Productivity Spillovers to Domestic Plants from Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from UK Manufacturing, 1974-1995

Empirical literature on the impact of FDI has considered at length the indirect spillover benefits that accrue to domestic plants as a result of FDI presence. However, the imprecise and disparate nature of spillovers makes accurate definition and indeed measurement of them difficult to achieve. In this paper, we consider the definition of what constitutes a spillover from FDI, and setout three main channels for spillovers; within (intra)industry, between (inter)industry and agglomeration. We then go on to measure the indirect impact of FDI on the total factor productivity of domestic plants in a number of UK manufacturing industries, 1974-1995, using a standard production function-based approach. We use data made available from the UK ARD and information derived from UK input-output tables, to establish the potential for inter-industry linkages. Our results indicate that the competition and ëabsorption capacityí effect at times outweighs any potential benefits, leading to negative spillovers. We also find that inter-industry spillovers are generally more prevalent than intra-industry spillovers. Generally, we do not find the agglomeration spillover to be significant. However, we conclude that the nature of spillovers is such that measurement techniques traditionally adopted fail to adequately explain their complex and diverse nature.

Empirical Perspectives on Mediation and Malpractice

The use of mediation in the medical malpractice context is examined. The impact of any court-related alternative dispute resolution program is also discussed

Genetic analysis reveals bidirectional fish movement across the Continental Divide via an interbasin water transfer

2021 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.Interbasin water transfers are becoming an increasingly common tool to satisfy municipal and agricultural water demand, but their impacts on the movement and gene flow of aquatic organisms are poorly understood. The Grand Ditch is an interbasin water transfer that diverts water from tributaries of the upper Colorado River on the west side of the Continental Divide to the upper Cache la Poudre River on the east side of the Continental Divide. I used single nucleotide polymorphisms to characterize population genetic structure in cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii) and determine if fish utilize the Grand Ditch as a movement corridor. Samples were collected from two sites on the west side and three sites on the east side of the Continental Divide. I identified two genetic clusters, but they did not align with the west and east sides of the Continental Divide. Spatial distributions of admixed individuals indicated that the Grand Ditch facilitated bidirectional fish movement across the Continental Divide, a major biogeographic barrier. Many others have demonstrated the ecological impacts of interbasin water transfers, but this study is one of the first to utilize genetics to understand how interbasin water transfers affect connectivity between previously isolated watersheds. I also discuss implications on native trout management and the need for balancing water demand and biodiversity conservation

History Teachers and Syllabus Change: Examining the Middle Ground of Curriculum

This study is about how teachers interpret and enact curriculum. In particular it focuses on the ways in which history teachers have interpreted and enacted the 1998 New South Wales (NSW) 1998 Stages 4-5 (years 7-10) History Syllabus (hereafter, the 1998 syllabus) prior to classroom implementation. The new syllabus is the product of a mandated, top-down syllabus change process. The development of this new syllabus document was highly contested and after much public debate was released to all NSW secondary schools for staged implementation across 1999-2002. How history teachers individually and collectively perceived and enacted this new syllabus document prior to classroom implementation is of interest for a number of reasons. First, this new syllabus has the potential to impact upon the ways in which history is taught, learnt and assessed in NSW secondary schools. Second, what is largely absent from existing curriculum research is an investigation of how teachers interpret and enact new curriculum prior to classroom implementation: that is, an examination of teachers’ enactment of a new curriculum document before they enter the classroom. Goodson (1994) refers metaphorically to this as the ‘middle ground’ of curriculum. Whilst Goodson introduced this term in the early 1990s, further interest in this field has been scarce. This study locates the middle ground of curriculum between the high ground of curriculum (the formal construction of the written curriculum) and its ground-level implementation in the classroom. It acknowledges the dynamic interaction between these varying levels of curriculum and the role of teachers as active participants in the interpretation and enactment of curriculum. The study reconceptualises the middle ground metaphor as a means of examining history teachers’ interpretation and enactment of the 1998 syllabus prior to classroom implementation. A proposed model of the middle ground of curriculum is developed as a conceptual framework through which the following research questions are addressed: • What are the sites, contexts and processes that comprise the middle ground of curriculum? • How have history teachers interpreted and enacted the 1998 syllabus in the middle ground of curriculum? • How and why do the sites, contexts and processes that constitute the middle ground of curriculum influence the ways in which history teachers interpret and enact this new syllabus document before they implement it in the classroom? To address these questions, a series of interpretive case studies was undertaken. It was assumed that the subject department was a logical and relevant site in which to ground the study. Accordingly three history/HSIE departments (Illangara, Northside and St Bernadette’s), from government, independent and Catholic secondary school contexts respectively, were involved in the study over an 18-month period of time. Data collection tools included document analysis, participant observation, interviews and focus groups. This study demonstrates that the history/HSIE department acts as a concrete and conceptual site that shapes the ways in which history teachers individually and collectively interpret and enact new curriculum. Further, the operation of a history/HSIE department as a conduit for syllabus change centres on the interaction of three inter-related contexts – subject sub-cultures, teacher culture and teacher self-identity. The interaction between these three contexts varied across the three history/HSIE departments studied and thus provided history teachers within each of the three departments with different frames though which they could locate themselves in the process of syllabus change. The study found that such variance was due to the different features and dimensions of these three contexts and the ways in which they interacted within specific history/HSIE departments. Most importantly the interaction of these contexts shapes teachers’ perceived curriculum decision-making space. Teachers’ individual and collective perceptions of the nature and number of decisions available to them were evident in the micropolitical processes through which they enacted the 1998 syllabus. These processes are theorised along what Goldman and Conley refer to as the ‘zone of enactment’ and include: rejection, resistance, strategic compliance, individualism and pragmatism. Examination of these processes provides valuable insight into syllabus change processes and why the intended and actual outcomes of syllabus change are often divergent. It also provides greater understanding of the individual, collective, personal, professional and political dimensions of syllabus change and the potential cost of syllabus change to teachers. This study demonstrates the need for revision of formal syllabus development processes to acknowledge and successfully negotiate the contexts through which teachers interpret and enact curriculum. The study also provides a basis for greater research into the middle ground of curriculum. It is suggested that future research needs to cut across traditional school and subject boundaries

The endocrine disrupting activities of major industrial chemicals - the phthalate esters and 4-nonylphenol

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University, 14/11/2000.A number of widely used industrial chemicals have been shown to possess endocrine-disrupting properties. In this thesis, a series of in vitro tests, and an in vivo reproductive performance test with fathead minnows, were used to clarify the extent of estrogenic activity exhibited by the phthalate esters - a class of compound hitherto referred to as 'estrogenic'. Using a recombinant yeast estrogen screen, I demonstrated that a small number of commercially available phthalates showed extremely weak estrogenic activity. The most potently estrogenic phthalate of those tested was BBP, which was approximately one million-fold less potent than 17B-estradiol. The phthalates which were estrogenic in the yeast screen were also mitogenic on estrogen-responsive human breast cancer cells (MCF-7 and ZR-75 cell lines). The most prolifically used phthalate, DEHP, was not estrogenic in any of these assays. The small number of metabolites of phthalate metabolites tested (including MBuP, MBzP, MEHP and MnOP) were also not estrogenic in the recombinant yeast assay. The ability of BBP (as the most potently estrogenic phthalate in vitro) to induce a vitellogenic response (an indicator of estrogen exposure) in fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) exposed via the water was assessed. No induction of vitellogenin was observed, indicating that 100 Jlg BBP/L (a concentration higher than would normally be found in the environment) is not estrogenic to this species of fish under the conditions employed for this experiment. In the same study, fecundity of breeding pairs of fathead minnows was assessed; exposure to BBP was not found to affect reproductive performance in these fish. A possible alternative mechanism of action of the way in which the phthalates induce frequently reported reproductive disorders was observed. Some of the phthalates, and, notably, some of their metabolites, were demonstrated to act as anti-androgens in a recombinant yeast androgen assay. 4-Nonylphenol is another industrial chemical which is used in large volumes, and due to the nature of its use (mainly in detergent formulations), is discharged into water systems via sewage effluents. This chemical has been shown to be estrogenic to fish at the concentrations at which it has been detected in the environment. 4-Nonylphenol was tested for its ability to affect plasma and pituitary gonadotropin levels in female recrudescing rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Plasma and pituitary levels of FSH were suppressed in fish exposed to 10 and 100 Jlg 4-NP/L. In addition, FSH gene expression was reduced in these fish, and also in the fish exposed to 1 Jlg 4-NP/L. Pituitary LH content and gene expression of this hormone were suppressed in the fish exposed to 100-, and 10- and 100 Jlg 4-NP/L respectively. Gonadal development in vertebrates is regulated by FSH. Ovarian development ceased in the fish exposed to 100 JAg 4-NP/L, possibly as a result of the suppression of FSH synthesis and/or release in these fish

Why autistic sociality is different: reduced interest in competing for social status

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The interests of autistic women: more wide-ranging and intellectually-oriented than you knew

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