Biopower is the new black : gender refractions and reflections between panopticon and television

peer reviewedWhat can be visible of a queer body behind the bars? I will try to answer this question through the critical analysis of Orange is the New Black, a TV series produced by Netflix and based on Piper Kerman’s autobiographical novel. Imprisoned queer bodies are at the center of my analysis. Prison is the paradigm of the system of surveillance and confinement of bodies. Queer bodies are themselves a site of the exercise of power. In prison, gender non- conforming bodies are subjected to the consuetudinary discipline of sexuality and to arbitrary forms of discipline and punishment, such as the re-assignation to a non-desired gender, the duty of conforming to it, the administration of hormones, and a systematic exercise of violence. I am allowed to see behind the bars through the lens of a fictional representation in a TV show. Despite the stereotypical representation of its characters, the show explores the tension between the inmates’ desire of the inmates to escape the cage of heteronormativity and biopower' s desire (and need) for discipline. My critical reading will be framed in Angela Davis' s analysis on how gender structures prison (Davis, 2003). I will try to go further and understand how prison is a gendered institution, since gender and heteronormativity are themselves systems of surveillance and discipline (Stanley and Smith, 2011). Prison shapes bodies and disciplines gender, as well as gender informs and structures prison. The screen offers yet another and more complex perspective, acting as a lens through which we can watch the Panopticon. Discipline impacts not only on gender politics, but also on the regime of visibility for queer subjects. I want to focus on how the show stages the interplay of refractions between what can be visible and tolerable in prison and what can be tolerable and visible in the society (Foucault, 1975)

Homo Skin, Hetero Masks. A Representation of Italian Homonationalism.

In this critical observation I will focus on images produced by Italian LGBTI community representing homosexuals as regulatory agents of the fatherland and active builder of the national community. From this stand point, these images are crucial to decline an Italian perspective on homonationalism (Puar, 2007). This normative project of national belonging for LGBTI subjects is implemented with many contradictory aspects in Italy, were homosexuals are subjected to a subordinate status of citizenship, without any measure of protection against homophobia nor any kind of civil rights. An approach grounded in cultural studies and visual studies, both as interdisciplinary fields of research and critical tools, will allow me to analyze these images as cultural practice and to point out their ideological implications. Within the theoretical framework provided by Jasbir Puar through the concept of homonationalism I will introduce these images as if they were masks, performative standards of identification/representation

Chapter Media and fake news: An analysis of citizens’ attitudes toward misinformation in European countries

The rapid changes determined by the rise of Internet and the recent development of social media in daily life have led to profound consequences on the quantity and quality of data made available and on the mechanisms of their dissemination. The rapid spread of on-line disinformation is one of the most discussed topic, and has been identified as one of the top-trends in modern societies by the World Economic Forum, also because of the link between these processes and political communication. Thanks to the availability of micro-data from the Flash Eurobarometer survey on “Fake news and disinformation online”, the present work aims at analyzing the attitude of European citizens toward fake news and disinformation. In a first step, cluster of citizens are identified according to their level of trust in media news, in relation to different types of media. Given the categorical nature of the variables considered, k-mode clustering is implemented. Secondly, the main determinants of news trust levels are analyzed, through regression models for categorical response variables. Preliminary results show that socio-demographic characteristics as well as technological use have an influence on trust in the media, which in turn determines different approaches on the role of institutions in tackling disinformation. The relevance of fake news in contemporary period and its potential consequences on the political side require a reflection on the role of statistical literacy and of official statistical institutes in dealing with disinformation in the post-truth era

Evaluation of approximate comparison methods on Bloom filters for probabilistic linkage

Introduction The need for increased privacy protection in data linkage has driven the development of privacy-preserving record linkage (PPRL) techniques. A popular technique using Bloom filters with cryptographic analyses, modifications, and hashing variations to optimise privacy has been the focus of much research in this area. With few applications of Bloom filters within a probabilistic framework, there is limited information on whether approximate matches between Bloom filtered fields can improve linkage quality. Objectives In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness of three approximate comparison methods for Bloom filters within the context of the Fellegi-Sunter model of recording linkage: Sørensen–Dice coefficient, Jaccard similarity and Hamming distance. Methods Using synthetic datasets with introduced errors to simulate datasets with a range of data quality and a large real-world administrative health dataset, the research estimated partial weight curves for converting similarity scores (for each approximate comparison method) to partial weights at both field and dataset level. Deduplication linkages were run on each dataset using these partial weight curves. This was to compare the resulting quality of the approximate comparison techniques with linkages using simple cut-off similarity values and only exact matching. Results Linkages using approximate comparisons produced significantly better quality results than those using exact comparisons only. Field level partial weight curves for a specific dataset produced the best quality results. The Sørensen-Dice coefficient and Jaccard similarity produced the most consistent results across a spectrum of synthetic and real-world datasets. Conclusion The use of Bloom filter similarity comparisons for probabilistic record linkage can produce linkage quality results which are comparable to Jaro-Winkler string similarities with unencrypted linkages. Probabilistic linkages using Bloom filters benefit significantly from the use of similarity comparisons, with partial weight curves producing the best results, even when not optimised for that particular dataset

The effect of data cleaning on record linkage quality

Background: Within the field of record linkage, numerous data cleaning and standardisation techniques are employed to ensure the highest quality of links. While these facilities are common in record linkage software packages and are regularly deployed across record linkage units, little work has been published demonstrating the impact of data cleaning on linkage quality.Methods: A range of cleaning techniques was applied to both a synthetically generated dataset and a large administrative dataset previously linked to a high standard. The effect of these changes on linkage quality was investigated using pairwise F-measure to determine quality.Results: Data cleaning made little difference to the overall linkage quality, with heavy cleaning leading to a decrease in quality. Further examination showed that decreases in linkage quality were due to cleaning techniques typically reducing the variability – although correct records were now more likely to match, incorrect records were also more likely to match, and these incorrect matches outweighed the correct matches, reducing quality overall.Conclusions: Data cleaning techniques have minimal effect on linkage quality. Care should be taken during the data cleaning process

Relationship between residential aged care facility characteristics and breaches of the Australian aged care regulatory standards: Non-compliance notices and sanctions

Objectives To examine the relationship between structural characteristics of Australian residential aged care facilities (RACFs) and breaches of the aged care quality standards. Methods Facility-level analysis of audits, sanctions and non-compliance notices of all accredited Australian RACFs between 2015/16 and 2018/19. Structural factors of interest included RACF size, remoteness, ownership type and jurisdiction. Two government data sources were joined. Each outcome was analysed to calculate time trends, unadjusted rates and relative risks. Results Non-compliance notices were imposed on 369 RACFs (13%) and 83 sanctions on 75 RACFs (3%). Compared with New South Wales (NSW), non-compliance notices were less likely in Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory (NT), more likely in South Australia (SA), and comparable in Western Australia (WA), Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). RACFs with more than 100 beds and RACFs located in remote and outer regional areas (vs. major cities) also increased the likelihood of non-compliance notices. Compared with NSW, sanctions were less likely in Victoria, Queensland, NT and WA and comparable in SA, Tasmania and ACT. Additionally, the likelihood of sanctions was higher for RACFs with more than 40 beds. For both non-compliance notices and sanctions, no significant relationship was found with RACF ownership type. Conclusions We partially confirmed other Australian findings about the relationship between RACF structural characteristics and regulatory sanctions and reported new findings about non-compliance notices. Routine and standardised public reporting of RACF performance is needed to build trust that Australia\u27s latest aged care reforms have led to sustained quality improvements

Police responses to child sexual abuse 2010–2014, An analysis of administrative data for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

This quantitative study was commissioned by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Royal Commission) and undertaken by researchers at the Centre for Population Health Research, Curtin University. The purpose of the research was two-fold. Firstly, researchers undertook a systematic statistical review of police reports relating to child sexual abuse across Australia to gain a better understanding of how police in all jurisdictions respond to and process reports of child sexual abuse... Secondly, researchers undertook a more detailed statistical analysis of the extent and nature of child-to-child sexual abuse reported to police

Pediatric palliative care

The WHO defines pediatric palliative care as the active total care of the child's body, mind and spirit, which also involves giving support to the family. Its purpose is to improve the quality of life of young patients and their families, and in the vast majority of cases the home is the best place to provide such care, but for cultural, affective, educational and organizational reasons, pediatric patients rarely benefit from such an approach. In daily practice, it is clear that pediatric patients experience all the clinical, psychological, ethical and spiritual problems that severe, irreversible disease and death entail. The international literature indicates a prevalence of incurable disease annually affecting 10/10,000 young people from 0 to 19 years old, with an annual mortality rate of 1/10,000 young people from birth to 17 years old. The needs of this category of patients, recorded in investigations conducted in various parts of the world, reveal much the same picture despite geographical, cultural, organizational and social differences, particularly as concerns their wish to be treated at home and the demand for better communications between the professionals involved in their care and a greater availability of support services. Different patient care models have been tested in Italy and abroad, two of institutional type (with children staying in hospitals for treating acute disease or in pediatric hospices) and two based at home (the so-called home-based hospitalization and integrated home-based care programs). Professional expertise, training, research and organization provide the essential foundations for coping with a situation that is all too often underestimated and neglected

Individual and contextual determinants of inter-regional mobility in cancer patients

This paper will present an investigation of inter-regional mobility in patients with a diagnosis of cancer. By virtue of the availability of geocoded information relating to a patient's place of residence, the effect of socio-economic status and other individual characteristics regarding inter-regional mobility will be analysed by means of multilevel logit models. The results demonstrate the influence of age and comorbidity on mobility propensity, in addition to the treatment type, which plays a role in patient mobility. As contextual determinants, patients residing in less deprived areas show greater mobility than those who reside in materially deprived areas. The extent of patient mobility, and its dependence on their socio-economic status raises issues of equity, as well as regional policy considerations