Conflicting digital futures: an analysis of the New Zealand digital television debate in relation to public service principles and commercial imperatives

The freedom to provide a wide range of content from diverse sources allows the media to fulfil its role as facilitator of the public sphere. Having access to a wide range of content from diverse sources is necessary if citizens are to fully participate in the democratic process. However, provision of non-commercial and public service content has proved problematic in New Zealand’s deregulated broadcasting environment. During the 1980s and 1990s the international trend toward deregulated national media markets put public service media under considerable pressure. In a deregulated environment commercial interests flourished, often at the expense of the public interest. This was certainly the case with broadcasting. Since then, New Zealand’s television broadcasting market has struggled to provide a balance of commercial and non-commercial content for a variety of reasons. But the digital era of broadcasting brings with it new opportunities for public service broadcasting provision. A by-product of the government’s decision to begin the switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting was the establishment of two non-commercial digital channels, administered by state-owned broadcaster, TVNZ. However, less than five years after the digital initiatives were announced, both channels had ceased broadcasting and once again the market became dominated by commercial interests. This thesis begins with a political-economic overview of New Zealand broadcasting history. The latter part of the overview traces the emergence of the neoliberal orthodoxy which informed the radical deregulation of the broadcasting sector, as well as ‘Third Wayism,’ which entailed a partial recommitment to public service broadcasting. In this context, the establishment of the Freeview platform and TVNZ’s digital channels, as well as the subsequent demise of these channels are examined. These developments were reported in the mainstream media in certain ways. In this context I provide a case study of how public service broadcasting was framed in news coverage from 2006-2011. This makes it possible to evaluate the parameters of the debate concerning public service broadcasting in the digital era. My conclusion here is that the debate was framed in such a way that public broadcasting was made to appear as if it was an imposition on the taxpayer, and commercially driven broadcasting was positioned as the default

Multiorgan MRI findings after hospitalisation with COVID-19 in the UK (C-MORE): a prospective, multicentre, observational cohort study

Introduction: The multiorgan impact of moderate to severe coronavirus infections in the post-acute phase is still poorly understood. We aimed to evaluate the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities after hospitalisation with COVID-19, evaluate their determinants, and explore associations with patient-related outcome measures. Methods: In a prospective, UK-wide, multicentre MRI follow-up study (C-MORE), adults (aged ≥18 years) discharged from hospital following COVID-19 who were included in Tier 2 of the Post-hospitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID) and contemporary controls with no evidence of previous COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antibody negative) underwent multiorgan MRI (lungs, heart, brain, liver, and kidneys) with quantitative and qualitative assessment of images and clinical adjudication when relevant. Individuals with end-stage renal failure or contraindications to MRI were excluded. Participants also underwent detailed recording of symptoms, and physiological and biochemical tests. The primary outcome was the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities (two or more organs) relative to controls, with further adjustments for potential confounders. The C-MORE study is ongoing and is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04510025. Findings: Of 2710 participants in Tier 2 of PHOSP-COVID, 531 were recruited across 13 UK-wide C-MORE sites. After exclusions, 259 C-MORE patients (mean age 57 years [SD 12]; 158 [61%] male and 101 [39%] female) who were discharged from hospital with PCR-confirmed or clinically diagnosed COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and Nov 1, 2021, and 52 non-COVID-19 controls from the community (mean age 49 years [SD 14]; 30 [58%] male and 22 [42%] female) were included in the analysis. Patients were assessed at a median of 5·0 months (IQR 4·2–6·3) after hospital discharge. Compared with non-COVID-19 controls, patients were older, living with more obesity, and had more comorbidities. Multiorgan abnormalities on MRI were more frequent in patients than in controls (157 [61%] of 259 vs 14 [27%] of 52; p<0·0001) and independently associated with COVID-19 status (odds ratio [OR] 2·9 [95% CI 1·5–5·8]; padjusted=0·0023) after adjusting for relevant confounders. Compared with controls, patients were more likely to have MRI evidence of lung abnormalities (p=0·0001; parenchymal abnormalities), brain abnormalities (p<0·0001; more white matter hyperintensities and regional brain volume reduction), and kidney abnormalities (p=0·014; lower medullary T1 and loss of corticomedullary differentiation), whereas cardiac and liver MRI abnormalities were similar between patients and controls. Patients with multiorgan abnormalities were older (difference in mean age 7 years [95% CI 4–10]; mean age of 59·8 years [SD 11·7] with multiorgan abnormalities vs mean age of 52·8 years [11·9] without multiorgan abnormalities; p<0·0001), more likely to have three or more comorbidities (OR 2·47 [1·32–4·82]; padjusted=0·0059), and more likely to have a more severe acute infection (acute CRP >5mg/L, OR 3·55 [1·23–11·88]; padjusted=0·025) than those without multiorgan abnormalities. Presence of lung MRI abnormalities was associated with a two-fold higher risk of chest tightness, and multiorgan MRI abnormalities were associated with severe and very severe persistent physical and mental health impairment (PHOSP-COVID symptom clusters) after hospitalisation. Interpretation: After hospitalisation for COVID-19, people are at risk of multiorgan abnormalities in the medium term. Our findings emphasise the need for proactive multidisciplinary care pathways, with the potential for imaging to guide surveillance frequency and therapeutic stratification

Oral Sex: Gateway or Alternative to Vaginal Intercourse?

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2015Oral sex – a highly prevalent behavior that is independently associated with STIs – has been constructed as an alternative to vaginal intercourse (VI), and as a gateway to VI. No studies have evaluated these competing constructions, or in-the-moment factors contributing to oral sex. This study evaluated whether 1) acute alcohol intoxication and sexual sensation seeking (SSS) predicted intentions to engage in unprotected oral sex with an unfamiliar partner, and 2) oral sex intentions predicted subsequent unprotected VI intentions. Following assessment of SSS, participants (N=324 heterosexual men and women) were randomized to the alcohol or control groups, and read and projected themselves into an eroticized scenario assessing risky sex intentions. Results demonstrated that only SSS predicted oral sex intentions, and that oral sex intentions mediated the relationship between SSS and VI intentions differentially among men and women. Implications regarding risk-related predictors and putative “gateway” effects of oral sex are discussed

Sexual Assault Disclosure and Related Mental Health Among Undergraduate Female Assault Survivors

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2019Through online, self-report surveys, this dissertation sought to illuminate sexual assault disclosure experiences as well as the relationship between negative reactions to sexual assault disclosures and mental health among undergraduate women who had experience alcoholinvolved and non-alcohol involved assaults (AIAs and non-AIAs, respectively). Study 1 characterized survivors’ disclosure confidantes and the disclosure reactions that survivors received, and also compared how frequently AIA and non-AIA survivors received different reactions from different providers as well as likelihood of having disclosed to different confidantes. Study 2 investigated the associations between various negative disclosure reactions, PTSD symptoms, motivation to drink to cope with negative affect, and alcohol use behavior. Taken together, findings suggest that it is critical to consider the social context of sexual assault recovery in working with undergraduate sexual assault survivors and their social supporters

Swimming depth of dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) associated and unassociated with fish aggregating devices

Dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus), large pelagic predators and important fishery targets, frequently associate with floating debris or manmade fish aggregating devices (FADs). We tagged 8 dolphinfish with pressure-sensitive ultrasonic transmitters and actively tracked individuals continuously for up to 40 h to elucidate the vertical movement patterns and differences between FADassociated (FAD-A) and FAD-unassociated (FAD-U) fish. Four additional fish were equipped with acoustic transmitters and passively monitored for several days with receivers attached to FADs. When not associated with FADs, dolphinfish used the upper 75-100 m of the water column during the day and made descents up to 160 m during the night. In contrast, FAD-A fish generally stayed within the upper 10 m of the water column and tended to make deeper excursions during the day rather than at night. Water temperature data from expendable bathythermo-graphs deployed during active tracking showed that fish only descended to depths where temperatures were <= 3 degrees C cooler than the uniform-temperature surface layer. The use of vertical behavior to determine whether a dolphinfish is associated or not with a floating object opens the possibility for new, large-scale research aimed at investigating the role of floating objects in the ecosystem inhabited by this species and at assessing the impacts of FADs on its ecology

Auditory Brainstem Implantation Improves Speech Recognition in Neurofibromatosis Type II Patients

This prospective study aimed to determine speech understanding in neurofibromatosis type II (NF2) patients following implantation of a MED-EL COMBI 40+ auditory brainstem implant (ABI). Patients (n = 32) were enrolled postsurgically. Nonauditory side effects were evaluated at fitting and audiological performance was determined using the Sound Effects Recognition Test (SERT), Monosyllable-Trochee-Polysyllable (MTP) test and open-set sentence tests. Subjective benefits were determined by questionnaire. ABI activation was documented in 27 patients, 2 patients were too ill for testing and 3 patients were without any auditory perception. SERT and MTP outcomes under auditory-only conditions improved significantly between first fitting and 12-month follow-up. Open-set sentence recognition improved from 5% at first fitting to 37% after 12 months. The number of active electrodes had no significant effect on performance. All questionnaire respondents were ‘satisfied' to ‘very satisfied' with their ABI. An ABI is an effective treatment option in NF2 patients with the potential to provide open-set speech recognition and subjective benefits. To our knowledge, the data presented herein is exceptional in terms of the open-set speech perception achieved in NF2 patients

Evidence for two apoptotic pathways in light-induced retinal degeneration

Excessive phototransduction signaling is thought to be involved in light-induced and inherited retinal degeneration. Using knockout mice with defects in rhodopsin shut-off and transducin signaling, we show that two different pathways of photoreceptor-cell apoptosis are induced by light. Bright light induces apoptosis that is independent of transducin and accompanied by induction of the transcription factor AP-1. By contrast, low light induces an apoptotic pathway that requires transducin. We also provide evidence that additional genetic factors regulate sensitivity to light-induced damage. Our use of defined mouse mutants resolves some of the complexity underlying the mechanisms that regulate susceptibility to retinal degeneration