572 research outputs found
Moderation in all things: International comparisons of governance quality
No full textsponsorship: The author is from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. At various points the author has drawn on material from two projects he has been involved in over the past few years: EUROPAIR (2000-2004), which looked at performance management in executive agencies in four European countries, and CADS (2006-2008), which examined the development trajectories of performance measurement systems in healthcare in the Netherlands and the UK. Both projects were team efforts and both were supported by grants from the UK Economic and Social Research Council. For details of EUROPAIR, see Pollitt (2006b). For details of CADS, see Pollitt et al. (2010). The author is also grateful to a number of colleagues for comments on earlier drafts of this paper, including Frank Bannister, Colin Talbot, Wouter van Dooren, Steven van Roosbroek and Steven van de Walle. (UK Economic and Social Research Council)status: Publishe
Women in politics
No full textFarai Chideya, commentator, NPR, and author, The Color of our Future: Race in the 21st Century and Katha Pollitt, Columnist, The Nation and author, Learning to Drive and Other Life Stories on the impact of race and gender on the 2008 election
Women in politics
No full textFarai Chideya, commentator, NPR, and author, The Color of our Future: Race in the 21st Century and Katha Pollitt, Columnist, The Nation and author, Learning to Drive and Other Life Stories on the impact of race and gender on the 2008 election
Advancing beyond regularity: Developments in value for money methods at the national audit office 1984-1999
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This thesis examines the development of value for money (VFM) audit methods used by the National Audit Office (NAO) and considers what factors have influenced the identified changes. It also considers how developments compare with those elsewhere in Europe. The thesis is based on examination of more than 300 NAO reports, interviews with senior staff, focus groups, a thorough review of relevant literature, and comparisons with four other state audit offices. The thesis argues that VFM audit has developed into a strong form of evaluative activity, despite a number of constraints. The NAO enjoys a unique combination of the statutory power to initiate wide-ranging reviews; the right to demand documents and gain access to people; and the existence of a powerful parliamentary committee to review its work and ensure a government response to reports. Additionally, during the 1980s and 1990s, the NAO developed its VFM work, and in particular, the methods used, to become a more robust discipline. Although document review and interviews form the basis of much of the work, other methods have been added to the core repertoire, in particular, questionnaires. In addition, a broader range of methods has been used on occasions, from focus groups to systems dynamics. These developments are explained in terms of a response to broader changes in the administrative environment, in particular, new public management reforms. These have increased interest in public sector performance, enhanced the quality of information available, and given greater emphasis to service quality. Consequently, the NAO has sought to demonstrate it can 'add value' and encourage beneficial improvements to public services. Developments in methods are seen as one important way of doing this. The thesis places developments in the context of the growth of evaluative activities in the UK, whilst emphasising the particular focus of VFM work on accountability, and its links with financial audit.This work was supported by the National Audit Office
Author Correction:Climate–carbon cycle uncertainties and the Paris Agreement
No full textIn the version of this Article originally published, H. Pollit’s name was incorrectly listed as H. E. Pollit (H.E.P.) throughout the paper, this has been corrected to H. Pollitt (H.P.) in the online versions of this Article
Race, gender, and the transformation of American politics
No full textFarai Chideya, Susan Faludi, Katha Pollitt, and Dina Titus discuss \u27Race, Gender, and the Transformation of American Politics.\u27 Chideya is a multimedia journalist who has worked in print, television, and online. Her latest book is Trust: Reaching the 100 Million Missing Voters. She currently hosts NPR\u27s \u27News and Notes.\u27 Faludi is the author of Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man and Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. Her most recent book, The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America, examines the post-9/11 outpouring in the media, popular culture, and political life. A regular columnist for The Nation, Pollitt\u27s writing has also appeared in The New Yorker, Harper\u27s, Ms., and The New York Times, among other venues. Her volume of personal essays, Learning to Drive and Other Life Stories, just appeared in paperback. Titus, the event moderator, has taught American and Nevada government in the Department of Political Science at UNLV for 30 years. She was recently elected to the U.S. Congress as the representative for Nevada\u27s third congressional district
Race, gender, and the transformation of American politics
No full textFarai Chideya, Susan Faludi, Katha Pollitt, and Dina Titus discuss \u27Race, Gender, and the Transformation of American Politics.\u27 Chideya is a multimedia journalist who has worked in print, television, and online. Her latest book is Trust: Reaching the 100 Million Missing Voters. She currently hosts NPR\u27s \u27News and Notes.\u27 Faludi is the author of Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man and Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. Her most recent book, The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America, examines the post-9/11 outpouring in the media, popular culture, and political life. A regular columnist for The Nation, Pollitt\u27s writing has also appeared in The New Yorker, Harper\u27s, Ms., and The New York Times, among other venues. Her volume of personal essays, Learning to Drive and Other Life Stories, just appeared in paperback. Titus, the event moderator, has taught American and Nevada government in the Department of Political Science at UNLV for 30 years. She was recently elected to the U.S. Congress as the representative for Nevada\u27s third congressional district
Telomere length and outcome of treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis in a gold mining community
No full textTelomere length (TL) is a marker of ageing and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is an early marker of inflammation caused by oxidative stress. We determined TL and mtDNA content among active pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients to assess if these cellular biomarkers differed between artisanal miners and non-miners, and to assess if they were predictive of treatment outcome. We conducted a prospective cohort study from August 2018 to May 2019 involving newly diagnosed PTB patients at three outpatient TB clinics in a rural Democratic Republic of Congo. We measured relative TL and mtDNA content in peripheral blood leukocytes (at inclusion) via qPCR and assessed their association with PTB treatment outcome. We included 129 patients (85 miners and 44 non-miners) with PTB (median age 40 years; range 5–71 years, 22% HIV-coinfected). For each increase in year and HIV-coinfection, TL shortened by − 0.85% (− 0.19 to − 0.52) (p ≤ 0.0001) and − 14% (− 28.22 to − 1.79) (p = 0.02) respectively. Independent of these covariates, patients with longer TL were more likely to have successful TB treatment [adjusted hazard ratio; 95% CI 1.27 for a doubling of leucocyte telomere length at baseline; 1.05–1.44] than patients with a shorter TL. Blood mtDNA content was not predictive for PTB outcome. For a given chronological age, PTB patients with longer telomeres at time of diagnosis were more likely to have successful PTB treatment outcome.sponsorship: P.D.M.C. K was fellow of the Fonds Marc Vervenne of the KU Leuven (Belgium) and he is supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH)-Fogarty Postdoctoral Fellowship: Grant no. 1D43TW010937-01A1. D.S.M is a FWO postdoc, with funding number: FWO Grant 12X9620N. Fieldwork has been supported by the KU Leuven Alumni Association and the University of Antwerp-USOS via the CEGEMI of the Catholic University of Bukavu. The costs of measuring Telomere length and mtDNA were covered by a grant of the European Research Council (ENVIRONAGE). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or writing of the report. The corresponding author had full access to all the study data and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication. (US National Institutes of Health (NIH)-Fogarty Postdoctoral Fellowship|1D43TW010937-01A1, FWO|12X9620N, European Research Council (ENVIRONAGE), John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences|D43TW010937, John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences|R25TW011217, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences|UL1TR001863)status: Publishe
The Communist Party of Great Britain and its struggle against fascism 1933-1939
No full textThe sectarian tactics of the Comintern's Third Period
prevented the Communist Party of Great Britain from
articulating an effective response to the rise of fascism
during 1933. The CPGB leadership saw the main threat of
fascism in Britain coming from the National Government,
whose measures were portrayed as leading to the gradual
'fascisation' of British society. This led to the Party
leadership ignoring the BUF as politically irrelevant.
However, sections of the CPGB rank and file felt
differently, linking up with their Labour movement
counterparts; organising activity on a mass scale to
prevent BUF activity on the streets of Britain.
In mid 1934, reflecting pressure from below and the
change in Comintern anti-fascist strategy as advocated by
Dimitrov, the CPGB leadership changed tack and sanctioned
counter-demonstrations to BUF meetings. In October 1934 it
offered a united front electoral pact to the Labour Party.
In 1935 the CPGB embraced the popular front policy
adopted by the Comintern at its Seventh World Congress. The
popular front movement was designed to change the 'profascist'
foreign policy of the National Government and
replace it with a people's government favourable to a
military pact with the USSR. This guiding principle lay
behind the popular front activity of the CPGB during 1935-
39.
By 1939 after six years of hard work the CPGB had little
to show for its struggle against fascism. Despite a small
increase in membership, and a slight growth in influence
amongst the trade unions and intelligentsia, it had failed
to bring about a change in British foreign policy favourable
to an alliance with the Soviet Union or to emerge as a
significant force within the British Labour movement. This
failure can be largely ascribed to its pursuit of an antifascist
strategy determined mainly by the requirements of
Soviet foreign policy and not by the concerns of British
workers
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