Suchergebnisse

[spa] El uso indiscriminado y/o inadecuado de medicamentos veterinarios es la causa de posibles efectos adversos para la salud por el riesgo que entren en la cadena alimentaria y la aparición de sus residuos en los productos alimenticios de origen animal. Además, en el caso de los antibióticos, este hecho ha sido identificado como una de las causas de la aparición de mecanismos de resistencia a los antimicrobianos en las bacterias que causan enfermedades humanas, lo cual es causa de una gran preocupación en las autoridades sanitarias, distintos organismos gubernamentales y de la sociedad en general. Actualmente, existe una creciente necesidad de garantizar la seguridad y calidad de los productos alimenticios y los consumidores también han comenzado a ser más exigentes obligando a la industria a introducir sus preocupaciones en sus procedimientos, en términos de conseguir los productos más naturales, ecológicos y saludables con un origen de los ingredientes rastreable. Hoy en día, el control de alimentos se realiza en laboratorios centralizados que en la mayoría de casos utilizan procedimientos muy fiables, pero necesitan equipos caros, personal especializado y elevados tiempos de tratamiento de muestra. Con el fin de mejorar drásticamente esta situación, la Comisión Europea (CE) y los organismos de los Estados Miembros apoyan firmemente actividades de investigación orientadas a aumentar la eficiencia de los métodos de análisis actuales. Una estrategia es tomar ventaja de los últimos avances en las biomicro-nanotecnologías y de las capacidades complementarias de los equipos de investigación multidisciplinarios para desarrollar metodologías más rápidas, sensibles y específicas capaces de detectar una amplia variedad de sustancias químicas, biológicas o cualquier otro riesgo para la salud asociado a la industria agroalimentaria, a lo largo de toda la cadena alimentaria. En esta tesis se describe la investigación llevada a cabo en relación a la posibilidad de desarrollar alternativas más adecuadas para el análisis de residuos de alimentos basados en la combinación de receptores selectivos y las nuevas micro/nanotecnologías. En particular, el objetivo final de esta tesis fue dirigido hacia el desarrollo de un dispositivo sensor multiplexado para detectar prácticas agrícolas inadecuadas y/o la contaminación de alimentos, principalmente la leche, por residuos de antibióticos. A este respecto, la producción de receptores selectivos con un amplio reconocimiento de las familias de antibióticos más importantes que se utilizan en el sector veterinario ha sido uno de los objetivos más importantes de este trabajo de investigación. Así, lo constata la investigación realizada en relación con el desarrollo de receptores sintéticos para antibióticos de sulfonamida (SA), polímeros de huella molecular (MIPs), y su evaluación como enfoque racional para otros contaminantes. Además, la producción de anticuerpos genéricos (o selectivos de clase) para SAs y antibióticos de tetraciclina (TC) también ha sido abordada mediante el diseño racional y síntesis de haptenos. La evaluación de las características de los anticuerpos producidos se ha logrado mediante el desarrollo de ELISAs (Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay - ensayo por inmunoabsorción ligado a enzimas) en microplacas. Los resultados muestran que a pesar de que ha sido posible obtener anticuerpos selectivos de clase para las SA (hasta 11 congéneres pueden ser detectados), el enfoque adoptado para el caso de los anticuerpos TCs ofrece una alta selectividad frente a TC que poseen un grupo alquilo/alqueno en la posición 6 del anillo C, pero que carecen del grupo hidroxilo en esta posición. Los protocolos necesarios para aplicar estos procedimientos inmunoquímicos para el análisis de muestras de leche y el cabello han sido establecidos mostrando que fue posible la determinación de estos antibióticos en leche de acuerdo con la normativa de la CE. Para el caso del cabello, no existen regulaciones por el momento. Sin embargo, esta matriz tiene un gran valor en cuanto a su uso potencial para seguir tratamientos inadecuados a lo largo de la vida de los animales de granja. Los inmunoreactivos y procedimientos inmunoquímicos establecidos se han implementado en un dispositivo sensor óptico desarrollado por el Centre Suisse de Electrónica y Microelectrónica Inc. (CSEM, Neuchâtel - Suiza). Este dispositivo se basa en el principio de onda evanescente usando un diseño tecnológico particular basado en acopladores de rejilla de guía de ondas que es muy sensible a los cambios en el índice de refracción producida en la superficie del transductor. Además, el chip desarrollado por CSEM tiene 24 zonas de detección que permiten múltiples mediciones con el mismo transductor. Como consecuencia de esta colaboración ha sido posible desarrollar un dispositivo biosensor capaz de detectar residuos de SA en muestras de leche en el cumplimiento de la normativa CE. Investigaciones posteriores, han llevado al desarrollo de un dispositivo biosensor multiplexado que combina inmunoreactivos (antibióticos SAS y fluoroquinolonas (FQs)) producidos en el grupo de Receptores Moleculares Aplicados (AMRg) del CSIC, con bioreceptores (ß-lactámicos (BLs) y TCs) proporcionados por Unisensor SA (Lieja - Bélgica). Los resultados obtenidos fueron muy buenos. Alrededor de 34 antibióticos de cuatro familias diferentes de antibióticos pueden ser detectados en muestras de leche siguiendo todas las normativas de la CE con el dispositivo desarrollado. Anteriormente, se desarrolló un ELISA multianalito (en microplacas) mediante la combinación de los mismos bioreactivos para evaluar el sus características y establecer los procedimientos inmunoquímicos más adecuados. Los métodos inmunoquímicos desarrollados en esta tesis, incluyendo los inmunoensayos e inmunosensores, han sido evaluados en colaboración con el Centro de Investigación de Nestlé (NRC), en Lausana, en Suiza, con el fin de demostrar su rendimiento en las muestras de leche real. ; [eng]The indiscriminate and/or improper use of veterinary drugs is the cause of potential adverse health effects due to the risk of entering into the food chain and the appearance of residues in food products of animal origin. Moreover, in the case of antibiotics, this fact has been identified as one of the causes for the appearance of antimicrobial resistance mechanisms in bacteria causing human diseases, which is the cause of a big concern within the health authorities, distinct governmental agencies and the society in general. There is an increased need to ensure safety and quality of the foodstuff and customers have also started to become more exigent forcing the industry to introduce consumer worries in their daily procedures, in terms of getting more natural, ecological and healthy products with a clear traceable origin of the ingredients. Nowadays, food control is performed on centralized laboratories that in most cases use very reliable procedures, but involving expensive equipment, specialized personnel and time consuming sample treatment procedures. In order to drastically improve this situation, the European Commission (EC) and the member state agencies are strongly supporting research activities aimed to increase the efficiency of the actual analytical methods. An strategy is to take advantage of the latest bio-micro-nanotechnological advances and of the complementary skills of multidisciplinary research teams to develop more rapid, sensitive and specific methodologies capable of detecting a wide variety of chemical, biological or any other health risk associated to the agrofood industry and along to the whole food chain. This thesis describes the research performed in respect to the possibility to develop improved alternatives for food residue analysis based on the combination of selective receptors and novel micro/nanotechnologies. Particularly, the final objective of this thesis was addressed to the development of a multiplexed sensor device to detect inappropriate farm practices and or the contamination of food products by antibiotic residues, mainly milk. In this respect, production of selective receptors with a broad recognition of the most important antibiotic families used in the veterinary field has been one of the most important aims of this research work. Thus, we report here the investigation made regarding development of synthetic receptors for sulfonamide antibiotics (SAs), particularly molecular imprinted polymers (MIPs), and their evaluation of a rational approach. Moreover, production of generic (or class-selective) antibodies for SAs and tetracycline antibiotics (TCs) has also been approached through the rational design and synthesis of appropriate haptens. Evaluation of the features of the antibodies produced has been accomplished through the development of microplate-based ELISAs (enzymelinked immunosorbent assays). The results show that although it has been possible to obtain class-selective antibodies for SAs (up to 11 congeners can be detected), the approach followed for the case of the TCs afforded antibodies with a high selectivity versus TCs possessing an alkyl/alkene group at position 6 of the C-ring, but lacking the hydroxyl group at this position. The necessary protocols to apply these immunochemical procedures to the analysis of milk and hair samples have been established showing that determination of these antibiotics according to the EC regulations was possible for the case of milk. For the case of hair, no regulations do exist at the moment. However this matrix holds great value regarding their potential use to trace inappropriate treatments through the life of the farm animals. The immunoreagents and immunochemical procedures established have been implemented on an optical sensor device developed by the Centre Suisse for Electronics and Microelectronics Inc. (CSEM, Neuchâtel - Switzerland). This device is based on the evanescent wave principle using a particular technological design based on waveguide grating couplers and it is very sensitive to the changes in the refractive index produced at the surface of the transducer. Moreover, the chip developed by CSEM has 24 sensing pads which allow multiple measurements with the same transducer. As a consequence of this collaboration it has been possible to develop a biosensor device able to detect SA residues in milk samples in compliance with the EC regulations. Further investigation, has led to the development of a multiplexed biosensor device by combining immunoreagents (SAs and fluoroquinolone antibiotics (FQs)) produced at the Applied Molecular Receptors group (AMRg) of the CSIC, with bioreceptors (ß lactam antibiotics (BLs) and TCs) provided by UNISENSOR S.A. (Liege - Belgium). The results obtained were very good. About 34 antibiotics from four different antibiotic families can be detected in milk samples following all the EC regulations with the device developed. Before, a multianalyte microplate-based ELISA had been developed combining the same bioreagents to evaluate performance and to establish the most appropriate immunochemical procedures. The immunochemical methods developed within this thesis, including immunoassays and immunosensors, have been preliminarily evaluated in collaboration with the Nestlé Research Centre (NRC), at Lausanne in Switzerland, in order to demonstrate performance in real milk samples.

El cáncer de piel no melanoma (CNM) es una patología creciente en Colombia, producto de una serie de procesos biológicos, anclados en dinámicas historicosociales particulares. En este trabajo buscamos darle una mirada integral al problema, explorando las condiciones asociadas con el riesgo de padecer la enfermedad y estudiando las experiencias, con el sistema de salud, de las personas enfermas. Se llevó a cabo un diseño de metodología mixta y por fases, combinando un estudio de casos y controles con un estudio cualitativo, con perspectiva crítica y etnográfica. La Fase I (cuantitativa) incluyó 738 personas, de las cuales 369 fueron casos de cáncer de piel no melanoma (carcinoma basocelular: 203 casos; carcinoma escamocelular: 166 casos) y 369 controles sanos. Durante la Fase II (cualitativa) se llevaron a cabo 3 grupos focales que incluyeron 48 participantes, entrevistas en profundidad con 20 casos y acompañamiento en campo a 3 casos. Para alcanzar los objetivos propuestos, se llevó a cabo de forma permanente, un diálogo entre los resultados de la Fase I y la Fase II, dando lugar a una Fase III de integración y triangulación de resultados. La exploración del riesgo se enfocó desde la comparación de casos y controles, acompañada de las narrativas de las personas enfermas. El estudio de las relaciones de los pacientes con el sistema de salud y su tránsito hasta lograr atención, fue producto de la integración de resultados cuantitativos basados en las encuestas aplicadas a los casos y de elementos cualitativos a partir de las historias obtenidas en los grupos focales, las entrevistas y los acompañamientos. Los principales resultados en cuanto a las estimaciones de riesgo de CNM fueron: haber vivido en área rural aún después de los 30 años (OR:4,64; IC 95%:2,39-8,99), tener una historia de trabajo al aire libre durante 15 o más años (OR:1,81; IC 95%:1,03-3,17), no haber usado protección con sombrero durante la infancia (OR:2,31; IC 95%:1,31-4,04), ser o haber sido fumador de 10 o más cigarrillos al día (OR:2,64; IC:1,58-4,41), tener historia familiar de cáncer de piel (OR:8,33; IC 95%:1,39-20,7), presentar algunas o muchas queratosis actínicas (OR:4,8; IC 95%:2,78-8,26), tener un hallazgo clínico de conjuntivitis actínica (OR:2,41; IC 95%:1,21-4,79), presentar poiquilodermia de Civatte (OR:2,75; IC 95%:1,52-4,94) y pertenecer a los fototipos I, II o III (OR:4,69; IC 95%:2,37-9,29). La integración de resultados cuali-cuantitativos nos permitió establecer que el CNM es producto de una interacción compleja que involucra diferentes elementos, entre los que podemos destacar la infancia, el ámbito rural, las posibilidades de acceder a estrategias de prevención, las condiciones laborales, el trabajo al aire libre, los aspectos económicos del individuo y la biología, representada en características fenotípicas y susceptibilidad genética individual. Las encuestas aplicadas a los casos de CNM, revelaron que la proporción de diagnósticos oportunos solo llega al 32,5%, e identificamos algunos determinantes que podrían explicar la ocurrencia de esta situación. Un diagnóstico oportuno de CNM es más probable si se alcanza un nivel de escolaridad igual o superior a la formación técnica (78% más probable), si se tiene vivienda propia (79% más probable), si se vive en medio urbano (72% más probable) y si se está afiliado al régimen contributivo (47% más probable). El 28% de estos casos reportaron la negación de algún tipo de servicio (consulta, biopsia, cirugía), y de ellos, 17 interpusieron algún tipo de recurso legal, para una tasa de 5 tutelas por 100 casos nuevos de CNM por año. En promedio los costos directos asumidos por los pacientes fueron de $ 1´020.000. Esta información fue complementada con las narrativas de los casos, en las cuales se documentó que los pacientes con CNM enfrentan barreras propias del SGSSS, pero además deben lidiar con otras barreras intermedias (laborales y geográficas) y con barreas estructurales (economía, ingresos, poder adquisitivo, cohesión social y educación). Paradójicamente las personas que padecen las situaciones más complejas, generalmente se encuentran en condiciones socioeconómicas desfavorables y son quienes afrontan la mayor cantidad de barreras de acceso a los servicios de salud. A partir de los relatos obtenidos fue posible describir el detalle del itinerario burocrático de la atención del CNM. Concluimos que el CNM es producto de una multiplicidad de situaciones de orden biológico, social, ambiental, económico y político, y como tal debe ser abordado desde una perspectiva integral. Podemos afirmar que el porcentaje de diagnósticos oportunos es muy bajo, afectando la calidad de vida de los pacientes, y generando sobre ellos y sobre el SGSSS una elevada presión económica. En relación con las barreras, es importante resaltar que estas van más allá del sistema de salud, luego no dependen exclusivamente de una reforma al sector, sino que deberían pasar por una revisión del modelo económico y político actual. / Abstract. Non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) is a growing pathology in Colombia, which is the product of a series of biological processes associated to local historical and social dynamics. The present work intends to approach NMSC in a comprehensive manner by exploring the circumstances associated to the risk of suffering this disease and studying the experiences of the patients within the health care system. A mixed phased methodological design was made which combined a case and control study with a qualitative study, with a critical and ethnographical perspective. Phase I (quantitative) included 738 individuals, out of which 369 were non-melanoma skin cancer cases (basal cell carcinoma: 203 cases; squamous cell carcinoma: 166 cases) and 369 healthy controls. Throughout phase II (qualitative) 3 focus groups were made which included 48 participants, along with in-depth interviews for 20 cases and in situ monitoring for 3 cases. In order to attain the objectives proposed, there was a permanent dialogue between the results of phase I and phase II, which yielded a phase III for the integration and triangulation of results. Risk was approached by focusing on the comparison of cases and controls, plus the patients' narratives. The study of the relationship between the patients and the health care system and the process until the patients received medical attention, was the product of the integration of quantitative results based on the surveys applied on the cases and the qualitative elements obtained from the stories collected in the focus groups, the interviews, and the monitoring. The main results with regard to NMSC risk estimates were: having lived in a rural area even after the age of 30 (OR:4,64; CI 95%:2,39-8,99), having an outdoor work history for 15 years or more (OR:1,81; CI 95%:1,03-3,17), not having used hat protection during childhood (OR:2,31; CI 95%:1,31-4,04), being or having been a smoker of 10 or more cigarettes per day (OR:2,64; CI:1,58-4,41), having a family history of skin cancer (OR:8,33; CI 95%:1,39-20,7), having some or many actinic keratoses (OR:4,8; CI 95%:2,78-8,26), having been diagnosed with actinic conjunctivitis (OR:2,41; CI 95%:1,21-4,79), having poikiloderma of Civatte (OR:2,75; CI 95%:1,52-4,94) and belonging to phototypes I, II or III (OR:4,69; CI 95%:2,37-9,29). The integration of qualitative-quantitative results allowed to establish that NMSC is the product of a complex interaction that involves different elements, among which the following can be highlighted: childhood, rural setting, possibilities to access prevention schemes, work conditions, outdoor work, individual's financial situation, and biology, represented by phenotypic features and individual genetic susceptibility. The surveys applied on NMSC cases revealed that the rate of early diagnoses only reaches 32,5%, and a number of determinants that might explain this situation were identified. An early NMSC diagnosis is more likely to happen if a level of education equal or above technical school is reached (78% more probable), if a property is owned (79% more probable), living in an urban setting (72% more probable) belonging to the contributory health care system (47% more probable). 28% of these cases reported the refusal of some kind of service (consultation, biopsy, surgery); and out of these, 17 stated a claim, for a rate of 5 tutelas (legal actions to uphold fundamental rights) per 100 new NMSC cases per year. On average the direct costs assumed by the patients reached $ 1´020.000 (Colombian Pesos). This information was complemented with the narratives of the cases, in which it was documented that NMSC patients face barriers that are inherent to the health care system, but they also have to cope with other intermediate barriers (work and geographical) and with structural barriers (financial, income, purchasing power, social cohesion, and education). Paradoxically, the individuals that suffer the most complex cases are generally socio-economically challenged and are the ones that face the majority of barriers to access the health services. From the narratives obtained it was possible to describe in detail the bureaucratic obstacles to NMSC attention. It can be concluded that NMSC is the product of a multiplicity of biological, social, environmental, economic, and political situations; for this reason it should be approached from a comprehensive perspective. It can be affirmed that the rate of early diagnoses is very low, affecting the patients´ quality of life and generating a high financial impact on the patients themselves and the health care system. With regard to bureaucratic barriers, it is important to highlight that these barriers go beyond the health care system, for this reason they do not depend exclusively on a reform on the health care system but should be approached through a revision of the current economic and political model. ; Doctorado

David J. Caswell (" Analysis of National Strategies to Counter a Country's Nuclear Weapons Program ") is an officer in the U.S. Air Force and a research affiliate with the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. David has served in various positions ranging from operational simulation development to operations analysis for national intelligence. He currently serves as an operations analyst in support of regional air and space employment in the Pacific. David received his Ph.D. in management science and engineering at Stanford University. His current research continues to apply computer science and operations research methods for gaining insights for nuclear policy and other international security issues. Address: http://www.stanford.edu/group/ERRG/davidc1.htm ; e-mail: david.caswell33@gmail.com . Kjell Hausken (" Governments' and Terrorists' Defense and Attack in a T-Period Game ") has since 1999 been a professor of economics and societal safety at the University of Stavanger, Norway. His research fields are strategic interaction, risk analysis, reliability, conflict, and terrorism. He holds a Ph.D. (thesis: "Dynamic Multilevel Game Theory") from the University of Chicago (1990–1994), and was a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for the Studies of Societies (Cologne) from 1995 to 1998 and a visiting scholar at Yale School of Management from 1989 to 1990. He holds a doctorate program degree in administration from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, and an M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the Norwegian Institute of Technology. He completed military service at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, has published 110 articles, and is on the editorial board for Theory and Decision and Defence and Peace Economics. Address: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stavanger, N-4036 Stavanger, Norway; e-mail: kjell.hausken@uis.no . Ronald A. Howard (" Analysis of National Strategies to Counter a Country's Nuclear Weapons Program ") is a professor of management science and engineering in the School of Engineering at Stanford University. Professor Howard directs teaching and research in the Decision Analysis Program of the department, and is the director of the Decisions and Ethics Center, which examines the efficacy and ethics of social arrangements. He defined the profession of decision analysis in 1964 and has supervised more than 80 doctoral theses in decision analysis and related areas. His experience includes dozens of decision analysis projects that range over virtually all fields of application, from investment planning to research strategy, and from hurricane seeding to nuclear waste isolation. He has been a consultant to several companies and was a founding director and chairman of Strategic Decisions Group. He is president of the Decision Education Foundation, which he and colleagues founded to teach decision skills to young people. He has written four books, dozens of technical papers, and provided editorial service to seven technical journals. His society affiliations have included the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (Fellow); The Institute of Management Sciences, which he served as president, and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) (Fellow). Continuing research interests are improving the quality of decisions, life-and-death decision making, and the creation of a coercion-free society. In 1986 he received the Frank P. Ramsey Medal "for Distinguished Contributions in Decision Analysis" from the Decision Analysis Special Interest Group of the Operations Research Society of America (the predecessor to the Decision Analysis Society of INFORMS). In 1998 he received from INFORMS the first award for the Teaching of Operations Research/Management Science Practice. In 1999 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Address: Management Science and Engineering, Huang Engineering Center, 475 Via Ortega, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4121; e-mail: rhoward@stanford.edu . Joseph B. ("Jay") Kadane (" Partial-Kelly Strategies and Expected Utility: Small Edge Asymptotics ") is Leonard J. Savage University Professor of Statistics and Social Sciences, Emeritus, at Carnegie Mellon University. He received a B.S. in mathematics from Harvard and a Ph.D. in statistics from Stanford. He was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His theoretical interests center on subjective Bayesian theory. His current applied interests include Internet security, medicine, law, physics, marketing, and air pollution. He serves as an expert witness in legal cases. His most recent book is Principles of Uncertainty, which is scheduled to be released in May 2011 by Chapman and Hall and will be available free on the Web for any noncommercial purpose. Address: Department of Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213; e-mail: kadane@stat.cmu.edu . Konstantinos V. Katsikopoulos (" Psychological Heuristics for Making Inferences: Definition, Performance, and the Emerging Theory and Practice ") holds a Ph.D. in industrial engineering and operations research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is currently a senior research scientist at the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. He has been a visiting assistant professor of operations research at the Naval Postgraduate School and of systems engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has made contributions to the theory of bounded rationality and its applications to decisions "in the wild" in fields such as engineering design and medicine. Address: Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany; e-mail: katsikop@mpib-berlin.mpg.de . L. Robin Keller (" Investment and Defense Strategies, Heuristics, and Games: From the Editor … ") is a professor of operations and decision technologies in the Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. She received her Ph.D. and M.B.A. in management science and her B.A. in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has served as a program director for the Decision, Risk, and Management Science Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Her research is on decision analysis and risk analysis for business and policy decisions and has been funded by NSF and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Her research interests cover multiple attribute decision making, riskiness, fairness, probability judgments, ambiguity of probabilities or outcomes, risk analysis (for terrorism, environmental, health, and safety risks), time preferences, problem structuring, cross-cultural decisions, and medical decision making. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of Decision Analysis, published by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). She is a Fellow of INFORMS and has held numerous roles in INFORMS, including board member and chair of the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society. She is a recipient of the George F. Kimball Medal from INFORMS. She has served as the decision analyst on three National Academy of Sciences committees. Address: The Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-3125; e-mail: lrkeller@uci.edu . Jeryl L. Mumpower (" Playing Squash Against Ralph Keeney: Should Weaker Players Always Prefer Shorter Games? ") is Director of the Master of Public Service and Administration Program at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, where he holds the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Chair in Business and Public Policy. Previously he was at the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, State University of New York at Albany, where he was a professor of public administration, public policy, public health, and information science and served in a variety of University-level administrative positions. His previous experience includes six years as a program director and policy analyst at the National Science Foundation. Mumpower received his B.A. from the College of William and Mary and his Ph.D. in social and quantitative psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is author or editor of nine books and more than 50 book chapters and articles. His research has addressed basic and applied topics in negotiation and bargaining, environmental policy, individual and group decision-making processes, the use of scientific expertise in public policy making, and risk analysis and management. Address: Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, 1092 Allen Building, 4220 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4220; e-mail: jmumpower@bushschool.tamu.edu . M. Elisabeth Paté-Cornell (" Analysis of National Strategies to Counter a Country's Nuclear Weapons Program ") is the Burt and Deedee McMurtry Professor and Chair, Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. Her specialty is engineering risk analysis with application to complex systems (including space systems and medical systems). Her research has focused on explicit consideration of human and organizational factors in the analysis of failure risks and, recently, on the use of game theory in risk analysis. Applications in the last few years have included counterterrorism and nuclear counterproliferation problems. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and of several boards (Aerospace, Draper, InQtel, etc.). She was a member of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board until December 2008. She holds an engineer degree (Applied Math/CS) from the Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble (France), and an M.S. in Operations Research and a Ph.D. in Engineering-Economic Systems, both from Stanford University. Address: Management Science and Engineering, Huang Engineering Center, 475 Via Ortega, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4121; e-mail: mep@stanford.edu . Jun Zhuang (" Governments' and Terrorists' Defense and Attack in a T-Period Game ") is an assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York. He has been a faculty member at SUNY Buffalo since he obtained his Ph.D. in summer 2008 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dr. Zhuang's long-term research goal is to integrate operations research and game theory to better prepare for, mitigate, and manage both natural and man-made hazards. Other areas of interests include health care, transportation, logistics and supply chain management, and sustainability. Dr. Zhuang's research has been supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, and by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events. Address: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 403 Bell Hall, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260; e-mail: jzhuang@buffalo.edu .

Analizirajući povijesnu građu i arheološka istraživanja, autorica prati gradnju gotičkog kaštela Kamerlengo u Trogiru, uz nove elemente o popravcima i dogradnji južne strane gradskih zidina. Prvi put donosi nacrte kaštela iz 1829. godine koji su pohranjeni u Državnom arhivu u Beču. ; The citadel in Trogir was built according to a plan by the new Venetian government at the beginning of the 15th century as a detached fort on the periphery of the fortified town. In the earliest documents relation to the planning of the Trogir castle and the preparations for the building there is mention of a fortilicio or arx. It was only several centuries later that the name of Kamerlengo, taken from the title of respected officials [chamberlain] of the Venetian Republic, became common. In documents of the late 18th century it is stated that the castellan and camerlengo had a dwelling in the northern set of houses within the citadel, today no longer in existence, which suggests that the name of the office became, over the course of time, a synonym for the Trogir town castle. Trogir 17th century historians Ivan Lucić and Pavao Andreis collected invaluable historical sources and evidence concerning the past of the city, particularly concerning the siege by the Venetian fleet. Documents provide precise instructions for the construction of the citadel founded on strategic analyses of the ground, access from land and sea and of directions from which attacks would be naturally frustrated. The Trogir naval siege, accompanied by bombardment of the city, was executed according to the decision of Doge Tommaso Mocenigo (1414-1423). As early as the 14th century there had been an attempt by Venice to master Trogir, that small but important Dalmatian commune. The conflict between the Genovese and the Venetians broke out in a sea battle off Trogir in 1378, for Genovese galleys commanded by Luciano Doria had taken cover there. Under the command of Admiral Vettore Pisani, the Venetian fleet bombarded the city from the sea and from positions on Čiovo island, with an attempt to make a seaborne descent on he mainland. However, the plan did not bear fruit, and neither did a renewed attempt by Venice to take Trogir in the following year. After the victory over the Turkish fleet at Gallipoli, on the bridgehead between Europe and Asia Minor in 1416, the Venetians soon gained control of cities on the entrance into the Adriatic. A second strategic point, in the northwest, consisted of Aquileia and the whole of the province of Friuli, which fell in 1419-1420. When Venetian government in Zadar had been consolidated, interventions in the commune centres in central Dalmatia were the next part of the Mocenigo programme to conquer the whole of the Adriatic basin. At Gallipoli, Pietro Loredan had made his name as commander of the fleet, and led it during the attack on Trogir during May and June 1420. The 14th century city walls with the towers at the rim, the monastery of St Nicholas, the cathedral and bell tower, the council chamber, city loggia and numerous palaces were seriously damaged. One of the first tasks in the organisation of the life in the city was the repair of the damaged walls and towers and the construction of the citadel, which was able to function as a separate fort. Immediately after Verona acknowledged Venetian rule in 1408, an office called provisores ad fortilicia was set up, part of the programme of which was to check out the condition of the defensive system in other conquered provinces as well. The Republic sent Picino its tried and tested fortification expert, who had achieved prominence in the construction of the Lido fort, which was in fact the bulwark of Venice, and from 1413 to 1428 was posted to Verona, where he ran the renovation of the citadel. In the edicts of 1422 and 1424, mention is made, in connection with the fortification of Verona, of magistri Picini ingenarii nostri and prothoingenarius ducalis dominii Venetorum. Working with him were masters Stefano and Giovanni of Cremona. On the orders of the doge, he occasionally arrived in Dalmatia as well; the sources refer to him in 1414 in Zadar and Šibenik as magistrum Pizinum, but his personal name is not given. In 1409, the Venetian government in Zadar built a fort at the south east of the city called Citadella. Not long after that the trecento city castle on the north east of the peninsula was reinforced after a detailed plan by Engineer Picino of 1414. It had a square ground plan with a polygonal corner tower facing onto the city, a barbican with a fortified belt of walls around the castle, which was accompanied by a wide defensive fosse. At the very beginning of August 1425 the doge constituted a commission the task of which was to make a decision about the best place for the construction of a citadel in Trogir. Magister Picino made use of the defensive mode adopted in the Zadar castle, where the site chosen was peripheral with respect to the existing structure of the town and adapted it to the position of Trogir port, the navigation channels and the shallows of the marine channel. Detailed instructions about the handling of the walls and towers in situ were given by Captain General of Adriatic Pietro Loredan, specifying which parts were to be demolished, which strengthened. At the beginning of September Trogir rector Detrico signed a contract with the stone carver Marin Radojev for the working of stone for the foundations of the citadel. With three stonecutters, Marin guaranteed to collect stone in the quarry and work the face of the ashlars, and bring them by ship to Trogir, to the site of the construction of the future citadel. The contract made it clear that what had to be built was a tower with 15-foot wide towers, making use in the fill and the outer face of the walls high quality mortar, as befitted the reputation of a good craftsman. A small chapel dedicated to St Mark, patron saint of the Most Serene Republic, was put up in the courtyard of Kamerlengo. Below the monumental relief of a lion was the coat of arms of the Tron family in a quatrefoil. Luca Tron had distinguished himself as the captain of a Venetian galley in the surrender of Korčula and the siege of Trogir, and was rewarded with the confidential office of city rector (1421-1424), the second in chronological order from the establishment of the new Venetian government. A Gothic relief of a lion with the initials DC and the coat of arms of the Contarini family was done after the capture of Trogir in the 15th century and placed in the chapel in memory of Doge Domenico Contarini I (1043-1071), who is mentioned in Venetian annals in the context of the taking of Zadar in the middle of the 12th century. The works on the construction of the castle went on slowly for the commune was not able to summon up funds enough from its own revenues and constantly repeated requests for aid. During a second visit to Trogir in 1424 Admiral Loredan toured the city with the commanders of the galleys and informed Doge Francesco Foscari of all he had observed. At the time of rector Jacopo Zorzi (1424-1426) work was continued on the construction of the citadel and the barbican was reinforced. The coats of arms of rector Jacopo Barbarigo (1426-1429) were incorporated into both towers on the eastern side of the citadel; as trophy heraldry, they must be considered indications of the time of the completion of the work on this part of the fort. An inscription mentioning some big works of 1425 during the time of Rector Jacopo Zorzi is built in over the eastern part of the portico of the cloister of the Dominican monastery. It needs connecting with the long stay of Pietro Loredan in Dalmatia; together with rector Zorzi and the galley commanders, he issued detailed instructions for the renovation of the Trogir walls and towers that had been damaged in the bombardment. A slab that records the rapidly completed works was probably incorporated into the curtain of the new wall in front of the monastery, and Loredan's coat of arms was built into the corner of the wall close to the gate of St Roch. In 1432 the city received aid from the Republic for continuation of works on the city walls, and in an edict of July 26, 1436, a decision to complete the citadel and renovate the city walls at places threatened with collapse was taken. Rector of Trogir Marco Zen (1435-1436) entered into contracts with the Zadar craftsmen Matej Radovanov and Šimun Bilšić about the construction of a vault over the cistern in the castello and of a new wall on the north and the east in the fosse. Detailed drawings of the city castello in watercolour are kept in Vienna (Kartensammlung des Kriegsarchives) and were done during the time of the Austrian government of 1829, when the moat was already filled up with building material from the demolished walls. A large tower in all floor plan levels and with cross sections and indications of dimensions is shown separately. At that time, throughout Europe, the defensive character of city walls lost their importance; the opening up of wide roads and promenades was encouraged; on the platforms of the bastions and along the onetime fortifications stretched parks and gardens. The ruinous state of the walls was an additional encouragement to the authorities to remove them, and Kamerlengo Castle, which had been registered in the exchequer, was in 1848 added to the demolition list. But unlike the citadel in Split and Zadar, which were partially demolished or integrated into later construction, the Trogir castle kept the original planimetry and volume. Although of modest dimensions, this fort acquired a symbolic level in the image of the city, dominating the city port like a lighthouse for all the navigational routes.

More than 16 years post-apartheid, South Africa is still regarded as the most unequal society in the world. The government is facing various obstacles and challenges in improving the standard of living and quality of life for all its citizens, for example in facilitating the access to clean drinking water and sanitation, building houses and providing basic education. In addition, the country is facing the world's largest HIV/AIDS epidemic with a national prevalence rate of 18.1 %, equalling approximately 5.7 million people who are currently infected. (Pressly, 2009; UNAIDS, 2008c) Against this background, the aim of this thesis was to study the Madwaleni community, situated in a deeply rural area of the former apartheid homeland Transkei. Applying the Community Oriented Primary Care approach, a strategy of 'community assessment and diagnosis' was used to obtain a holistic community profile and to determine the perceptions of its community members regarding their health and social problems and needs, intending to make recommendations to health care providers working at Madwaleni Hospital regarding future health education and disease prevention programmes. (Brown and Fee, 2002) This research used a cross-sectional design. In a preliminary survey, qualitative data was collected in short interviews with health care providers working at Madwaleni Hospital (N=46). The information served as a basis to develop and design parts of the Madwaleni community survey questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of 36 questions, complying with the aim and objectives of this thesis. It was used for the structured interviews with the main study population, all of whom were members of the Madwaleni community (N=200), whereas half of the main study population were men and half were women, then again, half were unaware of their HIV status and half were HIV+ and had joined the Madwaleni HIV/AIDS programme. Key findings 1) Madwaleni community profile and characteristics Thoughtful sexual behaviour: Particularly interesting in light of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, more than 90 % of the sexually active community members were monogamous at the time of the survey. While only 36.4 % of the men and women unaware of their HIV status used condoms, 76.5 % of the HIV+ community members claimed to do so, indicating that the Madwaleni HIV wellness programme and especially its counselling and health education components are adequate and valuable in serving their purpose. High rates of illiteracy and insufficient education: Only 56.5 % of the interviewed community members were 'functionally literate' at the time of the survey. Of those, only 8 % had received a matriculation and not one of the community members had received any higher degree. In addition, 19.5 % of the sampled men and women were not able to read at all. High rates of unemployment, poverty and dependency on welfare grants: Only 20 % of the Madwaleni community members were employed at the time of the survey. Taking the daily income per capita as a reference, one third of the community members suffered from 'moderate poverty', defined as an income of 1 to 2 US $ per day, while the other two thirds suffered from 'extreme poverty', defined as an income of less than 1 US $ per day, although more than 90 % of the corresponding households received at least one type of welfare grant already. Large household sizes and predominance of traditional dwellings: In the Madwaleni community, an average of eight people lived together per household at the time of the survey, whereas 95 % of the community members lived in traditional dwellings, constructed from freely occurring natural resources. In need of safe drinking water, sanitary systems and access to electricity: More than 80 % of the Madwaleni community members obtained their drinking water from rivers or stagnant dams, while only 6.5 % used rain water and 9.5 % had access to piped water. In addition, almost 70 % of the community members had no access to any sanitary systems, using nearby bushes instead. Furthermore, more than 90 % had no access to electricity. The majority used paraffin for cooking, candles for lighting and wood for heating their homes. Small-scale cultivation to provide an extra source of food: In the Madwaleni area, 90 % of the families owned a small garden patch attached to their houses, used for small-scale cultivation. In addition, almost 90 % owned livestock, mainly poultry, cattle and goats. Crops and animals were used to provide an extra source of food; however, not one of the households could solely live on subsistence farming. Difficulties in accessing health care facilities: On average, each of the community members needed three-quarters of an hour to access their closest clinic and almost one and a half hours to reach Madwaleni Hospital, with 40 % and 60 % respectively depending on public taxi transport to get there. No substantial improvement of the living circumstances since apartheid: Comparing the Madwaleni community characteristics with corresponding data from apartheid-times, no substantial improvement of the living circumstances and conditions could be noticed, proving that governmental and non-governmental actions, programmes and services have not yet reached all remote communities. Similar community characteristics in the neighbouring communities: Comparing these characteristics with corresponding features of communities in the immediate or surrounding areas, namely Cwebe, Ntubeni, Mboya, Shixini and Zithulele, various similarities could be detected, indicating that the living circumstances and conditions might be generalisable to a certain degree, at least to deeply rural communities in the former Transkei area. More disadvantaged than the general South African population: The Madwaleni community differed significantly from the general South African population in 75 % of the compared characteristics. For example, amongst the community members the illiteracy rate (21.7 % vs. 13.6 %, p = 0.002) and unemployment rate (80.5 % vs. 25.5 %, p < 0.001) were significantly higher. In addition, the 'poverty headcount ratio of 2 US $ per day' showed that significantly more people were suffering from poverty in the Madwaleni area (92.2 % vs. 34 %, p < 0.001). The Madwaleni community members were less likely to have access to clean drinking water, along with significantly higher proportions of them using river water as their main source of drinking water (75.5 % vs. 5.1 %, p < 0.001). Also, they were less likely to have access to any sanitation or toilet facilities (31.3 % vs. 91.8 %, p < 0.001) or to electricity (8.5 % vs. 80.2 %, p < 0.001). 2) Weightiest health and social problems as experienced by the Madwaleni community In the Madwaleni area, the three health problems with the highest impact on the community were TB, HIV/AIDS and hypertension. On the basis of the applied 3-to-0-point rating matrix, they were rated by more than 95 % of the community members as being relevant problems, with mean values of 2.33, 2.30 and 2.14 respectively. Interestingly, women rated HIV/AIDS higher than men. Musculoskeletal problems and headache were additional health problems with relevant impact on the Madwaleni community, rated by more than 90 %, with mean values above 1.80. While pain and discomfort experienced by PLWHA have been recognised and researched before, there are no corresponding studies on rural communities and further research is necessary to identify the contributing factors. Additional relevant health problems: Interestingly, six health problems were rated higher by HIV untested than by HIV+ community members, namely bilharzia/ schistosomiasis, epilepsy, Herpes Zoster, HIV/AIDS, lung infections and stroke. Since the HIV+ men and women were educated about and screened for all of those diseases within the Madwaleni HIV/AIDS programme, this might explain the deviating rating patterns between the different sub-samples. Moreover, these results demonstrate that health education and disease prevention programmes are able to reduce the perceived burden of health problems and might therefore serve as a substantial argument in their favour. Interestingly, for the Madwaleni community, social matters had a higher impact on their lives than health problems, whereas the three social problems with the highest impact on the community were alcohol abuse, dependency on social grants and smoking. They were rated by more than 98 % of the community members as being relevant problems, with mean values of 2.75, 2.73 and 2.72 respectively. In accordance with these findings, employment & lack of work opportunities, education & illiteracy, food supply and poverty were additional social problems with relevant impact in the Madwaleni area, rated by more than 90 %, with mean values above 2.00. 3) Recommendations for future health education and disease prevention programmes At the time of the survey, the three most relevant health education and disease prevention topics for the Madwaleni community were HIV/AIDS, TB and healthy nutrition. They were rated by more than 95 % of the community members as being relevant health education problems, with mean values of 2.65, 2.51 and 2.36 respectively. In addition, STIs, alcohol & drug-related problems, water & sanitation and body & muscle pain were rated as the subsequent issues of relevance, with mean values above 2.00, supporting the identified community characteristics as well as the listing of the weightiest health and social problems. In addition, valuable new insight could be gained. For instance, HIV untested men rated the topic HIV/AIDS lower than all other community members, which is particularly interesting since men only constitute a minority of 20 % of the people testing for HIV in the Madwaleni area. Besides, topics not previously considered, such as injury prevention and basic first aid, were in-fact relevant for more than 85 % of the community members and require further attention. Furthermore, deviating rating patterns between men and women and the corresponding need for gender-specific educational workshops became evident, for example, for men about prostate & testicular cancer check-up or erectile dysfunction and for women about breast & cervical cancer check-up & papsmears or nutrition & growth. In addition, HIV+ community members rated depression & stress and psychiatric diseases higher than HIV untested men and women, with further studies required to identify the underlying reasons for these deviating rating patterns. Taking all findings from this Madwaleni community survey into consideration, health care providers working at the hospital and its peripheral clinics should first and foremost concentrate their efforts on maintaining the existing programmes, particularly, the Madwaleni HIV/ARV programme and the workshops on hypertension and diabetes mellitus. In addition, if qualified and motivated personnel can be recruited and the necessary funding can be raised, future health education and disease prevention programmes should focus on TB, alcohol & substance abuse-related problems as well as water & sanitation.

Dottorato di ricerca in Storia e cultura del viaggio e dell'odeporica nell'età moderna ; Il documento attorno al quale è costruita la mia tesi è costituito da un taccuino di viaggio composto da 37 carte autografe raccolte sotto il titolo Viaggio da Roma a Napoli e descrizione dei vari monumenti di questa città e dei suoi punti di vista, di Giancarlo Conestabile (1842). Il taccuino è corredato da 17 carte che l'autore intitola Appunti di un viaggio a Napoli che raccolgono alcune brevi annotazioni relative al soggiorno nella città campana, il secondo taccuino al quale faccio riferimento in modo più marginale nel mio lavoro, è composto da 30 carte autografe ed è denominato Viaggio in Umbria Marche e Romagna (1844) di Giancarlo Conestabile della Staffa. Le carte fanno parte del manoscritto 2390 costituito da quadernetti e taccuini tutti redatti dal nobile perugino e appartenenti all'interessantissimo «Fondo Conestabile della Staffa» che è conservato nella biblioteca Augusta di Perugia, una parte della documentazione originaria è stata acquisita dall'Archivio dell'Università degli Studi di Perugia e dall'Archivio di Stato della città. Giancarlo Conestabile della Staffa (1824-1877), noto agli studiosi di Archeologia, è un personaggio ben inserito nel mondo culturale europeo di studiosi di arte antiquaria, viaggia moltissimo sia in Italia che all'estero, viaggia per piacere e per studio. A Napoli arriva per la prima volta nel 1842 a diciotto anni desideroso di conoscere le bellezze artistiche della città, e affascinato dalla prospettiva animata e vivace che offre la città partenopea. La tesi è strutturata in 5 capitoli, racconta il viaggio del giovane perugino contestualizzandolo nel momento storico particolare nel quale avviene, gli anni Quaranta nell'Italia del Risorgimento nello Stato pontificio e nel Regno borbonico e lo confronta con l'esperienza di altri viaggiatori che si spostano in Italia a partire dal XVII secolo. Nel mio lavoro ho voluto cogliere le diverse prospettive dalle quali i viaggiatori leggono i luoghi che attraversano, e come gli stessi luoghi si configurino sempre in una realtà nuova e mutevole. I capitolo: presenta documenti, tra i quali alcuni inediti, di viaggiatori che si spostano da e per Roma viaggiando lungo la via Francigena, nel XVII e nel XVIII secolo, si tratta di viaggiatori italiani, ma anche stranieri: - religiosi -nobili in viaggio da soli o accompagnati dai familiari. -viaggiatori inglesi, tutori, collezionisti d'arte, uomini per i quali il viaggio è ormai Gran Tour. La Società Geografica Italiana, il Fondo Caetani, l'Archivio Doria Pamphili, l'Angelica, l'Archivio di Stato di Roma, la Corsiniana, l'Archivio delle cerimonie del Vaticano, la biblioteca presso il santuario di Montevergine, sono le biblioteche in cui ho lavorato per le ricerche sui viaggiatori del XVIII secolo, religiosi, nobili, ma anche scienziati ed esploratori. II capitolo: presenta il Fondo Conestabile della Staffa, le segnature dei manoscritti, si tratta di cento opere che trattano delle esperienze artistiche e culturali delle civiltà antiche e studi sulle antichità italiche, molti documenti sono relativi a ritrovamenti e reperti, altri sono appunti di lezioni; - i documenti oggetto della mia tesi, un quadernetto rigato a matita composto quando, dopo un soggiorno di cinque mesi a Roma, decide di andare a Napoli, e un libretto relativo a un viaggio in Umbria, Marche e Romagna del 1844; - l'autore Giancarlo Conestabile della Staffa, la vita, gli studi e le sue relazioni con l'ambiente politico e culturale del periodo in cui vive; - la tipologia del viaggio e del viaggiatore con un'analisi delle motivazioni del viaggio in linea con le inclinazioni personali del Conestabile. In questo capitolo ho raccolto alcune testimonianze di viaggiatori dell'Ottocento evidenziando la molteplicità del vissuto che si offre all'occhio del lettore e confrontandole con l'esperienza del Conestabile, e ho inserito una mappatura di viaggiatori italiani e stranieri che hanno affinità con il Conestabile per i luoghi che attraversano e per i fatti storici che li coinvolgono. III capitolo: analisi del manoscritto, descrizione del viaggio a Napoli in tre paragrafi, il primo riguarda il viaggio nello Stato pontificio, con la descrizione della strada, delle stazioni di posta seguendo l'occhio del viaggiatore e evidenziando il suo punto di vista, quello di un diciottenne colto entusiasta della sua nuova esperienza, il secondo paragrafo descrive il viaggio nel Regno borbonico fino alla strada della Dogana Vecchia a Capodichino. Il terzo paragrafo è quello dell'arrivo a Napoli in cui si esprime la percezione che della capitale borbonica ha il giovane viaggiatore, il quarto e ultimo paragrafo è riservato all'immagine del territorio e della città, come appare agli occhi del giovane, confrontando la sua esperienza con quella di altri viaggiatori di allora, sottolineando che lo scritto assicura una abilitazione a esercitare il proprio magistero, quello di studioso dell'arte in una dimensione in cui il viaggio è inteso come conoscenza. IV capitolo: si tratta di un commento del manoscritto nel contesto critico della letteratura di viaggio e dell'importanza della sua scrittura, e di una presentazione breve di altri due scritti autografi relativi a due viaggi in Umbria. V capitolo: è una mappatura delle scritture di viaggio conservate negli istituti di ricerca consultati. In appendice è inserita la trascrizione del manoscritto. ; My thesis consists in the analysis of a travel notebook made of 37 autograph sheets of papers collected under the title da Roma a Napoli e descrizione dei vari monumenti di questa città e dei suoi punti di vista, di Giancarlo Conestabile(1842). The notebook includes 17 papers which the author entitled Appunti di un viaggio a Napoli and which are short comments on his stay in Naples. The other notebook I refer to in my essay, even though more slightly, is made of 30 autograph sheets and is called Viaggio in Umbria Marche e Romagna (1844) di Giancarlo Conestabile della Staffa. All the papers are contained in the manuscript 2435 which is formed by quadernetti e taccuini all written by the Perugian nobleman and belonging to the extremely interesting «Fondo Conestabile della Staffa», which is preserved in the Augusta Library in Perugia. A part of the original documentation was acquired by the Archivio dell'Università degli Studi in Perugia and the Archivio di Stato in the same city. Giancarlo Conestabile della Staffa, famous among the scholars of Archeology is a well.known man in the cultural European milieu of scholars of antique, he travels widely in Italy as well as abroad, both for study and for pleasure. He arrives in Naples for the first time in 1842, he is 18, longing to see the artistic beauty of the city and fascinated by the lively and vivacious perspective which it can offer. The essay is made up of 5 chapters and deals with the journey of the young Perugian and contextualizes it in the special historical background in which it takes place: in the 40s of the Risorgimento in the Papal State and the Bourbon Kingdom. It also compares this journey with the ones of other travellers in Italy since the 17th century. In my essay I mean to get the different points of view from which the different travellers look at the places they visit and how the places themselves always look like a different and changing reality. Chapter I: it is on documents, some unpublished, written by travellers from and to Rome, along the Via Francigena; these travellers are Italian but also from abroad: - churchmen - noblemen travelling by themselves or with their families - English travellers, tutors, collectors of art, all men on their Grand Tour The Società Geografica Italiana, the Fondo Caetani, the Doria Pamphili Archive, the Angelica Library, the Archivio di Stato of Rome, the Corsiniana Library, the Archivio delle Cerimonie del Vaticano, the library at the Montevergine Sanctuary are the libraries where I collected the information about the travellers of the 18th century: they were churchmen, noblemen but also scientists and explorers. Chapter II: its contents are - the Fondo Conestabile della Staffa and the shelf-marks of the manuscripts. They are 100 works about the cultural and artistic experiences of ancient civilizations, and studies on Italic antiquities. Many documents are about discoveries and finds, others are notes of lessons; - the documents object of my thesis: a small notebook written when he decided to move to Naples after spending five months in Rome, an another booklet concerning a journey to Umbria, Marche and Romagna in 1844; - their author, Giancarlo Conestabile della Staffa, his life, his studies and his relationship with the political and cultural environment of his time; - the nature of the journey and of the traveller together with the analysis of the reasons why he travelled; In this chapter I have collected some records of travellers of the 19th century, stressing the variety of the experiences and comparing them with the one lived by Conestabile; I have also inserted a list of Italian and foreign travellers who share some affinity with Conestabile about the places they visit and the historical events which involve them; Chapter III: it is about the analysis of the manuscript. The description of the journey in 4 paragraphs. - The first one concerns the journey to the Papal State and includes the description of the route, of the staging posts from the point of view of the traveller: a learned 18 year old young man enthusiastic about his new experience. The second paragraph describes the journey to the Bourbon Kingdom until the Dogana Vecchia Road at Capodichino. The third one is on Conestabile's arrival in Naples and his perception of the city. The fourth and last paragraph is dedicated to the impression the young man has of the city and its territory. Here the young man is aware that this experience "assicura una abilitazione a esercitare il proprio magistero, quello di studioso dell'arte", equating travel with knowledge; Chapter IV: It is a comment on the manuscript set in the critical context of the travel literature and on its importance; it also contains the presentation of two other autograph texts about a journey to Umbria. Chapter V: it contains a list of the travel texts preserved in the cultural institutes I visited for my research. The manuscript has been inserted as addendum.

It is well established that bacteria are the first organisms to adhere and colonize both abiotic and biotic surfaces. Their subsequent multiplication and production of exopolymeric substances (EPS) bring to biofilm formation which is believed to influence the settlement of following colonisers starting biofouling process on surfaces. Biofilm and fouling often have a deleterious effect on colonized surfaces and materials. They explicate a complex and various range of processes on abitic surfaces that cause physical damages, chemical alterations, loss of functionality and discolouration of surfaces, generating tremendous environmental and economical harm for human society. The control of the deleterious biofilm and the following fouling is today a great challenge. Currently, we have two choices: to remove biofilm by traditional methods or to research new effective antifouling approaches. Traditional techniques consist mainly in the application of biocides, however this practice has several disadvantages. In fact, traditional biocides are not generally specifically target against detrimental microorganisms and they are often potentially toxic both for humans and the environment. In addition, biological matter released by their use can offer a favourable substratum for subsequent colonisations. Others problems concern the development of resistance in target pest populations and the low biodegradability of these chemicals. Moreover, biocides are not always effective at low concentrations because life inside the biofilm leads to increased resistance to antimicrobial products up to 1000-fold compared to planktonic cells. Finally, current legislation in UE and USA regulates the use of biocides and lately several products have been withdrawn from the market. New antifouling strategies need to be effective, economic, safe for the public and to pose negligible risk to human health and the environment. In the last years new strategies able to control biofilm growth have been proposed as alternative to traditional active substances. However, several years will be required to set up and test satisfactory methods, so, these novel strategies can be only a long term solution. In the meantime, as short term solution, it is vital to study methods for a more sustainable use of traditional antimicrobial agents. Therefore, the aims of the PhD project here presented were: 1) to use biocides for the removal of deleterious biofilm from relevant abiotic surfaces in the most sustainable way; 2) to exploit the ability of a new promising inorganic compound, the photocatalytic titanium dioxide, as an innovative non-toxic antifouling system to control biofilm formation on abiotic surfaces. The study reported in the chapter 3 addresses the first aim. Generally, broad-range biocides are used to remove alterative biofilms from historical and artistic surfaces. In order to obtain a use as sustainable as possible of antimicrobial agents, the strategy has been to identify alterative microorganisms so as to use a suitable biocidal product which targets specifically the biodeteriogen agents. In this work, for the first time, an integrated biotechnological system that enables the cleaning of cultural heritage stone affected by both biological and chemical alteration process was used. The study was conducted on alterations found on two stone sculptures decorating the courtyard of the Buonconsiglio Castle in Trento (Italy). Stone, especially if exposed to the weather, is subject to chemical, physical and aesthetical deterioration. In this regard, pollution and environmental parameters play an important role since they are most responsible of deterioration process. Samples from altered and unaltered areas were characterized using stereomicroscope, cross-section observations and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analyses. Results reveled that stone was an oolitic limestone and changes were both discolorations ascribed to biological agents and chemical alteration represented by black crusts composed mainly by gypsum with a small amount of calcite, nitrate and silicates. Cultural and biomolecular methods were adopted to study microbial biofilm from powders samples. The cultural analyses proved that heterotrophic bacteria, fungi and prokaryotic and eukaryotic algae were present on surfaces and that in some samples the counts were quite high (up to 7 logCFU/g for bacteria and up to 6 logCFU/g for fungi). Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and sequencing from total DNA extracted allowed to identify taxa of microorganisms causing discolorations: they were Cyanobacteria, Chlorophyta green algae (Myrmecia and Friedmannia), Streptophyta green algae (Klebsormidium), microcolonial black fungi (Alternaria and Cladosporium) and other species of fungi able to deposit melanin in the cell wall (Verticillium). Fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) highlighted that the Cyanobacteria generally were dominant (more than 60%) among the other prokaryotics belonging to the Bacteria domain. In this case, in order to remove the discolourations, despite the initial purpose to use a product that targeted only the small population of harmful microorganisms, we were forced to choose the biocide BIOTIN N (constituted by a mixture of tributyltin naphthenate (20% w/v) and didecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride (35% w/v)) with a broad spectrum of activity due to the taxonomical variety of the biodeteriogens. The same traditional and biomolecular methods were carried out on the samples collected after the cleaning to verify the removal of alterative microorganisms. Treatment with the biocide resulted in a decrease of the bacterial load (up to five orders of magnitude), and neither culturable fungi nor culturable prokaryotic and eukaryotic algae grew. Indeed the DGGE profiles showed far fewer bands than before treatment and proved that Cyanobacteria and most of the green algae and dematiaceous fungi had been efficiently removed. Chemical alterations were removed by a biocleaning treatment, an innovative, efficient and highly selective bioremediation technology, alternative to the use of chemicals, that uses viable cells of sulphate-reducing bacteria able to remove sulphates from stone ornamental surfaces. In this work for the first time this approach was applied on limestone. Sulphate-reducing bacteria have been Desulfovibrio vulgaris subsp. vulgaris (ATCC 29579). The treatment consisted in three 12-h applications for a total duration of 36 h. Comparison of the results of the chemical analyses performed before and after the biocleaning proved that gypsum, nitrates and silicates were almost completely removed. In addition, both optical evidence and FTIR analysis showed that the limestone substratum was preserved. In general, the cases of biofilms with large taxonomical variety (as the biofilms on the sculptures from Buonconsiglio Castle in Trento) are very frequent. Therefore, due to the side-effects of biocides, the development of alternative strategies for the prevention and control of deleterious biofilm becomes imperative. They must allow to protect materials from biodeterioration, and thus preserve their usefulness for as long as possible. In addition, new approaches must be safe for human beings and the environment. The study reported in the chapter 4 refers to this second aim of the project. The ability of photoactivated titanium dioxide (TiO2), a promising alternative to biocide for the biofilm control and prevention, was investigated. The biocidal activity of TiO2 against planktonic cells thanks to its strong photocatalytic properties has been reported since 1985. TiO2 per se is non-toxic, as the tests in rats prove, and has been approved by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in human food, drugs, cosmetics and food contact materials. Moreover, it is considered an environmentally friendly photocatalyst, it is relatively inexpensive, chemically stable and effective under weak solar irradiation in ambient atmospheric environment. Few attention was dedicated to study the potential of photocatalytic TiO2 against the bacterial biofilm so far. The aim was to investigate the ability of photocatalytic TiO2 as a new non-toxic antifouling nanotechnology to deter and prevent the attachment and biofilm formation of selected bacteria on TiO2-coated surfaces. Aeroxide P25 (Degussa) was employed as source of TiO2. The effects of both photocatalyst nanopowder suspensions (3g/l concentration) and thin TiO2-film applied on glass coverslides by sol-gel method were valued. During the experiments TiO2 was photoactivated by a lamp emitting radiation over a UV-A wavelength range with light intensity similar to outdoor solar irradiation (between 3000 and 500 μW/cm2). An efficient protocol for the photoactivation of TiO2 was set up degrading the dye rhodamine B. Thus activity was investigated on Bacillus cereus-group sp. (Gram-positive) and P. stutzeri and P. aeruginosa (Gram-negative) planktonic cells. The results proved that photoactivated TiO2 provoked a significant decrease of CFU/ml. Biocidal activities of nanopowder suspension in demineralised water in Bacillus sp., P. stutzeri and P. aeruginosa were respectively 1-log reduction after 24 h, 2-log reduction after 30 min and 1-log reduction after 2 h compared to non-photoactivated TiO2. TiO2 thin film also produced a complete disinfection of P. aeruginosa planktonic cells in 24 h. Finally, the activity of photoactivated TiO2 was investigated on P. aeruginosa biofilm at various formation steps both at the solid-liquid and at the solid-air interface. It was proved that neither TiO2 nanopowder nor photocatalytic film showed any biocidal activity on P. aeruginosa biofilm at all the interfaces investigated. The experiments have demonstrated that the lack of cell inactivation by photocatalytic action on biofilm was not due to 1) the presence of phosphates that could block active sites on the catalyst surface, 2) scavenge oxidative radicals produced at the surface, nor to insufficient presence of O2 at the TiO2 surface, which maintains charge transfer in photocatalytic reactions, 3) biofilm growth that screens UV-A light, deactivating TiO2, 4) insufficient build-up of photocatalytically-generated reactive species necessary for cell inactivation. In addition, confocal laser scanning microscope analysis demonstrated that not even exopolysaccharides produced by biofilm cells were the cause of fail inhibition since almost absent in the very young tested biofilms. The only possible explanation for these findings was that the cells, when live in sessile form, invoke a genetic response that imparts them an increased resistance to oxidative stress generated by photoactivated TiO2. In conclusion, the studies reported here have demonstrated that: a) Biotechnologies could facilitate a more sustainable use of biocides addressing the choice toward a suitable product that targets only the biodeteriogen microorganisms. b) The biocleaning treatment is an effective technology, alternative to use of chemicals, to remove selectively sulphates from stone. c) The photocatalytic TiO2 is not a good candidate to develop an effective technology that is alternative to traditional biocides for the control of deleterious biofilm. Further studies with other promising environmentally-friendly compounds may provide new ways to move forward in the search and to pursue the goal of an efficient surface coating methods able to prevent biofilm formation or, at least, to interfere with their inconvenient increased resistance to biocides, respecting the human health and environment. The research for new non-toxic antifouling strategies continues.

Flash mobs are an urban movement in which it seems that random people meet at a random place and do something out of the ordinary to amuse people as well as to make them think, 'What just happened?' They begin as a communication in cyberspace and end as participation in real life, and with the growing popularity of flash mobs, corporations are starting to use this urban movement for commercial purposes. This research seeks to understand the perceptions and attitudes of both participants and the audience of flash mobs and will also examine the impact that commercial use has on this movement. The research is divided into three parts. The first part involves interviewing the audience of an actual flash mob organized by the author in London and will examine their perceptions towards the event they have just watched. The second part involves a questionnaire sent out to the general public, including a video of a real flash mob and a video of a commercialized flash mob. This questionnaire is divided into two parts, whether the interviewee knows what a flash mob is or not. The third part of the research involves interviewing the participants of the flash mob movement and examining their perceptions towards the commodification of the flash mobs by a corporation and the possible impacts of this commercialization on the urban movement. The analysis shows that the majority of the interviewees can detect the commodification of the real flash mob and the agents see the possibility that the urban movement may become mainstream through the commercial use by corporations.Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents: AbstractIII Table of ContentsIV List of Figures1 List of Appendices2 Introduction3 1.Literature Review5 Chapter Outline5 Flash mob5 The development of a flash mob6 Word-of-mouth7 Viral Marketing9 Online Communities11 Community Marketing12 Authenticity13 2.Research Methods17 Chapter outline17 Problem Statement19 Objectives of this research19 Defining the Research Method21 Philosophies23 Data analysis27 Limitations27 Ethics27 3.Empirical Findings Analysis28 Chapter outline28 Audience survey28 General public survey29 General Public A29 General Public B42 Agent Survey54 4.Conclusion Recommendations81 Chapter outline81 Conclusion81 Recommendations83 Future Research83 References List84 Appendices87Textprobe:Text Sample: Chapter 2, Philosophies: This part of the 'research onion' consists of Pragmatism, Positivism, Realism, and Interpretivism. According to Saunders, Pragmatism argues that the most important determinant of the epistemology, ontology and axiology you adopt is the research question – one may be more appropriate than the other for answering particular questions. Ontology is related to the nature of reality and can be divided into objectivism, which is the existence of social entities in reality external to social actors; and subjectivism, which is the creation of social phenomena from the perceptions and consequent actions of social actors. In order to the current study, the ontology of subjectivism is used as it studies the details of the situation in order to understand the reality or perhaps a reality behind them. In this case, the perceptions of an audience watching a real and a fake flash mob are investigated as well as the impact of a commercialization of an urban movement to its members. Epistemology concerns what constitutes acceptable knowledge in a field of study. According to Saunders there are two different researchers, one who is researching objects, the 'resources' researcher; and the 'feelings' researcher, who is more interested in the feelings and attitudes. Regarding the current case study, the 'feeling' researchers has been used, as feelings and attitudes have been researched in order to collect data for a social phenomena, which has no external reality. Positivism and realism adopt the philosophical stance of the natural scientist and does not play a role for this study. Interpretivism, on the other hand, plays an important role, as it is used to understand differences between humans in our role as social actors. Interpretivist researchers enter the social world of the research subjects and understand their world form their point of view. The author of this research paper has entered the world of flash mobs and became an agent, organized several flash mobs and took part in different flash mobs to understand this urban movement. Relating Saunders definition, the philosophy of this research is Axiology, 'the researcher's view of the role of values in research' in combination with Interpretivism, as the research is value but the researcher is part of what is being researched and cannot be separated and so will be subjective. The next 'onion-ring' is the research approach. Two approaches are possible, the deductive and the inductive. The deductive approach involves the development of a theory, which consists of five stages: - Deducing hypothesis. - Expressing the hypothesis in operational terms. - Testing this operational hypothesis. - Examining the specific outcome of the inquiry. - If necessary, modifying the theory. The inductive approach makes first the research and then develops, with the help of the findings, a theory. Regarding the flash mob research, the deductive approach has been used. The hypothesis for this research is: 'Urban movements, such as the flash mob, are used by companies to promote their products/services and therefore these urban movements become mainstream and loose its originality'. The expression in operational terms can be found in the three surveys, developed for this research. One questionnaire has been developed for the audience at a flash mob taking place; another questionnaire for the general public, which has been sent out via e-mail; and a third questionnaire, which was published online and done by the Agents of ImprovEverywhere. Both questionnaires were tested with two test persons of each group and necessary changes, such as spelling mistakes or unclear questions were undertaken. The examination can be found in the Chapter 'Findings'. The research strategy, the first inner circle in Saunders Research Onion, used in this research is the Survey, as three different questionnaires have been developed. This research strategy has been chosen to understand the phenomena of a flash mob and to evaluate the impacts upon the urban movement due the commercial use by companies such as T-Mobile and vtm. The time horizon for this research is a cross-sectional study, the study at a particular time, which is June 2009 until September 2009. Within this time this research paper will be executed. The data collection for this research is only primary data as there was no secondary data found on the subject of flash mobs. As mentioned above, the research is divided into three primary researches. The first one will be a flash mob organized by the author and the audience of this flash mob will be interviewed. The research target is 20 interviews. The author organized a meeting with two other agents of UPN and discussed the strategy for the flash mob. It was agreed on a double flash mob on one day. The first one will be at Trafalgar Square in London and will be a 'Staring flash mob', in which the first agent starts freezing at a random spot on Trafalgar Square and stares at a random spot. Other agents will join that agent one by one until a whole group of agents stand at the same place and stare at the same spot. This flash mob will last for approximately 5 minutes and the sign for the agents to spread out again will be a whistle blow by the author. While this flash mob is happening, the author will conduct the research and interview the audience – the people standing around and watching the flash mob. After the first flash mob is done, all the agents will gather again and move together to Piccadilly Circus, where the second flash mob will take place. This flash mob is called 'Traffic Light Party'. There are a lot of traffic lights at Piccadilly Circus and the agents will stay together at the first traffic light and will be very sad that the traffic light is red. As soon as the traffic light turns green, all agents will cheer and make a big party. Every participant will be asked to bring noise making items, such as whistles. This flash mob continues for several times, as the traffic lights for pedestrians go around the whole Piccadilly Circus and a lot of tourists will be there. Meeting point for this day will be a little park in Soho, where all the agents will be instructed about the two flash mobs. Meeting time will be Saturday, August 25th 2009 at 2pm. The three organizers also developed a marketing strategy and a marketing plan for the two flash mobs. Three weeks in advance of the meeting day, a Facebook group will be created, as well as a post on UPN, giving only very few information to the agents to create curiosity. More details will be given as the day of the event moves closer. Further more Twitter has been used to spread the word. Twitter is a 'real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices'. The messages on Twitter will be also very short and more detailed information will be given as the event moves closer. A reminder will be sent to every interested person a week before the event and one day in advance via Facebook and within UPN. Messages as a reminder will be posted on Twitter at the same time. The second part of the research will be a questionnaire sent to friends, acquaintances and fellow students. The questionnaire is divided into two parts. The division takes place after the first question, whether the interviewee know what a flash mob is (this group will be called 'General Public B') or not know what a flash mob is (this group will be called 'General Public A'). The target for this group is 20 questionnaires. The first and second research will help to understand the perceptions of the general public towards flash mobs as well as the impact upon the urban movement due the commercial use. The third part of the research is an online survey for the agents of ImprovEverywhere. The target for this research is 20 questionnaires. This part of the research will help to understand the perceptions of the people actually doing a flash mob and their view towards the commercial use by T-Mobile, vtm and others. LimeService has been used as the platform for the survey. After creating the survey, it was activated on August 10th, 2009 and the agents have been invited on that day via UPN. The survey has been deactivated on August 18th, 2009, after 19 agents have (partially) filled in the questionnaire.

Author's introductionWhile sociologists have paid a great deal of attention to how political elites matter for the emergence and development of social movements, they have focused less explicitly on how political elites matter for the culture of social movements. Considering the amount of attention paid to culture in the field of social movements, this issue is an important one to address. This essay reviews work that directly and indirectly addresses this relationship, showing how political elites matter for various aspects of movement culture, like collective identity and framing. It also reviews literature that suggests how movement culture comes to impact political elites. The essay concludes by drawing from very recent scholarship to argue that to best understand political elites and the culture of social movements, we need to think about culture and structure as intertwined and to understand how relations matters in the construction of meaning.Author recommendsArmstrong, Elizabeth, and Mary Bernstein 2008. 'Culture, Power and Institutions: A Multi‐Institutional Politics Approach to Social Movements.'Sociological Theory 26(1): 74–99.This is a very recently published article that advances a fairly complex understanding of the relationship between culture, power, and institutions. The authors conceptualize social movements as phenomena that emerge in a society where power is distributed, enacted, and challenged across multiple institutional contexts. While they review a range of empirical cases to illustrate their concerns about the power of the political process model, they largely focus on gay and lesbian activism to illustrate the application of their 'multi‐institutional politics approach'.Davenport, Christian 2005. 'Understanding Covert Repressive Action: The Case of the U.S. Government against the Republic of New Africa.'Journal of Conflict Resolution. 49(1):120–40.Davenport's article is a good place to think about how cultural aspects of social movements impact repression. He examines how covert intelligence‐gathering activities were directed against the Republic of New Africa, a Black Nationalist organization, in Detroit, Michigan and finds that the racial identity of the challengers was a significant factor in determining who was targeted. Importantly, he shows how the identity of groups, along with their strategy and goals, affect the way they are perceived and treated by political elites.Johnston, Hank and Bert Klandermans 1995. Social Movements and Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.This volume remains one of the best edited collections of readings on the relationship of social movements and culture. Top scholars in the field of social movements review the conceptualization of culture in movement studies, cultural processes in movements, and methods for studying culture and collective action.Laraňa Enrique, Hank Johnston, and Joseph R. Gusfield, eds. 1994. New Social Movements: From Ideology to Identity. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.This is an important edited volume in which leading scholars in the field present both case study of movements (for example, of the women's movement and student movements) and theoretical and conceptual assessments of the role of culture and identity in movements.McCammon Holly J., Karen E. Campbell, Ellen M. Granberg, and Christine Mowery. 2007. 'Movement Framing and Discursive Opportunity Structures: The Political Successes of the U.S. Women's Jury Movements.'American Sociological Review 72: 725–49.McCammon and her co‐authors examine factors that explain activists' state‐level success in winning women the legal right to serve on juries. One of their key findings is that activists' use of particular frames was more successful when those frames resonated with the current state of legal discourse. In other words, to win, activists must advance claims that resonate with discourse established by political elites.Meyer David S., Nancy Whittier, and Belinda Robnett, eds. 2002. Social Movements: Identity, Culture and the State. New York: Oxford University Press.This is another excellent edited volume that offers essays by leading scholars on the relationship between identity, culture, and the state. Meyer's introduction is particularly useful for the topic at hand, as he points out the ways that state action and polities often create the basis for a challenging group's collective identity.Polletta, Francesca. 1998. 'Legacies and Liabilities of an Insurgent Past.'Social Science History 22(4): 479–512.In this article, Polletta examines the different ways in which members of the United States Congress commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr., and finds that they most often emphasize King's legacy of community service and institutional politics over disruptive insurgency. For black legislators, however, the story is more complicated, as they must also carefully caution that King's legacy has not been fully realized. Polletta shows that how the culture of movements gets integrated into the discourse of elites is shaped by how elites are situated in a network of relationships—with other elites, with their own social groups, and with challengers.Online materials Social Movements
and Culture http://www.wsu.edu/~amerstu/smc/smcframe.html Sponsored by the American Studies program at Washington State University, this site provides great links to bibliographies, movement websites, and other resources. Speech Prepared for March on Washington, 1963 http://www.crmvet.org/info/mowjl.htm Read the text of Congressman John Lewis' speech at the March on Washington, referred to at the beginning of the article. Sociology Eye http://sociologycompass.wordpress.com/ This website, associated with Sociology Compass, is a great site for thinking about how a range of contemporary issues are sociologically important. Check it out to look for posts related to social movements, culture, and political elites. Though a post may not directly seem to address the issue, oftentimes you can think about the ways in which a discussed subject implicitly tells you something about how the three things relate.Sample syllabusBelow I provide suggestions for topics and readings that might be assigned in a range of courses, including: a general social movements course, a course focused on social movement culture, or a sociology of culture course with a unit on social movements.Topic: Culture and Social MovementsMcAdam, Doug 1994. 'Culture and Social Movements.' Pp. 36–57 in New Social Movements: From Ideology to Identity, edited by Enrique Laraňa, Hank Johnston, and Joseph R. Gusfield. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Swidler, Ann. 1995. 'Cultural Power and Social Movements.' Pp. 25–40 in Social Movements and Culture, edited by Hank Johnston and Bert Klandermans. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Snow, David A., E. Burke Rochford, Jr., Steven K. Worden, and Robert D. Benford 1986. 'Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation.'American Sociological Review 51: 464–81.Williams, Rhys H. 2004. 'The Cultural Contexts of Collective Action: Constraints, Opportunities, and the Symbolic Life of Social Movements.' Pp. 91–115 in The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, edited by David A. Snow, Sarah A. Soule, and Hanspeter Kriesi. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Topic: Political Elites and Social MovementsGamson, William 1988. 'Political Discourse and Collective Action.' Pp. 219–144 in International Social Movement Research, vol. 1, edited by Bert Klandermans, Hanspeter Kreisi, and Sidney Tarrow. Greenwich, CT: JAI.Kriesi, Hanspeter 2004. 'Political Context and Opportunity.' Pp. 67–90 in The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, edited by David A. Snow, Sarah A. Soule, and Hanspeter Kriesi. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.McCarthy, John D. and Mayer N. Zald 1977. 'Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory.'American Journal of Sociology 82:1212–1241.Meyer, David S. 2002. 'Opportunities and Identities: Bridge‐Building in the Study of Social Movements.' Pp. 3–21 in Social Movements: Identity, Culture and the State, edited by David S. Meyer, Nancy Whittier, and Belinda Robnett. New York: Oxford University Press.Rucht, Dieter 2005. 'Movement Allies, Adversaries, and Third Parties.' Pp. 197–261 in The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, edited by David A. Snow, Sarah A. Soule, and Hanspeter Kriesi. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Topic: Political Elites and the Culture of Social MovementsArmstrong, Elizabeth, and Mary Bernstein 2008. 'Culture, Power and Institutions: A Multi‐Institutional Politics Approach to Social Movements.'Sociological Theory 26(1): 74–99.Fantasia, Rick and Eric L. Hirsch 1995. 'Culture in Rebellion: The Appropriation and Transformation of the Veil in the Algerian Revolution.' Pp. 144‐ 159 in Social Movements and Culture, edited by Hank Johnston and Bert Klandermans. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Irons, Jenny 2009. 'Political Elites and the Culture of Social Movements.'Sociology Compass 3/3: 459–74.McCammon, Holly J., Karen E. Campbell, Ellen M. Granberg, and Christine Mowery 2007. 'Movement Framing and Discursive Opportunity Structures: The Political Successes of the U.S. Women's Jury Movements.'American Sociological Review 72: 725–49.Polletta, Francesca 1998. 'Legacies and Liabilities of an Insurgent Past.'Social Science History 22(4): 479–512.Skrentny, John 2006. 'Policy‐Elite Perceptions and Social Movement Success: Understanding Variations in Group Inclusion in Affirmative Action.'American Journal of Sociology 111(6):1762–1815.Topic: Movement Culture, Political Elites, and RepressionBoudreau, Vincent 2002. 'State Repression and Democracy Protest in Three Southeast Asian Countries.' Pp. 28–46 in Social Movements: Identity, Culture and the State, edited by David S. Meyer, Nancy Whittier, and Belinda Robnett. New York: Oxford University Press.Cunningham, David 2004. There's Something Happening Here: The New Left, The Klan, and FBI Counterintelligence. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Cunningham, David and Barb Browing 2004. 'The Emergence of Worthy Targets: Official Frames and Deviance Narratives Within the FBI.'Sociological Forum 19(3):347–369.Davenport, Christian 2005. 'Understanding Covert Repressive Action: The Case of the U.S. Government against the Republic of New Africa.'Journal of Conflict Resolution 49 (1):120–140.Noonan, Rita K. 1995. 'Women Against the State: Political Opportunities and Collective Action Frames in Chile's Transition to Democracy.'Sociological Forum 10: 81–111.Focus questions

In what ways do political elites matter for the development of a social movement's culture—in terms of the development of movement frames, discourse, and collective identity? (You might focus on a particular movement to address this question)
How do those same aspects of a movement's culture impact political elites? Can you think of examples in which we can see elites reflecting meaning produced by social movements?
What do you think are the most effective ways that social movements can impact political elites on a cultural level?
What factors shape the relationship between movement cultures and political elites?
What do you think are the best ways to conceptualize "political elites" and "social movement culture"?

In spite of all the good news about the economy and the swift confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the headlines this stormy week have been dominated by town hall brawls. As congressional representatives went home to their districts for their August recess, they were greeted by a volatile mixture of high temperatures, monsoon-like storms and furious mobs who stormed town hall meetings to protest against health reform. Several politicians, terrorized by the voters, suspended the meetings and ran past the mobs and into their getaway cars. They later announced they would take phone calls or meet voters individually in scheduled appointments. Journalists and TV talk show personalities were left wondering as to the origin of this new movement of storm troopers: were they real people, from the grassroots, fed up with the way Washington is dealing with health care reform, or was this manufactured, "Astroturf" mobilization, organized by the health insurance and drug companies, scared of losing a large share of their profits if a government-run plan is included on the final bill? Most likely it is a mixture of both. But whether fabricated or not, the tone of the debate and the images of scuffles and fist fights shocked the nation and left many asking what happened to American civility. More importantly, where was the President's leadership?Granted, it is difficult to defend a bill that is not even ready, and Obama has avoided giving bottom lines that may come back to haunt him: his larger political purpose is to pass some kind of health care reform, even if serious compromises have to be made. Having taken the 1994 Clinton-care defeat lesson to heart, President Obama decided from the beginning that he could not dictate to Congress and therefore stated the general principles of health care reform (universal coverage and cost control) and then gave Congress leeway in writing the detailed legislation. But from the beginning, there was a deep chasm between progressives, who insist that a public-plan option is the best way to meet both goals, and conservatives, who adamantly oppose the government-run plan claiming it would bankrupt private insurance companies, and see this and the mandate of universal coverage as "socialized medicine". The Blue Dog Democrats, fiscally conservative, have joined ranks with the opposition and effectively killed the public option in some versions of the bill, replacing it with a vague alternative of co-ops (mutual care).The result so far has been a confusion of bills and versions that no regular voter can understand. Indeed, not even those that are following the debate closely can tell with clarity what each version entails. But because health care is close and personal, it is easy to whip up a frenzy over it just by letting out a few misleading judgments, half truths and exaggerations, and hammering at them until they have the ring of truth. Corporate interest groups from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries are fiercely organizing fringe elements on the right, mainly instructing them to be disruptive of town hall meetings and to interrupt any serious discourse. And most of the average, less-educated voters use "easy" sources of information such as radio talk commentators (read: Rush Limbaugh) or TV news shows which are anything but "fair and balanced", instead of hard sources (newspaper editorials, op-ed and factual news articles). In the end, when topics are complex and conflicting information saturates the media, people believe what they want to believe, what confirms their feelings and their ideological bent, what reassures them they are correct in their assumptions and emotions.It is this state of confusion that has allowed the crazy mobs, aided and abetted by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin, to make the most outlandish claims, from accusing the government of Socialism and Nazism in one voice, to vociferously asserting the Democrats' plan includes euthanasia (of course it does not; it includes a voluntary option for terminal patients to get "counseling on end-of-life options"). But these are the same kind of people that kill abortion-clinic doctors and nurses in their crusade to "save innocent lives". And exactly of the same kind as the "birthers", those who do not believe President Obama was born in the United States, a fact very easily verifiable, since the White House has made his birth certificate available!The point is, extremists are taking over that national scene and are attacking a bill that is not yet ready, based on false claims and preposterous characterizations. The left is now mobilizing union representatives to counteract the right wing crazies. Perhaps it would be better to cancel all town hall meetings, since it is expected that a bill will be passed by the end of the month. It will be most likely be a watered down version of what Obama initially wanted, but it will allow him to claim yet another victory, another check mark on his campaign promises.The debate over health care has accomplished something that seemed unfathomable only a month ago: it has united Republicans. Economic conservatives, libertarians and extreme right social conservatives are all against the public plan option. However, even if they were successful in defeating this bill, as long as they continue on this course of adamant opposition, they will not be well-positioned for the 2010 elections. They will have no other policy initiatives or legislative accomplishments to boast of and they will still be easily characterized as the "party of no." Their political calculations made them oppose a highly qualified Supreme Court nominee in a futile exercise that has put them on the wrong side of history and set them back at least for a decade in getting electoral support from the Latino community, the largest and fastest- growing minority group in the country. The void of Republican political leadership has been filled by extremist groups and irresponsible radio talk commentators, reducing the party's appeal to moderates and independents.This dramatic realization is one incentive to get Republicans to work harder in passing health care reform in some bipartisan shape or form. But this is not likely, since their preference so far has been to deny Obama any chance of bipartisanship. Another motivation to bring them to the table should be the awareness that, if the rising cost curve of health care is not brought under control, the economic recovery that is starting to show will only be temporary, the deficit will continue to grow and other countries will not be so accommodating in holding US debt. But political expedience on their part may overtake even this fundamental concern about the future economic stability of the country.On his part, Obama will have the problem of dealing with the liberal wing of his party: the left will be furious if, with a majority in both Houses, their version of health care reform does not pass, and the President settles for a weaker, watered down version. Indeed, in general terms, the biggest and most immediate test for Obama will be how far he allows the left in Congress to go before he decides to rein them in. In order to regain control of the health care debate, the President held his own town hall meeting in New Hampshire this past Tuesday. His message was clearer and more focused as he answered genuine concerns and questions from the audience. But to what extent he was able to calm down the prevailing anxiety in the country at large still remains to be seen. Outside the town hall, two groups of irate citizens on the opposite ends of the political spectrum confronted each other, yelled and shook their fists, but the police were able to restrain them without much effort.In spite of the turbulent TV images that have inundated the airways this week, the majority of the electorate in this country is still moderate, rational and centrist. They want health care reform and they want it to include a government-run option, which they may or may not buy into, but which they see as an important way to spur competition, in the understanding that it is competition and not monopolies that help control costs. They also want reform of the way private insurance companies ration care, for example, by denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions. They are appalled at the crazies on the right, with their false claims about a bill they have not read, and their outrageous claims of Socialism and Nazism, which they merge into one demonic ideology. They are tired of their pseudo-religious zeal and self-righteousness, their insistence on rejecting Darwin's theory of evolution along with global warming, climate change and stem cell research, their violent outbursts, and their tendency to speak in terms of Good (themselves) and Evil (the rest). And they are embarrassed at the subtext of racism that underlies most of the extremists' demented claims, and which becomes crystal clear in their assertion that President Obama is not an American citizen.On the other hand, most citizens are also wary of ultra-liberals on the left, who want to use the Democrats' prevalence to entrench new vast social programs, over-regulate the financial system and corporate pay, and raise taxes to levels that would choke growth and productivity; they are afraid they will forever bankrupt the government and the country.Six months into his presidency, Obama faces sinking approval numbers and the possibility of a major defeat. After a string of solid successes that included, among others, passing an 800 billion dollar economic stimulus plan, expanding children's health insurance, and rescuing the banking system, his agenda may get bogged down in the politics- as- usual Washington culture he promised to change. It will take all his will power and discipline to stay focused, get back on message and resist the blows. His ambition will have to be tempered by patience, caution and political skill. As his aura wears off, the coming battles will be the final test of his courage and determination to succeed. Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science and Geography Director, ODU Model United Nations Program Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia

At the peak of the summer heat last week Americans turned on their flat TVs to watch the Sotomayor hearings before the House Judiciary Committee. But their anticipation mixed in some cases with a certain sense of foreboding, soon evaporated, and they turned their sets off again with a big yawn. Although the Republican senators who interrogated Judge Sotomayor put in full display the traits that make them a species close to extinction, their questions were tame if compared with those addressed to Anita Hill in 1991, and Sotomayor answered with caution and self-restraint.Although in that sad historic episode Hill was not the nominee but a witness against the confirmation of Judge Clarence Thomas, the echoes of that summer 18 years ago were still unmistakable: a panel of powerful middle aged white men sitting in the most powerful political institution in the country, aggressively questioning the veracity of each word uttered by a highly educated minority woman. She was questioned on a wide range of valid issues, from her views on the Constitution to her judicial philosophy to her position on several politically charged Supreme Court decisions, but the Southern Republican senators kept coming back to her views on the Second Amendment (right to bear arms), affirmative action and the insinuations of reverse racism and judicial activism. Aware that Judge Sonia Sotomayor will soon become the first Hispanic in the highest court of the United States regardless, rather than go after the votes of the fastest growing majority in the country, they chose to score points with their own right-wing base. In so doing, some of them appeared outright Jurassic in their tone: Senator Coburn from Oklahoma, in a pathetic imitation of Desi Arnaz's Cuban accent in the classic series I Love Lucy, started his interrogation of Judge Sotomayor by telling her she would have "some 'splaining to do". The implications were that Sotomayor is a reverse racist, an overemotional Latina who cannot control her temper and who lets her cultural identity influence her rulings. The ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, Republican from Alabama, grilled Sotomayor on part of a speech she gave at Berkeley 17 years ago, where she said that, when making a judging, she would "hope that wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach abetter conclusion than a white male who has not lived that life", a concept that, Sessions insists, implies "reverse racism". There was quite little inquiry into Sotomayor's three thousand decisions on a wider variety of issues as a federal judge. Sotomayor stoically sat before the panel, answering their questions narrowly and sticking to three main answers: the role of a judge is to apply the laws established by the legislature, not to create new law, in absolute accordance with the Constitution, and precedent. In other words, the wise Latina, a Princeton lawyer, former prosecutor and currently a judge with 17 years of experience in the federal bench, ignored their worst innuendos and played along. It paid off: she will be confirmed as the first Hispanic Supreme Court judge on the floor of the Senate August 7th.The country as a whole could then move on to the intense debate taking place in Congress over health care reform. There is consensus that it is imperative to get it done soon: its expenses represent 1/6th of the national US economy, its out- of- control costs affect all Americans and threaten to bankrupt the national economy in the long term. Because of Bill Clinton's failure to get health care reform passed, Obama has from the beginning stressed the importance of speed in passing this bill, and gave Congress a lot of leeway in the details of the plan, and a deadline of early August, which apparently will not be met. Not only is the Democratic proposal unacceptable for most Republicans, who have attacked it with force, but now the Congressional Democrats are divide among themselves into three groups. The Blue Dog Democrats, mostly from the South, are fiscally conservative and do not believe the President can fund the plan without further increasing the deficit to breaking point levels. The progressives or liberals cannot accept anything less than universal coverage with a public plan to compete with the private insurance companies. In the middle, the moderates are willing to sacrifice those principles in order to get some kind of reform passed, because they fear failure more than anything else.The latter may also be the stance of the President since it is consistent with his style of leadership. His tendency to emphasize consensus and try to reconcile all groups many times results on watered down legislation, which is then claimed as a triumph for the White House. His emphasis on speeding the process and his willingness to accept the lower common denominator has made it impossible for him to get what he needs out of the primary players. With a 70% majority in the House and with 60 seats out of 100 in the Senate, the President will be hard put to explain failure in passing health care reform, since he won't be able to blame the Republicans. Speaker Pelosi, who is a strong leader and has managed to get party discipline in most cases so far, insists that she has the votes and promises to pass substantial reform, but as the deadline approaches, it appears increasingly likely that Congress will leave for its August break without a vote. In the meantime, public anxiety is on the rise: it is a complex topic, the options are sometimes hard to understand and the public is being misled by those opposed to reform.President Obama had an important opportunity to retool his message and clearly articulate why the country really needs health care reform now rather than later, last Wednesday, during his prime time press conference. He started in cue, but his message became completely obliterated when one of the journalists asked him an unrelated question about a bizarre incident involving a black Harvard professor and a white Massachusetts police sergeant. Seeing this opportunity as one of his famous "teachable moments", the President, who knows the professor personally, got ensnared in an unlikely local issue involving race and police profiling. It seem that returning from a trip to China, a Harvard professor and his driver were trying to unlock the door to his house in an affluent Cambridge neighborhood when a neighbor called the police and reported what looked to her to be an attempted break-in. When the policeman got there and questioned Professor Gates, a middle aged African American who walks with a cane, he angrily responded that this was his house, that he was a Harvard professor and that the policeman was racist and was using racial profiling in trying to stop him from entering his own house. The exchange continued for a while and ended up with Sergeant Crowley handcuffing and arresting Professor Gates, and taking him to the police station. He was released a few hours later. Obama's answer was that he did not know all the facts and that it appeared it was a misunderstanding but that the police had acted "stupidly". This was enough to ignite a major national debate that overshadowed more important issues at hand, for example, the health care discussions.While a highly paid tenured professor in the richest university in the world is an unlikely victim, and does not need the President of the United States to defend him, particularly in the city of Cambridge, which boasts a Black mayor, in the state of Massachusetts, which has a Black governor, the episode nevertheless was seized by Obama as an opportunity to have another conversation on race, of those that make Americans so uncomfortable. But the opposition did not lose a moment to portray the President as "against law enforcement", and Fox News misquoted him as saying the policeman was stupid (instead of "acted stupidly"). Obama then had to intervene again to stop the silliness, apologizing from his comment, explaining how there had been overreaction from both sides involved in the incident and inviting them both for a beer at the White House, which both the Sergeant and the Professor gladly accepted. So all ended well…just like the Sotomayor hearings. But the fact still remains that if you are Black or Hispanic in the United States, your chances of getting arrested or subdued by force by the police are much higher than if you are white Caucasian. And your chances of getting harassed by the Senate Judiciary Committee when nominated for the Supreme Court are apparently as high.Both the Supreme Court hearings and the arrest of the Harvard professor can be seen through multiple prisms: the race prism, the gender prism and the class prism. All involve unequal relations of power and their effects on the dispensing of justice and on the national psyche.Judge Sonia Sotomayor's rise from the Bronx projects to Princeton, Yale and the federal bench show that the American system works, in spite of the "ancien régime" Republican Senators from the formerly racist South. She had to overcome being poor, female and Hispanic, but was able to navigate the system and succeed, thanks to the civil rights movement of the 60s and the laws thereby derived. Similarly, Professor Henry Louis Gates, one of the best known Black literary scholars in the country, overcame poverty and a leg injury to attend Yale and the University of Cambridge's Clare College in England. He was the first African American to receive the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship and today he is a Harvard Professor and Director of W.E.B Du Bois Institute for African and African- American Research. Both are considered members of affluent intellectual elite, and have thus overcome race and class biases, but occasionally still become the victims of racism. This is deplorable enough when it comes from the less educated and working-class whites who resent their success and upper class status, but utterly shameful when exploited by the privileged Old Boys in the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose hegemony is threatened by the same laws and the same Constitution they purport to defend. Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science and Geography Director, ODU Model United Nations Program Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia

While the nonviolent struggle of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi against the Burmese military government's continuing repression has captured the world's attention, the profound human rights and humanitarian crisis endured by Burma's ethnic minority communities has largely been ignored. ¶ Decades of armed conflict have devastated ethnic minority communities, which make up approximately 35 percent of Burma's population. The Burmese army, or Tatmadaw, has for many years carried out numerous and widespread summary executions, looting, torture, rape and other sexual violence, arbitrary arrests and torture, forced labor, recruitment of child soldiers, and the displacement and demolition of entire villages as part of military operations against ethnic minority armed opposition groups. Civilians bear the brunt of a state of almost perpetual conflict and militarization. ¶ Violations of international human rights and humanitarian law (the laws of war) by the Tatmadaw have been particularly acute in eastern Karen state, which runs along the northwestern border of Thailand. One woman described to Human Rights Watch more than twenty years of Tatmadaw brutality: . One result of the Tatmadaw's brutal behavior has been the creation of large numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees among Burma's ethnic minority communities. Conflict and its consequences have been going on for so long that in many ethnic minority-populated areas, continuous forced relocations and displacement–– interspersed with occasional periods of relative stability––have become a fact of life for generations of poor villagers. ¶ The scale of the IDP problem in Burma is daunting. Estimates suggest that, as of late 2004, as many as 650,000 people were internally displaced in eastern Burma alone. According to a recent survey, 157,000 civilians have been displaced in eastern Burma since the end of 2002, and at least 240 villages destroyed, relocated, or abandoned. The majority of displaced people live in areas controlled by the government, now known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), or by various ethnic armed groups that have agreed to ceasefires with the government. But approximately eighty-four thousand displaced people live in zones of ongoing armed conflict, where the worst human rights abuses continue. Many IDPs live in hiding in war zones. Another two million Burmese live in Thailand, including 145,000 refugees living in camps. ¶ Karen State is the location of some of the largest numbers of IDPs in Burma. Since 2002, approximately 100,000 people have been displaced from Karen areas, which include parts of Pegu and Tenasserim Divisions. Though a provisional ceasefire was agreed in December 2003 between the SPDC and the Karen National Union (KNU), sporadic fighting continues. Tatmadaw military operations against the KNU's army, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), in the first months of 2005 caused numerous deaths and injuries to civilians in poor villages along the Thai border. They also forced many civilians to flee internally or to Thailand. For example, at least 9,000 civilians were displaced in Toungoo District, in the far north of Karen State bordering Karenni State, and in Nyaunglebin District in northwest Karen State, during major Tatmadaw offensives between November 2004 and February 2005. ¶ The majority of Karen IDPs have been forced out of their homes as a direct result of the Tatmadaw's "Four Cuts" counter-insurgency strategy, in which the Burmese army has attempted to defeat armed ethnic groups by denying them access to food, funds, recruits, and information from other insurgent groups. H.T., a twenty-eight year-old Karen from Dooplaya District, described his experience with the Tatmadaw in January 2005: . ¶ This report describes the situation in government-controlled areas, including relocation sites, which are generally not accessible from across the Thailand border. The report identifies two main causes of displacement: • Displacement due to armed conflict as a direct result of fighting, or because armed conflict has undermined human and food security and livelihood options; and • Displacement due to human rights violations, particularly land rights caused by Tatmadaw and militia confiscation of land and other violations of land rights, especially in the context of natural resource extraction, such as logging and mining. Other rights violations, such as forced labor, killings, torture, and rape, also cause displacement. ¶ The report describes patterns of abuse and forced relocation over a period of many years. It documents how serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses continue to occur in some parts of Karen State, such as Toungoo and Nyaunglebin Districts, while other areas are relatively quiet. It recommends a need to think of new and more realistic answers to the dilemmas faced by IDPs, many of whom may not be able––or may not want––to go home again. ¶ For this report, Human Rights Watch interviewed community leaders, representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), staff at community-based organizations (CBOs), U.N. officials, and many others. Most important, we interviewed forty-six Karen IDPs living in the Papun hills, in mid-late 2003, and along the Thai border, in early 2005. These forty-six individuals altogether were displaced more than one thousand times. Incredibly, five individuals had been forcibly displaced more than one hundred times. One of these five, an elderly woman, first fled to the jungle during World War II, when Japanese soldiers came to her village. ¶ All the interviewees for this report had been farmers and continue to derive most of their food from working their own or others' rice fields. These fields remain susceptible to destruction by Tatmadaw patrols. Displacement often means that new land must be cleared for farming, rather than farmers being able to return to former swidden fields in sustainable rotation after fallow swiddens have regained their fertility. Over time, the disruption of traditional agricultural practices has seriously undermined livelihoods and caused encroachment by swidden farmers into primary forest, rather than rotating their plots in secondary forest customarily used for swidden agriculture. ¶ Many IDPs have been displaced for some time, and live alongside others who are not–– or have not recently been––displaced. Their needs may therefore be similar to those of other vulnerable populations in peri-urban and rural Burma. ¶ The main problems identified by interviewees were lack of consistent access to food; insufficient income and livelihood problems; human rights abuses and poor physical security related to displacement and fighting; lack of access to education and health services; and, finally, the problem of landmines, which destroy both land and their victims' lives. Their primary need is to be able to farm properly, without disturbance, and thus improve income and food security, as well as better access to education and health services. All wanted to, as one interviewee put it, "live in peace and with justice." Most of these problems are linked to longer-term structural problems, and can only be addressed in the context of socio-economic––and above all political––solutions to Burma's protracted ethnic conflicts. ¶ The findings of this report caution against assuming that all IDPs necessarily want to return "home." Returning home can be a problematic concept for people who have been on the move for long periods of time. Many IDPs may wish to return home, if it still exists, but others may want to stay put or resettle elsewhere. Some who have returned home or have otherwise resettled still face major problems, while others have not. Some have not moved and built new lives in the place to which they were displaced, often in the jungle hills or in a relocation site. ¶ Thus, those providing assistance should avoid taking a one-size-fits all approach to meeting the needs of IDPs. Instead, the focus should be on individual choice and the needs of specific communities. Indeed, the U.N. Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, which summarize existing international law as it applies to IDPs, make choice the touchstone. Competent authorities have a duty to "establish conditions, as well as provide the means" to allow voluntary resettlement and integration in the place to which people are displaced, if that is their choice. ¶ An understanding of long-term patterns of forced displacement should inform the design of humanitarian, development, and socio-political interventions on behalf of the displaced. One aspect that deserves careful consideration is the effect of ceasefires on the human rights situation and on displacement. Over the past decade many armed ethnic groups have entered into ceasefires with the military government in Rangoon. In some parts of the country, ceasefires have meant a reduction in the most severe forms of human rights abuses, though this has not usually led to greater respect for other basic rights, such as freedom of expression or the right to due process of law. But in many cases, ceasefires have been quietly accompanied by the reemergence of local civil society actors. This has been one of the most important, yet under-studied, aspects of the ceasefires in Burma. ¶ The SPDC and KNU agreed to an informal ceasefire in December 2003. In some parts of Karen State, the situation began to stabilize. Across the whole of Tenasserim Division, and much of lower and western Karen State, there has been less fighting and fewer of the most severe type of human rights violations, such as extrajudicial executions and torture, than before. Some IDPs are beginning to return from hiding places in the jungle and from relocation sites to build more permanent houses and grow crops other than swidden rice. However, the Tatmadaw continues its aggressive use of forced labor, especially on road-building projects, land confiscation, and arbitrary taxation in many areas. It has recently stepped up attacks on a variety of armed ethnic groups. Under the right conditions, a ceasefire between the SPDC and the KNU could deliver a substantial improvement in the human rights situation, creating the space in which local and international organizations can begin to address the urgent needs of Karen IDPs. But the situation may yet return to guerilla warfare and full-scale counterinsurgency. ¶ Many of the ceasefires are now under threat. Since the purging of General Khin Nyunt last October, hard-liners in the SPDC have attempted to undermine ceasefires agreed between Rangoon and several armed ethnic groups since 1989. In mid-2005, the future of these ceasefires looks more and more uncertain. .

The 2008 campaign for the presidency has provided American citizens with surprises as well as opportunities in terms of choosing a new president. The long primary season that ran from January to June resulted in nominees - - John McCain (R) and Barack Obama (D) - - who were not the likely winners of their respective parties. As far as Democrats were concerned, Hillary Clinton was the front-runner and heir apparent to the Democratic nomination. On the Republican side, John McCain's faltering campaign in the early months of the primary season suggested that Republicans would end up selecting another nominee. All in all, the primary season provided Americans with a host of candidates one of whom might serve as a "first" - - the first African-American (Barack Obama) the first woman (Hillary Clinton), the first Hispanic (Bill Richardson), the first Morman (Mitt Romney) or the oldest nominee (John McCain).Both parties had a variety of candidates vying for the nomination of their party but it was the Democratic party that provided the most interest among citizens and media pundits alike. The primary contest between Obama and Clinton would test the mettle of both candidates as they crisscrossed the country in their respective attempt to capture delegates for the summer convention. In the end, Obama squeaked out a victory in one of the closest contests in party history. Two questions became inevitable at this point - - namely, would Hillary Clinton campaign for Obama and would supporters of Clinton, especially female voters, support Obama. On the Republican side, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul were pushed aside, one by one, by a resurgent McCain campaign.Both Obama and McCain have supporters and opponents. While targeting traditional Democratic constituencies, Obama has also focused on the youthful cohort, young people 18-29 years old who have traditionally been ignored or neglected by major party candidates. Obama, however, pursued a campaign similar to that of Bill Clinton in 1992 when he too sought the support of young people. As noted in a recent article in Time Magazine (January 31, 2008), Obama is looking forward to a "youthquake" to help him win the White House. What the Clinton campaign of 1992 and the Obama campaign of 2008 have in common is the likelihood of a very close election and therefore the need to attract and recruit all segments of the American electorate. Of course, as has happened in other campaigns, young people have failed to register to vote and/or have failed to turn up on election day. Critics have argued that Obama lacks executive experience in general and in foreign policy in particular. McCain has a following among those who like his "maverick" approach to politics and willingness to buck even his own party when necessary. He was also a POW during the Vietnam War that has given him sympathy among citizens and members of the armed forces. On the other hand, McCain has been in a similar situation as George Bush (the father) - - namely conservatives who idolized Ronald Reagan were not so eager to give their support to Bush (the father) and two decades later, they have had second thoughts about the conservative credentials of McCain.Obama's and McCain's choice of running mate added excitement to the presidential contest. The junior senator from Illinois selected the longtime senator from Delaware, Joe Biden, as his running mate. By choosing Biden, Obama added a senator who had valuable experience in two very important aspects of American Politics - - namely, a legislator who had a clear understanding about the operation of the U.S. Senate and one who had foreign policy experience. In contrast, John McCain, who some thought would choose Romney to shore up his lack of expertise on economic matters, chose instead Sarah Palin, a relatively unknown governor of Alaska as his partner in the presidential contest. By choosing Palin, McCain shook up the race by attempting to bolster his support among conservatives with a very conservative running mate and to appeal to female voters by adding a woman to the Republican ticket for the first time in history. While Biden was well known among politicos and media pundits, Palin was a novelty - - unknown and therefore the likely target of media attention. Where Democrats questioned and criticized McCain's choice of Palin, Republicans, especially conservative Republicans, were very enthusiastic about her which helped to bolster the McCain-Palin ticket in the short term. Inevitably, however, both vice-presidential candidates were scrutinized since both carried "baggage" into the presidential contest. Biden has a history of verbal errors and has been criticized for "plagiarizing" comments used by other public officials. Palin has been accused of heavy-handed politics even by fellow Republicans in Alaska and with less than 50 days left in the run up to the election, she is involved in a troubling scandal involving allegations that she used her power as governor to fire the "top cop" in Alaska because he refused to fire an Alaska state trooper who divorced Palin's sister.One of the fascinating aspects of the 2008 presidential campaign is the involvement of a large number of young people - - the so-called Millenium generation - - who have been mobilized in a way not seen since young people worked to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 in the early 1970s. Although about 55% of young people voted in the 1972 presidential election, voter turnout among members of the youthful cohort has declined over the years (except for a slight upward bump in 1992) dropping to 32% during the 2000 presidential election. However, young people once again began to show interest in the electoral process and their participation increased in the 2004 and 2006 elections to about 42%. What makes this demographic important is that young people 18-29 make up approximately 44 million potential voters - - about 20% of the American electorate. Both issues and technology have played a role in energizing young people. The economy and jobs, along with terrorism and the war in Iraq, constitute the major issues identified by them in recent polls, the same issues of concern to older voters. Where younger and older voters diverge is found in the types of technology used by young voters and employed by the Obama campaign, in particular, to reach out to them. This form of communication includes Facebook and YouTube among others. It is interesting to note that young people are not a solid block with about a third identifying as Democrats, a third identifying as Republicans and a third identifying as Independents. If the youthful cohort is paying more attention to this election and has demonstrated an upward turn in participation as shown by increased turnout in the 2008 primary season, young people have the potential to play an important role in the 2008 presidential election. In fact, three out of four young people, 18-29, feel that the country is headed in the wrong direction, an indicator not good for the legacy of the Bush administration or the prospects of the McCain campaign, at least among this youthful constituency.Eight years ago, the Bush Administration inherited a balanced budget, a budget surplus and a country at peace. However, life in the U.S. changed on 9/11 but more importantly in March 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by the U.S. Moreover, the economy has deteriorated with huge budget and trade deficits, home foreclosures, infrastructure needs and the collapse of financial institutions. Against a backdrop of a very unpopular Republican president, a country at war and economic deterioration, the McCain-Obama presidential contest has taken on added importance making the 2008 presidential election very consequential for the American electorate.As the McCain and Obama campaigns are engaged in the race for the presidency, each candidate will have the opportunity to speak directly to the American people in three debates. It is very likely that the first debate on September 26 in Oxford, Mississippi will draw a large audience tuning in to watch and compare the candidates. Moreover, the one and only debate taking place in St. Louis, Missouri on October 2 between vice presidential candidates, Biden and Palin, will also draw a large audience in an effort to better understand and evaluate the candidates who might be only a heart beat away from becoming president.By September 2008 the race between Obama and McCain is considered very close as reflected by national polls and the electoral college map of states. While national polls are interesting they are not helpful since the U.S. does not select its president by the popular vote. Instead, we need to look at each state and where it falls in terms of its electoral vote allotment. In short, the country is still divided in terms of red and blue states although each campaign is trying to flip some states to their side.By mid-September, according to Cable News Network (CNN), Obama has 223 electoral votes from states that are strongly on his side or leaning toward him while McCain has 200 electoral votes from states that are strongly on his side or leaning toward him. With 538 electoral votes in play, Obama or McCain will need to secure 270 of these votes to win the election.Although there are some states where there is the possibility of reversal from one party to the other, the real focus of attention is on the handful of competitive or "battleground" states that include mid-Atlantic Virginia that hasn't voted Democratic since supporting Lyndon Johnson in 1964 but now finds itself with the McCain and Obama camps currently locked in a tight race. Large electoral states in play include Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Western states that are important to both Obama and McCain are Colorado and Nevada. Small but not to be ignored is New Hampshire in the New England region of the U.S. The important point is that, taken together, these states have 115 electoral votes that are important to winning the White House.As the 2008 presidential campaign unfolds, the results will be important not only for American citizens but also for the international community. Professor of Political Science Old Dominion University Norfolk, Virginia USA

Einführung Tropische asiatische Entwicklungs- und Schwellenländer zeigten rasches städtisches Wachstum dadurch, dass Bauern einwanderten, um ein besseres Leben in der Stadt zu suchen. Dadurch ergab sich in vielen Städten ein Mangel an geeigneter Infrastruktur und an sozialen Diensten. Die städtische Müllversorgung bildet keine Ausnahme; sie wird sogar oft an das Ende der Prio-ritätenliste für städtische Aufgabenpläne gestellt, da dabei zuerst die Gesetze und Verordnun-gen formuliert und umgesetzt werden müssen. Das Problem des nicht entsorgten städtischen Mülls führt (mit Sicherheit) zu Luftverschmutzung, Krankheit und zur Verseuchung des Bo-dens und des Wassers. Diese Probleme stehen in tropischen Klimaten im Zusammenhang mit hoher Temperatur und Feuchtigkeit, mit heftigem Regen und mit häufigen Überschwemmun-gen. Stehendes Wasser und Ausschwemmung aus dem Abfall werden sehr schnell zu Brutstät-ten von Insekten, Nagern und Bakterien, und damit zu einer Gesundheitsgefahr für Arbeiter und die allgemeine Bevölkerung. Darüber hinaus kann Wasser- und Grundwasserverschmut-zung/Kontamination zu einer ernsten Umweltzerstörung führen, mit direkten Auswirkungen auf die Wasserressourcen, und auf raschen Qualitätsverlust der pflanzlichen Erzeugnisse, des Rückgrates der meisten tropischen asiatischen Länder. Müllentsorgung und die Verantwortlichkeiten Lokale Regierungen müssen die öffentliche Gesundheit ihrer lokalen Bevölkerung sicherstellen und sind deshalb für die Müllentsorgung verantwortlich. Asiatische tropische Klimate sich rasch ändernde Müllzusammensetzung machen die Müllbehandlung und –entsorgung zu einer dauernden Herausforderung der Entscheidungsträger. Vor einer Entscheidung über das ver-wendete Entsorgungssystem muss eine geeignete Abfall-Charakterisierung treten. Diese Cha-rakterisierung liefert Kenntnisse über die Abfallmenge, die Feuchte, den Heizwert und die Menge der verschiedenen Komponenten im Abfallstrom, wie z. B.: organisches Material, Plas-tik, Papier, Karton, Holz, Textilien, Gummi, Leder, Glas, Metalle, Nichtmetalle, Steine und Keramiken. Darüber hinaus ist die Herausforderung, der sich asiatische Länder gegenüber se-hen, ein Mangel an Raum und damit wird die Platzierung eine Deponie zunehmend schwierig. Die Abfallwirtschaft ist eine kostenintensive, aber trotzdem notwendige Maßnahme, um das Wohlergehen sowohl der Bevölkerung als auch für die Umwelt sicher zu stellen. Es wird ge-schätzt, dass Asien im Jahr 2025 etwa 47 Milliarden US$ aufwenden muss, um 0,5 bis 1 Kg städtischen Müll je Person und Tag abzufahren und zu behandeln, oder 5 US$ je Kopf und Jahr. In Entwicklungsländern sind unzählige Leute nicht in der Lage, diese hohen Preise für die Ab-fallentsorgung zu zahlen. Deshalb liegt es in der Verantwortung der Regierung, die Abfallent-sorgung zu betreiben und zu finanzieren, um die Bevölkerung, die Gemeinde und die Umwelt zu schützen. Tropische asiatische Städte müssen jetzt bezahlbare und nachhaltige Verfahren für die Entsorgung ihrer zunehmenden Menge täglichen Abfalls benennen, wobei gleichzeitig auf minimale Umweltbelastung, auf soziale Akzeptanz und auf minimale Landverbrauch zu achten ist. Eine leicht anwendbare Entscheidungshilfe zur Wahl des geeignetesten Abfallbehandlungs-system der Gemeinde wäre deshalb sehr nützlich. Proposition Der Zweck dieser Dissertation war die Entwicklung eines nutzerfreundlichen Instrumentariums für das Verwaltungs- und Regierungspersonal in tropischen Entwicklungs- und Schwellenlän-der. 1. Diese Vorgehensweise basiert auf einem Netzwerk, das eine Liste ausgewählter entschei-dungsrelevanter Tatsachen in Betracht zieht, die nötig sind, um eine informierte Entschei-dung machen zu können. Das entscheidungshelfende Verfahren muss von Entscheidungs-trägern bei einer vorläufigen Feststellung des Abfallentsorgungs- und -behandlungssystems für ihre Gemeinde benutzt werden. 2. Tropische asiatische Städte müssen eine Reihe von Faktoren berücksichtigen, wenn sie über ihren Abfallwirtschaftsplan entscheiden. Dazu gehören die immerwechselnde Menge und Zusammensetzung des Abfalls infolge der zunehmenden Bevölkerungszahl und des Ein-kommens je Kopf, der hohe Feuchtigkeitsgrad, Verbrennungswärme-Werte und die oft be-grenzten finanziellen Möglichkeiten. 3. Ferner sind gesetzliche, politische, verwaltungstechnische, soziale, finanzielle, ökonomi-sche und technische Faktoren bestimmend. 4. Die Verwaltung muss dabei die Wichtigkeit jedes Teilschrittes der Abfallwirtschaft im Au-ge behalten, also Abfallerzeugung, Sammlung, Transport, Abfallcharakterisierung, Entsor-gung und Behandlung. 5. Die Rolle der lokalen Gemeinden in der Entscheidungsfindung ist nicht hoch genug einzu-schätzen; deshalb müssen Mitglieder der Gemeinde aktiv am Schutz der Umwelt und an der Verhinderung ihrer Zerstörung mitwirken. Mehrere Entscheidungshilfsverfahren für ver-schiedene Anwendungen wurden entwickelt. Jedoch zieht die Mehrzahl von ihnen nicht notwendigerweise eine öffentliche Teilnahme in Betracht, und sie sind auch nicht benutzer-freundlich. 6. Um die Komplexität der Probleme besser zu verstehen, die bei tropischen asiatischen Städ-ten auftreten, wurde die Innenstadt von Bangkok, Thailands größte Stadt und Hauptstadt, als repräsentativer Fall ausgewählt, für die Entsorgung der 9000 t Müll der täglich produ-ziert wird. Thailands Klima ist, besonders während der jährlichen Monsunzeit, heiß und feucht mit einer mittleren Temperatur von 28,4°C und einer Feuchtigkeit zwischen 70 und 100%. Die Gesetze und Verordnungen zeigen sehr deutlich an, wie wichtig die Behandlung des städtischen Abfalls genommen wird. Zahlreiche Interviews, verbunden mit der Durch-sicht von Dokumenten, Berichten und Ortsbesichtigungen ergaben Kenntnisse der zahlrei-chen Entscheidungsmaßnahmen, denen sich die städtischen Entscheidungsträger einer tro-pischen Stadt gegenüber sehen. Die Durchsicht und die Analyse der Entscheidungsmaß-nahmen in Bangkoks Abfallentsorgungsstrategien zeigten, wie das Entscheiden als Werk-zeug in verschiedenen asiatischen tropischen Städten benutzt werden kann. 7. Ein Entscheidungsrahmen wurde erstellt auf der Grundlage von Literatur-Recherchen und persönliche Erfahrungen, und anhand der in der Stadt Bangkok gesammelte Daten über-prüft. Die Entscheidungspunkte im Netzwerk umfassen eine allgemeine Beschreibung der Stadt, ihre klimatischen und hydrogeologischen Bedingungen, die Menge und Art des er-zeugten Mülls, einen Überblick über die bestehenden Anlagen und die existierenden Pro-gramme, öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit zu gewinnen, den sozioökonomischen Aspekt eines Abfallbehandlungssystems und die öffentliche Teilnahme. Es berücksichtigt ferner Ge-sundheits- und Sicherheitsüberlegungen im Zusammenhang mit Abfallentsorgungsmög-lichkeiten und ihrer Kosten. 8. Das Entscheidungsinstrumentarium hat als Ziel, ein geeignetes Abfallbehandlungssystem zu ermöglichen, das als Grundlage soziale, klimatische und technische Informationen be-nutzt. Ihre Einfachheit erlaubt einem Verwaltungspersonal, das wenig Erfahrung mit Ab-fallwirtschaft und Computerwissen besitzt, verschiedene Optionen zu analysieren und Sze-narien auszutesten. Des weiteren werden verschiedene Möglichkeiten überprüft, und es wird versucht, die Optionen in die Abfallwirtschaft zu integrieren. 9. Das Instrumentarium beinhaltet über ein Hundert geschlossene Fragen, die auf das Analy-sieren der Bedürfnisse und der gegenwärtigen Situation der Abfallwirtschaft einer be-stimmten Gesellschaft ausgerichtet sind und die es ermöglichen, ein geeignetes Abfallwirt-schaftssystem für die entsprechende Gesellschaft zu wählen. Diese Fragen hatten als Grundlage die Rahmen und Eckpunkte des Entscheidungsinstrumentariums. Dieses Instru-mentarium ist selbsterklärend, und gleichzeitig bietet es Flexibilität bei der Entscheidung, um wie viel Prozent des Abfalls wieder verwertet wird, kompostiert oder behandelt durch irgend eine von den sechs Behandlungsoptionen; Kompostierung, Vergärung, nicht-Verbrennungssysteme, Verbrennung, Deponierung und Energiegewinnung. 10. Die Ziele eines integrierten Abfallwirtschaftssystems können vom Benutzer geändert und modifiziert werden. Dies ermöglicht die Überprüfung verschiedener Szenarien und die Auswahl des geeignetesten Abfallbehandlungssystems. Das System kann sehr einfach sein und nur ein Behandlungssystem beinhalten oder mit einer Auswahl mehrere Behandlungs-systeme sehr kompliziert sein. In einigen Ländern ist es Vorschrift mehrere Systeme anzu-wenden. Integrierte Abfallwirtschaftssysteme, die mindestens zwei oder drei Abfallbe-handlungssysteme beinhalten, sind deshalb gefragt. 11. Die Ziele der Gesellschaft sind ausschlaggebend und sind die Schlüsselfaktoren für den Entscheidungsprozess. Die Menge der wiederverwertbaren Materialien, die Brauchbarkeit des Komposts, die Interesse an Vergärung, die Möglichkeit einer Verbrennungsanlage, das Verstehen eines nicht-Verbrennungssystems und die Verfügbarkeit von Land für Deponien, die Notwendigkeit für Elektrizität sind einige Schlüsselfaktoren die überlegt werden müs-sen. Integrierte Abfallwirtschaft ist wahrscheinlich die vernünftigste Vorgehensweise. Dies ermöglicht Flexibilität bei Abfallwirtschaftstechniken und ergänzt sie gegenseitig. 12. Öffentliche Verwaltungen können DMT als eine erste Bewertung der geeignetesten Tech-nologie benutzen. Des weiteren gibt DMT dem Verwaltungspersonal Flexibilität in ihrer Wahl bezüglich der Menge an wiederverwertbarem Abfall unter der Anwendung verschie-denen Technologien, welches eine gut konstruiertes und gut integriertes Abfallbehand-lungssystem für die Gesellschaft darstellt. Fazit Das Fazit ist: die Abfallwirtschaft in einem tropischen Schwellenland ist mit bestimmten Her-ausforderungen verbunden, die behandelt werden müssen. Ökonomische, technische und sozi-ale Kriterien müssen in Betracht gezogen werden bei der Wahl geeigneter städtischer Abfall-wirtschaftsysteme. Begrenzte finanzielle Möglichkeiten, Mangel an öffentlichem Bewusstsein und ein schwaches Wirtschaftssystem sind manchmal verantwortlich für die Wahl eines schlechtes Abfallbehandlungssystems, mit kurzsichtigen und über die Jahren teuren Entschei-dungen statt langfristigen und vernünftigeren Entscheidungen. Wetterbedingungen und die Knappheit an Land in Stadtnähe sind besondere Herausforderungen. Das Entscheidungsinstru-mentarium DMT macht die Identifizierung von Schlüsselfragen nötig für die Formulierung eines nachhaltigen Abfallwirtschaftskonzepts und für die Wahl eines technisch-, ökonomisch- und sozial-akzeptierbaren Abfallwirtschaftssystems, das besonders geeignet ist für tropische Klimate. Die Ergebnisse der DMT-Daten-Analyse bietet eine faire Auswertung für ein adäquates integ-riertes Abfallbehandlungssystems. Wenn einmal ein System identifiziert wurde, werden weitere Studien bezüglich Umsetzbarkeit und Anwendbarkeit nötig sein. Jedoch wird die Notwendig-keit, ausführliche Studien am multiplen Szenarien durchzuführen, minimiert, was erhebliche Ersparnisse für die Stadtverwaltung bedeutet. Eine Feasibility-Study und ein Masterplan haben zu folgen, um die standortspezifischen und Finanzierungsfragen zu klären sowie die Auswahl der spezifischen Anlagentechnik zu definieren. ; Abstract Developing and emerging tropical Asian countries have encountered fast urban development due to the migration of farmers seeking a better life in the city. This resulted in a lack of appro-priate infrastructure and inappropriate social services in many cities. Municipal solid waste management is no exception and is in fact often placed at the bottom of the list of priorities for the cities' appropriate urban management plans since laws and regulations must first be for-mulated and implemented. The problem of unmanaged municipal solid waste certainly leads to air pollution, disease, and to soil and water contamination. These problems in tropical climates are compounded with high temperature, high-level humidity, heavy rainfall and frequent flooding. Stagnant water and leachate from waste quickly become the breeding grounds of in-sects, rodents and bacteria, thus creating a health hazard for workers and local populations. Moreover, water and groundwater contamination may lead to serious environmental degrada-tion with direct impacts on water supplies, and in the fast degradation of agricultural products, the backbone of most tropical Asian countries. Many cities still allow or tolerate dumping of waste in uncontrolled sites, and open burning that disperses particulates that most likely contain dioxins and furans. Even with increasingly scarce land availability within or in proximity of the cities, sanitary landfill is still the most often cho-sen disposal method around Asia because of its lower cost when compared to modern treatment systems. Yet, most of these landfill sites do not have proper lining, daily covering, methane recovery devices, leachate control systems, nor do they have long-term closure and monitoring plans, which implies short and long-term hazards. Some municipalities opted for incineration, which usually entails high operation and maintenance costs because of the need for supple-mental fuel and often-inappropriate running conditions. Although tropical conditions appear to favor certain disposal systems such as composting, appropriate technology needs to be identi-fied in order to reduce operation and maintenance costs while ensuring good quality outputs; compost plants have often been closed because of poor quality products due to the high content of plastic and glass particulates in the finished product. Tropical Asian cities are now required to identify affordable and sustainable solutions for the management of their increasing amount of waste generated daily, while ensuring minimal environmental impact, social acceptance and minimal land use. The purpose of this dissertation was to develop a user-friendly decision-making tool for public administrators and government officials in tropical Asian developing and emerging cities. This tool was developed based on a list of selected decision-making issues necessary in making an informed decision. The decision-making tool is to be used by decision-makers in making a pre-liminary assessment of a most appropriate waste management and treatment system for their municipality. Tropical Asian cities must consider a number of issues when deciding on their waste management plan such as the continuously changing quantum and composition of waste associated with the increasing population and income per capita, the high humidity levels, and the often-limited financial resources. Other determinant factors include legal, political, institu-tional, social and technical issues. Furthermore, administrators must realize the importance of each stage involved in waste management, which includes waste generation, collection, trans-port, waste characteristics, disposal and treatment. To better understand the complexity of the issues involved in tropical Asian municipalities, the city of Bangkok, Thailand's largest city and capital, was selected as a case study for the management of its 9,000 tonnes of waste gen-erated daily. Numerous interviews, meetings along with the review of documents, reports and site visits offered an inside view of the tropical city's various decision-making issues towards its waste management plan, and examine specific problems encountered by the city's decision-makers. The review and analysis of the decision-making issues involved in Bangkok's waste management plan showed how the decision-making tool can be used in various Asian tropical cities. In conclusion, waste management in an emerging tropical country involves specific challenges that need to be addressed. Economical, technical and social criteria need to be fully understood as to capacitate government officials in the selection of the most appropriate urban waste man-agement system. Limited budgets, lack of public awareness and poor systems' management often cloud decision-makers in choosing what appears to be the best solution in the short term, but more costly over the years. Weather conditions and scarcity of land in proximity of the city make waste management especially challenging. The decision-making framework offers a tool to decision-makers, as to facilitate the understanding and identification of key issues necessary in the formulation of a sustainable urban waste management plan and in the selection of a tech-nically, economically and socially acceptable integrated MSW management system. A detailed feasibility study and master plan will follow the preliminary study as to define the plant´s specifications, its location and its financing.

Einführung Tropische asiatische Entwicklungs- und Schwellenländer zeigten rasches städtisches Wachstum dadurch, dass Bauern einwanderten, um ein besseres Leben in der Stadt zu suchen. Dadurch ergab sich in vielen Städten ein Mangel an geeigneter Infrastruktur und an sozialen Diensten. Die städtische Müllversorgung bildet keine Ausnahme; sie wird sogar oft an das Ende der Prio-ritätenliste für städtische Aufgabenpläne gestellt, da dabei zuerst die Gesetze und Verordnun-gen formuliert und umgesetzt werden müssen. Das Problem des nicht entsorgten städtischen Mülls führt (mit Sicherheit) zu Luftverschmutzung, Krankheit und zur Verseuchung des Bo-dens und des Wassers. Diese Probleme stehen in tropischen Klimaten im Zusammenhang mit hoher Temperatur und Feuchtigkeit, mit heftigem Regen und mit häufigen Überschwemmun-gen. Stehendes Wasser und Ausschwemmung aus dem Abfall werden sehr schnell zu Brutstät-ten von Insekten, Nagern und Bakterien, und damit zu einer Gesundheitsgefahr für Arbeiter und die allgemeine Bevölkerung. Darüber hinaus kann Wasser- und Grundwasserverschmut-zung/Kontamination zu einer ernsten Umweltzerstörung führen, mit direkten Auswirkungen auf die Wasserressourcen, und auf raschen Qualitätsverlust der pflanzlichen Erzeugnisse, des Rückgrates der meisten tropischen asiatischen Länder. Müllentsorgung und die Verantwortlichkeiten Lokale Regierungen müssen die öffentliche Gesundheit ihrer lokalen Bevölkerung sicherstellen und sind deshalb für die Müllentsorgung verantwortlich. Asiatische tropische Klimate sich rasch ändernde Müllzusammensetzung machen die Müllbehandlung und –entsorgung zu einer dauernden Herausforderung der Entscheidungsträger. Vor einer Entscheidung über das ver-wendete Entsorgungssystem muss eine geeignete Abfall-Charakterisierung treten. Diese Cha-rakterisierung liefert Kenntnisse über die Abfallmenge, die Feuchte, den Heizwert und die Menge der verschiedenen Komponenten im Abfallstrom, wie z. B.: organisches Material, Plas-tik, Papier, Karton, Holz, Textilien, Gummi, Leder, Glas, Metalle, Nichtmetalle, Steine und Keramiken. Darüber hinaus ist die Herausforderung, der sich asiatische Länder gegenüber se-hen, ein Mangel an Raum und damit wird die Platzierung eine Deponie zunehmend schwierig. Die Abfallwirtschaft ist eine kostenintensive, aber trotzdem notwendige Maßnahme, um das Wohlergehen sowohl der Bevölkerung als auch für die Umwelt sicher zu stellen. Es wird ge-schätzt, dass Asien im Jahr 2025 etwa 47 Milliarden US$ aufwenden muss, um 0,5 bis 1 Kg städtischen Müll je Person und Tag abzufahren und zu behandeln, oder 5 US$ je Kopf und Jahr. In Entwicklungsländern sind unzählige Leute nicht in der Lage, diese hohen Preise für die Ab-fallentsorgung zu zahlen. Deshalb liegt es in der Verantwortung der Regierung, die Abfallent-sorgung zu betreiben und zu finanzieren, um die Bevölkerung, die Gemeinde und die Umwelt zu schützen. Tropische asiatische Städte müssen jetzt bezahlbare und nachhaltige Verfahren für die Entsorgung ihrer zunehmenden Menge täglichen Abfalls benennen, wobei gleichzeitig auf minimale Umweltbelastung, auf soziale Akzeptanz und auf minimale Landverbrauch zu achten ist. Eine leicht anwendbare Entscheidungshilfe zur Wahl des geeignetesten Abfallbehandlungs-system der Gemeinde wäre deshalb sehr nützlich. Proposition Der Zweck dieser Dissertation war die Entwicklung eines nutzerfreundlichen Instrumentariums für das Verwaltungs- und Regierungspersonal in tropischen Entwicklungs- und Schwellenlän-der. 1. Diese Vorgehensweise basiert auf einem Netzwerk, das eine Liste ausgewählter entschei-dungsrelevanter Tatsachen in Betracht zieht, die nötig sind, um eine informierte Entschei-dung machen zu können. Das entscheidungshelfende Verfahren muss von Entscheidungs-trägern bei einer vorläufigen Feststellung des Abfallentsorgungs- und -behandlungssystems für ihre Gemeinde benutzt werden. 2. Tropische asiatische Städte müssen eine Reihe von Faktoren berücksichtigen, wenn sie über ihren Abfallwirtschaftsplan entscheiden. Dazu gehören die immerwechselnde Menge und Zusammensetzung des Abfalls infolge der zunehmenden Bevölkerungszahl und des Ein-kommens je Kopf, der hohe Feuchtigkeitsgrad, Verbrennungswärme-Werte und die oft be-grenzten finanziellen Möglichkeiten. 3. Ferner sind gesetzliche, politische, verwaltungstechnische, soziale, finanzielle, ökonomi-sche und technische Faktoren bestimmend. 4. Die Verwaltung muss dabei die Wichtigkeit jedes Teilschrittes der Abfallwirtschaft im Au-ge behalten, also Abfallerzeugung, Sammlung, Transport, Abfallcharakterisierung, Entsor-gung und Behandlung. 5. Die Rolle der lokalen Gemeinden in der Entscheidungsfindung ist nicht hoch genug einzu-schätzen; deshalb müssen Mitglieder der Gemeinde aktiv am Schutz der Umwelt und an der Verhinderung ihrer Zerstörung mitwirken. Mehrere Entscheidungshilfsverfahren für ver-schiedene Anwendungen wurden entwickelt. Jedoch zieht die Mehrzahl von ihnen nicht notwendigerweise eine öffentliche Teilnahme in Betracht, und sie sind auch nicht benutzer-freundlich. 6. Um die Komplexität der Probleme besser zu verstehen, die bei tropischen asiatischen Städ-ten auftreten, wurde die Innenstadt von Bangkok, Thailands größte Stadt und Hauptstadt, als repräsentativer Fall ausgewählt, für die Entsorgung der 9000 t Müll der täglich produ-ziert wird. Thailands Klima ist, besonders während der jährlichen Monsunzeit, heiß und feucht mit einer mittleren Temperatur von 28,4°C und einer Feuchtigkeit zwischen 70 und 100%. Die Gesetze und Verordnungen zeigen sehr deutlich an, wie wichtig die Behandlung des städtischen Abfalls genommen wird. Zahlreiche Interviews, verbunden mit der Durch-sicht von Dokumenten, Berichten und Ortsbesichtigungen ergaben Kenntnisse der zahlrei-chen Entscheidungsmaßnahmen, denen sich die städtischen Entscheidungsträger einer tro-pischen Stadt gegenüber sehen. Die Durchsicht und die Analyse der Entscheidungsmaß-nahmen in Bangkoks Abfallentsorgungsstrategien zeigten, wie das Entscheiden als Werk-zeug in verschiedenen asiatischen tropischen Städten benutzt werden kann. 7. Ein Entscheidungsrahmen wurde erstellt auf der Grundlage von Literatur-Recherchen und persönliche Erfahrungen, und anhand der in der Stadt Bangkok gesammelte Daten über-prüft. Die Entscheidungspunkte im Netzwerk umfassen eine allgemeine Beschreibung der Stadt, ihre klimatischen und hydrogeologischen Bedingungen, die Menge und Art des er-zeugten Mülls, einen Überblick über die bestehenden Anlagen und die existierenden Pro-gramme, öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit zu gewinnen, den sozioökonomischen Aspekt eines Abfallbehandlungssystems und die öffentliche Teilnahme. Es berücksichtigt ferner Ge-sundheits- und Sicherheitsüberlegungen im Zusammenhang mit Abfallentsorgungsmög-lichkeiten und ihrer Kosten. 8. Das Entscheidungsinstrumentarium hat als Ziel, ein geeignetes Abfallbehandlungssystem zu ermöglichen, das als Grundlage soziale, klimatische und technische Informationen be-nutzt. Ihre Einfachheit erlaubt einem Verwaltungspersonal, das wenig Erfahrung mit Ab-fallwirtschaft und Computerwissen besitzt, verschiedene Optionen zu analysieren und Sze-narien auszutesten. Des weiteren werden verschiedene Möglichkeiten überprüft, und es wird versucht, die Optionen in die Abfallwirtschaft zu integrieren. 9. Das Instrumentarium beinhaltet über ein Hundert geschlossene Fragen, die auf das Analy-sieren der Bedürfnisse und der gegenwärtigen Situation der Abfallwirtschaft einer be-stimmten Gesellschaft ausgerichtet sind und die es ermöglichen, ein geeignetes Abfallwirt-schaftssystem für die entsprechende Gesellschaft zu wählen. Diese Fragen hatten als Grundlage die Rahmen und Eckpunkte des Entscheidungsinstrumentariums. Dieses Instru-mentarium ist selbsterklärend, und gleichzeitig bietet es Flexibilität bei der Entscheidung, um wie viel Prozent des Abfalls wieder verwertet wird, kompostiert oder behandelt durch irgend eine von den sechs Behandlungsoptionen; Kompostierung, Vergärung, nicht-Verbrennungssysteme, Verbrennung, Deponierung und Energiegewinnung. 10. Die Ziele eines integrierten Abfallwirtschaftssystems können vom Benutzer geändert und modifiziert werden. Dies ermöglicht die Überprüfung verschiedener Szenarien und die Auswahl des geeignetesten Abfallbehandlungssystems. Das System kann sehr einfach sein und nur ein Behandlungssystem beinhalten oder mit einer Auswahl mehrere Behandlungs-systeme sehr kompliziert sein. In einigen Ländern ist es Vorschrift mehrere Systeme anzu-wenden. Integrierte Abfallwirtschaftssysteme, die mindestens zwei oder drei Abfallbe-handlungssysteme beinhalten, sind deshalb gefragt. 11. Die Ziele der Gesellschaft sind ausschlaggebend und sind die Schlüsselfaktoren für den Entscheidungsprozess. Die Menge der wiederverwertbaren Materialien, die Brauchbarkeit des Komposts, die Interesse an Vergärung, die Möglichkeit einer Verbrennungsanlage, das Verstehen eines nicht-Verbrennungssystems und die Verfügbarkeit von Land für Deponien, die Notwendigkeit für Elektrizität sind einige Schlüsselfaktoren die überlegt werden müs-sen. Integrierte Abfallwirtschaft ist wahrscheinlich die vernünftigste Vorgehensweise. Dies ermöglicht Flexibilität bei Abfallwirtschaftstechniken und ergänzt sie gegenseitig. 12. Öffentliche Verwaltungen können DMT als eine erste Bewertung der geeignetesten Tech-nologie benutzen. Des weiteren gibt DMT dem Verwaltungspersonal Flexibilität in ihrer Wahl bezüglich der Menge an wiederverwertbarem Abfall unter der Anwendung verschie-denen Technologien, welches eine gut konstruiertes und gut integriertes Abfallbehand-lungssystem für die Gesellschaft darstellt. Fazit Das Fazit ist: die Abfallwirtschaft in einem tropischen Schwellenland ist mit bestimmten Her-ausforderungen verbunden, die behandelt werden müssen. Ökonomische, technische und sozi-ale Kriterien müssen in Betracht gezogen werden bei der Wahl geeigneter städtischer Abfall-wirtschaftsysteme. Begrenzte finanzielle Möglichkeiten, Mangel an öffentlichem Bewusstsein und ein schwaches Wirtschaftssystem sind manchmal verantwortlich für die Wahl eines schlechtes Abfallbehandlungssystems, mit kurzsichtigen und über die Jahren teuren Entschei-dungen statt langfristigen und vernünftigeren Entscheidungen. Wetterbedingungen und die Knappheit an Land in Stadtnähe sind besondere Herausforderungen. Das Entscheidungsinstru-mentarium DMT macht die Identifizierung von Schlüsselfragen nötig für die Formulierung eines nachhaltigen Abfallwirtschaftskonzepts und für die Wahl eines technisch-, ökonomisch- und sozial-akzeptierbaren Abfallwirtschaftssystems, das besonders geeignet ist für tropische Klimate. Die Ergebnisse der DMT-Daten-Analyse bietet eine faire Auswertung für ein adäquates integ-riertes Abfallbehandlungssystems. Wenn einmal ein System identifiziert wurde, werden weitere Studien bezüglich Umsetzbarkeit und Anwendbarkeit nötig sein. Jedoch wird die Notwendig-keit, ausführliche Studien am multiplen Szenarien durchzuführen, minimiert, was erhebliche Ersparnisse für die Stadtverwaltung bedeutet. Eine Feasibility-Study und ein Masterplan haben zu folgen, um die standortspezifischen und Finanzierungsfragen zu klären sowie die Auswahl der spezifischen Anlagentechnik zu definieren. ; Abstract Developing and emerging tropical Asian countries have encountered fast urban development due to the migration of farmers seeking a better life in the city. This resulted in a lack of appro-priate infrastructure and inappropriate social services in many cities. Municipal solid waste management is no exception and is in fact often placed at the bottom of the list of priorities for the cities' appropriate urban management plans since laws and regulations must first be for-mulated and implemented. The problem of unmanaged municipal solid waste certainly leads to air pollution, disease, and to soil and water contamination. These problems in tropical climates are compounded with high temperature, high-level humidity, heavy rainfall and frequent flooding. Stagnant water and leachate from waste quickly become the breeding grounds of in-sects, rodents and bacteria, thus creating a health hazard for workers and local populations. Moreover, water and groundwater contamination may lead to serious environmental degrada-tion with direct impacts on water supplies, and in the fast degradation of agricultural products, the backbone of most tropical Asian countries. Many cities still allow or tolerate dumping of waste in uncontrolled sites, and open burning that disperses particulates that most likely contain dioxins and furans. Even with increasingly scarce land availability within or in proximity of the cities, sanitary landfill is still the most often cho-sen disposal method around Asia because of its lower cost when compared to modern treatment systems. Yet, most of these landfill sites do not have proper lining, daily covering, methane recovery devices, leachate control systems, nor do they have long-term closure and monitoring plans, which implies short and long-term hazards. Some municipalities opted for incineration, which usually entails high operation and maintenance costs because of the need for supple-mental fuel and often-inappropriate running conditions. Although tropical conditions appear to favor certain disposal systems such as composting, appropriate technology needs to be identi-fied in order to reduce operation and maintenance costs while ensuring good quality outputs; compost plants have often been closed because of poor quality products due to the high content of plastic and glass particulates in the finished product. Tropical Asian cities are now required to identify affordable and sustainable solutions for the management of their increasing amount of waste generated daily, while ensuring minimal environmental impact, social acceptance and minimal land use. The purpose of this dissertation was to develop a user-friendly decision-making tool for public administrators and government officials in tropical Asian developing and emerging cities. This tool was developed based on a list of selected decision-making issues necessary in making an informed decision. The decision-making tool is to be used by decision-makers in making a pre-liminary assessment of a most appropriate waste management and treatment system for their municipality. Tropical Asian cities must consider a number of issues when deciding on their waste management plan such as the continuously changing quantum and composition of waste associated with the increasing population and income per capita, the high humidity levels, and the often-limited financial resources. Other determinant factors include legal, political, institu-tional, social and technical issues. Furthermore, administrators must realize the importance of each stage involved in waste management, which includes waste generation, collection, trans-port, waste characteristics, disposal and treatment. To better understand the complexity of the issues involved in tropical Asian municipalities, the city of Bangkok, Thailand's largest city and capital, was selected as a case study for the management of its 9,000 tonnes of waste gen-erated daily. Numerous interviews, meetings along with the review of documents, reports and site visits offered an inside view of the tropical city's various decision-making issues towards its waste management plan, and examine specific problems encountered by the city's decision-makers. The review and analysis of the decision-making issues involved in Bangkok's waste management plan showed how the decision-making tool can be used in various Asian tropical cities. In conclusion, waste management in an emerging tropical country involves specific challenges that need to be addressed. Economical, technical and social criteria need to be fully understood as to capacitate government officials in the selection of the most appropriate urban waste man-agement system. Limited budgets, lack of public awareness and poor systems' management often cloud decision-makers in choosing what appears to be the best solution in the short term, but more costly over the years. Weather conditions and scarcity of land in proximity of the city make waste management especially challenging. The decision-making framework offers a tool to decision-makers, as to facilitate the understanding and identification of key issues necessary in the formulation of a sustainable urban waste management plan and in the selection of a tech-nically, economically and socially acceptable integrated MSW management system. A detailed feasibility study and master plan will follow the preliminary study as to define the plant´s specifications, its location and its financing.