Public participation: democratic ideal or pragmatic tool? The cases of GM foods and functional foods

Over recent decades, public participation initiatives have been employed across Europe often with a focus on science and technology issues. In the area of new food technologies most participation initiatives have centered on genetically modified foods. By contrast, in the area of functional foods--where significant EU legislation was recently passed--we have seen no initiatives towards public inclusion. This applies also for Denmark, the country which is the focus of this article. Based on an interview study with members of the Danish parliament the article examines why such considerable differences exist between initiatives to involve the public, and it challenges the role that public participation plays in Danish politics. The main claim made in the article is that although politicians argue for the value and relevance of public participation their willingness to initiate participatory processes is overruled by their concern with playing by the rules of the political game.     

Neutrality, social justice and the obligations of archival education and educators in the twenty-first century

Codes of ethics around the globe exhort archivists to neutrality so that they and their repositories will be trusted by records creators, the general public, and posterity to be impartial in their actions. However, archival neutrality is increasingly viewed as a controversial stance for a profession that is situated in the midst of the politics of memory. Archival educators have been prominent among those calling for the profession to address more directly the cultural and ethical dimensions of the role played by archives and records in society. This paper contemplates how archival neutrality and social justice concerns can surface within the context of archival education. Drawing upon experiences of the Department of Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), it suggests pedagogical approaches for raising and addressing ethics and diversity issues within a social justice framework, and for encouraging students, as future practitioners and scholars, to engage critically, reflexively, and meaningfully with these issues in ways that support the public trust in archives and the archival profession.     

Can self-esteem protect against the deleterious consequences of self-objectification for mood and body satisfaction in physically active female university students?

Using objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), this study tested the interaction between self-objectification, appearance evaluation, and self-esteem in predicting body satisfaction and mood states. Participants (N = 93) were physically active female university students. State self-objectification was manipulated by participants wearing tight revealing exercise attire (experimental condition) or baggy exercise clothes (control condition). Significant interactions emerged predicting depression, anger, fatness, and satisfaction with body shape and size. For participants in the self-objectification condition who had low (as opposed to high) appearance evaluation, low self-esteem was associated with high depression, anger, and fatness and low satisfaction with body shape and size. In contrast, for participants with high self-esteem, these mood and body satisfaction states were more favorable irrespective of their levels of appearance evaluation. For female exercisers, self-esteem-enhancing strategies may protect against some of the negative outcomes of self-objectification.     

What is the ‘personal’ in ‘personal information’?

Ethics and Information Technology - Contemporary privacy theories and European discussions about data protection employ the notion of ‘personal information’ to designate their areas of...     

Bandpass sorting of heterogeneous cells using a single surface acoustic wave transducer pair

Separation and sorting of biological entities (viruses, bacteria, and cells) is a critical step in any microfluidic lab-on-a-chip device. Acoustofluidics platforms have demonstrated their ability to use physical characteristics of cells to perform label-free separation. Bandpass-type sorting methods of medium-sized entities from a mixture have been presented using acoustic techniques; however, they require multiple transducers, lack support for various target populations, can be sensitive to flow variations, or have not been verified for continuous flow sorting of biological cells. To our knowledge, this paper presents the first acoustic bandpass method that overcomes all these limitations and presents an inherently reconfigurable technique with a single transducer pair for stable continuous flow sorting of blood cells. The sorting method is first demonstrated for polystyrene particles of sizes 6, 10, and 14.5 μm in diameter with measured purity and efficiency coefficients above 75 ± 6% and 85 ± 9%, respectively. The sorting strategy was further validated in the separation of red blood cells from white blood cells and 1 μm polystyrene particles with 78 ± 8% efficiency and 74 ± 6% purity, respectively, at a flow rate of at least 1 μl/min, enabling to process finger prick blood samples within minutes.     

Jack Thomas,Our Third Baby,Enters the World!

Without the confidence and support of the medical team, this mother’s first birth was difficult and unsatisfying. She was able to give birth naturally, in the care of a midwife, with her second baby. With confidence in her ability to give birth and the wisdom that comes with experience, she is able to give birth naturally with her third baby in spite of being induced.     

Exploring the Relations between In-service Training,Prior Contacts and Teachers’ Attitudes towards Persons with Intellectual Disability

This study investigates the relations between teachers’ attitudes towards persons with intellectual disability (ID), in-service training on ID, and prior contacts with persons with ID. A sample of Canadian elementary school teachers (N?=?118) completed the Attitudes Toward Intellectual Disability Questionnaire, which measures cognitive, affective and behavioural components of attitudes towards persons with ID. Correlational and multivariate regression analyses were performed. Frequent contacts with persons with ID and experience of including a child with ID increased the likelihood of reporting prior positive contacts with persons with ID. In turn, this was associated with less discomfort towards persons with ID and more willingness towards interactions. In-service training on ID was related to better knowledge of rights and capabilities of persons with ID. Experience of including a child with ID in general education classrooms increased the likelihood to report feeling competent in teaching children with ID, which predicted more willingness to include children with ID.     

Supporting pre-service teachers to enhance the effectiveness of their classroom practice through engaging with the ‘voice’ of their pupils

The research reported here was focussed on accessing the perceptions of pre-service teachers regarding the critical factors which support highly effective learning in schools in the United Kingdom. Their perceptions were arranged into a taxonomy so that they can be used as a starting point for their reflections on the observations they make of teaching and learning in schools with the aim of enhancing the effectiveness of their own teaching. The choice of technique used to access the perceptions was driven by the desire to provide the pre-service teachers with a method that they could use themselves to engage with the ‘voice’ of their own pupils regarding the factors which support effective learning. The engagement of pupil voice has become increasingly significant in understanding effective pedagogy and in securing more personalised approaches to learning in United Kingdom school contexts.