In an increasingly more globalized world the international competition is fierce. Today, working across borders is a new normality. It calls for greater demand to send employees abroad on international assignments. Therefore, employers need to address implications that come along with this increasing demand. One of the main implications is the issue to retain employers after return from international assignments since many of them tend to resign. Research about this issue has been conducted. However, this research has primarily taken an employer standpoint and thereby employees have been overlooked. This thesis presents both (1) an employee point of view of the repatriation process as well as (2) a more updated and comprehensive take on the entire repatriation process as a three step process beginning already prior departure. The paper concludes that high turnover rate after return remains a major problem among expats. Lastly,a final model is suggested to facilitate the transition and decrease this high turnover rate. By applying this approach on the repatriation process, companies could hopefully benefit in terms of decreased turnover cost as well as more satisfied employees.

Após os atentados terroristas de Onze de setembro de 2001 os Estados Falidos passaram a ser considerados uma das principais ameaças à paz e segurança internacional. A maior parte dos estudos sobre o tema argumenta que a melhor maneira para se lidar com esta ameaça são as chamadas operações de Nation-Building, lideradas por agentes externos e cujos objetivos principais são reconstruir as instituições políticas, promover eleições democráticas e consolidar uma economia de mercado no país alvo. Assim sendo, na primeira parte do trabalho, intitulada O Colapso, esta dissertação almeja analisar as características do conceito de Estado Falido à luz do caso do Afeganistão. Na segunda parte, intitulada A Reconstrução, ambicionamos entender o que são e como são levadas a cabo as operações de Nation- Building, analisando as missões lideradas pela ONU e pelos EUA e realizando um estudo da atual operação no Afeganistão. / After the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks, Failed States have been considered one of the greatest threats to peace and international security. The great majority of the studies about this theme argue that one of the best ways to cope with this threat are the so-called Nation-Building operations, leaded by external agents and whose main objectives are the reconstruction of political institutions, the promotion of elections and the consolidation of a marketoriented economy in the target country. Therefore, in the first part of this work, called The Collapse, this dissertation aims to analyze the characteristics of the Failed State concept through the Afghan case. In the second part, called The Reconstruction, we intend to understand what Nation-Building operations are and how they have been carried out, analyzing the missions leaded both by the UN and the United States and doing a case study over the current operation in Afghanistan.

The current study was designed to test the effectiveness of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) in a retrospective group of 43 failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS) patients. A medical record review was conducted on study participants to capture · relevant presurgical biopsychosocial variables deemed to be of potential prognostic value. In addition, a multidimensional approach to outcome assessment was undertaken along three general domains: general health status, disease specific outcomes, and surgical outcomes. Descriptive statistics of presurgical variables and outcome measurements are provided as well as a model of outcome prediction based on these prognostic variables. Results suggest that the use of neurostimulation may help to reduce low back and/or leg pain in some patients with FBSS; however, a large number of patients reported continuing pain, physical disability, and inability to work despite treatment. The current study calls into question the efficacy of SCS for FBSS. Recommendations for future studies are presented.

Recent advances in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and low-power short-range radios have enabled rapid development of wireless sensor networks. Future sensor networks are anticipated to include hundreds or thousands of these devices in many applications, such as capturing multimedia content for surveillance, structural health monitoring, tracking of accidental chemical leaks, machine failures, earthquakes and intrusion detection. With the increase of sensor applications, a number of challenging problems related to the network protocol design has emerged - the most important ones relating to energy efficiency and lifetime maximisation. Techniques devised for sensor networks should deal with a large number of sensors distributed in the field. Wireless sensor nodes are deployed with limited energy reserves, so the networks should operate with minimum energy overhead. In fact, the network should take into account not only individual node's energy efficiency but also consider the global picture, because surviving nodes' energy reserves in a failed network are wasted energy. This thesis examines a node organisation technique to deal with the above challenges. The focus is on improving network lifetime via organising the nodes in a distributed and energy efficient manner. The main goal is lowering wasted energy via energy balancing and exploiting node redundancy in case of node failure. In particular, this thesis proposes Energy Balanced Clustering (EBC) method for node self-organisation where network tasks (such as data aggregation and data forwarding) are shifted to high-energy neighbours to reduce the energy consumption of low energy nodes. After showing how to extend network lifetime by energy balanced node organisation, the effect of redundant node deployments on network lifetime is addressed. Redundant nodes consume energy by performing unnecessary tasks so a method called Self-Calculated Redundancy Check (SCRC) is proposed to deactivate redundant nodes. A deactivated redundant node can be used as a replacement for a failed node. The Asynchronous Failed Sensor node Detection (AFSD) proposed in this thesis uses the data packets exchanged between neighbours to identify failed neighbours. To restore coverage for network holes caused by failed nodes, policies are given for re-activating redundant nodes. Detailed analytical analysis and simulation of the proposed methods demonstrate that by taking into account energy balancing, eliminating redundant tasks and replacing failed nodes sensor network lifetime can significantly be improved.

This thesis focuses on three state theories that aim to define the structures of the Third World states by the West. The terms of the &lsquo / rentier&rsquo / , &lsquo / failed&rsquo / and &lsquo / rogue&rsquo / states are critically examined in an attempt to understand how they define the difference, how they negate the different, and how they legitimize certain policies towards the different. By concentrating on the liberal theorizing that analyzes the state on the basis of the claimed civil society-state divide, and from an orientalist perspective, this study aims to demonstrate that these state theories refuse the possibility of transformation of those states by their own internal dynamics. It is argued that with the help of such discourses, rather than being simple theoretical constructs these state theories have become functional means to legitimize certain historical practices.

This thesis focuses on the use of the term &lsquo / failed state&rsquo / as a category in the US foreign policy discourse in the post Cold War era. The concept of &lsquo / failed state&rsquo / is critically examined in terms of its methodological and ontological flaws. It is suggested that the primary methodological flaw of the failed state discourse is its atomistic and essentialist approach which describes &lsquo / state failure&rsquo / as an internal problem which needs external solutions. By rejecting the internal/external dichotomy, the dialectical method is offered as an alternative to examine the use of the term in the US foreign policy discourse in the post Cold War era. It is argued here that failed state discourse is used as a means in the justification of an international order based on &lsquo / preemptive strikes&rsquo / and unilateral economic, political and military interventions. Building upon this ideological function of failed state discourse, the current discusssions on state failure is related to contemporary debates on imperialism.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Educational Leadership, 2006. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 180-188).

This thesis deals indirectly with the current crisis in Yemen by focusing on a period in the Yemen Arab Republic’s (YAR) history from the increased price of oil in 1973 to the outbreak of the Gulf war in 1990. I present the YAR during this period as a case study in labor exportation through which the state was made more vulnerable and was left unable to cope with the collapse of its remittance system. Labor emigration and remittance receipt prior to the Gulf war, in addition to fueling bureaucratic corruption in the YAR, enabled destructive change within the agricultural sector, inflation, national import dependency, and unsustainable urbanization – these structural weaknesses were temporarily masked by Yemen’s labor exportation and by a sustained flow of remittance funding. In 1990 expatriate worker remittances collapsed abruptly as a source of capital, with over a million Yemenis suddenly repatriated. The cases of Mexican and Filipino national labor emigration illuminate the absence of diversity in Yemenis’ immigration destination and the absence of any central orchestration on behalf of the state, in addition to the inability of remittance money to remain within local communities. The period of labor exportation left Yemen with structural fragilities that continue to be the core conditions gripping what today resembles a failed state. Currently Yemen is home to a complex network of actors in violent competition for central authority – yet any government that comes to exist in Yemen must ultimately consider the YAR’s experience with labor exportation from the early 1970s through 1990 as a basis from which to fully understand the underlying weaknesses of the state.

abstract: For this project, the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB) has been calculated based on the recent direct supernova rate measurements and neutrino spectrum from SN1987A. The estimated diffuse electron antineutrino flux is ∼ 0.10 – 0.59 /cm2/s at 99% confidence level, which is 5 times lower than the Super-Kamiokande 2012 upper limit of 3.0 /cm2/s, above energy threshold of 17.3 MeV. With a Megaton scale water detector, 40 events could be detected above the threshold per year. In addition, the detectability of neutrino bursts from direct black hole forming collapses (failed supernovae) at Megaton detectors is calculated. These neutrino bursts are energetic and with short time duration, ∼ 1s. They could be identified by the time coincidence of N ≥2 or N ≥3 events within 1s time window from nearby (4 – 5 Mpc) failed supernovae. The detection rate of these neutrino bursts could get up to one per decade. This is a realistic way to detect a failed supernova and gives a promising method for studying the physics of direct black hole formation mechanism. Finally, the absorption of ultra high energy (UHE) neutrinos by the cosmic neutrino background, with full inclusion of the effect of the thermal distribution of the background on the resonant annihilation channel, is discussed. Results are applied to serval models of UHE neutrino sources. Suppression effects are strong for sources that extend beyond z ∼ 10. This provides a fascinating probe of the physics of the relic neutrino background in the unexplored redshift interval z ∼ 10 – 100. Ultimately this research will examine the detectability of DSNB, neutrino bursts from failed supernovae and absorption effects in the neutrino spectrum. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Physics 2013

Após os atentados terroristas de Onze de setembro de 2001 os Estados Falidos passaram a ser considerados uma das principais ameaças à paz e segurança internacional. A maior parte dos estudos sobre o tema argumenta que a melhor maneira para se lidar com esta ameaça são as chamadas operações de Nation-Building, lideradas por agentes externos e cujos objetivos principais são reconstruir as instituições políticas, promover eleições democráticas e consolidar uma economia de mercado no país alvo. Assim sendo, na primeira parte do trabalho, intitulada O Colapso, esta dissertação almeja analisar as características do conceito de Estado Falido à luz do caso do Afeganistão. Na segunda parte, intitulada A Reconstrução, ambicionamos entender o que são e como são levadas a cabo as operações de Nation- Building, analisando as missões lideradas pela ONU e pelos EUA e realizando um estudo da atual operação no Afeganistão. / After the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks, Failed States have been considered one of the greatest threats to peace and international security. The great majority of the studies about this theme argue that one of the best ways to cope with this threat are the so-called Nation-Building operations, leaded by external agents and whose main objectives are the reconstruction of political institutions, the promotion of elections and the consolidation of a marketoriented economy in the target country. Therefore, in the first part of this work, called The Collapse, this dissertation aims to analyze the characteristics of the Failed State concept through the Afghan case. In the second part, called The Reconstruction, we intend to understand what Nation-Building operations are and how they have been carried out, analyzing the missions leaded both by the UN and the United States and doing a case study over the current operation in Afghanistan.