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Just Care: Healthcare on the Margins
Get PDFInequality is one of the most significant issues facing contemporary society. This is evident upon a close examination of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Health Data report “U.S. Health Care System from an International Perspective”. This report documents a number of critical deficits with respect to accessibility and quality of health care in the United States compared to the other 33 member nations in the OECD study. The U.S. spends over two and a half times more than the majority of developed countries while providing significantly fewer physicians, hospital beds, and a slower increase in life-expectancy per person than most other OECD countries. The findings of the OECD report raise normative claims regarding public health policy and the delivery of medical care in the U.S. We maintain that nations have the moral responsibility to provide just care for the marginalized, poor, indigent, and undocumented persons. Such care follows from a number of basic claims about the nature of health care, the dignity of persons, and the moral/social fabric of a nation. These claims are undermined by the pursuit of profit leading to the disparity in health care. The existence of health care organizations that succeed in providing “just care” demonstrates that such care is both achievable and represents a positive alternative to the dominant for-profit model of health care delivery. In fact, such work begs the question of equity and justice. A nation that spends $8,233 per capita per year on health care owes its citizens and non-documented workers greater accessibility and a higher quality of care than is currently provided
As You Like It Properties Design
No full textIn most of Shakespeare\u27s plays and other Elizabethan theatre, props are generally few and far between. They may be alluded to in the script but, unless it is necessary to the plot, there is rarely any mention of theatrical properties. Furthermore, the timelessness of Shakespeare’s plays permits the setting to range in virtually any time period and place. These two factors allow for a lot of creativity and collaboration within the production team to decide the aesthetic of the play as well as the objects that live in that world. As You Like It focuses on young, fleeting love and the duality between civilization and nature. Particularly for the latter reason, we decided to give the play a primarily Industrial Revolution aesthetic. As Properties Designer, I attend production meetings and collaborate with Daina Robins, our director, and the other designers to create a cohesive world between properties, set, costumes, lighting, and sound. It is also my responsibility to have a solid grasp of the period and theme by doing extensive research. For this particular play, I will be studying Victorian hunting weaponry as well as period furniture, luggage and travel bags, paper and writing utensils, and food found in the region among other details. These being such narrow subjects of research, I use all the sources I can to find what is accurate: books on period props, history books, the Internet, primary sources, and sometimes even Pinterest boards. Finally, with the director’s approval, I acquire, fabricate, or construct the objects that will bring the world of the play to life. With these skills, I hope to help create a world that captivates the audience and reflects the themes that Shakespeare so eloquently penned
Who Do They Think They Are?: IL Mastery or ILlusory Competence of First Year College Students
No full textLibrarians commonly use surveys in attempt to gauge students\u27 information literacy (IL) skills and/or self-reported competencies. Many times, these are issued in the pre-test/post-test format, with the idea being that the post-test results will reveal, to some degree, the impact had by library instruction. The Research and Instruction Librarians at Hope College recently employed this method to broadly measure IL learning outcomes in Expository Writing I, a course in which all sections schedule 2-3 sessions with a librarian. They found, however, that the most compelling revelations were emerging from the pre-test results—namely, students (mostly first year, first semester) had reported improbably high levels of proficiency and self-assuredness in their IL skills and abilities to perform college-level research. Although no direct skill-testing questions were given to correlate with the pre-test responses, anecdotal evidence, reinforced by course instructors\u27 reactions, made it safe to hypothesize that what had occurred was a classic case of the infamous Dunning-Kruger effect, or not knowing what you don\u27t know.” What was first viewed as an assessment initiative gone amiss quickly grew into a cogent argument and talking point in support of even stronger, early IL immersion to ensure that students do in fact “know”
Success And Challenges Of Measuring Program Impacts: An International Study Of An Infant Nutrition Program For AIDS Orphans
No full textThe HIV/AIDS epidemic in Zambia threatens maternal survival and jeopardizes the ability for families to care for their children. The Christian Alliance for Children in Zambia (CACZ) operates a program called Milk and Medicine (M&M) that distributes food, formula, and medicine at churches in the compounds. This article reports on a mixed methods study to evaluate the outcomes of the M&M program. On-site interviews with families combined with an analysis of a longitudinal data set were the methods used. The results of the study showed families face continuous hardship including hunger, unemployment, disease, and loss. Families expressed appreciation for the program and its staff and suggested improvements. The longitudinal data review helped researchers to recommend an improved protocol for data management. Improved data will assist researchers in an on-going evaluation to compare the growth rates of children in the study to the Zambian normal growth charts. Lessons learned from this evaluation validated the use of mixed methods design for exploratory research on an emerging program. Lessons were also learned about the difficulty of working in natural settings with political and cultural variations. Future evaluations of the M&M program are expected to shed light on more specific program impacts. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Phylogenetics and Biogeography of Apios (Fabaceae) Inferred from Sequences of Nuclear and Plastid Genes
No full textPremise of research. Apios is a perennial twining herbaceous plant genus with a disjunct distribution between eastern Asia and North America. Some of its species have shown great economic potential as a tuber crop and a source of useful flavonoids. However, the phylogenetics of Apios has not been studied using molecular data. Several questions remain unanswered, including the monophyly of Apios, species boundaries, interspecific relationships, the pattern and timing of the intercontinental disjunct distribution, and the evolution of tuber formation. Methodology. Phylogenetic analyses were conducted on the basis of sequences from nuclear and plastid genomes using both maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood methods. Species trees were inferred via Bayesian analysis in BEST. Divergence times were estimated using BEAST with multiple calibration points, and ancestral areas were inferred with S-DIVA. Pivotal results. Our DNA sequence data recognize the five species of Apios, including A. carnea, A. fortunei, A. delavayi, A. americana, and A. priceana. Apios species form a clade in the basal position of the phaseoloid group, and within Apios, A. carnea is sister to the remaining species. The two North American species (A. americana and A. priceana) are more closely related to each other than either is to any of the Asian species, and their ancestral populations may have migrated from Asia in the late Miocene and early Pliocene via the Bering land bridge. Well-developed tuber is a derived trait in Apios that may function as assisting vegetative reproduction. Parapatric speciation may have happened in both eastern Asia and North America, adapting to specific habitats or pollinators. Conclusions. Apios is a monophyletic lineage that diverged early in the phaseoloid group. Within Apios, the two North American species form a clade that was derived from Asian ancestral populations in the late Miocene. Unequal range of distribution of species in both eastern Asia and North America may be explained by parapatric speciation
Microwave Nonlinearity And Photoresponse Of Superconducting Resonators With Columnar Defect Micro-channels
No full textMicro-channels of nanosized columnar tracks were planted by heavy-ion irradiation into superconducting microwave microstrip resonators that were patterned from YBa2Cu3O7-x thin films on LaAlO3 substrates. Three different ion fluences were used, producing different column densities, with each fluence having a successively greater impact on the microwave nonlinearity of the device, as compared to a control sample. Photoresponse (PR) images made with a 638 nm rastered laser beam revealed that the channel is a location of enhanced PR and a hot spot for the generation of intermodulation distortion. The microwave PR technique was also advanced in this work by investigating the role of coupling strength on the distribution of PR between inductive and resistive components
Foreward for The Gift of the Ohter: Levinas, Derrida, and a Theology of Hospitality, by Andrew Shepherd
No full textThe 1876 Centennial Exposed: How Souvenir Publications Reveal Contrasting Attitudes of Race and Gender in the Post-bellum United States
Get PDFThe Centennial Exhibition of 1876 celebrated not only the 100-year anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence but the industrial innovation and reuniting of American society after the Civil War. Using two rare books about the Exhibiton, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Historical Register of the Centennial Exposition, 1876 and The Illustrated Historical Register of the Centennial Exhibition by James Dabney McCabe, Jr., this project compares the portrayal of women and African Americans in the late 19th-century United States