Political Trust and Presidential Voting: a Changing Political Environment Inducing the End of Traditional Politics in the United States

Political climates are undoubtedly changing across the nation and creating volatile fluctuations of attitudes, beliefs, and behavior. In a more entertaining season of presidential primaries, both parties – Democratic and Republican – have nominees that will once again be scrutinized by many across the country. I argue the levels of scrutiny will more likely than not be enhanced to new proportions. Since a consistent reliance on media involvement and attack ads have grown immensely amongst presidential candidates, this will translate into a wider gap in party polarization and subsequently tie into the trust of American citizens. Previous scholars have shown consistent data that political trust has no bearing on the actual turnout of presidential elections (Citrin 1974). But, historic distrustful ratings between major-party candidates may prove to alter political cultures for subsequent years. In this study, I thoroughly examine the growing significance of political trust on presidential voting in the United States

Spelling correction in the NLP system 'LOLITA: dictionary organisation and search algorithms

This thesis describes the design and implementation of a spelling correction system and associated dictionaries, for the Natural Language Processing System 'LOLITA'. The dictionary storage is based upon a trie (M-ary tree) data-structure. The design of the dictionary is described, and the way in which the data-structure is implemented is also discussed. The spelling correction system makes use of the trie structure in order to limit repetition and "garden path' searching. The spelling correction algorithms used are a variation on the 'reverse minimum edit-distance' technique. These algorithms have been modified in order to place more emphasis on generation in order of likelihood. The system will correct up to two simple errors {i.e. insertion, omission, substitution or transposition of characters) per word. The individual algorithms are presented in turn and their combination into a unified strategy to correct misspellings is demonstrated. The system was implemented in the programming language Haskell; a pure functional, class-based language, with non-strict semantics and polymorphic type-checking. The use of several features of this language, in particular lazy evaluation, and their corresponding advantages over more traditional languages are described. The dictionaries and spelling correcting facilities are in use in the LOLITA system. Issues pertaining to 'real word' error correction, arising from the system's use in an NLP context, axe also discussed

Care bundles: implementing evidence or common sense?

Care bundles aim to improve standard of care and patient outcome by promoting the consistent implementation of a group of effective interventions. However, a variety of barriers prevent their full application in clinical practice. Here, we discuss some of the benefits and limitations of care bundles in the delivery of safer and more effective and consistent health care

Enhanced microbial activity in carbon-rich pillow lavas, Ordovician, Great Britain and Ireland

Date of acceptance: 09/07/2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A. Sandison and C. Taylor provided skilled technical support. Boyce is funded by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) support of the Isotope Community Support Facility at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre. NERC supported the project through facility grant IP-1235- 0511. The Raman spectroscopy facility at the University of Aberdeen is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. We are grateful to M. Feely, G. Purvis, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful criticism.Peer reviewedPostprin

Matching FinTech Advice to Participant Needs: Lessons and Challenges

The financial services industry is changing rapidly with the arrival of new economies of scale and networking effects attributable to FinTech, particularly via online or ‘robo’ advice. This chapter reviews the ‘robo-experience:’ how does it differ, if at all, from more traditional advice, and what is likely to happen next? After reviewing the goals and objectives of robo-advice, evolving advice models, who uses robo-advice, and investor behavior, we conclude that first adopters tend to be more affluent Millennial investors, as well as others seeking fast, mobile, and easy access to their finances. Nevertheless, though robo-advice has promised much, evidence is thin on the actual effects of using advice, such as changes in asset allocation and long-term effects on financial security

A Qualitative, Grounded Theory Exploration of Patients’ Experience of Early Mobilisation, Rehabilitation and Recovery after Critical Illness.

Rationale: Physical rehabilitation (encompassing early mobilisation) of the critically ill patient is recognized best practice, however further work is needed to explore the patients’ experience of rehabilitation qualitatively; a better understanding may facilitate implementation of early rehabilitation, and elucidate the journey of survivorship. Objectives: To explore patient experience of physical rehabilitation from critical illness during and after a stay on ICU. Design: Exploratory grounded theory study using semi-structured interviews. Setting: Adult medical/surgical ICU of a London teaching hospital. Participants: A purposive sample of ICU survivors with intensive care unit acquired weakness (ICUAW) and an ICU length of stay of >72 hours. Analysis: Data analysis followed a four-stage constant comparison technique: open coding, axial coding, selective coding, and model development, with the aim of reaching thematic saturation. Peer debriefing and triangulation through a patient support group were carried out to ensure credibility. Main results: Fifteen people were interviewed (with four relatives in attendance). The early rehabilitation period was characterized by episodic memory loss, hallucinations, weakness, and fatigue, making early rehabilitation ardous and difficult to recall. Participants craved a paternalised approach to care in the early days of ICU. The central idea that emerged from this study was recalibration of the self. This is driven by a lost sense of self, with loss of autonomy and competence; dehumanized elements of care may contribute to this. Participants described a fractured life narrative due to episodic memory loss, meaning that patients were shocked on awakening from sedation by the discrepancy between their physical form and cognitive representation of themselves. Conclusions: Recovery from ICUAW is a complex process that often begins with survivors exploring and adapting to a new body, followed by a period of recovering autonomy. Rehabilitation plays a key role in this recalibration period, helping survivors to reconstruct a desirable future