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The current formal common denominator of the electricity supply system in Europe has been the Harmonized Electricity Market Role Model (HEMRM) set up by ENTSO-E, ebIX, and EFET at the turn of the millennium; it introduced the concept of de-coupling and the vertical structuring of the system into the previously vertically integrated system. Since then, within demonstration projects, the system has been undergoing further changes in a controlled environment, generating bottom-up energy, caused by new technologies, business models, and new players, and extending the concept of the system to the level of energy communities and prosumers. Therefore, this paper proposes a coherent approach to the extension of HEMRM to the lowest levels in both the grid and market segments—full harmonization. This entails further structuring of both segments downwards and applying the principles of vertically nested subsystems—a system of systems approach—to a unit functional level of the electricity system, which can be the prosumer itself. At the lowest levels, the de-coupled system becomes coupled; additionally, it cross-sects with other energy vectors. Complete harmonization reduces the number of system and market segments and represents system standardization, leading to both subsystem and system-wide optimization. Prerequisites for it include the automated trading of flexibilities by the prosumers and implicit trading of energy transfer capacities along the distribution grids. The energy reservoirs, implicit and explicit, short-term, and long-term, play a vital role in techno-economic balancing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While International Relations scholars have recently excavated a number of systems previously unstudied by the discipline, few have discussed the emergence of fully-fledged systems in prehistory. Fully-fledged system have continuous multilinear (between more than two units at the time) and multidimensional (more than one institution in evidence) interaction at its core. Drawing mainly on extant archaeological research, we examine the European Bronze Age. We find that Indo-European in-migrating herders during the third millennium BCE established patron-led polities based on the steppe practices of the clients' oath to his patron and the patron's feast. A third practice, the guest/host relationships between patrons, anchored Europe's first regional inter-polity systems. We also find that, due to an increase in interaction capacity caused by better boat building, horse-transport and the emergence of new technologies that made possible warfare at a distance, there systems were harbingers of a European-wide system of what we call Central Site Polities. We conclude that European inter-polity systems hail from the Bronze Age and suggest that the practices on which these systems rested are still, mutatis mutanda, with us. Further work on possible genealogical ties between the Central Site System and subsequent European systems awaits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the Hindu-Arabic decimal positional system was introduced in Europe, throughout many centuries textbooks on elementary arithmetic, intended for beginners, had a more or less fixed organization of content, usually starting with chapters on numeration. These chapters, as a rule, contained one or more examples of large integers the purpose of which was simply to be named (read out loud), sometimes also vice versa. This tradition apparently began with the two first texts that significantly contributed to the spread of the decimal system in Europe--the Latin translations of al-Khwarizmi's treatise on decimal arithmetic, and Leonardo's Liber Abaci, containing examples of reading a 16-digit and a 15-digit number respectively. Throughout the centuries, the order of magnitude of these introductory numbers increased, in general up to some 30 digits, but in some cases to over 60 digits. In this paper we examine the development and extent of this characteristic of introductory arithmetic textbooks from the period 13th-19th century, and the conditions which lead to this, now extinct, practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender and politics research faces a crossroad in the age of populism. On the one hand, gender and sexuality research is on the way to institutionalisation across a growing number of academic systems in Europe. On the other, gender and sexuality research has become increasingly contested and attacked, and has become the bête noire of the populist and radical right. This contribution contends that gender research is under threat not only because of the gender component, but also because of the scholarly research. There are thus lessons to be drawn for the wider discipline of political science. This article first sketches out the dualization in the institutionalization of gender-related research. It then situates the hostility towards gender and sexuality research in the broader (and growing) opposition to gender + and sexual + equality. It concludes with some preliminary observations about the how this hostility may be part of a wider contestation of academic expertise and scholarly knowledge that is being led, at least in part, by populist forces of all stripes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The realisation of a Demonstration Fusion Power Reactor (DEMO) is the remaining and crucial step towards the exploitation of fusion power. This is the shared view of Europe and the nations engaged in the construction of ITER. DEMO will follow ITER and must be capable to produce several hundred MW of net electricity as well as operating with a closed fuel-cycle. The DEMO machine has three main entrance levels to the plasma chamber. According to the current DEMO reference configuration the vacuum vessel has 16 vertical upper, horizontal equatorial, and horizontal lower ports, respectively. This article introduces the initial integration concept of the lower port. The concept considers the external space constraints e.g. due to the supports of the vacuum vessel, the neutron shielding requirements of the superconducting coils, and the main lower port functions. These include hosting a number of tokamak systems, in particular the torus vacuum pump and feeding pipes of in-vessel components, and to allow for divertor remote maintenance. The size and position of the lower port are constrained by the adjacent toroidal and poloidal field coils. At the same time the lower port drives the layout of the cryostat and the tokamak building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sub-seasonal hydrological forecasts within the European Flood Awareness System (EFAS) provide an opportunity to assess the meteorological and hydrological predictability on time-scales beyond the first two weeks. The meteorological forcing of the system is the ECMWF extended-range ensemble prediction system (ENS-ER), which runs a 46-day forecast integration issued twice weekly, in combination with the seasonal forecasting system (SEAS5), which runs up to 7 months issued monthly. The system uses the hydrological model LISFLOOD to produce a 5x5 km output of several variables, such as runoff, discharge, snow, soil moisture and ground water storage. This study investigates the 20-year hindcast of the system to evaluate 1) the limits of predictability of the meteorological and hydrological variables and 2) assess the applicability of the system for a number of historical low flows in Europe over the hindcast period. The results show that the system does provide useful information and is therefore potentially useful for decision makers. The skill varies with geographical location and season. The results also show the uncertainty in the model system which needs to be considered when communicating the forecasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at the Seventh Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics (CERME7) is presented. One paper described strategies applied in substraction tasks of students while another paper discussed the relationship between students' strategy use and their number sense. Linguistic structures expected to prevent students from applying number concepts were also explored in another paper.