Parliaments in Central and Eastern Europe: Changing Legislative Institutions

Parliaments emerged as one of the key political institutions in the postcommunist transition. Endowed with the significant power they acquired under the old communist constitutions, they were assigned the task of drafting & ratifying the new democratic constitutions in the transition period. Like most other institutions in Central & Eastern Europe, parliaments have undergone important changes in terms of how they function & in relation to their external environment. This article provides an introductory overview of the changing nature of parliaments in the region, focusing on two important areas of legislative studies. The first part of the article looks at the role of parliaments in representation. The second part offers several generalisations about the relationship between parliaments & their respective executive branches. By reviewing these two aspects of legislative process, some insights are also provided into the changing internal workings & procedures of CEE parliaments

Evaluation of Environmental Impacts of Organic Farming by LCA method - Greenhouse Gases from Corn Production

Organic farming is perceived as a system with a number of positive impacts on all components of the environment. For more precise assessment of differences in environmental impacts of conventional and organic farming, we need to be able to measure and quantify such impacts. For this the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) method may be used as a tool. Among other, the LCA method is also an invaluable tool for assessing GHG emissions related to agricultural production. In this paper, the use of LCA for evaluation of GHG emissions from Zea Mays L. growing is presented. The emission load was calculated by the simplified method LCA, impact category: climate change. The calculation was performed by SIMA Pro software with integrated ReCiPe Midpoint (H) method. The functional unit of the system was represented by 1 kg of corn grain. The model life cycle includes the farm phase (field emissions, seed and planting, fertilizers, plant protection products, agrotechnical operations), calculation of field emissions is also included. The results based e.g. on the yields in Cameroon show clear differences between conventional and organic growing of corn. The GHG emissions expressed in CO2e are after calculation on production unit 38.57 % lower in organic farming, compared to conventional farming

Dry Separation of Brown Coal Fly Ash, Determination of Properties of Separated Parts, and Their Application in High Volume Cementitious Pastes

The dry separation of brown coal fly ash of density 2.21 g/cm3, specific surface area 5112 cm2/g, having d50 and d97 of 60 and 231 µm was carried out in this research using ultrafine air classifier. Classifiers wheel speed was increased from 2000 to 10000 rpm to obtain fine and coarse products. Median diameter of 5.62 µm was obtained for fine products at a speed of 10000 rpm with nearly 90% decrease in median particle size as compared raw fly ash. Particle morphology was observed on optical, electron microscopes which showed that at 10000 rpm classifiers wheel speed, average fine particles morphology changed from angular and rounded slaggy particles to spherical particles. Cement – 60% fine products samples showed an increase of 26% of compressive strength at 90 days as compared to raw fly ash and linear relationship was developed between median diameter of fines and compressive strength

The 4^4He total photo-absorption cross section with two- plus three-nucleon interactions from chiral effective field theory

The total photo-absorption cross section of $^4$He is evaluated microscopically using two- (NN) and three-nucleon (NNN) interactions based upon chiral effective field theory ($\chi$EFT). The calculation is performed using the Lorentz integral transform method along with the {\em ab initio} no-core shell model approach. An important feature of the present study is the consistency of the NN and NNN interactions and also, through the Siegert theorem, of the two- and three-body current operators. This is due to the application of the $\chi$EFT framework. The inclusion of the NNN interaction produces a suppression of the low-energy peak and enhancement of the high-energy tail of the cross section. We compare to calculations obtained using other interactions and to representative experiments. The rather confused experimental situation in the giant resonance region prevents discrimination among different interaction models.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Rheological and Technological Quality of Minor Wheat Species and Common Wheat

Wheat is an important food grain source that nurtures millions of people around the world. Not only does wheat contain a large number of nutrients such as protein, wet gluten, etc., but also it has a lot of antioxidants such as dietary fibre, tocopherols, tocotrienols, etc. In a majority of cases, attention has been drawn to evaluate the grain yield and its components rather than its quality. The present investigation was carried out to evaluate the differences between minority wheat species and common wheat to determine the best rheological characteristics, technological quality as well as correlations between rheological and technological traits. The results revealed that hulled wheat species had a high protein content and wet gluten content. Einkorn and emmer were not suitable for ‘classical’ baking processing. But there is potential for other products, e.g. wheat rice (einkorn) or pasta (emmer). Spelt should be possible to be used in ‘classical’ baking industry, but the best solution is to use grain as a mixture with bread wheat. Also, this study showed a genotype variation in the antioxidant activity of einkorn, emmer, spelta and Triticum aestivum

Mechanical behaviour and durability of high volume fly ash cementitious composites

The purpose of this research is to separate different morphological particles of ASTM class F fly ash, and study their effect on mechanical behaviour and durability of high volume cementitious mixtures. In this research wet separation of raw fly ash is carried out, which resulted in three layers of different morphological particles. The first layer of particles float, comprise of about 1-5% of fly ash, is identified as cenospheres or hollow spheres. The second layer of particles is measured to be 55-60% of raw fly ash and consisting of porous spherical and rounded particles rich in Si and Al. The third layer particles is measured to be about 35-40% of raw fly ash. High volume fly ash cementitious composites containing second or third layer particles are tested under compression and bending, highlighting a higher strength and ductility in comparison to cementitious ones containing raw fly ash particles.&nbsp

A meta-analysis of global fungal distribution reveals climate-driven patterns

The evolutionary and environmental factors that shape fungal biogeography are incompletely understood. Here, we assemble a large dataset consisting of previously generated mycobiome data linked to specific geographical locations across the world. We use this dataset to describe the distribution of fungal taxa and to look for correlations with different environmental factors such as climate, soil and vegetation variables. Our meta-study identifies climate as an important driver of different aspects of fungal biogeography, including the global distribution of common fungi as well as the composition and diversity of fungal communities. In our analysis, fungal diversity is concentrated at high latitudes, in contrast with the opposite pattern previously shown for plants and other organisms. Mycorrhizal fungi appear to have narrower climatic tolerances than pathogenic fungi. We speculate that climate change could affect ecosystem functioning because of the narrow climatic tolerances of key fungal taxa

A Short-Term Response of Soil Microbial Communities to Cadmium and Organic Substrate Amendment in Long-Term Contaminated Soil by Toxic Elements

Two long-term contaminated soils differing in contents of Pb, Zn, As, Cd were compared in a microcosm experiment for changes in microbial community structure and respiration after various treatments. We observed that the extent of long-term contamination (over 200 years) by toxic elements did not change the total numbers and diversity of bacteria but influenced their community composition. Namely, numbers of Actinobacteria determined by phylum specific qPCR increased and also the proportion of Actinobacteria and Chloroflexi increased in Illumina sequence libraries in the more contaminated soil. In the experiment, secondary disturbance by supplemented cadmium (doses from double to 100-fold the concentration in the original soil) and organic substrates (cellobiose or straw) increased bacterial diversity in the less contaminated soil and decreased it in the more contaminated soil. Respiration in the experiment was higher in the more contaminated soil in all treatments and correlated with bacterial numbers. Considering the most significant changes in bacterial community, it seemed that particularly Actinobacteria withstand contamination by toxic elements. The results proved higher resistance to secondary disturbance in terms of both, respiration and bacterial community structure in the less contaminated soil

Plant Diversity Changes during the Postglacial in East Asia: Insights from Forest Refugia on Halla Volcano, Jeju Island

Understanding how past climate changes affected biodiversity is a key issue in contemporary ecology and conservation biology. These diversity changes are, however, difficult to reconstruct from paleoecological sources alone, because macrofossil and pollen records do not provide complete information about species assemblages. Ecologists therefore use information from modern analogues of past communities in order to get a better understanding of past diversity changes. Here we compare plant diversity, species traits and environment between late-glacial Abies, early-Holocene Quercus, and mid-Holocene warm-temperate Carpinus forest refugia on Jeju Island, Korea in order to provide insights into postglacial changes associated with their replacement. Based on detailed study of relict communities, we propose that the late-glacial open-canopy conifer forests in southern part of Korean Peninsula were rich in vascular plants, in particular of heliophilous herbs, whose dramatic decline was caused by the early Holocene invasion of dwarf bamboo into the understory of Quercus forests, followed by mid-Holocene expansion of strongly shading trees such as maple and hornbeam. This diversity loss was partly compensated in the Carpinus forests by an increase in shade-tolerant evergreen trees, shrubs and lianas. However, the pool of these species is much smaller than that of light-demanding herbs, and hence the total species richness is lower, both locally and in the whole area of the Carpinus and Quercus forests. The strongly shading tree species dominating in the hornbeam forests have higher leaf tissue N and P concentrations and smaller leaf dry matter content, which enhances litter decomposition and nutrient cycling and in turn favored the selection of highly competitive species in the shrub layer. This further reduced available light and caused almost complete disappearance of understory herbs, including dwarf bamboo

Directional turnover towards larger-ranged plants over time and across habitats

Species turnover is ubiquitous. However, it remains unknown whether certain types of species are consistently gained or lost across different habitats. Here, we analysed the trajectories of 1827 plant species over time intervals of up to 78 years at 141 sites across mountain summits, forests, and lowland grasslands in Europe. We found, albeit with relatively small effect sizes, displacements of smaller- by larger-ranged species across habitats. Communities shifted in parallel towards more nutrient-demanding species, with species from nutrient-rich habitats having larger ranges. Because these species are typically strong competitors, declines of smaller-ranged species could reflect not only abiotic drivers of global change, but also biotic pressure from increased competition. The ubiquitous component of turnover based on species range size we found here may partially reconcile findings of no net loss in local diversity with global species loss, and link community-scale turnover to macroecological processes such as biotic homogenisation