On the new economic philosophy of crisis management in the European Union

This essay attempts to go beyond presenting the bits and pieces of still ongoing crisis management in the EU. Instead it attempts at finding the ‘red thread’ behind a series of politically improvised decisions. Our fundamental research question asks whether basic economic lessons learned in the 1970s are still valid. Namely, that a crises emanating from either structural or regulatory weaknesses cannot and should not be remedied by demand management. Our second research question is the following: Can lacking internal commitment and conviction in any member state be replaced or substituted by external pressure or formalized procedures and sanctions? Under those angles we analyze the project on establishing a fiscal and banking union in the EU, as approved by the Council in December 2012

Puzzles of Dark Matter - More Light on Dark Atoms?

Positive results of dark matter searches in experiments DAMA/NaI and DAMA/LIBRA confronted with results of other groups can imply nontrivial particle physics solutions for cosmological dark matter. Stable particles with charge -2, bound with primordial helium in O-helium "atoms" (OHe), represent a specific nuclear-interacting form of dark matter. Slowed down in the terrestrial matter, OHe is elusive for direct methods of underground Dark matter detection using its nuclear recoil. However, low energy binding of OHe with sodium nuclei can lead to annual variations of energy release from OHe radiative capture in the interval of energy 2-4 keV in DAMA/NaI and DAMA/LIBRA experiments. At nuclear parameters, reproducing DAMA results, the energy release predicted for detectors with chemical content other than NaI differ in the most cases from the one in DAMA detector. Moreover there is no bound systems of OHe with light and heavy nuclei, so that there is no radiative capture of OHe in detectors with xenon or helium content. Due to dipole Coulomb barrier, transitions to more energetic levels of Na+OHe system with much higher energy release are suppressed in the correspondence with the results of DAMA experiments. The proposed explanation inevitably leads to prediction of abundance of anomalous Na, corresponding to the signal, observed by DAMA.Comment: Contribution to Proceedings of XIII Bled Workshop "What Comes beyond the Standard Model?

Magnetospheric convection from Cluster EDI measurements compared with the ground-based ionospheric convection model IZMEM

Cluster/EDI electron drift observations above the Northern and Southern polar cap areas for more than seven and a half years (2001–2008) have been used to derive a statistical model of the high-latitude electric potential distribution for summer conditions. Based on potential pattern for different orientations of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) in the GSM y-z-plane, basic convection pattern (BCP) were derived, that represent the main characteristics of the electric potential distribution in dependence on the IMF. The BCPs comprise the IMF-independent potential distribution as well as patterns, which describe the dependence on positive and negative IMF<I>B<sub>z</sub></I> and IMF<I>B<sub>y</sub></I> variations. The full set of BCPs allows to describe the spatial and temporal variation of the high-latitude electric potential (ionospheric convection) for any solar wind IMF condition near the Earth's magnetopause within reasonable ranges. The comparison of the Cluster/EDI model with the IZMEM ionospheric convection model, which was derived from ground-based magnetometer observations, shows a good agreement of the basic patterns and its variation with the IMF. According to the statistical models, there is a two-cell antisunward convection within the polar cap for northward IMF<I>B<sub>z</sub></I>+≤2 nT, while for increasing northward IMF<I>B<sub>z</sub></I>+ there appears a region of sunward convection within the high-latitude daytime sector, which assumes the form of two additional cells with sunward convection between them for IMF<I>B<sub>z</sub></I>+≈4–5 nT. This results in a four-cell convection pattern of the high-latitude convection. In dependence of the ±IMF<I>B<sub>y</sub></I> contribution during sufficiently strong northward IMF<I>B<sub>z</sub></I> conditions, a transformation to three-cell convection patterns takes place

New Constraints from PAMELA anti-proton data on Annihilating and Decaying Dark Matter

Recently the PAMELA experiment has released its updated anti-proton flux and anti-proton to proton flux ratio data up to energies of ~200GeV. With no clear excess of cosmic ray anti-protons at high energies, one can extend constraints on the production of anti-protons from dark matter. In this letter, we consider both the cases of dark matter annihilating and decaying into standard model particles that produce significant numbers of anti-protons. We provide two sets of constraints on the annihilation cross-sections/decay lifetimes. In the one set of constraints we ignore any source of anti-protons other than dark matter, which give the highest allowed cross-sections/inverse lifetimes. In the other set we include also anti-protons produced in collisions of cosmic rays with interstellar medium nuclei, getting tighter but more realistic constraints on the annihilation cross-sections/decay lifetimes.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 3 table

Mediating boundaries between knowledge and knowing: ICT and R4D praxis

Research for development (R4D) praxis (theory-informed practical action) can be underpinned by the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) which, it is claimed, provide opportunities for knowledge working and sharing. Such a framing implicitly or explicitly constructs a boundary around knowledge as reified, or commodified – or at least able to be stabilized for a period of time (first order knowledge). In contrast ‘third-generation knowledge’ emphasizes the social nature of learning and knowledge-making; this reframes knowledge as a negotiated social practice, thus constructing a different system boundary. This paper offers critical reflections on the use of a wiki as a data repository and mediating technical platform as part of innovating in R4D praxis. A sustainable social learning process was sought that fostered an emergent community of practice among biophysical and social researchers acting for the first time as R4D co-researchers. Over time the technologically mediated element of the learning system was judged to have failed. This inquiry asks: How can learning system design cultivate learning opportunities and respond to learning challenges in an online environment to support R4D practice? Confining critical reflection to the online learning experience alone ignores the wider context in which knowledge work took place; therefore the institutional setting is also considered

Characteristics of the electrojet during intense magnetic disturbances

Hall current variations in different time sectors during six magnetic storms from the summer seasons in 2003 and 2005 (Ritter, 2018) are examined, namely three storms in the day–night meridional sector and three storms in the dawn–dusk sector. The sequence of the phenomena, their structure and positions, and the strength of the polar (PE) and the auroral (AE) Hall electrojets were investigated using scalar magnetic field measurements obtained from the CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) satellite in accordance with the study of Ritter et al. (2004a). We analyzed the correlations of the PE and AE as well as the obtained regression relations of the magnetic latitude MLat and the electrojet current intensity I with auroral and ring current activity, the interplanetary magnetic field, and the Newell et al. (2007) coupling function for the state of the solar wind. The following typical characteristics of the electrojets were revealed:The PE appears in the daytime sector at MLat&thinsp; ∼ 80°–73°, with a westward or an eastward direction depending on the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) By component (By&thinsp; &lt; &thinsp;0&thinsp;nT or By&thinsp; &gt; &thinsp;0&thinsp;nT). Changes in the current flow direction in the PE can occur repeatedly during the storm, but only due to changes in the IMF By orientation. The PE increases with the intensity of the IMF By component from I ∼ 0.4&thinsp;A&thinsp;m−1 for By ∼ 0&thinsp;nT up to I ∼ 1.0&thinsp;A&thinsp;m−1 for By ∼ 23&thinsp;nT. The MLat position of the PE does not depend on the direction and intensity of the By component.There is no connection between MLat and I in the PE and the symmetric part of the magnetospheric ring current (index SymH). There is a correlation between I in the PE and the AsyH index, but only a very weak interconnection of this index with the MLat of the PE.Substorms occurring before the storm's main phase are accompanied by the appearance of an eastward electrojet (EE) at MLat&thinsp; ∼ 64° as well as that of a westward electrojet (WE). In the nighttime sector, a WE appears at MLat&thinsp; ∼ 64°. During the main phase both electrojets persist. The daytime EE and the nighttime WE shift toward sub-auroral latitudes of MLat&thinsp; ∼ 56° and grow in intensity up to I ∼ 1.5&thinsp;A&thinsp;m−1. The WE is then located about 6° closer to the pole than the EE during evening hours and about 2°–3° closer during daytime hours.</p

The cost of holding foreign exchange reserves

Recent studies that have emphasized the costs of accumulating reserves for self-insurance purposes have overlooked two potentially important side-effects. First, the impact of the resulting lower spreads on the service costs of the stock of sovereign debt, which could substantially reduce the marginal cost of holding reserves. Second, when reserve accumulation reflects countercyclical LAW central bank interventions, the actual cost of reserves should be measured as the sum of valuation effects due to exchange rate changes and the local-to-foreign currency exchange rate differential (the inverse of a carry trade profit and loss total return flow), which yields a cost that is typically smaller than the one arising from traditional estimates based on the sovereign credit risk spreads. We document those effect s empirically to illustrate that the cost of holding reserves may have been considerably smaller than usually assumed in both the academic literature and the policy debate

European Financial Market Integration: A Closer Look at Government Bonds in Eurozone Countries

The European Union made a number of steps not least of them the introduction of a common currency to foster the integration of the European financial markets. A number of papers have tried to gauge the degree of integration for various financial markets looking at the convergence of interest rates. A common finding is that government bond markets are quite well integrated. In this paper stochastic Kernel density estimates are used to take a closer look at the dynamics that drive the process of interest rate convergence. The main finding is that countries with large initial deviations from the mean interest rate do indeed converge. Interestingly the candidates least suspected namely the countries initially with interest rates at the mean level show a pattern of slight divergence