North American Counterparts Research Articles

Overview of the geography of the Monte Desert biome (Argentina)

The compilation of published results on the geography of the Monte Desert biome of Argentina that we present here offers a review of its boundaries and ecotones, and of its biophysical and socio-economic characteristics. In relation to socio-ecological issues, the focus is on a case study in the province of Mendoza. An analysis is presented about the ecological-economic issues and the sustainable investment policies in rangelands of the Patagonian Monte. In addition, this biome is compared with other South American arid biomes and their North American counterparts. We identified some gaps in the current knowledge, especially at a mesoscale level, where studies on Monte borders are deemed necessary as well as explicit boundary criteria for ecosystem differentiation. Also the ecological-economic relations and feedbacks between livestock herbivory, soil erosion and market behaviour should be considered within the framework of wider socio-ecological research.

Commentary on Paley J (2008) Spirituality and secularization: nursing and the sociology of religion. Journal of Clinical Nursing17, 175–186

included study Cortazzi et al. (2001) reported on the use of both incidental, anecdotal and formal peer teaching and learning strategies, as reported in the outcomes ‘Narratives mediate learning by re-telling experience, students learn by reflection’ (Secomb 2008). In health science education literature many learning outcomes are self reported, peer evaluated, client reported or clinician evaluated, therefore level of evidence is considered but not central to the investigation (Secomb 2008). The inclusion of this type of information can highlight significant factors and further research responsibilities and possibilities (Secomb 2008), but the research design needs to clear (Altman 2002), and the meaning contextualised within existing literature, and evaluation and inclusion strategies outlined. As with this review, not all the outcomes discussed in the main text as relevant to the research question made the final reporting, in Table 2 ‘The significant findings for clinical practice from this systematic review of literature’ (Secomb 2008). When it became evident that statistical meta-analysis was unachievable, a meta-synthesis which provided consistency and comparability between studies their designs and results was used. Jacinta Secomb PhD candidate University of South Australia E-mail: secomb@chariot.net.au

Extreme returns and value at risk in international securitized real estate markets

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate and compare the extreme behavior of securitized real estate and stock market returns as well as their value‐at‐risk (VaR) dynamics in international investing. Extreme value theory using the block maxima method is applied to ten securitized real estate and equity market indices representing Asian, European and North American markets.Design/methodology/approachThe paper models the maxima and minima of all return series within the extreme value theory (EVT) framework and derive the VaR estimates. It then compares the VaR estimates derived from the EVT and the normal distribution and investigates the impact of clustered returns on the VaR estimates. Finally, both the conventional standard deviation measure and VaR method are conducted to evaluate and compare the impact of the Asian financial turmoil on the real estate and stock market risk profiles.FindingsEvidence shows that Asian real estate and equity maxima and minima return series are characterized by a fat‐tailed Fréchet distribution. The frequency and severity of extreme Asian real estate returns are greater than their European and North American counterparts. Securitized real estate markets are riskier than the broader stock markets before and during the Asian financial turmoil. In contrast, many stock markets become riskier after the financial crisis with their VaRs higher than the equivalent VaR estimates for the real estate series.Research limitations/implicationsKnowledge about real estate market returns exhibit extreme behavior can help investors and fund managers understand the distribution of real estate market returns better and obtain potentially more accurate real estate return forecasts.Practical implicationsInternational real estate portfolio risk management should include both extreme risks and standard deviations. Accordingly, global investors should be even more cautious in formulating their diversification strategies since gains from diversification can be reduced significantly by the severity of extreme return levels.Originality/valueThe paper characterizes the distribution of extreme returns for a broad spectrum of international securitized real estate markets from three continents. The extreme value investigation is also conducted for broader stock markets corresponding to the individual real estate markets. The July 1997 turmoil that occurred in Asian financial markets provides interesting exploratory opportunities within which this paper estimates and compares the extreme market risk with the conventional standard deviation measure.

The Growing Influence of the Courts over the Fate of Refugees

A number of migration scholars suggest that domestic courts have become the key protective institution for refugees. How can we explain this claim? One prominent explanation identifies group litigation as the key source of the increasing influence of the courts. How well does this explanation travel empirically? The article evaluates this explanation by examining the puzzling behaviour of German refugee NGOs. They have not entered the legal arena directly (either as parties or as interveners), nor have they concentrated on developing extensive litigation campaigns. Still, they are remarkably ‘judicialized’: their frequent engagement with the law in other respects has heightened their legal consciousness. Why have German refugee NGOs made such different choices than their North American counterparts and what do these choices tell us about the expanding influence of the courts over the fate of refugees in Germany and North America? To make sense of the different choices that these organizations have made, we need to understand the role that institutional norms and procedures, in particular policy legacies, have played in directing the behaviour and identity of these groups. For a number of reasons, German refugee NGOs historically have been discouraged from directly accessing the courts in favour of indirect participation. Since Canadian and American refugee organizations follow a pattern closer to the expectations of the (largely North American) literature on the subject, we need to be more careful in thinking through ou

The Growing Influence of the Courts over the Fate of Refugees

A number of migration scholars suggest that domestic courts have become the key protective institution for refugees. How can we explain this claim? One prominent explanation identifies group litigation as the key source of the increasing influence of the courts. How well does this explanation travel empirically? The article evaluates this explanation by examining the puzzling behaviour of German refugee NGOs. They have not entered the legal arena directly (either as parties or as interveners), nor have they concentrated on developing extensive litigation campaigns. Still, they are remarkably ‘judicialized’: their frequent engagement with the law in other respects has heightened their legal consciousness. Why have German refugee NGOs made such different choices than their North American counterparts and what do these choices tell us about the expanding influence of the courts over the fate of refugees in Germany and North America? To make sense of the different choices that these organizations have made, we need to understand the role that institutional norms and procedures, in particular policy legacies, have played in directing the behaviour and identity of these groups. For a number of reasons, German refugee NGOs historically have been discouraged from directly accessing the courts in favour of indirect participation. Since Canadian and American refugee organizations follow a pattern closer to the expectations of the (largely North American) literature on the subject, we need to be more careful in thinking through ou
 
 Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v4i2.199

Towards Evidence-based Reform of European Universities

After the Bologna agreement and the Lisbon Agenda, reform of European university systems has been higher on the political agenda. This is necessary, since most European universities have been suffering from stifling blankets of government regulation, having to make do with much less funds than their North-American counterparts and do not appear high on the various rankings of top universities in the world. Furthermore, the booming economies of China and India will nurture and boost world-class universities in the coming decades. Also, universities are essential in their links to business and society to make the European economy more innovative and competitive, especially as European industries approach the world technology frontier. We argue on the basis of the stylized facts that foremost European universities need more autonomy to select students, reward staff, design new programmes, attract more funds and compete better in an increasingly tough environment. Although the general principles of the policy reform agenda are clear, the details are not. The link between governance, funding and performance is not obvious and needs still further data and research. We conclude that reform of European universities should much more be based on the best available empirical analysis. (JEL code: I23)

The ICLA and Disciplinary Renewal

Narcissism is certainly not regarded as an attractive or desirable personal trait, and in its most extreme clinical form has serious pathological consequences. From its inception and certainly from its establishment in North America as a wide-spread academic discipline, Comparative Literature has occasionally manifested certain narcissistic characteristics or at least a marked tendency to reflect back on itself and its methods of literary research. Although other academic disciplines have certainly taken the opportunity for self-reflection, the tendency in the Comparative Literature community has been, perhaps, more pronounced since it emerged as an acknowledged discipline far more recently than its close academic relatives and has had to fight for intellectual and institutional legitimacy with a notable degree of fervor and energy. Manifestations of this self-reflexivity extend from the legendary debates that pitted what was known as the French model against the American to the now periodic and institutionalized reports on the nature of the discipline. Although all comparatists from sometime early in their career on have had to contend with the awkwardness of their discipline's name and with the adjectival inflection of literature that has long been recognized as not adequately describing either the nature or the distinguishing features of the discipline, the name has persisted. In spite of its inadequacies, the term comparative adduces a method that is by no means unique to the discipline and yet is one that designates a procedure that is particularly important to it and emphasizes one of the important roles that juxtaposition of various models, concepts, and practices typically plays. Since its founding in the early 1950s and its first congress in Venice in 1955, the diversity that the International Comparative Literature Association embodies has been far more characteristic of the essence of Comparative Literature than any imagined yet superficial unitary system that some observers have supposed that it managed to impose. Having been brought to life by a European contingent of scholars who typically had broader linguistic competence than most of their North American counterparts and a cadre of North Americans consisting auspiciously of native-born scholars as well as a significant proportion of richly polylingual and multicultural east European, war-time emigres, the ICLA was in an excellent position to begin the very modest comparative contextualization of literary works. As has often been observed, this new endeavor at contextualization involved instances of the methodological debate that was being pursued in other quarters involving on the one hand the examination of literary works with works from related discursive systems (e.g. music, the visual arts, anthropology, sociology, etc.) and on the other the comparison of works from different linguistic traditions that would have, due to the contrasting languages, escaped the whole-hearted examination of colleagues from national traditions. Even though a few voices were raised in protest that the comparisons were not very far-reaching or as revealing as the methodology would theoretically allow because those items being brought forward for comparison were not very different to begin with: both typically descended from the traditions of Aristotlean poetics and European Latinity, had places of origin that were only separated by a few hundred miles and highly porous borders, and were manifestations of the same literarycritical discursive practices. To compare what was from a very broadly international perspective only minimally different did not as many would understandably anticipate yield particularly arresting insights. This eurocentrism of the efforts of the early comparatists has often been noted and in some cases lamented, and it is clear that these narrow perspectives were institutionalalized in national and regional associations as well as in the organization and the programs of the ICLA. …

Foucault and political anthropology

French anthropologists gave Michel Foucault's works a very different, rather cool reception, from that of their North American counterparts, who turned Foucault into an essential reference. This difference deserves to be analysed because it is symptomatic of the differences in perspective between US and French anthropology. At a deeper level, it posits the question of the relations between philosophy and anthropology. In the case of US anthropology, Foucault's reflection on the relationships between power and knowledge influenced the critical thinking that developed at the end of the twentieth century. This article shows what impact Foucault's writings on power have had on recent developments in political anthropology: today, his concepts of governmentality and bio‐politics are having a remarkable impact and we find them applied in many empirical studies.

Hunting Patterns, Ban on Baiting, and Harvest Demographics of Brown Bears in Sweden

Abstract We analyzed harvest data to describe hunting patterns and harvest demography of brown bears (Ursus arctos) killed in 3 geographic regions in Sweden during 1981–2004. In addition, we investigated the effects of a ban on baiting, instituted in 2001, and 2 major changes in the quota system: a switch to sex‐specific quotas in 1992 and a return to total quotas in 1999. Brown bears (n=887) were harvested specifically by bear hunters and incidentally by moose (Alces alces) hunters. Both hunter categories harvested bears 1) using dogs (37%), 2) by still hunting (30%), 3) with the use of bait (18%), and 4) by stalking (16%). The proportion of bears killed with different harvest methods varied among regions and between bear‐ and moose‐oriented hunters. We found differences between male (52%) and female bears (48%) with respect to the variables that explained age. Moose‐oriented hunters using still hunting harvested the youngest male bears. Bears harvested during the first management period (1981–1991) were older and had greater odds of being male than during the subsequent period. It appears that hunters harvesting bears in Sweden are less selective than their North American counterparts, possibly due to differences in the hunting system. When comparing the 4 years immediately prior to the ban on baiting with the 4 years following the ban, we found no differences in average age of harvested bears, sex ratio, or proportion of bears killed with stalking, still hunting, and hunting with dogs, suggesting that the ban on baiting in Sweden had no immediate effect on patterns of brown bear harvest demography and remaining hunting methods. As the demographic and evolutionary side effects of selective harvesting receive growing attention, wildlife managers should be aware that differences in harvest systems between jurisdictions may cause qualitative and quantitative differences in harvest biases. (JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT 72(1):79–88; 2008)

Early Intervention Training in Ukraine: Building Capacity One Step at a Time

Early Intervention Training in Ukraine: Building Capacity One Step at a Time

Religiosity of depressed elderly inpatients

To determine the prevalence of religious practices and beliefs of depressed elderly Australian inpatients and their relationship to physical, social, and cognitive variables known to influence the prognosis of depression in the elderly. To compare the results obtained with those from similar North American studies. Inpatients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of major depression were interviewed on admission to the psychogeriatric unit of a Melbourne geriatric centre. Information collected included patient demographics, intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity, cognitive function, severity of depression, number of chronic illnesses, physical function, and numbers and quality of social support. Pearson correlation and multivariate analysis using a standard regression model were used to examine relationships between the religious and other variables. Of the 86 patients who completed the assessment, 25% attended church regularly and 37% prayed, meditated, or read the Bible, at least once a day. Just over half rarely or never engaged in such behaviours. Three out of every eight patients were 'intrinsically' religious. Religious patients expressed higher levels of social support and physically disabled patients were more likely to be religious. Depressed elderly Australian inpatients are less religious than their North American counterparts. Nevertheless, religion remains important for a large minority of such individuals. Clinicians need to be aware that such individuals may turn to religion when depressed, especially to cope with the presence of physical disability.

The Melodramatic Nation: Integration and Polarization in the Argentine Cinema of the 1930s

The Melodramatic Nation: Integration and Polarization in the Argentine Cinema of the 1930s

Careers in Anesthesiology IX: Three Pioneer British Anaesthetists.

Careers in Anesthesiology IX: Three Pioneer British Anaesthetists.

Challenges of an ecosystem approach to water monitoring and management of the African Great Lakes

The Great Lakes Belt of Africa cuts across five major drainage basins: The Nile, Congo-Zaire, Rift Valley, Coastal and Zambezi basins. The region contains the earth's largest aggregation of tropical lakes. Three of these lakes–Victoria, Tanganyika and Malawi—hold one quarter of the earth's total surface water supply, and are home to rich and diverse assemblages of fish. Apart from the diversity and endemicity of their biota, properties that distinguish the African Great Lakes from their North American counterparts include their great age, sensitivity to climate change, long residence times, persistent stratification, continuously warm temperatures at all depths, major ion composition, and propensity for nitrogen limitation. Current management problems include over-fishing, increased input of sediment and nutrients, and in the case of Lake Victoria, loss of endemic fish species and the proliferation of the introduced water hyacinth. The harmonization of research programmes and management strategies among the various riparian countries is a challenge. Among the other challenges currently facing the African Great Lakes, perhaps none is more important, nor more often overlooked, than the ecosystem-based management. Ecosystem integrity is beginning to receive acknowledgement in some quarters as a foundation upon which sound management must be built. Recent changes in the African Great Lakes have resulted in an increased realization that individual components of these systems cannot be understood in isolation, and that effective management must expand beyond conventional fisheries management to account for the interaction of physical, geological, chemical and biological processes at the ecosystem scale. Although specific processes in tropical aquatic ecosystems, such as hydrodynamics, plankton production and fisheries production have received some attention, there remains a need to integrate these processes in order to gain a better understanding of ecosystem functioning. One means of achieving this is through the development of conceptual and numerical models, which can facilitate both the theoretical understanding and applied management of these ecosystems. As management problems move from the relatively simple issue of fishery control to the more complex issues of climate change and land use, models will play an important role in decision-making processes regarding sustainable utilization of these vital natural systems.

The Constitution of Private Property: A Comparative Analysis of U.S. and Mexico Housing Policies

The housing policies and practices of different countries are shaped by both local concerns, as read through the prism of specific histories and contextual requirements, as well as the nation's overall imbrications into the conflicting currents of modernity. Paradoxically, unlike their financially blessed North American counterparts, successive state and federal Mexican governments have throughout the 20th century developed innovative planning and policy responses to a continuing crisis in the provision of low-income housing. This article analyzes the legal, philosophical, and cultural contexts that underpin both U.S. and Mexican policy procedures and the markets through which they are materially manifested. We bring together the notions of Hispanic Capitalism, Latin American nationalism, and the effects of modernity on both countries to explain the two nations' different approaches to low-income housing policy.

Wasted Density? The Impact of Toronto's Residential-Density-Distribution Policies on Public-Transit Use and Walking

Although the Toronto metropolitan region performs well relative to its North American counterparts in terms of density and public-transit use, it does not derive as much walking and public-transit patronage benefit from its high-residential-density areas as it could. The impact of residential density on journey patterns is limited by an imperfect juxtaposition of density and public-transit service peaks. Another impediment is the difficulty of associating density with other variables needed for it to translate into increased walking and public-transit modal shares. We attribute this situation to insufficient planning capacity owing in large part to generalized neighbourhood opposition to high-density residential developments and disagreement between levels of government. In this paper we both narrate events of relevance to the distribution of high residential density over the last five decades and analyze present relationships between high-density areas and journey patterns. We conclude by discussing the possibility of achieving residential-density layouts and distributions that are more conducive to walking and public-transit use than the tower-in-the-park model and the scattering of high-density pockets, both of which predominate in Toronto.

Generalised regressions provide good estimates of insect and spider biomass in the monsoonal tropics of Australia

Abstract The estimation of arthropod biomass is often important in studies of terrestrial ecosystem structure and function, including analyses of the relative importance of different arthropod taxa in the diet of insectivorous animals. In order to estimate arthropod biomass in eucalypt woodlands and rehabilitated mine‐land in the monsoonal tropics of northern Australia, insect morpho‐species (n = 693) and spider morpho‐species (n = 100) were collected, sorted, then weighed and measured. Body length–weight regressions were determined for spiders, nine insect orders and all insects combined. There was a significant relationship between body length and weight for all taxonomic groups, with the power model being a better predictor than linear or exponential models for all groups except Diptera (which was best predicted by the linear model). Whilst Schoener (1980) found that the length–weight regression slopes of neotropical insects (all orders combined, as well as several individual orders) differed from those of their temperate North American counterparts, our comparisons between monsoon‐tropical and temperate Australian arthropods suggested differences among Dipterans and spiders only. We conclude that generalised regressions provide adequate estimates of arthropod biomass across Australia, providing that the body proportions of the dominant taxa do not vary substantively.

Consumer reactions to crowded retail settings: Cross‐cultural differences between North America and the Middle East

AbstractMost of the research dealing with consumer–consumer interactions emphasizes the negative consequences of sharing the service experience with other consumers. Crowding, in particular, represents one of the important environmental factors affecting consumers' retail experience. However, recent studies in the context of hedonic services (e.g., amusement parks, concerts, etc.) have mentioned that crowds may potentially enhance consumers' service experience. The present study aims at demonstrating the presence of these positive consumer responses in a crowded hedonic situation, while investigating the influence of cultural differences in crowd‐related issues. With the use of consumers from different cultures (North America and the Middle East), reactions to similarly crowded situations in a hedonic situation are compared. Results suggest that Middle Eastern respondents perceive both a lower level of density and appreciate crowded situations more than their North American counterparts. Potential explanations are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Social Values and Self-Disclosure: A Comparison of Chinese Native, Chinese Resident (in U.S.) and North American Spouses

Guided by the individualism-collectivism model, the present study examined the relationship between cultural values and marital processes among Chinese native, Chinese residents in America, and North American spouses. Respondents completed a questionnaire which assessed individualism, collectivism and self-disclosure. The results were mixed in their support of the model. As expected, we found that (a) Chinese resident wives were more individualistic than Chinese native wives, (b) Chinese resident husbands were more collectivistic than their North American counterparts, and (c) across gender, Chinese natives disclosed less than both Chinese residents and North Americans. Contrary to individualism-collectivism, however, we found that (a) Chinese resident husbands were more collectivistic than Chinese native husbands, and (b) Chinese native wives were less collectivistic than Chinese resident and North American wives. The empirical and conceptual factors which might have contributed to this pattern of findings are discussed.

European and American Subgroup C Isolates of Avian Metapneumovirus belong to Different Genetic Lineages

The gene encoding the attachment glycoprotein (G) was sequenced in three French isolates of-subgroup C avian metapneumovirus (APV-C) from ducks. With 1771 nt, this gene proved as long as recently published for North-American APV-C isolates from turkeys. The nt sequences of the duck viruses shared 99% identity but proved only 75-83% identical with their North-American counterparts, viruses of both origins encoding 585 amino acid (aa)-long G proteins. Alignments revealed more homogeneity within the European and North-American groups (at least 98 and 79% aa identity, respectively) than between European and North-American viruses (at best 70% a identity), and confirmed the presence of an extracellular divergent domain (positions 302-484) in APV-C G. A phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that North-American and French isolates of APV-C belonged to significantly different genetic lineages, in agreement with the different geographical origin and host species of these viruses.