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Public Attention (public + attention)
Selected AbstractsTHE CHANGING NATURE OF MUSEUMSCURATOR THE MUSEUM JOURNAL, Issue 4 2000Gordon Freedman The historical circumstances,scientific, social, and economic,that brought forth the great museums of the world no longer exist. In their place is a new public context that shifts attention from museums whose business is objects to organizations whose business is information. At the same time, the economic-survival mechanism of museums is shifting from grand philanthropy to innovative development programs and market-sensitive commercial endeavors. Meeting the needs of the next generations of visitors and cultivating the next generation of funders will not be simple. Massive changes in the social fabric of the nation will soon demand new kinds of institutions that play new roles in society. Museums that meet this challenge will not simply be competing with other sectors of society for public attention and funds. Future success will require the fundamental reinvention of museums so that their purpose is obvious and their mission is clearly aligned with the needs of future generations. [source] Detecting Adverse Events in Dermatologic SurgeryDERMATOLOGIC SURGERY, Issue 1 2010DANIEL PINNEY BS BACKGROUND Despite increasing awareness of and public attention to patient safety, little is documented about how adverse events (AEs) can or should be monitored in dermatologic surgery. Data to address this shortcoming are needed, although well-defined methodologies have yet to be implemented. OBJECTIVE To summarize current strategies in detecting adverse outcomes of dermatologic surgical procedures. MATERIALS AND METHODS A Medline literature search was conducted using the terms "adverse event,""detection,""reporting,""monitoring," and "surgery." Articles selected addressed the efficacy of one or more AE reporting techniques in surgical patients. RESULTS Prospective and retrospective reporting methods were identified, with morbidity and mortality conference being the most commonly used method of AE reporting. Retrospective medical record review, the retrospective trigger tool approach, and an anonymous electronic reporting system were more sensitive approaches. The Surgical Quality Improvement Program, a program that has successfully translated AE data into lower postoperative morbidity and mortality, was analyzed. CONCLUSIONS Although generally considered safe, dermatologic surgery has no current standard for AE reporting. Standard definitions and high-quality data regarding AEs" currently limit this analysis. Pilot studies are needed to develop feasible measures, with the goal of increasing the sensitivity of AE detection and ultimately improving patient outcomes. The Center for Dermatology Research is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Galderma Laboratories. [source] Just when you thought it was safe: synthetic phonics and syncretic literacy practicesENGLISH IN EDUCATION, Issue 3 2005Andrey Rosowsky Abstract Until just recently one might have been forgiven for considering the ,Reading' debate to have been amicably resolved, with, at the end of the twentieth century, a negotiated consensus reached comprised of all sides in the debate agreeing on a balanced approach to the teaching of initial reading. However, the recent intervention of the House of Commons Education and Skills Committee with its report, Teaching Children to Read, and its advocacy of synthetic phonics, has once again brought the teaching of reading in UK schools to public attention. This paper seeks to provide an interesting comparative example of a UK literacy context where synthetic phonics is employed regularly and systematically. Thousands of British schoolchildren attend mosque schools on a daily basis where they learn how to read the Classical Arabic of the Qur'an. They are taught how to decode the text accurately and fluently using synthetic phonics methods. This literacy practice is described and suggestions are made about what it might have to contribute to the discussion around the adoption of synthetic phonics in mainstream schools [source] Free Movement of Services and Social Security,Quo Vadis?EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 4 2002Maximilian Fuchs Dental treatment (of Aline Kohll) and a pair of spectacles (for Nicolas Decker) recently drew public attention throughout the whole of Europe. It is certainly true that the reactions following the Court of Justice's judgements in both cases were not only to be felt in the profession but in the general public most especially in political circles. Some authors even went as far as to place these judgements on a par with those in the Costa/ENEL and Cassis de Dijon cases. In the meantime these decisions have persistently been upheld by two further judgements (Vanbraekel and Smits/Peerbooms). The essence of the judgements lies in the observation that the Member States must respect an insured person's right to freedom of services despite being entitled to organise their own social security services. The following article is a critical analysis of this approach. The author pleads for a solution to the problems to be found within the ambit of the rules and principles of coordination whose further development he calls for. [source] The Elephant in the Corner?GEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 2 2010Reviewing India-Africa Relations in the New Millennium As countries of the ,global South' seek to challenge existing uneven architectures of economic, political and institutional power, now under different circumstances to those prevailing during the Cold War, relations between African countries and various ,Rising Powers' have drawn a great deal of academic and public attention. This scrutiny has been heavily tilted towards analysis of China's African activities. This paper aims to partially redress this balance with an introductory review of India's contemporary relations with sub-Saharan Africa. A number of analysts suggest that in the longer term, India may well achieve a more prosperous and stable economy than China, while in the shorter term, its economic and political profile may result in a more productive relationship for many different African countries, sectors and constituencies. But India will also bring its own challenges in its African commercial interactions, bilateral relations and through its part in shaping the multilateral polity and global economy. This paper therefore aims to critically review contemporary India-Africa relations on four broad thematic points. 1Changing geographies of Indo-African relations; 2Trade and foreign direct investment; 3Development cooperation; and 4Geopolitics and diplomacy. India's confidence as a global political and economic actor is apparent in its African diplomacy and economic engagements, but claims to exceptionalism (relative both to Chinese and Western actors) in such relations are not as self-evident as some have asserted. Whether recent shifts in relations between African nations and India will work in the interests of less privileged citizens, workers and consumers in Africa and in India also remain unclear. [source] Tertiary paediatric obesity services in AustraliaJOURNAL OF PAEDIATRICS AND CHILD HEALTH, Issue 5 2008Pamela J Spilchak Aim: To examine the nature and availability of paediatric obesity services in tertiary care settings across the states/territories of Australia. Methods: Surveys were sent to all clinicians identified as offering obesity services to children and adolescents. Respondents were asked to identify other service providers in their area, who were also asked to complete the survey. Results: Sixteen clinicians responded to the survey, from 20 requests. The clinicians who responded identified nine services in three of the eight states/territories of Australia. Existing services are limited to children and adolescents with severe obesity, with an average of 12 new referrals per service each month and an average waiting time of 5 months for an appointment. Most services involve a multidisciplinary approach, although the mix of staff varies considerably and emphasises nutrition rather than physical activity approaches. Conclusions: Despite the public attention devoted to paediatric obesity, tertiary services in Australia are inadequate to meet the increasing incidence and prevalence of this complex condition. The development of tertiary services as part of service delivery arrangements for paediatric obesity and its associated morbidities must become a priority within the health system. [source] Bioethics, Theology, and Social ChangeJOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS ETHICS, Issue 3 2003Lisa Sowle Cahill ABSTRACT Recent years have witnessed a concern among theological bioethicists that secular debate has grown increasingly "thin," and that "thick" religious traditions and their spokespersons have been correspondingly excluded. This essay disputes that analysis. First, religious and theological voices compete for public attention and effectiveness with the equally "thick" cultural traditions of modern science and market capitalism. The distinctive contribution of religion should be to emphasize social justice in access to the benefits of health care, challenging the for-profit global marketing of research and biotechnology to wealthy consumers. Second, religion and theology have been and are still socially effective in sponsoring activism for practical change, both locally and globally. This claim will be supported with specific examples; with familiar concepts like subsidiarity and "middle axioms"; and with recent analyses of "participatory democracy" and of emerging, decentralized forms of global governance. [source] Web links and search engine ranking: The case of Google and the query "jew"JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 12 2006Judit Bar-Ilan The World Wide Web has become one of our more important information sources, and commercial search engines are the major tools for locating information; however, it is not enough for a Web page to be indexed by the search engines,it also must rank high on relevant queries. One of the parameters involved in ranking is the number and quality of links pointing to the page, based on the assumption that links convey appreciation for a page. This article presents the results of a content analysis of the links to two top pages retrieved by Google for the query "jew" as of July 2004: the "jew" entry on the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia, and the home page of "Jew Watch," a highly anti-Semitic site. The top results for the query "jew" gained public attention in April 2004, when it was noticed that the "Jew Watch" homepage ranked number 1. From this point on, both sides engaged in "Googlebombing" (i.e., increasing the number of links pointing to these pages). The results of the study show that most of the links to these pages come from blogs and discussion links, and the number of links pointing to these pages in appreciation of their content is extremely small. These findings have implications for ranking algorithms based on link counts, and emphasize the huge difference between Web links and citations in the scientific community. [source] Costing yield loss from acidity, sodicity and dryland salinity to Australian agricultureLAND DEGRADATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2005S. Hajkowicz Abstract Salinity, sodicity and acidity are three major soil constraints that limit crop and pasture yields in Australia. In this paper estimates are made of the potential benefits arising from their treatment by measuring and mapping their impact on agricultural profit. This is achieved by estimating the increase in profit for Australia's main commodities that would occur if the three soil constraints were costlessly ameliorated. These estimates reveal the upper achievable limit on investment returns. They are also indicative of each soil constraint's economic significance to Australian agriculture. It was found that costless removal of salinity would increase annual profits by A$187 million, sodicity by A$1034·6 million and acidity by A$1584·5 million. This equates to 2·9,per,cent, 15·8,per,cent and 24·2,per,cent of total net economic return. It was also found that worsening salinity extent and severity over 2000,2020 has a present value of A$496,A$712 million. Although soil salinity is currently the focus of much public attention, this analysis suggests that from a production viewpoint the correction of sodic and acidic soils may create greater private economic benefit. Opportunities vary considerably among industries. In particular, there is considerable opportunity for the horticultural and viticultural sector to address acidity issues. Whether gross benefits translate into net benefits is a complex question requiring access to context and location-specific information. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Dead, but not buried: bodies, burial and family conflictsLEGAL STUDIES, Issue 3 2003Heather Conway While recent public attention has focused on disputes concerning the fate of the dead such as the Bristol and Alder Hey organ retention scandals, this paper considers a much less publicised area of dispute which has nevertheless generated a significant amount of case law and potentially affects a much wider proportion of society. The paper looks at conflicts which arise when relatives cannot agree on how to bury their dead, the motives behind such disputes and the factors which influence their resolution. It examines the legal framework which has been applied by courts to date, proposes alternative solutions to this framework and questions the potential impact of the Human Rights Act 1998 on family burial conflicts. [source] Clinical impact of blood storage lesions,AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HEMATOLOGY, Issue 2 2010Abba C. Zubair Recent reports suggest that transfusion of old red blood cell (RBC) units (>2 weeks) was associated with increased risks of postoperative complications and higher mortality rate caught public attention (Yap et al., Ann Thorac Surg 2008; 86:554,559 and Koch et al., 2008; 358:1229,1239). This rekindled the decades old discussion regarding the impact of RBC aging and storage lesions in patient care. The objectives of this review are to provide readers with an overview of the process of banking RBC that may have an impact on its quality, the reported clinical impact of storage lesions, the consequences of transfusing new RBC units only to the nation's blood supply and potential solutions that may improve the feasibility of blood banks to issue new blood units only. Am. J. Hematol., 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] On the Tasks of a Population Commission: A 1971 Statement by Donald RumsfeldPOPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW, Issue 3 2003Article first published online: 20 APR 200 In its most familiar form, analytic assessment of the impact of demographic change on human affairs is the product of a decentralized cottage industry: individual scholars collecting information, thinking about its meaning, testing hypotheses, and publishing their findings. Guidance through the power of the purse and through institutional design that creates and sustains cooperating groups of researchers can impose some order and coherence on such spontaneous activity. But the sum total of the result may lack balance and leave important aspects of relevant issues inadequately explored. Even when research findings are picked up by the media and reach a broader public, the haphazardness of that process helps further to explain why the salience of population change to human welfare and its importance in public policymaking are poorly understood. The syndrome is not unique to the field of population, but the typically long time-lags with which aggregate population change affects economic and social phenomena make it particularly difficult for the topic to claim public attention. A time-tested, if less than fool-proof remedy is the periodic effort to orchestrate a systematic and thorough examination of the causes, consequences, and policy implications of demographic processes. Because the most potent frame for policymaking is the state, the logical primary locus for such stocktaking is at the country level. The Commission on Population Growth and the American Future was a uniquely ambitious enterprise of this sort. The Commission was established by the US Congress in 1970 as a result of a presidential initiative. Along with the work of two earlier British Royal Commissions on population, this US effort, mutatis mutandis, can serve as a model for in-depth examinations conducted at the national level anywhere. Chaired by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, the Commission submitted its final report to President Richard M. Nixon in March 1972. The background studies to the report were published in seven hefty volumes; an index to these volumes was published in 1975. Reproduced below is a statement to the Commission delivered on April 14, 1971 by Donald Rumsfeld, then Counsellor to President Nixon and in charge of the Office of Economic Opportunity. (Currently, Mr. Rumsfeld serves as US Secretary of Defense.) The brief statement articulates with great clarity the objectives of the Commission and the considerations that prompted them. The text originally appeared in Vol. 7 (pp. 1-3) of the Commission's background reports, which contains the statements at public hearings conducted by the Commission. National efforts toward comprehensive scientific reviews of population issues have their analogs at the international level. Especially notable on that score were the preparatory studies presented at the 1954 Rome and 1965 Belgrade world population conferences. The world population conferences that took place in Bucharest in 1974, in Mexico City in 1984, and in Cairo in 1994 were intergovernmental and political rather than scientific and technical meetings, but they also generated a fair amount of prior research. The year 2004 will break the decadal sequence of large-scale international meetings on population, and apart from the quadrennial congresses of the IUSSP, which showcase the voluntary research offerings of its members, none is being planned for the coming years. A partial substitute will be meetings organized by the UN's regional economic and social commissions. The first of these took place in 2002 for the Asia-Pacific region; the meetings for the other regions will be held in 2003-04. The analytic and technical contribution of these meetings, however, is expected to be at best modest. National efforts of the type carried out 30 years ago by the Commission on Population Growth and the American Future would be all the more salutary. [source] A Prolegomenon on Restraint of Children: Implicating Constitutional RightsAMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY, Issue 1 2001Sheila S. Kennedy J.D. News media and advocacy groups have brought to public attention a disturbing number of recent deaths proximal to the use of physical restraints. This paper examines the evidence indicating that use of these procedures can be dangerous to patients; explores the theoretical basis and practical application of restraints; and argues not only that their use may be unethical as a therapeutic intervention, but that it may have constitutional implications. [source] Assessment of violence potential among school children: Beyond profilingPSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 3 2001Matthew K. Burns The increasing level of public attention to violence in American schools makes the issue a top priority among educators. School psychologists could play an important role in identifying at-risk youth, and planning appropriate individual, school, and community interventions related to school violence. However, there is limited literature examining different assessment approaches that could be used to evaluate student risk for violence. This article reviews (a) characteristics of students "at risk" for violence, (b) informal checklists and matching student characteristics to profiles of typical violent students and (c) threat assessment based on Borum et al.'s (1999) model. Ethical and legal considerations are covered as well. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons. Inc. [source] Home and Away: The Grounding of New Football Teams in Perth, Western AustraliaTHE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2002Roy Jones Metropolitan sporting, and particularly football, competitions were established in all of Australia's colonial state capital cities about a century ago. Typically, they were comprised of teams from and were supported by the inhabitants of working-class, inner suburbs. These competitions were the primary foci of Australians' sporting interest and loyalty for almost a century. But, with the shift of public attention and private capital to national competitions, the former stadia of many local clubs have become redundant spaces in what are now gentrifying inner suburbs. Simultaneously new, and even old, national league teams have sought larger, more modern (near) city centre venues for their operations. In this context, two new national league teams in Perth,Fremantle Dockers and Perth Glory,have experienced considerable challenges in establishing both physical ,homes' and local identities. These have included both the supplanting of traditional local clubs and the placating of new kinds of inner suburban residents. [source] The Dynamics of Political Attention: Public Opinion and the Queen's Speech in the United KingdomAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 4 2009Will Jennings This article represents the effect of public opinion on government attention in the form of an error-correction model where public opinion and policymaking attention coexist in a long-run equilibrium state that is subject to short-run corrections. The coexistence of policy-opinion responsiveness and punctuations in political attention is attributed to differences in theoretical conceptions of negative and positive feedback, differences in the use of time series and distributional methods, and differences in empirical responsiveness of government to public attention relative to responsiveness to public preferences. This analysis considers time-series data for the United Kingdom over the period between 1960 and 2001 on the content of the executive and legislative agenda presented at the start of each parliamentary session in the Queen's Speech coded according to the policy content framework of the U.S. Policy Agendas Project and a reconstituted public opinion dataset on Gallup's "most important problem" question. The results show short-run responsiveness of government attention to public opinion for macroeconomics, health, and labor and employment topics and long-run responsiveness for macroeconomics, health, labor and employment, education, law and order, housing, and defense. [source] Interactions between visitors and Formosan macaques (Macaca cyclopis) at Shou-Shan Nature Park, TaiwanAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 3 2009Minna J. Hsu Abstract Ecotourism involving feeding wildlife has raised public attention and is a controversial issue, especially concerning nonhuman primates. Between July 2002 and April 2005, the behavior of monkeys and tourists was collected through scan samplings, focal samplings and behavior samplings at the Shou-Shan Nature Park located in Taiwan's second largest city,Kaohsiung. In addition, the number of tourists and monkeys was counted in different hours and places within the park. Four hundred visitors were interviewed using a questionnaire to gather data on sex, age, purpose and frequency of visit to the park. The number of tourists was significantly higher during weekends than in weekdays in all locations. Humans dominated in the initiation of interspecies interactions,the overall ratio of human-initiated and monkey-initiated interactions was 2.44:1. Human,monkey conflicts accounted for only 16.4% of the total interactions (n=2,166), and adult human males and adult male macaques participated in higher rates than other age/sex groups in these conflicts. Visitors showed more affiliative behavior (15.9%) than agonistic behavior (8%) toward the macaques. In response to visitors' threat or attack, the Formosan macaques mostly showed submissive behavior with bared teeth, squealed or ran away to avoid confrontation (69.1%),only few responded with counteraggression (18.7%). This study for the first time provided evidence that food provisioning increased both the frequency and duration of aggression among Formosan macaques (P<0.001). During food provisioning, the average frequency and the duration of agonistic events of macaques were more than 4 times higher compared with those without food provisioning. The average frequency of food provision by tourists was 0.73,times/hr,more than twice the incident that monkeys grabbed the food from tourists (0.34,times/hr). If people refrain from feeding monkeys and destroying the city park's natural vegetation, monkeys can be used to educate public about nature conservation in an urban setting. Am. J. Primatol. 71:214,222, 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Advancing public sector performance analysisAPPLIED STOCHASTIC MODELS IN BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY, Issue 5 2008Carolyn J. Heinrich Abstract Recent reforms intended to promote more accountable and responsive government have increased public attention to performance analysis and accelerated the production and use of information on agency performance and public program outcomes. Drawing from cases and empirical studies, this presentation considers questions about what should count as evidence, how it should be communicated, who should judge the quality and reliability of evidence and performance information, and how to achieve a balance between processes that produce rigorous information for decision making and those that foster democratic governance and accountability. Promising directions are suggested for efforts to improve government effectiveness through the use of more rigorous information in decision making, along with acknowledgment of the limitations and risks associated with such efforts. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] U.S. Hog Production and the Influence of State Water Quality RegulationCANADIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2001Mark Metcalfe The U.S. hog industry is experiencing an increase in both the average size and in the geographical concentration of feeding operations. These increases have caused public attention to focus on the environmental consequences of hog production and on the regulations imposed to limit these consequences. This study examines the influence of state water quality regulatory stringency on hog production in the United States. The results of this analysis provide evidence that environmental compliance costs are significant for small hog feeding operations, while production on large operations does not appear to be influenced by the level of state environmental regulatory stringency. On assiste présentement à une augmentation de la taille des exploitations et à une concentration géographique des établissements d'engraissement dans le secteur américain de l'élevage porcin. Ces changements ont amené la population à s'intéresser aux répercussions de la production porcine sur l'environnement et aux réglements adoptés en vue d'atténuer de telles répercussions. L'auteur détermine de quelle maniére la sévérité des réglements d,État sur la qualité de l'eau influe sur l'élevage des pores aux États-Unis. Les résultats de son analyse prouvent que le respect des règlements sur la protection de l'environnement engendre des coûts appréciables pour les petits éleveurs, alors que les exploitations de plus grande envergure ne sont pas aussi affectées par la rigueur de la réglementation d'État en matiére d'environnement. [source] Perspectives on human stem cell researchJOURNAL OF CELLULAR PHYSIOLOGY, Issue 3 2009Kyu Won Jung Human stem cell research draws not only scientists' but the public's attention. Human stem cell research is considered to be able to identify the mechanism of human development and change the paradigm of medical practices. However, there are heated ethical and legal debates about human stem cell research. The core issue is that of human dignity and human life. Some prefer human adult stem cell research or iPS cell research, others hES cell research. We do not need to exclude any type of stem cell research because each has its own merits and issues, and they can facilitate the scientific revolution when working together. J. Cell. Physiol. 220: 535,537, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||