The Utilization of Sports for Peace and Unity in Society

There are many ongoing conflicts in the world. Many methods to end these conflicts have been attempted with various levels of success. A United Nations study in 2003 determined that sports should be increasingly used as a method to bring about peace in the world. This finding can be supported when looking at the ways sports united divided nations and, at times, brought unity among nations. Along with this, sports have seen a dramatic rise in popularity due to the revolution of technology and the rise of media. As the media and technology continue to develop, sports will continue to grow alongside them as worldwide phenomena. Thus, sport should be used by nations and communities as a strong, reliable option to resolve conflicts and bring about peace and unity

The importance of information flows temporal attributes for the efficient scheduling of dynamic demand responsive transport services

The operation of a demand responsive transport service usually involves the management of dynamic requests. The underlying algorithms are mainly adaptations of procedures carefully designed to solve static versions of the problem, in which all the requests are known in advance. However there is no guarantee that the effectiveness of an algorithm stays unchanged when it is manipulated to work in a dynamic environment. On the other hand, the way the input is revealed to the algorithm has a decisive role on the schedule quality. We analyze three characteristics of the information flow (percentage of real-time requests, interval between call-in and requested pickup time and length of the computational cycle time), assessing their influence on the effectiveness of the scheduling proces

Freedom in the World 2014

The state of freedom declined for the eighth consecutive year in 2013, according to Freedom in the World 2014, Freedom House's annual country-by-country report on global political rights and civil liberties.Particularly notable were developments in Egypt, which endured across-the-board reversals in its democratic institutions following a military coup. There were also serious setbacks to democratic rights in other large, politically influential countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Venezuela, and Indonesia.Findings of the 41st edition of Freedom in the World, the oldest, most authoritative report of democracy and human rights, include: Fifty-four countries showed overall declines in political rights and civil liberties, compared with 40 that showed gains.For the eighth consecutive year, Freedom in the World recorded more declines in democracy worldwide than gains.Some leaders effectively relied on "modern authoritarianism," crippling their political opposition without annihilating it, and flouting the rule of law while maintaining a veneer of order, legitimacy, and prosperity.Central to modern authoritarians is the capture of institutions that undergird political pluralism. They seek to dominate not only the executive and legislative branches, but also the media, judiciary, civil society, economy, and security forces.There were some positive signs for the year: Civil liberties improved in Tunisia, the most promising of the Arab Spring countries.Pakistan showed gains due to successful elections and an orderly rotation of power.In Africa, gains occurred in Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Madagascar, Rwanda, Togo, and Zimbabwe.The addition of Honduras, Kenya, Nepal, and Pakistan raised the number of electoral democracies to 122

Demythologizing the Palestinian in Hany Abu-Assad’sOmarandParadise Now

In the past, Palestinian cinema was dominated by a nationalist discourse revolving around refugee ideology, resulting from the trauma of the lost homeland. As the past is generally static, revisiting it became an exercise in nostalgia. The last decade, however, has seen the emergence of a number of transnational Palestinian films telling stories of those who remained in historical Palestine post-1948. This late depiction is no longer one of reductionism but a visual narrative that exposes the daily challenges individuals face under occupation, as they fluctuate between a diminishing homeland and a lost one. These latest films have relied on a personal angle to tell the story, contrary to earlier film portrayals that favoured depictions of a mythical homogeneous society rooted in nationalist, heroic and revolutionary discourse. This article examines two internationally acclaimed films by Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad, Al Janna Al Aan/Paradise Now and Omar. In both, Palestinians hover between security walls, refugee camps and occupied space, as they deal with issues of betrayal, frustration, martyrdom and treason, portrayals that ultimately demythologize the Palestinian individual

The probabilistic vehicle routing problem

Includes bibliographical references.Work partially supported by the National Science Foundation. ECS-8717970Dimitris Bertsimas