Using grounded theory to examine people's attitudes toward how animals are used

This study uses qualitative methodology to examine why people have different attitudes toward different types of nonhuman animal use. Seventeen participants took part in a semi-structured interview. The study used Grounded Theory to analyze the interviews and developed a model that consists of 4 major themes: (a) “attitudes toward animals, ” (b) “knowledge of animal use procedures, ” (c) “perceptions of choice,” and (d) “cost-benefit analysis. ” The findings illustrate that cognitive processing, characteristics of the species of animal being used, and the type of animal use can all influence attitudes toward animal use. Because previous research has focused on participant variables such as age and gender to explain variance in attitudes toward animal use (Furnham & Pinder, 1990; Kellert & Berry, 1981) and measured attitudes toward animal use in general (rather than distinguishing between different types of use) (Armstrong & Hutchins, 1996), these findings can add to knowledge of people’s views on animal use. This paper discusses how such views may be justified and maintained. The present study used in-depth interviews that allowed participants to explore their views with greater freedom than is possible in questionnaire studies, in order to address why people have different views toward different types of nonhuman animal use. “Animal use ” refers to a range of practices that involv

Renaissance Drama in Performance

A key objective of the core first-year Renaissance Drama module (EN1050), which was taken in 2010 by over 290 students in the School of English, is to encourage the consideration of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century plays both as written scripts and as theatrical performances. The 'Renaissance Drama in Performance' project will enhance the current teaching provision on EN1050, to get students really engaging with contemporary performance contexts and investigating the history of Renaissance plays on the stage from the sixteenth up until the twenty-first century. Through collaboration with academic staff and working actors and directors from locally- and nationally-based dramatic companies, this project delivered a series of seminars and practical workshops designed to develop the students' knowledge of the particular challenges of staging and participating in Renaissance plays. These additions to the EN1050 teaching provision will encourage students to think of these plays in the three dimensions (visual and spatial as well as verbal) for which they were originally written over four hundred years ago

Crystal Queer: Fracturing the Binaries of Matter, Creation, and Landscape

In this thesis, I compile a series of fragments consisting an analysis of my artwork in the gendered contexts of landscape, self-identity, mythology, and philosophy. I develop my concept of a “queer mark” in my art that serves as a form of queering, a disruption of visual and conceptual cohesion. I form a picture of how our contemporary selves are influenced by our gendered understanding of the landscape through the analysis of philosophical, artistic, and mythological concepts of creation. I see my sculptures as an atlas to an alternative means of understanding identity, a queering of these historical and exclusionary means of making identity. My focus on using alchemical processes of ceramics and geological material to represent an ever-becoming identity ties my sculptures to the landscape and subterranean world of our origins

Congress should reauthorize the Export-Import Bank to continue its crucial role in U.S. foreign policy

Recent weeks have seen debates in Congress over the future of the Export-Import Bank, a government agency that provides financing for exporters. While the Bank’s opponents accuse it of ‘corporate welfare’, Sarah Cleeland Knight argues that its benefits are not just economic. She writes that since its inception 80 years ago, the Export-Import Bank has kept firms engaged in countries where the U.S. would like to effect change, and that for the continuation of this important role, it should be reauthorized by Congress

Non-invasive techniques for predicting soft tissue during pressure induced ishaemia.

PhDSoft tissue breakdown occurs in association with biochemical changes that can be attributed to a reduction in blood and lymph flow to a localised tissue area in response to applied pressure. The resulting ischaemia can lead to a reduction in available oxygen and accumulation of waste products. Tissue breakdown leading to the development of pressure sores afflicts patients who are already debilitated, although not all patients appear to be equally susceptible. Measurement of sweat biochemistry and blood gas tensions may reflect the biochemical process in the underlying tissues and provide a simple and non-invasive method of investigating the status of soft tissues. The potential of specific sweat metabolites to act as markers of soft tissue status during and following loading has been investigated at a clinically relevant site in healthy volunteers, and in two clinically relevant patient groups. A range of validation procedures were undertaken and a series of parameters derived to investigate the temporal profile of sweat biochemistry, and identify various modes of gas tension response. Investigations at the loaded sacrum of healthy individuals showed a statistically significant increase in sweat lactate, urea, urate and chloride concentrations which were dependent upon the level of externally applied pressure. Mean increases of between 10%-60% were demonstrated for sweat metabolite concentrations at the loaded site compared to the control site for applied pressures in the range 40-120 mmHg. Similar increases were demonstrated in sweat collected from highly loaded tissue areas within the stump socket of lower limb amputees. A threshold value for P02 tension was identified, amounting to a 60% reduction from the unloaded value, which was associated with elevated tissue carbon dioxide levels as well as increased sweat metabolite concentrations in the loaded phase. This finding may provide a useful predictor of soft tissue status during prolonged loading. No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit. Helen Adam

Improving attainment? Interventions in education by the New Deal for Communities Programme

"The New Deal for Communities (NDC) Programme was announced in 1998 and designed to reduce gaps between some of the most deprived areas in England and the rest of the country... This report presents the findings of one element of the second phase of the evaluation of the NDC Programme: research in four case study NDC partnerships focusing on interventions and outcomes under the theme of education." - introduction