The European civil society campaign on the financial transaction tax

The Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) has been a spearhead demand of civil society for some 15 years now. Initially put on the table by the UNDP in 1996 as an instrument of innovative financing for development, also its regulatory dimension surfaced after the Asian financial crisis 1997/98. While some governments were open to the idea, in particular France and Belgium, there was strong opposition from other countries such as the US and the UK and of the finance industry. Therefore, the FTT seemed to be doomed to disappear from the agenda. The financial crash in 2008, however, was a game changer and the FTT had its come back with France and Germany as driving force behind it. After a failed attempt to get an agreement in the G20, the EU presented a draft directive, which was very close to the expectations of civil society. But as strong objections among the EU-27 occurred, in particular from the UK, a coalition of eleven countries chose the option of Enhanced Cooperation to implement the tax. The Enhanced Cooperation Procedure is part of the EU regulations and can be used for projects, which cannot be agreed among all 27 member states but have the support of at least nine member states. In February 2013 the Enhanced Cooperation Procedure was launched officially on the basis of a revised draft by the EU-Commission, which was even stricter vis à vis the financial sector, in particular through its strong and innovative provisions against tax evasion. The resistance of the finance industry against the FTT continued. Their lobby organised a campaign in order to reach at least a watering down of the proposal. Hence, the definitive outcome of the ongoing process is still open. For civil society the process is nevertheless a great success by now. The Europea

Phenotypic Plasticity of Grass Root Anatomy in Response to Light Intensity and Nutrient Supply

The phenotypic plasticity of axial root anatomy was investigated in response to the availability of above- and below-ground resources using eight grass species of the genera Bromus and Poa. In a 7-week garden experiment nutrients were varied by a factor of five and light treatments of 100, 30 and 5·5% daylight were applied. Both nutrients and light influenced root structure. The effect of nutrients was largely explained by plant size, but this was not the case for light. Shading to 30% daylight led to a higher proportion of stele, larger stelar cells and larger xylem vessels. This can be understood either as an increased need for high transport capacity in the shade, where leaf area is larger but root mass lower than in full daylight, or as an increased resistance against desiccation, which is more of a hazard in open sites. Under 5·5% daylight, tissue mass density was reduced due to a lower proportion of stele, though xylem characteristics were not influenced when a correction for the effect of root cross-sectional area was applied. This response may be interpreted as a mechanism to maintain root function with a lower investment in biomass when growth is limited by low irradiance. The results show that the response of a plant to resource limitation is not restricted to those organs responsible for the acquisition of that resource. Furthermore, the qualitative response to shading depends on the absolute level of irradiance. For this reason, care is needed when comparing the results of shading experiments conducted under different irradiances. Copyright 2001 Annals of Botany Compan

Was bringt das Entschuldungsprogramm für hochverschuldete arme Länder?

1999 wurde die so genannte HIPC-Initiative zugunsten der ärmsten Länder (Highly Indebted Poor Countries), von der Weltbank und dem IWF 1996 ins Leben gerufen, erheblich erweitert. Die lnitiative zielt darauf ab, die Bekämpfung der Armut ins Zentrum der internationalen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit und der nationalen Entwicklungsprogrammme zu stellen. Durch Schuldenstreichung soll die Auslandsverschuldung der HIPCs auf ein tragfähiges Ausmaß reduziert werden, wenn diese Länder ihrerseits erfolgversprechende nationale Maßnahmen zur Armutsbekämpfung ergreifen. Gegenwärtig sind 22 Länder in dieses Programm einbezogen. Mit einer nachhaltigen Entlastung sollte man, nach Meinung von Dr. Peter Nunnenkamp, Leiter der Forschungsgruppe "internationale Kapitalbewegungen" am Institut für Weltwirtschaft in Kiel, aber nicht rechnen: "Positive Wirkungen sind möglich, wenn auch kaum in dem Maß wie vielerorts erhofft. Sie sind aber keineswegs gesichert." Peter Wahl, Mitglied das Vorstands der Nichtregierungsorganisation WEED kritisiert vor allem die Verbindung der Schuldenstreichung mit "orthodoxen Strukturanpassungsauflagen", die für ihn "armutserzeugend" wirken. Seiner Meinung nach ist die HIPC-Initiative "zu spät, zu wenig, zu kompliziert". Dieser Auffassung widerspricht Thomas Wollenzien, Direktor des Auslandssekretariats der Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau: "Enschuldung muss von überzeugenden Reformanstrengungen der begünstigten Länder begleitet sein. Die substantielle Schuldenerleichterung der hochverschuldeten armen Entwicklungsländer ist erforderlich, um ihnen einen Neuanfang zu ermöglichen. Dieser muss jedoch mit erheblichen Eigenanstrengungen verbunden sein und die strukturellen Ursachen der Überschuldung aufgreifen... Die im Rahmen des Pariser Clubs bei Schuldenerlassen ohnehin bestehende Konditionalität in Form einer Bindung an ein von Weltbank und Währungsfonds unterstütztes Reformprogramm sowie die gleichgerichteteEntwicklungsländer, Öffentliche Schulden, Geberländer, Entwicklungspolitik

Using data mining to understand how technology is expressed in curriculums to mediate learning outcomes

The role of technology in education increases with the increasing need for students to master technology in their practice. However, mastering technology in modern practice has become increasingly complex and requires a deeper understanding of the technologies—technologies hold premises in terms of how they limit and enable actions. While correct use can improve practice, wrong use can harm and lay waste to resources and job satisfaction. Ensuring that students can manage this complexity requires that technology is actively reflected in realistic settings. However, how do the curriculums that steer education reflect the role of technology, and do the curriculums steer the learning of technology in an advantageous direction? In this study we investigate curriculums across educations to explore how technology is expressed. This exploration will be used to discuss the role of technology in education, how it is expressed in curriculums documents, and its potential advantages and problems. The exploration is done using text mining to identify and extract specific features of the natural language of the curriculums. The features extracted will be used to highlight specific patterns related to the use of technology in education. The contribution of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it provides a method for data mining to identify patterns of technological use in education, manifested in curriculums. Secondly, it shows how technology is viewed in education

Structural routes to stabilize superconducting La3Ni2O7 at ambient pressure

Funding: This work used computational resources of the Cirrus UK National Tier-2 HPC Service at EPCC (http://www.cirrus.ac.uk) funded by the University of Edinburgh and EPSRC (EP/P020267/1). The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the Leverhulme Trust through RPG-2022-315.The bilayer perovskite La3Ni2O7 has recently been found to enter a superconducting state under hydrostatic pressure at temperatures as high as 80 K. The onset of superconductivity is observed concurrent with a structural transition which suggests that superconductivity is inherently related to this specific structure. Here we perform density functional theory based structural relaxation calculations and identify several promising routes to stabilize the crystal structure which hosts the superconducting state at ambient pressure. We find that the structural transition is controlled almost entirely by a reduction of the b-axis lattice constant, which suggests that uniaxial compression along the [010] direction or in-plane biaxial compression are sufficient as tuning parameters to control this transition. Furthermore, we show that increasing the size of the A-site cations can also induce the structural transitions via chemical pressure and identify Ac3Ni2O7 and Ba-doped La3Ni2O7 as potential candidates for a high temperature superconducting nickelate at ambient pressure.Peer reviewe