Wholeness as a creative exploration of self

Narrative is intricately embedded in human experience and is a potent means of shaping self-identity, imbuing meaning, facilitating insight and transforming awareness. This article reflects on the creative findings of a three and a half year exploration of self. Through the researcher’s auto-ethnographic reflections, her experience as an artist and psychologist, the power of the humanities as a method of becoming whole are explored. This article discusses cultivating a state of awareness where it is possible to compassionately witness the narratives of many selves both our own and in the people we work with, and how such a practice can inform healing

Metropolitan Portland Looks at Governmental Reorganization: A Public Opinion Study

This is the report of a study of public attitudes toward local government and governmental reorganization in the Portland Metropolitan area. The survey was conducted and compiled by Bardsley & Haslacher, an independent and impartial research organization, with offices in Portland, Oregon and Stanford, California

Creatively Exploring Self: Applying Organic Inquiry, a Transpersonal and Intuitive Methodology

This article explores the merit of using Organic Inquiry, a qualitative research approach that is most effectively applied to areas of psychological and spiritual growth. Organic Inquiry is a research approach where the psyche of the researcher becomes the instrument of the research, working in partnership with the experiences of participants and guided by liminal and spiritual influences. Organic Inquiry is presented as a unique methodology that can incorporate other non-traditional research methods, including intuitive, autoethnographic and creative techniques. The validity and application of Organic Inquiry, as well as its strengths and limitations are discussed in the light of the author’s recent investigation into the nature of Self

A perfusion culture system for assessing bone marrow stromal cell differentiation on PLGA scaffolds for bone repair

Biomaterials development for bone repair is currently hindered by the lack of physiologically relevant in vitro testing systems. Here we describe the novel use of a bi-directional perfusion bioreactor to support the long term culture of human bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) differentiated on polylactic co-glycolic acid (PLGA). Primary human BMSCs were seeded onto porous PLGA scaffolds and cultured in static vs. perfusion culture conditions for 21 days in osteogenic vs. control media. PLGA scaffolds were osteoconductive, supporting a mature osteogenic phenotype as shown by the upregulation of Runx2 and the early osteocyte marker E11. Perfusion culture enhanced the expression of osteogenic genes Osteocalcin and Osteopontin. Extracellular matrix deposition and mineralisation were spatially regulated within PLGA scaffolds in a donor dependant manner. This, together with the observed upregulation of Collagen type X suggested an environment permissive for the study of differentiation pathways associated with both intramembranous and endochondral ossification routes of bone healing. This culture system offers a platform to assess BMSC behavior on candidate biomaterials under physiologically relevant conditions. Use of this system may improve our understanding of the environmental cues orchestrating BMSC differentiation and enable fine tuning of biomaterial design as we develop tissue-engineered strategies for bone regeneration

Vibrational and rotational state dependence of dissociative attachment in e-H2 collisions

Resonant scattering theory is applied to the calculation of e-H2 dissociative attachment cross sections near threshold for several vibrational and rotational states of the H2 molecule. Typical values just above threshold are, in cm2, 2.8×10−21 for the ground state (v=0, J=0), 8.3×10−20 for (1, 0), 1.0×10−18 for (2, 0), and 3.5×10−20 for (0, 10). The effect of rotational excitation is found to be significant, although it is not as large as suggested by Chen and Peacher

Calculations of ion‐ion recombination rates at high pressures

The classical theory of ion‐ion recombination in gases of high density is extended to allow for arbitrary ratios of the masses of the three species involved. Calculations are performed for the recombination of Ar+, Ar+ 2, Kr+, and Kr+ 2 ions with F− and of Hg+ and Ar+ with Cl− in an argon gas. The effective two‐body rates peak between 2×10−6 and 3×10−6 cm3 sec−1 at pressures above 1 atm

Dissociative attachment and vibrational excitation in low-energy collisions of electrons with H2 and D2

A semiempirical analysis is made of the contributions of the two lowest resonant states to dissociative attachment and vibrational excitation in low-energy collisions of electrons with H2 and D2. The resonance models are based both on ab initio calculations and on fits to experimental data. The dissociative-attachment cross section near threshold is enhanced significantly by vibrational or rotational excitation of the initial molecule. Near 10 eV, contributions from both resonances are required to explain the observed cross sections for vibrational excitation

Factors associated with variation in hospital use at the end of life in England

Objective: To identify the relative importance of factors influencing hospital use at the end of life. Design: Retrospective cohort study of person and health system effects on hospital use in the past 12 months modelling differences in admissions, bed days and whether a person died in hospital. Setting: Residents in England for the period 2009/2010 to 2011/2012 using Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data from all acute care hospitals in England funded by the National Health Service (NHS). Participants: 1 223 859 people registered with a GP in England who died (decedents) in England (April 2009–March 2012) with a record of NHS hospital care. Main outcome measures: Hospital admissions, and hospital bed days and place of death (in or out of hospital) in the past 12 months of life. Results: The mean number of admissions in the past 12 months of life averaged 2.28 occupying 30.05 bed days—excluding 9.8% of patients with no hospital history. A total of 50.8% of people died in hospital. Difference in hospital use was associated with a range of patient descriptors (age, gender and ethnicity). The variables with the greatest ‘explanatory power’ were those that described the diagnoses and causes of death. So, for example, 65% of the variability in the model of hospital admissions was explained by diagnoses. Only moderate levels of variation were explained by the hospital provider variables for admissions and deaths in hospital, though the impacts on total bed days was large. Conclusions: Comparative analyses of hospital utilisation should standardise for a range of patient specific variables. Though the models indicated some degree of variability associated with individual providers, the scale of this was not great for admissions and death in hospital but the variability associated with length of stay differences suggests that attempts to optimise hospital use should look at differences in lengths of stay and bed use. This study adds important new information about variability in admissions by diagnostic group, and variability in bed days by diagnostic group and eventual cause of death

Teaching and Research within Further Education Colleges: chalk and cheese?

The expansion of Higher Education (HE) into Further Education (FE) Colleges has resulted in college lecturers with responsibility for teaching HE courses experiencing considerable changes in their working practices. College lecturers have worked collaboratively with universities to develop HE courses and been presented with opportunities to engage in scholarly activity and research. This paper draws on the experience of a group of college lecturers who undertook research into aspects of their teaching practice through an initiative introduced by the Higher Education Learning Partnerships (HELP) Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL). Through a series of semi-structured interviews, this paper examines the impact of their projects and experiences as researchers on their practice, and on the learning experiences they provided for their students. The paper explores the context of delivering HE within FE, and the lessons that can be learned from undertaking practitioner-led research in this environment. As the college lecturers demonstrate, their research was found to enhance their practice, and was highlighted as validating their profession identities as HE in FE professionals. They also considered the tensions and challenges present within an FE college where research activities are not necessarily seen a part of the teaching role. Based on the experiences of these college lecturers this paper argues for a more pro-active approach to scholarly activity in an HE in FE context

RNA Sequencing Reveals Novel Transcripts from Sympathetic Stellate Ganglia During Cardiac Sympathetic Hyperactivity.

Cardiovascular disease is the most prevalent age-related illness worldwide, causing approximately 15 million deaths every year. Hypertension is central in determining cardiovascular risk and is a strong predictive indicator of morbidity and mortality; however, there remains an unmet clinical need for disease-modifying and prophylactic interventions. Enhanced sympathetic activity is a well-established contributor to the pathophysiology of hypertension, however the cellular and molecular changes that increase sympathetic neurotransmission are not known. The aim of this study was to identify key changes in the transcriptome in normotensive and spontaneously hypertensive rats. We validated 15 of our top-scoring genes using qRT-PCR, and network and enrichment analyses suggest that glutamatergic signalling plays a key role in modulating Ca2+ balance within these ganglia. Additionally, phosphodiesterase activity was found to be altered in stellates obtained from the hypertensive rat, suggesting that impaired cyclic nucleotide signalling may contribute to disturbed Ca2+ homeostasis and sympathetic hyperactivity in hypertension. We have also confirmed the presence of these transcripts in human donor stellate samples, suggesting that key genes coupled to neurotransmission are conserved. The data described here may provide novel targets for future interventions aimed at treating sympathetic hyperactivity associated with cardiovascular disease and other dysautonomias