New Interactions with Workflow Systems

This paper describes the evaluation of our early design ideas of an ad-hoc of workflow system. Using the teach-back technique, we have performed a hermeneutic analysis of the mockup implementation named NIWS to get corrective and creative feedback at the functional, dialogue and representation level of the new workflow system

Superconducting and structural properties of plasma sprayed YBaCuO layers deposited on metallic substrates

The properties of plasma sprayed Y-Ba-Cu-O coatings deposited on metallic substrates are studied. Stainless steel, nickel steels and pure nickel are used as substrate. Y-Ba-Cu-O deposited on stainless steel and nickel steel reacts with the substrate. This interaction can be suppressed by using an yttria-stabilized zirconia (YsZ) diffusion barrier. However, after heat treatment the Y-Ba-Cu-O layers on YsZ show cracks perpendicular to the surface. As a result the critical current density is very low. The best results are obtained for Y-Ba-Cu-O deposited on pure nickel; here no cracks perpendicular to the surface are observed. The critical current increases with the anneal temperature but annealing for longer than 10 h does not seem to improve the superconducting properties any further

Numerical modelling of physical processes governing larval transport in the southern North Sea

A three-dimensional hydrodynamic model (GETM) was coupled with a particle tracking routine (GITM) to study the inter-annual variability in transport paths of particles in the North Sea and English Channel. For validation, a comparison with observed drifter trajectories is also presented here. This research investigated to what extent variability in the hydrodynamic conditions alone (reflecting passive particle transport) contributed to inter-annual variability in the transport of eggs and larvae. In this idealised study, no a priori selection of specific spawning grounds or periods was made and no active behaviour (vertical migration) or mortality was included. In this study, egg and larval development towards coastal nursery areas was based solely on sea water temperature, while settlement areas were defined by a threshold water depth. Results showed strong inter-annual variability in drift direction and distance, caused by a combination of wind speed and direction. Strong inter-annual variability was observed both in absolute amount of settlement in several coastal areas, and in the relative importance of the different areas. The effects of wind and temperature variability are minor for settlement along the western shores of the North Sea and in the English Channel, but have a very significant impact on settlement along the eastern shores of the North Sea. Years with strong south-westerly winds across the Dover Straight resulted in higher settlement figures along its eastern shores of the North Sea (standard deviation 37% of the mean annual settlement value). Settlement in the western Dutch Wadden Sea did not only show inter-annual variability, but patterns were also variable within each year and revealed seasonal changes in the origin of particles: during winter, stronger currents along with colder temperatures generally result in particles originating from further away

The politics of (de-)politicization and venue choice: A scoping review and research agenda on EU financial regulation and economic governance

Scholarly interest in EU financial regulation and economic governance has increased sharply over the last decade, but the literature on their politics remains fragmented. We present a scoping literature review which systematically locates and aggregates academic articles on their politics in ISI-ranked journals between 1999 and 2016. We identify lacunas in this literature by mapping its strands onto the EU political system. We then present a system-level research agenda that focuses on the cycles of depoliticization and politicization that strongly characterize the politics in these areas. Future research must pay careful attention to the conditions, mechanisms and, especially the venues that (dis)allow the linkage of societal politicization to EU-level politics. This approach is deeply rooted in the specifics of the politics of these policy areas, but also draws on the strengths of research in these areas to increase its relevance for broader debates on the future of the EU itself

Bread and butter or bread and circuses?

Does domestic contestation of European Union legitimacy affect the behaviour of the European Commission as an economic and fiscal supervisor? We draw on theories of bureaucratic responsiveness and employ multilevel and topic modelling to examine the extent to which the politicisation of European integration affects the outputs of the European Semester: the Country-Specific Recommendations. We develop two competing sets of hypotheses and test these on an original large-N data set on Commission behaviour with observations covering the period 2011–2017. We detect a twofold effect on the Commission's recommendations: member states that experience greater politicisation receive recommendations that are larger in scope but whose substance is less oriented towards social investment. We argue that this effect is best explained as an outcome of the Commission's institutional risk management strategy of regulatory ‘entrenchment’. The supranational agent issues additional recommendations while simultaneously entrenching on a stronger mandate substantively, which allows it to maintain its regulatory reputation and signal regulatory resolve to observing audiences