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Bespreking van: R. Rael,Borderwall as architecture: a manifesto for the U.S.-Mexico boundary Oakland:University of California Press ,2017 978-0520283947 N. De Genova,The borders of 'Europe': autonomy of migration, tactics of bordering Durham:Duke University Press ,2017 978-0-8223-6916-5

Concerns over the threats posed by a large number of molecules, collectively termed as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) and generally known to alter and disrupt hormone systems and physiological functions, have often been expressed in academic and scholarly debates. From the perspective of classical toxicology, EDCs have genomic mechanisms of actions and exert agonistic or antagonistic effects on steroid receptors. They are also able to alter reproductive function by binding to estrogen or androgen receptors, and the neuroendocrine system by binding to the thyroid receptor. Recently, EDCs have been shown to have equally complex nongenomic mechanisms, altering steroid synthesis or steroid metabolism. As environmental contaminants, these molecules proved disruptively harmful for many wildlife species, particularly those from or depending on the aquatic ecosystem. An increasingly growing body of research has voiced further concerns that human populations are not immune from the dangers of EDCs. Studies ...

Does it still make any sense to speak of a postnational politics in Europe today? Of a Europe united by a truly postnational demos (if not ethos)? By daring to pose such questions at this time we f...

The aim of this paper is, from the perspective of improvement of Total Suspended Solids (TSS) measurement by UV spectrophotometry, to study the influence of two pretreatments on the UV responses of urban wastewater (sonication and mechanical grinding). The study of optical properties evolution the different phenomena involved and show mechanical grinding as a potential pre-treatment is prosed. Mechanical grinding is applied to samples characterised by different TSS concentration and particle size distributions in order to test its feasability. Results show the limit of the pretreatment and the difficulty of exploiting the UV response of urban wastewater for TSS characterization and estimation.

Writing against the grain of historical‐materialist as well as social‐constructivist accounts of cross‐border networking within the European Union, the author draws on a stream of French geopolitical writing so as to craft an alternative conceptual lens for understanding the possibilities and constraints of cross‐border governance in Europe today. Informed by phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches, this work attempts to reinsert time as a key analytical variable in grasping the intensity and direction of change and possibilities for novel territorial alignments brought about by recent shifts in the structure and flow of world power. Within this largely Francophone tradition, the challenge thrown up by globalization is framed not so much in political economic terms but fundamentally as a problem of meaning (or, sens), experienced in the dilemma of adequately interpreting the temporal and symbolic break brought on by the end of the Cold War and the demise of all forward‐looking ideologies whic...

The aim of this paper is to determinate the total organic matter content of grinding sludges by a simple and fast methodology based on a solvent extraction followed by a UV spectrophotometry analysis. Several UV spectra exploitation methods are used. The multiwavelength deconvolution procedure provides quantitative results in good accordance with those obtained by a gravimetric method, possibly underestimated and enables a separate quantification of the cuttings fluids and the lubricants in the sludges. The normalisation procedure and the search of isobestic points provide important qualitative information on the evolution and on the composition of the oils used in metal processing. Therefore, this study is a first step for the development of a tool for the characterisation of organic matter in grinding sludges

Political governance and democracy are associated so closely with the modern nation- state that it is difficult to imagine them in any other political setting. As a consequence of globalization, the alleged passing or "unbundling" of the nation-state (at the very least its transformation) therefore poses a severe challenge to these two founding concepts, requiring a new language of politics and rule which can at least partially transcend traditional state-centric territorialities (Ruggie 1993; Held 1995; Linklater 1998). The field of human geography, in particular, has been challenged to think beyond the "territorial trap" of perceiving culture, identity and politics as isomorphic with national space (Agnew 1999).

Much recent writing on the restructuring of the nation-state presupposes a functionalist and unidirectional logic defined by capital-centric 'jumping of scales' and 'spatial fixes'. This is the guiding trope underlying much work on emergent forms of supra- as well as sub-national regional governance within the European Union. In this paper, the author takes issue with such formulations as they apply to Europe's cross-border regions, arguing that their territorial dynamics must be embedded within a larger geo-historical framework which takes into account another period of attempted capital-centred transcendence--namely, European overseas imperialism. Drawing on early 20th-century Marxist theories of imperialism, the author juxtaposes the period of state scale restructuring within the Dutch colonial context in Indonesia with contemporary efforts at cross-border institution-building in the Dutch-German-Belgian euregios. In so doing, he sketches the conditions for new forms of post-scalar, trans-sovereign pol...

Contains fulltext : 151273.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Drawing on a burgeoning academic literature devoted to issues of institutionalised cross-border regionalism within the European Union, the author attempts theoretically to contextualise observed cross-border dynamics as a problematic of ‘cosmopolitical governance’, defined by an ongoing deficit of socio-political rights and duties constitutive of forms of citizenship applicable to the uniquely transnational environments of cross-border milieux. By exploring Kantian categories of aesthetic judgement and the forms of political community implicit in their manifestation of reason, the author posits a conceptual model of cosmopolitical right which adheres neither to the morally charged rationalities sustaining the liberal, modernist nation state nor the Hobbesian rationalities characterising interstate relations, but is critically informed by the ethical demands required in achieving agreement around claims rooted in affect and the passions. As elaborated in a case study of tranfrontier labourers within the transborder (and tri-lingual) Euregion Maas-Rhein, this Kantian sensus communis is meant to lead to the acknowledgement of a spatial and cultural politics capable of empowering cross-border regional actors in negotiating a measure of agency vis-a-vis nation state communitarian logics.

UV examination is a simple technique for the quality control of wastewater, which is complementary to classical parameters (TOC, BOD5, COD, TSS, …). A discussion of the significance of UV absorption shows some limitations for its use. However, it is probably one of the most relevant methods for the study of wastewater quality as it can be illustrated with the results of a new deconvolution method, based on the deterministic choice of UV reference spectra. The deterministic deconvolution of UV spectra of wastewater yields qualitative and quantitative results. Probably the most interesting results are the estimations of the classical non-specific parameters or the determination of specific ions such as nitrate. The method can easily be used for the control of wastewater treatment plants or for monitoring the quality of surface water.

This paper presents a new, rapid and simple method for the determination of water quality, in particular the evaluation of Organic Carbon, nitrate and total suspended solids in waters. On the basis of UV spectral deconvolution, its principle supposes that the absorbency spectrum of water can be decomposed from a few number of characteristic spectra. For a given parameter, for example Organic Carbon (O.C.), the O.C. values of the characteristic spectra are used for the computation of the O.C. in the sample. The method was tested with a lot of samples of wastewaters: as an example, the estimated O.C. value is very close to the measured one as the correlation coefficient (for more than a hundred data) is 0.92. The quality of measurement is appreciated by studying the error between measured and restituted (after deconvolution) absorbency spectra. Moreover a simple colour code can be proposed in relation to water quality.

The waatewaters are usually classified between urban, industrial or mixed effluents, jnost often from their BOD5/COD ratio. However, a fast identification can be useful in some cases. The proposed method deals with the use of the ultraviolet spectrum characteristics of the wastewater (namely between 270 and 320 nm) and the measurement of the electric conductivity. A second one is based on the comparison of the UV spectrum of the sample with the spectrum of a known urban wastewater. These procedures have been tested with various effluents.

The main rule governing the formation of amorphous reacted phases is that one of the components should have a mobility much lower than that of the others. This is based on the simple observation that the crystallization of a multicomponent system requires that all of the components should be mobile. The rule, which is general and independent of the initial state (solid or gas) of the reactants, is verified by comparing the mobilities of oxygen and of the metal atoms during the low-temperature oxidation and subsequent high-temperature heat treatment of bilayers initially composed of niobium and tantalum metal thin films. The high mobility of oxygen allows the oxides to be formed at low temperature in an amorphous condition, while the low mobility of the metal ions prevents the mixing of these ions except at high temperatures.