Global Answers to Global Problems: Health as a Global Public Good. 1/2007

Address by Jorge Sampaio, UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Stop Tuberculosis and former President of Portugal, on the occasion of the 8th Hendrik Brugmans Memorial Lecture to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Hendrik Brugmans, sponsored by the College of Europe, the Madariaga Foundation and the Alumni Association of the College of Europe, Brussels City Hall, 14 December 2006

Crossing Disciplinary Borders: Latino/a Studies and Latin American Studies in the 1990s

Over the 30 years of their existence, studies of Latinos/as in the U.S. and the field of Latin American Studies have emerged largely as divided disciplines. That is, despite what would appear to be similar sensibilities including comparable criticisms of Western hegemony and the neocolonial practices of the U.S., as well as the political, economic, and cultural displacement of similar populations, the two areas of study have more often regarded each other as competitive colleagues rather than complimentary practices. In the following study, I examine the nature of the two disciplines paying particular attention to the political context surrounding their formations and the foundations of their discursive frameworks. I examine changes to these disciplines in the methodological and ideological shifts surrounding the emergence of empirical and postmodern studies, and the relationship between these theoretical shifts and the expansion of globalization. Finally, I conclude with a discussion of the emerging field of transnational and bi-national studies and the opportunities for crossing the disciplinary borders between Latino/as studies in the U.S. and Latin American Studies presented in this literature

Language proficiency among immigrants and the establishment of interethnic relations: a comparative analysis of Bilbao, Lisbon and Rotterdam

Despite the increasing interest in exploring language proficiency among immigrants as a quintessential element for their economic integration in the host country, less attention has been devoted to the social impacts that destination-language proficiency may have on enhancing interethnic contacts between immigrants and the native population. This research aims to shed light on this latter topic, discussing if being a native-speaker immigrant in the host country or, for those immigrants who are non-native speakers, having a stronger command of the destination-language may increase their likelihood of interacting with the native population. Moreover, we question if there are significant differences in the interaction patterns between these two groups and the natives, presenting the cities of Bilbao, Lisbon and Rotterdam as a territorial frame. The analysis is based on data gathered through the GEITONIES survey. The results obtained indicate that native-speaker immigrants generally tend to show more interaction with the natives. Nevertheless, for immigrants not sharing such cultural similarity, those with a higher level of second-language proficiency clearly show stronger bonds with the native population; in both cases this can also be related to individual, group or place related variables

A bifurcation and symmetry discussion of the Sommerfeld effect

The Arnold Sommerfeld effect is an intriguing resonance capture and release series of events originally demonstrated in 1902. A single event is studied using a two degree of freedom mathematical model of a motor with imbalance mounted to laterally restricted spring connected cart. For a certain power supplied, in general the motor rotates at a speed consistent with a motor on a rigid base. However at speeds close to the natural frequency of the cart, it seemingly takes on extra oscillations where for a single rotation it both speeds up and then slows down. Therefore in a standard experimental demonstration of the effect, as the supplied torque force is increased or decreased, this may give the illusion that the stable operation of the motor is losing and gaining stability. This is not strictly the case, instead small oscillations always present in the system solution are amplified near the resonant frequency. The imbalance in the motor causes a single resonance curve to fold back on itself forming two fold bifurcations which leads to hysteresis and an asymmetry between increasing and decreasing the motor speed. Although as outlined the basic mechanism is due the interplay between two stable and one unstable limit cycles, a more complicated bifurcation scenario is observed for higher imbalances in the motor. The presence of a Z2 phase space symmetry tempers the dynamics and bifurcation picture.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure

The systemic dimension of operational decision in complex systems work

This paper refers to some of my research findings on Decision Making processes in complex systems work. Starting as a complex cognitive process strongly contextualized in the operating environment, it ends up, in complex systems work, as an equally complex network of actors and systems (human and technological) that are confronted, in real time, with uncertainty , a large amount of information and feedback and with multiple standards and operating procedures...Complex systems work; Operational Decision; Mental Model; Situational awareness; Systemic decision

Conclusion: New Projects and Old Reminders

Globalization and the transnational networks established by economic integration have produced a context in which the gathering of knowledge about Latina/o and Latin American communities is largely devoid of any processual perspective. This means that we must construct an alternative methodology to capture the international and transnational social fields and arenas of this multinational population. Nowhere does this type of dialogue appear more necessary than in studies of immigration from Latin America to the United States. In particular, we maintain that the integration of Latin American and Latina/o studies requires viewing these new waves of migrants as part of a synchronic flow of capital, goods, and resources back and forth between the United States and their countries of origin. We have shown in our discussion of remittances that multiple levels of economic dependency result