The Athens Dialogues : An International Conference on Culture and Civilization

Fil: Fernández Deagustini, María del Pilar. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (UNLP-CONICET); Argentina.

The Athens Dialogues : An International Conference on Culture and Civilization

Fil: Fernández Deagustini, María del Pilar. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (UNLP-CONICET); Argentina.

Clothing Export from sub-Saharan Africa : Impact on Poverty and Potential for Growth

Increases in clothing exports after 2000 signaled the first incidence of large-scale manufacturing exports from sub-Saharan Africa. Using firm-level information, this paper explores the potential of clothing exports for poverty reduction and further growth as seen in other low income countries. It shows that the garment exporting industries in Kenya and Madagascar have contributed poverty reduction in the short term by providing mass employment for female and less educated workers with wages beyond the poverty line. However, the long-term impact is not certain. High production costs and limited development of local firms weaken potential for further growth in the competitive world market. Upgrading of the market and improvement of efficiency are required to remain competitive for African industries, and governmental support for local participation are needed to facilitate technology transfer.

The Effect of Product Classifications on the Formulation of Export Unit Value Indices: A Comparison of Export Unit Value Indices based on SITC and HS

With the globalization of economic activity, the relative weight of foreign trade in national economic activities has increased, and the question of how to measure trends in the value and quantity of international trade has become an important issue for policy-makers and economists. This paper compares the chain-linked indices formulated by Masato Kuroko, based on HS this fiscal year for individual industry categories and countries with chain-linked indices based on SITC-R1 codes, in order to study how changes in the quality composition of the same products, which cannot be considered using unit value indices based on SITC-R1 codes, can be considered using unit value indices based on the more detailed HS product classifications.

International labor migration in Vietnam and the impact of receiving countries' policies

Labor export has been part of Vietnam’s socio-economic development strategy since the beginning of the doi moi era. Recent years, Vietnam has sent about 80,000 workers abroad per year. Vietnam has become a major source country of unskilled foreign workers for high-income East Asian countries. However, in these receiving countries, the desertion rate among Vietnamese workers is quite high, compared with that for workers from other countries. This paper examines the impact of Korean and Japanese policies for receiving foreign workers applied to and implemented in Vietnam, as well as the impact of Vietnamese labor sending system, on the problem of runaway workers.

OER Development and Promotion. Outcomes of an International Research Project on the OpenCourseWare Model

In this paper, we describe the successful results of an international research project focused on the use of Web technology in the educational context. The article explains how this international project, funded by public organizations and developed over the last two academic years, focuses on the area of open educational resources (OER) and particularly the educational content of the OpenCourseWare (OCW) model. This initiative has been developed by a research group composed of researchers from three countries. The project was enabled by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid OCW Office�s leadership of the Consortium of Latin American Universities and the distance education know-how of the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL, Ecuador). We give a full account of the project, methodology, main outcomes and validation. The project results have further consolidated the group, and increased the maturity of group members and networking with other groups in the area. The group is now participating in other research projects that continue the lines developed here

Resilience analysis of networked systems-of-systems based on structural and dynamic interdependencies

Critical infrastructures support everyday activities in modern societies, facilitating the exchange of services and quantities of various nature. Their functioning is the result of the integration of diverse technologies, systems and organizations into a complex network of interconnections. Benefits from networking are accompanied by new threats and risks. In particular, because of the increased interdependency, disturbances and failures may propagate and render unstable the whole infrastructure network. This paper presents a methodology of resilience analysis of networked systems of systems. Resilience generalizes the concept of stability of a system around a state of equilibrium, with respect to a disturbance and its ability of preventing, resisting and recovery. The methodology provides a tool for the analysis of off-equilibrium conditions that may occur in a single system and propagate through the network of dependencies. The analysis is conducted in two stages. The first stage of the analysis is qualitative. It identifies the resilience scenarios, i.e. the sequence of events, triggered by an initial disturbance, which include failures and the system response. The second stage is quantitative. The most critical scenarios can be simulated, for the desired parameter settings, in order to check if they are successfully handled, i.e recovered to nominal conditions, or they end into the network failure. The proposed methodology aims at providing an effective support to resilience-informed design.

Laser sounding from space; report of the ESA Technology Working Group on Space Laser Sounding and Ranging

The purpose and principles of spaceborne lidar are described, giving particular attention to candidates for space deployment, including simple backscatter lidar for measuring of cloud top height, cloud extend and optical properties, differential absorption lidar providing high vertical resolution measurements of humidity, temperature and pressure, a wind profiling lidar with the unique capability of improved weather forecasting and global dynamics, and a ranging and altimeter lidar for very accurate measurement of surface features, including ground, sea and ice cap height for solid earth studies.

On Becoming a Working Visual Artist: Opportunities and Challenges Along the Path

Thousands of students graduate from colleges and art schools every year with the goal of becoming working visual artists. The majority of them, however, find that earning a living as a working artist is a tough and competitive career path. This Capstone Project, through an extensive literature review and interviews, examines the factors and characteristics that influence whether an individual will make the leap to becoming a working visual artist. Research results indicate that primary factors in achieving the status of working visual artists include specific personality traits, experiential and career-oriented arts education, and development of strong business skills.