Norway between NATO,the EU,and the US: A Case Study of Post-Cold War Security and Defence Discourse

This article addresses the post-Cold War security and defence discourse in Norway, focusing on the impact of the transformation of NATO, an increasingly ambitious EU within security matters and the transatlantic tensions in the War on Terror. The article argues that changes or continuity in policy result from the discursive battle between various power constellations, which are forcing conflicting understandings of reality on each other. In this battle, the dominant representation frames NATO's transformation as a precondition for national defence with reference to alliance solidarity, loyalty and interoperability. The alternative representation, on the other hand, has framed NATO's transformation as negative for national defence, claiming that forces trained for global, warlike missions are neither capable nor available for national defence tasks such as containment of Russia's strategic interests in the Barents Sea. The EU has been brought into the security and defence discourse only when new integration steps, such as the European security and defence policy and EU Battle Groups, put the question of how far Norway may participate, to a test. However, developments like the slow withering away of NATO and unilateralist US foreign policy on Iraq are contributing to pushing the Norwegian discourse, and hence policy, closer to Europe.     

Characterizing macroeconomic shocks in the CEECs

In this paper we analyze the nature of the shocks hitting the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) over the recent years. To this end, we first evaluate the relative importance of symmetric versus asymmetric shocks, and then extract their temporary component. Our final aim would be assessing the vulnerability of the CEECs to temporary and asymmetric shocks, which would be the most harmful case for the operation of a monetary union. Finally, a comparison with the case of the current EMU members is also presented.     

Biotechnology and relevant aspects of the New Biosafety law]

On 24 March 2005, the President of the Federative Republic of Brazil approved the New Law on Biosecurity. This law has very diverse aspects, ranging from the genetically modified organisms to the genetic manipulation of human embryos or the liberalisation of the transgenic soy crops during 2004-2005. This article tries to analyse and criticise the content of the law, highlighting the genetic research and experimentation, the GMOs and their effect in the environment and the criminal responsibility derived from such actions. Likewise, it leaves rooms for the reader to reach his/her own conclusions. The author poses the moral dilemma on whether it is legitimate to make governmental decisions solely taking into account the economic and political interests, leaving aside the opinion of society.     

Optimization of the conditions for extracting metronidazole with organic solvents]

Optimal conditions of metronidazole extraction from aqueous solutions by different solvents using a mathematical method of experiment planning (latin square) were studied. It was stated that optimal conditions of metronidazole extraction from aqueous solutions were: extraction time (5 min.), pH medium-6, extractant-isoamyl spirit in saturation of aqueous phase with ammonium sulfate.     

Haptoglobin subtyping by isoelectric focusing in ultrathin-layer polyacrylamide gels. Population genetic data for Hanover and Lower Saxony

This report describes a method for subtyping haptoglobin by means of isoelectric focusing in 0.2-mm ultrathin-layer polyacrylamide gels. Haptoglobin (Hp) is purified by ion-exchange chromatography and reduced. The well-known advantages of ultrathin-layer gels combine high isoelectrophoretic resolution of the Hp subtypes with less demands for time and material and make sequential visualization by fixation and protein staining possible. The distribution of the Hp subtypes in 1500 unrelated adults from Hanover and Lower Saxony is presented. Allelic frequencies are calculated to be: Hp*2FF = 0.0030; *2FS = 0.5620; *2SS = 0.0290; *1F = 0.1537; *1S = 0.2523. Segregation analysis for 68 matings shows an autosomal codominant mode of transmission in all cases. For the population investigated the chance of isolated paternity exclusion with the subtyped Hp system amounts to 33.91%.