Politics Backstage - Television Documentaries, Politics and Politicians

OpenAIRE

Ib Bondebjerg

2006-01-01

This article deals with "the transformation of visibility" in political discourse on and representation of politics and politicians in resent Dansih television documentaries. Drawing on the theories of Habermas, Meyrowitz and John B. Thompson, it is argued that the political persona on television is moved closer to the individual citizen, creating a sort "mediated quasi-inter- action" giving mediated communication a stronger element of face-to-face interaction. Together...

Strategies For Dealing With Problems Faced By Men Participating In ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The purpose of this study was to identify strategies for dealing with problems faced by men in Umkhanyakude using a participatory and inclusive approach. Men in Umkhanyakude were invited to a workshop in January 2004 to carefully think through the problems that they face, then to prioritize these problems using a ...

Politics Backstage - Television Documentaries, Politics and Politicians

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ib Bondebjerg

2006-09-01

Full Text Available This article deals with "the transformation of visibility" in political discourse on and representation of politics and politicians in resent Dansih television documentaries. Drawing on the theories of Habermas, Meyrowitz and John B. Thompson, it is argued that the political persona on television is moved closer to the individual citizen, creating a sort "mediated quasi-inter- action" giving mediated communication a stronger element of face-to-face interaction. Together with the more pervasive "live" coverage of politics and politicians, this expands media coverage to both the backstage of political processes and the private and personal backstage of politicians, changing the form of democracy and public debate.

Correcting environmental problems facing the nuclear weapons complex

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rezendes, V.S.

1990-06-01

This report discusses DOE's efforts to correct the environmental problems facing the nuclear weapons complex. It focuses on three main points. First, the weapons complex faces a variety of serious and costly environmental problems. Second, during the past year, DOE has made some important changes to its organization that should help change its management focus from one that emphasizes materials production to one that more clearly focuses on environmental concerns. Third, because resolution of DOE's environmental problems will require considerable resources during a period of budgetary constraints, it is imperative that DOE have internal controls in place to ensure that resources are spent efficiently

[Political challenges facing the consolidation of the Sistema Único de Saúde: a historical approach].

Science.gov (United States)

Rodrigues, Paulo Henrique de Almeida

2014-01-01

This article investigates the circumstances in which Brazil’s sanitation reform was conceived and the Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) was constructed. A brief analysis is conducted of Brazil’s political transition to democracy, focusing on three political challenges facing the consolidation of SUS: its weak support base amongst workers, competition with the private sector, and the fragmentation of its administration caused by its municipalization. Finally, the changes in the scenario caused by the weakening of neoliberalism since the 2008 crisis, the reemergence of a multipolar political scenario internationally, and the financing conditions of the Brazilian State are described.

PROBLEMS FACED BY INDONESIAN EFL LEARNERS IN WRITING ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY

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Wulan Rahmatunisa

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This study aims to find out problems in writing argumentative essay faced by Indonesian EFL learners. It is carried out in a qualitative research design as it attempted to describe the problems and their ways out. The data were taken from university students’ writing task and interview. The participants are the second year of university Indonesia students who enrol their study in English Department. Results of the data indicated that Indonesian EFL learners faced the problems in three categories, those are linguistics problems, cognitive problems, and psychological problems. Mostly, students faced problems in linguistics related to the grammatical structure (23.2%, formatting words (30.2%, words classes (16.3%, error in using words (9.3%, and the use of article (21%. Second, cognitive problems are related to organizing paragraph, difficulties in remaining word classes, getting lost the generic structure, making a conclusion, and putting punctuation. Last, psychological problems which included laziness, egoism, bad mood, and difficulties to start writing also faced by Indonesian EFL learners. Data analysis also indicated the problem solving which hopefully will be beneficial for EFL teachers in writing class. It is strongly recommended that the EFL class should strengthen all the language skills in general and writing in particular, motivate the students to use English with the teachers, introduce pair work, peer-correction, and use dictionaries frequently etc.

“Resource Curse” and System Problems of Political Management in Russia

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Vetrenko Inna Aleksandrovna

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In the article the analysis of problems in the field of political management in modern Russia is carried out. Initially, the author considers the possibility of explaining the nature of these problems through the theory of the “Resource curse”, but it allows only updating the vulnerable areas of the system of political governance in our country, without identification of their nature. The author highlights such aspects of the current state of the political system of Russia, as ethno-federalism, its risks in modern conditions, state capitalism and examines its manifestations in the economy and politics of the country. From the author’s point of view, the analyzed theory of “resource curse” cannot fully explain and solve the multidimensional problems of political management of modern Russia. There are deeper and more systematic characters than a statement about possession of hydrocarbon resources, the sale of which is in the ground budget replenishment. The attention is focused on the fact that one of the weak points in the political management of modern Russia is a decreased credibility and role of the Parliament, as well as the weak institutionalization of small and medium businesses. The factor causing destabilization of social relations and inefficiency of the system of state administration in the Russian Federation is an established model of ethno-federalism – “Matreshka”. Such system of administrative and territorial structure of the country decreases the values of the statehood. The author highlights that the article largely reflects the positions of those political scientists who try to go beyond logical, but at the same time limited postulates of liberal theories when searching for a way out from difficult socio-political situation in the country. These concepts are ideologized and cannot escape the temptation of stigmatization of Russia as a country “cursed” by its natural resources.

Political Risk and Foreign Direct Investments in Kosovo

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MSc. Neshat Podvorica

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to present the importance of political risk and its impact on attracting investments, also to analyse policies made by the Kosovo institutions to reduce political risk and increase the FDIs. Attracting of the FDIs is complex because they depend on many factors, and one of the methods that measure political risk is the model used by the PRS Group that includes the flow of the economy through 12 components. Measuring political risk plays an important role in transitional countries, because these are countries that have problems in various fields and also the trust on by the investors is low. As a finding of this study is that Kosovo is estimated to have moderate political risk, and is close to joining the group of countries with low political risk. Challenges faced by Kosovo in reducing political risk are concentrated in several components, which are: socioeconomic, corruption and rule of law components. Kosovo has taken significant steps in improving the conditions for investment, government stability and positioning of the country facing internal and external conflicts.

Perceptions of political leaders.

Science.gov (United States)

David Schmitz, J; Murray, Gregg R

2017-01-01

Partisan identification is a fundamental force in individual and mass political behavior around the world. Informed by scholarship on human sociality, coalitional psychology, and group behavior, this research argues that partisan identification, like many other group-based behaviors, is influenced by forces of evolution. If correct, then party identifiers should exhibit adaptive behaviors when making group-related political decisions. The authors test this assertion with citizen assessments of the relative physical formidability of competing leaders, an important adaptive factor in leader evaluations. Using original and novel data collected during the contextually different 2008 and 2012 U.S. presidential elections, as well as two distinct measures obtained during both elections, this article presents evidence that partisans overestimate the physical stature of the presidential candidate of their own party compared with the stature of the candidate of the opposition party. These findings suggest that the power of party identification on political behavior may be attributable to the fact that modern political parties address problems similar to the problems groups faced in human ancestral times.

Interests versus morality in politics

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Radojčić Mirjana S.

2002-01-01

Full Text Available In this individual project the relationship between interests and moral in politics will be considered, taking into consideration the disintegration of former Yugoslavia and the processes of globalization. The starting thesis of the research is that the main actors of global politics are still guided by the modern principles of real-politics with interests as its basic category and power as its supreme value. In that context the main elements of external politics of USA as the key actor of the processes will be specially considered. In the concluding part of the research author will be argue in favor of the affirmation of a new model of global politics, matching the character and scope of the problems faced by humanity at the turn of the century and the millenium.

A Matter of Politics: The Effects of the Political Context on Social Work in Norway and Bolivia

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Svein Tuastad

2017-04-01

Full Text Available To which extent do dysfunctional political systems lead to everyday challenges for social workers? Moreover, how do social workers benefit from working in well-ordered democracies?  The purpose of this paper is to gain insights into how the interplay between the political context and social work actually operates. Our main question is: How do accountability and state capacity levels affect daily social work? This interplay frequently becomes associated with levels of democracy and redistribution. We also draw attention to how social workers’ are dependent on the capacity of the state to implement policies. We compare social work and the political and legal contexts in two widely different polities – Norway and Bolivia. Our primary findings indicate that the effects of generally unfavourable political conditions permeate the possibilities for effective social work in previously unforeseen ways. Coordination problems, clientelism and political rivalry lead to everyday challenges on the ground, as many problems seem to reflect the overall institutional system and political culture. In well-ordered political systems, these problems are hardly an issue. In our concluding discussion, we address how the nature of the institutional system and political culture apparently might call for a differentiated approach towards reform strategies. For instance, progressive politicians, citizens and social workers advocating a policy transfer could face severe hindrances in polities, thus comprising weak state capacities.

Counting to 20: Online Implementation of a Face-to-Face, Elementary Mathematics Methods Problem-Solving Activity

Science.gov (United States)

Schwartz, Catherine Stein

2012-01-01

This study describes implementation of the same problem-solving activity in both online and face-to-face environments. The activity, done in the first class period or first module of a K-2 mathematics methods course, was initially used in a face-to-face class and then adapted later for use in an online class. While the task was originally designed…

The problem of defining contemporary right-wing extremism in political theory

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Đorić Marija

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The subject matter of research in this paper is theoretical controversy related to the definition of right-wing extremism. Given the fact that extremism is a variable, amorphous and insufficiently researched phenomenon, largely conditioned by time, space, political and cultural differences, there is a great confusion in the field of political science when defining right-wing extremism. The problem of researching right-wing extremism is additionally complicated by various terms that are being used in the contemporary literature as its synonyms, such as right-wing radicalism, neo-Fascism, ultra-radicalism, etc. In order to provide the most valid theoretical determination of right-wing extremism, the author provides a detailed analysis of all the components constituting this phenomenon and examines their causality. In the political praxis, the term extremism is extensively abused, which additionally complicates its determination. Videlicet, politicians often use term 'extremist' in order to discredit their political opponents. While during the French revolution aristocracy saw the bourgeoisie as extremists, the members of the working class later stated that the bourgeoisie were extremists. The problem lies in the fact that, in politics, extremists are not only the ones who use violence as modus operandi; indeed, it is also used by political opponents who do not belong to the extreme political option. Another aggravating factor in defining right-wing extremism is that many administrative and academic definitions do not make a clear distinction between extremism and related phenomena, such as terrorism, radicalism and populism. Extremism is most often equaled with terrorism, which gives rise to another problem in defining this phenomenon. The relation between extremism and terrorism is the relation of general and specific. Namely, every act of terrorism is concurrently considered to be an act of extremism, but not vice versa, given the fact that

Political Limits to the Processing of Policy Problems

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Peter J. May

2013-07-01

Full Text Available This contribution addresses political limits to the processing of policy problems in the United States. Our foci are the forces that limit policymakers' attention to different aspects of problems and how this affects the prospects for problem resolution. We theorize about three sets of forces: interest engagement, linkages among relevant institutions for policymaking, and partisan conflict. We show how the interplay of these forces limits efforts to address complex problems. Based on secondary accounts, we consider these underlying dynamics for ten complex problems. These include the thorny problems of the financial crisis, climate change, and health care; the persistent problems of K-12 education, drug abuse, and food safety; and the looming problems associated with critical infrastructure, the obesity epidemic, ocean health, and terrorism and extreme events. From these accounts we identify different patterns that we label fractured, allied, bureaucratic, and anemic policymaking.

Senge's Many Faces: Problem or Opportunity?

Science.gov (United States)

Ortenblad, Anders

2007-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss both possibilities and problems with Senge's (1990) many faces in The Fifth Discipline, i.e. the fact that different authors refer to different excerpts from his book as his version of the learning organization. Design/methodology/approach: The paper shows that the authors' understandings of Senge,…

Political Discourse Analysis Through Solving Problems of Graph Theory

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Monica Patrut

2010-03-01

Full Text Available In this article, we show how, using graph theory, we can make a content analysis of political discourse. Assumptions of this analysis are:
- we have a corpus of speech of each party or candidate;
- we consider that speech conveys economic, political, socio-cultural values, these taking the form of words or word families;
- we consider that there are interdependences between the values of a political discourse; they are given by the co-occurrence of two values, as words in the text, within a well defined fragment, or they are determined by the internal logic of political discourse;
- established links between values in a political speech have associated positive numbers indicating the "power" of those links; these "powers" are defined according to both the number of co-occurrences of values, and the internal logic of the discourse where they occur.
In this context we intend to highlight the following:
a which is the dominant value in a political speech;
b which groups of values have ties between them and have no connection with the rest;
c which is the order in which political values should be set in order to obtain an equivalent but more synthetic speech compared to the already given one;
d which are the links between values that form the "core" political speech.
To solve these problems, we shall use the Political Analyst program. After that, we shall present the concepts necessary to the understanding of the introductory graph theory, useful in understanding the analysis of the software and then the operation of the program. This paper extends the previous paper [6].

A Meta-Analytic and Qualitative Review of Online versus Face-to-Face Problem-Based Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Jurewitsch, Brian

2012-01-01

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional strategy that is poised for widespread application in the current, growing, on-line digital learning environment. While enjoying a track record as a defensible strategy in face-to-face learning settings, the research evidence is not clear regarding PBL in on-line environments. A review of the…

Perceptions of others' political affiliation are moderated by individual perceivers' own political attitudes.

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John Paul Wilson

Full Text Available Previous research has shown that perceivers can accurately extract information about perceptually ambiguous group memberships from facial information alone. For example, people demonstrate above-chance accuracy in categorizing political ideology from faces. Further, they ascribe particular personality traits to faces according to political party (e.g., Republicans are dominant and mature, Democrats are likeable and trustworthy. Here, we report three studies that replicated and extended these effects. In Study 1a, we provide evidence that, in addition to showing accuracy in categorization, politically-conservative participants expressed a bias toward categorizing targets as outgroup members. In Study 1b, we replicate this relationship with a larger sample and a stimulus set consisting of faces of professional politicians. In Study 2, we find that trait ascriptions based on target political affiliation are moderated by perceiver political ideology. Specifically, although Democrats are stereotyped as more likeable and trustworthy, conservative participants rated faces that were categorized as Republicans in Study 1a as more likeable and trustworthy than faces categorized as Democrats. Thus, this paper joins a growing literature showing that it is critical to consider perceiver identity in examining perceptions of identities and traits from faces.

Perceptions of others' political affiliation are moderated by individual perceivers' own political attitudes.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, John Paul; Rule, Nicholas O

2014-01-01

Previous research has shown that perceivers can accurately extract information about perceptually ambiguous group memberships from facial information alone. For example, people demonstrate above-chance accuracy in categorizing political ideology from faces. Further, they ascribe particular personality traits to faces according to political party (e.g., Republicans are dominant and mature, Democrats are likeable and trustworthy). Here, we report three studies that replicated and extended these effects. In Study 1a, we provide evidence that, in addition to showing accuracy in categorization, politically-conservative participants expressed a bias toward categorizing targets as outgroup members. In Study 1b, we replicate this relationship with a larger sample and a stimulus set consisting of faces of professional politicians. In Study 2, we find that trait ascriptions based on target political affiliation are moderated by perceiver political ideology. Specifically, although Democrats are stereotyped as more likeable and trustworthy, conservative participants rated faces that were categorized as Republicans in Study 1a as more likeable and trustworthy than faces categorized as Democrats. Thus, this paper joins a growing literature showing that it is critical to consider perceiver identity in examining perceptions of identities and traits from faces.

Perceptions of Others' Political Affiliation Are Moderated by Individual Perceivers' Own Political Attitudes

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, John Paul; Rule, Nicholas O.

2014-01-01

Previous research has shown that perceivers can accurately extract information about perceptually ambiguous group memberships from facial information alone. For example, people demonstrate above-chance accuracy in categorizing political ideology from faces. Further, they ascribe particular personality traits to faces according to political party (e.g., Republicans are dominant and mature, Democrats are likeable and trustworthy). Here, we report three studies that replicated and extended these effects. In Study 1a, we provide evidence that, in addition to showing accuracy in categorization, politically-conservative participants expressed a bias toward categorizing targets as outgroup members. In Study 1b, we replicate this relationship with a larger sample and a stimulus set consisting of faces of professional politicians. In Study 2, we find that trait ascriptions based on target political affiliation are moderated by perceiver political ideology. Specifically, although Democrats are stereotyped as more likeable and trustworthy, conservative participants rated faces that were categorized as Republicans in Study 1a as more likeable and trustworthy than faces categorized as Democrats. Thus, this paper joins a growing literature showing that it is critical to consider perceiver identity in examining perceptions of identities and traits from faces. PMID:24781819

POLITICAL RISK ON THE FINANCIAL MARKET The problem of adequate scientific assessment of business operations - the naivety of economists

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Leszek Dziawgo

2014-04-01

Full Text Available One of the significant problems of a modern economy and economics is political risk. A destructive influence of politics on the financial market cannot be ignored. It is necessary to indicate some selected specific problems of the financial market connected with politics in the area of: public finance (including EU, monetary policy and capital market. Nowadays, the scale and dynamics of political interference in the economy and finance leads to the problem of rationality in business activities. Moreover, many hidden political factors change the political risk into immeasurable political uncertainty.

Gender, Power And Political Leadership In Nigeria: Problems And ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

women in their struggle for power and political leadership and analyze the problems confronting them in the present day Nigeria. The study relied basically on qualitative methodology and gathered its data from documentary sources like journals, magazines, books, newspapers and internet materials. This paper argues that ...

Myth 15: High-Ability Students Don't Face Problems and Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Moon, Sidney M.

2009-01-01

One rationale for failure to address the needs of high-ability students in schools is that high-ability students do not need special services because they do not face any special problems or challenges. A more extreme corollary of this attitude is the notion that high ability is so protective that students with high ability do not face problems or…

The Double Conditioning of Political Participation: Grassroots Politics on Facebook. Conjunctions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schou, Jannick; Farkas, Johan; Hjelholt, Morten

2015-01-01

Th e emergence of social network sites as a part of everyday life has given rise to a number of debates on the demo-cratic potential aff orded by these technologies. Th is paper addresses political participation facilitated through Facebook from a practice-oriented perspective and presents a case...... of Facebook to facilitate political participation. Th e study fi nds that user participation on the Facebook page is ‘ double conditioned’ by the material structure of the social network site on the one hand and by the discourses articulated by the organisation and users on the other. Finally, the paper...... discusses the fi ndings and raises a number of problems and obstacles facing participatory grassroots organisations, such as Fight For Th e Future, when using Facebook....

Perceived Organisational Politics, Political Behaviour and Employee ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

facing both private and public sector organisations (Nidhi & Prerna, 2015;. Gotsis & Kortezi ... These studies suggest that organisational politics often interfere with normal ..... Rawls's (1971) theory of justice provides a theoretical foundation for the relationship between ..... Ethical considerations in organisational politics: ...

Religious identification and politicization in the face of discrimination: support for political Islam and political action among the Turkish and Moroccan second generation in Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Fleischmann, Fenella; Phalet, Karen; Klein, Olivier

2011-12-01

Taking an approach from religion as a social identity and using large-scale comparative surveys in five European cities, we investigate when and how perceived discrimination is associated with religious identification and politicization among the second generation of Turkish and Moroccan Muslims. We distinguish support for political Islam from political action as distinct forms of politicization. In addition, we test the mediating role of religious identification in processes of politicization. Study 1 estimates multi-group structural equation models of support for political Islam in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. In line with a social identity model of politicization and across nine inter-group contexts, Muslims who perceived more discrimination identified (even) more strongly as Muslims; and high Muslim identifiers were most ready to support political Islam. In support of a competing social stigma hypothesis, however, negative direct and total effects of perceived discrimination suggest predominant depoliticization. Using separate sub-samples across four inter-group contexts in Belgium, Study 2 adds political action tendencies as a distinct form of politicization. Whereas religious identification positively predicts both forms of politicization, perceived discrimination has differential effects: Muslims who perceived more discrimination were more weary of supporting political Islam, yet more ready to engage in political action to defend Islamic values. Taken together, the studies reveal that some Muslim citizens will politicize and others will depoliticize in the face of discrimination as a function of their religious identification and of prevailing forms of politicization. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

How politicians make decisions under risk: a political choice experiment

OpenAIRE

Enrique Fatás; Tibor Neugebauer; Pilar Tamborero

2004-01-01

We report on an experimental study with real-world politicians. These political experts face political choice problems under risk and probability. Thus, we test the frequently observed violations of rational choice theory -the reference point effect, loss aversion, framing effects, and the common ratio effect- with experts from the field. Their choices violate expected utility theory. Nevertheless, they appear to be more rational and less risk averse (loving) in the domain of gains (losses) t...

Mimetic modulation for problem creases of the face

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mühlbauer, W.; Fairley, J.; van Wingerden, J.

1995-01-01

Problem creases of the face such as frontal lines and frown lines, crow's feet, deep nasolabial and perioral folds, and cervical bands may be caused by the aging process, excessive exposure to the sun, disease, or genetic disposition. The condition may become aggravated by habitual hyperkinesia of

THE CHALLENGES POLITICAL LEADERSHIP FACES IN THE MODERN WORLD

OpenAIRE

T. N. Samsonova; E. S. Shpuga

2016-01-01

Political leadership is a concept central to understanding political processes and outcomes, yet its definition is elusive. The study of political leadership has a long history. Many disciplines have contributed to this study, including history, philosophy, political theory, psychology etc. Leadership is a process in which leaders and followers interact dynamically in a particular situation or context. Leaders must be able to connect with followers to understand their mood and their initiativ...

The Nuclear Energy Factor In Indian Politics

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A. A. Boyko

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Nuclear energy is a key branch of the world power system. The nuclear energy development is viewed by India as one of the ways to resolve the problem of the energy supply. In 2008 the country gained more opportunities for developing nuclear power sector and solving the national power deficit problem after NSG lifted restrictions on nuclear trade. This resulted in foreign companies emerging on the Indian nuclear market. In 2011 after the major emergency at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan India faced numerous anti-nuclear protests backed by NGOs, including those with foreign funding, and political parties. The article deals with the question of the political role this anti-nuclear opposition plays in India. According to some researchers the protests are organized by the competitors in order to compromise the business of a Russian company Rosatom in India. However, such demonstrations are spread throughout the country and directed against the competitors of Rosatom as well. The article comes to conclusion that the protests are just a reflection of the political fights in India where nuclear energy is a significant political factor.

Karl Marx, Civil Society And Political Community in the Context Of The Jewish Problem

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Yunus ENTERİLİ

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Today, debates and discourses developed over the concepts of civil society and political society are usually made through religious discourses or religious identities, and the individual emerges as a problem of emancipation. In his “Jewish Question”, which Marx wrote during his youthful period with Bauer’s thoughts, it is thought that the religious identities and rhetoric accompanied the present debate about the emergence of the emancipation of individuals in social and political contexts. It is thought that this problem, which emerged as the problem of individual liberation or citizenship, and which is regarded as a Jewish problem and emerged in different forms in different geographies, is the result of the fact that the religious identities can not be torn from the religious part of the world. Another reason for the lack of emancipation of the individual is the understanding of colonialism that is at the core of the capitalist system. In today’s society, it wants to keep up with the existence of religions or to keep up with the capitalist system and wants to influence the capitalist system with state policies by making itself active in the political arena. Judaism and Christianity in this context religion, the effects of the formation of capitalist society, will be discussed from the rhetoric of Marx and Bauer. The issue of the citizenship identity of the individual in this study will be addressed through the relationship between civil society and political society. There will also be mentioned here some other thinkers (Hegel, Feuerbach etc. that affect Marx’s ideas about civil society and political society, besides Marx and Bauer. Civil society, citizenship, liberation of religion, political emancipation, the effects of emancipation of individuals such as the state will be handled through the Jewish example. Prior to this assessment, a better understanding of the subject will be addressed to the civil society and state relationship

Corruption as a Problem of Political Theory and Political Practice

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Anna V. Shashkova

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The present article is dedicated to the analysis of "corruption" from point of view of political practice and political theory. The present article studies historical examples of corruption: corruption during the era of Alexander the Great, Carthage, Roman Republic. The article gives the evolution of the term "corruption", pointing out current aspects of the term. The article provides positive and negative results of corruption, gives resume. The present article analyses corruption results: economical, political and social. Most important economical consequences of corruption are the following: increase of shadow economy, decrease of tax payments, weakening of the state budget, breach of market competition, decrease of market effectiveness, destabilization of the idea of market economy. Most important social consequences of corruption are the following: great distinction between the declared and real values, which creates a "double standard" of the moral and behavior, distraction of great sums from public and humanitarian development, increase of property disproportion, increase of social tension. The present article names most important political consequences of corruption: shift of ideas from public development to the security of power of oligarchy, decrease of trust to the state, decrease of image of the country at the international arena, increase of its economical and political isolation, decrease of political competition. The present article gives one of the resumes that the globalization process increases corruption. Together with globalization most important role is given to corporations and corporate corruption comes to the front raw.

The role of analysis on the 17 most political acres on the face of the earth.

Science.gov (United States)

Arbuckle, Donald R

2011-06-01

Benefit-cost and risk analyses associated with agency rule making are required by presidential order and are reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). This White House oversight of agency regulatory analysis means that OIRA's work, though primarily analytic, competes daily with the intense political pressures that characterize all work in the White House. Even in the face of the demands of politics, analysis is respected and utilized. A balance between politics and analysis is maintained in several ways. Several structural characteristics of the White House help protect analysis, such as a strong complement of offices whose role is primarily analytic (for example, the Council of Economic Advisors, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and OMB). OIRA's ability to successfully coordinate its regulatory review with White House officials ensures that it serves as an agent for presidential regulatory policy at the same time it champions higher quality benefit-cost and risk analysis. This role as intermediary between analytic and political judgment also results from OIRA's expertise in such analysis and its reputation for the discretion necessary to maintain the trust of the president's upper level staff. © 2011 Society for Risk Analysis.

Impact of Political News: Evidence from Russia

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Volodin Sergey Nikolayevich

2017-10-01

Full Text Available In recent times political events started to exert more and more significant impact on national financial systems due to sharpening of political problems in various countries. Undoubtedly, their influence can be followed in price dynamics of stocks which are trading in the securities market. The need to understand political news impact on the market as a whole and its separate industries is faced by investors and market agents for proper orientation in market environment. Since this issue provides rather controversial results in different studies, the authors set the aim to investigate the Russian market with the use of GARCH models. Such approach allowed determining precisely the political events’ influence on return and volatility of market assets as well as leverage and clusterization effects. The obtained results may be beneficial for investors, operating in the Russian stock market, other market agents and specialists in the field of financial science.

Problems faced by newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus patients at ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Diabetes mellitus can be a frightening experience for newly diagnosed patients. The aim of this study was to determine and describe the problems faced by newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus patients at primary healthcare facilities at Mopani district, Limpopo Province. A qualitative, descriptive and contextual research ...

Do inferences of competence from faces predict political selection in authoritarian regimes? Evidence from China.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Stan Hok-Wui; Zeng, Yu

2017-08-01

Candidate appearance is a significant predictor of election outcomes in democracies because voters often make inference of competence based on facial appearance. Do inferences of competence from faces matter in autocracies? In this article, we study the effects of candidate appearance on the selection of three types of Chinese officials: (1) rural deputies elected to a local people's congress (LPC), (2) urban deputies elected to the LPC, and (3) unelected mayors and bureaucrats. We find that facial competence cues are relevant only to the votes received by rural LPC candidates. Our findings suggest the importance of information accessibility in political selection. In particular, the "selectorate" of mayors and bureaucrats do not need facial appearance cues because they have access to substantive information about the quality of political candidates. Our findings provide a possible explanation for the resilience of some autocracies: they are able to identify talent through an informative, albeit non-electoral, selection mechanism. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Online and face-to-face role-play simulations in promoting social work students’ argumentative problem solving

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Kati Vapalahti

2015-03-01

Full Text Available This paper reports on a teaching experiment in which social work students (n=38 practiced problem solving through argumentative tasks. A teaching experiment was carried out at a Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences in Finland in connection with a course concerning preventative work against alcohol- and drug abuse. This quasi- experimental study investigated whether role-play simulation conducted either online (15 students or face-to-face (14 students improved students’ problem solving on social issues. As a pre-test, the students wrote an essay after having watched a dramatization of problematic cases on elderly people’s use of alcohol. The students also attended lectures (30 x 45 min on the effect of substance abuse and preventive work, and after the role-play simulation they wrote another essay (post-test. Nine controls wrote an essay without participating in the role-play simulation. Lastly, the students filled out feedback questionnaires.

Size, Democracy, and the Economic Costs of Running the Political System

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blom-Hansen, Jens; Houlberg, Kurt; Serritzlew, Søren

2014-01-01

, are amalgamated to harvest scale effects. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the argument on economies of scale in the economic costs of running political systems. Our testing ground is a recent Danish reform. It allows us to avoid endogeneity problems often facing researchers of size reforms. The reform...

A comparison of problem identification interviews conducted face-to-face and via videoconferencing using the consultation analysis record.

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, Aaron J; Collier-Meek, Melissa A; Bloomfield, Bradley; Erchul, William P; Gresham, Frank M

2017-08-01

School psychologists who experience challenges delivering face-to-face consultation may utilize videoconferencing to facilitate their consultation activities. Videoconferencing has been found to be an effective method of service delivery in related fields and emerging research suggests that it may be effective for providing teacher training and support in school settings. In this exploratory investigation, we used the Consultation Analysis Record (Bergan & Tombari, 1975) and its four indices to assess the effectiveness of conducting problem identification interviews via videoconferencing versus face-to-face. Overall, findings indicated significant differences across these two conditions, with videoconference interviews coded as having higher indices of content relevance, process effectiveness, and message control, but lower content focus, compared to face-to-face interviews. As these indices have been positively associated with favorable consultation outcomes, the results provide initial support for the effectiveness of consultation delivered via videoconferencing. Copyright © 2017 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The security of supply and the international political problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Petit, A.

1981-01-01

The paper deals with the problem of security of supply of electronuclear programs, especially under their political aspects. After a brief summary of the main historical events related to the subject: post-war position, Non Proliferation Treaty signature, London guidelines etc., the author underlines the fact that up to now, four countries only have been completely independent for their supplies. The elements of such independence are recalled as well as the special viewpoints of developing countries on the one hand, industrialized countries on the other hand. The final part analyses the means of reestablishing or reinforcing this security of supply. The classical commercial aspects such as preference for domestic producers, diversification of supplies and stockpiling are dealt with as well as with aspects more specific to nuclear energy, a technical one such as the possibility of developing breeders, and political ones, such as freedom to reexport, freedom to use imported materials in the frame of peaceful uses. (AF)

Political conversations on Facebook

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Mads P.

2016-01-01

Political conversations are according to theories on deliberative democracy essential to well-functioning democracies. Traditionally these conversations have taken place in face-to-face settings, in e.g. party meetings and town meetings. However, social media such as Facebook and Twitter offers new...... possibilities for online political conversations between citizens and politicians. This paper examines the presence on Facebook and Twitter of Members of the Danish national Parliament, the Folketing, and focusses on a quantitative mapping of the political conversation activities taking place in the threads...... following Facebook posts from Danish Members of Parliament (MPs). The paper shows that, in comparison with previous findings from other countries, Danish MPs have a relatively high degree of engagement in political conversations with citizens on Facebook – and that a large number of citizens follow MPs...

Elementary Schools, Teaching, and Social Studies in Texas: Facing the Great Depression

Science.gov (United States)

Bellows, M. Elizabeth; Baumi, Michelle; Field, Sherry L.

2013-01-01

Across the United States, the Great Depression was a period of tremendous upheaval. Economic, family, political, and educational institutions shook mightily as the tremors of widespread financial downturn were felt. Public schools faced increasing hardships, which included financial problems such as a weakened tax base due to the non-payment of…

Development of a framework for identification of political environmental issues faced by multinational hotel chains in newly industrialized countries in Asia

OpenAIRE

Kim, Chol Yong

1992-01-01

The primary/objective of this study was to develop a framework for identification of political environmental issues faced by multinational hotel chains in newly industrialized countries in Asia. To accomplish the objective, key factors having an impact upon these hotel chains were identified using the Delphi Technique.

Politeness Principle in Cross-Culture Communication

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Yongliang

2008-01-01

As we all know, different people hold different views about politeness. To be polite, Leech thinks you should follow "Politeness Principle" while Levinson suggests paying attention to others' "Face Wants". Sometimes what the Chinese people considered to be polite may not be true according to western culture. In order to…

POLITICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL COMPONENT OF THE PROBLEM OF DEPRESSIVE MONOCITIES IN RUSSIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Артем Николаевич Величко

2013-04-01

Full Text Available The aim of the given article is the revealing and analysis of monocities in the Russian Federation under circumstances of the modern political process. Author stresses the political and anthropological component. In this research we used general scientific methodology as well as comparative, historical and sociological approaches.As a result of the given politological analysis we revealed the main problems of monocities among which we should note the low social activity and the low security of communities. That is due to depressive socio-economic and political status of researched territories. This is caused by the change of political and economic directions at the end of 20th century as well as the crisis of Russian economy. We raise the issue of elite responsibility for the violation of citizens’ rights and secrecy of recruiting channels. As a result the monocitiy citizens cannot fully self-fulfill.The findings can be applied in the system of public and municipal administration in working out the programs on territorial development, in the activity of parties and non-government organizations and in scientific and training activities.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12731/2218-7405-2013-2-11

Is the political animal politically ignorant? Applying evolutionary psychology to the study of political attitudes.

Science.gov (United States)

Petersen, Michael Bang; Aarøe, Lene

2012-12-20

As evidenced by research in evolutionary psychology, humans have evolved sophisticated psychological mechanisms tailored to solve enduring adaptive problems of social life. Many of these social problems are political in nature and relate to the distribution of costs and benefits within and between groups. In that sense, evolutionary psychology suggests that humans are, by nature, political animals. By implication, a straightforward application of evolutionary psychology to the study of public opinion seems to entail that modern individuals find politics intrinsically interesting. Yet, as documented by more than fifty years of research in political science, people lack knowledge of basic features of the political process and the ability to form consistent political attitudes. By reviewing and integrating research in evolutionary psychology and public opinion, we describe (1) why modern mass politics often fail to activate evolved mechanisms and (2) the conditions in which these mechanisms are in fact triggered.

ECOWAS and the Crisis in Cote d\\'Ivoire: The Politics and Problems ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

ECOWAS and the Crisis in Cote d\\'Ivoire: The Politics and Problems of ... La CEDEAO et la Crise en Côte d\\'Ivoire: Les Politiques et les Problèmes de la ... du Mécanisme de la CEDEAO pour la Prévention, la Gestion, la Résolution, le Maintien ...

Triage: Making a Political Decision to Solve an Environmental Science Problem Through Research

Science.gov (United States)

Ridolfi, Thomas

1974-01-01

A description is given of a class project concerned with examining a population problem and making some political decisions to solve it. A list of topics for the students to research as a basis for their decisions is provided. (DT)

Politics, Epistemology and the Problems of Rationalism in La pesquisa

OpenAIRE

Erik Larson

2012-01-01

This article analyzes how Juan José Saer’s noir detective novel, La pesquisa, exposes the fundamental contradictions of Kantian rationalism. The novel, like Kantian theory, realizes a critique of reason by positing its own human, epistemological limits. Of course, the philosophical problems we see in Saer’s novel don’t simply exist in a vacuum, but respond to the politics of rationalism within Argentina, namely the 1976-83 dictatorship. I demonstrate how the contradictions within the ‘rationa...

Political ecology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strohm, H.

1979-01-01

Using facts and examples, this didactically structures textbook gives an insight into the extent and consequences of the damage to the environment, with the subjects - fundamentals of ecology; - population and food problems; - the energy problem; - economic growth; scarcity of resources, recycling; - ground, water, and air pollution, - city and traffic problems; - work protection and medical care; - political alternatives and 'soft technologies'. The analysis of the political and economic reasons is combined with social and technical alternatives from which demands to be made and measures to be taken can be derived for individuals, citizens' interest groups, political groups and trade unions. Teaching models intend to help teachers to work on specific problems of ecology. (orig.) [de

The internationalization of higher education: an emerging political agenda

OpenAIRE

MCVICAR MALCOLM

2015-01-01

Given growing importance of education as a factor of internal development and in the context of globalization universities can be considered to be international economic actors playing an increasingly significant role in economic and political agenda. Universities face a lot of challenges, to wit: quality control, further privatization of higher education and for-profit education, the problem of innovations and advanced technologies, the emergence of international labour market etc. Therefore...

Persuasive and Politeness Strategies in Chinese Foreign Trade

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

张芳芳

2013-01-01

During international trade negotiations Chinese salespersons tend to employ a variety of persuasive and politeness strat⁃egies in marketing their products. Persuasion involves face-threatening acts (FTAs), thus politeness strategies which are applied to reduce face-threatening are combined with persuasive communication. This paper, taking Brown and Levinson’s model of po⁃liteness as a reference, makes an analysis on politeness strategies used in persuasive communication of the salespersons.

Right Face: Understanding German Political Developments

Science.gov (United States)

1994-06-16

years passed, invested Germancarliamentary life , and politics in general, with ar increasing amount of friction and frustra-ton. The new German state...Wranslated by William C. Kirby, Cambridge: .arvaro ° Uiversity Press, 1981. George F. Kennan, The Decline of Bismarck’s European Order, .7anco-Russian...continental Empire, free from the economic pressure of Britain, America, and France. The costs of the war in human life and resources fed procressively more

Beyond leadership: political strategies for coordination in health policies.

Science.gov (United States)

Greer, Scott L; Lillvis, Denise F

2014-05-01

Health in All Policies (HiAP) promises to improve population health by harnessing the energies and activities of various sectors. Nevertheless, it faces well-documented bureaucratic obstacles and appears to require intersectoral governance if it is to be established. The basic problems of establishing intersectoral governance for HiAP are known to public administration and political science. On reading that literature, we find that the difficulty of establishing intersectoral governance for HiAP breaks down into two kinds of problems: that of establishing coordinated actions at all (coordination); and ensuring that they endure in changed political circumstances (durability). We further find that policymakers' solutions fall into three categories: visible ones of political will (e.g., plans and targets); bureaucratic changes such as the introduction of Health Impact Assessment or reorganization; and indirect methods such as data publication and support from outside groups to put pressure on the government. It can seem that Health in All Policies, like much of public health, depends on effective and committed policymakers but is vulnerable to changing political winds. The three kinds of strategies suggest how policymakers can, and do, create intersectoral governance that functions and persists, expanding the range of effective policy recommendations. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Political problems in the system of radiation protection laws of Japan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakagawa, Haruo

2008-01-01

The lack of hierarchy and multiple restrictions by the radiation protection laws in Japan, causes multiple dose records of individual and scattering dose records. To solve the problem, the National Radiation Dose Registration Systems was proposed already by Atomic Energy Commission about 40 years ago. But only one radiation dose registration system is partly effective, which was applied for workers in nuclear plants. This paper reports political problems in the system of radiation protection laws of Japan, and proposes the new national radiation dose registration systems which will be able to have a function of supplementation of quality assurance of radiation protection laws. (author)

Face Attention Network: An Effective Face Detector for the Occluded Faces

OpenAIRE

Wang, Jianfeng; Yuan, Ye; Yu, Gang

2017-01-01

The performance of face detection has been largely improved with the development of convolutional neural network. However, the occlusion issue due to mask and sunglasses, is still a challenging problem. The improvement on the recall of these occluded cases usually brings the risk of high false positives. In this paper, we present a novel face detector called Face Attention Network (FAN), which can significantly improve the recall of the face detection problem in the occluded case without comp...

Political Crowdfunding as concept of political technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valeria GOLKA

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Political crowdfunding is analyzed as a new concept of political science. The justification of use of crowdfunding technologies not only in business but also in the political sphere is argued. The efficiency, availability, low cost of the new forms of political investment through the development of information and communication technologies are noted. The typology of political crowdfunding is proposed. Political projects promoting domestic crowdfunding platforms are analyzed. Attention is drawn to the problem of legal gaps in the regulation of crowdfunding is studied. The foreign experience of organizing public support (mikroinvestment political projects. It is emphasized that in terms of political theory crowdfunding is based on solidarity. The crowdfunding properties of transforming social capital accumulated by social networks into financial capital are mentioned.

Feminism: Political Actions and Power Authorities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edna Maria Santos Roland

2000-01-01

Full Text Available The concept of advocacy encompasses manifold and complex activities and represents many challenges. The principal challenge is political and ethical in nature. Internationalization accelerates the rhythm of work, increasing the demands and the level of requirements on leaderships and generating contradictions between the internationalized sectors of the movement and those who face greater difficulties in linking their everyday actions to the logic produced by the new communication, management and administrative techniques. A core problem is the representativeness of leadership which, in order to be addressed, requires giving up the pre-modern control over bodies and constructing relationships among juridical subjects.

Political Corruption as Deformities of Truth

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Yann Allard-Tremblay

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a conception of corruption informed by epistemic democratic theory. I first explain the view of corruption as a disease of the political body. Following this view, we have to consider the type of actions that debase a political entity of its constitutive principal in order to assess corruption. Accordingly, we need to consider what the constitutive principle of democracy is. This is the task I undertake in the second section where I explicate democratic legitimacy. I present democracy as a procedure of social inquiry about what ought to be done that includes epistemic and practical considerations. In the third section, I argue that the problem of corruption for a procedural conception of democracy is that the epistemic value of the procedure is diminished by corrupted agents’ lack of concern for truth. Corruption, according to this view, consists in two deformities of truth: lying and bullshit. These deformities corrupt since they conceal private interests under the guise of a concern for truth. In the fourth section, I discuss the difficulties a procedural account may face in formulating solutions to the problem of corruption.

The politics of radioactive waste disposal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kemp, R.

1992-01-01

Plans for radioactive waste disposal have been among the most controversial of all environmental policies, provoking vociferous public opposition in a number of countries. This book looks at the problem from an international perspective, and shows how proposed solutions have to be politically and environmentally, as well as technologically acceptable. In the book the technical and political agenda behind low and intermediate level radioactive waste disposal in the UK, Western Europe, Scandinavia and North America is examined. The technical issues and the industrial proposals and analyses and factors which have been crucial in affecting relative levels of public acceptability are set out. Why Britain has lagged behind countries such as Sweden and France in establishing Low Level Waste (LLW) and Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) sites, the strength of the 'not in my backyard' syndrome in Britain, and comparisons of Britain's decision-making process with the innovative and open pattern followed in the US and Canada are examined. An important insight into the problems facing Nirex, Britain's radioactive waste disposal company, which is seeking to establish an underground waste site at Sellafield in Cumbria is given. (author)

Problems, policies and politics: making the case for better assistive technology provision in Australia.

Science.gov (United States)

Layton, Natasha

2015-05-01

Substantial evidence supports assistive technology and environmental adaptations as key enablers to participation. In order to realise the potential of these interventions, they need to be both recognised in policy, and resourced in practice. This paper uses political theory to understand the complexities of assistive technology (AT) policy reform in Australia. AT research will not be influential in improving AT policy without consideration of political drivers. Theories of policy formation are considered, with Kingdon's (2003) theory of multiple streams identified as a useful lens through which to understand government actions. This theory is applied to the case of current AT policy reformulation in Australia. The convergence model of problem identification, policy formulation and political will is found to be an applicable construct with which to evaluate contemporary policy changes. This paper illustrates the cogency of this theory for the field of AT, in the case of Australia's recent disability and aged care reforms. Political theory provides a way of conceptualising the difficulties of consumers and AT practitioners experience in getting therapeutically valid solutions into public policy, and then getting policies prioritised and funded. It is suggested that AT practitioners must comprehend and consider political factors in working towards effective policies to support their practice. AT practitioners generally lack political awareness or an understanding of the drivers of policy. The effectiveness of AT practitioners at a systemic level will remain limited without consideration of policy drivers. AT practitioners must comprehend and consider political factors in working towards effective policies to support their practice.

Problems and Tendencies of Development of Political and Legal Environment of Public-private Partnership in Russia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Альберт Илдусович Абдрахманов

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The article is dedicated to the study o/f political and legal terms for Public-Private Partnerships (PPP development while PPP becomes the issue of today for Russian political and social-economic life. The article covers particularly the analysis of the effective legislation of PPP at the federal and regional levels and appraisal of the current political trends regarding the development of legal partnership between the government and companies in the connection with the legislation. The author provides research especially of the prospects of the PPP federal Draft Law and reveals key specifics and problems of the legal environment of PPP in districts of the Russian Federation.

The Problems of Tourist Sustainability in Cultural Cities: Socio-Political Perceptions and Interests Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio Alvarez-Sousa

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to analyse the social and political capacity of cities affected by cultural tourism. An investigation is carried out into the state of the situation in saturated destinations, the problems this poses to tourist sustainability and the positions of the various different interest groups. In Europe, many cultural cities-cum-tourist hotspots have reached such high levels of socio-political saturation that the resident population’s capacity for carrying tourism has become overstretched. This has led to a state of irritation among the local population. Social movements now include this on their agenda but the various different interest groups (residents, political groups, entrepreneurs, management bodies all react differently. We present data relating to the case of Barcelona, with analyses of residents’ and tourists’ opinions, the actions of social mobilization carried out by pressure groups, media repercussion and the reactions of the business sector and political groups. We examine data collected from surveys and opinions carried in the media. The sustainability and management of interests indicate changes in both the number and the type of tourists, the occupation of public spaces, the distribution of profit among entrepreneurs, residents and the political and economic model of society in the future.

Assessing the Influence of Political Parties on Public Opinion: The Challenge from Pretreatment Effects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Slothuus, Rune

2016-01-01

Despite generations of research, political scientists have trouble pinpointing the influence of political parties on public opinion. Recently, scholars have made headway in exploring whether parties in fact shape policy preferences by relying on experimental designs. Yet, the evidence from...... this work is mixed. I argue that the typical experiment faces a design problem that likely minimizes the extent to which parties apparently matter. Because parties have policy reputations, experimental participants may already know from real-world exposure to political debate where the parties stand before...... they are told in the experiment—they are “pretreated.” This study investigates how real-world political context interferes with party cue stimulus in experiments. In two experiments I show that two types of “pretreatment” from outside the experiment—exposure-based and reputation-based—dramatically moderate...

Politeness Strategies in Good-news Business Letters

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

毕争; 李纳

2008-01-01

This paper analyzes the presentation of politeness in good-news business letters at the lexical,syntactic,and discourse levels based on Leech's Politeness Principle and Brown and Levinson's Face-saving Theory.

Political entrepreneurship and bidding for political monopoly

OpenAIRE

Michael Wohlgemuth

2000-01-01

An analytical framework for dealing with political entrepreneurship and reform is proposed which is based on some new combinations of Schumpeterian political economy, an extended version of Tullock's model of democracy as franchise-bidding for natural monopoly and some basic elements of New Institutional Economics. It is shown that problems of insufficient award criteria and incomplete contracts which may arise in economic bidding schemes, also - and even more so - characterise political comp...

APPROPRIATIZING POLITENESS THEORY FOR INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN ELT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rahmat Yusny

2013-08-01

Full Text Available The theory of politeness suggests strategies in social interaction by which a person can use to save the hearer’s face upon the effect of face-threatening acts or FTAs. Face threatening acts are described by Brown and Levinson as the acts that infringe the hearer’s need of maintaining his/her self-esteem and be respected. Brown and Levinson accepted that the notion of face is respected as universal norms or values subscribed to by the members of the society. In that regard, this article provides a discussion about various viewpoints on the debate of universality of politeness theory and criticisms addressed by eastern-pragmaticists that this theory should not be seen as universally applicable. Cultural differences, as suggested by non-western pragmaticists, accord what is accepted in the context of face in western culture to be not accepted in other cultures. Therefeore, although we accept that Brown & Levinson’s theory has made a significant breakthrough in elaborating politeness, appropriation of this theory should be accounted in intercultural communication instead to accept it as universal.

Building community in international politics: A study of political press conferences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aditi Bhatia

2011-04-01

Full Text Available In today’s increasingly globalised yet disconnected world, especially in the contemporary context of a turbulent political landscape, there has been an increasing effort made by socio-political leaders at solidifying alliances and drawing support from different corners of the world in order to neutralize policies. Drawing on a multidimensional framework, in particular, critical discourse analysis and membership categorization analysis, this paper explores the various strategies employed by political leaders, attempting to reconcile disparate perspectives in the face of increasing socio-economic inter-connection and political dependence. More often than not, it was discovered, political leaders drew upon the somewhat “illusory” notion of “international community”, turning it into a tool of persuasion and membership category. In doing so, this paper aims to illustrate how the creation of illusive categories and perceptions are intended as a means of drawing support from diverse political leaders and projecting a united front before scrutinizing press and public.

The politics of insight.

Science.gov (United States)

Salvi, Carola; Cristofori, Irene; Grafman, Jordan; Beeman, Mark

2016-01-01

Previous studies showed that liberals and conservatives differ in cognitive style. Liberals are more flexible, and tolerant of complexity and novelty, whereas conservatives are more rigid, are more resistant to change, and prefer clear answers. We administered a set of compound remote associate problems, a task extensively used to differentiate problem-solving styles (via insight or analysis). Using this task, several researches have proven that self-reports, which differentiate between insight and analytic problem-solving, are reliable and are associated with two different neural circuits. In our research we found that participants self-identifying with distinct political orientations demonstrated differences in problem-solving strategy. Liberals solved significantly more problems via insight instead of in a step-by-step analytic fashion. Our findings extend previous observations that self-identified political orientations reflect differences in cognitive styles. More specifically, we show that type of political orientation is associated with problem-solving strategy. The data converge with previous neurobehavioural and cognitive studies indicating a link between cognitive style and the psychological mechanisms that mediate political beliefs.

The politics of insight

Science.gov (United States)

Salvi, Carola; Cristofori, Irene; Grafman, Jordan; Beeman, Mark

2016-01-01

Previous studies showed that liberals and conservatives differ in cognitive style. Liberals are more flexible, and tolerant of complexity and novelty, whereas conservatives are more rigid, are more resistant to change, and prefer clear answers. We administered a set of compound remote associate problems, a task extensively used to differentiate problem-solving styles (via insight or analysis). Using this task, several researches have proven that self-reports, which differentiate between insight and analytic problem-solving, are reliable and are associated with two different neural circuits. In our research we found that participants self-identifying with distinct political orientations demonstrated differences in problem-solving strategy. Liberals solved significantly more problems via insight instead of in a step-by-step analytic fashion. Our findings extend previous observations that self-identified political orientations reflect differences in cognitive styles. More specifically, we show that type of political orientation is associated with problem-solving strategy. The data converge with previous neurobehavioural and cognitive studies indicating a link between cognitive style and the psychological mechanisms that mediate political beliefs. PMID:26810954

The politics of welfare state retrenchment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Starke, Peter

2006-01-01

Welfare state retrenchment is widely seen as a highly unpopular endeavour and, therefore, as politically difficult to pursue. This assumption has underpinned most of the political science research on this issue, notably Paul Pierson's seminal contributions about the 'new politics of the welfare...... state'. Yet, the question remains why and under what circumstances cutbacks take place in highly developed welfare states despite these formidable political obstacles. This article reviews the literature on the politics of retrenchment, namely on the impact of socio-economic problem pressure, political...... parties, political institutions, welfare state structures and ideas. Most authors agree that socio-economic problems - particularly domestic problems - contribute to an atmosphere of 'permanent austerity' which inspires cutbacks. Moreover, according to most scholars, the extent of retrenchment possible...

Body-Environment Dialogue : Using Somatic Experiences to Improve Political Decision Making

OpenAIRE

Sidorenko, Alisa

2015-01-01

Humankind is facing global ecological problems and resulting from these social issues, while continually destroying the ecosystems which are the life-support mechanisms of the planet and human civilization. The socio-economic system is largely influenced by top-down decision making. Political decisions are a high leverage in sustainability issues, but contemporarily they are conducted in the reductionist way, focusing on short-term profit and jeopardizing the planet and people in the long run...

Discourse of political archetypes in international relations of the post soviet states of the Central Asia (statement of the problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Алексей Алексеевич Клинцов

2009-12-01

Full Text Available In the given article the author considers the problem of discourse of political archetypes in international relations of the post Soviet states of the Central Asia. In author's opinion, political archetypes as historically developed fundamental bases of ethnic consciousness render essential influence on modern diplomacy of the countries of the given region. That is why they require serious and profound studying by domestic and foreign political science.

The Politics of Star Wars.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkins, Lee

George Lucas's Star Wars trilogy is used as the basis for the creation of a political subtext arising from one of America's most enduring literary myths--the American Adam. That subtext, when translated into a modern political context, pinpoints two central issues to face this democracy in the coming years, as well as a national ambivalence about…

Problem in the surgical correction of long-face with vertical open bite

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Coen Pramono D

2005-12-01

Full Text Available Long-face cases usually need both treatment of orthodontic and surgery. The problem appearing in the correction of long-face might be able to be related with some difficult factors such as the crowded teeth and excessive vertical height. A class III malocclusion and excessive open bite can be also followed in long face. This situation might worsen the facial aesthetic condition and increase the difficulty in orthodontic treatment. The orthodontic approach is oriented toward positioning the teeth pre-surgically to facilitate the surgical plan. The form of mandible which has grown in the downward direction in the area of mandible angle makes an extreme vertical open bite. The maxilla is usually presented with a maxillary hypolasia. Double-jaw surgery was done as the correction of the lower jaw alone would produce a flattened face appearance and difficulty in repositioning the mandible to achieve a good facial performance. Several cephalometric points were measured to observe the facial situation progress after surgery. Two cases of longface are reported, and the same surgical treatments were performed and showed different results.

Generation of global political priority for early childhood development: the challenges of framing and governance.

Science.gov (United States)

Shawar, Yusra Ribhi; Shiffman, Jeremy

2017-01-07

Despite progress, early childhood development (ECD) remains a neglected issue, particularly in resource-poor countries. We analyse the challenges and opportunities that ECD proponents face in advancing global priority for the issue. We triangulated among several data sources, including 19 semi-structured interviews with individuals involved in global ECD leadership, practice, and advocacy, as well as peer-reviewed research, organisation reports, and grey literature. We undertook a thematic analysis of the collected data, drawing on social science scholarship on collective action and a policy framework that elucidates why some global initiatives are more successful in generating political priority than others. The analysis indicates that the ECD community faces two primary challenges in advancing global political priority. The first pertains to framing: generation of internal consensus on the definition of the problem and solutions, agreement that could facilitate the discovery of a public positioning of the issue that could generate political support. The second concerns governance: building of effective institutions to achieve collective goals. However, there are multiple opportunities to advance political priority for ECD, including an increasingly favourable political environment, advances in ECD metrics, and the existence of compelling arguments for investment in ECD. To advance global priority for ECD, proponents will need to surmount the framing and governance challenges and leverage these opportunities. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The faces of God in America: Revealing religious diversity across people and politics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joshua Conrad Jackson

Full Text Available Literature and art have long depicted God as a stern and elderly white man, but do people actually see Him this way? We use reverse correlation to understand how a representative sample of American Christians visualize the face of God, which we argue is indicative of how believers think about God's mind. In contrast to historical depictions, Americans generally see God as young, Caucasian, and loving, but perceptions vary by believers' political ideology and physical appearance. Liberals see God as relatively more feminine, more African American, and more loving than conservatives, who see God as older, more intelligent, and more powerful. All participants see God as similar to themselves on attractiveness, age, and, to a lesser extent, race. These differences are consistent with past research showing that people's views of God are shaped by their group-based motivations and cognitive biases. Our results also speak to the broad scope of religious differences: even people of the same nationality and the same faith appear to think differently about God's appearance.

What kind of political education we seek today?

OpenAIRE

Lafaye, Caroline Guibet

2008-01-01

Facing contemporary cultural and religious pluralism associated to the demands of recognition from minorities in multicultural societies, neither classical republicanism nor political liberalism gives satisfactory orientation to shape a political education accomodated to this social context. Education will contribute to social pacification and social compromises only if we elaborate a political education which takes into account and responds properly to the main actual political goal: living ...

Problems Faced by Beginning Teachers in Private Elementary Schools: A Comparative Study between Spain and Mexico

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Magda Yolanda Cantú Tijerina

2006-11-01

Full Text Available In order to explore the problems faced by beginning teachers in private elementary schools in the Spanish city of Madrid and in the Mexican city of Monterrey, questionnaires were applied to private school teachers just starting out in both cities. The results indicate that in both contexts, as beginners, teachers face problems of an academic, organizational, social, and material and technological nature. However, it stresses the fact that Mexican teachers perceive more problems in all the categories than do their Spanish colleagues. Similarity in the results was found in the category of social problems, which was the one mentioned least by the teachers in both cities. This suggests that the cultural nature of these two countries may be a factor to be considered in connection with fostering beginning teachers’ adaptation process.

A Critical Review of Prominent Theories of Politeness

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Duleimi, Hutheifa Y.; Rashid, Sabariah Md.; Abdullah, Ain Nadzimah

2016-01-01

Politeness plays a crucial role in all cultures and societies for maintaining relationships and for face saving. Although politeness is common to all cultures and languages, how it functions and is realised varies from one culture to another. Different theories have been proposed to examine the strategies with which politeness is expressed. Each…

The Collapse of Political Economy and the Advent of Unlearning Society

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bouchet, Dominique

2014-01-01

Just like the Christian societies at the dawn of the science of political economy, today’s societies are face to face with the fact that their modes of organi¬sation and representation are inadequate when confronted with the consequences of their own, earlier, decisions. The economy and politics...

THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION: AN EMERGING POLITICAL AGENDA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Malcolm McVicar

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Given growing importance of education as a factor of internal development and in the context of globalization universities can be considered to be international economic actors playing an increasingly significant role in economic and political agenda. Universities face a lot of challenges, to wit: quality control, further privatization of higher education and for-profit education, the problem of innovations and advanced technologies, the emergence of international labour market etc. Therefore internationalization of higher education determines the necessity to reform and adapt universities around the globe.

East Europe Report, Political, Sociological and Military Affairs

Science.gov (United States)

1984-09-20

successfully abroad, revealed television to be the most significant factor in the political socialization of the children. Is it legitimate for a...about political socialization facing every society; to find out what the role of the most phenomena in the political world. (This has significance...societal level is felt more strongly in the political socialization process as the children grow older. This is further reinforced by data we

The role of cybersecurity in world politics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vladimir Tigranovich Tsakanyan

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to investigate a significant and increasing role of cybersecurity in world politics. Cybersecurity threats are one of the main national security, public safety, and economic challenges every nation faces in XXI century. Cyberspace is a defining feature of modern life. Individuals and communities worldwide connect, socialize, and organize themselves in and through cyberspace. The existence of numerous cyber security issues on various spheres of life naturally increase political interest in resolving them. The need for cybersecurity is growing ranging from particular cases to national and international - becoming the main problem of diplomacy and world politics. Based on the different national approaches, cybersecurity is seen as the instrument to gain national interests. All countries believe that cybersecurity is an instrument to achieve state’s national interest, since more of the modern theories are focus in the material gain. Meanwhile, some countries see cybersecurity as the tool to influence the adversaries’ perception. This condition build based on the enormous destruction power of cyberattacks. In contrast with the two main approaches, the national security institutions emphasize to the idea, not the material gain. The difference between these national security approaches is the way to use this instrument is used in order to gain the objectives. Indeed, cybersecurity has an important and special role in the world politics.

Critical Analysis of the Problems of Education in Pakistan: Possible Solutions

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmad, Iqbal; ur Rehman, Kahil; Ali, Asghar; Khan, Itbar; Khan, Fazal Akber

2014-01-01

Education lays the foundation for political, social and economic development of any country. A viable education system enables the nation to achieve its national goals. Pakistan as a developing country has faced critical problems of education since its inception and therefore, the system of education has failed to deliver according to the…

Stability of transition to a world without nuclear weapons: Technical problems of verification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhigalov, V.

1998-01-01

A serious psychological barrier to acceptance of the concept for achieving the nuclear-weapon-free world is fear of facing the prospect that one or more nations or extremist political groups might develop their own nuclear weapons. Actually this is a question of stability of the nuclear-weapon-free world. From this point of view the most effective system of verification is an absolute necessity. This system must ensure detection of so called undeclared nuclear activity at early stage. Scientists of Russian nuclear centers are working today on solving this problem. This paper is considered to be a comprehensive attempt to analyze the technical and organizational aspects of the problems of transition to a nuclear-weapons-free world, setting aside the difficulties of resolving purely political problems

Babyfacedness, sex of face stimulus, and social context in face perception and person evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Yu-Kang

2013-06-01

This research investigated whether the well-documented babyface stereotypical effects are moderated by sex of face stimuli and social context. 'Medical doctor' and 'political candidate' were selected as two social contexts which differ at the private/public level. An experiment was conducted with 245 adults (M age = 38.5 yr., SD = 8.6, range = 23 to 64). Babyface effects were stronger for the babyfaced female in the political context, but greater for the babyfaced male in the doctor-patient context. Babyfacedness could be a disadvantage to men in political contexts if political sophistication is judged by their facial characteristics. The results of overall impressions are similar to the patterns of the likeability rating. Individual differences (political sophistication and health consciousness) account for little variance in inference-making or impression formation. Implications of the current findings are discussed, as are directions for future research.

Glosa about political ethics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ćorić Dragana

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Debates about political ethics aren't new. They have been present since ancient Greek philosophers. Machiavelli set some new principles, regarding amoral behavior of the prince, which could be quite legitimate and legal. He didn't invented anything new, he just admitted that, that was the reality. Some modern authors think that ethics and politics should be departed always, some other think that they should cooperate. In the end of the day, the voters are those who must face with amoral behavior of politicians, because it seems that politicians don't recognize ethics at all? Or is it just look like? In this paper, we will try in short to tell something about origins of political ethics, its burning issues, and about possible ways of implementation of political ethics and its development.

Urgent Problems in Learning the Public Administration (on the Example of Georgia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shota Dogonadze

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Public management can and should be taught. Former Soviet Republics, including Georgia are facing this acute problem. Some attention is directed to management training, but public management stays in the background, although it is evident that major political and economic problems of Georgia and other countries of so-called “fledging democracies” arise due to the government theory neglect. The article considers development of administrative way of thinking starting from political doctrine to managerial approach, prospects for public management principles development, existing educational models. The epoch of classic universities is passing; with the help of textbooks students can only make courseworks. That’s why the use of innovative methods is necessary for students training.

Problems Teachers Face When Doing Action Research and Finding Possible Solutions: Three Cases

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Jun

2012-01-01

Through case studies, this paper explores problems teachers face when doing action research: for instance, teachers may misunderstand the research, mistrust university researchers, lack the time or adequate library resources to conduct research, lack theoretical guidance or knowledge of research methodology, and feel pressure or frustration during…

Engaging and Disengaging with Political News

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ørmen, Jacob; Linaa Jensen, Jakob

(most notably by Prior, 2007; Stromback, Djerf-Pierre, & Shehata, 2012) that this development also can lead to an increase in the number of people who utilize this enhanced media choice to skip news altogether. One area that merits special attention in this context is political news. Critical engagement......, 1992) and 'performance of identity' (Madianou, 2009) that take place throughout people's everyday life. To further understand these processes it is important to attend to how users engage – or disengage – with political news. To do this we present a typology of news users based on an exploratory...... and conversing face-to-face) that users engage in for political discussion, and compare these across demographics as well as relevant media use patterns. The findings from the survey will be supplemented by results from a series of qualitative interviews that shed light on the motivations users have for engaging...

The Role of Political Theory in the Teaching of Political Science in Mexico.

Science.gov (United States)

Suarez-Iniguez, Enrique

1989-01-01

Discusses three major problems within the field of political science in Mexico: the dearth of classes offered, lack of consensus on the content of courses, and the very limited role of political theory. Provides charts and statistics on the state of political science in the country. (RW)

Multinational repositories: Ethical, legal and political/public aspects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boutellier, C.; McCombie, C.; Mele, I.

2006-01-01

Concepts for shared multinational repositories face a great challenge in achieving acceptance, despite the fact that they promise advantages in safety, security, environmental protection and costs. When considering advantages of shared multinational repositories, it is instructive to examine which are the ethical, legal and political issues that mostly affect the feasibility of implementing such facilities. This paper addresses the key questions from two opposite sides. The early part takes a 'top-down' view, looking at the international debate on ethical issues, summarising a wide range of national political attitudes and identifying relevant international legislation and treaties. The latter looks 'bottom-up' at the problem, by discussing the situation of a small country, Slovenia. Slovenia has limited financial resources for implementing disposal - but it has a firm commitment to fulfilling its responsibilities for safely managing all Radioactive Wastes (RAW) arising in the country. Strategies considered to do so are laid out in this paper. (author)

Current Welfare Problems Facing Horses in Great Britain as Identified by Equine Stakeholders

Science.gov (United States)

Horseman, Susan V.; Buller, Henry

2016-01-01

Despite growing concerns about the welfare of horses in Great Britain (GB) there has been little surveillance of the welfare status of the horse population. Consequently we have limited knowledge of the range of welfare problems experienced by horses in GB and the situations in which poor welfare occurs. Thirty-one in-depth interviews were conducted with a cross -section of equine stakeholders, in order to explore their perceptions of the welfare problems faced by horses in GB. Welfare problems relating to health, management and riding and training were identified, including horses being under or over weight, stabling 24 hours a day and the inappropriate use of training aids. The interviewees also discussed broader contexts in which they perceived that welfare was compromised. The most commonly discussed context was where horses are kept in unsuitable environments, for example environments with poor grazing. The racing industry and travellers horses were identified as areas of the industry where horse welfare was particularly vulnerable to compromise. Lack of knowledge and financial constraints were perceived to be the root cause of poor welfare by many interviewees. The findings give insight into the range of welfare problems that may be faced by horses in GB, the contexts in which these may occur and their possible causes. Many of the problems identified by the interviewees have undergone limited scientific investigation pointing to areas where further research is likely to be necessary for welfare improvement. The large number of issues identified suggests that some form of prioritisation may be necessary to target research and resources effectively. PMID:27501387

Current Welfare Problems Facing Horses in Great Britain as Identified by Equine Stakeholders.

Science.gov (United States)

Horseman, Susan V; Buller, Henry; Mullan, Siobhan; Whay, Helen R

2016-01-01

Despite growing concerns about the welfare of horses in Great Britain (GB) there has been little surveillance of the welfare status of the horse population. Consequently we have limited knowledge of the range of welfare problems experienced by horses in GB and the situations in which poor welfare occurs. Thirty-one in-depth interviews were conducted with a cross -section of equine stakeholders, in order to explore their perceptions of the welfare problems faced by horses in GB. Welfare problems relating to health, management and riding and training were identified, including horses being under or over weight, stabling 24 hours a day and the inappropriate use of training aids. The interviewees also discussed broader contexts in which they perceived that welfare was compromised. The most commonly discussed context was where horses are kept in unsuitable environments, for example environments with poor grazing. The racing industry and travellers horses were identified as areas of the industry where horse welfare was particularly vulnerable to compromise. Lack of knowledge and financial constraints were perceived to be the root cause of poor welfare by many interviewees. The findings give insight into the range of welfare problems that may be faced by horses in GB, the contexts in which these may occur and their possible causes. Many of the problems identified by the interviewees have undergone limited scientific investigation pointing to areas where further research is likely to be necessary for welfare improvement. The large number of issues identified suggests that some form of prioritisation may be necessary to target research and resources effectively.

Political strategy, business strategy, and the academic medical center: linking theory and practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Souba, W W; Weitekamp, M R; Mahon, J F

2001-09-01

The purpose of this paper is to link external political strategy theory to a specific health care setting-that of the academic medical center (AMC). Political strategy encompasses those activities undertaken by AMCs to acquire, develop, and use power (clout, influence, and credibility) to gain an advantage in situations of conflict. It should be differentiated from internal politics, a topic that will not be dealt with in this review. Political strategy should also be distinguished from but not divorced from competitive strategy. As political and social action can change the competitive landscape and the rules of competition, AMCs must become adept in issues management and stakeholder management. The focus on political strategy is a reflection of the enormous changes in the external environment that have impacted AMCs in recent years. These changes have often emerged out of political and social action and they impact significantly on the organization's more traditional business strategies. We suggest that a tighter alignment between political and business strategies in the future will help ensure organizational survival and success. This article reviews the literature and theory in corporate political strategy and illustrates the application of political strategy with examples of issues and problems faced by AMCs. Models of political strategy are well crafted, and this article concludes with succinct observations on the use of political strategies to enhance the business-based strategies of AMCs. Although the focus is on AMCs, the use of political strategies is applicable to any health care institution. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

The Politics of Performance Measurement

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bjørnholt, Bente; Larsen, Flemming

2014-01-01

Performance measurements are meant to improve public decision making and organizational performance. But performance measurements are far from always rational tools for problem solving, they are also political instruments. The central question addressed in this article is how performance...... impact on the political decision making process, as the focus on performance goals entails a kind of reductionism (complex problems are simplified), sequential decision making processes (with a division in separate policy issues) and short-sighted decisions (based on the need for making operational goals)....... measurement affects public policy. The aim is to conceptualize the political consequences of performance measurements and of special concern is how performance systems influence how political decisions are made, what kind of political decisions are conceivable, and how they are implemented. The literature...

A study of fuzzy logic ensemble system performance on face recognition problem

Science.gov (United States)

Polyakova, A.; Lipinskiy, L.

2017-02-01

Some problems are difficult to solve by using a single intelligent information technology (IIT). The ensemble of the various data mining (DM) techniques is a set of models which are able to solve the problem by itself, but the combination of which allows increasing the efficiency of the system as a whole. Using the IIT ensembles can improve the reliability and efficiency of the final decision, since it emphasizes on the diversity of its components. The new method of the intellectual informational technology ensemble design is considered in this paper. It is based on the fuzzy logic and is designed to solve the classification and regression problems. The ensemble consists of several data mining algorithms: artificial neural network, support vector machine and decision trees. These algorithms and their ensemble have been tested by solving the face recognition problems. Principal components analysis (PCA) is used for feature selection.

Notes to the Research on Political Socialisation in Hungary.

Science.gov (United States)

Keri, L.

1982-01-01

Hungarian research on political socialization is reviewed. The research is analyzed in terms of how the concept of political socialization is interpreted, the problems of interpreting political socialization, and the problems of judging the political socialization of youth. (AM)

Casting a political idol? The effect of a political TV casting show on adolescents

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Möller, J.

2012-01-01

This paper presents the results of an intervention study to increase political involvement of adolescents through target-oriented political TV programming. In the discussion concerning the lack of political engagement of adolescents the media are usually regarded as part of the problem rather than a

Health system strengthening in Myanmar during political reforms: perspectives from international agencies.

Science.gov (United States)

Risso-Gill, Isabelle; McKee, Martin; Coker, Richard; Piot, Peter; Legido-Quigley, Helena

2014-07-01

Myanmar has undergone a remarkable political transformation in the last 2 years, with its leadership voluntarily transitioning from an isolated military regime to a quasi-civilian government intent on re-engaging with the international community. Decades of underinvestment have left the country underdeveloped with a fragile health system and poor health outcomes. International aid agencies have found engagement with the Myanmar government difficult but this is changing rapidly and it is opportune to consider how Myanmar can engage with the global health system strengthening (HSS) agenda. Nineteen semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted with representatives from international agencies working in Myanmar to capture their perspectives on HSS following political reform. They explored their perceptions of HSS and the opportunities for implementation. Participants reported challenges in engaging with government, reflecting the disharmony between actors, economic sanctions and barriers to service delivery due to health system weaknesses and bureaucracy. Weaknesses included human resources, data and medical products/infrastructure and logistical challenges. Agencies had mixed views of health system finance and governance, identifying problems and also some positive aspects. There is little consensus on how HSS should be approached in Myanmar, but much interest in collaborating to achieve it. Despite myriad challenges and concerns, participants were generally positive about the recent political changes, and remain optimistic as they engage in HSS activities with the government.

Politics, class actors, and health sector reform in Brazil and Venezuela.

Science.gov (United States)

Mahmood, Qamar; Muntaner, Carles

2013-03-01

Universal access to healthcare has assumed renewed importance in global health discourse, along with a focus on strengthening health systems. These developments are taking place in the backdrop of concerted efforts to advocate moving away from vertical, disease-based approaches to tackling health problems. While this approach to addressing public health problems is a step in the right direction, there is still insufficient emphasis on understanding the socio-political context of health systems. Reforms to strengthen health systems and achieve universal access to healthcare should be cognizant of the importance of the socio-political context, especially state-society relations. That context determines the nature and trajectory of reforms promoting universality or any pro-equity change. Brazil and Venezuela in recent years have made progress in developing healthcare systems that aim to achieve universal access. These achievements are noteworthy given that, historically, both countries had a long tradition of healthcare systems which were highly privatized and geared towards access to healthcare for a small segment of the population while the majority was excluded. These achievements are also remarkable since they took place in an era of neoliberalism when many states, even those with universally-based healthcare systems, were moving in the opposite direction. We analyze the socio-political context in each of these countries and look specifically at how the changing state-society relations resulted in health being constitutionally recognized as a social right. We describe the challenges that each faced in developing and implementing healthcare systems embracing universality. Our contention is that achieving the principle of universality in healthcare systems is less of a technical matter and more a political project. It involves opposition from the socially conservative elements in the society. Navigation to achieve this goal requires a political strategy that

Financial problems facing the manufacturers of small wind energy conversion systems. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bolle, T G

1979-11-01

The financial barriers faced by the manufacturers of small wind energy conversion systems (SWECS) are assessed and found to be similar to those faced by other start up businesses. However, these problems are found to be aggravated by the high expectations for accelerated SWECS industry growth in the face of moderate government support and lack of investment capital. The underlying conditions of limited SWECS entrepreneur business experience, the highly competitive venture capital market, the inability of existing financial institutions to aid infant busineses and public unawareness of SWECS are reviewed. Specific manufacturer-oriented recommendations and federal, state and regulatory policy-oriented recommendations are made. In addition, the dynamics of the SWECS commercialization process are assessed and the variety of financial institutions playing a role in this process is detailed. Issues related to inflation, tax policy, regulation and federal R and D procurement policies are analyzed.

The Power of the Stage and the Dignity of the Academic Calling in Imperial Germany: The Writings of Max Weber on University Problems

Science.gov (United States)

Minerva, 1973

1973-01-01

Contains Max Weber's writings on the problems of the German university in the face of political and bureaucratic authority and on the fundamental principles of university autonomy and academic freedom. (PG)

Syrian Issue in the Discourses of Political Leaders

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yusuf Devran

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Syrian conflict as a part of social movements called as Arab Spring has been turned into a civil war. As a result of this Turkey has come to face with the biggest refugee crisis of its entire history. Thus political parties have used different discourses on Syrian conflict and refugee crisis according to new social, economical and political conditions. In this paper political discourses used by Turkish political leaders between 2011-2015 are examined in the context of their politics for Syrian conflict and refugees. The main goal of this work is to contribute to a better contemplation on the Syrian conflict and refugee crisis by ascertaining political parties’ approaches.

Political Science and the Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Dwivedi, O. P.

1986-01-01

Briefly reviews the environmental conditions which gave rise to the development of environmental politics and later to the subdiscipline of political ecology. Defines the intellectual boundaries of political ecology and the goals it seeks to attain. Concludes that the increasingly global economy and widespread ecological problems guarantee an…

The problem with the political construction of social relations in a technocratic utopia (for example «Computopia» Y. Masuda

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. V. Okorokova

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to consideration of the problem utopian modeling of the political system of social relations in the future society. The author focuses specifically on the most modern utopian political models of the information society in its perfect form. Spring the study of this problem is the work of one of the found­ers of the concept of the information society in its technocratic aspect - Computer utopia» Jones Masood. The author draws attention to the commitment of researchers to e-democracy as the most favorable and possible forms of political system of the future society, which has taken root in modern human civilization. In addi­tion to the theoretical basis of the article discusses the proposed And. Meadow principles and ways to build the perfect information society with total domination of information technology, which would allow to build an ideal society. The latter, in turn, is an example of the formation of a new type of utopia, which combines elements of social and tice utopia based on the domination of information communication technologies. The level of ICT is the most important characteristic in the development of that perfect system of socio-political relations, which offers a scientist

From NGO activism to party politics : the prospects for the emergence of an Indonesian Green Political Party.

OpenAIRE

Nerbråten, Gisle

2005-01-01

Politically, 2004 was an important year for Indonesia, the world s third largest, at least nominal, democracy. Faced with elections for the national Peoples Representative Assembly (DPR), the national Regional Representative Council (DPD), the Provincial and Regency/City Peoples Representative Assemblies (DPRDs), as well as two rounds of direct presidential elections, the country has in many ways shown political maturity. They have accomplished these challenges and avoided some of the pitfa...

Buzz: Face-to-Face Contact and the Urban Economy

OpenAIRE

Michael Storper; Anthony J. Venables

2003-01-01

This paper argues that existing models of urban concentrations are incomplete unless grounded in the most fundamental aspect of proximity; face-to-face contact. Face-to-face contact has four main features; it is an efficient communication technology; it can help solve incentive problems; it can facilitate socialization and learning; and it provides psychological motivation. We discuss each of these features in turn, and develop formal economic models of two of them. Face-to-face is particular...

Achieving What Political Science Is For

Science.gov (United States)

Isacoff, Jonathan B.

2014-01-01

This article argues for a political science discipline and teaching framework predicated empirically on the study of "real-world problems" and normatively on promoting civic engagement among political science students. I argue for a rethinking of political science and political science education in view of the pragmatist thought of John…

Problems faced by Bangladesh in introducing a nuclear power programme

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nurul Islam, A.B.M.; Quaiyum, M.A.; Hasnat, K.A.

1977-01-01

The per capita energy resources and consumption of energy in Bangladesh are among the lowest in the world as in the per capita GDP of the country. The need for and importance of nuclear power in providing cheaper and reliable energy for economic development of the country is discussed in the light of this situation. The constraints faced by the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) in the initiation and development of a national nuclear power programme are detailed. Following the liberation of the country in 1971 its financial resources were mainly channelled to the rehabilitation and restoration of the economy. As the size of the national grid has remained relatively small, unit sizes in the range of 50-200MW(e) only could be considered for commissioning. Lack of vendor interest in such small sizes and the difficulty of arranging long-term investment for nuclear stations are the main constraints faced by the BAEC. Other bottlenecks are due to the uncertainty about the nature and extent of future economic development, pricing policy for available indigenous fossil fuel, and national energy planning criteria, which are mainly influenced by the limited financial resources, national priority for various essential non-development expenditures, which use up most of the country's own earnings and foreign aid, etc. Problems that are likely to be faced in future are discussed. These include public acceptability of nuclear power in Bangladesh, the obstacles to the transfer of nuclear technology that may be erected through the prospective growth of a cartel of nuclear-exporting countries, drainage of trained manpower, etc. (author)

BOOK REVIEW: Democracy and Political Life in Nigeria | Wilson ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In this review of Victor Dike's book - \\"Democracy and Political Life in Nigeria\\", Inam Wilson underscores the author's attempts to draw a connection between Nigeria's chequered political history and her present economic trajectory to explain why Nigeria is today facing numerous sociopolitical and economic challenges, ...

Political Theology as critical theology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tanya van Wyk

2015-08-01

Full Text Available This article attempts to draw the scope and content of contemporary Political Theology, based on a review of the 2013 publication titled, Political Theology: Contemporary challenges and future directions, edited by Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, Klaus Tanner and Michael Welker. The book is a collection of contributions which explore the contemporary content and potential future of the subject discipline. ‘Political Theology’ as critical theology and as a ‘theology with its face towards the world’ is committed to ‘justice, peace and the integrity of creation’ and is multifaceted. It represents a discipline with which theologians reflect on political-theological objectives across continents and paradigms. The article concludes with a brief investigation of the implications of insights offered in the book for the South African context (as part of the African continent.

[Everyday practice in psychiatry and the politics of civilisation].

Science.gov (United States)

Touzet, Patrick

2015-01-01

Daily clinical practice confronts us not only with the clinical aspect but also with the political. Political orientation has a direct impact on the way in which we carry out this clinical practice, as well as on the place of those who are outside the system. The politics of civilisation are therefore an option in the face of neoliberalism. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Political behavior in organizational context: nature, research and paradigm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hasan Jafariani

2012-09-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates political behavior in organization context. In the first section, it studies inappropriate terminology in political behavior arena and recommends that political behaviors are neither positive nor negative in nature. The study also demonstrates that ends and means for influencing others are two criteria for determining faces of political behavior. In the second section, related and important research are reviewed and categorized in terms of content. Finally, we present the dominant paradigm of political behavior as a philosophical infrastructure. The study also presents some guidelines for further research the limitations are discussed in conclusion part.

The Study of Potentials and Problems in Reading Faced By the Eighth Grade Students of Junior High School

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ida Ayu Made Istri Utami

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Knowing students’ problems, especially in reading, is very important to design an appropriate and meaningful learning. From the problem identification, teacher can find the potency of designing and developing material to meet students’ need. Therefore, this study was aimed to identify the potentials and problems toward reading lesson faced by the eighth grade students of Junior High School. This study was based on the result of classroom observation, document study, and also checklists. The identification of potency and problems through classroom observation was done to obtain data on how existing reading material was used in teaching reading on the classroom. There was also document study to evaluate existing reading material and syllabus used for teaching reading. Then, the data from the teacher and students had been gathered by administering checklists. From the result of the study, it can be identified that the problems faced by the eighth grade students of Junior High School in reading dealt with topic selection, pictures or illustration, and reading activities, while the potency was to develop new reading material by using those problems as consideration.

Weighted piecewise LDA for solving the small sample size problem in face verification.

Science.gov (United States)

Kyperountas, Marios; Tefas, Anastasios; Pitas, Ioannis

2007-03-01

A novel algorithm that can be used to boost the performance of face-verification methods that utilize Fisher's criterion is presented and evaluated. The algorithm is applied to similarity, or matching error, data and provides a general solution for overcoming the "small sample size" (SSS) problem, where the lack of sufficient training samples causes improper estimation of a linear separation hyperplane between the classes. Two independent phases constitute the proposed method. Initially, a set of weighted piecewise discriminant hyperplanes are used in order to provide a more accurate discriminant decision than the one produced by the traditional linear discriminant analysis (LDA) methodology. The expected classification ability of this method is investigated throughout a series of simulations. The second phase defines proper combinations for person-specific similarity scores and describes an outlier removal process that further enhances the classification ability. The proposed technique has been tested on the M2VTS and XM2VTS frontal face databases. Experimental results indicate that the proposed framework greatly improves the face-verification performance.

Managing Face Threats and Instructions in Online Tutoring

Science.gov (United States)

Brummernhenrich, Benjamin; Jucks, Regina

2013-01-01

Although tutoring is very effective, tutors often neglect certain strategies such as direct negative feedback. This might be because they want to avoid threatening their tutee's face. The concept of face derives from politeness theory and refers to the aspects of autonomy and social appreciation people claim for themselves and strive to negotiate…

Establishing Political Deliberation Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rose, Jeremy; Sæbø, Øystein

2008-01-01

The extension and transformation of political participation is dependent on widespread deliberation supported by information and communication technologies.  The most commonly found examples of these eParticipation systems are political discussion forums.  Though much of the discussion...... of these technologies is conducted in the eGovernment and (particularly) the eDemocracy literature, political discussion forums present a distinct set of design and management challenges which relate directly to IS concerns. In this article we analyze problems in establishing political deliberation systems under five...... headings: stakeholder engagement, web platform design, web platform management, political process re-shaping and evaluation and improvement. We review the existing literature and present a longitudinal case study of a political discussion forum: the Norwegian DemokratiTorget (Democracy Square).  We define...

China’s Political Reforms in the Early 21 Century

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nguyen Xuan Сuong

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Analyzing process of political reforms in the People's Republic of China, the author notes that within the first 20 years of reforms and openness of China economic growth wasn't followed by development of society, political reforms didn't keep up for economic, imperfection of political system constrained economic reforms and development. Owing to this fact the XVI congress of a CPC lifted policy to the level of "political culture" by analogy with "material culture" and "spiritual culture". In the first 20 anniversary of the XXI century with the purpose to finish "comprehensive creation of society "of small prosperity" China has to create "perfect system of socialist market economy", construct "harmonious socialist society". For achievement of these purposes political reforms in China have to provide "improvement of socialist democracy" and "the socialist constitutional state". In the first years of the XXI century they brought a number of significant achievements: political stability, peaceful alternation of generations of the power, essential increase of level of political democracy. The first stage of formation of the constitutional socialist state is passed, ability and level of the management from ruling party increased; party construction amplified. But also at the beginning of the second decade of the XXI century implementation of the legislation, democracy faces many calls, especially intensification of nationalism at the beginning of the century. The Chinese dream will mobilize grandiose powers of unity that China deepened reforms and openness, solved all the political problems, helped a CPC to increase the leading and imperious power. Implementation process of "The Chinese dream" also means aspiration to tops of economy, policy, military science, technologies in the world, to a taking them, reflecting process of formation of the new great power which will succeed the USA. Political reforms with the purpose to achieve "The Chinese dream

Danish Political Culture: Fair Conditions for Inclusion of Immigrants?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Tore Vincents

2011-01-01

and discursive opportunity structures immigrants face as ethnic and religious minorities. The article analyzes the Danish political culture with regard to the potential barriers it has for the inclusion of immigrants in national political life. It finds that the predominantly liberal, secular and republican......In the age of migration, the inclusion of immigrants in national politics is crucial for democratic reasons, and because it increases the coordination and cooperation ability of society. The informal norms, values and beliefs of the political culture are one aspect of the institutional...

Feature- and Face-Exchange illusions: New insights and applications for the study of the binding problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arthur Gilman Shapiro

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The binding problem is a longstanding issue in vision science: i.e., how are humans able to maintain a relatively stable representation of objects and features even though the visual system processes many aspects of the world separately and in parallel? We previously investigated this issue with a variant of the bounce-pass paradigm, which consists of two rectangular bars moving in opposite directions; if the bars are identical and never overlap, the motion could equally be interpreted as bouncing or passing. Although bars of different colors should be seen as passing each other (since the colors provide more information about the bars’ paths, we found Feature Exchange: observers reported the paradoxical perception that the bars appear to bounce off of each other and exchange colors. Here we extend our previous findings with three demonstrations. Peripheral Feature-Exchange consists of two colored bars that physically bounce (they continually meet in the middle of the monitor and return to the sides. When viewed in the periphery, the bars appear to stream past each other even though this percept relies on the exchange of features and contradicts the information provided by the color of the bars. In Face-Exchange two different faces physically pass each other. When fixating centrally, observers typically report the perception of bouncing faces that swap features, indicating that the Feature Exchange effect can occur even with complex objects. In Face-Go-Round, one face repeatedly moves from left to right on the top of the monitor, and the other from right to left at the bottom of the monitor. Observers typically perceive the faces moving in a circle--a percept that contradicts information provided by the identity of the faces. We suggest that Feature Exchange and the paradigms used to elicit it can be useful for the investigation of the binding problem as well as other contemporary issues of interest to vision science.

'They did to him whatever they pleased': The exercise of political ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

vis the urgent challenges facing the global community. One such challenge concerns the exercise of political power within the public arena. Throughout his narrative Matthew paints a vivid portrait of the political power brokers of Jesus' world ...

Gender-based political harassment and violence: effects on the political work and public roles of women.

Science.gov (United States)

Valverde, María Eugenia Rojas

2010-01-01

This article shows the significance of the problems of political harassment and violence against women in positions of political responsibility in Bolivia. This phenomenon is seen in both rural and urban areas and transcends borders. It has been shown that these attacks constitute a violation of women's civil and political rights and a threat to the physical and mental health of women leaders in Bolivia. Furthermore, there is no punishment of guilty parties, reparation, or moral or material compensation for the women who are affected. In Bolivia, gender-based harassment and violence is a fundamental barrier to women's political participation. However, this phenomenon is still not addressed by government programs and is not part of the public discourse and debate. In spite of the measures taken to promote women's political participation, several different administrations have been unable to guarantee women the capacity to occupy positions of responsibility without being threatened or harassed. The results of our research led to a bill addressing this problem. Subsequently, Ecuador took this bill as an example and replicated it in a legislative initiative. These results show the importance of research by organizations that represent women in preventing unjust situations and health problems.

Teachers’ Perceptions of the Problems faced in the Teaching of History in Senior High Schools

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Gideon Boadu

2016-07-01

Full Text Available History is an important school subject which conveys invaluable lessons from the past and whose worth transcends regional, national and cultural boundaries. Such a subject needs to be taught well in order to make learners gain deep appreciation of the relevance of their learning. However, effective teaching of history in Ghanaian schools has long been blighted by problems and challenges that have often gone unaddressed. With little empirical literature emerging from Ghana, this study, drawing on 32 history teachers from 18 senior high schools, examined history teachers’ perceptions of the problems faced in the teaching of history in the Cape Coast metropolis and Komenda, Edina, Eguafo, Abrim district in the Central Region of Ghana. The descriptive cross-sectional research design was used for the study and data were collected through questionnaires. The study found that overloaded syllabus, insufficient human and material resources, lack of support for the subject and large classes were the major problems facing the teaching of history. Based on the findings, the study concluded that the problems confronting the teaching of history in the two districts are administrative and pedagogical in nature. On this conclusion, it was recommended, among others, that syllabus content should be integrated to make it sync with the period given for its implementation. Also, the necessary resources should be provided to enhance the teaching of the subject.

The Political Economy of Recent Economic Growth in India

OpenAIRE

Raghbendra Jha

2004-01-01

The political economy of India’s economic growth is an issue of abiding interest. Higher and sustained economic growth has, all over the world, been the surest and most time tested means of raising living standards and reducing poverty. Further, given that it is a functioning democracy, economic policy in India can often be dictated by political expediency as political parties indulge in competitive populism in the face of improvements in social indicators such as literacy, infant mortality a...

Political Competition and the Diffusion of Conditional Cash Transfers in Brazil

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Denilson Bandeira Coêlho

2012-12-01

Full Text Available What factors determine the diffusion of social policies? This article exam - ines the launching of conditional cash transfer programs by Brazilian munici - palities to explore this problem. The literature of political science asserts that such programs have been widely implemented because they correspond to an al - ternative policy strategy adopted by governments facing opposition to implement universal public policies. So, political competition would be at the root of CCT launching. This article presents an alternative explanation. From 1995 to 2001, local governments created or emulated the Bolsa Escola Program (BEP in all regions of the country. Such a path continued after the lauching of the national Bolsa Escola by the federal government. Why did some local governments decide to adopt the national BEP and others did not? To answer these questions, the research tests the influence of structural, internal and external variables on the dissemination of CCT programs. Two main hypotheses are tested. The first as - serts that local political competition is positive for policy diffusion. The second hypothesis claims that party alignment between the municipal and federal levels increases the likelihood of municipalities adopting the federal BEP. The research uses Event History Analysis to test statistically the impact of political incentives on policy diffusion among São Paulo State’s municipalities. Two types of policy diffusion are examined: horizontal and vertical. The findings confirm that polit - ical competition influences the horizontal diffusion among municipalities. Unex - pectedly, vertical diffusion does not occur because of party alignment or political competition. Rather, levels of socioeconomic development drive policy emulation.

Democrats and republicans can be differentiated from their faces.

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Nicholas O Rule

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Individuals' faces communicate a great deal of information about them. Although some of this information tends to be perceptually obvious (such as race and sex, much of it is perceptually ambiguous, without clear or obvious visual cues. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we found that individuals' political affiliations could be accurately discerned from their faces. In Study 1, perceivers were able to accurately distinguish whether U.S. Senate candidates were either Democrats or Republicans based on photos of their faces. Study 2 showed that these effects extended to Democrat and Republican college students, based on their senior yearbook photos. Study 3 then showed that these judgments were related to differences in perceived traits among the Democrat and Republican faces. Republicans were perceived as more powerful than Democrats. Moreover, as individual targets were perceived to be more powerful, they were more likely to be perceived as Republicans by others. Similarly, as individual targets were perceived to be warmer, they were more likely to be perceived as Democrats. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These data suggest that perceivers' beliefs about who is a Democrat and Republican may be based on perceptions of traits stereotypically associated with the two political parties and that, indeed, the guidance of these stereotypes may lead to categorizations of others' political affiliations at rates significantly more accurate than chance guessing.

The role of interpretation of existing practice in normative political argument

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lægaard, Sune

2017-01-01

of contextualism and practice-dependence. The paper focuses on Andrea Sangiovanni’s methodological claims about social interpretation to illustrate both how facts can be part of the justification of principles and how interpretation is also faced with a number of problems as a way of justifying normative......In political theory concerned with normative evaluations and prescriptions facts can play two roles: (1) Facts can be of importance for the application of general normative principles to particular cases, and (2) facts can be of importance for the justification of normative principles as such...... principles. The paper finally argues that some of these problems can be avoided if one considers the two roles together; what enables interpretation of facts as part of the justification of normative principles precisely is that application and justification are not separate exercises....

Politics of Uranium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1982-01-01

Uranium is the most political of all the elements, the material for the production of both the large amounts of electricity and the most destructive weapons in the world. The problems that its dual potential creates are only now beginning to become evident. Author Norman Moss looks at this situation and sheds light on many of the questions that emerge. The nuclear issue always comes back to how much uranium there is, what can be done with it, and which countries have it. Starting with a concise history of uranium and explaining its technology in terms the nonspecialist can understand, The Politics of Uranium considers the political issues that technical arguments obscure. It tells the little-known story of the international uranium cartel, explains the entanglements of governments with the uranium trade, and describes the consequences of wrong decisions and blunders-especially the problems of nuclear waste. It also examines the intellectual and emotional roots of the anti-nuclear movement

Multi-task pose-invariant face recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, Changxing; Xu, Chang; Tao, Dacheng

2015-03-01

Face images captured in unconstrained environments usually contain significant pose variation, which dramatically degrades the performance of algorithms designed to recognize frontal faces. This paper proposes a novel face identification framework capable of handling the full range of pose variations within ±90° of yaw. The proposed framework first transforms the original pose-invariant face recognition problem into a partial frontal face recognition problem. A robust patch-based face representation scheme is then developed to represent the synthesized partial frontal faces. For each patch, a transformation dictionary is learnt under the proposed multi-task learning scheme. The transformation dictionary transforms the features of different poses into a discriminative subspace. Finally, face matching is performed at patch level rather than at the holistic level. Extensive and systematic experimentation on FERET, CMU-PIE, and Multi-PIE databases shows that the proposed method consistently outperforms single-task-based baselines as well as state-of-the-art methods for the pose problem. We further extend the proposed algorithm for the unconstrained face verification problem and achieve top-level performance on the challenging LFW data set.

Politeness Accommodation in E-Mail Requests among Iranian Postgraduate Students of EFL

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Muhammed Parviz

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Computer-mediated communication (CMC offers us a chance to understand how social relationships are built and maintained in an environment in which interlocutors not only lack the paralinguistic features that are vital to face-to- face conversation, but are participating in a medium which has had little time to develop rules of conduct. The present study was an attempt to determine politeness accommodation in e-mail messages among Iranian postgraduate students of EFL. One hundred EFL learners, aged 22-26, participated in this study. Four different message types were constructed and sent to the participants, i.e. messages with verbal politeness markers; messages with structural politeness elements (e. g., salutation and closing remarks; messages with both verbal and structural politeness indicators; finally messages with neither verbal nor structural politeness indicators. Further, the messages varied in their degree of politeness; however, their content was the same. Results showed that the participants accommodated significantly to verbal politeness indicators in the body of a message, and to structural politeness indicators of greeting/salutation. When such indicators were included in messages, the participants responded with significantly more polite messages (greeting and body than when the indicators were absent. The results boost our understanding of CMC with reference to politeness markers, and how they are used by Iranian EFL learners.

Survey of projected growth and problems facing air transportation, 1975 - 1985

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, L. J.; Wilson, A.

1975-01-01

Results are presented of a survey conducted to determine the current opinion of people working in air transportation demand forecasting on the future of air transportation over the next ten years. In particular, the survey included questions on future demand growth, load factor, fuel prices, introduction date for the next new aircraft, the priorities of problems facing air transportation, and the probability of a substantial change in air transportation regulation. The survey participants included: airlines, manufacturers, universities, government agencies, and other organizations (financial institutions, private research companies, etc.). The results are shown for the average responses within the organization represented as well as the overall averages.

China’s Political Reforms in the Early 21st Century

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nguyen Xuan Сuong

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Analyzing process of political reforms in the People's Republic of China, the author notes that within the first 20 years of reforms and openness of China economic growth wasn't followed by development of society, political reforms didn't keep up for economic, imperfection of political system constrained economic reforms and development. Owing to this fact the XVI congress of a CPC lifted policy to the level of "political culture" by analogy with "material culture" and "spiritual culture". In the first 20 anniversary of the XXI century with the purpose to finish "comprehensive creation of society "of small prosperity" China has to create "perfect system of socialist market economy", construct "harmonious socialist society". For achievement of these purposes political reforms in China have to provide "improvement of socialist democracy" and "the socialist constitutional state". In the first years of the XXI century they brought a number of significant achievements: political stability, peaceful alternation of generations of the power, essential increase of level of political democracy. The first stage of formation of the constitutional socialist state is passed, ability and level of the management from ruling party increased; party construction amplified. But also at the beginning of the second decade of the XXI century implementation of the legislation, democracy faces many calls, especially intensification of nationalism at the beginning of the century. The Chinese dream will mobilize grandiose powers of unity that China deepened reforms and openness, solved all the political problems, helped a CPC to increase the leading and imperious power. Implementation process of "The Chinese dream" also means aspiration to tops of economy, policy, military science, technologies in the world, to a taking them, reflecting process of formation of the new great power which will succeed the USA. Political reforms with the purpose to achieve "The Chinese dream

Radioactive wastes: a world problem. Les dechets nucleaires: un probleme mondial

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schapira, J P [Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), 75 - Paris (FR)

1991-02-01

In all countries endowed with nuclear program, radioactive wastes disposal asks scientific and public acceptance problems. This paper describes several aspects: technical problem; ethic problem and responsibility towards future generations at very long-term; political problem. Different politics followed by concerned countries and recent controversy in France is also entered upon radioactive wastes underground site selection, in deep geological formations.

Political construction of technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bruheze, A.A.A. de la.

1992-01-01

In the 1970s radioactive waste disposal became a controversial scientific and social issue in the United States, after the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) charged with the development, regulation and promotion of nuclear technology, had tried to implement its disposal technology near Lyons, Kansas. This study traces the emergence of this controversy as part of the long-term development of the US radioactive waste disposal technology. Radioactive waste was not always considered a problem, and different meanings were attached to radwaste in the 1940s and early 1950s. Problem definitions and technical designs that underlaid this technology can be reconstructed, and its possible to show how some definitions received attention and others not, and how some became, and remained, dominant. During the process of problem definition, views compete, agendas are built, resources are allocated, and boundaries are created and maintained between 'inside' and 'outside world'. This is a political process, and by heuristically using concepts from political science and recent technology studies, the Political Construction of US radioactive waste disposal technologically can be reconstructed. (author). 301 refs.; 3 figs.; 15 tabs

Politics as Usual? Theatre, the Northern Irish Assembly, and the Romanticization of Normality

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Eleanor Owicki

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This article explores the treatment of Northern Irish electoral politics in two plays featuring Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs as major characters. Between 2007 and 2016, many viewed the stability of the Northern Irish Assembly as evidence of the continued success of the peace process. Although the principle of mandatory coalition at the system’s heart bears witness to the lasting nature of divisions within the state, the collaboration between once-bitter enemies demonstrates a real shift in Northern Irish politics. Until the institution’s (perhaps temporary collapse in 2017, many commentators and politicians suggested that its success proved that the state was progressing in the nebulous but desirable direction of ‘normality’. Colin Bell’s 'God’s Country' (2010 and Rosemary Jenkinson’s 'Planet Belfast' (2013 suggest, however, that a valorization of normality obscures the dangers posed to Northern Ireland by problems that occur on more global levels. 'God’s Country' explores the dangerous impact of homophobia in the North, and particularly within unionist politics, while 'Planet Belfast' depicts the combined threat of environmental destruction and corporate interference. Both plays depict Northern Irish politics functioning smoothly, with minimal evidence of sectarian divisions deeper than the partisanship present in most democracies. In spite of this, however, they caution against treating normality as an end goal or as evidence that the state is safe. Instead, they suggest that the state faces a wide array of problems that have been obscured by the focus on sectarianism and the legacy of the Troubles.

Constitutional Openness in 1991, Ethnic and Cultural Diversity, and Political System: a Philosophical-Political Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nelson Jair Cuchumbé Holguín

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The multicultural approach seems to be the most praiseworthy instrument through which the acknowledgement of cultural diversity could renew the deontic structure legitimised by the socio-political order in Colombia. Facing a State model based on the denial and exclusion of diversity, the multicultural State allows for pluralism to be articulated into it. In this way, the formation of political unity becomes a matter determined by dialogue, mutual acknowledgement and cultural enhancement. Nevertheless, the multicultural interpretation lacks plausibility if the formation of the State is understood in a pragmatic and universalistic way. From this perspective, the inclusion of the Other is likely only if social actors promote interactions regulated by a political culture based on constitutional principles, active participation, public deliberation and the organisational ability of communities. A shared political culture of this nature seems unavoidable if the purpose is to form a citizenship more suited to living in a democracy.

Identity Politics, the Ethos of Vulnerability, and Education

Science.gov (United States)

Brunila, Kristiina; Rossi, Leena-Maija

2018-01-01

In this article, identity politics is understood as a form of politics stressing collective but malleable group identities as the basis of political action. This notion of identity politics also allows thinking of identity as intersectional. The focus of this article, and a problem related to identity politics, is that when discussed in the…

The most common problem facing by the maintenance department: A case Study between Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)

Science.gov (United States)

Norazam Yasin, Mohd; Mohamad Zin, Rosli; Halid Abdullah, Abd; Shafiq Mahmad, Muhammad; Fikri Hasmori, Muhammad

2017-11-01

From time to time, the maintenance works become more challenging due to construction of new building and also aging of the existing buildings. University buildings without any exception require proper maintenance services to support their function requirements and this can be considered as major responsibilities to be fulfilled by the maintenance department in the universities. Maintenance department specifically will face various kinds of problems in their operation works and thus this might influence the maintenance work operations itself. This study purposely to identify the common problem facing by the maintenance department and also to examine the current status of the maintenance department. In addition, this study would also propose any suitable approach that could be implemented to overcome the problem facing by the maintenance department. To achieve the objectives of this study, a combination of deep literature study and carrying out a survey is necessary. Literature study aimed to obtain deeper information about this study, meanwhile a survey aimed at identifying the common problem facing by the maintenance department and also to provide the information of the maintenance department’s organization. Several methods will be used in analyzing the data obtained through the survey, including Microsoft Office Excel and also using mean index formula. This study has identified three categories of problem in the maintenance department, which are management problems, human resource problem, and technical problems. Following the findings, several solutions being proposed which can be implemented as the solution to the problem facing. These suggestions have the potential to improve the maintenance department work efficiency, thus could help to increase the department productivity.

Testing with Values: the Refugee Problem and Political Prospects of the “Alternative for Germany”

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Алена Васильевна Федина

2018-12-01

Full Text Available The article analyses the reasons for the electoral success of the “Alternative for Germany” party at the federal and state levels in 2016-2017. Looking at the ideological spectrum of German political parties through the research lens of a two-dimensional coordinate system that, alongside the traditional ideological dimension includes the value axis, the author points out the fact that the problem of the refugees, which appeals to the values of the nation, perplexed German parties, as the choice of a particular strategy in regard to the refugees involved high risks of losing a significant number of votes. As a result, those parties, which managed to clearly articulate their system of values, above all the “Alternative”, benefited from this situation. The author states that the rise of the “Alternative” was caused by the “value vacuum” in the party life in Germany stemming from the progressive “open-door” refugee policy introduced by Chancellor Merkel in order to resolve the European refugee crisis. Much consideration is given to the reasons that led the CDU to adopt such an unusual strategy for a predominantly centrist party. In conclusion the author suggests that, in spite of its electoral success, political influence of the “Alternative” will be seriously limited by the unwillingness on the part of other parties to establish contacts and build inter-party ties with an inexperienced political player, which is prone to neglect the achievements of German democracy and does not fit into the framework of modern political mainstream. From the other hand, the tightening of the immigration policy weakens the protest potential of German voters.

POLITENESS STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY THE TRAINERS IN ROOM DIVISION DEPARTMENT BAPEPAR NUSA DUA

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I Gusti Ayu Vina Widiadnya Putri

2017-05-01

Full Text Available This article tries to analyze and discuss the politeness strategies employed by the trainers in room division department when they practice on the job training in the hotel. Politeness strategy was needed when the trainers serve the guest. This research was done by observation and interview with the trainer and the guest about their conversation. The analysis of politeness strategies that employed by the trainer focused on two discussions; (1 the kinds of politeness strategies used by trainer in room division department, and (2 the implications of politeness strategies used by trainer in room division department. This research used the theory from Brown & Levinson (1987 in his book entitled Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usages. The theory is supported by other theories that are considered relevant to the topic of discussion in this research. Based on the analysis, it was found that there were two kinds of politeness stratgies that employed by the trainer in room division department Bapepar Nusa Dua, they were positive face and negative face. Beside that, there are three implications by using politness strategies such as: respect behaviour, togheterness, and cooperative interaction.

Specifics of horizontal and vertical relations in Ukrainian political communication on the background of the party building’s process, political science theory and requirements to Ukrainian political context

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K. Y. Odarchenko

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The specifics of horizontal and vertical relations in Ukrainian political communication on the background of the party building’s process has been analysed. Aims of this article are: 1 determination of the subjectivity of political communication; 2 disclosure of the main features of internal politics and communications; 3 setting the essential features of the political parties’ status after peaceful protests in Ukraine 2013-2014 year; 4 explanation of the actual gap that has horizontal and party political communication in Ukraine. Political modernization, capacity of Ukrainian political parties has been characterized. It has been shown that Maidan didn’t influenced tools of creating political parties and their typology greatly. Maidan as a political component was weak and did not respond to the challenges, which Ukrainian political system faced to. The weakness was in the fact that leaders of the oppositional political camp would rather keep old then implement real political change of the political system , which was adapted by the old oliharcial clan. Public sector was not able to identify their environment with new political leaders, nor with a mass movement, based on the creation of new organized political force. It has been found that in a democratic society communication is effective only if it is not only technically modern, interactive, two-way, but if it is consistent to other democratic demands, such as legal and moral control of society over the media, maintenance of basic pluralism, direct contact between senders and recipients of information, feeds decentralization, respect of freedom of expression and privat opinion. Summary of the political communication in Ukraine has to move away from thinking of policy and bureaucratic political consciousness. Otherwise, the simulation is effective and efficient for countries and regions where political communication can become a daily political farce communication in public space.

Experimental instruction in photonics for high school students: approaches to managing problems faced

Science.gov (United States)

Choong, Zhengyang

2017-08-01

Student research projects are increasingly common at the K-12 level. However, students often face difficulties in the course of their school research projects such as setting realistic timelines and expectations, handling problems stemming from a lack of self-confidence, as well as being sufficiently disciplined for sustained communication and experimentation. In this work, we explore manifestations of these problems in the context of a photonics project, characterising the spectrum of the breakdown flash from Silicon Avalanche Photodiodes. We report on the process of planning and building the setup, data collection, analysis and troubleshooting, as well as the technical and human problems at each step. Approaches that were found to be helpful in managing the aforementioned problems are discussed, including an attention to detail during experimental work, as well as communicating in a forthcoming manner. Œe former allowed for clearer planning and the setting of quantifiable proximal goals; the latter helped in motivating discipline, and also helped in the understanding of research as an iterative learning process without a clear definition of success or failure.

The problem of the political self-identity in papers of Cyril and Methodius authors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. P. Boyko

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The problems of the creation of the basic reasons of Ukrainian nation’s political identity in the context of cultural and political dimension have been revealed in the article. It has been found that Cyril and Methodians understood the reasons of political division, which had historical and spiritual background. It has been shown that members of Cyril and Methodiy’s company tried to determine the variations of directions in the development of national and political unity and to determine the Ukrainian national - cultural priorities. They argued that the Ukrainian mentality had been formed on the basis of the following dominant principles: respect to the family, esthetical love to their native land, rational and ethical attitude and respect to human life. It has been indicated, that Cyril and Methodians had proven the idea about the state of the national culture, which had transformed into the global culture through Russian culture, although Ukrainian and Russian culture had perceived differently the importance of global processes. Big attention has been paid to the fact that free Ukrainian people had the experience of struggling for the affirmation of present national character, they did not want to form unions that would destroy freedom. The achievements of Ukrainian national freedom have been described primarily in the implementation of the “freedom” of the individual. Statements of the human freedom being the need of self-expression inside the individual freedom by means of obtaining a sign of social freedom have been suggested. It can be provided when collectivism has no pressure on the will of the individual and cannot influence its intellectual potential. The emphasis has been referred to the fact that the psychology of self-defense is based on Ukrainian cultural achievements being the part of its national identity. The forms of language development, the construction of temples, traditional rituals of rural life have been developed

The material politics of waste disposal - decentralization and integrated systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Penelope Harvey

2012-12-01

Full Text Available This article and the previous «Convergence and divergence between the local and regional state around solid waste management. An unresolved problem in the Sacred Valley» from Teresa Tupayachi are published as complementary accounts on the management of solid waste in the Vilcanota Valley in Cusco. Penelope Harvey and Teresa Tupayachi worked together on this theme. The present article explores how discontinuities across diverse instances of the state are experienced and understood. Drawing from an ethnographic study of the Vilcanota Valley in Cusco, the article looks at the material politics of waste disposal in neoliberal times. Faced with the problem of how to dispose of solid waste, people from Cusco experience a lack of institutional responsibility and call for a stronger state presence. The article describes the efforts by technical experts to design integrated waste management systems that maximise the potential for re-cycling, minimise toxic contamination, and turn ‘rubbish’ into the altogether more economically lively category of ‘solid waste’. However while the financialization of waste might appear to offer an indisputable public good, efforts to instigate a viable waste disposal business in a decentralizing political space elicit deep social tensions and contradictions. The social discontinuities that decentralization supports disrupt ambitions for integrated solutions as local actors resist top-down models and look not just for alternative solutions, but alternative ways of framing the problem of urban waste, and by extension their relationship to the state.

Political uncertainty and firm risk in China

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Danglun Luo

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The political uncertainty surrounded by the turnover of government officials has a major impact on local economies and local firms. This paper investigates the relationship between the turnover of prefecture-city officials and the inherent risk faced by local firms in China. Using data from 1999 to 2012, we find that prefecture-city official turnovers significantly increased firm risk. Our results show that the political risk was mitigated when new prefecture-city officials were well connected with their provincial leaders. In addition, the impact of political uncertainty was more pronounced for regulated firms and firms residing in provinces with low market openness.

Enhancing Political Participation in Jamaica

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lloyd George Waller

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Youth participation through political talk appears to be shifting to the online public sphere in many parts of the world. Many attribute this shift to online social networks such as Facebook. Emerging research seem to suggest that this may be a cure for the problem of political apathy among the youth. This study explores such a possibility in Jamaica. In all, 752 youth ages 15 to 24 were surveyed to ascertain whether Facebook encourages political talk among this age cohort, and what if any are the primary factors that discourage this practice. The findings suggest that (a Facebook is an extension of offline political talk among the civically engaged and politically charged youth of Jamaica; (b Facebook does not substantively encourage political talk among the politically apathetic Jamaican youth; and (c fear of political victimization is the primary factor that discourages many Jamaican youth to engage in political talk on Facebook.

The Politics of Storytelling: Unfolding the Multiple Layers of Politics in (P)AR Publications

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Doris

2012-01-01

In the social sciences, inquiry into the relationship between storytelling and politics is based on a notion of historical continuity. One problem is the possible trap of inevitability inherent in this notion--that something which happened "had to happen". Hannah Arendt's conception of political theory as storytelling overcomes this trap,…

Face Verification for Mobile Personal Devices

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tao, Q.

2009-01-01

In this thesis, we presented a detailed study of the face verification problem on the mobile device, covering every component of the system. The study includes face detection, registration, normalization, and verification. Furthermore, the information fusion problem is studied to verify face

Solving the Border Control Problem: Evidence of Enhanced Face Matching in Individuals with Extraordinary Face Recognition Skills.

Science.gov (United States)

Bobak, Anna Katarzyna; Dowsett, Andrew James; Bate, Sarah

2016-01-01

Photographic identity documents (IDs) are commonly used despite clear evidence that unfamiliar face matching is a difficult and error-prone task. The current study set out to examine the performance of seven individuals with extraordinary face recognition memory, so called "super recognisers" (SRs), on two face matching tasks resembling border control identity checks. In Experiment 1, the SRs as a group outperformed control participants on the "Glasgow Face Matching Test", and some case-by-case comparisons also reached significance. In Experiment 2, a perceptually difficult face matching task was used: the "Models Face Matching Test". Once again, SRs outperformed controls both on group and mostly in case-by-case analyses. These findings suggest that SRs are considerably better at face matching than typical perceivers, and would make proficient personnel for border control agencies.

Catalan brinkmanship tool for political rivalry in Spain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Górnicka Weronika

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to analyze the independence activities undertaken by the Catalan government in the context of the brinkmanship strategy and the assumptions of game theory based on “the game of chicken”. It allows us to put the issue of Catalan’s claims in a different context than to refer to political, historical or cultural grounds for self-determination. By adopting this approach to the problem and putting it in the field of political competition at central and national level, it is possible to expose the elements that treat the whole problem as a political game, rather than a real endeavor to reach a consensus between the parties and finally solve the problem. In addition, from the point of view of party interests, it is beneficial that the problem of Catalan independence, absorbing much public attention, continues to function in the political sphere and in the consciousness of the people.

Learning discriminant face descriptor.

Science.gov (United States)

Lei, Zhen; Pietikäinen, Matti; Li, Stan Z

2014-02-01

Local feature descriptor is an important module for face recognition and those like Gabor and local binary patterns (LBP) have proven effective face descriptors. Traditionally, the form of such local descriptors is predefined in a handcrafted way. In this paper, we propose a method to learn a discriminant face descriptor (DFD) in a data-driven way. The idea is to learn the most discriminant local features that minimize the difference of the features between images of the same person and maximize that between images from different people. In particular, we propose to enhance the discriminative ability of face representation in three aspects. First, the discriminant image filters are learned. Second, the optimal neighborhood sampling strategy is soft determined. Third, the dominant patterns are statistically constructed. Discriminative learning is incorporated to extract effective and robust features. We further apply the proposed method to the heterogeneous (cross-modality) face recognition problem and learn DFD in a coupled way (coupled DFD or C-DFD) to reduce the gap between features of heterogeneous face images to improve the performance of this challenging problem. Extensive experiments on FERET, CAS-PEAL-R1, LFW, and HFB face databases validate the effectiveness of the proposed DFD learning on both homogeneous and heterogeneous face recognition problems. The DFD improves POEM and LQP by about 4.5 percent on LFW database and the C-DFD enhances the heterogeneous face recognition performance of LBP by over 25 percent.

Solving the Border Control Problem: Evidence of Enhanced Face Matching in Individuals with Extraordinary Face Recognition Skills.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Katarzyna Bobak

Full Text Available Photographic identity documents (IDs are commonly used despite clear evidence that unfamiliar face matching is a difficult and error-prone task. The current study set out to examine the performance of seven individuals with extraordinary face recognition memory, so called "super recognisers" (SRs, on two face matching tasks resembling border control identity checks. In Experiment 1, the SRs as a group outperformed control participants on the "Glasgow Face Matching Test", and some case-by-case comparisons also reached significance. In Experiment 2, a perceptually difficult face matching task was used: the "Models Face Matching Test". Once again, SRs outperformed controls both on group and mostly in case-by-case analyses. These findings suggest that SRs are considerably better at face matching than typical perceivers, and would make proficient personnel for border control agencies.

Toward a new institutional strategy framework for political marketing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Sigge Winther

2013-01-01

The present literature on political marketing strategy has provided important knowledge about how the material context of technologies, polls or competitors influences strategy formulation. However, less attention has been directed to the constraints facing a political organization from the social...... context related to habits, norms or social conventions. This article thus aims at bringing organizational new institutional theory into the field of political marketing strategy. Accordingly, it is investigated how political organizations when initiating marketing strategies act or react toward...... that decision makers will (1) scan information from their environment, (2) interpret this incoming information in available cognitive categories and (3), finally, select a strategy premised on their cognitive interpretations. On this ground, we build a novel typology that specifies which political marketing...

Virtual Suicide as Decisive Political Act

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cox, Geoff

2012-01-01

The reappraisal of interventionist responses is necessarily ongoing, not least in the context of how social media have changed the face of the political process and the ways in which subjectivity is captured. The tactics of dissent have changed too. For instance, Seppukoo (2009), a recent hack...

Political Issues. The Debates around the Govern- ment of New Spain during the Process of Independence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alfredo Ávila

2009-07-01

Full Text Available When Charles IV relinquished his dominions in favor of Bonaparte, the inhabitants of New Spain and other Hispanic territories faced a major problem: who would be in charge of government? Or, in Servando Teresa de Mier's words: what had to be done so that a group of individuals could be recognized by the heads of the military and obeyed by the people? The main political actors soon realized that any option would be disputable.  Our paper examines this phenomenon during the process of Independence. Juntas, congresses and governments would always be liable to questioning. The return of Ferdinand VII to the throne and his incapacity to restore the pre-1808 order proved that there was no turning back the process of debating the political order.

The forestall politics in front of the problem of climatic change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moreno Gutierrez, Jaime Alberto

2002-01-01

The paper mentions several elements that should be kept in mind in a forestall politics, it also makes reference to the forestall strategies of sustainability and competitiveness to the forestall covering and fixations of atmospheric carbon and it mentions several elements for the design of a forestall politics under environmental conditions

European Union: Gender and politics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Žunić Natalija

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Political representation is the central issue in contemporary debates on the level of democracy in political institutions and processes in the European Union. Underrepresentation of particular groups in political institutions, decision-making and policy-making processes is perceived as the problem of justice, legitimacy and effectiveness in democratic societies. In this paper, the author analyzes the gender aspects of democratic decision-making processes and political representation of women in the EU member states. The social, historical and political dimension of women's efforts to obtain and promote their civil status and political rights have been the framework for developing the principle of gender equality as one of the founding EU principles. In the past hundred years, one of the most significant trends in politics has been the expansion of formal political representation of women. Yet, even though it has been more than a hundered years since women won their political rights in the 19th and the 20th century (the right to vote and the right to be voted, gender differences in political rights are still a substantial part of debate. Today, women's political representation is still inadequate and their political capacity and power have not been exercised to a sufficient extent (or proportionally through their actual representation in parliament. In March 2012, the European Commisision published a report on gender equality in different areas of social life; the Eurobarometer survey shows that women are generally underrepresented in politics. In national parliaments, only one out of four MPs is a woman. In the European Parliament, three out of ten parliamentarians are women. The statistics shows a huge discrepancy among the EU Member States in terms of women's representation in parliament (44.7% in Sweden as contrasted to 13.3% in Romania. The prevailing view in many studies is that post-industrial democracies are deficient as they have failed

Problems of Face Recognition in Patients with Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia.

Science.gov (United States)

Chandra, Sadanandavalli Retnaswami; Patwardhan, Ketaki; Pai, Anupama Ramakanth

2017-01-01

Faces are very special as they are most essential for social cognition in humans. It is partly understood that face processing in its abstractness involves several extra striate areas. One of the most important causes for caregiver suffering in patients with anterior dementia is lack of empathy. This apart from being a behavioral disorder could be also due to failure to categorize the emotions of the people around them. Inlusion criteria: DSM IV for Bv FTD Tested for prosopagnosia - familiar faces, famous face, smiling face, crying face and reflected face using a simple picture card (figure 1). Advanced illness and mixed causes. 46 patients (15 females, 31 males) 24 had defective face recognition. (mean age 51.5),10/15 females (70%) and 14/31males(47. Familiar face recognition defect was found in 6/10 females and 6/14 males. Total- 40%(6/15) females and 19.35%(6/31)males with FTD had familiar face recognition. Famous Face: 9/10 females and 7/14 males. Total- 60% (9/15) females with FTD had famous face recognition defect as against 22.6%(7/31) males with FTD Smiling face defects in 8/10 female and no males. Total- 53.33% (8/15) females. Crying face recognition defect in 3/10 female and 2 /14 males. Total- 20%(3/15) females and 6.5%(2/31) males. Reflected face recognition defect in 4 females. Famous face recognition and positive emotion recognition defect in 80%, only 20% comprehend positive emotions, Face recognition defects are found in only 45% of males and more common in females. Face recognition is more affected in females with FTD There is differential involvement of different aspects of the face recognition could be one of the important factor underlying decline in the emotional and social behavior of these patients. Understanding these pathological processes will give more insight regarding patient behavior.

Rational Choice Theory and the Politics of Education: Promise and Limitations.

Science.gov (United States)

Boyd, William Lowe; And Others

1994-01-01

Rational choice theory and its three branches (game theory, collective choice theory, and organizational economics) has altered the face of political science, sociology, and organizational theory. This chapter reviews rational choice theory, examines a small body of work that relies on the rational choice paradigm to study educational politics,…

Language Politics in the Republic of Kazakhstan: History, Problems and Prospect

Science.gov (United States)

Zhumanova, Aiman Z.; Dosova, Bibigul A.; Imanbetov, Amanbek N.; Zhumashev, Rymbek M.

2016-01-01

The research aims at global analysis of language politics in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Using comparative historical method and method of actualization, the authors examine achievements and shortcomings of the language politics of the Soviet state in order to understand the modern language situation in the Republic. The results show that one of…

An Introduction to Face Recognition Technology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shang-Hung Lin

2000-01-01

Full Text Available Recently face recognition is attracting much attention in the society of network multimedia information access.  Areas such as network security, content indexing and retrieval, and video compression benefits from face recognition technology because "people" are the center of attention in a lot of video.  Network access control via face recognition not only makes hackers virtually impossible to steal one's "password", but also increases the user-friendliness in human-computer interaction.  Indexing and/or retrieving video data based on the appearances of particular persons will be useful for users such as news reporters, political scientists, and moviegoers.  For the applications of videophone and teleconferencing, the assistance of face recognition also provides a more efficient coding scheme.  In this paper, we give an introductory course of this new information processing technology.  The paper shows the readers the generic framework for the face recognition system, and the variants that are frequently encountered by the face recognizer.  Several famous face recognition algorithms, such as eigenfaces and neural networks, will also be explained.

Health lifestyles and political ideology in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.

Science.gov (United States)

Cockerham, William C; Hinote, Brian P; Cockerham, Geoffrey B; Abbott, Pamela

2006-04-01

This paper examines the association of political ideology with health lifestyle practices and self-rated health in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. The political trajectory of post-Soviet societies has taken two divergent paths, either toward democracy or autocracy. The health trajectory has followed the same pattern with the more autocratic states continuing to experience a mortality crisis, while those former socialist countries that have embraced democracy and moved closer to the West have escaped this crisis. This paper investigates whether political ideology in three post-Soviet countries that are firmly (Belarus), increasingly (Russia), or recently (Ukraine) autocratic is related to health lifestyles and health self-ratings. Data were collected by face-to-face interviews (N = 8406) with a representative national sample of the adult population. The results show that respondents who are against restoring communism have healthier lifestyles and rate their health better than respondents who wish to see communism return.

Exact solution for a two-phase Stefan problem with variable latent heat and a convective boundary condition at the fixed face

Science.gov (United States)

Bollati, Julieta; Tarzia, Domingo A.

2018-04-01

Recently, in Tarzia (Thermal Sci 21A:1-11, 2017) for the classical two-phase Lamé-Clapeyron-Stefan problem an equivalence between the temperature and convective boundary conditions at the fixed face under a certain restriction was obtained. Motivated by this article we study the two-phase Stefan problem for a semi-infinite material with a latent heat defined as a power function of the position and a convective boundary condition at the fixed face. An exact solution is constructed using Kummer functions in case that an inequality for the convective transfer coefficient is satisfied generalizing recent works for the corresponding one-phase free boundary problem. We also consider the limit to our problem when that coefficient goes to infinity obtaining a new free boundary problem, which has been recently studied in Zhou et al. (J Eng Math 2017. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10665-017-9921-y).

Exploring individual differences in online and face-to-face help-seeking intentions in case of impending mental health problems: The role of adult attachment, perceived social support, psychological distress and self-stigma

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jennifer Apolinário-Hagen

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Background: Even though common mental health problems such as depression are a global burden calling for efficient prevention strategies, still many distressed individuals face hurdles to access public mental healthcare. Thus, computerized Internet-based psychological services have been suggested as viable approach to overcome barriers, such as self-stigma, and to inform the access to professional support on a large scale. However, little research has targeted predictors of online and face-to-face help-seeking intentions. Objective: This study aimed at determining whether associations between attachment insecurity and the willingness to seek online versus face-to-face counselling in case of impending emotional problems are mediated by both perceived social support and psychological distress and moderated by self-stigma. Methods: Data was collected from 301 adults from the German-speaking general population (age: M = 34.42, SD = 11.23; range: 18 - 65 years; 72.1% female through an anonymous online survey. Determinants of seeking help were assessed with the self-report measures Experiences in Close Relationship-Scale, Perceived Stress Questionnaire, ENRICHD-Social Support Inventory and an adapted version of the General Help Seeking Questionnaire (i.e. case vignette. Mediation analyses were performed with the SPSS-macro PROCESS by Hayes. Results: About half of the sample indicated being not aware of online counselling. As expected, insecure attachment was associated with less perceived social support and increased psychological distress. Mediational analyses revealed negative relationships between both attachment avoidance and self-stigma with face-to-face help-seeking intentions. Moreover, the relationship between attachment anxiety and the willingness to seek face-to-face counselling was mediated by social support. In contrast, none of the predictors of online counselling was statistically significant. Conclusions: Overall, this study identified

Political communication research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis

2014-01-01

The rise of new media and the broader set of social changes they are part of present political communication research with new challenges and new opportunities at a time when many think the field is at an intellectual impasse (e.g., Bennett & Iyengar, 2008). In this article, I argue that parts...... of the field’s problems are rooted in the way in which political communication research has developed since the 1960s. In this period, the field has moved from being interdisciplinary and mixed-methods to being more homogenous and narrowly focused, based primarily on ideas developed in social psychology......, certain strands of political science, and the effects-tradition of mass communication research. This dominant paradigm has contributed much to our understanding of some aspects of political communication. But it is struggling to make sense of many others, including questions concerning people’s experience...

Policy, politics and public health.

Science.gov (United States)

Greer, Scott L; Bekker, Marleen; de Leeuw, Evelyne; Wismar, Matthias; Helderman, Jan-Kees; Ribeiro, Sofia; Stuckler, David

2017-10-01

If public health is the field that diagnoses and strives to cure social ills, then understanding political causes and cures for health problems should be an intrinsic part of the field. In this article, we argue that there is no support for the simple and common, implicit model of politics in which scientific evidence plus political will produces healthy policies. Efforts to improve the translation of evidence into policy such as knowledge transfer work only under certain circumstances. These circumstances are frequently political, and to be understood through systematic inquiry into basic features of the political economy such as institutions, partisanship and the organization of labour markets. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.

Solving the border control problem: evidence of enhanced face matching in individuals with extraordinary face recognition skills.

OpenAIRE

Bobak, Anna K.; Dowsett, A.; Bate, Sarah

2016-01-01

Photographic identity documents (IDs) are commonly used despite clear evidence that unfamiliar face matching is a difficult and error-prone task. The current study set out to examine the performance of seven individuals with extraordinary face recognition memory, so called ?super recognisers? (SRs), on two face matching tasks resembling border control identity checks. In Experiment 1, the SRs as a group outperformed control participants on the ?Glasgow Face Matching Test?, and some case-by-ca...

Political and moral consequences of science

CERN Document Server

Von Weizsäcker, Carl Friedrich

1988-01-01

In the first part, Prof. von WEIZSACKER deals with the political and moral situation for the scientists today. Then he speaks about the concrete problems of our times, often connected with science : social-economic problems, ecological problems and the problem of peace and war.

The Politics of Dependence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cockburn, Patrick Joseph

The central claim of this book is that thinking about ‘dependence’ should be at the core of political theory principally because it helps us to think about issues of economic justice. Unlike political theories that either condemn or celebrate dependence, the book argues that dependence...... is an inescapable fact of social life, neither good nor bad in itself. The real political issues are about how we as a society organise and judge various forms of dependence. And this is, in fact, what much political debate is about if we dig beneath the surface. On the one hand, we disagree about how we should...... organise vulnerability; on the other hand, we disagree about who we should condemn as parasitical. Vulnerability and parasitism are thus key concepts for understanding political debate about forms of dependence. Showing the tension between these two sides to the problem of economic dependence...

Measuring External Face Appearance for Face Classification

OpenAIRE

Masip, David; Lapedriza, Agata; Vitria, Jordi

2007-01-01

In this chapter we introduce the importance of the external features in face classification problems, and propose a methodology to extract the external features obtaining an aligned feature set. The extracted features can be used as input to any standard pattern recognition classifier, as the classic feature extraction approaches dealing with internal face regions in the literature. The resulting scheme follows a top-down segmentation approach to deal with the diversity inherent to the extern...

The New Politics of US Health Care Prices: Institutional Reconfiguration and the Emergence of All-Payer Claims Databases.

Science.gov (United States)

Rocco, Philip; Kelly, Andrew S; Béland, Daniel; Kinane, Michael

2017-02-01

Prices are a significant driver of health care cost in the United States. Existing research on the politics of health system reform has emphasized the limited nature of policy entrepreneurs' efforts at solving the problem of rising prices through direct regulation at the state level. Yet this literature fails to account for how change agents in the states gradually reconfigured the politics of prices, forging new, transparency-based policy instruments called all-payer claims databases (APCDs), which are designed to empower consumers, purchasers, and states to make informed market and policy choices. Drawing on pragmatist institutional theory, this article shows how APCDs emerged as the dominant model for reforming health care prices. While APCD advocates faced significant institutional barriers to policy change, we show how they reconfigured existing ideas, tactical repertoires, and legal-technical infrastructures to develop a politically and technologically robust reform. Our analysis has important implications for theories of how change agents overcome structural barriers to health reform. Copyright © 2017 by Duke University Press.

Apparent height and body mass index influence perceived leadership ability in three-dimensional faces.

Science.gov (United States)

Re, Daniel E; Dzhelyova, Milena; Holzleitner, Iris J; Tigue, Cara C; Feinberg, David R; Perrett, David I

2012-01-01

Facial appearance has a well-documented effect on perceived leadership ability. Face judgments of leadership ability predict political election outcomes across the world, and similar judgments of business CEOs predict company profits. Body height is also associated with leadership ability, with taller people attaining positions of leadership more than their shorter counterparts in both politics and in the corporate world. Previous studies have found some face characteristics that are associated with leadership judgments, however there have been no studies with three-dimensional faces. We assessed which facial characteristics drive leadership judgments in three-dimensional faces. We found a perceptual relationship between height and leadership ability. We also found that facial maturity correlated with leadership judgments, and that faces of people with an unhealthily high body mass index received lower leadership ratings. We conclude that face attributes associated with body size and maturity alter leadership perception, and may influence real-world democratic leadership selection.

The Politics, Development and Problems of Small Irrigation Dams in Malawi: Experiences from Mzuzu ADD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bryson Gwiyani Nkhoma

2011-10-01

Full Text Available The paper examines the progress made regarding the development of small irrigation dams in Malawi with the view of establishing their significance in improving rural livelihoods in the country. The paper adopts a political economy theory and a qualitative research approach. Evidence from Mzuzu Agricultural Development Division (ADD, where small reservoirs acquire specific relevance, shows that despite the efforts made, the development of small dams is making little progress. The paper highlights that problems of top-down planning, high investment costs, negligence of national and local interests, over-dependency on donors, and conflicts over the use of dams – which made large-scale dams unpopular in the 1990s – continue to affect the development of small irrigation dams in Malawi. The paper argues that small irrigation dams should not be simplistically seen as a panacea to the problems of large-scale irrigation dams. Like any other projects, small dams are historically and socially constructed through interests of different actors in the local settings, and can only succeed if actors, especially those from formal institutions, develop adaptive learning towards apparent conflicting relations that develop among them in the process of implementation. In the case of Mzuzu ADD, it was the failure of the government to develop this adaptive learning to the contestations and conflicts among these actors that undermined successful implementation of small irrigation dams. The paper recommends the need to consider local circumstances, politics, interests, rights and institutions when investing in small irrigation dams.

Political Socialization as a Sphere of Being of Homo Politicus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

И А Щеглов

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Political socialization means something more than political context of socialization. Study in political socialization must be oriented on political socialization as special science category with own history, opening by the logic of Homo politicus being content of political socialization. Homo politicus, rationalized and ideologized in its version, means technological view on the problem of political socialization.

Political Socialization as a Sphere of Being of Homo Politicus

OpenAIRE

И А Щеглов

2008-01-01

Political socialization means something more than political context of socialization. Study in political socialization must be oriented on political socialization as special science category with own history, opening by the logic of Homo politicus being content of political socialization. Homo politicus, rationalized and ideologized in its version, means technological view on the problem of political socialization.

Face Detection and Recognition

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Jain, Anil K

2004-01-01

.... Specifically, the report addresses the problem of detecting faces in color images in the presence of various lighting conditions and complex backgrounds as well as recognizing faces under variations...

AN APPLICATION ON BRAND POSITIONING ACTIVITIES OF POLITICAL PARTIES: GAZIANTEP SAMPLE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bülent DEMİRAĞ

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The aim in political marketing is to be able to determine the needs and desires of the voters correctly, to form and implement the policies towards the electorate and finally to be able to sustain the electorate in the political process and to form the electoral loyalty accordingly. Particularly, regardless of the voting rate, in the elections, the second party is considered to have lost the election, and for this reason, it is very important for the political parties that are political practitioners to come to the forefront in the politically high society where competition is experienced in the ruthless dimensions. In order to create this differentiation, it is crucial that the competitors, the market and other variables are analyzed well, the segmentation of the market, the formation and application of positioning-related policies and recertification-related strategies. The aim of the work is to measure perceptions of the characteristics of voters who are thought to be influential in political party preferences. In this context, it has been investigated whether 11 different characteristics determined by voters make a meaningful difference with their demographic characteristics. The identification of these characteristics and their importance will provide significant advantages for political parties in their positioning strategies. Within this scope, face to face surveys and data were collected from the voters voting in the province of Gaziantep. The obtained data were subjected to statistical analysis. In this context, it was concluded that the factors affecting political party election differed significantly with demographic criteria.

Side-View Face Recognition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Santemiz, P.; Spreeuwers, Lieuwe Jan; Veldhuis, Raymond N.J.

2010-01-01

Side-view face recognition is a challenging problem with many applications. Especially in real-life scenarios where the environment is uncontrolled, coping with pose variations up to side-view positions is an important task for face recognition. In this paper we discuss the use of side view face

Political crisіs and compromise as the casual determinants in the process of political decisions making

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shkuro Anton Sergiyovich

2013-12-01

Full Text Available There is a risk of certain ineffective results in the system of political decisions making. That’s why we should pay a special attention to the criteria of political crisis evaluation. Today the problem of national politics lies only in an adequate raising of questions about the way out of the political crisis using the mechanism of compromise achieving. The article is about the fundamental role of the crisis and the compromise and about their influence on the formation of the strategic development of policy.

Problems of research politics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luest, R.

1977-01-01

The development in the FRG is portrayed. Illustrated by a particular example, the problems of basic research and of the scientists are presented looking back, looking at the present, and into the future. (WB) [de

West Germany: Federal Structure, Political Influence.

Science.gov (United States)

Toogood, Alex

1978-01-01

Describes the organizational structure of the broadcasting industry in West Germany which is unique because of the federal, public, and political elements involved. Special problems that arise from this framework are discussed, including financing, programing, creative vs technical advances, concepts of production values, and political balance.…

Legal and political obstacles to smoke-free regulation in Minnesota regions.

Science.gov (United States)

Cork, Kerry; Forman, Carolyn

2008-12-01

As communities move toward statewide smoke-free regulation, progress is often stymied by legal and political challenges that arise when multiple cities and counties share regulatory power within what is, for economic purposes, a single population center. Political challenges are exacerbated by legal inconsistencies and uncertainties, such as confusing and conflicting lawmaking power in boards of health, cities or counties, and diverse procedures and timelines for adopting and amending ordinances. Surprisingly little research is available about the legal and political obstacles communities face in regulating tobacco on a regional basis. Researchers used case study methodology to analyze legal and political challenges that seven multi-jurisdictional Minnesota regions faced in smoke-free ordinance campaigns between 2000 and 2006, to examine the approaches regulatory authorities took in each of these communities, and to identify strategies to help public health advocates, health organizations, policymakers, and legal professionals anticipate, avoid, and address these obstacles. Legal impediments included confusing rules for passing smoke-free laws via ballot measures (initiatives and referenda); distracting lawsuits; and conflicts over legal jurisdiction. Political challenges included the recurrent argument for regional consistency, protracted timelines, pending legislation and elections, and mayoral vetoes. Legal and political challenges similar to those in this study appear in smoke-free campaigns across the U.S. By recognizing the risks posed by these obstacles, advocates will be better prepared to advance smoke-free policies effectively.

Technology policy in the face of the environment catastrophe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krupp, H.

1990-01-01

Some 70 experts from science, industry and politics discussed in December 1989 in a seminar of the WE Heraeus Foundation the 'Options and priorities of future research and technology policy'. In the face of looming global climate changes and other environmental problems, the main subject was an ecologically oriented research and technology policy which safeguards the future on a long-term basis. This policy has to fulfil the following criteria: - wide time horizon (100 years), - world solidarity (North/South countries), - if possible small risks for the population, - welfare instead of economic growth. The proceedings contain lectures and discussions, giving a representative survey of the international state of research and technology policy and, illustrated by concrete examples, drawing up future demands on this policy. (orig./HSCH) With 28 figs [de

Trust and Understanding in Face-to-Face and Synchronous Online Negotiations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Toorn, Yvonne; van der Wijst, Per; Damen, Debby; van Amelsvoort, Marije; Zaraté, P.; Camilleri, G.; Kamissoko, D.; Amblard, F.

This study investigates to what extent the synchronous character of chat communication overcomes the problems in creating mutual understanding and trust between conflicting parties. An experimental study was conducted in which participants negotiated with a confederate in either a face-to-face or

Cross-Cultural Evaluation of Politeness in Tactics for Pedagogical Agents

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johnson, Lewis; Mayer, Richard E.; André, Elisabeth

2005-01-01

Politeness may play a role in tutorial interaction, including promoting learner motivation and avoiding negative affect. Politeness theory can account for this as a means of mitigating the face threats arising in tutorial situations. It further provides a way of accounting for differences...... were translated into German, in two versions: a polite version, using the formal pronoun Sie, and a familiar version, using the informal pronoun Du. German students were asked to rate these messages. Ratings of the German students were highly consistent with the ratings given by the American subjects...

LET WOMEN OUT AND MEN IN. THE SWEDISH GENDER EQUALITY POLITICS ON LABOUR MARKET AND IN FAMILIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katarzyna Szymoniak

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to analyze the Swedish gender equality politics and its influence on the gender equality on the Swedish labour market and within families in period between 1970s and 2000s. Problems such as wage differentials, occupational sex segregation and unequal distribution of paid and unpaid work between the sexes were faced from the beginning of the 20th century up to 1960s. In order to address those issues gender equality politics was launched in 1970s including enacting of the law on separate taxation and law on gender equality. Moreover, a special family politics was launched encouraging men and women to divide childcare and housework equally. On one hand Swedish gender equality politics contributed to the growth of women’s participation in labour market, to minimize wage differentials and it also made sex distribution between the occupations and at the leading positions in companies and institutions more equal. Moreover, this politics led to more equal distribution of unpaid work between men and women at home. On the other hand it must be pointed out that none of these problems has been completely solved. Women’s wages are still generally lower than men’s and women and men tend to work in different sectors. Women still take greater part of parental leave and tend to do the bigger part of unpaid work. Although a significant change in the level of gender equality has been made since 1960s, which can be considered a success of the Swedish gender equality politics, there is still much that needs to be done in order to achieve gender equality both on labour market and in families.

Negotiating Political Responsibility in Times of National Tragedy

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FlorenţaTOADER

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the way political responsibility is constructed through discourse by Romanian politicians in the Web 2.0 era. Drawing on an analytical framework proposed by Augoustinos, Hastie and Wright (2011, based on discursive psychology, and critical discourse analysis, this paper analyses the Facebook messages released by the main political actors in Romania, after the Colectiv nightclub fire. The empirical endeavour is guided by two research objectives: to analyse the discursive strategies used to create discursive identities, to assign political responsibility and to express solidarity with the victims; and to analyse a specific kind of rhetoric, the political apology, focusing on its pragmatic and linguistic features and on the emotion categories (empathy, sympathy, anger, guilt, sadness deployed to deliver the apology. The results of the study show that when faced with a situation where the offender is hard to define, political actors prefer the use of another speech act: the expression of solidarity and compassion. While the political apology is offered only after and explicit demand, the expression of solidarity is offered promptly and willingly.

Nuclear power: the political challenge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adam, G.

2009-01-01

A brief overview of the political and economical situation and nuclear energy problems in Europe is given. The author presented his opinion on topic such as need of nuclear power, Kozloduy NPP units 1-4 shutdown, climate change , energy security, environmental problems

Politics without morality and accountability: The Nkandla case from a deontological perspective

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Mojalefa L.J. Koenane

2017-02-01

Full Text Available The Nkandla controversy has long dominated South African politics and has seemingly been endless. This article revisits the Nkandla issue from the perspective that it fails the Kantian categorical imperative (i.e. CI and attempts to explain the problem of individual as well as organisational or structural corruption, in which the author contends the Nkandla controversy to be grounded. This article opens a discussion on the relevance of Kantian theory in confronting the matter of Nkandla. The author argues that Kant’s moral theory should not be viewed simplistically but from a rational position of internalised moral maxims or precepts. The Nkandla project is interrogated in relation to the former Public Protector’s and Minister of Police’s reports on the Nkandla ‘security upgrades’. It is the author’s view that South Africans are demanding accountability insofar as the Nkandla project is concerned, since moral attitudes are an integral and necessary part of our everyday lives. It is the author’s contention that the President and the executive have no desire to be accountable and transparent in the Nkandla matter. The aftermath of Nkandla controversy has changed the face of South Africa’s political environment completely. The author further argues that holding political elites accountable should not be regarded as hostility towards those held responsible and the African National Congress as political organisation. The author also looks at the Constitutional Court ruling on this matter.

Face-to-face versus computer-mediated communication in a primary school setting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Meijden, H.A.T. van der; Veenman, S.A.M.

2005-01-01

Computer-mediated communication is increasingly being used to support cooperative problem solving and decision making in schools. Despite the large body of literature on cooperative or collaborative learning, few studies have explicitly compared peer learning in face-to-face (FTF) versus

Politics 3

Science.gov (United States)

Maslow, Abraham

1977-01-01

This article expresses some last thoughts from Abraham Maslow on his vision of humanistic psychology. He suggests that the two main problems of creating the good person and the good society are interwoven inextricably. He gives some social and political mechanisms which would enhance desirable personal growth and considers the main tasks of…

Feature- and Face-Exchange illusions: new insights and applications for the study of the binding problem.

Science.gov (United States)

Shapiro, Arthur G; Caplovitz, Gideon P; Dixon, Erica L

2014-01-01

i.e., how are humans able to maintain a relatively stable representation of objects and features even though the visual system processes many aspects of the world separately and in parallel? We previously investigated this issue with a variant of the bounce-pass paradigm, which consists of two rectangular bars moving in opposite directions; if the bars are identical and never overlap, the motion could equally be interpreted as bouncing or passing. Although bars of different colors should be seen as passing each other (since the colors provide more information about the bars' paths), we found "Feature Exchange": observers reported the paradoxical perception that the bars appear to bounce off of each other and exchange colors. Here we extend our previous findings with three demonstrations. "Peripheral Feature-Exchange" consists of two colored bars that physically bounce (they continually meet in the middle of the monitor and return to the sides). When viewed in the periphery, the bars appear to stream past each other even though this percept relies on the exchange of features and contradicts the information provided by the color of the bars. In "Face-Exchange" two different faces physically pass each other. When fixating centrally, observers typically report the perception of bouncing faces that swap features, indicating that the Feature Exchange effect can occur even with complex objects. In "Face-Go-Round," one face repeatedly moves from left to right on the top of the monitor, and the other from right to left at the bottom of the monitor. Observers typically perceive the faces moving in a circle-a percept that contradicts information provided by the identity of the faces. We suggest that Feature Exchange and the paradigms used to elicit it can be useful for the investigation of the binding problem as well as other contemporary issues of interest to vision science.

Problems facing promotion of astronomy in Arab countries

Science.gov (United States)

Osman, Anas M. I.

Promotion of astronomy in Arab countries is facing many scientific and technical problems. Teaching astronomy starts very late in schools, with very simple and limited courses. Many teachers lack a suitable astronomical background, which can lead to incorrect understanding by students of many astronomical ideas and phenomena. Teaching astronomy at higher levels is also very limited, for example: among the 16 universities in Egypt, astronomy is taught in only two faculties of science, just for two years. Graduate students find many difficulties in obtaining jobs related to astronomical activities and this is a serious limitation on the attraction of the study of astronomy. On the other hand, astronomical institutions are suffering from a serious lack of the new sophisticated equipment, while the budget allotted for maintenance is very small, and there is a serious shortage of technical staff. The training of astronomers and technicians is badly needed, since good research work depends on modern technological equipment and the complicated software used in controlling such equipment and in data analysis. Good libraries are needed for promotion of astronomy especially, the Internet facilities available for the staff is very limited. The effects of culture are very clear; many authorities in developing countries believe that astronomy is a luxury. Finally, most of astronomers are engaged with a lot of administration for all matters, so the free time left for science is very limited.

Naturalization fosters the long-term political integration of immigrants

Science.gov (United States)

Hainmueller, Jens; Hangartner, Dominik; Pietrantuono, Giuseppe

2015-01-01

Does naturalization cause better political integration of immigrants into the host society? Despite heated debates about citizenship policy, there exists almost no evidence that isolates the independent effect of naturalization from the nonrandom selection into naturalization. We provide new evidence from a natural experiment in Switzerland, where some municipalities used referendums as the mechanism to decide naturalization requests. Balance checks suggest that for close naturalization referendums, which are decided by just a few votes, the naturalization decision is as good as random, so that narrowly rejected and narrowly approved immigrant applicants are similar on all confounding characteristics. This allows us to remove selection effects and obtain unbiased estimates of the long-term impacts of citizenship. Our study shows that for the immigrants who faced close referendums, naturalization considerably improved their political integration, including increases in formal political participation, political knowledge, and political efficacy. PMID:26417099

Reconsidering Gender and Women in Politics

OpenAIRE

Lilijana ČIČKARIĆ

2015-01-01

The most common problems that are placed in the center of the study of political representation are related to the following questions - why do not more women in legislative bodies always result in a policy that is gender sensitive and receptive to women? Why does the statistical presence of women not facilitate their cooperation and coalition among representatives of different political parties? The key issue is that higher inclusion of women in political bodies, has to result in changing th...

Is that disgust I see? Political ideology and biased visual attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Oosterhoff, Benjamin; Shook, Natalie J; Ford, Cameron

2018-01-15

Considerable evidence suggests that political liberals and conservatives vary in the way they process and respond to valenced (i.e., negative versus positive) information, with conservatives generally displaying greater negativity biases than liberals. Less is known about whether liberals and conservatives differentially prioritize certain forms of negative information over others. Across two studies using eye-tracking methodology, we examined differences in visual attention to negative scenes and facial expressions based on self-reported political ideology. In Study 1, scenes rated high in fear, disgust, sadness, and neutrality were presented simultaneously. Greater endorsement of socially conservative political attitudes was associated with less attentional engagement (i.e., lower dwell time) of disgust scenes and more attentional engagement toward neutral scenes. Socially conservative political attitudes were not significantly associated with visual attention to fear or sad scenes. In Study 2, images depicting facial expressions of fear, disgust, sadness, and neutrality were presented simultaneously. Greater endorsement of socially conservative political attitudes was associated with greater attentional engagement with facial expressions depicting disgust and less attentional engagement toward neutral faces. Visual attention to fearful or sad faces was not related to social conservatism. Endorsement of economically conservative political attitudes was not consistently associated with biases in visual attention across both studies. These findings support disease-avoidance models and suggest that social conservatism may be rooted within a greater sensitivity to disgust-related information. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

How Internal Political Efficacy Translates Political Knowledge Into Political Participation

Science.gov (United States)

Reichert, Frank

2016-01-01

This study presents evidence for the mediation effect of political knowledge through political self-efficacy (i.e. internal political efficacy) in the prediction of political participation. It employs an action theoretic approach—by and large grounded on the Theory of Planned Behaviour—and uses data from the German Longitudinal Election Study to examine whether political knowledge has distinct direct effects on voting, conventional, and/or unconventional political participation. It argues that political knowledge raises internal political efficacy and thereby indirectly increases the chance that a citizen will participate in politics. The results of mediated multiple regression analyses yield evidence that political knowledge indeed translates into internal political efficacy, thus it affects political participation of various kinds indirectly. However, internal political efficacy and intentions to participate politically yield simultaneous direct effects only on conventional political participation. Sequentially mediated effects appear for voting and conventional political participation, with political knowledge being mediated by internal political efficacy and subsequently also by behavioural intentions. The mediation patterns for unconventional political participation are less clear though. The discussion accounts for restrictions of this study and points to questions for answer by future research. PMID:27298633

How Have Political Incentives for Local Officials Reduced Environmental Pollution in Resource-Depleted Cities?

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Huiming Zhang

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Chinese resource-exhausted cities face more severe environmental pollution problems than other cities. In addressing these problems, the way local officials (usually senior party and government leaders operate is very important, as their focus on political achievements may complicate how they manage environmental pollution in these cities. On the one hand, the traditional Gross Domestic Product-based quest for political achievement may lead top leaders to de-emphasize environmental pollution. On the other hand, changes made in 2003 to the way the performance of Chinese officials is evaluated have encouraged some local senior party and government leaders to pay more attention to environmental problems. Based on this, we analyze the relationship between political incentives and environmental pollution by applying the 2004–2014 panel data from 37 resource-exhausted cities. The findings reveal that firstly, among the factors which impact the environmental pollution of resource-exhausted cities, investment in fixed assets, foreign direct investment, industrial structure, per-capita education expenditure, and population density do not have a significant impact, thus indicating that local openness levels, the degree of industrial upgrading, and local investment in fixed assets are not the key variables in environmental pollution control. Secondly, the extent to which officials vie for political achievement affects environmental pollution in resource-exhausted cities. This depends upon whether the officials are municipal party secretaries or mayors; the former play a greater dynamic role in environmental pollution and have stronger robustness than the latter. The conclusion verifies both the existing authority structure of China and its effectiveness in the control of environmental pollution of resource-exhausted cities. That is to say, in contrast to the principles of the party committees, the mayors are in a subordinate position and often fail to

Political analysis using R

CERN Document Server

Monogan III, James E

2015-01-01

Political Analysis Using R can serve as a textbook for undergraduate or graduate students as well as a manual for independent researchers. It is unique among competitor books in its usage of 21 example datasets that are all drawn from political research. All of the data and example code is available from the Springer website, as well as from Dataverse (http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/ARKOTI). The book provides a narrative of how R can be useful for addressing problems common to the analysis of public administration, public policy, and political science data specifically, in addition to the social sciences more broadly. While the book uses data drawn from political science, public administration, and policy analyses, it is written so that students and researchers in other fields should find it accessible and useful as well. Political Analysis Using R is perfect for the first-time R user who has no prior knowledge about the program. By working through the first seven chapters of this book, an entry-level user sho...

Investigating the Difficulties and Problems Faced by the English Language Students of Al Quds Open University in Legal Translation Process

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Ahmed Maher Mahmoud Al-Nakhalah

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Following experimental descriptive method, the paper explores the difficulties and problems faced by the English language students of Al Quds Open University in legal translation process; that is, while translating legal terms/documents from Arabic to English and from English to Arabic. A test was designed by the researcher in order to explore and investigate the difficulties and problems faced by the students. The test included four questions: 1 Translating English legal paragraph, 2 Translating Arabic legal paragraph, 3 Translating ten Arabic legal terms and 4 Translating ten English legal terms. The test was applied on the English language students of Al Quds Open University in Gaza Region in Palestine during the second course of the academic year 2010/2011. The samples of the study were chosen and selected randomly. Following suitable statistical methods, the paper offers the obtained results with critical discussion. Possible solutions, recommendations and suggestions to overcome these difficulties and problems also form important parts of the discussion in the paper.

Effect of Face-to-face Education, Problem-based Learning, and Goldstein Systematic Training Model on Quality of Life and Fatigue among Caregivers of Patients with Diabetes.

Science.gov (United States)

Masoudi, Reza; Soleimani, Mohammad Ali; Yaghoobzadeh, Ameneh; Baraz, Shahram; Hakim, Ashrafalsadat; Chan, Yiong H

2017-01-01

Education is a fundamental component for patients with diabetes to achieve good glycemic control. In addition, selecting the appropriate method of education is one of the most effective factors in the quality of life. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of face-to-face education, problem-based learning, and Goldstein systematic training model on the quality of life (QOL) and fatigue among caregivers of patients with diabetes. This randomized clinical trial was conducted in Hajar Hospital (Shahrekord, Iran) in 2012. The study subjects consisted of 105 family caregivers of patients with diabetes. The participants were randomly assigned to three intervention groups (35 caregivers in each group). For each group, 5-h training sessions were held separately. QOL and fatigue were evaluated immediately before and after the intervention, and after 1, 2, 3, and 4 months of intervention. There was a significant increase in QOL for all the three groups. Both the problem-based learning and the Goldstein method showed desirable QOL improvement over time. The desired educational intervention for fatigue reduction during the 4-month post-intervention period was the Goldstein method. A significant reduction was observed in fatigue in all three groups after the intervention ( P problem-based learning and Goldstein systematic training model improve the QOL of caregivers of patients with diabetes. In addition, the Goldstein systematic training model had the greatest effect on the reduction of fatigue within 4 months of the intervention.

Opinions of UK rescue shelter and rehoming center workers on the problems facing their industry

OpenAIRE

Stavisky, Jenny; Brennan, Marnie L.; Downes, Martin J.; Dean, Rachel S.

2017-01-01

Animal shelters exist worldwide to care for and rehome unwanted or straying pets. Previous studies have examined why owners breed unwanted animals, or relinquish their pets to shelters. However, the views of shelter workers, who receive and care for these animals, have previously been largely unexplored. The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions of animal shelter workers on the problems facing their industry. A sampling frame was constructed, consisting of every identified shel...

"Taking the problem to the people": traffic safety from public relations to political theory, 1937-1954.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernardin, Stève

2015-04-01

The slogan "taking the problem to the people" nicely summarizes U.S. traffic safety campaigns of the 1950s. It refers to the goal of awareness and self-discipline for drivers through education and law enforcement. A detailed analysis of the campaigns, however, shows a subtler objective of the motor interests that promoted it. They wanted to overcome political indifference through a civic mobilization of drivers as citizens, persuading drivers to lobby for traffic control. The analysis of their efforts leads us to question the role-or lack of role-of politicians in scientific and technological controversies.

Student Youth: Dynamics of Political Interests (Regional Aspect

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Morozova Galina Viktorovna

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The article presents the main results of the research of interests and political orientations of student youth which was carried out in 2014 at the Kazan federal university and its branches in the territory of the Republic of Tatarstan. The choice of student youth as a reference group is caused by a number of factors, among which we should name the status of intellectual elite, social and political mobility that allows to consider students as the potential actors of socio-political transformations in the country. The data obtained during poll compared with the results of last research allow defining the dynamics of development of student youth’s political sentiment in the region. The study of political attitudes, preferences of students was based on the identification of a number of indicators (degree of interest in politics, the level of personal involvement in political life and on the study of factors that determine the motivation of political behavior of students. Empirical studies make it possible to rank the problems that dominate the political consciousness of students in the region. These include a high level of corruption in the government, inflation, rising prices, the state of health and education systems and the growing income inequality. Particular attention is accented on the problems associated with the foreign policy aspects, threats, aggression from abroad. The study showed that most young people’s interest in politics is limited primarily by informational level, rarely they have desire to express their own position or judgments in political situations. The level of real political participation, socio-political activity of students is low. Obtained results let us notice the increasing trend of demonstration of protest behavior among certain part of the students.

Tunnel Face Stability & New CPT Applications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Broere, W.

2001-01-01

Nearly all tunnels bored in soft soils have encountered problems with the stability of the tunnel face. In several cases these problems led to an extended stand-still of the boring process. A better understanding of the face stability, and of the soil conditions around the tunnel boring machine, can

Trauma in war and political persecution: expanding the concept.

Science.gov (United States)

Hernández, Pilar

2002-01-01

A contextual understanding of the concept of trauma is proposed through a study of its meaning in a Latin American context facing war and political repression. This article explores the contributions of narrative and liberation psychology to understanding politically based trauma. It critiques the relationship between the concept of trauma and the diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder. It analyzes how Colombian human rights activists make sense of the political persecution and trauma in their work. The author argues that the kind of experiences that these activists have endured go beyond the category of stress and can best be understood as traumatic within the context of the current medium-intensity war in Colombia.

Economic evaluation of Internet-based problem-solving guided self-help treatment in comparison with enhanced usual care for depressed outpatients waiting for face-to-face treatment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kolovos, Spyros; Kenter, Robin M F; Bosmans, Judith E

2016-01-01

at outpatient clinics. METHODS: An economic evaluation was performed alongside a randomized controlled trial with 12 months follow-up. Outcomes were improvement in depressive symptom severity (measured by CES-D), response to treatment and Quality-Adjusted Life-Years (QALYs). Statistical uncertainty around cost......BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of Internet-based interventions for depression in comparison with usual care. However, evidence on the cost-effectiveness of these interventions when delivered in outpatient clinics is lacking. The aim of this study was to estimate...... the cost-effectiveness of an Internet-based problem-solving guided self-help intervention in comparison with enhanced usual care for outpatients on a waiting list for face-to-face treatment for major depression. After the waiting list period, participants from both groups received the same treatment...

Forming of political opinion and decision

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Urban, K.

1980-01-01

Taking the SNR-300 reactor in Kalkar as an example, the process of forming of political opinion and decision is reconstructed in order to get a picture of typical consensus- and conflict patterns in the discussion of safety problems. On this basis, it should be possible to derive a freedom of action for the political and administrative managing of safety matters by means of feed back with social groups. As a crucial point the aspects concerning the steps of the forming of political opinion and decision are examined. (DG) [de

BOOK REVIEW OF "CHESAPEAKE BAY BLUES: SCIENCE, POLITICS, AND THE STRUGGLE TO SAVE THE BAY"

Science.gov (United States)

This is a book review of "Chesapeake Bay Blues: Science, Politics, and the Struggle to Save the Bay". This book is very well written and provides an easily understandable description of the political challenges faced by those proposing new or more stringent environmental regulat...

Problems the chemical industry of Japan faces and future prospects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ishida, Shin' ichi

1989-01-01

Industry proceeds for the fiscal 1988 are expected to increase remarkably as they did in the previous year with 4.9% increase in revenue and 18.8% increase in profit (ordinary profit) from the previous year. The conditions of material industry are especially favorable and chemical industry is also expected to prosper as it did in the previous year. Problems this prospering chemical industry is facing are introduced in this report. Firstly, it is necessary to improve productivity by adopting more information and promoting factory automation in order to strengthen competition. The future of chemical industry depends on the introduction of information. Secondly, as demands of users are becoming more diversified, and cycles of products shorter, shortening of development terms is essential. It is necessary, therefore, to predict the demands of users in advance and seek after custom products. Thirdly, selection of product bases is required; it might be necessary to consider producing some product items abroad. Moreover, it is desirable to increase investments in investigation and pursue creativity putting much stress on basic investigations. 2 figs., 11 tabs.

Taking evolution seriously in political science.

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Orion; Steinmo, Sven

2010-09-01

In this essay, we explore the epistemological and ontological assumptions that have been made to make political science "scientific." We show how political science has generally adopted an ontologically reductionist philosophy of science derived from Newtonian physics and mechanics. This mechanical framework has encountered problems and constraints on its explanatory power, because an emphasis on equilibrium analysis is ill-suited for the study of political change. We outline the primary differences between an evolutionary ontology of social science and the physics-based philosophy commonly employed. Finally, we show how evolutionary thinking adds insight into the study of political phenomena and research questions that are of central importance to the field, such as preference formation.

Motives of corporate political donations: industry regulation, subjective judgement and the origins of pragmatic and ideological corporations.

Science.gov (United States)

Harrigan, Nicholas M

2017-12-01

What motivates corporate political action? Are corporations motivated by their own narrow economic self-interest; are they committed to pursuing larger class interests; or are corporations instruments for status groups to pursue their own agendas? Sociologists have been divided over this question for much of the last century. This paper introduces a novel case - that of Australia - and an extensive dataset of over 1,500 corporations and 7,500 directors. The paper attempts to understand the motives of corporate political action by examining patterns of corporate political donations. Using statistical modelling, supported by qualitative evidence, the paper argues that, in the Australian case, corporate political action is largely motivated by the narrow economic self-interest of individual corporations. Firms' interests are, consistent with regulatory environment theory, defined by the nature of government regulation in their industry: those in highly regulated industries (such as banking) and those dependent on government support (such as defence) tend to adopt a strategy of hedging their political support, and make bipartisan donations (to both major parties). In contrast, firms facing hostile regulation (such as timber or mining), and those without strong dependence on state support (such as small companies) tend to adopt a strategy of conservative partisanship, and make conservative-only donations. This paper argues that regulatory environment theory needs to be modified to incorporate greater emphasis on the subjective political judgements of corporations facing hostile regulation: a corporation's adoption of conservative partisanship or hedging is not just a product of the objective regulation they face, but also whether corporate leaders judge such regulation as politically inevitable or something that can be resisted. Such a judgement is highly subjective, introducing a dynamic and unpredictable dimension to corporate political action. © London School of

A study of some political problems considering current geographical analytical parameters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Héctor Adolfo Dupuy

2008-01-01

Full Text Available This paper intends to study some of the main problems presented, on different scales, by current politics, considering the spatial implications as well as various parameters offered lately by the geographical science. The proposal is supported by the theoretical bases developed from Emmanuel Wallerstein and Peter Taylor's statement about a world system structured as a world economy, based on the capitalist mode of production. Conversely, it attempts to provide a theoretical explanation for the dynamics experienced by the territories upon thee basis of such world system's mechanics. According to these assumptions, an analysis is proposed of some of the main phenomena resulting from the previous analysis and its spatial implications, such as the current power relations in the system, the subsistence of traditional power factors (Nation-states, ethnically based cultural configurations and the appearance of new ones (the forming of transnational blocs and associations, new social movements, new forms of local participation, the importance of hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses in the construction of symbolic representations and of the mass media in such processes or the new cultural identity and hybridization chart from population mobility.

EXPLORING THE PROBLEMS FACED BY TECHNICAL SCHOOL STUDENTS IN LEARNING ENGINEERING COURSES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

RAMLEE MUSTAPHA

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The teaching of engineering courses is relatively challenging due to the nature of the courses that are perceived as “difficult courses” by a number of students. Thus, the purpose of this action research was to explore the problems faced by electrical and electronic engineering (PKEE students studying a difficult topic–transistor. This research was also aimed at identifying the students’ attitude towards Problem-based Learning (PBL. Literature has shown that PBL could enhance students’ understanding and make the learning more meaningful. The theoretical framework of this study was based on Kemmis and Mc Taggart model. Cooperative learning method was also utilised in this study consisted of Jigsaw technique in the first and second rounds of the study. In the final round, the discussion method was used. In an action research design, a classroom is a usual research site. Thus, an engineering class of 30 Form 5 students in a Technical School was selected. The PBL method was applied in the class for a nine-week duration. Empirical data were gathered from peer assessment, observation, and pre- and post-tests. The data were described descriptively using frequency, mean and standard deviation. The main results show that the students were more interactive and their post-test result shows significant increases. In terms of the attitude towards PBL, the participants rated PBL highly. The participants also assert that the main benefits of PBL include enhancing their collaborative and problem-solving skills.

Problems pilots face involving wind shear

Science.gov (United States)

Melvin, W. W.

1977-01-01

Educating pilots and the aviation industry about wind shears presents a major problem associated with this meteorological phenomenon. The pilot's second most pressing problem is the need for a language to discuss wind shear encounters with other pilots so that the reaction of the aircraft to the wind shear encounter can be accurately described. Another problem is the flight director which gives a centered pitch command for a given angular displacement from the glide slope. It was suggested that they should instead be called flight path command and should not center unless the aircraft is actually correcting to the flight path.

Believing What You're Told: Politeness and Scalar Inferences

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Diana Mazzarella

2018-06-01

Full Text Available The experimental pragmatics literature has extensively investigated the ways in which distinct contextual factors affect the computation of scalar inferences, whose most studied example is the one that allows “Some X-ed” to mean Not all X-ed. Recent studies from Bonnefon et al. (2009, 2011 investigate the effect of politeness on the interpretation of scalar utterances. They argue that when the scalar utterance is face-threatening (“Some people hated your speech” (i the scalar inference is less likely to be derived, and (ii the semantic interpretation of “some” (at least some is arrived at slowly and effortfully. This paper re-evaluates the role of politeness in the computation of scalar inferences by drawing on the distinction between “comprehension” and “epistemic assessment” of communicated information. In two experiments, we test the hypothesis that, in these face-threatening contexts, scalar inferences are largely derived but are less likely to be accepted as true. In line with our predictions, we find that slowdowns in the face-threatening condition are attributable to longer reaction times at the (latter epistemic assessment stage, but not at the comprehension stage.

Learning Opportunities in Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication and Face-to-Face Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Hye Yeong

2014-01-01

This study investigated how synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) and face-to-face (F2F) oral interaction influence the way in which learners collaborate in language learning and how they solve their communicative problems. The findings suggest that output modality may affect how learners produce language, attend to linguistic forms,…

The "Post-Racial" Politics of Race: Changing Student Assignment Policy in Three School Districts

Science.gov (United States)

McDermott, Kathryn A.; Frankenberg, Erica; Diem, Sarah

2015-01-01

Many school districts have recently revised, or tried to revise, their policies for assigning students to schools, because the legal and political status of racial and other kinds of diversity is uncertain, and the districts are facing fiscal austerity. This article presents case studies of politics and student assignment policy in three large…

FaceIt: face recognition from static and live video for law enforcement

Science.gov (United States)

Atick, Joseph J.; Griffin, Paul M.; Redlich, A. N.

1997-01-01

Recent advances in image and pattern recognition technology- -especially face recognition--are leading to the development of a new generation of information systems of great value to the law enforcement community. With these systems it is now possible to pool and manage vast amounts of biometric intelligence such as face and finger print records and conduct computerized searches on them. We review one of the enabling technologies underlying these systems: the FaceIt face recognition engine; and discuss three applications that illustrate its benefits as a problem-solving technology and an efficient and cost effective investigative tool.

Forthcoming Issue on Game Theory and Political Economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William D. Ferguson

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Game theory offers a rigorous set of concepts, relationships, and models that invite myriad applications to problems of political economy. Indeed, game theory can serve as a fundamental modeling technique that can bridge microfoundations of political and economic exchanges, with developmental processes and macro implications related to growth and distribution. Applications can range from localized interactions within workplaces, firms, political organizations, and community groups; to intermediate-level market, industry, community, or inter-organizational transactions; to encompassing national, regional, population, or global interactions. At any of these levels, game models can illustrate strategic responses of economic or political actors (individuals or organizations to specifiable conditions concerning any or all of the following: prevailing social context—notably informal institutions (such as social norms and formal institutions (such as mutually understood laws and regulations; available information (complete or not; accessible or strategically manipulated; agents’ motivations (material and/or social; and even levels of rationality—substantive (full cognition or bounded (limited cognition. Applicable models may operate on the basis of given institutional context and preference orientations or may explore associated developmental processes, including adaptive social learning. Of particular interest are representations of one or more of the myriad social dilemmas (or collective-action problems that inhabit political economy, associated exercises or distributions of power, and/or representations of potential resolutions to such dilemmas—perhaps with policy implications. Accordingly, this forthcoming issue of Economies seeks game-theoretic models based on classical, evolutionary, behavioral, or epistemic game theory that can be applied to one or more problems in political economy.

A Survey on Sentiment Classification in Face Recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Qian, Jingyu

2018-01-01

Face recognition has been an important topic for both industry and academia for a long time. K-means clustering, autoencoder, and convolutional neural network, each representing a design idea for face recognition method, are three popular algorithms to deal with face recognition problems. It is worthwhile to summarize and compare these three different algorithms. This paper will focus on one specific face recognition problem-sentiment classification from images. Three different algorithms for sentiment classification problems will be summarized, including k-means clustering, autoencoder, and convolutional neural network. An experiment with the application of these algorithms on a specific dataset of human faces will be conducted to illustrate how these algorithms are applied and their accuracy. Finally, the three algorithms are compared based on the accuracy result.

Conscience and Politics.

Science.gov (United States)

Stevens, Richard G.

1984-01-01

The meaning and understanding of conscience in political thought are examined. The problem of distinguishing apparent and real conscience and private and public judgment is illustrated by contrasting the acts of conscience of Socrates and Thomas More with the rejection of private judgment against the state in Hobbes and Locke. (RM)

Green politics: dictatorship or democracy?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Radcliffe, J

2000-03-01

At the heart of the green debate are a set of basic contradictions concerning beliefs and actions. This book reveals the problems associated with these contradictions, including adherence to decentralized political forms while accepting authoritarian intervention on behalf of the environment; a belief that this is the politics of the new age but in practice split between left and right; a rejection of the rationalist scientific project and a reliance on the lessons of the science of ecology. (author)

[Social politics against poverty and in favor of health in Mexico].

Science.gov (United States)

Hamui-Sutton, Alicia; Irigoyen-Coria, Arnulfo; Gómez-Clavelina, Francisco Javier; Fernández-Ortega, Miguel Angel

2006-01-01

One of the biggest challenges that Mexico faces is to fight against the poverty. The transition of a characteristic welfare model from the government in a closed economy, to an open economy where the functions of the State are limited, has modified the modalities of the social politics against poverty. Six indispensable conditions are identified for poverty's reduction: 1. Economic development with stability in order to generate more and better jobs for poor people. 2. To improve regional economies. 3. To improve home conditions of poor people. 4. To elevate education levels (to encourage an authentic heath education). 5. To diminish catastrophic expenses for health problems. 6. Technical training for all workers. The impact of poverty over health can provide valuable elements to establish effective preventive strategies on health workers.

The area-of-interest problem in eyetracking research: A noise-robust solution for face and sparse stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Hessels, Roy S; Kemner, Chantal; van den Boomen, Carlijn; Hooge, Ignace T C

2016-12-01

A problem in eyetracking research is choosing areas of interest (AOIs): Researchers in the same field often use widely varying AOIs for similar stimuli, making cross-study comparisons difficult or even impossible. Subjective choices while choosing AOIs cause differences in AOI shape, size, and location. On the other hand, not many guidelines for constructing AOIs, or comparisons between AOI-production methods, are available. In the present study, we addressed this gap by comparing AOI-production methods in face stimuli, using data collected with infants and adults (with autism spectrum disorder [ASD] and matched controls). Specifically, we report that the attention-attracting and attention-maintaining capacities of AOIs differ between AOI-production methods, and that this matters for statistical comparisons in one of three groups investigated (the ASD group). In addition, we investigated the relation between AOI size and an AOI's attention-attracting and attention-maintaining capacities, as well as the consequences for statistical analyses, and report that adopting large AOIs solves the problem of statistical differences between the AOI methods. Finally, we tested AOI-production methods for their robustness to noise, and report that large AOIs-using the Voronoi tessellation method or the limited-radius Voronoi tessellation method with large radii-are most robust to noise. We conclude that large AOIs are a noise-robust solution in face stimuli and, when implemented using the Voronoi method, are the most objective of the researcher-defined AOIs. Adopting Voronoi AOIs in face-scanning research should allow better between-group and cross-study comparisons.

Nursing and the reality of politics.

Science.gov (United States)

Betts, Clinton E

2009-09-01

Notwithstanding the remarkable achievements made by medical science over the last half of the twentieth century, there is a palpable sense that a strictly medical view of human health, that is one founded on modernist assumptions, has become problematic, if not counterproductive. In this study, I argue that as nursing continues to eagerly welcome and indeed champion medical epistemology in the form of knowledge transfer, evidence-based practice, research utilization, outcomes-based practice, quantifiable efficiency and effectiveness, it risks becoming little more than a medical science addendum and indeed one that inherits the problems now facing contemporary medicine. The purpose of this study then is to attempt to resituate nursing as a discipline at work within an ontopolitical matrix of radical democratic pluralism. I begin by tracing a philosophical line from Kuhn's paradigms to Bloor's strong programme of Sociology of Scientific Knowledge. Following this, I attempt to explicate the thought of Bruno Latour as a philosophical alternative to Sociology of Scientific Knowledge. Next, I outline the radical pluralism of William Connolly in an effort to demonstrate its similarity to Latour's philosophy and finally how such a position is germane to contemporary nursing and the reality of politics. I do this with reference to the controversial issue of illicit drug use and harm reduction. In effect, I argue that such an issue cannot be dealt with using scientific evidence alone, but rather requires a philosophy of advocacy, what I term democratic advocacy, that is capable of responding to the politics of suffering, which is to say suffering that results from identity/difference.

Political rhetoric from Canada can inform healthy public policy argumentation.

Science.gov (United States)

Patterson, Patrick B; McIntyre, Lynn; Anderson, Laura C; Mah, Catherine L

2017-10-01

Household food insecurity (HFI), insufficient income to obtain adequate food, is a growing problem in Canada and other Organisation of economic cooperation and development (OECD) countries. Government political orientations impact health policies and outcomes. We critically examined Canadian political rhetoric around HFI from 1995 to 2012 as a means to support effective healthy public policy argumentation. We analysed a data set comprised of Hansard extracts on HFI from the legislative debates of the Canadian federal and three provincial governments, using thematic coding guided by interpretivist theories of policy. Extracts were examined for content, jurisdiction, the political affiliation of the legislator speaking and governing status. Members of non-governing, or 'opposition' parties, dominated the rhetoric. A central hunger-as-poverty theme was used by legislators across the political spectrum, both in government and in opposition. Legislators differed in terms of policy approach around how income should flow to citizens facing HFI: income intervention on the left, pragmatism in the centre, reliance on markets on the right. This analysis is a case-example from Canada and caution must be exercised in terms of the generalizability of findings across jurisdictions. Despite this limitation, our findings can help healthy public policy advocates in designing and communicating HFI policy interventions in OECD countries with a similar left-right spectrum. First, even with a divisive health policy issue such as actions to address HFI, core themes around poverty are widely understood. Secondly, the non-polarizing centrist, pragmatist, approach may be strategically valuable. Thirdly, it is important to treat the rhetoric of opposition members differently from that of government members. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

A FIELD RESEARCH ON THE ANALYSIS OF VOTERS POLITICAL TRUST PERCEPTIONS AS A MARKETING TOOL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmet TAN

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The developments in the culture of democracy have led to shaping of activities in politics and political parties from a marketing point of view. Therefore the concept of political marketing has become a new field of study both for academicians and professionals. The aim of this study is to investigate whether demographic and socio-cultural characteristics of voters differed in their perceptions of political trust. The data, which collected through face-to-face surveys conducted with 574 participants, were analyzed statistically using SPSS package program. According to the analysis results, hypotheses which argue that the confidence variable, which is one of the three factors that constitute the trust perceptions of voters, differs according to age groups, education levels, professional groups and political views were accepted. Also hypotheses which argue that ‘doing non-political works’ variable that is another factor, differs according to education levels, income levels, and occupational groups were accepted, while the other hypotheses were rejected. The communication variable did not differ in term of any characteristic of the participants.  Given the limited work on this topic, the findings of the research which were conceptually in accordance with the previous results, show that this study has made considerable contributions to the literature.

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF FOOD FIRMS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PROBLEMS FACED BY FOOD MANUFACTURERS, WHOLESALERS, RETAILERS AND SERVICE INSTITUTIONS IN NEW JERSEY

OpenAIRE

Adelaja, Adesoji O.; Nayga, Rodolfo M., Jr.; Tank, Karen Rose; Schilling, Brian J.

1997-01-01

This paper presents the problems facing food firms using information from focus groups of industry executives from New Jersey. The leading problems for food manufacturers are related to regulation, taxation, economic development, and high business costs. For food wholesalers the leading problems are transportation, regulation, labor quality, training and education, and public relations. Food retailers cite litigation and liability, high business costs, regulation, and insurance costs as leadi...

Modeling time-series count data: the unique challenges facing political communication studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Fogarty, Brian J; Monogan, James E

2014-05-01

This paper demonstrates the importance of proper model specification when analyzing time-series count data in political communication studies. It is common for scholars of media and politics to investigate counts of coverage of an issue as it evolves over time. Many scholars rightly consider the issues of time dependence and dynamic causality to be the most important when crafting a model. However, to ignore the count features of the outcome variable overlooks an important feature of the data. This is particularly the case when modeling data with a low number of counts. In this paper, we argue that the Poisson autoregressive model (Brandt and Williams, 2001) accurately meets the needs of many media studies. We replicate the analyses of Flemming et al. (1997), Peake and Eshbaugh-Soha (2008), and Ura (2009) and demonstrate that models missing some of the assumptions of the Poisson autoregressive model often yield invalid inferences. We also demonstrate that the effect of any of these models can be illustrated dynamically with estimates of uncertainty through a simulation procedure. The paper concludes with implications of these findings for the practical researcher. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Political public relations in the European Union

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Valentini, Chiara

2013-01-01

This article examines the state of political public relations in the European Union by specifically focusing on reputation management and relationship management. Its arguments are based on a theoretical review of the literature of political public relations, reputation and relationship management......, and EU communication. The article suggests an in-depth examination of the nature of some of the EU’s major problems in political public relations, and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the possibilities and limitations of applying reputation and relationship management constructs...

The Common Good in Classical Political Philosophy

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, V. Bradley

2006-01-01

The term "common good" names the end (or final cause) of political and social life in the tradition of moral thought that owes its main substance to Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. It names a genuine good ("bonum honestum") and not merely an instrumental or secondary good defeasible in the face of particular goods. However, at the same time, it…

Politické vzdelávanie v liberálnej demokracii (Political education in a liberal democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pavol Hardoš

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Political education is a necessary precondition for the continuation of any political regime. In pluralist societies we face the question to what extent can a liberal democracy define the educational ideal of what “good citizenship” means. Building on the works of Michael Oakeshott and Bernard Crick, this essay shows that political philosophy can help define the parameters of this education when it is seen as a process of building political comprehension and civic dispositions. Political education should be defined by teaching politics as a practical process of living together in a community of equals and espousing the procedural values of discussion, respect for facts, equality and freedom.

The future of energy markets: tensions between the conflicting demands of competition and politics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wild, E.

2000-01-01

It clearly shows that the whole energy sector is on the move, pulled this way and that by the conflicting demands of competition and politics. The utilities face enormous pressure on costs, while customers enjoy an unprecedented measure of freedom. No one can avoid the pressure of the market, not even politicians. The latter should recognize that there is no point in hobbling an industry that has to face up to the European competition, and that fair conditions of competition are essential. If the political conditions are right, the current tensions may ultimately turn out to be fruitful and release new energies from which all will profit. (orig.) [de

Transboundary environmental problems in international politics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goerrissen, T.

1993-01-01

Transboundary environmental problems with their far-reaching consequences impinge on vital interests of the affected countries. As states interdepend not only ecologically but also, or even primarily, economically, environmental problems usually engender a clash between ecological and economic interests. Although economic power is central to getting one's way, economically powerful states by no means always succeed in realising their aims. This topical monograph deals with the subject of regional and global debates and conflicts about transboundary environmental problems. The author points out the prerequisites for realising ecological interests in conditions of complex interdependence, illustrating his findings with two case studies. One is about the establishment of a regime for climate protection, while the other concerns the new ruling on transalpine commercial road transport. (orig./HP) [de

Obesity as political and theoretical problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Đurković Miša

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Spread of obesity and diseases that it causes brought to justified warnings of an epidemic. Author starts from classical liberal differentiation between self regarding and others regarding acts, and then raises the issue of the possible liberal approach to obesity problem. He presents real causes of the obesity, and proceeds with two different visions of contemporary liberalism: one, abstract, which doesn't pay attention to context in which we have to draw the line between self and others regarding acts, and second, advanced, responsible liberalism of contemporary liberal democratic state which cares a lot about the context, including international one. From the first perspective state would be obliged not to interfere in overweight problems of its citizens. From the second it would be forced to do so for many substantial reasons. Although author justifies right and even duty of the state to deal with obesity problem, he insists that for the time being it is mostly reacting in wrong way: since idea of individual autonomy is not perceived in adequate way, state reacts to the consequences and not to the causes of the problem.

Collaborative Random Faces-Guided Encoders for Pose-Invariant Face Representation Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Shao, Ming; Zhang, Yizhe; Fu, Yun

2018-04-01

Learning discriminant face representation for pose-invariant face recognition has been identified as a critical issue in visual learning systems. The challenge lies in the drastic changes of facial appearances between the test face and the registered face. To that end, we propose a high-level feature learning framework called "collaborative random faces (RFs)-guided encoders" toward this problem. The contributions of this paper are three fold. First, we propose a novel supervised autoencoder that is able to capture the high-level identity feature despite of pose variations. Second, we enrich the identity features by replacing the target values of conventional autoencoders with random signals (RFs in this paper), which are unique for each subject under different poses. Third, we further improve the performance of the framework by incorporating deep convolutional neural network facial descriptors and linking discriminative identity features from different RFs for the augmented identity features. Finally, we conduct face identification experiments on Multi-PIE database, and face verification experiments on labeled faces in the wild and YouTube Face databases, where face recognition rate and verification accuracy with Receiver Operating Characteristic curves are rendered. In addition, discussions of model parameters and connections with the existing methods are provided. These experiments demonstrate that our learning system works fairly well on handling pose variations.

The Teaching Dilemma and Outlet of Ideology and Poli-tics Course in University%高校思政课教学困境及出路

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

赵琰

2016-01-01

直面高校思政课面临的挑战与问题,阐明转换教学思路,提高教学针对性,加强师生互动,创设良好的教学氛围,是实现思政课程教学目标的有效途径.%Facing the challenges and problems of the ideology and politics course in university, the writer clarifies the effective ways to realize the teaching goal of ideology and politics course, in-cluding the transformation of teaching ideas, the improvement of the teaching aim, the strengthening of the interaction between teachers and students and the creation of a good teaching atmo-sphere.

Creating One's Reality: The Interaction of Politics Perceptions and Enactment Behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Frieder, Rachel E; Ma, Shuang Sara; Hochwarter, Wayne A

2016-01-01

The current study investigated the previously unexamined relationship between politics perceptions and employee enactment behavior. Consistent with previous job stress and sense-making research, we hypothesized that individuals reporting low levels of enactment behaviors would be more adversely affected by politics perceptions than those who engaged in high levels of enactment behavior. Results across two samples provided strong support for the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, employees who reported low levels of enactment behavior experienced less satisfaction, less person-environment fit, and reported lower levels of effort when faced with highly political environments. Conversely, levels of satisfaction and person-environment fit perceptions of individuals reporting high levels of enactment behaviors were largely unaffected by highly political contexts. Implications of these findings, strengths and limitations, and avenues for future research are provided.

[What hinders the political participation of women?].

Science.gov (United States)

Ramirez, S

1994-06-01

Forty years after gaining the right to vote, Colombian women comprise scarcely 8% of persons recently elected to the Colombian Congress. At the municipal and departmental level, women occupy even fewer of the positions. Explanations of women's marginal political participation in terms of stereotypes such as their presumed disinterest or emotionalism reflect androcentric prejudices. Their lack of preparation and social conditioning is also a suspect argument, given that there are no objective forms of measuring preparation for political office, such as examinations or specific requirements. Centers for women's studies have sought explanation in terms of aspects of the social and political organization of society that impede access by women to positions of power. Laws assuring women their political rights have not been sufficient to allow them to participate under equal conditions. The assignment of responsibility for domestic labor exclusively to women is a powerful handicap to their full participation. Moreover, public life has become a costly career in terms of resources, time, and energy. The problem is not that women do not participate in politics, but that they are underrepresented in the centers of power. They comprise half of voters and the majority of members of community and civic associations dealing with problems of everyday life. But the number of women declines as the scale of power increases. Feminists suggest that the problem will not be solved by women assuming the behavior patterns of men. Rather, the governmental and civil elites must overcome norms and practices that perpetuate the subordination of women. Women achieving positions of power should maintain a gender perspective and assist in transforming conditions.

Self-stigma and the intention to seek psychological help online compared to face-to-face.

Science.gov (United States)

Wallin, Emma; Maathz, Pernilla; Parling, Thomas; Hursti, Timo

2018-07-01

The present study aims to investigate the impact of help-seeking self-stigma on the preference and intention to seek psychological treatment delivered online compared to face-to-face. This study uses survey data from two Swedish samples. Sample 1 consists of 267 students (78.7% women) with a mean age of 24.5 (SD = 6.1). Sample 2 consists of 195 primary care patients (56.9% women) with a mean age of 45.3 (SD = 17.7). The number of participants who preferred online treatment was higher if seeking psychological help for a perceived stigmatized problem compared to mental health problems in general. The odds ratios for choosing treatment online over face-to-face were 6.41, 95% CI [4.05, 10.14] in Sample 1 and 11.19, 95% CI [5.29, 23.67] in Sample 2. In addition, findings suggest that higher levels of help-seeking self-stigma predicted higher intention to seek treatment online compared to face-to-face. Our results suggest that online interventions may facilitate help-seeking among individuals deterred by stigma. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Charismatic Routinization and Problems of Post-Charisma Succession in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rico Isaacs

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Using Weber’s concept of charismatic routinisation, this article analyses the dilemmas related to political succession and post-charismatic order in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. While the presidents of these three countries have drawn their authority from a combination of charismatic, legal-rational and traditional authority, they have relied most heavily on charisma in particular to sustain their rule. With the presidents of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan aging and facing the question of political succession, the article provides an analysis of the problems associated with potential for post-charismatic succession in these states. It does so by drawing on three of Weber’s mechanisms for charismatic routinisation: designation, hereditary charisma, and charisma in office. The analysis demonstrates that in these three cases, despite charisma only having two routes available to it, traditional and legal-rational, the mixture of legal-rational, traditional and charismatic domination undermines the process of charismatic routinisation. Consequently, the article argues that political succession in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan will most likely evolve into a reconstitution of charismatic leadership.

The Role of Political Elites in the Development of Politics of Memory in the Baltic States

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Smirnov Vadim

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The article focuses on multiple cases of the politicization of history by the Baltic political elites. Three states of development of politics of memory in the Baltic States are identified. Problems of political exploitation of the past are scrutinized in the context of political life and international relations. It is concluded that the narratives of the past where nazi and Soviet legacies are equated are actively promoted on the pan-European level. Elites of the Baltic States play a salient role in this process and enhance ties with the elites of the Eastern Europe, expert and political communities of the Western Europe and USA. The dominant trends in the development of the historical politics in the Baltic countries are the administrative and legislative instruments for approval of the preferred narratives of the past, as well as an active political work at the international level aimed at the inclusion of the Baltic narratives of the past into the European politics of memory. Historical politics of the Baltic States shows the Baltic countries as the victims of "two totalitarianisms" ("Nazi and Soviet occupation", and this point of view is widely used as a foreign policy tool. The politicization of the "anti-totalitarianism" issue is now a popular foreign policy tool that not only serves the interests of the Baltic and Eastern European politicians, but also finds ideological supporters in Western Europe and the United States.

Contradictions of international migration in terms of political economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Josifidis Kosta

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The political economy approach that entails critical arguments in relation to the processes of migration in neoliberal terms is developed in the paper. Starting with the account that migration covers as broad issues as politics, economics and population dynamic, the authors address the issue of migration in the political economy circuits of neoliberalization. In fact, the main line of argument is connected to the political economy as the relevant discursive frame and explanatory principle for the articulation of the complexity of migration. Critical arguments relating to the processes of migration in the neoliberal context thematize the mechanism of implemented flexibilisation and deregulation of labor. Demographic dynamics is essential in this context, but the authors intend to identify those political economy processes that lead to high precariousness, to various forms of temporary labor which are closely associated with forced labor forms. The category of forced labor is emphasized in the contemporary forms of migration, because this mode of labor facilitates the migration throughout the world. Furthermore, the authors point out the contradictory position of the state in relation to the migration-processes and analyse the authoritarian statism. This argumentation leads to articulation of the contradictory position of neoliberalization. The neoliberal discourses bring out the critical stance concerning the supremacy of the state, but it plays a key role in the regulation of migration. The state exposed to migration is faced with the contradictory demands. The globalization indicates the world without borders but is faced with the same contradictions. It is no coincidence that the intention of the reconceptualizations of globalization are interested in promoting global public goods. The processes of privatization in the sphere of the regulation of migration sharpen the contradictions of migration in the context of neoliberalization. The

A multi-view face recognition system based on cascade face detector and improved Dlib

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Hongjun; Chen, Pei; Shen, Wei

2018-03-01

In this research, we present a framework for multi-view face detect and recognition system based on cascade face detector and improved Dlib. This method is aimed to solve the problems of low efficiency and low accuracy in multi-view face recognition, to build a multi-view face recognition system, and to discover a suitable monitoring scheme. For face detection, the cascade face detector is used to extracted the Haar-like feature from the training samples, and Haar-like feature is used to train a cascade classifier by combining Adaboost algorithm. Next, for face recognition, we proposed an improved distance model based on Dlib to improve the accuracy of multiview face recognition. Furthermore, we applied this proposed method into recognizing face images taken from different viewing directions, including horizontal view, overlooks view, and looking-up view, and researched a suitable monitoring scheme. This method works well for multi-view face recognition, and it is also simulated and tested, showing satisfactory experimental results.

Politics at its end

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Proske, R.

1992-01-01

The author sees politics describing towards its end under the impact of the development science, technology and the economy have undergone. One of the signposts on this road of change has been the discovery of nuclear fission, leading to a revolution in the field of science, and developments such as the atomic bomb and, later on, the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, with technological development contributing the safe and economically operating reactors for power generation. In the eyes of the author, politics has little to contribute to solving the biggest problems of the future, which are the population explosion, and the global climate change caused by man-made emissions of trace gases. In order to tackle the climate problem, there is urgent need for a drastic outback in the consumption of fossil fuels, although renewable energy sources have not yet become reality to count on, the hydrogen economy still being just a hope, - so that nuclear power may be gaining second wind. (HP) [de

The Relationship between Islam and Democracy in Turkey: Employing Political Culture as an Indicator

Science.gov (United States)

Toros, Emre

2010-01-01

During the last decade the agenda of local and global politics is heavily marked by the encounter of two powerful currents, namely democracy and political Islam. On the one hand Islam as a religion itself is facing a cultural dialectic between a modern and an authentic form, producing a synthesis which is only to be criticized again by a new…

Semisupervised kernel marginal Fisher analysis for face recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ziqiang; Sun, Xia; Sun, Lijun; Huang, Yuchun

2013-01-01

Dimensionality reduction is a key problem in face recognition due to the high-dimensionality of face image. To effectively cope with this problem, a novel dimensionality reduction algorithm called semisupervised kernel marginal Fisher analysis (SKMFA) for face recognition is proposed in this paper. SKMFA can make use of both labelled and unlabeled samples to learn the projection matrix for nonlinear dimensionality reduction. Meanwhile, it can successfully avoid the singularity problem by not calculating the matrix inverse. In addition, in order to make the nonlinear structure captured by the data-dependent kernel consistent with the intrinsic manifold structure, a manifold adaptive nonparameter kernel is incorporated into the learning process of SKMFA. Experimental results on three face image databases demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm.

Simple shape space for 3D face registration

Science.gov (United States)

Košir, Andrej; Perkon, Igor; Bracun, Drago; Tasic, Jurij; Mozina, Janez

2009-09-01

Three dimensional (3D) face recognition is a topic getting increasing interest in biometric applications. In our research framework we developed a laser scanner that provides 3D cloud information and texture data. In a user scenario with cooperative subjects with indoor light conditions, we address three problems of 3D face biometrics: the face registration, the formulation of a shape space together with a special designed gradient algorithm and the impact of initial approximation to the convergence of a registration algorithm. By defining the face registration as a problem of aligning a 3D data cloud with a predefined reference template, we solve the registration problem with a second order gradient algorithm working on a shape space designed for reducing the computational complexity of the method.

The blurred boundaries of political violence in the Sahel-Sahara

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Walther, Olivier

2017-01-01

The Sahel and the Sahara are faced with exceptional political instability involving a combination of rebellions, jihadist insurgencies, coups d’état, protest movements and illegal trafficking. Analysis of the outbreaks of violence reveals that the region is not just the victim of an escalation...... of wars and conflicts that marked the 20th century. The Sahel-Sahara has also become the setting of a globalised security environment, in which boundaries between what is local and global, domestic and international, military and civilian, politics and identity are blurred....

Indigenous Research and Academic Freedom: A View from Political Scientists

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christopher Alcantara

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Over the last several decades, scholars working on Indigenous topics have faced increasing pressure to engage in research that promotes social justice and results in formal partnerships with Indigenous communities. In this article, we argue that non-community-based research, in which the researcher exercises academic autonomy over the project, still has a role to play in Indigenous-focused research, depending on the research question, topic, and situation at hand. We explore this argument from the perspective of political scientists who study Indigenous–settler political relations in Canada.

Recurrent subcutaneous emphysema of the face: a challenging clinical problem.

Science.gov (United States)

Hojjati, Hossein; Davani, Sam Zeraatian Nejad; Johari, Hamed Ghoddusi

2007-01-01

In the neck or face, there are different causes for subcutaneous emphysema such as injury to the sinuses, the hypopharynx, the laryngotracheal complex, the pulmonary parenchyma, the esophagus or the presence of gas-forming organisms. However, factitious subcutaneous emphysema, a rare cause, must be considered in the differential diagnosis. In this clinical report, we discuss a 20-year-old girl who was under follow-up because of recurrent subcutaneous emphysema of the face and periorbital area. After 2 years of work-ups, including a period of close observation in the intensive care unit, self air injection by syringe was found as the cause of recurrent subcutaneous emphysema of the face, and the patient was labeled as having factitious recurrent subcutaneous emphysema. Therefore, when a patient presents with unexplained recurrent subcutaneous emphysema, one should suspect self-infliction and examine for puncture marks.

Series 'Facing Radiation'. 2 Facing radiation is facing residents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hanzawa, Takahiro

2013-01-01

The series is to report how general people, who are not at all radiological experts, have faced and understood the problems and tasks of radiation given by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident (Mar. 2011). The section 2 is reported by an officer of Date City, which localizes at 60 km northern west of the Plant, borders on Iitate Village of Fukushima prefecture, and is indicated as the important area of contamination search (IACS), which the reporter has been conducted for as responsible personnel. In July 2011, the ambient dose was as high as 3.0-3.5 mc-Sv/h and the tentative storage place of contaminated materials was decided by own initiative of residents of a small community, from which the real decontamination started in the City. The target dose after decontamination was defined to be 1.0 mc-Sv/h: however, 28/32 IACS municipalities in the prefecture had not defined the target although they had worked for 2 years after the Accident for their areas exceeding the standard 0.23 mc-Sv/h. At the moment of decontamination of the reporter's own house, he noticed that resident's concerns had directed toward its work itself, not toward the target dose, and wondered if these figures had obstructed to correctly face the radiation. At present that about 2.5 years have passed since the Accident, all of Date citizens have personal accumulated glass dosimeters for seeing the effective external dose and it seems that their dose will not exceed 1 mSv/y if the ambient dose estimated is 0.3-5 mc-Sv/h. Media run to popularity not to face radiation, experts tend to hesitate to face media and residents, and radiation dose will be hardly reduced to zero, despite that correct understanding of radiation is a shorter way for residents' own ease: facing radiation is facing residents. (T.T.)

Fostering Scholarly Discussion and Critical Thinking in the Political Science Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Marks, Michael P.

2008-01-01

This article suggests strategies for promoting scholarly discussion and critical thinking in political science classes. When scholars study politics they are engaged in an investigation into the dynamics of governance, not a debate over personal political beliefs. The problem with a politicized classroom is that it gives students a false…

Healthcare reform's moral, spiritual issues. The problems are not just political.

Science.gov (United States)

Bouchard, C E

1996-01-01

Although President Clinton's proposals were defeated in 1994, healthcare reform is an issue that will not go away. But it is an especially complex issue because it is moral and spiritual as well as political. Catholic social teaching could help free us Americans from our confusion on the topic. For example, the Catholic ideas of justice, subsidiarity, and the common good could help us address the crux of the healthcare reform debate, which questions the fairness of forcing more fortunate people to provide healthcare for those who are sick and poor. Catholic social teaching tells us that our healthcare decisions must be made not only on the basis of what is good for me but what is good for us as a community. By the same token, we might find that several specifically spiritual ideas are helpful. Christianity says, for example, that sickness can be a gift because it is a window on immortality for us; that we should not prize life above all other values; and that friendship--including the civic friendship involved in healthcare--is a way we can enter full friendship with God. These moral and spiritual ideas lead us to certain political conclusions: Healthcare reform should be politically realistic, relatively simple. and inclusive. Because healthcare is a good like no other, it can be a powerful occasion for realizing God's own compassion, healing, and justice.

Hedging to save face: a linguistic analysis of written comments on in-training evaluation reports.

Science.gov (United States)

Ginsburg, Shiphra; van der Vleuten, Cees; Eva, Kevin W; Lingard, Lorelei

2016-03-01

Written comments on residents' evaluations can be useful, yet the literature suggests that the language used by assessors is often vague and indirect. The branch of linguistics called pragmatics argues that much of our day to day language is not meant to be interpreted literally. Within pragmatics, the theory of 'politeness' suggests that non-literal language and other strategies are employed in order to 'save face'. We conducted a rigorous, in-depth analysis of a set of written in-training evaluation report (ITER) comments using Brown and Levinson's influential theory of 'politeness' to shed light on the phenomenon of vague language use in assessment. We coded text from 637 comment boxes from first year residents in internal medicine at one institution according to politeness theory. Non-literal language use was common and 'hedging', a key politeness strategy, was pervasive in comments about both high and low rated residents, suggesting that faculty may be working to 'save face' for themselves and their residents. Hedging and other politeness strategies are considered essential to smooth social functioning; their prevalence in our ITERs may reflect the difficult social context in which written assessments occur. This research raises questions regarding the 'optimal' construction of written comments by faculty.

Clustering Millions of Faces by Identity.

Science.gov (United States)

Otto, Charles; Wang, Dayong; Jain, Anil K

2018-02-01

Given a large collection of unlabeled face images, we address the problem of clustering faces into an unknown number of identities. This problem is of interest in social media, law enforcement, and other applications, where the number of faces can be of the order of hundreds of million, while the number of identities (clusters) can range from a few thousand to millions. To address the challenges of run-time complexity and cluster quality, we present an approximate Rank-Order clustering algorithm that performs better than popular clustering algorithms (k-Means and Spectral). Our experiments include clustering up to 123 million face images into over 10 million clusters. Clustering results are analyzed in terms of external (known face labels) and internal (unknown face labels) quality measures, and run-time. Our algorithm achieves an F-measure of 0.87 on the LFW benchmark (13 K faces of 5,749 individuals), which drops to 0.27 on the largest dataset considered (13 K faces in LFW + 123M distractor images). Additionally, we show that frames in the YouTube benchmark can be clustered with an F-measure of 0.71. An internal per-cluster quality measure is developed to rank individual clusters for manual exploration of high quality clusters that are compact and isolated.

Political rotations and cross-province acquisitions in China

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Muratova, Yulia; Arnoldi, Jakob; Chen, Xin

2018-01-01

The underdeveloped institutional framework and trade barriers between China’s provinces make cross-province acquisitions challenging. We explore how Chinese firms can mitigate this problem. Drawing on social network theory we propose that cross-province rotation of political leaders—a key element...... of the promotion system of political cadres in China—is a mechanism enabling growth through cross-province acquisitions. We conceptualize rotated leaders as brokers between two geographically dispersed networks. We contribute to the literature on the characteristics of Chinese social networks, the effect...... of political connections on firm strategy, and the impact of political rotations on firm growth in China’s provinces....

Political Corruption And Poverty In Nigeria | Faloore | African Journal ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

From preindependence era to date, political corruption and its attendant problems in forms of vote buying, election rigging and manipulation, outright embezzlement by politicians have negatively affected the lives of Nigerians. This has led to increased political apathy and distrust in the country's fledging democratic ideals.

A Review of "The Politics of Sustainability: Philosophical Perspectives"

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Goldemberg

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Concerns about sustainable development are not a recent phenomenon. Societal problem-solving efforts within this realm have focused on concrete problems such as the preservation of fisheries, forests and national reserves. 'The Politics of Sustainability' has been discussed extensively in  literature, particularly after the publication of the Brundtland Commission's 'Our Common Future' report in 1987 [1] emphasizing inter-generational responsibilities involving economic, environmental and social aspects. Among other areas, the authors of the report highlighted the challenge of global climate change resulting from, amongst other things, unsustainable patterns of consumption. 'The Politics of Sustainability: Philosophical Perspectives', edited by Dieter Birnhacher and May Thorseth, brings  a new angle into the discussion of the politics of sustainable development: ethical considerations.

Haar-like Features for Robust Real-Time Face Recognition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nasrollahi, Kamal; Moeslund, Thomas B.

2013-01-01

Face recognition is still a very challenging task when the input face image is noisy, occluded by some obstacles, of very low-resolution, not facing the camera, and not properly illuminated. These problems make the feature extraction and consequently the face recognition system unstable....... The proposed system in this paper introduces the novel idea of using Haar-like features, which have commonly been used for object detection, along with a probabilistic classifier for face recognition. The proposed system is simple, real-time, effective and robust against most of the mentioned problems....... Experimental results on public databases show that the proposed system indeed outperforms the state-of-the-art face recognition systems....

From essentialism to another way of doing politics: resuming the transformative potential of the politics of difference

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Léa Tosold

2010-12-01

Full Text Available This article aims at resuming and critically scrutinizing the debate on the politics of difference taken among liberal feminist political theorists. Firstly, I shall provide an overview of theoretical attempts to legitimate the politicization of collective-based subjects taking into account the problem of essentialism. Then I will argue that an exclusive focus on the relationship between essentialism and the conceptualization of collective-based subjects tends to overshadow the relationship between the politicization of differences and a new way of doing politics. I will defend the view that the politicization of differences is transforming rather than undermining the functioning of the polity and the possibility of real social justice. I shall evaluate the works of Anne Phillips and Iris Marion Young as offering new ways of reshaping the political sphere in order to enable proper institutional action against structural inequalities.

School Consolidation and the Politics of School Closure across Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Karanxha, Zorka; Agosto, Vonzell; Black, William R.; Effiom, Claudius B.

2013-01-01

This case involves dilemmas for educational leaders who may face the process of school consolidation brought on by decreased funding and demands for accountability. We highlight the challenges and opportunities to collaborate within and across diverse communities and schools with varying expressions of cultural, political, ethical, and…

Phenomenon of political actionism in modern society

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V. M. Bavykina

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Political actionism is the fenomen in social and art space, that appeared in middle of XX century as the practice of critic and protest with using different artistic methods and techniques. Political actionism as art and political tradition exist in postsoviet space, especially in Russia where actionism appeared in 1990 years and develops for actually days. In other countries this phenomenon not such systematic.  But analyze and compare actions in different countries appears the possibility to understand social and cultural context, their difference and similarity. Actionism is a reaction to external public, social and political situation, but its appearance more like the symptom of some problem than its critic or display – traditional approaches in art.  Appearance of actionism also connected with inability of manifestation of personal and civil liberty, that’s why in actions liberty affairs in such radical and hyperbolized forms. First volume of Russian political actionism began in 1990 years (Oleg Kulik, Alexander Brener, Anatoly Osmolovsky etc. and Second volume in 2010 (art-group Voina, Pussy Riot, Pyotr Pavlensky. This process not only a transformation of artistic and traditional space, but also modification of reaction on social and political situation. Actionism becomes a source of new type of knowledge, that give a possibility to see the habitual reality from another side and find in it new pointes and concepts. Political actionism contracting own interpretation of already well-established phenomenon. Usual concepts of liberty, authority, social control are deconstructed in actions. Those destructions of reality and cultural reorientation destroys traditional imposed patterns of interaction and social structure. But new views, that appeared in daily life from actions, often has mistaken interpretations. Exist a problem about identification of actions, its correct interpretations and understanding of its causes. In article was

The politics of environmental narratives

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sconfienza, Umberto

2017-01-01

What makes environmental conflicts complex and difficult to solve? This question is increasingly important because, more and more, environmental problems are going to shape local, national, regional, and international politics. Not surprisingly, this question has generated a lot of scholarship. Most

political killings in South Africa

African Journals Online (AJOL)

mainly occurred in KwaZulu-Natal, with a much smaller number occurring in Mpumalanga and ... Though the problem is concentrated in specific provinces it is likely to impact on political life ... killings that are the focus of the article, including.

The Janus Face of urban policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, John

be characterised by a duality between 1. Participatory empowering welfare oriented inclusion strategies, which targets deprived districts and neighbourhoods (politics of positive selectivism recognising increasing spatial inequality as a political issue) - based on notions of the Multicultural and Solidaristic...... City. 2. Neoelitist/corporatist market driven strategic growth strategies, which are based on notions of the Entrepreneurial City. The tension between the two orientations represents the most important challenge for urban democracy and inclusive governance concerned with problems of overcoming social...

The Implementation of Inclusive Education and Problems Faced by Teachers in Teaching in Inclusive Education Provider Kindergarten

OpenAIRE

Joppy Liando

2014-01-01

This study aims to find out the problems faced by teachers in teaching. The study was conducted on July 2012 to December 2012. The research subjects were teachers teaching in inclusive kindergarten. The design of this study was a case study using a qualitative approach. The data were collected using questionnaires, interviews and documentation. Data analysis was conducted during the data collection and after data collection. The research results showed that in general, teachers who taught in ...

Measuring critical thinking in a political context | Bester | South ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Secondly, a significant correlation was found between political knowledge and critical thinking abilities in a political context. This implied that critical thinking ability varied directly with the amount of knowledge of the subject required by the problem. Thirdly, the results of the research indicated that gender and environment ...

Citizenship, National Identity and Political Education: Some Disputable Questions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vladimir Gutorov

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The article seeks to elucidate some controversial problems of the formation of both civic and national selfconsciousness through analysing the politics of identity and citizenship, which has assumed increasing importance in Western and Eastern European countries. Citizenship is considered as a dynamic construct that should be viewed as a ‘process’ through which specific rights and obligations are exercised. The central task, therefore, is to analyse the evolution of various conceptions of citizenship in the light of historical experience, continuity and change, as well as the process of transformation of the model of political education that has emerged within the framework of the liberal political culture of the 19th century and has continued to exert a great impact on the development of political discourse in the modern world. Special attention is given to the comparative analysis of the models of civic and national identity in the USA, Western and Eastern Europe, including post-communist Russia. The author argues that the conception of identity as well, as the criteria for its defi nition, have become crucial in the discussion of problems of citizenship and political education. The issue remains whether an effective model of political education alone, i.e. without active citizens’ involvement and support, can have the potential not only to transform a political culture, but also influence the whole system of both secondary and university education. The final aim of the article is to prove the idea that a new conception of citizenship and political education could, in conditions of a deepening crisis, become the most important link binding civil society and the new content of the political making its way through corporative interests.

African Politics at American Colleges and Universities: Topics, Approaches, and Readings.

Science.gov (United States)

DeLancey, Mark; And Others

1989-01-01

Traces new developments in the study of African comparative politics since 1978 by surveying a number of college teachers of African politics. Finds there is an escalation of interest in the politics of South Africa. The lack of student knowledge concerning Africa and the lack of an agreed-upon text are identified as problems. (KO)

Western Political Consulting Techniques and Post-Soviet Political Technology in Political Campaigns in Latvia

OpenAIRE

Bērziņa, Ieva

2012-01-01

Western Political Consulting Techniques and Post-Soviet Political Technology in Political Campaigns in Latvia Ieva Dmitričenko Keywords: political campaignsm political consulting, political technology, parties, marketing, media Political campaigning is an international phenomenon, because there is a free flow of information, knowledge and human resource among practitioners of political campaigning in various countries. As a result political campaigning techniques that have proven to ...

Pose-Invariant Face Recognition via RGB-D Images.

Science.gov (United States)

Sang, Gaoli; Li, Jing; Zhao, Qijun

2016-01-01

Three-dimensional (3D) face models can intrinsically handle large pose face recognition problem. In this paper, we propose a novel pose-invariant face recognition method via RGB-D images. By employing depth, our method is able to handle self-occlusion and deformation, both of which are challenging problems in two-dimensional (2D) face recognition. Texture images in the gallery can be rendered to the same view as the probe via depth. Meanwhile, depth is also used for similarity measure via frontalization and symmetric filling. Finally, both texture and depth contribute to the final identity estimation. Experiments on Bosphorus, CurtinFaces, Eurecom, and Kiwi databases demonstrate that the additional depth information has improved the performance of face recognition with large pose variations and under even more challenging conditions.

Between Politics and Religion – In Search of the Golden Mean

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Pawel Tarasiewicz

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The author undertakes the problem of the identity of Western civilization in the light of a correlation between politics and religion. First, he traces the theoretical debates about the mutual correspondence of politics and religion in ancient Greece. Following two extreme errors depicted by Sophocles in his “Antigone,” and by Plato in his “Apology of Socrates,” he infers that the “Golden Mean” is necessary in resolving the problem of politics and religion. Then, he examines the underlying errors put forward in the history. His investigations show the erroneousness of endowing either politics or religion with sovereign status in culture. There is always a conflict between politics and religion unless man regains his own sovereignty from them. Ultimately the author arrives at the conclusion that the “Golden Mean” correlating politics and religion distinctly strengthens the identity of the Western Civilization, and consists in respecting all real and universal parameters of human person life, such as cognition, freedom (and responsibility, love, agency in law, ontological sovereignty, and religious dignity.

Comparative study of "politeness"in multicultural communication

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

王清莹

2016-01-01

In daily life, everyone has to communicate with the medium of language. How to communicate effectively is a question bothering each of us through our lifetime. This thesis analyzes the situations of communication between Chinese people and foreigners from the perceptive of Levinson's face theory and Gu Yueguo's theory about politeness in Chinese culture in order to further find out the different cultural characteristics of communication in China and the West.

Political stability in conditions of overtaking modernisation: challenges and reference points

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. K. Mantashyan

2017-07-01

To sum up, compensatory mechanisms of the political stability in conditions of the ongoing modernization should accelerate the development of civil society within the absence of a stable and adaptive political community. Challenges to political stability should be compensated by creativity and optimality of the authorities’ activities. Prospects for further consideration of problems, being raised in this paper, are as following: to determine the socio-cultural constraints of the institutional adaptability of the political system.

Italian Studies, Italian Theory and the politics of trans-lation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Minca, C.

2016-01-01

Italian Theory has emerged as the result of the search for new conceptual frameworks in the face of a series of international political events concerning not only the proliferation of states of exception but also of new forms of politicization of life related to biomedical science and the

ISLAMIC PARTIES AND THE POLITICS OF CONSTITUTIONALISM IN INDONESIA

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Mukrimin Mukrimin

2012-12-01

Full Text Available This article examines the relationship between religion and the state in Indonesia by exploring how Islam is used by political parties to shape the politics. The study shows that Islamic politics is a complementary in both nationhood and statehood in Indonesia. From the early days of the new-born nation-state, Muslims in Indonesia had played significant role in shaping the nation; nonetheless, they have never dominated the political power. Fragmentation among Muslims themselves and internal political parties is among the reason why religious (Islamic parties failed in bringing religious identity to the state arena. Political subordination-inclusion-ignorance-confrontation is the circular game that features Islamic politics in Indonesia. The debatable issue on shari‘ah law, which is frequently used by Islamic parties, always becomes the core problem of the relation between Islam and the state. Even though Islam has played an important role in colouring the Indonesian politics, its existence remains complementary.

Pillars of the Republics: Early Monuments and the Politics of Memory in the Post-Colonial Americas

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Stefan Rinke

2014-06-01

Full Text Available When trying to explain the success of democracy in the United States in 1831 Tocqueville used the comparative method in singling out the most important explanatory factors. He concluded that it were not the natural circumstances like absence of envious neighbors or the availability of natural resources which decided about success or failure of democratic institutions. According to Tocqueville, Latin America boasted the same favorable preconditions and yet he noted: “There are no nations upon the face of the earth ... more miserable than those of South America”. If we translate “customs” into the modern term of political culture we can see that Tocqueville’s explanation is still very much in currency in the social sciences. Indeed, historians of Latin America have frequently argued that the problem of the comparative underdevelopment of the region in part has to be explained by the resistance of traditional socio-cultural structures to modernization. According to this point of view, traditional attitudes and mentalities helped to perpetuate a political culture that proved an obstacle to democracy from the very start.

The Prediction of Political Competencies by Political Action and Political Media Consumption

Science.gov (United States)

Reichert, Frank

2014-01-01

Political competencies are often considered a precondition for political action; however, they are not independent of previous political participation, which may also include the frequency and the kind of political media consumption. My research aims at finding out the importance of participation in political activities in the past, as well as…

Some Aspects of “Face-Saving” in Dialogue Discourse

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Tatjana Rusko

2011-06-01

Full Text Available During the last two decades human communication has become a topic of interest for language analysts. Language and environment have a significant impact on the way people communicate trying to establish good relations with each other. Language has in store various means that help communicants not only to achieve felicitous communication but also save face in the process of interpersonal communication. The article deals with language and speech means aimed at saving face in Modern English conversational discourse. It describes theoretical grounds of investigation based on the politeness theory and cooperation principles and focuses on defining and analyzing “face-saving” strategies and tactics in Modern English conversational discourse. Understanding the effect “face-saving” strategies and tactics produce will benefit interpersonal communication on different levels. Hence this subject is germane and most topical to education in general and language teaching in particular.

Sit-Tight Syndrome and Tenure Elongation in African Politics ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The post-independence politics of African countries has been dominated by the phenomenon of sit-tight African heads of state and government who had acceeded to office by election or coup d'etat. This paper examines this recurring problem in post-independence African politics by examining its general and specific ...

EXPERTISE OF POLITICAL ANALYSIS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

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A. D. Bogaturov

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to a problem of political analysis in the fi eld of international relations. The author discusses the key rules, standards and requirements of correct political research as well as basic criteria of analytical correctness. The author formulates typology of analytical papers, assesses the state of environment and working conditions for today’s experts, analysis key problems and diffi culties at the stage of empirical data selection (including verifi cation of information sources, while choosing analytical methods and formulating conclusions. The article gives advice for experts, how to organize research, deal with diffi culties and fi nd non-standard solutions.

Facing America's Problems: A Call for Action.

Science.gov (United States)

Eisenhower, Milton S.

1981-01-01

Points out ways in which science and technology have contributed to social change and stimulated massive social problems such as inflation, crime, unemployment, imbalances in international trade, and energy shortages suggests ways in which citizens can understand and cope with these problems. (DB)

Translating and coordinating face in triadic speech events

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Bente

participants, their specified role of either questioners or respondents, and the purpose of the event, i.e. the extraction of evidence. Thus, the results of a recent investigation by this author of the interpreter-mediated questioning of a defendant in a criminal trial in a Danish district court suggest......This paper reports on an on-going investigation of face in interpreter-mediated questionings in criminal proceedings in Danish district courts. The languages involved are Danish and English, and the mode of interpreting is the consecutive mode. The court interpreters are all state-authorized court...... interpreters and thus fully competent professionals. The concept of face employed in the present investigation is the one proposed by Brown & Levinson (1987) in their politeness theory. Various studies of triadic speech events have pointed to the significance of face within the framework of this theory...

Multi-view Face Detection Using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks

OpenAIRE

Farfade, Sachin Sudhakar; Saberian, Mohammad; Li, Li-Jia

2015-01-01

In this paper we consider the problem of multi-view face detection. While there has been significant research on this problem, current state-of-the-art approaches for this task require annotation of facial landmarks, e.g. TSM [25], or annotation of face poses [28, 22]. They also require training dozens of models to fully capture faces in all orientations, e.g. 22 models in HeadHunter method [22]. In this paper we propose Deep Dense Face Detector (DDFD), a method that does not require pose/lan...

Politics and economics in the Asia-Pacific region: Beyond the Cold War

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Byung-Joon Ahn

1995-01-01

Linked inexorably by geopolitics and geo-economics, Asia and North America are facing a number of common challenges in the aftermath of the Cold War. The prospects of a North Korea armed with nuclear weapons and medium-range ballistic missiles, and of China becoming another superpower, are impelling both Asia and America, and the US, Japan, and South Korea in particular, to strengthen their partnership for security, interdependence, and democracy. Politics and economics in the Asia-Pacific region are at a crossroads, facing a new era of post-Cold War uncertainty. This chapter addresses the major trends emerging in the region in terms of changing national and international perspectives. It is important to examine what these changes imply for a new security and economic framework in Asia and the Pacific. The gravity of the world's political economy is shifting to this region

Political Show-Technology in the Post-Soviet Space

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O. E. Grishin

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In the modern political process of Russia actively used technology show. With their help, political actors can influence public opinion and shape the public interest in certain issues. In Russia, these technologies are relevant, and are especially well developed. The pressing of the problem is due to a new round of information war on the territory of Ukraine. Inclusion in the information space, and discuss the pressing issues of modern Ukraine by media people such as C. Shuster and V. Solovyov, suggests that the political show has entertainment figures, actuality, the ambiguity of the proposed conclusions. At the same time it becomes part of the information war and political reality of the normal state.

Economic Growth as a Factor of Political Stability

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Анна Олеговна Ярославцева

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The article analyzes actual problems of the impact of economic growth on the political stability of different state. The author shows that despite the undoubted correlation of the level of economic development and political stability, economic growth by itself is not a panacea for destabilization risks because of the effects of inflated expectations and transformations of social consciousness. The author argues that the impact of economic growth on political stability is largely ambivalent. On the basis of “Tocqueville's law” and the range of theories of “relative deprivation”, the author makes a conclusion about the principal limitations of predictive and interpretive capabilities of economic indicators (primarily economic growth for the analysis of political stability.

Political side of risk: a new approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sorenson, J.B.; Trauth, C.A. Jr.

1980-01-01

The resolution of many of the Nation's most-serious problems today is hampered by our apparent inability to systematically deal with the socio-political dimensions of the societal acceptance of risks in areas of technical development, decision making, and policy formulation. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the energy field. The nature of public hazards has changed drastically during the past half century or so, driving public considerations of risk into the political realm. This has given many of the socio-political parameters underlying individual, group, and institutional perception and acceptance of risk an importance not typically recognized in technical approaches to risk assessment. As a result, there is now a large gap between technically based views of risk and societal views of risk which, the authors feel, is largely responsible for impeding the resolution of the national problems alluded to above. This paper proposes a general approach toward closing this gap, by using indicators from the political system to measure public perceptions and acceptance of risk, as a continuing function of time, to provide the technical community and policy and decision makers a basis from which to more effectively meet societal environmental, safety, and health goals. 15 references, 6 figures.

Politeness Indicators in Nigeria Legislative Discourse

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Clara Unoalegie Bola Agbara

2018-02-01

Full Text Available In every human interaction, interlocutors strive to maintain appropriate decorum and politeness in order to avoid undue feeling of not being ‘nice’ or being insensitive to co-participant’s self-esteem or image. This culture of being ‘nice’ is expressed not only through verbal codes, but also through non-verbal cues such as pitch, tone, voice modulation, facial expression and other forms of body language. Nigeria legislative House reflects the uniqueness of Nigeria as a multicultural nation with about two hundred and fifty ethnic groups. Each tribe has a unique way of expressing ‘nice’ (politeness. This paper examines how Nigerian legislators from different ethnic groups acknowledge the self-esteem of other legislators during senate debates. The study used Scollon and Scollon’s politeness principle which states that in every interaction there is a continuous ‘face’ (self-image negotiation and this ‘face’ which is made up of two aspects - involvement and independent- must be balanced during interactions because ‘face’ is a paradoxical concept. The interest of this study is to identify and to explain how politicians, who though are in opposition, acknowledge the self-esteem of others. Six hansards were sampled from 2009 to 2010, one bill from each quarter of the year. It was discovered that speakers almost always punctuate their contributions to debate with different types of politeness indicators as a means of acknowledging both the involvement and dependent face wants of participants. The politeness indicators often used by senators include address forms which are used not only as vocative (to the presiding senator but also as designative (for reference to a third person mentioned in the speech, first person plural pronouns, rhetorical (speech politeness markers and ritualized utterances.

The Two Faces of Security in Hybrid Political Orders: A Framework for Analysis and Research

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Robin Luckham

2013-09-01

Full Text Available This paper reframes the security and development debate through fresh theoretical lenses, which view security as highly contested both in the realm of politics and in the realm of ideas. For some analysts security concerns political power, including the use of organised force to establish and maintain social orders and to protect them from external and internal threats. For others it is about how individuals and communities are protected (or protect themselves from violence, abuse of power and other existential risks. We integrate both approaches whilst placing our focus on the deep tensions between them. Combining them is especially apposite in the hybrid political orders of conflict-torn regions in the developing world – where the state and its monopoly of violence are contested and diverse state and non-state security actors coexist, collaborate or compete. We ask what security in these hybrid contexts looks like from below, that is from the perspective of “end users”, be these citizens of states, members of local communities or those who are marginalised and insecure. What are their own vernacular understandings of security, and how do these understandings link to wider conceptions of citizen and of human security? Even when security and insecurity are experienced and decided locally, they are at the same time determined nationally and globally. It is at the interfaces between local agency, state power and global order that the most politically salient and analytically challenging issues tend to arise. To analyse these interfaces we focus on three interconnecting political spaces, each characterised by their own forms of hybridity, in which security is negotiated with end-users: (i “unsecured borderlands” where state authority is suspended or violently challenged by alternative claimants to power or providers of security, including non-state armed groups; (ii “contested Leviathans”, that is state security structures whose

``Political'' Science

Science.gov (United States)

Berzak Hopkins, Laura

2013-03-01

Politics and policy affect all of us, both as scientists and as citizens, and issues ranging from laboratory budgets to arms control treaties clearly require research problem-solving skills and technical expertise. There is a critical role for scientists in each aspect of the political system, and in fact, we as a society need more scientists to take part in politics. Furthermore, the research we pursue has important societal applications and is fascinating! We have a right and a responsibility to share our scientific knowledge not only with each other, but with the general public as well. So, why are we as a community of scientists reticent in the public arena, hesitant to enter politics, and even at times unsupportive of our peers who transition into governmental roles? In this time of fiscal constraint, when difficult research funding (and de-funding) choices are regularly being made, we as scientists must step up to the plate, reach across the aisle, and explain why what we do is fascinating, inspiring, and important, not just to us, but to society as a whole. A range of policy-relevant roles exists inside and outside the laboratory, such as Congressional Fellowships. Each year the Congressional Fellowships program brings together approximately thirty scientists at all stages of their careers to serve as scientific advisors in a variety of offices in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Although the jump from lab to lobbying meetings can be frustrating, the transition can also be intriguing. Firsthand experience with the ``how'' and ``why'' (or lack thereof) of politics and policy is invaluable and provides a unique opportunity to expand and broaden one's background. The opportunity to work on Capitol Hill is unparalleled, particularly because our nation has a definite need for scientists with the inclination and interest to inform and develop policy. But, whatever role you decide to take, from contributing scientific news to local publications to

Are samples drawn from Mechanical Turk valid for research on political ideology?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Scott Clifford

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk is an increasingly popular tool for the recruitment of research subjects. While there has been much focus on the demographic differences between MTurk samples and the national public, we know little about whether liberals and conservatives recruited from MTurk share the same psychological dispositions as their counterparts in the mass public. In the absence of such evidence, some have argued that the selection process involved in joining MTurk invalidates the subject pool for studying questions central to political science. In this paper, we evaluate this claim by comparing a large MTurk sample to two benchmark national samples – one conducted online and one conducted face-to-face. We examine the personality and value-based motivations of political ideology across the three samples. All three samples produce substantively identical results with only minor variation in effect sizes. In short, liberals and conservatives in our MTurk sample closely mirror the psychological divisions of liberals and conservatives in the mass public, though MTurk liberals hold more characteristically liberal values and attitudes than liberals from representative samples. Overall, our results suggest that MTurk is a valid recruitment tool for psychological research on political ideology.

On the history of political diversity in social psychology.

Science.gov (United States)

Binning, Kevin R; Sears, David O

2015-01-01

We argue that the history of political diversity in social psychology may be better characterized by stability than by a large shift toward liberalism. The branch of social psychology that focuses on political issues has defined social problems from a liberal perspective since at least the 1930s. Although a lack of ideological diversity within the discipline can pose many of the problems noted by Duarte et al., we suggest that these problems (a) are less apparent when the insights of social psychology are pitted against the insights from other social science disciplines, and (b) are less pressing than the need for other types of diversity in the field, especially ethnic and racial diversity.

Politics, policy and physical education | van Deventer | South African ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

To understand educational reform and the form that Physical Education (PE) takes on we need to understand how policy becomes practice and the nature of the political agenda at any particular time. The research problem focuses on the politics involved in the policy process within educational reform regarding PE as a ...

Measurement and visualization of face-to-face interaction among community-dwelling older adults using wearable sensors.

Science.gov (United States)

Masumoto, Kouhei; Yaguchi, Takaharu; Matsuda, Hiroshi; Tani, Hideaki; Tozuka, Keisuke; Kondo, Narihiko; Okada, Shuichi

2017-10-01

A number of interventions have been undertaken to develop and promote social networks among community-dwelling older adults. However, it has been difficult to examine the effects of these interventions, because of problems in assessing interactions. The present study was designed to quantitatively measure and visualize face-to-face interactions among elderly participants in an exercise program. We also examined relationships among interactional variables, personality and interest in community involvement, including interactions with the local community. Older adults living in the same community were recruited to participate in an exercise program that consisted of four sessions. We collected data on face-to-face interactions of the participants by using a wearable sensor technology device. Network analysis identified the communication networks of participants in the exercise program, as well as changes in these networks. Additionally, there were significant correlations between the number of people involved in face-to-face interactions and changes in both interest in community involvement and interactions with local community residents, as well as personality traits, including agreeableness. Social networks in the community are essential for solving problems caused by the aging society. We showed the possible applications of face-to-face interactional data for identifying core participants having many interactions, and isolated participants having only a few interactions within the community. Such data would be useful for carrying out efficient interventions for increasing participants' involvement with their community. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; 17: 1752-1758. © 2017 Japan Geriatrics Society.

Robust online face tracking-by-detection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Comaschi, F.; Stuijk, S.; Basten, T.; Corporaal, H.

2016-01-01

The problem of online face tracking from unconstrained videos is still unresolved. Challenges range from coping with severe online appearance variations to coping with occlusion. We propose RFTD (Robust Face Tracking-by-Detection), a system which combines tracking and detection into a single

Political Communication Research in the 1980s.

Science.gov (United States)

Meadow, Robert G.

1985-01-01

Discusses eight books, including a textbook for undergraduates, that represent the type of research being conducted in the political communication field. Identifies major problems of current research. (PD)

How do Five American Political Science Textbooks Deal with the Economic Dimension?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Poul Thøis

2011-01-01

Politics and economics interact. As a consequence, political science textbooks must often relate to the economic dimension—implicitly or explicitly. But we know very little about how these textbooks relate to economics. Are they merely unreflective customers of neoclassical economics or do...... they strive for a cross-disciplinary approach? An analysis of five American textbooks identifies two very different and concurrent interactions between politics and economics. The first is a theoretically conceived market economy in which market forces independently drive growth and create equilibrium, where...... politics has a rather secluded role. The second is the actually existing mixed economy, characterized by increased inequality, economic concentration, power, and environmental problems, influenced by a state forced to regulate. The problems of operating with such a dichotomy— and possible solutions...

Politics and public health ethics in practice: right and left meet right and wrong.

Science.gov (United States)

Gollust, Sarah E; Baum, Nancy M; Jacobson, Peter D

2008-01-01

As public health practitioners are no doubt aware, public health practice and politics are closely linked. Although theoretical discussion of the emerging field of public health ethics has been rich, scholars have paid little attention to the relationship between ethical issues and politics in public health practice. We conducted semistructured interviews with 45 public health practitioners across a range of occupations (eg, health officers, medical directors, sanitarians, nurses, educators, and commissioners) working at 12 local health departments across Michigan and the state health department. Practitioners were asked to describe the ethical issues they faced in their daily practice. Ethical issues that resulted from the political environment emerged as one major category of ethical issues our interviewees described. This article illustrates how political issues engender ethical challenges in 4 main areas: public health agenda-setting, political pressures, political conflicts with best practices, and the scope of public health practice. The findings suggest that politics and public health ethics intrinsically intersect, because political pressures and priorities often impose ethical challenges that practitioners negotiate in their daily work.

From Dissensus to Conviviality: The New Cultural Politics of Difference in Turkey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oliver Kontny

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Political developments in Turkey have sparked unprecedented international media attention after the failed coup d'état in July 2016. Coverage tends to focus on the draconic crackdown and restrictions that include academic work and cultural production. This article highlights articulations of dissensus from among the vivid community of cultural producers and takes a look at the uneasy relation between cultural politics, cultural policies and Kulturkampf. Drawing on work by Paul Gilroy, Homi Bhabha, Jacques Rancière and Cornel West, I attempt to discuss the theoretical dimensions of a new cultural politics of difference in Turkey that seeks to negotiate alterity and work towards a culture of conviviality in the face of ever-increasing adversities.

Problems faced by Western expatriate managers in Eastern Europe: Evidence provided by Finnish expatriates in Russia and Estonia

OpenAIRE

Suutari, Vesa

1998-01-01

A common human resource management strategy among Western companies in international operations is the use of home-country expatriate managers although expatriate adjustment has been found to involve difficulties. In the light of this the present study analyses the issues faced by Finnish expatriate managers working in Russia or Estonia. Three aspects were studied: adaptation to society, adaptation at the work place, and company-level management problems with which expatriates have to deal in...

Coupled bias-variance tradeoff for cross-pose face recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Annan; Shan, Shiguang; Gao, Wen

2012-01-01

Subspace-based face representation can be looked as a regression problem. From this viewpoint, we first revisited the problem of recognizing faces across pose differences, which is a bottleneck in face recognition. Then, we propose a new approach for cross-pose face recognition using a regressor with a coupled bias-variance tradeoff. We found that striking a coupled balance between bias and variance in regression for different poses could improve the regressor-based cross-pose face representation, i.e., the regressor can be more stable against a pose difference. With the basic idea, ridge regression and lasso regression are explored. Experimental results on CMU PIE, the FERET, and the Multi-PIE face databases show that the proposed bias-variance tradeoff can achieve considerable reinforcement in recognition performance.

Circles of Consensus: The Preservation of Cultural Diversity through Political Processes

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Jordi Jaria i Manzano

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Western modern culture has expanded at the universal level and has thereby become a threat to other cultures, particularly those of chthonic communities. But these cultures have progressively recognized its worth as a source of richness, which can be very useful in facing future challenges to humanity. Moreover, in terms of human dignity and the equality of all human beings, Western modern culture has to be recognized as having an intrinsic value as well. Given these facts, we must find a way to protect this cultural diversity in an effective manner. It is obvious that assimilationist or isolationist models are not satisfactory. So I propose a third way. I call it an integrationist or a deep approach. It consists of giving political density to cultural diversity through the design of federalist strategies that have, as a result, the definition of different levels of decision (circles of consensus. After having exposed my model, I will pay attention to the recent constitutional experiences in Ecuador and Bolivia, where some new developments in this sense are intended. I compare these models with my proposal and, finally, I analyze the main problems that a deep approach to preserving cultural diversity has to face up to.

A Grounded Theory of Political Intelligentizing in Business Administration

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Annabel-Mauve Adjognon

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This study focuses on the substantive area of business administration using the classic grounded theory method. Business administration is mostly driven by political games between top-level corporate managers. The main concern of the managers I met was that they wanted to be more politically successful. For them, success meant being able to change regularly the course of decisions and action within their firm. The study led to the emergence of a core variable called political intelligentizing. Political intelligentizing explains the recurrent main concern that these managers have to resolve, and it explains the competences managers have to combine to succeed regularly in organisational politics. They resolve their main problem through political intelligentizing which consists in acquiring, developing and combining six specific skills: time matching, rhetorical fitting, silence juggling, strategic forward-thinking, strategic interacting and relationing.

Supervised Filter Learning for Representation Based Face Recognition.

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Chao Bi

Full Text Available Representation based classification methods, such as Sparse Representation Classification (SRC and Linear Regression Classification (LRC have been developed for face recognition problem successfully. However, most of these methods use the original face images without any preprocessing for recognition. Thus, their performances may be affected by some problematic factors (such as illumination and expression variances in the face images. In order to overcome this limitation, a novel supervised filter learning algorithm is proposed for representation based face recognition in this paper. The underlying idea of our algorithm is to learn a filter so that the within-class representation residuals of the faces' Local Binary Pattern (LBP features are minimized and the between-class representation residuals of the faces' LBP features are maximized. Therefore, the LBP features of filtered face images are more discriminative for representation based classifiers. Furthermore, we also extend our algorithm for heterogeneous face recognition problem. Extensive experiments are carried out on five databases and the experimental results verify the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.

Problems and Perspectives of Doing Business in Post-crisis Russia

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Leonid L. Lubimov

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The article deals with one of the key problems facing modern Russian society in terms of development of the market economy and increase of competitiveness in the world market, that is improvement of relationship between business structures and public authorities. Over the last two decades after transition of the country to the market model of economy, relations between the government and private sector have repeatedly changed that was promoted by changes of the political environment and members of the Russian ruling elite. The process of business start-up in post-Soviet Russia and redistributions of considerable part of the state property between private owners were accompanied by a great number of troubles, including criminalization of economy and tampering with government institutions. These problems were largely caused by absence of initial economic reforms in the country with the developed state policy concerning business.

Military and Political Studies

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Alexey I. Podberyozkin

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Military-political issues is an important area of research work at MGIMO. The difference in this direction from the classical international specialization is that it is at the intersection of several disciplines: military science, military-technical and military-industrial as well as International Relations. A specialist in military and political issues should not only be an expert in the field of international relations and diplomacy, but also have a deep knowledge of military-technical issues to understand the basic trends in the development of scientific and technological progress and its impact on the balance of forces in the world. Global changes in the balance of power and the nature of the conflict, the emergence of new types of weapons are changing the basic methods and approaches to the art of war, which requires a science-based perspective on problem solving and multi-disciplinary approach in achieving the goals. Military and political studies allow us to understand how the development of military technology and military organization of the state affected by the political situation in the world, the national security of the country and its place in the system of international relations. Military-political research has been developing at MGIMO for a few decades. It laid down the basis for a scientific school of political-military studies. Its founding fathers were such prominent scholars of international affairs, as I.G. Usachyov, A.D. Nikonov, A.G. Arbatov, V.G. Baranovsky, V.M. Kulagin, A.N. Nikitin and other well-known experts. Their work covers a wide range of military and political issues, including the topics of arms control and disarmament, international, and especially European security, military policy, NATO, the Western military-political doctrines and their practical application. Now the lead in the development of this research at MGIMO has taken Center for Military-Political Studies, which became a concentration of relevant

Positive Politeness & Social Harmony in Literary Discourse

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Nawal F. Abbas

2013-05-01

Full Text Available The strategies of politeness are not arbitrarily chosen by speakers in interaction. Instead, the choice of a strategy is constrained by a number of contextual features (socio-cultural variables, such as the relative power of the speakers, the social distance of the speakers and what the speakers happen to be negotiating at the time of speaking. This study focuses on the linguistic strategies of politeness, and more specifically on the positive politeness, as represented in fiction. The novel chosen is that of Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables- a novel in which the main character Anne Shirley tries her best to establish common grounds with others until she achieves friendly and social harmonious relationships with nearly everybody. To show the above point, Brown and Levinson’s (1987 theory of politeness is adopted to account for the linguistic strategies, in addition to some subsequent contribution provided by Spencer-Oatey (2002 to account for sociality rights and obligations. This model is chosen to explore the relation between language use and the social relationship of the speakers. A point of departure, and according to O’Driscoll (1996, Brown and Levinson’s hierarchy of politeness strategies allows attention to positive to cover more ground than that subsumed under positive politeness (super-strategy 2. That is why baldly on-record (super-strategy 1 is used to pay positive face. The analysis shows that most of Anne’s directives in this speech event, which are linguistic realizations of both super-strategy 1 and 2, are meant to establish common grounds to achieve friendly and harmonious relationships with others.

[Criminologic problems of political change in Spain].

Science.gov (United States)

Gómez, A S

1981-01-01

In this article the Author considers the modern-day and historical situation as regards the administration of justice in Spain, pausing to make a particularly careful analysis of those crimes whose rate of increase, over the past few years, has been the greatest. He runs back over the various stages of Spain's recent history: from the period preceding Franco's regime, during which a multiplicity of criminological theories were developed by Spanish authors, leading to the creation of a school of jurisprudence, in which theory and practice tended toward seeking a balance between freedom and security; through the period of the dictatorship, in which there was a tightening-up of the preceding trend, with a definite predisposition towards security, whether within the State or external to it (to be noted--the Author observes--is that this security in reality is not a guarantee of the lives and liberties of the citizens, but rather only a safeguarding of the State from attacks on its supremacy and power); to the successive period of the democracy, which came about without cruel and revolutionary upsets, but nonetheless has felt for many years the effects of the preceding political climate; criminality is increasing considerably, but the administration of justice is not able to soundly and accurately evaluate it, it having functioned at only 45% efficiency--or so says the Author--up until 1978: the imbalances in the society that can be seen in its passage through the various political regimes are, therefore, present too in the field of criminality; this, in fact, is apparently decreasing (since crimes against the external and internal security of the State are decreasing, as the number of convictions are decreasing); but in reality this criminality is undergoing a strong evolutionary movement, due more than anything else to the fact that the tendency is to give priority to liberty, and no longer to security, as is true in fact of every democratic regime. Even in 1978, when

Space, politics, and the political

OpenAIRE

dikec , mustafa

1987-01-01

International audience; Introduction Geography and politics'', Gottmann wrote in 1980, ``have long been in search of each other'' (page 11). Debates in the literature suggest not only that they have found each other, but also that the encounter has instigated, notably in the last decade or so, a body of literature seeking to think space politically, and to think politics spatially. This is not to suggest that previous work on space was apolitical, nor to suggest that previous work on politics...

A SURVEY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH ON POLITICAL LEARNING AND SOCIALIZATION.

Science.gov (United States)

DENNIS, JACK

A GENERAL SURVEY WAS MADE OF RESEARCH AND LITERATURE IN THE FIELD OF POLITICAL LEARNING AND SOCIALIZATION, AND A BIBLIOGRAPHY WAS PREPARED. THE SURVEY WAS MADE TO PROVIDE AN INDICATION OF THE MAIN CURRENTS OF STUDY OF CHILDREN'S LEARNING OF POLITICAL CONCEPTS. THE SURVEY INCLUDED MAJOR SUBSTANTIVE PROBLEMS OF POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION RESEARCH--(1)…

Te Kotahitanga: Addressing Educational Disparities Facing Maori Students in New Zealand

Science.gov (United States)

Bishop, Russell; Berryman, Mere; Cavanagh, Tom; Teddy, Lani

2009-01-01

The major challenges facing education in New Zealand today are the continuing social, economic and political disparities within our nation, primarily between the descendants of the European colonisers and the Indigenous Maori people. These disparities are also reflected in educational outcomes. In this paper, an Indigenous Maori Peoples' solution…

Kant and the Critique of the Ethics-First Approach to Politics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rostbøll, Christian F.

2017-01-01

of an "ethics-first approach to politics," in which political theory is a mere application of moral principles. But what does this ethics-first approach have to do with Kant himself? Very little. This article shows how Kant's approach to political theory at a fundamental level includes political institutions......, power, and coercion as well as disagreement, security, and coordination problems. In contrast to realists, Kant has a fundamental principle, which can explain why and guide how we ought to approach the political question, namely the norm of equal freedom. Yet, Kant's theory does not take the form...

How Europe’s Political Leaders Made Sense of the Euro Crisis: The Influence of Pressure and Personality

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Esch, F.A.W.J.; Swinkels, E.M.

2015-01-01

The Greek announcement of its excessive debts led to one of the most severe crises the EU has faced since its inception. The crisis soon evolved into a full leadership crisis as European political leaders struggled to come up with a common solution to the challenges they faced. Theories of

Political consequences of religiosity, post-materialism and ethno-nationalist attitudes in Netherlands

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Todosijević Bojan

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The paper analyzes the political consequences of religiosity, post-materialism and nationalist attitudes. According to modernization and secularization theses, ideological orientations such as religiosity and (ethnonationalism are supposed to decline in political relevance as modernizations progresses. On the other side, in the era of political de-alignment and re-alignment, political space is supposed to be determined by the 'new politics' ideological dimensions, of which post-materialist orientation is the most familiar. In order to examine the implications of these theoretical perspectives, this paper analyzes the ability of the aforementioned orientations to explain various aspects of political attitudes and behavior, such as the support for democracy, party preference, or ideological identification. The outlined problems are examined using data the Dutch Parliamentary Election Studies (DPES. Several features make the Netherlands an appropriate case to address these problems. These include the sharp trend of secularization, but accompanied by the persisting religious political cleavage. More recent trends of post-materialist and anti-immigrant politics have also been early and vividly expressed in the Netherlands. The main findings show that ideological orientations such as post-materialism, religiosity, and ethnocentrism, continue to be important for explaining various aspects of political attitudes and behavior in the Netherlands. The results also indicate that modernization and 'post-modernization' theories are imperfect explanations for the observed trends.

Asynchrony of political culture in the context of modernization of the contemporary Russian society

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Konovalov Valery Nikolaevich

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Russia is a country in which political culture takes in different stages of development. In the social and cultural life are combined two basic forms - the traditional type of political culture and modern political culture. There is asynchrony in the political culture, which creates a serious problem of managing Russian society.

Political diversity will improve social psychological science.

Science.gov (United States)

Duarte, José L; Crawford, Jarret T; Stern, Charlotta; Haidt, Jonathan; Jussim, Lee; Tetlock, Philip E

2015-01-01

Psychologists have demonstrated the value of diversity--particularly diversity of viewpoints--for enhancing creativity, discovery, and problem solving. But one key type of viewpoint diversity is lacking in academic psychology in general and social psychology in particular: political diversity. This article reviews the available evidence and finds support for four claims: (1) Academic psychology once had considerable political diversity, but has lost nearly all of it in the last 50 years. (2) This lack of political diversity can undermine the validity of social psychological science via mechanisms such as the embedding of liberal values into research questions and methods, steering researchers away from important but politically unpalatable research topics, and producing conclusions that mischaracterize liberals and conservatives alike. (3) Increased political diversity would improve social psychological science by reducing the impact of bias mechanisms such as confirmation bias, and by empowering dissenting minorities to improve the quality of the majority's thinking. (4) The underrepresentation of non-liberals in social psychology is most likely due to a combination of self-selection, hostile climate, and discrimination. We close with recommendations for increasing political diversity in social psychology.

Political pressure on nuclear - responsibility or business?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Petrech, Rastislav; Holy, Robert

2001-01-01

After more than 10 years since the fall of the 'iron curtain' some Central and East European countries were invited to talks on possible joining the European Union. The nuclear power industry and future development programmes in the countries were one of the crucial topics discussed. Nuclear field is probably the most sensitive one in terms of perception and acceptance by the public as well as politicians. To be able to really solve the issue of the nuclear industry future, it is necessary to know and understand the problems, which we'll have to cope with in a situation when the nuclear industry gets face-to-face in a competition with other electricity producers. Safety became the dominant issue roughly since the mid 80's, especially after the Chernobyl accident. Safety had always been important, however it was the top priority is this period. Public relations were seriously dealt with in parallel. Market liberalisation, decentralisation and privatisation has been the determining factor of further development of the nuclear industry since mid 90's. Probably the most important problem are the Public Relations. Positive public attitude and acceptance of nuclear power as an ,'ordinary' industry is the basic precondition for the further development. It is almost common practice that posts of NPP directors are occupied by public relations experts and experienced orators, whose power of arguments can convince people. Results of public opinion polls in many countries demonstrate that political views on the future of nuclear are in contradiction with public opinions. In Slovakia, for example, the nuclear has the support of 60-70 % in long-term. However, what is missing is a political force which might help completing Mochovce NPP units 3 and 4, even though in terms of near-future liberalisation this option proves to be the most advantageous one for replacement of older two units of Bohunice NPP (since the Government promised the units will be shut down in 2006 and 2008

Recent Challenges Facing US Government Climate Science Access and Application

Science.gov (United States)

Goldman, G. T.; Carter, J. M.; Licker, R.

2017-12-01

Climate scientists have long faced politicization of their work, especially those working within the US federal government. However, political interference in federal government climate change science has escalated in the current political era with efforts by political actors to undermine and disrupt infrastructure supporting climate science. This has included funding changes, decreased access to climate science information on federal agency websites, restrictions on media access to scientific experts within the government, and rolling back of science-based policies designed to incorporate and respond to climate science findings. What are the impacts of such changes for both the climate science community and the broader public? What can be done to ensure that access to and application of climate change-related research to policy decisions continues? We will summarize and analyze the state of climate change research and application in the US government. The impacts of political interference in climate change science as well as opportunities the scientific community has to support climate science in the US government, will be discussed.

Hybrid carbon incentive mechanisms and political acceptability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vollebergh, H.R.J.; De Vries, J.L.; Koutstaal, P.R.

1997-01-01

In this paper it is analyzed how hybrid systems of carbon taxes and tradeable permits optimize some conflicting dimensions of political acceptability related to the design of these instruments. Pure systems like taxes without exemptions or auctioned tradeable permits cause problems for political acceptability in open economies due to high overall costs (abatement cost plus payments on the tax or auctions) for current polluters. Unfortunately, pure systems based on grandfathering of emission rights across the board do not provide a feasible alternative because of monitoring and enforcement problems. In contrast, consciously designed hybrid systems employ grandfathering of emission rights together with either carbon taxes or auctioned carbon permits in order to overcome acceptability problems of pure systems, while leaving incentives to reduce emissions at the margin untouched. Moreover, monitoring and enforcement costs of the hybrid systems are less due to the lower number of participating agents compared with the pure systems, while opportunities for cost- or burden-sharing exist as well. 3 figs., 4 tabs., 23 refs

Political Transmigrants: Rethinking Hmong Political Activism in America

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nengher N. Vang, Ph.D

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Since the initial resettlement of the Hmong in the United States in the mid-1970s, they have maintained strong political and military relationships with the Lao People‘s Democratic Republic (LPDR. Yet, there is little research on that relationship and the involvement of the Hmong in the United States in political developments in Laos. Most works on Hmong political activism have focused on the electoral participation and representation of Hmong Americans in relation to American domestic politics. In this article, using archival, ethnographic, and interview data that I have collected between 2006 and 2009 in Laos, Thailand, and the United States, I describe and analyze the non-domestic or transnational form of Hmong American political expression and participation. I argue that Hmong political activism in America not only was transnational from the outset, but that their transnational involvement in political developments in Laos and their relations with the Lao PDR government also had a significant impact on their ethnic politics. Many Hmong political activists made their entry into ethnic politics through the door of transnational politics, and many were motivated by transnational political issues to participate in domestic American politics. By exploring their transnational involvement in political developments in Laos and their relations with the Lao PDR government, we get a more complete and dynamic understanding of Hmong political activism in the United States than is possible by focusing exclusively on domestic and electoral participation. Examining their transnational politics also allows us to see the transnationality of not only their culture, identity, and community but also that of their political activities and aspirations.

Post-Structuralism and Politics: towards Postmodern Balkan Studies

OpenAIRE

Sanja LAZAREVIC RADAK

2015-01-01

Although post-structuralism, on the first sight, lacks political dimension, its application to social problems expose the potential of political engagement. First, it comes from interviving linguistics and humanities, that inspired new understanding of the relationship between structure and power. While emerging from cultural studies and therefore from synthesis of history and literary criticism, studies on the Balkan, point out a role of mental images, stereotypes, discourses and therefore, ...

Politics of prevention: The emergence of prevention science.

Science.gov (United States)

Roumeliotis, Filip

2015-08-01

This article critically examines the political dimension of prevention science by asking how it constructs the problems for which prevention is seen as the solution and how it enables the monitoring and control of these problems. It also seeks to examine how prevention science has established a sphere for legitimate political deliberation and which kinds of statements are accepted as legitimate within this sphere. The material consists of 14 publications describing and discussing the goals, concepts, promises and problems of prevention science. The analysis covers the period from 1993 to 2012. The analysis shows that prevention science has established a narrow definition of "prevention", including only interventions aimed at the reduction of risks for clinical disorders. In publications from the U.S. National Institute of Drug Abuse, the principles of prevention science have enabled a commitment to a zero-tolerance policy on drugs. The drug using subject has been constructed as a rational choice actor lacking in skills in exerting self-control in regard to drug use. Prevention science has also enabled the monitoring and control of expertise, risk groups and individuals through specific forms of data gathering. Through the juxtaposition of the concepts of "objectivity" and "morality", prevention science has constituted a principle of delineation, disqualifying statements not adhering to the principles of prevention science from the political field, rendering ethical and conflictual dimensions of problem representations invisible. The valorisation of scientific accounts of drugs has acted to naturalise specific political ideals. It simultaneously marginalises the public from the public policy process, giving precedence to experts who are able to provide information that policy-makers are demanding. Alternative accounts, such as those based on marginalisation, poverty or discrimination are silenced within prevention science. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights

The transformation of island city politics: the case of Macau

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Li Sheng

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses on the island city of Macau as Europe’s last Asian colony and one of China’s special administrative regions (SARs that enjoys a high degree of autonomy. The author traces the root cause of the current social discontent and political dilemma in the face of Macau’s post-colonial casino boom and economic miracle. The study finds that Macau’s islandness, smallness and geographic location significantly affect the island city’s urban political culture. While Macau shares similarities with other island cities across the world, as a Chinese casino city under Portuguese administration for more than 400 years, certain unique features have also developed.

The story of the Australian Youth Forum — the political and social realities behind online technological solutions in youth political communication

OpenAIRE

Pillay, Prashanth

2017-01-01

This thesis examines the difficulties in using online media as a tool to solve youth political engagement problems. It argues that online media has complicated the relationship between the government and young Australians, highlighting the practical difficulties of operationalising effective political communication practices. The Australian Youth Forum (AYF), Australia’s main online government project to raise low youth public engagement levels, is used as a case study. Originally inten...

Generations of decay: the political geography of decommissioning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blowers, A.

1990-01-01

Energy is politics. We rarely find it where we need it, it imposes upon other areas when we move it, and the less control we have over its development and use, the more politically insecure we feel. Nuclear power appears to avoid the traditional politics of energy supply by geographically internalizing much of the fuel cycle. But the problem of waste disposal, including decommissioning, is a major source of political conflict and uncertainty affecting the whole future of the nuclear industry. One of the most politically motivated decisions of the decommissioning era will be in choosing whether the process will be immediate or deferred. Deferred decommissioning is the most likely strategy, and that geographical inertia is the likely outcome. Such inertia is a feature of industrial decline, with each industrial epoch leaving the detritus of past decisions for future generations to discover and deal with. The political basis of the nuclear fuel cycle is its links with considerations of wastes, hazards, longevity, and equity, all matters of public interest and concern. As part of the nuclear fuel cycle, decommissioning will include these considerations too, and it is for this reason that, wherever decommissioning takes place, political questions arise. (author)

Construction of political identity within the globalization and social transition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Čičkarić Ljiljana M.

2003-01-01

Full Text Available This research is based on analysis of the role of historical, political social and cultural factors in creating the context of political identity formation processes in transition to adulthood. The author examines the postmodern social environment and its implications on political socialization. Certain characteristics, determined by processes of standardization and homogenization on global level, are identical in both developed and transitional societies in Europe. Increased individualization and reflexivity, as the major points of postmodern society, generate isolation, narcism, cinism, political apathy, social exclusion and marginalization. In the second part of the paper, the dynamic interaction of transitional and globalizing processes and the problem of value system reconstruction are questioned. Two types of social activism, participation in official political institutions and engagement in non-institutional politics, are considered, especially the participation of young generation in social, economic and political reforms in transitional societies.

Issues of Political Development: Fragile Democracies in Latin America

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Armando Albuquerque

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The political development, as research field, had its origins in the second half of the last century. From the 60s, when he began to flourish, now constitutes a conceptual border with comparative politics. In subsequent decades there were many advances in the analysis of problems related to the political institutions, state structures, the rule of law, civil society, stability and crises of democratic regimes, among others. From this issue, will be made to this article, supported by the Democracy Index, analyzing the causes of one of the main shortcomings of the political development in Latin America, namely, the low quality of their democracies and the consequent non-consolidation of the same.

The Starting Point of Hobbes’s Science of Politics

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Luka Ribarević

2008-01-01

Full Text Available As a logical starting point structuring the entire theoretical field of political analysis, Hobbes’s definition of the state of nature is a key for understanding his science of politics. The paper shows that the concept of the state of nature implies two fundamentally distinct types of states in which neither people nor troubles with which they are faced are identical. In the original state of nature conflicts among people stem directly from their nature. Based on the analysis of Hobbes’s understanding of human nature and critical reading of his interpretation of the state of nature by Jean Hampton, the paper identifies the mechanism by which reason and passion turn the state of nature into a state of war. However, alongside the original state of nature, a historical state of nature also coexists, in which conflicts spring from religious views and political beliefs immanent to people as religious and political beings, and as beings of language and conscience. What is crucial for conflicts in this historical state of nature is the influence exerted by language as a discursive context on human action. As the state of war feeds from both human nature and history, any attempt of overcoming the state of nature must abandon them: the state is necessarily an artificial and ahistorical project, based on science of politics as a new political language appropriate for human self-preservation.

Political instability, chronic poverty and food production systems in Central Chad

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dijk, van J.W.M.

2008-01-01

In many parts of the world long-term political instability combined with frequent droughts results in chronic poverty and high levels of malnutrition and child mortality. Despite the magnitude and importance of the problem in these areas, the relation between political instability, resource tenure

Critical thinking, politics on a large scale and media democracy

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José Antonio IBÁÑEZ-MARTÍN

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The first approximation to the social current reality offers us numerous motives for the worry. The spectacle of violence and of immorality can scare us easily. But more worrying still it is to verify that the horizon of conviviality, peace and wellbeing that Europe had been developing from the Treaty of Rome of 1957 has compromised itself seriously for the economic crisis. Today we are before an assault to the democratic politics, which is qualified, on the part of the media democracy, as an exhausted system, which is required to be changed into a new and great politics, a politics on a large scale. The article analyses the concept of a politics on a large scale, primarily attending to Nietzsche, and noting its union with the great philosophy and the great education. The study of the texts of Nietzsche leads us to the conclusion of how in them we often find an interesting analysis of the problems and a misguided proposal for solutions. We cannot think to suggest solutions to all the problems, but we outline various proposals about changes of political activity, that reasonably are defended from the media democracy. In conclusion, we point out that a politics on a large scale requires statesmen, able to suggest modes of life in common that can structure a long-term coexistence.

Charting the Research on the Policies and Politics of Coaching

Science.gov (United States)

Woulfin, Sarah L.

2014-01-01

Facing relentless pressure to improve student achievement, many states and districts are using coaching as a policy lever to promote changes in practice. This special issue centers on the policies and politics of coaching, and this editorial commentary highlights what we know about the role of coaches and coaching in the field of education. Then I…

Citizenship Education as a Panacea for Political Stability in Nigeria ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In order to address this prevailing condition, the paper believed that citizenship education is a veritable tool for solving the problem of political instability in Nigeria. The paper adopted descriptive and content analysis method. The paper opined that lack of political stability in Nigeria is due to lack of adequate attention to ...

Political Uncertainty and Technological Development: The Controversial Case of AGIP Nucleare (1956-1962)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lavista, Fabio

2017-01-01

This chapter examines the relationship between political uncertainty and technological development, through a study of the Italian electro-nuclear industry during the 1950s. It focuses in particular on the case of the 'Azienda Generale Italiana Petroli' (AGIP) Nucleare, an electro-nuclear firm affiliated to the 'Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi' (ENI), the main Italian oil public holding. The first paragraph discusses the role of state-owned enterprises and politics, and is followed by a brief analysis of the Italian government’s electro-nuclear policy. The third and fourth paragraphs examine ENI’s behavior in the energy sector, and give an account of the political difficulties the company faced both nationally and internationally. Finally, the chapter draws some conclusions on the role political choice had in determining the success or failure of technological development processes

We Do Not Enjoy Equal Political Rights

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Marie-Antoinette Sossou

2011-05-01

Full Text Available This study explores Ghanaian women’s perception and voices about issues of gender equality in terms of exercising their political and decision-making rights in connection with political participation and governance in Ghana. The study uses demographic survey and six different focus group discussions to capture the views of a total of 68 women with different educational, socioeconomical, and occupational backgrounds, in two regions of the Ghana. The findings indicate that even though theoretically the constitution of Ghana gives women equal rights as their male counterparts to actively participate in the governance of their country, in practice, women face issues of gender-based power imbalance and discrimination in addition to other structural, institutional, cultural, and traditional barriers and roadblocks. These barriers expose women as being inferior and second-class citizens compared with their male counterparts in term of participation and inclusion in the governance of their country. The study discusses the social and policy implications of the issues of gender inequality and social exclusion of women in politics and calls for empowerment and organization of women and structural change in the system.

The Academic, Administrative, Economic, Social, and Psychological Problems Faced by Students of Textile and Clothing Major at King Abdul-Aziz University

Science.gov (United States)

Alsubyani, Noor Abdulhadi

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the academic, administrative, economic, social, and psychological problems faced by students of Textile and fabric major at King Abdul-Aziz University. To achieve this purpose, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to a sample of students in the Textile and fabric major, after the use of…

Political Subjects: Decision and Subjectivity from a Post-Fundational Perspective

OpenAIRE

Martín Retamozo

2011-01-01

The problem of decision and of political subjects was addressed in the field of 20th century political philosophy by authors such as Carl Schmitt, Hannah Arendt, and Jacques Derrida, who related it closely to the concepts of sovereignty, freedom, and contingency. The works of Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Žižek have currently turnedto the issue of decision in order to address the constitutive spects of the political. In a context dominated by deconstruction, post-Marxism, and post-structuralism,t...

An Independent Central Bank faced with Elected Governments: A Political Economy Conflict

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Demertzis, M.; Hughess Hallett, A.; Viegi, N.

2004-01-01

The literature argues that the benefits of an independent central bank accrue at no cost to the real side. In this paper, we argue that the lack of correlation between monetary autonomy and output variability is due to the proactive role of fiscal policy when faced with rigid monetary objectives.

The Political Economy of Crisis and the Crisis of Political Economy: The Challenge of Sustainability

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Graham Murdock

2015-10-01

Recent developments in the organisation of capitalism have given renewed urgency to critical political economy’s core concern with the shifting relations between capital, state and civil society and placed issues around communications and culture at the centre of debate. Successive responses to the crisis of capitalism in the 1970s and the 2008 financial crisis have extended marketization, consolidated corporate control over public culture, displaced and casualised labour, escalated product promotion, placed consumption fuelled by personal debt at the centre of models of growth, and generated rapidly widening inequalities in access and agency. At the same time, the political instabilities following the end of the Cold War have licenced a move from selective to saturation surveillance that has given the major capitalist states unprecedented entry into intimate life. The critical political economy culture and communications has seized the moment and produced powerful accounts and critiques of these shifts and their implications for democratic life. The first part of the paper offers a critical overview of this work. With some notable exceptions however, critical political economies of communications have not fully incorporated the climate crisis into their analyses. Yet communication systems, particularly digital systems, are central to the unfolding climate crisis, not simply as central spaces of public information (and misinformation and debate, but as arrays of infrastructures and machines that consume resources and power and foster patterns of use and disposal that exacerbate problems of waste and pollution and reinforce patterns of inequality, with those least able to cope likely to be the most affected. The second part of the paper expands on this argument The third and final part follows the implications of this analysis through arguing that critical communications policy not only needs to address the problem of curbing corporate and state abuses of control

New media in political communication: general approaches

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Chekunova Marina A.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, in transformation of the realm of political communication, a more important part is given to the so-called «new social media». Previously, political communication was seen as a process of production, dissemination and perception of political information for the purpose of achieving a consent regarding one or another political action. Additionally, communication appeared as a mechanism of one-way information exchange. Under new conditions, political communication becomes a tool of ensuring the process of preparation, making and implementing political decisions. In a modern understanding, an informational message is built by means of specific cooperation between communicants. In this regard, information sources appear as a specific base for state actions. This paper deals with old (traditional and new social media and lists several characteristics that help distinguish these media. It also shows how authorities and representatives of political opposition can use social media to achieve their political purposes. This article analyses not only benefits but also drawbacks in the application of new information technologies in politics, considering a problem of manipulation as a main disadvantage. It also compares the use of social networks by authorities in Russia and abroad. Because of differences in political culture, social networks are not popular with Russian authorities. However, the number of social networking users among Russian politicians is increasing year by year. Moreover, the most popular network with them is Twitter. A conclusion can be drawn that new media play an important role in creating a system of rules of conduct on the Internet and in establishing a specific culture of electronic communication between representatives of authority and society.

Ethical Problems in Teaching: "Paramedic" Training.

Science.gov (United States)

McCormick, Donald W.

1994-01-01

Discusses ethical dilemmas that professors face in the classroom, drawing on three examples involving students: (1) discussing the illegal activities of an employer; (2) participating in politically controversial military activities; and (3) making racist comments. Argues that academic and professional organizations should issue codes of ethics…

Peak Politics: Resource Scarcity and Libertarian Political Culture in the United States

Science.gov (United States)

Schneider-Mayerson, Matthew

My dissertation uses the "peak oil" movement as a lens to analyze the convergence of apocalyptic environmental thinking and libertarian political culture in the recent United States. The "peak oil" movement was a twenty-first century American social movement of Americans who came to believe that oil depletion and other environmental problems would lead to the imminent collapse of global industrial society. Dedicated adherents developed a rich subculture, primarily online, and prepared themselves for the "post-carbon" future by conserving energy, changing occupations, and even purchasing land. Drawing on surveys of over 1,500 participants, ethnographic research, discourse analysis of peak oil websites and literary analysis of subcultural fiction, my research reveals a group of mostly white, male, liberal Americans struggling with the perceived threat of economic, environmental and geopolitical decline while the country undergoes a broad shift in political culture: the continued rise of libertarian ideals, accelerated by the influence of Internet technology. I view this apocalyptic subculture in the context of petroleum dependence, eco-apocalyptic discourses, the environmental discourse of "limits to growth," white masculinity, climate change, and the influence of conservative individualism on American political culture.

Problems in the communication of technological risks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wiedemann, P.M.; Hennen, L.

1989-01-01

The authors discuss the problems in the communication of technological risks. They show that - contrary to a current popular belief - acceptance problems are not attributable to information deficits: such problems are caused rather by the fact that risks are perceived differently by the various groups in science, industry, politics and the larger public. Nevertheless, improved information about technology may help to find acceptable compromises and, thus, to prevent social conflicts to erupt over technology and to geopardize the basic political consensus. (orig.) [de

The trailing trials of humiliation: Legal, social, and medical perspectives of women facing domestic violence in India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kumuda Rao

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Globally, violence within the home is universal across culture, religion, class, and ethnicity. Despite its widespread prevalence, such violence is not customarily acknowledged and has remained invisible-a problem thought unworthy of legal or political attention. The social construction of the divide between public and private life underlies the major problem of addressing the hidden nature of domestic violence against women. Legal jurisprudence has historically considered the domain of the house to be within the control and unquestionable authority of the male head of household. Thus, acts of violence against members of the household, whether wife or child, were perceived as discipline and essential for maintaining the rule of authority within the family. Except for sensational cases, the fear of social isolation and inhibition has caused the insidious everyday violence experienced by huge numbers of women to be hidden in the private domain. In this review, we make an attempt towards briefing the legal, social, and medical perspectives of women facing domestic violence.

Problems of Face Recognition in Patients with Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia

OpenAIRE

Chandra, Sadanandavalli Retnaswami; Patwardhan, Ketaki; Pai, Anupama Ramakanth

2017-01-01

Introduction: Faces are very special as they are most essential for social cognition in humans. It is partly understood that face processing in its abstractness involves several extra striate areas. One of the most important causes for caregiver suffering in patients with anterior dementia is lack of empathy. This apart from being a behavioral disorder could be also due to failure to categorize the emotions of the people around them. Patients and Methods: Inlusion criteria: DSM IV for Bv FTD ...

European welfare regimes: Political orientations versus poverty

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Josifidis Kosta

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This inquiry analyzes how political orientations shape welfare states and labour market institutions when seeking to reduce poverty. In order to identify effects of these two key variables, we conduct a panel regression analysis that includes two poverty measures: poverty rates before and after social spending. This inquiry considers 14 EU countries, and in the period from 1995 to 2008, which are grouped according to welfare state regimes. We consider Social Democratic, Corporatist, Mediterranean and Liberal welfare state regimes. Panel regression results indicate that political orientation engenders no significant statistically measurable effects on poverty rates before social spending. Effects register, however, as significant when considering poverty rates after social spending. With respect to the first set of results, we advance two key explanations. First, we note a longer period of time is necessary in order to observe actual effects of political orientation on market generated poverty. Second, political parties with their respective programs do not register as influential enough to solve social problems related to income distribution when taken alone. Influences register as indirect and are expressed through changes in employment rates and social spending. The second set of results support the hypothesis that a selected political regime does indeed contribute to poverty reduction. In sum, political orientation and political regime does indeed affect poverty through welfare state institutions, as well as through labour market institutions.

Sociospatial understanding of water politics: Tracing the multi-dimensionality of water reuse

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Ross Beveridge

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Much social science literature on water reuse focuses on problems of acceptance and economic problems, while the spatial and political dimensions remain under-researched. This paper addresses this deficit by reformulating the issue in terms of sociospatial politics of water reuse. It does this by drawing on the work of Mollinga (2008 and the Territory Place Scale Network (TPSN framework (Jessop et al., 2008 to develop an analytical approach to the sociospatial politics of water in general, and water reuse in particular. The paper argues that Mollinga’s understanding of water politics as contested technical/physical, organisational/managerial and regulatory/socioeconomic planes of human interventions can be deepened through further reflection on their implications for the four sociospatial dimensions of the TPSN framework. Such a comprehensive, multidimensional approach re-imagines the politics of water reuse, providing researchers with a heuristic device to trace the interventions through which water reuse plans disrupt existing arrangements, and avoid a concern for individual preferences and simplified notions of barriers and enablers. The potential of the analytical framework is explored using an empirical illustration of water reuse politics in the Berlin-Brandenburg region in Germany.

Making 2D face recognition more robust using AAMs for pose compensation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huisman, Peter; Munster, Ruud; Moro-Ellenberger, Stephanie; Veldhuis, Raymond N.J.; Bazen, A.M.

2006-01-01

The problem of pose in 2D face recognition is widely acknowledged. Commercial systems are limited to near frontal face images and cannot deal with pose deviations larger than 15 degrees from the frontal view. This is a problem, when using face recognition for surveillance applications in which

Presidentialism, Decentralization, and Distributive Politics in Latin America

OpenAIRE

Santos, Felipe Nunes dos

2015-01-01

My dissertation focuses on how presidents allocate discretionary funds to localities. I study national leaders who often face a dilemma about how to allocate limited distributional resources to their greatest political advantage. I argue that the president's resource allocation strategy depends on the level of decentralization in a country. Presidents wish to allocate resources to their supporters in the electorate, and in centralized countries, they can do so directly, without any interferen...

Towards Integrating Political Ecology into Resilience-Based Management

OpenAIRE

Amy Quandt

2016-01-01

One of the biggest challenges faced today is how to sustainably manage social-ecological systems for both ecological conservation and human wellbeing. This paper explores two approaches to understanding such systems: resilience thinking and political ecology. Resilience thinking is a framework that emerged over the last 40 years as a management strategy for social-ecological systems, and a resilient social-ecological system is capable of absorbing disturbances and still retaining its basic fu...

Political Subjects: Decision and Subjectivity from a Post-Fundational Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martín Retamozo

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The problem of decision and of political subjects was addressed in the field of 20th century political philosophy by authors such as Carl Schmitt, Hannah Arendt, and Jacques Derrida, who related it closely to the concepts of sovereignty, freedom, and contingency. The works of Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Žižek have currently turnedto the issue of decision in order to address the constitutive spects of the political. In a context dominated by deconstruction, post-Marxism, and post-structuralism,the article inquires into the elation between decision and political subjects in a contemporary setting, examining in depth the difference between subjectivity,subjectivization, and subject.

Eldercare at Home: Communication Problems

Science.gov (United States)

... Join our e-newsletter! Resources Eldercare at Home: Communication Problems Caregiving How Tos Understanding the Problem Communication ... when the older person is most alert. Talk face-to-face and maintain eye contact. A good way to ...

Teacher Opinions on the Problems Faced in Reading and Writing by Syrian Migrant Children in Their First Class at Primary School

Science.gov (United States)

Ugurlu, Necla Isikdogan; Kayhan, Nilay

2018-01-01

The objective of this study is to evaluate, according to the opinions of teachers, the problems faced by the children of Syrian families who have taken refuge in Turkey since 2011 with regard to their linguistic and communication skills, as well as their reading and writing process in Turkish as a foreign language. The research group is composed…

Political communication research: New media, new challenges, and new opportunities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The rise of new media and the broader set of social changes they are part of present political communication research with new challenges and new opportunities at a time when many think the field is at an intellectual impasse (e.g., Bennett & Iyengar, 2008. In this article, I argue that parts of the field’s problems are rooted in the way in which political communication research has developed since the 1960s. In this period, the field has moved from being interdisciplinary and mixed-methods to being more homogenous and narrowly focused, based primarily on ideas developed in social psychology, certain strands of political science, and the effects-tradition of mass communication research. This dominant paradigm has contributed much to our understanding of some aspects of political communication. But it is struggling to make sense of many others, including questions concerning people’s experience of political communication processes and questions concerning the symbolic, institutional, and technological nature of these processes—especially during a time of often rapid change. To overcome this problem, I argue that the field of political communication research should re-engage with the rest of media and communication studies and embrace a broader and more diverse agenda. I discuss audience research and journalism studies as examples of adjacent fields that use a more diverse range of theoretical and methodological tools that might help political communication research engage with new media and the new challenges and new opportunities for research that they represent.

Winning Faces Vary by Ideology: How Nonverbal Source Cues Influence Election and Communication Success in Politics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Laustsen, Lasse; Petersen, Michael Bang

2016-01-01

-looking sources have better success in attracting votes and policy support. Yet, are all nonverbal source cues similarly received irrespective of audience, or does their reception vary across audiences? Specifically, we ask whether some physical traits are received positively by some audiences but backfire...... for others. Utilizing research on ideological stereotypes and the determinants of facial preferences, we focus on the relationship between the facial dominance of the source and the ideology of the receiver. Across five studies, we demonstrate that a dominant face is a winning face when the audience...... is conservative but backfires and decreases success when the audience is liberal. On the other hand, a non-dominant face constitutes a winning face among liberal audiences but backfires among conservatives. These effects seemingly stem from deep-seated psychological responses and shape both the election...

Golkar Party's Political Communications the New Paradigm Bakrie Leadership 2009-2013

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Khoiruddin Muchtar

2013-11-01

Full Text Available This study base on the efforts of the Golkar Party's to the process of interpretation, socialization, and implementation of the new paradigm, the paradigm guide to reformations Golkar Party's become to democratic, independent, solid, strong, foundamental, and responsive. How Golkar party's political communication about socialization and implementation of a new paradigm of Golkar Party's leadership Aburizal Bakrie-year period from 2009 to 2012.The aim of this research is to study and overview of the process of socialization and implementation new paradigm Golkar Party's of the Aburizal Bakrie’s leadership. This contect described to using constructivist paradigm through the theory of Performance of Communication and Structuration. Research using the case study method. Data obtained by participation observer, unstructured interviews, and documentary study. The data also collected from informants. The results of this research show: 1 The Golkar Party's has a very significant infrastructure, so the making easier to socialization new paradigm to internal party, but Golkar Party's can not erase stigma society as the New Order party. Socializing new paradigm Golkar Party's to be done in integrated, systematic and continuous addressed to all cadres of various levels from the center to the village. 2 the new paradigm Golkar Party's ideals as the basis and foundation values stand for the Golkar Party's, the implementation is faced with the reality of the condition of the various political considerations and the interests of power, so it can not shown the Golkar Party's political communication with the direction of the reality, Golkar Party's must be have to political communication with the role of multi faces.

Politically Active Home Economists: Their Socialization to Politics.

Science.gov (United States)

Ley, Connie J.

1980-01-01

A nationwide study identified a pattern of political socialization for home economists who were politically active. The most outstanding feature of the politically active subjects was their perception that political activity is a professional role. (SK)

The emergence of vitamins as bio-political objects during World War I.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Robyn

2009-09-01

Biochemists investigating the problem of the vitamins in the early years of the twentieth century were working without an object, as such. Although they had developed a fairly elaborate idea of the character of the 'vitamine' and its role in metabolism, vitamins were not yet biochemical objects, but rather 'functional ascriptions' and 'explanatory devices'. I suggest that an early instance of the changing status of the object of the 'vitamins' can be found in their stabilization, through the course of World War I, as bio-political objects for the British and Allied war effort. Vitamins emerged as players, active agents, in Britain's wartime bio-political problems of food distribution and population health and because of this they became increasingly real as bio-political objects, even prior to their isolation as bio-chemical molecules. I suggest that the materiality of our biology has agency in the development of political regimes and schemes.

Face-blind for other-race faces: Individual differences in other-race recognition impairments.

Science.gov (United States)

Wan, Lulu; Crookes, Kate; Dawel, Amy; Pidcock, Madeleine; Hall, Ashleigh; McKone, Elinor

2017-01-01

We report the existence of a previously undescribed group of people, namely individuals who are so poor at recognition of other-race faces that they meet criteria for clinical-level impairment (i.e., they are "face-blind" for other-race faces). Testing 550 participants, and using the well-validated Cambridge Face Memory Test for diagnosing face blindness, results show the rate of other-race face blindness to be nontrivial, specifically 8.1% of Caucasians and Asians raised in majority own-race countries. Results also show risk factors for other-race face blindness to include: a lack of interracial contact; and being at the lower end of the normal range of general face recognition ability (i.e., even for own-race faces); but not applying less individuating effort to other-race than own-race faces. Findings provide a potential resolution of contradictory evidence concerning the importance of the other-race effect (ORE), by explaining how it is possible for the mean ORE to be modest in size (suggesting a genuine but minor problem), and simultaneously for individuals to suffer major functional consequences in the real world (e.g., eyewitness misidentification of other-race offenders leading to wrongful imprisonment). Findings imply that, in legal settings, evaluating an eyewitness's chance of having made an other-race misidentification requires information about the underlying face recognition abilities of the individual witness. Additionally, analogy with prosopagnosia (inability to recognize even own-race faces) suggests everyday social interactions with other-race people, such as those between colleagues in the workplace, will be seriously impacted by the ORE in some people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Robust Face Recognition by Computing Distances from Multiple Histograms of Oriented Gradients

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Karaaba, Mahir; Surinta, Olarik; Schomaker, Lambertus; Wiering, Marco

2015-01-01

The Single Sample per Person Problem is a challenging problem for face recognition algorithms. Patch-based methods have obtained some promising results for this problem. In this paper, we propose a new face recognition algorithm that is based on a combination of different histograms of oriented

View based approach to forensic face recognition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dutta, A.; van Rootseler, R.T.A.; Veldhuis, Raymond N.J.; Spreeuwers, Lieuwe Jan

Face recognition is a challenging problem for surveillance view images commonly encountered in a forensic face recognition case. One approach to deal with a non-frontal test image is to synthesize the corresponding frontal view image and compare it with frontal view reference images. However, it is

论石油企业政工管理存在的问题及解决对策%On the Problems Existing in the Political Work Management of Petroleum Enterprises and the Countermeasures

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

郭忠臣

2016-01-01

Ideological and political work is the focus of enterprise management and can play a huge role in many aspects, including enterprise development.By studying the political work management of China’s oil enterprises,it is not difficult to find many problems,some have even hindered the oil companies to improve the level of political work management,the development of enterprises is also extremely unfavorable.Analyzes the problem of political work management in petroleum enterprises,and puts forward some countermeasures to solve the problems,hoping to provide help for oil enterprises to perfect their own management.%思政管理工作是企业管理的重点，能够在包括企业发展在内的很多工作上发挥巨大作用。通过研究我国石油企业的政工管理，不难发现诸多问题，有些甚至已经阻碍了石油企业的政工管理工作水平提升，对企业的发展也极其不利。分析了石油企业政工管理问题，并就解决问题提出了对策，希望能够为石油企业完善自身管理提供帮助。

Strategic political postures and political market orientation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ormrod, Robert P.; Henneberg, Stephan C.

2010-01-01

by developing an integrated concept of political marketing strategy using two complementary frameworks, namely Strategic Political Postures (SPP) and Political Market Orientation (PMO). We introduce the two main concepts and derive for each of the strategic posture-specific PMO profiles as well as inter......Recently, the areas of strategic political marketing and political market orientation have been the subject of several conceptual articles which have provided the theoretical foundations for further empirical work. However, despite the close conceptual relatedness of the proposed concepts......, these have yet to be integrated to provide a more nuanced framework which both researchers and political marketing practitioners can utilise in the development of strategies and offerings with which to achieve their organizational goals. The aim of this conceptual paper is to address this deficit...

Exploring Women's Understanding of Politics, Political Contestation ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Exploring Women's Understanding of Politics, Political Contestation and Gender ... First, researchers will explore women's political leadership and the extent to ... Sign up now for IDRC news and views sent directly to your inbox each month.

Political symbols and political transitions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Herrero de Miñón, Miguel

2006-11-01

Full Text Available Politics, Law and Psychology are fields that come together in the symbolic. This text takes evidence from those three areas to develop an analysis of political symbols and political transitions. The development of the analysis goes through three stages. The first succinctly describes the concept of transition and its meaning. The second closely examines the notion of the symbol, in terms of its definition, to explain aspects that allow us to understand it, characterise it and make its functions clear. Finally, from the author's experience as a witness and as an actor, I suggest three ways of understanding symbols in the processes of political transition: as symbols of change, as symbols of acknowledgment, and as symbols of support.

Political Education as a Means of Political Socialization.

Science.gov (United States)

Grabe, Weronika; Knobelsdorf, Wodzimierz

1980-01-01

This essay describes the dimensions of political socialization with systematic political education as a major component. Both promote individual acceptance of political norms--particularly where government and school systems are tightly linked. The authors argue that political socialization should promote effective citizenship rather than simply…

Identities of the political theory: among science, normativity and history

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ricardo Silva

2008-12-01

Full Text Available This article aims to present a brief overview of the evolving debates on the problem of the identity of political theory, mainly in the Anglophone academic context since the end of the 1950’s. At least three ways of identifying the nature of political theory have shaped those de-bates: the scientistic, the normative and the historical.

Democracy, political representation, leadership and the institutional question. Debates on the theory and practice of politics in contemporary democracies

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Hernán Fair

2017-02-01

Full Text Available This paper analyzes the problem of political representation in contemporary democracies, its links with the role of political leadership and the institutional issue. In the first part, it examines the debates on political representation from the predominant perspectives of Latin American political science and critiques from alternative views of the discipline. The second part focuses on representative democracies today, examining the links and tensions between Laclau´s post-foundational theory of populism and neo-institutionalist political science. The last part critiques laclausian theory of populism, distinguishing conceptually between the institutional, administrative and pluralistic elements and the liberal tradition, which appears juxtaposed in the laclausian approach, and between the populist (post-foundational and ideological (foundational forms, on the basis of the analytical differences between authoritarianism, dictatorship and totalitarism. After that, some resources of the classical tradition of democracy and republicanism are incorporated, which are sub-theorized in Laclau’s approach. Finally, these tools are used to conceptualize and analyze two dimensions, defined as participatory-horizontal-popular and representative-pluralist, which tend to construct a post-foundational theory of radical democracy for the twenty-first century.

Heat transfer for plasma facing components

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boyd, R.D.; Meng, X.; Maughan, H.

1995-01-01

Although the high heat flux requirements for plasma-facing components have been reduced drastically from 40.0 MW/m 2 to near 10.0 MW/m 2 , there are still some refinements needed. This paper highlights: (1) recent accomplishments and pinpoints new thermal solutions and problem areas of immediate concern to the development of plasma-facing components, and (2) next generation thermal hydraulic problems which must be addressed to insure safety and reliability in component operation. More specifically the near-term thermal hydraulic problems entail: (1) generating an appropriate data base to insure the development of single-side heat flux correlations; and (2) adapting the existing vast uniform heat flux literature to the case of non-uniform heat flux distributions found in plasma facing components in fusion reactors. Results are presented for the latter task which includes: (a) an accurate subcooled flow boiling curve correlation for the partial nucleate boiling regime which can be adapted using previously proposed correlations relating single-side boundary heat flux to heat transfer, in uniformly heated channels, (b) the evaluation of the possibility of using the existing literature directly with redefined parameters, and (c) an estimation of circumferential variations in the heat transfer coefficient

A Markov Random Field Groupwise Registration Framework for Face Recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Liao, Shu; Shen, Dinggang; Chung, Albert C S

2014-04-01

In this paper, we propose a new framework for tackling face recognition problem. The face recognition problem is formulated as groupwise deformable image registration and feature matching problem. The main contributions of the proposed method lie in the following aspects: (1) Each pixel in a facial image is represented by an anatomical signature obtained from its corresponding most salient scale local region determined by the survival exponential entropy (SEE) information theoretic measure. (2) Based on the anatomical signature calculated from each pixel, a novel Markov random field based groupwise registration framework is proposed to formulate the face recognition problem as a feature guided deformable image registration problem. The similarity between different facial images are measured on the nonlinear Riemannian manifold based on the deformable transformations. (3) The proposed method does not suffer from the generalizability problem which exists commonly in learning based algorithms. The proposed method has been extensively evaluated on four publicly available databases: FERET, CAS-PEAL-R1, FRGC ver 2.0, and the LFW. It is also compared with several state-of-the-art face recognition approaches, and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method consistently achieves the highest recognition rates among all the methods under comparison.

National narration and Politics of Memory in post-socialist Georgia

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Dundua Salome

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The article is dedicated to analyse the politics of so called “historical memory” during the state-building and nation-building process in post-socialist Georgia After the Rose Revolution 2003, the new government that aimed at building the “new Georgia,” implementing radical changes in many key spheres, including institutions, readdressing the totalitarian past, faced number of problematic manifestations in political and cultural life in this post-Soviet country. The “politics of memory” became one of the key factors of reconstructing of “new, democratic, western Georgia”. This process can be evaluated as leading toward state nationalism. Analyzing the politics of memory, symbolism is the most notable attitude and that is why former President Mikheil Saakashvili used commemorative ceremonies continuously. The authors argue in favour of approach, that the so called “memory politics” is the integral part of one’s legitimacy building, but at the same time, it can be used as tool for reconsidering of Polity’s future and mobilization of population under the “citizenship” umbrella towards the strong loyalty to the actual and future state-building.

On the solution of fluid flow and heat transfer problem in a 2D channel with backward-facing step

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Alexander A. Fomin

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The stable stationary solutions of the test problem of hydrodynamics and heat transfer in a plane channel with the backward-facing step have been considered in the work for extremely high Reynolds numbers and expansion ratio of the stream $ER$. The problem has been solved by numerical integration of the 2D Navier–Stokes equations in ‘velocity-pressure’ formulation and the heat equation in the range of Reynolds number $500 \\leqslant \\mathrm{ Re} \\leqslant 3000$ and expansion ratio $1.43 \\leqslant ER \\leqslant 10$ for Prandtl number $\\mathrm{ Pr} = 0.71$. Validity of the results has been confirmed by comparing them with literature data. Detailed flow patterns, fields of stream overheating, and profiles of horizontal component of velocity and relative overheating of flow in the cross section of the channel have been presented. Complex behaviors of the coefficients of friction, hydrodynamic resistance and heat transfer (Nusselt number along the channel depending on the problem parameters have been analyzed.

A solution for maintenance-related problems in the power generating industry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Delamarian, C [Institute of Welding and Material Testing, Timisoara (Romania); Kautz, H R

1999-12-31

Important political, social and economic changes in the Europe of the end of the century have had important repercussions in the field of energy generation. A general trend to an opened energy market was encountered not only in the East European (former communist) countries, but also in other West European and overseas countries. Since the continuous aging equipment is far away to be renewed (mainly because of financial reasons), people charged with maintenance responsibilities in power plants are facing with increasing problems. A solution to these problems was developed in the last years within the framework of a cooperation project between ISIM (Institute of Welding and Material Testing) of Timisoara, Romania and GKM (Mannheim Central Power Plant), Germany. A project was developed to support the O and M activities in the field of energy generation. The idea, the way of development and implementation, and estimated results will be presented. (orig.) 436 refs.

A solution for maintenance-related problems in the power generating industry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Delamarian, C. [Institute of Welding and Material Testing, Timisoara (Romania); Kautz, H.R.

1998-12-31

Important political, social and economic changes in the Europe of the end of the century have had important repercussions in the field of energy generation. A general trend to an opened energy market was encountered not only in the East European (former communist) countries, but also in other West European and overseas countries. Since the continuous aging equipment is far away to be renewed (mainly because of financial reasons), people charged with maintenance responsibilities in power plants are facing with increasing problems. A solution to these problems was developed in the last years within the framework of a cooperation project between ISIM (Institute of Welding and Material Testing) of Timisoara, Romania and GKM (Mannheim Central Power Plant), Germany. A project was developed to support the O and M activities in the field of energy generation. The idea, the way of development and implementation, and estimated results will be presented. (orig.) 436 refs.

Political party affiliation, political ideology and mortality.

Science.gov (United States)

Pabayo, Roman; Kawachi, Ichiro; Muennig, Peter

2015-05-01

Ecological and cross-sectional studies have indicated that conservative political ideology is associated with better health. Longitudinal analyses of mortality are needed because subjective assessments of ideology may confound subjective assessments of health, particularly in cross-sectional analyses. Data were derived from the 2008 General Social Survey-National Death Index data set. Cox proportional analysis models were used to determine whether political party affiliation or political ideology was associated with time to death. Also, we attempted to identify whether self-reported happiness and self-rated health acted as mediators between political beliefs and time to death. In this analysis of 32,830 participants and a total follow-up time of 498,845 person-years, we find that political party affiliation and political ideology are associated with mortality. However, with the exception of independents (adjusted HR (AHR)=0.93, 95% CI 0.90 to 0.97), political party differences are explained by the participants' underlying sociodemographic characteristics. With respect to ideology, conservatives (AHR=1.06, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.12) and moderates (AHR=1.06, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.11) are at greater risk for mortality during follow-up than liberals. Political party affiliation and political ideology appear to be different predictors of mortality. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Reentry challenges facing women with mental health problems.

Science.gov (United States)

Visher, Christy A; Bakken, Nicholas W

2014-01-01

Women entering the correctional system represent a population at high risk for mental health and the body of research on the mental health needs of women offenders is growing. These mental health problems pose challenges for women at every stage of the criminal justice process, from arrest to incarceration to community reentry and reintegration. In this article, we examined mental health status among a sample of 142 women leaving confinement and the role that mental health problems played in shaping their reentry outcomes using data collected between 2002 and 2005 in Houston, Texas. In the year after leaving prison, women with mental health problems reported poorer health, more hospitalizations, more suicidal thoughts, greater difficulties securing housing and employment, more involvement in criminal behavior, and less financial support from family than women with no indication of mental health problems. However, mental health status did not increase the likelihood of substance use relapse or reincarceration. The article concludes with a discussion of recommendations for improved policy and practice.

Identity Implications of Influence Goals: A Revised Analysis of Face-Threatening Acts and Application to Seeking Compliance with Same-Sex Friends.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Steven R.; Aleman, Carlos G.; Leatham, Geoff B.

1998-01-01

Challenges and revises politeness theory by analyzing potential implications for both parties' face when the logical preconditions for seeking compliance are framed by specific influence goals. Tests undergraduate students' imagining asking favors, giving advice, and enforcing obligations with same-sex friends. Finds perceived face threats varied…

Facing competitive pressures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weinrich, H.

1994-01-01

This article discusses the problems facing the electric power industry and professional personnel as a result of economic downturn and the resulting down sizing of individual companies and utilities. The author proposes that the most efficient use of technology will have greater impact in making a utility more competitive than reducing the head count

Local communities’ consolidation process: political factors

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V. V. Fedorenko

2017-04-01

It has been underlined that the local communities’ consolidation process in the contemporary world is the problem which has both empirical and theoretical importance. Depending on the size of the local area, local polices are taking different forms. As usual, they provide an agreement and compromise solutions based on issues that are important to the local community. The experience of the developed democracies has shown that local assemblies ensure the establishment of coalitions based on short-termed procedures. The study has tested that an important aspect of the formation of local communities consolidated position is based on development issues and civil participation. It is especially visible in the United States and the EU countries. The municipality level determines the quality of local political bodies, which is formed on party basis. For contemporary Ukraine important tools for provision of political responsibility are forces, which take care about the local communities and determine their development for a long period. Overall, the consolidation of political forces in the local government system is an important task that determines the need for the adoption of regulatory instruments which would ensure the harmonious and constructive political cooperation regardless of their ideological positions.

The politics of nuclear safety regulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adam, G.

2002-01-01

The paper discusses political aspects of decision making about the safety of nuclear power plants especially in Eastern Europe and in connection with the enlargement of the European Union. The problem of the Kozloduy NPP safety is also discussed. Recommendations on the policy and tasks for nuclear regulators are given

Democracy, Corruption and the Politics of Spirits in Contemporary Indonesia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bubandt, Nils Ole

Indonesia has been an electoral democracy for more than a decade, and yet the political landscape of the world’s third-largest democracy is as complex and enigmatic as ever. Indonesia is simultaneous a country that has achieved a successful transition to democracy and a flawed, illiberal......, and predatory democracy. This book provides a portrait of Indonesia’s contradictory democracy through a series of biographical accounts of political entrepreneurs, from the political ‘periphery’ of North Maluku and the ‘political centre’ of East Java respectively. Each biographical account is focused on one...... contentious area of democracy in Indonesia – elections, corruption, decentralization, and regional representation. The chapters explore the intimate ways in which the political world and the spirit world are entangled. The core argument of the book is that Indonesia’s seemingly peculiar problems...

3D Face modeling using the multi-deformable method.

Science.gov (United States)

Hwang, Jinkyu; Yu, Sunjin; Kim, Joongrock; Lee, Sangyoun

2012-09-25

In this paper, we focus on the problem of the accuracy performance of 3D face modeling techniques using corresponding features in multiple views, which is quite sensitive to feature extraction errors. To solve the problem, we adopt a statistical model-based 3D face modeling approach in a mirror system consisting of two mirrors and a camera. The overall procedure of our 3D facial modeling method has two primary steps: 3D facial shape estimation using a multiple 3D face deformable model and texture mapping using seamless cloning that is a type of gradient-domain blending. To evaluate our method's performance, we generate 3D faces of 30 individuals and then carry out two tests: accuracy test and robustness test. Our method shows not only highly accurate 3D face shape results when compared with the ground truth, but also robustness to feature extraction errors. Moreover, 3D face rendering results intuitively show that our method is more robust to feature extraction errors than other 3D face modeling methods. An additional contribution of our method is that a wide range of face textures can be acquired by the mirror system. By using this texture map, we generate realistic 3D face for individuals at the end of the paper.

Computer-mediated and face-to-face communication in metastatic cancer support groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Vilhauer, Ruvanee P

2014-08-01

To compare the experiences of women with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) in computer-mediated and face-to-face support groups. Interviews from 18 women with MBC, who were currently in computer-mediated support groups (CMSGs), were examined using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The CMSGs were in an asynchronous mailing list format; women communicated exclusively via email. All the women were also, or had previously been, in a face-to-face support group (FTFG). CMSGs had both advantages and drawbacks, relative to face-to-face groups (FTFGs), for this population. Themes examined included convenience, level of support, intimacy, ease of expression, range of information, and dealing with debilitation and dying. CMSGs may provide a sense of control and a greater level of support. Intimacy may take longer to develop in a CMSG, but women may have more opportunities to get to know each other. CMSGs may be helpful while adjusting to a diagnosis of MBC, because women can receive support without being overwhelmed by physical evidence of disability in others or exposure to discussions about dying before they are ready. However, the absence of nonverbal cues in CMSGs also led to avoidance of topics related to death and dying when women were ready to face them. Agendas for discussion, the presence of a facilitator or more time in CMSGs may attenuate this problem. The findings were discussed in light of prevailing research and theories about computer-mediated communication. They have implications for designing CMSGs for this population.

Summary Authoritarialism as Political Regime: Analysis of Historical and Empirical Studies

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O. D. Grossman

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This article is devoted to the problems of existence of authoritarian regimes. The ambiguity of the resulting data determines the importance of the considered research. Authoritarianism is quite complicated socio-political phenomenon. For this reason, there are a lot of typologies and special features of authoritarianism as a political regime. Authoritarianism is not only a political regime, but it is also a set of social and political characteristics. Some countries, where the authoritarian tendencies dominate, are economically developed, and they have a competitive economy, but other countries, which are steeped in a reactionary authoritarian, do not develop properly. From the materials of this article it should be concluded that the political regime in Russia is principally authoritarian, or to be specific it is liberal authoritarian regime. This political regime has been established for the whole history of our country, and it is supported by paternalistic political culture and special mindset our nation.

The Relationship Between Teacher Behavior Toward Students and Student Political Attitudes: The Development of Political Cynicism.

Science.gov (United States)

Rossell, Christine H.; Hawley, Willis D.

By examining the attitudes and perceptions of 1625 fifth grade students in North Carolina, this study tested the hypothesis that the way teachers treat their students can have an effect on their political attitudes. It was found that when teachers treat students fairly and show interest in their ideas and problems, students are less politically…

HOW MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS USE LOBBYING AND ADVOCACY TO MITIGATE POLITICAL RISKS

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Violeta Iftinchi

2018-05-01

Full Text Available In their international activities multinational corporations (MNCs face various risks. Political risk is one of them. Expropriations, transfer and convertibility restrictions, breach of contracts, acts of terrorism, domestic political violence or other adverse regulatory changes and/or negative government action represent forms of political risks. Incorporating political risk in their risk management strategies becomes a necessity for MNCs in their search for profits and new markets. This article presents how MNCs use lobbying and advocacy as means to engage with governments and politicians in the country of origin (home country, in the country where a MNC has operations (host country or at international level (by creating ties with international organisations in order to mitigate political risks. The case of Repsol and its investment in Argentina is used to demonstrate the application of such tools. The article presents two limitations that might determine the success or failure of MNCs’ lobbying and advocacy activities: governments' unpredictable views towards MNCs and reputational risks. The article has also identified a main difficulty in identifying and examining MNCs way of using lobbying and advocacy to engage with government officials and politicians. This difficulty comes from the informal character of such contacts which makes lobbying and advocacy almost impossible to identify.

Politics of Deceit and Reality in Africa: A Study of Joseph Edoki's ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

These problems range from bribery and corruption by the political leaders and government officials, economic deprivation of the plebeians, the tendency to loot and embezzle government funds, the naked lust for power and wealth, the rigging and manipulation of election results, the killing, maiming and burning of political ...

'Glocal' politics of scale on environmental issues: Climate change, water and forests

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gupta, J.; Padt, F.; Opdam, P.; Polman, N.; Termeer, C.

2014-01-01

The lack of objective ability to define the level of a problem leads to the politics of scale. A multidisciplinary, glocal approach helps scholars and policymakers to transcend such territorial traps and understand how scale is used as a political tool by social actors. This chapter explains how a

Pose-invariant face recognition using Markov random fields.

Science.gov (United States)

Ho, Huy Tho; Chellappa, Rama

2013-04-01

One of the key challenges for current face recognition techniques is how to handle pose variations between the probe and gallery face images. In this paper, we present a method for reconstructing the virtual frontal view from a given nonfrontal face image using Markov random fields (MRFs) and an efficient variant of the belief propagation algorithm. In the proposed approach, the input face image is divided into a grid of overlapping patches, and a globally optimal set of local warps is estimated to synthesize the patches at the frontal view. A set of possible warps for each patch is obtained by aligning it with images from a training database of frontal faces. The alignments are performed efficiently in the Fourier domain using an extension of the Lucas-Kanade algorithm that can handle illumination variations. The problem of finding the optimal warps is then formulated as a discrete labeling problem using an MRF. The reconstructed frontal face image can then be used with any face recognition technique. The two main advantages of our method are that it does not require manually selected facial landmarks or head pose estimation. In order to improve the performance of our pose normalization method in face recognition, we also present an algorithm for classifying whether a given face image is at a frontal or nonfrontal pose. Experimental results on different datasets are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Political Science and Political Geography: Neglected Areas, Areas for Development.

Science.gov (United States)

Laponce, J. A.

1983-01-01

Since at least the 1950s, political scientists have tended to ignore the possible contributions of political geography to political science because of a move away from considering spatial factors on political structure. Political scientists need to use more information from geography to enhance their understanding of political power and conflict.…

Difficulties faced by eighth grade students in the learning of linear equation problems at a high school in Heredia

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Gilberto Chavarría Arroyo

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The current article presents the results of a study that aimed to analyze the difficulties faced by eighth grade students when learning to solve algebraic problems based on linear equations with one unknown variable. The participants were learners with low average performance in mathematics at a high school in Heredia. The research followed a naturalistic paradigm and the case study method with a qualitative approach. Different techniques like class observations, questionnaires to students, non-structured interviews to teachers and interviews to the learners were applied. The research helped to identify the main causes of difficulty when learning to solve algebraic problems. Some of the causes that were identified are affective aspects, lack of previous knowledge, poor relational understanding, fatigue, diversion, reading deficiencies and misunderstanding of terminology.

Effects of Political Knowledge on Political Tolerance

Science.gov (United States)

Hall, John Powell

2018-01-01

Sexual orientation continues to be an explosive issue in American classrooms. Increasing the political knowledge of students can reduce the volatility of this explosive issue by increasing tolerance toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. This relationship between political knowledge and political tolerance has been…

PROBLEMATIC FEATURES OF THE POLITICAL DECISION MAKERS

OpenAIRE

Aleksey Sergeevih Voynov

2014-01-01

Purpose: identify the most important features in the process of making political decisions that affect the effectiveness of problem-solving situationsScientific novelty: as a result of the analysis identified the problematic features of major importance for the efficiency of the development and adoption of the most rational solution to a problem situation.Results: the analysis of the most significant features affecting the quality of decisions among them the interest of the person making deci...

Problems of judiciary trust

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Vuković Slobodan

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Topic of the article is problem of trust in judiciary as a most important part of legal system. For all empirical researches so far have shown very law degree of this trust many authors were searching for the causes of this phenomenon. Among multifold causes some are special worth while to be mentioned here: historical inheritance, political pressures, delaying of judiciary decisions, respect of the laws, transferring of responsibility from political power to the judiciary, public comments of judiciary decisions, media pressures, efficiency of judiciary and police. Among inner factors author pays attention to competency of judges, modes of penal policy, modes of judges’ entitlement, problems of communication, involvement into criminal and corruptional affairs, etc.

The Unreasonable Destructiveness of Political Correctness in Philosophy

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Manuel Doria

2017-08-01

Full Text Available I submit that epistemic progress in key areas of contemporary academic philosophy has been compromised by politically correct (“PC” ideology. First, guided by an evolutionary account of ideology, results from social and cognitive psychology and formal philosophical methods, I expose evidence for political bias in contemporary Western academia and sketch a formalization for the contents of beliefs from the PC worldview taken to be of core importance, the theory of social oppression and the thesis of anthropological mental egalitarianism. Then, aided by discussions from contemporary epistemology on epistemic values, I model the problem of epistemic appraisal using the frameworks of multi-objective optimization theory and multi-criteria decision analysis and apply it to politically correct philosophy. I conclude that philosophy guided by politically correct values is bound to produce constructs that are less truth-conducive and that spurious values which are ideologically motivated should be abandoned. Objections to my framework stemming from contextual empiricism, the feminine voice in ethics and political philosophy are considered. I conclude by prescribing the epistemic value of epistemic adequacy, the contextual value of political diversity and the moral virtue of moral courage to reverse unwarranted trends in academic philosophy due to PC ideology.

Disagreement at the Academy: discursive strategies to protect and save speakers' face

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Verbena Lúcia Medeiros Costa

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Our aim in this study is to investigate the linguistic strategies professors use at the University to mitigate their disagreements, reach their academic and scientific interests and save each others’ face. Disagreement is a threatening speech act which threatens the individual’s positive face. It implies criticism, disapproval and contradicts our desire to be socially approved and appreciated. At the Academy it seems to be much more complex, hence the necessity to be studied. Our study is based on Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory (1978, 1987; on Goffman’s idea of face (1967 and on some assumptions of Conversation Analysis. The result suggests that professors care about each other’s face and also about their social relationships and, to preserve them, use different mitigating strategies, but they will not hesitate to prove that their ideas are the most reasonable and must be adopted.

A blended learning approach to teaching basic pharmacokinetics and the significance of face-to-face interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Edginton, Andrea; Holbrook, Jane

2010-06-15

To assess pharmacy students' attitudes towards a blended-learning pharmacokinetics course. Narrated visual presentations and animations that illustrated kinetic processes and guided students through the use of software programs used for calculations were created. Other learning techniques used included online self-assessment quizzes, practice problem sets, and weekly face-to-face problem-solving tutorials. A precourse questionnaire to assess students' level of enthusiasm towards the blended-learning course and to solicit any concerns they had was administered at the beginning of the course. A postcourse questionnaire that included the same 4 Likert-scale items from the precourse questionnaire and follow-up open-ended questions was administered. Individual changes in level of enthusiasm were compared for individuals who completed both the precourse and postcourse questionnaire. Students' concerns about the blended method of learning had decreased postcourse while their enthusiasm for the benefits of blended learning had increased. Students' initial concerns about the blended learning experience were focused on their ability to communicate with the instructor about the online components, but shifted to their own time management skills at the end of the course. Face-to-face interactions with each other and with the instructor were more highly rated than online interactions in this course.

About Politeness, Face, and Feedback: Exploring Resident and Faculty Perceptions of How Institutional Feedback Culture Influences Feedback Practices.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramani, Subha; Könings, Karen D; Mann, Karen V; Pisarski, Emily E; van der Vleuten, Cees P M

2018-03-06

To explore resident and faculty perspectives on what constitutes feedback culture, their perceptions of how institutional feedback culture (including politeness concepts) might influence the quality and impact of feedback, feedback seeking, receptivity, and readiness to engage in bidirectional feedback. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, five focus group discussions with internal medicine residents, three focus group discussions with general medicine faculty, and eight individual interviews with subspecialist faculty were conducted at Brigham and Women's Hospital between April and December 2016. Discussions and interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim; concurrent data collection and analysis were performed using the constant comparative approach. Analysis was considered through the lens of politeness theory and organizational culture. Twenty-nine residents and twenty-two general medicine faculty participated in focus group discussions, and eight subspecialty faculty participated in interviews. The institutional feedback culture was described by participants as: (1) a culture of politeness, in which language potentially damaging to residents' self-esteem was discouraged, and (2) a culture of excellence, in which the institution's outstanding reputation and pedigree of trainees inhibited constructive feedback. Three key themes situated within this broader cultural context were discovered: normalizing constructive feedback to promote a culture of growth, overcoming the mental block to feedback seeking, and hierarchical culture impeding bidirectional feedback. An institutional feedback culture of excellence and politeness may impede honest, meaningful feedback and may impact feedback seeking, receptivity, and bidirectional feedback exchanges. It is essential to understand the institutional feedback culture before it can be successfully changed.

Current problems of nuclear arms: some options

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bocharov, I.F.

1992-01-01

Possible solutions of certain problems of the soviet nuclear weapons resulting from spontaneously changing military-political situation and social-economical living conditions on geostrategical space of the former USSR are discussed. Reliable stabilization of military-political situation on the former USSR territory is required for solving the above problems, which in its turn will possibly require active efforts of the international community. The idea on creation the Committee on non-prolifiration by the UN Security Council is proposed

Ethical Challenges Facing Greenland in the Present Era of Globalization: Towards Global Responsibility

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Jacob Dahl Rendtorff

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Recently, the developments of ethics and politics in the Arctic region have again become an issue for international discussion. One main issue is the problem of climate change and sustainability of the Arctic region. This problem is linked to the issue of exploitation of natural resources in the Arctic region, not at least in Greenland. Indeed, the general issue is how we should define ethics of the environment and sustainability as a general principle for the Arctic region. It is important to discuss what is at stake and how we define the problem in relation to the different participating stakeholders. This paper deals with these problems as a case for global ethics and it proposes a vision of ethical and political responsibility for sustainable development in order to deal with such problems.

Do organizational and political-legal arrangements explain financial wrongdoing?

Science.gov (United States)

Prechel, Harland; Zheng, Lu

2016-12-01

The 2008 financial crisis was a systemic problem with deep-rooted structural causes that created opportunities to engage in financial malfeasance, a form of corporate wrongdoing. However, few quantitative studies exist on the effects of organizational and political-legal arrangements on financial malfeasance. In this paper, we examine the effects of organizational and political-legal arrangements that emerged in the 1990s in the FIRE sector (i.e., financial, insurance, and real estate) on financial malfeasance. Our historical contextualization demonstrates how changes in the political-legal arrangements facilitate the emergence of new corporate structures and opportunities for financial malfeasance. Our longitudinal quantitative analysis demonstrates that US FIRE sector corporations with a more complex organizational structure, larger size, lower dividend payment, and higher executive compensation are more prone to commit financial malfeasance. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2016.

Recognition of Face and Emotional Facial Expressions in Autism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammed Tayyib Kadak

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Autism is a genetically transferred neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by severe and permanent deficits in many interpersonal relation areas like communication, social interaction and emotional responsiveness. Patients with autism have deficits in face recognition, eye contact and recognition of emotional expression. Both recognition of face and expression of facial emotion carried on face processing. Structural and functional impairment in fusiform gyrus, amygdala, superior temporal sulcus and other brain regions lead to deficits in recognition of face and facial emotion. Therefore studies suggest that face processing deficits resulted in problems in areas of social interaction and emotion in autism. Studies revealed that children with autism had problems in recognition of facial expression and used mouth region more than eye region. It was also shown that autistic patients interpreted ambiguous expressions as negative emotion. In autism, deficits related in various stages of face processing like detection of gaze, face identity, recognition of emotional expression were determined, so far. Social interaction impairments in autistic spectrum disorders originated from face processing deficits during the periods of infancy, childhood and adolescence. Recognition of face and expression of facial emotion could be affected either automatically by orienting towards faces after birth, or by “learning” processes in developmental periods such as identity and emotion processing. This article aimed to review neurobiological basis of face processing and recognition of emotional facial expressions during normal development and in autism.

A steady state solution for ditch drainage problem with special reference to seepage face and unsaturated zone flow contribution: Derivation of a new drainage spacing eqaution

Science.gov (United States)

Yousfi, Ammar; Mechergui, Mohammed

2016-04-01

The seepage face is an important feature of the drainage process when recharge occurs to a permeable region with lateral outlets. Examples of the formation of a seepage face above the downstream water level include agricultural land drained by ditches. Flow problem to these drains has been investigated extensively by many researchers (e.g. Rubin, 1968; Hornberger et al. 1969; Verma and Brutsaert, 1970; Gureghian and Youngs, 1975; Vauclin et al., 1975; Skaggs and Tang, 1976; Youngs, 1990; Gureghian, 1981; Dere, 2000; Rushton and Youngs, 2010; Youngs, 2012; Castro-Orgaz et al., 2012) and may be tackled either using variably saturated flow models, or the complete 2-D solution of Laplace equation, or using the Dupuit-Forchheimer approximation; the most widely accepted methods to obtain analytical solutions for unconfined drainage problems. However, the investigation reported by Clement et al. (1996) suggest that accounting for the seepage face alone, as in the fully saturated flow model, does not improve the discharge estimate because of disregarding flow the unsaturated zone flow contribution. This assumption can induce errors in the location of the water table surface and results in an underestimation of the seepage face and the net discharge (e.g. Skaggs and Tang, 1976; Vauclin et al., 1979; Clement et al., 1996). The importance of the flow in the unsaturated zone has been highlighted by many authors on the basis of laboratory experiments and/or numerical experimentations (e.g. Rubin, 1968; Verma and Brutsaert, 1970; Todsen, 1973; Vauclin et al., 1979; Ahmad et al., 1993; Anguela, 2004; Luthin and Day, 1955; Shamsai and Narasimhan, 1991; Wise et al., 1994; Clement et al., 1996; Boufadel et al., 1999; Romano et al., 1999; Kao et al., 2001; Kao, 2002). These studies demonstrate the failure of fully saturated flow models and suggested that the error made when using these models not only depends on soil properties but also on the infiltration rate as reported by Kao et

Information Factor Color Revolutions and Modern Technology Dismantling of Political Regimes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrey Victorovich Manoylo

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes the problems associated with the dismantling of the political regimes in modern states (both authoritarian and democratic type and the role of technology in the process of color revolutions. Problems of dismantling of political regimes and the associated problems of color revolutions acquire extreme urgency and actuality in modern conditions. In the world history always there were problems associated with the dismantling of the political regimes. But formerly the instruments of dismantling included mostly violent methods in the classical sense, applied in armed coups, local armed conflicts, civil wars and military interventions. And the international community managed to develop effective methods to counter these threats and to create effective mechanisms for political control of these processes, even at the international level. Acuteness of the problem associated with the threat of military coups in the various countries of the world does not cease to be actual and not removed from the agenda, but for the whole international community this category of threats is familiar, and the world community knows how to react to it. However, today the world is changing, and technologies of armed coups are replaced by more subtle color revolutions technology that is cleverly disguised as a true revolutionary movement and virtually unopposed from both countries witch fully developed democracy and of the Oriental type, preserved traditional livelihoods. Repetition of the scenario of color revolutions in Ukraine causes legitimate concern (well founded anxiety, since there is growing confidence that Ukraine -not the end point of this scenario, but simply a bargaining chip to the geopolitical game in which the brunt of American directors (producers of color revolutions may be directed to Russia, China and Kazakhstan.

Information Factor Color Revolutions and Modern Technology Dismantling of Political Regimes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrey Victorovich Manoylo

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes the problems associated with the dismantling of the political regimes in modern states (both authoritarian and democratic type and the role of technology in the process of color revolutions. Problems of dismantling of political regimes and the associated problems of color revolutions acquire extreme urgency and actuality in modern conditions. In the world history always there were problems associated with the dismantling of the political regimes. But formerly the instruments of dismantling included mostly violent methods in the classical sense, applied in armed coups, local armed conflicts, civil wars and military interventions. And the international community managed to develop effective methods to counter these threats and to create effective mechanisms for political control of these processes, even at the international level. Acuteness of the problem associated with the threat of military coups in the various countries of the world does not cease to be actual and not removed from the agenda, but for the whole international community this category of threats is familiar, and the world community knows how to react to it. However, today the world is changing, and technologies of armed coups are replaced by more subtle color revolutions technology that is cleverly disguised as a true revolutionary movement and virtually unopposed from both- countries witch fully developed democracy and of the Oriental type, preserved traditional livelihoods. Repetition of the scenario of color revolutions in Ukraine causes legitimate concern (well founded anxiety, since there is growing confidence that Ukraine -not the end point of this scenario, but simply a bargaining chip to the geopolitical game in which the brunt of American directors (producers of color revolutions may be directed to Russia, China and Kazakhstan.

[Treatment goals in FACE philosophy].

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Domingo; Maté, Amaia; Zabalegui, Paula; Valenzuela, Jaime

2017-03-01

The FACE philosophy is characterized by clearly defined treatment goals: facial esthetics, dental esthetics, periodontal health, functional occlusion, neuromuscular mechanism and joint function. The purpose is to establish ideal occlusion with good facial esthetics and an orthopedic stable joint position. The authors present all the concepts of FACE philosophy and illustrate them through one case report. Taking into account all the FACE philosophy concepts increases diagnostic ability and improves the quality and stability of treatment outcomes. The goal of this philosophy is to harmonize the facial profile, tooth alignment, periodontium, functional occlusion, neuromuscular mechanism and joint function. The evaluation and treatment approach to vertical problems are unique to the philosophy. © EDP Sciences, SFODF, 2017.

Contemporary Political Paranoia, a Case of Political Gnosticism

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Antonio Rivera García

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This article puts forward the concept of political paranoia as a useful category to understand some contemporary manifestations of the pathologies of power. For this aim an interdisciplinary approach has been used, namely, the knowledge provided by psychoanalysis, political philosophy, theology and literary or aesthetic studies. Freud’s and Lacan’s psychoanalysis allows us to understand why the paranoid subject is a megalomaniac and hyperrational subject who wants to be in control of everything. It is a sovereign subject, who has adapted not only to the Society of Control initially defined by Deleuze, but also to a conception of philosophy that aims for totality. After dealing with the close relationship between paranoia and conspiratorial political theory, the article explains the reason why contemporary political paranoia represents a case of the most radical political theology: political Gnosticism. This term stands for a conception of politics that reduces the Other to the condition of an absolute enemy that needs to be eliminated. Lastly, the article establishes a close link between the cure for political paranoia and the assumption of an ontology of incompleteness

Cluster randomization and political philosophy.

Science.gov (United States)

Chwang, Eric

2012-11-01

In this paper, I will argue that, while the ethical issues raised by cluster randomization can be challenging, they are not new. My thesis divides neatly into two parts. In the first, easier part I argue that many of the ethical challenges posed by cluster randomized human subjects research are clearly present in other types of human subjects research, and so are not novel. In the second, more difficult part I discuss the thorniest ethical challenge for cluster randomized research--cases where consent is genuinely impractical to obtain. I argue that once again these cases require no new analytic insight; instead, we should look to political philosophy for guidance. In other words, the most serious ethical problem that arises in cluster randomized research also arises in political philosophy. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Untold stories: the human face of poverty dynamics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Prowse, Martin

2008-01-01

Key Points • Life histories offer an important window for policy makers, and should be brought to the policy table much more frequently. • Life histories show the human face of chronic poverty. Such vignettes provide concrete examples of poverty traps – such as insecurity, social discrimination...... have ambivalent effects. • Whilst life histories are not representative, they highlight key themes and processes which are ‘typical’ of individuals with similar sets of sociobiographical characteristics who live in similar social, economic and political circumstances....

Who crosses the norms? Predictors of the readiness for non-normative political participation among adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Šerek, Jan; Machackova, Hana; Macek, Petr

2018-01-01

This study investigated whether adolescents' readiness for non-normative political participation (i.e., readiness to confront social rules for political reasons) was predicted by their interpersonal problems (with parents, teachers, and classmates), low optimism, and political beliefs (political self-efficacy and distrust in public institutions). A structural equation model using two-wave longitudinal data from Czech high school students (N = 768; 54% females; age range at T1 = 14-17, M = 15.97; T2 data collected 1.5 years later) showed that the changes in adolescents' readiness for non-normative participation were predicted by their lower institutional trust. Interpersonal relationships or optimism had no cross-sectional or longitudinal effect on the readiness for non-normative participation. These results suggest that the main source of adolescents' readiness for non-normative political actions lies in their political beliefs, while the effect of adolescents' interpersonal problems is less clear. Copyright © 2017 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Origins of the Children's Vaccine Initiative: the political foundations.

Science.gov (United States)

Muraskin, W

1996-06-01

The Children's Vaccine Initiative (CVI) was founded in 1990-91 as a means to revolutionize the way that vaccines were developed for the South. The system for the creation of vaccines was a dis-articulated one in which basic research, product development and delivery were handled by different, often insufficiently linked groups. The public sector was deeply involved in research and delivery but not the vital product development area. That area was left to the private sector which was increasingly driven by the needs to maximize profits. Potential vaccines for diseases found in the South, where a hard currency market was limited, were often left undeveloped. The CVI was designed to change that situation. The CVI hoped to exploit the discoveries of biotechnology and produce not only new and improved vaccines, but ultimately to work towards a single multi-antigen vaccine given near birth that would immunize children for life. This article deals with the events that directly led to the creation of the CVI, and to the political problems caused by organizational and national rivalries that the new venture faced from its inception.

[Population pressure: a factor of political destabilization].

Science.gov (United States)

Tallon, F

1993-04-01

Political stability throughout the world appears to be greater in countries with slowly growing populations than in those with rapid growth. Population is not the only influence on political stability, however. The relationship between political stability and development is strong. The rich countries with the slowest growth are the most stable, while poor developing countries with rapid growth suffer from chronic instability. Demographic pressure and density are not the same thing and must be distinguished. A fragile environment like that of the Sahel will experience demographic pressure despite low density. Japan has a greater population density than Rwanda and little cultivable land, but the population has a high standard of living. demographic pressure is not comparable in Japan and Rwanda because Japan has slow population growth and stable democratic political institutions. The rate of growth seems to be a more important element in destabilization than density. Rapid growth creates enormous political tensions especially when profound ethnic divisions exist, and it complicates problems of government by encouraging rapid urbanization. The unbalanced age structures resulting from rapid growth hinder the satisfaction of employment, educational, and health care needs for the ever-increasing masses of young people. 49% of Rwanda's population is under 15 and 66% is under 25. Rwanda is already densely populated, with around 300 inhabitants/sq km, and its population is projected to double in 20 years. 95% of the population is dependent on agriculture, but by 1988 the average landholding per family was only 1.25 hectares and 58% of families did not grown sufficient food for household needs. Further reduction in the size of holdings or a growing landless population will have multiple consequences. Urban migration will inevitably increase, bringing with it all the problems so evident in other poor countries where the process is more advanced than in Rwanda. Chaotic

EEG source imaging assists decoding in a face recognition task

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Rasmus S.; Eliasen, Anders U.; Pedersen, Nicolai

2017-01-01

of face recognition. This task concerns the differentiation of brain responses to images of faces and scrambled faces and poses a rather difficult decoding problem at the single trial level. We implement the pipeline using spatially focused features and show that this approach is challenged and source...

International arrangements for nuclear-fuel-cycle facilities: the politics of the problem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Epstein, W.

1977-01-01

Thirty years after the Three-Power Declaration on November 5, 1945, promising effective safeguards on the information exchange on atomic energy, many nations are selling and transferring nuclear materials, equipment, and technology without these ''effective enforceable safeguards.'' Even though there is no actual commercial need to reprocess spent fuel into Pu, France and West Germany are planning to sell reprocessing plants to non-NPT countries. The erosion of faith in and the weakening of the NPT are pointed out. The Canadian decision not to resume nuclear aid to India is commended. The question of how effective and enforceable the international (IAEA/NPT) safeguards are, is addressed. The weaknesses of the London Suppliers' Club position on safeguards are pointed out. Multinational fuel cycle centers would not much help to contain the risks of nuclear proliferation. Additional measures needed for really effective safeguards are listed. The unilateral embargo of nuclear exports by U.S. is proposed. Political measures to discourage nations from acquiring nuclear weapons are also listed. Only a combination of political, psychological, and technical measures can produce an effective nonproliferation regime

The Swedish drug problem: Conceptual understanding and problem handling, 1839–2011

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Edman Johan

2014-12-01

Full Text Available AIM - To analyse the Swedish drug question by examining dominant concepts used to portray the problem in the years 1839-2011. Theoretically, we understand these concepts as ideological tools that shape the political initiatives and administrative efforts to deal with the problem. The study is based on two kinds of source material: articles in medical journals from the years 1839-1964 and public reports on vagrancy, the alcohol problem, mental health and the drug problem from the years 1882-2011.

Defining Political Marketing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ormrod, Robert P.

’ and ‘narrow’ interpretations of political marketing, the nature of the political marketing exchange, political relationship marketing and how one can integrate the stakeholder concept into an understanding of political marketing. Finally, we propose a definition of political marketing that differs from......The aim of this working paper is to develop a definition of political marketing that builds on the political rather than commercial marketing literature. This aim is motivated by the need to make explicit our understanding of what political marketing is, a necessary exercise when discussing theory......, concepts and empirical methods in political marketing. We first present five existing definitions of political marketing that have been selected to represent advances in research from the origins of academic research into political marketing in the mid-1970’s to the present day. After this we discuss ‘wide...

Relationship between Political Discrimination Level Perceived by Teachers and Teachers' Organizational Cynicism Levels

Science.gov (United States)

Keskinkilic Kara, Sultan Bilge; Oguz, Ebru

2016-01-01

Problem Statement: Political discrimination is directed against individuals on the basis of their political party membership and views, including their sociopolitical and moral attitudes. People subjected to discrimination have a high level of professional exhaustion, slow upward career mobility, low morale and performance, less initiative,…

The Impact of Globalization on Political Development in Nigeria ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The Impact of Globalization on Political Development in Nigeria (1999-2007) ... PROMOTING ACCESS TO AFRICAN RESEARCH ... This problem is analyzed in view of attenuated democratic institutions, inefficient public service, and rent ...

Performing Politics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Troy R. E. Paddock

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Walter Benjamin’s observation that fascism turns politics into aesthetics is, by now, a well-worn idea. This article argues that Benjamin’s critique of politics can apply just as much to the modern democratic politics of the United States. Borrowing from Benjamin, Jürgen Habermas, and Carl Schmitt, this article suggests that modern political discourse in the United States does not follow the classical liberal ideal of rational discourse in the marketplace of ideas within the public sphere. Instead, contemporary politics has become spectacle where images and slogans replace thought and debate in a 24/7 news cycle and political infotainment programs. The result is that progressives and conservatives have their own political “ecospheres” which enable them to have their own perspective reinforced, and debate is replaced by straw man arguments and personal attacks.

A Coupled Hidden Conditional Random Field Model for Simultaneous Face Clustering and Naming in Videos

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Yifan; Tang, Zhiqiang; Wu, Baoyuan; Ji, Qiang; Lu, Hanqing

2016-01-01

, we divide the problem into two tasks: face clustering which groups the faces depicting a certain person into a cluster, and name assignment which associates a name to each face. Each task is formulated as a structured prediction problem and modeled

Politics as Culture: Contribution of Political Science to Democratic Maturity

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Ivan Padjen

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The article discusses the contribution of Croatian political science to the development of democracy in Croatia. The focus of the analysis is the concept of culture which author talks about in five steps. In the first step it is understood in the modern key, in the second step as different for nature and in the third as different from society. In the fourth step author differentiates political culture from political economy and political institutions, but in the fifth part there is an attempt to show culture as a fundamental part of politics, policy and polity. On the basis of these insights author shows that the matrix of Croatian political science is more and more devoted to scientific investigation of politics as culture as both study of political culture and as a source of development as politics as culture.

Oil Politics and its Social Implications in the Niger Delta: A Study of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

info

in terms of the people's reaction in the face of this ''death by instalment''. Other writers in the region have ... exploration by Shell usually on the orders of political leaders both in the military and. 'democratic' dispensations whose ... the Niger Delta having most senior military officers on its payrolls. SHELL LOVES THE DELTA.

Legal and Political Obstacles and Opportunities for Successful Nuclear Projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yanovskiy, M.

2014-01-01

Every business suffers from excessive regulations, unpredictable changes in legislation, various kinds of the political rent, extorting practices like 'big business social responsibility' and more. The industries with long-term return-of-investment (ROI) are most vulnerable to political and legal risks. For the nuclear industry, long-lasted public perception of radiation as an imminent threat caused the present over-regulation look natural. Therefore ROI is above two decades, essentially precluding private entrepreneurship activity. While durable solution includes changing public perception and updating regulation, both are 'facts on the ground' and 'habits are hard to break'. Political alliances, appeal to public opinion and lobbying are legitimate methods for promoting industry's interests in a democratic state. However in case of the nuclear industry, bureaucratic and political interests seem too strong to be overpowered by regular lobbying activities. Durable solutions we are searching for should not only eliminate the present legal and political obstacles, but also prevent them in near- to middle-term future. Such solutions would mitigate risks and remove barriers in number of industries, including nuclear industry as well. Particularly, 'not in my backyard' (NIMBY) attitude to nuclear installations is often viewed as a formidable problem. However, this problem has pretty old and reliable solution via compensation for real estate devaluation, if such takes place. Such solution may preclude some projects, but makes others predictable and reliable (e.g. in sparsely populated or relatively poor areas)

Gender Perception From Faces Using Boosted LBPH (Local Binary Patten Histograms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

U. U. Tariq

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Automatic Gender classification from faces has several applications such as surveillance, human computer interaction, targeted advertisement etc. Humans can recognize gender from faces quite accurately but for computer vision it is a difficult task. Many studies have targeted this problem but most of these studies used images of faces taken under constrained conditions. Real-world applications however require to process images from real-world, that have significant variation in lighting and pose, which makes the gender classification task very difficult. We have examined the problem of automatic gender classification from faces on real-world images. Using a face detector faces from images are extracted aligned and represented using Local binary pattern histogram. Discriminative features are selected using Adaboost and the boosted LBP features are used to train a support vector machine that provides a recognition rate of 93.29%.