No exit from the euro-rescuing trap?

This paper attempts a normative assessment of the input and output-oriented legitimacy of the present euro-rescuing regime on the basis of policy analyses examining the causes of present crises, the available policy options, and the impact of the policies actually chosen. Concluding that the regime lacks input-oriented legitimacy and that its claim to output-oriented legitimacy is ambivalent at best, the paper explores potential – majoritarian or unilateral – exits from the present institutional constellation that is characterized by the synthesis of a non-democratic expertocracy and an extremely asymmetric intergovernmental bargaining system.Die hier präsentierte normative Bewertung der input- und outputorientierten Legitimität des gegenwärtigen Euro-Rettungs-Regimes stützt sich auf empirisch fundierte Aussagen zu den Ursachen der Eurokrise, den prinzipiell verfügbaren Politik-Optionen und den Wirkungen der gewählten Politik. Im Ergebnis wird eine inputorientierte Legitimation verneint, während die outputorientierte Bewertung höchst ambivalent erscheint. Im Schlussteil untersucht der Text mögliche – majoritäre oder einseitige – Auswege aus einer institutionellen Konstellation, die ein nicht demokratisches Expertenregime mit inem extrem asymmetrischen intergouvernementalen Verhandlungsregime verbindet

Study of the neutron quantum states in the gravity field

We have studied neutron quantum states in the potential well formed by the earth's gravitational field and a horizontal mirror. The estimated characteristic sizes of the neutron wave functions in the two lowest quantum states correspond to expectations with an experimental accuracy. A position-sensitive neutron detector with an extra-high spatial resolution of ~2 microns was developed and tested for this particular experiment, to be used to measure the spatial density distribution in a standing neutron wave above a mirror for a set of some of the lowest quantum states. The present experiment can be used to set an upper limit for an additional short-range fundamental force. We studied methodological uncertainties as well as the feasibility of improving further the accuracy of this experiment

Instances and connectors : issues for a second generation process language

This work is supported by UK EPSRC grants GR/L34433 and GR/L32699Over the past decade a variety of process languages have been defined, used and evaluated. It is now possible to consider second generation languages based on this experience. Rather than develop a second generation wish list this position paper explores two issues: instances and connectors. Instances relate to the relationship between a process model as a description and the, possibly multiple, enacting instances which are created from it. Connectors refers to the issue of concurrency control and achieving a higher level of abstraction in how parts of a model interact. We believe that these issues are key to developing systems which can effectively support business processes, and that they have not received sufficient attention within the process modelling community. Through exploring these issues we also illustrate our approach to designing a second generation process language.Postprin

The future of sovereignty in multilevel governance Europe: a constructivist reading

Multilevel governance presents a depiction of contemporary structures in EU Europe as consisting of overlapping authorities and competing competencies. By focusing on emerging non-anarchical structures in the international system, hence moving beyond the conventional hierarchy/anarchy dichotomy to distinguish domestic and international arenas, this seems a radical transformation of the familiar Westphalian system and to undermine state sovereignty. Paradoxically, however, the principle of sovereignty proves to be resilient despite its alleged empirical decline. This article argues that social constructivism can explain the paradox, by considering sovereign statehood as a process-dependent institutional fact, and by showing that multilevel governance can feed into this process

The politicisation of evaluation: constructing and contesting EU policy performance

Although systematic policy evaluation has been conducted for decades and has been growing strongly within the European Union (EU) institutions and in the member states, it remains largely underexplored in political science literatures. Extant work in political science and public policy typically focuses on elements such as agenda setting, policy shaping, decision making, or implementation rather than evaluation. Although individual pieces of research on evaluation in the EU have started to emerge, most often regarding policy “effectiveness” (one criterion among many in evaluation), a more structured approach is currently missing. This special issue aims to address this gap in political science by focusing on four key focal points: evaluation institutions (including rules and cultures), evaluation actors and interests (including competencies, power, roles and tasks), evaluation design (including research methods and theories, and their impact on policy design and legislation), and finally, evaluation purpose and use (including the relationships between discourse and scientific evidence, political attitudes and strategic use). The special issue considers how each of these elements contributes to an evolving governance system in the EU, where evaluation is playing an increasingly important role in decision making

Unifying Gene Expression Measures from Multiple Platforms Using Factor Analysis

In the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project, gene expression of the same set of samples is measured multiple times on different microarray platforms. There are two main advantages to combining these measurements. First, we have the opportunity to obtain a more precise and accurate estimate of expression levels than using the individual platforms alone. Second, the combined measure simplifies downstream analysis by eliminating the need to work with three sets of expression measures and to consolidate results from the three platforms

Learning in the European Union: Theoretical Lenses and Meta-Theory

notes: This paper is based on research carried out with the support of the European Research Council grant on Analysis of Learning in Regulatory Governance, ALREG http://centres.exeter.ac.uk/ceg/research/ALREG/index.php. The authors wish to express their gratitude to the other authors in this special edition and in particular its editor, Nikos Zaharaidis and X anonymous referees.publication-status: AcceptedThe European Union may well be a learning organization, yet there is still confusion about the nature of learning, its causal structure and the normative implications. In this article we select four perspectives that address complexity, governance, the agency-structure nexus, and how learning occurs or may be blocked by institutional features. They are transactional theory, purposeful opportunism, experimental governance, and the joint decision trap. We use the four cases to investigate how history and disciplinary traditions inform theory; the core causal arguments about learning; the normative implications of the analysis; the types of learning that are theoretically predicted; the meta-theoretical aspects and the lessons for better theories of the policy process and political scientists more generally

Unemployment benefits : discursive convergence, distant realities

Production of INCASI Project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015 GA 691004Unemployment protection systems have certain characteristics in common in Argentina, Uruguay, Spain and Italy: they are compulsory and contributory-proportional, although in Uruguay, it also has a capitalisation supplement. Despite the similarities, they work differently because the context of informal employment chiefly, and unemployment, low salaries and precariousness differ greatly. Consequently, the unemployment protection coverage rate varies. Theories of the Active Welfare State, the Investor State and the reforms of unemployment protection systems have led to a certain modernising language being adopted in these countries: activation, employability, conditionality, lifelong learning, flexibility, which are, among others, words shared with Europe. However, the meanings of these words differ according to the institutional context of each country. In Latin America the welfare state is low institutionalised even almost non-existent, while in Europe it is a diverse institution. Despite this, the four countries share an upward trend in benefit policies, in accordance with the increase in poverty risk

Genotype determination for polymorphisms in linkage disequilibrium

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Genome-wide association studies with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) show great promise to identify genetic determinants of complex human traits. In current analyses, genotype calling and imputation of missing genotypes are usually considered as two separated tasks. The genotypes of SNPs are first determined one at a time from allele signal intensities. Then the missing genotypes, i.e., no-calls caused by not perfectly separated signal clouds, are imputed based on the linkage disequilibrium (LD) between multiple SNPs. Although many statistical methods have been developed to improve either genotype calling or imputation of missing genotypes, treating the two steps independently can lead to loss of genetic information.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We propose a novel genotype calling framework. In this framework, we consider the signal intensities and underlying LD structure of SNPs simultaneously by estimating both cluster parameters and haplotype frequencies. As a result, our new method outperforms some existing algorithms in terms of both call rates and genotyping accuracy. Our studies also suggest that jointly analyzing multiple SNPs in LD provides more accurate estimation of haplotypes than haplotype reconstruction methods that only use called genotypes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study demonstrates that jointly analyzing signal intensities and LD structure of multiple SNPs is a better way to determine genotypes and estimate LD parameters.</p

Social movements, the European crisis, and EU political opportunities

Social movements in the wake of the financial crisis have shifted from the counter-summits and world social forums of the global justice movement to the camps of the anti-austerity mobilizations, and from a clear focus on building ‘another Europe’ to more domestically embedded issues. Among other reasons, this turn away from the EU can be linked to contracting political opportunities for social justice movements at the European level. This article addresses the closure of opportunities at the EU level for the work of social movement groups campaigning on specific EU policies. We reflect on the complexity of the EU’s political opportunity structure prior to the financial crisis, before examining changes to the EU’s architecture effected through responses to the crises and outlining arguments on how EU level opportunities around socio-economic issues in particular have shrunk as a result. We then show how the perception of other political opportunities at the EU level is affected by the austerity response by drawing on campaigns that sought to exploit new opportunities included in the Lisbon Treaty and designed to increase citizens’ input. Opportunities introduced by changes made in the Lisbon Treaty are perceived through the prism of contracted opportunities flowing from power shifts caused by the response to the financial crisis