An Analysis of Some Relations Among Domain Ontologies

* This paper was made according to the program of fundamental scientific research of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences «Mathematical simulation and intellectual systems», the project "Theoretical foundation of the intellectual systems based on ontologies for intellectual support of scientific researches".

Small states and the promotion of their foreign policy agenda in the international scenario: Trinidad and Tobago and the Kyoto Protocol

Este estudio de caso busca identificar los elementos del portafolio de política exterior de Trinidad y Tobago que le permitieron promover exitosamente sus intereses en el Protocolo de Kioto. Al hacer esto, este texto analizará las limitaciones de Trinidad y Tobago en términos de vulnerabilidades de localización, burocracia y recursos. Posteriormente, una revisión del portafolio de política exterior de este Estado ilustrará el uso de estrategias de creación de capacidades y de organización como lo son el contacto con actores institucionales y no gubernamentales, la formación de coaliciones y estrategias argumentativas, entre otras. Finalmente, este artículo concluirá que dichas acciones permitieron la promoción de la agenda de política exterior de Trinidad y Tobago a través de la creación de hojas de ruta y la coordinación de la incertidumbre con el Protocolo de Kioto. Para hacer esto, este trabajo se concentrará en examinar conceptos como vulnerabilidad y priorización, asimismo contrastando diferentes artículos académicos en la materia junto con documentos oficiales de Trinidad y Tobago.

The experience of emotional expression in the context of social relations for people diagnosed with schizophrenia : a phenomenological explication

The experience of emotional expression in the context of social relations is not well understood for people diagnosed with schizophrenia. Early phenomenological research on the experience of people diagnosed with schizophrenia traditionally focussed on self experience in isolation from others, with later research explicating isolated aspects of self experience in relation to others. The current research aimed to focus on the progressive experience of emotional expression of people diagnosed with schizophrenia in relation to others over 12 months, in order to gain a broad spectrum of experience. This study involved unstructured interviews with 7 participants, an average of 4 times each, over a period of 12 months. Due to the unstructured nature of the interviews, a great breadth of experience was explicated. From the interviews there emerged 6 themes grouped together as a transition into, and 5 themes grouped together as a recovery from, symptoms associated with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Special significance was given to the theme of relational confusion as an experience that provides an understanding of the relationship between social stressors and personal characteristics with responses that are associated with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. It was suggested that participants experienced themselves, including their distancing and isolating responses, as a part of a social system. The breadth of experiences that emerged afforded a framework of experiences within which prior phenomenological research findings on static moments of experience have been located. A more meaningful understanding of the transitioning into and recovery from the experiences associated with a diagnosis of schizophrenia will afford advances in mental health practice.

The impact of managers' characteristics on the use of public relations strategy : an exploratory study in Queensland schools

While previous positive and normative studies have focused on the role public relations should play in organisations and the need for management in all organisations to attend to public relations (Cutlip et al., 2006), there has been little discussion in the public relations literature on why or how managers choose to enact public relations strategies for their organisations. If the discipline of public relations is to cement itself as a management function, then researchers must gain a better understanding of managers themselves given that they are the ones who decide if and how public relations strategies should be employed in the organisation. This study has sought to explore evidence of a relationship between management characteristics and their impact on decisions managers make when choosing which public relations strategies to adopt in response to changes in the organisation’s operating environment. This exploratory research study has been conducted within a specific context of schools in Queensland, Australia. Queensland schools have been facing a number of changes within their operating environment due to changes in Federal funding models in Australia’s education system. This study used an exploratory, qualitative approach to understand the management characteristics demonstrated by managers in schools and how these have impacted on the selection of public relations strategies for responding to their changing and increasingly competitive environment. The unit of analysis for this research study was principals in State (government) schools and in non-government schools. Ten principals were interviewed from four different types of schools in Queensland – the more traditional, elite, private schools (GPS Schools); other Independent Schools; Catholic Schools; and State (or public) schools. These interviews were analysed for quantitative comparisons of the managers’ characteristics across the different schools (in terms of the number of principals in each age bracket, those holding postgraduate qualifications, years of experience etc.); and for qualitative data to provide a greater sense of their understanding of public relations. The 10 schools were selected within a geographic area from Brisbane’s inner city to its outer western suburbs to include an element of competition amongst those managers being interviewed. A detailed review of government, school and other public documents was also conducted to gain an insight into the environment in which principals made decisions about public relations strategy to respond to increasing competition. This study found support for the literature on the relationship between management characteristics and strategy. However, there was also variation in findings warranting further investigation of the literature on the relationship between management characteristics and strategy in a school setting. Key relationships found in this study were between: management characteristics themselves; age and the use of public relations strategies; and gender and the use of public relations strategies. There was also evidence of support for the literature linking the impact that the combination of managers’ age, education and experience had on the use of public relations strategies. While this study was exploratory in nature, it did reveal a number of areas that require further investigation to gain a deeper understanding of how and why managers choose public relations strategies as a response to changes in their operating environment. It also provided a different framework to gain a better understanding of managers’ understanding and support of public relations in schools, which, in conjunction with an analysis of their management characteristics, will hopefully allow public relations scholars and practitioners alike gain an understanding of how and why managers use public relations strategies.

Continuous and pedagogically sound assessment : A new economy of power relations in Australian Law schools

In recent decades, assessment practices within Australian law schools have moved from the overwhelming use of end-of-year closed-book examinations to an increase in the use of a wider range of techniques. This shift is often characterised as providing a ‘better’ learning environment for students, contributing more positively to their own ‘personal development’ within higher education, or, considered along the lines of critical legal thought, as ‘liberating’ them from the ‘conservatising’ and ‘indoctrinating’ effects of the power relations that operate in law schools. This paper seeks to render problematic such liberal-progressive narratives about these changes to law school assessment practices. It will do so by utilising the work of French historian and philosopher Michel Foucault on power, arguing that the current range of assessment techniques demonstrates a shift in the ‘economy’ of power relations within the law school. Rather than ‘liberating’ students from relations of power, these practices actually extend the power relations through which students are governed. This analysis is intended to inform legal education research and assessment practice by providing a far more nuanced conceptual framework than one that seeks to ‘free’ law students from these ‘repressive’ practices, or hopes to ‘objectively’ contribute to their ‘personal development’.