733 research outputs found
âFilling out the Forms was a Nightmareâ: project evaluation and the reflective practitioner in community theatre in contemporary Northern Ireland
Since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, large sums have been invested in community theatre projects in Northern Ireland, in the interests of conflict transformation and peace building. While this injection of funds has resulted in an unprecedented level of applied theatre activity, opportunities to maximise learning from this activity are being missed. It is generally assumed that project evaluation is undertaken at least partly to assess the degree of success of projects against important social objectives, with a view to learning what works, what does not, and what might work in the future. However, three ethnographic case studies of organisations delivering applied theatre projects in Northern Ireland indicate that current processes used to evaluate such projects are both flawed and inadequate for this purpose. Practitioners report that the administrative work involved in applying for and justifying funding is onerous, burdensome, and occurs at the expense of artistic activity. This is a very real concern when the time and effort devoted to âfilling out the formsâ does not ultimately result in useful evaluative information. There are strong disincentives for organisations to report honestly on their experiences of difficulties, or undesirable impacts of projects, and this problem is not transcended by the use of external evaluators. Current evaluation processes provide little opportunity to capture unexpected benefits of projects, and small but significant successes which occur in the context of over-ambitious objectives. Little or no attempt is made to assess long-term impacts of projects on communities. Finally, official evaluation mechanisms fail to capture the reflective practice and dialogic analysis of practitioners, which would richly inform future projects. The authors argue that there is a need for clearer lines of communication, and more opportunities for mutual learning, among stakeholders involved in community development. In particular, greater involvement of the higher education sector in partnership with government and non-government agencies could yield significant benefits in terms of optimizing learning from applied theatre project evaluations
Nevertheless, She Persisted: A Linguistic Analysis of the Speech of Elizabeth Warren, 2007-2017
A breakout star among American progressives in the recent past, Elizabeth Warren has quickly gone from a law professor to a leading figure in Democratic politics. This paper analyzes Warrenâs speech from before her time as a political figure to the present using the quantitative textual methodology established by Jones (2016) in order to see if Warrenâs speech supports Jonesâs assertion that masculine speech is the language of power. Ratios of feminine to masculine markers ultimately indicate that despite her increasing political sway, Warrenâs speech becomes increasingly feminine instead. However, despite associations of feminine speech with weakness, Warrenâs speech scores highly for expertise and confidence as its feminine scores increase. These findings relate to the relevant political context and have implications for presumptions of masculine speech as the standard for political power
The development impact of remittances to Nicaragua
Workers\u27 remittances represent a resource flow from rich to poor countries. The global value of remittances has risen sharply to over US610 million in 2001, is quite modest compared with the US$10 billion flowing into Mexico, for example, the relative volume of this resource compared with other income flows, and the potential for the country\u27s development, makes Nicaragua\u27s case exceptional. Representing almost 24 per cent of its GNP, remittances to Nicaragua have a significant social and economic impact. The value of known remittances is greater than total export earnings, on a par with the country\u27s ODA, and almost five times that of FDI. As such, remittances currently represent the second largest single resource flow into the country. This is a recent phenomenon.<br /
âFilling out the forms was a nightmareâ: project evaluation and the reflective practitioner in community theatre in Contemporary Northern Ireland
Theme issue on music and arts in conflict transformationSince the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, large sums have been invested in
community theatre projects in Northern Ireland, in the interests of conflict
transformation and peace building. While this injection of funds has resulted in an
unprecedented level of applied theatre activity, opportunities to maximise learning
from this activity are being missed. It is generally assumed that project evaluation
is undertaken at least partly to assess the degree of success of projects against
important social objectives, with a view to learning what works, what does not, and
what might work in the future. However, three ethnographic case studies of
organisations delivering applied theatre projects in Northern Ireland indicate that
current processes used to evaluate such projects are both flawed and inadequate
for this purpose. Practitioners report that the administrative work involved in
applying for and justifying funding is onerous, burdensome, and occurs at the
expense of artistic activity. This is a very real concern when the time and effort
devoted to âfilling out the formsâ does not ultimately result in useful evaluative
information. There are strong disincentives for organisations to report honestly on
their experiences of difficulties, or undesirable impacts of projects, and this
problem is not transcended by the use of external evaluators. Current evaluation
processes provide little opportunity to capture unexpected benefits of projects,
and small but significant successes which occur in the context of over-ambitious
objectives. Little or no attempt is made to assess long-term impacts of projects on
communities. Finally, official evaluation mechanisms fail to capture the reflective
practice and dialogic analysis of practitioners, which would richly inform future
projects. The authors argue that there is a need for clearer lines of communication,
and more opportunities for mutual learning, among stakeholders involved in
community development. In particular, greater involvement of the higher
education sector in partnership with government and non-government agencies
could yield significant benefits in terms of optimizing learning from applied theatre
project evaluations
Millimeter-wave communication for a last-mile autonomous transport vehicle
Low-speed autonomous transport of passengers and goods is expected to have a strong, positive impact on the reliability and ease of travelling. Various advanced functions of the involved vehicles rely on the wireless exchange of information with other vehicles and the roadside infrastructure, thereby benefitting from the low latency and high throughput characteristics that 5G technology has to offer. This work presents an investigation of 5G millimeter-wave communication links for a low-speed autonomous vehicle, focusing on the effects of the antenna positions on both the received signal quality and the link performance. It is observed that the excess loss for communication with roadside infrastructure in front of the vehicle is nearly half-power beam width independent, and the increase of the root mean square delay spread plays a minor role in the resulting signal quality, as the absolute times are considerably shorter than the typical duration of 5G New Radio symbols. Near certain threshold levels, a reduction of the received power affects the link performance through an increased error vector magnitude of the received signal, and subsequent decrease of the achieved data throughput
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Kitchens, Smokehouses, and Privies: Outbuildings and the Architecture of Daily Life in the Eighteenth-Century Mid-Atlantic
The UKâs referendum and post-fact politics: how can campaigners be held accountable for their claims?
Both sides of the UKâs EU referendum campaign were criticised for presenting misleading information to the public. Alan Renwick, Matthew Flinders and Will Jennings write that the referendum highlighted the inability of the British political system to enforce standards of factual accuracy in how politicians campaign. They argue that while legal or regulatory changes could alter this picture to some extent, the real issue is a cultural one
Oxidative Stress Response in Archaea: Elucidation of Oxidant Sensing and Tolerance Mechanisms in Methanosarcina acetivorans
Methanogens are archaea possessing a conserved metabolic pathway which produces methane. Many of the enzymes in the methanogenesis pathway are Fe-S proteins, meaning methanogens are sensitive to conditions which disrupt Fe-S clusters. Molecular oxygen is capable of disrupting Fe-S clusters through oxidation of the iron atoms. Furthermore, reduced iron can facilitate the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), meaning methanogens must possess antioxidant mechanisms. Detection and eradication of ROS is important for all cells, due to the potentially fatal consequences of unchecked oxidation. This dissertation presents two separate projects investigating mechanisms the model methanogen Methanosarcina acetivorans possess for dealing with ROS. One project investigated the roles two [4Fe-4S] clusters present in RNA polymerase (RNAP) subunit D play in assembly and activity of RNAP; to determine if a mechanism exists for linking sensitivity of the clusters to oxygen to RNAP function. My data shows that both clusters and the cluster binding domain play an important role in assembly of RNAP downstream of D-L heterodimer formation, preventing optimal assembly of at least subunits Bâ and Aââ when the clusters are absent. Cluster one plays a more critical role in this process compared to cluster two. Coupled with experimental evidence that the clusters are oxygen sensitive, this provides support for the hypothesis that the clusters regulate RNAP assembly in response to redox state of the cell. The second project investigated two putative catalase genes present in the M. acetivorans genome. Experimental evidence showed neither catalase was functional. Engineering of a M. acetivorans strain to express functional catalase from Escherichia coli increased the tolerance of M. acetivorans to H2O2, but not oxygen during growth in standard conditions. Catalase does not appear to be an important component in the oxidative stress response of M. acetivorans
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