The intercultural effectiveness of university students

Intercultural communication has reached new levels with economic globalization, increased sophistication of communication technologies, and “internationalization” of education. As a critical tool for intercultural effectiveness, having a multicultural personality shapes the nature of interaction with people from other cultural backgrounds. In the university context, to advance internationalization, tertiary institutions need to be real international centers for teaching and learning with respect to people’s world views. This study aimed to explore intercultural effectiveness of university students by using the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). With this purpose in mind, 493 students from the University of Notre Dame (ND), Sydney participated in a survey utilizing the MPQ. This study ascertained differences in dimensions of the MPQ for several demographic variables such as traditional (\u3c24 years of age) vs. non-traditional (\u3e24 years of age) university students, gender, religious affiliation, bicultural status, and level of study. This study confirmed significant differences in intercultural effectiveness across various countries as well as gender, non-traditional students, and bicultural study. It also stressed the role of curriculum changes at universities to strengthen intercultural effectiveness

Equivariant Cohomology of Rationally Smooth Group Embeddings

We describe the equivariant cohomology ring of rationally smooth projective embeddings of reductive groups. These embeddings are the projectivizations of reductive monoids. Our main result describes their equivariant cohomology in terms of roots, idempotents, and underlying monoid data. Also, we characterize those embeddings whose equivariant cohomology ring is obtained via restriction to the associated toric variety. Such characterization is given in terms of the closed orbits.Comment: 25 pages. Final version. To appear in Transformation Group

Algebraic rational cells and equivariant intersection theory

We provide a notion of algebraic rational cell with applications to intersection theory on singular varieties with torus action. Based on this notion, we study the algebraic analogue of $\mathbb{Q}$-filtrable varieties: algebraic varieties where a torus acts with isolated fixed points, such that the associated Bialynicki-Birula decomposition consists of algebraic rational cells. We show that the rational equivariant Chow group of any $\mathbb{Q}$-filtrable variety is freely generated by the cell closures. We apply this result to group embeddings, and more generally to spherical varieties. This paper is an extension of arxiv.org/abs/1112.0365 to equivariant Chow groups.Comment: Second version. 24 pages. Substantial changes in the presentation. In particular, the results on Poincar\'e duality (Section 6 of first version) are omitted; they are published in a separate paper (see http://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/promathematica/article/view/11235

Economic Development Assistance for Communities Affected by Employment Changes Due to Military Base Closures

Under the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, military facilities were closed and realigned in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995. A fifth BRAC round was authorized in late 2005 and must be completed by September 15, 2011. Under the BRAC process: (1) the Department of Defense (DOD) prepares a list of military bases to be realigned or closed; (2) an independent BRAC Commission reviews the list, makes changes and sends a revised list to the President; (3) the President approves and transmits the list to Congress; and (4) the BRAC recommendations are implemented, unless a joint resolution is passed in Congress disapproving the recommendations for closures and realignments. The 2005 BRAC round includes the closure or realignment of 837 facilities and involves an additional 160 facilities that will gain missions or resources, for a total of 997 changes nationwide. Most of these changes are on a smaller scale, each involving fewer than 300 direct job losses or gains, including military, civilian, and contractor jobs. Unlike previous rounds, the 2005 BRAC round is focused on creating the infrastructure needed to support a transformed, expeditionary armed force — concentrated more on shifting forces and installation assets to promote the centralization of units in places from which they can be deployed rapidly. Thus, the 2005 BRAC round is characterized much more by realignment than closure. In 20 communities, an estimated increase of 170,000 workers is expected. Important policy issues before Congress include (1) the impact of military base closures and expansions on local employment; (2) the possible elimination of the of the BRAC Commission and the resulting impact on federal economic and community development programs — such as the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program and the Economic Development Administration (EDA) — that currently provide a preference for communities affected by BRAC; (3) the adequacy and flat level of funding for federal assistance programs while anticipating an 80% increase from $17 billion to$32 billion in construction costs; (4) housing for military staff amidst the mortgage crisis; (5) funding for communities experiencing growth through the defense access road program; (6) delays in environmental cleanup that may cause difficulties in the economic redevelopment of military facilities; and (7) redevelopment of military bases as refineries to promote economic growth. In the 110th Congress, Title I of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act of 2009 (H.R. 6599) and Title I of the parallel Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 5658), would allocate funding for BRAC-related activities for road construction, military facilities, and housing assistance. This report is intended to discuss the geographic impact of base closures and realignments; summarize federal economic assistance programs for communities and individuals affected by BRAC; and highlight issues for Congress. The report will be updated as events warrant

Melinda Negron-Gonzales, Program Coordinator (Politics and Society Program), Assistant Professor of Political Science, COLA travels to UK, Italy, Spain, France

Prof. Negron-Gonzales presented a paper on a faith-based movement called Hizmet at the 3rd Annual Sociology and Critical Perspectives Conference on Social Movements in Turkey

Somatisation in primary care: A comparative study of Australians, Latin Americans, Vietnamese, and Polish living in Australia

This study identified differences in somatisation symptoms, psychiatric status, and the relationship between acculturation and somatisation. It also investigated GP’s (general practitioners) ability to detect somatisation in primary healthcare setting. A survey was carried out on 207 patients from Australia, Latin America, Vietnam, and Poland. A demographic questionnaire, an acculturation questionnaire, the Somatization Scale of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ), and the Illness Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ) were administered in the participants’ respective languages. In addition, GPs completed a brief rating scale with findings from medical consultation. These results demonstrated that psychosocial status was highly correlated to somatisation for Australians, Latin Americans, Vietnamese, and Polish. Overall, however, these groups did not present significant differences in symptoms of somatisation. GPs were generally inaccurate in detecting psychosocial difficulties and acculturation did not predict levels of somatisation in the three ethnic groups

Wasted Talent and Broken Dreams: The Lost Potential of Undocumented Students

The current political debate over undocumented immigrants in the United States has largely ignored the plight of undocumented children. Yet children account for 1.8 million, or 15 percent, of the undocumented immigrants now living in this country. These children have, for the most part, grown up in the United States and received much of their primary and secondary educations here. But without a means to legalize their status, they are seldom able to go on to college and cannot work legally in this country. Moreover, at any time, they can be deported to countries they barely know. This wasted talent imposes economic and emotional costs on undocumented students themselves and on U.S. society as a whole. Denying undocumented students, most of whom are Hispanic, the opportunity to go to college and join the skilled workforce sends the wrong message to Hispanics about the value of a college education-and the value that U.S. society places on their education-at a time when raising the educational attainment of the Hispanic population is increasingly important to the nation's economic health