Although the relationship between military expenditures and economic growth is well documented for the old members of the European Union, empirically little is known for the new members. Thus, the goal of this paper is to investigate the economic impact of military expenditures in Central and Eastern European countries employing panel cointegration and causality methods for the period 1993–2013. Findings indicate that the variables in question do not move together in the long run and the direction of causality in the short run is from economic growth to military expenditures. The implications of the results for international relations are discussed.

Brain Computer Interface (BCI) systems provide control of external devices by using only brain activity. In recent years, there has been a great interest in developing BCI systems for different applications. These systems are capable of solving daily life problems for both healthy and disabled people. One of the most important applications of BCI is to provide communication for disabled people that are totally paralysed. In this paper, different parts of a BCI system and different methods used in each part are reviewed. Neuroimaging devices, with an emphasis on EEG (electroencephalography), are presented and brain activities as well as signal processing methods used in EEG-based BCIs are explained in detail. Current methods and paradigms in BCI based speech communication are considered.

After an outline of present-day ‘glocalization problems’ of the European Community this article analyses the problem of whether the centralizing policy of the Spanish Bourbon government after the War of Spanish Succession provides historical evidence on the origins of contemporary Catalan nationalism, as often argued, or not. Referring briefly to the medieval and early modern imperial traditions of both the Aragonese kingdoms, especially of Catalonia and its predominant city of Barcelona, and the Castilian kingdoms, the article argues that during the 18th century the Crown made strong efforts to integrate Catalans into the imperial government and trade and spent large quantities of fiscal income in the modernization of Catalonia as a central base of its Mediterranean policy. Therefore, the historical origins of present-day nationalism have to be explained in the context of more recent historical phenomena in the context of the so-called ‘uncompleted Spanish national project’.

In recent years, several instances of social protest in Europe have transformed into new initiatives for citizens’ participation (e.g. citizens’ assemblies, deliberative forums, etc). Can such a transformation also take place in the more volatile political settings of a post-conflict democratizing state? We turn our attention to the plenums in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which were spontaneously organized citizens’ assemblies in the spring of 2014. We conclude that these plenums were a form of incident-driven democracy. In a country where the regular institutions of representative democracy continue to be widely mistrusted and civil society organizations, which normally have a mitigating role between citizens and state institutions in times of crisis, are weak, untrustworthy or absent, such incidental institutions have an important role to play. Their effect in the short term may be limited, but if new opportunities arise they may function as a useful memory for activists, a model for citizens’ participation outside elections, and therefore an instigator of further democratization.

According to some hypotheses, from a statistical perspective the origin of life seems to be a highly improbable event. Although there is no rigid definition of life itself, life as it is, is a fact. One of the most recognized hypotheses for the origins of life is the RNA world hypothesis. Laboratory experiments have been conducted to prove some assumptions of the RNA world hypothesis. However, despite some success in the ‘wet-lab’, we are still far from a complete explanation. Bioinformatics, supported by biomathematics, appears to provide the perfect tools to model and test various scenarios of the origins of life where wet-lab experiments cannot reflect the true complexity of the problem. Bioinformatics simulations of early pre-living systems may give us clues to the mechanisms of evolution. Whether or not this approach succeeds is still an open question. However, it seems likely that linking efforts and knowledge from the various fields of science into a holistic bioinformatics perspective offers the opportunity to come one step closer to a solution to the question of the origin of life, which is one of the greatest mysteries of humankind. This paper illustrates some recent advancements in this area and points out possible directions for further research.

This article analyses the economic cooperation and political disagreements between Russia and Turkey, focusing on the Putin–Erdogan (2003–2014) period. The analysis depends therefore on economic, socio-cultural, military and political dimensions of the relations between the two neighbouring countries. The article aims to contribute to efforts that try to comprehend the past, present, and future of Russian–Turkish relations. It can be mentioned that Russian–Turkish relations have both positive and negative aspects, and the crucial questions in this respect are: Will the pragmatism stimulated by economic expectations be sufficient to ignore political paradoxes? Are further political relations, such as strategic alliances and/or partnerships, possible between these two countries?

The town of Barcelona in Venezuela, with a present population of nearly half a million inhabitants, is – by far – the most important New World settlement bearing the name of Catalonia’s capital. It owes its name to its founder, Joan Orpí i del Pou, also known as Juan de Orpín or Urpín (Piera, 1593 – Barcelona, Venezuela, 1645), who managed to distinguish himself as one of the last conquistadors within the territory of present-day Venezuela. This was no easy task since a Catalan was, technically, not allowed to reside or even to travel to lands under the exclusive control of the Crown of Castille and León. However, since its foundation in 1638, Nueva Barcelona del Cerro Santo was soon to become a sort of Catalan enclave in eastern Venezuela, particularly due to the influence of the Catalan Capuchin missionaries who, since the end of the 17th century on, used it as a base for inland penetration. Similarly, Venezuela’s Barcelona was one of the important trading posts for the Compañía de Comercio de Barcelona, following the latter’s foundation in 1755. A sizeable community of Catalan merchants ensured the town’s growth and prosperity at the turn of the 19th century. This community also fuelled a strong resistance against the independence movement from 1810 onwards, as Barcelona was to become a savagely disputed prey between royalist and patriot armies: the episode of the Casa Fuerte massacre in 1817 is still today remembered as a landmark of royalist cruelty, even though the revenge later exerted by the patriot troops in no way fell behind in terms of mercilessness. The Catalans were particularly singled out and, with few exceptions, were all either killed or forced to leave.

Based on a public office definition of corruption, this article uses the case studies of doctoral plagiarism of German Minister of Defence Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Hungarian President Pàl Schmitt, Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to show that, by shattering citizens’ confidence in and respect for political class, political parties, state institutions and rule of law, academic plagiarism of high-ranking politicians intertwines with and enforces the most serious democratic failures in their respective countries: degeneration of political culture in Germany, nationalist authoritarian trends in Hungary, a culture of corruption in Romania, and outright dictatorship in Russia. As such, this specific type of plagiarism goes far beyond academia. It represents a direct, aggressive, and effective threat against democracy itself.

Oswald Spengler (1880–1936) was one of the most significant thinkers of the Weimar Republic, Germany’s first democracy. His work, notably the two-volume, 1200-page Der Untergang des Abendlandes (Decline of the West, 1918/22), had a profound influence on the intellectual discourses of the time in Germany and beyond.1 Yet, despite the high esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries, his thought has been seriously under-researched. In English, only four major studies have appeared in the last 70 years.2 This is all the more surprising in that the historical period in which he wrote has been extensively covered by both English- and German-language scholars and that some of the thinkers who drew critically on his ideas, such as Heidegger and Adorno, have become household names in Germany intellectual history.

In this article, I argue that the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, by his political actions in Eastern Europe, the Baltic States and Central Asian countries, and his current actions in Ukraine, strives to re-establish the nineteenth-century Russian Empire, ignoring the principle of international law that protects the sovereignty of each nation-state over its territory. In order to achieve his goals Putin uses ‘soft force’ and social fermentation in Russian-speaking ‘near abroad’ nation-states of the former Soviet Union. He also uses a policy of weakening the economy of the target countries and uses the Russian chauvinism and irredentism as the basis of his policy.

One frequent observation about the contemporary world is that the pace of change appears to be accelerating. Turkey is a case in point, and the same is true of Turkey’s relationships with the Middle East, the European Union, and the wider world. All have continued to evolve at such an astonishing rate that almost the only constant has been change itself. Early in the millennium Turkey appeared to have managed the difficult transition from a long era of military control to a relatively stable elected government and liberal democratic values. That expectation eroded in subsequent years under the rule of Prime Minister (now President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), with an unmistakable drift towards a decidedly illiberal democracy – if not outright authoritarianism – and increased violence at home and abroad. At the time of writing (late-July 2016), Turkey has recently experienced a major military coup, a formal state of emergency has been declared, and a sweeping crackdown is occurring that affects virtually every sector of society.

In this paper we review a number of methods used in video surveillance applications in order to detect and classify threats. Moreover, the use of those methods in wireless surveillance networks contributes to decreasing the energy consumption of the devices because it reduces the amount of information transferred through the network. In this paper we focus on the most popular object extraction and classification methods that are used in both wired and wireless surveillance applications. We also develop an application for identification of objects from video data by implementing the selected methods and demonstrate the performance of these methods on pre-recorded videos using the outputs of this application.

The aim of this article is to contribute to thinking on pre-political foundations of secular societies. I do so through the idea of Europe. The importance of pre-political foundations relates to power and freedom, specifically how freedom truly can be freedom and not ultimately power. The paper includes two sections: Section 1 discusses Europe’s Westphalian system as the model for global international relations. Henry Kissinger’s proposal that a modern Westphalian system should be adopted by the international community, as outlined in his 2014 World Order Reflections on the Character of Nations and the Course of History, is explored and critiqued. Section 2 looks at an alternative vision of Europe as the global template which addresses many of the open issues identified in Kissinger’s proposal. Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI sees Europe as a historical and cultural idea with, as pre-political foundation, the primacy of rationality as creative reason. Ratzinger’s vision does not displace Kissinger’s; rather it informs it. Core to this discussion are freedom, power, interests and universal values, specifically how these four components interact and can be managed to produce positive constructive outcomes; ultimately these interactions relate to the pre-political foundations that orientate societies.

In the current article the author aims to answer four specific questions. (1) What would have happened if Austria and Serbia had not gone to war in July 1914, which implies an exercise in counterfactual history, and the study of the probable outcome if events had taken a different course? (2) What exactly was Austria’s war aim? (3) What precisely was Britain’s war aim? (4) What would have happened if Britain had stayed out of the continental war?

In health care, a trend may be noted to fundamentally question some of today’s assumptions about the traditional roles of medical disciplines, the doctor–patient relationship, the feasibility of medical studies, and about the role of computers as an aid or replacement of doctors. Diagnostics and therapy decision-making become more complex, and no end is in sight. Amounts of health-related data are being collected individually, and through the health care systems. On the example of breast cancer care, technological advances and societal changes can be observed as they take place concurrently, and patterns and hypotheses emerge that will be the focus of this article. In particular, three key changes are to be considered: (1) the growing appreciation of the uniqueness of diseases and the impact of this notion on the future of evidence-based medicine; (2) the acknowledgment of a ‘big data’ problem in today’s medical practice and science, and the role of computers; and (3) the societal demand for ‘P4 medicine’ (predictive, preventive, participatory, personalized), and its impact on the roles of doctors and patients.

Web services that are free of charge to users typically offer access to online information based on some form of economic interest of the web service itself. Advertisers who put the information on the web will make a payment to the search services based on the clicks that their advertisements receive. Thus, end users cannot know that the results they obtain from web search engines are exhaustive, or that they actually respond to their needs. To fill the gap between user needs and the information presented to them on the web, Intelligent Search Assistants have been proposed to act at the interface between users and search engines to present data to users in a manner that reflects their actual needs or their observed or stated preferences. This paper presents an Intelligent Internet Search Assistant based on the Random Neural Network that tracks the user’s preferences and makes a selection on the output of one or more search engines using the preferences that it has learned. We also introduce a ‘relevance metric’ to compare the performance of our Intelligent Internet Search Assistant against a few search engines, showing that it provides better performance.

Within Europe, there has been the emergence of an EU-wide nanotechnology regulatory regime with regional authorities gaining greater decision-making power over a wide range of policy areas. However, despite the development of more comprehensive European nanotechnology policies, considerable variation remains in how member states implement these rules and regulations. In this article, we utilize a multi-level governance approach, to explore this seeming paradox in order to explain cross-national policy variation within a common European regulatory framework. This broader analytical approach allows us to account for the wide range of actors involved in European nanotechnology governance including, national governments, international organizations, research institutes, firms, and advocacy groups. Case study analysis of Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands emphasizes how differences in domestic policy styles explain variation in the implementation of nanotechnology regulations across states. At the same time, the engagement of national governments with European and international regulatory efforts highlights the important role that states play in contributing to the development of a common nanotechnology regime in Europe.

This article will shed new light on the already crowded area of Marco Polo research, by examining the perspective of Polo, his direct observation of Kublai Khan and Yuan China, as revealed in The Travels of Marco Polo. The paper analyses the sources of Polo’s perspective on the people he encountered on his travels in foreign lands. It argues that Polo’s ideas were shaped by his cultural background, personal experience and his own interests. Then it examines how the work presents Kublai Khan himself, as well as the Yuan empire’s monetary system, its waterway trade and its ethnic policy. The result of this investigation shows that Polo was an acute observer; he pointed out occasions of misrule despite his adoration of Kublai Khan.

By the end of this century the majority of the European population will consist of ‘mestizos’. The majority of western intellectuals and politicians are still unprepared for this imminent change that will introduce a new Europe shaped by immigrants and mestizos. This essay seeks to reflect upon the possible implications in building a new twenty-first century Europe by approaching the issue through a historical and theoretical lens. I conclude by reflecting on the coming of millions of immigrants to Europe. This new quasi-European group is creating the melting pot of the twenty-first century, which I see as a eutopic project. Eutopia involves the idea of a just place where we can all live well together, and it offers us hope and a viable way to approach the impending European Transculturation. Overall, this article considers the phenomenon of European immigration in a constructive way, because immigrants and mestizos offer us the important possibility of a Europe decolonized from ourselves and together with them.

Research on human embryonic stem cells, their exploitation and patenting is a highly controversial issue. This contribution provides for some basic understanding of technologies involved. It discusses ethical issues and legal rules dealing with the research and exploitation of stem cells in Europe. Moreover, it presents and analyses in some detail the statutory provisions of the EU in dealing with the patenting of human embryonic stem cells and the interpretation and application of those rules by the Court of Justice of the European Union. Finally, the resulting inconsistencies of the system as applied are critically analysed and a suggestion how to resolve them offered.