International Immersion In The Classroom: A New Paradigm

Business, language and cultural eccentricities are the cornerstones of nation-state sovereignty. Cultural diversity presents a myriad of challenges for academia and business. Cross-cultural frameworks serve to transcend barriers and promote classroom learning to an immersion category. In this paper, notable cross-cultural frameworks are explored, including the Kluckhohn-Strodtbeck, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, Hofstede and Lewis. The first three of these theoretical models will be familiar to most. The Lewis model transcends the first three, and is fully explained in Lewis’ newest book, “The Cultural Imperative”. Grounded in this theory, Richard Lewis developed a cultural assessment exercise, Cultureactive, which identifies individual cultural profiles. Richard Lewis’ Cultureactive may be linked to an enriched experience for students of International Business, or any class that has an international component. The transition from Cultureactive to InterCultural Edge [ICE] has been a remarkable journey. ICE is a collaborative initiative between the Fuqua School of Business, Duke CIBER, Richard Lewis Communications, and Cultureactive.com. ICE is web-based product that teaches cross-cultural awareness in business settings by focusing on individual assessments. This allows the executive/student to compare personal results with team results and national cultural profiles. Both research and teaching consortia have been assembled to establish the research validation for ICE as well as develop a certified teaching network. The potential of the Richard Lewis model may be realized by fostering the development of promising cross-cultural research and enabling students to experience Culturactive today and ICE tomorrow

Renewable Energy Snapshots 2010

These Renewable Energy Snapshots are based on various data providers including grey data sources and tries to give an overview about the latest developments and trends in the different technologies. Due to the fact that unconsolidated data are used there is an uncertainty margin which should not be neglected. We have cross checked and validate the different data against each others, but do not take any responsibility about the use of these data.JRC.DDG.F.8-Renewable Energy (Ispra

Renewable Energy Snapshots 2012

Penetration and deploymernt of renewable energies in Europe until 20102 is analyzedon the basis of the latest available data and statisticsJRC.F.7-Renewable Energ

Status Report 2006

The European Union is implementing challenging commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8% in accord with the Kyoto protocol, and has established ambitious targets for renewable energies and energy end-use efficiency in its White Paper: Energy for the Future: Renewable Sources of Energy. In the past decade, renewable energy technologies have made significant progress in terms of performance, cost and reliability, thanks to vigorous research, development, demonstration and market introduction programmes at European, national and also regional level. Developments primarily rooted in environmental concerns are now penetrating all societal decision making and have led to a new, dynamic, and exponentially growing industry. Three major drivers are determining today’s socio-economic framework for the impressive renewables’ industrial and market developments. First, successful application of legally binding feed-in tariffs; secondly, liberalisation of the electricity market, and thus new possibilities for decentralisation of power generation. Third, and in the medium term, there is the undisputed need for massive re-powering the larger part of Europe’s generation capacity. This will incur generally higher electricity costs, which reflect somewhat better the real costs (incl. externalities) of all the different energy technologies. Thus a more favourable market situation for sustainable technology choices will evolve, e.g. for massive renewable power generation. While technology development has been a key driver in the progress of renewables, first examples of significant penetration would have been impossible without appropriate, supporting policies including instruments such as introduction targets, carbon taxes, elimination of non-technical barriers, internalisation of external costs of energy, and harmonisation of market rules. The efficient end-use of energy is a parallel area where modern technology, policies, better public conscience of the issues and market forces, like the utilities’ interest to exploit the potentials for avoidance of new transmission and generation capacity, have combined to achieve significant results. New integrated marketing concepts, like energy service companies, have been very successful lately, and organisationally break ground for the implementation of sharper physical efficiency concepts as well. This is of particular strategic importance for the New Member States of the EU, as the use of energy, including electricity, in these countries is still significantly less efficient than in the old Member States. The aim of this Status Report is to provide relevant, validated and independent information on renewable energy and the efficient end-use of electricity to decision makers and the public.JRC.H.8-Renewable energie

Renewable Energy Snapshots 2011

These Renewable Energy Snapshots are based on various data providers including grey data sources and tries to give an overview about the latest developments and trends in the different technologies. Due to the fact that unconsolidated data are used there is an uncertainty margin which should not be neglected. We have cross checked and validate the different data against each others, but do not take any responsibility about the use of these data.JRC.F.8-Renewable Energy (Ispra

Model requirements for Biobank Software Systems

Biobanks are essential tools in diagnostics and therapeutics research and development related to personalized medicine. Several international recommendations, standards and guidelines exist that discuss the legal, ethical, technological, and management requirements of biobanks. Today's biobanks are much more than just collections of biospecimens. They also store a huge amount of data related to biological samples which can be either clinical data or data coming from biochemical experiments. A well-designed biobank software system also provides the possibility of finding associations between stored elements. Modern research biobanks are able to manage multicenter sample collections while fulfilling all requirements of data protection and security. While developing several biobanks and analyzing the data stored in them, our research group recognized the need for a well-organized, easy-to-check requirements guideline that can be used to develop biobank software systems. International best practices along with relevant ICT standards were integrated into a comprehensive guideline: The Model Requirements for the Management of Biological Repositories (BioReq), which covers the full range of activities related to biobank development. The guideline is freely available on the Internet for the research community

Tissue Determinants of Human NK Cell Development, Function, and Residence.

Immune responses in diverse tissue sites are critical for protective immunity and homeostasis. Here, we investigate how tissue localization regulates the development and function of human natural killer (NK) cells, innate lymphocytes important for anti-viral and tumor immunity. Integrating high-dimensional analysis of NK cells from blood, lymphoid organs, and mucosal tissue sites from 60 individuals, we identify tissue-specific patterns of NK cell subset distribution, maturation, and function maintained across age and between individuals. Mature and terminally differentiated NK cells with enhanced effector function predominate in blood, bone marrow, spleen, and lungs and exhibit shared transcriptional programs across sites. By contrast, precursor and immature NK cells with reduced effector capacity populate lymph nodes and intestines and exhibit tissue-resident signatures and site-specific adaptations. Together, our results reveal anatomic control of NK cell development and maintenance as tissue-resident populations, whereas mature, terminally differentiated subsets mediate immunosurveillance through diverse peripheral sites. VIDEO ABSTRACT

Morphology and Nanomechanics of Sensory Neurons Growth Cones following Peripheral Nerve Injury

A prior peripheral nerve injury in vivo, promotes a rapid elongated mode of sensory neurons neurite regrowth in vitro. This in vitro model of conditioned axotomy allows analysis of the cellular and molecular mechanisms leading to an improved neurite re-growth. Our differential interference contrast microscopy and immunocytochemistry results show that conditioned axotomy, induced by sciatic nerve injury, did not increase somatic size of adult lumbar sensory neurons from mice dorsal root ganglia sensory neurons but promoted the appearance of larger neurites and growth cones. Using atomic force microscopy on live neurons, we investigated whether membrane mechanical properties of growth cones of axotomized neurons were modified following sciatic nerve injury. Our data revealed that neurons having a regenerative growth were characterized by softer growth cones, compared to control neurons. The increase of the growth cone membrane elasticity suggests a modification in the ratio and the inner framework of the main structural proteins

Calcium Ions Regulate K+ Uptake into Brain Mitochondria: The Evidence for a Novel Potassium Channel

The mitochondrial response to changes of cytosolic calcium concentration has a strong impact on neuronal cell metabolism and viability. We observed that Ca2+ additions to isolated rat brain mitochondria induced in potassium ion containing media a mitochondrial membrane potential depolarization and an accompanying increase of mitochondrial respiration. These Ca2+ effects can be blocked by iberiotoxin and charybdotoxin, well known inhibitors of large conductance potassium channel (BKCa channel). Furthermore, NS1619 – a BKCa channel opener – induced potassium ion–specific effects on brain mitochondria similar to those induced by Ca2+. These findings suggest the presence of a calcium-activated, large conductance potassium channel (sensitive to charybdotoxin and NS1619), which was confirmed by reconstitution of the mitochondrial inner membrane into planar lipid bilayers. The conductance of the reconstituted channel was 265 pS under gradient (50/450 mM KCl) conditions. Its reversal potential was equal to 50 mV, which proved that the examined channel was cation-selective. We also observed immunoreactivity of anti-β4 subunit (of the BKCa channel) antibodies with ~26 kDa proteins of rat brain mitochondria. Immunohistochemical analysis confirmed the predominant occurrence of β4 subunit in neuronal mitochondria. We hypothesize that the mitochondrial BKCa channel represents a calcium sensor, which can contribute to neuronal signal transduction and survival