A composer-teacher in context: Music for the performing arts faculty in a New Zealand secondary school

This thesis examines the processes and outcomes of a composer-teacher's practice in the context of a New Zealand secondary school. The research was undertaken by the composer-teacher/researcher as a case study that integrates an investigation of the context with four action research music composition projects developed as a creative response to that context. Chapters One to Three comprise the background theory. Chapter One provides an introduction and overview of the research; Chapter Two explains and justifies the research methods. Chapter Three peels away and examines five layers of the secondary school context identified as significant in shaping the perceptions of the participants: approaching the context in a multi-layered way enabled coherent synthesis and appraisal of the relevant literature. Chapters Four to Seven comprise the four action research music composition projects. Each action research project focuses on a music score composed by the composer-teacher/researcher for a specific group of students at Macleans College, Auckland. The composition, production, and performance processes are investigated from the perspectives of all the participants. Each music project comprises a four part progression - plan (composition process), data (music score), data analysis (recordings of performances, surveys, and interviews with all participants) and reflection (feedback, and feedforward into the next project). Each phase of the research generated significant outcomes, such as the four original music scores. Chapter Eight summarizes the themes, issues, and patterns that emerged, and makes recommendations for further research. A model of co-constructive practice emerges from this research: teacher and students co-construct artistic worlds through performance. The model is not new (it is common practice, adopted by generations of musician-teachers) but is rarely acknowledged and currently un-researched. This research demonstrates the validity of the practice from both musical, and teaching and learning perspectives, and examines the strengths and limitations of the model. At its best, the creative processes co-constructed by a teacher with her students are shown to provide a crucible within which intense and creative learning experiences occur. Students of all levels of ability are shown to gain confidence in this context, and subsequently develop skills with apparent ease. The co-constructive model is limited in that it cannot meet the musical needs of all students: co-construction should be considered as one model of practice, appropriate for use in association with many others. This research provides 'virtual access' to a particular world of performance practice, revealing the secondary school context as a realm of authentic and valid musical practice

An Arm

Pages 60-6

Coherent fluctuation relations: from the abstract to the concrete

Recent studies using the quantum information theoretic approach to thermodynamics show that the presence of coherence in quantum systems generates corrections to classical fluctuation theorems. To explicate the physical origins and implications of such corrections, we here convert an abstract framework of an autonomous quantum Crooks relation into quantum Crooks equalities for well-known coherent, squeezed and cat states. We further provide a proposal for a concrete experimental scenario to test these equalities. Our scheme consists of the autonomous evolution of a trapped ion and uses a position dependent AC Stark shift

Aquilegia, Vol. 23 No. 4, July-August 1999: Newsletter of the Colorado Native Plant Society

https://epublications.regis.edu/aquilegia/1175/thumbnail.jp

The Poetics of Dissolution: The Representation of Maori Culture in Janet Frame's Fiction

This essay examines Janet Frame's early short story "The Lagoon", and argues that the story alludes to Maori experience, albeit tangentially, in a way which anticipates similar evocations in novels such as A State of Siege and The Carpathians. A close reading shows that cultural imperialism in Frame runs parallel to, or is a side-effect of, interpersonal appropriations. These, in turn, seem to be rooted in human beings' reluctance to accommodate otherness. Recurrently Janet Frame points to a model of cultural and interpersonal interaction which is detached from proprietorial forms of appropriation, but which entails nothing less than the dissolution of the ruling ego. Selfdissolution shall emerge in this reading as the key to a utopian state consisting of the total permeability between the self and the remainder of the world. In this state, transactions become reciprocal since the divisions between self and non-self no longer exist

Aquilegia, Vol. 23 No. 3, May-June 1999: Newsletter of the Colorado Native Plant Society

https://epublications.regis.edu/aquilegia/1174/thumbnail.jp

'We've just had to hit the ground running': Health professionals' experiences of cancer immunotherapy: A qualitative study

Background This paper reports early findings from a qualitative investigation of people’s experiences of cancer immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Cancer immunotherapy is transforming outcomes for some people affected by cancer. Clinical trials have found that immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) demonstrate clinical benefit across various cancers. Several ICIs are now approved for a range of cancers and used across UK cancer centres. However, there is little research focused on UK healthcare professionals’ experiences of delivering and supporting people receiving ICI’s together with their associated education and training needs. Method This study sought to obtain in-depth insight into healthcare professionals’ experiences of caring for people receiving cancer immunotherapy and their associated education, training and support needs. NHS ethical approval was granted for the participating NHS sites. UK healthcare professionals (11 nurses, 3 doctors and 2 pharmacists) from oncology services, primary and secondary care (acute oncology) were recruited using purposive and snowball sampling. In view of COVID-19 physical distancing requirements, digitally-recorded, semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted between May and September 2020. Transcribed, anonymised data were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s reflexive, thematic analysis. Results Data suggest healthcare professionals have variable educational and training needs relative to supportive care in cancer immunotherapy. The provision of immunotherapy care, particularly within oncology, is currently approached predominantly through the biomedical lens of toxicity management. Perspectives on holistic patient care, including psychological support, were limited. This disparity might be owing to ICI treatment as relatively novel compared with other anti-cancer treatments. Professionals considered ICIs as complex to manage, with significant efforts to establish a range of toxicities from both single-agent and combination ICI treatment ongoing, with many still considered unknown. Conclusion Further research should consider how healthcare professionals’ ongoing education and training needs for holistic supportive care can be best addressed. Impact statement This study seeks to make recommendations for ICI supportive care guidance development, cancer immunotherapy education materials for healthcare professionals, cancer policy and further research

Aquilegia, Vol. 25 No. 4, May-June 2001: Newsletter of the Colorado Native Plant Society

https://epublications.regis.edu/aquilegia/1185/thumbnail.jp

Reduced chromosome cohesion measured by interkinetochore distance is associated with aneuploidy even in oocytes from young mice

It is becoming clear that reduced chromosome cohesion is an important factor in the rise of maternal age-related aneuploidy. This reduction in cohesion has been observed both in human and mouse oocytes, and it can be measured directly by an increase with respect to maternal age in interkinetochore (iKT) distance between a sister chromatid pair. We have observed variations in iKT distance even in oocytes from young mice and wondered if such differences may predispose those oocytes displaying the greatest iKT distances to be becoming aneuploid. Therefore, we used two methods, one pharmacological (Aurora kinase inhibitor) and one genetic (Fzr1 knockout), to raise aneuploidy rates in oocytes from young mice (age, 1-3 mo) and to examine if those oocytes that were aneuploid had greater iKT distances. We observed that for both Aurora kinase inhibition and Fzr1 knockout, iKT distances were significantly greater in those oocytes that became aneuploid compared to those that remained euploid. Based on these results, we propose that individual oocytes undergo loss in chromosomal cohesion at different rates and that the greater this loss, the greater the risk for becoming aneuploid.Supported by an NHMRC project grant (569202) to K.T.J., S.M., and E.A.M. J.E.H. is supported by an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship. I.G.-H. and S.M. are supported by grants BFU2007-67464, BFU2008-01808, Consolider CSD2007-00015, and Junta de Castilla y León Grupo de Excelencia GR 265.Peer Reviewe