365 research outputs found
IGO membership, network convergence, and credible signaling in militarized disputes
No full textExisting studies of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and militarized conflict focus on dyadic counts of shared IGO membership. However, dyadic approaches are inconsistent with the basic properties of IGOs. Because IGOs are multilateral organizations, shared membership necessarily involves ties to third parties. This article employs network analytics to develop a novel explanation of how third-party IGO ties reduce militarized conflict. The analysis first examines the 'structural similarity' of states, defined by the extent to which states share similar patterns of IGO membership with relevant third parties. High levels of structural similarity indicate that states interact with a common set of IGO collaborators. The analysis then shows that micro-level changes in IGO membership effect changes in structural similarity, leading to the macro-level phenomenon of 'network convergence,' wherein states increasingly collaborate with the same third parties over time. Substantively, convergence results in increased overlap and integration between states' respective local networks of IGO partners. Because network convergence is costly, involving a combination of IGO-based accession, sovereignty, and alignment costs, it is unlikely to be pursued by purely exploitative state types. Consequently, convergence provides cooperative types with a mechanism for signaling a preference for cooperation over conflict. These credible signals in turn establish mutual trust among cooperators and effectively reduce the risk of militarized conflict. Extensive empirical analysis shows that, in fact, network convergence strongly correlates with a decline in militarized dispute initiations. The more that states collaborate with one another's IGO partners, the less likely they are to fight. © The Author(s) 2013
Independently getting off the floor (IGO): a feasibility study of teaching people with stroke to get up after a fall
No full textThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Mark Allen Healthcare via the DOI in this record.Background: Falls are common among stroke survivors but many are not taught how to get up again. A technique from Action for Rehabilitation following Neurological Injury (ARNI) addresses this problem. We investigated the feasibility and safety of teaching this technique to stroke survivors.
Methods: Stroke survivors (mean 7.1 years post-stroke) with mild-to-moderate disability (mean modified Rankin Score 2.4), who could get up with assistance but not independently, received up to six sessions of training to independently get off the floor (IGO). The primary outcome was IGO success; safety and feasibility were investigated by participant and trainer interviews, biomechanical and video analysis and expert panel review.
Findings: Six of the 10 participants achieved IGO and five of nine retained the skill two months post-training. One to six sessions (median 3) were needed to master IGO; one minor but no serious adverse events occurred. Expert reviewers indicated training involved an acceptable risk of falls and no concerns for knee and wrist positions.
Conclusions: This feasibility study indicates IGO may be useful. IGO was taught to and safely used by selected stroke survivors. Further assessment of IGO has now been part of a pilot randomised controlled trial of ARNI based stroke rehabilitation.The study was part-funded by the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust small research grants scheme.
This paper presents independent research part-funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care South West Peninsula at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust
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Folktales from the Helotes Settlement
No full textThe Texas Folklore Society has been publishing a regular volume of folklore research (our PTFS series) for the past several decades. Most of these books are what we call miscellanies, compilations of the works of multiple folklorists, and they feature articles on many types of lore. We’ve also published over twenty “Extra Books,” which are single-author manuscripts that examine a more focused topic.
Folktales from the Helotes Settlement by John Igo is Extra Book #25. It’s a collection of personal memories from our longest active member, who first joined the Society over fifty years ago. Here we find legends, customs, and beliefs of the people of the Helotes Settlement near San Antonio. These stories capture the lore of a place similar to lots of other places—our places. They’re familiar to us all because, when we get right down to it, the Helotes Settlement is not very different from wherever we’re from
A Note on Recent Research on the Term the ‘Tatar Yoke’ (Tatarskoe igo)
No full textResearch objectives: This essay analyzes and critiques recent research on the genealogy of the expression “Tatar Yoke” (Tatarskoe igo), the standard term for the period of Mongol rule of Rus’, in both Slavic and Latin.
Research materials: This essay is based upon publications from 1984 to the present by Halperin, Ostrowski, Keenan, Rudakov, and Seleznev.
Results and novelty of research: In 1984, Halperin identified the discovery of the earliest appearance of Tatarskoe igo in Slavic dated to the second half of the seventeenth century, made by Lev Dmitriev who did not appreciate its significance. Therefore the term was an anachronism if projected onto thirteenth- to fifteenth-century Rus’. This conclusion remained unchallenged until now. At that time, Halperin did not address the genealogy of the expression in Latin. Ostrowski and Keenan found theoretically the earliest Latin usages (jugum tartarico) in foreign texts from 1521 and 1575. Apparently Ostrowski’s and Keenan’s contributions to the topic escaped the attention of historians in Russia. Rudakov himself found Keenan’s source but failed to notice that it referred not just to the “yoke” but the “Tatar Yoke.” Seleznev has discovered two Latin references from the thirteenth century, one supposedly a translation from a no longer extant Slavic text. Seleznev concludes that the expression “Tatar Yoke” was therefore known at the time and is not an anachronism. The present essay reinterprets the significance of Seleznev’s findings for our understanding of the Latin genealogy of “Tatar Yoke.” The existence of the term in Slavic is suspect, but in Latin clearly it is as old as Tatar rule. However, the significance of both Rudakov’s and Seleznev’s brilliant depiction of how writers both Catholic and Orthodox interpreted the Tatar conquest of Rus’ via analogy with Old Testament narrations of the enslavement of the Hebrews by the Egyptians and the Babylonian Captivity of the Hebrews lies elsewhere. This essay argues that we have to consider that any author familiar with Scripture could easily independently have made the leap from “Yoke” to “Tatar Yoke,” which renders a genealogy of the evolution of the term moot. Historians still need to address how Catholic writers in the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries made that conceptual link, but no Rus’/Russian author did so until the second half of the seventeenth century
Development and Validation of Sports Betting Addictive Behaviour Scale
No full textThere has been growing societal problems relating to gambling particularly those related to crime Recently gambling has been tilting towards sports betting since other forms of gambling are gradually fading away Unfortunately there is no specific tool to measure addiction to sports gambling This informed the development and validation of sports betting addictive behaviour scale A total of 366 Male 325 Female 39 sports bettors were selected from three major towns in Benue state including Makurdi Gboko and Otukpo Using literature review and focused group discussion 59 items were generated Using 5 lecturers and 2 Postgraduate students content and face validity were established respectively The already standardized gambling addictive behaviour for adolescents scale was used to establish convergent validit
Learned helplessness and fatigue severity as correlates of suicidality among civil servants in Makurdi Metropolis
No full textThis research investigated learned helplessness and fatigue severity as correlates of suicidality among civil servants in Makurdi metropolis. A cross-sectional survey design was used for the study and the researcher used 426 participants in the study 147 (34.5%) male and 279 (65.5%) were female. Their age ranged from 14 – 78 years of age with the mean age of 35.67 (SD = 11.48). Multiple correlation, independent t-test and one way ANOVA was used to test the three stated hypotheses. Finding from the tested hypotheses indicated that learned helplessness and fatigue severity have a significant positive relationship with suicidality among civil servants in Makurdi metropolis. The result also indicated that female participants signifi cantly scored higher on suicidality than their male counterparts. The result further showed that there was a significant difference in the educational qualification of participants and their suicidality tendency among civil servants with SSCE/NCE/ND scorin g higher on suicidality followed by HND/Degree, Ph. D and finally those with Masters Degree. The findings were discussed in line with other related works and it was recommended among others that constant and close availability of counseling psychological s ervices should be provided to civil servants and they should be encouraged to utilize them to reduce their level of suicidality.Keywords: Learned Helplessness, Fatigue Severity, Suicidality
Contracting development: managerialism and consultants in intergovernmental organizations
No full textIntergovernmental organizations (IGOs) are now managed with an eye to managerial trends associated with transnational professionals, a view that has ramifications for how IGOs govern their policies and processes. Drawing on interviews and focus groups with staff in IGOs, we trace how managerialism in IGOs is changing how staff perceive work practices. We find that IGOs increasingly rely on consultants to enact policy scripts and to evaluate program success. This signals a subtle yet significant shift from expertise and bureaucratic impartiality, grounded in particular types of knowledge, to skills and flexibility to meet client demands and advance best practice norms according to prevailing world cultural frames. This managerial trend in IGOs is partly driven by stakeholder dynamics but is primarily a normative change in who is seen as having the authority to make claims over professional best practices. Such managerialism is contracting the development policy space. This contraction is partly driven by consultants, who defer to their peers and to donors rather than IGO staff and concerned member states. This work also depletes institutional memory for IGO operations. We trace how IGO staff perceive managerial trends and changes in work practices.submittedVersionpublishedVersio
Local Institutional Interplay: IDB, OECD, UNESCO, UNICEF and WB Linkages in the Context of Brazilian Education Sector
No full textThis chapter explores the local institutional interplay among major intergovernmental organizations (IGO s) in Brazil’s education sector. Building on existing empirical studies in the field of education, the author elaborates on and adapts the institutional interplay conceptual perspective—originally developed in global environmental governance—to better understand the interconnectedness and interactions among IGO s in the education sector. Despite growing literature on global IGO interactions, local contexts remain underexplored. This study helps to fill this gap by investigating how global institutional interactions manifest at the local level by focusing on the interactions and linkages among IGO local offices. While global IGO interactions are increasingly collaborative, their local interplay in Brazil is sporadic and often limited to instrumental relationships. Interviews with IGO local officials reveal that these interactions are mainly driven by ideational linkages related to education quality measurement, with limited institutional collaboration. The findings suggest that global institutional clustering can foster local collaboration in lower-income countries, but Brazil’s socio-historical context as an upper middle-income country leads to more competitive local IGO interplay. This raises questions about the effectiveness of global strategies in complex socio-political settings like Brazil.Peer reviewe
The future of cash: Designing for the continued support of cash
No full textAn analysis of the declining use of cash within the Netherlands and the eurozone. Recommendations and a redesign are created to tackle the challenges of both a declining cash cycle and a society with limited cash use.Design for Interactio
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