The European Union’s growing innovation divide. Bruegel Policy Contribution Issue 2016/08 April 2016

There is a significant divide between the European Union countries with the greatest capacity to innovate, and those with the least capacity to innovate. The difficult convergence process has been proceeding only very slowly and unevenly, and more recently seems to have come to a halt. A particular weak spot for the EU is corporate investment in research; in this area, the intra-EU divide is growing. As the business sector is responsible for the persistent R&D intensity gap between the EU and the United States and Asia, the persistent failure of lagging EU countries to catch up in this area provides much of the explanation for the EU’s weak performance compared to other economies. The evidence shows that the deployment of public budgets and the mix of policies employed by EU member states have tended to aggravate the intra-EU divide. The EU needs to better understand its growing internal innovation divide if it is to achieve its ambition of becoming a world innovation leader.

Selbstbestimmung und Parteien in Südtirol: Territoriale und europäische Parteistrategien zwischen Autonomie und Sezession = Self-determination and parties in South Tyrol: Territorial and European party strategies between autonomy and secession. EDAP Paper 03/2016 03/2016

Since the final conflict settlement between Italy and Austria in 1992, ethnic politics in South Tyrol experienced insightful transformations. The consociational political system, which was implemented to tame centrifugal tendencies, has been losing its balance over the last decade, with proautonomy stances ceding ground to secessionist pressure in the Germanspeaking intra-ethnic arena. Adopting a contextual and strategic perspective on self-determination, this article traces the evolution of ethno-regionalist party strategies on the territorial and European dimension of party competition through a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of their electoral manifestos in the period between 1993 and 2013. In line with newest research on party strategies, the article empirically shows the strategic capacity of ethnic minority parties to challenge each other not only by shifting their positions on the different issue dimensions but also by the reframing of issues. While the increasing competition on the center-periphery axis leads to a new territorial frame, the rise of secessionism is accompagned by an end to the pro-European elite consensus.

Brexit will deepen the fault lines within the EU over mobility. CEPS Commentary, 12 July 2016

Much has been made of the divide that opened up in 2015 between eastern and western member states as a result of acrimonious discussions on how to handle the refugee crisis and distribute asylum applicants across the EU. Against the prevailing political sentiment in certain member state capitals, Germany and France pushed through a plan devised by the European Commission to relocate 120,000 refugees, by a qualified majority vote in the Council. Rather than creating an east/west divide, however, the vote split the group of (relatively) new Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) of the EU into two factions: Romania, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary voted against the plan, whereas several other CEECs, namely Poland, Bulgaria and the Baltic states, joined the controversial motion on the side of the other (northern, southern and western) member states. Finland abstained. Few member states have shifted their positions in the meantime. If anything, in fact, they have coalesced among the Visegrad 4, following a change of government in Poland; and they have hardened, as a result of new proposals by the Commission to fine member states that refuse to accept refugees. With Hungary’s referendum on the Commission’s relocation scheme scheduled for October 2nd, tensions are set to intensify even further.

Migration and mobility of new Polish migrants in England:narratives of lived experience

This thesis sets out to understand the act of migrating in a period of growing movement of people. It captures the subjective experience of individual migrants, as narrated in the migration stories of 32 “new” Polish migrants in the West Midlands region of England. Since the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, over half a million Poles have arrived and registered to work in the UK, constituting one of the largest migration movements in contemporary Britain and Europe. This influx of predominantly young migrants opened up public and academic debates regarding the social relations between the Polish migrants and the host society, their duration of stay, and the impact on the economy and social services. While a substantial amount of research has now been undertaken on this migration, this thesis highlights some of the significant features of migration to Britain and Europe today, namely its dynamic, fluid, complex and varied character. Through four themes of lived experience of migration, migration and mobility, gender, and return migration, this thesis uncovers and explores the phenomenon of post-2004 EU migration from the perspective of migrants themselves. Migrant stories in this thesis are linked with experiences and meanings of migration, but also migrants’ emotions, perceptions, views and opinions. By exploring individual journeys of migration and deliberating over the determinants and consequences of migration, this thesis asks how the processes of migration and mobility come into play in the everyday lives of migrant people, and how this impacts on questions of identity, home, belonging, gender, as well as return.

Scaling the Advantages of Intra-channel Nonlinearity Compensation in Future Flexible Optical Networks

We report that, contrary to common perception, intra-channel nonlinearity compensation offers significant improvements of up to 4dB, in nonlinear tolerance (Q-factor), in a flexible traffic scenario, and further improvements with increasing local link dispersion, for an optical transport network employing flexible 28Gbaud PM-mQAM transponders.

Post-national citizenship without post-national identity? A case study of UK immigration policy and intra-EU migration

A key dividing line in the literature on post-national citizenship concerns the role of collective identity. While some hold that a post-national form of identity is desirable in developing citizenship in contexts such as the European Union (EU), others question the defensibility of a collective identity at this supra-national level. The aim of this article is to intervene in this debate, drawing on qualitative research to consider the extent to which post-national citizenship should be accompanied by a form of post-national identity. The article takes the UK as a case study, and explores tensions between the immigration policies and rhetoric of the Coalition Government since 2010 and the post-national citizenship rights of EU citizens migrating into British local communities. It draws on independently collected qualitative data from the county of Herefordshire, UK, to argue that the persistent reinforcement of national identity reproduces national lines of difference which further problematise the full realisation of European citizenship. At a theoretical level, this highlights the need for the development of post-national citizenship rights to be accompanied by a paradigmatic shift in the way that collective identity is constituted in post-national contexts.

Scaling the Advantages of Intra-channel Nonlinearity Compensation in Future Flexible Optical Networks

We report that, contrary to common perception, intra-channel nonlinearity compensation offers significant improvements of up to 4dB, in nonlinear tolerance (Q-factor), in a flexible traffic scenario, and further improvements with increasing local link dispersion, for an optical transport network employing flexible 28Gbaud PM-mQAM transponders.

Mobility changes in older age: neuropsychological, neurophysiological and cognitive predictors of successful adaptation in a real world scenario

The aims of this thesis were to investigate the neuropsychological, neurophysiological, and cognitive contributors to mobility changes with increasing age. In a series of studies with adults aged 45-88 years, unsafe pedestrian behaviour and falls were investigated in relation to i) cognitive functions (including response time variability, executive function, and visual attention tests), ii) mobility assessments (including gait and balance and using motion capture cameras), iii) motor initiation and pedestrian road crossing behavior (using a simulated pedestrian road scene), iv) neuronal and functional brain changes (using a computer based crossing task with magnetoencephalography), and v) quality of life questionnaires (including fear of falling and restricted range of travel). Older adults are more likely to be fatally injured at the far-side of the road compared to the near-side of the road, however, the underlying mobility and cognitive processes related to lane-specific (i.e. near-side or far-side) pedestrian crossing errors in older adults is currently unknown. The first study explored cognitive, motor initiation, and mobility predictors of unsafe pedestrian crossing behaviours. The purpose of the first study (Chapter 2) was to determine whether collisions at the near-side and far-side would be differentially predicted by mobility indices (such as walking speed and postural sway), motor initiation, and cognitive function (including spatial planning, visual attention, and within participant variability) with increasing age. The results suggest that near-side unsafe pedestrian crossing errors are related to processing speed, whereas far-side errors are related to spatial planning difficulties. Both near-side and far-side crossing errors were related to walking speed and motor initiation measures (specifically motor initiation variability). The salient mobility predictors of unsafe pedestrian crossings determined in the above study were examined in Chapter 3 in conjunction with the presence of a history of falls. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which walking speed (indicated as a salient predictor of unsafe crossings and start-up delay in Chapter 2), and previous falls can be predicted and explained by age-related changes in mobility and cognitive function changes (specifically within participant variability and spatial ability). 53.2% of walking speed variance was found to be predicted by self-rated mobility score, sit-to-stand time, motor initiation, and within participant variability. Although a significant model was not found to predict fall history variance, postural sway and attentional set shifting ability was found to be strongly related to the occurrence of falls within the last year. Next in Chapter 4, unsafe pedestrian crossing behaviour and pedestrian predictors (both mobility and cognitive measures) from Chapter 2 were explored in terms of increasing hemispheric laterality of attentional functions and inter-hemispheric oscillatory beta power changes associated with increasing age. Elevated beta (15-35 Hz) power in the motor cortex prior to movement, and reduced beta power post-movement has been linked to age-related changes in mobility. In addition, increasing recruitment of both hemispheres has been shown to occur and be beneficial to perform similarly to younger adults in cognitive tasks (Cabeza, Anderson, Locantore, & McIntosh, 2002). It has been hypothesised that changes in hemispheric neural beta power may explain the presence of more pedestrian errors at the farside of the road in older adults. The purpose of the study was to determine whether changes in age-related cortical oscillatory beta power and hemispheric laterality are linked to unsafe pedestrian behaviour in older adults. Results indicated that pedestrian errors at the near-side are linked to hemispheric bilateralisation, and neural overcompensation post-movement, 4 whereas far-side unsafe errors are linked to not employing neural compensation methods (hemispheric bilateralisation). Finally, in Chapter 5, fear of falling, life space mobility, and quality of life in old age were examined to determine their relationships with cognition, mobility (including fall history and pedestrian behaviour), and motor initiation. In addition to death and injury, mobility decline (such as pedestrian errors in Chapter 2, and falls in Chapter 3) and cognition can negatively affect quality of life and result in activity avoidance. Further, number of falls in Chapter 3 was not significantly linked to mobility and cognition alone, and may be further explained by a fear of falling. The objective of the above study (Study 2, Chapter 3) was to determine the role of mobility and cognition on fear of falling and life space mobility, and the impact on quality of life measures. Results indicated that missing safe pedestrian crossing gaps (potentially indicating crossing anxiety) and mobility decline were consistent predictors of fear of falling, reduced life space mobility, and quality of life variance. Social community (total number of close family and friends) was also linked to life space mobility and quality of life. Lower cognitive functions (particularly processing speed and reaction time) were found to predict variance in fear of falling and quality of life in old age. Overall, the findings indicated that mobility decline (particularly walking speed or walking difficulty), processing speed, and intra-individual variability in attention (including motor initiation variability) are salient predictors of participant safety (mainly pedestrian crossing errors) and wellbeing with increasing age. More research is required to produce a significant model to explain the number of falls.

Az európai gazdasági kormányzás előtt álló kihívások. A hármas tagadás lehetetlensége (Challenges of European economic governance. The impossible trinity of denial.)

Az európai gazdasági integráció folyamata olyan kényszerhelyzetekben formálódott a múltban, amelyek a közgazdaságtudományban jól ismert lehetetlen háromság alapján is leírhatók. Az Európai Monetáris Rendszer a rögzített árfolyam-mechanizmusra és önálló jegybanki politikára épített, korlátozva a tőkemozgásokat. A Gazdasági és Monetáris Unió ugyanakkor a tőke szabad áramlásával és az árfolyamok visszavonhatatlan rögzítésével felszámolta a tagállami szintű jegybanki autonómiát. Az euróövezet működése egyszersmind arra a háromszoros tagadásra épül(t), hogy 1. nem lehetséges az euróövezetből való kilépés, 2. nem engedélyezett a kimentés és 3. nem kerülhet sor államcsődre. A 2008-ban Európát is elérő pénzügyi és gazdasági válság azonban elemi erővel mutatott rá e hármas tiltás tarthatatlanságára. A gazdasági kormányzás körül kibontakozott viták így jól közelíthetők a három tiltó szabály egyidejű érvényesülése lehetetlenségének bemutatásával, számba véve az egyes opciók költségeit és lehetséges hasznait. / === / The process of economic integration in the EU has been shaped by the well-known theorem of the impossible trinity. Accordingly, the European Monetary System was built upon a mix of a fixed exchange-rate regime and an autonomous monetary policy, thereby constraining capital mobility. In launching the EMU project, the EU countries decided to fix national currencies irrevocably and maintain full capital mobility, in exchange for delegating their monetary policy upwards to a supranational level. The introduction of the Euro zone, however, has simultaneously meant denial of the following three elements: (1) exit, (2) bail-out, and (3) default. Nevertheless, the 2008–9 financial and economic crisis has demonstrated mercilessly that these three pillars are incompatible with each other. So the current debates on reshaping economic governance in the EU can be modelled by introducing the “impossible trinity of denial”, concentrating on the benefits and the costs of each option.

Intra-industry agri-food trade of the Baltic Countries

The article analyses patterns and country-specific determinants of the Baltic Countries agri-food trade with the European Union. Literature focusing on the country-specific determinants of vertical and horizontal intra-industry trade is rather limited and those analysing agricultural (or agri-food) trade are extremely rare. Therefore, the paper seeks to contribute to the literature by covering latest theory and data available on the topic to provide up to date results and suggestions. Moreover, it seeks to identify the determinants of horizontal and vertical intra-industry trade of the Baltic Countries after EU accession. Results suggest that agri-food trade of these countries is mainly inter-industry in nature but intra-industry trade is dominated by vertical elements. Results verify that determinants of horizontal and vertical IIT differ and suggest that economic size is positively, while factor endowments and distance are negatively related to both sides of IIT. However, the relationship between IIT and FDI is ambiguous.

How trust affects the use of information obtained through intra- and extraorganizational relationships?

We have limited knowledge on the potential pattern similarities/differences of trust’s role that may exist in information use obtained through intra- and extra-organizational relationships. This study addresses this question by investigating how trust leads to information use. Data from 338 intra-organizational and a sub-ample of 158 interorganizational dyadic information exchange-relationships showed that trust is an important driver of the utilization of market information in both cases. Trust has no direct relationship to information use, instead has a strong indirect effect through a mediator, perceived quality of information. The effects of trust on the use of information obtained through inter- and extra-organizational dyadic relationships proved to be similar.

Country-specific determinants of horizontal and vertical intra-industry agri-food trade: the case of Bulgaria and Romania

The article analyses patterns and country-specific determinants of agri-food trade of Bulgaria and Romania with the European Union. As literature focusing on agricultural aspects of the topic is limited, the paper seeks to contribute to the literature by providing up to date results and suggestions as well as by identifying the determinants of horizontal and vertical intra-industry trade of the Bulgaria and Romania after EU accession. Results suggest that intra-industry agri-food trade is mainly of vertical nature, referring to trade of different quality products. Results verify that determinants of horizontal and vertical IIT are similar and suggest that economic size and FDI are positively, while factor endowments and distance are negatively related to both sides of IIT. Results are mainly in line with the majority of empirical literature in the field.

Tradução, adaptação cultural e propriedades psicométricas da versão brasileira do mobility assessment tool physical activity (MAT-PA) em idosos comunitários brasileiros

Objetivo: Traduzir e avaliar as propriedades psicométricas do Mobility Assessment Tool Physical Activity (MAT-PA) em idosos comunitários brasileiros. Métodos: Trata-se de um estudo tradução, adaptação cultural, e acurácia do instrumento MAT-PA, no qual foram avaliados 329 idosos, com idade mínima de 60 anos, residentes na comunidade. Os indivíduos submeteram-se a um formulário de avaliação composto por: questionário sócio-demográfico e de saúde percebida; avaliação física; Prova Cognitiva de Leganés (PCL); Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D); International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ); Mobility Assessment Tool Physical Activity (MAT-PA). Dessa amostra total, 42 idosos utilizaram o acelerômetro durante 8 dias. Para verificar a confiabilidade teste-reteste do MAT-PA, reaplicou-se esse instrumento em 34 idosos 8 dias após a primeira avaliação. A análise estatística utilizada foi a correlação de Spearman, o Coeficiente de Correlação Intra-classe, o coeficiente α de Cronbach, o Bland-Altman e o teste T pareado. Resultados: As correlações dos dados IPAQ e acelerômetro versus o escore total do MAT-PA foram significativas e apresentaram um coeficiente de correlação de Spearman de 0,13 e 0,41, respectivamente. Analisou-se também a confiabilidade que apresentou as seguintes medidas: consistência interna, pelo coeficiente alfa de Cronbach (α= 0,70); Concordância teste-reteste, pelo coeficiente de correlação intra-classe (CCI=0,53; p<0,001). Conclusão: A versão brasileira do Mobility Assessment Tool Physical Activity (MAT-PA) como um instrumento de avaliação da atividade física de idosos, mostrou ser um método válido e confiável.

Sources and mixing state of size-resolved elemental carbon particles in a European megacity: Paris

An Aerosol Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (ATOFMS) was deployed to investigate the size-resolved chemical composition of single particles at an urban background site in Paris, France, as part of the MEGAPOLI winter campaign in January/February 2010. ATOFMS particle counts were scaled to match coincident Twin Differential Mobility Particle Sizer (TDMPS) data in order to generate hourly size-resolved mass concentrations for the single particle classes observed. The total scaled ATOFMS particle mass concentration in the size range 150–1067 nm was found to agree very well with the sum of concurrent High-Resolution Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) and Multi-Angle Absorption Photometer (MAAP) mass concentration measurements of organic carbon (OC), inorganic ions and black carbon (BC) (R2 = 0.91). Clustering analysis of the ATOFMS single particle mass spectra allowed the separation of elemental carbon (EC) particles into four classes: (i) EC attributed to biomass burning (ECbiomass), (ii) EC attributed to traffic (ECtraffic), (iii) EC internally mixed with OC and ammonium sulfate (ECOCSOx), and (iv) EC internally mixed with OC and ammonium nitrate (ECOCNOx). Average hourly mass concentrations for EC-containing particles detected by the ATOFMS were found to agree reasonably well with semi-continuous quantitative thermal/optical EC and optical BC measurements (r2 = 0.61 and 0.65–0.68 respectively, n = 552). The EC particle mass assigned to fossil fuel and biomass burning sources also agreed reasonably well with BC mass fractions assigned to the same sources using seven-wavelength aethalometer data (r2 = 0.60 and 0.48, respectively, n = 568). Agreement between the ATOFMS and other instrumentation improved noticeably when a period influenced by significantly aged, internally mixed EC particles was removed from the intercomparison. 88% and 12% of EC particle mass was apportioned to fossil fuel and biomass burning respectively using the ATOFMS data compared with 85% and 15% respectively for BC estimated from the aethalometer model. On average, the mass size distribution for EC particles is bimodal; the smaller mode is attributed to locally emitted, mostly externally mixed EC particles, while the larger mode is dominated by aged, internally mixed ECOCNOx particles associated with continental transport events. Periods of continental influence were identified using the Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Model (LPDM) "FLEXPART". A consistent minimum between the two EC mass size modes was observed at approximately 400 nm for the measurement period. EC particles below this size are attributed to local emissions using chemical mixing state information and contribute 79% of the scaled ATOFMS EC particle mass, while particles above this size are attributed to continental transport events and contribute 21% of the EC particle mass. These results clearly demonstrate the potential benefit of monitoring size-resolved mass concentrations for the separation of local and continental EC emissions. Knowledge of the relative input of these emissions is essential for assessing the effectiveness of local abatement strategies.

GIS technologies and spatial organization patterns among hunter-gatherers: an archaeological case study from Southern Patagonia (southern South America)

This paper discusses some aspects of hunter-gatherer spatial organization in southern South Patagonia, in later times to 10,000 cal yr BP. Various methods of spatial analysis, elaborated with a Geographic Information System (GIS) were applied to the distributional pattern of archaeological sites with radiocarbon dates. The shift in the distributional pattern of chronological information was assessed in conjunction with other lines of evidence within a biogeographic framework. Accordingly, the varying degrees of occupation and integration of coastal and interior spaces in human spatial organization are explained in association with the adaptive strategies hunter-gatherers have used over time. Both are part of the same human response to changes in risk and uncertainty variability in the region in terms of resource availability and environmental dynamics.