Five ways to make the European Peace Facility a role model for arms export control

All European Peace Facility (EPF)-funded transfers of arms and other military equipment should be transparent and well justified. The European Union should issue a biannual public report about all EPF-funded arms transfers, including information on the type, number, condition and effective end-user of the arms. In addition, the reports should include a detailed explanation of the reasons for each transfer. To reduce the risk of diversion, the European Union should introduce post-shipment controls for arms and military equipment that were funded via the EPF. End-use certificates for such transfers should include the permission for officials from the European Union, e.g. from the European External Action Service, or EU member states, to conduct such on-the-spot checks. Transfers of EPF-funded arms and other military equipment should be tied to a compulsory evaluation of the existing structures of weapons and ammunition management (WAM). Depending on the results of this evaluation, the European Union should assist the recipient country with EPF-funded WAM assistance programmes, which build on initiatives that already work closely together with the relevant local actors. The European Parliament should be involved in discussing the use of the EPF to fund arms transfers to avoid democratic legitimacy problems and improve the accountability of such transfers. People living in the countries that receive arms from Europe are most affected by decisions made by the EPF. To ensure that the European Union remains accountable for their decisions and cases of misuse, it should establish a mechanism for affected civilians in recipient countries to report complaints and grievances resulting from European arms transfers

Global Militarisation Index: presentation, codebook and reflexion

Measuring militarisation is complex. Since 2003 and retrospectively up to 1990, BICC has been measuring militarisation worldwide with the Global Militarisation Index (GMI). The GMI’s approach is resource-based and measures the level of militarisation of a society by its allocation of resources by the state to the military in relation with other areas of society. By measuring the level of militarisation and the resulting time series annually, processes of militarisation or demilitarisation of societies and regions can be mapped. In this Working Paper, for the first time, the authors present the Codebook which underpins the GMI. They also discuss the current methodology and possible additions in view of the changing framework conditions and new data sources. In particular, they discuss the inclusion of novel weapons systems but also the vision of a multi-dimensional concept of militarisation

Grain and phase stress criteria for behaviour and cleavage in duplex and bainitic steels

Stress analyses by X-ray diffraction are performed on a cast duplex (32% ferrite) stainless steel elbow and a bainitic (95% ferrite) pressure vessel steel. During an in situ tensile test, micrographic observations are made (visible glides and microcracks) and related to the stress state determined in the individual ferritic grains (aged duplex) and the ferritic phase (bainite loaded at low temperatures). Several material parameters have been identified at different scales, as for example, the critical resolved shear stress of 245 MPa for the aged ferritic grain (duplex) or 275 MPa for bainite (–60 ◦C), a crystallographic cleavage propagation criterion of 465 MPa (stress normal to {100} planes), and a fracture stress of approximately 700 MPa in the ferritic phase. Even though the two steels are different in many respects, the macroscopic fracture strains and stresses are well predicted by the polycrystalline model developed for bainite, whatever the temperatures tested (considering 7% of the grains reaching the local criterion)

Sensorimotor semantics on the spot: brain activity dissociates between conceptual categories within 150 ms

Although semantic processing has traditionally been associated with brain responses maximal at 350–400 ms, recent studies reported that words of different semantic types elicit topographically distinct brain responses substantially earlier, at 100–200 ms. These earlier responses have, however, been achieved using insufficiently precise source localisation techniques, therefore casting doubt on reported differences in brain generators. Here, we used high-density MEG-EEG recordings in combination with individual MRI images and state-of-the-art source reconstruction techniques to compare localised early activations elicited by words from different semantic categories in different cortical areas. Reliable neurophysiological word-category dissociations emerged bilaterally at ~ 150 ms, at which point action-related words most strongly activated frontocentral motor areas and visual object-words occipitotemporal cortex. These data now show that different cortical areas are activated rapidly by words with different meanings and that aspects of their category-specific semantics is reflected by dissociating neurophysiological sources in motor and visual brain systems

Recurrence is required to capture the representational dynamics of the human visual system.

The human visual system is an intricate network of brain regions that enables us to recognize the world around us. Despite its abundant lateral and feedback connections, object processing is commonly viewed and studied as a feedforward process. Here, we measure and model the rapid representational dynamics across multiple stages of the human ventral stream using time-resolved brain imaging and deep learning. We observe substantial representational transformations during the first 300 ms of processing within and across ventral-stream regions. Categorical divisions emerge in sequence, cascading forward and in reverse across regions, and Granger causality analysis suggests bidirectional information flow between regions. Finally, recurrent deep neural network models clearly outperform parameter-matched feedforward models in terms of their ability to capture the multiregion cortical dynamics. Targeted virtual cooling experiments on the recurrent deep network models further substantiate the importance of their lateral and top-down connections. These results establish that recurrent models are required to understand information processing in the human ventral stream

The Neural Time Course of Semantic Ambiguity Resolution in Speech Comprehension.

Semantically ambiguous words challenge speech comprehension, particularly when listeners must select a less frequent (subordinate) meaning at disambiguation. Using combined magnetoencephalography (MEG) and EEG, we measured neural responses associated with distinct cognitive operations during semantic ambiguity resolution in spoken sentences: (i) initial activation and selection of meanings in response to an ambiguous word and (ii) sentence reinterpretation in response to subsequent disambiguation to a subordinate meaning. Ambiguous words elicited an increased neural response approximately 400-800 msec after their acoustic offset compared with unambiguous control words in left frontotemporal MEG sensors, corresponding to sources in bilateral frontotemporal brain regions. This response may reflect increased demands on processes by which multiple alternative meanings are activated and maintained until later selection. Disambiguating words heard after an ambiguous word were associated with marginally increased neural activity over bilateral temporal MEG sensors and a central cluster of EEG electrodes, which localized to similar bilateral frontal and left temporal regions. This later neural response may reflect effortful semantic integration or elicitation of prediction errors that guide reinterpretation of previously selected word meanings. Across participants, the amplitude of the ambiguity response showed a marginal positive correlation with comprehension scores, suggesting that sentence comprehension benefits from additional processing around the time of an ambiguous word. Better comprehenders may have increased availability of subordinate meanings, perhaps due to higher quality lexical representations and reflected in a positive correlation between vocabulary size and comprehension success

Globaler Militarisierungsindex: Vorstellung, Codebook und Reflexion

Die Messung von Militarisierung ist ein komplexes Unterfangen. Seit 2003 und rückwirkend bis 1990 misst das BICC über den Globalen Militarisierungsindex (GMI) Militarisierung weltweit. Der GMI verfolgt einen ressourcenzentrierten Ansatz, der den Militarisierungsgrad einer Gesellschaft über die Ressourcenzuweisung von Seiten des Staates an das Militär relational zu anderen Gesellschaftsbereichen misst. Über die jährliche Messung des Militarisierungsgrades und die dadurch entstehenden Zeitreihen lassen sich Prozesse der Militarisierung bzw. Demilitarisierung von Gesellschaften und Regionen abbilden. Das vorliegende Working Paper stellt den Index anhand seines Codebooks erstmals vor und diskutiert sowohl die aktuelle Methodik als auch mögliche Ergänzungen angesichts sich verändernder Rahmenbedingungen und neuer Datenquellen. Dabei wird insbesondere die Aufnahme neuer Waffensysteme, aber auch die Entwicklung eines multidimensionalen Konzeptes von Militarisierung diskutiert

Design Rules for Laser‐Treated Icephobic Metallic Surfaces for Aeronautic Applications

Ice accretion on external aircraft surfaces due to the impact of supercooled water droplets can negatively affect the aerodynamic performance and reduce the operational capability and, therefore, must be prevented. Icephobic coatings capable of reducing the adhesion strength of ice to a surface represent a promising technology to support thermal or mechanical ice protection systems. Icephobicity is similar to hydrophobicity in several aspects and superhydrophobic surfaces embody a straightforward solution to the ice adhesion problem. Short/ultrashort pulsed laser surface treatments are proposed as a viable technology to generate superhydrophobic properties on metallic surfaces. However, it has not yet been verified whether such surfaces are generally icephobic under representative icing conditions. This study investigates the ice adhesion strength on Ti6Al4V, an alloy commonly used for aerospace components, textured by means of direct laser writing, direct laser interference patterning, and laser-induced periodic surface structures laser sources with pulse durations ranging from nano- to femtosecond regimes. A clear relation between the spatial period, the surface microstructure depth, and the ice adhesion strength under different icing conditions is investigated. From these observations, a set of design rules can be defined for superhydrophobic surfaces that are icephobic, too

Grip Force Reveals the Context Sensitivity of Language-Induced Motor Activity during “Action Words

Studies demonstrating the involvement of motor brain structures in language processing typically focus on \ud time windows beyond the latencies of lexical-semantic access. Consequently, such studies remain inconclusive regarding whether motor brain structures are recruited directly in language processing or through post-linguistic conceptual imagery. In the present study, we introduce a grip-force sensor that allows online measurements of language-induced motor activity during sentence listening. We use this tool to investigate whether language-induced motor activity remains constant or is modulated in negative, as opposed to affirmative, linguistic contexts. Our findings demonstrate that this simple experimental paradigm can be used to study the online crosstalk between language and the motor systems in an ecological and economical manner. Our data further confirm that the motor brain structures that can be called upon during action word processing are not mandatorily involved; the crosstalk is asymmetrically\ud governed by the linguistic context and not vice versa

Processing of Hand-Related Verbs Specifically Affects the Planning and Execution of Arm Reaching Movements

Even though a growing body of research has shown that the processing of action language affects the planning and execution of motor acts, several aspects of this interaction are still hotly debated. The directionality (i.e. does understanding action-related language induce a facilitation or an interference with the corresponding action?), the time course, and the nature of the interaction (i.e. under what conditions does the phenomenon occur?) are largely unclear. To further explore this topic we exploited a go/no-go paradigm in which healthy participants were required to perform arm reaching movements toward a target when verbs expressing either hand or foot actions were shown, and to refrain from moving when abstract verbs were presented. We found that reaction times (RT) and percentages of errors increased when the verb involved the same effector used to give the response. This interference occurred very early, when the interval between verb presentation and the delivery of the go signal was 50 ms, and could be elicited until this delay was about 600 ms. In addition, RTs were faster when subjects used the right arm than when they used the left arm, suggesting that action–verb understanding is left-lateralized. Furthermore, when the color of the printed verb and not its meaning was the cue for movement execution the differences between RTs and error percentages between verb categories disappeared, unequivocally indicating that the phenomenon occurs only when the semantic content of a verb has to be retrieved. These results are compatible with the theory of embodied language, which hypothesizes that comprehending verbal descriptions of actions relies on an internal simulation of the sensory–motor experience of the action, and provide a new and detailed view of the interplay between action language and motor acts