7,298 research outputs found
Switzerland goes Europe? Swiss Education Policy Making under the Impact of the Bologna Process
In the last decade, comprehensive reforms were introduced in Swiss higher education that modified both the policy making procedures and the structure of the education system. The reforms were promoted by an international initiative â the Bologna Process. It is sup-ported by the EU Commission and gave central impulses for domestic reforms in the non-EU country by applying diverse instruments of soft governance whose impact outstripped domestic obstacles. Despite the high number of veto-players in Switzerland and cultural guiding principles of education that did not completely match the Bologna ideals, this pa-per finds a high approximation of Swiss education policy making towards the propositions and aims of the Bologna Process
Soft governance in education: The PISA study and the Bologna Process in Switzerland
This paper analyzes the importance of governance of international organizations (IOs) to Swiss policy making in the field of education. The focus is on the Bologna Process driven by the European Commission, and the 'Programme for International Student Assessment' (PISA) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The theoretical framework draws on sociological institutionalism and rationalism. The results demonstrate that IOs gave impulses for domestic reforms by applying diverse governance instruments. National transformation capacities of veto-players and cultural guiding principles on education in Switzerland were not able to hinder these impulses as supposed. Instead, the empirical findings show a surprisingly high impact of IO governance instruments, particularly of standard setting, coordinative activities and discursive dissemination on reforms in Swiss education policy-making. This is because IO governance modified domestic guiding principles on education so that they matched those of the IOs. Another reason is that the domestic level strategically used the international initiatives of PISA and Bologna to overcome long-standing backlog of reform. -- Dieses Arbeitspapier untersucht die Bedeutung von Governance internationaler Organisationen (IOs) fĂŒr die Schweizer Politikgestaltung im Bildungsbereich. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf dem Bologna Prozess, der von der EuropĂ€ischen Kommission vorangetrieben wird, und der PISA-Studie (Programme for International Student Assessment) der OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). Der theoretische Rahmen beruht auf dem soziologischen Institutionalismus und Rationalismus. Die Resultate zeigen, dass IOs durch Anwendung diverser Governance-Instrumente wichtige Impulse fĂŒr innerstaatliche Reformen gaben. Nationale TransformationskapazitĂ€ten - Vetospieler und kulturelle Leitideen der Bildung - der Schweiz verhinderten dies nicht. Statt dessen demonstrieren die empirischen Befunde einen unerwartet hohen Einfluss von IO Governance-Instrumenten - insbesondere von Standard Setting, koordinativen AktivitĂ€ten und diskursiver Verbreitung - auf die Schweizer Gestaltung von Bildungspolitik. Dies lag daran, dass IO Governance innerstaatliche Leitideen der Bildung so modifizierte, dass sie denen der IOs entsprachen. Zudem nutzten nationale Akteure die internationalen Initiativen von PISA und Bologna strategisch, um lange anhaltenden Reformstau zu ĂŒberwinden.Bologna Process,Direct Democracy,Education Policy-Making,EU,Federalism,International Initiative,International Organization,OECD,PISA Study,Switzerland,Veto-Player
Automating hypertext for decision support
A decision support system (DSS) shell is being constructed that can support applications in a variety of fields, e.g., engineering, manufacturing, finance. The shell provides a hypertext-style interface for 'navigating' among DSS application models, data, and reports. The traditional notion of hypertext had to be enhanced. Hypertext normally requires manually, pre-defined links. A DSS shell, however, requires that hypertext connections to be built 'on the fly'. The role of hypertext is discussed in augmenting DSS applications and the decision making process. Also discussed is how hypertext nodes, links, and link markers tailored to an arbitrary DSS application were automatically generated
Light-induced dipolar spectroscopy - A quantitative comparison between LiDEER and LaserIMD
Nanometric distance measurements with EPR spectroscopy yield crucial
information on the structure and interactions of macromolecules in complex
systems. The range of suitable spin labels for such measurements was recently
expanded with a new class of light-inducible labels: the triplet state of
porphyrins. Importantly, accurate distance measurements between a triplet label
and a nitroxide have been reported with two distinct light-induced spectroscopy
techniques, (light-induced) triplet-nitroxide DEER (LiDEER) and laser-induced
magnetic dipole spectroscopy (LaserIMD). In this work, we set out to
quantitatively compare the two techniques under equivalent conditions at Q
band. Since we find that LiDEER using a rectangular pump pulse does not reach
the high modulation depth that can be achieved with LaserIMD, we further
explore the possibility of improving the LiDEER experiment with chirp inversion
pulses. LiDEER employing a broadband pump pulse results in a drastic
improvement of the modulation depth. The relative performance of chirp LiDEER
and Laser-IMD in terms of modulation-to-noise ratio is found to depend on the
dipolar evolution time: While LaserIMD yields higher modulation-to-noise ratios
than LiDEER at short dipolar evolution times ({\tau}=2 {\mu}s), the high phase
memory time of the triplet spins causes the situation to revert at {\tau}=6
{\mu}s.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures and supporting information (18 pages, 11 figures
Stories for Change
This compendium of nearly 50 best practices showcases the notable strategies that increase access to arts and culture for older adult and immigrant populations. Newcomers and older adults (65 +) are two of the fastest growing populations -- communities across the country are grappling with a demographic makeup that is increasingly diverse and proportionally older than in the past. Arts and cultural organizations have the opportunity to reach-out, to increase resources in the community, and to engage populations that are at risk for being overlooked."Stories for Change" is a compelling collection, brimming with new ideas brought to fruition by many types of organizations including: museums, libraries, community development organizations, theaters, orchestras, dance ensembles, area agencies on aging, transportation bureaus, parks, botanic gardens, universities, and more. Organizations that hope to enhance the lives of their older and immigrant residents can find approaches portrayed in these Stories that can be adapted to meet the needs of their communities.Best practices include the well-known Alzheimer's Project of the Museum of Modern Art, which has been adapted to museums around the country, and Circle of Care, a unique ride share program that partners young people with older adults to attend free arts performances in Boulder, Colorado. Stories are located in rural, mid-size, and metropolitan settings; many can be easily implemented, and do not require a major overhaul of staffing, operations, or an organization's mission
Magnetic fluctuation and cosmic ray diurnal variations
A unified theory of cosmic ray diurnal variations has been proposed in which the first 3 harmonics of the cosmic ray daily variation all results from a single anisotropy produced by the combined effects of adiabatic focusing and anisotropic pitch angle scattering. The theoretical description of steady state cosmic ray anisotropies are simplified and improved. Preliminary results of a study of correlations between cosmic ray diurnal variations and the fluctuation characteristics of the interplanetary magnetic field are presented and discussed in light of the theory
Synthesis of structural damping, volume I Final report
Hysteresis model for analyzing dynamic behavior of complex structure
Designing a semantically rich visual interface for cultural digital libraries using the UNEsCO multilingual thesaurus
This paper reports on the design of a visual user interface for the UNESCO digital portal. The interface makes use of the UNESCO multilingual thesaurus to provide visualized views of terms and their relationships and the way in which spaces associated with the thesaurus, the query and the results can be integrated into a single user interface
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