СЛІДИ КОНФЛІКТУ – ПОЛІТИЧНІ В’ЯЗНІ У ПРОЗІ ЗОФІЇ НАЛКОВСЬКОЇ

The main aim of the article is highlighting subplots present in the prose works of Nałkowska which are devoted to Ukrainian and Belarusian political prisoners. The author maintains that the Polish colonizing activity along the so-called ‘Eastern Borderland’ requires a detailed and comprehensive study. The results of this analys is should then be compared against contemporary Ukrainian literature as well as the history of the national liberation and nationalist movements at the beginning of 20th century. The article explores three prose texts by Nałkowska, that is, “Węzły życia” (The Bonds of Life), “Niedobra miłość” (Bad Love) and “Ściany świata” (The Walls of the World). The subplots present in all three works can be analyzed in terms of inevident, yet indelible traces pertaining to ethnic conflicts between Poles, Ukrainians and Belarusians, as well as the Jewish pogroms. The themes that span the above- mentioned text can be outlined as follows: first of all, the radical metamorphosis of political attitudes on the part of the protagonists representing former Legionists; secondly, the heroines’ active work for the benefit of the prisoners, also the political ones. In spite of censorship and visibly more and more extreme politics of the authoritarian state towards ethnic minorities, Nałkowska remained one of the few writers who managed to deliver the arrested history of persecutions. Keywords: politics of colonization, national minority, traces of conflict, political prisoners

Dual technological development in Botswana agriculture: A Stochastic input distance function approach

To improve the welfare of the rural poor and keep them in the countryside, the government of Botswana has been spending 40% of the value of agricultural GDP on agricultural support services. But can investment make smallholder agriculture prosperous in such adverse conditions? This paper derives an answer by applying a two-output six-input stochastic translog distance function, with inefficiency effects and biased technical change to panel data for the 18 districts and the commercial agricultural sector, from 1979 to 1996 This model demonstrates that herds are the most important input, followed by draft power. land and seeds. Multilateral indices for technical change, technical efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) show that the technology level of the commercial agricultural sector is more than six times that of traditional agriculture and that the gap has been increasing, due to technological regression in traditional agriculture and modest progress in commercial agriculture. Since the levels of efficiency are similar, the same patient is repeated by the TFP indices. This result highlights the policy dilemma of the trade-off between efficiency and equity objectives.

Has the mechanism by which the endocrine placenta scavenges the mother whilst sparing the foetus been unmasked?

The endocrine placenta has a dilemma; it shares the foetal circulation and yet it needs to secrete active peptide hormones into the maternal circulation to control her metabolism to meet the demands of the growing foetus. Simultaneously, it needs to allow the endocrine systems of the foetus to develop independently. This article will describe how peptide hormones are processed from inactive intermediates and will propose a hypothesis of how the placenta has revised this process to protect the foetus from the potentially damaging affects of these products.

Curriculum theory, curriculum policy and the problem of ill-disciplined thinking

This paper examines the implications of policy fracture and arms length governance within the decision making processes currently shaping curriculum design within the English education system. In particular it argues that an unresolved ‘ideological fracture’ at government level has been passed down to school leaders whose response to the dilemma is distorted by the target-driven agenda of arms length agencies. Drawing upon the findings of a large scale on-line survey of history teaching in English secondary schools, this paper illustrates the problems that occur when policy making is divorced from curriculum theory, and in particular from any consideration of the nature of knowledge. Drawing on the social realist theory of knowledge elaborated by Young (2008), we argue that the rapid spread of alternative curricular arrangements, implemented in the absence of an understanding of curriculum theory, undermines the value of disciplined thinking to the detriment of many young people, particularly those in areas of social and economic deprivation.

The repatriation of 1973 and the re-making of modern south Asia

In the aftermath of the 1971 war, nearly 250,000 people found themselves stranded in various parts of the subcontinent. These 'trapped minorities' became hostages in a complex negotiation process that highlighted how questions of citizenship and belonging remained unresolved in post-Partition South Asia. By studying three groups - the non-Bengalis, the Bengalis and the prisoners of war in a comparative perspective, this paper re-visits the question of who was welcome within certain borders and on what terms. It argues that these decisions depended not just on the state's policies towards 'outsiders' but also upon its own relationship with its minority communities.

The stability of ecosystems: a brief overview of the paradox of enrichment

In theory, enrichment of resource in a predator-prey model leads to destabilization of the system, thereby collapsing the trophic interaction, a phenomenon referred to as "the paradox of enrichment". After it was first proposed by Rosenzweig (1971), a number of subsequent studies were carried out on this dilemma over many decades. In this article, we review these theoretical and experimental works and give a brief overview of the proposed solutions to the paradox. The mechanisms that have been discussed are modifications of simple predator-prey models in the presence of prey that is inedible, invulnerable, unpalatable and toxic. Another class of mechanisms includes an incorporation of a ratio-dependent functional form, inducible defence of prey and density-dependent mortality of the predator. Moreover, we find a third set of explanations based on complex population dynamics including chaos in space and time. We conclude that, although any one of the various mechanisms proposed so far might potentially prevent destabilization of the predator-prey dynamics following enrichment, in nature different mechanisms may combine to cause stability, even when a system is enriched. The exact mechanisms, which may differ among systems, need to be disentangled through extensive field studies and laboratory experiments coupled with realistic theoretical models.

Physiological and behavioral patterns of corruption

We study the behavior and emotional arousal of the participants in an experimental auction, leading to an asymmetric social dilemma involving an auctioneer and two bidders. An antisocial transfer (bribe) which is beneficial for the auctioneer (official) is paid, if promised, by the winner of the auction. Some pro-social behavior on both the auctioneers' and the bidders' sides is observed even in the absence of any punishment mechanism (Baseline, Treatment 0). However, pro-social behavior is adopted by the vast majority of subjects when the loser of the auction can inspect the transaction between the winner and the auctioneer (Inspection, Treatment 1). The inspection and punishment mechanism is such that, if a bribe is (not) revealed, both corrupt agents (the denouncing bidder) lose(s) this period's payoffs. This renders the inspection option unprofitable for the loser and is rarely used, especially towards the end of the session, when pro-social behavior becomes pervasive. Subjects' emotional arousal was obtained through skin conductance responses. Generally speaking, our findings suggest that stronger emotions are associated with decisions deviating from pure monetary reward maximization, rather than with (un)ethical behavior per se. In fact, using response times as a measure of the subject's reflection during the decision-making process, we can associate emotional arousal with the conflict between primary or instinctive and secondary or contemplative motivations and, more specifically, with deviations from the subject's pure monetary interest.

Heaps and Chains: Is the Chaining Argument for parity a sorites?

I argue that the Ruth Chang’s Chaining Argument for her parity view of value incomparability trades illicitly on the vagueness of the predicate ‘is comparable with’. Chang is alert to this danger and argues that the predicate is not vague, but this defense does not succeed. The Chaining Argument also faces a dilemma. The predicate is either vague or precise. If it is vague, then the argument is most plausibly a sorites. If it is precise, then the argument is either question begging or dialectically ineffective. I argue that no chaining-type argument can succeed.

Corruption and individual ethics: insights from a public procurement auction

This article proposes an auction model where two firms compete for obtaining the license for a public project and an auctioneer acting as a public official representing the political power, decides the winner of the contest. Players as firms face a social dilemma in the sense that the higher is the bribe offered, the higher would be the willingness of a pure monetary maximizer public official to give her the license. However, it implies inducing a cost of reducing all players’ payoffs as far as our model includes an endogenous externality, which depends on bribe. All players’ payoffs decrease with the bribe (and increase with higher quality). We find that the presence of bribe aversion in either the officials’ or the firms’ utility function shifts equilibrium towards more pro-social behavior. When the quality and bribe-bid strategy space is discrete, multiple equilibria emerge including more pro-social bids than would be predicted under a continuous strategy space.

Krav på e-infrastrukturer inom transportområdet : Vägverkets hantering av tjälrestriktioner

Detta examensarbete redovisar en förstudie som genomförts med målet att belysa nuvarande hantering av tjälrestriktioner inom Vägverket, utforma ett förslag till en verksgemensam metodbeskrivning och föreslå en fortsatt verksamhet inom området för att komma tillrätta med identifierade problem och utvecklingsbehov. Syftet har varit att med denna verksamhet som grund belysa vilka krav som bör ställas på en e-infrastruktur som ska stödja verksamhetsprocesser inom transportområdet.Arbetet har genomförts genom intervjuer med ansvariga för verksamheten vid Vägverkets regioner och vid Vägverkets huvudkontor. IT-frågor har diskuterats med förvaltare av olika system och med ansvariga för utvecklingsprojekt i anslutning till området. Under arbetet har ett antal dokument insamlats och studerats. Analys av verksamheten har skett med stöd av metoden Förändringsanalys enligt FA/SIMM, främst verksamhets-, problem-, mål- och styrkeanalys. Resultatet av arbetet utgörs av ett förslag till metodbeskrivning med motiveringar. Ett dilemma i metodutvecklingen har varit problemet att skapa en metod som är både juridiskt korrekt och praktiskt hanterbar. Det finns ett behov av att se över regelverket kring hanteringen av föreskrifter för att skapa ett regelverk som fungerar i verkligheten.Hanteringen av tjälrestriktioner är mobil till sin karaktär, vilket gäller i all verksamhet inom transportområdet. En annan viktig aspekt är interorganisatoriskt samarbete och datautbyte, vilket ställer krav på standardiserade IT-lösningar och kommunikation. Att få verksamheter inom transportområdet att flyta på som fungerande helheter med interorganisatoriska samarbeten, krav på (mobil) realtidskommunikation och heterogena system inom och utanför de organisatoriska gränserna är en verklig utmaning för framtiden.

A new Home, far from Home : The assimilation process of women involved in intercultural marriages based on Internet meeting

The internet has revolutionized the way we socialize, and as a consequence the way to love. The new communication technologies have facilitated intercultural relationships. Nowadays family relations are one of the major factors in immigration to European countries. Family relations means persons who arrive as family dependents and in accordance with laws regulating family reunification. This thesis aims to apply the classical assimilation theory stated by Milton Gordon (1964), which formulates a series of assimilation stages through which an individual must pass in order to be completely assimilated. In accordance with this theory, marriage is the final phase for a newcomer to fully incorporate into the host society. Thus, based on this presumption and other contemporary theories, the present study has analysed how women who get involved in intercultural marriages based on internet meeting experience these assimilation stages and evaluated the resources used by respondents to incorporate themselves into Swedish society.The main goal of the study was to determine if jumping to the last stage of assimilation does assure the incorporation in the social or/and labour spheres and the findings demonstrate that even though husbands are a valuable resource for assimilation, several cultural issues in Swedish society make it difficult to assure success for the newcomers.On the other hand, Sweden is a country with a strong national sentiment and the assimilation of immigrants still is an important issue to deal with. The Swedish Integration Board has disappeared and major projects for integration have been left in the hands of the municipalities or the Migration Board, institutions that still do not know how to deal with this dilemma.

"Vos sos la mujer araña, que atrapa a los hombres en su tela" : La construcción de la identidad feminina en El beso de la Mujer araña, de Manuel Puig.

La novela El beso de la mujer araña del escritor argentino Manuel Puig es una novela que trata dedos presos en una cárcel bonaerense durante la dictadura militar argentina. Esta tesina se centrará enla identidad femenina de Molina. El objetivo de esta tesina es examinar la celebración de lafemineidad de Molina, y su construcción de una identidad femenina. Esta identidad se conectarácon la idea de la identidad femenina como socialmente construida, opuesto a la noción de génerocomo algo innato. Es decir, la identidad femenina de Molina y sus ideas de lo femeninocorresponden a la idea de la identidad femenina como socialmente construida. Apoyándonos enteoría feminista y teoría queer, estableceremos la conexión que existe entre la identidad femeninacomo la ve Molina, y la identidad femenina como construcción social.