The Culture Boundary: How Awareness Informs Teaching Practice

In this paper I discuss the value of exploring student culture through ongoing reflective processes for effective and responsible language teaching. I reflect on my own experience of teaching in a foreign language context for the first time, and discuss how developing cultural awareness helped me move from a place of frustration to understanding, and how a change in attitude and teaching approach impacted my relationships and significantly improved the quality of teaching and learning in my classroom. Using Pat Moran’s ‘Cultural Knowings’ framework as a guide, I reflect on my personal transformation while working in South Korea and report on my experience of moving through the stages of learning about the culture of my students (knowing about), investigating the reasons behind their cultural practices (knowing why), exploring my own beliefs (knowing oneself), and applying it all to make informed decisions about my teaching approach (knowing how). This case study highlights the importance of considering culture in foreign language pedagogy and demonstrates how the ‘Cultural Knowings’ framework can be used as a tool for teachers seeking to find balance and harmony in a foreign teaching context, or for teacher training in general

Screening for Atrial Fibrillation and the Role of Digital Health Technologies

Atrial fibrillation is the commonest clinical arrhythmia and a leading cause of hospital admission, morbidity and mortality. New digital health technologies are now allowing patients and the general population to identify heart rhythm abnormalities before any encounter with a medical professional. This chapter will include an overview of the prevalence of atrial fibrillation and explore the current recommendations on methods for arrhythmia screening. We discuss different risk factors as well as physiological and structural markers for atrial fibrillation onset. We explore in detail the application of novel digital health technologies such as wearables, watches and mobile devices which may have an impact on screening detection rates. The article concludes with a discussion about how to manage patients with screen detected atrial fibrillation

Hospital and care home nurse perspectives on optimising care for people living with dementia who transfer between hospitals and care homes

Background: Transitions out of hospital result in poor outcomes for older people. Research investigating transitions for care home residents living with dementia is limited, even though such residents often have multi-morbidities and frequently use hospital services. Nurses are key care providers. Yet their perspectives on optimising care for people living with dementia transferring back to their care home remains under explored. Aims: This qualitative descriptive study explores hospital and care home nurses’ perspectives on how they optimise care for people living with dementia who transfer from hospital back to their care home, and the alignment of this care with best practice. Methods: Thirty-three nurses participated in either semi structured interviews or focus groups. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Nurses described four roles: 1) exchanging information, 2) assessing and meeting needs, 3) working with families and 4) checking and organising medication. They described care home residents with dementia as having distinct needs and variation in how they provided care. Nurses described interdependent roles, but care home nurses were often excluded from involvement in planning resident’s care on return and were not fully recognised as members of wider healthcare teams. Facilitators for optimising care include: nurses understanding the principles of dementia care, nurse leadership and autonomy, having positive relationships between hospital and care home nurses and opportunities for joint working. The care practices nurses described broadly aligned with best practice. Implications: Hospital and care home nurses require joint working opportunities to understand their roles and build relationships. Care home nurses’ status needs to be addressed with action to support their integration into the wider healthcare system.Alzheimer’s Society (UK

Dementia cafes : recommendations from interviews with informal carers

Purpose Dementia cafés (also known as Alzheimer’s or memory cafés) have been running in the UK since 2000. The purpose of this paper is to report on the recommendations from recent research that interviewed family carers on their experiences of using the cafés. Design/methodology/approach The research was carried out in cafés in and around London, and focussed on informal, unpaid carers’ experiences of using them. In total, 11 carers from five different dementia cafés were interviewed, using semi-structured questionnaires. The results were thematically analysed. Findings The findings showed that carers had an overwhelming appreciation of the cafés and what they offered, but several of the findings led to the recommendations about the recruitment and training of café co-ordinators; how cafés present themselves and their services and how they can offer dedicated support to informal carers. Originality/value These recommendations will be of use to café organisers and commissioners, especially considering the dearth of information currently available in this area. </jats:sec

Dispersion-shifted all-solid high index-contrast microstructured optical fiber for nonlinear applications at 1.55µm

We report the fabrication of an all-solid highly nonlinear microstructured optical fiber. The structured preform was made by glass extrusion using two types of commercial lead silicate glasses that provide high index-contrast. Effectively single-moded guidance was observed in the fiber at 1.55µm. The effective nonlinearity and the propagation loss at this wavelength were measured to be 120W/km respectively at 1.55µm. These predictions are consistent with the experimentally determined dispersion of +12.5ps/nm/km at 1.55µm. Tunable and efficient four-wave-mixing based wavelength conversion was demonstrated at wavelengths around 1.55µm using a 1.5m length of the fiber

Examining hope as a transdiagnostic mechanism of change across anxiety disorders and CBT treatment protocols.

Hope is a trait that represents the capacity to identify strategies or pathways to achieve goals and the motivation or agency to effectively pursue those pathways. Hope has been demonstrated to be a robust source of resilience to anxiety and stress and there is limited evidence that, as has been suggested for decades, hope may function as a core process or transdiagnostic mechanism of change in psychotherapy. The current study examined the role of hope in predicting recovery in a clinical trial in which 223 individuals with 1 of 4 anxiety disorders were randomized to transdiagnostic cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), disorder-specific CBT, or a waitlist controlled condition. Effect size results indicated moderate to large intraindividual increases in hope, that changes in hope were consistent across the five CBT treatment protocols, that changes in hope were significantly greater in CBT relative to waitlist, and that changes in hope began early in treatment. Results of growth curve analyses indicated that CBT was a robust predictor of trajectories of change in hope compared to waitlist, and that changes in hope predicted changes in both self-reported and clinician-rated anxiety. Finally, a statistically significant indirect effect was found indicating that the effects of treatment on changes in anxiety were mediated by treatment effects on hope. Together, these results suggest that hope may be a promising transdiagnostic mechanism of change that is relevant across anxiety disorders and treatment protocols.R01 MH090053 - NIMH NIH HHSAccepted manuscrip

Effective Department Meetings: The right approach varies

This workshop will provide positive and instrumental approaches to meeting planning and management that allow chairs to effectively address challenging situations with confidence. Scenarios where specific meeting dynamics may be implemented to address difficult situations or maximize productivity will be discussed in breakout groups and finally considered by all

Multichannel wavelength conversion of 40 Gbit/s NRZ DPSK signals in a highly nonlinear dispersion flattened lead silicate fibre

We experimentally demonstrate the wavelength conversion of three wavelength multiplexed 40 Gbit/s Differential Phase Shift Keyed (DPSK) signals in a 2.2m length of highly nonlinear, dispersion tailored W-type lead-silicate optical fibre