Inextricably Season 1, Episode 1: “Now what”

This is the transcript of a fictional weekly podcast called Inextricably, performed in front of a live audience at North Cascades Institute’s Environmental Learning Center in North Cascades National Park in March 2017. The author outlines and examines the personal themes and seasonal cycles throughout an entire graduate school residency, a Master’s of Education in Environmental Education offered in partnership with North Cascades Institute and Western Washington University. A search for the purpose in the way information and knowledge is transferred, a sense of disillusionment with traditional models of education, and the unexpected learning outcomes of this experience are the basis of Season 1, Episode 1: “Now What?” “Each week on Inextricably, we feature stories about events and experiences in our lives that serve as a catalyst, a tipping point, or a kick in the teeth; that send our lives in a direction we hadn’t anticipated. Experiences, relationships, traumas that are impossible to disentangle from who we have become. Each episode we welcome a new guest to the show to talk about those things we are inextricably linked to. Things we sometimes wish we weren’t. Today’s program in 11 short acts feature’s yours truly, and the graduate school experience I had, and almost didn’t have. Join me, won’t you?

Mediators Between Adversity and Well-Being of College Students

Although the concurrent link between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and both physical and mental health is established, little is known about the mechanisms that explain it. We investigated the relationship between ACEs and well-being and the mediating roles of coping, executive function (EF), and cognitive failure in a non-clinical sample of college students. Participants (N = 194) completed behavioral measures and self-reports. More than half of the sample had at least one ACE. Correlational and mediational analyses examined the relationships between ACEs, college adaptation, psychopathology, substance use, coping, and cognitive failure. ACEs did not correlate with indices of EF or cognitive failure, but there was a positive relationship between cognitive failure and negative coping. ACEs positively correlated with college adaptation, psychopathology, and substance abuse. There was a full mediation from ACE via negative coping and cognitive failure for college adaptation and psychopathology and via negative coping for alcohol and drug use. ACEs relate with reliance on negative coping which in turn predicts directly and indirectly, through cognitive failure, poor adaptation and heightened symptomatology for psychopathology

Visual survey of exposed riverine sediments (Ers) in the Dane, Weaver and Bollin catchments

This is the Visual survey ERS Dane, Weaver & Bollin Catchments produced by the Environment Agency in 2005. Visual surveys of the River Dane downstream of the confluence with the Swettenham Brook, the River Weaver, and the River Bollin catchment in the EA Northwest South area of England were undertaken between 3rd and 9th February 2005 with the aim of identifying the spatial distribution and relative quality of exposed Riverine sediments (ERS). The potential value of these ERS in terms of likely habitat quality for ERS invertebrate communities was determined by recording a suite of appropriate environmental variables. Following an initial cartographical analysis of reaches likely to contain ERS, tens of kilometres of riverbank were inspected and 67 areas of ERS were selected for detailed visual survey. Site characteristics ranged widely both between and within catchments, with habitat quality ranging from poor to very high

Automated Software License and Copyright Analysis

The complex interactions of software licensing and intellectual property prove daunting hurdles for many individuals and businesses looking to open source software solutions. The financial reproductions for misusing a piece of open source software is high, and require great attention. Many resources are required to determine a software packages copyright holders and licensing information. The cost of such an analysis may become too costly to justify the use of the open source solution. The existing tools for analyzing software projects licenses and copyrights are lacking, and much hand vetting is required. If these tool could be improved then free and open source software would be more transparent and less costly to companies and individuals looking for open source alternative. This thesis describes a new approach to automated software license analysis and copyright analysis, which results show are more accurate and easier to maintain than previous methods. The use of machine learning and information extraction result in algorithms that produce abstract models of software licenses and copyrights based on hand labelled data. We will show that these models are more general and robust than previous techniques, and result in better accuracy

Motives and Correlates of Anabolic-Androgenic Steroid Use With Stimulant Polypharmacy

Individuals who use anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) may engage in concurrent psychoactive drug use recreationally and/or as an additional training aid. Aside from cannabis, individuals who use AAS most commonly report concurrent use of stimulants such as amphetamines and cocaine. In this study, we examine demographic characteristics, frequency of heavy drinking, and nightclubbing in a sample of 993 men from the Global Drug Survey 2015 who reported both AAS and psychoactive drug use before exploring the relationship between motivation for AAS use and the propensity to concurrently engage with stimulant-type substances. Results of a logistic regression analysis suggest that the propensity for concurrent use of AAS and stimulants is greater when AAS use is motivated by weight loss goals, while performance goals are associated with reduced odds of concurrent stimulant use. Identifying individuals who are at risk of polydrug use and associated harms can inform targeted harm reduction strategies

The ecology and conservation of beetles (coleoptera) living on exposed riverine sediments

Situated at the very juncture of the aquatic and terrestrial, exposed riverine sediments (ERS) are poorly vegetated alluvial deposits of silts, sands and gravels, which are habitat for a wide range of rare and highly specialised beetles. The thesis aimed to assess: (1) the conservation value of ERS beetles; (2) their changing habitat requirements and spatial population structure over a range of spatio-temporal scales; and (3) their vulnerability to anthropogenic threats, in particular, trampling by livestock. A database of British occurrence records was used to assess the conservation value of ERS specialist beetles. Beetle sampling implemented quadrat hand searches and modified dry pitfall traps, and spatial distribution and population structure in relation to a suite of environmental variables was analysed using correlation, SADIE analysis, and mark recapture methods. ERS beetles were found to have considerable conservation importance and their spatial distribution was related to habitat characteristics at the within-patch, patch, reach, and stream segment scales. These distributions varied temporally in response to flow level and trampling intensity, and trampling intensity was shown to reduce the conservation value of beetle assemblages. The likely responses to a variety of threats, such as regulation and channelization, mediated by varying inter-patch spatial population structure were evaluated

Electronic problem list documentation of chronic kidney disease and quality of care

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is increasingly common and under-recognized in primary care clinics, leading to low rates of stage-appropriate monitoring and treatment. Our objective was to determine whether electronic problem list documentation of CKD is associated with monitoring and treatment. Methods: This is a cross-sectional observational study of patients with stage 3 or 4 CKD, defined as two past estimated glomerular filtration rates (eGFR) 15-60 mL/min/1.73 m2 separated by 90 days and collected between 2007-2008. We examined the association of problem list documentation with: 1) serum eGFR monitoring test, 2) urine protein or albumin monitoring test, 3) an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ACE/ARB) prescription, 4) mean systolic blood pressure (BP), and 5) BP control. Results: Out of 3,149 patients with stage 3 or 4 CKD, only 16% of patients had CKD documented on the problem list. After adjustment for eGFR, gender, and race/ethnicity and after clustering by physician, problem list documentation of CKD was associated with serum eGFR testing (97% with problem list documentation vs. 94% without problem list documentation, p = 0.02) and urine protein testing (47% with problem list documentation vs. 40% without problem list documentation, p = 0.04). After adjustment, problem list documentation was not associated with ACE/ARB prescription, mean systolic BP, or BP control. Conclusions: Documentation of CKD on the electronic problem list is rare. Patients with CKD documentation have better stage-appropriate monitoring of the disease, but do not have higher rates of blood pressure treatment or better blood pressure control. Interventions aimed at increasing documentation of CKD on the problem list may improve stage-appropriate monitoring, but may not improve clinical outcomes