BBC News: Defining Britishness in the Early Twenty-First Century

According to the BBC’s 2006 Royal Charter, the BBC situations itself rhetorically within the notions of ‘public value’ and its commitment to, among other things, d) representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities; e) bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK [...] (2-3). In order to achieve these goals, the BBC must define that which it represents particularly when dealing with the news. While BBC News claims to be impartial, rhetorically, impartiality is impossible when committing to the pursuit of definition and representation. In defining “Britishness,” BBC News must negotiate Britain’s global position as post-colonial, or neo-colonial, and European, as well as the heterogeneous nature of Britain. This dissertation will demonstrate a model for exploring the motives of the BBC News’ output using three case studies: a news report on the 2005 London transit bombings; a report on the 2006 Mumbai transit bombings; and a news report related to the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum. The motives of the BBC must be examined, particularly because of the BBC’s unique connection to the British government. Analyzing BBC News productions through the lenses of Stuart Hall’s Encoding and Decoding model, as well as Kenneth Burkes’ Dramatist model, gives scholars the opportunity to analyze the choices made by the BBC. By exploring how these choices fit into a modification of Herman and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model, scholars can gain a greater understanding of the motivations of the BBC’s construction of Britishness from its heterogeneous audiences as well as how the corporation constructs the national good as a public value. The outcome of the Brexit referendum demonstrates that despite a projection of united Britishness, Britain is a heterogeneous space comprising of a multitude of performances of Britishness. As the United Kingdom undergoes shifts in foreign and intra-national relations, how the BBC reports on related topics will be of importance in performing new versions of Britishness. How the BBC attempts to homogenize Britishness will allow scholars to consider the motives of both the BBC and the desires of the government

Accelerating Change for Women and Girls: The Role of Women's Funds

In recent years, interest in philanthropy for and by women has intensified, accompanied by a growing acceptance of the idea that philanthropic investments in women and girls can accelerate positive change in communities. To understand this evolution in thinking and practice within philanthropy, the Foundation Center partnered with the Women's Funding Network, a global movement of women's funds, to chart the current landscape of philanthropy focused on women and girls and document the specific role played by women's funds

Improving referrals and integrating family planning and HIV services through organizational network strengthening

BACKGROUND: The service needs of people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in low-income settings are wide-ranging. Service provision in a community is often disjointed among a variety of providers. We sought to reduce unmet patient needs by increasing referral coordination for HIV and family planning, measured as network density, with an organizational network approach. METHODS: We conducted organizational network analysis on two networks in sub-cities of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. There were 25 organizations in one sub-city network and 26 in the other. In one of them we sought to increase referrals through three network strengthening meetings. We then conducted the network analysis again in both sub-cities to measure any changes since baseline. We also quantitatively measured reported client service needs in both sub-cities before and after the intervention with two cross-sectional samples of face-to-face interviews with clients (459 at baseline and 587 at follow-up). RESULTS: In the sub-city with the intervention, the number of referral connections between organizations, measured as network density, increased 55%. In the control community, the density decreased over the same period. Reported unmet client service needs declined more consistently across services in the intervention community. DISCUSSION: This quasi experiment demonstrated that (1) an organizational network analysis can inform an intervention, (2) a modest network strengthening intervention can enhance client referrals in the network, (3) improvement in client referrals was accompanied by a decrease in atient-reported unmet needs and (4) a series of network analyses can be a useful evaluation tool

_The Disability Bioethics Reader_

[Releases May 27]. Introductory and advanced textbooks in bioethics focus almost entirely on issues that disproportionately affect disabled people and that centrally deal with becoming or being disabled. However, such textbooks typically omit critical philosophical reflection on disability, lack engagement with decades of empirical and theoretical scholarship spanning the social sciences and humanities in the multidisciplinary field of disability studies, and avoid serious consideration of the history of disability activism in shaping social, legal, political, and medical understandings of disability over the last fifty years. For example, longstanding discussions on topics such as euthanasia, physician aid-in-dying, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, prenatal testing, selective abortion, enhancement, patient autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and health care rationing all tend to be premised on shared and implicit assumptions regarding disability, especially in relation to quality of life, yet with too little recognition of the way that “disability” is itself a topic of substantial research and scholarly disagreement across multiple fields. This is not merely a concern for academic and medical education; as an applied field tied to one of the largest economic sectors of most industrialized nations, bioethics has a direct impact on healthcare education, practice, policy, and, thereby, the health outcomes of existing and future populations. It is in light of these pressing issues that the Disability Bioethics Reader is the first reader to introduce students to core bioethical issues and concepts through the lens of critical disability studies and philosophy of disability. The Disability Bioethics Reader will include over thirty-five chapters covering key areas such as: critical histories and state-of-the-field analyses of modern medicine, bioethics, disability studies, and philosophy of medicine; methods in bioethics; concerns at the edge- and end-of-life; enhancement; disability, quality of life, and well-being; prenatal testing and abortion; invisible disabilities; chronic illness; healthcare justice; genetics and genomics; intellectual disability and neurodiversity; ethics and diagnosis; and epistemic injustice in healthcare

Raman Spectroscopy of Liquid-Based Cervical Smear Samples as a Triage to Stratify Women Who Are HPV-Positive on Screening

Persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection can lead to cervical precancer and cancer. Recently, HPV testing has been introduced for primary cervical screening, but the HPV DNA test cannot distinguish between transient and persistent HPV infection. Thus, there is an unmet clinical need to develop a new test to identify women with a high-risk persistent HPV infection. Raman spectra were recorded from cervical smear samples (n = 60) and, on the basis of HPV DNA and HPV mRNA test results, a classifier was developed to identify persistent HPV infection. A further blinded independent test set (n = 14) was used to validate the model, and sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 100% were achieved. Improved triage would allow women with a high-risk persistent HPV infection to be referred for immediate treatment, while women with a low-risk transient infection could avoid overtreatment

Understanding the partners in policymaking program and the impact of participation on parents of children with developmental disabilities

Title from PDF of title page, viewed on June 9, 2011Dissertation advisor: Joan V. GallosVitaIncludes bibliographical references (p. 76-90)Thesis (Ph.D.)--Dept. of Public Affairs and Administration and Dept. of Sociology. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2011Parents are critical partners in the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities; however, they often lack an understanding of available resources or they do not know how to navigate the disability service system to obtain the services they need. Advocacy and leadership skills along with basic knowledge of best practices can assist individuals with disabilities and their families in obtaining the services they need while limiting societal and systematic hurdles which may prevent them from living their lives as fully participating citizens. The Partners in Policymaking program, which exists both nationally and internationally, trains families of children with development disabilities and adults with disabilities to make changes in their lives and in their communities and ultimately become integrated citizens. Previous research into the effectiveness of the program has shown increased advocacy activities of the participants; however, these studies do not seek an understanding beyond the anticipated outcomes nor identify what features may lead to these outcomes. Using grounded theory, a substantive theory is presented to describe program features and identify outcomes of the Partners in Policymaking program in Missouri. Fourteen parents of children with developmental disabilities who participated in the program were selected using theoretical sampling to participate in semi-structured interviews. Inductive and constant comparison is used to interpret the data until saturation of themes was reached. Seven themes are presented as the key elements which made the Partners in Policy program meaningful for the parents which are: (1) being ready, (2) respect, (3) changed perceptions, (4) membership, (5) understanding possibilities, (6) navigating a future, and (7) decreased intimidations. These themes impacted parents in such a way that they were transformed by their participation in the program. Seven themes are presented as the key elements which made the Partners in Policy program meaningful for the parents which are: (1) being ready, (2) respect, (3) changed perceptions, (4) membership, (5) understanding possibilities, (6) navigating a future, and (7) decreased intimidations. These themes impacted parents in such a way that they were transformed by their participation in the program.Introduction -- Review of the literature -- Evolution of disability policy and Partners in Policymaking Program -- Methodology -- Results -- Conclusio