Council Meeting Research Articles

Visual Multi-Face Tracking Applied to Council Proceedings

Face recognition, face measurement, camera control, measurement of expressions and other tasks can benefit from online visual multi-face tracking. Given the availability of high quality general purpose detectors and tracking-by-detection frameworks, we provide guidance on how to develop a multi-face tracker out of standard components. In this paper, we train common object detectors specifically on faces to understand how well these detectors perform and evaluate different classifier loss functions. Our specific case study tracks faces in the context of council meetings and in parliamentary settings such as the Canadian House of Commons for which we create an annotated video set as a benchmark (see Fig. 1). These meetings in a parliamentary setting are often recorded from multiple cameras with participants and audiences walking around. Fast camera switching and zooming lead to significant scale changes of faces. Therefore, these settings can be characterized as tracking in unconstrained video. This will negatively impact the tracking accuracy and increase the likelihood of identity switches (IDS) between face labels. However, being able to track in unconstrained video enables a wider range of measurement applications. We find that while online tracking based on combining state-of-the-art methods can lead to high-quality tracking results, there is still a large gap between offline and online methods. The discussed method can be adapted to other tracking tasks for which large image databases are available.

The Interlocking Processes Constraining the Struggle for Sanctuary in the Trump Era: The Case of La Puente, CA

By 10 January 2017, activists in the predominately Latina/o working class city of La Puente, California had lobbied the council to declare the city a sanctuary supporting immigrants, people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities. The same community members urged the school district to declare itself a sanctuary. While community members rejoiced in pushing elected officials to pass these inclusive resolutions, there were multiple roadblocks reducing the potential for more substantive change. Drawing on city council and school board meetings, resolutions and my own involvement in this sanctuary struggle, I focus on a continuum of three overlapping and interlocking manifestations of white supremacist heteronormative patriarchy: neoliberal diversity discourses, institutionalized policies, and a re-emergence of high-profiled white supremacist activities. Together, these dynamics minimized, contained and absorbed community activism and possibilities of change. They reinforced the status quo by maintaining limits on who belongs and sustaining intersecting hierarchies of race, immigration status, gender, and sexuality. This extended case adds to the scant scholarship on the current sanctuary struggles, including among immigration scholars. It also illustrates how the state co-opts and marginalizes movement language, ideas, and people, providing a cautionary tale about the forces that restrict more transformative change.

Setting the stage: scenic design and observers’ perceptions of the quality of public governance meetings

ABSTRACT Whilst the importance of securing effective governance has been widely researched, seating configurations and the design of governance settings have not. Taking a dramaturgical perspective, this paper uses the conceptual language of scenic design to examine the relationship between meeting size, seating configurations, actor positioning and perceptions of public governance quality in UK council meetings. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, the paper finds strong support that those involved in public governance feel that seating configurations and actor positioning are important considerations and that these factors can help to explain variation in perceptions of meetings’ public governance quality.

El papel del consejo de clase para la organización del trabajo pedagógico

Partindo do pressuposto de que as discussões e processos vividos no conselho de classe interferem nas práticas pedagógicas do professor em sala de aula, este estudo tem como objetivo geral analisar as contribuições das reuniões do conselho de classe para a organização do trabalho pedagógico. A pesquisa de abordagem qualitativa foi desenvolvida por meio de Estudo de Caso. Para levantamento de dados foram utilizados análise documental, observação do conselho de classe e entrevista semiestruturada. Os achados apontam que a lógica de avaliação classificatória e excludente que orienta o conselho de classe influencia o trabalho pedagógico do professor em sala de aula.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP AND IMPROVING PRODUCT QUALITY IN THE ENVIRONMENT OF AIN SHAMS UNIVERSITY

The Current study aims to define the concept of quality within the University's internal quality assurance system, which targeted teachers, students and policies and from this logic, the importance of this study lies in seeking to uncover the reality of the relationship between university leadership and improving product quality in the environment of Ain Shams University, which did not deal with qualitative or quantitative studies. In large part, the current study tried to fill in the theoretical and quantitative gaps of the subject of study. Where researchers used environmental quality systems as an entry point to raise the competitiveness of universities, by describing environmental quality systems in Egyptian public universities ,studying the nature of the relationship between the set of internal and external environmental factors and the application of environmental quality systems in Egyptian universities, in addition to studying the nature of the relationship between the application of quality systems, Environmental and improving the quality of educational service. The researchers also used the analytical descriptive approach and the content analysis of the minutes of the Ain Shams University Council meetings on the relationship between university leaders quality. The data were also processed Using: (T) test, correlation coefficient, ka coefficient, standard deviation, mean semantic reference, numbers and percentages for all the contents of the guide. The study reached conclusions, including the presence of statistically significant differences between the concept of university leaderships for quality. And the achievement of comprehensive quality, the existence of statistically significant differences between the quality management standards of university leaders and the problems of quality management at the university, and the existence of statistically significant differences between the strategies of university leaders to achieve systems. Total quality management for its objectives, effectiveness and the achievement of Comprehensive quality.

Changing Climate, Unchanged Mandate: bric Countries in the UN Security Council

Abstract The UN Security Council has turned its attention to the link between climate change and security several times. Its members and other UN member states participating in discussions have remained divided over the Council’s engagement. Among vocal opponents are the bric countries: Brazil, Russia, India, and China. This article examines the argumentation of these countries during seven UN Security Council meetings between 2007 and 2020. The bric countries often concede that climate change is a threat, but they strongly resist the idea that such a threat could be addressed by the Council. I use a Critical Legal Studies approach to analyse how the bric countries bolstered their key argumentation before the Council. I find that the bric countries exploited a ‘background rule’ concerning the unsc mandate and used it to reaffirm the limits on the Council’s action. They were thus able to avoid self-contradiction and strengthen their political position through a legal argument. This complemented other objections they raised against the Council’s involvement: its insufficient expertise, inefficient tools, and the inapplicability of the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities to its decision-making.

“If the gas pipeline would be built, we lose”: transcript of Reagan's speech at the US National Security Council Meeting on the Sanctions against Soviet Union

The object of this research is the declassified transcript of the US National Security Council Meeting of July 9, 1981, dedicated to introduction of the economic and political restrictions on building of the Soviet gas main pipeline. The subject of this research is the analysis information-bearing capabilities of the office documentation of the US National Security Council Meetings for conducting the scientific assessment of sanctions policy of the US government against the Soviet Union in the 1980s as part of directives on restricting the access of the Soviet Union to foreign markets. The article examines the published protocol the US National Security Council Meeting and related documents that contain information on creating the regime to impede the construction of the gas main pipeline to Europe. The novelty of lies in the fact that this article is first within the framework of historiographical analysis to study the plans of the US President R. Reagan on interruption of the active efforts of the Soviet Union to supply Western Europe with energy. Publication of the document clearly demonstrates that the ideas of restarting the trade-economic development of the Soviet Union were later implemented in other countries in the XXI century, when the Russian Nord Stream pipeline became one of the crucial vanguards within the system of control of the US national security interests in Europe. Based on the newly introduced documents from the foreign archives of the CIA, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, materials of the US periodical press, and memoirs, the author explores the options prepared by the US agencies aimed at complete shutdown, and restriction of access of the participants of the Soviet-German gas pipeline deal to foreign markets and resources, as well as the response of business community to trade embargo with the USSR.

LVIV REGION STATE ARCHIVE DOCUMENTS AS A SOURCE FOR THE STUDY OF CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY OF MYKHAILO HRUSHEVSKY

Summary. The purpose of the article is to investigate the Hrushevsky studies potential of SALR collections. The methodological basis of the work is an interdisciplinary approach. Particular emphasis is placed on the structural and functional system analysis of historiographical facts and the method of critical analysis of documentary material. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the attempt to comprehensively analyze Hrushevsky-related materials in the funds of SALR. Conclusions. The article has concluded that the collections of Lviv University (Fund 26) are marked by the biggest amount of materials about M. Hrushevsky. The most valuable document is the personal file of the scholar as a university professor. It contains 72 documents written in German, Ukrainian and Polish. The most diverse Hrushevsky-related materials are deposited in the 7th description of the university fund, which contains numerous office materials of the Faculty of Philosophy. Protocols of the faculty council meetings are especially informational as well. Another little-known component of this description is the semester programs of lectures and seminars and the related correspondence of M. Hrushevsky. The personal funds of Hrushevsky’s colleagues at Lviv University (K. Studynsky, L. Finkel) are also connected with Hrushevsky-related materials. Hrushevsky materials are deposited in the personal funds of other Galician figures of the time (I. Kalynovych and M. Korduba). The SALR funds contain documentation of Galician cultural and educational societies, but also of those created by or associated with M. Hrushevsky (for example, the Society of Supporters of Ukrainian Literature, Science and Art in Lviv). The large fund of the police directorate in Lviv (file 350, case 3903), contains the documents of the criminal proceedings against M. Hrushevsky that are also little known to Hrushevsky studies scholars. The above-mentioned Hrushevsky materials allow us to certify the SALR collections as one of the most diverse and informative sources for the study of the biography of M. Hrushevsky during his twenty years of life in Lviv.

Национально-культурные организации в этнической и мигрантской инфраструктуре сибирского города (на примере Томска и Иркутска)

The article explores one of the major points of contradiction in the interests and roles of Siberian urban actors with regard to so-called ‘national-cultural’ organizations (natsional'no-kul'turnye organizatsii, NKO, also known as natsional'no-kul'turnye avtonomii, NKA), ‘national-cultural’ associations, centers, foundations, etc., all of which are ethnic organizations. Specifically, it looks into why and how these organizations have become the centre of intersecting ethnic and migration discourses, what is their role and place in the urban infrastructure being created and used by migrants coming to Siberian cities, and how the relations between the state and national-cultural organizations formed at the regional level. Carried out in the Siberian urban centres of Tomsk and Irkutsk, our 30-year research into these questions (including thorough research methods such as observation, engagement in public events and public and advisory council meetings, interview and survey, analysis of documents and other materials released by national-cultural organizations as well as by the mass media) has enabled us to determine what place national-cultural organizations occupy in the migrant infrastructure of the two cities and to establish what kind of relations there is between these organizations and migrants from countries of the same ethnic origin – paternalistic or the one that allows leaders and activists from these organizations build their own social capital. The study of 2018 and 2019 – in-depth interviews and surveys held in Tomsk and Irkutsk – resulted in a substantial correction of the research results we had obtained in a few years prior to it. It revealed that the role migrants play in the local national-cultural organizations is not that of full members, rather, they act as an object of patronage on the part of the local ethnic elite deeply integrated into the host society (or ethnic activist groups that position themselves as such). In fact, the (social, economic and legal) support of these organizations provided to migrants is insignificant, and only a small number of migrants participate in cultural events organized by the local NKOs. Thus, these NKOs can hardly be seen as an element of the migrant infrastructure or an asset facilitating adaptation of migrants in these cities. It also became clear that migrants’ ties with their ‘historical homeland’/home countries, which the local national-cultural organizations take advantage of in sustaining their activities as well as the status of their leaders, often result in the issue of ‘conflicting loyalties’, especially when home countries actively conduct diasporic politics toward this category of their citizens abroad.

‘The newcomer effect’: Gender quotas, state reforms and service responsiveness in local councils

AbstractThe global spread of gender quotas has led to a burgeoning literature examining gender differences in the responsiveness of national representatives. In this study, I shifted the attention from national to local representatives, and investigated service responsiveness in the local councils of Albania following the implementation of gender quotas in 2015, a policy change that has led to a substantial number of women newcomers in local councils. Using data from the transcripts of 75 council meetings held during August–December 2016 and 2018 in 11 councils, I show that over time women have shifted their attention from education to social welfare, a change occurring amid the implementation of a new government programme seeking to address the failure of social welfare reform in the country. The study advances our understanding of women's political representation and service responsiveness in an understudied region, demonstrating that women prioritise services that benefit the poor and disadvantaged groups.

GEF 57th Council Meeting: Navigating the Path to Transformational Change

GEF 57th Council Meeting: Navigating the Path to Transformational Change

Place‐based Identity and Framing in Local Environmental Politics

AbstractFraming has long been a central construct in scholarship on the role of rhetoric and discourse in the policy process. Research on policy framing and identity thus far has neglected the role of place‐based identity, focusing instead on identity constructs such as race, class, gender, and ethnicity. Through a mixed methods analysis of transcripts of City Council meetings in Philadelphia from 2007 to 2017, we analyze how policy makers, local interest groups, and national/regional interest groups employ place‐based framing to define, explain, and propose solutions to environmental problems. We contrast local place‐based frames with more abstract global frames that center arguments for policy change on the national or global implications of environmental problems. Our results reveal that place‐based framing is a dominant mode of discourse in Philadelphia environmental policy discussions and that actors may employ frames strategically so as to appeal to place‐based identities and to further political goals.

ESA Council Meeting Minutes Friday, 31 July 2020

ESA Council Meeting Minutes Friday, 31 July 2020

Physiological Societies Across the Globe Unite in an Effort to Handle the COVID-19 Pandemic

Physiological Societies Across the Globe Unite in an Effort to Handle the COVID-19 Pandemic

Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, Council and Business Meetings, 2020.

Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, Council and Business Meetings, 2020.

College Members whose deaths were reported at Council meetings between October 2019 and October 2020

College Members whose deaths were reported at Council meetings between October 2019 and October 2020

January to March: Vaccinating Europe

The three European Council meetings which are discussed in these Notes covered a wide range of subjects and included sessions with the new US president and NATO's secretary general. They were nevertheless dominated by the pandemic and more particularly by the efforts of the EU and its member states to vaccinate their citizens as rapidly as possible. It was not an easy task and the EU rollout during the first three months of 2021 was significantly slower than that of either the UK or the US. There were many explanations, including the European Commission's failure to invest enough money early enough, inefficiencies at member state level and the production difficulties of the manufacturers in general and of AstraZeneca in particular. As the months have passed, many if not most of these difficulties seem, however, to be less consequential than they did at the time. The Commission and most of the member states learned from and made good their early failures and, AstraZeneca apart, BioNTech and the other manufacturers succeeded in delivering even more vaccines than they had promised to do. These improvements were already beginning to make themselves felt before the end of the first quarter. They were not widely acknowledged however, either inside or outside the political class. Partly because good news is always slow to drive out bad news, but still more because the debate about the vaccination rollout was driven by forces which were only loosely connected with the pandemic, including in particular the German-German debate in an election year, the British government's need to find and proclaim a post-Brexit success and the blunders of the European Commission's president. The politics of the rollout are indeed as interesting as, if not more interesting than the objective challenges which policymakers grappled with. Above all because the process highlighted once again the significance of the European Council. Despite strong countervailing pressures in the media, which continued to propagate the story of 'Europe's failure' and widespread dislike of von der Leyen's management style, the European Council maintained its commitment to an EU-wide rollout strategy and endorsed a string of initiatives, including an EU certificate, which aimed to defend the Union against the corrosive effects of the pandemic. The non-Covid business which the European Council addressed between January and March may have been overshadowed by the pandemic but it was far from unimportant, and the debates which it provoked anticipated both the concerns and the language of European Council discussions later in the year about the EU's role in a rapidly changing world order. The sessions with Jens Stoltenberg and Joe Biden in February and March respectively were reassuring rather than dramatic, but it was already apparent, particularly in the debate before and during the February meeting, that the lines between 'Atlanticists' and 'Europeans' have shifted significantly and that the buzz words of the emerging EU consensus – 'resilience', 'the reduction of dependencies' and 'a European capacity for autonomous action' – were well on the way to becoming common currency.

Harnessing the power of dialogue: examining the impact of facebook content on citizens’ engagement

ABSTRACT The present study sheds light on the under-researched relationship between social media content and citizens’ engagement, as well as the impact of dialogic communication on citizens’ engagement. To this end, Facebook content of the five largest Greek municipalities was examined. A six-dimensional typology of social media content posted by local governments on Facebook was proposed. The results suggest that dialogic posts and posts that trigger offline participatory activities exerted significant influence on all forms of citizens’ online engagement. It is recommended that social media managers of local governments in Greece, as well as other countries with similar public administration styles and social media usage patterns, create dialogic loops with their citizenry by addressing users’ questions and concerns through Facebook posts. Moreover, they could publish rich media content on Facebook in the form of videos and posts that mobilise citizens to participate in various offline activities (e.g., events, council meetings).

Сибирский Церковный Собор: опыт новейшей археографии

The article is a review of a documents collection “The Siberian Council Meeting of 1918: Materials” repared by the well known Omsk church historian Dmitry Vladimirovich Olikhov. It was published in Moscow in 2020. It contains an informative introductory article on the Siberian Council and publishes its documents known at present date, as well as materials from the periodicals and memoirs. The article emphasizes the relevance of the book and its scientific significance. Institutional and historical-anthropological approaches provide scientific basis to the documents collection and, accordingly, to this article devoted to its analysis. The principles of consistency and determinism have made it possible to characterize the publication, considered as a phenomenon of science with its particular structure and at the same time as a part of the historical scholarship. Due to specifics of the topic, the main scientific method used in this publication is problematic. The article contains critical remarks and considerations on the introductory article prefacing the analyzed documents collection. It offers its opinions on main initiators of the Tomsk Council and its results. The article disputes the author-compiler’s point of view that the Siberian Council managed to avoid political extremes. Drawing on the analysis of documentary materials from the said collection, the author of the article claims that the Tomsk Council Meeting created conditions for consolidation of right-wing politicians and religious leaders on anti-Bolshevik platform. Despite his expressed criticism, the author of this article is of the opinion that publication of generally available materials on the Siberian Council Meeting and similar publications on the All-Ukrainian Church Council and the South-Eastern Church Council create opportunities for comparative historical analyses of these church forums. In conclusion the article expresses hope that the established source base should allow us to expect an appearance of new articles and monographs on the development of the conciliar principle in the Russian Orthodox Church during the Civil War in Russia.

ПРОБЛЕМИ ЕТНІЧНОЇ ІСТОРІЇ В РАДЯНСЬКІЙ АРХЕОЛОГІЇ 1940-Х – 1960-Х РР.: ПРОГРАМНІ ЗАСАДИ ТА ФОРМИ ПРАКТИЧНОЇ РЕАЛІЗАЦІЇ

The background of institualization of the Soviet theoretical archaeology, which was a subdiscipline and phenomenon existing from the early 1970s till the early 1990s, is one of important topics. A study of ethnogeny and ethnic history problems on the base of archaeological data was one of the main features of the Soviet archaeology in the second half of 1940s – 1960s. That’s why it is actual to recognize which main principles were declared in this field, how they were changed and practically realized. There are no books dedicated to the history of the Soviet archaeology in the 1940s – 1960s or to the mentioned above topic but certain aspects have been studied by scholars. Sources of this research are publications from the journal “Soviet archaeology” including leading articles and documents from scientific archives of the IA NAS of Ukraine and the IHMC RAS. The Soviet archaeologists started to work under ethnogeny and ethnic history problems in the middle of the 1930s and researches were going on after the WW2. In the Soviet republics complex archaeological and ethnographic expeditions began their activity and joint sessions with ethnographers and linguists were held for the purpose of complex examination of certain ethnic nationalities Since the beginning of the 1950s an identification of archaeological cultures, determination of their interrelationship and correlation with ancient language communities were defined as the main way to study ethnic history. This approach was used in researches on almost all periods and was actual at the beginning of the 1970s. Paleoethnologic problematique was important in activity of central archaeological establishments of the USSR and the UkSSR. Archaeologists were authors of fundamental books on the history of certain folks of the USSR. But during the 1960s these problems were scarcely discussing on methodological workshops of the IA AS USSR and its Leningrad branch and there papers on this topic were almost not presented on meetings of the academic council and departments in Leningrad. That time an ethnical interpretation of archaeological cultures became an obligatory part of fundamental archaeological research that’s why there were discussions only on certain problems. But a difference in approaches of scholars and insufficient elaboration of methodological principles for ethnic history studies aroused interest to theoretical issues which was one of causes of the Soviet theoretical archaeology appearance in the early 1970s.