The present study tested a model addressing whether interpersonal Openness and interpersonal and intrapersonal Coping Resources mediated the relationship between interpersonal Victimization and the Psychological Symptoms women experience as a result of these traumas. Victimization indicators (physical violence, sexual assault, psychological abuse, and revictimization), Coping indicators (optimism, self-esteem, private self-consciousness, social network and therapy), Openness indicators (self-silencing, communal orientation, trust, self-monitoring, and network orientation), and Psychological Symptoms indicators (global distress, dissociation, and suicidal ideation) were examined separately for African American (n = 245), Euro-American (n = 185), and Mexican American (n = 202) women. Structural Equation Modeling revealed that for African American and Euro-American women, Openness partially mediated the victimization-distress relationship. The model for Mexican Americans was the most complex with Openness and intrapersonal Coping fully mediating the psychological effects of victimization. Approximately 50% of the variance in psychological symptoms resulting from victimization was predicted by this model for African American and Euro-American women; over 80% of the variance was predicted for Mexican Americans. Thus, the importance of Openness to relationships in alleviating the psychological sequelae following interpersonal victimization was underscored by the results. Similarities and differences between these models are discussed. Implications of the results for future research and intervention are addressed.

This paper provides an empirical assessment of whether the world economy has become smaller in terms of economic distance over the last decades. We adopt a cross-sectional spatial econometric approach, relating domestic output volatility to (distance-weighted averages of) other countries' output volatility, using a sample of 135 countries and rolling 10-year time windows over the period 1955 to 2006. Using descriptive measures, test statistics, and spatial econometric estimates, we find that cross-country interdependence was virtually insignificant in the early post-war period but has increased strongly from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s and remained at a high level since then. Results for the most recent period suggest that common shocks to output volatility have a magnified impact and roughly quadruplicate through international spillover effects, which are transmitted through both trade and financial openness.

Kan ett värdskap som är kommersiellt även vara genuint välkomnande och kan man idag på allvar vinna fördelar på en konkurrensutsatt marknad utan att erbjuda ett genuint värdskap? Bakgrunden till detta arbete är det etableringsprojektet med titeln: "Värdskap och ledarskapsom berör – ett konkurrensmedel?" som finansierades av KK-stiftelsen (Stiftelsen för Kunskap och Kompetens) år 2010. Representanter från besöksnäringen på lokal, regional och nationell nivå möttes på två välrenommerade landsortshotell för att lägga grunden till ett större gemensamt forskningsprojekt. Inga ytterligare medel tilldelades dock projektet varför delar av det stora materialet från studien nu redovisas i denna c-uppsats. I projektet användes Teori U som både teoretisk utgångspunkt och processmetod. Syftet för uppsatsen handlar för det första om att undersöka metodens användbarhet i att främja branschens egen förståelse för vad ett gott värdskap är. För det andra handlar det om att undersöka hur man kan frigöra implicit kunskap och samskapa nya insikter om ett gott värdskap samt hur dessa i så fall kan kopplas till praktiken. I studien genomfördes två workshops, på två hotell med olika deltagare. Workshoparna, som filmades, varade ett dygn (från lunch till lunch). Ur det empiriska materialet utmejslades fem teman för ett värdskap som berör: ledarskap, passion, mod, självinsikt och grundläggandevärderingar. I bägge workshops talade man om att det i branschen behövs ett paradigmskifte från kunskapssamhälle till relationssamhälle. Deltagarna uttryckte att de upplever en avsaknad av kunskap om immateriella känslomässiga värden, om vad som sker i själva mötet. Resultatet pekar på att vi behöver undersöka vad som händer om vi utbildar i det som gör oss mer närvarande, autentiska och medvetna. Skulle det kunna vara ett sätt att skapa innovation i bemötande? / KK-stiftelsen Etableringsprojekt beviljat 2010 "Värdskap och ledarskap som berör- ett konkurrensmedel?"

Significant growth rates are in many times associated with countries embracing the ongoing globalization and openness to the international market of exchanging goods and services as well as ideas and technologies. Many researchers believe that participating in an international economy is a primary source of growth. The question is how strong the relationship between openness and growth is and has interested many researchers. This paper aims to investigate the effects of trade openness on economic growth in the long run and begins from Adam smith`s discussion on absolute advantage and specialization to discussions on trade organizations and policies. This study explores the relationship between trade openness and economic growth using a sample of 3 developed countries over the period (1970 – 2006) in a panel data analysis. The fixed effects model analysis indicates that trade openness has a positive and significant effect on economic growth.

Engineering contemporary distributed software applications is a challenging task due to the dynamic operating conditions in which these systems have to function. Examples are dynamic availability of resources, errors that are difficult to predict, and changing user requirements. These dynamics can affect a number of quality concerns of a system, such as robustness, openness, and performance. The challenges of engineering software systems with such dynamics have motivated the need for self-adaptation. Self-adaptation is based on the principle of separation of concerns, distinguishing two well defined systems: a managed system that deals with domain specific concerns and a managing system that deals with particular quality concerns of the managed system through adaptation with a feedback loop. State of the art in self- adaptation advocates the use of formal methods to specify and verify the system's behavior in order to provide evidence that the system's goals are satisfied. However, little work has been done on the consolidation of design knowledge to model and verify self-adaptation behaviors. To support designers, this thesis contributes with a set of formally specified templates for the specification and verification of self-adaptive behaviors of a family of distributed self-adaptive systems. The templates are based on the MAPE-K reference model (Monitor-Analyze-Plan-Execute plus Knowledge). The templates comprise: (1) behavior specification patterns for modeling the different MAPE components of a feedback loop, and (2) property specification patterns that support verification of the correctness of the adaptation behaviors. The target domain are distributed applications in which self-adaptation is used for managing resources for robustness and openness requirements. The templates are derived from expertise with developing several self-adaptive systems, including a collaborative mobile learning application in which we have applied self-adaptation to make the system robust to degrading GPS accuracy, and a robotic system in which we apply self-adaptation to support different types of openness requirements. We demonstrate the reusability of the templates in a number of case studies. / AMULETS

Rituals are an integral part of society. The focus of research on rituals has been shifting to highlight the effect rituals may produce on individual resilience and ability to function. This study examined the relationships between participation in family rituals and several conceptually related facets of the human experience, including religiosity, openness to experience, and anxiety. Participants responded to questions on an assessment instrument (Family Ritual Questionnaire) designed to measure participation in a broad variety of identified family rituals; they were grouped according to responses on that questionnaire, and the resulting groups were compared on their responses to questionnaires addressing religiosity (Religious Background and Behavior Questionnaire), openness to experience (Revised NEO Personality Inventory Openness to Experiences scale), and anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory). The four-group classification system did not produce significant differences on measures of religiosity, openness to experience, or trait anxiety. Nor were there any significant differences noted when the groups were examined on the basis of the demographic characteristics of age, gender, separation time from family of origin, or academic status. The demographic descriptive which was associated with specific group differences related to adult composition of family of origin: participants described the adults present in their families of origin, and the family types were grouped into traditional, mixed, and nontraditional families. A difference was identified between the traditional and nontraditional families on level of ritualization. This finding may be indicative of a useful direction for subsequent research inquiry.

This work focuses on globalization, more closely on the economic aspects of this process. Small countries, especially developing ones are in the spotlight, as they face unique challenges that have been addressed by the international community for decades at least. The success rate of the intervention is very questionable and leaves room for improvement, which may be a platform to elevate millions out of poverty, solve crippling problems, provide access to technology and improve the global economic system. The uniting hypothesis is that that small developing nations are functioning in a hostile environment when it comes to trade, intellectual property protection and debt, which makes it extremely difficult for them to globalize competitively. Economic history, trade and technology are the main filters of this research. Conventional economic theory like market fundamentalism, and international trade theories will be discussed. A holistic literature review, will try to depict the many sides of the argument. The data used will be from the World Competitiveness Report, World Bank's World Development Indicators, other World Bank data, apropriatiate statistical offices. A case study is implemented to conclude the thesis and in this case to evaluate the hypothesis as only partly true, since small...

Determinants of financial development Abstract The paper studies effects of country level determinants on the rate of financial development and, in particular, assesses the empirical question whether democracy and political freedom can enhance financial development, as measured by Bank Private Credit to GDP and Liquid Liabilities to GDP. Using Fixed Effects estimation techniques and a panel data for a list of 39 countries over the period 1990 to 2011, we provide evidence that suggests positive link between political openness and financial development. The empirical evidence also confirms financial openness and real per capita income to be positively correlated to financial deepening and in contrast, we find that size of financial sector does not spur the rate of financial development.

O progressivo desenvolvimento das relações internacionais, acompanhado dos múltiplos reflexos da globalização, em especial do aparecimento de novos sujeitos que atuam, concomitantemente, nos âmbitos interno e externo, resultou na intensificação dos pontos de contatos entre Direito Constitucional e Direito Internacional. Esse cenário faz que, cada vez mais, as fronteiras entre o nacional e o exterior tornem-se rarefeitas, impondo significativas transformações em conceitos tradicionais consagrados pelo tempo. Assim, as Constituições nacionais abrem-se para o Direito das Gentes e as normas internacionais antes encarregadas de apenas possibilitar a coexistência entre soberanias ampliam seu campo de incidência na medida em que passam a disciplinar temas que eram objeto de estudo somente do constitucionalismo. É exatamente esse acentuado entrelaçamento entre as ordens jurídicas que inspirou a elaboração desta tese, cujo escopo principal é o de contribuir para que se conheça, ainda que de modo incompleto, os reflexos sentidos no Direito Constitucional brasileiro em decorrência do processo de internacionalização das Constituições. Apesar da ambivalência inerente à problemática tratada, na compreensão desse complexo quadro, primou-se por um enfoque centrado na perspectiva do Direito Constitucional. Essa opção demandou, pois, análises que evidenciassem como o constitucionalismo pátrio sem perder sua identidade e preservando suas conquistas tem enfrentado o desafio de assegurar a execução interna de uma infinidade de mandamentos provenientes do exterior. As conclusões obtidas apontam para a importância de cultivar um permanente diálogo entre Constituição e Direito Internacional como instrumento para que essa crescente interconexão resulte em aperfeiçoamento de ambas as ordens jurídicas. Do ponto de vista do Direito Constitucional, cabe antecipar que a aproximação sistêmica em questão já permite vislumbrar a revitalização do funcionamento do mecanismo de freios e contrapesos derivado do princípio da separação de poderes, a valorização dos mandamentos exteriores por parte das autoridades nacionais responsáveis por aplicá-los e, ainda, o fortalecimento da autonomia federativa em matéria de interações com o mundo externo. Embora os resultados finais desse processo sejam incertos, acredita-se que ele não acabará com o papel das Constituições para os Estados nacionais porque, se isso acontece, toda a dinâmica dos relacionamentos estudados restará severamente comprometida. / The progressive development of international relations, followed by the multiple reflexes of globalization especially the emergence of new subjects that act simultaneously in the internal and external spheres has resulted in the intensification of the intersections between Constitutional law and International law. Such a scenario makes the boundaries between national and international increasingly rarefied, imposing significant changes in traditional concepts consecrated by time. Therefore, national Constitutions open up to the Ius Gentium and the international rules originally in charge of merely enabling the coexistence of sovereignties expanding their scope as they shall regulate topics that were formerly approached only by constitutionalism. It is precisely this strong entwinement of legal systems that has inspired the development of this thesis, whose main aim is to contribute for the knowing, albeit incomplete, of the reflexes felt in the Brazilian Constitutional law as a result of the internationalization process of Constitutions. Despite the ambivalence inherent to the problem approached, we have chosen to focus on the Constitutional law perspective in the understanding of this complex scenario. Such an option has demanded, thus, analyses that would evidence how national constitutionalism without losing its identity and by preserving its achievements has faced the challenge of ensuring the internal implementation of a plethora of external commands. The conclusions drawn highlight the importance of cultivating a constant dialogue between Constitution and International law as a means for this increasing interconnection to result in improvement for both legal systems. From the point of view of Constitutional law, we should anticipate that the systemic approximation at issue provides insight into the revitalization of the functioning of the checks and balances mechanism deriving from the principle of separation of powers, the valuing of external commands by the national authorities in charge of their enforcement, and also the strengthening of federal autonomy in terms of interaction with the external world. Even though the final results of this process are still uncertain, we believe that it will not end the role of the Constitutions for the national States, because, if that happens, the whole dynamics of the relationships studied will ultimately be severely compromised.

The epiphytic lichen Usnea longissima is strongly associated with old-growth forests and is declining. Previous studies have documented unimodal relationships between stand density and abundance of U. longissima. The aim of this thesis has been to investigate whether the same relationship is found in Sweden and to determine the optimum level of stand density. The study area (1.4 ha) was divided into a grid with 48 circular plots (10-m radius). Stand density was measured as basal area (m²/ha) using a relascope and abundance of U. longissima was measured as the length of the longest thallus present on the tree nearest the plot center. Usnea longissima was found in 42 plots (mean thallus length of 37 cm). The regression analyses between length of U. longissima and basal area showed that the relationship was not significant (R²=0.082, P=0.066), and tended to be linear rather than unimodal. However, plots with U. longissima had significantly lower basal area (30.4 m²/ha) than plots without the lichen (35.1 m²/ha). The basal area in U. longissima plots was higher than in Norwegian studies, but similar to other Swedish sites. Thus, my results correspond well with earlier studies that have documented higher basal area in U. longissima-locations in Västernorrland than in more oceanic areas in Norway. Thereby a basal area around 27-35 m²/ha seems most favorable for U. longissima in the study area. The lichen cannot develop large populations in dense stands, indicating that management operations to reduce the basal area might be needed in such stands.