Helplessness to Hope: Cultural Transformations for the Maasai Girl-Child

This study examined how the life dreams of the girls at the MTH Center of Hope in Kenya are being altered as a result in a change of cultural experience. The center was built as a place of rescue to protect Maasai girls from early marriage, FGM and extreme poverty while allowing them to stay in school. The phenomenological study included observations, interviews, focus groups and a questionnaire that was used to elicit responses and begin dialogue. Results indicate that there is a definite need not only for secondary and tertiary education for the girls but also to train the girls toward gainful employment. Other results include educating the Maasai men on the destructive practices toward females within the patriarchal society and allowing morality associated with Christianity to permeate the culture that is imploding because the moral fiber of society is being destroyed by witchcraft, evil and corruption

Antibody response to pneumococcal and influenza vaccination in patients with rheumatoid arthritis receiving abatacept

Background Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), including those treated with biologics, are at increased risk of some vaccine-preventable infections. We evaluated the antibody response to standard 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23) and the 2011–2012 trivalent seasonal influenza vaccine in adults with RA receiving subcutaneous (SC) abatacept and background disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Methods Two multicenter, open-label sub-studies enrolled patients from the ACQUIRE (pneumococcal and influenza) and ATTUNE (pneumococcal) studies at any point during their SC abatacept treatment cycle following completion of ≥3 months’ SC abatacept. All patients received fixed-dose abatacept 125 mg/week with background DMARDs. A pre-vaccination blood sample was taken, and after 28 ± 3 days a final post- vaccination sample was collected. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients achieving an immunologic response to the vaccine at Day 28 among patients without a protective antibody level to the vaccine antigens at baseline (pneumococcal: defined as ≥2-fold increase in post-vaccination titers to ≥3 of 5 antigens and protective antibody level of ≥1.6 μg/mL to ≥3 of 5 antigens; influenza: defined as ≥4-fold increase in post-vaccination titers to ≥2 of 3 antigens and protective antibody level of ≥1:40 to ≥2 of 3 antigens). Safety and tolerability were evaluated throughout the sub-studies. Results Pre- and post-vaccination titers were available for 113/125 and 186/191 enrolled patients receiving the PPSV23 and influenza vaccine, respectively. Among vaccinated patients, 47/113 pneumococcal and 121/186 influenza patients were without protective antibody levels at baseline. Among patients with available data, 73.9 % (34/46) and 61.3 % (73/119) met the primary endpoint and achieved an immunologic response to PPSV23 or influenza vaccine, respectively. In patients with pre- and post-vaccination data available, 83.9 % in the pneumococcal study demonstrated protective antibody levels with PPSV23 (titer ≥1.6 μg/mL to ≥3 of 5 antigens), and 81.2 % in the influenza study achieved protective antibody levels (titer ≥1:40 to ≥2 of 3 antigens) at Day 28 post-vaccination. Vaccines were well tolerated with SC abatacept with background DMARDs. Conclusions In these sub-studies, patients with RA receiving SC abatacept and background DMARDs were able to mount an appropriate immune response to pneumococcal and influenza vaccines. Trial registration NCT00559585 (registered 15 November 2007) and NCT00663702 (registered 18 April 2008)

Hydrostatic extrusion of BSCCO/Ag composite wire

The application of hydrostatic extrusion processing to composite wire fabrication offers several advantages over conventional reduction techniques. These include enhanced uniformity, increased reduction capability, and successful extrusion of normally brittle materials. Specifically, this work involved an experiment to screen the effects of seven extrusion process parameters on the uniformity and density of as-extruded BSCCO-core wire, and the required extrusion pressure. Results suggest the following factors to be potentially significant: (1) back pressure, extrusion ratio, and die angle on core uniformity, (2) packing method, extrusion ratio, silver powder additions, and temperature on density, and (3) extrusion ratio and temperature on extrusion pressure

An evaluation of the West of Scotland in-programme Chief Resident role

Background Postgraduate leadership education is an evolving field. Locally we have an established ‘Chief Residency’ programme where centres have two to four senior trainees completing leadership duties alongside clinical workload, supported by local directors of medical education. This is twinned with a 4-day central training programme and peer-support network. Methods To assess perspectives of the CR role, we adopted a qualitative case-study design using an electronic questionnaire delivered to previous chief residents between 2020 and 2023. Results were analysed using thematic analysis. Results Trainees valued involvement within quality improvement and trainee support, demonstrating successful multi-departmental projects. Leadership education was viewed ubiquitously positively but participants felt further work is needed to address role legitimacy locally. A proposed solution was junior doctor leadership teams to address workload and emotional challenges. Conclusion This model provides further evidence of the value in investing in trainee leadership positions, demonstrating organisational impact. Future work will research hospital peer leadership teams

Detecting Variability in Massive Astronomical Time-Series Data I: application of an infinite Gaussian mixture model

We present a new framework to detect various types of variable objects within massive astronomical time-series data. Assuming that the dominant population of objects is non-variable, we find outliers from this population by using a non-parametric Bayesian clustering algorithm based on an infinite GaussianMixtureModel (GMM) and the Dirichlet Process. The algorithm extracts information from a given dataset, which is described by six variability indices. The GMM uses those variability indices to recover clusters that are described by six-dimensional multivariate Gaussian distributions, allowing our approach to consider the sampling pattern of time-series data, systematic biases, the number of data points for each light curve, and photometric quality. Using the Northern Sky Variability Survey data, we test our approach and prove that the infinite GMM is useful at detecting variable objects, while providing statistical inference estimation that suppresses false detection. The proposed approach will be effective in the exploration of future surveys such as GAIA, Pan-Starrs, and LSST, which will produce massive time-series data.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRA

Cultural and economic differences in television viewing in early childhood.

Aim of research: to describe TV viewing trajectories from age 5 to 40 month

Emergent dynamic chirality in a thermally driven artificial spin ratchet

Modern nanofabrication techniques have opened the possibility to create novel functional materials, whose properties transcend those of their constituent elements. In particular, tuning the magnetostatic interactions in geometrically frustrated arrangements of nanoelements called artificial spin ice1, 2 can lead to specific collective behaviour3, including emergent magnetic monopoles4, 5, charge screening6, 7 and transport8, 9, as well as magnonic response10, 11, 12. Here, we demonstrate a spin-ice-based active material in which energy is converted into unidirectional dynamics. Using X-ray photoemission electron microscopy we show that the collective rotation of the average magnetization proceeds in a unique sense during thermal relaxation. Our simulations demonstrate that this emergent chiral behaviour is driven by the topology of the magnetostatic field at the edges of the nanomagnet array, resulting in an asymmetric energy landscape. In addition, a bias field can be used to modify the sense of rotation of the average magnetization. This opens the possibility of implementing a magnetic Brownian ratchet13, 14, which may find applications in novel nanoscale devices, such as magnetic nanomotors, actuators, sensors or memory cells