What's the Use of International Relations?

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Realism and Utopianism Revisited

For Carr, the contrast between utopians and realists was between ‘those who regard politics as a function of ethics and those who regard ethics as a function of politics’. In other words, can we direct society in benevolent directions, perhaps to a utopia, or do we take what we are given and try to rationalize this into some form of moral acceptability? In the context of International Relations, the utopian aspires to a world without war and where power is not the primary determinant of relationships. The realist is more sceptical. Broadly, the realist stresses the constraints in life; the utopian stresses the opportunities. At this level, they are not social theories but temperamental attitudes. Writing originally in 1939, Carr regarded the realists as those who understood the significance of power in the international scene and whose voices had been neglected in the interwar years. The utopians espoused a set of disparate views prevalent at that time linked by their neglect of power. Carr held these utopian positions to be impractical and dangerous. My aim in this article is to look at some versions of realism and some of utopianism, to see how they have developed today into modern variants. I ask how relevant are these traditions, if traditions they be, to the present world

Information needs and institutional development

Michael W. Nicholson; Armine R. Mirzoya

Regional labor force growth: mix of native, immigrant workers varies

Immigrants

Does Television Cause Autism?

Autism is currently estimated to affect approximately one in every 166 children, yet the cause or causes of the condition are not well understood. One of the current theories concerning the condition is that among a set of children vulnerable to developing the condition because of their underlying genetics, the condition manifests itself when such a child is exposed to a (currently unknown) environmental trigger. In this paper we empirically investigate the hypothesis that early childhood television viewing serves as such a trigger. Using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey, we first establish that the amount of television a young child watches is positively related to the amount of precipitation in the child's community. This suggests that, if television is a trigger for autism, then autism should be more prevalent in communities that receive substantial precipitation. We then look at county-level autism data for three states -- California, Oregon, and Washington -- characterized by high precipitation variability. Employing a variety of tests, we show that in each of the three states (and across all three states when pooled) there is substantial evidence that county autism rates are indeed positively related to county-wide levels of precipitation. In our final set of tests we use California and Pennsylvania data on children born between 1972 and 1989 to show, again consistent with the television as trigger hypothesis, that county autism rates are also positively related to the percentage of households that subscribe to cable television. Our precipitation tests indicate that just under forty percent of autism diagnoses in the three states studied is the result of television watching due to precipitation, while our cable tests indicate that approximately seventeen percent of the growth in autism in California and Pennsylvania during the 1970s and 1980s is due to the growth of cable television. These findings are consistent with early childhood television viewing being an important trigger for autism. We also discuss further tests that can be conducted to explore the hypothesis more directly.

Consumer psychology as the behavourist views it : an operant analysis of consumer channel choice

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Gastrointestinal stromal tumour as a rare association with neurofibromatosis type 1

Gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST) are rare tumours of mesenchymal origin. These can be associated with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), which is an autosomal dominant disorder. The prevalence of GIST in NF1 is estimated at 3.9-25%. This paper describes the presentation of a GIST arising from the jejenum in a 75-year-old lady with NF1, who presented with gastrointestinal bleeding. This was diagnosed by CT angiography. She was managed with laparotomy, with resection of small bowel, and an ischaemic segment of large bowel with two primary anastomoses. Pathology showed GIST of spindle cell type (Figs 3 and 4), 90 mm in size, with complete local excision. The patient was discharged on the eighth post-operative day and is currently undergoing regular clinic follow-up after multidisciplinary team meeting discussion

Population and genetic impacts of a 4-lane highway on black bears in eastern North Carolina

A 19.3-km section of U.S. Highway 64 in Washington County, North Carolina was rerouted to a 4-lane, divided highway with 3 wildlife underpasses during 2001–2005. I determined the short-term population and genetic impacts of the new highway on American black bears (Ursus americanus). I used DNA from hair samples collected during 7 weekly sampling periods within the project area of the new highway and a nearby control area during 2000 (pre-construction phase) and 2006 (post-construction phase; n = 70 sites for each study area). DNA from the hair samples was used to obtain genotypes of sampled bears using 10 microsatellite markers. I created capture histories of all identified individuals and used closed mark-recapture models in Program MARK to estimate abundance. Population abundance decreased on the treatment area from 68 (CI = 53–82) before construction to 20 (CI = 14–26) after completion of the highway. On the control area, population abundance decreased from 144 to 101. Using permutation procedures, I determined that the decrease in population abundance on the treatment area was greater compared with the control area (P = 0.0012). Additionally, I used bear visits to the sampling sites with multi-season occupancy models in Program MARK to determine if site occupancy decreased following the construction of the highway and if any decrease was a function of distance from the highway. Following highway construction, site occupancy decreased more on the treatment area than the control area but was not a function of distance from the highway. Finally, I used the microsatellite data to compare gene flow, isolation by distance, heterozygosity, allelic diversity, population assignment, and genetic structure (Fst) before and after completion of the highway. I did not observe any treatment effects for these genetic measures. I speculate that displacement during the construction of the highway and mortality due to bear-vehicle collisions contributed to the population decline and decrease in site occupancy. Although the wildlife underpasses facilitated genetic and demographic connectivity, my study indicates that the potential impact of new highways on black bear population abundance is an important consideration for transportation infrastructure planning

On Dostoevsky’s Shoelaces and the Vicissitudes of Literary History

The article relates broadly to the English reception of Russian literature at the beginning of the twentieth century, and to the friendship between celebrated representatives of two generations of intermediaries and historians of Russian literature for the English, Maurice Baring and Dmitry Svyatopolk-Mirsky. More specifically it focuses on Baring’s recollection of an encounter in 1907 during which the young Mirsky allegedly expressed his passionate admiration for Dostoevsky and declared Tolstoy unworthy to untie Dostoevsky’s shoelaces. Baring’s own high regard for Dostoevsky had been manifest years before the Dostoevsky “craze” swept England in the teens of the century. Mirsky’s celebrity dates from the 1920s when, after Revolution and Civil War and aided by Baring, he lived in emigration in London, earning renown as author of arguably the finest history of Russian literature ever written for the English reader. However, Mirsky’s consistent opinion of Dostoevsky and his assessment of the relative eminence of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy in the writings of those years, far from cementing a bond with Baring, seem almost diametrically opposed to the latter’s recollection of their first encounter some 15 years before.  Nevertheless, traces of the lost Dostoevskyphile youth of Mirsky offer tentative vindication of Baring’s version. At the same time, though alien to the works by which Mirsky is best known, the exalted tenor of the surviving piece of juvenilia points obliquely ahead. It is macabrely suggestive of the expression of Mirsky’s growing Marxist and Leninist certainty from the late 1920s on, and of the faith or vision that in the 1930s took him back to the Soviet Union and his death

The Market Medicinal Plants of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico

The primary purpose of this study was to record the popular uses of various medicinal plants gathered in the vicinity of Monterrey, Mexico. Two hundred medicinal plant specimens were collected from 11 hierberias of two mercados and two additional medicinal plant sources. Included is a total of 92 species in 86 genera of 50 plant families. The plant vendors at the hierberias were interviewed to determine the folk uses of the plants. The reports were reviewed in the literature for comparison with previously published citations. Collections are retained in the Ethnobotanical Herbarium, Room 107, Klehm Hall, Eastern Illinois University along with original notes taken in the mercados