Extreme-ultraviolet to x-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) in operation for scientific applications are up to now single-user facilities. While most FELs generate around 100 photon pulses per second, FLASH at DESY can deliver almost two orders of magnitude more pulses in this time span due to its superconducting accelerator technology. This makes the facility a prime candidate to realize the next step in FELs-dividing the electron pulse trains into several FEL lines and delivering photon pulses to several users at the same time. Hence, FLASH has been extended with a second undulator line and self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) is demonstrated in both FELs simultaneously. FLASH can now deliver MHz pulse trains to two user experiments in parallel with individually selected photon beam characteristics. First results of the capabilities of this extension are shown with emphasis on independent variation of wavelength, repetition rate, and photon pulse length.

No abstract

The three transition economies of the South-Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia lie to the south of the principal Caucasian mountain range, and situated on the crossroads between Europe and Asia they absorbed the culture of both and cannot to this day decide with which they have greater affinity. During the last decade, tremendous progress has been made in the transformation and transition process towards a market economy. However, inadequate framework conditions and an unfavourable macroeconomic environment in the Caucasian region still have been impediments to entrepreneurship and private sector development. The present publication gives the characteristics of the SME sector in the Caucasus transition economies, provides information on SME definition, highlights the major legislative measures, laws, summarizes the support measures for SMEs, provides a SWOT analyses of the SME sector.

No abstract

No abstract