Margaret Michaelis: love, loss and photography

Exhibition curated from the National Gallery of Australia on the work of 'emigre' photographer Margaret Michaelis, 1902-1985. The accompanying exhibition publication was awarded the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction in the 2006 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards and Best Book by the Power Institute of Fine Arts and Art Association of Australia and New Zealand

A helium-3 refrigerator employing capillary confinement of liquid cryogen

A condensation refrigerator suitable for operation in a zero gravity space environment was constructed. The condensed liquid refrigerant is confined by surface tension inside a porous metal matrix. Helium-4 and helium-3 gases were condensed and held in a copper matrix. Evaporative cooling of confined liquid helium-4 resulted in a temperature of 1.4K. Using a zeolite adsorption pump external to the cryostat, a temperature of 0.6 K was achieved through evaporative cooling of liquid helium-3. The amount of time required for complete evaporation of a controlled mass of liquid helium-4 contained in the copper matrix was measured as a function of the applied background power. For heating powers below 18 mW the measured times are consistent with the normal boiling of the confined volume of liquid refrigerant. At background powers above 18 mW the rapid rise in the temperature of the copper matrix the signature of the absence of confined liquid occurs in a time a factor of two shorter than that expected on the basis of an extrapolation of the low power data

Focal Therapy, Differential Therapy, and Radiation Treatment for Prostate Cancer

Focal and differential therapy represent an approach to improve the therapeutic ratio of prostate cancer treatments. This concept is a shift from treating the whole gland to intensely treating the portion of the gland that contains significant tumor. However, there are many challenges in the move towards focal approaches. Defining which patients are suitable candidates for focal therapy approaches is an area of significant controversy, and it is likely that additional data from imaging or detailed biopsy methods is needed in addition to traditional risk factors. A number of methods have been suggested, and imaging with multiparametric MRI and transperineal template mapping biopsy have shown promise. The approach of differential therapy where the entire prostate is treated to a lower intensity and the tumor areas to high intensity is also discussed in detail. Radiation therapy is a well suited modality for the delivery of differential therapy. Data in the literature using external beam radiation, high dose rate brachytherapy, and low-dose rate brachytherapy for differential therapy are reviewed. Preliminary results are encouraging, and larger studies and randomized controlled trials are needed to validate this approach

Financial sector workers' experiences of managing suicidal clients

© 2017 Hogrefe Publishing. Background: Financial sector workers interface with indebted clients, who may be distressed and have heightened vulnerability to suicidality. Aim(s): This study examined the experiences of 10 Irish financial sector workers who had experiences of encountering distressed clients who discuss suicide. Method: Semistructured interviews (open-ended questions) were used. Results: Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) identified four themes, namely: (1) avoidance versus confrontation of reality (management of the debt); (2) role conflict (recovering the debt vs. supporting the client); (3) emotional impact and distancing from clients (coping with concerns for client welfare); (4) desire for support (practical and emotional training and support needs). Limitations: The frequency with which such clients were encountered was not assessed. Conclusion: These themes demonstrate the need to provide support to this group, and also the difficulties in providing training to manage suicidal clients in a context where the staff member's goal is to recover debt.Published versio

Neural locus of color afterimages.

After fixating on a colored pattern, observers see a similar pattern in complementary colors when the stimulus is removed. Afterimages were important in disproving the theory that visual rays emanate from the eye[1], in demonstrating inter-ocular interactions[2], and in revealing the independence of binocular-vision from eye-movements[3]. Afterimages also prove invaluable in exploring selective attention[4], filling-in[5], and consciousness[6]. Proposed physiological mechanisms for color afterimages range from bleaching of cone photo-pigments[7] to cortical adaptation[4–6, 8, 9], but direct neural measurements have not been reported. We introduce a time-varying method for evoking after-images, which provides precise measurements of adaptation and a direct link between visual percepts and neural responses[10]. We then use in vivo electrophysiological recordings to show that all three classes of primate retinal ganglion cells exhibit subtractive adaptation to prolonged stimuli, with much slower time-constants than those expected of photoreceptors. At the cessation of the stimulus, ganglion cells generate rebound responses that can provide afterimage signals for later neurons. Our results indicate that afterimage signals are generated in the retina, but may be modified like other retinal signals by cortical processes[4–6], so that evidence presented for cortical generation of color afterimages[8, 9] is explainable by spatio-temporal factors that apply to all signals

The peritoneal tumour microenvironment of high-grade serous ovarian cancer

High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC) disseminates early and extensively throughout the peritoneal space, causing multiple lesions that are a major clinical problem. The aim of this study was to investigate the cellular composition of peritoneal tumour deposits in patient biopsies and their evolution in mouse models using immunohistochemistry, intravital microscopy, confocal microscopy, and 3D modelling. Tumour deposits from the omentum of HGSC patients contained a prominent leukocyte infiltrate of CD3(+) T cells and CD68(+) macrophages, with occasional neutrophils. Alpha-smooth muscle actin(+) (α-SMA(+) ) pericytes and/or fibroblasts surrounded these well-vascularized tumour deposits. Using the murine bowel mesentery as an accessible mouse peritoneal tissue that could be easily imaged, and two different transplantable models, we found multiple microscopic tumour deposits after i.p. injection of malignant cells. Attachment to the peritoneal surface was rapid (6-48 h) with an extensive CD45(+) leukocyte infiltrate visible by 48 h. This infiltrate persisted until end point and in the syngeneic murine ID8 model, it primarily consisted of CD3(+) T lymphocytes and CD68(+) macrophages with α-SMA(+) cells also involved from the earliest stages. A majority of tumour deposits developed above existing mesenteric blood vessels, but in avascular spaces new blood vessels tracked towards the tumour deposits by 2-3 weeks in the IGROV-1 xenografts and 6 weeks in the ID8 syngeneic model; a vigorous convoluted blood supply was established by end point. Inhibition of tumour cell cytokine production by stable expression of shRNA to CXCR4 in IGROV-1 cells did not influence the attachment of cells to the mesentery but delayed neovascularization and reduced tumour deposit size. We conclude that the multiple peritoneal tumour deposits found in HGSC patients can be modelled in the mouse. The techniques described here may be useful for assessing treatments that target the disseminated stage of this disease

Influence of Personal and Lesson Factors on Caloric Expenditure in Physical Education

Background: Increasing caloric expenditure in physical education is considered an effective school-based approach to addressing the child obesity epidemic. This study was designed to determine synergistic influences of student characteristics and lesson factors on caloric expenditure in elementary and middle school physical education. Methods: The study used a multi-level design. Level-1 factors included personal characteristics: age, gender, and body mass index. Level-2 factors included lesson length, content, and school level. Based on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention age-gender adjusted growth chart, students in 87 classes from 14 elementary and 15 middle schools were pre-screened into Overweight , Healthy weight , or Thin groups. One boy and one girl were randomly selected from each group in each class as data providers (264 elementary and 294 middle school students). Caloric expenditure was measured in 243 physical education lessons using accelerometers. Results: Analysis of variance revealed and hierarchical linear modeling confirmed separate age by body mass index, age by gender, and content by lesson-length interaction effects, suggesting that the personal and lesson factors influenced caloric expenditure independently. Older male and heavier students burned more calories in all lessons. Students burned more calories in 45-60 min sport skill or fitness lessons than in shorter (30 min) or longer (75-90 min) game or multi-activity lessons. Conclusions: The hypothesized cross-level interaction was not observed in the data. Caloric expenditure can be optimized in 45-60 min sport skill or fitness development lessons. It can be recommended that schools adopt 45-60 min lesson length and provide skill and fitness development tasks in physical education to maximize caloric expenditure

The Effects of Race, Place, Class, and Gender on Instructional Strategies in Kentucky\u27s Seventh Grade Science Classes: Individual and School Level Analyses

This study explored the relationship of student demographics to teaching method in Kentucky’s seventh grade science classrooms for 1997-98, based on performance assessment data (student level N = 21,499; school level N = 264). Students’ perceptions of seven instructional strategies from the KIRIS student questionnaires were placed into three groups: traditional, inquiry-based, and computer. At the student level, these strategies were regressed on race, gender, free/reduced lunch, urbanity of the district, Appalachian status, and Educational Service Region. At the school level, the three approaches were regressed on aggregate school data for these same variables. Findings indicated that demographic factors do affect teachers’ instructional strategies. Student-level results demonstrated numerous small but statistically significant influences on all three instructional approaches. Nearly all demographic effects disappeared when examined at the school level. The strongest finding was that schools with higher percentages of free/reduced lunch students reported more computer usage. Less computer use was reported for schools with more female students. Findings are discussed in light of science instruction, computers, and technological development for the rural south