Promoting solidarity in crisis times: Building on the EU Budget and the EU Funds

in Perspectives on Federalism (2015)

This article examines the evolution of the EU ‘redistributive’ policies in the (post-) crisis EU era. By reviewing the EU cohesion policy, the financial assistance mechanisms, the new economic governance ... [more ▼]

This article examines the evolution of the EU ‘redistributive’ policies in the (post-) crisis EU era. By reviewing the EU cohesion policy, the financial assistance mechanisms, the new economic governance measures and the potentials of attributing the EU fiscal capacity, it aims to conceptualize the notion of solidarity as redistribution as this has evolved by reason of the crisis. The article argues that by virtue of the diverging economies, interests and preferences of the Member States, reciprocal or ‘effects-based solidarity’ is the only type of solidarity that has been exhibited among the Member States during the crisis. It, further, shows how the principle of solidarity has not lived up to its potential in the present crisis context, but it has instead been cropped up in sharply different ways in the rhetorics and communications of political parties of all hues across the Union. [less ▲]

A novel Fanconi anemia subtype associated with a dominant-negative mutation in RAD51

in Nature Communications (2015), 6(8829),

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a hereditary disease featuring hypersensitivity to DNA cross-linker-induced chromosomal instability in association with developmental abnormalities, bone marrow failure and a strong ... [more ▼]

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a hereditary disease featuring hypersensitivity to DNA cross-linker-induced chromosomal instability in association with developmental abnormalities, bone marrow failure and a strong predisposition to cancer. 17 FA disease genes have been reported, all of which act in a recessive mode of inheritance. Here we report on a de novo g.41022153G>A; p.Ala293Thr (NM_002875) missense mutation in one allele of the homologous recombination DNA repair gene RAD51 in an FA-like patient. This heterozygous mutation causes a novel FA subtype, “FA-R”, which appears to be the first subtype of FA caused by a dominant-negative mutation. The patient, who features microcephaly and mental retardation, has reached adulthood without the typical bone marrow failure and pediatric cancers. Together with the recent reports on RAD51-associated congenital mirror movement disorders our results point to an important role for RAD51-mediated homologous recombination in neurodevelopment, in addition to DNA repair and cancer susceptibility. [less ▲]

Κέντρα υποδοχής ή κέντρα κράτησης; Το δικαίωμα στην προσωπική ελευθερία και η ελευθερία μετακίνησης κατά το Ευρωπαϊκό Δικαστήριο Ανθρωπίνων Δικαιωμάτων

Presentation (2015, December 18)

A new Single-phase PLL based on the input voltage magnitude estimation

Scientific Conference (2015, December 17)

Many automatic control applications such as wide scale power grid management and local power conditioning rely on the fast and accurate detection of the voltage signal phase and amplitude. These ... [more ▼]

Many automatic control applications such as wide scale power grid management and local power conditioning rely on the fast and accurate detection of the voltage signal phase and amplitude. These information are almost all the time given by the Phase –locked Loop (PLL) systems and can be single-phase or three-phase and have many different structures. Many single-phase PLLs core structure are based on the regulation to zero of the voltage direct component in the rotating d-q frame obtained through the Park-transform. Their accuracy and dynamic rely on how quick and accurate the second voltage’s component in the static α-β frame is estimated. This paper presents a new single-phase PLL structure, also based on the same core structure as described before, but implementing a novel voltage β-component generation. A brief review of some single-phase PLLs is made, then the proposed novel PLL structure is detailed and its performance is compared with that of the other PLL’s taking into consideration the following signal disturbances: amplitude variations, phase step variation and frequency fluctuations as well as harmonic distortion. [less ▲]

Assessment of BLT Tide Gauge Benchmark Monitoring (TIGA) repro2 Solutions

Poster (2015, December 17)

In 2013 the International GNSS Service (IGS) Tide Gauge Benchmark Monitoring (TIGA) Working Group (WG) started their reprocessing campaign, which proposes to re-analyze all relevant Global Positioning ... [more ▼]

In 2013 the International GNSS Service (IGS) Tide Gauge Benchmark Monitoring (TIGA) Working Group (WG) started their reprocessing campaign, which proposes to re-analyze all relevant Global Positioning System (GPS) observations from 1994 to 2013. This re-processed dataset will provide high quality estimates of land motions, enabling regional and global high-precision geophysical/geodetic studies. Several of the individual TIGA Analysis Centres (TACs) have completed processing the full history of GPS observations recorded by the IGS global network, as well as, many other GPS stations at or close to tide gauges, which are available from the TIGA data centre at the University of La Rochelle (www.sonel.org). Following the recent improvements in processing models and strategies, this is the first complete reprocessing attempt by the BLT TIGA Analysis centre to provide homogeneous position time series. We report the quality of the multi-year daily solutions from the consortium of the British Isles continuous GNSS Facility (BIGF) and the University of Luxembourg TIGA Analysis Centres (BLT) based on the Bernese GNSS Software Version 5.2 using a double difference (DD) network processing strategy. [less ▲]

Energy-Efficient Driver Assistance System for Electric Vehicles Using Model-Predictive Control

Doctoral thesis (2015)

This thesis investigates a method to save energy and thus also extend the range of a series-production battery electric vehicle by influencing the driving style automatically with the help of a of a ... [more ▼]

This thesis investigates a method to save energy and thus also extend the range of a series-production battery electric vehicle by influencing the driving style automatically with the help of a of a cruise controller. An exploration of existing methods shows that the contextual consideration of the current and upcoming driving situation is necessary to realise safe and energy-efficient driving. This limits the appropriate approaches to online methods using updated predictions of the vehicle behaviour. It turns out that the most suitable method for the intended purpose is model-predictive control (MPC). The MPC generates controls for the accelerator pedal of the vehicle based on optimised predictions of the vehicle motion and energy consumption subject to the current and future road slope, curvature, speed limits and distance to an eventually preceding vehicle. The non-linear nature of the vehicle dynamics generally necessitates the use of a non-linear prediction model and solving a non-linear optimisation which goes along with difficulties in the online real-time implementation. However in this work - by exploiting and extending the tool sets of classical MPC - a controller based on a quadratic optimal control problem with linear constraints can be formulated that approximates the nonlinearities of the plant dynamics with equivalent accuracy as a non-linear formulation. A linear prediction model of the vehicle motion is derived by a change of the model domain from time to position and a change of variables to predict the kinetic energy of the moving vehicle instead of the driving speed. Further, a convex piece-wise linear energy consumption model is included in the inequality constraints of the problem according to the methodology of separable programming to capture the consumption characteristics of the vehicle in different operating points. In this form, real-time capability and the energy-saving potential of the presented control approach can be demonstrated by simulations of the closed loop and by implementing the controller for driving experiments. A Smart ED series-production battery electric vehicle is chosen for the practical tests and all models and parameters are identified and adapted to the characteristics of the car. In this application case, a significant energy-saving potential could be demonstrated compared to human drivers. To further reduce the computational burden and speed up the computation, the so-called move blocking method for input parameterisation of the MPC control trajectory is investigated and extended within this work to a flexible move blocking approach which enables a fast computation and at the same time high tracking performance. [less ▲]

Riemann Surfaces. Lecture notes. Winter semester 2015/2016.

Learning material (2015)

These are the lecture notes for the course 'Riemann surfaces' (14 Lectures, 90 minutes each). The lectures are provided with exercises.

Spatial–temporal variations of water vapor content over Ethiopia: a study using GPS observations and the ECMWF model

in GPS Solutions (2015)

We characterize the spatial–temporal variability of integrated water vapor (IWV) in Ethiopia from a network of global positioning system (GPS) stations and the European Center for Medium range Weather ... [more ▼]

We characterize the spatial–temporal variability of integrated water vapor (IWV) in Ethiopia from a network of global positioning system (GPS) stations and the European Center for Medium range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) model. The IWV computed from the ECMWF model is integrated from the height of the GPS stations on 60 pressure levels to take both the actual earth surface and the model orography discrepancies into account. First, we compare the IWV estimated from GPS and from the model. The bias varies from site to site, and the correlation coefficients between the two data sets exceed 0.85 at different time scales. The results of this study show that the general ECMWF IWV trend is underestimation over highlands and overestimation over lowlands for wet periods, and overestimation over high- lands and underestimation over lowlands for dry periods with very few exceptional stations. Second, we observe the spatial variation of the IWV. High values are obtained in those stations that are located in the north-eastern (Afar depression) sites and the south-western part of the country. This distribution is related to the spatial variability of the climate in Ethiopia. Finally, we study the seasonal cycle and inter-annual variability of IWV for all stations over Ethiopia. The main result is the strong inter-annual vari- ability observed for the dry seasons. [less ▲]

Magnetic neutron scattering studies on Nd-Fe-B magnets

Presentation (2015, December 14)

Krichever-Novikov type algebras and Wess-Zumino-Witten models

E-print/Working paper (2015)

Krichever--Novikov type algebras are generalizations of the Witt, Virasoro, affine Lie algebras, and their relatives to Riemann surfaces of arbitrary genus and/or the multi-point situation. They play a ... [more ▼]

Krichever--Novikov type algebras are generalizations of the Witt, Virasoro, affine Lie algebras, and their relatives to Riemann surfaces of arbitrary genus and/or the multi-point situation. They play a very important role in the context of quantization of Conformal Field Theory. In this review we give the most important results about their structure, almost-grading and central extensions. Furthermore, we explain how they are used in the context of Wess--Zumino--Novikov--Witten models, respectively Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov connections. There they play a role as gauge algebras, as tangent directions to the moduli spaces, and as Sugawara operators. [less ▲]