Girl power and 'selfie humanitarianism'

The aim of this article is to examine the ‘turn to the girl’ and the mobilization of ‘girl power’ in contemporary global humanitarian and development campaigns. The paper argues that the ‘girl powering’ of humanitarianism is connected to the simultaneous depoliticization, corporatization, and neo-liberalization of both humanitarianism and girl power. Located in broad discussions of campaigns around Malala, Chime for Change and the Girl Effect, the paper seeks to understand the construction of girls as both ideal victims and ideal agents of change, and to examine the implications of this. It suggests that this shift is intertwined with what we call ‘selfie humanitarianism’ in which helping others is intimately connected to entrepreneurial projects of the self, and is increasingly figured less in terms of redistribution or justice than in terms of a makeover of subjectivity for all concerned. The structure of the paper is as follows. First we consider the literature about the depoliticization of humanitarian campaigns in the context of neoliberalism and the growing significance of corporate actors in the world of international aid and disaster relief. Next we examine similar processes in the commodification and export of discourses of ‘girl power’. We then argue that these have come together in the emerging ‘girl powering of development’ (Koffman and Gill 2013), a cocktail of celebratory ‘girlafestoes’ and empowerment strategies often spread virally via social media; celebrity endorsements; and corporate branding which stress that ‘I matter and so does she’ and elide the differences between pop stars and CEO of multinational corporations on the one hand, and girls growing up poor in the global South on the other. Our paper focuses on contemporary examples from the Girl Up campaign. The paper argues that far from being ‘post’ girl power, global humanitarian and development discourses constitute a new and instensified focus upon the figure of the girl and a distinctive, neo-colonial, neoliberal and postfeminist articulation of girl power

Street crossing behavior in younger and older pedestrians: an eye- and head-tracking study

Background Crossing a street can be a very difficult task for older pedestrians. With increased age and potential cognitive decline, older people take the decision to cross a street primarily based on vehicles’ distance, and not on their speed. Furthermore, older pedestrians tend to overestimate their own walking speed, and could not adapt it according to the traffic conditions. Pedestrians’ behavior is often tested using virtual reality. Virtual reality presents the advantage of being safe, cost-effective, and allows using standardized test conditions. Methods This paper describes an observational study with older and younger adults. Street crossing behavior was investigated in 18 healthy, younger and 18 older subjects by using a virtual reality setting. The aim of the study was to measure behavioral data (such as eye and head movements) and to assess how the two age groups differ in terms of number of safe street crossings, virtual crashes, and missed street crossing opportunities. Street crossing behavior, eye and head movements, in older and younger subjects, were compared with non-parametric tests. Results The results showed that younger pedestrians behaved in a more secure manner while crossing a street, as compared to older people. The eye and head movements analysis revealed that older people looked more at the ground and less at the other side of the street to cross. Conclusions The less secure behavior in street crossing found in older pedestrians could be explained by their reduced cognitive and visual abilities, which, in turn, resulted in difficulties in the decision-making process, especially under time pressure. Decisions to cross a street are based on the distance of the oncoming cars, rather than their speed, for both groups. Older pedestrians look more at their feet, probably because of their need of more time to plan precise stepping movement and, in turn, pay less attention to the traffic. This might help to set up guidelines for improving senior pedestrians’ safety, in terms of speed limits, road design, and mixed physical-cognitive trainings

Effects of Alzheimer’s Disease on Visual Target Detection: A “Peripheral Bias”

Visual exploration is an omnipresent activity in everyday life, and might represent an important determinant of visual attention deficits in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). The present study aimed at investigating visual search performance in AD patients, in particular target detection in the far periphery, in daily living scenes. Eighteen AD patients and 20 healthy controls participated in the study. They were asked to freely explore a hemispherical screen, covering ±90°, and to respond to targets presented at 10°, 30°, and 50° eccentricity, while their eye movements were recorded. Compared to healthy controls, AD patients recognized less targets appearing in the center. No difference was found in target detection in the periphery. This pattern was confirmed by the fixation distribution analysis. These results show a neglect for the central part of the visual field for AD patients and provide new insights by mean of a search task involving a larger field of view

Hubungan Antara Kepercayaan Terhadap Pemimpin Dengan Keterikatan Kerja Pada Karyawan PT Telkom Witel Semarang

Keterikatan kerja adalah kemampuan karyawan yang bersifat positif yang ditandai dengan curahan energi secara fisik dan mental dalam bekerja serta adanya keterlibatan yang kuat dan penuh konsentrasi dalam bekerja.Kepercayaan terhadap pemimpinadalahkepercayaan yang dimiliki karyawan terhadap pemimpin berdasarkan keyakinan bahwa pemimpin tersebut berkompeten, integritas, konsisten, loyalitas dan terbuka. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui hubungan antarakepercayaan terhadap pemimpindengan keterikatan kerja pada karyawan PT Telkom Witel Semarang.Populasi penelitian yang memenuhi karakteristik sebanyak 171 karyawan, sampel penelitian adalah 114 karyawan dengan karakteristik masa kerja minimal satu tahun dengan menggunakan teknik clusterrandom sampling. Pengumpulan data menggunakan skala keterikatan kerja(25 aitem α = 0,87) dan skala kepercayaan terhadap pemimpin(39 aitem α = 0,93). Analisis regresi sederhana menunjukan adanya hubungan positif dan signifikan antara kepercayaan terhadap pemimpin dengan keterikatan kerja (rxy = 0,55 dengn p <0,001) yang berarti semakin tinggikepercayaan terhadap pemimpin, maka semakin tinggi keterikatan kerja yang dimiliki karyawan. Demikian pula sebaliknya jika kepercayaan terhadap pemimpinrendah maka keterikatan kerja yang dimiliki oleh karyawan akan rendah. Kepercayaan terhadap pemimpin memberikan sumbangan efektif sebesar 30 % terhadap keterikatan kerja

Adjuvant chemotherapy and survival among patients 70 years of age and younger with node-negative breast cancer and the 21-gene recurrence score of 26-30

BACKGROUND: The benefits of chemotherapy in node-negative, hormone receptor-positive, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative breast cancer patients with the 21-gene recurrence score (RS) of 18-30, particularly those with RS 26-30, are not known. METHODS: Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data, we retrospectively identified 29,137 breast cancer patients with the 21-gene RS of 18-30 diagnosed between 2004 and 2015. Mortality risks according to the RS and chemotherapy use were compared by the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox\u27s proportional hazards model. RESULTS: Among the breast cancer patients with the RS 18-30, 21% of them had RS 26-30. Compared to breast cancer patients with RS 18-25, patients with RS 26-30 had more aggressive tumor characteristics and chemotherapy use and increased risk of breast cancer-specific mortality and overall mortality. In breast cancer patients who were aged ≤ 70 years and had RS of 26-30, chemotherapy administration was associated with a 32% lower risk of breast cancer-specific mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 0.68; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.47-0.99) and a 42% lower risk of overall mortality (HR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.44-0.76). Survival benefits were most pronounced in breast cancer patients who were younger or had grade III tumor. CONCLUSIONS: The 21-gene RS of 18-30 showed heterogeneous outcomes, and the RS 26-30 was a significant prognostic factor for an increased risk of mortality. Adjuvant chemotherapy could improve the survival of node-negative, hormone receptor-positive, and HER2-negative breast cancer patients with the 21-gene RS 26-30 and should be considered for patients, especially younger patients or patients with high-grade tumors

Action Plan to Follow-up on UNCED: Report of the CGIAR Task Force

Report of a task force assigned to formulate a CGIAR response to UNCED's Agenda 21, and the conventions on biological diversity, climate change, and desertification that were now emerging from it. The task force prescribed four CGIAR global initiatives: Marginal Soils, Genetic Resources, Human Resources, and a joint effort with the UNEP to develop a geographic information system (GIS) and agroecological database. It was proposed that all four initiatives be financed by a UNEP trust fund administered by a steering committee comprised of CGIAR and non-CGIAR representatives, with a full time facilitator.Appendixes are a detailed proposal for the GIS, and terms of reference for the proposed trust fund.Agenda document at TAC 62 and CGIAR International Centers Week, October 1993