30913 research outputs found
Sort by
Review of Between the Kindling and the Blaze: Reflections on the Concept of Mana by Ben Brown.
Get PDFReview of Between the Kindling and the Blaze: Reflections on the Concept of Mana by Ben Brown. Includes CD of readings of selected poems
Review of Border Crossings edited by Diana Glenn and Graham Tulloch
Get PDFReview of Border Crossings edited by Diana Glenn and Graham Tulloc
Interview with Kayo Chingonyi, Poet and Creative Facilitator
Get PDFIn his 2011 profile for Poetry International Web, Alan Ward calls Chingonyi a “creative facilitator”. A title well earned, as a look into his biography and my conversation with him reveal. Born in Zambia in 1987, Kayo Chingonyi moved to the UK in 1993. In addition to writing and performing poetry, he raps and teaches creative writing workshops at universities, schools and youth centres. He has collaborated with the dancer Sean Graham, and with the composer Fred Thomas, and curated events for the Institute of Contemporary Arts as well as London’s Africa Centre, to mention but a few of his projects. The London-based poet holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Sheffield and an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway, University of London. Kayo Chingonyi has completed residencies with Kingston University, Cove Park and others. He won the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize in 2012 and was shortlisted for the Brunel University African Poetry Prize in 2013. His first pamphlet, Some Bright Elegance (Salt, 2012) is subject of this interview. Following Kayo’s suggestion, we discussed the elegies “Kenta”, “Alternate Take” and “A Proud Blemish”. He has published a second pamphlet, The Colour of James Brown’s Scream (Akashic, 2016), and his first full-length collection, Kumukanda (Chatto & Windus, 2017). Kayo Chingonyi attended the workshop “Voices from the Margins,” held at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, 23 and 24 September 2016, where this interview was conducted. The interview was edited and expanded in consultation with Kayo Chingonyi between January and March 2017
Evaluation of the Multi-Attribute Prioritisation Tool for Total Joint Replacement
Get PDF© 2018 Prof. PK Surendran Memorial Education Foundation. Published by Elsevier, a division of RELX India, Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.
This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (March 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyRationale, aims and objectives
The demand for arthroplasty is increasing and will continue to rise with an ageing population. Obesity and lengthy waiting time for Total Joint Replacement (TJR) have been associated with poorer outcomes postoperatively. This study aimed to evaluate the Multi-Attribute Prioritisation Tool (MAPT) for TJR patients. The primary objective was to explore if patients prioritised by the MAPT had an improvement in score post-operative. Further to identify any relationship between MAPT score and length of time on the waiting list or obesity.
Method
This retrospective cohort study included 308 patients undergoing total hip (n = 114) or total knee (n = 194) arthroplasty. We examined preoperative and postoperative MAPT scores of patients who had total hip or total knee arthroplasty. After assessing the difference between postoperative and preoperative MAPT scores, patients scores were compared to BMI and waiting time classes. BMI was allocated to less than 30, 30–35, 35–40 and greater than 40. Duration of time on the waiting list was allocated to less than 6 months and greater than 6 months.
Results
THA and TKA patients MAPT scores improved from a preoperative score of 71.39–5.26 postoperative and 54.11 to 7.13 respectively. Patients whose MAPT scores placed them in the high priority category had a significant relationship with length of time on the waiting list (p < 0.01). There were no significant differences between length of time on the waiting list and improvement scores for low priority and middle priority patients. BMI had minimal effect on patients improvement score postoperative.
Conclusion
TJR patients prioritised by the MAPT questionnaire do experience pain relief as portrayed by a reduction in postoperative MAPT score. A longer length of time on the waiting list seems to effect the improvement a high priority patient can have postoperative
Ethical Use and Impact of Participatory Approaches to Research in Post-Disaster Environments: An Australian Bushfire Case Study
Get PDFCopyright © 2018 L. Gibbs et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.This paper presents a case study of Beyond Bushfires, a large, multisite, mixed method study of the psychosocial impacts of major bushfires in Victoria, Australia. A participatory approach was employed throughout the study which was led by a team of academic investigators in partnership with service providers and government representatives and used on-site visits and multiple methods of communication with communities across the state to inform decision-making throughout the study. The ethics and impacts of conducting and adapting the approach within a post-disaster context will be discussed in reference to theories and models of participatory health research. The challenges of balancing local interests with state-wide implications will also be explored in the description of the methods of engagement and the study processes and outcomes. Beyond Bushfires demonstrates the feasibility of incorporating participatory methods in large, post-disaster research studies and achieving rigorous findings and multilevel impacts, while recognising the potential for some of the empowering aspects of the participatory experience to be reduced by the scaled-up approach
Evidence for the interaction of peroxiredoxin-4 with the store-operated calcium channel activator STIM1 in liver cells
Get PDF© 2018 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (May 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policy.Ca2+ entry through store-operated Ca2+ channels (SOCs) in the plasma membrane (PM) of hepatocytes plays a central role in the hormonal regulation of liver metabolism. SOCs are composed of Orai1, the channel pore protein, and STIM1, the activator protein, and are regulated by hormones and reactive oxygen species (ROS). In addition to Orai1, STIM1 also interacts with several other intracellular proteins. Most previous studies of the cellular functions of Orai1 and STIM1 have employed immortalised cells in culture expressing ectopic proteins tagged with a fluorescent polypeptide such as GFP. Little is known about the intracellular distributions of endogenous Orai1 and STIM1. The aims are to determine the intracellular distribution of endogenous Orai1 and STIM1 in hepatocytes and to identify novel STIM1 binding proteins. Subcellular fractions of rat liver were prepared by homogenisation and differential centrifugation. Orai1 and STIM1 were identified and quantified by western blot. Orai1 was found in the PM (0.03%), heavy (44%) and light (27%) microsomal fractions, and STIM1 in the PM (0.09%), and heavy (85%) and light (13%) microsomal fractions. Immunoprecipitation of STIM1 followed by LC/MS or western blot identified peroxiredoxin-4 (Prx-4) as a potential STIM1 binding protein. Prx-4 was found principally in the heavy microsomal fraction. Knockdown of Prx-4 using siRNA, or inhibition of Prx-4 using conoidin A, did not affect Ca2+ entry through SOCs but rendered SOCs susceptible to inhibition by H2O2. It is concluded that, in hepatocytes, a considerable proportion of endogenous Orai1 and STIM1 is located in the rough ER. In the rough ER, STIM1 interacts with Prx-4, and this interaction may contribute to the regulation by ROS of STIM1 and SOCs
Social marketing and community mobilisation to reduce underage alcohol consumption in Australia: A cluster randomised community trial
Get PDF© 2018 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (March 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyBackground and aims: In many countries adolescent alcohol use is a major health problem. To supplement national policies, it is important to trial community interventions as a potential strategy to prevent adolescent alcohol use.
Methods: This study evaluated a multicomponent community intervention that included community mobilisation, social marketing, and the monitoring of alcohol sales to minors. Evaluation was a clustered randomised trial design with 14 intervention and 14 control communities. Prior to randomisation, communities were matched on socioeconomic status and location. Intervention communities were not blinded.
Participants: 3545 Year 8 students (M = 12 years) were surveyed at baseline from 75 schools; 3377 students were surveyed post intervention in 2013 from 54 schools.
Outcomes: It was hypothesised that the primary outcome, individual alcohol consumption in last 30 days, after the intervention would be 15% lower in intervention communities. Secondary outcomes were consumption in the past year and intention not to drink before age 18.
Results: The intervention communities showed larger relative reductions compared to the controls in last 30-day consumption and past year (10%), but not significantly different. A significantly lower proportion of participants in the intervention community (63%), compared to the controls (71%), reported intending to drink before 18 years old. Subgroup analysis identified regional and state differences for some secondary measures.
Conclusions: Intervention assignment was associated with lower adolescent intention to drink before the age of 18. However, more intensive and longer-term intervention may be required to measure significant differences in behaviour change.
Trial registration: ACTRN12612000384853
Visceral pain – Novel approaches for optogenetic control of spinal afferents
Get PDF© 2018 Elsevier B.V. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (February 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policy.Painful stimuli arising within visceral organs are detected by peripheral nerve endings of spinal afferents, whose cell bodies are located in dorsal root ganglia (DRG). Recent technical advances have made it possible to reliably expose and inject single DRG with neuronal tracers or viruses in vivo. This has facilitated, for the first time, unequivocal identification of different types of spinal afferent endings in visceral organs. These technical advances paved the way for a very exciting series of in vivo experiments where individual DRG are injected to facilitate opsin expression (e.g. Archaerhodopsin). Organ-specific expression of opsins in sensory neurons may be achieved by retrograde viral transduction. This means activity of target-specific populations of sensory neurons, within single DRG, can be modulated by optogenetic photo-stimulation. Using this approach we implanted micro light-emitting diodes (micro-LEDs) adjacent to DRG of interest, thereby allowing focal DRG-specific control of visceral and/or somatic afferents in conscious mice. This is vastly different from broad photo-illumination of peripheral nerve endings, which are dispersed over much larger surface areas across an entire visceral organ; and embedded deep within multiple anatomical layers. Focal DRG photo-stimulation also avoids the potential that wide-field illumination of the periphery could inadvertently activate other closely apposed organs, or co-activate different classes of axons in the same organ (e.g. enteric and spinal afferent endings in the gut). It is now possible to selectively control nociceptive and/or non-nociceptive pathways to specific visceral organs in vivo, using wireless optogenetics and micro-LEDs implanted adjacent to DRG, for targeted photo-stimulation
Hypertension management for community-dwelling older people with diabetes in Nanchang, China: study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial
Get PDFThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background
Although China has a large number of older people living with diabetes and hypertension, the primary care system is underdeveloped and so management of these conditions in community care settings is suboptimal. Studies have shown that the collaborative care model across care settings that address both pharmacology and nonpharmacology interventions can achieve hypertension control for older people with diabetes. Barriers to implementing and evaluating this model of care are widely recognized in low and middle-income countries including China.
This study will therefore test the hypothesis that a hypertension management program built on collaboration between hospitals and community health service centers in China can improve blood pressure control in people aged 60 years and older with diabetes as compared to usual care.
Methods
A cluster randomized controlled trial will randomly allocate 10 wards from four hospitals in Nanchang to either an intervention group (N = 5) or a usual care group (N = 5). At least 27 participants will be recruited from each ward and the estimated sample size will be 135 patients in each group. The intervention includes individualized self-care education prior to discharge and 6-month follow-up in community health service centers. Health professionals from both hospitals and community health service centers will be resourced to collaborate on the implementation of the postdischarge interventions that reinforce self-care. The primary outcome is systolic blood pressure at 6-month follow-up adjusted for baseline value. Secondary outcomes are self-care knowledge, treatment adherence, HbA1c and lipid levels, quality of life, the incidence of adverse events and the incidence of unplanned hospital readmission at 6-month follow-up adjusted for baseline value. A multilevel mixed-effect linear regression model will be used to compare the changes in health outcomes between the intervention and usual care groups.
Discussion
This study will determine whether collaborative care among health professionals between hospitals and community health service centers will improve hypertension management for older people with diabetes in the study sites. The program, if effective, will have an immediate application to hypertension management in the healthcare system in China.This study is supported by the Department of Scientific Research Management at the Health and Family Planning Commission of Jiangxi Province, China. The study is financed by the research student maintenance funding of Flinders University
Teachers' phonological awareness assessment practices, self-reported knowledge and actual knowledge: the challenge of assessing what you may know less about
Get PDFMade available per permission of Edith Cowan University.This study investigates the relationship between early
childhood (EC) and early years’ primary school (EYPS) teachers’
phonological awareness (PA) assessment practices, self-reported PA
knowledge and actual PA knowledge. Method: A survey design was
employed whereby 102 registered Australian EC and EYPS teachers
responded to questions regarding PA assessment practices, selfreported
PA knowledge and actual PA knowledge. Results: The
results showed: a) more than 80% of teachers use PA assessments,
with EYPS teachers conducting frequent assessments and EC
teachers conducting rare-to-occasional assessments; b) overestimation
of self-reported PA knowledge; c) low levels of actual PA
knowledge; and d) high usage of observations and professional
judgement as assessment methods despite limited own PA knowledge.
Implications: Increasing EC and EYPS teachers’ knowledge of PA
and improving their self-appraisal skills is critical for high-quality
teacher PA assessment practices, and it illustrates the need for robust
pre- and in-service teacher training