Syrian Self‐Initiated Expatriates: Emotional Connections from Abroad

The relationship of an expatriate to his or her country of origin is complicated by reasons for leaving, ease of acculturation into the new country, nostalgia, loneliness and the ability to remain connected to his or her country of origin while abroad. Research on expatriate experiences has been limited to certain countries of origin and host countries, as well as a narrow definition of the term “expatriate”. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences and relationships with host and home countries of Syrian self‐initiated expatriates, an underrepresented group in the literature. Phenomenological interviews were conducted with 13 Syrian self‐initiated expatriates during an expatriate conference in Damascus, Syria. The results showed that Syrian self‐initiated expatriates have left Syria to advance their education and their careers. For many of the men interviewed, Syria’s mandate of military service was a factor in leaving. When in their host countries, they faced adjustment issues such as language barriers and difficulty remaining connected to Syria. Relationships with both countries were fluid and changing, based on factors such as adjustment and ease of communication. I make recommendations for improving travel, communication and cultural maintenance to support the connection between Syrian self‐initiated expatriates and Syrian society.     

Some chance for consensus: voting methods for which consensus is an equilibrium

We introduce the following basic voting method: voters submit both a “consensus” and a “fall-back” ballot. If all “consensus” ballots name the same option, it wins; otherwise, a randomly drawn “fall-back” ballot decides. If there is one potential consensus option that everyone prefers to the benchmark lottery which picks the favorite of a randomly drawn voter, then naming that option on all “consensus” ballots builds a very strong form of correlated equilibrium. Unlike common consensus procedures, ours is not biased toward the status quo and removes incentives to block consensus. Variants of the method allow for large groups, partial consensus, and choosing from several potential consensus options.     

Invisible computer for collaborative design: evaluation of a multimodal sketch-based environment

In the areas of design, especially in architectural design, collaboration has become an important challenge. The specialization of skills increase, work teams are more and more extensive and the geographic distance between them increases too. The economic and ecological stakes related to remote collaboration are an evidence. This context involves the need to support most efficiently possible remote working meetings. We present the Distributed Collaborative Digital Studio (DSDC), a tool designed to recreate, in distant situations, the context of copresence meetings. This shared environment is created in the "invisible computer" approach [11]. The idea is that the tool should disappear from user's consciousness. Indeed, creative design activities require some fluidity in their process. Therefore, any involuntary interruption created by the system can potentially brake creativity. In this perspective, we investigate specifically the "invisibility" of our environment. To do this, we propose a framework for the operationalization of the concept and a methodology to test the system invisibility. This methodology was applied through a case study consisting of a corpus of 12 hours of remote collaborative design sessions with the DSDC. We highlight the learning effects while using our system, conclude on its effectiveness and discuss our methodology.     

The political economy of South Africa in the interwar period∗

Economic policy in South Africa in the interwar period is discussed in the context of differences between the economic power and political influence of Afrikaner as opposed to mining capital. Previous analyses have been limited by overgeneralisation, narrowness of scope and analytical methodologies which have overemphasised class agencies at the expense of actual and potential economic linkages. State economic interventions are shown to have differed in influence and in impact by area of application. No coherent policy was followed for the development of industry based on agricultural products. Instead, policies were subordinated to devolving central power to fragmented agricultural interests. Industrial policy is shown to have been confined to protection, other forms of subsidy and the creation of a state sector around heavy industry rather than being linked to a strategy of diversification out of the base provided by the activities associated with mining. Despite this lack of a conducive framework, preliminary research reveals that constrained industrial diversification did occur in isolated cases, including chemical and industrial diamond products, suggesting that other development trajectories were possible.     

Stochastic Bounds with a Low Rank Decomposition

We investigate how we can bound a discrete time Markov chain (DTMC) by a stochastic matrix with a low rank decomposition. In the first part of the article, we show the links with previous results for matrices with a decomposition of size 1 or 2. Then we show how the complexity of the analysis for steady-state and transient distributions can be simplified when we take into account the decomposition. Finally, we show how we can obtain a monotone stochastic upper bound with a low rank decomposition.     

The effects of internal resources and partnership quality on firm performance: An examination of Indian BPO providers

Firms from developed nations are increasingly resorting to business process outsourcing (BPO) as part of their global sourcing strategy. Although BPO is a growing practice, there has been limited empirical attention in understanding the phenomenon, particularly from the perspective of provider firms that execute important business processes for their overseas clients. In this paper we focus on the resources and capabilities that are utilized by the providers in fulfilling their clients' sourcing needs. Using resource-based view and social exchange as theoretical foundations, we argue that providers' human capital, organizational capital, management capability, and partnership quality are crucial assets that are deemed valuable by the clients and are utilized by the providers in attaining higher performance. Using a sample of Indian BPO providers, we empirically test three models (direct, mediating and moderating) to understand how these assets impact firm-level performance. Results show that resources and capabilities relate to performance in varying measures and partnership quality has partial-mediating and moderating effects on these relationships. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of the study and highlighting avenues of future inquiry.     

A New Multicriteria Risk Mapping Approach Based on a Multiattribute Frontier Concept

Invasive species risk maps provide broad guidance on where to allocate resources for pest monitoring and regulation, but they often present individual risk components (such as climatic suitability, host abundance, or introduction potential) as independent entities. These independent risk components are integrated using various multicriteria analysis techniques that typically require prior knowledge of the risk components’ importance. Such information is often nonexistent for many invasive pests. This study proposes a new approach for building integrated risk maps using the principle of a multiattribute efficient frontier and analyzing the partial order of elements of a risk map as distributed in multidimensional criteria space. The integrated risks are estimated as subsequent multiattribute frontiers in dimensions of individual risk criteria. We demonstrate the approach with the example of Agrilus biguttatus Fabricius, a high‐risk pest that may threaten North American oak forests in the near future. Drawing on U.S. and Canadian data, we compare the performance of the multiattribute ranking against a multicriteria linear weighted averaging technique in the presence of uncertainties, using the concept of robustness from info‐gap decision theory. The results show major geographic hotspots where the consideration of tradeoffs between multiple risk components changes integrated risk rankings. Both methods delineate similar geographical regions of high and low risks. Overall, aggregation based on a delineation of multiattribute efficient frontiers can be a useful tool to prioritize risks for anticipated invasive pests, which usually have an extremely poor prior knowledge base.