Analysing a non-IR field through IR lenses. Education in post-conflict Kosovo

The paper argues that education is relevant for both domestic and international reasons and without an incorporation of the international within the national it is not possible to understand education's changes and transformations in post-conflict and conflict-affected contexts. The paper aims to connect the local to the global by investigating their dynamic interaction through the peculiar lenses of international assistance to education reform in post-conflict Kosovo. It asks two questions: (1) how do global agendas of peace and security affect education reforms in conflict-affected contexts? and (2) how does education reform in conflict-affected contexts interacts with and is related to broader, international dynamics, processes, and actors? More specifically, the paper analyses the role of international actors in traditionally national sectors and the multi-layered, hybrid governance of education reform within a broader statebuilding, peacebuilding, and stabilization perspective. The analysis is divided into two empirical instances: (i) education for liberal multicultural peace (1999-2013) and (ii) education against violent extremism and radicalization (2014-2019). The paper sheds light on the globalization and securitization of education as well as the changing forms and practice of statehood and sovereignty in times of post-war-reconstruction and fragility. A threat-containment and security-based logic has dictated priorities and determined chokes in education reform and content

Civil War and Uncivil Development. Economic Globalisation and Political Violence in Colombia and Beyond, by David Maher, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp. 326.

Since the end of the Cold War, security and development have become increasingly interwoven. The security-development nexus has attracted a considerable attention from scholars and practitioners across the social sciences and has informed and sustained donor-driven agendas of liberal interventionism along the unstable and fragile peripheries of the Global South (Duffield 2001). In the post-Cold War period, as the world order shifted from a bipolar system to a triumphant unipolar neoliberal system under the aegis of the United States, new challenges and threats were identified as endangering international peace and security. In particular, the proliferation of intra-state conflicts and civil wars – much of which were now called ‘New Wars’ – and the trans-border effects of migration flows increasingly were put at the forefront of a risk-containment, humanitarian agenda promoted by the Unit- ed Nations and a plethora of Western States (Duffield 2010; Kaldor 1999)

Actors and Sites for Knowledge Production on Radicalisation in Europe and Beyond

This article aims at reviewing and mapping the actors and sites involved in knowledge production on radicalisation, focusing on the EU context. We did so by collecting information on EU-funded research projects, which cover subjects of radicalisation and violent extremism, and are sponsored through either the Seventh Framework Programme or Horizon 2020; and analysing them from the point of view of the actors involved in the project implementation. Complementarily, we have focused on the actors involved in the design of the calls for project proposals and the strategic documents framing and embedding them. By premising on the assumption that experts' knowledge and scientific knowledge are sources of leverage and contention in security-related policy areas, we intend to have a well-rounded grasp of the actors that are involved in the production and utilisation of such knowledge in policy-making, their organisation, their gate-keeping capacity and the instruments at their disposal

Risk assessment from floodings in the rivers of Albania

Flooding is a natural phenomenon in Albania. The floods are flashy and flood - waters occupy the flood plain; in the biggest rivers, close to the river mouth area, these waters inundate the flood plain for several weeks.Attempts have been made to alleviate flood situation in Albania by building protective dykes and creating upstream storage. Although many of these measures have been beneficial, they also served toencourage further encroachment upon river floodplains, thereby raising the potential for flood damage.Actually, more than half of the Albanian population lives very close to the rivermouth areas, where the riskof flooding is higher. The structural solution is only a partial one; the only long - term solution consists ofkeeping flood-vulnerable development and uses out of the flood plain. In order to evaluate the flood potential,a statistical study in national scale was carried out. The peak discharges for different return periods are computed using statistical method and a map of the flood potential for the country is designed. Those constructions had a relevant protective role during the flooding of the winter 1970-71. Non structural measures consist of measures undertaken for flood warning or flood forecasting or different studies likeflood-mapping, estimation of inundation risk and inundation zones and possible damages etc

Authoritarianism and academic freedom in neoliberal Turkey

This article examines the relationship between academic freedom and authoritarianism in Turkey. While not a new problem in the Turkish context, academic freedom has come particularly under attack following the attempted military coup on 15 July 2016, as well as with the Turkish intervention in the Syrian conflict. This paper is focused on scholars and academics currently working in Turkish universities. The paper explores the following questions: (1) how do these scholars define academic freedom in Turkey; (2) what is the relationship between universities and the Turkish society; (3) what are the changes that higher education is facing following the 2016 coup d'etat, in particular, in terms of pressures and barriers to academic production; (4) how do attacks affect scholars' possibilities to create, lecture, and resist government's policies? Drawing on Gramsci's theory of intellectuals and his notion of hegemony, as well as Foucault's theory of power and/as knowledge, we explore the relationship between authority and knowledge. We argue that the government's aggressive politics against Turkish scholars is a result of the failure to consolidate its power and hegemony through knowledge, and to establish an intellectual base in a Gramscian fashion

Investigation of Average Shear Stress in Natural Stream

Average shear stress is an important parameter for prediction of sediment transport,bank protection and other river engineering problems in natural streams. For this purposevelocity measurements were taken on Kızılırmak River sub branch, named Sarimsakli streamand Barsama station in center of Turkey. Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) was used forthis purpose at six different periods and flow conditions. Nikuradse's equivalent sandroughnesses (ks) for each vertical along the wetted perimeter were determined using measuredvelocity distributions. Shear velocity (u*) and shear stress (meas) were determined thenaverage values were calculated for each flow condition. The commonly used one-dimensionalmean boundary shear stress equation at cross-section was re-arranged according to entropyparameter M and it reflects the real flow condition in natural stream

Development of biomimetic surfaces with an antibacterial effect based on the structure of dragonfly wings

Antibiotics, in the past so effective against wide spectra of infections, are nowadays omnipresent and their widespread availability, misuse and gradual accumulation over time in the environment is the main reason behind the sudden increase of bacterial resistance. However, it has been shown that some natural surfaces (e.g., cicada wing) possess topography which renders their surface antibacterial and resistant to bacterial colonization without any active chemical substance. The mode of action is such, that adhered bacterium is exposed to shear stress between the cell wall and surface topography (e.g., an array of nanopillars) resulting in cell deformation, wall rupture, lysis, and death. Moreover, the mechanical nature of bacteria-surface interaction virtually eliminates the risk of the sudden emergence of bacterial resistance since the whole process depends solely on surface topography and mechanical properties of the bacterial cell. In this work, we propose to examine topographies of Czech domestic insects (e.g. dragonflies, damselflies, moths), test their antibacterial properties against model Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and replicate their topology using suitable techniques allowing the transfer of antibacterial topology into a larger scale. We believe that such materials have the potential to be the answer to increasing number of MDR bacteria and secondary infections

Hypusination of Eif5a Regulates Cytoplasmic TDP-43 Aggregation and Accumulation in a Stress-Induced Cellular Model

TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) is a nuclear RNA/DNA binding protein involved in mRNA metabolism. Aberrant mislocalization to the cytoplasm and formation of phosphorylated/aggregated TDP-43 inclusions remains the hallmark pathology in a spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases, including frontotemporal disorders and Alzheimer\u27s disease. Eukaryotic Translation Initiation Factor 5A undergoes a unique post-translation modification of lysine to hypusine (K50), which determines eIF5A binding partners. We used a sodium arsenite-induced cellular stress model to investigate the role of hypusinated eIF5A (eIF5AHypK50) in governing TDP-43 cytoplasmic mislocalization and accumulation in stress granule. Our proteomics and functional data provide evidence that eIF5A interacts with TDP-43 in a hypusine-dependent manner. Additionally, we showed that following stress TDP-43 interactions with eIF5AHypK50 were induced both in the cytoplasm and stress granules. Pharmacological reduction of hypusination or mutations of lysine residues within the hypusine loop decreased phosphorylated and insoluble TDP-43 levels. The proteomic and biochemical analysis also identified nuclear pore complex importins KPNA1/2, KPNB1, and RanGTP as interacting partners of eIF5AHypK50. These findings are the first to provide a novel pathway and potential therapeutic targets that require further investigation in models of TDP-43 proteinopathies