Guided Practices in Facing Danger: Experiences of Teaching Risk

The central problem of this thesis is how a teacher may engage with risk. I offer a reconsideration of the term and suggest that risk is individual, perceptual and experientially driven. I use a Heideggerian (1962) frame when I suggest that, when taking a risk, a person is potentially encountering existential death. Using my own practice as a trapeze artist, I reveal how risk is manifested for the students I teach - how it can profoundly challenge and unsettle them- and how I as a teacher am charged with ensuring that they are empowered rather than stultified or domesticated by the risk. I call this enacted skill ‘pedagogic tact’. By combining Jacques Rancière’s notion of Universal Education (1991) with Martin Heidegger’s ontological appreciation of being-towards-death (1962), I propose that what teachers awaken within students is knowledge of the possibility of death and of not-death within certain pedagogic encounters. I cannot know, measure or prove whether this knowledge has been achieved. However, I can document and describe the students’ relationship with the teacher within these moments. This document therefore becomes a description of student-teacher encounters when the teacher attends towards the emancipation of the student. The combination of reflective research methods from David Tripp (1993), Max Van Manen (1990), Della Pollock (Pollock in Phelan and Lane, 1998) and Jonathan Smith et al (2009) provides a means for phenomenological hermeneutic analysis. I have reflected upon my work with five students over the course of five days of trapeze training, extracted what Tripp would call ‘critical incidents’ between teacher and student and considered their meaning (1993:3). This research is a documentation of engaged pedagogy. It is a performative thesis that ruminates upon how I teach aerial work. There are many findings that seem apparent at the time of writing up. I repetitively circulate around the notion of death, failure, rupture, domestication, entrapment, sacrifice, vulnerability, sobriety and pain as significant elements that describe my work with risk. These concepts are balanced with words such as poetry, liberation, love, strength, glory, resolution and joy. There appears to be a second paradox of teaching that sits alongside and dialogues with the Kantian ‘freedom through coercion’ (1960:699); it is summed up by aerialist and teacher Matilda Leyser in her description of aerial work as ‘strength through vulnerability’ (2007). In order to enable the students’ strength to be challenged, witnessed and supported, there needs to be vulnerability from them, from their carers, from the teacher and from the institution. This vulnerability is not imposed, or bestowed, but is ‘owned’ by the student and teacher in their anxiety and in their choice to, in a Heideggerian sense, comport themselves to that which matters most (Heidegger, 1962). In these moments, anxiety reminds the student that they might die; it also reminds them that they can be strong in the face of possible death. This paradox of vulnerability and strength is synthesised or ‘held’ by the teacher’s tact. The new knowledge that I assert, therefore, is a description and mapping of pedagogic tact. Through this new knowledge, I explore the possibility of becoming a better teacher

Ice-Rafting in Lakes in the early Neoproterozoic : dropstones in the Diabaig Formation, Torridon Group, NW Scotland

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Frequency of Participation in an Employee Fitness Program and Health Care Expenditures

Regular physical activity is strongly linked to prevention of costly chronic health conditions. However, there has been limited examination of the impact that level of participation in physical activity promotion programs has on health care costs. This study examined a fitness reimbursement program (FRP) offered to small employers. FRP participants received $20 reimbursement every month they visited their fitness center ≥12 days. Visits were recorded electronically. Participants were assigned to 4 mutually exclusive cohorts by mean monthly fitness center visits: low (<4 visits); low-moderate (≥4 and <8 visits), high-moderate (≥8 and <12 visits), and high (≥12 visits, which qualified for reimbursement). Cohorts were matched by inverse propensity score weighting on demographic, health status, health care supply, and socioeconomic characteristics. Between-cohort differences in propensity score-weighted health care costs, starting from FRP program sign-up, were examined with a generalized linear model. Analyses were conducted with and without high-cost outliers during the pre- and post-FRP period. A total of 8723 participants (mean follow-up: 11.1 months) were identified during October 2010-June 2013. With high-cost outliers removed (n?=?226), a pattern of lower per-member-per-month health care costs was observed with increasing participation: compared with the low cohort, monthly savings were:$6.14 (2.6%) for low-moderate (P?=?0.60), $16.40 (6.9$20.01 (8.4%) for high (P?=?0.08). With high-cost outliers included, significant monthly cost savings were observed for the moderate-high ($43.52, P?Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140192/1/pop.2015.0102.pd

Double Ended Guillotine Break in a Prismatic Block VHTR Lower Plenum Air Ingress Scenario

The double ended guillotine break leading to density-driven air ingress has been identified as a low probability yet high consequence event for Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR). The lower plenum of the VHTR contains the core support structure and is composed of graphite. During an air ingress event, oxidation of the graphite structure under high temperature conditions in an oxygen containing environment could degrade the integrity of the core support structure. Following this large break, air from the reactor containment will begin to enter the lower plenum via two mechanisms: diffusion or density driven stratified flow. The large difference in time scales between the mechanisms leads to the need to perform high fidelity experimental studies to investigate the dominant the air ingress mechanism. A scaled test facility has been designed and built that allows the acquisition of velocity measurements during stratification after a pipe break. A non-intrusive optical measurement technique provides full-field velocity measurements profiles of the two species Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The data allow a more developed understanding of the fundamental flow features, the development of improved models, and possible mitigation strategies in such a scenario.Two brine-water experiments were conducted with different break locations. Flow fronts were analyzed and findings concluded that the flow has a constant speed through the pipe after the initial lock exchange. The time in which the flow enters the lower plenum is an important factor because it provides the window of opportunity for mitigation strategies in an actual reactor scenario. For both cases the flow of the heavier density liquid (simulating air ingress from the reactor containment) from the pipe enters the reactor vessel in under 6 seconds. The diffusion velocity and heavy flow front of the stratified flow layer were compared for the SF6/He gas case. It is seen that the diffusion plays less of a role as the transport mechanism in comparison to the density-driven stratified flow since the velocity of the diffusion is two orders of magnitude smaller than the velocity of the stratified flow mechanism. This is the reason for the need for density-driven stratified flow investigations following a LOCA. These investigations provided high-quality data for CFD validation in order for these models to depict the basic phenomena occurring in an air ingress scenario

Empowering self-help groups for caregivers of children with disabilities in Kilifi, Kenya: Impacts and their underlying mechanisms

Bringing up a child with disabilities in a low-income setting is challenged by inadequate resources, limited psycho-social support and poverty. Not surprisingly, many caregivers experience fatigue, distress and isolation. To address and investigate these issues, action was taken to set up twenty self-help groups focusing on caregiver empowerment. A realist evaluation design was adopted to evaluate impacts associated with the self-help process and to identify mechanisms determining the outcomes. Monthly monitoring visits were conducted to the groups during a ten-month set-up period, at the end of which eleven active groups remained, nine having dissolved due to disputes, corruption and extreme environmental conditions. A facilitated intervention was delivered to the active groups (N=154) over a six-month period. The members were guided to review and discuss topics such as economic empowerment, personal situation, peer support, community inclusion, access to health and education. Evaluation employed mixed methods using questionnaires (n=75) and semi-structured interviews(n=36) pre- and post-intervention. At baseline, the burden of caregiving was characterised by aloneness, challenges, stigma and discrimination. Post-intervention, caregiver agency was defined by togetherness, capacity-building, acceptance and well-being. Significant impacts associated with caregiver perceptions included increased social support, reduced severity of child’s disability and decreased effects of extrinsic factors affecting the caregiver’s role. Mechanisms of ‘handling goods and money’ and ‘social ties and support’ appeared to underpin the outcomes. Caregiver empowerment was associated with newly developed skills, social connectedness and resource mobilisation. Documentation of group processes contributes to the evidence on community-based inclusive development

An Emergency Room Decision-Support Program That Increased Physician Office Visits, Decreased Emergency Room Visits, and Saved Money

The objective of this study was to evaluate an Emergency Room having a Decision-Support (ERDS) program designed to appropriately reduce ER use among frequent users, defined as 3 or more visits within a 12-month period. To achieve this, adults with an AARP Medicare Supplement Insurance plan insured by UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company (for New York residents, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of New York) were eligible to participate in the program. These included 7070 individuals who elected to enroll in the ERDS program and an equal number of matched nonparticipants who were eligible but either declined or were unreachable. Program-related benefits were estimated by comparing the difference in downstream health care utilization and expenditures between engaged and not engaged individuals after using propensity score matching to adjust for case mix differences between these groups. As a result, compared with the not engaged, engaged individuals experienced better care coordination, evidenced by a greater reduction in ER visits (P=0.033) and hospital admissions (P=0.002) and an increase in office visits (P<0.001). The program was cost-effective, with a return on investment (ROI) of 1.24, which was calculated by dividing the total program savings ($3.41 million) by the total program costs ($2.75 million). The ROI implies that for every dollar invested in this program, $1.24 was saved, most of which was for the federal Medicare program. In conclusion, the decrease in ER visits and hospital admissions and the increase in office visits may indicate the program helped individuals to seek the appropriate levels of care. (Population Health Management 2014;17:257?264)Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140184/1/pop.2013.0117.pd

Parks Canada’s adaptation framework and workshop approach: Lessons learned across a diverse series of adaptation workshops

In 2017, the Canadian Parks Council Climate Change Working Group, a team of federal, provincial, and territorial representatives, developed a Climate Change Adaptation Framework for Parks and Protected Areas, guiding practitioners through a simple, effective five-step adaptation process. This framework was adapted by Parks Canada into a two-day adaptation workshop approach, with 11 workshops subsequently held from September 2017 to May 2019 at Parks Canada sites in the Yukon, Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta, Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Newfoundland, and Ontario. Lessons learned from each workshop have been integrated into the approach, with the development of tools and guidance for each phase of the process, and a shareable, visual “placemat” that describes each step of the framework, acting as a map for those navigating the process

Evaluating cortical responses to speech in children: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study.

Functional neuroimaging of speech processing has both research and clinical potential. This work is facilitating an ever-increasing understanding of the complex neural mechanisms involved in the processing of speech. Neural correlates of speech understanding also have potential clinical value, especially for infants and children, in whom behavioural assessments can be unreliable. Such measures would not only benefit normally hearing children experiencing speech and language delay, but also hearing impaired children with and without hearing devices. In the current study, we examined cortical correlates of speech intelligibility in normally hearing paediatric listeners. Cortical responses were measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a non-invasive neuroimaging technique that is fully compatible with hearing devices, including cochlear implants. In nineteen normally hearing children (aged 6 – 13 years) we measured activity in temporal and frontal cortex bilaterally whilst participants listened to both clear- and noise-vocoded sentences targeting four levels of speech intelligibility. Cortical activation in superior temporal and inferior frontal cortex was generally stronger in the left hemisphere than in the right. Activation in left superior temporal cortex grew monotonically with increasing speech intelligibility. In the same region, we identified a trend towards greater activation on correctly vs. incorrectly perceived trials, suggesting a possible sensitivity to speech intelligibility per se, beyond sensitivity to changing acoustic properties across stimulation conditions. Outside superior temporal cortex, we identified other regions in which fNIRS responses varied with speech intelligibility. For example, channels overlying posterior middle temporal regions in the right hemisphere exhibited relative deactivation during sentence processing (compared to a silent baseline condition), with the amplitude of that deactivation being greater in more difficult listening conditions. This finding may represent sensitivity to components of the default mode network in lateral temporal regions, and hence effortful listening in normally hearing paediatric listeners. Our results indicate that fNIRS has the potential to provide an objective marker of speech intelligibility in normally hearing children. Should these results be found to apply to individuals experiencing language delay or to those listening through a hearing device, such as a cochlear implant, fNIRS may form the basis of a clinically useful measure of speech understanding