WePWEP: web-based participatory wind energy planning [1]. Background information on wind energy and wind farm siting.

This document has been prepared in the frame of a PhD research project, which aim is to develop and test a learning-enhancing website design to involve the public in spatial planning. The application focused is the strategic planning of wind farms location. The website developed is named WePWEP – Web-based Participatory Wind Energy Planning and is available at hppt://ernie.ge.ucl.ac.uk:8080/WePWEP/. Being the purpose of the website to contribute to learning and engage the public in the strategic planning of wind farms, it provides some background information on wind energy and wind farm siting. This document compiles the information that is available in the website. With regard to wind energy, the section dedicated to the debate surrounding wind energy should be of particular relevance for those interested in an overview of the arguments pro and against wind energy development. Under the wind farm siting topic, the factors that need consideration during the site selection process are introduced, and subsequently the involvement of the public in wind farms planning is reviewed and discussed. The document concludes with the author supporting a more participative role of the public in the wind energy planning process and suggesting that the WePWEP website is a means that can contribute to this achievement

Discursive differences and policy outcomes: EU-Russia relations and security in Europe

The redefinition of political communities in Europe has been a process in flux, especially since the end of the Cold War. The central role of the EU as an “identity builder” (Risse, 2009) among its member states, and to a certain extent in its relations with its neighbours, has been increasingly contested, not least in its relations with Russia. Europe has been a permanent feature of Russia?s identity redefinition following the collapse of the Soviet Union and therefore a central element shaping relations between the two actors. This article puts forward the argument that differences in discourse and meanings have an impact in policy outcomes, as regards EU-Russia relations and security in Europe. It surveys fundamental events in European security and the parallel evolution in security discourses within the EU and Russia. It, therefore, maps the main elements shaping EU-Russia security relations, focusing on the construction of discursive maps and on how these have impacted bilateral and regional security relations.European Union, Russia, identity, discourse, security, neighbourhood

Generating Complete and Finite Test Suite for ioco: Is It Possible?

Testing from Input/Output Transition Systems has been intensely investigated. The conformance between the implementation and the specification is often determined by the so-called ioco-relation. However, generating tests for ioco is usually hindered by the problem of conflicts between inputs and outputs. Moreover, the generation is mainly based on nondeterministic methods, which may deliver complete test suites but require an unbounded number of executions. In this paper, we investigate whether it is possible to construct a finite test suite which is complete in a predefined fault domain for the classical ioco relation even in the presence of input/output conflicts. We demonstrate that it is possible under certain assumptions about the specification and implementation, by proposing a method for complete test generation, based on a traditional method developed for FSM.Comment: In Proceedings MBT 2014, arXiv:1403.704

The Eastern Partnership’s contribution to security in Europe: bringing the political back in?

The analysis of European security has evolved considerably over the last decades, reflecting the dynamic shifts in security studies but also the continuous reshaping of the institutional setting in the European continent. One of the most relevant features of this process is the increased prominence of the European Union as a security provider, resulting from its enlargement process and the establishment of security and defence structures. The Eastern Partnership (EaP), however, has suffered from the very beginning from the lack of a clear vision within EU structures, regarding the type of contribution it would give to this changing security context. This paper puts forward new approaches to the study of European security, informed by post-structuralist perspectives on international politics and international security. The argument for using such approaches rests with the desire to understand the formative processes that shape the current European security order and to place the EaP in this framework. It is our contention that by doing this, we will be better prepared to identify the fundamental contradictions of this policy and its flaws. Building on an eclectic combination of authors from social theory and political sociology, the paper uses the concepts of politics and political to understand how security is being defined in Europe. From the analysis, it becomes clear that the EU’s promotion of a depolicised form of politics resonates more with the maintenance of hegemonic and hierarchical forms of stability and order, than with partnerships and emancipating forms of security. This is problematic in many ways, not least due to the subjectivities it creates, but also because of the lack of objective results in providing security