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Something to hide : a novel
Four women from different backgrounds, each with something to hide, cross paths in West Africa and begin to discover the impact of their actions.
Book
Can Russia Modernise?
In this original, bottom-up account of the evolution of contemporary Russia, Alena Ledeneva seeks to reveal how informal power operates. Concentrating on Vladimir Putin's system of governance - referred to as sistema - she identifies four key types of networks: his inner circle, useful friends, core contacts and more diffuse ties and connections. These networks serve sistema but also serve themselves. Reliance on networks enables leaders to mobilise and to control, yet they also lock politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen into informal deals, mediated interests and personalised loyalty. This is the 'modernisation trap of informality': one cannot use the potential of informal networks without triggering their negative long-term consequences for institutional development. Ledeneva's perspective on informal power is based on in-depth interviews with sistema insiders and enhanced by evidence of its workings brought to light in court cases, enabling her to draw broad conclusions about the prospects for Russia's political institutions.
eBook
Social Influence Bias: A Randomized Experiment
Our society is increasingly relying on the digitized, aggregated opinions of others to make decisions. We therefore designed and analyzed a large-scale randomized experiment on a social news aggregation Web site to investigate whether knowledge of such aggregates distorts decision-making. Prior ratings created significant bias in individual rating behavior, and positive and negative social influences created asymmetric herding effects. Whereas negative social influence inspired users to correct manipulated ratings, positive social influence increased the likelihood of positive ratings by 32% and created accumulating positive herding that increased final ratings by 25% on average. This positive herding was topic-dependent and affected by whether individuals were viewing the opinions of friends or enemies. A mixture of changing opinion and greater turnout under both manipulations together with a natural tendency to up-vote on the site combined to create the herding effects. Such findings will help interpret collective judgment accurately and avoid social influence bias in collective intelligence in the future.
Journal Article
Quakerism in the Atlantic World, 1690–1830
This third installment in the New History of Quakerism series is a comprehensive assessment of transatlantic Quakerism across the long eighteenth century, a period during which Quakers became increasingly sectarian even as they expanded their engagement with politics, trade, industry, and science. The contributors to this volume interrogate and deconstruct this paradox, complicating traditional interpretations of what has been termed \"Quietist Quakerism.\"
Examining the period following the Toleration Act in England of 1689 through the Hicksite-Orthodox Separation in North America, this work situates Quakers in the eighteenth-century British Atlantic world. Three thematic sections—exploring unique Quaker testimonies and practices; tensions between Quakerism in community and Quakerism in the world; and expressions of Quakerism around the Atlantic world—broaden geographic understandings of the Quaker Atlantic experience to determine how local events shaped expressions of Quakerism. The authors challenge oversimplified interpretations of Quaker practices and reveal a complex Quaker world, one in which prescription and practice were more often negotiated than dictated, even after the mid-eighteenth-century \"reformation\" and tightening of the Discipline on both sides of the Atlantic.
Accessible and well-researched, Quakerism in the Atlantic World, 1690-1830, provides fresh insights and raises new questions about an understudied period of Quaker history.
In addition to the editor, the contributors to this volume include Richard C. Allen, Erin Bell, Erica Canela, Elizabeth Cazden, Andrew Fincham, Sydney Harker, Rosalind Johnson, Emma Lapsansky-Werner, Jon Mitchell, and Geoffrey Plank.
eBook
A troublesome boy
Teddy can't believe how fast his life has changed in just two years. When he was twelve, his father took off, and then his mother married Henry, a man Teddy despises. But Teddy has no control over his life, and adults make all the decisions, especially in 1959. Henry decides that Teddy should be sent to St. Ignatius Academy for Boys, an isolated boarding school run by the Catholic church. St. Iggy's, Teddy learns, is a cold, unforgiving place -- something between a juvenile detention center and reform school. The other boys are mostly a cast of misfits and eccentrics, but Teddy quickly becomes best friends with Cooper, a wise-cracking, Wordsworth-loving kid with a history of neglect. Despite the priests' ruthless efforts to crack down on the slightest hint of defiance or attitude, the boys get by for a while on their wits, humor and dreams of escape. But the beatings, humiliation and hours spent in the school's infamous \"time-out\" rooms, and the institutionalized system of power and abuse that protects the priests' authority, eventually take their toll, especially on the increasingly fragile Cooper. Then one of the new priests, Father Prince, starts to summon Cooper to his room at night, and Teddy watches helplessly as his friend withdraws into his own private nightmare, even as Prince targets Teddy himself as his next victim. Teddy and Cooper's only reprieve comes on Saturdays, when the school janitor, Rozey, takes the boys to his run-down farmhouse outside of town, the only place where the boys can feel normal -- fishing, playing cribbage, watching the bears at the local dump. But even this can't stop Cooper's downward spiral and eventual suicide. And just when Teddy thinks something good might come out of his friend's tragedy, he finds himself dealing with the ultimate betrayal.
BOOK
Pilot implementation of an online program for family and friends supporting the mental health of paramedics in Australia: Lessons learned
Paramedics experience disproportionately high rates of mental health concerns, often relying on informal support from family and friends. While this support is vital, it can impose significant strain on family and friends, who frequently lack the necessary resources and skills for their role. To address this, a novel online program, Minds Together, was developed specifically for family and friends to enhance their ability to support the mental health of paramedics while prioritizing their own mental health and wellbeing.
The feasibility and acceptability of the program was evaluated through a pilot study involving 53 participants randomized to either program or waitlist groups. Data collection included pre- and post-intervention surveys, program usage metrics, post-project surveys, and feedback from user testing. The Global Impact Analytics Framework (GIAF) guided analysis of planning, pre-engagement, pre-readiness, usability, dissemination, adoption, and contextual factors.
Participants valued the program for its lived-experience content and self-paced format. Broad dissemination reached over one million individuals, and usability and relevance were rated highly. However, low engagement and completion rates reflected challenges common to online interventions. Barriers included limited access duration, participants' time constraints, and difficulties in reaching the target audience. Suggestions included flexible access, advanced content options, and targeted outreach strategies.
Minds Together shows promise as a scalable intervention for family and friends of paramedics. Future research will address barriers, explore long-term outcomes, and refine the program to better meet family and friends' diverse needs, improving mental health support for paramedics and their support network.
•Minds Together is an online program piloted with family and friends supporting the mental health of paramedics.•Program shows promise as a scalable intervention for paramedics' family and friends.•The program was tested in a relevant environment, co-designed and well-planned.•Minds Together rated highly on usefulness, acceptability, practicality, and value.•Reach was comprehensive, however improvement is needed to optimize engagement.
Journal Article
My friend Maggie
\"Paula and Maggie are best friends until Paula starts playing with some new friends instead, but when her new playmates turn on her, it's Maggie who rushes to Paula's defense\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Literature and politics in Cromwellian England : John Milton, Andrew Marvell, Marchamont Nedham
Here is a new approach to the historical study of literature. A leading historian of the English civil wars looks at the writings of the two great poets of the time. John Milton and Andrew Marvell, and relates them as never before to the dramatic developments which brought about the execution of King Charles and the rise of Oliver Cromwell.
eBook