What was the programme theory of New Labour’s health system reforms?

To examine whether the Health System Reforms delivered the promise of being a coherent and mutually supporting reform programme; to identify the underlying programme theory of the reform programme; to reflect on whether lessons have been learned. \ud \ud Documentary analysis mapping the implicit and explicit programme theories about how the reforms intended to achieve its goals and outcomes. Semi-structured interviews with policy-makers to further understand the programme theory. \ud \ud The Health System Reforms assumed a ‘one size fits all’ approach to policy implementation with little recognition that some contexts can be more receptive than others. There was evidence of some policy evolution and rebalancing between the reform streams as policy-makers became aware of some perverse incentives and unforeseen consequences. Later elements aimed to restore balance to the system. \ud \ud The Health System Reforms do not appear to comprise a coherent and mutually supportive set of levers and incentives. They appear unbalanced with the centre of gravity favouring suppliers over commissioners. However, recent reform changes have sought to redress this imbalance to some extent, suggesting that lessons have been learned and policies have been adapted over time

Perceived Causes of Mental Illness and Stigma by Association

People linked with stigmatized others often face similar social and psychological effects to those with whom they are tied. This phenomenon is referred to as stigma by association. Previous research demonstrates the spreading of general negative attitudes accompanying stigmatized people to those with whom they are associated. In the current study, I examined stigma by association regarding people with mental illness and their friends and family. Research participants were given information highlighting either a genetic cause for Schizophrenia or an environmental cause. Then, participants evaluated someone described as linked to a person with Schizophrenia but with varying degrees of environmental and genetic closeness (e.g., an identical twin versus a friend). The study results indicated that the strength of perceived stigmatized qualities in neutral targets can be affected by alleged causes of the disorder and the relationship of the target to the stigmatized person. Consistent with holding a default view of Schizophrenia as being caused by genetics, participants who received information describing an environmental cause (and as a result may believe in two causes: genes and environment) were especially likely to view a target person as possessing stigmatized qualities (e.g., aggressiveness) when the target shared both genetics and environment with the person with Schizophrenia. Associative stigma for this shared-genetics-and-environment target exceeded that for targets sharing just one cause (e.g., genetics or environment). This suggests that stigma by association increases when a target is connected to a stigmatized person in multiple ways when those connections relate to the perceiver’s beliefs about causes of the stigmatizing disorder. This work will impact the field of mental health by addressing how education on the true causes of mental disorders might affect stigma by association.Undergraduate Research OfficeNo embargoAcademic Major: FrenchAcademic Major: Psycholog

Down with the walls! The politics of place in Spanish and German urban extension planning, 1848-1914

In exploring extension planning in Spain and Germany from 1848 to 1914, this essay aims to illuminate the shifting interpretations of the urban environment that accompanied this activity. The comparison rests on the fact that during this period, engineers in both Spain and Germany readily sought to “catch up” to models of urban development seen mainly in France. The extensions in Madrid (1860) and Berlin (1862) were, for example, deeply influenced by contemporaneous rationalization projects undertaken by Georges - Eugène Haussmann in Paris. Likewise extensions in second or smaller Spanish cities such as Barcelona (1860), Valencia (1858; 1868; 1884), or Málaga (1878) were developed in comparison to French standards. It was a similar story in German cities such as Cologne (1880), Düsseldorf (1884), and Munich (1893), where Parisian or Viennese models were often expressly considered or used to critique planning. Hence in this period, ,building officials not only made comparable interventions in the built environment based on international models , they also used a similar language with which to talk about the changing identity of the city. Professionals and bourgeois residents were aware of such trends, and they too used broadly analogous terms of reference to interpret the changing identity of the city

Do Social Bots Dream of Electric Sheep? A Categorisation of Social Media Bot Accounts

So-called 'social bots' have garnered a lot of attention lately. Previous research showed that they attempted to influence political events such as the Brexit referendum and the US presidential elections. It remains, however, somewhat unclear what exactly can be understood by the term 'social bot'. This paper addresses the need to better understand the intentions of bots on social media and to develop a shared understanding of how 'social' bots differ from other types of bots. We thus describe a systematic review of publications that researched bot accounts on social media. Based on the results of this literature review, we propose a scheme for categorising bot accounts on social media sites. Our scheme groups bot accounts by two dimensions - Imitation of human behaviour and Intent.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the Australasian Conference on Information Systems, 201

Asset Building in Low-Income Communities of Color, Part 1

Examines practices and policies in states rated high on the Corporation for Enterprise Development's scorecard for asset building in poor communities of color. Analyzes socioeconomic, legislative, and other factors believed to support asset building

Shh production and Gli signaling is activated in vivo in lung, enhancing the Th2 response during a murine model of allergic asthma

The pathophysiology of allergic asthma is driven by T-helper 2 (Th2) immune responses following aeroallergen inhalation. The mechanisms that initiate, potentiate and regulate airways allergy are incompletely characterized. We have previously shown that Hedgehog (Hh) signaling to T-cells, via downstream Gli transcription factors, enhances T-cell conversion to a Th2 phenotype. Here, we show for the first time that Gli-dependent transcription is activated in T-cells in vivo during murine allergic airways disease (AAD) a model for the immunopathology of asthma; and that genetic repression of Gli signaling in Tcells decreases the differentiation and/or recruitment of Th2 cells to the lung. We report that T-cells are not the only cells capable of expressing activated Gli during AAD. A substantial proportion of eosinophils and lung epithelial cells, both central mediators of the immunopathology of asthma, are also able to undergo Hh/Gli signaling. Finally, we show that Shh increases Il4 expression in eosinophils. We therefore propose that Hh signaling during AAD is complex, involving multiple cell types, signaling in an auto- or paracrine fashion. Improved understanding of the role of this major morphogenetic pathway in asthma may give rise to new drug targets for this chronic condition