Sustainability Literate Graduates: Linking Education for Sustainable Development within Higher Education with the ‘Skills Gap’ in the Employment Market

This paper considers the effects of education for sustainable development (ESD) on undergraduates within higher education (HE), through learning outcomes from courses and campus activities. It is high on the agenda of global governments and educational authorities to encourage organisations and economies to become more sustainable, which can be achieved primarily by educating future decision makers, professionals and leaders. Firstly, an overview of secondary data on sustainability and ESD in HE is offered; then, findings and further discussion, contributing to the knowledge and creating opportunities for further explorations in the field. The data was obtained from University of Huddersfield undergraduate students and ‘LinkedInTM’ discussion groups. This paper highlights a lack of sustainability skills and confidence between students, despite strong interest in the subject, and identifies potential issues, leading to a lack of sustainability literate graduates in the UK employment market

Image Stitching for UAV remote sensing application

The objective of the project is to write an algorithm that is able to join top view images to create a big map. The project is done in the School of Castelldefels of UPC, within the research laboratory Icarus of EETAC Faculty. The goal of the project is to detect an area of this map, thanks to the analysis of this images. The images are taken by the two camera aboard on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) built by the Icarus group leaded by Enric Pastor. The implemented code is uploaded in Upc' svn at the adress: https://svn.fib.upc.es/svn/vincenzo.can

A Vortex Method for Bi-phasic Fluids Interacting with Rigid Bodies

We present an accurate Lagrangian method based on vortex particles, level-sets, and immersed boundary methods, for animating the interplay between two fluids and rigid solids. We show that a vortex method is a good choice for simulating bi-phase flow, such as liquid and gas, with a good level of realism. Vortex particles are localized at the interfaces between the two fluids and within the regions of high turbulence. We gain local precision and efficiency from the stable advection permitted by the vorticity formulation. Moreover, our numerical method straightforwardly solves the two-way coupling problem between the fluids and animated rigid solids. This new approach is validated through numerical comparisons with reference experiments from the computational fluid community. We also show that the visually appealing results obtained in the CG community can be reproduced with increased efficiency and an easier implementation

The Differences in Students’ Financial Literacy based on Financial Education

This paper examines the differences in Financial Literacy among Albanian university students based on their financial education. The main objectives of this study are: i) firstly, to assess the level of financial knowledge, financial attitude and financial behaviour, and to make relevant comparison based on students financial education; ii) secondly, to evaluate an overall score of financial literacy and to investigate its difference among students who are financially educated and their counterparts; iii) finally, to provide some conclusions and policy implications with regard to financial literacy. A total of 607 students from five public and three private universities in Albania participated in this research. The outcome shows that student’s financial behaviour does not differ based on their financial education. In addition, non-financially educated students appear to demonstrate better financial behaviour. Finally, students who have taken a personal financial course are shown to be more knowledgeable and financially literate than their counterparts. This study paves the way for future research in Albania

The Impact of Greek Crisis on the Western Balkan Countries

Greece is experiencing one of the deepest economic and financial crises in history and its tremendous impact is not affecting only the Eurozone countries but also the economies of all South and Eastern European countries. The crisis is especially visible in countries influenced by the movements and deviations of Greek economy like the main regional trade partners or the ones that have a relatively high percentage of foreign direct investments. Among these countries the most affected are Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Croatia. The main aim of this research paper is to investigate and identify the impact and spillover effect of Greek crisis on the main Western Balkan countries. The chances of a rapid improvement of Greek economy seem to be diminishing and the tremendous impact on these countries are resulting in currency devaluation, increase of unemployment rate, decrease of real GDP and decrease of remittances. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of the crisis based on the main macroeconomic variables such as real GDP, inflation and unemployment rate. By using E-views program, a regression model will be built to help understand which of these macroeconomic variables was mostly affected and what will be the short term and long term effect of the crisis on the whole region

Pattern of Engagement of People with Disabilities and Their Family Members in the Policy Making Process in Albania

Post-communist Albanian legislation (1995-2010) provides the preliminary context for the creation of enabling social niches for the engagement of people with disabilities and the family members representing them in the policy-making processes both at the national and local levels. The goal of this study was to determine the pattern of engagement of people with disabilities and their family members in the policy making process at the national and local level and identify the barriers as perceived by them. Participants were 874 persons with disabilities and their family members. The results indicated a strong interest but a poor engagement pattern of people with disabilities and their family members in the policy making process and various structural and attitudinal barriers. Conscious work needs to be done by the government agencies as well as advocacy organizations to create enabling social niches for people with disabilities that encourage their participation in the policy making process as valuable stakeholders in shared governance

Laws of nature: metaphysics and epistemology

The debate on the metaphysics of laws of nature is one of the many disputes in the metaphysics of science that emerged in the lasts decades of the 20th century. It is historically rooted in the discussions on the role of Divine will in the governance of natural phenomena, held during the 16th to 18th centuries.  However, its most immediate antecedent is a pressing point in the agenda of the Received View: the task of settling a distinction between authentic scientific laws and mere accidentally true generalizations. In this context the discussion was mainly about the logical, semantic and syntactic properties of lawlike statements that could underpin the distinction. Conversely, the current debate on the metaphysics of laws presupposes that mere linguistic or logical considerations are insufficient to draw that distinction and something else is needed. That something else is frequently a feature of the world that falls under the domain of metaphysics, a law of nature, as opposed to a scientific lawlike statement. Not every position in the debate would happily admit that laws are something in the world, but all of them agree on the fact that some metaphysical theorization about the world's structure is needed in order to settle the distinction between laws and non-laws.Fil: Borge, Bruno José. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras; ArgentinaFil: Cani, Renato. Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina; Brasi

Insight into the prebiotic concept: lessons from an exploratory, double blind intervention study with inulin-type fructans in obese women

Objective To highlight the contribution of the gut microbiota to the modulation of host metabolism by dietary inulin-type fructans (ITF prebiotics) in obese women. Methods A double blind, placebo controlled, intervention study was performed with 30 obese women treated with ITF prebiotics (inulin/oligofructose 50/50 mix; n=15) or placebo (maltodextrin; n=15) for 3 months (16 g/day). Blood, faeces and urine sampling, oral glucose tolerance test, homeostasis model assessment and impedancemetry were performed before and after treatment. The gut microbial composition in faeces was analysed by phylogenetic microarray and qPCR analysis of 16S rDNA. Plasma and urine metabolic profiles were analysed by 1H-NMR spectroscopy. Results Treatment with ITF prebiotics, but not the placebo, led to an increase in Bifidobacterium and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii; both bacteria negatively correlated with serum lipopolysaccharide levels. ITF prebiotics also decreased Bacteroides intestinalis, Bacteroides vulgatus and Propionibacterium, an effect associated with a slight decrease in fat mass and with plasma lactate and phosphatidylcholine levels. No clear treatment clustering could be detected for gut microbial analysis or plasma and urine metabolomic profile analyses. However, ITF prebiotics led to subtle changes in the gut microbiota that may importantly impact on several key metabolites implicated in obesity and/or diabetes. Conclusions ITF prebiotics selectively changed the gut microbiota composition in obese women, leading to modest changes in host metabolism, as suggested by the correlation between some bacterial species and metabolic endotoxaemia or metabolomic signatures