Lake Rudolph

Volume: I

Some notes on the haunts and habits of the Elephant on the Guas Ngishu plateau

Volume:

Building Student Development Through Creative Writing Workshops

This qualitative study describes out-of-school education facilitators’ perceptions, beliefs, and values regarding the promotion of personal and social, cultural, and academic and career development through creative writing workshops. The focus on the facilitators of the creative writing workshops is to explore the perceptions, beliefs, and values they have regarding the theories they use to inform their curriculum, and, therefore, how they promote student development. The researcher believes that a better understanding of the facilitators’ descriptions and perceptions of students and student development within creative writing workshops allows educators and community leaders to proceed from a more informed perspective in terms of student development and facilitation of creative writing workshops. This specific interest on the facilitators, and not the participants, stems from an active resistance to the pervasive negative labeling of youth within previous published research in several fields and within the American educational system. Examining experiences of facilitators of workshops for a targeted age group of 7th–9th grade students narrowed the purpose of the study further so that the research could explore a specific and crucial decision-making period of student development. Key findings of this study were obtained from eight in-depth interviews with individuals from five creative writing workshop programs at different locations. The criteria for selection of participants was that all participants are presently or formerly creative writing workshop facilitators using the AWA Method and that all participants had creative writing workshop experience with the research study’s targeted age group of 7th–9th grade. The participants accurately represented the titles and positions of those most involved with the outcome development for creative writing workshop programs. The information gained through the interviews formed the basis for the overall findings of the study. To support the findings that came from the in-depth interviews, the organization of each participant was examined and key factors such as mission, values, and teaching philosophy were identified. The process of coding was used to analyze this data. The four findings from this study include how the interview participants presented the importance of identity, the value of modeling, the role of allowing only encouraging feedback, and the use of community mentors. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends that creative writing workshop facilitators and programs focus on identity formation and representation in their workshops and curriculum; and leverage the use of modeling and mentoring

Ingestion of amniotic fluid enhances the facilitative effect of VTA morphine on the onset of maternal behavior in virgin rats

Previous research has shown that injection of morphine into the ventral tegmental area(VTA) facilitates the onset of maternal behavior in virgin female rats, and injection of the opioid antagonist naltrexone into the VTA disrupts the onset of maternal behavior in parturient rats. Placentophagia – ingestion of placenta and amniotic fluid, usually at parturition – modifies central opioid processes. Ingestion of the active substance in placenta and amniotic fluid, Placental Opioid-Enhancing Factor (POEF), enhances the hypoalgesic effect of centrally administered morphine, and more specifically, enhances δ- and κ-opioid-receptor-\ud mediated hypoalgesia and attenuates μ-opioid-receptor-mediated hypoalgesia. POEF (in placenta or amniotic fluid) ingestion does not, by itself, produce hypoalgesia. In the\ud present study, we tested the hypothesis that ingestion of amniotic fluid enhances the facilitative effect of opioid activity (unilateral morphine injection) in the VTA on the rate of onset of maternal behavior. Virgin female Long-Evans rats were given one intra-VTA injection of morphine sulfate (0.0, 0.01, or 0.03 μg, in saline) and an orogastric infusion of 0.25 ml amniotic fluid or saline once each day of the first three days of the 10-day testing\ud period. Subjects were continuously exposed to foster pups that were replaced every 12 h; replacement of pups was followed by a 15-min observation period. Maternal behavior\ud latency was determined by the first of two consecutive tests wherein the subject displayed pup retrieval, pup licking in the nest, and crouching over all foster pups, during the 15-min observation. We confirmed the previous finding that the VTA injection, alone, of 0.03 μg morphine shortened the latency to show maternal behavior and that 0.0 μg and 0.01 μg morphine did not. Ingestion of amniotic fluid (and therefore POEF) facilitated the onset of\ud maternal behavior in rats receiving an intra-VTA microinjection of an otherwise subthreshold dose of morphine (0.01 μg)

From patent to patient: analysing access to innovative cancer drugs.

Analysis of cancer drugs licensed through the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in 2000-2016 shows that the number of authorisations increased over that timeframe. The median number of licensed drugs each year rose from six for 2000-2008 to 13.5 for 2009-2016. Over 2000-2016, there were 64 drug authorisations for haematological, 15 for breast, and 12 for skin cancer, but none for oesophageal, brain, bladder, or uterine cancer. Only 6% of authorisations included a paediatric indication. The average time for a drug to progress from patent priority date to availability on the National Health Service (NHS) increased from 12.8 years for drugs first licensed in 2000-2008 to 14.0 years for those licensed in 2009-2016. There was evidence that the most innovative drugs were not being prioritised for EMA licensing and NICE approval

Mass movement susceptibility mapping using satellite optical imagery compared with InSAR monitoring: Zigui County, Three Gorges region, China

Mass movements on steep slopes are a major hazard to communities and infrastructure in the Three Gorges region, China. Developing susceptibility maps of mass movements is therefore very important in both current and future land use planning. This study employed satellite optical imagery and an ASTER GDEM (15 m) to derive various parameters (namely geology; slope gradient; proximity to drainage networks and proximity to lineaments) in order to create a GIS-based map of mass movement susceptibility. This map was then evaluated using highly accurate deformation signals processed using the Persistent Scatterer (PS) InSAR technique. Areas of high susceptibility correspond well to points of high subsidence, which provides a strong support of our susceptibility map