Round table Discussion: The European Union in Crisis? will take place from 2 to 4pm at 305 91亚色 Lanes, Keele campus.

Right: European Union Central Bank in Frankfurt

Containing the recent economic meltdowns of the Greek and Irish economies has provided the EU with one of the greatest tests in its history. With further European economies threatening to come unhinged, the challenges facing Europe seem likely to increase in the weeks and months ahead.

The event, co-presented by the European Union Centre of Excellence at 91亚色, the and the Schulich School of Business鈥� IMBA program, is designed to offer a variety of perspectives on the current EU crisis.

The round table will include adjunct economics Professor of the Schulich School of Business, history Professor Sakis Gekas, Hellenic Heritage Foundation Chair in Modern Greek History in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, and public policy Professor of the Schulich School of Business, whose work on international governance contributes to the study of mechanisms to coordinate policy-making in fragmented, multi-level institutional settings such as the European Union. Eberlein is also coordinator of the CCGES graduate diploma.

The participants will reflect on the following:

• Is the Eurozone/European Project at a crucial turning point?
• Is it sustainable in its present form given the huge income inequalities even within the Eurozone and even more among the European Union countries?
• Is a new 鈥渟ocial contract鈥� within countries and across the Union necessary?
• Has the crisis revealed deficits of democracy and leadership in the Union? If so, how are these best addressed?
• What are the political ramifications of the crisis at the national and European levels?
• Do governments have any room to manoeuvre or are the "financial markets" calling the shots?

All are welcome to this event, but attendees are asked to pre-register at euce@yorku.ca.

For more information, visit the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Published by Duke University Press, Homophobias looks at these questions through critical interrogations and analysis of diverse sites where homophobic discourses are produced, including New 91亚色 City, Australia, the Caribbean, Greece, India and Indonesia, as well as American Christian churches. The idea is to uncover the complex operational processes of homophobias and their intimate relationships to nationalism, sexism, racism, class and colonialism.

In the book's preface, Murray notes聽that the term "homophobia" had moved into the global sphere. This got him thinking about the term's meaning and the existence of homophobia. "Homophobia had gone global, and to be accused of being homophobic was to be accused of something more than just not liking homosexuals; furthermore, this accusation now carried potentially serious economic and political repercussions." He hopes the book will be the initial step in answering some of the questions the term homophobia raises.

Left: David Murray

Murray聽gathered researchers from a diverse range of ethnographic sites "to demonstrate how homophobia is a phenomenon that has no centre or origin, but more importantly, to examine how, or if, a transnational, comparative and聽ethnographically informed perspective might extend, challenge or change our understandings of homophobia."

In part one聽鈥� "Displacing Homophobia" 鈥� some of the issues the contributors examine include聽homophobia in New 91亚色's gay central, American Christian homophobia and homophobia as racism. In part two 鈥� "Transnational Homophobias" 鈥� they look at homosexual hate in Jamaica, political homophobia in Indonesia, as well as the Barbadian media. In examining these issues, Homophobias provides innovative analytical insights that expose the complex and intersecting cultural, political and economic forces contributing to the development of new forms of homophobia.

Murray, the director of the Graduate Program in Women鈥檚 Studies at 91亚色, is the author of .

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin

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Vergados developed this technique聽to get more accurate readings of the Earth鈥檚 thermal structure.

It was designed for satellite-to-satellite GPS signals but works just as well in ground-to-satellite GPS used by the average driver.

Left: Panagiotis Vergados

Atmospheric scientists like Vergados estimate atmospheric parameters聽鈥� pressure, density and temperature 鈥� by analyzing GPS signals received by low Earth-orbiting (LEO) satellites聽orbiting聽inside the Earth鈥檚 ionosphere.

As GPS signals enter the ionosphere聽鈥� the Earth鈥檚 uppermost layer聽鈥撀爋n their way to the LEO satellite, the signals bend and accelerate. Scientists routinely correct for this聽effect when analyzing the signals for atmospheric parameters.

But they don鈥檛 bother correcting the second-order ionospheric effect 鈥� that of聽the Earth鈥檚 magnetic field on the GPS signal traversing the Earth's ionosphere. 鈥淚t is a bit cumbersome to trace the signal and have knowledge both of the magnetic field and electron content at every point along its trajectory,鈥� says Vergados.

No longer. The 28-year-old Vergados has found a simpler way to factor in this second-order ionospheric correction聽that results in more accurate atmospheric readings.

He applied the Faraday rotation聽phenomenon, a radio-astronomical technique used to calculate magnetic signals coming from galaxies, to resolving the second-order ionospheric correction in the GPS signals. 鈥淚 said to myself, why not give it a try and maybe the Faraday would work better.鈥� It did.

To make the Faraday technique work in retrieving more accurate atmospheric data from GPS signals, Vergados had to design three聽algorithms. He has presented each one in three separate and award-winning research papers, two of which have already been published in scientific journals.

鈥淥ne would be good, but three is very good鈥� for a doctoral student, says a proud Vergados, who hopes to graduate this coming academic year.

The first paper was "Bending angle retrieval algorithms using COSMIC mission observations". It won the national Best Student Paper Award in Geodesy at the Canadian Geophysical Union (CGU) conference in Banff, Alta., in 2008.

The second was 鈥淪tudying the effect of GPS radio occultation bending angle variations on the retrieval process of dry atmospheric temperature profiles: A sensitivity analysis鈥�. It won third place in the international Best Student Research Paper competition at the fourth in Boulder, Colorado in 2009. (COSMIC is a constellation of six micro-satellites orbiting the Earth at about 800 kilometres)

The third was titled 鈥淎 new technique in retrieving Total Electron Content and second-order ionospheric delays in radio occultation experiments using GPS鈥�. It won two awards 鈥撀� 鈥� presented earlier this month in Ottawa at the 2010 (CMOS-CGU). The congress had over 1,000 registrants, and Vergados was competing against 10 to 15 students across Canada.

Judges must have been not only impressed with the groundbreaking content but with his easy-to-understand presentation, says Vergados.

Left: Panagiotis Vergados聽(right) accepts his 2010 CMOS-CGU prizes, with聽Spiros Pagiatakis,聽his PhD supervisor and CGU president

鈥淭he topic is completely new and I am one of the few students in Canada who works in this kind of research.鈥�

Not bad for a PhD student in physics who grew up in Greece and only came to Canada seven years ago.

Vergados earned a bachelor of science in physics from the University of Ioannina in Greece in 2003. At a wine and cheese reception at the university, the Canadian ambassador approached him and his friends and suggested they聽attend a workshop on graduate studies in Canada. For a lark, he applied to 91亚色. Meanwhile, he found a聽graduate position聽in Germany鈥檚 Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and planned to go to school there聽鈥� until 91亚色 accepted him. Before he could say no, his Canadian-born mother had packed his bags and bought him a ticket to Toronto. He could speak English and聽had family here.

By 2006, Vergados had a master of science.聽For the past four years, under the supervision of Spiros Pagiatakis, a professor of geomatics engineering in 91亚色鈥檚 , he has been working on his PhD. He expects to graduate next year and is already scouting around for a post-doc fellowship at national research centres and universities in Canada.

Vergados has no intention of returning to Greece. 鈥淚鈥檓 glad I came to 91亚色.鈥�

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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