Thesis (B.A.)--Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses.

The evolution of welfare feeding in the United Kingdom is investigated within the framework of the development of the Welfare State. Welfare feeding, including the nutritional role of meals, is then evaluated looking at two examples of welfare provision, feeding in schools as an example of provision for the young and meals-on-wheels as an example of provision for the elderly. The nutritional role of both school meals and meals-on-wheels are considered in the light of nutritional requirements, contemporary dietary views and the feeding behaviour of the young and elderly. Whilst research suggests that school meals make a more significant contribution to the diet than alternative sources of lunch there is evidence that the nutritional value of both school meals and meals-on-wheels are variable and that in some cases they have not provided expected levels of nutrients. There are thus clear requirements for some form of nutritional standards for both school meals and meals-on-wheels. The uptake of school meals is a function of pupils perceptions of lunchtime feeding. An attitude based approach using a Likert Scale was developed to identify what children perceive as important in the school feeding environment. A core group of problem areas were identified as relevant for all groups of pupils and more specific factors were identified for each sub-group. It was established that the attitude measurement tool was appropriate in the prediction of feeding behaviour. The transportation of meals was investigated in terms of the requirements of the meals-on-wheels service. Alternative delivery systems were evaluated and those most appropriate to the meals-on-wheels service were identified. Insulated systems are appropriate for deliveries of up to 90 minutes whilst the best of the heated delivery systems are appropriate for up to 3.5 hours.

This dissertation aims to look at two facets of welfare: consumption and female schooling outcomes. We seek to evaluate the impact of microfinance on regional and household welfare and female stipends on female schooling outcomes. The first chapter examines the impact of Grameen Bank and BRAC on regional welfare in Bangladesh. Welfare at the sub-district level is measured in terms of household consumption, and then we examine how the presence of microfinance institutions affect regional welfare. The second chapter aims to evaluate the impact of the female secondary school stipend on female enrollment and to see whether the stipend has any effect on females continuing to be enrolled in secondary school and whether females complete more years of schooling. The third chapter aims to assess the impact of microfinance participation on the educational outcomes of girls, using the techinique of propensity score matching. Using enrollment data for 2010 and 2011, we attempt to see if MFI participation has impact on measures such as whether girls are currently enrolled in school and whether they have continuously been enrolled in school.

The discipline of social anthropology has been remarkably inattentive to the phenomenon and organizational practices of 'charity', and, associatedly, has been non-discursive in its treatment of social welfare. In this thesis, I endeavour to indicate that this disciplinary ignorance of charity and social welfare is to be regretted. Through my case-study analysis of the role of a key charitable organization in Hong Kong I hope to convince my readers of the relatively untapped potential of 'an anthropology of charity'. Cultural practices of charity and social welfare are sociologically significant and interesting in their own right, but can also illuminate wider social and political processes and structures from an unusual perspective. Attention to 'charity' has much to offer anthropology, but the obverse also holds, understandably, not been properly mindful of anthropological - particularly ethnographic - approaches. The nucleus of my research is the Community Chest, the most influential nongovernmental charitable organization in the colony (soon to be post-colony) of Hong Kong. In my thesis I examine inter cilia: the setting in which the Community Chest operates; its organizational structures and procedures; the cultural logic of donation; issues of entitlement; and the relationship between donors and recipients of charity. Throughout I am attentive to the linkages between charity provided by fiat is often called 'the voluntary sector', and social welfare as dispensed by the Hong Kong state. A key theme is the extent to which the Community Chest, despite its epithet as a nongovernmental organization, should be viewed as having a definite brokerage role between the state and Hong Kong's people. The institutionalization of altruism, which the Community Chest represents, does not escape the reach of the Hong Kong state. In a deliberate manner I utilize the Community Chest as a prism by which to scrutinize the 'borrowed time and borrowed place' that is contemporary Hong Kong. Not only is Hong Kong a global (and arguably postmodern) city, which has changed dynamically in recent decades, but existentially and psychologically its population is affected by the ever lurking shadow of the PRC regime to which Hong Kong will be handed over in July 1997. The Community Chest was established in 1968 at a time written both the Hong Kong state and society were undergoing radical changes. From the vantage point of the Community Chest I have been able to calibrate the transformations and continuities of the last three decades, and the not insignificant role played by charity and social welfare over that period. In addition to illuminating Hong Kong' s extraordinary contemporary situation, I hope also to have contributed to on-going theoretical debates in anthropology, sinology, and the social sciences generally. There is a burgeoning literature on gift exchange, entitlement, altruism, concepts of need and poverty, the role of NGOs in alleviating hardship, clientelism, and the role of mass media representations. I feel that my fieldwork research makes a contribution to discussion of each of these issues. My work contributes a further perspective from which to understand guanxi (personal networks) and renging (moral norms and human feelings) as axiomatic Chinese cultural constructions. I am also concerned with questions of citizenship, of community, of hybridity, of identity, of belonging, and of nationalism, all of which are especially fraught issues for people in contemporary Hong Kong. Finally, but deserving special mention - one of my chief ambitions has been to appraise the claims that the New Right makes for Hong Kong as the epitome of a ' leissez-faire' policy in which the state's interventions in terms of welfare provision are based on residualist principles. The New Right profess that Hong Kong is the free market economy, and that the voluntary sector and the market provide welfare effectively in the absence of state intervention. My research indicates that the Hong Kong state, despite its laissez-faire rhetoric, has been decisively interventionist. The Community Chest, set up ostensibly to generate and dispense charity from the voluntary sector, is ambivalently entangled with the hidden hands of both big business and the state.

No description available.

Master of Science / Biomedical Sciences / Daniel U. Thomson / Two studies were conducted to evaluate two animal welfare issues in the beef industry today. The welfare of animals has become a major discussion among consumers and producers. The objective of these studies was to evaluate if certain production practices are beneficial to the wellbeing of the animals in a production setting. The first study evaluated if castration and implementation of growth promotion technologies of physically mature male beef cattle, which failed the breed soundness exam (BSE), improved carcass quality compared to male beef cattle left intact. Sixteen month old Angus bulls (n = 24; 606 + 11.4 kg) were stratified by weight and randomly assigned to 2 treatments: intact control (BULL) and castrated with growth promotion technology (STR) to evaluate performance and carcass quality. Cattle assigned to STR treatment were implanted with 120 mg trenbolone acetate (TBA) and 24 mg estradiol on d 0, and were fed ractopamine hydrochloride (300 mg/d) the final 28 d prior to slaughter. Cattle were fed a dry-rolled corn-based finishing diet (1.41 Mcal/kg NEg) for 62 d (final wt = 697 +/- 24.3 kg) then harvested at a commercial abattoir. Carcass characteristics were recorded and longissimus muscle samples were obtained. There were no differences between treatments for quality grade, yield grade, HCW, back fat thickness, or dressing percent. Steak tenderness values based on Warner Bratzler shear force (WBSF), and sensory panel evaluation showed no difference between BULL and STR steaks in myofibrillar tenderness, juiciness, beef flavor intensity, connective tissue, overall tenderness, and off flavor intensity. Cattle within the BULL treatment tended to have improved average daily gain (ADG) and feed efficiency, with no difference in carcass characteristics, WBSF, or sensory panel measurements compared to STR administered growth promotion technology. The second study evaluated if cohorts with horns within a pen lot of cattle caused an increase in carcass bruising, and to determine if horn tipping and dehorning is necessary. Carcasses from (n = 4,287) feedlot cattle were observed at one commercial beef packing plant in southwest Kansas to investigate the relationship between the presence and size of horns in cattle and the prevalence, anatomical location, and severity of bruising of carcasses. Horn measurements taken were the length of the longest horn from base to tip and the tip-to-tip distance between the tips of both horns. Bruises were evaluated by location and severity. Bruise severity was scored at 3 levels: minor: ≤ 5 cm, moderate: 5 to 15 cm, and severe: > 15 cm. Within pen lots of cattle, the percentage of cattle with horns ranged from 0 to 26%. There were 4,287 carcasses evaluated and 2,295 had one or more bruises for a total, overall bruise prevalence of 53.5%. Of the total number of bruises, 25.6% were severe, 35.6% were moderate, and 38.8% were minor. The majority of bruises (61.8%) occurred on the dorsal mid-line with similar rates of bruising occurring on the left (18.6%) and right (19.5%) sides. There was no relationship found between the prevalence of horns and prevalence of bruising in a pen lot of cattle (P = 0.90). These two studies conclude that feeding of bulls that fail the BSE could eliminate an animal welfare concern while removing the cost and management of growth promotion technology administration. Additionally to that there may be other factors causing carcass bruising at other than cohorts with horns.

The Child Support Grant was introduced to address poverty alleviation in the sense of supplementing the provision of basic needs of children. When the grant was initiated it catered for children under the age of seven, and is currently assisting children up until 18 years of age. Even though the children are supposed to be benefitting from the grants, reports from social workers and selected research findings question whether some children do indeed receive the benefits of the grant. Previous studies have predominantly focused on the experiences of caregivers/beneficiaries. The goal of this exploratory-descriptive study was to explore and describe selected social workers’ experiences regarding the utilization of the child support grant by beneficiaries. The population comprised of social workers who have two years of experience working with families receiving the Child Support Grant and who work for the Department of Social Development and Special Programmes, Afrikaanse Christelike Vroue VerenIging, and Child Welfare South Africa in Somerset East.

This thesis looks at the organisation of social welfare in the town of Eldoret in Kenya. It outlines the structure of welfare services provided by a number of different individuals and agencies and the way the giving and receiving of aid performs a structuring role in this multi-racial and multi-tribal town. I have used an anthropological approach to investigate the nature of 'welfare', showing that it is often approached from the wrong direction. 'Welfare needs' are not something 'out there' waiting to be met, they are defined and highlighted by the welfare services themselves. An overview of the situation and the complexity of the urban structure reveals how problematical a definition of the concept of 'need' is. The history of welfare activity and the contemporary situation are described and discussed. It is shown that there is in the town a juxtaposition of many international, national and local groups willing to be involved in welfare work, and a number of people who feel that the problems which they encounter in the urban setting make them eligible for this aid. Throughout the history of the town the giving and receiving of aid has been one of the activities contributing to the acquisition of power and status for individuals and for groups. There is no form of coordinating structure to organise the many participants in the social welfare activities and gaps in the provision therefore exist. It is shown that self-help groups have often been formed which bridge the gaps and help the recipients, their members, gain access to welfare donors. These groups provide their members, and particularly their leaders, with the chance to accrue status and advance socially in the urban environment which, because of their lack of education or contacts, prevents their access to other sources of personal advancement. The role of the broker is highlighted both in the self-help groups and in the formal welfare agencies. It is argued that these actors, moving between the donors and the recipients provide structure and linkages in the fluid urban system. The implications of the research findings for welfare and aid planning in Kenya suggest that more attention should be paid to encouraging these self-help groups. There is also a need to adopt a means of coordinating the use of aid in the towns, perhaps making use of the broker role, so that the aid reaches the target population.

Background. Colorectal and breast cancers are two of the commonest malignant diseases. The approach to these two cancers is markedly different with patients suffering from breast cancer having the benefits of screening, specialist nurses and support groups. In contrast, colorectal cancer has received less attention in terms of screening, support and public interest. Purpose. This study aimed to collect prospective data on presentation, predisposing factors, co-existing morbidity and management of patients with breast and colorectal cancer and make comparisons with national guidelines. It examined patient perceived quality of life in both colorectal and breast cancer groups prior to and following surgery. The groups were further divided by gender and into stoma and non-stoma (colorectal cancer) and mastectomy and breast conserving surgery (breast cancer). In addition, the work compared the life quality between the colorectal and breast cancer groups and evaluated the appropriateness of newly developed disease specific QOL questionnaires on a UK population. Methods. This study formed a prospective longitudinal repeated measures design. Patients were evaluated at three time points over a six month period starting at the time at which they underwent their cancer surgery. At the first assessment demographic, clinical and QOL data were collected and at 3 and 6 months clinical data was updated and QOL assessed. Clinical data consisted of pathology, adjuvant therapy, morbidity and mortality. QOL was measured at each assessment using the generic cancer EORTC QLQ-C30 instrument. In addition, the colorectal specific module (EORTC QLQ-CR38) and the breast specific module (EORTC QLQ-BR23) were administered at 3 and 6 months post surgery. Results. The clinical data was compared with national guidelines for each cancer population. Guidelines for colorectal cancer were not followed closely whereas those for breast cancer were more formally adhered to. Over the study period, patients with colorectal cancer reported an improvement in emotional functioning, gastrointestinal (CI) symptoms, pain and weight gain. Males reported more nausea, vomiting, dyspnoea and pain. They also had greater sexual enjoyment, although reported more sexual problems. The stoma group had decreased social functioning throughout the study, increased 31 symptoms and sexual problems at 3 months. The non-stoma group had increased emotional functioning from surgery to 3 months and improved sleep. Over the study period, patients with breast cancer reported deterioration in pain, fatigue, dyspnoea and sexual enjoyment. Additionally, at 3 months they reported poorer physical functioning, role functioning and social functioning. The breast conserving group reported deterioration in cognitive functioning, emotional functioning and global well-being and worse diarrhoea. The mastectomy group reported better physical functioning, but poorer role functioning, body image and future perspective. A comparison of the two cancer groups indicated that there were few QOL differences. The colorectal cancer group had worse pain at the time of surgery and reported more 31 symptoms throughout the study. The breast cancer group had better social functioning, role functioning and physical functioning at the time of surgery, but complained of worse pain at 3 months and had poorer emotional functioning throughout the study. It is interesting to note that for both cancer groups there were generally high levels of functioning. There was difficulty in interpreting some of the data because the questionnaires were not appropriate/sensitive in certain areas for these populations. There were many missing answers to the questions on sexual health. Conclusions. This work has provided an insight into the management of two common cancers at a time when guidelines were being established. Quality of life measures with greater sensitivity are required so that they can be used in all clinical trials and longitudinal studies to provide comparable information. There is a need to generate meaningful QOL data that can be easily understood by all clinicians involved in cancer care and which can be incorporated into clinical management.

Abstract Not Available.