Center–periphery relations,local governance and conflicts in Ethiopia: the experience of Metekel province

In Ethiopia, the study and issue of center–periphery relations is not an easy task. It has remained complex and dynamics as it has been dictated and shaped by ever changing socio-economic relations, state ideology and structure. A case in point is Metekel region, which had been characterized by under development, lowland, hot climate and traditional way of life. Until post-1991developments, Metekel was peripheral in relation to the central state. It was an area of confrontation and conflict. Owing to the structural weakness of the centre, successive rulers of the area did not command effective control over it. Focusing on Gumuz, a Nilo-Saharan family, on one hand, and highlanders and new settlers, on the other, this essay examined the main features and dynamics of center–periphery relations, governance and conflicts in Metekel area. The sources, both primary and secondary, have been carefully examined based on the objectives of the study.     

国学引领文化产业繁荣论

中华国学是民族智慧结晶,是文化创意火种,重视它才能认识并开发广州龙文化、羊文化、节庆文化的底蕴,以龙舟竞渡精神,将南海神庙、黄埔古港、南沙天后宫串联成线,利用广东文化强省的政策优势、传媒优势、智力优势、制造业、文化产业优势、商都消费优势等,建好广州棋都以及国际会展集团、名城旅游集团、海上丝绸之路、越秀中华文化城、南粤演艺大观园、羊城国艺创意园等,以中华国学创意促进广州文化产业大繁荣。     

On the mode of administering a questionnaire and responses to open-ended items

Concurrently administered personal and telephone surveys are compared to measure differences between the modes for identical questions. Speed of questioning is found to be greater in telephone interviews than personal interviews. The faster pace of telephone interviews is linked to shorter answers to open-ended items on the telephone. The tendency to reduce such responses is disproportionately exhibited by younger, affluent respondents who tend to provide detailed responses in personal interviews.     

绿色大学评价指标体系研究

构建评价指标体系是评价绿色大学的前提。采用目标层、准则层、指标层三层结构,从绿色教育、绿色校园、绿色科研、绿色实践、绿色办学5个方面,构建了绿色大学的评价指标体系。本文提出了百分制权重加和评价方法,并将权重加和分值划分为5个等级。     

Research Subject Advocate: A New Protector of Research Participants

In 2001, the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) directed the 78 General Clinical Research Centers (GCRC) to develop a Research Subject Advocate (RSA) position. The RSA would report directly to the Principal Investigator (PI) of each GCRC and assure compliance of studies conducted on the GCRC with federal regulations and policies. Seven RSAs agreed to be interviewed about their new role. Website documents, electronic correspondence, and presentations at the first annual national meeting of RSAs were scrutinized using discursive analysis to shed light on this new organizational form and its potential for increased protection of human research participants. The RSA role actualizes the ethical principles of respect for persons, justice, and beneficence that are the foundation of the protection of research participants. The results also reveal the regulatory, institutional, collegial, and personal resources and barriers that assist the RSA in the successful implementation of the RSA role. In addition, issues important to the RSAs are described.     

Vulnerability Assessment of Mining Subsidence Hazards

Between 1996 and 1999, five mining subsidence events occurred in the iron-ore field in Lorraine, France, and damaged several hundred buildings. Because of the thousand hectares of undermined areas, an assessment of the vulnerability of buildings and land is necessary for risk management. Risk assessment methods changed from initial risk management decisions that took place immediately after the mining subsidence to the risk assessment studies that are currently under consideration. These changes reveal much about the complexity of the vulnerability concept and about difficulties in developing simple and relevant methods for its assessment. The objective of this article is to present this process, suggest improvements on the basis of theoretical definitions of the vulnerability, and give an operational example of vulnerability assessment in the seismic field. The vulnerability is divided into three components: weakness, stakes value, and resilience. Final improvements take into account these three components and constitute an original method of assessing the vulnerability of a city to subsidence.     

Field practice supervision of social work students: a psychodynamic view on the emotional context of the process and the setting during the client assessment phase

This empirical study is a psychodynamic view of the supervision setting and key emotional parameters during the client assessment process. The supervisor, through reflectivity, studied his own supervision practice with undergraduate social work students during their first field practice placement. By using supervision critical incidents, he formulated the basic characteristics of the supervision setting, and followed it up with discussion on the key emotional parameters of the supervision process. Particular emphasis was laid on psychodynamic understanding of the supervision process and the consequences of supervisor's interventions for both supervisees and clients. The emotional context of the supervision process during the client assessment phase was predominantly shaped by four emotional parameters: (i) the supervisor identifying with both client and supervisee needs; (ii) the supervisor concentrating on exclusively the educational character of supervision by avoiding dealing with student's personality issues; (iii) the supervisor dealing with client and supervisee ‘transferences to the setting’; and (iv) the supervisor setting and safeguarding the supervision limits and boundaries.     

Serials Clutter in Online Catalogs

Abstract

Finding and deciphering serials records in online catalogs is a challenge to many library users. To understand and analyze these challenges, the author conducted searches for scientific journal titles in the online catalogs of Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) libraries. The first part of the study measures the difficulty of retrieving serial records from online catalogs comparing one-word versus multiple-word titles. The second part analyzes displays for complexity by measuring the length of the complete record and the length of the holdings statements. These data show the complexity of displays and indicate the potential confusion that these displays may induce in library users.     

University-Community Partnership Centers

Abstract

In academic settings, community research, and the service that goes along with it, is often not valued as much as other methods of research. The more qualitative and labor intensive nature of applied research often raises concerns about whether pre-tenured faculty can publish the sufficient quantity and quality of work necessary to achieve tenure. This paper describes successful collaborations through a university-based Community Partnership Center with members of community-based organizations in low-income inner-city neighborhoods, social work students, and faculty. Two case examples illustrate the co-authors' involvement with the Center as pre-tenured faculty. The article outlines the challenges and benefits of involvement with an established center for university-community partnerships. With careful planning and coordination, such centers can be excellent vehicles through which to achieve important mutual benefits for community-based organizations, student learning, and faculty responsibilities in research, teaching and service.