International and Area Studies Commons^™

Poverty Mapping Using Convolutional Neural Networks Trained On High And Medium Resolution Satellite Images, With An Application In Mexico, Boris Babenko, Jonathan Hersh, David Newhouse, Anusha Ramakrishnan, Tom Swartz

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

Mapping the spatial distribution of poverty in developing countries remains an important and costly challenge. These “poverty maps” are key inputs for poverty targeting, public goods provision, political accountability, and impact evaluation, that are all the more important given the geographic dispersion of the remaining bottom billion severely poor individuals. In this paper we train Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to estimate poverty directly from high and medium resolution satellite images. We use both Planet and Digital Globe imagery with spatial resolutions of 3-5 m2 and 50 cm2 respectively, covering all 2 million km2 of Mexico. Benchmark poverty estimates come from …

Innovations In Asia: Selected Case Studies, Institute Of Innovation And Entrepreneurship, Singapore Management University

Research Collection Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

This book is a compilation of seven case studies written by faculty and staff of Singapore Management University (SMU) and has been edited in conjunction with the inaugural Asia Pacific Innovation Forum organised by the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) and hosted by SMU in December 2014. These cases have been carefully selected to illustrate the various challenges inherent in creating entrepreneurial and business innovations.

The first five cases are related to start-ups by experienced professionals and students. Jayashree is an excellent case that shows how an individual with very little education was able to design and implement …

Cluster Approach: Gaps And Shortcomings In Un Coordination Of Humanitarian Actors In Post-Earthquake Haiti And Implications For Policy Concerns Of The New Humanitarian School Of Thought, Naomi Vinbury

Sustainability and Social Justice

This research analyzes the role of the UN OCHA Cluster Approach in the context of Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. Gaps and shortcomings of the current humanitarian model are identified and the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach is considered as a model to be used as an instrument to inform the New Humanitarian school of thought. A recent history of Haiti and the political relationship to the international community will be reviewed as context that outlines the vulnerabilities that created a risk society leading up to the disaster. A brief history of the recent trajectory of humanitarian aid will be reviewed and …

Contentions At The Human-Wildlife Interface: An Analysis Of Chicago’S Coyote Management Plan, Ilanah Taves

Sustainability and Social Justice

Urbanization and habitat fragmentation cause animal species to either adjust to human- dominated landscapes or suffer population loss. This paper examines the municipal challenges associated with coyotes, an animal successfully adapting to cities throughout North America. The presence of predators in highly developed areas challenges conceptual and spatial attempts to separate cities from nature. This report’s introductory sections critically examine the alienation of wildlife from the urban form. Theoretical perspectives from the discipline of animal geographies are employed to deconstruct problematic relationships between cities and animals, and reimagine a metropolis that considers the presence of nonhuman others. Engaging Jennifer Wolch’s …

Multinationals In Emerging Markets: A Test Case Of The Banking Industry In India, Havovi Joshi

Dissertations and Theses Collection

Multinational firms play a significant role in the world economy, accounting for over 30% of the world stock market value. In the past decade or two, these firms have demonstrated a renewed wave of interest in the Emerging Asian markets. This is not surprising, given the attractive demographics, growing middle class and leapfrogging technology of these markets. But the optimism of these western firms heading eastward often gets quickly subdued by the realisation that these emerging Asian markets are far more complex—or at the very least, different—than western ones. They are more volatile, there is frequently a lack of institutional …

Emigrants' Stories Of Foreign Aid And Their Reasons For Emigration: Guatemalans On The Move, Monica Spohn

History and Political Science | Student Professional Publications

This single instrumental case study was designed to learn about emigrants’ reasons for emigrating, situated within the challenges and available opportunities in their home country of Guatemala. Eight emigrants (two women and six men) were interviewed to better understand their personal experiences and to examine the role of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) investments, Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and Guatemala’s domestic conditions and development in participants’ decisions to emigrate to the U.S. The study was guided by the following central questions: (1) How do emigrants explain their reasons for leaving? (2) What motivates emigration in …

Smu Establishes Fruitful Collaborations With Six Leading Chinese Partner Universities, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

Leading a senior delegation from 18-23 November 2017, SMU President Prof Arnoud De Meyer visited six partner universities in Shanghai and Beijing. The trip culminated in productive meetings with the leaders of these reputable Chinese universities and the signing of a number of partnership agreements that would strengthen the links of SMU and its schools with their Chinese counterparts. The universities are: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University, China University of Political Science and Law.

Passage, Unité Nationale Et Écriture Du Mythe Dans Falagountou De Yamba Élie Ouédraogo, Alain Joseph Sissao

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The metaphor of national unity through the passages of the eponymous hero Falagountou Yamba Elie Ouédraogo: myth of unity or unity of the myth? Yamba Elie Ouédraogo brushed a gargantuan romantic mural in her latest novel Falagountou. Falagountou appears in many ways like a quest for the Grail of identities to form identity. These passages of the hero mythical half-man, half-Hercules – like the epic of Gilgamesh – crosses different regions of Burkina Faso who report a culmination of the intermediate time, in-between, to apprehend modalities that govern the construction of crises, utopias, individual projections. In this, the novelist is …

Mutations Dans L’Écriture Théâtrale Au Burkina Faso De 1980 À Nos Jours, Hamadou Mandé

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article takes an analytical look at the evolution of drama writing in Burkina Faso from 1980 to the present. Based mainly on a corpus of five dramatic texts of five renowned authors, it shows how in form as in content, the theatrical text has undergone important changes that respond to a socio-cultural rooting need but also a determination to stick to current realities. The study is based on methodological resources of the theatrical text analyses resulting from mixed approaches combining the work of Anne Ubersfeld, Patrice Pavis and Sylvie Chalaye.

Théâtre Burkinabè Contemporain Et Dramaturgie De L’Entre-Deux : Aristide Tarnagda Et Sophie Kam, Christophe Konkobo

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

What do contours of contemporary Burkinabe drama look like? By attempting to answer such a question, we analyzed a number of plays written by both Aristide Tarnagda and Sophie Heidi Kam, two young playwrights from Burkina Faso. The works examined in this article show first and foremost aesthetic approaches and thematic concerns not often seen in previous dramatic writings. The contemporary plays are always set in symbolically defined “empty spaces” where characters seek to define their identity against internal and external pressures.

La Figuration Des Passages Statifs Dans La Poésie De Trois Auteurs Burkinabè, Kandayinga Landry Guy Gabriel Yameogo

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

For the survey of the poems of our corpus, we will be inspired by the literary stylistics. By means of the structurings axiologiques, it will be possible to us to seize the significance of the poems that resides in the passage of the attachment to the detachment, of the melioration to the pejoration (poetry of Somaïla Sawadogo), of the umbilical dependence («mature stomach») to the child’s biologic autonomy (poetry of Bernadette Dao), of servitude to the liberty, of State of exception in State of right (poetry of Babou Paulin Bamouni). In spite of their adherence to different times, a thematic …

Oralité Et Création : Les Modalités D’Insertion Des Genres Urbains Dans La Production Orale Bobo, Alain Sanou

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The new genres of the literature pose to researchers the challenge to constantly adjust their analytical tool to understand not only their function, but also how the social body integrate these new elements. The objective searched in this study is to see how an urban creature, the Jɛkulu, has been gradually integrated in the Bobo creature. This study is the continuation of a research conducted since some years on the new oral genres in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso and how they contribute to the consolidation of an urban identity.

Espaces Topologique Et Phénoménologique Dans Le Mal De Peau Et Le Retour Au Village, Mahamadou Lamine Ouédraogo

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Le mal de peau by Monique Ilboudo and Le retour au village by Kollin Noaga are two Burkinabè novels featuring Sibila and Catherine (for the first) and Tinga (for the second). The study questions the part of spatiality in the semantics of indexed texts: how does space mean in these novels? This problem is attacked from two angles. First, it is a matter of identifying the modes of meaning of the topos. Secondly, it is about seeing how the body, as a phenomenological space, can articulate meaning.

Le Crépuscule De Boni Et Les Soleils De Kourouma : Questions De Réception Et De Préséance Dans La Littérature Francophone Africaine, Edgard Sankara

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article analyzes the paradoxical eclipsis of Burkina Faso’s pionneer writer Nazi Boni by Ivorian writer Ahmadou Kourouma. Through a reception study and a rereading of Crépuscule des temps anciens, it demonstrates that Boni’s neglect and lack of success could be explained on one hand by the political stigma he suffered under President Maurice Yaméogo and on the other hand by stylistic errors in his work. Through a contrastive reception study of both authors (focused largely on Boni), the article establishes a connection among Nazi Boni, Ahmadou Kourouma and René Maran. It therefore concludes that Maran was indeed the true …

Strategic Culture In Sub-Saharan Africa: The Divergent Paths Of Uganda And Tanzania, Kevin Frank

Dissertations

Strategic culture is a concept accepted by scholars and practitioners, but with problematic applicability to states newly independent or emerging from conflict. The elements that comprise strategic culture in the developed world are not always present in emerging states. This research addresses the pertinency of strategic culture in Uganda and Tanzania, and then tests the operationalization of the concept using the case of participation in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). The African Union and the international community expected Uganda and Tanzania to contribute troops to AMISON in 2007. In the event, Uganda did and Tanzania chose another path. …

The Unraveling Of The Nation-State In The Middle East: Examples Of Iraq And Syria, Zachary Kielp

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

After the carnage of World War One and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire a new form of political organization was brought to the Middle East, the Nation-State. Based on European ideas of Sovereignty and equality between countries; the nation-state was thrust upon these areas that had no history or interest in adopting a foreign form of governance and served the primary purpose of safeguarding the imperial interests of Europe. Compounding their error, the regions of these new nation-states contained populations that had long resented and mistrusted each other. While these countries could be held together by repressive dictatorships for …

Littérature Et Pratiques Rituelles : Le Statut Sémiotique Des Signes Mystiques, Yves Dakouo

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This paper is part of our research project on the analysis of social practices as they appear in the framework of literary works, notably in narrative prose. This does not consist in undertaking a thematic approach of these, but rather considering them as the fourth level of immanence and relevance of the plan of semiotic expression. Therefore, the study is part of the rhetoric of downward integration that occurs when a higher level of immanence occurs at a lower level, like here where practices (4th level) occur in fiction text (2nd level). In this respect, is considered as “ritual practice” …

Influence Of Dietary Salt Knowledge, Perceptions, And Beliefs On Consumption Choices After Stroke In Uganda, Martin N. Kaddumukasa, Elly Katabira, Martha Sajatovic, Svetlana Pundik, Mark Kaddumukasa, Larry B. Goldstein

Neurology Faculty Publications

Background

Previous research on Uganda's poststroke population revealed that their level of dietary salt knowledge did not lead to healthier consumption choices.

Purpose

Identify barriers and motivators for healthy dietary behaviors and evaluate the understanding of widely accepted salt regulation mechanisms among poststroke patients in Uganda.

Methods

Convergent parallel mixed methods triangulation design comprised a cross-sectional survey (n = 81) and 8 focus group discussions with 7-10 poststroke participants in each group. We assessed participant characteristics and obtained insights into their salt consumption attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge. Qualitative responses were analyzed using an inductive approach with thematic analytic procedures. Relationships …

Fighting Against Bullfighting: Tackling Spain's Bloody Tradition, Genevieve Hoyt

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Bullfighting has grown to be a serious problem in Spain, bringing severe animal cruelty, economic controversies, and a national identity crisis. This paper synthesizes research from a variety of sources to comprehensively evaluate the problems bullfighting causes in Spain, and it also proposes two policy options to attempt to resolve these issues. While banning bullfighting entirely may seem like an easy fix, it would also provoke a number of issues. This paper will ultimately conclude that bullfighting will likely come to an end on its own. Still, anti-bullfighting groups should continue their protests in order to decrease popularity and encourage …

Perspective: Arabia Infelix: The War Devouring Yemen, Sheila Carapico

Political Science Faculty Publications

For many centuries, European cartographers labeled the southwest corner of the otherwise mostly desert Arabian Peninsula as Arabia Felix, or “Happy Arabia.” It was a place where towering mountains trapped clouds blown in from the Indian Ocean so that twice-annual monsoon rains blessed terraced slopes and lowland wadis with plentiful crops. Sadly, since fighting engulfed the country in late March 2015, Yemen has never been less felix.

Strange Women: The Evaluation And Comparison Of Female Characters In Akira Kurosawa's Films, Alice Jiron Jang

History

The successes of Akira Kurosawa’s films have shaped and influenced Western views on Japan after World War II. While the male characters in Kurosawa’s films have been analyzed extensively, there is a focus on the subservience of this female characters. With the growing number of independent working women in a seemingly patriarchal society, it is important to study what has caused these women to break free from their traditional roles as housewife and mother. While some of Kurosawa's female characters are designed to be powerful and independent, others are submissive and obedient. The events that occur in postwar Japan have …

Small And Safe, Rathna N. Koman

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This paper seeks to address issues relating to the management of child protection in Singapore context. Currently the system provides an institutionalized multi-disciplinary approach to protecting children. The current integrated system of handling child abuse is comprehensive and thorough and seeks to serve the bests interests of the child. However given socio-economic and legal ramifications of child abuse, this paper proposes the following enhancements in the management of child protection. Fist reporting of child abuse should be made mandatory similar to the American Model. Failure to do so, should constitute an offence under the Children and Young Persons Act and …

Managing Judges Mathematically: An Empirical Study Of The Medical Malpractice Litigations In Shanghai, Wei Zhang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The post-Mao China has been increasingly managed mathematically, not the least in its judicial system. In this paper, I looked into some of the mathematical indicators used to judge the performance of judges in this nation, and ascertained their effects on the judicial decisions on medical malpractices in Shanghai. The findings of this paper support the previous study that qualitatively identified the judicial responses to such a quantified evaluation system. Underlying the effect of performance indicators is the Chinese judiciary’s bending toward populist pressure. Essentially, therefore, this paper serves to place in perspective the judicial populism well documented in the …

The Role Of Historians In East Asia’S History Problem, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

At first glance, historians may not look like the best candidates for facilitating a resolution of the history problem. This is because historians have traditionally used the nation as a primary unit of analysis, helping to naturalize it as a primordial entity. They have also created professional associations and delimited their membership along national borders, consistent with the nationalist logic of self-determination; for example, when Japanese historians write about the history of Japan, they often talk among themselves without consulting with foreign historians who study Japan. This nationally bounded content focus and membership reinforces the logic of nationalism that divides …

Harnessing The Potential Of The Indonesian Diaspora, Charlotte Setijadi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this article, I examine recent issues and developments in Indonesian diaspora activism, including the progress of long-standing requests such as changes to the dual citizenship law. I then discuss some of the ways in which the Indonesian government may harness the potential of its diaspora in the future, especially since overseas Indonesians are now wealthier, more mobile, and better connected than ever before. I argue that the case study of the Indonesian state’s growing relationship with its diaspora can enrich our understanding of how Southeast Asian countries are cultivating better and more beneficial relationships with their diaspora communities.

Asian Extremes: Experience And Exchange In The Development Of Meteorological Knowledge C. 1840-1930, Fiona Williamson, Clive Wilkinson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

On 29 July 1939, the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle was off the northern entrance of the Formosa Strait, approximately 25⁰N, 121⁰E. The ship’s meteorological officer was formulating the current synoptic weather situation, which included a typhoon to the south or south-east of Formosa with a second typhoon much further east in about 144⁰E. It might be expected that in 1939, the existence and position of a typhoon could be corroborated easily by contemporary ‘experts’ situated nearby. However ‘The utmost confusion prevailed’ noted the officer ‘among the experts at Zikawei, Manila & Hong Kong today …I think there is no doubt …

Kiasu And Creativity In Singapore: An Empirical Test Of The Situated Dynamics Framework, Chi-Ying Cheng, Ying-Yi Hong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article investigates how Singaporeans' creativity is influenced by Kiasu, an indigenous construct corresponding to fear of losing out. We examine the impact of Kiasu on creativity, both as a personal value and a shared cultural norm in four studies. Study 1 showed that Singaporeans' Kiasu value endorsement predicts lower individual creativity. Study 2 demonstrated that this negative relationship is mediated by a self-regulatory focus on prevention. Study 3 further showed the impact of Kiasu as a personal value and a cultural norm by finding a significant three-way interaction effect of Kiasu prime, personal Kiasu value endorsement, and need for …

A Portrayal Of An Ottoman City And Its Inhabitants: Administration, Society, And Economy In Ottoman Antakya (Antioch), 1750-1840, Ali Capar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the main features of the social and economic life of the district of Antakya between 1750 and 1840 to essentially understand the characteristics of the daily life of society, administration, political developments, and economic activities in this particular city. While elucidating the city administration, demography, neighborhood life, trade, marketplace, guilds, religious minorities, women, children, and the politics of notables in the district of Antakya between 1750 and 1840; my observations revealed the main aspects of social, economic, and politic life of the city of Antakya- one of the most important religious, political, and commercial centers in the …

The Postmodern Novel In Saudi Arabia And America, Mohammed Lafi Alshammari

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the early twenty-first century, Saudi Arabia is a global economic power that stands as an equal among the other members of the most powerful economic organizations, including as the Group of Twenty and The World Trade Organization. As a result of this economic status and of Saudi Arabia never having been colonized, recent Saudi novels (especially those published after 2001) can usefully be read postmodern, rather than as postcolonial—the usual paradigm in readings of contemporary Arab novels. To establish a reference point, a comparative approach that engages Saudi and American postmodern novels is applied in this dissertation through the …

The Rcep: New Asian Regionalism And The Global South, Pasha L. Hsieh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article provides an up-to-date examination of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which is poised to become the world’s largest free trade agreement (FTA). It argues that the 16-country mega-FTA will galvanize the paradigm shift in Asian regionalism and build a normative foundation for the Global South in international economic law. Based on intertwined theoretical and substantive claims, this article opens an inquiry into the assertive legalism of developing nations in the new regional economic order. By analyzing the converging policies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China and India, the article first demonstrates the status of …