The Feira European Council and the Process of Enlargement of the European Union

Although one of the main issues which is being discussed by the EU and the candidate countries is the request of the latter for a date for their accession to the Union, this article argues that, in a rather paradoxical way, the process of enlargement would be facilitated if the EU and the candidates were less concerned about the date itself and more keen to focus their efforts on identifying arrangements that would ensure that the benefits of enlargement are spread widely so that all Member States support the accession of new members. It is also argued in this article that there are other issues which can have a significant impact on the process of enlargement. The candidates should decide what they want fixed above all: the date of entry, the derogations they wish to have at the negotiations or the entry criteria? The analysis in this article suggests that they should aim for the latter because vague criteria have a much greater potential to stall the enlargement process on both sides. For its part, the EU should begin identifying the pre-commitments that can be made by the Member States now in order to smooth the process of enlargement later on. The Feira European Council, therefore, has served to reveal where the problem really lies in that process

Towards improved performance and interoperability in distributed and physical union catalogues

Purpose of this paper: This paper details research undertaken to determine the key differences in the performance of certain centralised (physical) and distributed (virtual) bibliographic catalogue services, and to suggest strategies for improving interoperability and performance in, and between, physical and virtual models. Design/methodology/approach: Methodically defined searches of a centralised catalogue service and selected distributed catalogues were conducted using the Z39.50 information retrieval protocol, allowing search types to be semantically defined. The methodology also entailed the use of two workshops comprising systems librarians and cataloguers to inform suggested strategies for improving performance and interoperability within both environments. Findings: Technical interoperability was permitted easily between centralised and distributed models, however the various individual configurations permitted only limited semantic interoperability. Significant prescription in cataloguing and indexing guidelines, greater participation in the Program for Collaborative Cataloging (PCC), consideration of future 'FRBR' migration, and greater disclosure to end users are some of the suggested strategies to improve performance and semantic interoperability. Practical implications: This paper informs the LIS research community and union catalogue administrators, but also has numerous practical implications for those establishing distributed systems based on Z39.50 and SRW, as well as those establishing centralised systems. What is original/value of the paper?: The paper moves the discussion of Z39.50 based systems away from anecdotal evidence and provides recommendations based on testing and is intimately informed by the UK cataloguing and systems librarian community

The Compliance Problem in the European Union. EIPAScope 2006(1):pp. 12-18

The European Union has an implementation “deficit”. The measures adopted by the EU are not always applied – or are not applied correctly – by all Member States. This is a serious problem. If a culture of compliance is to be fostered in the EU, Member States would need to learn from the experience of those Member States that appear to be more successful at complying with EU rules. At the same time they should learn about the “typical” mistakes made by Member States so as to avoid them. The Commission is naturally placed to identify both “good” and “bad” practices and promote “best” practices

Construction of higher order accurate vortex and particle methods

The standard point vortex method has recently been shown to be of high order of accuracy for problems on the whole plane, when using a uniform initial subdivision for assigning the vorticity to the points. If obstacles are present in the flow, this high order deteriorates to first or second order. New vortex methods are introduced which are of arbitrary accuracy (under regularity assumptions) regardless of the presence of bodies and the uniformity of the initial subdivision

Analysis and convergence of the MAC scheme. Part 1: The linear problem

The MAC discretization of fluid flow is analyzed for the stationary Stokes equations. It is proved that the discrete approximations do in fact converge to the exact solutions of the flow equations. Estimates using mesh dependent norms analogous to the standard H(sup 1) and L(sup 2) norms are given for the velocity and pressure, respectively

On solving quasilinear elliptic equations by variational methods, using piecewise polynomial trial functions

Imperial Users onl

Theory and computation of electromagnetic transition matrix elements in the continuous spectrum of atoms

The present study examines the mathematical properties of the free-free ( f-f) matrix elements of the full electric field operator, of the multipolar Hamiltonian. Special methods are developed and applied for their computation, for the general case where the scattering wavefunctions are calculated numerically in the potential of the term-dependent (N-1) electron core, and are energy-normalized. It is found that, on the energy axis, the f-f matrix elements of the full operator have singularities of first order in the case of equal photoelectron energies. The numerical applications are for f-f transitions in Hydrogen and Neon, obeying electric dipole and quadrupole selection rules. In the limit of zero photon wave-number, the full operator reduces to the length form of the electric dipole approximation (EDA). It is found that the results for the EDA agree with those of the full operator, with the exception of a photon wave-number region about the singularity.Comment: 39 pages, 11 figure

Iterative methods for elliptic finite element equations on general meshes

Iterative methods for arbitrary mesh discretizations of elliptic partial differential equations are surveyed. The methods discussed are preconditioned conjugate gradients, algebraic multigrid, deflated conjugate gradients, an element-by-element techniques, and domain decomposition. Computational results are included

Self-organization of network dynamics into local quantized states

Self-organization and pattern formation in network-organized systems emerges from the collective activation and interaction of many interconnected units. A striking feature of these non-equilibrium structures is that they are often localized and robust: only a small subset of the nodes, or cell assembly, is activated. Understanding the role of cell assemblies as basic functional units in neural networks and socio-technical systems emerges as a fundamental challenge in network theory. A key open question is how these elementary building blocks emerge, and how they operate, linking structure and function in complex networks. Here we show that a network analogue of the Swift-Hohenberg continuum model---a minimal-ingredients model of nodal activation and interaction within a complex network---is able to produce a complex suite of localized patterns. Hence, the spontaneous formation of robust operational cell assemblies in complex networks can be explained as the result of self-organization, even in the absence of synaptic reinforcements. Our results show that these self-organized, local structures can provide robust functional units to understand natural and socio-technical network-organized processes.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure