scholarly journals Lessons of the Blackout

2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (08) ◽  
pp. 34-37
Author(s):  
James Fama

The US–Canadian blackout in 2003 demonstrated the need for new reliability measures in the field of the power industry. The Edison Electric Institute, the trade organization for the investor-owned utilities that generate about 70 percent of the electricity consumed in the United States, is taking reliability to Congress. The voluntary organization that oversees bulk electrical transmission on the continent—The North American Electricity Reliability Council, or NERC—began to implement measures to address many of the recommendations later detailed in the report, key among them was reformatting and clarifying its reliability standards. A research insists that in order to balance power generation and demand continuously, production by generators must be scheduled and dispatched to meet constantly changing demands, and adjusted continuously.

Author(s):  
Earl H. Fry

This article examines the ebb and flow of the Quebec government’s economic and commercial relations with the United States in the period 1994–2017. The topic demonstrates the impact of three major forces on Quebec’s economic and commercial ties with the US: (1) the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which became operational in 1994 and was fully implemented over a 15-year period; (2) the onerous security policies put in place by the US government in the decade following the horrific events of 11 September 2001; and (3) changing economic circumstances in the United States ranging from robust growth to the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The article also indicates that the Quebec government continues to sponsor a wide range of activities in the United States, often more elaborate and extensive than comparable activities pursued by many nation-states with representation in the US. 1 1 Stéphane Paquin, ‘Quebec-U.S. Relations: The Big Picture’, American Review of Canadian Studies 46, no. 2 (2016): 149–61.


Author(s):  
D. V. Dorofeev

The research is devoted to the study of the origin of the historiography of the topic of the genesis of the US foreign policy. The key thesis of the work challenges the established position in the scientific literature about the fundamental role of the work of T. Lyman, Jr. «The diplomacy of the United States: being an account of the foreign relations of the country, from the first treaty with France, in 1778, to the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, with Great Britain», published in 1826. The article puts forward an alternative hypothesis: the emergence of the historiography of the genesis of the foreign policy of the United States occurred before the beginning of the second quarter of the XIX century – during the colonial period and the first fifty years of the North American state. A study of the works of thirty-five authors who worked during the 1610s and 1820s showed that amater historians expressed a common opinion about North America’s belonging to the Eurocentric system of international relations; they were sure that both the colonists and the founding fathers perceived international processes on the basis of raison d’être. The conceptualization of the intellectual heritage of non-professional historians allowed us to distinguish three interpretations of the origin of the United States foreign policy: «Autochthonous» – focused on purely North American reasons; «Atlantic» – postulated the borrowing of European practice of international relations by means of the system of relations that developed in the Atlantic in the XVII–XVIII centuries; «Imperial» – stated the adaptation of the British experience. The obtained data refute the provisions of scientific thought of the XX–XXI centuries and create new guidelines for further study of the topic.


Neurology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 92 (10) ◽  
pp. e1029-e1040 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitchell T. Wallin ◽  
William J. Culpepper ◽  
Jonathan D. Campbell ◽  
Lorene M. Nelson ◽  
Annette Langer-Gould ◽  
...  

ObjectiveTo generate a national multiple sclerosis (MS) prevalence estimate for the United States by applying a validated algorithm to multiple administrative health claims (AHC) datasets.MethodsA validated algorithm was applied to private, military, and public AHC datasets to identify adult cases of MS between 2008 and 2010. In each dataset, we determined the 3-year cumulative prevalence overall and stratified by age, sex, and census region. We applied insurance-specific and stratum-specific estimates to the 2010 US Census data and pooled the findings to calculate the 2010 prevalence of MS in the United States cumulated over 3 years. We also estimated the 2010 prevalence cumulated over 10 years using 2 models and extrapolated our estimate to 2017.ResultsThe estimated 2010 prevalence of MS in the US adult population cumulated over 10 years was 309.2 per 100,000 (95% confidence interval [CI] 308.1–310.1), representing 727,344 cases. During the same time period, the MS prevalence was 450.1 per 100,000 (95% CI 448.1–451.6) for women and 159.7 (95% CI 158.7–160.6) for men (female:male ratio 2.8). The estimated 2010 prevalence of MS was highest in the 55- to 64-year age group. A US north-south decreasing prevalence gradient was identified. The estimated MS prevalence is also presented for 2017.ConclusionThe estimated US national MS prevalence for 2010 is the highest reported to date and provides evidence that the north-south gradient persists. Our rigorous algorithm-based approach to estimating prevalence is efficient and has the potential to be used for other chronic neurologic conditions.


2000 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTHONY PAYNE

United States–Caribbean relations over the period of the last thirty or forty years have rarely—if ever—been analysed in a thoroughly satisfying way. It is a strange omission in the international relations literature given the proximity of the United States to the Caribbean, and vice versa. But the fact is that most accounts of the relationship have fallen prey to a powerful, but ultimately misleading, mythology by which small, poor, weak, dependent entities in the Caribbean have either created trouble for, or alternatively been confronted by, the ‘colossus to the north’ that is the United States in whose ‘backyard’ they unfortunately have to reside. Virtually all analysts of the US–Caribbean relationship have thus drawn a picture marked at heart by the notion of an inherently unequal struggle between forces of a different order and scale. Within this broad metaphor the only major difference of interpretation has reflected the competing theories of power in the international system developed by the realist and structuralist schools.


2021 ◽  
pp. 142-165
Author(s):  
Benjamin Hoy

By 1874, Canada and the United States had surveyed land and placed boundary stones over 6,000 kilometers of territory. They had established a cohesive skeleton for the border in every major region except the Arctic. Drawing on government correspondence, annual reports, and paylists, chapter 7 rebuilds the bureaucratic footprint of the Canada–US border at the end of the nineteenth century. It maps the positions and operations of the North-West Mounted Police and American soldiers as well as customs, immigration, and Indian Affairs personnel. In doing so, it shows how the border diverged across the East Coast, Great Lakes, Prairies, West Coast, and Artic, as well as differentiating the US approach to its border with Canada and Mexico.


2019 ◽  
Vol XV ◽  
pp. 33-59
Author(s):  
Marian Mencel

As a consequence of the intensification of nuclear tests and long-range mis-siles, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has become the subject of debates and pressure from the international environment, which is mani-fested by the increasingly stringent sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, complemented by diplomatic pressures and intensified political influence on Pyongyang by the United States and China. As a result of their application, the relations between the two Korean states were warmed up, and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, proposed to implement the process of denuclearization of North Korea and a direct meeting with the US President, Donald Trump. Why was there an unprecedented meeting and what are the consequences? How was the meeting perceived by the American regional allies? What is the position of China in connection with the events? What are the prospects for progress in contacts between North Korea and the United States, South Korea, China and Japan? Is it possible to fully denuclearise the Korean Peninsula? An attempt to answer these ques-tions has been made in this article.


Childhood ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-303
Author(s):  
Nina Schneider

Adopting a historical and comparative perspective and moving beyond the North–South divide in the historical literature on child rights governance, this article contrasts the first enduring national anti-child labour laws in the United States and Brazil – the US Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and the Brazilian Minor’s Code ( Código de Menores) of 1927. It identifies key political structures that conditioned these laws, and examines how these influenced the timing, scope, clustering, and impact of early child rights legislation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-81
Author(s):  
TAKU TAMAKI

AbstractA series of Six-Party Talks involving the United States, China, Japan, South and North Korea, and Russia resulted in the emergence of a narrative of a ‘nuclear-free Korean Peninsula’. Given the prevalence of nuclear weapons amidst Sino-American rivalry, the area is hardly ‘nuclear-free’. Instead, the phrase has evolved into a common signifier for the US and China, suggesting that, despite their rivalries, the North Korean nuclear issue can be detrimental for both – a rare convergence of interests in an often sensitive bilateral relationship. This article provides a Constructivist perspective to this particular aspect of Sino-American balance of power by taking the language of ‘nuclear-free’ seriously, recasting the phrase as borne of both mutual scepticism, as well as convergent interests, over the Korean Peninsula.


2013 ◽  
Vol 93 (5) ◽  
pp. 839-850 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mercedes Borja-Bravo ◽  
José Alberto García-Salazar ◽  
Rhonda K. Skaggs

Borja-Bravo, M., García-Salazar, J. A. and Skaggs, R. K. 2013. Mexican fresh tomato exports in the North American market: A case study of the effects of productivity on competitiveness. Can. J. Plant Sci. 93: 839–850. The North American market for fresh tomatoes (Lycopersicon escolentum Mill.) involves a complicated web of bilateral trading relationships between the United States, Mexico and Canada. Trade in fresh tomatoes between the three countries has changed significantly in recent years. In particular, Mexico's share of total US fresh tomato imports from all countries decreased from 93 to 88%, while Canada's share of US fresh tomato imports increased from 3 to 11% between 1996 and 2009. Mexico's declining competitive position in the US fresh tomato market is also evidenced by the fact that the Mexican share of combined Mexico–Canada exports to the United States decreased from 97% to 89% between 1996 and 2009. A spatial and inter-temporal model was used to analyze the impact of increased Mexican tomato yields on the North American fresh tomato market. Results indicate that for the average year between 2005 and 2008, 20% higher yields would have resulted in a 15.1% increase in Mexico's tomato production and a 28.9% increase in fresh tomato exports from Mexico to the United States. As a result of higher Mexican tomato sector productivity, Canadian and US producers’ shares of the US fresh tomato market would decrease and Mexico's would increase from 35.0 to 41.9%. The model shows that Mexico's share of US fresh tomato imports from both Mexico and Canada would grow from 88.1 to 90.3% as a result of the increased productivity. These results lead to the recommendation that increasing yields of this important export crop are key to maintaining and increasing the North American market competitiveness of Mexican-produced fresh tomatoes.


1994 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gladstone A. Hutchinson ◽  
Ute Schumacher

The recent passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, Mexico and the United States (US) marks an important step in the movement towards greater regionalism of trade among the countries in the Americas. From the perspective of the United States, the potential benefits to be gained from the anticipated increase in trade, economies of scale in production, increased access to the resources of production, and lower prices for the US market (due to the increased competition for consumer goods) combine to make its involvement in NAFTA desirable despite whatever limitations are posed, in the short and medium term, by Mexican underdevelopment (SerraPuche, 1992;US-ITC, 1991a).


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