Introduction: revisiting Moroccan migrations

Since the 1960s, Morocco has evolved into one of the world's leading emigration countries and in many ways migration has permeated Morocco's social, cultural and economic life. However, Morocco's position within Euro-African migration systems seems to be undergoing significant changes since 2000. Although Morocco remains primarily a country of emigration, it is also becoming a destination for migrants and refugees from sub-Saharan Africa and, to some extent, from Europe. The growing presence of immigrants confronts Moroccan society with an entirely new set of social, cultural, political and legal issues around diversity and integration. This special issue explores how continued emigration and increasing immigration is transforming contemporary Moroccan society, with a particular emphasis on the way in which the Moroccan state is dealing with these shifting migratory realities. The analyses highlight how existing migration theories can help to make sense of these transformations and, vice-versa, how the Moroccan case can contribute to migration scholarship. The Moroccan migration experience particularly exemplifies the value and necessity of going beyond Euro-centric biases in migration research that artificially divide the world into 'receiving' and 'sending' countries.Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviou

Nanocrystalline materials studied by powder diffraction line profile analysis

X-ray powder diffraction is a powerful tool for characterising the microstructure of crystalline materials in terms of size and strain. It is widely applied for nanocrystalline materials, especially since other methods, in particular electron microscopy is, on the one hand tedious and time consuming, on the other hand, due to the often metastable states of nanomaterials it might change their microstructures. It is attempted to overview the applications of microstructure characterization by powder diffraction on nanocrystalline metals, alloys, ceramics and carbon base materials. Whenever opportunity is given, the data provided by the X-ray method are compared and discussed together with results of electron microscopy. Since the topic is vast we do not try to cover the entire field

Social transformation

Over centuries past, human societies have been through fundamental changes often defined as ‘modernisation’. Despite huge advances in knowledge, social science has struggled to conceptualise the nature of these changes and to integrate insights from across different disciplines into a single framework. Disciplinary fragmentation and methodological parochialism as well as a postmodern aversion to ‘grand theory’ have impeded theoretical synthesis. To overcome this impasse, we introduce social transformation as a meta-theoretical conceptual framework for studying ‘big change’. Defining social transformation as a fundamental change in the way that societies are organised and resources are distributed, we distinguish five interconnected dimensions – the political, the economic, the technological, the demographic and the cultural – which together constitute the ‘social realm’. Studied simultaneously, these dimensions are able to capture ‘big change’ in its universal aspects while keeping sight of the diversity of its concrete manifestations. We apply this framework to explore how the ‘modern transformation’ has reshaped societies and to show how the interplay of the various political, economic, technological, demographic and cultural transitions have transformed social life around the globe in strikingly similar ways – notwithstanding the varied, unique ways in which this ‘modern transformation’ has concretely manifested itself across societies and over different periods.Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviou

A Cross-National Investigation into the Marketing Department\u27s Influence Within the Firm: Toward Initial Empirical Generalizations

This study of the influence of the marketing department (MD), as well as its relationship with firm performance, includes seven industrialized countries and aims to generalize the conceptual model presented by Verhoef and Leeflang (2009). This investigation considers the antecedents of perceived MD influence, top management respect for the MD, and MD decision influence, as well as the relationships of these three influence variables with market orientation (MO) and business performance (BP). Meta-analytic procedures reveal initial empirical generalizations: Accountability, MD innovativeness, and the customer connection capabilities of the MD relate consistently to all three studied MD influence measures. The generalization also shows that MD influence contributes to BP indirectly through its positive relationship with MO and directly through its positive direct relationship with BP

Quasi-free Compton Scattering and the Polarizabilities of the Neutron

Differential cross sections for quasi-free Compton scattering from the proton and neutron bound in the deuteron have been measured using the Glasgow/Mainz tagging spectrometer at the Mainz MAMI accelerator together with the Mainz 48 cm $\oslash$ $\times$ 64 cm NaI(Tl) photon detector and the G\"ottingen SENECA recoil detector. The data cover photon energies ranging from 200 MeV to 400 MeV at $\theta^{LAB}_\gamma=136.2^\circ$. Liquid deuterium and hydrogen targets allowed direct comparison of free and quasi-free scattering from the proton. The neutron detection efficiency of the SENECA detector was measured via the reaction $p(\gamma,\pi^+ n)$. The "free" proton Compton scattering cross sections extracted from the bound proton data are in reasonable agreement with those for the free proton which gives confidence in the method to extract the differential cross section for free scattering from quasi-free data. Differential cross sections on the free neutron have been extracted and the difference of the electromagnetic polarizabilities of the neutron have been obtained to be $\alpha-\beta= 9.8\pm 3.6(stat){}^{2.1}_1.1(syst)\pm 2.2(model)$ in units $10^{-4}fm^3$. In combination with the polarizability sum $\alpha +\beta=15.2\pm 0.5$ deduced from photoabsorption data, the neutron electric and magnetic polarizabilities, $\alpha_n=12.5\pm 1.8(stat){}^{+1.1}_{-0.6}\pm 1.1(model)$ and $\beta_n=2.7\mp 1.8(stat){}^{+0.6}_{-1.1}(syst)\mp 1.1(model)$ are obtained. The backward spin polarizability of the neutron was determined to be $\gamma^{(n)}_\pi=(58.6\pm 4.0)\times 10^{-4}fm^4$

Upgrade of the Glasgow photon tagging spectrometer for Mainz MAMI-C

The Glasgow photon tagging spectrometer at Mainz has been upgraded so that it can be used with the 1500 MeV electron beam now available from the Mainz microtron MAMI-C. The changes made and the resulting properties of the spectrometer are discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figure