Conflict, displacement, and economic revival: the case of the internally displaced minority entrepreneurs in Pakistan

This article examines entreprise activities developed by internally displaced religious minorities (IDRM) and the role that social capital plays in supporting such activities. In particular, the paper examines how social capital is linked to micro enterprise development and the economic survival/revival of internally displaced religious minorities in Pakistan and why the link between entrepreneurship and social capital is critical for contexts with absent or poorly designed enterprise development policies. A three-staged, sequential research design was adopted, which comprised the analysis of secondary data on IDRM, face-to-face survey of entrepreneurs and interviews in two selected study sites. Our evidence shows how the role of social capital in supporting entrepreneurial activities is determined by socioeconomic inequalities as well as the characteristics of the formal enterprise support infrastructure, i.e. where formal institutions are weak, social capital is the main source of entrepreneurial support, with different types of social capital networks delivering different outcomes

Contextualizing the Cassese Report: the dictatorship that changed the United Nations human rights system and its legacy in monitoring economic, social and cultural rights

This chapter explains the key reasons underpinning the low impact of the Cassese Report on foreign aid and its relationship with human rights violations in Chile during Pinochet's dictatorship. Through the lenses of the intergovernmental decisions establishing the mandates and scope of competences of special procedures, the analysis demonstrates the absence of political will to equate the importance granted to civil and political rights with that granted to economic, social and cultural rights. The progress to mitigate this imbalance since the time of publication of the Cassese Report has been quantitative rather than qualitative. While economic, social and cultural rights have gained prominence over the years, most advances remain insufficient, especially regarding the role of business in human rights abuses. As long as the political decisions adopted within the human rights monitoring system do not implement the indivisibility of all rights, it will be very difficult to achieve substantial progress in this field

Raising the alarm: Individual differences in the perceptual awareness of masked facial expressions.

A theoretical concern in addressing the unconscious perception of emotion is the extent to which participants can access experiential properties of masked facial stimuli. Performance on a two alternative forced choice (2AFC) task as a measure of objective awareness was compared with a new measure developed to access experiential phenomena of the target-mask transition, the perceptual contrast-change sensitivity (PCCS) measure in a backward-masking paradigm with angry, happy and neutral facial expressions. Whilst 2AFC performance indicated that the targets were successfully masked, PCCS values were significantly higher in the happy-neutral face condition than in the angry-neutral face and the neutral-neutral face conditions (Experiment 1). Furthermore, objective measures of awareness were more readily displayed by individuals with high trait anxiety, whereas individuals with low trait anxiety showed greater access to the experiential quality of happy faces (Experiment 2). These findings provide important insights into the methodological considerations involved in the study of non-conscious processing of emotions, both with respect to individual differences in anxiety and the extent to which certain expressions can be successfully masked relative to others. Furthermore, our results may be informative to work investigating the neural correlates of conscious versus unconscious perception of emotion

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Curriculum for College Students

The recreational use of prescription drugs has been increasingly common in university communities (Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2015). Students may abuse prescription drugs to get high, study longer or sleep. A survey conducted by Kinesiology students used snowball sampling to assess the number of Cal Poly students recreationally using prescription drugs and their knowledge of prescription drug abuse (Colangelo & Sepulveda, 2015). The assessment showed 30.7% of students had abused prescription drugs in the last six months. There was an increase in abuse between college freshmen (19.2%), college sophomores (41.4%) and juniors (44.3%) (Colangelo & Sepulveda, 2015). This prevalence indicates an intervention may be useful. A non-equivalent control group design was used to assess the effectiveness of a prescription drug abuse prevention curriculum for college students. Students enrolled in general education health courses during the Fall of 2015 participated in the study. The treatment group (n=88) received a classroom-based intervention designed to include information specific to prescription drug abuse. The control group (n=64) received the traditional intervention covering general information about drug abuse. The purpose of the study was to determine which intervention was most effective in influencing knowledge, perceptions of risk, and self-efficacy to prevent prescription drug abuse. Both groups were administered a pre-test and a post-test questionnaire online. The ANCOVA showed a significant positive association of the treatment intervention for: Knowledge of Prescription Drug Abuse and Misuse (Knowledge) (p=0.001) and Self-Efficacy for Preventing Prescription Drug Abuse and Misuse (Self-Efficacy) (

A Unique Approach to Restoring Coastal Habitats, Cap Heavy Metals, Abate Wave Energy and Allow Successful Horseshoe Crab Spawning

The American horseshoe crab obtains food resources, spawns and has nursery habitats in our urban coastal seas. The east coast of the US and particularly Long Island Sound (LIS) is dominated by human activity and characterized by armored shorelines, high nutrient loads, large fluctuations in algal and bacteria populations, increased levels of pollutants (e.g. heavy metals and pesticides), hypoxia and relatively low pH. The LIS watershed harbors more than 9 million people and this urban sea has been significantly modified by human use. We have found that the horseshoe crab population in LIS is reproducing well below its maximum rate with the recruitment of newly molted adults ranging from 5.6 to 12% of the spawning population on sampled beaches. One- to three- year-old juvenile horseshoe crabs have low population densities, with a patchy distribution and are absent from more than half of estuarine habitats surveyed (n = 10). The probable causes are due to legal and illegal overharvest of adults and poor quality nursery habitat (polluted and hypoxic estuaries). Possible solutions include multi-habitat restoration using the living shoreline concept (e.g. beach stabilization, marsh grass planting, and artificial reef installation) for wave abatement, sediment deposition, capping of heavy metals and increased biodiversity. Also, establishing marine protected areas in LIS is imperative to increase recruitment of juvenile horseshoe crabs as well as other ecologically and economically important marine species

Modelling Human Locomotion

This report is a coverage of my 16 weeks practical training at the Center for Sensori-Motor Interaction of the Aalborg University (Denmark). One of their research topics is on the ?eld of the biomedical modelling, where they want to answer the question of the functional behavior of the proprioceptive feedback system of the human body. A valid/good biomedical model could support their hypotheses which are results from different measurements. The original intention of the project was to build a complete walking lower body model to ?nd the reason for proprioceptive feedback during walking. In the middle of the project this original goal was a too high, because of the additional work of redesigning previous work of Huber [26]. The goal is adjusted to design the mechanical and muscle model and a well documented report, so a next project can continue immediately. The mechanical and muscle model appeared to work correct and are veri?ed with measured data. The forward activation of the muscle/mechanical model is not completely the same as expected. This is because the used method does not take co-activation of antagonistic muscle into account. For the continuation of this project a complete measured data set is necessary, because the veri?cation is not 100% valid. This performed veri?cation uses data that is not correlated in the sense that is measured at the same conditions and persons

Preferencias hacia carne de cordero en supermercados de Temuco, región de la Araucanía, Chile

Lobos, G (Lobos, German). Univ Talca, Escuela Ingn Comercial, Talca, ChileThe low levels of consumption of lamb meat in Chile suggest the need for studies on consumer preferences in order to orient production. A study with this object was carried out to evaluate preferences for various cuts, breeds, state (fresh or frozen) and price of lamb's meat among supermarket buyers in Temuco, Chile, and the existence of different market segments, through a survey of 400 persons. Using a fractional factorial design for conjoint analysis, it was determined that the state of the meat was more important than the cut, the price and the breed, with a preference for meat in half carcasses and quarters, Araucano lamb, fresh, at a medium price level. Four consumer segments were distinguished by analysis of hierarchic conglomerates. The majority group (47.7%) was sensitive to the state and the cut, with preference for meat in quarters, fresh, Texel breed. The second group (25.3%) was sensitive to the breed, presenting the strongest preferences for meat in whole carcass, fresh, Araucano lamb. The third group (14.3%) was sensitive to the price, preferred meat in quarters, fresh, Araucano lamb. The minority group (12.7%) was sensitive to the state and price, preferring meat in quarters, Texel breed, and was the only group which preferred frozen meat and would pay a higher price. The segments were distinguished by age, ethnic origin and satisfaction with food-related life. Thus the commercialisation strategy for lamb in supermarkets in Temuco should concentrate principally on the sale of fresh meat cut in quarter