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In examining the impact of climate change on binational governance of the Great Lakes between 2012 and 2019, this article evaluates the extent to which Canada and the U.S. have implemented the objectives in the climate change impacts annex—Annex 9—to the 2012 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA), in cooperation with diverse networks of governmental and nongovernmental actors. It also examines whether action taken thus far to implement Annex 9 indicate a marked improvement in adaptive capacity in addressing climate problems in the Great Lakes Basin. The author argues that the effectiveness of climate action in the Great Lakes Basin depends not only on the domestic efforts of the U.S. and Canadian governments, the responsible parties in implementing binational water agreements. It also hinges on whether they have the institutional capacity and the political will required to help fund and coordinate the actions of the several heterogeneous networks. Between 2012 and 2019, significant progress was made in the areas of information-sharing, network-building, and capacity-building for more effective measurement, monitoring, and analysis of climate change impacts in the Great Lakes Basin. However, the Parties have not yet developed a long-term binational framework for action supporting climate change adaptation and resilience. In the meantime, First Nations and municipal and other networks are implementing their own community-level resilience plans, but these actors cannot fully compensate for weak federal leadership and inadequate human and financial resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russia’s 2012 accession to the World Trade Organization was widely expected to spur economic growth and modernization, by helping the country abandon its import-substitution model and fully integrate into the global economy. However, thus far, Russia’s compliance record with its WTO commitments has been mixed, and WTO membership has given Russia limited economic benefits and few political gains. In analyzing why, this article uses neoclassical realism as a framework for assessing Russia’s behavior in WTO trade disputes and negotiations. During Russia’s economic recession, the regime of President Vladimir Putin advanced protectionist policies and maintained statist control over the heights of the economy, while using rhetorical strategies to counter accusations from Western powers that Russia had violated WTO norms. Russia’s struggling economy weakened its status as a global economic power, and it was viewed as unqualified to sit among the core group of negotiators in the WTO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its high prevalence, depression is often unrecognized and untreated in minority immigrants. Culture and environment influence perceptions of depression. The purpose of this study was to understand perceptions of depression (knowledge and coping mechanisms) in Korean American immigrants using focus group discussions. A convenience sample ( n == 28) was recruited from Korean communities in the Puget Sound region of Washington State. Participants lacked an understanding of depression. Difficulties from immigration-related environmental changes were the main sources of stress. Immigration-related environmental changes resulted in changes in coping resources. Culture-friendly education and coping resources might benefit this minority group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2006, as president of the Group of Eight (G8), Russia intended to increase its global status, respond to foreign criticism about its democratic credentials, and advance key policy positions. In determining whether these goals were met, the author examines six important issues that Russia's G8 presidency covered, including its agenda items (global energy security, infectious diseases, and education), nuclear nonproliferation, counter-terrorism, and the crisis in the Middle East. Informed by international socialization theory, the author finds that the G8 presidency gave Russia a high-profile platform on which to assert its national interests and sovereignty. President Vladimir Putin showcased Russia's strengths in various ways, ranging from symbolic images of its renewed grandeur to demonstrations of its independent policy line on energy security and rhetoric about its democratizing the G8 decision-making process. He also benefited from the fact that other G8 leaders did not publicly press him on issues related to Russia's authoritarian backsliding. However, Russia's achievements as G8 president were soon overshadowed by worsening relations with the United States and the European Union; by further restrictions on civil society; and by high-profile assassinations. The behaviour of Russian officials during 2006 indicates that international socialization was not taking place in any meaningful way beyond a display of diplomatic code (e.g., rhetoric on consensus-building). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of the Council of Europe in promoting human rights in twenty-one former Soviet bloc countries. Using three cases, the author argues that constructivist approaches best inform the process of norm diffusion in countries of high compliance (Latvia), while neoliberal and neorealist approaches better explain why norm diffusion is less successful in medium (Croatia) and low-compliance (Russia) countries. She concludes that the Council decided it is more effective to persuade new entrants to conform to European human rights standards as members than to wait years until they have reached a high level of compliance before rewarding them with membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the reasons which made member states allow the Russian Federation to enter the Council of Europe in 1996. Compliance with entrance requirements and human rights norms; Assurances made by Russia as a basis for membership; Discussion on the political dialogue over human rights violations in Chechnya.

Focuses on the formation of the Union of Advocates of Russia in 1989 which represents the point at which the bar began to gain a significant amount of autonomy from the ailing state. Advocates' ability to render legal assistance; Communication between advocates through independent publications; Composition of the Union of Advocates.

Peer interaction has been found to be conducive to learning in many settings. Knowledge co-construction ( KCC) has been proposed as one explanatory mechanism. However, KCC is a theoretical construct that is too abstract to guide the development of instructional software that can support peer interaction. In this study, we present an extensive analysis of a corpus of peer dialogs that we collected in the domain of introductory Computer Science. We show that the notion of task initiative shifts correlates with both KCC and learning. Speakers take task initiative when they contribute new content that advances problem solving and that is not invited by their partner; if initiative shifts between the partners, it indicates they both contribute to problem solving. We found that task initiative shifts occur more frequently within KCC episodes than outside. In addition, task initiative shifts within KCC episodes correlate with learning for low pre-testers, and total task initiative shifts correlate with learning for high pre-testers. As recognizing task initiative shifts does not require as much deep knowledge as recognizing KCC, task initiative shifts as an indicator of productive collaboration are potentially easier to model in instructional software that simulates a peer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often assumed that engaging in a one-on-one dialogue with a tutor is more effective than listening to a lecture or reading a text. Although earlier experiments have not always supported this hypothesis, this may be due in part to allowing the tutors to cover different content than the noninteractive instruction. In 7 experiments, we tested the interaction hypothesis under the constraint that (a) all students covered the same content during instruction, (b) the task domain was qualitative physics, (c) the instruction was in natural language as opposed to mathematical or other formal languages, and (d) the instruction conformed with a widely observed pattern in human tutoring: Graesser, Person, and Magliano's 5-step frame. In the experiments, we compared 2 kinds of human tutoring (spoken and computer mediated) with 2 kinds of natural-language-based computer tutoring (Why2-Atlas and Why2-AutoTutor) and 3 control conditions that involved studying texts. The results depended on whether the students' preparation matched the content of the instruction. When novices (students who had not taken college physics) studied content that was written for intermediates (students who had taken college physics), then tutorial dialogue was reliably more beneficial than less interactive instruction, with large effect sizes. When novices studied material written for novices or intermediates studied material written for intermediates, then tutorial dialogue was not reliably more effective than the text-based control conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]