The End of Corporate Governance Law

This article argues that corporate governance is sub-optimal because of special interest influence at both the state and federal level, and because institutionally the mechanisms for promulgating corporate governance are not capable of impounding corporate goverance science. I offer as a solution the creation of depoliticized agency (on par with the Fed) that could administer a federal incorporation regime in an expert manner and without special interest interference. I posit that shareholders should be empowered to select this federal incorporation option

D7.3 Training materials

This Deliverable gives a detailed description of the comprehensive training programme and of the open educational content that the University of Padua has accomplished up to now for the project "Linked Heritage: Coordination of standard and technologies for the enrichment of Europeana" (CIP Best Practice Network). The final version of D7.3 will be released by the end of the project, when all the Learning Objects will be finished

Integrated Scenario-based Design Methodology for Collaborative Technology Innovation

The paper presents a scenario-based methodology developed and tested throughout cooperative research and development projects. It is aimed at supporting information technology innovation with an end-to-end Human and Social Sciences assistance. This methodology provides an integrated approach combining a vision of the potential users, business aspects and technological challenges throughout the design process. An original combination of different methods is proposed and experimented: user-centred design, scenario-based design, user and functional requirements analysis, business value analysis, user acceptance studies, and visualization methods. This methodology has been implemented in three European R&D projects, in the domain of the telecommunications and Internet infrastructure. The key contributions of this approach are that it unifies brings together visions of the users, potential business value and technology challenges thanks to scenario construction.Scenario-based design ; user requirements ; business economics ; functional requirements ; visualization

Joint meeting of CORE Organic Pilot Research Projects and CORE Organic Funding Body Network (8 June 2009 - Rome, Italy)

The ERA-NET CORE Organic, conducted in 2004-2007, launched 8 transnational pilot projects, funded by the participants’ funding bodies. These projects are running for the period 2007-2010 and reached their mid-term at the end of 2008. The meeting was an opportunity to present the projects and their preliminary results at mid-term, including new research needs and how research may benefit the organic sector, and to have a discussion between project coordinators, CORE Organic Funding Body Network and other participants on experiences with transnational research arising from such projects

Vietnam : Feeding China's Expanding Demand for Wood Pulp

Regarding the forest sector, in a context of substantial areas of denuded and bare lands (initially around 25% of Vietnam area), forestry rehabilitation and development plans have been continuously on the focus in Vietnam since the end of the war. The first projects were planned under an existing broader program, the United Nations World Food program (1975-200). These projects essentially concerned agro-forestry and demonstrations trials. Vietnam started its economic renovation policy (known as “Doi Moi”) in 1986 with a series of major economic programs and industrial development plans1. Among them, the program 327 (1993-1998) was initially planning substantial effort to rehabilitate forest degraded lands. It soon shifted to focus on forest protection in critical zones. Finally, the program 661 (1998-2010), also known as “Five million hectares reforestation program” (5MHRP), really put the emphasis on a substantial increment of the nation's forest areas. By the end of this program, the national forests are expected to cover more than 14 million hectares. The program includes both protection of existing forests and reforestation. Initially, Most of the production plantations were planned to be established with fast growing exogenous species (i.e. eucalyptus). Now, the government is promoting the development of indigenous species as much as possible.forest; tropical forest; pulp; paper; economy; Vietnam; trade; network; globalisation; China

Civil Society in the 'Visegrad Four': Data and Literature in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia

The first of three publications on the '25 Years After -- Mapping Civil Society in the Visegrád Four' project contains an overview of existing data and literature in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. It looks at where and what kind of research on civil society has been and is being done, who is doing it and where the gaps are.To be consistent and comparable, the four country reports include the same core sections: relevant publications on civil society in the respective country; existing databases and other data sources; active centres of research, training, and policy studies. More than providing just a list, this report looks at how they can be evaluated in terms of scope, accurateness and depth. Finally, it considers the question of what the most crucial gaps in research and funding in the countries are.An academic volume is slated for the end of 2014. For other publications in English and German, see www.maecenata.eu

Machine-assisted Cyber Threat Analysis using Conceptual Knowledge Discovery

Over the last years, computer networks have evolved into highly dynamic and interconnected environments, involving multiple heterogeneous devices and providing a myriad of services on top of them. This complex landscape has made it extremely difficult for security administrators to keep accurate and be effective in protecting their systems against cyber threats. In this paper, we describe our vision and scientific posture on how artificial intelligence techniques and a smart use of security knowledge may assist system administrators in better defending their networks. To that end, we put forward a research roadmap involving three complimentary axes, namely, (I) the use of FCA-based mechanisms for managing configuration vulnerabilities, (II) the exploitation of knowledge representation techniques for automated security reasoning, and (III) the design of a cyber threat intelligence mechanism as a CKDD process. Then, we describe a machine-assisted process for cyber threat analysis which provides a holistic perspective of how these three research axes are integrated together

Knowledge-based economy

The European Union is resorting to long-term multi-annual political and economical plans. The current set of plans, “Horizons 2020”, also involves restructuring the educational system, as in the Bologna system. The idea behind it is that education should help industry to win the competitive battle with other major economical blocks. The idea is best described by the adage of the European Union of developing a so-called “knowledge-based economy”. It implies that education is a form of investment. We should educate people – the society should spend effort on educating people – in order for society to make profit on it. Contrasting this is the idea of education as a consumption good. In the latter, people study to become knowledgeable, since knowledge makes a person happy. We discuss here the dissident view why an educational system that is for investment-only will at the end not bear fruit and will destroy science, creativity and eventually any form of competitiveness in the economy. It will lead to moral as well as financial bankruptcy.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cultures of Incomprehension?: The Legacy of the Two Cultures Debate at the End of the Twentieth Century

This paper considers the impact of Snow's Two Culture's thesis on debates about the place of science and scientists in society in the latter part of the twentieth century. Debates concerned with the public understanding of science and the ‘science wars’, both of which relied to some extent on the dividing of society into ‘two cultures’, are contextualised within longer efforts by scientists to popularise definitions of science and society and their relationship with other epistemic communities. This paper argues that we should think about all these episodes as part of ongoing rhetorical boundary work, reflective of strains and stressors on science as an institution. The two cultures debate has provided one powerful rhetorical device, amongst many, for ongoing boundary work to establish or question science as the dominant form of knowledge in society and delineate who is allowed to speak for it, and wield its power