TwHistory : Sharing History Using Twitter

In light of the fact that several studies indicate that students can benefit from deeper understandings of the processes by which historical accounts are constructed, history educators have increasingly been focused on finding ways to teach students how to read and reason about events in the same manner as professional historians (Wineburg, 2001; Spoehr & Spoehr, 1994; Hynd, Holschuh, & Hubbard, 2004; Wiley & Voss, 1996). One possible resource for supporting this development may come out of emerging web-based technologies. New technologies and increased access to historical records and artifacts posted the Internet may be precisely the tools that can help students (Bass, Rosenzweig, & Mason, 1999). Given the right context, we believe it is possible to combine such resources and tools to create an environment for students that could strengthen their abilities to read and reason about historical events. Moreover, we believe that social media, specifically, microblogging (Nardi, Schiano, Gumbrecht, & Swartz, 2004) could play a key role.

Conversation is the Key : A Short History of Smarthistory.org

Smarthistory.org is a proven, sustainable model for open educational resources in the Humanities. We discuss lessons learned during its agile development. Smarthistory.org is a free, creative-commons licensed, multi-media web-book designed as a dynamic enhancement or substitute for the traditional art history textbook. It uses conversation instead of the impersonal voice of the typical textbook in-order to reveal disagreement, emotion, and the experience of looking. The listener remains engaged with both the content and the interaction of the speakers. These conversations model close looking and a willingness to encounter and engage the unfamiliar. Smarthistory takes the inherent dialogic and multimedia nature of the web and uses it as a pedagogical method. This extendable Humanities framework uses an open-source content management system making Smarthistory inexpensive to create, and easy to manage and update. Its chronological timeline/chapter-based format integrates new contributions into a single historical framework, a structure applicable across the Humanities.

Preserving memories on-line : the exhibition 'Memories of our childhood' and the Catalan Immigration History Museum

Gràcies a la introducció d'Internet, les institucions de la memòria poden anar ara un pas endavant i proporcionar narratives i documentació en línia. La present comunicació intenta descobrir com poden ser utilitzades les memòries en línia basant-se en dues experiències: una exposició de nens de la guerra i un portal d'immigració.

The History of the European Union (Chinese version)

Descriu i analitza el procés d'integració europea des dels seus inicis, els anys cinquanta, fins als nostres dies. L'objectiu consisteix a oferir una visió de conjunt d'un procés que va començar modestament amb la integració dels mercats del carbó i de l'acer dels sis membres fundadors i que ha derivat en una Unió Europea de 27 estats membres i més de 500 milions d'habitants, amb polítiques comunes, una cooperació estreta en els àmbits més sensibles de la sobirania estatal i una moneda única en setze estats

The Decision on Turkish EU accession in December 2002: The logic of anarchy, collective action problems and rhetorical action

Studies of the EU accession of the East and Central European Countries have stressed the importance of neo-liberal institutionalism as an explanation for Member State preferences. In this paper it is argued that Member States’ preferences over Turkish EU accession are better explained by power politics and neo-realism. It seems therefore that Turkey’s way to the EU follows another path than the East and Central Countries. Turkish accession raises the question of the EU’s role in a uni-polar world order – whether the EU should develop into an independent actor on the world stage or not. However, when it comes to the interaction among the Member States in order to decide on when to open accession negotiations with Turkey the constitutive values of the EU seriously modify the outcome that pure power politics would have let to.

The New EU’s External Action: A significant step forward towards the EU’s single voice?ction problems and rhetorical action

The aim of this paper is to analyse the main agreements on the EU’s External Action agreed within the European Convention and the IGC taking into account why, how and who reached the consensus on them. In other words, this paper will explore the principles followed in order to improve the instruments of the EU’s External Action such as authority, coherence, visibility, efficiency and credibility.

Origin and genetic differentiation of Three Mexican Native Groups (Purépechas, Triquis and Mayas): contribution of CODIS-STRs to the history of human populations of Mesoamerica

BACKGROUND: CODIS-STRs in Native Mexican groups have rarely been analysed for human identification and anthropological purposes. AIM:To analyse the genetic relationships and population structure among three Native Mexican groups from Mesoamerica.SUBJECTS AND METHODS: 531 unrelated Native individuals from Mexico were PCR-typed for 15 and 9 autosomal STRs (Identifiler™ and Profiler™ kits, respectively), including five population samples: Purépechas (Mountain, Valley and Lake), Triquis and Yucatec Mayas. Previously published STR data were included in the analyses. RESULTS:Allele frequencies and statistical parameters of forensic importance were estimated by population. The majority of Native groups were not differentiated pairwise, excepting Triquis and Purépechas, which was attributable to their relative geographic and cultural isolation. Although Mayas, Triquis and Purépechas-Mountain presented the highest number of private alleles, suggesting recurrent gene flow, the elevated differentiation of Triquis indicates a different origin of this gene flow. Interestingly, Huastecos and Mayas were not differentiated, which is in agreement with the archaeological hypothesis that Huastecos represent an ancestral Maya group. Interpopulation variability was greater in Natives than in Mestizos, both significant.CONCLUSION: Although results suggest that European admixture has increased the similarity between Native Mexican groups, the differentiation and inconsistent clustering by language or geography stresses the importance of serial founder effect and/or genetic drift in showing their present genetic relationships.

Leaving the labour market: event-history analysis of the female workers' transition to housework in Denmark, Germany, Great Britain and Spain

This paper is aimed at exploring the determinants of female activity from a dynamic perspective. An event-history analysis of the transition form employment to housework has been made resorting to data from the European Household Panel Survey. Four countries representing different welfare regimes and, more specifically, different family policies, have been selected for the analysis: Britain, Denmark, Germany and Spain. The results confirm the importance of individual-level factors, which is consistent with an economic approach to female labour supply. Nonetheless, there are significant cross-national differences in how these factors act over the risk of abandoning the labour market. First, the number of trnasitions is much lower among Danish working women than among British, German or Spanish ones, revealing the relative importance of universal provision of childcare services, vis-à-vis other elements of the family policy, as time or money.

Quantifying quantitative literacy: Age heaping and the history of human capital

Age data frequently display excess frequencies at round or attractive ages, such as even numbers and multiples of five. This phenomenon of age heaping has been viewed as a problem in previous research, especially in demography and epidemiology. We see it as an opportunity and propose its use as a measure of human capital that can yield comparable estimates across a wide range of historical contexts. A simulation study yields methodological guidelines for measuring and interpreting differences in ageheaping, while analysis of contemporary and historical datasets demonstrates the existence of a robust correlation between age heaping and literacy at both the individual and aggregate level. To illustrate the method, we generate estimates of human capital in Europe over the very long run, which support the hypothesis of a major increase in human capital preceding the industrial revolution.

Recreating the South Sea bubble: Lessons from an experiment in financial history

Major bubble episodes are rare events. In this paper, we examine what factors might cause some asset price bubbles to become very large. We recreate, in a laboratory setting, some of the specific institutional features investors in the South Sea Company faced in 1720. Several factors have been proposed as potentially contributing to one of the greatest periods of asset overvaluation in history: an intricate debt-for-equity swap, deferred payment for these shares, and the possibility of default on the deferred payments. We consider which aspect might have had the most impact in creating the South Sea bubble. The results of the experiment suggest that the company?s attempt to exchange its shares for government debt was the single biggest contributor to the stock price explosion, because of the manner in which the swap affected fundamental value. Issuing new shares with only partial payments required, in conjunction with the debt-equity swap, also had a significant effect on the size of the bubble. Limited contract enforcement, on the other hand, does not appear to have contributed significantly.

La public history - histoire apliquée: la història a l'empresa o el potencial de l'arxiu històric

El present article vol posar sobre la taula les aportacions que per al camp dels arxius han suposat les idees del que es coneix en el camp de la historiografia com a public history (món anglosaxó) o histoire apliquée (França). Malgrat que, com es veurà a continuació, la irrupció d'aquesta línia no és recent, la seva repercussió a casa nostra ha estat més aviat escassa, tot i que es donen algunes de les condicions favorables per a una bona recepció.

Tough adults, frail babies: an analysis of stress sensitivity across early life-history stages of widely introduced marine invertebrates

All ontogenetic stages of a life cycle are exposed to environmental conditions so that population persistence depends on the performance of both adults and offspring. Most studies analysing the influence of abiotic conditions on species performance have focussed on adults, while studies covering early life-history stages remain rare. We investigated the responses of early stages of two widely introduced ascidians, Styela plicata and Microcosmus squamiger, to different abiotic conditions. Stressors mimicked conditions in the habitats where both species can be found in their distributional ranges and responses were related to the selection potential of their populations by analysing their genetic diversity. Four developmental stages (egg fertilisation, larval development, settlement, metamorphosis) were studied after exposure to high temperature (30°C), low salinities (26 and 22 ) and high copper concentrations (25, 50 and 100 µg/L). Although most stressors effectively led to failure of complete development (fertilisation through metamorphosis), fertilisation and larval development were the most sensitive stages. All the studied stressors affected the development of both species, though responses differed with stage and stressor. S. plicata was overall more resistant to copper, and some stages of M. squamiger to low salinities. No relationship was found between parental genetic composition and responses to stressors. We conclude that successful development can be prevented at several life-history stages, and therefore, it is essential to consider multiple stages when assessing species' abilities to tolerate stress. Moreover, we found that early development of these species cannot be completed under conditions prevailing where adults live. These populations must therefore recruit from elsewhere or reproduce during temporal windows of more benign conditions. Alternatively, novel strategies or behaviours that increase overall reproductive success might be responsible for ensuring population survival.

Comparative genomics of the odorant-binding and chemosensory protein gene families across the arthropoda: origin and evolutionary history of the chemosensory system

Chemoreception is a biological process essential for the survival of animals, as it allows the recognition of important volatile cues for the detection of food, egg-laying substrates, mates or predators, among other purposes. Furthermore, its role in pheromone detection may contribute to evolutionary processes such as reproductive isolation and speciation. This key role in several vital biological processes makes chemoreception a particularly interesting system for studying the role of natural selection in molecular adaptation. Two major gene families are involved in the perireceptor events of the chemosensory system: the odorant-binding protein (OBP) and chemosensory protein (CSP) families. Here, we have conducted an exhaustive comparative genomic analysis of these gene families in twenty Arthropoda species. We show that the evolution of the OBP and CSP gene families is highly dynamic, with a high number of gains and losses of genes, pseudogenes and independent origins of subfamilies. Taken together, our data clearly support the birth-and-death model for the evolution of these gene families with an overall high gene-turnover rate. Moreover, we show that the genome organization of the two families is significantly more clustered than expected by chance and, more important, that this pattern appears to be actively maintained across the Drosophila phylogeny. Finally, we suggest the homologous nature of the OBP and CSP gene families, dating back their MRCA (most recent common ancestor) to 380¿420 Mya, and we propose a scenario for the origin and diversification of these families.

Isolation of a novel monkey adenovirus reveals a new phylogenetic clade in the evolutionary history of simian adenoviruses

Adenoviruses of primates include human (HAdV) and simian (SAdV) isolates classified into 8 species (Human Adenovirus A to G, and Simian Adenovirus A). In this study, a novel adenovirus was isolated from a colony of cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) and subcultured in VERO cells. Its complete genome was purified and a region encompassing the hexon gene, the protease gene, the DNA binding protein (DBP) and the 100 kDa protein was amplified by PCR and sequenced by primer walking. Sequence analysis of these four genes showed that the new isolate had 80% identity to other primate adenoviruses and lacked recombination events. The study of the evolutionary relationships of this new monkey AdV based on the combined sequences of the four genes supported a close relationship to SAdV-3 and SAdV-6, lineages isolated from Rhesus monkeys. The clade formed by these three types is separated from the remaining clades and establishes a novel branch that is related to species HAdV-A, F and G. However, the genetic distance corresponding to the newly isolated monkey AdV considerably differs from these as to belong to a new, not yet established species. Results presented here widen our knowledge on SAdV and represents an important contribution to the understanding of the evolutionary history of primate adenoviruses.

Isolation of a novel monkey adenovirus reveals a new phylogenetic clade in the evolutionary history of simian adenoviruses

Adenoviruses of primates include human (HAdV) and simian (SAdV) isolates classified into 8 species (Human Adenovirus A to G, and Simian Adenovirus A). In this study, a novel adenovirus was isolated from a colony of cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) and subcultured in VERO cells. Its complete genome was purified and a region encompassing the hexon gene, the protease gene, the DNA binding protein (DBP) and the 100 kDa protein was amplified by PCR and sequenced by primer walking. Sequence analysis of these four genes showed that the new isolate had 80% identity to other primate adenoviruses and lacked recombination events. The study of the evolutionary relationships of this new monkey AdV based on the combined sequences of the four genes supported a close relationship to SAdV-3 and SAdV-6, lineages isolated from Rhesus monkeys. The clade formed by these three types is separated from the remaining clades and establishes a novel branch that is related to species HAdV-A, F and G. However, the genetic distance corresponding to the newly isolated monkey AdV considerably differs from these as to belong to a new, not yet established species. Results presented here widen our knowledge on SAdV and represents an important contribution to the understanding of the evolutionary history of primate adenoviruses.