Operación masacre: la fundación mitológica del testimonio (Estudios)

A partir de Operación masacre, de Rodolfo Walsh, la autora distingue, en este ensayo, el testimonio de otras narrativas. Señala que no es literatura de bandidos, porque el sustrato son memorias de víctimas o de sobrevivientes de la impune violencia de Estado. Afirma que tampoco es reportaje o crónica periodística: en estos últimos no median una serie de entrevistas orales ni se plantean imágenes históricas totalizadoras. La autora insiste en el carácter revolucionario del testimonio, que busca construir una verdad absoluta, un discurso sin fisuras. A diferencia de la novela-testimonio, que es instrumento de conocimiento, este género tendría un sentido fundamentalmente histórico. Sostiene que, en Argentina, las víctimas directas de la violencia son quienes pueden solicitar reparación, por eso, los escritores de testimonio de la posdictadura se debaten entre la pertenencia al grupo de víctimas y la voluntad de asumir las causas políticas. Nofal concluye que Walsh, a diferencia de ellos, toma la palabra y dice la verdad desde su lugar de ciudadano y desde el espacio literario.

Políticas de inmigración en América Latina: el extranjero indeseable en las normas nacionales, de la Independencia hasta los años de 1930 (Estudios)

El artículo explora el surgimiento de la figura del extranjero indeseable en las legislaciones nacionales latinoamericanas, desde la Independencia hasta finales de la década de 1930, aproximadamente, de forma paralela a la política de inmigración en los Estados Unidos. Las restricciones sobre la entrada libre de extranjeros que establecieron las repúblicas, durante las primeras décadas de la Independencia, estaban relacionadas con el modelo del ciudadano idealizado. El análisis de los impedimentos para la entrada de extranjeros muestra cómo, durante el siglo XIX, el extranjero “deseado” fue definido cada vez más en contraste con los rasgos negativos de los “indeseables”, bajo el supuesto objetivo de “defender la nación”.

Private long-term investment in uncertain times. Bruegel Policy Contribution 2012/23, December 2012

The economic and financial crisis in Europe is affecting the financing of long-term infrastructure investment. There are multiple clearly identifiable channels: reduced demand for long-term investment, a tightening prudential framework for lending, upward adjustment of risk perception, complex transition of the financial system, and increasing macroeconomic, sovereign and regulatory risk. Some of the identified channels are potentially dangerous spillovers from the crisis that entail the risk of a downward spiral (eg increasing regulatory risk), while others are efficient market responses (eg reduced investment demand, correction of pricing of risk). Consequently, public policy instruments should not address the accessibility of long-term finance per se, but should explicitly target the critical channels.

Comparing the results of recall surveys and standardized searches in understanding bird-window collisions at houses

Every year a large number of birds die when they collide with windows. The actual number is difficult to ascertain. Previous attempts to estimate bird-window collision rates in Canada relied heavily on a prior citizen-science study that used memory-based surveys. Such an approach to data collection has many potential biases. We built upon this study and its recommendations for future research by creating a citizen-science program that actively searched for collision evidence at houses and apartments for an extended period with the objective to see how standardized approaches to data collection compared with memory recall. Absolute collision estimates as well as relative differences were compared between residence types in the two studies, and we found considerable differences in absolute values for collisions but similar rankings of collision rates between residence types. Collision recall rates in our study (56.5%) were very similar those in the prior 2012 study, where 50.5% of participants remembered a bird colliding with a window at some time in the past. Fatality estimates, however, were 1.4 times higher in the 2012 study than in our study based on standardized searches. Rural houses with a bird feeder consistently had the highest number of collisions. This suggests that memory recall surveys may be a useful tool for understanding the relative importance of different risk factors causing bird-window collisions.

A Conceptual Model for Group Support Systems in Local Councils

This paper proposes a conceptual model of a context-aware group support system (GSS) to assist local council employees to perform collaborative tasks in conjunction with inter- and intra-organisational stakeholders. Most discussions about e-government focus on the use of ICT to improve the relationship between government and citizen, not on the relationship between government and employees. This paper seeks to expose the unique culture of UK local councils and to show how a GSS could support local government employer and employee needs.

Perspex machine VIII: axioms of transreal arithmetic

Transreal arithmetic is a total arithmetic that contains real arithmetic, but which has no arithmetical exceptions. It allows the specification of the Universal Perspex Machine which unifies geometry with the Turing Machine. Here we axiomatise the algebraic structure of transreal arithmetic so that it provides a total arithmetic on any appropriate set of numbers. This opens up the possibility of specifying a version of floating-point arithmetic that does not have any arithmetical exceptions and in which every number is a first-class citizen. We find that literal numbers in the axioms are distinct. In other words, the axiomatisation does not require special axioms to force non-triviality. It follows that transreal arithmetic must be defined on a set of numbers that contains{-8,-1,0,1,8,&pphi;} as a proper subset. We note that the axioms have been shown to be consistent by machine proof.

Articulation of stakeholders requirements for complex e-government systems development

Requirements analysis focuses on stakeholders concerns and their influence towards e-government systems. Some characteristics of stakeholders concerns clearly show the complexity and conflicts. This imposes a number of questions in the requirements analysis, such as how are they relevant to stakeholders? What are their needs? How conflicts among the different stakeholders can be resolved? And what coherent requirements can be methodologically produced? This paper describes the problem articulation method in organizational semiotics which can be used to conduct such complex requirements analysis. The outcomes of the analysis enable e-government systems development and management to meet userspsila needs. A case study of Yantai Citizen Card is chosen to illustrate a process of analysing stakeholders in the lifecycle of requirements analysis.

A conceptual model for group support systems in local councils

This paper proposes a conceptual model of a context-aware group support system (GSS) to assist local council employees to perform collaborative tasks in conjunction with inter- and intra-organisational stakeholders. Most discussions about e-government focus on the use of ICT to improve the relationship between government and citizen, not on the relationship between government and employees. This paper seeks to expose the unique culture of UK local councils and to show how a GSS could support local government employer and employee needs.