3,473 research outputs found

    William Pulteney Alison : activist philanthropist and pioneer of social medicine

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    The thesis looks in detail at three inter-related aspects of Alison's life. It examines, firstly, his role in the development of Edinburgh's rudimentary 'health' network, achieved through the expansion of the existing medical charity structure and the introduction of a more interventionist and coordinated approach to the city's health problems. It traces, secondly, the development of Alison's social thought - in 1820 he believed that medical and practical relief for the poor could and should be supplied through the voluntary charities and only when that proved unsatisfactory through the poor law, whereas by 1840 he argued that public health should be the responsibility of government and that the excessive increase in poverty and disease in Scotland, which he believed had occurred, was proof that the charitable and legal relief provided was inadequate. Finally, Alison's influence on the passage of Scottish poor law and public health legislation in the 1840s and 1850s is examined - the latter involving an assessment of how far he was responsible for the legislative delay. The poor law debate, 1840-1845, which reveals the forces shaping the reform and the prevailing attitudes to poverty, highlights the challenge which Alison's opinions represented and the resulting turmoil in Scottish social thinking, while his reasons for opposing health legislation, which established London control are of great importance. They reveal differences in the rationale behind, and way in which, the concept of public health was developed in Scotland and England. Unlike Chadwick and his supporters, Alison emphasised poverty amelioration and sanitary reform. Part of the explanation for the differing opinions lay in their respective miasmatic and contagionist theories for fever generation, but it also reflects, perhaps more significantly, the impact of European medical police ideas on Scottish medical opinion - Alison's view of public health closely resembled that of the French hygienists

    Organizing and delivering diabetes education and self-care support: findings of scoping project

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    Objective: To provide an overview of current research and development on the organization and delivery of diabetes education and self-care support, incorporating stakeholder perspectives. MethodFour methods were used: literature review (159 papers and 52 grey literature items); patient participation event (n = 38); online survey of professionals (n = 423) and patients (n= 495); and, a conference. ResultsThe literature review identified themes relating to the organization and delivery of diabetes and self-care support: structure and flexibility in models of education; accessibility; patient choice; integrating self-care within the overall care system; quality improvement; peer educators; health literacy; efficiency in delivery; telecare models; feedback technologies; care planning; psychological intervention; and self-care outcome measures. This generated four models to provide a framework to help shape the development of diabetes self-care: a diabetes education pathway; integrating self-care and clinical care; choice as a method of optimizing care; and an integrated framework for delivering diabetes self-care. ConclusionThe clinical benefit of the identified models need to be evaluated

    Repositioning the graphic designer as researcher

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    In academic terms, the discipline of graphic design is relatively young. Consequently the position of the discipline within academic territory, and the role of the designer, continue to be debated. In part, these debates have been a product of attempts to define and defend the discipline’s borders from within, in order to establish a sense of the role of graphic design and the graphic designer as commensurate with other disciplines both within and beyond art and design. In recent years graphic designers have variously been defined as ‘authors’, ‘producers’ and ‘readers’, yet none of these definitions seem to have provided any kind of productive or lasting impact within the academy. This paper suggests that rather than continue to seek territorial definitions and positions from within, it could be more productive to look beyond the confines of the discipline. Gaining a broader, interdisciplinary perspective on, and understanding of, qualitative research methods from other disciplines may enable the graphic designer to more fully position his or her practice within the wider academy. Such a perspective could help facilitate the repositioning and redefinition of the graphic designer as ‘researcher’ - a move that would be productive in relation to the future development of postgraduate research within the discipline

    Mining e-mail content for author identification forensics

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    We describe an investigation into e-mail content mining for author identification, or authorship attribution, for the purpose of forensic investigation. We focus our discussion on the ability to discriminate between authors for the case of both aggregated e-mail topics as well as across different email topics. An extended set of e-mail document features including structural characteristics and linguistic patterns were derived and, together with a Support Vector Machine learning algorithm, were used for mining the e-mail content. Experiments using a number of e-mail documents generated by different authors on a set of topics gave promising results for both aggregated and multi-topic author categorisation

    Rethinking the purpose of language education

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    In the following opinion article Suzanne Graham and Alison Porter argue that primary language education needs a more meaningful and coherent rationale than it currently has. Their research offers suggestions for such a rationale, demonstrating that focusing on both linguistic skills and non-linguistic outcomes like creativity and empathy develops essential competencies for global citizenship, while potentially also solving some of the challenges of transition from primary to secondary education

    Vacant and underutilized land in Boston

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    Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2004.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-63).by Alison E. Mori.S.M

    Language and gender author cohort analysis of e-mail for computer forensics

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    Abstract. We describe an investigation of authorship gender and lan-guage background cohort attribution mining from e-mail text documents. We used an extended set of predominantly topic content-free e-mail document features such as style markers, structural characteristics and gender-preferential language features together with a Support Vector Machine learning algorithm. Experiments using a corpus of e-mail doc-uments generated by a large number of authors of both genders gave promising results for both author gender and language background co-hort categorisation.

    Detailed summaries of peer-reviewed journal articles with Alison Snow Jones as primary author

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    Annotated guide to the scholarly work of Alison Snow Jones, created by Lauren J. Bruce for inclusion in "An Uncommon Woman: Alison Snow Jones Unleashed!

    Another green world: Linn Botanic Gardens: encounters with a Scottish Arcadia

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    Linn Botanic Gardens is a place like no other: a magical, idiosyncratic, verdant haven created by the shared passion of a father and son. Situated beside a Scottish loch, Linn is a horticultural treasure trove that is home to thousands of exotic plants from all over the world, making it one of the most biodiverse places in Scotland. Constructed over forty years by Jim and Jamie Taggart, the garden is shaped by the subtle interplay of science and art, botany and design, mathematics and colour. At its heart, like a mysterious presence that looms over the surrounding land while being slowly consumed by the ceaseless spread of nature, stands Linn Villa, the out-of-bounds Victorian house that appears to have lain untouched for decades.Another Green World is artist Alison Turnbull and writer Philip Hoare’s lyrical portrait of this enchanting place. Conceived and compiled by Turnbull, this exquisite artist’s book captures not only the beauty but also the spirit of Linn. Hoare’s evocative text and Turnbull’s delicate photographs, drawings, and charts, complemented by photographer Ruth Clark’s stunning double-page images, lead us through the garden and the Victorian house in its midst as if we were actually there. Completing this unique and beautiful volume are ecologist Ian Edwards’ appreciation of Linn as an important reserve of rare rhododendrons and Jamie Taggart’s list of every species in the garden
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