“Local politics and global corporate crime in Irish crime fiction : Alan Glynn's Winterland trilogy",

Who Knows What's Going On? Mapping New Security Landscapes in Contemporary Espionage Fiction

This article explores whether or to what extent the contemporary espionage novel is able to map and interrogate transformations in the post-9/11security environment. It asks how well a form or genre of writing, typically handcuffed to the machinations and demands of the Cold War and state sovereignty, is able to adapt to a new security environment characterized by strategies of “risk assessment” and “resilience-building” and by modes or regimes of power not reducible to, or wholly controlled by, the state. In doing so, it thinks about the capacities of this type of fiction for “resisting” the formations of power it wants to make visible and is partly complicit with.

The single component geochemical map: Fact or fiction?

Single component geochemical maps are the most basic representation of spatial elemental distributions and commonly used in environmental and exploration geochemistry. However, the compositional nature of geochemical data imposes several limitations on how the data should be presented. The problems relate to the constant sum problem (closure), and the inherently multivariate relative information conveyed by compositional data. Well known is, for instance, the tendency of all heavy metals to show lower values in soils with significant contributions of diluting elements (e.g., the quartz dilution effect); or the contrary effect, apparent enrichment in many elements due to removal of potassium during weathering. The validity of classical single component maps is thus investigated, and reasonable alternatives that honour the compositional character of geochemical concentrations are presented. The first recommended such method relies on knowledge-driven log-ratios, chosen to highlight certain geochemical relations or to filter known artefacts (e.g. dilution with SiO2 or volatiles). This is similar to the classical normalisation approach to a single element. The second approach uses the (so called) log-contrasts, that employ suitable statistical methods (such as classification techniques, regression analysis, principal component analysis, clustering of variables, etc.) to extract potentially interesting geochemical summaries. The caution from this work is that if a compositional approach is not used, it becomes difficult to guarantee that any identified pattern, trend or anomaly is not an artefact of the constant sum constraint. In summary the authors recommend a chain of enquiry that involves searching for the appropriate statistical method that can answer the required geological or geochemical question whilst maintaining the integrity of the compositional nature of the data. The required log-ratio transformations should be applied followed by the chosen statistical method. Interpreting the results may require a closer working relationship between statisticians, data analysts and geochemists.

Factors associated with spectacle-wear compliance in school-aged Mexican children.

PURPOSE: To study the prevalence and determinants of compliance with spectacle wear among school-age children in Oaxaca, Mexico, who were provided spectacles free of charge. METHODS: A cohort of 493 children aged 5 to 18 years chosen by random cluster sampling from primary and secondary schools in Oaxaca, Mexico, all of whom had received free spectacles through a local program, underwent unannounced, direct examination to determine compliance with spectacle wear within 18 months after initial provision of spectacles. Potential determinants of spectacle wear including age, gender, urban versus rural residence, presenting visual acuity, refractive error, and time since dispensing of the spectacles were examined in univariate and multivariate regression models. Children not currently wearing their spectacles were asked to select the reason from a list of possibilities, and reasons for noncompliance were analyzed within different demographic groups. RESULTS: Among this sample of children with a mean age of 10.4 +/- 2.6 years, the majority (74.5%) of whom were myopic (spherical equivalent [SE] < or = -0.50 D), 13.4% (66/493) were wearing their spectacles at the time of examination. An additional 34% (169/493) had the spectacles with them but were not wearing them. In regression models, the odds of spectacle wear were significantly higher among younger (OR = 1.19 per year of age; 95% CI, 1.05-1.33) rural (OR = 10.6; 95% CI, 5.3-21.0) children and those with myopia < or = -1.25 D (OR = 3.97; 95% CI, 1.98-7.94). The oldest children and children in urban-suburban areas were significantly more likely to list concerns about the appearance of the glasses or about being teased than were younger, rurally resident children. CONCLUSIONS: Compliance with spectacle wear may be very low, even when spectacles are provided free of charge, particularly among older, urban children, who have been shown in many populations to have the highest prevalence of myopia. As screening programs for refractive error become increasingly common throughout the world, new strategies are needed to improve compliance if program resources are to be maximized.

Correction of moderate myopia is associated with improvement in self-reported visual functioning among Mexican school-aged children.

PURPOSE: To quantify the impact on self-reported visual functioning of spectacle provision for school-aged children in Oaxaca, Mexico. METHODS: The Refractive Status Vision Profile (RSVP), a previously validated tool to measure the impact of refractive correction on visual functioning, was adapted for use in rural children and administered at baseline and 4 weeks (27.3 +/- 4.4 days) after the provision of free spectacles. Visual acuity with and without correction, age, sex, and spherical equivalent refraction were recorded at the time of follow-up. RESULTS: Among 88 children (mean age, 12 years; 55.7% girls), the median presenting acuity (uncorrected or with original spectacles), tested 4 weeks after the provision of free spectacles, was 6/9 (range, 6/6-6/120). Significant improvements in the following subscales of the RSVP were seen for the group as a whole after the provision of free spectacles: function, 11.2 points (P = 0.0001); symptoms, 14.3 points (P < 0.0001); total score, 10.3 points (P = 0.0001). After stratification by presenting vision in the better-seeing eye, children with 6/6 acuity (n = 22) did not have significant improvement in any subscale; those with acuity of 6/7.5 to 6/9 (n = 34) improved only on function (P = 0.02), symptoms (P = 0.005), and total score (P = 0.003); and those with acuity of 6/12 or worse improved on total score (P < 0.0001) and all subscales. Subjects (n = 31) with uncorrected myopia of -1.25 D or more had a mean improvement in total score of 15.9 points (P < 0.0001), whereas those with uncorrected myopia between -0.50 and -1.00 D inclusive (n = 53) had a mean improvement of 8 points (P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Provision of spectacles to children in this setting had a significant impact on self-reported function, even at modest levels of baseline visual disability. The correlation between presenting vision/refraction and improvement and the failure of children 6/6 at baseline to improve offer evidence for a real effect.

Unwilling Executioner:Crime Fiction and the State

What gives crime fiction its distinctive shape and form? What makes it such a compelling vehicle of social and political critique? Unwilling Executioner argues that the answer lies in the emerging genre's complex and intimate relationship with the bureaucratic state and modern capitalism, and the contradictions that ensue when the state assumes control of the justice system. This study offers a dramatic new interpretation of the genre's emergence and evolution over a three hundred year period and as a genuinely transnational phenomenon.

Globalization and the State in Contemporary Crime Fiction:A World of Crime

Why has crime fiction become a global genre? How do writers use crime fiction to reflect upon the changing nature of crime and policing in our contemporary world? This book argues that the globalization of crime fiction should not be celebrated uncritically. Instead, it looks at the new forms and techniques writers are using to examine the crimes and policing practices that define a rapidly changing world. In doing so, this collection of essays examines how the relationship between global crime, capitalism, and policing produces new configurations of violence in crime fiction – and asks whether the genre can find ways of analyzing and even opposing such violence as part of its necessarily limited search for justice both within and beyond the state.