How does the European Union integrate new values into the text of its treaties? A growing body of literature indicates that, in the past three decades, new norms and values have entered the EU’s discourse, resulting in what is usually termed ‘normative power Europe’. Yet the research and knowledge to-date about the EU’s discursive assimilation of new values and norms is surprisingly poor. As any institutional change, such integration has the potential to undermine the coherence of the EU’s identity and thus also its objective to ‘speak with one voice’. This article explores the EU’s discursive management of the continuity-versus-change imperative by analysing the integration of new values into the text of its treaties. This issue is addressed based on a quantitative content analysis on the full texts of European founding treaties between the 1950s and 2009. Findings show that the distribution of the EU’s values in the text is not uniform: while the language of market economy and democracy is pervasive, the values of peace, European identity, rights and social justice are mentioned less frequently and in restricted linguistic environments. To account for the differences in the integration of values into the EU’s treaty discourse, the article develops the notion of a discursive mechanism of differentiated value integration (MDVI). This rationale echoes the logic of differentiation in policy implementation employed by the EU. It is claimed here that, applied in the European discursive arena, MDVI allows radically different readings of the same text. This helps the EU to maintain a coherent value identity while at the same time enabling change.
How does the European Union integrate new values into the text of its treaties? A growingbody of literature indicates that, in the past three decades, new norms and values have entered the EU’sdiscourse, resulting in what is usually termed ‘normative power Europe’. Yet the research and knowledge to-date about the EU’s discursive assimilation of new values and norms is surprisingly poor.As any institutionalchange, such integration has the potential to undermine the coherence of the EU’s identity and thus also itsobjective to ‘speak with one voice’. This article explores the EU’s discursive management of the continuity-versus-change imperative by analysing the integration of new values into the text of its treaties. This issue isaddressed based on a quantitative content analysis on the full texts of European founding treaties betweenthe 1950s and 2009. Findings show that the distribution of the EU’s values in the text is not uniform: whilethe language of market economy and democracy is pervasive, the values of peace, European identity, rightsand social justice are mentioned less frequently and in restricted linguistic environments. To account forthe differences in the integration of values into the EU’s treaty discourse, the article develops the notionof a discursive mechanism of differentiated value integration (MDVI). This rationale echoes the logic ofdifferentiation in policy implementation employed by the EU.It is claimed here that,applied in the Europeandiscursive arena, MDVI allows radically different readings of the same text. This helps the EU to maintaina coherent value identity while at the same time enabling change.
מטרה: לבחון את האופן שבו האיחוד האירופי מחדיר ערכים חדשים בהסכמיו הבין-לאומיים.// נבדקים: הסכמי האיחוד האירופי וגלגוליו הקודמים שנחתמו בין השנים 1950-2009.// שיטה וכלי מחקר: ההסכמים עברו ניתוחי תוכן לקסיקליים-כמותניים מממוחשבים באמצעות תוכנת WordStat 6.0, במטרה לזהות מקרים שבהם הוכנסו להסכמים תכנים המזוהים עם ערכים.// מן הממצאים: מאז שנות התשעים של המאה ה-20 נמצאה עלייה משמעותית בהכנסתם של תכנים ערכיים הקשורים לצדק חברתי, שלום, זכויות וזהות אירופאית. בעוד שבשנת 1951 לא הייתה כל התייחסות לערכים אלו, בשנת 2008 30% מנוסח ההסכמים הכילו ערכים אלו. מנגד, נמצאה ירידה בהתייחסות ההסכמים לאורך השנים הנחקרות לערכי כלכלת השוק, ועלייה מתונה בלבד בהתייחסות לערכי הדמוקרטיה. בתחילת שנות השישים נמצאה ההתייחסות המקיפה ביותר בהסכמי האיחוד האירופי לכלכלת השוק, וכ-80% מתכני ההסכם התייחסו לערך זה. עם כל זאת, בשנת 2008 ההסכמים התייחסו יותר לערכים המוקדמים של הדמוקרטיה וכלכלת השוק מאשר לערכים החדשים של הזהות האירופאית, הזכויות והצדק החברתי. הממצאים מצביעים על המנגנון ההצהרתי שבאמצעותו מנסה האיחוד האירופי להנ
The article presents a study on both the objective and relative risks involved with privacy decision making. Topics include the impact of changes in the objective risk of disclosure and the impact of changes in the relative perceptions of risk of disclosure on hypothetical and actual consumer privacy choices, a decrease in objective risk going from hypothetical to actual choice settings, and an increase in relative risk going from hypothetical to actual choice settings.
The Big Match is a multi-stage two-player game. In each stage Player 1 hides one or two pebbles in his hand, and his opponent has to guess that number; Player 1 loses a point if Player 2 is correct, and otherwise he wins a point. As soon as Player 1 hides one pebble, the players cannot change their choices in any future stage.Blackwell and Ferguson (1968) give an $varepsilon$-optimal strategy for Player 1 that hides, in each stage, one pebble with a probability that depends on the entire past history. Any strategy that depends just on the clock or on a finite memory is worthless. The long-standing natural open problem has been whether every strategy that depends just on the clock and a finite memory is worthless.The present paper proves that there is such a strategy that is $varepsilon$-optimal. In fact, we show that just two states of memory are sufficient.
The preparation of bimetallic nanoporous networks (BNNs) that combine the high surface area and thermal stability of inorganic nanostructures with the unique catalytic properties of bimetallic systems is highly desirable. Here we show a simple and highly versatile approach for synthesis of Pt–Re BNN and demonstrate the influence of preparation conditions on the BNN structure, composition, and catalytic reactivity. Pt–Re BNN was prepared by reduction of double complex [Pt(NH3)4][Re(Cl6)] salt crystals, in which two oppositely charged metal complexes are evenly distributed in each unit cell in a 1:1 ratio. Exposure of the salt crystals to reducing conditions induced the evaporation of the inorganic ligands, collapse of the salt structure, and reduction of the metal ions for the formation of high-surface-area Pt–Re BNNs. Single-particle X-ray fluorescence tomography and various ensemble-based spectroscopy measurements (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy) identified that the bulk and surface compositions of the bimetallic structure and the oxidation state of the two metals can be tuned by adjusting the reduction temperature of the bimetallic salt. Pt–Re BNN showed reactivity in deoxydehydration reaction of glycerol toward the selective formation of allyl alcohol. Combination of reactivity and spectroscopic measurements revealed that enhanced reactivity was correlated to the presence of highly oxidized Re species (mostly Re7+) and equal distribution of Pt and Re on the BNN surface.
3D printed electronics is an emerging field of high importance in both academic research and industrial manufacturing. It enables fabrication of 3D devices with embedded or conformal electronic circuits, which are relevant to a variety of applications, such as Internet of things, soft robotics, and medical devices. Patterning of electrical conductors with conductivity higher than 50% bulk copper is challenging and usually involves electroless or electrolytic deposition processes that require the use of very costly catalyst, mainly palladium, as a seed material. Here, the use of a binuclear copper complex as a very efficient replacement for the conventional catalysts, which can be directly inkjet printed onto 3D plastic objects, is described. After printing, the copper complex is converted into pure copper upon short exposure to low-temperature plasma. By combining the binuclear complex with electroless plating, resistivity as low as 2.38 µΩ cm, which corresponds to a 72% conductivity of bulk copper, is obtained. The applicability of the complex ink and the process is demonstrated in the fabrication of a near-field communication antenna on a 3D printed plastic object.
Abstract Decomposition of organic matter in semi-arid ecosystems is a key component of the terrestrial carbon (C) cycle. The well-known inaccuracies in predicting litter decay in water-limited regions were lessened by considering solar radiation as an abiotic decay driver of photodegradation. Moreover, exposure to high solar irradiance in dry periods often led to massive facilitation of litter decay in subsequent wet periods (“photoacceleration”), though in many studies this effect was absent. Recently, water vapour and dew were identified as modulators enabling substantial microbial degradation during rainless periods. Here, we investigated, (1) whether the activity of micro-organisms modifies litter traits, such as litter quality and microbial community in dry periods, consequently altering the loss of litter mass and nitrogen (N) in wet periods, and (2) whether it can co-occur with photoacceleration. By successively introducing litter to the field at the beginning and the end of the dry season, we found that microbial activity during the dry season affected litter mass and N loss during the wet season. Low microbial activity in the dry season led to inhibition of mass loss in the wet season, while high microbial activity led to facilitation of mass loss. Microbial activity during the dry season also caused strong inhibition of N loss from litter during the wet season, likely by enhancing the dry-season N loss. A microclimate manipulation experiment using radiation filters showed that microbial activity and exposure to solar radiation jointly modified the litter during the dry season and affected subsequent decay in the wet season. Knowledge of biotic and abiotic modifications of litter during dry periods and their implication for wet periods enhances our understanding of litter decay in semi-arid regions. Furthermore, it can improve biogeochemical model predictions of C and N cycling in drylands and in the many regions that are projected to experience a drier climate during the coming decades. A plain language summary is available for this article.
BitterDB (http://bitterdb.agri.huji.ac.il) was introduced in 2012 as a central resource for information on bitter-tasting molecules and their receptors. The information in BitterDB is frequently used for choosing suitable ligands for experimental studies, for developing bitterness predictors, for analysis of receptors promiscuity and more. Here, we describe a major upgrade of the database, including significant increase in content as well as new features. BitterDB now holds over 1000 bitter molecules, up from the initial 550. When available, quantitative sensory data on bitterness intensity as well as toxicity information were added. For 270 molecules, at least one associated bitter taste receptor (T2R) is reported. The overall number of ligand–T2R associations is now close to 800. BitterDB was extended to several species: in addition to human, it now holds information on mouse, cat and chicken T2Rs, and the compounds that activate them. BitterDB now provides a unique platform for structure-based studies with high-quality homology models, known ligands, and for the human receptors also data from mutagenesis experiments, information on frequently occurring single nucleotide polymorphisms and links to expression levels in different tissues.
Bitter taste is innately aversive and thought to protect against consuming poisons. Bitter taste receptors (Tas2Rs) are G-protein coupled receptors, expressed both orally and extra-orally and proposed as novel targets for several indications, including asthma. Many clinical drugs elicit bitter taste, suggesting the possibility of drugs re-purposing. On the other hand, the bitter taste of medicine presents a major compliance problem for pediatric drugs. Thus, efficient tools for predicting, measuring and masking bitterness of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are required by the pharmaceutical industry. Here we highlight the BitterDB database of bitter compounds and survey the main computational approaches to prediction of bitter taste based on compound's chemical structure. Current in silico bitterness prediction methods provide encouraging results, can be constantly improved using growing experimental data, and present a reliable and efficient addition to the APIs development toolbox.
The aim of this article is to present the major ethical turn in Israeli documentary cinema during the past decade (2004-2016). This corpus, which shifts between the Holocaust and the Nakba, between Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Occupation, manifests an ethical transformation in the representation of self-other relations. Unraveling the social-cultural mechanism by which the occupier automatically becomes the victim, even when s/he has committed an injustice, is the indisputable contribution of Israeli documentary cinema to triggering cinematic and public nonconsensual discourse, laying the groundwork for what I term ‘Blood Relations’ films. These films – such as Nissim Mosek’s Citizen Nawi (2007), Shlomi Eldar’s Precious Life (2010), Naomi Lev’s Ameer Got His Gun (2011), Erez Laufer’s One Day after the Peace (2012), Noa Ben Hagay’s Blood Relation (2010), Nurit Kedar and Yaron Shany’s Life Sentences (2013), Anat Zuria’s The Lesson (2013), and Nadav Schirman’s The Green Prince (2014) – lead to an inter-ethnic reconciliation that subverts ethnic binarism and calls for fluidity in self-other subject positions. Intifada documentary cinema and especially the Blood Relations films constitute, thus, a new epistemology, one that stands in radical opposition to the continued failure of Israeli society (and fiction films) towards the Other and Otherness. To characterize the Blood Relations’ agonistic reconciliation, I suggest connecting the discourse of ethics in the context of democracy and human rights (e.g., Alain Badiou, Chantal Mouffe) with the discourse of care ethics in the context of national, global, and militaristic processes (e.g., Joan Tronto, Fiona Robinson). Blood Relations films show to what extent the self and the Other, and mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, are reliant on one another and bound to each other. In so doing, they strive for an ethical paradigm that promotes the similarity between the self and the Other and a sense of shared humanity.
The aim of this article is to present the major ethical turn in Israeli documentary cinema during the past decade (2004-2016). This corpus, which shifts between the Holocaust and the Nakba, between Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Occupation, manifests an ethical transformation in the representation of self-other relations. Unraveling the social-cultural mechanism by which the occupier automatically becomes the victim, even when s/he has committed an injustice, is the indisputable contribution of Israeli documentary cinema to triggering cinematic and public nonconsensual discourse, laying the groundwork for what I term ‘Blood Relations’ films. These films – such as Nissim Mosek’s Citizen Nawi (2007), Shlomi Eldar’s Precious Life (2010), Naomi Lev’s Ameer Got His Gun (2011), Erez Laufer’s One Day after the Peace (2012), Noa Ben Hagay’s Blood Relation (2010), Nurit Kedar and Yaron Shany’s Life Sentences (2013), Anat Zuria’s The Lesson (2013), and Nadav Schirman’s The Green Prince (2014) – lead to an inter-ethnic reconciliation that subverts ethnic binarism and calls for fluidity in self-other subject positions. Intifada documentary cinema and especially the Blood Relations films constitute, thus, a new epistemology, one that stands in radical opposition to the continued failure of Israeli society (and fiction films) towards the Other and Otherness. To characterize the Blood Relations’ agonistic reconciliation, I suggest connecting the discourse of ethics in the context of democracy and human rights (e.g., Alain Badiou, Chantal Mouffe) with the discourse of care ethics in the context of national, global, and militaristic processes (e.g., Joan Tronto, Fiona Robinson). Blood Relations films show to what extent the self and the Other, and mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, are reliant on one another and bound to each other. In so doing, they strive for an ethical paradigm that promotes the similarity between the self and the Other and a sense of shared humanity.
