The Perception Of Afghan-American Leaders Role In Economic Development Efforts In Afghanistan: A Study Of Gender Differences And Repatriation To The Motherland

The majority of Afghanistans best educated and experienced generations of workers have become scattered expatriates living throughout the world. This brain-drain has taken place over a thirty-year period due to continuous violence, tragedy, and war throughout Afghanistan. As such, a rebuilding process now largely depends on the international community. This study of 58 male and 42 female Afghan-American respondents analyzes their perceptions regarding development opportunities in Afghanistan as well as their willingness to take part in the rebuilding process. It appears that there are some differences in the responses of males and females. The younger generation seems to be much more willing to go back and help in the rebuilding process. There seems to be a longevity effect: those who have been away from Afghanistan for a longer period of time are less willing to return for the rebuilding initiatives. Results and implications are presented.

EduBlogs as metaphor

This presentation will discuss a number of recent case studies, contrast examples of private and public edublogs, and explore issues such as learner and instructor roles and responsibilities, learner choices, ethical considerations, learning goals, instructional strategies and activities, and assessment methods. A comparative analysis will be made between private, autonomous, anonymous, embedded, networked, and liminal edublogs. The following metaphors will be used to describe these edublogging environments: incubator, launch pad, sandbox, stage or persona, therapeutic or cathartic, sharing space, rhizome, learning feast, arena, guerrilla war zone, network of practice, slow edublogging, and transformational edublogging.

Ética em pesquisa envolvendo seres humanos: reflexões a partir das experiências da UNIOESTE – ciência e educação

No cenário mundial, a ética em pesquisa envolvendo seres humanos passou a despertou maior atenção principalmente após as atrocidades ocorridas ao longo da Segunda Guerra Mundial. As transformações rápidas e profundas do mundo contemporâneo solicitam maior atenção da sociedade quanto aos princípios éticos que dão rumo sustentável à sociedade e à natureza. O avanço na investigação científica proporciona muito progresso a favor da humanidade, mas, por outro lado, há também muitos desfavorecimentos. Este artigo objetiva, a partir da vivência dos autores como membros efetivos do Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa Envolvendo Seres Humanos da Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná (CEP-UNIOESTE), discutir alguns aspectos éticos no contexto histórico da humanidade, comportar motivos decorrentes das preocupações no que diz respeito aos cuidados éticos em pesquisa envolvendo seres humanos e abordar avanços e retrocessos na atuação do CEP-UNIOESTE diante do controle ético de propostas de investigação envolvendo seres humanos oriundos das regiões Oeste e Sudoeste do Estado do Paraná. Encerra-se a discussão com ponderações sobre a ação educacional no processo de formação do pesquisador para a investigação envolvendo seres humanos a partir de adequações da normatização dos pressupostos éticos envolvendo o investigador e a sociedade.In the world, the ethics in research involving human beings aroused much attention especially after the atrocities that occurred during the Second World War. The fast and deep transformations of the contemporary world request more calls attention of society on the ethical principles that give sustainable direction to society and to nature. The progress in scientific research provides much progress for the mankind, but on the other hand, there are also much disadvantages. This article aims, from the authors experience as effective members of the Committee of Ethics in Research Involving Human Beings of the State University of the West Paraná (CEP-UNIOESTE), discuss some ethical issues in the history of mankind, from the reasons include worries regarding the ethical cares in research involving human beings and boarding advances and setbacks in the performance of the CEP-UNIOESTE, up against of the ethical control of proposals for research involving human beings from the West and Southwest regions of Paraná State. Closing up the discussion to consider about educational action in the researcher training for the investigation involving human beings from the adequacy of the ethical requirements normalization involving the researcher and the society

Trajetórias Tecnológicas em Combustíveis Sintéticos: análise dos mecanismos de seleção e indução

This article identifies and bounds the existence of two technological trajectories on synthetic liquid fuels. This technological trajectory concept is bounded concerning the selection environment and the programs for technological research. It is applicable at technological levels. The selection environment of the first technological trajectory was bounded by the economical and army limitations observed by the countries that did not produce oil. This situation reached its limit at the beginning of the Second World War. The research programs aimed the development of the Fischer-Tropsch process, high-pressure hydrogenation and low temperature carbonization (LTC). The selection environment of the second technological trajectory is bounded by the increase of natural gas reserves, by the environmental restrictions and by the demand for flexibility in the gas and energy chains. The research programs have as objective the production process for the synthesis gas, which is necessary to the Fischer-Tropsch process. The direct conversion of natural gas into synthetic liquid fuels represents the promise of a radical innovation. Finally, the article compares the two trajectories, identifying similarities and differences between them.

A Four-Sided Model for Reading Hypertext Fiction

I will not pursue the issue of a hypertextual competence (or a multimodal hypertextual competence) here. Rather I would like to take a closer look at literary hypertext and electronic literature itself, and the fact that electronic literature, just like print literature, prefigures different modes of reading. I will insist on the necessity of examining what mode of reading and what kind of responses are prefigured in hypertexts when we make conclusions about hypertext reading. I want to approach the topic by putting weight on how Megan Heyward’s Of day, of night (2002) prefigures the reader's response. The aim of this article is to explore some of the preconditions for reading Of day, of night, and to identify three modes of reading in this hypertext fiction. In addition to these three modes I will argue for a fourth mode of reading hypertext fiction. This mode can be identified in several literary hypertexts, but is less relevant for describing the preconditions for reading Heyward's text. Consequently I will make use of other work to exemplify this mode. Four modes of reading are identified and described. These are semantization, exploration, self-reflection and absorption. These modes arise as the reader interacts with textual elements and utilises contextual features. Through the article the modes of reading will be discussed in relation to similar established concepts, such as the four approaches to playing MUDs identified by Richard Bartle (1996), and different attitudes of reading print literature represented in Wolfgang Iser's theory on "die Appellstruktur der Texte" (Iser 1974, 1978), or what he later in his text game theory calls "text game structures" (Iser 1989; 1993). Ignorance, not links, may cause distress The question "how do we read electronic literature or literary hypertext?" has been widely explored (Moulthrop 1991; Kaplan and Moulthrop 1991; Snyder 1997; Miall and Dobson 2001; Ryan 2001; Gardner 2003; Gunder 2004; Mangen 2006; Page 2006). In many of these explorations there are a consensus regarding the views on the reader's experience of literary hypertext. Many critics claim that reading literary hypertext generates frustration and insecurity. They seem to regard hypertext fiction as unstable texts with little or no coherence, and as texts that are at war with institutionalised genres (Memmott 2006). As far as I can see there are two problems concerning the reader aspect in the theory of hypertext. 1) Some of these studies are based on observations and interviews of readers with little or no experience of literary hypertext [2]. 2) The exploration of the reader in these studies does not sufficiently take into account the response structures prefigured in hypertext fiction. Much of the research on hypertext reading partly fails in that it puts too much weight on the response from readers who lack knowledge on hypertext fiction. The readers are not familiar with clicking on links when they read stories, so it seems that the hypertext mechanism is the one to blame for their frustration and insecurity. The consequence is that many studies on hypertext reading suffer from limitations which lessen their valuable contribution to our knowledge about reading hypertext fiction. In her book Literary and Linguistic Approaches to Feminist Narratology (2006) Ruth Page refers to a project where her students read literary hypertexts. Page writes that her students ended up being frustrated when they were reading these texts. She concludes that it is obvious that the students did not enjoy the kind of reading experience that hypertext literature gave. The reason for this might be the power of print conventions, as Page suggests. A more significant reason for the student's response, I think, is that they were unfamiliar with reading this kind of literature. Colin Gardner (2003), which in his study of hypertext reading concludes that hypertext reading causes frustration, admits that none of the participants in his research had had earlier experience of reading hypertext fiction. In other words, it is a lack of an elaborated genre knowledge that made his students frustrated. The same seems to be the case in much of the research on hypertext reading. The readers lack what Anna Gunder (2004) calls a hypertextual competence. Gunder develops the concept "hypertextual competence" from Jonathan Culler's literary competence (Culler 1980). Her point is that just as the reader needs to be familiar with conventions for reading when approaching literary texts, the hypertext reader needs to be familiar with conventions concerning reading hypertext fiction. Today we might just as well add "multimodal" to the concept "hypertextual competence" to emphasise the reader's need to read or interpret different semiotic resources when reading hypertext fiction. The idea of a specific competence for reading hypertext fiction is later and more thoroughly pursued by other scholars, for instance Astrid Ensslin in her book Canonising hypertext: Explorations and Constructions (2007). It is crucial that the readers used as research cases on the reading of hypertext fiction are to some extent familiar with this kind of literature. Otherwise their reading will doubtless be a frustrated and subversive experience, such as the response one of the readers gave Nancy Kaplan in her research on hypertext reading: "Uh, are we reading yet?" (Kaplan and Moulthrop 1991). Kaplan's study is from 1991, when hypertext fiction and doubtless hypertext reading were in an early state, which explains their choice of informants/readers. Today hypertext readers are easy to be found, and studies on hypertext reading should focus on these readers or at least partly on those readers who have gained some kind of hypertextual competence. If not, we might be caught in a moebius strip, continually repeating to ourselves that hypertext reading causes frustration and offers a counterproductive experience. It is fair to say that the reading of some hypertext fiction might cause frustration and produce vertigo, but to conclude on behalf of a text type like hypertext fiction, which includes a broad spectrum of literary genres that in rather different ways take advantage of hypertext technology and other affordances provided by digital technology, is misleading. Michael Joyce's Afternoon (1990) or Talan Memmott's From lexia to perplexia (2000) would without doubt make a different reading experience than Megan Heyward's I am a singer (1997) or Milorad Pavic's The Glass snail (2003). The two first are network fiction and the two latter are axial hypertexts. They also differ in regards to how they utilize literary conventions and reading conventions. In other words, there are hypertexts that are actually more conventional, which give the reader a closure, which leave the reader with just a few choices of reading path, which guide the reader through his choices, which make good continuities between the nodes etc. These are textual aspects that guide the reading and prefigure different types of aesthetic responses. To a great extent the empirical research on the reading of hypertext fiction referred to above, employs readers which have their first experience with hypertext literature. By making use of readers with little or no experience with this kind of literature we risk that our research tells us more about these readers' ignorance on hypertext, and less about any significance on hypertext literature per se. The reading is done when a meaning is found Of day, of night is Megan Heyward's second multimedia narrative work. In 1997 she published her first multimedia narrative work, I am a singer, and in 2006 she launched her latest new media work, the cell-phone narrative Traces. Of day, of night includes written text, speech, music, pictures, graphics and videos, and tells the story of Sophie, a young woman suffering from a condition where she has lost her ability to dream. As readers we travel along with her as she explores her memory and her surroundings in search of objects that will make her dream again. Of day, of night contains two parts, "day" and "night", and in order to move from one part to the other we have to read all the screens in the first part, "day". The links into the different sections and nodes in "day" are collected in a single node with a graphic map and "words that yell". The links to different sections are visualised when the reader moves the mouse cursor over the map. A screen shot of the nodal node in part 1 "day" which visualises some of the available links and pathways. The links into different sections of the narrative are obvious, in the sense that it is obvious where to click. The links in the nodal node in part 1, "day", are organised in such a way as if the order becomes a path to recognise. The order tells us how we might read the hypertext fiction. It recommends a precise sequence of reading, a sequence that is confirmed because we get access to several sections as we read. The first time we arrive at the nodal node in "day", we only have available three links and sections. These are "before", "realise" and "halfway". These three links are organised on a horizontal line on the top of the screen, inviting the reader to approach the links from left to right. In that case the reader will read the information in the section called "before" first, then the information in "realise", and third the information in "halfway". As we read we get access to several other links and sections, such as "act", "collect", "markets" and "café". Again the links that are visualised in the nodal node are organised in such a way so that the reader might recognise a pattern. This time the links constitute a recognisable diagonal line from top right to bottom left on the screen. The reader might interpret this line as an author-intentional or conventionalised way of reading, and thereby read the information in the different sections in this order. And again, as we rea

AGRESI ISRAEL TERHADAP PALESTINA PERSPEKTIF HUKUM HUMANITER INTERNASIONAL

Israel’s agrresion to Palestina has international reactions because of enormous victims caused by that action, whom mostly were civilians. According humanitarian law, Israel’s agression to Palestina had breached humanitarian law principles, there are : humanity principle, limitation principle and distinction principle. Israel has done war crimes so  international society asked how Israel can be justiced ? There are three mechanism to enforce humanitarian law. First, the contracting parties of Jeneva Convention State to enact any legislation neccessary to provide effective penal sanction for person committing or ordering to be comitted any of the grave breaches , second by ad hoc tribunal and third by International Criminal Court, but   it is rather difficult to prosecute Israel because Israel don’t ratificate Roma Statuta 1998. Kata kunci : Agresi Israel, Palestina

La expatriación intelectual española

The Spanish emigration of intellectuals started before the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The republic favoured the exodus of families belonging to the conservative ideals to places such as Portugal, Great Britain and Argentina. As a result of the military coup of 1936, and the revolutionary environment that followed as a reaction, many conservatives moved to Italy, especially from Catalonia. The loss of the Civil War by the Republican bloc originated an important exodus of liberals, especially to America, both North and South. The Spanish scientific community was thus saved, and could even develop further in some parts of Spanish America, where it reached a fruitful marriage with the local scientific environment.

Elections and Conflict in Africa: An Introduction

Putting the Financial Crisis and Lending Activity in a Broader Context

Views expressed do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Federal Reserve System. Some economists, policymakers, and pundits view the financial turmoil that began in August 2007 as the worst financial shock to the U.S. economy since the end of World War II. Some even assert that it amounts to the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. Accordingly, the Federal Reserve and other government agencies have taken aggressive actions to support the financial system and spur economic growth. Other economists and analysts, citing continued modest loan growth and relatively few bank failures last year (compared with, say, the late 1980s and early 1990s), do not share this view. Regard less, many banks have announced sharp earnings declines, and the possibility of further financial losses looms large. A well-functioning financial sector is crucial to the perfor mance of the U.S. economy. In a market-based economy, the financial sector channels the supply of funds from savers to the demands of borrowers, which supports the wealth-creating abilities of the entrepreneurial sector. At the same time, the perfor mance of the financial sector also depends crucially on the health of the U.S. economy. Typically, growth of loans and leases at commercial banks declines sharply before a recession. Clearly, bank actions to limit the credit supply can exacerbate an economic downturn. For example, banks typically tighten credit standards and/or loan terms as the economy weakens and nonperforming loans increase. But an adverse shock from outside the financial sector can be just as important—such as a sharp increase in oil prices or a plunge in house prices. Such shocks also slow the demand for credit because of weaker future growth of incomes and profits. In large and open economies, forces that trigger changes in the supply and demand for credit are often synchronized and difficult to distinguish. Thus, it is not surprising that bank loans slowed when GDP growth slowed: When GDP averaged 2.7 percent for 2004-07, the growth of bank loans averaged 11.4 percent per year; when GDP fell slightly in 2008, growth of bank loans slowed to 5.6 percent. Most forecasters expect recessionary conditions through the first half of 2009, so continued weak growth of bank loans is likely. Indeed, in the 1990-91 and 2001 recessions, the yearto-year percentage decline in bank loans did not reach a trough until February 1993 and March 2002, respectively. Other factors have weakened household and business spending in the current recession and thus have adversely affected the supply and demand for bank loans. A 52 percent drop in the S&P 500 stock price index from October 9, 2007, to November 20, 2008, accompanied the oil shock and fall in house prices. Accord ingly, household net worth (financial and tangible net wealth) fell by about $7 trillion between 2007:Q2 and 2008:Q3. Another key factor has been the simultaneous slowing in economic growth in most of the world’s largest economies, which is important because exports were a key source of U.S. economic growth in 2004-07. Some claim the key cause of slower growth has been the losses and write-downs incurred by banks and other financial institutions that hold asset-backed securities (ABS) on their balance sheets.1 In particular, prices of nonprime mortgage–related ABS have plummeted in part because of rising mortgage defaults and foreclosures stemming from falling house prices and a weakening economy. Because many of these ABS are no longer actively traded, determining their price—and thus the impact on the banking system’s lending capacity—has been a key source of the uncertainty in financial markets. As a result, many firms have been extremely cautious in lending because of the perceived risk in lending to parties who may have substantial ABS losses. Some estimate that these losses may eventually exceed $2 trillion, but even those estimates depend importantly on the pace of economic recovery. Moreover, not all firms hold ABS on their balance sheets, so the perception of increased credit risk—arising in part from poor macroeconomic conditions— has affected markets more broadly. A report prepared for the 2008 U.S. Monetary Policy Forum argued that the financial crisis will begin to wane when (i) banks and other financial institutions can raise enough new equity capital to improve their balance sheets and (ii) risk and uncertainty recede enough that firms are less reticent about making loans.2 A more stable macroeconomic environment will go far toward achieving this outcome.

World Trade: Pirated by the Downturn

Views expressed do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Federal Reserve System. World trade is often measured by the total amount of merchandise exports in the world in a given year.1 In real (inflation-adjusted) terms, world trade increased faster than world gross domestic product (GDP) in 49 of 58 years from 1951 to 2008 (see chart). For 2009, the World Trade Organization projects a decline in export growth of 9 percent, which would be the largest decline since 1951. This essay examines why 2009 will likely be a record-setting year. The first explanation for this decline in world trade involves the current global recession. World trade declined in just five years—1958, 1975, 1981, 1982, and 2001—for the period under consideration. World GDP increased by 1.1 percent, on average, for these five years, which was substantially slower growth than the 3.8 percent average for the entire period. World GDP did not fall in any of the five years with trade declines; in fact, world GDP has increased every year from 1951 to 2008. For 2009, however, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are forecasting 1.4 and 2.9 percent declines in world GDP, respectively. When GDP declines, the demand for traded goods generally falls as well.2 The second factor reducing trade flows follows from the current disruption of financial markets, which has tied up credit for international trade. The financial crisis has adversely affected both the availability of funds and the borrowing terms to finance international trade, which have contributed to declining trade volumes.3 The third factor stems from the increasing importance of global supply chains. The recent increase in global supply chains, also termed “vertical specialization,” causes trade to rise at a faster rate than production because countries tend to specialize more in steps of the production process rather than in the complete production of a final product. With global supply chains, components and partially finished goods cross borders several times before a product is completed—increasing world trade. Thus, declining production will reduce trade even more in the current downturn than in previous downturns. Governmental actions to favor domestically produced goods at the expense of foreign goods might turn out to be a final factor, although its effect has been minimal thus far. Without question, protectionist pressures increase during downturns. Yielding to these pressures by implementing trade restrictions on foreign products will reduce trade flows and likely prolong the downturn. A post-World War II record decline in world trade is likely in 2009. Although piracy of a different sort remains an important issue for world trade, the “pirates” in the present case are the global slowdown, trade financing difficulties, and the increasing importance of global supply chains. Protectionism also lurks on the horizon.