Surveillance Tactics Research Articles

Epidemiological Surveillance of Cholera in Russia During the Period of the Seventh Pandemic

In this work basic stages of formation of the epidemiological surveillance of cholera in Russia are described. In 1990-s for the first time zoning by epidemic manifestations of cholera was carried out at the level of subjects forming parts of Russia and other Republics of the Soviet Union with the introduction of differential tactics of epidemiological surveillance. Improvement of epidemiological surveillance of cholera was aimed at harmonization with the IHR (2005), integration of epidemiological surveillance of cholera and social-hygienic monitoring of water objects of I and II categories. Characterization of isolated Vibrio cholerae strains (1990-2014) on the genomic basis determined the emergence of new VNTR-genotypes of V. cholerae O1 ctxAB+ tcpA+, responsible for outbreaks, simultaneously with isolation of V. cholerae 01 ctxAB-tcpA-strains during monitoring of environmental objectsfor cholera. A viewpoint is considered of the beginning of the eighth cholera pandemic in the context of emergence of V. cholerae El Tor strains with CTXφ prophage carrying ctxB gene of cholera toxin of classical biovar. Main directions offurther enhancement ofepidemiological surveillance include the study of basic data structures used in the epidemiological surveillance system, the use of zoning of municipal units offederal subjects with corresponding surveillance tactics and expected economic effect.

ANALYSIS OF LONG-TERM DYNAMICS OF NOSOCOMIAL INFECTIONS INCIDENCE IN THE REPUBLIC OF NORTH OSSETIA-ALANIA

Abstract. Nosocomial infections occur in 5–20% of hospitalized patients. Officially, from 50 to 60 thousand cases of nosocomial infections are annually reported in the Russian Federation. The rapid development of invasive medical techniques, inappropriate use of antibiotics, instability of the sanitary-epidemiological, socio-economic, sociopolitical and socio-demographic situations could be considered as prerequisites for the increasing of many infectious diseases, including nosocomial infections. The detailed epidemiological analysis of nosocomial infections incidence at regional level provides the most complete picture of epidemiological situation and determines the tactics of surveillance and infection control. The aim of this study was to evaluate long-term dynamics of nosocomial infections incidence in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania. The study of epidemic process manifestations was based on the retrospective analysis of incidence from 1993 to 2010.

THE RUBELLA VIRUS AND ITS TERATOGENIC ACTION. PATHOGENESIS, CLINICAL SYMPTOMS, DIAGNOSTICS, PREVENTION OF CONGENITAL RUBELLA SYNDROME (CRS). Part 3. Diagnostics and prevention of CRS

Abstract. In the third part of the review different methods of diagnostics of postnatal and congenital rubella as well as surveillance tactics and infection control are discussed.

Negotiating the New Media Platforms: Youth and Political Images in Kenya

New media platforms, particularly social networks act as vehicles for visual representation of a nation’s political discourse among the youth. Web 2.0 has created online spaces (private and public) that have been appropriated by Kenyan youth, locally, and in the Diaspora to weave their own political narratives and present them in forums that accommodate their views without fear of censorship or regulation that characterises “offline” communications. Using post structuralism, with emphasis on Roland Barthes “Death of the Author” and “Camera Lucida”, the article critically analyses how cultural values affect the interpretation of online political images from Kenya, by internet users from different culture zones. Further, the article discusses whether political images posted by the youth in Kenya on their online private spaces can be used to promote political stereotypes, subjectivities and perpetuate visual hegemonies; or whether it allows the youth to circumvent government surveillance tactics and afford nations an opportunity to correct the media hegemony by rewriting their own stories on a platform that is not just national, but transnational

Negotiating the New Media Platforms: Youth and Political Images in Kenya

New media platforms, particularly social networks act as vehicles for visual representation of a nation’s political discourse among the youth. Web 2.0 has created online spaces (private and public) that have been appropriated by Kenyan youth, locally, and in the Diaspora to weave their own political narratives and present them in forums that accommodate their views without fear of censorship or regulation that characterises “offline” communications. Using post structuralism, with emphasis on Roland Barthes “Death of the Author” and “Camera Lucida”, the article critically analyses how cultural values affect the interpretation of online political images from Kenya, by internet users from different culture zones. Further, the article discusses whether political images posted by the youth in Kenya on their online private spaces can be used to promote political stereotypes, subjectivities and perpetuate visual hegemonies; or whether it allows the youth to circumvent government surveillance tactics and afford nations an opportunity to correct the media hegemony by rewriting their own stories on a platform that is not just national, but transnational

Coping Strategies of Urban and Rural Welfare Organisations and the Regulation of the Poor

With a comparative case study of the social welfare systems of an urban and a rural county in the United States, I explore variation in local welfare implementation by examining organisational strategies. Service provision in the rural county is less diverse and less effective than in the urban county due to place-based factors; however, in the urban county more financial resources and capacity translates into more regulation of the clientele as well as resistance to neoliberal practices. Organisations whose existence depends upon benevolent elites adapt to their funding requirements by regulating clients of social services, including tactics of surveillance, elaborate verification, and restriction. The enforcement of low-wage work that is bracketed by national policy is highly constraining, but can be challenged through a welfare organisation when the right conditions are present for an empowered grassroots approach. These findings are situated within the more general literature on the changing governance of welfare.

The Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union: A New Panopticism

The Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union (FRA) is the European Union's newest, and only, human rights institution. The FRA represents a new way of speaking about rights in the European Union, using ‘governance’ language. It was not conceived as a traditional human rights monitoring body and the monitoring mission was actively abandoned in favour of an advisory one. This article examines how the FRA's governance-related role actually reveals a type of monitoring best understood as ‘surveillance’ in a critical, Foucauldian sense. In exercising surveillance tactics, the FRA represents a model of panopticism which allows it to carry out a new form of government. This is an interesting observation not only because of the implications it has for a European Union that is striving to move away from government towards governance, but also because it challenges the assumption of the FRA as a ‘beacon on fundamental rights’ and a model of apolitical progress.

Monuments, mundanity and memory: Altering ‘place’ and ‘space’ at the National War Memorial (Canada)

On 1 July 2006, three youths were photographed urinating on the National War Memorial in Ottawa, Canada. This event affected Canadian collective memory in a very particular and subtle way. It acted as a catalyst for the (re)emergence of two discourses concerning Canadian collective memory. Each had competing claims and demands and became entangled in a negotiation that took place through the mass media. This negotiation led to the alteration of ‘place’ and ‘space’ at the National War Memorial through the introduction of particular tactics of surveillance. These aimed to limit the porosity of the site’s boundaries and, consequently, affected the nature of citizens’ interaction with the memory-site. This small event is important because its mundanity (and lack of intent) highlights the depth of the instability, and subtle dynamism, of collective memory.

‘The Coffee Club Menace’

This article examines the strategies and tactics of surveillance that were used by Manchester City Police in relation to anxieties about gender, sexuality, juvenile delinquency and drugs misuse in post-war England. In the early 1960s the members-only ‘coffee beat club’ became a target of police activity, resulting in a series of raids, minor prosecutions and the intensification of the licensing laws. Commenting on the relationship between police culture and youth culture, including the leisure practices of adolescent girls, this article argues that the targeting of the ‘coffee beat club’ became a motif for the defence of an older imagined social order.

Rules of Engagement and Strategies of Withdrawal: The War on Terror in 'The Bench of Desolation'

'The Bench of Desolation' takes faltering romance from a lovers' tiff to a new scale of conflict. James knew war, both civil, colonial and international, and this tale is intimate with its dangers. A rhetoric of extremism, the distortion of history and geography, and economic hegemony betray transgressions from private to public. The constructed cause, shifts of perspective and justification, the suspicion of intended destruction, the tactics of surveillance and evasion, the deployment of fiscal measures, the sense of an absence at the heart of the tale of wrong-doing: these are the signs of the war on terror.

Routing of platforms in a maritime surface surveillance operation

Maritime surface surveillance is the process of obtaining and maintaining information about surface ships in a certain sea area. It is carried out by maritime platforms such as frigates, helicopters or maritime patrol aircraft. Surface surveillance plays a vital role in maritime operations like trade embargo operations, counterdrug operations and traditional warfare operations. The problem of finding optimal tactics for a single surveillance unit is a routing problem which can to some extent be considered as an extension of the on-line travelling salesman problem, but there are essential complications which call for a different approach. A mathematical formulation of the surveillance routing problem is given in this paper. The complications of this problem, in comparison to the on-line travelling salesman problem, are explained. This routing problem is part of the rather complicated process of maritime surface surveillance. SURPASS, an acronym of SURface Picture ASSessment, is a computer model which simulates this process. The model SURPASS provides insight into both the means (i.e. platforms and sensors) needed for a surveillance operation and the effectiveness of various existing and newly developed rules for surveillance tactics. The structure of SURPASS is explained, including the way in which it solves the surveillance routing problem. A number of decision rules that can be used in the routing of the surveillance units are described. The effectiveness of these rules is analysed and evaluated.

The eye in the door

The National Care Standards Commission encourages the public to report potentially unsafe patient care in independent care homes. We asked our readers panel if the same surveillance tactics should be employed in the NHS