Conventional Interpretations (conventional + interpretation)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Conservation implications of complex population structure: lessons from the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta)

MOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 8 2005
B. W. BOWEN
Abstract Complex population structure can result from either sex-biased gene flow or population overlap during migrations. Loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) have both traits, providing an instructive case history for wildlife management. Based on surveys of maternally inherited mtDNA, pelagic post-hatchlings show no population structure across the northern Atlantic (,ST < 0.001, P = 0.919), subadults in coastal habitat show low structure among locations (,ST = 0.01, P < 0.005), and nesting colonies along the southeastern coast of the United States have strong structure (,ST = 0.42, P < 0.001). Thus the level of population structure increases through progressive life history stages. In contrast, a survey of biparentally inherited microsatellite DNA shows no significant population structure: RST < 0.001; FST = 0.002 (P > 0.05) across the same nesting colonies. These results indicate that loggerhead females home faithfully to their natal nesting colony, but males provide an avenue of gene flow between regional nesting colonies, probably via opportunistic mating in migratory corridors. As a result, all breeding populations in the southeastern United States have similar levels of microsatellite diversity (HE = 0.70,0.89), whereas mtDNA haplotype diversity varies dramatically (h = 0.00,0.66). Under a conventional interpretation of the nuclear DNA data, the entire southeastern United States would be regarded as a single management unit, yet the mtDNA data indicate multiple isolated populations. This complex population structure mandates a different management strategy at each life stage. Perturbations to pelagic juveniles will have a diffuse impact on Atlantic nesting colonies, mortality of subadults will have a more focused impact on nearby breeding populations, and disturbances to adults will have pinpoint impact on corresponding breeding populations. These findings demonstrate that surveys of multiple life stages are desirable to resolve management units in migratory marine species. [source]


The regulation of health and safety in Britain: from old Labour to new Labour

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 1 2000
Matthias Beck
The Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA 1974), passed twenty-five years ago, has been hailed as a significant advance for organised labour and a model for modern work-place regulation. This article argues that, contrary to conventional interpretations, the making of the Act was dominated by business interests. We suggest that the Act's emphasis on self-regulation and goal-setting made it vulnerable to deregu-latory initiatives, which are unlikely to be reversed by new Labour in the foreseeable future. [source]


The ,Enfant Terrible': Australia and the Reconstruction of the Multilateral Trade system, 1946,8

AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 1 2000
Ann Capling
In recent years Australia has been recognized as a prominent player in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO). Less well known is Australia's activism during the establishment of the GATT. This article, based on archival sources and contemporary accounts, examines Australia's role in the birth of the multilateral trade system. It seeks to nuance the two conventional interpretations of this period, the first which argues that countries joined the GATT because it was in their economic interests to do so, and the second which suggests that the United States hegemony imposed its trade liberalization objectives on less powerful allies and trade partners. [source]


Separate, But How Unequal?

CITY & COMMUNITY, Issue 3 2002
1980 to 1990, Ethnic Residential Stratification
Much recent scholarship has focused on inequality in the socioeconomic status of neighborhoods in which different racial and ethnic groups are concentrated. However, the most widely used measures of residential inequality merely describe the extent to which groups are nominally differentiated in residential space. I use 1980 and 1990 U.S. Census data to calculate levels of and changes in residential stratification,the degree to which members of one group tend to live in more advantaged neighborhoods than members of another group,between whites and blacks, Latinos, and Asians. Results both confirm and qualify conventional interpretations of residential inequality when measured as nominal,level segregation. For example, although in 1990 Latinos and Asians were similarly and only moderately segregated from whites, Asians experienced dramatically lower levels of neighborhood disadvantage. I also find that although levels of segregation were nearly identical in central cities and suburban rings, residential stratification was much lower for suburban residents than for their central city counterparts. I conclude by discussing implications of the findings for theoretical and empirical research on residential inequality. [source]