The enlarged EU's eastern border: integrating Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova in the European project

'Die Studie befasst sich mit den Beziehungen der Europäischen Union (EU) zu den drei Ländern Osteuropas, denen die EU keine Beitrittsperspektive angeboten hat, die aber von der EU-Erweiterung in Zentraleuropa und der sich schnell entwickelnden Partnerschaft zwischen der EU und Russland stark beeinflusst werden. Aus der Analyse der Entwicklungen in der Ukraine, in Belarus und Moldova und ihrer Beziehungen zur EU ergibt sich, dass ungeachtet ihrer Absichtserklärungen Kiev und Chisinau zur Zeit nicht bereit sind, die für eine Bewerbung erforderlichen politischen und wirtschaftlichen Reformen durchzuführen. Belarus beweist weder durch seine Worte noch durch seine Handlungen große Affinität mit der EU, auch wenn es eine Annäherung nicht ausschließt. Übrigens wäre die EU mit zusätzlichen Erweiterungsengagements völlig überfordert angesichts des Umfangs der laufenden inneren Reformen, der zügigen Erweiterungsrunde um 10 bis 13 Mitglieder und der stufenweisen Integration der Balkanstaaten. Trotzdem kann die EU ihre zukünftigen östlichen Nachbarn nicht ignorieren. Mit der Anpassung der Beitrittsländer an westliche Standards wird die wirtschaftliche, soziale, politische und kulturelle Asymmetrie zwischen ihnen, der Ukraine, Belarus und Moldova zunehmen. Dazu wird die Annahme des Schengener acquis durch die neuen Mitglieder deren Grenzen zu den Anrainerstaaten weniger durchlässig machen und dazu führen, dass die zwischenmenschlichen Beziehungen und der nicht unbedeutende grenzüberschreitende Handel eingeschränkt werden. Deswegen wird insgesamt das Potential für Instabilität, einschließlich illegaler Migration, anwachsen. Andererseits führen die beschleunigten Bemühungen Russlands, sich in den Europäischen Wirtschaftsraum und die Welthandelsorganisation (WTO) einzubringen, zu seiner Konsolidierung als Marktführer und Investor in der Ukraine, in Belarus und Moldova. Deshalb bietet sich diesen Ländern eher die Perspektive, mit Russland als vor Russland in den EU-Raum einzutreten oder gar von Europa fernzubleiben. Daneben bringt der Energiedialog zwischen der EU und Russland eine signifikante Aufwertung von Belarus als Transitstaat für Erdöl und Gas mit sich, auf Kosten der Ukraine. Schließlich ermöglicht der intensivierte politische Dialog zwischen der EU und Russland die Einbeziehung von Themen, die gemeinsamen Nachbarn betreffen, so die Transformation von Belarus und die Lösung der Transdniester-Konflikts in Moldova. Vor diesem Hintergrund versucht der Bericht, politische Wege aufzuzeigen, die auf die östliche Außengrenzen der EU stabilisierend wirkend, zugleich aber für Brüssel handhabbar wären. Dies bedarf neuer Ansätze sowohl in den bilateralen Beziehungen als auch auf regionaler Ebene. Bilateral sollte die EU vor allem ihre Politik gegenüber Belarus und Moldova neu gestalten. Sie sollte von der Isolierung Belarus' Abstand nehmen und, gestützt auf ihre neuen Beziehungen zu Russland, auf wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit mit Belarus setzen, um Reformen dort zu fördern. Moldova sollte sie als einen Balkan-Staat kategorisieren und ihm langfristig die EU-Mitgliedschaft in Aussicht stellen, da dies der einzige Weg für eine dauerhafte Stabilisierung des Landes ist. Das bedeutet für die EU auch die Übernahme einer aktiven Rolle im regionalen Konfliktmanagement. Regional sollte die EU ihrer Politik eine 'östliche Dimension' geben, die Belarus, die Ukraine, Moldova und Russland einschließt.' (Textauszug

Sulfadimethoxine residues in rabbit muscle after extended oral treatment at therapeutic dosage

[EN] Sulfadimethoxine is extensively used in rabbit breeding for preventive and curative purpose and residues are sometimes observed in carcasses at slaughter. It has been suggested this is due to dosage and/or duration of treatment not being in compliance with the manufacturer's recommendations, which probably induces residue levels in the meat above the maximum residue limit (MRL) value of 100 ¿g/kg. In order to test this hypothesis, a study was carried out on gravid rabbits and their progeny. The animals were subjected to an extended treatment with sulfadimethoxine at therapeutic level in the feed. The feed was supplemented before pelleting with a commercial veterinary product containing 20 g of trimethoprim and 93 g of sulfadimethoxine per kg. On the basis of the dosage indicated for this commercial veterinary product, the incorporation level in the feed was 5 kg/ton (i.e. 465 g of sulfadimethoxine/ton), providing oral daily therapeutic treatment of the animals of ca. 12.5 to 50 mg of sulfadimethoxine per kg bodyweight. The mothers were treated during the last 21 d of pregnancy and during the whole period of lactation (35 d). The animals were sacrificed after a wash-out period of 12 d with blank feed. The young rabbits received the supplemented feed after weaning during the first 40 d of the fattening period. These animals were also sacrifi ced after a wash-out period of 8, 12, 15 or 20 d, respectively, with a blank feed. A sample of the leg muscle was taken for analysis. An HPLC analytical method was used to determine the sulfadimethoxine concentrations in tissue, with a LLOQ (Lower Limit Of Quantification) of 50 ¿g/kg of muscle (trimethoprim was not considered in this study). Sulfadimethoxine concentrations above the MRL value of 100 ¿g/kg were registered only in muscle from 1 out of 8 mothers and in 2 out of 8 young rabbits sacrificed 12 d after cessation of the treatment. For other young rabbits sacrificed on the 8th, 15th or 20th d after cessation of treatment, Sulphonamide concentrations in muscle always remained below the MRL value (8 animals per slaughtering time). These results show that oral treatment of rabbits with veterinary products containing sulfadimethoxine administered for a long period at the daily therapeutic level of 12.5 to 50 mg/kg does not seem to induce the accumulation of this molecule in muscle.Barthe, C.; Guicherd, A.; Quillon, J. (2009). Sulfadimethoxine residues in rabbit muscle after extended oral treatment at therapeutic dosage. World Rabbit Science. 17(3):137-144. doi:10.4995/wrs.2009.65313714417

Dry Beneficiation of Phosphate Minerals Using a Triboelectric Belt Separator

Beneficiation of phosphate ores by electrostatic processes has been demonstrated by various researchers since the 1940’s. Separations have been achieved by removing silica from phosphates, and with fewer examples of calcite and dolomite from phosphate. Limitations on conventional electrostatic systems include low capacity, the need for multiple stages, and operational problems caused by fines. These limitations may be overcome by newer electrostatic processes, such as the triboelectric belt separator developed by ST Equipment & Technology LLC (STET). In contrast to other electrostatic separation processes that are typically limited to particles greater than 75 µm in size, the STET triboelectric belt separator is ideally suited for separation of very fine (\u3c1 µm) to moderately coarse (500 µm) particles, with very high throughput. The STET triboelectric belt separator technology has been used to process a wide range of industrial minerals and other dry granular powders. Recent bench-top testing using a laboratory scale STET separator has shown the technology to be effective in triboelectric charging and separation of several phosphate ores. For phosphate ores containing a mostly silicate gangue mineralogy – the STET triboelectric belt separator may offer a high rate, lower cost processing solution, while minimizing or eliminating the need for flotation or other wet processing. For phosphates with more complex gangue mineralogy, or for carbonate / carbonate separations (such as those required for phosphate from dolomite or calcite) – the STET process may be considered as an additional beneficiation step following traditional wet processing steps

Distributed Model-based Control for Gas Turbine Engines

Controlling a gas turbine engine is a fascinating problem. As one of the most complex systems developed, it relies on thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, materials science as well as electrical, control and systems engineering. The evolution of gas turbine engines is marked with an increase in the number of actuators. Naturally, this increase in actuation capability has also been followed by the improvement of other technologies such as advanced high-temperature and lighter materials, improving the efficiency of the aero engines by extending their physical limits. An improvement in the way to control the engine has to be undertaken in order for these technological improvements to be fully harnessed. This starts with the selection of a novel control system architecture and is followed by the design of new control techniques. Model-based control methods relying on distributed architectures have been studied in the past for their ability to handle constraints and to provide optimal control strategies. Applying them to gas turbine engines is interesting for three main reasons. First of all, distributed control architectures provide greater modularity during the design than centralized control architectures. Secondly, they can reduce the life cycle costs linked to both the fuel burnt and the maintenance by bringing optimal control decisions. Finally, distributing the control actions can increase flight safety through improved robustness as well as fault tolerance. This thesis is concerned with the optimal selection of a distributed control system architecture that minimizes the number of subsystem to subsystem interactions. The control system architecture problem is formulated as a binary integer linear programming problem where cuts are added to remove the uncontrollable partitions obtained. Then a supervised-distributed control technique is presented whereby a supervisory agent optimizes the joint communication and system performance metrics periodically. This online optimal technique is cast as a semi-definite programming problem including a bilinear matrix equality and solved using an alternate convex search. Finally, an extension of this online optimal control technique is presented for non-linear systems modelled by linear parameter-varying models

Développement d'une échelle de mesure de la complexité de la tâche en savate boxe française

La création d'un plan de cours nécessite l'élaboration d'exercices de complexité croissante. L'objectif est d'augmenter progressivement la complexité de la tâche pour permettre d'introduire des incertitudes dans les exercices et favoriser l'apprentissage. Le cadre théorique revient sur les notions et définitions de la tâche, de la complexité, de technique sportive, de la complexité de la tâche en EPS et des bases pédagogiques et didactiques de l'enseignement de la savate boxe française. L'objectif de l'auteur est de créer et valider une échelle de mesure de la complexité de la tâche pour le sport savate boxe française. La méthodologie employée sera de valider cet outil grâce à une validation hypothético-déductive de sa forme, une validation contre un outil d'évaluation du niveau technique en savate, une étude de la fidélité dans le temps par mesures répétées et une sensitivité des résultats entre un utilisateur expert et un utilisateur novice. L'échelle est composée de quatre sous échelles qui mesurent la complexité gestuelle ou informationnelle. Les résultats de l'expérience montre que l'on trouve une corrélation entre les résultats de la sous échelle de complexité gestuelle offensive et le niveau de complexité des situations de la progression technique de savate. On trouve aussi des corrélations entre les résultats à la mesure 1 et à la mesure 2, effectués à un mois d'intervalle. Enfin on montre un plus grand nombre de différences significatives entre les résultats de l'étalon et les résultats du novice par rapport à l'expert. Les conclusions sont que l'outil est valide, fidèle dans le temps, mais qu'il nécessite un apprentissage et que le niveau d'expérience peut influencer sur la prise des mesures. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Échelles, Tâche, Complexité, Technique, Complexité de la tâche, Savate boxe française

Embedding Preservability: Iframes in Complex Scholarly Publications

As part of a research project, a small team of preservation experts embedded within publisher workflows to analyze the challenges associated with preserving complex scholarly publications. Patterns emerged regarding preservation-friendly practices that could potentially be incorporated into production processes and platforms to support preservation at scale. One common threat to the preservability of the analyzed publications is the inclusion of web pages that are hosted by a third party (e.g., YouTube videos, ArcGIS visualizations) within the text using iframes. The team explored methods to improve preservability in such instances while considering the constraints of the project partners and the requirement that preservation services can scale their processes across numerous publications. A paper accompanying this poster is in the University of Illinois IDEALS repository at https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121066

Représentation sociale de la santé d’immigrants allophones de Montréal, Canada / Social representation of health by allophones immigrants of Montreal, Canada

RÉSUMÉ: La province de Québec accueille 50 000 immigrants par an dont 35% sont allophones. Les immigrants ont une meilleure santé que les natifs à leur arrivée. Cet état de santé diminue avec le temps. Des liens ont été établis entre acculturation et prise de poids. L’analyse des représentations sociales de la santé révèle les obstacles et les opportunités de ces personnes à adopter de « saines habitudes de vie ». Une étude qualitative exploratoire a été menée à Montréal. L’analyse révèle des conceptions spécifiques de la santé, une évaluation positive de leur état de santé et les causes reliées à cet état. Un grand nombre de croyances, de normes et d'opinions sont exprimées en lien avec l’alimentation et l’activité physique. La représentation de la santé en contexte migratoire présente un conflit entre les valeurs du pays d’origine et du pays hôte. Des mécanismes d’enchantement et de désenchantement sont opérés pour combler l’écart entre idéal espéré et réalité vécue. Mots-clefs: saine habitude de vie ; immigrants ; représentation sociale ; acculturation.   ABSTRACT: The province of Quebec allowed 50,000 immigrants per year of which 35% are allophones. Immigrants have better health than natives and the health status decrease with the time. Links are done between acculturation and increase of bodyweight. The analysis of social representation (SR) of health shows obstacles and opportunities to adopt a “healthy lifestyles”. A qualitative exploratory study was done in Montreal. The analysis reveals specific conceptions of health, a positive health status assessment and origins of this status. Lots of beliefs, norms and opinions are connected with food and physical activity. The social representation of health in migration context shows a struggle between country of birth values and host country values. The Mechanisms of “enchanting” and “disenchanting” are working to fill the gap between the hoped ideal and the lived reality. Keywords: healthy lifestyle; immigrants; social representation; acculturation

Guidelines for Preservability in New Forms of Scholarship

A Self-Assessment Tool is available to be used with these guidelines at https://doi.org/10.33682/r23i-9zg2Updated and with a new title, these recommendations will guide publishers to create digital publications that are more likely to be preservable. They are meant to be shared with authors, editors, digital production staff, software developers and those who design and maintain publishing platforms. An interactive web version of the guidelines is published at https://preservingnewforms.dlib.nyu.edu.The Andrew W. Mellon Foundatio