M.A. / This research examines bargaining councils, the industrial level collective bargaining agents created by the new Labour Relations Act. This study contributes towards filling a gap not only in information that is lacking on bargaining councils, but also attempts to understand their dispute settlement role more fully. Two surveys were conducted, one, the content analysis of the constitutions of councils, and, the second, a questionnaire administered to bargaining councils, which particularly looked at their dispute work. Initial survey findings were qualified and extended through an investigation of a single council, the Clothing Industry Bargaining Council (Northern Areas). Bargaining councils place more emphasis on dispute settlement than industrial councils, and a particular difference between the two types of councils, relates to the potential role of bargaining councils to conduct arbitration. The level of accreditation may be linked to the union that is party to it. Further, a bargaining council’s ability to successfully resolve cases is dependent on clearly delineated procedures for settlement, the establishment of key relationships within the council, and, the accumulation of financial reserves. Importantly, the age of a bargaining council allows for these features to develop over time. The success of individual councils has overall benefits for labour relations in South Africa. Therefore, the formation of bargaining councils needs to be encouraged in sectors where, at present, they do not exist. Moreover, established councils should increasingly apply for accreditation for conciliation, and especially arbitration, where they are not accredited. This research modifies our understanding of councils by providing an indication of their importance in the current industrial relations dispensation, through an appreciation of the role of bargaining councils in dispute settlement. / Prof. P. Alexander

Alors que la microscopie super-résolue a apporté une amélioration considérable en imagerie des assemblages moléculaires dans les milieux biologiques à l'échelle nanométrique, son extension à l'imagerie de l'orientation moléculaire, utilisant l'anisotropie de fluorescence, n'a pas encore été complètement explorée. Apporter une information sur l'orientation moléculaire à l'échelle nanométrique aurait un intérêt considérable pour la compréhension des fonctions biologiques. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons une technique de microscopie super-résolution résolue en polarisation, capable d'imager les comportements d'orientation moléculaire dans des environnements statiques et dynamiques, dans le but de rapporter une information structurale à l'échelle de la molécule unique et à des échelles spatiales nanométriques. En utilisant la microscopie par reconstruction stochastique (dSTORM) en combinaison avec une détection polarisée, des images d'anisotropie de fluorescence sont reconstruites avec une résolution spatiale de quelques dizaines de nanomètres. Nous analysons numériquement le principe de la méthode en combinaison avec des modèles des mécanismes d'orientation moléculaire. Enfin, nous proposons une technique alternative basée sur l'émission de molécules uniques en fluctuations stochastiques: l'imagerie super-résolue polarisée par fluctuations (polar-SOFI), et comparons cette approche avec la précédente. Nous illustrons les deux techniques pour l'imagerie de l'ordre moléculaire dans des fibres de stress d'actine et de tubuline dans des cellules fixées, des fibres d'ADN et des fibrilles d'amyloïde à base d'insuline. / While super-resolution microscopy has brought a significant improvement in nanoscale imaging of molecular assemblies in biological media, its extension to imaging molecular orientation using fluorescence anisotropy has not yet been fully explored. Providing orientational order information at the nanoscale would be of considerable interest for the understanding of biological functions since they are intrinsically related to structural fundamental processes such as in protein clustering in cell membranes, supra-molecular polymerization or aggregation. In this thesis, we propose a super-resolution polarization-resolved microscopy technique able to image molecular orientation behaviors in static and dynamic environments, in order to report structural information at the single molecule level and at nanometric spatial scale. Using direct Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (dSTORM) in combination with polarized detection, fluorescence anisotropy images are reconstructed at a spatial resolution of a few tens of nanometers. We analyze numerically the principle of the method in combination with models for orientational order mechanisms, and provide conditions for which this information can be retrieved with high precision in biological samples based on fibrillar structures. Finally, we propose an alternative technique based on stochastic fluctuations of single molecules: polarized super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging (polar-SOFI), and compare this approach with the previous one. We illustrate both techniques on molecular order imaging in actin stress fibers and tubulin fibers in fixed cells, DNA fibers and insulin amyloid fibrils.

We study log varieties, over a field of characteristic zero, which are generically logarithmically smooth and fs in the Kummer normally log étale topology. As an application, we prove an analog of Abramovich-Temkin-Wlodarczyk’s log resolution of singularities of fs log schemes in the Kummer fs setting.<br>

Thesis advisor: Seth Jacobs / Congress' 1964 passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution represented the pinnacle of the legislature's conscious repudiation of its role as superintendent of America's foreign policy to the executive branch. Conversely, for most diplomatic historians, the passage of the 1973 War Powers Act marked Congress' reawakening to its supervisory role and the collapse of what historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. termed the "Imperial Presidency." In fact, it was the 1970 repeal of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, a resolution that embodied everything Congress had abdicated and all the dangers that abdication represented, that actually served to announce Congress' unwillingness to acquiesce to presidential foreign policy. The repeal of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution had long-term implications for the exercise of America's cold war foreign policy, effects that were most keenly felt by President Gerald Ford when Congress refused to allow U.S. intervention in Angola despite Ford's personal pleas to both legislative branches. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2007. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

The thesis pinpoints the responsibility of external powers in the tragic course of the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as their influence on the policy making its leaders, from 1997 to 2001. It points out that, given the country’s geostrategic position in the heart of Africa and its immense natural resources, foreign governments play the preeminent role in the shaping of its destiny, particularly during the abovementioned five-year period marked by the two Congo Wars. This role had been blunt in the demise of Mobutu’s 32 year-long reckless, kleptocratic regime, as a consequence of the shift, by the United States of America aiming to safeguard its hegemonic interests in Central Africa, of the strategically pivotal pawn from Zaire to Uganda in the aftermath of the end of the Cold War. Thus, craving a great influence in the continent and sponsored by multinational companies from North America, Belgium, Australia and South Africa, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, along with his ex-subordinate Rwandan Deputy President Paul Kagame, patronized in October 1996 the Alliance of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL), a Congolese rebel group led by Laurent Kabila and committed to oust Field Marshal Mobutu who bit the dust on 17 May 1997. The superseding AFDL reign will be mainly featured by the takeover of key positions of the state authority by Rwandans and Ugandans (keeping President Kabila in the thrall of his two eastern mentors), the throttling of the democratic process, the conditioning by major powers of any funding of Kinshasa’s triennial development programme to the Kabila regime’s observance of democracy, human rights and a UN investigation of the mass killing of Hutu Rwandese refugees on the DRC’s soil. That international community’s stance infuriated the Congolese leader who reconsidered all mining contracts signed with multinationals, developing anti-West discourse, promoted South-South cooperation, and expressed Rwandans and Ugandans from the Congo. The Western-backed Rwanda and Uganda bounced back by undertaking a military toppling of Laurent Kabila; but they reaped a fiasco because of three factors: intervention of Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Chad and Sudan siding with Kinshasa; dissention within the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD); and tension between Kigali and Kampala that initiated the creation of a new rebel group: the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC). The stalemate brought about by this situation and the involvement of the UN, the OAU, the SADC, the US, France and Belgium compelled the warring parties to conclude the Lusaka Agreement, setting up a roadmap for the war end, the inter-Congolese dialogue, a new transitional government, and an electoral process toward the democratic rebirth in the DRC. However, the Lusaka Agreement will be implemented thanks to the rise of Major General Joseph Kabila, after the assassination of his phantasmagoric father Laurent Kabila, paving the way to the Third Republic.

Thesis (M.M. (Public and Development Management))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, 2014. / Asymmetric information, agency problems and the moral hazard, in their various manifestations, can be attributed to the collapse of financial systems over the last century. In order to guard against the negative externalities of these dilemmas, regulators in the banking sector have developed capital adequacy requirements, which measure the solvency of Banks. After the global financial crisis, regulators have realised the importance of having appropriate bank resolution regimes, in order to dismantle failing or failed banks before they become a risk to the financial system and economy. This report s analyses how the South African Reserve Bank resolves systematically significant banks.

This thesis explores the perceptions of Palestinian university students on topics of peace with Israel and armed or violent conflict engagement strategies. By relying on Frame Analysis literature, this research describes how respondents currently frame these issues and what has influenced the formation of these frames. Using data gathered over a period of three months through a survey and focus group interviews, I identify four dominant frames of peace expressed by respondents. Data were collected from 260 survey respondents and 160 interviewees. I use the data to show different levels of desire for peace with Israel and support for armed conflict engagement based on the way that individuals defined peace. Respondents were pessimistic about peace with Israel and supportive of violent engagement with Israel. Participants who defined peace negatively expressed these sentiments more frequently. Interviewees expressed several grievances against Israeli policies that influence their opinions on peace and violence.

International conflicts are becoming more complex. Many involve multiple intra-state parties with multiple and at times opposing interests. With increasing globalization and the resulting growth in connectivity, the United States and other Western nations will likely find themselves increasingly involved in these conflicts. Recent history has shown that the ‘military option’ is not as effective as previously thought in dealing with inter-state conflicts. Thus, studies that explore other options in the management and resolution of these conflicts are critical. This thesis will explore and analyze the option of a systems theory based model as a model for conflict resolution by specifically analyzing the use of such a model in the present conflict in Yemen.

This dissertation argues on the necessity for an efficient and credible recovery and resolution framework for central clearing counterparties (CCPs).Following the 2008 subprime crisis and the failure of Lehman Brothers, several reforms have been undertaken in order to reinforce the strength of the financial system and, in particular, the over the counter (OTC) derivatives market. Two streams of reforms are of particular relevance in the present context: a) The development of resolution regimes for financial institutions, in particular for systemic “too big to fail” banks. The key objectives of these resolution regimes are to ensure the continuity of the critical functions performed by systemic institutions, the preservation of financial stability and the protection of taxpayers (i.e. avoiding public bailouts). This stream completed regulatory initiatives to reinforce the existing prudential framework acknowledging the natural limits of the latter and the observed forbearance by supervisory authorities in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The academic literature analysing the development and implementation of resolution regimes for banks essentially looked at issues such as the respect of the shareholders’ fundamental rights, the existence of appropriate safeguards for creditors and the execution of bail-in operations. b) The obligation to clear centrally OTC derivatives markets in order to prevent and control the possible contagion of risks across the financial system. The objectives of this stream of reform are to increase the transparency of the OTC derivatives markets and reduce the counterparty credit risk in the system by forcing transactions through professional risk managers, i.e. central clearing counterparties (CCPs). This however assumes that CCPs have the capability and the capacity to manage this centralisation of risks. Therefore, the literature showed interest in the risk management practices of CCPs, in particular margining methodologies, and agency problems created by the ownership structure and the loss allocation mechanisms of CCPs, in particular analysing the effects of a CCP’s skin-in-the-game (i.e. own contributions to the loss allocation mechanisms) on the incentives of shareholders and clearing members. Although recent history has been rather merciful in terms of CCPs' failures, the inherent cross-border and international nature of their activities, their level of interconnectedness with other financial institutions and their growing importance following the G20 commitments on OTC derivatives make them critical nodes of the financial system. It is therefore important to consider carefully the recovery and resolution of CCPs that actually stands at the crossroad of the two streams of regulatory reforms mentioned above and completes them. Similarly, this dissertation intends to build the bridge between the literature on CCPs and the literature on banks’ recovery and resolution. It aims at providing a better understanding of the resolution framework developed for CCPs, associated policy choices and possible issues with a specific insight on the situation in Europe. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

RESUMO O objetivo do presente estudo é verificar questões relacionadas à solução de conflitos no setor de telecomunicações no período pós-privatização, analisando de forma detalhada um conflito ocorrido entre a Embratel e a Telefônica, com base nos conceitos de negociação, concorrência e solução de conflitos. Inicialmente são apresentados conceitos sobre a forma de organização do Estado e a tendência mundial de flexibilização de monopólios, culminando com a privatização de setores essenciais da economia, como o de telecomunicações; a criação de uma agência nacional para regular o setor e garantir o modelo de competição e universalização; concorrência e competitividade; e as formas de solução de conflitos, com destaque para o setor de telecomunicações no Brasil. Para o estudo de caso, são coletadas informações em fontes secundárias e são realizadas entrevistas na Telefônica e na ANATEL e contato com pessoa indicada pelo CADE. Com os dados coletados é possível analisar o conflito ocorrido após o cumprimento antecipado de metas da Telefônica, o que possibilitou a essa empresa atuar na Região de concessão da Embratel, e a posição dos agentes envolvidos sobre o contexto atual do setor privatizado. / ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to verify some issues related to conflict resolution in the telecommunications sector on the period after the privatization, analyzing in a minucious way a conflict occurred between Embratel and Telefonica, based on the concepts of negotiation, competitivity and conflict resolution. First of all some concepts about the organization of the State and the world tendency of monopoly flexibilization, including the economy essential sectors privatization; the creation of a national agency to rule the sector and assure the eficiency of a competion and universalization model; competitivity; and the conflict resolution forms, specially for the telecommunications sector, are presented. For the study case, informations are taken from secondary sources and interviews at Telefonica and ANATEL, as well as a contact with a lawyer indicated by CADE, are made. With the joint of all the information, it is possible to analyze the conflict ocurred after the early achievement of the goals set when the privatization took place, by Telefonica, what made this company able to offer different services in the area first set for Embratel, and also analyze the position of the agents related to the conflict and their opinion about the actual context of the telecommunications sector.