Dissertation com jan 2011 (5 Ergebnisse)

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - The Lisbon Treaty is the latest and most crucial reform to the European Union.As the successor to the much-debated and innovative Constitution, it represents the culmination of the unification process, for it aims to simultaneously enhance efficiency and cover the democratic deficit inherent in the outdated decisionmaking mechanisms of the past, as a consequence of excessive enlargement and deepened integration. Thus, the first question is the extent to which the Lisbon Treaty renders the Union more democratic and according to what criteria that may be evaluated. Another question is related to the fact that the Treaty is the result of a fundamental debate on the very nature of the European Union: Is the latter to become an authentic political union or a mere free-trade area with secondary political attributions And will its internal operating rules correspond more to a parliamentary or a presidential regime The present work proposes to focus on the claim that the European Union as a polity shall become more democratic with the Lisbon Treaty, and seeks to provide answers using representative democracy and parliamentarianism as indicators. To achieve such an ambitious aim, special attention is given to parliamentary bodies, first at the supranational level with the European Parliament as part of the institutional triangle (Commission-Council-Parliament), then at the internal level with the Member States' national Parliaments as part of the framework of existing and new competences (oversight, vertical separation of powers and subsidiarity).The changes brought about by the Lisbon Treaty towards more democracy are not without consequence to its second proclaimed goal, efficiency. It is thus interesting to examine how both are combined and if there is a positive or a negative interaction between the two. Moreover, the very articulation of the sensitive balance between measures for more efficiency and measures for more democracy has a noticeable impact on the European Union as a political system. Will it function like a federal or an intergovernmental system Although much of the above will undeniably be determined through the practice of the institutions and the overall political equilibrium that will be achieved, the present work offers useful methods and elements of analysis that are an indispensable guide to anyone with an interest in European Union law and politics.…

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - This study examines the meaning and the importance of spirituality in the well elderly who reside in their own homes and the significant spiritual experience that they encounter through relationships, religion, and services. Qualitative Research Methodology was incorporated in this study to help explore and interpret the research in order to uncover the importance and significance of spirituality on the daily lives of the well elderly. Twenty participants were invited and ten participated in an unstructured interview and were surveyed and asked to respond to a list of questions pertaining to the role of spirituality in their everyday lives. The results were collected via interview transcription, grouped into the respective themes and categories, and carefully evaluated. The study analyzed the extent to which the Meaning of Life and Connection and Meaning of Spirituality is found to be an important and necessary part of a well elderly person's daily life.The findings in the study identified major significance of spirituality in the participants who considered the most important factor, second most important factor, and third most important factor when it came to relationships, religion, and services. The results also indicated aspects related to the horizontal dimension and vertical dimension. The openness of each participant facilitated the gathering and interpretation of the data for the study. The outcome clearly identifies the importance spirituality plays in the daily life of the well elderly and indicates the significance of spirituality throughout the life span.The results indicated that regardless of a person's family history, educational background, or religious upbringing, spirituality played a certain role in their daily lives and that there is a powerful influential spiritual force that guides them during periods when they may be lonely, or suffering from a feeling of being isolated from the outside world. Each participant was aware of the significance of spirituality and the important role it plays in their life in the present and across the life span. The elderly felt that they had knowledge of various modalities and how spirituality plays a principal role in a spectrum of real-life practices including prayer, helping others, or just staying in tune with the beauty of the world around them.…

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - This book presents a comprehensive process for visualization of interface metaphor for software. It is helpful in designing interactive user interfaces with magical super-affordances and definitive user experiences. As per the ancient Indian Vedic literature, metaphors are always conceived out of Vastu (entities having existence in our world). The visualization process given in the book shows how metaphorization could help in innovating highly experiential user interfaces, as one can create Avastu (non entities) by combining different objects and imaginative properties together. The main highlights of this process are selection and dissection of interface metaphor, pre-facto analysis, qualitative and quantitative evaluation, mapping between user and application domain lexicons, specialized set of usability heuristics and remote usability testing. The steps of this process are integrated with the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). It shows the interdependence of form and function and its seamless fusion during software engineering. User experience designers can apply this process for designing websites, online applications, personal computer software, e-learning, computer games, virtual interactive worlds, public access systems, mobile and tablet applications. …

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - This thesis argues that there is a popular culture of space exploration characteristic of a wider Russia; its roots lie in pagan times and it grew through Orthodox Christianity and Soviet Communism to the twenty-first century, where it is actively promoted by Russia and neighbouring nations.The key influences stem from Nikolai Fedorov, Kontsantin Tsiolkovsky, Friedrich Tsander and Yuri Gagarin.The narrative of the twentieth-century Soviet space programme is considered from this perspective and the cultural importance of Tsiolkovsky to this programme is acknowledged. This is an alternative perspective to the commonly-held Western view of the 'Space Race'.The manipulation of imagery and ritual of space exploration by Russia and other neighbouring nations is examined, and the effect on the 'collective remembering' in modern Russia of key events in Russian space exploration is tested.…

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - This research is an empirical study of the legitimacy of economic inequality with a focus on the case of Chile. Chile is an appealing case study in this regard because it has been one of the countries with the highest indexes of economic inequality over the past several decades. Theoretical perspectives based on the rational interest of the median voter have pointed out a negative association between high levels of inequality and legitimacy. Nevertheless, empirical evidence indicates that an unequal distribution of income is not necessarily challenged by the majority of a society, a phenomenon associated with the concept of legitimacy of economic inequality. Most empirical studies of this topic to date have considered social contexts that are not characterized by (comparatively) high levels of income inequality; thus, the impact of the level of inequality on its legitimacy remains largely unclear. The present study aimed at bridging this research gap, guided by the question: How do high levels of income inequality in a society influence the legitimacy of economic inequality Using data obtained by comparative public opinion projects including the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) and the International Social Justice Project (ISJP), this research considered individual preferences for occupational earnings inequality (the just earnings gap) as the main object of study. The central hypothesis was that individual preferences are strongly influenced by contextual standards such as the current income distribution, leading individuals of countries with high levels of inequality to have stronger average preferences for economic inequality (the so-called existential argument). Empirical evidence of legitimacy was related to two central dimensions based on David Beetham's multidimensional concept of legitimacy: (a) consensus regarding the inequality in the distribution of earnings in Chile and (b) the impact of the country level of income inequality on individual preferences for a larger just earnings gap. The empirical analysis provided partial evidence regarding the consensus about inequality in Chile, whereas in an international comparative framework, countries with higher levels of income inequality showed a stronger preference for a larger just earnings gap.…