Description of aircraft.

The interior seats 35 people, including the cockpit crew, aircraft maintenance crew, foreign country representatives and crew members from the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). Cameras installed include one vertical and two oblique KS-87E framing cameras used for low-altitude photography approximately 3,000 feet (900 m) above the ground, and one KA-91C panoramic camera, which scans from side to side to provide a wide sweep for each picture used for high-altitude photography at approximately.  The data annotation and recording system (DARMS) processes navigational, altitude, time and camera signals to annotate each picture with correct position, altitude, time, roll angle and other information. In addition, this system records every picture taken according to camera, frame and navigational position. A keyboard with trackball is the input device for operation of this system. Two Barco VGA color monitors display camera annotation and other camera data on screen for the sensor operator and observer use.  Camera control, located in the sensor operator's console, operates and adjusts individual cameras for cloud cover, frame overlap and other functions. The sensor operator console seats four and has all the equipment listed above plus camera bay heating control, chronometers, emergency oxygen, interphone and individual lighting. The flight following console also seats four and includes most of the equipment listed above except for DARMS and camera controls.  Seven commercial Norcold Tek II coolers with individual refrigeration units maintain temperature and humidity control to maintain peak film performance. The units can be removed, if necessary, from the aircraft in order to transport film. The coolers are capable of storing of film.

Flight path.

The aircraft flies on its intended flight path throughout the entire mission with no reliance on ground-based navigation devices. A top-of-the-line commercial system, Litton 92 INS/GPS, which is an integrated inertial navigation system (INS) with a global positioning system (GPS), provides continuous updates. The GPS updates the INS several times per second to correct any deviations in the flight path. The INS also feeds precise latitude, longitude, time, roll angle and barometric altitude to the DARMS and camera systems. A true airspeed computer feeds true airspeed data to the INS.  A combined altitude radar altimeter provides precise height above ground information to the pilot for navigational purposes as well as a signal to DARMS for film annotation. It is accurate from above the ground level. Plus, a metric altimeter is installed on the pilot's instrument panel for altitude reference when flying in countries that use meters for altitude reference.  The aircraft are being upgraded with the Block 30 Pacer Crag Navigational System upgrade, a first step in making them compliant with ICAO mandated Global Air Traffic Management and Global Air Navigation Standards guidelines.

Modifications.

The OC-135B modifications center around four cameras installed in the rear of the aircraft. Since its primary mission is to take pictures, most of the installed equipment and systems provide direct support to the cameras and the camera operator. Other modifications to the aircraft also included installing an auxiliary power unit, crew luggage compartment, sensor operator console, flight following console and upgraded avionics. Though the aircraft feature a large window in the cargo door, this is simply a remnant of their previous weather reconnaissance role.  Other modifications support the aircrew. A gaseous oxygen system replaced the liquid oxygen system to be more compatible with foreign airfields, and fluorescent lighting system was added throughout the cabin to provide adequate lighting for operation and inspections. Four upgraded seats with a conference table, interphone, lighting and oxygen comprise the mission commanders' station for both countries' mission commanders. A four channel interphone system enables segregated communications between various elements on board. The auxiliary power unit enables the aircraft to start engines and provides electrical power and cabin heat independent of ground support equipment. It was manufactured by Allied Signal with the installation and design of the installation by E-Systems and World Auxiliary Power Company.  The aircraft are assigned to Air Combat Command at the 55th Wing, 45th Reconnaissance Squadron, Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska, for operations, training and maintenance. When tasked, ACC's role is to transport a DTRA observation team to an Open Skies point of entry airport, conduct the observation flight, and then return the team to the continental United States.

References.

This article includes public domain text from the following United States Government source:

The OC-135B Open Skies United States Air Force observation aircraft supports the Treaty on Open Skies. The aircraft, a modified WC-135B, flies unarmed observation flights over participating parties of the treaty. Three OC-135B aircraft were modified by the Aeronautical Systems Center's 4950th Test Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. The first operationally-capable OC-135B was assigned to the 24th Reconnaissance Squadron at Offutt AFB in October 1993. It is now fitted with a basic set of navigational and sensor equipment, and was placed in inviolate storage at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Arizona in 1997. Two fully operational OC-135B aircraft were delivered in 1996 with the full complement of treaty-allowed sensors, which includes an infrared line scanner, synthetic aperture radar and video scanning sensors.

Le Boeing OC-135 "Open Skies" est la version d'avion d'observation du C-135 Stratolifter. Il est actuellement en service dans l'USAF dans le cadre du Traité Ciel ouvert. L'avion, une version modifiée du WC-135B, effectue des vols d'observation non armé au-dessus des participants au traité. Trois avions OC-135B furent modifiés par le de l' sur l'Air Force Base Wright-Patterson (Ohio). Le premier OC-135B opérationnel fut alloué au sur l'air force base Offutt en octobre 1993. Il est désormais équipé d'un ensemble d'équipement de base de navigation et d'écoute, et garé dans un hangar sécurisé au 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group de la base Davis-Monthan près de Tucson (Arizona). Deux avions OC-135B totalement opérationnels ont été livrés en 1996 avec la gamme complète de capteurs conventionnels autorisés par le traité, comprenant un scanner infrarouge, radar à synthèse d'ouverture et capteurs vidéo.


History.

The discovery of visual field maps in humans can be traced to neurological cases, arising from war injuries, described and analyzed independently by Tatsuji Inouye (a Japanese ophthalmologist) and Gordon Holmes (a British neurologist). They observed correlations between the position of the entry wound and visual field loss (see Fishman, 1997 for an historical review).

Description.

In many locations within the brain, adjacent neurons have receptive fields that include slightly different, but overlapping portions of the visual field. The position of the center of these receptive fields forms an orderly sampling mosaic that covers a portion of the visual field. Because of this orderly arrangement, which emerges from the spatial specificity of connections between neurons in different parts of the visual system, cells in each structure can be seen as contributing to a map of the visual field (also called a retinotopic map, or a visuotopic map). Retinotopic maps are a particular case of topographic organization. Many brain structures that are responsive to visual input, including much of the visual cortex and visual nuclei of the brain stem (such as the superior colliculus) and thalamus (such as the lateral geniculate nucleus and the pulvinar), are organized into retinotopic maps, also called visual field maps.  Areas of the visual cortex are sometimes defined by their retinotopic boundaries, using a criterion that states that each area should contain a complete map of the visual field. However, in practice the application of this criterion is in many cases difficult. Those visual areas of the brainstem and cortex that perform the first steps of processing the retinal image tend to be organized according to very precise retinotopic maps. The role of retinotopy in other areas, where neurons have large receptive fields, is still being investigated. Retinotopy mapping shapes the folding of the cerebral cortex. In both the V1 and V2 areas of macaques and humans the vertical meridian of their visual field tends to be represented on the cerebral cortex's convex gyri folds whereas the horizontal meridian tends to be represented in their concave sulci folds.

Methods.

Retinotopy mapping in humans is done with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). The subject inside the fMRI machine focuses on a point. Then the retina is stimulated with a circular image or angled lines about focus point. The radial map displays the distance from the center of vision. The angular map shows angular location using rays angled about the center of vision. Combining the radial and angular maps, you can see the separate regions of the visual cortex and the smaller maps in each region.

Retinotopy (from Greek τόπος, place) is the mapping of visual input from the retina to neurons, particularly those neurons within the visual stream. For clarity,'retinotopy' can be replaced with'retinal mapping', and'retinotopic' with'retinally mapped'.

La rétinotopie désigne l'organisation spatiale des réponses neuronales à des stimuli visuels. Dans de nombreuses régions du cerveau, les neurones qui répondent à une stimulation venant d'une portion donnée du champ visuel sont situés juste à côté des neurones dont le champ récepteur couvre des portions adjacentes. Par conséquent, l'ensemble des neurones de ces régions cérébrales forment une représentation topographique du champ visuel à partir de sa projection sur la rétine.


Development.

The Shadow DN5 was designed by Tony Southgate. A development of the previous year's DN3, the DN5 was more aerodynamically refined and had its weight distribution rearranged. It was updated into a 'B' specification for the following season, prior to which Universal Oil Products, the team's major sponsor, withdrew its financial support.

Racing history.

1975.

The DN5 proved to be a fast car, which qualified well several times. In fact, for the first race of the season, the Argentine Grand Prix, Jarier, the team leader qualified the DN5 on pole. However, on race day, the car failed to complete the warmup lap due to a crown wheel and pinion failure in the gearbox. Jarier took pole again for the following Brazilian Grand Prix, but retired on lap 32, having led for most of the race (and achieving fastest lap). Ultimately, the poor reliability of the car (and some driver induced errors) meant that Jarier finished only two races during the season. The best of these was fourth at the Spanish Grand Prix, for which he was awarded half points due to the race being stopped as a result of a bad crash. He also switched to a Matra V12 powered DN7 for two races towards the end of the season.  An updated version of the previous year's DN3 was driven by Tom Pryce for the first two races of the year before he switched to the DN5. Pryce fared better than Jarier with the DN5 and managed several finishes; he finished sixth three times, finished fourth in Germany and third in Austria. He had qualified on pole for the British Grand Prix, but like Jarier in Brazil, retired from the lead in the race itself.

1976.

The DN5 was updated into a 'B' specification for the 1976 Formula One season. However, while the reliability of the DN5B was much improved from its parent, it was not as competitive, at least during the latter part of the year. Jarier qualified his DN5B third on the grid in the Brazilian Grand Prix and ran second for much of the race before crashing. This left Pryce to take third place, the best result for the team during the year. While both drivers regularly finished in the top ten, there was only one other finish in the points for the DN5B, this being Pryce's fourth place in the British Grand Prix. From the Dutch Grand Prix, Pryce switched to Shadow's new car, the Shadow DN8, while Jarier continued with the old car.

1977.

The DN5B continued into the 1977 Formula One season, driven by Shadow's new driver, Renzo Zorzi, in the two first races of the year. While he retired from the Argentine Grand Prix, Zorzi scored an attrition assisted sixth place in the last race for the DN5B, the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Complete Formula One World Championship results.

() (Results in bold indicate pole position; results in "italics" indicate fastest lap.)

The Shadow DN5 was a Formula One car used by the Shadow team during the 1975 Formula One season. Updated to a 'B' specification, it was used through the 1976 Formula One season and for the first two races of the following season. It was qualified on pole position three times, and twice achieved a fastest lap in a race. Its best finish in a race was third (twice), both times driven by Tom Pryce.

La Shadow DN5 est une monoplace de Formule 1 engagée en Championnat du monde de Formule 1 1975 par l'écurie UOP Shadow Racing Team. La Shadow DN5B est engagée en Championnat du monde de Formule 1 1976 et Championnat du monde de Formule 1 1977.


Security measures.

Unprecedented security measures were made by the Turkish government to safeguard the NATO summit from terrorist attacks. They especially feared a repetition of the Istanbul bombings of 2003 that killed more than 60 people. Their fear was proven by the arrest of 16 people in Bursa in early May on suspicion of planning to bomb the summit. Police seized guns, explosives, bomb-making booklets and 4,000 compact discs with training advice from Osama Bin Laden, and believed that the suspects were members of the radical Islamic group Ansar al-Islam, thought to be linked with al-Qaeda. On 24 June two bombs also exploded. One bomb went off in a bus in Istanbul killing 4 people (including the bomber), the other outside a hotel in Ankara where US president George W. Bush would be staying. Additionally, on 25 June, explosives were found in a parked car at Istanbul's main airport.  Security measures included Turkish war ships and Turkish commandos in rubber boats patrolling the Bosporus, AWACS surveillance planes and F-16 warplanes circling above the city to monitor a no-fly zone over the city, and the assignment of 23,000 to 24,000 police officers, supported by police helicopters and armoured vehicles. The Bosphorus Strait was also closed to oil tankers, the underground rail system was suspended and whole city districts were sealed off. Nevertheless, a small bomb or explosive devise blew up on an empty Turkish Airlines plane on 29 June as workers were cleaning it at the main Istanbul airport. Three of the workers were slightly injured.  The extent of disruption caused by the security measures was criticized by several Turkish newspapers. The newspaper "Cumhuriyet" for instance called the situation "a total disgrace" and commented that Istanbul and Ankara looked like "ghost cities for a couple of days, imprisoning the people, emptying the streets and stopping boats from leaving." The newspaper further added that people died because emergency services were unable to reach them.

Demonstrations.

During June, there was a surge in demonstrations against the upcoming NATO summit, resulting in almost daily protests in Turkey. For instance on 16 June, Turkish riot police detained some 40 people during a demonstration and on 21 June, police used water cannon, tear gas and armoured vehicles to disperse activists who barricaded streets and threw petrol bombs. Throughout June, anti-NATO protestors from around the world gathered at Istanbul to demonstrate.  Protests included opposition to US foreign policy (especially opposition against the US-led Afghanistan War and the Iraq War), opposition to NATO's presence in the Balkans, opposition against NATO itself or against a new role for NATO, opposition against the continuing existence of nuclear weapons, and claims the USA abused NATO to support its policies in Iraq, the wider Middle East, and Afghanistan.  A day before the summit, US president George W. Bush traveled to Ankara, the capital of Turkey for advance meetings with Turkish leaders. Then and during the summit demonstrations became larger and tens of thousands of Turks demonstrated in the streets of Istanbul. On 28 June, demonstrators tried to disrupt the NATO meeting by staging several simultaneous mass demonstrations around the city. Riot police sprayed tear gas at anti-NATO demonstrators as protesters and police clashed in running street battles. At least 30 people, including five police officers, were injured when anti-NATO protesters throwing stones and petrol bombs clashed with riot police. Some 20 persons were detained in these protests. The police broke up a smaller crowd, detaining at least six persons, in the Mecidiyeköy area when they tried to march towards the summit about 3 km to the south. In a separate protest, Greenpeace activists, dangling from a bridge over the Bosphorus Strait, unfurled a 30-meter banner showing a dove of peace with a nuclear missile in its beak and the phrase "Nukes out of NATO".

Summit meetings.

June 2004 was arguably one of the most intense months of summitry in the history of transatlantic relations. The NATO summit followed on the D-Day's 60th anniversary celebrations in Normandy (France) on 6 June; on the 30th G8 summit from 8 June until 10 June in Georgia (United States); and on the meetings with EU leaders in Dublin (Ireland) on 24 June.  Besides these meetings, several visits and question sessions were made on 26 and 27 June, and several press conferences by heads of government of state or government were made after or in between the above-mentioned meetings. Once the North Atlantic Council meeting on 28 June was concluded, a statement called the "Istanbul Declaration: Our security in a new era" was issued. In this statement the leaders summarized the main conclusions of the discussions.  Almost forgotten in coverage of the summit was that six new members from the former Warsaw Pact – Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania – plus Slovenia, joined NATO in March 2004 and were formally welcomed into the Alliance.

North Atlantic Council meeting (28 June).

Missions.

Expanded presence in Afghanistan.

Several days before the summit, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer described Afghanistan as "priority number one". During the summit, NATO members officially agreed that the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) would take on command of four additional Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) (one in Mazar-e-Sharif, Meymana, Feyzabad and Baghlan), falling short of the initial target of five. Until then ISAF only provided security in around the capital city Kabul and commanded one PRT in Kunduz. The 26 members agreed to contribute between them an additional 600 troops (23.08 per country) and three helicopters to the Afghan mission. The three helicopters came from Turkey, and had gone back within three months. NATO also vowed to beef up its Afghanistan peace force from 6,500 to 10,000 to help make the 2004 Afghan presidential election secure, but no actual agreement for that many additional troops was made.

End of the SFOR mission.

NATO members agreed to end the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which began its mission in 1996. NATO stressed that it would maintain a presence in the country to assist in certain areas such as defence reform, or the pursuit of persons indicted for war crimes. Heads of State and Government also welcomed a decision by the European Union to establish a follow-on mission, which would take over the 7,500-member mission and which will be supported by NATO under existing NATO-EU agreements.

Middle East.

The summit marked a shift in Alliance priorities towards greater involvement in the Middle East, a strategically important region, whose security and stability was regarded as closely linked to the Euro-Atlantic security. The existing Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) cooperation was broadened, and two new major engagements were launched: the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) and a training mission for Iraqi troops.

Iraq troop training.

The summit was dominated by divisions over the Iraq War as NATO members were only able to agree to limited assistance in the form of training for Iraqi security forces. The NATO support given to Iraq troop training was in response to a request by the Iraqi Interim Government, and in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1546, which requests international and regional organisations to contribute assistance to the multinational force. Even this limited agreement contained areas of contention, with France insisting that it would only help with training "outside" Iraq, while the United States favored that the training would take place "inside" Iraq. As a consequence, the deal was left deliberately vague and differences remained on whether NATO should train Iraqi officers inside Iraq, or limit itself to training outside the country and acting as a clearing house for national efforts. The commitment was also vague as it was not made clear what the size of the training mission would be or exactly when and where it would take place. German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, known for his earlier opposition to the Iraq War, commented: "The engagement of NATO is reduced to training and only training. We have made clear that we don't want to see German soldiers in Iraq." Despite outwardly optimistic statements by the US concerning NATO's commitment towards Iraqi troop training after the summit, France and Germany had refused to share the burden of responsibility for the situation in Iraq and did not support the US and British demand for sending NATO troops. Put differently, participation in the multinational forces in Iraq was left to the discretion of the particular alliance members and the USA relunctantly consented to troop training outside Iraq. Consequently, despite an outward show of NATO unity, the split over Iraq still persisted and tensions in interstate relations within the alliance were not resolved.

Improved Mediterranean Dialogue.

NATO's leaders invited their Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) partners (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia) to elevate the MD to a genuine partnership by establishing a more ambitious and expanded framework for cooperation. This cooperation would be guided by the principle of joint ownership and taking into consideration their particular interests and needs.

Istanbul Cooperation Initiative.

NATO leaders also decided to launch the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) with selected states in the Greater Middle East, thus exceeding a Mediterranean scope. The initiative was an offer to engage in practical security cooperation activities with these states and each interested country would be considered by the North Atlantic Council on a case-by-case basis and on its own merit. The words "country" and "countries" in the ICI document do not exclude participation of the Palestinian Authority, but such partnership would be—like any other partnership—subject to the North Atlantic Council's approval.  This initiative stands alongside NATO's Partnership for Peace Program and the Mediterranean Dialogue. NATO members regard these partnerships as a response to the new challenges of the 21st century and as a complement to the G8 and US-EU decisions to support calls for reform from within the Broader Middle East region. The ICI offers practical cooperation with interested nations in the Greater Middle East in such areas as: counter-WMD; counterterrorism; training and education; participation in NATO exercises; the promotion of military interoperability; disaster preparedness and civil emergency planning; tailored advice on defense reform and civil-military relations; and cooperation on border security to help prevent illicit trafficking of drugs, weapons, and people.

Plans.

Plan to enhance operational capabilities.

NATO leaders endorsed measures to improve NATO's ability to take on operations when and where necessary, committing themselves to be able at all times to deploy and sustain larger proportions of their forces on operations to ensure that NATO has a permanently available pool of assets and forces that can deployed. They also endorsed changes to NATO's defence planning, hoping that the Alliance's long-term defence planning process would become more flexible, thereby helping member countries generate forces that can reach further, faster and still take on the full range of missions.

Plan to enhance anti-terrorism efforts.

NATO leaders hoped to boost the Alliance's anti-terrorism efforts with an agreement to improve intelligence sharing and to develop new, high-tech defences against terrorist attacks. NATO members committed themselves to improve intelligence sharing through a Terrorist Threat Intelligence Unit. This Unit, created after the September 11 attacks, became permanent and. Its function is to analyze general terrorist threats, as well as those that are more specifically aimed at NATO. NATO also pledged itself to stand ready to assist any member country in dealing with potential or real terrorist attacks. The Alliance's AWACS early warning radar aircraft and Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Defence Battalion would be made available to any member that requests such assistance. Heads of State and Government also gave direction to develop a package of high-tech capabilities to protect civilians and forces from terrorist attacks.

NATO-Russia Council meeting (28 June).

Linkage between the CFE ratification and the OSCE obligations.

Discussions with Russia on NATO concessions in return for Russian President Vladimir Putin's attendance had been underway for some months before the summit, and intensified as the summit date drew closer. On 17 May, in the run-up to the NATO summit, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer indicated in a speech that Putin signalled that he might honor the summit with his presence if "the conditions will be right". It is unclear what conditions were under discussion, but it is speculated that Putin's conditions included an enhanced Russian role in NATO decision-making through the NATO-Russia Council (NRC), NATO acceptance of Russia's continued military presence in Moldova and Georgia (the withdrawal of these troops was an obligation Russia had assumed at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) 1999 Istanbul summit); a move of NATO members to ratify that same treaty and to place the three Baltic states, that joined NATO in March 2004, under military restrictions. As Putin did not receive satisfaction in discussions ahead of the NATO summit – at least not to the extent that he hoped, he refused to attend the meeting. When NATO officials indicated that Putin would probably not attend the summit, Russia's Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov reacted on the same day (2 June) by stressing the importance that Moscow attaches to enhancing its role in NRC and that Russia had not declined the invitation to attend the NRC meeting. Due to the replacement of Putin by Lavrov, the meeting was not held at the level of the Heads of State and Government (as normally would be the case), but at the level of foreign ministers.  On 26 June, two days before the summit, US Under Secretary of State R. Nicholas Burns and US Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow wrote a joint newspaper article in which they commented that the relations between NATO and Russia were good and that NATO and Russia took "a little-noticed but enormous step in our maturing partnership", referring to "Exercise Kaliningrad 2004" which brought together some 1,000 personnel from 22 NATO member and partner countries for a terrorism response exercise. In practice, several rifts between Russia and NATO were visible and became increasingly more so during the summit. One rift existed about NATO's non-ratification of the adapted CFE treaty and Russia's non-fulfillment of its OSCE obligations (the withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldova and Georgia). Even before the summit commenced, the rift was visible as US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stopped, en route to Istanbul, in Moldova where he called for the withdrawal of Russian forces from the country. Another reason for tension was the accession of seven Eastern European states to NATO in March 2004 and NATO's increasing cooperation with other Eastern European and Caucasian states. On 27 June, Russia warned NATO to respect its security interests and expressed concern over NATO's stepped up activity in the Caucasus and Central Asia.  During the NRC meeting, NATO leaders and NATO's Secretary General made a clear linkage between their Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty (adapted CFE treaty) ratification and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldova and Georgia, and took no notice of Russia's proposals for the earliest possible entry into force of the treaty and Russia's ratification on the eve of the summit. According to Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov these withdrawal demands were incorrect, because "the political understandings did not set any time limit for physical action". Put differently, Russia denied that it made clear commitments to withdraw its forces from Georgia and Moldova, a policy to which it adhered since 2002, and reaffirmed its policy of seeking bilateral agreement with Georgia on the status and functioning of Russian military bases in that country. In addition, Russia argued that it faced new threats on its southern borders: the possibility of missile launches from Iran and the expansion of Islamist terrorism, which required – in the perspective of Russia – Russian military presence in Georgia and Armenia. Colonel Anatoli Tesiganouk, Head of Russia's Military Forecasting Center, argued that NATO took no notice of Russia's position because NATO's leaders still had the same mental stereotypes that took shape during the Cold War; that a large part of the Western elite still regarded Russia as a kind of USSR, ignoring the fact that Russia has not only new borders, but also new aspirations, new international partners, and new threats. These stereotypes could have wittingly or unwittingly affected the relations in the NATO-Russia Council.

Russia's Iraq and Afghanistan proposals.

On Iraq, Lavrov proposed to hold a general conference with the participation of all Iraqi political forces (including all opposition forces and including the "armed resistance to the occupation") and Iraq's neighboring countries and the international community, including Russia. Regarding Afghanistan, Lavrov expressed the interest of Russia and other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States in suppressing terrorism and called for "establishing ties" and "developing cooperation" between NATO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Both proposals received at most a lukewarm response by NATO leaders.

NATO-Ukraine Commission meeting (29 June).

This meeting was between NATO leaders and president of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma. NATO members expressed appreciation for Ukraine's contributions to NATO-led and other international peace support efforts such as KFOR. Ukraine also offered to support Operation Active Endeavour in the Mediterranean (a naval operation of NATO which is designed to prevent the movement of terrorists or weapons of mass destruction), an offer which NATO would consider. Defence cooperation between NATO and Ukraine was reviewed and the possible launching of a Partnership for Peace Trust Fund to help Ukraine destroy the surplus munitions, small arms and light weapons was discussed.  NATO further welcomed Ukraine's desire to achieve full integration into NATO, but stressed that this would require more than troop contributions and defence reform. This would require showing commitment to the values that underpin the Alliance (democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech and media, and fair elections) as was foreseen in the NATO-Ukraine Action Plan, which was adopted during the 2002 Prague Summit. In particular NATO Secretary General de Hoop Scheffer criticized Kuchma's record on freedom of press and preparations for the Ukrainian presidential election of November 2004.

Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council meeting (29 June).

This meeting was mostly symbolic and did not have any concrete proposals or results. Nevertheless, some policies or earlier decisions were reaffirmed or emphasized. First of all, the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) Heads of State and Government met with President Hamid Karzai of the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan and discussed the progress in that country, and recognized the valuable role played by both Allies and Partners who make up the ISAF, but also emphasized that much remains to be done for Afghanistan to become a peaceful and stable country, fully integrated into the international community. Secondly, the commitment of the Euro-Atlantic community to peace, security and stability in the Balkans was reaffirmed. Further, the presence of the Heads of State of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro at their meeting as observers was welcomed, and these leaders were urged them to meet the outstanding conditions set for Partnership for Peace membership by Allies. Thirdly, the resolve to fight terrorism was reaffirmed and some initiatives aimed at increasing the EAPC's contribution in this fight were taken, thereby endorsing the further implementation of the Partnership Action Plan against Terrorism.  Fourthly, support for a major report on the future development of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership, which outlines the core objectives of Partnership (political dialogue and practical co-operation, the promotion of democratic values across the Euro-Atlantic area, preparing interested Partners for participation in NATO-led operations and support Partners who wish to join the Alliance). Fifthly, the commitment to building a Partnership which would be tailored to the different needs of individual Partners was reaffirmed. In this respect, NATO's intention to place a special focus on relations with the states of the Caucasus and Central Asia was welcomed, including the decision by the Alliance to appoint one liaison officer for each region. They also welcomed the launching of the Individual Partnership Action Plan process by several states of these two regions. Sixthly, NATO's Policy on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, which was developed in consultation with the EAPC partners, was endorsed.  The absence of Armenian president Robert Kocharyan drew some media attention. Kocharyan refused to join the summit to draw the alliance's attention to problems in relations between the Turkey and Armenia, in particular Turkey's refusal to consider the deaths of almost one million Armenians during World War I a genocide.

Announcement of the transfer of Iraqi sovereignty.

While the transfer of Iraqi sovereignty was not decided during the summit, this transfer had some connections to the summit. First of all, the news of the unexpected transfer was made public during the summit. BBC News reports that Iraq's foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari, speaking after a breakfast meeting with Blair in Istanbul on 28 June, "slipped" prematurely that the handover of sovereignty to his country was being brought forward to coincide with the meeting. Later that day, US National Security advisor Condoleezza Rice gave US president Bush during the summit the following note: "Mr. President, Iraq is sovereign. Letter was passed from [Paul] Bremer at 10:26 am Iraq time – Condi". Bush scribbled in the margin of this note: "Let freedom reign!". Bush then turned to British prime minister Tony Blair, seated next to him, whispered that the handover had happened, and the two men shook hands. Later that day, Bush and Blair held a joint press conference, in which they welcomed the transfer. Secondly, the news of the handover pushed the summit from the front pages.

Reviews.

The international media reported that expectations for a successful summit were deliberately set low, because NATO leaders wanted to avoid a flare-up over the Iraq War. Therefore, they agreed to meet the modest goals the Alliance had already set for itself in trying to stabilize Afghanistan, and endorsed a tepid version of the Bush administration's initiative to promote modernization and democracy in the Arab world. The newspaper further commented that the summit had "a sort of "Waiting for Godot" quality about it – European leaders biding time, neither creating a crisis nor mending fences, in the hope that the American election in November will somehow spare them from the choice between having to deal with Bush and letting Iraq, and NATO, slide into further disarray." Other analysis were even more critical: "There have been NATO summits at which neither a special occasion was acknowledged nor decisions of particular relevance made. One example is the NATO summit in Istanbul in 2004, where the concluded measures hardly required a meeting of the heads of state and government, and the media presence was not justified by the agreed-upon resolutions." US and other government officials however emphasized that the summit was significant in terms of the alliance's unprecedented outreach beyond its traditional North Atlantic focus and its aggressive emphasis on force planning to tackle new challenges worldwide.  Whether or not the summit is considered important for its content, the meeting held some symbolic importance. First of all, it was the first NATO summit between the leaders of the North-American and Western European states, and Eastern European states, states that were finally, after decades of Cold War tensions, together in the same alliance. The media attention that these new members received during the summit, opened public debates about whether there was still a consensus about the purpose, the perceived threats and the future borders of NATO among its 26 members. That this was not the case, became clear in the run-up to the 2006 Riga Summit. Secondly, the holding of the summit in Istanbul made it the most eastern summit in NATO's history. It marked the increasingly key role played by Turkey as a major strategic hub due to its location close to the hotbeds of tension and conflict in the South Caucasus and the Middle East. The location of the summit made clear that NATO's security concerns had shifted towards the southeastern part of the European continent. By shifting eastwards, the Alliance's centre of gravity ventured into very different areas from those on which the Cold War military NATO had focused.  NATO's 2004 Istanbul summit was also remarkably silent on the subject of nuclear weapons policy and non-proliferation, as opposed to pre-summit diplomacy and earlier post-Cold War NATO summits and contrary to the demonstrations going on in Istanbul. In June 2004, shortly before the summit, NATO issued two fact sheets on nuclear policy, portraying the developments within NATO in a favourable light in the run up to the 2005 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. In practice, no real changes since the end of the Cold War were implemented, as since the 1994 US Nuclear posture review the number of US nuclear weapons based in Europe remained unchanged, and as Cold War nuclear sharing arrangements dating back to the 1960s remained in force. Additionally, no changes were made to Alliance nuclear policy since the 1999 Strategic Concept.

The 2004 Istanbul summit was held in Istanbul, Turkey from 28 to 29 June 2004. It was the 17th NATO summit in which NATO's Heads of State and Governments met to make formal decisions about security topics. In general, the summit is seen as a continuation of the transformation process that began in the 2002 Prague summit, which hoped to create a shift from a Cold War alliance against Soviet aggression to a 21st-century coalition against new and out-of-area security threats. The summit consisted of four meetings.

Le sommet de l'OTAN Istanbul 2004 est le sommet de l'OTAN, conférence diplomatique réunissant à Istanbul, en Turquie, le 28 et, les chefs d'États et de gouvernement des pays membres de l'Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord.


Biography.

Ferretto was born in Rome to Tommaso and Adele (née Stazi) Ferretto. He studied at the Pontifical Roman Seminary (minor and major branches), the Pontifical Lateran University (where he obtained his doctorates in theology and canon and civil law), and the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archeology in Rome. Ordained to the priesthood on 24 February 1923, Ferretto finished his studies in 1926 and then taught at the Pontifical Lateran University and the Pontifical Urbaniana University until 1958. He served as an official in the Vicariate of Rome from 1929 to 1939, when he was made a referendary of the Apostolic Signatura on 23 April. Before becoming a canon of St. Peter's Basilica on 1 May 1953, he was named substitute (7 June 1943) and later assessor (27 June 1950) of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation.  He was also a noted archaeologist.  On 14 December 1958, Ferretto was appointed Titular Archbishop of Serdica by Pope John XXIII. He received his episcopal consecration in St. Peter's Basilica on the following 27 December from Pope John, with Bishops Girolamo Bortignon, OFM Cap and Gioacchino Muccin serving as co-consecrators. Ferretto was named Secretary of the College of Cardinals on 20 January 1959.  He was created Cardinal-Priest of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme by Pope John in the consistory of 16 January 1961. There had been speculation that he had been one of the cardinals appointed "in pectore" on 28 March 1960, but he would have gotten seniority dating back to that 1960 consistory if the "in pectore" appointment was true.  Ferretto was named Cardinal Bishop of Sabina e Poggio Mirteto on 26 March 1961. Pope John had recently changed the way cardinals were raised to the rank of cardinal bishop. Previously, only the senior cardinal dean and the senior cardinal priest had the right to the title of cardinal bishop when one of the sees assigned to a cardinal bishop became vacant. Pope John made the appointment the prerogative of the pope without reference to seniority within the College of Cardinals. While the older method had ensured that only senior clerics of advanced age held the title of cardinal bishop, Pope John's first appointment under the new rule was Ferretto, who had just turned 62.  He attended the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. He participated in the 1963 papal conclave, where he was also thought to be a possible candidate for election to the papacy. He was appointed Major Penitentiary on 7 April 1967. Pope Paul named him a participant in the first post-Vatican II Synod of Bishops in 1967. On 1 March 1973, he resigned as Major Penitentiary.  Ferretto died on 17 March 1973 in Rome, at age 74. He had been suffering from a heart condition. He is buried in the church of Immacolata e S. Benedetto Giuseppe Labre a via Taranto.

Giuseppe Antonio Ferretto (9 March 1899 – 17 March 1973) was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Major Penitentiary in the Roman Curia from 1967 to 1973, and was elevated to the rank of cardinal in 1961.

Giuseppe Antonio Ferretto (né le à Rome, et mort le à Rome) est un cardinal italien de l'Église catholique du, nommé par le pape Jean XXIII.


Life and times.

Ernestina Laura Herrera was born in Buenos Aires in 1925. She became a Flamenco dancer and met the founding publisher of "Clarín", Roberto Noble, around 1950. The two maintained a sporadic relationship until Noble and his wife, Guadalupe Zapata, were divorced in the early 1960s. She and the publisher were married in 1967; Roberto Noble died of cancer on January 12, 1969.  As his widow, she inherited a controlling stake in "Clarín", Argentina's most widely circulated newspaper since 1965. Despite its large circulation, however, "Clarín" suffered financial difficulties when Mrs. Noble inherited the director's post. She turned to one of the late Roberto Noble's most prominent allies, economist and wholesaler Rogelio Julio Frigerio, who lent "Clarín" US$10 million, in 1971. The paper continued to endorse Frigerio's centrist MID platform, which centered on government support for infrastructure investment and import substitution industrialization. On Frigerio's advice, Mrs. Noble brought in Héctor Magnetto, who took charge of the newspaper's finances.  The periodical's finances were further bolstered early in Mrs. Noble's tenure by a 1977 partnership established with its main competitors, "La Nación" and "La Razón", and the Argentine State in Papel Prensa - the largest domestic newsprint manufacturer. Under her leadership, "Clarín" extended its reach into Argentine media, purchasing two second-ranked outlets, Radio Mitre and Channel 13, in 1990, Multicanal Cable TV in 1992, and other stations and magazines. She extended the partnership with "La Nación" by leading "Clarín" into a joint wire service, "Diarios y Noticias" (DyN), in 1982, and into a holding company in 1997, Cimeco S.A., which obtained majority stakes in numerous regional newspapers (notably "Los Andes" of Mendoza and "La Voz del Interior" of Córdoba). Controlled by Mrs. Noble and the paper's longtime directors, Héctor Magnetto, José Antonio Aranda and Lucio Rafael Pagliaro, Grupo Clarín was established from these holdings in 1999 as the most important media conglomerate in Argentina.  These successes were accompanied by numerous controversies surrounding her personally, however. She has maintained a long-standing probate dispute with Roberto Noble's only offspring, Guadalupe Noble, who was born in 1958 during his marriage to Guadalupe Zapata. Mrs. Noble arrived at a partial settlement of the dispute with Guadalupe Noble, though the matter of the controlling stake in Grupo Clarín remains pending.  Mrs. Noble was detained in December 2002 by order of Judge Roberto Marquevich following a lawsuit filed by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo alleging that the two infants she adopted in 1976, Marcela and Felipe, should submit DNA samples on the possibility that their biological parents may have been abducted by the last dictatorship during their Dirty War against dissidents. Her request to deny the samples was ruled in her favor in June 2008, though the case remains in litigation. On October 17, 2009, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner proposed the compulsory submission of DNA samples in cases related to crimes against humanity, in a move lauded by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, but excoriated by opposition figures as a political move against Mrs. Noble amid the controversies between Clarín and Kirchnerism that first arose in 2008.  Similar motives are alleged by the opposition against the presidentially sponsored Media Law, which would restrict the number of media licenses per proprietor and allocate a greater share of these to state and NGOs, thereby limiting the influence of the Clarín Group. The hitherto cordial relations between Mrs. Noble and Kirchnerism was further strained by a federal lawsuit filed by the executive branch alleging that the 1977 purchase of Papel Prensa had been illegally arranged. She was declared innocent in the Papel Prensa case in 2016.  She died on June 14, 2017, aged 92.

Ernestina Laura Herrera de Noble (June 7, 1925 – June 14, 2017) was a prominent Argentine publisher and executive. She was the largest shareholder of the Grupo Clarín media conglomerate and director of the flagship "Clarín" newspaper. She was the first woman to become director of a mainstream newspaper in South America.

Ernestina Herrera de Noble, née le à Buenos Aires (Argentine) et morte le dans la même ville, est une éditrice et femme d'affaires argentine.


Origins.

Scholars agree with the Akha that they originated in China; they disagree, however, about whether the original homeland was the Tibetan borderlands, as the Akha claim, or farther south and east in Yunnan Province, the northernmost residence of present-day Akha. The historically documented existence of relations with the Shan prince of Kengtung indicates that Akha were in eastern Burma as early as the 1860s. They first entered Thailand from Burma at the turn of the 20th-century, many having fled the decades-long civil war in Burma.

Population distribution and indigenous status.

Akha live in villages in the mountains of southwest China, eastern Myanmar, western Laos, northwestern Vietnam, and northern Thailand. In all these countries they are an ethnic minority. The population of the Akha today is roughly 400,000. A decline in village size in Thailand since the 1930s has been noted and attributed to the deteriorating ecological and economic situation in the mountains.  The Akha are often classified by the Chinese government as part of the Hani, an official national minority. The Akha are closely related to the Hani, but consider themselves a distinct group and often resist being subsumed under that identity. In Thailand, they are classified as one of the six hill tribes, a term used for all of the various tribal peoples who migrated from China and Tibet over the past few centuries and who now inhabit the dense forests on the borders between Thailand, Laos, and Burma. Few Akha in Thailand are citizens and most are registered as aliens. There is an oft cited lack of political or state infrastructure to address Akha, or any other indigenous issues in Thailand.  The Akha are not always treated or addressed as equals by the people whose countries they now inhabit. Speakers of Tai languages in Myanmar and Thailand refer to them as "gaw" or "ekaw" (ikaw/ikho), terms which the Akha view as derogatory. In Laos the colloquial term used by Tai speakers to refer to the Akha is "kho" (ko), often prefaced by the word "kha", which means "slave."

Language.

Called "Avkavdawv," meaning "Akha language," by its native speakers, Akha is a tonal language in the Lolo/Yi branch of the Sino-Tibetan family. The vast majority of Akha speakers can understand the "jeu g’oe" ("jer way") dialect spoken in southern China, Thailand, and Myanmar. Some basic and systematic variations in regional dialects of Akha are discussed by Paul Lewis in his "Akha-English-Thai Dictionary". Very few dialects of Akha do not share mutual intelligibility. The Akha have no written language, but there are several competing scripts that have been written by missionaries and other foreigners.

Akha villages and culture.

Due to rapid social and economic changes in the regions the Akha inhabit, particularly the introduction of Western modes of capitalism, attempts to continue many of the traditional aspects of Akha life are increasingly difficult. Despite these challenges, Akha people practice many elements of their traditional culture with much success.  Akha society lacks a strict system of social class and is considered egalitarian. Respect is typically accorded with age and experience. Ties of patrilineal kinship and marriage alliance bind the Akha within and between communities. Village structures may vary widely from the strictly traditional to Westernized, depending on their proximity to modern towns. Like many of the hill tribes, the Akha build their villages at higher elevations in the mountains.  Akha dwellings are traditionally constructed of logs, bamboo, and thatch and are of two types: "low houses", built on the ground, and "high houses", built on stilts. The semi-nomadic Akha, at least those who have not been moved to permanent village sites, typically do not build their houses as permanent residences and will often move their villages. Some say that this gives the dwellings a deceptively fragile and flimsy appearance, although they are quite well-built as proved over generations.  Entrances to all Akha villages are fitted with a wooden gate adorned with elaborate carvings on both sides depicting imagery of men and women. It is known as a "spirit gate". It marks the division between the inside of the village, the domain of man and domesticated animals, and the outside, the realm of spirits and wildlife. The gates function to ward off evil spirits and to entice favorable ones. Carvings can be seen on the roofs of the villager's houses as a second measure to control the flow of spirits.  Houses are segregated by gender, with specific areas for men as well as a common space. This divide is said to mimic the function of the gate. Another important feature found in most Akha villages is a tall four-posted village swing which is used in an annual ancestor offering related to the fertility of rice. The swing is built annually by an elder called a "dzoeuh mah".

Traditional economy.

The traditional form of subsistence for the Akha people has been, and remains, agriculture. The Akha grow a variety of crops including soybeans and vegetables. Rice is the most significant crop and is prominent in much of Akha culture and ritual. Most Akha plant dry-land rice, which depends solely on rainfall for moisture, but in some villages irrigation has been built to water paddy fields. Historically, some Akha villages cultivated opium, but production diminished after the Thai government banned its cultivation.  The Akha have traditionally employed slash and burn agriculture, in which new fields are cleared by burning or cutting down forests and woodlands. In such a system, there is usually no market for land. Rights to land are considered traditional and established over many generations. This type of agriculture has contributed to the Akha's semi-nomadic status as villages move to clear new farmland with each successive burn cycle. The Thai government has forbidden this practice, citing its detrimental effects on the environment. The Akha have adapted to new types of subsistence farming, but the quality of their land has suffered as they are no longer allowed to expand onto new plots. In many cases, chemical fertilizers are the only option for re-fertilizing the land.  In addition to their agricultural work, the Akha raise livestock including pigs, chickens, ducks, goats, cattle, and water buffalo to supplement their diets and to use for their secondary products. Children usually herd the animals. Akha women gather plants from the surrounding forests as well as eggs and insects the Akha will occasionally eat or use for medicinal purposes. The women and the men will often fish in the local lakes and streams. Some villages construct bee gums with the hope that a colony will nest there and their honey subsequently harvested.  The Akha are skilled hunters. Hunting is a male activity and a very popular one. It is a favorite pastime and a means of obtaining food. The barking deer is, perhaps, their favorite prey. Guns obtained from trading in the larger towns have begun to replace the use of crossbows in hunting.

Belief system.

Akha religion—"zahv"—is often described as a mixture of animism and ancestor worship that emphasizes the Akha connection with the land and their place in the natural world and cycles. Although Akha beliefs and rituals involve all of these elements, the Akha often reject the casual categorization of their practices as such saying it simplifies and reduces its meaning. The Akha way emphasizes rituals in everyday life and stresses strong family ties. Akha ethnicity is closely tied to the Akha religion. It might be said that to be considered an Akha ethnically by other Akhas is to practice the Akha religion.  The annual ritual cycle consists of nine or twelve ancestor offerings, rice rituals, and other rites such as the building of the village gates. Many Akha rituals and festivals serve to seek "blessings" ("guivlahav") from ancestors, which are according to the "Encyclopedia of World Cultures", "...fertility and health in people, rice, and domesticated animals." Akha beliefs are passed down through generations by oral recantation. The Akha believe that the being who created earth and life gave Akha the "Akha Zang" (Akha Way), their guidelines for life. Akhas believe that spirits and people were born of the same mother and lived together until a quarrel led to their separation, upon which spirits went into the forest and people remained in the villages. Since then, Akha believe that the spirits have caused illness and other unwelcome disruptions of human life. The Akha year is divided into the peoples' season (dry) and the spirits' season (wet). During the latter, spirits wander into the village, so they must be driven out as part of a yearly ancestor offering. Both people and rice are considered to have souls, the flight of which causes disease.  The most important and revered position in Akha spiritual matters is given to a village leader, whose ritual responsibilities include initiating the annual rebuilding of the village gates and the swing as well as advising and instructing villages on important matters and settling disputes. Akha villages have an expert in ironworks called the "pa jee" who is considered of great significance in the village and who holds the second most important position within the society.  Perhaps the most important festival of the year is commonly known as the Swing Festival. The four-day Akha Swing Festival comes in late-August each year and falls on the 120th day after the village has planted its rice. The Akha call the Swing Festival, "Yehkuja", which translates as "eating bitter rice", a phrase which references the previous year's dwindling rice supply incorporates the hope that monsoons will soon water the new crop. Festival activities include ritual offerings to family ancestral spirits at the ancestral altar in a corner of the women's side of the house. Offerings consist of bits of cooked food, water, and rice whiskey. The swing festival is particularly important for Akha women, who will display the clothing they spent all year making and who will show, through ornamentation, that they are becoming older and of marriageable age. Because the women dress up in their best traditional clothing and ornaments and perform traditional dances and songs for the villagers, the Swing Festival is also known as Women's New Year. The traditional New Year which falls in late-December is known as Men's New Year.  The Akha put a heavy emphasis on genealogy. An important tradition involves the recounting by Akha males of their patrilineal genealogy. During the most important ceremonies the list is recited in its entirety back over 50 generations to the first Akha, Sm Mi O. It is said that all Akha males should be able to do so. The recounting of this lineage plays a role in the incest taboo: If a male and female Akha find a common male ancestor within their last six generations, they are not allowed to marry.  The Akha have several sets of rules governing matters on life, death, marriage, and birth. Akha traditionally marry in their teens or early twenties. Polygamy is permitted. Marriages may be village endogamous or exogamous. Wife-giving and -taking relationships are central to Akha society, with wife-givers superior to wife-takers.  Twins are considered an extremely ominous occurrence, one where spirits are considered to interfere with human matters. The Akha believed that only animals could give birth to more than one offspring and therefore considered twins as beasts. Up until about 20 years or so ago, they would have been killed immediately. According to Laos locals, the practice is still common although the government is trying to discourage it. Akha men whose wives had given birth to twins would not be allowed to participate on the hunt for a specific period.  Certain types of death, like that caused by a tiger, are considered particularly bad; the bodies must be treated and buried in specific ways.  Missionaries have been active among Akha, especially since the mid-20th century. Some Akha Christians live in separate Christian villages supported by missionary funds. Although many Akha people may be considered converts by the missionaries, nearly 100% practice some mixture of Christianity and traditional Akha beliefs.

Dress.

The Akha people are often noted for their very recognizable sartorial practices. Akha women spin cotton into thread with a hand spindle and weave it on a foot-treadle loom. The cloth is hand dyed with indigo. Women wear broad leggings, a short black skirt with a white beaded sporran, a loose fitting black jacket with heavily embroidered cuffs and lapels. Akha women are known for their embroidery skills. While traditional clothes are typically worn for special ceremonies, one is more likely to see Akha villagers in full traditional garb in areas that have heavy volumes of tourists, particularly in Thailand.  The headdresses worn by the women are perhaps the most spectacular and elaborate items of Akha dress. Akha women define their age or marital status with the style of headdress worn. At roughly age 12, the Akha female exchanges her child's cap for that of a girl. A few years later she will begin to don the "jejaw", the beaded sash that hangs down the front of her skirt and keeps it from flying up in the breeze. During mid-adolescence she will start wearing the adult woman's headdress. Headdresses are decorated by their owner and each is unique. Silver coins, monkey fur, and dyed chicken feathers are just a few of the things that might decorate the headdress. The headdresses differ by subgroup. According to an article about the variations in Akha headdress, "High Fashion, Hill Style", the  "Ulo Akha headdress consists of a bamboo cone, covered in beads, silver studs and seeds, edged in coins (silver rupees for the rich, baht for the poor) topped by several dangling chicken feather tassels and maybe a woolen pom-pom. The Pamee Akha wear a trapezoidal colt cap covered in silver studs with coins on the beaded side flaps and long chains of linked silver rings hanging down each side. The Lomi Akha wear a round cap covered in silver studs and framed by silver balls, coins and pendants and the married women attach a trapezoidal inscribed plate at the back."

Akha cuisine.

The main staple of Akha cuisine is highland rice. Besides raising cattle, pigs and chickens, and growing crops such as rice, corn, a variety of vegetables, chilies and herbs, part of their ingredients comes from the forest, either gathered or hunted.

Economy.

Although primarily subsistence farmers, the Akha have long been involved in cash cropping and trade. In the last century, cotton and opium poppies were the principal cash crops. More recent cash crops are chilies, soybeans, cabbages, and tomatoes. One or more families in a village may operate a small shop in their home selling items such as items as cigarettes and kerosene. Itinerant traders, either lowlanders or hill-dwelling Yunnan Chinese, come to buy livestock or cash crops, or to sell blankets and other goods.  Increasingly, the Akha find themselves, whether solicited or not, in the business of tourism, specifically ecotourism. Tourists pay a fee to Akha villages to be allowed to witness and participate in "everyday" Akha life, although much of what they see is often staged. The villagers dress up in their elaborate costumes and charge tourists to take photos with them. In addition to opening the village for visiting tourists, the Akha also sell their handicrafts, including hand woven baskets and even replicas of their traditional costumes.

Rights, issues, and activism.

Being an ethnic minority with little easily accessible legal recourse, Akha everywhere have long been subject to rights abuses.  Perhaps the most important issue facing the Akha pertains to their land. The Akha relationship to land is vitally connected to the continuation of the Akha culture, but they rarely have "official" or state-sanctioned land rights or claims to their land as land rights are considered traditional. These conceptions of land are at odds with those held by the nation states whose land the Akha now occupy. Most Akha are not full-fledged citizens of the country they inhabit and are thus not allowed to legally purchase land, although most Akha villagers are too poor to even consider purchasing land.  It has been reported by rights groups that several land seizures of Akha land have been undertaken in the name of the Queen of Thailand. Originally a semi-nomadic people, the Akha are often relocated by the presiding national government to permanent villages, after which the government allegedly sells to logging companies and other private corporations access to lands formerly occupied by the Akha. The land onto which the Akha are displaced is almost always less fertile than their previous plots. On their new lands, the Akha can rarely produce enough food to sustain themselves and are often forced to leave and seek employment outside the villages, thus disrupting their traditional culture and economy.  In Thailand, laws have been passed that curb people's rights to the forest, including the 2007 Community Forest Act. According to the network of indigenous peoples in Thailand, "These laws and resolutions have had severe impacts on indigenous peoples' rights to residence and land. Under these laws and resolutions millions of hectares of land have been declared as reserved and conservation forests, or protected areas. Today, 28.78% of Thailand is categorized as protected areas. As a result, thousands of farmers previously living in the forest or relying on the forest for their livelihood have been arrested and imprisoned and their lands seized. Cases have been filed against them for the so-called encroachment on government land."  Despite having signed and ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Thai government has not changed laws to adhere to those recommendations emphasizing respect for the rights of indigenous peoples and their full and effective participation in protected areas management and policy-making.  The reasons given for Akha relocations vary, but a common response on the part of the Thai government is to cite a concern for the preservation of forests and the promotion of more sustainable agricultural techniques than the slash and burn agriculture traditionally used by the Akha. The Thai government's involvement in relocation might also possibly be motivated by concerns of national security. According to international human rights lawyer Jonathan Levy, "The Akha are identified with the opium growers who until recently dominated that portion of the "Golden Triangle" in Thailand. Thailand has taken steps to eradicate opium cultivation by resettling the Akha into permanent villages. However, both opium and long ingrained farming techniques are key to the complex Akha culture. While traditional opium cultivation has been suppressed, processed heroine and latest scourge, methamphetamine, is freely available from Burma. Thus Akha have become both impoverished farmers and in many cases narcotic addicts. As the Akha are resettled they come into contact with mainstream Thai culture, many Akha women are drawn to the "easy" money of the sex industry."  The Akha are said to have the highest rates of addiction of all the hill tribes and are at the highest risk for contracting HIV, AIDS, or an STD. Measures have been undertaken by state and human rights organizations including the UNESCO Asia Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok, and NCA in Lao PDR, to provide hill tribes, including the Akha, with "comprehensive community-based, non-formal education" on HIV and drug abuse prevention. In addition, detoxification clinics have been opened in the region, with particularly positive consequences for women who tend to have lower rates of addiction, but often bear the brunt of compensating for their missing partners financially and emotionally.  Despite their numbers, the Akha are the poorest of all the hill tribes. As roads bring accessibility and tourists, they provide relief from the poverty of village life, especially for the younger generations who increasingly find themselves engaged in labor outside the villages. Many villages report a population decrease as many leave to find work in the cities, often for very long periods. Many Akha complain that the younger generations are becoming increasingly less interested in traditional culture and ways and more and more susceptible to outside, mainstream, cultural influences. According to one author, where the village squares were once "filled with the sounds of courtship songs", radios are now more likely to play pop hits.  As it becomes increasingly difficult to remain self-sufficient through agriculture, and as roads open up the villages to the cities, the Akha must contend with the sometimes corrosive effects of the tourist industry. Not all Akha are happy to let tourists come in and observe village life. The Akha are often the objects of ecotourism which purports to open up remote spaces and people to Western tourists to expand their knowledge of the plight of the people and their perilous situation, and thus, expand their involvement in the fight to maintain their environment and way of life. It is pitched as "responsible tourism". There are many critiques of ecotourism as exploitative and a highly consumer-centered and contradictory activity including detrimental effects on the environment from the amount of jet engine fuel burned on the flight there and back, the additional amenities that must be built to cater to Western expectations, the pollution and garbage associated with a Western lifestyle, the disturbance of flora and fauna and a bevy of other concerns expressed by environmentalist voices.  While ecotourism agencies claim to help in exposing the plight of indigenous people, many Akha feel that they are being put on display for ecotourist groups, as they are encouraged or forced to wear their most elaborate ethnic clothing and perform ceremonies and rituals that have no meaning for them out of context. The Akha also participate in the regular tourist industry through the sale of their handicrafts and goods to local tourists, which they must often do under financial duress. Many of the Akha people do not see the tourism as halting the Westernizing and globalizing pressures but, rather, as a coercive commercialization and commodification of their culture.  Many Akha complain of the missionaries that come to the villages to convert them, sometimes forcibly, to Christianity. Many Akha feel that the missionaries generalize about, or in this particular case, "paganize" the Akha traditional belief system, demeaning their longstanding beliefs. Some of the claims made against missionaries include the kidnapping of Akha children into orphanages and forced labor, the sterilization of Akha women and the forced or underpaid labor of Akha on farms. Many rights groups make the claim that the money spent by missionaries on building churches and furthering Christian education could be better spent on helping the Akha with medical and sanitation improvements that are greatly needed in most villages.

The Akha are an ethnic group who live in small villages at higher elevations in the mountains of Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Yunnan Province in China. They made their way from China into Southeast Asia during the early 20th century. Civil war in Burma and Laos resulted in an increased flow of Akha immigrants and there are now 80,000 people living in Thailand's northern provinces of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai.

Les Akha sont un peuple montagnard originaire de Chine. Ils résident aujourd’hui dans les montagnes de Chine, où le gouvernement les a assimilés aux Hani, en Thaïlande, où ils sont inclus dans les tribus des collines, au Laos, où ils sont appelés "Lao sung, "et au Myanmar (Birmanie), où ils sont appelés "Kaw", ou encore "Akha-Ekaw".


Overview.

The "formal discipline" (or "mental discipline") approach to learning believed that specific mental faculties could be strengthened by particular courses of training and that these strengthened faculties transferred to other situations, based on faculty psychology which viewed the mind as a collection of separate modules or faculties assigned to various mental tasks. This approach resulted in school curricula that required students to study subjects such as mathematics and Latin in order to strengthen reasoning and memory faculties.  Disputing formal discipline, Edward Thorndike and Robert S. Woodworth in 1901 postulated that the transfer of learning was restricted or assisted by the elements in common between the original context and the next context. The notion was originally introduced as "transfer of practice". They explored how individuals would transfer learning in one context to another similar context and how "improvement in one mental function" could influence a related one. Their theory implied that transfer of learning depends on how similar the learning task and transfer tasks are, or where "identical elements are concerned in the influencing and influenced function", now known as the "identical element theory". Thorndike urged schools to design curricula with tasks similar to those students would encounter outside of school to facilitate the transfer of learning.  In contrast to Thorndike, Edwin Ray Guthrie's law of contiguity expected little transfer of learning. Guthrie recommended studying in the exact conditions in which one would be tested, because of his view that "we learn what we do in the presence of specific stimuli". The expectation is that training in conditions as similar as possible to those in which learners will have to perform will facilitate transfer.  The argument is also made that transfer is not distinct from learning, as people do not encounter situations as blank slates. Perkins and Salomon considered it more a continuum, with no bright line between learning and transfer.  Transfer may also be referred to as "generalization", B. F. Skinner's concept of a response to a stimulus occurring to other stimuli.  Today, transfer of learning is usually described as the process and the effective extent to which past experiences (also referred to as the "transfer source") affect learning and performance in a new situation (the "transfer target"). However, there remains controversy as to how transfer of learning should be conceptualized and explained, what its prevalence is, what its relation is to learning in general, and whether it exists at all.

Transfer and learning.

People store "propositions", or basic units of knowledge, in long-term memory. When new information enters the working memory, long-term memory is searched for associations which combine with the new information in working memory. The associations reinforce the new information and help assign meaning to it. Learning that takes place in varying contexts can create more links and encourage generalization of the skill or knowledge. Connections between past learning and new learning can provide a context or framework for the new information, helping students to determine sense and meaning, and encouraging retention of the new information. These connections can build up a framework of associative networks that students can call upon for future problem-solving. Information stored in memory is "flexible, interpretive, generically altered, and its recall and transfer are largely context-dependent".  When Thorndike refers to similarity of elements between learning and transfer, the elements can be conditions or procedures. Conditions can be environmental, physical, mental, or emotional, and the possible combinations of conditions are countless. Procedures include sequences of events or information. Although the theory is that the similarity of elements facilitates transfer, there is a challenge in identifying which specific elements had an effect on the learner at the time of learning.  Factors that can affect transfer include:  Learners can increase transfer through effective practice and by mindfully abstracting knowledge. Abstraction is the process of examining our experiences for similarities. Methods for abstracting knowledge include seeking the underlying principles in what is learned, creating models, and identifying analogies and metaphors, all of which assist with creating associations and encouraging transfer.

Transfer taxonomies.

Transfer of learning can be cognitive, socio-emotional, or motor. The following table presents different types of transfer.

Teaching for transfer.

Transfer is less a deliberate activity by the learner than it is a result of the environment at the time of learning. Teachers, being part of the learning environment, can be an instrument of transfer (both positive and negative). Recommendations for teaching for transfer include the "hugging" and "bridging" strategies; providing authentic environment and activities within a conceptual framework; encouraging problem-based learning; community of practice; cognitive apprenticeship; and game-based learning.

Hugging and bridging.

Hugging and bridging as techniques for positive transfer were suggested by the research of Perkins and Salomon.  Hugging is when the teacher encourages transfer by incorporating similarities between the learning situation and the future situations in which the learning might be used. Some methods for hugging include simulation games, mental practice, and contingency learning.  Bridging is when the teacher encourages transfer by helping students to find connections between learning and to abstract their existing knowledge to new concepts. Some methods for bridging include brainstorming, developing analogies, and metacognition.

Transfer of learning occurs when people apply information, strategies, and skills they have learned to a new situation or context. Transfer is not a discrete activity, but is rather an integral part of the learning process. Researchers attempt to identify when and how transfer occurs and to offer strategies to improve transfer.

Le transfert d'apprentissage est le phénomène par lequel un apprentissage nouveau est facilité grâce aux apprentissages antérieurs. C'est un processus cognitif qui peut avoir de larges effets positifs ; mais aussi parfois négatifs, lorsqu'il s'agit de reproduction mécanique sans juste adaptation au nouveau domaine, ou lorsqu'un schéma ou une habitude empêchent d'acquérir de nouvelles façons de faire.


Biography.

Background.

In August 1963, the 34-year-old Jacqueline Kennedy was in her third year as First Lady and in the third trimester of her fifth pregnancy. She had suffered a miscarriage in 1955, followed the next year by a stillborn baby girl that the Kennedys planned to name Arabella (after the "Arbella" ship). Two healthy children had followed, Caroline in 1957 and John Jr. in 1960. As John had also been premature, she asked her obstetrician, John W. Walsh, to accompany her when she and her children spent the summer in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Nearby Otis Air Force Base Hospital had also prepared a suite for her in case it was necessary.  On the morning of Wednesday, August 7, Jackie Kennedy took Caroline and John Jr. for a pony ride in Osterville, Massachusetts. While the children were riding, Kennedy felt labor pains. Walsh was summoned, and they were taken by helicopter to Otis Air Force Base.  President Kennedy was at the White House at the time. August 7 was the 20th anniversary of the day that the Navy had rescued him in World War II after he had spent five days marooned on an island in the Pacific. Kennedy had been in command of Motor Torpedo Boat "PT-109" when it was rammed by a Japanese destroyer, killing two of his crew. His heroics had helped launch his political career. "PT-109" and August 7 were never far from his mind; he kept a scale model of the boat on a shelf in the Oval Office and each day used a metal tie clasp shaped like a torpedo boat, with "PT 109" stamped across its bow.

Birth and treatment.

While his father was aboard Air Force One, the infant Kennedy was delivered by emergency caesarean section at 12:52 p.m. on August 7, 1963, at the Otis Air Force Base Hospital in Bourne, Massachusetts, five and 1/2 weeks prematurely. The caesarean section was performed by Dr. Walsh, who had also delivered John Jr. in 1960. The infant's birth weight was. He was the first baby to be born to a sitting U.S. president and First Lady since the 19th century.  Shortly after birth, Kennedy developed symptoms of hyaline membrane disease (HMD), now called infant respiratory distress syndrome (IRDS). It was detected by breathing difficulties within minutes. The president arrived, saw his son in distress, and sent for a chaplain. The infant was quickly baptized with the name of Patrick after his grandfather Joseph Patrick Kennedy (1888–1969) and great-grandfather Patrick Joseph Kennedy (1858–1929), and was given the middle name of Bouvier after his mother's maiden name.  The president was allowed to wheel the baby in an incubator to the First Lady's bedside. James E. Drorbaught, the pediatric specialist at Boston Children's Hospital, was flown by helicopter from Boston to consult on his case, and he recommended transfer to Boston. Five hours after birth, the infant, accompanied by Dr. Drorbaught, was rushed by ambulance to Boston Children's Hospital, away, in under 90 minutes. The transfer to the hospital in Boston was initially reported as a "precautionary measure," the White House said. The baby's condition was accurately reported as HMD, but it was also reported it would take at least four days to assess his condition, and that he was being given medication to assist his condition.  At the time, all that could be done for a baby with hyaline membrane disease was to keep the patient's blood chemistry as close to normal as possible. Led by Dr. Drorbaught, who stayed awake the entire time, the hospital tried everything possible to save the infant's life. The baby was given hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), in which he was placed in a hyperbaric chamber filled with 100 percent oxygen and pressurized to greater than one atmosphere. At the time, it was revolutionary; the "New York Times" described it as "one of the newest interests of medical researchers."

Death and funeral.

Kennedy died at 4:04 a.m. on August 9—"despite a desperate medical effort to save him"—having lived 39 hours and 12 minutes. At the time of the infant's death, the president was outside the room with the hyperbaric chamber with his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. The First Lady, then 34, remained at Otis Air Force Base Hospital recovering from the caesarean section. She was told of her son's death by Dr. Walsh. (He would console her again after her husband's assassination; he was aboard Air Force One with her as she returned from Dallas with the president's body.) She was given a sedative and slept until the president flew from Boston. Very little was said about the family's reaction; White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger stated of the First Lady's condition, "Given the circumstances, her condition is satisfactory." The president, who had reportedly only slept four hours since the birth, was photographed arriving at Otis Air Force Base looking "grave and appearing tired."  A small funeral mass was held on August 10, 1963 in the private chapel of Cardinal Richard Cushing in Boston. The president's mother was in Paris and was told not to return for the funeral, though the First Lady's sister Lee Radziwill had already flown in from Greece before the baby died. Cushing, the Archbishop of Boston, performed the funeral mass, as he would for John F. Kennedy, assassinated 104 days later. Siblings Caroline, then five years old, and John Jr., two and a half, did not attend.  The child was initially buried at Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts, the president's hometown. His body and that of a stillborn sister, whom Jacqueline Kennedy had named Arabella, were reinterred on December 5, 1963 alongside their father at Arlington National Cemetery, and later moved to their permanent graves in Section 45, Grid U-35.

Legacy.

Patrick Kennedy's death made 1963 a "pivotal year" for neonatology, still a relatively new field at the time, according to an examination of the field's history in the journal "Neonatology". The increased public awareness of HMD led to a corresponding increase in research of the disease, spurring development of new medical ventilators, blood gas tests and newborn intensive-care practices in both the United States and Europe. The first trials of a potential treatment for HMD, dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine, were published within a few years, although it was not considered a clinical success. According to Dr. Suhas M. Nafday, director of Newborn Services at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, the child's death "energized the neonatal researchers into action to look for an effective management of respiratory distress syndrome." In a review of advances in clinical medicine, researcher Thor Hansen observed that the "medical profession did not have the tools to help" Kennedy, "the newborn son of arguably the most powerful man in the world," but that fifty years later, treatment of his condition would be considered routine and survival expected.  The First Lady and the President were deeply affected by the death of the child. Secret Service agent Clint Hill recalled the couple having "a distinctly closer relationship" that was visible following Kennedy's death. Press secretary Pierre Salinger believed that while the President and First Lady had been brought closer by the presidency, they were even more so by Patrick's death.

Patrick Bouvier Kennedy (August 7, 1963 – August 9, 1963) was the infant child of United States President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. He was the younger brother of Caroline and John Jr.; another daughter was stillborn. Born prematurely, Kennedy lived just over 39 hours before desperate attempts to save him failed, putting the First Family and nation into mourning. Three months later, his death was eclipsed by his father's assassination, but the Kennedy infant's death brought hyaline membrane disease (HMD) into the public consciousness and inspired further research.

Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, né le à l'Otis Air National Guard Base, à Bourne dans le Massachusetts et mort le à Boston est le plus jeune enfant du président américain John Fitzgerald Kennedy et de Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis, née Lee Bouvier. Il est le frère cadet d'Arabella Kennedy (mort-née en 1956), Caroline Kennedy et John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr.


Plot summary.

In Buenos Aires, Mario Suárez, a middle-aged theatre director, is left holed up in his apartment, licking his wounds when his girlfriend (and principal dancer) Laura leaves him. Seeking distraction, he throws himself into his next project, a musical about the tango. One evening, while meeting with his backers, he is introduced to a beautiful young woman, Elena, the girlfriend of his chief investor Angelo, a shady businessman with underworld connections.  Angelo asks Mario to audition Elena. He does so and is immediately captivated by her. Eventually, he takes her out of the chorus and gives her a leading role. An affair develops between them, but the possessive Angelo has her followed, and threatens her with dire consequences if she leaves him, mirroring Mario's own feelings and actions towards Laura before Elena entered his life.  The investors are unhappy with some of Mario's dance sequences. They don't like a routine which criticises the violent military repression and torture of the past. Angelo has been given a small part, which he takes very seriously. The lines between fact and fiction begin to blur: during a scene in the musical showing immigrants newly arrived in Argentina, two men fight over the character played by Elena. She is stabbed. Only slowly do we realise that her death is not for real.

Production.

Tango was shown out of competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.

Accolades.

Wins  Nominations

Home media.

"Tango" was issued on DVD by Sony Pictures in August 1999, in Spanish with English subtitles.

Tango () is a 1998 Argentine-Spanish musical drama tango film written and directed by Carlos Saura and starring Miguel Ángel Solá and Mía Maestro. It was photographed by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.

Tango est un film hispano-argentin réalisé par Carlos Saura, sorti en 1998. Le film fut nommé à l'Oscar du meilleur film en langue étrangère.


Associated state.

States existing in free association with another sovereign state can be considered constituent states of a constitutional entity, depending on circumstances. For example, the Cook Islands, New Zealand and Niue constitute the three constituent countries of the Realm of New Zealand, united under a single head of state: the King or Queen of New Zealand.

Confederated state.

Constituent states united in a confederal union under a confederal government are more specifically known as confederated states. Some of the most notable historical examples of constituent states within a confederation are the United States under the Articles of Confederation, the States of the German Confederation and States of the Confederate States of America. In modern political practice, notable examples are Cantons of Switzerland or Entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Federated state.

Constituent states united in a federal union under a federal government are more specifically known as federated states. There are numerous historical examples for constituent states within various federations. In modern political practice, among most notable examples are U.S. states and constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

Other forms of constituent states.

Administrative units that are not federated or confederated but enjoy a greater degree of autonomy or self-government than other territories within the same country can be considered constituent states of that country. This relationship is by some authors called a federacy. Autonomous republics like Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan

Political status of breakaway states.

The concept of a "constituent state" is also used in political processes and negotiations regarding the status of various breakaway states. It is often proposed as a compromise solution or an alternative to formal recognition of a secessionist state that has unilaterally declared independence, and whose "de jure" sovereignty remains in dispute.

The Caucasus.

The South Caucasus region consists of a number of breakaway and autonomous republics in addition to the states of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia recognised by the United Nations.  The breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have effectively maintained independence since declaration, are considered constituent republics of Georgia by the majority of world governments. The Republic of Artsakh, which is also independent in effect, is considered by the United Nations to be a constituent entity of Azerbaijan.

Cyprus.

The country of Cyprus is divided between two independent political entities: the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus in the south, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognised as a sovereign state only by Turkey. Both entities are given the title of constituent state of Cyprus by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the Annan Plan for reuniting Cyprus consistently used the term constituent state to refer to each entity.

Kosovo.

The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from the Republic of Serbia in February 2008.

Proposal for Palestine.

The term constituent state has also been used to label both states in proposals for federal solutions to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. It can also describe the region of Palestine at present, which is divided between the governments of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Somalia.

Because of the ongoing war in Somalia, the Somali country is now divided into a number of constituent states with varying degrees of independence from the Transitional Federal Government.  The breakaway republic of Somaliland in the north, which maintains "de facto" independence over its territory, is still regarded by member states of the United Nations as a constituent state of Somalia despite its declaration of independence in 1991. The states of Puntland and Galmudug in central and northeastern Somalia retain control over their own territories with little to no oversight from the federal government, which is based in Mogadishu in the south. The administrations in these states have stated that, unlike Somaliland, they do not seek outright independence from Somalia, and are merely maintaining stability until such a time when the government can effectively implement a permanent constitution for the country.  In the south and in opposition to the central government are regions administered by various Islamic insurgent groups, most notably Hizbul Islam and al-Shabaab, both of which seek to establish Sharia law within the country.

Other administrative entities.

Myanmar.

Like Palau, the government of Myanmar, or Burma, presently operates as a unitary state, with sovereignty confined within the central government. Myanmar is divided into a number of regions, zones and states with constitutionally defined levels of autonomy. Both regions and states can be described as ethnically defined; while the Bamar are the dominant ethnic group within regions, the states are mostly dominated by various minority groups, such as the Shan (Shan State), the Rakhine (Rakhine State) and the Karen (Karen State), among others.  In terms of politics, the use of the term "state" in this context is largely historical, with a number of these states having been united in various federal unions during the British colonial period. At present, most states are afforded a greater degree of autonomy than other divisions. Political separatism in many states is rampant, and territory controlled by the central government in these cases is limited. In these cases, jurisdiction within a state is mostly confined to its respective regional government.  In addition, various proposals have been made for instituting federalism in Myanmar, which would allow these states to implement individual constitutions.

Palau.

Palau is divided into sixteen administrative divisions termed "states", which were before 1984 called municipalities. The change in terminology reflects the fact that these divisions are afforded a larger degree of autonomy than before, with each state having its own constitution. As a unitary republic, however, the Government of Palau is centralised and these divisions exist solely to establish regional government; they are not united in a federal union.

Other uses.

The term "constituent state" is sometimes also used to refer to member states of an international organization.  Member states of the European Union are occasionally referred to as "constituent states" by pro-European politicians and activists within the European Union, especially those in favour of further internal integration and federalisation.  It is also used to refer to sovereign states in bilateral negotiations or agreements between two or more states.

A constituent state is a state entity that constitutes a part of a sovereign state. A constituent state holds regional jurisdiction over a defined administrative territory, within a sovereign state. Government of a constituent state is a form of regional government. Throughout history, and also in modern political practice, most constituent states are part of complex states, like federations or confederations. Constituent states can have republican or monarchical forms of government. Those of republican form are usually called "states" or autonomous states, "republics" or autonomous republics, or cantons. Those that have a monarchical form of government are often defined by traditional hierarchical rank of their ruler (usually a principality, or an emirate).

Un pays constitutif est une expression politique parfois utilisée pour désigner un pays qui fait partie d'une entité plus vaste, notamment d'un État unitaire souverain, lequel lui accorde un statut d'autonomie politique se traduisant par un degré plus ou moins important d'autogouvernance, par exemple le Royaume-Uni ou le Danemark.