The Entrepreneurial State Goes to Europe

This article investigates state-level export programs in response to the emerging new economic and political regime of Europe 1992. Little related export promotion activity is found, even in states reputed to have the most active entrepreneurial policies. The authors conclude that states have few resources to invest in export promotion and are inappropriate jurisdictions around which to organize such policy, despite the much touted entrepreneurial state

\u27HOUSEHOLD CLASS. THE STATE AND PUBLIC ATTITUDES TO WELFARE\u27

Two specific shifts have occurred in the sectoral bases of welfare provision in the UK since the last war. The first involved in establishment of collective state provision whilst the second has involved a significant expansion of owner occupation. These developments have been interpreted at various times as signifying substantial changes in the nature of British society, particularly in the way that they are alleged to have attenuated class based social divisions and patterns of consciousness. In contemporary debates, owner occupation is alleged to have generated a conservative domestic oriented attitudinal disposition among manual households. Further, such households are held to be profoundly disaffected from state welfare as a result of their experiences as clients in this sector. The Plymouth study, which is reported below, was concerned with public attitudes to welfare. More specifically, its aim was to generate a data base which would enable the relative significance of sectoral patterns of welfare and household class as factors which influence the pattern of public attitudes to issues in social policy to be assessed. This aim was implemented by administering a structured questionnaire to a sample of 150 households in Plymouth. Subsequent empirical and conceptual analyses generated three conclusions. First, people are dissatisfied with the experience of state welfare but it is the distributive impact of welfare which is of the greatest significance in the calculations of the average household. Second, sectoral patterns of welfare do influence public perceptions of issues in social policy, but in a modest and specific way. Third, household class remains the most significant determinant of access to welfare, public or private, and because of this, the most significant influence on the pattern of public attitudes to welfare

The psychological distress of the young driver: a brief report

Objective: To explore the role of psychological distress in the self-reported risky driving of young novice drivers. Design: Cross-sectional online survey of 761 tertiary students aged 17-25 years with an intermediate (Provisional) driving licence who completed Kessler’s Psychological Distress Scale and the Behaviour of Young Novice Drivers Scale. Setting: Queensland, Australia, August-October 2009. Main outcome measures: Psychological distress, risky driving. Results: Regression analyses revealed that psychological distress uniquely explained 8.5% of the variance in young novice’s risky driving, with adolescents experiencing psychological distress also reporting higher levels of risky driving. Psychological distress uniquely explained a significant 6.7% and 9.5% of variance in risky driving for males and females respectively. Conclusions: Medical practitioners treating adolescents who have been injured through risky behaviour need to aware of the potential contribution of psychological distress, whilst mental health professionals working with adolescents experiencing psychological distress need to be aware of this additional source of potential harm. The nature of the causal relationships linking psychological distress and risky driving behaviour are not yet fully understood, indicating a need for further research so that strategies such as screening can be investigated

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationMelanoma is among the leading causes of cancer death in younger adults. Established risk factors are mostly nonmodifiable with the exception of exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Because melanomas are not limited to areas of the body that are exposed to ultraviolet radiation and because other risk factors do not account for many cases of melanoma, it is expected that there are yet unidentified risk factors. Overall, melanoma incidence rates continue to rise despite efforts to educate people about the risk of sun exposure and tanning beds. This increase combined with the aggressive and dangerous nature of melanoma in advanced stages has fueled campaigns for prevention and early diagnosis. When caught early, melanoma treatment is relatively successful when treated with surgery. The present study evaluates risk factors that have been suggested by previous research done primarily on non-U.S. populations. These include vitamin D levels, body mass index, and height. The databases in some European countries are extensive and have provided a platform to investigate these risk factors. The limitations of this thesis are few but important. Germaine to proving the necessity of this study is the limitation that the cohorts are very geographically narrow. The Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) cancer cohort provides a large and geographically diverse U.S. population for this study. It enrolled and followed over 150,000 people for 13 years each to evaluate the efficacy of screening for each of the 4 cancer types. Incidence of all other cancer types were also recorded but not studied as they are not the primary aims of the PLCO. In this review of the data provided by the PLCO, the following associations or lack thereof were found: High self-reported vitamin D intake seemed to predict an increased risk of melanoma among men but not women. There was no dose response curve or trend between reported vitamin D intake and melanoma risk. Serum vitamin D levels did not seem to predict disease severity as measured by tumor thickness. There was an interesting correlation between melanoma risk and body mass index (BMI) calculated from reported height and weight at age 20. In men, being underweight at age 20 seemed to be protective while in women being overweight at age 20 seemed to be protective. BMI did not correlate with disease severity as measured by tumor thickness. Height seemed to be correlated to melanoma risk. There was significant trend between increasing height and melanoma risk in men and women. Those in the highest quartile of height were at a significantly increased risk compared to those in the lowest quartile. In summary, this analysis of PLCO data confirms the difficulty of identifying risk factors for melanoma. We corroborated the finding that height is positively correlated with melanoma risk; however, BMI and vitamin D findings were not as clear

Paraconsistent Vagueness: Why Not?

The idea that the phenomenon of vagueness might be modelled by a paraconsistent logic has been little discussed in contemporary work on vagueness, just as the idea that paraconsistent logics might be fruitfully applied to the phenomenon of vagueness has been little discussed in contemporary work on paraconsistency. This is prima facie surprising given that the earliest formalisations of paraconsistent logics presented in Jáskowski and Halldén were presented as logics of vagueness. One possible explanation for this is that, despite initial advocacy by pioneers of paraconsistency, the prospects for a paraconsistent account of vagueness are so poor as to warrant little further consideration. In this paper we look at the reasons that might be offered in defence of this negative claim. As we shall show, they are far from compelling. Paraconsistent accounts of vagueness deserve further attention

Paraconsistent Vagueness: Why Not?

The idea that the phenomenon of vagueness might be modelled by a paraconsistent logic has been little discussed in contemporary work on vagueness, just as the idea that paraconsistent logics might be fruitfully applied to the phenomenon of vagueness has been little discussed in contemporary work on paraconsistency. This is prima facie surprising given that the earliest formalisations of paraconsistent logics presented in Jáskowski and Halldén were presented as logics of vagueness. One possible explanation for this is that, despite initial advocacy by pioneers of paraconsistency, the prospects for a paraconsistent account of vagueness are so poor as to warrant little further consideration. In this paper we look at the reasons that might be offered in defence of this negative claim. As we shall show, they are far from compelling. Paraconsistent accounts of vagueness deserve further attention