Divided They Dally? The Arab World and a Nuclear Iran

Explores how the Arab states -- Gulf States, non-Gulf States, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria -- might react to a nuclear Iran. Considers possible changes to inter-Arab relations and the United States' role in working with Arab states to contain Iran

Sum list coloring, the sum choice number, and sc-greedy graphs

Let G=(V,E) be a graph and let f be a function that assigns list sizes to the vertices of G. It is said that G is f-choosable if for every assignment of lists of colors to the vertices of G for which the list sizes agree with f, there exists a proper coloring of G from the lists. The sum choice number is the minimum of the sum of list sizes for f over all choosable functions f for G. The sum choice number of a graph is always at most the sum |V|+|E|. When the sum choice number of G is equal to this upper bound, G is said to be sc-greedy. In this paper, we determine the sum choice number of all graphs on five vertices, show that trees of cycles are sc-greedy, and present some new general results about sum list coloring.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure

North American liaisons

Not only are there strong cultural connections between Northern Ireland and North America, but much of the geology of Northern Ireland is related to its shared history with the eastern seaboard of Canada and the USA. Even the opening of the Atlantic Ocean and the parting of North America from Europe left the Giant’s Causeway as a legacy. Events like this over geological time have given Northern Ireland a greater geological diversity than any similar-sized area on Earth and have provided opportunities to explore for minerals, to understand how we can manage groundwater sustainably and to enthuse generations about the mysteries of our landscape

The shift to outcomes based frameworks. Key problems from a critical perspective

This paper takes a step back from the discussions and debates about qualifications frameworks per se, to think more broadly about the role of "qualifications" in educational reform. The aims of the paper are to locate the reform of qualifications in its broader social and institutional context, to propose a way of conceptualizing the change from qualification systems as they have emerged historically to qualifications frameworks and outcomes-based qualifications and to explore the tensions involved in the different goals that the introduction of a (National) Qualfications Framework - (N)QF will achieve. We argue that what is at stake in current reforms is the role of educational institutions in the education and training of the next generation, the balance between institution-based education and informal (in some cases work-based) learning, and the ways in which trust in qualifications is established and maintained. Our two-model analysis explores the balance between an emphasis on institutions and outcomes. This paper was written to provoke debate, and help all involved in researching qualifications frameworks to think more clearly about the issues. (DIPF/Orig.)Dieser Beitrag versucht, einen Schritt hinter die Diskussionen und Debatten über Qualifikationsrahmen zu treten und in einem breiteren Zusammenhang über die Rolle von „Qualifikationen“ in der Bildungsreform nachzudenken. Der Beitrag hat folgende Punkte zum Ziel: die Qualifikationsreform in ihrem breiteren sozialen und institutionellen Kontext einzugrenzen, einen Weg zur Konzeptionalisierung des Wandels von historisch gewachsenen Qualifikationssystemen hin zu Qualifikationsrahmen und ergebnisorientierten Qualifikationen vorzuschlagen und die Spannungsfelder auszuloten, die die unterschiedlichen Zielsetzungen bei Einführung eines (Nationalen) Qualifikationsrahmens mit sich bringen würden. Die AutorInnen behaupten, dass in den aktuellen Reformen Folgendes auf dem Spiel steht: die Rolle der Bildungsinstitutionen in der Bildung und Ausbildung der nächsten Generation, die Balance zwischen institutionsbasierter Bildung und informellem (in einigen Fällen arbeitsbasiertem) Lernen sowie die Art und Weise, wie Vertrauen in Qualifikationen aufgebaut und erhalten wird. Ihre Zwei-Modell-Analyse untersucht die Balance zwischen Schwerpunktsetzungen auf Institutionen und Ergebnisse. Der vorliegende Beitrag wurde verfasst, um eine Diskussion in Gang zu setzen, die allen an der Forschung über Qualifikationsrahmen Beteiligten helfen soll, die Problemstellung mit mehr Klarheit zu reflektieren. (DIPF/Orig.

REIT Property-Type Sector Integration

Equity real estate investment trust (REITs) grouped by property-type sectors have become more integrated over the 1989 to 1998 period as evidenced by increasing correlation over time. Specifically, six pairs of equity REITs grouped as having predominantly apartment, industrial, office and retail properties in their portfolios were examined for correlations of rolling sixty-month returns. Property-type-specific equity REIT portfolios showed a similar trend in rolling sixty-month return correlations, but at generally lower levels than randomly-generated property-type-neutral portfolios. When correlations of property-type-specific portfolios differed statistically from property-type-neutral sample portfolios, the average monthly return differences were not found to be statistically significant.