427 research outputs found
Institutional Racism and the Dynamics of Privilege in Public Health
No full textInstitutional racism, a pattern of differential access to material resources and power determined by race, advantages one sector of the population while disadvantaging another. Such racism is not only about conspicuous acts of violence but can be carried in the hold of mono-cultural perspectives. Overt state violation of principles contributes to the backdrop against which much less overt yet insidious violations occur. New Zealand health policy is one such mono-cultural domain. It is dominated by western bio-medical discourses that preclude and under-value Māori, the indigenous peoples of this land, in the conceptualisation, structure, content, and processes of health policies, despite Te Tiriti o Waitangi guarantees to protect Māori interests.
Since the 1980s, the Department of Health has committed to honouring the Treaty of Waitangi as the founding document of Māori-settler relationships and governance arrangements. Subsequent Waitangi Tribunal reports, produced by an independent Commission of Inquiry have documented the often-illegal actions of successive governments advancing the interests of Pākehā at the expense of Māori. Institutional controls have not prevented inequities between Māori and non-Māori across a plethora of social and economic indicators.
Activist scholars work to expose and transform perceived inequities. My research interest lies in how Crown Ministers and officials within the public health sector practice institutional racism and privilege and how it can be transformed. Through dialogue with Māori working within the health sector, fuelled by critical analysis and strategic advice from a research whānau (family) of Māori health leaders and a Pākehā Tiriti worker, and embracing the traditions of feminist and critical race theory I provide evidence of racism that can invoke strong emotional reactions. More disturbing is its normalisation to nigh imperceptibility within ones personal and professional life. The exposure of racism as a socially created phenomenon is a strength of the research presented here.
My action orientation is my ethical response. Honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a pathway to transforming racism. Such change is likely to be resisted by the Pākehā majority. This anticipated resistance is not a credible reason to weaken responsibility for such necessary change. Transforming institutional racism needs to be driven by senior managers, professional bodies, unions, and by communities. Policies, practices and leadership that enable institutional racism need to be systematically eliminated from the health sector. Crown officials must be supported to strengthen their professional accountabilities and to embrace ethical bicultural practice. Greater transparency could enable more effective monitoring of Crown behaviour and support transformed practice
Dialogue and Collaboration in the Creation of New Works for Clarinet
No full textThis PhD thesis explores dialogue-based, “intimate” collaboration through the creation of new works for clarinet. It borrows from Grounded Theory in order to facilitate an analysis through which emergent themes within a dialogue-based
collaboration are discovered. The aim has not been to insist on one model of collaboration, but to discover methods for improving one’s collaborative skills and to identify ways in which one benefits from a focus on dialogue in
collaboration. Furthermore, it aims to suggest that through collaboration one can make discoveries about the instrument: original contributions to clarinet technique are made within this thesis. The literature from which the research draws inspiration to further collaborative “technique” is cross-disciplinary and wide-ranging: it draws from social theory, collaborative creative writing, dance, the visual arts and of course, music. Added to this is a select discussion of collaboration throughout the repertoire of the clarinet. Finally, this consists of practice-based research. Seven new pieces for clarinet accompany the text
“The Times They Are a-Changin”: A Look into Protest Music’s Evolution Throughout the 1950s-1970s
No full textThis project was created for the 2024 Digital Humanities Fellowship. It looks at the evolution of protest music from 1950 to 1979 as it was influenced by the events that took place and the people involved to understand more of the protest culture at the time. This project uses TimelineJS, ArcGIS StoryMaps, and WordPress to create the documented website
Nealloptes Gaud and Mouchet
No full textGenus Nealloptes Gaud and Mouchet Nealloptes petazophorus (Trouessart, 1886) Hosts and distribution. This species was described ex Aramus guarauna (L.) (Gruiformes: Aramidae) from “ Nouvelle-Grenade ” (Trouessart 1886). However, this species was repeatedly found on Threskiornis aethiopicus (Latham) (Pelecaniformes: Threskiornithidae) from Cameroon (M'balmayo) and Congo (Gaud & Mouchet 1957; Gaud 1982) and the latter author unambiguously said that the record from A. guarauna was the result of contamination. Remark. “ Nouvelle-Grenade ” is one of the old names used for the territory of Colombia, Panama and parts of Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil.Published as part of Barreto, Mauricio, Burbano, María E., Proctor, Heather C., Mironov, Serge V. & Wauthy, Georges, 2012, Feather mites (Acariformes: Psoroptidia) from Colombia: Preliminary list with new records 3516, pp. 1-68 in Zootaxa 3516 on page 1
Seeing Speech: A Pronunciation Toolkit for Indigenous Language Teaching and Learning
No full textPronunciation can present a serious challenge for language teachers and learners (e.g., Munro & Derwing 2015). In the context of Indigenous languages in particular, this can be compounded by a number of factors, including small numbers of speakers and teachers, a paucity of pedagogical resources and clear descriptions of sound systems, and the pressures faced by heritage learners to authentically preserve their ancestral language (Carpenter 1997; Hinton 2011; Hinton & Ahlers 1999). Latent speakers may be inhibited from speaking by perceived concerns over their pronunciation, particularly in the presence of elders (Basham & Fatham 2008), and other learners may face similar social and linguistic challenges. Despite these hurdles, pronunciation is considered by many to be an important aspect of Indigenous language learning, and one which requires creative community-oriented solutions (AUTHOR & Kell 2015; Carpenter 1997). Towards this end, we have developed a pronunciationlearning toolthat incorporates ultrasound technology, giving learners a visual aid to help them learn to articulate challenging or unfamiliar sounds, for example “back of the mouth” consonants (e.g. /k/ vs. /q/). Ultrasound is used to create videos of a model speaker’s tongue movements during speech, which are then overlaid on videos of an external profile view of the model’s head to create ultrasound-enhanced pronunciation videos for individual words or sounds (Abel et al. 2015). A key advantage of these videos is that they allow learners direct access to the articulatory shapes and movements that are involved in pronouncing challenging words or sounds; learners are able see how speech is produced rather than just hear and try to mimic it. Although ultrasound-enhanced videos were originally developed for commonly taught languages such as Japanese and French, there has been widespread interest from Indigenous communities in Western Canada to develop their own customized videos. To date, we have partnered with communities in Alberta and British Columbia to develop videos for four languages: SENĆOŦEN, Secwepemc, Halq’emeylem, and Blackfoot. Community-driven and capacity-building, these projects involved training community members in how to produce customized ultrasound-enhanced videos using our toolkit. The resulting videos will be featured in our presentation, along with demonstrations of how and why to use ultrasound in pronunciation teaching. Our goal is to show that the ultrasound-enhanced videos can help to address some of the challenges of pronunciation learning in Indigenous languages by giving learners a new way to understand pronunciation that focuses on seeing speech. References Abel, J., B. Allen, S. Burton, M. Kazama, M. Noguchi, A. Tsuda, N. Yamane, & AUTHOR. 2015. Ultrasound-Enhanced Multimodal Approaches to Pronunciation Teaching and Learning. Canadian Acoustics 43 (3), 130-131. Basham, C. and A. Fathman. 2008. The latent speaker: Attaining adult fluency in an endangered language. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 11: 577-97. AUTHOR and S. Kell. Pronunciation in the context of language revitalization. Paper presented at ICLDC 4, 2015. Carpenter, V. 1997. Teaching Children to "Unlearn" the Sounds of English. In Teaching Indigenous Languages, ed. by Jon Reyhner. Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University, pp. 31-39. Hinton, L. 2011. Language revitalization and language pedagogy: New teaching and learning strategies. Language and Education 25(4): 307-318, Hinton, L. and J. Ahlers. 1999. The issue of “authenticity” in California language restoration. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 30: 56-67. Munro, M. J. & Derwing, T. M. 2015. A prospectus for pronunciation research in the 21st century: A point of view. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation 1(1): 11-42
The role of the working alliance in treatment for alcohol problems
No full textLittle research has been done on the role of the therapeutic working alliance in treatment for alcohol problems. This longitudinal study’s objectives were (a) to identify predictors of working alliance and (b) to investigate whether client and/or therapist reports of the working alliance predicted posttreatment motivation and then later treatment outcome. Client and therapist perceptions of the working alliance were assessed after the first treatment session using a short form of the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI) among 173 clients taking part in the United Kingdom Alcohol Treatment Trial (UKATT) and randomized to motivational enhancement therapy (MET) or social behavior and network therapy (SBNT) with complete data on all measures of interest. Structural equation models were fitted to identify predictors of WAI scores and investigate the relationships between WAI and measures of drinking during treatment, posttreatment motivation, and successful treatment outcome (abstinent or nonproblem drinker), and measures of drinks per drinking day and nondrinking days, assessed 9 months after the conclusion of treatment. Motivation to change drinking when treatment began was a strong predictor of client—adjusted coefficient = 2.21 (95% confidence interval [CI] [0.36, 4.06]—but not therapist WAI. Client WAI predicted successful treatment outcome—adjusted odds ratios (OR) =� 1.09 (95% CI [1.02, 1.17])—and had effects on drinking during treatment, and on posttreatment motivation to change. There was evidence for effect modification by treatment, with strong associations between WAI and posttreatment motivation, and evidence of WAI prediction of treatment outcomes in the MET group, but no evidence of associations for SBNT. Therapist WAI was not strongly associated with treatment outcome (adjusted OR �= 1.05; 95% CI [0.99, 1.10]). The working alliance is important to treatment outcomes for alcohol problems, with client evaluation of the alliance strongly related to motivation to change drinking throughout treatment for MET. It was also much more important than therapist-rated alliance in this study
Interpreting null findings from trials of alcohol brief interventions
No full textThe effectiveness of alcohol brief intervention (ABI) has been established by a succession of meta-analyses but, because the effects of ABI are small, null findings from randomized controlled trials are often reported and can sometimes lead to skepticism regarding the benefits of ABI in routine practice. This article first explains why null findings are likely to occur under null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) due to the phenomenon known as ‘the dance of the p-values’. A number of misconceptions about null findings are then described, using as an example the way in which the results of the primary care arm of a recent cluster randomized trial of ABI in England (the SIPS project) have been misunderstood. These misinterpretations include the fallacy of ‘proving the null hypothesis’ that lack of a significant difference between the means of sample groups can be taken as evidence of no difference between their population means, and the possible effects of this and related misunderstandings of the SIPS findings are examined. The mistaken inference that reductions in alcohol consumption seen in control groups from baseline to follow-up are evidence of real effects of control group procedures is then discussed and other possible reasons for such reductions, including regression to the mean, research participation effects, historical trends, and assessment reactivity, are described. From the standpoint of scientific progress, the chief problem about null findings under the conventional NHST approach is that it is not possible to distinguish ‘evidence of absence’ from ‘absence of evidence’. By contrast, under a Bayesian approach, such a distinction is possible and it is explained how this approach could classify ABIs in particular settings or among particular populations as either truly ineffective or as of unknown effectiveness, thus accelerating progress in the field of ABI research
ABORAS:polarimetric, 10cm/s RV observations of the Sun as a star
No full textWe present a description of A dual-Beam polarimetric Robotic Aperture for the Sun (ABORAS), to serve as a Solar input with a dedicated Stokes V polarimeter for the HARPS3 high-resolution spectrograph. ABORAS has three main science drivers: trying to understand the physics behind stellar variability, tracking the long term stability of HARPS3, and serve as a benchmark for Earth-sized exoplanet detection with HARPS3 by injecting an Earth RV signal into the data. By design, ABORAS will (together with the HARPS3 instrument) be able to measure 10cm/s variations in RV of the integrated Solar disk and detect integrated magnetic field levels at sub 1 Gauss level through circularly polarized light.</p
Keynote Panel Discussion - Rural Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Economic Development
No full textKeynote panel discussion with Heather Hall, Tjaart Van den Berg, and Terry Van Horn. A brief biography of each speaker is listed below
Heather Hall is an Assistant Professor in the Economic Development and Innovation program in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development at the University of Waterloo. Heather grew up in Northern Ontario and has a professional and personal interest in researching planning and economic development in northern regions. This includes: regional development planning, policy and practice; community readiness and community impacts related to natural resource development; and innovation and entrepreneurship in rural and northern contexts. Heather is the co-lead of the University of the Arctic’s thematic network on the Commercialization of Science and Technology for the North and she is the co-author of the newest edition of Planning Canadian Regions. Her research has been recognized nationally and internationally by the Canadian Association of Geographers’ Ontario division (CAGONT), the Innovation Systems Research Network (ISRN), the Regional Studies Association and she is an alumnus of the Arctic Frontiers emerging leaders program.
Tjaart Van den Berg is CEO of LandInfo Technologies Inc. He has a Masters degree in Urban and Regional Planning with 30 years international experience in the development and implementation of GIS in the public and private sector. Tjaart was born and educated in South Africa and has been working with local governments in Canada for more than 20 years. In the course of his work, he has become an expert in developing and applying GIS technologies to support municipal infrastructure and services. Tjaart is passionate about assisting municipalities to be more effective in what they do. In recent years, he focused his work on designing solutions to help smaller municipalities with asset management planning needs and implementation. In addition to assisting numerous municipal and private sector clients to implement GIS and Asset Management systems in Canada, the USA and South Africa, Tjaart actively promotes the awareness of geospatial technologies. He is a regular speaker at universities and professional institutions and has been working closely with various research institutions to develop innovative technology and procedures that improve the use of GIS and Asset Management.
Terry Van Horn and her family moved to Trail, BC in 2001. Using her chemical sciences background, her experience in working in industry towns of Mackenzie and Prince George, as well as her business diploma Terry joined the Kootenay Association for Science and Technology (KAST) in 2004. During her 8 years at KAST, she learned that collaboration, team work, and relationship building are necessities in rural communities where selling the viability of an idea and a region is fundamental to success. Further expanding on her skills and knowledge in 2012 Terry joined the Lower Columbia Initiatives Corporation (LCIC). As the regional Economic Development Officer she continues to promote opportunities and drive economic and business growth through strong partnerships and a passion like no other. Terry and her family are grateful for their life in this beautiful region and plan to live a long and healthy life playing golf close to their children and, hopefully one day, grand children.
Video in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK4b07xfflQ.
Vidéo en français: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K3I0_uTLD
Implementation of a Unit-Based Nurse Practitioner Led Hourly-Rounding Program Utilizing the AIDET Tool
No full textBackground: The result of poor patient satisfaction scores can significantly affect hospitals financially by withholding reimbursement if patient satisfaction scores are not met. According to Robbins, A (2015). Beginning in October 2012, the Affordable Care Act implemented a policy withholding 1% of total Medicare reimbursements-approximately $850 million-from hospitals (Robbins, 2015). The author also implied that this percentage will double in the year 2017 if patient satisfaction scores are not met. Additionally, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid allowed the hospital scores to be visible on the internet. This increased visibility enables patients to “shop” for care as consumers rather than going to the nearest hospital by default. This creates patient growth and retention opportunities for hospitals that perform well but threatens the success of those that fall behind (Health Forum, 2017). It is imperative that hospitals work unilaterally to improve patient satisfaction scores.
Methods: This project was a pre-post intervention design measuring patient satisfaction scores quarterly using the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS). The implementation of the intervention was divided into four phases: Exploratory (Q12017), pre-implementation (Q2 2017), implementation (Q3 2017), and post-implementation (Q4 2017).
Intervention: All Unit based Nurse Practitioners(UBNP's) designated to the identified unit were educated on purposeful rounding using the AIDET (Acknowledge, Introduce, Duration, Explanation and Thank you) communication tool. The nurse practitioners performed purposeful rounding for 12 weeks. After the research project was completed, a post-analytical review of the patient satisfaction scores was conducted and compared to the results from unstructured rounding. Results: Initial results comparing the exploratory to pre-implementation resulted in an improvement from the 1st to 63rd percentile for communication with nurses, but a decrease from the 7th to 5th percentile for communication with doctors. Unfortunately, the increasing trend was not sustained post- implementation with communications with nurses and doctors. Conclusions: Improving communication with both nurses and doctors is important to ensure patients receive safe and effective care. Initial results using the AIDET tool for nurse practitioners resulted in an increase in nurse communication with doctor's communication decreasing. With all interventions, the key to success is sustainability. Nurse practitioners were floated off the unit post-implementation and communication scores returned to baseline
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