Reverse Balkanisation? Trade Integration in South-East Europe. CEPS Working Document, No. 249, 11 August 2006

Recent research from the World Bank and elsewhere suggests that openness to trade was a vital ingredient in the transition of the former Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) that joined the EU in May 2004. Current EU association agreements in South East Europe indicate that future enlargements may need to accommodate the remaining former Yugoslav Republics as well as the existing candidate countries. This paper examines persistent concerns that trade openness in South East Europe generally, and the former Yugoslav Republics in particular, is much less advanced than it was for the former CEECs in the mid to late 1990s. In particular we examine the issue of whether the present network of bilateral trade arrangements put in place under the Stability Pact has had much effect in boosting trade integration and whether trade within the region is currently at or below its potential. Given the small size of many of the countries in the region, we find that trade patterns remain problematic. In some cases they are smaller than might be expected but in several cases there is an overdependence on trade with old Yugoslav neighbours. In view of this, we consider that current plans to extend the Stability Pact matrix of bilateral trade agreements into a pan-regional trade association are likely to be inadequate. A better option, and one more likely to have a more immediate effect, would be to extend the present Customs Union with Turkey to include trade with the entire South East European zone of countries linked to the EU

The fall of Doha and the rise of regionalism? CEPS Policy Brief No. 111, September 2006

The indefinite prorogation of the WTO’s Doha trade talks in July suggests that the global appetite for multilateralism may now be seriously weakened. In this new Policy Brief, CEPS Senior Research Fellow David Kernohan and T. Huw Edwards of Loughborough University look at how a failed or significantly delayed Doha round (say till 2009 at the earliest) could affect the scope and structure of any eventual WTO deal. In particular, if a rise in regionalism in the interim is inevitable, they ask whether the EU should reassess its regional trade policy objectives? A move from a multilateral focus to a twinned regional-multilateral trade policy stance will have consequences, both for practical reasons of EC ‘institutional capacity’ and for strategic reasons, in terms of choice of partner/s. Either way, tough decisions will have to be made. Wherever possible, the authors argue that these tactical choices should be preceded by careful technical analysis of the choice of regional partners and trading groups, as well as on traditional ‘diplomatic’ methods of trade partner selection

Comparison of calculated and measured lower critical field for some Nb-Ti alloys

Calculation of lower critical fields and comparison with measured values for some niobium-titanium alloy

Improvement of Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) Documentation in Home Care to Boost Medicare Star Rating

The aim of this CNL Internship Project is to improve the admission and discharge assessments of a home care agency in order to boost agency’s star ratings. The project is being carried out within a home care agency in Northern California. The multidisciplinary team provides services in the patients’ place of residence, an ever-changing setting. The project follows a train-the trainer approach beginning with self-paced learning of the OASIS format. The trainee will conduct an admission, also known as start of care (SOC), assessment followed by trainer critique and advisement. Establishing a rapport early will aid the assessment process. Face-to-face assessment follows a review of systems that includes both interview and observation. This project has experienced many stopgaps due to scheduling constraints. An unexpected challenge has been the reluctance of staff to participate. This project is ongoing therefore no results are available to evaluate at this time. Given the many moving parts related to the star rating it will likely be at least a year before they reflect this projects’ efforts. As an application in healthcare reform the OASIS is still relatively new. Research on its overall impact on the delivery of care is limited. CMS representatives state the implications star rating may have for future reimbursement and encourage OASIS training, however no evidence-based practice can be found on how home care agencies can best approach OASIS and its anticipated revisions

Sift

Sift is a suite of drawings that serves as a personal record of a long hike in Iceland. Through an exploration of sediment as a metaphor, and the use of sedimentation as a drawing process, I am sifting through matter and what it means to be working with landscape, nature-based imagery, and a Romantic disposition in the twenty-first century. My work investigates how sentimental longing and personal recollections of the landscape can present an individual perspective on the world, and how the projection of memory in order to gain an understanding of encounters with one’s environment and personal recollections are small but political gestures that express the relationship individuals have with the world around them

The effects of exercise

Citation: Kernohan, Helen. The effects of exercise. Senior thesis, Kansas State Agricultural College, 1904.Morse Department of Special CollectionsIntroduction: We find that exercise not only causes the muscles to become larger but makes them healthier and being thus they can to a better advantage preform their work. Also all the vital organs are kept in working order and the body being, in such a sound condition cannot help but contain a well developed mind. Thus exercise is found to be one of the essentials to long livety and endurance