Matter Of Priorities Research Articles

A matter of priorities: High working memory enables (slightly) superior value-directed remembering

• A series of experiments tests if working memory predicts ability to prioritize study. • High working memory leads to slightly better prioritization. • Experience at prioritizing leads to more marked improvements across all subjects. People with larger working memory capacity exhibit enhanced free recall. One explanation for this relationship is that the strategies that people bring to the task of learning and retrieving are superior in learners with high working memory. There is ample evidence that learners with high working memory do indeed bring better strategies to both encoding and retrieval, but as yet little evidence of whether higher working memory is related to greater effectiveness in prioritizing information across materials that differ in value. Using the value-directed remembering paradigm of Castel, Benjamin, Watkins, and Craik (2002), we examined whether learners with high working memory capacity show a particular advantage in remembering materials that are of high value. Across four experiments, we found that high working memory capacity led to a selective preference for remembering high-valued word pairs, but the effect was very modest and does not provide a complete picture of the relationship between working memory and recall.

Liberal Development Strategies: An Islamic Perspective

No state can exist in a policy vacuum. Public policy is inescapable in one form or another, even if it pretends to take the shape of governmental non-interference because that is also demand for a particular type of public policy. The nature of development strategy relates ultimately to the public evaluation of ends and the assessment of economic and social means. It is a matter of priorities attached to different goals. Therefore, the justification of a particular type of public policy rests upon the underlying ends and values that society aims to achieve through state powers. A proper understanding of current state of public policy for measuring economic success, both of individual and society, requires an understanding of the informational base: information on the ultimate values that are considered directly relevant for making social judgment. This paper highlights two major trends of liberal development strategies - libertarianism and social democracy - and argues why religiosity must be considered an integral part of development, especially in a Muslim society.

A matter of priorities? Exploring the persistent gender pay gap in hospital medicine

Gender earnings disparities among physicians exist even after considering differences in specialty, part-time status, and practice type. Little is known about the role of job satisfaction priorities on earnings differences. To examine gender differences in work characteristics and job satisfaction priorities, and their relationship with gender earnings disparities among hospitalists. Observational cross-sectional survey study. US hospitalists in 2010. Self-reported income, work characteristics, and priorities among job satisfaction domains. On average, women compared to men hospitalists were younger, less likely to be leaders, worked fewer full-time equivalents, worked more nights, reported fewer daily billable encounters, more were pediatricians, worked in university settings, worked in the Western United States, and were divorced. More hospitalists of both genders prioritized optimal workload among the satisfaction domains. However, substantial pay ranked second in prevalence by men and fourth by women. Women hospitalists earned $14,581 less than their male peers in an analysis adjusting for these differences. The gender earnings gap persists among hospitalists. A portion of the disparity is explained by the fewer women hospitalists compared to men who prioritize pay.

The globalization of the carbon market: Welfare and competitiveness effects of linking emissions trading schemes

In the light of the prevailing goal to keep global temperature increase below 2° and recent challenges to reach a global climate agreement in the near term, linking emissions trading schemes has emerged as a prominent complementing policy option. To this end, we explicitly assess (1) the macroeconomic welfare impacts and (2) the trade-based competitiveness effects of linking the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme in the year 2020. A stylized partial market analysis suggests that, independently of regional cost characteristics, the integration of emissions trading schemes (ETS) yields economic welfare gains for all participating regions. A computable general equilibrium analysis confirms these findings at the macroeconomic level: The economic efficiency losses from emissions regulation are diminished for both EU Member States and non-EU regions by linking ETS. However, the quantitative analysis suggests opposite trade-based incentives for linking up: while EU Member States improve their terms of trade by integrating with emerging ETS, non-EU linking candidates face competitiveness losses by linking. We conclude that, for non-EU regions, the attractiveness of linking ETS is a matter of priorities for economic welfare or international competitiveness. If these priorities are hierarchized in favor of welfare, the globalization of the carbon market could become a promising policy option complementing the efforts to reach a global climate agreement in 2015.

Putting accessibility in place: A relational reading of accessibility in policies for transit-oriented development

In order to facilitate sustainable development, a shift from mobility-based to accessibility-based planning has been suggested. However, if we rely on the modern conceptualisation of accessibility, such a shift would have limited results. As an alternative, this paper proposes a relational reading of accessibility, which questions the divide between mobility and place upon which the modern definition is based. It argues that the accessibility of a place is characterised by a specific coordination of presences and absences that depends as much on boundaries and exclusions as on mobility. If accessibility changes, so does the place. This interpretation makes accessibility a matter of priorities and provides a critical perspective on arguments for time–space compressions and progress. This is illustrated here using the example of a regional strategy for transit-oriented development in Sweden (Region Scania). For that case, the discourse on accessibility revealed simplified arguments for densification, progress and metropolitan ideals, contradicting the initial inclusive intentions of the strategy. Thus, there is a need to put accessibility in place so that a shift to accessibility-based planning facilitates a move towards social and environmental sustainability.

Structural Change and Agricultural Policy for SSFs: a View from the 2004 NMSs

SummaryThe many semi‐subsistence farms (SSFs) in the ten New Member States joining the EU in 2004 (the 2004 NMSs) may be seen as a legacy of communism, or the result of neglect. A highly fragmented farm structure either existed before transition to a market economy, or resulted from the land reforms of the 1990s. Remote areas have seen agriculture permanently abandoned, and consequent depopulation. In more accessible areas, small farms and SSFs have often become less labour‐intensive, or have added value by innovative marketing. However, rural–urban disparities have increased. Most SSFs exist to survive rural poverty, and off‐farm employment is becoming the predominant strategy. Farm diversification often remains beyond these farms’ resources, and their economic role, particularly in local food chains, has declined; quality‐label designation has yet to add significant value. Pillar I payments may have slowed structural change, especially where SSFs are important. Such farms have not been among Pillar II priorities, and the 2004 NMSs have differed on their funding and eligibility criteria. Moreover, SSFs have few direct economic linkages with large infrastructural or corporate projects supported by other (structural) EU funds. The policy problem is not so much one of substance, but more a matter of priorities and focus in policy design and implementation.

Every Right for Every Child: Governance and Accountability

327 Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 22 No. 1 (Spring 2012) ISSN: 1546-2250 Every Right for Every Child: Governance and Accountability Thukral, Enakshi Ganguly (2011). New Delhi: Routledge; 284 pages. $95.00. ISBN 978-0415678377. This volume addresses the nuts and bolts of children’s rights. Planning, budgeting, regulating and monitoring may be mundane issues, but the realization of children’s basic requirements and of their dignity as citizens is fundamentally dependent on the commitment and responsiveness of government at all levels to these everyday concerns. Aware parents and active communities can only do so much—and all too often they are neither aware nor active enough on behalf of their children. Although almost every country in the world has committed itself in formal terms to realizing children’s rights, it is abundantly clear that formal commitments can be little more than show. The contributions to this volume, edited by Enakshi Ganguly Thukral, the co-founder of the Delhi-based HAQ Centre for Child Rights, discuss some of the concrete ways that these commitments can be acted on by government—or not. The collection tackles some common assumptions. One of these assumptions is that a lack of attention to children’s priorities is related to the lack of resources in low-income countries. Dr. Assefa Bequele, director of the African Child Policy Forum, makes it clear that effective attention to children’s rights is not primarily a function of resources, but of political will and the effective use of what is available. Drawing on the findings of the Child Friendliness Index, which scores and ranks African countries on their overall performance in child protection and provision, he points out that some countries with relatively low GDPs (Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Burkina Faso) are among the best performers in the continent; other countries, including Equatorial Guinea and Angola, are way down on the list despite being relatively wealthy. It is a matter of priorities: Eritrea, for instance, which ranks second lowest on this 328 index and lowest of all in terms of child-related expenditures has the highest military spending in the continent. Thukral, the editor, tackles another widespread assumption—that most policy decisions and actions are age-neutral. There are, for sure, certain governance domains that are especially relevant to children, like education, health and child protection. But little recognition is generally given to the fact that children can also be profoundly affected by decisions made in other realms of government, including housing and land management, transportation, agriculture, import policies and the like. Ensuring that children’s needs are addressed in these areas is best accomplished, Thukral argues, not only through separate ministries but also by bringing a “child lens” to all decisions and actions, and ensuring that every government department incorporates an understanding of children’s concerns into its portfolio. Nevena Vuckovic Sahovic, drawing on the case of Serbia, provides a concrete example of the failure of a children’s watchdog group to generate integrated attention for children. In Serbia, the body tasked with implementing and overseeing children’s rights is the Child Rights Council, the primary coordinating role of which has never been realized. It is not backed by any law, nor does it have adequate resources or trained staff. Except for this Council, there are no other mechanisms of cooperation among different government sectors, and there is poor coordination between different levels of government; nor does government coordinate with civil society. The absence of integrated attention for children is reflected, Sahovic argues, in the critical lack of improvement in the general status and well being of children in the country. Given the editorial emphasis on mainstreaming attention to children in all areas of governance, it is a bit surprising that more chapters do not expand on this important concern. For the most part, contributions focus on the areas of action and budgeting most traditionally associated with children—primarily health, education and social protection. Shanta Sinha, for instance, provides a good overview of measures in India to get children out of work and into school; Anita Ghai discusses provision for children with disabilities 329 primarily with regard to schooling and healthcare; Enrique Vasquez looks at allocations within Peru...

How Goes It with Britannia?

Britain's international involvement has not been diminished by the loss of Empire; but it has altered drastically, in response both to reduced circumstances and to fundamental changes in world conditions. The transition has been made less difficult by the moderation and good sense of Commonwealth partners. It cannot be said to be complete until Britain has found a more satisfactory basis for a productive role within the enlarged EU, an indispensable element in the management of global interdependence. Among the arguments advanced in this article is that Britain's international involvement is not a matter of external policies and priorities alone. It is a function of the soundness of its economy and the strength of its national cohesion.

A Matter of Passion and Priorities

A Matter of Passion and Priorities

A matter of priorities

A matter of priorities

A Matter of Priorities

A Matter of Priorities

The Earth Charter and Ecological Integrity—Some Policy Implications

AbstractThe concept of ecological integrity is deeply embedded within the Earth Charter. Ecological integrity refers to the full functioning of a suite of natural processes. "Natural" refers to processes that exist without human input. Arguments against the scientifi c validity of ecological integrity are based on the proposition that the current state of ecological systems merely refl ects past contingencies and consequently there is no natural, healthy condition that can be prescribed scientifi cally. Hence, nature conservation and environmental management goals are a matter of individual and social values and priorities. This argument can be rejected largely on the grounds that integrity of ecosystem processes can be empirically demonstrated, and that the continued wellbeing of humanity depends on the ecological integrity of various natural processes known as Earth's life support systems. The main policy implications of ecological integrityfl ow from accepting that the future wellbeing of the human endeavour is irrevocably coupled to the ongoing integrity of the total Earth system. The caring and compassionate attitude towards wild animals also promoted by the Earth Charter provides additional moral impetus to protecting habitat in situ and consequently ecological integrity. Protecting ecological integrity will require both reorientating the human endeavour towards new patterns of production and consumption together with a commitment to making room for wild nature.

The future of Assistive Technology services in the United Kingdom

This paper will attempt to describe what Assistive Technology (AT) means and where AT services in the UK are now. It will also try to predict where they are going in the future by examining the drivers and pressures for change. As a result of the way in which services have evolved in the UK, the scope of this paper is largely limited to AT for people with physical and complex impairments. However it recognises that the current configuration of services does not reflect the most effective means of service delivery. It pays particular attention to the need for continuity of support and highlights some of the difficulties presented by the current arrangement of services and questions their ability to enable disabled people to achieve social inclusion. How cruel it is, men walk in space with the aid of the most sophisticated technology known to mankind yet a person with diabetes cannot walk on earth because she cannot obtain appropriate footwear. It is a matter of priorities; ethics and quality of life. (7)

The journey to professional excellence: a matter of priorities.

Today and for the foreseeable future, it appears that we will confront continual challenges and almost overwhelming change that could easily disillusion and distract us from our primary purpose of patient care. To avoid that possibility and to ensure our continuing journey to excellence, let us remember and teach: It is always a matter of priorities.

Article Commentary: It is Just a Matter of Priorities: A Response to Vaughn et al. and Fox et al.

Article Commentary: It is Just a Matter of Priorities: A Response to Vaughn et al. and Fox et al.

Twenty-Five Years in the Black Belt.

Twenty-Five Years in the Black Belt, by William J. Edwards. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1993. (originally published 1918). 143 pp. $16.95, paper. Reviewed by Michael Fultz, University of Wisconsin-Madison. How are we to interpret the activities and the social vision of those African Americans, both men and women, who openly and sometimes proudly bore the banner of industrial education during the opening decades of the twentieth century? Were they the Uncle Toms of their generation, unctuous and sycophantic accommodators willing to sell out their race for the meager favors of White southern politicians and northern philanthropists? Or, were they sincere Black educator-activists who, working within the confines of an unbelievably racist system, struggled in myriad ways to uplift their communities? In either case, how much of the verbal support for industrial education was absolute, fundamentally excluding more academic and literary training, and how much was a matter of higher priorities given to one or the other? Or, indeed, how much of the verbal support for industrial education was mere lip-service, realistically acknowledging that any educational reform for African Americans would at least have to wear the mask of industrial education in order to placate a virulent White South which actively sought to stifle any possible opportunity for Black educational attainment? All of these questions are highly relevant to a consideration of William J. Edward's recently republished 1918 autobiographical narrative, Twenty-Five Years in the Black Belt. Edwards founded the Snow Hill Colored Literary and Industrial Institute in Wilcox County, Alabama, in 1893, one of many little Tuskegees developed in the rural South during the period from 1880 to 1920. In Edwards's case, as in many others, Snow Hill's resemblance to the famous Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute was no accidentin 1904 the school was renamed Snow Hill Normal and Industrial Institute. Edwards was a member of Tuskegee's class of 1893 and his tale frequently praises its controversial leader Booker T. Washington. In many ways a Washington protege, Edwards missed the anguish of by a mere four years, but from his birth in 1869 his life story parallels that of the famous Tuskegeean, displaying a spirited resolve to move up from adversity, if not actually up from slavery itself. Similarly, Edwards repeatedly notes his passionate desire to serve the educational and social needs of rural southern African Americans through-as his Tuskegee class motto proclaimed-Deeds Not Words. On one level, Twenty-Five Years in the Black Belt is a story of individual determination and perseverance. Although he is not a particularly compelling writer, Edwards must nevertheless be credited with overcoming a crippling bone disease (scrofula), and with surmounting the meager circumstances of his tenant farming upbringing in order to follow his dream of going to school and eventually establishing a school for other impoverished African Americans in rural Alabama. One of the strong points of the book is Edwards's matter-of-fact description of the conditions facing African Americans in the rural 19thcentury South. …

Work? It's just a matter of priorities.

What planet is Bruce Fraser on? (Project playtime, No Limits, June 8). He may indeed feel that we Project 2000 students have too much time off but it rather begs the question will he, I Wonder, feel the same when he goes on to rostered service and has to combine a 37.5 hour week with studying for his finals?

Equality and Exploitation in the Market Socialist Community

Historically, critics of capitalism have had a great deal to say about the defects and social ills that afflict capitalist society and correspondingly little to say about how alternative institutional arrangements might solve these problems. One can only speculate about why this has been so. One reason might be a simple matter of priorities. Bertolt Brecht once said that when a man's house is on fire, one does not inquire too closely into alternative arrangements for shelter. The analogy between capitalism and a burning house may seem overwrought today, but in the dark days of the Depression of the 1930s it probably seemed more apt. Another explanation for the scant attention paid to alternatives to capitalism has to do with both the factual and ideological beliefs of capitalism's critics. If one believes (as, for example, Marx and Engels did) that the existing order would be destroyed by a mass movement, that new institutions would be constructed by the people in a democratic spirit, and that furthermore all of this would be a good thing, it would be unwise and counterproductive to try to spell out exactly where history is headed. After all, a genuine mass movement has little use for self-proclaimed prophets of history. Finally, men and women of modest intellectual pretensions might be humbled by the prospects of trying to spell out in any detail social institutions that should exist or might exist but are not as yet found anywhere in the world.

A Matter of Different Priorities

A Matter of Different Priorities

Reconsidering fairness: A matter of social and ethical priorities

Current problems of fairness in employment testing do not stem primarily from inadequacies in measurement but from real racial-ethnic differences in the job-related capabilities that the tests often reveal. Moreover, the social and political dilemmas created by such differences are only aggravated by clinging to the hope that either measurement techniques or preferential treatment will provide a satisfactory solution to adverse impact. This paper reviews evidence, first, that it is primarily the g (intelligence) factor among mental tests that accounts for their validity in predicting job performance, and second, that black-white differences in g are real, large, and stubborn and thus can be expected to lead to especially high levels of adverse impact in mid- and high-level jobs for the foreseeable future. Examples are then provided of how race norming and other forms of preferential treatment designed to prevent adverse impact are counterproductive in the long run, perhaps especially if practiced covertly. Strategies are reviewed by which organizations, knowingly or not, may cultivate the appearance of having done what is generally impossible—avoiding adverse impact while simultaneously maintaining or improving the efficiency and equity of personnel systems—without actually having accomplished that feat. Finally, it is argued that the newer conceptions of fairness, which emphasize group parity rather than individual merit, promise not to bring racial equality but to permanently consign blacks and other favored groups to second-class citizenship.