Bolshevizing communist parties: The Algerian and South African experiences

In 1924 and 1925 the Comintern introduced its policy of Bolshevization. A goal of Bolshevization was the creation of mass-based communist parties. In settler societies this meant that the local communist party should aim to be demographically representative of the entire population. This article traces the efforts of the communist parties in Algeria and South Africa to indigenize, seeking to explain why their efforts had such diverse outcomes. It examines four variables: the patterns of working-class formation; the socialist tradition of each country; the relationship between the Comintern and the two communist parties; and the level of repression against communists in both societies. The cumulative weight of the variables in the Algerian case helps to explain why communist activity in the 1920s - including the communist party's ability to indigenize - was far more difficult in Algeria than South Africa

Working Towards a Globalized Minority: Regional German-Kurdish Cultural Organizations and Transnational Networks

German-Kurdish cultural organizations and the Kurdish Diaspora they represent offer an example of a new type of actor in defining globalization. This paper examines how such organizations act as the lynchpin in transnational networks and how such organizations give a voice to Berliner-Kurds. These relationships are explored at the national, regional, and organizational level, in order to paint a comprehensive perspective. It argues that despite experiencing discrimination, the convergence of a global diaspora and local actors has contributed to the reinvention of the German-Kurdish community as a globalized minority. Such a concept is important for understanding how migrant communities can have a dialog with the majority and be included in democratic processes

Making the Invisible Heard: German-Kurdish Cultural Organizations and Transnational Networks

The increasing corpus of theoretical literature on transnationalism remains to be applied to many of the transnational migrant communities which have developed since the advent of modern globalization. This literary essay seeks to provide a perspective on the German-Kurdish community in Berlin, and how they fit into the larger European and Kurdish contexts. It illustrates the convergence of opportunities and disadvantages that German-Kurds face in Berlin, while also investigating what it means to be a Berliner-Kurd. The literary essay accordingly explores the role of language, cultural organizations, and regional networks. In doing so, it is hoped that topics about German-Kurds and transnationalism can be highlighted for further study

Negotiation of Deaf Culture: Alternative Realities in the Classroom

In a increasingly globalized world, family members of deaf individuals increasingly are faced with a dilemma between identification with Deaf culture or pursuing biomedical intervention in order help deaf children hear sounds artificially. The importance of this dilemma is critical at the earliest age of deaf individuals\u27 lives, not only in early childhood, but in their school career as well. This poster attempts to not only inform about this issue, but argues for the expansion of programs at the school district level to offer equal resources and information about both options for families with deaf individuals. In so doing, it utilizes Deaf cultural media, historical and anthropological perspectives, and new research to challenge how educators view deafness and Deaf individuals

Imitation Processes with Small Mutations

This note characterizes the impact of adding rare stochastic muta- tions to an "imitation dynamic," meaning a process with the properties that any state where all agents use the same strategy is absorbing, and all other states are transient. The work of Freidlin and Wentzell [10] and its extensions implies that the resulting system will spend almost all of its time at the absorbing states of the no-mutation process, and provides a general algorithm for calculating the limit distribution, but this algorithm can be complicated to apply. This note provides a sim- pler and more intuitive algorithm. Loosely speaking, in a process with K strategies, it is sufficient to find the invariant distribution of a K x K Markov matrix on the K homogeneous states, where the probability of a transit from "all play i" to "all play j" is the probability of a transition from the state "all agents but 1 play i, 1 plays j" to the state "all play j. "

Dependence of transuranic content in spent fuel on fuel burnup

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 33).As the increasing demand for nuclear energy results in larger spent fuel volume, implementation of longer fuel cycles incorporating higher burnup are becoming common. Understanding the effect of higher burnup on the spent fuel composition and radioactive properties is essential to ensure that spent fuel receives proper cooling in storage before it is sent to a disposal site or proper treatment and reprocessing if its useful content is to be extracted prior to disposal. Using CASMO-4, a standard Westinghouse 4-loop pressurized water reactor model was created and simulated with a three batch fuel cycle. U-235 enrichment was adjusted to achieve fuel burnups of 30, 50, 70 and 100 MWD per kg of initial uranium. These burnups demanded reload enrichments of 3.15%, 4.63%, 6.26% and 9.01% U-235 w/o respectively. The resultant spent fuel transuranic isotopic compositions were then provided as input into ORIGEN to study the decay behavior of the spent fuel. It was found that when burnup increased from 30 MWD/kg to 100 MWD/kg, the activity more than doubled due to the decreased Pu-241 content and the increased Np-239 presence. More importantly, the activity per MWD significantly decreased despite absolute increases in unit mass. The net result is that the half-life of high burnup fuels is greatly increased in comparison to low burnup fuels for the first decade of life. Beginning from day 14 after shutdown and until 10 years later, the 100 MWD/kg fuel has a half-life of 129 days while the 30 MWD/kg spent fuel has a half life of 5 days. Previous work has suggested that different trends dominate decay behavior from years 10 to 100 years following discharge.by Drew A. Reese.S.B