Public Policy and the Influence it Holds

Policies reflect the values of the society that creates them, but can also change the way a society perceives and approaches certain issues. Considered a taboo in the past the U.S. has adopted extensive child maltreatment policy that varies in every state. Child neglect and poverty are known to hold a significant relationship, with the potential to decrease both through structural interventions. Despite this, neglect and poverty remain taboo topics in Iowan society. This is reflected the public policy of the state and in the policy adopted by the independent organization Prevent Child Abuse Iowa (PCAIowa). Literature on the anthropology of policy and the perceptions of poverty and neglect along with a linguistic analysis were used to analyze the child maltreatment policies of the federal government, state of Iowa, and PCAIowa. Further, child maltreatment data collected by the federal government and the Iowa Department of Human Services were utilized. Iowa state child maltreatment policy deviates significantly from the federal standard, ultimately replacing the category of neglect with “denial of critical care.” The “denial of critical care” policy excludes poverty from its definition. PCAIowa’s policy includes neglect, yet doesn’t address poverty or the relationship between the two. Iowa’s “denial of critical care” policy uses ambiguous language that prevents the policy from being standardized across the state. Removing poverty for the definition of “denial of critical care” adheres to a societal taboo of this topic and allows for a perception of poverty that blames individuals to persist. By the elimination of poverty this policy fails to address the relationship between poverty and child neglect. Although the Adverse Childhood Events study has been successful in highlighting the effect of child abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction has on individuals, ambiguous language leads to an unproductive discussion of these topics. Further, inconsistencies between Iowa and PCAIowa policy prompts a loss of vital information from being presented to the public, and instead provides unnecessary information out of context. Child maltreatment policy in Iowa is ineffective in the way it addresses neglect and poverty as the result of a societal taboo in discussing these topics. Anthropologists have the potential to advocate to change the way child neglect and poverty are presented in policy in order to begin to address these topics more productively

Korean Code of Ethics for Attorneys

In 2009, Korea implemented a law school educational system, which not only changed the legal education system, but the legal landscape as a whole. This has led to rapid growth in the number of attorneys. Although the increased number of attorneys has resulted in lower barriers to accessing justice, it has also brought the unintended consequence of cut-throat competition. With the number of disciplinary actions rising by four-fold in the last three years, the current version of the Korean Code of Ethics for Attorneys is certainly a step in the right direction but may not be enough to strengthen attorneys’ legal ethics in such an unprecedented time in Korean legal history. In light of the heated discussion in Korea regarding legal ethics, this comment, following the accompanying translation of the Korean Bar Association’s Code of Ethos for Attorneys, first, analyzes how the Korean legal education system and legal ethics education has changed over time. Second, to provide context on how the current Code of Ethics reached its current form, this comment reviews the history of and recent amendments to the Code of Ethics. Lastly, it considers next steps for the Code of Ethics and how attorneys can have a better sense of legal ethics in the long term. This comment is for those interested in comparative legal ethics, Korean legal ethics, and the Korean legal system

Rapid determination of alumina in diaspore clays

The alumina content of the diaspore clay is the index to its refractoriness, so it is important to know the alumina content of the diaspore clay. Diaspore is mined in comparatively small pits and naturally the alumina content will vary from pit to pit and will vary to a considerable extent in the same pit. Since a uniform finished product is desired, the alumina content of each pit must be known and frequent checks run on the output of the pits. Chemical analysis is the standard method of determining the amount of alumina in clays. The main objections to chemical analysis is the length of time involved in the determination and the lack of information concerning the mineral form of the alumina in the sample. Petrography, X-Ray, and the differential thermal furnace are some methods that have been suggested to overcome the deficiencies of chemical analysis. It is the purpose of this work to discuss these methods and to compare them --Introduction, page v