Extending Modular Semantics for Bipolar Weighted Argumentation (Technical Report)

Weighted bipolar argumentation frameworks offer a tool for decision support and social media analysis. Arguments are evaluated by an iterative procedure that takes initial weights and attack and support relations into account. Until recently, convergence of these iterative procedures was not very well understood in cyclic graphs. Mossakowski and Neuhaus recently introduced a unification of different approaches and proved first convergence and divergence results. We build up on this work, simplify and generalize convergence results and complement them with runtime guarantees. As it turns out, there is a tradeoff between semantics' convergence guarantees and their ability to move strength values away from the initial weights. We demonstrate that divergence problems can be avoided without this tradeoff by continuizing semantics. Semantically, we extend the framework with a Duality property that assures a symmetric impact of attack and support relations. We also present a Java implementation of modular semantics and explain the practical usefulness of the theoretical ideas

Enhanced Cooperation under the Lisbon Treaty

Enhanced cooperation is often regarded as being a way out of EU decision-making deadlock and as a major possibility of proceeding with European integration in selected areas. Although the mechanism has been in place since the Treaty of Amsterdam, enhanced cooperation has only recently become a reality, in two policy fields: divorce law and the single EU patent. Using these two cases, in this paper the pros and cons of enhanced cooperation (as compared to unitary integration and alternative integration) are analyzed. The paper concludes by pointing out some possible weaknesses of the enhanced cooperation mechanism

EU and OECD benchmarking and peer review compared

Benchmarking and peer review are essential elements of the so-called EU open method of coordination (OMC) which has been contested in the literature for lack of effectiveness. In this paper we compare benchmarking and peer review procedures as used by the EU with those used by the OECD. Different types of benchmarking and peer review are distinguished and pitfalls for (international) benchmarking are discussed. We find that the OECD has a clear single objective for its benchmarking and peer review activities (i.e. horizontal policy transfers) whereas the EU suffers from a mix of objectives (a. horizontal policy learning; b. EU wide vertical policy coordination and c. multilateral monitoring and surveillance under the shadow of hierarchy). Whereas the OECD is able to skirt around most of the benchmarking pitfalls, this is not the case for the EU. It is argued that, rather than continue working with the panacea OMC benchmarking and peer review currently represents, EU benchmarking should take a number of more distinct shapes in order to improve effectiveness. Moreover, in some areas benchmarking and peer review are not sufficient coordination tools, and are at best additional to those means of coordination that include enforceable sanctions

Commuting contractive idempotents in measure algebras

We determine when contractive idempotents in the measure algebra of a locally compact group commute. We consider a dynamical version of the same result. We also look at some properties of groups of measures whose identity is a contactive idempotent.Comment: 13 page

New formulae for the (−2)(-2) moment of the photo-absorption cross section, σ−2\sigma_{_{-2}}

Two new formulae for the $(-2)$ moment of the photo-absorption cross section, $\sigma_{_{-2}}$, have been determined, respectively, from the 1988 compilation of Dietrich and Berman and a mass-dependent symmetry energy coefficient, $a_{sym}(A)$. The data for $A\gtrsim50$ follow, with a {\small $RMS$} deviation of 6\%, the power-law $\sigma_{_{-2}}=2.4 A^{5/3}$$\mu$b/MeV, which is in agreement with Migdal's calculation of $\sigma_{_{-2}}=2.25A^{5/3}$$\mu$b/MeV based on the hydrodynamic model and the $\sigma_{_{-2}}$ sum rule. The additional inclusion of $a_{sym}(A)$ provides a deeper insight to the nuclear polarization of $A\geqq10$ nuclei.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Clubs within clubs: The Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the Benelux as Macro-regions within the EU

This paper deals with two examples of macro-regions in the EU: the Benelux and the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS). Building on the distinction between “old” and “new” regionalism, it discusses some characteristics of regions in general, and of sub-integration schemes within the EU in particular. These characteristics are applied to the two regions at hand. From this application it follows that the CBSS can be regarded as a “new” region, whereas the Benelux is an “old” region with some elements from new regionalism.\ud The paper subsequently discusses some explanations for the emergence of macro-regions in the EU as well as the implications of this phenomenon for research on European integration