Battling the Dragons: The Heroic Journeys of the Ladies of Avalon in Marion Zimmer Bradley\u27s The Mists of Avalon

This study uses Pearson’s theory of twelve archetypes and the heroic journeys of the ladies of Avalon in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon to determine which archetypes are active in the lives of the ladies Avalon wrote about. In the book, women are seen as more than obstacles, aids, or rewards to males. They are the heroes who refuse to be defined by patriarchal terms. The female characters go on their own quests and seek to transform themselves and the world. Although culture and society affect each of the women, the success of each woman’s journey is determined by how she responds to her inner archetypes and the external dragons she faces. In conclusion, the key to heroes lies in their struggles with universal dragons of excessive pride, self-doubt, obsessive love, identity confusion, controlling behaviors, self-destructiveness, and judge-mentalism

Autism-associated SNPs in the clock genes _npas2_, _per1_ and the homeobox gene _en2_ alter DNA sequences that show characteristics of microRNA genes.

Intronic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the clock genes _npas2_ and _per1_ and the homeobox gene _en2_ are reported to be associated with autism. This bioinformatics analysis of the intronic regions which contain the autism-associated SNPs rs1861972 and rs1861973 in _en2_, rs1811399 in _npas2_, and rs885747 in _per1_, shows that these regions encode RNA transcripts with predicted structural characteristics of microRNAs. These microRNA-like structures are disrupted _in silico_ by the presence of the autism enriched alleles of rs1861972, rs1861973, rs1811399 and rs885747 specifically, as compared with the minor alleles of these SNPs. The predicted gene targets of these microRNA-like structures include genes reported to be implicated in autism (_gabrb3_, _shank3_) and genes causative of diseases co-morbid with autism (_mecp2_ and _rai1_). The inheritance of the AC haplotype of rs1861972 - rs1861973 in _en2_, the C allele of rs1811399 in _npas2_, and the C allele of rs1234747 in _per1_ may contribute to the causes of autism by affecting microRNA genes that are co-expressed along with the homeobox gene _en2_ and the circadian genes _npas2_ and _per1_

An evaluation of the online universal programme COPING parent: A feasibility study.

<em>Background</em>: COPING parent (Confident Parent Internet Guide) is an online universal parenting programme designed for parents of children aged 3-8 who are interested in learning positive parenting strategies to address everyday parenting challenges. Most people now have access to the internet and many parents seek online parenting advice, so it is important to ensure that advice is both evidence-based and freely available. The 10-week online COPING parent programme presents information and activities based on core social learning theory principles. The programme provides information and video examples of parenting skills, uses quizzes to test knowledge and suggests home practice activities. This study was undertaken to obtain feedback on the usefulness and acceptability of the programme to inform its further development. <br /><em>Design and Methods:</em> The programme was created using the LifeGuide software and participants (n=20) were asked to complete one chapter of the programme each week and provide feedback. This feasibility study was undertaken to highlight any technical issues and suggest modifications prior to a more rigorous evaluation. <br /><em>Results:</em> Both participant feedback and programme usage data are reported. Thirteen feedback forms were returned and programme usage data was downloaded for all participants. Feedback suggested modifications that included adaptations to enable the programme to be accessed by tablet users, an option to look back over previously completed chapters, the inclusion of more video examples of positive parenting and text message prompting to address attrition challenges

Web-based parenting support:Development of the COPING Confident Parenting programme

Parents have the most significant impact on children&rsquo;s development and the key parenting factors that promote child development and wellbeing are well known. Furthermore, many behavioural, social and emotional problems in children are associated with poor parenting practices. Parenting interventions that address parental skill deficits and teach positive parenting principles based on social learning theory are effective and are the recommended treatment for conduct disorder. Alongside the development of treatment programmes, universal parenting programmes have been developed; many present the same core parenting principles but their rationales vary from promoting children&rsquo;s development to addressing common behavioural challenges and the evidence for these programmes is less well established. Most parents now have internet access and are making daily use of it, including seeking advice on parenting matters but that advice is often anecdotal and lacking evidence. In the meantime, a small number of web-based programmes, including parenting programmes have been developed and evaluated. This paper summarises the rationale for web-based universal programmes to support parents and briefly describes the history, content and a summary of the initial research on the COPING (confident parent internet guide) programme developed by the authors. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research directions

Transforming Higher Education through Transformative Practice

Critical community psychology is characterised by a set of principles which guide practice. These include the deconstruction of assumptions that reinforce marginalisation and discrimination through critical consciousness, respect for diversity, an emphasis on equity and liberation. While these principles can be included in the content of courses and taught as guiding frameworks for future practitioners, to what extent do these principles guide educators in their practice? In this session we unpack the realities of the contemporary higher education sector and discuss the challenges associated with ensuring that students have voice and are active participants in their education. Using Tanaka’s framework of voice, power, authenticity, self-reflexivity, and reconstruction we analyse the development of the Behavioural Science programme at the University of Notre Dame to identify successes and opportunities for improvement that promote inclusion while educating for social change

Evaluation of the COPING parent online universal programme

Parents can face many new challenges in bringing up children with many now accessing the internet for general parenting support and advice. Much is known about patterns of parenting that support children’s positive development and a lot of research has demonstrated the effectiveness of parenting programmes to support parents of high challenge children. These interventions teach positive parenting skills, including relationship building, play, positive reinforcement and emotional regulation generally taught through discussion, training in observation skills and positive role modelling. The growing evidence for the effectiveness of teaching parents positive parenting strategies has demonstrated the potential of such programmes to improve the mental health and well-being of both parents and children. However, there is relatively little evidence-based information on parenting available in general. Many of the available programmes target children at-risk of developing conduct problems or families living in high-risk areas (e.g. Flying Start areas), meaning that the majority of parents do not have access to evidence-based information. Universal parenting programmes have the potential to promote positive child well-being and prevent future mental health problems. Advantages of a universal provision include (1) providing support for parents whose children do not have problems but who are concerned to parent their children in ways that provide them with the best outcomes, (2) facilitating access to evidence-based information for parents who are facing common everyday parenting challenges, but not currently in receipt of services, (3) impacting on societal norms by promoting positive parenting more widely, and (4) encouraging positive child development. The COPING parent (COnfident Parent INternet Guide) programme is a web-based universal programme that presents evidence informed parenting principles to support all parents in establishing positive relationships with children and promoting their children’s Evaluation of the COPING parent programme well being and development. This thesis reports on the development and evaluation of the programme in a randomised controlled trial with intervention and wait-list control conditions. Chapter 2 is a review of universally available parenting programmes, based on social learning theory principles, that were either offered to a universal population or included universal goals i.e. development of parenting skills and promotion of child developmental outcomes. This review highlighted the need for more research to establish the effectiveness of universal programmes on promoting positive parenting skills and child development. This leads to chapter 3, which is a review of web-based interventions for behaviour change, both behaviour in general (such as weight-loss and smoking) and parenting behaviour are included. This review highlighted the need for further evaluations of web-based parenting interventions and associated attrition challenges. Chapter 3 discusses the many challenges, which parents can face, and how these challenges can compromise parenting, child behaviour and parent-child interactions. Chapter 4 contains a brief review of interventions created using the LifeGuide software and a detailed description of the development of the COPING parent programme. Chapter 5 is a published paper (Owen & Hutchings, 2017) reporting our feasibility study that was conducted to gain user feedback from an early version of the programme. Feedback suggested modifications that included adaptations to enable the programme to be accessed by tablet users; an option to look back over previously completed chapters, the inclusion of more video examples of positive parenting and text message reminders to address engagement. Chapter 6 is the published protocol paper (Owen, Griffith & Hutchings, 2017) providing details of the methodology of the main trial. Chapter 7 is the main outcomes paper, and reports the findings from the evaluation of the programme, limitations and suggested improvements. The COPING parent web-based universal programme was effective in increasing observed praise and reducing observed indirect commands for parents who completed at least one chapter of the programme, however trial Evaluation of the COPING parent programme challenges included low engagement, high attrition at follow-up and softare challenges. The final chapter of this thesis provides a summary of the research findings and discusses implications, strengths and limitations and future directions. This was the first evaluation of the COPING parent online universal programme, an intervention for all parents of children aged 3-8 years who have an interest in learning more about positive parenting strategies. Findings from the main trial were promising and suggest that an online universal programme can significantly increase the positive parenting skills that are associated with good child outcomes for some parents. This thesis has highlighted the importance of providing all parents with the opportunity to access evicence-based support and further develop their parenting competencies in order to promote children’s development

Spacecraft Geometry Effects on Kinetic Impactor Missions

The DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission will impact a spacecraft on the secondary (Dimorphos) of the binary asteroid system Didymos in 2022 September, with the goal of altering the orbital period of Dimorphos about Didymos sufficiently to be observed from ground-based observations. Numerical impact modeling is a crucial component in understanding the outcome of the DART experiment, and while many have investigated the effects of target properties, such as material strength and porosity (which remain unknown), an often overlooked factor is the importance of accurately representing the spacecraft itself in such models. Most impact modeling to date has considered simple impactor geometries such as a solid uniform sphere, but in reality the spacecraft is a complex shape full of different components, open spaces, and thin walled structures. At a minimum, a simple solid representation underestimates the surface area of the impact: for a small body such as Dimorphos (approximately 160 m in diameter), the difference between a spacecraft spanning 20 m (including solar arrays) impacting and a sub-1 m idealized shape may be important. In this paper, we compare models impacting high-fidelity models of the spacecraft based on the CAD geometry with various simplified impactors, in order to assess the potential importance of this effect. We find that the difference between the simplest impactor geometries (such as a uniform sphere) and the real spacecraft is measurable, and has an interesting dependence on the material properties of the asteroid itself

The value of 99mTc-MAA SPECT/CT for lung shunt estimation in 90Y radioembolization: a phantom and patient study

Abstract Background A major toxicity concern in radioembolization therapy of hepatic malignancies is radiation-induced pneumonitis and sclerosis due to hepatopulmonary shunting of 90Y microspheres. Currently, 99mTc macroaggregated albumin (99mTc-MAA) imaging is used to estimate the lung shunt fraction (LSF) prior to treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy/precision of LSF estimated from 99mTc planar and SPECT/CT phantom imaging, and within this context, to compare the corresponding LSF and lung-absorbed dose values from 99mTc-MAA patient studies. Additionally, LSFs from pre- and post-therapy imaging were compared. Results A liver/lung torso phantom filled with 99mTc to achieve three lung shunt values was scanned by planar and SPECT/CT imaging with repeat acquisitions to assess accuracy and precision. To facilitate processing of patient data, a workflow that relies on SPECT and CT-based auto-contouring to define liver and lung volumes for the LSF calculation was implemented. Planar imaging-based LSF estimates for 40 patients, obtained from their medical records, were retrospectively compared with SPECT/CT imaging-based calculations with attenuation and scatter correction. Additionally, in a subset of 20 patients, the pre-therapy estimates were compared with 90Y PET/CT-based measurements. In the phantom study, improved accuracy in LSF estimation was achieved using SPECT/CT with attenuation and scatter correction (within 13% of the true value) compared with planar imaging (up to 44% overestimation). The results in patients showed a similar trend with planar imaging significantly overestimating LSF compared to SPECT/CT. There was no correlation between lung shunt estimates and the delay between 99mTc-MAA administration and scanning, but off-target extra hepatic uptake tended to be more likely in patients with a longer delay. The mean lung absorbed dose predictions for the 28 patients who underwent therapy was 9.3 Gy (range 1.3–29.4) for planar imaging and 3.2 Gy (range 0.4–13.4) for SPECT/CT. For the patients with post-therapy imaging, the mean LSF from 90Y PET/CT was 1.0%, (range 0.3–2.8). This value was not significantly different from the mean LSF estimate from 99mTc-MAA SPECT/CT (mean 1.0%, range 0.4–1.6; p = 0.968), but was significantly lower than the mean LSF estimate based on planar imaging (mean 4.1%, range 1.2–15.0; p = 0.0002). Conclusions The improved accuracy demonstrated by the phantom study, agreement with 90Y PET/CT in patient studies, and the practicality of using auto-contouring for liver/lung definition suggests that 99mTc-MAA SPECT/CT with scatter and attenuation corrections should be used for lung shunt estimation prior to radioembolization.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144504/1/13550_2018_Article_402.pd