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In Germany, political foundations (Stiftungen) play an important role in shaping civil society through political democracy education. The foundations, however, have also committed themselves to strengthening democratic political and societal structures abroad. Their joint mission abroad is the contribution to democratic structures, information and debate in the countries and regions they are working in. They complement the official German foreign policy, but choose their own priorities and strategies. The focus of this thesis is the German political foundations as actors in democracy assist...

International commercial contracts in the context of increasing globalization of the national markets have posed some of the most difficult questions of the legal theory as developed since the emergence of nation states; those are, whether it is possible or desirable to allow international commercial contracts to be governed by the law merchant or, in its medieval name, lex mercatoria, a body of rules which has not been derived from the will of sovereign states, but mainly from transnational trade usages and practices, and to what extent those rules should govern transnational transactions. Th...

Staphylococcus epidermidis is the leading cause of hospital-acquired infections associated with implanted medical devices. Likewise, Proteus mirabilis is one of the leading causes of nosocomial Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) and is associated with urinary catheter blockage. Both organisms produce biofilms, which make them less susceptible to antibiotics. Therefore, these infections are often notoriously difficult to treat and in many cases lead to complications. Preventing biofilm formation or killing a pre-existing biofilm would be useful solutions since biofilm formation is a phenomenon com...

This dissertation compares the learning environment of elite military academies in the U.S. and Malaysia, namely the United States Military Academy, New York (West Point) and the Military Academy of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur (MAM). The dissertation began as an investigation of the place of e-learning and simulation technologies in educating future military officers. It was assumed that as modern technologies for war and defence have changed, so too must the military academies accommodate to that – especially in producing the right kind of officers who will lead the defence of the nation. Research...

This study examines the socioeconomic and environmental implications of the new camu camu industry in Peru. Camu camu (Myrciaria dubia) is a small tree native to wetlands of the Amazon basin. It is especially abundant in Peruvian Amazonia. The high vitamin-C content of the fruit has generated interest in exporting camu camu products from Amazonia to more-developed countries. The government of Peru has been actively promoting this new extractive industry, as well as the planting of camu camu in rural areas. Non-governmental development organizations and private industry are now actively involve...

The introduction of fair value accounting for stock options has required private companies to apply stock option valuation methodologies that were designed to be applied to their public counterparts. The two recommended methodologies, the Black-Scholes formula and the Binomial Lattice model, require the valuator to provide an input for estimated volatility; for private companies that do not have a trading history there is limited guidance regarding the determination of volatility, which results in diverging and incorrect estimates. Based on a sample representing 178 companies who filed and com...

This dissertation analyses developments of international arbitration on investment disputes. Recent years, there has been an extraordinary increase in the number of investment arbitration for breach of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs). These treaties include substantive and procedural rules to provide investment security and investment neutrality to foreign investor. In particular, most BITs have investor-state dispute settlement provision which allows investors to sue host states directly. Through analyzing the Turkish BIT experience, this study concludes that there are different appro...

This study investigates the problems translators encounter when rendering features of Dickens's style in A Tale of Two Cities into Arabic. Examples of these features are singled out and analyzed. Then, they are compared with their counterparts in published translations of the novel in Arabic. The comparisons depend on back translation to give non-readers of Arabic a clear idea about the similarities and differences between the source text and target one(s). The features under focus are sound effects, figurative language, humor, repetition, and the French element. The discussion dedicated to o...

The Dutch-born English Baroque portrait painter Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680) is chiefly known for his drowsy, sensual beauties and bewigged courtiers associated with the Restoration court of Charles II. He is often seen as merely successor or "imitator" of Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641), with a common resemblance in all his sitters and an inability to capture a true likeness, as well as an absence of any personal characterization or psychological interest. Alternately, this dissertation aims to reveal Lely's genius of superb draughtsmanship, fine color and lively composition, as well as to e...

Limited research exists about the determinants of sales organization effectiveness in pharmaceutical sales organizations. To fill this void, sales management control, sales territory design, and sales force performance are conceptualized as antecedents to sales organization effectiveness in pharmaceutical sales organizations. The results of the structural equation model tested suggested that pharmaceutical sales representatives perform better and are more effective when they are satisfied with sales territory design because of its significant relationship with sales force behavioral performanc...