643 research outputs found

    The play is a prison : the discourse of Prison Shakespeare.

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    The relationship between Shakespeare and prison was brought into sharp focus during Shakespeare’s recent quad-centenary with a succession of works exploring Shakespeare’s value for the prison population. In this paper, we take this spike in activity as a point of departure for examining the discourse of Prison Shakespeare. This discourse, we argue, is underpinned by several intertwining and sometimes paradoxical accounts of social being: (i) psychoanalytic accounts; (ii) postmodern accounts; (iii) humanist accounts bound up with the idea of cultural unfolding; (iv) neoliberal accounts that champion heroic individualism. In our analysis, we respond to Pensalfini’s call for critical debate over the assumption that Shakespeare's plays have the power to both teach and liberate prisoners. We note how Prison Shakespeare is always in a struggle to escape the institutional power of both Shakespearean drama and the prison context itself, and the tendency of this work to provide a model of socialization into, rather than resistance against, what Bristol describes as the mode of subjectivity of the bourgeois political economy

    Decolonizing Science and Science Education in a Postcolonial Space (Trinidad, a Developing Caribbean Nation, Illustrates)

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    The article addresses how remnant or transformed colonialist structures continue to shape science and science education, and how that impact might be mitigated within a postcolonial environment in favor of the development of the particular community being addressed. Though cognizant of, and resistant to, the ongoing colonial impact globally and nationally (and any attempts at subjugation, imperialism, and marginalization), this article is not about anticolonial science. Indeed, it is realized that the postcolonial state of science and science education is not simply defined, and may exist as a mix of the scientific practices of the colonizer and the colonized. The discussion occurs through a generic postcolonial lens and is organized into two main sections. First, the discussion of the postcolonial lens is eased through a consideration of globalization which is held here as the new colonialism. The article then uses this lens to interrogate conceptions of science and science education, and to suggest that the mainstream, standard account of what science is seems to represent a globalized- or arguably a Western, modern, secular-conception of science. This standard account of science can act as a gatekeeper to the indigenous ways of being, knowing, and doing of postcolonial populations. The article goes on to suggest that as a postcolonial response, decolonizing science and science education might be possible through practices that are primarily contextually respectful and responsive. That is, localization is suggested as one possible antidote to the deleterious effects of globalization. Trinidad, a postcolonial developing Caribbean nation, is used as illustration

    Communications Biophysics

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    Contains research objectives and reports on six research projects split into three sections.National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 P01 NS13126-07)National Institutes of Health (Training Grant 5 T32 NS07047-05)National Institutes of Health (Training Grant 2 T32 NS07047-06)National Science Foundation (Grant BNS 77-16861)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 R01 NS1284606)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 T32 NS07099)National Science Foundation (Grant BNS77-21751)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 R01 NS14092-04)Gallaudet College SubcontractKarmazin Foundation through the Council for the Arts at M.I.T.National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 R01 NS1691701A1)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 R01 NS11080-06)National Institutes of Health (Grant GM-21189

    Early cancer detection among rural and urban californians

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    BACKGROUND: Since the stage of cancer detection generally predicts future mortality rates, a key cancer control strategy is to increase the proportion of cancers found in the early stage. This study compared stage of detection for members of rural and urban communities to determine whether disparities were present. METHODS: The California Cancer Registry (CCR), a total population based cancer registry, was used to examine the proportion of early stage presentation for patients with breast, melanoma, and colon cancer from 1988 to 2003. Cancer stage at time of detection for these cancers was compared for rural and urban areas. RESULTS: In patients with breast cancer, there were significantly more patients presenting at early stage in 2003 compared to 1988, but no difference in the percentage of patients presenting with early stage disease between rural and urban dwellers. There were no differences in incidence in early stage cancer incidence between these groups for melanoma patients, as well. In colorectal cancer in 1988, significantly more patients presented with early stage disease in the urban areas (42% vs 34%, p < 0.02). However, over time the rural patients were diagnosed with early stage disease with the same frequency in 2003 as 1988. CONCLUSION: This analysis demonstrates that people in rural and urban areas have their breast, melanoma or colorectal cancers diagnosed at similar stages. Health care administrators may take this information into account in future strategic planning

    An ideal journey: Making bus travel desirable

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    © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This paper explores the ways in which people use their travel-time on local buses, and explains how this knowledge can assist with efforts in many ‘auto-centric’ societies to make bus travel more attractive and encourage a shift away from excessive private car use. Framing the discussion around the concept of an ‘ideal bus journey’, this paper examines whether travel-time activities on-board the bus give subjective value to the journey experience. Particular attention is given to emergent mobile Information and Communications Technologies, which are rapidly reconfiguring the ways in which we can inhabit and use mobile spaces such as the bus. This paper reports a novel mixed-methodology, creating a synthesised analysis of online discussions, focus groups, and a large-scale questionnaire survey of 840 bus users in Bristol, UK. The findings demonstrate that the bus is a very active space, with high levels of travel-time activity. The most popular activities on the bus are those related to relaxation and personal benefit, such as reading, listening to music, and browsing the internet. It is the passengers themselves that are largely in control of their in-vehicle experience, being able to craft a range of different positive journey experiences through travel-time activity. However, negative experiences are very common, and there is a need to challenge unfavourable public perception and media representations of bus travel to create a more positive cultural construction of the bus which would allow for the concept of an ‘ideal journey’ to be more easily realised. Passengers are the main creators of their travel-time experience, however there is much that can be done by bus operators to facilitate different types of activity and encourage a desirable public space. The overarching message is that there is a distinct opportunity to unlock travel-time activity as a ‘Unique Selling Point’ of the bus. Creating a perception of the bus journey as a desirable piece of time will allow local bus services to compete with the car on their own terms, and assist with international efforts to encourage people out of their cars and onto public transport for some trips

    When to start antiretroviral therapy in resource-limited settings: a human rights analysis

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recent evidence from developed and developing countries shows clear clinical and public health benefit to starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) earlier. While discussions about when to start ART have often focused on the clinical risks and benefits, the main issue is one of fair limit-setting. We applied a human rights framework to assess a policy of early treatment initiation according to the following criteria: public-health purpose; likely effectiveness; specificity; human rights burdens and benefits; potential for less restrictive approaches; and fair administration.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>According to our analysis, a policy of earlier ART initiation would better serve both public health and human rights objectives. We highlight a number of policy approaches that could be taken to help meet this aim, including increased international financial support, alternative models of care, and policies to secure the most affordable sources of appropriate antiretroviral drugs.</p> <p>Summary</p> <p>Widespread implementation of earlier ART initiation is challenging in resource-limited settings. Nevertheless, rationing of essential medicines is a restriction of human rights, and the principle of least restriction serves to focus attention on alternative measures such as adapting health service models to increase capacity, decreasing costs, and seeking additional international funding. Progressive realisation using well-defined steps will be necessary to allow for a phased implementation as part of a framework of short-term targets towards nationwide policy adoption, and will require international technical and financial support.</p

    Retail innovation and shopping practices: consumers' reaction to self-service retailing

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    Authors' draft also available on Surrey eprints repository at http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk. Final version available online at http://www.envplan.com/In this paper we address the related issues of retail innovation, changing shopping practices, and shopping geographies. We do so in relation to the spread of self-service grocery stores, and particularly the supermarket, in the postwar retail environment of Britain (1950 – 70), arguing that this juncture provides a propitious opportunity to study the relationship between changing practices of retailing and consumption. We highlight shoppers’ selective adoption of new self-service formats in relation to certain product categories and argue that this can be explained in part by reference to the socially embedded nature of women food shoppers’ behaviours and in particular the influence of contemporary notions of the ‘good housewife’. We support our argument by reference to a wide range of contemporary documentary material relating to postwar shopping including market research reports, the publications of local consumer groups, and selected retailer and government archive sources
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