The Role of Knowledge,Social Norms,and Attitudes Toward Organic Products and Shopping Behavior: Survey Results from High School Students in Vienna

In 2005 a survey was used to investigate social norms and attitudes of Viennese high school students (14–20 years, n = 340) toward organic products. Young people, who already participate in household decisions and consume organic products, have not yet been recognized sufficiently in research. The Theory of Reasoned Action and discriminant analysis are used to explore relations of a number of variables and the complex field of factors influencing Viennese high school students’ shopping behavior when shopping for organic products. Key findings include the importance of primary socialization in forming social norms and shaping behavior. Surprisingly, knowledge of organic products does not explain students’ self-reported shopping behavior when shopping for organic products. Cultural patterns seem to be far more useful to predict behavior and attitudes toward organic products.     

Solutions in global software engineering: A systematic literature review

Global software engineering (GSE) has received increased attention, as globalization enables and encourages increased distribution of product development. Many empirical studies and systematic literature reviews (SLRs) focus on the identification of challenges, this paper however presents the first SLR collecting and analyzing solutions associated with GSE, while also evaluating the level of empirical validation of said solutions. As a starting point the paper presents a GSE model, designed to categorize solutions into process areas, useful for the analysis of the research community's contributions to state-of-the-art and identifying fundamental gaps in research. In addition, the model categorizing the solutions is populated with references and good-examples, useful for practitioners, which can use the model to find solutions to overall challenges in various process areas. The overall results of the systematic review revealed more than 330 papers containing 127 solutions that were then identified and mapped to the model. The process areas of project management are highly populated, while other areas like product integration have received surprisingly little attention. In addition, selected process area is elaborated upon in terms of contents and deficiencies.     

Central Europe-South Eastern Europe: Inter-regional Relations in Education,Science, Culture,and Communication

The central premise in the holding of the Symposium was that there is a long tradition of co-operation among the countries of the sub-regions concerned in the domains of education, science, culture, and communication. Given the perspective of accession of most of these countries to EU membership, this co-operation will develop and expand. As such, it is worth studying so as to better understand and promote it. Thus, the Symposium examined the following topics: (i) Looking Ahead: Links and Co-operation in the Central and South Eastern Europe; (ii) Science and the Application of Science for Technology Development: Towards Enhancement of Endogenous Capacities; (iii) Co-operation through Culture Interactions: Lessons from the Past and Agenda for the Future; (iv) Enhancing the Quality of Communication for and through Better Co-operation. The conclusion is that co-operation of all sorts among the countries of the sub-regions is stronger than co-operation between them but that they should pursue their EU accession efforts, enhancing them through sub-regional co-operation in all domains.     

Implementation of a project-based molecular biology laboratory emphasizing protein structure-function relationships in a large introductory biology laboratory course

In introductory laboratory courses, many universities are turning from traditional laboratories with predictable outcomes to inquiry-inspired, project-based laboratory curricula. In these labs, students are allowed to design at least some portion of their own experiment and interpret new, undiscovered data. We have redesigned the introductory biology laboratory course at Brandeis University into a semester-long project-based laboratory that emphasizes concepts and contains an element of scientific inquiry. In this laboratory, students perform a site-directed mutagenesis experiment on the gene encoding human γD crystallin, a human eye lens protein implicated in cataracts, and assess the stability of their newly created protein with respect to wild-type crystallin. This laboratory utilizes basic techniques in molecular biology to emphasize the importance of connections between DNA and protein. This project lab has helped engage students in their own learning, has improved students' skills in critical thinking and analysis, and has promoted interest in basic research in biology.