Industrial production and capacity utilization: the 2009 annual revision

Industrial capacity ; Industrial productivity

Do the benefits of international policy commitments outweigh the burdens for small island states? : a case study of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Federated States of Micronesia

The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) is a small island developing state (SIDS) comprising four semi-autonomous states. The country faces a number of environmental challenges, not least of which is the loss of biodiversity upon which it relies for subsistence and economic development. The FSM is a signatory to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and must develop and deliver a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan as a way of implementing the convention and protecting its biodiversity. For a SIDS like the FSM, being a party to the CBD presents a notable burden: fielding personnel to global meetings, crafting necessary policies and legislation and implementing such policies. This article explores the perceptions of what being a signatory to the CBD brings to those in countries such as the FSM who are responsible for, or involved in, developing and implementing biodiversity conservation policy and actions. It highlights specific perceived benefits and challenges, and considers these in relation to the status of biodiversity in the FSM today.peer-reviewe

Relationship between a gifted child\u27s label and perceived family environment

This study investigated the relationship between the number of years in which a child has been labeled as gifted and family members\u27 perceptions of their family\u27s social environment. Second, possible differences between gifted childrens\u27 and siblings\u27 perceptions of their family\u27s environment were investigated. A significant negative relationship was found between the number of years of labeling time and mothers\u27 perceived level of cohesion, organization and control in the family environment. A significant positive relationship was found between the number of years in which the gifted child had been labeled and the gifted child\u27s growing orientation to achievement and with unlabeled siblings\u27 perceptions of independence in the family environment. These results suggest that families in which there are both gifted and unlabeled children may experience significant stress and that mothers feel this stress more acutely than fathers. Also, it appears that the gifted label does not lead unlabeled siblings to perceive their family environments in a substantially different way from identified gifted children in the family

Designing and implementing a new advanced level biology course.

Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology is a new advanced level biology course currently being piloted from September 2002 in England with around 1200 students. This paper discusses the reasons for developing a new advanced biology course at this time, the philosophy of the project and how the materials are being written and the specification devised. The aim of the project is to provide an up-to-date course that interests students, is considered appropriate by teachers and other professionals in biology, and takes full advantage of modern developments in biology and in teaching

College Student Adjustment and Health Behaviors

This study explored the relationship between student adjustment theory and college student health behaviors. Specifically, this research examined first-year freshmen college student physical activity and nutrition behaviors and impact on adjustment to college (N = 37,564). The design for this study was a non-experimental ex post facto examination of archival data provided by the American College Health Association\u27s National College Health Assessment II survey, spanning academic years 2008 through 2009. The main variables in this study included student physical activity and nutrition behaviors. Baker and Siryk\u27s student adjustment theory was used as a theoretical framework to identify survey questions related to academic, personal-emotional, and social adjustment. A significant, positive correlation was found between students who engage in physical activity and healthy eating behaviors and level of student adjustment. In addition, students who reported meeting national recommendations for physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption exhibited significantly greater academic, personal-emotional, and social adjustment. The results of this study indicate a need for further research on the effects of physical activity and nutrition on college student adjustment. Furthermore, the results can be used as a foundation for educational programming for higher education professionals

Networks of power in Southeast Scotland, circa 1370-1420

This study is an analysis of the structure of power, predominantly political, in southeast Scotland between the closing years of David II's reign and 1420. In addition to the chronological treatment and a consideration of the interface between the landed nobility and the urban elite, several family histories of second rank nobility, specifically Haliburton, Preston, Forrester, Sinclair earls of Orkney, Sinclairs of Herdmanston, Edmonstone and Grierson, are used to illuminate the methods of attaining influence. The usage of offices, political participation, landholding, marriage and burghal relations are examined as evidence for socio¬ political networksThe thesis' argument is that the region lacked a dominant power, and that this permitted a competitive-cooperative system, which created opportunities of advancement for the second rank nobility. Five main points of power existed throughout the period: the Crown, the earls of Angus, Douglas and March, and a fluid group of second rank nobility. All five were capable of acting independently, in concert with one or more of the others, or with subsets within one of the others. Success in this system demanded multiple contacts, an ability to use or ignore contacts as the situation demanded, an ability to extend power directly or indirectly through subordinates and access to the economic and administrative levers held by Crown officers or burghal contactsIn the 1370s the demand for cooperation in the face of the external, English threat tempered internal competition. This gradually gave way during the 1380s, and by the late 1380s internal competition, as evidenced by the Douglas inheritance dispute, was the primary feature. This internal competition climaxed in 1400-06, during which the external threat was used as a weapon in the internal conflict. By 1406 the collapse of the majority of alternate centres of power, including an attempt to form an explicitly royal affinity, permitted Douglas a near-monopoly of power during the Albany government. However, the alternate channels of power were not removed, and continued contact with James I, negotiated settlements with the earl of March and the duke of Albany, the resurgence of the earl of Angus and the continued existence and usage of administrative structures by men whose alliance with Douglas was fundamentally pragmatic demonstrate the temporary nature of Douglas ascendancy. The actions of James I, who drew heavily on second rank nobility from the southeast for support, indicate the continued power of these individuals

'We poor idiots in the pew': lay and academic uses of historical-critical methods of biblical exegesis in dialogue

Historical-critical study of the Gospels, though a recognised area of expertise in ministerial training and a core focus of biblical scholarship, is largely unknown in local churches. The thesis investigates the question whether lay people in local churches might profit from the ability, which theologically trained clergy possess, to use such exegetical methods, in the cause of their own appropriation of the texts.Scholars with a faith commitment to Christianity typically adopt some combination of the three following styles of biblical hermeneutics: the historical-critical approach, the literary approach and the liberationist approach. While historical-critical scholars privilege the hermeneutical use of history over that of personal experience, literary scholars emphasise the priority of the text's story over that of its interpreters, and liberationists stress the hermeneutical priority of experience. For historical-critical exegesis the hermeneutical use of history appears to be a sine qua non, using a perspectival rather than a positivistic understanding of the term 'history'. Such exegesis may be made more accessible in local churches through the complementary use of a hermeneutic of personal experience. Understood as narrative communicated between persons in relation, personal experience can become a vehicle for appropriation of the biblical narratives - a literary approach. Understood as a locus theologicus, everyday experience can be a source of revelation in its own right - a liberationist approach.Combining these uses of history and personal experience in a modified form of the hermeneutical circle -a model of interpretation with antecedents in biblical and pastoral hermeneutics - a model of Bible study labelled community hermeneutics has been trialled in eight Scottish local-church study groups, largely from the Reformed tradition. Analysis of group and interview data according to the social-science approach of grounded theory has produced a threefold typology of group members, labelled Thinker, Relater and Changer respectively, according to their view of the aim of appropriation of the biblical texts. This theory has been validated by triangulation with theories of general and Christian adult education. Analysis of interviewees' hermeneutical uses of both history and personal experience, correlated with the academic approaches named above, highlights how people within each study mode make use of historical-critical exegesis.The thesis concludes with the proposal that, as well as group leaders' own hermeneutical preferences, successful use of historical-critical exegetical methods in local-church study groups will need to take group members' study modes into account, considering the theological worldview informing their preferred mode of text appropriation. With this element of conditionality, the thesis points to the conclusion that historical-critical exegesis can be profitable for people in localchurch study groups in their appropriation of the Gospels

Interpretive communities and the legitimation of news values: a recursive framing analysis of the representation of refugees in The Australian

This study investigated the potential for bias resulting from the pursuit of journalistic 'objectivity' and news values. It presented the theoretical structure of frame analysis and interpretive community theory, and applied it to the representation of refugees in The Australian, with in-depth focus on the reporting of Villawood Detention Centre. It conducted structured observation of journalists undertaking a news factor selection test using a range of refugee topics as test material. It then extended this investigation to a textual analysis of all refugee reports published in The Australian between 2003 and 2006. Findings from this research indicated that the basic principles of journalism provide minimal foundation for independent investigation and interpretation, rather operate to merely transmit the agenda of the seemingly 'authoritative' and 'prominent'. Determining the answer to the journalistic 'what' only ever occurred within the limited parameters of an immediate event taking place within the boundaries of the immediate circulation district, with the 'why' it happened reserved only for the opinions of those who, in journalistic terms, identified as 'authoritative' and unproblematically 'verifiable'. The journalistic pursuit of 'newsworthiness', which resulted in The Australian's focus on 'event reporting, particularly those relating to conflict and drama' (White 1996, p. 34), allowed no framework in which to discuss the complex and ongoing processes surrounding mandatory and extended detention. This contributed to the rallying of public support against those seeking asylum – which allowed the Howard Government to both limit the number of successful visa applications and gain voter support for the punitive measures taken against those refugees already detained. On a broader scale, findings also indicated that it is not news values in isolation that make refugee issues newsworthy. Rather, the four domains in journalism as developed in this study: professionalism; nationalism and key events; journalists' subjective beliefs; and institutional objectives, all express the complex processes that constitute journalists' decision-making processes