How many dimensions of biodiversity do we need?

Biodiversity is not a commodity, nor a service (ecosystem or otherwise), it is a scientific measure of the complexity of a biological system. Rather than directly valuing biodiversity, economists have tended to value its services, more often the services of 'key' species. This is understandable given the confusion of definitions and measures of biodiversity, but weakly justified if biodiversity is not substitutable. We provide a quantitative and comprehensive definition of biodiversity and propose a framework for examining its substitutability as the first step towards valuation. We define biodiversity as a measure of semiotic information. It is equated with biocomplexity and measured by Algorithmic Information Content (AIC). We argue that the potentially valuable component of this is functional information content (FIC) which determines biological fitness and supports ecosystem services. Inspired by recent extensions to the Noah's Ark problem, we show how FIC/AIC can be calculated to measure the degree of substitutability within an ecological community. From this, we derive a way to rank whole communities by Indirect Use Value, through quantifying the relation between system complexity and production rate of ecosystem services. Understanding biodiversity as information evidently serves as a practical interface between economics and ecological science.

'Grooming' and the Sexual Abuse of Children:Institutional, Internet and Familial Dimensions

‘Grooming’ and the Sexual Abuse of Children: Institutional, Internet and Familial Dimensions critically examines the official and popular discourses on grooming, predominantly framed within the context of on-line sexual exploitation and abuse committed by strangers, and institutional child abuse committed by those in positions of trust.

Set against the broader theoretical framework of risk, security and governance, this book argues that due to the difficulties of drawing clear boundaries between innocuous and harmful motivations towards children, pre-emptive risk-based criminal law and policy are inherently limited in preventing, targeting and criminalising ‘grooming’ behaviour prior to the manifestation of actual harm. Through examination of grooming against the complexities of the onset of sexual offending against children and its actual role in this process, the author broadens existing discourses by providing a fuller, more nuanced conceptualisation of grooming, including its role in intra-familial and extra-familial contexts. There is also timely discussion of new and emerging forms of grooming, such as ‘street’ or ‘localised’ grooming, as typified by recent cases in Rochdale and Oldham, and ‘peer-to-peer’ grooming.

The first inter-disciplinary, thematic, and empirical investigation of grooming in a multi-jurisdictional context, ‘Grooming’ and the Sexual Abuse of Children draws on extensive empirical research in the form of over fifty interviews with professionals, working in the fields of sex offender risk assessment, management or treatment, as well as child protection or victim support in the four jurisdictions of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Impeccably presented and meticulously considered, this book will be of interest to criminologists and those working and studying in the field of policing and criminal justice studies, as well as policy makers and practitioners in the areas of child protection and sex offender management.

Managing Island Life:Social, Economic and Political Dimensions of Formality and Informality in Island Life

"Managing Island Life: Social, Economic and Political Dimensions of Formality and Informality in Island Life" is a significant and timely contribution to the study of islands and island life. Wide-ranging in terms of both geographical and theoretical sweep, contributions consider the conceptualisation of the island as well as social, economic and political dimensions of island life and living. Showcasing the current state of island research, contributors cover diverse areas of island life such as: informal economies in the West Indies; the effects of natural convservation policies in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland; the role of internet sites in British Isles heritage tourism, and the impact of multicultural policies in the Indian Ocean. This volume will appeal to undergraduate social scientists as well as professional anthropologists, sociologists and geographers, policy makers and islands and regional specialists.

Northern Visions? Applying Q methodology to understand stakeholder views on the environmental and resource dimensions of sustainability

Q methodology was used to enable the identification of discourses among stakeholders to the environmental and resource dimensions of sustainability policies and to gain an understanding of the usefulness of Q methodology in informing sustainability policy development. The application of Q methodology has been useful in identifying shared discourses between different stakeholder groups, and providing insights into how stakeholders frame or understand policy issues; and recommendations are made for ongoing research priorities. These insights, in turn, informed the choice of scenarios for an in parallel process of policy evaluation using Ecological and Carbon Footprinting.

The Dimensions of Expatriate Adjustment

A narrow and partial theoretical base has limited current concepts of expatriate adjustment and the research based upon them. This conceptual article explores one of the less theorized aspects of expatriate adjustment: the fact that it has multiple dimensions. We conceive of adjustment as a person-environment relationship that takes place in the three dimensions of cognitions, feelings, and behaviors. Combining these elements takes us one step closer to a comprehensive and more realistic understanding of the nature of expatriate adjustment. We include suggestions for future research that follow from our reconceptualization.

Dimensions of Financial Autonomy in Low-/Moderate-Income Couples from a Gender Perspective and Implications for Welfare Reform

The ‘unitary household’ lives on in policymakers’ assumptions about couples sharing their finances. Yet financial autonomy is seen as a key issue in gender relations, particularly for women. This article draws on evidence from semi-structured individual interviews with men and women in thirty low-/moderate-income couples in Britain. The interviews explored whether financial autonomy had any meaning to these individuals; and, if so, to what extent this was gendered in the sense of there being differences in men's and women's understanding of it. We develop a framework for the investigation of financial autonomy, involving several dimensions: achieving economic independence, having privacy in one's financial affairs and exercising agency in relation to household and/or personal spending. We argue that financial autonomy is a relevant issue for low-/moderate-income couples, and that women are more conscious of tensions between financial togetherness and autonomy due to their greater responsibility for managing togetherness and lower likelihood of achieving financial independence. Policymakers should therefore not discount the aspirations of women in particular for financial autonomy, even in low-/moderate-income couples where there remain significant obstacles to achieving this. Yet plans for welfare reform that rely on means testing and ignore intra-household dynamics in relation to family finances threaten to exacerbate these obstacles and reinforce a unitary family model.

Peer tutoring in reading: The effects of role and organization on two dimensions of self-esteem

Background. Paired reading (PR) is an application of peer tutoring. It has been extensively researched, and its efficacy across a range of outcomes has been established. Benefits include improvements in key reading skills, and also in affective aspects of learning. Several studies have shown gains in self-esteem, although measurement methods have varied, and the model of self-esteem has rarely been clearly articulated.
Aims. To investigate the changes in self-esteem of children participating in a randomized trial of PR over a 15-week treatment period. To investigate the relative contribution of self-worth and self-competence to any gains in self-esteem. To investigate whether the pattern of change differs in children who take on different roles in the PR process.
Participants. The participants comprised a subset of a large-scale randomized trial of peer learning (The Fife Peer Learning Project). Four schools were randomly selected from schools allocated to the same-age PR condition, and four schools from those allocated to the cross-age PR condition. The same-age group consisted of 87 primary 6 children (10–11 years old). The cross-age group consisted of 81 primary 6 children. The controls, from schools randomly selected from a neighbouring authority, consisted of 92 primary 6 children.
Method. A pre–post design employing self-report measures of self-esteem. Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale was used, with scores analysed for worth and competence. The treatment period was 15 weeks, with the participants following a prescribed PR process.
Results. Significant pre–post gains were noted in self-esteem, driven predominantly by improved beliefs about competence, in both same-age and cross-age conditions, but not for controls. Gains were also seen in self-worth in the cross-age condition. Further analyses of the influence of organizational condition (same-age or cross-age) and role played (tutor vs. tutee) showed significant differences between same-age tutors and cross-age tutors in relation to self-worth. Effect sizes were generally small or moderate.
Conclusions. The findings provide further support for the belief that PR can enhance self-esteem. Importantly, the use of a two-dimensional model provides extra information about self-perceptions in PR contexts: first, the central role of self- competence; and second, the gains in self-worth which are associated with tutoring younger children (but not same-age peers). This new information has educational significance for schools considering the potential of peer tutoring and the benefits of different organizational conditions.

Dimensions of religious and national identity among Irish adolescents growing up in two jurisdictions

This poster explores the impact of growing up in different socio-political environments in the border areas of the Republic of Ireland (RoI) and Northern Ireland (NI) on adolescents’ evaluations of their religious and national identities. The vast majority of the population of the Republic of Ireland are Catholic and Irish whereas in Northern Ireland, the majority are Protestant and British. 713 adolescents (NI= 415; RoI=298), who categorised their religious identity as Catholic and their nationality as Irish completed the Collective Self – Esteem (CSE) scale (Crocker & Luhtanen, 1990) with reference to either their religious (N=350) or national identity (n=363). The overall rating of CSE for the Irish identity was significantly higher than the rating of CSE for the Catholic Identity. This result was modified by a significant interaction - adolescents in the Republic of Ireland rated the CSE of their Irish nationality higher than those in Northern Ireland (20.99 vs. 19.95), whereas adolescents in Northern Ireland rated the CSE of their Catholic religious identity higher than their peers in the Republic of Ireland (19.97 vs 18.87). Further analysis of the CSE subscales revealed differing patterns of relationships according to the scale. The evaluation of the Public Collective Self-Esteem of national and religious identities were significantly higher in the Republic of Ireland than in Northern Ireland, however Private Collective Self-esteem did not differ according to jurisdiction. These findings are discussed in relation to the social context and current theoretical accounts of collective identification processes.

Genome-wide gene pathway analysis of psychotic illness symptom dimensions based on a new schizophrenia-specific model of the OPCRIT

Empirically derived phenotypic measurements have the potential to enhance gene-finding efforts in schizophrenia. Previous research based on factor analyses of symptoms has typically included schizoaffective cases. Deriving factor loadings from analysis of only narrowly defined schizophrenia cases could yield more sensitive factor scores for gene pathway and gene ontology analyses. Using an Irish family sample, this study 1) factor analyzed clinician-rated Operational Criteria Checklist items in cases with schizophrenia only, 2) scored the full sample based on these factor loadings, and 3) implemented genome-wide association, gene-based, and gene-pathway analysis of these SCZ-based symptom factors (final N= 507). Three factors emerged from the analysis of the schizophrenia cases: a manic, a depressive, and a positive symptom factor. In gene-based analyses of these factors, multiple genes had q<. 0.01. Of particular interest are findings for PTPRG and WBP1L, both of which were previously implicated by the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium study of SCZ; results from this study suggest that variants in these genes might also act as modifiers of SCZ symptoms. Gene pathway analyses of the first factor indicated over-representation of glutamatergic transmission, GABA-A receptor, and cyclic GMP pathways. Results suggest that these pathways may have differential influence on affective symptom presentation in schizophrenia.