Alcances y limitaciones de Al Jazeera como herramienta de Soft Power. Qatar 2005- 2013

El interés de este estudio de caso es mostrar cómo Al Jazeera es utilizada como herramienta de Soft Power por parte de Qatar en su política exterior en Medio Oriente y con Estados Unidos. Se analiza y explica el concepto de Soft Power de Joseph Nye y se aplica a la política exterior qatarí y su relación con la labor informativa de Al Jazeera. Se explican diversos ejemplos en los que la cobertura de Al Jazeera tuvo consecuencias en la política exterior de Qatar y cómo Qatar adecuó su agenda para garantizar su poder sin sacrificar su seguridad. Así mismo la relación entre e Soft Power y el Hard Power y el equilibrio necesario actualmente para lograr los objetivos en política exterior de Qatar.

Estudo das competências pessoais e interpessoais de acordo com as soft skills e hard skills nos empresários das PMEs

Neste percurso sinuoso de longas privações e acontecimentos, esta investigação só foi possível graças à colaboração franca e estreita de várias pessoas, algumas delas ausentes, mas que em muito contribuíram para o sucesso deste estudo, o nosso profundo reconhecimento e sincero agradecimento. Ao Professor Doutor Manuel Jacinto de Ascensão Jardim, que foi uma pessoa sempre disponível e cuja orientação suprema de conhecimento neste estudo, que por vezes se tornou penoso, mas que através da sua sabedoria e experiência, levou-nos a bom porto, por mares claros, lúcidos e objectivos, o nosso muito obrigado. Aos empresários, gestores e aos docentes convidados, que contribuíram decisivamente para a investigação, colaborando na entrevista do estudo, que foram pessoas que pelas suas vivências deram o carácter construtivo e enriquecedor, sem eles, isto não seria o mesmo, a todos eles, o nosso agradecimento muito profundo. Ao ISLA.GAIA e a todos os Docentes que de uma forma directa ou indirecta foram incansáveis na procura de opiniões, sugestões e soluções, que pudessem de alguma forma contribuir para o bom encaminhamento do nosso propósito de estudo, não esquecendo os colaboradores não docentes desta instituição que sempre tiveram uma palavra de encorajamento, o nosso muito obrigado a todos. A Todos os colegas e aos colegas que se tornaram amigos, pela empatia, comunhão, temperança se tornaram pessoas importantes, não só este ano, neste caminho solitário, mas incluindo todos aqueles que pela perseverança e sem dúvida, muita partilha, fazem parte desta meta alcançada, o nosso sincero e sentido obrigado. Aos nossos amigos que nos deram o alento e a força para que nunca perdêssemos o norte, estando sempre atentos aos nossos passos, o nosso muito obrigado a todos. Aos nossos familiares um agradecimento muito especial pelo incansável apoio, disponibilidade e compreensão quando privados da nossa presença, muito particularmente à nossa família nuclear, que sempre nos incentivou e viveu mais de perto todas as nossas dúvidas e angustias estando sempre do nosso lado, o nosso muito particular obrigado.

A comparison between maximum length sequence and conventional auditory brainstem responses as a screening tool for auditory sensitivity

This paper compares conventional auditory brainstem response tests (ABRs) and Maximum Length Sequence auditory brainstem response tests (MLS ABRs). The results found that the faster MLS ABRs could prove an accurate screening tool for auditory sensitivity.

The influence of sentence length and complexity on the speechreading performance of profoundly deaf children

This paper reviews speechreading and the effect of sentence length and linguistic complexity on deaf children.

Sediment magnetic properties of glacial till deposited since the Little Ice Age maximum for selected glaciers at Svartisen and Okstindan, northern Norway

Samples of glacial till deposited since the Little Ice Age (LIA) maximum by two glaciers, North Bogbre at Svartisen and Corneliussen-breen at Okstindan, northern Norway, were obtained from transects running from the current glacier snout to the LIA (c. AD 1750) limit. The samples were analysed to determine their sediment magnetic properties, which display considerable variability. Significant trends in some magnetic parameters are evident with distance from the glacier margin and hence length of subaerial exposure. Magnetic susceptibility (X) decreases away from the contemporary snout, perhaps due to the weathering of ferrimagnetic minerals into antiferromagnetic forms, although this trend is generally not statistically significant. Trends in the ratios of soft IRM/hard IRM which are statistically significant support this hypothesis, suggesting that antiferromagnetic minerals are increasing relative to ferrimagnetic minerals towards the LIA maximum. Backfield ratios (IRM -100 mT/SIRM) also display a significant and strong trend towards magnetically harder behaviour with proximity to the LIA maximum. Thus, by employing a chronosequence approach, it may be possible to use sediment magnetics data as a tool for reconstructing glacier retreat in areas where more traditional techniques, such as lichenometry, are not applicable.

The Dubawnt Lake palaeo-ice stream: evidence for dynamic ics sheet behaviour on the Canadian Shield and insights regarding the controls on ice-stream location and vigour

We report evidence for a major ice stream that operated over the northwestern Canadian Shield in the Keewatin Sector of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the last deglaciation 9000-8200 (uncalibrated) yr BP. It is reconstructed at 450 km in length, 140 km in width, and had an estimated catchment area of 190000 km. Mapping from satellite imagery reveals a suite of bedforms ('flow-set') characterized by a highly convergent onset zone, abrupt lateral margins, and where flow was presumed to have been fastest, a remarkably coherent pattern of mega-scale glacial lineations with lengths approaching 13 km and elongation ratios in excess of 40:1. Spatial variations in bedform elongation within the flow-set match the expected velocity field of a terrestrial ice stream. The flow pattern does not appear to be steered by topography and its location on the hard bedrock of the Canadian Shield is surprising. A soft sedimentary basin may have influenced ice-stream activity by lubricating the bed over the downstream crystalline bedrock, but it is unlikely that it operated over a pervasively deforming till layer. The location of the ice stream challenges the view that they only arise in deep bedrock troughs or over thick deposits of 'soft' fine-grained sediments. We speculate that fast ice flow may have been triggered when a steep ice sheet surface gradient with high driving stresses contacted a proglacial lake. An increase in velocity through calving could have propagated fast ice flow upstream (in the vicinity of the Keewatin Ice Divide) through a series of thermomechanical feedback mechanisms. It exerted a considerable impact on the Laurentide Ice Sheet, forcing the demise of one of the last major ice centres.

Laurentide ice streaming on the Canadian Shield: A conflict with the soft-bedded ice stream paradigm?

Elucidating the controls on the location and vigor of ice streams is crucial to understanding the processes that lead to fast disintegration of ice flows and ice sheets. In the former North American Laurentide ice sheet, ice stream occurrence appears to have been governed by topographic troughs or areas of soft-sediment geology. This paper reports robust evidence of a major paleo-ice stream over the northwestern Canadian Shield, an area previously assumed to be incompatible with fast ice flow because of the low relief and relatively hard bedrock. A coherent pattern of subglacial bedforms (drumlins and megascalle glacial lineations) demarcates the ice stream flow set, which exhibits a convergent onset zone, a narrow main trunk with abrupt lateral margins, and a lobate terminus. Variations in bedform elongation ratio within the flow set match theoretical expectations of ice velocity. In the center of the ice stream, extremely parallel megascalle glacial lineations tens of kilometers long with elongation ratios in excess of 40:1 attest to a single episode of rapid ice flow. We conclude that while bed properties are likely to be influential in determining the occurrence and vigor of ice streams, contrary to established views, widespread soft-bed geology is not an essential requirement for those ice streams without topographic control. We speculate that the ice stream acted as a release valve on ice-sheet mass balance and was initiated by the presence of a proglacial lake that destabilized the ice-sheet margin and propagated fast ice flow through a series of thermomechanical feedbacks involving ice flow and temperature.

Effect of acyl chain length on transfection efficiency and toxicity of polyethylenimine

Polyethylenimine (PEI) is an efficient nonviral gene delivery vector because of its high buffering capacity and DNA condensation ability. In our study, the amino groups on the polymeric backbone were acylated using acetic or propionic anhydride to alter the protonation behaviour and the hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance of the polymer. The concentration of acylated primary amines was determined using trinitrobenzene sulphonic acid assay. Results showed that our modified polymers had lower buffering capacities in solutions compared to PEI. The polymers were complexed with plasmid encoding enhanced green fluorescent protein at three different ratios (1:1, 1:2 and 1:10 w/w DNA to polymer) to form polyplexes and their toxicities and transfection efficiencies were evaluated in HEK 293 cells. Acylation reduced the number of primary amines on the polymer and the surface charge, improving haemocompatibility and reducing cytotoxicity. The reduction in the concentration of amino groups helped to optimise DNA compaction and facilitated polyplex dissociation in the cell, which increased transfection efficiency of the modified polymers compared to the parent polymer. Polymers with buffering capacities greater than 50% and less than 80% relative to PEI, showed higher transfection efficiencies than PEI. The propionic anhydride modified polymers had appropriate interactions with DNA which provided both DNA compaction and polyplex dissociation. These systems interacted better with the cell membrane because of their slightly higher lipophilicity and formed polyplexes which were less cytotoxic than polyplexes of acetic anhydride modified polymers. Among the vectors tested, 1:0.3 mol/mol PEI:propionic anhydride in a 1:2 w/w DNA:polymer composition provided the best transfection system with improved transfection efficiency and reduced cytotoxicity.

Soft topographic map for clustering and classification of bacteria

In this work a new method for clustering and building a topographic representation of a bacteria taxonomy is presented. The method is based on the analysis of stable parts of the genome, the so-called “housekeeping genes”. The proposed method generates topographic maps of the bacteria taxonomy, where relations among different type strains can be visually inspected and verified. Two well known DNA alignement algorithms are applied to the genomic sequences. Topographic maps are optimized to represent the similarity among the sequences according to their evolutionary distances. The experimental analysis is carried out on 147 type strains of the Gammaprotebacteria class by means of the 16S rRNA housekeeping gene. Complete sequences of the gene have been retrieved from the NCBI public database. In the experimental tests the maps show clusters of homologous type strains and present some singular cases potentially due to incorrect classification or erroneous annotations in the database.

Implementing a generic systolic array for genetic algorithms

We have designed a highly parallel design for a simple genetic algorithm using a pipeline of systolic arrays. The systolic design provides high throughput and unidirectional pipelining by exploiting the implicit parallelism in the genetic operators. The design is significant because, unlike other hardware genetic algorithms, it is independent of both the fitness function and the particular chromosome length used in a problem. We have designed and simulated a version of the mutation array using Xilinix FPGA tools to investigate the feasibility of hardware implementation. A simple 5-chromosome mutation array occupies 195 CLBs and is capable of performing more than one million mutations per second. I. Introduction Genetic algorithms (GAs) are established search and optimization techniques which have been applied to a range of engineering and applied problems with considerable success [1]. They operate by maintaining a population of trial solutions encoded, using a suitable encoding scheme.