Far-Right Populists in Western States of the European Union: Who They Are and What They Want

The past decade has been a tumultuous period in European politics. Despite the unique economies, histories, and cultures of Western member-states of the European Union, many of these countries are alike in seeing the rise of far-right populist political parties that have challenged the status quo. This project seeks to describe the general character of these parties. They are defined by their far-right positions on social issues– namely their calls to restrict immigration and reestablish the nation-state as the basis for sovereignty– and their populist themes, wherein they deride the mainstream as a corrupt establishment that has forsaken the common people. Outside of these definitional parameters, however, these parties are a fairly diverse set. Their electoral success is varied. They have different origins and structural characteristics. It is difficult to establish a common profile of their supporters. Their positions on numerous issues, like European integration, economics, and matters concerning traditional values, contain various nuances. These factors might challenge the ability to draw accurate generalizations about them. Nevertheless, they may in fact be united in their reason for being: they could be just one symptom of a larger, albeit diffuse, social movement seeking to affect issues of European identity and culture

Foreign or domestic?...I\u27ll take foreign!

Migration occurs for many reasons. Most of the research focusing on this topic has been separated into micro and macro level theories analysing each of the factors involved in the supply and demand of migration. Yet, rarely have theories adequately explained both sides of the migration equation. This thesis is theoretically based in the world systems approach to migration which views it as a result of capital integration at the global level and the expansion of a split labour in advanced countries into the primary and secondary sectors. The secondary sector, characterised by low status, poorly paid and insecure jobs experiences shortages in labour and as a result relies on imported labour. In Canada, the agricultural industry represents the secondary sector which is unable to recruit a reliable domestic labour force. Therefore growers recruit from abroad to fill their needs. Mexican migrants analysed in this thesis possess four characteristics as a result of their migrating to Canada through a regulated program. It is argued in this thesis that their unique characteristics make these Mexican migrants ideally suited for the needs of the Canadian agricultural industry. Due to the fact that they migrate mainly for economic reasons, are extremely poor, are interested in returning to Canada annually and have no social ties in Canada they are willing to work as many hours as possible. In addition to being considered reliable, the Mexican migrants can be controlled easier than domestic labourers by their employers. They accept poor working conditions and low wages without resistance. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0418. Adviser: Tanya Basok. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1999

Per una ‘confederazione’ SBN

The aim of the paper is to investigate the possibility of building a confederation of Libraries in the framework of the National catalogue SBN. Starting from the analysis of the opportunities offered by the new Index architecture, there are some considerations to be made concerning the relationship with other Library Management Systems. Looking at the development of new functionalities in different LMS, but also at the needs and expectations of the users, and of the librarians ,for the availability in the OPAC of digital and electronic resources. In this scenario, it is interesting to discuss the different level of integration between local and national catalogues

“We\u27ll Make a Man Out of You”: Steven Universe, the Bildungsroman, and the Redefinition of the Male Hero.

This paper explores how the various gendered characteristics of the Bildungsroman, the novel of formation, interact with the formation of the titular character in the cartoon Steven Universe, the coming of age tale of a boy’s work to defend the Earth from magical threats. Traditional cartoon studies identify distinct gender identities between male and female characters. Similarly, Bildungsroman studies tend to analyze male heroes, with contemporary studies coining the term “female Bildungsroman” to talk about the formation of female protagonists. This paper argues that Steven, the protagonist of Steven Universe, incorporates aspects of both the Bildungsroman and the female Bildungsroman into his identity, transforming into a character not bound by the gendered roles inherent in Bildungsroman studies and cartoons. Steven creates a male figure realistically found in society to an audience that’s often exposed to violent, hypermasculine male characters. This essay will achieve this through analyzing Steven Universe through the lens of various male, female, and Queer Bildungsroman theories, as well as comparing the show to James Joyce’s The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Claire Messud’s The Burning Girl, a Modernist story about the coming of age of an artist and a contemporary novel about the coming of age of two teenage girls, respectively. Steven becomes what I call an unbound hero, and provides a model for those who don’t identify with traditional gender and sexual identities

First record of Heptapleurum arboricola Hayata (Araliaceae) as a casual non-native woody plant in the Mediterranean area

I report here the first record of Heptapleurum arboricola Hayata (syn. Schefflera arboricola (Hayata) Merr.) (Araliaceae) as a casual non-native plant throughout the Mediterranean area. I observed the natural regeneration in urban areas at Castellammare del Golfo, a small coastal town in north-west Sicily (Mediterranean Italy). Due to the lack of self-sustaining populations and the short-term observational period, Heptapleurum arboricola should be considered as a casual species according to the classification of non-native plants. The detection of early signs of naturalization of non-native plants is of crucial importance for the management and control of invasive species. The main abiotic and biotic factors involved in the possible future spread of the species are briefly discussed

An Epistemological Account of the Logic of Propaganda

Propaganda is an un-avoidable feature of modern society. It has been identified with multiple global conflicts, oppressive totalitarianisms, and misinformation campaigns that threaten democracy. Despite the world’s popularization in discourse, it remains somewhat ambiguous, begetting many attempts to define and analyze the concept of propaganda. This project contributes to this effort by examining how propaganda involves itself in logical forms of reasoning and judging its value from an epistemological perspective. Propaganda can be interpreted through logically argumentative forms. These arguments are always improper, involving an invalid form or false proposition; therefore, propaganda cannot directly provide real knowledge. Nevertheless, it succeeds in leading its audience to adopt a belief or action through nonlogical means and the manipulation of available information. An individual may identify and avoid propagandas that rely solely on nonlogical techniques by working to identify their apparent logical flaws, although resisting them altogether still appears to be a major challenge. Unfortunately, propagandas that manipulate available information are far more difficult for an individual to avoid, due to their leveraging of the propagandee’s lack of knowledge held by the propagandist and inability to find the truth themselves. The only way to effectively limit the negative epistemic influence of these propagandas may lie at the societal level, but specific solutions remain a subject of debate and additional research

Teacher-Training Across Cultures: A Workshop Given in the People\u27s Republic of China

This paper deals with a specific teacher training workshop which was given in an English for Special Purposes (ESP) Program to Chinese ESL teachers for a period of six weeks in the People\u27s Republic of China. Both the Chinese teachers and foreign teachers worked together in language teams and provided English training to Chinese professionals who were going to go on training programs in English speaking countries. Although well-versed in ESL theory and teaching styles, the teachers lacked the ability to connect their passive knowledge of teach­ing with the reality of teaching in the classroom. This workshop aimed to have teachers gain an in­ depth look at their own teaching, what they wanted to accomplish, and how they might attempt to do it. The first part of the paper will primarily present the background, rationale, and objectives of the work­ shop. The second part will give an actual account of the workshop along with reactions to each particular day of the workshop. Finally, a summary of the work­ shop experience in addition to applications to other teacher-training situations will be presented

Performance Optimization in Wireless Local Area Networks

Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) are becoming more and more important for providing wireless broadband access. Applications and networking scenarios evolve continuously and in an unpredictable way, attracting the attention of academic institutions, research centers and industry. For designing an e cient WLAN is necessary to carefully plan coverage and to optimize the network design parameters, such as AP locations, channel assignment, power allocation, MAC protocol, routing algorithm, etc... In this thesis we approach performance optimization in WLAN at di erent layer of the OSI model. Our rst approach is at Network layer. Starting from a Hybrid System modeling the ow of tra c in the network, we propose a Hybrid Linear Varying Parameter algorithm for identifying the link quality that could be used as metric in routing algorithms. Go down to Data Link, it is well known that CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access) protocols exhibit very poor performance in case of multi-hop transmissions, because of inter-link interference due to imperfect carrier sensing. We propose two novel algorithms, that are combining Time Division Multiple Access for grouping contending nodes in non-interfering sets with Carrier Sense Multiple Access for managing the channel access behind a set. In the rst solution, a game theoretical study of intra slot contention is introduced, in the second solution we apply an optimization algorithm to nd the optimal degree between contention and scheduling. Both the presented solutions improve the network performance with respect to CSMA and TDMA algorithms. Finally we analyze the network performance at Physical Layer. In case of WLAN, we can only use three orthogonal channels in an unlicensed spectrum, so the frequency assignments should be subject to frequent adjustments, according to the time-varying amount of interference which is not under the control of the provider. This problem make necessary the introduction of an automatic network planning solution, since a network administrator cannot continuously monitor and correct the interference conditions su ered in the network. We propose a novel protocol based on a distributed machine learning mechanism in which the nodes choose, automatically and autonomously in each time slot, the optimal channel for transmitting through a weighted combination of protocols

Analytic psychology: Source concepts for artificial intelligence

AbstractAs intelligence technology advances from problem specific to adaptive designs it is conceivable that design concepts will be found in analytic psychology. This psychology features a mechanistic and structured model of human adaptivity from which such concepts may derive. This paper develops this position and illustrates it with three examples: the von Neumann machine, digital simulation of dreams, and digital simulation of the mechanism of the creative process. The simulating algorithms of the last two examples are implemented in Fortran

Evidences of adaptive traits to rocky substrates undermine paradigm of habitat preference of the Mediterranean seagrass Posidonia oceanica

Posidonia oceanica meadows are acknowledged as one of the most valuable ecosystems of the Mediterranean Sea. P. oceanica has been historically described as a species typically growing on mobile substrates whose development requires precursor communities. Here we document for the first time the extensive presence of sticky hairs covering P. oceanica seedling roots. Adhesive root hairs allow the seedlings to firmly anchor to rocky substrates with anchorage strength values up to 5.23 N, regardless of the presence of algal cover and to colonise bare rock without the need for precursor assemblages to facilitate settlement. Adhesive root hairs are a morphological trait common on plants living on rocks in high-energy habitats, such as the riverweed Podostemaceae and the seagrass Phyllospadix scouleri. The presence of adhesive root hairs in P. oceanica juveniles suggests a preference of this species for hard substrates. Such an daptation leads to hypothesize a new microsite driven bottleneck in P. oceanica seedling survival linked to substrate features. The mechanism described can favour plant establishment on rocky substrates, in contrast with traditional paradigms. This feature may have strongly influenced P. oceanica pattern of colonisation through sexual propagules in both the past and present