Politicians’ perspectives on voice and accountability: evidence from a survey of South African local councillors

A growing body of research exists on democratic accountability. Much of this research focuses on citizen strategies for expressing their views, and on efforts to hold politicians and government service providers accountable. Despite this research, we in fact know little about how politicians in young democracies view these aspects of democratic governance. Given that accountability can be understood as a feedback ‘loop’ between citizens and elected representatives, it is necessary to gain a better understanding of the norms and values of politicians themselves, the pressures they face and the ways that they communicate with their constituents. This paper details findings from an original survey of approximately 1,000 South African councillors in 2016 and 2017 to explore what representation and accountability looks like from their perspective. How do they understand the various links in the accountability chain, including citizen input and deliberation, norms of good government and pressures from political parties, friends and family? The quality of democratic accountability, and the success of interventions to improve citizen representation, may depend on the norms and beliefs held by elected representatives. Findings state that even in a political context defined by strong parties, the descriptive representation of South African politicians has important substantive implications. Individual-level characteristics such as the race, gender, wealth and age of councillors meaningfully predict attitudes and perceptions on a range of important questions about voice and accountability.DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

Measures of the sentence intonation of read and spontaneous speech in American English

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://scitation.aip.org/content/asa/journal/jasa/77/2/10.1121/1.391883.The visual abstraction procedure used in previous studies of declination was tested using 12 subjects who each fit the F 0 contours of 19 spoken short simple sentences with baselines. These baselines were found to be poorly replicated by the fitters. An objective all‐points least‐squares best‐fit procedure was tested on this corpus and on a set of sentences that had been produced in both spontaneous and read speech by six speakers. The all‐points linear regression line was a better descriptor of the F 0 contours than either baselines or toplines. Declination did not always occur in these simple declarative sentences; there was more variation present in the F 0 contours of sentences that had been uttered during spontaneous speech; 35% of the spontaneous sentences did not show declination; 45% of these sentences better fit the breath‐group model. Their F 0 contours could be described by a level all‐points linear regression line followed by a falling terminal segment

Reply to Bruno H. Repp

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://www.dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.393033.The reader will readily note that much of Repp’s criticism [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 7 8, 1114–1116 (1985)] reflects his contention that there has been a procedural transgression on the part of the authors and the Society that establishes a ‘‘dangerous precedent.’’ Since Repp provides a partial account we feel that it is first necessary to address this issue

Acoustic analyses and perceptual data on anticipatory labial coarticulation in adults and children

The present study investigated anticipatory labial coarticulation in the speech of adults and children. CV syllables, [s], [t], and [d] before [i] and [u], were produced by an adult male speaker and a female child speaker age 3 years 6 months. Each syllable was computer‐edited to include only the noise‐excited portion of fricative‐vowel stimuli and only the aperiodic portion of stop‐vowel stimuli. LPC spectra were computed for each excised segment. Analyses of the effect of the following vowel on the spectral peak associated with the second formant frequency and on the characteristic spectral prominence for each consonant were performed. Perceptual data were obtained by presenting the aperiodic consonantal segments to subjects who were instructed to identify in a forced choice paradigm the following vowel [i] or [u]. Both the acoustic and perceptual data show strong coarticulatory effects for adults and the absence of such coarticulations in the speech stimuli of the child. The results are discussed in terms of the articulatory and perceptual aspects of coarticulation in language learning

Acoustic analyses and perceptual data on anticipatory labial coarticulation in adults and children

This is the published version, also available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.394917.The present study investigated anticipatory labial coarticulation in the speech of adults and children. CV syllables, composed of [s], [t], and [d] before [i] and [u], were produced by four adult speakers and eight child speakers aged 3–7 years. Each stimulus was computer edited to include only the aperiodic portion of fricative‐vowel and stop‐vowel syllables. LPC spectra were then computed for each excised segment. Analyses of the effect of the following vowel on the spectral peak associated with the second formant frequency and on the characteristic spectral prominence for each consonant were performed. Perceptual data were obtained by presenting the aperiodic consonantal segments to subjects who were instructed to identify the following vowel as [i] or [u]. Both the acoustic and the perceptual data show strong coarticulatory effects for the adults and comparable, although less consistent, coarticulation in the speech stimuli of the children. The results are discussed in terms of the articulatory and perceptual aspects of coarticulation in language learning

Chinese porcelain and the material taxonomies of medieval Rabbinic law: encounters with disruptive substances in

Co-authored with Phillip I. Ackerman-Lieberman, Vanderbilt University, USA.This article focuses on a set of legal questions about sini vessels (literally, "Chinese" vessels) sent from the Jewish community in Aden to Fustat (Old Cairo) in the mid-1130s CE and now preserved among the Cairo genius holdings in Cambridge University Library. This is the easiest dated and localised query about the status of sini vessels with respect to the Jewish law of vessels used fr food consumption. Our analysis of these queries suggests that their phrasing and timing can be linked to the contemporaneous appearance in the Yemen of a new type of Chinese ceramic ware, qingbai, which confounded and destabilised the material taxonomies underpinning rabbinic Judaism. Marshalling evidence from contemporary Jewish legal compendia and other writings produced in this milieu, our discussion substantially advances interpretive angles first suggested by S.D. Goitein and Mordechai A. Friedman to examine the efforts of Adeni Jews to place this Chinese ceramic fabric among already legislated substances, notably the "neighbouring" substances of glass and earthenware, in order to derive clear rules for the proper use and purification of vessels manufactured from it

Vitamin D status in female military personnel during combat training

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient for maintaining bone health. Recent data suggest that vitamin D and calcium supplementation might affect stress fracture incidence in military personnel. Although stress fracture is a health risk for military personnel during training, no study has investigated changes in vitamin D status in Soldiers during United States (US) Army basic combat training (BCT). This longitudinal study aimed to determine the effects of BCT on 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels in female Soldiers. Serum 25(OH)D and PTH were assessed in 74 fasted Soldier volunteers before and after an 8-week BCT course conducted between August and October in Columbia, South Carolina. In the total study population, 25(OH)D levels decreased (mean ± SD) from 72.9 ± 30.0 to 63.3 ± 19.8 nmol/L (P < 0.05) and PTH levels increased from 36.2 ± 15.8 to 47.5 ± 21.2 pg/mL (P < 0.05) during BCT. Ethnicity affected changes in vitamin D status (ethnicity-by-time interaction, P < 0.05); 25(OH)D decreased (P < 0.05) in both Hispanic and non-Hispanic whites, but did not change in non-Hispanic blacks. Ethnicity did not affect BCT-induced changes in PTH. These data indicate that vitamin D status in female Soldiers may decline during military training in the late summer and early autumn months in the Southeastern US. Future studies should strive to determine the impact of military clothing and seasonality on vitamin D status, as well as the functional impact of declining vitamin D status on bone health

β-Herpesviruses in Febrile Children with Cancer

These viruses should be included in the differential diagnosis of febrile disease

Are lay people good at recognising the symptoms of schizophrenia?

©2013 Erritty, Wydell. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the general public’s perception of schizophrenia symptoms and the need to seekhelp for symptoms. The recognition (or ‘labelling’) of schizophrenia symptoms, help-seeking behaviours and public awareness of schizophrenia have been suggested as potentially important factors relating to untreated psychosis. Method: Participants were asked to rate to what extent they believe vignettes describing classic symptoms (positive and negative) of schizophrenia indicate mental illness. They were also asked if the individuals depicted in the vignettes required help or treatment and asked to suggest what kind of help or treatment. Results: Only three positive symptoms (i.e., Hallucinatory behaviour, Unusual thought content and Suspiciousness) of schizophrenia were reasonably well perceived (above 70%) as indicating mental illness more than the other positive or negative symptoms. Even when the participants recognised that the symptoms indicated mental illness, not everyone recommended professional help. Conclusion: There may be a need to improve public awareness of schizophrenia and psychosis symptoms, particularly regarding an awareness of the importance of early intervention for psychosis

Utilization of Upper Endoscopy for Surveillance of Gastric Ulcers in the United States

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73657/1/j.1572-0241.2008.01945.x.pd