Reflecting the real world?: How British TV portrayed developing countries in 2005

TV audiences are fed up with how the developing world is portrayed on the small screen, according to a new VSO report published today. Reflecting the real world? How British TV portrayed developing countries in 2005 reveals that television viewers have an overwhelmingly negative view of the developing world and that they hold TV responsible. The report shows that viewers have a real appetite for richer representations of the world outside the UK and calls on broadcasters to invest more money, creativity and talent in bringing the world to UK audiences. The report is based on interviews with TV viewers and leading broadcasters. It shows that despite the high level of developing world coverage on TV over the last year, there has been no sign of a positive shift in public attitude. TV viewers associated the developing world with famine, disaster and corruption and people's initial image was very often of starving babies with flies around their eyes. The research highlights that news coverage and charity campaigns have also contributed to a feeling that the developing world is a hopeless cause. News reporting of the Asian Tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake brought people's attention to poorer countries but reinforced a doom-laden view of them. Even the Make Poverty History campaign and the Live 8 concerts, which enthused millions of people, appear to have inadvertently contrived to confirm a stereotype of Africa as a continent on its knees and added to a sense that nothing has changed over the last 20 years. The research uncovered a very strong sentiment that TV coverage of developing countries is too negative. Viewers expressed a desire to see the positive side of life in the developing world and hear about any progress being made. Crucially, they wanted TV programmes that were positive and transforming, challenged their perceptions, and contained human interest stories, real-life issues and characters they can relate to. Their ideas for new developing world programming tended to reflect their favourite genres and included Jamie's African School Dinners, Life Swap, African Grand Designs, Spooks or 24 in Africa and Africa's Next Top Model

English in the university of excellence

The modern University, according to Bill Readings, has had three ideas: the Kantian concept of reason, the Humboldtian idea of culture, and now the technobureaucratic notion of excellence. Excellence euphemistically describes the principle of the university as corporation, as geared toward revenue rather than ideology. This portrayal raises difficult questions for the humanities, as ideological domains. Taking Readings\u27s The University in Ruins as a starting point, this study examines the English discipline within the university of excellence, considering West Virginia University\u27s department as a case study. It begins by charting the evolution of WVU\u27s self-understanding, from an institution of culture to one of excellence. This foregrounds my discussion of two department chapters---the rise of composition and theory ---as symptomatic of excellence. The study concludes by relating Readings\u27s views on how academics might orient themselves to the ruins of the university so that it remains a space for thinking

An event service supporting autonomic management of ubiquitous systems for e-health

An event system suitable for very simple devices corresponding to a body area network for monitoring patients is presented. Event systems can be used both for self-management of the components as well as indicating alarms relating to patient health state. Traditional event systems emphasise scalability and complex event dissemination for internet based systems, whereas we are considering ubiquitous systems with wireless communication and mobile nodes which may join or leave the system over time intervals of minutes. Issues such as persistent delivery are also important. We describe the design, prototype implementation, and performance characteristics of an event system architecture targeted at this application domain

Sub-Lethal Effects of Herbicides on the Wolf Spider \u3cem\u3ePardosa\u3c/em\u3e \u3cem\u3emilvina\u3c/em\u3e

We tested the sub-lethal effects of six commonly applied herbicides on juveniles of the agriculturally abundant wolf spider Pardosa milvina. We compared spider toxicological effects from herbicides that were freshly applied to soil, aged for 69 days indoors at room temperature, or aged for 69 days in a greenhouse with variable temperature, humidity, light, and evaporative water cycling. Field-collected juvenile P. milvina were exposed to one of eight herbicide treatments (atrazine, glyphosate, mesotrione, Smetolachlor, 2,4-D, dicamba, a combination of all six herbicides, or a distilled water control; N = 960, n = 40, across 24 treatments) and maintained for 49 days on the treated soil substrate. We recorded prey capture behavior, weight change, and growth rate across treatments. Mesotrione had particularly significant negative effects on feeding and weight gain. Mesotrione impaired prey capture latency and led to weight loss. We found significantly decreased molting frequency of spiders in the 2,4-D, S-metolachlor, glyphosate, and dicamba treatments relative to the control but this effect was not present in the greenhouse-aged soil treatments. Fresh and indoor-aged soil had similar effects while greenhouse-aged soil dampened most herbicide effects indicating photodegradation and/or temperature degradation of herbicides over the 69- day period. Our results show that some herbicides significantly impair feeding and growth rates in this agriculturally abundant predator with some effects detectable even with greenhouse-aged herbicide residues

The Carotid Neck Restraint: Does it Belong in the Use of Force Continuum?

Examines the pros and cons of using a carotid neck restraint

Economic Feasibility of Ethanol Production from Sweet Sorghum Juice in Texas

The economic feasibility of producing ethanol from sweet sorghum juice is projected using Monte Carlo simulation models to estimate the price ethanol plants will likely have to pay for sweet sorghum and the uncertain returns for ethanol plants. Ethanol plants in high yielding regions will likely generate returns on assets of 11%-12% and in low yield areas the returns on assets will be less than 10%.Sweet Sorghum, Ethanol, Monte Carlo Simulation, Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Risk and Uncertainty, D20 G10 D81 C15,