What is not, but might be: The disnarrated in parents' stories of their child's cancer treatment

The study of illness narratives is based on the premise that stories are told for a reason and storytellers make narrative decisions on what to include and leave out of a story, the style of narration, the place where the story is told and the audience. Through this narrative work, they situate themselves in particular ways and make sense of the illness and the world around them. In this article, we explore the disnarrated, a style of narration that features events that do not happen, but are nonetheless referred to in the story. The aim of the article is to illustrate the additional layers of meaning that can be uncovered from illness stories when attention is paid to what did not happen, but, yet, is still part of the story. We draw from a qualitative study carried out with 17 parents whose children were diagnosed with cancer and were receiving medical care in Argentina. We carried out narrative interviews with the parents and participant-observation in hospital areas and the hotels where they resided during treatment. The analysis of the interview transcripts was carried out using a holistic understanding of the narratives and focusing on the identification of themes that appeared disnarrated. The fieldnotes from the observations were used to contextualize the narrative analysis. The disnarrated, in its many manifestations, produced a layer of analysis of parents' stories of treatment patterned by parents' desires, hopes and fears. The disnarrated was used by parents to discuss alternative care trajectories and express fears regarding what the future would bring for the child and family. The disnarrated is a useful analytical tool for examining illness stories as it points to storytellers’ views of what is acceptable or desirable in their world and their hopes and preferences for alternative realities.Fil: Vindrola Padros, Cecilia. University College London; Reino UnidoFil: Brage, Eugenia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Close-Kin Mark-Recapture Models

Close-Kin Mark-Recapture (CKMR) is a recent extension of the ordinary mark–recapture methods used to estimate animal abundance and other population parameters. Where ordinary mark–recapture only consider the subsequent identification of the same animal a recapture, CKMR expands this by also viewing the genetic identification of a relatives as a recapture. One of the challenges of CKMR models compared to ordinary mark–recapture is that the recapture probabilities are tightly coupled to the life histories of the animals in questions. This thesis contains three different contributions to the CKMR literature. Firstly I develop a CKMR estimator for age structured populations, presented in Ruzzante (2019). Secondly, I develop theoretical background for half sibling CKMR analysis, and apply kin analysis to data from the River Etne. Thirdly, it expands on the results from Skaug (2017) and derives several new results for the case where age of both parent and offspring is unknown. The first part contains the method development of a parent–offspring CKMR model for brook trout populations, electrofished yearly in the period 2013-2018. I here develop a moment estimator for population size for an age structured model, related to the Lincoln–Petersen estimator. The estimator is applied under two different population assumptions, stable age structure, and variable recruitment and representative sampling. Special focus is on the small population situation, where large sample approximations used in previous CKMR studies cannot be assumed. A small sample bias correction for the estimator is developed and validated using parametric bootstrap simulations. Using the perspective that the parent marks the offspring instead of the commonly used offspring marks juvenile, a simple and general form of the estimator is derived. Viewing offspring as the marked part of the population also leads to an expression for the variance of the expected number of parent–offspring pairs in a sample, which is found to be less than the Poisson variance unless fecundity is very overdispersed. The second part contains theoretical background and model development for half sibling CKMR analysis, to examine the conditions under which same cohort siblings are suitable for CKMR analysis. A half sibling kinship analysis of single year data set of Atlantic salmon from the River Etne 2013 is performed to check if it is suitable for CKMR. In the third part, the probability that an individual has a living parent in an age structured population is discussed in detail. For the case where age information for both parent and offspring is unavailable, I derive two useful expressions for the probability of a living parent when mortality is constant, or constant after onset of maturity. With the additional assumption of constant population size, this probability is shown to be 1/2, similar to what is previously proved for constant fecundity.Masteroppgave i statistikkSTAT399MAMN-STA

Therapeutic itineraries and childhood cancer in Argentina: Peripheral perspectives

In Argentina the attention of some childhood diseases, such as cancer, is centralized in Buenos Aires. About half of the children who fall ill with cancer must migrate to another city in search of diagnosis or medical treatment for this disease. This gives rise to different forms of territorial mobility for access to health services, topic that has not received much attention in medical anthropology. The aim of this presentation is to share the results of a doctoral research work about the therapeutic itineraries and care practices carried out by parents of children affected by cancer. The ethnographic fieldwork was carried out during May 2013 to December 2015 at a public Hospital located in Buenos Aires, as well as a non-governmental organization created to support low-income families who are suffering from this disease and, finally, a hotel where some families stay when they arrive to Buenos Aires during the period of the medical treatment and controls. The methodology consisted on observations and semi-structured interviews to child?s parents and primary carers. I will try to bring to discussion some theoretical and methodological implications about the notion of therapeutic itinerary, a category that has gained strength due to its enormous explanatory and analytical potential. Based on analyzing the reality of our health services, the work aims to expose the potential of "peripheral perspectives" (Cardoso de Oliveira, 2004) to cope with a highly changing and uneven world.Fil: Brage, Eugenia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas. Sección de Antropología Social; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina4th Qualitative Health Research Network (QHRN) Conference 2019LondresReino UnidoUniversity College Londo

Large-Scale Distributed Internet-based Discovery Mechanism for Dynamic Spectrum Allocation

Scarcity of frequencies and the demand for more bandwidth is likely to increase the need for devices that utilize the available frequencies more efficiently. Radios must be able to dynamically find other users of the frequency bands and adapt so that they are not interfered, even if they use different radio protocols. As transmitters far away may cause as much interference as a transmitter located nearby, this mechanism can not be based on location alone. Central databases can be used for this purpose, but require expensive infrastructure and planning to scale. In this paper, we propose a decentralized protocol and architecture for discovering radio devices over the Internet. The protocol has low resource requirements, making it suitable for implementation on limited platforms. We evaluate the protocol through simulation in network topologies with up to 2.3 million nodes, including topologies generated from population patterns in Norway. The protocol has also been implemented as proof-of-concept in real Wi-Fi routers.Comment: Accepted for publication at IEEE DySPAN 201

Matrix algebras, irreducible representation spaces, and relation to particle physics

In this thesis we study simultaneous realizations of multiple irreducible representations spaces within matrix algebras. In so doing we show how relations between irreducible representation spaces arise as a consequence of expressing fundamental and adjoint representation spaces as linearly independent subspaces. Our work proceeds in two parts. In both cases we work with the algebra M(8,C), which spans the space of eight by eight complex matrices. This space is chosen as it is: the smallest possible space to simultaneously incorporate the different gauge representations of the Standard Model, isomorphic to the complex Clifford algebra Cl(6), and a realization of the linear maps on the complexified Octonions. In the first part we present an explicit embedding of the Standard Model gauge groups. Second, we show the induction of a direct sum decomposition of the matrix algebra into a set of irreducible representation spaces. We discuss the features of and relationships between the irreducible representation spaces in the matrix algebra, and compare our results to features of Supersymmetry, Grand Unified Theories, and Noncommutative Geometry. Our work is not intended to be a derivation or explanation of Standard Model gauge representations. Instead, our work proposes a novel approach to studying combinations of irreducible representation spaces. As such this work explores the introduction of linear independence between irreducible representation spaces, the implications of this additional structure as realized in finite dimensional vector spaces, and relates our results to the Standard Model's irreducible representation spaces

L’alumnat universitari en el context del sistema universitari de les Illes Balears

El artículo propone tres miradas o aproximaciones sucesivas al análisis del alumnado universitario de la Comunidad Autónoma de las Islas Baleares. La primera consiste en una revisión del contexto de cambio que vive actualmente la universidad. La segunda, es una perspectiva evolutiva de les dimensiones y características del alumnado. La tercera desarrolla un análisis de los traslados a universidades del resto del Estado y de la presencia de las ofertas a distancia. La tesis del artículo es que estas tres miradas, con las tres lógicas que las sustentan, son igualmente necesarias para llevar a cabo un proceso de refl exión en profundidad sobre el alumnado universitario.L’article proposa tres mirades o aproximacions successives a l’anàlisi de l’alumnat universitari de la Comunitat Autònoma de les Illes Balears. La primera consisteix en una revisió del context de canvi que viu actualment la universitat. La segona, és una perspectiva evolutiva de les dimensions i característiques de l’alumnat. La tercera desenvolupa una anàlisi dels trasllats a universitats de la resta de l’Estat i de la presència de les ofertes a distància. La tesi de l’article és que aquestes tres mirades, amb les tres lògiques que les sustenten, són igualment necessàries per a portar a terme un procés de refl exió en profunditat sobre l’alumnat universitari