Not Just Solidarity Providers. Investigating the Political Dimension of Alternative Action Organisations (AAOs) during the Economic Crisis in Greece

The current economic crisis was a turning point, for the worse, in the everyday reality for a huge sector of the Greek population. Austerity-stricken Greece is characterised by the collapse of the wel-fare state and by increasingly uncovered basic needs. The answer to this humanitarian problem has been given by thousands of formal and informal initiatives and organisations and their solidarity actions, such as barter networks, food banks, consumers-producers networks, soup kitchens, new cooperatives, social economy enterprises and free legal advice. Despite the role of these initiatives and organisations in cover-ing needs, there are also signs that some of them make claims for social and/or political change. Conse-quently, some of these groups and organisations function in the political arena. This paper aims to map and analyse Alternative Action Organisations (AAOs), which are engaged with solidarity and political ac-tions, as well. It compares 'political AAOs' (engaged in protest, awareness raising and lobbying activities) and 'non-political AAOs' (engaged exclusively in solidarity actions) with respect to some of their main fea-tures. Moreover, the paper aims, through explanatory analysis, to uncover the predictors associated with AAOs' engagement in political activities

Seismic Response of 20-Valleys: Local Site Effects

Layering and geometry effects on ground response of two-dimensional sedimentary valleys under oblique seismic excitation are investigated. The seismic wave has the shape of a half cycle incoming pulse with SV-wave characteristics. Vertical and oblique incoming signals of varying duration are used. The analysis is performed using finite element techniques, an equivalent effective force method to prescribe the free field motion within the domain of computation, and an artificial boundary to absorb the scattered motion. Simple examples are presented confirming the validity of this methodology. It is shown that surface waves generated at the valley edges propagate through the basin producing an increased ground response. Horizontal and vertical displacements are affected significantly by valley geometry, particularly by the inclination of the valley sides. Layering and inclined waves contribute to producing amplification and very long duration of ground motion

The Missing Archive

Abstract

Can forward interest rates predict future spot rates in South Africa? A test of the pure expectations hypothesis and market efficiency in the South African government bond market

The pure expectations hypothesis says that forward rates, implied off a yield curve, are unbiased predictors of future spot rates. Which implies forward rates, according to the pure expectations hypothesis, should provide reliable forecasts of future spot rates. This study set out to see if the theory behind the pure expectations hypothesis holds in a South African context. If it does hold, it can have an impact on real world applications such as bond trading strategies and the setting of monetary policy. To test the theory behind the pure expectations hypothesis, South African government bond data for the short end of the yield curve was used. Various regression tests were run. These regressions tested mainly for forward rate forecast accuracy, the relationship between forecast errors and changes in the spot rate, for the presence of liquidity premiums and to test for market efficiency. The results indicated that forecast accuracy and the relationship between forecast errors and changes in the spot rate were contrary to the theory behind the pure expectations hypothesis. A liquidity premium was found to exist and there appeared to be weak form market efficiency. These results led to a conclusion that there is very little evidence to support the theory behind the pure expectations hypothesis. This was mainly due to the presence of a liquidity premium. The pure expectations hypothesis does not seem to be of any significant use within real world applications

Μελέτη Aντίστροφης Mηχανικής (Reverse Engineering Study) για τον προσδιορισμό των εκδόχων του πυρήνα του πρωτότυπου σκευάσματος της Πρασουγρέλης και επικύρωση των αναλυτικών μεθόδων ποσοτικοποίησής τους

Τα φάρμακα αποτελούν, σήμερα, το επίκεντρο των ερευνών πολλών σπουδαίων επιστημόνων και έχει αποδειχθεί η χρησιμότητά τους μέσα στους αιώνες, τόσο για τον θεραπευτικό όσο και για τον προληπτικό σκοπό για τον οποίο προορίζονται, με αποτέλεσμα να εντείνονται συνεχώς οι προσπάθειες ανάλυσής τους με την αρωγή της σύγχρονης φαρμακευτικής επιστήμης. Αντικείμενο της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας ειδίκευσης, με τίτλο “Μελέτη Αντίστροφης Μηχανικής (Reverse Engineering Study) για τον προσδιορισμό των εκδόχων του πυρήνα του πρωτότυπου σκευάσματος της Πρασουγρέλης και επικύρωση των αναλυτικών μεθόδων ποσοτικοποίησής τους”, που πραγματοποιήθηκε στο πλαίσιο του μεταπτυχιακού προγράμματος σπουδών, αποτελεί η αποκωδικοποίηση της ποσοτικής σύστασης των εκδόχων που περιέχονται στον πυρήνα του συγκεκριμένου πρωτότυπου φαρμακευτικού σκευάσματος, με σκοπό την πιστότερη αντιγραφή του από τις φαρμακοβιομηχανίες παραγωγής γενόσημων φαρμάκων, ίδιας αποτελεσματικότητας αλλά μειωμένου κόστους. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, τα έκδοχα της μαννιτόλης, της υπρομελλόζης, της μικροκρυσταλλικής κυτταρίνης και του στεατικού μαγνησίου ποσοτικοποιήθηκαν στον πυρήνα του δισκίου, μετά από προηγούμενη αξιολόγηση της μεθοδολογίας που χρησιμοποιήθηκε, όσον αφορά την καταλληλότητα και εφαρμοσιμότητά της. Η περιεκτικότητα της κροσκαρμελλόζης, ωστόσο, υπολογίστηκε εκ διαφοράς των υπολοίπων εκδόχων. Κατά την επικύρωση των αναλυτικών μεθόδων, εξετάστηκαν χαρακτηριστικά ποιότητας, όπως η ειδικότητα, το όριο ποσοτικοποίησης, η γραμμικότητα, το εύρος γραμμικής περιοχής, η ακρίβεια και η πιστότητα για να αποδειχθεί ότι πράγματι, είναι κατάλληλες για τον σκοπό για τον οποίο προορίζονται (fitness for purpose). Τέλος, πέραν των ποσοτικών πληροφοριών που εξήχθησαν από τη μελέτη αυτή, η ανάλυση και η σύγκριση των δειγμάτων, προερχόμενων από δύο διαφορετικούς τόπους παραγωγής, την Αυστραλία και την Ευρώπη, προσέδωσε μια πληθώρα ποιοτικών δεδομένων για την ολοκλήρωση της μελέτης.Medicines are, nowadays, the focus of many great scientists’ research and their usefulness has been proven over the centuries, for both the therapeutic and the preventive purpose for which they are being developed. Therefore, their analysis efforts with the help of modern pharmaceutical science are continuously intensified. The purpose of this diploma thesis, entitled as “Reverse Engineering Study for the determination of core’ excipients of Prasugrel antithrombotic drug and validation of analytical methods for their quantitation”, carried out as part of postgraduate program, is the decoding of quantitative composition of the excipients contained in the core of branded - original medicinal product, with the scope of faithfully copying it from generic drug industries, in order to achieve the same efficiency but lower cost. More specifically, the excipients of mannitol, hypromellose, microcrystalline cellulose and magnesium stearate were quantified in the tablet’s core, after previous evaluation of the methodology employed with regards to suitability / applicability. The content of croscarmellose was calculated, however, by difference from the other excipients. The analytical methods employed for the determination of the aforementioned excipients were validated with respect to characteristics, such as specificity, limit of quantitation, linearity, range, accuracy and precision, in order to be proved that they are actually, fit for the purpose for which they are intended. Finally, in addition to the quantitative information extracted from this study, the analysis and comparison of samples from two different production sites, Australia and Europe, provided a wealth of qualitative data for the completion of the study

Chapter Designing VR and AR gamifications for cultural heritage educational escape games

The 43rd UID conference, held in Genova, takes up the theme of ‘Dialogues’ as practice and debate on many fundamental topics in our social life, especially in these complex and not yet resolved times. The city of Genova offers the opportunity to ponder on the value of comparison and on the possibilities for the community, naturally focused on the aspects that concern us, as professors, researchers, disseminators of knowledge, or on all the possibile meanings of the discipline of representation and its dialogue with ‘others’, which we have broadly catalogued in three macro areas: History, Semiotics, Science / Technology. Therefore, “dialogue” as a profitable exchange based on a common language, without which it is impossible to comprehend and understand one another; and the graphic sign that connotes the conference is the precise transcription of this concept: the title ‘translated’ into signs, derived from the visual alphabet designed for the visual identity of the UID since 2017. There are many topics which refer to three macro sessions: - Witnessing (signs and history) - Communicating (signs and semiotics) - Experimenting (signs and sciences) Thanks to the different points of view, an exceptional resource of our disciplinary area, we want to try to outline the prevailing theoretical-operational synergies, the collaborative lines of an instrumental nature, the recent updates of the repertoires of images that attest and nourish the relations among representation, history, semiotics, sciences

Transnational Solidarity, Migration, and the Refugee Crisis: (In)Formal Organising and Political Environments in Greece, Germany, and Denmark

Over the last decade, the unprecedented influx of refugees and migrants into the European Union has posed a significant challenge to Europe, with solidarity being contested at two fronts: first, the question of solidarity with refugees in terms of meeting adequate measures of protection and satisfying their elementary needs; and second, the question of solidarity within the European Union in terms of sharing the costs and burden of hosting these refugees among the member states. One driving factor of these contestations is that the solidarity challenge in facing the ‘refugee crisis’ is taken up differently in transit countries in the South of Europe and destination countries in the North. Wishing to shed light on how national contexts impact transnational solidarity organising, we draw on a fresh set of cross-national evidence from a random sample of 277 transnational solidarity organisations (TSOs) in Greece, Germany, and Denmark. The aim is to illustrate the effects of political opportunities and threats during the 2007–2016 crises period on migration-related solidarity activities organised by TSOs. We will do so through tri-national comparisons tracing the patterns in which migration-related TSOs appear through time. The data used is produced in the context of the TRANSSOL project by a new methodological approach (action organisation analysis) based on hubs-retrieved organisational websites and their subsequent content analysis

Ανάπτυξη και επικύρωση μεθόδων ελέγχου ποιότητας δισκίων Minocycline

Αντικείμενο της παρούσας πτυχιακής εργασίας, με τίτλο Ανάπτυξη και επικύρωση μεθόδου για τον έλεγχο ποιότητας δισκίων Minocycline®, που πραγματοποιήθηκε στο εργαστήριο Αναλυτικής Χημείας στα πλαίσια του προπτυχιακού προγράμματος σπουδών του τμήματος Χημείας, αποτελεί ο έλεγχος τόσο της δραστικής ουσίας, όσο και των προσμίξεων που περιέχονται στο φάρμακο αυτό. Ο έλεγχος ποιότητας των φαρμάκων είναι άκρως απαραίτητος για τη διασφάλιση της Δημόσιας Υγείας και κοινωνικής ευημερίας. Στο πρώτο κεφάλαιο, παρουσιάζονται ορισμένες πληροφορίες για τα φάρμακα, την ταξινόμησή τους και τους χημικούς και φαρμακοτεχνικούς ελέγχους στους οποίους υπόκεινται. Έπειτα, παρατίθενται πληροφορίες για το εξεταζόμενο φάρμακο, την Υδροχλωρική Μινοκυκλίνη (Minocycline Hydrochloride) και περιγράφεται αναλυτικά η διαδικασία προετοιμασίας ενός δείγματος φαρμάκου προς ανάλυση, η τεχνική της Υγροχρωματογραφίας Υψηλής Απόδοσης (HPLC), όπως και κάποιοι άλλοι τύποι χρωματογραφίας και τα χαρακτηριστικά ορθής επικύρωσης, τα οποία οδηγούν στην εξαγωγή αξιόπιστων αποτελεσμάτων. Το πειραματικό μέρος, περιλαμβάνει τον οργανολογικό εξοπλισμό, τους διαλύτες αλλά και τα αντιδραστήρια που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν κατά τη διάρκεια της ανάλυσης του συγκεκριμένου φαρμάκου. Παρουσιάζονται, αναλυτικά, όλοι οι έλεγχοι που πραγματοποιήθηκαν, για τη μελέτη του φαρμάκου, ώστε να αποδειχθεί ότι είναι κατάλληλο και έτοιμο για αποδέσμευση στην αγορά.The purpose of this diploma thesis, entitled Development and validation of methods for the quality control of Minocycline® tablets, carried out in the Analytical Chemistry laboratory in the frame of the undergraduate program of Chemistry, is the control both of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and the impurities contained in this formulation. The quality control of pharmaceuticals is essential for the assurance of public health and social prosperity. In the 1st chapter, there are some information about the medicines, their classification and the chemical and pharmaceutical controls they are subject to. Then, information about the test drug, Minocycline Hydrochloride®, is provided and the procedure for preparation a drug sample for analysis, the High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) technique, as well as some other types of chromatography and the correct validation characteristics, which lead to the export of reliable results, are described. The experimental part, includes the instrumentation, solvents and reagents used during the analysis of this particular drug. All the tests that have been carried out in order to prove that this drug is suitable and ready for release on the market, are presented in detail

Computing paths and cycles in biological interaction graphs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Interaction graphs (signed directed graphs) provide an important qualitative modeling approach for Systems Biology. They enable the analysis of causal relationships in cellular networks and can even be useful for predicting qualitative aspects of systems dynamics. Fundamental issues in the analysis of interaction graphs are the enumeration of paths and cycles (feedback loops) and the calculation of shortest positive/negative paths. These computational problems have been discussed only to a minor extent in the context of Systems Biology and in particular the shortest signed paths problem requires algorithmic developments.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We first review algorithms for the enumeration of paths and cycles and show that these algorithms are superior to a recently proposed enumeration approach based on elementary-modes computation. The main part of this work deals with the computation of shortest positive/negative paths, an NP-complete problem for which only very few algorithms are described in the literature. We propose extensions and several new algorithm variants for computing either exact results or approximations. Benchmarks with various concrete biological networks show that exact results can sometimes be obtained in networks with several hundred nodes. A class of even larger graphs can still be treated exactly by a new algorithm combining exhaustive and simple search strategies. For graphs, where the computation of exact solutions becomes time-consuming or infeasible, we devised an approximative algorithm with polynomial complexity. Strikingly, in realistic networks (where a comparison with exact results was possible) this algorithm delivered results that are very close or equal to the exact values. This phenomenon can probably be attributed to the particular topology of cellular signaling and regulatory networks which contain a relatively low number of negative feedback loops.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The calculation of shortest positive/negative paths and cycles in interaction graphs is an important method for network analysis in Systems Biology. This contribution draws the attention of the community to this important computational problem and provides a number of new algorithms, partially specifically tailored for biological interaction graphs. All algorithms have been implemented in the <it>CellNetAnalyzer </it>framework which can be downloaded for academic use at <url>http://www.mpi-magdeburg.mpg.de/projects/cna/cna.html</url>.</p