Ideological inequalities: Khmer culture and widows' perception of remarriage

To explain the enduring persistence of gender inequality, structural explanations alone are not sufficient. One must look at the realm of cultural ideas to understand the entrenched nature of female subordination. Ideological inequalities embedded in cultural beliefs and practices sustain and perpetuate structural inequalities. This article explores ideological inequalities in Cambodian culture as an explanation for the reluctance of rural widows to remarry, despite the economic benefits that a new husband would likely bring. Using concepts from the theory of the social construction of reality, two cultural sources for widows' reluctance are considered, the beliefs and practices of Khmer Buddhism and the chbab srey, an influential moral code for women. The article theorizes that widows shy away from remarriage because Khmer religious and social customs place women into an ideologically subordinate position in the household. Widows fear that in a new marriage, they would lose control over their household and their children's lives. By remaining widows, they have cultural space to reject female subordination, maintain control of their household, and focus on their role as mothers to earn religious merit for their next life. Instead of ideological inequalities that subordinate women, modified cultural arrangements can create ideological equalities that nurture both men and women.Accepted manuscrip

A critique of methodologies for the comparison of organic and conventional farming systems

This paper was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference of the Colloquium of Organic Researchers (COR). A review is presented of comparative studies of organic and conventional farming systems, with a special focus upon economic criteria. The different categories of comparison methodologies are critically reviewed. Conclusions are that classic experimentation has a valuable part to play but that more qualitative assessment can also be useful and should be encouraged. Careful allowance should be made for major background differences in management when comparing financial profitability. Longer term case studies, which try to monitor organic systems in their own right, should also be encouraged

Impact of change on Attitudes, Skills and Professional Learning Requirements: Survey of secondary teachers of Craft, Design, Engineering and Graphics

This is an independent report based on a national survey. It forms part of a funded project with Education Scotland. It is designed to capture the attitudes and thoughts of teachers currently involved in the implementation of the new curriculum arrangements and the teaching, learning and assessment inherent in delivery. The purpose of this report is to guide and inform future support, advice and guidance for professional learning and further research enquiry. Critically, it offers an overview of current thoughts, as a snap shot of time, set in the context of the roll out of the senior phase of DET

Faking it : counterfeiting and consumer contradictions

Fashion counterfeiting is a multimillion pound business and one which relies on the complicity of the consumer. Frequently seen as a victimless crime, it is a difficult trade to control because as long as consumers desire brands, the greater the market for counterfeits. In this study we consider the way in which consumers relate to fake brands and the implications of counterfeit for consumers creating their identity through commodities. The results point to an inherent and fundamental contradiction in consumers views on counterfeit, willing to buy and wear the fakes but condemning the duplicity of those who do

Using MiniBooNE neutral current elastic cross section results to constrain 3+1 sterile neutrino models

The MiniBooNE Neutral Current Elastic (NCEL) cross section results are used to extract limits in the $\Delta m^{2}-\sin^{2}\vartheta_{\mu s}$ plane for a 3+1 sterile neutrino model with a mass splitting $0.1 \leq \Delta m^{2} \leq 10.0$ eV$^{2}$. GENIE is used with a cross section model close to the one employed by MiniBooNE to make event rate predictions using simulations on the MiniBooNE target material CH$_{2}$. The axial mass is a free parameter in all fits. Sterile modifications to the flux and changes to the cross section in the simulation relate the two and allow limits to be set on sterile neutrino mixing using cross section results. The large axial mass problem makes it necessary for experiments to perform their own axial mass fits, but a prior fit to the same dataset could mask a sterile oscillation signal if the sterile and cross section model parameters are not independent. We find that for the NCEL dataset there are significant correlations between the sterile and cross section model parameters, making a fit to both models simultaneously necessary to get robust results. Failure to do this results in stronger than warranted limits on the sterile parameters. The general problems that the current uncertainty on charged-current quasi-elastic (CCQE) and NCEL cross sections at MiniBooNE energies pose for sterile neutrino measurements are discussed.Comment: Final version accepted for publication in JHE

Lessons from the 3d U(1) Gross-Neveu Model

The effectiveness of the Glasgow algorithm is explored via implementation in the 3d U(1) Gross-Neveu model and the realisation of the Goldstone mechanism in this model is compared and contrasted with its realisation in QCD.Comment: 6 pages, 5 eps figs, To appear in Proceedings of "QCD at Finite Baryon Density" workshop, Bielefeld, 27-30 April 199

A Call to Action: Los Angeles' Quest to Achieve Community Safety

"A Call To Action: Los Angeles' Quest To Achieve Community Safety" is a report and policy brief telling the story of L.A.'s extraordinary experiment to keep kids safe in the City of Los Angeles' worst gang zones, and laying out a new comprehensive set of recommendations. The document also explains Advancement Project's comprehensive violence reduction strategy and shows how it could be used in other communities suffering from gang violence. The report, assembled by Advancement Proejct's Urban Peace and Healthy City programs, highlights progress the City of L.A. has made toward greater public safety, and how to build on those successes to achieve comprehensive community safety in places where children are still exposed to chronic trauma and violence.Five Years of ProgressIn 2007 Advancement Project released "A Call to Action: A Case for a Comprehensive Solution to L.A.'s Gang Violence Epidemic", a roadmap that explained why Los Angeles' 30-year "war on gangs" was failing to quell gangs and gang violence and laid out a comprehensive set of recommendations to reverse course. Since then, Advancement Project has worked closely with City officials to put these recommendations into place.Los Angeles has seen greater success in decreasing gang violence with gang-related crime reduced by over 15% and 35% fewer gang-related homicides surrounding neighborhoods served by the Mayor's Gang Reduction & Youth Development (GRYD) Office and by Summer Night Lights, a summer violence reduction strategy. In 2010 the homicide rate was at its lowest since the 1960s.Success in significantly reducing violence can be attributed in part to the following:Catalyst to City's new approach to gang violence: Based on the 2007 report recommendations to create a central entity that manages gang violence prevention in areas where violence was concentrated, the City of L.A. created the GRYD Office to focus public resources where it is needed the most -- on 12 gang violence hot zones identified in conjunction with community leaders.Transformation of L.A. Police Department: The LAPD has transformed the way it deals with gangs, from an overbroad suppression strategy to relationship-based, problem-solving policing.Training gang interventionists: The Urban Peace Academy was established to train gang interventionists, the only publicly funded training program in the nation for gang interventionists. The academy has trained more than 1,200 gang interventionists and more than 400 police officers to work together, which has resulted in collaboration and shared accountability to achieve public safety.In fact, efforts in Los Angeles have been so successful that other cities across the nation are working to adopt some of the strategies that have succeeded in Los Angeles.Time for a New Call to ActionDespite amazing gains in violence reduction for the City of Los Angeles as a whole, there is still much left to do. We are not yet fully cured of this complex epidemic -- the conditions that spawn and sustain gang violence remain largely unchanged in L.A.'s most vulnerable communities. We continue to require holistic, systemic, and politically difficult solutions."A Call to Action: Los Angeles' Quest to Achieve Community Safety"explains why, despite these significant accomplishments, the City faces a number of ongoing challenges and opportunities for investment.The Urban Peace program advocates for the leadership of the City and County of Los Angeles to publicly commit to achieving the following goals:GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITY ACCOUNTABILITY: Government at every level must be held accountable for the basic safety of every child.SCALING UP PREVENTION, INTERVENTION, AND TARGETED SUPPRESSION: The City and County of Los Angeles must bring up to scale prevention and intervention efforts to meet the need in the hot zones in a culturally competent way.ACHIEVE FEAR-FREE SCHOOLS: Beyond Safe Passages to and from school, all students should attend public schools free of bullying, gang intimidation, and all forms of fear.REGIONALLY COORDINATED COUNTY AGENCIES: County agencies must cooperate with each other and with the City to achieve reductions in violence, trauma, and crime.BUILD A REENTRY NETWORK: The County must seize realignment as an opportunity to make coordinated, seamless reintegration a reality for its citizens returning from incarceration.EQUITABLE COMMUNITY BUILDING: These neighborhoods must receive the same capital, business, educational, and infrastructure investment from which affluent Los Angeles already benefits.CREATE VIABLE EMPLOYMENT: There needs to be an immediate economic and employment plan for the hot zone communities of Los Angeles.Ending the public safety inequity that renders gang violence hot zone communities invisible to the rest of Los Angeles means we must provide youth greater alternatives that preempt gang joining. Political will is necessary to pull together a truly comprehensive solution with real government-community partnerships at both the City and County level, tailored to yield and sustain results for each individual neighborhood. Los Angeles cannot rest until every family and every child enjoy the first of all civil rights -- safety -- and the first of all freedoms -- freedom from violence

The Electrostatic Screening Length in Concentrated Electrolytes Increases with Concentration

According to classical electrolyte theories interactions in dilute (low ion density) electrolytes decay exponentially with distance, with the Debye screening length the characteristic length-scale. This decay length decreases monotonically with increasing ion concentration, due to effective screening of charges over short distances. Thus within the Debye model no long-range forces are expected in concentrated electrolytes. Here we reveal, using experimental detection of the interaction between two planar charged surfaces across a wide range of electrolytes, that beyond the dilute (Debye-Huuckel) regime the screening length increases with increasing concentration. The screening lengths for all electrolytes studied - including aqueous NaCl solutions, ionic liquids diluted with propylene carbonate, and pure ionic liquids - collapse onto a single curve when scaled by the dielectric constant. This non-monotonic variation of the screening length with concentration, and its generality across ionic liquids and aqueous salt solutions, demonstrates an important characteristic of concentrated electrolytes of substantial relevance from biology to energy storage.Comment: This document is the unedited authors' version of a Submitted Work that was subsequently accepted for publication in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, copyright American Chemical Society, after peer review. To access the final edited and published work see http://pubsdc3.acs.org/articlesonrequest/AOR-EW6FuIC6wIh6D9qqEeH