The relationship between entertainment producers and higher education providers

Cameron, Verhoeven and Court have noted that many screen producers do not see their tertiary education as being beneficial to their careers. We hypothesise that Universities have traditionally not trained students in producing skills because of the division of labour between Faculties of Art and Faculties of Business; and because their focus on art rather than entertainment has downplayed the importance of producing. This article presents a SOTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) whole-of-program evaluation of a new cross-Faculty Bachelor of Entertainment Industries at QUT, devoted to providing students with graduate attributes for producing including creative skills (understanding story, the aesthetics of entertainment, etc), business skills (business models, finance, marketing, etc) and legal skills (contracts, copyright, etc). Stakeholder evaluations suggest that entertainment producers are highly supportive of this new course

Comparison of ceiling and visibility observations for NWS manned observation sites and ASOS sites

May 1993.Also issued as Jon C. Cornick's thesis (M.S.) -- Colorado State University, 1993.Includes bibliographical references.The National Weather Service modernization program involves, among other things, a shift from manned weather observation to automated, unmanned instrument sensing. The Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) is the device that will replace the conventional manned weather observation in use today. ASOS observations of ceiling and visibility were compared to the standard manual observations at 16 sites having at least four months of overlap data. The 16 sites were located in the central plains states of Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The period of study was confined to the precommissioning period of the sites when both conventional data and ASOS data were available. The study spans from mid-September of 1991 to late July 1992, with the greatest amount of data collected between February and June 1992. The overall results show that ASOS ceiling reports were within 1000 ft of conventional ceiling reports 92.7% of the time. Similarly, ASOS derived visibility was within one reportable category of conventionally derived visibility 93.7% of the time. These percentages were determined from a data base composed of approximately 64,000 observations. During periods of active weather that would require a weather type entry into the coded observation, the high level of equality is decreased. The percentage of visibility reports within one reportable category is 60.8% and the percentage of ceilings within 1000 ft of conventional reports is 76%. These percentages were determined from a data base of approximately 9,300 observations containing a current weather entry. There were 5,263 cases of conventionally observed weather that would be categorized as requiring IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) for safe air travel. ASOS observations correctly identified 4,499 of these events for an 85.5% equivalency rate. ASOS observations indicated 5,129 IFR occurrences, or nearly the same amount as conventional observations. Fog is the most frequently reported weather phenomena when large discrepancies occur between conventional and ASOS ceiling or visibility reports. This investigation shows that ASOS reported visibilities in foggy conditions are generally higher than those reported by conventional means. Ceilings in foggy conditions as reported by ASOS are generally much lower than those reported conventionally

What can lifespan variation reveal that life expectancy hides? Comparison of five high-income countries.

OBJECTIVES: In most countries, life expectancy at birth (e0) has improved for many decades. Recently, however, progress has stalled in the UK and Canada, and reversed in the USA. Lifespan variation, a complementary measure of mortality, increased a few years before the reversal in the USA. To assess whether this measure offers additional meaningful insights, we examine what happened in four other high-income countries with differing life expectancy trends. DESIGN: We calculated life disparity (a specific measure of lifespan variation) in five countries -- USA, UK, France, Japan and Canada -- using sex- and age specific mortality rates from the Human Mortality Database from 1975 to 2017 for ages 0--100 years. We then examined trends in age-specific mortality to identify the age groups contributing to these changes. SETTING: USA, UK, France, Japan and Canada. PARTICIPANTS: aggregate population data of the above nations. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Life expectancy at birth, life disparity and age-specific mortality. RESULTS: The stalls and falls in life expectancy, for both males and females, seen in the UK, USA and Canada coincided with rising life disparity. These changes may be driven by worsening mortality in middle-age (such as at age 40). France and Japan, in contrast, continue on previous trajectories. CONCLUSIONS: Life disparity is an additional summary measure of population health providing information beyond that signalled by life expectancy at birth alone

Review of the effectiveness of current community ownership mechanisms and of options for supporting the expansion of community ownership in Scotland

This report presents the findings of research commissioned by the Scottish Land Commission to review the effectiveness of community ownership mechanisms and options for simplifying or improving these mechanisms to enable and support the expansion of community ownership in Scotland. This included reviewing processes relating to negotiated sales or transfers of land and/or assets to communities, as well as legislative mechanisms including the Community Right to Buy (CRtB), Crofting Community Right to Buy, the Transfer of Crofting Estates (Scotland) Act 1997 and Asset Transfer measures under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015

Patient and healthcare provider barriers to hypertension awareness, treatment and follow up: a systematic review and meta-analysis of qualitative and quantitative studies.

BACKGROUND: Although the importance of detecting, treating, and controlling hypertension has been recognized for decades, the majority of patients with hypertension remain uncontrolled. The path from evidence to practice contains many potential barriers, but their role has not been reviewed systematically. This review aimed to synthesize and identify important barriers to hypertension control as reported by patients and healthcare providers. METHODS: Electronic databases MEDLINE, EMBASE and Global Health were searched systematically up to February 2013. Two reviewers independently selected eligible studies. Two reviewers categorized barriers based on a theoretical framework of behavior change. The theoretical framework suggests that a change in behavior requires a strong commitment to change [intention], the necessary skills and abilities to adopt the behavior [capability], and an absence of health system and support constraints. FINDINGS: Twenty-five qualitative studies and 44 quantitative studies met the inclusion criteria. In qualitative studies, health system barriers were most commonly discussed in studies of patients and health care providers. Quantitative studies identified disagreement with clinical recommendations as the most common barrier among health care providers. Quantitative studies of patients yielded different results: lack of knowledge was the most common barrier to hypertension awareness. Stress, anxiety and depression were most commonly reported as barriers that hindered or delayed adoption of a healthier lifestyle. In terms of hypertension treatment adherence, patients mostly reported forgetting to take their medication. Finally, priority setting barriers were most commonly reported by patients in terms of following up with their health care providers. CONCLUSIONS: This review identified a wide range of barriers facing patients and health care providers pursuing hypertension control, indicating the need for targeted multi-faceted interventions. More methodologically rigorous studies that encompass the range of barriers and that include low- and middle-income countries are required in order to inform policies to improve hypertension control

Beliefs about Appropriate Antibacterial Therapy, California

To our knowledge, previous population-based surveys have not assessed misconceptions about antibacterial drug use over time. We documented a 26.3% decline in a key misconception in California women in 2003 compared to 2000; declines varied significantly by education level. Educational campaigns specifically designed to influence important subpopulations are needed

Using standardized indicators to analyse dry/wet conditions and their application for monitoring drought/floods: A study in the Logone catchment, Lake Chad basin

The standardized precipitation index (SPI) and standardized streamflow index (SSI) were used to analyse dry/wet conditions in the Logone catchment over a 50-year period (1951–2000). The SPI analysis at different time scales showed several meteorological drought events ranging from moderate to extreme; and SSI analysis showed that wetter conditions prevailed in the catchment from 1950 to 1970 interspersed with a few hydrological drought events. Overall, the results indicate that both the Sudano and Sahelian zones are equally prone to droughts and floods. However, the Sudano zone is more sensitive to drier conditions, while the Sahelian zone is sensitive to wetter conditions. Correlation analysis between SPI and SSI at multiple time scales revealed that the catchment has a low response to rainfall at short time scales, though this progressively changed as the time scale increased, with strong correlations (≥0.70) observed after 12 months. Analysis using individual monthly series showed that the response time reduced to 3 months in October