The Biggest Peace: The Structure of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the Politics of Separation

Part I of this Note summarizes the background leading up to the signing of the Oslo Accords. Part II details the overall structure and responsibilities laid out in Oslo II, with specific emphasis on the legal. Also, Part II presents for comparison the semi-autonomy arrangement devised and implemented in the Transkei of South Africa in the early 1960s. Part II concludes by examining the extent to which both of these arrangements were successful in satisfying the parties involved and makes some more general comparisons to similar reactions in Northern Ireland following the Good Friday Agreement. Part III attempts to draw conclusions on the effectiveness of limited autonomy to deal with the competing rhetoric of self-determination and the administration of viable political entities

THE WHY AND HOW OF WELFARE REFORM

Public Economics,

Laser-induced rotation of a levitated sample in vacuum

A method of systematically controlling the rotational state of a sample levitated in a high vacuum using the photon pressure is described. A zirconium sphere was levitated in the high-temperature electrostatic levitator and it was rotated by irradiating it with a narrow beam of a high-power laser on a spot off the center of mass. While the laser beam heated the sample, it also rotated the sample with a torque that was proportional both to the laser power and the length of the torque arm. A simple theoretical basis was given and its validity was demonstrated using a solid zirconium sphere at ~2000 K. This method will be useful to systematically control the rotational state of a levitated sample for the containerless materials processing at high temperature

Dust in the diffuse emission of the galactic plane - The Herschel/Spitzer SED fitting

The first Herschel Hi-Gal images of the galactic plane unveil the far-infrared diffuse emission of the interstellar medium with an unprecedented angular resolution and sensitivity. In this paper, we present the first analysis of these data in combination with that of Spitzer Glimpse & Mipsgal. We selected a relatively diffuse and low excitation region of the l~59\,^{\circ} Hi-Gal Science Demonstration Phase field to perform a pixel by pixel fitting of the 8 to 500 microns SED using the DustEM dust emission model. We derived maps of the Very Small Grains (VSG) and PAH abundances from the model. Our analysis allows us to illustrate that the Aromatic Infrared Bands (AIB) intensity does not trace necessarily the PAH abundance but rather the product of "abundance x column density x intensity of the exciting radiation field". We show that the spatial structure of PACS70microns map resembles the shorter wavelengths (e.g. IRAC8microns) maps, because they trace both the intensity of exciting radiation field and column density. We also show that the modeled VSG contribution to PACS70microns (PACS160microns) band intensity can be up to 50% (7%). The interpretation of diffuse emission spectra at these wavelengths must take stochastically heated particles into account. Finally, this preliminary study emphasizes the potential of analyzing the full dust SED sampled by Herschel and Spitzer data, with a physical dust model (DustEM) to reach the properties of the dust at simultaneously large and small scales.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ

High water availability increases the negative impact of a native hemiparasite on its non-native host

Environmental factors alter the impacts of parasitic plants on their hosts. However, there have been no controlled studies on how water availability modulates stem hemiparasites' effects on hosts. A glasshouse experiment was conducted to investigate the association between the Australian native stem hemiparasite Cassytha pubescens and the introduced host Ulex europaeus under high (HW) and low (LW) water supply. Cassytha pubescens had a significant, negative effect on the total biomass of U. europaeus, which was more severe in HW than LW. Regardless of watering treatment, infection significantly decreased shoot and root biomass, nodule biomass, nodule biomass per unit root biomass, F-v/F-m, and nitrogen concentration of U. europaeus. Host spine sodium concentration significantly increased in response to infection in LW but not HW conditions. Host water potential was significantly higher in HW than in LW, which may have allowed the parasite to maintain higher stomatal conductances in HW. In support of this, the delta C-13 of the parasite was significantly lower in HW than in LW (and significantly higher than the host). C. pubescens also had significantly higher F-v/F-m and 66% higher biomass per unit host in the HW compared with the LW treatment. The data suggest that the enhanced performance of C. pubescens in HW resulted in higher parasite growth rates and thus a larger demand for resources from the host, leading to poorer host performance in HW compared with LW. C. pubescens should more negatively affect U. europaeus growth under wet conditions rather than under dry conditions in the field

Ethnie et folie : visages pluriels de l’anormalité

Ce texte suggère que les conceptions de la folie fluctuent avec les cadres sociaux, les valeurs dominantes de chaque communauté culturelle et les positions qu'occupent agents et intervenants dans le champ et la hiérarchie des savoirs. En tant qu'objet de représentations et de stratégies cognitives, la folie peut être considérée comme un « symptôme » des partis-pris « normatifs » et « réducteurs » de chaque époque mais aussi comme un révélateur de la sensibilité de chaque peuple à certaines dimensions du vécu de l’inusité. Passant en revue les versions magique, prophétique, théologique, morale, pathologique et analytique de la folie, l'auteur conclut son propos en attirant l'attention sur la nécessité de prendre toujours en compte cet ancrage culturel qui caractérise autant le discours fou que le discours sur la folie.This article suggests that the notion of madness varies with the social context, the dominating values of each cultural community and the position given to agents and social workers in the field and in the hierarchy of knowledge. As an interplay of representations and cognitive strategies, madness can be considered as a "symptom" of the "normative" and "reductive" biases of each era, but also as a revealing trait of the sensibility of each culture toward certain dimensions of unusual experiences. Following a review of the magical, prophetic, theological, moral, pathological and analytical versions of madness, the author concludes by emphasizing the necessity of always taking into consideration the cultural standpoint that characterizes the experience of madness as much as it does its study

Intern supervision : how to support supervising teachers better?

Comprend des références bibliographiquesSupervising interns is an important part of the work of technical program teachers and poses specific challenges that set it apart from teaching in the classroom or workshop. Yet there is little literature on this activity and an apparent lack of detailed knowledge on this aspect of a teacher’s work. We therefore conducted a research project to develop an accurate profile of college intern supervision. The findings reflect a complex activity with several unique characteristics that extend beyond the educational relationship and confront supervisors with occasionally contradictory concerns. Considering this, the supervision of interns needs to receive greater support. To this end we have identified several intervention approaches to support college teachers in this activity