An Overview of the Issues and Positions of the Major Countries in the WTO Negotiations

Negotiations on agriculture were successfully launched in the WTO early in 2000. In the initial phase, negotiating proposals have been submitted by member countries and are being discussed in special sessions of the WTO Committee on Agriculture. A stock-taking exercise will be held in March 2001 to establish the next steps in the process. Many developments will influence the shape and dynamics of the negotiations, particularly the possibility of a comprehensive trade round. The first part of this paper examines the policy setting for the negotiations. The ongoing integration of economies and accompanying agricultural policy reforms provide an environment for further trade liberalization. Expansion of regional trade agreements and EU enlargement negotiations add urgency to the multilateral negotiating process. Newer trade issues and nontrade concerns, often connected to the food business, focus attention on the agricultural talks but may also retard them. A further factor that will add urgency is the anticipated expiry of the Peace Clause in 2003. The paper reviews the main agricultural issues for negotiation and the initial negotiating positions. Substantial progress in improving access is essential for the negotiations to succeed. The issues of export subsidies, other forms of export competition, unfair pricing practices, and dumping are receiving much attention. There are pressures to reduce or eliminate all forms of trade-distorting domestic support. Many non-trade concerns are being introduced, and legitimate trade issues will need to be addressed. The developing countries are determined to extract a better deal for their agriculture. The paper concludes that the elements for progress in further agricultural trade liberalization are coming to the negotiating table but much uncertainty remains both within and outside agriculture.agricultural negotiations, peace clause, non-trade concerns, subsidies, WTO, International Relations/Trade,

Manpower forecast program

Program reports distribution of actual manpower levels in each section versus accounts, projects versus sections, sections versus manpower classes, and project offices versus sections

Creep-fatigue behavior of NiCoCrAlY coated PWA 1480 superalloy single crystals

Single crystal specimens of a Ni base superalloy, PWA 1480, with a low pressure plasma sprayed NiCoCrAlY coating were tested in various 0.1 Hz fatigue and creep fatigue cycles both at 1015 and 1050 C. Creep fatigue tests of the cp, pc, and cc types were conducted with various constant total strain ranges employing creep dwells at various constant stresses. Considerable cyclic softening occurred as was evidenced particularly by rapidly increasing creep rates in the creep fatigue tests. The cycle time in the creep fatigue tests typically decreased by more than 80 percent at 0.5 N sub f. Though cyclic life did correlate with delta epsilon sub in a better correlation existed with sub f for both the fatigue and creep fatigue tests, and poor correlations were observed with either sigma sub max or the average cycle time. A model containing both delta sigma and delta sigma (sub in), N sub f = alpha delta sigma (sub in) beta delta sigma gamma, with best fit values of sigma for each cycle type, but the same values of beta and gamam, was found to provide good correlations. Life lines were not greatly different among the cycle types, differing only by a factor of about three. The cp cycle life line was lowest for both test temperatures, however among the other three cycle types there was no consistent ranking. For all test types failure occurred predominately by multiple internal cracking originating at pores. The strong correlation of life with delta sigma may reflect a significant crack growth period in the life of the specimens

Teaching Higher Education During a Pandemic: A Phenomenological Study of Instructor Decisions Associated with Switching from Face-to-Face to Online-Only Sessions

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, university instructors were required to shift their course delivery from face-to-face to online-only presentations with two weeks of preparation. Volunteering instructors were interviewed via a semi-structured interview protocol regarding their actions to maintain instructor presence in an online-only setting. The term emergency remote teaching (ERT), defined by fellow researchers as the adoption of just-in-time remote teaching practices that would otherwise be offered face-to-face, aligned with the actions taken by interviewees. The data indicated that given an event requiring ERT, instructors should: overcome technology issues for themselves and their students to verify communication pathways, and exhibit the three elements of instructor presence (i.e., teaching presence, instructor immediacy, and social presence)

3-D Viscous Flow Analysis of a Mixed Flow Pump Impeller

This paper presents the results of a study using a coarse grid to analyze the flow in the impeller of a mixed flow pump. A commercial computational fluid dynamics code (FLOTRAN) is used to solve the 3-D Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equations in a rotating cylindrical coordinate system. The standard k-ε turbulence model is used. The mesh for this study uses 26,000 nodes and the model is run on a SPARCstation 20. This is in contrast to typical analyses using in excess of 100,000 nodes that are run on a super computer platform. The smaller mesh size has advantages in the design environment. Stage design parameters are, rotational speed 1185 rpm, flow coefficient φ=0.116, head coefficient ψ=0.094, and specific speed 2.01 (5475 US). Results for the model include circumferentially averaged results at the leading and trailing edges of the impeller, and analysis of the flow field within the impeller passage. Circumferentially averaged results include axial and tangential velocities, static pressure, and total pressure. Within the impeller passage the static pressure and velocity results are presented on surfaces from the leading edge to the trailing edge, the hub to the shroud, and the pressure surface to the suction surface. Results of this study are consistent with the expected flow characteristics of mixed flow impellers, indicating that small CFD models can be used to evaluate impeller performance in the design environment

Alien Registration- Grant, Mary M. (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/23227/thumbnail.jp

Failed States and Fragile Societies: A New World Disorder?

Since the end of the Cold War, a new dynamic has arisen within the international system, one that does not conform to established notions of the state’s monopoly on war. In this changing environment, the global community must decide how to respond to the challenges posed to the state by military threats, political and economic decline, and social fragmentation. This insightful work considers the phenomenon of state failure and asks how the international community might better detect signs of state decay at an early stage and devise legally and politically legitimate responses. This collection of essays brings military and social historians into conversation with political and social scientists and former military officers. In case studies from the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Iraq, and Colombia, the distinguished contributors argue that early intervention to stabilize social, economic, and political systems offers the greatest promise, whereas military intervention at a later stage is both costlier and less likely to succeed. Contributors: David Carment, Yiagadeesen Samy, David Curp, Jonathan House, James Carter, Vanda Felbab-Brown, Robert Rotberg, and Ken Menkhaus.https://ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/oupress/1007/thumbnail.jp

M. Blouke Carus

Mr. Carus is a businessman and chemist and lifelong supporter of education. He states that Myers was a supporter of the publishing work he and his wife engage in. Myers admired the family\u27s history of publishing Open Court General Books and admired the literary emphasis of Cricket line of magazines that Marianne Carus published. Her interview is also available

Urban wind power and the private sector : community benefits, social acceptance and public engagement

Given the ambitious government targets for renewable energy generation in the UK, there has been a push by government and industry towards various types and scales of Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs). This paper explores the implications of commercial urban wind projects for local communities, drawing on a case study of proposals by ASDA to construct wind turbines in two semi-urban locations in the UK. The paper argues that community responses to the proposals were complex and varied and could not adequately be encapsulated by 'nimby' (not in my back yard) assignations. It concludes that while ASDA followed a process of consulting local people, this process highlighted the problems of the 'business as usual' approach to public engagement employed by ASDA, and assumptions made about public acceptance of RETs