The China threat : perceptions, myths and reality

"Since the end of the Cold War, one of the most significant debates in international relations has been the question of whether the rise of China as a major economic, political and military power will be a force for stability or instability in the international system and the East Asian region. Forceful arguments have been put forward on both sides."
"This book examines perceptions of the 'China Threat', and governments' policies in response to the perceived threat in a wide range of countries, including the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, South Asia, South-East Asia and the Middle East, as well as the perceptions of the Chinese themselves. For each country current security concerns and policies, especially the policy of engagement, are examined in detail, and future prospects for relations with China are assessed. As the Bush administration in Washington increasingly focuses on China as a 'strategic competitor' and Sino-US-relations become increasingly tense, the 'China Threat' issue has come to dominate the security agenda in the Asia-Pacific region, and now poses the biggest foreign policy challenge of the twenty-first century."

Victorianisms in twentieth century young adult fiction

Abstract: This thesis investigates the origins of contemporary fictional constructions of childhood by examining the extent to which current literary representations of children and childhood have departed from their Victorian origins. I set out to test my intuition that many contemporary young adult novels perpetuate Victorian ideals and values in their constructions of childhood, despite the overt circumstantial modernity of the childhoods they represent. The question this thesis hopes to answer therefore is, how Victorian is contemporary young adult fiction? To gauge the degree of change that has taken place since the Victorian period, differences and points of continuity between representations of nineteenth century childhood and twentieth century childhood will be sought and examined in texts from both eras. The five aspects of fictional representation that I focus on are: notions of innocence; sexuality; the child as saviour; the use of discipline and punishment to create the ideal child; and the depiction of childhood and adulthood as separate worlds. The primary theoretical framework used derives from Michel Foucault’s concepts of the construction of subjectivity through discourse, discipline and punishment, and his treatment of repression and power, drawn mainly from The History of Sexuality vol. 1 (1976) and Discipline and Punish; the Birth of the Prison (1977). I have chosen to use Foucault primarily because of the affinity between his work on the social construction of knowledge and the argument that childhood is a constructed rather than essential category; and because Foucault’s work on Victorian sexuality exposes links with current thinking rather than perpetuating assumptions about sexual repression in this period.

Spaces of empire : culture, discourse, and urban formation with particular reference to British Hong Kong, 1842-1914

Traces the ideological formations of British colonialism using the techniques of modern European cartography to examine the practices of spatial production in Hong Kong's capital city, Victoria. This examination demonstrates how notions of British cultural identity and self-representation were inscribed throughout the colonial urban environment by considering the ways in which the British colonial authorities sought to condition, control, and maintain the organisation of space.

The ‘flow of Asia’ — vocabularies of engagement : a cultural history

The article reviews the history of Australian representations of Asia from the mid-19th century to the present. It argues that there are instructive continuities between recent references to ‘Asia literacy’ and to injunctions to know Asia that date from the late 19th century. It examines representations of Asia that stress fluidity and unpredictability, and argues that fluid Asia has been assigned characteristics not unlike those attributed to women and the crowd. The implications of this analysis for recent discussions of the threat posed by political Islam are also referred to. In such discussions ‘the proper treatment of women’ is commonly represented as both an established Australian value and one now under threat. The article ends by suggesting that the Howard government sought to marginalise ‘Asia literacy’, replacing it with ‘Australia literacy’.

A brief history of Brazil's growth

The paper studies Brazil’s economic growth and begins with a brief overview of events that marked the country’s development from her discovery to the 19th century. It then divides the years between 1900 and 2008 into four periods. The breaks in regime occur in 1918, 1967 and 1980, according to the methodology created by Bai and Perron (1998, 2003). The use of the accounting methodology serves the analysis of the behavior of productivity in the previously identified different phases of the post-World War II period. High inflation might have been a reason for the decline in productivity observed between 1980 and mid-1990s. The paper shows that terms of trade have a significant effect on economic growth and output fluctuations. Other factors (such as fiscal stimulus or easy access to foreign finance) also matter for output accelerations in the short run. From 2004 to 2008, terms of trade improvement and debt reduction brought economic progress. The emergence of a new era in this millennium will depend on wiser fiscal policies than those of the past.

Distribution of North Pacific right whales (Eubalaena japonica) as shown by 19th and 20th century whaling catch and sighting records

North Pacific right whales (Eubalaena japonica) were extensively exploited in the 19th century, and their recovery was further retarded (severely so in the eastern population) by illegal Soviet catches in the 20th century, primarily in the 1960s. Monthly plots of right whale sightings and catches from both the 19th and 20th centuries are provided, using data summarized by Scarff (1991, from the whale charts of Matthew Fontaine Maury) and Brownell et al. (2001), respectively. Right whales had an extensive offshore distribution in the 19th century, and were common in areas (such as the Gulf of Alaska and Sea of Japan) where few or no right whales occur today. Seasonal movements of right whales are apparent in the data, although to some extent these reflect survey and whaling effort. That said, these seasonal movements indicate a general northward migration in spring from lower latitudes, and major concentrations above 40°N in summer. Sightings diminished and occurred further south in autumn, and few animals were recorded anywhere in winter. These north-south migratory movements support the hypothesis of two largely discrete populations of right whales in the eastern and western North Pacific. Overall, these analyses confirm that the size and range of the right whale population is now considerably diminished in the North Pacific relative to the situation during the peak period of whaling for this species in the 19th century. For management purposes, new surveys are urgently required to establish the present distribution of this species; existing data suggest that the Bering Sea, the Gulf of Alaska, the Okhotsk Sea, the Kuril Islands and the coast of Kamchatka are the areas with the greatest likelihood of finding right whales today.

Essays on the history of Brazilian dipterology. I. The first notices about Brazilian Diptera (16th century)

Essays on the history of Brazilian dipterology. I. The first notices about Brazilian Diptera (16th century). This paper presents a historical resume of the first notices about Brazilian Diluent during the 16th century, given by Francisco Pires in 1552 (the oldest mention known), Jose de Anchieta, Leonardo do Valle, Pero de Magalhaes de Gandavo, Jean de Lery and Gabriel Soares de Souza, ending with Fernao Cardim, who made the last mentions of Brazilian Diptera in that century.

Essays on the history of Brazilian dipterology. II. Notices about Brazilian Diptera (17th century)

Essays on the history of Brazilian dipterology. II. Notices about Brazilian Diptera (17th century). Notices from the Brazilian Diptera from the 17th century come mainly from two foreign invasions occurred in Brazil, the first one by the French in Maranhao and the second by the Dutch in northeastern Brazil. This paper includes reports of Fathers Claude d'Abbeville and Yves d'Evreux and from Piso and Marcgrave, the last two presenting the first illustrations of Brazilian Diptera. The paper also includes reports of Friar Laureano de la Cruz, Father Joao de Sotto Mayor and Mauricio de Heriarte.

Essays on the history of Brazilian dipterology. III. Three remarkable notices from the 18th century, mainly related to myiasis-producing flies (Cochliomyia and Dermatobia)

Essays on the history of Brazilian dipterology. III. Three remarkable notices from the 18th century, mainly related to myiasis-producing flies (Cochliomyia and Dermatobia). This paper registers reports about dipterans made by three Portuguese who lived in Brazil during the 18th century. Luiz Gomes Ferreira, in his book "Erario mineral" ["Mineral revenue"], wrote curious passages related with myiasis-causing flies of the genus Cochliomyia. Jose Rodrigues de Mello registered, in Latin verses, the folklore for curing myiases caused by Cochliomyia hominivorax in cattle. Luiz dos Santos Vilhena, in the last of his twenty letters dealing with several aspects of life in Brazil, made reference to horseflies, human bot flies and mosquitos.

Essays on the history of Brazilian dipterology: II. notices about Brazilian Diptera (17th century)

Essays on the history of Brazilian dipterology. II. Notices about Brazilian Diptera (17th century). Notices from the Brazilian Diptera from the 17th century come mainly from two foreign invasions occurred in Brazil, the first one by the French in Maranhão and the second by the Dutch in northeastern Brazil. This paper includes reports of Fathers Claude d'Abbeville and Yves d'Evreux and from Piso and Marcgrave, the last two presenting the first illustrations of Brazilian Diptera. The paper also includes reports of Friar Laureano de la Cruz, Father João de Sotto Mayor and Maurício de Heriarte.

Essays on the history of brazilian dipterology: III. Three remarkable notices from the 18th century, mainly related to myiasis-producing flies (Cochliomyia and Dermatobia)

This paper registers reports about dipterans made by three Portuguese who lived in Brazil during the 18th century. Luiz Gomes Ferreira, in his book "Erário mineral" ["Mineral revenue"], wrote curious passages related with myiasis-causing flies of the genus Cochliomyia. José Rodrigues de Mello registered, in Latin verses, the folklore for curing myiases caused by Cochliomyia hominivorax in cattle. Luiz dos Santos Vilhena, in the last of his twenty letters dealing with several aspects of life in Brazil, made reference to horseflies, human bot flies and mosquitos.

Glaciers and climate in northern Sweden during the 19th and 20th century

Our understanding of the climate of northern Sweden during the late Holocene is largely dependent on proxy-data series. These datasets remain spatially and temporally sparse and instrumental series are rare prior to the mid 19th century. Nevertheless, the glaciology and paleo-glaciology of the region has a strong potential significance for the exploration of climate change scenarios, past and future. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the 19th and 20th century climate in the northern Swedish mountain range. This provides a good opportunity to analyse the natural variability of the climate before the onset of the industrial epoch. Developing a temporal understanding of fluctuations in glacier front positions and glacier mass balance that is linked to a better understanding of their interaction and relative significance to climate is fundamental in the assessment of past climate. I have chosen to investigate previously unexplored temperature data from northern Sweden from between 1802 and 1860 and combined it with a temperature series from a synoptic station in Haparanda, which began operation in 1859, in order to create a reliable long temperature series for the period 1802 to 2002. I have also investigated two different glaciers, Pårteglaciären and Salajekna, which are located in different climatic environments. These glaciers have, from a Swedish perspective, long observational records. Furthermore, I have investigated a recurring jökulhlaup at the glacier Sälkaglaciären in order to analyse glacier-climate relationships with respect to the jökulhlaups. A number of datasets are presented, including: glacier frontal changes, in situ and photogrammetric mass balance data, in situ and satellite radar interferometry measurements of surface velocity, radar measurements, ice volume data and a temperature series. All these datasets are analysed in order to investigate the response of the glaciers to climatic stimuli, to attribute specific behaviour to particular climates and to analyse the 19th and 20th century glacier/climate relationships in northern Sweden. The 19th century was characterized by cold conditions in northern Sweden, particularly in winter. Significant changes in the amplitude of the annual temperature cycle are evident. Through the 19th century there is a marked decreasing trend in the amplitude of the data, suggesting a change towards a prevalence of maritime (westerly) air masses, something which has characterised the 20th century. The investigations on Salajekna support the conclusion that the major part of the 19th century was cold and dry. The 19th century advance of Salajekna was probably caused by colder climate in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, coupled with a weakening of the westerly airflow. The investigations on Pårteglaciären show that the glacier has a response time of ~200 years. It also suggests that there was a relatively high frequency of easterly winds providing the glacier with winter precipitation during the 19th century. Glaciers have very different response times and are sensitive to different climatic parameters. Glaciers in rather continental areas of the Subarctic and Arctic can have very long response times because of mass balance considerations and not primarily the glacier dynamics. This is of vital importance for analyzing Arctic and Subarctic glacier behaviour in a global change perspective. It is far from evident that the behaviour of the glacier fronts today reflects the present climate.

History of Medicine Schedule 2010-2011

William Osler (1849-1919): America’s Most Famous Physician (Robert E. Rakel) The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: A Neurosurgeon’s Eyewitness Account of the Medical Aspect of the Events of November 22, 1963 (Robert G. Grossman) Making Cancer History: Disease and Discovery at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (James S. Olson) The History of Pathology as a Biological Science and Medical Specialty (L. Maximillian Buja) “Medicine in the Mid-19th Century America” (Student Essay Contest Winner) (David Hunter) The Achievements and Enduring Relevance of Rudolph Virchow (Nathan Grohmann) Medicine: Perspectives in History and Art (Robert E. Greenspan) What Every Physician Should Know: Lessons from the Past (Robert E. Greenspan) Medicine in Ancient Mesopotamia (Sajid Haque) The History of Texas Children’s Hospital (B. Lee Ligon) Visualizing Disease: Motion Pictures in the History of Medical Education (Kirsten Ostherr)

Securing one's livelihood. Philanthropy in a mixed economy of welfare in the early 20th century

Since the late 19th century different social actors have played an important role in providing social security in Switzerland. Cooperatives, philanthropic organisations, social insurances, and the poor relief of the communes were all part of a "mixed economy of welfare". This article examines how the different actors in this "mixed economy" worked together, and asks what forms of help they supplied. It raises the question of whether a dichotomy between public and private forms of relief can be traced in the Swiss case. Did democratically legitimised processes of redistribution shape the social security system? Or was social security rather funded by private relief programs? The author argues that in the early 20th century, a complex public-private mix structured the Swiss welfare state and the poor often depended on both public and private funding. In this system, financially potent philanthropic organisations successfully contested the legal power of public actors.