Is European climate policy the new CAP?

In its third phase (2013-20) the European Union's emissions trading system (ETS) will issue allowances for around two billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent each year. The emission rights are valued at around Â?30-35 billion at current prices, between one-half and two-thirds of the amount the EU spends on the Common Agricultural Policy. The redistributive effects of the allocation of emission allowances are therefore potentially significant. Quantitative indicators for the relative degree to which individual countries will be affected by the ETS suggest that economic consequences for the member states will be quite different. In this policy brief, Georg Zachmann finds that countries with less favourable initial conditions are eventually largely compensated. Click here here  to download the ETS indicators by country Bruegel also produced a video of the author Georg Zachmann commenting on the findings of his policy brief.Watch the video

Investigation of the Water-retaining Capacity of the Carbohydrate Complex of Rye-wheat Dough with Addition of Polyfunctional Food Supplement “Magnetofооd”

Today in Ukraine the share of low-quality bakery products is near 20–25 %, because they often don\u27t correspond to quality standards and sanitary norms, because of being produced of flour with low bakery properties. That is why new raw material sources, functional ingredients and so on are searched for in bread technologies. For using new raw material and food supplement types, it is necessary to know their functional-technological properties (FTP) that allows to prognosticate the behavior of powder-like raw materials and food supplements in food masses at technological processing and storage of ready products.The water-retaining capacity (WRC) is one of main functional-technological parameters of carbohydrate-containing raw materials, because it favors the outcome, structural-mechanical properties and quality characteristics of ready products.The authors introduced “Magnetofood” polyfunctional food supplement for increasing WRC of rye-wheat dough. For grounding the mechanism of forming supramolecular groups in carbohydrate food systems: Magnetofood-polysacharide-water, there was studied the influence of “Magnetofood” food supplement on processes of hydration, swelling and water-retention by rye-wheat starch and rye-wheat flour.It was established, that introduction of “Magnetofood” food supplement in rye-wheat starch and flour in amounts: 0,10; 0,15; 0,20 % to the mass of starch or flour increases swelling and water-retaining capacity (WRC) of starch and flour: swelling in 1,3–1,5 and 1,5–2,25 times, respectively; WRC in 1,10–1,15 and 1,1–1,3 times, respectively.The rational dose of “Magnetofood” food supplement – 0,15 % to the mass of dry raw material was experimentally set. There was studied the influence of “Magnetofood” food supplement on rheological properties of water suspensions of rye-wheat starch and flour at different temperatures and different speeds of shift.It was established, that adding “Magnetofood” in amount 0,15 % favors increasing the effective viscosity of suspensions of experimental samples of starch and flour at temperatures: (23±2) ºС and (40±2) ºС comparing with control samples in average by 29,0 % – for starch and by 22,0 % – for flour at 23 °С and by 16,0 % – for starch and by 10,0 % – for flour at 40 °С.There was studied the dynamics of changing viscosity of colloid solutions of starch and flour, enriched with “Magnetofood” in amount 0,15 % to the mass of dry raw material in the keeping process at different temperatures and shift speed 9 s-1.There was established the increase of viscosity of suspensions of rye-wheat starch and flour in the process of infusion (especially at adding “Magnetofood”) that is connected with continuing hydration and swelling process.It was demonstrated, that the temperature increase of the colloid system from (23±20) ° С to (40±2) °С favors the increase of its viscosity – both at the initial moment and in infusion process during 30 min in average by 20,0–25,0 % at the expanse of the aforesaid processes. Moreover, adding “Magnetofood” accelerates and intensifies the processes of swelling and hydration of experimental samples of rye-wheat starch and flour comparing with control ones.The received experimental data may be used at elaborating the technology of rye-wheat bread, enriched with “Magnetofood” food supplement; and also at elaborating innovative technologies of carbohydrate food systems.The results of this study may be used at elaborating recipes and technologies of carbohydrate-containing food products for increasing their viscosity, water-retaining and stabilizing capacities

The Cheshire Cap

A key role in black hole dynamics is played by the inner horizon; most of the entropy of a slightly nonextremal charged or rotating black hole is carried there, and the covariant entropy bound suggests that the rest lies in the region between the inner and outer horizon. An attempt to match this onto results of the microstate geometries program suggests that a `Higgs branch' of underlying long string states of the configuration space realizes the degrees of freedom on the inner horizon, while the `Coulomb branch' describes the inter-horizon region and beyond. Support for this proposal comes from an analysis of the way singularities develop in microstate geometries, and their close analogy to corresponding structures in fivebrane dynamics. These singularities signal the opening up of the long string degrees of freedom of the theory, which are partly visible from the geometry side. A conjectural picture of the black hole interior is proposed, wherein the long string degrees of freedom resolve the geometrical singularity on the inner horizon, yet are sufficiently nonlocal to communicate information to the outer horizon and beyond.Comment: 64 pages, 8 figures. Version 2: References added, together with substantial elaborations and clarification

GPS scintillations associated with cusp dynamics and polar cap patches

This paper investigates the relative scintillation level associated with cusp dynamics (including precipitation, flow shears, etc.) with and without the formation of polar cap patches around the cusp inflow region by the EISCAT Svalbard radar (ESR) and two GPS scintillation receivers. A series of polar cap patches were observed by the ESR between 8:40 and 10:20 UT on December 3, 2011. The polar cap patches combined with the auroral dynamics were associated with a significantly higher GPS phase scintillation level (up to 0.6 rad) than those observed for the other two alternatives, i.e., cusp dynamics without polar cap patches, and polar cap patches without cusp aurora. The cusp auroral dynamics without plasma patches were indeed related to GPS phase scintillations at a moderate level (up to 0.3 rad). The polar cap patches away from the active cusp were associated with sporadic and moderate GPS phase scintillations (up to 0.2 rad). The main conclusion is that the worst global navigation satellite system space weather events on the dayside occur when polar cap patches enter the polar cap and are subject to particle precipitation and flow shears, which is analogous to the nightside when polar cap patches exit the polar cap and enter the auroral oval

CAP UNDER FIRE: THE BUDGETARY REVIEW AND THE CAP

During the process of the budgetary review the CAP faces its greatest challenge of its history: not only the (common) financing of the CAP, but the future of the CAP itself is at stake. It is obvious that the reform steps implemented so far – even though they have several forward-looking elements – do not result in a CAP sustainable on the long run. Further changes are inevitable. Basing our analysis on the theories of fiscal federalism and other political economy approaches, we try to answer the following questions. Is common financing of a reformed CAP justified? Can national co-financing be extended? Is it justified to keep the system of commonly financed direct payments?European Union, Common Agricultural Policy, fiscal federalism, budget review, Agricultural and Food Policy, F15, F36, H41, H50, Q18,

THE CAP REFORM AND EC-US RELATIONS: THE GATT AS A "CAP" ON THE CAP

Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy has entailed the substitution of new income support instruments for the former price based instruments, mainly in the cash crop sector. Our first point is that the domestic political balance was unable to generate such a large change in policy design, in spite of inefficiencies and inbalances. The pressure of the US has been a major factor in the design of the reform. We argue that trade interests have been crucial to catalyze international collective action in order to countervail domestic pressure groups. The pursuit of an agreement in the GATT is therefore a means to place a cap on the CAP and foster some reform and control over sectors such as sugar and dairy in other countries. We do not foresee the disappearance of sources of tensions between the two countries, as EC animal products become more competitive and as the working of the CAP in the vicinity of world prices will make trade flows sensitive to world macro-economic and agricultural shocks. The Uruguay Round, should not be considered as fully satisfactory, and the long-run objective of further decoupling of payments from production incentives should be pursued.Agricultural and Food Policy,

2-irreducible and strongly 2-irreducible ideals of commutative rings

An ideal I of a commutative ring R is said to be irreducible if it cannot be written as the intersection of two larger ideals. A proper ideal I of a ring R is said to be strongly irreducible if for each ideals J, K of R, J\cap K\subseteq I implies that J\subset I or K\subset I. In this paper, we introduce the concepts of 2-irreducible and strongly 2-irreducible ideals which are generalizations of irreducible and strongly irreducible ideals, respectively. We say that a proper ideal I of a ring R is 2-irreducible if for each ideals J, K and L of R, I= J\cap K\cap L implies that either I=J\cap K or I=J\cap L or I=K\cap L. A proper ideal I of a ring R is called strongly 2-irreducible if for each ideals J, K and L of R, J\cap K\cap L\subseteq I implies that either J\cap K\subseteq I or J\cap L\subseteq I or K\cap L\subseteq I.Comment: 15 page