Social Exclusion and Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean

This paper examines how social exclusion contributes to violence in communities throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Residents in socially excluded communities cannot depend on those institutions designed to protect them, and violence becomes an instrument to achieve certain outcomes, such as justice, security, and economic gain. When conventional methods of obtaining and working for increased social status, higher income, and wider influence are limited, as they often are in marginalized areas, some feel compelled to resort to violent acts. This paper discusses how social exclusion and violence interact in a vicious circle that leaves the socially excluded in a very hostile social environment where the borders between legal and illegal, legitimate and illegitimate are often fuzzy and uncertain. In this environment violence is used by a minority to acquire justice, security, authority and economic gain. The use of violence by this minority, however, affect the lives of the majority of excluded people that do not resort to violence. As youths are particularly vulnerable to this issue, this paper also examines the relationship between violence and the plight of Latin American youth gangs and street children.

Apparatus for use in the production of ribbon-shaped crystals from a silicon melt

A susceptor for facilitating induction heating of silicon melt is described. The susceptor comprises a pair of susceptor halves of a thickness less than two skin depths, each being the mirror image of the other, disposed in mutually opposed, electrically insulated relation. The crucible comprises a quartz body supported by the graphite susceptor, whereby the R-F coil is electrically coupled with the melt

Information retrieval on urban affairs

Designing data acquisition and information retrieval system for urban affairs researc

Pandemic Influenza: Ethics, Law, and the Public\u27s Health

Highly pathogenic Influenza (HPAI) has captured the close attention of policy makers who regard pandemic influenza as a national security threat. Although the prevalence is currently very low, recent evidence that the 1918 pandemic was caused by an avian influenza virus lends credence to the theory that current outbreaks could have pandemic potential. If the threat becomes a reality, massive loss of life and economic disruption would ensue. Therapeutic countermeasures (e.g., vaccines and antiviral medications) and public health interventions (e.g., infection control, social separation, and quarantine) form the two principal strategies for prevention and response, both of which present formidable legal and ethical challenges that have yet to receive sufficient attention. In part II, we examine the major medical countermeasures being being considered as an intervention for an influenza pandemic. In this section, we will evaluate the known effectiveness of these interventions and analyze the ethical claims relating to distributive justice in the allocation of scarce resources. In part III, we will discuss public health interventions, exploring the hard tradeoffs between population health on the one hand and personal (e.g., autonomy, privacy, and liberty) and economic (e.g., trade, tourism, and business) interests on the other. This section will focus on the ethical and human rights issues inherent in population-based interventions. Pandemics can be deeply socially divisive, and the political response to these issues not only impacts public health preparedness, but also reflects profoundly on the kind of society we aspire to be

Hole in the wall: informed short selling ahead of private placements

Companies planning a private placement typically gauge the interest of potential buyers before the offering is publicly announced. Regulators are concerned with this practice, called wall-crossing, as it might invite insider trading, especially when the potential investors are hedge funds. We examine privately placed common stock and convertible offerings and find evidence of widespread pre-announcement short selling. We show that pre-announcement short sellers are able to predict announcement day returns. The effects are especially strong when hedge funds are involved and when the number of buyers is high. We also observe pre-announcement trading in the options market

The Centrality of Variability: How society shapes patterns of aging

Increasing variability is a hallmark of aging populations. Although demographic trends are often described in terms of average experiences, in this paper we argue that variability in the health experiences of older men and women is key to understanding aging. The variations in outcomes among older people are not merely nuisances obscuring the more salient averages and trends. The deviations from the mean are a central part of the story: the patterning of these variations reveals factors that influence health for everyone and indicates what sort of advances in healthy aging might be possible under optimal circumstances.Aging, demography

Means for growing ribbon crystals without subjecting the crystals to thermal shock-induced strains

A susceptor particularly suited for use in growing a ribbon crystal employing edge defined film fed growth techniques is described. The susceptor includes a die through which a melt is drawn for forming a crystal ribbon. This is combined with a coolant delivery system characterized by a pair of jets for directing a stream of fluid coolant along a path extended to impinge on the susceptor in close proximity with the die in nonincident relation with the crystal being grown

6 ödülün üçünü Türk sanatçıları aldı

Taha Toros Arşivi, Dosya No: 10-Gül Derman. Not: Gazetenin “Yurtta Dünyada Yaşam” köşesinde yayımlanmıştır.İstanbul Kalkınma Ajansı (TR10/14/YEN/0033) İstanbul Development Agency (TR10/14/YEN/0033

Digital Oulipo: Programming Potential Literature

To understand the Oulipo's forays into computer science and more importantly, why they abandoned them, I designed and carried out one of the inaugural projects of the Princeton Center for Digital Humanities. The goal was twofold: first, through exploratory programming, I intended to create interactive, digital annexes to accompany my doctoral dissertation; more importantly, I hoped that by attempting to reproduce the Oulipo's own algorithmic efforts, I would gain similar insights into the nature of "Potential Literature" and be able to understand why the group abandoned such efforts after the 1970s. This article describes the content, development, and results of my project. For each of my three Python-based annexes, I offer a historical survey of the Oulipian text or procedure discussed within and the Oulipo’s own proto-digital humanities experiments; then, I will talk about my own experiences as a coder-researcher, what learning Python has brought to my project, and how my exploratory programming offered me a new kind of critical reflection. Establishing these annexes forced me to learn to code, a type of work that does not only produce digital texts, but also helped me to reflect on the notion of chance in a more nuanced way. Finally, coding has allowed me to better understand the Oulipian mentality concerning this sort of digital experimentation