Competitive Liberalization and a US-SACU FTA

This paper evaluates a possible US-SACU (Southern African Customs Union) free trade agreement as part of a US approach to new preferential trade agreements characterized by the term competitive liberalization.' This is the idea that competition among large countries (US/EU) to negotiate preferential arrangements with smaller countries or regions will lower barriers, and eventually add fresh impulse to new multilateral WTO negotiations. In commercial policy terms, the US interest in such an arrangement lies in improved access to a smaller but more protected market where the EU already has preferential arrangements, and the SACU interest lies in improved access to a much larger but less protected market. There is also a SACU interest in weakening the trade restrictive effects of MFA quotas in the US for apparel imports. The risk of entrapment in extremely complex rules of origin arrangements which at times close markets (as in NAFTA and other US bilaterals) is a concern for SACU. Also, gains to SACU may be only temporary because of the US proposal to eliminate non agricultural tariffs entirely in the WTO by 2015. In key non commodity trade areas (services, investment, intellectual property, temporary entry of business persons), if other US bilaterals are any guide most liberalization requested will be heavily asymmetric if not unilateral on the SACU side. SACU does not currently cover any of these items since it is only a customs union, and prior negotiation will be needed among SACU countries. SACU also clearly has an interest in coordinating its negotiation with other US bilateral negotiating partners. These and other barriers to negotiation (including negotiating capacity constraints in several SACU members) will influence the outcome of negotiations.

Investigating Dielectric Properties of Sintered Polymers for Rapid Manufacturing

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) of polymers is the leading technology in the growing field of Rapid Manufacturing. High Speed Sintering (HSS) is a process that offers the potential to reduce costs and processing times and thus open significant new markets for Rapid Manufactured parts. Much academic research has been performed with respect to mechanical properties of Rapid Manufactured parts, however the area of electrical properties has received little attention to date. Electrical properties are obviously important in applications that will involve embedding of circuits with Rapid Manufactured 3D objects. However electrical properties are also important for a wide variety of electrical products where Rapid Manufactured parts can be used as housings etc. This paper focuses on the dielectric properties of parts made by SLS and HSS and compares properties with those for conventionally processed polymers. Dielectric strength results show that SLS parts are comparable with injection moulded parts, while HSS parts are inferior to SLS parts. Dielectric constant and dissipation factor results show that HSS parts are comparable with injection moulded parts, whilst SLS parts have superior properties. The presence of porosity (SLS and HSS) and the presence of carbon (HSS) are suggested as reasons behind the variation in dielectric properties when compared with injection moulded parts.Mechanical Engineerin

The process of infection with bacteriophage phiX174, XXX. Replication of double-stranded phiX DNA

Intermediates involved in the replication of double-stranded phiX174 RF DNA have been identified and partially characterized. Analysis of pulse-labeled RF DNA suggests that the synthesis of progeny RF molecules involves, in part, the addition of nucleotides to linear complementary strands on a circular parental strand as template, so as to produce intermediate DNA strands of greater than viral length. Electron microscopy reveals DNA rings with "tails" and "double rings," which could be the intermediate structures. A model is postulated for the replication process

A Report to History

Music Composition and Performance [cl-solo, 2 vn, va, vc] c.10 min. 'Report to History' is a site-specific composition written for the acoustic properties of St Vincent's Chapel, Stockbridge, Edinburgh. This piece exploits the particular resonances of the space, such as the Low C Standing wave in the area near the Font. Also, the effect of dislocation when certain notes are played by a Bb Clarinet from the choir stalls into the rafters of the chapel. The result is that from the point of view of the audience below it is difficult to locate the origin of the clarinet. The composition requires the movement of musicians around the space in order to emphasise these properties. Most markedly is from bar 47, where the clarinetist sustains a concert A by circular breathing whilst walking down the aisle towards their seat. The piece concludes with the string quartet and Bass Clarinet making apparent resonance of the pitch C by accentuating the partials in the harmonic series

Phytocannabinoids as novel therapeutic agents in CNS disorders

The Cannabis sativa herb contains over 100 phytocannabinoid (pCB) compounds and has been used for thousands of years for both recreational and medicinal purposes. In the past two decades, characterisation of the body's endogenous cannabinoid (CB) (endocannabinoid, eCB) system (ECS) has highlighted activation of central CB1 receptors by the major pCB, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) as the primary mediator of the psychoactive, hyperphagic and some of the potentially therapeutic properties of ingested cannabis. Whilst Δ9-THC is the most prevalent and widely studied pCB, it is also the predominant psychotropic component of cannabis, a property that likely limits its widespread therapeutic use as an isolated agent. In this regard, research focus has recently widened to include other pCBs including cannabidiol (CBD), cannabigerol (CBG), Δ9tetrahydrocannabivarin (Δ9-THCV) and cannabidivarin (CBDV), some of which show potential as therapeutic agents in preclinical models of CNS disease. Moreover, it is becoming evident that these non-Δ9-THC pCBs act at a wide range of pharmacological targets, not solely limited to CB receptors. Disorders that could be targeted include epilepsy, neurodegenerative diseases, affective disorders and the central modulation of feeding behaviour. Here, we review pCB effects in preclinical models of CNS disease and, where available, clinical trial data that support therapeutic effects. Such developments may soon yield the first non-Δ9-THC pCB-based medicines

Seven Rocks: Music Composition

Music Composition and Performance [cl-solo, 2 vn, va, vc] c.22min In seven short movements, for strings and spoken voice, in which the compositional form of the music represents the processes that each rock undertook in its formation (Slate, for example, is formed of large, fairly featureless slabs with very sharp edges, so this is reflected in the musical texture). This form is further molded by a more abstract appreciation of the landscape or rock mediated through the poetry of Norman Nicholson

Before Alpha-Go: interpretation though improvisation and LISP

This poster outlines the process undertaken to write Go/Koan, a composition which uses a ½ point win Game between a mid-level Dan Go player and Zen19, a Go computer, which at the time (2013) was one of the strongest of its kind. Since then, Google’s Alpha-GO has radically changed this landscape with wide reaching implications

This Fragile Expanse (Water over Time) - Composition and poem for Solo Cello and Spoken Voice

This fragile expanse is a musical composition for Solo Cello and spoken word. The text is the poem, 'Water over Time', and it was read by Scottish Author Alexander McCall Smith. The piece tracks a relationship between geological time, the cycles of water within it, and 'the expanse'. It was commissioned by the Edinburgh Sacred Arts Foundation and performed as part of the Edinburgh Festivals

The CEDAR Project

We describe the plans and objectives of the CEDAR project (Combined e-Science Data Analysis Resource for High Energy Physics) newly funded by the PPARC e-Science programme in the UK. CEDAR will combine the strengths of the well established and widely used HEPDATA database of HEP data and the innovative JetWeb data/Monte Carlo comparison facility, built on the HZTOOL package, and will exploit developing grid technology. The current status and future plans of both of these individual sub-projects within the CEDAR framework are described, showing how they will cohesively provide (a) an extensive archive of Reaction Data, (b) validation and tuning of Monte Carlo programs against these reaction data sets, and (c) a validated code repository for a wide range of HEP code such as parton distribution functions and other calculation codes used by particle physicists. Once established it is envisaged CEDAR will become an important Grid tool used by LHC experimentalists in their analyses and may well serve as a model in other branches of science where there is a need to compare data and complex simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 postscript figures, uses CHEP2004.cls. Presented at Computing in High-Energy Physics (CHEP'04), Interlaken, Switzerland, 27th September - 1st October 200

HepData and JetWeb: HEP data archiving and model validation

The CEDAR collaboration is extending and combining the JetWeb and HepData systems to provide a single service for tuning and validating models of high-energy physics processes. The centrepiece of this activity is the fitting by JetWeb of observables computed from Monte Carlo event generator events against their experimentally determined distributions, as stored in HepData. Caching the results of the JetWeb simulation and comparison stages provides a single cumulative database of event generator tunings, fitted against a wide range of experimental quantities. An important feature of this integration is a family of XML data formats, called HepML.Comment: 4 pages, 0 figures. To be published in proceedings of CHEP0