7,838 research outputs found

    Complicated objects: artifacts from the Yuanming Yuan in Victorian Britain

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    The 1860 spoliation of the Summer Palace at the close of the Second Opium War by British and French troops was a watershed event within the development of Britain as an imperialist nation, which guaranteed a market for opium produced in its colony India and demonstrated the power of its armed forces. The distribution of the spoils to officers and diplomatic corps by campaign leaders in Beijing was also a sign of the British Army’s rising power as an instrument of the imperialist state. These conditions would suggest that objects looted from the site would be integrated into an imperialist aesthetic that reflected and promoted the material benefits of military engagement overseas and foregrounded the circumstances of their removal to Britain for campaign members and the British public. This study mines sources dating to the two decades following the war – including British newspapers, auction house records, exhibition catalogs and works of art – to test this hypothesis. Findings show that initial movements of looted objects through the military and diplomatic corps did reinforce notions of imperialist power by enabling campaign members to profit from the spoliation through sales of looted objects and trophy displays. However, material from the Summer Palace arrived at a moment when British manufacturers and cultural leaders were engaged in a national effort to improve the quality of British goods to compete in the international marketplace and looted art was quickly interpolated in this national conversation. Ironically, the same “free trade” imperatives that motivated the invasion energized a new design movement that embraced Chinese ornament. As a consequence, political interpretations of the material outside of military collections were quickly joined by a strong response to Chinese ornament from cultural institutions and design leaders. Art from the Summer Palace held a prominent place at industrial art exhibitions of the postwar period and inspired new designs in a number of mediums. While the availability of Chinese imperial art was the consequence of a military invasion and therefore a product of imperialist expansion, evidence presented here shows that the design response to looted objects was not circumscribed by this political reality. Chinese ornament on imperial wares was ultimately celebrated for its formal qualities and acknowledged links to the Summer Palace were an indicator of good design, not a celebration of victory over a failed Chinese state. Therefore, the looting of the Summer Palace was ultimately an essential factor in the development of modern design, the essence of which is a break with Classical ornament

    An Exploration of the Suitability of Pharmacy Education in Saudi Arabia to Prepare Graduates to Meet Healthcare Needs: a Mixed-Methods Study

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    The key role of pharmacists within the health system, particularly in optimising safe, responsible and effective use of medicines, underpins the demand for a highly skilled and competent workforce. Therefore, developing the capacity of pharmacists to attain and maintain essential competencies relevant to the population’s health needs is required to ensure a high standard of patient care, thereby helping to improve patient and population health. In Saudi Arabia, little evidence exists regarding the assessment of national educational programmes’ structure and outcomes. Moreover, no national competency framework exists for pharmacists in any sector or stage of practice. In the absence of such core quality elements to inform pharmacy education assessment and development, the extent to which pharmacy schools in Saudi Arabia prepare competent pharmacists to address societal needs from pharmacy services is unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the extent to which pharmacy education can prepare competent pharmacists to address the healthcare needs for pharmacy practice in Saudi Arabia. An exploratory sequential mixed methods research design was used to address the aim of this study in three phases: individual interviews and focus groups were employed with a purposively selected sample of pharmacy policy makers, pharmacists and the public to explore societal healthcare needs and the roles required of pharmacists to meet those needs; a national online survey of pharmacists and an online nominal group consensus method of pharmacy experts were used to identify competencies considered essential to develop a profession-wide national foundation level competency framework; and a case study in which curriculum mapping of two purposively selected Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) curricula was used to assess the extent to which the current pharmacy programme in Saudi Arabia meets the identified competencies of the developed national competency framework. Based on qualitative and quantitative analyses of societal healthcare needs, pharmacists’ roles, core competencies and curricular contents within the local context of Saudi Arabia, findings showed that there is a mismatch between initial education and real practice needs and expectations. While the country’s current needs from pharmacists are to optimise health system capacity and increase access to primary care services and medicines expertise in community pharmacies, the study indicated local education is product-oriented with a focus of curricular content and experiential training opportunities in most schools on preparing future pharmacists for hospital pharmacy practice. The study also identified several gaps between current initial education programmes and the competencies required to practise the expected roles, suggesting that current initial education might not prepare the students sufficiently to provide the full range of quality pharmaceutical services as per the country’s pharmacy practice needs. The study provided a new understanding of graduates’ readiness to practise as per the country’s pharmacy practice needs, the quality of educational programmes and pharmacists' professional development opportunities in Saudi Arabia. Findings maybe used to inform the development of competency-based education and maximise graduates’ capacity to deliver and develop pharmaceutical services effectively to best meet societal healthcare needs in Saudi Arabia

    Resilience and food security in a food systems context

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    This open access book compiles a series of chapters written by internationally recognized experts known for their in-depth but critical views on questions of resilience and food security. The book assesses rigorously and critically the contribution of the concept of resilience in advancing our understanding and ability to design and implement development interventions in relation to food security and humanitarian crises. For this, the book departs from the narrow beaten tracks of agriculture and trade, which have influenced the mainstream debate on food security for nearly 60 years, and adopts instead a wider, more holistic perspective, framed around food systems. The foundation for this new approach is the recognition that in the current post-globalization era, the food and nutritional security of the world’s population no longer depends just on the performance of agriculture and policies on trade, but rather on the capacity of the entire (food) system to produce, process, transport and distribute safe, affordable and nutritious food for all, in ways that remain environmentally sustainable. In that context, adopting a food system perspective provides a more appropriate frame as it incites to broaden the conventional thinking and to acknowledge the systemic nature of the different processes and actors involved. This book is written for a large audience, from academics to policymakers, students to practitioners

    Dialogue without barriers. A comprehensive approach to dealing with stuttering

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    Endogenous measures for contextualising large-scale social phenomena: a corpus-based method for mediated public discourse

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    This work presents an interdisciplinary methodology for developing endogenous measures of group membership through analysis of pervasive linguistic patterns in public discourse. Focusing on political discourse, this work critiques the conventional approach to the study of political participation, which is premised on decontextualised, exogenous measures to characterise groups. Considering the theoretical and empirical weaknesses of decontextualised approaches to large-scale social phenomena, this work suggests that contextualisation using endogenous measures might provide a complementary perspective to mitigate such weaknesses. This work develops a sociomaterial perspective on political participation in mediated discourse as affiliatory action performed through language. While the affiliatory function of language is often performed consciously (such as statements of identity), this work is concerned with unconscious features (such as patterns in lexis and grammar). This work argues that pervasive patterns in such features that emerge through socialisation are resistant to change and manipulation, and thus might serve as endogenous measures of sociopolitical contexts, and thus of groups. In terms of method, the work takes a corpus-based approach to the analysis of data from the Twitter messaging service whereby patterns in users’ speech are examined statistically in order to trace potential community membership. The method is applied in the US state of Michigan during the second half of 2018—6 November having been the date of midterm (i.e. non-Presidential) elections in the United States. The corpus is assembled from the original posts of 5,889 users, who are nominally geolocalised to 417 municipalities. These users are clustered according to pervasive language features. Comparing the linguistic clusters according to the municipalities they represent finds that there are regular sociodemographic differentials across clusters. This is understood as an indication of social structure, suggesting that endogenous measures derived from pervasive patterns in language may indeed offer a complementary, contextualised perspective on large-scale social phenomena

    Sandurot festival as \u3ci\u3emugna\u3c/i\u3e : exploring modernity and belonging through the civic festival

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    Focusing on the Sandurot Festival organized by the City of Dumaguete in the Philippines, my study explores the process of embodying local identity as site to actualize modernity. To highlight this collaborative, creative, and often contentious process, I put forward the concept of mugna (a Cebuano word which means to create) to examine how social actors (such as festival organizers, cultural workers, and artists) configure nodes of belonging to the time and space of the city by engaging with notions of tradition, authenticity, progress, and development. As Cultural Studies stresses the significance of radical contextuality, I examine in this project the problem-spaces of modernity and belonging to investigate how they constitute the conjuncture wherein the performance practice of the civic festival emerges as mugna. In this light, I adapt Diana Taylor’s performance paradigm to approach the festival as a scenario in interrogating how and why local identity is performed. With this approach, I historicize the festival by examining its situatedness within nation-building and city-making policies and institutional directions (discussed mainly in Chapters One and Two). I further probe its embodied practice by analyzing the repeated but reconfigured corporeal forms and exploring the involvement of social actors in the corporeal practices of festivity (examined closely in Chapters Three, Four, and Five). Borrowing from the insights of performance studies and critical ethnography, I aim to show that through this process of mugna, the festival unfolds in a scenario of rediscovery where social actors playfully embody and reinvent the ‘folk’ and the past through networks of creative collaboration to transmit knowledge about Dumaguete. Thus, the festival as mugna, is produced by and produces attachment to the locality through various social actors’ embodiment of their ‘modern desire’ for the city life, in the process that invokes their local identity and associated civic claims to urban space. I conclude that the festival as mugna enhances our understanding on the configurations of modernity, with how social actors fulfill their individual and collective aspirations for the city and their practices of belonging in it, by determining how the city is remembered, lived, and aspired through the Sandurot Festival

    Making friends with failure in STS

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    Prefrontal synthesis training therapies

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    Prefrontal synthesis of the lateral prefrontal cortex is necessary to create new mental images. When this faculty is deficient, several disorders can occur. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one such disorder, with severe cases leading to prefrontal paralysis. As the results of prefrontal paralysis are devastating and irreversible, there are multiple diagnostic tools available for ASD. In addition, the Vyshedskiy lab has developed a therapy app, Mental Imagery Therapy for Autism, that trains prefrontal synthesis in children with ASD. Data from the app has also uncovered several recommendations that can significantly impact language development in ASD children such as limiting TV watching, and encouraging pretend play. On the other side of the age spectrum, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease affecting the elderly. While AD causes overall cognitive decline, it also affects prefrontal synthesis. As the disease is growing in prevalence as the population ages, diagnostic accessibility has increased in importance. To address a dearth of diagnostics, the Vyshedskiy lab has developed the Boston Cognitive Assessment (BoCA), a cognitive test that boasts several improvements over the current gold standard the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Though pharmaceutical interventions are still a research target for AD, the most promising therapy of the moment is 40Hz light therapy. By offering this therapy in a convenient application format, the Vyshedskiy lab hopes to make it more accessible to people with AD, as well as anyone looking to preserve their cognitive health.

    Elements of Ion Linear Accelerators, Calm in The Resonances, Other_Tales

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    The main part of this book, Elements of Linear Accelerators, outlines in Part 1 a framework for non-relativistic linear accelerator focusing and accelerating channel design, simulation, optimization and analysis where space charge is an important factor. Part 1 is the most important part of the book; grasping the framework is essential to fully understand and appreciate the elements within it, and the myriad application details of the following Parts. The treatment concentrates on all linacs, large or small, intended for high-intensity, very low beam loss, factory-type application. The Radio-Frequency-Quadrupole (RFQ) is especially developed as a representative and the most complicated linac form (from dc to bunched and accelerated beam), extending to practical design of long, high energy linacs, including space charge resonances and beam halo formation, and some challenges for future work. Also a practical method is presented for designing Alternating-Phase- Focused (APF) linacs with long sequences and high energy gain. Full open-source software is available. The following part, Calm in the Resonances and Other Tales, contains eyewitness accounts of nearly 60 years of participation in accelerator technology. (September 2023) The LINACS codes are released at no cost and, as always,with fully open-source coding. (p.2 & Ch 19.10)Comment: 652 pages. Some hundreds of figures - all images, there is no data in the figures. (September 2023) The LINACS codes are released at no cost and, as always,with fully open-source coding. (p.2 & Ch 19.10

    A mixed method study of the incidence, peri-operative risk factors and patient experiences of post-operative delirium and associated post-traumatic stress syndrome following cardiac surgery

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    INTRODUCTION: Delirium, an acute fluctuation of cognitive function, is a common complication after cardiac surgery. There are multiple pre, post and intra-operative factors attributed to the development of delirium. Whatever the precipitating factors, delirium not only causes psychological distress to the patient but also their family members. In some cases, this psychological upset continues to affect the patient after discharge from hospital, referred to as post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSS). Despite this, there is little known about the aftermath of delirium and the associated patient experience, especially following cardiac surgery. AIM: The aim of the study was to identify the incidence, peri-operative risk factors and explore patient experiences of post-operative delirium and associated post-traumatic stress syndrome following cardiac surgery. METHODS: In order to address the aim, the study adopted a mixed methods approach. Data collection took place in a large teaching hospital in Scotland. -Phase I: Quantitative phase (Pre Admission Clinic/ Ward assessment for in-patients) Data collection included identifying peri-operative risk factors, assessment of personality and mood using validated tools, and screening for delirium. -Phase II-a: Quantitative phase (6-8 weeks following discharge) Following phase I, 'Purposive Criterion' sampling was used with the criterion being the phenomenon of delirium to enroll patients into phase IIa of the study. Data collection included validated tools for re-assessing mood, re-screening for delirium and PTSS diagnoses using SCID - Structural Clinical Interview for DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Psychiatric Disorders). -Phase II-b: Qualitative phase (Telephone follow up at three months) Sixteen participants from phase IIa were selected and enrolled in phase IIb. Data collection included two validated tools - SCID and delirium screening and an additional semi-structured interview to gain an understanding of the patient experience. FINDINGS: The study recruited 406 participants (72% male, mean age 67 years, SD=10.50). The EuroSCORE (European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation) which provides a simple, additive risk model in European adult cardiac surgery patients, was calculated to be 4.77 (SD=2.62). This suggests a moderate level predicted risk of 30-day mortality across the study population following cardiac surgery. The incidence of post-operative delirium was 18.3%. Univariate analysis of the data showed that ‘Age’ (p Qualitative analysis included examining the transcribed interviews using a 'thematic approach'. This uncovered five main themes: These were 'what I remember or not' (failure to recall details during period of delirium); 'Not right in my head' (recall information juxtaposed with relative's accounts); 'My body' (focus on physical recovery after surgery); 'No regrets' (decision to undergo surgery despite complications); 'Reassurance' (relief and comfort gained with follow up). CONCLUSION: In summary, from the quantitative data, age at time of surgery was the only attributable risk factor for post-operative delirium. The qualitative data informs the after-effects of in–hospital delirium and clearly distinguishes between post-delirium anxiety states and PTSS. Recommendations for appropriate patient selection should focus on biological age and frailty along with pre-operative optimisation. Clinicians should explain about delirium as a serious complication prior to obtaining consent for cardiac surgery. Also, ensure that patients and families are more prepared and have a better understanding when psychological issues emerge after elective cardiac surgery
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