Institutions, Protest, and Democratic Accountability in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia: Implications for the EU Accession Process

This thesis provides an analysis of the political institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia and the effect that they have on democratic accountability and the European Union (EU) accession process. It utilizes institutionalist theory to argue that post-war agreements created institutions in both countries that incentivized elites to take advantage of ethnic tensions and engage in illiberal practices that have immiserated citizens and stalled the EU accession process. It then compares the causes, methods, and outcomes of the mass protest movements that took place in Bosnia in 2014 and Macedonia in 2015 in response to illiberal behavior and explains why only the Macedonian protests were successful in holding elites accountable. The final section draws from the experiences of each country to discuss the future of each country’s relationship with the EU and the potential for each government to enact the liberal reforms necessary to progress in the EU accession process.Master of Art

Ulrike Meinhof's Bambule: Performing Politics in the Electronic Public Sphere

In the preeminent text describing the history of the Baader Meinhof Group, Der Baader Meinhof Komplex, Stefan Aust describes Ulrike Meinhof’s descent into the terrorist underground succinctly: Am 14. Mai 1970 um 9.00 Uhr morgens war es soweit. Andreas Baader wurde mit Waffengewalt aus dem Institut für Soziale Fragen im Westberliner Stadtteil Dahlem befreit…Baader und seine Befreier entkamen. Mit dem Sprung aus dem Fenster des Instituts für Soziale Fragen beendete Ulrike Meinhof ihre journalistische Karriere und ging in den Untergrund. In the 2008 film of the same name based on Aust’s book, director Uli Edel fills in the emotional dynamic of this scene missing from Aust’s account. He focuses on Meinhof’s panic and indecision in particular. As her accomplices enter and violently free Baader, the camera switches back and forth from Meinhof’s face to the chaos erupting around her. She realizes she has two options: remain in the room and feign surprise when the police arrive, as planned, or follow her accomplices through the window, join the terrorist underground, and leave any chance of continuing her journalistic career. Of course, she chooses to jump through the window, and much scholarship has been dedicated to understanding her life and work after her move into the underground. Yet her ambivalence towards leaving in this scene led me to the two principle questions that motivated this project: Why did Ulrike Meinhof decide to follow Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin through that window? Further, what would have become of Meinhof had she chosen to continue legitimate work as a journalist and public figure? To answer these questions, I will discuss the television film, Bambule, for which Meinhof wrote the screenplay and created a radio feature in preparation. The film, set to air ten days after Baader’s escape on May 24, 1970, was quickly removed from the network’s schedule because of Meinhof’s terrorist connections. It would not be shown on German television until the 1990s. In the following two chapters, I will investigate how Meinhof used two forms of electronic media, radio and television, differently to convey a political message. These works represent a transition for Meinhof as she moved from print journalism to electronic media and created her first fictional work. Analysis of these works give us an indication of what direction her career and political legacy could have taken had she chosen to sit back down in the Institut für Soziale Fragen and disavow her connection to Baader’s escape. Additionally, Meinhof’s attitude towards these works, particularly towards their perceived weaknesses, helps to explain how her decision to jump through the window might not have been as spontaneous as it seems in Edel’s Der Baader Meinhof Komplex.Bachelor of Art

Standardized Patient Encounters Periodic Versus Postencounter Evaluation of Nontechnical Clinical Performance

Introduction: Standardized patients are a beneficial component of modern healthcare education and training, but few studies have explored cognitive factors potentially impacting clinical skills assessment during standardized patient encounters. This study examined the impact of a periodic (vs. traditional postencounter) evaluation approach and the appearance of critical verbal and nonverbal behaviors throughout a standardized patient encounter on scoring accuracy in a video-based scenario. Methods: Forty-nine standardized patients scored either periodically or at only 1 point in time (postencounter) a healthcare provider\u27s verbal and nonverbal clinical performance during a videotaped standardized patient encounter. The healthcare provider portrayed in this study was actually a standardized patient delivering carefully scripted verbal and nonverbal behaviors in their portrayal of an actual physician. The encounter itself was subdivided into 3 distinct segments for the purpose of supporting periodic evaluation, with the expectation that both verbal and nonverbal cues occurring in the middle segment would be more challenging to accurately report for participants in the postscenario evaluation group as a result of working memory decay. Results: Periodic evaluators correctly identified a significantly greater number of critical verbal cues midscenario than postencounter evaluators (P \u3c 0.01) and correctly identified a significantly greater number of critical nonverbal cues than their postscenario counterparts across all 3 scenario segments (P \u3c 0.001). Further, postscenario evaluations exhibited a performance decrement in terms of midscenario correct identifications that periodic evaluators did not (P \u3c 0.01). Also, periodic evaluators exhibited fewer verbal cue false-positives during the first segment of the scenario than postscenario evaluators (P \u3c 0.001), but this effect did not extend to other segments regardless of the cue type (ie, verbal or nonverbal). Discussion: Pausing lengthier standardized patient encounters periodically to allow for more frequent scoring may result in better reporting accuracy for certain clinical behavioral cues. This could enable educators to provide more specific formative feedback to individual learners at the session\u27s conclusion. The most effective encounter design will ultimately depend on the specific goals and training objectives of the exercise itself

The Association of Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE) Standards of Best Practice (SOBP)

In this paper, we define the Association of Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE) Standards of Best Practice (SOBP) for those working with human role players who interact with learners in a wide range of experiential learning and assessment contexts. These human role players are variously described by such terms as standardized/simulated patients or simulated participants (SP or SPs). ASPE is a global organization whose mission is to share advances in SP-based pedagogy, assessment, research, and scholarship as well as support the professional development of its members. The SOBP are intended to be used in conjunction with the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL) Standards of Best Practice: SimulationSM, which address broader simulation practices. We begin by providing a rationale for the creation of the ASPE SOBP, noting that with the increasing use of simulation in healthcare training, it is incumbent on ASPE to establish SOBP that ensure the growth, integrity, and safe application of SP-based educational endeavors. We then describe the three and a half year process through which these standards were developed by a consensus of international experts in the field. Key terms used throughout the document are defined. Five underlying values inform the SOBP: safety, quality, professionalism, accountability, and collaboration. Finally, we describe five domains of best practice: safe work environment; case development; SP training for role portrayal, feedback, and completion of assessment instruments; program management; and professional development. Each domain is divided into principles with accompanying key practices that provide clear and practical guidelines for achieving desired outcomes and creating simulations that are safe for all stakeholders. Failure to follow the ASPE SOBP could compromise the safety of participants and the effectiveness of a simulation session. Care has been taken to make these guidelines precise yet flexible enough to address the diversity of varying contexts of SP practice. As a living document, these SOBP will be reviewed and modified periodically under the direction of the ASPE Standards of Practice Committee as SP methodology grows and adapts to evolving simulation practices

The Association of Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE) Standards of Best Practice (SOBP)

In this paper, we define the Association of Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE) Standards of Best Practice (SOBP) for those working with human role players who interact with learners in a wide range of experiential learning and assessment contexts. These human role players are variously described by such terms as standardized/simulated patients or simulated participants (SP or SPs). ASPE is a global organization whose mission is to share advances in SP-based pedagogy, assessment, research, and scholarship as well as support the professional development of its members. The SOBP are intended to be used in conjunction with the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL) Standards of Best Practice: SimulationSM, which address broader simulation practices. We begin by providing a rationale for the creation of the ASPE SOBP, noting that with the increasing use of simulation in healthcare training, it is incumbent on ASPE to establish SOBP that ensure the growth, integrity, and safe application of SP-based educational endeavors. We then describe the three and a half year process through which these standards were developed by a consensus of international experts in the field. Key terms used throughout the document are defined. Five underlying values inform the SOBP: safety, quality, professionalism, accountability, and collaboration. Finally, we describe five domains of best practice: safe work environment; case development; SP training for role portrayal, feedback, and completion of assessment instruments; program management; and professional development. Each domain is divided into principles with accompanying key practices that provide clear and practical guidelines for achieving desired outcomes and creating simulations that are safe for all stakeholders. Failure to follow the ASPE SOBP could compromise the safety of participants and the effectiveness of a simulation session. Care has been taken to make these guidelines precise yet flexible enough to address the diversity of varying contexts of SP practice. As a living document, these SOBP will be reviewed and modified periodically under the direction of the ASPE Standards of Practice Committee as SP methodology grows and adapts to evolving simulation practices

Tracheostomy after Surgery for Congenital Heart Disease: An Analysis of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database

Background Information concerning tracheostomy after operations for congenital heart disease has come primarily from single-center reports. We aimed to describe the epidemiology and outcomes associated with postoperative tracheostomy in a multi-institutional registry. Methods The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Database (2000 to 2014) was queried for all index operations with the adverse event “postoperative tracheostomy” or “respiratory failure, requiring tracheostomy.” Patients with preoperative tracheostomy or weighing less than 2.5 kg undergoing isolated closure of patent ductus arteriosus were excluded. Trends in tracheostomy incidence over time from January 2000 to June 2014 were analyzed with a Cochran-Armitage test. The patient characteristics associated with operative mortality were analyzed for January 2010 to June 2014, including deaths occurring up to 6 months after transfer of patients to long-term care facilities. Results From 2000 to 2014, the incidence of tracheostomy after operations for congenital heart disease increased from 0.11% in 2000 to a high of 0.76% in 2012 (p < 0.0001). From 2010 to 2014, 648 patients underwent tracheostomy. The median age at operation was 2.5 months (25th, 75th percentile: 0.4, 7). Prematurity (n = 165, 26%), genetic abnormalities (n = 298, 46%), and preoperative mechanical ventilation (n = 275, 43%) were common. Postoperative adverse events were also common, including cardiac arrest (n = 131, 20%), extracorporeal support (n = 87, 13%), phrenic or laryngeal nerve injury (n = 114, 18%), and neurologic deficit (n = 51, 8%). The operative mortality was 25% (n = 153). Conclusions Tracheostomy as an adverse event of operations for congenital heart disease remains rare but has been increasingly used over the past 15 years. This trend and the considerable mortality risk among patients requiring postoperative tracheostomy support the need for further research in this complex population

Las industrias culturales hoy : El consumo de cine-video y su relación con las políticas culturales (La Plata)

En la presente disertación se analizaran las modalidades de elección y consumo al momento de ver cine en el ámbito hogareño. El consumidor del cine video constituye algo más que un sujeto (¿objeto?) pasivo y manipulable. Es preciso considerar que la identificación de los gustos y preferencias de los sujetos es un paso imprescindible para la formación de Politicas Culturales que contengan y den amplitud y heterogeneidad de los consumos culturales en nuestro medio.Facultad de Bellas Arte