65 research outputs found
The Earliest Human Settlement in the Fiji Islands
No full textIn December 2003, with funding from the University of the South Pacific, a 17-person team led by the three authors conducted research into the early human occupation of the beach and the adjoining coastal flat at Rove, a few kilometres northwest of Natadola in the southwest part of Viti Levu Island. The site at Rove was not selected randomly. In the preceding 18 months, it had been visited twice by Roselyn Kumar who had recovered three pieces of Lapita pottery from the shore flat at low tide. The Lapita era is the earliest in the human history of Fiji (and many other western Pacific island groups), and is often recognized by the distinctively-decorated (so-called dentate-stamped) pottery that was made during that time. The three pieces of Lapita pottery from Rove were described by Kumar et al. (2004a) and were sufficient to make the area worth excavating. Yet the excavations we carried out in December 2003 at Rove were a little disappointing. There was certainly a Lapita settlement at Rove, and it was located on a tiny island off the main island at the time, but the radiocarbon dates showed that it was probably established only quite late in the Lapita history of Fiji, perhaps around 700 BC
Partnership experiences in developing the Preparation for Tertiary Learning course in the Teachers in Training programme.
No full textThis article is a collection of three partnership voices: Roselyn Maneipuri, Immaculate Runialo and Noeline Wright. The first two, lecturers in the Arts and Languages Department at the School of Education (SOE), Honiara, Solomon Islands, found themselves working with a New Zealander who was tasked with helping them review and develop new courses for a new cohort of teacher education students. The three had never met before, but within about three weeks had to build a professional relationship, build some contextual understanding, establish what elements the course needed, and develop it in time for Roselyn and Immaculate to teach the first cohort of students (currently teaching in schools but without any teacher education background), who were due to arrive in less than three months' time
Creative Thinkers Writer's Club
No full textHere is, I believe, a real rarity. Two students in the Department of Publishing Studies at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology took up as their final project establishing a writing club at a primary school and publishing a collection of their stories. The result is a number of one-page and two-page stories on pages 8 through 41 of this 7›" x 7" pamphlet. I find these fables among them: "The Big Fish" (26-27), an original fable about going out into the big and dangerous world and coming satisfied back home; FM (34-35); and "The Twins and Their Younger Brother" (38-39) about a younger brother who should have learned from the misdeeds of his older brothers. Each story is complemented by a full-page crayon drawing by its author. The authors range in age from 8 to 11. In this version of FM, the negligent frog apparently did not know that he was killing the frog. The hawk attacked when the frog back on land "sported" the Mouse.Linda Aduhene and Roselyn Mensah-Bons
Supplementary materials to: "Io, keimami leqataka vakalevu na vei gauna mai muri" ("We are worried about the future generation"): Experiences of eco-grief in rural Indigenous Fijians
No full textSupplementary materials to: Lykins, A. D., Cosh, S., Nunn, P. D., Kumar, R., & Sundaraja, C. (2023). "Io, keimami leqataka vakalevu na vei gauna mai muri" ("We are worried about the future generation"): Experiences of eco-grief in rural Indigenous Fijians. Global Environmental Psychology, 1, Article e11447. https://doi.org/10.5964/gep.11447notReviewedothe
Supplementary materials to ""Na neitou qele ga qo" ("This is our only land"): Adaptation to the effects of climate change in rural Indigenous Fijians"
No full textSupplementary materials to: Lykins, A. D., Nunn, P. D., Kumar, R., Sundaraja, C., & Cosh, S. (2024). "Na neitou qele ga qo" ("This is our only land"): Adaptation to the effects of climate change in rural Indigenous Fijians. Global Environmental Psychology, 1, Article gep.11239. https://doi.org/10.5964/gep.11239Expanded data analysis.unknownunknow
Geology, climate, and landscape of the PABITRA Wet-Zone Transect, Viti Levu Island, Fiji
No full textThe PABITRA Gateway Transect in Fiji covers most of the eastern part of Viti Levu, the largest island in the archipelago. Viti Levu is located exclusively on the Fiji Plate, a microplate between the giant Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate that has been moved counterclockwise within the past 42 million yr as a result of their oblique convergence. There is no secure geologic evidence that Viti Levu was ever in contact with part of Gondwana, despite the presence of Gondwana flora. The oldest rock series in the area is the submarine Eocene Wainimala Group, intruded in places by the Colo Plutonics. These are succeeded by the Medrausucu Andesitic Group, the Ba Volcanics, and the Verata Sedimentary Group, a Plio-Pleistocene group of sediments representing deltaic and shallow-water deposition in the southeast of the area. The modern Rewa Delta and associated alluvial flats compose the youngest rocks in the area. The geology of the six study sites within the PABITRA Transect is explained in detail. Being on the windward side of the island, the area's climate is humid tropical, with the lowest temperatures and highest precipitation being associated with the highest elevations. A short account of the area's landscape is given
Design and evaluation of a non-opioid tripartite release tablet for chronic inflammatory pain
No full textA dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Pharmacy to the Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Therapeutics Sciences University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2024Formulation-based approaches towards curbing the prescription opioid crisis include the discovery and development of non-opioid analgesics such as the novel benzyloxy- cyclopentyladenosine (BnOCPA). A more expedited approach involves the development of combinatorial systems of already existing non-addicting analgesics to tap into unexplored synergistic potentials. Despite the recent advances in drug delivery systems, tablets still hold the position of being the most widely used oral dosage form, particularly in the management of chronic ailments; it is cost-effective, non-invasive, and does not require administration expertise.
Challenges in the production of complex geometry combinatorial, multi-drug tablets remain to some extent enigmatic to pharmaceutical researchers, hence the steady paradigm shift from traditional compression to 3-dimensional printing. Although it is superior in multiple aspects, the technique is still in its nascent stages with limited information on regulatory guidelines. Therefore, the aim of this work was to design and develop a non-opioid tripartite controlled- release tablet for efficient chronic inflammatory pain management. Because adherence to adjunct gastroprotective agents (GPAs) in non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
users has been established to be suboptimal, esomeprazole magnesium trihydrate (ESM) was added to the drug delivery system (DDS). The rationale behind the design was based on inherent drug properties, target release sites, desired therapeutic effects, and allowance for drug release manipulation, therefore a tablet was assembled, constituting an immediate- release top layer formulation of 250 mg paracetamol (PAR) for an early onset of analgesia; a cup layer for the delayed and retarded release of 100 mg of diclofenac sodium (DS) and 250 mg of PAR in tandem, and lastly a core containing a press-coated 20 mg ESM pill. A reproducible and efficient Reverse-Phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method was developed and validated for the simultaneous detection of the APIs over
the concentration ranges studied. Deleterious drug-excipient incompatibilities were ruled out through pre-formulation investigations by FTIR, DSC, and TGA analyses. Combining both wet and dry granulation methodologies; the chosen formulation and polymers (7.5% hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) K15M, 25.3% eudagrit L (EL) 100-55, and 10.5% croscarmellose sodium (CCS)), while considering the quality target product profiles (QTPPs), critical process parameters (CPP), and critical material attributes (CMAs), resulted in the development of a pragmatic tablet delivering fifty percent of the PAR dosage in the initial 30 minutes, with a
cumulative release of 95.0% ± 0.08% and 94.9% ±3.87% for DS and ESM, respectively. Through in-process quality control tests, the validity of the manufacturing process was confirmed, with all results falling within pharmacopeial specifications. The release mechanism of PAR and DS from the cup after the 2-hour mark distinctly followed the Hixson-Crowell model where the geometrical characteristic of the cup was maintained with surface erosion. Visuals from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis obtained prior to and during dissolution, confirmed hydration gravimetric analysis results as well as bulk and surface erosion mechanisms. The obtained ex vivo analysis results showed retarded permeation rates of the tabletted APIs compared to the APIs in their pure state. Therefore, it is imperative to consider improving the existing models employed for ex-vivo permeability studies of tableted formulations, with a particular focus on exploring the impact of excipients/polymers on drug permeationMM202
Supplementary materials to: "Io, keimami leqataka vakalevu na vei gauna mai muri" ("We are worried about the future generation"): Experiences of eco-grief in rural Indigenous Fijians
No full textSupplementary materials to: Lykins, A. D., Cosh, S., Nunn, P. D., Kumar, R., & Sundaraja, C. (2023). "Io, keimami leqataka vakalevu na vei gauna mai muri" ("We are worried about the future generation"): Experiences of eco-grief in rural Indigenous Fijians. Global Environmental Psychology, 1, Article e11447. https://doi.org/10.5964/gep.11447Methods to integrate indigenous principles. Interview protocol. Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative studies. Reflexive statement.unknownunknow
Becoming American in the kitchen: gender, acculturation, and American Jewish cookbooks, 1870s to 1930s
No full textThis thesis examines American Jewish cookbooks from the 1870s through the 1930s as artifacts of acculturation—in particular, the acculturation process of Jewish women as distinct from that of Jewish men. These cookbooks are gendered primary documents in that they were written by women and for women, and they reflect messages about women’s place in society coming from the broad American cultural climate and from Jewish sources. In serving charitable ends, the cookbooks mirror the American Protestant notion that women’s spirituality is expressed through good deeds of philanthropy. They also reveal lessons about health and hygiene directed at new immigrants to make them and their children accepted in mainstream society, and fads and fashions of hostessing that were being imitated by Jewish women. These elements of “becoming American” were more significant in the acculturation process of Jewish women than of Jewish men.
Cookbooks, particularly those of the fund-raising charitable variety, were instruments for building women’s sense of community. Through community cookbooks, women in the sisterhoods of synagogues as well as in other philanthropic groups could assert control over a portion of the budget of the synagogue or charitable institution. The cookbooks are a window into what those female-centric communities were about. Beyond sharing recipes, the contributors to the community cookbooks shared humor, cooperative leadership, and, usually, lack of rabbinical input.
American Jewish cookbooks reflect varying ideological stances vis-à-vis kashrut. Some assert that kosher restrictions are no barrier to serving as elegant a meal as one’s gentile neighbor, while others say that anything that is healthy is acceptable and not treyf (non-kosher). In general, the early cookbooks display a more lax attitude toward kashrut than most American Jewish cookbooks today and feature more distinctly treyf ingredients.
Cookbooks also reflect linguistic acculturation. As the immigrant Jewish population shifted from German to Eastern European, cookbooks—particularly commercial cookbooks promoting products—moved to Yiddish, then to Yiddish and English, and then (much later) to English translations of Yiddish cookbooks. The socio-economic status of the intended audience also played a role in the choice of recipes and of practical advice.
The voices of American Jewish women from a variety of religious, ideological, and socio-economic backgrounds can be heard in these cookbooks. Sometimes the voices are slyly anti-male and proto-feminist. This thesis argues that through the cookbooks Jewish women asserted their sphere of agency, which was in their kitchens, in the management of their homes, and in their sisterhoods. There they created their own women’s communities and subcultures, which were uniquely Jewish, American, and female.M.A.Includes bibliographical referencesby Roselyn M. Bel
From community-based to locally led adaptation: Evidence from Vanuatu
No full textThe Green Climate Fund, donors, governments and non-governmental organisations, among others, are pouring vast amounts of financial and human capital into community-based adaptation across the developing world. The underlying premise is that the world’s majority—who have the minority of financial capital—are living on the margins and are the most vulnerable and at risk from climate change. Such a reality, coupled with a deficit understanding of the majority world, is resulting in significant implications for how the ‘adaptation industry’ (those that fund, design and implement projects) go about their work. Drawing on research evaluating 15 community-based adaptation projects in Vanuatu we found that despite genuine attempts, projects invariably fell short of success, longevity and sustainability. We argue that the indifferent, albeit variable, success of most projects is attributable to the construction of the geographical scale of ‘community-based’ and the deficit view flowing down to the ‘community’ through hubris policy, funding guidelines and individual implementers. Our findings show that ‘experts’ are working in Pacific communities, conducting assessments that involve asking what ‘community’ needs are, going away to design projects, coming back and implementing projects, which communities are inevitably challenged to sustain once funding has ceased. We postulate that these limitations stem from such a formation of adaptation work that pejoratively fails to see Pacific Islanders in situ as the best litmus test of their own agendas, needs, aspirations and futures and in the best position to make decisions for themselves about what and how they might become more resilient. We claim from a growing body of evidence and new frontiers in research that, rather than adaptation being ‘community-based’, it needs to be ‘locally led’, not limited to ‘communities’, and should take place across different entry points and incorporate, as appropriate, elements of autonomous/Indigenous peoples ownership.No Full Tex
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