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Defined in terms of a national security discourse, Britain's asylum policy facilitates a disturbing dissociation of the asylum seeker from the identity of the refugee. The roots of this discourse can, this paper argues, be understood if the asylum seeker is seen as the site of a clash between two conceptualizations of political space—one that sees only the international state system, marked by the rights of sovereign states and exclusive political spaces, and one that sees a more complicated global political structure, marked by spaces of danger and of opportunity, in which human beings, as such, have a right to demand hospitality and inclusion from the state. Aiming to understand this clash, and the possibilities for moving beyond it, this paper analyzes British asylum policy through the lens of Michel Foucault's account of sovereign biopower in Society Must Be Defended, read together with Giorgio Agamben's work on the homo sacer and spaces of exception. These texts point towards the counter-narrative of the asylum seeker who refuses to disappear into discourses of national secur­ity, and who suggests a "rival structure" of political space. Understanding this clash requires uncovering the violence, discernible in British asylum policy, which sustains the international state system and in doing so, creates and marginalizes the asylum seeker. This paper draws out the deeply challenging and complex nature of the "problem of asylum," working against the simplification that a national security discourse imposes on the issue. ; Définie en termes de discours autour de la sécurité nationale, la politique d'asile de la Grande Bretagne facilite la dissociation du demandeur d'asile de l'identité du réfugié. Cet article fait valoir que pour comprendre la racine de ce discours, il faut voir le demandeur d'asile comme le point de conflit entre deux conceptualisations de l'espace politique — l'une qui ne voit que le système international composé d'états caractérisé par les droits des états souverains et des espaces politiques ...

At present Ireland lacks really effective and usable health information systems. The priorities listed in the draft 'Information for Action' report cannot be realised within the constraints of the existing systems. Our health information systems are not people centred; they do not facilitate assessment of quality; they make measurement of equity very hard; they do not support an adequate level of democratic or political accountability. The current systems lack credibility with health service staff, at least partly because they seldom see any results from them. There is no adequate system for analysis of and reporting on most of the current Irish health information systems. Despite these problems, components of our systems work well, and produce data of high quality. The Irish Cancer registry provides accurate, timely reports on cancer incidence in Ireland. The National Disease surveillance Centre does excellent work on the collection analysis and dissemination of infectious disease data. The quality of the data collected in the HIPE system by ESRI, and in the Vital Statistics system by the CSO are good. The national disability register works well. It is imperative that the existing systems are not broken in the attempt to bring in new systems. There are many different models in Europe and elsewhere of working health information systems. We would particularly suggest that elements of the systems used in New Zealand, Finland, Scotland and Canada could provide models for further development in Ireland. Specifically, New Zealand has a working model of an e-health Internet; Finland has a good model of a registry based system; Canada has a working model of systems using and analysing health data. Scotland has a very interesting system, with very close integration with primary care. This is a weakness of the Canadian, and especially the Finnish systems. Devising a system based on the best elements of these systems would produce a very powerful tool indeed. It is also worth noting that such a system might lead to ...

The current research sheds new light on how and why status hierarchies impact interpersonal helping by examining people's reactions to recently experienced status change. Specifically, we incorporate findings from research on the self-serving attributional bias to theorize about how the direction of status change (i.e., a gain or a loss) can shape the extent to which people accept or deflect personal responsibility for their change in status, which we argue will then impact other-concern and, thus, their willingness to help. Further, we identify status change legitimacy as a key contingency that will strengthen or weaken the psychological and behavioral effects of status change. Among firefighter teams (Study 1), participants in the laboratory (Studies 2 and 3), and student teams (Study 4), we show that (1) status change impacts interpersonal helping through its impact on changes in other-concern and (2) status change legitimacy moderates the effect of status change on both other-concern and interpersonal helping. Additionally, we document an asymmetry with regards to the effects of status change on both other-concern and helping behavior (i.e., with the negative impact of a status loss being stronger than the positive impact of a status gain). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Organizations benefit from including employees with dissimilar values and perspectives, but their ability to realize these benefits is constrained by the degree to which those holding the dissimilar values (i.e., value minorities) feel comfortable engaging with their colleagues and the work of the collective. We extend theory on value dissimilarity by directly examining the experience of individuals whose values are dissimilar from those of their colleagues, and factors driving their engagement in work. Our examination spanned three studies: a laboratory experiment, a vignette study of employed adults, and a three-wave survey of student project groups. We found that the negative relationship between holding dissimilar values from one's colleagues and engagement was lessened when value minorities disclosed personal information unrelated to their dissimilar values (Studies 1–3). Self-disclosure also moderated the negative relationship between value dissimilarity and feeling respected by one's colleagues (Studies 2 and 3). Furthermore, felt respect mediated the effect of value dissimilarity on engagement, and this indirect effect was moderated by self-disclosure (Studies 2 and 3). Overall, this research is relevant to organizations seeking to capitalize upon the benefits of minority perspectives in the workforce but suggests that a critical first step is to prioritize the experience of value minorities and the decreased sense of social worth that can accompany this experience. By fostering an environment conducive to self-disclosure, organizations can help to alleviate the discomfort associated with value dissimilarity, thereby ensuring that all people, including the value minority, feel respected and are maximally engaged at work. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.15768 .

The Girlhood Project (TGP) is a community based, service-learning/research program that is part of the undergraduate course at Lesley University called "Girlhood, Identity and Girl Culture." TGP works with community partners to bring middle and high school girls to Lesley's campus for nine weeks as part of intergenerational girls' groups that are co-facilitated by Lesley students (also referred to as TGP students). TGP fosters the development of feminist leadership, critical consciousness, voice, and community action, and activism in all participants. In this article, we describe how we adapted TGP's model to a virtual and synchronous platform for students during COVID-19 and supported their learning competencies. We reflect critically on this experience by centering the voices and perspectives of girls, students, and professors.

Syphilis remains a disease of public health importance, with considerable health effects if not treated. Concurrent infection with syphilis and untreated HIV facilitates HIV transmission. The incidence of syphilis in Europe has been increasing, particularly among men who have sex with men (MSM) and in MSM with HIV. However, there is heterogeneity among countries in the case definition used for syphilis and in reported syphilis notification rates. In Ireland, we have undertaken a number of refinements of the national syphilis surveillance system since 2014, including refinement of the laboratory thresholds for notification (rapid plasma reagin 1:16 and/or positive IgM). This article outlines the steps taken and some of the challenges we faced. Our current case definition now accurately reflects the epidemiology of syphilis in Ireland and our current surveillance provides timely information for action, while not reducing the sensitivity of the system too much. For countries where surveillance is driven mainly by laboratory reporting and where obtaining clinical details is challenging, these thresholds for notification may be a pragmatic solution.

Background: Contact tracing is conducted with the primary purpose of interrupting transmission from individuals who are likely to be infectious to others. Secondary analyses of data on the numbers of close contacts of confirmed cases could also: provide an early signal of increases in contact patterns that might precede larger than expected case numbers; evaluate the impact of government interventions on the number of contacts of confirmed cases; or provide data information on contact rates between age cohorts for the purpose of epidemiological modelling. We analysed data from 140,204 close contacts of 39,861 cases in Ireland from 1st May to 1st December 2020. Results: Negative binomial regression models highlighted greater numbers of contacts within specific population demographics, after correcting for temporal associations. Separate segmented regression models of the number of cases over time and the average number of contacts per case indicated that a breakpoint indicating a rapid decrease in the number of contacts per case in October 2020 preceded a breakpoint indicating a reduction in the number of cases by 11 days. Conclusions: We found that the number of contacts per infected case was overdispersed, the mean varied considerable over time and was temporally associated with government interventions. Analysis of the reported number of contacts per individual in contact tracing data may be a useful early indicator of changes in behaviour in response to, or indeed despite, government restrictions. This study provides useful information for triangulating assumptions regarding the contact mixing rates between different age cohorts for epidemiological modelling.

BACKGROUND: Contact tracing is conducted with the primary purpose of interrupting transmission from individuals who are likely to be infectious to others. Secondary analyses of data on the numbers of close contacts of confirmed cases could also: provide an early signal of increases in contact patterns that might precede larger than expected case numbers; evaluate the impact of government interventions on the number of contacts of confirmed cases; or provide data information on contact rates between age cohorts for the purpose of epidemiological modelling. We analysed data from 140,204 close contacts of 39,861 cases in Ireland from 1st May to 1st December 2020. RESULTS: Negative binomial regression models highlighted greater numbers of contacts within specific population demographics, after correcting for temporal associations. Separate segmented regression models of the number of cases over time and the average number of contacts per case indicated that a breakpoint indicating a rapid decrease in the number of contacts per case in October 2020 preceded a breakpoint indicating a reduction in the number of cases by 11 days. CONCLUSIONS: We found that the number of contacts per infected case was overdispersed, the mean varied considerable over time and was temporally associated with government interventions. Analysis of the reported number of contacts per individual in contact tracing data may be a useful early indicator of changes in behaviour in response to, or indeed despite, government restrictions. This study provides useful information for triangulating assumptions regarding the contact mixing rates between different age cohorts for epidemiological modelling. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-021-12318-y.

peer-reviewed ; Background: Contact tracing is conducted with the primary purpose of interrupting transmission from individuals who are likely to be infectious to others. Secondary analyses of data on the numbers of close contacts of confirmed cases could also: provide an early signal of increases in contact patterns that might precede larger than expected case numbers; evaluate the impact of government interventions on the number of contacts of confirmed cases; or provide data information on contact rates between age cohorts for the purpose of epidemiological modelling. We analysed data from 140,204 close contacts of 39,861 cases in Ireland from 1st May to 1st December 2020. Results: Negative binomial regression models highlighted greater numbers of contacts within specific population demographics, after correcting for temporal associations. Separate segmented regression models of the number of cases over time and the average number of contacts per case indicated that a breakpoint indicating a rapid decrease in the number of contacts per case in October 2020 preceded a breakpoint indicating a reduction in the number of cases by 11 days. Conclusions: We found that the number of contacts per infected case was overdispersed, the mean varied considerable over time and was temporally associated with government interventions. Analysis of the reported number of contacts per individual in contact tracing data may be a useful early indicator of changes in behaviour in response to, or indeed despite, government restrictions. This study provides useful information for triangulating assumptions regarding the contact mixing rates between different age cohorts for epidemiological modelling.