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This paper involves an examination of skilled manual work in the modern paper industry. The data were collected at five mills in three countries -- the UK, Australia and the USA. The questions were formulated in order to probe four theories of skilled work. The results suggest that the distinction between skilled and nonskilled work is a fundamental feature of occupational differentiation in all five plants. They also reveal that there are intra-skilled conflicts over relative pay and demarcation lines and that these are affected by the wider socio-political environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This paper examines how negative experiences with the health-care system create a lack of confidence in receiving medical care in seven countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Methods The empirical analysis is based on data from the Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey 2007, with nationally representative samples of adults aged 18 and over. For the analysis of the experience of cost barriers and confidence in receiving medical care, we conducted pairwise comparisons of group percentages as well as country-wise multivariate logistic regression models. Results Individuals who have experienced cost barriers show a significantly lower level of confidence in receiving safe and quality medical care than those who have not. This effect is most pronounced in the United States, where people who have foregone necessary treatment because of costs are four times as likely to lack confidence as individuals without the experience of cost barriers (adjusted odds ratio 4.00). In New Zealand, Germany, and Canada, individuals with the experience of cost barriers are twice as likely to report low confidence compared with those without this experience (adjusted odds ratios of 1.95, 2.19 and 2.24, respectively). In the Netherlands and UK, cost barriers are only a marginal phenomenon. Conclusions The fact that the experience of financial barriers considerably lowers confidence indicates that financial incentives, such as private co-payments, have a negative effect on overall public support and therefore on the legitimacy of health-care systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Few methodologically rigorous international comparisons of student-reported antisocial behavior have been conducted. This paper examines whether there are differences in the frequency of both antisocial behavior and societal responses to antisocial behavior in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States. These 2 states were chosen due to their similarities on sociodemographic characteristics and their differences in policy frameworks around problem behavior including antisocial behavior and substance use. Methods: State representative samples of students (N = 5769) in school grades 5, 7, and 9 in Victoria and Washington State completed a modified version of the Communities That Care self-report survey of behavior and societal responses to behavior. Chi-square analyses compared frequencies of antisocial behavior, school suspensions, and police arrests in the 2 states. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted for each outcome measure to examine the effect of state, controlling for sample design, clustering of students within schools, age, socioeconomic status, and urbanicity. Results: Few state differences in student-reported antisocial behavior were found, although frequencies varied across behavior type and grade level. Differences in societal responses were observed across grade levels with grade 5 Washington students reporting higher rates of school suspension. Older Washington students reported more arrests. Conclusions: Rates of student antisocial behavior appear similar in these 2 states in Australia and the United States. However, youth in the United States relative to Australia may experience greater societal consequences for problem behavior. Further research is required to examine the impact of these consequences on subsequent behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The detection and mapping of canopy disturbance caused by natural events such as cyclones in tropical rainforests is important for monitoring and understanding rainforest dynamics and recovery. In February 1999 tropical cyclone Rona crossed the coastline of Far North Queensland, Australia, causing significant damage to the rainforest canopy in some areas. This paper examines the application of multitemporal canopy digital elevation models (DEMs) generated by a NASA-operated airborne radar mapping system called TOPSAR in 1996 and 2000, for detection of canopy disturbance caused by cyclone damage. Canopy damage was mapped here by identifying areas with a significant decrease in canopy height estimated from the difference of the 1996 and 2000 TOPSAR DEMs. Conventional aerial photographs, flown shortly after the cyclone (March 1999), were used to validate the resulting map of cyclone damaged rainforest canopy. The results showed that the DEM-derived canopy damage map performed reasonably well when comparing the spatial distribution and size of damaged areas, while taking into account the time difference between cyclone damage and the second radar acquisition. Some errors were encountered on the steeper slopes which were related to terrain distortions inherent in radar images of steep terrain. The height accuracy of the DEM was close to the depth of some of the gaps being mapped, which also contributed to errors. Even so, the results demonstrate there may be potential for weather-independent, regional-scale mapping of forest canopy change from imaging radar that is not always possible from traditional optical means of measuring canopy elevation, for example, airborne laser data and stereo aerial photography. This may be possible in relatively flat areas, provided the second radar acquisition occurs within months of the damaging event. Further algorithm refinement is required to improve its robustness and the range of topographies where this approach can provide reliable estimates of the extent of canopy disturbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘It is much easier to extirpate than to amend Mankind.’ Sir William Blackstone Five stages in the history of regulation are derived from the literature as a starting framework for this essay. These stages are outlined in the first section. This five-stage model is then confronted and revised in light of the neglected case of the Australian penal colony. It is juxtaposed throughout the paper with the history of the regulation of crime in the US. Australian convict society is found to be brutal yet forgiving. We conclude that surprisingly high levels of procedural justice and reintegration in Australian convict society drive down crime rates at a remarkable rate in the nineteenth century. In contrast American slave society is characterised by procedural injustice, exclusion and stigmatisation, which delivers high crime rates. Following Heimer and Staffen's theory, reintegration and procedural fairness are found to arise in conditions where the powerful are dependent on the deviant. Acute labour shortage is the basis of a reintegrative assignment system for Australian convicts to work in the free community. While convicts change Australia in very Australian ways, we find that many of these developments are not uniquely Australian and so a revision of the five-phase model is proposed. The revision also implies that Foucault's distinction between governing the body versus governing the soul (corporal/capital punishment versus the penitentiary) is less central than exclusion versus inclusion (banishment versus restorative justice) to understanding all stages of the history of regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports selected findings from a study of number sense proficiency of students aged 8 to 14 years in Australia, Sweden, United States, and Taiwan. It comments on the meaning and importance of number sense, the development of the assessment instruments, and student responses to the items. Some implications for classrooms of the findings are then discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]