Never Stop Working: Examining the Life and Activism of Howard Fuller

Howard Fuller, a long-time community activist born in Shreveport, Louisiana and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has become a nationally renowned advocate for school choice. Coming from humble beginnings, Fuller learned from his tight-knit community growing up that he could be anything he wanted to be if he worked hard enough and focused on his education. Wanting future generations of black Americans to have the same opportunities he had, Fuller would dedicate his life work to uplifting his people through education. How Fuller approached that work, however, led to seemingly contradicting approaches and ideas. This thesis attempts to make sense of Howard Fuller\u27s life and activism, and explain how his choices and activism evolved over time. From fighting for integrating schools in Cleveland, Ohio, to opening an all-black university in Durham, North Carolina, to becoming superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, Howard Fuller has shifted his tactics on how to provide low-income blacks with quality educational opportunities. All of Fuller\u27s work has led him to now, fighting for school choice as a way to give low-income blacks a chance to earn the best education possible. At seventy-one years old Howard Fuller is still fighting, and still working to uplift his race and improve their life chances. Howard Fuller is a dedicated race man, and this thesis is his story

GROWTH, CARCASS COMPOSITION AND MEAT QUALITY OF ANGORA GOATS REARED FOR FIBRE PRODUCTION

The effects of age and plane of nutrition on the body and carcass composition and mohair fibre yield and quality of British Angora wether goats slaughtered at six, 12, 18 and 24 months of age were investigated. Carcass yield, composition and conformation improved with increasing age and plane of nutrition. Greasy fleece weight also increased with increasing age and plane of nutrition but fibre quality declined since the increase in mass was achieved by means of increased fibre diameter with no effect of age or plane of nutrition on the fibre elongation rate. There was a constant relationship between the increase in fibre diameter with age and fleece mass which was not affected by plane of nutrition. Similarly there was no significant effect of plane of nutrition on the relationships between fibre diameter and the weight of various body and carcass components. A strong relationship between fibre diameter and the weight of fat in the body or carcass suggested that the increase in fibre diameter with age of the goat was influenced by cumulative feed intake rather than by fat-free body size. The allometric growth patterns of the body and carcass of the Angora goat conformed with the patterns established for other domestic species, with early maturity of the external offal and vital organs, later maturity of the carcass and body fat, and a centripetal pattern of development. There was no effect of plane of nutrition on the allometric growth patterns of the fat-free body or carcass, but decreasing the plane of nutrition resulted in a uniform retardation of all body parts and carcass tissues and a significant effect on the relative growth rate of body and carcass fat. Regression equations were formulated to predict the half carcass composition of Angora wether goats using sample joint dissection data. The most accurate predictions were achieved with data from the leg and the best end of neck combined in multiple regression equations. A second experiment to investigate the effects of long term undernutrition followed by realimentation on the growth rate and composition of empty body weight gain revealed no evidence of compensatory liveweight gain in the Angora goat

The Kissing party

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Sept 8, 2010).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Dissertation advisor: Dr. Scott Cairns.Vita.Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2009.The Kissing Party is a book of lyric poems that interrogate the tradition of love poetry and attempt to refigure and revivify the work of writers like Marvell, Donne, Carew, and the continental and English sonneteers. Some poems reinvent theories of longing like Socrates' notion, in the Phaedrus, of a winged charioteer guided by two unruly horses; others try to picture the solitude that frequently accompanies contemporary desire - in pornography, voyeurism, masturbation - through an Ovidian lens. Appended to the book of poems is a twenty-five page scholarly investigation into the work of a writer with similar motives, Mary Cowden Clarke. Clarke's Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines creates alternative lives, prior to the plays, for fifteen of Shakespeare's heroines, and this dissertation argues that Clarke's work should be understood as primarily adaptive, rather than critical, in nature.Includes bibliographical reference

Regional Platform for Health and Wellbeing pilot study: provision of online weight management support via the workplace

Introduction The workplace presents an opportunity for improving health and wellbeing, including supporting employees with their weight management. The East Midlands Platform for Health and Wellbeing is a unique regional network of private, public and voluntary sector organisations working to improve health and reduce obesity. Member organisations commit to actions that improve the health and wellbeing of employees, individuals and/or communities. As part of Slimming World’s commitment to the platform, and building on a previous workplace group-based weight management study (Lavin et al, 2013), this pilot assessed the merits of providing online weight management support via the workplace at a large regional employer. Methods 73 Nottingham City Council employees were offered 12 weeks’ weight management support with Slimming World’s online programme. The programme allows unlimited access to behaviour change support around diet and physical activity and requests a once weekly weigh-in. Weight change was self-reported weekly using Slimming World calibrated scales placed within each worksite. Dietary and physical activity behaviours, along with aspects of psychological wellbeing were assessed by questionnaires pre-and post-programme. Results 57 participants (meeting inclusion criteria) took part in the trial and were included within the analysis. 16 employees were excluded from the analysis due to; non completion of baseline questionnaire, not being able/did not wish to join the online programme, requesting to be removed, or because they did not submit any weight changes. Weight change and online participation: Mean (SD) joining BMI was 35.3 (5.9) kg/m2. 44 participants (77%) were classed as completing the programme (logged into the online programme and submitted at least 1 weight change within the final 4 weeks). Conclusion Providing online weight management support via the workplace resulted in individuals achieving significant weight loss (-3.9%). Those who completed the programme and both pre-and postprogramme questionnaires showed positive changes in behavioural outcomes, including healthy eating and physical activity habits, and psychological wellbeing, which may impact on working life. These results suggest that the Slimming World online weight management programme could be a practical option within workplace health and wellbeing programmes

Factors influencing engagement in postnatal weight management and subsequent weight and well-being outcomes

Many women exceed gestational weight gain recommendations. Successful postnatal weight management decreases the risk of entering further pregnancies obese. This service evaluation investigates women’s motivations to lose weight postnatally, the weight loss achieved and impact on self-esteem. Methods: online survey using quantitative questions to determine motivation and lifestyle behaviours related to post-natal weight management in women attending a commercial weight management organisation. Weekly weights confirmed from digitally recorded data. Results: 1015 responded. Mean joining BMI was 33.3kg/m2 ± 5.85 and when surveyed 30.5kg/m2 ± 5.86, a change of -2.8 ± 0.1 kg/m² (p <0.01, 95% CI 2.76 – 3.11). 463 (45.7%) joined the groups between 6-26 weeks postnatal. Main motivators to lose weight were ‘to improve how I feel about my body size and shape’ (85.2%) and ‘improve self-confidence’ (76.6%) although only ‘to improve my health’ (65.6%) correlated with actual weight loss (0.114, p<0.01). Healthcare professional recommendation was less of a reason (6.5%). Improvements in self-confidence (77.6%), self-esteem (78.6%), wellbeing (85.2%) and body size/shape (70.1%) were reported. Conclusion: Women chose to engage to improve self-confidence, feelings about their body shape and health. There is an opportunity for healthcare professionals to encourage women early after giving birth to engage in weight loss and this may improve outcomes

Population ageing and health financing: A method for forecasting two sides of the same coin

There is a perception that population ageing will have deleterious effects on future health financing sustainability. We propose a new method—the Population Ageing financial Sustainability gap for Health systems (or alternatively, the PASH)—to explore how changes in the population age mix will affect health expenditures and revenues. Using a set of six anonymized country scenarios that are based on data from countries in Europe and the Western Pacific representing a diverse range of health financing systems, we forecast the size of the ageing-attributable gap between health revenues and expenditures from 2020 to 2100 under current health financing arrangements. In the country with the largest financing gap in 2100 (country S6) the majority (87.1%) is caused by growth in health expenditures. However in countries that are heavily reliant on labour-market related social contributions to finance health care, a sizeable share of the financing gap is due to reductions in health revenues. We argue that analyses giving equal attention to both health expenditures and revenues steers decision makers towards a more balanced set of policy options to address the challenges of population ageing, ranging from targeting expenditures and utilization of services to diversifying revenue

Reducing the Mortality Gap in People With Severe Mental Disorders: The Role of Lifestyle Psychosocial Interventions

This mini-review considers the mortality gap in persons with severe mental disorder (SMD) globally. Current estimates of 10–20 years of potential life lost may be too conservative, both in high (HIC) and low and middle-income countries (LMICs). There is an emerging consensus that natural causes account for the majority of deaths in persons with SMD in both resource settings. In HICs, cardiovascular causes predominate, and can be attributed to individual, health-system and societal level risk factors. Psychosocial lifestyle interventions target behavior specific risk factors for physical ill-health. There is good evidence for tailored weight-loss programmes, but mixed evidence for smoking cessation, substance misuse and risky sexual behavior. In terms of supporting persons with SMD, nurse-led services and the utilization of peer-support are showing promise. Future research efforts must focus on effective interventions and health system models for both high and low resource settings to address this startling health inequality