A sociolinguistic approach to applied epistemology: Examining technocratic values in global 'knowledge' policy

This special issue presents an excellent opportunity to study applied epistemology in public policy. This is an important task because the arena of public policy is the social domain in which macro conditions for ‘knowledge work’ and ‘knowledge industries’ are defined and created. We argue that knowledge-related public policy has become overly concerned with creating the politico-economic parameters for the commodification of knowledge. Our policy scope is broader than that of Fuller (1988), who emphasizes the need for a social epistemology of science policy. We extend our focus to a range of policy documents that include communications, science, education and innovation policy (collectively called knowledge-related public policy in acknowledgement of the fact that there is no defined policy silo called ‘knowledge policy’), all of which are central to policy concerned with the ‘knowledge economy’ (Rooney and Mandeville, 1998). However, what we will show here is that, as Fuller (1995) argues, ‘knowledge societies’ are not industrial societies permeated by knowledge, but that knowledge societies are permeated by industrial values. Our analysis is informed by an autopoietic perspective. Methodologically, we approach it from a sociolinguistic position that acknowledges the centrality of language to human societies (Graham, 2000). Here, what we call ‘knowledge’ is posited as a social and cognitive relationship between persons operating on and within multiple social and non-social (or, crudely, ‘physical’) environments. Moreover, knowing, we argue, is a sociolinguistically constituted process. Further, we emphasize that the evaluative dimension of language is most salient for analysing contemporary policy discourses about the commercialization of epistemology (Graham, in press). Finally, we provide a discourse analysis of a sample of exemplary texts drawn from a 1.3 million-word corpus of knowledge-related public policy documents that we compiled from local, state, national and supranational legislatures throughout the industrialized world. Our analysis exemplifies a propensity in policy for resorting to technocratic, instrumentalist and anti-intellectual views of knowledge in policy. We argue that what underpins these patterns is a commodity-based conceptualization of knowledge, which is underpinned by an axiology of narrowly economic imperatives at odds with the very nature of knowledge. The commodity view of knowledge, therefore, is flawed in its ignorance of the social systemic properties of ��knowing’.

Gender stereotypes and drinking cognitions as indicators of moderate and high risk drinking among young women and men

The study examined differences in gender stereotypes, restrained drinking and self-efficacy for alcohol refusal between moderate and high risk drinkers among a university sample of 301 women and 118 men. Both female and male high risk drinkers displayed a response conflict, typified by high scores on restrained drinking but low scores on self-efficacy. This pattern of response conflict was more pronounced for high risk drinking women, who also identified poorly with feminine trails (e.g. 'nurturing', 'love children', 'appreciative'). The findings are discussed in relation to society's double standard that accepts intoxication in men but condemns it in women. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Biogeographical concordance and efficiency of taxon indicators for establishing conservation priority in a tropical rainforest biota

Prioritizing areas for conservation requires the use of surrogates for assessing overall patterns of biodiversity. Effective surrogates will reflect general biogeographical patterns and the evolutionary processes that have given rise to these and their efficiency is likely to lie influenced by several factors, including the spatial scale of species turnover and the overall congruence of the biogeographical history. We examine patterns of surrogacy for insects, snails, one family of plants and vertebrates from rainforests of northeast Queensland, an area characterized by high endemicity and an underlying history of climate-induced vicariance. Nearly all taxa provided some level of prediction of the conservation values For others. However, despite an overall correlation of the patterns of species richness and complementarity, the efficiency of surrogacy was highly asymmetric.. snails and insects were strong predictors of conservation priorities for vertebrates, but not vice versa. These results confirm predictions that taxon surrogates can be effective in highly diverse tropical systems where there is a strong history of vicariant biogeography, but also indicate that correlated patterns for species richness and/or complementarity do not guarantee that one taxon will be efficient as a surrogate for another. In our case, the highly diverse and narrowly distributed invertebrates were more efficient as predictors than the less diverse and more broadly distributed vertebrates.

Assessing ecological impacts of shrimp and sewage effluent: Biological indicators with standard water quality analyses

Despite evidence linking shrimp farming to several cases of environmental degradation, there remains a lack of ecologically meaningful information about the impacts of effluent on receiving waters. The aim of this study was to determine the biological impact of shrimp farm effluent, and to compare and distinguish its impacts from treated sewage effluent. Analyses included standard water quality/sediment parameters, as well as biological indicators including tissue nitrogen (N) content, stable isotope ratio of nitrogen (delta N-15) and amino acid composition of inhabitant seagrasses, mangroves and macroalgae. The study area consisted of two tidal creeks, one receiving effluent from a sewage treatment plant and the other from an intensive shrimp farm. The creeks discharged into the western side of Moreton Bay, a sub-tropical coastal embayment on the east coast of Australia. Characterization of water quality revealed significant differences between the creeks, and with unimpacted eastern Moreton Bay. The sewage creek had higher concentrations of dissolved nutrients (predominantly NO3-/NO2- and PO43-, compared to NH4+ in the shrimp creek). In contrast, the shrimp creek was more turbid and had higher phytoplankton productivity. Beyond 750 m from the creek mouths, water quality parameters were indistinguishable from eastern Moreton Bay values. Biological indicators detected significant impacts up to 4 km beyond the creek mouths (reference site). Elevated plant delta N-15 values ranged from 10.4-19.6 parts per thousand at the site of sewage discharge to 2.9-4.5 parts per thousand at the reference site. The free amino acid concentration and composition of seagrass and macroalgae was used to distinguish between the uptake of sewage and shrimp derived N. Proline (seagrass) and serine (macroalgae) were high in sewage impacted plants and glutamine (seagrass) and alanine (macroalgae) were high in plants impacted by shrimp effluent. The delta N-15 isotopic signatures and free amino acid composition of inhabitant flora indicated that sewage N extended further from the creek mouths than shrimp N. The combination of physical/chemical and biological indicators used in this study was effective in distinguishing the composition and subsequent impacts of aquaculture and sewage effluent on the receiving waters. (C) 2001 Academic Press.

ENCORE: The effect of nutrient enrichment on coral reefs. Synthesis of results and conclusions

Coral reef degradation resulting from nutrient enrichment of coastal waters is of increasing global concern. Although effects of nutrients on coral reef organisms have been demonstrated in the laboratory, there is little direct evidence of nutrient effects on coral reef biota in situ. The ENCORE experiment investigated responses of coral reef organisms and processes to controlled additions of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (N) and/or phosphorus (P) on an offshore reef(One Tree Island) at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. A multi-disciplinary team assessed a variety of factors focusing on nutrient dynamics and biotic responses. A controlled and replicated experiment was conducted over two years using twelve small patch reefs ponded at low tide by a coral rim. Treatments included three control reefs (no nutrient addition) and three + N reefs (NH4Cl added), three + P reefs (KH2PO4 added), and three + N + P reefs. Nutrients were added as pulses at each low tide (ca twice per day) by remotely operated units. There were two phases of nutrient additions. During the initial, low-loading phase of the experiment nutrient pulses (mean dose = 11.5 muM NH4+; 2.3 muM PO4-3) rapidly declined, reaching near-background levels (mean = 0.9 muM NH4+; 0.5 muM PO4-3) within 2-3 h. A variety of biotic processes, assessed over a year during this initial nutrient loading phase, were not significantly affected, with the exception of coral reproduction, which was affected in all nutrient treatments. In Acropora longicyathus and A. aspera, fewer successfully developed embryos were formed, and in A. longicyathus fertilization rates and lipid levels decreased. In the second, high-loading, phase of ENCORE an increased nutrient dosage (mean dose = 36.2 muM NH4+; 5.1 muM PO4-3 declining to means of 11.3 muM NH4+ and 2.4 muM PO4-3 at the end of low tide) was used for a further year, and a variety of significant biotic responses occurred. Encrusting algae incorporated virtually none of the added nutrients. Organisms containing endosymbiotic zooxanthellae (corals and giant clams) assimilated dissolved nutrients rapidly and were responsive to added nutrients. Coral mortality, not detected during the initial low-loading phase, became evident with increased nutrient dosage, particularly in Pocillopora damicornis. Nitrogen additions stunted coral growth, and phosphorus additions had a variable effect. Coral calcification rate and linear extension increased in the presence of added phosphorus but skeletal density was reduced, making corals more susceptible to breakage. Settlement of all coral larvae was reduced in nitrogen treatments, yet settlement of larvae from brooded species was enhanced in phosphorus treatments. Recruitment of stomatopods, benthic crustaceans living in coral rubble, was reduced in nitrogen and nitrogen plus phosphorus treatments. Grazing rates and reproductive effort of various fish species were not affected by the nutrient treatments. Microbial nitrogen transformations in sediments,were responsive to nutrient loading with nitrogen fixation significantly increased in phosphorus treatments and denitrification increased in all treatments to which nitrogen had been added. Rates of bioerosion and grazing showed no significant effects of added nutrients, ENCORE has shown that reef organisms and processes investigated ill situ were impacted by elevated nutrients. Impacts mere dependent on dose level, whether nitrogen and/or phosphorus mere elevated and were often species-specific. The impacts were generally sub-lethal and subtle and the treated reefs at the end of the experiment mere visually similar to control reefs. Rapid nutrient uptake indicates that nutrient concentrations alone are not adequate to assess nutrient condition of reefs. Sensitive and quantifiable biological indicators need to be developed for coral reef ecosystems. The potential bioindicators identified in ENCORE should be tested in future research on coral reef/nutrient interactions. Synergistic and cumulative effects of elevated nutrients and other environmental parameters, comparative studies of intact vs. disturbed reefs, offshore vs, inshore reefs, or the ability of a nutrient-stressed reef to respond to natural disturbances require elucidation. An expanded understanding of coral reef responses to anthropogenic impacts is necessary, particularly regarding the subtle, sub-lethal effects detected in the ENCORE studies. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

Child-Pugh class, nutritional indicators and early liver transplant outcomes

Background/Aims: Patients with chronic liver disease undergoing liver transplantation have reduced body fat and muscle mass. The extent to which nutritional indicators and Child-Pugh class are predictive of postoperative outcome in adults is unclear. The aims of this study were to determine in adult patients undergoing transplant 1) the influence of preoperative Child-Pugh class and nutritional indicators on early transplant outcomes and one-year survival, 2) the relationship between nutritional indicators and Child-Pugh class and disease type. This study included 80 patients (1990-1994). Methodology: The nutritional indicators utilized were grip strength, triceps skinfold thickness and uncorrected mid-arm muscle area. Measured outcomes were ventilator time, intensive care stay, postoperative hospital stay and one-year survival. Results: Early morbidity was determined in survivors. Child-Pugh class C patients required longer ventilation and spent more time in the intensive care unit than Child-Pugh classes A and B. No significant relationships were found length of hospital stay. Relationships between the nutritional indicators (when controlled for Child-Pugh class) and early morbidity could not be determined due;to insufficient data. No relationship was established between one-year survival and Child-Pugh class or the nutritional indicators. Grip strength and mid-arm muscle area were lower in the patients in Child-Pugh:classes B and C. Parenchymal liver disease was associated with lower grip strength and mid-arm muscle area when compared to cholestatic disease. Conclusions: Child-Pugh class C is associated with greater early postoperative morbidity. Advanced Child-Pugh class is also associated with diminished muscle status and parenchymal disease.

Monitoring tissue oxygenation during resuscitation of major burns

BACKGROUND: Because subcutaneous and splanchnic oxygenation indices are sensitive indicators of evolving hemorrhagic shock and adequacy of resuscitation, we postulated that these indices might have an equivalent role in the monitoring of severely burned patients. This observational study was undertaken to examine changes in tissue oxygenation indices during burn resuscitation. METHODS: Seven patients with major burns (54 +/- 21% total body surface area) were studied during the first 36 hours of fluid resuscitation. Silastic tubing was placed in the subcutaneous tissue just beneath both normal skin and deep partial thickness burn. Fiberoptic sensors inserted into the tubing measured subcutaneous oxygen and carbon dioxide tensions in the burnt skin (PO2scb and PCO2scb) and normal skin (PO2scn and PCO2scn) continuously. Gastric intramucosal pH (pHi) and the mucosal CO2 (PCO2m) gap were calculated using gastric tonometers. Mean arterial pressure, arterial pH, lactate, and pHi measurements were obtained for 36 hours. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in mean arterial pressure, arterial pH, or lactate concentrations throughout the study period, whereas indices of tissue oxygenation showed deterioration: pHi decreased from 7.2 +/- 0.1 to 6.7 +/- 0.3 (p = 0.06), the PCO2m gap increased from 12 +/- 17 to 108 +/- 123 mm Hg (p < 0.01), PO2scn decreased from 112 +/- 18 to 50 +/- 11 mm Hg (p < 0.01), PO2scb decreased from 62 +/- 23 to 29 +/- 16 mm Hg (p < 0.01), PCO2scn increased from 42 +/- 4 to 46 +/- 10 mm Hg (p = 0.2), and PCO2scb increased from 42 +/- 10 to 52 +/- 5 mm Hg (p = 0.05). CONCLUSION: Despite adequate global indices of tissue perfusion after 36 hours of resuscitation, tissue monitoring indicated significant deterioration in the splanchnic circulation and in the normal and burnt skin.

The global sports-media nexus: Reflections on the 'Super League Saga' in Australia

Despite the social and (increasingly) commercial significance of sport and sporting bodies worldwide, they remain under-represented in the mainstream management literature. One of the more recent and dramatic examples of the global sports-media nexus is the 'Super League saga' in Australia. This paper recounts the tale of the Super League saga, providing a holistic analysis of the events and competitive issues arising by drawing on literatures concerning the economic nature and value of sports leagues, the resource-based view of the firm and the nature of psychological contracts in changing environments. The analysis confirms the general monopolistic tendencies of professional sports leagues in an increasingly global industry driven by the sports-media nexus, in accord with a number of comparable cases internationally. The particular conditions of the Australian marketplace that exacerbate this tendency beyond, for example, that found in the USA, and differences in the outcomes of battles between rival leagues are also considered. The Super League saga portrays the importance of effective management of resources key to the production of the 'rugby league product' including, among others, the often over-looked importance of careful management of local resources for the success of global strategies, and, where human resources are key, the importance of psychological contracting. The holistic analysis of the Super League saga in Australia affords lessons that extend well beyond the realm of sports.