Low workforce participation of educated female and the role of work organizations in post-war Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka as a developing economy that achieved gender equity in education and a higher literacy rate (both adult and youth) in the South Asian region still records a low labor force participation and high unemployment rate of females when compared to their male counterparts. With the suggestion of existing literature on the non-conventional models of careers those adopted by young and female populations at the working age, this paper discusses the role of work organizations in absorbing more females (and even minority groups) into the workforce. It mainly focuses on the need of designing appropriate human resource strategies and reforming the existing organizational structures in order for contributing to the national development in the post-war Sri Lanka economy.

Migration as a rural development strategy and the migrants involved : an account of a migrants' hometown in Sichuan, China

This paper attempts to describe part of the history of Chinese rural migration to urban industrial areas. Using a case study of a township in Sichuan, the author examines a type of rural development which she defines as a "bottom-up" style strategy of regional development. Different types of social mobility are observed in the case study, and over its long history, migration in the township has offered diverse means of social mobility to the local peasants. The paper concludes by considering the diversity and limits of Chinese social mobility at this stage.

Relevance of the glottal pulse and the vocal tract in gender detection

Gender detection is a very important objective to improve efficiency in tasks as speech or speaker recognition, among others. Traditionally gender detection has been focused on fundamental frequency (f0) and cepstral features derived from voiced segments of speech. The methodology presented here consists in obtaining uncorrelated glottal and vocal tract components which are parameterized as mel-frequency coefficients. K-fold and cross-validation using QDA and GMM classifiers showed that better detection rates are reached when glottal source and vocal tract parameters are used in a gender-balanced database of running speech from 340 speakers.

Domes of adobe and stone on the rural architecture of centre of Castilla y León (Spain)

In the centre of Castilla y León (extensive zone of Spain) still there are some examples of the old rural buildings linked to the economic activities that have been developed in the agrarian field. These are called chozos and casetas, and they have been erected with domed solutions using the autochthonous materi-als: the mud in the region of Tierra de Campos and the stone in the region of Montes Torozos. The influence of traditional construction techniques of both elements has generated a singular typological range rarely seen in the rest of the Península Ibérica. All different types of domes found in this place will be explained from its construction process, adding its structural capacity and energy bioclimatic qualities. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- En el centro de Castilla y León todavía se mantienen algunos ejemplos de antiguas construcciones rurales vinculadas a las actividades económicas que se han desarrollado en el ámbito agrario. Éstas, conocidas como chozos y casetas, han sido ejecutadas con soluciones cupuliformes empleándose los materiales que más a mano se disponen, siendo el barro más característico en la región de Tierra de Campos y la piedra en la comarca de Montes Torozos. La influencia de las técnicas constructivas tradicionales de ambos elementos ha generado un abanico tipológico singular poco visto en el resto de la península. Los diferentes tipos de cúpulas encontrados se explicarán desde su proceso constructivo, añadiendo su capacidad estructural y sus cualidades bioclimáticas.

Transition-state structure as a unifying basis in protein-folding mechanisms: Contact order, chain topology, stability, and the extended nucleus mechanism

I attempt to reconcile apparently conflicting factors and mechanisms that have been proposed to determine the rate constant for two-state folding of small proteins, on the basis of general features of the structures of transition states. Φ-Value analysis implies a transition state for folding that resembles an expanded and distorted native structure, which is built around an extended nucleus. The nucleus is composed predominantly of elements of partly or well-formed native secondary structure that are stabilized by local and long-range tertiary interactions. These long-range interactions give rise to connecting loops, frequently containing the native loops that are poorly structured. I derive an equation that relates differences in the contact order of a protein to changes in the length of linking loops, which, in turn, is directly related to the unfavorable free energy of the loops in the transition state. Kinetic data on loop extension mutants of CI2 and α-spectrin SH3 domain fit the equation qualitatively. The rate of folding depends primarily on the interactions that directly stabilize the nucleus, especially those in native-like secondary structure and those resulting from the entropy loss from the connecting loops, which vary with contact order. This partitioning of energy accounts for the success of some algorithms that predict folding rates, because they use these principles either explicitly or implicitly. The extended nucleus model thus unifies the observations of rate depending on both stability and topology.

The asymptotic distribution of canonical correlations and vectors in higher-order cointegrated models

The study of the large-sample distribution of the canonical correlations and variates in cointegrated models is extended from the first-order autoregression model to autoregression of any (finite) order. The cointegrated process considered here is nonstationary in some dimensions and stationary in some other directions, but the first difference (the “error-correction form”) is stationary. The asymptotic distribution of the canonical correlations between the first differences and the predictor variables as well as the corresponding canonical variables is obtained under the assumption that the process is Gaussian. The method of analysis is similar to that used for the first-order process.

Private (Brown) Eyes: Ethnicity, Genre and Gender in Crime Fiction in the Gloria Damasco novels and the Chicanos Comic Series

The representation of women in crime fiction has traditionally been a complicated one. Consistently forced into secondary characters (assistants, girlfriends, or damsels in distress) the most active role a female character could aspire to was that of the femme fatale, a pit of perdition, an unwelcome distraction for a man looking for truth and justice. This traditional approach to the genre has been challenged in the last decades by women acting as detectives, trusted with solving their cases in a hostile male world. Similarly, the traditional white male protagonist has been contested by fictions where ethnic minorities are not just consigned to the criminal world, but where detectives are members of ethnic groups, and can use their knowledge of the community to solve the case. This essay focuses on the crossroads of ethnic and women’s detective fiction, specifically the Gloria Damasco series by Chicana writer Lucha Corpi and the graphic novel Chicanos (Trillo and Risso, 1996). Both protagonists (Gloria Damasco, a Chicana clairvoyant detective, and “poor, ugly, and a detective” Alejandrina Yolanda Jalisco) must face both the dangers of investigating criminal cases and discrimination in their professional surroundings due to their gender and ethnicity. By contrasting these texts, the essay elucidates the importance of specific cultural products, their connection to (and defiance of) canonical forms of the genre, and their rejection of generic and gender expectations.

Gender sensitivity in national health plans in Latin America and the European Union

Objectives: To evaluate the situation regarding gender sensitivity in national health plans in Latin America and the European Union for the decade 2000–2010. Methods: A systematic search and content analysis of national health plans were carried out within 37 countries. Gender sensitivity, defined as the extent to which a health plan considers gender as a central category and develops measures to reduce any gender-related inequalities, was analysed through an ad hoc checklist. Results: The description of health problems by sex was more frequent than intervention proposals aimed at reducing gender health disparities. The greatest number of specific intervention proposals targeted at overcoming gender-based health inequalities were associated with sexual and/or reproductive health, gender based violence, the working environment and human resources training. Compared to the European Union member states, Latin American health plans were found to be generally more gender sensitive. Conclusions: National health plans are still generally lacking in gender sensitivity. Disparities exist in health policy formulation in favour of men, whilst women's health continues to be identified mainly with reproductive health. If gender sensitivity is not taken into account, efforts to improve the quality of clinical care will be insufficient as gender inequalities will persist.

The autonomy of the EU legal order and the law-making activities of international organizations. Some examples regarding the Council most recent practice. Research Papers in Law 03/2012

[Introduction.] It is generally believed that while the principle of the autonomy of the EU legal order, in the sense of constitutional and institutional autonomy that is to say what concerns the autonomous decision-making of the EU, has been clearly strengthened by the most recent jurisprudence of the Court of Justice (eg. Moxplant3, Intertanko or the Kadi/Al Baraakat judgements or the Opinion 1/2009 of the CJEU etc.) as well as, in my opinion, in many aspects by the Treaty of Lisbon, it is still valid to add that the principle of a favourable approach, stemming from the Court jurisprudence, for the enhanced openness of the EU legal order to international law has remained equally important for the EU4. On the other hand, it should be also seen that in a globalized world, and following the increased role of the EU as an international actor, its indispensable and crucial role concerning the creation of world (legal) order in many policy fields ( for example let's think about the G20 issues, the global economic and financial crisis, the role of the EU in promoting and protecting human rights worldwide, the implementation of the multilateral or regional conventional law, developed in the framework the UN (e.g. in the field of agriculture or environment etc) or what concerns the Kyoto process on climate change or the conservation of marine biological resources at international level etc), it seems reasonable and justified to submit that the influence, for example, of the law-making activities of the main stakeholder international organizations in the mentioned policy-areas on the EU (especially on the development of its constantly evolving legal order) or vice-versa the influence of the EU law-making practice on these international organizations is significant, in many aspects mutually interdependent and more and more remarkable. This tendency of the 21st century doesn't mean, however, in my view, that the notion of the autonomy of the EU legal order would have been weakened by this increasing interaction between international law and EU law over the passed years. This contribution is going to demonstrate and prove these departuring points by giving some concrete examples from the most recent practice of the Council (all occuring either in the second half of 2009 or after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty), and which relate to two very important policy areas in the EU, namely the protection of human rights and the Common Fishery Policy.

Brazilian perspectives on the changing global order and security challenges. CEPS Working Document No. 376, February 2013

This study analyses the current picture and prospects for EU–Brazil relations in the political and security arenas. As actors experiencing relevant changes, albeit in different directions in their respective international status quo, the EU and Brazil have found some common ground for convergence at the macro level on some structural issues, such as the normative framework of a changing global order, the striving for a multipolar world and the relevance and desirability of multilateralism. At the same time, it is argued that they differ significantly as to the strategies pursued in the attainment of those shared interests, resulting in competing, or eventually divergent, policy preferences when addressing specific issues and developments at the international level, limiting the prospects for a deep mutual commitment and engagement in political and security dynamics at the global level.