Interests, trust and security in US-Jordanian nuclear relations

This article explores the relationship between Jordan and the United States (US) in the field of nuclear energy cooperation. Since 2010 the Jordanian government has accelerated its plans for a nuclear energy program and has engaged with multiple partners around the world in order to agree terms for cooperation in technology exchange, monitoring, and the construction of infrastructure. Bilateral negotiations between the US and Jordan for a "123" nuclear cooperation agreement were underway by early 2008, but were suspended in 2011 without an agreement being reached. Jordanian nuclear energy policy has been spurred by energy security considerations (as it currently imports 97 percent of its energy needs) and the discovery of up to 120,000 tonnes of uranium ore in Jordan. At the same time, the US is primarily interested in management of nuclear technology proliferation. This work considers the perceptions of self and other in Jordanian and US policymaking in order to understand why bilateral cooperation has not materialized and what this means for nuclear proliferation in Jordan. This study finds that the US–Jordanian negotiations have been impeded by contradictory objectives and perceptions, and a "123" agreement is not likely in the short to medium term, but that development of Jordan’s nuclear energy program will likely continue regardless

American power and identities in the age of Obama

Although the election of Barack Obama to the US presidency represents a landmark event in the history of that country, questions remain over its broader political significance. What is the likelihood of Obama's foreign and national security policies differing fundamentally from those of the Bush administrations Does Obama's election signal a post-racial phase in American national life What are the factors that suggest opportunities to change and expand American identities as opposed to those that limit Obama's sphere of action This article introduces the special issue and suggests that although Obama's room for manoeuvre is limited by legacies inherited from the Bush administration, Obama's own appointments to high office as well as other actions, despite the availability of alternative courses, indicate that he is not the transformational president he claimed to be. American identities, therefore, are deeply embedded and remain heavily imbued with racial, religious and imperial features

Putting it into perspective: Mathematics in the undergraduate science curriculum

Mathematics and science are tightly interwoven, yet they are often treated as distinct disciplines in the educational context. This study details the development, implementation and outcomes of a teaching intervention that highlights the links between mathematics and science, in the form of a first-year interdisciplinary course. A mixed method study using surveys and focus groups was employed to investigate undergraduate science students' perceptions of their experiences. Findings reveal that students bring strong beliefs about the nature of mathematics and science from secondary school, which can impact significanly on the success of interdisciplinary science-mathematics courese at the teritary level. Despite this, a range of beneficial outcomes can arise from such courses when they are delivered within a framework of analysing real-world issues. However, students with weak mathematical skills derived little benefit from an interdisciplinary approach and are likely to disengage from learning, in comparision with students who enter university with a solid foundation in mathematics

Self-Transforming Configuration Based on Atmospheric-Adaptive Materials for Solid Oxide Cells

Solid oxide cells (SOC) with a symmetrical configuration have been focused due to the practical benefits of such configurations, such as minimized compatibility issues, a simple fabrication process and reduced cost compared to SOCs with the asymmetrical configuration. However, the performance of SOCs using a single type of electrode material (symmetrical configuration) is lower than the performance of those using the dissimilar electrode materials (asymmetrical configuration). Therefore, to achieve a high-performance cell, we design a 'self-transforming cell' with the asymmetric configuration using only materials of the single type, one based on atmospheric adaptive materials. Atmospheric-adaptive perovskite Pr0.5Ba0.5Mn0.85Co0.15O3-delta (PBMCo) was used for the so-called self-transforming cell electrodes, which changed to layered perovskite and metal in the fuel atmosphere and retained its original structure in the air atmosphere. In fuel cell mods, the self-transforming cell shows excellent electrochemical performance of 1.10Wcm(-2) at 800 degrees C and good stability for 100 h without any catalyst. In electrolysis mode, the moderate current densities of -0.42A cm(-2) for 3 vol.% H2O and -0.62 A cm(-2) for 10 vol.% H2O, respectively, were observed at a cell voltage of 1.3V at 800 degrees C. In the reversible cycling test, the transforming cell maintains the constant voltages for 30 h at +/- 0.2A cm(-2) under 10 vol. % H2O

Applying Contextual integrity to Open Data Publishing

Open data publishing by both corporate and public bodies has increased significantly in recent years and this type of data could soon be developing into a real commodity. However, not all organisations pay sufficient heed to privacy as part of the decision-making process around open data publication, leaving both the organisation and the users whose data they handle vulnerable to privacy breaches. We present a case study in which we applied contextual integrity in practice, working with a UK local authority using real data. This illustrated how privacy can be incorporated into the decision-making process prior to publication taking place. Our results illustrate the application of Nissenbaum's Contextual Integrity Framework (CI) to the open data domain, and shows that CI is usable in practice

Career Resourcing and the Process of Professional Emergence

We theorize a career resourcing process that explains how individuals can create a new profession. Using historical archives, we trace the emergence of health services research as a new research profession through the career actions of early practitioners. We find that career resourcing can lead to the institutionalization of a new profession by: 1) a process of accretion, where people pursuing fulfilling careers generate resources that contribute to institutionalization, or 2) institutional work to deliberately build the professional community and infrastructure. We contribute to research on institutional change by specifying career actions that can lead to the institutionalization of a new profession, and by developing theory that accounts for the motivations and the means of individuals to act in ways that result in the institutionalization of a new profession

Imagining the Lives of Others: Empathy in Public Relations

This paper asks how we might theorise empathy in public relations (PR) in the light of a widespread ‘turn’ towards emotion in the academy, as well as in popular discourse. Two distinct notions of empathy are explored: ‘true’empathy as discussed in intercultural communication, is driven by a human concern for the other in order to understand experiences, feelings and situations that may be different from our own; whereas ‘instrumental’ empathy, reflecting a self orientation, is said to characterise much neoliberal market discourse in which corporations are urged to understand their customers better. Thus, while empathy may seem highly desirable as a means to enter into dialogue with an organisation’s publics, particularly during times of social upheaval and crisis, it is important to pay attention to empathy in public relations discourses including whose goals are served by empathetic engagement; and the type(s) of empathy called upon within a PR context. A literature review identified a socio-cultural definition of empathy as ‘imaginary effort’. A review of the public relations literature, however, found that while empathy is considered an important principle and personal attribute, notions of empathy, with a few exceptions, are under-explored. Nonfunctionalist, socio-cultural research which examines the meanings that practitioners associate with empathy is distinctly lacking; therefore in order to gain further insight into empathy, two sources of data were explored. The analysis of a popular online practitioner blog showed that other-centred empathic skill is discursively framed as instrumental in achieving clients’ business objectives. The analysis of three empathy statements drawn from 12 in-depth interviews with practitioners revealed complex empathic discourse in practitioner-client relationships. While the findings are limited to illustrative analyses only, this paper challenges researchers to develop conceptualisations and perspectives of empathy as imaginary effort in public relations

Post-imperialism, postcolonialism and beyond: towards a periodisation of cultural discourse about colonial legacies

Taking German history and culture as a starting point, this essay suggests a historical approach to reconceptualising different forms of literary engagement with colonial discourse, colonial legacies and (post-) colonial memory in the context of Comparative Postcolonial Studies. The deliberate blending of a historical, a conceptual and a political understanding of the ‘postcolonial’ in postcolonial scholarship raises problems of periodisation and historical terminology when, for example, anti-colonial discourse from the colonial period or colonialist discourse in Weimar Germany are labelled ‘postcolonial’. The colonial revisionism of Germany’s interwar period is more usefully classed as post-imperial, as are particular strands of retrospective engagement with colonial history and legacy in British, French and other European literatures and cultures after 1945. At the same time, some recent developments in Francophone, Anglophone and German literature, e.g. Afropolitan writing, move beyond defining features of postcolonial discourse and raise the question of the post-postcolonial