Dissertation com okt 2010 (3 résultats)

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware - Laser isotope separation (LIS) is an emerging technology that uses relatively small, widely-available lasers to achieve civilian or weapons grade concentration of fissile material to fuel nuclear reactions. To date only a few, limited proliferation risk analyses of LIS technology have been conducted. This paper provides a historically and technically informed update on the current state of LIS technology and it explains the high likelihood of increased global LIS adoption. The paper also explains how international rules governing nuclear energy are ill-equipped to handle such new technology. It traces the current limitations to broader issues in international relations theory, especially the incomplete accounts of the role of technology in the proliferation dynamic in the dominant neorealism and social construction of technology approaches. The paper introduces the concept of 'international technology development structure,' a framework for understanding how technology-related opportunities and constraints at the international system-level influence state nuclear weapons choices.The paper provides a thorough update of recent international laser innovations relevant to laser isotope separation and it explains how the spread of laser-related knowledge expands state nuclear options and influences their choices. The paper also provides a country-by-country update on LIS programs and it uses the example of Iran's laser isotope separation program to show how existing International Atomic Energy Agency efforts and export control approaches will be inadequate to addressing dual-use technologies such as LIS. It concludes by proposing a new course that links good standing in nuclear non-proliferation agreements to participation in the World Trade Organization, global conferences, and fundamental university research. Ultimately, the paper attempts to provide a comprehensive account of how emerging laser isotope separation technology presents non-proliferation challenges and it attempts to explore options for addressing this new period in technological achievement and change.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware - This study will attempt to answer the question of how can the rise in social violence since the 1980s be explained in the oil-rich nation of Venezuela The once relatively peaceful nation of Venezuela has seen a dramatic rise in social violence over the last three decades that has placed her amongst some of the world's most dangerous countries. A review of the relevant literature will reveal that the study of a social phenomenon such as violence, in a nation such as Venezuela, is a complicated task because there are a number of different, but in many cases interlinked, variables that contribute to the formation of this social phenomenon. Therefore, the conceptual framework will consist of a multi-variable analysis so that this study may go about to formulate an appropriate explanation based on the complex causes and effects that surround this issue. However, special attention will be given to the nation's developmental history, which has given way to a severe socio-political crisis. Although special attention will be given to this important variable, no hierarchy of variables will be established, as the convoluted nature of social events makes it very difficult to formulate one. Other factors that will also be analyzed as they contribute to the rise of social violence are: the nation's vast hydrocarbon wealth (which is always an outstanding variable because of its economic importance), economic reform and liberalization, and the urbanization process. Although there have been several studies on oil-rich nations (including Venezuela), their economic dynamics, the Latin American urbanization process, and the Venezuelan political crisis, there is an absence of studies that include these intervening factors in a comprehensive manner. This study hopes to fill this gap.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware - In recent years there has been a clear rise in scientific collaboration, as well as in studies on the subject. While most scholars examine disciplines traditionally known to be collaborative, such as physics and space research, this book focuses on biology. It investigates the growing collaboration in the life sciences, or the emergence of what is called 'big biology'. While the Human Genome Project is often presented as the first large-scale research project in biology, cooperation in the life sciences has a longer history. A comparison between centralised 'big physics' and 'big biology' reveals how the latter has a networked structure, which evolved in interaction with the integration of information and communication technologies. By concentrating on the construction of these networks, three contemporary large-scale research collaborations are analysed: the Census of Marine Life that aims to make an inventory of life in the oceans, the Silicon Cell initiative that wants to design a replica of a cell in a computer, and the VIRGO consortium, which investigates host-virus interaction to develop a new therapy against influenza. This book demonstrates how the process of making science bigger, or the 'supersizing of science', transforms the ways in which science is organised while it also changes the work of scientists involved. As such, this has both scholarly and professional implications for the next generation of scientists.…