The political economy of competitiveness and social mobility

Social mobility has become a mainstream political and media issue in recent years in the United Kingdom. This article suggests that part of the reason for this is that it can serve as a mechanism to discuss policy concerns that appear to be about social justice without questioning important aspects of neo-liberal political economy. The article charts the policy rhetoric on social mobility under both New Labour and the current Coalition Government. It is argued first that under New Labour the apparent commitment to social mobility was in fact subsumed beneath the pursuit of neo-liberal competitiveness, albeit imperfectly realised in policy. Second, the article suggests that under the Coalition Government the commitment to raising levels of social mobility has been retained and the recently published Strategy for Social Mobility promises that social mobility is what the Coalition means when it argues that the austerity programme is balanced with ‘fairness’. Third, however, the Strategy makes clear that the Coalition define social mobility in narrower terms than the previous government. It is argued here that in narrowing the definition the connection with the idea of competitiveness, while still clearly desirable for the Coalition, is weakened. Fourth, a brief analysis of the Coalition's main policy announcements provides little evidence to suggest that even the narrow definition set out in the Strategy is being seriously pursued. Fifth, the international comparative evidence suggests that any strategy aimed at genuinely raising the level of social mobility would need to give much more serious consideration to narrowing levels of inequality. Finally, it is concluded that when considered in the light of the arguments above, the Strategy for Social Mobility – and therefore ‘Fairness’ itself – is merely a discursive legitimation of the wider political economy programme of austerity

The benefit sanction: a correctional device or a weapon of disgust?

The benefit sanction is a dominant activation policy in Britain’s ‘welfare-to-work’ regime. While policymakers believe in their necessity to correct behaviour, research shows benefit sanctions cause additional harm to Britain’s marginalised groups. Drawing upon a small-scale qualitative study, this article first navigates new territory, mapping the ways stigma emerges from the state – channelled through the benefit sanction – and manifests in the lives of sanctioned claimants. Acknowledging wider evidence, the sanction is then argued to have failed as a correctional device. Rather, taking into account Britain’s current politico-economic climate, the sanction appears as a weapon used to incite negative emotion in an attempt to police the boundaries of the labour market, while frequently abandoning some of the UK’s most vulnerable citizens

A Method for Distinctly Marking Honey Bees, Apis mellifera, Originating from Multiple Apiary Locations

Inexpensive and non-intrusive marking methods are essential to track natural behavior of insects for biological experiments. An inexpensive, easy to construct, and easy to install bee marking device is described in this paper. The device is mounted at the entrance of a standard honey bee Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) hive and is fitted with a removable tube that dispenses a powdered marker. Marking devices were installed on 80 honey bee colonies distributed in nine separate apiaries. Each device held a tube containing one of five colored fluorescent powders, or a combination of a fluorescent powder (either green or magenta) plus one of two protein powders, resulting in nine unique marks. The powdered protein markers included egg albumin from dry chicken egg whites and casein from dry powdered milk. The efficacy of the marking procedure for each of the unique markers was assessed on honey bees exiting each apiary. Each bee was examined, first by visual inspection for the presence of colored fluorescent powder and then by egg albumin and milk casein specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Data indicated that all five of the colored fluorescent powders and both of the protein powders were effective honey bee markers. However, the fluorescent powders consistently yielded more reliable marks than the protein powders. In general, there was less than a 1% chance of obtaining a false positive colored or protein-marked bee, but the chance of obtaining a false negative marked bee was higher for “protein-marked” bees

Economic-demographic interactions in long-run growth

Cliometrics confirms that Malthus’ model of the pre-industrial economy, in which increases in productivity raise population but higher population drives down wages, is a good description for much of demographic/economic history. A contributor to the Malthusian equilibrium was the Western European Marriage Pattern, the late age of female first marriage, which promised to retard the fall of living standards by restricting fertility. The demographic transition and the transition from Malthusian economies to modern economic growth attracted many Cliometric models surveyed here. A popular model component is that lower levels of mortality over many centuries increased the returns to, or preference for, human capital investment so that technical progress eventually accelerated. This initially boosted birth rates and population growth accelerated. Fertility decline was earliest and most striking in late eighteenth century France. By the 1830s the fall in French marital fertility is consistent with a response to the rising opportunity cost of children. The rest of Europe did not begin to follow until end of the nineteenth century. Interactions between the economy and migration have been modelled with Cliometric structures closely related to those of natural increase and the economy. Wages were driven up by emigration from Europe and reduced in the economies receiving immigrants

First observations of separated atmospheric nu_mu and bar{nu-mu} events in the MINOS detector

The complete 5.4 kton MINOS far detector has been taking data since the beginning of August 2003 at a depth of 2070 meters water-equivalent in the Soudan mine, Minnesota. This paper presents the first MINOS observations of nuµ and [overline nu ]µ charged-current atmospheric neutrino interactions based on an exposure of 418 days. The ratio of upward- to downward-going events in the data is compared to the Monte Carlo expectation in the absence of neutrino oscillations, giving Rup/downdata/Rup/downMC=0.62-0.14+0.19(stat.)±0.02(sys.). An extended maximum likelihood analysis of the observed L/E distributions excludes the null hypothesis of no neutrino oscillations at the 98% confidence level. Using the curvature of the observed muons in the 1.3 T MINOS magnetic field nuµ and [overline nu ]µ interactions are separated. The ratio of [overline nu ]µ to nuµ events in the data is compared to the Monte Carlo expectation assuming neutrinos and antineutrinos oscillate in the same manner, giving R[overline nu ][sub mu]/nu[sub mu]data/R[overline nu ][sub mu]/nu[sub mu]MC=0.96-0.27+0.38(stat.)±0.15(sys.), where the errors are the statistical and systematic uncertainties. Although the statistics are limited, this is the first direct observation of atmospheric neutrino interactions separately for nuµ and [overline nu ]µ

Dissociable Effects of Reward on Attentional Learning: From Passive Associations to Active Monitoring

Visual selective attention (VSA) is the cognitive function that regulates ongoing processing of retinal input in order for selected representations to gain privileged access to perceptual awareness and guide behavior, facilitating analysis of currently relevant information while suppressing the less relevant input. Recent findings indicate that the deployment of VSA is shaped according to past outcomes. Targets whose selection has led to rewarding outcomes become relatively easier to select in the future, and distracters that have been ignored with higher gains are more easily discarded. Although outcomes (monetary rewards) were completely predetermined in our prior studies, participants were told that higher rewards would follow more efficient responses. In a new experiment we have eliminated the illusory link between performance and outcomes by informing subjects that rewards were randomly assigned. This trivial yet crucial manipulation led to strikingly different results. Items that were associated more frequently with higher gains became more difficult to ignore, regardless of the role (target or distracter) they played when differential rewards were delivered. Therefore, VSA is shaped by two distinct reward-related learning mechanisms: one requiring active monitoring of performance and outcome, and a second one detecting the sheer association between objects in the environment (whether attended or ignored) and the more-or-less rewarding events that accompany them

An Evaluation of Putative Sympatric Speciation within Limnanthes (Limnanthaceae)

Limnanthes floccosa ssp. floccosa and L. floccosa ssp. grandiflora are two of five subspecies within Limnanthes floccosa endemic to vernal pools in southern Oregon and northern California. Three seasons of monitoring natural populations have quantified that L. floccosa ssp. grandiflora is always found growing sympatrically with L. floccosa ssp. floccosa and that their flowering times overlap considerably. Despite their subspecific rank within the same species crossing experiments have confirmed that their F1 hybrids are sterile. An analysis of twelve microsatellite markers, with unique alleles in each taxon, also shows exceedingly low levels of gene flow between populations of the two subspecies. Due to the lack of previous phylogenetic resolution among L. floccosa subspecies, we used Illumina next generation sequencing to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms from genomic DNA libraries of L. floccosa ssp. floccosa and L. floccosa ssp. grandiflora. These data were used to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms in the chloroplast, mitochondrial, and nuclear genomes. From these variable loci, a total of 2772 bp was obtained using Sanger sequencing of ten individuals representing all subspecies of L. floccosa and an outgroup. The resulting phylogenetic reconstruction was fully resolved. Our results indicate that although L. floccosa ssp. floccosa and L. floccosa ssp. grandiflora are closely related, they are not sister taxa and therefore likely did not diverge as a result of a sympatric speciation event

Diving of Great Shearwaters (Puffinus gravis) in Cold and Warm Water Regions of the South Atlantic Ocean

BACKGROUND: Among the most widespread seabirds in the world, shearwaters of the genus Puffinus are also some of the deepest diving members of the Procellariiformes. Maximum diving depths are known for several Puffinus species, but dive depths or diving behaviour have never been recorded for great shearwaters (P. gravis), the largest member of this genus. This study reports the first high sampling rate (2 s) of depth and diving behaviour for Puffinus shearwaters. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Time-depth recorders (TDRs) were deployed on two female great shearwaters nesting on Inaccessible Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, recording 10 consecutive days of diving activity. Remote sensing imagery and movement patterns of 8 males tracked by satellite telemetry over the same period were used to identify probable foraging areas used by TDR-equipped females. The deepest and longest dive was to 18.9 m and lasted 40 s, but most (>50%) dives were <2 m deep. Diving was most frequent near dawn and dusk, with <0.5% of dives occurring at night. The two individuals foraged in contrasting oceanographic conditions, one in cold (8 to 10°C) water of the Sub-Antarctic Front, likely 1000 km south of the breeding colony, and the other in warmer (10 to 16°C) water of the Sub-tropical Frontal Zone, at the same latitude as the colony, possibly on the Patagonian Shelf, 4000 km away. The cold water bird spent fewer days commuting, conducted four times as many dives as the warm water bird, dived deeper on average, and had a greater proportion of bottom time during dives. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: General patterns of diving activity were consistent with those of other shearwaters foraging in cold and warm water habitats. Great shearwaters are likely adapted to forage in a wide range of oceanographic conditions, foraging mostly with shallow dives but capable of deep diving

Precision Newborn Screening for Lysosomal Disorders

Purpose: The implementation of newborn screening for lysosomal disorders has uncovered overall poor specificity, psychosocial harm experienced by caregivers, and costly follow-up testing of false-positive cases. We report an informatics solution proven to minimize these issues. Methods: The Kentucky Department for Public Health outsourced testing for mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I) and Pompe disease, conditions recently added to the recommended uniform screening panel, plus Krabbe disease, which was added by legislative mandate. A total of 55,161 specimens were collected from infants born over 1 year starting from February 2016. Testing by tandem mass spectrometry was integrated with multivariate pattern recognition software (Collaborative Laboratory Integrated Reports), which is freely available to newborn screening programs for selection of cases for which a biochemical second-tier test is needed. Results: Of five presumptive positive cases, one was affected with infantile Krabbe disease, two with Pompe disease, and one with MPS I. The remaining case was a heterozygote for the latter condition. The false-positive rate was 0.0018% and the positive predictive value was 80%. Conclusion: Postanalytical interpretive tools can drastically reduce false-positive outcomes, with preliminary evidence of no greater risk of false-negative events, still to be verified by long-term surveillance