Governmental Positions on European Treaty Reforms: Towards a Dynamic Approach.

Governmental positions are a powerful predictor of European treaty reforms. Yet, few empirical studies analyze the conditionalies between positions over different issues or conflict dimensions. If governmental positions are conditional upon the real or expected outcome on other issues, the sequence of decisions becomes increasingly important for our understanding of European treaty reforms. So far, not many studies analyze the sequence of intergovernmental decisions. In the present paper, I argue that governmental preferences over the reform of the EU decision rule dependent on the delegation of competences to the EU and vice versa. Moreover, I present a statistical model which allows for estimating this conditionality. Subsequently, I apply this model to an extensive data set of reform positions revealed by national governments at the Intergovernmental Conferences (IGC) 2003/4. Next, I analyze the sequence of decision taken by this particular IGC in chronological order. For this purpose, I predict the change of governmental position in response to the decisions over subsets of issues and I compare these predictions to public statements issued by governmental leaders at the time. Finally, I discuss the implications for our understanding of the intergovernmental bargaining outcome

How European Union Membership Can Undermine the Rule of Law in Emerging Democracies

The European Union views the spread of economic prosperity and rule of law to countries emerging from dictatorship as among its primary goals when considering countries as candidates for membership. Existing literature often suggests that EU membership confers significant benefits on the accession countries, and these countries are willing to undergo costly and difficult reforms to reap these benefits. Through strict membership conditions, member states force accession countries to commit to democracy. Drawing on theoretical work in the fields of law, politics, and economics, this article reassesses the conventional wisdom. It argues that, under certain conditions, the reforms required of would-be members could have the perverse effect of undermining the establishment of legitimate law in transitional democracies. Using an agent-based model, the article elucidates a theory in which placing laws on the books around which no societal consensus exists can create perverse incentives for citizens and government officials and may lead to an erosion of the rule of law

Parliamentary scrutiny of EU law proposals in Denmark: why do governments request a negotiation mandate?

"Political scientists have been concerned about the loss of power of national parliaments through the shift of competences to the EU level. In this respect the Danish system of parliamentary scrutiny has been recommended as being highly effective. In this paper, we explain why the Folketing issues negotiation mandates on some EU law proposals whereas the government can freely chose its negotiation position on other proposals. Our empirical analysis of Danish scrutiny decision between 2006 and 2008 uncovers three answers. First, in contrast to other scrutiny measures, most of which can be initiated by single party groups, the issuance of negotiation mandates is a collective decision. Specifically, it requires the consent of a majority of deputies in the Folketing. As a consequence, the position of the minority government must win the support of a third party. This third party tends to requests a negotiation mandate if it fears that collusion between the government and its international partners might violate its interests. Second, the leading minister requests a negotiation mandate if a majority of Danish parties stand united against an adverse majority in the Council. Third, the coalition partner requests a negotiation mandate to control the leading minister in case of significant intra coalition dissent." [author's abstract

Ignoring the Non-ignorables? Missingness and Missing Positions

Missing or incomplete data on actors’ positions can cause significant problems in political analysis. Research on missing values suggests the use of multiple imputation methods rather than case deletion, but few studies have yet considered the non-ignorable problem - positions that are hidden for strategic purposes. We examine this problem and discuss the advantages and drawbacks of (i) multiple imputation as implemented in AMELIA; (ii) a computationally easy but, in the context of spatial modelling, straightforward measure of indifference and (iii) a conditional averaging algorithm, LDM, which seeks to reasonably fix actors’ positions in the policy space pre- and post-imputation. The analysis suggests that actors biased by the status quo strategically hide their more supportive positions. Although none of the existing methods - which produce quite different results - is perfectly suited for imputing hidden positions, LDM has the highest hit rate for the conjectured more supportive position

Impact of Particle and Equipment Properties on Residence Time Distribution of Pharmaceutical Excipients in Rotary Tablet Presses

Paddle feeders are devices commonly used in rotary tablet presses to facilitate constant and efficient die filling. Adversely, the shear stress applied by the rotating paddles is known to affect the bulk properties of the processed powder dependent on the residence time. This study focuses on the residence time distribution (RTD) of two commonly applied excipients (microcrystalline cellulose, MCC; dicalcium phosphate, DCP), which exhibit different flow properties inside rotary tablet presses. To realistically depict the powder flow inside rotary tablet presses, custom-made tracer powder was developed. The applied method was proven to be appropriate as the tracer and bulk powder showed comparable properties. The RTDs of both materials were examined in two differently scaled rotary tablet presses and the influence of process parameters was determined. To analyze RTDs independent of the mass flow, the normalized variance was used to quantify intermixing. Substantial differences between both materials and tablet presses were found. Broader RTDs were measured for the poorer flowing MCC as well as for the production scale press. The obtained results can be used to improve the general understanding of powder flow inside rotary tablet presses and amplify scale-up and continuous production process development

Fermi Large Area Telescope Constraints on the Gamma-ray Opacity of the Universe

The Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) includes photons with wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared, which are effective at attenuating gamma rays with energy above ~10 GeV during propagation from sources at cosmological distances. This results in a redshift- and energy-dependent attenuation of the gamma-ray flux of extragalactic sources such as blazars and Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). The Large Area Telescope onboard Fermi detects a sample of gamma-ray blazars with redshift up to z~3, and GRBs with redshift up to z~4.3. Using photons above 10 GeV collected by Fermi over more than one year of observations for these sources, we investigate the effect of gamma-ray flux attenuation by the EBL. We place upper limits on the gamma-ray opacity of the Universe at various energies and redshifts, and compare this with predictions from well-known EBL models. We find that an EBL intensity in the optical-ultraviolet wavelengths as great as predicted by the "baseline" model of Stecker et al. (2006) can be ruled out with high confidence.Comment: 42 pages, 12 figures, accepted version (24 Aug.2010) for publication in ApJ; Contact authors: A. Bouvier, A. Chen, S. Raino, S. Razzaque, A. Reimer, L.C. Reye

Crisis bargaining in the European Union: Formal rules or market pressure?

To what extent did the European Monetary Union crisis alter the logic of European Union decision making? We analyze the relevance of asymmetric market pressures as compared to that of formal voting and agenda setting rules by applying three established bargaining models to the 'EMU Positions' data. Accounting for the interdependence between issues and agreements, we locate actors' positions on three reform dimensions, namely the level of fiscal discipline, transfer payments and institutionalization. We find that market pressure during the height of the Eurozone crisis was particularly relevant, and that debtor countries were weakened by their difficulty in refinancing their public debt. Our finding shows that formal rules determining agenda setting and veto rights remain relevant even in times of crisis

Scaling Tableting Processes from Compaction Simulator to Rotary Presses - Mind the Sub-Processes

Compaction simulators are frequently used in the formulation and process development of tablets, bringing about the advantages of flexibility, low material consumption, and high instrumentation to generate the most possible process understanding. However, their capability of resembling general aspects of rotary press compaction and their precision in simulating or mimicking sub-processes such as feeding and filling need to be systematically studied. The effect of material deformation behavior, blend composition, and feeding on tensile strength and simulation precision as compared with rotary presses of different scales is evaluated in this study. Generally, good simulation performance was found for the studied compaction simulator. Compaction profile-sensitivity was demonstrated for highly visco-plastic materials while shear-sensitivity in feeding was demonstrated for lubricated blends of ductile particles. Strategies for the compensation of both in compaction simulator experiments are presented by careful investigation of the compaction stress over time profiles and introduction of a compaction simulator-adapted shear number approach to account for differences in layout and operation mode between compaction simulator and rotary press, respectively. These approaches support the general aim of this study to provide a more straightforward determination of scaling process parameters between rotary press and compaction simulator and facilitate a quicker and more reliable process transfer

First isolation, in-vivo and genomic characterization of zoonotic variegated squirrel Bornavirus 1 (VSBV-1) isolates

The variegated squirrel bornavirus 1 (VSBV-1), a member of the family Bornaviridae, was discovered in 2015 in a series of lethal human infections. It was detected in four squirrel breeders and one animal caretaker; four died due to a severe encephalitis. Screening approaches revealed kept exotic squirrels as the putative source of infection. Infectious virus was successfully isolated by co-cultivation of infected primary squirrel cells with permanent cell lines resulting in three different isolates. For in vivo characterization, neonatal and adult Lewis rats were inoculated either intracranially, intranasally or subcutaneously. After 4.5 months, three out of fifteen neonatal intracranially inoculated rats were VSBV-1 genome positive in the central nervous system without showing any clinical signs. Pathohistological examination revealed a non-purulent encephalitis. Two further generated VSBV-1 isolates were used to inoculate newborn Lewis rats again via the intracranial inoculation route with similar results. While infection of immune incompetent rats (neonatal) using the type species of mammalian bornaviruses, the Borna disease virus 1 (BoDV-1), proceed to an immune tolerant status of the animals, VSBV-1 infection could result in inflammation of neuronal tissue. Sequencing showed minor adaptations within the VSBV-1 genome comparing to the viral genomes from infected squirrels, cell cultures or rat tissues. In conclusion, we were able to generate the first VSBV-1 isolates and provide first in vivo animal model data in Lewis rats revealing substantial differences between VSBV-1 and BoDV-1. Furthermore, the presented data are a precondition for first insights into the transmission and pathogenesis of this novel zoonotic pathogen