The Impact of Fiscal Rules on Public Finances: Theory and Empirical Evidence for the Euro Area

This paper presents a review of the most significant fiscal rules policymakers can choose from. The insights from this review are then applied to the current budgetary situation of the European Union. In the European Union, the supranational Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) should provide the necessary guidance in limiting governmental borrowing by member states. In addition to the SGP, European countries are implementing various other fiscal rules that bind central, regional and local governments. We provide empirical estimates of the effect of fiscal rules on fiscal balance, government spending and government revenues, using a Fiscal Rule Index. We find that fiscal rules have some effect on fiscal balances.euro area, fiscal policy, policy rules, fiscal sustainability

On-line PD detection in power cables using matched filters

On-line measuring of partial discharge (PD) is generally impeded by noise, and in many cases PDs cannot be detected without filtering. Solely the pulse propagation path and the response of the detection circuit determine the shape of a PD pulse; therefore a PD can be regarded as a deterministic signal embedded in additive noise. The optimal filter for this class of signals is the matched filter, which maximises the signal-to-noise ratio at the filter output. Matched filters allow making reliable observations of PD signals embedded in noise and precise estimations of signal parameters, such as arrival time and charge. In order to obtain PD matched filters; knowledge of the PD wave shapes is crucial. A cable propagation model provides such knowledge, and matched filters can be designed specifically for the cable under test. Moreover, by estimating noise statistics the matched filters can be tailored for a practical measuring situation. Experimental results show that partial discharge detection greatly benefits from matched filtering

Survival, biofilm formation, and growth potential of environmental and enteric escherichia coli strains in drinking water microcosms

E. coli is the most commonly used indicator for faecal contamination in a drinking water distribution system (WDS). The assumption is that E. coli are of enteric origin and cannot persist for long outside their host, therefore acting as indicators of recent contamination events. This study investigates the fate of E. coli in drinking water; specifically addressing survival, biofilm formation under shear stress, and regrowth in a series of laboratory-controlled experiments. We show the extended persistence of three E. coli strains (two enteric and one soil isolate) in sterile and non-sterile drinking water microcosms, at 8 and 17°C, with T90 values ranging from 17.4 ± 1.8 to 149 ± 67.7 days, using standard plate counts and a series of (RT)-Q-PCR assays targeting 16S rRNA, tuf, uidA, and rodA genes and transcripts. Furthermore, each strain was capable of attaching to a surface and replicating to form biofilm in the presence of nutrients under a range of shear stress values (0.6, 2.0, and 4.4 dyn cm-2; BioFlux, Fluxion); however, cell numbers did not increase when drinking water was flowed over (t-test; p > 0.05). Finally, E. coli regrowth within drinking water microcosms containing PE-100 pipe-wall material was not observed in the biofilm or water phase using a combination of culturing and Q-PCR methods for E. coli. The results of this work highlight that when E. coli enters drinking water it has the potential to survive and attach to surfaces but that regrowth within drinking water or biofilm is unlikely

Spectral Analysis of Correlated One-Dimensional Systems with Impurities

An averaging procedure is proposed to account for spectral features of correlated one-dimensional systems in the presence of non-magnetic impurities. The dynamical spin structure factor for a corresponding random ensemble of Heisenberg chain segments is calculated by exact numerical diagonalization. It is shown that a few-pole approximation is sufficient to describe the numerical results. A similar analysis is proposed for the discussion of experimental spectra, such as obtained by inelastic neutron scattering measurements on Zn-doped CuO chains. By examination of the disorder-induced pseudo-gap, the loss of spectral weight, and the discrete peak structures due to smallest-cluster contributions, the underlying impurity distribution function can be determined.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages with 4 eps figure

LOP's in de gemeentelijke praktijk : een beknopte analyse naar de doorwerking van LOP's in 30 gemeenten

De regeling ter subsidiëring van Landschapsontwikkelingsplannen (LOP's) wordt herzien. Eén van de door LNV gewenste verbeterpunten – op basis van een uitgevoerde evaluatie - voor het functioneren van LOP's is een betere inbedding in de lokale planvorming. Onduidelijk voor LNV is hoe de afgelopen 10 jaar de LOP's zijn ingebed in bestemmingsplannen of andere lokale en/of gemeentelijke plannen. Elementair inzicht hierin is belangrijk voor een effectieve herziening van de subsidieregeling. Welke overwegingen speelden een rol bij de verschillende keuzes die gemeenten hebben gemaakt in de wijze van doorwerking van het LOP en kan hieruit een les worden getrokken voor de herziening van de nieuwe regeling. Dit vormt de aanleiding voor dit onderzoek uitgevoerd in oktober 2009 als kortlopende vraag in het kader van de Helpdesk Vitaal Landelijk Gebie

Het project 'Monitoring Diergezondheid', beschrijving en analyse van doorlopen processen

Het doel van het project is om tot een gemeenschappelijk ontwerp voor een informatieverzamelings- en analysesysteem te komen ten behoeve van de monitoring van diergezondheid én voedselveiligheid, dat kan rekenen op een breed draagvlak bij publieke en private partijen; draagvlak dat noodzakelijk is voor de realisering van zo’n dataverzame-lingssysteem (uit projectplan, 23 januari 2004). Dit ontwerp is echter nooit in de praktijk gerealiseerd. Een beschrijving en analyse van het proces van de laatste jaren in het project ‘Monitoring Diergezondheid’, is in dit document vastgelegd. Tevens zijn ervaringen die in dit project zijn opgedaan door het projectteam, inzichtelijk en bruikbaar gemaakt voor andere

Exorcising the Past: History, Hauntings and Evil in Neo-Gothic Fiction

This thesis explores the conventions of both historical and Gothic fiction in order to investigate what seems to be a recurrent impulse to exorcise the past in what I define as contemporary Neo-Gothic fiction. It therefore attempts to establish a distinction between Neo-Gothic fiction and other forms of contemporary Gothic fiction by focusing on the treatment of history, the supernatural and the grand narrative of progress in three contemporary Gothic novels: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates. This thesis argues that the most potent manifestation of history can be found in the representation of the revenant in Neo-Gothic fiction, which exhibits a disruptive and evil ontology that problematises the exorcism of the past. Furthermore, the reactions of ‘modern’ characters to these revenants illustrate the imperative to exorcise the past, and therefore the treatment of history and the past is reflected in the interaction between the ‘modern’ characters and the Gothic revenants. Through this interaction as well as the parody of traditional Gothic and historical fiction conventions, Neo-Gothic fiction constructs a critique of the Enlightenment’s grand narrative of progress. Paradoxically, this constitutes Neo-Gothic fiction’s own attempt to exorcise the past, which it recognises in a simplified and reductive narrative of history propounded through the grand narrative of progress. This thesis therefore pays particular attention to the configuration of revenants as evil and ‘modern’ humans as good, and the disruption of this simple binary that is effected through Neo-Gothic fiction’s subversion of the grand narrative of progress. This focus allows for the theorisation of the revenant through Jacques Derrida’s notion of ‘hauntology’ and Julia Kristeva’s ‘the abject’, the investigation of the treatment of history in Neo-Gothic fiction and the exploration of very recent Gothic texts that have not yet received much critical attention

Detection of near-field, low permittivity layers with Ground Penetrating Radar: analytical estimation of the reflection coefficient

peer reviewedThe reflection coefficient of GPR waves encountering embedded thin layers is commonly estimated using a plane wave, far field approximation. But when the thin layer is situated in the near field of the antenna, the spherical nature of the waves and the possible propagation of a lateral wave into the layer may have a strong influence on the measured reflected amplitude. In this work, we studied through 2D FDTD simulations the behavior of a radar wave interacting with thin layers of different thicknesses. The snapshots and radargrams showed a large influence of the layer thickness on the wave propagation. For the very thin layers, the evanescent wave plays a major role and the plane wave approximation gives a good estimation of the reflection coefficient. For thicker layers, the specific inclination of each multiple reflection has to be taken into account, as well as the lateral wave propagation. On the basis of these observations, we determined which analytical method should be used for the analytical prediction of the reflection coefficient, as a function of the layer thickness