Gender and European Integration

The paper assesses the contribution of gender approaches to understanding Europeanintegration. It offers a conceptualization of such approaches as including a distinctontology, epistemology and methodology. While feminist literature on the EuropeanUnion is diverse, all such literature sheds light on the gendered process of Europeanintegration. The authors identify two distinct contributions of this literature: (a) itillustrates the relevance of movement actors and other advocates in shaping EU policies;(b) it shows that economic integration entails the creation of new gender regimes. Thepaper illustrates these contentions presenting case studies of the EU’s response to sextrafficking, the reform of the common agricultural policy, and of enlargement.

Comparison of NIRS based methods to determine legume content of mixed swards

Four established and two new NIRS calibrations for the determination of legume content in dry ground mixtures were used to estimate clover content in ten Finnish red clover-grass mixtures of known legume content

Higher Order Two Step Mechanisms in Nucleon Antinucleon Annihilation and the OZI Rule

We evaluate three meson doorway mechanisms for nucleon-antinucleon annihilation at rest for the first time. Detailed results are presented for the final state phi pi0 originating from the 3S1 initial state and for the phi rho channel originating from 1S0. The results presented also include the improved contributions from two meson doorway states and from the tree diagrams. For all the channels considered a consistent explanation of large and small OZI violations emerges.Comment: 18 pages, 2 PostScript figures, will be published in Eur. Phys. J.

Immigration from the Eastern Block and the former Soviet Union to Israel: Who is coming when?

Average education of new immigrants from the East European countries and the former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israel declined during the last ten years. I present a simple two-period model of migration with uncertainty about future conditions in both countries and estimate a reduced form, using data from the Israeli 1995 Census and several years of the Israeli Labor Force Survey. Wages in Israel in each period are the result of a human capital investment decision. In this framework, the return to migrating early is higher, the higher the education of a potential migrant, but education also increases the option value of staying. Estimation of a Cox proportionate hazard model and a discrete time hazard model suggest that human capital investment considerations indeed influence the timing of migration. Other variables that make people migrate earlier are being Jewish, being married, and having no children. Economic conditions in the source countries and in the destination country, which are also included in the regressions, do not seem to matter and cover mainly time effects

Grundlagen zur Planung eines kostengünstigen repräsentativen Ammoniak-Messnetzes in Bezug auf die Erstellung von Immissionskarten und zur Beobachtung des langjährigen Trends von Ammoniak

Nitrogenous air pollutants contribute in Switzerland to increased nitrogen loads in natural ecosystems. Furthermore, ammonia is a precursor of secondary particulate matter. Since 1999, ambient ammonia is measured in Switzerland. The measurements are funded by different institutions such as the Federal Office of Environment (FOEN), the Federal Office of Agriculture, cantonal agencies and research programmes. This paper presents a procedure to identify a minimum number of sites for a monitoring network to observe long-term trends of ammonia concentrations in Switzerland. The monitoring network should serve the following purposes: 1. Providing representative data for long-term monitoring of ambient ammonia concentrations. 2. Controlling independently the reduction of emission as stated in the Swiss regulations on the Protection of the Environment. This control should enable a representative estimation of regional changes in emissions. 3. Providing data for validating and parametrizing models to calculate the proportion of ammonia in nitrogenous depositions. 4. Contributing to evaluation of critical exceedance of ammonia in sensitive ecosystems.Stickstoffhaltige Luftschadstoffe führen in der Schweiz zu einer übermässigen Belastung von naturnahen Ökosystemen. Ammoniak ist zudem eine wichtige Vorläufersubstanz für die Bildung von sekundärem Feinstaub. In der Schweiz werden deshalb seit 1999 Ammoniak-Immissionen mit Passivsammlern gemessen. Die Messungen werden durch unterschiedliche Stellen wie das Bundesamt für Umwelt (BAFU), das Bundesamt für Landwirtschaft, die Kantone und Forschungsprogramme finanziert. Ziel dieser Arbeit war die Entwicklung eines Verfahrens zur Identifikation einer minimalen Anzahl Standorte für ein Immissionsmessnetz zur Beobachtung des langjährigen Trends der Ammoniakkonzentration in der Schweiz. Das Messnetz soll dabei insbesondere den folgenden Zwecken dienen: 1.Bereitstellung von für die Schweiz repräsentativen Messwerten für ein langfristiges Monitoring der Ammoniak-Immissionen. 2.Eine unabhängige immissionsseitige Kontrolle der Emissionsminderungen, wie sie gemäss USG und LRV vorgeschrieben ist. Diese Kontrolle soll eine generelle Einschätzung einer Region ermöglichen. 3.Bereitstellung von Daten für die Validierung und Parametrisierung von Modellen zur Berechnung des Ammoniak-Anteils der Stickstoffdeposition. 4.Beitrag zur Beurteilung der Belastung von empfindlichen Ökosystemen im Hinblick auf potentielle Überschreitungen der Critical Levels für Ammoniak.Nitrogenous air pollutants contribute in Switzerland to increased nitrogen loads in natural ecosystems. Furthermore, ammonia is a precursor of secondary particulate matter. Since 1999, ambient ammonia is measured in Switzerland. The measurements are funded by different institutions such as the Federal Office of Environment (FOEN), the Federal Office of Agriculture, cantonal agencies and research programmes. This paper presents a procedure to identify a minimum number of sites for a monitoring network to observe long-term trends of ammonia concentrations in Switzerland. The monitoring network should serve the following purposes: 1. Providing representative data for long-term monitoring of ambient ammonia concentrations. 2. Controlling independently the reduction of emission as stated in the Swiss regulations on the Protection of the Environment. This control should enable a representative estimation of regional changes in emissions. 3. Providing data for validating and parametrizing models to calculate the proportion of ammonia in nitrogenous depositions. 4. Contributing to evaluation of critical exceedance of ammonia in sensitive ecosystems

Beitrag der Hofdüngerausbringung zu den Ammoniakimmissionen in ländlichen Gebieten der Schweiz : Eine Analyse der NABEL-Messungen 2006 – 2010

Ammonia has been measured since 2006 in 10-minutes-resolution at five sites of the Swiss Air Pollution Monitoring Network, applying the photoacoustic method. Huge peak concentrations detected in the time series were suspected to originate from two types of emission sources: local application of (in particular liquid) farm manure or nearby stationary sources like stables or open manure storage basins. The aim of this study was to infer these two types of emission sources from the shape of the sequence of concentration of ammonia. Based on this identification, the ambient concentration was apportioned to these two types of emission sources for each site.Since the information on spreading farm manure was incomplete or did not exist at all at certain sites, a conventional statistical analysis such as a Random Forest analysis or a logistic regression could not be performed. However, typical temporal sequence patterns of ambient concentrations of ammonia could be constructed by comparing the sequences of ambient concentrations with corresponding logs of spreading farm manure, by comparing with data in literature, by statistical reasoning and by domain knowledge. Similar reasonings could be applied to temporal sequences dominated by stationary sources. These patterns were matched to the observed ambient concentration sequencies, using regular expressions. The signals found were finally compared to the logged events.An fünf Standorten des NABEL-Messnetzes wird seit 2006 Ammoniak (NH3) mit der photoakustischen Messmethode kontinuierlich gemessen. Erste Auswertungen zeigten immer wieder Spitzenbelas­tungen, von welchen vermutet wurde, dass sie durch örtlich nahe gelegene Ereignisse wie z.B. Dünge­aktivitäten der Landwirte oder Abluftfahnen von Ställen und Güllelagern verursacht worden waren. Ziel dieser Arbeit war zu untersuchen, ob aus dem Verlauf der NH3-Konzentrationen auf die Art der Emissionsquelle geschlossen werden kann. Insbesondere interessierte, welche beobachteten Peaks der Ausbringung von Gülle und Mist auf Feldern und welche den Abluftfahnen stationärer Quellen zugeordnet werden können. In einem zweiten Schritt sollte für die betrachteten Standorte der Anteil der Immissionen abgeschätzt werden, welche durch die lokale Ausbringung von Gülle und Mist verursacht wurde. Da die Informationen zu den Düngeaktivitäten an den verschiedenen Orten zu lückenhaft waren, konnte keine konventionelle statistische Analyse in Form einer Random-Forest-Analyse oder einer logistischen Regression durchgeführt werden. Durch Vergleich der Immissionsmessungen mit den Protokollen zur Ausbringung des Hofdüngers konnten jedoch unter Zuhilfenahme von lufthygienischen und statistischen Argumenten und mittels Vergleich mit Literaturangaben typische Immissionsverläufe konstruiert werden, welche nach Ausbringung von Hofdünger in der näheren Umgebung zu erwarten sind. Analoge Überlegungen wurden auch zu den Immissionsverläufen gemacht, welche durch emittierende stationäre Quellen beeinflusst werden. Mittels regulären Ausdrücken (regular expressions) wurden diese Muster anschliessend in den vorhandenen Immissionsdaten gesucht und die gefundenen Ereignisse mit den protokollierten verglichen.Ammonia has been measured since 2006 in 10-minutes-resolution at five sites of the Swiss Air Pollution Monitoring Network, applying the photoacoustic method. Huge peak concentrations detected in the time series were suspected to originate from two types of emission sources: local application of (in particular liquid) farm manure or nearby stationary sources like stables or open manure storage basins. The aim of this study was to infer these two types of emission sources from the shape of the sequence of concentration of ammonia. Based on this identification, the ambient concentration was apportioned to these two types of emission sources for each site. Since the information on spreading farm manure was incomplete or did not exist at all at certain sites, a conventional statistical analysis such as a Random Forest analysis or a logistic regression could not be performed. However, typical temporal sequence patterns of ambient concentrations of ammonia could be constructed by comparing the sequences of ambient concentrations with corresponding logs of spreading farm manure, by comparing with data in literature, by statistical reasoning and by domain knowledge. Similar reasonings could be applied to temporal sequences dominated by stationary sources. These patterns were matched to the observed ambient concentration sequencies, using regular expressions. The signals found were finally compared to the logged events

Testing for the Option Value of Migration

Using uncertainty about the future returns to migration, the option value theory of migration can explain low migration rates in spite of huge wage differences. This paper presents the theory in a simple two-period framework and uses ethnic Germans in the CIS to find empirical support for it. Since July 1990, ethnic German immigration from Eastern Europe and the CIS is restricted by means of a protracted application mechanism. In our data on ethnic Germans in Russia and Kazakhstan in the 1990s, we use information on the stage of the application process, migration intentions and ethnicity to construct close proxies for the option value of postponing migration and for migration costs. The link between the two is shown to be as theory predicts