Academic self-concept, gender and single-sex schooling

This paper assesses gender differences in academic self-concept for a cohort of children born in 1958 (the National Child Development Study). We address the question of whether attending single-sex or co-educational schools affected students’ perceptions of their own academic abilities (academic self-concept). Academic selfconcept was found to be highly gendered, even controlling for prior test scores. Boys had higher self-concepts in maths and science, and girls in English. Single-sex schooling reduced the gender gap in self-concept, while selective schooling was linked to lower academic self-concept overall

The Virtual Sociality of Rights: The Case of Women\u27s Rights are Human Rights

This essay traces the relationship between activists and academics involved in the campaign for women\u27s rights as human rights as a case study of the relationship between different classes of what I call knowledge professionals self-consciously acting in a transnational domain. The puzzle that animates this essay is the following: how was it that at the very moment at which a critique of rights and a reimagination of rights as rights talk proved to be such fertile ground for academic scholarship did the same rights prove to be an equally fertile ground for activist networking and lobbying activities? The paper answers this question with respect to the work of self-reflexivity in creating a virtual sociality of rights

A comparison of optimal tax policies when compensation or responsibility matter

This paper examines optimal redistribution in a model with high and low-skilled individuals with heterogeneous tastes for labor, that either work or not. With such double heterogeneity, it is well known that traditional Utilitarian and Welfarist criteria suffer serious flaws. As a response, several other criteria have been proposed in the literature. We compare the extent to which optimal policies based on different normative criteria obey the principles of compensation (for differential skills) and responsibility (for preferences for labor). Unsurprisingly, the criteria from the social choice literature perform better in this regard than the traditional criteria, both in first and second best. More importantly, these equality of opportunity criteria push the second best policy away from an Earned Income Tax Credit and in the direction of a Negative Income tax

Long-term follow up of glatiramer acetate compassionate use in Belgium.

Between June 1995 and November 1998, 228 patients with relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis started treatment with glatiramer acetate (Copaxone) 20 mg once daily in the frame of a "compassionate use" protocol in 15 Belgian centers. Following an average treatment period of 5.8 years, treating neurologists were requested to fill in follow-up forms indicating neurological disability status and side effects during the previous 6 months. These data were available for 134 patients. In this group, the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) improved in 26.3% of patients. An additional 36.8% of patients remained neurologically stable. The Ambulation Index (AI) showed similar results: 12.5% of patients improved, 50% of patients remained stable, and 37.5% worsened. Only 10% of patients dropped out due to several reasons. The adverse events occurring in the period preceding the follow-up survey were non-serious and consistent with the current product information of glatiramer acetate. Among the 94 patients no longer followed-up in the compassionate program, reasons for lost to follow-up were obtained for 63; most of them (41) had stopped GA treatment or switched to another disease-modifying treatment. Overall these results are very similar to the ones reported in the extension study of the pivotal trial (Johnson et al., 2000), and indicate that patients treated with glatiramer acetate have a better outcome than expected on the basis of the natural course of the disease. Despite limitations of the study design, this report confirms the sustained efficacy of glatiramer acetate in reducing the disease progression in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis treated in day-to-day clinical practice