Two new species of Epeolini from northern Chile, with the first record of Triepeolus for the country and a key to Chilean species of Doeringiella (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Triepeolus cecilyae Packer, new species, and Doeringiella mamabee Packer, new species, both from the far north of Chile are described and illustrated.  Both are known from single male specimens despite considerable search effort in the area of their provenance.  The former species is the first of the genus recorded from Chile.  A key to the three species of Doeringiella Holmberg known from Chile is provided.  Caupolicana dimidiata Herbst is recorded as a likely host of D. gigas (Spinola)

Motivational factors and the experience of learning in educational leisure settings

Motivation is an important aspect of learning in educational leisure settings because it affects the choices visitors make regarding what to attend to, the amount of effort they devote to learning, and the extent to which they enjoy the experience. Commonly, however, visitors seek entertainment, social or restorative experiences as well as, or in preference to, a learning experience. This research investigates the impact of motivational factors on the experience of learning in educational leisure settings. Motivational factors are considered in terms of four components - personal goals, capability beliefs, context beliefs and situational incentives. The experience of learning is considered in terms of visitors’ perceptions of the experience, rather than objective measures of learning outcomes, as the experience itself is seen as the desired outcome of the visit. Visitors to six different educational leisure settings in South East Queensland were invited to participate in the research, including a museum, an art gallery, a wildlife centre, an aquarium, and guided tours of natural and cultural heritage sites. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using questionnaires (499 participants) and interviews (52 participants) in order to ascertain the importance to visitors of different types of learning experiences; identify the extent to which motivations for learning vary across sites and visitor groups; investigate the relationships between the educational, entertainment, social and restorative aspects of the visitors’ experience; and examine the impact of motivational factors on visitors’ experience of learning in leisure settings. The findings support the importance of learning to visitors in a range of educational leisure settings. Visitors seek an experience that combines elements of learning and discovery, and is perceived to be both effortless and fun. It is concluded that the characteristics of learning in educational leisure settings contribute to a synergy between the educational and entertainment aspects of the experience. Situational factors are more important than personal factors in motivating visitors to engage in and experience this type of learning. This is of great significance to educational leisure settings as it implies that sites have a reasonable degree of control over the motivational factors that influence visitor engagement in learning

Before main banks : a selective historical overview of Japan's prewar financialsystem

The postwar experience of the Japanese banking system has received considerable attention recently partly because conditions in defeated Japan in 1945 (including high inflation and the need to switch from a military to a civilian economy) are similar to those in transition economies today. Policymakers in transition economies can learn a good deal from the experiences of Japan's postwar financial system but should remember that Japan also experienced extraordinary industrial growth and financial institution building in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Lessons to be learned from that experience include the following: Business conglomerates that did not continue to depend on government patronage were more successful than others in making the transition to a modern industrial economy. Banks that made a conscious effort to reduce their dependence on central bank credit were more successful than those that did not. The establishment of procedures for punishing defaulting borrowers helped the development of the payments system. Limits on the amount of lending to related parties appear to have contributed to financial stability (and could have contributed more if the newer"zaibatsu"had been as prudent as the older ones). Bank bailouts without accompanying reform (such as those the Bank of Japan undertook in 1920 and 1922) probably increased the likelihood of a more serious crisis, such as that of 1927. Capital standards - the minimum capital requirements established in the 1927 law - were a viable means of encouraging bank consolidation and more prudent lending. The public financial system served as a buffer when the banking sector was downsized.Banks&Banking Reform,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Financial Intermediation,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Decentralization,Financial Intermediation,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Municipal Financial Management,Banking Law,Banks&Banking Reform

Noncommutative solenoids and their projective modules

Let p be prime. A noncommutative p-solenoid is the C*-algebra of Z[1/p] x Z[1/p] twisted by a multiplier of that group, where Z[1/p] is the additive subgroup of the field Q of rational numbers whose denominators are powers of p. In this paper, we survey our classification of these C*-algebras up to *-isomorphism in terms of the multipliers on Z[1/p], using techniques from noncommutative topology. Our work relies in part on writing these C*-algebras as direct limits of rotation algebras, i.e. twisted group C*-algebras of the group Z^2 thereby providing a mean for computing the K-theory of the noncommutative solenoids, as well as the range of the trace on the K_0 groups. We also establish a necessary and sufficient condition for the simplicity of the noncommutative solenoids. Then, using the computation of the trace on K_0, we discuss two different ways of constructing projective modules over the noncommutative solenoids.Comment: To appear in the AMS Contemporary Mathematics volume entitled Commutative and Noncommutative Harmonic Analysis and Applications edited by Azita Mayeli, Alex Iosevich, Palle E. T. Jorgensen and Gestur Olafsson. 19 Page

In Their Own Defence: Violence against girls, and girls as human rights defenders

This paper was presented as a background document for the 2009 United Kingdom-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) Colloquium. The colloquium intended to explore the systems, mechanisms and practices available for female victims of violence under the age of 18 to assert themselves in the face of violation of their human rights. It further aimed to stimulate debate and reflection with the purpose of ascertaining whether there is a research and education agenda which merits to be pursued in seeking to reduce violence and to empower the affected girls and women. After establishing some key concepts, the paper raises crucial questions that acted as important guidelines for the discussions that took place during the colloquium

The collected letters of Robert Southey, part four: 1810-1815

This project is a new, complete edition of all of the letters written by the controversial author and polemicist Robert Southey (1774-1843). Part four covers the years 1810-181

Noncommutative Solenoids and the Gromov-Hausdorff Propinquity

We prove that noncommutative solenoids are limits, in the sense of the Gromov-Hausdorff propinquity, of quantum tori. From this observation, we prove that noncommutative solenoids can be approximated by finite dimensional quantum compact metric spaces, and that they form a continuous family of quantum compact metric spaces over the space of multipliers of the solenoid, properly metrized.Comment: 15 Pages, minor correction

The collected letters of Robert Southey, part two: 1798-1803

This project is a new, complete edition of all of the letters written by the controversial author and polemicist Robert Southey (1774-1843). Part Two covers the years 1798-1803