The Language and Portrayal of Compassion in National Health Service Hospital Advertising

Abstract This paper explores the portrayal of compassion in NHS hospital advertising in the United Kingdom. Compassion is commonly defined as being sensitive to the suffering of others and showing a commitment to relieve it. Unacceptable reports of malpractice and patient neglect in recent press coverage have undermined the image of care staff being compassionate. Little has been researched about how this empathic mentality is increasingly demonstrated in on-site advertising displays and in the context of contemporary Government policy and guidelines for healthcare practice. The study entails a content and semiotic analysis of signage and poster publications in the built environments of two comparable large NHS hospitals in the Midlands during Autumn 2013. The content analysis samples feature 190 publications in each hospital which are further divided into groups. The semiotic analysis was conducted on theoretical samples of the original data set (9 publications in the established hospital and 20 in the new-build). Four main themes emerged from the data: (a) the opportunistic use of advertising to convey �compassionate� environments in the service provisions; (b) the portrayal of advanced nursing practitioners to emphasise the professional status of nursing; (c) the portrayal of idealistic care practices either to positively endorse caring or unduly raise expectation of quality and performance; (d) the significant presence of compassion-themed publications in the new Foundation Trust hospital. The study demonstrates the potential for hospital advertising to account for, promote and transform desirable visions of care in a rapidly changing health system

Predictive properties and therapeutical use of gasotransmitters:A renal perspective

In this thesis, we explored the predictive properties of gasotransmitters on graft survival and all-cause mortality in renal transplant recipients. To provide further evidence for the involvement of gasotransmitters in renal and cardiovascular damage we tested their therapeutical potential in experimental models of hypertension-induced disease. To validate our assumptions, clinical observational studies in renal transplant recipients were performed in which we measured the end-metabolites of gasotransmitters and their systemic biochemical reactions in order to gain better insight into the associations of H2S, NO, their metabolites and inhibitors, with renal and cardiovascular risk parameters. To substantiate the clinical findings, we performed experimental intervention studies, whereby exogenously administered H2S metabolites, sulfide containing salts, and inhibitors of H2S producing enzymes were administered in hypertensive models of renal and cardiac disease. We conclude that the gasotransmitters NO, H2S and also CO are involved in diverse (patho)physiological processes in the kidney and that therapeutical intervention with these gaseous molecules might have therapeutic potential in the protection against morbidity and mortality of patients with hypertension-induced kidney disease or after renal transplantation

No time to waste: Exploring timeprints of radioactive waste management options in Belgium

Following the work of Barbara Adam (1998) and Ulrike Felt (2016), we draw particular attention to 'timeprints' in the assessment and selection of radioactive waste management (RWM) options. Using the example of Belgium, we identify four different timeprints mobilized (un)consciously by stakeholders when assessing RWM options, namely trajectorism, promise economy, radioactive waste identity, and multi-situated timeprints. We show that each of these timeprints has a significant impact on the RWM option to be considered and actively determines future radioactive waste management pathways in the form of 'tacit governance'.In Anlehnung an die Arbeiten von Barbara Adam (1998) und Ulrike Felt (2016) legen wir besonderes Augenmerk auf die zeitlichen Abläufe bei der Bewertung und Auswahl von Optionen für die Entsorgung radioaktiver Abfälle (radioactive waste management - RWM). Anhand des Beispiels Belgien identifizieren wir vier verschiedene 'timeprints', die von den Interessenvertretern bei der Bewertung von RWM-Optionen (un)bewusst eingesetzt werden, nämlich 'trajectorism', wirtschaftliche Versprechen, Identität radioaktiver Abfälle und 'multi-situated timeprints'. Wir zeigen auf, dass jede dieser 'timeprints' einen wesentlichen Einfluss auf die in Betracht zu ziehenden RWM-Optionen hat und die zukünftigen Entsorgungswege für solche Abfälle in Form einer 'tacit governance' aktiv mitbestimmt

Negative Link Prediction in Social Media

Signed network analysis has attracted increasing attention in recent years. This is in part because research on signed network analysis suggests that negative links have added value in the analytical process. A major impediment in their effective use is that most social media sites do not enable users to specify them explicitly. In other words, a gap exists between the importance of negative links and their availability in real data sets. Therefore, it is natural to explore whether one can predict negative links automatically from the commonly available social network data. In this paper, we investigate the novel problem of negative link prediction with only positive links and content-centric interactions in social media. We make a number of important observations about negative links, and propose a principled framework NeLP, which can exploit positive links and content-centric interactions to predict negative links. Our experimental results on real-world social networks demonstrate that the proposed NeLP framework can accurately predict negative links with positive links and content-centric interactions. Our detailed experiments also illustrate the relative importance of various factors to the effectiveness of the proposed framework

Open Data Explorer: An End-to-end Tool for Data Storytelling using Open Data

Enabling users to better understand government actions is one reason why governments have sought to open their data to the public. Data storytelling tools help to achieve this goal by facilitating users to turn data into stories. However, existing tools are not able to provide the necessary features to overcome the barriers users face at different data storytelling stages. This paper provides findings regarding the features in the design of these data storytelling tools in the open data context and also presents a generic and end-to-end tool called ODE, which helps users through the different data storytelling stages. To achieve the paper’s objectives, a literature review was first conducted to collect the features needed for the different data storytelling stages. Then, the identified features were integrated into ODE and its effectiveness in helping users to easily turn data into stories was demonstrated through an evaluation involving 11 users

Laconte P. & Hein C. (Ed.) Brussels. Perspectives on a European Capital

Cet ouvrage ne pourra être ignoré de l’ensemble du monde des décideurs, planificateurs et “penseurs” en tous genres, actifs en relation avec la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale et la place de cette ville-région dans l’armature urbaine européenne. Il s’ouvre par une large page d’histoire retraçant des étapes fondamentales du développement historique de Bruxelles, pesant bien les éléments majeurs de nature politique, économique, symbolique, sociale voire culturelle qui l’ont appuyé. L’historique de..