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NATO’s partnership policy, including its Partnership for Peace (PfP) program, which aims to develop cooperation and dialogue with non-NATO countries, represents the first steps for an essentially Euro-Atlantic alliance to establish an institutional relationship with Central Asian states. The war on terror discourse after the September 11 attacks, the US intervention in Afghanistan in 2001, and NATO’s takeover of the ISAF mission in 2003 made it easier for NATO to establish institutional relations with Central Asian states. This study first discusses the effects of the end of the Afghanistan operation on NATO’s approach towards Central Asia in light of current developments, such as the Russia-Ukraine war and NATO’s 2022 Strategic Concept. It then explains why the PfP program did not produce the desired results in developing relations with Central Asian states. NATO’nun ortaklık politikası ve bu politikanın bir aracı olan Barış İçin Ortaklık programı, İttifak’ın Orta Asya ülkeleriyle kurumsal bir ilişki oluşturmasının ilk adımını oluşturmuştur. 11 Eylül saldırıları sonrasında oluşan teröre karşı savaş söylemi ve 2003’te NATO’nun ISAF misyonun komutasını devralması NATO’nun Orta Asya ülkeleri ile kurumsal ilişkiler kurmasını daha da kolaylaştırmıştır. Orta Asya ülkelerinin Afganistan’a olan coğrafi yakınlığı, bu ülkelerin NATO üyelerinden askerî ve siyasi konulardaki beklentileri bu ilişkiyi taraflar açısından anlamlı kılmıştı. Ancak, Afganistan operasyonun sona ermesi, Rusya-NATO arasındaki ilişkilerin olumsuz doğası, günümüzde NATO’nun Orta Asya ülkeleri ile kurumsal anlamda ilişkiler geliştirmesini sınırlamaktadırlar. Bu çalışmanın iki temel amacı vardır. Birincisi, Afganistan operasyonunun sona ermesinin NATO’nun Orta Asya’ya yönelik yaklaşımına etkilerini tartışmaktır. Çalışmanın ikinci temel amacı ise BİO programının Orta Asya ülkeleri ile ilişkilerin geliştirilmesinde neden arzu edilen sonuçları doğurmadığını açıklamaktır. Çalışmanın temel iddiası ise NATO-Rusya ilişkilerinin niteliğinin, NATO-Orta Asya ülkeleri arasındaki ilişkilerin etkinliğini ve gelişimini doğrudan etkilediğidir.

Doc number: 166 Abstract Background: Rice straw has considerable potential as a raw material for bioethanol production. Popping pretreatment of rice straw prior to downstream enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation was found to increase cellulose to glucose conversion efficiency. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of popping pretreatment and determine the optimal enzyme loading using a surface response design. Results: The optimal doses of cellulase and xylanase enzymes were 23 FPU and 62 IU/g biomass, respectively. Using the optimized enzyme condition and popping pretreatment of rice straw (15% substrate loading, w/v), a sugar recovery of 0.567 g/g biomass (glucose; 0.394 g/g) was obtained in 48 h, which was significantly higher than that from untreated rice straw (total sugar recovery; 0.270 g/g biomass). Fermentation of the hydrolyzates by Saccharomyces cerevisiae resulted in 0.172 g ethanol/g biomass after 24 h, equivalent to 80.9% of the maximum theoretical yield (based on the amount of glucose in raw material). Changes in the chemical composition and surface area of rice straw were also investigated before and after popping pretreatment. The results showed little or no difference in chemical composition between the pretreated rice straw and the control. However, the surface area of pretreated rice straw increased twofold compared to the control. Conclusion: Popping pretreatment of rice straw can effectively improve downstream saccharification and fermentation, important for bioethanol production.

Doc number: 174 Abstract Background: Sweet sorghum is regarded as a very promising energy crop for ethanol production because it not only supplies grain and sugar, but also offers lignocellulosic resource. Cost-competitive ethanol production requires bioconversion of all carbohydrates in stalks including of both sucrose and lignocellulose hydrolyzed into fermentable sugars. However, it is still a main challenge to reduce ethanol production cost and improve feasibility of industrial application. An integration of the different operations within the whole process is a potential solution. Results: An integrated process combined advanced solid-state fermentation technology (ASSF) and alkaline pretreatment was presented in this work. Soluble sugars in sweet sorghum stalks were firstly converted into ethanol by ASSF using crushed stalks directly. Then, the operation combining ethanol distillation and alkaline pretreatment was performed in one distillation-reactor simultaneously. The corresponding investigation indicated that the addition of alkali did not affect the ethanol recovery. The effect of three alkalis, NaOH, KOH and Ca(OH)2 on pretreatment were investigated. The results indicated the delignification of lignocellulose by NaOH and KOH was more significant than that by Ca(OH)2 , and the highest removal of xylan was caused by NaOH. Moreover, an optimized alkali loading of 10% (w/w DM) NaOH was determined. Under this favorable pretreatment condition, enzymatic hydrolysis of sweet sorghum bagasse following pretreatment was investigated. 92.0% of glucan and 53.3% of xylan conversion were obtained at enzyme loading of 10 FPU/g glucan. The fermentation of hydrolyzed slurry was performed using an engineered stain, Zymomonas mobilis TSH-01. A mass balance of the overall process was calculated, and 91.9 kg was achieved from one tonne of fresh sweet sorghum stalk. Conclusions: A low energy-consumption integrated technology for ethanol production from sweet sorghum stalks was presented in this work. Energy consumption for raw materials preparation and pretreatment were reduced or avoided in our process. Based on this technology, the recalcitrance of lignocellulose was destructed via a cost-efficient process and all sugars in sweet sorghum stalks lignocellulose were hydrolysed into fermentable sugars. Bioconversion of fermentable sugars released from sweet sorghum bagasse into different products except ethanol, such as butanol, biogas, and chemicals was feasible to operate under low energy-consumption conditions.

Doc number: 170 Abstract Background: Empty fruit bunch (EFB) has many advantages, including its abundance, the fact that it does not require collection, and its year-round availability as a feedstock for bioethanol production. But before the significant costs incurred in ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass can be reduced, an efficient sugar fractionation technology has to be developed. To that end, in the present study, an NaOH-catalyzed steam pretreatment process was applied in order to produce ethanol from EFB more efficiently. Results: The EFB pretreatment conditions were optimized by application of certain pretreatment variables such as, the NaOH concentrations in the soaking step and, in the steam step, the temperature and time. The optimal conditions were determined by response surface methodology (RSM) to be 3% NaOH for soaking and 160°C, 11 min 20 sec for steam pretreatment. Under these conditions, the overall glucan recovery and enzymatic digestibility were both high: the glucan and xylan yields were 93% and 78%, respectively, and the enzymatic digestibility was 88.8% for 72 h using 40 FPU/g glucan. After simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF), the maximum ethanol yield and concentration were 0.88 and 29.4 g/l respectively. Conclusions: Delignification (>85%) of EFB was an important factor in enzymatic hydrolysis using CTec2. NaOH-catalyzed steam pretreatment, which can remove lignin efficiently and requires only a short reaction time, was proven to be an effective pretreatment technology for EFB. The ethanol yield obtained by SSF, the key parameter determining the economics of ethanol, was 18% (w/w), equivalent to 88% of the theoretical maximum yield, which is a better result than have been reported in the relevant previous studies.

Doc number: 168 Abstract Background: Robust yeasts with high inhibitor, temperature, and osmotic tolerance remain a crucial requirement for the sustainable production of lignocellulosic bioethanol. These stress factors are known to severely hinder culture growth and fermentation performance. Results: Grape marc was selected as an extreme environment to search for innately robust yeasts because of its limited nutrients, exposure to solar radiation, temperature fluctuations, weak acid and ethanol content. Forty newly isolated Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains gave high ethanol yields at 40°C when inoculated in minimal media at high sugar concentrations of up to 200 g/l glucose. In addition, the isolates displayed distinct inhibitor tolerance in defined broth supplemented with increasing levels of single inhibitors or with a cocktail containing several inhibitory compounds. Both the fermentation ability and inhibitor resistance of these strains were greater than those of established industrial and commercial S. cerevisiae yeasts used as control strains in this study. Liquor from steam-pretreated sugarcane bagasse was used as a key selective condition during the isolation of robust yeasts for industrial ethanol production, thus simulating the industrial environment. The isolate Fm17 produced the highest ethanol concentration (43.4 g/l) from the hydrolysate, despite relatively high concentrations of weak acids, furans, and phenolics. This strain also exhibited a significantly greater conversion rate of inhibitory furaldehydes compared with the reference strain S. cerevisiae 27P. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing a strain of S. cerevisiae able to produce an ethanol yield equal to 89% of theoretical maximum yield in the presence of high concentrations of inhibitors from sugarcane bagasse. Conclusions: This study showed that yeasts with high tolerance to multiple stress factors can be obtained from unconventional ecological niches. Grape marc appeared to be an unexplored and promising substrate for the isolation of S. cerevisiae strains showing enhanced inhibitor, temperature, and osmotic tolerance compared with established industrial strains. This integrated approach of selecting multiple resistant yeasts from a single source demonstrates the potential of obtaining yeasts that are able to withstand a number of fermentation-related stresses. The yeast strains isolated and selected in this study represent strong candidates for bioethanol production from lignocellulosic hydrolysates.

What happens to dominant narratives and settled self-images of so-called peace nations when experiencing actual combat in out-of-area military missions? This question arises when studying the contemporary international engagement of small states that previously have mostly been engaged in peacekeeping with limited mandates and non-use of force restrictions. As today's international missions have altered radically, it is important to analyse narrative friction and transformation in small states with little prior experience of international war-fighting. This article addresses this lacuna by examining two small states and self-proclaimed peace nations – Sweden and Norway – in relation to their engagement in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO-led security mission to Afghanistan 2002–14. By examining the interplay and discursive struggle of two narratives — peace nation and military culture – this article finds that these narratives constantly constitute and reconstitute a small state's self-image and the boundaries for acceptable or even required behaviour. With altered principles regarding use of force there is an increased friction between the narratives. By addressing these frictions, the article contributes to the literature on small state international military engagement and develops and refines assumptions regarding the drivers and consequences of small state participation in out-of-area missions.

The aim of this paper is to outline a segment of lex sportiva that is grounded in the idiosyncrasies of the internal rules of the hearing procedure in sports sailing whereby the fundamental principles and concepts of sports law as well as the bodies involved in the process of forming sports law are being analysed. For this purpose, the general notion of sailing, its theoretical systematization and the basic features of its sports variant will be presented, in the context of which the organization, rules and regulations will be considered i.e. basic documents including the fundamental legal principles of sports law represented in the relevant sport, all of which for the purpose of re-establishing the sports law, its concept and nature i.e. its potentially interdisciplinary character. To this extent, the re-establishment of sports law and its specific features will be highlighted particularly through appropriate examples of court and arbitration practices as well as the specific rules of sports sailing, part of which are also the rules on the hearing procedure which will be roughly presented and thereby their compliance with the fundamental principles of sports law will be accordingly analysed.

The article explores the extent to which Germany´s policy and the nature of the Bundeswehr deployment in Afghanistan were influenced by Germany´s ties with its allies, namely the USA and other NATO members, as well as by its effort to maintain its reputation of a reliable and dependable ally. The author addresses this issue using three practical examples. For the evaluation of the research project, the author uses the logic of appropriateness as a theoretical concept.

Whole-of-government (WOG) approaches have emerged as a blueprint for contemporary peace and state-building operations. Countries contributing civilian and military personnel to multinational interventions are persistently urged to improve coherence and enhance coordination between the ministries that form part of the national contingent. Despite a heated debate about what WOG should look like and how to achieve it, the causal mechanisms of WOG variance remains under-theorised. Based on 47 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, this study compares Swedish and German WOG approaches in the context of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). I argue that coalition bargaining drove the fluctuation in the Swedish and German WOG models. Strategic culture was an antecedent condition. In both cases, COIN and the war on terror clashed with foundational elements of the Swedish and German strategic cultures, paving the way for a non-debate on WOG on the political arena. Finally, bureaucratic politics was an intervening condition that obstructed or enabled coherence, depending on the ambition of the incumbent coalition government to progress WOG. Overall, the results suggest that coalitions face limitations in implementing a WOG framework when the nature of the military engagement is highly disputed in national parliaments.

Doc number: 169 Abstract Background: Integration of second-generation (2G) bioethanol production with existing first-generation (1G) production may facilitate commercial production of ethanol from cellulosic material. Since 2G hydrolysates have a low sugar concentration and 1G streams often have to be diluted prior to fermentation, mixing of streams is beneficial. Improved ethanol concentrations in the 2G production process lowers energy demand in distillation, improves overall energy efficiency and thus lower production cost. There is also a potential to reach higher ethanol yields, which is required in economically feasible ethanol production. Integrated process scenarios with addition of saccharified wheat meal (SWM) or fermented wheat meal (FWM) were investigated in simultaneous saccharification and (co-)fermentation (SSF or SSCF) of steam-pretreated wheat straw, while the possibility of recovering the valuable protein-rich fibre residue from the wheat was also studied. Results: The addition of SWM to SSF of steam-pretreated wheat straw, using commercially used dried baker's yeast, S. cerevisiae , resulted in ethanol concentrations of about 60 g/L, equivalent to ethanol yields of about 90% of the theoretical. The addition of FWM in batch mode SSF was toxic to baker's yeast, due to the ethanol content of FWM, resulting in a very low yield and high accumulation of glucose. The addition of FWM in fed-batch mode still caused a slight accumulation of glucose, but the ethanol concentration was fairly high, 51.2 g/L, corresponding to an ethanol yield of 90%, based on the amount of glucose added. In batch mode of SSCF using the xylose-fermenting, genetically modified S. cerevisiae strain KE6-12, no improvement was observed in ethanol yield or concentration, compared with baker's yeast, despite the increased xylose utilization, probably due to the considerable increase in glycerol production. A slight increase in xylose consumption was seen when glucose from SWM was fed at a low feed rate, after 48 hours, compared with batch SSCF. However, the ethanol yield and concentration remained in the same range as in batch mode. Conclusion: Ethanol concentrations of about 6% (w/v) were obtained, which will result in a significant reduction in the cost of downstream processing, compared with SSF of the lignocellulosic substrate alone. As an additional benefit, it is also possible to recover the protein-rich residue from the SWM in the process configurations presented, providing a valuable co-product.