Creative English and public relations in Hong Kong

This paper investigates employer perceptions of the nature and importance of the English language in public relations agencies in Hong Kong. Based on in-depth interviews with senior managers from eight Hong Kong-based public relations companies, it examines how the linguistic currency ofEnglish is used collaboratively in creative organizations. Findings suggest that English is used as the common language among transnational public relations work teams and the clients that they service. Itis also used as a creative resource for facilitating collaboration, staff development and socialization into corporate and professional cultures.

Institutional legacies and capabilities: work practices and employment relations in Portugal and Mozambique

This is a study of institutional change and continuity, comparing the trajectories followed by Mozambique and its formal colonial power Portugal in HRM, based on two surveys of firm level practices. The colonial power sought to extend the institutions of the metropole in the closing years of its rule, and despite all the adjustments and shocks that have accompanied Mozambique’s post-independence years, the country continues to retain institutional features and associated practices from the past. This suggests that there is a post-colonial impact on human resource management. The implications for HRM theory are that ambitious attempts at institutional substitution may have less dramatic effects than is commonly assumed. Indeed, we encountered remarkable similarities between the two countries in HRM practices, implying that features of supposedly fluid or less mature institutional frameworks (whether in Africa or the Mediterranean world) may be sustained for protracted periods of time, pressures to reform notwithstanding. This highlights the complexities of continuities which transcend formal rules; as post-colonial theories alert us, informal conventions and embedded discourse may result in the persistence of informal power and subordination, despite political and legal changes.

Breaking the double-edged sword of effort/trying hard: developmental equilibrium and Longitudinal relations among effort, achievement, and academic self-concept

Ever since the classic research of Nicholls (1976) and others, effort has been recognized as a double-edged sword: whilst it might enhance achievement, it undermines academic self-concept (ASC). However, there has not been a thorough evaluation of the longitudinal reciprocal effects of effort, ASC and achievement,in the context of modern self-concept theory and statistical methodology. Nor have there been developmental equilibrium tests of whether these effects are consistent across the potentially volatile early-to-middle adolescence. Hence, focusing on mathematics, we evaluate reciprocal effects models over the first four years of secondary school, relating effort, achievement (test scores and school grades), ASC, and ASCxEffort interactions for a representative sample of 3,421 German students (Mn age = 11.75 years at Wave 1). ASC, effort and achievement were positively correlated at each wave, and there was a clear pattern of positive reciprocal positive effects among ASC, test scores and school grades—each contributing to the other, after controlling for the prior effects of all others. There was an asymmetrical pattern of effects for effort that is consistent with the double-edged sword premise: prior school grades had positive effects on subsequent effort, but prior effort had non-significant or negative effects on subsequent grades and ASC. However, on the basis of a synergistic application of new theory and methodology, we predicted and found a significant ASC-by-effort interaction, such that prior effort had more positive effects on subsequent ASC and school grades when prior ASC was high—thus providing a key to breaking the double-edged sword.

EXACT AND APPROXIMATE RELATIONS FOR THE SPIN-DEPENDENCE OF THE EXCHANGE ENERGY IN HIGH MAGNETIC FIELDS

The exchange energy of an arbitrary collinear-spin many-body system in an external magnetic field is a functional of the spin-resolved charge and current densities, E(x)[n(up arrow), n(down arrow), j(up arrow), j(down arrow)]. Within the framework of density-functional theory (DFT), we show that the dependence of this functional on the four densities can be fully reconstructed from either of two extreme limits: a fully polarized system or a completely unpolarized system. Reconstruction from the limit of an unpolarized system yields a generalization of the Oliver-Perdew spin scaling relations from spin-DFT to current-DFT. Reconstruction from the limit of a fully polarized system is used to derive the high-field form of the local-spin-density approximation to current-DFT and to magnetic-field DFT.

Domestic violence in Brazil: social problems and legislative interventions

Recent statistical data confirms that domestic violence is a structural problem of exceptional gravity. We analyze the frequent legislative changes in Brazil since 2000 as a result of social pressure for protection of abused women. Only the Law 11.340 of 2006 was well received by lawyers, judges and the public opinion. We present the innovations and peculiarities of this statute and the allegations on unconstitutionality. We discuss cases of judicial review of this law and reject the arguments of unconstitutionality. That notwithstanding, we argue that penalization decisions is the wrong way from a criminological point of view because they do not take into consideration the desires and needs of the victims.

The interdisciplinary perspective on International Law and International Relations by Anne-Marie Slaughter

Este artigo consiste em uma resenha crítica sobre a reflexão de Anne-Marie Slaughter para uma aproximação interdisciplinar entre Direito Internacional e Relações Internacionais. Slaughter tem sido apontada, internacionalmente, como uma das protagonistas neste debate acadêmico, e sua obra é indicada como uma das mais influentes na academia dos Estados Unidos da América, no século XX. Em tempos de aproximação entre juristas e internacionalistas no Brasil, o artigo procura contribuir com a contextualização da produção da autora, bem como elucidar os momentos de influência das suas atividades em outros centros de discussão e produção. A proposta principal deste artigo é, assim, favorecer um mapeamento histórico e contextualizado da chamada para o debate interdisciplinar entre Direito Internacional e Relações Internacionais, a partir dos trabalhos de um de seus pivôs na academia nos Estados Unidos.

Analysis of the economic and financial relations between Latin American and the Caribbean and the BRICS group

This document has been prepared in compliance with Activity III.1.2 of the Work Programme of SELA for the year 2015, entitled “Analysis of the economic and financial relations between Latin America and the Caribbean and the BRICS countries”. The document comprises an introduction, four chapters and a final section with the conclusions and recommendations stemming from the study. Chapter I describes the economic performance of the BRICS countries, their economic relations with Latin America and the Caribbean and the functioning of the development banks of the member countries. Chapter II assesses the financial architecture of Latin America and the Caribbean and explores the needs for financing in the region. Chapter III deals with the regulatory frameworks governing public and private investments in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Bilateral Investment Treaties with the BRICS countries. Finally, Chapter IV describes the main features of the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingent Reserve Agreement of the BRICS

Gas exchange rates at different vapor pressure deficits and water relations of 'Pera' sweet orange plants with citrus variegated chlorosis (CVC)

Net photosynthesis (A) and transpiration rates (E), stomatal conductance (g), water use efficiency (WUE), intrinsic water use efficiency (IWUE) and internal leaf CO2 concentration (C) in response to different vapor pressure deficit (1.2 and 2.5 kPa) were investigated in 'Pera' sweet orange plants affected by citrus variegated chlorosis (CVC), a disease caused by Xylella fastidiosa. All plants were well watered and leaf water potential (Pw) was also measured by the psychrometric technique. Results showed that healthy plants responded to higher vapor pressure deficit (VPD), lowering its net photosynthesis and transpiration rates, and stomatal conductance. However, diseased plants presented no clear response to VPD, showing lower A, E and g for both VPDs studied and very similar values to these variables in healthy plants at the highest VPD. Internal leaf CO2 concentration also decreased for healthy plants when under the highest VPD, and surprisingly, the same pattern of response was found in plants with CVC. These results, the lower Psi(w) and higher WUE values for diseased plants, indicated that this disease may cause stomatal dysfunction and affect the water resistance through xylem vessels, which ultimately may play some role in photosynthetic metabolism. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

CO2 assimilation, photosynthetic light response curves, and water relations of 'Pêra' sweet orange plants infected with Xylella fastidiosa

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Leaf heliotropism in Styrax camporum Pohl from the Brazilian cerrado: distinct gas exchange and leaf structure, but similar leaf temperature and water relations

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)