Exporting the Internal Market – Panacea or Nemesis for the European Neighbourhood Policy? Lessons from the Energy Community. EU Diplomacy Paper No. 2, 2014

Over the last decades, a constant feature of the relations between the European Union (EU) and the countries in its neighbourhood has been the export of European law. Achieved through bilateral or multilateral agreements, the export of law has led to the ‘juridification’ of external policy. The energy sector is in the vanguard of this development. European energy law has been made applicable to third countries through the European Economic Area (EEA) and, most important for the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), the Energy Community. Bilateral agreements of relevance for energy include the (draft) Association Agreement with Ukraine which was rejected in November 2013 and came on the agenda again following a revolution in the country. Geopolitics has played and continues to play an eminent role in this respect. What does that mean for the export of European law to neighbouring countries? This paper argues that the export of European (energy) law does not only remain possible but is preferable to purely diplomatic relations between the EU and its neighbours if certain conditions are fulfilled. Based on the experience in the EEA and the Energy Community, multilateral integration agreements can be successful if they offer a well-designed institutional and procedural architecture based on mutual commitments, extend the benefits of the internal market to the participating third countries and create ‘win-win’ situations in satisfying also the participating third countries' vital interests in return for undergoing the hardship of economic reforms

A teacher's beliefs about teaching EFL in Brazil: a critical discourse analysis case study /

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão.Estudos sobre a abordagem de pensar do professor tem se concentrado em teorias e crenças. Estes estudos tem uma importância dupla. Primeiro, chamam atenção para os complexos processos cognitivos que envolvem ensinar uma língua estrangeira (inglês) Segundo, porque eles enfatizam a importância de compreender a crença do professor como maneira de entender sua atuação em sala de aula. Nesta dissertação investigo três momentos/ fragmentos do discurso de um professor de LE: um questionário, um conjunto de perguntas reflexivas e uma entrevista. Baseada na literatura sobre formação do professor, teoria da Análise Crítica do Discurso, (Fairclough, 1989; 1992) com o objetivo de revelar crenças de um professor de inglês graduado. A análise do Discurso serviu como ferramenta de leitura para examinar as crenças textualmente/lingüísticamente expressadas por este professor. Os textos escritos foram analisados a partir da Gramática Sistêmica de Halliday (1985; 1994). O exame dos processos verbais e dos participantes sugerem que a informante possui um conjunto sistematizado de crenças que tendem ser bastante tradicional, e que são organizadas, construídas socialmente através das experiências em sala de aula e fora. Este estudo sinaliza que o desenvolvimento do professor se dê a partir da conscientização crítica e da reflexão sobre variantes educacionais, nas quais a língua inglesa como língua estrangeira é vista num contexto social mais amplo

The Impact of Consumer Behaviour on Technological Change and the Market Structure - An Evolutionary Simulation Study

This thesis shows that consumers' behaviour has a decisive impact on the innovative behaviour of firms and on the development of industry. As a framework, an evolutionary simulation model is chosen, and market interactions are modelled according to a search theoretic approach

Lipopolysaccharide is a frequent contaminant of plasmid DNA preparations and can be toxic to primary cells in the presence of adenovirus

Endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide, LPS) is commonly found as a contaminant in plasmid DNA preparations. We demonstrate here that the quantities of LPS typically contaminating DNA preparations can generate a toxicity to primary cells (primary human skin fibroblasts, primary human melanoma cells) in the presence of entry-competent adenovirus particles. Toxicity can be observed with as little as 100 ng/ml free LPS or 100 pg/ml LPS when the LPS is assembled into polylysine/adenovirus complexes. Simple and effective methods of removing the contaminating LPS using either a polymyxin B resin or Triton X-114 extraction are described. Treatment of DNA samples to remove LPS eliminates the toxicity to primary cells

E-Learning and Blended-Learning: Opportunities for vocational further education of early childhood education professionals

Der vorliegende Artikel thematisiert die Chancen von E-Learning-Angeboten – und im speziellen Blended-Learning-Angeboten – für die berufsbezogene Weiterbildung frühpädagogischer Fachkräfte. Gleichzeitig zeigt er Schwierigkeiten und Herausforderungen auf, welche die Verwendung dieser Formate im Arbeitsfeld Kindertageseinrichtung (Kita) und in der Weiterbildung mit sich bringen. Dazu wird ein Überblick über ausgewählte Weiterbildungsangebote gegeben, die mit beiden Formaten arbeiten. Ergänzend werden das Weiterbildungsverhalten der Fachkräfte und damit auch deren Bedarfe untersucht sowie der Forschungsstand zu Blended-Learning-Massnahmen in der Weiterbildung skizziert. Blended-Learning-Formate können berufsbezogene Weiterbildungsangebote für Kita-Fachkräfte gewinnbringend ergänzen. Allerdings sind bisher Angebot und Zielgruppe erst mässig aufeinander abgestimmt. In Zeiten knapper Personalressourcen darf jedoch Blended-Learning nicht als ökonomische Lösung zur Wahrung des Weiterbildungsbedarfs verstanden werden. Vielmehr müssen Frühpädagogik und Weiterbildung bezüglich ihrer Mediennutzung gleichermassen an den Modernisierungsprozessen partizipieren. Nur so können die Angebote auf eine für Einrichtung, Fachkräfte und Kinder sinnvolle Weise genutzt, die Transformationsprozesse im Arbeitsfeld Kita vorangetrieben und die gesellschaftliche Teilhabe und Partizipation der Kita-Fachkräfte gesichert werden.This article discusses the opportunities and chances associated with e-learning – and blended learning in particular – for vocational further education of early childhood education professionals. It also points out challenges and difficulties of using these alternative learning approaches in the context of day care centres and further education in general. The article provides an overview of selected further educational opportunities in this area based on these two formats. In addition, we discuss the further educational need, behaviour and activities of early childhood education professionals, and outline the current state of research with regard to blended learning in further education. While blended learning can enrich vocational further education of early childhood education professionals, we find that currently the available offers are poorly tailored with regard to the target group. In view of scarce staff resources blended learning should not be regarded as an easy way out and economic solution to the problem of meeting further educational requirements. Instead, in terms of media use both early childhood education and further education should participate equally in the process of modernising their respective field. In this way e-learning and blended learning can become useful for organisations and professionals as well as children; it can contribute to the transformation of the sphere of day care centres; and it can help to secure the social participation of early childhood education professionals