James Earl Fraser's The end of the trail : affect and the persistence of an iconic Indian image

This thesis considers why James Earl Fraser's equestrian sculpture, The End of the Trail , has endured and become iconic within North American popular culture. It argues that the persistence of Fraser's image of the vanishing race has primarily resulted from its affective resonance, for the image has the capacity to evoke emotion in especially strong ways. The thesis explores the original sculpture and its afterimage within three distinct historical contexts in order to demonstrate the work's affective power at different moments in time. These historical contexts including the work's exhibition at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915, the period of endless appropriation and reuse by souvenir industries, which extends to the current day, and the contemporary context of Native American artistic re-appropriation and critique. The emotional concepts of sympathy and pity inform the first section's historical discussion of James Earl Fraser and the work's exhibition at the world fair in 1915; the notions of sentimentality and historical distance are used to analyze the kitsch aesthetic in relation to "End of the Trail' souvenir objects in the second section. The final section examines how the contemporary Aboriginal artists James Luna, Terrance Houle, and Kent Monkman have all critiqued and re-conceptualized Fraser's The End of the Trail within their own artistic re-interpretations. This section considers how strategies of postmodern parody, reenactment, and historical revisionism have enabled these contemporary Aboriginal artists to re-appropriate this iconic Indian image for their own intents and purposes

Development of ASMBS Research Agenda for Bariatric Surgery Using the Delphi Methodology

Background While the number of research publications related to bariatric surgery have increased remarkably in the past decade, research efforts remain uncoordinated and have limited focus, and numerous important questions remain unanswered. Objective To generate a research agenda in bariatric surgery. Setting National survey. Methods The membership of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) was asked to submit research questions needed to advance the field of bariatric surgery. An expert panel grouped and collated submitted questions and redistributed them back to the membership to rate their importance on a 5-point Likert scale using a 3-round modified Delphi methodology. The top research questions were determined based on provided rankings. Results Two hundred ninety-two research questions were initially submitted that were collapsed to 59 unique questions. The ratings for the top 40 questions ranged from 2.67–4.33 (overall mean, 3.46). The highest-ranked questions centered on the mechanisms of effectiveness of bariatric surgery for weight loss and diabetes resolution, the underlying etiology of weight recidivism, and predictors of success. Conclusions A research agenda for bariatric surgery was developed using the Delphi methodology. This research agenda may enhance the ability of investigators and funding organizations, including the ASMBS, to focus attention to areas most likely to advance the field, and by editors and reviewers to assess the merit and relevance of scientific contributions

Reflections on equality, diversity and gender at the end of a media studies headship

This article reflects, from a feminist perspective, on a five-year period as Head of a School of Media. It considers the position of media studies within the new academic capitalism, and the re-masculinisation of the university that this has produced. It considers strategies employed by the field to stake its own claim to that masculinisation, in particular the embrace of ‘the digital’. Finally it describes the challenges this posed for the author, and tactics employed in dealing with them

Anthropogenic Food Subsidy to a Commensal Carnivore: The Value and Supply of Human Faeces in the Diet of Free-Ranging Dogs

As the global population of free-ranging domestic dogs grows, there is increasing concern about impacts on human health and wildlife conservation. Effective management of dog populations requires reliable information on their diet, feeding behavior, and social ecology. Free-ranging dogs are reliant on humans, but anthropogenic food subsidies, particularly human faeces (i.e., coprophagy) have not previously been fully quantified. In this study we assess the contributions of different food types to the diet, and their influences on the social behaviour of free-ranging dogs in communal lands of rural Zimbabwe, with a focus on coprophagy. Free-ranging dog diets, body condition, and sociology were studied amongst 72 dogs over 18 months using scat analysis and direct observations. Human faeces constituted the fourth most common item in scats (56% occurrence) and contributed 21% by mass to the observed diet. Human faeces represented a valuable resource because relative to other food items it was consistently available, and of higher nutritional value than ‘sadza’ (maize porridge, the human staple and primary human-derived food), yielding 18.7% crude protein and 18.7 KJ/kg gross energy, compared to 8.3% and 18.5 KJ/kg for sadza, respectively. Human faeces had protein and energy values equivalent to mammal remains, another important food item. Dog condition was generally good, with 64% of adult females and 74% of adult males in the highest two body condition scores (on a five point scale), suggesting a plentiful and high quality food supply. Dogs largely fed alone, perhaps as a consequence of the small, inert, and spatially dispersed items that comprise their diet, and its abundance. We discuss the relationships between sanitation, human development, the supply of human faeces, female dog fertility, and population control

The impact of experiences of ageism on sexual activity and interest in later life

Experiences of ageism are associated with poorer health outcomes. Sexual activity and interest are areas in life where the impact of ageism may also be evident as popular culture often depicts the older body as asexual, undesirable or sexually impotent. We explore the possible links between experiences of ageism and sexual activity/interest in later life using data from a study of Australians aged 60+. We explored characteristics of those who were more likely to have experienced ageism (measured using the Ageism survey) and the relationships between experiences of ageism and measures of sexual interest/activity in later life (n=1,817). Experiences of ageism were greater among those without a partner, unemployed participants, those with lower incomes, and poorer self-rated health. Adjusting for these differences, experiences of ageism were more likely to be reported by those who had not had sex in the past two years and were not sure about their hopes/plans for sex in the future. Those who reported their sexual interest had increased or decreased since 60 also reported greater levels of ageism experience, as did those who wanted to have sex more frequently in the future. Ageism appears to impact sexual activity and interest in different ways. It is critical that social policy aims to reverse attitudes that reinforce the view of the ageist asexual and unattractive older body or person

Challenging Perceptions of Disability through Performance Poetry Methods: The "Seen but Seldom Heard" Project.

This paper considers performance poetry as a method to explore lived experiences of disability. We discuss how poetic inquiry used within a participatory arts-based research framework can enable young people to collectively question society’s attitudes and actions towards disability. Poetry will be considered as a means to develop a more accessible and effective arena in which young people with direct experience of disability can be empowered to develop new skills that enable them to tell their own stories. Discussion of how this can challenge audiences to critically reflect upon their own perceptions of disability will also be developed

Randomized Noninferiority Trial of Telephone Delivery of BRCA1/2 Genetic Counseling Compared With In-Person Counseling: 1-Year Follow-Up

The ongoing integration of cancer genomic testing into routine clinical care has led to increased demand for cancer genetic services. To meet this demand, there is an urgent need to enhance the accessibility and reach of such services, while ensuring comparable care delivery outcomes. This randomized trial compared 1-year outcomes for telephone genetic counseling with in-person counseling among women at risk of hereditary breast and/or ovarian cancer living in geographically diverse areas

Prevalence of radiologically defined osteoarthritis in the finger and wrist joints of adult residents of Tecumseh, Michigan, 1962-65

Radiographs of the fingers and wrists of adult participants in the Tecumseh Community Health Study in 1962-1965 were examined for signs of osteoarthritis (OA). The severity of OA for each of 32 joints of the fingers and wrists was recorded for each individual. Attention was restricted to the 3035 participants who were 32 years of age or older and for whom a diagnosis of OA was available for each of 32 joints. Joint-specific prevalence rates of OA increased sharply with age for both sexes, and at the older ages, the prevalence rates for most joints were higher for females. Older individuals with OA also had a greater number of affected joints, with females having a greater number of affected joints than males. Of those individuals aged 44 years or younger, only 6.2% had one or more joints affected with OA. The percentages were 21.6 and 42.0% for those aged 45-59 years and 60 or more years, respectively. The distal interphalangeal (DIP) joints were the most frequently affected joints in all age categories for both sexes and OA in the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joints was positively associated with OA in the DIP joints. However, controlling for the number of affected DIP joints, the PIP joints of older subjects were more likely to exhibit OA than the PIP joints of younger subjects. Though there is an association between OA in the DIP and PIP joints, there was only a small, nonsignificant association (OR= 1.24, 95% CI=0.83, 1.84) between disease in the DIP and PIP joints of the same finger.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27568/1/0000612.pd

Antibody attributes that predict the neutralization and effector function of polyclonal responses to SARS-CoV-2

BACKGROUND: While antibodies can provide significant protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease sequelae, the specific attributes of the humoral response that contribute to immunity are incompletely defined. METHODS: We employ machine learning to relate characteristics of the polyclonal antibody response raised by natural infection to diverse antibody effector functions and neutralization potency with the goal of generating both accurate predictions of each activity based on antibody response profiles as well as insights into antibody mechanisms of action. RESULTS: To this end, antibody-mediated phagocytosis, cytotoxicity, complement deposition, and neutralization were accurately predicted from biophysical antibody profiles in both discovery and validation cohorts. These models identified SARS-CoV-2-specific IgM as a key predictor of neutralization activity whose mechanistic relevance was supported experimentally by depletion. CONCLUSIONS: Validated models of how different aspects of the humoral response relate to antiviral antibody activities suggest desirable attributes to recapitulate by vaccination or other antibody-based interventions

A descriptive model of patient readiness, motivators, and hepatitis C treatment uptake among Australian prisoners

Background: Hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) has a significant global health burden with an estimated 2%–3% of the world's population infected, and more than 350,000 dying annually from HCV-related conditions including liver failure and liver cancer. Prisons potentially offer a relatively stable environment in which to commence treatment as they usually provide good access to health care providers, and are organised around routine and structure. Uptake of treatment of HCV, however, remains low in the community and in prisons. In this study, we explored factors affecting treatment uptake inside prisons and hypothesised that prisoners have unique issues influencing HCV treatment uptake as a consequence of their incarceration which are not experienced in other populations. Method and Findings: We undertook a qualitative study exploring prisoners' accounts of why they refused, deferred, delayed or discontinued HCV treatment in prison. Between 2010 and 2013, 116 Australian inmates were interviewed from prisons in New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia. Prisoners experienced many factors similar to those which influence treatment uptake of those living with HCV infection in the community. Incarceration, however, provides different circumstances of how these factors are experienced which need to be better understood if the number of prisoners receiving treatment is to be increased. We developed a descriptive model of patient readiness and motivators for HCV treatment inside prisons and discussed how we can improve treatment uptake among prisoners.Conclusion: This study identified a broad and unique range of challenges to treatment of HCV in prison. Some of these are likely to be diminished by improving treatment options and improved models of health care delivery. Other barriers relate to inmate understanding of their illness and stigmatisation by other inmates and custodial staff and generally appear less amenable to change although there is potential for peer-based education to address lack of knowledge and stigma