The new Reithians: Pararchive and citizen animateurs in the BBC digital archive

The ongoing Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Pararchive project seeks to build new interactive environments that explore issues of ownership, public and institutional relationships and provide tools for collaborative community research and creative expression using digital heritage resources. It was motivated by recognition that communities are encountering real barriers to organizing and connecting to resources and with each other. In the field of cultural heritage it is often difficult to access archival materials from public institutions and overcome barriers to what could and should be mutually enriching relationships. In this context, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has traditionally been seen as a problematic institution – publicly funded and immeasurably rich – yet distant and patrician. Working with Head of BBC Archive Development Tony Ageh, the project team is focusing on issues such as copyright and institutional voice as a means of facilitating a more open and collaborative audience relationship. As part of our current dialogue, we have also been examining the traditions within the BBC that might act as a block to these activities. Our initial conclusion is that a major part of the problem lies in the lack of partnership between the BBC and its licence paying audience, and we have made that a key focus of our study. This article outlines the background to the Pararchive project and the specific focus within it on the relationship between the BBC and its audiences

Machinal

The play\u27s title means automatic or mechanical in French and is based loosely on the murder trial of Ruth Snyder and her lover, Judd Gray, who together murdered Snyder\u27s husband. Convicted of murdering her husband, Snyder later received the electric chair. A woman\u27s role during this era in history is confined and regimented to wife, mother, housekeeper, and sexual partner. Love is considered unnecessary, and thus many women are trapped in their dependent status, living a hellish life in a loveless marriage. The relationship between Helen Jones and her husband, George H. Jones, is no different. However, when a man intercedes and Helen is given a momentary glimpse of passion, her life is forever changed. She sees how society confines her, how her husband unconsciously dominates her every decision, and she feels that there is no escape. With a feeling of hopelessness, Helen commits an egregious crime, murdering her husband to free herself from the constraints of society and, ironically, to save her husband from the pain of a divorce. This heavy play is a powerful expressionistic drama about women\u27s forced financial dependency upon men during the 1920s and their trapped existence in a male-dominated, oppressive wasteland.https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/allshows2010s/1001/thumbnail.jp

Trust and Political Life: the need to transform our democracy

One of the major concerns of contemporary public life centres on how much we can trust our politicians and the public institutions and services that they, with civil servants and political aides, are responsible for. This of course is not a new concern as, ever since we have had a system of representative parliamentary democracy, we have needed to trust our elected representatives and those they appoint, to undertake good governance on our behalf. However, in more recent years trust in UK national politicians and political life has been put under considerable stress. A 2011 Europe-wide Guardian/ICM opinion poll found that only 12% of those polled in the UK said they trusted politicians to ‘act with honesty and integrity’. Further, 66% stated they did not trust the UK government ‘to deal with the country’s problems’ (Glover, 2011). Political trust is central to democratic rule, and any decline in this can reduce the quality and stability of our democracy. Importantly, a reduction of trust in government and confidence in political institutions can damage the vitality of our democracy

Rosie R. Meade and Mae Shaw (editors) 2021, Arts, Culture and Community Development,

This excellent text, recently published in the Policy Press Rethinking Community Development series, critically explores the relationship between arts, culture and  community development in different parts of the globe including Lebanon, Latin  America, China, Ireland, Sri Lanka, Chile, Brazil, and Finland. Arts and culture in this  book are taken as being created in a manner that is participatory and practised by  those involved as equals. This recognises that people bring different skills and talents, and all should be understood as being part of a democratic enterprise.&nbsp

As You Like It

Comic twists and turns abound when a disguised Rosalind seeks refuge after being wrongfully banished by her uncle. Her unfortunate exile is transformed into a charming adventure when she encounters some of Shakespeare’s most beloved characters - colorful fools, witty rustics, and the handsome, lovesick Orlando. A clandestine, gender-bending courtship ensues, in Shakespeare’s timeless comedy about love, transformation and the roles we play.https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/allshows2010s/1003/thumbnail.jp

Reflections on North Texas Pediatric Internship

This literature review is an examination of how vaccination rates have changed for pediatric routine immunizations since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and whether it has impacted specific groups of children. Articles were compiled through the PubMed/Medline database and organized in an evidence table. Decreased vaccination rates for children 0-18 years held true across all sources in a variety of different countries. The most common reason for delay was the fear of being infected with COVID-19. Intervention methods for hesitant parents include reminder systems, walk-in/free clinics, and promoting patient education. It is important to understand the effects COVID-19 has had on pediatric routine vaccinations to prevent the spread of preventable diseases and plan intervention methods accordingly

The spatial averaging of disparities in brief, static random-dot stereograms

Visual images from the two eyes are transmitted to the brain. Because the eyes are horizontally separated, there is a horizontal disparity between the two images. The amount of disparity between the images of a given point depends on the distance of that point from the viewer's point of fixation. A natural visual environment contains surfaces at many different depths. Therefore, the brain must process a spatial distribution of disparities. How are these disparities spatially put together? Brief (about 200 msec) static Cyclopean random-dot stereograms were used as stimuli for vergence and depth discrimination to answer this question. The results indicated a large averaging region for vergence, and a smaller pooling region for depth discrimination. Vergence responded to the mean disparity of two transparent planes. When a disparate target was present in a fixation plane surround, vergence improved as target size was increased, with a saturation at 3-6 degrees. Depth discrimination thresholds improved with target size, reaching a minimum at 1-3 degrees, but increased for larger targets. Depth discrimination showed a dependence on the extent of a disparity pedestal surrounding the target, consistent with vergence facilitation. Vergence might, therefore, implement a coarse-to-fine reduction in binocular matching noise. Interocular decorrelation can be considered as multiple chance matches at different disparities. The spatial pooling limits found for disparity were replicated when interocular decorrelation was discriminated. The disparity of the random dots also influenced the apparent horizontal. alignment of neighbouring monocular lines. This finding suggests that disparity averaging takes place at an early stage of visual processing. The following possible explanations were considered: 1) Disparities are detected in different spatial frequency channels (Marr and Poggio, 1979). 2) Second-order luminance patterns are matched between the two eyes using non-linear channels. 3) Secondary disparity filters process disparities extracted from linear filters

The Introductory Course in the Undergraduate Social Work Curriculum

The content of the Introduction to Social Welfare course in 168 bachelor of social work (BSW) programs is analyzed including major concepts presented, research results and statistical data presented or assigned, theoretical perspectives used, and the perceived importance of, and methods used to develop values. Several problems with the introductory course are identified: no set body of content, minimal support by research and statistical data, frequent lack of explicit theoretical content, and an overriding emphasis on developing values. More uniformity in content is necessary in order to facilitate the development of good teaching materials and to provide a firm foundation upon which to build the rest of the curriculum

Community Control of Social Work Education a Historical Example

From 1901 to 1924 social work education in the mid and southwest was provided by the Missouri School of Social Economy (MSSE). In 1924 the MSSE suddenly closed and was almost immediately replaced by an entirely new program, the Washington University Training Course for Social Workers. This paper explores the reasons for the demise of the MSSE, finding that it was apparently too liberal for the taste of university administrators and not responsive enough to the needs of the local practice community. The case of the MSSE provides an interesting and useful example of community control of social work education