The New Institutionalisms and European Integration

The European Union is without question the most densely institutionalisedinternational organization in the world, with a welter of intergovernmental andsupranational institutions and a rapidly growing body of primary and secondarylegislation, the so-called acquis communautaire. Small wonder, then, that the body ofliterature known under the rubric of the new institutionalism has been applied withincreasing frequency and with increasing success to the study of the Union as a polityand to European integration as a process. In fact, however, the new institutionalismin social theory has evolved into plural institutionalisms, with rational-choice,sociological and historical variants, each with a distinctive set of hypotheses andinsights about the EU. This chapter examines the new institutionalisms in rationalchoice and historical analysis and their contributions to EU studies, briefly summarizingthe core assumptions of each approach before discussing specific applications to thestudy of the European Union and the question of EU enlargement, and concluding withan analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of institutional approaches to the study ofEuropean integration.

The Orientation of Unsymmetrical Molecules at Interfaces

A function giving the distribution of the angles of orientation of the molecular axes from the normal to the interface can be obtained if one makes use of a number of special assumptions regarding the forces of orientation. This is compared with the distribution calculated on assuming an extreme form of Langmuir's principle of independent surface action. The importance of having such a function is pointed out

Coevolutionary Dynamics in a Minimal Substrate

One of the central difficulties of coevolutionary methods arises from 'intransitive superiority' - in a two-player game, for example, the fact that A beats B, and B beats C, does not exclude the possibility that C beats A. Such cyclic superiority in a coevolutionary substrate is hypothesized to cause cycles in the dynamics of the population such that it 'chases its own tail' - traveling through some part of strategy space more than once despite apparent improvement with each step. It is often difficult to know whether an application domain contains such difficulties and to verify this hypothesis in the failure of a given coevolutionary set-up. In this paper we wish to elucidate some of the issues and concepts in an abstract domain where the dynamics of coevolution can be studied simply and directly. We define three simple 'number games' that illustrate intransitive superiority and resultant oscillatory dynamics, as well as some other relevant concepts. These include the distinction between a player's perceived performance and performance with respect to an external metric, and the significance of strategies with a multi-dimensional nature. These features alone can also cause oscillatory behavior and coevolutionary failure

Mutualism, Parasitism, and Evolutionary Adaptation

Our investigations concern the role of symbiosis as an enabling mechanism in evolutionary adaptation. Previous work has illustrated how the formation of mutualist groups can guide genetic variation so as to enable the evolution of ultimately independent organisms that would otherwise be unobtainable. The new experiments reported here show that this effect applies not just in genetically related organisms but may also occur from symbiosis between distinct species. In addition, a new detail is revealed: when the symbiotic group members are drawn from two separate species only one of these species achieves eventual independence and the other remains parasitic. It is nonetheless the case that this second species, formerly mutualistic, was critical in enabling the independence of the first. We offer a biological example that is suggestive of the effect and discuss the implications for evolving complex organisms, natural and artificial

Land landing couch dynamics computer program

Computer programs perform landing stability studies of mechanical impact system designs for advanced spacecraft. The programs consider variation in spacecraft vertical and horizontal velocity, attitude and orientation, shock strut load-stroke characteristics, and ground coefficient of friction

Demographic history and genetic differentiation in apes

SummaryComparisons of genetic variation between humans and great apes are hampered by the fact that we still know little about the demographics and evolutionary history of the latter species [1–4]. In addition, characterizing ape genetic variation is important because they are threatened with extinction, and knowledge about genetic differentiation among groups may guide conservation efforts [5]. We sequenced multiple intergenic autosomal regions totaling 22,400 base pairs (bp) in ten individuals each from western, central, and eastern chimpanzee groups and in nine bonobos, and 16,000 bp in ten Bornean and six Sumatran orangutans. These regions are analyzed together with homologous information from three human populations and gorillas. We find that whereas orangutans have the highest diversity, western chimpanzees have the lowest, and that the demographic histories of most groups differ drastically. Special attention should therefore be paid to sampling strategies and the statistics chosen when comparing levels of variation within and among groups. Finally, we find that the extent of genetic differentiation among “subspecies” of chimpanzees and orangutans is comparable to that seen among human populations, calling the validity of the “subspecies” concept in apes into question