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The major electricity companies (the 'majors') in Europe have not recovered from a significant decline in their combined market value that began in early 2008. If the causes are structural, as argued here, these companies may be unable or unwilling to finance the investments required to meet the EU policy goals of energy security, environmental sustainability, and acceptable costs. This research paper by David Robinson argues that the problems facing the European majors reflect a 'scissors effect', which has two interpretations. On the one hand, it is a dynamic process whereby certain revenue streams fall, while costs rise, literally cutting profitability. The scissors metaphor extends to a second interpretation: that profitability is being hit – or will be soon – both upstream and downstream. The paper emphasizes underlying structural trends (stagnant demand, decarbonization and more active consumer participation) and government intervention as causes of the scissors effect. Although the structural trends seem now to be irreversible, the future of the sector still depends importantly on government decisions. This paper argues that current electricity regulations and market design are unsustainable. To address this, it is necessary to clarify the respective roles of government and markets and to design regulations and markets for a decarbonized electricity model and for the transition to the new model. Where markets do have a role to play, it is essential that they be left to play that role. The proposal draws on the original spirit of liberalization, but reflects the importance of decarbonization and the technological changes that make active consumer participation in electricity markets a reality. While the majors have to rethink corporate and regulatory strategy, their first priority should be to engage in the debate about the future role of government and competitive markets.

This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [grant number MR/P014704/1] and the PreDiCT-TB consortium (IMI Joint undertaking grant agreement number 115337, resources of which are composed of financial contribution from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) and EFPIA companies' in kind contribution. ; If improvements are to be made in tuberculosis (TB) treatment, an increased understanding of disease in the lung is needed. Studies have shown that bacteria in a less metabolically active state, associated with the presence of lipid bodies, are less susceptible to antibiotics, and recent results have highlighted the disparity in concentration of different compounds into lesions. Treatment success therefore depends critically on the responses of the individual bacteria that constitute the infection. We propose a hybrid, individual-based approach that analyses spatio-temporal dynamics at the cellular level, linking the behaviour of individual bacteria and host cells with the macroscopic behaviour of the microenvironment. The individual elements (bacteria, macrophages and T cells) are modelled using cellular automaton (CA) rules, and the evolution of oxygen, drugs and chemokine dynamics are incorporated in order to study the effects of the microenvironment in the pathological lesion. We allow bacteria to switch states depending on oxygen concentration, which affects how they respond to treatment. This is the first multiscale model of its type to consider both oxygen-driven phenotypic switching of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis and antibiotic treatment. Using this model, we investigate the role of bacterial cell state and of initial bacterial location on treatment outcome. We demonstrate that when bacteria are located further away from blood vessels, less favourable outcomes are more likely, i.e. longer time before infection is contained/cleared, treatment failure or later relapse. We also show that in cases where bacteria remain at the end of simulations, the organisms tend to be slower-growing and are often located within granulomas, surrounded by caseous material. ; Publisher PDF ; Peer reviewed

This article seeks to explain the increase in the German Green party votes in 2019 European elections through the East-West cleavage. Using the 2018 German General Social Survey data, it identifies and compares the Green Party electorate in both regions in terms of conventional and supposed determinants of Green voting. Results of the multivariate analysis equally support both models, indicating left-wing voters as the main source of the Greens' electoral gains across Germany. However, while in the East the Greens were supported primarily by the electorate of the Social Democratic party dissatisfied with the activity of this party, Western Germans exhibited a trend of left-leaning voters' backlash against the rise of the radical right party Alternative for Germany through Green voting. This realignment is explicated by the persistent specifics of German regional party politics combined with intrinsic value distinctions of their dwellers, and recent shifts in party-voters ties.

This collection of essays represents the first attempt in this country to examine systematically the nature and development of modern Japanese self-consciousness as expressed through culture. The essays reveal eloquently the extent to which important aspects of Japanese intellectual life in the early twentieth century were inspired by European models of cultural criticism, ranging from Kant and Hegel to Nietzsche, Marx, Durkheim, and Bergson. Implicitly comparative, this collection raises the question whether ""late"" industrialization and related processes call forth cultural convergence)

Stimulating innovative and growth-oriented entrepreneurship is a key economic and societal challenge to which universities and colleges have much to contribute. This book examines the role that higher education institutions are currently playing through teaching entrepreneurship and transferring knowledge and innovation to enterprises and discusses how they should develop this role in the future. The key issues, approaches and trends are analysed and compared across a range of countries, from the experiences of the most entrepreneurial universities in North America to advanced European models

The paper's main objective is to analyze the collective bargaining response in terms of internal flexibility during the Great Recession (GR) in five EU countries (Spain, Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom), and three economic sectors (industry, commerce and hospitality, and financial services and real estate), at the establishment level (ECS2013 database). The theoretical framework used is linked to the varieties of unionism. Using a descriptive statistical analysis and a probit model, this paper presents new evidences. However, the responses were heterogeneous between countries and sectors, the use of internal functional flexibility has been more intense than the numerical and salary internal flexibility. Moreover, it is related to the intensity of GR. These results, in general, while requiring a more detailed analysis of the effects of the GR on internal flexibility in the EU countries, contribute to introducing a new perspective in the socioeconomic literature about the collective bargaining and internal flexibility

The paper's main objective is to analyze the collective bargaining response in terms of internal flexibility during the Great Recession (GR) in five EU countries (Spain, Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom), and three economic sectors (industry, commerce and hospitality, and financial services and real estate), at the establishment level (ECS2013 database). The theoretical frame-work used is linked to the varieties of unionism. Using a descriptive statistical analysis and a probit model, this paper presents new evidences. However, the responses were heterogeneous between countries and sectors, the use of internal functional flexibility has been more intense than the numerical and salary internal flexibility. Moreover, it is related to the intensity of GR. These results, in general, while requiring a more detailed analysis of the effects of the GR on internal flexibility in the EU countries, contribute to introducing a new perspective in the socioeconomic literature about the collective bargaining and internal flexibility.

AbstractCompliance with principles and guidelines for ethical AI has a significant impact on companies engaged in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Specifically, ethics is a broad concept that continuously evolves over time and across cultural and geographical boundaries. International organisations (IOs), individual states, and private groups, all have an interest in defining the concept of ethics of AI. IOs, as well as regional and national bodies, have issued many decisions on AI ethics. Developing a system that complies with the ethical framework poses a complex challenge for companies, and the consequences of not complying with ethical principles can have severe consequences, making compliance with these requirements a key issue for companies. Furthermore, there is a shortage of technical tools to ensure that such AI systems comply with ethical criteria. The scarcity of ethics compliance checking tools for AI, and the current focus on defining ethical guidelines for AI development, has led us to undertake a proposal consisting in a semi-automated software model to verify the ethical compliance of an AI system's code. To implement this model, we focus on the following important aspects: (1) a literature review to identify existing ethical compliance systems, (2) a review of principles and guidelines for ethical AI to determine the international and European views regarding AI ethics, and (3) the identification of commonly accepted principles and sub-principles of AI. These elements served to inform (4) our proposal for the design of a semi-automated software for verifying the ethical compliance of AI systems both at design-time (ethics-by-design perspective) and afterwards on the resulting software.

This research study aims to determine the relationship between the financial failure risk and firm value in lodging companies operating in the European lodging industry. The impact of financial failure risks on firm value in lodging companies is tested with the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) on several econometric models established for the research study. As a result of the analysis, according to the Fulmer H Score, Ohlson Score, and Springate Score models, it is determined that the firm values increase as the financial failure risks of lodging companies decrease. There is a limited number of studies in the finance literature examining the effect of the financial failure of lodging companies on financial performance. In this context, the study tries to reveal the relationship between the risk of financial failure and firm value in lodging companies by contributing to the tourism and finance literature.

In September 1989 the City of Strasbourg exhibited at the "Salon des Utopies" in the Grand Palais in Paris a model of a "Bridge for Europe" designed by Gaetano Pesce, architect, designer and philosopher. This bridge in the form of an "S", representing the initial of Strasbourg, was designed to cross the Rhine upstream of the city to link France in the West with Germany in the East. In 1989 the European Economic was composed of only twelve states each of which was represented on Gaetano Pesce's model twice: first by a national pavilion situated on the bridge; second by a schematic map of a Europe of the Twelve shown on the floor of the bridge, N/S. The extension of the European Union, among other reasons, rendered the execution of this project out of date. Since December 2013 this model has been exhibited in the section dedicated to Europe in Strasbourg's History Museum. ; En septembre 1989 la Ville de Strasbourg a présenté au salon Utopies 89, au Grand Palais à Paris, la maquette d'un Pont de l'Europe réalisée par l'Italien Gaetano Pesce, architecte, designer et philosophe. Ce pont, en forme de "S" comme l'initiale de Strasbourg, devait enjamber le Rhin en amont pour relier la France à l'Allemagne d'Ouest en Est. En 1989 la Communauté Économique Européenne n'était constituée que de douze États que, sur sa maquette, Gaetano Pesce a représentés deux fois : par douze pavillons nationaux individualisés et répartis sur le tablier du pont ; par une carte schématisée de l'Europe des Douze implantée sous le tablier du pont, Nord/Sud. L'extension de l'Union Européenne a, entre autres motifs, rendu obsolète la réalisation du projet. Depuis décembre 2013 la maquette est présentée dans les salles consacrées à l'Europe au Musée Historique de Strasbourg.

CONTENIDO ¿Qué pasa con la integración económica andina?What happens with the andean economic integration? Quenan, Carlos Sociedad civil y modelos de integración: el caso del tratado de libre comercio en América del norte. Civil society and integration models. Briceño Ruiz, José El estado en los procesos de integración: caso de Venezuela en la comunidad andina. The state in the processes of integration: the case of Venezuela in the andean community. Bustamante de Pernía, Ana Marleny Cooperación internacional, integración y capital social: un marco interpretativo desde la Comunidad Andina de Naciones. Cooperation, integration and share capital an interpretative perspective from the Nations Andean Community. Álvarez de Flores, Raquel Notas sobre el rol del parlamento europeo en el sistema político comunitario: ¿una política original o sólo compleja pero conocida? Notes on the european parliament's list in the community political system. Vázquez, Mariana La gastronomía en el Táchira: un elemento de integración en la región fronteriza. Gastronomy at the Tachira state: an element of integration at the frontier region. Flores Ortega, Bernardo Enrique El proceso histórico para poblar los Andes Venezolanos. The historical process to populate the you walk venezuelans. Maldonado D., Hector Augusto Notas y Documentos El Centro de Estudios de Fronteras e Integración (CEFI). Índice acumulado por autor. ; 25-44 ; bricenoj@ula.ve, bricenoruiz@hotmail.com ; semestral ; Nivel analítico

In this paper, we illustrate a new, simple and complementary ground-based methodology to retrieve the vertically resolved atmospheric precipitation intensity through a synergy between measurements from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Micropulse Lidar network (MPLNET), an analytical model solution and ground-based disdrometer measurements. The presented results are obtained at two mid-latitude MPLNET permanent observational sites, located respectively at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA, and at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. The methodology is suitable to be applied to existing and/or future lidar/ceilometer networks with the main objective of either providing near real-time (3 h latency) rainfall intensity measurements and/or to validate satellite missions, especially for critical light precipitation (<3 mm h-1). ; The MPL measurements and processing in Barcelona are supported by the European Union (H2020, grant 654109, ACTRIS-2), the European Fund for Regional Development, the Spanish Government (grants TEC2015-63832-P, CGL2015-65627-C3-2-R, CGL2016-81828-REDT and CGL2017-90884-REDT) and the Catalan Government (grant 2014 SGR 583). CommSensLab is a Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu (grant MDM-2016-0600) funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación.

En el marco de la crisis ambiental y climática y teniendo en cuenta los esfuerzos que en la UE se proponen para transitar hacia un modelo de sostenibilidad en general y de producción agroalimentaria en general y considerando que en ese sentido el uso de los fitosanitarios son un punto crucial de permanente cuestionamiento y revisión, este trabajo se propone tres objetivos: 1) realizar una mirada conceptual y crítica a los diferentes paradigmas y modelos de desarrollo y de agricultura partiendo de la premisa que aún ninguno de ellos ha logrado consenso y que es dificil definir un modelo de producción agraria sostenible; 2) presentar el cuadro normativo al menos a nivel unional de los fitosanitarios para incentivar su profundización en cuanto normativa sectorial claramente ligada a la agricultura, en estado actual de cuestionamiento y revisión; 3) entrecruzar las normativas referidas a los modelos de agricultura y a los fitosanitarios y analizar cómo entre ambas se trata la coexistencia. ; Wobec kryzysu środowiskowego i klimatycznego, a także starań, jakie podejmuje Unia Europejska, aby przestawić się na model zrównoważonego rozwoju i produkcji rolno-spożywczej na poziomie ogólnym, uwzględniając to, jak duży problem stanowi stosowanie środków ochrony roślin, co jest przedmiotem nieustannej debaty, praca ta ma trzy cele: 1) zaproponowanie koncepcji i krytycznego ujęcia różnych paradygmatów i modeli rozwoju rolnictwa; 2) przedstawienie ram prawnych, przynajmniej na poziomie unijnym, dotyczących stosowania środków ochrony roślin, aby zachęcić do głębszego poznawania przepisów sektorowych związanych z rolnictwem; 3) zestawienie regulacji prawnych odnoszących się do modeli rolnictwa z tymi, które dotyczą środków ochrony roślin i weryfikacja relacji między nimi. ; In the light of the environmental and climate crisis, as well as bearing in mind the efforts that the European Union has been undertaking to shift to a model of sustainable development and agri-food production at a general level, while taking into account that ...

Brexit, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU), has led to significant exchange rate fluctuations and to uncertainty in financial markets and in UK&ndash ; EU trade relations. In this article, we use a non-linear model to study how this uncertainty affects export companies. Exports tend to react in spurts when exchange rate fluctuations go beyond a band of inaction, referred to here as a &ldquo ; play area&rdquo ; . We apply an algorithm to study this hysteretic relationship with ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions. We examine the export relationship between Europe (Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, and The Netherlands) and the UK. To guarantee the robustness of the results, we estimate a variety of specifications for modeling economic uncertainty: (a) constant uncertainty, (b) exchange rate volatility, (c) volatility in European equity markets, (d) the Treasury Bill EuroDollar Difference (TED-spread), (e) the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index (EPUI), and (f) a combination of exchange rate volatility and the EPUI. Since the results show little evidence of hysteretic effects on British exports, we focus on the European side. The specifications including exchange rate and equity market volatility show a significant effect of hysteresis.