Using the technology of the confessional as an analytical resource: four analytical stances towards research interviews in discourse analysis

Among the various approaches that have developed from FOUCAULT's work is an Anglophone discourse analysis that has attempted to combine Foucaultian insights with the techniques of Conversation Analysis. An important current methodological issue in this discourse analytical approach is its theoretical preference for "naturally occurring" rather than research interview data. A Foucaultian perspective on the interview as a research instrument, questions the idea of "naturally-occurring discourse". The "technology of the confessional" operates, not only within research interviews, but permeates other interactions as well. Drawing on FOUCAULT does not dismiss the problems of the interview as research instrument rather it shows they cannot be escaped by simply switching to more "natural" interactions. Combining these insights with recent developments within discourse analysis can provide analytical resources for, rather than barriers to, the discourse analysis of research interviews. To aid such an approach, we develop a four-way categorisation of analytical stances towards the research interview in discourse analysis. A demonstration of how a research interview might be subjected to a discourse analysis using elements of this approach is then provided

Democracy and Protectionism

Does democracy encourage free trade? It depends. Broadening the franchise involves transferring power from non-elected elites to the wider population, most of whom will be workers. The Hecksher-Ohlin-Stolper-Samuelson logic says that democratization should lead to more liberal trade policies in countries where workers stand to gain from free trade; and to more protectionist policies in countries where workers will benefit from the imposition of tariffs and quotas. We test and confirm these political economy implications of trade theory hypothesis using data on democracy, factor endowments, and protection in the late nineteenth century.

Trade, Knowledge, and the Industrial Revolution

Technological change was unskilled-labor-biased during the early Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but is skill-biased today. This fact is not embedded in extant unified growth models. We develop a model of the transition to sustained economic growth which can endogenously account for both these facts, by allowing the factor bias of technological innovations to reflect the profit-maximising decisions of innovators. Endowments dictated that the initial stages of the Industrial Revolution be unskilled-labor biased. The transition to skill-biased technological change was due to a growth in "Baconian knowledge" and international trade. Simulations show that the model does a good job of tracking reality, at least until the mass education reforms of the late nineteenth century.

Made in America? The New World, the Old, and the Industrial Revolution

For two decades, the consensus explanation of the British Industrial Revolution has placed technological change and the supply side at center stage, affording little or no role for demand or overseas trade. Recently, alternative explanations have placed an emphasis on the importance of trade with New World colonies, and the expanded supply of raw cotton it provided. We test both hypotheses using calibrated general equilibrium models of the British economy and the rest of the world for 1760 and 1850. Neither claim is supported. Trade was vital for the progress of the industrial revolution; but it was trade with the rest of the world, not the American colonies, that allowed Britain to export its rapidly expanding textile output and achieve growth through extreme specialization in response to shifting comparative advantage.

Trade, Knowledge, and the Industrial Revolution

Technological change was unskilled-labor-biased during the early Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but is skill-biased today. This fact is not embedded in extant unified growth models. We develop a model of the transition to sustained economic growth which can endogenously account for both these facts, by allowing the factor bias of technological innovations to reflect the profitmaximising decisions of innovators. Endowments dictated that the initial stages of the Industrial Revolution be unskilled-labor biased. The transition to skill-biased technological change was due to a growth in “Baconian knowledge” and international trade. Simulations show that the model does a good job of tracking reality, at least until the mass education reforms of the late nineteenth century.Endogenous growth, Demography, Trade

Luddites and the Demographic Transition

Technological change was unskilled-labor-biased during the early Industrial Revolution, but is skill-biased today. This is not embedded in extant unified growth models. We develop a model which can endogenously account for these facts, where factor bias reflects profit-maximizing decisions by innovators. Endowments dictate that the early Industrial Revolution be unskilled-labor-biased. Increasing basic knowledge causes a growth takeoff, an income-led demand for fewer educated children, and the transition to skill-biased technological change. The simulated model tracks British industrialization in the 18th and 19th centuries and generates a demographic transition without relying on either rising skill premia or exogenous educational supply shocks.

Genomics clarifies taxonomic boundaries in a difficult species complex.

Efforts to taxonomically delineate species are often confounded with conflicting information and subjective interpretation. Advances in genomic methods have resulted in a new approach to taxonomic identification that stands to greatly reduce much of this conflict. This approach is ideal for species complexes, where divergence times are recent (evolutionarily) and lineages less well defined. The California Roach/Hitch fish species complex is an excellent example, experiencing a convoluted geologic history, diverse habitats, conflicting species designations and potential admixture between species. Here we use this fish complex to illustrate how genomics can be used to better clarify and assign taxonomic categories. We performed restriction-site associated DNA (RAD) sequencing on 255 Roach and Hitch samples collected throughout California to discover and genotype thousands of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs). Data were then used in hierarchical principal component, admixture, and FST analyses to provide results that consistently resolved a number of ambiguities and provided novel insights across a range of taxonomic levels. At the highest level, our results show that the CA Roach/Hitch complex should be considered five species split into two genera (4 + 1) as opposed to two species from distinct genera (1 +1). Subsequent levels revealed multiple subspecies and distinct population segments within identified species. At the lowest level, our results indicate Roach from a large coastal river are not native but instead introduced from a nearby river. Overall, this study provides a clear demonstration of the power of genomic methods for informing taxonomy and serves as a model for future studies wishing to decipher difficult species questions. By allowing for systematic identification across multiple scales, taxonomic structure can then be tied to historical and contemporary ecological, geographic or anthropogenic factors

Isoform-level gene signature improves prognostic stratification and accurately classifies glioblastoma subtypes.

Molecular stratification of tumors is essential for developing personalized therapies. Although patient stratification strategies have been successful; computational methods to accurately translate the gene-signature from high-throughput platform to a clinically adaptable low-dimensional platform are currently lacking. Here, we describe PIGExClass (platform-independent isoform-level gene-expression based classification-system), a novel computational approach to derive and then transfer gene-signatures from one analytical platform to another. We applied PIGExClass to design a reverse transcriptase-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) based molecular-subtyping assay for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive primary brain tumors. Unsupervised clustering of TCGA (the Cancer Genome Altas Consortium) GBM samples, based on isoform-level gene-expression profiles, recaptured the four known molecular subgroups but switched the subtype for 19% of the samples, resulting in significant (P = 0.0103) survival differences among the refined subgroups. PIGExClass derived four-class classifier, which requires only 121 transcript-variants, assigns GBM patients' molecular subtype with 92% accuracy. This classifier was translated to an RT-qPCR assay and validated in an independent cohort of 206 GBM samples. Our results demonstrate the efficacy of PIGExClass in the design of clinically adaptable molecular subtyping assay and have implications for developing robust diagnostic assays for cancer patient stratification

Rapid iododeboronation with and without gold catalysis: application to radiolabelling of arenes

Radiopharmaceuticals incorporating radioactive iodine in combination with SPECT imaging play a key role in nuclear medicine, with applications in drug development and disease diagnosis. Despite this importance, there are relatively few general methods for incorporating radioiodine into small molecules. Here we describe a rapid, air- and moisture-stable ipso-iododeboronation procedure using NIS, in the non-toxic and green solvent dimethyl carbonate. The fast reaction and mild conditions of the gold-catalysed method led to the development of a highly efficient process for radiolabelling of arenes, which constitutes the first example of an application of homogenous gold catalysis to selective radiosynthesis. This has been exemplified with an effective synthesis of radiolabelled meta-[125I]iodobenzylguanidine, a radiopharmaceutical used for the imaging and therapy of human norepinephrine transporter-expressing tumours

Adaptation to Climate Change: A Prospective Collaboration in Flood Control

Latin American Studie