Will the real Tunisian opposition please stand up? Opposition coordination failures under authoritarian constraints

This contribution examines the reasons behind the failure of Tunisia's opposition to forge effective coordination and collaborative links during Ben Ali's reign, focusing specifically on the inability and unwillingness of political parties to act in concert in order to challenge his authoritarian rule. Focusing on two attempts at opposition coordination in the 2000s (Rencontre Démocratique and 18 October Collectif), it demonstrates that a number of interconnected explanations are at the heart of this failure, ranging from ideological differences and strategic divergence to personal rivalries among opposition leaders. The key contention of this study is that divisions within the political opposition were as important as regime repression in sustaining the Ben Ali regime for over 20 years. In addition, the present study contends that these intra-opposition divisions and past coordination failures explain the absence of political parties at the helm of the 2011 uprising

EcoIS: An image serialization library for plot-based plant flowering phenology

Image series are increasingly being used to output ecological indicators because they provide the ability to reanalyze data that has already been collected and they improve temporal as well as spatial resolution. We address both the increased utilization and the need to diversify the way they are produced by introducing an open source Python (www.python.org) library called EcoIS that creates image series from unaligned pictures of specially equipped plots. We use EcoIS to sample flowering phenology plots in a high arctic environment and create image series that later generate phenophase counts and automatically estimate phenological dates of interest. Our results exhibit one day difference between EcoIS estimations of local indicators and the ones calculated with the established field-based process. We show that EcoIS' error is similar to the one of image series generated with fixed camera setups. We see that EcoIS processes an image in 3.8 s and show how it is equipped to handle data intensive scenarios. We additionally identify in-camera automatic image formatting and image acquiring oversight as contributing factors for increasing the overall error. Our main conclusion is that EcoIS creates usable image series that maintain the spatiotemporal qualities of the original images and can successfully be utilized to generate ecological indicators. EcoIS is relevant as a replacement for traditional image series infrastructure where the cost of deploying EcoIS is smaller or less intrusive to the ecosystem

Ecological Factors Affecting Hispanic Urban Middle School and High School Adolescents’ College and Career Aspirations

This mixed methods study investigates how ecological factors influence the decisions urban Hispanic middle school and high school adolescents make concerning their college and career aspirations. I examine the academic aspirations, career aspirations, the influence of peers, teachers, and parents of seventh-, eighth-, ninth-, and tenth-grade urban Hispanic adolescents, and gender roles in college and career aspirations through the lens of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological subsystems theory. Participants took the Student Career Assessment (SCA) survey consisting of Likert-type multiple choice questions and open-ended questions to assess their college and career aspirations. Quantitatively analyzed data examined the extent urban Hispanic middle school and high school adolescents were influenced by items on scales of encouragement, literacy, and education and whether there were differences by gender and grade level. Student responses as to why they chose a specific career were analyzed qualitatively. Combined results for urban Hispanic middle school and high school adolescents show a) both genders are interested in finishing high school and going to college, b) Hispanic females are encouraged more than males to pursue their college and career aspirations, c) more females than males know their career aspiration, but the majority of students do not know how to prepare for their chosen career, e) females have more confidence in their literacy skills than males. The more confidence Hispanic high school students have in their literacy skills, the more likely they are to graduate from high school. Implications for future research should involve conducting studies in the areas of college and career aspirations of urban Hispanic adolescents using random sampling. More gender studies involving the college and career aspirations of urban Hispanic adolescents would significantly add to the current body of knowledge

The professional contribution of chiropractors to Danish elite football clubs:a qualitative exploration of role and perceived value in an interprofessional service provision context

Background: Interprofessional team-based care has been widely adopted in elite level athletic health and performance practice. Chiropractors can claim some penetration as health care service providers in high level sport. However, their position as valued members of interprofessional health care teams, especially those built around traditional medical organisational structures, is unclear. This investigation sought to explore the perceived role and value of chiropractors as service providers in elite Danish football clubs. Methods: A comparative qualitative case study was conducted. Six Danish premiere league (Superliga) clubs were purposively sampled to compare and contrast instances where chiropractors were both present and absent from the health care team. Triangulated responses were solicited from healthcare coordinators, chiropractors and athletes within each club’s organization through semi-structured individual interviews. The audio-recorded responses were transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed using a framework approach. Results: Data were collected September and November 2019. A coding framework of 14 codes and 4 code families emerged, centering around the role of chiropractors, benefits of utilizing chiropractic care and facilitators and barriers to interprofessional practice. From this framework, three themes were abstracted, these being: “Broadening horizons”, “In-house preferred to take-away” and “Already covered, or even necessary?” Conclusion: In this practice context, chiropractors fill the role of musculoskeletal health care service providers. Their perceived value stems from additional expert disciplinary knowledge, improved diagnostic triage and increased treatment flexibility. However, where not utilized, the role of a spinal health expert is questioned and when acknowledged, is limited to that of a technician/therapist. It is unclear from this investigation whether chiropractors can claim core provider status. Further exploration of this interesting context of interprofessional practice is warranted.</p

Forholdet Libyen-EU: Kærlighed af nødvendighed

Libyske regeringsrepræsentanter på rundrejse i EU sælger Libyen som mulighedernes land for investeringer, analyser peger optimistisk på økonomisk fremgang i landet, og EU-repræsentanter står i kø for at rose det gode samarbejde. Men økonomisk fremgang og politisk samarbejde gør det ikke alene.&nbsp