421 research outputs found
The European Citizensâ Consultations deserve pride of place at von der Leyenâs Conference. Commentary 5 September 2019
Good news for European citizens! European Commission
President-elect Ursula von der Leyen wants âa new push for
European democracyâ, including a two-year âConference on
the Future of Europeâ, in which citizens shall âplay a leading
and active part." Von der Leyenâs proposal endorses her
predecessorâs 2017 resolve to âdebate, not dictate." Such continuity of message is welcome. But President von
der Leyen can go further â she should ensure there is also
continuity in the European Unionâs (EU) efforts to build
up a European civic space. Specifically, she should take
into account the European Citizensâ Consultations (ECCs),
which were held throughout Europe as recently as 2018
and early 2019. Recalling the ECCs and building on their
results would demonstrate that Brussels is committed to
a meaningful process of EU democratic renewal â not just
collecting a panoply of one-off initiatives
Entrepreneurship, agency frictions and redistributive capital taxation
Motivated by the observation that among OECD countries redistribution is negatively correlated with entrepreneurial activity, we examine the implications of entrepreneurial financial frictions for optimal linear capital taxation, in a setting where the government is concerned with redistribution. By including financial frictions, we emphasize the effect of a new channel affecting the equity-efficiency trade-off of redistribution: taxes affect the allocative efficiency of capital and, ultimately, total factor productivity. We find that high tax rates are optimal, provided that they are applied to wealth, rather than risky capital. Under plausible parameter values, we find that the optimal tax on risky capital is lower than that on wealth, and roughly in line with current U.S. levels. This suggests welfare gains from taxing only wealth at a higher rate.Othe
En Marche lâEurope? A strategy to implement democratic conventions. EPC Discussion Paper, 11 January 2018
President Macronâs idea of holding âdemocratic conventionsâ across Europe provides a genuine opportunity to help improve the publicâs trust and engagement in European decision-making. But at the same time there is a risk that unrealistic expectations will be raised, and a poorly-implemented strategy could do more harm than good.
In this paper, we lay out a detailed and ambitious framework to ensure that the idea delivers on its potential, while minding the pitfalls. It involves a bottom-up strategy, operating at local, national and European levels, designed to discuss specific policy proposals and shape a reform agenda. The paper includes a visual depiction of the strategyâs timeline (Annex 1), a set of possible questions for the agenda (Annex 2), and guidelines for reporting the results of each convention (Annex 3).
If the strategy is followed, with the outcome of discussions feeding into the 2019 European Parliament election campaign, there is a real chance that the idea will bring European citizens closer to their political leaders, and closer to each other
A Test Generation Framework for Distributed Fault-Tolerant Algorithms
Heavyweight formal methods such as theorem proving have been successfully applied to the analysis of safety critical fault-tolerant systems. Typically, the models and proofs performed during such analysis do not inform the testing process of actual implementations. We propose a framework for generating test vectors from specifications written in the Prototype Verification System (PVS). The methodology uses a translator to produce a Java prototype from a PVS specification. Symbolic (Java) PathFinder is then employed to generate a collection of test cases. A small example is employed to illustrate how the framework can be used in practice
Collected Papers: Entrepreneurship
These collected papers serve as a student exercise in critical thinking. The aim is to explore and discover knowledge relating to differing aspects of entrepreneurship. Critical thinking skills, academic writing and the ability to build arguments are all skills we consider an essential part of our student progression. Our students understand critical thinking as an intellectually disciplined, cognitive process which involves the reflective, active analysis and evaluation of knowledge and arguments in order to develop their own defensible knowledge and arguments. Reading and writing are enquiries that require an action rather than just repeating what has been previously stated or done, it is an act of discovery. It is for this reason we are not offering definitions of entrepreneurship or explanations of any aspects of the challenges in entrepreneurship education and practice, we will leave this to our students. Whether our approach to entrepreneurship education on this particular module serves to empower and emancipate or to just challenge and explore, might be open for debate. It can be argued that entrepreneurship education should be a way of action rather than a specific subject area . We donât disagree, but in this instance embrace the subject area as a means to building knowledge, skills and exploring the subject area with our students
Copy number variation in the Framingham Heart Study
In this paper we test for association between copy number variation and diabetes in a subset of individuals from the Framingham Heart Study. We used the 500 k SNP data and called copy number variation using two algorithms: the genome alteration detection algorithm of Pique-Regi et al. and the software Golden Helix. We then tested for association between copy number and diabetes using a gene-based analysis. Our results show little evidence of association between copy number and diabetes status. Furthermore, our results indicate a relatively poor level of agreement between copy number calls resulting from the two programs. We then examined potential causes for this difference in results and the implications for future studies
Design and Lessons Learned on the Development of a Cryogenic Pupil Select Mechanism Used in the Testing and Calibration of the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
Calibration and testing of the instruments on the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is being performed by the use of a cryogenic, full-field, optical simulator that was constructed for this purpose. The Pupil Select Mechanism (PSM) assembly is one of several mechanisms and optical elements that compose the Optical Telescope Element SIMulator, or OSIM. The PSM allows for several optical elements to be inserted into the optical plane of OSIM, introducing a variety of aberrations, distortions, obscurations, and other calibration states into the pupil plane. The following discussion focuses on the details of the design evolution, analysis, build, and test of this mechanism along with the challenges associated with creating a sub arc-minute positioning mechanism operating in an extreme cryogenic environment. In addition, difficult challenges in the control system design will be discussed including the incorporation of closed-loop feedback control into a system that was designed to operate in an open-loop fashion
Hypogonadism in Male Sexual Dysfunction
Normal testosterone level is influencing all the steps of the male psychosexual development: intrauterine neonatal and final psychosexual development.. At pubertal stage, the quality of testosterone secretion is conditioning the development of the mature male phenotype. In adult life, eugonadism sustains desire, arousal, determines spontaneous erections, facilitates stimulated erection, influencing the response rate to medication. Moreover, eugonadism sustain daydreaming and phantasies, both needed for a normal sexual life. The pathogenic mechanism of all these actions is presented. Talking about hypogonadism means not only the classical types of hypogonadism: due to classical testicular disease of central, hypothalamic and hypophysis disease, but also the partial testosterone deficiency induces by aging (late onset hypogonadism), weight increase (up to 30% of males with metabolic syndrome and 50% of males with diabetes) or secondary hypogonadism described in chronic use of steroids or after long exposure to stress, especially in young males. All these types of hypogonadism, that affect young, middle aged or old males will be presented separately. A therapeutic approach that is individualized for each type of hypogonadism, should consider positive and possible negative effects and all alternatives will be presented: life style changes, sustained weight loss, increase exercise, supplemental therapy, pro fertility treatment
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