Governmental Mismanagement and Symbolic Violence: Discourses on Corruption in the Yucatán of the 1990s1

Abstract — Departing from a conceptualisation of corruption as a form of symbolic violence, this article analyses the character and impact of the discourses about corruption which were produced in Yucatán in the beginning of the 1990s. The discourses produced by official and oppositional forces are scrutinised against the background of the federal government9;s neoliberal policies and the sociopolitical situation in the region during 1992 and 1993. The analysis gives some insights into the character of Mexican9;s and Yucatecan9;s experiences with corruption in their own setting. It explores some of the conflictual processes involved when social forces turn this form of symbolic violence into the object of moral critique in public discourses, drawing in this way also attention to how the state is imagined by those who exercise state power and those who are subject to it.     

Asked and Answered: Knowledge Levels When We Will Not Take “Don't Know” for an Answer

A pivotal claim in research on citizen competence is that the typical citizen knows very little about politics. Public opinion surveys provide a considerable body of evidence in support of this position. However, survey protocols with respect to factual questions about politics violate established norms in psychometric research on educational testing in that 9xuku0hjbt1mh5/xxlarge8220.gif" alt="ldquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0">don't know9xuku0hjbt1mh5/xxlarge8221.gif" alt="rdquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0"> answers are encouraged rather than discouraged. Because encouraging 9xuku0hjbt1mh5/xxlarge8220.gif" alt="ldquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0">don't know9xuku0hjbt1mh5/xxlarge8221.gif" alt="rdquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0"> responses potentially confounds efforts to identify substantive understanding, this practice may lead to the systematic understatement of political knowledge. We explore this possibility with data drawn from three split-ballot tests: one conducted as part of a survey in the Tallahassee, Florida, metropolitan area, one conducted as part of the 1998 NES Pilot, and one conducted as part of the 2000 NES. Results reveal that the mean level of political knowledge increases by approximately 15% when knowledge questions are asked in accordance with accepted practices in educational testing.     

BAT在非离子型造影剂过敏反应中的诊断价值

目的通过测定免疫正常人、β-内酰胺类药物过敏者以及非离子型造影剂过敏者血液中CD63、肥大细胞羧肽酶A3(MC-CPA3)、人末端补体复合物SC5b-9,探讨嗜碱性粒细胞活化试验(basophil activation test,BAT)在非离子型造影剂过敏反应中的诊断价值。方法采用流式细胞术测定全血中嗜碱性粒细胞CD63表达率。采用ELISA法测定血清中MC-CPA3、血浆中SC5b-9含量。结果非离子型造影剂和β-内酰胺类药物过敏者血液中嗜碱性粒细胞CD63表达率、MC-CPA3以及SC5b-9含量均较免疫正常人升高(P0.05)。结论非离子型造影剂过敏者血液中嗜碱性粒细胞和肥大细胞发生活化,补体系统的激活也参与了非离子型造影剂过敏反应的发生。流式细胞术分析BAT可作为非离子型造影剂过敏反应的诊断方法。     

The amateur revolutionaries: A reassessment of the FLQ

Although Canada has experienced a wide variety of forms of political terrorism, only the FLQ9;s attack on federalism has earned a lasting place in Canadian historical memory, a place achieved without attaining its goal of an independent Quebec. Using new sources, this article explains this conundrum by reassessing the effectiveness of the FLQ9;s campaign. It will demonstrate that the very thing that constituted the FLQ9;s only success ‐ its ability to project an illusion of strength sufficient to convince the federal government that a popular insurrection was developing in Quebec ‐ masked its singular failure: organizational weakness and poor strategic judgment. These prevented the FLQ from achieving its goals and were the hallmarks of its status as ‘amateur revolutionaries’.     

Sam Fisher and the “war on terror”: an analysis of Splinter Cell in a post-9/11 context

This article examines the values and attitudes present within the 2002 video game Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, and the methods employed to convey them. It compares the game’s message with the rhetoric contained in the Bush administration’s post-9/11 “war on terror” narrative. A qualitative content analysis of a Splinter Cell “game movie” and gameplay sessions is undertaken to examine the messages communicated through elements of simulation and representation. This article finds that Splinter Cell and the “war on terror” narrative express similar perspectives of terrorism and counterterrorism. First, both exaggerate the physical and normative threat of terrorism, and portray it as overwhelmingly powerful. Second, both sources justify violent counterterrorism action through claims of necessity, urgency and self-defence. Third, violence is consistently portrayed as effective for achieving the desired objective. Finally, violence and military action are represented as simple solutions that ultimately lead to victory over terrorism. The parallels between the messages within Splinter Cell and the “war on terror” rhetoric indicate that the game was shaped by the post-9/11 culture in which it was developed. More significantly, however, Splinter Cell perpetuates and legitimises the “war on terror” narrative by conveying its message through an immersive interactive environment.     

Extending environmental justice research to religious minorities

For more than 30 years, significant research in the United States has found that racial and ethnic minorities suffer disproportionately from nearness to environmental disamenities compared with white non-Hispanics and that these results persist even controlling for poverty and “which came first,” the minorities or the disamenities. The engrained discriminatory findings of this environmental justice (EJ) research have led some to argue that we observe “systemic racism,” built into our social systems in ways that may be difficult to perceive. Yet, within the history of the United States, racial and ethnic minorities are not the only groups that have been systematically discriminated against; various religious groups also have histories of discrimination. Here we consider whether, holding constant race and ethnicity, some religious groups may also suffer from “EJ syndrome.” Since the US Census does not collect data on religion, to measure the presence of some religious groups that may be discriminated against, we use an original dataset on the presence of Jewish, Muslim, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS, aka Mormon), and Roman Catholic houses of worship within California9;s Census tracts. Our results indicate that even controlling for race/ethnicity and income, the presence of Jewish or Muslim houses of worship in a California Census tract increases the likelihood of environmental burden as measured by the CalEnviroScreen 3.0 index of pollution and community vulnerability.     

Religion in the Workplace: Eweida and Others v United Kingdom

The European Court of Human Rights judgment in Eweida and Others v United Kingdom dealt with the increasingly controversial questions of religious symbols at work and the clash between free conscience and anti‐discrimination norms. In a change of approach, it held that the right to resign could no longer be seen as adequate protection for religious freedom and that workplace norms that restrict religious liberty must satisfy a proportionality test. However, it accorded a wide margin of appreciation to States in reconciling freedom of conscience and freedom from discrimination, ruling that the importance of non‐discrimination could justify a failure to exempt a religious individual from complying with a policy forbidding discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.     

畅心饮治疗冠心病心绞痛痰瘀搏结证临床研究

目的 观察畅心饮治疗冠心病心绞痛的疗效及其可能的机制。方法 将冠心病心绞痛符合痰瘀搏结证患者随机分为对照组和治疗组,每组40例,对照组按标准西医治疗,治疗组在其基础上加服畅心饮。观察两组心绞痛和中医证候疗效,以及治疗前后总胆固醇（total cholesterol,TC）、低密度脂蛋白胆固醇（low-density lipoprotein cholesterol,LDL-C）、高密度脂蛋白胆固醇（high-density lipoprotein cholesterol,HDL-C）、脂蛋白a\[(lipoprotein (a),Lp(a)\]、超敏C反应蛋白（high-sensitive reactive protein,hs-CRP）、空腹血糖（fasting plasma glucose,FPG）、糖化血红蛋白A1c（glycosylated haemoglobin A1c,HbA1c）、血前蛋白转化酶枯草杆菌蛋白酶9（proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin type 9,PCSK9）水平。结果 治疗组心绞痛和中医证候疗效均优于对照组（P<0.05）。与治疗前比较,对照组治疗后hs-CRP、TC、LDL-C、HDL-C、Lp（a）、FPG、HbA1c、PCSK9水平均无明显变化（P>0.05）,治疗组治疗后hs-CRP、TC、LDL-C、Lp（a）、PCSK9水平显著降低（P<0.05）;治疗组治疗前后hs-CRP、TC、LDL-C、PCSK9降低值显著大于对照组（P<0.05）。结论 畅心饮治疗冠心病心绞痛痰瘀博结证的机制可能是通过降低血PCSK9水平以降低血脂水平与炎症反应以改善动脉粥样硬化。     

Lipidic compounds found in soils surrounding human decomposing bodies and its use in forensic investigations – A narrative review

Following decomposition of a human body, a variety of decomposition products, such as lipids, are released into the surrounding environment, e.g. soils. The long-lasting preservation in soils and their high diagnostic potential have been neglected in forensic research. Furthermore, little is known about the preservation, chemical transformation, or degradation of those human derived lipids in soils. To date, several studies identified various lipids such as long-chain free fatty acids and steroids in soils that contained decomposition fluids. Those lipids are preserved in soils over time and could serve as markers of human decomposition in forensic investigations, e.g. for estimating the post-mortem interval or identifying the burial location of a human body. Therefore, this review focuses on the current literature regarding fatty acid and steroid that have been detected in soils and associated with human body decomposition. After a short introduction about human decomposition processes, this review summarises fatty acid and steroid analysis applied in current case studies and studies related to taphonomic research. This review provides an overview of the available studies that have used fatty acids and steroids as identifiers of human decomposition fluid in soils in a forensic context and discusses the potential for developing this innovative field of research with direct application in a forensic context.