The Rhetoric of Educational Reform

This article is an examination of the language of recent large-scale education reform in England, New Zealand, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Manitoba. In each jurisdiction, we review both the official documents and the parliamentary debate around a set of major educational reforms, looking at both the similarities and differences between jurisdictions and at the overall nature of official discourse. Although some similar rhetoric was used in all four settings, we conclude that the differences in justifications were more significant than the commonalities. Our analysis supports a view of official rhetoric as being primarily symbolic and intended to create or support particular definitions of problems and solutions, but also as shaped by the historical context, institutional structure, and political culture of each setting.     

Somatization and Medically Unexplained Symptoms in Psychological Injury: Diagnoses and Dynamics

This paper examines the somatization process that may complicate diagnosis in cases of psychological injury. Usually, somatoform and related disorders are fraught with diagnostic uncertainty, and a survey of the scientific literature reveals that recommendations are being made to revise them for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) V. The paper concentrates on the dynamics in somatization. The article presents an integrated forensic biopsychosocial model of somatization. It incorporates a biopsychosocial model of somatization that includes 100 factors. It addresses the process of somatization in terms of three dimensions having forensic relevance. The article concludes with recommendations for the DSM V in terms of a new class of diagnostic categories pertaining to somatization and a new axis on causality.     

Rapid direct PCR for ABO blood typing

Many different molecular typing methods have been reported to complement routine serological ABO blood typing in forensics. However, these ABO genotyping methods are often time-consuming and call for an initial DNA isolation step that requires the use of expensive kits or reagents. We report here a rapid direct ABO genotyping method that eliminates the need for DNA extraction from fresh blood, hair, and body fluid stains before PCR. Using a fast PCR instrument and an optimized polymerase, the genotyping method-which employs a multiplex allele-specific primer set for the simultaneous detection of three single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sites (nucleotides 261, 526, and 803)-identifies A, B, O01/O02, O03, and cis-AB01 alleles in around 70 min from sample collection to electropherogram. Not only will this ABO genotyping method be efficiently used in forensic practice for rapid screening of samples before full-blown multilocus short tandem repeat profiling, but it will also demonstrate an example of rapid direct genotyping of SNPs that offers the advantages of time- and cost-efficiency, convenience, and reduced contamination during DNA analysis.     

Imperialism in China: An Exchange

Abstract

From the viewpoint of those in control of state power, few things can be more frustrating than the relative autonomy of the populace in whose name political power is exercised. However, when a large number, preferably the majority, of those who cherish this autonomy are in need, an unquestionable reason for intervention is provided. When this state of need can be linked, if only in formal terms, to the low productivity of labor, a specific field of intervention is clearly defined. Finally, when relative autonomy, low labor productivity, and need can be shown to coincide in specific groups or social classes, the State and its allies are provided with the social, economic, and political legitimacy to intervene. It is then that their solicitude knows no bounds. Getting people to work more efficiently, more productively, becomes the major goal of society. While this preoccupation has always been present whatever the form of State power, it stands as the raison d’être of all contemporary authoritarian regimes, whether of the left or the right.     

The Politics of the Human Rights Act

The Human Rights Act is the result of post-war changes in Europe. It is the consequence less of the campaigning of dedicated individuals and more of the change in the position of the United Kingdom in Europe and the world. Objections to incorporation of the Convention have given way to the desire to be like the rest of Europe. Traditional views of the judicial role have given way to a perception of the judiciary as the last bastion against an over-powerful executive, unchecked by Parliament.     

Federal, state, and local governments: evaluating their separate roles in US growth

We use US county level data from 1970 to 1998 to explore the relationship between economic growth and government employment at three levels: federal, state and local. Increases in federal, state and local government employments are all negatively related to economic growth. We find no evidence that government is more efficient at lower levels. While we cannot separate out the productive and redistributive services of government, we document that the county-level income distribution became slightly more unequal from 1970 to 1998. We conclude that a release of government-employed labor inputs to the private sector would be growth-enhancing.     

Do large whales have an impact on commercial fishing in the South Pacific Ocean?

Abstract

Although there is evidence that some populations of large whales in the Southern Hemisphere have increased in recent years, differences in feeding behaviour and migration patterns largely precludes direct competition between these and coastal and pelagic fisheries in the South Pacific Ocean. In particular, many of the whales that spend at least part of their year in the South Pacific make feeding migrations in summer to Antarctic waters where some estimates put their food intake at 90% of annual consumption. Others, such as female sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), which do not migrate from tropical/subtropical South Pacific waters, feed at depths greater than that usually occupied by species that are the targets of commercial fisheries, such as the tunas (Thunmisspp.). Thus, even though consumption by whales is high, dietary overlap with commercially fished species is relatively low as much of their feeding is in waters that are not exploited by fisheries. However, there are a number of anecdotal reports that some smaller cetacean species, in particular killer and pilot whales, take fish from longlines set in the region, although more are lost to sharks. However, it should be noted that any assessment of interactions between whales and fisheries is limited by a lack of qualitative and quantitative data. Abundance estimates, particularly for some of the smaller species in the South Pacific region, are only order of magnitude estimates. Furthermore, knowledge of food chains (and their interactions) for many cetaceans in the South Pacific is sketchy making assessment of their impact on local fisheries‐difficult.