240 research outputs found
Correction to 'Radiation belt electron precipitation into the atmosphere: recovery from a geomagnetic storm'
No full textInternational audienceCorrection to “Radiation belt electron precipitation intothe atmosphere: Recovery from a geomagnetic storm”Craig J. Rodger, Mark A. Clilverd, Neil R. Thomson, Rory J. Gamble, Annika Seppälä,Esa Turunen, Nigel P. Meredith, Michel Parrot, Jean‐André Sauvaud,and Jean‐Jacques BerthelierReceived 17 August 2010; accepted 19 August 2010; published 25 September 2010.Citation: Rodger, C. J., M. A. Clilverd, N. R. Thomson, R. J. Gamble, A. Seppälä, E. Turunen, N. P. Meredith, M. Parrot, J.‐A.Sauvaud, and J.‐J. Berthelier (2010), Correction to “Radiation belt electron precipitation into the atmosphere: Recovery from ageomagnetic storm,” J. Geophys. Res., 115, A09324, doi:10.1029/2010JA016038
Pseudodifferential calculus on compact Lie groups and homogeneous spaces
No full textPseudodifferential calculus is an important tool in the theory of elliptic linear partial differential equations. We introduce papers [I-IV], where pseudodifferential calculus is studied in the presence of a transitive group of symmetries for the underlying compact manifold.reviewe
Real time analysis of euro area fiscal policies: adjustment to the crisis
No full textUsing real time data from the OECD and fiscal policy reaction functions, this study explores euro area fiscal policies since the late 1990s. Both discretionary plans for the budget year and policy changes during budget implementation stages are investigated. The main focus is on the fiscal adjustment to the recent financial and economic crisis. The results suggest that during the time of monetary union (EMU) euro area planned fiscal policies have been long-term oriented and counter-cyclical. In the implementation stages new policy decisions have been made in response to unexpected economics developments. We provide evidence that the crisis had a clear impact on discretionary policies. Due to the resultant increase in uncertainty, the crisis spotlighted the impact of cyclical developments on fiscal planning. In the implementation stages, huge forecast errors in connection with planned policy were observed. As a consequence, new decisions were made in order to alleviate the negative impacts of the crisis on euro area economies.fiscal policy; real time data; planning stage; implementation stage; cyclical sensitivity; economic crisis
Combining liquidity usage and interest rates on overnight loans: an oversight indicator
No full textThis study utilises payment system data to analyse market participants’ liquidity usage and to trace interest rates paid on overnight loans. Our aim is to examine how liquidity usage has changed during the years 2006–2/2011 and to combine this information with data on overnight lending rates between market participants. It turns out that the Furfine algorithm used in the analysis produces overnight interest rates that correlate very closely with the EONIA curve. Based on Finnish payment system data, we identify four separate time periods: normal, start of turmoil, acute crisis and stabilizing period. The results show that, during the acute crisis period, TARGET2 participants holding an account with the Bank of Finland paid, on average, lower overnight interest rates than other banks in the euro area. However, the results reveal there has been some lack of confidence between Finnish participants since the onset of the financial crisis. A new indicator – the Grid – which we present here shows this very clearly. We suggest that this new indicator could be a highly useful tool for overseers in supporting financial stability analysis.liquidity; interest rates; overnight loans; payment systems; indicators
Halkeilevan teräsbetonirakenteen jäykkyyden redusointi ja mitoitusalgoritmi toteuttaen Eurokoodin määräykset
No full textTutkimuksessa on selvitetty Eurokoodi 2 osan 1-1 (EC2) vaikutukset käyttörajatilamitoitukseen yleisesti sekä erityisesti halkeamaleveyden laskentaan ja rakenteen todellisen jäykkyyden arvioitiin.
Tarkastelu on tehty rakenteen mitoitukseen ja analysointiin kehitetyn IVODIM- ohjelman kannalta.
Ohjelmalla voidaan käyttörajatilassa joko mitoittaa rakenteen teräsmäärä tai analysoida olemassa olevan rakenteen halkeamaleveyttä elementtimenetelmällä (FEM) lasketuille voimasuureille.
Ohjelmallavoidaantarkastellarakenteitasekämekaanisillekuormilleettä pakkovoimille.
IVODIM-ohjehnassa EC2:n käyttöönotto vaikuttaa halkeamaleveyden laskentaan, sopivanteräsjaonetsitääniteroimallajahalkeamasuunnankorjauskertoimeen.
Halkeamatarkasteluun liittyvien apusuureiden, kuten tehollinen betonipinta-ala, laskenta suoritaan eri tavalla kuin poistuvassa suunnittelunormissa (B4).
Työssä on kehitetty EC2:n vaatimukset täyttävä mitoitusalgoritmi, joka on myös ohjelmoitu ja testattu testiohjelmalla liitettäväksi IVODIM- ohjelman seuraavaan versioon.
Merkittävää on, että EC2:n mukaan vetojäykistys on vakio tietyn keskimääräisen teräsvenymäarvon jälkeen eikä raudoituksen pysyessä muuttumattomana vetojäykistyksen arvo kasva poikkileikkauksen korkeuden kasvaessa toisin kuin B4:ssa ja CEB-FIP- mallinormissa.
Laskennallinen halkeamaväli on EC2:n mukaan vedetyssä poikkileikkauksessa usein suurempi ja taivutetussa poikkileikkauksessa samaa suuruusluokkaa tai pienempi kuin B4:ssa.
CEB-FIP- mallinormissa laskennallinen halkeamaväli on niin vedetyssä kuin taivutetussakin poikkileikkauksessa pienempi kuin B4:ssa ja EC2:ssa.
Poikkileikkauksen korkeuteen perustuvan EC2:n halkeamavälin kaavan havaittiin antavan epäjohdonmukaisia tuloksia.
Suhteellinen teräsala, joka vaikuttaa halkeamaleveyteen, on EC2:ssa herkkäsuojabetonipeitteen paksuuden muutoksille.
Laskettujen esimerkkien perusteella sama halkeamaleveysvaatimus johtaa EC2:n mukaan mitoitettaessa taivutetulla poikkileikkauksella usein 5 % pienempiin ja vedetyllä rakenteella jopa 30 % suurempiin teräsmääriin kuin B4:n mukaan mitoitettaessa.
Verrattaessa EC2:n ja B4:n saman rasitusluokan sallittuja halkeamaleveyksiä havaitaan EC2:n johtavan yleensä pienempiin teräsmääriin kuin B4:n.
Pienennys on tyypillisesti vedetyillä poikkileikkauksilla 10 % ja taivutetuilla poikkileikkauksilla jopa 30 %.
Jos kuormitustapauksiin sisältyy pakkovoimia, on kuormitusjärjestyksellä myös merkittävä vaikutus mitoituksessa saatuihin teräsmääriin.
Työssä havainnollistettiin, että mitoitus on varmalla puolella oletettaessa pakkokuormien vaikuttavan mekaanisten kuormien jälkeen.
Kuormitusjärjestystä ei normeissa yleensä huomioida
Info-tv-järjestelmän suunnitelma Laurea Leppävaaraan
No full textLaurea-ammattikorkeakoulun Leppävaaran toimipisteessä oli tarve parantaa koulun sisäistä tiedottamista ja vähentää paikallisten ilmoitustaulujen päivittämisestä syntyvää tarpeetonta työtä. Toissijaisesti haluttiin löytää keino markkinoida Laurea-ammattikorkeakoulua ulkopuolisille tahoille. Ratkaisuna ongelmaan tutkittiin info-tv-järjestelmän toteuttamista mutta projekti oli keskeytynyt suunnitteluvaiheeseen.
Tavoitteena opinnäytetyössä oli jatkaa projektia ja toteuttaa suunnitelma info-tv-järjestelmän hankinnasta Laurea Leppävaaralle. Tutkimus on konstruktiivinen, koska tarkoituksena on luoda uutta olemassa olevia tekniikoita ja järjestelmiä hyödyntämällä. Tutkimustieto perustuu pääosin asiantuntijahaastattelun ja järjestelmiä tarjoavien yritysten edustajien tapaamisista saatuihin tietoihin.
Tekniset ominaisuudet eri järjestelmien välillä olivat lähes yhdenvertaisia, joten suurin painoarvo asettui sisällönhallintaohjelmistojen ominaisuuksiin ja niiden käytettävyyteen. Nämä ominaisuudet sovitettuina Leppävaaraan vaatimuksiin johtivat päätökseen parhaiten soveltuvasta info-tv-järjestelmästä.
Info-tv-järjestelmien tutkimusta toteutettiin osittain yhteistyössä hankinnasta vastaavan projektiryhmän kanssa. Tuloksena saavutettiin suunnitelma ja tarjouspyyntö järjestelmän hankinnasta. Tutkimuksen lopuksi Laurea päätti tehdä info-tv-järjestelmän hankinta HILMAn kautta julkisena tarjouspyyntönä.Planning for an Infosystem for Laurea University of Applied Sciences Leppävaara
Laurea University of Applied Sciences Leppävaara needs an improved internal informing system for the students and outside visitors. Currently informing the students happens locally with a physical bulletin board system and manually updating those bulletin boards causes unnecessary work for the employees. Also, the bulletin boards do not always provide the latest information for students. A secondary problem is to find a way to market Laurea University to third party users.
At Laurea Leppävaara there have been plans to acquire and execute an infosystem which could solve these problems, but the project was ceased on the planning phase. The objective of this thesis is to produce a plan for the procurement of the infosystem for the Leppävaara environment.
The thesis is based on structural research, because the purpose is to create something new by making use of current technical methods and systems. Scientific material was acquired by interviewing an information systems expert in Laurea. Another method was to request presentations from representatives of companies offering infosystems, which gave better technical understanding.
Technical capabilities in all researched infosystems were mostly the same and therefore content management software and its properties were given greater value in the evaluation. The decision was made based on the features of the infosystem which best correlated with Laurea's requirements.
Research of the infosystem was carried out partially in cooperation with the project team responsible for the undertaking. As a result the plan for procurement of the infosystem was completed and it contributed in its part to the future request for quotation. At the end of the project the request for quotation was decided to be published as a public call for tenders using the HILMA system
Humanitarian Diplomacy at the United Nations
No full textI en verden preget av kriser, langvarige væpnede konflikter og hyppigere naturkatastrofer på grunn av klimaendringer, forventes humanitære behov på tvers av landegrenser og kontinenter å øke. Dette tvinger humanitære aktører til å utvikle ferdigheter innen det som kan kalles humanitært diplomati - for å overtale beslutningstakere og sentrale interessenter til å handle i sårbare befolkningers interesse.Hva, mer spesifikt, er humanitært diplomati, og hvordan manifesterer dette seg i FN-sammenheng?
Det er blant spørsmålene Salla Turunen undersøker i sin forskning fra Universitetet i Bergen og Chr. Michelsen Institutt (CMI). I sitt prosjekt utvider hun ideen om diplomati til å inkludere ikke-statlige aktører og undersøker hvordan disse engasjerer seg i diplomatisk praksis. Dette gjør hun med fokus på humanitære aktører, FN og FNs ‘Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)’, som er FNs hovedkoordineringsorgan for internasjonal respons ved humanitære kriser.
I sin forskning finner Turunen at:
• humanitært diplomati er en selvstendig form for diplomati;
• humanitær diplomatisk praksis kan konseptualiseres og hjelpe til med å forstå hvordan humanitært diplomati gjør seg gjeldende i verden;
• OCHA og FN balanserer mellom humanitære idealer og pragmatiske realiteter i sitt humanitære arbeid;
• humanitært diplomati er et kjønnet fenomen slik det utforskes gjennom dets utøvere.This dissertation discusses humanitarian diplomacy at the United Nations (UN). Humanitarian diplomacy, a diplomatic engagement practised by humanitarian actors, represents a modality of diplomacy that is not restricted to state-relegated, Westphalian diplomacy. With an expansion of diplomatic space, actors, and professions in line with developments of, for example, globalization, multilateralism, and technology, practices of diplomacy have migrated to a vast variety of social spheres. Humanitarianism represents one of these, albeit diplomatic practices of negotiation, representation, and compromise, among others, have long existed in the field and only recently labelled as ‘humanitarian diplomacy’.
Whereas definitions for humanitarian diplomacy remain far-ranging and actor-dependent, the meaning of the term used in this dissertation is as follows: humanitarian diplomacy entails forms of negotiation, persuasion, and strategizing, among other diplomatic practices, which aim to advance access to and aid delivery of resources and protection for vulnerable populations worst affected by crises, conflicts, and emergencies. It is practised by humanitarian actors who seek to represent, influence, and advocate for a humanitarian polity in a non-humanitarian world against other, non-humanitarian polities, and such humanitarian representation can be considered a cornerstone of humanitarian diplomacy.
This PhD dissertation is located in the discipline of international relations (IR). It is motivated by the exploration of humanitarian diplomacy as a new and illustrative concept that allows novel directions of analysis to examine the current status of international affairs. As such, coining the term captures a potential for questioning and reshaping the conceptual categories of humanitarianism and diplomacy. By merging two different semantic fields together as one, humanitarian diplomacy questions the boundaries of who constitutes diplomatic actors, in which spaces does both humanitarianism and diplomacy take place, and with what kind of acts. By broadening this scope of analysis, humanitarians can be seen as agents that actively shape national and international politics, dynamics, and relationships. This dissertation explores this agency by seeking to address the following research question: how do humanitarian practitioners engage in humanitarian diplomacy?
Taking an institutional focus on the UN, the organization represents both a diplomatic body and humanitarian actor. However, the UN has been under-researched in terms of humanitarian diplomacy. Whereas scholarly works exist both for diplomacy conducted at and by the UN, and the UN humanitarian interventions, inspecting the UN through the concept of humanitarian diplomacy remains at tentative stages. In contributing to this lacuna of knowledge, this dissertation argues that humanitarian diplomacy at the UN can be illustratively understood as principled pragmatism. The UN humanitarians continuously seek balances between humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, independence, and humanity, and operational realities and restrictions on the ground that impact humanitarian action. From high-level humanitarian decision-making to frontline humanitarian negotiations, the UN humanitarians are forced to come up with practical solutions in reaching vulnerable populations worst affected by crises, conflicts, and emergencies.
The theoretical framework guiding this scientific inquiry draws from practice theory. Reasons for this theoretical choice include its suitability to studies of traditional and non-traditional forms of diplomacy, the contemporary disciplinary interest given ‘practice turn’ in IR scholarship, and the practitioner focus of this dissertation. Further, humanitarian diplomacy translates into harvesting support for humanitarian interventions, whether that support is political, economic, social, and/or logistical, among others. In these processes of gaining such support, humanitarian diplomacy can be reified through certain sets of practices, that include, inter alia, collaboration between different humanitarian actors and stakeholders, and relationship-building in public and political partnerships. Practices, therefore, represent a central concept of this dissertation, understood as socially meaningful patterns of action by international actors – humanitarian practitioners.
This dissertation is a prospective thesis by publication, meaning that it is intended and created as an article-based PhD project. It includes an introductory part for the dissertation (‘kappe’ in Norwegian), and three qualitative research articles. Whereas these articles can be treated and read independently, these pieces of research thematically intertwine to form a self-standing piece on humanitarian diplomacy at the UN. Article one, ‘Humanitarian Diplomatic Practices’ published in The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, discusses how humanitarian diplomacy can be reified, understood, and analysed at the level of its practices. It also presents an analytical framework of humanitarian diplomatic practices through five basic characteristics: ‘why’ humanitarian diplomatic practices take place; ‘what’ they mean; ‘who’ they include; ‘where’ they occur; and ‘how’ they are done. In article two, ‘The Principled Pragmatists: Humanitarian Diplomatic Practices at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)’ under review in Journal of Humanitarian Affairs, the analytical framework of the first article is applied empirically into an exploratory case study of OCHA. Article two illustrates how OCHA’s humanitarian diplomacy can be seen as a case of ‘principled pragmatism’, referring to a merge between humanitarian ideals and operational/pragmatic realities of humanitarian action. This second article also begins a targeted discussion of humanitarian diplomacy taking place at one of the leading, yet currently under-discussed, humanitarian diplomatic actors, the UN. Lastly, article three, ‘“Have You Been Recruited Because You Are a Woman or Because You Are Good?” Gendered Humanitarian Diplomats at the United Nations’ accepted for publication in Diplomatica, offers a first research intervention of gender analysis to humanitarian diplomacy with an explicit focus on humanitarian diplomats. This study reveals a discrepancy between the UN’s global leadership in gender equality and its struggles to achieve such a mission internally. Furthermore, the article discusses that gender inequality among humanitarian practitioners hampers the aim of gender equal humanitarian action.
Methodologically this dissertation employs both a desk study approach and empirical data collection. Article one represents a desk study for conceptual building for which empirical data was not collected, rather, it draws from current existing research on humanitarian diplomacy and practice theory. Then, articles two and three draw from research interviews. The author conducted nineteen interviews with current and former OCHA staff members. Whereas these interviews are limited in number, they represent one of the largest samplings in studying humanitarian diplomacy, and the interviewees’ work experience with OCHA spans 30 different countries. These interviews were semi-structured, and all but one of the research interviews have been treated as anonymous throughout the study. These interviews provide rare research insights into humanitarian diplomacy, as the existing research in the field collects, displays, and quotes interview data to a limited extent.
Prior to the inclusion of these three research articles, the introductory part (‘kappe’) of this dissertation is organized as follows: Section one defines and frames the three key concepts used in this dissertation, those of humanitarianism, diplomacy, and humanitarian diplomacy. Section two illustrates how the three research articles included contribute to answering the main research question of this dissertation, and provides an overview discussion of the articles more in detail. Section two also includes a conversation on researcher positionality as a central factor guiding this research and its interests. Section three situates the conducted research within the axes of disciplinary location in IR, philosophy of science, theoretical framework, and the inclusion of gender perspective in studying humanitarian diplomacy. Section four serves as a literature review, capturing the current state of the art in the field of related studies. Section five sheds light on the research design used in this dissertation in terms of case selection, data collection, and ethical considerations, while section six concludes the introduction with a focus on the main findings and suggestions for future research.
The main findings include a phenomenological argument that humanitarian diplomacy can be seen as its own, independent form of diplomatic engagement with ideologies, characteristics, and practices that sets it distinctively apart from other forms of diplomacy (article one). In exploring the empirical context of the UN, the dissertation provides an understanding of humanitarian diplomacy, without an attempt to exhaust all forms of humanitarian diplomacy, inside and outside of the UN. The approach captured in this dissertation finds that humanitarian practitioners – guided by humanitarian principles – gain grounds for pragmatic compromise, practical dealings, and access to political spheres through diplomatic engagement (article two). The inclusion of gender in the analysis of humanitarian diplomats at the UN showcases how gender as a social attribute defines opportunities and limitations for practitioners, underlining a masculine premise of humanitarian diplomacy and female exceptionality, which fit into the institutional, gendered context of the UN (article three).
In addition to the main findings, this dissertation contributes to an emerging scholarly field on humanitarian diplomacy in five ways: 1) Conceptualization of humanitarian diplomatic practices; 2) Theoretical expansion of practice theory to include humanitarian diplomacy; 3) Introduction of gender analysis to the field; 4) A novel case study selection and focus on the UN and OCHA; and 5) Showcasing data collection on humanitarian diplomacy with humanitarian practitioners. In addition to research contribution, the dissertation seeks to cater for practitioner-audiences in making sense of their own humanitarian diplomatic engagement. This includes notions of how humanitarian diplomacy manifests in the world, what kind of engagement it entails, and what potential its institutionalization could offer.Doktorgradsavhandlin
- …
