scholarly journals Wi-Fi radiation levels at BCIT

Author(s):  
Ketan Minhas ◽  
BCIT School of Health Sciences, Environmental Health ◽  
Bobby Sidhu

  Objective: To determine if there are any difference in the amount of EMF Wi-Fi radiation being emitted between three locations at the BCIT campus in Burnaby, BC. Background: Wi-Fi radiation is widely being used in today’s society for the quick access it gives us to connect to the internet. Some cities in the United Kingdom have installed many Wi-Fi devices throughout the public domain so people can be connected all the time. Furthermore, most schools are being outfitted with routers to provide internet access for their students. But, as this paper will show, new research is forcing a shift in the thinking of some policy makers in choosing to install these connections in the public domain. Method: To measure the amount of non-ionizing EMF radiation being absorbed by the body, an Extech RF meter was used. This instrument provides instantaneous and average readings for a particular area one measures. During the experiment, the RF meter was held stationary at one location for approximately 10-15 seconds in order to stabilize the reading. The average value was taken as the instantaneous reading was fluctuating. This process was done in 3 buildings at BCIT and in order to increase the reliability and validity, 30 data points were collected from each building. Results: The Tests of Assumption showed that the data was not normally distributed as there was more than one “Reject” at the 0.05 probability level. For analysis, the Krukal-Wallis One-Way ANOVA was utilized and results showed that due to a high probability level of 0.57, the H0 could not be rejected and as a result there are no differences in radiation levels being emitted into the buildings tested. Conclusion: The amount of Wi-Fi radiation in the three buildings tested at BCIT were not significantly different from one another.  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Michael Garrett ◽  
Joshua Paul White ◽  
Simon Dennis ◽  
Stephan Lewandowsky ◽  
Cheng-Ta Yang ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are introducing digital passports that allow citizens to return to normal activities if they were previously infected with (immunity passport) or vaccinated against (vaccination passport) SARS-CoV-2. To be effective, policy decision makers must know whether immunity and vaccination passports will be widely accepted by the public, and under what conditions? This study focuses attention on immunity passports, as these may prove useful in countries both with and without an existing COVID-19 vaccination program, however, our general findings also extend to vaccination passports. OBJECTIVE We aimed to assess attitudes towards the introduction of immunity passports in six countries, and determine what social, personal, and contextual factors predicted their support. METHODS We collected online representative samples across six countries – Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom – from April to May of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, and assessed attitudes and support for the introduction of immunity passports. RESULTS Immunity passport support was moderate-to-low, ranging from 51% in the UK and Germany, 47% in Australia and Spain, 46% in Taiwan, and 22% in Japan. Bayesian generalized linear mixed effects modelling controlling assessed predictive factors for immunity passport support across countries. International results showed neoliberal world views, personal concern and perceived virus severity, the fairness of immunity passports, and willingness to become infected to gain an immunity passport, were all predictive factors of immunity passport support. By contrast, gender (woman), immunity passport concern, and risk of harm to society predicted a decrease in support for immunity passports. Minor differences in predictive factors were found between countries and results were modelled separately to provide national accounts of these data. CONCLUSIONS Our research suggests that support for immunity passports is predicted by the personal benefits and social risks they confer. These findings generalized across six countries and may also prove informative for the introduction of vaccination passports, helping policy makers to introduce effective COVID-19 passport policies in these six countries and around the world.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 349-378
Author(s):  
J O Moses Okello

Abstract The Kampala Convention was adopted on 23 October 2009 and came into force on 4 January 2013. The first binding international instrument for the protection and assistance of internally displaced persons, it occupies an important space among the body of African regional humanitarian and human rights law. The Convention addresses all stages of internal displacement and provides a framework for coordinating activities by governments and humanitarian actors aimed at preventing and addressing internal displacement. The Kampala Convention is the result of many years of work, although no formal records of its drafting and negotiation were kept. This article contributes towards addressing this gap. Based on the author’s personal involvement in the Convention’s drafting, and supplementing earlier research, this article shares information previously unavailable in the public domain and provides a commentary on some of the Convention’s provisions.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Michael Garrett ◽  
Joshua Paul White ◽  
Simon Dennis ◽  
Stephan Lewandowsky ◽  
Cheng-Ta ◽  
...  

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are introducing digital passports that allow citizens to return to normal activities if they were previously infected with (immunity passport) or vaccinated against (vaccination passport) SARS-CoV-2. To be effective, policy decision makers must know whether immunity and vaccination passports will be widely accepted by the public, and under what conditions? We collected representative samples across six countries – Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom – during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic to assess attitudes towards the introduction of immunity passports. Immunity passport support was moderate-to-low, ranging from 51% in the UK and Germany, down to 22% in Japan. Bayesian generalized linear mixed effects modelling controlling for each country showed neoliberal world views, personal concern and perceived virus severity, the fairness of immunity passports, and willingness to become infected to gain an immunity passport, were all predictive factors of immunity passport support. By contrast, gender (woman), immunity passport concern, and risk of harm to society predicted a decrease in support for immunity passports. Minor differences in predictive factors were found between countries. These findings will help policy makers introduce effective immunity passport policies in these six countries and around the world.


Author(s):  
William VOORBERG ◽  
Arwin VAN BUUREN ◽  
Geert BRINKMAN

In the public domain, design thinking is increasingly expected to create value by including service users in the fundamental aspects of these services. However, in order to create value, the design approach needs to be ‘translated’ into an applicable framework, appropriate for the public domain. Therefore, we first explore what kind of value is supposed to be generated within the public domain. Subsequently, by focusing on well-known contributions from the design literature, we review what can be learned from design approaches for value creation with users. Then, we examine what kind of specific characteristics of the public domain needs to be taken into consideration, when one aims to apply a design-oriented approach in the public domain. Ultimately, we conclude how the design approach, can be made applicable within the public domain. In doing so, this paper aims to formulate stepping stones for both academics and policy makers alike.


2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 289-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arjen Mulder

All media begin as a potential in our bodies, expand into the public domain, creating a world – and finally end again in the body, as a way of being, a range of feeling, a belief system. Media theory studies this trajectory. For media theory, media have two limits. Media cannot, by definition, make contact with the extramedial (because, if they could, they would become intramedial). And when media are translated into software they lose their identity and become part of something beyond media theory.


2013 ◽  
Vol 107 (4) ◽  
pp. 849-865 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL R. TOMZ ◽  
JESSICA L. P. WEEKS

One of the most striking findings in political science is the democratic peace: the absence of war between democracies. Some authors attempt to explain this phenomenon by highlighting the role of public opinion. They observe that democratic leaders are beholden to voters and argue that voters oppose war because of its human and financial costs. This logic predicts that democracies should behave peacefully in general, but history shows that democracies avoid war primarily in their relations with other democracies. In this article we investigate not whether democratic publics are averse to war in general, but whether they are especially reluctant to fight other democracies. We embedded experiments in public opinion polls in the United States and the United Kingdom and found that individuals are substantially less supportive of military strikes against democracies than against otherwise identical autocracies. Moreover, our experiments suggest that shared democracy pacifies the public primarily by changing perceptions of threat and morality, not by raising expectations of costs or failure. These findings shed light on a debate of enduring importance to scholars and policy makers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 484-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J Mela ◽  
John McLaughlin ◽  
Peter J Rogers

ABSTRACT Widely differing views exist among experts, policy makers, and the general public with regard to the potential risks and benefits of reduced- or low-energy sweeteners (LES) in the diet. These views are informed and influenced by different types of research in LES, with differing hypotheses, designs, interpretation, and communication. Given the high level of interest in LES, and the public health relevance of the research evidence base, it is important that all aspects of the research process are framed and reported in an appropriate and balanced manner. In this Perspective, we identify and give examples of a number of issues relating to research and reviews on LES, which may contribute toward apparent inconsistencies in the content and understanding of the totality of evidence. We conclude with a set of recommendations for authors, reviewers and journal editors, as general guidance to improve and better standardize the quality of LES research design, interpretation, and reporting. These focus on clarity of underlying hypotheses, characterization of exposures, and the placement and weighting of new research within the wider context of related prior work.


Human Affairs ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Carrier

AbstractThis article questions the effectiveness of “engagement teaching” when dealing with controversial subjects by exploring the role of fear in contemporary education about the Holocaust in the United Kingdom. It begins by assessing a governmental report about education and a series of related press reports and chain emails, whose assumption that secondary school teachers are afraid of teaching controversial subjects (in particular the Holocaust) triggered an international scandal about Holocaust education in the UK in April 2007. The author argues that three forms of respectful fear or deference are undermined in Holocaust teaching: epistemological (towards historical knowledge); political (towards curricula); and intergenerational (towards teachers). The article further demonstrates that the object of fear expressed by journalists and the public was not the Holocaust itself, but the reversal of deferential relations between teachers and pupils in the school classroom and the supposition that we may not learn from history. Whereas history education is held up by policy-makers as a safeguard of social stability and of the transmission of values, the application of “engagement teaching” to controversial subjects may in fact undermine the authority of historical education and the enlightenment principles on which it is founded.


Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 402
Author(s):  
Louis Torracinta ◽  
Rachel Tanner ◽  
Samantha Vanderslott

This review critically assesses the body of research about Measles-Mumps-and-Rubella (MMR) vaccine attitudes and uptake in the United Kingdom (UK) over the past 10 years. We searched PubMed and Scopus, with terms aimed at capturing relevant literature on attitudes about, and uptake of, the MMR vaccine. Two researchers screened for abstract eligibility and after de-duplication 934 studies were selected. After screening, 40 references were included for full-text review and thematic synthesis by three researchers. We were interested in the methodologies employed and grouped findings by whether studies concerned: (1) Uptake and Demographics; (2) Beliefs and Attitudes; (3) Healthcare Worker Focus; (4) Experimental and Psychometric Intervention; and (5) Mixed Methods. We identified group and individual level determinants for attitudes, operating directly and indirectly, which influence vaccine uptake. We found that access issues, often ignored within the public “anti-vax” debate, remain highly pertinent. Finally, a consistent theme was the effect of misinformation or lack of knowledge and trust in healthcare, often stemming from the Wakefield controversy. Future immunisation campaigns for children, including for COVID-19, should consider both access and attitudinal aspects of vaccination, and incorporate a range of methodologies to assess progress, taking into account socio-economic variables and the needs of disadvantaged groups.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gholamreza Jamali ◽  
Mina Oveisi

The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is a group of processes and knowledge fields which are generally accepted as greatest practice within the project management discipline. The PMBOK Guide is also an internationally recognized standard which provides the fundamentals of project management as they apply to a wide range of projects. PRINCE2 is a project management methodology standard in the United Kingdom and Europe. This standard is the required method for all UK government commissioned projects. PRINCE2 is in the public domain and offers best practice guidance on how to manage a project. The aim of this study is to compare PRINCE2 and PMBOK to recognize the characteristics of these best practices in order to provide decision criteria for governments with regard to selecting IT project management methodology.


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