Children and youth leadership for raising awareness, Empowerment, active citizenship, and wellbeing

The purpose of this study is to explore children and youth leadership through the case study of World Vision Albania as an illustration or representative of different generations of nongovernmental organizations in the matter. More specifically, it considers the contribution of creating a space and opportunity to youth leadership development by raising the leadership awareness within youth potential, the meaning and understanding that children/youth have in terms of leadership and how leadership in children/youth connects to empowerment, active citizenship and wellbeing. The study explores the impact of the variety and diversity of World Vision Albania as a non-governmental organization with regards to working with children and youth for nurturing their leadership potential with the purpose of transforming them into active citizens. Likewise, this research explores employees’ perceptions in terms of leadership style while working with children. Methodologically, the case study approach is used in combination with questionnaires and Key Informant Interviews. Thus, for investigating the research questions through a case study method, this paper uses a combination of quantitative structured interviews with qualitative in-depth interviews. Findings show that most of youth do not consider leadership simply as a goal per se, but also as a mean for being active citizens. They see their own empowerment relevant not only for personal wellbeing but also for the wellbeing of others

Response paper to the research report “The impact of labour migration on the demographic situation of Armenia”

CARIM-East: Creating an Observatory of Migration East of EuropeResponse to CARIM-East RR 2012/27The impact of labour migration on the demographic situation of Armenia” is an interesting research report describing issues relating to the demographics of labor migration in Armenia in the last 40 years. The paper contains worthwhile discussions, rich statistical material and interesting conclusions. However, there are parts of the paper which deserve, in our opinion, to be contested. Also, several of the author’s judgments are not sufficiently objective and the paper neglected some important aspects, which we would like to bring up below. The methodology used by the author did not address the actual impact assessment of migration on the demographic situation and on demographic processes. The author described the demographic situation through assumptions. Therefore, we ack a realistic impact analysis in the paper. Another weak side of the paper is the fact that the author assesses the impact of labor migration on demographic processes (marriages, births, deaths…) from a quantitative perspective, neglecting qualitative effects. In the following, we comment on each section of the aforementioned paper.CARIM-East is co-financed by the European University Institute and the European Union

PERENCANAAN ALAT UKUR CLEARANCE UNTUK MAIN ROTATING BEARING (MRB) PADA SINGLE POINT MOORING (SPM)

Single Point Mooring (SPM) atau yang sering kita sebut dengan Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) adalah Buoy terapung yang berlabuh di lepas pantai yang merupakan sarana bertambatnya kapal tanker di laut, yang sekaligus berfungsi sebagai penyalur muatan cair seperti produk minyak bumi   dari   atau   ke kapal tanker. Terletak pada jarak beberapa kilometer dari fasilitas offshore dan terhubung menggunakan sub-sea dan jalur pipa bawah laut.Dikarenakan kebutuhan yang sangat penting untuk transportasi laut dalam muatan cair dan gas, SPM harus dalam keadaan yang baik dan siap untuk beroperasi. MRB sebagai sumber tenaga utama yang sangat penting, apabila mengalami kerusakan pada MRB, maka akan berdampak pada menurunnya produktifitas operasi. Oleh karena itu untuk mencegah adanya kerusakan pada Main Rotating Bearing (MRB) diperlukan pengecekan clearance pada bearing setiap 5 tahun                    sekali.Untuk mempermudah mengambil data ukur clearance, maka dibuatkan desain alat bantu. Setelah dilakukan proses jack load pada MRB dengan alat bantu didapatkan hasil ukur clearance yaitu 0,03 mm, sedangkan  pada batasan maksimal ukur clearance sesuai dengan regulasi pemeliharaan SPM adalah 0,1 mm. dari hasil pengukuran clearance tersebut masih dalam batas standar atau dinyatakan masih dalam kondisi baik.Kata kunci: SPM, MRB, Clearance, Jack Load, Bearing

The Trajectory of the Albanian Historiography: Between the Austrian Albanologie (Volkskunde) and the Communist Albanologie (National-Stalinism/Etnographiya)

The focus of this paper is to analyze the trajectory of the Albanian historiography before and during communism. After the fall of the communist regime in 1991, the related studies on this subject were focused on the main narratives proposed by this historiography, with a critical eye by the German-speaking community of researchers. In this regard, little effort has been put to analyze the context – scientific and political – how these two closely resembling narratives were created. The paper tries to show a clear evolutionary path of the Albanian Historiography initiated by the actions of the Ballhausplatz in the last decade of the century XIX, as part of the literary propaganda towards the Albanians, up to the adoptions and distortions of the same teachings by the communist historians half a century later. Such evolution passed through two major steps: the transition from the scientific tradition of Volkskunde als Volksgeschichte to its sibling version of Soviet Etnographiya; and further on to the implementation of the historiographic archetype work of the Hungarian historian Lajos Thallóczy in the new textbooks by the Albanian communist historians

Anterior-Posterior Neural Axis Plasticity in the developing central nervous system of Xenopus laevis

Plasticity, the ability to redifferentiate and change cellular identity, is an integral part of development as cells must develop and specify while being able to respond to any changes in the environment. Many instances of cell identity changes have been identified during development, but the mechanisms that allow certain cells to do this while others remain in a fixed fate are unclear. The patterning of the neural axis in the central nervous system involves the specification and determination of neural cell identity along the anterior-posterior axis. While the mechanisms that determine the anterior-posterior neural axis early in development are well characterized, the plasticity that underlies this process remains poorly understood. While expression of genes such as Suv4-20h, Prc2, and ezH2 are known to bring about loss of potency-related factors, neither the temporal or spatial parameters of this developmental neural plasticity nor the molecular mechanisms governing the process are understood. This investigation was designed to examine the spatial-temporal limits of plasticity in the development of the vertebrate central nervous system. A rotation transplant system with a labeled donor embryo and unlabeled host embryo was used to transplant neural ectoderm covering the median half of the dorsal ectoderm from the donor embryo and rotate the anterior-posterior axis 180º onto the host embryo. This allowed for the testing of physically perturbing the axis and assaying its ability to re-differentiate. Results suggest that there is a period between mid gastrula (11.5) and late gastrula (12.5) during which the axis has been determined based on expression of regional marker genes along the axis (XCG-1, Otx2, En2, and Krox20) but remains competent to re-differentiation. In addition, the results indicate that the tissue itself loses competency as late gastrula embryos are still able to re-differentiate mid gastrula neural tissue to the correct pattern, but neural transplants from late gastrula embryos are unable to re-differentiate even in the presence of the mid gastrula inducing environment. Hence, the neural tissue remains plastic for a limited time period after acquisition of an anterior-posterior fate during development

The Trials and Tribulations of the National Health System (ESY) in Greece: A Chronicle of Unfulfilled Promises

The creation of the National Health System (ESY) in the 1980s is a majorlandmark in the development of the welfare state in Greece during the metapolitefsi (regime change) period. An ambitious effort to reform the fragmented, ineffective health services of the post-World War II period, it achieved a major reorganisation of public hospitals and the establishment of rural health centres providing primary health care. Yet its promise of high-quality services for all was not fulfilled, since vested interests blocked its full implementation. While the fiscal crisis of the 2010s was the catalyst for theunification of the health insurance funds, the creation of integrated primary health care intowns failed once again. This article examines the achievements and failures of the reform in light of the political and social factors that shaped this era