Across the great divide : Ankersmit's aesthetic gap and representative democracy

This thesis is an exploration of an aesthetic approach to political theory. In particular, I examine the concept of representative democracy in terms of philosophical aesthetics. Drawing inspiration from F.R. Ankersmit's Aesthetic Politics: Political Philosophy Beyond Fact and Value, I argue that there is a necessary 'distance' between citizens and their government, that, if ignored, can have totalitarian consequences. Understanding this distance, also known as the 'aesthetic gap,' requires an exploration of the notion of perspective. Ultimately, once both citizens and government begin to comprehend their particular perspectives, the question of what it means to be represented in a democratic regime becomes comprehensible. This awareness leads to interesting implications for the role of the political representative, and about the relationship between citizens and their governor

Topological states of matter and noncommutative geometry

This thesis examines topological states of matter from the perspective of noncommutative geometry and KK-theory. Examples of such topological states of matter include the quantum Hall e ect and topological insulators. For the quantum Hall e ect, we consider a continuous model and show that the Hall conductance can be expressed in terms of the index pairing of the Fermi projection of a disordered Hamiltonian with a spectral triple encoding the geometry of the sample's momentum space. The presence of a magnetic eld means that noncommutative algebras and methods must be employed. Higher dimensional analogues of the quantum Hall system are also considered, where the index pairing produces the `higher-dimensional Chern numbers' in the continuous setting. Next we consider a discrete quantum Hall system with an edge. We show that topological properties of observables concentrated at the boundary can be linked to invariants from a boundary-free model via the Kasparov product. Hence we obtain the bulk-edge correspondence of the quantum Hall e ect in the language of KK-theory. Finally we consider topological insulators, which come from imposing (possibly anti-linear) symmetries on condensed-matter systems and studying the invariants that are protected by these symmetries. We show how symmetry data can be linked to classes in real or complex KK-theory. Finally we prove the bulk-edge correspondence for topological insulator systems by linking bulk and edge systems using the Kasparov product in KKO-theory

Should Police and Crime Commissioners be abolished? The Commissioners respond

This week the report of the Independent Police Commission, led by the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens and commissioned by the Labour Party, was published. One of its key proposals was for the abolition of the post of Police and Crime Commissioner, introduced in 2012 to establish a new form of democratic oversight of the police. In this post we ask serving Commissioners to respond to the proposal

Integrating testing for sexually transmissible infections into annual health assessments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people: a cross-sectional analysis

Background In the context of an expanding syphilis epidemic, we assessed the integration of sexually transmissible infection (STI) testing within annual health assessments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people aged 16–29 years in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services between 2018 and 2020. Methods Using routinely collected electronic medical record data from a national sentinel surveillance system (ATLAS), we performed a cross-sectional analysis to calculate the proportion of assessments that integrated any or all of the tests for chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis, and HIV. We used logistic regression to identify correlates of integration of any STI test. Results Of the13 892 assessments, 23.8% (95% CI 23.1, 24.6) integrated a test for any STI and 11.5% (95% CI 10.9, 12.0) included all four STIs. Of assessments that included a chlamydia/gonorrhoea test, 66.9% concurrently included a syphilis test. Integration of any STI test was associated with patients aged 20–24 years (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.1–1.4) and 25–29 years (OR 1.1, 95% CI 1.0–1.2) compared to 16–19 years and patients residing in very remote (OR 4.2, 95% CI 3.7–4.8), remote (OR 2.4, 95% CI 2.1–2.8), and regional areas (OR 2.5, 95% CI 2.2–2.8) compared to metropolitan areas. There was no association with patient sex. Conclusions Integration of STI testing into annual health assessments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people was higher in remote areas where disease burden is greatest. Integration is similar in men and women, which contrasts with most studies that have found higher testing in women

Psychotropic prescribing after hospital discharge in survivors of critical illness, a retrospective cohort study (2012–2019)

Background:Many people survive critical illness with the burden of new or worsened mental health issues and sleep disturbances. We examined the frequency of psychotropic prescribing after critical illness, comparing critical care to non-critical care hospitalised survivors, and whether this varied in important subgroups.Methods:This retrospective cohort study included 23,340 critical care and 367,185 non-critical care hospitalised adults from 2012 through 2019 in Lothian, Scotland, who survived to discharge.Results:One-third of critical care survivors (32 7527/23,340) received a psychotropic prescription within 90 days after hospital discharge (25 14hypnotics; 4mania medicines). In contrast, 1554,589/367,185) of non-critical care survivors received a psychotropic prescription (12 5hypnotics; 2mania medicines). Among patients without psychotropic prescriptions within 180 days prior to hospitalisation, after hospital discharge, the critical care group had a higher incidence of psychotropic prescription (10.3 1610/15,609) compared with the non-critical care group (3.2 9743/307,429); unadjusted hazard ratio (HR) 3.39, 95 3.22–3.57. After adjustment for potential confounders, the risk remained elevated (adjusted HR 2.03, 95 1.91–2.16), persisted later in follow-up (90–365 days; adjusted HR 1.38, 95 1.30–1.46), and was more pronounced in those without recorded comorbidities (adjusted HR 3.49, 95 3.22–3.78).Conclusions:Critical care survivors have a higher risk of receiving psychotropic prescriptions than hospitalised patients, with a significant proportion receiving benzodiazepines and other hypnotics. Future research should focus on the requirement for and safety of psychotropic medicines in survivors of critical illness, to help guide policy for clinical practice

Neurolinguistic programming: a systematic review of the effects on health outcomes

BACKGROUND: Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) in health care has captured the interest of doctors, healthcare professionals, and managers. AIM: To evaluate the effects of NLP on health-related outcomes. DESIGN AND SETTING: Systematic review of experimental studies. METHOD: The following data sources were searched: MEDLINE, PsycINFO, ASSIA, AMED, CINAHL, Web of Knowledge, CENTRAL, NLP specialist databases, reference lists, review articles, and NLP professional associations, training providers, and research groups. RESULTS: Searches revealed 1459 titles from which 10 experimental studies were included. Five studies were randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and five were pre-post studies. Targeted health conditions were anxiety disorders, weight maintenance, morning sickness, substance misuse, and claustrophobia during MRI scanning. NLP interventions were mainly delivered across 4-20 sessions although three were single session. Eighteen outcomes were reported and the RCT sample sizes ranged from 22 to 106. Four RCTs reported no significant between group differences with the fifth finding in favour of the NLP arm (F = 8.114, P<0.001). Three RCTs and five pre-post studies reported within group improvements. Risk of bias across all studies was high or uncertain. CONCLUSION: There is little evidence that NLP interventions improve health-related outcomes. This conclusion reflects the limited quantity and quality of NLP research, rather than robust evidence of no effect. There is currently insufficient evidence to support the allocation of NHS resources to NLP activities outside of research purposes

Players, Characters, and the Gamer's Dilemma

Is there any difference between playing video games in which the player's character commits murder and video games in which the player's character commits pedophilic acts? Morgan Luck's “Gamer's Dilemma” has established this question as a puzzle concerning notions of permissibility and harm. We propose that a fruitful alternative way to approach the question is through an account of aesthetic engagement. We develop an alternative to the dominant account of the relationship between players and the actions of their characters, and argue that the ethical difference between so-called “virtual murder” and “virtual pedophilia” is to be understood in terms of the fiction-making resources available to players. We propose that the relevant considerations for potential players to navigate concern (1) attempting to make certain characters intelligible, and (2) using aspects of oneself as resources for homomorphic representation.Peer reviewe

Sustaining sexual and reproductive health through COVID-19 pandemic restrictions: qualitative interviews with Australian clinicians

Background. The sexual and reproductive health care of people with HIV and those at risk of HIV has largely been delivered face-to-face in Australia. These services adapted to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with a commitment to continued care despite major impacts on existing models and processes. Limited attention has been paid to understanding the perspectives of the sexual and reproductive health care workforce in the research on COVID-19 adaptations. Methods. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between June and September 2021 with 15 key informants representing a diverse range of service settings and professional roles in the Australian sexual and reproductive health sector. Inductive themes were generated through a process of reflexive thematic analysis, informed by our deductive interest in clinical adaptations. Results. The major adaptations were: triage (rapidly adapting service models to protect the most essential forms of care); teamwork (working together to overcome ongoing threats to service quality and staff wellbeing), and the intwined themes of telehealth and trust (remaining connected to marginalised communities through remote care). Despite impacts on care models and client relationships, there were sustained benefits from the scaleup of remote care, and attention to service safety, teamwork and communication. Conclusions. Attending to the experiences of those who worked at the frontline of the COVID-19 response provides essential insights to inform sustained, meaningful system reform over time. The coming years will provide important evidence of longer-term impacts of COVID-19 interruptions on both the users and providers of sexual and reproductive health services

When the Personal Vote Is Not Enough: The Failure of Charter Reform in Columbia, South Carolina

The choice of city structure is one of the most important choices that citizens and elected representatives face in local government. While we know a good deal about the macro-level trends in a city structure, we know comparatively less about why residents in individual cities may opt for one structure or another. In this paper, we focus on the unsuccessful 2013 single-issue referendum in Columbia, South Carolina, addressing why, despite support from key players, the city chose not to adopt a strong-mayor form of government. Using precinct-level data, we find support for the personal vote hypothesis. We discover that support for the sitting mayor is a significant predictor of support for reform, although the lack of voter mobilization city-wide may be too much of a factor for reform advocates to overcome. This investigation leads us to a number of conclusions that are relevant for both academics and practitioners who want to understand structural change in local government

Modelling environmental drivers of black band disease outbreaks in populations of foliose corals in the genus Montipora

Seawater temperature anomalies associated with warming climate have been linked to increases in coral disease outbreaks that have contributed to coral reef declines globally. However, little is known about how seasonal scale variations in environmental factors influence disease dynamics at the level of individual coral colonies. In this study, we applied a multi-state Markov model (MSM) to investigate the dynamics of black band disease (BBD) developing from apparently healthy corals and/or a precursor-stage, termed `cyanobacterial patches' (CP), in relation to seasonal variation in light and seawater temperature at two reef sites around Pelorus Island in the central sector of the Great Barrier Reef. The model predicted that the proportion of colonies transitioning from BBD to Healthy states within three months was appro)dmately 57%, but 5.6% of BBD cases resulted in whole colony mortality. According to our modelling, healthy coral colonies were more susceptible to BBD during summer months when light levels were at their maxima and seawater temperatures were either rising 0r at their maxima. In contrast, CP mostly occurred during spring, when both light and seawater temperatures were rising. This suggests that environmental drivers for healthy coral colonies transitioning into a Cl' state are different from those driving transitions into BBD. Our model predicts that (1) the transition from healthy to CP state is best explained by increasing light, (2) the transition between Healthy to BBD occurs more frequently from early to late summer, (3) 20% of CP infected corals developed BBD, although light and temperature appeared to have limited impact on this state transition, and (4) the number of transitions from Healthy to BBD differed significantly between the two study sites, potentially reflecting differences in localised wave action regimes