International Circles Research Articles

The generalization of a class of impulse stochastic control models of a geometric Brownian motion

Recently, international academic circles advanced a class of new stochastic control models of a geometric Brownian motion which is an important kind of impulse control models whose cost structure is different from the others before, and it has a broad applying background and important theoretical significance in financial control and management of investment. This paper generalizes substantially the above stochastic control models under quite extensive conditions and describes the models more exactly under more normal theoretical system of stochastic process. By establishing a set of proper variational equations and proving the existence of its solution, and applying the means of stochastic analysis, this paper proves that the generalized stochastic control models have optimal controls. Meanwhile, we also analyze the structure of optimal controls carefully. Besides, we study the solution function of variational equations in a relatively deep-going way, which constitutes the value function of control models to some extent. Because the analysis methods of this paper are greatly different from those of original reference, this paper possesses considerable originality to some extent. In addition, this paper gives the strict proof to the part of original reference which is not fairly well-knit in analyses, and makes analyses and discussions of the model have the exactitude of mathematical sense.

Enfoques positivos y normativos en las políticas de ciencia y tecnología

The aim of this paper is to show how normative approaches to scientific research and technological development (R&D) policies have shaped positive analysis. It presents a general overview of those contributions from decision makers and researchers to the early debates that founded social studies of research and development in mid 40s. Moreover, this article uses the distinction between positive and normative approaches to hold that international organizations, especially OECD, held the leadership in the normative construction of R&D discourses, and that subsequent positive analyses have been conducted in academia following normative guidelines. This applies for both national and international academic circles.

‘Mr. Candidate: Be More Specific and a Bit More Self-Confident!’ – The Role of Gusztáv Rigler in the Hungarian Public Hygiene

With his scientific work, Gusztáv Rigler achieved to be regarded the creator of Hungarian public hygiene textbook literature. The professor, who was living at the turn of the 20th century and devoted his life to the establishment and nourishing of Hungarian public hygiene studies, acquired an international reputation in his own age. The aim of this article is to evoke his memory and have his name remembered once again in international circles.

Integrated River Basin Management Through Decentralization

In international circles, advocacy of integrated water resource management is often based on the Dublin Principles of the 1992 International Conference on Water and the Environment. Those principles include (1) the understanding that freshwater is a finite and vulnerable resource, (2) a participatory approach to water management, (3) an emphasis on the role of women in water management, and (4) the recognition of water as an economic good. In 2000, the Global Water Partnership (GWP) developed an interpretative understanding of the Dublin Principles. The GWP described the participatory approach as (1) real participation, (2) participation as more than consultation, (3) achieving consensus, (4) creating participatory mechanisms and capacity, and (5) involvement and decisions at the lowest appropriate level. Advocacy of increased participation and local decision making stems from observance of a history of centralized decision making and inadequate attention to local needs and resources, which have resulted in ineffective water management and water use.The practice of advocating the development of integrated and local participation at the river basin level has progressed without a determination of whether this model is working. The World Bank, in conjunction with partners, set out to chronicle the decentralization and local participation model. Integrated River Basin Management Through Decentralization documents the research and findings—the most comprehensive examination of this topic to date. The study, moreover, contributes to understanding three critical development and poverty reduction issues: (1) water management, (2) the links between sustainable natural resources management and infrastructure, and (3) participatory decision making. The first three chapters in this 12‐chapter book provide an overview, a summary of the comparative analysis of eight case studies, and a summary of determinants of decentralized water management. The next eight chapters address the eight case studies. Each of the case study chapters is presented in the same format, facilitating readability and comparisons across river basins. The concluding chapter sums up major findings and identifies further areas of research. The book is edited and in part written by three recognized experts in institutional development and water management. They are joined by local experts who possess good working knowledge and experience in the basins that form the case studies.

NON-TIMBER FOREST PRODUCTS AND CERTIFICATION: STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

ABSTRACT Interest in non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and forest certification burgeoned in the late 1980s in response, partly, to concern over destruction of tropical rainforests. Eventually the two concepts were merged and proposed as a marketing option for NTFP producers in both temperate and tropical countries. This paper examines the experiences of NTFP certification within the Forest Stewardship Council over the past eight years. We describe some of the impediments that NTFP producers have encountered in obtaining certification, as well as successes. We find that certification and NTFPs are often incompatible. For those cases where NTFP certification is warranted, we offer several suggestions for improving the likelihood of success. The triumph of neoliberalism in international trade and aid circles all but assures continued commercialization of NTFPs. Certification may help ensure the environmental sustainability of such initiatives but it must not become a tool to exclude gatherers and or threaten local livelihoods.

Maintaining the Status Quo: U.S. Response to Chinese Nationalist Mainland Recovery Efforts, 1961–1963

When the Kennedy administration came to office, the president and his advisers confronted immediate and critical issues such as the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban missile crisis, renewed antagonisms with the Soviet Union over the status of Berlin, and negotiations for a nuclear disarmament treaty; still, they could not ignore China policy. Domestic and international circles burgeoned with speculation. John F. Kennedy and his cabinet projected images of “new frontiersmen” who promised to offer fresh and innovative solutions to problems around the world. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., special assistant to the president, described Kennedy as “the first representative in the White House of a distinctive generation, the generation which was born during the First World War, came of age during the depression, fought in the Second World War and began its public career in the atomic age.” But the course of Sino-American relations would be determined not by New Frontier intentions but by interactions with, and resulting perceptions of, the government of the Republic of China (GRC) and the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Health inequity and women’s self-help groups in India: The role of caste and class

With the United Nations Millenium Declaration of 2000, the establishment of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) has been identified as a significant strategy in addressing the alarming levels of poverty and marginalisation that have accompanied global development. SHGs are small, voluntary associations of people from the same socio-economic background that have been established for the purpose of solving shared social and economic problems through self-help and mutual help. Such grass-roots commonality, it has been assumed, will promote community empowerment and prevent economic marginalisation. Such an assumption is largely based on the global, neo-liberal agenda of seeing the withdrawal of the State from social provisioning. SHGs have been widely adopted in India, especially to eliminate the social exclusion of poor women and improve their access to health. This article reviews the scope and limitations of SHGs in improving women’s health, focusing on their implementation in the State of Bihar in India. It critically assesses the extent to which SHGs can be involved in attaining better health for women and children by exploring the crucial role of caste and class in access to health services. The article concludes that solutions such as SHGs, which emanate from international policy circles, fail to capture local structural contexts such as caste and class and, as a result, develop instrumentalised approaches that are unlikely to produce equitable health services provision to poor and marginalised people.

Farming and the fate of wild nature: essays in conservation-based agriculture

Farming and the Fate of Wild Nature addresses an urgent and complex issue facing communities and cultures throughout the world: the need for heightened land stewardship and conservation in an era of diminishing natural resources. Agricultural lands in rural areas are being purchased for development. Water scarcities are pitting urban and development expansion against agriculture and conservation needs. The farming population is ageing and retiring, while those who remain struggle against low commodity prices, international competition, rising production costs, and the threat of disappearing subsidies. We are living amidst a major extinction crisis - much of it driven by agriculture - as well as an increasing shift toward a global urban populace. The modern diet, driven by a grain-fed livestock industry, is no longer connected with the ecosystems that support it. In international circles, experts are arguing that further intensification of agriculture (through industrialization and genetic modification) will be necessary to both feed an exploding human population and to save what is left of wild biodiversity.

Who is Ban Ki-Moon?

Thirteen may be a lucky number for some, as it was for Ban Ki-moon on Friday, 13 October 2006, when the smoke cleared at 2 UN Plaza in New York City and the world was informed officially that he had become the eighth United Nations secretary general. Traditionally criticized for its opacity, the nod to Ban was not a surprise to the international community this time around. Much of this has been attributed to a more translucent, if not transparent, selection regime, and hailed as a sign of progress.For most of his run at the job, Ban Ki-moon, who will turn 63 on 13 June 2007, was at or near the top of what many referred to as the Asian short list. From the fog of bargaining and elimination, Ban emerged as the best possible choice. Ban will be with us for at least five years, perhaps 10, as the chief administrator of the closest the world can come to a global governing body. So who is Ban Ki-moon?In recent memory, Ban has become well known within international circles as a long-standing servant of the Republic of Korea's foreign ministry. Ban's appointment to secretary general rounds off almost four decades of Korean public service, which he entered as a junior foreign service officer. He worked his way up to foreign minister, a post he held for the last two years.Ban's curriculum vitae reveals a widely traveled career, with an emphasis on relations and negotiations with his country's northern sibling, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), generally referred to as North Korea. In his senior postings with Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ban was active in international forums, both those directly associated with the United Nations and those outside the margins of UN operations.YOUTH AND EARLY CAREERBan benefited early in life from some rather unusual sources of inspiration. For this perspective we turn the clock back to 1956, a time when Korea was still a struggling agrarian society, not even close to becoming the industrial powerhouse it is today. Showing his political precociousness even as an elementary schoolboy, Ban gave his first UN address when he was chosen to read aloud a school petition destined for the legendary trailblazer Dag Hammarskjold, imploring his assistance in the fight for democratic freedoms.In 1962, while still in high school, Ban distinguished himself by placing in the top tier of an English language contest sponsored by the Red Cross, for which he was rewarded with a visit to the United States. He and three other top Korean students toured San Francisco and then Washington, DC, where they were stunned to meet with President John F. Kennedy, who, at the zenith of his career, could count Koreans among his greatest admirers.As a young man at an impressionable time in his life, Ban's visit to America proved to be a watershed event. From that point forward he believed it was his destiny to soar into the stratosphere of international affairs and make a difference in the world, just like his hero Jack Kennedy. Exhilarated from the experience, and, at the raw age of 18 already better travelled than all but a handful of his fellow countrymen, he returned to Korea with newfound ambitions that would eventually lead him to the top of the world.A SNAPSHOT OF BAN'S CAREERAs blessed as Barfs bureaucratic trajectory seems to have been, the road to the UN has not been paved entirely with yellow brick. Ban has paid his dues as much as any meritorious civil servant, slogging in the trenches of a highly demanding vocation. Ban came onto the government scene in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in international relations from Korea's prestigious Seoul National University. Later, he acquired a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University.A selective review of Ban Ki-moon's diplomatic exposure to United Nations' issues shows an interesting pattern, starting in 1975 when he was posted to the UN division at the Seoul home office. …

A study on the relationships between metamorphic anatexis and petrogenesis and mineralization

Metamorphic processes are closely associated with the formation and evolution of the crust and highly related to petrogenesis and mineralization processes. Dynamic systematic analysis indicates that regional metamorphism-migmatization-metamorphic anatexis process is a temperature-pressure progressive process. Metamorphic anatexis process is a critical part with its unique pressure/temperature and thermodynamic, dynamic and geochemical characteristics. The concept of metamorphic anatexis system (MAS) introduced by the author includes the essential factors of material resources, energy resources, process format, material transportation and concentration, occurring time and location. Based on the essential factors of MAS, metamorphic anatexis process-related granitic rocks and deposit cases are discussed on their petrogenesis and/or mineralization mechanisms. The discussion points out that granites in the Ailaoshan and Yunkai metamorphic zones are of metamorphic anatexis origin. The genesis of pegmatite ore deposits in metamorphic zones and shear zone gold deposits in shear zones are highly related to metamorphic anatexis process. The study of metamorphism process involved in ore formation and material transport is a hot subject concerned by the international geological circles. Thorough investigations into the relationships between metamorphic anatexis and petrogenesis-meneralization processes are of great importance not only in geological theory, but also in industrial practice.

Legal Transplants and the Code of Serbian Tsar Stephan Dushan: A Comparative Study

This Comparative Study investigates the spontaneous convergence of law in the cultural and social milieu of medieval Serbia under the reign of Tsar Stephan Urosh IV Dushan (1331-1355). It argues that legal transplants, as a means of this convergence in the Code of Dushan, constitute a fruitful source of medieval Serbia's legal development. The process of legal transplantation has long been the subject of a polarized debate in international academic circles and has generated opposing approaches to the transfer of legal regulations or entire systems of law from one country to another. The approach to diffusion herein comprises a synthesis of multiple methodologies of comparative law (and jurisprudence on the whole) supplemented with the routes of non-legal disciplines. Such interdisciplinary approach facilitates an exhaustive insight into legal transplants and their applicability as a concept of legal development. This Comparative Study offers a systematic rationalization for legal transplants in Middle-age Serbia and draws some general tendencies with regard to the overall diffusion of law.

Homotopic mapping solving method for perturbed mechanism of western boundary undercurrents in equator pacific

The perturbed boundary undercurrent is an exceptional event in the tropical atmosphere and ocean. It is a complicated nonlinear system. Its appearance badly affects not only natural conditions such as climate and environment, but also global economic development and human living, and brings about many calamities. Thus there is very attractive study on its rules in the international academic circles. Many scholars made more studies on its local and whole behaviors using different methods, such as self-anamnestic principle, Fokker-Plank Equation method, higher order singular pedigree and predictable study, rapid change on boundary, indeterminate adaptive control, multi-cogradient method and so on. Nonlinear perturbed theory and approximate method are very attractive studies in the international academic circles. Many scholars considered a class of nonlinear problems for the ordinary differential equation, the reaction diffusion equations, the boundary value of elliptic equation, the initial boundary value of hyperbolic equation, the shock layer solution of nonlinear equation and so on. In this paper, a class of perturbed mechanism for the western boundary undercurrents in the equator Pacific is considered. Under suitable conditions, using a homotopic mapping theory and method, we obtain a simple and rapid arbitrary order approximate solution for the corresponding nonlinear system. For example, a special case shows that using the homotopic mapping method, there is a high accuracy for the computed value. It is also provided from the results that the solution for homotopic mapping solving method can be used for analyzing operator for perturbed mechanism of western boundary undercurrents in the equator Pacific.

Liberia: Sustaining the Transition to Peace and Recovery

Liberia has generated great interest in international policy circles in recent years. The United States has provided a leadership role in focusing attention on this war battered country. While Liberians and observers acknowledge this attention, questions about concrete commitment to aid remain. The signing of a peace agreement in August 2003, the installation of a transitional government, and a donors' conference held in February 2004 all seemed to point to a window of opportunity for Liberia. Organized by the United Nations (UN), the United States and the World Bank, the donor's conference was intended to pledge funds and create an action plan for Liberia's reconstruction. A UN-World Bank needs assessment estimated that Liberia would need $488 million for reconstruction over two years. Pledges from the donor's conference topped that amount, totaling $520 million, including $200 million from the United States. Clearly the onus is on Liberians to seize this opportunity for a new beginning, even though the donor community will be a partner in this process. A successful recovery effort is bound to draw on lessons from previous experiences within Liberia and throughout the continent.

JudyLee Oliva’s The Fire and the Rose and the Modeling of Platial Theories in Native American Dramaturgy

The appearance of two landmark publications in 1999 aimed to bring Native American theatre to a larger audience: Seventh Generation (D’Aponte) and Stories of Our Way (Geiogamah and Darby) became the first mass-marketed anthologies in the United States to publish collections of Native American plays by various Native authors. These publications were quickly followed by the critical reader, American Indian Theater in Performance (Geiogamah and Darby), and Keepers of the Morning Star (Darby ), the first anthology of Native women’s theatre to be published in the United States. Together, these four publications mark a shift in theatre studies.1 As Native American drama moves from local audiences to national and international circles of readers and viewers, the need arises for critical frameworks capable of addressing the unique aspects of Native dramaturgy. Significantly, the critical approaches developed for Native theatre challenge theatre studies. One example of how Native American plays extend the boundaries of theatre studies is in spatial approaches to theatre, where Native American playwrights add new perspectives to the very complicated discussion of identity and place.

Colombia's Resilient Democracy

Colombia's problems are far from over. But the current signs of strength stand in sharp contrast with the gloomy and even fatalistic climate of opinion, predominant among Colombians just a couple of years ago, that was loudly echoed in international circles.

International circles of influence

CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE is the theme articulated by ASPAN’s President, Sandra Barnes, for 2003–2004. These words rang true for several ASPAN leaders this past June, as we went to England to participate in the national perianesthesia nursing conference hosted by The British Anesthetic and Recovery Nurses Association (BARNA).

Sustainable development: why the focus on population?

Sustainable development is a policy approach that has gained quite a lot of popularity in recent years, especially in international circles. By attaching a specific interpretation to sustainability, population control policies have become the overriding approach to development, thus becoming the primary tool used to “promote” economic development in developing countries and to protect the environment. These policies, however, have failed to achieve either goal. By analyzing the theoretical underpinning of such policies as well as the available scientific research, this paper aims at bringing some light to these results. The findings suggest that, while the focus on population is not necessarily incorrect, the policies implemented are mistaken since they hamper the growth of a key element of economic development: human capital, and thus render it unsustainable.

Managing tank cascades in Southern India: Conditions for collective action

While there is growing consensus within the international development circles that sustainable development should be based on local-level solutions derived from community initiatives, there is an equally growing perception that the practical implementation of what is often termed ‘community-based natural resource management’ or co-management, often falls short of expectations. This paper seeks to throw some light on issues in this area by examining the case of tank irrigation systems as a common-pool resource in Tamil Nadu.

The Ecological Imperative: Elements of Nature in Late Twentieth-Century Art

The author draws attention to visual artworks of the 1980s and 1990s in which artists, drawing upon diverse trends, disciplines and artistic generations, applied materials directly from the surrounding environment in pieces called eco-installations. The text attempts to explain certain creative postures and artistic decisions in the context of our advanced civilization—its achievements and threats alike. The eco-installations—subtle, subdued, gentle, fragile, fleeting, whose finite existence (like that of living organisms doomed to pass away) reflects the artists' own decisions—are in urgent need of identification, analysis and documentation. Among artists recognized in international circles, the author situates two Polish artists perhaps less well known than their colleagues.

South Africa: the challenge of social development

Following South Africa's transition from apartheid to majority rule, the country's new government declared its intention to implement a macro‐development approach, known as the Reconstruction and Development Programme, which would promote economic growth and, at the same time, raise the standards of living of the country's impoverished majority. This programme was accompanied by the publication of a White Paper on developmental social welfare. Both give expression to social development ideas which had previously been popular in international circles and which were being resurrected by the 1995 United Nations World Summit. This article discusses South Africa's engagement with social development and examines the challenges facing its attempts to implement this approach. The lessons learned from South Africa's experience of formulating and implementing social development policies and programmes can inform similar efforts elsewhere