Winds of Change for US and EU Relations with Cuba. CEPS Commentary, 21 March 2016

The visit by President Obama to Cuba this week marks a new and dramatic phase in the relations between the US and its next-door island neighbour just 90 km off its coastline. It will have taken almost 90 years for an American President to cross the Florida straits after the previous visit, by President Calvin Coolidge, who arrived not by air but on a battleship.

Information Guide: EU-US Relations

A guide to the European Union’s relations with the United States of America, with hyperlinks to sources of information within European Sources Online and on external web sites

Highly emotional States:French-US Relations and the Iraq war

Understanding the true nature of the relations between France and the United States is central to an understanding of the diplomatic crisis that broke out between them in 2003 over the War in Iraq. An analysis of the political cultures of France and the US offers considerable explanatory power to this dramatic diplomatic dispute. The inordinately emotional aspects of the Franco-US arguments of 2003 mask the fact that the two countries understand each other little. In the French case, its self-view and related diplomatic comportment in the twentieth century was informed by its relationship to Germany; and from it a range of cultural characteristics emerged, among them: vulnerability, self-regard, a romanticized view of itself, and the personalization of national identity. At the moment France’s response to its cultural heritage was beginning to shift to a different (post-Gaullist) paradigm, the dispute with the US erupted.

Insulin and leptin relations in obesity: a multimedia approach

Obesity has been recognized as a worldwide public health problem. It significantly increases the chances of developing several diseases, including Type II diabetes. The roles of insulin and leptin in obesity involve reactions that can be better understood when they are presented step by step. The aim of this work was to design software with data from some of the most recent publications on obesity, especially those concerning the roles of insulin and leptin in this metabolic disturbance. The most notable characteristic of this software is the use of animations representing the cellular response together with the presentation of recently discovered mechanisms on the participation of insulin and leptin in processes leading to obesity. The software was field tested in the Biochemistry of Nutrition web-based course. After using the software and discussing its contents in chatrooms, students were asked to answer an evaluation survey about the whole activity and the usefulness of the software within the learning process. The teaching assistants (TA) evaluated the software as a tool to help in the teaching process. The students' and TAs' satisfaction was very evident and encouraged us to move forward with the software development and to improve the use of this kind of educational tool in biochemistry classes.

Charles Wilkes, a US Exploring Expedition and the US` search for its place in the world (1838-1842)

The main focus of this essay is the first American round-the-world scientific voyage, the U. S Exploring Expedition, which took place between 1838 and 1841 and was lead by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. Here, I discuss the purposes of this expedition in the context of the voyages of circumnavigation accomplished by the various European powers during the same period.

Forty Years of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 (XXX) on Zionism and Racism: the Brazilian Vote as an instance of United States - Brazil Relations

Abstract In 1975, Brazil voted in favor of the United Nations General Assembly resolution 3379 (XXX), equating Zionism with a form of racism. Focusing on the decision-making process of president Ernesto Geisel's (1974-1979) foreign policy, "responsible pragmatism", this article discusses how the ultimate decision to vote in favor of resolution was taken taking into account mainly US-Brazil relationship.

Public relations, satisfaction and commitment

The importance of the relationship with an internal public is the main focus of our research. Nowadays, the relevance attributed by Public Relations to this relationship is crucial. Our purpose is to identify two consistent models to measure the impact of an organizational relationship on its internal public. The research was conducted in nine Portuguese companies with a sample of 1244 subjects in order to study the context of the relationship and validate the identified models. The results show us the gender stereotypes in the relationship in these companies and that it is possible to identify the impact of Public Relations on a company's productivity.

Para lá dos jornalistas: influencer relations, uma nova era de Media Relations

Dissertação apresentada à Escola Superior de Comunicação Social como parte dos requisitos para obtenção de grau de mestre em Gestão Estratégica das Relações Públicas.

Rates and pattern of evolution among Cretaceous radiolarians: relations with global paleoceanographic events

We present a new approach for analyzing the turnover rates of Cretaceous radiolarians recorded in pelagic sequences of western Tethys, The analysis of major extinction-radiation events and the fluctuation of diversity are compared with major paleoceanographic events and variation of diversity in dinoflagellates, calcareous nannoplankton and ammonites. There is an extraordinary correlation between biotic changes and sea level changes, temperatures, O, C and Sr isotopes, phosphorus accumulation rates and anoxic episodes. This reveals a predominantly abiotic control on the evolution of radiolarians. The rate of turnover and the diversity through time of two major orders of radiolarians (nassellarians and spumellarians) exhibits (1) the quasi-parallelism of their diversity curves, excluding a direct competition between them, (2) greater resistance of spumellarians to extinction during the early stage of extinction intervals and (3) a stronger post-extinction recovery of nassellarians. Evolutionary rates of radiolarians can be a good means of monitoring global environmental changes and allowing us to understand more clearly the relationship between plankton evolution, climate and pale oceanographic processes.