Theme I: The Sexual Division of Labour in Rural Production System

SUMMARY This extended report discusses the conference proceedings under five themes: the sexual division of labour in rural production systems; the internationalisation of capital; social reproduction; the transition to socialism; and organisation and forms of action. Both plenary and workshop sessions are covered, while a final section deals with the conference's own evaluation of how far it achieved its aim to elucidate new theoretical concepts and provide a forum for Third World women to discuss their work. RESUMEN Conferencia 133: La constante subordinación de las mujeres en el proceso de desarrollo En este prolongado informe se analizan las labores de la conferencia bajo cinco temas, a saber: la división sexual de la mano de obra en los sistemas de producción rural; la internacionalización del capital; la reproducción social; la transición al socialismo, y la organización y las formas de acción. Se abarcan las sesiones plenarias y las del ciclo de estudios, y en una sección final se trata la evaluación de la conferencia misma respecto a la manera de conseguir sus propósitos para elucidar nuevos conceptos teóricos y proveer un escenario para que las mujeres del Tercer Mundo analicen sus trabajos. RÉSUMÉ Conférence 133: La persistance de la subordination féminine dans le processus du développement Dans ce rapport prolongé, les travaux de la conférence, regroupés selon cinq thèmes, sont discutés: la division du travail par sexe dans les systèmes de production rurale en est un, suivi de l'internationalisation du capital, la reproduction sociale, la transition vers le socialisme et enfin l'organisation et la forme d'action à prendre. Les travaux en séance plénière et en groupe de travail sont traités, et une section venant en fin d'article est consacrée à l'autocritique faite par les participants à la conférence pour déterminer dans quelle mesure celle?ci a réussi dans sa mission de mettre au jour de nouveaux concepts théoriques et de servir de forum aux femmes du Tiers?Monde dans la discussion de leur travail

Hurricane Kids: Impact of Socioeconomic, Public Health, Medical Education, and Natural Disasters on a Doctor in Training

Primary care physicians (PCP’s) are patient’s first line of defense against any medical and social ailment. If patients can relate to and trust their PCP beyond the framework of their disease, they ‘stick’ with that doctor for life and bring their families along. This relatability and trust are often achieved through sharing your own story of a rising Phoenix. This article is a frank reflection upon unique experiences and personal challenges overcome while attending medical school in the treacherous tropical zones of both developed and developing countries.  It touches upon the risks of study abroad programs, disaster medicine, and the role of international medical aid, and explains how these experiences shape a young physician. It teaches medical student community to embrace mission work and relief efforts early on in their medical career not only because hardships build character but also because they make doctors filter their treatment plan through a lens of real life, account for socioeconomic circumstances of their patients, and build more effective therapeutical alliances with them

Close to Home / Made in the UK

The first meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion, convened by Baroness Lola Young. The meeting explored the contribution that forward thinking UK fashion and textile businesses make to local economies, communities and the environment. Baroness Lola Young, Dr Frances Corner OBE (Head of the London College of Fashion) and Martin Buttle (Supply Chain Manager at MADE-BY) started the meeting with opening remarks and introductions. Dr Kate Fletcher (Reader at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion) expanded on the Close to Home/Made in the UK theme. Five shirt presentations followed from UK manufacturers/brands involved in fashion, textiles and footwear: Christopher Raeburn, Dashing Tweeds, Tender Denim, Ardalanish Isle of Mull Weavers and John Smedley. Ruth Potts (New Economics Foundation) then talked about sustaining local economies and economic well-being. A discussion followed with questions and commentary from the audience, who represented a wide cross section of the industry including high street retailers, press, fashion designers and international organisations. Through the sharing of experiences, personal journeys, discoveries, traditions, technologies and crafts, many of the joys, pains, challenges and opportunities for UK fashion manufacturing where explored. A momentum to keep building. A feeling of positivity and urgency. A debate to be continued. Actions for now and the future we create. There was also a Local Wisdom project underway, to record and celebrate the clothes we wear and the ways in which we wear them. Participants shared the story of their clothing and had their portraits taken wearing it in the Westminster Great Hall

Ocular higher-order aberrations and visual performance

Since adaptive optics was first used to correct the monochromatic aberrations of the eye over a decade ago there has been considerable interest in correcting the ocular aberrations beyond defocus and astigmatism. In order to understand the prospective benefits of correcting these higher-order aberrations it is important to study their effect on visual performance. From a clinical perspective it is important to know how different types of aberration can affect visual performance so that wavefront measurements can be better understood. Visual performance is determined by a combination of optical and neural factors. It is important to consider how degradations in the optical quality of the eye can impact the neural processes involved in visual tasks such as object recognition. In this thesis we present a study of the effects of three types of aberration, defocus, coma and secondary astigmatism, on letter recognition and reading performance. In the course of this work we also characterise the repeatability of the Zywave aberrometer, which we used to measure our subjects' ocular wavefronts. We use stimuli that have these aberrations applied in their rendering to examine the differences between these aberrations and how they differ with respect to the visual task. We find that secondary astigmatism causes the largest impairment to both letter recognition and reading performance, followed by defocus. Coma causes comparatively smaller degradations to performance but its effect is different depending on the visual task. We can predict the reduction in performance based on a simple cross-correlation model of letter confusability. The relationship between these predictions and the experimental results are the same for all three aberrations, in the case of single letter recognition. In reading however, the relationship is different for coma. We suggest that coma causes lateral masking effects and may additionally disrupt the planning of eye movements. Coma slows reading, but does not specifically impair word identification whereas defocus and secondary astigmatism do. We attribute disruptions in word identification to the dramatic effects defocus and secondary astigmatism have on the form of a letter

Universal simplicity? The alleged simplicity of Universal Credit from administrative and claimant perspectives

A key aim of Universal Credit is to simplify the social security system. While several aspects of its introduction have received critical attention, this overarching aim continues to receive acceptance and support. Drawing on two empirical studies involving means-tested benefit claimants, we aim to deconstruct the idea of ‘simplicity’ as a feature of social security design and argue that it is contingent on perspective. We suggest that claims of simplicity can often be justified from an administrative perspective but are not experienced as such from the perspective of claimants, who instead can face greater responsibility for managing complexity

Interview with Blaine Young

The interview discusses the beginnings of the Alternatice Center and how it has changed with Blaine Young, former Alternative Center Directorhttps://digital.kenyon.edu/ae_interviews/1023/thumbnail.jp