Uzbekistán: la configuración de un nuevo estado. Especial referencia al estatus de la mujer

Uzbekistan has a long and interesting heritage of ancient civilization linked to the historic “Silk Road”, through which transited people, goods, ideas and cultures. The major cities of the Silk Road - Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva are testimonies of the past and leave a deep impression on any visitor. As time goes by, Uzbekistan has become a key country in the whole Central Asian region, because it possesses mineral, agricultural and natural resources and has a huge potential for development. It is rich in energy resources such as oil and gas, but it is very difficult to commercialize them due to its landlocked position. The historical legacy of the Republic of Uzbekistan is a valuable heritage. The above mentioned ancient cities used to be centers of science and art, where important architects created palaces, mosques, madrassas, minarets, and mausoleums of the Islamic style, that still exist today. This cultural wealth is an element of internal cohesion and external outreach towards Islamic heritage, related to such Muslim countries as Turkey and the Gulf States. Moreover, this historical and architectural heritage has enormous economic potential for tourism, which can contribute to strengthen the relations of cooperation and friendship between Uzbekistan and the International Society. The influence of tradition and culture has still a huge impact on the society. This can be felt for example, in the traditional gender roles distribution. As a result of which, meńs presence in the areas of decision making is still slightly higher than womeńs one...

State-building y entorno de seguridad en los países de Oriente Medio. Especial referencia al subcomplejo de seguridad regional del Golfo

El objetivo principal de esta investigación es contribuir al debate académico sobre la problemática de seguridad/inseguridad que afecta a los Estados árabes de Oriente Medio, indagando sobre sus causas y reflexionando sobre sus consecuencias desde el enfoque de los estudios de seguridad y, más concretamente, desde la corriente que aborda la cuestión de la seguridad en el Tercer Mundo. Una perspectiva novedosa tanto desde el punto de vista de las investigaciones llevadas a cabo en nuestro país sobre la región de Oriente Medio, como de las investigaciones existentes en lengua árabe. El punto de partida de nuestra investigación consiste en cuestionar la capacidad explicativa de las teorías tradicionales y dominantes de seguridad al ser aplicadas al análisis de la seguridad nacional en el contexto particular del Tercer Mundo y, como parte de este, al mundo árabe en general. En nuestra opinión, este enfoque tradicional no permite entender las causas de la inestabilidad permanente que azota el Oriente Medio, al no conseguir captar la naturaleza esencial de dicha problemática. La razón fundamental es que los estudios de seguridad surgieron para explicar y dar respuesta a los problemas de la seguridad occidental. Aplicar indiscriminadamente los postulados de la definición de seguridad dominante a cualquier escenario no sólo limita enormemente el alcance del análisis, sino que distorsiona la realidad objeto de estudio. Esta limitación es aplicable también al explicar el escenario de inestabilidad e inseguridad del Oriente Medio. Con el propósito de abordar el vacío existente dentro de los estudios de seguridad relativos a la problemática de la seguridad en el Tercer Mundo, y de poder llegar a entender lo que no alcanzan a explicar las teorías clásicas sobre seguridad surge la corriente del Realismo Subalterno. Dentro del marco de la teoría realista, el Realismo Subalterno no se ha limitado únicamente a ser una manifestación más de contestación del concepto de seguridad tradicional, sino que se presenta como un instrumento analítico alternativo a los paradigmas y teorías dominantes sobre seguridad –tanto de la concepción realista tradicional como de los nuevos intentos de revisión del concepto-. Una perspectiva útil para explicar problemas contemporáneos de seguridad frente a la insuficiente capacidad de las teorías de seguridad clásicas, especialmente frente a los nuevos desafíos surgidos tras el final de la Guerra Fría...

The Affective Dimensions of Social Controversy

Social controversy is a sustained, mediated debate between at least two oppositional parties which is more than just a difference of opinion; rather it is a persistent conflict over the political and cultural implications that dominant forms of communicative reasoning, practices, and norms have for a public. Simply put, during social controversies the norms guiding public life can be negotiated, reaffirmed, negated, and/or transformed. This can lead to progressive political, cultural, and/or social change in some instances, while establishing or reifying conservative and even oppressive norms, practices, and laws in others. Building upon Olson and Goodnight's (1994) theoretical and methodological framework of social controversy, this dissertation argues that scholars should analyze the role affect plays in this type of conflict as a means to address the regulation of public conduct as well as public discourse. The rhetorical and argumentative significance of the affective dimensions of social controversy have been conceptualized and analyzed via an examination of emotion-based claims and affective states that have become salient, discernable and/or apprehendable during specific public disagreements. Such a conceptualization demonstrates that critical insights regarding the norms that guide public conduct, the role risk and vulnerability play in the regulation of individuals' public behavior, and the relationship between affect and citizenship can be gained by focusing on a controversy's affective dimensions. To highlight the importance of the study of affect in social controversy as well as better understand the larger critical significance affect theory has for rhetorical and argumentation studies, this dissertation has analyzed the affective dimensions of three conflicts. They are: the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse social controversy, the International Freedom Center social controversy, and the controversy over the 2004 French ban on conspicuous religious attire in public schools. The findings from this dissertation that have specific and general implications for future work in the field of controversy as well as rhetoric and argumentation, respectively.

Digitizing the Historical Periodical Collection at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Library in East Jerusalem

The Arab Press in Palestine developed at the turn of the twentieth century and proliferated for several decades despite restrictions imposed under the Ottoman Empire and during the British Mandate Period (1917-1948). Hardcopies of the early newspapers and periodicals are rare and access to them at a few Palestinian municipal or private libraries is limited. The Al-Aqsa Mosque Library holds one of the largest collections of Palestinian historical newspapers and periodicals. The collection provides a unique and rich source of information about the history of Palestine in the first half of the twentieth century. Access to the collection is limited and brittle paper copies have been rapidly deteriorating. This paper provides an overview of the digitization project aimed at preserving the historical periodical collection located at the AlAqsa Mosque Library

Las perspectivas de los refugiados sobre el regreso a Somalia

MSF preguntó hace poco a los refugiados somalíes en el campo de Dagahaley en Dadaab acerca de sus condiciones de vida y de lo que piensan sobre su posible regreso a Somalia en un futuro próximo. Las respuestas sugieren que las malas condiciones de vida en el campo no les llevan a querer regresar a pesar de lo extendida que está la creencia contraria.

Yemen, 1774 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Terrae Yemen maxima Pars. seu Imperii Imami, Principatus Kaukebân, nec non ditionum Haschid U Bekîl, Nehhm, Chaulân, Abu Arîsch Et Aden Tabula : ex observationibus astronomicis et hodometricis jussu et suntibus Potentissimor: Daniae Regnum Friderici V et Christiani VII institutis, delineata Auctore C. Niebuhr ; Gustav Conrad Lotter Sculps. It was published by Tob. Conr. Lotter in 1774. Scale [ca. 1,250,000]. Covers a portion of Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Map in Latin. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the World Miller Cylindrical projection. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as drainage, cities and other human settlements, territorial boundaries, shoreline features, and more. Relief shown by hachures. This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from the Harvard Map Collection as part of the Open Collections Program at Harvard University project: Islamic Heritage Project. Maps selected for the project represent a range of regions, originators, ground condition dates, scales, and purposes. The Islamic Heritage Project consists of over 100,000 digitized pages from Harvard's collections of Islamic manuscripts and published materials. Supported by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and developed in association with the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard University.

DVD-based distance-learning program for university entrance exams -- RCT experiments in rural Bangladesh

In contrast to the remarkable progress in developing countries in improving primary education, access to higher education in many countries remains limited, especially in rural areas where the quality of education is inadequate. We evaluate a DVD-based distance-learning program in rural Bangladesh, targeted at students aiming to take university entrance tests. We conducted two experiments: one to evaluate the effect of the distance-learning program and the second to determine the demand and price sensitivity. Our first experiment shows that the DVD-based distance-learning program has a considerable positive effect on the number of students passing entrance exams. This effect does not depend on cognitive scores, but does depend on non-cognitive attributes, indicating the importance of commitment, which is imposed through our program. In the second experiment, we offered a random subsidy to interested participants. The uptake decision is price-sensitive, although the price sensitivity is not correlated with students' past academic performance or their socio-economic status, suggesting that increasing the price should not disproportionately exclude poor students.

Chronostratigraphy of eastern Mediterranen Sea sediment cores

An Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) 14C dated multiparameter event stratigraphy is developed for the Aegean Sea on the basis of highly resolved (centimeter to subcentimeter) multiproxy data collected from four late glacial to Holocene sediment cores. We quantify the degree of proportionality and synchroneity of sediment accumulation in these cores and use this framework to optimize the confidence levels in regional marine, radiocarbon-based chronostratigraphies. The applicability of the framework to published, lower-resolution records from the Aegean Sea is assessed. Next this is extended into the wider eastern Mediterranean, using new and previously published high-resolution data from the northern Levantine and Adriatic cores. We determine that the magnitude of uncertainties in the intercore comparison of AMS 14C datings based on planktonic foraminifera in the eastern Mediterranean is of the order of ±240 years (2 SE). These uncertainties are attributed to synsedimentary and postsedimentary processes that affect the materials dated. This study also offers a background age control that allows for vital refinements to radiocarbon-based chronostratigraphy in the eastern Mediterranean, with the potential for similar frameworks to be developed for any other well-studied region.

Egypt and Syria under the Circassian sultans, 1382-1468 A.D. : systematic notes to Ibn Taghrî Birdî's chronicles of Egypt /

Mode of access: Internet.

Improving the performance of virtual memory computers /

"UILU-ENG 78 1741."

Some results on the working set anomalies in numerical programs /

"UILU-ENG 80 1744"--Cover.

Program behavior under VAX/VMS /

"UILU-ENG 83 1727"--Cover.