Commission v. Germany and Article 36 Protection of Human Life and Health

Free movement of goods is a fundamental principle of the European Community. Article 36 of the EEC Treaty, however, provides important exceptions to the principle of free movement of goods as embodied in Article 30. Recently, the Court of Justice of the European Community ( Court of Justice or Court ) has begun to develop a significant body of case law on the protection of human health exception of Article 36. This development coincides with the increasing public interest in consumer protection law, particularly with regard to the production of food-stuffs. Commission of the European Communities v. Federal Republic of Germany presents the Court\u27s most recent attempt to define the protection of human health exception. In Commission v. Germany, the Court held that the Reinheitsgebot or beer purity laws of the Federal Republic of Germany ( Germany ) violated Article 30 and could not be justified under the Article 36 protection of human health exception. This Note examines Commission v. Germany for the legal definition it gives to the Article 36 exception for the protection of human health. Further, this Note studies the way in which Commission v. Germany raises questions concerning the degree of success the European Community has had in attempting to realize a barrier-free common market

BUYER PREFERENCES FOR DURUM WHEAT: A STATED PREFERENCE APPROACH

The central issue addressed in this paper is the attributes preferred by a sample of buyers of durum wheat grown in Canada. Primary emphasis is the value placed on certain visual and nonvisual attributes by US buyers of durum wheat. In addition, a source variable in the analysis is used to test preferences of US buyers for US-source compared to Canadian-source durum. The latter is a method to test whether durum millers in the US believe that Canadian durum is a superior product, a view widely-held in the Canadian grain trade. Results indicate that higher bushel weight has a positive effect on purchase probability, and appears to be more important to buyers' purchasing decision than protein content, amylase content, or the choice between no. 1 and no. 2 grade. US millers in the study are shown either a) to prefer US-grown durum over that from Canada, or b) to dislike the single desk seller arrangement involved in purchasing Canadian durum. It appears that US managers who grow or market durum wheat have a competitive edge over their Canadian competitors when marketing to US-based durum users.Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis,

Variable Appropriation of an Online Resource Discovery and Sharing Tool

Even when following best practices for participatory design, the appropriation of tools in formal education settings can be hampered by a number of factors. Drawing from a case of a web tool built to help teachers in five school districts find and share free resources in an educational digital library, we describe patterns of tool use and provide some explanations for variability in tool appropriation. We also suggest that future research consider school districts as complex systems of professionals whose interactions and inter-relationships may yield unexpected technology adoption behaviors

The Validity and Instructional Value of a Rubric for Evaluating Online Course Quality: An Empirical Study

This study investigated the validity and instructional value of a rubric developed to evaluate the quality of online courses offered at a midsized public university. This rubric was adapted from an online course quality rubric widely used in higher education, the Quality Matters rubric. We first examined the reliability and preliminary construct validity of the rubric using quality ratings for 202 online courses and eliminated twelve problematic items. We then examined the instructional value of the rubric by investigating causal relationships between 1) course quality scores, 2) online interactions between students, instructors, and content, and 3) student course performance (course passing rates). A path analysis model, using data from 121 online courses enrolling 5,240 students, showed that only rubric items related to learner engagement and interaction had a significant and positive effect on online interactions, while only student-content interaction significantly and positively influenced course passing rates

What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been: A Comparison of Authors, Abstracts, and References in the 1991 and 2010 ICLS Proceedings

We examine differences in authorship, word usage, and references in full papers from the 1991 and 2010 ICLS proceedings. Through a series of analyses, we observe that, while authors largely hail from the US, national and regional participation in the LS community has broadened. Word usage suggests a shift in emphasis from cognitive issues to ones that are both cognitive and cultural. Reference analysis indicates a shift in core literatures and influential authors

Conjecture Mapping the Library: Iterative Refinements Toward Supporting Maker Learning Activities in Small Community Spaces

A recent and important innovation in design-based research (DBR) is the use of conjecture maps, where researchers explicitly articulate the conjectured mediational relations between their designed goals and the learning designs and contexts. In this paper, we present a design case as an iterative sequence of evolving conjecture maps. As each conjecture map was tested, we revised it to highlight and refine our articulation of the tools and processes that embodied our design approach. Out design case involves small-town and rural community and school libraries in the United States as partners and DBR sites, with the goal of supporting librarians as they learn to develop and enact new STEM-oriented maker programs for youth. We show how conjecture mapping informed and supported our DBR work and how it helped push for specificity in hypothesized relations between the design, the learning setting, the outcomes. while also forcing a refection on design constraints

Learning Experiences and Practices of Elementary Teacher Candidates on the Use of Emerging Technology: A Grounded Theory Approach

The purpose of this study is to understand the phenomenon of the “professional journey” of elementary teacher candidates (ETC) both as learners and as teachers by exploring their learning experiences and practices regarding the virtual reality (VR) platfor m called Second Life (SL). Using the grounded theory approach, we designed an insider-led work-based study, synthesizing an outsider perspective. We collected data from 229 ETCs enrolled in science methods course over three academic years including semi-open ended reflective questionnaire, science journal notebooks, 5E science lesson plans, peer teaching classroom observations, and instructor’s semester notebooks. Results indicate that as a VR platform, SL provided unique learning experiences that encourage discovering, problem solving, or accidental learning for these mostly first-time user ETCs. Three themes emerged in terms of perceptions of integrating VR into science teaching: (1) skeptical integrators (29%), (2) observant integrators (59%), and (3) innovative integrators (12%). However, none of the ETC collaborative groups integrated a VR platform during their 5E science lesson planning activities, demonstrating the gap between learning experiences and practices. Finally, we converged analysis results with related literature to develop a theory. This study contributes to the discussions on preparing teachers for the 21stcentury in which all will live in a technology-accelerated society

Characterization of a Drosophila model of Huntington's disease

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Biology, 2006.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references.Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurological disorder caused by a polyglutamine (polyQ) repeat expansion in the huntingtin (Htt) protein. The disease is characterized by neurodegeneration and formation of neuronal intracellular inclusions primarily in the striatum and cortex, leading to personality changes, motor impairment, and dementia. To date, the molecular mechanisms that underlie the neurodegenerative process remain to be defined. Development of transgenic Drosophila HD models may facilitate dissection of molecular and cellular pathways that lead to disease pathology and suggest potential strategies for treatment. To explore mutant Htt-mediated mechanisms of neuronal dysfunction, we generated transgenic Drosophila that express the first 548 amino acids of the human Htt gene with either a pathogenic polyglutamine tract of 128 repeats (Htt-Q128) or a nonpathogenic tract of 0 repeats (Htt-QO). Characterization of these transgenic lines indicates formation of cytoplasmic and neuritic Htt aggregates in our Drosophila HD model that sequester other non-nuclear polyQ-containing proteins and block axonal transport.(cont.) To further explore axonal transport defects in Huntington's disease, we generated Drosophila transgenic strains expressing 588 aa or exon 1 N-terminal fragments of human huntingtin encoding pathogenic (HttQ138) or nonpathogenic (HttQ15) proteins tagged with mRFP and/or eGFP. These transgenic lines enable in vivo imaging of Htt aggregation and trafficking in live Drosophila, providing a unique resource for tracking Htt in real time. Our findings indicate that expression of mutant Htt may impair axonal transport through both aggregate-dependent and -independent means. Finally, to assay the therapeutic effect of expression of an intracellular antibody (intrabody) against Htt, we generated double transgenic lines coexpressing pathogenic Htt (mRFP-HttQ138) with the V12.3 intrabody. Intrabody expression caused suppression of aggregation in both neuronal and non-neuronal cell types, but failed to rescue mutant Htt-mediated cellular dysfunction. In summary, our Drosophila HD model provides an ideal in vivo system for examination of mutant Htt-mediated cellular defects, particularly impairment of axonal transport, and may facilitate rapid development and validation of potential treatments for Huntington's disease.b y Wyan-Ching Mimi Lee.Ph.D

Cyberbullying among youth in Malaysia

The purpose of this research was to survey the current situation concerning cyberbullying among youth in Malaysia. Specifically, this research aimed at finding out the prevalence of cyberbullying among youth based on demographic data and the common types of cyberbullying tactic. The survey method was adopted as the research design in which a set of questionnaire was developed to collect the data. A total of 1406 respondents were selected in this research. In general, the research findings reveal that majority of the respondents had been cyberbullied before. The Malays community yielded the highest percentage of cyberbullied victims. In addition, the result also shows that female cyber users were usually targeted as the cyberbully victim. The most common type of cyberbully tactic was through receiving offensive/ pornographic materials. Effective and pragmatic steps have to be taken in order to mitigate the cyberbullying problem among Malaysian youth

Design for Co-Design in a Computer Science Curriculum Research-Practice Partnership

This paper reports on a study of the dynamics of a Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) oriented around design, specifically the co-design model. The RPP is focused on supporting elementary school computer science (CS) instruction by involving paraprofessional educators and teachers in curricular co-design. A problem of practice addressed is that few elementary educators have backgrounds in teaching CS and have limited available instructional time and budget for CS. The co-design strategy entailed highlighting CS concepts in the mathematics curriculum during classroom instruction and designing computer lab lessons that explored related ideas through programming. Analyses focused on tensions within RPP interaction dynamics and how they were accommodated when RPP partners were designing for co-design activities, a critical component that leads to curricular co-design itself. We illustrate these tensions with examples of clusters of activity that appeared repeatedly among the research and practice team members when designing for co-design