<p> Mexico is not a country at peace. Despite the government's fight to restore stability, violence has erupted since 2006 in several areas of the territory. According to Vygotsky's social constructivism and to Galtung's integral perspective of peace, some elements of peacelessness are informed by values, perceptions, and conceptions about violence and peace. These topics have not been qualitatively investigated in Mexico. The purpose of this case study was to explore the process involving the social construction of values, perceptions, and conceptions in regard to organized criminal violence and peace possibilities in Mexico. Research questions focused on the role of mass media and oral conversations in the social construction of perceptions about the government, criminal organizations, and peace. This study employed semistructured interviews of 15 residents from a neighborhood in a large Mexican city. A purposeful sample stratified by gender, age, and profession, according to the neighborhood demographics, was used. Data from the interviews were coded for patterns using preexisting theory-based categories along with new emerging categories. Findings showed that among these residents, the process of social construction of perceptions was primarily formed through individual experiences and observations, and nurtured by conversations. Social constructors, such as traditional mass media, were much less important. Residents constructed their perception that the basic causes of criminal violence are rooted in the structures of the political and economic system, which, if correctly addressed, would foster peace. This study contributes to positive social change.by informing regional policymakers about the need to design local policies directed towards mediating structural and systemic transformations that are respectful of experiences and needs of citizens.</p>

<p> The advent of Information Communication &amp; Technology (ICT) has resulted into a revolution in the ways of production, dissemination, preservation and accessibility of information. Traditional librarianship has opened its doors and embraced ICT to enhance and improve the quality and quantity of services provided by libraries. Libraries have expanded their scope to Library &amp; Information Centres. With the changing trends of libraries, the users have also moved to advanced stages of accessing the information.</p><p> Theses and dissertations are one of the major sources of authentic in-depth information on a particular topic on which a researcher conducts extensive research work. In spite of being a main source of scholarly communication, the print theses and dissertations is mostly not accessible to outside world. In this way, the important information remains unused and unknown to users. The Electronic format of the theses and dissertations makes it possible for the information content to be used by information seekers.</p><p> &ldquo;Open Access&rdquo; is a boon for the users who strive for information. Policy Guidelines framed by National and International Organizations like UNESCO, BOAI, Berlin Declaration, ECHO Charter, Bethesda Statement, Salvador Declaration, National Open Access Policy and National Knowledge Commission.s Report on Open Access (India) have promoted the benefits of open access for researchers, organizations, public and funding organizations.</p><p> Institutional repositories provide access to various institutional documents through open access. The type of contents vary from books, journals, conference proceedings, theses, dissertations, newspaper clippings, datasets, manuscripts, software, lectures, learning objects, maps, pre-prints, post-prints, research reports, audio-visual material etc.</p><p> The present research work deals with the Electronic Thesis Repositories which are a major form of grey literature of any organization. There are various benefits of ETDs like they help in increasing the citation count of the author and the institution, minimum time required for dissemination of scholarly information, various file formats can be incorporated in the electronic form which is not possible in the print theses and dissertations and they provide a solution of long term preservation of theses and dissertations. In spite of the benefits of ETDs, authors hesitate in depositing their research work in electronic format mainly due to fear of plagiarism.</p><p> There are various concepts in the whole process of setting up of an ETD Program. The present research work aims to study the various concepts of ETDs by analyzing the E-thesis Repositories in the world and collecting data from the Repository administrators through Web Questionnaire. The fourteen research objectives are divided into nine sections of Background Information of E-thesis Repository; Repository Materials; Hardware &amp; Software;Ways of Providing Access to ETDs; Budget &amp; Human Resource; Metadata &amp; Interoperability Standards; Preservation Policies; Copyright Issues;Language Compatibility, Linkages with various National and International ETD Projects &amp; Currency of Information.</p><p> The Review of Literature was conducted exhaustively using various keywords belonging to the area of research from print and non-print sources of information. The major trend observed in the international literature emphasized on importance of ETDs in academic libraries, world wide open access initiatives, overview of country specific ETD Projects, copyright and preservation issues related to ETDs, selection of software and Policy Guidelines framed by international organizations. </p><p> List of E-thesis Repositories was prepared using Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR) and Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR). Only those E-thesis repositories were considered whose interface was in English and which contained English language theses and dissertations. Out of total population of 258 repositories in English Language, 154 were finalized using Krejcie &amp; Morgan Table for Determining Sample Size. The selected repositories belonged to 43 countries and had more than 1000 ETDs in their repositories. The Repository Administrators of these repositories were mailed the Web Questionnaire Link through e-mail for data collection. The Web Survey Questionnaire was developed using SurveyMonkey Web Questionnaire Tool.</p><p> NDLTDs support and promotion of the present research work helped the researcher to get a good response rate of 62.33% from across the world. The USA and UK ranked highest in the list of respondents. The researcher received overwhelming response from various developing countries also. This proved that Open Access Movement is gaining momentum not only in developed countries like the USA and UK but also in several developing countries.</p><p> The researcher in the concluding part has suggested some topics related to ETDs in which research can be conducted.</p><p> The present trend of growth and development of E-thesis repositories assure that there is a promising future of the concept and open access will spread its wings in more and more countries across the world. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p>

<p> Mexico is home to almost 2.9 million square kilometers of land and water surface area that is affected by water pollution and environmental degradation. While geographically more prevalent to pollution threats as well as one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, it is important to coordinate the management and regulation of coastal zones effectively to safeguard these ecosystem from degradation. However, because of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, nations view the problem of living resources and their management as a national priority instead of an international cooperation initiative. Mexico's fragmented, overlapping, and sometimes corrupt domestic institutions for environmental policy yield ineffective and inadequate pollution control, a result of which is a high level of marine debris presence on the coasts, as evidenced by a recent study in Veracruz, Veracruz. This marine debris, the most abundant of which is composed of plastics, is detrimental to marine life, leading to death, starvation, debilitation, reduced quality of life and lowered reproductive performance. While several avenues are being explored to mitigate marine debris in the environment, such as decreasing knowledge gaps, increasing pollution prevention measures, and education, degradation issues have compounded globally, revealing a clear picture of inadequate international regulation and convention. A stricter Mexican national regulatory system that incorporates private and public waste management organizations to incentivize and facilitate waste cleanup is needed to improve the health of the global ocean.</p>

<p> Because data on alumnae/i is difficult to collect and change over time, obtaining up-to-date information on graduates &mdash; for the purposes of highlighting their professional achievements and facilitating networking &mdash; is a challenge faced by many higher education institutions. Social networks provide a means for alumnae/i to share successes, but viewing this information typically involves an account or a paid subscription. In this project, I address these issues by designing and implementing a free, easy-to-use, and updateable Mills Computer Science alumnae/i website backed by a database. The website has the potential to showcase the most recent or impressive alumnae/i achievements and prominently feature all graduates' accomplishments via their profiles. Additionally the database can store manually provided alumnae/i information and extract further data from LinkedIn. Evaluations of the project indicate that users and administrators find the website easy to search, navigate, and update and the information provided helpful. Because of its versatile design, this project could serve similar needs for other disciplines and institutions. </p>

<p> This dissertation addresses the problem of racial stratification of the Latino community in the United States from the theoretical position of critical race theory. Racial stratification for Latino residents and Latino immigrants is possible in the everyday through a series of practices that allow for persons of the community to contribute to the proliferation of race in American society by rendering race very difficult to address politically. The theoretical analysis of friendship as a form of moral aesthetics in the works of Aristotle, Kant, and Rousseau allows for a theory of race that addresses the invisibility and the transcendence of race constitutive of American society and, therefore, constitutive of the racial stratification of the Latino community in the United States. In this theoretical development, race is thought as an aesthetic of both the citizen and the immigrant subjects or, in other words, as a race-aesthetics. McKnight's (2010) theory of the conditionality of race, Hall's (New Ethnicities 1996, Race, Articulation, and Societies Structured in Dominance 1996) theories of cultural representation and hegemonic domination, Gilroy's (1995) theory of Black Atlantic counterculture, and Mills' (1997) theory of the hegemony of the racial contract are critically engaged and expanded with the theory of the race-aesthetic.</p>

<p> The diplomatic impasse between the United States and Iran is officially broken after thirty-four years of mutual recriminations and mistrust. The need for a reinvigorated U.S. public diplomacy is essential to forge a new relationship based on respect, understanding, and shared political, social, and economic interests. "Gangnam Style" public diplomacy is a simultaneous multiplatform approach to information sharing and engagement that utilizes various programs to stimulate people-to-people connections based on culture, education, and business. By applying this strategy, the current rapprochement between the United States and Iran can be expanded to the benefit of both countries.</p>

<p> Military interventions continue to be pervasive in Africa. Thirty out of forty-eight sub-Saharan states have experienced at least one successful coup. Nor have these numbers abated. In the 21st century alone, thirteen coups have been successfully staged in Africa, thus far. At the same time, several African countries &ndash; such as Ghana, Uganda, Burkina Faso and Benin &ndash; have managed to escape from seemingly insurmountable coup-traps. Yet, we understand little about what drives countries into a coup-trap and even less about how countries can extricate themselves from one. What explains this divergence? To address these contradictory trends, I focus initially on Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire, neighboring states, with comparable populations, topographies, and economies that have experienced contrasting trajectories. While Ghana suffered five consecutive coups from the 1966 to 1981, Cote d'Ivoire was an oasis of stability and prosperity. However, by the end of the 20th century, Ghana had emerged as one of the few stable two-party democracies on the continent, as Cote d'Ivoire slid into civil war. Why was Cote d'Ivoire so much more stable and prosperous than Ghana in the `60s and `70s? And what explains their dramatic reversal of fortunes? </p><p> I answer these puzzles by examining the <u>political strategies </u> of regimes in both countries, with a particular focus on <u> rural alliances</u>. I find that the leaders who followed a <i> rural political strategy</i> were better able to preserve stability, while those who followed an <i>urban political strategy</i> were more likely to suffer coups. In contrast to the prevalent urban-bias thesis, I contend that traditional elites and producers in rural areas &ndash; not the organized urban sectors &ndash; are most critical to political stability. To show the wider applicability of my thesis, I extend my argument beyond these two countries. In a systematic review of fifty-eight regimes over eighteen sub-Saharan countries, I demonstrate that the rural/urban dichotomy is pervasive and predictive of the success/failure of regimes. Using formal modeling, I show a strong and robust correlation between supporting rural areas and the likelihood of being ousted in a coup as well as longevity in power. </p>

<p> Interaction design is the definition of digital behavior, from desktop software and mobile applications to components of appliances, automobiles, and even biomedical devices. Where architects plan buildings, graphic designers make visual compositions, and industrial designers give form to three-dimensional objects, interaction designers define the digital components of products and services. These include websites, mobile applications, desktop software, automobiles, consumer electronics, and more. Interaction design is a relatively new but fast-growing discipline, emerging with the explosive growth of the World Wide Web. In a software-saturated world, every day, multiple times a day, billions of people encounter the work products of interaction design. </p><p> Given the reach of their profession, how interaction designers work is of paramount concern. In considering interaction design, this dissertation turns away from a longstanding question of design studies: <i>How does interaction design demonstrate a special form of human thought?</i> And towards a set of questions drawn from practice-oriented studies of science and technology: <i>What kinds of objects and subjects do interaction design practices make, and how do those practices produce them? </i> </p><p> Based on participant observation at three San Francisco interaction design consultancies and interviews with designers in California's Bay Area, this dissertation argues that performance practices organize interaction design work. By &ldquo;performance practices,&rdquo; I mean episodes of storytelling and narrative that take place before an audience of witnesses. These performances instantiate &mdash; make visible and tangibly felt &mdash; the human and machine behaviors that the static deliverables seem unable on their own to materialize. In doing so, performances of the project help produce and sustain alignment within teams and among designers, clients, and developers. </p><p> In this way, a focus on episodes of performance turns our concerns from cognition, in which artifacts assist design thinking, to one of enactment, in which documents, spaces, tools, and bodies actively participating in producing the identities, responsibilities, and capacities of project constituents. It turns our attention to questions of political representation, materiality and politics. From this perspective, it is not necessarily how designers <i> think</i> but how they stage and orchestrate performances of the project that makes accountable, authoritative decision-making on behalf of clients and prospective users possible.</p>

<p> Digital Citizenship is a concept typically used in discussions of how technology impacts our relationships with others and our physical world communities. It is also used to describe ways that we can leverage our technology use and skill to make our communities and nations better and stronger. Educators are now teaching "good digital citizenship" as part of a larger civics curriculum. </p><p> But, there is a second, emerging concept that I refer to as platform specific digital citizenship. I define this platform specific citizenship as the deep and abiding commitment and sense of responsibility that people develop in relation to a particular technology, such as software or technology brand. It may also refer to the ideas that people express in regard to how technology should ideally be used and what rights and responsibilities it requires of its adherents. </p><p> Massively Multiplayer Online Worlds (MMOWs) are one place researchers are finding this deep, platform specific digital citizenship emerging. These are persistent digital universes where people from all over the world develop online personas, leadership structures, discussion forums, and business and non-profit entities. The ability and extent to which this online organization is possible is largely due to the underlying structure, rules and allowances of the world of which people choose to be a part. </p><p> One online world, Second Life, has a large, active and vocal disabled population. They have committed to this environment because of the unique opportunities and freedoms that it provides. As a user content created environment, residents, as Second Life participants are referred to, are given an unprecedented amount of freedom to create the kind of experience they want. This may involve developing relationships and projects with other disabled residents. It can also involve exploring other aspects of themselves and their interests that are often neglected in their real lives due to social exclusion, and/or lack of financial and physical access. </p><p> Most of the research and popular media examinations of disability in Second Life centers on participation in disability specific communities or the benefits of identity exploration through avatar design. But, the reasons disabled people stay here is much broader and varied than what this limited discussion suggests. Commitment to Second Life is strong precisely because disability community commitment and disability expression are not the only options but exist among a wide range of choices. Moreover, the expression of disability and use of such mediated environments is constantly debated in both word and deed. </p><p> This dissertation explores the concept of digital citizenship and why people that identify as disabled in real life are attracted to committed participation in virtual worlds, in particular, Second Life. What opportunities and rights are disabled people afforded here through the technology structure? What are the avenues of entry into the Second Life community, and what does the variety of these entry points and special interest sub-communities tell us about what is important to them? How is commitment debated and deepened through the use of public spaces and forums? And, what can researchers, public health and information professionals learn from these features that can improve their own outreach?</p>

<p> From 1990-2010 ecoterrorist attacks by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and Earth Liberation Front (ELF) created an anomaly in the U.S. with millions of dollars in property destruction. Interestingly, in a post 9/11 era, the FBI warns that the number one threat to U.S. national security is not religious terrorism, but rather environmental-group terrorism. When examining this topic further, there is a void in analysis between examining ecoterrorist attacks and U.S. public policy. Is there a statistical significant relationship between terrorist attacks by ALF/ELF and U.S. public policy towards terrorism? Is per capita income an influence on the attacks occurring in specific states? </p><p> This study seeks to analyze such relationships through an exploratory analysis and case study approach. I conducted a trend analysis on attacks by ELF/ALF from 1990-2010 and the subsequent adoption of U.S. public policy towards terrorism. I analyzed per-capita income by region and its relationships to attacks occurring. I performed chi</p><p>2 hypothesis testing in order to determinethe statistical significant relationships between ELF/ALF attacks/U.S. public policy and per capita income by State. </p><p> The findings of this study suggest that the definition of terrorism is ambiguous and can lead to alternative interpretations, which can affect U.S. public policy towards terrorism. Attacks by ALF/ELF are not deterred by U.S. public policy. Also, a majority of attacks by ALF/ELF are most likely to occur in states that rank in the top 20th percentile regarding per capita income and occur mainly on the west coast. The statistical significance of the relationships between ELF/ALF attacks and U.S. public policy demonstrate that these two entities are mutually exclusive. Per capita income levels by states and ELF/ALF attacks are also mutually exclusive. This study creates an improved understanding of what constitutes terrorism and an understanding of the radical elements in the environmental movement and its place in a post 9/11 America. The significance of this study is to provide a model for analysis of terrorist attacks and government responses and provide a framework of inquiry for the fields of terrorism,public policy and conflict studies.</p>