On the Legitimacy of Political Communities

The paper consists of two parts. The first part deals with the normative legitimacy of political communities, such as states and confederations, in general, i.e. their acceptability in light of reasonable standards of efficiency, common good, and justice from the viewpoints of their members on the one hand (internal legitimacy) and their social surroundings on the other (external legitimacy). The requirements of both aspects of legitimacy are specified in a twofold way: as normative ideals and as minimum standards. As to the latter, a political community's legitimacy minimally requires that it effectively guarantees the fundamental human rights of its members and complies with certain basic precepts of a peaceful and generally beneficial international order. On this basis, the second part scrutinizes the legitimacy of the European Union with regard to its internal and external aspects. This attempt leads to a mixed result. Even though the EU can certainly be regarded, by and large, as a desirable project, it also suffers from a number of considerable defects that weaken its legitimacy.normative legitimacy, political communities, efficiency, common good, justice, internal legitimacy, external legitimacy, European Union

Measuring Affective Information Processing in Information Systems and Consumer Research – Introducing Startle Reflex Modulation

Over the last two decades, scholars in information systems and consumer research have started to successfully apply methods from neuroscience to research questions on emotional aspects related to IS or consumption behavior. However, there is still a lack of understanding regarding which particular facets of emotion can actually be measured by the various neuroscientific techniques. Especially when it comes to their ability to measure underlying affective information processing, some neuroscientific methods are more suitable than others. We discuss startle reflex modulation as one possibility for validly measuring the valence of affective information processing. The biologically deep-rooted startle reflex (eye-blink as a response to, e.g., an acoustic startle probe) is a valid measure of affective information processing, which is the basis of all emotions. We review three examples of startle reflex modulation having been successfully applied in the context of IS and consumer neuroscience and propose directions for further research

SU(2) Yang-Mills quantum mechanics of spatially constant fields

As a first step towards a strong coupling expansion of Yang-Mills theory, the SU(2) Yang-Mills quantum mechanics of spatially constant gauge fields is investigated in the symmetric gauge, with the six physical fields represented in terms of a positive definite symmetric (3 x 3) matrix S. Representing the eigenvalues of S in terms of elementary symmetric polynomials, the eigenstates of the corresponding harmonic oscillator problem can be calculated analytically and used as orthonormal basis of trial states for a variational calculation of the Yang-Mills quantum mechanics. In this way high precision results are obtained in a very effective way for the lowest eigenstates in the spin-0 sector as well as for higher spin. Furthermore I find, that practically all excitation energy of the eigenstates, independently of whether it is a vibrational or a rotational excitation, leads to an increase of the expectation value of the largest eigenvalue , whereas the expectation values of the other two eigenvalues, and , and also the component = g of the magnetic field, remain at their vacuum values.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Polymeric alkali fullerides are stable in air

Infrared transmission, electron spin resonance, and X-ray diffraction measurements show unambiguously that RbC$_{60}$ and KC$_{60}$ are stable in air, in contrast to Rb$_{6}$C$_{60}$ which decomposes rapidly upon exposure. The specimens studied transform into pure C$_{60}$ and other byproducts when heated above 100\dd C, approximately the temperature of the orthorhombic-fcc phase transition. The stability of these compounds raises the possibility of applying them as protective layers for the superconducting fullerides.Comment: Scheduled for publication in Appl. Phys. Lett. 66, 20 Feb. 1995, typeset in REVTEX v3.0 in LaTeX. Postscript file including all figures is available on WWW http://insti.physics.sunysb.edu/~mmartin/ under my list of publications, or will be e-mailed by request

N-Minieralisierung organischer Handelsdünger und ihr Effekt auf den Ertrag von Kopfsalat und Blumenkohl im Frühjahr

Die ersten Gemüsejungpflanzen werden im Schweizerischen Mittelland Ende Februar ins Freiland gesetzt. In den kalten Böden wird zu dieser Zeit nur wenig Stickstoff mineralisiert. Deshalb werden die Gemüsekulturen in der Regel mit organischen Handelsdüngern versorgt, die relativ leicht mineralisierbaren Stickstoff enthalten. Zurzeit sind in der Schweiz 22 stickstoffreiche Handelsdünger für den biologischen Landbau zugelassen (Wyss et al. 1998), die sich in ihrer Zusammensetzung und Aufbereitungsform (gemahlen, pelletiert) unterscheiden. In drei Feldversuchen prüften wir verschiedene organische Handelsdünger auf ihre N-Mineralisierungsgeschwindigkeit und den Ertrag von Kopfsalat und Blumenkohl. Des weiteren werden die Ergebnisse aus einem Laborbrutversuch diskutiert

Überlegungen zur Weiterentwicklung der Gleichstellungsgrundlagen für öffentliche Universitäten.

Abstract Gender equality policies for Austrian universities have a long tradition and are characterised by a sound legal framework. Since the 1980 the framework as well as concrete measures have undergone several reforms. The paper focuses on current reforms and sketch possible future developments. Zusammenfassung Gleichstellungspolitik an österreichischen Universitäten hat eine bis in die 1980er Jahre zurückreichende Tradition. Seither haben sich die rechtlichen Grundlagen wie auch konkrete Maßnahmen stets weiterentwickelt. Das vorliegende Paper thematisiert aktuelle Entwicklungen und skizziert mögliche künftige Weiterentwicklungen