State Trading Enterprises: A Canadian Perspective

This paper provides a Canadian perspective on the debate about state trading enterprises in the World Trade Organization. STEs carry out important economic functions as part of national policies. STEs can do this without distorting competitive equilibrium in trade. From an economic and legal standpoint, STEs can properly function within the WTO system. The paper comments on why WTO rules on STEs may be practically meaningless, given the lack of application of the STE rules in WTO dispute resolution. The suggestion is made that the direction of legal inquiry into STEs should focus on the question of trade influence, rather than on the political question of government control of STEs. The real economic trade effects of STEs are the important aspects of STE study, not the ideological aspects of STE governance.ideology, state trading, subsidies, unfair trade, WTO, International Relations/Trade,

European Union Grain Export Practices: Do They Constitute a State Trading Enterprise?

One of the disciplines for State Trading Enterprises (STEs), with respect to the WTO, is the requirement to notify the WTO of all endeavors that fit the definition of an STE. This study argues that the European UnionÂ’'s system of grain interventions and export refunds fits the WTO'Â’s definition of an STE. First, a system of agencies that work together for a common purpose can be considered to be an enterprise. Second, the constituents of EuropeÂ’'s grain intervention enterprise receive exclusive and special rights to export grain. Third, the grain intervention system has decisive voice over the timing, quantity and destination of exports. For these reasons the system should be notified to the WTO as an STE.State Trading Enterprises, European Union, WTO, International Relations/Trade,

EELS at very high energy losses

Electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) has been investigated in the range from 2 to >10 keV using an optimized optical coupling of the microscope to the spectrometer to improve the high loss performance in EELS. It is found that excellent quality data can now be acquired up until about 5 keV, suitable for both energy loss near edge structure (ELNES) studies of oxidation and local chemistry, and potentially useful for extended energy loss fine structure (EXELFS) studies of local atomic ordering. Examples studied included oxidation in Zr, Mo and Sn, and the ELNES and EXELFS of the Ti-K edge. It is also shown that good quality electron energy-loss spectroscopy can even be performed for losses above 9.2 keV, the energy loss at which the collection angle becomes ‘infinite’, and this is demonstrated using the tungsten L3 edge at about 10.2 keV

The Search For Learning Community In Learner Paced Distance Education: Or, 'having Your Cake And Eating It, Too!'

University distance and e-learning programs generally follow one of two models. Most dual mode institutions and some open universities follow a model of cohort learning. Students start and terminate each course at the same time, and proceed at the same pace. This model allows for occasional or regular group based activities. The second model, referred to as learner paced, is based on increased student independence. Students may start their courses at many points during the year, and complete these at their own pace, depending on the learner's circumstances and interests. It is much more challenging to integrate group based activities in this learner paced model. This study is situated in a university that supports continuous intake and learner pacing in its undergraduate programs. Athabasca University is investigating the feasibility and effectiveness of adding collaborative and cooperative learning activities to this model. The report summarises a study of learner interactions in the context of learner paced courses delivered by the University. Following a review of relevant literature, the study reports on interviews with Athabasca University faculty and external distance education experts, describes results from an online survey of undergraduate students, and documents how these findings may be operationalised at the University. An extensible model of community based learning support is proposed to utilise new social computing capabilities of the web, and to permit learner-learner interaction in a scaleable and cost effective manner, while retaining learner pacing

Delivering alcohol IBA (identification and brief advice): broadening the base from health to non-health contexts.

Key findings: • There is sufficient evidence to support current optimism about the potential for alcohol IBA to be delivered in a range of health and non-health settings • Online IBA models have potential to reach individuals who may not access health or support services. • Organisational, professional and context- specific challenges impede implementation and, in particular, the sustainability of initiatives over the longer term • Training has an important role to play in improving the knowledge and skills level of staff; however, on its own, it does not guarantee delivery of IBA • Evaluation and monitoring should be built in to new initiatives to ensure appropriate use of resources and to promote a culture of learning from practice [The online resource (see URL link above] contains links to a number of relevant publications

New Measurement of Compton Scattering from the Deuteron and an Improved Extraction of the Neutron Electromagnetic Polarizabilities

The electromagnetic polarizabilities of the nucleon are fundamental properties that describe its response to external electric and magnetic fields. They can be extracted from Compton-scattering data --- and have been, with good accuracy, in the case of the proton. In contradistinction, information for the neutron requires the use of Compton scattering from nuclear targets. Here we report a new measurement of elastic photon scattering from deuterium using quasimonoenergetic tagged photons at the MAX IV Laboratory in Lund, Sweden. These first new data in more than a decade effectively double the world dataset. Their energy range overlaps with previous experiments and extends it by 20 MeV to higher energies. An analysis using Chiral Effective Field Theory with dynamical \Delta(1232) degrees of freedom shows the data are consistent with and within the world dataset. After demonstrating that the fit is consistent with the Baldin sum rule, extracting values for the isoscalar nucleon polarizabilities and combining them with a recent result for the proton, we obtain the neutron polarizabilities as \alpha_n = [11.55 +/- 1.25(stat) +/- 0.2(BSR) +/- 0.8(th)] X 10^{-4} fm^3 and \beta_n = [3.65 -/+ 1.25(stat) +/- 0.2(BSR) -/+ 0.8(th)] X 10^{-4} fm3, with \chi^2 = 45.2 for 44 degrees of freedom.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, comments from Physical Review Letters Referees addresse

A Compact Solid State Detector for Small Angle Particle Tracking

MIDAS (MIcrostrip Detector Array System) is a compact silicon tracking telescope for charged particles emitted at small angles in intermediate energy photonuclear reactions. It was realized to increase the angular acceptance of the DAPHNE detector and used in an experimental program to check the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn sum rule at the Mainz electron microtron, MAMI. MIDAS provides a trigger for charged hadrons, p/pi identification and particle tracking in the region 7 deg < theta < 16 deg. In this paper we present the main characteristics of MIDAS and its measured performances.Comment: 13 pages (9 figures). Submitted to NIM