Book Chapters / Κεφάλαια Βιβλίου

This chapter explores the potential of dynamic statistics software for supporting the teaching and learning of the Common Core Standards for Mathematics. It shares the experiences from a teaching experiment that implemented a data-driven approach to mathematics instruction using the dynamic data-visualization software InspireData © (Hancock, 2006), an educational package specifically designed to meet the learning needs of students in the middle and high school grades (Grades 4-12). We report on how a group of Grade 4 (about 9-year-old) students used the affordances provided by the dynamic learning environment to gather, analyze, and interpret data, and to draw data-based conclusions and inferences. The role of the technological tool in scaffolding and extending these young students' stochastical and mathematical reasoning is discussed.

This chapter discusses the broad spectrum of clinical usage, diagnostic applications, experimental challenges and future perspectives of adenosine. Adenosine, an adenylic nucleotide metabolite, widely distributed throughout the human body, exerts a wide range of regulatory effects. From a cardiovascular perspective, data indicate that the adenosinergic system is important in mediating protection (e.g. via pre- and post-conditioning) and in determining myocardial resistance to insult or to reperfusion-ischemia injury. esides, adenosine exerts its effects through currently four known adenosine receptor (AR) subtypes namely A1R, A2AR, A2BR and A3R. In general, A2AR is thepredominant receptor subtype responsible for coronary blood flow regulation, which dilates coronary arteries. Interestingly, adenosine exerts its cardiac electrophysiologic effects via A1R (e.g. anti-b-adrenergic action). Regarding the supraventricular tissues, adenosine remains as a "first line" harmacologic agent for the treatment of supraventricular arrhythmias, due to its effect on inhibiting rapidly the atrioventricular (AV) nodal conduction. In addition to its clinical role as an antiarrhythmic agent, adenosine has been also administered under conditions of hypoxia, ischemia, and cardiac arrest. Thus, basic research has implicated adenosine as an endogenous distress molecule with essential impact on immune response, adaptation to limited oxygen availability, anti-inflammatory action. Specific AR agonists or antagonists in conjunction with studies in genetic models for adenosine generation have identified a rapidly expanding field of biomedical roles and potential therapeutic applications of extracellular adenosine signaling.

Methods from game theory and mechanism design have been proven to be a powerful mathematical tool in order to understand, control, and efficiently design dynamic, complex networks, such as the Internet. Game theory provides a good starting point for computer scientists to understand selfish rational behavior of complex networks with many agents. Such a scenario is readily modeled using game theory techniques, in which players with potentially different goals participate under a common setting with well prescribed interactions. The Nash equilibrium stands out as the predominant concept of rationality in noncooperative settings. Thus, game theory and its notions of equilibria provide a rich framework for modeling the behavior of selfish agents in these kinds of distributed and networked environments and offering mechanisms to achieve efficient and desirable global outcomes despite selfish behavior. The most important algorithmic solutions and advances achieved through game theory are reviewed.

This chapter examines the application of the concepts of social and cultural capital in empirical research seeking to provide explanations for educational processes relating to post-secondary school choice making in contemporary Cyprus and parents' aspirations in relation to their children's educational and occupational prospects in Greece. It argues that Bourdieu's work is a valuable source of ideas and concepts that provide the framework for quantitative investigations on a number of educational and sociological issues, particularly those that refer to social and cultural reproduction. Moreover, it addresses the criticism that is often associated with the limitations of quantification. This criticism asserts that quantitative techniques often do not explore with sufficient subtlety the social dynamics that are produced by the social contexts within which social action (i.e. educational choice making) occurs.

The chapter synthesizes extant interdisciplinary literature, by putting together a combination of relationship management theories as well as banking, economics, and finance theories, and blends this with findings from an ethnographic research platform to discuss the critical variables in the development of Bank-SME relationships. In addition, the chapter considers the effect of the recent economic crisis on the Bank-SME relationship. It can be seen that few banks looked inside their relationship with their SME customers as a means of redressing the crisis' effect and this has detrimental effects on their longterm performance. As a consequence, the chapter proposes recommendations so as to reduce the crisis negative impact. Moreover, it highlights that the new developments in the technological environment, i.e. social media, can be used to strengthen the Bank-SME relationship's success and is especially pertinent in such times of financial duress as it can enhance the communication mode of the dyad.

This chapter makes a historic overview of the paths that Cypriots have been taking for their higher education and discusses the macro-and micro-sociological factors relating to the structure of the available opportunities. It discusses the impact of the growing number of Cypriot graduates who study abroad and opt to remain and work overseas, something that constitutes what is widely refered to as “brain drain.” It further discusses the immediate and the unintended consequences that this phenomenon has for the country’s long-term revival from a protracted crisis that spans beyond the economy, and often has social and cultural implications that sustain or even broaden inequalities within the country, but also at a cross-country level. More specifically, however, it discusses the effects that this trend has on the whole gamut of factors that affect the quantitative and qualitative development of domestic higher education both in the public and private sectors.

The notion that breast cancer is not a single disease but many – that there is considerable heterogeneity among different tumors – is not new, having been observed by physicians for decades. But with the advent of powerful analytical and computational tools, systems biology has provided a fascinating view of the underlying mutations, biology, and networks that drive the process of breast tumorigenesis. The information derived from analyzing these networks is also proving to be clinically useful and is beginning to be incorporated into the standard clinical management of breast cancer patients – to determine prognosis and guide the choice of therapeutics, for example. However, these advances are complicated by the heterogeneity of cancer cell phenotypes that exist within a single tumor, which drives metastasis, resistance to treatment, and, eventually, recurrence. Systems biology offers a strong tool for investigating both levels of heterogeneity to comprehensively define, and ultimately attack, the aberrant molecular networks governing breast cancer cells. Epidemiology Breast cancer is a staggering public health problem. The American Cancer Society expects that over 232,000 cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in 2014, accounting for the largest number of cancer cases in women (ACS, 2014). Nearly 40,000 deaths are predicted to occur, which rank it the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women, behind only lung cancer. Fortunately, the number of newly diagnosed cases has decreased since 2000, largely as a result of a reduction in number of post-menopausal women on hormone replacement therapy, which has been strongly linked to the development of breast cancer (Rossouw et al., 2002). Death rates have also decreased in recent years and this has been attributed to improvements in screening and early detection with mammography as well as better treatment options (ACS, 2012). However, racial disparities do exist as African American women have a lower incidence rate but an increased chance of death (ACS, 2011). While this may reflect socioeconomic factors and access to health care, there also seems to be a biological difference since African American women are more likely to be diagnosed with aggressive cancers (Amend et al., 2006; Stead et al., 2009). Additionally, over 62,000 cases of carcinoma in situ are expected in 2014 (ACS, 2014). These are non-invasive neoplasms and likely represent a pre-malignant stage in the progression toward invasive breast cancer (Burstein et al., 2004).

Metastasis is the cause of almost all cancer-related deaths. It is an extremely complex, multistep process defined as the spreading of cancer cells from their primary site to distant tissues. Once metastasis occurs it causes catastrophic damage to the critical organs, which is ultimately detrimental to patients. Collective efforts of many scientists have revealed the underlying molecular mechanisms of metastasis by a considerable extent, but there is still a colossal job to be undertaken by researchers to solve this life-threatening health problem. In this chapter, metastasis is explained by focusing on underlying molecular pathways. We define the steps that a cancer cell needs to climb in order to metastasize and discuss the significant molecular actors aberrantly regulated during this process. First, we outline how these molecules are deregulated in cancer cells in order to circumvent natural barriers against metastasis. Then, we give a molecular explanation on why some cancer types metastasize to certain organs. Lastly, we look into recent therapeutic trials, which involve targeting of pathways in the metastatic cascade (Figure 18.1).

Despite the fact that the incidence of cardiac arrest (CA) in pregnancy has been greatly reduced over the last decades, it constitutes nevertheless a tragic fatality affecting two lives at the same time. Furthermore, the family as well as the medical and nursing staff may face severe emotional and economical implications. Optimal outcomes are rarely observed and are dependent upon early recognition of the imminent CA, the cause of the arrest and the rapid response of the rescue team and attending healthcare personnel. The present chapter reviews the major pathophysiological changes occurring in mother's organism during pregnancy, the incidence of CA during pregnancy throughout the world and the differences observed between countries with a special focus on the varying conditions and causes of maternal death among developed and undeveloped countries. The implications of preexisting diseases as causes of maternal CA are discussed, as well as the impact of situations developed during pregnancy, such as eclampsia. In addition to the above, special attention is given to medical and especially anesthetic complications resulting in maternal death. Management of CA during pregnancy is discussed under the light of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation 2010 Guidelines. Perimortem caesarean section which should be undertaken immediately after a difficult decision process represents a major crisis for the physician managing this case. Ultimately, following the current treatment algorithms and treating the possible reversible causes under the light of the special pathophysiologic conditions present in pregnancy, guaranties the best possibilities of successful return of spontaneous circulation.

Undoubtedly, the nature of the relationships between business and risk factors in one country or another does not fit exactly into a "model" nor does it have a pure placebo effect. Yet, models' simplicity may appeal to managers and regulators in understanding important business risks and crisis related phenomena. Backed by this idea, this research underpins a comparative study on SMEs handling risk and crisis management according to a new tailored model of a balance scorecard. This new model of a risk and crisis management aims at improving both SMEs management adaptation and performance across all of crisis' stages, something not attempted so far in the literature. The application of such a 'balanced-scorecard' comes from the author's experience as a banker financing various SMEs industries, as a bank consultant on risk management as well as primarily from the results of a survey performed on a sample of 48 Romanian and Cypriot SMEs, equal-proportionally selected from the area of trading, manufacturing, and services. The results of this case study show, coincidently or not, that there is a significant improvement of the financial performance of the SMEs that employed this model compared to those that did not. The monitoring period: 11/2009-06/2010 was employed as a representative one for the latest global financial crisis which affected the entire European Union region, as well.

This chapter aims at identifying the main design and operation constraints, that smart environments are expected to experience within a 5G wireless/mobile network and how these constraints can be addressed using cognitive radio networks. This chapter first provides a general description of 5G wireless/mobile networks and stresses their role in the future wireless communications with emphasis given on smart environments. Then, the smart environments are presented based on their architecture characteristic and the applications associated with their operation. In addition, an overview of various current standards related to IoT applications is presented followed by the concept of cognitive radio networks and the available experimental platforms stressing the benefits of employing this technology in the future 5G wireless/mobile networks. Finally, the research challenges associated with integrating 5G wireless/mobile networks and IoT are outlined.

In this chapter, we argue for the importance of embedding computer programming into existing mathematics curricula through the use of educational games apps. We illustrate the apps' opportunities by showing how programming was incorporated into a task undertaken by a group of 10-11 year old students. This was their first experience of computer programming at the primary level. The results of this study contribute to understanding a) the development of students' reasoning about mathematical concepts and procedures throughout the participants' engagement with A.L.E.X. app, and b) students' articulated impressions about educational games apps with mathematical content, including students' acknowledgment of the pedagogical role that an iPad could play.

Introduction: 1. The Cross-border Merger Directive has been transposed into the Cypriot legal order by Law 186(I)/2007, which was published on 31 December 2007. That piece of legislation amended the Cypriot Companies Law, Chapter 113 (the ‘CCL’) by inserting a new section on cross-border mergers (Arts. 201I–201X CCL). Scope of the new rules: 2. The new section applies to cross-border mergers of limited liability companies under the conditions that (i) at least one of the merging limited liability companies is a Cypriot company or the limited liability company resulting from the cross-border merger is a Cypriot company (Art. 201J(1) CCL), and (ii) at least one of the rest of the participating companies is subject to the jurisdiction of another European Economic Area Member State (Art. 201I CCL). Cross-border mergers are only possible between types of limited liability companies which may merge under the national law of the relevant Member States. Every Cypriot company may take part in a cross-border merger except (i) the limited liability companies by guarantee, and (ii) the companies subject to liquidation. A Cypriot company participating in such a merger must comply with the provisions and formalities of the CCL (Art. 201K CCL). It is worth noting that the Cyprus legislature chose not to exercise the option given by Article 3(2) of the Cross-border Merger Directive and therefore the new rules are applicable to cooperative societies falling within the definition of ‘limited liability company’ as laid down in Article 201I of the CCL.

Introduction 1. EC Regulation No 885/2004 of 26 April 2004 extends to Cyprus the application of Council Regulation No 2157/2001 of 8 October 2001 on the Statute for a European company (the ‘Regulation’) and Council Directive 2001/86/EC of 8 October 2001 supplementing the Statue for a European company with regard to the involvement of employees (the ‘Directive’). The European Public Limited-Liability Company Regulations 2006 (the ‘EPLLC Regulations’) and Law 277(I)/2004 were introduced in order to harmonise Cypriot and Community law. Given that the European company (commonly referred to by its Latin name, Societas Europaea or SE) has only existed since mid-2006, there is as yet no Cypriot case law on the subject. As noted at no. 2 of the general report, the Regulation and the Directive apply throughout the European Economic Area (EEA), and references in this chapter to the European Union or to its Member States should be construed to include Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein. Application 2. Cyprus came under an obligation to bring its legislation into line with the Regulation and the Directive when it acceded to the European Union on 1 May 2004. The EPLLC Regulations facilitate the application of the Regulation and were introduced via Section 387(1)(e) of the Cypriot Companies Law, Chapter 113 (the ‘CCL’).

Implementation and scope The original text of the Second Company Law Directive and the first amendment thereto introduced by Directive 92/101/EEC of 23 November 1992 have been transposed into the Cypriot legal order by means of Law 70(I)/2003, which was published and took effect on 11 July 2003, and Law 70(I)/2007, which was published and took effect on 22 June 2007. It should be recalled that the transposition deadline for Cyprus was 1 May 2004. The second wave of amendments effected by Directive 2006/68/EC of 6 September 2006 was implemented in Cyprus by Law 87(1)/2008, which was published and came into force on 17 October 2008. It is worth stressing that the deadline for the transposition of that Directive was 15 April 2008. The aforementioned domestic legislative measures have amended the Cypriot Companies Law (“CCL”), Chapter 113 and should therefore be read in conjunction with it. The scope of the Second Company Law Directive is limited to public limited liability companies (see no 1 of Chapter 1). In Cyprus, the Second Company Law Directive applies, first, to (public companies limited by shares) and, second, to (public companies limited by guarantee and having a share capital). Article 1(2) of the Second Company Law Directive provides Member States with the discretion to exclude from its scope of application investment companies with variable capital and cooperatives that take the form of a public limited liability company. The CCL does not contain such exclusions. The provisions discussed below apply therefore equally to the two aforementioned entities, unless it is otherwise provided for in the legislation specifically introduced to regulate them.