Discourse Analysis: varieties and methods

This paper presents and analyses six key approaches to discourse analysis, including political discourse theory, rhetorical political analysis, the discourse historical approach in critical discourse analysis, interpretive policy analysis, discursive psychology and Q methodology. It highlights differences and similarities between the approaches along three distinctive dimensions, namely, ontology, focus and purpose. Our analysis reveals the difficulty of arriving at a fundamental matrix of dimensions which would satisfactorily allow one to organize all approaches in a coherent theoretical framework. However, it does not preclude various theoretical articulations between the different approaches, provided one takes a problem-driven approach to social science as one?s starting-point

Public faces? A critical exploration of the diffusion of face recognition technologies in online social networks

In recent years, we have witnessed a rapid spread of biometric technologies from the security domain to commercial and social media applications. In this article, we critically explore the repercussions of this diffusion of face recognition to everyday contexts with an in-depth analysis of Facebook’s “tag suggestions” tool which first introduced the technology to on-line social networks. We use Nissenbaum’s framework of contextual integrity to show how the informational norms associated with biometrics in security and policing - their contexts of emergence - are grafted on-line social networks onto their context of iteration. Our analysis reveals a process that has inadvertently influenced the way users understand face recognition, precluding critical questioning of its wider use. It provides an important deepening of contextually-driven approaches to privacy by showing the process through which contexts are co-constitutive of informational norms. Citizens are also offered a critical tool for understanding the trajectory of biometrics and reflect on the data practices associated with the use of face recognition in social media and society at large

Trace Metals in Man's Environment and their Determination by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy

The role of trace metals in pollution and occupational diseases is discussed. The occurrence of these metals, their eff~cts, and their detection by the method of atomic absorption spectroscopy are reviewed. A large number of references enables the reader to obtain a wide insight into the literature of this increasingly important field of medical science. In Part I, three metals which are the chief sources of dangerous and worldwide environmental pollution are discussed with regard to their physiological significance and determination m~thods. The metals causing occupational diseases are discussed in Part 11

Ethical decisions in endof- life care

No Abstract

New Possibilities in Portable Bunker Silos

A bunker type silo with portable sections has been developed at Iowa State College. It ws first designed for experimental work with silage feeding and handling. Its features, however, have possibilities for farm application such as temporary location on an existing feeding floor or expansion or reduction of silo width to adjust for changes in numbers of animals fed from year to year

Data manager looks at the development of the Colorado Water Data Bank, A

CEP73-74RAL-NM22.Colorado Water Data Bank project, Technical report 73-06.Paper presented at "Symposium on the Management of Data Elements in Information Processing," National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Maryland, January 24, 1974

Pulsed beams as field probes for precision measurement

We describe a technique for mapping the spatial variation of static electric, static magnetic, and rf magnetic fields using a pulsed atomic or molecular beam. The method is demonstrated using a beam designed to measure the electric dipole moment of the electron. We present maps of the interaction region, showing sensitivity to (i) electric field variation of 1.5 V/cm at 3.3 kV/cm with a spatial resolution of 15 mm; (ii) magnetic field variation of 5 nT with 25 mm resolution; (iii) radio-frequency magnetic field amplitude with 15 mm resolution. This new diagnostic technique is very powerful in the context of high-precision atomic and molecular physics experiments, where pulsed beams have not hitherto found widespread application.Comment: 6 pages, 12 figures. Figures heavily compressed to comply with arxiv's antediluvian file-size polic

Later first marriage and marital success

The research reported here used measures of marital success based on both marital survival and marital quality to assess how well first marriages entered at relatively late ages fare in comparison with those entered younger. Analysis of data from five American data sets indicated that the later marriages fare very well in survival but rather poorly in quality. The greatest indicated likelihood of being in an intact marriage of the highest quality is among those who married at ages 22-25, net of the estimated effects of time since first marriage and several variables that might commonly affect age at marriage and marital outcomes. The negative relationship beyond the early to mid twenties between age at marriage and marital success is likely to be at least partially spurious, and thus it would be premature to conclude that the optimal time for first marriage for most persons is ages 22-25. However, the findings do suggest that most persons have little or nothing to gain in the way of marital success by deliberately postponing marriage beyond the mid twenties

The consequences for human health of stratospheric ozone depletion in association with other environmental factors

Due to the implementation of the Montreal Protocol, which has limited, and is now probably reversing, the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, only modest increases in solar UV-B radiation at the surface of the Earth have occurred. For many fair-skinned populations, changing behaviour with regard to exposure to the sun over the past half century - more time in the sun, less clothing cover (more skin exposed), and preference for a tan - has probably contributed more to greater levels of exposure to UV-B radiation than ozone depletion. Exposure to UV-B radiation has both adverse and beneficial effects on human health. This report focuses on an assessment of the evidence regarding these outcomes that has been published since our previous report in 2010. The skin and eyes are the organs exposed to solar UV radiation. Excessive solar irradiation causes skin cancer, including cutaneous malignant melanoma and the non-melanoma skin cancers, basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, and contributes to the development of other rare skin cancers such as Merkel cell carcinoma. Although the incidence of melanoma continues to increase in many countries, in some locations, primarily those with strong sun protection programmes, incidence has stabilised or decreased over the past 5 years, particularly in younger age-groups. However, the incidence of non-melanoma skin cancers is still increasing in most locations. Exposure of the skin to the sun also induces systemic immune suppression that may have adverse effects on health, such as through the reactivation of latent viral infections, but also beneficial effects through suppression of autoimmune reactivity. Solar UV-B radiation damages the eyes, causing cataracts and pterygium. UV-B irradiation of the skin is the main source of vitamin D in many geographic locations. Vitamin D plays a critical role in the maintenance of calcium homeostasis in the body; severe deficiency causes the bone diseases, rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Although many studies have implicated vitamin D deficiency in a wide range of diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, more recent evidence is less compelling, with meta-analyses of supplementation trials failing to show a beneficial effect on the health outcomes that have been tested. It continues to be difficult to provide public health messages to guide safe exposure to the sun that are accurate, simple, and can be used by people with different skin types, in different locations, and for different times of the year or day. There is increasing interest in relating sun protection messages to the UV Index. Current sun protection strategies are outlined and assessed. Climatic factors affect the amount of UV radiation received by the skin and eyes, separately from the effect of ozone depletion. For example, cloud cover can decrease or increase the intensity of UV radiation at Earth's surface and warmer temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns may alter the amount of time people spend outdoors and their choice of clothing. The combination of changes in climate and UV radiation may affect the number of pathogenic microorganisms in surface waters, and could have an impact on food security through effects on plant and aquatic systems. It remains difficult to quantify these effects and their possible importance for human health.Prof Robyn Lucas’ participation in the Panel was supported through funding from the Australian Government’s Ozone Science Strategy. A/Prof Rachel Neale was supported by the QIMR Berghofer Institute for Medical Research. Prof Yukio Takizawa was sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment. Ms Tammy Gibbs provided support with the figures in this paper