‘Mum-of-two, 40’: but women rise to the top in Northern Irish politics

Women now lead three of the five main parties in Northern Ireland and make up 30% of the Assembly. Danielle Roberts looks at the sea-change in women’s participation in Northern Irish politics since the Good Friday Agreement, which has happened in spite of the lack of Unionist female politicians. While a number of BME and LGBT candidates stood in the 2017 election, none were elected

The Resource Curse and Economic Freedom: A Bayesian Perspective

The literature addressing the resource curse has been extensive. Many studies have put forth theories to explain the curse, but these theories are often refuted by new studies. Recently, there has been a theory that natural resource abundance leads to decreased economic freedom, which causes slower economic growth. Many of these studies have using frequentist testing to arrive at their conclusions. Although frequentist testing is widely used, there are several drawbacks. In particular, there is no way of addressing model uncertainty. Unless a study is able to incorporate every significant explanatory variable, the results will suffer from omitted variable bias. Recently, researchers have been applying Bayesian statistics to address the problem of model uncertainty. In this study, we apply Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) to build a growth model, and see if natural resources have a negative effect on growth. We take the implementation of BMA a step further to see if there is an indirect negative effect of natural resources on economic freedom. However, contrary to previous studies, we were not able to find a negative relationship between resource abundance and economic freedom

Digital Archiving of the Dance Artist’s Creative Process and Vision

Cleveland has a rich history in the development of modern dance. Because dance is mainly experienced in the here and now, the collective knowledge and artistic skills of many dance artists are mostly shared with viewers of their live performances or those who they mentor. This project uses video documentation to explore the approaches and insights of a choreographer and dancers in the creative process. The resulting piece of videography will inform the design of a future digital archive of many dance artists associated with CSU and the greater dance community. Videographers Rafeeq Roberts and Danielle Davis filmed Amy Miller, Associate Artistic Director of Gibney Dance, NY and former Northeast Ohioan during the CSU Summer Dance Workshop as she taught technique and creative process, and choreographed a dance for CSU dance students. The four dancers collaborated with her in the creation of the work. Providing a varied perspective on the creative process, three other influential dance artists with connections to Northeast Ohio were also recorded sharing their experiences in teaching, rehearsing, and performing. The final digital work is a creative product that serves as an aesthetic and informational resource. Through its creation, insight for developing a future digital archive preserving many dance artists’ visions has been initiated.https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/u_poster_2015/1004/thumbnail.jp

Competing framings of abortion in the Northern Ireland Assembly and Westminster: the long and winding road to abortion decriminalisation

Abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in October 2019. This historic change was introduced by the UK Parliament following lengthy activist campaigns, national and international inquiries, and regional and national court cases. This paper focuses on two legislatures, the Northern Ireland Assembly, and the UK Parliament, examining the role played by each in how decriminalisation was achieved. Tracing efforts dating back to the introduction of the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998, the analysis charts how the often-hostile approach to reform changed, prior to, and following, decriminalisation. In contrast, the UK Parliament's treatment of the abortion issue in Northern Ireland over the same period veered from ignorance to apathy to engagement. The paper examines the external and internal influences in each legislature, illustrating the different discourses within each. In the Northern Ireland Assembly, we trace how the debate on abortion was shaped around the question of abortion, whereas in the UK Parliament, the issue of devolution dominated. This paper offers a unique comparative analysis from the position of involved campaigners, of the multi-jurisdictional efforts to bring about historic legal change which moved Northern Ireland from having one of the most restricted legal frameworks globally on abortion to one of the most liberal

Encourage Self Regulated Learning in the Classroom

Self-regulated learning (SLR) is recognized as an important predictor of student academic motivation and achievement. This process requires students to independently plan, monitor, and assess their learning. However, few students naturally do this well. This paper provides a review of the literature including: the definition of SRL; an explanation of the relationship between SRL and motivation in the classroom; specific SRL strategies for student use; approaches for encouraging student SRL; and a discussion of some of the challenges educators might encounter while teaching students to be self-regulated, life-long learners

College is For You!

Did you know students with intellectual disability can go to college? This plain language resource shows what students can do in college, like join clubs and organizations, live on campus, and take classes. There is also information on how students can learn more about going to college

Exploring College for Students with Intellectual Disability: Families Make it Happen!

Families play an important role in making college possible for students with intellectual disability (ID)! This resource provides information on college options for students with ID and steps families can take to learn more and support students in exploring the option of college

Transition to College: Educators Can Make it Happen!

Educators play a vital role in setting expectations and sharing resources with students and families who are interested in college. This resource includes steps educators and transition professionals can take to help students with intellectual disability (ID) and their families to explore college options

Always Wednesday

Danielle Roberts’ work explores personal narratives. The spaces she paints radiate, simultaneously dark and luminescent. Resembling the kind of archetypes of place used in film her cinematic compositions invite the viewer into the frame. Her figures capture feelings of alienation illuminated by the unnatural existential glow of constructed contemporary light

Co-morbidity of childhood anaemia and malaria with a district-level spatial effect.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Anaemia and malaria are the leading causes of sub-Saharan African childhood morbidity and mortality. This thesis aimed to explore the risk factors as well as the complex relationship between anaemia and malaria in young children across the districts or counties of four contiguous sub-Saharan African countries, namely Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda. Nationally representative data from the Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in all four countries was used. The observed prevalence of anaemia and malaria was 52.5% and 19.7%, respectively, with a 15.1% prevalence of co-infection. Machine learning based exploratory classification methods were used to gain insight into the relationships and patterns among the explanatory variables and the two responses. The administrative districts are the level at which public health decisions are made within each of the countries. Accordingly, the best linear unbiased predictor (BLUP) ranking and selection approach was adopted to investigate the district-level spatial effects, while controlling for child-level, household-level and environmental factors. Further to the geoadditive model, a generalised additive mixed model with a spatial effect based on the geographical coordinates of the sampled clusters within the districts was applied. The relationship between the two diseases was further explored using joint modelling approaches: a bivariate copula geoadditive model and shared component model. The child’s age, mother’s education level, household wealth index and cluster altitude were found to be significantly associated with both the anaemia and malaria status of the child. The results of this study can help policy makers target the correct set of interventions or prevent the use of incorrect interventions for anaemia and malaria control and prevention. This aids in the targeted allocation of limited district health system resources within each of these countries.Author's Keywords: Adjusted odds ratios; Bayesian inference; Best linear unbiased predictor; Classification methods; Conditional autoregression; Copula model; Geoadditive model; Joint modelling; Spatial autocorrelation; Spline smoothing; Structured spatial effect; Unstructured spatial effect. Author's Publications listed on page 132-136 of thesis