Blank slates or hidden treasure? Assessing and building on the experiential learning of migrant and refugee women in European countries

Commonly, the work situation of migrant and refugee women declines notably on arriving in the new country, irrespective of their existing qualifications and even after they have taken accepted qualifications. The primary objectives of this research were to test the hypothesis that women bring to their new countries skills and competences arising from their education, working life and experiential learning, in addition to those learnt in the process of adapting to a new way of life, such as communicative and intercultural competences; and to develop a typology which would facilitate access to appropriate education and training. This process also, crucially, involves vocational guidance and counselling to ensure that women develop goals which are both realistic and desirable to them. To this end an interview schedule was developed and delivered, after adaptations to local circumstances, to 120 women in four countries: Denmark, Germany, the Czech Republic and the UK. This paper presents the detailed findings only from the UK research. The main value of the data gathered is qualitative and the samples used were non-random, but certain patterns emerged which are described in this paper. It was concluded that education and training were usually necessary in the new country but that a much more considered approach needs to be taken to placement on courses. The paper concludes with recommendations for practice by institutions of further education and case studies to illuminate the findings. Four case studies are attached

Zamolodchikov Tetrahedral Equation and Higher Hamiltonians of 2d Quantum Integrable Systems

The main aim of this work is to develop a method of constructing higher Hamiltonians of quantum integrable systems associated with the solution of the Zamolodchikov tetrahedral equation. As opposed to the result of V.V. Bazhanov and S.M. Sergeev the approach presented here is effective for generic solutions of the tetrahedral equation without spectral parameter. In a sense, this result is a two-dimensional generalization of the method by J.-M. Maillet. The work is a part of the project relating the tetrahedral equation with the quasi-invariants of 2-knots

Historical review of missile aerodynamic developments

The development of missiles from early history up to about 1970 is discussed. Early unpowered missiles beyond the rock include the spear, the bow and arrow, the gun and bullet, and the cannon and projectile. Combining gunpowder with projectiles resulted in the first powered missiles. In the early 1900's, the development of guided missiles was begun. Significant advances in missile technology were made by German scientists during World War II. The dispersion of these advances to other countries following the war resulted in accelerating the development of guided missiles. In the late 1940's and early 1950's there was a proliferation in the development of missile systems in many countries. These developments were based primarily on experimental work and on relatively crude analytical techniques. Discussed here are some of the missile systems that were developed up to about 1970; some of the problems encountered; the development of an experimental data base for use with missiles; and early efforts to develop analytical methods applicable to missiles

Optical Absorption of an Interacting Many-Polaron Gas

The optical absorption of a many (continuum) polaron gas is derived in the framework of a variational approach at zero temperature and weak or intermediate electron-phonon coupling strength. We derive a compact formula for the optical conductivity of the many-polaron system taking into account many-body effects in the electron or hole system. Within the method presented here, these effects are contained completely in the dynamical structure factor of the electron or hole system. This allows to build on well-established studies of the interacting electron gas. Based on this approach a novel feature in the absorption spectrum of the many-polaron gas, related to the emission of a plasmon together with a phonon, is identified. As an application and illustration of the technique, we compare the theoretical many-polaron optical absorption spectrum as derived in the present work with the `d-band' absorption feature in Nd$_{2}$CuO$_{2}$. Similarities are shown between the theoretically and the experimentally derived first frequency moment of the optical absorption of a family of differently doped Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_{x}$CuO$_{4-y}$ materials.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures; revised and expanded versio

AEGIS: A MILITARY INNOVATION CASE STUDY

The threat of hypersonic missiles being employed against U.S. naval forces by adversaries like China and Russia has forced current civilian and naval leaders to reexamine fleet defense to a degree similar to efforts at the end of World War II. When confronted with the threat of kamikazes and early anti-ship cruise missiles, the Navy launched a series of programs to close the capabilities gap between adversary weapons and the lack of a credible defense. The Navy’s eventual solution, the AEGIS Weapon System, was a revolutionary synthesis of system engineering integration with novel fleet defense tactics that have served as the backbone of the Navy surface forces for over 40 years. Why did AEGIS succeed at innovating while other programs failed? This thesis will answer this question by analyzing the development of AEGIS, from program inception to the introduction of AEGIS ships in the fleet, through the four paradigms of military innovation studies. Examination of AEGIS through each paradigm found that intraservice competition and culture were instrumental in AEGIS's success, with significant implications for policymakers. This thesis concludes with recommendations on how to best orient the Navy's approach toward hypersonic missile defense in the future.Lieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Historical development of worldwide guided missiles

The development of missiles from early history to present time is put in perspective. The influence of World War II in accelerating the development of guided missiles, particularly through German scientists, is discussed. The dispersion of German scientists to other countries and the coupling of their work with native talent to develop guide missiles is traced. Particular emphasis is placed on the evolution of the missile in the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Since the Soviets possess what is probably the world's most complete array of dedicated missile system types, their known inventory is reviewed. Some philosophical observations of missile design trends and missile purposes are made as related to the interests of various countries

Migration of Jupiter-family comets and resonant asteroids to near-Earth space

We estimated the rate of comet and asteroid collisions with the terrestrial planets by calculating the orbits of 13000 Jupiter-crossing objects (JCOs) and 1300 resonant asteroids and computing the probabilities of collisions based on random-phase approximations and the orbital elements sampled with a 500 yr step. The Bulirsh-Stoer and a symplectic orbit integrator gave similar results for orbital evolution, but sometimes give different collision probabilities with the Sun. A small fraction of former JCOs reached orbits with aphelia inside Jupiter's orbit, and some reached Apollo orbits with semi-major axes less than 2 AU, Aten orbits, and inner-Earth orbits (with aphelia less than 0.983 AU) and remained there for millions of years. Though less than 0.1% of the total, these objects were responsible for most of the collision probability of former JCOs with Earth and Venus. Some Jupiter-family comets can reach inclinations i>90 deg. We conclude that a significant fraction of near-Earth objects could be extinct comets that came from the trans-Neptunian region.Comment: Proc. of the international conference "New trends in astrodynamics and applications" (20-22 January 2003, University of Maryland, College Park