Contemporary Fictional Representations of Anglican Clergy on British Public Service Television

Fictional clergy on British television have come a long way since the bumbling priests portrayed by the likes of Derreck Nimmo and Rowan Atkinson. Motivated by curiosity about both the impetus for and creative development of more recent programmes depicting Anglican vicars with depth and authenticity, this research presents three detailed production studies of television series appearing in the period of the mid 1990s and following. The programmes selected as case studies are The Vicar of Dibley (BBC One, 1994-2007); Rev. (BBC Two, 2010-14); and the Welsh drama Parch (S4C, 2015-18), each of which represents a significant progression in British entertainment media's depiction of Anglican clergy. The study is contextualised within a consideration of the Church of England’s evolving status within British society over the past century, as well as an accompanying summary of the Church in Wales and its distinct origins. It is also grounded in an exploration of the development of public service broadcasting, specifically as a medium charged with producing programmes to a high standard on a variety of subjects, including those dealing with religion. This research stands alone as a production study specifically focused on fictional priest portrayals created for British public service broadcasting. The resulting discussion connects depictions of clergy with the social and religious contexts in which they arise, illuminates the potential of well-produced entertainment to impact how the public perceive the plight of priests as real people, and emphasises the value of public media as disseminator of quality, socially relevant entertainment

ERP customization failure: Institutionalized accounting practices, power relations and market forces

Purpose: This paper examines a detailed case study of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) customization failure in an Egyptian state-owned company (AML) by drawing on new institutional sociology and its extensions. It explains how ERP customization failure is shaped by the interplay between institutionalised accounting practices, conflicting institutions, power relations and market forces. Methodology/Approach: The research methodology is based on using an intensive case study informed by new institutional sociology, especially the interplay between conflicting institutions, power relations and market forces. Data were collected from multiple sources, including interviews, observations, discussions and documentary analysis. Findings: The findings revealed that the inability of the ERP system to meet the core accounting requirements of the control authorities (the Central Agency for Accountability) was the explicit reason cited for the ERP failure. The externally imposed requirements of the Uniform Accounting System and planning budgets were used to resist both other institutional pressures (from the Holding Company for Engineering Industries) and market and competitive pressures. Research limitations: There are some limitations associated with the use of the case study method, including the inability to generalize from the findings of a single case study, some selectivity in the individuals interviewed, and the subjective interpretation by the researchers of the empirical data. Practical implications: The paper identifies that the interplay between institutional pressures, institutionalised accounting practices, intra-organizational power relations, and market forces contributed to the failure to embed ERP in a major company. Understanding such relationships can help other organisations to become more aware of the factors affecting successful implementation of new ERP systems and provide a better basis for planning the introduction of new technologies. Originality/value of paper: This paper draws on recent research and thinking in sociology, especially the development and application of new institutional sociology. In addition, the paper is concerned with ERP implementation and use and management accounting in a transitional economy, Egypt, and hence contributes to debate about exporting Western accounting practices and other technologies to countries with different cultures and different stages of economic and political development. Classification: Research paper/ case stud

Postpartum administration of Citalopram reverses gestational stress-induced depressive-like behavior and structural modifications in the reward pathway

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a common complication following childbirth experienced by approximately 20% of new mothers. We have previously shown that chronic gestational stress, a risk factor for PPD, induces depressive-like behavior in postpartum rats and impairs maternal care, a rewarding, motivated behavior. These behavioral consequences of gestational stress are accompanied by structural changes on neurons in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a key brain region in the reward pathway which is involved in maternal care and which has been implicated in PPD. Here, we extended our previous work in two experiments. First, we examined the effects of gestational stress on other reward-related behaviors known to be altered in mothers with postpartum depression including anhedonia (as assessed with the sucrose preference test) and maternal motivation (as assessed with the conditioned place preference paradigm). Second, because mothers diagnosed with PPD are often prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) antidepressants to ameliorate mood and other deleterious effects of PPD, we investigated the extent to which the SSRI Citalopram could reverse stress-induced depressive-like behavior and morphological changes in the NAc. Our results show that along with increased depressive-like behavior, postpartum females exposed to chronic stress during pregnancy (from GD7-GD20) exhibited anhedonia, deficits in maternal motivation as well as structural modifications in the NAc. We also found that postpartum administration of Citalopram was able to reverse the depressive-like behavior and the structural modifications in the NAc of gestationally stressed mothers. Overall, our results demonstrate that gestational stress induces numerous behavioral symptoms found in depressed mothers and that depressive-like behavior in gestationally stressed mothers is responsive to antidepressant treatment. In doing so, these results expand the validity of our gestational stress model and suggest that structural plasticity in the NAc pathway may play a critical role in mediating depressive-like behavior in PPD.No embargoAcademic Major: Neuroscienc

Surface Transmission or Polarized Egress? Lessons Learned from HTLV Cell-to-Cell Transmission

Commentary on Pais-Correia, A.M.; Sachse, M.; Guadagnini, S.; Robbiati, V.; Lasserre, R.; Gessain, A.; Gout, O.; Alcover, A.; Thoulouze, M.I. Biofilm-like extracellular viral assemblies mediate HTLV-1 cell-to-cell transmission at virological synapses. Nat. Med. 2010, 16, 83–89

Effects of Utilizing a Myofascial Foam Roll on Hamstring Flexibility

The purpose of this study was to identify if using a foam roller on the hamstring muscles would have positive effects and in tum increase hamstring flexibility. Hamstring injuries are prevalent in sports today. Lack of flexibility is seen as a possible cause for these injuries, so this study focused on a potential way of increasing hamstring flexibility. Self-induced myofascial release, using a foam roller, was the type of intervention used to try to have an effect on hamstring muscle flexibility. The use of a foam roller is becoming a popular tool utilized in many settings but there has been little research done on the benefits of this tool. Eighteen college students from a weight training class participated in this four week study. Eight participants were in the control group, while ten participants used the foam roller two times per week for the four weeks study. Participants used the foam roller for three to five minutes each time they rolled out. The sit-and-reach method was used before and after the four week study to determine hamstring flexibility. Each participant completed three trials for the sit-and-reach test and the average score was calculated from their trials. Paired t test analysis was used to determine the relationship between the control group and the myofacial foam rolling group in relation to hamstring flexibility. A p value of .05 was used to analyze the data

Advice and Help-seeking Intentions Among Youth in Israel: Ethnic and Gender Differences

This study addresses intentions to seek advice and help among Jewish and Arab youths in Israel. The sample included 805 Jewish, 159 Moslem, 42 Christian, and 43 Druze youths. Two instruments were used: a demographic questionnaire and a questionnaire on help-seeking intentions. Results indicated that members of the ethnic groups preferred using different sources for advice and help. Compared to Moslem and Druze youths, Jewish youths preferred to turn to fathers, siblings, school counselors, and social workers; Compared to Arab youths, Jewish youths expressed less intention to seek assistancef rom their mothers; and compared to Moslem youths, Jewish youths expressed more intention to apply to relatives, supervisors, and clergy than did Moslem youths. Druze youths were more willing than Jews or Christians to ask for advice and help from school counselors and social workers and more willing to ask help from clergy than were Moslem youths. Allfour ethnic groups expressed a greater intention to seek help from informal rather than formal sources of assistance. Significant gender differences were also found. The implications of the findings for the development of appropriate services for different ethnic groups are discussed

Professional Contacts and Perceived Occupational Prestige

A random sample of 142 social workers in Israel, were asked to indicate the other professionals whom they meet in the course of their work, and the frequency of these contacts. They were also asked to assess the occupational prestige of social workers relative to that of the other professionals. The findings showed that social workers tended to downgrade their own prestige, the more frequently they met with representatives of occupations which have higher rankings on an objective occupational prestige scale