Information For Debate Research Articles

The Behaviour of Activating of Information Tools of Shura Council Members in The Sultanate of Oman and Facilitating The Challenges That Facing Them

The study of the behaviour of activating of information tools of Shura Council members in the Sultanate of Oman and facilitating challenges facing them adopted the qualitative approach to achieve its goals through semi-structured interviews with the Council members of the 9th term (2019-2023). It consists of a sample study of twenty-eight members representing 32.5% of the student community. This study aims to investigate how to facilitate search tools of information of Members of Shura Council in Sultanate of Oman and the challenges facing them. The result showed that members of the Shura council were looking for information for parliamentary work and they used multiple tools and methods to obtain the information needed for their parliamentary work. It was also revealed that the members of the Shura council was keen to use the information in debates, officials' interviews, and media interviews. The study presented a set of recommendations for improving the information of the work in the Shura council and the work to adopt a law for the right of freedom of information, and activating the role of the Oman Council Library to serve parliamentary work.

“A Traitor to His Class”

This study looks historically at the role of the press in the public sphere, using as a case study the evolution of the views of publisher W.E. “Ned” Chilton III on race issues during his career at The Charleston Gazette, West Virginia's largest newspaper. The study commences during Chilton's early years at the Gazette just before the Brown v. Board of Education decision and ends a few years before his death in 1987. Chilton, born into privilege, began his career in the family newspaper business as an unquestioning member of the white power structure. However, over time he became extremely vocal in pointing out injustices toward African Americans during the civil rights movement, often using The Gazette's editorial pages and reporting resources to do so. In examining Chilton's publishing career through textual analysis, interviews, his personal papers, and published reports of the time, one can see how a single newspaper publisher became the most vocal and possibly the most effective voice for change in West Virginia during the civil rights movement, thus illustrating the dynamic role of even a single press outlet in providing access to information for debate in the public sphere.

Purine receptors and associated signaling systems in regulation of platelet function

Purine receptors of platelets play key role in hemostasis and thrombogenesis and they are used as targets for antiplatelet therapy. Platelets express three subtypes of purine receptors--P2X1, P2Y1 and P2Y12. The expression, ligands and sensitivity of purine receptors of platelets and their role in thrombogenesis are discussed in this article. Authors debate information about basic molecular mechanisms, links with intracellular signaling and biological effects of purine receptors activation. In conclusion, understanding of signaling mechanisms of purine receptors is a basis for further pharmacological strategy and effective antiplatelet therapy development.

XDR tuberculosis in South Africa: old questions, new answers

In The Lancet today, Keertan Dheda and co-authors present an interesting report about early treatment outcomes of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis (resistant to isoniazid, rifampicin, any fluoroquinolone, and at least one injectable drug: capreomycin, kanamycin, or amikacin) in South Africa. Culture conversion and mortality, stratified by HIV status, were retrospectively reviewed from the original records of a large cohort of 174 cases diagnosed between 2002 and 2008. Why is this report relevant? The scientific community is still piecing together the puzzle of XDR tuberculosis, more than 4 years after its first description. In looking more broadly to the issue of XDR tuberculosis, we find the same conundrum that faced the blind men in describing the elephant: is everyone partly right, or are we all mostly wrong? In addition to questions generated from the findings of treatment outcome studies of patients with XDR tuberculosis, Dheda and colleagues' results provide additional information for debate. Is XDR tuberculosis a death sentence as the European data indicate, or can we really achieve a high proportion of success as the data from Peru suggest? Is the poor outcome in patients with XDR tuberculosis described in KwaZulu Natal related to HIV-positive status as is commonly perceived? Are patients dying despite the availability of antiretroviral treatment? What is the best regimen for treatment of XDR tuberculosis in resource-restricted settings? What is the role of surgery? Are reliable predictors of poor outcome available? Dheda and colleagues' first finding was that there was no difference in early outcomes (mortality and culture conversion) in individuals with or without HIV infection. This result is important for the design and implementation of treatment programmes to reduce existing stigma associated with co-infection with XDR tuberculosis and HIV, and for advocacy purposes.

Diversity, lifestyles and rites: new biological and archaeological evidence from British Earlier Neolithic mortuary assemblages

A potentially very important and comparatively neglected source of information in debates about the nature of the early neolithic period in northwest Europe is human skeletal material. A new project is concerned with the issues of population diversity, lifestyles and ancestral rites.

Risky Business: An Analysis of Claimsmaking in the Development of an Ontario Drinking Water Objective for Tritium

On December 22, 1994, the Minister of Environment and Energy for Ontario announced an interim Ontario Drinking Water Objective for tritium (a radioactive waste product released into drinking water supplies during nuclear power production) of 7,000 Bq/L. The Minister's decision overrode the advice of his own advisory committee which had recommended a much lower level (100 Bq/L). Concerns have surfaced with respect to the potential adverse health effects associated with long-term exposure to low doses of tritium, though much uncertainty remains. This paper explores the struggle over the interpretation of the tritium ‘problem’ as claimsmaking in the context of the social construction of risk. Specifically, the paper documents how coalitions in the dispute constructed and communicated the risks associated with tritium in drinking water through the use of identifiable rhetorical idioms and claimsmaking styles that reflect, reinforce, and legitimize their contrasting core values and interests. The coalitions also adopt fundamentally contrasting risk assessment methods. Using excerpts from public hearings on the issue, the paper explores use of risk as a rhetorical resource through an examination of the contrasting risk assessment paradigms adopted by rival coalitions. Such analysis can contribute to our understanding of the use of scientific information in debates over contentious social problems.

The cost of school exclusion in England

Legislation in England and Wales since 1986 has sanctioned the permanent exclusion from school of pupils deemed disruptive. This punitive step has costs attached, which rise each year as the numbers excluded increase. This paper is mostly devoted to developing and applying a model to estimate the costs to public services of school exclusion in England. It also provides some illustrative cost data on the inclusion of behaviourally challenging pupils, explores policy alternatives to exclusion and argues that cost data provide valuable information in debate about policy options. Based on data gathered for the Commission for Racial Equality, the paper considers the costs to the full range of agencies involved when a child or young person is permanently excluded from school. Costs related to individuals vary hugely, but the average costs to education are high—double normal mainstream education—for less than 10 per cent of a full‐time education in the first year of exclusion. The costs to other agencies, particularly the police, are high. It is estimated that the cost in England of permanently excluded pupils in 1995/96 were approximately £71 million, and in 1996/97 over £81 million. As well as actual costs associated with permanent exclusions from school, consideration must be given to the returns on that expenditure. Currently the returns are poor, and the longer‐term costs may be high if continued full‐time education is not assured for young people to equip them to become citizens.

Post-Debate Analysis and Media Reliance: Influences on Candidate Image and Voting Probabilities

This study of 798 potential voters interviewed beginning three days before the September 25, 1988, presidential candidate debate and ending four days later analyzed the influence of exposure to television post-debate analysis and television and newspaper reliance on evaluations of candidate debate performance, candidate image, and voting preferences. Exposure to the debate and to post-debate television analysis had measurable and consistent influences on the evaluation of Dukakis as a debater (Dukakis was the consensus post-debate analysis winner), on Dukakis's image, and on the probability of voting for both candidates. Television news reliance for debate information was significantly related to debater ratings and the candidates' images for both candidates. There was a slight relationship between television news reliance and the probability of voting for Dukakis.

Credible debate equilibria

Legislation is not an end in itself, but means to an end. Unfortunately, the technical relationship connecting any legislation to real consequences is rarely known for sure. In debate, legislators have an opportunity to persuade others of the relative value of particular bills, to influence the substance of the agenda, and to affect voting decisions. Since preferences over consequences are typically taken to be fixed, such persuasion etc. necessarily amounts to changing beliefs over the likely effects of various alternative bills. The extent to which debate can be effective in altering others' beliefs depends on how audiences interpret and assimilate any information speechmakers volunteer. This paper considers one plausible approach to credibility in debate. Debate is modeled as a cheap talk stage preceding an endogenous agenda setting game under incomplete information. In this framework, the issue can be formulated in terms of what constitutes an equilibrium. It is demonstrated that a fairly weak and intuitively plausible criterion of credibility effectively leads to there being little opportunity for credible transmission of information in debate.