Suchergebnisse

'Unity in Diversity' was the fortunate motto of the otherwise unfortunate Draft Constitutional Treaty. The motto did not make it into the Treaty of Lisbon. This essay argues that it deserves to be kept alive albeit in a new constitutional perspective, namely the re-conceptualisation of European law as 'new type of conflicts law'. The new type of conflicts law which the paper advocates is not concerned with selecting the proper legal system in cases with connections to various jurisdictions. It is instead meant to respond to the increasing interdependence of formerly more autonomous legal orders and to the democracy failure of constitutional states which result from the external effects of their laws and legal decisions on non-nationals. Europe has many means to compensate these shortcomings. It can derive its legitimacy from that compensatory potential without developing federal aspirations. The paper illustrates this approach with the help of two topical examples. The first is the conflict between European economic freedoms and national industrial relations (collective labour) law. The recent jurisprudence of the ECJ in Viking, Laval, and Rüffert in which the Court established the supremacy of the freedoms over national labour law is criticised as a counter-productive deepening of Europe's constitutional asymmetry and its social deficit. The second example from environmental law concerns the conflict between Austria and the Czech Republic over the Temelín nuclear power plant. The paper criticises the reasoning of the ECJ which supports the Czech pro-nuclear policy. It does not suggest an alternative legal outcome but questions the legitimacy of legal rather than political decision-making. The introductory and the concluding sections generalise the perspectives of the conflicts-law approach. The introductory section takes issue with Max Weber's national state. The concluding section suggests a three-dimensional differentiation of the approach which seeks to respond to the need for transnational regulation and governance. ; 'In Vielfalt geeint' lautete das schöne Motto des gescheiterten Konventsentwurfs für eine europäische Verfassung. In den Vertrag von Lissabon konnte es nicht übernommen werden. Der Beitrag plädiert für seine Bewahrung in der Form einer Re-Konzeptualisierung des Europarechts als eines 'Kollisionsrechts neun Typs'. Dieses neue Kollisionsrecht befasst sich nicht mit der Wahl zwischen verschiedenen Rechtsordnungen, zu denen eine Fallkonstellation Verbindungen aufweist. Es geht ihm vielmehr um den Umgang mit externen Effekten einzelstaatlich legitimierter Gesetze und Entscheidungen in anderen Rechtssystemen. Solche Effekte sind demokratisch insofern defizitär als die von ihnen betroffenen Bürger sich nicht als deren Autoren verstehen können. In der kollisionsrechtlichen (Um-)Deutung ist es der Beruf des Europarechts, diese Demokratiedefizite der Mitgliedstaaten der EU zu kompensieren. Dieses Potential begründet seine konstitutionelle Dignität und supranationalen Geltungsansprüche. Dieses Konzept wird an zwei aktuellen Exempeln illustriert. Bei dem ersten geht es um die Konflikte zwischen den ökonomischen Freiheitsrechten, die das Unionsrecht garantiert und nationalem kollektivem Arbeitsrecht. Die Rechtsprechung des EuGH in den Fällen Viking, Laval und Rüffert wird als eine kontraproduktive Vertiefung der konstitutionellen Asymmetrie der Union und ihres sozialen Defizits kritisiert. Beim zweiten Beispiel geht es um den Konflikt zwischen Österreich und der Tschechei um das Kernkraftwerk Temelín. Die Begründung des EuGH, die der Kernenergiepolitik der Tschechei Recht gibt, wird als unzulänglich bezeichnet und gleichzeitig die Legitimität einer Rechtsentscheidung, die den energiepolitischen Konflikt beenden soll, in Frage gestellt. Der einführende und der Schlussabschnitt vertiefen und erweitern den kollisionsrechtlichen Ansatz. In der Einführung geschieht dies in einer Auseinandersetzung mit dem Nationalstaatskonzept der Freiburger Antrittsrede

International lessons from emerging economies suggest that business associations may provide an effective channel of communication between the government and the private sector. This function of business associations may become still more important in transition economies, where old mechanisms for coordinating enterprise activities have been destroyed, while the new ones have not been established yet. In this context, Russian experience is a matter of interest, because for a long time, Russia was regarded as a striking example of state failures and market failures. Consequently, the key point of our study was a description of the role and place of business associations in the presentday Russian economy and their interaction with member companies and bodies of state administration. Relying on the survey data of 957 manufacturing firms conducted in 2009, we found that business associations are more frequently joined by larger companies, firms located in regional capital cities, and firms active in investment and innovation. By contrast, business associations tend to be less frequently joined by business groups' subsidiaries and firms that were non-responsive about their respective ownership structures. Our regression analysis has also confirmed that business associations are a component of what Frye (2002) calls an 'elite exchange'- although only on regional and local levels. These 'exchanges' imply that members of business associations, on the one hand, more actively assist regional and local authorities in social development of their regions, and on the other hand more often receive support from authorities. However, this effect is insignificant in terms of support from the federal government. In general, our results allow us to believe that at present, business associations (especially the industry-wide and 'leading' ones) consolidate the most active, advanced companies and act as collective representatives of their interests. For this reason, business associations can be regarded as interface units between the authorities and businesses and as a possible instrument for promotion of economic development. ; Internationale Studien legen nahe, dass Wirtschaftsverbände in Entwicklungsökonomien als Schnittstelle in der Kommunikation zwischen Staat und privatem Sektor dienen können. Da Russland lange Zeit als treffendes Beispiel für Staats- und Marktversagen galt, liegt der Schwerpunkt dieser Studie auf einer Analyse der gegenwärtigen Rolle der russischen Wirtschaftsverbände und deren Interaktion mit Mitgliedsunternehmen und staatlichen Institutionen. Nach Auswertung von Befragungsdaten, die 2009 in 957 Industrieunternehmen erhoben wurden, zeigt sich, dass große Unternehmen, Unternehmen mit Niederlassungen in regionalen Ballungszentren und Unternehmen, die Investitionen und Innovationen tätigen, häufiger in Wirtschaftsverbänden vertreten sind als Tochtergesellschaften von Großkonzernen und Unternehmen, die sich zu ihren Eigentumsverhältnissen nicht äußern wollten. Die Regressionsanalyse zeigt auch, dass Wirtschaftsverbände Teil dessen sind, was Frye (2002) 'elite exchange' nennt - wenngleich dieser Austausch nur auf regionaler und lokaler Ebene stattfindet. Diese 'exchanges' beinhalten, dass die Mitglieder der Wirtschaftsverbände auf der einen Seite aktiver die regionalen und lokalen Institutionen unterstützen und auf der anderen Seite auch häufiger Unterstützung von diesen Institutionen erhalten. Dieser Effekt ist jedoch insignifikant für die gesamtstaatliche Ebene. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass Wirtschaftsverbände als Schnittstelle zwischen staatlichen Institutionen und Wirtschaft und somit als mögliches Instrument zur Förderung der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung beitragen können.

Improving public spaces is a strategy of great importance for the successful future of our cities and their communities. The potential of places for citizen communication is often underestimated as stimulus for growth and development of urban communities and therefore public spaces are underused. The article analyses socioeconomic and psychological effects of architectural arrangement of traditional public spaces in modern perspective as areas for social interaction between different neighbourhood and citizen groups in an urban community, based on case examples of two cities: Vilnius in Lithuania and Weimar in Germany. Analysis of changing spatial composition and principles of social functioning are directly dependent on socio-political system of each different historical period and represent the chronological evolution of the present architectural appearance of the presented urban squares. The importance of local urban territorial communities is underlined in the article as they are the most important social entities for identifying the needs of local residents and in many cases are ready to take over the responsibility for rearrangement of the public spaces adjacent to their areas of residence. Based on a careful observation of public activities on going in the analysed urban squares in Vilnius and in Weimar, the principles of planning, functionality and spatial arrangement are analysed in the aspect of facilitation of social interactions on going or potentially possible in these spaces. The research identifies planning and spatial arrangement models that could facilitate the preferred ways of social interactions and generate the better overall aesthetical and functional quality of those places. Santrauka Viešųjų erdvių kokybės gerinimas yra svarbus miesto socialinės raidos uždavinys. Neįvertinus didelio viešųjų erdvių potencialo miesto bendruomenėms augti ir plėtotis, dažnai viešosios erdvės miestuose yra apleistos ir neišnaudotos, kartais jos užstatomos pastatais ir išnyksta. Pasiremiant dviejų miestų – Vilniaus Lietuvoje ir Veimaro Vokietijoje – pavyzdžiais, straipsnyje analizuojami socialiniai, ekonominiai ir psichologiniai miesto viešųjų erdvių architektūrinės struktūros efektai jų poveikio įvairių mieto gyventojų grupių bendravimui aspektu. Tiriamų miestų skverų ir aikščių erdvinė kompozicija ir jų socialinis reikšmingumas kito pagal besikeičiančius istorinių laikotarpių socialinius, politinius principus: tą parodo šių viešųjų erdvių architektūrinės planinės struktūros evoliucijos tyrimas. Straipsnyje iškeliamas vietos teritorinių bendruomenių kaip subjektų, tiesiogiai suinteresuotų greta jų gyvenamųjų vietų esančių viešųjų erdvių pertvarkymu, naudojimu ir priežiūra, vaidmuo. Remdamiesi atidžiu tiriamuose Veimaro ir Vilniaus skveruose ir aikštėse vykstančių viešojo bendravimo procesų stebėjimu, straipsnio autoriai pateikia rekomendacijas, kaip įvertinant miestiečių bendravimo specifiką reiktų tobulinti miestų viešųjų erdvių suplanavimą, erdvinę struktūrą, funkcionalumą ir kitus svarbius jų įrengimo aspektus. First Publish Online: 22 May 2013 Reikšminiai žodžiai:urbanistinis projektavimas,kraštovaizdžio architektūra,viešoji erdvė,socialinis bendradarbiavimas,darnus mobilumas,prieinamumas

The novel Death and the Dervish (Derviš i smrt, 1966), written by Meša Selimović (1910–1982), a "Yugoslav" writer from Tuzla (Bosnia), consists of two parts: the first (the subject of our essay) speaks of the futility of one man's resistance against a repressive system (from the 1st to the 9th chapter), and the second talks about the change that takes place within that man after he becomes a part of that very system (from the 10th to the 16th chapter). The main protagonist, Ahmed Nurudin, is the sheikh of a tekke, the head of a small religious order in a town in Ottoman Bosnia. The dervish, whose name means "light of the faith", has deliberately removed himself from the day-to-day activities of society. At forty, he is a settled and respected member of the community, until pushed onto a new path by successive shocks: the arrest of his brother and an encounter with "Ishak", a mysterious fugitive, who becomes the interlocutor in the sheikh's interior dialogues, after he hides him one night in the monastery. These events lead dervish to question his previous certainties and the meaning of "right" and justice, and they also bring him into conflict with himself and the political authorities . As Nurudin attempts to find out what has happened to his brother and to intervene on his behalf, he is drawn into the "Kafkaesque" world of the Turkish political and religious authorities: he visits the local kadi, muselim and mufti, trying to effect his release, but each time he meets with either indifference or threats. The sheikh's faith in the Ottoman system gradually weakens until finally he learns that his brother has been executed. The dervish shows himself to be a profoundly troubled man, a thinker rather than a doer, ill-equipped for the challenges he has to face. He struggles to find himself and maintain his integrity and dignity in this hostile political landscape. The novel also reflects Selimović's personal experience of the loss of his older brother, a battalion commander, who was executed without trial by a partisan firing squad, in 1944. In Death and the Dervish the author describes the conflict between ideology and life, which leads the protagonist to feel morally on trial and to bring to trial the people he encounters, acting now as the accused, now as a witness, now as the judge. Nurudin ends up becoming part of the political system himself: ill-suited to that, he is resigned to his tragic fate. Each chapter of the novel opens with a quotation from the Koran, the first and the last being the same: "every man is always at a loss".

The Rio Earth Summit in 1992 initiate a new educational politic which become actual today into the schools and districts. The Education For Sustainable Development put itself both in a movement of the French education towards the districts and a ' knowledge society' (in which the school loose its dominance). Our question is to find the innovative potentialities brought on by this educational politic, and its effects on the educational projects, both in the schools and the districts. Our research will be mainly conducted by the analysis of the public politics, the speeches from agents involved in Education For Sustainable Development projects, and the observation of local practices.The thesis we defend is that we are assisting to the emergence of a new 'educational form', that the Education For Sustainable Development made understandable and describable. Project working, partnership, participation, transversality, interdisciplinarity and experience learning : these are the tools that come to question the school works and the teaching methods. On the districts, the local autorities, the associations and the firms ask for their greater involvment in the conception of the educational politics, those politics becoming more locals. The multiplicity of all the projects made them less effectives and understandables. A 'learning territory' might allow to federate all the actors, to elaborate and act a global educational project for everybody, in a sense of cooperation and a collective learning process. ; En réponse à la crise économique, sociale et environnement, l'idée d'un développement durable s'impose de plus en plus dans l'action publique. L'éducation est présentée comme essentielle à la réussite du changement espéré et une " éducation au développement durable " se concrétise dans les établissements scolaires et sur les territoires. Notre problématique est de repérer les potentialités d'innovation dont cette politique éducative est porteuse et quels sont ses effets sur le projet éducatif, à la fois dans l'école et sur les territoires. Notre travail de recherche s'appuie principalement sur l'analyse de la politique publique, le discours d'acteurs engagés dans des projets d'éducation au développement durable et sur des observations faites dans des établissements scolaires.La thèse que nous défendons est que nous assistons à l'émergence d'une nouvelle "forme éducative" que l'éducation au développement durable nous permet de décrire et de comprendre. Travail par projet, partenariat, pluridisciplinarité et apprentissage par l'expérience sont les principes d'action qui vont interroger le fonctionnement des établissements scolaires et les méthodes pédagogiques. Sur les territoires, collectivités locales, associations et entreprises revendiquent une implication plus forte dans la conception de politiques éducatives qui se localisent. Les projets se multiplient, rendant l'action publique de plus en plus illisible pour le citoyen. Le "territoire apprenant" permettrait une plus grande cohérence de l'action. Nous préciserons les conditions d'un réel apprentissage collectif.

The assessment of impacts due to land-use or land-management changes on a regional scale is difficult, because rarely detailed information on soil properties and land-management are available. The awareness of the effects of interference in ecosystems is extremely important to supply landscape planners and politician information about the impacts of their proposed plans. The aim of this work is the assessment of the maximum water storage capacity of soils under different land-use and land-management situations in a real river catchment (Schunter). Based on field measurements of infiltration under several land-use and land-management situations, a modelling approach has been developed, to determine the maximum potential water storage capacity (Smax). This maximum water storage capacity is closely related to the saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks), and also a suitable indicator, which can be used to compare different land-use/land-management scenarios. Smax is a theoretical value describing the maximum potential of a given soil/land-use unit. An integrated measure, which takes into account the soil properties in combination to the land-use and the land-management, can be found as a part in the Curve Number (CN) from the "Curve Number Model" of the National Resource Conservation Service. The CN is a dimensionless value which has been identified experimentally for a variety of different soil, land-use and land-management situations for small scale catchments in the US. The CN is related to the water retention potential (S), and S is originally used to compute the direct runoff from a precipitation event. This work examined a new method to derive the CNm by infiltration measurements in the field. The experimental determination of the CNm allows the update of existing curve numbers for special situations not covered in the handbook. ; Die Bewertung der Auswirkungen von Landnutzung- oder Bewirtschaftungsänderungen auf regionaler Ebene ist schwierig, weil selten detaillierte Informationen über die Bodeneigenschaften und die Bewirtschaftungsformen zur Verfügung stehen. Das Beurteilung der Folgen von Eingriffen in Ökosysteme ist aber äußerst wichtig, da Landschaftsplaner und Politiker Informationen über die Auswirkungen ihrer Planungen benötigen. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die Abschätzung der maximalen Wasserspeicherkapazität von Böden unter verschiedenen Landnutzungen-und Bewirtschaftungsformen in einem realen Einzugsgebiet (Schunter). Basierend auf Infiltrationsmessungen im Gelände unter verschiedenen Landnutzungs- und Bewirtschaftungssituationen ist ein Modellierungsansatz entwickelt worden, um die maximal mögliche Speicherkapazität für Wasser (Smax) in Böden zu bestimmen. Diese maximale Speicherfähigkeit ist eng mit der gesättigten hydraulischen Leitfähigkeit (Ks) verbunden, und gleichzeitig auch ein geeigneter Indikator, um verschiedene Landnutzungs- und Bewirtschaftungsszenarien zu vergleichen. Smax ist ein theoretischer Wert, der das maximale Potential eines gegebenen Boden/Landnutzung Einheit beschreibt. Eine integratives Maß für die Berücksichtigung der Bodeneigenschaften in Kombination mit der Landnutzung und der Bewirtschaftung stellt die sogenannte Curve Number (CN) aus dem "Curve Number-Modell" des National Resource Conservation Service dar. Die CN ist ein dimensionsloser Wert, der experimentell für eine Vielzahl von verschiedenen Boden-, Landnutzungs-und Bewirtschaftungs-Situationen für kleine Einzugsgebiete in den USA ermittelt wurde. Die CN ist eng mit dem Wasserspeicherpotential (S) verbunden; S wurde ursprünglich verwendet, um den direkten Abfluss aus einem Niederschlagsereignis berechnen. Diese Arbeit entwickelt eine neue Methode, um die CNm durch Infiltrationsmessungen im Gelände zu bestimmen.

Um die Vorgaben der EU Wasserrahmenrichtlinie zu erfüllen, sollen alle Fließgewässer bis 2015 beziehungsweise spätestens 2027 zumindest einen guten ökologischen Zustand beziehungsweise ein gutes ökologisches Potential erreichen. Dieses Ziel einzuhalten erfordert jedoch teils umfangreiche Verbesserungen des Zustandes zahlreicher österreichischer Gewässer. Dafür sind diverse Maßnahmen auch in Hinblick auf die landwirtschaftliche Nutzung erforderlich, um beispielsweise den stofflichen Eintrag zu minimieren sowie die dynamische Entwicklung von Fließgewässern durch angepasste Nutzungen wiederum zu ermöglichen. Entsprechend der 2009 in Kraft getretenen EU Richtlinie zu Erneuerbaren Energien, gilt es in Österreich den Anteil an Erneuerbaren Energien weiter zu erhöhen, wobei der Gewinnung von Bioenergie aus landwirtschaftlicher Produktion große Ausbaupotentiale zugesagt werden. Dies würde jedoch zwangsläufig zu einer weiteren Intensivierung der Landwirtschaft führen, was auch zunehmende Flächenkonkurrenz zwischen Landwirtschaft und Fließgewässermanagmement zur Folge haben kann. Mit Hilfe der neu entwickelten Modellierungs-Software DynaLearn (Prototyp Software; Bredeweg, 2009) werden in dieser Arbeit die sozio-ökologische Folgewirkungen des konventionellen Bioenergieanbaus für die Fließgewässer und deren Auenbereiche modellhaft abgebildet und dabei spezifiziert. Darauf aufbauend werden mögliche Synergien zwischen Anbau von Bioenergiepflanzen und Fließgewässerrestauration modelliert und beschrieben. Demzufolge von besonderer Bedeutung für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung kann die energetische Nutzung von endemischen Pflanzen an Gewässerrandstreifen sowie die Nutzung von standortgerechter Vegetation, wie etwa von extensiv bewirtschaftetem Grünland, zukommen. Auch die Nutzung von häufig aufkommenden Neophyten, wie zum Beispiel des Drüsigen Springkrauts, oder des Japanischen Staudenknöterichs, kann zu Synergien zwischen Produktion von Bioenergie und den Anforderungen eines integrativen Fließgewässermanagements positiv beitragen. Die mit Hilfe der DynaLearn Software entwickelten Modelle erweisen sich hierbei als nützliche Werkzeuge, um komplexe Zusammenhänge näher zu beleuchten und zu verstehen. Somit kann DynaLearn Anwendern dabei helfen, Lösungen zu finden und wichtige Entscheidungen zu treffen. ; The EU Water Framework Directive sets the target to meet at least good ecological status or good ecological potential of all rivers by 2015 respectively 2027. Therefore, rivers with moderate to bad status have to be restored. To achieve this target, also agricultural use has to be changed, for example to minimize nutrient inputs as well as to re-initiate dynamic processes and at the same time adapt agricultural land use practices. According to the EU Directive on Renewable Energies, which came into force in 2009, Austria emphasizes to increase the share of renewables, in which agricultural bioenergies have high development potentials. As a consequence, an intensification of agriculture is expected; also leading to an increasing land use conflict between agriculture and river management. The newly established modelling software DynaLearn (prototype software; Bredeweg, 2009) enables to generate and display basic causal models about socio-environmental effects of bioenergy production in the potential floodplains. Based on the thereby gained knowledge, possible synergies between bioenergy production and river-floodplain restoration can be identified: A sustainable alternative to currently prevailing agricultural bioenergy plants, such as maize or short rotation poplar may be the utilization of endemic plants at buffer strips and the use of cutting from extensively cultivated riverine grasslands. Another alternative is the energy recovery of riverine neophytes, such as the Himalayan balsam or the Japanese knotweed. The models developed with the help of DynaLearn software proved to be a strong tool in explaining complex relations. Therefore, DynaLearn can contribute in decision support as well as decision making. ; by Maria Zacharias ; Mit dt. Zsfassung ; Wien, Univ. für Bodenkultur, Masterarb., 2011 ; (VLID)1036251

This research paper describes the political and social conditions that surround the emergence of the Tuning project in Europe, its scope, perspectives and actions with regard to the consensus in higher education mediated by the Bologna Declaration, as well as its appropriation for Latin American practices and their effects. This study uses history as a case study, analyzing the set of skills that the Tuning project promotes, and the various forms that have been installed, through statistical studies in various programs and faculties, in Latin American and Colombian universities. The article intends to raise a critique of the concept of curricular convergence proposed and implemented by this project. ; Describe las condiciones políticas y sociales de la emergencia del proyecto Tuning en Europa, sus alcances, perspectivas y acciones a propósito del consenso en educación superior mediado por la declaración de Bolonia, muestra la apropiación de éste para América Latina, sus efectos y prácticas, y el conjunto de competencias que promueve Tuning y las diversas formas que se han ido instalando en las universidades latinoamericanas y colombianas, a través de estudios estadísticos en diversos programas y facultades. Utiliza como caso de estudio los programas de historia. El artículo pretende plantear una crítica al concepto de convergencia curricular propuesto e implementado por el proyecto ; L'article décrit les conditions politiques et sociales de l'émergence du projet Tunning en Europe, ses atteints, perspectives et actions, à propos du consensus en éducation supérieure, par l'entremise de la déclaration de Bologne. De la même manière, on montre l'appropriation de ce projet-là pour l'Amérique Latine, ses effets et ses pratiques. Dans le même sens, on analyse l'ensemble de compétences promues par Tunning et les diverses formes qui se sont installées dans les universités latino-américaines et colombiennes, à travers des études statistiques en diverses programmes et facultés. Les programmes d'histoire sont pris comme cas d'étude. L'article a la prétention de poser une critique au concept de convergence proposé et implémenté par le projet. ; O texto descreve as condições políticas e sociais do nascimento do Projeto Tunning na Europa, seus alcances perspectivas e ações baseadas no consenso em educação superior, segundo a declaração de Bologna. Além disso, mostra a apropriação dele para a América Latina, seus efeitos e práticas. Analisa o conjunto de competências que promove Tunning e as diversas formas que se têm instalado nas universidades latino-americanas e colombianas, a traves de estudos estatísticos em programas e faculdades. Utilizam-se como caso de estudo os programas de história. O artigo faz uma crítica ao conceito de convergência curricular proposto e praticado no Projeto.

Self-Preparation: From New England to the Mississippi Delta Emily Wojtusik Faculty Sponsor: Gail Faris, Women's Center I have been accepted into the Teach for America (TFA) 2011 Corp, in the Mississippi Delta teaching elementary education. I was born and raised in Connecticut, and have attended the University of Rhode Island for the past 4 years. I have studied sociology with a concentration in criminology. This Senior Honors Project is both related to my areas of study and represents a slight departure that will prepare me for my teaching responsibilities in the Delta. This project is a comprehensive study involving social and political action in the Delta from the past to the present. The four components are (1) investigation of regional history and statistics regarding jobs, education, housing, and healthcare, (2) interviews with a URI faculty member who is a Native Mississippian as well as those who have spent time teaching in Mississippi, (3) interviews with TFA alumni who have previously taught in the Delta region, and who currently remain active there, and (4) a reflection on how all of the information gathered has prepared me culturally, academically, and affectively to soon begin teaching in my own classroom in August. By the time students from low-income communities reach eighth grade, they are on average 3 years behind their more affluent (and more often white) peers in math and reading. This gap widens to 4 years by grade twelve. One of the key ideas that TFA emphasizes as being at the heart of a new teacher's experience is 'building a strong knowledge base'. Before trying to develop this in children, I decided to build it in myself first. This project will show how the personal experiences of others can help me to create a foundation of knowledge before my transition to the Delta. Additionally, TFA implies the importance of 'working to effect significant gains with respect and humility'. Relying on my first hand encounters, I will be learning about the struggles, diversity, and other key issues in regard to poverty and educational inequity. As a result, I hope to be better equipped to examine my own background and biases, and to capitalize on how these will affect my teaching and my students' learning. College has been a building block in my life. The coursework I have experienced throughout my undergraduate career at URI has allowed me to develop empathy for the disenfranchised, and a maturing self-awareness. This combination led me to apply to TFA. In continuation, through TFA, I hope to be a catalyst in making a difference in children's lives regarding how they value and pursue education. This project is the first step toward that goal.

Background: Private healthcare providers deliver a significant proportion of healthcare services in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Poorer patients get sick and go without care more frequently, and spend more of their incomes on private healthcare than the wealthy. This review is focused on comparing health outcomes in private versus public care settings. It seeks to summarize what is known regarding the relative morbidity or mortality outcomes that result from treatment by public or private providers in LMIC.Methods: We conducted a systematic review of studies evaluating the impact of public and private healthcare provision. We performed meta-analyses on data within identified studies, in order to estimate the effects of type of healthcare provision on identified health outcomes.Results: Twenty-one studies met our inclusion criteria and explicitly compared health outcomes between the public and private sectors. Of those, 17 were cohortstudies, from 9 countries. Eleven studies were conducted in lower-middle-incomecountries ($996–$3,945 GNI per capita) and 10 studies from upper-middle-incomecountries ($3,946–$12,195 GNI per capita). Eighteen studies were conducted inurban settings. Fifteen of the 21 studies provided mortality for a health outcome,and studies examined a wide range of diseases, with tuberculosis (TB) being themost represented. A meta-analysis of all studies exploring the impact of healthcare type and mortality showed that patients in a private healthcare setting are less likely to die than patients in a public healthcare setting (OR 0.60; 95% CI 0.41–0.88). The pooled analysis showed that patients in a private healthcare facility are more likely to have unsuccessfully completed TB treatment than patients in a public healthcare facility (OR 2.04; 95% CI 1.07–3.89). Regardless of outcomes, the quality of evidence is rated, by objective measures, as either low or very low. Conclusions: More evidence is needed to compare health outcomes between the public and private sectors. Governments and researchers can play a critical role in improving the evidence base for decision making about the contributions of the public andprivate sectors in a given country's health system.Governments should encourage data collection in both public and private settings that would permit ongoing comparison of clinical data. When government facilities are absent or insufficient, contracting with private-sector facilities or providerswould appear to be an acceptable option. Governments must consider appropriateprofit margins, regulations and training for private providers.Further research is needed in this area, and should include low-income countriesand rural settings. Diseases of the poor – notably malaria and childhood illnesses – are largely absent from the current literature, with the exception of one study onHIV/AIDS and six on TB.

Historians of science have long recognized that agricultural institutions helped shape the first generation of geneticists, but the importance of academic biology to scientific agriculture has remained largely unexplored. This dissertation charts the relationship between evolutionary thought and industrial agriculture from Charles Darwin's research program of the nineteenth century through the development of professional genetics in the first quarter of the twentieth century. It does this by focusing on a single topic that was important simultaneously to evolutionary thinkers as a conceptual challenge and to agriculturalists as a technique for modifying organism populations: the intensive inbreeding of livestock and crops. Chapter One traces zoological inbreeding and botanical self-fertilization in Darwin's research from his articles published in The gardeners' chronicle in the 1840s and 1850s through his The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom of 1876. In doing so, it demonstrates how Darwin metaphorically linked natural selection to methodical selection in order to authorize the naturalist to become an experimental evolutionist. It also explores the potential of Darwin's program as an ideology for actors intent on transforming the political economy of agriculture.Chapter Two moves away from scholarly discussions of evolution to consider how intensive inbreeding was pioneered as a method for modifying crops by the Bureau of Plant Industry of the U.S. Department of Agriculture between 1897 and 1907, the decade following William Jennings Bryan's loss to William McKinley in the election of 1896. By analyzing both Robert Bakewell's livestock inbreeding system of the eighteenth century and Archibald Shamel's Connecticut River tobacco self-fertilization program of the early twentieth, the chapter explains the political economy of intensive inbreeding. It concludes by exploring the broader context of the experiments devoted to livestock inbreeding that George Rommel initiated at the Bureau of Animal Industry of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the early 1900s. Chapter Three combines the intellectual history of Chapter One with the political and economic history of Chapter Two by illustrating how the research program of experimental evolution that Darwin formulated in the nineteenth century mapped onto the large-scale industrial agriculture projects of the USDA between 1903 and 1925. The chapter follows ideas on inbreeding as they moved across various academic and professional communities, paying particular attention to institutional arrangements like the American Breeders' Association and the Bussey Institution of Harvard University that facilitated these transfers. It also examines various inbred organism populations that became prototypes for industrial production and the scientists who became their shepherds: the Wistar rats of Helen Dean King, the hybrid corn of Edward Murray East and Donald Forsha Jones, and the guinea pigs of Sewall Wright.

This theory-building dissertation investigates how states' narratives about dark pasts are shaped and contested over time, employing macro-historical analysis to trace the trajectories over the past several decades of Turkey's narrative of the Armenian Genocide and Japan's narrative of the Nanjing Massacre. In a time of unprecedented access to information and increased scrutiny of how the past is represented, how are some states able to maintain national narratives that are at odds with widely accepted versions of the underlying historical events? Why do some states attempt to come to terms with the past perpetration of genocide or mass killing, while others deny wrongdoing for decades? Despite dramatic increases in truth-telling, truth-seeking and state apologies for historic wrongs, there remains both a great deal of variation in how states deal with their own dark pasts and insufficient understanding of the sources of this variation. Given that narratives about past atrocities can increase threat perception between states, can be used by leaders to justify war to domestic audiences, and can create tensions and prejudices that contribute to future conflicts, there are compelling reasons to investigate the dynamics underlying this variation. The core question answered in this dissertation is: What are the sources of change and continuity in states' narratives of past crimes? Existing research tells us that domestic regime change, transnational activism and shifts in international alliances can bring about changes in states' narratives of dark pasts. Offering an integrating framework that incorporates the domestic and international spheres, I argue that while international pressures can increase the likelihood of change in official narratives of dark pasts, domestic actors largely determine the content of such change. Moreover, in contrast to observers who have warned that progressive changes in states' narratives threaten a backlash from the right, I argue that actors across the political spectrum contest and shape narratives of the past. My findings are based on more than eight months of fieldwork, including archival research in Turkey, and over seventy-five elite interviews conducted in Turkey, Japan and the United States.Building on comparative research on institutional change and feedback effects, this research contributes to literature on the impact of international norms, institutions and law on states' behavior, to scholarship on the politics of memory and transitional justice, and to work at the intersection of Turkish studies and genocide studies. My research will also help policymakers better deal with controversies over the past, by revealing the sources of change and continuity in narratives of the past and the longer-term dynamics set off by pressures on and changes in official narratives.

3rd Workshop of CODE-BRIGHT Users. 2011, Barcelona. ; Anthropogenic CO2 emissions are expected to continue to increase worldwide in the next decades. This could dramatically increase CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. One potential mitigation action is CO2 permanent storage in deep saline aquifers. CO2 is injected as a supercritical fluid (temperature and pressure higher than 31.1 ºC and 7.38 MPa, respectively) so as to obtain a relatively high density that minimizes the volume occupied by this greenhouse gas. CO2 density is highly dependent on temperature and pressure because of its high compressibility (Vilarrasa et al., 2010a), adopting a wide range of values (450-800 kg/m3). Since CO2 is lighter than brine, flow is affected by buoyancy. Buoyancy produces an upslope migration of the CO2 bubble in sloping aquifers. The post-injection fate of CO2 in sloping aquifers has been investigated (e.g. Hesse et al., 2008; Elenius et al., 2010) but without considering the actual shape of the CO2 bubble at the end of injection. However, the shape of the CO2 bubble at the end of injection affects its posterior evolution (McMinn & Juanes, 2009). Gasda et al. (2008) studied the effect of a slope up to 1º during the injection period using a 2D model, which represents injection through a horizontal well. However, CO2 injection through a vertical well, which implies a 3D geometry, has not yet been investigated.CO2 will be injected in the Hontomín CO2 pilot storage site, Burgos (Spain). Hontomín is the site for the CO2 storage Technology Demonstration Plant (TDP) of the Compostilla OXYCFB300 project, operated by Energy City Foundation (CIUDEN). CO2 will be injected through a vertical well in a flank of a dome-like structure with a slope close to 20º at a depth around 1450 m. CO2 injection tests are aimed to gain knowledge on trapping mechanisms and CO2 bubble and pressure evolution. Pressure evolution is important for assessing the caprock integrity and to avoid the open up of preferential paths for CO2 leakage (Vilarrasa et al., 2010b, 2011). These processes are relatively well known in horizontal aquifers, but a high uncertainty still exists in sloping aquifers. ; V.V. wishes to acknowledge the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCI), through the "Formación de Profesorado Universitario", and the "Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos – Catalunya" for their financial support. Additionally, we would like to acknowledge the Spanish Government (Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade) through the CUIDEN foundation (project ALM/09/18; www.ciuden.es) and the 'MUSTANG' project (from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement nº227286 ; www.co2mustang.eu) for their financial support. ; Peer reviewed

Toxicological effects and chemical structure can be related quantitatively or qualitatively through QSAR modeling (Quantitative structure-activity relationship). During the past decade, the development of QSAR tools has continued to progress especially because of the requirements of new European legislations (REACH and 7th amendment to the EU Cosmetics Directive) that encourage and support the implementation of alternative methods to animal testing including QSAR models. In order to facilitate the regulatory use of QSAR tools, the management of the environment directorate of the OECD and the former ECB (European Chemicals Bureau) have made available two free software tools (the "QSAR Toolbox" and "Toxtree"). Both tools allow the user to use several QSAR models and in particular the "Benigni/Bossa" rule-based system for predicting the mutagenic and carcinogenic potential of chemicals on the sole basis of chemical structure. Given the regulatory role of the OECD QSAR Toolbox and Toxtree, the INERIS and the CTIS jointly carried out a scientific validation of the QSAR models that form the "Benigni-Bossa" rule-based system. The main results of this study show that several conceptual and software related problems can, in some specific cases, give raise to wrong predictions. ; La mutagenèse et la carcinogenèse sont deux effets toxicologiques qui font partie des informations toxicologiques à fournir dans le cadre de plusieurs règlements sur les substances chimiques et notamment du règlement RE ACH. Les effets mutagènes sont habituellement caractérisés de façon relativement économique et rapide par le biais du test d'Ames qui quantifie le potentiel mutagène d'une substance grâce à une quantification du taux de révertants de souches de S. typhimurium auxotrophes pour l'histidine. En revanche, la détermination expérimentale du potentiel cancérogène des produits chimiques est particulièrement onéreuse. Le coût d'une étude de cancérogenèse chez le rongeur peut aller jusqu'à un million de dollars par substance. Ce coût élevé, ajouté à la préoccupation croissante pour le bien-être des animaux, encourage, en particulier, la mise au point de modèles QSAR pour la prédiction du potentiel cancérogène des produits chimiques. Dans ce contexte, le système « Benigni/Bossa » pour l'analyse des propriétés carcinogènes et mutagènes joue un rôle important en raison de son exhaustivité et de son intégration dans deux outils disponibles gratuitement : la boîte à outils QSAR de l'OCDE (OCDE, 2010) et Toxtree. Le travail effectué en collaboration entre l'INER IS et le CTIS (Centre de traitement de l'information scientifique) se proposait d'analyser la validité du système « Benigni/Bossa » en tant que tel et de son implémentation dans ces deux outils (boîte à outils QSAR de l'OCDE versions 1.1.01 et 1.1.02 et Toxtree version 1.6).

This work is the result of the research under CAP-IRE (Common Agricultural Policies on Rural Economies) project where the effects of post 2013 CAP scenarios are investigated. The broad objective is the understanding of farmer's reactions under CAP scenarios taking into account a long-term perspective by 2020. The analysis is based on 1,328 observations of household farmers across 11 case study regions in nine EU countries. The stated responses are analyzed in order to stress the influence of the next CAP reform on the farmer's decision process of using more or less water resources on-farm. For this purpose the farmer's responses to the CAP reforms are analyzed by a logistic model regression. According to the results, farmer's behaviour would be slightly influenced by the CAP reform. However, significant regional differences are found according to the model regressions. Indeed, in the case of new member states, farmers would have a greater intention to decrease water use if the current CAP support was abolished. Yet factors such as the amount of CAP supports, farmland size, crop specialization, farmer's age and altitude, are significant determinants of reaction to the CAP reforms. Taking into account the depicted influence on water use opportunities for re-addressing next policy design emerge. ; Este trabajo es un resultado del proyecto CAP-IRE (Política Agraria Comunitaria sobre la Economía Rural) que analiza los efectos de la reforma de la PAC después de 2013. El objetivo del proyecto es comprender las reacciones del agricultor tomando como horizonte la fecha de 2020. En particular el presente trabajo se centra en el análisis de las decisiones del agricultor en relación al uso del agua, es decir incremento o decremento en el uso del recurso hídrico. El análisis está basado en 1.328 observaciones de agricultores a través de 11 regiones en nueve países de la Unión Europea. Las respuestas a las intenciones de decisión en función de la reforma de la PAC se analizaron mediante regresión logística para investigar las variables socio-económicas significativas de reacción a los escenarios de la PAC. De acuerdo con los resultados una reforma de la PAC influenciaría muy poco las decisiones del agricultor sobre el uso de agua, si bien en alguna región cabría esperarse un decremento en el uso del recurso en un escenario de abolición total de las subvenciones. Entre otros factores que explican las diferencias de intención de uso del agua se hallan el nivel de subvenciones, el tamaño de la explotación, el tipo de cultivo, edad del agricultor y altitud. De los resultados de la investigación se derivan implicaciones para la mejora de la sostenibilidad de uso del recurso de cara al futuro de la PAC.