The Making of a Shiite Bourgeoisie in Lebanon Political Mobilisation, Economic Resources and Formation of a Social Group

The thesis analyses the making of the Shiite middle- and upper/entrepreneurial-class in Lebanon from the 1960s till the present day. The trajectory explores the historical, political and social (internal and external) factors that brought a sub-proletariat to mobilise and become an entrepreneurial bourgeoisie in the span of less than three generations. This work proposes the main theoretical hypothesis to unpack and reveal the trajectory of a very recent social class that through education, diaspora, political and social mobilisation evolved in a few years into a very peculiar bourgeoisie: whereas Christian-Maronite middle class practically produced political formations and benefited from them and from Maronite’s state supremacy (National Pact, 1943) reinforcing the community’s status quo, Shiites built their own bourgeoisie from within, and mobilised their “cadres” (Boltanski) not just to benefit from their renovated presence at the state level, but to oppose to it. The general Social Movement Theory (SMT), as well as a vast amount of the literature on (middle) class formation are therefore largely contradicted, opening up new territories for discussion on how to build a bourgeoisie without the state’s support (Social Mobilisation Theory, Resource Mobilisation Theory) and if, eventually, the middle class always produces democratic movements (the emergence of a social group out of backwardness and isolation into near dominance of a political order). The middle/upper class described here is at once an economic class related to the control of multiple forms of capital, and produced by local, national, and transnational networks related to flows of services, money, and education, and a culturally constructed social location and identity structured by economic as well as other forms of capital in relation to other groups in Lebanon.

Pesiqta Rabbati: a text-linguistic and form-analytical analysis of the rabbinic homily

Pesiqta Rabbati is a unique homiletic midrash that follows the liturgical calendar in its presentation of homilies for festivals and special Sabbaths. This article attempts to utilize Pesiqta Rabbati in order to present a global theory of the literary production of rabbinic/homiletic literature. In respect to Pesiqta Rabbati it explores such areas as dating, textual witnesses, integrative apocalyptic meta-narrative, describing and mapping the structure of the text, internal and external constraints that impacted upon the text, text linguistic analysis, form-analysis: problems in the texts and linguistic gap-filling, transmission of text, strict formalization of a homiletic unit, deconstructing and reconstructing homiletic midrashim based upon form-analytic units of the homily, Neusner’s documentary hypothesis, surface structures of the homiletic unit, and textual variants. The suggested methodology may assist scholars in their production of editions of midrashic works by eliminating superfluous material and in their decoding and defining of ancient texts.

Internal vs. external connections for abutments/reconstructions: a systematic review

The objectives of the review were (1) to evaluate the accuracy of implant-level impressions in cases with internal and external connection abutments/reconstructions, and (2) to evaluate the incidence of technical complications of internal and external connection metal- or zirconia-based abutments and single-implant reconstructions.

The Process and Factors of Language Shift and Maintenance: Sociolinguistic Research into the Romanian Minority Community in Hungary

This study of the process of language shift and maintenance in the bilingual community of Romanians living in Hungary was based on 40 tape-recorded Romanian sociolinguistic interviews. These were transcribed into computerised form and provide an excellent source of sociolinguistic, contact linguistic and discourse analysis data, making it possible to show the effect of internal and external factors on the bilingual speech mode. The main topics considered were the choice of Romanian and Hungarian in community interactions, factors of language choice, code-switching: introlanguage and interlanguage, reasons for code-switching, the relationship between age and the frequency of code switching in the interview situation, and the unequal competition of minority and majority languages at school.

The Process and Factors of Language Shift and Maintenance: Sociolinguistic Research into the Romanian Minority Community in Hungary"

This study of the process of language shift and maintenance in the bilingual community of Romanians living in Hungary was based on 40 tape-recorded Romanian sociolinguistic interviews. These were transcribed into computerised form and provide an excellent source of sociolinguistic, contact linguistic and discourse analysis data, making it possible to show the effect of internal and external factors on the bilingual speech mode. The main topics considered were the choice of Romanian and Hungarian in community interactions, factors of language choice, code-switching: introlanguage and interlanguage, reasons for code-switching, the relationship between age and the frequency of code switching in the interview situation, and the unequal competition of minority and majority languages at school.

Drug-Use Amongst Teenagers in Romania and the Republic of Moldavia"

Drug-use among teenagers in two ex-communist countries, Romania and the Republic of Moldova, was studied both in isolation and on a comparative basis. The group carried out a psycho-social study, gaining data from two representative samples of teenagers (N=713 in Romania and N=760 in Moldova). Teachers, parents and experts were also interviewed, using focus groups, questionnaires and 3 individual interviews. Aspects of the phenomenon investigated were the extent of drug use (frequency of consumption, kinds of drugs used, and categories of teenage consumers, by age, gender, residential areas, occupational status, marketplaces and traffickers); internal and external stimulating and inhibiting factors, the attitude of all four categories of subjects to drug abuse in teenagers, and strategies for combating this and other such problems.

The Effects of Privatization of State-Owned Enterprises in Poland and East Germany

The main goal of this project was to propose appropriate methods of analysing the effects of the privatisation of state-owned enterprises, methods which were then tested on a limited sample of 16 Polish and 8 German enterprises privatised in 1992. A considerable amount of information was collected relating to the six-year period 1989-1994 relating to most aspects of the companies' activities. The effects of privatisation were taken to be those changes within the enterprises which were the result of privatisation, in such areas as production, the productivity of labour and fixed assets, investments and innovations, employment and wages, economic incentives (especially for top managers), financing (internal and external sources), bad debts and economic effects (financial analysis). A second important goal was to identify the main factors which represent methodological obstacles in surveys of the effects of privatisation during a period of fundamental transformation of the entire economic system. The list of enterprises for the research was compiled in such a way as to allow for the differentiation of ownership structures of privatised firms and to permit (at least to a certain extent) the empirical verification of some hypotheses regarding the privatisation process. The enterprises selected were divided into the following three groups representing (as far as possible) various types of ownership structures or types of control: (1) enterprises control by strategic investors (domestic or foreign), (2) enterprises controlled by employees (employee-owned companies), (3) enterprises controlled by managers. Formal methods such as econometric models with varying parameters were used to separate pure privatisation effects from other factors which influence various aspects of an enterprise's working, including policies on the productivity of labour and capital, average wages, the remuneration of top managers, etc. While the group admits that their findings and conclusions cannot be treated as representative of all privatised enterprises in Poland and Germany, they found considerable convergence with their findings and those of other surveys conducted on a wider scale. The main hypotheses that were confirmed included that privatisation (especially in companies controlled by large investors and managers) leads to a significant increase in the effectiveness of these production process, growing pay differentials between different employee groups (e.g. between executives and rank-and-file employees) and between different jobs and positions within particular professional groups. They also confirmed the growing importance in incentives to top executives of incentives linked with the company's economic effects (particularly profit-related incentives), long-term incentives and the capital market.

Effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness of homeopathy in general practice - summarized health technology assessment

Introduction: The Health Technology Assessment report on effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and appropriateness of homeopathy was compiled on behalf of the Swiss Federal Office for Public Health (BAG) within the framework of the 'Program of Evaluation of Complementary Medicine (PEK)'. Materials and Methods: Databases accessible by Internet were systematically searched, complemented by manual search and contacts with experts, and evaluated according to internal and external validity criteria. Results: Many high-quality investigations of pre-clinical basic research proved homeopathic high-potencies inducing regulative and specific changes in cells or living organisms. 20 of 22 systematic reviews detected at least a trend in favor of homeopathy. In our estimation 5 studies yielded results indicating clear evidence for homeopathic therapy. The evaluation of 29 studies in the domain 'Upper Respiratory Tract Infections/Allergic Reactions' showed a positive overall result in favor of homeopathy. 6 out of 7 controlled studies were at least equivalent to conventional medical interventions. 8 out of 16 placebocontrolled studies were significant in favor of homeopathy. Swiss regulations grant a high degree of safety due to product and training requirements for homeopathic physicians. Applied properly, classical homeopathy has few side-effects and the use of high-potencies is free of toxic effects. A general health-economic statement about homeopathy cannot be made from the available data. Conclusion: Taking internal and external validity criteria into account, effectiveness of homeopathy can be supported by clinical evidence and professional and adequate application be regarded as safe. Reliable statements of cost-effectiveness are not available at the moment. External and model validity will have to be taken more strongly into consideration in future studies.

Community managed rural water supply systems in the Dominican Republic : assessment of sustainability of systems built by the National Institute of Potable Water and Peace Corps, Dominican Republic

In the Dominican Republic economic growth in the past twenty years has not yielded sufficient improvement in access to drinking water services, especially in rural areas where 1.5 million people do not have access to an improved water source (WHO, 2006). Worldwide, strategic development planning in the rural water sector has focused on participatory processes and the use of demand filters to ensure that service levels match community commitment to post-project operation and maintenance. However studies have concluded that an alarmingly high percentage of drinking water systems (20-50%) do not provide service at the design levels and/or fail altogether (up to 90%): BNWP (2009), Annis (2006), and Reents (2003). World Bank, USAID, NGOs, and private consultants have invested significant resources in an effort to determine what components make up an “enabling environment” for sustainable community management of rural water systems (RWS). Research has identified an array of critical factors, internal and external to the community, which affect long term sustainability of water services. Different frameworks have been proposed in order to better understand the linkages between individual factors and sustainability of service. This research proposes a Sustainability Analysis Tool to evaluate the sustainability of RWS, adapted from previous relevant work in the field to reflect the realities in the Dominican Republic. It can be used as a diagnostic tool for government entities and development organizations to characterize the needs of specific communities and identify weaknesses in existing training regimes or support mechanisms. The framework utilizes eight indicators in three categories (Organization/Management, Financial Administration, and Technical Service). Nineteen independent variables are measured resulting in a score of sustainability likely (SL), possible (SP), or unlikely (SU) for each of the eight indicators. Thresholds are based upon benchmarks from the DR and around the world, primary data collected during the research, and the author’s 32 months of field experience. A final sustainability score is calculated using weighting factors for each indicator, derived from Lockwood (2003). The framework was tested using a statistically representative geographically stratified random sample of 61 water systems built in the DR by initiatives of the National Institute of Potable Water (INAPA) and Peace Corps. The results concluded that 23% of sample systems are likely to be sustainable in the long term, 59% are possibly sustainable, and for 18% it is unlikely that the community will be able to overcome any significant challenge. Communities that were scored as unlikely sustainable perform poorly in participation, financial durability, and governance while the highest scores were for system function and repair service. The Sustainability Analysis Tool results are verified by INAPA and PC reports, evaluations, and database information, as well as, field observations and primary data collected during the surveys. Future research will analyze the nature and magnitude of relationships between key factors and the sustainability score defined by the tool. Factors include: gender participation, legal status of water committees, plumber/operator remuneration, demand responsiveness, post construction support methodologies, and project design criteria.

Shifted Coupling of EEG Driving Frequencies and fMRI Resting State Networks in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders

INTRODUCTION: The cerebral resting state in schizophrenia is altered, as has been demonstrated separately by electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) resting state networks (RSNs). Previous simultaneous EEG/fMRI findings in healthy controls suggest that a consistent spatiotemporal coupling between neural oscillations (EEG frequency correlates) and RSN activity is necessary to organize cognitive processes optimally. We hypothesized that this coupling is disorganized in schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders, in particular regarding higher cognitive RSNs such as the default-mode (DMN) and left-working-memory network (LWMN). METHODS: Resting state was investigated in eleven patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (n = 11) and matched healthy controls (n = 11) using simultaneous EEG/fMRI. The temporal association of each RSN to topographic spectral changes in the EEG was assessed by creating Covariance Maps. Group differences within, and group similarities across frequencies were estimated for the Covariance Maps. RESULTS: The coupling of EEG frequency bands to the DMN and the LWMN respectively, displayed significant similarities that were shifted towards lower EEG frequencies in patients compared to healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: By combining EEG and fMRI, each measuring different properties of the same pathophysiology, an aberrant relationship between EEG frequencies and altered RSNs was observed in patients. RSNs of patients were related to lower EEG frequencies, indicating functional alterations of the spatiotemporal coupling. SIGNIFICANCE: The finding of a deviant and shifted coupling between RSNs and related EEG frequencies in patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder is significant, as it might indicate how failures in the processing of internal and external stimuli, as commonly seen during this symptomatology (i.e. thought disorders, hallucinations), arise.

The evolution and assessment of pharmaceutical care: Structure, processes, and outcomes

The evolution of pharmaceutical care is identified through a complete review of the literature published in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, the sole comprehensive publication of institutional pharmacy practice. The evolution is categorized according to characteristics of structure (organizational structure, the role of the pharmacist), process (drug delivery systems, formulary management, acquiring drug products, methods to impact drug therapy decisions), and outcomes (cost of drug delivery, cost of drug acquisition and use, improved safety, improved health outcomes) recorded from the 1950s through the 1990s. While significant progress has been made in implementing basic drug distribution systems, levels of pharmacy involvement with direct patient care is still limited.^ A new practice framework suggests enhanced direct patient care involvement through increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of traditional pharmacy services. Recommendations advance internal and external organizational structure relationships that position pharmacists to fully use their unique skills and knowledge to impact drug therapy decisions and outcomes. Specific strategies facilitate expansion of the breadth and scope of each process component in order to expand the depth of integration of pharmacy and pharmaceutical care within the broad healthcare environment. Economic evaluation methods formally evaluate the impact of both operational and clinical interventions.^ Outcome measurements include specific recommendations and methods to increase efficiency of drug acquisition, emphasizing pharmacists' roles that impact physician prescribing decisions. Effectiveness measures include those that improve safety of drug distribution systems, decrease the potential of adverse drug therapy events, and demonstrate that pharmaceutical care can significantly contribute to improvement in overall health status.^ The implementation of the new framework is modeled on a case study at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. The implementation of several new drug distribution methods facilitated the redeployment of personnel from distributive functions to direct patient care activities with significant personnel and drug cost reduction. A cost-benefit analysis illustrates that framework process enhancements produced a benefit-to-cost ratio of 7.9. In addition, measures of effectiveness demonstrated significant levels of safety and enhanced drug therapy outcomes. ^

Determination of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin in human serum by capillary zone electrophoresis: evaluation of assay performance and quality assurance over a 10-year period in the routine arena.

The performance of high-resolution CZE for determination of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) in human serum based on internal and external quality data gathered over a 10-year period is reported. The assay comprises mixing of serum with a Fe(III) ion-containing solution prior to analysis of the iron saturated mixture in a dynamically double-coated capillary using a commercial buffer at alkaline pH. CDT values obtained with a human serum of a healthy individual and commercial quality control sera are shown to vary less than 10%. Values of a control from a specific lot were found to slowly decrease as function of time (less than 10% per year). Furthermore, due to unknown reasons, gradual changes in the monitored pattern around pentasialo-transferrin were detected, which limit the use of commercial control sera of the same lot to less than 2 years. Analysis of external quality control sera revealed correct classification of the samples over the entire 10-year period. Data obtained compare well with those of HPLC and CZE assays of other laboratories. The data gathered over a 10-year period demonstrate the robustness of the high-resolution CZE assay. This is the first account of a CZE-based CDT assay with complete internal and external quality assessment over an extended time period.

Meditators and non-meditators: EEG source imaging during resting

Many meditation exercises aim at increased awareness of ongoing experiences through sustained attention and at detachment, i.e., non-engaging observation of these ongoing experiences by the intent not to analyze, judge or expect anything. Long-term meditation practice is believed to generalize the ability of increased awareness and greater detachment into everyday life. We hypothesized that neuroplasticity effects of meditation (correlates of increased awareness and detachment) would be detectable in a no-task resting state. EEG recorded during resting was compared between Qigong meditators and controls. Using LORETA (low resolution electromagnetic tomography) to compute the intracerebral source locations, differences in brain activations between groups were found in the inhibitory delta EEG frequency band. In the meditators, appraisal systems were inhibited, while brain areas involved in the detection and integration of internal and external sensory information showed increased activation. This suggests that neuroplasticity effects of long-term meditation practice, subjectively described as increased awareness and greater detachment, are carried over into non-meditating states.

Why do adaptable people feel less insecure? Indirect effects of career adaptability on job and career insecurity via two types of perceived marketability

The aim of the present study was to analyze if and how career adaptability reduces different types of insecurity. More specifically, we argue in a theoretical model at the intersection of career and organizational research that perceived internal and external marketability serve as connecting variables in the link between career adaptability and job and career insecurity. We tested our assumptions by means of multiple indirect effects path analyses across two measurement points (6 month timespan) with data from 142 university researchers working in the STEM fields. The results showed that career adaptability was positively related to perceived internal and external marketability, which both subsequently were negatively associated with job and career insecurity. We draw theoretical implications for career research in intra- and extraorganizational settings and discuss practical implications for fostering secure employment.

Enhancing Food Sovereignty and Food Security through the Revitalization of Indigenous Knowledge: Experiences from the Bolivian Andes

Endogenous development is defined as development that values primarily locally available resources and the way people organized themselves for that purpose. It is a dynamic and evolving concept that also embraces innovations and complementation from other than endogenous sources of knowledge; however, only as far as they are based on mutual respect and the recognition of cultural and socioeconomic self-determination of each of the parties involved. Experiences that have been systematized in the context of the BioAndes Program are demonstrating that enhancing food security and food sovereignty on the basis of endogenous development can be best achieved by applying a ‘biocultural’ perspective: This means to promote and support actions that are simultaneously valuing biological (fauna, flora, soils, or agrobiodiversity) and sociocultural resources (forms of social organization, local knowledge and skills, norms, and the related worldviews). In Bolivia, that is one of the Latin-American countries with the highest levels of poverty (79% of the rural population) and undernourishment (22% of the total population), the Program BioAndes promotes food sovereignty and food security by revitalizing the knowledge of Andean indigenous people and strengthening their livelihood strategies. This starts by recognizing that Andean people have developed complex strategies to constantly adapt to highly diverse and changing socioenvironmental conditions. These strategies are characterized by organizing the communities, land use and livelihoods along a vertical gradient of the available eco-climatic zones; the resulting agricultural systems are evolving around the own sociocultural values of reciprocity and mutual cooperation, giving thus access to an extensive variety of food, fiber and energy sources. As the influences of markets, competition or individualization are increasingly affecting the life in the communities, people became aware of the need to find a new balance between endogenous and exogenous forms of knowledge. In this context, BioAndes starts by recognizing the wealth and potentials of local practices and aims to integrate its actions into the ongoing endogenous processes of innovation and adaptation. In order to avoid external impositions and biases, the program intervenes on the basis of a dialogue between exogenous, mainly scientific, and indigenous forms of knowledge. The paper presents an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of enhancing endogenous development through a dialogue between scientific and indigenous knowledge by specifically focusing on its effects on food sovereignty and food security in three ‘biocultural’ rural areas of the Bolivian highlands. The paper shows how the dialogue between different forms of knowledge evolved alongside the following project activities: 1) recuperation and renovation of local seeds and crop varieties (potato – Solanum spp., quinoa – Chenopodium quinoa, cañahua – Chenopodium pallidicaule); 2) support for the elaboration of community-based norms and regulations for governing access and distribution of non-timber forest products, such as medicinal, fodder, and construction plants; 3) revitalization of ethnoveterinary knowledge for sheep and llama breeding; 4) improvement of local knowledge about the transformation of food products (sheep-cheese, lacayote – Cucurbita sp. - jam, dried llama meat, fours of cañahua and other Andean crops). The implementation of these activities fostered the community-based livelihoods of indigenous people by complementing them with carefully and jointly designed innovations based on internal and external sources of knowledge and resources. Through this process, the epistemological and ontological basis that underlies local practices was made visible. On this basis, local and external actors started to jointly define a renewed concept of food security and food sovereignty that, while oriented in the notions of well being according to a collectively re-crafted world view, was incorporating external contributions as well. Enabling and hindering factors, actors and conditions of these processes are discussed in the paper.