Evaluating the Substantive Representation of Women and Domestic Violence Legislation in England and Wales: a Critical Path Approach

More women entering politics has led to questions regarding so-called ‘women’s issues’ and whether female representatives make a difference in reference to these issues. This thesis moves beyond the question of whether women represent women and instead, focuses on the representation process as a whole. This approach widens the scope beyond seeing women as a homogenous group, with uniform interests and unvarying political motivations. To do so, this thesis evaluates the substantive representation of women in England and Wales. Specifically, this thesis assesses four pieces of domestic violence legislation: The Crime and Security Act 2010, the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, and the Serious Crime Act 2015. This thesis employs a critical path framework and uses this framework to research the impact of substantive representation regarding this specific category of legislation. In addition to utilizing this framework, the main aims of this thesis include: drawing conclusions on substantive representation and expanding present knowledge regarding both the political representation of women and domestic violence legislation in England and Wales. In order to accomplish these aims, this thesis considers the following research question: what does the substantive representation of women mean in England and Wales, regarding domestic violence legislation? The case study is driven by a substantive political problem, domestic violence, and uses longstanding conceptual ideas, such as political representation, in order to ask new questions. This thesis further adds to the conversation surrounding the substantive representation of women by creating a critical path, or logical pathway, used to evaluate what is ‘going on’ in regard to representation. This pathway aids in tracing occurrences across instances of time, legislation, sites, and actors. The pathway utilises many concepts within the field including critical junctures, critical acts, and critical actors, and assembles them in a logical way, by employing the framework of questions mentioned above. This thesis benefits from and demonstrates the changing nature of representation and how we as researchers evaluate and draw conclusions from it. Evaluating substantive representation is important because numbers do not equal an understanding of behaviour, and why representatives and legislators may attempt to represent one group of citizens rather than another

Is communications a strategic activity in UK Education?

This qualitative exploratory paper investigates whether communications/public relations is regarded by opinion formers in UK education as a strategic business activity or a tactical marketing tool. It is based upon depth interviews with 16 senior managers with strategic roles in UK higher or further education, or Government bodies, conducted between June and September 2004. The findings seem to suggest that communications/PR is ideally seen by leaders as a strategic function, but that there are limitations to this vision becoming a reality. The research goes on to offer initial conclusions on some of the issues surrounding perception, resource, and implementation of strategic communications/PR in UK education, with implications for practitioners considered

"Production of resonances by pions"

This thesis contains a description of investigations that have been undertaken to examine the inelastic interactions of positively charged pi-mesons with protons. The experiment was carried out at the European Centre for Nuclear Research in Geneva using a separated beam of 5 GeV/c pions produced by the 27 GeV Proton Synchrotron. Pictures were taken of the interactions of the pions with the protons of the 150 cm. British National Hydrogen Bubble Chamber. To analyse the interactions recorded on the films of the chamber a digitized measuring apparatus was constructed. The machine provided data about the interactions encoded in a suitable manner for automatic processing. The numerical and statistical methods used in the computation of the most probable dynamical interpretation of each interaction are given. In the sample of these high multiplicity interactions that have six or seven particles in the final state of the reaction, evidence was found for the production of intermediate particles or resonances. The statistical analysis carried out was consistent with a large production of the well-known resonances N*3/2,pº,wº which decay into two or three particles. Apart from a small number of Xº particles, no evidence was found for a large production of any other resonances including those of which the N*3/2,pº, and wº constitute one of the decay products. The production of resonances in high multiplicity interactions therefore does not proceed by the quasi two-body mode which has been shown to be a dominant feature of the lower multiplicity interaction. It was found that the mechanism of resonance production in k, 5 and 6 body intermediate states could not be described adequately by the statistical model. The distributions of dynamical parameters showed similar effects to those observed for the peripheral production of resonance in the quasi two-body mode of lower multiplicity interactions. It was found that the mechanism of resonance production in 4, 5 and 6 body intermediate states could not be described adequately by the statistical model. The distributions of dynamical parameters showed similar effects to those observed for the peripheral production of resonance in the quasi two-body mode of lower multiplicity interactions

MCMC-ODPR : primer design optimization using Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling

Background Next generation sequencing technologies often require numerous primer designs that require good target coverage that can be financially costly. We aimed to develop a system that would implement primer reuse to design degenerate primers that could be designed around SNPs, thus find the fewest necessary primers and the lowest cost whilst maintaining an acceptable coverage and provide a cost effective solution. We have implemented Metropolis-Hastings Markov Chain Monte Carlo for optimizing primer reuse. We call it the Markov Chain Monte Carlo Optimized Degenerate Primer Reuse (MCMC-ODPR) algorithm. Results After repeating the program 1020 times to assess the variance, an average of 17.14% fewer primers were found to be necessary using MCMC-ODPR for an equivalent coverage without implementing primer reuse. The algorithm was able to reuse primers up to five times. We compared MCMC-ODPR with single sequence primer design programs Primer3 and Primer-BLAST and achieved a lower primer cost per amplicon base covered of 0.21 and 0.19 and 0.18 primer nucleotides on three separate gene sequences, respectively. With multiple sequences, MCMC-ODPR achieved a lower cost per base covered of 0.19 than programs BatchPrimer3 and PAMPS, which achieved 0.25 and 0.64 primer nucleotides, respectively. Conclusions MCMC-ODPR is a useful tool for designing primers at various melting temperatures at good target coverage. By combining degeneracy with optimal primer reuse the user may increase coverage of sequences amplified by the designed primers at significantly lower costs. Our analyses showed that overall MCMC-ODPR outperformed the other primer-design programs in our study in terms of cost per covered base

Aberrations in shift-invariant linear optical imaging systems using partially coherent fields

Here the role and influence of aberrations in optical imaging systems employing partially coherent complex scalar fields is studied. Imaging systems require aberrations to yield contrast in the output image. For linear shift-invariant optical systems, we develop an expression for the output cross-spectral density under the space-frequency formulation of statistically stationary partially coherentfields. We also develop expressions for the output cross{spectral density and associated spectral density for weak-phase, weak-phase-amplitude, and single-material objects in one transverse spatial dimension

Developing corporate communications: insights from the Italian scenario

Purpose - Based on business manager perceptions in large firms, this paper explores the emergence, growth and importance of corporate communications and how it is evolving and creating competitive advantage in Italian firms. Design/methodology/approach - A qualitative approach is deployed, comprising depth interviews with senior managers from corporations from a broad spectrum of industries including: energy, telecommunications, automotive, transport, retail chain, appliances, technology and engineering, private shipping, government-owned holdings, marketing consultancy, and construction. Findings - The paper provides insights of corporate communication (corpcom) practices in the sampled companies. The research shows that corpcoms involves a complex range of activities leading to performances managed and implemented under CEO direction. Practical implications - Corpcoms is perceived as a strategic concept with effective application relative to managing corporate image and reputation. The findings offer insights for communication professionals who deal with corpcoms, branding, and marketing communications. Originality/value - Corpcoms can be viewed via lens of social actors’ perspectives, i.e. via practitioners – including brand managers and senior executives as they possess practical knowledge of contextual business setting and the managerial capacity to design and implement integrated corporate communications

The value and significance of corporate community relations: an Italian SME perspective

Purpose – This paper investigates the link between community of place and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Lombard industrial districts in Italy. Design/methodology/approach – A brief literature review of international authors from the stakeholder approach and Corporate Community Relations field is presented. This paper refers to a survey of Lombard industrial districts conducted by ALTIS. The data was collected via a telephone survey from 834 firms. Findings – The main finding is that managing Corporate Community Relations (CCR) is of major importance for company success. The results of the survey show that there are some tools and actions that Italian industrial district SMEs uses to interact with their particular communities of place to develop effective and coherent relationships with their stakeholder groups. Moreover, although the survey shows that though SMEs do implement different CCR activities, they are not able to communicate these effectively through systematic communication strategies. However, the narrow sample includes only a sample of some Lombard districts. Nonetheless, the findings indicate that effective CCR seems to confer competitive advantage based on stakeholder responses and rewards sought. Research limitations/implications – The framework could assist in supporting CCR developments between industrial districts as various players would know how to improve CCR activities. One further suggestion is that University and Research Centres could have a role to play in creating and communicating codified knowledge concerning community relations in industrial districts, while other public players still have to develop specific tasks in improving infrastructures. Originality/value – This study is in line with the main focus of CCR, which is in striving to meet stakeholder and societal needs. However, industrial district SMEs have to learn how to communicate their CCR activities from the examples set by large Italian companies. The paper links the notion of CCR with tools and actions to develop meaningful relationships with both community of place and interest. Moreover, considering the survey results, a new framework for local player roles is proposed

EC762 Revised 1954 Which Fuel for Farm Power?

Extension circular 762 R-54 is a revised version of extension circular 762. It provides information and diagrams to assist a farmer in figuring out how much different fuels will cost over a year’s time

EC762 Revised 1954 Which Fuel for Farm Power?

Extension circular 762 R-54 is a revised version of extension circular 762. It provides information and diagrams to assist a farmer in figuring out how much different fuels will cost over a year’s time