Commonwealth collaboration in foreign affairs, 1939-1947 : the British perspective

This thesis studies the modes of collaboration between the members of the British Commonwealth in foreign affairs, with particular emphasis on the United Kingdom's methods of keeping the other members informed and ascertaining their views. It is not an attempt at a comprehensive survey of the foreign relations of the U. K. or the individual Dominions, but is designed as a study of the attitudes towards collaboration over the span of nearly a decade, using specific examples of successful or deficient collaboration to illustrate the policy of the U. K. and its response to the attitudes of its partners. The first chapter takes the form of a survey of Commonwealth relations in the late 1930s. The second chapter considers Commonwealth collaboration during the first five years of the war, with special attention to two aspects; the transmission of information to the Dominions and their participation in the higher direction of the war. The next chapter, concentrates on the U. K.'s plans for the post-war period, specifically the representation of the association internationally and the F. O.'s consideration of methods by which the U. K. could increase contacts between the member countries. In the fourth chapter attention is given to the policies of the Dominion Governments and their plans for the Commonwealth after the war, both in terms of the international position of the Commonwealth and their individual association with it. Chapter five studies the only war-time Prime Ministers' Meeting, in 1944, at which the member states discussed the establishment of the proposed world organisation and the Commonwealth's association with it, and measures to improve collaboraton within the Commonwealth. Chapter six considers the degree of harmony in the policies of the member countries on some important aspects of international policy, such as the, Great Power veto or the position of 'middle' ranking states within the U. N. The dual role of the U.K. as a member of the Commonwealth and of the Great Power elite is also studied with a view to assessing the compatibility of these two. The next chapter considers the U. K. 's attempts to promote close collaboration at the various international conferences between 1944 and 1946 and the efforts made to produce a bonsensus on policy. The 1945 San Francisco Conference is looked at in particular detail to demonstrate the contact which took place between Commonwealth Ministers and officials. In chapter eight three examples of collaboration on aspects of U. K. policy - the-1946 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty and the re-negotiation of the treaties with France and the U. S. S. R. in the same year - are studied as examples of problems which remained in Commonwealth collaboration in the, post=war. The latter two illustrate the importance of the U. K. 's attitude with regard to transmitting information in advance of policy decisions, and the difficulties entailed by the divergence in Dominion attitudes. Consideration is also given to the role of the Dominion High Commissioners in London, in terms of the information provided for them and their status within the diplomatic community. Finally, chapter nine looks ahead to the expansion of the Commonwealth and the key position of India. This does not involve a study of Anglo-Indian relations, or the U. K. 's policy in granting, India independence. It considers three issues raised by the independence of India and the question of its future association with the Commonwealth: first, the effect on the U. K. 's policy of transmitting information to fellow members; secondly, the stimulus which India's new status provided for the r. 0. to reconsider its position in relation to Commonwealth liaison; thirdly, the discussions which were prompted about the fundamental basis of the Commonwealth relationship and the feasibility of permitting a republican state to be a member

Redesigning a large-enrollment introductory biology course

Using an action research model, biology faculty examined, implemented, and evaluated learner-centered instructional strategies to reach the goal of increasing the level of student achievement in the introductory biology course BIO 181: Unity of Life I, which was characterized by both high enrollments and a high DFW rate. Outcomes included the creation and implementation of an assessment tool for biology content knowledge and attitudes, development and implementation of a common syllabus, modification of the course to include learner-centered instructional strategies, and the collection and analysis of data to evaluate the success of the modifications. The redesigned course resulted in greater student success, as measured by grades (reduced %DFW and increased %AB) as well as by achievement in the course assessment tool. In addition, the redesigned course led to increased student satisfaction and greater consistency among different sections. These findings have important implications for both students and institutions, as the significantly lower DFW rate means that fewer students have to retake the course

Evaluation of Mutagenicity Testing of Extracts from Processed Oil Shale

The Ames

The Health of Children and Young People with Chronic Conditions and Disabilities in New Zealand

The main reason why the rising prevalence of childhood obesity is an important public health issue is that obese children are likely to become obese adults at high risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease and it is feared that the future cost of healthcare for obesity-related illnesses will be beyond the nation’s resources.1,2 From the perspective of the individual obese child and his or her family, however, more immediate consequences of obesity, such as having low self-esteem, being bullied, teased or socially marginalised, being unable to participate in physical activities and sport or to wear fashionable clothes, tend to be of greater importance. There is evidence that many parents of overweight or obese children are unaware of their child’s weight status although the reasons for this have not been thoroughly explored.3 Raising awareness of the significance of childhood obesity, as the Lets Move! campaign started by Michelle Obama has done in the U.S.,4,5 is important as unless parents are motivated to change their families’ habits to improve their children’s weight there is little point in offering intervention. There is a general consensus among obesity experts that tackling the obesity problem requires a whole of society approach to prevention, and that this involves tackling complex social and economic issues in areas including food production, manufacturing and retailing, trade, urban planning, transport, healthcare, education and culture6 through the coordinated efforts of public sectors and private industries.7,8 Nevertheless, those who work in healthcare want to be able to help individual obese children and their families in the here and now. This in-depth topic aims to provide information on evidence-based interventions for the treatment of established overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. It is organised into five sections as follows: • Identifying and engaging children (and their parents) who are candidates for weight management interventions • Insights from a 2009 Cochrane review of obesity interventions in children and adolescents • Insights from other reviews of obesity interventions in children and adolescents • New Zealand interventions • Primary care interventions, including recent RCTs addressing obesity in primary care There are a number of evidence-based guidelines for the management of overweight and obesity in children and young people, including those published by the NZ Ministry of Health (2009),9 the U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2013),10 the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (2010),11 and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (2013).12 Readers wanting more detailed information than is provided here might like to refer to these guidelines

Health and wellbeing of under-five year olds in New Zealand 2017

Keeping their children healthy and safe is one of the most important responsibilities parents and caregivers have. It requires knowledge and skills that are acquired in a number of ways: from families and friends, through cultural heritage, at school, from health professionals, through reading, and through audio-visual media, such as television, radio and the internet. The knowledge and skills people need to meet the complex demands of health and healthcare systems in a modern society have been conceptualised as health literacy.1 Being health literate means having the knowledge, skills, motivation and confidence to accurately assess the health of yourself, your family and your community, to understand the factors that influence health at each of these levels, to take responsibility for health, and to act appropriately.1 It means being able to make well-informed decisions on personal health matters like nutrition, choice of healthcare providers, preventive interventions such as immunisation and screening, and treatment options for health problems.1 It also means being able to form informed opinions on public health issues, such as air pollution, the safety of the water supply, workplace health and safety, the quality of food offered in school canteens, the location of liquor outlets, and the social and economic determinants of health, and being able to use political processes to affect government policy relating to such matters.1-3 When faced with a personal health problem, a health literate person can recognise symptoms that warrant medical attention, seek and obtain help from the health system, make an informed choice if they are offered treatment options, and understand and follow the advice and treatment plan they are given. They can, for example, use the information on the label to determine the correct dose of liquid medicine to give their child4, or understand informed consent documents.5 They can carry out health-related tasks requiring numeracy skills, such as understanding food labels6, measuring blood sugar7, and comparing the risks of different treatment options8. They can make a phone call to make an appointment with a healthcare provider, arrange time off work to attend the appointment, get themselves to the health service, and interact confidently with health professionals by answering questions, providing a history, and asking questions about things they do not understand.9 According to the World Health Organisation, health literacy is one of the three key elements of health promotion, together with healthy cities and good governance.10 As will be explained further, many people have poor health literacy and this is a major contributor to poor health outcomes and to health inequities between different population groups. In their 2015 discussion paper Health literacy: A necessary element for achieving health equity11, Logan et al. made the following three key points about health literacy and health disparities: Health literacy is intrinsically linked to both an individual’s and a community’s socioeconomic context, and is a powerful mediator of the social determinants of health Health literacy interventions are viable options among other evidence-based strategies to address social adversity and environmental health determinants and should be considered when assessing meaningful actions to address health disparities Health literacy interventions and practices contribute to reducing health disparities, which fosters health equity and social justice. This article discusses the research on health literacy and its relation to health outcomes, the research on interventions to improve health outcomes for people with low health literacy, and how the health system can reduce the health literacy demands it places on patients and better serve patients with low health literacy

The Health of Children and Young People with Chronic Conditions and Disabilities in New Zealand

According to the World Health Organization, childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century.1 Over the past thirty to forty years there has been a marked increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity in almost all countries for which there are available data.2 New Zealand is part of this global trend. The New Zealand Health Survey 2011/12 found that, among children aged 2–14 years, 20.7% were overweight and 10.2% were obese.3 In boys, but not in girls, there was a statistically significant increase in the obesity rate in 2–14 year olds from the 2006/07 survey (8%) to the 2011/12 survey (10%). For 5–14 year old children, although the rate of obesity did not change from 2002 (9%) to 2006/07 (8%), from 2006/07 to 2011/12 there was a statistically significant increase (to 11%). Childhood obesity carries significant physical and mental health risks both in the short term and the long term.4 In the short term, childhood obesity may be associated with asthma,5 sleep apnoea,6-8 slipped femoral capital epiphysis,9,10 being bullied, teased and socially marginalised,11-15 and having low self-esteem.16,17 Childhood obesity has been associated with emotional and behavioural problems even in pre-school children.18 Many studies in children have documented the association between childhood obesity and most of the major risk factors for later cardiovascular disease: high blood pressure, dyslipidaemia, hyperinsulinaemia and/or insulin resistance, abnormalities in left ventricular mass and/or function, and abnormalities in endothelial function.4 A number of large, long-running cohort studies have found that childhood overweight and obesity is associated with premature mortality in adulthood and with an increased risk of type II diabetes, stroke, coronary heart disease, and hypertension later in life.19 It has been argued that this is largely because childhood overweight and obesity is a strong predictor of adult obesity.20,21 Obese children have a moderately high probability of becoming obese adults (in the range 40–70%)4 and adult obesity is associated with substantially increased risks of hypertension, dyslipidaemia, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke.22 This is the major reason why childhood obesity is considered to be a public health crisis.23 Adult obesity is also associated with an increased risk of gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnoea and respiratory problems and some types of cancer.22 The most convincing evidence for body fatness as a cause as a cause of cancer is for cancer of the oesophagus, pancreas, colon and rectum, breast (in post-menopausal women), uterus (endometrium), and kidney.24 There is a general consensus among obesity experts that the obesity problem is not simply a personal issue of eating too much and doing too little but a problem that has its roots in a mismatch between basic human biology, the product of thousands of years of evolution, and modern society. It therefore requires tackling complex social and economic issues and changing public policy in many areas including food production, manufacturing and retailing, trade, urban planning, transport, healthcare, education and culture.23 This in-depth topic aims to examine the determinants and consequences of childhood obesity and also to provide background information on the trends in childhood obesity prevalence (both globally and in New Zealand), defining and measuring obesity, and the natural history of obesity over the lifespan

The Health of Children and Young People with Chronic Conditions and Disabilities in New Zealand 2016

There is substantial evidence from both observational studies of humans, and experimental studies in animals, that fetal alcohol exposure can cause physical malformations, growth retardation and brain damage.1-5 Alcohol exposure in pregnancy is commonly cited as the leading preventable cause of intellectual disability.6,7 Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is the umbrella term used for the range of physical, cognitive, and developmental disabilities caused by exposure to alcohol in utero.8 The Ministry of Health has recently published an Action Plan Taking Action on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder 2016 to 20197 which is New Zealand’s first attempt at taking a coordinated and strategic national approach to FASD. The plan recognises that FASD contributes to many poor outcomes for New Zealand’s young people including early mortality, abuse and neglect, poor educational achievement, engagement with the criminal justice system, benefit dependence, and mental health and alcohol and drug problems

The Health Status of Children and Young People in New Zealand 2015

Having sex for the first time is a major milestone in life that almost everyone reaches. In New Zealand, around 37% of secondary school students have had sex by the age of 16 years and around 46% by the age of 17 or more.1 Becoming sexually active brings both risks and rewards. Policy makers are generally most concerned with the risks, particularly the risks of early unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections and the associated costs to society. Good sexual health, however, is more than not contracting a sexually transmitted infection and not being involved in an unintended pregnancy. It has both individual and public health dimensions, as indicated by the following broad definition of sexual health, developed in the US: ‘Sexual health is a state of well-being in relation to sexuality across the life span that involves physical, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual dimensions. Sexual health is an intrinsic element of human health and is based on a positive, equitable, and respectful approach to sexuality, relationships, and reproduction, that is free of coercion, fear, discrimination, stigma, shame, and violence. It includes: the ability to understand the benefits, risks, and responsibilities of sexual behaviour; the prevention and care of disease and other adverse outcomes; and the possibility of fulfilling sexual relationships. Sexual health is impacted by socioeconomic and cultural contexts—including policies, practices, and services—that support healthy outcomes for individuals, families, and their communities.’2 Supporting young people to attain sexual health as defined above is clearly not something the health system can accomplish on its own, nevertheless there is an important role for the health system in helping young people to avoid unwanted pregnancy, providing care to young pregnant women, and preventing and treating sexually transmitted infections. This in-depth topic considers ways of improving the sexual and reproductive health of New Zealand adolescents and young adults. It focuses on the prevention of unintended teenage pregnancy but also touches on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections. It does not deal with maternity services for pregnant teenagers or services for teenage parents because a previous in-depth topic in this series of reports (2012) was entitled Services and Interventions for Women Experiencing Multiple Adversities in Pregnancy and this included a substantial section on services for teenage parents.3 It begins by summarising what is known about the sexual behaviour of young people in New Zealand. It then reviews sexuality education, sexual and reproductive health services for young people, and contraceptive options for young people (with a particular focus on long-acting reversible methods). It concludes with some recommendations for improving the sexual and reproductive health of New Zealand young people and preventing unintended teenage pregnancies. This choice of areas for review was influenced by the 2013 report of the Health Committee (one of the select committees of the New Zealand Parliament) Inquiry into improving child health outcomes and preventing child abuse with a focus from preconception until three years of age.4 One of the major recommendations which came out of the inquiry was as follows: ‘We recommend to the Government that it develop a co-ordinated cross-sectoral action plan with the objective of giving New Zealand world-leading, best-practice evidence-based sexuality and reproductive health education, contraception, sterilisation, termination, and sexual health services, distributed to cover the whole country. The plan should be developed within 12 to 18 months of this report being published, and be matched with appropriate, sustainable resourcing. The plan should also be monitored by trends in teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancy, and terminations.’ It should be borne in mind that in developed countries teenage pregnancy (except in the youngest teenagers) is not so much a medical problem as a social problem.5 Many of the adverse medical outcomes attributed to teenage pregnancy, such as prematurity and low birth weight, are probably mostly due to the poor socio-economic circumstances and associated risk-taking behaviours that predispose young women to early pregnancy.6,7 It should not be assumed that if women in the most deprived communities would only delay their first birth by five years or ten years, then that alone would inevitably improve outcomes for them and their children