Greek Language Teacher Education for Teaching Greek as an Additional Language in Greek Secondary Schools

The aim of this paper is to reveal the pre-service and in-service preparation of Greek language teachers (GLTs) in terms of the teaching of Greek as an additional language (GAL) in the multicultural environment of Greek secondary schools. The necessity of teaching GAL has recently appeared in the Greek educational system as increasing numbers of immigrant students have been appearing in Greek public schools for economic and political reasons during the last fifteen years. Therefore, GLTs, who are trained to teach Modern Greek language and literature to Greek language majority pupils in Secondary Education, are expected to teach GAL to Greek language learners (GLLs) in mainstream classrooms. In this paper, first, I stress the necessity of adequate preparation of GLTs during their teacher education to teach GAL in the mainstream classroom. Second, I discuss the professional knowledge base that GLTs are expected to develop to teach GAL. The research aims to probe if Greek Language Schools in Greece and in-service programmes conducted during the programme ‘Inclusion of repatriate and immigrant children in secondary education (Gymnasium)’ (2006-2008) provided adequate training to GLTs to teach GAL. Hence, I analyzed the curriculum content of the pre-service and in-service programmes adopting both quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Research findings stress the inefficient preparation of GLTs to teach GAL in the multicultural classroom

Testing The Convergence Hypothesis Using Time Series Techniques: The Case Of Greece 1971-1996

Over the last five years, few issues have proven more controversial in empirical economics than the so-called convergence hypothesis.  This paper considers the issue of convergence across Greek regions, using time series techniques.  Our empirical results support the popular view prevailing in Greece about the existence of dualism across the Southern and Northern regions of Greece.  A possible explanation for this may be the lack of experience that the poor countries (like Greece) have in comparison with the rich ones.  The rich countries have the combined ability to educate themselves as they grow rich and the endogenous ability to accumulate the knowledge upon which these efforts are made.  Also, the same argument can be used as an explanation for the regional differences -the fact that the poor regions do not have previous experience and knowledge for efficient investments

Comunidades zooplanctónicas estivales en relación con parámetros ambientales en el golfo de Kavala, norte del mar Egeo

Shallow coastal areas are ecosystems with high productivity. Although the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea is oligotrophic, the shallow coastal waters of the northern Aegean, such as Kavala Gulf, are productive due to the influence of the Black Sea water and the presence of freshwater input from three rivers. The aim of this work was to determine the structure of zooplankton communities in Kavala Gulf in the summer of 2002 and 2003 and to investigate their relation to environmental variables. Zooplankton communities were characterized by the presence of common coastal Cladocera, such as Penilia avirostris, small pelagic Copepoda, such as the calanoida Acartia clausi and the cyclopoida Oithona plumifera, and Tunicata, such as Oikopleura, Fritillaria and Doliolidae. The abundances corresponded to the peak of the warm period and were significantly greater in 2002 because of a P. avirostris bloom, which seemed to have better exploited the environmental sources favouring its dominance in the area. Overall, the structure of summer mesozooplankton communities in Kavala Gulf follows the pattern exhibited by mesozooplankton communities in other Greek coastal areas of the northern Aegean Sea.Las aguas costeras poco profundas son ecosistemas con alta productividad. Aunque el mar Mediterráneo oriental es oligotrófico, las aguas costeras poco profundas al norte del mar Egeo, como el golfo de Kavala, son productivas debido a la influencia de aguas provenientes del mar Negro y a los aportes de agua dulce procedentes de tres ríos. El objetivo de este trabajo fue determinar la estructura de las comunidades de zooplancton en el golfo de Kavala durante los veranos de 2002 y 2003, e investigar su relación con variables ambientales. Las comunidades de zooplancton se caracterizaron por la presencia de cladóceros costeros comunes, como Penilia avirostris, pequeños copépodos pelágicos, tales como el calanoide Acartia clausi y el ciclopoide Oithona plumifera, y tunicados como Oikopleura, Fritillaria y Doliolidae. Las abundancias correspondieron al pico del periodo cálido y fueron significativamente mayores en 2002 debido a una proliferación de P. avirostris, que parece que supo explotar mejor las condiciones ambientales favoreciendo su dominio en la zona. En general, la estructura de las comunidades de mesozooplancton de verano en el golfo de Kavala siguen el patrón exhibido por las comunidades de mesozooplancton en otras areas costeras griegas al norte del mar Egeo

FAULTING DEFORMATION OF THE MESOHELLENIC TROUGH IN THE KASTORIA-NESTORION REGION (WESTERN MACEDONIA, GREECE)

The Kastoria-Nestorion region, which belongs to the Tertiary MesoHellenic Trough (MHT), is a low relief NW-SE trending intermountainous basin filled with Tertiary molasse-type sedimentary rocks and nowadays drained by the Aliakmnonas River and its tributaries. In the present work, the large fault zones in the region and the general fault pattern are defined, mapped and described with the aid of satellite images. In addition, a large number of fault-slip data from the mesoscale exposed faults has been recorded, in order to better understand the faulting geometry and kinematics of the region. The stress-inversion analysis of these fault-slip data in comparison with earthquake faultplane solution information permits us to define the stress regimes imposed to the region from the Late Tertiary up to the present and to correlate them with the late orogenic and post-orogenic deformation of the Hellenic orogen. In particular, five stress regimes have been defined from which the former two (D1 and D2) are related to the late collisional processes between the Apulia and Eurasia plates, the next two events (D3 and D4) are related to the present-day Hellenic subduction zone, whereas the last D5 event which is the active deformation of the region appears as an intra-continental or intra-plate deformation more related with the Adria-Eurasia ongoing convergence rather with the Hellenic subduction zone

DETERMINATION OF FAULT PLANE SOLUTIONS USING WAVEFORM AMPLITUDES AND RADIATION PATTERN

In the present work a modified version of the program FPFIT (Reasenberg and Oppenheimer, 1985) is developed, in order to improve the calculation of the fault plane solutions. The method is applied on selected earthquakes from short period waveform data in the Mygdonia basin (N. Greece) as recorded by the permanent network of the Seismological Station of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki during the period 1989-1999. The proposed modification of the FPFIT program was developed in order to minimize the derivation of multiple solutions, as well as the uncertainties in the location of Ρ and Τ axis of the determined fault plane solutions. Compared to the original version of FPFIT the modified approach takes also into account the radiation pattern of SV and SH waves. For each earthquake horizontal and vertical components of each station were used and the first arrivals of Ρ and S waves were picked. Using the maximum peak-to-peak amplitude of Ρ and S waves the ratio Pmax/(S/\/2max+SE2max)1/2 was estimated, where S/Vmax and SEmax are the maximum amplitudes of the two horizontal components (N-S, E-W) for the S waves and Pmax is the maximum amplitude of the vertical one for the P- waves. This ratio for the observed data, as well as the corresponding ratio Prad/iS/Aad+SlAad)1'2 of the synthetic data was used as a weight for the determination of the observed and theoretical P-wave polarities, respectively. The method was tested using synthetic data. A significant improvement of the results was found, compared to the original version of FPFIT. In particular, an improved approximation of the input focal mechanism is found, without multiple solutions and the best-estimated Ρ and Τ axes exhibit much smaller uncertainties. The addition of noise in the synthetic data didn't significantly change the results concerning the fault plane solutions. Finally, we have applied the modified program on a real data set of earthquakes that occurred in the Mygdonia basin

DEVELOPING A METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE PARTICIPATORY MEASUREMENT OF SUSTAINABILITY

The measurement of sustainability can provide significant information in order to plan and implement environmental policies. Several methods have been proposed in the literature in order to select the appropriate indicators along with a variety of techniques for their measurement. These methods are often divided in two main categories: a) a top-down approach where the selection of sustainability indicators is often based on the decision of scientists and policy-makers and b) a bottom-up approach where local stakeholders influence the selection and the measurement of indicators. In this paper we propose a methodological framework which allows the selection of sustainability indicators based on scientific research but at the same time allows citizens to influence both the selection of indicators and their measurement. The benefits of the specific methodological framework are two: a) to incorporate in different stages of the measurement the opinions of local stakeholders, b) to assist in policy decision-making through the assessment of the current situation of sustainability

Progress towards a quiescent, high confinement regime for the all-metal ASDEX Upgrade tokamak

EUROfusion Consortium 633053European Union’s Horizon 2020 80516

Erratum to "Visual Outcomes of Ultrathin-Descemet Stripping Endothelial Keratoplasty versus Descemet Stripping Endothelial Keratoplasty".

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2018/5924058.]

Comparative transcriptome analysis of equine alveolar macrophages

Reasons for performing study: Alveolar macrophages (AMs) are the first line of defence against pathogens in the lungs of all mammalian species and thus may constitute appropriate therapeutic target cells in the treatment and prevention of opportunistic airway infections. Therefore, acquiring a better understanding of equine macrophage biology is of paramount importance in addressing this issue in relation to the horse. Objectives: To compare the transcriptome of equine AMs with that of equine peritoneal macrophages (PMs) and to investigate the effect of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on equine AM. Study design: Gene expression study of equine AMs. Methods: Cells from both bronchoalveolar and peritoneal lavage fluid were isolated from systemically healthy horses that had been submitted to euthanasia. Cells were cryopreserved. RNA was extracted and comparative microarray analyses were performed in AMs and PMs, and in AMs treated and untreated with LPS. Comparisons with published data derived from human AM studies were made, with particular focus on LPS-induced inflammatory status. Results: The comparison between AMs and PMs revealed the differential basal expression of 451 genes. Gene expression analysis revealed an alternative (M2) macrophage polarisation profile in AMs and a hybrid macrophage activation profile in PMs, a phenomenon potentially attributable to a degree of induced endotoxin tolerance. The gene expression profile of equine AMs following LPS stimulation revealed significant changes in the expression of 240 genes, including well-known upregulated inflammatory genes. This LPS-induced gene expression profile of equine AMs more closely resembles that of human rather than murine macrophages. Conclusions: This study improves current understanding of equine macrophage biology. These data suggest that the horse may represent a suitable animal model for the study of human macrophage-associated lung inflammation and data derived from human macrophage studies may have significant relevance to the horse