The New Political Economy of EU State Aid Policy

Despite its importance and singularity, the EU’s state aid policy has attracted less scholarly attention than other elements of EU competition policy. Introducing the themes addressed by the special issue, this article briefly reviews the development of EU policy and highlights why the control of state aid matters. The Commission’s response to the current economic crisis notably in banking and the car industry is a key concern, but the interests of the special issue go far beyond. They include: the role of the European Commission in the development of EU policy, the politics of state aid, and a clash between models of capitalism. The special issue also examines the impact of EU policy. It investigates how EU state aid decisions affect not only industrial policy at the national level (and therefore at the EU level), but the welfare state and territorial relations within federal member states, the external implications of EU action and the strategies pursued by the Commission to limit any potential disadvantage to European firms, and the conflict between the EU’s expanding legal order and national

Major decline in malaria morbidity and mortality in the Union of Comoros between 2010 and 2014: The effect of a combination of prevention and control measures

Background. Malaria remains a public health challenge in sub-Saharan Africa. In response to this, many countries are working towards achieving the World Health Assembly and Roll Back Malaria Partnership target of a 75% decline in malaria incidence.Objective. To assess trends in malaria morbidity and mortality in the three islands of the Comoros Archipelago from 2010 to 2014.Methods. This was a retrospective study in which all confirmed malaria cases and deaths recorded between 2010 and 2014 were accessed from the national malaria control database. Trends and comparisons in malaria incidence and case fatality rates for all age groups, including under-5 children and pregnant women, were analysed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS version 16.Results. A substantial decline in malaria incidence was observed for each island between 2010 and 2014; from 75.98 cases per 1 000 population in 2010 to 0.14 in 2014 in Moheli, 60.60 to 0.02 in Anjouan and 235.36 to 5.47 in Grand Comoro. Additionally, a general reduction in malaria case fatalities was observed. In Moheli, there were no case fatalities between 2010 and 2014, while there was a decline in the case fatality rate in Anjouan (from 1.20 fatalities per 1 000 cases to 0) and Grand Comoros (0.51 to 0). There were also significant differences (p<0.05) in malaria incidence and case fatalities between the three islands. A similar trend was observed for pregnant women and under-5 children.Conclusion. Our study indicates a significant decline in malaria morbidity and  mortality in the islands of Moheli, Anjouan and Grand Comoro from 2010 to 2014. This considerable reduction is attributed to a combination of malaria prevention and control interventions implemented during the study period

A Low Frequency Survey of the Galactic Plane Near l=11 degrees: Discovery of Three New Supernova Remnants

We have imaged a 1 deg^2 field centered on the known Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) G11.2-0.3 at 74, 330, and 1465 MHz with the Very Large Array radio telescope (VLA) and 235 MHz with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). The 235, 330, and 1465 MHz data have a resolution of 25 arcsec, while the 74 MHz data have a resolution of 100 arcsec. The addition of this low frequency data has allowed us to confirm the previously reported low frequency turnover in the radio continuum spectra of the two known SNRs in the field: G11.2-0.3 and G11.4-0.1 with unprecedented precision. Such low frequency turnovers are believed to arise from free-free absorption in ionized thermal gas along the lines of site to the SNRs. Our data suggest that the 74 MHz optical depths of the absorbing gas is 0.56 and 1.1 for G11.2-0.3 and G11.4-0.1, respectively. In addition to adding much needed low frequency integrated flux measurements for two known SNRs, we have also detected three new SNRs: G11.15-0.71, G11.03-0.05, and G11.18+0.11. These new SNRs have integrated spectral indices between -0.44 and -0.80. Because of confusion with thermal sources, the high resolution (compared to previous Galactic radio frequency surveys) and surface brightness sensitivity of our observations have been essential to the identification of these new SNRs. With this study we have more than doubled the number of SNRs within just a 1 deg^2 field of view in the inner Galactic plane. This result suggests that future low frequency observations of the Galactic plane of similar quality may go a long way toward alleviating the long recognized incompleteness of Galactic SNR catalogs.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures. Figure 7 is in color. Accepted to A

Evidence for a Weak Galactic Center Magnetic Field from Diffuse Low Frequency Nonthermal Radio Emission

New low-frequency 74 and 330 MHz observations of the Galactic center (GC) region reveal the presence of a large-scale (6\arcdeg\times 2\arcdeg) diffuse source of nonthermal synchrotron emission. A minimum energy analysis of this emission yields a total energy of $\sim (\phi^{4/7}f^{3/7})\times 10^{52}$ ergs and a magnetic field strength of $\sim 6(\phi/f)^{2/7}$ \muG (where $\phi$ is the proton to electron energy ratio and $f$ is the filling factor of the synchrotron emitting gas). The equipartition particle energy density is $1.2(\phi/f)^{2/7}$ \evcm, a value consistent with cosmic-ray data. However, the derived magnetic field is several orders of magnitude below the 1 mG field commonly invoked for the GC. With this field the source can be maintained with the SN rate inferred from the GC star formation. Furthermore, a strong magnetic field implies an abnormally low GC cosmic-ray energy density. We conclude that the mean magnetic field in the GC region must be weak, of order 10 \muG (at least on size scales \ga 125\arcsec).Comment: 12 pages, 1 JPEG figure, uses aastex.sty; Accepted for publication, ApJL (2005, published

Low-Frequency Radio Transients in the Galactic Center

We report the detection of a new radio transient source, GCRT J1746-2757, located only 1.1 degrees north of the Galactic center. Consistent with other radio transients toward the Galactic center, this source brightened and faded on a time scale of a few months. No X-ray counterpart was detected. We also report new 0.33 GHz measurements of the radio counterpart to the X-ray transient source, XTE J1748-288, previously detected and monitored at higher radio frequencies. We show that the spectrum of XTE J1748-288 steepened considerably during a period of a few months after its peak. We also discuss the need for a more efficient means of finding additional radio transients

Discovery of 35 New Supernova Remnants in the Inner Galaxy

We report the discovery of up to 35 new supernova remnants (SNRs) from a 42 arcsec resolution 90cm multi-configuration Very Large Array survey of the Galactic plane covering 4.5 deg< l <22.0 deg and |b| < 1.25 deg. Archival 20cm, 11cm, and 8 micron data have also been used to identify the SNRs and constrain their properties. The 90cm image is sensitive to SNRs with diameters 2.5 arcmin to 50 arcmin and down to a surface brightness limit of about 10^{-21} W m^{-2} Hz^{-1} sr^{-1}. This survey has nearly tripled the number of SNRs known in this part of the Galaxy, and represents an overall 15% increase in the total number of Galactic SNRs. These results suggest that further deep low frequency surveys of the inner Galaxy will solve the discrepancy between the expected number of Galactic SNRs and the significantly smaller number of currently known SNRs.Comment: 5 pages; Accepted to ApJL, high resolution figures available from http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~cbrogan/high_res

Measuring the Small-Scale Power Spectrum of Cosmic Density Fluctuations Through 21 cm Tomography Prior to the Epoch of Structure Formation

The thermal evolution of the cosmic gas decoupled from that of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at a redshift z~200. Afterwards and before the first stars had formed, the cosmic neutral hydrogen absorbed the CMB flux at its resonant 21cm spin-flip transition. We calculate the evolution of the spin temperature for this transition and the resulting anisotropies that are imprinted on the CMB sky due to linear density fluctuations during this epoch. These anisotropies at an observed wavelength of 10.56[(1+z)/50] meters, contain an amount of information that is orders of magnitude larger than any other cosmological probe. Their detection, although challenging, could tightly constrain any possible running of the spectral index from inflation (as suggested by WMAP), small deviations from Gaussianity, or any significant contribution from neutrinos or warm dark matter to the cosmic mass budget.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Low Frequency Radio Observations of X-ray Ghost Bubbles in Abell 2597: A History of Radio Activity in the Core

A previous analysis of the Chandra X-ray image of the center of the cooling core cluster Abell 2597 showed two ``ghost holes'' in the X-ray emission to the west and northeast of the central radio galaxy PKS 2322-123. Previous radio observations did not detect any radio emission coming from the interior of the X-ray holes. We present new low frequency radio observations of Abell 2597. At 330 MHz, radio emission extends into the interior of the western ghost bubble, but not the northeast one. Our re-analysis of the archival Chandra data shows evidence for an X-ray tunnel (elongated region of reduced X-ray emission) extending from near the center of the cD out to the west ghost bubble. We also detect a smaller X-ray hole to the northeast of the center of the cD and closer than the outer ghost bubbles. Radio observations at 1.3 GHz show extensions to the west along the X-ray tunnel toward the west ghost bubble, to the northeast into the new X-ray hole, and to the northwest. All of these structures are much larger than the two inner radio lobes seen previously at 8 GHz. The X-ray tunnel suggests that the west ghost bubble is part of a continuous flow of radio plasma out from the active galactic nucleus, rather than a detached buoyant old radio lobe, and thus it may be an intermediate case between an active radio galaxy and a buoyant lobe.Comment: ApJ accepted, 5 page