Global fisheries governance and case study of fisheries governance of Autonomous Region of European Union – Azores

This article seeks to identify the key principles that should guide the definition of the Global Fisheries Governance and Management. A particular focus for this work has been the concept of participative governance and the co-management systems in which responsibility for management is shared between the world, regions, states and user groups, usually at the local level. Governance in the context of fisheries is divided in this article to three levels: the first dealing with issues of legal instruments, the second concerned with institutions and the third focusing on the construction of mechanism of management, in terms of economic, social and environmental values and principles to guide fisheries policy making along a consistent path of case study of fisheries governance in Azores.N/

Przygotowanie refleksyjnych nauczycieli (Analiza autorefleksji i refleksji końcowych pisanych przez studentów studiów nauczycielskich)

This paper presents an analyses of the final reflective and self-reflective tasks written by students of the lower primary school teacher training. These tasks are included in the Final pedagogical portfolio, which students defend at the final state examination. Students use them to reflect on their work, to present themselves as new teachers, to reflect on their journey on becoming a teacher, describe important landmarks and results of their preparation, including their conception of teaching, and other goals related to their professional development. In the final part of the paper, we formulate recommendations for future development of pre-graduate preparation of future lower primary school teachers, including the suggestions regarding the format of the final state examination.3132333818Studia Edukacyjn

Towards a virtual constituency? : comparative dimensions of MEPs' offline-online constituency orientations

Defence date: 25 March 2014Examining Board: Professor Alexander H. Trechsel, European University Institute (Supervisor) Professor Giovanni Sartor, European University Institute, for Prof. Peter Mair (†), EUI Professor David Farrell, University College Dublin Professor Thomas Poguntke, University of Düsseldorf.European Union institutions have been notoriously criticized for their lack of day-to-day linkage with European citizenry. The European Parliament as the only directly elected EU institution is logically one of the 'closest' linkage institutions to the European electorate. However, little is known about how its representatives - Members' of the European Parliament (MEP) - connect, service and cultivate relations with their constituencies between two elections points. This thesis attempts to fill in this missing link. Using original data from the author's self-administered 2009 MEP survey (N=145), this thesis empirically traces MEP's constituency orientations in three steps. It first maps out MEP constituency orientations in terms of MEP's attitudes / how they think about a their constituencies, the importance they attach to constituency work and the types of activities they pursue in their constituency work. Given that MEP function in an ICT era, in addition to mapping MEP's constituency outreach offline, as part of the second step, the thesis also evaluates how MEP incorporate ICTs and Internet platforms in their constituency outreach. Could it be that the various interactive, transactional and asynchronous features that the Internet provides prompt MEP to use their websites, blogs or social networking sites as quasi virtual constituency offices? In view that a fair degree of variation was found in MEP's constituency outreach, the third last step looks at the determinant of this variation. Overall, the thesis' findings demonstrate that in spite the low institutional and electoral incentives for them to engage in constituency work, MEP conduct a wide range of constituency outreach activities both offline and online. Moreover, citizens contact MEP with diverse types of casework. At the same time data also showed that majority of MEP still prioritize and attach more importance to their legislative duties as oppose to their constituency work. With respect to MEP's Internet usage, the thesis findings further suggest that it is yet premature to conclude that the 'virtual constituency office' is replacing the conventional constituency (offline)

Evaluation of Effective Thermal Conductivities of Porous Textile Composites

An uncoupled multi-scale homogenization approach is used to estimate the effective thermal conductivities of plain weave C/C composites with a high degree of porosity. The geometrical complexity of the material system on individual scales is taken into account through the construction of a suitable representative volume element (RVE), a periodic unit cell, exploiting the information provided by the image analysis of a real composite system on every scale. Two different solution procedures are examined. The first one draws on the classical first order homogenization technique assuming steady state conditions and periodic distribution of the fluctuation part of the temperature field. The second approach is concerned with the solution of a transient flow problem. Although more complex, the latter approach allows for a detailed simulation of heat transfer in the porous system. Effective thermal conductivities of the laminate derived from both approaches through a consistent homogenization on individual scales are then compared with those obtained experimentally. A reasonably close agreement between individual results then promotes the use of the proposed multi-scale computational approach combined with the image analysis of real material systems.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Thermo-physiological properties of 3D warp knitted spacer fabrics for car seat application

475-485Thermal comfort properties of 3-Dimensional knitted spacer fabrics have been studied in order to replace the existing polyurethane foams in the car seat and back supports. The influence of different characteristics of spacer fabrics, like structure, areal density, thickness and density on thermo-physiological performance has been studied. The potential thermal behavior is identified with the support of the thermal conductivity and resistance evaluation. The air and water vapor permeability have been measured and analyzed in-order to study the breathable performance of spacer fabrics. Advance statistical evaluation and two-way analysis of variance is used to analyze the significance of various factors on required properties. The result shows that spacer fabric with a hexagonal net structure has more open structure on surface than lock knit fabrics, which results in highly permeable to air with good thermal conductivity. It is also observed that, the hexagonal net fabrics have the ability to pass more water vapor than the fabrics with lock knit structure on the surface. These findings are the important requirements for designing the car seats with required thermal comfort properties using 3D spacer fabrics

Thermo-physiological properties of 3D warp knitted spacer fabrics for car seat application

Thermal comfort properties of 3-Dimensional knitted spacer fabrics have been studied in order to replace the existingpolyurethane foams in the car seat and back supports. The influence of different characteristics of spacer fabrics, likestructure, areal density, thickness and density on thermo-physiological performance has been studied. The potential thermalbehavior is identified with the support of the thermal conductivity and resistance evaluation. The air and water vaporpermeability have been measured and analyzed in-order to study the breathable performance of spacer fabrics.Advance statistical evaluation and two-way analysis of variance is used to analyze the significance of various factors onrequired properties. The result shows that spacer fabric with a hexagonal net structure has more open structure on surfacethan lock knit fabrics, which results in highly permeable to air with good thermal conductivity. It is also observed that, thehexagonal net fabrics have the ability to pass more water vapor than the fabrics with lock knit structure on the surface.These findings are the important requirements for designing the car seats with required thermal comfort properties using3D spacer fabrics

Assessing the impact of laws controlling the online availability of 25I-NBOMe, AH-7921, MDPV and MXE – outcomes of a semi-automated e-shop monitoring

Aims: The indicator of availability has been used in the risk assessment (RA) of new psychoactive substances (NPS). This paper aims to examine the pre- and post-control availability of 25INBOMe, AH-7921, MDPV and MXE, which were assessed by the EMCDDA. Methods: Data were collected by a semi-automated software tool (I-TREND SASF) on e-shops in national languages (Czech, French, Dutch, Polish and English) that offered shipping of these compounds into the respective countries; frequency analysis was used. Findings: The number of e-shops selling these substances decreased between III/2014 and XII/2015 (except for AH-7921). Both increases and decreases were found on the country-level for all the compounds (except for an overall decrease for MXE). In one instance an NPS disappeared from this market in 2015 (25I-NBOMe in NL); 25I-NBOMe and AH-7921 in France and AH-7921 in Poland appeared for the first time in 2015 after they were put under control. The e-shops listing AH-7921, 25I-NBOMe and MDPV in XII/2015 ranked higher in terms of ‘‘popularity’’ than in III/2014. The IP addresses were more likely to be outside the EU in 2015 than in 2014. Conclusions: We found no evidence that national-level compound bans contributed to the changes in online NPS markets. Indicators of the accessibility, availability, popularity, and IP origin should be considered in RA. Data triangulation with street markets and the darknet is needed as well as more research into the ‘‘displacement’’ and ‘‘replacement’’ effects of control laws

A business model perspective for ICTs in public engagement

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published article can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2012 ElsevierPublic institutions, in their efforts to promote meaningful citizen engagement, are increasingly looking at the democratic potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Previous studies suggest that such initiatives seem to be impeded by socio-technical integration barriers such as low sustainability, poor citizen acceptance, coordination difficulties, lack of understanding and failure to assess their impact. Motivated by these shortcomings, the paper develops and applies a business model perspective as an interceding framework for analysis and evaluation. The underlying principle behind this approach is that it is not technology per se which determines success, but rather the way in which the businessmodel of the technological artifact is configured and employed to achieve the strategic goals. The business model perspective is empirically demonstrated with the case of an online petitioning system implemented by a UK local authority. The case illustrates the importance of considering ICTs in public engagement from a holistic view to make them more manageable and assessable