Theoretical and methodological approaches in discourse analysis.

PubMed

Stevenson, Chris

2004-10-01

Discourse analysis (DA) embodies two main approaches: Foucauldian DA and radical social constructionist DA. Both are underpinned by social constructionism to a lesser or greater extent. Social constructionism has contested areas in relation to power, embodiment, and materialism, although Foucauldian DA does focus on the issue of power. Embodiment and materialism may be especially relevant for researchers of nursing where the physical body is prominent. However, the contested nature of social constructionism allows a fusion of theoretical and methodological approaches tailored to a specific research interest. In this paper, Chris Stevenson suggests a frame- work for working out and declaring the DA approach to be taken in relation to a research area, as well as to aid anticipating methodological critique. Method, validity, reliability and scholarship are discussed from within a discourse analytic frame of reference.

Religion and bioethics.

PubMed

Holm, Soren

2004-01-01

This paper discusses the role of religious arguments in public bioethical debate. It is argued that attempts to rule out religious arguments as valid contributions to the pubic debate fails for a number of reasons. There is no non-arbitrary way of dividing religious arguments from non-religious arguments, and all arguments refer ultimately to a background comprehensive worldview that is never fully consistent or coherent and which is furthermore always contested. There are thus no good arguments for treating religious arguments differently than any other type of argument.

"A battle not man's but God's": origins of the American temperance crusade in the struggle for religious authority.

PubMed

Schmidt, L A

1995-01-01

Major theories of the origins of American temperance have emphasized materialist explanations without taking seriously enough the independent role of ideas--and, in particular, religious ideas--in stimulating the reform. This article develops a new interpretation, focusing on the religious origins of temperance in a "crisis of contested authority" that befell the Protestant denominations descended from Puritanism during the early years of the 19th century. One outgrowth of the crisis over the authority of traditional religious ideas was a new theology focused on religious salvation through the suppression of vice. This new religious ideology provided a core of beliefs and powerful justification for organizing a public crusade to "exterminate" vice, and one that for ideological reasons ultimately narrowed its focus to the specific vice of intemperance. The crusade against vice in the early republic offered clergymen a "solution" to their problems of contested authority by providing new strategies and an organizational base of voluntary societies for carrying out what they perceived to be their sacred duties: winning souls to God, guarding collective salvation and leveraging government to promote obedience to religious prohibitions on vice. At least initially, temperance was part of a new kind of effort to assert the authority of religious ideas in the public sphere, and to regroup religious forces under auspices outside the church.

Physical Education in the UK: Disconnections and Reconnections

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griggs, Gerald; Ward, Gavin

2012-01-01

Within the UK, physical education finds itself, as a curriculum subject, in a contested space with felt pressures from competing discourses and policy areas. This paper contests that over time within this nexus, physical education has become disconnected in four specific ways: from the wider movement culture, from other curriculum subjects, within…

Exploring the Sacred-Secular Dialect in Everyday Social Work Practice: An Analysis of Religious Responses to Managerialism among Outreach Social Workers in Hong Kong

PubMed Central

Groves, Julian M.; Ho, Wai-Yip; Siu, Kaxton

2016-01-01

We examine the recent proliferation of religious discourses among front line social workers in the former British Colony of Hong Kong in order to explore the nature of ‘re-enchantment’ in modern social work practice. In-depth qualitative interviews with twenty social workers who identify as ‘Christian social workers’ in a variety of social work organisations (both religious and secular) reveal the adoption of religious identities and discourses to navigate the encroachment of managerialism. A systematic analysis of these narratives suggests that Christian social workers evoke religion to reclaim feelings of authenticity in their work, to facilitate more personalised relationships with their clients, and to empower themselves following the introduction of managerialist policies. We illuminate the dialectical relationship between religious discourses and managerialism to critique claims in the literature about a ‘re-enchantment’ in social work, and to understand the essence of religion in modern social work practice. PMID:27559235

Exploring the Sacred-Secular Dialect in Everyday Social Work Practice: An Analysis of Religious Responses to Managerialism among Outreach Social Workers in Hong Kong.

PubMed

Groves, Julian M; Ho, Wai-Yip; Siu, Kaxton

2016-07-01

We examine the recent proliferation of religious discourses among front line social workers in the former British Colony of Hong Kong in order to explore the nature of 're-enchantment' in modern social work practice. In-depth qualitative interviews with twenty social workers who identify as 'Christian social workers' in a variety of social work organisations (both religious and secular) reveal the adoption of religious identities and discourses to navigate the encroachment of managerialism. A systematic analysis of these narratives suggests that Christian social workers evoke religion to reclaim feelings of authenticity in their work, to facilitate more personalised relationships with their clients, and to empower themselves following the introduction of managerialist policies. We illuminate the dialectical relationship between religious discourses and managerialism to critique claims in the literature about a 're-enchantment' in social work, and to understand the essence of religion in modern social work practice.

Consuming the Exotic Other.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lalvani, Suren

1995-01-01

Explores the multiple and heterogeneous deployment of the Other within discourses that intersect and contest each other. Shows how the 19th century discourse of "le femme orientale," which informed the Romantic critique of capitalism, was recuperated in a hegemonic manner to promote an expanding consumer culture. Discusses the colonial…

Affirmative Action and Education in Fiji: Legitimation, Contestation, and Colonial Discourse.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Carmen M.

2001-01-01

As in the United States, affirmative action policies in Fiji were intended to correct past injustices. However, their proponents' use of colonial discourse fails to acknowledge the historical roots of the lower educational attainment of Fijians, which is a legacy of colonial policies. (SK)

Scripture-Based Discourses of Latter-Day Saint and Methodist Youths

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rackley, Eric D.

2014-01-01

Drawing on social and cultural perspectives of literacy, conceptualizations of religious literacies, and Gee's notion of Discourses, I develop a framework for exploring 16 Latter-day Saint and Methodist youths' religious literacies as social and cultural practice. This work grows out of the increasingly important role that religion plays…

Corresponding Values and Colonising Discourses: Situating "Hindu Children" and Their Values in Relation to Hegemonic Norwegian Discourses about Religious Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nicolaisen, Tove

2012-01-01

This article discusses the relationship between values expressed by "Hindu children" in Norway and hegemonic "Norwegian values". The discussion is based on interviews with children from the Indian Punjabi and the Sri Lankan Tamil traditions and on observations in religious education (RE) lessons. The children emphasise the…

Walanbaa Warramildanha: The Impact of Authentic Aboriginal Community and School Engagement on Teachers' Professional Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowe, Kevin

2017-01-01

The conundrum of Indigenous education in Australia is that there are multiple, highly contested and polarising narratives that vie to inform both public and policy debate about how to construct effective schooling of Aboriginal students. Two of these contested discourses, which are seen to drive much of this debate, highlight the complexity of…

Media Misrepresentations of a Mascot Controversy: Contested Constructions of Race and Gender

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gerstl-Pepin, Cynthia; Liang, Guodong

2010-01-01

This article examines media coverage of a high school Native American mascot controversy. Discourse analysis of media documents and artifacts was utilized to explore how the issue was socially constructed for public consumption. Critical race feminism was used as a framework to examine how media discourses can oversimplify the complex interaction…

Indians Weaving in Cyberspace Indigenous Urban Youth Cultures, Identities and Politics of Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jimenez Quispe, Luz

2013-01-01

This study is aimed at analyzing how contemporary urban Aymara youth hip hoppers and bloggers are creating their identities and are producing discourses in texts and lyrics to contest racist and colonial discourses. The research is situated in Bolivia, which is currently engaged in a cultural and political revolution supported by Indigenous…

[The meaning of medical intervention and religious faith for the elderly cancer patient].

PubMed

Teixeira, Jorge Juarez Vieira; Lefèvre, Fernando

2008-01-01

This study aimed at identifying the meaning medical intervention and religious faith have for the elderly patient with cancer. A descriptive and qualitative investigation was developed between January 9 and March 28, 2001 in the Hospital do Servidor Público Estadual--Francisco Morato de Oliveira/IAMSPE (Hospital for State Public Servants). The studied sample was not randomized and consisted of 20 elderly men and women with cancer. The data were collected in semi-structured interviews and organized and analyzed using the Collective Subject Discourse method, applying three methodological illustrations: the Central Idea, Key Expressions and the Collective Subject Discourse (CSD). The main central ideas of the discourse material were: 1. Nothing to complain about. I think it is very good and they are on the right track; 2. No. For now, I'm doing everything the doctors say; 3. I've already participated, but not currently; 4. I don't participate in religious activity; 5. Invigoration, hope and balance. Religious faith is everything! 6. It remains the same; however, it changed the way to be. The CSD shows that the adopted medical intervention gave the elderly renewed hope and that religious faith is a key instrument for facing the disease.

Religion and the body in medical research.

PubMed

Campbell, Courtney S

1998-09-01

Religious discussion of human organs and tissues has concentrated largely on donation for therapeutic purposes. The retrieval and use of human tissue samples in diagnostic, research, and education contexts have, by contrast, received very little direct theological attention. Initially undertaken at the behest of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, this essay seeks to explore the theological and religious questions embedded in nontherapeutic use of human tissue. It finds that the "donation paradigm" typically invoked in religious discourse to justify uses of the body for therapeutic reasons is inadequate in the context of nontherapeutic research, while the "resource paradigm" implicit in scientific discourse presumes a reductionist account of the body that runs contrary to important religious values about embodiment. The essay proposes a "contribution paradigm" that provides a religious perspective within which research on human tissue can be both justified and limited.

Reflections on Religious Nationalism, Conflict and Schooling in Developing Democracies: India and Israel in Comparative Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Antal, Carrie

2008-01-01

This article explores the relationship between the propagation of religious nationalist citizenship discourses in classrooms and inter-religious conflict in the context of two developing democracies, India and Israel. The author concludes that students schooled in religious nationalist ideology in developing nations are at greater risk of…

Language for Reconciliation in Religious Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Contradictions in Sermons Explored through the Activity Theory Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singh, Parvinder Kaur Hukam; Thuraisingam, Thavamalar

2011-01-01

This paper attempts to shed light on the role of language in keeping religion relevant to the individual and society in present times. In the context of postmodernity, religion has become more of a meaning system to address the existential questions of the individual. Religious institutions have had to accommodate the changes brought about by a…

Power, Discourse, and Learning Global Citizenship: A Case Study of International NGOs and a Grassroots Movement in the Narmada Valley, India

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shukla, Natasha

2009-01-01

The field of transnational contestation conceptualized as global civil society (GCS) is gaining academic interest as a political "counter-force" against the exigencies of globalization. However, social actors within GCS occupy unequal positions of power in relation to each other. This article examines how the discourses of transnational action…

Keeping the Faiths

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gray, Katti

2010-01-01

Faced with America's stratified religious landscape, colleges and universities work to embrace spiritual diversity through inclusive discourse, initiatives and programs. Nationwide, some campuses have focused on the rise in religious diversity and mending the religious fractures that persist. They have crafted programs aimed at letting a shifting…

[Not] Losing My Religion: Using "The Color Purple" to Promote Critical Thinking in the Writing Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCrary, Donald

2009-01-01

Private student discourses are often ignored or prohibited in the academy; however, these private discourses are very meaningful, and representative of the ways that students order and speak about the world. Specifically, religion is an extremely significant private student discourse; exploring religious discourse might help students not only to…

[Religion and spirituality, definitions and challenges].

PubMed

de Quercize, Anne-Sophie; Pian, Christian

2015-10-01

Understanding religious teachings and the religious dimension in our societies is not made any easier with a discourse that is often lacking in rigor for dealing with this reality. Some basic notions need to be clarified to better define the religious and the spiritual. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Conceptualization and Linguistic Expression: Using Religious Poetry in ELT

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sharma, Amrita

2014-01-01

Religious poetry is, a heightened and impregnated form of expression. There is a marriage of form and sense. Linguistically speaking, religious poetry has a conceptual interface between syntax and semantics; a strong relationship between language and thought; universality and cultural specificity; the discourse context and the psychological…

Reproducing Italians: contested biopolitics in the age of 'replacement anxiety'.

PubMed

Marchesi, Milena

2012-01-01

In national and international discourses, Italians are often represented as a greying population failing to reproduce itself. Italian women are targeted for their very low birth rates, while migrant women are scrutinized for their 'excessive' fertility and abortion rates. These demographic concerns over differential reproduction reflect 'replacement anxiety' about the below-replacement rates of Italians and the replacement of Italians by immigrants. Demographic anxieties coalesce with the intensifying of Catholic 'vitapolitics' manifesting in the paradox of pro-natalist interventions coexisting with the curtailment of fertility-enhancing reproductive technologies. The children of migrants emerge in some population discourses as a threat rather than a contribution to the reproduction of the nation. Drawing on multi-sited ethnographic research in Milan, this paper examines how reproduction in contemporary Italy has emerged as a contested social, political, and moral issue that invests Italian and migrant women in different ways, engendering different forms and terms of resistance and contestation. On what terms are subjects governed and called upon to govern themselves to be more 'rational' and 'responsible' reproducers of the nation? What subjectivities and local responses are engendered by the politics of reproduction in Italy? As different rationalities and notions of responsible reproduction circulate, ethnographic research sheds light on how anxieties over low birth rates are reappropriated and redeployed against the state, suggesting that subjects are not so easily governable by population and reproductive discourses. This research contributes to the literature on critical demography and the politics of reproduction and migration in the new Europe.

Medical similes in religious discourse: the case of Giovanni di San Gimignano OP (ca. 1260-ca. 1333).

PubMed

Ziegler, J

1995-01-01

By the beginning of the fourteenth century, medicine had acquired a cultural role in addition to its traditional function as a therapeutic art. Medical subject matter infiltrated the religious discourse via the new thirteenth-century encyclopedic literature. Preachers came to employ in their moral analogies a wider range of medical topics, using sophisticated medical examples and citations attributed to recognized medical authorities. These developments coincided with the growing prestige of medicine as an academic discipline.

"Revolution in Religious Language": The Relevance of Julia Kristeva's Theory of "Signifiance" for Theology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Inman, Timothy O.

2017-01-01

This dissertation applies Julia Kristeva's theory of revolution in the practice of "signifiance" to religious discourse. In particular, it argues that the salient features of "signifiance" are present and active in religious speech as well as poetic language, the subject of Kristeva's doctoral thesis "Revolution in Poetic…

Gender Panics about Transgender Children in Religious Right Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stone, Amy L.

2018-01-01

This paper is a content analysis of political flyers and messages developed by Religious Right campaigns between 1974 and 2013 to fight legislation supportive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. The analysis focuses on 16 campaigns in which Religious Right groups made claims about transgender adults and children. In…

Analyzing Constructions of Polytheistic and Monotheistic Religious Traditions: A Critical Multicultural Approach to Textbooks in Quebec

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdou, Ehaab D.; Chan, W. Y. Alice

2017-01-01

How are religious traditions and exchanges between them constructed in textbooks used in Quebec? Through a critical discourse analysis of History and Citizenship Education, and Ethics and Religious Culture textbooks, we find that the Abrahamic monotheistic tradition is valorized, while non-Abrahamic monotheistic traditions and polytheism are…

Political liberalism and religious claims: Four blind spots.

PubMed

Stoeckl, Kristina

2017-01-01

This article gives an overview of 4 important lacunae in political liberalism and identifies, in a preliminary fashion, some trends in the literature that can come in for support in filling these blind spots, which prevent political liberalism from a correct assessment of the diverse nature of religious claims. Political liberalism operates with implicit assumptions about religious actors being either 'liberal' or 'fundamentalist' and ignores a third, in-between group, namely traditionalist religious actors and their claims. After having explained what makes traditionalist religious actors different from liberal and fundamentalist religious actors, the author develops 4 areas in which political liberalism should be pushed further theoretically in order to correctly theorize the challenge which traditional religious actors pose to liberal democracy. These 4 areas (blind spots) are: (1) the context of translation; (2) the politics of exemptions; (3) the multivocality of theology; and (4) the transnational nature of norm-contestation.

Political liberalism and religious claims

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

This article gives an overview of 4 important lacunae in political liberalism and identifies, in a preliminary fashion, some trends in the literature that can come in for support in filling these blind spots, which prevent political liberalism from a correct assessment of the diverse nature of religious claims. Political liberalism operates with implicit assumptions about religious actors being either ‘liberal’ or ‘fundamentalist’ and ignores a third, in-between group, namely traditionalist religious actors and their claims. After having explained what makes traditionalist religious actors different from liberal and fundamentalist religious actors, the author develops 4 areas in which political liberalism should be pushed further theoretically in order to correctly theorize the challenge which traditional religious actors pose to liberal democracy. These 4 areas (blind spots) are: (1) the context of translation; (2) the politics of exemptions; (3) the multivocality of theology; and (4) the transnational nature of norm-contestation. PMID:28344375

When discourses collide: creationism and evolution in the public sphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dávila, Denise

2014-12-01

This review essay focuses on Özgür Taşkın's discussion of the theory of evolution (TOE), intelligent design (ID) and the convictions of fundamentalist science educators and students in his paper entitled: An exploratory examination of Islamic values in science education: Islamization of science teaching and learning via constructivism. It examines the competing social discourses of evolution and creationism in the United States, which is partially maintained by national public opinion polls and states' legislation about the TOE in the science curricula. The examination of US social discourses presented here is framed by James Gee's (2008) theory that Discourses with a capital "D," are unconscious and uncritical socially accepted ways of speaking/listening and writing/reading that are merged with "distinctive ways of acting, interacting, valuing, feeling, dressing, thinking, [and] believing…so as to enact specific socially recognizable identities…" (p. 155). Such Discourses identify insiders of and outsiders to religious affiliations and other social or cultural groups. The context of this examination is unique in that is draws from the national conversation about the inclusion of ID alongside of the TOE in the public school science programs. Gee's (2011) concept that Discourses serve as tools of inquiry guides the analysis of video recorded public messages from Bill Nye and Lawrence Krauss as well as Creation Museum president Ken Ham. The analysis and discussion of the national conversation about creationism and public education suggests that the education community must consider the global landscape of science literacy both locally and internationally. It also indicates that preservice and practicing science educators may require special training and support. In order to provide unbiased, religious-resistant, evidence-based science instruction, science educators must understand how to separate church from state regardless of their personal beliefs. They must also know how to navigate conversations about the TOE among diverse communities of learners that include both religiously and non-religiously affiliated students.

Critical Religious Education (CRE) in Practice: Evaluating the Reception of an Introductory Scheme of Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodman, Angela

2018-01-01

Critical Religious Education (CRE) is a contemporary pedagogy of religious education developed by Andrew Wright and various colleagues over the past two decades. There has been widespread academic discourse about the pedagogy in theory but increasingly commentators have called for examples of it in practice. Over the past seven years a writing…

Beyond the Assumptions: Religious Schools and Their Influence on Students' Social and Civic Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cross, Graeme; Campbell-Evans, Glenda; Gray, Jan

2018-01-01

Are religious schools fit to prepare students with the social competencies required for life in a pluralistic society, or do they offer a sheltered school experience, which deprives them of adequate socialization opportunities? This question has emerged in public discourse in response to the growing presence of religious schools in many western…

A Theoretical Account on the Study of Metaphor in Didactic Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

El-Sharif, Ahmad

2016-01-01

This article makes a literary review to the linguistic research in the use of metaphor in didactic discourse; especially the religious one. Acknowledging Conceptual Metaphor Theory as the primary theory in the field, the researcher embarks upon how metaphor is perceived and analysed in discourse in order to pertain its persuasive function. The…

Critical Discourse Analysis of Religious Sermons in Egypt--Case Study of Amr Khalid's Sermons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eldin, Ahmad Abdel Tawwab Sharaf

2014-01-01

This paper attempts to provide an ideological approach within a critical discourse analysis (CDA) in order to investigate the Islamic discourse and to trace the ideological devices in Amr Khalid's sermons. In so doing, this paper tries to show how language, employed in Khalid's sermons, reflects the common conceptual structures and…

Morgellons: contested illness, diagnostic compromise and medicalisation.

PubMed

Fair, Brian

2010-05-01

The case of Morgellons illustrates how the emergence of a new medically contested illness intersected with and impacted on the diagnostic processes of an existing uncontested psychiatric condition, Delusional Parasitosis (DP). More specifically, the sociopolitical processes at play in the contested illness, Morgellons, dubiously reflect patient empowerment, as well the resilience and power of medical jurisdiction. This research offers insights into the contested illness and medicalisation literatures, and aims to bridge these two approaches towards the relationship between patient empowerment and medical authority, which I do through the notion of doctor-patient compromise. The data for this research come from a comprehensive qualitative analysis of Morgellons discourse through four key sources: the pro-Morgellons website Morgellons.org; the anti-Morgellons website Morgellonswatch.com; the popular media's portrayal of Morgellons; and the DP and Morgellons articles published in peer-reviewed medical journals, as made available on PubMed.

The Micro and Macro Analysis of English and Arabic Religious Texts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Araji, Baida Faisal; Al-Azzawi, Sarab Khalil

2016-01-01

Religious discourse has been treated differently in various types of studies. In the present study, the English Biblical and Arabic Prophetic Hadiths will be tackled on two bases namely the micro and macro levels. In other words, the data will be analyzed at both micro and macro levels to maintain the organizational status of the religious texts.…

Medicalization discourse and modernity: contested meanings over childbirth in contemporary Turkey.

PubMed

Cindoglu, Dilek; Sayan-Cengiz, Feyda

2010-03-01

In this article, we explore the increasing medicalization of birth and the surge in Caesarean sections in order to examine how this phenomenon relates to the dominant modernization discourse on women's lives in contemporary Turkey. We analyze women's modes of resistance and conformity to medicalization of birth through qualitative data from 15 focus groups of Turkish women as well as from physicians and midwives. We found out that Turkish women generally submit to medicalized birth, despite unpleasant experiences of hospital birth. We argue that the discourse of modernization and traditional patriarchy both play a role in women's submission to medicalization of birth; and we demonstrate the patterns through which these discourses collaborate in establishing the meaning of childbirth in Turkey.

Reconfiguring the Nation: Contesting History and Identity in a Globalizing World

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-01

Dynamical Systems Theory to investigate how ethnically, religiously and ideologically defined communities interact and coexist within and between states...investigate how ethnically religiously and ideologically defined communities interact and coexist within and between states defined on the basis of...developed as a  consequence of funding support for this project. A Special Issue of the International Journal of  Intercultural  Relations (IJIR) on

Strangers or Friends?

PubMed Central

Curlin, Farr A; Hall, Daniel E

2005-01-01

We argue that debate regarding whether and how physicians should engage religious concerns has proceeded under inadequate terms. The prevailing paradigm approaches dialogue regarding religion as a form of therapeutic technique, engaged by one stranger, the physician, upon another stranger, the patient. This stranger-technique framework focuses the debate on questions of physicians' competence, threats to patients' autonomy, and neutrality regarding religion, and in so doing, it too greatly circumscribes the scope of physician-patient dialogue. In contrast, we argue that dialogue regarding religion is better approached as a form of philosophical discourse about ultimate human concerns. Such moral discourse is often essential to the patient-physician relationship, and rather than shrinking from such discourse, physicians might engage patients regarding religious concerns guided by an ethic of moral friendship that seeks the patient's good through wisdom, candor, and respect. PMID:15857497

Stigma stories: four discourses about teen mothers, welfare, and poverty.

PubMed

Kelly, D M

1996-06-01

This study uses a pragmatic model of discourse theory to analyze more than 700 articles about adolescent mothers published in the Canadian printed media in 1980-92. The introduction notes that feminist research has challenged the view that adolescent motherhood is caused by and perpetrates poverty and that a strong social stigma is still associated with teen pregnancy. After describing the methodology and theoretical framework used in this analysis, academic research on adolescent mothers, welfare, and poverty is criticized for using teen motherhood as a conventional scapegoat which allows the structural causes of poverty to be ignored. Discourses about teenage mothers are then described as a "stigma contest." Thus, discussion centers on 1) the bureaucratic notion that the "wrong" girls are keeping their babies, 2) the conservative framework which holds that an unwed teenager who relies on welfare and refuses to give her baby up for adoption (having properly rejected abortion) serves as the epitome of a "wrong family," and 3) oppositional discourse which provides a "wrong society" framework and is articulated in the alternative media. A "stigma-is-wrong" framework is then provided by the self-interpretation of the teen mothers who hold that the right to choose is essential and that it is inappropriate to stigmatize any choice. The bureaucratic viewpoint is the most common winner in this media contest and helps to frame the public debate and public policy about teenage motherhood and, thus, profoundly influences the daily lives of young mothers and their children by perpetuating negative stereotypes.

"International Education" in US Public Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parker, Walter C.

2011-01-01

This study focuses on the recent adoption of "international education" (IE) by US public schools. Theoretically, it conceptualises this phenomenon as a social movement and a dynamic arena of knowledge construction and contestation. Methodologically, it combines fieldwork, interviews and critical discourse analysis. The central finding is…

NNESTs' Professional Identity in the Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Song, Kim Hyunsook; Del Castillo, Alla Gonzalez

2015-01-01

This study examines NNESTs' professional identities as classroom teachers by analyzing NNESTS' perceptions of their strengths and challenges. The study contributes to NNESTs forming their professional identity by recognizing, developing, and contesting authoritative discourse. A basic qualitative research design is employed to analyze the…

Intersectionality and Race in Education. Routledge Research in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bhopal, Kalwant, Ed.; Preston, John, Ed.

2011-01-01

Education is a controversial subject in which difficult and contested discourses are the norm. Individuals in education experience multiple inequalities and have diverse identifications that cannot necessarily be captured by one theoretical perspective alone. This edited collection draws on empirical and theoretical research to examine the…

Maximizing Choice: An Ethic for the Religious Persuader.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffin, Emory A.

This paper maintains that persuasive efforts in religious discourse must include a respect for the right of individuals to make free choices. Some of the unethical practices discussed are: deception and flattery, where the persuader, in a spirit of conquest, entices the listener into wrong decision-making; physical or psychological force, where…

Religion, Liberalism and Education: A Response to Roger Trigg

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carr, David

2008-01-01

Although he shares many of Professor Roger Trigg's views about the logical character and human significance of religion and religious discourse, including the view that religious claims are matters for rational understanding and appraisal, the author expresses difficulties with key points in Trigg's diagnosis and critique of what he takes to be…

How Private Is the Relation with God? Religiosity and Family Religious Socialization in Romanian Emerging Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Negru, Oana; Haragâs, Cosmina; Mustea, Anca

2014-01-01

This qualitative study explores the dynamics of religious cognitions, behaviors, and emotions in emerging adult discourse in a sample of Romanian youth of heterogeneous socioeconomic, denominational (Orthodox Christian, Roman Catholic, Neo-protestant), and educational background. Also, from a parent-child dyad perspective, we investigate the role…

Science and Religion on the Blackboard: Exploring Schoolmasters' Beliefs and Practices in Senegal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Croché, Sarah

2015-01-01

This article treats the various forms of adjustment between scientific and religious discourses at school. It aims to analyse the beliefs and practices of schoolmasters and to explore how the oppositions between the "dominant" discourses of Western science and those of religion are addressed in secondary education in Senegal. The…

(En)Gendering Responsibility: A Critical News Analysis of Argentina's Education Reform, 2001-2002

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robert, Sarah A.

2012-01-01

Education reform continues around the globe, though questioned and critiqued in relation to goals of democratizing educational decision-making. Newspapers are one site of contestation and negotiation where struggles over global reform discourses are contextualized in "obvious" and "natural" local language. In this article, I…

Forsaking Nature? Contesting "Biodiversity" through Competing Discourses of Sustainability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kopnina, Helen

2013-01-01

The Convention on Biodiversity has developed the concept of "ecosystem services" and "natural resources" in order to describe ways in which humans benefit from healthy ecosystems. Biodiversity, conceived through the economic approach, was recognized to be of great social and economic value to both present and future…

Democracy and Civil Rights: The Universalizing Influence of Public Argumentation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Condit, Celeste Michelle

1987-01-01

Examines American public discourse about civil rights in national magazines from 1939-1959, indicating three stages in the controversy: (1) a positive recharacterization of blacks, (2) an inclusion of blacks under the nation's ideographs, and (3) a final contest between segregationist and integrationist rhetorics. Discusses the potential for…

Policy "Partnerships"? Power Dynamics in Curriculum Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffiths, Joanne; Vidovich, Lesley; Chapman, Anne

2009-01-01

In curriculum policy, discourses of "policy partnerships" and "communities of practice" have become increasingly prevalent and were reflected in Western Australian curriculum policy processes from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s--a period of significant, highly contested change. This paper presents the findings of an empirical…

To die, to sleep: US physicians' religious and other objections to physician-assisted suicide, terminal sedation, and withdrawal of life support.

PubMed

Curlin, Farr A; Nwodim, Chinyere; Vance, Jennifer L; Chin, Marshall H; Lantos, John D

2008-01-01

This study analyzes data from a national survey to estimate the proportion of physicians who currently object to physician-assisted suicide (PAS), terminal sedation (TS), and withdrawal of artificial life support (WLS), and to examine associations between such objections and physician ethnicity, religious characteristics, and experience caring for dying patients. Overall, 69% of the US physicians object to PAS, 18% to TS, and 5% to WLS. Highly religious physicians are more likely than those with low religiosity to object to both PAS (84% vs 55%, P < .001) and TS (25% vs 12%, P < .001). Objection to PAS or TS is also associated with being of Asian ethnicity, of Hindu religious affiliation, and having more experience caring for dying patients. These findings suggest that, with respect to morally contested interventions at the end of life, the medical care patients receive will vary based on their physicians' religious characteristics, ethnicity, and experience caring for dying patients.

Religious Education and the Feminisation of Witchcraft: A Study of Three Secondary Schools in Kumasi, Ghana

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, Paul

2012-01-01

This study, conducted during the summer of 2008 in Kumasi, Ghana analysed the role of religious and moral education (RME) in ameliorating the witchcraft discourse in three Ghanaian junior secondary schools. Although the syllabus acknowledges the pernicious effects of witchcraft allegations, it adopts a "Thou shalt not" approach that…

De-Radicalizing Pakistani Society: The Receptivity of Youth to a Liberal Religious Worldview

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sajjad, Fatima; Christie, Daniel J.; Taylor, Laura K.

2017-01-01

The reported rise in radicalism among youth in Pakistan since 9/11/2001 has been attributed to religious education in "madrasas" and schools. However, education in Pakistan is only part of the historical and contemporary forces that contribute to the prevailing exclusivist religio-political discourse. Although most policy papers have…

Politeness Formulas in Spoken Arabic: Figuration and Influence of Religious Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daoud, Sumaya

2017-01-01

The study examines formulaic politeness expressions used in Jordanian Arabic by looking into two salient features that characterize this set of idioms: figuration and traces of religious texts. One main goal is to explore the conceptual metaphors that are represented in these idioms and show their coherence and consistency with cultural values.…

Mismatches between Legislative Policy and School Practice in Religious Education: The Scottish Case

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matemba, Yonah H.

2015-01-01

Religious education (RE) is arguably one of the most legislated curriculum areas anywhere in the world, and yet in countries where legislation and educational policy exist to support its provision, how schools implement the subject in practice has not received much attention in the discourse. This article attempts to address this lacuna by…

Performativity, Faith and Professional Identity: Student Religious Education Teachers and the Ambiguities of Objectivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bryan, Hazel; Revell, Lynn

2011-01-01

This paper considers the way in which Christian Religious Education (RE) teachers articulate the difficulties and challenges they experience both in school and with their peers as they navigate their way through their Initial Teacher Education. The paper offers a unique exploration of the relationship between elements of the three discourses of…

Naturalizing Science: Two Episodes in the Evolution of a Rhetoric of Scientism.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lessl, Thomas M.

1996-01-01

Argues that religious themes persist in the public rhetoric of science, but that they have been transposed into an evolutionary symbolism. Examines the discourse of two practitioners of scientism, Francis Bacon and Jacob Bronowski, to illustrate the religious features of scientism and to show the continuity of the ideological work that it has…

Seeking Critical Hope in a Global Age: Religious Education in a Global Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Hyun-Sook

2015-01-01

During the last two decades, globalization has come to occupy an important position in popular and academic discourses. Globalization has provided opportunities to produce possibilities of global awareness and at the same time crises to perpetuate a culture of fear. This article asks how church and religious education can provide a global…

Waking up the Neighbors: Surveying Multicultural and Antiracist Education in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lund, Darren E.

2006-01-01

Contemporary academic discourse about diversity and discrimination is a multilayered and contested landscape, with intersecting and conflicting views from a variety of ideological and theoretical positions even from within the field of education. Compounding this tumult are manifestations of nationalist perspectives that may employ similar…

Reflexive Professionalism: Reclaiming the Voice of Authority in Shaping the Discourses of Education Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bourke, Theresa; Ryan, Mary Elizabeth; Lidstone, John

2013-01-01

The nature and value of "professionalism" has long been contested by both producers and consumers of policy. Most recently, governments have rewritten and redefined professionalism as compliance with externally imposed "standards." This has been achieved by silencing the voices of those who inhabit the professional field of…

Neoliberalism: A Useful Tool for Teaching Critical Topics in Political Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hartmann-Mahmud, Lori

2009-01-01

Neoliberalism is one of the most pervasive and contested concepts of our contemporary era. Thus, it is essential for students to gain an understanding of its history, meaning, assumptions, and policy prescriptions. In addition to recognizing the importance of neoliberalism in the current political discourse, I argue that the polarized responses to…

Re-Conceptualizing Teaching Expertise: Teacher Agency and Expertise through a Critical Pedagogic Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Samoukovic, Biljana

2015-01-01

Public and scholarly debates on what it means to be a successful teacher are characterized by increasingly pronounced differences in how various political, legislative, and professional groups define successful teaching. In response to pressures posed by these polarized discourses, critical pedagogic research on education contrasts contested views…

Challenging Conceptions of Western Higher Education and Promoting Graduates as Global Citizens

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clifford, Valerie; Montgomery, Catherine

2014-01-01

Recently there has been a shift in the discourses of university policy from internationalisation towards the contested concept of global citizenship. This paper explores ways of challenging the current interpretation of international education policy through the concept of global citizenship drawing on the discussion forums of two cohorts of…

Mapping Everyday: Gender, Blackness, and Discourse in Urban Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, L. Hill, Jr.; Helfenbein, Robert J.

2009-01-01

This article argues that by using theories of the spatial to understand how situated materiality (i.e., place) and contestations of identity matter when conceiving global and curricular space, educators may interrupt and rearticulate practices and systems of oppression. By focusing on globalization writ large, there is danger of leaving important…

"Bring Back Home Economics"? Challenging Contested Discourses on Obesity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Mary Gale

2016-01-01

In 2003, Jennifer Grossman wrote an opinion piece for "The New York Times" titled "Food for Thought (and for Credit)" with the opening sentence: "Want to combat the epidemic of obesity? Bring back home economics." That thought seemed to simmer for awhile and then in 2011, Professor Helen Zoe Veit wrote another opinion…

Human Rights and Public Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowring, Bill

2012-01-01

This article attempts a contrast to the contribution by Hugh Starkey. Rather than his account of the inexorable rise of human rights discourse, and of the implementation of human rights standards, human rights are here presented as always and necessarily scandalous and highly contested. First, I explain why the UK has lagged so far behind its…

Neither Sinners nor Saints: Complicating the Discourse of Noncitizen Deservingness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dingeman-Cerda, Katie; Muñoz Burciaga, Edelina; Martinez, Lisa M.

2015-01-01

This article explores how non citizens, primarily members of the 1.5-generation, experience and rhetorically contest deservingness. We argue that deservingness is constructed through multiple sources including the media, immigrant rights movements, and the law, resulting in a binary of good/bad migrants that does not fully capture the lived…

The Contested Curriculum: Academic Learning and Employability in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Speight, Sarah; Lackovic, Natasa; Cooker, Lucy

2013-01-01

This article explores the discourse of employability in higher education by investigating the understanding of different stakeholder groups (students, staff, employers) of the University of Nottingham (UK and China), and their fit to each other and to the educational literature. It finds that, while theories of life-long or life-wide learning…

Music Education and Human Flourishing: A Meditation on Democratic Origins

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allsup, Randall Everett

2012-01-01

This philosophical essay is a meditation on the multiple and contested meanings of the concept of democracy with the aim of redirecting dominant discourses in music education practices and building new capacities for democracy's practical use in music classrooms. Inspired by philosopher John Dewey's travels to China, and his influence on major…

Curriculum Reform in Higher Education: A Contested Space

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shay, Suellen

2015-01-01

Drawing on the theoretical and analytical tools from the sociology of education, in particular the work of Basil Bernstein and Karl Maton, the paper explores the tensions within curriculum reform discourses and how these tensions play out in different global contexts. The analysis focuses on two curriculum reform policies--Hong Kong and South…

Riding the Juggernaut in the Risk Society

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Child & Youth Services, 2007

2007-01-01

There are irreconcilable and contested positions taken around the definition and understanding of risk. The purpose of this chapter is to locate risk discourse more solidly in a social scientific framework by providing an historical analysis of literature dealing with risk drawing from the fields of risk assessment and, later, the social sciences…

Religious Views on Suicide among the Baganda, Uganda: A Qualitative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mugisha, James; Hjelmeland, Heidi; Kinyanda, Eugene; Knizek, Birthe Loa

2013-01-01

Relatively little research has been conducted on religion and suicide in Africa, yet religion has a lot of influence on people's way of life in Africa. To study religious views on suicide among the Baganda, Uganda, we used grounded theory and discourse analysis on a total of 28 focus groups and 30 key informant interviews. Suicide is largely seen…

Challenging Pentecostal moralism: erotic geographies, religion and sexual practices among township youth in Cape Town.

PubMed

Burchardt, Marian

2011-06-01

Research on constructions of sexuality in Pentecostalism often struggles with the fact that the research setting is defined ex ante in terms of church communities, which imposes upon ethnographic accounts the same limitations Pentecostal morality imposes upon church members' discourse. Taking young Pentecostals operating in a space that is not explicitly religious as the methodological entrance to the field, this paper explores negotiations over sexuality, intimate relationships and love among Xhosa-speaking township youth. It introduces the notion of erotic geographies to consider how possible influences of religious discourses on sexuality are refracted by alternative cultural orientations and material contexts. Findings suggest that premarital abstinence appears as a highly exceptional ideal for youth. Even among Pentecostal youth, notions of sexuality are largely severed from religiosity and faithfulness and romanticism are dominant ideals. Future research on Pentecostalism and sexuality should be less religious-centric and rooted more firmly in ethnographies of youth sexual cultures.

Programs of religious/spiritual support in hospitals - five "Whies" and five "Hows".

PubMed

Saad, Marcelo; de Medeiros, Roberta

2016-08-22

A contemporary orientation of the hospital experience model must encompass the clients' religious-spiritual dimension. The objective of this paper is to share a previous experience, highlighting at least five reasons hospitals should invest in this direction, and an equal number of steps required to achieve it. In the first part, the text discourses about five reasons to invest in religious-spiritual support programs: 1. Religious-spiritual wellbeing is related to better health; 2. Religious-spiritual appreciation is a standard for hospital accreditation; 3. To undo religious-spiritual misunderstandings that can affect treatment; 4. Patients demand a religious-spiritual outlook from the institution; and 5. Costs may be reduced with religious-spiritual support. In the second part, the text suggests five steps to implement religious-spiritual support programs: 1. Deep institutional involvement; 2. Formal staff training; 3. Infrastructure and resources; 4. Adjustment of institutional politics; and 5. Agreement with religious-spiritual leaders. The authors hope the information compiled here can inspire hospitals to adopt actions toward optimization of the healing experience.

Balancing Identity and Diversity in Faith-Based Nursing Education: A Case Study from Northern Europe

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tveit, Bodil; Karvinen, Ikali; Damsma-Bakker, Alica; Ylönen, Merja; Oosterhoff-Zielman, Marjanne; Fanuelsen, Olav; van Leeuwen, Réné

2015-01-01

The role of faith-based nursing education is contested in today's Northern European societies, which are often described as postmodern, pluralist, or secular. Although faith-based institutions played pioneering roles in the early development of nursing education, many today downplay their religious roots and have transformed themselves into modern…

Advocating Commodification: An Ethnographic Look at the Policing of Irish as a Commercial Asset

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brennan, Sara C.

2018-01-01

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in two towns in the Republic of Ireland, this article explores the local negotiation, endorsement, and contestation of two community-level Irish language advocacy organizations' attempts to regulate the use of Irish in business by mobilizing discourses of language commodification to position Irish as a commercial…

Literacy Assessment That Counts: Mediating, Interpreting and Contesting Translocal Policy in a Primary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kerkham, Lyn; Nixon, Helen

2014-01-01

In Australia, as in many western education systems over the last two decades, discourses of accountability and performativity have reshaped education policy that has in turn reorganised the work of school leaders and teachers. One of the effects of this reorganisation is increased attention to the production, analysis and display of student…

The Global Targeting of Education and Skill: Policy History and Comparative Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Kenneth

2016-01-01

This analysis covers the period from 1925 to 2016 in respect of constructing national and global goals and targets in education and training. Tensions between global and national approaches to target-setting are identified. Equally, the ownership of the global target discourse is discussed along with its contested relevance to both developed and…

The Significance of Charter Schools and the Privatization of Standards: Holding the Wolf by the Ears

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ford, Brian

2005-01-01

The dynamics of educational policy discourse in the USA are illustrated by the highly contested positions on charter schools in three arenas: media debates, national policy and local school reform. In media debates, civil society actors--including teachers' unions, think tanks and print media--engage in polarized exchanges notable for their…

Ethnic Tourism and the Big Song: Public Pedagogies and the Ambiguity of Environmental Discourse in Southwest China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Jinting

2017-01-01

The article examines two forms of public pedagogies in a rural region of Southwest China-tourism and ethnic songs-to illustrate their contested roles in transforming local relations with natural and built environment. While tourism development daily alters the village landscape by spatial intervention, demolition, and construction, the…

Food Security Framings within the UK and the Integration of Local Food Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirwan, James; Maye, Damian

2013-01-01

This paper provides a critical interpretation of food security politics in the UK. It applies the notion of food security collective action frames to assess how specific action frames are maintained and contested. The interdependency between scale and framing in food security discourse is also scrutinised. It does this through an examination of…

The Cultural Politics of Mixed-Income Schools and Housing: A Racialized Discourse of Displacement, Exclusion, and Control

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lipman, Pauline

2009-01-01

In this article, I examine the contested and racially coded cultural politics of creating mixed-income schools in mixed-income communities. Policymakers claim deconcentrating low-income people will reduce poverty and improve education. However, based on activist research in Chicago, I argue these policies are grounded in "culture of…

Coming of Age in U.S. High Schools: Economic, Kinship, Religious, and Political Crosscurrents. Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education Series

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hemmings, Annette B.

2004-01-01

This book takes readers into the lives of urban and suburban adolescents for a close-up look at how they navigate the conflicting discourses and disciplinary practices of American cultural crosscurrents that flow through economic, kinship, religious, and political domains of American life. The book is distinctive in how it combines classic…

'Inductions of labour': on becoming an experienced midwifery practitioner in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

PubMed

Surtees, Ruth

2008-03-01

This paper analyzes and explores varying discourses within the talk of new practitioner direct entry (DE) midwives in Aotearoa/New Zealand. In Aotearoa/New Zealand, midwifery is theorized as a feminist profession undertaken in partnership with women. Direct entry midwifery education is similarly based on partnerships between educators and students in the form of liberatory pedagogies. The context for the analysis is a large ethnographic study undertaken with a variety of differently positioned midwives based mainly in one city in New Zealand. I interviewed and observed over 40 midwives in their different practice settings in 2003. Complex and contesting forms of knowledge production are analyzed in this paper drawing on methodological insights from Foucauldian discourse analysis. New practitioners engage in techniques of self-monitoring and surveillance as they move towards becoming established practitioners. New midwifery subjectivities and forms of knowledge production which contest authoritative forms of knowledge are produced. Midwives in New Zealand are seen to inhabit a complex and liminal space of midwifery praxis. Paradoxically, they are exhorted to remain the 'guardians of normal birth' in a time of increasing interventions into birth both locally and internationally. Paradoxes encountered by new midwifery practitioners in New Zealand as they struggle to maintain ideals of 'normal' birth may be paralleled by the constraints inadvertently produced through governing discourses of emancipatory or liberatory pedagogies. The relevance of this is also highly critical for midwifery and birth practices internationally.

Contested Discourses: Assessing the Outcomes of Learning from Experience for the Award of Credit in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peters, Helen

2005-01-01

When mature students enter higher education they bring with them a wealth of knowledge and experience gained in their lives outside of education. A majority of higher education institutions in the UK and elsewhere around the world have now set up systems for recognizing and accrediting such learning. However the processes of assessing learning…

Confucian States and Learning Life: Making Scholar-Officials and Social Learning a Political Contestation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Han, SoongHee

2013-01-01

This paper describes how the way the concept of learning is identified and managed in a societal context can provide a crucial clue to explaining how a form of culture as a complex mental organism is constructed and interwoven. Specifically, I argue the point by illustrating that the discourse of Confucianism has fabricated a specific form of…

The Position of Dance in Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mattsson, Torun; Lundvall, Suzanne

2015-01-01

Dance has been a part of the physical education (PE) curriculum in several countries for a long time. In spite of this, studies demonstrate that the position of dance in the subject of PE is contested and that little time is devoted to dance. The overall aim of this article is to examine the position of dance as a pedagogical discourse in Swedish…

How Do Newly-Qualified Early Childhood Teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand Critically Reflect within Constraints and Possibilities of Dominant Discourses of Early Childhood Teaching?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warren, Alison

2014-01-01

Early childhood practitioners' professionalism is a contested concept, with interpretations that include professionalisms based on qualifications, on accountability, on relational skills and on critical advocacy. Understandings of professionalism as situated in ecological frameworks rather than within individuals have led to the concept of a…

Faith-based perspectives on the use of chimeric organisms for medical research.

PubMed

Degeling, Chris; Irvine, Rob; Kerridge, Ian

2014-04-01

Efforts to advance our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases involve the creation chimeric organisms from human neural stem cells and primate embryos--known as prenatal chimeras. The existence of potential mentally complex beings with human and non-human neural apparatus raises fundamental questions as to the ethical permissibility of chimeric research and the moral status of the creatures it creates. Even as bioethicists find fewer reasons to be troubled by most types of chimeric organisms, social attitudes towards the non-human world are often influenced by religious beliefs. In this paper scholars representing eight major religious traditions provide a brief commentary on a hypothetical case concerning the development and use of prenatal human-animal chimeric primates in medical research. These commentaries reflect the plurality and complexity within and between religious discourses of our relationships with other species. Views on the moral status and permissibility of research on neural human animal chimeras vary. The authors provide an introduction to those who seek a better understanding of how faith-based perspectives might enter into biomedical ethics and public discourse towards forms of biomedical research that involves chimeric organisms.

"Why All of a Sudden Do We Need to Teach Fundamental British Values?" A Critical Investigation of Religious Education Student Teacher Positioning within a Policy Discourse of Discipline and Control

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farrell, Francis

2016-01-01

This paper presents a critical investigation of a group of 11 religious education (RE) student teachers' views of the promotion of fundamental British values (FBV) undertaken in 2015. Using qualitative methods, data were collected in two semi-structured group interviews. Drawing from the perspectives of Foucauldian methodology and critical theory,…

Religion, bioethics and nursing practice.

PubMed

Fowler, Marsha D

2009-07-01

This article calls nursing to engage in the study of religions and identifies six considerations that arise in religious studies and the ways in which religious faith is expressed. It argues that whole-person care cannot be realized, neither can there be a complete understanding of bioethics theory and decision making, without a rigorous understanding of religious-ethical systems. Because religious traditions differ in their cosmology, ontology, epistemology, aesthetic, and ethical methods, and because religious subtraditions interact with specific cultures, each religion and subtradition has something distinctive to offer to ethical discourse. A brief example is drawn from Native American religions, specifically their view of ;speech' and ;words'. Although the example is particular to an American context, it is intended to demonstrate a more general principle that an understanding of religion per se can yield new insights for bioethics.

Constructing and Contesting Discourses of Heteronormativity: An Ethnographic Study of Youth in a Francophone High School in Canada

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dalley, Phyllis; Campbell, Mark David

2006-01-01

This article explores the possibilities and impossibilities of establishing queer discursive spaces within a minority-language high school. Data examined here are from a three-year study of language and identity in a Francophone high school in Ontario, Canada. As two members of the larger research team, we draw on our close observations of teenage…

Another Wrinkle in the Debate about Successful Aging: The Undervalued Concept of Resilience and the Lived Experience of Dementia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, Phyllis Braudy

2008-01-01

The concept of "successful aging" is a contested discourse in gerontology. Two conflicting paradigms dominate the discussion: a health promotion activity model, and a model critical of the concept of successful aging. However, this study takes a different perspective and proposes that perhaps we have been striving for the wrong goal. The true…

Challenging the bioethical application of the autonomy principle within multicultural societies.

PubMed

Fagan, Andrew

2004-01-01

This article critically re-examines the application of the principle of patient autonomy within bioethics. In complex societies such as those found in North America and Europe health care professionals are increasingly confronted by patients from diverse ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds. This affects the relationship between clinicians and patients to the extent that patients' deliberations upon the proposed courses of treatment can, in various ways and to varying extents, be influenced by their ethnic, cultural, and religious commitments. The principle of patient autonomy is the main normative constraint imposed upon medical treatment. Bioethicists typically appeal to the principle of patient autonomy as a means for generally attempting to resolve conflict between patients and clinicians. In recent years a number of bioethicists have responded to the condition of multiculturalism by arguing that the autonomy principle provides the basis for a common moral discourse capable of regulating the relationship between clinicians and patients in those situations where patients' beliefs and commitments do or may contradict the ethos of biomedicine. This article challenges that claim. I argue that the precise manner in which the autonomy principle is philosophically formulated within such accounts prohibits bioethicists' deployment of autonomy as a core ideal for a common moral discourse within multicultural societies. The formulation of autonomy underlying such accounts cannot be extended to simply assimilate individuals' most fundamental religious and cultural commitments and affiliations per se. I challenge the assumption that respecting prospective patients' fundamental religious and cultural commitments is necessarily always compatible with respecting their autonomy. I argue that the character of some peoples' relationship with their cultural or religious community acts to significantly constrain the possibilities for acting autonomously. The implication is clear. The autonomy principle may be presently invalidly applied in certain circumstances because the conditions for the exercise of autonomy have not been fully or even adequately satisfied. This is a controversial claim. The precise terms of my argument, while addressing the specific application of the autonomy principle within bioethics, will resonate beyond this sphere and raises questions for attempts to establish a common moral discourse upon the ideal of personal autonomy within multicultural societies generally.

Gender, religion and democratic politics in India.

PubMed

Hasan, Zoya

2010-01-01

This article examines the impact of identity politics on gender equality. More specifically it explores the paradoxical and complex relationship of religion and politics in a multi-religious society and the complicated ways in which women's activism has both reinforced and challenged their gender identities. Contrary to the argument that religious politics does not always negate gender equality, the article argues that the Hindu religious politics and women's activism associated with it provides a compelling example of the instrumentalisation of women to accomplish the political goals of the Hindu right. It also examines the approach and strategies of influential political parties, women's organisations and Muslim women's groups towards legal reform and the contested issue of a uniform civil code. Against those who argue that, in the current communal conjuncture, reform within Muslim personal laws or Islamic feminism is the best strategy for enhancing the scope of Muslim women's rights, the article argues that such an approach tends to freeze identities within religious boundaries. It shows how women's and minority rights are used within the politics of religion to sideline the agenda of women's rights.

Thinking with Crocodiles: An Iconic Animal at the Intersection of Early-Modern Religion and Natural Philosophy.

PubMed

Weinreich, Spencer J

2015-01-01

This paper seeks to explore how culturally and religiously significant animals could shape discourses in which they were deployed, taking the crocodile as its case study. Beginning with the textual and visual traditions linking the crocodile with Africa and the Middle East, I read sixteenth- and seventeenth-century travel narratives categorizing American reptiles as "crocodiles" rather than "alligators," as attempts to mitigate the disruptive strangeness of the Americas. The second section draws on Ann Blair's study of "Mosaic Philosophy" to examine scholarly debates over the taxonomic identity of the biblical Leviathan. I argue that the language and analytical tools of natural philosophy progressively permeated religious discourse. Finally, a survey of more than 25 extant examples of the premodern practice of displaying crocodiles in churches, as well as other crocodilian elements in Christian iconography, provides an explanation for the ubiquity of crocodiles in Wunderkammern, as natural philosophy appropriated ecclesial visual vocabularies.

Where Kinsey, Christ, and Tila Tequila meet: discourse and the sexual (non)-binary.

PubMed

Callis, April S

2014-01-01

Drawing on 80 interviews and 17 months of participant observation in Lexington, Kentucky, this article details how individuals drew on three areas of national and local discourse to conceptualize sexuality. Media, popular science, and religious discourses can be viewed as portraying sexuality bifocally--as both a binary of heterosexual/homosexual and as a non-binary that encompasses fluidity. However, individuals in Lexington drew on each of these areas of discourse differently. Religion was thought to produce a binary vision of sexuality, whereas popular science accounts were understood as both binary and not. The media was understood as portraying non-binary identities that were not viable, thus strengthening the sexual binary. These differing points of view led identities such as bisexual and queer to lack cultural intelligibility.

Resisting the Discourse on Resistance: Theorizing Experiences from an Action Research Project on Feminist Pedagogy in Different Learning Cultures in Sweden

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bondestam, Fredrik

2011-01-01

Feminist pedagogy implies performing some kind of feminist teaching practices, while at the same time contesting the very possibility of performing such practices. One needs to start out from the assumption that only what cannot be foreseen will enable one not just to overcome resistance to feminist knowledge and teaching but also to make such…

Sustaining Adventure in New Zealand Outdoor Education: Perspectives from Renowned New Zealand Outdoor Adventurers on the Contested Cultural Understanding of Adventure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kane, Maurice; Tucker, Hazel

2007-01-01

One of the foundations of New Zealand's representation of itself to the world has been as a premier place of adventure. New Zealanders who have gained world recognition in outdoor leisure pursuits are used to promote this adventurous depiction of New Zealand. They are the focus of and contribute to the discourse which guides the New Zealand…

Contesting Institutional Discourse to Create New Possibilities for Understanding Lived Experience: Life-Stories of Young Women in Detention, Rehabilitation, and Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sharma, Suniti

2010-01-01

This research explores autobiographies of young women in detention, rehabilitation, and education as counter-stories to the official, institutional stories of their lives. The context of the study is a private detention facility in the United States; the participants are young women aged 15-19 years in a detention classroom; and data for the study…

Science and religion in a high school physics class: revisiting the source materials of ``The interaction of scientific and religious discourses''

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roth, Wolff-Michael

2010-03-01

In and with this text, I introduce the Forum that centers around a series of essays written by a high school student and an interview with his teacher all collected as part of a larger study about students' discourses with respect to (nature of) science, learning, and knowing. I provide a brief review of the original findings, which had been published in a study co-authored by the student and myself, his physics teacher.

[Religion and spirituality in education and nursing assistance].

PubMed

Gussi, Maria Aparecida; Dytz, Jane Lynn Garrison

2008-01-01

Intersectional study between nursing discourse and precepts which embrace religion/religiousness and spirituality, and how these were incorporated and their reflection upon nursing practice, education and the history of the organization of the profession. For bibliographic review LILACS and BDENF databases of the Electronic Health Library were used. A total of 57 full-text articles, published from 1957 to 2007, were analyzed upon the light of the ideas of Maurice Halbwachs, about " collective memory" . The results show that Brazilian nursing has a religious root with profound ramifications on its development. This configuration is so embedded in the collective memory that, even with the expansion of non-religious institutions, the Christian precepts remain present and strong.

'What really annoys me is people take it like it's a disability', epilepsy, disability and identity among people of Pakistani origin living in the UK.

PubMed

Rhodes, Penny J; Small, Neil A; Ismail, Hanif; Wright, John P

2008-01-01

This paper reports on a study of Pakistani people with epilepsy. It explores their attitudes towards their condition, others' attitudes, its impact on their lives, and the extent to which they considered themselves as disabled. Epilepsy was variously interpreted within biomedical, folk and religious paradigms. In line with popular understandings, participants associated disability with stable, permanent and visible physical impairments and did not consider themselves as disabled. However, they also recognised a social dimension to their experience. Much of the distress and disadvantage they experienced was socially determined, both through direct prejudice and discrimination, and indirectly through a fear of others' negative reactions. However, the invisible and unpredictable nature of epilepsy meant that they could conceal their condition and thereby mitigate its social effects. 'Disability' was not experienced as a static and permanent state but as a potential identity that was both contingent and contested. The literature portrays people moving from biomedical to social interpretations of disability. However, the tensions experienced by people in the study were more between competing religious interpretations of their condition and, to some extent, between religious and medical approaches. Conceptions of disability, which are presented in the literature as antagonistic and mutually exclusive, were experienced as different dimensions reflecting the complexity of experience. The paper concludes by suggesting that for many people, for whom disability is an ambiguous, contingent and contested identity, public self-identification as disabled is an unrealistic goal. Rather than conceiving of disability as primarily physical or primarily social, it would be better construed as a complex interweaving of multiple factors--physical, environmental, socio-cultural and psychological factors.

Masculinities, 'guy talk' and 'manning up': a discourse analysis of how young men talk about sexual health.

PubMed

Knight, Rod; Shoveller, Jean A; Oliffe, John L; Gilbert, Mark; Frank, Blye; Ogilvie, Gina

2012-11-01

Sexually transmitted infection testing rates among young men remain low, and their disengagement from sexual health services has been linked to enactments of masculinity that prohibit or truncate discussions of sexual health. Understanding how men align with multiple masculinities is therefore important for tailoring interventions that appropriately respond to their needs. We draw on 32 in-depth interviews with 15-24-year-old men to explore the discourses that facilitate or shut down sexual health communication with peers and sex partners. We employ a critical discourse analysis to explore how men's conversations about sexual health are constituted by masculine hierarchies (such as the ways in which masculinities influence men's ability to construct or challenge and contest dominant discourses about sexual health). Men's conversations about sexual health focused primarily around their sexual encounters - something frequently referred to as 'guy talk'. Also described were situations whereby participants employed a discourse of 'manning up' to (i) exert power over others with disregard for potential repercussions and (ii) deploy power to affirm and reify their own hyper-masculine identities, while using their personal (masculine) power to help others (who are subordinate in the social ordering of men). By better understanding how masculine discourses are employed by men, their sexual health needs can be advanced. © 2012 The Authors. Sociology of Health & Illness © 2012 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness/Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Why Not Simply Use the Best Theory? A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Notion of Plurality in Three Texts Used at a Teacher Education Institution in Sweden

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edling, Silvia

2014-01-01

Drawing on ambitions to contest violence in education, this article challenges ideas that student teachers only need to rely on evidence-based theory in their future profession. This is accomplished by analysing and comparing theories of plurality as described in three texts used in courses at one teacher education institution in Sweden. The texts…

Jewish ethics and xenotransplantation.

PubMed

Mathieu, Richard

2016-07-01

Although exclusively secular approaches to xenotransplantation are methodologically necessary to establish a fundamental verdict on its theoretical ethical acceptability, it is nevertheless pragmatically appropriate to take into account specifically religious positions, as religion is a factor relevant to societal acceptability. Apart from the aspect of societal acceptability, Jewish bioethics, like other religiously embedded ethics, may enrich the broader ethical discourse on xenotransplantation, as some of its principles-pikuach nefesh being the most prominent one-are plausible even in the framework of secular ethics. This paper first explores concepts of normativity in Jewish ethics before identifying specific ethical issues in Jewish bioethics and possible resolutions offered within the framework of Jewish ethics, and then finally examine the implications for the broader debate on xenotransplantation. Religions in general and Judaism in specific cannot and should not be systematically excluded from ethical debates, not only because they may provide helpful input, but also because religion, religiousness and the affiliation to a religion can be crucial factors regarding the societal acceptability of specific medical technologies and procedures as they may be important aspects of an individual's identity. The principles of Jewish bioethics may be compelling to those who do not necessarily share the specifically religious prerequisites on which Jewish ethics is established. Among these rather cogent concepts is the status of natural law and naturalness, which is far more open to medical technologies and procedures deemed as unnatural and thus morally wrong by other religious parties in public discourse. Jewish ethics has strong tendencies toward supporting xenotransplantation given a certain criteria is met. No categorical bans on xenotransplantation can be established on the grounds of Halacha. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Complex mediascapes, complex realities: critically engaging with biotechnology debates in Ghana.

PubMed

Rock, Joeva

2018-01-01

The recent increase in research and commercialization of genetically modified (GM) crops in Africa has resulted in considerable and understandable interest from farmers, scholars, and practitioners. However, messy situations are often hard to critically engage in from afar, and the recent article published by Braimah et al. [(2017). Debated agronomy: Public discourse and the future of biotechnology policy in Ghana. Global Bioethics . doi:10.1080/11287462.2016.1261604] presents certain claims that further obfuscate - rather than clarify - an already complex landscape. In this commentary I first seek to clarify particular details of the Ghanaian "GMO" (as GM crops are colloquially called in Ghana) story with particular focus on certain actors and their stances. Next, I highlight some methodological shortcomings of Debated Agronomy and correct certain dubious quotations and claims. Finally, I suggest a more ethnographically and discourse-focused methodology to gain much needed insight into how Ghanaians are actively molding, contesting, and questioning GM discourse, funding, and use.

Complex mediascapes, complex realities: critically engaging with biotechnology debates in Ghana

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

ABSTRACT The recent increase in research and commercialization of genetically modified (GM) crops in Africa has resulted in considerable and understandable interest from farmers, scholars, and practitioners. However, messy situations are often hard to critically engage in from afar, and the recent article published by Braimah et al. [(2017). Debated agronomy: Public discourse and the future of biotechnology policy in Ghana. Global Bioethics. doi:10.1080/11287462.2016.1261604] presents certain claims that further obfuscate – rather than clarify – an already complex landscape. In this commentary I first seek to clarify particular details of the Ghanaian “GMO” (as GM crops are colloquially called in Ghana) story with particular focus on certain actors and their stances. Next, I highlight some methodological shortcomings of Debated Agronomy and correct certain dubious quotations and claims. Finally, I suggest a more ethnographically and discourse-focused methodology to gain much needed insight into how Ghanaians are actively molding, contesting, and questioning GM discourse, funding, and use. PMID:29887770

Religious attitudes toward nuclear energy: an analysis of statements by religious groups

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Smith, J.A. III

This dissertation analyzes selected responses of religious groups to the question, Should society increase or decrease its reliance on energy produced by nuclear fission and for what reasons. The primary sources, dating from 1974 until mid-1980, are 82 official or semi-official statements and study documents of religious groups and 17 shareholder resolutions filed by religious groups. The groups are primarily from the United States, Canada, and Great Britain or related to the World Council of Churches. The thesis of the study is that a fully adequate religious statement about nuclear energy would show awareness of and deal with the questionsmore » raised in the analytical framework. Using that framework, there are few, if any, adequate religious statements about nuclear energy. A typology of ethical modes in Chapter V describes five positions: polemical anti-nuclear, dialogical anti-nuclear, dialogical middle, dialogical pro-nuclear, and polemical pro-nuclear. The bias of the study is to maintain open and rational discourse with all perspectives rather than to take a position for or against nuclear energy. The study primarily analyzes how religious groups deal with one complex social issue, nuclear energy, but the analytical framework has broad application to a variety of social issues as treated by religious groups.« less

Muslim American adolescents' explanations of changing religious practices: Cultural tools in cultural contexts.

PubMed

Cain, Kathleen M; Schiro, Isabella N; Gregory, Wesley E; Westberg, Lindsay M; Lee, Samantha R; Boyle, Colleen D

2017-03-01

To examine the culturally embedded nature of religious practices, we conducted a mixed-methods study in which Muslim American adolescents described how and why their religious practices had changed in recent years (see Etengoff & Daiute, 2013, J. Adolesc. Res., 28, 690). Participants included 201 Muslim adolescents (ages 13-19) from predominantly immigrant families; all were contestants in a Muslim Inter-Scholastic Tournament regional competition. Participants completed surveys including an item regarding whether their religious practices had changed, and for those who answered affirmatively, open-ended questions about the change. Additional measures assessed ethnic identity and perceived discrimination. As hypothesized, the 60% of participants who reported a change in religious practices described this shift as a response to new contexts, people, and religious knowledge. Those who reported a change also reported higher levels of ethnic identity exploration and perceived discrimination. Overall, Muslim American adolescents' descriptions portrayed religious practices as developing through reciprocal interactions with culture. More generally, participants' descriptions point to the viability of a model in which religious practices change and in turn are changed by cultural contexts. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Religious development is viewed as taking place in relational systems with reciprocity between individuals and surrounding contexts. Variations in contexts predict variations in religious development, but mechanisms of development are not well understood. Muslim Americans, including adolescents, show high levels of religious involvement and experience unique cultural and religious contexts. Muslim American emerging adults describe their religious practices as responsive to sociocultural contexts. What does the study add? This study focuses on Muslim American adolescents, a group that has received little research attention, especially in regard to religious development. Participants reported a wide array of changes in religious practices, and they described these changes as responses to social and cultural influences. Participants' descriptions of changing practices can be understood through a Vygotskian framework in which religious practices are cultural tools that both respond to and shape surrounding cultural contexts. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

The Discourse on Dangerous Reading in Nineteenth-Century Latvia.

PubMed

Daija, Pauls; Eglāja-Kristsone, Eva

During the nineteenth century, Latvian society experienced significant social and cultural changes due to a transition from agrarian to modern society and the emergence of a Latvian national culture. Reading, previously a mostly religious and practical activity, took new forms among the Latvian middle class and steadily began to be depicted as a dangerous pastime. In this essay, we have explored the connection between social change and pathological reading by turning attention to the rhetoric of the dangerous reading discourse, representations of effects of reading in the press, and the condemnation of female reading.

Equity and Leadership: Research-Based Strategies for School Leaders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ross, John A.; Berger, Marie-Josee

2009-01-01

Principals are required by policy, regulation, legislation and democratic discourse to promote equity of outcomes. This integrated review investigates research on equity issues facing five student groups: special needs students; religious, cultural and racial minorities; groups disadvantaged by socioeconomic status; gender groups; and students…

Vulnerable salvation: Evangelical Protestant leaders and institutions, drug use and HIV and AIDS in the urban periphery of Rio de Janeiro

PubMed Central

Garcia, Jonathan; Muñoz-Laboy, Miguel; Parker, Richard

2011-01-01

This analysis focuses on the evangelical Protestant responses to drug use and HIV prevention, treatment and care in the urban periphery of Rio de Janeiro. We question how religious institutions, and the positions of pastors, create or reduce various elements of societal illness and vulnerability. We aim to show that the views of pastors may symbolise a form of social regulation that may have a meaningful social impact on drug use and HIV and AIDS. The interviews of 23 evangelical religious leaders were collected using a theoretical sample and analysed through a grounded theory approach. Two case studies of evangelical drug rehabilitation centres are derived from five qualitative interviews. Evangelical drug rehabilitation centres generally reflect pastors' discourses of reintegration into social networks including marriage, family, and employment. We found important differences in the discourses and practices in private versus state-funded rehabilitation centres that may reveal ways social and programmatic vulnerabilities may affect the efficacy of public health interventions. PMID:21512922

Contesting epistemic authority: Conspiracy theories on the boundaries of science.

PubMed

Harambam, Jaron; Aupers, Stef

2015-05-01

Conspiracy theories are immensely popular today, yet in the social sciences they are often dismissed as "irrational," "bad science," or "religious belief." In this study, we take a cultural sociological approach and argue that this persistent disqualification is a form of "boundary work" that obscures rather than clarifies how and why conspiracy theorists challenge the epistemic authority of science. Based on a qualitative study of the Dutch conspiracy milieu, we distinguish three critiques that are motivated by encounters with scientific experts in everyday life: the alleged dogmatism of modern science, the intimate relation of scientific knowledge production with vested interests, and the exclusion of lay knowledge by scientific experts forming a global "power elite." Given their critique that resonates with social scientific understandings of science, it is concluded that conspiracy theorists compete with (social) scientists in complex battles for epistemic authority in a broader field of knowledge contestation. © The Author(s) 2014.

Scientist or science-stuffed? Discourses of science in North American medical education.

PubMed

Whitehead, Cynthia

2013-01-01

The dominance of biomedical science in medical education has been contested throughout the past century, with recurring calls for more social science and humanities content. The centrality of biomedicine is frequently traced back to Abraham Flexner's 1910 report, 'Medical Education in the United States and Canada'. However, Flexner advocated for a scientist-doctor, rather than a curriculum filled with science content. Examination of the discourses of science since Flexner allows us to explore the place of various knowledge forms in medical education. A Foucauldian critical discourse analysis was performed, examining the discourses of scientific medicine in Flexner's works and North American medical education articles in subsequent decades. Foucault's methodological principles were used to identify statements, keywords and metaphors that emerged in the development of the discourses of scientific medicine, with particular attention to recurring arguments and shifts in the meaning and use of terms. Flexner's scientist-doctor was an incisive thinker who drew upon multiple forms of knowledge. In the post-Flexner medical education reforms, the perception of science as a discursive object embedded in the curriculum became predominant over that of the scientist as the discursive subject who uses science. Science was then considered core curricular content and was discursively framed as impossibly vast. A parallel discourse, one of the insufficiency of biomedical science for the proper training of doctors, has existed over the past century, even as the humanities and social sciences have remained on the margins in medical school curricula. That discourses of scientific medicine have reinforced the centrality of biomedicine in medical education helps to explain the persistent marginalisation of other important knowledge domains. Medical educators need to be aware of the effects of these discourses on understandings of medical knowledge, particularly when contemplating curricular reform. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2013.

``We're all unisex anyway'': The persistent discourse of gender neutrality in physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonsalves, Allison

2015-03-01

Doctoral physics students have stories about the kinds of actions, behaviours and ways of doing physics that enable them to be recognized as physicists. This presentation will illuminate some of these stories through a lens that scrutinizes how discourses about gender can shape both the stories that students tell and the behaviours they practice to achieve recognition in their field. Through observations, photo-elicitation, and life history interviews, eleven men and women shared stories about their experiences with physics, and the contexts that have enabled or constrained their participation in doctoral physics. The results of this study revealed that recognition was often achieved through the reproduction or reworking of persistent discourses of gender norms. This presentation will explore the particularly persistent discourse of gender neutrality in physics. I will explore how this discourse is constructed, how it can be contested, and how it may be constraining for both men and women students. The construction of physics as gender neutral can pose conflicts of identity for students who feel the need to refigure their gender performances in ways that permit recognition as ``physics people.'' This presentation will look at two case studies that demonstrate the conflict students experience between expressions of femininity and doing physics against the backdrop of gender neutrality. I will discuss the problematic of gender neutrality, and I will also discuss some of the creative solutions doctoral students adopt to navigate discourses of gender in this neutral terrain.

"And I Have Been Told That There Is Nothing Fun about Having Sex While You Are Still in High School": Dominant Discourses on Women's Sexual Practices and Desires in Life Orientation Programmes at School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shefer, Tamara; Ngabaza, Sisa

2015-01-01

Young women's sexuality is a contested terrain in multiple ways in contemporary South Africa. A growing body of work in the context of HIV and gender-based violence illustrates how young women find it challenging to negotiate safe and equitable sexual relationships with men, and are often the victims of coercive sex, unwanted early pregnancies and…

Wag the Dog? Online Conferencing and Teaching.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ess, Charles

2000-01-01

Describes the successes, limitations, and costs of incorporating Web-accessible conferencing software and discourse ethics in a religious studies class. Suggests that electronic instruction may work for some students but not for all. States that electronic teaching should be viewed as one teaching method among many. Includes references. (CMK)

Fatherhood, childism, and the creation of society.

PubMed

Wall, John

2007-01-01

This essay argues for a new religious ethical approach to fatherhood centered on children and their expanding capabilities for participation in society. Under the notion of "childism"—in analogy to feminism, womanism, humanism, and the like—it takes the perspective of the experiences and concerns of childhood as such. In contrast with a soft patriarchal argument for fatherhood that dominates much religious discourse today, it argues for a larger and more hopeful vision of fatherhood as directed toward the human social good. This requires, methodologically, a richer hermeneutical circle between religion and the social sciences. Substantively, it calls for Christian and other religious ethicists to re-imagine fatherhood as an integrated public–private responsibility that aims to cultivate children’s fully human social creativity as images of their Creator.

Melanie Klein and Anna Freud: the discourse of the early dispute.

PubMed

Viner, R

1996-01-01

Divisions in the field of the psychoanalysis of children can be traced to a dispute over the infantile super-ego between the theorists Melanie Klein and Anna Freud beginning in 1927. These divisions are understood within the analytic world as the result of scientific disputation between alternative valid theories. An examination of the language, claims, and epistemology of Klein's and Freud's publications in 1927 that marked the public commencement of the conflict, reveals a personalized discourse in which authority was derived from the allegiance, experience, and personal analytic standing of the contestants as much as from theoretical insight. The structure and rhetoric of the debate suggest that, rather than terminating the dispute, the publications of 1927 served to encourage professionalization in child analysis and establish Anna Freud and Melanie Klein as authoritative alternative theorists.

Kenyan Religious Leaders’ Views on Same-Sex Sexuality and Gender Nonconformity: Religious Freedom versus Constitutional Rights

PubMed Central

Mbote, David Kuria; Sandfort, Theo G. M.; Waweru, Esther; Zapfel, Andrew

2016-01-01

Religion plays an important role in framing the public discourse on sexuality, especially in countries where religion fully permeates social life. We explored the perspectives of Kenyan religious leaders on sexual and gender diversity in their country’s specific context. Two hundred and twelve Catholic, Islam and Protestant leaders from urban centers and rural townships completed a self-administered questionnaire, specifically developed for this study. The leaders’ perspectives were predominantly negative. Limited acceptance was conditional on sexual minorities not engaging in same-sex practices or seeing such practices as sinful. A substantial minority (37%) endorsed the use of violence for maintaining social values, especially regarding homosexuality and gender nonconformity. The majority of religious leaders agreed on the difference between civil law and religious doctrine. Human rights principles enshrined in the Kenya Constitution were seen as also applicable to sexual and gender minorities. Decriminalization of same-sex sexuality was seen as against one’s religion. Perspectives were less negative if leaders were familiar with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons. Interventions that promote intergroup contact could be effective in changing religious leaders’ mindsets and advancing human rights and health for sexual and gender minorities. PMID:27982708

Kenyan Religious Leaders' Views on Same-Sex Sexuality and Gender Nonconformity: Religious Freedom versus Constitutional Rights.

PubMed

Mbote, David Kuria; Sandfort, Theo G M; Waweru, Esther; Zapfel, Andrew

Religion plays an important role in framing the public discourse on sexuality, especially in countries where religion fully permeates social life. We explored the perspectives of Kenyan religious leaders on sexual and gender diversity in their country's specific context. A total of 212 Catholic, Islamic, and Protestant leaders from urban centers and rural townships completed a self-administered questionnaire specifically developed for this study. The leaders' perspectives were predominantly negative. Limited acceptance was conditional on sexual minorities not engaging in same-sex practices or seeing such practices as sinful. A substantial minority (37%) endorsed the use of violence for maintaining social values, especially regarding homosexuality and gender nonconformity. The majority of religious leaders agreed on the difference between civil law and religious doctrine. Human rights principles enshrined in Kenya's Constitution were considered to be applicable to sexual and gender minorities. Decriminalization of same-sex sexuality was seen as against one's religion. Perspectives were less negative if leaders were familiar with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons. Interventions that promote intergroup contact could be effective in changing religious leaders' mind-sets and advancing human rights and health for sexual and gender minorities.

Religion and women's health in Ghana: insights into HIV/AIDs preventive and protective behavior.

PubMed

Takyi, Baffour K

2003-03-01

Since the late 1970s when the first cases of HIV/AIDS were identified in Africa, there has been an upsurge of research on the epidemic. Although religious involvement may be germane to AIDS protective and risk behavior, few of these studies deal with religion and AIDS. This article contributes to the discourse on religion and health in Africa by analysing the interrelationship between religion and AIDS behavior in Ghana, a West African country at the early stages of the AIDS epidemic, and one where religious activities are more pronounced. We explore whether a woman's knowledge of HIV/AIDS is associated with her religious affiliation, and whether religious affiliation influences AIDS preventive (protective) attitudes. Findings from our analysis of Ghanaian data indicate that religious affiliation has a significant effect on knowledge of AIDS. However, we did not find religious affiliation to be associated with changes in specific protective behavior, particularly the use of condoms. The limitations and implications of the study are discussed, promising directions for further research on religion and AIDS protective and risk behaviors are also discussed, and the design and development of culturally sensitive programs to help in the ongoing AIDS prevention efforts in the region are proposed.

Individuals with greater science literacy and education have more polarized beliefs on controversial science topics.

PubMed

Drummond, Caitlin; Fischhoff, Baruch

2017-09-05

Although Americans generally hold science in high regard and respect its findings, for some contested issues, such as the existence of anthropogenic climate change, public opinion is polarized along religious and political lines. We ask whether individuals with more general education and greater science knowledge, measured in terms of science education and science literacy, display more (or less) polarized beliefs on several such issues. We report secondary analyses of a nationally representative dataset (the General Social Survey), examining the predictors of beliefs regarding six potentially controversial issues. We find that beliefs are correlated with both political and religious identity for stem cell research, the Big Bang, and human evolution, and with political identity alone on climate change. Individuals with greater education, science education, and science literacy display more polarized beliefs on these issues. We find little evidence of political or religious polarization regarding nanotechnology and genetically modified foods. On all six topics, people who trust the scientific enterprise more are also more likely to accept its findings. We discuss the causal mechanisms that might underlie the correlation between education and identity-based polarization.

Between religious philanthropy and individualised medicine: situating inherited breast cancer risk in Greece.

PubMed

Kampriani, Eirini

2009-08-01

This article explores cultural articulations of inherited breast cancer risk at the meeting-point between religious philanthropy and individualised medicine. Drawing on the particularities of the ethnographic context of Northern Greece, in a rural area among a population facing the uneven distribution of biotechnologies, this analysis intends to show how developments in the field of breast cancer prevention and genetics are interwoven with the challenges and possibilities of the modernisation and secularisation processes. Notions of 'control' or 'protection' are put to work in medical discourse and the religious domain, through a renewed repertoire of pre-existing meaning-systems that highlight often contrasting aspects of collectivity and individuality. For women with high-risk family history of breast cancer, these tensions are reflected in ways they negotiate articulations of their biology, inherited risk and female subjectivity. In effect, the issues of inequality and religious philanthropy bring forth a different terrain for thinking about the biosocial configurations and the image of individualised consumers that genetic knowledge has been said to enforce or endorse.

The use of religious metaphors by UK newspapers to describe and denigrate climate change.

PubMed

Woods, Ruth; Fernández, Ana; Coen, Sharon

2012-04-01

British newspapers have denigrated anthropogenic climate change by misrepresenting scientific consensus and/or framing climate change within unsympathetic discourses. One aspect of the latter that has not been studied is the use of metaphor to disparage climate change science and proponents. This article analyses 122 British newspaper articles published using a religious metaphor between summer 2003 and 2008. Most were critical of climate change, especially articles in conservative newspapers The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and The Times. Articles used religion as a source of metaphor to denigrate climate change in two ways: (1) undermining its scientific status by presenting it as irrational faith-based religion, and proponents as religious extremists intolerant of criticism; (2) mocking climate change using notions of sin, e.g. describing 'green' behaviours as atonement or sacrifice. We argue that the religious metaphor damages constructive debate by emphasizing morality and how climate change is discussed, and detracting attention from the content of scientific data and theories.

Constructions of Race among Religiously Conservative College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Modica, Marianne

2012-01-01

The "Whites as victims" motif in conversations about race has been well documented in recent decades. When discussing affirmative action hiring policies, a common belief expressed by Whites is that people of color have been permitted to progress unfairly at the expense of harder working Whites. Whites using this discourse see themselves…

Telling Dreams and Keeping Secrets: The Bole Maru as American Indian Religious Resistance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sarris, Greg

1992-01-01

An American Indian professor discusses his concerns, contradictions inherent in his insider/outsider position, and the nature of cross-cultural discourse related to his family's participation at a university showing of an ethnographic documentary about the last Bole Maru leader ("Dreamer") of the Kashaya Pomo (a deceased family member).…

The Modern Religious Language of Education: Rousseau's "Emile"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Osterwalder, Fritz

2012-01-01

The Republican education, its concepts, theories, and form of discourse belong to the shared European heritage of the pre-modern Age. The pedagogy of humanism and its effects on the early Modern Age are represented by Republicanism. Even if Republicanism found a political continuation in liberalism and democratism of the Modern Age, the same…

Interfaith Cooperation on Campus: Teaching Interfaith Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Patel, Eboo; Meyer, Cassie

2011-01-01

When public discourse around religious diversity is so fraught, how might faculty teach about religion in a way that encourages civic engagement and participation in a diverse society in college students? The authors suggest a way forward, what they call "interfaith literacy," and explore how it might play out in the college classroom.

Online Religious Advertising: The Case of Australian Christian Youth Festivals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Teusner, Paul Emerson

2014-01-01

This chapter explores the changing nature of Christian denominational discourse in an Australian context as informed by Internet technologies. It will take as its case study three Internet sites developed and published for the promotion of three separate Christian youth festivals held in Australia between July 2008 and January 2009, undertaking a…

Regulation of sexuality in Indonesian discourse: normative gender, criminal law and shifting strategies of control.

PubMed

Blackwood, Evelyn

2007-01-01

This paper examines changes in the regulation of sexuality in Indonesia in the period since 1980 as seen through state, religious and lesbian and gay activist discourses on sexuality. Three different eras during that period of Indonesian history are compared. Under the New Order regime of Suharto, the Indonesian state sought to control sexuality through a deployment of gender. During the 1990s, state Islamic discourses of sexuality shifted in response to international pressures to support same-sex marriage and sexual rights. During the third period following the end of the Suharto regime in 1998, a conservative Islamic minority pushed for more restrictive laws in the State Penal Code, initiating intense public debate on the role of the state in questions of sexuality and morality. Over this time period, the dominant discourse on sexuality moved from strategically linking normative gender with heterosexuality and marriage to direct attempts to legislate heterosexual marriage by criminalizing a wide range of sexual practices.

An Alternative Analysis of the Discourse by Descartes, Kant and Hegel in terms of the Ethical Structure of the Kanun.

PubMed

Yamamoto, Kazuhiko

2015-06-01

The ethical structure of the Albanian customary code, the Kanun, is deemed to represent the ethical value system of a society without state power. In spite of the appearance of civilizations and the resultant advent of an incipient state power, humans seemed to have known only the ethical value system of a society without state power until Gotama, Socrates, Plato and Jesus proposed new religious and philosophical doctrines. The basic trait of these religious and philosophical doctrines, which try to antagonize the ethical value system of a society without state power by eliminating the emotional aspect of humanity from the ethical value system, has been inherited by western philosophers such as Descartes, Kant and Hegel. The discourses by Descartes, Kant and Hegel were reviewed while paying attention to how they dealt with the sensuous and emotional aspects of humanity. The metaphysical implications of the ethical structure of the Kanun surfaced through the critical reviewing of their philosophy, and a hypothesis concerning its origin was presented.

Engaging religious leaders to support HIV prevention and care for gays, bisexual men, and other men who have sex with men in coastal Kenya

PubMed Central

Gichuru, Evans; Kombo, Bernadette; Mumba, Noni; Sariola, Salla; Sanders, Eduard J.; van der Elst, Elise M.

2018-01-01

Abstract In Kenyan communities, religious leaders are important gatekeepers in matters of health and public morality. In a context that is generally homophobic, religious leaders may aggravate or reduce stigmatization of sexual minorities such as gay and bisexual men, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM). Literature indicates mixed results in efforts to encourage religious leaders to work effectively and sensitively with issues regarding HIV and sexuality. This paper describes the implementation of an engagement intervention with religious leaders from different denominations, which took place following a homophobic hate attack that was led by local religious leaders, at an HIV research clinic for GBMSM on the Kenyan coast. After the homophobic attack, tailored engagement activities, including a comprehensive four-day online sensitivity training course took place between June 2015 and October 2016 in the Kenyan coast. HIV researchers, together with trained GBMSM activists, organized the series of engagement activities for religious leaders which unfolded iteratively, with each subsequent activity informed by the results of the previous one. Facilitated conversations were used to explore differences and disagreements in relation to questions of scripture, mission, HIV, and human sexuality. As a result, researchers noted that many religious leaders, who initially expressed exceedingly negative attitudes towards GBMSM, started to express far more accepting and supportive views of sexuality, sexual identities, and same-sex relations. This paper describes the changes in religious leaders’ discourses relating to GBMSM, and highlights the possibility of using engagement interventions to build trust between research institutes, religious leaders, and GBMSM. PMID:29770367

Engaging religious leaders to support HIV prevention and care for gays, bisexual men, and other men who have sex with men in coastal Kenya.

PubMed

Gichuru, Evans; Kombo, Bernadette; Mumba, Noni; Sariola, Salla; Sanders, Eduard J; van der Elst, Elise M

2018-01-01

In Kenyan communities, religious leaders are important gatekeepers in matters of health and public morality. In a context that is generally homophobic, religious leaders may aggravate or reduce stigmatization of sexual minorities such as gay and bisexual men, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM). Literature indicates mixed results in efforts to encourage religious leaders to work effectively and sensitively with issues regarding HIV and sexuality. This paper describes the implementation of an engagement intervention with religious leaders from different denominations, which took place following a homophobic hate attack that was led by local religious leaders, at an HIV research clinic for GBMSM on the Kenyan coast. After the homophobic attack, tailored engagement activities, including a comprehensive four-day online sensitivity training course took place between June 2015 and October 2016 in the Kenyan coast. HIV researchers, together with trained GBMSM activists, organized the series of engagement activities for religious leaders which unfolded iteratively, with each subsequent activity informed by the results of the previous one. Facilitated conversations were used to explore differences and disagreements in relation to questions of scripture, mission, HIV, and human sexuality. As a result, researchers noted that many religious leaders, who initially expressed exceedingly negative attitudes towards GBMSM, started to express far more accepting and supportive views of sexuality, sexual identities, and same-sex relations. This paper describes the changes in religious leaders' discourses relating to GBMSM, and highlights the possibility of using engagement interventions to build trust between research institutes, religious leaders, and GBMSM.

It's Not Business, It's Personal: Implicit Religion in the Corporate Personhood Debate

PubMed Central

McClendon, David

2016-01-01

Debate surrounding the United States Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC is ostensibly about the legal rights of corporations. However, I argue that the debate about corporate personhood is infused with religious concerns, rooted in the Protestant Reformation, about the proper identification of agentive subjects and the consequences of misidentification for human personhood. Focusing on the language used by opponents and defenders in the popular media, I show how both sides are animated by Protestant notions of human agency and share similar anxieties about the threats to that agency posed by abstract corporate or governmental entities. Attending to this fundamentally religious dimension not only improves our understanding of the moral stakes in the debate over corporations’ legal rights but it also illuminates the implicit religious underpinnings of American political discourse. PMID:27493585

Contested identities: gendered politics, gendered religion in Pakistan.

PubMed

Shaheed, Farida

2010-01-01

In Pakistan, the self-serving use of Islam by more secular elements alongside politico-religious ones facilitated the latter's increasing influence and the conflation and intricate interweaving of Islam and Pakistani nationhood. A paradigm shift under Zia's martial law revamped society as much as state laws, producing both religiously defined militias and aligned civil society groups. Examining the impact on women of fusing religion and politics, this paper argues that women become symbolic markers of appropriated territory in the pursuit of state power, and that the impact of such fusing, different for differently situated women, needs to be gauged in societal terms as well as in terms of state dynamics. Questioning the positing of civil society as a self-evident progressive desideratum, the paper concludes that gender equality projects seeking reconfigurations of power cannot be effective without vigorously competing in the creation of knowledge, culture and identity.

Physicians and abortion: provision, political participation and conflicts on the ground--the cases of Brazil and Poland.

PubMed

De Zordo, Silvia; Mishtal, Joanna

2011-01-01

Two qualitative studies have been conducted between 2002 and 2009 in Poland and Brazil, two different geopolitical settings in which the Catholic Church has had a significant political influence and where abortion is highly restricted. In both countries, struggles for abortion rights have played an important role in challenging the current restrictive policies and bringing attention to the plight of women unable to obtain abortions. This article examines the political role that physicians play in these contestations, drawing on some findings of two larger qualitative studies. In Poland semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 physicians in Warsaw and Krakow and with 55 women aged 18 to 45 in Gdańsk. In Brazil questionnaires were administered and semi-structured interviews conducted with 22 obstetrician-gynecologists and 23 health professionals in two public maternity hospitals in Salvador da Bahia. This article argues that gynecologists' perspectives and practices not only reflect or heed religious precepts on reproductive rights, but are also deeply influenced by inadequate medical training and by the fear of being prosecuted or stigmatized, especially in Brazil. The political non-engagement of physicians in Poland is driven by the lack of abortion rights discourse in the public arena, poor links with women's rights groups, and the lack of political unity within the medical community. Comparisons between Brazil and Poland ultimately suggest that strong liaisons between physicians and the feminist movement influence physicians' attitudes and political engagement and are most promising in abortion rights advocacy efforts. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Conflicts between conservative Christian institutions and secular groups in sub-Saharan Africa: Ideological discourses on sexualities, reproduction, and HIV/AIDS

PubMed Central

Mantell, Joanne E.; Correale, Jacqueline; Adams-Skinner, Jessica; Stein, Zena A.

2011-01-01

Religious and secular institutions advocate strategies that represent all points on the continuum to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. Drawing on an extensive literature review of studies conducted in sub-Saharan Africa, we focus on those secular institutions that support all effective methods of reducing HIV/AIDS transmission and those conservative religious institutions that support a limited set of prevention methods. We conclude by identifying topics for dialogue between these viewpoints that should facilitate cooperation by expanding the generally acceptable HIV/AIDS prevention methods, and especially the use of condoms. PMID:21834733

"It Was Not Me That Was Sick, It Was the Building": Rhetorical Identity Management Strategies in the Context of Observed or Suspected Indoor Air Problems in Workplaces.

PubMed

Finell, Eerika; Seppälä, Tuija; Suoninen, Eero

2018-07-01

Suffering from a contested illness poses a serious threat to one's identity. We analyzed the rhetorical identity management strategies respondents used when depicting their health problems and lives in the context of observed or suspected indoor air (IA) problems in the workplace. The data consisted of essays collected by the Finnish Literature Society. We used discourse-oriented methods to interpret a variety of language uses in the construction of identity strategies. Six strategies were identified: respondents described themselves as normal and good citizens with strong characters, and as IA sufferers who received acknowledge from others, offered positive meanings to their in-group, and demanded recognition. These identity strategies located on two continua: (a) individual- and collective-level strategies and (b) dissolved and emphasized (sub)category boundaries. The practical conclusion is that professionals should be aware of these complex coping strategies when aiming to interact effectively with people suffering from contested illnesses.

Determinants of Moral Reasoning: Academic Factors, Gender, Richness-of-Life Experiences, and Religious Preferences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilhelm, William J.

2004-01-01

A series of initiatives over the last fifteen years have helped forge today's consensus on the need to clarify and clearly communicate standards of behavior (National Skills Standards Board (NSSB), 1996). These initiatives have generated considerable discourse and subsequent research dealing with morals and ethics. This study focuses on academic,…

Between History and Apocalypse: Stumbling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lalu, Premesh

2016-01-01

Apartheid rested on a division of the senses as much as it did on a reductive politics of racial subjection and its accompanying violence. As an instance of the division of the senses, it produced a condition of stasis in which history and a post-apartheid future were increasingly marked by a politico-religious discourse of apocalypse, and a moral…

Empathy 2.0 and the Wonderful World of Wiki Collaboration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tarrant, Cindy; Godwin, Kathryn; Daniel, Stacey; Bolton, Dawn

2013-01-01

In a perfect world, diversity would abound in people's daily lives, promoting friendships across racial, ethnic, and religious lines. When that is not possible and students learn in a more segregated setting, wikis provide a tool to reach beyond the school walls, find a diverse audience, and create meaningful discourse. This article narrates an…

"Discourse on the Go": Thematic Analysis of Vehicle Graffiti on the Roads of Egypt

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

El-Nashar, Mohamed; Nayef, Heba

2016-01-01

This paper investigates graffiti drawn on vehicles in Egypt as an expression of their authors' social values, religious ideologies and political affiliations. Little research has been done in Egypt on these meaning-loaded messages. This paper gives further evidence that graffiti are a very powerful mode of expression for groups that feel…

Arab Education Going Medieval: Sanitizing Western Representation in Arab Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Labidi, Imed

2010-01-01

In the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2000, debate about Arab education as the new apparatus for religious fanaticism used by Arab extremist groups to entice hate and violence against the West took prominence in Western discourse. Considerable ink was spilled confusing hostile narratives in Arab curricula and the metaphors of identity…

I want to hold your hand: abstinence curricula, bioethics, and the silencing of desire.

PubMed

Wilkerson, Abby

2013-06-01

The abstinence approach to sex education remains influential despite its demonstrated ineffectiveness. One bill forbids the "promotion" of "gateway sexual activity," while requiring outright condemnation of "non-abstinence," defined so loosely as to plausibly include handholding. Bioethics seldom (if ever) contributes to sex-ed debates, yet exploring the pivotal role of medical discourse reveals the need for bioethical intervention. Sex-ed debates revolve around a theory of human flourishing based on heteronormative temporality, a developmental teleology ensuring the transmission of various supposed social goods through heterosexual marriage (Halberstam, 2005). Heteronormative temporality also constitutes a moralized discourse in which the values of health and presumed certainties of medicine serve to justify conservative religious dictates that otherwise would appear controversial as the basis for public policy. Overall, this analysis explores how moralized medical discourses compound existing injustices, while suggesting bioethics' potential contributions to moral and political analysis of sex-ed policies.

Individuals with greater science literacy and education have more polarized beliefs on controversial science topics

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Although Americans generally hold science in high regard and respect its findings, for some contested issues, such as the existence of anthropogenic climate change, public opinion is polarized along religious and political lines. We ask whether individuals with more general education and greater science knowledge, measured in terms of science education and science literacy, display more (or less) polarized beliefs on several such issues. We report secondary analyses of a nationally representative dataset (the General Social Survey), examining the predictors of beliefs regarding six potentially controversial issues. We find that beliefs are correlated with both political and religious identity for stem cell research, the Big Bang, and human evolution, and with political identity alone on climate change. Individuals with greater education, science education, and science literacy display more polarized beliefs on these issues. We find little evidence of political or religious polarization regarding nanotechnology and genetically modified foods. On all six topics, people who trust the scientific enterprise more are also more likely to accept its findings. We discuss the causal mechanisms that might underlie the correlation between education and identity-based polarization. PMID:28827344

The struggle for contested boundaries in the move to collaborative care teams in Australian maternity care.

PubMed

McIntyre, Meredith; Francis, Karen; Chapman, Ysanne

2012-06-01

the maternity services reforms announced by the Australian government herald a process of major change. The primary maternity care reforms requires maternity care professionals to work collaboratively as equals in contrast to the current system which is characterised by unequal relationships. critical discourse analysis (CDA) using neoliberalism as an interpretive lens was employed to determine the positions of the respective maternity care professionals on the proposed reform and what purpose was served by their representations to the national review of maternity services. a CDA framework informed by Fairclough, linking textual and sociological analysis in a way that foregrounds issues of power and resistance, was undertaken. Data were collected from selected written submissions to the 2008 national review of maternity services representing the position of midwifery, obstetrics, general practitioners including rural doctors and maternity service managers. maternity care professionals yielded several discourses that were specific to the discipline with a number that were shared across disciplines. The rise in consumerism has changed historical positions of influence in maternity services policy. The once powerful obstetric position in determining the direction of policy has come under siege, isolated in the presence of a powerful alliance involving consumers, midwives, sympathetic maternity service managers and some medical professions. The midwifery voice has been heard, a historical first, supported by its presence as a member of the alliance. the struggle for contested boundaries is entering a new phase as maternity care professionals struggle with different perceptions of what multidisciplinary collaboration means in the delivery of primary maternity care. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Prostate cancer support groups, health literacy and consumerism: are community-based volunteers re-defining older men's health?

PubMed

Oliffe, John L; Bottorff, Joan L; McKenzie, Michael M; Hislop, T Gregory; Gerbrandt, Julieta S; Oglov, Valerie

2011-11-01

In this article we describe the connections between prostate cancer support groups (PCSGs) and men's health literacy and consumer orientation to health care services. The study findings are drawn from participant observations conducted at 16 PCSGs in British Columbia, Canada and 54 individual interviews that focused on men's experiences of attending group meetings. Men's communication and interactions at PCSGs provide important insights for how men talk about and conceptualize health and illness. For example, biomedical language often predominated at group meetings, and men used numbers and measures to engage with risk discourses in linking prostate cancer markers to various treatment options and morbidity and mortality rates. Many groups afforded opportunities for men to interact with health care providers as a means to better understand the language and logic of prostate cancer management. The health literacy skills fostered at PCSGs along with specific group-informed strategies could be mobilized in the men's subsequent clinical consultations. Consumer discourses and strategies to contest power relations with health care professionals underpinned many men's search for prostate cancer information and their commitment to assisting other men. Key were patients' rights, and perhaps responsibility, to compare diverse health products and services in making decisions across the entire trajectory of their prostate cancer. Overall, the study findings reveal PCSGs as having the capacity to contest as well as align with medical expertise and services facilitating men's transition from patient to informed health care consumers. The processes through which this occurs may direct the design of older men's health promotion programs.

The use and abuse of religious beliefs in dividing and conquering between socially marginalized groups: the same-sex marriage debate.

PubMed

Greene, Beverly

2009-11-01

This article discusses the use and abuse of religious beliefs and their role in divide-and-conquer strategies. Divide-and-conquer strategies are engaged to disrupt potential coalitions between and among marginalized group members, specifically sexual minority groups and people of color. Tensions between these groups have been exacerbated by the debate on same-sex marriage and comparisons between the discriminatory treatment of each group. A component of this discussion includes a brief exploration of one of the historical abuses of religious doctrine used to legitimize the marginalization of people of color and sexual minorities in the United States. For African Americans, one form of marginalization was reflected in criminalizing interracial marriage, and for members of sexual minority groups, a form of marginalization is denying group members the right to marry. The author also explores culturally competent and respectful disciplinary and clinical responses to religiously derived prejudice against sexual minority group members and people of color and discusses the implications for multicultural discourse. Copyright 2009 by the American Psychological Association

Revolution, Modernity and (Trans)National Shi`i Islam: Rethinking Religious Conversion in Senegal

PubMed Central

Leichtman, Mara A.

2013-01-01

The establishment of a Shi`i Islamic network in Senegal is one alternative to following the country's dominant Sufi orders. I examine Senegalese conversion narratives and the central role played by the Iranian Revolution, contextualizing life stories (trans)nationally in Senegal's political economy and global networks with Iran and Lebanon. Converts localize foreign religious ideologies into a ‘national’ Islam through the discourse that Shi`i education can bring peace and economic development to Senegal. Senegalese Shi`a perceive that proselytizing, media technologies, and Muslim networking can lead to social, cultural and perhaps even political change through translating the Iranian Revolution into a non-violent reform movement. PMID:23833329

Language, Faith and Identity: A Historical Insight into Discourses of Language Ideology and Planning by the Lutheran Church of Australia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hatoss, Aniko

2012-01-01

While most language-planning and policy (LPP) studies have focussed on language decisions made by government bodies, in recent years there has been an increased interest in micro-level language planning in immigrant contexts. Few studies, however, have used this framework to retrospectively examine the planning decisions of religious institutions,…

Religious Education, Conflict and Diversity: An Exploration of Young Children's Perceptions of Islam

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Revell, Lynn

2010-01-01

This article explores the way pupils in English primary school perceive Islam through discussion of Islam in the media. The research suggests that pupils are aware of Islam as a world religion and of many of the images and popular discourses associated with Islam. The research also suggests that while a minority of pupils expressed explicit racist…

Doing Ideology amid a Crisis: Collective Actions and Discourses of the Chinese Falun Gong Movement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Cheris Shun-ching

2013-01-01

Based on an interactionist framework, this article examines how followers of a contemporary Chinese religious movement, Falun Gong, deal with a crisis situation and sustain their conviction in the absence of their charismatic leader. Data were collected during a yearlong ethnography of the Falun Gong in Chicago and Hong Kong. The findings reveal…

Literacy Mediations and Mediators in the "Escuela Dominical" of a Gitano Evangelist Church

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poveda, David; Palomares-Valera, Manuel; Cano, Ana

2006-01-01

In this paper we examine discourse and interaction during Saturday morning religious instruction classes in a Gitano (Spanish Romani) evangelist church. The focus is on adults as literacy mediators for the children in the process of learning ways to use and interpret the Bible. The analysis centres on two aspects: (1) the forms of textuality that…

The Saudi Arabian International Student Experience: From a Gender-Segregated Society to Studying in a Mixed-Gender Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alhazmi, Ahmed; Nyland, Berenice

2013-01-01

In Saudi Arabia gender segregation is a cultural practice that occurs across all public and private domains. This segregation has shaped the lives of Saudi citizens and is driven socially through cultural and religious discourses and politically through regulation and policy. For Saudi students undertaking their education in western countries, the…

Homosexuality: a dilemma in discourse!

PubMed

Gulia, K K; Mallick, H N

2010-01-01

Homosexuality has been in practice even prior to its recorded history. In the Indian cultural context, discourse on sexuality had never gained an agreeable consensus from any platform. However, in the recent past, efforts were made by governmental and nongovernmental organizations to bring sex-related issues to the masses after speculation on presumably the fast spread of AIDS (acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome) particularly through illegal homosexual activities. Nevertheless, strong cultural and religious ideologies discouraged any valid discussions on homosexuality. In light of the given scenario, the present essay aimed to highlight several aspects of homosexuality that include a brief history, biological basis, effect of nature versus nurture, evolutionary perspective and related issues concerning general well-being and health.

What Makes You So Sure? Dogmatism, Fundamentalism, Analytic Thinking, Perspective Taking and Moral Concern in the Religious and Nonreligious.

PubMed

Friedman, Jared Parker; Jack, Anthony Ian

2018-02-01

Better understanding the psychological factors related to certainty in one's beliefs (i.e., dogmatism) has important consequences for both individuals and social groups. Generally, beliefs can find support from at least two different routes of information processing: social/moral considerations or analytic/empirical reasoning. Here, we investigate how these two psychological constructs relate to dogmatism in two groups of individuals who preferentially draw on the former or latter sort of information when forming beliefs about the world-religious and nonreligious individuals. Across two studies and their pooled analysis, we provide evidence that although dogmatism is negatively related to analytic reasoning in both groups of individuals, it shares a divergent relationship with measures of moral concern depending on whether one identifies as religious or not. Study 1 showed that increasing levels of dogmatism were positively related to prosocial intentions among the religious and negatively related to empathic concern among the nonreligious. Study 2 replicated and extended these results by showing that perspective taking is negatively related to dogmatism in both groups, an effect which is particularly robust among the nonreligious. Study 2 also showed that religious fundamentalism was positively related to measures of moral concern among the religious. Because the current studies used a content-neutral measure to assess dogmatic certainty in one's beliefs, they have the potential to inform practices for most effectively communicating with and persuading religious and nonreligious individuals to change maladaptive behavior, even when the mode of discourse is unrelated to religious belief.

Is `Learning' Science Enough? - A Cultural Model of Religious Students of Science in an Australian Government School

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferguson, Joseph Paul; Kameniar, Barbara

2014-10-01

This paper investigates the cognitive experiences of four religious students studying evolutionary biology in an inner city government secondary school in Melbourne, Australia. The participants in the study were identified using the Religious Background and Behaviours questionnaire (Connors, Tonigan, & Miller, 1996). Participants were interviewed and asked to respond to questions about their cognitive experiences of studying evolutionary biology. Students' responses were analysed using cultural analysis of discourse to construct a cultural model of religious students of science. This cultural model suggests that these students employ a human schema and a non-human schema, which assert that humans are fundamentally different from non-humans in terms of origins and that humans have a transcendental purpose in life. For these students, these maxims seem to be challenged by their belief that evolutionary biology is dictated by metaphysical naturalism. The model suggests that because the existential foundation of these students is challenged, they employ a believing schema to classify their religious explanations and a learning schema to classify evolutionary biology. These schemas are then hierarchically arranged with the learning schema being made subordinate to the believing schema. Importantly, these students are thus able to maintain their existential foundation while fulfilling the requirements of school science. However, the quality of this "learning" is questionable.

Religious Relationships with the Environment in a Tibetan Rural Community: Interactions and Contrasts with Popular Notions of Indigenous Environmentalism.

PubMed

Woodhouse, Emily; Mills, Martin A; McGowan, Philip J K; Milner-Gulland, E J

Representations of Green Tibetans connected to Buddhism and indigenous wisdom have been deployed by a variety of actors and persist in popular consciousness. Through interviews, participatory mapping and observation, we explored how these ideas relate to people's notions about the natural environment in a rural community on the Eastern Tibetan plateau, in Sichuan Province, China. We found people to be orienting themselves towards the environment by means of three interlinked religious notions: (1) local gods and spirits in the landscape, which have become the focus of conservation efforts in the form of 'sacred natural sites;' (2) sin and karma related to killing animals and plants; (3) Buddhist moral precepts especially non-violence. We highlight the gaps between externally generated representations and local understandings, but also the dynamic, contested and plural nature of local relationships with the environment, which have been influenced and reshaped by capitalist development and commodification of natural resources, state environmental policies, and Buddhist modernist ideas.

Health planning as context-dependent language play.

PubMed

Degeling, P

1996-01-01

The concept of planning as context-dependent language play is proposed as a heuristic device to overcome shortcomings which are traced to the planner centered, means-end and prescriptive orientations of much of the existing literature on health planning. The model proposed suggests that planning should be analysed not simply in terms of the capacities and/or responsibilities that it claims to assign to planners, but also in the way that different planning discourses are mobilized, for strategic effect, by a range of other players in front-stage and back-stage settings. Within this conception, a planning exercise comes to be seen as an episode in dramas which have been running for extended periods of time. What distinguishes planning episodes from others in these dramas, is not simply the entry of players designated as planners, but also the discourses that both planners and other players mobilize as they attempt to structure and contest their relationships with one another. The implications of what this conception of planning holds for future research are then discussed.

Reproducing politics: the politicisation of patients' identities and assisted reproduction in Poland and Sweden.

PubMed

Gunnarsson Payne, Jenny; Korolczuk, Elżbieta

2016-09-01

This article examines how discourses on assisted reproductive technologies are locally appropriated, translated or contested in the specific cultural and political contexts of Poland and Sweden. The aim is to investigate how two national patients' organisations, namely the Polish association Nasz Bocian and the Swedish organisation Barnlängtan, articulate rights claims in the context of reproductive technologies. To this end, we investigate how these organisations utilise specific context-dependent and affectively laden political vocabularies in order to mobilise politically, and discuss how each of these two groups gives rise to a different set of politicised reproductive identities. In order to trace which political vocabularies the respective organisations utilise to mobilise their respective rights claims, we draw primarily on political discourse theory and concepts of political grammars and empty signifiers. Lastly, we discuss which political reproductive identities emerge as a result of these different versions of political mobilisation around assisted reproductive technologies. © 2016 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness.

"How can anybody be representative for those kind of people?" Forms of patient representation in health research, and why it is always contestable.

PubMed

Maguire, Kath; Britten, Nicky

2017-06-01

Different discourses that co-exist within the world of patient and public involvement in health and social care mirror a tangle of historical, social, political and theoretical roots. These range from the radical activism, born of civil rights movements, to a more passive model in which patients are the recipients of information. This paper explores the concept of 'representation' and the ways the concept is used by people serving as 'patient' or 'lay' representatives in a range of roles within research projects, funding bodies and academic institutions. We address the issue of why the representativeness of those involved is contestable. Drawing on qualitative research and engaged practice as well as on literature from social and political sciences we question how people conceptualise their own and their fellows' acts of representation. In doing this we identify nine different conceptualisations of what it is to represent and use these to explore how judgements are made about what can count as legitimate forms of representation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Framing the decision: determinants of how women considering multifetal pregnancy reduction as a pregnancy-management strategy frame their moral dilemma.

PubMed

Britt, David W; Evans, Wendy J; Mehta, Shilpi S; Evans, Mark I

2004-01-01

How people make decisions regarding medical technologies and procedures are affected by how they 'frame' those decisions. Medical frames are characterized by a reliance on statistics regarding outcomes and risk to mother and surviving embryos, emphasize the influence of medical authorities, and are driven by a desire to minimize medical risks. Moral frames, on the other hand, are driven more by a desire to minimize the disruption to antiabortion and antireduction moral precepts, and weight heavily the advice of religious leaders. These frames contest with one another. Our objective is to examine the biographical determinants of frame dominance in this contest as it applies to multigestation pregnancies where selective reduction is being considered as a pregnancy-management strategy. For a sample of 55 multigestation women considering multifetal reduction as a pregnancy-management strategy, we develop a distinction between medical and moral frames. Semistructured interviews generated qualitative data that were independently coded by two researchers. These variables were then analyzed using dummy variable regression analysis. Conceptualizing these frames as anchoring opposite ends of a continuum, we show that 40% of the variance in frame dominance can be accounted for by three factors: how involved patients are in religious institutions that have antiabortion norms, whether they have medico-scientific careers, and how pro-reduction their advice has been from fertility specialists and obstetricians prior to coming to the clinic. The implication of these results for practice include recognizing the wide variation in patient's perceptions of their situations and how these perceptual frames alter how women confront risk-benefit statistics and being flexible in one's approach to counseling patients. This approach can further serve as a model for similar reproductive-health dilemmas. Copyright 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

"Dying a hero": parents' and young people's discourses on concurrent sexual partnerships in rural Tanzania.

PubMed

Wamoyi, Joyce; Wight, Daniel

2014-07-22

Concurrent sexual partnerships (CSPs) have been speculated to drive the HIV pandemic in many sub-Saharan African countries. We have limited understanding of how people think and talk about CSPs, how beliefs are transmitted across generations, and how this might affect the practice. This paper explores these issues to understand how CSPs are perpetuated and help identify opportunities for interventions to modify them. The study employed an ethnographic research design involving: participant observation in 10 households, 60 in-depth interviews (IDIs), and nine participatory focus group discussions (FGDs). Participants were young people aged 14-24 and parents/carers of young people within this age group. The 60 IDIs were conducted with: 17 fathers, 13 mothers, 13 young men and 17 young women (six of whom had had unplanned pregnancies and 11 had no children). The nine FGDs were conducted with groups of: fathers (2), mothers (2), young women (2), and young men (3). A discourse analysis was carried out with all the transcripts. Data were analysed with the aid of NVIVO 8 software. Six distinct discourses were identified from the way participants talked about CSPs and the norms driving the practice: 1) predatory masculine sexuality; 2) masculine respectability; 3) feminine respectability; 4) empowered modern women; 5) traditional health beliefs; 6) public health. Discourses legitimating CSPs were drawn on and reproduced primarily by young people and the media and only indirectly by parents. Discourses discouraging CSPs were used primarily by parents, religious leaders and learning institutions and only indirectly by young people themselves. Better knowledge of the discourses through which young people CSPs, and how these discourses are transmitted across generations, might help develop "culturally compelling" interventions that modify these discourses to enhance sexual health.

“Dying a hero”: parents’ and young people’s discourses on concurrent sexual partnerships in rural Tanzania

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Concurrent sexual partnerships (CSPs) have been speculated to drive the HIV pandemic in many sub-Saharan African countries. We have limited understanding of how people think and talk about CSPs, how beliefs are transmitted across generations, and how this might affect the practice. This paper explores these issues to understand how CSPs are perpetuated and help identify opportunities for interventions to modify them. Methods The study employed an ethnographic research design involving: participant observation in 10 households, 60 in-depth interviews (IDIs), and nine participatory focus group discussions (FGDs). Participants were young people aged 14-24 and parents/carers of young people within this age group. The 60 IDIs were conducted with: 17 fathers, 13 mothers, 13 young men and 17 young women (six of whom had had unplanned pregnancies and 11 had no children). The nine FGDs were conducted with groups of: fathers (2), mothers (2), young women (2), and young men (3). A discourse analysis was carried out with all the transcripts. Data were analysed with the aid of NVIVO 8 software. Results Six distinct discourses were identified from the way participants talked about CSPs and the norms driving the practice: 1) predatory masculine sexuality; 2) masculine respectability; 3) feminine respectability; 4) empowered modern women; 5) traditional health beliefs; 6) public health. Discourses legitimating CSPs were drawn on and reproduced primarily by young people and the media and only indirectly by parents. Discourses discouraging CSPs were used primarily by parents, religious leaders and learning institutions and only indirectly by young people themselves. Conclusion Better knowledge of the discourses through which young people CSPs, and how these discourses are transmitted across generations, might help develop “culturally compelling” interventions that modify these discourses to enhance sexual health. PMID:25048413

Conducting religious discourse on reproductive rights: the pesantren experience.

PubMed

1999-12-01

The existing predominantly male interpretation of religious texts tends to discriminate against or ignore women's needs and well-being. It is necessary to deeply analyze these religious texts by female scholars and gender-sensitive male scholars. In view of this, the Indonesian Society for Pesantren and Community Development (P3M) conducted gender-awareness workshops which encourage discussion of Qur'anic verses and Ahadith (sayings and actions of Prophet Muhammad) that pertain to women. A nongovernmental organization in India, P3M gathered conventional and alternative interpretations of Islamic texts and views on reproductive and sexual health from local and overseas sources. Overall, the workshops resulted in a book on women's rights to reproductive health, marriage and fertility in the context of Islam. Such works by P3M contribute to a more balanced discussion of reproductive health and rights and provide Indonesian women with the opportunity to improve their life at home and in society in line with their faith.

Democracy in the country but not in the home? Religion, politics and women's rights in Chile.

PubMed

Guzmán, Virginia; Seibert, Ute; Staab, Silke

2010-01-01

This article explores the influence of religious actors on the elaboration of two public policies that are key to the advancement of women's rights and have long formed part of the women's movement's agenda in Chile: the introduction of sexual education in secondary schools in the 1990s and the distribution of emergency contraception in the 2000s. Our analysis of how different actors-from a variety of ideological and power positions-have influenced the two policy debates suggests that their discourses and strategies are highly contingent on the political environment. While conservative religious forces retain an enormous capacity to hinder policy making and implementation in the arena of family and sexuality, the government's determination to confront such interference seems to have grown in a context of fewer authoritarian enclaves, a more pluralist society and a strong sexual and reproductive rights movement. The diversification of religious positions on issues of family and sexuality has also affected the room for manoeuvre in the policy arena.

Well-being and consumer culture: a different kind of public health problem?

PubMed

Carlisle, Sandra; Hanlon, Phil

2007-09-01

The concept of well-being is now of interest to many disciplines; as a consequence, it presents an increasingly complex and contested territory. We suggest that much current thinking about well-being can be summarized in terms of four main discourses: scientific, popular, critical and environmental. Exponents of the scientific discourse argue that subjective well-being is now static or declining in developed countries: a paradox for economists, as incomes have grown considerably. Psychological observations on the loss of subjective well-being have also entered popular awareness, in simplified form, and conceptions of well-being as happiness are now influencing contemporary political debate and policy-making. These views have not escaped criticism. Philosophers understand well-being as part of a flourishing human life, not just happiness. Some social theorists critique the export of specific cultural concepts of well-being as human universals. Others view well-being as a potentially divisive construct that may contribute to maintaining social inequalities. Environmentalists argue that socio-cultural patterns of over-consumption, within the neo-liberal economies of developed societies, present an impending ecological threat to individual, social and global well-being. As the four discourses carry different implications for action, we conclude by considering their varied utility and applicability for health promotion.

Competency-based medical education: the discourse of infallibility.

PubMed

Boyd, Victoria A; Whitehead, Cynthia R; Thille, Patricia; Ginsburg, Shiphra; Brydges, Ryan; Kuper, Ayelet

2018-01-01

Over the last two decades, competency-based frameworks have been internationally adopted as the primary educational approach in medicine. Yet competency-based medical education (CBME) remains contested in the academic literature. We look broadly at the nature of this debate to explore how it may shape scholars' understanding of CBME, and its implications for medical education research and practice. In doing so, we deconstruct unarticulated discourses and assumptions embedded in the CBME literature. We assembled an archive of literature focused on CBME. The archive dates from 1996, the publication year of the first CanMEDS Physician Competency Framework. We then conducted a Foucauldian critical discourse analysis (CDA) to delineate the dominant discourses underpinning the literature. CDA examines the intersections of language, social practices, knowledge and power relations to highlight how entrenched ways of thinking influence what can or cannot be said about a topic. Detractors of CBME have advanced an array of conceptual critiques. Proponents have often responded with a recurring discursive strategy that minimises these critiques and deflects attention from the underlying concept of the competency-based approach. As part of this process, conceptual concerns are reframed as two practical problems: implementation and interpretation. Yet the assertion that these are the construct's primary concerns was often unsupported by empirical evidence. These practices contribute to a discourse of infallibility of CBME. In uncovering the discourse of infallibility, we explore how it can silence critical voices and hinder a rigorous examination of the competency-based approach. These discursive practices strengthen CBME by constructing it as infallible in the literature. We propose re-approaching the dialogue surrounding CBME as a starting point for empirical investigation, driven by the aim to broaden scholars' understanding of its design, development and implementation in medical education. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the Study of Medical Education.

Negotiating Discourses of Shame, Secrecy, and Silence: Migrant and Refugee Women's Experiences of Sexual Embodiment.

PubMed

Ussher, Jane M; Perz, Janette; Metusela, Christine; Hawkey, Alexandra J; Morrow, Marina; Narchal, Renu; Estoesta, Jane

2017-10-01

In Australia and Canada, the sexual health needs of migrant and refugee women have been of increasing concern, because of their underutilization of sexual health services and higher rate of sexual health problems. Previous research on migrant women's sexual health has focused on their higher risk of difficulties, or barriers to service use, rather than their construction or understanding of sexuality and sexual health, which may influence service use and outcomes. Further, few studies of migrant and refugee women pay attention to the overlapping role of culture, gender, class, and ethnicity in women's understanding of sexual health. This qualitative study used an intersectional framework to explore experiences and constructions of sexual embodiment among 169 migrant and refugee women recently resettled in Sydney, Australia and Vancouver, Canada, from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Sri Lanka, India, and South America, utilizing a combination of individual interviews and focus groups. Across all of the cultural groups, participants described a discourse of shame, associated with silence and secrecy, as the dominant cultural and religious construction of women's sexual embodiment. This was evident in constructions of menarche and menstruation, the embodied experience that signifies the transformation of a girl into a sexual woman; constructions of sexuality, including sexual knowledge and communication, premarital virginity, sexual pain, desire, and consent; and absence of agency in fertility control and sexual health. Women were not passive in relation to a discourse of sexual shame; a number demonstrated active resistance and negotiation in order to achieve a degree of sexual agency, yet also maintain cultural and religious identity. Identifying migrant and refugee women's experiences and constructions of sexual embodiment are essential for understanding sexual subjectivity, and provision of culturally safe sexual health information in order to improve well-being and facilitate sexual agency.

"There's no chasing involved": cis/trans relationships, "tranny chasers," and the future of a sex-positive trans politics.

PubMed

Tompkins, Avery Brooks

2014-01-01

This article adds to a small, but growing, body of work on trans sexualities and partnerships, and provides a much-needed inquiry into the complex and contested politics of desire when we take trans identities, bodies, and sexualities into account. Using digital ethnographic data from YouTube videos along with in-person observational data from LGBTQ and trans conferences in the U.S., Tompkins argues that a sex-positive trans politics cannot emerge in trans and trans-allied communities if the rhetoric of the "tranny chaser" continues to inform discourses of desire and attraction to trans people.

"Race" and the difficulties of language.

PubMed

Phillips, Debby A; Drevdahl, Denise J

2003-01-01

"Race," a construct created by scientists, is deeply ingrained in everyday discourses. Using postmodern theories to help us think through the complexities of language in relation to race, we come to understand that truths about race are changing, contingent, and contested products of cultural construction. It is impossible to understand or represent race as an object of study such that it can be known, yet untouched, by language. Health effects are one important consequence of race, particularly related to quality, access, marginalization, and privilege. Analyzing the effects of race bring it visibly into being, and makes evident how language shapes our understandings of the world and its human inhabitants.

Women in physics? Identity and discourse in Taiwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsai, Li-Ling

This dissertation argues that the deeply held hope for gender equity in science can no longer be simply realized as a project to increase women's participation in science. Understanding women's vexed relations with science requires a reconceptualization of the terms women and science, not as given categories to signal how "women" are coping with their disadvantaged positions in "science," but rather as two discourses formed in relation to each other, in institutional practices and in particular social and historical contexts. This dissertation investigates discourses of women and science by focusing on women in physics in Taiwan. This focus extends debates about gender and science by showing that the intervention of a particular discourse---in this case, the discourse of "women in physics"---into an existing discursive field exposed the contested terrain of the gender politics of physics and the identity politics of women physicists in Taiwan. "Women in physics" emerged as an internationally legitimate subject position in Taiwan in 1999 following a call to form a local working team on women in physics. The participants I interviewed utilized this internationally legitimate subject position to reconstruct, in different ways, their gendered identities in physics. Scholarship in the field of gender and science education studies has, over the past three decades, focused on equity and inclusion to address gender inequalities in science. This dissertation suggests, by contrast, that a focus on identity is necessary for understanding gendered career decisions in science. The term identity refers to how individuals perceive themselves and how others respond to their claims; identity involves the purposes, interests and contexts of particular naming processes. In the structural inequalities of gender and science, a focus on identity aims to track individual and collective forms of agency exercised in changing discursive fields. This dissertation concludes by viewing curriculum as a discursive field where various discourses provide subject positions and produce potential meanings through teaching and learning. Hope for social transformation can be situated in the interventionary power of new discourses and the subsequent reconfiguration of gendered identities in existing institutional practices.

The discourses on induced abortion in Ugandan daily newspapers: a discourse analysis.

PubMed

Larsson, Sofia; Eliasson, Miriam; Klingberg Allvin, Marie; Faxelid, Elisabeth; Atuyambe, Lynn; Fritzell, Sara

2015-06-25

Ugandan law prohibits abortion under all circumstances except where there is a risk for the woman's life. However, it has been estimated that over 250 000 illegal abortions are being performed in the country yearly. Many of these abortions are carried out under unsafe conditions, being one of the most common reasons behind the nearly 5000 maternal deaths per year in Uganda. Little research has been conducted in relation to societal views on abortion within the Ugandan society. This study aims to analyze the discourse on abortion as expressed in the two main daily Ugandan newspapers. The conceptual content of 59 articles on abortion between years 2006-2012, from the two main daily English-speaking newspapers in Uganda, was studied using principles from critical discourse analysis. A religious discourse and a human rights discourse, together with medical and legal sub discourses frame the subject of abortion in Uganda, with consequences for who is portrayed as a victim and who is to blame for abortions taking place. It shows the strong presence of the Catholic Church within the medial debate on abortion. The results also demonstrate the absence of medial statements related to abortion made by political stakeholders. The Catholic Church has a strong position within the Ugandan society and their stance on abortion tends to have great influence on the way other actors and their activities are presented within the media, as well as how stakeholders choose to convey their message, or choose not to publicly debate the issue in question at all. To decrease the number of maternal deaths, we highlight the need for a more inclusive and varied debate that problematizes the current situation, especially from a gender perspective.

Sex worker activism, feminist discourse and HIV in Bangladesh

PubMed Central

Sultana, Habiba

2015-01-01

This paper explores the relationship between sex worker activism and HIV-related discourse in Bangladesh, relating recent developments in activism to the influence of feminist thought. Following their eviction in 1991 from brothels from red light areas, Bangladeshi sex workers started a social movement, at just about the same time that programmes started to work with sex workers to reduce the transmission of HIV. This paper argues that both sex worker activism and HIV-prevention initiatives find impetus in feminist pro-sex-work perspectives, which place emphasis on individual and collective agency. However, by participating in these programmes, sex workers failed to contest the imagery of themselves as ‘vectors’ of HIV. In this way, they were unwittingly complicit in reproducing their identity as ‘polluting others’. Moreover, by focusing on individual behaviour and the agency of sex workers, HIV programmes ignored the fact that the ‘choices’ made by sex workers are influenced by a wide range of structural and discursive factors, including gender norms and notions of bodily purity, which in turn have implications for the construction of HIV-related risk. PMID:25588539

Sex worker activism, feminist discourse and HIV in Bangladesh.

PubMed

Sultana, Habiba

2015-01-01

This paper explores the relationship between sex worker activism and HIV-related discourse in Bangladesh, relating recent developments in activism to the influence of feminist thought. Following their eviction in 1991 from brothels from red light areas, Bangladeshi sex workers started a social movement, at just about the same time that programmes started to work with sex workers to reduce the transmission of HIV. This paper argues that both sex worker activism and HIV-prevention initiatives find impetus in feminist pro-sex-work perspectives, which place emphasis on individual and collective agency. However, by participating in these programmes, sex workers failed to contest the imagery of themselves as 'vectors' of HIV. In this way, they were unwittingly complicit in reproducing their identity as 'polluting others'. Moreover, by focusing on individual behaviour and the agency of sex workers, HIV programmes ignored the fact that the 'choices' made by sex workers are influenced by a wide range of structural and discursive factors, including gender norms and notions of bodily purity, which in turn have implications for the construction of HIV-related risk.

The assets-based approach: furthering a neoliberal agenda or rediscovering the old public health? A critical examination of practitioner discourses

PubMed Central

Roy, Michael J.

2017-01-01

Abstract The ‘assets-based approach’ to health and well-being has, on the one hand, been presented as a potentially empowering means to address the social determinants of health while, on the other, been criticised for obscuring structural drivers of inequality and encouraging individualisation and marketisation; in essence, for being a tool of neoliberalism. This study looks at how this apparent contestation plays out in practice through a critical realist-inspired examination of practitioner discourses, specifically of those working within communities to address social vulnerabilities that we know impact upon health. The study finds that practitioners interact with the assets-based policy discourse in interesting ways. Rather than unwitting tools of neoliberalism, they considered their work to be about mitigating the worst effects of poverty and social vulnerability in ways that enhance collectivism and solidarity, concepts that neoliberalism arguably seeks to disrupt. Furthermore, rather than a different, innovative, way of working, they consider the assets-based approach to simply be a re-labelling of what they have been doing anyway, for as long as they can remember. So, for practitioners, rather than a ‘new’ approach to public health, the assets-based public health movement seems to be a return to recognising and appreciating the role of community within public health policy and practice; ideals that predate neoliberalism by quite some considerable time. PMID:28670100

Religious Perspectives on Human Suffering: Implications for Medicine and Bioethics.

PubMed

Fitzpatrick, Scott J; Kerridge, Ian H; Jordens, Christopher F C; Zoloth, Laurie; Tollefsen, Christopher; Tsomo, Karma Lekshe; Jensen, Michael P; Sachedina, Abdulaziz; Sarma, Deepak

2016-02-01

The prevention and relief of suffering has long been a core medical concern. But while this is a laudable goal, some question whether medicine can, or should, aim for a world without pain, sadness, anxiety, despair or uncertainty. To explore these issues, we invited experts from six of the world's major faith traditions to address the following question. Is there value in suffering? And is something lost in the prevention and/or relief of suffering? While each of the perspectives provided maintains that suffering should be alleviated and that medicine's proper role is to prevent and relieve suffering by ethical means, it is also apparent that questions regarding the meaning and value of suffering are beyond the realm of medicine. These perspectives suggest that medicine and bioethics have much to gain from respectful consideration of religious discourse surrounding suffering.

Religion, politics and gender in the context of nation-state formation: the case of Serbia.

PubMed

Drezgić, Rada

2010-01-01

This article argues that nationalism has connected religion with secular politics in Serbia but that their rapprochement has been a gradual process. In order to demonstrate the transition from a limited influence of religion on politics to a much tighter relationship between the two, this article discusses the abortion legislation reform and the introduction of religious education in public schools, respectively. It argues that, while illustrative of different types of connection between religion and politics, these two issues had similar implications for gender equality-they produced discourses that recreated and justified patriarchal social norms. After religion gained access to public institutions, its (patriarchal) discourses on gender were considerably empowered. The article points to some tangible evidence of a re-traditionalisation and re-patriarchalisation of gender roles within the domestic realm in Serbia.

Competing conceptualizations of decent work at the intersection of health, social and economic discourses.

PubMed

Di Ruggiero, Erica; Cohen, Joanna E; Cole, Donald C; Forman, Lisa

2015-05-01

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), decent work is critical to economic and social progress and well-being. The ILO's Decent Work Agenda outlines four directions (creating jobs, guaranteeing rights at work, extending social protection, promoting social dialogue) (ILO, 2015). While the Agenda's existence may imply consensus about its meaning, we contend that several conceptualizations of decent work exist in the global policy arena. Different institutional perspectives must be negotiated, and political, economic, social and health considerations balanced in its pursuit. This paper reports findings from a critical discourse analysis of 10 policy texts that aimed to reveal different health, economic, and social claims about decent work and how these are shaped by the work policy agendas of the ILO, World Health Organization, and World Bank. Themes emerging from the discourse analysis include the: challenges and realities of promoting "one" agenda; complex intersection between decent work, health and health equity concepts; emphasis on economic and pro-market interests versus the social dimensions of work; and, relative emphasis on individual versus collective responsibility for decent work. To our knowledge, this is a first attempt to contrast different conceptualizations of decent work involving these institutions. Our findings suggest that decent work is a contested notion, and that more than one "agenda" is operating in the face of vested institutional interests. Broader discourses are contributing to a reframing of decent work in economic, social and/or health terms and these are impacting which dimensions of work are taken up in policy texts over others. Results show how the language of economics acts as a disciplinary and regulatory power and its role as a normalizing discourse. We call for research that deepens understanding of how a social, economic and health phenomenon like work is discursively re-interpreted through different global institutional interests. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Beyond cultural stereotyping: views on end-of-life decision making among religious and secular persons in the USA, Germany, and Israel.

PubMed

Schweda, Mark; Schicktanz, Silke; Raz, Aviad; Silvers, Anita

2017-02-17

End-of-life decision making constitutes a major challenge for bioethical deliberation and political governance in modern democracies: On the one hand, it touches upon fundamental convictions about life, death, and the human condition. On the other, it is deeply rooted in religious traditions and historical experiences and thus shows great socio-cultural diversity. The bioethical discussion of such cultural issues oscillates between liberal individualism and cultural stereotyping. Our paper confronts the bioethical expert discourse with public moral attitudes. The paper is based on a qualitative study comprising 12 focus group discussions with religious and secular persons in the USA, Germany, and Israel (n = 82). Considering the respective socio-political and legal frameworks, the thematic analysis focuses on moral attitudes towards end-of-life decision making and explores the complex interplay between individual preferences, culture, and religion. Our findings draw attention to the variety and complexity of cultural and religious aspects of end-of-life decision making. Although there is local consensus that goes beyond radical individualism, positions are not neatly matched with national cultures or religious denominations. Instead, the relevance of the specific situatedness of religious beliefs and cultural communities becomes visible: Their status and role in individual situations, for example, as consensual or conflicting on the level of personal perspectives, family relationships, or broader social contexts, e.g., as a majority or minority culture within a political system. As the group discussions indicate, there are no clear-cut positions anchored in "nationality," "culture," or "religion." Instead, attitudes are personally decided on as part of a negotiated context representing the political, social and existential situatedness of the individual. Therefore, more complex theoretical and practical approaches to cultural diversity have to be developed.

Jesus, Mama, and the constraints on salvific love in contemporary country music .

PubMed

Grossman, M L

2002-01-01

The discourse of contemporary country music creates a world permeated with religion and centered on the notion of salvific love. This form of salvation arises in the connection between people (or between people and God) and includes elements of sacrifice and transformation. Although highly conventional, country music must meet standards of 'authenticity' and 'relevance', which require the incorporation of contemporary American religious values (including self-love and self-actualization). An analysis of recent country music lyrics reveals the remarkable openness to new religious messages. However, the only acceptable messages are those that can be harmonized with the implicit Protestant Christian sensibility of the music. Salvific love, for this reason, is always heterosexual and at least compatible with a Christian message. While the music industry does its best to erase minority sexualities, the music itself is often surprisingly open to a queer interpretation.

Biologist Edwin Grant Conklin and the idea of the religious direction of human evolution in the early 1920s.

PubMed

Pavuk, Alexander

2017-01-01

Edwin Grant Conklin, renowned US embryologist and evolutionary popularizer, publicly advocated a social vision of evolution that intertwined science and modernist Protestant theology in the early 1920s. The moral prestige of professional science in American culture - along with Conklin's own elite scientific status - diverted attention from the frequency with which his work crossed boundaries between natural science, religion and philosophy. Writing for broad audiences, Conklin was one of the most significant of the religious and modernist biological scientists whose rhetoric went well beyond simply claiming that certain kinds of religion were amenable to evolutionary science; he instead incorporated religion itself into evolution's broadest workings. A sampling of Conklin's widely-resonant discourse suggests that there was substantially more to the religion-evolution story in the 1920s US than many creationist-centred narratives of the era imply.

Epistemological controversies in the analytic field elucidated by the theological realm.

PubMed

Squverer, Amos

2015-08-01

This article proposes to address certain epistemological controversies in psychoanalysis by elucidating them through the religious field. The theological field serves the author as the repressed, which indicates the latent stakes that continue to do work at the heart of these debates. The goal is to show how debates that take place on the epistemological level bring into confrontation different anthropological concepts and discursive traditions that have their roots in religious discourses. The principal hypothesis of the author is that the dissident theories of psychoanalysis can be understood as a return to a pre-monotheistic theological conception or to an idolatrous practice that aims, primarily, to undo castration. This hypothesis will be used to elucidate the debates with two authors: Adler and Rank. The author shows how these theorists, by leaving analytical ground, connect their theories to pre-monotheistic conceptions and highlight conceptual tools that are characteristic to them. Copyright © 2015 Institute of Psychoanalysis.

Religious views on suicide among the Baganda, Uganda: a qualitative study.

PubMed

Mugisha, James; Hjelmeland, Heidi; Kinyanda, Eugene; Knizek, Birthe Loa

2013-04-01

Relatively little research has been conducted on religion and suicide in Africa, yet religion has a lot of influence on people's way of life in Africa. To study religious views on suicide among the Baganda, Uganda, we used grounded theory and discourse analysis on a total of 28 focus groups and 30 key informant interviews. Suicide is largely seen as a breach of God's doctrine life is sacred, God's commandment thou shall not kill, and God's rule of agape. The study also focuses on the consequences of breaching God's divine providence: punishment from God and the Church. Religion still has a lot of influence on people's views on suicide in Uganda despite the challenges highlighted in the study. A recommendation from these results is that suicide prevention should cater to divergent views on religion and suicide. More qualitative research should be conducted in this area to facilitate theoretical comparison with this study.

[Illness, culture and religion--issues of intercultural medical ethics and nursing ethics].

PubMed

Körtner, Ulrich H J

2007-01-01

Should modern medicine be allowed to do what it is capable of? And what role are religious norms and attitudes to play in both the medical course of life and the bioethical discourse of modern societies? Questions like these are subject of current intercultural medical and nursing ethics. Religious attitudes not only influence the cultural and political surroundings of medical research but also exert a practical influence on the health and illness attitudes of the individual. Coming before moral judgement should be the endeavour to understand one's counterpart, namely the patient, and his/her socio-cultural background. The question to be answered is how therapy and nursing can best be applied within the given socio-cultural framework without those responsible denying their own medical premises or their own concepts of nursing. Intercultural medical and nursing ethics provide an important contribution to the current debate on integration.

[Richard Freiherr v. Krafft-Ebing and Sigmund Freud--discourse on the "normality" and "perversion" of human sexuality at the close of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century].

PubMed

Kapfhammer, Hans-Peter

2015-01-01

Sexuality has been defined a central feature of personal identity since the epoch of enlightenment and has gradually become a decisive issue also in societal and political terms. A major transfer from religion and religious institutions to medicine and medical experts and later on to neuropsychiatrists has to be underlined in the primary position to assess "normal" and "deviant" manifestations of sexuality. Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing and Sigmund Freund play an eminent role in this "discourse on sexuality" (M. Foucault) during the nineteenth and beginning twentieth century on the way to modern sexology. Within this overarching context Krafft-Ebing's and Freud's theoretical conceptualizations of sexuality and perversion will be sketched and basic clinical and societal implications there out will be discussed.

'If You Choose to Abort, You Have Acted As an Instrument of Satan': Zimbabwean Health Service Providers' Negative Constructions of Women Presenting for Post Abortion Care.

PubMed

Chiweshe, Malvern; Macleod, Catriona

2017-12-01

Health service providers play a crucial role in providing post abortion care in countries where abortion legislation is restrictive and abortion is stigmatised. Research in countries where these factors apply has shown that health service providers can be barriers to women accessing post abortion services. Much of this research draws from attitude theory. In this paper, we utilise positioning theory to show how the ways in which Zimbabwean health service providers' position women and themselves are rooted in cultural and social power relations. In light of recent efforts by the Zimbabwean Ministry of Health and foreign organisations to improve post abortion care, we explore the implications that these positionings have for post abortion care. As part of a larger study on abortion decision-making, the data featured in this article were collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews with six health service providers working in different facilities in Harare, Zimbabwe. Discursive and positioning thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Our analysis points to women who have abortions being positioned in negative terms, as transgressors of acceptable norms; irresponsible and manipulative; and ignorant. The health service providers drew from cultural, religious, gender and trauma discourses that portray abortion as evil and socially unacceptable. Reflexive positions taken up by the health service providers include positions as being experts, helpers and protectors of culture/religion, sympathisers and professional positions as health care providers. The continued strengthening of post abortion services should be conducted in conjunction with dialogical interventions that challenge health service providers to reflect on the power relations within which women who terminate pregnancies are located, that contest their negative positionings of these women and that present alternative narratives and subject positionings for both the women who have abortions and the health service providers.

The family is worthy of being rebuilt: perceptions of the Jewish family in Mandate Palestine, 1918-1948.

PubMed

Razi, Tammy

2010-01-01

Although the Jewish community of Palestine was an extremely family-oriented society and the institute of the family played a major role in the establishment of the new Zionist nationhood, the historiography has henceforth paid little attention to its role, images, and functions. This article will examine the diverse and often contradictory perceptions and influences that have shaped the Zionist period. Traditional Jewish perceptions intertwined with modern, bourgeois, and revolutionary notions of the family, whether national or socialist. These contradictory perceptions were manifested in the contested professional and public discourse regarding the many dysfunctional urban families in Tel Aviv, who were treated by welfare authorities and mental health specialists during the 1930s and 1940s.

Scientists at play in a field of the Lord

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Long, David E.

2010-03-01

The Answers in Genesis Creation Museum opened in May of 2007. During the opening day, a loosely affiliated group of scientists joined in a Rally for Reason as they termed it to protest the museum's potential effect on science in the United States. This paper discusses ethnographic data collected before and during the rally. Scientist narratives disclose the rationale for their participation at the rally, unpacking their hopes, fears and social ideals vis-à-vis their perception of the Museum's impact. With these ideals, I discuss the lacking discourse between the values of ideal of science literacy, the contested authority of museums and their publics, and a lacking conception of how a valuerationality aligned towards the Museum's message continues to be culturally produced.

The Moral Dignity of Inductive Method and the Reconciliation of Science and Faith in Adam Sedgwick's Discourse

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bellon, Richard

2012-07-01

Science's inductive method required patient, humble and self-controlled behavior; Christian revelation demanded the same virtues. The discoveries of science and the truths of scripture would always harmonize as long as both men of science and men of faith conducted themselves in scrupulous accordance with their duty. So ran a central argument in A Discourse on the studies of the university (1833; 5th ed, 1850) by Adam Sedgwick (1785-1873), the longtime professor of geology at the University of Cambridge. This sanctification of the inductive method provided the foundation for a theistic science which (in theory) did not subordinate scientific theory to religious doctrine. This vision provided the foundation for Sedgwick's lifelong crusade against all forms of evolutionary theory. Evolution's impiety, he insisted, resulted from (and exacerbated) a failure to behave inductively. The fact that Sedgwick (in principle if not always in practice) elevated norms of behavior above systems of belief had an important and paradoxical consequence. Even though his personal hatred of evolution never cooled, his Discourse nonetheless provided a dominant model for younger theists to reconcile faith with Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory.

Adab and its significance for an Islamic medical ethics.

PubMed

Sartell, Elizabeth; Padela, Aasim I

2015-09-01

Discussions of Islamic medical ethics tend to focus on Sharī'ah-based, or obligation-based, ethics. However, limiting Islamic medical ethics discourse to the derivation of religious duties ignores discussions about moulding an inner disposition that inclines towards adherence to the Sharī'ah. In classical Islamic intellectual thought, such writings are the concern of adab literature. In this paper, we call for a renewal of adabi discourse as part of Islamic medical ethics. We argue that adab complements Sharī'ah-based writings to generate a more holistic vision of Islamic medical ethics by supplementing an obligation-based approach with a virtue-based approach. While Sharī'ah-based medical ethics focuses primarily on the moral status of actions, adab literature adds to this genre by addressing the moral formation of the agent. By complementing Sharī'ah-based approaches with adab-focused writings, Islamic medical ethics discourse can describe the relationship between the agent and the action, within a moral universe informed by the Islamic intellectual tradition. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Regulation and Resistance: Negotiation of Premarital Sexuality in the Context of Migrant and Refugee Women.

PubMed

Hawkey, Alexandra J; Ussher, Jane M; Perz, Janette

2017-07-06

Constructions of normative sexuality shape the sexual scripts that women are permitted to adopt and the manner in which such sexuality can be expressed. We explored experiences and constructions of premarital sexuality among migrant and refugee women recently resettled in Sydney, Australia, and Vancouver, Canada. A total of 78 semistructured individual interviews and 15 focus groups composed of 82 participants were undertaken with women who had migrated from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Sri Lanka, and South America. We analyzed the data using thematic decomposition. Across all cultural groups, women's premarital sexuality was regulated through cultural and religious discourse and material practice. Such regulation occurred across three main facets of women's lives, shaping the themes presented in this article: (1) regulating premarital sex-the virginity imperative; (2) regulation of relationships with men; and (3) regulation of the sexual body. These themes capture women's reproduction of dominant discourses of premarital sexuality, as well as women's resistance and negotiation of such discourses, both prior to and following migration. Identifying migrant and refugee women's experiences and constructions of premarital sexuality is essential for culturally safe sexual health practice, health promotion, and health education.

The expertise of participation: mass housing and urban planning in post-war France.

PubMed

Cupers, Kenny

2011-01-01

This article analyses the advent of participation in French planning as the historical touchstone of a larger shift in urban thinking. It investigates how the interactions between inhabitants, developers, state officials and social scientific experts in the production of large-scale modern housing areas and new towns helped bring about user participation as a category of action and discourse. The article argues that the transformation of inhabitants into active participants entails the development of legitimate 'user knowledge' and therefore - perhaps paradoxically - the continuing involvement of experts. The first part of the article examines how the turn towards mass housing production during the 1950s prompted the question of the user and established the ground for debates about participation. The second part of the article explores the relationship between inhabitant contestation and changing urban planning and policy-making during the 1960s. The focus here is on Sarcelles, which served both as a national urban model, a key object of sociological study, and the main target of national public outcry, and helps to reveal relations between local contestation, national policy and shifts in urban thinking. The last part of the article looks at the concrete influence of ideas of participation on subsequent urban policies during the 1970s.

Sexuality and women's rights in armed conflict in Sri Lanka.

PubMed

Tambiah, Yasmin

2004-05-01

The discourse of human rights in armed conflict situations is well adapted to respond to violence and violation, invoking internationally agreed principles of civil and political rights. However, in areas where the subject or domain of rights discourse is contested or controversial, human rights advocates appear less prepared to promote and defend such rights. Sexuality is one such domain. This paper explores the complex sexual choices women in Sri Lanka have had to negotiate, particularly widows and sex workers, within a context of ethnic conflict, militarisation and war. It argues that sexuality cannot be defined exclusively in terms of violation, even in a context dominated by violence, and that the sexual ordering of society may be subverted in such conditions. Newly widowed women and sex workers have had to negotiate self-determination as well as take responsibility for earning income and heading households, in spite of contrary community pressures. For women, political and economic rights are closely linked with the ability to determine their sexual and reproductive choices. The challenge to women's and human rights advocates is how to articulate sexual autonomy as a necessary right on a par with others, and strategise to secure this right during armed conflict and postwar reconstruction.

Race trouble: attending to race and racism in online interaction.

PubMed

Durrheim, Kevin; Greener, Ross; Whitehead, Kevin A

2015-03-01

This article advocates the concept of race trouble as a way of synthesizing variation in racial discourse, and as a way of studying how social interaction and institutional life continue to be organized by conceptions of 'race' and 'racism'. Our analysis of an online discussion at a South African University about the defensibility of a characterization of (black) student protesters as 'savages' revealed a number of familiar strategies: participants avoided explicit racism, denied racism, and denied racism on behalf of others. However, the aim of this analysis was not to identify the 'real' racism, but to show how race and racism were used in the interaction to develop perspectives on transformation in the institution, to produce social division in the University, and to create ambivalently racialized and racializing subject positions. We demonstrate how, especially through uses of deracialized discourse, participants' actions were observably shaped by the potential ways in which others could hear 'race' and 'racism'. Race trouble thus became manifest through racial suggestion, allusion, innuendo, and implication. We conclude with a call to social psychologists to study the ways in which meanings of 'race' and 'racism' are forged and contested in relation to each other. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Between Egyptian "national purity" and "local flexibility": prostitution in al-Mahalla al-Kubra in the first half of the 20th century.

PubMed

Hammad, Hanan

2011-01-01

This article traces prostitution in al-Mahalla in the first half of the 20th century as a regulated urban practice until the trade was outlawed in Egypt in 1949. Studying prostitution during this period of exceptionally rapid growth and transformation not only provides a window on a particular type of illicit sexuality and public morality in a colonial context, it also gives us a hint as to gender relations and inter-communal relations on the invisible marginalized part of a provincial local community, and how it was socially transformed. I argue that the regulation of prostitution in Egypt in 1882 and 1905 created a sphere for a power contest between the colonial state and the local community, between nationalist discourse and the local way of life, and between public morality and private space. While nationalist discourse constructed one virtuous nation, the local community accepted the licensed prostitution quarter, and resisted secret prostitution. The people of the town actively and continually shifted boundaries on what was public and what was private, what was the state's responsibility and what was communal liability.

Beyond Controversies: Sexuality Education for Adolescents in India

PubMed Central

Khubchandani, Jagdish; Clark, Jeffrey; Kumar, Raman

2014-01-01

Sexuality education for adolescents is one of the most controversial topics in the field of child health. In the past decade, policymakers in India have also struggled with the issue and there has been greater public discourse. However, policymaking and public discussions on adolescent sexuality education are frequently fueled by religious, social, and cultural values, while receiving scant scientific attention. To meet the needs of an expanding young population in India, scientific evidence for best practices must be kept at the core of policymaking in the context of sexuality education for adolescents. PMID:25374847

The psychological advantage of unfalsifiability: the appeal of untestable religious and political ideologies.

PubMed

Friesen, Justin P; Campbell, Troy H; Kay, Aaron C

2015-03-01

We propose that people may gain certain "offensive" and "defensive" advantages for their cherished belief systems (e.g., religious and political views) by including aspects of unfalsifiability in those belief systems, such that some aspects of the beliefs cannot be tested empirically and conclusively refuted. This may seem peculiar, irrational, or at least undesirable to many people because it is assumed that the primary purpose of a belief is to know objective truth. However, past research suggests that accuracy is only one psychological motivation among many, and falsifiability or testability may be less important when the purpose of a belief serves other psychological motives (e.g., to maintain one's worldviews, serve an identity). In Experiments 1 and 2 we demonstrate the "offensive" function of unfalsifiability: that it allows religious adherents to hold their beliefs with more conviction and political partisans to polarize and criticize their opponents more extremely. Next we demonstrate unfalsifiability's "defensive" function: When facts threaten their worldviews, religious participants frame specific reasons for their beliefs in more unfalsifiable terms (Experiment 3) and political partisans construe political issues as more unfalsifiable ("moral opinion") instead of falsifiable ("a matter of facts"; Experiment 4). We conclude by discussing how in a world where beliefs and ideas are becoming more easily testable by data, unfalsifiability might be an attractive aspect to include in one's belief systems, and how unfalsifiability may contribute to polarization, intractability, and the marginalization of science in public discourse. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

'High profile health facilities can add to your trouble': Women, stigma and un/safe abortion in Kenya.

PubMed

Izugbara, Chimaraoke O; Egesa, Carolyne; Okelo, Rispah

2015-09-01

Public health discourses on safe abortion assume the term to be unambiguous. However, qualitative evidence elicited from Kenyan women treated for complications of unsafe abortion contrasted sharply with public health views of abortion safety. For these women, safe abortion implied pregnancy termination procedures and services that concealed their abortions, shielded them from the law, were cheap and identified through dependable social networks. Participants contested the notion that poor quality abortion procedures and providers are inherently dangerous, asserting them as key to women's preservation of a good self, management of stigma, and protection of their reputation, respect, social relationships, and livelihoods. Greater public health attention to the social dimensions of abortion safety is urgent. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Deaf in the time of the cochlea.

PubMed

Humphries, Tom; Humphries, Jacqueline

2011-01-01

The American Deaf community for several decades has been involved in sometimes complicated and often contested ways of defining what it means to be Deaf. It is our thesis that the processes of identity construction and the recent discourse of Deaf identity are not unique phenomena at all but echo the experience of other embedded cultural groups around the world, particularly those that are stressed by the assertion of hegemony over them by others. We turn to 2 particular theorists, Jose Martí and W. E. B. DuBois, to help us understand both the dilemmas that Deaf people face and the possible solutions that they propose. This article argues that identities are constructed not just within Deaf communities but within the social contexts in which Deaf communities are embedded.

Oiling the system: How activities and the state shaped the politics of petroleum development in Tabasco, Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanson, Heather Dawn

This dissertation analyzes the social, economic and political processes that accompanied the development of petroleum resources in Tabasco, Mexico. Through an historical examination of the case of Tabasco, I explore the general question of how and why state-led development becomes a contested terrain. Why does this sort of activism flourish during some time periods and not others? Under what conditions are relatively marginalized people able to effectively challenge the sort of domination inherent in state-led development plans? To what extent can activists succeed at reshaping the course of development? I argue that protest of state-led development is not necessarily linked to the pace or absolute impact of the social, environmental and economic changes being promoted. Instead, what is most central is the degree to which activists can successfully portray state-led development as an unjust process that contributes to inequality. However, the fact that activists are always constrained by the limits of existing state discourse seriously constrains the range of actions open to marginalized people. In the case of oil development in Tabasco, while activists were free to challenge the uneven distribution of rents, they have not been able to challenge the process itself. Indeed, the promise of material progress is common ground for both activists and the state. I conclude my dissertation with the observation that just as state discourses simultaneously create and limit possibilities for citizen protest, so social movement discourses simultaneously push for change and solidify the existing inequitable social structures.

"I don't want to taint the name of Islam": the influence of religion on the lives of Muslim lesbians.

PubMed

Siraj, Asifa

2012-01-01

Islam is characterized as an extremely homophobic religion, which strictly forbids the union of two people of the same sex. This belief causes an immeasurable amount of strain and anxiety for lesbians because their feelings, desires, and emotions are considered "unnatural" and aberrant. The homophobic Islamic model of homosexuality thus celebrates heteronormative performances of gender and sexuality. In the present study, the issue of how religious identity interplays with sexual identity is examined. Using data gained from online interviews with five Muslim lesbians, the article considers whether the women are able to create their lesbian identity within a discourse that negates their sexual orientation. Their lives as Muslim lesbians produces a unique intersection where religion and sexuality converge, yet they are forced apart by religiously sanctioned homophobia, preventing them from exploring and expressing their sexuality. The article further examines whether Islam is a source upon which the women draw strength to understand their sexuality and to cope with being in the closet. Despite being members of Imaan, a Muslim LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) support group, the women continue to experience a significant degree of conflict. A reconciliation of faith with their sexuality is undermined by an unrelenting and intolerant religious attitude toward homosexuality.

The return of the Iberian lynx to Portugal: local voices.

PubMed

Lopes-Fernandes, Margarida; Espírito-Santo, Clara; Frazão-Moreira, Amélia

2018-01-11

Ethnographic research can help to establish dialog between conservationists and local people in reintroduction areas. Considering that predator reintroductions may cause local resistance, we assessed attitudes of different key actor profiles to the return of the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) to Portugal before reintroduction started in 2015. We aimed to characterize a social context from an ethnoecological perspective, including factors such as local knowledge, perceptions, emotions, and opinions. We conducted semi-structured interviews (n = 131) in three different protected areas and observed practices and public meetings in order to describe reintroduction contestation, emotional involvement with the species, and local perceptions about conservation. Detailed content data analysis was undertaken and an open-ended codification of citations was performed with the support of ATLAS.ti. Besides the qualitative analyses, we further explored statistic associations between knowledge and opinions and compared different geographical areas and hunters with non-hunters among key actors. Local ecological knowledge encompassed the lynx but was not shared by the whole community. Both similarities and differences between local and scientific knowledge about the lynx were found. The discrepancies with scientific findings were not necessarily a predictor of negative attitudes towards reintroduction. Contestation issues around reintroduction differ between geographical areas but did not hinder an emotional attachment to the species and its identification as a territory emblem. Among local voices, financial compensation was significantly associated to hunters and nature tourism was cited the most frequent advantage of lynx presence. Materialistic discourses existed in parallel with non-economic factors and the existence of moral agreement with its protection. The considerable criticism and reference to restrictions by local actors concerning protected areas and conservation projects indicated the experience of an imposed model of nature conservation. Opinions about participation in the reintroduction process highlighted the need for a closer dialog between all actors and administration. Local voices analyzed through an ethnoecological perspective provide several views on reintroduction and nature conservation. They follow two main global trends of environmental discourse: (1) nature becomes a commodified object to exploit while contestation about wildlife is centered on financial return and (2) emblematic wild species create an emotional attachment, become symbolic, and gather moral agreement for nature protection. Lynx reintroduction has been not only just a nature protection theme but also a negotiation process with administration. Western rural communities are not the "noble savages" and nature protectors as are other traditional groups, and actors tend to claim for benefits in a situation of reintroduction. Both parties comprehend a similar version of appropriated nature. Understanding complexity and diverse interests in local communities are useful in not oversimplifying local positions towards predator conservation. We recommend that professional conservation teams rethink their image among local populations and increase proximity with different types of key actors.

Religion as dialogical resource: a socio-cultural approach.

PubMed

Baucal, Aleksandar; Zittoun, Tania

2013-06-01

William James proposed a psychological study of religion examining people's religious experiences, and to see in what sense these were good for them. The recent developments of psychology of religion moved far from that initial proposition. In this paper, we propose a sociocultural perspective to religion that renews with that initial stance. After recalling Vygtotsky's core ideas, we suggest that religion, as cultural and symbolic system, participates to the orchestration of human activities and sense-making. Such orchestration works both from within the person, through internalized values and ideas, and from without, through the person's interactions with others, discourses, cultural objects etc. This leads us to consider religions as supporting various forms of dialogical dynamics-intra-psychological dialogues, interpersonal with present, absent or imaginary others, as well as inter-group dialogues-which we illustrate with empirical vignettes. The example of religious tensions in the Balkans in the 90's highlights how much the historical-cultural embeddedness of these dynamics can also lead to the end of dialogicality, and therefore, sense-making.

Why the cognitive science of religion cannot rescue 'spiritual care'.

PubMed

Paley, John

2015-10-01

Peter Kevern believes that the cognitive science of religion (CSR) provides a justification for the idea of spiritual care in the health services. In this paper, I suggest that he is mistaken on two counts. First, CSR does not entail the conclusions Kevern wants to draw. His treatment of it consists largely of nonsequiturs. I show this by presenting an account of CSR, and then explaining why Kevern's reasons for thinking it rescues 'spirituality' discourse do not work. Second, the debate about spirituality-in-health is about classification: what shall count as a 'spiritual need' and what shall count as 'spiritual care'. It is about the politics of meaning, an exercise in persuasive definition. The function of 'spirituality' talk in health care is to change the denotation of 'spiritual', and attach its indelibly religious connotations to as many health-related concepts and practices as possible. CSR, however plausible it may be as a theory of the origins and pervasiveness of religious belief, is irrelevant to this debate. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Hidden love: sexual ideologies and relationship ideals among rural South African adolescents in the context of HIV/AIDS.

PubMed

Harrison, Abigail

2008-02-01

In KwaZulu/Natal, South Africa, the social construction of young people's sexuality reflects both a complex historical process of cultural and religious integration, as well as the contemporary resurgence of 'traditionalism'. How do young people interpret these factors to construct and give meaning to their own sexualities? This multi-method qualitative study examined sexuality and relationship formation among sexually experienced young people aged 14-19 in a rural sub-district. In this setting, sexual activity is highly stigmatised, particularly for young teenage women. Dominant sexual ideologies centre on 'good behaviour', the idea that 'sex is wrong', and abstinence as a preferred prevention strategy. Young women's relationships are often hidden but sexual relationships are also an important part of the transition to adulthood. These dichotomies of love and romance versus stigma and secrecy frame young people's discourse about sexuality. A discourse about healthy sexuality is largely absent, impeding the prevention of HIV in this setting.

"Homosexuality/Homophobia Is Un-African"?: Un-Mapping Transnational Discourses in the Context of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill/Act.

PubMed

Wahab, Amar

2016-01-01

This article un-maps the recent impasse between pro- and antigay mobilization around Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA, 2009-2014). Drawing on scholarly and social media sources, it summarizes the increasing influence of (U.S.) transnational evangelism that has precipitated a state-religious complex of "anticipatory political homophobia" in Uganda. If transnational evangelism against same-sex sexuality in Uganda has generated a strong reaction from global LGBT human-rights advocates, this article critiques this Western homotransnationalist response by analyzing its limited terms of operation, focusing on the ways in which Uganda is hailed into the biopolitical project of a Western queer modernity. The author focuses on the copresence between homotransnationalist mobilization and "homophobic anticipatory countermobilization" as (re)organizing/suturing a global ordering project that is deeply invested in biopolitics and necropolitics. This suggests that the global flashpointing of Uganda in the context of the AHA incites further questions concerning the transnationality of "gay human rights" discourse under neoliberalism.

Evil, Child Abuse and the Caring Professions.

PubMed

Humphrey, Caroline

2015-10-01

The aim of this paper is to explore the ways in which the concept of evil has been invoked in relation to child abuse. First, the scene is set by juxtaposing professional discourses which have eschewed the concept of evil and public opinion which is affronted by the evil of child abuse. Second, I will discuss the work of some therapists in the USA whose work with perpetrators and survivors has led them to frame the causes and consequences of child abuse in terms of moral evil. Third, I will draw upon case studies of Satanic abuse and spirit possession in the UK to illustrate that some social workers and religious communities have interpreted child abuse as an outcome of or as an antidote to metaphysical evil. Finally, there is a critical appraisal of the merits of referencing moral and metaphysical evil in the discourses of caring professionals, with a suggestion that a mythical-metaphorical conception of evil could be a more flexible and fruitful resource for therapeutic work.

Albinism, stigma, subjectivity and global-local discourses in Tanzania.

PubMed

Brocco, Giorgio

2016-12-01

Societal ideas and explanations of albinism at the local level in Tanzania are conceived in terms of family history, social relations, economic status, moral-religious positions, global-local flows of information and humanitarian actions on behalf of people with the congenital condition. This paper aims to show how the subjectivities of people with albinism in Tanzania are shaped and re-shaped through local moral conceptions as well as globalizing (bio)medical explanations of albinism. An exemplary case study of a 28-year-old woman, plus episodes from the lives of seven other informants with the condition, are analyzed in order to understand, on the one hand, local social relationships between people with albinism and other individuals in family and community settings, and on the other hand, the interconnections between persons with albinism and global humanitarian actors and the broadcast media. When stigma and marginalizing behaviors are perceived by individuals with albinism in Tanzania as impeding their social lives, they employ different coping strategies and discourses to enhance social acceptance.

Autonomy and dignity: a discussion on contingency and dominance.

PubMed

Van Brussel, Leen

2014-06-01

With dying increasingly becoming a medicalised experience in old age, we are witnessing a shift from concern over death itself to an interest in dying 'well'. Fierce discussions about end-of-life decision making and the permissibility of medical intervention in dying, discursively structured around the notion of a 'good' death, are evidence of this shift. This article focuses on 'autonomy' and 'dignity' as key signifiers in these discussions. Rather than being fully fixed and stable, both signifiers are contingent and carry a variety of meanings within different discursive projects. The article aims to distinguish the varieties of these signifiers by elaborating existing theoretical perspectives on autonomy and dignity, and also, starting from a perspective on mass media as sites of meaning production and contestation, to study the contingency of autonomy and dignity in Belgian newspaper coverage of four prominent euthanasia cases. By means of a discourse-theoretical textual analysis, this study exposes a dominant--yet contested--articulation of rational-personal autonomy and of dignity in external terms as something that can be obtained, retained or lost, rather than in terms of intrinsic human integrity. These logics of representation reflect a more general late modern dominance of liberal autonomy and of dignity as being closely connected to self-identity, but at the same time result in limited visibility of alternative ways of experiencing an autonomous and dignified death.

The Roman-Irish Bath: Medical/health history as therapeutic assemblage.

PubMed

Foley, Ronan

2014-04-01

The invention of a new form of hot-air bath in Blarney, Ireland in 1856, variously known in its lifetime as the Roman-Irish or Turkish Bath, acted as the starting point for a the production of a globalised therapeutic landscape. Tracking the diffusion of the Roman-Irish bath template from its local invention in Ireland to a global reach across the Victorian world and recognizing its place within a wider hydrotherapeutic history, this paper frames that diffusion as a valuable empirical addition to assemblage theory. The specific empirical history of the spread of the Roman-Irish/Turkish bath idea is drawn from primary archival and secondary historical sources. It is then discussed and, drawing from work on assemblage theory, analyzed against three broad themes: mobile networks, socio-material practices and contested emergence. The emergent relational geographies of the Roman-Irish Bath identify important roles for the diffusion and transformation of specific medical settings, identities and functions. These were linked in turn to competing social-healing pathways wherein bodies were technologically and morally managed, to produce a more inhabited form of therapeutic assemblage. In all cases the differential diffusion of the bath idea, it's shifting and fractured material forms and multiple inhabitations and discourses were contested and mobile and spoke to an assemblage approach which has ripe potential for exploration across a range of medical/health geography settings. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contesting nonfiction: Fourth graders making sense of words and images in science information book discussions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Belfatti, Monica A.

Recently developed common core standards echo calls by educators for ensuring that upper elementary students become proficient readers of informational texts. Informational texts have been theorized as causing difficulty for students because they contain linguistic and visual features different from more familiar narrative genres (Lemke, 2004). It has been argued that learning to read informational texts, particularly those with science subject matter, requires making sense of words, images, and the relationships among them (Pappas, 2006). Yet, conspicuously absent in the research are empirical studies documenting ways students make use of textual resources to build textual and conceptual understandings during classroom literacy instruction. This 10-month practitioner research study was designed to investigate the ways a group of ethnically and linguistically diverse fourth graders in one metropolitan school made sense of science information books during dialogically organized literature discussions. In this nontraditional instructional context, I wondered whether and how young students might make use of science informational text features, both words and images, in the midst of collaborative textual and conceptual inquiry. Drawing on methods of constructivist grounded theory and classroom discourse analysis, I analyzed student and teacher talk in 25 discussions of earth and life science books. Digital voice recordings and transcriptions served as the main data sources for this study. I found that, without teacher prompts or mandates to do so, fourth graders raised a wide range of textual and conceptual inquiries about words, images, scientific figures, and phenomena. In addition, my analysis yielded a typology of ways students constructed relationships between words and images within and across page openings of the information books read for their sense-making endeavors. The diversity of constructed word-image relationships aided students in raising, exploring, and contesting textual and conceptual ideas. Moreover, through their joint inquiries, students marshaled and evaluated a rich array of resources. Students' sense-making of information books was not contained by the words and images alone; it involved a situated, complex process of making sense of multiple texts, discourses, and epistemologies. These findings suggest educators, theorists, and policy makers reconsider acontextual, linear, hierarchical models for developing elementary students as sense-makers of nonfiction.

Making space for young lesbians in church? Intersectional sites, scripts, and sticking points.

PubMed

Taylor, Yvette; Snowdon, Ria

2014-01-01

This article is a case-study exploration of Christianity and sexuality in the lives of young lesbians in the United Kingdom. Religion matters as a personal and political force, but secularizing trends arguably obscure its influence on the complex convergence and intersection of personal, political, familial, and institutional realms (Brierley, 2006; Heelas and Woodhead, 2005). While the question of homosexuality has been a central focus in much discussion, highlighting around the presumed discontinuity between sexual identity and Christian identity (O'Brien, 2004), there is still a gap in terms of locating first-hand narratives of self-identified young queer Christians. Rather than assuming that these are separate and divergent paths (Wilcox, 2000), this article explores intersectional convergences and divergences, illustrating how religious participation can convey (de)legitimation within family, community and society. Such (de)legitimation is revealed in unpacking scripts of inclusion and exclusion (Taylor and Snowdon, 2014), which are (re)circulated via hetero-homo normative ideals, and perpetuated and contested in the context of intersectional Equalities legislation (Monro and Richardson, 2010). Here, we examine the highly gendered and heteronormative "role models," "mentors," and (familial) mediations experienced by young lesbian Christians, as intersecting public-private domains in the production of queer religious subjectivity and dis-identification.

(Re)placing health and health care: mapping the competing discourses and practices of 'traditional' and 'modern' Thai medicine.

PubMed

Del Casino, Vincent J

2004-03-01

In the wake of the AIDS crisis, 'traditional' Thai medicine has received new attention as a means by which people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) can receive some level of care. The revitalization of Thai medicine, however, is complicated by the competing organizational politics and social dynamics that regulate discourses and practices of health and health care in Thailand. This paper examines how Thai medicine is being (re)placed in the context of competing health-care systems and practices. Specifically, this analysis focuses on the complex interrelationships between 'traditional,' holistic medicine and 'modern,' allopathic medicine in a Thai context; and investigates the role of 'Thai medicine' (phaet phaen thai) and 'village medicine' (phaet pheun baan) as part of governmental and non-governmental efforts to provide health care to PLWHA in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The provision of such health care, however, takes place within the context of a struggle over 'local knowledge' and 'global change' and the ways in which places are organized in relation to the available treatment regimens for HIV/AIDS care. What this paper suggests is that the meanings of health and health care are inextricably linked to the complex, contested nature of social relations as they flow in, and are reworked through, particular places.

Two Paradigmatic Waves of Public Discourse on Nuclear Waste in the United States, 1945-2009: Understanding a Magnitudinal and Longitudinal Phenomenon in Anthropological Terms.

PubMed

Pajo, Judi

2016-01-01

This project set out to illuminate the discursive existence of nuclear waste in American culture. Given the significant temporal dimension of the phenomenon as well as the challenging size of the United States setting, the project adapted key methodological elements of the sociocultural anthropology tradition and produced proxies for ethnographic fieldnotes and key informant interviews through sampling the digital archives of the New York Times over a 64-year period that starts with the first recorded occurrence of the notion of nuclear waste and ends with the conclusion of the presidency of George W. Bush. Two paradigmatic waves of American public discourse on nuclear waste come to light when subjecting this empirical data to quantitative inventorying and interpretive analysis: between 1945 and 1969 nuclear waste was generally framed in light of the beneficial utilizations of nuclear reactions and with optimistic expectations for a scientific/technological solution; by contrast, between 1969 and 2009 nuclear waste was conceptualized as inherited harm that could not be undone and contestation that required political/legal management. Besides this key finding and the empirical timing of the two paradigms, the study's value lies also with its detailed empirical documentation of nuclear waste in its sociocultural existence.

Two Paradigmatic Waves of Public Discourse on Nuclear Waste in the United States, 1945-2009: Understanding a Magnitudinal and Longitudinal Phenomenon in Anthropological Terms

PubMed Central

Pajo, Judi

2016-01-01

This project set out to illuminate the discursive existence of nuclear waste in American culture. Given the significant temporal dimension of the phenomenon as well as the challenging size of the United States setting, the project adapted key methodological elements of the sociocultural anthropology tradition and produced proxies for ethnographic fieldnotes and key informant interviews through sampling the digital archives of the New York Times over a 64-year period that starts with the first recorded occurrence of the notion of nuclear waste and ends with the conclusion of the presidency of George W. Bush. Two paradigmatic waves of American public discourse on nuclear waste come to light when subjecting this empirical data to quantitative inventorying and interpretive analysis: between 1945 and 1969 nuclear waste was generally framed in light of the beneficial utilizations of nuclear reactions and with optimistic expectations for a scientific/technological solution; by contrast, between 1969 and 2009 nuclear waste was conceptualized as inherited harm that could not be undone and contestation that required political/legal management. Besides this key finding and the empirical timing of the two paradigms, the study’s value lies also with its detailed empirical documentation of nuclear waste in its sociocultural existence. PMID:27310719

Christians and Jews in the Twelfth-Century Werewolf Renaissance.

PubMed

Shyovitz, David I

2014-10-01

In the late twelfth century, northern European Jewish mystics engaged in a sustained, unprecedented effort to explore the theological meaning of werewolves. This article seeks to anchor this surprising preoccupation in contemporary European religious culture, arguing that medieval Jews and Christians found werewolves "good to think with" in exploring the spiritual status of the (mutable, unstable) human body. Discourses of monstrosity were used as polemical ammunition in Jewish-Christian debates, but monstrous creatures were simultaneously held to be theologically resonant by both communities-a fact that sheds light upon the broader intellectual and cultural setting in which they were joint participants.

Matters of spirituality at the end of life in the pediatric intensive care unit.

PubMed

Robinson, Mary R; Thiel, Mary Martha; Backus, Meghan M; Meyer, Elaine C

2006-09-01

Our objective with this study was to identify the nature and the role of spirituality from the parents' perspective at the end of life in the PICU and to discern clinical implications. A qualitative study based on parental responses to open-ended questions on anonymous, self-administered questionnaires was conducted at 3 PICUs in Boston, Massachusetts. Fifty-six parents whose children had died in PICUs after the withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies participated. Overall, spiritual/religious themes were included in the responses of 73% (41 of 56) of parents to questions about what had been most helpful to them and what advice they would offer to others at the end of life. Four explicitly spiritual/religious themes emerged: prayer, faith, access to and care from clergy, and belief in the transcendent quality of the parent-child relationship that endures beyond death. Parents also identified several implicitly spiritual/religious themes, including insight and wisdom; reliance on values; and virtues such as hope, trust, and love. Many parents drew on and relied on their spirituality to guide them in end-of-life decision-making, to make meaning of the loss, and to sustain them emotionally. Despite the dominance of technology and medical discourse in the ICU, many parents experienced their child's end of life as a spiritual journey. Staff members, hospital chaplains, and community clergy are encouraged to be explicit in their hospitality to parents' spirituality and religious faith, to foster a culture of acceptance and integration of spiritual perspectives, and to work collaboratively to deliver spiritual care.

Antidepressants and Advertising: Psychopharmaceuticals in Crisis

PubMed Central

Greenslit, Nathan P.; Kaptchuk, Ted J.

2012-01-01

As the efficacy and science of psychopharmaceuticals has become increasingly uncertain, marketing of these drugs to both physicians and consumers continues to a central part of a multi-billion dollar per year industry in the United States. We explore how such drug marketing portrays idealized scientific relationships between psychopharmaceuticals and depression; how multiple stakeholders, including scientists, regulatory agencies, and patient advocacy groups, negotiate neurobiological explanations of mental illness; and how the placebo effect has become a critical issue in these debates, including the possible role of drug advertising to influence the placebo effect directly. We argue that if and how antidepressants “work” is not a straightforward objective question, but rather a larger social contest involving scientific debate, the political history of the pharmaceutical industry, cultural discourses surrounding the role of drugs in society, and the interpretive flexibility of personal experience. PMID:22461754

Antidepressants and advertising: psychopharmaceuticals in crisis.

PubMed

Greenslit, Nathan P; Kaptchuk, Ted J

2012-03-01

As the efficacy and science of psychopharmaceuticals has become increasingly uncertain, marketing of these drugs to both physicians and consumers continues to a central part of a multi-billion dollar per year industry in the United States. We explore how such drug marketing portrays idealized scientific relationships between psychopharmaceuticals and depression; how multiple stakeholders, including scientists, regulatory agencies, and patient advocacy groups, negotiate neurobiological explanations of mental illness; and how the placebo effect has become a critical issue in these debates, including the possible role of drug advertising to influence the placebo effect directly. We argue that if and how antidepressants "work" is not a straightforward objective question, but rather a larger social contest involving scientific debate, the political history of the pharmaceutical industry, cultural discourses surrounding the role of drugs in society, and the interpretive flexibility of personal experience.

Japan's progressive sex: male homosexuality, national competition, and the cinema.

PubMed

Hall, J M

2000-01-01

This essay serves as a broad investigation of the origins of what came to be called the "gay boom" in 1990's Japanese cinema: a culmination of print media, television, and especially films which made the gay male not merely a visible (political) subject but also the site of displaced contestations of gendered (female) desire. The most visible transnational signifier of the "gay boom" was the 1992 film Okoge, a film which, in keeping with a Japanese trend which relocates the gay male as a safe displacement of female desire, posits the heterosexual female as the audience's point of identification in a film about the lives of gay Japanese men. Using this as a starting point, this essay seeks to explore how male homosexuality and gender construction operate within both Japanese nationalism and the transnational discourse of Japanese cinema's dissemination.

Response to "Discourse over a contested technology on Twitter: A case study of hydraulic fracturing"-Word choice as political speech.

PubMed

Grubert, Emily

2016-01-22

Hopke and Simis (Public Understanding of Science, online 4 October 2015) find that #fracking, the most popular of five shale-related hashtags analyzed from a 2013 period, is associated with pro-shale attitudes only 13% of the time and note that the dominant voice of the activist community, coupled with a lack of engagement from industry, is unexpected. This comment offers additional perspective on the sentiment- and actor-skewed result by noting that the term "fracking" is highly political, specifically because the spelling "frack" versus "frac" is associated with activism. Furthermore, in public speech, the industry tends to deemphasize the hydraulic fracturing process in favor of the product, consistent with the findings that #natgas is a relatively pro-industry hashtag. © The Author(s) 2016.

Lost in translation: Discourses, boundaries and legitimacy in the public understanding of science in the UK

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lock, Simon Jay

2008-07-01

This thesis documents the historical development of debates around the public understanding of science in the UK from 1985 until 2005. Testimonies from key actors involved in the evolution of the recent public understanding of science arena, and an examination of documentary evidence, have been used to map out how this issue was problematised by scientists in the mid-1980s, and how it has developed into a contested field of activity, political interest and academic research. I propose that this historical period can be broadly understood in four phases each characterised by a dominant discourse of the public understanding of science. I examine how, within each phase, the various groups involved have engaged in boundary work: rhetorically constructing, and mobilising, ideas of 'science', 'the public', and the perceived 'problem' in the relationship between the two, in the pursuit of defining and legitimating themselves and these definitions of the relationship between science and public. Phase I is characterised as a rhetorical re-framing of earlier 'problems' of the public understanding of science by scientists and scientific institutions in the context of the 1980s. Phase II is dominated by the boundary work between scientists and social scientists as they contended for legitimacy and authority over competing discourses of public understanding of science and the institutionalisation of PUS activity and research. Phase III is characterised by a variety of discursive formulations of the 'problem' of PUS following the House of Lords report (2000) and a subsequent change in the rhetoric of public understanding of science to one of public engagement. Phase IV is dominated by the language of 'upstream engagement' and identifies the political interest in managing science's relationship with the public and the social scientific responses to this.

Breaking the silence: nurses' understandings of change in clinical practice.

PubMed

Copnell, Beverley; Bruni, Nina

2006-08-01

This paper reports a study exploring critical care nurses' understandings of change in their practice. In contemporary nursing literature, change in clinical nursing practice is generally understood to be a rational process, synonymous with progress. It is seen as invariably contested, and hence difficult to achieve. It is represented as occurring infrequently. This literature effectively silences clinicians as this discourse of change does not recognize or incorporate their views or practices. This study was informed by a Foucauldian poststructuralist framework. The participants were 12 critical care nurses who engaged in three individual in-depth, focused interviews. The transcripts were deconstructed to reveal participants' discourses of change and the implications of these discourses for nursing work. The data were generated between 1996 and 1998 as part of a study whose in-depth analysis was completed in 2003. Change was revealed as a highly complex phenomenon, closely intertwined with understandings of clinical nursing work. Participants showed difficulty in identifying or recalling clinical changes. Several dichotomies shaped their understandings of change, including change/stasis, formal/informal and dramatic/subtle. Their experiences of change frequently conflicted with prevailing dominant understandings, but they did not openly challenge them. Rather, they employed dichotomies, such as abstract/concrete and other/self, to enable them to work with these conflicts. As a result, they engaged in practices such as naming other nurses as 'irrational'. The data provide new understandings of change in clinical nursing practice, some of which challenge many widely held views (for example, that such change is a rare occurrence). It is argued that a lack of open challenge by clinical nurses contributes to their silencing, promotes disharmony amongst nurses and, hence, works against a collaborative approach to decisions about clinical practice.

Contest experience and body size affect different types of contest decisions.

PubMed

Chen, Yu-Ju; Hsu, Yuying

2016-11-01

This study examined the relative importance of contest experience and size differences to behavioral decisions over the course of contests. Using a mangrove rivulus fish, Kryptolebias marmoratus, we showed that although contest experience and size differences jointly determined contest outcomes, they affected contestants' interactions at different stages of contests. Contest experience affected behavioral decisions at earlier stages of contests, including the tendency and latency to launch attacks, the tendency to escalate contests into mutual attacks and the outcome of non-escalated contests. Once contests were escalated into mutual attacks, the degree of size difference affected the fish's persistence in escalation and chance of winning, but contest experience did not. These results support the hypothesis that contest experience modifies individuals' estimation of their fighting ability rather than their actual strength. Furthermore, (1) in contests between two naïve contestants, more than 60 % of fish that were 2-3 mm smaller than their opponent escalated the contest to physical fights, even though their larger opponents eventually won 92 % of escalated fights and (2) fish with a losing experience were very likely to retreat in the face of an opponent 2-3 mm smaller than them without escalating. The result that a 2-3 mm size advantage could not offset the influence of a losing experience on the tendency to escalate suggests that, as well as depending on body size, the fish's physical strength is influenced by other factors which require further investigation.

Systematic review of innovation design contests for health: spurring innovation and mass engagement

PubMed Central

Pan, Stephen W; Stein, Gabriella; Bayus, Barry; Tang, Weiming; Mathews, Allison; Wang, Cheng; Wei, Chongyi; Tucker, Joseph D

2018-01-01

We undertook a systematic review evaluating the effectiveness and cost of health-focused innovation design contests. We followed Cochrane guidance and systematically searched eight databases. Articles were included if they reported an open contest focused on improving health, required participants submit finished design solutions and contained a prize structure. We searched 3579 citations, identifying 29 health-focused innovation design contests which collectively received 15494 contest submissions. Contests solicited submissions worldwide (7) and exclusively from North America (13), Asia (4), Africa (2), Australia (2) and Europe (1). Submissions per contest ranged from 3 to 11354 (median of 73). Contest entrants were tasked with helping develop health promotion messages (HPM) (25) and improve predictive clinical models, protocols and/or algorithms (4). Two types of contests emerged—those focused on high-quality, innovative outcomes and those focused on the process of mass community engagement. All outcome-oriented contests had innovation design contest solutions equivalent or superior to the comparator (100%; 7/7). Two of two studies found that innovation design contests saved money (100%; 2/2). Five of seven process-oriented contests concluded the contest improved at least one health indicator (71%; 5/7). Innovation design contests are an effective way to solicit innovative solutions to health problems and spur mass community engagement. PMID:29576873

Systematic review of innovation design contests for health: spurring innovation and mass engagement.

PubMed

Pan, Stephen W; Stein, Gabriella; Bayus, Barry; Tang, Weiming; Mathews, Allison; Wang, Cheng; Wei, Chongyi; Tucker, Joseph D

2017-01-01

We undertook a systematic review evaluating the effectiveness and cost of health-focused innovation design contests. We followed Cochrane guidance and systematically searched eight databases. Articles were included if they reported an open contest focused on improving health, required participants submit finished design solutions and contained a prize structure. We searched 3579 citations, identifying 29 health-focused innovation design contests which collectively received 15494 contest submissions. Contests solicited submissions worldwide (7) and exclusively from North America (13), Asia (4), Africa (2), Australia (2) and Europe (1). Submissions per contest ranged from 3 to 11354 (median of 73). Contest entrants were tasked with helping develop health promotion messages (HPM) (25) and improve predictive clinical models, protocols and/or algorithms (4). Two types of contests emerged-those focused on high-quality, innovative outcomes and those focused on the process of mass community engagement. All outcome-oriented contests had innovation design contest solutions equivalent or superior to the comparator (100%; 7/7). Two of two studies found that innovation design contests saved money (100%; 2/2). Five of seven process-oriented contests concluded the contest improved at least one health indicator (71%; 5/7). Innovation design contests are an effective way to solicit innovative solutions to health problems and spur mass community engagement.

Use of Fees to Discourage Nonmedical Exemptions to School Immunization Laws in US States

PubMed Central

Omer, Saad B.

2016-01-01

Recent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States have renewed public discourse about state vaccine mandates for children entering schools. With acknowledgment of the challenge of eliminating religious and philosophical exemptions in most states, some have proposed instead to impose additional administrative burdens for parents seeking such exemptions. We review the use of taxes, fines, and fees as financial disincentives in public health. We argue that adding processing fees to a comprehensive set of administrative requirements for obtaining exemptions will avoid the use of taxpayer funding for exemption processing and will help tilt the balance of convenience in favor of vaccination. PMID:26691132

Religion, secular medicine and utilitarianism: a response to Biggar.

PubMed

Smith, Kevin R

2015-11-01

Nigel Biggar has argued that religion ought to be given a seat at the negotiating table of medical ethics. I respond in broadly utilitarian terms, arguing that the flawed empirical basis, lack of rationality and non-universality inherent in religion disqualify it from ethical discourse. I conclude that while it would be unacceptable to attempt to debar religious individuals from the negotiating table, an exclusively secular approach is required for ethical decision making in medicine. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

East African discourses on khat and sex.

PubMed

Beckerleg, Susan

2010-12-01

The study aims to review and analyse the varied East African discourses on the effects of khat use on libido, fertility, transmission of HIV, prostitution and rape. The data were gathered between 2004 and 2009 in Kenya and Uganda. Between 2004 and 2005 across Kenya and Uganda a broad survey approach was adopted, involving identification of and travel to production areas, interviews with producers and consumers in rural and urban settings. In addition, a survey of 300 Ugandan consumers was carried out in late 2004. Between 2007 and 2009, an in-depth study of khat production, trade and consumption was conducted in Uganda. This study also employed a mixture of methods, including key informant interviews participant-observation and a questionnaire survey administered to 210 khat consumers. Khat is associated, by consumers and its detractors alike, with changes in libido and sexual performance. Although there is no evidence to support their claims, detractors of khat use argue that khat causes sexual violence, causes women to enter sex work, and that chewing causes the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including the HIV virus. In East Africa the discourse on khat and sex has led to consumption of the substances being associated by many people with uncontrolled sexual behaviour. There is no evidence that khat use fuels promiscuity, commercial sex, sexually transmitted diseases or rape. The current discourse on khat and sex touches on all these topics. Local religious and political leaders invoke khat use as a cause of what they argue is a breakdown of morals and social order. In Kenya and Uganda it is women khat consumers who are seen as sexually uncontrolled. In Uganda, the argument is extended even to men: with male khat chewers labelled as prone to commit rape. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

German muslims and the 'integration debate': negotiating identities in the face of discrimination.

PubMed

Holtz, Peter; Dahinden, Janine; Wagner, Wolfgang

2013-06-01

Based on five focus groups (total N = 56) with German Muslims, we analyze discourses on the experience of discrimination and feelings of national and religious attachment. The focus groups took place in mid to late 2010 in four German cities. Whereas only few participants describe personal discrimination by non-Muslim Germans, almost all participants complain about being collectively discriminated and rejected. This perception triggers processes of confirming their original cultural identity, primarily their Muslim affiliation and of strengthening the boundary towards the wider society. The analysis of the discourse shows the participants to fall back into an essentialized way of thinking that makes their ethnic being incompatible with being German; and they resort to their Muslim roots as a cultural resource for identity construction and self-worth. Others cope with their feeling of rejection by engaging in local politics and sports activities that allows them to attribute themselves a hyphenated identity as Turkish-Germans. The findings are discussed in terms of social identity, psychological essentialism, transnationalized religion, and boundary making.

Did God Break the Sabbath? Astrosociology and Christian Fundamentalism in the United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McAdamis, J. D. Eric

2009-03-01

The modern era has witnessed many progressive religious traditions liberally accommodating scientific explanations and incorporating them into their interpretation of religious texts. For most religions, and their adherents, a similar acceptance of astrobiology and the search for life elsewhere in the universe can be expected. Not all faith traditions are likely to be so accepting however, and Christian fundamentalism in the United States, animated by biblical literalism, promises to be one particularly potent exception. The outspoken and politically powerful opposition Christian fundamentalists have mounted against some of the cornerstones of modern science, including evolution and the age of the Earth, ominously project another information battleground looming in the future of astrosociology. Specifically, any evidence of a "second genesis" could be seen as threatening to the belief that humans are the center of God's attention and as a validation of the theory of evolution. Consequently, the "alternative science apparatus" of the fundamentalist movement could be expected to argue in favor of one-way panspermia, originating from Earth, whenever and wherever evidence of life beyond Earth is found. To prevent astrobiology from becoming the next hotly contested information battleground between science and religion, more attention should be paid to the particular segments of the faithful in society that are likely to react negatively to any new evidence that astrobiology may produce.

Healthy vocations: field nursing and the religious overtones of public health.

PubMed

Hancock, Christin L

2011-01-01

This article argues that the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) field nursing program of the 1930s, which continued much of the same assimilation-style health care practices begun generations earlier by missionaries and field matrons, perpetuated the nineteenth-century link between religion and health care. Following in the footsteps of their female predecessors, field nurses targeted native women for health education, emphasizing personal hygiene and individual responsibility at the expense of socioeconomic causes of illness. Native women nonetheless appear to have maintained agency and power in negotiating health and health care. Peaking during the era of OIA Commissioner John Collier's Indian New Deal, the history of field nursing problematizes this period, particularly with regard to women's experiences. The article is significant for its exploration of field nursing as a contested site of cultural negotiation, revealing issues of power and difference in the lives of American women.

Claiming Darwin: Stephen Jay Gould in contests over evolutionary orthodoxy and public perception, 1977-2002.

PubMed

Sheldon, Myrna Perez

2014-03-01

This article analyzes the impact of the resurgence of American creationism in the early 1980s on debates within post-synthesis evolutionary biology. During this period, many evolutionists criticized Harvard biologist Stephen Jay Gould for publicizing his revisions to traditional Darwinian theory and opening evolution to criticism by creationists. Gould's theory of punctuated equilibrium was a significant source of contention in these disputes. Both he and his critics, including Richard Dawkins, claimed to be carrying the mantle of Darwinian evolution. By the end of the 1990s, the debate over which evolutionary thinkers were the rightful heirs to Darwin's evolutionary theory was also a conversation over whether Darwinism could be defended against creationists in the broader cultural context. Gould and others' claims to Darwin shaped the contours of a political, religious and scientific controversy. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Geography Department Weather Forecasting Contests in the 21st Century

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skeeter, Brent R.

2006-01-01

The benefits of weather forecasting contests within geography departments are reaffirmed. The greatly increased ease of conducting such contests in the new millennium is stressed. Some of the specifics of the forecasting contest at Salisbury University are discussed. In addition, the advantages of a departmental contest over a national contest are…

Vitamins for the soul: John Bowlby's thesis of maternal deprivation, biomedical metaphors and the deficiency model of disease.

PubMed

Duniec, Eduardo; Raz, Mical

2011-03-01

In 1951 John Bowlby, British psychoanalyst and child psychiatrist, published his now famous report, Maternal Care and Mental Health, commissioned by the World Health Organization. In this report, Bowlby coined the term 'maternal deprivation', which quickly permeated into Western psychiatry and psychology. The implications of Bowlby's writings, while widely criticized and contested, generated a considerable amount of research and brought about significant changes in perceptions of separation between children and their mothers. This article examines the origins of the 'maternal deprivation' hypothesis, focusing on how the deficiency theory of disease influenced psychiatric discourse, and framed Bowlby's theory of maternal care. We argue that developments in paediatric medicine, and particularly in the field of nutritional deficiencies, provided Bowlby a prototype for conceptualizing his early views on the psychological needs of children and the development of psychopathology.

Grandfathers, Google, and dreams: medical pluralism, globalization, and new healing encounters in Ghana.

PubMed

Hampshire, Kate R; Owusu, Samuel Asiedu

2013-01-01

Across contemporary Africa, pluralistic medical fields are becoming increasingly complex, giving rise to newly emerging constellations of healing practices and a vast array of therapeutic possibilities. We present portraits of four 'traditional' healers in southern Ghana who selectively adapt, adopt, and modify elements of biomedical, 'local,' and 'exotic' healing practices in eclectic and creative ways, positioning themselves strategically in a highly pluralistic, contested, and globalized medical arena. Their practices are informed by 'traditional' knowledge, passed down through families and acquired through spiritually directed dreams, but also from medical textbooks, Google searches, 'scientific' experimentation, and interactions with the biomedical sector. The healers make use of modern information and communication technologies to increase their geographical reach, and respond to the opportunities and risks of an increasingly global but strongly differentiated therapeutic market. However, while apparently transgressing therapeutic boundaries, they are simultaneously drawing on a discourse of stabilizing and straddling those boundaries to legitimize their practices.

Just a preference: racialised language in the sex-seeking profiles of gay and bisexual men.

PubMed

Callander, Denton; Holt, Martin; Newman, Christy E

2012-10-01

Racialised language is a salient and contested aspect of contemporary sexual cultures, particularly in the online domain. This paper explores the ways in which gay men in Australia employ race-related language when using online sex/dating websites. Using inductive content analysis, descriptive categories were developed to identify recurrent patterns in the racialised language employed by website users. A coding framework was then constructed to identify the 'subject' (self, other or concept) of each piece of race-related content, its 'purpose' (marketing, negative or positive discrimination, commentary) and the 'position' adopted (defensive, normalised or critical). Descriptive and comparative analyses revealed differences in the ways in which members of racial groups employed racialised language online. These differences are reviewed in relation to broader discourses on Whiteness and race in Australia, as well as recent community-produced anti-racism campaigns.

Faces of integration.

PubMed

Williams, Paul; Sullivan, Helen

2009-12-22

Two central themes permeate this paper-the interplay between structure and agency in integration processes and the extent to which this is mediated through sensemaking by individual actors. The empirical base for the paper is provided by case study research from Wales which draws on examples of different types of integration in health and social care. The individual case studies highlight different interpretations of integration set against a background of the resources involved, processes employed and outcomes achieved. A wide ranging discussion exposes the complex interplay and dynamics between structural factors and the manner in which they enable or constrain integration, and individual actors realising their potential agency through leadership, professionalism and boundary spanning to influence outcomes. The importance of structure and agency complementing each other to determine effective integration is emphasised, together with the scope that is available for interpretation and meaning by individual actors within the contested discourse of integration.

Faces of integration

PubMed Central

Williams, Paul; Sullivan, Helen

2009-01-01

Theme Two central themes permeate this paper—the interplay between structure and agency in integration processes and the extent to which this is mediated through sensemaking by individual actors. Case study The empirical base for the paper is provided by case study research from Wales which draws on examples of different types of integration in health and social care. The individual case studies highlight different interpretations of integration set against a background of the resources involved, processes employed and outcomes achieved. Discussion A wide ranging discussion exposes the complex interplay and dynamics between structural factors and the manner in which they enable or constrain integration, and individual actors realising their potential agency through leadership, professionalism and boundary spanning to influence outcomes. The importance of structure and agency complementing each other to determine effective integration is emphasised, together with the scope that is available for interpretation and meaning by individual actors within the contested discourse of integration. PMID:20087420

Visualising abortion: emotion discourse and fetal imagery in a contemporary abortion debate.

PubMed

Hopkins, Nick; Zeedyk, Suzanne; Raitt, Fiona

2005-07-01

This paper presents an analysis of a recent UK anti-abortion campaign in which the use of fetal imagery--especially images of fetal remains--was a prominent issue. A striking feature of the texts produced by the group behind the campaign was the emphasis given to the emotions of those viewing such imagery. Traditionally, social scientific analyses of mass communication have problematised references to emotion and viewed them as being of significance because of their power to subvert the rational appraisal of message content. However, we argue that emotion discourse may be analysed from a different perspective. As the categorisation of the fetus is a social choice and contested, it follows that all protagonists in the abortion debate (whether pro- or anti-abortion) are faced with the task of constructing the fetus as a particular entity rather than another, and that they must seek to portray their preferred categorisation as objective and driven by an 'out-there' reality. Following this logic, we show how the emotional experience of viewing fetal imagery was represented so as to ground an anti-abortion construction of the fetus as objective. We also show how the arguments of the (pro-abortion) opposition were construed as totally discrepant with such emotions and so were invalidated as deceitful distortions of reality. The wider significance of this analysis for social scientific analyses of the abortion debate is discussed.

The right to fashion in the age of terrorism.

PubMed

Pham, Minh-Ha T

2011-01-01

As part of a feminist commitment to collaboration, this article appears as a companion essay to Mimi Thi Nguyen's "The Biopower of Beauty: Humanitarian Imperialisms and Global Feminisms" and offers a point of departure for thinking about fashion and beauty as processes that produce subjects recruited to, and aligned with, the national interests of the United States in the war on terror. The Muslim woman in the veil and her imagined opposite in the fashionably modern - and implicitly Western - woman become convenient metaphors for articulating geopolitical contests of power as a human rights concern, as a rescue mission, as a beautifying mandate. This article examines newer iterations of this opposition, in the wake of September 11, 2001, in order to demonstrate the critical resonance of a biopolitics on fashion and beauty. In "The Right to Fashion in the Age of Terrorism," the author examines the relationship between the U.S. war on terror, targeting persons whose sartorial choices are described as terrorist-looking and oppressive, and the right-to-fashion discourse, which promotes fashion's mass-market diffusion as a civil liberty. Looking at these multiple invocations of the democratization of fashion, this article argues that the right-to-fashion discourse colludes with the war on terror by fabricating a neoliberal consumer-citizen who is also a couture-citizen and whose right to fashion reasserts U.S.exceptionalism, which is secured by private property, social mobility, and individualism.

Innovation contests to promote sexual health in China: a qualitative evaluation.

PubMed

Zhang, Wei; Schaffer, David; Tso, Lai Sze; Tang, Songyuan; Tang, Weiming; Huang, Shujie; Yang, Bin; Tucker, Joseph D

2017-01-14

Innovation contests call on non-experts to help solve problems. While these contests have been used extensively in the private sector to increase engagement between organizations and clients, there is little data on the role of innovation contests to promote health campaigns. We implemented an innovation contest in China to increase sexual health awareness among youth and evaluated community engagement in the contest. The sexual health image contest consisted of an open call for sexual health images, contest promotion activities, judging of entries, and celebrating contributions. Contest promotion activities included in-person and social media feedback, classroom didactics, and community-driven activities. We conducted 19 semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample to ensure a range of participant scores, experts and non-expert participants, submitters and non-submitters. Transcripts of each interview were coded with Atlas.ti and evaluated by three reviewers. We identified stages of community engagement in the contest which contributed to public health impact. Community engagement progressed across a continuum from passive, moderate, active, and finally strong engagement. Engagement was a dynamic process that appeared to have little relationship with formally submitting an image to the contest. Among non-expert participants, contest engagement increased knowledge, healthy attitudes, and empowered participants to share ideas about safe sex with others outside of the contest. Among experts who helped organize the contest, the process of implementing the contest fostered multi-sectoral collaboration and re-oriented public health leadership towards more patient-centered public health campaigns. The results of this study suggest that innovation contests may be a useful tool for public health promotion by enhancing community engagement and re-orienting health campaigns to make them more patient-centered.

Experience affects the outcome of agonistic contests without affecting the selective advantage of size

PubMed Central

Kasumovic, Michael M.; Elias, Damian O.; Punzalan, David; Mason, Andrew C.; Andrade, Maydianne C. B.

2009-01-01

In the field, phenotypic determinants of competitive success are not always absolute. For example, contest experience may alter future competitive performance. As future contests are not determined solely on phenotypic attributes, prior experience could also potentially alter phenotype–fitness associations. In this study, we examined the influence of single and multiple experiences on contest outcomes in the jumping spider Phidippus clarus. We also examined whether phenotype–fitness associations altered as individuals gained more experience. Using both size-matched contests and a tournament design, we found that both winning and losing experience affected future contest success; males with prior winning experience were more likely to win subsequent contests. Although experience was a significant determinant of success in future contests, male weight was approximately 1.3 times more important than experience in predicting contest outcomes. Despite the importance of experience in determining contest outcomes, patterns of selection did not change between rounds. Overall, our results show that experience can be an important determinant in contest outcomes, even in short-lived invertebrates, and that experience alone is unlikely to alter phenotype–fitness associations. PMID:20161296

Experience affects the outcome of agonistic contests without affecting the selective advantage of size.

PubMed

Kasumovic, Michael M; Elias, Damian O; Punzalan, David; Mason, Andrew C; Andrade, Maydianne C B

2009-06-01

In the field, phenotypic determinants of competitive success are not always absolute. For example, contest experience may alter future competitive performance. As future contests are not determined solely on phenotypic attributes, prior experience could also potentially alter phenotype-fitness associations. In this study, we examined the influence of single and multiple experiences on contest outcomes in the jumping spider Phidippus clarus. We also examined whether phenotype-fitness associations altered as individuals gained more experience. Using both size-matched contests and a tournament design, we found that both winning and losing experience affected future contest success; males with prior winning experience were more likely to win subsequent contests. Although experience was a significant determinant of success in future contests, male weight was approximately 1.3 times more important than experience in predicting contest outcomes. Despite the importance of experience in determining contest outcomes, patterns of selection did not change between rounds. Overall, our results show that experience can be an important determinant in contest outcomes, even in short-lived invertebrates, and that experience alone is unlikely to alter phenotype-fitness associations.

HIV cure research community engagement in North Carolina: a mixed-methods evaluation of a crowdsourcing contest.

PubMed

Mathews, Allison; Farley, Samantha; Blumberg, Meredith; Knight, Kimberley; Hightow-Weidman, Lisa; Muessig, Kate; Rennie, Stuart; Tucker, Joseph

2017-10-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using a crowdsourcing contest to promote HIV cure research community engagement. Crowdsourcing contests are open calls for community participation to achieve a task, in this case to engage local communities about HIV cure research. Our contest solicited images and videos of what HIV cure meant to people. Contestants submitted entries to IdeaScale, an encrypted online contest platform. We used a mixed-methods study design to evaluate the contest. Engagement was assessed through attendance at promotional events and social media user analytics. Google Analytics measured contest website user-engagement statistics. Text from contest video entries was transcribed, coded and analysed using MAXQDA. There were 144 attendees at three promotional events and 32 entries from 39 contestants. Most individuals who submitted entries were black ( n =31), had some college education ( n =18) and were aged 18-23 years ( n =23). Social media analytics showed 684 unique page followers, 2233 unique page visits, 585 unique video views and an overall reach of 80,624 unique users. Contest submissions covered themes related to the community's role in shaping the future of HIV cure through education, social justice, creativity and stigma reduction. Crowdsourcing contests are feasible for engaging community members in HIV cure research. Community contributions to crowdsourcing contests provide useful content for culturally relevant and locally responsive research engagement.

Wisdom of the Crowds: Crowd-Based Development of a Logo for a Conference Using a Crowdsourcing Contest.

PubMed

Ong, Jason J; Bilardi, Jade E; Tucker, Joseph D

2017-10-01

Crowdsourcing methods have been widely used in business, but rarely in sexual health research. We evaluated a crowdsourced logo contest as part of an international human immunodeficiency virus conference. A logo crowdsourcing contest was conducted for the 20th International Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Conference. Crowdsourcing has a group of individuals solve a task, often as part of an open contest. Semistructured interviews were conducted with key informants including contest organizers, contest contributors, and conference attendees. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using a content analysis approach. In total, 22 interviews were conducted with 3 contest organizers, 7 contest contributors, and 12 conference attendees. All individuals reported that the crowdsourced logo provided benefits beyond branding the conference, including creating a shared sense of purpose among diverse conference participants and explicitly demonstrating the strong community orientation of the conference. Conference organizers and attendees all reported deeper engagement because of the story of the Tanzanian artist who won the contest. Most conference attendees (11/12) preferred the crowdsourced logo compared with the previous company-organized logo, and all (22/22) supported the logo contest continuing. Implementing a logo contest was simple and relatively inexpensive. Stakeholders identified several ways to enhance crowdsourcing logo contest methods including wider promotion of the contest to encourage broader participation, greater transparency in the selection process, and a different prize structure which acknowledges the contribution of more contestants. We found that a crowdsourcing contest helped engage local and global communities in the lead-up before and during an international conference. Similar participatory events may be useful for sexual health conferences and research projects.

Reducing electricity consumption of residents living in mass-metered dormitory complexes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Newsom, T.J.; Makranczy, U.J.

1977-01-01

Monetary incentives for reduced electricity consumption by residents living in mass-metered university dormitories were provided via a contest and contest-raffle. In the contest, reduced electricity consumption of a group of students was reinforced with group consequences. In the contest-raffle, reduced electricity consumption of a group of students was reinforced with individual consequences. A control condition measured normal fluctuations in electricity use. Electricity consumption by residents in the contest and contest-raffle was consistently lower than consumption by residents in the control condition throughout the treatment period. Also, consumption by male residents was lower than consumption by female residents. Analysis of electricitymore » consumption during a post-treatment baseline period suggested residual effects due to the contest and contest-raffle. Residents' reactions to the contest and contest-raffle were assessed through telephone interviews. It was suggested that energy conservation programs incorporate elements based on behavioral technology as well as physical technology.« less

Effects of Prior Contest Experience and Contest Outcome on Female Reproductive Decisions and Offspring Fitness.

PubMed

Pilakouta, Natalie; Halford, Cerian; Rácz, Rita; Smiseth, Per T

2016-09-01

Winning or losing a prior contest can influence the outcome of future contests, but it might also alter subsequent reproductive decisions. For example, losers may increase their investment in the current breeding attempt if losing a contest indicates limited prospects for future breeding. Using the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, we tested whether females adjust their prehatching and posthatching reproductive effort after winning or losing a contest with a same-sex conspecific. Burying beetles breed on carcasses of small vertebrates for which there is fierce intrasexual competition. We found no evidence that winning or losing a contest influenced reproductive investment decisions in this species. Instead, we show that a female's prior contest experience (regardless of its outcome) influenced the amount of posthatching care provided, with downstream consequences for the female's reproductive output; both winners and losers spent more time provisioning food to their offspring and produced larger broods than females with no contest experience. We discuss the wider implications of our findings and present a conceptual model linking contest-mediated adjustments in parental investment to population-level processes. We propose that the frequency of intraspecific contests could both influence and be influenced by population dynamics in species where contest experience influences the size and/or number of offspring produced.

Religion and gender in a men's hospital and school of nursing, 1866-1969.

PubMed

Wall, Barbra Mann

2009-01-01

This article explores religious beliefs, practices, and representations of the Alexian Brothers, a religious order of Catholic nursing brothers, and the role of gender in this discourse. Nursing in the United States developed within a cultural framework of caring as part of women's roles in families and communities. Yet, a study of the Alexian Brothers challenges the dominance of the "female" in most gender analyses of nursing. Historical methodology is used to evaluate and interpret data within the broader framework of historiographical literature on gender, religion, and nursing. In analyzing nursing, religion, and gender, attention has been paid to representations, mainly of women, through photographs and written literature. In this article, the same sources are used for men. The story of the Alexian Brothers and the men they educated is a testament to the power of gender and religion in nursing history. These men carved out a system of caring that recognized it as a responsibility not only of women but also of men. As they asserted that their paid work was a Christian calling, they renegotiated dominant notions of masculinity. In doing so, male nurses navigated among an array of representations, from nurse, to school administrator, to military soldier, to religious person, to professional practitioner of scientific medicine. These self-representations in the masculine spaces of the hospital and nursing school were designed to debunk stereotypes of feminine men, and they challenged traditional spatial boundaries.

Questioning Engelhardt's assumptions in Bioethics and Secular Humanism.

PubMed

Ahmadi Nasab Emran, Shahram

2016-06-01

In Bioethics and Secular Humanism: The Search for a Common Morality, Tristram Engelhardt examines various possibilities of finding common ground for moral discourse among people from different traditions and concludes their futility. In this paper I will argue that many of the assumptions on which Engelhardt bases his conclusion about the impossibility of a content-full secular bioethics are problematic. By starting with the notion of moral strangers, there is no possibility, by definition, for a content-full moral discourse among moral strangers. It means that there is circularity in starting the inquiry with a definition of moral strangers, which implies that they do not share enough moral background or commitment to an authority to allow for reaching a moral agreement, and concluding that content-full morality is impossible among moral strangers. I argue that assuming traditions as solid and immutable structures that insulate people across their boundaries is problematic. Another questionable assumption in Engelhardt's work is the idea that religious and philosophical traditions provide content-full moralities. As the cardinal assumption in Engelhardt's review of the various alternatives for a content-full moral discourse among moral strangers, I analyze his foundationalist account of moral reasoning and knowledge and indicate the possibility of other ways of moral knowledge, besides the foundationalist one. Then, I examine Engelhardt's view concerning the futility of attempts at justifying a content-full secular bioethics, and indicate how the assumptions have shaped Engelhardt's critique of the alternatives for the possibility of content-full secular bioethics.

Programming Contest Strategy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trotman, Andrew; Handley, Chris

2008-01-01

Each year the ACM hosts a truly international programming contest--the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). Dating back to a contest held by Texas A&M University in 1970, this annual event, along with the associated regional contests, has grown to 5606 teams from 1733 universities in 84 countries (in the year 2006). Despite the…

43 CFR 4.451-2 - Proceedings in Government contests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Proceedings in Government contests. 4.451... Appeals Involving Questions of Fact § 4.451-2 Proceedings in Government contests. The proceedings in Government contests shall be governed by the rules relating to proceedings in private contests with the...

43 CFR 4.451-2 - Proceedings in Government contests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 1 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Proceedings in Government contests. 4.451... Appeals Involving Questions of Fact § 4.451-2 Proceedings in Government contests. The proceedings in Government contests shall be governed by the rules relating to proceedings in private contests with the...

Navigating Negative Conversations in Climate Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mandia, S. A.; Abraham, J. P.; Dash, J. W.; Ashley, M. C.

2012-12-01

Politically charged public discussions of climate change often lead to polarization as a direct result of many societal, economic, religious and other factors which form opinions. For instance, the general public views climate change as a political discussion rather than a scientific matter. Additionally, many media sources such as websites and mainstream venues and persons have served to promote the "controversy". Scientists who engage in a public discourse of climate change often encounter politically charged environments and audiences. Traditional presentations of the science without attention paid to political, social, or economic matters are likely to worsen the existing divide. An international organization, the Climate Science Rapid Response Team (CSRRT) suggests a strategy that can be used to navigate potentially troublesome situations with divided audiences. This approach can be used during live lecture presentations, and radio, print, or television interviews. The strategy involves identifying alternative motivations for taking action on climate change. The alternative motivations are tailored to the audience and can range from national defense, economic prosperity, religious motivation, patriotism, energy independence, or hunting/fishing reasons. Similar messaging modification can be used to faithfully and accurately convey the importance of taking action on climate change but present the motivations in a way that will be received by the audience.

Portraying Islam and Muslims in MEDLINE: a content analysis.

PubMed

Laird, Lance Daniel; de Marrais, Justine; Barnes, Linda L

2007-12-01

The growing number and diversity of Muslims in the United States and Western Europe challenge clinicians and researchers to understand this population's perspectives and experiences regarding health and biomedicine. For information about Muslim patient populations, clinicians and researchers routinely consult medical literature. To examine how this literature portrays Muslims, we conducted an ethnographic content analysis of 2342 OVID MEDLINE-indexed abstracts from 1966 through August 2005, derived from a Boolean search for "islam or muslim or muslims." Manifest (explicitly stated) themes included Muslim religious practices, Islamic law and ethics, history of Islamic medicine, public health, social medicine, and cultural competence. Latent (underlying) themes implied that being an observant Muslim poses health risks; Muslims are negatively affected by tradition, and should adopt modernity; and that "Islam" is a problem for biomedical healthcare delivery. A countervailing latent theme implies that being Muslim may promote good health. We discuss ambiguities in uses of the term "Muslim;" implications of Muslim practices for health management and healthcare delivery; and ways in which MEDLINE-indexed literature intersects with orientalist and colonialist discourse about religious Others. Such intersections highlight connections with potential structural inequalities in healthcare delivery to Muslim patients.

Diversity and uniformity in genetic responsibility: moral attitudes of patients, relatives and lay people in Germany and Israel.

PubMed

Raz, Aviad E; Schicktanz, Silke

2009-11-01

The professional and institutional responsibility for handling genetic knowledge is well discussed; less attention has been paid to how lay people and particularly people who are affected by genetic diseases perceive and frame such responsibilities. In this exploratory study we qualitatively examine the attitudes of lay people, patients and relatives of patients in Germany and Israel towards genetic testing. These attitudes are further examined in the national context of Germany and Israel, which represent opposite regulatory approaches and bioethical debates concerning genetic testing. Three major themes of responsibility emerged from the inter-group and cross-cultural comparison: self-responsibility, responsibility for kin, and responsibility of society towards its members. National contrast was apparent in the moral reasoning of lay respondents concerning, for example, the right not to know versus the duty to know (self-responsibility) and the moral conflict concerning informing kin versus the moral duty to inform (responsibility for kin). Attitudes of respondents affected by genetic diseases were, however, rather similar in both countries. We conclude by discussing how moral discourses of responsibility are embedded within cultural (national, religious) as well as phenomenological (being affected) narratives, and the role of public engagement in bioethical discourse.

Community smoking cessation contests: an effective public health strategy.

PubMed

Leinweber, C E; Macdonald, J M; Campbell, H S

1994-01-01

This report describes the follow-up of a community-sponsored smoking cessation contest. The aims of the evaluation were to describe the characteristics of contestants and the quit rates at six weeks, six months and one year. The "Quit to Win" contest was held as part of a larger cancer prevention program in Medicine Hat, Alberta. In order to be eligible for prizes, contestants were required to be smoke-free for six weeks and have their smoking status verified by a "Buddy". Contestants were contacted by telephone at the end of the contest and again at six months and one year. Seventy-five individuals entered the contest. The quit rates, 56%, 27% and 21% at six weeks, six months and one year respectively, compare favourably with other smoking cessation interventions. This study demonstrates that a community-based program can reach a variety of smokers with a relatively simple intervention.

Social imaginaries: the literature of eugenics.

PubMed

Sinclair, Alison

2008-06-01

This paper starts from a premise relating to the act of fictional writing about eugenics and the way it may be understood as the embodiment and enactment of social imaginaries. It proposes that literature (in the sense of fiction) frequently, if not habitually, expresses the underside of what is expressed in public discourse. That is, far from being the implement of state policy or intervention, it acts in counterpoint to the state, constituting a type of social fantasy in that it explores through the realm of the imagination what might happen. It becomes the arena for contestation, exploration, and nuancing as it essays how ideas from public, 'real' life, might transform when acted out. The paper considers two sorts of literary case. First it looks at that of 'naïve' literature, harnessed unashamedly to a specific sociological discourse of eugenics. Then, using primarily Ibsen, it considers a subset, the case of literature that does not set out to be explicitly in the service of the cause of eugenics, but is appropriated and disseminated from a platform of eugenics. Lastly, taking the example of Unamuno's Amor y pedagogía (1902) the paper considers literature that exists in a quite different sphere of public awareness. It shows awareness of the arguments and precepts of eugenics and related beliefs and practices, but acts as a transitional space (in the terms of Winnicott) to enable such ideas to be entertained and thought about, without a requirement of acceptance or belief.

Results of a long-term community smoking cessation contest.

PubMed

Lando, H A; Hellerstedt, W L; Pirie, P L; Fruetel, J; Huttner, P

1991-01-01

Successive quit smoking contests undertaken as part of the Minnesota Heart Health Program had generated diminishing impact. The 1988 contest attempted to rejuvenate community interest and participation through a substantially extended enrollment period. Smokers were eligible for monthly prize drawings and a grand prize drawing by entering the contest at any point between June 1988 and January 1989 and remaining abstinent for at least one month. The contest was promoted through newspaper advertisements, contest flyers, schools, and a community-wide direct mail campaign. A total of 1,328 smokers returned initial interest cards and 918 (69.1%) of these smokers returned quit pledges. Self-reported abstinence for pledgers and nonpledgers was 16.7% and 9.2%, respectively. Survival analysis indicated significantly longer periods of abstinence for pledgers (p = .0001). The extended contest was successful in recruiting smokers (almost 7% of the entire Bloomington smoking population vs. 1% for a previous one-month contest), especially those with less than a high school education. The current contest required substantial expenditures. However, these costs could be dramatically reduced through innovative use of donated resources.

Using knowledge from human research to improve understanding of contest theory and contest dynamics

PubMed Central

Denson, Thomas F.

2017-01-01

Our understanding of animal contests and the factors that affect contest dynamics and decisions stems from a long and prosperous collaboration between empiricists and theoreticians. Over the last two decades, however, theoretical predictions regarding the factors that affect individual decisions before, during and after a contest are becoming increasingly difficult to test empirically. Extremely large sample sizes are necessary to experimentally test the nuanced theoretical assumptions surrounding how information is used by animals during a contest, how context changes the information used, and how individuals change behaviour as a result of both the information available and the context in which the information is acquired. In this review, we discuss how the investigation of contests in humans through the collaboration of biologists and psychologists may advance contest theory and dynamics in general. We argue that a long and productive history exploring human behaviour and psychology combined with technological advancements provide a unique opportunity to manipulate human perception during contests and collect unbiased data, allowing more targeted examinations of particular aspects of contest theory (e.g. winner/loser effects, information use as a function of age). We hope that our perspective provides the impetus for many future collaborations between biologists and psychologists. PMID:29237857

Using Soil and Water Conservation Contests for Extension: Experiences from the Bolivian Mountain Valleys

PubMed Central

de Graaff, Jan

2007-01-01

Soil and water conservation (SWC) contests among farmer groups were organized in five rural villages in the Bolivian mountain valleys. The contests were aimed at quickly achieving widespread sustainable results. This article analyzes the effectiveness of these contests as an extension tool. Mixed results were obtained. In three villages, participation rates in the SWC activities introduced in the contests were still high even 2 years after project withdrawal. These were all villages where a solid foundation for sustainable development had been laid before the contests were held. Two years later, most families were still involved in maintenance of the SWC practices introduced in the contests, and many farmers had started to experiment with different soil management practices. However, replications of these SWC practices were not widespread, Conservation Leaders did not continue with their training activities, and the quality of maintenance of the practices was often not satisfactory. In order to become a more effective extension tool and achieve widespread impact, SWC contests must receive continued support by a catalyst agency. Moreover, other SWC contests should also be organized in which practices are not predefined. Given that SWC contests are a low-budget extension tool, local municipalities could become more actively involved. PMID:17846829

Foucault's points of resistance. Women in science: 1620--2000

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vitale, Cindy Gail

In his unique method of historical research, Michel Foucault was concerned with how institutional power relations are both established and maintained through discourse, in its broadest sense. Foucault found that the character of the discourse of any given period of history serves as the foundation of knowledge which is then transformed into power by those who "appropriate," "bound," then use it as "technologies of discipline." This power operates transparently and serves to "construct" individuals to meet institutional expectations. Important for this study is that Foucault believed that where there is power there is resistance, and that "points of resistance" operate everywhere in "power networks." This study has two parts. The first is a description and an extension of Foucault's notion of resistance as it operates within institutional power relations. The second, using the extended version of Foucault's resistance, is a deconstruction of the discourse of science education in the United States. The deconstruction focused on resistance operating within the male/female power relations network. The deconstruction revealed three overlapping yet distinct historical periods in which the dominant discourse was characterized by one of Foucault's three general technologies of discipline. During the first period, 1620--1790, women were generally not allowed access to formal (institutional) education. This disciplinary technology, which Foucault called "dividing practices," was justified by the commonly accepted religious view of the period that females were both mentally and morally inferior beings. Women were, so to speak, "barred at the schoolhouse gate." In the second period, 1790--1920, female resistance to these dividing practices was parallel to their limited access to formal education. Women were "admitted at the schoolhouse gate," and the appearance of successful resistance occurred as women began to enroll in science classes. Unlike their male counterparts, females were encouraged to take high school science to prepare them to be good mothers and teachers, especially for their male children. During this period the view of females as mentally and morally inferior to males was supported by "scientific," rational thought as well as dominant religious beliefs. At the beginning of the final period, 1920--Present, the focus of education was on preparing women for the world of work in sex-stereotyped jobs, such as teacher, secretary, and nurse. Later, the attitude of the general public changed regarding education for women to include preparation for virtually any occupation. The sum of past efforts to resist might account for at least a portion of increased access for women in science, but this study revealed that the historically grounded hegemonic objectification of women in the broader society works to nullify many individual efforts to resist. That is, regardless of the historical period, women can actively participate in their own subjectification, preventing them from fully acquiring the American ideal of access. Although women have greater access generally, resistance is still essential and operates in many ways in the male/female power relations in science education.

Rhetoric and Essentially Contested Arguments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garver, Eugene

1978-01-01

Draws a connection between Gallie's essentially contested concepts and Aristotle's account of rhetorical argument by presenting a definition of Essentially Contested Argument which is used as the connecting term between rhetoric and essentially contested concepts and by demonstrating the value of making this connection. (JF)

Physics Contests for High School Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fox, Doug; Nelson, Jim

1983-01-01

Describes how the Ontario Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers started a "Grade Eleven Prize Physics Contest" to generate interest in physics and recognize outstanding students. Also describes outcomes of contests, adaptation of the contest by Southeastern Pennsylvania Section, and suggestions for others wanting to…

Contests versus Norms: Implications of Contest-Based and Norm-Based Intervention Techniques

PubMed Central

Bergquist, Magnus; Nilsson, Andreas; Hansla, André

2017-01-01

Interventions using either contests or norms can promote environmental behavioral change. Yet research on the implications of contest-based and norm-based interventions is lacking. Based on Goal-framing theory, we suggest that a contest-based intervention frames a gain goal promoting intensive but instrumental behavioral engagement. In contrast, the norm-based intervention was expected to frame a normative goal activating normative obligations for targeted and non-targeted behavior and motivation to engage in pro-environmental behaviors in the future. In two studies participants (n = 347) were randomly assigned to either a contest- or a norm-based intervention technique. Participants in the contest showed more intensive engagement in both studies. Participants in the norm-based intervention tended to report higher intentions for future energy conservation (Study 1) and higher personal norms for non-targeted pro-environmental behaviors (Study 2). These findings suggest that contest-based intervention technique frames a gain goal, while norm-based intervention frames a normative goal. PMID:29218026

Contests versus Norms: Implications of Contest-Based and Norm-Based Intervention Techniques.

PubMed

Bergquist, Magnus; Nilsson, Andreas; Hansla, André

2017-01-01

Interventions using either contests or norms can promote environmental behavioral change. Yet research on the implications of contest-based and norm-based interventions is lacking. Based on Goal-framing theory, we suggest that a contest-based intervention frames a gain goal promoting intensive but instrumental behavioral engagement. In contrast, the norm-based intervention was expected to frame a normative goal activating normative obligations for targeted and non-targeted behavior and motivation to engage in pro-environmental behaviors in the future. In two studies participants ( n = 347) were randomly assigned to either a contest- or a norm-based intervention technique. Participants in the contest showed more intensive engagement in both studies. Participants in the norm-based intervention tended to report higher intentions for future energy conservation (Study 1) and higher personal norms for non-targeted pro-environmental behaviors (Study 2). These findings suggest that contest-based intervention technique frames a gain goal, while norm-based intervention frames a normative goal.

Panethnicity revisited: contested group boundaries in the post-9/11 era

PubMed Central

Bozorgmehr, Mehdi; Ong, Paul; Tosh, Sarah

2016-01-01

Existing theories of panethnicity in the USA concentrate on Asian Americans and Latinos, two umbrella groups that originally coalesced during the 1960s civil rights era. Although the role played by the state is recognized as central to panethnic development, we argue that the influence of this pivotal variable is contingent on historical context. Through a case study of emerging minority groups (Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans in the post-9/11 era), we re-examine the existing conceptualization of panethnicity at a time when the state plays a more punitive than compensatory role. Using a methodology that draws on a range of novel sources, we document the way that pre-existing ethnic, religious and national-origin labels have been reinforced instead of panethnic labels for the populations under study. Accordingly, we develop an updated conceptualization of group formation that incorporates historical context and the role of the state in the post-9/11 era. PMID:27182093

Not quite dead: why Egyptian doctors refuse the diagnosis of death by neurological criteria.

PubMed

Hamdy, Sherine

2013-04-01

Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork in Egypt focused on organ transplantation, this paper examines the ways in which the "scientific" criteria of determining death in terms of brain function are contested by Egyptian doctors. Whereas in North American medical practice, the death of the "person" is associated with the cessation of brain function, in Egypt, any sign of biological life is evidence of the persistence, even if fleeting, of the soul. I argue that this difference does not exemplify an irresolvable culture clash but points to an unsettling aspect of cadaveric organ procurement that has emerged wherever organ transplantation is practiced. Further, I argue that a misdiagnosis of the problem, as one about "religious extremism" or a "civilizational clash," has obfuscated unresolved concerns about fairness, access, and justice within Egyptian medical spheres. This misdiagnosis has led to the suspension of a cadaveric procurement program for over 30 years, despite Egypt's pioneering efforts in kidney transplantation.

The unhappy marriage of religion and politics: problems and pitfalls for gender equality.

PubMed

Razavi, Shahra; Jenichen, Anne

2010-01-01

This article explores how religion as a political force shapes and deflects the struggle for gender equality in contexts marked by different histories of nation building and challenges of ethnic diversity, different state-society relations (from the more authoritarian to the more democratic), and different relations between state power and religion (especially in the domain of marriage, family and personal laws). It shows how 'private' issues, related to the family, sexuality and reproduction, have become sites of intense public contestation between conservative religious actors wishing to regulate them based on some transcendent moral principle, and feminist and other human rights advocates basing their claims on pluralist and time- and context-specific solutions. Not only are claims of 'divine truth' justifying discriminatory practices against women hard to challenge, but the struggle for gender equality is further complicated by the manner in which it is closely tied up with, and inseparable from, struggles for social and economic justice, ethnic/racial recognition, and national self-determination vis--vis imperial/global domination.

Demonology, neurology, and medicine in Edwardian Britain.

PubMed

Hayward, Rhodri

2004-01-01

The idea of a conflict between demonology and psychiatry has been a foundational myth in the history of medicine. Nineteenth-century alienists such as J.-M. Charcot and Henry Maudsley developed critiques of supernatural phenomena in an attempt to pathologize religious experience. Modern historians have reanalyzed these critiques, representing them as strategies in medical professionalization. These accounts all maintain an oddly bifurcated approach to the perceived conflict, treating demonology, as a passive and unchanging set of practices, while medicine is depicted as an active and aggressive agent. An examination of early twentieth-century demonological literature reveals a very different story. Fundamentalists and Pentecostalists engaged with the problems of conversion and possession, developing sophisticated models of the normal and the pathological in spiritual experience. Their writings drew upon medical and psychiatric sources ranging widely from Pastorian germ theory to Jacksonian neurology. This article explores the points of contact between the medical and demonological communities in order to demonstrate the contested nature of biomedical innovation.

Claiming territory: medical mission, interreligious revivalism, and the spatialization of health interventions in urban Tanzania.

PubMed

Dilger, Hansjörg

2014-01-01

Over the past decades, new religious actors have become involved in the provision of medical care in urban Tanzania. Muslim revivalist organizations and neo-Pentecostal churches in particular have established a range of health interventions that are tied to revisionist claims about religion, spirituality, and politics in society. In this article I discuss medical mission in Dar es Salaam in the light of (post)colonial histories of health service provision as well as with regard to inter- and intradenominational contestations over health and well-being, a morally acceptable life, and political participation. I argue that the nature of the inscription of revivalist organizations in urban space through health interventions depends on their structural location and their respective members' social and economic capital. I also show that the ongoing transformations of urban space through medical mission have become reflective of, as well as are triggering, moral interpretations of history and social inequality in contemporary Tanzania.

Dispensers, obeah and quackery: medical rivalries in post-slavery British Guiana.

PubMed

De Barros, Juanita

2007-08-01

This paper examines the ambiguous place of medical assistants-dispensers-in a post-slavery British Caribbean colony, British Guiana, from the end of slavery in the 1830s to the early twentieth century. Although the latter were crucial to the functioning of the colonial medical system, local physicians resented them, complaining about the economic threat they posed and at times condemning them as quacks. These attacks were part of a wider discussion about the composition of the medical profession and the role of medical auxiliaries in colonial society, and to an extent, they echoed debates conducted in other jurisdictions in this period. But in the British Caribbean, this discussion was significantly different. There, long-standing views about obeah-an Afro-Creole medico-religious practice-as a particularly dangerous and uncivilised type of quackery was part of the discursive context. That those participating in this debate included African-descended physicians whose arrival in the medical profession was recent and contested demonstrates the vexed and complex nature of professionalisation in a post-slavery society.

A Tradition in Transition: Factors Perpetuating and Hindering the Continuance of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) Summarized in a Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Berg, Rigmor C.; Denison, Eva

2013-01-01

Understanding the forces underpinning female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is a necessary first step to prevent the continuation of a practice that is associated with health complications and human rights violations. To this end, a systematic review of 21 studies was conducted. Based on this review, the authors reveal six key factors that underpin FGM/C: cultural tradition, sexual morals, marriageability, religion, health benefits, and male sexual enjoyment. There were four key factors perceived to hinder FGM/C: health consequences, it is not a religious requirement, it is illegal, and the host society discourse rejects FGM/C. The results show that FGM/C appears to be a tradition in transition. PMID:23489149

27 CFR 10.24 - Sales promotion contests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 27 Alcohol, Tobacco Products and Firearms 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Sales promotion contests..., DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY ALCOHOL COMMERCIAL BRIBERY Commercial Bribery § 10.24 Sales promotion contests. Sales contests sponsored by an industry member which offer prizes directly or indirectly to trade buyer...

29 CFR 2200.38 - Employee contests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 29 Labor 9 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Employee contests. 2200.38 Section 2200.38 Labor... Pleadings and Motions § 2200.38 Employee contests. (a) Secretary's statement of reasons. Where an affected employee or authorized employee representative files a notice of contest with respect to the abatement...

Beyond the Impasse - Reflections on Dissociative Identity Disorder from a Freudian-Lacanian Perspective.

PubMed

Meganck, Reitske

2017-01-01

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a widely contested diagnosis. The dominant posttraumatic model (PTM) considers early life trauma to be the direct cause of the creation of alter identities and assumes that working directly with alter identities should be at the core of the therapeutic work. The socio-cognitive model, on the other hand, questions the validity of the DID diagnosis and proposes an iatrogenic origin of the disorder claiming that reigning therapeutic and socio-cultural discourses create and reify the problem. The author argues that looking at the underlying psychical dynamics can provide a way out of the debate on the veracity of the diagnosis. A structural conception of hysteria is presented to understand clinical and empirical observations on the prevalence, appearance and treatment of DID. On a more fundamental level, the concept of identification and the fundamental division of human psychic functioning are proposed as crucial for understanding the development and treatment of DID.

Beyond the Impasse – Reflections on Dissociative Identity Disorder from a Freudian–Lacanian Perspective

PubMed Central

Meganck, Reitske

2017-01-01

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a widely contested diagnosis. The dominant posttraumatic model (PTM) considers early life trauma to be the direct cause of the creation of alter identities and assumes that working directly with alter identities should be at the core of the therapeutic work. The socio-cognitive model, on the other hand, questions the validity of the DID diagnosis and proposes an iatrogenic origin of the disorder claiming that reigning therapeutic and socio-cultural discourses create and reify the problem. The author argues that looking at the underlying psychical dynamics can provide a way out of the debate on the veracity of the diagnosis. A structural conception of hysteria is presented to understand clinical and empirical observations on the prevalence, appearance and treatment of DID. On a more fundamental level, the concept of identification and the fundamental division of human psychic functioning are proposed as crucial for understanding the development and treatment of DID. PMID:28559875

Rhetoric, power and legitimacy: a critical analysis of the public policy disputes surrounding stem cell research in Australia (2005-6).

PubMed

Lysaght, Tamra; Kerridge, Ian

2012-02-01

In December 2006, the Australian Parliament liberalized regulation governing stem cell research. This decision and preceding legislative review generated considerable public debate, which centred on objections to the deliberate creation and destruction of human embryos for research purposes. This paper draws on qualitative research conducted on the public debate surrounding this policy episode. The aim of this research was to examine how science and scientific knowledge are mobilized by participants in these debates to support their arguments. Data were collected from 109 newspaper opinion editorials as well as 23 in-depth interviews and examined using qualitative content and thematic analysis. Results of this analysis depict science as a rhetorical, moral and political resource that provides opportunities for participants to gain legitimacy, negotiate meaning and assert authority in the public domain. The mobilization of science in public discourse is discussed along with suggestions that are aimed at encouraging greater transparency and inclusiveness in public debates around contested science and emergent technologies.

"Don't Ever Give Up!" Resisting Victimhood Through Self-Defense.

PubMed

Jordan, Jan; Mossman, Elaine

2017-12-01

Whether or not women should physically resist a male attacker has been a long-contested issue. This article enters this debate drawing on findings from an evaluation of a feminist self-defense course. It locates these data within a broader historical context to question dominant discourses around ideal femininity and explore the potential for empowerment such courses can offer, particularly for women deemed at high risk. It draws on qualitative data from interviews with course participants ( n = 15), community stakeholders ( n = 15), and self-defense instructors ( n = 7), as well as quantitative data from pre-post course evaluations ( n = 115). Findings are presented to demonstrate how participants and stakeholders from a diverse range of women's groups experienced the program. Evidence is presented that the participation not only resulted in increased self-defense skills but importantly also the confidence and attitude to put these skills into action, if required. Factors identified as critical to the success of these courses are explored, and the implications are assessed in relation to both prevention and empowerment.

Chronic institutional failure and enhanced vulnerability to flash-floods in the Cuenca Altadel Río Lerma, Mexico.

PubMed

Güiza, Frida; Simmons, Peter; Burgess, Jacquie; McCall, Michael K

2016-01-01

The dominant paradigm in disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies has been seriously contested because of its reliance on interventions based on technocratic expertise. In the Mexican context, the influence of informal practices such as clientelism and cartelisation of the political system produces environmental degradation and vulnerability to disasters within the communities in the study site. This paper contributes to understanding of failed institutional processes and parallel practices that intensify vulnerability to disasters by contrasting the discourses of agents within a peri-urban community in central Mexico. Employing the Situational Analysis Approach as a methodological framework, the study identifies divergent views and practices within the community, leading to different responses to disasters and to different perceptions regarding institutional performance. In addition, it finds that institutional decision-making, based only on scientific and technical expertise, has resulted in unintended consequences that influence ongoing vulnerability to floods in the site under review. © 2016 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2016.

What is psychiatry? Co-producing complexity in mental health

PubMed Central

Pickersgill, Martyn

2012-01-01

What is psychiatry? Such a question is increasingly important to engage with in light of the development of new diagnostic frameworks that have wide-ranging and international clinical and societal implications. I suggest in this reflective essay that ‘psychiatry' is not a singular entity that enjoins consistent forms of critique along familiar axes; rather, it is a heterogeneous assemblage of interacting material and symbolic elements (some of which endure, and some of which are subject to innovation). In underscoring the diversity of psychiatry, I seek to move towards further sociological purchase on what remains a contested and influential set of discourses and practices. This approach foregrounds the relationships between scientific knowledge, biomedical institutions, social action and subjective experience; these articulations co-produce both psychiatry and each other. One corollary of this emphasis on multiplicity and incoherence within psychiatric theory, research and practice, is that critiques which elide this complexity are rendered problematic. Engagements with psychiatry are, I argue, best furthered by recognising its multifaceted nature. PMID:23226975

Legitimacy of hospital reconfiguration: the controversial downsizing of Kidderminster hospital.

PubMed

Oborn, Eivor

2008-04-01

This paper examines the contested organizational legitimacy of hospital reconfiguration, which continues to be a central issue in health care management. A qualitative study which focuses on the controversial downsizing of Kidderminster Hospital, a highly publicized landmark case of district general hospital closure. Rhetorical strategies are analysed to examine how legitimacy was constructed by stakeholder groups and how these strategies were used to support or resist change. Stakeholders promoting change legitimized re-organization pragmatically and morally arguing the need for centralization as a rational necessity. Stakeholders resisting change argued for cognitive and moral legitimacy in current service arrangements, contrasting local versus regionalized aspects of safety and provision. Groups managed to talk past each other, failing to establish a dialogue, which led to significant conflict and political upheaval. Stakeholders value hospitals in different ways and argue for diverse accounts of legitimacy. Broader discourses of medical science and democratic participation were drawn into rhetorical texts concerning regionalization to render them more powerful.

A view from the other side: the place of spirits in the Tongan social field.

PubMed

McGrath, Barbara Burns

2003-03-01

Spirits are part of everyday life in the Kingdom of Tonga. This study explores beliefs about the supernatural by analyzing discourse on spirits and death and by examining two examples of contemporary cultural practice related to spirits and death. The anthropological concepts of the body and its cultural construction and of thirdspace as a landscape of the Tongan islands that emerges out of the physical and the perceived provide the framework for this investigation. Research findings suggest that spirits participate in the natural order of Tongan society and thus serve to help maintain cultural identity in the face of uncertain social change and a popular but contested prodemocracy movement. Spirits also function as a system of representation, mirroring an image of an ideal self, something that is continually under negotiation. Encounters between spirits of ancestors and their living descendants suggest an uneasy acceptance of death and a sense of irony about its inevitability.

"You look, thank God, quite good on the outside": imitating the ideal self in a Jewish ultra-Orthodox rehabilitation site.

PubMed

Goodman, Yehuda C

2009-06-01

Rather than viewing therapeutic interventions as either compliance or resistance to the social order, I analyze them as mimesis of cultural ideal selves. In particular, I examine the new mediations of the social order constituted in mimetic therapeutic practices and their entailed creativity and ambivalence. Drawing on participant observation in a Jewish ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) rehabilitation site I explore how, given the ruptures brought about in mental disorders, caretakers offer their clients new ways to inhabit the normal self through its imitation. Specifically, caregivers construct replications of dominant selves by selectively deploying modern and neotraditional discourses of the self in diverse social contexts and in multiple registries like body, emotions, social relations, and ways of belonging to the community. I suggest that mimetic therapeutic work is carried out along emerging social distinctions that are associated with Haredim's complex relations with the secular society, and with cultural contestations within the community itself.

Debated agronomy: public discourse and the future of biotechnology policy in Ghana.

PubMed

Braimah, Joseph A; Atuoye, Kilian N; Vercillo, Siera; Warring, Carrie; Luginaah, Isaac

2017-01-01

This paper examines the highly contested and ongoing biotechnology (Bt) policy-making process in Ghana. We analyse media content on how Bt is viewed in the context of Ghana's parliamentary debate on the Plant Breeders Bill and within the broader public policy-making literature. This paper does not seek to take a position on Bt or the Bill, but to understand how policy actors influence the debate with political and scientific rhetoric in Ghana. The study reveals that in the midst of scientific uncertainties of Bt's potential for sustainable agriculture production and food security, policy decisions that encourage its future adoption are heavily influenced by health, scientific, economic, environmental and political factors dictated by different ideologies, values and norms. While locally pioneered plant breeding is visible and common in the Ghanaian food chain, plant breeding/GMOs/Bt from international corporations is strongly resisted by anti-GMO coalitions. Understanding the complex and messy nature of Bt policy-making is critical for future development of agricultural technology in Ghana and elsewhere.

Adaptive capacity and community-based natural resource management.

PubMed

Armitage, Derek

2005-06-01

Why do some community-based natural resource management strategies perform better than others? Commons theorists have approached this question by developing institutional design principles to address collective choice situations, while other analysts have critiqued the underlying assumptions of community-based resource management. However, efforts to enhance community-based natural resource management performance also require an analysis of exogenous and endogenous variables that influence how social actors not only act collectively but do so in ways that respond to changing circumstances, foster learning, and build capacity for management adaptation. Drawing on examples from northern Canada and Southeast Asia, this article examines the relationship among adaptive capacity, community-based resource management performance, and the socio-institutional determinants of collective action, such as technical, financial, and legal constraints, and complex issues of politics, scale, knowledge, community and culture. An emphasis on adaptive capacity responds to a conceptual weakness in community-based natural resource management and highlights an emerging research and policy discourse that builds upon static design principles and the contested concepts in current management practice.

Two Successful Variations of Motivational Contests: Bridges and "Whizzers."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koser, John F.

1985-01-01

Describes two contests in which students: (1) build bridges from balsa wood; or (2) construct whizzers (self-contained motorized devices for movement on tight steel wires). Testing situations and guidelines for these contests are included. Points out that physics enrollments have increased as a result of the contests. (DH)

77 FR 24553 - Announcement of National Small Business Week Video Contest Under the America Competes...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-04-24

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Announcement of National Small Business Week Video Contest Under the...) announces a video contest (the ``Contest'') for small businesses to show how they have been assisted by an... 2012, the U.S. Small Business Administration is looking for creative videos from small businesses that...

Duration of memory of dominance relationships in a group living cichlid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hotta, Takashi; Takeyama, Tomohiro; Jordan, Lyndon Alexander; Kohda, Masanori

2014-09-01

Animal contests are costly and tend to escalate when rivals have similar competitive abilities. Individuals that remember dominance relationships with rivals may avoid repeated agonistic interactions and hence avoid the costs of repeated escalation of contests. However, it can be difficult to experimentally disentangle the effects of memory from those of loser effects (losers behaving subordinately due to prior defeats). Here, we test whether loser effects or individual memory mediate contest behaviour in the African cichlid, Julidochromis transcriptus. We find that on days 3 and 5 after initial contests, losers display subordinate behaviour to contest winners but not to novel contestants. However, this effect disappears after 7 days, at which time losers do not display subordinate behaviour to either rival. These results show that (1) this fish can recall a previously dominant contestant for up to 5 days and (2) as no subordinate displays were shown to the novel contestant, there are no evidences for loser effects in this species. Such short-term memory of past interactions may have broad significance in social species with repeated interactions.

The Effects of Residency and Body Size on Contest Initiation and Outcome in the Territorial Dragon, Ctenophorus decresii

PubMed Central

Umbers, Kate D. L.; Osborne, Louise; Keogh, J. Scott

2012-01-01

Empirical studies of the determinants of contests have been attempting to unravel the complexity of animal contest behaviour for decades. This complexity requires that experiments incorporate multiple determinants into studies to tease apart their relative effects. In this study we examined the complex contest behaviour of the tawny dragon (Ctenophorus decresii), a territorial agamid lizard, with the specific aim of defining the factors that determine contest outcome. We manipulated the relative size and residency status of lizards in contests to weight their importance in determining contest outcome. We found that size, residency and initiating a fight were all important in determining outcomes of fights. We also tested whether residency or size was important in predicting the status of lizard that initiated a fight. We found that residency was the most important factor in predicting fight initiation. We discuss the effects of size and residency status in context of previous studies on contests in tawny dragons and other animals. Our study provides manipulative behavioural data in support of the overriding effects of residency on initiation fights and winning them. PMID:23077558

Understanding Fear of Opportunism in Global Prize-Based Science Contests: Evidence for Gender and Age Differences

PubMed Central

Acar, Oguz Ali; van den Ende, Jan

2015-01-01

Global prize-based science contests have great potential for tapping into diverse knowledge on a global scale and overcoming important scientific challenges. A necessary step for knowledge to be utilized in these contests is for that knowledge to be disclosed. Knowledge disclosure, however, is paradoxical in nature: in order for the value of knowledge to be assessed, inventors must disclose their knowledge, but then the person who receives that knowledge does so at no cost and may use it opportunistically. This risk of potential opportunistic behavior in turn makes the inventor fearful of disclosing knowledge, and this is a major psychological barrier to knowledge disclosure. In this project, we investigated this fear of opportunism in global prize-based science contests by surveying 630 contest participants in the InnoCentive online platform for science contests. We found that participants in these science contests experience fear of opportunism to varying degrees, and that women and older participants have significantly less fear of disclosing their scientific knowledge. Our findings highlight the importance of taking differences in such fears into account when designing global prize-based contests so that the potential of the contests for reaching solutions to important and challenging problems can be used more effectively. PMID:26230086

Understanding Fear of Opportunism in Global Prize-Based Science Contests: Evidence for Gender and Age Differences.

PubMed

Acar, Oguz Ali; van den Ende, Jan

2015-01-01

Global prize-based science contests have great potential for tapping into diverse knowledge on a global scale and overcoming important scientific challenges. A necessary step for knowledge to be utilized in these contests is for that knowledge to be disclosed. Knowledge disclosure, however, is paradoxical in nature: in order for the value of knowledge to be assessed, inventors must disclose their knowledge, but then the person who receives that knowledge does so at no cost and may use it opportunistically. This risk of potential opportunistic behavior in turn makes the inventor fearful of disclosing knowledge, and this is a major psychological barrier to knowledge disclosure. In this project, we investigated this fear of opportunism in global prize-based science contests by surveying 630 contest participants in the InnoCentive online platform for science contests. We found that participants in these science contests experience fear of opportunism to varying degrees, and that women and older participants have significantly less fear of disclosing their scientific knowledge. Our findings highlight the importance of taking differences in such fears into account when designing global prize-based contests so that the potential of the contests for reaching solutions to important and challenging problems can be used more effectively.

Children's Use of Inscriptions in Argumentation about Socioscientific Issues

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiao, Sihan

Engaging science in everyday life often means not advancing knowledge or making new claims, but evaluating given claims with available evidence. In everyday situations, evidence is usually presented in some type of inscription (e.g. tables, diagrams, and other images). This study explores elementary students' use of inscriptions as evidence in written arguments about socioscientific issues and how a school year of science instruction may play a role in that use. Three science teachers and their 102 students in 5th and 6th grades at a progressive urban K-6 school participated in this study. I administered a written argument task at the beginning and the end of the 2013--2014 school year, in which students were asked to justify their personal decisions about either alternative energy use or genetically modified organisms. Throughout the year, I worked closely with the teachers to organize classroom instruction towards promoting argumentation and coordination between claims and evidence, and videotaped their science lessons. Content analysis on students' written arguments reveals that photos were cited the most in students' written arguments, while tables were cited the least. Students tended to merely point to an inscription without articulate its relation to a particular claim, or to assert that an inscription "shows" a claim without saying how. They were also likely to credit inscriptions that aligned with their own position rather than discount those that supported counterclaims. From pre to post, these patterns did not change significantly. Analysis on science instruction further shows that the contestability of the claims students encountered in the classroom was low, meaning that they were not framed in arguable ways. The resources available to students for resolving these claims were also limited. The classroom discourse was not open enough for productive argumentation. These patterns may potentially account for the lack of change in students' use of inscriptions in their written arguments. This study extends previous research on what children think counts as evidence in arguing about everyday science. Findings suggest that while students learn to evaluate scientific explanations in school, they are put in a different position of having to justify their decisions when facing everyday science. School science should explicitly link the two tasks. Further, we need to frame the learning of science as stabilizing legitimately contestable claims, and provide relevant resources for students to argue with. Classroom discourse, lastly, should be open to argumentation and integrative with disciplinary and epistemic aspects of scientific practices.

The National Solo and Ensemble Contest 1929-1937

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meyers, Brian D.

2012-01-01

This study is the first investigation of the nine-year history of the National Solo and Ensemble Contests, held in the United States in conjunction with the National School Band and Orchestra Contests of the late 1920s and early to mid-1930s. Primary sources used include letters from those involved with the planning of the contests, meeting…

Score Calculation in Informatics Contests Using Multiple Criteria Decision Methods

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skupiene, Jurate

2011-01-01

The Lithuanian Informatics Olympiad is a problem solving contest for high school students. The work of each contestant is evaluated in terms of several criteria, where each criterion is measured according to its own scale (but the same scale for each contestant). Several jury members are involved in the evaluation. This paper analyses the problem…

Ethical Concerns of and Risk Mitigation Strategies for Crowdsourcing Contests and Innovation Challenges: Scoping Review

PubMed Central

Pan, Stephen W; Mathews, Allison; Stein, Gabriella; Bayus, Barry; Rennie, Stuart

2018-01-01

Background Crowdsourcing contests (also called innovation challenges, innovation contests, and inducement prize contests) can be used to solicit multisectoral feedback on health programs and design public health campaigns. They consist of organizing a steering committee, soliciting contributions, engaging the community, judging contributions, recognizing a subset of contributors, and sharing with the community. Objective This scoping review describes crowdsourcing contests by stage, examines ethical problems at each stage, and proposes potential ways of mitigating risk. Methods Our analysis was anchored in the specific example of a crowdsourcing contest that our team organized to solicit videos promoting condom use in China. The purpose of this contest was to create compelling 1-min videos to promote condom use. We used a scoping review to examine the existing ethical literature on crowdsourcing to help identify and frame ethical concerns at each stage. Results Crowdsourcing has a group of individuals solve a problem and then share the solution with the public. Crowdsourcing contests provide an opportunity for community engagement at each stage: organizing, soliciting, promoting, judging, recognizing, and sharing. Crowdsourcing poses several ethical concerns: organizing—potential for excluding community voices; soliciting—potential for overly narrow participation; promoting—potential for divulging confidential information; judging—potential for biased evaluation; recognizing—potential for insufficient recognition of the finalist; and sharing—potential for the solution to not be implemented or widely disseminated. Conclusions Crowdsourcing contests can be effective and engaging public health tools but also introduce potential ethical problems. We present methods for the responsible conduct of crowdsourcing contests. PMID:29523500

Basal and dynamic relationships between implicit power motivation and estradiol in women.

PubMed

Stanton, Steven J; Schultheiss, Oliver C

2007-12-01

This study investigated basal and reciprocal relationships between implicit power motivation (n Power), a preference for having impact and dominance over others, and both salivary estradiol and testosterone in women. 49 participants completed the Picture Story Exercise, a measure of n Power. During a laboratory contest, participants competed in pairs on a cognitive task and contest outcome (win vs. loss) was experimentally varied. Estradiol and testosterone levels were determined in saliva samples collected at baseline and several times post-contest, including 1 day post-contest. n Power was positively associated with basal estradiol concentrations. The positive correlation between n Power and basal estradiol was stronger in single women, women not taking oral contraceptives, or in women with low-CV estradiol samples than in the overall sample of women. Women's estradiol responses to a dominance contest were influenced by the interaction of n Power and contest outcome: estradiol increased in power-motivated winners but decreased in power-motivated losers. For power-motivated winners, elevated levels of estradiol were still present the day after the contest. Lastly, n Power and estradiol did not correlate with self-reported dominance and correlated negatively with self-reported aggression. Self-reported dominance and aggression did not predict estradiol changes as a function of contest outcome. Overall, n Power did not predict basal testosterone levels or testosterone changes as a function of dominance contest outcome.

Paul Tillich and psychoanalysis.

PubMed

Hart, Curtis W

2011-09-01

Paul Tillich (1886-1965) was one of the leading theologians of the twentieth century. Tillich was born in Germany and received his education and first academic appointments there. Tillich left Germany in 1933 to teach at Union Theological Seminary after having been dismissed from his university position by the National Socialist government for his radical views and political associations. In the United States, he became a highly successful lecturer, preacher, and public intellectual who reached numbers of persons who had departed or who had doubts regarding traditional religious belief and practice. Tillich underwent a series of traumatic losses in the early decades of his life that powerfully shaped his subsequent contributions to religious and cultural discourse. This essay outlines this pattern of loss and speculates about its impact upon his theological work. It lifts up Tillich's perspective of living and working "on the boundary" of disciplines, eras, and cultures, most particularly where psychoanalytic ideas contributed to his "theology of culture." It also stresses Tillich's role in initiating the ongoing dialogue between religion and psychiatry and psychoanalysis. The essay concludes with a summary critique of Tillich's work along with an affirmation of his considerable legacy. This essay was originally a presentation for the Richardson Research Seminar in the History of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Ontological forms of religious meaning and the conflict between science and religion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hathcoat, John D.; Habashi, Janette

2013-06-01

Epistemological constructions are central considerations in vivisecting an expressed conflict between science and religion. It is argued that the conflict thesis is only meaningful when examined from a specific socio-historical perspective. The dialectical relation between science and religion should therefore be considered at both a macro and micro level. At the macro level broad changes in the meaning of science and religion occur; whereas at the micro level individuals immersed within particular expressions of these concepts socially construct, re-construct, and appropriate meaning. Specific attention is given to expressions of meaning surrounding sacred texts in this dialectical relation. Two ontological forms of meaning are examined through a qualitative content analysis of 16 interviews with individuals from various religious affiliation and academic attainment. A monistic ontology constructs textual meaning as facts that have the qualities of being both self-evident and certain. Potential tension arises with scientific discourse given empirical evidence may either confirm or conflict with scriptural interpretation. The pluralistic ontology constructs textual meaning with multiple categories, which in turn have the qualities of being mediated by human consciousness and uncertain. The science-religion dichotomy appears to be less susceptible to conflict given the uncertainty embedded in this construction of scriptural meaning. This paper implies that truth as correspondence may not necessitate the conflict thesis.

Making muslim babies: Ivf and gamete donation in sunni versus shi’a islam

PubMed Central

2006-01-01

Medical anthropological research on science, biotechnology, and religion has focused on the “local moral worlds” of men and women as they make difficult decisions regarding their health and the beginnings and endings of human life. This paper focuses on the local moral worlds of infertile Muslims as they attempt to make, in the religiously correct fashion, Muslim babies at in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics in Egypt and Lebanon. As early as 1980, authoritative fatwas issued from Egypt’s famed Al-Azhar University suggested that IVF and similar technologies are permissible as long as they do not involve any form of third-party donation (of sperm, eggs, embryos, or uteruses). Since the late 1990s, however, divergences in opinion over third-party gamete donation have occurred between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims, with Iran’s leading ayatollah permitting gamete donation under certain conditions. This Iranian fatwa has had profound implications for the country of Lebanon, where a Shi’ite majority also seeks IVF services. Based on three periods of ethnographic research in Egyptian and Lebanese IVF clinics, this paper explores official and unofficial religious discourses surrounding the practice of IVF and third-party donation in the Muslim world, as well as the gender implications of gamete donation for Muslim marriages. PMID:17051430

5 CFR 890.1035 - Provider contests of suspensions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) FEDERAL EMPLOYEES HEALTH BENEFITS PROGRAM Administrative Sanctions Imposed Against Health Care Providers Suspension § 890.1035 Provider contests of suspensions. (a) Filing a contest of the...

Contests In Conservation and Horticulture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Richard D.

1977-01-01

Growing interest in conservation and horticulture in New York State has caused the addition of these specialized areas to the annual statewide agricultural education contests. Contest categories in both areas are listed. (MF)

Problems in Preparing for the English Impromptu Speech Contest: The Case of Yuanpei Institute of Science and Technology in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsieh, Shu-min

2006-01-01

Entering an "English Impromptu Speech Contest" intimidates many students who do not have a good command of the English language. Some choose to give up before the contest date while others stand speechless on the stage. This paper identifies a range of problems confronted by contestants from my college, the Yuanpei Institute of Science…

Determination of death: Metaphysical and biomedical discourse.

PubMed

Jakušovaitė, Irayda; Luneckaitė, Žydrunė; Peičius, Eimantas; Bagdonaitė, Živilė; Riklikienė, Olga; Stankevičius, Edgaras

2016-01-01

The prominence of biomedical criteria relying on brain death reduces the impact of metaphysical, anthropological, psychosocial, cultural, religious, and legal aspects disclosing the real value and essence of human life. The aim of this literature review is to discuss metaphysical and biomedical approaches toward death and their complimentary relationship in the determination of death. A critical appraisal of theoretical and scientific evidence and legal documents supported analytical discourse. In the metaphysical discourse of death, two main questions about what human death is and how to determine the fact of death clearly separate the ontological and epistemological aspects of death. During the 20th century, various understandings of human death distinguished two different approaches toward the human: the human is a subject of activities or a subject of the human being. Extinction of the difference between the entities and the being, emphasized as rational-logical instrumentation, is not sufficient to understand death thoroughly. Biological criteria of death are associated with biological features and irreversible loss of certain cognitive capabilities. Debating on the question "Does a brain death mean death of a human being?" two approaches are considering: the body-centrist and the mind-centrist. By bridging those two alternatives human death appears not only as biomedical, but also as metaphysical phenomenon. It was summarized that a predominance of clinical criteria for determination of death in practice leads to medicalization of death and limits the holistic perspective toward individual's death. Therefore, the balance of metaphysical and biomedical approaches toward death and its determination would decrease the medicalization of the concept of death. Copyright © 2016 The Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier Urban & Partner Sp. z o.o. All rights reserved.

Darwinian Controversies: An Historiographical Recounting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Depew, David J.

2010-05-01

This essay reviews key controversies in the history of the Darwinian research tradition: the Wilberforce-Huxley debate in 1860, early twentieth-century debates about the heritability of acquired characteristics and the consistency of Mendelian genetics with natural selection; the 1925 Scopes trial about teaching evolution; tensions about race, culture, and eugenics at the 1959 centenary celebration Darwin’s Origin of Species; adaptationism and its critics in the Sociobiology debate of 1970s and, more recently, Evolutionary Psychology; and current disputes about Intelligent Design. These controversies, I argue, are etched into public memory because they occur at the emotionally charged boundaries between public-political, technical-scientific, and personal-religious spheres of discourse. Over most of them falls the shadow of eugenics. The main lesson is that the history of Darwinism cannot be told except by showing the mutual influence of the different norms of discourse that obtain in the personal, technical, and public spheres. Nor can evolutionary biology successfully be taught to citizens and citizens-to-be until the fractious intersections between spheres of discourse have been made explicit. In the course of showing why, I take rival evolutionary approaches to be dynamical historical research traditions rather than static theories. Accordingly, I distinguish Darwin’s version of Darwinism from its later transformations. I pay special attention to the role Darwin assigned to development in evolution, which was marginalized by twentieth-century population genetical Darwinism, but has recently resurfaced in new forms. I also show how the disputed phrases “survival of the fittest” and “social Darwinism” have shaped personal anxieties about “Darwinism,” have provoked public opposition to teaching evolution in public schools, and have cast a shadow over efforts to effectively communicate to the public largely successful technical efforts to make evolutionary inquiry into a science.

Reconsidering the history of type 2 diabetes in India: emerging or re-emerging disease?

PubMed

Weaver, Lesley Jo; Narayan, K M Venkat

2008-01-01

The emergence of type 2 diabetes in India, coinciding with the country's rapid economic development in the past several decades, is often characterized as a modern epidemic resulting directly from westernization. We draw on India's agricultural, linguistic, medical, economic, religious and gastronomic history to examine the possibility that type 2 diabetes mellitus may have existed in ancient India, having subsequently declined in the two centuries leading up to the present. The implications of such a possibility vis-a-vis the role of westernization in the global diabetes aetiology are discussed. Additionally, an argument is made for careful application of the terms 'westernization' and 'globalization' in discussions of chronic disease aetiology, where their often totalizing discourses may obscure the sociocultural particularities of manifestations of these conditions in various global arenas.

Engaging Earth- and Environmental-Science Undergraduates Through Weather Discussions and an eLearning Weather Forecasting Contest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schultz, David M.; Anderson, Stuart; Seo-Zindy, Ryo

2013-06-01

For students who major in meteorology, engaging in weather forecasting can motivate learning, develop critical-thinking skills, improve their written communication, and yield better forecasts. Whether such advances apply to students who are not meteorology majors has been less demonstrated. To test this idea, a weather discussion and an eLearning weather forecasting contest were devised for a meteorology course taken by third-year undergraduate earth- and environmental-science students. The discussion consisted of using the recent, present, and future weather to amplify the topics of the week's lectures. Then, students forecasted the next day's high temperature and the probability of precipitation for Woodford, the closest official observing site to Manchester, UK. The contest ran for 10 weeks, and the students received credit for participation. The top students at the end of the contest received bonus points on their final grade. A Web-based forecast contest application was developed to register the students, receive their forecasts, and calculate weekly standings. Students who were successful in the forecast contest were not necessarily those who achieved the highest scores on the tests, demonstrating that the contest was possibly testing different skills than traditional learning. Student evaluations indicate that the weather discussion and contest were reasonably successful in engaging students to learn about the weather outside of the classroom, synthesize their knowledge from the lectures, and improve their practical understanding of the weather. Therefore, students taking a meteorology class, but not majoring in meteorology, can derive academic benefits from weather discussions and forecast contests. Nevertheless, student evaluations also indicate that better integration of the lectures, weather discussions, and the forecasting contests is necessary.

Ethical Concerns of and Risk Mitigation Strategies for Crowdsourcing Contests and Innovation Challenges: Scoping Review.

PubMed

Tucker, Joseph D; Pan, Stephen W; Mathews, Allison; Stein, Gabriella; Bayus, Barry; Rennie, Stuart

2018-03-09

Crowdsourcing contests (also called innovation challenges, innovation contests, and inducement prize contests) can be used to solicit multisectoral feedback on health programs and design public health campaigns. They consist of organizing a steering committee, soliciting contributions, engaging the community, judging contributions, recognizing a subset of contributors, and sharing with the community. This scoping review describes crowdsourcing contests by stage, examines ethical problems at each stage, and proposes potential ways of mitigating risk. Our analysis was anchored in the specific example of a crowdsourcing contest that our team organized to solicit videos promoting condom use in China. The purpose of this contest was to create compelling 1-min videos to promote condom use. We used a scoping review to examine the existing ethical literature on crowdsourcing to help identify and frame ethical concerns at each stage. Crowdsourcing has a group of individuals solve a problem and then share the solution with the public. Crowdsourcing contests provide an opportunity for community engagement at each stage: organizing, soliciting, promoting, judging, recognizing, and sharing. Crowdsourcing poses several ethical concerns: organizing-potential for excluding community voices; soliciting-potential for overly narrow participation; promoting-potential for divulging confidential information; judging-potential for biased evaluation; recognizing-potential for insufficient recognition of the finalist; and sharing-potential for the solution to not be implemented or widely disseminated. Crowdsourcing contests can be effective and engaging public health tools but also introduce potential ethical problems. We present methods for the responsible conduct of crowdsourcing contests. ©Joseph D Tucker, Stephen W Pan, Allison Mathews, Gabriella Stein, Barry Bayus, Stuart Rennie. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 09.03.2018.

Motor and Gaze Behaviors of Youth Basketball Players Taking Contested and Uncontested Jump Shots

PubMed Central

van Maarseveen, Mariëtte J. J.; Oudejans, Raôul R. D.

2018-01-01

In this study, we examined the effects of a defender contesting jump shots on performance and gaze behaviors of basketball players taking jump shots. Thirteen skilled youth basketball players performed 48 shots from about 5 m from the basket; 24 uncontested and 24 contested. The participants wore mobile eye tracking glasses to measure their gaze behavior. As expected, an approaching defender trying to contest the shot led to significant changes in movement execution and gaze behavior including shorter shot execution time, longer jump time, longer ball flight time, later final fixation onset, and longer fixation on the defender. Overall, no effects were found for shooting accuracy. However, the effects on shot accuracy were not similar for all participants: six participants showed worse performance and six participants showed better performance in the contested compared to the uncontested condition. These changes in performance were accompanied by differences in gaze behavior. The participants with worse performance showed shorter absolute and relative final fixation duration and a tendency for an earlier final fixation offset in the contested condition compared to the uncontested condition, whereas gaze behavior of the participants with better performance for contested shots was relatively unaffected. The results confirm that a defender contesting the shot is a relevant constraint for basketball shooting suggesting that representative training designs should also include contested shots, and more generally other constraints that are representative of the actual performance setting such as time or mental pressure. PMID:29867671

Contest ``LET your School GO Into - Space Baptism 2007

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sánchez, G.

2009-05-01

The contest ``Space Baptism 2007'' was organized with the cooperation of the Mirador de la Ciencia, a science museum associated with the local zoo in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, and in collaboration with the Asociación Larense de Astronomía, a local astronomy amateur group. This contest was aimed at students of primary schools and had as a final award the chance to give a proper name to an asteroid. The ultimate goal of the contest was to promote basic and space sciences to children and the young through activities that involved the creation of stories related to astronomy, enforcing creativity and originality, and encouraging group work and solidarity. As a result, the asteroid (12758) 1993 SM3 will be known from now on as (12758) Kabudarí. The success of this initiative is demonstrated by stories about the contest that appeared in several publications in local newspapers and magazines about the school and the students who won the contest. We are currently developing plans for repetitions of the contest to name two more asteroids.

25 Years of AAPT's PhysicsBowl

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Faleski, Michael C.

2010-01-01

The PhysicsBowl is a contest for high school students that was first introduced in 1985. In this article, we discuss both some of the history of the contest as well as the 25th contest occurring this year.

43 CFR 4.451 - Government contests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 1 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Government contests. 4.451 Section 4.451 Public Lands: Interior Office of the Secretary of the Interior DEPARTMENT HEARINGS AND APPEALS PROCEDURES... Fact § 4.451 Government contests. ...

43 CFR 4.451 - Government contests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Government contests. 4.451 Section 4.451 Public Lands: Interior Office of the Secretary of the Interior DEPARTMENT HEARINGS AND APPEALS PROCEDURES... Fact § 4.451 Government contests. ...

43 CFR 4.451 - Government contests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Government contests. 4.451 Section 4.451 Public Lands: Interior Office of the Secretary of the Interior DEPARTMENT HEARINGS AND APPEALS PROCEDURES... Fact § 4.451 Government contests. ...

43 CFR 4.451 - Government contests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 1 2012-10-01 2011-10-01 true Government contests. 4.451 Section 4.451 Public Lands: Interior Office of the Secretary of the Interior DEPARTMENT HEARINGS AND APPEALS PROCEDURES... Fact § 4.451 Government contests. ...

43 CFR 4.451 - Government contests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Government contests. 4.451 Section 4.451 Public Lands: Interior Office of the Secretary of the Interior DEPARTMENT HEARINGS AND APPEALS PROCEDURES... Fact § 4.451 Government contests. ...

Sporting contests: seeing red? Putting sportswear in context.

PubMed

Rowe, Candy; Harris, Julie M; Roberts, S Craig

2005-10-27

The shirt colour worn by sportsmen can affect the behaviour of the competitors, but Hill and Barton show that it may also influence the outcome of contests. By analysing the results of men's combat sports from the Athens 2004 Olympics, they found that more matches were won by fighters wearing red outfits than by those wearing blue; they suggest that red might confer success because it is a sign of dominance in many animal species and could signal aggression in human contests. Here we use another data set from the 2004 Olympics to show that similar winning biases occur in contests in which neither contestant wears red, indicating that a different mechanism may be responsible for these effects.

Optical Interference Coatings Design Contest 2007: triple bandpass filter and nonpolarizing beam splitter.

PubMed

Tilsch, Markus; Hendrix, Karen

2008-05-01

A triple bandpass filter (28 solutions received) and a nonpolarizing beam splitter (23 solutions received) were the subjects of the design contest held in conjunction with the 2007 Optical Interference Coatings topical meeting of the Optical Society of America. Fifteen designers participated using a wide spectrum of design approaches and optimization strategies to create the submissions. The results differ significantly, but all meet the contest requirements. Fabien Lemarchand wins both contests by submitting the thinnest (6254 nm) triple bandpass design and the widest (61.7 nm) nonpolarizing beam-splitter design. Michael Trubetskov is in second place, followed by Vladimir Pervak in both contests. The submitted designs are described and evaluated.

The experiences of close persons caring for people with chronic kidney disease stage 5 on conservative kidney management: Contested discourses of ageing

PubMed Central

Myers, Jason; Smith, Glenn; Higgs, Paul; Burns, Aine; Hopkins, Katherine; Jones, Louise

2014-01-01

Chronic kidney disease stage 5 is a global health challenge in the context of population ageing across the world. The range of treatment options available to patients at all ages has increased and includes transplantation and dialysis. However, these options are often seen as inappropriate for older frailer patients who are now offered the option of conservative kidney management, which is presented as a non-invasive alternative to dialysis, involving symptom management and addressing psychosocial needs. In this study, we conducted qualitative interviews with 26 close persons caring for someone with chronic kidney disease stage 5 in the United Kingdom to investigate how conservative kidney management interacted with implicit ideas of ageing, in both the experience of conservative kidney management and the understanding of the prognosis and future care of the kidney disease. Our findings highlighted participant confusion about the nature of conservative kidney management, which stems from an initial lack of clarity about how conservative kidney management differed from conventional treatments for chronic kidney disease stage 5. In particular, some respondents were not aware of the implicit palliative nature of the intervention or indeed the inevitable end-of-life issues. Although these findings can be situated within the context of communication failure, we would further argue that they also bring to the surface tensions in the discourses surrounding ageing and old age, drawing on the use of a ‘natural’ and a ‘normal’ paradigm of ageing. In the context of chronic kidney disease stage 5, more patients are being dialysed at older ages, but conservative kidney management is being advanced as a better option than dialysis in terms of quality of life and experience. However, in doing so, conservative kidney management implicitly draws on a notion of older age that echoes natural ageing rather than advocate a more interventionist approach. The role of discourses of ageing in the provision of treatments for conservative kidney management has not previously been acknowledged, and this article addresses this gap. PMID:24695386

The experiences of close persons caring for people with chronic kidney disease stage 5 on conservative kidney management: contested discourses of ageing.

PubMed

Low, Joe; Myers, Jason; Smith, Glenn; Higgs, Paul; Burns, Aine; Hopkins, Katherine; Jones, Louise

2014-11-01

Chronic kidney disease stage 5 is a global health challenge in the context of population ageing across the world. The range of treatment options available to patients at all ages has increased and includes transplantation and dialysis. However, these options are often seen as inappropriate for older frailer patients who are now offered the option of conservative kidney management, which is presented as a non-invasive alternative to dialysis, involving symptom management and addressing psychosocial needs. In this study, we conducted qualitative interviews with 26 close persons caring for someone with chronic kidney disease stage 5 in the United Kingdom to investigate how conservative kidney management interacted with implicit ideas of ageing, in both the experience of conservative kidney management and the understanding of the prognosis and future care of the kidney disease. Our findings highlighted participant confusion about the nature of conservative kidney management, which stems from an initial lack of clarity about how conservative kidney management differed from conventional treatments for chronic kidney disease stage 5. In particular, some respondents were not aware of the implicit palliative nature of the intervention or indeed the inevitable end-of-life issues. Although these findings can be situated within the context of communication failure, we would further argue that they also bring to the surface tensions in the discourses surrounding ageing and old age, drawing on the use of a 'natural' and a 'normal' paradigm of ageing. In the context of chronic kidney disease stage 5, more patients are being dialysed at older ages, but conservative kidney management is being advanced as a better option than dialysis in terms of quality of life and experience. However, in doing so, conservative kidney management implicitly draws on a notion of older age that echoes natural ageing rather than advocate a more interventionist approach. The role of discourses of ageing in the provision of treatments for conservative kidney management has not previously been acknowledged, and this article addresses this gap. © The Author(s) 2014.

Religious and Philosophical Justifications for War: A Synthesis of Selected Literature

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Martzen, E

The Critical Issues Forum (CIF) is a cooperative education program supported in part by the Department of Energy's Defense Programs. The Science and Technology Education Program (STEP) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory manages one component of this program. CIF engages high school students and teachers regarding issues of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, arms control, and international security. These issues are viewed in light of their scientific, economic, socio-cultural, and political/geopolitical influences and implications. This year CIF's focus is on chemical and biological weapons (CBW). CBW is becoming more of a threat today than ever before. Many countriesmore » are developing these weapons. CBW also presents certain ethical dilemmas for many individuals, especially if those individuals feel it is their religious duty to use or avoid the use of such weapons. Religion has become an important determining factor in international security because many cultures, and even governments make decisions based on religious traditions. This paper is an attempt to look at these religions and philosophical traditions with an emphasis on views of ''just war''. The ultimate purpose of this paper is to promote awareness about religion's influence on international security issues. This paper was written by Cadet Ernst ''Mitch'' Martzen, AFROTC. He is an intern with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Science and Technology Education Program, under the guidance of Dr. Stephen C. Sesko, the director of LLNL's CIF program. Every major religion and ethical system has developed a societal concept of ''just war''. Today, the world's largest religions include Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Each faith lays claim to a heritage rich with thousands of years of history, and the power of great minds to support its ethical and moral beliefs. These religions have each developed separate and distinct beliefs regarding warfare. Whether those beliefs were developed through formal theological discourse, or through the dialogue in scriptures, they are valid and necessary today because they affect contemporary political action. Even today, many religious societies base their willingness to fight on the just war ethic that they hold.« less

Facts and Narrative - the Concept of 4d Capturing of Heritage Building; a Case Study of Sompur Mahavihara, Bangladesh

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rashid, Md. M.; Rahaman, H.

2013-07-01

This study embarked upon a premise that considers architecture of building as a dynamic phenomenon. A building from its conception is susceptible to change due to various reasons. An historical building that is several hundred years old must have undergone through changes due to political, social, religious and most importantly functional reasons. Hence capturing building and its dynamic evolution is necessary to appreciate its architecture as well as its heritage value. Whereas the conventional method of fact based historiography only captures the building in particular moment. It makes architectural historians to become perplexed over to which particular moment to be documented. It is a great challenge for the architectural historians to bring back these dynamic characters of the building that are mostly inconspicuous in nature from this point of time. In this situation the historical discourse also remains elusive and blurred. The idea of 4d capturing comes in front in this scenario. Current research would venture into this emerging idea to record the architecture of the early period. This paper highlights the need for a flexible tool to capture this dynamic character of the building. By citing the case study of the 7th century Buddhist Monastery in Bengal, this paper thus argues for the need of capturing the narrative of a historical building than the facts to get a complete picture of its architecture. This study aims at capturing the narrative of Sompur Mahavihara, the UNESCO World Heritage site in Bangladesh, which is currently in ruinous condition. However, it's few hundred years life suggests that as architecture it was subject to change due to different reasons, mainly political, religious and rituals. Being a monument that belongs to the flourishing phase of a society, traditionally this monastery architecture certainly played a role as a stage for religious and political pageantry as well as different religious performances. As architecture it works as complex process of interaction of different layers of ideas, agendas and authorship through time. This paper would further explore different tools for historians to capturing this process of interaction and preserving/ conserving the narrative of this building using virtual modelling.

47 CFR 73.1216 - Licensee-conducted contests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... licensee that broadcasts or advertises information about a contest it conducts shall fully and accurately... licensee-conducted contests not broadcast or advertised to the general public or to a substantial segment....1216 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) BROADCAST RADIO SERVICES RADIO...

43 CFR 2522.2 - Procedure on applications for extensions of time, where contest is pending.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... MANAGEMENT (2000) DESERT-LAND ENTRIES Extensions of Time To Make Final Proof § 2522.2 Procedure on applications for extensions of time, where contest is pending. (a) A pending contest against a desert-land...

43 CFR 2522.2 - Procedure on applications for extensions of time, where contest is pending.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... MANAGEMENT (2000) DESERT-LAND ENTRIES Extensions of Time To Make Final Proof § 2522.2 Procedure on applications for extensions of time, where contest is pending. (a) A pending contest against a desert-land...

43 CFR 2522.2 - Procedure on applications for extensions of time, where contest is pending.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... MANAGEMENT (2000) DESERT-LAND ENTRIES Extensions of Time To Make Final Proof § 2522.2 Procedure on applications for extensions of time, where contest is pending. (a) A pending contest against a desert-land...

43 CFR 2522.2 - Procedure on applications for extensions of time, where contest is pending.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... MANAGEMENT (2000) DESERT-LAND ENTRIES Extensions of Time To Make Final Proof § 2522.2 Procedure on applications for extensions of time, where contest is pending. (a) A pending contest against a desert-land...

77 FR 12845 - Announcement of Requirements and Registration for Surgeon General's (SG) Youth Video Contest

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-02

... YouTube playlist throughout the contest. CDC also reserves the right to make all submitted videos... based on the contest rules prior to being transferred to CDC's YouTube channel for public voting...

What Determines the Duration of War? Insights from Assessment Strategies in Animal Contests

PubMed Central

Briffa, Mark

2014-01-01

Interstate wars and animal contests both involve disputed resources, restraint and giving up decisions. In both cases it seems illogical for the weaker side to persist in the conflict if it will eventually lose. In the case of animal contests analyses of the links between opponent power and contest duration have provided insights into what sources of information are available to fighting animals. I outline the theory of information use during animal contests and describe a statistical framework that has been used to distinguish between two strategies that individuals use to decide whether to persist or quit. I then apply this framework to the analysis of interstate wars. War duration increases with the power of winners and losers. These patterns provide no support for the idea that wars are settled on the basis of mutual assessment of capabilities but indicate that settlement is based on attrition. In contrast to most animal contests, war duration is as closely linked to the power of the winning side as to that of the losing side. Overall, this analysis highlights a number of similarities between animal contests and interstate war, indicating that both could be investigated using similar conceptual frameworks. PMID:25247403

7 CFR 652.34 - Opportunity to contest decertification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... CONSERVATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SUPPORT ACTIVITIES TECHNICAL SERVICE PROVIDER ASSISTANCE Decertification § 652.34 Opportunity to contest decertification. To contest decertification, the technical service provider must submit in writing to the State Conservationist, within 20 calendar days from the date of...

[A cross analysis on the capability of examining helminths: national technique competition for parasitic disease diagnosis in 2011].

PubMed

Zhang, Li; Li, Shi-Zhu; Li, Yu; Wang, Qiang; Fu, Qing; Liu, Wei; Zhu, Hong-Qing; Xu, Jing; Chen, Ying-Dan; Chen, Shao-Hong; Chen, Jia-Xu; Chen, Zhao; Wang, Li-Ying; Zhou, Xiao-Nong

2012-08-30

To understand the comprehensive capability of helminth detection among professionals at different level of parasitic disease control institutions and promote the overall strength of diagnosis. Four professionals from each parasitic diseases control institutions were selected as contestant (age < 45 and at least two contestant from county-level institution). The content of contest included making stool slides with Kato-Katz method (five slides in thirty minutes, a total score of 15 and 9 as passing score) and identification of eleven common helminth eggs with microscopy (ten slides, five minutes per slide, a total score of 60, 36 as passing score). The average score of making slides in 119 contestants from 30 provinces was 11.4, and 119 contestants passed accounted for 93.3%. The average score of film-reading was 22.0, and 20 contestants passed accounted for 16.8%. There were no statistically significant differences between the results in different gender, age (< or = 30, 31-40, > 40), job title (the junior, intermediate, and senior), institution level (provincial, municipal, and county level) (P > 0.05). By Kato-Katz slide-making and film-reading, the scores in contestants from provinces with schistosomiasis control task (12.1 +/- 1.7, 32.1 +/- 11.5, respectively) were better than contestants from other provinces (11.1 +/- 1.8, 18.1 +/- 10.5, respectively). The scores in contestants from western (18.4 +/- 11.4) were lower than those from eastern (25.2 +/- 12.4) and central (24.1 +/- 13.1) for film-reading. The overall capability of parasitic disease examination is unbalanced among regions, and evidently there is a need to strengthen the capacity of pathogen detection in the disease control programs.

Female selective abortion - beyond 'culture': family making and gender inequality in a globalising India.

PubMed

Unnithan-Kumar, Maya

2010-02-01

There is an emerging global discourse on female selective abortion (FSA) as several Asian countries witness an increasing imbalance in their sex ratios in favour of boys. While there is an attendant increase in demographic and social surveys on the issue, little is understood about FSA as either a desired or contested practice of family making in the contexts in which it is practiced. Drawing on the accounts of feminists, doctors and lower, middle-class Hindu and Muslim women and their families in Rajasthan, Northern India, the paper explores differing perceptions and attitudes to FSA in the region. Focusing on the agency of pregnant women who resort to FSA, the paper suggests that gender inequality and marriage anxieties shape especially lower-middle-class women's engagement with reproductive technologies, including those of sex selection. The paper also concludes that the decisions of both Hindu and Muslim lower-middle-class women to abort female babies is informed by their shared, pragmatic understanding of the economic realities of gender discrimination and of their social obligation as wives to reproduce a particular quality of patriarchal family.

'Left behind' but not left alone: parental migration & the psychosocial health of children in Moldova.

PubMed

Vanore, Michaella; Mazzucato, Valentina; Siegel, Melissa

2015-05-01

In Moldova, large-scale and rapidly feminised migration flows have inspired a wave of qualitative reports on children "left behind". Despite this recent interest, few studies have empirically evaluated the effects of parental migration on the psychosocial health of such children. Using data collected from a nationally-representative household survey conducted in Moldova between September 2011 and February 2012, this paper analyses the psychosocial health outcomes of children of migrant parents by comparing them with children without migrant parents (n = 1979). Child psychosocial health is measured through caregiver-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) scores. Multivariate regression analyses show that parental migration seldom corresponds to worse emotional symptoms outcomes but does correspond to increased conduct problems. Separate analyses for male and female children show significant gendered differences. The results partially contest the negative results that have been the subject of qualitative reports and, in particular, demonstrate that the migration of mothers infrequently results in worse psychosocial outcomes for children-contrary to what has been assumed in the discourse about parental migration in Moldova. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Wait Up!: Attachment and Sovereign Power

PubMed Central

Duschinsky, Robbie; Greco, Monica; Solomon, Judith

2017-01-01

Sociologists and feminist scholars have, over many decades, characterised attachment as a social construction that functions to support political and gender conservatism. We accept that attachment theory has seen use to these ends and consider recent deployments of attachment theory as justification for a minimal State within conservative political discourse in the UK since 2009. However, we contest that attachment is reducible to its discursive construction. We consider Judith Butler’s depiction of the infant attached to an abusive caregiver as a foundation and parallel to the position of the adult citizen subjected to punitive cultural norms and political institutions. We develop and qualify Butler’s account, drawing on the insights offered by the work of Lauren Berlant. We also return to Foucault’s Psychiatric Power lectures, in which familial relations are situated as an island of sovereign power within the sea of modern disciplinary institutions. These reflections help advance analysis of three important issues: the social and political implications of attachment research; the relationship between disciplinary and sovereign power in the affective dynamic of subjection; and the political and ethical status of professional activity within the psy disciplines. PMID:28904425

Education for change in a post-modern world: redefining revolution.

PubMed

Cameron, P; Willis, K; Crack, G

1995-10-01

Social and behavioural sciences are established components in the curriculum of undergraduate nursing degrees. The purpose is to introduce future and practising nurses to the social and political influences which inform their workplaces and practices. Inevitably an awareness of the structural barriers and the powerful political interests involved in health can lead to feelings of powerlessness and despair of achieving change. Yet the skills of critical analysis and political awareness developed in study such as this are essential for health workers in the increasingly complex and politically charged domain in which they work. This paper will explore problems and barriers encountered in development of curriculum and teaching social and behavioural sciences in health. It will propose an alternative conceptual model, based on post-structuralism, as one way of addressing these barriers. This approach shifts the focus from meta-theoretical sociological concepts such as class, gender and culture, to one of examining subject positions, discourse, contestation and local action, thus enabling the exploration and development of possibilities for change. The paper will also provide a case study to illustrate this alternative approach.

Debated agronomy: public discourse and the future of biotechnology policy in Ghana

PubMed Central

Braimah, Joseph A.; Atuoye, Kilian N.; Vercillo, Siera; Warring, Carrie; Luginaah, Isaac

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT This paper examines the highly contested and ongoing biotechnology (Bt) policy-making process in Ghana. We analyse media content on how Bt is viewed in the context of Ghana’s parliamentary debate on the Plant Breeders Bill and within the broader public policy-making literature. This paper does not seek to take a position on Bt or the Bill, but to understand how policy actors influence the debate with political and scientific rhetoric in Ghana. The study reveals that in the midst of scientific uncertainties of Bt’s potential for sustainable agriculture production and food security, policy decisions that encourage its future adoption are heavily influenced by health, scientific, economic, environmental and political factors dictated by different ideologies, values and norms. While locally pioneered plant breeding is visible and common in the Ghanaian food chain, plant breeding/GMOs/Bt from international corporations is strongly resisted by anti-GMO coalitions. Understanding the complex and messy nature of Bt policy-making is critical for future development of agricultural technology in Ghana and elsewhere. PMID:29147107

The new urban politics as a politics of carbon control.

PubMed

Jonas, Andrew E G; Gibbs, David; While, Aidan

2011-01-01

The new urban politics (NUP) literature has helped to draw attention to a new generation of entrepreneurial urban regimes involved in the competition to attract investment to cities. Interurban competition often had negative environmental consequences for the urban living place. Yet knowledge of the environment was not very central to understanding the NUP. Entrepreneurial urban regimes today are struggling to deal with climate change and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon reduction strategies could have profound implications for interurban competition and the politics of urban development. This paper explores the rise of a distinctive low-carbon urban polity—carbon control—and examines its potential ramifications for a new environmental politics of urban development (NEPUD). The NEPUD signals the growing centrality of carbon control in discourses, strategies and struggles around urban development. Using examples from cities in the US and Europe, the paper examines how these new environmental policy considerations are being mainstreamed in urban development politics. Alongside competitiveness, the management of carbon emissions represents a new yet at the same time contestable mode of calculation in urban governance.

Wait Up!: Attachment and Sovereign Power.

PubMed

Duschinsky, Robbie; Greco, Monica; Solomon, Judith

2015-09-01

Sociologists and feminist scholars have, over many decades, characterised attachment as a social construction that functions to support political and gender conservatism. We accept that attachment theory has seen use to these ends and consider recent deployments of attachment theory as justification for a minimal State within conservative political discourse in the UK since 2009. However, we contest that attachment is reducible to its discursive construction. We consider Judith Butler's depiction of the infant attached to an abusive caregiver as a foundation and parallel to the position of the adult citizen subjected to punitive cultural norms and political institutions. We develop and qualify Butler's account, drawing on the insights offered by the work of Lauren Berlant. We also return to Foucault's Psychiatric Power lectures, in which familial relations are situated as an island of sovereign power within the sea of modern disciplinary institutions. These reflections help advance analysis of three important issues: the social and political implications of attachment research; the relationship between disciplinary and sovereign power in the affective dynamic of subjection; and the political and ethical status of professional activity within the psy disciplines.

The impact of a quit smoking contest on smoking behaviour in Ontario.

PubMed

Ashbury, Fredrick D; Cameron, Cathy; Finlan, Christine; Holmes, Robin; Villareal, Ethylene; Décoste, Yves; Kulnies, Tanya; Swoboda-Geen, Claudia; Kralj, Boris

2006-01-01

Community-based smoking cessation initiatives target large numbers of people, are highly visible and have the potential for great impact. Ontario's Quit Smoking (2002) Contest was evaluated one year after its implementation to measure behaviour change among adult smokers participating in the contest. The registration database of 15,521 contest participants provided the basis for a random sample of 700 participants throughout Ontario who were contacted for a follow-up telephone survey. A total of 347 surveys were completed, of which 60 percent were women. Almost one third (31.4 percent) of the survey respondents reported that they had not smoked since the start of the contest. Participation in the contest also may have delayed relapse by as much as fi ve months for 31.3 percent of respondents who resumed smoking. Older respondents, men, those who had previously attempted to quit and people who said their cessation "buddy" was helpful were more likely to stop smoking.

On the Organization of Student Flying Robot Contest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suzuki, Shinji; Tsuchiya, Takeshi; Karasawa, Kenji; Matsunaga, Daiichiro

The indoor flight contest for students has been organized. The main purpose of the contest is to promote aeronautical education in universities and colleges. Each team composed of five students designs, builds and flies indoor model planes by themselves. There are fixed wing and air ship divisions, in which each plane is controlled by radio controller and equips a small wireless micro video camera. We introduced a special rule, i.e., a plane‧s weight must be less than 150 gram and a air ship‧s length must be less than 1.5 meter. The score is calculated by combining the flight time, the accuracy of recognized image, and the allowance to the weight or size limit. The contest has been held annually since 2006. The number of participants is increasing and three foreign teams were joined to our contest. We will introduce the rule of the contest and results and will summarize lessons learned to scope the future development

‘They Shall See His Face’: Blindness in British India, 1850–1950

PubMed Central

Nair, Aparna

2017-01-01

This paper explores the social, medical, institutional and enumerative histories of blindness in British India from 1850 to 1950. It begins by tracing the contours and causes of blindness using census records, and then outlines how colonial physicians and observers ascribed both infectious aetiologies and social pathologies to blindness. Blindness was often interpreted as the inevitable consequence of South Asian ignorance, superstition and backwardness. This paper also explores the social worlds of the Blind, with a particular focus on the figure of the blind beggar. This paper further interrogates missionary discourse on ‘Indian’ blindness and outlines how blindness was a metaphor for the perceived civilisational inferiority and religious failings of South Asian peoples. This paper also describes the introduction of institutions for the Blind in addition to the introduction of Braille and Moon technologies. PMID:28260563

Legislative Enforcement of Nonconsensual Determination of Neurological (Brain) Death in Muslim Patients: A Violation of Religious Rights.

PubMed

Rady, Mohamed Y; Verheijde, Joseph L

2018-04-01

Death is defined in the Quran with a single criterion of irreversible separation of the ruh (soul) from the body. The Quran is a revelation from God to man, and the primary source of Islamic knowledge. The secular concept of death by neurological criteria, or brain death, is at odds with the Quranic definition of death. The validity of this secular concept has been contested scientifically and philosophically. To legitimize brain death for the purpose of organ donation and transplantation in Muslim communities, Chamsi-Pasha and Albar (concurring with the US President's Council on Bioethics) have argued that irreversible loss of capacity for consciousness and breathing (apneic coma) in brain death defines true death in accordance with Islamic sources. They have postulated that the absence of nafs (personhood) and nafas (breath) in apneic coma constitutes true death because of departure of the soul (ruh) from the body. They have also asserted that general anesthesia is routine in brain death before surgical procurement. Their argument is open to criticism because: (1) the ruh is described as the essence of life, whereas the nafs and nafas are merely human attributes; (2) unlike true death, the ruh is still present even with absent nafs and nafas in apneic coma; and (3) the routine use of general anesthesia indicates the potential harm to brain-dead donors from surgical procurement. Postmortem general anesthesia is not required for autopsy. Therefore, the conclusion must be that legislative enforcement of nonconsensual determination of neurological (brain) death and termination of life-support and medical treatment violates the religious rights of observant Muslims.

50 CFR 91.3 - Public attendance at contest.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Public attendance at contest. 91.3 Section 91.3 Wildlife and Fisheries UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR (CONTINUED) MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS MIGRATORY BIRD HUNTING AND CONSERVATION STAMP CONTEST Introduction § 91...

50 CFR 91.3 - Public attendance at contest.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 8 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Public attendance at contest. 91.3 Section 91.3 Wildlife and Fisheries UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR (CONTINUED) MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS MIGRATORY BIRD HUNTING AND CONSERVATION STAMP CONTEST Introduction § 91...

National History Day Contest Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National History Day, Inc., Cleveland, OH.

The guide presents an overview of a national contest designed to make history come alive to students in grades 6 through 12 through imaginative projects, original performances, media presentations, and papers. Students submit their entries into contests in which they are judged by historians, educators, and other experienced professionals.…

5 CFR 890.1036 - Information considered in deciding a contest.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... Imposed Against Health Care Providers Suspension § 890.1036 Information considered in deciding a contest... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Information considered in deciding a contest. 890.1036 Section 890.1036 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED...

5 CFR 890.1036 - Information considered in deciding a contest.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... Imposed Against Health Care Providers Suspension § 890.1036 Information considered in deciding a contest... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Information considered in deciding a contest. 890.1036 Section 890.1036 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED...

5 CFR 890.1036 - Information considered in deciding a contest.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... Imposed Against Health Care Providers Suspension § 890.1036 Information considered in deciding a contest... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Information considered in deciding a contest. 890.1036 Section 890.1036 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED...

The biopower of beauty: humanitarian imperialisms and global feminisms in an age of terror.

PubMed

Nguyen, Mimi Thi

2011-01-01

As part of a feminist commitment to collaboration, this article, which appears as a companion essay to Minh-Ha T. Pham's "The Right to Fashion in the Age of Terror," offers a point of departure for thinking about fashion and beauty as processes that produce subjects recruited to, and aligned with, the national interests of the United States in the war on terror. The Muslim woman in the veil and her imagined opposite, the fashionably modern and implicitly Western woman, become convenient metaphors for articulating geopolitical contests of power as human rights concerns, as rescue missions, as beautifying mandates. This essay examines newer iterations of this opposition, after September 11, 2001, in order to demonstrate the critical resonance of a biopolitics of fashion and beauty. After the events of September 11, 2001, George W. Bush's administration launched a military and public relations campaign to promote U.S. national interests using the language of feminism and human rights. While these discourses in the United States helped to reinvigorate a declining economy, and specifically a flagging fashion industry (as Pham addresses in her companion essay), feminism abroad was deployed to very different ends. This article considers the establishment of the Kabul Beauty School by the nongovernmental organization Beauty without Borders, sponsored in large part by the U.S. fashion and beauty industries. Examining troubling histories of beauty's relation to morality, humanity, and security, as well as to neoliberal discourses of self-governance, the author teases out the biopower and biopolitics of beauty, enacted here through programs of empowerment that are inseparable from the geopolitical aims of the U.S. deployment in Afghanistan.

Robert Boyle and the representation of imperceptible entities.

PubMed

Wragge-Morley, Alexander

2018-03-01

In this essay, I examine Robert Boyle's strategies for making imperceptible entities accessible to the senses. It is well known that, in his natural philosophy, Boyle confronted the challenge of making imperceptible particles of matter into objects of sensory experience. It has never been noted, however, that Boyle confronted a strikingly similar challenge in his natural theology - he needed to make an equally imperceptible God accessible to the senses. Taking this symmetrical difficulty as my starting point, I propose a new approach to thinking about the interconnections between Boyle's natural philosophy and natural theology. For the most part, studies of science and religion in the early modern period work by seeking out the influence of explicitly stated religious beliefs on scientific ideas. I argue, by contrast, that we need to focus on Boyle's representational practices, using his attempts to represent imperceptible entities as a means of uncovering metaphysical and theological presuppositions that he did not always articulate when stating his religious beliefs. With new interpretations of both A Discourse of Things Above Reason (1681) and Some Physico-Theological Considerations about the Possibility of the Resurrection (1675), I show that there were crucial similarities between Boyle's practices for representing both God and atoms. I go on to show, moreover, that Boyle used these practices to enact an ontological stance at odds with one of his most important professed beliefs.

Dire necessity and transformation: entry-points for modern science in Islamic bioethical assessment of porcine products in vaccines.

PubMed

Padela, Aasim I; Furber, Steven W; Kholwadia, Mohammad A; Moosa, Ebrahim

2014-02-01

The field of medicine provides an important window through which to examine the encounters between religion and science, and between modernity and tradition. While both religion and science consider health to be a 'good' that is to be preserved, and promoted, religious and science-based teachings may differ in their conception of what constitutes good health, and how that health is to be achieved. This paper analyzes the way the Islamic ethico-legal tradition assesses the permissibility of using vaccines that contain porcine-derived components by referencing opinions of several Islamic authorities. In the Islamic ethico-legal tradition controversy surrounds the use of proteins from an animal (pig) that is considered to be impure by Islamic law. As we discuss the Islamic ethico-legal constructs used to argue for or against the use of porcine-based vaccines we will call attention to areas where modern medical data may make the arguments more precise. By highlighting areas where science can buttress and clarify the ethico-legal arguments we hope to spur an enhanced applied Islamic bioethics discourse where religious scholars and medical experts use modern science in a way that remains faithful to the epistemology of Islamic ethics to clarify what Islam requires of Muslim patients and healthcare workers. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

'We call it a virus but I want to say it's the devil inside': redemption, moral reform and relationships with God among people living with HIV in Papua New Guinea.

PubMed

Kelly-Hanku, Angela; Aggleton, Peter; Shih, Patti

2014-10-01

There is growing recognition of the importance of religion and religious beliefs as they relate to the experience of HIV, globally and in Papua New Guinea in particular. Based on 36 in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with people living with HIV receiving HIV antiretroviral therapy in 2008, this paper examines the cultural aetiology of HIV of in Papua New Guinea, the country with the highest reported burden of HIV in the Pacific. Narratives provided drew upon a largely moral framework, which viewed HIV acquisition as a consequence of moral failing and living an un-Christian life. This explanation for suffering viewed the individual as responsible for their condition in much the same way that neo-liberal biomedical discourses do. Moral reform and re-establishing a relationship with God were seen as key actions necessary to effect healing on the material body infected with HIV. Religious understandings of HIV drew upon a pre-existing cultural aetiology of dis-ease and misfortune widespread in Papua New Guinea. Understanding the centrality of Christianity to explanations of disease, and subsequently the actions necessary to bring about health, is essential in order to understand how people with HIV in receipt of antiretroviral therapies internalise biomedical perspectives and reconcile these with Christian beliefs. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Honeymoon, medical treatment or big business? An analysis of the meanings of the term "reproductive tourism" in German and Israeli public media discourses.

PubMed

Bassan, Sharon; Michaelsen, Merle A

2013-08-20

Infertile couples that travel to another country for reproductive treatment do not refer to themselves as "reproductive tourists". They might even be offended by this term. "Tourism" is a metaphor with hidden connotations. We will analyze these connotations in public media discourses on "reproductive tourism" in Israel and Germany. We chose to focus on these two countries since legal, ethical and religious restrictions give couples a similar motivation to travel for reproductive care, while the cultural backgrounds and conceptions of reproduction are different. Our research shows that the use of the metaphor "reproductive treatment" and its hidden messages depends on the writers' intention and the target population. Although the phenomenon of patients travelling for reproductive treatment can fit into the definitions of tourism, the term emphasizes aspects that do not reflect patients' reality. In both the German and the Israeli public media debate the term "reproductive tourism" is either used to criticize the economic aspects of the phenomenon or to attract patients as potential clients. Ethicists should be cautious when borrowing metaphors like "reproductive tourism" from the public debate. Our findings support Penning's suggestion to use instead an unloaded term like cross-border reproductive care to describe the phenomenon in a more neutral way and to make it explicit whenever criticism is necessary.

Denial, Opposition, Rejection or Dissent: Why Do Teachers Contest Research Evidence?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cain, Tim

2017-01-01

Internationally, efforts are being made for educational practice to be research-informed on the grounds that schoolteachers will implement what research shows will "work". However, teachers do not necessarily accept research findings; sometimes they contest them. This article considers teachers' contestation in two empirical studies,…

Formula vs. Fractured Formula in Contest Persuasive Speaking.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reynolds, Christina L.

In the past decade, contest persuasive speaking has become a product that student competitors produce and perform. A perversion of the contest formula has removed the element of persuasion from the formula. Competition rules suggest that a student's purposes in participating in forensics events should include inspiring, reinforcing, or changing…

76 FR 59767 - Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: “Contested Visions in the...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-27

... DEPARTMENT OF STATE [Public Notice 7611] Culturally Significant Objects Imported for Exhibition Determinations: ``Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World'' SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of the... exhibition ``Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World'' imported from abroad for temporary exhibition...

76 FR 55916 - Requirements and Registration for Are You Prepared? Video Contest

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-09

... and Registration for Are You Prepared? Video Contest AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and... general public to make a 60 second video that shows how you are prepared for any emergency and reinforces.... SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Subject of Challenge Competition Emergency Preparedness Video Contest. September is...

The Mathematical Contest in Modeling: Success at a Small Regional University.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parker, Mark; Zullo, Holly; Preyer, Norris

1999-01-01

Describes the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM), a contest in which teams of three undergraduate students compete with other undergraduate teams from schools all over the world. Implements MCM at Eastern Oregon University and indicates that the MCM program promotes teamwork and generates enthusiasm in students. (Author/ASK)

27 CFR 10.24 - Sales promotion contests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 27 Alcohol, Tobacco Products and Firearms 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Sales promotion contests. 10.24 Section 10.24 Alcohol, Tobacco Products and Firearms ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO TAX AND TRADE BUREAU, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY LIQUORS COMMERCIAL BRIBERY Commercial Bribery § 10.24 Sales promotion contests...

Variable assessment of wing colouration in aerial contests of the red-winged damselfly Mnesarete pudica (Zygoptera, Calopterygidae)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guillermo-Ferreira, Rhainer; Gorb, Stanislav N.; Appel, Esther; Kovalev, Alexander; Bispo, Pitágoras C.

2015-04-01

Wing pigmentation is a trait that predicts the outcome of male contests in some damselflies. Thus, it is reasonable to suppose that males would have the ability to assess wing pigmentation and adjust investment in a fight according to the costs that the rival may potentially impose. Males of the damselfly Mnesarete pudica exhibit red-coloured wings and complex courtship behaviour and engage in striking male-male fights. In this study, we investigated male assessment behaviour during aerial contests. Theory suggests that the relationship between male resource-holding potential (RHP) and contest duration describes the kind of assessment adopted by males: self-assessment, opponent-only assessment or mutual assessment. A recent theory also suggests that weak and strong males exhibit variations in the assessment strategies adopted. We estimated male RHP through male body size and wing colouration (i.e. pigmentation, wing reflectance spectra and transmission spectra) and studied the relationship between male RHP and contest duration from video-documented behavioural observations of naturally occurring individual contests in the field. The results showed that males with more opaque wings and larger red spots were more likely to win contests. The relationships between RHP and contest durations partly supported the self-assessment and the mutual assessment models. We then experimentally augmented the pigmented area of the wings, in order to evaluate whether strong and weak males assess rivals' RHP through wing pigmentation. Our experimental manipulation, however, clearly demonstrated that strong males assess rivals' wing pigmentation. We finally suggest that there is a variation in the assessment strategy adopted by males.

We won't repeat the mistakes of the past.

PubMed

Amanor, A

1991-09-01

The Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana and the country's Ministry of Health have seized on an innovative new method for promoting immunization coverage -- a baby contest. The event seeks to promote the benefits of good health habits, a sound environment, and immunization on a child's development. The contest is designed to determine whether the mother has understood the educational lessons concerning family planning and family health given at the immunization centers and welfare clinics. The prize for winning the contest consists of 3 plastic basins, bars of bath soap, and a white shirt. In order to take part in the baby contest, a mother has to demonstrate the following: that she took 2 doses of tetanus vaccine during pregnancy; that she is able to administer first aid and oral rehydration therapy; that she has a certain level of knowledge concerning family planning methods, environmental sanitation, and personal hygiene; and that she is able to prepare Weanimix, a local weaning food for children. The 1st baby contest was held in December 1989 in the 9 communities that form the Integrated Family Planning, Nutrition and Parasite Control Project (IP) area. This 1st competition succeeded in getting 513 mothers to complete their immunization schedules prior to the event. Because the initial contests took place in remote villages, they received little media coverage, which affected attendance. But as more contests were held and more people became involved, the media picked up the story, further increasing participation. Organizers indicate that the number of people taking part in the contests, as well as the number of children being immunized, has increased steadily every month.

Variable assessment of wing colouration in aerial contests of the red-winged damselfly Mnesarete pudica (Zygoptera, Calopterygidae).

PubMed

Guillermo-Ferreira, Rhainer; Gorb, Stanislav N; Appel, Esther; Kovalev, Alexander; Bispo, Pitágoras C

2015-04-01

Wing pigmentation is a trait that predicts the outcome of male contests in some damselflies. Thus, it is reasonable to suppose that males would have the ability to assess wing pigmentation and adjust investment in a fight according to the costs that the rival may potentially impose. Males of the damselfly Mnesarete pudica exhibit red-coloured wings and complex courtship behaviour and engage in striking male-male fights. In this study, we investigated male assessment behaviour during aerial contests. Theory suggests that the relationship between male resource-holding potential (RHP) and contest duration describes the kind of assessment adopted by males: self-assessment, opponent-only assessment or mutual assessment. A recent theory also suggests that weak and strong males exhibit variations in the assessment strategies adopted. We estimated male RHP through male body size and wing colouration (i.e. pigmentation, wing reflectance spectra and transmission spectra) and studied the relationship between male RHP and contest duration from video-documented behavioural observations of naturally occurring individual contests in the field. The results showed that males with more opaque wings and larger red spots were more likely to win contests. The relationships between RHP and contest durations partly supported the self-assessment and the mutual assessment models. We then experimentally augmented the pigmented area of the wings, in order to evaluate whether strong and weak males assess rivals' RHP through wing pigmentation. Our experimental manipulation, however, clearly demonstrated that strong males assess rivals' wing pigmentation. We finally suggest that there is a variation in the assessment strategy adopted by males.

Department of the Navy Innovation

Science.gov Websites

submissions is 31 January 2018. Winners will be announced in Second Quarter CY2018. Trophy Design Contest: In support of the Innovation Awards above, the trophy design contest allows creative Sailors, Marines, and available. Questions may be submitted to DON_Innovation@navy.mil Trophy Design Contest Details Design

Individual Specialist versus Group Preparation for a Computer Programming Contest Involving Secondary Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McAllister, Deborah A.

1994-01-01

This dissertation investigates the effects of two different grouping strategies on secondary students concerning their preparation for, and performance at, a computer programming contest. Students were divided into two groups, experimental and control, for a 3-week treatment, followed by the contest. Students in the experimental group became…

Developing Conceptions of Fair Contest Procedures and the Understanding of Skill and Luck.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thorkildsen, Theresa A.; White-McNulty, Lisa

2002-01-01

Contrary to assumptions about aversive effects of competition on achievement motivation, in this study young people saw academic contests as fair. When participants completed structural interviews on fair ways to organize science contests and on differentiation of skill and luck, age-related trends in their conceptions of procedural justice were…

43 CFR 4.451-2 - Proceedings in Government contests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... action required of the contestant may be taken by any authorized Government employee. (e) The statements... publication on the land in issue shall be required of the Government. (g) Where service is by publication, the... 43 Public Lands: Interior 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Proceedings in Government contests. 4.451...

The National School Orchestra Contests: 1929-1937

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hash, Phillip M.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the National School Orchestra Contests sponsored by the National Bureau for the Advancement of Music and the Committee on Instrumental Affairs (CIA) of Music Supervisors National Conference from 1929 to 1937. Research questions examined contest (a) organization and operation, (b) rules and procedures, (c)…

78 FR 21180 - Announcement of the 2013 SBA-Visa Export Video Contest Under the America COMPETES Reauthorization...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-04-09

... submitted per business. Videos must not contain violence, profanity, sex, images of a prurient nature, or... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Announcement of the 2013 SBA-Visa Export Video Contest Under the... the ``Cosponsors'') announce a video contest for eligible small businesses to showcase the advantages...

Using a Simple Contest to Illustrate Mechanism Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blackwell, Calvin

2011-01-01

This article describes a simple classroom activity that illustrates how economic theory can be used for mechanism design. The rules for a set of contests are presented; the results typically obtained from these contests illustrate how the prize structure can be manipulated in order to produce a particular outcome. Specifically, this activity is…

25 CFR 81.22 - Contesting of election results.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Contesting of election results. 81.22 Section 81.22... A FEDERAL STATUTE § 81.22 Contesting of election results. Any qualified voter, within three days following the posting of the results of an election, may challenge the election results by filing with the...

25 CFR 81.22 - Contesting of election results.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2012-04-01 2011-04-01 true Contesting of election results. 81.22 Section 81.22... A FEDERAL STATUTE § 81.22 Contesting of election results. Any qualified voter, within three days following the posting of the results of an election, may challenge the election results by filing with the...

25 CFR 81.22 - Contesting of election results.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Contesting of election results. 81.22 Section 81.22... A FEDERAL STATUTE § 81.22 Contesting of election results. Any qualified voter, within three days following the posting of the results of an election, may challenge the election results by filing with the...

25 CFR 81.22 - Contesting of election results.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Contesting of election results. 81.22 Section 81.22... A FEDERAL STATUTE § 81.22 Contesting of election results. Any qualified voter, within three days following the posting of the results of an election, may challenge the election results by filing with the...

25 CFR 81.22 - Contesting of election results.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Contesting of election results. 81.22 Section 81.22... A FEDERAL STATUTE § 81.22 Contesting of election results. Any qualified voter, within three days following the posting of the results of an election, may challenge the election results by filing with the...

A Contest-Oriented Project for Learning Intelligent Mobile Robots

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Hsin-Hsiung; Su, Juing-Huei; Lee, Chyi-Shyong

2013-01-01

A contest-oriented project for undergraduate students to learn implementation skills and theories related to intelligent mobile robots is presented in this paper. The project, related to Micromouse, Robotrace (Robotrace is the title of Taiwanese and Japanese robot races), and line-maze contests was developed by the embedded control system research…

A Writing Contest? Why Bother.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simpson, Jeanette

1982-01-01

An approach to generating enthusiasm for writing through a writing contest is described in this brief article. AUTHOR'S COMMENT (excerpt): Why would a librarian sponsor a writing contest for more than eleven hundred students in an elementary school? I wanted to provide a writing experience for my students that would be a positive one; I hoped to…

Issues and challenges of information fusion in contested environments: panel results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blasch, Erik; Kadar, Ivan; Chong, Chee; Jones, Eric K.; Tierno, Jorge E.; Fenstermacher, Laurie; Gorman, John D.; Levchuk, Georgiy

2015-05-01

With the plethora of information, there are many aspects to contested environments such as the protection of information, network privacy, and restricted observational and entry access. In this paper, we review and contrast the perspectives of challenges and opportunities for future developments in contested environments. The ability to operate in a contested environment would aid societal operations for highly congested areas with limited bandwidth such as transportation, the lack of communication and observations after a natural disaster, or planning for situations in which freedom of movement is restricted. Different perspectives were presented, but common themes included (1) Domain: targets and sensors, (2) network: communications, control, and social networks, and (3) user: human interaction and analytics. The paper serves as a summary and organization of the panel discussion as towards future concerns for research needs in contested environments.

Caring for medically unexplained physical symptoms after toxic environmental exposures: effects of contested causation.

PubMed Central

Engel, Charles C; Adkins, Joyce A; Cowan, David N

2002-01-01

Medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) are persistent idiopathic symptoms that drive patients to seek medical care. MUPS syndromes include chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia syndrome, and multiple chemical sensitivities. When MUPS occur after an environmental exposure or injury, an adversarial social context that we call "contested causation" may ensue. Contested causation may occur publicly and involve media controversy, scientific disagreement, political debate, and legal struggles. This adversarial social context may diminish the effectiveness of the provider-patient relationship. Contested causation also may occur privately, when disagreement over the causes of MUPS takes place in the patient-provider context. These patient-provider disagreements over causation often occur because of the enigmatic nature of MUPS. We suggest that a context of contested causation may have serious negative effects on healthcare for individuals with MUPS. Context plays a larger role in MUPS care than it does for most medical care because of the uncertain nature of MUPS, the reliance of standard MUPS therapies on a potentially tenuous patient-provider partnership, and the clinical need to rely routinely on subjective MUPS assessments that often yield discordant patient and provider conclusions. Contested causation may erode patient-provider trust, test the provider's self-assurance and capacity to share power with the patient, and raise problematic issues of compensation, reparation, and blame. These issues may distract patients and providers from therapeutic goals. In occupational and military settings, the adverse impact of contested causation on the patient-provider partnership may diminish therapeutic effectiveness to a greater degree than it does in other medical settings. Contested causation therefore raises questions regarding generalizability of standard therapies for MUPS and related syndromes to these settings. Future research is needed to learn whether intuitively sensible and evidence-based MUPS therapies benefit occupational and military medical patients who are afforded care in the context of contested causation. PMID:12194900

Making "ethical safe space" in the translation of contested knowledge: the role of community debate in defining end-of-life decision ethics.

PubMed

Kaufert, Joseph; Schwartz, Karen; Wiebe, Rhonda; Derksen, Jim; Lutfiyya, Zana M; Richert, Dean

2013-04-01

The objectives of this article are, first, to document a unique process of research knowledge translation (KT), which the authors describe as the creation of "ethical safe space," and, second, to document the narratives of forum participants and describe their interaction in a dialogue about vulnerability, the authority of physicians, and the perspective of people with disabilities on the policy. Narrative data from qualitative interviews with individual key informants and focus groups were used to identify speakers with specific expertise on policy, disability perspectives, and bioethical issues, who were invited to participate in the Forum on Ethical Safe Space. The planning workgroup adopted a model for enabling representative participation in the public forum designed to reduce the impact of physical, sensory, financial, language, and professional status barriers. Using the transcripts and keynote speakers' printed texts, primary themes and patterns of interaction were identified reflecting the alternative perspectives. Through the development of a workshop on ethical, legal, and disability-related implications of professional policy guidelines developed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, we provided a qualitative analysis of the discourse involving experts and disability community members supporting alternative positions on the impact of the policy statement, and discuss ethical, legal, and disability rights issues identified in the public debate. Contested policy and ethical frameworks for making decisions about withdrawing and withholding life supporting treatment may influence both the perspectives of palliative care providers and patients referred to palliative care facilities. An innovative model for KT using a public forum that enabled stakeholders with conflicting perspectives to engage with ethical and professional policy issues asserting the physician's authority in contested decisions involving withdrawing or withholding life-supporting treatment, was a successful way to engage stakeholders supporting alternative positions on the impact of the policy statement and to discuss ethical, legal, and disability rights issues identified in the public debate. Discussion during the forum revealed several benefits of creating ethical safe space. This model of workshop allows space for participation of stakeholders, who might not otherwise be able to interact in the same forum, to articulate their perspectives and debate with other presenters and audience members. Participants at the forum spoke of the creation of ethical safe space as a starting point for more dialogue on the issues raised by the policy statement. The forum was, therefore, seen as a potential starting point for building conversation that would facilitate revising the policy with broader consultation on its legal and ethical validity.

Interaction location outweighs the competitive advantage of numerical superiority in Cebus capucinus intergroup contests.

PubMed

Crofoot, Margaret C; Gilby, Ian C; Wikelski, Martin C; Kays, Roland W

2008-01-15

Numerical superiority confers a competitive advantage during contests among animal groups, shaping patterns of resource access, and, by extension, fitness. However, relative group size does not always determine the winner of intergroup contests. Smaller, presumably weaker social groups often defeat their larger neighbors, but how and when they are able to do so remains poorly understood. Models of competition between individuals suggest that location may influence contest outcome. However, because of the logistical difficulties of studying intergroup interactions, previous studies have been unable to determine how contest location and group size interact to shape relationships among groups. We address this question by using an automated radio telemetry system to study intergroup interactions among six capuchin monkey (Cebus capucinus) social groups of varying sizes. We find that the odds of winning increase with relative group size; one additional group member increases the odds of winning an interaction by 10%. However, this effect is not uniform across space; with each 100 m that a group moves away from the center of its home range, its odds of winning an interaction decrease by 31%. We demonstrate that contest outcome depends on an interaction between group size and location, such that small groups can defeat much larger groups near the center of their home range. The tendency of resident groups to win contests may help explain how small groups persist in areas with intense intergroup competition.

Read for Fun: Management Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miner, Donna

Program materials and a brief description of a remedial reading program for grades 3-6 which uses contests to motivate reading at home are presented. The program uses bulletin board displays to keep track of student progress in the contests. The contests operate as follows: (1) students select a name for their figure on the bulletin board; (2)…

Mathematical Modeling in the People's Republic of China--Indicators of Participation and Performance on COMAP's Modeling Contest

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tian, Xiaoxi

2014-01-01

In recent years, Mainland Chinese teams have been the dominant participants in the two COMAP-sponsored mathematical modeling competitions: the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) and the Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM). This study examines five factors that lead to the Chinese teams' dramatic increase in participation rate and…

An Analysis of Applied Mechanics Contest for Senior High School Students in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Nelson Cheng-Chih; Chen, Ching-Hao; Lin, Ming-chun

2008-01-01

The applied mechanics education contest hosted by STAM (Society of Theoretical Applied Mechanics) has been held in Taiwan for several years. The contest pattern has been changed from a simple written test to an experiment-oriented test after the NSTM (National Science and Technology Museum) proceeded to hold the competition in 2005. The major…

Contestation and Continuity in Educational Reform: A Critical Study of Innovations in Environmental Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robottom, Ian Morris

Contestation can be defined as a process in which self-interested individuals and groups in a social organization cooperate, compete, and negotiate in a complex interaction aimed at solving social problems. This dissertation explores the notion of contestation in the field of environmental education. In the first part of the document a framework…

Bebras--A Sustainable Community Building Model for the Concept Based Learning of Informatics and Computational Thinking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dagiene, Valentina; Stupuriene, Gabriele

2016-01-01

As an international informatics contest, or challenge, Bebras has started the second decade of its existence. The contest attracts more and more countries every year, recently there have been over 40 participating countries. From a single contest-focused annual event Bebras developed to a multifunctional challenge and an activities-based…

Abstinence and Relapse Rates Following a College Campus-Based Quit & Win Contest

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, Janet L.; An, Larry; Luo, Xianghua; Scherber, Robyn M.; Berg, Carla J.; Golden, Dave; Ehlinger, Edward P.; Murphy, Sharon E.; Hecht, Stephen S.; Ahluwalia, Jasjit S.

2010-01-01

Objective: To conduct and evaluate Quit & Win contests at 2 2-year college and 2 4-year university campuses. Participants: During Spring semester, 2006, undergraduates (N = 588) interested in quitting smoking signed up for a Quit & Win 30-day cessation contest for a chance to win a lottery prize. Methods: Participants (N = 588) completed a…

Positive Affect Relevant to Epistemic Curiosity to Reflect Continuance Intention to Join a Hands-On Making Contest

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hong, Jon-Chao; Hwang, Ming-Yueh; Szeto, Elson; Tai, Kai-Hsin; Tsai, Chi-Ruei

2016-01-01

Hands-on making (e.g., "Maker") has become prevalent in current educational settings. To understand the role that students' epistemic curiosity plays in hands-on making contests, this study explored its correlation to students' positive affect and continuance intention to participate in a hands-on making contest called…

The Wildlife Habitat Education Program: Moving from Contest Participation to Implementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Kevin; Elmore, R. Dwayne; Harper, Craig

2013-01-01

Do members participating in the Wildlife Habitat Education Program (WHEP) apply knowledge gained by implementing wildlife management practices at the local level? 4-H members who participated in the National WHEP Contest from 2003-2005 and 2007-2011 completed an evaluation at the end of each contest. The evaluation asked participants if they…

The Structure-Agency Dialectic in Contested Science Spaces: "Do Earthworms Eat Apples?"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kane, Justine M.

2015-01-01

Focusing on a group of African American third graders who attend a high-poverty urban school, I explore the structure-agency dialectic within contested spaces situated in a dialogically oriented science classroom. Contested spaces entail the moments in which the students challenge each other's and their teacher's science ideas and, in the process,…

DETERMINING ELECTRONIC AND CYBER ATTACK RISK LEVEL FOR UNMANNED AIRCRAFT IN A CONTESTED ENVIRONMENT

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-08-01

AIR COMMAND AND STAFF COLLEGE AIR UNIVERSITY DETERMINING ELECTRONIC AND CYBER ATTACK RISK LEVEL FOR UNMANNED AIRCRAFT IN A CONTESTED ENVIRONMENT...iii ABSTRACT During operations in a contested air environment, adversary electronic warfare (EW) and cyber-attack capability will pose a high...10 Russian Federation Electronic Warfare Systems ...................................................12 Chinese Cyber Warfare Program

Discursive Contestations and Pluriversal Futures: A Decolonial Analysis of Educational Policies in the United Arab Emirates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aydarova, Elena

2017-01-01

Most research on global transformations in education has focused on the actions of political and economic elites. As a result, attempts to contest and subvert globally circulated policies at subnational levels have received less attention. To address this gap, this study focuses on discursive contestations around educational reforms in the United…

Lincoln Era Essay Contest: Seventh Annual Winners, 1988.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cagle, William, Ed.

The seventh annual Lincoln Era Essay Contest's theme was "Lincoln and the Elections of 1860 and 1864." The contest was open to students in grades 6 through 12 throughout the state of Indiana. This booklet includes all the winning essays. The junior high/middle school essays include: "Abraham Lincoln Journals for the 1860 and 1864…

The evolutionary nature of narratives about expansion and sustenance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raupach, M. R.

2014-12-01

The 200 years since the start of the industrial era has been a period of rapid and almost unbroken economic growth in much of the world, based upon exponentially increasing use of energy and water resources and the atmospheric commons. It is axiomatic that exponential growth cannot continue forever on a finite planet, leading to an emerging collision between the presently irresistible force of economic growth and the immovable reality of the finitude of Planet Earth. This has led to the a contest between two broad narratives about humans and their planet in the 21st century, an "expansion" narrative framed around the paramount need for economic growth, and a "sustenance" narrative framed around the paramount need to protect an increasingly fragile natural world. Many features of recent public discourse, including the acceleration of the news cycle and the echo-chamber effect of interactive social media, have driven these narratives to become progressively more mutually antagonistic and incompatible. Here I explore the idea that narratives (in the sense of stories that empower actions) are meme sequences that evolve through diversification, selection and adaptation. This memetic evolution can be understood and, to some extent, influenced. An analogy might be with the influence exerted by human selection over centuries on the gene pool of domesticated animals and plants. In shaping our shared future, the evolutionary contest between "expansion" and "sustenance" narratives is just as important as the dynamics of the natural world. The future therefore depends upon the evolution of more subtle and resilient narratives about human-earth interactions. A selection test for these narratives is their ability to empower a transition to a society that lives within the means of a finite planet and improves global wellbeing at the same time. My own recent experience is that scientists alone are not very good at shaping narratives to pass this fitness test, and the participation of other disciplines and approaches is urgently needed.

Animal personality as a cause and consequence of contest behaviour.

PubMed

Briffa, Mark; Sneddon, Lynne U; Wilson, Alastair J

2015-03-01

We review the evidence for a link between consistent among-individual variation in behaviour (animal personality) and the ability to win contests over limited resources. Explorative and bold behaviours often covary with contest behaviour and outcome, although there is evidence that the structure of these 'behavioural syndromes' can change across situations. Aggression itself is typically repeatable, but also subject to high within-individual variation as a consequence of plastic responses to previous fight outcomes and opponent traits. Common proximate mechanisms (gene expression, endocrine control and metabolic rates) may underpin variation in both contest behaviour and general personality traits. Given the theoretical links between the evolution of fighting and of personality, we suggest that longitudinal studies of contest behaviour, combining behavioural and physiological data, would be a useful context for the study of animal personalities. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Cassini Scientist for a Day: Encouraging Science Research and Writing for Students on National and International Scales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zimmerman Brachman, R.; Piazza, E.

2010-12-01

The Cassini Outreach Group for the Cassini mission to Saturn at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory runs an international essay contest called “Cassini Scientist for a Day.” Students write essays about Saturn and its rings and moons. The program has been run nine times, increasing in scope with each contest. Students in grades 5-12 gain skills in critical thinking, decision-making, researching, asking good questions, and communicating their ideas to scientists. Winners and their classes participate in teleconferencing question and answer sessions with Cassini scientists so students can ask questions to professional scientists. Videos of young Cassini scientists are included in the contest reference materials to provide role models for the students. Thousands of students in 27 countries on 6 continents have participated in the essay contest. Volunteers run the international contests outside of the United States, with their own rules, languages, and prizes.

Cassini Scientist for a Day: Encouraging Science Research and Writing for Students on National and International Scales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zimmerman Brachman, R.; Wessen, A.; Piazza, E.

2011-10-01

The outreach team for the Cassini mission to Saturn at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) runs an international essay contest called "Cassini Scientist for a Day." Students write essays about Saturn and its rings and moons. The program has been run nine times, increasing in scope with each contest. Students in grades 5 to 12 (ages 10 to 18) gain skills in critical thinking, decision-making, researching, asking good questions, and communicating their ideas to scientists. Winners and their classes participate in teleconferencing question-and-answer sessions with Cassini scientists so students can ask questions to professional scientists. Videos of young Cassini scientists are included in the contest reference materials to provide role models for the students. Thousands of students in 50 countries on 6 continents have participated in the essay contest. Volunteers run the international contests outside of the United States, with their own rules, languages, and prizes.

Nurses' attitudes to euthanasia: a review of the literature.

PubMed

Verpoort, Charlotte; Gastmans, Chris; De Bal, Nele; Dierckx de Casterlé, Bernadette

2004-01-01

This article provides an overview of the scarce international literature concerning nurses' attitudes to euthanasia. Studies show large differences with respect to the percentage of nurses who are (not) in favour of euthanasia. Characteristics such as age, religion and nursing specialty have a significant influence on a nurse's opinion. The arguments for euthanasia have to do with quality of life, respect for autonomy and dissatisfaction with the current situation. Arguments against euthanasia are the right to a good death, belief in the possibilities offered by palliative care, religious objections and the fear of abuse. Nurses mention the need for more palliative care training, their difficulties in taking a specific position, and their desire to express their ideas about euthanasia. There is a need to include nurses' voices in the end-of-life discourse because they offer a contextual understanding of euthanasia and requests to die, which is borne out of real experience with people facing death.

Life's Dominion: An Argument about Abortion, Euthanasia, and Individual Freedom, Ronald Dworkin.

PubMed

Campbell, Courtney S

1994-01-01

As a teacher of biomedical ethics, I have constantly sought a method to motivate my students to engage in meaningful moral debate on the controversial issues of abortion and euthanasia, without risking a shouting match (as happened on one occasion). The moral views are so personalized and polarized that silence often displaces discourse. Ronald Dworkin's masterful Life's Dominion offers an innovative and insightful way through this impasse by identifying moral commitments shared by persons with different conclusions. His argument begins with "conservative" premises and winds up with "liberal" conclusions. It is a philosophical and constitutional analysis of the meaning of life and death that draws on substantive religious values. In so doing, Dworkin suggests an approach that could alter the adversarial and even violent nature of our cultural debate about the ending of life towards a more dialogic and tolerant, but not indifferent, mode....

Navigating Identities: Subtle and Public Agency of Bicultural Gay Youth.

PubMed

Cense, Marianne; Ganzevoort, R Ruard

2017-01-01

Young people who discover their sexual attraction to people of the same sex often go through a period of ambivalence or distress, especially when they grow up in an environment that condemns homosexuality. The Dutch sociopolitical context makes the expression of same-sex desires among those with non-Dutch roots even more complicated and risky, as prevailing schemes of interpretation render the two identities incompatible. This study explores the expressions of same-sex desires and identities as well as the different forms of agency of bicultural gay youth. In-depth interviews with 14 young adults reveal how young people negotiate bicultural identities in Dutch society that brings to the fore complexities in managing diverse sexual identities and strong religious and cultural affiliations in tandem. Their strategies have the effect of questioning dominant discourses and transcend the oppositional dichotomy between sexual and ethnic forms of sociocultural otherness.

Lived religion: implications for nursing ethics.

PubMed

Reimer-Kirkham, Sheryl

2009-07-01

This article explores how ethics and religion interface in everyday life by drawing on a study examining the negotiation of religious and spiritual plurality in health care. Employing methods of critical ethnography, namely, interviews and participant observation, data were collected from patients, health care providers, administrators and spiritual care providers. The findings revealed the degree to which 'lived religion' was intertwined with 'lived ethics' for many participants; particularly for people from the Sikh faith. For these participants, religion was woven into everyday life, making distinctions between public and private, secular and sacred spaces improbable. Individual interactions, institutional resource allocation, and social discourses are all embedded in social relationships of power that prevent religion from being a solely personal or private matter. Strategies for the reintegration of religion into nursing ethics are: adjusting professional codes and theories of ethics to reflect the influence of religion; and the contribution of critical perspectives, such as postcolonial feminism, to the understanding of lived ethics.

Abortion Liberalization in World Society, 1960-2009

PubMed Central

Boyle, Elizabeth H.; Kim, Minzee; Longhofer, Wesley

2015-01-01

Controversy sets abortion apart from other issues studied by world society theorists, who consider the tendency for policies institutionalized at the global level to diffuse across very different countries. We conduct an event history analysis of the spread (however limited) of abortion liberalization policies from 1960 to 2009. After identifying three dominant frames (a women's rights frame, a medical frame, and a religious, natural family frame), we find that indicators of a scientific, medical frame show consistent association with liberalization of policies specifying acceptable grounds for abortion. Women's leadership roleshave a stronger and more consistent liberalizing effect than do countries' links to a global women's rights discourse. Somewhat different patterns emerge around the likelihood of adopting an additional policy, controlling for first policy adoption. Even as support for women's autonomy has grown globally, with respect to abortion liberalization, persistent, powerful frames compete at the global level, preventing robust policy diffusion. PMID:26900619

Abortion Liberalization in World Society, 1960-2009.

PubMed

Boyle, Elizabeth H; Kim, Minzee; Longhofer, Wesley

2015-11-01

Controversy sets abortion apart from other issues studied by world society theorists, who consider the tendency for policies institutionalized at the global level to diffuse across very different countries. The authors conduct an event history analysis of the spread (however limited) of abortion liberalization policies from 1960 to 2009. After identifying three dominant frames (a women's rights frame, a medical frame, and a religious, natural family frame), the authors find that indicators of a scientific, medical frame show consistent association with liberalization of policies specifying acceptable grounds for abortion. Women's leadership roles have a stronger and more consistent liberalizing effect than do countries' links to a global women's rights discourse. Somewhat different patterns emerge around the likelihood of adopting an additional policy, controlling for first policy adoption. Even as support for women's autonomy has grown globally, with respect to abortion liberalization, persistent, powerful frames compete at the global level, preventing robust policy diffusion.

A College-Sponsored Laboratory Skills Contest for High-School Students: A Ten-Year Retrospective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Last, Arthur M.; Ablog, Aileen; Millar, Shawn; von Hollen, Gordon; Webb, Jane; Dyck, Shawna

2007-01-01

Over the past ten years, the Department of Chemistry at the University College of the Fraser Valley has sponsored an annual laboratory skills contest for local Grade 12 high-school students as part of its Chemistry Week celebrations. The organizational details of the contest, its objectives, successes, and short-comings are discussed. (Contains 1…

Reversing the AAPT Photo Contest: A Physics Teacher Education Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hechter, Richard P.

2016-01-01

This year while awaiting the arrival of the AAPT High School Physics Photo Contest poster, I developed an idea for my physics teacher education course that used the photo contest in a new context. While using an external source like a photograph to learn physics is not new to physics education, this article describes how we used the foundational…

Reversing the AAPT Photo Contest: A Physics Teacher Education Activity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hechter, Richard P.

2016-11-01

This year while awaiting the arrival of the AAPT High School Physics Photo Contest poster, I developed an idea for my physics teacher education course that used the photo contest in a new context. While using an external source like a photograph to learn physics is not new to physics education, this article describes how we used the foundational idea of the AAPT photo contest as the context to facilitate new lessons and activities for secondary-level students. The blending of photography and physics education can also be done at the high school level and undergraduate level as a creative means for content review and communication of conceptual understanding.

Science initial teacher education and superdiversity: educating science teachers for a multi-religious and globalised science classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Carvalho, Roussel

2016-06-01

Steven Vertovec (2006, 2007) has recently offered a re-interpretation of population diversity in large urban centres due to a considerable increase in immigration patterns in the UK. This complex scenario called superdiversity has been conceptualised to help illuminate significant interactions of variables such as religion, language, gender, age, nationality, labour market and population distribution on a larger scale. The interrelationships of these themes have fundamental implications in a variety of community environments, but especially within our schools. Today, London schools have over 300 languages being spoken by students, all of whom have diverse backgrounds, bringing with them a wealth of experience and, most critically, their own set of religious beliefs. At the same time, Science is a compulsory subject in England's national curriculum, where it requires teachers to deal with important scientific frameworks about the world; teaching about the origins of the universe, life on Earth, human evolution and other topics, which are often in conflict with students' religious views. In order to cope with this dynamic and thought-provoking environment, science initial teacher education (SITE)—especially those catering large urban centres—must evolve to equip science teachers with a meaningful understanding of how to handle a superdiverse science classroom, taking the discourse of inclusion beyond its formal boundaries. Thus, this original position paper addresses how the role of SITE may be re-conceptualised and re-framed in light of the immense challenges of superdiversity as well as how science teachers, as enactors of the science curriculum, must adapt to cater to these changes. This is also the first in a series of papers emerging from an empirical research project trying to capture science teacher educators' own views on religio-scientific issues and their positions on the place of these issues within science teacher education and the science classroom.

Fighting for the web: competition between female feather-legged spiders (Uloborus plumipes).

PubMed

Joel, Anna-Christin; Habedank, Anne; Hausen, Jonas; Mey, Jörg

2017-04-01

Most spider species are solitary, and among the few social interactions among them, resource competition between females has received little attention. We discovered that females of the feather-legged spider Uloborus plumipes invade the orb webs of conspecifics and compete for webs. Following observations in the wild, intruder-defender interactions were studied in a terrarium and in controlled laboratory experiments. We found that contests for orb webs occurred spontaneously between adult females. Competitive interactions in U. plumipes were characterized by an escalation of ritualized behaviors. In 27% of the contests the winner was determined by interactions at a distance, which involved behaviors that caused vibratory signaling on the web. The remaining interactions escalated to physical contact, and in 78% of these a fight occurred between the contestants. Using multivariate logistic regression we determined the factors that predicted the outcome of the contests: (i) Web ownership did not give the defender a competitive advantage. (ii) The difference in physical size between the competing spiders was the most important predictor for the outcome of web contests. (iii) Independent of body size, the display of certain behaviors, specifically the ability to reach the hub before the contestant and the frequency of attacks, increased the probability of winning. (iv) Winning or losing a fight did not affect the chances of winning subsequent contests. The interactions reported here provide a promising approach to investigate communication in spiders and to test theoretical models of intraspecific competition. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Interaction location outweighs the competitive advantage of numerical superiority in Cebus capucinus intergroup contests

PubMed Central

Crofoot, Margaret C.; Gilby, Ian C.; Wikelski, Martin C.; Kays, Roland W.

2008-01-01

Numerical superiority confers a competitive advantage during contests among animal groups, shaping patterns of resource access, and, by extension, fitness. However, relative group size does not always determine the winner of intergroup contests. Smaller, presumably weaker social groups often defeat their larger neighbors, but how and when they are able to do so remains poorly understood. Models of competition between individuals suggest that location may influence contest outcome. However, because of the logistical difficulties of studying intergroup interactions, previous studies have been unable to determine how contest location and group size interact to shape relationships among groups. We address this question by using an automated radio telemetry system to study intergroup interactions among six capuchin monkey (Cebus capucinus) social groups of varying sizes. We find that the odds of winning increase with relative group size; one additional group member increases the odds of winning an interaction by 10%. However, this effect is not uniform across space; with each 100 m that a group moves away from the center of its home range, its odds of winning an interaction decrease by 31%. We demonstrate that contest outcome depends on an interaction between group size and location, such that small groups can defeat much larger groups near the center of their home range. The tendency of resident groups to win contests may help explain how small groups persist in areas with intense intergroup competition. PMID:18184811

Holiday Decorating Contest - A Way to Meet Fellow Employees | Poster

Cancer.gov

The trolls from “Frozen,” a North Pole tunnel, and a Christmas tree­–shaped periodic table of elements were just a few of the decorations on display during the second annual Holiday Decorating Contest in December. The contest, sponsored by the R&W Club Frederick, awarded prizes to three groups and two individuals whose decorations were judged based on visual impact,

Results of a Test and Win Contest to Raise Radon Awareness in Urban and Rural Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hahn, Ellen J.; Rayens, Mary Kay; Kercsmar, Sarah E.; Robertson, Heather; Adkins, Sarah M.

2014-01-01

Background: Radon is a leading cause of lung cancer, but few test their homes to determine radon levels. Purpose: The study assessed feasibility and success of a Test and Win Contest to promote radon testing in rural and urban communities. Methods: The prospective, quasi-experimental study tested a novel contest to raise radon awareness. Paid and…

Computer Science Career Network

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-03-01

development model. TopCoder’s development model is competition-based, meaning that TopCoder conducts competitions to develop digital assets. TopCoder...success in running a competition that had as an objective creating digital assets, and we intend to run more of them, to create assets for...cash prizes and merchandise . This includes social media contests, contests will all our games, special referral contests, and a couple NASA

Research protocol: a realist synthesis of contestability in community-based mental health markets.

PubMed

Durham, Jo; Bains, Amara

2015-03-25

In most developed nations, there has been a shift from public services to a marketisation of public goods and services - representing a significant reform process aiming to transform the way in which community-based human services, such as health, are delivered and consumed. For services, this means developing the capacity to adapt and innovate in response to changing circumstances to achieve quality. The availability of rigorous research to demonstrate whether a market approach and contestability, in particular, is a coherent reform process is largely absent. Contestability operates on the premise that better procurement processes allow more providers to enter the market and compete for contracts. This is expected to create stimulus for greater efficiencies, innovation and improved service delivery to consumers. There is limited understanding, however, about how community-based providers morph and re-configure in response to the opportunities posed by contestability. This study focuses on the effect of a contestability policy on the community-managed mental health sector. A realist review will be undertaken to understand how and why the introduction of contestability into a previously incontestable market influences the ways in which community-based mental health providers respond to contestability. The review will investigate those circumstances that shape organisational response and generate outcomes through activating mechanisms. An early scoping has helped to formulate the initial program theory. A realist synthesis will be undertaken to identify relevant journal articles and grey literature. Data will be extracted in relation to the emerging contextual factors, mechanisms and outcomes and their configurations. The analysis will seek patterns and regularities in these configurations across the extracted data and will focus on addressing our theory-based questions. Increasingly, community-based mental health markets are moving to contestability models. Rigorous research is needed to understand how such markets work and in what contexts. The knowledge gained from this study in community-based mental health will provide valuable lessons in how contestability works, in what circumstances and who benefits when. The results of the proposed research will be useful to policy-makers and may be applicable in other contexts beyond the community-based mental health sector. PROSPERO CRD42015016808.

Psychological effects of custody disputes on children.

PubMed

Wolman, R; Taylor, K

1991-01-01

This two-group, repeated measures examination of the psychological impact of child custody contests on children reports a subset of data from an ongoing longitudinal study of 95 children and their parents from 43 divorcing families. The authors report clinical observations concerning children's experience of custody litigation, as well as comparisons of baseline and post-test responses of contested and uncontested groups on measures of locus of control, separation anxiety and family concept. Contested children exhibited significantly greater internality of control orientation than the normative sample. Contested children's test scores also suggested significantly less separation anxiety and significantly more positive family concept than the uncontested group at post-test. The implications of these unanticipated findings are discussed.

Chimpanzees and the mathematics of battle.

PubMed

Wilson, Michael L; Britton, Nicholas F; Franks, Nigel R

2002-06-07

Recent experiments have demonstrated the importance of numerical assessment in animal contests. Nevertheless, few attempts have been made to model explicitly the relationship between the relative number of combatants on each side and the costs and benefits of entering a contest. One framework that may be especially suitable for making such explicit predictions is Lanchester's theory of combat, which has proved useful for understanding combat strategies in humans and several species of ants. We show, with data from a recent series of playback experiments, that a model derived from Lanchester's 'square law' predicts willingness to enter intergroup contests in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Furthermore, the model predicts that, in contests with multiple individuals on each side, chimpanzees in this population should be willing to enter a contest only if they outnumber the opposing side by a factor of 1.5. We evaluate these results for intergroup encounters in chimpanzees and also discuss potential applications of Lanchester's square and linear laws for understanding combat strategies in other species.

Stress and strategic decision-making in the beauty contest game.

PubMed

Leder, Johannes; Häusser, Jan Alexander; Mojzisch, Andreas

2013-09-01

Often, economic decisions do not only depend on one's own preferences, but also on the choices of others and therefore require strategizing (i.e., thinking about what others might think). In experimental economics, this has been modeled by the beauty contest game. Another typical feature of economic decisions is that they are often carried out under stress. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to examine the influence of stress on decision-making in the beauty contest game. Participants were randomly assigned to either the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G) or a placebo version of the TSST-G (control condition). Then, participants played four rounds of a standard beauty contest game. As a biomarker of stress, salivary cortisol was measured. As predicted, participants under stress chose higher numbers in the beauty contest game than non-stressed participants, indicating less strategizing. This effect was mediated by the stress-induced increase in cortisol. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chimpanzees and the mathematics of battle.

PubMed Central

Wilson, Michael L; Britton, Nicholas F; Franks, Nigel R

2002-01-01

Recent experiments have demonstrated the importance of numerical assessment in animal contests. Nevertheless, few attempts have been made to model explicitly the relationship between the relative number of combatants on each side and the costs and benefits of entering a contest. One framework that may be especially suitable for making such explicit predictions is Lanchester's theory of combat, which has proved useful for understanding combat strategies in humans and several species of ants. We show, with data from a recent series of playback experiments, that a model derived from Lanchester's 'square law' predicts willingness to enter intergroup contests in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Furthermore, the model predicts that, in contests with multiple individuals on each side, chimpanzees in this population should be willing to enter a contest only if they outnumber the opposing side by a factor of 1.5. We evaluate these results for intergroup encounters in chimpanzees and also discuss potential applications of Lanchester's square and linear laws for understanding combat strategies in other species. PMID:12061952

Conversion and the Real: The (Im)Possibility of Testimonial Representation.

PubMed

Sremac, Srdjan

Although the spiritual vibration of conversion can be felt (by the curious outsider) through what conversion performers say in their testimonial discourse, what transforms the convert 'on stage' into a 'new being' and what is 'the real' ( le réel ) in conversion performance remain unclear. An important question in this connection is, What is 'real' in a conversion representation, both with respect to the convert's interaction with the audience and to the construction of social reality? Following Lacan's tripartite register of the imaginary, the symbolic, and the real, in this essay I argue that through testimonial discourse converts construct social reality as an answer to the impossibility of 'the real' in their performative discursive practice. In the first part, I question the constructed nature of testimonial representations-as well as some academic knowledge production that has governed conversion research in the last few decades-and how these representations encourage 'outsiders' to read the narrative repertoire as a negation or mirroring 'the real' of the conversion experience. In the second part, I apply Roland Barthes' analytic reflections on photography to conversion research, especially the notions of the studium (the common ground of cultural meanings) and the punctum (a personal experience that inspires private meaning). This brings me to a number of theorists (mostly never used in the field of religious conversion)-Jacques Lacan, Roland Barthes, and Slavoj Žižek-who are important to the perspective that is developed in this essay.

Honeymoon, medical treatment or big business? An analysis of the meanings of the term “reproductive tourism” in German and Israeli public media discourses

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background/Introduction Infertile couples that travel to another country for reproductive treatment do not refer to themselves as “reproductive tourists”. They might even be offended by this term. “Tourism” is a metaphor with hidden connotations. We will analyze these connotations in public media discourses on “reproductive tourism” in Israel and Germany. We chose to focus on these two countries since legal, ethical and religious restrictions give couples a similar motivation to travel for reproductive care, while the cultural backgrounds and conceptions of reproduction are different. Results Our research shows that the use of the metaphor “reproductive treatment” and its hidden messages depends on the writers’ intention and the target population. Although the phenomenon of patients travelling for reproductive treatment can fit into the definitions of tourism, the term emphasizes aspects that do not reflect patients’ reality. In both the German and the Israeli public media debate the term “reproductive tourism” is either used to criticize the economic aspects of the phenomenon or to attract patients as potential clients. Conclusions Ethicists should be cautious when borrowing metaphors like “reproductive tourism” from the public debate. Our findings support Penning’s suggestion to use instead an unloaded term like cross-border reproductive care to describe the phenomenon in a more neutral way and to make it explicit whenever criticism is necessary. PMID:23962355

Holiday Decorating Contest - A Way to Meet Fellow Employees | Poster

Cancer.gov

The trolls from “Frozen,” a North Pole tunnel, and a Christmas tree­–shaped periodic table of elements were just a few of the decorations on display during the second annual Holiday Decorating Contest in December. The contest, sponsored by the R&W Club Frederick, awarded prizes to three groups and two individuals whose decorations were judged based on visual impact, creativity, and craftsmanship.

Acoustic features of male baboon loud calls: Influences of context, age, and individuality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fischer, Julia; Hammerschmidt, Kurt; Cheney, Dorothy L.; Seyfarth, Robert M.

2002-03-01

The acoustic structure of loud calls (``wahoos'') recorded from free-ranging male baboons (Papio cynocephalus ursinus) in the Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana, was examined for differences between and within contexts, using calls given in response to predators (alarm wahoos), during male contests (contest wahoos), and when a male had become separated from the group (contact wahoos). Calls were recorded from adolescent, subadult, and adult males. In addition, male alarm calls were compared with those recorded from females. Despite their superficial acoustic similarity, the analysis revealed a number of significant differences between alarm, contest, and contact wahoos. Contest wahoos are given at a much higher rate, exhibit lower frequency characteristics, have a longer ``hoo'' duration, and a relatively louder ``hoo'' portion than alarm wahoos. Contact wahoos are acoustically similar to contest wahoos, but are given at a much lower rate. Both alarm and contest wahoos also exhibit significant differences among individuals. Some of the acoustic features that vary in relation to age and sex presumably reflect differences in body size, whereas others are possibly related to male stamina and endurance. The finding that calls serving markedly different functions constitute variants of the same general call type suggests that the vocal production in nonhuman primates is evolutionarily constrained.

Multiculturalism and interculturalism: redefining nationhood and solidarity.

PubMed

Kastoryano, Riva

2018-01-01

Theoretical and normative approaches regarding the question of diversity and integration, such as multiucluturalims and interculturalims compete in an attempt to redefine citizenship and nationhood. Most analyses have been single-theory-oriented, leading to multiple, contested and controversial interpretations of integration and democratic public spaces. Transnationalism raises the question of the limits of national public space and extends the concept of cultural integration beyond borders challenging the normative theories of multiculturalism and interculturalism bounded to national societies. Whatever the ideology and objective in the understanding of integration, states are confronted today with the transnational actions of activists who try to bypass states in order to reach a global perspective of their identification and action. Solidarity beyond borders involves a multilevel interaction between home and host countries and leads the states to develop strategies of integration - territorial and non-territorial - as a way of including identity issues developed in a minority situation into their political strategy to "re-territorialize" them. The objective then is to counter non-territorial solidarity expressed in global religious terms, mostly virtual, diffused by the Internet, which attracts the young generation, urging them to reject any or all national identification, to develop a new pride, a sense of community based on a global identification.

Who speaks for the climate? Considering `expert' and `authorized' claims-makers in the media (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boykoff, M.

2010-12-01

In this presentation, I analyze representations of climate change in traditional and new/social media, and examine contextual elements as well as journalistic pressures that contribute to how claims-makers become ‘experts’ and/or ‘authorities’ as well as how climate-related information becomes ‘news’. These considerations seek to help make sense of how/why particular climate-related discourses find traction in traditional and new/social media, while others remain muffled or silent. In so doing, I explore how power flows through culture, politics, and society, constructing knowledge, norms, conventions and (un)truths about variegated dimensions of climate change via processes of media portrayals. I interrogate how (un)authorized voices in mass media shape claims on ‘truth’ about various facets of present day climate challenges. I argue that these significantly meld our individual and collective ‘ways of knowing’ about climate change, and in turn, vitally shape our ongoing material and social practices. The contested and complex elements explored here contribute critically to cultural interpretations via citizen perceptions and deliberations for action, as media practices stitch together formal science and policy with everyday activities in the public sphere.

Telling her story: narrating a Japanese lesbian community.

PubMed

Welker, James

2010-01-01

This article explores queer Japanese women's narratives of their own histories and the history of the "Japanese lesbian community," which has been constructed as a space outside the heterosexual mainstream, a space where queer women can find at least temporary refuge. It begins with the acknowledgment that the evolution and the shape of the community, along with the identities of the women who comprise it, are shifting and contested. This article specifically looks at the long history of the lesbian bar scene as well as more recent history of lesbian dance parties; the early role of lesbian feminism and activism; lesbian community-based and commercial publications, paying special attention to the critical role translation has played in Japanese lesbian discourse and the construction of multiple lesbian identities; and, finally, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride events and film festivals, through which the larger LGBT community has been gaining increasing visibility. This article argues that while some of the building blocks of the community are borrowed, from the "West" as well as from the Japanese gay community, there has also been creative translation, adaptation, and resistance to these imports. The resulting Japanese lesbian community is a complex and local construct, an innovative bricolage firmly sited in Japan.

Socially shared mourning: construction and consumption of collective memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harju, Anu

2015-04-01

Social media, such as YouTube, is increasingly a site of collective remembering where personal tributes to celebrity figures become sites of public mourning. YouTube, especially, is rife with celebrity commemorations. Examining fans' online mourning practices on YouTube, this paper examines video tributes dedicated to the late Steve Jobs, with a focus on collective remembering and collective construction of memory. Combining netnography with critical discourse analysis, the analysis focuses on the user comments where the past unfolds in interaction and meanings are negotiated and contested. The paper argues that celebrity death may, for avid fans, be a source of disenfranchised grief, a type of grief characterised by inadequate social support, usually arising from lack of empathy for the loss. The paper sheds light on the functions digital memorials have for mourning fans (and fandom) and argues that social media sites have come to function as spaces of negotiation, legitimisation and alleviation of disenfranchised grief. It is also suggested that when it comes to disenfranchised grief, and grief work generally, the concept of community be widened to include communities of weak ties, a typical form of communal belonging on social media.

Genetically modified food in the news: media representations of the GM debate in the UK.

PubMed

Augoustinos, Martha; Crabb, Shona; Shepherd, Richard

2010-01-01

This paper analyses a corpus of articles on GM crops and food which appeared in six UK newspapers in the first three months of 2004, the year following the GM Nation? debate (2003). Using the methods of critical discourse analysis we focus on how specific and pervasive representations of the major stakeholders in the national debate on GM--the British public, the British government, the science of GM, and biotechnology companies--served significant rhetorical functions in the controversy. Of particular significance was the pervasive representation of the British public as uniformly opposed to GM crops and food which served rhetorically to position the British government as undemocratic and as being beholden to powerful political and economic interests. Of significance also in our analysis, is how the science of GM farming itself became a highly contested arena. In short, our analysis demonstrates how the GM debate was represented in the newsprint media as a "battleground" of competing interests. We conclude by considering the possible implications of this representation given the increasing emphasis placed on the importance of deliberative and inclusive forms of science policy decision-making.

Stigma, deforming metaphors and patients' moral experience of multibacillary leprosy in Sobral, Ceará State, Brazil.

PubMed

Nations, Marilyn K; Lira, Geison Vasconcelos; Catrib, Ana Maria Fontenelle

2009-06-01

In response to the call for a new Science of Stigma, this anthropological study investigates the moral experience of patients diagnosed with severe multibacillary leprosy. From 2003 to 2006, fieldwork was conducted in the so-called 'United-States-of-Sobral', in Ceará State, Northeast Brazil. Sobral is highly endemic for leprosy, despite intensified eradication efforts and a 30% increase in primary care coverage since 1999. Of 329 active leprosy cases at two public clinics, 279 multibacillary patients were identified and six information-rich cases selected for in-depth ethnographic analysis, utilizing illness narratives, key-informant interviews, home visits, participant-observation of clinical consultations and semi-structured interviews with physicians. A 'contextualized semantic interpretation' revealed four leprosy metaphors: a repulsive rat's disease, a racist skin rash, a biblical curse and lethal leukemia. Far from value-free pathology, the disease is imbued with moral significance. Patients' multivocalic illness constructions contest physicians' disease discourse. 'Skin Spot Day' discriminates more than educates. Patients' 'non-compliance' with effective multi-drug therapy is due to demoralizing stigma more than a rejection of care. 'Social leprosy' in Northeast Brazil deforms patients' moral reputations and personal dignity.

Making sense of abstinence: social representations in young Africans’ HIV-related narratives from six countries

PubMed Central

Winskell, Kate; Beres, Laura K.; Hill, Elizabeth; Mbakwem, Benjamin Chigozie; Obyerodhyambo, Oby

2012-01-01

Despite the prominence of abstinence promotion in HIV prevention for young Africans, there is little documentation concerning its reception and interpretation. With the purpose of informing programmatic practice, we examined how young Africans from six countries with contrasting HIV prevalence rates make sense of abstinence. ‘Scenarios from Africa’ scriptwriting contests invite young people to contribute ideas for short films about HIV. Using thematic narrative-based approaches, we analyzed a stratified random sample of 586 (~5%) of these narratives written in 2005 by young women and men aged 10–24 years from Senegal, Burkina Faso, South-East Nigeria, Kenya, Namibia and Swaziland. Abstinence was considerably more prominent as a theme in the samples from SE Nigeria, Kenya and Swaziland. It was articulated in relation to conservative Christian sexual morality and in opposition to condom use with particular intensity in SE Nigeria, with stigmatising implications for non-abstainers. However, cross-national commonalities were more striking than differences. Examples of non-stigmatising pro-abstinence messaging highlighted the appeal of discourses of romantic love and future plans across countries and demographic characteristics. The analysis yielded contextual understanding, youth-driven ideas, and recommendations to inform comprehensive HIV prevention efforts. PMID:21787256

Psychology and health after apartheid: Or, Why there is no health psychology in South Africa.

PubMed

Yen, Jeffery

2016-05-01

As part of a growing literature on the histories of psychology in the Global South, this article outlines some historical developments in South African psychologists' engagement with the problem of "health." Alongside movements to formalize and professionalize a U.S.-style "health psychology" in the 1990s, there arose a parallel, eclectic, and more or less critical psychology that contested the meaning and determinants of health, transgressed disciplinary boundaries, and opposed the responsibilization of illness implicit in much health psychological theorizing and neoliberal discourse. This disciplinary bifurcation characterized South African work well into the postapartheid era, but ideological distinctions have receded in recent years under a new regime of knowledge production in thrall to the demands of the global market. The article outlines some of the historical-political roots of key trends in psychologists' work on health in South Africa, examining the conditions that have impinged on its directions and priorities. It raises questions about the future trajectories of psychological research on health after 20 years of democracy, and argues that there currently is no "health psychology" in South Africa, and that the discipline is the better for it. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Olfactory signaling of aggressive intent in male-male contests of cave crickets (Troglophilus neglectus; Orthoptera: Rhaphidophoridae)

PubMed Central

Žunič Kosi, Alenka

2017-01-01

In animal contests, communicating aggressive motivation is most often mediated by visual or acoustic signals, while chemical signals are not expected to serve such a function since they are less able to be modulated by the sender during the changing behavioral context. We describe a rare example of ephemeral olfactory signals in terrestrial animals, signals that are emitted via protrusive scent glands in male cave crickets Troglophilus neglectus (Orthoptera, Rhaphidophoridae) to reflect the state of the signaler’s aggression. We correlate the intensity of behaviorally expressed aggression of the individuals in dyadic contests with the frequency and extent of their gland tissue protrusion, the latter serving as an indication of the amount of released odor. We detected large amounts of odor release during brief gland protrusions, and the absence of its release during gland retraction. Males protruded the glands during and after encountering a rival, with the degree of protrusion increasing with the intensity of the signalers’ aggression. During the encounters, the degree of gland protrusion increased most strongly with the occurrence of the elevated body posture, directly preceding the attack. This degree was significantly higher in encounter winners than in losers displaying such posture, suggesting the highly important role of the released odor for contest resolution. After the encounters, glands were protruded almost exclusively by winners, apparently announcing victory. We tested for the function of the olfactory signals also directly, by preventing gland tissue protrusion in symmetric and asymmetric treatments of the contestants. Treating only the dominant individuals decreased the percentage of encounters they won by over 60%, while treating both contestants elicited a significant increase in the frequency and duration of fights. During contests, the olfactory signals of T. neglectus apparently function as a highly effective threat, which prevents maximal contest escalation and decreases the conflict-related costs. PMID:29112984

Olfactory signaling of aggressive intent in male-male contests of cave crickets (Troglophilus neglectus; Orthoptera: Rhaphidophoridae).

PubMed

Stritih, Nataša; Žunič Kosi, Alenka

2017-01-01

In animal contests, communicating aggressive motivation is most often mediated by visual or acoustic signals, while chemical signals are not expected to serve such a function since they are less able to be modulated by the sender during the changing behavioral context. We describe a rare example of ephemeral olfactory signals in terrestrial animals, signals that are emitted via protrusive scent glands in male cave crickets Troglophilus neglectus (Orthoptera, Rhaphidophoridae) to reflect the state of the signaler's aggression. We correlate the intensity of behaviorally expressed aggression of the individuals in dyadic contests with the frequency and extent of their gland tissue protrusion, the latter serving as an indication of the amount of released odor. We detected large amounts of odor release during brief gland protrusions, and the absence of its release during gland retraction. Males protruded the glands during and after encountering a rival, with the degree of protrusion increasing with the intensity of the signalers' aggression. During the encounters, the degree of gland protrusion increased most strongly with the occurrence of the elevated body posture, directly preceding the attack. This degree was significantly higher in encounter winners than in losers displaying such posture, suggesting the highly important role of the released odor for contest resolution. After the encounters, glands were protruded almost exclusively by winners, apparently announcing victory. We tested for the function of the olfactory signals also directly, by preventing gland tissue protrusion in symmetric and asymmetric treatments of the contestants. Treating only the dominant individuals decreased the percentage of encounters they won by over 60%, while treating both contestants elicited a significant increase in the frequency and duration of fights. During contests, the olfactory signals of T. neglectus apparently function as a highly effective threat, which prevents maximal contest escalation and decreases the conflict-related costs.

5 CFR 890.1022 - Contesting proposed permissive debarments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... SERVICE REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) FEDERAL EMPLOYEES HEALTH BENEFITS PROGRAM Administrative Sanctions Imposed Against Health Care Providers Permissive Debarments § 890.1022 Contesting proposed permissive debarments...

1993 Technical Paper Contest for Women. Gear Up 2000: Women in Motion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Orans, Robin (Editor); Duckett, Sophie (Editor); White, Susan (Editor)

1994-01-01

The NASA Ames Research Center Advisory Committee for Women (ACW) sponsored the second ACW Technical paper Contest for Ames women in order to increase the visibility of, and to encourage writing for publication by Ames women scientists, engineers, and technicians. The topics of the contest paper mirrored in the topics of the 1993 Society for Women Engineers (SWE) National Convention, which included technological, workplace, global, and family issues.

Specification of variables predictive of victories in the sport of boxing.

PubMed

Warnick, Jason E; Warnick, Kyla

2007-08-01

Compared to other sports, very little research has been conducted on which variables can predict victory in the sport of boxing. This investigation examined whether boxers' age, weight change from their preceding contest, country of origin, total number of wins, total number of losses, performance in their preceding contest, or the possession of a championship title was predictive of a winning performance in a given bout. A 1-mo. sample of male professional boxing records for all contests held in the USA (N = 400) were collected from the BoxRec online database. Logistic regression analysis indicated that only boxers' age, total number of wins and losses, and the performance in the preceding contest predicted significant variance in outcome.

5 CFR 890.1009 - Contesting proposed mandatory debarments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... SERVICE REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) FEDERAL EMPLOYEES HEALTH BENEFITS PROGRAM Administrative Sanctions Imposed Against Health Care Providers Mandatory Debarments § 890.1009 Contesting proposed mandatory debarments. (a...

The 2016 interferometric imaging beauty contest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sanchez-Bermudez, J.; Thiébaut, E.; Hofmann, K.-H.; Heininger, M.; Schertl, D.; Weigelt, G.; Millour, F.; Schutz, A.; Ferrari, A.; Vannier, M.; Mary, D.; Young, J.

2016-08-01

Image reconstruction in optical interferometry has gained considerable importance for astrophysical studies during the last decade. This has been mainly due to improvements in the imaging capabilities of existing interferometers and the expectation of new facilities in the coming years. However, despite the advances made so far, image synthesis in optical interferometry is still an open field of research. Since 2004, the community has organized a biennial contest to formally test the different methods and algorithms for image reconstruction. In 2016, we celebrated the 7th edition of the "Interferometric Imaging Beauty Contest". This initiative represented an open call to participate in the reconstruction of a selected set of simulated targets with a wavelength-dependent morphology as they could be observed by the 2nd generation of VLTI instruments. This contest represents a unique opportunity to benchmark, in a systematic way, the current advances and limitations in the field, as well as to discuss possible future approaches. In this contribution, we summarize: (a) the rules of the 2016 contest; (b) the different data sets used and the selection procedure; (c) the methods and results obtained by each one of the participants; and (d) the metric used to select the best reconstructed images. Finally, we named Karl-Heinz Hofmann and the group of the Max-Planck-Institut fur Radioastronomie as winners of this edition of the contest.

5 CFR 890.1010 - Debarring official's decision of contest.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... SERVICE REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) FEDERAL EMPLOYEES HEALTH BENEFITS PROGRAM Administrative Sanctions Imposed Against Health Care Providers Mandatory Debarments § 890.1010 Debarring official's decision of contest. (a...

Technical paper contest for women 1992. Space challenges: Earth and beyond

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Orans, Robin (Editor)

1993-01-01

Two of the major concerns of the NASA Ames Research Center (NASA ARC) Advisory Committee for Women (ACW) are that recruitment of women scientists, engineers, and technicians needs to increase and that barriers to advancement need to be removed for improved representation of women in middle and upper management and scientific positions. One strategy that addressed this concern was the ACW sponsorship of a Technical Paper Contest for Women at Ames Research Center. Other sponsors of the Contest were the Ames Equal Opportunity Council and the Ames Contractor Council. The Technical Paper Contest for Women greatly increased the visibility of both the civil service women and the women who work for contractors at Ames. The women had the opportunity to hone their written and oral presentation skills. Networking among Ames women increased.

American Burn Association

MedlinePlus

... Quality Care Resources Prevention Prevention Resources Burn Prevention Poster Contest Burn Awareness Week Advocacy Education Annual Meeting ... Quality Care Resources Prevention Prevention Resources Burn Prevention Poster Contest Burn Awareness Week Advocacy Education Annual Meeting ...

5 CFR 890.1038 - Deciding a contest without additional fact-finding.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... (CONTINUED) CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) FEDERAL EMPLOYEES HEALTH BENEFITS PROGRAM Administrative Sanctions Imposed Against Health Care Providers Suspension § 890.1038 Deciding a contest without additional...

Blue Marble Space Institute essay contest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wendel, JoAnna

2014-04-01

The Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, based in Seattle, Wash., is inviting college students to participate in its essay contest. Essays need to address the question, "In the next 100 years, how can human civilization prepare for the long-term changes to the Earth system that will occur over the coming millennium?" According to the institute, the purpose of the contest is "to stimulate creative thinking relating to space exploration and global issues by exploring how changes in the Earth system will affect humanity's future."

Environmental Discourse: Helping Graduate Students Build Effective Deliberation and Communication Skills

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huntzinger, D. N.; Downard, J.; Nielsen, E.

2015-12-01

The environmental sciences are at the forefront of critical issues facing society in the coming decades. As a result, many graduates in the environmental sciences find themselves working with the public to help inform the democratic process of making reasonable public policies. In order to be successful, students need to be confronted with the same kinds of questions and problems that practicing scientists face when they are working at the intersection of science and public policy. Otherwise, they lack the skills and confidence needed to work effectively with the public—especially on hotly contested environmental issues when the skills are needed the most. As part of a new Professional Science Master's (PSM) Program in Climate Science and Solutions at Northern Arizona University we have developed a three-semester course series focused on framing discussions on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Each semester, students use a deliberative model to design, frame, and facilitate a public discussion on a targeted issue of regional and local interest. The deliberative model is built around an approach to practical dilemmas that enables students to isolate and clarify the various sources of conflict around the issue. Working in an iterative manner, students learn to identify and untangling some of the sources of disagreement (e.g., policy, ethics and ideals, difference in scientific understanding) around and issue. As a result, students are in a much better position to clarify the key questions and sort through the competing solutions. The course series helps to improve the communication skills of students and promote productive public discourse with individuals from diverse backgrounds within the community. This type of experiential learning provides unique training to our students that not only broadens there understanding of complex issues surrounding climate change, but also provides them with professional skills that are transferrable to their careers.

Contest Physics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moehnke, Randy

1994-01-01

Discusses the use of contests to keep physics interesting and exciting for the students. Includes: balloon car, egg drop, tennis ball catapult, bridge building, mousetrap vehicle, musical instrument, slide photo, electric junk dissection, windmill generator, and solar heater. (MVL)

43 CFR 2521.8 - Contests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... OF THE INTERIOR LAND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (2000) DESERT-LAND ENTRIES Procedures § 2521.8 Contests. (a... involved against a party to any desert-land entry because of priority of claim or for any sufficient cause...

43 CFR 2521.8 - Contests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... OF THE INTERIOR LAND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (2000) DESERT-LAND ENTRIES Procedures § 2521.8 Contests. (a... involved against a party to any desert-land entry because of priority of claim or for any sufficient cause...

43 CFR 2521.8 - Contests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... OF THE INTERIOR LAND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (2000) DESERT-LAND ENTRIES Procedures § 2521.8 Contests. (a... involved against a party to any desert-land entry because of priority of claim or for any sufficient cause...

43 CFR 2521.8 - Contests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... OF THE INTERIOR LAND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (2000) DESERT-LAND ENTRIES Procedures § 2521.8 Contests. (a... involved against a party to any desert-land entry because of priority of claim or for any sufficient cause...

Homeostatic study of the effects of sportswear color on the contest outcome

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuan, Jian-Qin; Liu, Timon Cheng-Yi; Wu, Ren-Le; Ruan, Chang-Xiong; He, Li-Mei; Liu, Song-Hao

2008-12-01

There are effects of sportswear color on the contest outcome. It has been explained from the psychological and perceptual viewpoints, respectively. It was studied by integrating the homeostatic theory of exercise training and autonomic nervous model of color vision in this paper. It was found that the effects of sportswear color on the contest outcome depend on autonomic nervous homeostasis (ANH). Color can be classified into hot color such as red, orange and yellow and cold color such as green, blue and violet. If the athletes have been in ANH, there are no effects of sportswear color on the contest outcome. If the autonomic nervous system is far from ANH due to exercise induced fatigue, wearing cold color had no predominance for cold-hot matches, and wearing white had no predominance for white-color matches.

UV-Green Iridescence Predicts Male Quality during Jumping Spider Contests

PubMed Central

Lim, Matthew L. M.; Li, Daiqin

2013-01-01

Animal colour signals used in intraspecies communications can generally be attributed to a composite effect of structural and pigmentary colours. Notably, the functional role of iridescent coloration that is ‘purely’ structural (i.e., absence of pigments) is poorly understood. Recent studies reveal that iridescent colorations can reliably indicate individual quality, but evidence of iridescence as a pure structural coloration indicative of male quality during contests and relating to an individual’s resource-holding potential (RHP) is lacking. In age- and size-controlled pairwise male-male contests that escalate from visual displays of aggression to more costly physical fights, we demonstrate that the ultraviolet-green iridescence of Cosmophasis umbratica predicts individual persistence and relates to RHP. Contest initiating males exhibited significantly narrower carapace band separation (i.e., relative spectral positions of UV and green hues) than non-initiators. Asymmetries in carapace and abdomen brightness influenced overall contest duration and escalation. As losers retreated upon having reached their own persistence limits in contests that escalated to physical fights, losers with narrower carapace band separation were significantly more persistence. We propose that the carapace UV-green iridescence of C. umbratica predicts individual persistence and is indicative of a male’s RHP. As the observed UV-green hues of C. umbratica are ‘pure’ optical products of a multilayer reflector system, we suggest that intrasexual variations in the optical properties of the scales’ chitin-air-chitin microstructures are responsible for the observed differences in carapace band separations. PMID:23573210

UV-green iridescence predicts male quality during jumping spider contests.

PubMed

Lim, Matthew L M; Li, Daiqin

2013-01-01

Animal colour signals used in intraspecies communications can generally be attributed to a composite effect of structural and pigmentary colours. Notably, the functional role of iridescent coloration that is 'purely' structural (i.e., absence of pigments) is poorly understood. Recent studies reveal that iridescent colorations can reliably indicate individual quality, but evidence of iridescence as a pure structural coloration indicative of male quality during contests and relating to an individual's resource-holding potential (RHP) is lacking. In age- and size-controlled pairwise male-male contests that escalate from visual displays of aggression to more costly physical fights, we demonstrate that the ultraviolet-green iridescence of Cosmophasis umbratica predicts individual persistence and relates to RHP. Contest initiating males exhibited significantly narrower carapace band separation (i.e., relative spectral positions of UV and green hues) than non-initiators. Asymmetries in carapace and abdomen brightness influenced overall contest duration and escalation. As losers retreated upon having reached their own persistence limits in contests that escalated to physical fights, losers with narrower carapace band separation were significantly more persistence. We propose that the carapace UV-green iridescence of C. umbratica predicts individual persistence and is indicative of a male's RHP. As the observed UV-green hues of C. umbratica are 'pure' optical products of a multilayer reflector system, we suggest that intrasexual variations in the optical properties of the scales' chitin-air-chitin microstructures are responsible for the observed differences in carapace band separations.

Multi-Modal Use of a Socially Directed Call in Bonobos

PubMed Central

Genty, Emilie; Clay, Zanna; Hobaiter, Catherine; Zuberbühler, Klaus

2014-01-01

‘Contest hoots’ are acoustically complex vocalisations produced by adult and subadult male bonobos (Pan paniscus). These calls are often directed at specific individuals and regularly combined with gestures and other body signals. The aim of our study was to describe the multi-modal use of this call type and to clarify its communicative and social function. To this end, we observed two large groups of bonobos, which generated a sample of 585 communicative interactions initiated by 10 different males. We found that contest hooting, with or without other associated signals, was produced to challenge and provoke a social reaction in the targeted individual, usually agonistic chase. Interestingly, ‘contest hoots’ were sometimes also used during friendly play. In both contexts, males were highly selective in whom they targeted by preferentially choosing individuals of equal or higher social rank, suggesting that the calls functioned to assert social status. Multi-modal sequences were not more successful in eliciting reactions than contest hoots given alone, but we found a significant difference in the choice of associated gestures between playful and agonistic contexts. During friendly play, contest hoots were significantly more often combined with soft than rough gestures compared to agonistic challenges, while the calls' acoustic structure remained the same. We conclude that contest hoots indicate the signaller's intention to interact socially with important group members, while the gestures provide additional cues concerning the nature of the desired interaction. PMID:24454745

Comparison of Periorbital Anthropometry Between Beauty Pageant Contestants and Ordinary Young Women with Korean Ethnicity: A Three-Dimensional Photogrammetric Analysis.

PubMed

Kim, Young Chul; Kwon, Jin Geun; Kim, Sung Chan; Huh, Chang Hun; Kim, Hee Jin; Oh, Tae Suk; Koh, Kyung S; Choi, Jong Woo; Jeong, Woo Shik

2018-04-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in the periorbital anthropometry between national Beauty Pageant Contestants and Ordinary Young Women with Korean ethnicity. Forty-three Beauty Pageant Contestants who were elected for the national beauty contest and forty-eight Ordinary Young Women underwent 3D photography. The authors analyzed 3D photogrammetric measures regarding periorbital soft tissue. The palpebral fissure width was significantly higher in the Beauty Pageant Contestants than the Ordinary Young Women (27.7 ± 1.2 vs. 26.3 ± 1.6 mm) (p < 0.001). The palpebral fissure height was also significantly higher in the Beauty Pageant Contestants (11.5. ± 1.0 vs. 9.1 ± 1.2 mm) (p < 0.001). The intercanthal width and upper eyelid height were smaller for the Beauty Pageant Contestants (intercanthal width, 34.3 ± 1.86 mm vs. 36.7 ± 3.1 mm; upper eyelid height, 11.5 ± 1.4 mm vs. 13.4 ± 2.3 mm) (p < 0.05). The nasal width and midfacial width were significantly smaller in the Beauty Pageant Contestants (nasal width, 38.0 ± 1.8 vs. 39.5 ± 2.2 mm; midfacial width 144.5 ± 3.9 vs. 146.9 ± 5.2 mm) (p < 0.05). The eyebrow showed significantly different features between the two groups in terms of vertical position in the upper face and the shape of the brow apex. The interpupillary distance, binocular distance, slant of palpebral fissure and width of pretarsal crease showed no significant difference between the two groups. Periorbital features in Beauty Pageant Contestants are wide-set eyes, larger palpebral fissure in width and height, relatively small upper eyelid height and intercanthal width, and relatively small nose and facial width compared to normal women. Our anthropometric results can be referable values for Asian eyelid surgery and help surgeons to establish individualized surgical planning. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Winning the young men over through a contest.

PubMed

Kweeken, F A

1987-11-01

5 years ago, the Family Planning Association of Liberia (FPAL) was perturbed by the very minimal youth participation in its programs. Male participation was also at its lowest. The president of the Association then hit upon an innovative idea: a Gentleman of the Year contest. The contestants are selected on the basis of the following criteria: they must be between the ages of 21 and 30 years, at least high school graduates, sportsmen, and possessed of good character and good health. They should also have some knowledge of family planning. The contestants appear before the judges 5 times. For their 1st appearance they don sportswear; for their 2nd, African attire; and for the 5th, a business suit. During their 3rd and 4th appearances they display a talent and go through an interview. As a result of the contest, the FPAL can now boast a viable National Youth Department. The FPAL considers the National Youth Department its most valuable program. A budgetary allocation for it has been included in the Association's 3 year plan to enable the Department to function even more effectively. Plans are also being made for a youth seminar.

Multimodal signals: ultraviolet reflectance and chemical cues in stomatopod agonistic encounters

PubMed Central

Marshall, N. Justin; Lewis, Sara M.

2016-01-01

Complex signals are commonly used during intraspecific contests over resources to assess an opponent's fighting ability and/or aggressive state. Stomatopod crustaceans may use complex signals when competing aggressively for refuges. Before physical attacks, stomatopods assess their opponents using chemical cues and perform threat displays showing a coloured patch, the meral spot. In some species, this spot reflects UV. However, despite their complex visual system with up to 20 photoreceptor classes, we do not know if stomatopods use chromatic or achromatic signals in contests. In a field study, we found that Neogonodactylus oerstedii meral spot luminance varies with sex, habitat and, more weakly, body length. Next, we conducted an experimental manipulation which demonstrated that both chemical cues and chromatic signals are used during contests. In the absence of chemical cues, stomatopods approached an occupied refuge more quickly and performed offensive behaviours at a lower rate. When UV reflectance was absent, stomatopods performed offensive behaviours more frequently and contest duration trended towards shorter fights. These results provide new evidence that UV reflectance and/or visible spectrum luminance is used to amplify threat displays. Our results are the first to demonstrate that chemical and chromatic cues comprise a multimodal signal in stomatopod contests. PMID:27853613

Designing Successful Science Contests for K-12

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schwerin, T.; Colleton, N.

2006-12-01

Contests can engage, motivate, instruct and inspire students of all grade levels and interests. What are the ingredients necessary for a successful science contest? The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) has recommendations for designing science-based competitions that are both fun and educational for for elementary and secondary students. These recommendations were developed as a result of IGES' experience gained through two annual student competitions that focus on Earth science topics: An annual art contest, for grades 2-4, challenges U.S. students to explore a specific Earth science topic. For example, past themes have included Polar Explorations: Going to Extremes (2006); Connect-4: Air, Land, Water, and Life (2005); and Picture Me: What Kind of Earth Explorer Would I Be? (2004). The contest supports national science education standards for grades K-4, and includes suggested classroom activities, books, and movies. The Thacher Scholarship was founded in 2000 by IGES in honor of the late Peter S. Thacher, a former IGES board member and leader in promoting the use of satellite remote sensing. The $4,000 scholarship is awarded to exceptional high school students displaying the best use of satellite remote sensing in understanding our changing planet.

How Christian nurses converse with patients about spirituality.

PubMed

Pfeiffer, Jane Bacon; Gober, Carla; Taylor, Elizabeth Johnston

2014-10-01

To describe the experience of conversing with clients to provide spiritual care from the perspective of Christian nurses identified as exemplary spiritual caregivers. More specifically, findings presented here describe the goals and strategies of these nurses when conversing with patients about spirituality. Although verbal communication is pivotal to most spiritual care interventions recognised in the nursing literature, there is scant empirical evidence to inform such spiritual care. There is evidence, however, that many nurses have discomfort and difficulty with conversations about spirituality. Cross-sectional, descriptive, qualitative design framed by phenomenology. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 southern California registered nurses working in varied clinical settings. Data were coded and thematically analysed by three researchers who established equivalency. Methods to support the trustworthiness of the findings were employed. Themes providing structure to the description of how nurses converse with patients about spirituality included assessing and establishing connection, overt introductions of spirituality, finding spiritual commonality, self-disclosure, spiritual encouragement, spiritual advice or religious teaching, and prayer. Requisite to any spiritual care conversation, however, was 'allowing them (patients) to talk'. Informants tread 'gently and softly' in approaching spiritual discourse, assessing for any patient resistance, and not pushing further if any was met. Findings illustrate compassionate nursing with specifiable goals and strategies for conversations about spirituality; they also raise questions about how nurse religious beliefs are to ethically inform these conversations. The Invitation, Connection, Attentive care, Reciprocity mnemonic is offered as a means for nurses to remember essentials for communication with patients about spirituality. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Meeting needs of Muslim girls in school sport: case studies exploring cultural and religious diversity.

PubMed

Benn, Tansin; Pfister, Gertrud

2013-01-01

This paper contains a sociocultural analysis of school sport experiences of Muslim girls in two countries with different gender policies in physical education (PE) classes: England and Denmark. In Denmark, PE lessons take place in co-educative classes, in England schools are more diverse, with predominantly co-educational but also single-sex and faith schools offering different learning contexts. Two case studies from Denmark and England are used to explore the experiences of migrant Muslim girls in these different settings. A social constructionist approach to gender underpins the interpretation of stakeholders' voices on the inclusion of Muslim girls and the analysis of PE discourses in these countries. Findings illustrate similarities and differences at the interface of cultural diversity, political rhetoric of inclusion and realities of sport experiences for Muslim girls in both countries. Complex influences on PE experiences include gender stereotypes, cultural and religious orientations and practices, as well as actions and expectations of parents, communities and coaches/teachers. The studies provide insights into the ways participants managed their identities as Muslim girls in different sport environments to enable participation and retention of their cultural identities. Highlighted throughout the paper are the ways in which school sport policy and practice, providers and gatekeepers, can include or exclude groups, in this case Muslim girls. Too often coaches and teachers are unaware of crucial facts about their learners, not only in terms of their physical development and capabilities but also in terms of their cultural needs. Mistakes in creating conducive learning environments leave young people to negotiate a way to participate or refrain from participation.

50 CFR 91.24 - Contest procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... and the design. The winning artist will receive a pane of Duck Stamps signed by the Secretary of the Interior at the Federal Duck Stamp Contest the following year. The artists placing first, second, and third...

50 CFR 91.24 - Contest procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... and the design. The winning artist will receive a pane of Duck Stamps signed by the Secretary of the Interior at the Federal Duck Stamp Contest the following year. The artists placing first, second, and third...

50 CFR 91.24 - Contest procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... and the design. The winning artist will receive a pane of Duck Stamps signed by the Secretary of the Interior at the Federal Duck Stamp Contest the following year. The artists placing first, second, and third...

50 CFR 91.24 - Contest procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... and the design. The winning artist will receive a pane of Duck Stamps signed by the Secretary of the Interior at the Federal Duck Stamp Contest the following year. The artists placing first, second, and third...

50 CFR 91.24 - Contest procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... and the design. The winning artist will receive a pane of Duck Stamps signed by the Secretary of the Interior at the Federal Duck Stamp Contest the following year. The artists placing first, second, and third...

5 CFR 890.1069 - Information the debarring official must consider in deciding a provider's contest of proposed...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED) CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) FEDERAL... deciding a provider's contest of proposed penalties and assessments. (a) Documentary material and written...

[The origin of Ebola: Biomedical approach versus popular interpretations in Macenta, Guinea].

PubMed

Thys, Séverine; Boelaert, Marleen

2017-10-02

In December 2013, a two-year-old child died from viral haemorrhagic fever in Méliandou village in the South-East of Guinea, and constituted the likely index case of a major epidemic. When the virus was formally identified as Ebola, epidemiologists started to investigate the chains of transmission, while local people were trying to make sense out of these deaths. The epidemic control measures taken by national and international health agencies were soon faced by strong reluctance and a sometimes aggressive attitude of the affected communities. Preliminary ethnographic observations were carried out by ST in Macenta (Forest region) during an assignment (October-November 2014) for the Global Outbreak and Alert Response Network (GOARN) of the World Health Organization. ST carried out participative observation, informal conversations and in-depth interviews to identify the rumours and their sources, understand the local population's perception and knowledge about the history and origin of the Ebola outbreak in Guinea. Epidemiologists involved in the outbreak response attributed the first Ebola deaths in the Forest region to the transmission of a virus by contact with fluids of patients, but other Guinean citizens believed these deaths were caused by the breach of a taboo. The epidemiological and popular explanations, mainly evolving in parallel, but sometimes overlapping, are driven by different explanatory models, a biomedical model and a traditional-religious model. The outbreak response must be flexible and must systematically document popular discourse(s), rumours, codes, practices, knowledge and opinions related to the outbreak and use this information to shape and adapt its control interventions.

An Unholy Mess: Why 'The Sanctity of Life Principle' Should Be Jettisoned.

PubMed

Jones, David Albert

2016-11-01

The aim of this article is to present an account of an important element of medical ethics and law which is widely cited but is often confused. This element is most frequently referred to as 'the principle of the sanctity of life', and it is often assumed that this language has a religious provenance. However, the phrase is neither rooted in the traditions it purports to represent nor is it used consistently in contemporary discourse. Understood as the name of an established 'principle' the 'sanctity of life' is virtually an invention of the late twentieth century. The language came to prominence as the label of a position that was being rejected: it is the name of a caricature. Hence there is no locus classicus for a definition of the terms and different authors freely apply the phrase to divergent and contradictory positions. Appeal to this 'principle' thus serves only to perpetuate confusion. This language is best jettisoned in favour of clearer and more traditional ethical concepts.

Patient centred medicine: reason, emotion, and human spirit? Some philosophical reflections on being with patients.

PubMed

Evans, R G

2003-06-01

The ideal of patient centred medicine remains only partially realised. Within modern Western society, the highly individualistic culture and religious decline linked with medicine's reluctance to relinquish an outmoded form of scientific rationalism can act as reductive influences, stifling conceptual development. Some examples of the recent literature on communication skills in medicine are analysed to discern the underlying philosophy. A rationalist stance invites an examination of the possible nature of rationality. Another example accepts the need to accommodate the emotional and the unconscious. Issues of human suffering with an inherent spiritual dimension seem to remain excluded. The need to move beyond a duality of reason and emotion to embrace the existential and spiritual is suggested as a theoretical prerequisite for developing a more inclusive concept of patient centred medicine, which only then may be realised. Some brief examples are considered of the sort of notions and types of discourse that might effectively inform "teaching" of communication skills.

Islam, Assisted Reproduction, and the Bioethical Aftermath.

PubMed

Inhorn, Marcia C; Tremayne, Soraya

2016-04-01

Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), including in vitro fertilization to overcome infertility, are now widely available across the Middle East. Islamic fatwas emerging from the Sunni Islamic countries have permitted many ARTs, while prohibiting others. However, recent religious rulings emanating from Shia Muslim-dominant Iran have created unique avenues for infertile Muslim couples to obtain donor gametes through third-party reproductive assistance. The opening of Iran to gamete donation has had major impacts in Shia-dominant Lebanon and has led to so-called reproductive tourism of Sunni Muslim couples who are searching for donor gametes across national and international borders. This paper explores the "bioethical aftermath" of donor technologies in the Muslim Middle East. Other unexpected outcomes include new forms of sex selection and fetal "reduction." In general, assisted reproduction in the Muslim world has been a key site for understanding how emerging biomedical technologies are generating new Islamic bioethical discourses and local moral responses, as ARTs are used in novel and unexpected ways.

Epilepsy through the ages: An artistic point of view.

PubMed

Ladino, Lady Diana; Rizvi, Syed; Téllez-Zenteno, Jose Francisco

2016-04-01

The historical allure of epilepsy transcends academic circles and serves as fascinating critique of the state of the times-its values, judgments, mythos, and people. Immortalized and laid bare in artistic renderings of epilepsy are societal truths, at times both disparately grandiose and grotesque. During the middle ages and Renaissance, the European discourse on epilepsy assumed religious fervor. Epilepsy was considered a demonic machination and its cure an act of divine intercession. A similar theme is found in the artistic depiction of epilepsy from the Inca and Aztec civilizations of that time. After the 19th century drew to a close, the ascendency of empiricism coincided with waning creative interest in epilepsy, with few paintings or pieces to capture insightful perspectives on the illness. In this paper, we review the relationship between art and epilepsy and present two contemporary paintings that convey current western perceptions. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled "Epilepsy, Art, and Creativity". Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A dangerous method? The German discourse on hypnotic suggestion therapy around 1900

PubMed Central

Maehle, Andreas-Holger

2017-01-01

In the late nineteenth century, German-speaking physicians and psychiatrists intensely debated the benefits and risks of treatment by hypnotic suggestion. While practitioners of the method sought to provide convincing evidence for its therapeutic efficacy in many medical conditions, especially nervous disorders, critics pointed to dangerous side effects, including the triggering of hysterical attacks or deterioration of nervous symptoms. Other critics claimed that patients merely simulated hypnotic phenomena in order to appease their therapist. A widespread concern was the potential for abuses of hypnosis, either by giving criminal suggestions or in the form of sexual assaults on hypnotized patients. Official inquiries by the Prussian Minister for Religious, Educational and Medical Affairs in 1902 and 1906 indicated that relatively few doctors practised hypnotherapy, whereas the method was increasingly used by lay healers. Although the Ministry found no evidence for serious harm caused by hypnotic treatments, whether performed by doctors or by lay healers, many German doctors seem to have regarded hypnotic suggestion therapy as a problematic method and abstained from using it.

Analysis of karate injuries sustained in 295 contests.

PubMed

McLatchie, G R

1976-11-01

The injuries sustained in 295 karate contests were analysed. It was noted that in 25 per cent of the contests there was some sort of injury, and in 10 per cent the injury was severe enough to cause the withdrawal of the participant. Injury seemed to occur most commonly among lower-grade participants and more often in the first hour of each day's competition. Protective padding of the arms, legs, feet and hands, and the use of gumshields and protective boxes appeared to reduce the incidence and severity of injury.

Quality Document Examples (Record of Decision of the Year Contest)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This page provides document examples with clear documentation that are consistent with the Superfund Program's policy and regulations. The examples provided here are the winners of the Superfund ROD of the Year Contest (1999-2004)

5 CFR 890.1022 - Contesting proposed permissive debarments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

.... 890.1022 Section 890.1022 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED) CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) FEDERAL EMPLOYEES HEALTH BENEFITS PROGRAM Administrative Sanctions Imposed Against Health Care Providers Permissive Debarments § 890.1022 Contesting proposed permissive debarments...

5 CFR 890.1022 - Contesting proposed permissive debarments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

.... 890.1022 Section 890.1022 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (CONTINUED) CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) FEDERAL EMPLOYEES HEALTH BENEFITS PROGRAM Administrative Sanctions Imposed Against Health Care Providers Permissive Debarments § 890.1022 Contesting proposed permissive debarments...

RADICALLY CONTESTED ASSERTIONS IN ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT

EPA Science Inventory

Ecosystem management is a magnet for controversy, in part because some of its formulations rest on questionable assertions that are radically contested. These assertions are important to understanding much of the conflict surrounding ecosystem management and, therrefore, deserve...

National Contests.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bamford, Paul J.; Vandenberg, Victoria

1995-01-01

"VICA Skills USA Championships" (Bamford) describes the competitions and events of the 1995 National Vocational Industrial Clubs of America Leadership and Skills Conference. "Student Robotics Contest" (Vandenberg) describes an annual competition that invites students to demonstrate their creativity and knowledge of robotics.…

Predictors of Moral Disengagement in Sport.

PubMed

Shields, David Light; Funk, Christopher D; Bredemeier, Brenda Light

2015-12-01

Researchers have made productive use of Bandura's (1991) construct of moral disengagement (MD) to help explain why sport participants deviate from ethical ideals. In this study of intercollegiate athletes from diverse sports (N = 713), we examined MD in relation to other character-related variables: empathy, moral identity, moral attentiveness, and contesting orientations. We also examined whether moral attentiveness conforms to the pattern of "bracketed morality" found in moral reasoning (Shields & Bredemeier, 1995) and moral behavior (Kavussanu, Boardley, Sagar, & Ring, 2013). Results indicated that MD correlated positively with perceptual moral attentiveness and war contesting orientation; MD correlated negatively with empathy, moral identity, reflective moral attentiveness, and partnership contesting orientation. Results of hierarchical regression demonstrated that gender, contesting orientations, moral identity, and one form of moral attentiveness were significant predictors of MD. Finally, sport participants were found to be less morally attentive in sport than in everyday life.

Feedback on the Surveillance 8 challenge: Vibration-based diagnosis of a Safran aircraft engine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Antoni, Jérôme; Griffaton, Julien; André, Hugo; Avendaño-Valencia, Luis David; Bonnardot, Frédéric; Cardona-Morales, Oscar; Castellanos-Dominguez, German; Daga, Alessandro Paolo; Leclère, Quentin; Vicuña, Cristián Molina; Acuña, David Quezada; Ompusunggu, Agusmian Partogi; Sierra-Alonso, Edgar F.

2017-12-01

This paper presents the content and outcomes of the Safran contest organized during the International Conference Surveillance 8, October 20-21, 2015, at the Roanne Institute of Technology, France. The contest dealt with the diagnosis of a civil aircraft engine based on vibration data measured in a transient operating mode and provided by Safran. Based on two independent exercises, the contest offered the possibility to benchmark current diagnostic methods on real data supplemented with several challenges. Outcomes of seven competing teams are reported and discussed. The object of the paper is twofold. It first aims at giving a picture of the current state-of-the-art in vibration-based diagnosis of rolling-element bearings in nonstationary operating conditions. Second, it aims at providing the scientific community with a benchmark and some baseline solutions. In this respect, the data used in the contest are made available as supplementary material.