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Public Discussion (public + discussion)
Selected AbstractsPOPULATION AND EMPLOYMENT CHANGES IN REGIONAL AUSTRALIAECONOMIC PAPERS: A JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMICS AND POLICY, Issue 1 2007ANNE M. GARNETT Regional Australia has experienced significant changes in population and employment since the early 1990s. Evidence regarding these changes has often been anecdotal, with references in political and media spheres to a ,Sea Change' or ,Tree Change'. There has also been considerable public discussion about the effect that the structural changes and misfortunes within the agricultural sector have had on localities in rural regions. The purpose of this paper is to provide and analyse data on regional population and employment changes since the early 1990s. It will also examine the role that the agricultural sector may have had in these changes. This will provide a basis for informed debate and analysis of population changes in regional Australia and the causes and implications of these changes. [source] Alcohol research and the alcoholic beverage industry: issues, concerns and conflicts of interestADDICTION, Issue 2009Thomas F. Babor ABSTRACT Aims Using terms of justification such as ,corporate social responsibility' and ,partnerships with the public health community', the alcoholic beverage industry (mainly large producers, trade associations and ,social aspects' organizations) funds a variety of scientific activities that involve or overlap with the work of independent scientists. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the ethical, professional and scientific challenges that have emerged from industry involvement in alcohol science. Method Source material came from an extensive review of organizational websites, newspaper articles, journal papers, letters to the editor, editorials, books, book chapters and unpublished documents. Results Industry involvement in alcohol science was identified in seven areas: (i) sponsorship of research funding organizations; (ii) direct financing of university-based scientists and centers; (iii) studies conducted through contract research organizations; (iv) research conducted by trade organizations and social aspects/public relations organizations; (v) efforts to influence public perceptions of research, research findings and alcohol policies; (vi) publication of scientific documents and support of scientific journals; and (vii) sponsorship of scientific conferences and presentations at conferences. Conclusion While industry involvement in research activities is increasing, it constitutes currently a rather small direct investment in scientific research, one that is unlikely to contribute to alcohol science, lead to scientific breakthroughs or reduce the burden of alcohol-related illness. At best, the scientific activities funded by the alcoholic beverage industry provide financial support and small consulting fees for basic and behavioral scientists engaged in alcohol research; at worst, the industry's scientific activities confuse public discussion of health issues and policy options, raise questions about the objectivity of industry-supported alcohol scientists and provide industry with a convenient way to demonstrate ,corporate responsibility' in its attempts to avoid taxation and regulation. [source] Valuing health: a new proposalHEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2010Daniel M. Hausman Abstract After criticizing existing systems of health measurement for their unargued commitment to evaluating health states in terms of preferences or well-being, this essay argues that public rather than private values of health states should help guide the allocation of health-related resources. Private evaluation of health states is relative to a prior individual choice of specific activities and goals, while public evaluation is relative to the whole range of important activities and goals. Public evaluation is concerned with securing a wide range of choices as well as with success given one's choice. A reasonable simplification from the public perspective is to focus on just two features of health states: the subjective feelings attached to health states and the limitations that health states imply on the range of important activities that individuals can pursue. Focusing on just these two dimensions permits the construction of a parsimonious classification of health states with regard to what matters most from the public perspective. This classification, which resembles those in the HALex and the Rosser and Kind Disability and Distress Index, might best be built on top of existing health-state classifications, by mapping the health states they define to activity-limitation/feeling pairs. To assign values to these pairs, I propose relying on deliberative groups to make comparisons among the pairs with respect to the relation ,is a more serious limitation on the range of objectives and good lives available to members of the population'. A ranking according to this property, is not a preference ranking, because it is not a ranking in terms of everything that matters to individuals. Working back from the weights attached to the activity-limitation/feeling pairs, one can impute weights for the health states in other classification systems that were mapped to those pairs. If those weights coincide roughly with current weights, then one legitimizes current weights and provides a vehicle for their public discussion and possible revision. If those weights do not coincide, then one has both an argument for revising current views of the cost effectiveness of treatments and policies and a method to carry out such a revision. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Comments on Dr. Blustein's paper, "Toward a more public discussion of the ethics of federal social program evaluation"JOURNAL OF POLICY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2005Peter Z. Schochet No abstract is available for this article. [source] Transnational Corporations and Repression of Political Rights and Civil Liberties: An Empirical AnalysisKYKLOS INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, Issue 1 2004Matthias Busse Summary Transnational Corporations are often accused by non-governmental organisations of ignoring fundamental democratic rights, such as civil liberties and political rights, in the countries of their investments. This paper attempts to explore empirically the complex relationship between foreign investment and democracy in a systematic way, using different econometric techniques. In contrast to the public discussion over recent years and the view held by non-governmental organisations, the results show that enhanced democratic rights are associated with higher foreign investment in the 1990s. Interestingly, this positive link does not hold for the 1970s and 1980s, when a substantial portion of foreign investment went to countries with repressive governments. [source] Responsiveness-to-Intervention: Definitions, Evidence, and Implications for the Learning Disabilities ConstructLEARNING DISABILITIES RESEARCH & PRACTICE, Issue 3 2003Douglas Fuchs Longstanding concern about how learning disabilities (LD) are defined and identified, coupled with recent efforts in Washington, DC to eliminate IQ-achievement discrepancy as an LD marker, have led to serious public discussion about alternative identification methods. The most popular of the alternatives is responsiveness-to-intervention (RTI), of which there are two basic versions: the "problem-solving" model and the "standard-protocol" approach. The authors describe both types, review empirical evidence bearing on their effectiveness and feasibility, and conclude that more needs to be understood before RTI may be viewed as a valid means of identifying students with LD. [source] When Does Deliberation Begin?POLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 4 2003Internal Reflection versus Public Discussion in Deliberative Democracy Political deliberation involves both internal reflection and public discussion. The former might be far more important than implied by deliberative democrats' heavy emphasis on the discursive component. Analysis of the deliberations of a citizen's jury on an Australian environmental issue shows jurors' attitudes changing more in response to the ,information' phase of the jury proceedings, involving a large degree of ,deliberation within', than during the formal ,discussion' phase. Various ways can be imagined for evoking internal reflection of that sort, even in mass-political settings. [source] Moral Pluralism, Political Justification and Deliberative DemocracyPOLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 4 2000Ian Chowcat We can make progress in political justification if we avoid debates about the extent of moral pluralism. Just by having a political view we are committed to its realization but also to its defence upon justifying grounds. It would be inconsistent to seek to realize my view in ways that undermined my ability to justify it. Yet justifying a view implies that I am open to challenges to it, and that perpetually draws me potentially into dialogue with all others, regardless of my will, and into structures which allow an inclusive dialogue to take place, with decisions being made, on the basis of open public discussion, with which I may disagree. Thus a form of deliberative democracy, probably with representative institutions, is justified, without any normative assumptions being made. [source] Stem Cell Research as Innovation: Expanding the Ethical and Policy ConversationTHE JOURNAL OF LAW, MEDICINE & ETHICS, Issue 2 2010Rebecca Dresser Research using human embryonic stem cells raises an array of complex ethical issues, including, but by no means limited to, the moral status of developing human life. Unfortunately much of the public discussion fails to take into account this complexity. Advocacy for liberal and conservative positions on human embryonic stem cell research can be simplistic and misleading. Ethical concepts such as truth-telling, scientific integrity, and social justice should be part of the debate over federal support for human embryonic stem cell research. Moreover, the debate should be conducted in accord with principles of deliberative democracy, including respect for people holding competing views. [source] The Managed Care Backlash: Perceptions and Rhetoric in Health Care Policy and the Potential for Health Care ReformTHE MILBANK QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2001David Mechanic The focus on managed care and the managed care backlash divert attention from more important national health issues, such as insurance coverage and quality of care. The ongoing public debate often does not accurately convey the key issues or the relevant evidence. Important perceptions of reduced encounter time with physicians, limitations on physicians' ability to communicate options to patients, and blocked access to inpatient care, among others, are either incorrect or exaggerated. The public backlash reflects a lack of trust resulting from cost constraints, explicit rationing, and media coverage. Inevitable errors are now readily attributed to managed care practices and organizations. Some procedural consumer protections may help restore the eroding trust and refocus public discussion on more central issues. [source] How is Well-Being Related to Membership in New Religious Movements?APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2010An Application of Person, Environment Fit Theory Ongoing public discussion about the consequences of membership in new religious movements (NRMs) and the lack of studies concerning the relationship between the fit of the person with his or her NRM and well-being together call for a theoretically based investigation of the phenomenon. Hence, this German study on new members of three NRMs applied person,environment fit theory to investigate whether the fit between persons' needs for autonomy and relatedness, on the one hand, and the commensurate supplies of the groups, on the other, are related to well-being and mental health. The regression model following Edwards (1994) predicted satisfaction with religious affiliation, mental health, and depression, but not life satisfaction and anxiety. Results indicate that, for autonomy and relatedness, well-being measures tend to decrease as supplies exceed needs. Little support was found for a moderator effect of centrality of religiosity. Overall, findings encourage the application of person,environment fit theory to the study of membership in (new) religious groups and call for further research. L'actuel débat public sur les conséquences de l'adhésion à un nouveau mouvement religieux et l'absence d'études sur la relation entre l'adaptation de la personne à son groupe et son bien-être nécessitent une investigation fondée théoriquement. D'où cette recherche allemande sur les nouveaux membres de trois de ces mouvements: on est parti de la théorie de l'adéquation personne-environnement pour savoir si l'ajustement entre les besoins personnels d'autonomie et autres besoins analogues d'une part, et les réponses du groupe dans ce domaine d'autre part, étaient reliés au bien-être et à la santé mentale. Le modèle de régression d'Edwards (1994) porte sur la satisfaction concernant l'engagement religieux, la santé mentale et la dépression, mais pas sur l'anxiété et la satisfaction liée à l'existence. Les résultats indiquent que, pour ce qui est de l'autonomie et ce qui en dépend, les mesures relatives au bien-être ont tendance à décroître à mesure que l'offre excède les attentes. L'effet modérateur de la centralité de la religiosité n'a pas vraiment été confirmé. Globalement, ce que l'on a obtenu est en faveur de l'application de la théorie de l'ajustement personne-environnement à l'étude de l'adhésion à de (nouveaux) groupes religieux et incite à développer d'autres recherches. [source] Carbon pollution (greenhouse gas) measurement and reportingASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, Issue 4 2010Andrew Gunst Abstract The processes of Carbon Reporting and Emissions Trading in countries including the United States and Australia have developed from appearing unlikely in 2007 to the implementation of mandatory data reporting commencing in July 2008 in Australia and January 2010 in the United States. The onus is on emitting corporations to determine whether they must report. The data reported will have financial importance if and when Australia and the United States join Europe in placing a price on Carbon. To date, much of the public discussion in these countries has centred on the financial aspects of a Carbon tax or Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). However, significant challenges exist in identifying and quantifying the emissions which the financial community seeks to trade, and business community understanding of the details of greenhouse emissions is not strong. Greenhouse emission reporting regulations and guidelines in Australia, where the first mandatory reports have been lodged by the 680 largest emitters, are outlined. Industrial examples are used to illustrate the challenges of understanding greenhouse gas emissions and their estimation, and how Chemical Engineering methodologies are useful in overcoming these challenges. Copyright © 2010 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] How Issues Become (Re)constructed in the Media: Discursive Practices in the AstraZeneca MergerBRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2002B. Hellgren In this article, we put forward a novel way of exploring difference and contradiction in merging organizations. We examine how the media (re)constructs meanings in a major cross-border merger. Based on an analysis of press coverage, we attempt to specify and illustrate how particular issues are (re)constructed in media texts through interpretations of ,winning' and ,losing'. We also show how specific discourses are drawn on in this (re)construction. In the merger studied, discourse based on economic and financial rationale dominated the media coverage. Discourse promoting nationalistic sentiments, however, provided an alternative discursive frame to the dominant rationalistic discourse. We argue that the two basic discourses are enacted in three analytically distinct discursive practices in the media: factualizing, rationalizing and emotionalizing. We suggest that the ability of different actors such as top managers to make use of different discursive strategies and resources in promoting their ,versions of reality' in the media (or public discussion) is a crucial avenue for research in this area. [source] Caloric restriction for longevity: II,The systematic neglect of behavioural and psychological outcomes in animal researchEUROPEAN EATING DISORDERS REVIEW, Issue 6 2004Kelly M. Vitousek Abstract Research on caloric restriction for longevity (CRL) has generated hundreds of articles on the physiology of food deprivation, yet almost no data on consequences in other domains. The first paper in this series outlined the generally positive physical effects of CRL; the second analyses the meagre and sometimes disturbing record of research on behaviour, cognition and affect. The available evidence suggests that nutrient-dense CRL in animals,just like nutrient-poor semi-starvation in people,is associated with a number of adverse effects. Changes include abnormal food-related behaviour, heightened aggression and diminished sexual activity. Studies of learning and memory in underfed rodents yield inconsistent findings; no information is available on cognitive effects in primates. To date, the CRL field has ignored other variables that are crucial to the human case and known to be disrupted by chronic hunger, including sociability, curiosity and emotionality. Promotion of CRL for people is irresponsible in the absence of more reassuring data on the full range of expected outcomes. Eating disorder specialists should be contributing to scientific and public discussions of this increasingly prominent paradigm. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. [source] The fall of the English gentleman: the national character in decline, c.1918,1970HISTORICAL RESEARCH, Issue 187 2002Marcus Collins The figure of the gentleman and his allied qualities of amateurism, sportsmanship and self-control dominated public discussions of Englishness in the half century after the Great War. From 1918 to the mid nineteen-fifties, gentlemanliness enjoyed strong, although by no means unanimous, support among commentators on national character. Subsequently, however, the reputation of the gentleman suffered irreparable damage at the hands of a post-war generation seeking scapegoats for the country's perceived economic, geopolitical and moral decline. This article seeks to explain when and why gentlemanliness lost its reputation as the exemplar of Englishness, and the consequent effects on national culture and identity. [source] Mary Toft, Religion and National Memory in Eighteenth-Century EnglandJOURNAL FOR EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY STUDIES, Issue 3 2009JANE SHAW Abstract In 1726 Mary Toft claimed that she had given birth to rabbits, an event that led to much medical examination and a good deal of satire but surprisingly little religious commentary, apart from William Whiston's interpretation that she was a portent of the apocalypse. And yet Toft was repeatedly remembered and re-invoked throughout the century , along with several other miraculous, supernatural or wondrous events , in relation to broader public discussions about the boundaries between the natural and supernatural, between reason and revelation, with the result that each new ,remembering' paradoxically reiterated that those boundaries could not be definitively settled. [source] Poly(vinyl chloride) on the way from the 19th century to the 21st centuryJOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE (IN TWO SECTIONS), Issue 3 2004D. Braun Abstract Despite all the technical and economic problems and the public discussions on the environmental dangers and hazards of chlorine chemistry, poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) is the second most produced plastic (with a worldwide capacity of about 31 million tons), placing after polyolefins and before styrene polymers. Presently, PVC production worldwide is growing at a rate of more than 4% per year. The application of PVC was first described in a patent in 1913, but only after 1930 did a sustained interest in PVC arise in several industrial laboratories. The most remarkable milestones in PVC history and their importance to the development of macromolecular chemistry are briefly described, and some present PVC research and industrial applications, with respect to polymerization, stabilization, bulk property modification, and chemical and material recycling of PVC waste, are discussed. Some actual selected topics include the emulsion polymerization of vinyl chloride with polymeric surfactants and controlled free-radical polymerization with nitroxyls, whereas ionic and metal organic initiators have not found any technical applications. Chemical reactions offer many possibilities for the modification of PVC, but they have been not used on a technical scale yet. Much work has been done on stabilization with nontoxic or metal-free systems. The bulk properties of PVC can be influenced by impact modification through the addition of graft copolymers or by blending with other polymers. Also presented are some problems and recent developments in PVC recycling. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 578,586, 2004 [source] | |||||||||||||||||||