Journalism and Mass Communication Textbook Representations of Verbal Media Skills: Implications for Students with Speech Disabilities

This study examines representation of disabilities by conducting a qualitative content analysis of how 41 journalism/mass communication textbooks frame the ideal standards of verbal communication for media professionals. Textbooks are integral to students’ understanding of professional norms and may influence career decisions. Results show that textbooks rarely address the topic of speech disabilities, describing them as “roadblocks to success.” Instead, authors often address best practices in broadcast voicing and the value of projecting confidence in interviews and press conferences. What are the explicit and implicit messages for students with speech disabilities such as stuttering? We argue that such framing is a critical media literacy issue because it addresses media diversity and access

Five axioms for location functions on median graphs

__Abstract__ In previous work, two axiomatic characterizations were given for the median function on median graphs: one involving the three simple and natural axioms anonymity, betweenness and consistency; the other involving faithfulness, consistency and ½-Condorcet. To date, the independence of these axioms has not been a serious point of study. The aim of this paper is to provide the missing answers. The independent subsets of these five axioms are determined precisely and examples provided in each case on arbitrary median graphs. There are three cases that stand out. Here non-trivial examples and proofs are needed to give a full answer. Extensive use of the structure of median graphs is used throughout

Reaching the Unreachable: Barriers of the Poorest to Accessing NGO Healthcare Services in Bangladesh

The NGO Service Delivery Program (NSDP), a USAID-funded programme, is the largest NGO programme in Bangladesh. Its strategic flagship activity is the essential services package through which healthcare services are administered by NGOs in Bangladesh. The overall goal of the NSDP is to increase access to essential healthcare services by communities, especially the poor. Recognizing that the poorest in the community often have no access to essential healthcare services due to various barriers, a study was conducted to identify what the real barriers to access by the poor are. This included investigations to further understand the perceptions of the poor of real or imagined barriers to accessing healthcare; ways for healthcare centres to maximize services to the poor; how healthcare providers can maximize service-use; inter-personal communication between healthcare providers and those seeking healthcare among the poor; and ways to improve the capacity of service providers to reach the poorest segment of the community. The study, carried out in two phases, included 24 static and satellite clinics within the catchment areas of eight NGOs under the NSDP in Bangladesh, during June-September 2003. Participatory urban and rural appraisal techniques, focus-group discussions, and in-depth interviews were employed as research methods in the study. The target populations in the study included males and females, service-users and non-users, and special groups, such as fishermen, sex workers, potters, Bedes (river gypsies), and lower-caste people—all combined representing a heterogeneous community. The following four major categories of barriers emerged as roadblocks to accessing quality healthcare for the poor: (a) low income to be able to afford healthcare, (b) lack of awareness of the kind of healthcare services available, (c) deficiencies and inconsistencies in the quality of services, and (d) lack of close proximity to the healthcare facility. Those interviewed perceived their access problems to be: (a) a limited range of NGO services available as they felt what are available do not meet their demands; (b) a high service-charge for the healthcare services they sought; (c) higher prices of drugs at the facility compared to the market place; (d) a belief that the NGO clinics are primarily to serve the rich people, (e) lack of experienced doctors at the centres; and (f) the perception that the facility and its services were more oriented to women and children, but not to males. Others responded that they should be allowed to get treatment with credit and, if needed, payment should be waived for some due to their poverty level. While the results of the study revealed many perceptions of barriers to healthcare services by the poor, the feedback provided by the study indicates how important it is to learn from the poorest segment of society. This will assist healthcare providers and the healthcare system itself to become more sensitized to the needs and problems faced by this segment of the society and to make recommendations to remove barriers and improvement of access. Treatment with credit and waived payment for the poorest were also recommended as affordable alternative private healthcare services for the poor

Sexual dimorphism in the meiotic requirement for PRDM9: A mammalian evolutionary safeguard.

In many mammals, genomic sites for recombination are determined by the histone methyltransferase PRMD9. Some mouse strains lacking PRDM9 are infertile, but instances of fertility or semifertility in the absence of PRDM9 have been reported in mice, canines, and a human female. Such findings raise the question of how the loss of PRDM9 is circumvented to maintain fertility. We show that genetic background and sex-specific modifiers can obviate the requirement for PRDM9 in mice. Specifically, the meiotic DNA damage checkpoint protein CHK2 acts as a modifier allowing female-specific fertility in the absence of PRDM9. We also report that, in the absence of PRDM9, a PRDM9-independent recombination system is compatible with female meiosis and fertility, suggesting sex-specific regulation of meiotic recombination, a finding with implications for speciation

Chancellor\u27s Citations for Extraordinary Campus Leadership and Service (2014)

The Chancellor’s Citations for Extraordinary Campus Leadership and Service recognize graduating students who are extraordinary campus leaders for their significant service to others

Reaching the Unreachable: Barriers of the Poorest to Accessing NGO Healthcare Services in Bangladesh

The NGO Service Delivery Program (NSDP), a USAID-funded programme, is the largest NGO programme in Bangladesh. Its strategic flagship activity is the essential services package through which healthcare services are administered by NGOs in Bangladesh. The overall goal of the NSDP is to in\uadcrease access to essential healthcare services by communities, especially the poor. Recognizing that the poorest in the community often have no access to essential healthcare services due to various bar\uadriers, a study was conducted to identify what the real barriers to access by the poor are. This included investigations to further understand the perceptions of the poor of real or imagined barriers to accessing healthcare; ways for healthcare centres to maximize services to the poor; how healthcare providers can maximize service-use; inter-personal communication between healthcare providers and those seeking healthcare among the poor; and ways to improve the capacity of service providers to reach the poorest segment of the community. The study, carried out in two phases, included 24 static and satellite clin\uadics within the catchment areas of eight NGOs under the NSDP in Bangladesh, during June-September 2003. Participatory urban and rural appraisal techniques, focus-group discussions, and in-depth inter\uadviews were employed as research methods in the study. The target populations in the study included males and females, service-users and non-users, and special groups, such as fishermen, sex workers, potters, Bedes (river gypsies), and lower-caste people\u2014all combined representing a heterogeneous community. The following four major categories of barriers emerged as roadblocks to accessing quality healthcare for the poor: (a) low income to be able to afford healthcare, (b) lack of awareness of the kind of healthcare services available, (c) deficiencies and inconsistencies in the quality of services, and (d) lack of close proximity to the healthcare facility. Those interviewed perceived their access problems to be: (a) a limited range of NGO services available as they felt what are available do not meet their demands; (b) a high service-charge for the healthcare services they sought; (c) higher prices of drugs at the facility compared to the market place; (d) a belief that the NGO clinics are primarily to serve the rich people, (e) lack of experienced doctors at the centres; and (f) the perception that the facility and its services were more oriented to women and children, but not to males. Others responded that they should be allowed to get treatment with credit and, if needed, payment should be waived for some due to their poverty level. While the results of the study revealed many perceptions of barriers to healthcare services by the poor, the feedback provided by the study indicates how important it is to learn from the poorest segment of society. This will assist healthcare providers and the healthcare system itself to become more sensitized to the needs and problems faced by this segment of the society and to make recommendations to remove barriers and improvement of access. Treatment with credit and waived payment for the poorest were also recommended as affordable alternative private healthcare services for the poor

Military Retention Incentives: Evidence from the Air Force Selective Reenlistment Bonus

The limited lateral entry and rigid pay structure for U.S. military personnel present challenges in retaining skilled individuals who have attractive options in the civilian labor market. One tool the services use to address this challenge is the Selective Reenlistment Bonus (SRB), which offers eligible personnel with particular skills a substantial cash bonus upon reenlistment. However, the sequential nature of the bonus offer and reenlistment process limits the ability to adjust manpower quickly, raising interest in research that estimates the effect of the SRB on retention. While this literature has acknowledged challenges including potential endogeneity of bonus levels, attrition, and reenlistment eligibility, many studies do not address these concerns adequately. This paper uses a comprehensive panel data set on Air Force enlisted personnel to estimate the effect of the SRB on retention rates. We exploit variation in bonus levels within skill groups, control for civilian labor market conditions, and model reenlistment eligibility to avoid common assumptions that lead to biased impact estimates. We find substantial heterogeneity in the effect of the bonus, with the largest effects on first-term service members and those whose skills have not historically received a substantial bonus. We also find evidence that the bonus affects the timing of reenlistment decisions in addition to their frequency

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts