diff --git a/ccm-core/src/com/arsdigita/globalization/Globalization.java b/ccm-core/src/com/arsdigita/globalization/Globalization.java
index 685088874..66cb7aa3f 100755
--- a/ccm-core/src/com/arsdigita/globalization/Globalization.java
+++ b/ccm-core/src/com/arsdigita/globalization/Globalization.java
@@ -55,13 +55,13 @@ public class Globalization {
      * The default encoding for parameterts, as specified by the
      * servlet spec
      */
-    public static final String DEFAULT_PARAM_ENCODING = "ISO-8859-1";
+    public static final String DEFAULT_PARAM_ENCODING = "UTF-8";
 
     /**
      * The default encoding for request/response body data, as specified by the
      * servlet spec
      */
-    public static final String DEFAULT_ENCODING = "ISO-8859-1";
+    public static final String DEFAULT_ENCODING = "UTF-8";
 
     private static Map s_localeToCharsetMap;
     
diff --git a/ccm-sci-member-navigation/src/ccm-sci-member-navigation.load b/ccm-sci-member-navigation/src/ccm-sci-member-navigation.load
index 42c4e1de5..5ecebf965 100644
--- a/ccm-sci-member-navigation/src/ccm-sci-member-navigation.load
+++ b/ccm-sci-member-navigation/src/ccm-sci-member-navigation.load
@@ -10,6 +10,6 @@
 	</requires>
 
 	<provides>
-		<initializer class="com.arsdigita.cms.sciproject.navigation.Initializer"/>
+		<initializer class="com.arsdigita.cms.scimember.navigation.SciMemberInitializer"/>
 	</provides>
 </load>
diff --git a/ccm-sci-publications-navigation/src/com/arsdigita/cms/scipublications/navigation/PublicationList.java b/ccm-sci-publications-navigation/src/com/arsdigita/cms/scipublications/navigation/PublicationList.java
index 14e3a04cb..3ef662c9b 100644
--- a/ccm-sci-publications-navigation/src/com/arsdigita/cms/scipublications/navigation/PublicationList.java
+++ b/ccm-sci-publications-navigation/src/com/arsdigita/cms/scipublications/navigation/PublicationList.java
@@ -318,7 +318,8 @@ public class PublicationList extends AbstractComponent {
                 yearFilter = null;
             }
 //            final String 
-            authorsFilter = request.getParameter("authorsStr");
+//            authorsFilter = request.getParameter("authorsStr");
+            authorsFilter = Globalization.decodeParameter(request, "authorsStr");
             if ((titleFilter != null && !titleFilter.trim().isEmpty())
                     || yearFilter != null
                     || (authorsFilter != null && !authorsFilter.trim().isEmpty())) {