48 research outputs found
E-Democracy and the European Public Sphere
The chapter starts with an outline of outstanding recent contributions to the discussion of the EU democratic deficit and the so-called “no demos” problem and the debate about European citizenship and European identity—mainly in the light of insights from the EU crisis. This is followed by reflections on the recent discussion on the state of the mass media-based European public sphere. Finally, the author discusses the state of research on the Internet’s capacity to support the emergence of a (renewed) public sphere, with a focus on options for political actors to use the Internet for communication and campaigning, on the related establishment of segmented issue-related publics as well as on social media and its two-faced character as an enabler as well as a distorting factor of the public sphere. The author is sceptic about the capacities of Internet-based political communication to develop into a supranational (European) public sphere. It rather establishes a network of a multitude of discursive processes aimed at opinion formation at various levels and on various issues. The potential of online communication to increase the responsiveness of political institutions so far is set into practice insufficiently. Online media are increasingly used in a vertical and scarcely in a horizontal or interactive manner of communication
Diversification of Aeonium species across Macaronesian Archipelagos: correlations between genome-size variation and their conservation status
Original ResearchThe rich endemic flora of the Macaronesian Islands places these oceanic archipelagos
among the top biodiversity hotspots worldwide. The radiations that have determined the
evolution of many of these insular lineages resulted in a wealth of endemic species, many
of which occur in a wide range of ecological niches, but show small distribution areas in
each of them. Aeonium (Crassulaceae) is the most speciose lineage in the Canary Islands
(ca. 40 taxa), and as such can be considered a good model system to understand the
diversification dynamics of oceanic endemic floras. The present study aims to assess the
genome size variation within Aeonium distribution, i.e., the Macaronesian archipelagos
of Madeira, Canaries and Cabo Verde, and analyse it together with information
on distribution (i.e., geography and conservation status), taxonomy (i.e., sections),
morphological traits (i.e., growth-form), geological data (i.e., island’s geological age),
and environmental variables (i.e., altitude, annual mean temperature, and precipitation).
Based on extensive fieldwork, a cytogeographic screening of 24 Aeonium species was
performed. The conservation status of these species was assessed based on IUCN
criteria. 61% of the taxa were found to be threatened (4% Endangered and 57%
Vulnerable). For the first time, the genome size of a comprehensive sample of Aeonium
across the Macaronesian archipelagos was estimated, and considerable differences in
Cx-values were found, ranging from0.984 pg (A. dodrantale) to 2.768 pg (A. gorgoneum).
An overall positive correlation between genome size and conservation status was found,
with the more endangered species having the larger genomes on average. However,
only slight relationships were found between genome size, morphological traits, and environmental variables. These results underscore the importance of characterizing the
cytogenomic diversity and conservation status of endemic plants found in Macaronesian
Islands, providing, therefore, new data to establish conservation prioritiesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
The Network Concept of Creativity and Deep Thinking: Applications to Social Opinion Formation and Talent Support
Network support is a key success factor for talented people. As an example,
the Hungarian Talent Support Network involves close to 1500 Talent Points and
more than 200,000 people. This network started the Hungarian Templeton Program
identifying and helping 315 exceptional cognitive talents. This network is a
part of the European Talent Support Network initiated by the European Council
for High Ability involving more than 300 organizations in over 30 countries in
Europe and extending in other continents. These networks are giving good
examples that talented people often occupy a central, but highly dynamic
position in social networks. The involvement of such 'creative nodes' in
network-related decision making processes is vital, especially in novel
environmental challenges. Such adaptive/learning responses characterize a large
variety of complex systems from proteins, through brains to society. It is
crucial for talent support programs to use these networking and learning
processes to increase their efficiency further