Deconstructing language practices: discursive constructions of children in Individual Education Plan resource documents

Although Individual Education Plan (IEP) resource documents in Ontario, Canada aim to assist children in achieving their special educational goals, a point of disjuncture exists between the documents’ intentions and children’s actual experiences. Addressing this issue is crucial in preventing inequity and fostering educational development and social well-being for children. We employ critical discourse analysis informed by disability theory to deconstruct the language practices used to conceptualize children in IEP resource documents. Our purpose is to question the underlying assumptions regarding representations of children and illuminate the potentially harmful consequences of such conceptions. We expose the presence of both neutral and harmful language practices and consider how such language may shape the way the documents translate from policy to practice. This study offers a model through which the language of other special education documents can be critically evaluated and proposes potential avenues for creating documents that avoid disabling children further.     

Producing and reconstructing knowledge on China in Singapore: perspectives from the academics and mass media

In Singapore, intellectuals, especially those in media and education, are considered as the driving force of formatting public opinion over the social imagination of China and Chineseness. This article, largely based on oral histories of some Singaporean scholars and media professionals and memoirs of related figures, analyzes the choice and acquisition of their knowledge on China. Through the analysis and comparison of their construction of knowledge on China, this article also discusses the accuracy of their understanding of China and how such understandings were formed along with their personal experiences from domestic socialization, education, and professional accumulation. The authors consequently map out the process of how public intellectuals from mass media and academia transform their knowledge imagination of China into the professional opinions that help to reconstruct and shift Singaporean’s impression and understandings of China.     

四十年来香港公共运输的发展与挑战

交通对经济发展和社会生活甚为重要.与上海一样香港公共交通也发展了百年之久.香港1880年开始过海渡轮服务,山顶缆车在1888年运营,有轨电车在1904年启用.香港的运输署也已成立40周年.     

Exploring Research Data Hosting at the HKUST Institutional Repository

Abstract

The profusion of data created by modern research has brought about increasing discussion on the practice of data management and the development of such infrastructure. Many universities and libraries are exploring how to address this issue using institutional repositories, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) Library being one of them. As part of the exploration, the author conducted a case study of datasets at major institutional repositories. This paper visits the issues relating to data archiving, reports common practices of data treatment at institutional repositories, and presents a list of recommendations for experimenting data archiving at the HKUST Institutional Repository.     

Marketing Strategies and Market Prospects for Environmentally-Friendly Consumer Products1

Recent evidence suggests that the extent of consumer adoption of ‘green’ products is much less than would be indicated by the enthusiastic opinion poll evidence concerning public attitudes towards environmentally-friendly consumption. This paper reports on an empirical analysis of firms' marketing strategies and their influence on consumer demand for green products. In twenty 2–3 hour interviews with senior managers, four representative groups of markets were analysed household detergents, paper (recycled), petrol (unleaded) and automobile technology (focusing on catalytic converters). According to managers, firms' marketing strategies influenced consumer demand by making green technologies available in the fwst instance. However, barriers to supplying green products that show panty with, or better performance than, conventional technologies constrain pricing and communication efforts Managers stressed that, in the absence of clarity of green products' environmental benefits, product performance and other attributes, not green benefits, remain the main determinants of product preference and choice. Promotions focused much more on consumers than distribution channels, yet channel acceptance and support of green innovations are paramount in facilitating sales. Firms see the costs of generating and promoting desirable green technologies as barriers to diffusion in the immediate future. Legislation and/or economic incentives may help, but manufacturers are not optimistic that future green consumption rates will accelerate. The results also highlight several propositions concerning the discrepancy between consumer environmental concerns and purchasing actions which warrant further testing: there is mis-specification of green products in relation to consumers'needs; there are barriers to perceptions of green products' environmental impact and consumers' free ride due to individual self-interest.     

Mothers’ Marital Status and Type of Delivery Medical Care in Guatemala

The use of modern medical care for child delivery in rural Guatemala is low relative to other Latin American countries. In the previous literature, factors such as a woman’s age, education, ethnicity, religious affiliation and income are found to be important determinants of the type of delivery medical care she receives. This study hypothesizes that a woman’s marital status influences her decision as well. Using a binomial logit framework, the study finds that unmarried women are more likely to see a modern medical provider in delivery than married women, even after controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, and husbands’ characteristics. Therefore, unmarried women seem to make more informed decisions in terms of their attitudes in childbearing and maternal health relative to their married counterparts. As a result, both economic as well as social developments seem necessary to induce changes in the high incidence of maternal mortality and morbidity in Guatemala.     

城乡迁移与精神健康:基于上海的实证研究

改革开放以来,中国见证了规模甚巨的城乡迁移运动,社会学界对这一现象进行了广泛的研究,但对进入城市的移民的精神健康问题则少有涉及。本研究基于对上海城乡迁移群体的多阶段抽样调查以了解这一群体的精神健康状况。问卷的分析结果显示,25%的男性和6%的女性精神健康状态不好。进一步的路径分析显示,移民压力、社会支持和迁移意义以不同的路径影响精神健康。论文建议政府和社会各界要充分回应移民群体的精神健康需求。     

Same-sex domestic partnerships and lower-risk behaviors for STDs, including HIV infection

To determine the association between domestic partnership status and risk behaviors for sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV infection, we analyzed data from a population-based interviewer-administered telephone survey of 2,881 gay men in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago conducted in November 1996 to February 1998. Men in domestic partnerships had a statistically significantly lower prevalence of multiple partnerships, "one-night stands," and unprotected anal intercourse with a non-primary partner than either men with steady partners not identified as domestic partners or men without a steady partner. These findings were independent of age. Men in domestic partnerships had decreased risk behaviors for sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV infection, suggesting but not proving, that conferring legal status to same-sex unions might decrease sexual risk behavior.     

Racial and Ethnic Variation in the Relationship Between Student Loan Debt and the Transition to First Birth

The present study employs discrete-time hazard regression models to investigate the relationship between student loan debt and the probability of transitioning to either marital or nonmarital first childbirth using the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97). Accounting for nonrandom selection into student loans using propensity scores, our study reveals that the effect of student loan debt on the transition to motherhood differs among white, black, and Hispanic women. Hispanic women holding student loans experience significant declines in the probability of transitioning to both marital and nonmarital motherhood, whereas black women with student loans are significantly more likely to transition to any first childbirth. Indebted white women experience only a decrease in the probability of a marital first birth. The results from this study suggest that student loans will likely play a key role in shaping future demographic patterns and behaviors.