The EU-Africa Energy Cooperation: Challenges and Opportunities for Public and Private Businesses

Newsletter - cabinet d'avocatsEnergy security, sustainable development and mutual benefits are the three keywords of the longstanding EU-Africa cooperation in the field of energy. Because of its huge energy reserves and its green energy potential, the African continent constitutes an area that cannot be underestimated by the European Union. This article aims at identify the legal framework created by the EU-Africa energy cooperation and to assess its value for public and private businesses

Pays émergents et droit international : l'enjeu de l'adaptation

International audienceInternational Law and the Emerging Countries in the XXIst CenturySi la montée en puissance des pays émergents a déjà fait l'objet de nombreuses recherches dans les domaines de l'économie et de la science politique, il existe aujourd'hui peu d'études juridiques d'ensemble consacrées à cette question pourtant incontournable pour la compréhension des relations internationales contemporaines et de la formation du droit international au XXIe siècle. Or, face à l'impact des pays émergents sur le droit international, il semble exister un double besoin d'adaptation. D'une part, bien évidemment, tous les États de la planète qu'ils soient développés ou en développement devront trouver sur le plan juridique les voies et moyens permettant de prendre en considération la place et le rôle des pays émergents dans le système international. D'autre part, la seconde exigence concerne la doctrine juridique qui sera très certainement de plus en plus appelée à analyser le développement du droit international à l'aune de l'influence des pays émergents. En ce sens, cette nouvelle livraison de L'Observateur des Nations Unies propose une série d'éclairages relatifs à l'étude juridique de l'action internationale des pays émergents

Le futur du droit nucléaire international

International audienceIf existing international rules in the field of nuclear energy will probably not be modified in a substantive way in the coming years, some weaknesses related to their implementation and the development of new fission and fusion technologies will involve limited adaptation or, at least, a better implementation of these rules. This predicable absence of a revolution of international nuclear law shows the States willingness to maintain a flexible system of world governance of nuclear energy.Si les règles existantes du droit international de l'énergie nucléaire semblent ne pas devoir être radicalement modifiées dans les années à venir, il n'en demeure pas moins que certaines faiblesses dans leur mise en oeuvre ainsi que le développement de nouvelles technologies de fission et de fusion nucléaires appellent des adaptations limitées, ou à tout le moins, une meilleure application de celles-ci. Cette absence prévisible d'une révolution du droit nucléaire international manifeste la volonté des États de maintenir un système souple de gouvernance mondiale de l'énergie nucléaire

The EU External Energy Policy and the Law: Does the EU Really Matter?

International audienceThis article describes the implementation of the European Union external energy policy as an example of the way the law can be used to drive forward and realize concrete energy policy goals. The law constitutes both a basis for the development of the EU energy policy and its main instrument of action. Through a discussion of three examples – the Energy Community with the Balkans and some Eastern European countries, energy cooperation with the People’s Republic of China and energy cooperation with the United States of America – this article aims to analyse not only the empowering force of the law but also its limits as a means to pursue the objectives of the EU energy policy

An Embedded Gait Analysis System for CNS Injury Patients

Clinical evaluation of CNS injury patients before and after treatment is an essential step in gait rehabilitation. Medical care of gait disturbance for stroke patients is based on different treatments based on clinical and functional evaluations. Evaluation of gait aims at characterizing the motor performance to provide clinicians with information on the patient’s organizational or performance status and to allow them to consider the most appropriate treatment options. A 3D instrumented gait analysis system allows quantification of several parameters at each instant of walking but does not represent gait in daily life conditions. The absence of devices usable in daily life situation constitutes a lack pointed out by clinical practitioners and is at the origin of this work. In the following are described the design and implementation of a wireless embedded system for the collection of spatiotemporal parameters of pathological gait in everyday life. Algorithms estimate joint angles, step length, and gait events and automatically partition data into gait cycles. Experiments have been carried out to accurately evaluate the joint angles, the precision of sensor synchronization, the precision of gait event detection, and the robustness in the case of pathological walk. Comparisons with references given by the 3D instrumented gait analysis system are detailed

VLBI Astrometry of AGB Variables with VERA -- A Semiregular Variable S Crateris --

We present a distance measurement for the semiregular variable S Crateris (S Crt) based on its annual parallax. With the unique dual beam system of the VLBI Exploration for Radio Astrometry (VERA) telescopes, we measured the absolute proper motion of a water maser spot associated with S Crt, referred to the quasar J1147-0724 located at an angular separation of 1.23$^{\circ}$. In observations spanning nearly two years, we have detected the maser spot at the LSR velocity of 34.7 km s$^{-1}$, for which we measured the annual parallax of 2.33$\pm$0.13 mas corresponding to a distance of 430$^{+25}_{-23}$ pc. This measurement has an accuracy one order of magnitude better than the parallax measurements of HIPPARCOS. The angular distribution and three-dimensional velocity field of maser spots indicate a bipolar outflow with the flow axis along northeast-southwest direction. Using the distance and photospheric temperature, we estimate the stellar radius of S Crt and compare it with those of Mira variables.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ (Vol.60, No.5, October 25, VERA special issue

Statistical ecology comes of age

The desire to predict the consequences of global environmental change has been the driver towards more realistic models embracing the variability and uncertainties inherent in ecology. Statistical ecology has gelled over the past decade as a discipline that moves away from describing patterns towards modelling the ecological processes that generate these patterns. Following the fourth International Statistical Ecology Conference (1-4 July 2014) in Montpellier, France, we analyse current trends in statistical ecology. Important advances in the analysis of individual movement, and in the modelling of population dynamics and species distributions, are made possible by the increasing use of hierarchical and hidden process models. Exciting research perspectives include the development of methods to interpret citizen science data and of efficient, flexible computational algorithms for model fitting. Statistical ecology has come of age: it now provides a general and mathematically rigorous framework linking ecological theory and empirical data.Peer reviewe