Does management capacity increase organizational performance? An empirical analysis of public housing agencies

Since the 1990s, scholars have paid special attention to public management���s role in theory and research under the assumption that effective management is one of the primary means for achieving superior performance. To some extent, this was influenced by popular business writings of the 1980s as well as the reinventing literature of the 1990s. A number of case studies but limited quantitative research papers have been published showing that management matters in the performance of public organizations. ^ My study examined whether or not management capacity increased organizational performance using quantitative techniques. The specific research problem analyzed was whether significant differences existed between high and average performing public housing agencies on select criteria identified in the Government Performance Project (GPP) management capacity model, and whether this model could predict outcome performance measures in a statistically significant manner, while controlling for exogenous influences. My model included two of four GPP management subsystems (human resources and information technology), integration and alignment of subsystems, and an overall managing for results framework. It also included environmental and client control variables that were hypothesized to affect performance independent of management action. ^ Descriptive results of survey responses showed high performing agencies with better scores on most high performance dimensions of individual criteria, suggesting support for the model; however, quantitative analysis found limited statistically significant differences between high and average performers and limited predictive power of the model. My analysis led to the following major conclusions: past performance was the strongest predictor of present performance; high unionization hurt performance; and budget related criterion mattered more for high performance than other model factors. As to the specific research question, management capacity may be necessary but it is not sufficient to increase performance. ^ The research suggested managers may benefit by implementing best practices identified through the GPP model. The usefulness of the model could be improved by adding direct service delivery to the model, which may also improve its predictive power. Finally, there are abundant tested concepts and tools designed to improve system performance that are available for practitioners designed to improve management subsystem support of direct service delivery.^

Derivation of lake mixing and stratification indices from high-resolution lake buoy data

Lake Analyzer is a numerical code coupled with supporting visualization tools for determining indices of mixing and stratification that are critical to the biogeochemical cycles of lakes and reservoirs. Stability indices, including Lake Number, Wedderburn Number, Schmidt Stability, and thermocline depth are calculated according to established literature definitions and returned to the user in a time series format. The program was created for the analysis of high-frequency data collected from instrumented lake buoys, in support of the emerging field of aquatic sensor network science. Available outputs for the Lake Analyzer program are: water temperature (error-checked and/or down-sampled), wind speed (error-checked and/or down-sampled), metalimnion extent (top and bottom), thermocline depth, friction velocity, Lake Number, Wedderburn Number, Schmidt Stability, mode-1 vertical seiche period, and Brunt-V��is��l�� buoyancy frequency. Secondary outputs for several of these indices delineate the parent thermocline depth (seasonal thermocline) from the shallower secondary or diurnal thermocline. Lake Analyzer provides a program suite and best practices for the comparison of mixing and stratification indices in lakes across gradients of climate, hydro-physiography, and time, and enables a more detailed understanding of the resulting biogeochemical transformations at different spatial and temporal scales.

Beyond the Pay: Current Illicit Activities of the Armed Forces in Central America

The growth of criminal gangs and organized crime groups has created unprecedented challenges in Central America. Homicide rates are among the highest in the world, countries spend on average close to 10 percent of GDP to respond to the challenges of public insecurity, and the security forces are frequently overwhelmed and at times coopted by the criminal groups they are increasingly tasked to counter. With some 90 percent of the 700 metric tons of cocaine trafficked from South America to the United States passing through Central America, the lure of aiding illegal traffickers through provision of arms, intelligence, or simply withholding or delaying the use of force is enormous. These conditions raise the question: to what extent are militaries in Central America compromised by illicit ties to criminal groups? The study focuses on three cases: Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras. It finds that: Although illicit ties between the military and criminal groups have grown in the last decade, militaries in these countries are not yet ���lost��� to criminal groups. Supplying criminal groups with light arms from military stocks is typical and on the rise, but still not common. In general the less exposed services, the navies and air forces, are the most reliable and effective ones in their roles in interdiction. Of the three countries in the study, the Honduran military is the most worrying because it is embedded in a context where civilian corruption is extremely common, state institutions are notoriously weak, and the political system remains polarized and lacks the popular legitimacy and political will needed to make necessary reforms. Overall, the armed forces in the three countries remain less compromised than civilian peers, particularly the police. However, in the worsening crime and insecurity context, there is a limited window of opportunity in which to introduce measures targeted toward the military, and such efforts can only succeed if opportunities for corruption in other sectors of the state, in particular in law enforcement and the justice system, are also addressed. Measures targeted toward the military should include: Enhanced material benefits and professional education opportunities that open doors for soldiers in promising legitimate careers once they leave military service. A clear system of rewards and punishments specifically designed to deter collusion with criminal groups. More effective securing of military arsenals. Skills and external oversight leveraged through combined operations, to build cooperation among those sectors of the military that have successful and clean records in countering criminal groups, and to expose weaker forces to effective best practices.

*Postsecondary access for individuals with psychological disabilities: An analysis of federal rulings and institutional philosophies, *policies, and practices

This study was a qualitative investigation, with demographic quantitative features, of post-secondary educational access and legal guidelines for individuals with psychological disabilities. Although disability laws have positively influenced post-secondary educational attitudes and practices relative to accommodating many individuals with disabilities, prevailing stigmas regarding mental illness have discouraged the equal access to higher education for individuals with psychological disabilities. Little research concentrating on this area was found.^ Thirty-six relevant legal case decisions, focusing on a variety of realms of higher education, were scrutinized. The policies, procedures, and practices of six Southeastern United States universities were analyzed through official documents and participant responses from disability service providers and other university employees. Comparisons were made between legal cases, and within and between universities. Case findings also provided standards through which participating university practices could be studied.^ The legal analysis revealed that most institutions did not discriminate against individuals with psychological disabilities. Practices of a few of these institutions, however, suggested non-compliance despite favorable decisions on their behalf. Institutions found to have discriminatory practices were cited for inadequate procedures, or for presumptive assessments of the educational functioning levels of individuals with psychological disabilities.^ Participant university practices generally suggested disability law compliance; however, certain campus interventions were determined to be ineffective in identifying, addressing, and communicating about the educational needs of individuals with psychological disabilities. The most effective services for these individuals, who were described as rapidly increasing in number but lagging in self-advocacy and acceptance by others, went beyond legal requirements.^ Recommendations were made for institutional practices concerning disability-related documentation, written standards and operations, and student identification and referral. Directions for future research focused on study skills training for students; exposure of mental health professionals to client educational needs; and expansion of the current research, on a nationwide collegiate level, and a parallel analysis focusing on business and industry. ^

Process of privatization: Benefits of *reform in management of public housing

The study of the private management of public housing is an important topic to be critically analyzed as the government search for ways to increase efficiency in providing housing for the poor. Public Housing Authorities must address the cost for repairing or replacing the deteriorating housing stock, the increase in the need for affordable housing, and the lack of supply. There is growing pressure on efficient use of public funds that has heightened the need for profound structural reform. An important strategy for carrying out such reform is through privatization. Although privatization does not work in every case, the majority position in the traditional privatization literature is that reliance on private organizations normally, but not always, results in cost savings. ^ The primary purpose of this dissertation is to determine whether a consensus exist among decision-makers on the efficiency of privatizing the management of public housing. A secondary purpose is to review the techniques (best practices) used by the private sector that results in cost-efficiencies in the management of public housing. The study employs the use of a triangulated research design utilizing cross-sectional survey methodology that included use of a survey instrument to solicit responses from the private managers. The study consists of qualitative methods using interviews from key informants of private-sector management firms and public housing agencies, case studies, focus groups, archival records and housing authorities documents. ^ Results indicated that important decision-makers perceive that private managers made a positive contribution to cost-efficiencies in the management of public housing. The performance of private contractors served as a yardstick for comparison of efficiency of services that are produced in-house. The study concluded that private managers made the benefits of their management techniques well known creating a sense of competition between public and private managers. Competition from private contractors spurred municipal worker and management productivity improvements creating better management results for the public housing authorities. The study results are in concert with a review of recent research and studies that also concluded private managers have some distinct advantages to controlling costs in the management of public housing. ^

A study of the relationship between employee virtuality and technology deviance as mediated by leadership and employee perceptions

Recent studies found that organizations have been investing significant capital in developing teams and employees in geographic areas where labor and resources are considerably cheaper. Furthermore, organizations are moving core operational activities such as research and development and back-office processes to globally distributed teams. ^ However, several factors that are inherent to these virtual teams can have a negative impact on employee perceptions and engagement; specifically, the physical and temporal differences between employees and their supervisors, the lack of meaningful social interaction intrinsic to working relationships, and cultural biases that can be fostered when close, daily interactions is not there to help bridge the dissimilarity. ^ When strategies are not in place to mitigate these deficiencies, it can cause virtual employees to disengage emotionally and intellectually from the organization, or lead them to feel justified in working against the best interest of the company. ^ Past research indicates that although deviant behavior in the workplace is not new, transgressions committed by employees have been increasing significantly every year. Beyond the focus of why employees are motivated to act against the organization, to what extent do the recent changes to the organization���s structure influence this type of behavior through their actions at the macro (organizational) and micro level (leadership). ^ In addition, there is a related phenomenon that has aided the transformation of the workplace���namely, the ubiquity of technology. In the context of workplace deviance, established research has documented an increasing trend of employees utilizing company technology as a medium and amplifier when harming the organization. It is important to understand whether technology has facilitated or hindered workplace deviance by virtue of the technology itself (as a means), and as part of the new employee roles created by the evolving technology (i.e., virtual employees). Therefore, it is important to identify how individual attitudes and behaviors can be affected by an employee���s degree of virtuality. ^ This study will add to the understanding of how social interaction and physical proximity, leadership and other perception factors contribute to the changes organizations are experiencing as their structure evolves and adapts to compete in the new global environment. ^

A Study of the Relationship between Employee Virtuality and Technology Deviance as Mediated by Leadership and Employee Perceptions

Recent studies found that organizations have been investing significant capital in developing teams and employees in geographic areas where labor and resources are considerably cheaper. Furthermore, organizations are moving core operational activities such as research and development and back-office processes to globally distributed teams. However, several factors that are inherent to these virtual teams can have a negative impact on employee perceptions and engagement; specifically, the physical and temporal differences between employees and their supervisors, the lack of meaningful social interaction intrinsic to working relationships, and cultural biases that can be fostered when close, daily interactions is not there to help bridge the dissimilarity. When strategies are not in place to mitigate these deficiencies, it can cause virtual employees to disengage emotionally and intellectually from the organization, or lead them to feel justified in working against the best interest of the company. Past research indicates that although deviant behavior in the workplace is not new, transgressions committed by employees have been increasing significantly every year. Beyond the focus of why employees are motivated to act against the organization, to what extent do the recent changes to the organization���s structure influence this type of behavior through their actions at the macro (organizational) and micro level (leadership). In addition, there is a related phenomenon that has aided the transformation of the workplace ��� namely, the ubiquity of technology. In the context of workplace deviance, established research has documented an increasing trend of employees utilizing company technology as a medium and amplifier when harming the organization. It is important to understand whether technology has facilitated or hindered workplace deviance by virtue of the technology itself (as a means), and as part of the new employee roles created by the evolving technology (i.e, virtual employees). Therefore, it is important to identify how individual attitudes and behaviors can be affected by an employee���s degree of virtuality. This study will add to the understanding of how social interaction and physical proximity, leadership and other perception factors contribute to the changes organizations are experiencing as their structure evolves and adapts to compete in the new global environment.

Data compilation on the biological response to ocean acidification: environmental and experimental context of data sets and related literature

The exponential growth of studies on the biological response to ocean acidification over the last few decades has generated a large amount of data. To facilitate data comparison, a data compilation hosted at the data publisher PANGAEA was initiated in 2008 and is updated on a regular basis (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.149999). By January 2015, a total of 581 data sets (over 4 000 000 data points) from 539 papers had been archived. Here we present the developments of this data compilation five years since its first description by Nisumaa et al. (2010). Most of study sites from which data archived are still in the Northern Hemisphere and the number of archived data from studies from the Southern Hemisphere and polar oceans are still relatively low. Data from 60 studies that investigated the response of a mix of organisms or natural communities were all added after 2010, indicating a welcomed shift from the study of individual organisms to communities and ecosystems. The initial imbalance of considerably more data archived on calcification and primary production than on other processes has improved. There is also a clear tendency towards more data archived from multifactorial studies after 2010. For easier and more effective access to ocean acidification data, the ocean acidification community is strongly encouraged to contribute to the data archiving effort, and help develop standard vocabularies describing the variables and define best practices for archiving ocean acidification data.

The World Heritage vs. Local Comnuty : identifying the sources of conflicts

The presented work is an essay rather than a scientific dissertation. The author wants to put an impact on the source of conflicts regarding the complex subject of heritage management and conservation in comparison with the local needs and the given context. The paper attempts to show the role of local communities and their cooperation with authorities as well as the effects of such cooperation. The area of research comprises the problems arising in the field of implementing external rules on the local field, challenges appearing regarding the needs of local communities and the efforts of official authorities trying to implement the principles of the conventions. The problems arise when local communities display the lack of understanding and do not share the common idea of heritage conservation. This is caused mainly by the decreasing possibilities of comfortable life. The author tries to identify the main and wrongful approaches as ���Gone with the Wind���, ���The Prince and The Pauper���, ���Heart of Darkness��� or ���Scarlet letter���. The focus will be put to explain what the areas are where a mutual misunderstanding arise and why all parts to the problem present different points of view. What creates a value? Is it a heritage object or maybe the other values need a stronger protection? When the general duty and the need to protect the heritage is regarded as a controversy and when it is considered as a value within a given community? The international public interest in heritage protection is often regarded as an attempt to diminish the sovereign power of the community and provokes severe controversies and tensions. The major problem envisaged today seems to be the massive and increasing urbanisation and the destruction of the vestiges still existing of traditional cultures, when we consider century urban post-industrial districts of Upper Silesia in Poland, the medieval cities in Western Europe, the traditional nomad Masaya villages in Kenya or the remains of vanished cultures in various regions of Asia. The preferred platform of cooperation between the parts of the conflict includes divergent needs, beliefs and practices of communities and the possible fields of reconciling the abovementioned. Chosen examples of the best practices considering mutual cooperation will be underlined.

Obesity and Overweight among Black American Adolescent Females: The Role of Social Influences in Everyday Dietary Practices

<p>Obesity and overweight disproportionately impact Black American adolescent females���placing them at a lifetime of elevated physical health risks. Despite this burden, the literature that explores the contributors to obesity and overweight among Black American adolescent females remains limited and unclear. This dissertation aims to develop knowledge related to obesity and overweight in Black American adolescent females, by appraising the current understanding of factors that contribute to their obesity and overweight, and explicating the everyday social influences on dietary practices. The primary study conducted for this dissertation used a mixed method, multiple case study design to examine the mother, daughter, and other household contributors to Black American adolescent daughters��� everyday practices of food consumption, acquisition, preparation, and planning. Findings reveal the importance of understanding the complex and dynamic ways mothers and other household members contribute to a holistic view of everyday dietary practices among adolescent daughters. By deeply examining the nuanced ways the multiple cases varied, context-dependent knowledge essential to understanding the complicated health challenge of obesity was produced. Subsequently, recommendations are provided for health providers and scholars to more holistically approach and examine obesity���particularly among populations who are disproportionately affected.</p>

The Kyoto School and Confucianism: a Confucian reading of the philosophy of history and political thought of Masaaki Kosaka

This dissertation examines the philosophy of Masaaki K��saka (1900-1969) from the East Asian perspective of Confucianism, which I believe is the most appropriate moral paradigm for comprehending his political speculations. Although largely neglected in post-war scholarship, K��saka was a prominent member of the Kyoto School during the 1930s and 40s. This was a group of Japanese thinkers strongly associated with the philosophies of Kitar�� Nishida and Hajime Tanabe. K��saka is now best known for his participation in the three Ch���� K��ron symposia held in 1941 and 1942. These meetings have been routinely denounced by liberal historians due to the participants��� support for the Pacific War and the Co-Prosperity Sphere. However, many of these liberal portrayals have failed to take into account the full extent of the group���s resistance to the military junta of Hideki T��j��. Adopting the methods and techniques of the empirical disciplines of academic history and Orientalism, I develop an interpretative framework that is more receptive to the political values that mattered to K��saka as a Confucian inspired intellectual. This has necessitated the rejection of moral history, which typically prioritises modern liberal values brought a priori to the historical record of wartime Japan, as well as recognition of the different ontological foundations that inform the unique political theories of the East Asian intellectual tradition. Reinforced by the prior research of Michel Dalissier and Graham Parkes, as well as my own reading of the Confucian canon, I adopt David Williams���s thesis of ���Confucian Revolution��� as my principle schema of interpretation. This, I believe, is better able to reconcile K��saka���s support for the war with his strong condemnation of the imperialist practices of the Japanese military. Moreover, acknowledging the importance of Confucianism allows us to fully appreciate K��saka���s strong affinity for Kant���s practical metaphysics, Hegel���s political philosophy and Ranke���s historiography.

Governmentality and exclusion in post-disaster spaces : conducting the conduct of the survivors of Typhoon Sendong in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines

Lorsque les al��as naturels se d��roulent en catastrophes, les r��ponses des religieux, de l���Etat, et d���autres acteurs puissants dans une soci��t�� r��v��lent �� la fois les relations complexes entre ces parties et leur pouvoir dans la production des espaces auxquelles les survivants acc��dent. La r��ponse en cas de catastrophe comprend la cr��ation d���espaces post-catastrophes, tels que des centres d�����vacuation, des logements de transition et des sites de r��installation permanente, qui ciblent sp��cifiquement un sous-ensemble particulier de survivants, et visent �� les aider �� survivre, �� faire face, et �� se remettre de la catastrophe. Les acteurs puissants dans une soci��t�� dirigent les processus de secours, de r��cup��ration et de reconstruction sont des acteurs puissants qui cherchent �� probl��matiser et �� rendre un probl��me technique dans des termes qu���ils sont id��alement plac��s pour aborder �� travers une vari��t�� d'interventions. Ce projet de recherche vise �� r��pondre �� la question: o�� les survivants d'une catastrophe reconstruisent-ils leurs vies et leurs moyens de subsistance? Il enqu��te sur un cas sp��cifique de la migration environnementale dans laquelle des dizaines de milliers d'habitants ont ��t�� d��plac��s de fa��on permanente et temporaire de leurs r��sidences habituelles apr��s le typhon Sendong �� Cagayan de Oro, Philippines en 2011. La recherche est bas��e sur des entretiens avec les acteurs puissants et les survivants, des vid��os participatives r��alis��es par des survivants pauvres urbains, et des activit��s de cartographie. L�����tude se fonde sur la th��orie f��ministe, les ��tudes de migration, les ��tudes dans la gouvernementalit��, la recherche sur les changements de l���environnement plan��taire, et les ��tudes r��gionales afin de situer les diverses exp��riences de la migration dans un contexte g��ographique et historique. Cette th��se propose une topographie critique dans laquelle les processus et les pratiques de production d���espaces post-catastrophe sont expos��s. Parce que l���espace est n��cessairement mall��able, fluide, et relationnelle en raison de l'��volution constante des activit��s, des conflits, et des exp��riences qui se d��roulent dans le paysage, une analyse de l'espace doit ��tre formul��e en termes de relations sociales qui se produisent dans et au-del�� de ses fronti��res poreuses. En cons��quence, cette ��tude explore comment les relations sociales entre les survivants et les acteurs puissants sont li��es �� l���exclusion, la gouvernementalit��, la mobilit��, et la production des espaces, des lieux et des territoires. Il constate que, si les trajectoires de migration de la plupart des survivants ont ��t�� confin��s �� l'int��rieur des limites de la ville, les exp��riences de ces survivants et leur utilisation des espaces urbains sont tr��s diff��rentes. Ces diff��rences peuvent ��tre expliqu��es par des structures politiques, ��conomiques, et sociales, et par les diff��rences religieuses, ��conomiques, et de genre. En outre, il fait valoir que les espaces post-catastrophe doivent ��tre consid��r��s comme des ��espaces d���exclusion�� o�� les fiduciaires exercent une rationalit�� gouvernementale. C���est-��-dire, les espaces post-catastrophe pr��tendument inclusives servent �� marginaliser davantage les populations vuln��rables. Ces espaces offrent aussi des occasions pour les acteurs puissants dans la soci��t�� philippine d'effectuer des interventions gouvernementales dans lesquelles certaines personnes et les paysages sont simplifi��es, rendues lisibles, et am��lior��s.

Financial media, globalisation, and China���s economic integration: comparing narrative construction of the Economist and Caijing

In June 2015, legal frameworks of the Asian Infrastructural Investment Bank were signed by its 57 founding members. Proposed and initiated by China, this multilateral development bank is considered to be an Asian counterpart to break the monopoly of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. In October 2015, China���s Central Bank announced a benchmark interest rate cut to combat the economic slowdown. The easing policy coincides with the European Central Bank���s announcement of doubts over US Fed���s commitment to raise interest rates. Global stock markets responded positively to China���s move, with the exception of the indexes from Wall Street (Bland, 2015; Elliott, 2015). In the meantime, China���s ���One Belt, One Road��� (or New Silk Road Economic Belt) became atopic of discourse in relation to its growing global economy, as China pledged $40 billion to trade and infrastructure projects (Bermingham, 2015). The foreign policy aims to reinforce the economic belt from western China through Central Asia towards Europe, as well as to construct maritime trading routes from coastal China through the South China Sea (Summers, 2015). In 2012, The Economist launched a new China section, to reveal the complexity of the���meteoric rise��� of China. John Micklethwait, who was then the chief editor of the magazine, said that China���s emergence as a global power justified giving it a section of its own(Roush, 2012). In July 2015, Hu Shuli, the former chief editor of Caijing, announced the launch of a think tank and financial data service division called Caixin Insight Group, which encompasses the new Caixin China Purchasing Managers Index (PMI). Incooperation with with Markit Group, a principal global provider of PMI, the index soon became a widely cited economic indicator. One anecdote from November���s Caixin shows how much has changed: in a high-profile dialogue between Hu Shuli and Kevin Rudd, Hu insisted on asking questions in English; interestingly, the former Prime Minister of Australia insisted on replying in Chinese. These recent developments point to one thing: the economic ascent of China and its increasing influence on the power play between economics and politics in world markets. China has begun to take a more active role in rule making and enforcement under neoliberal frameworks. However, due to the country���s size and the scale of its economy in comparison to other countries, China���s version of globalisation has unique characteristics. The ���Capitalist-socialist��� paradox is vital to China���s market-oriented transformation. In order to comprehend how such unique features are articulated and understood, there are several questions worth investigating in the realms of media and communication studies,such as how China���s neoliberal restructuring is portrayed and perceived by different types of interested parties, and how these portrayals are de-contextualised and re-contextualised in global or Anglo-American narratives. Therefore, based on a combination of the themes of globalisation, financial media and China���s economic integration, this thesis attempts to explore how financial media construct the narratives of China���s economic globalisation through the deployment of comparative and multi-disciplinary approaches. Two outstanding elite financial magazines, Britain���s The Economist, which has a global readership and influence, and Caijing, China���s leading financial magazine, are chosen as case studies to exemplify differing media discourses, representing, respectively, Anglo-American and Chinese socio-economic and political backgrounds, as well as their own journalistic cultures. This thesis tries to answer the questions of how and why China���s neoliberal restructuring is constructed from a globally-oriented perspective. The construction primarily involves people who are influential in business and policymaking. Hence, the analysis falls into the paradigm of elite-elite communication, which is an important but relatively less developed perspective in studying China and its globalisation. The comparing of characteristics of narrative construction are the result of the textual analysis of articles published over a ten-year period (mid-1998 to mid-2008). The corpus of samples come from the two media outlets��� coverage of three selected events:China becoming a member of the World Trade Organization, its outward direct investment, and the listing of stocks of Chinese companies in overseas exchanges, which are mutually exclusive in sample collection and collectively exhaustive in the inclusion of articles regarding China���s economic globalisation. The findings help to understand that, despite language, socio-economic and political differences, elite financial media with globally-oriented readerships share similar methods of and approaches to agenda setting, the evaluation of news prominence, the selection of frame, and the advocacy of deeply rooted neoliberal ideas. The comparison of their distinctive features reflects the different phases of building up the sense of identity in their readers as global elites, as well as the different economic interests that are aligned with the corresponding readerships. However, textual analysis is only relevant in terms of exploring how the narratives are constructed and the elements they include; textual analysis alone prevents us from seeing the obstacles and the constrains of the journalistic practices of construction. Therefore, this thesis provides a brief discussion of interviews with practitioners from the two media, in order to understand how similar or different narratives are manifested and perceived, how the concept of neoliberalism deviates from and is justified in the Chinese context, and how and for what purpose deviations arise from Western to Chinese contexts. The thesis also contributes to defining financial media in the domain of elite communication. The relevant and closely interlocking concepts of globalisation, elitism and neoliberalism are discussed, and are used as a theoretical bedrock in the analysis of texts and contexts. It is important to address the agenda-setting and ideological role of elite financial media, because of its narrative formula of infusing business facts with opinions,which is important in constructing the global elite identity as well as influencing neoliberal policy-making. On the other hand, ���journalistic professionalism��� has been redefined, in that the elite identity is shared by the content producer, reader and the actors in the news stories emerging from the much-compressed news cycle. The professionalism of elite financial media requires a dual definition, that of being professional in the understanding of business facts and statistics, and that of being professional in the making sense of stories by deploying economic logic.

Validaci��n de dos herramientas para la evaluaci��n de cambios en las actitudes de alumnos en situaciones frecuentes en cuidado paliativo

Objective: To determine the psychometric properties of two scales designed to examine attitudes regarding palliative care: Comfort Scale in Palliative Care (CSPC, Pereira et al.) and Tanatophobia Scale (TS, Merrill et al.)Method: Seventy-seven students who completed an online course on psychosocial aspects of palliative care offered by the Latin American Association of Palliative Care participated in the study. They also completed the scales before and after the course. Construct validity and reliability of the CSPC and the TS were assessed using a Principal Components Analysis, internal reliability coefficient and test-retest reliability. Further, comparative statistics between the pre-course and post-course results were obtained in order to determine changes in attitudes.Results: The Principal Components Analysis showed satisfactory fit to the data. 3 components were extracted: two for the CSPC and one for the TS, which explained 55.37% of the variance. Internal consistency coefficients were satisfactory in all cases and Cronbach��s Alphas were satisfactory for all the scales, particularly for the CSPC. Test-retest reliability in t1 and t2 was found to be non significant, indicating that measures were not related in time. Regarding pre-course/post-course comparisons, significant changes in comfort assisting patients (p = 0.004) and comfort assisting families (p = 0.001) following the course were identified, but changes in thanatophobia were non significant (p &gt; 0.05).Conclusions: both scales are valid and reliable. Attitudes regarding the practice of palliative care and how they change, particularly regarding psychosocial issues, can be accurately measured using the examined scales.

Temor, silencio y deliberaci��n: la inhibici��n de la opini��n en Tuc��dides

Tuc��dides es una de nuestras mejores fuentes de informaci��n para conocer la pr��ctica argumentativa de la deliberaci��n democr��tica. En este trabajo se analiza uno de los vicios que, seg��n el historiador, har��a su aparici��n en la escena pol��tica ateniense a la muerte de Pericles: la instrumentalizaci��n del miedo para obtener la victoria moment��nea en la asamblea. El temor prudente, que fuera una arma periclea para conducir la deliberaci��n racional en aras del bien com��n, habr��a desaparecido siendo sustituido por el amedrentamiento del rival, la calumnia, el obstruccionismo y la par��lisis de la confrontaci��n dial��ctica. Instauradas en la ciudad la desconfianza y la sospecha de ocultaci��n, los golpistas del 411 hallaron el terreno abonado para callar las voces contrarias y, gracias al silencio, instaurar el terror.