The experience of body image for people with a left ventricular assist device

This thesis is comprised of a systematic literature review, an empirical paper and a critical appraisal. Firstly, a systematic review and metasynthesis of qualitative studies exploring psychological experiences of adult heart transplant recipients was conducted. A metaethnographic approach was used to synthesise the findings of 12 papers. The results demonstrated that recipients underwent a process of making sense of their identity following transplantation. Recipients perceived that their psychological adjustment was impacted by the expectations of medical professionals, friends, family and wider society. They experienced fluctuating positive and negative emotions such as anxiety, grief and gratitude. Physical, social and psychological factors influenced coping and adaptation, contributing to better psychological wellbeing. Clinical implications are discussed. Secondly, the empirical paper explores experiences of body image for adults implanted with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). Nine participants were interviewed, and the data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The findings highlighted the importance of social, functional and appearance-related aspects of body image for LVAD-users. Participants re-evaluated their body with the LVAD and perceived that it, and themselves were “different”. They perceived their body as restricted and had a constant awareness of their body and device, which led to feelings of anxiety. LVAD-users used practical and psychological strategies to adjust to their changed body and perceive themselves as more “normal”. Clinical implications and limitations of the study are discussed, and further research is recommended. Finally, the critical appraisal offers a reflection on the process of conducting LVAD research including strengths and limitations. It also compares the findings of the review and empirical papers and recommends further areas for research

Cowboys and Indians: Settler Colonialism and the Dog Whistle in U.S. Immigration Policy

The nineteenth-century Indian problem has become the twenty-first century border crisis. While the United States fancies itself a nation of immigrants, this rhetoric is impossible to square with the reality of the systematic exclusion of migrants of color. In particular, the Trump administration has taken the exclusion of migrants descended from the Indigenous inhabitants of Mexico and Central America to a reductio ad absurdum. This Note joins a body of scholarship that centers the history of genocide in the United States to examine what our settler colonial history means for today’s immigration law and policy. It concludes that the contemporary treatment of Mexican and Central American migrants echoes the ways in which the legal definition of citizenship was developed to exclude Indigenous people. Furthermore, it urges a reckoning with the past both to make sense of the present and to chart a different future

Impact of Oil and a Tropical Cyclone on an Omnivore and Herbivore Population in Salt Marshes of Louisiana

Terrestrial arthropods are the ideal ecological indicators for the health of a salt marsh. Salt marshes are under extreme continuous stressors including climate change, land loss, oil spills, and tropical cyclones. Such stressors impact trophic and species level interactions, food resources, dispersal and population size of insects. In the present study, we collected terrestrial arthropods from eleven sites around Barataria Bay, five sites were oiled and five sites were unoiled, to determine the impact of the redistribution of oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Site C6 was excluded from the oiled and unoiled data because it was in close proximity to site C5 and we wanted equal replicates for comparison. Samples were collected from January 2012 to December 2013 to determine how the population size of an omnivore and a herbivore were impacted by Hurricane Isaac. The results show that the herbivore, Ischnodemus, was directly and indirectly affected by Hurricane Isaac. While the omnivore, Crematogaster, was not affected by the hurricane but instead impacted by the seasons. In both the herbivore and omnivore weight, length, and head width was affected by the DWH oil. Although the differences were small and it is assumed insect species do recover, long-term monitoring of terrestrial arthropod communities is needed to better understand the recovery and natural succession of marsh ecosystems

Complexities in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Thyroid Cancer: Discussions, Observations, Research and Public Policy

The impact of the increasing incidence of thyroid cancer presents an interesting case study in public health policy and resource allocation. During the last three decades, thyroid cancer cases have increased by more than 400%. As an illness that affects the lives of hundreds of thousands each year, the human and economic costs will be magnified in the next decade. It is estimated that approximately 13-67% of people will have thyroid nodules during their life of which approximately 5% will be malignant. The standard treatment, a thyroidectomy frequently followed by radioactive 131 iodine treatment, accordingly would seem to be a likely future event for an increasing percentage of the population. Despite the magnitude of the increase, there has been no increase in age-adjusted mortality rates. This raises the question whether treatment is effective or warranted for many of these patients. Although there is almost no reliable data on its economic impact, its prevalence makes it likely that it is becoming one of the more expensive diseases in our health care system. Despite the pressing issue of its growth, thyroid cancer is one of the least studied and least funded cancers in the United States

Dental Disparities: A Quantitative & Regional Analysis of Male Oral Health in the United States

Project of Merit Winner Multiple factors contribute to the oral health of male individuals in the United States, including economic, regional, and gender disparities. My study compares health care coverage and poverty rates to indicators of oral health status and dental care access such as percentage of tooth lost, number of dental visits, and oral health services at federally qualified health centers. This oral health data is drawn from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention across all fifty states in the year 2018 and from the United States Census. By examining this data, I will be able to answer the questions is there a correlation between poverty per capita and oral health care across the fifty states among males and if so why, is there a correlation between health insurance coverage per capita and oral health care across the fifty states among males and if so why, and lastly, is there a difference of correlation between men and women oral health in the fifty states. Through quantitative correlation assessments I will be able to reveal results about the accessibility and regional disparities of oral health care in the U.S. Population. This study also allows for further evaluation of an underrepresented aspect of healthcare in the United States

Exploring Potential Psychosocial Subgroup Differences in the Links Between Binge-watching and Loneliness

A relatively new form of technology use is the popular notion of “binge-watching” and this behavior may be increasing due to increasing availability and access (Flayelle et al., 2018). Binge-watching behavior is linked to a number of negative outcomes, particularly physical health indicators such as symptoms comparable to substance dependence, (Horvath, 2004; Kubey & Csikszentmihalyi, 2002). Moreover, TV viewing more generally has been linked to potential health issues due to a sedentary and unhealthy life such as reduced muscle strength (Reid et al., 2017) and increased risk of Type 2 Diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Grøntved & Hu, 2011). In addition, previous research has established links between negative social indicators such as depression and loneliness and TV viewing behaviors (Wheeler, 2017). Along these same lines, in previous Georgia College research, self-reported frequency of binge-watching was negatively correlated with several health behaviours, and also positively correlated with poor psychological health (Simmons et al., 2019). The aim of the current study was to further explore the links between binge-watching behavior and an important indicator of social wellness--loneliness.The hypothesis made was that positive correlations between binge-watching and loneliness would be more robust among certain subgroups of college students. Specifically, it was predicted that links would be stronger among: (1) freshmen, relative to upperclassmen; (2) single students, relative to students in a relationship; and (3) students high in the need to belong, determined by a self survey on the need to belong scale (Leary et al., 2006), relative to students low in the need to belong. Subgroups analysis performed on an existing dataset revealed that our hypotheses were supported for all but the “freshmen” hypothesis. The results of this study shed light on psychosocial and demographic factors that may represent particular vulnerabilities to the deleterious social correlates of binge-watching

On the rotation periods of the components of the triple system TYC9300-0891-1AB/TYC9300-0529-1 in the Octans Association

Stellar rotation depends on different parameters. The range of values of these parameters causes the dispersion in the rotation period distributions observed in young stellar clusters/associations. We focus our investigation on the effects of different circumstellar environments on stellar rotation. More specifically, we are searching in stellar Associations for visual triple systems where all stellar parameters are similar, with the only exceptions of the unknown initial rotation period, and of the circum-stellar environment, in the sense that one of the two about equal-mass components has a close-by third 'perturber' component. In the present study we analyse the 35-Myr old visual triple system TYC 9300-0891-1AB + TYC 9300-0529-1 in the young Octans stellar association consisting of three equal-mass K0V components. We collected from the literature all information that allowed us to infer that the three components are actually physically bound forming a triple system and are members of the Octans Association. We collected broad-band photometric timeseries in two observation seasons. We discovered that all the components are variable, magnetically active, and from periodogram analysis we found the unresolved components TYC 9300-0891-1AB to have a rotation period P = 1.383d and TYC 9300-0529-1 a rotation period P = 1.634d. TYC 9300-0891-1A, TYC 9300-0891-1B, and TYC 9300-0529-1 have same masses, ages, and initial chemical compositions. The relatively small 16% rotation period difference measured by us indicates that all components had similar initial rotation periods and disc lifetimes, and the separation of 157AU between the component A and the 'perturber' component B (or vice-versa) has been sufficiently large to prevent any significant perturbation/shortening of the accretion-disc lifetime.Comment: Accepted by New Astronomy 201

A new method of observing weak extended x-ray sources with RHESSI

We present a new method, fan-beam modulation, for observing weak extended x-ray sources with the Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). This space-based solar x-ray and gamma-ray telescope has much greater sensitivity than previous experiments in the 3-25 keV range, but is normally not well suited to detecting extended sources since their signal is not modulated by RHESSI's rotating grids. When the spacecraft is offpointed from the target source, however, the fan-beam modulation time-modulates the transmission by shadowing resulting from exploiting the finite thickness of the grids. In this paper we detail how the technique is implemented and verify its consistency with sources with clear known signals that have occurred during RHESSI offpointing: microflares and the Crab Nebula. In both cases the results are consistent with previous and complementary measurements. Preliminary work indicates that this new technique allows RHESSI to observe the integrated hard x-ray spectrum of weak extended sources on the quiet Sun.Comment: Publishe