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Expert witnessing in asylum cases involves depicting the conditions of the applicant’s home country as a context for judging a well-founded fear for life or safety. Most of the elements involved in the work of the expert country witness are dynamic and change over time, creating new challenges and new resources for describing and interpreting country context. Examining several characteristic Honduran asylum cases separated by 20 years reveals not only an increasingly complex and multifaceted set of relevant conditions in both the sending and the host country, but also a significant broadening of the anthropological “tool kit” available to the expert country witness (as the expert witness becomes aware of its relevance to country conditions at a particular time), and an increasingly reflexive and complex relationship of the expert witness to the country in question and to the court. In the interim, emerging problems of contextual complexity, subjectivity, changing and competing images of reality, and the shifting applicability of legal and sociological definitions and categories arise and can be partially addressed with emerging anthropological or social scientific resources, raising anew the nature of the relationship of the expert witness to the court and the possible mutual influence of social science and legal culture upon each other over time. As the number of refugee seekers increases globally, can expert witnesses trained in social sciences help asylum courts to imagine new ways of bridging the gap between legal regimes of governmentality and the subjectivity of refugees?

In response to issues and challenges facing the operators of nature-based tours, this study examines snowmobile tours in Svalbard, Norway. Specially, it posits to explore experience providers awareness of the fragile nature in which they are operating and how this awareness is implemented in their offerings. Subsequently, the chapter evaluates experience providers’ attitude of what aspects of the offerings they perceive as attractive to the tourists and the staging of the offerings accordingly. This study utilises interviews with six informants representing three different firms, a participant observation, and text analyses of the offer on the website www.Svalbard.net as the study method. The results show that the informants are aware of the fragile nature and strive to promote a sustainable behaviour during tours. In particular, they focus on informing and teaching the tourists about environmental aspects of the tour through storytelling and staging during the tour. By empowering the tourists through education and involvement they aim to make the tourists change their focus from riding the snowmobile to learning about the fragility of the nature and wildlife. Further, the informants state that the tourists may even become spokesmen for sustainable tourism due to the touring experience received. In conclusion, in a highly fragile environment like the Arctic a rise of motorised tours invites discourses on tourism development. It is pivotal to preserve the nature in a sustainable way while offering attractive tour experiences.

To examine how reading in electronic formats differs from traditional reading of print.

Concepts about digital print are discussed alongside research studies in fields related to multisensory technologies and electronic means of communication. A model of online reading is proposed integrating aspects of information foraging theory. Pedagogical applications are needed to integrate e-reading theory within classrooms.

With the varied text structures, directionality concerns, and interactive text features, our attention must turn to the theoretical foundations that underpin digital literacy learning today. Online foraging schemes can explain how information is sought and retrieved when reading new information from digital mediums.

Teachers must address the current, digital literacy needs of their students, thus preparing them for challenges in the 21st century. Varying text structures within digital formats as well as providing as-needed facilitation are the scaffolds that students need today. Using technologies such as digital games, tools, and contexts advances the mission of resource-based teaching and learning.

This study seeks to understand how work–life balance (WLB) changes over time, and if relational factors – relationship and sexual satisfaction – may have protective effects. Grounded in Bronfenbrenner’s (1986) family ecological theory a linear mixed effects analysis was used to analyze over 4,000 individual reports of WLB over three years.

The primary finding showed that on average, individuals rated their WLB just above average and their scores decrease over time. While relationship satisfaction did not have significant associations with WLB alone, the interaction between relationship and sexual satisfaction was found to be a protective factor, increasing WLB scores. This indicates that having higher sexual satisfaction can enhance the protective effect that relationship satisfaction has on WLB.

An intriguing finding was the significant difference in WLB scores for men compared to women. On average, men experience significantly lower WLB scores. This could be related to how WLB was measured, or possibly due to gender roles. Future research should further explore this relationship.

The results of this study provide information that researchers’ can consider as they design studies and interventions targeting WLB. An additional hope is that employers will consider these results when they create workplace policy and other initiatives.

This study is one of the first to explore WLB in association with relationship and sexual satisfaction and the interaction between sexual and relationship satisfaction. This chapter tests the interactions between mesosystems in a unique way that enhances researchers understanding of WLB.

The evolution of MIS technology has affected traditional auditing and created a new set of audit issues. This paper describes the Continuous Process Auditing System (CPAS) developed at AT&T Bell Laboratories for the internal audit organization that is designed to deal with the problems of auditing large paperless real-time systems. The paper discusses why the methodology is important and contrasts it with the traditional audit approach. CPAS is designed to measure and monitor large systems, drawing key metrics and analytics into a workstation environment. The data are displayed in an interactive mode, providing auditors with a work platform to examine extracted data and prepare auditing reports. CPAS monitors key operational analytics, compares these with standards, and calls the auditor’s attention to any problems that may exist. Ultimately, this technology will utilize system probes that will monitor the auditee system and intervene when needed.

The Public Sector is usually assumed to have a risk avoidance culture, with a reactive rather than proactive approach towards the management. However, an improved holistic approach seems to be required, especially when considering the complexity and size of the Public Sector, and the challenges it faces to connect the services, clients and the different levels of governance.

Within this chapter, the authors lay out a maturity level evaluation of Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC) within the Maltese Public Sector. Through documentation analysis of the available literature on the subject, the authors determine the principal themes required to develop an effective GRC practice across the Public Sector. The authors then design statements based on the identified GRC themes and administer it using an online survey tool to Public employees across different Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Entities, in order to obtain their perception. This is in order to determine gaps, weaknesses or limiting factors towards the implementation of an effective GRC.

The results show that, although, there is a substantial percentage of scepticism and few disagreements towards some of the statements, especially those which related to Risk Management (RM) and Internal Auditing (IA), the majority of Public Sector bodies do in fact show high standards of GRC practices integrated and present in their day-to-day operations and internal environment, showing that there is a well-developed Governance, Compliance and Control structure and Internal Audit function across the Sector.

However, the perception of participants is that the RM function is the least developed area. IA needs some improvement especially where trust on advice is involved.

Australia has made impressive efforts over the past two decades in the internationalisation of higher education. Particularly impressive has been the expansion of fee-paying international students. Australia today is the third largest exporter of higher education services internationally, with international students comprising well over 20% of total student enrolments in Australian universities. Expansion of international student enrolments has had major impacts on Australian universities and Australia. On balance, the effects have been strongly positive, producing substantial financial benefits and export income, attracting large number of well-qualified undergraduate and postgraduate students, and leading to a more international orientation for Australia's universities.