Feminist Communities Online: What it means to be a Jezebel

This paper examines what it means to identify as a feminist in Western society and whether one can be a feminist while not explicitly stating this aspect of identity. The paper seeks to answer the age-old question (albeit modified slightly,) if it looks like feminist website, and sounds like a feminist website, is it a feminist website? There is much discussion and disagreement over what it means to be a feminist, with different conclusions being drawn by first-, second-, and third-generation members of the movement. Jezebel does not purport to be a feminist website. There is no mention of feminism anyway on the blog’s masthead or advertising page; however, at times there have been heated discussions on the site as to acceptable behavior by the blog’s editors and what it means to be a member of this online community. Through examination of the past posts, website and literature on the subject, the author determines that it is not necessary for the site to state its affiliation to the feminist position. The site has become a feminist website due to the positions taken by its community members and editors on women’s issues and will remain so as long as the members of this online community choose to affiliate with both the site and identify with feminist values. Community member define the sites with which they choose to associate

Exploring individual and demographic characteristics and their relation to CHNRI Criteria from an international public stakeholder group:An analysis using random intercept and logistic regression modelling

Introduction: The Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) method for health research prioritisation relies on stakeholders weighting criteria used to assess research options. These weights in turn impact on the final scores and ranks assigned to research options. Three quarters of CHNRI studies published to date have not involved stakeholders in criteria weighting. Of those that have, few incorporated members of the public into stakeholder groups. Those that have compared different stakeholder groups, such as donors, researchers, or policy makers, showed that different groups place different values upon CHNRI criteria. When choosing the composition of a stakeholder group, it may be important to understand factors that may influence weighting. Drawing upon a group of international public stakeholders, this study explores some of the effects of individual and demographic characteristics has on the weights assigned to the most commonly used CHNRI criteria, with the aim of informing future researchers on avoiding future biases. Methods: Individual and demographic information and 5-point Likert scale responses to questions about the importance of 15 CHNRI criteria were collected from 1031 "Turkers" (Amazon Mechanical Turk workers) via Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT), which is an online crowdsourcing platform. Thirteen of the fifteen criteria were analysed using random-intercept models and the remaining two were analysed through logistic regression. Results: Self-reported health status explained most of the variability in participants' responses across criteria (11/15 criteria), followed by being female (10/15), ethnicity (9/15), employment (8/15), and religion (7/15). Differences across criteria indicate that when choosing stakeholder groups, researchers need to consider these factors to minimise bias. Conclusion: Researchers should collect and report more detailed information from stakeholders, including individual and demographic characteristics, and ensure participation from both genders, multiple ethnicities, religious beliefs, and people with differing health statuses to be transparent regarding possible biases in health research prioritisation. Our analyses indicate that these factors do influence the relative importance of these values, even when the data appears fairly homogeneous

Setting priorities for development of emerging interventions against childhood diarrhoea

An expert panel exercise was conducted to assess feasibility and potential effectiveness of 10 emerging health interventions against childhood diarrhoea. Twelve international experts were invited to take part in a CHNRI priority setting process. This group used 12 different criteria relevant to successful development and implementation of the emerging interventions, nine of which were retained in the final analysis. They showed most collective optimism towards developing household or community-level water treatment, followed by sustainable, affordable latrine options; those two emerging interventions were followed by antibiotic therapy of Cryptosporidium diarrhoea, and oral or transcutaneous enteric vaccine development

Determination of Fungitoxic Value of Preservatives in Laboratory Wood-Block Tests

Laboratory-modified agar-block tests were made to determine the fungitoxic value of the wood preservative CCA against the test fungus Serpula lacrymans. The procedure applied to determine the results accounted for different standards: EN (toxic limit), ASTM (threshold retention), GOST (threshold retention and protection probability), PN (toxic dose), and JIS (value of efficiency). In order to improve the objectivity and repeatability of the toxic value results, statistical methods were used. Regression equations related sample mass loss and preservative retention

Setting health research priorities using the CHNRI method:III. Involving stakeholders

Setting health research priorities is a complex and value–driven process. The introduction of the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) method has made the process of setting research priorities more transparent and inclusive, but much of the process remains in the hands of funders and researchers, as described in the previous two papers in this series. However, the value systems of numerous other important stakeholders, particularly those on the receiving end of health research products, are very rarely addressed in any process of priority setting. Inclusion of a larger and more diverse group of stakeholders in the process would result in a better reflection of the system of values of the broader community, resulting in recommendations that are more legitimate and acceptable