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The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) provides that a food is misbranded if the label accompanying the product is false or misleading in any particular. Congress provided minimal guidance to assist the FDA in making these determinations. When challenged, courts have granted substantial deference to FDA's various interpretations of what constitute a material fact. However, when confronted with the regulatory question of whether or how to label products derived from genetically engineered (GE) crops, the FDA adopted a narrow reading of the statute that focused on changes in the product itself, rather than the act of genetic engineering. Only those GE products that possessed characteristics significantly different from their conventional counterparts would require labels. This "process versus product" distinction in food labels lies at the heart of the FDA's resistance to repeated calls for mandatory labeling of foods derived from genetic engineering. Consumer interest in GE food, according to the agency, is not a material fact to trigger mandatory labeling under the statute. In contrast to its approach to GE labels, the agency has long required (since 1966) process-based labels for foods treated with irradiation. As recently as 1986, the FDA affirmed that materiality of information under it misbranding analysis is not limited to product safety or even the abstract worth of the information, but whether consumers view the information as important and whether the omission of a labeling statement would mislead the consumer. Accordingly, mere consumer interest can give rise to a mandatory labeling regime under the FFDCA. In the irradiation context, whole foods and single-ingredient products treated with irradiation must bear a label indicating the process. The irradiation of components in a multi-ingredient food product, however, need not bear a label. This distinction between processed, multi-ingredient and whole or single-ingredient foods provides a potential pathway for the agency to revise its approach to mandatory GE labeling. Exempting highly processed, multi-ingredient foods from a labeling regime would minimize traceability and segregation-generated disruptions in the commodity supply chain, thereby minimizing potential compliance costs, while also empowering consumers to express their preferences for non-GE whole and single-ingredient food products.

International audience ; Described as an attack by all contemporaries, the murder of Alexander, King of Yugoslavia, and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou, in October 1934 in Marseille, is a complex event, which shows the existence of many disruptions in European societies during the 1930s. The murderers, who belonged to terrorist organizations in the Balkans (including Croatian ustasa), were supported by dictatorial states, most of all by Fascist Italy and Hungary of Admiral Horthy. The Marseille attack broke back the specter of the assassination in Sarajevo in June 1914; it provoked, for the first time, a concerted international response, from the council of the League of Nations. This reaction led to a diplomatic international conference in Geneva in November 1937, which adopted the first legal agreements, in order to fight against "political terrorism". In addition, the attack in 1934 was the first political murder to have been filmed live: the films were shown in many countries, the USSR, the United States and throughout Europe, in the newsreels. Considered as a regicide and as a new media event, the attack of 1934 in Marseilles enlightens the process which transformed "political terrorism" into a new category of international policy in the twentieth century. ; Qualifié d'attentat par l'ensemble des contemporains, le meurtre, en octobre 1934 à Marseille, du roi de Yougoslavie et du ministre des Affaires étrangères français Louis Barthou, est un événement complexe, qui montre bien l'ampleur des ruptures à l'œuvre dans l'Europe des années 1930. Les meurtriers, membres de deux organisations terroristes des Balkans (dont l'ustasa croate), bénéficient du soutien d'États dictatoriaux, au premier chef l'Italie fasciste et la Hongrie de l'amiral Horthy. Faisant rejouer le spectre de l'attentat de Sarajevo en juin 1914, l'attentat de Marseille en 1934 provoque, pour la première fois, une réaction internationale concertée, de la part du conseil de la Société des nations. Cette réaction diplomatique aboutit à une conférence internationale à Genève en novembre 1937, qui adopte les premières conventions juridiques de lutte contre le « terrorisme politique ». De plus, l'attentat de 1934 est le premier meurtre politique à avoir été filmé en direct : les films ont été projetés dans de nombreux pays, de l'URSS aux Etats-Unis en passant par l'Europe, dans le cadre des actualités cinématographiques. À la fois régicide et événement médiatique, l'attentat de 1934 à Marseille donne à voir la genèse difficile du « terrorisme politique », comme catégorie nouvelle de l'action politique internationale au XXe siècle.

Studies for established market economies such as West Germany (Fritsch and Mueller, 2007), and Sweden (Andersson and Koster, 2011) have shown that regional start-up rates tend to show a relatively high level of persistence and path dependency over periods of 10-15 years. One main reason for this high level of persistence observed could be that the region-specific determinants of entrepreneurship also remain relatively constant over time. Another explanation could be the existence of a regional entrepreneurship culture. Such an entrepreneurial culture could maybe even outwear considerable 'jumps' in the conditions of the economic environment such as wars and drastic changes of the political regime. We analyze the persistence of regional entrepreneurship in three different scenarios with different degrees of changes of the economic conditions. The basic idea is that if we should find that high levels of regional entrepreneurship do persist disruptive changes of the economic conditions, this may be regarded an indication for the presence of a regional entrepreneurship culture. - The first scenario that we present is regional entrepreneurship in West Germany in the 1984-2005 period, a time that was characterized by relatively stable conditions without any major jumps. - For the second scenario we extend the period of analysis to 80 years and compare regional entrepreneurship in West Germany between the years 1925 and 2005. This period was has been characterized by some considerable disruptions such as the World Economic Crisis of the late 1920s, the Nazi regime and the Second World War that ended with destruction and occupation of the country, and, finally, German re-unification. - The third scenario, East Germany in the time period 1925-2005, was characterized by even more shocks that have probably been even more severe than what has been experienced in the West. We find long-term persistence in all three scenarios what is particularly remarkable for the third setting, the East German regions. Those East German regions with a relatively high level of entrepreneurship in the year 1925 also show high levels of entrepreneurship 80 years later, in the year 2005. Our findings can be regarded a strong indication for the existence of a regional entrepreneurial culture and its beneficial effects for economic development.

The first chapter of the dissertation addresses general issues in contracting with external enforcement. We study a contracting environment with specific investments in which renegotiation, and therefore hold-up, is possible. We show that taking account of the precise nature of trading and investment technologies is important for accurately determining the trading relationships in which efficient investment and trade will occur and that careful modeling of institutional detail and the information available to private parties and the external enforcement body (e.g. a court) are key. The second chapter presents a model of international trade agreements in which domestic policy-making power is shared between executive and legislative branches of government. Acknowledging the complexity of the legislative process as well as its susceptibility to lobbying reveals a political commitment role for trade agreements in that executives can use them to reduce incentives for lobbying so that the legislatures can better withstand political pressure. This helps explain the result from tests of the Grossman and Helpman (1994) model that there is too much protection relative to contributions given estimates of governments' social- welfare weights : I predict that contribution levels may in fact be low because tariffs have been raised to prevent political pressure and the increased risk of a trade disruption it engenders. The third chapter extends this model to a repeated-game framework, replacing the assumption of external enforcement with self-enforcing promises of future cooperation. Here, the inability of actors to make commitments affects the design of trade agreements in two ways: executives must not only take into account the legislatures' lobbying-driven propensity to revoke delegation and break the agreement, but also be robust to the executives' own incentives to renegotiate out of any punishment scheme. The design of the dispute resolution mechanism that makes the optimal punishment incentive compatible must balance two, often-conflicting, objectives: longer punishment periods help to enforce cooperation by increasing the costs of defecting from the agreement, but because the lobbies prefer the punishment outcome, this also incentivizes lobbying effort and with it the political pressure to break the agreement. Thus the model generates new predictions for the optimal design of mechanisms for resolving the disputes that arise in the course of trade-agreement relationships

International audience ; Described as an attack by all contemporaries, the murder of Alexander, King of Yugoslavia, and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou, in October 1934 in Marseille, is a complex event, which shows the existence of many disruptions in European societies during the 1930s. The murderers, who belonged to terrorist organizations in the Balkans (including Croatian ustasa), were supported by dictatorial states, most of all by Fascist Italy and Hungary of Admiral Horthy. The Marseille attack broke back the specter of the assassination in Sarajevo in June 1914; it provoked, for the first time, a concerted international response, from the council of the League of Nations. This reaction led to a diplomatic international conference in Geneva in November 1937, which adopted the first legal agreements, in order to fight against "political terrorism". In addition, the attack in 1934 was the first political murder to have been filmed live: the films were shown in many countries, the USSR, the United States and throughout Europe, in the newsreels. Considered as a regicide and as a new media event, the attack of 1934 in Marseilles enlightens the process which transformed "political terrorism" into a new category of international policy in the twentieth century. ; Qualifié d'attentat par l'ensemble des contemporains, le meurtre, en octobre 1934 à Marseille, du roi de Yougoslavie et du ministre des Affaires étrangères français Louis Barthou, est un événement complexe, qui montre bien l'ampleur des ruptures à l'œuvre dans l'Europe des années 1930. Les meurtriers, membres de deux organisations terroristes des Balkans (dont l'ustasa croate), bénéficient du soutien d'États dictatoriaux, au premier chef l'Italie fasciste et la Hongrie de l'amiral Horthy. Faisant rejouer le spectre de l'attentat de Sarajevo en juin 1914, l'attentat de Marseille en 1934 provoque, pour la première fois, une réaction internationale concertée, de la part du conseil de la Société des nations. Cette réaction diplomatique aboutit à une conférence internationale à Genève en novembre 1937, qui adopte les premières conventions juridiques de lutte contre le « terrorisme politique ». De plus, l'attentat de 1934 est le premier meurtre politique à avoir été filmé en direct : les films ont été projetés dans de nombreux pays, de l'URSS aux Etats-Unis en passant par l'Europe, dans le cadre des actualités cinématographiques. À la fois régicide et événement médiatique, l'attentat de 1934 à Marseille donne à voir la genèse difficile du « terrorisme politique », comme catégorie nouvelle de l'action politique internationale au XXe siècle.

As the Internet created borderless and free society, its effects concluded with the expansion of networks that enabled new forms of interaction and communication. Also via this new form of communication, artists obtained another form of interactivity, by which the quasi-liberated artists have included ?tactics? to interact from within an institution or merely using public space, or cyberspace under the development of ?New Media Art?. While both photography and video receded as sole mediums, instead with the aid of this exciting new communication tool new modes of representation have emerged through the mixture of different mediums. So artists? standpoint has changed from being an artist that only produces an art object to be on display at an institution to being an artist that seeks to generate a question mark by provoking the audience?s experience or knowledge and by engaging in dominant political and economical order. The coining of the term Tactical Media corresponds with the development of new media tools. Tactical Media artists use genealogies of new media art and carry their discourse to another level of interaction, intervention and disruption. By studying Tactical Media practices in contemporary art in Turkey that engage in different media outlets in order to create a critique rather than an opposition, this thesis aims to recognize the new media tools, artistic intentions and tactics of representation emergent in contemporary art in Turkey. ; Internetin sınırsız ve özgür toplumu yaratması, iletişim ağlarının küresel olarak genişlemesine neden oldu. Bu sayede özgürleşen sanatçılar bu yeni iletişim platformunu kullanarak, kurumlar bünyesinde, kamusal alanda veya sanal alemde Yeni Media Sanatı adı altında taktikler kullanmaya başladılar. Sanatçının duruşu müzede sergilenmek üzere sanat objesi tasarlayan kişi olmaktan çıkmış, yerine dominant politik ve ekonomik düzene dahil olan, izleyicinin deneyim ve bilgisini dürtmeye yönelik sorular üreten kişi olmuştur. Taktiksel Medya teriminin ortaya çıkması yeni medya araçlarının doğuşu ve gelişimine denk gelmektedir. Taktiksel Medya sanatçıları, yeni medya sanatının tamamını kullanarak kendi tartışmalarını müdahale, bozulma ve etkileşim gibi farklı kavramlarla birleştirmişlerdir. Bu tez, Türkiye Çağdaş Sanat'ında var olan ve farklı medya araçlarını kullanıp genel geçer düzeni eleştirmeyi hedefleyen Taktiksel Medya pratiklerini inceleyerek, Türkiye'de yükselmekte olan yeni medya araçlarını, temsil taktiklerini ve sanatçı insiyatiflerini araştırmayı amaçlamaktadır.

Imposex, an endocrine disruption phenomenon, is a biomarker of tributyltin (TBT) exposure in marine gastropod populations. The occurrence and intensity of the syndrome in populations of the neogastropod Stramonita haemastoma were ascertained at nine sampling stations in October 2008 at Arraial do Cabo, a very important tourist resort in Rio de Janeiro state (Brazil) and part of the Marine Extractive Reserve of Arraial do Cabo. The results obtained made it possible to evaluate the changes which had occurred since the last biomonitoring campaign, undertaken in 2001, at these same stations. Despite the ban on the use of TBT imposed by the Brazilian Navy in 2003, the controls on the use of this agent in Brazil resulting from the establishment of NORMAM 23 by the Navy in 2007 and the complete ban of organotin compounds in antifouling paint formulae by the IMO on a global scale in 2008, imposex was still detected. Instead of the expected reduction, an increase was observed in the areas affected by imposex. Furthermore, populations in the areas seriously affected by imposex in 2001 were absent in the 2008 sampling campaign. These results suggest an increase in TBT pollution in the study area, indicating the inefficacy of legislative measures. ; O imposex, um fenômeno de desregulação endócrina, é um biomarcador da exposição ao tributilestanho (TBT) em populações de gastrópodes marinhos. A ocorrência e intensidade dessa síndrome nas populações do neogastrópode Stramonita haemastoma foram verificadas em nove estações amostrais em outubro de 2008 em Arraial do Cabo, uma área de grande importância turística no Rio de Janeiro (Brasil) e integrante da Reserva Extrativista Marinha de Arraial do Cabo. Com os resultados obtidos foi possível avaliar as alterações ocorridas desde o último biomonitoramento realizado em 2001, nessas mesmas estações. Mesmo após o banimento do TBT pela Marinha do Brasil em 2003, a entrada em vigor dos controles ao uso deste agente com o estabelecimento da NORMAM 23, no Brasil em 2007 pela Marinha, e o banimento completo do TBT nas fórmulas de tintas antiincrustantes pela IMO em escala global, em 2008, o imposex continua a ser detectado. Ao invés de um declínio esperado, observou-se um aumento da extensão das áreas afetadas pelo imposex. Além disso, observou-se a ausência de populações em áreas que em 2001 estavam gravemente afetadas pelo imposex. Esses resultados sugerem um aumento da poluição por TBT na área de estudo, indicando a ineficácia das medidas legislativas.

Among the four phases along the hazard continuum -- preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation -- the sub‐field of long‐term recovery has long been an outlier, an "orphan" when it comes to concerted policy attention and pre‐disaster planning. It's not that community residents or municipal and state government officials are unaware of the potential long‐term residual consequences of natural disasters. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars to upgrade and enhance the country's ability to detect and respond to major catastrophic events, whether man‐made or natural in origin. The country experienced catastrophic wildfires in 2003, 2007‐2008, and 2011, a regional electrical blackout affecting 9 states and part of Canada in 2003, major Midwest flooding in 2008 and again this year, Category 3 or greater hurricanes in 2004, 2005, and 2008, and significant tornado clusters in 2011 that claimed 529 lives and caused over $17 billion in damages. These hazards have struck virtually every region of the country, and the consequences are readily evident to emergency managers and local city and county. Although the ratio of uncovered to covered losses has declined over this three‐decade timeframe, from approximately 8:1 to 4:1, absolute dollar losses have escalated tremendously. This may represent gains in mitigation efforts to insure against losses in high‐risk areas, but the size and growth of uncovered losses suggest a growing recovery challenge. This difference between covered and uncovered losses reflects the absolute minimum investment required for affected areas to return to pre‐event conditions, much less build back to a better or higher standard. Furthermore, what this trend line cannot capture are those disaster consequences not so easily monetized -- diminished physical and mental health among an affected citizenry, loss of a sense of community and attachment to place, or large scale social disruptions or population displacements. Given the magnitude of the social investment needed to pursue long‐term recovery after a disaster, and the attention that other phases in the hazard continuum have experienced, why is recovery still a policy orphan, and what are the local implications for pre‐disaster planning for long‐term recovery?

Круг проблем, относящихся к институциональной экономической теории и институциональной практике, расширился в условиях глобализации и особенно в период мирового экономического кризиса. В статье рассматривается институциональная среда международной компании как состоящая из формальной и неформальной подсистем. Формальная подсистема включает в себя политические, экономические и правовые институты. Социокультурные, общественные и профессиональные институты, а также институты сферы знаний образуют неформальную подсистему. Анализируется фактор институциональной гармонизации как играющий ключевую роль при выборе стратегии международной кооперации, особенно в отношении стран с переходной экономикой. При заинтересованности субъектов международного сотрудничества и необходимом соответствии международных и национальных институтов стран, к которым относятся участники международной кооперации, круг практических вопросов стратегического сотрудничества достаточно традиционен. Однако дисбаланс институциональных установок препятствует долгосрочному международному сотрудничеству, поиск приемлемых решений и консенсуса требует все возрастающих ресурсных вложений участников и даже может повлечь прекращение кооперации. Автор определяет институциональные факторы как способствующие сближению национальных школ менеджмента разных стран мира, так и препятствующие этому процессу. Сделан вывод о приоритетных направлениях институциональной теории, позволяющих исследовать данную проблематику в условиях экономического кризиса. ; The paper studies problems related to institutional economic theory and institutional practice that arise under the conditions of globalization of economic relations and especially during the period of the world economic crisis. The author examines institutional environment of multinational companies as consisting of the formal and informal subsystems. The formal subsystem includes political, economic and legal institutions while social, cultural, professional and knowledge-related institutions are referred to the informal subsystem. The author analyses institutional harmonization factor as having the key role in the choice of international cooperation strategy in countries with economy in transition. In case of mutual interest of international economic players and matching international and national institutions, the practical issues of strategic cooperation are quite traditional. In contrary, mismatch of institutional setup creates an obstacle for long term international cooperation while the search for consensus increasingly consumes the resources of the participants and may eventually lead to disruption of cooperation. The author defines institutional factors facilitating the convergence of national schools of management of different countries as well as factors hindering that process. The conclusion is made about the priority directions of the institutional theory which will allow further research of this problem under the conditions of the world economic crisis.

Cities are growing in terms of economic activities, space and population thus over spilling in peri urban areas. Low population densities and land values have made the peri urban areas the target for land acquisition to accommodate planned expansion processes. In Tanzania, the Government initiated the 20,000 Plots Project in 2002 to among others, address critical shortage of planned and surveyed plots in the city and check proliferation of informal settlements. The Project was implemented in 12 areas in the City of Dar es Salaam, one of them being Wazo-Mivumoni. This study explored the processes and impacts of land acquisition on the livelihoods of peri urban households. It also built an understanding of peri urban areas in the Tanzanian context and further contextualized peri urban livelihoods in Wazo-Mivumoni. Data was collected through official, households and key informants interviews, likewise documentary review. An overarching understanding was drawn from the National Constitution (1977) that provides for the right of residents to own properties, the right to protection of their properties and payment of fair and adequate compensation subject to lawfully acquisition. Although the principal legislations for land acquisition recognize market values, government-regulated rates were instead used in Wazo-Mivumoni. The implementation process was characterized by lack of appreciation of the drivers of peri urban livelihoods, non-adherence to legal provisions and non-observarance of professional ethics. Further, the laws were found to be insufficient to adequately respond to present social and economic conditions. The implementation of the project amidst these conditions resulted to loss of assets, disruption of social networks and family ties. All these undermined household's capacity to sustain livelihoods after project implementation. Among the strategies adopted to overcome these impacts include intensification and increased innovation on farming and animal keeping; reliance on family support as well as reduction of family sizes. Despite the shortcomings, some positive gains including establishment of new economic activities (private schools, retail business and access to planned and surveyed plots) were realized. Residents participation and awareness creation during and after implementation is seen as paramount considerations for successful interventions. Others include establishment of a land cadastre to realise effective and efficient land administration system, establishment of a neutral body to verify valuation reports as well as provision of alternative plots as a measure to restore affected households to same condition as prior to acquisition.

This paper focuses on the analysis of weak states in the international trading system during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic crises, especially on Portugal's trade relations with the United States. We argue that the previous studies of the trade flows during these conflicts have not paid enough attention on smaller actors. Even though the Peninsular War caused severe disruption of agricultural production in Portugal, the United States, despite its strained relations with an ally of Portugal, Great Britain, became a key supplier for the Portuguese market. Clearly, the threatened position of the peninsula, and the need to supply the troops, awarded the Portuguese some room to manoeuvre in the international markets. Total war was not a constraint for all states — economic necessities trumped political and diplomatic concerns during the era of the first real-world wars. This situation was a temporary one, only to change after the conflict. ; Este artículo tiene como punto de enfoque el análisis de los estados más débiles en el comercio internacional durante las crisis revolucionaria y napoleónica, con especial énfasis en las relaciones comerciales entre Portugal y los Estados Unidos. Defendemos que los estudios anteriores con respecto al comercio en estos conflictos no prestan la debida atención a los más pequeños. Aunque las Guerra de la Independencia había perturbado la producción agrícola en Portugal, los Estados Unidos, a pesar de haber tensado las relaciones con Gran Bretaña, un aliado de Portugal, se convirtieron en un proveedor clave para el Mercado portugués. La posición amenazada de la península y la necesidad de proveer al ejército, dio a los portugueses el margen de maniobra en los mercados internacionales. La guerra total no fue un obstáculo para todos los estados—las necesidades económicas se superponen a las cuestiones políticas y diplomáticas durante la época de la guerra del mundo real en primer lugar. Esa situación era temporal y cambiaría después del conflicto. ; Funding for this project has been provided by Fundaçao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, FEDER, POCI 2010, project POCI/HAR/59281/2004 «Portuguese Foreign Trade in the first half of 19th Century», and Appalachian State University's University Research Council grant for 2010-2011.

Abstract. A quantitative approach for landslide risk assessment along transportation lines is presented and applied to a road and a railway alignment in the Nilgiri hills in southern India. The method allows estimating direct risk affecting the alignments, vehicles and people, and indirect risk resulting from the disruption of economic activities. The data required for the risk estimation were obtained from historical records. A total of 901 landslides were catalogued initiating from cut slopes along the railway and road alignment. The landslides were grouped into three magnitude classes based on the landslide type, volume, scar depth, run-out distance, etc and their probability of occurrence was obtained using frequency-volume distribution. Hazard, for a given return period, expressed as the number of landslides of a given magnitude class per kilometre of cut slopes, was obtained using Gumbel distribution and probability of landslide magnitude. In total 18 specific hazard scenarios were generated using the three magnitude classes and six return periods (1, 3, 5, 15, 25, and 50 years). The assessment of the vulnerability of the road and railway line was based on damage records whereas the vulnerability of different types of vehicles and people was subjectively assessed based on limited historic incidents. Direct specific loss for the alignments (railway line and road), vehicles (train, bus, lorry, car and motorbike) was expressed in monetary value (US$), and direct specific loss of life of commuters was expressed in annual probability of death. Indirect specific loss (US$) derived from the traffic interruption was evaluated considering alternative driving routes, and includes losses resulting from additional fuel consumption, additional travel cost, loss of income to the local business, and loss of revenue to the railway department. The results indicate that the total loss, including both direct and indirect loss, from 1 to 50 years return period, varies from US$ 90 840 to US$ 779 500 and the average annual total loss was estimated as US$ 35 000. The annual probability of a person most at risk travelling in a bus, lorry, car, motorbike and train is less than 10-4/annum in all the time periods considered. The detailed estimation of direct and indirect risk will facilitate developing landslide risk mitigation and management strategies for transportation lines in the study area.

Sufis' theory of ghorba (estrangement or exile) underlies here a reflection on exile in contemporary Arab cultures. Hence Ibn al-Arabi's speculations on ghorba in Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya shed a new light on Arjun Appadurai's notion of "ethnoscape." The Sufi concept of ghorba paves the way for a modern Arab ethnoscape, where the Arab subject experiences transnational movement in the global space without associating this experience with the negative aspects of exile.
Ibn al-Arabi dismisses the negative effects of "geographic" displacement. According to his reasoning, an expatriate does not feel estranged anywhere he or she travels, since the world—and the divine—are in continuity with the human subject. The real exile is a psychological experience resulting from the disruption of monist unity and harmony between human and divine, man and the world.
This conception of exile challenges nationalist theories of estrangement based on the assumption that a sense of displacement is bound to physical movement out of the national territory. Ghorba is a state in which the subject is far from his or her ethical and spiritual plenitude (thanks to the Sufi mystical unity with the divine), not a geopolitical situation. This conception challenges the dogmatic distinction of House of Islam versus House of War in Arab Islamic Sunni tradition, where the displacement out of the former results in an experience of exile.
In modern terms, ghorba—as conceptualized by Sufis—provides a traditional basis helping the modern Arab subject cope with the experience of displacement, by shifting the paradigm of belonging from the realm of geopolitics to that of spirituality and ethics. Thus the construction of a modern postnational Arab subjectivity can be achieved thanks to the investment of the ethnoscape—a virtual space that transcends national boundaries but keeps active a network of affects and cultural references and products unifying an ethnically distinct subject. The Sufi sense of belonging to the whole world makes it politically and ethically acceptable to feel at home outside of one's homeland, without being stripped from one's ethnicity. It adds to this compromise a dimension of spiritual fulfillment, since the horizontal ethnoscape intersects with a vertical spiritual axis, constantly neutralizing nostalgia to the geographic paradise of origins.

Post‐disaster reconstruction is likely to suffer resource shortages and supply disruptions. The devastating Wenchuan earthquake on 12 May 2008 in China served as a typical example. After the catastrophe, resource problems such as price escalation and market inflation posed a significant challenge to Chinese policy makers and reconstruction team. Based on field surveys, the study attempts to examine the Wenchuan earthquake reconstruction practice and identify the most vulnerable resources along with their resourcing impediments inherent in the reconstruction process. The research findings show that at the early stage of reconstruction, labour and materials such as brick, cement, steel and aggregate were the most needed yet vulnerable resources. Procurement of these resources was mainly hindered by (1) reconstruction schedule and speed, (2) the impacts of the 2008 global financial crisis, (3) inadequate local transportation capacity, (4) dysfunction of the construction market, and (5) insufficient engagement of local construction industry. While the interventions and measures Chinese government adopted after the earthquake seem to be able to deal with resourcing bottlenecks in a short time; different efforts to reduce the impacts of these five areas are needed with a view to expediting longer‐term disaster recovery and reconstruction. Santruka Atstatant po nelaimiu tiketina, kad truks ištekliu ir kartais nutruks tiekimas. 2008 m. gegužes 12 d. Kinija supurtes niokojantis Wenchuan žemes drebejimas – būdingas pavyzdys. Po katastrofos kilusi ištekliu problema, kaip antai pakilusios kainos ir padidejusi rinka, Kinijos politikams ir atstatymo komandai tapo rimtu iššūkiu. Remiantis praktiniais tyrimais, darbe meginama išnagrineti atstatymo veikla po Wenchuan žemes drebejimo ir nustatyti sunkiausiai gaunamus išteklius kartu su atstatymo procesui būdingomis kliūtimis ju gauti. Tyrimo išvados rodo, kad ankstyvajame atstatymo darbu etape labiausiai reikejo, bet daugiausiai trūko tokiu ištekliu, kaip darbo jega ir medžiagos: plytos, cementas, plienas ir užpildai. Šiu ištekliu isigyti labiausiai trukde (1) atstatymo darbu tvarkaraštis ir sparta, (2) 2008 metu pasaulines finansu krizes poveikis, (3) nepakankamas vietinio transporto našumas, (4) sutrikusi statybu rinka ir (5) nepakankamas vietines statybu pramones dalyvavimas. Nors po žemes drebejimo Kinijos valdžios pasirinktos priemones ir intervencijos būdai lyg ir leido trumpam pašalinti ištekliu trūkumus, šiu penkiu punktu poveikiui mažinti reikia ivairiu pastangu, kad spartus atsigavimas ir atstatymas po nelaimiu būtu ilgalaikis. First Published Online: 10 Feb 2011

Context. Mismanaged fire is one of the main processes threatening biodiversity in northern Australian savannas. While the suite of species adversely affected by fire has been quite well documented, empirical studies that seek to identify the ecological mechanisms that underpin these declines are rare. This dearth of mechanistic knowledge is hindering the refinement and development of conservation management practices and policy, such as early dry-season prescribed burning programmes. Aims. Our aim was to describe why red-backed fairy-wrens (RBWs; Malurus melanocephalus) decline after fire, as shown by previous studies. Methods. We examined the effects of early and late dry-season fire (and an unburnt control) on the mortality, dispersal, physiology and breeding of colour-marked RBWs. We also tested whether the early fire area became an important refuge after the late fire. Key results. Neither fire treatment caused a detectable increase in mortality. Individuals relocated short distances to unburnt habitat following both fires. Some individuals used the early fire area after the late fire, but only if they were already living nearby and most also relied on adjacent unburnt habitat. Blood-parasite infection and pectoral-muscle attrition were unaffected by the treatments. The early fire caused loss of body mass at a time when the control population gained mass after breeding, whereas the late fire had no effect on mass. Blood haemoglobin concentrations in birds affected by the late fire deviated from the levels observed in the control population, presumably because of disruption of behaviours associated with the onset of the breeding season. Mayfield estimations of daily egg-survival probability showed no difference among the treatments, whereas the daily probability of nestling survival was significantly lower in the late fire area. Pairs affected by the late fire also had a shorter breeding season and none attempted multiple broods after earlier successes. Conclusions. Our results suggest that the reproductive output of RBWs is low following late dry-season fire, and that this is the main mechanism that explains their decline. Implications. This study provides support for the value of using early dry-season prescribed burning to limit the effects of late dry-season wildfire. However, there are important caveats to this, such as the retention of near-by unburnt habitat, and the consideration of variable regeneration rates for different vegetation types.