Review: Transboundary Policy Challenges in the Pacific Border Regions of North America
Bibliographic record
Abstract
TRANSBOUNDARY POLICY CHALLENGES IN THE PACIFIC BORDER REGIONS OF NORTH AMERICA James Loucky, Donald K. Alper, and J. C. Day Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2008. 343PP, $34-95 paper (ISBN 9781-55238-223-3)In October 2001, a workshop on border bioregions and coastal corridors was held in Bellingham, WA and Vancouver, BC. The interest and ideas born at this conference led a compilation of research centered on borderlands environmental policy across Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Framed within the rubric of transboundary research and practices within the Pacific border regions of North America, the works presented in Transboundary Policy Challenges are important if only for the fact that they represent an effort provide comparative works across all three countries of North America in a single volume. For anyone interested in comparative international environmental policymaking as it has developed in this particular region of North America, this book provides a wealth of information and a good starting point from which continue the exploration of cross-border environmental problems.The comparative methodology based on a compilation of case studies provides a cross-border description and analysis of significant transboundary research within the Pacific border regions of North America. The chapters in this volume are exceptionally well written. The presentations are carefully organized and easy understand. The overall quality of the analysis is excellent. Students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels would find the writing straightforward and the arguments valid. In addition, the chapters are written in a way that will be easily read and understood by policymakers and the general public alike. The arguments and recommendations offer an overview of policy issues that reinforce the need for further action and study.The best part of this volume is the breadth of topics and the quantity and quality of detailed information provided. Not only are historical trends carefully articulated, data are provided that specifically highlight possible policy directions for each country singularly, binationally, and regionally in its efforts deal effectively with environmental problems in high-growth border areas. Further, there is recognition that the magnitude of global economic developments and the gravity of environmental dilemmas will force us to think and act in new ways, including through engaging more actively in international research and civic activities across North American borders (vii).The initial two chapters are outstanding. In chapter one, Day, Loucky, and Alper present an overview of the policy challenges in North America's Pacific border regions, beginning with a delineation of why border regions are now primary areas for economic and social transformations. The maps of the study areas identified by each chapter and presented in figure i.i are a big plus for readers. In fact, as I read through each of the chapters I found myself continually turning back these maps orient my train of thought as it pertained the arguments and analysis provided by the authors. The maps give one the feel for the comparative nature of the studies and the overall linkages across boundaries. In short, the overview, coupled with the maps identifying the areas of study by chapter, set a superb tone for the entire volume.I especially enjoyed the second chapter. …
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".