Civil Society, Institutional Change and the Politics of Reform: The Great Transition

This paper examines the relationship between differences in civil society development under communism and the political, economic and institutional change and transformation after 1989. We collected a unique dataset on nature and intensity ofcivil society, institutions, economic reform, democratization

Characterization of non-aged and aged modern Prussian Blue pigments by Mössbauer spectroscopy, x-ray powder diffraction and x-ray absorption spectroscopy

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Nanoscale chemical imaging of phagocytosis : a battle for metals between host and microbe

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Handbook on the effective use of virtual learning platform and ICT tools for online courses

One of the major aims of IN2RURAL Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships project is to develop online learning courses with high-level interactive online and offline educational material particularly for higher education students who intend to obtain specific information on renewable energy resources. There will be two different types of online course developed during the project. One of the courses is called “Technical English for renewable energy” (IO8) course, providing a base for the online course of “Renewable energy for local development” (IO9) with professional and academic content consisting of four modules: renewable energy and rural development module, photovoltaic module, biomass module and wind energy module. The compiled materials will include information about delivering online learning materials to students by means of assessments and tracking, collaboration and communication tools by delivering them with a high degree of practical information. The elaboration of each section within the “Renewable energy for local development” course has been divided between the participating project partners. The Spanish lead partner is responsible for the elaboration of the renewable energy and rural development module along with the photovoltaic module, while the Hungarian partners have created the biomass module and the wind energy section has been developed by the participating Romanian organisations. Both online courses and all four modules within “Renewable energy for local development” course follow a homogeneous structure. One of the main purposes of the handbook is to provide useful information for teachers on how to plan and prepare online educational material by defining the common elements that the course material of each module should include, providing a short documentation on how the sample files have to be prepared and then uploaded to the online learning platform. It also provides instructions with orientation purposes and samples to teachers on how to prepare the suitable framework for a learning material. Besides the e-learning material, the online courses also involve self-introductions of students and topic discussion forums, a glossary for each renewable energy resource module and additional extra materials, such as photos, presentations and extra bibliography. The “Technical English for Renewable Energy” course will contain a glossary providing students with the specific words and expressions, allowing them to follow the modules of the “Renewable energy for local development” online course. The online course provides opportunities both for individual and/or group discussion work, and the present handbook will guide the user how to become acquainted with the effective uses of virtual learning platform and ICTs along with some teaching methods to convey learning information. One of the main reasons for providing e-learning material through an electronic website is to promote interactivity among future students. These days, both teachers and students must rely on interactive learning materials besides the traditional printed texts during their professional work. ICT-based education has undoubtedly affected and is affecting the learning process of students and it is important to underline that a good ICT-based education has the potential to increase students’ motivation towards acquiring the required knowledge. Furthermore, it can be declared that ICT-based education undoubtedly helps to promote in connecting school experiences with work practices. In sum, the principal aims of the present “Handbook on the effective use of virtual learning platform and ICT tools for online courses” is to provide practical guidelines for teachers on how to provide learning material in ~.doc and ~.xls sample files that will be later transformed as an output into interactive and enjoyable electronic learning material, specifications for each parts of the learning platform, so that all the teachers working in different modules have a clear idea of the material they have to prepare for the course, a standardized evaluation for the modules

WCRP surface radiation budget shortwave data product description, version 1.1

Shortwave radiative fluxes which reach the Earth's surface are key elements that influence both atmospheric and oceanic circulation. The World Climate Research Program has established the Surface Radiation Budget climatology project with the ultimate goal of determining the various components of the surface radiation budget from satellite data on a global scale. This report describes the first global product that is being produced and archived as part of that effort. The interested user can obtain the monthly global data sets free of charge using e-mail procedures

A parallel strategy for implementing real-time expert systems using CLIPS

As evidenced by current literature, there appears to be a continued interest in the study of real-time expert systems. It is generally recognized that speed of execution is only one consideration when designing an effective real-time expert system. Some other features one must consider are the expert system's ability to perform temporal reasoning, handle interrupts, prioritize data, contend with data uncertainty, and perform context focusing as dictated by the incoming data to the expert system. This paper presents a strategy for implementing a real time expert system on the iPSC/860 hypercube parallel computer using CLIPS. The strategy takes into consideration not only the execution time of the software, but also those features which define a true real-time expert system. The methodology is then demonstrated using a practical implementation of an expert system which performs diagnostics on the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME). This particular implementation uses an eight node hypercube to process ten sensor measurements in order to simultaneously diagnose five different failure modes within the SSME. The main program is written in ANSI C and embeds CLIPS to better facilitate and debug the rule based expert system

HHV-8 encoded LANA-1 alters the higher organization of the cell nucleus

The latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA-1) of Human Herpes Virus 8 (HHV-8), alternatively called Kaposi Sarcoma Herpes Virus (KSHV) is constitutively expressed in all HHV-8 infected cells. LANA-1 accumulates in well-defined foci that co-localize with the viral episomes. We have previously shown that these foci are tightly associated with the borders of heterochromatin [1]. We have also shown that exogenously expressed LANA-1 causes an extensive re-organization of Hoechst 33248 DNA staining patterns of the nuclei in non-HHV-8 infected cells [2]. Here we show that this effect includes the release of the bulk of DNA from heterochromatic areas, in both human and mouse cells, without affecting the overall levels of heterochromatin associated histone H3 lysine 9 tri-methylation (3MK9H3). The release of DNA from the heterochromatic chromocenters in LANA-1 transfected mouse cells co-incides with the dispersion of the chromocenter associated methylcytosin binding protein 2 (MECP2). The localization of 3MK9H3 to the remnants of the chromocenters remains unaltered. Moreover, exogeneously expressed LANA-1 leads to the relocation of the chromocenters to the nuclear periphery, indicating extensive changes in the positioning of the chromosomal domains in the LANA-1 harboring interphase nucleus. Using a series of deletion mutants we have shown that the chromatin rearranging effects of LANA-1 require the presence of a short (57 amino acid) region that is located immediately upstream of the internal acidic repeats. This sequence lies within the previously mapped binding site to histone methyltransferase SUV39H1. We suggest that the highly concentrated LANA-1, anchored to the host genome in the nuclear foci of latently infected cells and replicated through each cell generation, may function as "epigenetic modifier". The induction of histone modification in adjacent host genes may lead to altered gene expression, thereby contributing to the viral oncogenesis

Radiocarbon investigation of a superlative grandidier baobab, the big reniala of Isosa

The article discloses the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating results of the Big Reniala of Isosa, which is a massive Grandidier baobab (Adansonia grandidieri Baill.) of Madagascar. The investigation of this baobab shows that it consists of 5 perfectly fused stems and exhibits a cluster structure. The calculated wood volume of the tree is 540 m 3 , which makes the Big Reniala of Isosa the largest individual of all Adansonia species and also the biggest known angiosperm in terms of volume. Several samples were collected from the outer part of the stems. The oldest dated sample had a radiocarbon date of 934 ± 24 BP, which corresponds to a calibrated age of 845 ± 25 years. This value indicates an age of 1000 ± 100 years for the big Reniala of Isosa

Imaging Spin Reorientation Transitions in Consecutive Atomic Co layers

By means of spin-polarized low-energy electron microscopy (SPLEEM) we show that the magnetic easy-axis of one to three atomic-layer thick cobalt films on ruthenium crystals changes its orientation twice during deposition: one-monolayer and three-monolayer thick films are magnetized in-plane, while two-monolayer films are magnetized out-of-plane, with a Curie temperature well above room temperature. Fully-relativistic calculations based on the Screened Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker (SKKR) method demonstrate that only for two-monolayer cobalt films the interplay between strain, surface and interface effects leads to perpendicular magnetization.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Presented at the 2005 ECOSS conference in Berlin, and at the 2005 Fall meeting of the MRS. Accepted for publication at Phys. Rev. Lett., after minor change