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Selected AbstractsPrinciples and Agents: CalPERS and corporate governance in JapanCORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2007Sanford M. Jacoby A growing literature discusses the convergence of national systems of corporate governance. Fostering convergence are activist institutional investors, especially from the United States. The following is a case study of one institutional investor , the giant pension fund, CalPERS , and its efforts to change governance in Japan over the past 15 years. CalPERS' involvement in Japan went through three stages: solo activism; cultivation of local partners; and, most recently, a shift from marketwide activism to company-level relational investing. Although CalPERS has had some success in changing Japanese corporate governance, economic and political factors have limited its influence and permitted the persistence of Japan's distinctive governance system. [source] THE APPLE DOESN'T FALL FAR FROM THE TREE (OR DOES IT?): INTERGENERATIONAL PATTERNS OF ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR,THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CRIMINOLOGY 2008 SUTHERLAND ADDRESS,CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 2 2009TERENCE P. THORNBERRY There is a growing literature on intergenerational studies of antisocial behavior and a growing understanding of the unique contributions they are likely to make. At the same time, the field has yet to agree on core design features for intergenerational study. In this article, I propose a set of defining design elements that all intergenerational studies should meet and I discuss the advantages of these studies for enhancing our understanding of the onset and course of delinquent careers. I then use data from the ongoing Rochester Intergenerational Study to illustrate these points and the potential yield of intergenerational studies. In particular, I examine intergenerational continuities in antisocial behavior and school disengagement, test the cycle of violence hypothesis to see whether a history of maltreatment increases the likelihood of perpetration of maltreatment, and estimate a structural equation model to help identify mediating pathways that link parents and children with respect to antisocial behavior. [source] Neuroanatomical substrates of social cognition dysfunction in autismDEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES RESEARCH REVIEW, Issue 4 2004Kevin Pelphrey Abstract In this review article, we summarize recent progress toward understanding the neural structures and circuitry underlying dysfunctional social cognition in autism. We review selected studies from the growing literature that has used the functional neuroimaging techniques of cognitive neuroscience to map out the neuroanatomical substrates of social cognition in autism. We also draw upon functional neuroimaging studies with neurologically normal individuals and individuals with brain lesions to highlight the insights these studies offer that may help elucidate the search for the neural basis of social cognition deficits in autism. We organize this review around key brain structures that have been implicated in the social cognition deficits in autism: (1) the amygdala, (2) the superior temporal sulcus region, and (3) the fusiform gyrus. We review some of what is known about the contribution of each structure to social cognition and then review autism studies that implicate that particular structure. We conclude with a discussion of several potential future directions in the cognitive neuroscience of social deficits in autism. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. MRDD Research Reviews 2004;10:259,271. [source] Trying to See Red Through Stickleback Photoreceptors: Functional Substitution of Receptor SensitivitiesETHOLOGY, Issue 3 2006Mickey P. Rowe A key to understanding animal behavior is knowledge of the sensory information animals extract from their environment. For visually motivated tasks, the information animals obtain through their eyes is often assumed to be essentially the same as that perceived by humans. However, known differences in structure and processing among the visual systems of different animals clearly indicate that the world seen by each is different. A well-characterized difference between human and other animal visual systems is the number of types and spectral sensitivities of their photoreceptors. We are developing a technique, functional substitution, that exploits knowledge of these differences to portray for human subjects, colors as they would appear through the photoreceptors of another animal. In a specific application, we ask human subjects to rank hues of male threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) throats viewed through stickleback photopigments. We compare these ranks to ranks of the same throat hues viewed through normal human photoreceptors. We find essentially no difference between the two sets of rankings. This suggests that any differences in human and stickleback rankings of such hues would result from differences in post-receptoral neural processing. Using a previously developed model of stickleback neural processing, we established another ranking of the hues which was again essentially the same as the rankings produced by the human subjects. A growing literature indicates that stickleback do rank such hues in the evaluation of males as potential mates or threats. Although our results do not demonstrate that humans and stickleback use the same mechanisms to assess color, our experiments significantly failed to show that stickleback and human rankings of throat hues should be different. Nevertheless, a comparison of all these rankings to ranks derived from subjective color scoring by human observers suggests that color scoring may utilize other cues and should thus be used cautiously. [source] Transnational women's activism in Japan and Korea:the unresolved issue of military sexual slaveryGLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 2 2001Nicola Piper This article is about the transnational links formed between the Korean and Japanese women,s movements in their campaign on behalf of the victims of ,military sexual slavery' during the Second World War. There is a growing literature that examines such networks. Yet, a deeper understanding of the emergence and activities of transnational advocacy networks is needed, particularly in the context of political opportunity structures. Social scientists who have developed the concept of political opportunity structures have, however, not provided a gender-specific analysis of these. Of particular interest is the exploration of the role played by gender in an international human rights discourse as a political opportunity structure for women's groups in Korea and Japan. This article, thus, explores the ways in which the feminist movements in Korea and Japan have made use of transnational legal means in politicizing and popularizing the issue of ,military sexual slavery' at both regional and global scales. [source] Growth and Location of Economic Activity: The Spatial Dynamics of Industries in Canada 1971,2001GROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 3 2006MARIO POLÈSE ABSTRACT A growing literature has accumulated that points to the stability of industrial location patterns. Can this be reconciled with spatial dynamics? This article starts with the premise that demonstrable regularities exist in the manner in which individual industries locate (and relocate) over space. For Canada, spatial distributions of employment are examined for seventy-one industries over a thirty-year period (1971,2001). Industry data is organized by "synthetic regions" based on urban size and distance criteria. "Typical" location patterns are identified for industry groupings. Industrial spatial concentrations are then compared over time using correlation analysis, showing a high degree of stability. Stable industrial location patterns are not, the article finds, incompatible with differential regional growth. Five spatial processes are identified, driving change. The chief driving force is the propensity of dynamic industries to start up in large metro areas, setting off a process of diffusion (for services) and crowding out (for manufacturing), offset by the centralizing impact of greater consumer mobility and falling transport costs. These changes do not, however, significantly alter the relative spatial distribution of most industries over time. [source] The role of permanent and transitory shocks in explaining international health expendituresHEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 10 2008Paresh Kumar Narayan Abstract While there is a growing literature that examines the issue of cointegration (co-movement over the long run) among health expenditures, there are no studies that examine the issue of common cycles (co-movement over the short run) among health expenditures. We undertake a multivariate variance decomposition analysis of per capita health expenditures of the USA, the UK, Japan, Canada, and Switzerland based on a common-trend,common-cycle restriction framework, to examine the relative importance of permanent and transitory innovations in explaining variations in per capita health expenditures in each of the five countries. Our main finding is that transitory shocks are more important in explaining per capita health expenditures in the UK, Japan, and Switzerland, while permanent shocks dominate variations in per capita health expenditures in the USA and Canada over short horizons. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Debates on Domesticity and the Position of Women in Late Colonial IndiaHISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 6 2010Swapna M. Banerjee Tracing the genealogy of domesticity from India's precolonial past, this essay problematizes the recent emphasis on the link between women and domesticity in late colonial India. Based on a review of the growing literature in the field, it considers the newly evolved notions of colonial domesticity as a moment of [re]consideration rather than a break with the past. The discursive formation of the new ideas of domesticity under colonial regime transcended the private-public and often national boundaries, indicating an overlap where the most intimate details of the ,private', personal life were not only discussed and debated for public consumption but were also articulated in response to imperial and international concerns. This paper argues that domesticity as a new cultural logic became the motor of change for both the British and the colonized subjects and it particularly empowered women by giving them agency in the late colonial period. In conclusion, this paper signals the importance of children, childhood, fatherhood, and masculinity as critical components of domesticity, which are yet to be broached by South Asian historians. [source] Long term care staff beliefs about evidence based practices for the management of dementia and agitationINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY, Issue 2 2009Liat Ayalon Abstract Context Despite a growing literature on effective interventions for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and agitation, the management of these conditions in long term care (LTC) often is inadequate. The goals of the present study were: (a) to evaluate existing beliefs about evidence based practices (EBP) for the management of Alzheimer's disease and agitation among LTC staff; and (b) to evaluate the contribution of demographic and attitudinal variables to LTC staff beliefs about these EBP. Method A cross sectional study of 371 LTC staff members completed an EBP questionnaire, a short demographic questionnaire, and an attitudinal questionnaire about AD and agitation. Results Paraprofessional caregivers, those of lower educational level, and ethnic minorities were more likely to be in disagreement with the EBP views examined in this study. Those in disagreement with the EBP views also reported a preference towards not working with residents with AD and agitation and a sense of helplessness associated with such work. Disagreement with EBP views was associated with both normalization and stigmatization of AD and agitation. Conclusions Paraprofessional caregivers, ethnic minorities, and people of lower educational level are most at need for educational activities about AD and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Educational efforts geared towards changing the belief system of LTC staff should target not only EBP but also information about AD and agitation as conditions that are deviant from the normal aging process, yet non-stigmatizing. It is expected that following EBP will empower staff and improve staff motivation to work with residents with AD and agitation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Performance measurement in industrial R&DINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT REVIEWS, Issue 2 2000Inge Kerssens-van Drongelen Currently, the need for R&D performance measurements that are both practically useful and theoretically sound seems to be generally acknowledged; indeed, the rising cost of R&D, greater emphasis on value management and a trend towards decentralization are escalating the need for ways of evaluating the contribution of R&D to corporate performance. However, although recent research and writing on the subject shows that the challenge of developing such sound measurements has been taken up by many academics and organizations, it is also clear that there is no generally applicable approach. In this review, we consider various approaches for measuring the performance in industrial R&D and identify their key characteristics. We also include a brief summary of the ,history' of performance measurement in R&D, which shows that although there are some new ways of looking at the issue there are many examples from the past that can contribute to our current thinking. The approaches found in the literature and practice are very varied in their application, some being more suitable for the project level, others for the R&D department, and some for the development process or for the organization as a whole. Furthermore, the uses of the approaches tend to be different. For example, some approaches are intended to justify the continuation of investment in R&D to upper management, whilst others are more suited to support learning and self-correction by empowered R&D teams. In this paper these uses, or ,functions', of performance measurement and a taxonomy of typical subjects of measurement in R&D environments are explored. Finally, we conclude the review with a discussion of some limitations of the growing literature on R&D performance measurement. [source] Size, Conflict, and Opportunities for Interaction: Congregational Effects on Members' Anticipated Support and Negative InteractionJOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 1 2009Christopher G. Ellison A growing literature examines the role of religious communities as sources of social support for members, and a smaller body of work also explores negative aspects of social relations within congregations. However, very little is known about the characteristics of religious groups that promote or impede the development of supportive networks. We use data from a unique source,the National Congregations Study, linked with individual records from the 1998 General Social Survey (GSS),to explore this issue. Key findings reveal that: (1) individuals who attend very large churches tend to report lower levels of anticipated support and informal negative interaction; (2) the presence of major congregational conflict tends to dampen anticipated support and increase informal negative interaction; and (3) the absence of a well-defined period for informal socializing before or after the worship service is associated with lower levels of anticipated support, but is unrelated to the frequency of negative interaction among church members. Several implications and promising directions for future research are discussed. [source] Capital Gains Taxes and Equity Trading: Empirical EvidenceJOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 4 2003Jennifer L. Blouin Individual investors have an incentive to defer selling appreciated stock until it qualifies for tax-favored, long-term capital gains treatment. Shackelford and Verrecchia [2002] show that these incentives can affect equity trading around public disclosures. This article provides some empirical support for their theory with evidence of price increases and equity constrictions around announcements of quarterly earnings and additions to the S&P 500 index. We find share returns rise and trading volume falls with the incremental taxes saved by deferring the sale of appreciated property. The price increases, however, are temporary, reversing in subsequent trading days. The results are consistent with buyers believing the compensation to sell before long-term qualification (through higher prices) is less costly than holding an inappropriately weighted portfolio. This finding,that personal capital gains taxes affect equity trading,adds to a growing literature that challenges longstanding assumptions that firm value is independent of shareholders and their taxes. [source] Genes, gene flow and adaptation of Diabrotica virgifera virgiferaAGRICULTURAL AND FOREST ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 1 2009Nicholas J. Miller Abstract 1,Diabrotica virgifera virgifera has emerged as a major pest of cultivated maize, due to a combination of its high capacity to inflict economic damage, adaptability to pest management techniques and invasiveness. 2,This review presents a survey of the current state of knowledge about the genetics of D. v. virgifera. In addition, the tools and resources currently available to Diabrotica geneticists are identified, as are areas where knowledge is lacking and research should be prioritized. 3,A substantial amount of information has been published concerning the molecular phylogenetic relationships of D. v. virgifera to other chrysomelids. 4,There is a growing literature focused on the population genetics and evolution of the species. Several adaptations to anthropogenic selection pressure have been studied, with resistance to synthetic insecticides providing some particularly well-characterized examples. 5,A notable deficiency is a lack of studies directed toward the formal genetics of D. v. virgifera. [source] The Kiss of Death and Cabal of Dons: Blackmail and Grooming in Georgian OxfordJOURNAL OF HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY, Issue 4 2008GEORGE ROUSSEAU This article reconstructs the case of an Oxford University don accused of sexual impropriety in mid-eighteenth century England by an adolescent boy. It recreates the biographical and historical contexts involved in the scandal, and demonstrates what the various agendas and motivations were for the accusation, as well as explains how the case played itself out. The don's actions are shown to be far less straightforward than claimed by his adversaries. The chapter adds to the growing literature about adults and children in history. [source] Self-determination, social abilities and the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilityJOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY RESEARCH, Issue 11 2007L. Nota Summary Background The international literature has documented that self-determination is impacted by environmental factors, including living or work settings; and by intraindividual factors, including intelligence level, age, gender, social skills and adaptive behaviour. In addition, self-determination has been correlated with improved quality of life (QoL). This study sought to contribute to the growing literature base in this area by examining the relationship among and between personal characteristics, self-determination, social abilities and the environmental living situations of people with intellectual disabilities (ID). Methods The study involved 141 people with ID residing in Italy. Healthcare professionals and social workers who had known participants for at least 1 year completed measures of self-determination, QoL and social skills. Analysis of variance was conducted to verify whether different levels of intellectual impairment were associated with different degrees of the dependent variables. The Pearson product,moment correlation was used to examine any relationships among dependent variables and IQ scores. Finally, discriminant function analysis was used to examine the degree to which IQ score, age, self-determination and social abilities predicted membership in groups that were formed based on living arrangement, and on QoL status (high vs. low). Results The anova determined, as expected, that participants with more severe ID showed the lowest levels of self-determination, QoL and social abilities. Discriminant function analysis showed that (a) individuals attending day centres were distinguished from those living in institutions in that they were younger and showed greater autonomy of choice and self-determination in their daily activities; (b) basic social skills and IQ score predicted membership in the high or low QoL groups; and (c) the IQ score predicted membership in the high or low self-determination groups. A manova conducted to examine gender- and age-level differences on self-determination found gender differences; women had higher self-determination scores than men. Conclusions These findings contribute to an emerging knowledge base pertaining to the role of intraindividual and environmental factors in self-determination and QoL. In general, the study replicated findings pertaining to the relative contribution of intelligence to self-determination and QoL, added information about the potential contribution of social abilities, and pointed to the potentially important role of opportunities to make choices as a particularly important aspect of becoming more self-determined, at least in the context of residential settings. [source] Three metaphors and a (mis)quote: thinking about staffing-outcomes research, health policy and the future of nursingJOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2009FAAN, SEAN P. CLARKE RN Conducting research on nurse staffing and outcomes is very challenging, and the application of staffing-outcomes research in practice is both fraught with controversy and vitally important for the safety of our patients and the future of the profession. As I stand back and think about being involved in staffing-outcomes research for nearly a decade and sharing many of my thoughts about this rapidly growing literature in reviews and commentaries in print, certain metaphors for trends in this field come to mind. I won't claim originality for the insights that follow or attempt to thoroughly trace the genealogy of the stories and metaphors here, but offer them to provide what I hope is a fresh perspective to material that I and many of my colleagues have visited and revisited on numerous occasions. [source] Using private demand studies to calculate socially optimal vaccine subsidies in developing countriesJOURNAL OF POLICY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2009Joseph Cook Although it is well known that vaccines against many infectious diseases confer positive economic externalities via indirect protection, analysts have typically ignored possible herd protection effects in policy analyses of vaccination programs. Despite a growing literature on the economic theory of vaccine externalities and several innovative mathematical modeling approaches, there have been almost no empirical applications. The first objective of the paper is to develop a transparent, accessible economic framework for assessing the private and social economic benefits of vaccination. We also describe how stated preference studies (for example, contingent valuation and choice modeling) can be useful sources of economic data for this analytic framework. We demonstrate socially optimal policies using a graphical approach, starting with a standard textbook depiction of Pigouvian subsidies applied to herd protection from vaccination programs. We also describe nonstandard depictions that highlight some counterintuitive implications of herd protection that we feel are not commonly understood in the applied policy literature. We illustrate the approach using economic and epidemiological data from two neighborhoods in Kolkata, India. We use recently published epidemiological data on the indirect effects of cholera vaccination in Matlab, Bangladesh (Ali et al., 2005) for fitting a simple mathematical model of how protection changes with vaccine coverage. We use new data on costs and private demand for cholera vaccines in Kolkata, India, and approximate the optimal Pigouvian subsidy. We find that if the optimal subsidy is unknown, selling vaccines at full marginal cost may, under some circumstances, be a preferable second-best option to providing them for free. © 2009 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. [source] Family Relationships and Adolescent Psychosocial Outcomes: Converging Findings From Eastern and Western CulturesJOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, Issue 4 2004Julia Dmitrieva This study investigated the role of parent,adolescent relationships in mediating the association between family-related negative life events and adolescent depressive symptoms and problem behaviors among 1,696 eleventh graders from the United States (n=201), China (n=502), Korea (n=497), and Czech Republic (n=496). Results indicated that perceived parental involvement and parent,adolescent conflict mediated the link between family-related life events and adolescent depressed mood. The path from family-related life events to adolescent problem behaviors was mediated by perceived parental involvement, parent,adolescent conflict, and perceived parental sanctions of adolescent misconduct. With the exception of minor cross-cultural differences in the magnitude of associations among variables, this study revealed considerable similarity in the association of family factors with adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptomatology. The findings contribute to the growing literature on culture-general developmental processes. [source] The Private Market for Long-Term Care Insurance in the United States: A Review of the EvidenceJOURNAL OF RISK AND INSURANCE, Issue 1 2009Jeffrey R. Brown This article reviews the growing literature on the market for private long-term care insurance, a market notable for its small size despite the fact that long-term care expenses are potentially large and highly uncertain. After summarizing long-term care utilization and insurance coverage in the United States, the article reviews research on the supply of and the demand for private long-term care insurance. It concludes that demand-side factors impose important limits on the size of the private market and that we currently have a limited understanding of how public policies could be designed to encourage the growth of this market. [source] What Determines Rule of Law?KYKLOS INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, Issue 3 2009An Empirical Investigation of Rival Models SUMMARY In the growing literature on the creation of institutions, the theories emphasizing colonial origin (Mauro, 1995), legal origin and religious affiliation (La Porta et al., 1999), Western European influence (Hall and Jones, 1999), and settler mortality (Acemoglu et al., 2001), have been especially influential. The validity and influence of these studies rests heavily on empirical modeling, which, since the theories are obviously closely related, might actually capture the same primary mechanism. It is therefore unclear whether the empirical relationships found are the same or if they are different. Therefore, this paper takes the empirical models seriously in order to discriminate among the existing models and to identify the model and variables that best explain the variation in institutional quality. The aim of this paper is thus to provide answers to the following questions: (i) Is there one model which explains more of the variation in institutional quality than the other models? (ii) Do these models capture the same information? And (iii), if we let the information in the data decide, which combination of variables would be selected? [source] Integrating local and scientific knowledge for adaptation to land degradation: Kalahari rangeland management optionsLAND DEGRADATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2007M. S. Reed Abstract Despite numerous assessments of the sensitivity and resilience of drylands to degradation, there has been little research into the way affected communities innovate and adapt in response to land degradation. This paper shows how local and scientific knowledge can be combined to identify rangeland management strategies to reduce or adapt to land degradation. To achieve this, we have developed and applied a four-stage social learning approach based on stakeholder participation in three degradation ,hotspots' in communal rangelands of the Kalahari, Botswana. This approach aims to collate, evaluate and apply both scientific and local knowledge on rangeland degradation and management options. First, current practice and possible management options were identified from the literature. Second, a series of semi-structured interviews with rangeland users identified local knowledge of strategies to reduce and adapt to land degradation. Third, these options were discussed and evaluated with rangeland stakeholders in focus groups held across each study region. Finally, the outputs from these focus groups were used to produce rangeland assessment guides for each region that provided management options agreed to be locally relevant by both researchers and local stakeholders. The study found that the majority of strategies reported in the literature were not suitable for use by pastoralists in the Kalahari. However, many of the strategies suggested by stakeholders could only be applied effectively under common property regimes, giving impetus to the growing literature encouraging institutional reform to strengthen common property management regimes. The research stimulated a social learning process that combined knowledge from local stakeholders (both pastoralists and extension workers) with the scientific knowledge of researchers to provide a range of management options that could help land managers reduce or adapt to land degradation. By combining participatory research with insights from scientific literature in this way, more relevant results were provided than either approach could have achieved alone. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Boom in the development of non-peptidic ,-secretase (BACE1) inhibitors for the treatment of Alzheimer's diseaseMEDICINAL RESEARCH REVIEWS, Issue 2 2009Romano Silvestri Abstract ,-Amyloid cleaving enzyme-1 (BACE1) has become a significant target for the therapy of Alzheimer's disease. After the discovery of the first non-peptidomimetic ,-secretase inhibitors by Takeda Chemicals in 2001, several research teams focused on SAR development of these agents. The non-peptidic BACE1 inhibitors may potentially overcome the classical problems associated with the peptide structure of first generation, such as blood,brain barrier crossing, poor oral bioavailability and susceptibility to P-glycoprotein transport. In the past 6 years a boom in research of non-peptidic BACE1 inhibitors has disseminated findings over hundreds of publications and patents. The rapidly growing literature has been reviewed with particular emphasis on literature of pharmaceutical companies. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Med Res Rev, 29, No. 2, 295,338, 2009 [source] Variation in part-time job quality within the nonprofit human service sectorNONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, Issue 4 2009Anna Haley-Lock This article extends the growing literature on the quality of part-time employment to the domain of nonprofit human services, specifically grassroots organizations in which paid work is itself a relatively new reality. It addresses three central questions: How do part-time and full-time workers differ in their personal and household characteristics? How do part-time jobs differ in access to employment benefits from their full-time counterparts; and finally, How does benefits access vary among part-time job titles? These lines of inquiry are examined using data from the populations of nonprofit domestic violence programs and their employees in a large midwestern metropolitan area. Analyses of worker-level data reveal that part-time workers in these settings disproportionately live with children, are in committed relationships, and report a strong preference for employment that facilitates work-life balance; they are also less likely to be primary household wage earners. Analyses at the level of jobs suggest that employment benefits extended to part-time jobs are minimal compared to their full-time equivalents, but there are also striking variations among different part-time titles. The results offer insights into the nature of part-time work in these nonprofit human service settings and potential challenges for effective management. [source] People's Exit in North Korea: New Threat to Regime Stability?PACIFIC FOCUS, Issue 2 2010Kyung-Ae Park As suggested in a growing literature that securitizes the phenomenon of refugee migration and analyzes it as a national as well as a regional security issue, the growing number of North Korean border-crossers has far-reaching political implications for both North Korea and the international community. Studies have argued that refugees could contribute significantly to democratic change in their home countries by assisting and actively participating in the struggle of the domestic opposition, even sparking regime instability and eventual regime breakdown. Much of the North Korean refugee research has focused on the human rights issues faced by the refugees, but a largely unexplored area of the refugee research concerns the political consequences of the refugee flight for the current regime in Pyongyang. This article examines whether North Korean refugees are expected to play the role of political opposition in exile by raising the following four questions: (i) Are the refugees political dissidents? (ii) Are they a resourceful critical mass? (iii) Does exit always lead to regime instability? and (iv) Would China and South Korea encourage exile politics against the current North Korean regime? The article contends that the North Korean refugee community does not currently represent a critical mass that can trigger instability of the Pyongyang regime. Most of the North Korean refugees are not political dissidents, nor have they organized into any resourceful critical mass capable of generating a threat to their home country. In addition, people's exit does not necessarily destabilize the regime as it can sometimes yield a positive political effect by driving out dissidents' voices. Furthermore, several of the receiving countries, in particular, China and South Korea, would not encourage exile dissident movements against North Korea for fear of Pyongyang's collapse. The North Korean regime's stability does not seem to be threatened by the current refugee situation, although the potential of refugees becoming a critical threat should not be discounted should people's exit ever reach the point of developing into an uncontrollable mass exodus. [source] Migrant women in male-dominated sectors of the labour market: a research agendaPOPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 1 2008Parvati Raghuram Abstract There is a growing literature on female labour migration, but much of this focuses on women who move to work in labour-market sectors where a large proportion of workers are women. This paper argues that there has been much less study of women who migrate to work in male-dominated sectors of the labour market, and explores the nature of this lacuna within research on female migration. It then highlights the increasing presence of women migrants in the ICT sector as one example of an area that has received little study. Finally, the paper explores some reasons why a study of female migrant's experiences in male-dominated sectors of the labour market is important, and what it can add to existing research on female migration more generally. In particular, it urges us to view gender as it intersects and overlaps with other social divisions to produce complex landscapes of female mobility. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Oxygen isotopes in nitrate: new reference materials for 18O:17O:16O measurements and observations on nitrate-water equilibration,,RAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY, Issue 16 2003J. K. Böhlke Despite a rapidly growing literature on analytical methods and field applications of O isotope-ratio measurements of NO3, in environmental studies, there is evidence that the reported data may not be comparable because reference materials with widely varying ,18O values have not been readily available. To address this problem, we prepared large quantities of two nitrate salts with contrasting O isotopic compositions for distribution as reference materials for O isotope-ratio measurements: USGS34 (KNO3) with low ,18O and USGS35 (NaNO3) with high ,18O and ,mass-independent' ,17O. The procedure used to produce USGS34 involved equilibration of HNO3 with 18O-depleted meteoric water. Nitric acid equilibration is proposed as a simple method for producing laboratory NO3, reference materials with a range of ,18O values and normal (mass-dependent) 18O:17O:16O variation. Preliminary data indicate that the equilibrium O isotope-fractionation factor (,) between [NO3,] and H2O decreases with increasing temperature from 1.0215 at 22°C to 1.0131 at 100°C. USGS35 was purified from the nitrate ore deposits of the Atacama Desert in Chile and has a high 17O:18O ratio owing to its atmospheric origin. These new reference materials, combined with previously distributed NO3, isotopic reference materials IAEA-N3 (=IAEA-NO-3) and USGS32, can be used to calibrate local laboratory reference materials for determining offset values, scale factors, and mass-independent effects on N and O isotope-ratio measurements in a wide variety of environmental NO3, samples. Preliminary analyses yield the following results (normalized with respect to VSMOW and SLAP, with reproducibilities of ±0.2,0.3,, 1,): IAEA-N3 has ,18O,=,+25.6, and ,17O,=,+13.2,; USGS32 has ,18O,=,+25.7,; USGS34 has ,18O,=,,27.9, and ,17O,=,,14.8,; and USGS35 has ,18O,=,+57.5, and ,17O,=,+51.5,. Published in 2003 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Representational Altruism: The Wary Cooperator as Authoritative Decision MakerAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 4 2006Kevin B. Smith What drives policymakers to put the interests of others above their own? If human nature is inherently selfish, it makes sense to institutionalize incentives that counter decision makers' temptations to use their positions to benefit themselves over others. A growing literature rooted in evolutionary theories of human behavior, however, suggests that humans, under certain circumstances, have inherent predispositions towards "representational altruism," i.e., to make an authoritative decision to benefit another at one's own expense. Drawing on Hibbing and Alford's conception of the wary cooperator, a theoretical case is made for such behavioral expectations, which are confirmed in a series of original laboratory experiments. [source] Understanding the Drivers of Poverty Dynamics in Australian Households,THE ECONOMIC RECORD, Issue 266 2008HIELKE BUDDELMEYER This paper contributes to the growing literature on poverty dynamics in Australian households. The results reveal that a range of life-changing events, household head, partner and demographic characteristics have an impact on both the likelihood of remaining poor and slipping into poverty. These findings have important implications for Australian policymakers: tertiary education and employment are key factors in keeping households out of poverty; having a disability or living in outer-regional or remote areas increases the probability of becoming poor and remaining in such a situation; and finally, life-changing events, especially becoming separated, can lead households into persistent poverty. [source] Sex differences in the vocal repertoire of adult red-capped mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus): a multi-level acoustic analysisAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 4 2010Hélène Bouchet Abstract Sex differences in the vocal behavior of nonhuman primates can take various forms: sex-specific call types, differential production of shared call types, or sex discrepancy in phonation. Also, a growing literature is evidencing that systematically analyzing the vocal repertoires of primates at the call level might lead to underestimating their communicative abilities. Here, we present an extensive multi-level analysis of the still unknown vocal repertoire of adult red-capped mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus), with a special emphasis on sex differences. We collected recordings from seven adult males and seven adult females housed in captivity. We present a structurally-based classification of mangabey calls that we cross-validated by an analysis of the associated contexts of emission. We found 12 sound units (including six sex-specific) that were concatenated to form eight call types (including four sex-specific), which were produced either singularly or in sequences composed of one ("repetition") or several ("combination") call types. We extracted organizational principles that ruled call composition and calling patterns. This revealed a high degree of potentially meaningful variability in terms of semantics and syntax. Male,female discrepancy in terms of phonation could be related to morphological dimorphism and would enable listeners to behave appropriately according to the sex of the caller. Sex differences in repertoire size, structural gradation, and call usage could reflect specificities of male,female social roles. We discuss the pertinence of these sex differences according to social system and habitat quality. Am. J. Primatol. 72:360,375, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] THE GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES OF SOCIAL ENTERPRISES: EVIDENCE FROM A UK EMPIRICAL STUDYANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2009Roger Spear ABSTRACT:,The social enterprise sector in the UK is going through a period of rapid growth, and is being seen by government as another important vehicle for delivering public services. As a result the issue of public trust in social enterprise is of growing importance. While there is a growing literature on the governance of voluntary and non-profit organizations, with some exceptions (e.g. co-operatives) there has been little research on the governance challenges and support needs of social enterprises. The research reported here aimed to help fill that gap. Based on interviews and focus groups with governance advisers, board members and chief executives it explores the typical governance challenges faced by social enterprises. Based on the research the paper develops a new, empirically-grounded typology of social enterprises based on their origins and development path, and presents findings about some of the governance challenges that are common across the sector and some that are more distinctive to the different types of social enterprise. [source] |