European E-Democracy in Practice

This open access book explores how digital tools and social media technologies can contribute to better participation and involvement of EU citizens in European politics. By analyzing selected representative e-participation projects at the local, national and European governmental levels, it identifies the preconditions, best practices and shortcomings of e-participation practices in connection with EU decision-making procedures and institutions. The book features case studies on parliamentary monitoring, e-voting practices, and e-publics, and offers recommendations for improving the integration of e-democracy in European politics and governance. Accordingly, it will appeal to scholars as well as practitioners interested in identifying suitable e-participation tools for European institutions and thus helps to reduce the EU’s current democratic deficit. This book is a continuation of the book “Electronic Democracy in Europe” published by Springer

Prospects for e-democracy in Europe

The drivers behind e-participation are digitalisation, the development of digital tools that can be usedfor citizen involvement – social media, deliberative software, e-voting systems, etc. – and growingaccess to the internet. In European countries, especially those that rank prominently among the top 50performers, citizens have more and more opportunities to have their say in government and politics.According to the UN, the largest share of e-participation initiatives relates to central and localgovernments giving access to public sector information and public consultation via digital tools.Recently there has been a growing focus on citizen involvement in policy making, although progressin this field has been modest so far

Functional Redundancy of Two Pax-Like Proteins in Transcriptional Activation of Cyst Wall Protein Genes in Giardia lamblia

The protozoan Giardia lamblia differentiates from a pathogenic trophozoite into an infectious cyst to survive outside of the host. During encystation, genes encoding cyst wall proteins (CWPs) are coordinately induced. Pax family transcription factors are involved in a variety of developmental processes in animals. Nine Pax proteins have been found to play an important role in tissue and organ development in humans. To understand the progression from primitive to more complex eukaryotic cells, we tried to identify putative pax genes in the G. lamblia genome and found two genes, pax1 and pax2, with limited similarity. We found that Pax1 may transactivate the encystation-induced cwp genes and interact with AT-rich initiatior elements that are essential for promoter activity and transcription start site selection. In this study, we further characterized Pax2 and found that, like Pax1, Pax2 was present in Giardia nuclei and it may specifically bind to the AT-rich initiator elements of the encystation-induced cwp1-3 and myb2 genes. Interestingly, overexpression of Pax2 increased the cwp1-3 and myb2 gene expression and cyst formation. Deletion of the C-terminal paired domain or mutation of the basic amino acids of the paired domain resulted in a decrease of nuclear localization, DNA-binding activity, and transactivation activity of Pax2. These results are similar to those found in the previous Pax1 study. In addition, the profiles of gene expression in the Pax2 and Pax1 overexpressing cells significantly overlap in the same direction and ERK1 associated complexes may phosphorylate Pax2 and Pax1, suggesting that Pax2 and Pax1 may be downstream components of a MAPK/ERK1 signaling pathway. Our results reveal functional redundancy between Pax2 and Pax1 in up-regulation of the key encystation-induced genes. These results illustrate functional redundancy of a gene family can occur in order to increase maintenance of important gene function in the protozoan organism G. lamblia

Intieme verbetertechnologie vereist technologisch burgerschap

Nieuwe technologieën – van kunstmatige intelligentie tot synthetische\u3cbr/\u3ebiologie – gaan de wereld, de menselijke conditie en ons mens-zijn\u3cbr/\u3eongekend veranderen. De discussie hierover beperkt zich veelal tot\u3cbr/\u3eindividuele waarden. Het is echter ook cruciaal om te praten over de\u3cbr/\u3ecollectieve menselijke waarden die we willen waarborgen in onze intiemtechnologische samenleving. Er ligt namelijk een belangrijke politieke\u3cbr/\u3evraag op tafel: hoe kunnen we mensverbetertechnologieën op een\u3cbr/\u3emaatschappelijk verantwoorde manier ontwikkelen en in gaan zetten

van Est u. a.: Small technology - Big Consequences- 2004

The debate on nanotechnology within the Dutch community is of recent time, the last two years seeing it take off slowly but steadily. In this complex arena the Rathenau Institute has played a central role, collecting data, collating thinking, building up arguments, and organising interactive activities such as workshops, focus groups, meetings and newsletters. These all led to the first major public meeting on nanotechnology entitled "Small technology -Big consequences" held on 13 October 2004, and organised in collaboration with the parliamentary Theme Commission on Technology Policy. Nanotechnology in the Netherlands is receiving political attention. This article reviews various activities of the Rathenau Institute in the field of nanotechnology and highlights their results. It also seeks to give the reader insight into the (inter)national context in which the question of nanotechnology is being debated and the factors influencing current views on the subject. 1 1995 to 1998: conception In 1995, a Dutch technology 'foresight' commission, the so-called Overleg Commissie Verkenningen, carried out a short study on nanotechnology. This was followed by a comprehensive foresight study between 1996 and 1998 coordinated by the Netherlands Study Centre for Technology Trends (STT), in which most relevant Dutch and Flemish nanoscientists participated (Ten Wolde 1998). This initiative eventually led to the establishment of a Dutch national nanotechnology research consortium, named NanoNed (see Box 1). Box 1: Research consortium NanoNed The Netherlands hosts three dedicated nanotechnology research centres: the University of Twente (with the Mesa+ research centre in microsystems technology and nanomaterials), Delft University of Technology (with the Dimes research centre on nanoelectronics) and the University of Groningen (with BioMaDe focused on bio-nanotechnology). These form the core of NanoNed. However, four other universities, and TNO, the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, are also represented. NanoNed's director is David Reinhoudt (University of Twente). NanoNed's first research program was entitled NanoImpuls (2002) budgeted at some 45 million Euros from both public (Ministry of Economic Affairs) and private sources. A second research program is now running, budgeted at 102 million Euros of public money, which, somewhat confusingly, is also called NanoNed. Technology Assessment (TA) is an integral part of both NanoImpuls and NanoNed with up to three percent of the budget invested in TA research, coordinated by Arie Rip of the University of Twente