Given the controversies and difficulties which preceded the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty, it is easy to forget that the Treaty is a complex legal document in need of detailed analysis for ...its impact to be fully understood. Jean-Claude Piris, the Director General of the Legal Service of the Council of the European Union, provides such an analysis, looking at the historical and political contexts of the Treaty, its impact on the democratic framework of the EU and its provisions in relation to substantive law. Impartial legal analysis of the EU's functions, its powers and the treaties which govern it make this the seminal text on the most significant recent development in EU law.
Reforming the European Union Finke, Daniel; Konig, Thomas; Proksch, Sven-Oliver ...
2012., 20120729, 2012, 2012-07-29
eBook
For decades the European Union tried changing its institutions, but achieved only unsatisfying political compromises and modest, incremental treaty revisions. In late 2009, however, the EU was ...successfully reformed through the Treaty of Lisbon.Reforming the European Unionexamines how political leaders ratified this treaty against all odds and shows how this victory involved all stages of treaty reform negotiations--from the initial proposal to referendums in several European countries.
The authors emphasize the strategic role of political leadership and domestic politics, and they use state-of-the-art methodology, applying a comprehensive data set for actors' reform preferences. They look at how political leaders reacted to apparent failures of the process by recreating or changing the rules of the game. While domestic actors played a significant role in the process, their influence over the outcome was limited as leaders ignored negative referendums and plowed ahead with intended reforms. The book's empirical analyses shed light on critical episodes: strategic agenda setting during the European Convention, the choice of ratification instrument, intergovernmental bargaining dynamics, and the reaction of the German Council presidency to the negative referendums in France, the Netherlands, and Ireland.
Reaching beyond policy implications, After Virginia Tech illuminates personal accounts of recovery and resilience that can offer a ray of hope to millions of Americans concerned about the ...consequences of gun violence.
Why did governments adopt austerity policies, and why were they so harmful? Why did the media largely ignore the majority of experts who opposed these policies, and allow politicians to get away with ...lies? And why did voters choose Brexit when the economic consensus was that it would harm living standards? Simon Wren-Lewis, winner of the SPERI/New Statesman Prize for Political Economy, is one of Britain's most respected economists. Since 2012, his widely-read Mainly Macro blog has been an influential resource for policymakers, academics and social commentators around the world. This book presents some of his most important work, telling the story of how the damaging political and economic events of recent years became inevitable. With new material including a preface by Nobel prize-winner Paul Krugman, these dispatches from the front-line serve as an essential guide to some of the most important economic and political issues facing us today, and as a warning to avert future disasters on this scale.
"A bridge shouldn't just fall down," Senator Amy Klobuchar said after the August 1, 2007, collapse of the Minneapolis I-35W eight-lane steel truss bridge, which killed 13 motorists, injured 145, and ...left a collective wound on the city's psyche and infrastructure.On her way to a soccer game with a fellow teammate, Kimberly J. Brown experienced the collapse firsthand, falling 114 feet in her teammate's car to the Mississippi River. Although terrified, injured, and in shock, she survived. In this sobering memoir and exposé, Brown recounts her harrowing experience.In the aftermath of the disaster, Brown became both an advocate for survivors and an unofficial whistle-blower about decaying infrastructure. She details her investigation and correspondence with Thornton Tomasetti engineers, including the false official account of the collapse and the eventual revelation of its real causes. In addition, she chronicles the ongoing decay of America's bridges and the continuing challenges faced by leaders to address infrastructure problems across the country.After nearly a decade of research into the collapse and her active and ongoing recovery from psychic and physical injuries, Brown shares her experience and answers the questions we should all be asking: Why did this bridge collapse? And what could have been done to prevent this tragedy?
Context. A stellar occultation by a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) provides an opportunity to probe the size and shape of these distant solar system bodies. In the past seven years, several ...occultations by TNOs have been observed, but mostly from a single location. Only very few TNOs have been sampled simultaneously from multiple locations. Sufficient data that enable a robust estimation of shadow size through an ellipse fit could only be obtained for two objects. Aims. We present the first observation of an occultation by the TNO 2007 UK126 on 15 November 2014, measured by three observers, one nearly on and two almost symmetrical to the shadow’s centerline. This is the first multi-chord dataset obtained for a so-called detached object, a TNO subgroup with perihelion distances so large that the giant planets have likely not perturbed their orbits. We also revisit Herschel/PACS far-infrared data, applying a new reduction method to improve the accuracy of the measured fluxes. Combining both datasets allows us to comprehensively characterize 2007 UK126. Methods. We use error-in-variable regression to solve the non-linear problem of propagating timing errors into uncertainties of the ellipse parameters. Based on the shadow’s size and a previously reported rotation period, we expect a shape of a Maclaurin spheroid and derive a geometrically plausible size range. To refine our size estimate of 2007 UK126, we model its thermal emission using a thermophysical model code. We conduct a parametric study to predict far-infrared fluxes and compare them to the Herschel/PACS measurements. Results. The favorable geometry of our occultation chords, combined with minimal dead-time imaging, and precise GPS time measurements, allow for an accurate estimation of the shadow size (best-fitting ellipse with axes 645.80 ± 5.68 km × 597.81 ± 12.74 km) and the visual geometric albedo (pV = 15.0 ± 1.6%). By combining our analyses of the occultation and the far-infrared data, we can constrain the effective diameter of 2007 UK126 to deff = 599−629 km. We conclude that subsolar surface temperatures are in the order of ≈ 50−55 K.
Seismic data reveal that the aftershock zone expands with time after a main shock event. Here we examine the aftershock sequence recorded during the first 32 days following the 2007 Noto‐Hanto ...earthquake, Japan. By applying a matched‐filter technique to the data, we detected about 10 times more events than those listed in the routinely constructed earthquake catalog. The aftershock area expanded along the fault strike as a logarithmic function of time, beginning immediately after the main shock. Aftershock expansion toward the SW was especially extensive and developed more rapidly than toward the NE. Interestingly, the aftershock area expanded in a step‐like manner by the activation of a series of spatially clustered seismic bursts. Spatial correlation between the aftershock extension and the afterslip distribution suggests that the expansion of the aftershock area could be mainly driven by aseismic afterslip. The aftershock area continues to expand, even though 7 years have now passed since the main shock.
Key Points
Aftershock area expanded along fault strike as a logarithmic function of time
Seismicity front migrated in a step‐like manner by activation of seismic bursts
Expansion of the aftershock area could be mainly driven by aseismic afterslip
Bacterial zoonoses are established causes of severe febrile illness in East Africa. Within a fever etiology study, we applied a high-throughput 16S rRNA metagenomic assay validated for detecting ...bacterial zoonotic pathogens. We enrolled febrile patients admitted to 2 referral hospitals in Moshi, Tanzania, during September 2007-April 2009. Among 788 participants, median age was 20 (interquartile range 2-38) years. We performed PCR amplification of V1-V2 variable region 16S rRNA on cell pellet DNA, then metagenomic deep-sequencing and pathogenic taxonomic identification. We detected bacterial zoonotic pathogens in 10 (1.3%) samples: 3 with Rickettsia typhi, 1 R. conorii, 2 Bartonella quintana, 2 pathogenic Leptospira spp., and 1 Coxiella burnetii. One other sample had reads matching a Neoerhlichia spp. previously identified in a patient from South Africa. Our findings indicate that targeted 16S metagenomics can identify bacterial zoonotic pathogens causing severe febrile illness in humans, including potential novel agents.Bacterial zoonoses are established causes of severe febrile illness in East Africa. Within a fever etiology study, we applied a high-throughput 16S rRNA metagenomic assay validated for detecting bacterial zoonotic pathogens. We enrolled febrile patients admitted to 2 referral hospitals in Moshi, Tanzania, during September 2007-April 2009. Among 788 participants, median age was 20 (interquartile range 2-38) years. We performed PCR amplification of V1-V2 variable region 16S rRNA on cell pellet DNA, then metagenomic deep-sequencing and pathogenic taxonomic identification. We detected bacterial zoonotic pathogens in 10 (1.3%) samples: 3 with Rickettsia typhi, 1 R. conorii, 2 Bartonella quintana, 2 pathogenic Leptospira spp., and 1 Coxiella burnetii. One other sample had reads matching a Neoerhlichia spp. previously identified in a patient from South Africa. Our findings indicate that targeted 16S metagenomics can identify bacterial zoonotic pathogens causing severe febrile illness in humans, including potential novel agents.
The 14 November 2007 Tocopilla (MW 7.7) earthquake was the first large rupture (M > 7.5) in the 1877 Northern Chile seismic gap. The event only ruptured the lower seismogenic part of the megathrust, ...raising questions about the mechanism that prevented the trenchward rupture propagation. Here, we present the short-period rupture process of the Tocopilla earthquake from local strong-motion (2.0–8.0 Hz) and teleseismic (0.5–2.0 Hz) back-projections. P and pP teleseismic back-projections were combined from two arrays formed on broadband networks in North America and Africa. The kinematics of the earthquake rupture was also characterized by back-propagating S-wave envelopes from local accelerometers (≤ 200 km from the mainshock). The results show a complex rupture process, including a sub-event, from the distribution of short-period rupture emissions and the main slip asperities. The sub-event location agrees with published estimates based on S-wave arrivals and kinematic inversion. We also observed rupture emissions around the slip patches and systemically classified them relative to the asperities, i.e., down-dip, up-dip, and inside. The short-period emissions are balanced around the asperities, highlighting up-dip rupture emissions. We interpreted the up-dip emissions as a proxy of the high-stress gradient caused by a kink in the slab interface, proposed in previous literature to be the mechanism that arrested the trenchward propagation of the 2007 rupture. The down-dip limit of the Tocopilla event coincided approximately where the slab interface intersects the continental Moho. Thus, it is a region expected to be extensively serpentinized, i.e., the most seaward part of the mantle wedge, defining a velocity-strengthening margin and a source of short-period radiation. The high-stress gradient around the asperities is proposed to define a third source of short-period radiation that may contribute to rupture encircling emissions.
•Short-period rupture outlines both up-dip and down-dip of the main slip asperities.•Up-dip short-period emissions linked to a geometrical kink in the slab interface.•Down-dip limit of the rupture correlates with the continental Moho depth.
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