Suchergebnisse

Cet article examine l'évolution des besoins en régulation du secteur des assurances. Celui-ci tend vers le secteur bancaire si bien que la frontière entre les 2 intermédiaires financiers s'estompe. La littérature assurantielle, au contraire de la littérature bancaire, est peu développée à l'exception des problèmes d'asymétrie d'information. Cet article consistera tout d'abord en une revue de la littérature sur la régulation des assurances. Ensuite, au travers des changements qui affectent le secteur, montrer l'implication sur les besoins en régulation. Au départ d'une comparaison des besoins en régulation des secteurs bancaire et des assurances, l'analyse a permis de voir une certaine convergence. La spécificité du secteur assurance tient dans son aspect social. Il permet de réduire l'incertitude des ménages et des entreprises qui peuvent se spécifier dans leur rôle, créer des initiatives personnelles et investir dans des projets. Des risques bien connus en littérature bancaire comme la panique ou le risque systémique touchent désormais le secteur assurance. Avec le développement des nouveaux produits d'assurance (essentiellement dans le secteur vie), les passifs des sociétés d'assurance deviennent plus liquides. Un risque d'inadéquation apparaît désormais plus marqué. Un risque de type panique bancaire pourrait apparaître. Les assurances investissent en masse dans les marchés financiers si bien qu'il existe désormais un lien étroit entre les deux. Les récentes fluctuations boursières ont mis en lumière la forte exposition des entreprises d'assurance aux marchés financiers. A l'inverse, les assurances ont une position plus marquée sur les marchés financiers si bien qu'une faillite généralisée du secteur pourrait induire un risque systémique. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

My contribution is a sort of synthesis of my Ph. D. thesis in progress A Window with a View: Lisbon in the Fiction by António Lobo Antunes, combined with the analysis of some aspects of Rubem Fonseca's work which was the main subject of my thesis for the undergraduate degree. The reason why I decided to put together these two authors, born in different continents, was the fact that both have chosen as their narrative scene their own big cities: Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro, offering of them a very particular perspective. The Portuguese author António Lobo Antunes starts his career publishing two different titles at the same time, both strongly autobiographical: Memória de Elefante and Os Cus de Judas, in 1979, where he portrays a morally and economically decaying Lisbon, victim of a nearly half century long dictatorship that was also responsible for a general insensibility towards Lisbon's urban decadence, and victim of building speculation. The Brazilian author Rubem Fonseca has also portrayed in his short story collection Feliz Ano Novo, published in 1975, a similar process of degradation that hurts his Rio de Janeiro. Fonseca, however, adds the social phenomenon of the generalized extreme violence, so characteristic of Brazilian society in this turn of the century. Moreover, both authors, with a very bold and original style, denounce the deliberate hiding of the growing decline of their own countries where the responsibility for all these institutional lies must be searched for in their respective governments.

The single most valuable source of information for understanding Egypt's administration of its northern empire during the Amarna period is a corpus of roughly 350 cuneiform tablets, known collectively as the "Amarna letters." These documents, which come mostly from an archive found at Tell el-Amarna in the 1880s, were exchanged between the Egyptian court and Near Eastern rulers of polities both large and small. Although the chronology is still debated, the letters are thought to span a period of at most three decades in the latter half of the fourteenth century b.c.—between the 32nd year of Amenhotep III and the 4th year of Tutankhamun.1 While certain aspects of these letters have been extensively studied, their potential to illuminate the internal structure of the empire at this time has by no means been exhausted. As I hope to demonstrate herein, the results of a systematic study of the greeting formulas used by Egypt's vassals when addressing the pharaoh can reveal a great deal about the varying degrees of political control within the Egyptian empire. After a brief description of the methodology employed in this study, I will discuss the clustering in social rank that I believe is discernible among the different geographic areas of Egypt's northern empire. Whether these proposed rankings may potentially shed light on the preparation of individual treaties between the Egyptian state and particular vassals is the subject of the concluding section of this article.

In the last decade and a half the process of desecularization has been undoubtedly verified in Serbia. Not only that the changes have been verified in the religious complex in general, but in traditional religious groups in particular as well. The revival of religiousness and people?s attachment to religion and church have been clearly proved in all aspects of religious life: in the areas of religious identification, doctrinaire religious beliefs and ritual religious practices. It should also be noted that in times of extremely turbulent political and social changes in the Balkans, all traditional religious complexes, orthodox, catholic and Muslim, began forming close ties with political and state, public and binding domains, which was absolutely unthinkable of a decade and a half ago. Which leads us to the crucial question: can religion make a contribution to the process of integration coming form the surrounding countries as the imperative of foreign powers on one hand, and as the striving of the majority of population in all the post socialist countries in the Balkans on the other hand, or will it only cause damage and interfere with the process of integration of those societies into the European commonwealth of nations? This article discusses different opinions that view the traditional complexes of religion, language and nation as disruptive factors of modernization of the Balkan countries, as well as completely opposite opinions based on the experiences of traditional Islamic societies in which religion is not a factor that hinders their rapid modernization.

Purpose. To examine how perceptions of the local neighborhood relate to adolescents' walking and cycling. Design. Exploratory cross-sectional study. Setting. Birth cohort from the Nepean Hospital, Sydney, Australia. Subjects. Three hundred forty-seven adolescents (79.1% response rate; 49.6% boys; mean age = 13.0 ± 0.2 years) and their parents. Measures. Self-report and parental-report questionnaires. Results. Multiple linear regressions, adjusted for level of maternal education, revealed that boys who reported having many peers to hang out with locally, cycled for recreation (β = 0.242, p = .006) or for transport (β = 0.141, p = .046) more often, and walked for transport for longer (β = 0.129, p = .024) on weekdays. For girls this variable was related to cycling for recreation on weekends (β = 0.164, p = .006) and walking to school (β = 0.118, p = .002). Adolescents who waved/talked to neighbors walked for transport more often (boys, β = 0.149, p = .037; girls, β = 0.119, p = .012). Girls who perceived local roads to be safe spent more time walking for transport on weekdays (β = 0.183, p = .007) and for exercise on weekends (β = 0.184, p = .034). Parents' perception of heavy traffic was negatively associated with boys' walking for transport (β = −0.138, p = .037) and many aspects of girls' walking and cycling. Conclusion. Social interaction and road safety may be important predictors of adolescents' walking and cycling in their neighborhood. Limitations are the use of self-report and cross-sectional data. Longitudinal studies may clarify these relations.

As part of its mission to address issues of recruitment, retention,
and integration of women and people of color in the profession, the
APSA Task Force on Mentoring periodically publishes articles on some
aspect of mentoring that will help political scientists move
successfully through the profession. This brief symposium on
"Publishing Your First Book" is just one such example of this
initiative. For more information about the Task Force and its
ongoing projects, contact Linda Lopez, APSA Director of Education
and Professional Development Programs, at llopez@apsanet.org.Making a realistic assessment of your goals in publishing a book, and
matching a publisher with the text and with your goals is the first
step in bringing your research effort to completion. Social
scientists write books hoping to influence an election, change the
political debate, shift an academic focus, get tenure, or get a job.
A good book, well-published, can help achieve some
of these goals—but there are other ways to work toward them. Authors
and publishers will be happiest, and readers best served, if authors
take stock of the possible, and then market their books to
publishers who are best suited to help with the goals they've
chosen. Beyond writing the book, the author has three clear tasks:
deciding on realistic goals for the book; executing due diligence in
finding the right publishing house; and making the gist of the book
accessible to an educated, but not necessarily expert, reader by
writing a good proposal. Matching expectations to the book will help
identify the most appropriate presses.

Aborder la réalité universitaire sous l'angle de la fonctionnalité suppose une mise en perspective de l'univers de la formation académique avec celui du marché du travail. Du côté de la formation, nous pouvons identifier provisoirement deux dimensions: l'acquisition des connaissances académiques proprement dites à travers la relation pédagogique, que nous appellerons le « savoir-science » ; l'acquisition d'un autre type de savoir, plus diffus, originant du contexte culturel de l'étudiant en cours de formation, que nous appellerons le « savoir-culture ».
En postulant ainsi deux types de formation, nous pouvons poser le problème de la fonctionnalité en formulant l'hypothèse suivante: la formation académique du sociologue serait non fonctionnelle dans la mesure où le savoir-culture serait davantage utile sur le marché du travail. Distinguant, en outre, une fonctionnalité réelle, utilitaire, et une fonctionnalité symbolique, nous pouvons développer cette hypothèse en quatre hypothèses spécifiques :
— le savoir-science n'a pas de fonctionnalité réelle parce que le rôle du sociologue dans la société n'est pas défini;
— le savoir-science a une fonctionnalité symbolique pour autant qu'il sert de justification au poste occupé et au savoir-culture;
— le savoir-culture a une fonctionnalité symbolique pour autant qu'il sert à s'imposer dans les relations sociales inhérentes au travail;
— le savoir-culture a une fonctionnalité réelle puisqu'il est utilisé pour donner un aspect sociologique de surface aux travaux du sociologue, ce qui permet à celui-ci de légitimer son titre et la qualification de son travail.
À la limite, l'université ne servirait-elle au sociologue qu'à devenir capable de se légitimer sur le marché du travail?

Health interventions vary substantially in the degree of effort required to implement them. To some extent this is apparent in their financial cost, but the nature and availability of non-financial resources is often of similar importance. In particular, human resource requirements are frequently a major constraint. We propose a conceptual framework for the analysis of interventions according to their degree of technical complexity; this complements the notion of institutional capacity in considering the feasibility of implementing an intervention. Interventions are categorized into four dimensions: characteristics of the basic intervention; characteristics of delivery; requirements on government capacity; and usage characteristics. The analysis of intervention complexity should lead to a better understanding of supply- and demand-side constraints to scaling up, indicate priorities for further research and development, and can point to potential areas for improvement of specific aspects of each intervention to close the gap between the complexity of an intervention and the capacity to implement it. The framework is illustrated using the examples of scaling up condom social marketing programmes, and the DOTS strategy for tuberculosis control in highly resource-constrained countries. The framework could be used as a tool for policy-makers, planners and programme managers when considering the expansion of existing projects or the introduction of new interventions. Intervention complexity thus complements the considerations of burden of disease, cost-effectiveness, affordability and political feasibility in health policy decision-making. Reducing the technical complexity of interventions will be crucial to meeting the health-related Millennium Development Goals.

The definition of the ideal numbers and distribution of human resources required for control of road traffic injury (RTI) is not as advanced as for other health problems. We can nonetheless identify functions that need to be addressed across the spectrum of injury control: surveillance; road safety (including infrastructure, vehicle design, and behaviour); and trauma care. Many low-cost strategies to improve these functions in low- or middle-income countries can be identified. For all these strategies, there is need for adequate institutional capacity, including funding, legal authority, and human resources. Several categories of human resources need to be developed: epidemiologists who can handle injury data, design surveillance systems, and undertake research; engineers and planners versed in safety aspects of road design, traffic flow, urban planning, and vehicle design; police and lawyers who understand the health impact of traffic law; clinicians who can develop cost-effective improvements in the entire system of trauma treatment; media experts to undertake effective behaviour change and social marketing; and economists to assist with cost-effectiveness evaluations. RTI control can be strengthened by enhancing such training in these disciplines, as well as encouraging retention of those who have the needed skills. Mechanisms to enhance collaboration between these different fields need to be promoted. Finally, the burden of RTI is borne disproportionately by the poor; in addition to technical issues, more profound equity issues must be addressed. This mandates that people from all professional backgrounds who work for RTI control should develop skills in advocacy and politics.

Health interventions vary substantially in the degree of effort required to implement them. To some extent this is apparent in their financial cost, but the nature and availability of non-financial resources is often of similar importance. In particular, human resource requirements are frequently a major constraint. We propose a conceptual framework for the analysis of interventions according to their degree of technical complexity; this complements the notion of institutional capacity in considering the feasibility of implementing an intervention. Interventions are categorized into four dimensions: characteristics of the basic intervention; characteristics of delivery; requirements on government capacity; and usage characteristics. The analysis of intervention complexity should lead to a better understanding of supply- and demand-side constraints to scaling up, indicate priorities for further research and development, and can point to potential areas for improvement of specific aspects of each intervention to close the gap between the complexity of an intervention and the capacity to implement it. The framework is illustrated using the examples of scaling up condom social marketing programmes, and the DOTS strategy for tuberculosis control in highly resource-constrained countries. The framework could be used as a tool for policy-makers, planners and programme managers when considering the expansion of existing projects or the introduction of new interventions. Intervention complexity thus complements the considerations of burden of disease, cost-effectiveness, affordability and political feasibility in health policy decision-making. Reducing the technical complexity of interventions will be crucial to meeting the health-related Millennium Development Goals.

The states of South Asia initiated reform in the public sector for various reasons. At times, the impetus for reform came from within the systems while there have also been pressures from powerful external actors. Reform policies in these states neglected comprehensive analyses of the issues and the problems were exacerbated by the inability of the leadership to resist external pressures to guide reforms in certain directions. The policies were based on unrealistic assumptions about the needs and capability of the systems which only contributed to the perpetuation of status quo. Ambitious reforms plans were partially or minimally implemented. In the process, critical aspects were overlooked while power and privilege of influential public bureaucracies and other groups continued to increase. The overdependence of political leadership on a competent and permanent civil service and, in some cases, the military precluded any possibility of meaningful change through reforms. A second problem is the tendency to view administrative reforms as public sector reform. The administrative machinery and personnel constitute an important element of the public sector, but economic, political and social actors and institutions must also be included to make public sector reforms comprehensive. This article argues that public sector reform remains a myth in South Asia due to the neglect of establishing a clear cause and effect relationship in reform policies and formulating strategies without a clear definition of the public sector. Limited progress, however, has been achieved in some areas, but they do not add up to the scale of public sector reform.

The states of South Asia initiated reform in the public sector for various reasons. At times, the impetus for reform came from within the systems while there have also been pressures from powerful external actors. Reform policies in these states neglected comprehensive analyses of the issues and the problems were exacerbated by the inability of the leadership to resist external pressures to guide reforms in certain directions. The policies were based on unrealistic assumptions about the needs and capability of the systems which only contributed to the perpetuation of status quo. Ambitious reforms plans were partially or minimally implemented. In the process, critical aspects were overlooked while power and privilege of influential public bureaucracies and other groups continued to increase. The overdependence of political leadership on a competent and permanent civil service and, in some cases, the military precluded any possibility of meaningful change through reforms. A second problem is the tendency to view administrative reforms as public sector reform. The administrative machinery and personnel constitute an important element of the public sector, but economic, political and social actors and institutions must also be included to make public sector reforms comprehensive. This article argues that public sector reform remains a myth in South Asia due to the neglect of establishing a clear cause and effect relationship in reform policies and formulating strategies without a clear definition of the public sector. Limited progress, however, has been achieved in some areas, but they do not add up to the scale of public sector reform.

Abstract. Theories of smoking have been developed about the conditions and causes of smoking as well as for explaining its maintenance. Moreover, factors of smoking motivation have been identified, which describe incentives to smoke and types of smoking behavior. The most frequently reported motives are psychosocial smoking, sensorimotor smoking, indulgent smoking, stimulation smoking, sedation smoking, dependent smoking, and automatic smoking. In the first phase after the start of smoking, psychosocial smoking is the dominating motive, which is best represented by theories of social psychology. Sensorimotor smoking may be best explained by theories of classical and operant conditioning. Indulgent smoking (= smoking for pleasure) may be explained by neurochemical theories and by the neurobiological theories of dependence emphasizing nicotine-induced activation of mesolimbic dopaminergic reinforcement. Stimulation smoking and sedation smoking are related to arousal models. Moreover, sedation smoking is also explained by aspects of reducing negative affect (as claimed by theories of affect regulation) and by biochemical theories emphasizing serotonergic mechanisms in modulating anxiety as well as by theories of dependence. Dependent smoking, which is mostly based on negative reinforcement (suppression of withdrawal symptoms) may be explained by neurochemical theories as well as by neurobiological theories of psychological and physical dependence explaining blunted dopaminergic and serotonergic responsivity as due to desensitization of respective receptors. Also automatic smoking may be explained by processes of habit learning and neurobiological theories of dependence. Finally, personality theories have been applied to all of these smoking motives.

Gender studies of violence have forced scholars to rethink the association of femininity with 'vulnerability' and the objectivisation of women as mute victims of organised violence and oppression, incapable of agency. Recent debates about the role women and homosexuals should play in military systems in the United States and other countries have sparked a renewed interest in exploring historical contexts of the relationships between gender and organised violence. If we consider violence as a performative act, whole new dimensions of gendered aspects of the history of violence and warfare emerge. In this article, I intend to draw on my research on gender, honour, and violence during the French Wars of Religion to explore the roles played by Protestant and Catholic women in southern France during siege operations. These besieged women acted to support their coreligionists by participating in the conflicts as healers, suppliers and even combatants. Besieged women were considered 'vulnerable' in sieges, yet their involvement in siege operations challenged contemporary gender stereotypes, threatened social norms and opened new potential cultural possibilities for these women. I hope to show how the discourses on violence, bodies, revolt and religion shaped the tough choices that confronted these women as they participated actively in civil violence. The besieged women in southern France, I believe, are key to understanding the dynamics of gender and warfare and the ways in which women have actively participated in violence – especially in cases of civil violence where the status of the body politic was thrown into question.