Eurasien: Spielfeld oder Kampfzone? Deutschland und Europa müssen ein wirksames Konnektivitätskonzept im Wettstreit mit Russland und China entwickeln

Eurasien entwickelt sich zu einem Mega-Kontinent, in dem Russland und China durch ihren Einfluss die westlich-liberale Ordnung an den Rand zu drängen versuchen. Beide Großmächte haben ihre Integrationsprojekte - die Neue Seidenstraßen-Initiative und die Eurasische Wirtschaftsunion - miteinander verbunden. Um nicht abgehängt zu werden, sollten die EU und Deutschland eine flexible und auf die unterschiedlichen Regionen zugeschnittene Strategie ausarbeiten, die sich auf Zentralasien und Osteuropa konzentriert

Connectivity in Eurasia: Geopolitical Chances for the EU

As the coronavirus pandemic fuels technological and geopolitical competition among the great powers, Europe's relations with China and Russia are facing new challenges and risks. Still, the reconfiguration of power in Eurasia also brings unexpected opportunities for European actors in the area of connectivity. To seize them, the EU needs to reconcile its aspiration to be a globally accepted "normative-regulatory" power with both its limited financial means and its more assertive attitude to geopolitics

China’s Inroads into Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe: Implications for Germany and the EU

China's increased engagement in Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe has aroused concerns in Europe that China is pursuing a divisive strategy. Its primary goal, however, is to use the region as a gateway to Western Europe’s markets while including the EU in its own Eurasian integration project; in Beijing's view, a robust regulatory EU is doubtless preferable to a fragmented Europe. China's deepening involvement in the region could nevertheless increase economic divisions within the EU as whole. As a trade triangle emerges involving China, Germany, and the Visegrad states, the "German-Central European manufacturing core" potentially stands to gain at the expense of the EU's Atlantic and southern European member states. Germany must address this risk with a triple strategy that balances national interest, EU cohesion, and engagement with China. This involves, first, working with the Visegrad Four, with other European countries, and with EU institutions to forge a deeper and more effective cooperation with China to enhance transport connectivity and economic modernization, particularly in the Western and Eastern Balkans. Second, Germany should increase pressure on China to open up the Chinese domestic market to ensure mutual access. And third, it should promote forward-looking European industrial policy centered on the digitalization of value and supply chains for Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe. This would allow Germany to prevent intra-European divisions from deepening, while taking advantage of its triangular relations with China and the countries of Central Europe and fostering mutually advantageous integration across Eurasia

DInSAR deformation time series for monitoring urban areas: The impact of the second generation SAR systems

We investigate the capability improvement of the DInSAR techniques to map deformation phenomena affecting urban areas, by performing a comparative analysis of the deformation time series retrieved by applying the full resolution Small BAseline Subset (SBAS) DInSAR technique to selected sequences of SAR data acquired by the ENVISAT, RADARSAT-1 and COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) SAR data. The presented study, focused on the city of Napoli (Italy), allows us to quantify the dramatic increase of the DInSAR coherent pixel density achieved by exploiting the high resolution X-Band CSK SAR images with respect to the RADARSAT-1 and ENVISAT products, respectively; this permits us to analyze nearly all the structures located within the investigated urbanized area and, in many cases, also portions of a same building. © 2012 IEEE

Beyond the Green Deal: upgrading the EU's energy diplomacy for a new era

The Green Deal launched by the new Commission in 2019 is set to profoundly reshape the European Union (EU)'s energy diplomacy. However, although the EU will have to adapt to the new policy direction determined by the Green Deal, it cannot be reduced to it. The EU’s energy diplomacy will need to cope with the profound and various geo‑economic and geopolitical shifts set in motion by the energy transition, which in­clude - but even transcend - the Green Deal’s goals. The current EU Energy Diplomacy Action Plan is due for revision. In setting the new priorities, the Union will need to strike a balance between global aspirations and limited financial means. The upcoming German EU Presidency is being called to step up its efforts to upgrade the EU’s energy diplomacy along three lines. First, review the existing set of priorities accord­ing to the new challenges. Second, expand the geographic radius of its actions beyond its direct neighborhood by focusing on 12 anchor partners along the Afro-Eur-Asian ellipse. Third, upgrade its instruments toolbox along five new areas of action, avoid­ing an exclusively normative-ideological approach in favor of a more realistic and country-tailored one. (author's abstract

Two-Layer Linear MPC Approach Aimed at Walking Beam Billets Reheating Furnace Optimization

In this paper, the problem of the control and optimization of a walking beam billets reheating furnace located in an Italian steel plant is analyzed. An ad hoc Advanced Process Control framework has been developed, based on a two-layer linear Model Predictive Control architecture. This control block optimizes the steady and transient states of the considered process. Two main problems have been addressed. First, in order to manage all process conditions, a tailored module defines the process variables set to be included in the control problem. In particular, a unified approach for the selection on the control inputs to be used for control objectives related to the process outputs is guaranteed. The impact of the proposed method on the controller formulation is also detailed. Second, an innovative mathematical approach for stoichiometric ratios constraints handling has been proposed, together with their introduction in the controller optimization problems. The designed control system has been installed on a real plant, replacing operators' mental model in the conduction of local PID controllers. After two years from the first startup, a strong energy efficiency improvement has been observed

Identifying the Health Needs of the East North Philadelphia Latino Youth via PhotoVoice

Introduction: The East North Philadelphia community contains the city’s largest Latino population, most of whom are of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent. This community in particular has unique health needs compared to the rest of the city of Philadelphia, with rates of diabetes (22.9%), asthma (28.6%), and poverty (45.5%) exceeding the national and city averages. Documenting the perceived needs of the children living here regarding their built environment will provide insight into the problems onto which the community at large needs to focus. This study aims to determine the priority needs of the community and to empower the youth to engage with and advocate for their community through photography. Methods: “PhotoVoice” projects were completed with adolescent Latino community members throughout 5 zip codes to survey the self-identified needs of the community regarding their collective health. Interviewers asked participants “what about [their] community helps or hurts their health?”, and the responses were transcribed and coded by multiple researchers to insure inter-rater reliability. Results: A thematic analysis was completed by both participants and researchers, which resulted in a list of top needs, most notably “Mental Health”, “Trauma, Safety and Violence”, “Built Environment”, and “Health Education and Health Behavior”. Conclusion: This data will be used in future advocacy work to help alleviate the burdens described by the East North Philadelphia Latino youth community