bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Governments and supporting parties: what relationship can one expect in the 21st Century
Authors: Blondel J.
Published: July 2009

In parliamentary systems, the link between governments and the parties supporting them is typically regarded as being so strong that the expression ‘party government’ has been coined to refer to this type of relationship. Yet, in practice, there are major variations between the two ‘sides’: these relate to possible reciprocal influence on three planes, those of appointments, of policy-making, and of patronage. Contrary to what is often believed, governments often play a key part and supporting parties are forced, more or less reluctantly, to follow. This has led to doubts about the extent to which the relationship can ever be harmonious and even to the view, probably exaggerated, that it has become increasingly conflictual.
Parties and elections in the European Union
Authors: Hix Simon
Published: July 2009

Party ‘federations’ have begun to exist in the European Union, but these are not ‘parties’ in the true sense of the word. They are beginning to exercise some influence, not just in the European Parliament but, to an extent at least, on the European Commission and on the European Council as well. However, it does remain the case that the structure of the European Union is not conducive to the setting up of real parties: elections to the European Parliament have been regarded as being, to an extent, ‘second-order’ compared with national elections, and the system as a whole is also typically regarded as suffering from a ‘democratic deficit’. What is needed is to design an institutional mechanism to facilitate competitive party government in the European Union.
The Politics of Language in the European Union
Authors: Forrest Alan
Published: July 2009

Linguistic obstacles to common European Union action are overcome by a system of official languages (currently 11) for translation of official texts and interpretation at meetings. In practice, flexibility in language use is frequently required. Here, political tensions arise because of the onward march of English as a language of European Union dialogue; some Member States feel the status of their language is being threatened. In this context, education, culture and other programmes having language provisions can have a compensatory role: their multilingual approach reinforces the cohesion of the Union. Their significance will be even greater if enlargement brings 11 further languages into the Union.
Machiavelli's political morality
Authors: Skinner Quentin
Published: July 2009

The analysis of the moral questions involved in the exercise of power by Machiavelli never seems to lose its topicality. It remains as immediate and penetrating as when it was first conceived.
Silhouettes: rhetoric and science?
Authors: Pinkau K.
Published: July 2009

Science as part of an open society cannot flourish if science becomes the exclusive possession of a closed set of specialists. The problem of scientific rhetoric, however, is that scientific knowledge cannot be everybody's knowledge in volume or in the concepts used and that therefore a loss of information content occurs when scientific knowledge is projected onto the screen of everyday knowledge: science then appears only as a silhouette. Even so silhouettes can convey an important message in relation to a special context under discussion. The particular silhouette selected then becomes a question of truthfulness in scientific rhetoric.
Social psychology and human rights
Authors: Doise Willem
Published: July 2009

In this paper I will illustrate the heuristic value of studying human rights as social representations. Results of cross-national studies are reported after a short presentation of social representation theory. Shared meanings in the field of human rights exist within and between cultural and national groups. Other findings concern dimensions on which individuals differ in their positioning toward human rights, related to respondents' beliefs about their own efficacy and the efficacy of institutions. These beliefs are anchored in national group membership, in value priorities and in experiences of social conflict. Studies in Geneva suggest there is a distinction between a large-scale principled agreement and much more restricted attitudes toward the application of human rights principles in specific situations.
EMBL: a gateway to European science
Authors: Kafatos Fotis C. , Hodge Russ
Published: July 2009

Created in 1974, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) has achieved renown for outstanding research, training and methodology development. It has also provided crucial services to European molecular biology. Its headquarters are in Heidelberg and it is funded by 15 member states. The combination of the Visitors Programme, Outstations and International PhD Programme provides access to resources rarely available in national laboratories. EMBL was conceived as a magnet to hold quality scientists in Europe or to attract them back after an education elsewhere, and has been signally successful in this. Its open international style sets a standard for the way that research is done in molecular biology in Europe.
Is mathematics still the science of paper, pencils and proofs?
Authors: Fenstad Jens Erik
Published: July 2009

Mathematics, while a necessary part of information technology is remarkably conservative in its working habits. Much of the mathematics needed for the computer age is still produced by paper and pencil. There are some signs of change and this paper looks more closely at what is happening. The impact of the electronic age and computers on the science of mathematics and on the style and organization of mathematical research and publication is examined.
The electronic nobel museum
Authors: Ringertz Nils , Mehlin Hans , Levinovitz Agneta Wallin
Published: July 2009

The Nobel Foundation and the Nobel Prize-Awarding Institutions plan to celebrate the centenary of the first Nobel Prizes in 2001 by expanding the Nobel Website (http://www.nobel.se) on Internet into an Electronic Nobel Museum (ENM) of science and culture. A special version will be designed for local networks (intranets) within museums. The ENM focuses on the achievements of the Nobel Laureates in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace, but will also include the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The Laureates are presented by portraits and their autobiographies. Other sections will be devoted to Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Institutions, Nobel Essays, a Library, and Virtual Exhibitions. A Young Scholars section will use animated and interactive documents to interest students in the Prize areas.
South African higher education reform: what comes after post-colonialism?
Authors: Cloete Nico , Muller Johan
Published: July 2009

Since the fall of the apartheid regime South African higher education has begun to undergo a process of fundamental transformation. First-world universities, which were beneficiaries (however unwilling) of past racial inequalities, have had to adapt to the urgent needs of what is a post-colonial and, for the majority of its citizens, a third-world society. South Africa, therefore, provides a particularly sharp example of the encounter between a higher education system established within the European tradition, in terms of both its institutional and its academic culture, and a society in the process of radical change. This encounter has been mediated through the work of the National Commission on Higher Education which attempted to produce a compromise that would enable South African higher education to be both ‘Western’ (in terms of academic values and scientific standards) and also ‘African’ (in terms of its contribution to building the capacities of all the people of South Africa). The tension between the university's claims to represent universal knowledge and the counter-claims that ‘local’ knowledge traditions should be accorded greater respect, therefore, is much sharper than in Europe.
Erasmus and the republic of letters
Authors: Burke Peter
Published: July 2009

Erasmus was the first European intellectual to become famous, in the majority of European countries in his own lifetime. He thus illustrates the increasing importance of the international scholarly community or ‘republic of letters’ (respublica litteraria), a phrase which he helped to launch and which was common currency until the age of Voltaire. This article examines the ideal embodied in the phrase and suggests seven ways of testing the extent to which it was translated into practice (invitations to foreign scholars; the internationalization of libraries; correspondence; visits to famous scholars as part of the practice of travel; thealbum amicorum; the learned society; and the learned journal). A final section discusses the extent to which the republic may be said to have survived until our own day.
What does my left hand know?
Authors: Burgen Arnold
Published: July 2009

Tiger, tiger burning bright

In the forests of the night

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame your fearful symmetry

Symmetry seems to be a desirable property, yet wherever we look we find asymmetry. This paper explores the presence and nature of asymmetry in biological systems.
The notion of personality: historical and recent perspectives
Authors: Caprara Gian Vittorio
Published: July 2009

To the scientist, personality is the complexity of psychological structures and processes that contribute to the unity and continuity of individual conduct and experience. Personality psychologists explore the mechanisms that mediate person–environment transactions and the ways in which these psychological mechanisms give rise to the uniqueness of each person. This paper reviews the history of the discipline of personality psychology and the current status of the field. It urges investigators to attend to the proactive, self-regulatory features of personality. People are self-organizing, proactive beings, not just reactive organisms. Self-reflective and self-regulatory capabilities enable people to shape the nature of their experiences and life paths. This potentialist view of personality enables one to identify and promote the social conditions required for the full realization of human capacities.
Social context: meanings, measures and mechanisms
Authors: Rutter Michael
Published: July 2009

Concepts, findings and methodological considerations regarding the influence of social circumstances on psychological functioning are selectively reviewed with respect to five different types of possible effect deriving from: the impact of social connotation or meaning of risk/protective factors; social comparison effects; compositional effects deriving from the make-up of a social group; a social contextual effect reflecting the ethos of a broader social environment; and a social group characteristics effect stemming from the behaviour/values of a peer group.
The Paris of Emile Zola
Authors: Wesseling H. L.
Published: July 2009

Emile Zola (1840–1902) was one of the best known novelists of his time. In his work he gives a vivid description of French social and political life during the second Empire (1852–1870) and, in particular, of Paris. In this paper the author analyses the topography of the Paris of Emile Zola as described in one of his famous novels.
The place of people in our knowledge
Authors: Nowotny Helga
Published: July 2009

The science system of Western civilization is facing irreversible transformations. These transformations will affect the relationship between the public image of science and the actual practice within the sciences. In a situation in which scientists are increasingly asked ‘what have you lately done for us’, the alleged purity and objectivity of the sciences have to be reconsidered and we have to rethink the place of people in the knowledge produced by the sciences. Bringing together insights from social and historical studies of science, this article argues for the awareness of a more local, historically and socially contingent knowledge production, which – due to this local embeddedness – can lead to a socially more robust science.
The future of nature
Authors: Markl Hubert S.
Published: July 2009

Through the evolution of the conscious mind in the human species, nature became aware of itself and can thus, for the first time in more than three billion years of natural evolution, influence and even, to some degree, take control of its own future development according to intentional goals. Since these goals are, at the same time, inevitably our own wishful visions, our species becomes not only nature's managing agent but also morally responsible for the future of nature, including our own future. This essay tries to draw conclusions from evolutionary, ecological, cultural, anthropological and moral perspectives. It not only asks about the place of human beings in nature as some kind of alien intruder, but seeks to understand human cultural evolution as part of nature, as the consequent continuation of natural evolution having become not only self-organized but self-guided and responsibly self-controlled.
Climate Change and health: evidence and prospect
Authors: Berger André , McMichael Anthony J.
Published: July 2009

Climatic impacts on human health can be direct or indirect. Direct impacts include variations in physical comfort, heat and cold stress, frostbite and – specifically in response to stratospheric ozone depletion – sunburn, sunstroke, skin cancer and (possibly) cataracts. Direct impacts also include death and injury from floods, storms and other extremes of weather. Photochemical air pollutant levels and pollen levels are affected by climate and have been related to asthma, other respiratory problems, and allergies. Through its influence on biological disease agents, climate variability has a major impact on infectious disease emergence and re-emergence, by affecting pathogen maturation and vector reproduction and altering host and vector habitats. Climate change is also predicted to alter regional agricultural yields, with downturns most likely in low-latitude countries where food insecurity often pre-exists.
Outside the walls of Europe – the pax britannica
Authors: Crouzet François
Published: July 2009

This article discusses the validity for historians of the concept of a pax britannica (a reminiscence, of course, of the pax romana), which Britain would have imposed during the 19th century, when she was the only superpower. Admittedly, from 1815 to 1914, there was no general war, even though ‘small’ wars broke out in Europe and overseas. The superior economic and naval power of Britain obliged France to avoid open conflict; Russia was also constrained, but not without the Crimean war. On the other hand, the influence of Britain in Europe had its limits, and eventually the British panicked before the rise of a strong German navy and this was a significant factor in the origins of World War I. Thanks to peace in Europe, Britain could devote her energies to overseas expansion. Besides her Empire stricto sensu, which grew relentlessly, she had a vast ‘informal Empire’ where the ‘imperialism of free trade’ prevailed. Altogether, the notion of pax britannica is most legitimate within the ‘formal’ empire. To her subject peoples Britain brought law and order, honest and efficient government, some economic development and a fast demographic growth. Pax britannica was both myth and reality, but it evaporated as Britain lost her economic and naval ascendancy.
What American Century?
Authors: Darnton Robert
Published: July 2009

As the year 2000 approaches there is a seemingly irresistible tendency to attach a label to the century that is ending. We here everywhere of “The American Century”, as if a stretch of time could belong to a country. Behind that expression, one can detect a set of attitudes, some of them holdovers from the nationalist sentiments that first surfaced in the nineteenth century, others expressions of anti-Americanism: if you don't like something about contemporary culture, blame it on the Yanks. In fact, most of the phenomena currently associated with America are global in nature, and the notion of an American Century makes little sense, except at the level of collective mentalities. Still, if one must associate a century with America, the best candidate would be the eighteenth. During the age of Enlightenment and Revolution, America epitomized everything enlightened and revolutionary. And Americans in Paris could bask in the glory of being identified not with McDonald's nor with Hollywood but rather with republican virtue and the rights of man. The real American century came to an end two hundred years ago.
The Council of Europe: 50 years of European cooperation
Authors: Tarschys Daniel
Published: July 2009

The post-war European credo – never again a Europe given over to totalitarian terror and war, but a Europe of peace and freedom – led to the creation in May 1949 of the Council of Europe with the clear political and ideological alignment to build a Europe of common values (democracy, human rights and the Rule of Law), to which the practice of market economy was added. The promotion of those fundamental values constituted the Council's specific mandate and raison d'être together with ever-increasing cooperation patterns. After the end of the Cold War, the organization became the pre-eminent European political institution welcoming, on an equal footing and in permanent structures, the democracies of Europe freed from communist oppression. The Kosovo conflict calls for a hardening of the European resolve to base its future on the defence of human dignity, respect for the individual, the Rule of Law and pluralist democracy, indispensable in fostering a common European identity. Setting-up of regional and European cooperation and integration structures has been an important step forward, but must be complemented by the conviction and determination to forge a common European destiny.
Emotion and the development of children's understanding
Authors: Dunn Judy
Published: July 2009

The significance of emotion and social experiences in young children's growing understanding of emotion and mind is discussed here. There is evidence for early mind-reading, and the role of emotional experience in these developments; differentiation of various aspects of social understanding is indicated from studies of discourse, and longitudinal research. The challenges to be addressed in research on links between affect and cognition include a focus on children at risk of relationship problems, on the relations between attachment and mind-reading, and on possible developmental changes in the connections between emotion and social understanding.
The death and resurrection of Indo-China in French memory
Authors: Brocheux Pierre
Published: July 2009

A war of nine years duration led to the loss of the French colonies in Asia, but Indo-China did not have the impact in French eyes that North Africa and, in particular, Algeria had. In comparison, the French were not required to leave Indo-China either immediately or totally. Economic interests were retained until 1975, as was the pursuit of important cultural activities. Departure in 1975 left a memory that was partly nostalgic and partly bitter, but it revealed a conflict with the French community as well as with the Indo-Chinese.
The decolonizing metropole: British experience from India to Hong Kong, 1947–1997
Authors: Holland Robert
Published: July 2009

The theme of what the end of empire meant to metropolitan politics and society is less developed in recent British historiography than in its French and Dutch counterparts. This article examines why, in the British case, decolonization was able to be handled in such a way that relatively little turbulence was transmitted to the Home nation. The essence of that decolonization lay in the separation of metropolitan affairs from overseas transitions. In particular, the loss of colonial sovereignties did not become entangled with national decline. The outcome is a received wisdom compatible with long-standing notions of British constitutionalism, pragmatism and liberty.
Sea and structure in fin-de-siècle France: Mallarmé and Debussy
Authors: Bowie Malcolm
Published: July 2009

A copious sea literature exists in nineteenth-century France, and the works of such figures as Hugo, Baudelaire, Michelet and Rimbaud contain a recurrent tension between two divergent views of maritime experience. On the one hand, the sea offers the encouraging spectacle of endless possibility and plurality, but on the other hand it is an emblem of intellectual defeat and of humankind at the mercy of an inhospitable natural world. In major works by Mallarmé (1842–98) and Debussy (1862–1918) this contradiction is placed centre stage. The poet and the musician have found ingenious ways of maintaining intellectual and artistic control while constructing ‘open’ textures designed to recreate the sensations of chaos and contingency. In both works – Un Coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard (1897) and La Mer (1905) – the remorseless action of the sea is associated with the periodic achievement and loss of aesthetic structure.
The historical role of the Nordic countries in Europe
Authors: Feldbaek Ole
Published: July 2009

It is suggested that the main impact of Sweden, Norway and Denmark upon Europe stems from their development into early welfare states with well-functioning political systems and social institutions. It is shown that their ways to this position were remarkably individual, and also that the seemingly identical Nordic states of this century have only to a rather limited extent been able to act in unity. The popular attitudes towards each other have been distinctly positive, but basically differing interests with regard to world politics and world economies have time and again made the politicians let raison d'état prevail.
Pierre de Coubertin: sport and ideology in the Third Republic, 1870–1914
Authors: Wesseling H. L.
Published: July 2009

Organized sport was first developed in Germany in the form of the so-called Turnvereine, and in England at the public schools. It came to France later, at the end of the nineteenth century. Despite this, the modern Olympic Games was a French invention, the result of the ambitions and efforts of an aristocratic admirer of England, Baron Pierre de Coubertin. His ideas and attitudes were in many ways characteristic of fin-de-siècle France.
The Nordic contributions to romanticism in the visual arts
Authors: Monrad Kaper
Published: July 2009

The Nordic achievements in the visual arts in the age of romanticism were first and foremost accomplished by Danish artists. The great initiator was C. W. Eckersberg, who observed reality with great scrutiny and demanded of himself a faithful rendering of all the details. However, at the same time, he stuck to the classical principles of composition and omitted all accidental and ugly aspects of the motif that did not fit into his concept of an ideal picture. The principles he laid down in his art in around 1815 formed the basis of Danish (and Norwegian) painting until 1850. He introduced open-air painting as part of the tuition at the Royal Academy of Copenhagen and was, in this respect, a pioneer in a European context. During the 1820s and 30s almost all the young Danish painters were pupils of Eckersberg, and he also influenced the Norwegian J. C. Dahl. The subjects of the Danish paintings are very down-to-earth – they are first and foremost taken from everyday life. In the first decades of nineteenth century, Copenhagen had the status as the most important art centre in Northern Europe, and the art academy attracted many German artists. However, around 1840, a growing nationalism separated the Danish and German artists, and many Danish landscape painters devoted their art to the praise of Denmark. The nationalist artists, however, still stuck to the reality they had actually seen.
The interaction between the self and the environment – a two way traffic due to the brain
Authors: Karli Pierre
Published: July 2009

Affective processes fuel and orient social behaviour throughout life; if they did not exist, there would be no striving, no goal-pursuit, no goal-oriented action. Two interconnected brain regions are deeply involved in the socially adaptive functions of affect and emotion. Both the maturation and functioning of the brain mechanisms involved undergo the shaping influence of the manifold experience that is derived from social interactions.
The European Space Agency and its successful Science Programme
Authors: Cavallo Giacomo
Published: July 2009

The article gives, first of all, a general presentation of the European Space Agency (ESA), followed by a more detailed outline of the ESA's Science Programme, its content, resources, organization, advisory structure and decision procedures. The various types of missions and the place they occupy in the programme are described. From a scientific point of view, these missions fit into four main themes of research, which are also potential ‘roadmaps’ for international collaboration. In the second part of the article, an outline is given of most of the projects that have been already undertaken, are in process or are being planned at the present time.
The dog that didn't bark: economic development and the postwar welfare state
Authors: Castles Francis G.
Published: July 2009

This paper focuses on the linkages between postwar economic and social policy development. Examining the relationship between affluence and levels of welfare over the period as a whole reveals a tendency for social expenditure effort to be higher in moderately affluent then in extremely affluent nations. Turning to the question of how economic growth impacted on welfare expansion in the early postwar decades, the paper argues that growth was a necessary, rather than a sufficient, condition of welfare development. Finally, analysis of the era of welfare containment suggests that domestic economic performance has been the main factor conditioning expenditure change
The Nordic welfare state in a European context: dealing with new economic and ideological challenges in the 1990s
Authors: Kuhnle Stein
Published: July 2009

Within the framework of a general discussion of ‘the state of the welfare state’ in economically advanced West European democracies, this paper offers an account and interpretation of how the Nordic welfare states, often perceived as the most comprehensive and ‘generous’ welfare states, met a number of challenges in the 1990s. Economic problems were most critical in Finland and Sweden in the early 1990s, and social policy reform activities with the aim of modifications of programmes and cutbacks in expenditure have been most pronounced in these countries. A single common denominator for Nordic welfare state development in the 1990s is a somewhat less generous welfare state, but Norway is generally an exception. The basic structure of the welfare systems has been preserved, and social, health and welfare issues are consistently of high priority for governments and voters. The welfare state is highly valued in Scandinavia, but more space for market and other non-governmental welfare solutions is likely to grow in the future.
The viability of advanced welfare states in the international economy. Vulnerabilities and options
Authors: Scharpf Fritz W.
Published: July 2009

The paper presents a preliminary and partial analysis of the information collected in a comparative 12-country study of the adjustment of national employment and social-welfare policies to the increasing internationalisation of product and capital markets. After the postwar decades, when national governments were still able to control their economic boundaries, the first international challenge came in the form of the oil-price crisis of 1973/74, which confronted industrial economies with the double threat of cost-push inflation and demand-gap unemployment. It could be met if countries were able to achieve a form of ‘Keynesian agreement’ in which expansionary monetary and fiscal policies would defend employment while union wage restraint could be relied on to fight inflation. For this solution, ‘corporatist’ industrial-relations institutions were a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition. Since the second oil-price crisis of 1979–80 was met by restrictive monetary and expansionary fiscal policies in the United States, the steep increase of real interest rates in the international capital markets forced other central banks to raise interest rates accordingly. As a consequence, employment-creating investments could only be maintained if the share of profits in the national product was significantly increased. Under the pressure of rapidly rising unemployment, unions in most countries were forced to accept this massive redistribution from labour to capital. In the 1990s, finally, the international integration of product and capital markets has been constraining private sector employment as well as the financial viability of the welfare state. Now, however, institutional differences among different types of revenue systems, welfare states and employment systems – Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon and Continental – are creating important differences in vulnerability that can no longer be met by standardised responses. This paper concludes with an examination of the specific problems faced by, and the solutions available to, the different countries included in the study.
Emerging from Washington's shadow: Japan's new relations with Europe
Authors: Gilson Julie
Published: July 2009

On the rare occasions when Japan's relations with Europe are examined, they tend to be fixed within a trilateral structure at whose apex is the United States. This triangular framework was established in the aftermath of World War II, as a result of direct American involvement in the socio-economic reconstruction of Japan and the major countries of Western Europe. The current article examines how the very nature of the triangular relationship has changed over time, with the result that the trilateralism of the 1990s – in contrast to its earlier form – has served to facilitate the development of bilateral relations between Japan and the European Union and its member states.
Cleaning up politics and revitalizing democracy? A European view of the new system of political finance in Japan
Authors: Blechinger Verena
Published: July 2009

When a package of political reform bills was enacted in Japan in 1994, commentators predicted that Japanese politics would fundamentally change. After a series of corruption scandals, the new legislation tightened the system of legal controls, increased penalties for wrongdoing by politicians and made the flow of money more transparent. One key element of the reform package was the introduction of government subsidies for political parties. These funds were intended to strengthen the role of political parties and, at the same time, to close the gap between voters and politicians. Based on a comparison between the German and Japanese systems of political finance, this paper argues that government subsidies have not brought parties and voters closer together. While the distance between politics and big business in Japan has increased since 1994, change has come from the business side, not as a result of the new regulations. In the long run, the new Japanese political finance system will not bridge the gap between political elites and ordinary citizens.
Nietzsche in Japan from right to left. Rethinking the East–West dichotomy in entangled modernity
Authors: Mishima Ken'ichi
Published: July 2009

The haunting image of Nietzsche as a pre-fascist ideologist does not fit the early impression of him in Japan and Germany. At the beginning of the 20th century, he stimulated young intellectuals to liberate themselves from the culture of the bourgeois. This was replaced by a Heideggerian interpretation of Nietzsche given in the Nazi-period, which influenced conservative circles both in Germany and Japan after World War II. There is now emerging a new interpretation of Nietzsche from the perspective of the cultural left. Considering the impressions of Nietzsche in the two cultures, the author comes to the conclusion that we must forget the old-fashioned dichotomy between East and West and speak instead of the ‘entangled modernity’.
Multiple refractions. The metamorphosis of the notions of beauty in Japan
Authors: Onuki Atsuko
Published: July 2009

Japanese occidentalism is characterized by the view that the culture of the Occident was seen as just as exotic to the Japanese as the Orient was to the Europeans, but it is accompanied by a feeling of cultural inferiority. This paper tries to illustrate the Japanese occidentalism in the different aesthetic perceptions of beauty, especially of female beauty, mainly in literary discourse from the late nineteenth century up to the immediate present. The notion of female beauty is formed through cultural discourse according to how the cultural inferiority is perceived. It is like the scenery without the substance and is interchangeable depending on the staging of the occidentalism.
1090 MHz channel capacity improvement in the air traffic control context
Authors: Piracci Emilio G. , Galati Gaspare , Petrochilos Nicolas , Fiori Fabrizio
Published: July 2009

The aim of this study is to increase the capacity of the 1090 MHz secondary surveillance radar (SSR) channel by novel transmission and decoding techniques. In particular, multilateration stations have omni-directional antennae; hence considering aircraft traffic and including the extension of surveillance to cooperating vehicles, the reception of superimposed signals is more and more probable. We propose mitigating this problem by combining frequency agility and source separation techniques; we analyze the pertaining channel capacity improvement, and then evaluate the detection and timing estimation for frequency-shifted and separated signals.
Airborne passive location based on combined time and frequency difference of arrival
Authors: Severino Gaetano , Zaccaron Antonio , Ardoino Riccardo
Published: July 2009

Passive location techniques have always been considered an important topic and recently, thanks to digital signal processing (DSP) advances, new methods are being studied and experimented with. The possibility to passively locate radar emitters avoiding transmission is crucial in a variety of military applications, in particular when a flying platform (aircraft or helicopter) is entering an unknown and potentially hostile area. Elettronica SpA (ELT) gave start in 2004 to an experimental campaign in this field with the support and collaboration of the Italian Ministry of Defence (MoD). In this context the following activities were carried out:

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theoretical study (with analytically derived and simulated results) of a passive location algorithm,

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design and development of a passive location demonstrator (PLD) qualified for flight,

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field tests (July 2006) performed in Sardegna (Salto di Quirra).

This paper presents the specific passive location algorithm selected for the field tests illustrating analytical performance prediction. The PLD and the field tests are described and the main results are reported. A location accuracy in the order of 10% of emitter distance has been achieved during experimentation.
Two efficient localization algorithms for multilateration
Authors: Leonardi Mauro , Mathias Adolf , Galati Gaspare
Published: July 2009

Two localization algorithms for multilateration systems are derived and analyzed. Instead of the classical time difference of arrival (TDOA), a direct use of the time of arrival (TOA) is made. The algorithms work for arbitrary spatial dimensions and overdetermined systems. These derivations are tested in a real-case implementation with simulated data (in particular, the multilateration (MLAT) system installed on the Malpensa Airport in Milan was considered for the MLAT simulation and its possible extension to wide area multilateration (WAM) system was considered for WAM trials). The results are also compared with the present-day algorithms performance, mostly based on TDOA.
Frazil deposition under growing sea ice
Authors: McGuinness M. J. , Williams M. J. M. , Langhorne P. J. , Purdie C. , Crook J.
Published: July 2009

Platelet ice may be an important component of Antarctic landfast sea ice. Typically, it is found at depth in first‐year landfast sea ice cover, near ice shelves. To explain why platelet ice is not commonly observed at shallower depths, we consider a new mechanism. Our hypothesis is that platelet ice eventually appears due to the sudden deposition of frazil ice against the fast ice‐ocean interface, providing randomly oriented nucleation sites for crystal growth. Brine rejected in plumes from landfast ice generates stirring sufficient to prevent frazil ice from attaching to the interface, forcing some of it to remain in suspension until ice growth rate and brine rejection slow to the point that frazil can stick. We calculate a brine plume velocity and match this to frazil rise velocity. We consider both laminar and turbulent environments. We find that brine plume velocities are generally powerful enough to prevent a significant range of frazil sizes from sticking in the case of laminar flow and that, in the turbulent case, there may be a critical ice thickness at which most remaining circulating frazil suddenly settles.
Analysis of nonlinear effects in microwave spectrometers
Authors: Paganini Lucas , Hartogh Paul
Published: July 2009

At millimeter wavelengths, rotational spectra of trace gases in planetary atmospheres yield essential characteristics such as vertical profiles of abundance, temperature, and winds. The high resolution provided by heterodyne spectroscopy allows to retrieve the chemical composition and thermal structure of the atmosphere with very high accuracy. On several observation campaigns, however, small unexpected differences have been observed in the power spectral density (PSD) response among heterodyne spectrometer backends. In this article, we analyze what the impact of nonlinearity is on these observations. This investigation covers two major topics. The first one seeks to theoretically demonstrate the importance of PSD accuracy for retrieving the correct geophysical parameters under observation. This study is performed by means of radiative transfer and retrieval simulations, which show how deviations in the spectra might produce considerable changes in the vertical profile of trace gases retrieved in the Earth's atmosphere. Once the importance of PSD accuracy has been addressed, the second topic focuses on the detection of nonlinearity in spectrometer backends. On the basis of a differential approach, an improved experiment with more than one order of magnitude higher accuracy than before was conducted in order to detect and study nonlinear behavior in chirp transform spectrometers and, consequently, evaluate possible mechanisms to optimize their response. As a result, it is confirmed that the overall deviations introduced by nonlinearity in spectrometers have been decreased, and thus the performance of the backend instrument has been improved.
Nonlinearity of the combined warm ENSO and QBO effects on the Northern Hemisphere polar vortex in MAECHAM5 simulations
Authors: Calvo Natalia , Giorgetta Marco A. , Garcia‐Herrera Ricardo , Manzini Elisa
Published: July 2009

The influence of the quasi‐biennial oscillation (QBO) on the Northern Hemisphere (NH) polar vortex response to warm El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events and the impact of the warm ENSO events on the QBO signal in the NH polar stratosphere have been analyzed using the Middle Atmosphere ECHAM5 model. The experiment setup was designed to include simulations of extended NH winter seasons for either strong easterly or strong westerly phases of the tropical QBO, forced with either sea surface temperatures (SSTs) from the strong ENSO event that occurred in 1997/1998 or with climatological SSTs. It has been found that the weakening and warming of the polar vortex associated with a warm ENSO are intensified at the end of the winter during both QBO phases. In addition, the westerly QBO phase delays the onset of the warm ENSO signal, while the easterly QBO phase advances it. Warm ENSO events also impact the extratropical signal of the QBO by intensifying (weakening) the QBO effects in early (late) winter. Therefore, it appears that during warm ENSO events the duration of QBO signal in the northern extratropics is shortened while its downward propagation accelerated. Our dynamical analysis has revealed that these results are due to changes in the background flow caused by the QBO combined with changes in the anomalous propagation and dissipation of extratropical waves generated by warm ENSO. In both cases, a nonlinear behavior in the response of the polar vortex is observed when both warm ENSO and the easterly phase of the QBO operate together. These results suggest that the Arctic polar vortex response to combined forcing factors, in our case warm ENSO and the QBO phenomena, is expected to be nonlinear also for other coexistent forcing factors able to affect the variability of the vortex in the stratosphere.
A hybrid model for leveed lava flows: Implications for eruption styles on Mars
Authors: Glaze Lori S. , Baloga Stephen M. , Garry W. Brent , Fagents Sarah A. , Parcheta Carolyn
Published: July 2009

Many channelized lava flows on the plains of Mars have substantial embanking margins and levees inferred to have been stationary while the central channel was active. Levee formation can be attributed to two end‐member processes during emplacement: construction during passage of the flow front and growth along the entire length of the flow while it is active. It is shown here that the amount of lava that can be deposited by the flow front alone is limited. Estimates of the levee volume for many Mars plains flows exceed this limit and must have formed by processes that continued after the passage of the front. Experimental studies of analogous laboratory flows also indicate a combination of both modes of emplacement. A model that combines both modes of levee formation is presented, including a method for estimating volumetric flow rate, eruption duration, and viscosity. Six lava flows on the plains of the Tharsis volcanic province are used as illustrative examples. Crustal thicknesses for the six flows examined range from 9 to 23 m. Estimated emplacement times required to cool crusts of these thicknesses range from 1 year to 10 years. Corresponding viscosities are on the order of 105–106 Pa s. Effusion rates range from 25 to 840 m3 s−1 and are all within the range of terrestrial observations. Therefore, the large leveed plains flows on Mars are not dramatically different in eruption rate or lava viscosity from large terrestrial analogs.
Relative merits of different methods for runoff predictions in ungauged catchments
Authors: Zhang Yongqiang , Chiew Francis H. S.
Published: July 2009

There have been numerous regionalization studies on runoff prediction in ungauged catchments. This study evaluates the relative benefits of different methods using two conceptual daily rainfall‐runoff models, Xinanjiang and SIMHYD, on 210 relatively unimpacted catchments in southeast Australia. The results show that runoff predictions in ungauged catchments can benefit from a smart selection of donor catchments whose optimized parameter values are used to model runoff in the target ungauged catchment, output averaging of results from multiple‐donor catchments and incorporating leaf area index data into the rainfall‐runoff models. The biggest benefit comes from an educated selection of donor catchments (compared to a random selection of donor catchments) and output averaging of results from multiple‐donor catchments. The difference between the three commonly used approaches for selecting donor catchments is relatively small. The spatial proximity approach (where the geographically closest catchment is used as the donor catchment) performs slightly better than the physical similarity approach (where the catchment with the most similar attributes is used as the donor catchment), and the integrated similarity approach, which combines the spatial proximity and physical similarity approaches, performs only very marginally better than the spatial proximity approach. The incorporation of leaf area index data into the rainfall‐runoff models shows marginal improvements to the modeling results, although a more appropriate integration of vegetation and other remotely sensed data may further improve the results.
On the responses to solar X‐ray flare and coronal mass ejection in the ionospheres of Mars and Earth
Authors: Haider S. A. , Abdu M. A. , Batista I. S. , Sobral J. H. , Kallio Esa , Maguire W. C. , Verigin M. I.
Published: July 2009

We have used Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) observations for the period 12 to 18 May 2005 to address the effect of X‐ray flare and Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) on the Total Electron Content (TEC) of the E region ionosphere of Mars during a violent solar event that occurred on 13 May. Modeling of E region TEC was also carried out for the time of the flare using the observed X‐ray flux. We report that the solar flare caused enhancements in the TEC of Mars by factors of 6 to 10. A response was also observed in the E region plasma frequency of the Earth's ionosphere at nearly same time as the MGS observations. Our results suggest that sporadic E layer plasma frequency and TEC can increase by factors of 3 to 6 during the arrival of a CME at both Earth and Mars.
Evaluation of the space charge trap energy levels in the ferroelectric films
Authors: Kozyrev A. , Gaidukov M. , Gagarin A. , Altynnikov A. , Osadchy V. , Tumarkin A. , Petrov P. K. , Alford N. M.
Published: July 2009

A method to evaluate the space charge trap energy levels in ferroelectric (FE) Ba0.3Sr0.7TiO3 film incorporated into a metal/FE/metal parallel plate capacitors structure is presented. It is based on microwave measurements of the capacitance relaxation time after the end of a dc pulse, when the change in measured capacitance is due to internal processes of space charge relaxation [Q(t)] in the FE film. Using the Q(t) dependencies obtained as a function of temperature, the time constants of slow relaxation processes were defined and the trap energy levels were evaluated as Et=0.7, 0.5, and 0.1 eV.
Formation of stable and reproducible low resistivity and high carrier concentration p-type ZnO doped at high pressure with Sb
Authors: Qin J. M. , Yao B. , Yan Y. , Zhang J. Y. , Jia X. P. , Zhang Z. Z. , Li B. H. , Shan C. X. , Shen D. Z.
Published: July 2009

Stable p-type Sb-doped ZnO (ZnO:Sb) was fabricated reproducibly by sintering mixture of ZnO and Sb2O3 powders under 5 GPa at temperatures of 1100–1450 °C. The best p-type ZnO:Sb with resistivity of 1.6×10−2 Ω cm, carrier concentration of 3.3×1020 cm−3, and mobility of 12.1 cm/V s was obtained by doping 4.6 at. % Sb and sintering at 1450 °C. The p-type conduction is due to complex acceptor formed by one substitutional Sb at Zn site and two Zn vacancies. The acceptor level was measured to be 113 meV. Effect of pressure on formation and electrical properties of the p-type ZnO:Sb is discussed.
Carbonyl sulfide isotopologues: Ultraviolet absorption cross sections and stratospheric photolysis
Authors: Danielache Sebastian O. , Nanbu Shinkoh , Eskebjerg Carsten , Johnson Matthew S. , Yoshida Naohiro
Published: July 2009

Ultraviolet absorption cross sections of the main and substituted carbonyl sulfide isotopologues were calculated using wavepacket dynamics. The calculated absorption cross section of O16C12S32 is in very good agreement with the accepted experimental spectrum between 190 and 250 nm. Relative to O16C12S32, isotopic substitution shows a significant enhancement of the cross section for O16C13S32, a significant reduction for O18C12S32 and O17C12S32 and almost no change for the sulfur isotopologues O16C12S33, O16C12S34, and O16C12S36. The analysis of the initial wavepackets shows that these changes can be explained in terms of the change in the norm of the initial wavepacket. Implications for our understanding of the stratospheric sulfur cycle are discussed.