New regionalism(s) in the global political economy. Conceptual understanding in historical perspective

  This paper places the contemporary study of regionalism in historical context. It argues that the study of regionalism has occurred in two waves. The first gathered pace as a sub-field of International Relations from the late 1950s and the second emerged in the context of the globalisation of the late 1980s and the 1990s. RID="*" ID="*" This paper, originally presented as a lecture to the Asia Europe Foundation University, 7^th Summer School, Barcelona: November 11, 2002, represents an abbreviated and revised version of Shaun Breslin and Richard Higgott (2000) Studying Regions: Learning from the Old Constructing the New, New Political Economy 5 (3): 333–352. Permission of the Editors of New Political Economy to publish in this form is gratefully acknowledged. The support of the Economic and Social Research Council in the writing of this paper is also gratefully acknowledged.     

Virtopsy-postmortem multislice computed tomography (MSCT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a fatal scuba diving incident

The body of a 44-year-old scuba diver was examined using postmortem multislice computed tomography (MSCT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and findings were verified by subsequent autopsy. The goal was to find out whether the important pathomorphological findings for the reconstruction of events and the identification of cause and manner of death could be identified using modem digital cross-sectioning techniques. The findings of a massive vital decompression with pulmonary barotrauma and lethal gas embolism were identified in the radiological images. MSCT and MRI were superior to autopsy in the demonstration of the extent and distribution of gas accumulation in intraparenchymal blood vessels of internal organs as well as in areas of the body inaccessible by standard autopsy.     

Using Ecological Inference Point Estimates as Dependent Variables in Second-Stage Linear Regressions

The practice of using point estimates produced by the King ecologicalinference technique as dependent variables in second-stage linearregressions leads to second-stage results that, in general,are inconsistent. This conclusion holds even when all assumptionsbehind King's ecological technique are satisfied. Second-stageinconsistency is a consequence of the fact that King-based pointestimates of disaggregated quantities contain errors correlatedwith the true quantities the estimates measure. Our findingson second-stage inconsistency, as well as a fix that we propose,follow from econometric theory in conjunction with an analysisof simulated and real ecological data sets.     

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Convergence Criteria for Participation in the Flexible Mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol

We suggest a multi-layered system of three convergence criteria – similar to those used in the run-up to the European monetary union – that define the notion of "demonstrable progress" towards reaching the emission commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. These are the existence of an independently evaluated national emissions inventory, the level of domestic policies and measures, and the quantitative convergence of emissions towards the Kyoto target. While the first of these criteria constitutes a necessary condition for use of the Kyoto Mechanisms, the other two should determine the degree of participation allowed for any given Annex I country.     

Using the good cop/bad cop profile with the MMPI-2

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) has been widely used in a variety of ways to screen candidates for law enforcement positions. This study extends the use of the MMPI Good Cop/Bad Cop (GC/BC) profile (Blau, Super, & Brady, 1993) to the MMPI-2. The MMPI-2 profiles of 39 veteran police officers were used to predict their performance (No Apparent Problems, Borderline, or Serious Problems Possible), and these predictions were compared with supervisors’ ratings of the officers’ actual performance. The MMPI-2 predictions were accurate for 46% of the officers, a rate that was significantly better than chance (p=.024). Based on the current data, the best selection outcome would be obtained by accepting officers whose MMPI-2 profiles place them in the No Apparent Problems or Borderline groups, and rejecting officers whose profiles suggest Serious Problems Possible. This could be accomplished simply by rejecting any officer who obtained a score above 65T on any of the clinical scales. This selection strategy would have resulted in the acceptance of 22 officers, 19 of whom were highly rated by their supervisors, and the rejection of 17 officers, 11 of whom were rated as borderline or poorer by their supervisors. It would also result in the erroneous rejection of 6 officers who were highly rated by supervisors. AUTHOR NOTE: An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1994 annual meeting of the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology, in Roswell, New Mexico. The authors wish to thank Jim Herndon, Ph.D., for this comments on this study.