Results of the 2010/2011 Hospice Patient Survey General Report

The 2010/11 survey is the fourth in a series of surveys on patient satisfaction with inpatient and daycare services. Carried out by Help the Hospices and the Centre for Health Services Studies at the University of Kent, with previous surveys being completed in 2004/05, 2006/07 and 2008/09. All hospices across the UK were invited to take part in the 2010/11 Patient Survey and 39 hospices participated between September 2010 and May 2011

Effect of Grazing-Mediated Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS) Production on the Swimming Behavior of the Copepod Calanus helgolandicus

Chemical interactions play a fundamental role in the ecology of marine foodwebs. Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is a ubiquitous marine trace gas that acts as a bioactive compound by eliciting foraging behavior in a range of marine taxa including the copepod Temora longicornis. Production of DMS can rapidly increase following microzooplankton grazing on phytoplankton. Here, we investigated whether grazing-induced DMS elicits an increase in foraging behavior in the copepod Calanus helgolandicus. We developed a semi-Automated method to quantify the effect of grazing-mediated DMS on the proportion of the time budget tethered females allocate towards slow swimming, typically associated with feeding. The pooled data showed no differences in the proportion of the 25 min time budget allocated towards slow swimming between high (23.6 ± 9.74%) and low (29.1 ± 18.33%) DMS treatments. However, there was a high degree of variability between behavioral responses of individual copepods. We discuss the need for more detailed species-specific studies of individual level responses of copepods to chemical signals at different spatial scales to improve our understanding of chemical interactions between copepods and their prey. © 1996-2013 MDPI AG

Re-imaging the Modernity of Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea: Africa past and Africa present

This paper engages the concept of the imposed Modernity of Europe upon the African republics of Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea. Evidence of the encroachment of a ‘false’ Modernity upon Africa’s Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea are chronicled in the works of Donato Ndongo (Shadows of Your Black Memory) and Syl Cheney Coker (The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar)

Results of the 2004/2005 Hospice Patient Survey: General Report

The National Minimum Standards for Independent Healthcare, published in 2002 by the Care Standards Commission (now the Healthcare Commission) states that hospices are required to conduct an annual patient survey. In response to this, a Patient Survey group (with representation from independent hospices, Marie Curie Cancer Care and with input from the Care Standards Commission) was set up by Help the Hospices. Its goal was to develop a questionnaire suitable for use in all adult hospices

“Late Quaternary ice sheet dynamics and palaeoceanography in the Baffin Bay region”

There remains a lack of data surrounding the timings and dynamics of the initial retreat of the Greenland ice sheet (GIS) from its maximum extent at the end of the last glacial maximum (LGM), with poor chronostratigraphic constraint also present on the timings of major Baffin Bay detrital carbonate events (BBDC) during the last deglaciation. This study presents new high-resolution data from two cores extracted from the deep abyssal plain of central Baffin Bay. Two separate radiocarbon dates have been extracted using foraminifera which have been used in the development of an age-depth model; estimating the base of the longer gravity core ‘GC01’ to be approximately 22 ka in age. Samples adequate for radiocarbon dating are few and far between due to intense dissolution of biogenic carbonate in both cores. Measurements of elemental concentrations indicate that significant changes in sediment provenance occurred in central Baffin Bay over the last 22Ka. Substantial amounts of sediment influx from western Greenland occurred during the LGM until approximately 15.8 ka BP when the GIS began its initial stages of retreat as the marine area of Baffin Bay increased. Thereafter the use of sedimentological, geochemical and biological markers alongside radiocarbon dating has captured two separate periods of ice sheet instability associated with the BBDC 1 and BBDC 0 estimated to have occurred between 14.1-13.6 ka BP and 12.7-11.4 ka BP respectively. Further analysis of elemental concentrations attributes these two BBDC events to both be associated with large amounts of sediment influx from northern Baffin Bay i.e. the break-up of the Laurentide (LIS) and the Innuitian Ice Sheets (IIS). When plotted as a timeseries against GISP2 and NGRIP ice core records and regional records of marine palaeoenvironmental, change it is clear that BBDC 1 and BBDC 0 occur out-of-phase with Heinrich event 1 or Heinrich event 0. Instead, BBDC 1 appears to start during the later stages of the Bølling Interstadial and continue into the Allerød Interstadial, peaking during the Older Dryas Stadial. BBDC 0 is generally coeval with the Younger Dryas Stadial although likely ends before the start of Heinrich event 0 in the North Atlantic. Due to BBDC events occurring during both interstadials and stadials periods this would also suggest that the initial trigger for the start of BBDC events are not necessarily linked to temperatures changes on Greenland, supporting Jackson et al., 2017. Therefore, indicating that the LIS and IIS were likely decoupled from the North Atlantic climate mode during the last deglaciation

Balancing direct and indirect sources of navigational information in a leaderless model of collective animal movement

Navigation is an important movement process that enables individuals and groups of animals to find targets in space at different spatio-temporal scales. Earlier studies have shown how being in a group can confer navigational advantages to individuals, either through following more experienced leaders or through the pooling of many inaccurate compasses, a process known as the ‘many wrongs principle’. However, the exact mechanisms for how information is transferred and used within the group in order to improve both individual- and group-level navigational performance are not fully understood. Here we explore the relative weighting that should be given to different sources of navigational information by an individual within a navigating group at each step of the movement process. Specifically, we consider a direct goal-oriented source of navigational information such as the individual׳s own imperfect knowledge of the target (a ‘noisy compass’) alongside two indirect sources of navigational information: the previous movement directions of neighbours in the group (social information) and, for the first time in this context, the previous movement direction of the individual (persistence). We assume that all individuals are equal in their abilities and that direct navigational information is prone to higher errors than indirect information. Using computer simulations, we show that in such situations giving a high weighting to either type of indirect navigational information can serve to significantly improve the navigation success of groups. Crucially, we also show that if the quality of social information is reduced, e.g. by an individual׳s limited cognitive abilities, the best navigational strategy for groups assigns a considerable weighting to persistence, a behaviour that is neither social, nor directly aimed at navigating

An Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison) reincarnates in Manchild in the Promised Land (Claude Brown) and becomes Shadows of Your Black Memory (Donato Ndongo)

Ralph Ellison’s allegorical journey in Invisible Man (1994) launched a new era in African-American culture and Black literacy for the entire world in 1952. In 1965, Ellison’s tragic, Diasporic hero appears to have experienced a reincarnation in the epic of Manchild in the Promised Land (1999) by Claude Brown. Currently, lingering in the caverns of Shadows of Your Black Memory (2007), past and present, Donato Ndongo’s tragic, Diasporic hero (of Equatorial Guinean heritage) prompts us to relive the course of colonialism and neocolonialism ‘of the mind’ in this…. the new millennium. This paper addresses the trilogy of resistance writing in Ellison’s Invisible Man, Brown’s Manchild in the Promised Land, and Ndongo’s Shadows of Your Black Memory. The experiences of the writers, political issues illustrated, and the impact upon the Black literary landscape (universal) will be explored

Presbyterian Missions to Indians in Western Canada

This paper seeks to explain the success and failure of Presbyterian missions to Indians in western Canada. It attempts to discover if there has been an authentic engagement between the Gospel of Christ and the cultures of these Indians. The focus is on the theology of missions and its application. The question of Christian relationship to culture is an important issue. The problem that the Presbyterian Church in Canada faced in its missions to Indians was theological. The Christian faith challenged an Indian religion. It was theology that determined how the religion of the Indian should be approached by Presbyterian missions, how the Indian should accept the Christian faith, and how the Indian should be accepted by the Christian church. The purpose of this work is not to write a paper on comparative religions. Rather, it is to discover an effective way to relate the Christian faith to a unique culture. Theological outlook is reflected in mission policy. This was demonstrated in a negative manner by a fatalistic “form of Calvinism that would not support William Carey\u27 and in a positive manner by David Brainerd2 in his mission to Indians in the American Colonies. It is the theology behind the mission that determines the personnel and the responsibilities of such personnel. This theology ultimately determines the success or failure of the mission

Wilderness And Aesthetic Values In The Antarctic

The 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty requires parties: 'to identify within a systematic environmental-geographical framework ... areas of outstanding aesthetic and wilderness value' (Annex V, article 3.2). In order to develop these frameworks, procedures and techniques used in environmental planning are considered for their applicability and practicality in the severe Antarctic environment. The phrase in the Protocol is taken as two separate topics. Concepts of wilderness are examined first, and it is concluded that the whole continent should be seen as wilderness, with this designation being modified only for those areas in which human influence is visible. In order to understand 'aesthetic values', interpretations given to landscape are considered, before examining the techniques developed in the United Kingdom for landscape assessment, and those used in the United States which are termed visual resource management. Procedures, primarily based on the most recent practice in the United Kingdom, are developed, before testing by fieldwork on the Peninsula. Landscape assessment is seen as a widescale planning procedure, distinct from, though essential to, the site-specific techniques required for environmental impact assessment (EIA). Objective description and classification of the landscape forms the basis of the methodology, with subjective aspects following in the form of clearly stated criteria so as to identify 'areas of outstanding value'. During evaluation comparisons may only be made on a 'like with like' basis, eg glaciers with glaciers, islands with islands. If desired, areas may then be designated under the procedures given in the Protocol