Books on the topic 'SECI model'

Pests, parasites and pathogenic agents have exerted a notable influence on the process of economic development of pre-industrial Europe, in view of their influence on the health, longevity and reproduction of human beings, plants and animals. On each occasion man has reacted to biological uncertainty with responses that were public or private, formal or informal and differed in both efficacy and cost. Success has always been partial, and dependent on experience, knowledge and the investment of economic resources. These reciprocal influences have never been allocated an appropriate or convincing place in the institutional model or those of Smith, Malthus, Ricardo or Marx, typically exploited to describe and explain the flux and reflux of the economic development of pre-industrial Europe. In these proceedings of Study Week promoted by the Fondazione Datini, the leading experts in the sector have undertaken to analyse, exemplify and discuss the precise nature of the complex interactions between economic and biological processes and agents. Adopying a stimulating, innovative and interdisciplinary approach, they appraise the degree to which such processes acted in reciprocal independence, whether there was a significant co-evolution and what prospects there are for developing explanatory models that better grasp the essentially bilateral nature of such interactions.

Caterina Vigri (later Saint Catherine of Bologna) was a mystic, writer, teacher and nun-artist. Her first home, Corpus Domini, Ferrara, was a house of semi-religious women that became a Poor Clare convent and model of Franciscan Observant piety. Vigri's intensely spiritual decoration of her breviary, as well as convent altarpieces that formed a visual program of adoration for the Body of Christ, exemplify the Franciscan Observant visual culture. After Vigri's departure, it was transformed by d'Este women patrons, including Isabella da Aragona, Isabella d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia. While still preserving Observant ideals, it became a more elite noblewomen's retreat. Grounded in archival research and extant paintings, drawings, prints and art objects from Corpus Domini, this volume explores the art, visual culture, and social history of an early modern Franciscan women's community.

We develop a simple semi-structural model for the Rwandan economy to better understand the monetary policy transmission mechanism. A key feature of the model is the introduction of a modified uncovered interest parity condition to capture key structural features of Rwanda’s economy and policy framework, such as the limited degree of capital mobility and managed floating regime. A filtration of the observed data through the model allows us to illustrate the contribution of various factors to inflation dynamics and its deviations from the inflation target. Our results, consistent with evidence for other countries in the region, suggest that food and oil prices as well as the exchange rate have accounted for the bulk of inflation dynamics in Rwanda.

The origin of the stability of aperiodic systems is very difficult to answer. Often the terms ‘competitive forces’ or ‘frustration’ have been proposed as the origin of stability. The role of Fermi surfaces and Brillouin zone boundary have also been invoked. This chapter deals with the numerous attempts which have been proposed for a better understanding. First, the Landau theory of phase transition, which has often been applied to understand the stability of incommensurate and composite systems, is presented here. Various semi-microscopic models are also proposed, in particular the Frenkel–Kontorova and Frank–Van der Merwe models, as well as spin models. Phase diagrams have been calculated with some success with the ANNI and DIFFOUR models. For quasicrystals, only the simplest general features are found in model systems. For a better understanding, more complex calculations are required, using, for example, ab initio methods. The chapter also discusses electronic instabilities, charge-density systems, Hume–Rothery compounds, and the growth of quasicrystals.

This chapter covers the now generally accepted ‘concordance model’ of the Universe, along with a few other historical models that were leading candidates previously. The theoretical underpinnings of the Cosmological Principle and its observational evidence are presented. The formalism of the Friedmann equation and the Robertson–Walker metric are introduced (without derivation), and the key concepts of lookback time and comoving distance are explained. The different mass–energy constituents in the concordance cosmology (including curvature, dark matter, and dark energy) are also described, along with their developmental histories. As a somewhat tangential but exciting development, the production of gravitational waves from compact object binaries is explained using semi-classical arguments.

The concepts of church and sect, along with the related terms of denomination and cult, have been central to religious group classification and theorizing about religious group organization by religion scholars. This classificatory system has been particularly problematic for scholars studying new religious movements. The chapter rehearses the origins and development of these concepts and then considers some of the newer and more inclusive relationally-based typologies that address the ongoing critiques of the church-sect model .

This chapter is an introduction to algebraic methods in random matrix theory (RMT). In the first section, the random matrix ensembles are introduced and it is shown that going beyond the usual Wigner ensembles can be very useful, in particular by allowing eigenvalues to lie on some paths in the complex plane rather than on the real axis. As a detailed example, the Plancherel model is considered from the point of RMT. The second section is devoted to the saddle-point approximation, also called the Coulomb gas method. This leads to a system of algebraic equations, the solution of which leads to an algebraic curve called the ‘spectral curve’ which determines the large N expansion of all observables in a geometric way. Finally, the third section introduces the ‘loop equations’ (i.e., Schwinger–Dyson equations associated with matrix models), which can be solved recursively (i.e., order by order in a semi-classical expansion) by a universal recursion: the ‘topological recursion’.

The modeling of climate over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) started with the introduction of Global Climate Models (GCMs) in the 1950s. Since then, GCMs have been developed to simulate atmospheric dynamics and eventually the climate system. As the highest and widest international plateau, the strong orographic forcing caused by the TP and its impact on general circulation rather than regional climate was initially the focus. Later, with growing awareness of the incapability of GCMs to depict regional or local-scale atmospheric processes over the heterogeneous ground, coupled with the importance of this information for local decision-making, regional climate models (RCMs) were established in the 1970s. Dynamic and thermodynamic influences of the TP on the East and South Asia summer monsoon have since been widely investigated by model. Besides the heterogeneity in topography, impacts of land cover heterogeneity and change on regional climate were widely modeled through sensitivity experiments.In recent decades, the TP has experienced a greater warming than the global average and those for similar latitudes. GCMs project a global pattern where the wet gets wetter and the dry gets drier. The climate regime over the TP covers the extreme arid regions from the northwest to the semi-humid region in the southeast. The increased warming over the TP compared to the global average raises a number of questions. What are the regional dryness/wetness changes over the TP? What is the mechanism of the responses of regional changes to global warming? To answer these questions, several dynamical downscaling models (DDMs) using RCMs focusing on the TP have recently been conducted and high-resolution data sets generated. All DDM studies demonstrated that this process-based approach, despite its limitations, can improve understandings of the processes that lead to precipitation on the TP. Observation and global land data assimilation systems both present more wetting in the northwestern arid/semi-arid regions than the southeastern humid/semi-humid regions. The DDM was found to better capture the observed elevation dependent warming over the TP. In addition, the long-term high-resolution climate simulation was found to better capture the spatial pattern of precipitation and P-E (precipitation minus evapotranspiration) changes than the best available global reanalysis. This facilitates new and substantial findings regarding the role of dynamical, thermodynamics, and transient eddies in P-E changes reflected in observed changes in major river basins fed by runoff from the TP. The DDM was found to add value regarding snowfall retrieval, precipitation frequency, and orographic precipitation.Although these advantages in the DDM over the TP are evidenced, there are unavoidable facts to be aware of. Firstly, there are still many discrepancies that exist in the up-to-date models. Any uncertainty in the model’s physics or in the land information from remote sensing and the forcing could result in uncertainties in simulation results. Secondly, the question remains of what is the appropriate resolution for resolving the TP’s heterogeneity. Thirdly, it is a challenge to include human activities in the climate models, although this is deemed necessary for future earth science. All-embracing further efforts are expected to improve regional climate models over the TP.

Priročnik je sestavljen iz teoretičnega dela in dvajsetih praktičnih aktivnostih. Teoretični del zajema opredelitev modela SEL, navodila za uporabo priročnika in smernice za spodbujanje socialnega in čustvenega učenja pri otrocih. Izhodišča za aktivnosti predstavljajo likovna dela iz zbirke Umetnostne galerije Maribor. Ob ogledovanju likovnih del, pogovoru ob njih in praktičnih likovnih dejavnostih se otroci učijo izražati svoja čustva in občutke. Priročnik je rezultat Študentskega inovativnega projekta za družbeno korist 2016–2020 z naslovom Socialno in čustveno učenje s pomočjo likovne umetnosti – SELUM.

The authors develop a semi-structural, New Keynesian open-economy model with separate food and non-food inflation dynamics to study the sources of inflation in Kenya in recent years. They filter international and Kenyan data through the model to recover a model-based decomposition of most variables into trends (or potential values) and temporary movements (or gaps), including for the international and domestic relative price of food. The filtration exercise helps recover the sequence of domestic and foreign macroeconomic shocks that account for business cycle dynamics in Kenya over the last few years, with a special emphasis on the various factors (international food prices, monetary policy) driving inflation. The authors find that while imported food price shocks have been an important source of inflation, both in 2008 and more recently, accommodating monetary policy has also played a role, most notably through its effect on the nominal exchange rate.

Buku ini diterbitkan sebagai memberi penghargaan kepada Profesor Adjung pertama, Fakulti Komunikasi dan Bahasa Moden, UUM, Dato Sa Wai @ Boon Chock atas sumbang saran pengalaman dan pengetahuan beliau dalam bidang komunikasi dan pengurusan.Hasil daripada syarahan perdana yang disampaikan oleh beliau dalam tiga sesi syarahan berbeza mulai tahun 2004 hingga 2006, buku ini telah disempurnakan dengan judul Koleksi Syarahan Perdana Profesor Adjung Fakulti Komunikasi dan Bahasa Moden, UUM .Bersandarkan kepada konsep perkongsian idea dan ilmu pengetahuan, buku ini diharap dapat memberi kesempatan kepada para ahli akademik dari aspek percambahan ilmu.Manakala, bagi pembinaan karakter komunikator dan kepengurusan, buku ini akan membantu pembaca yang bukan sahaja ahli akademik dan pelajar, malah publik luaran sebagai sumber rujukan seterusnya memanfaatkan ilmu dalam aplikasi harian mereka.

This chapter, co-authored with Øystein Linnebo, presents a more Aristotelian theory, one that eschews both the existence of points (as parts of regions) and the use of actual infinity. Building on some previous work by Linnebo, the chapter shows how to take the “potential” nature of the usual operations seriously, by using a modal language, and it shows that modal and nonmodal approaches are equivalent. The chapter concludes with a predicative account of the continuum, one that, in a sense, fits in between the semi-Aristotelian and the Aristotelian theories.

Bidang pendidikan memerlukan guru-guru yang berkualiti kerana proses penghasilan guru-guru yang berkualiti dapat menjamin keberkesanan pengajaran.Buku Pedagogi: Dari Sekolah ke Institut Pendidikan Tinggi ini diterbitkan untuk kegunaan institusi-institusi pengajian yang berkaitan dengan pendidikan khususnya untuk pensyarah, pendidik dan bakal pendidik.Buku ini membincangkan amalan-amalan penting dalam pedagogi.Antara kandungan buku ini ialah perbincangan tentang konsep pedagogi dan pengajaran serta konsep ilmu dalam bidang pendidikan.Seterusnya perbincangan tentang model-model pengajaran, mengenal pasti dan membezakan pelbagai jenis model pengajaran dan menjelaskan kepentingan model pengajaran.Seterusnya pelbagai gaya pengajaran guru dan gaya pembelajaran pelajar serta kajian-kajian tentang gaya pengajaran dan gaya pembelajaran pelajar juga dibincangkan.Oleh kerana terdapat pelbagai kekeliruan tentang konsep strategi, pendekatan, kaedah dan teknik pengajaran, buku ini cuba membezakan konsep-konsep tersebut.Selain itu, huraian terhadap pelbagai jenis pendekatan, kaedah dan teknik pengajaran dan juga menjelaskan kekuatan dan kelemahan setiap kaedah dan teknik pengajaran juga dimasukkan.Buku ini juga membincangkan beberapa pendekatan pengajaran yang semakin popular dewasa ini iaitu pembelajaran berasaskan masalah dan pembelajaran berasaskan kes.Selain itu, pembelajaran masteri dan pembelajaran koperatif juga dimasukkan.Akhir sekali, buku ini juga membincangkan pengajaran berkesan dari segi dimensi, ciri-ciri pengajaran berkesan daripada pandangan sarjana dan beberapa kajian lalu terhadap sebuah pengajaran yang berkesan.

Sumpah tujuh keturunan bukan sumpah biasa-biasa. Usai padang jarak padang terkukur tersemat di dada zaman, tamatlah jua sumpah seorang pejuang budaya dan sejarah di bumi Langkawi yang terpendam di dasar hati puluhan tahun. Pejuang tidak pernah berundur. Sekalipun bercerai nyawa dari badan, berdikit-dikit beliau terus berpencak secara terus agar seni budaya dan sejarah Mahsuri tidak hilang begitu sahaja.Gelanggangnya adalah masyarakat. Kuda-kuda ditegapkan selama ini bagi menangkis musuh. Musuhnya adalah masa dan peradaban. Namun, Abata tetap dijunjung dan diletakkan pada singgahsana termahal. Ku Halim Ku Hassan bukan manusia biasa-biasa. Sajak-sajaknya umpama keris berlok tujuh yang dilangir dengan limau dari 99 pulau.Ku Halim Ku Hassan dilahirkan pada 11 Oktober 1947 di Kampung Raja, Padang Mat Sirat Langkawi. Pesara kerajaan ini telah mula terlibat dengan bidang seni sejak awal persekolahan serta amat meminati pengkajian sejarah. Pernah menjadi seorang pendidik pada sekitar 1966 dan bertugas sebagai anggota tentera dalam Rejimen Semboyan pada tahun 1968 hingga 1975. Semangat patriotik dan kecintaan terhadap bangsa dan negara begitu kuat dalam dirinya.Beliau mula menghasilkan karya kreatif dalam bentuk puisi tradisional (syair dan pantun) serta puisi moden (sajak) sejak 30 tahun lalu. Puisi beliau sering menjadi perhatian beberapa orang ahli politik tempatan khususnya dalam Parlimen Langkawi kerana elemen nasionalisme yang diterapkan dalam setiap nukilannya. Beliau pernah menerima beberapa pingat kebesaran antaranya Ahli Mangku Negara (AMN), Ahli Mahkota Kedah (AMK), Bintang Khidmat Masyarakat (BKM) dan Pingat Jasa Kebaktian (PJK). Penulis juga telah dilantik sebagai fasilitator seni budaya oleh Pusat Latihan Kemahiran Negara (PLKN) Langkawi serta sering diundang memberikan pengkisahan tentang sejarah Langkawi, Mahsuri, serta Beras Terbakar yang terletak dalam kawasan rumah beliau.Kini beliau aktif bergiat dalam seni kreatif di Langkawi dan merupakan antara individu yang merestui penubuhan Persatuan Gabungan Penulis dan Penggiat Seni Budaya Langkawi (PGSBL) sebagai entiti memartabatkan seni sastera dan budaya di Langkawi.

Sejak sekian lama diperdebatkan berkenaan kualiti perkhidmatan.Namun sukar ditemui buku-buku berkenaan pengurusan kualiti yang membincangkan model dan peranan perpustakaan akademik dalam menyokong institusi pendidikan.Oleh itu buku ini ditulis hasil penelitian dan kajian penulis yang agak lama berkenaan pengurusan perpustakaan akademik.Buku ini dimasukkan beberapa model pengurusan kualiti yang berguna kepada sesebuah perpustakaan, khususnya kepada perpustakaan akademik. Seperti model Pengurusan Kualiti ISO 9001, Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award (MBNQA) dan The European Quality Award (EFQA). Dari segi aplikasi, buku ini amat baik dijadikan sumber rujukan kepada pegawai perpustakaan kerana ianya turut menghuraikan bagaimana pengurusan kualiti dalam senario perpustakaan sebagai sumber maklumat. Buku ini turut mengenengahkan falsafah-falsafah kualiti. Malahan bagi melengkapkan falsafah-falsafah kualiti tersebut, buku ini juga menghuraikan berkenaan anugerah-anugerah kualiti, termasuklah anugerah perpustakaan cemerlang. Buku ini juga boleh digunakan bagi memastikan perpustakaan akademik berjaya menyokong dalam pencapaian transformasi pengajian tinggi negara. Bagi merealisasikan kualiti perkhidmatan yang baik dapat ditawarkan oleh sesebuah perpustakaan, buku ini boleh dijadikan rujukan.Buku ini disusun dengan mudah supaya pembaca dapat memahami keseluruhan topik yang dibincangkan dengan senang.

Chapter 2 is the first critical consideration of the relationship between Ashbery and F. T. Prince. It attends to the extensive correspondence between the two poets—held at Harvard and the recently opened F. T. Prince archive at the University of Southampton—which is particularly rich in discussion of the subject of national literatures. Through analysis of Prince’s first volume, Poems, and Ashbery’s Some Trees, it suggests that Prince’s work provided a model for Ashbery’s ‘encrypted’ early lyrics addressing his homosexuality. In the sec section, the correspondence is employed to identify further points of interaction between the two poets’ work. ‘Clepsydra’ is read as building closely upon Prince’s ‘The Tears of a Muse in America’, and presented as an early elaboration of Ashbery’s incipient conception of a reciprocal influential model.

The transport through a one-dimensional barrier is calculated within the tight-binding model. The surface Green’s functions are introduced as a method to invert the Green’s function matrix and to set-up convenient boundary conditions for simulations. The formalism is applied to calculate the transport properties of parallel stacked organic molecules. The extension to higher dimensions and multiband crystals is discussed. In this section we apply the GKB formalism to diffraction of electrons on a barrier. The system we study is a planar heterojunction of two ideal semi-infinite crystals or a surface of a crystal. As an initial condition we take a stream of electrons with a sharp momentum.

The Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment (C/TA) paradigm represents a significant shift from the traditional aims and techniques of psychological assessment. C/TA deliberately employs a variety of evidence-based techniques intended to maximize the potential that the process of assessment will result in meaningful therapeutic benefits for clients. The empirical support for the effectiveness of the C/TA approach is promising and demonstrates direct intervention effects on such indicators as self-esteem and symptomatology, as well as improvements in constructs and processes salient to continued psychological care, including the therapeutic alliance, treatment readiness, and distress. C/TA has also been shown to increase participation and retention in subsequent indicated mental health services for populations that traditionally are difficult to engage. This chapter describes the history and evidence-based theory behind C/TA approaches; describes the steps and procedures of the semi-stuctured Therapeutic Assessment model, and presents a thorough discussion of the application of a variety of therapeutic techniques (e.g., circular questioning, scaffolding, psychoeducation, shame modulation, mentalizing) in the context of the C/TA paradigm that increase the likelihood that assessment will result in clinically relevant outcomes. These techniques are applied in a variety of therapy models in psychology but have only recently been explicitly used in the context of psychological assessment for adults, couples, and families with children or adolescents.

This chapter presents the details of the optical manipulation of electron spin states. It also addresses manifestations of the electron and nuclear spin dynamics in optical response of semiconductor nanostructures via spin-Faraday and -Kerr effects. Coupling of spins with light provides the most efficient method of nonmagnetic spin manipulation. The main aim of this chapter is to provide the theoretical grounds for optical spin injection, ultrafast spin control, and readout of spin states by means of circularly and linearly polarized light pulses. The Faraday and Kerr effects induced by the electron and nuclear spin polarization are analyzed both by means of a macroscopic, semi-phenomenological approach and by using the microscopic quantum mechanical model. Theoretical analysis is supported by experimental data.

In a 1992 interview W. G. Sebald remarked that ‘I myself work like a painter who has to consider how big to make the frame. The painter’s craft has always fascinated me’. This chapter traces what Sebald understood by working like a painter in fiction, arguing that he used painting as a counterpoint to explore the limitations of the photographs used throughout what he called his ‘semi-documentary prose fictions’—and the limitations of photography as a model of historical memory. It moves from a discussion of visual aesthetics in Sebald’s unpublished PhD on Döblin and his often overlooked art criticism to argue that Sebald conceptualized the photograph as a visual readymade, and that this modernist approach to photography informs the treatment of historical memory in The Emigrants and Austerlitz.

The thesis advanced in this work is that the model of a secret or esoteric group is fruitful for studying various movements and groups in the Greco–Roman world. This is worked out in the extremely interesting case of the Essenes and the Qumran covenanters, for which we have available not only outsider descriptions but also the very documents that embody at least part of their secret teachings. This approach to analysis is not intended to supplant the sect/normative pattern for describing Ancient Judaism, but to supplement it, adding a very fruitful unexplored dimension to the analysis of ancient Jewish society. By attributing, in the footsteps of Georg Simmel, and more recently L. Hazelrigg, the organization and dynamic of secret societies to the need to guard the secret knowledge, it provides ways of understanding the organization and practice of the Qumran covenanters Essene sect, which were previously unperceived. Having established the theoretical framework, having shown that such groups existed in both non-Jewish and Jewish society in the Greco–Roman world, the book then proceeds to analyze in detail the working out of this dynamic in the cases of the Therapeutae and the Essenes, supplementing this with investigation of whether there is evidence for this same dynamic elsewhere in Second Temple Jewish society. Moreover, this analysis bears on the overall “fit” of these groups in the society of the period, so richly endowed with names of and evidence for different groups in that society.

The author analyses inflation in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community. First, a semi-structural VAR is used to identify the sources of inflation empirically; the chapter finds that fiscal shocks and the commodity price shocks that generally drive them have been important sources of inflation volatility, with monetary policy passively accommodating. A DSGE model is then developed and calibrated to replicate the empirical findings and to study the implications of a more active monetary policy. This active policy would involve greater (sterilized) reserve accumulation, which under the plausible assumption of limited capital mobility can help contain equilibrium appreciation pressures and therefore inflation, but at the cost of crowding out the private sector. Attempting to use monetary policy to contain inflation under a fixed exchange rate has important drawbacks, which highlights the need to rely on fiscal policy for macro and price stability in these countries.

The Cosmic Mystery Tour is a brief account of modern physics and astronomy presented in a broad historical and cultural context. The book is attractively illustrated and aimed at the general reader. Part I explores the laws of physics including general relativity, the structure of matter, quantum mechanics and the Standard Model of particle physics. It discusses recent discoveries such as gravitational waves and the project to construct LISA, a space-based gravitational wave detector, as well as unresolved issues such as the nature of dark matter. Part II begins by considering cosmology, the study of the universe as a whole and how we arrived at the theory of the Big Bang and the expanding universe. It looks at the remarkable objects within the universe such as red giants, white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes, and considers the expected discoveries from new telescopes such as the Extremely Large Telescope in Chile, and the Event Horizon Telescope, currently aiming to image the supermassive black hole at the galactic centre. Part III considers the possibility of finding extraterrestrial life, from the speculations of science fiction authors to the ongoing search for alien civilizations known as SETI. Recent developments are discussed: space probes to the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn; the discovery of planets in other star systems; the citizen science project SETI@Home; Breakthrough Starshot, the project to develop technologies to send spacecraft to the stars. It also discusses the Fermi paradox which argues that we might actually be alone in the cosmos

This article focuses on correlated electron transport in molecular junctions. More specifically, it considers how electronic correlation effects can be included in transport calculations using many-body perturbation theory within the Keldysh non-equilibrium Green’s function formalism. The article uses the GW self-energy method (G denotes the Green’s function and W is the screened interaction) which has been successfully applied to describe quasi-particle excitations in periodic solids. It begins by formulating the quantum-transport problem and introducing the non-equilibrium Green’s function formalism. It then derives an expression for the current within the NEGF formalism that holds for interactions in the central region. It also combines the GW scheme with a Wannier function basis set to study electron transport through two prototypical junctions: a benzene molecule coupled to featureless leads and a hydrogen molecule between two semi-infinite platinum chains. The results are analyzed using a generic two-level model of a molecular junction.

This chapter examines the technical issues in modelling health state valuation data. Most measures of health define too many states to directly value all of them (e.g. SF-6D defines 18,000 health states). The solution has been to value a subset and by using modelling to predict the values of all states. This chapter reviews two approaches to modelling: one using multiattribute utility theory to determine health values given an assumed functional form; and the other is using statistical modelling of SF-6D preference data that are skewed, bimodal, and clustered by respondents. This chapter examines the selection of health states for valuation, data preparation, model specification, and techniques for modelling the data starting with ordinary least squares (OLS) and moving on to more complex techniques including Bayesian non-parametric and semi-parametric approaches, and a hybrid approach that combines cardinal preference data with the results of paired data from a discrete choice experiment.

This study examines the skills-differentiated impact of a restrictive female labour migration policy in Sri Lanka using monthly departure data from 2012 to 2018 in a difference-in-difference model. The policy has resulted in decreasing departures among lower-skilled groups—female domestic, unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled workers—and increasing departures among middle-level and professional workers. The decrease in departures of lower-skilled groups is consistent with the objectives of the policy and existing impact evaluation studies, while the increase in higher-skilled workers is consistent with the literature on Family Background Report-related corruption and mis-reporting of skills to avoid the policy. Thus, the Family Background Report policy is associated with higher involvement of lower-skilled workers in recruitment-related corruption, higher exposure to recruitment-related vulnerability, and lower foreign employment opportunities. The study also finds that it was appropriate to exempt the 45–49 year age group from the Family Background Report requirement in 2017.

The three basic parameters controlling electron transfer are presented: electronic interaction, structural change and interelectronic repulsion. Then electron transfer in discrete molecular systems is considered, with cases of inter- and intramolecular transfers. The semi-classical (Marcus—Hush) and quantum models are developed, and the properties of mixed valence systems are described. Double exchange in magnetic mixed valence entities is introduced. Biological electron transfer in proteins is briefly presented. The conductivity in extended molecular solids (in particular organic conductors) is tackled starting from band theory, with examples such as KCP, polyacetylene and TTF-TCNQ. It is shown that electron–phonon interaction can change the geometrical structure and alter conductivity through Peierls distortion. Another important effect occurs in narrow-band systems where the interelectronic repulsion plays a leading role, for instance in Mott insulators.

It investigates how teacher training in administration occurs in Brazil and the effects on teaching knowledge mobilized by teachers of a course, in a border context. The question that guides the research is: how is teacher training handled in academic master's programs in Brazil and what are the reflections on teaching knowledge at a border university? Based on the concepts of teacher training and the model of teaching knowledge proposed by Tardif (1991), he analyzes the academic master's programs in administration and offers teacher training courses in his curriculum. Conducts semi-structured interview with 03 management professors from the Unioeste campus in Foz do Iguaçu. It shows that teacher training is built by classroom practice, but that the teaching internship is important in this process. In curricular knowledge there is no look at local frontier issues. It concludes that the formation of the teacher in Administration does not happen in the Master's programs, since the professional and curricular knowledge are not enough for the construction of the pedagogical practice. Even in curricular analysis, there is no concern with frontier knowledge (local knowledge) because this is not valued, neither in the interviews, nor in the political pedagogical projects of the Administration courses, nor in the programs analyzed. The results point to a model of teacher education that considers plural knowledge and that rethinks the importance of teacher education in academic master's programs in administration in Brazil.

This chapter examines the governance challenge in private investment funds arising from investor protection failures. It begins with a discussion of the Madoff affair, which brought to the fore alleged failures in reporting, oversight and governance mechanisms regarding private investment funds, whether hedge funds, private equity funds, real estate opportunities funds or other more esoteric investment pools. It then considers some issues which the Madoff debacle drew attention to, including the presence of multiple fund vehicles in the same structure or in interconnected structures such as parallel funds, master-feeder, and fund of funds. It also analyses the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) concerns about hedge fund fraud and conflicts of interest that may arise in the business models of any of the participants in the private equity market. Finally, it describes ongoing diligence and oversight regarding private investment funds and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) concerns over due diligence involving private funds.

The executive branch in Western democracies has been handed a virtually impossible task. Expected to ‘imperially’ direct the life of the nation through thick and thin, it is concurrently required to be subservient to legislation meted out by a sovereign parliament. Drawing on a general argument from constitutional theory that prioritizes dispersal of power over concepts of hierarchy, the book argues that the tension between the political dominance of the executive branch and its submission to law is maintained by the adoption of various forms of fuzziness, under which a guise of legality masks the absence of substantive limitation of power. Under this 'internal tension' model, the executive branch is concurrently subservient to law and dominant over it, while concepts of substantive legality are compromised. Drawing on legal and political science research, the book classifies and analyses thirteen forms of fuzziness, ranging from open-ended or semi-written constitutions to unapplied legislation. The study of this unavoidable yet problematic feature of the public sphere is addressed descriptively and normatively. Adding detailed examples from two fields of law, emergency and air-pollution law, in two systems (the UK and the US), the book ends with a call for raising the threshold of judicial review, grounded in theories of participatory and deliberative democracy. This innovative book, concerned with an area that has been surprisingly under-researched on a general level beyond extensive studies of national executives, offers a theoretical foundation that should ground all analyses of the arguably most powerful branch of modern government.

From the end of the last glacial stage until the mid-Holocene, large areas of arid and semi-arid North Africa were much wetter than present, during the interval that is known as the African Humid Period (AHP). During this time, large areas were characterized by a marked increase in precipitation, an expansion of lakes, river systems, and wetlands, and the spread of grassland, shrub land, and woodland vegetation into areas that are currently much drier. Simulations with climate models indicate that the AHP was the result of orbitally forced increase in northern hemisphere summer insolation, which caused the intensification and northward expansion of the boreal summer monsoon. However, feedbacks from ocean circulation, land-surface cover, and greenhouse gases were probably also important.Lake basins and their sediment archives have provided important information about climate during the AHP, including the overall increases in precipitation and in rates, trajectories, and spatial variations in change at the beginning and the end of the interval. The general pattern is one of apparently synchronous onset of the AHP at the start of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial around 14,700 years ago, although wet conditions were interrupted by aridity during the Younger Dryas stadial. Wetter conditions returned at the start of the Holocene around 11,700 years ago covering much of North Africa and extended into parts of the southern hemisphere, including southeastern Equatorial Africa. During this time, the expansion of lakes and of grassland or shrub land vegetation over the area that is now the Sahara desert, was especially marked. Increasing aridity through the mid-Holocene, associated with a reduction in northern hemisphere summer insolation, brought about the end of the AHP by around 5000–4000 years before present. The degree to which this end was abrupt or gradual and geographically synchronous or time transgressive, remains open to debate. Taken as a whole, the lake sediment records do not support rapid and synchronous declines in precipitation and vegetation across the whole of North Africa, as some model experiments and other palaeoclimate archives have suggested. Lake sediments from basins that desiccated during the mid-Holocene may have been deflated, thus providing a misleading picture of rapid change. Moreover, different proxies of climate or environment may respond in contrasting ways to the same changes in climate. Despite this, there is evidence of rapid (within a few hundred years) termination to the AHP in some regions, with clear signs of a time-transgressive response both north to south and east to west, pointing to complex controls over the mid-Holocene drying of North Africa.

This chapter gives a rapid overview of the history of Roman public and private institutions, from their early beginning in the semi-legendary age of the kings to the later developments of the Imperial age. A turning point has been the passage from the kingdom to the republic and the new foundation of citizenship on family wealth, instead of the exclusiveness of clan and lineages. But still more important has been the approval of the written legislation of the XII Tables giving to all citizens a sufficient knowledge of the Roman legal body of consuetudinary laws. From that moment, Roman citizenship was identified with personal freedom and the rule of law. Following political and military success, between the end of IV and the first half of III century bce Rome was capable of imposing herself as the central power in Italy and the western Mediterranean. From that moment Roman hegemony was exercised on a growing number of cities and local populations, organized in the form of Roman of Latin colonies or as Roman municipia. Only in the last century bce were these different statutes unified with the grant of Roman citizenship to all Italians. In this same period the Roman civil law, which was applied to private litigants by the Roman praetors, had become a very complex and sophisticated system of rules. With the empire the system did not change abruptly, although the Princeps did concentrate in his hands the last power of the judiciary and became the unique source of new legislation. In that way, for the first time, the Roman legal system was founded on rational and coherent schemes, becoming a model, which Antiquity transmitted to the late medieval Europe.

The construction industry is an indicator of economic development: in good times both individuals and companies invest to increase or improve their houses and facilities. The halted construction is an indication of economic difficulties. Hence the importance of protecting infrastructure investments through diagnostic, recovery and construction rehabilitation procedures. IX National Congress ALCONPAT Mexico 2020 addressed the thematic axes: Materials and nanomaterials, Durability and sustainability, Preservation of built heritage, Preservation, maintenance and rehabilitation, Semi and non-destructive tests, Corrosion in concrete structures, Climate Change. Four Plenary Conferences were presented, given by renowned researchers from Spain, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina. Nine Master Conferences were also presented, given by Researchers from the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, Veracruzana University, CNIC of Havana, Cuba and the Autonomous University of Campeche. 61 papers were received, divided into: 35 oral presentations 26 poster presentations. The participating institutions were: Universidad Autónoma de Campeche, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Universidad Veracruzana, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, Tecnológico Nacional de México (Instituto Tecnológico de Chetumal), Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas, Cinvestav Unidad Mérida, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán , Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco, CIIDIR IPN Campus Oaxaca, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas de Cuba, Consultor Independiente de Ecuador, Centro Internacional de Matemáticas Numéricas e Ingeniería (España), Universidad Nacional del Sur ( Argentina). Effort and enthusiasm of the participants to carry out the event in virtual mode, due to the existing adverse sanitary conditions, stands out. It is one more indication of the strength of the ALCONPAT community in maintaining the continuity of one of its activities to exchange knowledge and experiences for the improvement of practices aimed at prolonging the durability of the infrastructure.

"Prefață: Consiliere și mentorare cu impact Călăuzirea spirituală: de la „avva” Antichității la mentorul de azi Sfântul apostol Pavel le scria romanilor: „Dar cum vor chema pe Acela în care n-au crezut? Și cum vor crede în Acela despre care n-au auzit? Și cum vor auzi despre El, fără ca cineva să predice? Și cum vor predica, dacă n-au fost trimiși? Astfel, credința vine din cele auzite, iar cele auzite, prin Cuvântul Lui Dumnezeu.” (Romani 10: 14-15). Nimeni n-a plecat la propovăduire de capul lui. 1. Inițial, Isus „a chemat pe cine a vrut” (chemarea; vocația divină: gr. kaleo; lat. voco/are = a chema); 2. apoi, „ei au venit la El și a rânduit dintre ei 12, ca să-i aibă cu Sine” (răspunsul personal: voluntar și prompt [lat. protinus = îndată]; asumarea vocației apostolice și „ucenicia” alături de Isus timp de trei ani; gr. mathitevo = a fi discipol; a învăța; lat. discipulus); și 3. în final, Isus „i-a trimis să predice” (misiunea apostolică; gr. apo/stello; lat. mitto/ere = a trimite; missio/onis = trimitere; gr. kirysso = a propovădui; „a face o proclamație în calitate de herald”; un „mesager al Domnului”; gr. kyr = domn) [Marcu 3:13-14]. Chemare, ucenicie, trimitere..., toate acestea s-au petrecut „la împlinirea timpului” (Galateni 4:4), într-un moment de cumpănă al omenirii, cum ar zice E. Cioran: „Pe culmile disperării”, când „Poporul care stătea în întuneric, a văzut o mare Lumină și, celor care zăceau în ținutul și în umbra morții, le-a răsărit Lumina” (Matei 4:16) „transfigurării cosmice” (Cioran) mesianice. Isus n-a venit într-o lume pregătită să-L primească, ci într-o lume bulversată, disperată și în așteptare... Nu era o lume mai dreaptă, mai bună, mai credincioasă, mai morală, mai cultă, mai catehizată, mai primitoare decât cea de azi. Dar Isus n-a ținut cont de nimic din toate astea, ci pur și simplu a venit să-și îndeplinească „misiunea”: a învățat, a vindecat boli incurabile, a înviat persoane trecute în „viața de apoi”, a iertat, a exorcizat „demonii” multor patimi, a dat sens multor vieți, a provocat, a contestat formalismele Templului, cărturarilor și fariseilor, a declanșat furia mai marilor vremii și nu a fugit de supliciul și „rușinea” crucii. Într-un fel, la (răs)crucea vremurilor de azi, lucrurile par a se suprapune cu cele din timpul lui Isus. Trăim într-o lume complet debusolată, secularizată, nihilistă, agnostică, sceptică, indiferentă, relativistă, dezumanizată, lacomă și nesătulă, buimacă, parcă „fără istorie spirituală și fără viitor”, ostilă Celui de Sus și refractară oricărei morale, o epocă a indiscreției și lipsei de pudoare, a pornografiei, traficului de carne vie, vânzărilor de armament, droguri etc., fără sentimentul păcatului (Morale sans péché, dr. Hesnard, 1954), fără pic de rușine, fără valori, direcție, sens și destinație spirituală. Dumnezeu ne-a adus de la haos (abis, „tohu wa bohu” = o lume „fără formă și goală”; „fără cap și fără coadă”) la kosmos (ordine, viață, „căpătâi”), dar noi, parcă tributari „vocației entropiei”, mergem ireversibil către neant, nonsens și autodistrugere. Dumnezeu ne-a dăruit Viața, dar noi, incapabili să-i descifrăm farmecul, bucuria, valoarea și sensul, ne-o suprimăm sau ne-o irosim în nimicnicie. Ne-a dăruit Iubirea, dar ura, intoleranța și resentimentele ne stăpânesc. „Lumina a venit în lume, dar oamenii au iubit mai mult întunericul decât lumina, pentru că faptele lor erau rele.” (Ioan 3:19). Nu suntem cu nimic mai buni peste 2000 de ani decât atunci, dimpotrivă! Dar, în loc să stăm și să ne lamentăm continuu, mai bine căutăm soluții. Omul sfințește locul! Tuturor acestor provocări vor trebui să le facă față duhovnicii, mentorii, cateheţii și toți învățătorii spirituali de azi. O teologie de manual, scolastică, teoretică, stearpă și polemicile noastre confesionaliste sunt de mult depășite. Cum „imputa” ironic un student profesorului de dogmatică: „Dom’ profesor, cred că nici Dumnezeu nu știe despre El atâtea câte ați scris dumneavoastră în manualul acesta!” Termeni, dogme, erezii, speculații filosofice, dispute – la ce servesc toate astea? „Nimic nu e mai sărac decât cugetarea care, stând afară de Dumnezeu, filosofează despre Dumnezeu.” (Diadoh, episcop al Foticeei, sec. V). Azi, e nevoie de creștini autentici și mărturisitori adevărați (gr. martirevo = a mărturisi; de aici și termenul de „martir”) într-o relație vie cu Dumnezeu, „din interiorul Lui”, în Duhul Lui, nu doar de niște transmițători de cunoștințe teologice exterioare, mereu puși pe harță pentru monopolul (exclusivismul) și „drepturile de autor” asupra „adevărului” divin. Vremea polemicilor sterile a apus. Lumea nu mai are nevoie să afle „sexul îngerilor”! E nevoie de o Întâlnire adevărată cu Dumnezeu, nu doar la nivelul minții și speculațiilor teologice, ci și la nivelul inimii și al spiritului. Un consilier sau mentor spiritual asta va trebui să facă, să-l conducă pe omul zilelor de azi la Marea Întâlnire existențială și spirituală cu Dumnezeu. „Oare poate un orb să călăuzească pe un alt orb? Nu vor cădea amândoi în groapă?” (Luca 6:39). Avem nevoie de duhovnici adevărați, de consilieri adevărați, de mentori spirituali adevărați, cu pregătire umană, teologică și viață spirituală pe măsură, care să înțeleagă omul de azi cu toate problemele, slăbiciunile și ezitările lui, nu de triumfaliști „îmbelferiţi ai spiritului”, de legaliști, formaliști, moraliști de mucava care să te trateze de pe poziții de superioritate, suficiență și omnisciență. Avem nevoie de călăuze spirituale umane, calde, autentice, vii care să „nu ne dea lecții de morală ieftină” și de „auto-izbutită soteriologie”. Nu e nevoie de „experți” care să ni se insinueze drept „modele” și „păstori” ai unei turme paraplegice și oarbe, ci de oameni adevărați cu inimă caldă și mare, cu care să putem intra într-un dialog real, de la om la om, de la suflet la suflet, cu Dumnezeul cel Viu prezent în mijlocul nostru. Predica publică e una, relația de îndrumare spirituală, de consiliere sau de mentorat este alta. Este o relație particulară, de la om la om, cu o forță de impact soteriologic imensă: o adevărată „chirurgie spirituală” în care omul își oferă mentorului spiritual inima deschisă ca „pe tavă” cu toată încrederea. De măiestria și responsabilitatea duhovnicului, consilierului sau mentorului spiritual depinde „reușita operației” și felul în care este „suturată” incizia. Din păcate, mulți au rămas profund dezamăgiți și debusolați după „întâlnirea” cu unele „pseudo-călăuze” sau „mercenari” implicați în acest câmp psihologic și spiritual extrem de fragil. Predica te poate atinge parțial, dar cuvântul adresat direct, de la inimă la inimă, n-are cum să nu-ţi trezească sentimente, întrebări, idei, aspirații puternice. Aceasta și era relația directă dintre avva (maestrul spiritual) și ucenic, încă din antichitatea creștină, și către asta tindem și acum, spre o neo-evanghelizare sau re-încreştinare autentică (nu îndoctrinare sau prozelitism) a omului, prin comunicarea față în față cu mentorul, un om mai experimentat, pregătit (psihologic și spiritual), cu învățăcelul, în curs de formare, pentru a-l smulge din marasmul și pericolele societății atee despre care vorbeam mai sus. Mai trebuie doar să înțelegem că, azi, această relație spirituală de călăuzire este cumva „pe picior de egalitate”. Nimeni nu se consideră superior nimănui, doar „maestrul” spiritual este dispus și disponibil să (se) investească în „discipol”, în beneficiul orientării lui existențiale și mântuirii. Aceasta înseamnă „artă” și autenticitate spirituală! Volumul de față, Consiliere și mentorare cu impact, ca, de altfel, întreaga colecție Autentic, urmăreşte obținerea unor mărturii adevărate ale unor persoane autentice, care să le fie de folos în orientarea și formarea oamenilor dispuși să-și caute calea și rostul lor spiritual. Așa cum, deja, ne-a obișnuit apariția primului volum, Copilărie și parentalitate cu impact, structura celui de față este la fel de coerentă, variată și interesantă cum, nu mă îndoiesc nicio clipă, vor fi și cele ce vor urma. Coordonatoarea volumului și a colecției, doamna conf. univ. dr. Patricia Runcan, un manager cultural excelent și, la rându-i, un om spiritual autentic, nu se dezice, nici de această dată, de stilul ei „nemțesc”, precis, pedant și de chemarea/menirea pe care i-a dat-o Dumnezeu: de a învăța în școală, de a mărturisi în/prin Biserică și de a scrie mesajul divin celor dispuși să-l asculte. Susțin și încurajez, cu tot sufletul, această minunată inițiativă a colecției Autentic și sper să dea roade cât mai bogate și îndelungate! Conf. univ. dr. Eugen Jurca "