”THE EUROPEAN DREAM”- A MORE SOCIAL EU. FROM THE ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRISIS TO EUROPE’S 2020 AGENDA

Major challenges have been created by the unprecedented international economic and financial crisis (starting Autumn 2008) with significant impact on the EU’s social sector calling into question not only the banking sector, but also many of the achievements that had already been taken for granted in the EU like the Schengen Area or the Euro zone. This article argues that, in the last five years, the impact of the crisis throughout Europe has become more evident on the employment market, the relation of the majority with the immigrants, minorities and the marginal members of the society. Our approach underlines that there is a real need for increased European trans-national socio-economic cooperation and policies in order to deal with the causes of the crisis and such a “coherent European exit strategy” could be Europe 2020 Strategy

ACCOUNTING AND FISCAL TREATMENTS SPECIFIC FOR THE LENDING OF POPULATION THROUGH PAWNSHOPS

Considering the fact that in recent years, due to economic conditions in our country, lending tohouseholds through pawnshops experienced significant growth, in the next article we tried to highlight, both interms of tax and accounting, the activity of these businesses. Thus, we have presented the possibilities that apawnshop has in choosing VAT regime, either normal or used goods regime, and ending the paper by presentingthe accounting involved in the work of pawnshops

CHOICES: A Family-based Childhood Obesity Intervention for Low Income Minority Children

The objective of this presentation is to discuss the effectiveness of a 6-week summer childhood obesity intervention for low-income minority children ages 10-12. Topics will include strategies and best practices for effective summer programming for youth. The target audience includes practitioners, educators, and researchers interested in childhood obesity interventions involving families and communities

The biochemical basis for genetically-inherited Frontotemporal Dementia with TDP-43 pathology.

Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) is a highly heritable form of younger-onset dementia and a majority of inherited cases can be attributed to heterozygous loss of GRN or hexanucleotide repeat expansions in the C9orf72 gene. The pathogenic basis for FTD caused by either of these gene mutations is still under investigation, however current evidence suggests that neurodegeneration in FTD caused by GRN mutations (FTD-GRN) ensues from disrupted lysosomal lipid catabolism, whereas the neurodegenerative trigger in FTD-C9orf72 cases remains indeterminate. This thesis investigates the biochemical basis for FTD caused by GRN and C9orf72 mutations in post-mortem tissue from heavily affected frontal lobe and less affected parietal lobe, and the potential of peripheral myelin lipids as FTD biomarkers through the development of an isomer separation method to quantify the myelin lipid galactosylceramide in plasma. Lipidomic analysis demonstrated pronounced myelin-enriched sphingolipid loss in the frontal white matter of FTD-GRN cases, with a similar, but less-pronounced loss observed in FTD-C9orf72 cases. FTD-GRN cases were distinguished from FTD-C9orf72 cases by marked cholesterol ester accumulation in white matter and acylcarnitine accumulation in the grey matter, suggestive of mitochondrial dysregulation. Evidence of phagocytic microglia were identified in both FTD groups while increased activity of sphingolipid catabolic enzymes was observed in FTD-GRN cases alone. Proteomic analysis confirmed mitochondrial dysfunction and identified increased abundance of phagosome maturation and decreased abundance of synaptic signalling and mevalonate pathway proteins in both FTD groups, although these changes were more pronounced in FTD-GRN cases. Finally, we demonstrate that the myelin galactosphingolipids are significantly lower in plasma of FTD cases, establishing the potential for these lipids to serve as diagnostic and prognostic plasma biomarkers in FTD

Circular Pedagogy for Smart, Inclusive and Sustainable Education

Higher education institutions seem to be engaged in a reactive process when thinking about education for sustainable development, instead of being proactive. A every stage, educational models remain very limited to specific goals and agendas driven by the fad of the moment and without articulating a sustainable educational model that we argue should be uttered within the concepts of intercultural competencies, smart, inclusive, and sustainable education where learners engage on a circular learning process as captured by the circular pedagogy for higher education. If the academic community is serious about driving actions that help us to enact change and impact to develop a more sustainable conscious socio-economic and environmental global society, we need to rethink our education models and pedagogies so that they are attuned with the complexity of our evolving reality

A Circular Pedagogy for Higher Education

Over the last two decades, higher education has been subject to significant scrutiny due to increasing pressures to provide a meaningful and relevant learning experience to the student population, and by their strong connection to the functioning of the economic and political systems. By reflecting on the controversies surrounding pedagogy, this paper contributes to the current debate by exploring pedagogy as a circular process where learners grow and develop by taking different roles and identities as they navigate a research-informed learning continuum defined by growing levels of complexity and uncertainty. This study introduces a new pedagogical paradigm for adult education, inspired by the Humboldtian model for higher education and that we have coined as “circular pedagogy” where the role of the teacher, student and researcher are indissoluble