Energy Union: Can Europe learn from Japan’s joint gas purchasing? CEPS Commentary, 11 December 2014

Japan’s two major electricity producing companies reached a preliminary agreement recently to establish a joint venture for the procurement of fossil fuel resources, primarily liquefied natural gas (LNG). The authors of this commentary ask whether this commercial initiative could serve as an example to Europe of how to increase the negotiating power of individual EU member states. They conclude that a private joint gas procurement company may indeed offer a solution for EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe, instead of yet another source of confrontation. Given the political volatility in the region, it could well be the key to balancing out the need for security of supply with an offer to guarantee security of demand, thereby creating the climate for stable commercial relations.

The Role of Europe in Enhancing Cooperative Security in Asia and the Pacific: A View from Japan. Egmont Security Policy Brief No. 50, October 2013

Asia is a prominent export market for Europe while in the East and South China Seas, tensions continue. Europe has searched for its political role in Asia. This policy brief presents an analysis and argues the role of Europe in enhancing cooperative security in Asia and the Pacific, which would promote stability and peace there.

Arginine vasotocin regulation of interspecific cooperative behaviour in a cleaner fish

In an interspecific cooperative context, individuals must be prepared to tolerate close interactive proximity to other species but also need to be able to respond to relevant social stimuli in the most appropriate manner. The neuropeptides vasopressin and oxytocin and their non-mammalian homologues have been implicated in the evolution of sociality and in the regulation of social behaviour across vertebrates. However, little is known about the underlying physiological mechanisms of interspecific cooperative interactions. In interspecific cleaning mutualisms, interactions functionally resemble most intraspecific social interactions. Here we provide the first empirical evidence that arginine vasotocin (AVT), a non-mammalian homologue of arginine vasopressin (AVP), plays a critical role as moderator of interspecific behaviour in the best studied and ubiquitous marine cleaning mutualism involving the Indo-Pacific bluestreak cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus. Exogenous administration of AVT caused a substantial decrease of most interspecific cleaning activities, without similarly affecting the expression of conspecific directed behaviour, which suggests a differential effect of AVT on cleaning behaviour and not a general effect on social behaviour. Furthermore, the AVP-V1a receptor antagonist (manning compound) induced a higher likelihood for cleaners to engage in cleaning interactions and also to increase their levels of dishonesty towards clients. The present findings extend the knowledge of neuropeptide effects on social interactions beyond the study of their influence on conspecific social behaviour. Our evidence demonstrates that AVT pathways might play a pivotal role in the regulation of interspecific cooperative behaviour and conspecific social behaviour among stabilized pairs of cleaner fish. Moreover, our results suggest that the role of AVT as a neurochemical regulator of social behaviour may have been co-opted in the evolution of cooperative behaviour in an interspecific context, a hypothesis that is amenable to further testing on the potential direct central mechanism involved.

Unauthorized migration : an economic development response : executive summary : report of the Commission for the Study of International Migration and Cooperative Economic Development.

"July 1990."

Unauthorized migration : addressing the root causes : hearings before the Commission for the Study of International Migration and Cooperative Economic Development, 1987-1990

Mode of access: Internet.

Guanchias Limitada : a case study of an agrarian reform cooperative and its long-term relationship with a multinational firm in Honduras /

"PN-AAL-046"--Cover.

Peru, agricultural cooperative federations development : project paper : proposal and recommendations for the review of the Development Loan Committee /

"Unclassified."

Tables for the purchasing of estates, freehold, copyhold, or leasehold annuities, advowsons, &c., and for the renewing of leases ...

Mode of access: Internet.

Cooperative research and development agreement with Graseby/Nutech Corporation : monitoring equipment for volatile organic compounds.

Mode of access: Internet.

Cooperative research and development agreement with Frandon Enterprises : development and evaluation of multi-media test kits for lead and other trace metals.

Mode of access: Internet.