Academic freedom in Europe: time for a Magna Charta?

This paper is a preliminary attempt to establish a working definition of academic freedom for the European Union states. The paper details why such a definition is required for the European Union and then examines some of the difficulties of defining academic freedom. By drawing upon experience of the legal difficulties beset by the concept in the USA and building on previous analyses of constitutional and legislative protection for academic freedom, and of legal regulations concerning institutional governance and academic tenure, a working definition of academic freedom is then derived. The resultant definition which, it is suggested, could form the basis for a European Magna Charta Libertatis Academicae, goes beyond traditional discussions of academic freedom by specifying not only the rights inherent in the concept but also its accompanying duties, necessary limitations and safeguards. The paper concludes with proposals for how the definition might be tested and carried forward

Academic freedom in Europe: a preliminary comparative analysis

Using comparative data from 23 states within the European Union, this paper is a preliminary assessment of the protection for, and (by extension) the health of, academic freedom in the universities of the nations of the European Union. The paper examines constitutional and legislative protection for academic freedom, along with legal regulations concerning institutional governance, the appointment of the Rector and the existence of academic tenure, in order to create a composite picture of the health of academic freedom in the universities within the European Union nations. Additionally the paper considers how this preliminary analysis could be extended through possible further research to aid refinement of the results, and what policy steps could usefully be adopted at European level to protect and strengthen academic freedom

Infrared Behaviour of the Gluon Propagator: Confining or Confined?

The possible infrared behaviour of the gluon propagator is studied analytically, using the Schwinger-Dyson equations, in both the axial and the Landau gauge. The possibility of a gluon propagator less singular than $1/k^{2}$ when $k^{2} \rightarrow 0$ is investigated and found to be inconsistent, despite claims to the contrary, whereas an infrared enhanced one is consistent. The implications for confinement are discussed.Comment: 20 pages, latex, 2 figure

Structure at Work: Organizational Forms and the Division of Labor in U.S. Wineries

We show how organizational forms shape job structures, specifically the variety and types of jobs employees hold, extending previous research on job structures in four ways. First, the social codes associated with wineries' generalist and specialist forms constrain the number of jobs and functional areas delineated by job titles. Second, form-based constraints are weakened by institutional rules that impose categorical distinctions on organizations. Third, these constraints are stronger when there is more consensus around forms. Fourth, these constraints are contingent on the legitimacy and resources of organizations of varying ages and sizes

High School Academic Freedom: The Evolution of a Fish Out of Water

I. Introduction II. What Is Academic Freedom? III. The Supreme Court and Academic Freedom ... A. The Road to Keyishian ... B. The Road Not Taken IV. The First Coming of High School Academic Freedom—Procedure and Substance V. Hazelwood and the Regulation of School-Sponsored Speech VI. The Second Coming of Academic Freedom—All Procedure No Substance VII. When the State Speaks VIII. Back to the Classroom IX. The Substantive Right of Academic Freedom X. The Procedural Right of Academic Freedom: Can There Be Procedure Without Substance? XI. Conclusio

Algorithms for rewriting aggregate queries using views

Queries involving aggregation are typical in database applications. One of the main ideas to optimize the execution of an aggregate query is to reuse results of previously answered queries. This leads to the problem of rewriting aggregate queries using views. Due to a lack of theory, algorithms for this problem were rather ad-hoc. They were sound, but were not proven to be complete. Recently we have given syntactic characterizations for the equivalence of aggregate queries and applied them to decide when there exist rewritings. However, these decision procedures do not lend themselves immediately to an implementation. In this paper, we present practical algorithms for rewriting queries with count and sum. Our algorithms are sound. They are also complete for important cases. Our techniques can be used to improve well-known procedures for rewriting non-aggregate queries. These procedures can then be adapted to obtain algorithms for rewriting queries with min and max. The algorithms presented are a basis for realizing optimizers that rewrite queries using views

Constructing interference-minimal networks

A wireless ad-hoc network can be represented as a graph in which the nodes represent wireless devices, and the links represent pairs of nodes that communicate directly by means of radio signals. The interference caused by a link between two nodes u and v can be defined as the number of other nodes that may be disturbed by the signals exchanged by u and v. Given the position of the nodes in the plane, links are to be chosen such that the maximum interference caused by any link is limited and the network fulfills desirable properties such as connectivity, bounded dilation or bounded link diameter. We give efficient algorithms to find the links in two models. In the first model, the signal sent by u to v reaches exactly the nodes that are not farther from u than v is. In the second model, we assume that the boundary of a signal’s reach is not known precisely and that our algorithms should therefore be based on acceptable estimations. The latter model yields faster algorithms