALICE1LHCB sensor-readout hybrid. The outer two barrels are silicon stripixel detectors with a new "spiral" design, and a single-sided sensor with 2-dimensional (X, U) readout. In this paper, we describe the silicon stripixel detector and discuss its performance, including its response to electrons from a beta source (90Sr), muons from cosmic-rays, and a 120 GeV proton beam. The results from the proton beam demonstrate that the principle of two-dimensional position sensitivity based on charge sharing works; the signal-to-noise value is 10.4, the position resolution is 33.6 um for X-stripixel (35.2 um for U-stripixel), and the tracking efficiencies in the X- and U-stripixels are, over 98.9 +/- 0.2%. The stripixel detector within the VTX project is in the pre-production phase.Comment: Accepted for publication in Journal of Instrumentation (JINST). Invited talk at Pixel 2008 International Workshop, September 23-26, 2008, Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois, U.S.

Hybrid nanoarchitecturing of hierarchical zinc oxide wool-ball-like nanostructures with multi-walled carbon nanotubes for achieving sensitive and selective detection of sulfur dioxide

This work reports a facile glycerol-assisted solvothermal method for synthesizing hierarchical three-dimensional (3D) wool-ball-like zinc oxide (ZnO) nano structures and their subsequent modifications with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as modifiers for achieving sensitive and selective detection of toxic sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas. Structurally, the as-synthesized 3D wool-ball-like ZnO is assembled of two-dimensional (2D) plate-like structures, which themselves are arranged by numerous small nanopartides. Furthermore, in this work we observed an interesting new phenomenon in which when a high concentration of MWCNTs is introduced, many small nanorods grew on the surface of the plate-like structures which assemble the 3D wool-ball-like ZnO nanostructures. When evaluated for SO2 detection, the ZnO/MWCNTs (10:1) composite (ZnO:MWCNTs =10:1) shows a high response of 220.8 to 70 ppm of SO2 gas (approximately three times higher than the response of pure wool-ball-like ZnO) at an optimum operating temperature of 300 degrees C. Additionally, the composite also displays good stability and selectivity to SO2 with the response to 50 ppm of SO2 being 7-14 times higher than the responses to other tested gases at a similar concentration. The excellent sensing performance of the wool-ball-like ZnO/MWCNTs (10:1) composite is mainly attributed to: (i) the formation of p-n heterojunctions at the ZnO/MWCNTs interfaces, which greatly enhance the resistance changes upon exposure to SO2 gas and (ii) the increased amount of adsorption sites for O-2 and SO2 gas molecules owing to the larger surface area of the composite and defects sites generated by the functionalization process of MWCNTs. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

J/psi suppression at forward rapidity in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=39 and 62.4 GeV

We present measurements of the J/psi invariant yields in sqrt(s_NN)=39 and 62.4 GeV Au+Au collisions at forward rapidity (1.2<|y|<2.2). Invariant yields are presented as a function of both collision centrality and transverse momentum. Nuclear modifications are obtained for central relative to peripheral Au+Au collisions (R_CP) and for various centrality selections in Au+Au relative to scaled p+p cross sections obtained from other measurements (R_AA). The observed suppression patterns at 39 and 62.4 GeV are quite similar to those previously measured at 200 GeV. This similar suppression presents a challenge to theoretical models that contain various competing mechanisms with different energy dependencies, some of which cause suppression and others enhancement.Comment: 365 authors, 10 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev. C. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm