1,394 research outputs found

    J. D. Brannan letter to Warren G. Harding, January 24, 1921

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    In this letter dated January 24, 1921 (the author mistakenly writes 1920), J. D. Brannan at Harvard University Law School to President-elect Warren G. Harding in regards to his choices for cabinet appointments. Brannan recommends Senator Elihu Root for Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes for Attorney General, Senator John W. Weeks for Secretary of the Treasury or Secretary of the Navy, and General Leonard Wood for Secretary of War, and includes qualifications for each. After discussing tensions among the government and organized labor leaders, he does not specify an appointment for Secretary of Labor, but includes Herbert Hoover as a qualified candidate. This letter is part of the Warren G. Harding Papers (MSS 345). This collection includes correspondence, business records, and other materials documenting Harding’s business career as owner and editor-in-chief of The Daily Marion Star, as well as the various stages of his political career. A significant portion of the collection, and what’s available on Ohio Memory, highlights his 1920 presidential campaign, spanning just before publicly announcing his candidacy to handily defeating Ohio Governor James M. Cox in the election. Correspondents include both Ohio and national businessmen, political figures, and ordinary citizens writing with questions, support, congratulatory notes, and campaign advice. Some of the most interesting insights into the tumultuous political climate in the U.S., the extreme factionalism within the Republican Party in Ohio, and Harding’s campaign strategies are described in letters between Harding and his campaign manager, Harry M. Daugherty. Some of the topics addressed include women’s suffrage, Prohibition, the League of Nations, African American representation and issues, and lingering peace negotiations following World War I

    Don't call me urban!

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    "Don't Call Me Urban!" is the definitive contemporary documentary record exploring one of the biggest social issues in the UK - drug use, the wayward behaviour of deprived black (and white) youth - it is the only book to give an unbiased account of a significant and vibrant genre of music in the UK and abroad. The pictures in Wheatley's book are unique and, unlike similar books, feature ordinary people as well as the people that have emerged to bring the ethos of grime to the attention of a wider audience. The book analyses the culture of 'grime' that has burst out of London's decaying council estates over the past decade. Although ostensibly a genre of 'urban' music, acknowledged as the UK's answer to hip hop, the author sees 'grime' as an era when youths living in these deprived areas began to behave in an increasingly wild manner. These youths live a fantasy largely based on an 'urban' culture imported from the USA, where Simon believes rap music has degenerated from an originally 'conscious' base to one in which the 'gangsta' strain that emerged in the late 1980s/early 1990s is now dominant. "Don't Call Me Urban!" seeks to cut through the perceived glamour of 'urban' culture and document through photographs and stories what is the social reality of being black (and white) on a London council estate, where 'urban' music - specifically the culture of emceeing and rapping - has become a standard means to communicate and express feeling. The mindless postcode warfare that now plagues London, and is the cause of many of the sudden wave of teenage killings, can be seen to have roots in the confrontation of east and west coast in US hip hop. Simon Wheatley gained the trust of the key figures in the grime culture who allowed him to capture the harsh elements of the street with its raw violence and drug taking as well as the more intimate and tender moments of their lives. The portraits and commentary from the likes of Dizee Rascal, Wiley, Jammer, Skepta, Fumin', P Money, Flirta D and Kano make "Don't Call Me Urban" a contemporary and definitive account of a culture which remains a frightening mystery to many. The title takes its inspiration from the objection to the word 'urban' that many black youths feel

    Validating a dynamic population microsimulation model: Recent experience in Australia

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    Available published research on microsimulation tends to focus on the results of policy simulations rather than upon validation of the models and their outputs. Dynamic population microsimulation models, which age an entire population through time for some decades, create particular validation challenges. This article outlines some of the issues that arise when attempting to validate dynamic population models, including changing behaviour, the need to align results with other aggregate ‘official’ projections, data quality and useability. Drawing on recent experience with the construction of the new Australian Population and Policy Simulation Model (APPSIM), the article discusses the techniques being used to validate this new dynamic population microsimulation model.Dynamic microsimulation, validation, model output, usability

    An evaluation of the palliative care-related outcomes of a cohort of TB patients in a district hospital setting: a multiple methods quality improvement study

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    Includes bibliographical references.Although curable, tuberculosis (TB) remains a serious health care problem. During 2011 there were almost 9 million new cases and 1.4 million TB deaths worldwide. The World Health Organisation (WHO) lists South Africa as a country with a high TB, HIV and MDR-TB burden. In this country the dual TB/HIV epidemic which has reached critical proportions is fuelled by the high TB/HIV co-infection rate. By definition the focus of palliative care is on the alleviation of suffering associated with lifelimiting illnesses. TB clearly falls into this category. The palliative care-related outcomes of a cohort of hospitalized TB patients were determined during this prospective longitudinal study and a quality improvement strategy was then generated from the audit data. The APCA POS, a validated outcome measurement tool was used to conduct weekly interviews. The audit sample comprised 57 patients with MDR-TB and 57 with drug responsive TB (n=114). The intensity of the multi-dimensional palliative care-related problems experienced by TB and MDR-TB patients on admission as well as the differences that occurred over time were measured over four consecutive weeks. In order to get staff perspectives on using the audit data to develop a quality improvement strategy, a report on the analyzed audit data formed the basis of a focus group discussion (FGD). The purposive sample of FGD participants included key members of staff from the TB and MDR TB wards. Audit findings indicated that on admission to hospital the predominant problems were pain, symptoms and worry. On a Lickert scale of 0-5 with 0 indicating best and 5 worst, the median score for both pain and other symptoms was 3.0, with an inter-quartile range of 2.00-4.25. Participants' worry about their illness attained the worst median baseline score of 4.0. Neither pain nor symptoms showed any sustained improvement over the four weeks of data collection. A statistically significant improvement in worry which moved from 4.0 to 2.0 occurred after week 1 but then remained static. An unexpected crucial finding was that the collective score for participants with drug responsive TB was worse than for those with MDR-TB for both the physical and psycho-social components, and at each time point. Using the APCA POS audit data as the basis of a FGD with key staff members resulted in the development of an appropriate palliative care-focused quality improvement strategy which they considered to be realistic and achievable within their busy hospital setting. Findings from this study support the recent WHO Declaration on the provision of palliative care for people with drug-resistant TB. Furthermore they clearly show that patients with drug responsive TB should not be excluded from a comprehensive palliative care person-centred approach. Palliative care within the context of TB is still an emerging concept. This study makes a meaningful contribution to the scarce information currently available. The topic is important in that the suffering experienced by vast numbers of TB patients and their families could and should be substantially relieved. It is suggested that it would be valuable to explore the impact of a palliative care approach on TB treatment outcomes

    Quality of life and wellbeing among HIV outpatients in East Africa: a multicentre observational study.

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    BACKGROUND: Global health investment has reduced HIV mortality and transmission. However, little is known of patient-reported outcomes alongside ART rollout. This study aimed to measure wellbeing using patient-reported outcome measures (PROMS) among outpatients at PEPFAR-funded facilities. METHODS: In a multicentre 2 country cross-sectional study, adults attending 12 facilities in Kenya and Uganda gave self-reported data on quality of life (physical and mental wellbeing dimensions), functional and a measure of multidimensional problems (physical, psychological, social and spiritual). RESULTS: Among the 1,337 participants, multidimensional problems were more common in psychological, spiritual and social domains than in physical. In multivariable analysis using GEE to adjust for facility effect, the mental health subscale of quality of life was lower for people with limited functional status (B = -5.27, 95% CI -5.99, 1. -4.56 p < 0.001) and higher for wealthier people (B = 0.91, 95% CI 0.48, 1.33, p < 0.001). The physical health subscale of quality of life was lower for those with limited functional status (B = -8.58, 95% CI -9.46 to -7.70, p < 0.001) and those who had a caregiver present (B = -1.97, 95% CI -3.72 to -0.23, p = 0.027), higher for wealthier people (B = 1.14, 95% CI 0.65, 1.64, p < 0.001), and positively associated with CD4 count (B = 1.61, 95% CI 1.08-2.14, p < 0.001). Multidimensional problems were more burdensome for people with limited functional status (B = -2.06, 95% CI -2.46 to -1.66, p < 0.001), and less burdensome with more education (B = 0.63, 95% CI 0.25-1.00, p = 0.001) or ART use (B = 0.94, 95% CI 0.34-1.53, p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Multidimensional problems are highly prevalent, and worse with declining function. Importantly, ART use does not appear to be protective for self-reported physical and mental dimensions of quality of life. Assessment and management of self-reported wellbeing must form part of HIV care and treatment services to ensure maximum benefit from ART investment

    Cartesian genetic programming for image processing

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    Combining domain knowledge about both imaging processing and machine learning techniques can expand the abilities of Genetic Programming when used for image processing. We successfully demonstrate our new approach on several different problem domains. We show that the approach is fast, scalable and robust. In addition, by virtue of using off-the-shelf image processing libraries we can generate human readable programs that incorporate sophisticated domain knowledge

    D. H. Lawrence’s ‘Men Must Work and Women as Well’ in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

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    The article presents an examination of an allusion to the work of the 20th-century English author D. H. Lawrence within the 1929 novel Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. Introductory details are offered relating the friendship between Huxley and Lawrence. Specific instances of references to Lawrence\u27s essay Men Must Work and Women as Well, within Huxley\u27s dystopian novel are then identified and explained

    Translating the Author-Function: The (Re)Narration of Christa Wolf

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    Narrative theory continues to offer new perspectives on the intercultural transfer of texts. Embedded in new narratives, the text opens up to new interpretations, resulting in the loss and acquisition of meaning. The writer’s persona or author-function (Foucault 1977) is also renegotiated by cultural transfer, as it is cumulatively and dynamically constructed through readings of an author’s texts and literary or biographical contexts. The translated author-function may differ considerably from the domestic, and may also interact with it as in the case of the East German writer Christa Wolf, whose international author-function has served for contrast (if not conflict) with her reception in the German Democratic Republic and united Germany. This was particularly marked during the 1990s, when revelations about Wolf’s political activity led to censure by the German media and literati. This paper demonstrates how the translation of Wolf’s texts and the construction of her international author-function have renegotiated her position within her domestic literary field
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