The Sleeping Bag Landscape

This essay considers the ‘sleeping-bag’ as a travelling concept for developing new relations between the landscape and textiles. It examines the sleeping-bag within the wider historical and cultural contexts in which the material qualities of cloth are carried and transformed. By examining the appearance of the sleeping-bag in different landscapes and its own structure as a vehicle for conceptual thinking, the essay considers how certain strategies of thinking-through-making are brought to the fore in the analysis of specific examples, from an examination of the interconnectedness between materials and the landscapes from which they derive to the distancing of this relation as the sleeping-bag travels through unfamiliar terrains and climates. In turn, this cultural analysis provides the framework for The Sleepingbag Project, which was first developed in 2010 and which uses the tools and skills of craft to reveal unacknowledged and hidden identity relations between craft-making and homelessness. It is argued that through this project an identity of place for the displaced is made possible in and through an ethics of care

Patting Down Your Patient: Ethical and Practical Challenges of Correctional Mental Health

The unique nature of correctional settings presents mental health professionals working in these settings with various ethical and practical challenges. In light of these issues facing the field of correctional psychology, the present study is focused on examining the real-life experiences of correctional psychologists. Potential participants were identified based on their experiences within their mental health careers, specifically those who work, or have worked in the past, within a correctional facility as a mental health professional. Following this, a standardized interview was conducted focusing on the professional and educational background of the participants along with their perspectives about their work and the overall field of correctional mental health. The results of the study indicated a multitude of themes consistent across the interviews including training, the day-to-day, psychological and emotional issues, discomfort, dual role conflicts, limits of confidentiality, and if this is a rewarding career field. This study provides important information relating to the ethical and practical challenges of correctional mental health and why they experience these difficulties

Repeated exercise stress impairs volitional but not magnetically evoked electromechanical delay of the knee flexors

The effects of serial episodes of fatigue and recovery on volitional and magnetically evoked neuromuscular performance of the knee flexors were assessed in twenty female soccer players during: (i) an intervention comprising 4x35s maximal static exercise; (ii) a control condition. Volitional peak force (PFV) was impaired progressively (-16 % vs. baseline: 235.3±54.7 to 198.1±38.5 N) by the fatiguing exercise and recovered to within -97 % of baseline values following six-minutes of rest. Evoked peak twitch force (PTFE) was diminished subsequent to the fourth episode of exercise (23.3 %: 21.4±13.8 vs. 16.4±14.6 N) and remained impaired at this level throughout the recovery. Impairment of volitional electromechanical delay performance (EMDV) following the first episode of exercise (25.5 % :55.3±11.9 vs. 69.5±24.5 ms) contrasted with concurrent improvement (10.0 %: 24.5±4.7 vs. 22.1±5.0 ms) in evoked electromechanical delay (EMDE) (p <0.05) and this increased disparity between EMDE and EMDV remained during subsequent periods of intervention and recovery. The fatiguing exercise provoked substantial impairments to volitional strength and EMDV that showed differential patterns of recovery. However, improved EMDE performance might identify a dormant capability for optimal muscle responses during acute stressful exercise and an improved capacity to maintain dynamic joint stabilty during critical episodes of loading

What is the most effective way to treat recurrent canker sores?

Amlexanox appears to be most effective overall. Amlexanox 5% paste reduces ulcer size, pain duration, and healing time (strength of recommendation [SOR]: A, multiple randomized controlled trials [RCTs]). Topical steroids may alleviate pain and decrease ulcer burden, defined as total number of ulcers over a measured time, usually 4 to 6 weeks (SOR: B, multiple small heterogenous RCTs). Chemical cautery agents also lessen pain (SOR: A, single RCTs on differing agents), and chlorhexidine mouthwashes may reduce overall ulcer burden (SOR: B, heterogeneous RCTs). The herbal preparation Eupatorium laevigatum alleviates pain and improves healing (SOR: B, single RCT). Oral vitamin B12 supplements and avoiding toothpastes containing sodium lauryl sulfate may prevent recurrent ulcers (SOR: B, small RCTs)

Using GPS telemetry to validate least-cost modeling of gray squirrel ( Sciurus carolinensis) movement within a fragmented landscape

In Britain, the population of native red squirrels Sciurus vulgaris has suffered population declines and local extinctions. Interspecific resource competition and disease spread by the invasive gray squirrel Sciurus carolinensis are the main factors behind the decline. Gray squirrels have adapted to the British landscape so efficiently that they are widely distributed. Knowledge on how gray squirrels are using the landscape matrix and being able to predict their movements will aid management. This study is the first to use global positioning system (GPS) collars on wild gray squirrels to accurately record movements and land cover use within the landscape matrix. This data were used to validate Geographical Information System (GIS) least-cost model predictions of movements and provided much needed information on gray squirrel movement pathways and network use. Buffered least-cost paths and least-cost corridors provide predictions of the most probable movements through the landscape and are seen to perform better than the more expansive least-cost networks which include all possible movements. Applying the knowledge and methodologies gained to current gray squirrel expansion areas, such as Scotland and in Italy, will aid in the prediction of potential movement areas and therefore management of the invasive gray squirrel. The methodologies presented in this study could potentially be used in any landscape and on numerous species