Una breu història de la campanya catalana per aconseguir el domini d'Internet .cat, amb implicacions per a altres llengües minoritàries

El 15 de setembre del 2005 la ICANN va aprovar el primer domini d'Internet de primer nivell destinat a una llengua i cultura humanes en particular: .cat. Aquest article explica la història de la campanya catalana per aconseguir el domini .cat en contra de l'oposició política de l'antic govern conservador espanyol i la resistència d'alguns dels encarregats de prendre les decisions en els cercles de la ICANN. Mentre que el .cat crea un precedent per a un major ús de les llengües minoritàries a Internet, hi ha importants obstacles per a altres candidats a dominis de primer nivell basats en la llengua. L'article parla dels factors concomitants que calen per a donar suport a un major ús de qualsevol llengua minoritària a Internet

A critique of bioethical slopes

Ethical discussions are no longer limited to philosophers, and ethical writings to philosophical journals. Determinations on issues in applied ethics are being sought and made by government bodies, institutional committees and individuals. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in bioethics, which examines the ethical problems that emerge in medical practice and research, and is now perhaps the most significant area of applied ethics. This increased interest in bioethics means that common arguments are now being used, or misused, more widely. An example of this is the prevalence of arguments claiming that certain events should not be allowed because they will lead to moral atrocities. This argument has a variety of names but is most commonly known in philosophical literature as the 'slippery slope argument'. This argument appears in discussions about euthanasia; the moral status of the embryo (which in tum influences debates on abortion), in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and whether embryos can be experimented on; genetic engineering; and the allocation of medical resources. Because of its versatility the argument has appeared in a variety of different reports on bioethical issues. The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ethics Committee's report on the ethics of limiting life sustaining treatment surveys a number of options that have been suggested for deciding whether to withdraw or stop such treatment. It is then claimed that Many would prefer not to think about the options. Others fear that any such discussions open the way to killing the aged, the no-longer useful, and who next?..

Representing Somali Resettlement In Italy: The Writing Of Ubax Cristina Ali Farah And Igiaba Scego

In Italia durante gli ultimi cinque anni diversi scrittori italosomali hanno pubblicato le loro opere. Molti di questi testi complicano le nozioni prevalenti dell’identità italiana e la chiusura nei confronti dell’immigrazione in Italia, evidenti nella questione della cittadinanza. Con la prospettiva di aumentare la conoscenza delle condizioni precarie dei rifugiati somali in Italia e di destabilizzare l’idea di un’identità italiana singolare e culturalmente omogenea, questo articolo prende in considerazione la scrittura di Ubax Cristina Ali Farah e Igiaba Scego, che appartengono alla nuova generazione di ‘scrittori migranti’ in Italia. Insieme alle opere di altri scrittori migranti che vivono in Italia, la produzione letteraria di queste autrici apre spazi in cui i lettori possono riflettere sulla dinamica interattiva fra culture, storie e lingue piuttosto che vedere queste entità in modo fisso ed esclusivo

Trajectories of radicalization and resilience in Nuruddin Farah’s North of Dawn

Situated within a body of writing that is preoccupied with engagement with terrorism, this article considers the ways in which Nuruddin Farah’s novel, North of Dawn (2018), explores trajectories of radicalisation and resilience to violent extremism. Written from an interdisciplinary cultural migration studies perspective, the article understands violent extremism as a complex networked phenomenon. It makes an original contribution by highlighting the role of belonging in trajectories of radicalisation and resilience, bringing sociological studies of radicalised violence and resilience to such violence into dialogue with a cosmopolitan literary framework including the works of other diasporic Somali background European writers such as Cristina Ali Farah and Igiaba Scego

The legal adoption of unrelated children: a grounded theory approach to the decision-making processes of black South Africans

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work , Faculty of Humanities, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017In South Africa, there are thousands of children who cannot be raised by their parents or relatives and consequently unrelated, legal adoption is usually considered to be in their best interests. South Africa has ratified international agreements, which emphasise that adoptable children have a right to grow up in their country of origin and intercountry adoption should be considered ‘a last resort’. The Children’s Act (No. 38 of 2005) legally entrenches several innovations to facilitate adoptable children being raised in South Africa. Accredited adoption agencies have made ongoing efforts to make adoption more accessible to South Africans, but the number of South Africans legally adopting unrelated children adoption is small and continues to decline. To help address this pressing child welfare problem, the main aim of this research was to develop a grounded theory explaining what factors affect the decision-making processes of urban black South Africans regarding legally adopting unrelated child. This population group was focused on because they presented as a promising pool of prospective adopters. It was reasoned that to facilitate domestic adoption, policy makers and practitioners need to gain a clearer understanding of what factors dissuade black South Africans from legally adopting unrelated children. A qualitative inquiry was conducted using the Corbin and Strauss approach to the grounded theory method. Personal interviews were conducted with 39 purposively selected black participants that were divided into five cohorts, namely i) adopters ii) adoption applicants in the process of being assessed as prospective adopters iii) adoption applicants who did not to enter the assessment process iv) social workers specialising in the field of adoption and v) South African citizens who have some knowledge of legal adoption practice. The grounded theory emerging was ‘Tensions surrounding adoption policy and practice and perceptions and experiences of adoption.’ Essentially this grounded theory is based on five categories: Meanings of Kinship; Information and Support; Cultural and Material Mobility; Parenthood, Gender and Identity and Perceptions of Parenting and Childhood. It is recommended that adoption policy and practice be shaped to reflect a balanced child-centred and adult-centred approach. Furthermore, recruitment strategies should be based on findings at a grassroots level. Key words: legal adoption; adoptable children; Africanisation; decision-making processes, adoption assessment process and grounded theory.GR201

Colloidal Crystals on Conical Surfaces

The curvature of surfaces affects the organisation of condensed matter upon them. In biology, the curvature of cell membranes affects how proteins are arranged within them and the growth of virus capsids is affected by their curvature, for example. Curvature is also used to guide colloidal self-assembly in industrial nanoscale manufacturing processes, to produce, among other things, drug delivery systems, biosensors and photonic crystals. An open question in the field concerns how two-dimensional crystalline systems deal with the closure constraint imposed by finite curved surfaces. A crystal on a conical surface is a good model for studying this as the curvature strain associated with surfaces of non-zero Gaussian curvature is eliminated and the closure constraint is variable, unlike on, for example, cylindrical surfaces. In this work, putative global minimum energy structures of two-dimensional, model colloidal crystals confined on conical surfaces of a range of angles are generated using basin-hopping and visualised with Voronoi tessellation. The colloidal particles interact via an isotropic Morse potential. The defect patterns observed in these model, minimum energy crystals are discussed and analysed. The interparticle potential range and the cone angle affect whether any defects are seen in the minimum energy structures, and, if defects are produced, what they are. Both wedge-shaped defects reported in experiment and novel bulk-terminating helical defects are observed. At small cone angles, the type of defect is very sensitive to changes in angle, as different defects can alleviate different amounts of strain. A phase diagram of preferred defect type against cone angle and interparticle potential range is produced for near-cylindrical conical surfaces. Another interesting feature of the crystal is the vertical position on the cone that it prefers to occupy; a preliminary line energy model is constructed which explains this behaviour qualitatively

Fra tradizione e sperimentazione: tecniche narrative nei racconti di Paola Capriolo

Contemporary novelists have responded in different ways to the challenge of living and writing in the latter half of the twentieth century, a historical moment in which the paper and ink with which they have traditionally worked have begun dissolving into the electronic hyperspaces of the post-print era. This article considers the relationship between narrative and technology byexamining hybrid narrations by contemporary Italian women writers that do not fit into conventional genre and media categories

Therapists' perceptions of their roles and functions in imago relationship therapy.

Couple therapy research demands a shift in focus from quantitative to qualitative studies that explore therapist behaviours such as the role of the therapist due to the significant gap between research and practice, where research is often irrelevant and inaccessible to clinicians, and errors in practice are repeated and perpetuated as a result of lack of insight into therapeutic functions. Research on couple therapies also lacks focus on recent modalities such as Imago Relationship Therapy (IRT), a formative and recent modality of couple therapy in South Africa and internationally that requires empirical research and evaluation. Studies addressing therapist qualities and skills necessary in dealing with diverse populations such as South Africa are also lacking. The subjective experiences and perceptions of eight Imago relationship therapists practicing in a South African context were thus explored and described within a qualitative paradigm to provide an in-depth account of their role. Semi-structured individual interviews were used to explore their role, and responses recorded and analysed using thematic content analysis. Findings highlighted underlying complexities of this role as a result of evident contradiction, irony, and paradox within participants’ experience. Firstly, the core function of establishing safe connection for the couple proved ironically ‘unconnecting’ and theory-driven in nature, which also provides a sense of safety and reduced responsibility for the therapist. The role of the Imago therapist was also indicated to be a part of participants’ identity and life philosophy. The second theme highlighted the inherently paradoxical nature of the role because perceptions of a ‘non-expert’ and ‘background’ role in fact requires active and expert therapeutic functions as they remain acutely connected to the couple’s process. Thirdly, the intuitive nature of this role was reiterated as participants’ experienced both favourable and limiting therapeutic encounters in a positive and congruent way, which has implications for increased therapeutic growth. Finally, although participants’ experience of their role in South Africa highlighted IRT’s underlying theoretical orientation of universal connection, they did not seem aware of this underlying theory as informing practice. This raises questions about implications on their role given the importance of theory in influencing the way the therapist thinks about the client. Findings generally contribute to narrowing the research-practice gap providing insight into the practice of Imago therapy, which may in turn add to richness of theory