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This paper presents some of the overall frameworks and models for language learning that were used under Avalon (Access to Virtual and Action Learning live ONline), an EU co-funded project aimed at developing language-learning scenarios in virtual worlds. The introduction and background summarize some of the theories that constitute the starting points for the designs and are followed by a discussion of how the affordances of virtual worlds support the communicative language-learning model used in the project. The authors' main focus then turns to pedagogic design, where the authors present the methods used during the project and some generic aspects of course designs that were developed. The article ends with a more specific look at examples of task design from the courses given under the project framework.

The article presents a study which investigates the potential of application of a profile inversion scheme for the retrieval of aerosol extinction and trace gas concentrations on Multiple Axis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) method. The scheme was applied during the FORMAT-II campaign in Bresso in Milano, Italy on September 4-26, 2003. Two profile parameters are retrieved from the study, the integrated quantities and parameters describing a profiles' height and shape.