The mesh of playing, theorising and researching in the reality of climate change: creating the co-research playspace.

This chapter develops the concept of the ‘co-research playspace’ as a methodological figure for working with children as co-researchers and co-artists. This concept emerged through our collaborative research and artistic co-production with 135 children who participated in the Climate Change and Me project (2014-2016) in Northern NSW, Australia. Drawing on Winnicott’s concepts of ‘transitional space’ and ‘transitional objects’ in relation to children’s art and environmental play, we locate the co-research playspace within the mesh of children’s playing, theorising and researching in the reality of climate change. In developing the concept of the co-research playspace, we specifically focus on that ways that iPads functioned as transitional objects within the Climate Change and Me project. This leads us to further analyse the ways that children used digital video as a ‘transitional medium’ that allowed them to experiment with new forms of co-production and creative resistance. Through our analysis of films produced by children in the project, we outline a series of three political-aesthetic modes of response to climate change that break with the predominant moralistic discourse surrounding the issue: I. critical interventions in public space; II. wild, absurd, and improvisational disruptions; and III. the creation of thought experiments and alternative worlds. The chapter concludes with the consideration of ‘children as para-academic researchers’, a concept that emphasises children’s abilities to invent their own modes of co-creation and critical inquiry that disrupt normative research protocols and associated adult expectations

Education for What? Shaping the field of climate change education with children and young people as co-researchers

Children and young people are often positioned as the next generation of leaders in whom the public imagines or expects to overcome the legacies of climate and environmental inaction. Increasingly analyses of progress in environmental education independently identify the need for researchers and teachers to ‘listen to children’s voices’. In this paper we argue that climate change education presents a significant platform not only for youth voices, but also for a genuine activation of children’s political agency in schools, universities, and the public domain. In so doing, we draw upon the government funded project Climate Change + Me, which has involved working with 135 children and young people from across Northern NSW, Australia as co-researchers investigating young people’s voices in climate change. We conclude that climate change education can open up an entirely new field of educational experience and inquiry when it is inclusive of and led by young people

Efficient noninteractive certification of RSA moduli and beyond

In many applications, it is important to verify that an RSA public key (N; e) speci es a permutation over the entire space ZN, in order to prevent attacks due to adversarially-generated public keys. We design and implement a simple and e cient noninteractive zero-knowledge protocol (in the random oracle model) for this task. Applications concerned about adversarial key generation can just append our proof to the RSA public key without any other modi cations to existing code or cryptographic libraries. Users need only perform a one-time veri cation of the proof to ensure that raising to the power e is a permutation of the integers modulo N. For typical parameter settings, the proof consists of nine integers modulo N; generating the proof and verifying it both require about nine modular exponentiations. We extend our results beyond RSA keys and also provide e cient noninteractive zero- knowledge proofs for other properties of N, which can be used to certify that N is suitable for the Paillier cryptosystem, is a product of two primes, or is a Blum integer. As compared to the recent work of Auerbach and Poettering (PKC 2018), who provide two-message protocols for similar languages, our protocols are more e cient and do not require interaction, which enables a broader class of applications.https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/057First author draf

Spatiotemporal evaluation of EMEP4UK-WRF v4.3 atmospheric chemistry transport simulations of health-related metrics for NO2, O3, PM10 and PM2.5 for 2001-2010

This study was motivated by the use in air pollution epidemiology and health burden assessment of data simulated at 5 km  ×  5 km horizontal resolution by the EMEP4UK-WRF v4.3 atmospheric chemistry transport model. Thus the focus of the model–measurement comparison statistics presented here was on the health-relevant metrics of annual and daily means of NO2, O3, PM2. 5, and PM10 (daily maximum 8 h running mean for O3). The comparison was temporally and spatially comprehensive, covering a 10-year period (2 years for PM2. 5) and all non-roadside measurement data from the UK national reference monitor network, which applies consistent operational and QA/QC procedures for each pollutant (44, 47, 24, and 30 sites for NO2, O3, PM2. 5, and PM10, respectively). Two important statistics highlighted in the literature for evaluation of air quality model output against policy (and hence health)-relevant standards – correlation and bias – together with root mean square error, were evaluated by site type, year, month, and day-of-week. Model–measurement statistics were generally better than, or comparable to, values that allow for realistic magnitudes of measurement uncertainties. Temporal correlations of daily concentrations were good for O3, NO2, and PM2. 5 at both rural and urban background sites (median values of r across sites in the range 0.70–0.76 for O3 and NO2, and 0.65–0.69 for PM2. 5), but poorer for PM10 (0.47–0.50). Bias differed between environments, with generally less bias at rural background sites (median normalized mean bias (NMB) values for daily O3 and NO2 of 8 and 11 %, respectively). At urban background sites there was a negative model bias for NO2 (median NMB  =  −29 %) and PM2. 5 (−26 %) and a positive model bias for O3 (26 %). The directions of these biases are consistent with expectations of the effects of averaging primary emissions across the 5 km  ×  5 km model grid in urban areas, compared with monitor locations that are more influenced by these emissions (e.g. closer to traffic sources) than the grid average. The biases are also indicative of potential underestimations of primary NOx and PM emissions in the model, and, for PM, with known omissions in the model of some PM components, e.g. some components of wind-blown dust. There were instances of monthly and weekday/weekend variations in the extent of model–measurement bias. Overall, the greater uniformity in temporal correlation than in bias is strongly indicative that the main driver of model–measurement differences (aside from grid versus monitor spatial representivity) was inaccuracy of model emissions – both in annual totals and in the monthly and day-of-week temporal factors applied in the model to the totals – rather than simulation of atmospheric chemistry and transport processes. Since, in general for epidemiology, capturing correlation is more important than bias, the detailed analyses presented here support the use of data from this model framework in air pollution epidemiology

Assessing psychological flexibility in test situations: The test anxiety acceptance and action questionnaire for adolescents

Acceptance-based interventions such as acceptance and commitment therapy motivated the development of measures of psychological flexibility. As an anxiety-based condition, test anxiety can be conceptualized as an experiential avoidance condition. Given the need to evaluate acceptance and action processes in test anxiety and the lack of such an instrument, the present study aimed to explore the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Test Anxiety-Acceptance and Action Questionnaire for Adolescents (TA-AAQ-A), adapted from the Social Anxiety-Acceptance and Action Questionnaire. The sample comprised 827 adolescents (12-18 years old) from 10 Portuguese schools. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated a well-adjusted 12-item single-factor measure, invariant across genders. Results also showed high internal consistency and temporal stability, and good convergent validity. Findings suggest the TA-AAQ-A is a reliable and valid measure for the assessment of adolescents' psychological flexibility in test situations

The long-term prediction of return to work following serious accidental injuries: A follow up study

Background Considerable indirect costs are incurred by time taken off work following accidental injuries. The aim of this study was to predict return to work following serious accidental injuries. Method 121 severely injured patients were included in the study. Complete follow-up data were available for 85 patients. Two weeks post trauma (T1), patients rated their appraisal of the injury severity and their ability to cope with the injury and its job-related consequences. Time off work was assessed at one (T2) and three years (T3) post accident. The main outcome was the number of days of sick leave taken due to the accidental injury. Results The patients' appraisals a) of the injury severity and b) of their coping abilities regarding the accidental injury and its job-related consequences were significant predictors of the number of sick-leave days taken. Injury severity (ISS), type of accident, age and gender did not contribute significantly to the prediction. Conclusions Return to work in the long term is best predicted by the patients' own appraisal of both their injury severity and the ability to cope with the accidental injury

The Second Transmembrane Domain of P2X7 Contributes to Dilated Pore Formation

Activation of the purinergic receptor P2X7 leads to the cellular permeability of low molecular weight cations. To determine which domains of P2X7 are necessary for this permeability, we exchanged either the C-terminus or portions of the second transmembrane domain (TM2) with those in P2X1 or P2X4. Replacement of the C-terminus of P2X7 with either P2X1 or P2X4 prevented surface expression of the chimeric receptor. Similarly, chimeric P2X7 containing TM2 from P2X1 or P2X4 had reduced surface expression and no permeability to cationic dyes. Exchanging the N-terminal 10 residues or C-terminal 14 residues of the P2X7 TM2 with the corresponding region of P2X1 TM2 partially restored surface expression and limited pore permeability. To further probe TM2 structure, we replaced single residues in P2X7 TM2 with those in P2X1 or P2X4. We identified multiple substitutions that drastically changed pore permeability without altering surface expression. Three substitutions (Q332P, Y336T, and Y343L) individually reduced pore formation as indicated by decreased dye uptake and also reduced membrane blebbing in response to ATP exposure. Three others substitutions, V335T, S342G, and S342A each enhanced dye uptake, membrane blebbing and cell death. Our results demonstrate a critical role for the TM2 domain of P2X7 in receptor function, and provide a structural basis for differences between purinergic receptors. © 2013 Sun et al

Diagnostic value of harmonic transthoracic echocardiography in native valve infective endocarditis: comparison with transesophageal echocardiography

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although echocardiography has been incorporated into the diagnostic algorithm of patients with suspected infective endocarditis (IE), systematic usage in clinical practice remains ill defined. To determine the diagnostic accuracy of detecting vegetations using harmonic transthoracic echocardiography (hTTE) as compared to transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in patients with an intermediate likelihood of native valve IE.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Between 2004 and 2005, 36 consecutive inpatients with an intermediate likelihood of disease were prospectively evaluated by hTTE and TEE.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 36 patients (21 males with a mean age of 57 ± 15 years, range 32 to 86 years), 19 patients had definite IE by TEE. The sensitivity for the detection of vegetations by hTTE was 84%, specificity of 88%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 89% and negative predictive value (NPV) of 82%. The association between hTTE and TTE interpretation for the presence and absence of vegetations were high (kappa = 0.90 and 0.85 respectively).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In patients with an intermediate likelihood of native valve IE, TTE with harmonic imaging provides diagnostic quality images in the majority of cases, has excellent concordance with TEE and should be recommended as the first line test.</p

Ontogeny of midazolam glucuronidation in preterm infants

Purpose: In preterm infants, the biotransformation of midazolam (M) to 1-OH-midazolam (OHM) by cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4) is developmentally immature, but it is currently unknown whether the glucuronidation of OHM to 1-OH-midazolam glucuronide (OHMG) is also decreased. The aim of our study was to investigate the urinary excretion of midazolam and its metabolites OHM and OHMG in preterm neonates following the intravenous (IV) or oral (PO) administration of a single M dose. Methods: Preterm infants (post-natal age 3-13 days, gestational age 26-34 4/7 weeks) scheduled to undergo a stressful procedure received a 30-min IV infusion (n=15) or a PO bolus dose (n=7) of 0.1 mg/kg midazolam. The percentage of midazolam dose excreted in the urine as M, OHM and OHMG up to 6 h post-dose was determined. Results: The median percentage of the midazolam dose excreted as M, OHM and OHMG in the urine during the 6-h interval after the IV infusion was 0.44% (range 0.02-1.39%), 0.04% (0.01-0.13%) and 1.57% (0.36-7.7%), respectively. After administration of the PO bolus dose, the median percentage of M, OHM and OHMG excreted in the urine was 0.11% (0.02-0.59%), 0.02% (0.00-0.10%) and 1.69% (0.58-7.31%), respectively. The proportion of the IV midazolam dose excreted as OHMG increased significantly with postconceptional age (r=0.73, p <0.05). Conclusion: The glucuronidation of OHM appears immature in preterm infants less than 2 weeks of age. The observed increase in urinary excretion of OHMG with postconceptional age likely reflects the combined maturation of glucuronidation and renal function