bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The 20-item prosopagnosia index (PI20): a self-report instrument for identifying developmental prosopagnosia
Authors: Shah Punit , Gaule Anne , Sowden Sophie , Bird Geoffrey , Cook Richard
Published: June 2015

Self-report plays a key role in the identification of developmental prosopagnosia (DP), providing complementary evidence to computer-based tests of face recognition ability, aiding interpretation of scores. However, the lack of standardized self-report instruments has contributed to heterogeneous reporting standards for self-report evidence in DP research. The lack of standardization prevents comparison across samples and limits investigation of the relationship between objective tests of face processing and self-report measures. To address these issues, this paper introduces the PI20; a 20-item self-report measure for quantifying prosopagnosic traits. The new instrument successfully distinguishes suspected prosopagnosics from typically developed adults. Strong correlations were also observed between PI20 scores and performance on objective tests of familiar and unfamiliar face recognition ability, confirming that people have the necessary insight into their own face recognition ability required by a self-report instrument. Importantly, PI20 scores did not correlate with recognition of non-face objects, indicating that the instrument measures face recognition, and not a general perceptual impairment. These results suggest that the PI20 can play a valuable role in identifying DP. A freely available self-report instrument will permit more effective description of self-report diagnostic evidence, thereby facilitating greater comparison of prosopagnosic samples, and more reliable classification.
Global stability for an inverse problem in soil–structure interaction
Authors: Alessandrini G. , Morassi A. , Rosset E. , Vessella S.
Published: June 2015

We consider the inverse problem of determining the Winkler subgrade reaction coefficient of a slab foundation modelled as a thin elastic plate clamped at the boundary. The plate is loaded by a concentrated force and its transversal deflection is measured at the interior points. We prove a global Hölder stability estimate under (mild) regularity assumptions on the unknown coefficient.
Mutation-Profile-Based Methods for Understanding Selection Forces in Cancer Somatic Mutations: A Comparative Analysis
Authors: Zhou Zhan , Zou Yangyun , Liu Gangbiao , Zhou Jingqi , Wu Jingcheng , Zhao Shimin , Su Zhixi , Gu Xun
Published: June 2015

Human genes exhibit different effects on fitness in cancer and normal cells. Here, we present an evolutionary approach to measure the selection pressure on human genes, using the well-known ratio of the nonsynonymous to synonymous substitution rate in both cancer genomes (CN/CS) and normal populations (pN/pS). A new mutation-profile-based method that adopts sample-specific mutation rate profiles instead of conventional substitution models was developed. We found that cancer-specific selection pressure is quite different from the selection pressure at the species and population levels. Both the relaxation of purifying selection on passenger mutations and the positive selection of driver mutations may contribute to the increasedCN/CSvalues of human genes in cancer genomes compared with thepN/pSvalues in human populations. TheCN/CSvalues also contribute to the improved classification of cancer genes and a better understanding of the onco-functionalization of cancer genes during oncogenesis. The use of our computational pipeline to identify cancer-specific positively and negatively selected genes may provide useful information for understanding the evolution of cancers and identifying possible targets for therapeutic intervention.
Cancer stem cells in glioblastoma
Authors: Lathia Justin D. , Mack Stephen C. , Mulkearns-Hubert Erin E. , Valentim Claudia L.L. , Rich Jeremy N.
Published: June 2015

Tissues with defined cellular hierarchies in development and homeostasis give rise to tumors with cellular hierarchies, suggesting that tumors recapitulate specific tissues and mimic their origins. Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most prevalent and malignant primary brain tumor and contains self-renewing, tumorigenic cancer stem cells (CSCs) that contribute to tumor initiation and therapeutic resistance. As normal stem and progenitor cells participate in tissue development and repair, these developmental programs re-emerge in CSCs to support the development and progressive growth of tumors. Elucidation of the molecular mechanisms that govern CSCs has informed the development of novel targeted therapeutics for GBM and other brain cancers. CSCs are not self-autonomous units; rather, they function within an ecological system, both actively remodeling the microenvironment and receiving critical maintenance cues from their niches. To fulfill the future goal of developing novel therapies to collapse CSC dynamics, drawing parallels to other normal and pathological states that are highly interactive with their microenvironments and that use developmental signaling pathways will be beneficial.
Homeostatic control of Hippo signaling activity revealed by an endogenous activating mutation in YAP
Authors: Chen Qian , Zhang Nailing , Xie Rui , Wang Wei , Cai Jing , Choi Kyung-Suk , David Karen Kate , Huang Bo , Yabuta Norikazu , Nojima Hiroshi , Anders Robert A. , Pan Duojia
Published: June 2015

The Hippo signaling pathway converges on YAP to regulate growth, differentiation, and regeneration. Previous studies with overexpressed proteins have shown that YAP is phosphorylated by its upstream kinase, Lats1/2, on multiple sites, including an evolutionarily conserved 14-3-3-binding site whose phosphorylation is believed to inhibit YAP by excluding it from the nucleus. Indeed, nuclear localization of YAP or decreased YAP phosphorylation at this site (S168 in Drosophila, S127 in humans, and S112 in mice) is widely used in current literature as a surrogate of YAP activation even though the physiological importance of this phosphorylation event in regulating endogenous YAP activity has not been defined. Here we address this question by introducing a YapS112A knock-in mutation in the endogenous Yap locus. The YapS112A mice are surprisingly normal despite nuclear localization of the mutant YAP protein in vivo and profound defects in cytoplasmic translocation in vitro. Interestingly, the mutant YapS112A mice show a compensatory decrease in YAP protein levels due to increased phosphorylation at a mammalian-specific phosphodegron site on YAP. These findings reveal a robust homeostatic mechanism that maintains physiological levels of YAP activity and caution against the assumptive use of YAP localization alone as a surrogate of YAP activity.
Epidemiology of deep cutaneous fungal infections in Korea (2006–2010)
Authors: Kim Myoung Shin , Kim Jae Kyung , Lee Mi Woo , Moon Kee‐Chan , Kim Beom Joon , Son Sang Wook , Ahn Hyo Hyun , Oh Sang Ho , Yu Hee Joon , Lee Dong Youn , Cho Kwang Hyun , Cho Baik Kee , Kim Moon Bum , Suh Kee Suck , Kim You Chan , Ro Byung In , Park Joon Soo , Choi Jong Soo , Lee Jee Bum
Published: June 2015

Deep cutaneous fungal infections (DCFI) occur worldwide and their prevalence is influenced by personal factors of the affected patients and the geographic and cultural features. Surveillance studies of DCFI with respect to the various clinical backgrounds of affected patients can ultimately help to improve their outcome. Expanding on our previous study, we performed a retrospective analysis of patients with DCFI who were treated in a group of university teaching hospitals in Korea to determine the trends within a 5‐year period. A retrospective medical record review of patients with DCFI treated between 2006 and 2010 at 16 university teaching hospitals located throughout Korea was performed. Among the 51 cases of DCFI (median patient age, 47.0 years), opportunistic infections in immunocompromised hosts accounted for half. Patients in this group included 11 who were transplant recipients and 12 with malignancies. Overall, Candida (13/51) was the most common causative organism, followed by Sporothrix (12) and Aspergillus (6). Papuloplaques and nodular lesions were the typical presentation, with maculopatches and ulcers also occurring in considerable numbers. Ten patients had systemic involvement. Eight immunocompromised patients did not recover from the disease despite systemic antifungal treatment. Our results highlight the equal involvement of opportunistic and primary pathogens in DCFI, as determined in cases from a 5‐year period. Especially in immunocompromised hosts with non‐specific skin findings, clinical suspicion is important because failure to diagnose a DCFI causes significant morbidity and possibly even death.
The Demand for Public Health Care and the Progressivity of Health Care Services in Ghana
Authors: Gaddah Mawuli , Munro Alistair , Quartey Peter
Published: June 2015

This paper examines the choice of health care and progressivity of health care services in Ghana. Using a combination of benefit incidence analysis and a discrete choice model and data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey, our results give clear evidence of progressivity with consistent ordering: postnatal and prenatal services are the most progressive, followed by clinic visits, and then hospital visits. Child health care services are more progressive than adult. Own price and income elasticities are higher for public health care than private health care and for adults than children. Poorer households are substantially more price responsive than wealthy ones, implying that fee increases for public health care will impact negatively on equity in health care. Simulations show the importance of opportunity costs in health care decisions and suggest that reforms that focus only on out‐of‐pocket expenses will have a limited ability to extend public health care to all potential users.
A Spatial, Non‐parametric Analysis of the Determinants of Food Insecurity in Sub‐Saharan Africa
Authors: Sassi Maria
Published: June 2015

This paper investigates the determinants of food insecurity at the macro‐level in cross‐sectional data for a sample of 40 countries in sub‐Saharan Africa and considers the most basic causes of undernourishment, including food availability, access to food and its utilization. The empirical analysis is based on a spatial, non‐parametric technique that allows global and local explanatory variables to be distinguished from one another. The results provide useful information for reconsidering food security policies and programmes that extend beyond the prevailing perspective of food availability and suggest possible directions for regional and sub‐regional approaches to the food crisis in sub‐Saharan Africa.
Price Transmission Asymmetry in Spatial Grain Markets in Ethiopia
Authors: Wondemu Kifle
Published: June 2015

Acknowledging the link between competitive and efficient spatial agricultural markets and farm productivity, the government of Ethiopia has implemented various market enhancing policy and institutional measures. The effectiveness of these measures to achieve their policy goals, among others, depends on the degree of symmetry prices transmit across spatial markets as well as on the efficiency of spatial arbitrage. We tested the presence of asymmetric price adjustment in the spatial grain markets in Ethiopia. The result provided clear evidence of asymmetric price adjustment for teff crops, but not for maize. For teff crops, prices adjust quickly to shocks that increase price than shocks that reduce prices. The analysis on the efficiency of the grain markets also showed that the spatial markets are characterized by a significant level of inefficiency. Although further research is necessary to establish the real causes for the observed asymmetric price transmission and market inefficiency, the finding suggests that departure from perfectly competitive settings are partly to be blamed for the recent food crops price hikes. In addition to their undesirable redistributional consequences, price transmissions asymmetry and inefficiency are expected to entail efficiency loss. Future empirical work in this area should strive to explain the underlying reasons for the observed asymmetric price transmission and market inefficiency.
Microfinance Institutions in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda: Loan Outreach to the Poor and the Quest for Financial Viability
Authors: Ayele Gashaw Tsegaye
Published: June 2015

Microfinance institutions' (MFIs') loan service outreach to the poor (depth) and the ensuing institutional viability concern is an unsettled issue in the literature. Can MFIs increase the depth of their outreach whilst achieving financial viability (viability)? Answering this question is exceedingly relevant to countries that opt for right policies towards financial inclusion. In their microfinance operations, Kenya and Uganda ranked first and second in Africa; fifth and eighth in the world, respectively; and Ethiopia is an emerging MFI destination. Yet, the loan outreach in these countries falls short of the uncontested huge demand. The study introduces an approach that disintegrates the overall effect of depth on viability into direct and indirect effects. Hausman‐Taylor and Generalized Structural Equation Models are employed on unbalanced panel dataset of 31 MFIs (2003–12) drawn from the three countries. The result implied a direct‐positive effect and an indirect‐negative effect running from depth to viability. Under contained operational‐expenses‐per‐loan‐portfolio, depth could be pro‐viability. Debt‐to‐Equity‐Ratio relate inversely with viability whereas ‘Real‐Yield’ relates directly. The paper concludes that support to MFIs should be aligned to ensure efficiency through reduced operational costs and thereby complementary depth–viability nexus can prevail.
Foreign Ownership and Labour in Sub‐Saharan African Firms
Authors: Foster‐McGregor Neil , Isaksson Anders , Kaulich Florian
Published: June 2015

We examine whether foreign‐owned firms pay higher wages and have higher employment than domestically owned firms using survey data from 19 sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries. Our results indicate that foreign‐owned firms pay higher average wages than domestically owned firms, with the wage premium found to be higher for white‐collar workers. We find little evidence of a positive employment effect of foreign ownership, though the evidence suggests a positive employment effect of Chinese ownership on workers in manufacturing.
Impact des Transferts de Fonds sur le Taux de Change Réel Effectif en Tunisie
Authors: Chnaina Khaled , Makhlouf Farid
Published: June 2015

Les transferts de fonds des migrants tunisiens constituent une source de devises non négligeable, Ils ont augmenté d'une manière rapide notamment la dernière décennie. Ils peuvent également engendrer le phénomène de syndrome hollandais. Le but de ce travail est d'étudier l'impact des transferts sur taux de change réel effectif. En estimant des relations de co‐intégration avec ruptures structurelles par l'intermédiaire de la méthode de Johansenet al. () et Saikkonen et Lütkepohl () et Saikkonenet al. (); nous avons trouvé qu'une augmentation de 1% de ratio des transferts de fonds sur PIB provoque une appréciation de taux de change réel d'équilibre de 0,39%. Ce qui confirme l'hypothèse de syndrome hollandais dans l'économie tunisienne.

Remittances to Tunisia constitute a main foreign flow; they have increased rapidly particularly over the past decade. Remittances can induce the syndrome known as Dutch Disease. The aim of this study is to analyse the impact of remittances on the real effective exchange rate. By estimating cointegration relations with structural breaks through the method of Johansenet al. (); Saikkonen and Lütkepohl () and Saikkonenet al. (); we found that an increase in worker's remittances of 1 percentage point of GDP is associated with an appreciation of Tunisia's real effective exchange rate by 0.39 per cent. This result confirms the hypothesis of Dutch Disease in Tunisia.
Testing PPP for the South African Rand/US Dollar Real Exchange Rate at Different Data Frequencies
Authors: Caporale Guglielmo Maria , Gil‐Alana Luis A.
Published: June 2015

This paper tests the PPP hypothesis for the South African rand/US dollar real exchange rate using a fractional integration framework. The results suggest that the real exchange rate of the South African rand with respect to the US dollar is a highly dependent variable with an order of integration very close to 1. This finding is not affected by the data frequency considered (daily, weekly or monthly). Also, there appears to be a single break in December 2001 (possibly corresponding to a change in the monetary policy framework), with the unit root null being rejected in favour of d > 1 for the periods before the break, but not afterwards. Thus, our results strongly reject the PPP hypothesis for the South African rand/US dollar rate across data frequencies, since shocks are found to affect the exchange rate forever.
Canal du commerce extérieur, politiques publiques et spécialisation des PED africains: étude empirique
Authors: Assoumou Ella Giscard , Bastidon Cécile
Published: June 2015

Nous proposons un modèle à deux pays : un pays en développement exportateur de matières premières et importateur de produits finis, et une économie avancée. Les tests individuels réalisés sur 16 pays africains entre 1970 et 2007 montrent que la variation des échanges commerciaux de ces pays suite aux chocs de revenu et de prix internationaux provoque celle de leurs revenus, en fonction de leurs spécialisations et de leurs politiques publiques. Les pays de l'échantillon doivent diversifier leurs économies en produisant les biens et services consommés localement afin de réduire leurs niveaux d'exposition.

We propose a two countries model: a developing country that exports raw materials and imports finished products and a developed country. We test this model in 16 African countries between 1970 and 2007 and show that the variation in commercial flows caused by international income and price shocks entails a variation in their incomes, depending on the specialization and public policies. The countries of the sample must diversify their economies in producing goods and services consumed locally in order to reduce their levels of exposure.
R&D Strategy in International Mixed Duopoly with Research Spillovers
Authors: Haruna Shoji , Goel Rajeev K.
Published: June 2015

This paper examines the international mixed duopoly behaviour with research spillovers. Using a two‐stage game with Research and Development (R&D) and output, we investigate the effects of imperfectly appropriable R&D on optimal R&D strategies of a domestic public firm and a foreign private firm across different market interactions: (i) international R&D competition, (ii) only the foreign firm conducts R&D, (iii) only the domestic public firm conducts R&D, (iv) no firm conducts R&D, and (v) research joint venture. The results show that firms' research performances are determined by the degree of spillovers and the optimal R&D strategies involve R&D competition. Spillovers are shown to be socially beneficial and their absence can prove to be a strategic deterrent, with the public firm monopolising the market. Some of these findings contrast with the traditional models of oligopoly (with or without R&D) and mixed oligopoly (without R&D).
Australian Specific Bank Features and the Impact of Income Diversification on Bank Performance and Risk
Authors: Edirisuriya Piyadasa , Gunasekarage Abeyratna , Dempsey Michael
Published: June 2015

Since financial market deregulation, Australian banks have significantly diversified from a dependence on simple products such as interest‐bearing loans to a broader range of financial products services. Such initiatives have transformed the structure of the Australian banking industry and are destined to receive scrutiny following the announcement of Australia's financial services inquiry. Against the common view that attempts by firms to diversify can be expected to impact negatively on financial performance, we find no strong evidence to suggest that diversification has been unfavourable to the performance of Australian banks. We find rather that Australia's banks have improved their risk‐return profiles as an outcome of diversification.
Mortgage‐Backed Securities (MBS): Is It a Curse or a Blessing for the Australian Home Loan Market? A Natural Experiment
Authors: Nabin Munirul H. , Bhattacharya Sukanto , Rafiq Shuddhaswatta
Published: June 2015

The Australian home loan market has seen a significant and persistent boom over more than two decades. The extant literature exploring the underlying factors explaining this boom has predominantly looked at the demand side rather than the supply side. In this paper, we look at a major supply‐side issue, the introduction of mortgage‐backed securities and its likely impact on the home loan market. In doing so, we have developed a mathematical model that theorises this likely relationship. Our mathematical model predicts possible existence of an unstable equilibrium in the home loan market in the presence of mortgage‐backed securities. We have subsequently backed up our theoretical exercise with sound empirical evidence acquired and analysed as a natural experiment in the Australian scenario using quarterly market data on home loans and mortgage‐backed securities data for a 36‐year period from 1976 to 2012. Using unknown structural break tests, we have identified significant breaks around late 1992 to mid‐1995, clearly indicating that there were significant changes in the housing market due to the introduction of mortgage‐backed securities in early 1993. We have also performed a stability test confirming that under certain conditions this market can become unstable.
Endogenous Choice of Strategic Contracts in a Mixed Duopoly with Bargaining Over Managerial Delegation Contracts
Authors: Nakamura Yasuhiko
Published: June 2015

We revisit the endogenous choice problem of strategic contracts for the public firm and the private firm in a managerial mixed duopoly with differentiated goods. We consider the situation wherein the managerial delegation contracts are determined by maximising social welfare within the public firm, which is equal to the objective function of its owner, and through bargaining over the content of managerial delegation contracts between the owner and manager within the private firm. We show that, in equilibrium, when the manager of the private firm has high bargaining power relative to that of the owner, the public firm chooses a price contract, while the private firm chooses a quantity contract. However, there is no equilibrium market structure under the pure strategic contract class when the manager has sufficiently low bargaining power relative to that of the owner.
Introduction to Elites from the ‘Problematic of the Proletariat’ to a Class Analysis of ‘Wealth Elites’
Authors: Savage Mike
Published: June 2015

This introductory paper argues that it is vital to reorient class analysis away from its long term preoccupation with class boundaries in the middle levels of the class structure towards a focus on the class formation at the top. This will permit sociological analysis to engage more effectively with concerns about the ‘1 percent’ and accentuating wealth which are increasingly evident. Accordingly I sketch out the persistence of the ‘problematic of the proletariat’ in sociological analysis before considering theoretical resources which might permit an engagement with the ‘wealth elite’. This paper serves to introduce the other papers of this special issue which use the GBCS to explore different facets of the wealth elite in Britain today.
Doing the Great British Class Survey
Authors: Devine Fiona , Snee Helene
Published: June 2015

This paper introduces the Great British Class Survey and describes how it came to be, providing an insight into the work that has led to this special issue on the contemporary British elite. We discuss initial work with the BBC Lab UK team, the construction of the web survey and its launch. We also consider the response rate and how an additional face-to-face nationally representative survey was then commissioned to deal with sample skew. The way in which subsequent analysis addresses this challenge is also addressed, along with how this ‘problem’ has provided rich, granular data on the most privileged and powerful in UK society. We reflect on a piece of research which enjoyed considerable attention, and how we might interpret this in terms of public engagement. We also acknowledge some of the immediate academic responses to this innovative collaborative adventure. Finally, we indicate how the GBCS team will be developing this work in the future, before outlining how the papers in this special issue offer insights into the anatomy of power and privilege in modern Britain.
Breaking the ‘Class’ Ceiling? Social Mobility into Britain's Elite Occupations
Authors: Friedman Sam , Laurison Daniel , Miles Andrew
Published: June 2015

In this paper we use the unusually large sample size of the Great British Class Survey to compare rates of social mobility into different elite occupations. We find a distinction between ‘traditional’ professions, such as law, medicine and finance, which are dominated by the children of higher managers and professionals, and technical or emerging high-status occupations, particularly those related to IT, that appear to recruit more widely. Second, we find that even when the upwardly mobile are successful in entering elite occupations they invariably fail to accumulate the same economic, cultural and social capital as those from privileged backgrounds. While many such differences may be explained by inheritance, we also find that the mobile tend to have considerably lower incomes. Investigating this further we demonstrate that even when controlling for important variables such as schooling, education, location, age, and cultural and social capital, the upwardly mobile in eight occupations – located largely in the business sector – have considerably lower incomes than their higher-origin colleagues. These findings underline the value of analyses of mobility into specific high-status occupations as well as illustrating how, beyond entry, the mobile often face considerable disadvantage within occupations.
Entry to Elite Positions and the Stratification of Higher Education in Britain
Authors: Wakeling Paul , Savage Mike
Published: June 2015

We use the Great British Class Survey to examine the association between social background, university attended and social position for over 85,000 graduates. This unique dataset allows us to look beyond the very early labour market experiences of graduates investigated in previous studies and to examine the outcome of attending particular institutions. We find strong evidence of distinct stratification of outcomes by university attended, even within the prestigious Russell Group. There are marked differences in entry to elite positions for graduates of different universities, with sharp gradients in levels of economic capital in particular. The ‘golden triangle’ of Oxford, Cambridge and certain London institutions emerges as a distinct elite. However, even within that grouping there are striking differences, with Oxford ahead of Cambridge on several measures. These findings underline the importance of a geographically concentrated set of elite universities in channelling access to top positions in British society.
The Secret Garden? Elite Metropolitan Geographies in the Contemporary UK
Authors: Cunningham Niall , Savage Mike
Published: June 2015

There is an enduring, indeed increasing awareness of the role of spatial location in defining and reinforcing inequality in this country and beyond. In the UK, much of the debate around these issues has focussed on the established trope of a long-standing ‘north-south divide’, a divide which appears to have deepened in recent decades with the inexorable de-industrialisation of northern Britain presented in stark counterpoint to the burgeoning concentration of wealth in London and the south-east, driven by the financial and ancillary services sectors. Due to a lack of available data, such debates have tended to focus solely on economic inequalities between places, and until now there was little understanding of how these disparities played out in the social and cultural domains. This paper significantly advances our understanding of the true meaning of spatial inequality in the UK by broadening that definition to encompass not only the economic, but also the social and cultural arenas, using data available from the BBC's Great British Class Survey experiment. We argue that these data shine a light not only on the economic inequalities between different parts of the country which existing debates have already uncovered but to understand how these are both reinforced and mediated across the social and cultural dimensions. Fundamentally, we concur with a great many others in seeing London and the south-east as a vortex for economic accumulation but it is also much more than that; it is a space where the coming together of intense economic, social and cultural resources enables the crystallisation of particular and nuanced forms of elite social class formations, formations in which place is not incidental but integral to their very existence.
Class in Contemporary Britain: Comparing the Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion (CCSE) Project and the Great British Class Survey (GBCS)
Authors: Silva Elizabeth B.
Published: June 2015

The paper discusses the salience of class in Britain in relation to the experiment of the BBC–academic partnership of the Great British Class Survey (GBCS). It addresses the claimed inauguration of a third phase in class analysis in the UK sparked by the experiment. This is done by considering three main issues. First, the GBCS experiment is situated in the context of various explorations of cultural class analyses, and chiefly in relation to the Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion (CCSE) project (ESRC funded 2003–6). Secondly, the focus is on the influence of the academic turn to big data for the procedures and claims of the project, and some implications of the methodological choices. Thirdly, attention is turned to the deleterious effects of commercial and institutional pressures on the current research culture in which the experiment exists.
The Great British Class Survey: Requiescat in Pace
Authors: Mills Colin
Published: June 2015

Professor Savage and his colleagues have shifted intellectual ground and changed the intellectual focus of the Great British Class Survey (GBCS) from the provision of ‘a comprehensive map of class in Britain’ to an examination of what they call the British ‘elite’. I argue that this ‘elite’ is no such thing and that whatever it is, it is not well defined by the procedures that are used to identify it. At the heart of all the papers the GBCS team present in this issue of the journal is an unavoidable incoherence which arises from the bias in responses to the original survey. Despite protestations to the contrary this response bias has not been dealt with properly and the resulting empirical analysis is without much value.
Symptomatic Social Science: Reflexivity, Recognition and Redistribution in the GBCS
Authors: May Tim
Published: June 2015

The article examines methodological and theoretical issues related to the GBCS. It acknowledges its importance for the public profile of sociology, whilst arguing that it needs to develop a better sense of what it stands for not only in terms of understanding societal changes, but contributing to human betterment. To achieve this it discusses the role of reflexivity in the GBCS with reference to position and disposition and accounts of its process. It then moves on to examine its normative basis in terms of an ‘existential analytics’ and suggests a series of ways in which it might advance its insights as the work develops.
Uprooting Class? Culture, World-Making and Reform
Authors: Latimer Joanna , Munro Rolland
Published: June 2015

The paper opens up the issue of how to relate culture to class in the UK. First, problematizing the conflation of class with status – inherent to stratification models like the GBCS – we theorize culture as ‘world-making’ rather than limit culture to artistic or individual possession. Second, exploring culture in the wake of reforms aimed at local and institutional ‘cultures’ that are said to hold back economic growth, we examine power relations between class and culture. After clarifying how Weber's analysis of stratification keeps economic relations underpinning class distinct from the cultural mores of status groups, we point to a third dimension in his emphasis on parties – those groupings locked in the struggle for dominance across all levels and modes of life – as the ‘house of power’. Contrary to his supposition of homogeneity, however, we suggest legitimation today requires contesting parties, including factions and interest groups, to recruit from across class and status groups. Arguing recruitment to parties is enhanced by a mood of endless reform – in which modernity appears bent on tearing up its own foundations – we indicate how the resulting sense of precariousness is augmented by the stratifying technologies of grading and ranking. The pertinent question is: Who benefits from endless reform? And if the answer is no more than to recognize how benefits are skewed to an ‘elite’ working on behalf of owners of capital, then it is time to put aside stratification for an analysis of class relations that pointedly attends to wider notions of culture by asking: Who gets the say in world-making?
Social Classes in Brazil: Time, Trajectory and Immaterial Inheritance
Authors: Bertoncelo Edison
Published: June 2015

This paper employs a Bourdieusian conception of class and attempts to illustrate the power of such an approach via an analysis of the contemporary Brazilian case. Initially, the paper describes the main dilemmas and disputes in the field of class analysis in Brazilian sociology. Then, the paper presents an empirical investigation on the role of culture in the shaping of class relations in Brazil, based on the analysis of survey data containing information on social agents' cultural participation and uses of time.
GBCS: An Answer in Search of a Question
Authors: Lui Tai-Lok
Published: June 2015

In this response to ‘A new model of social class?’ by Savage et al. (2013) , I take issue with their claim of carrying out an inductive, data-driven approach to the construction of a new class scheme. They emphasize that theirs is not just another occupational- or employment-based class schema. Rather, their objective is to illustrate how cultural and social boundaries are drawn up. Their class classification is multi-dimensional, with the combination of economic, social, and cultural capitals to delineate distinctive class boundaries. My main concerns fall into three areas: (1) what are the problems of their proposed inductive approach? Can we draw up class boundaries without going back to a political economy analysis of contemporary capitalism? (2) How successful have they been in introducing new social classes to their classification of class? Do their descriptions of the seven classes in their class scheme add up in ways that present us with a sociologically meaningful analysis of a class structure of contemporary Britain? (3) And, finally, how useful is their framework for conducting comparative class analysis? Drawing upon the case of contemporary China, it is suggested that it is important to recognize that the effects of social and cultural capitals vary, both quantitatively and qualitatively, according to the wider institutional environment. In each of the above areas, the approach suggested by Savage et al. is found short of fully satisfactory answers.
For a Relational Approach to Cultural Capital: A Concept Tested by Changes in the French Social Space
Authors: Serre Delphine , Wagner Anne-Catherine
Published: June 2015

This article shows that a relational approach to the notion of cultural capital may shed light on how stratification and the mechanisms of social domination have developed in France. By using several studies focused on a range of social classes, it demonstrates how cultural capital is being used in changing ways, at every level of the social hierarchy. The article is intended to move away from a substantialist definition of cultural capital, which cannot be solely defined by its contents, such as an educational degree or a collection of cultural practices. In order to understand the transformations of the boundaries between social classes, it is necessary to analyse developments in the relationship between cultural and economic capitals, and between cultural capital's incorporated, objectified and institutionalized forms.
The Right to Speak: Differences in Political Engagement among the British Elite
Authors: Laurison Daniel
Published: June 2015

In this paper, I examine differences in political engagement among an elite segment of the British population: GBCS respondents who are college-educated, non-routine workers making over £100,000a year. I show that even though everyone in this group ought to have more than sufficient skills and resources for political engagement, there are still substantial differences by social position. Specifically, postgraduate degrees and higher incomes still differentiate political engagement, and cultural and social capital (as indicated by cultural activities practised, and the occupations people report knowing) differentiate elite political engagement even more strongly. This indicates that social position qua social position – that is, connection to dominant and legitimated ways of being – contributes to a sense of the ‘right to speak’ that matters as much as or more than costs and resources for facilitating political involvement.
Spectres of Marxism: A Comment on Mike Savage's Market Model of Class Difference
Authors: Toscano Alberto , Woodcock Jamie
Published: June 2015

This article is a critique of Mike Savage's ‘From the “problematic of the proletariat” to a class analysis of the “wealth elites”’. It first rejects the notion of the ‘problematic of the proletariat’ – the importance of a dividing line between the working and middle class – instead situating the argument within contemporary debates on class analysis. The critique introduces the broader context of neoliberalism and financialization, alongside a consideration of class globally. It stresses the importance of exploitation for understanding class and inequality, rather than moving to the notion of ‘advantage’, as proposed by Savage, which expels an understanding of power. While the focus on elites in class analysis is welcomed, it is argued that there is a continuing interdependence between classes and that race and gender must also be considered.
Classificatory Struggles: Class, Culture and Inequality in Neoliberal Times
Authors: Tyler Imogen
Published: June 2015

The problem that the concept of ‘class’ describes is inequality. The transition from industrial to financial capitalism (neoliberalism) in Europe has effected ‘deepening inequalities of income, health and life chances within and between countries, on a scale not seen since before the second world War’ (Hall et al., 2014: 9). In this context, class is an essential point of orientation for sociology if it is to grasp the problem of inequality today. Tracing a route through Pierre Bourdieu's relational understanding of class, Beverley Skeggs' understanding of class as struggles (over value), and Wendy Brown's argument that neoliberalism is characterized by the culturalization of political struggles, this article animates forms of class-analysis, with which we might better apprehend the forms of class exploitation that distinguish post-industrial societies. Taking a cue from Jacques Rancière, the central argument is that the sociology of class should be grounded not in the assumption and valorization of class identities but in an understanding of class as struggles against classification. In this way, sociology can contribute to the development of alternative social and political imaginaries to the biopolitics of disposability symptomatic of neoliberal governmentality.
Introduction: Stratification or Exploitation, Domination, Dispossession and Devaluation?
Authors: Skeggs Beverley
Published: June 2015

This general introduction locates the GBCS papers on the elite, and their respondents, within a context. It emphasizes some of the key points made by the respondents in order to intervene in a discussion about what is at stake in doing sociological research on class. It draws attention to the differences between on the one hand status and stratification, and on the other class struggle perspectives, and hence the difference between a hierarchical gradational analysis and a relational one based on the struggle between groups over value. I begin to answer a question raised by many of the respondents in this special issue: ‘what is the question that the analysis of class is designed to answer?’ I also draw attention to some of the problems with Bourdieu's ‘structuring architecture’, showing how the partial reproduction of Bourdieu presents fundamental problems, leading to a Great British Stratification Survey (‘GBSs’) rather than a GBCS. The different trajectories in class analysis that confusingly merge over the concept of culture in the present are briefly mapped, showing very different intentions in analysis. I argue that to understand class we need to understand the processes of classification: exploitation, domination, dispossession and devaluation, and their legitimation. Overall this special issue extends the sociological debate on class into a larger political frame about injustice, classification and value. It develops arguments from anthropology that maintain that it is the ability to define what value is (through culture) that is the ultimate difference in politics and power.
Estimating Time Since Death from Postmortem Human Gut Microbial Communities
Authors: Hauther Kathleen A. , Cobaugh Kelly L. , Jantz Lee Meadows , Sparer Tim E. , DeBruyn Jennifer M.
Published: June 2015

Postmortem succession of human‐associated microbial communities (“human microbiome”) has been suggested as a possible method for estimating postmortem interval (PMI) for forensic analyses. Here we evaluate human gut bacterial populations to determine quantifiable, time‐dependent changes postmortem. Gut microflora were repeatedly sampled from the proximal large intestine of 12 deceased human individuals as they decayed under environmental conditions. Three intestinal bacterial genera were quantified by quantitative PCR (qPCR) using group‐specific primers targeting 16S rRNA genes. Bacteroides and Lactobacillus relative abundances declined exponentially with increasing PMI at rates of Nt = 0.977e−0.0144t (r2 = 0.537, p < 0.001) and Nt = 0.019e−0.0087t (r2 = 0.396, p < 0.001), respectively, where Nt is relative abundance at time (t) in cumulative degree hours. Bifidobacterium relative abundances did not change significantly: Nt = 0.003e−0.002t (r2 = 0.033, p = 0.284). Therefore, Bacteroides and Lactobacillus abundances could be used as quantitative indicators of PMI.
Characterizing and Contextualizing the Water Challenges of Megacities
Authors: Li Enjie , Endter‐Wada Joanna , Li Shujuan
Published: June 2015

We characterize and compare water challenges confronting the 28 megacities of the world in 2014. Relying on existing literature and diverse primary data sources, we present a unique portrait at a global scale of the water implications of the rapid growth in megacities. We find that differentiating and analyzing the complexity of megacities' water problems based on geographic contexts, historical development trajectories, urban population growth rates, and forms of urban expansion helps explain the nature of the various water management problems they confront. Two governance features also shed light on megacity water challenges: fragmentation resulting from forms of megacity urban expansion; and, urban dualism resulting from contradictions between historical and cultural legacies and the rise of global engineering and technological norms for water management. The increasing vulnerability of megacities to climate change poses risks as well as opportunities for a more collective response to address this global phenomenon. Our analysis raises important questions and offers guidance about the future trajectories of many more large cities around the world that are on their way to becoming megacities.
Integrated Modeling of Water Supply and Demand under Management Options and Climate Change Scenarios in Chifeng City, China
Authors: Hao Lu , Sun Ge , Liu Yongqiang , Qian Hong
Published: June 2015

Water resource management is becoming increasingly challenging in northern China because of the rapid increase in water demand and decline in water supply due to climate change. We provide a case study demonstrating the importance of integrated watershed management in sustaining water resources in Chifeng City, northern China. We examine the consequences of various climate change scenarios and adaptive management options on water supply by integrating the Soil and Water Assessment Tool and Water Evaluation and Planning models. We show how integrated modeling is useful in projecting the likely effects of management options using limited information. Our study indicates that constructing more reservoirs can alleviate the current water shortage and groundwater depletion problems. However, this option is not necessarily the most effective measure to solve water supply problems; instead, improving irrigation efficiency and changing cropping structure may be more effective. Furthermore, measures to increase water supply have limited effects on water availability under a continuous drought and a dry‐and‐warm climate scenario. We conclude that the combined measure of reducing water demand and increasing supply is the most effective and practical solution for the water shortage problems in the study area.
Modeling Megacity Drinking Water Security under a DSS Framework in a Tidal River at the North Pearl River Delta, China
Authors: Xiao Dacheng , Jia Haifeng , Wang Zheng
Published: June 2015

A modeling study was undertaken under a decision support system (DSS) for drinking water security in the Foshan section of the Beijiang River, a typical tidal river in the North Pearl River Delta. The DSS included a database layer, application support layer, and an application layer. As an integral part of the DSS application support layer, an integrated modeling system was developed to simulate hydrodynamics. The balance of dissolved oxygen and toxicants was based on an environmental fluid dynamics code and a water quality analysis simulation program (WASP) modeling framework. Model calibration and validation was undertaken using monitoring data in normal hydrological conditions. Four scenarios for the environmental management of water, including current water temp‐spatial feature analysis, control of pollution sources, and emergency response, were designed and analyzed in the DSS. The results indicated that the tide downstream has a distinct influence on hydrodynamics and pollutant diffusion, and the DSS could be used to design effective schemes to reduce pollutant discharges and provide emergency responses for ensuring drinking water security.