Competing vulnerabilities in childhood cancer: the everyday lives of British Bangladeshi children with cancer.

PhDThis thesis presents a social study of childhood cancer treatment in a group of British Bangladeshi children living in one city in the United Kingdom. It draws on theoretical perspectives that see childhood as a social construction and children as active contributors to the social world, whilst acknowledging that their contributions are mediated by their dependence on adults. British Bangladeshi children represent a significant minority group whose cultural heritage may challenge the underlying assumptions of biomedical paediatric cancer care. An ethnographic study was undertaken to develop a detailed description of the social and cultural needs of this group of children. Fieldwork was conducted in home and clinical settings to provide an account of how day to day social relations for children, families and health care professionals are experienced. The analysis indicates that cancer service organisation, the dual language of families and clinical implications of the disease simultaneously contributed to the social impact of childhood cancer treatment on the daily lives of children. The data themes on childhood, cancer treatment and culture: language and power reveal that children, parents and professionals differentially constituted vulnerability in childhood cancer. Central to this thesis is the role of relationships between children, parents and professionals in the production of childhood cancer treatment including their ambiguous and borderline nature. I conclude that this produced a day to day reality of diminished power and agency for participants and led to children in particular occupying positions of liminality. This work challenges the assumption that membership of the social category of childhood has equivalent meaning to all social actors. It calls for further exploration of the taken for granted ideas of childhood during illness that professionals employ in their clinical practice from a perspective that acknowledges the structures that frame adult child relations and the context of care delivery

Cardiovascular consequences of cortisol excess

Cushing's syndrome is a consequence of primary or, more commonly, secondary oversecretion of cortisol. Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of morbidity and mortality in Cushing's syndrome, and excess risk remains even in effectively treated patients. The cardiovascular consequences of cortisol excess are protean and include, inter alia, elevation of blood pressure, truncal obesity, hyperinsulinemia, hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia. This review analyses the relationship of cortisol excess, both locally and at tissue level, to these cardiovascular risk factors, and to putative mechanisms for hypertension. Previous studies have examined correlations between cortisol, blood pressure, and other parameters in the general population and in Cushing's syndrome. This review also details changes induced by short-term cortisol administration in normotensive healthy men

Intermolecular interactions in N-(ferrocenylmethyl)anthracene-9-carboxamide

The title compound, [Fe(C₅H₅)(C₂₁H₁₆NO)], was synthesized from the coupling reaction of anthracene-9-carboxylic acid and ferrocenylmethylamine. The ferrocenyl (Fc) group and the anthracene ring system both lie approximately orthogonal to the amide moiety. An amide-amide interaction (along the a axis) is the principal interaction [N...O = 2.910 (2) Å]. A C-H...π(arene) interaction [C...centroid = 3.573 (2) Å] and a C-H...O interaction [C...O = 3.275 (3) Å] complete the hydrogen bonding; two short (Fc)C...C(anthracene) contacts are also present

The Role of Indigenous Knowledge Practices Within Transformative Reconciliation

This métissage explores scholarly relations among local Indigenous communities, school districts, teacher-learners and Simon Fraser University’s graduate diploma program titled Indigenous Education: Education for Reconciliation. Through our collective attending to the role of Indigenous knowledge practices and making within transformative reconciliation, a powerful resurgence of Indigenous ways of knowing and being emerged. This resurgence came about through participatory pedagogies of making and through the sharing of Indigenous knowledges, cultural practices, ceremony and language revitalization. The focus on Indigenous knowledge practices, circle processes and artmaking, as well as Indigenous worldviews, knowledges and perspectives, provided an enactment of rigorous resurgence and transformative reconciliation (Ash et al., 2018). Opportunities to be involved in Indigenous making and land practice with Indigenous Knowledge Holders provided occasions for teacher-learners to embody and embed Indigenous pedagogies and “two-eyed seeing” (Bartlett et al., 2012) within their educational practice. Throughout the program, teacher-learners were invited into Indigenous making, creative and critical conversations, exploring circle pedagogies, participatory processes, place-based explorations and intercultural dialogues with Indigenous Knowledge Holders and Elders. The teachers acknowledged and experienced Indigenous protocols and ceremonies, and they actively explored Indigenous teachings through Indigenous participatory pedagogies. An emphasis was placed on creating authentic Indigenous-learning pathways and to do so in relation to knowledge practices within a particular place, peoples and their unique cultural ecology. This Indigenous Métissage (Donald, 2012) weaves together narrative threads into a story of collaboration between teacher-learners and Knowledge Holders. They stand as a family stands, together to share and give witness to the profound learnings that have emerged from the journey

Mothers’ Time, the Parenting Package, and Links to Healthy Child Development

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142163/1/jomf12432_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142163/2/jomf12432.pd

Accessing A Global Language: A Comparison of G-TELP and TOEFL Performance

The ESL (English as a Second Language) field has traditionally focused on foreign students who come to the United States to learn English to pursue an academic degree. Those students gain English proficiency, earn a degree, and often return home to be leaders in their countries. The author has titled these students first wave learners. As those newly trained leaders return home, they are met by a group of potential followers who do not speak English. These potential followers, or second wave learners, need to acquire English skills to join with their leaders in accessing professional and technical resources and communicating with other partners in the development process. The second wave is less well educated, will not earn a college degree or study English. First wave learners have traditionally taken the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), which is internationally recognized yet inappropriate for the second wave learners due to its focus on academic English. The G-TELP (General Test of English as a Foreign Language) is designed to test the real world English skills required by second wave learners. This dissertation examines the relationship between scores earned by subjects on the G-TELP and the TOEFL. The G-TELP is a criterion-referenced test while the TOEFL is a norm-referenced test. 281 subjects were tested at five university-based ESL institutes throughout the country. Subjects were given the G-TELP approximately two weeks before taking the TOEFL to determine the concurrent validity of the tests. A moderate positive relationship was found between overall G-TELP and TOEFL scores, and for the listening and vocabulary/reading section scores as well. The findings suggest that while there is significant overlap in the English language knowledge and skills tested by the G-TELP and TOEFL, the tests do assess different types of English proficiency. It is hoped that the information gained through this study will support the adoption of G-TELP abroad for testing a new group of English language learners in Third World countries who are essential to the economic, social and political development of the region. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.

Haiti Funders Forum: Feasibility Study

The Hauser Institute conducted a new study exploring the value, parameters, and sustainability of a Haiti Funders Forum. In collaboration with The Haiti Fund at the Boston Foundation and with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, researchers Paula Johnson and Colleen Kelly conducted a series of conversations with funder network leaders, individual interviews with Haiti funders, and a survey of a broad range of funders and other constituents to analyze and assess the potential activities and operational issues of a forum. The creation of a Haiti Funders Forum would aim to increase the effectiveness of philanthropy in Haiti by promoting information sharing, networking, and collaboration among grantmakers and social investors and through advocacy for increased philanthropy to and within the country. The report summarizes the findings and makes recommendations on a Forum's values, mission, and goals; functions and activities; and institutional and operational aspects

Beyond Traditional Teacher Preparation: Value-add Experiences for Preservice Secondary Mathematics Teachers

The current pool of highly qualified secondary mathematics teachers is woefully inadequate to address the needs of schools across the United States and other countries internationally. In STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) areas, providing quality instruction in a changing world requires continuous change and innovation as programs prepare and train teachers. University teacher preparation programs wrestle with ways to provide wider professional experiences (WPE) within social learning environments called communities of practice (CoP). This qualitative study examines a university-led undergraduate scholarship program, aimed at recruiting, training, and retaining highly qualified secondary preservice mathematics teacher candidates. With increased exposure to mathematics content, mathematical teaching pedagogy, and community outreach beyond traditional preparation requirements, the goal of the study is to determine the immediate and potential value participants, undergraduate students, found engaging in a unique, CoP-based program. Findings reveal that participants concurrently reported both immediate and potential value in teaching experiences and ideas even when engaging in more mathematics or indirect teaching environments. Further, while mentoring is a key feature of the program, participants rarely identified mentoring or faculty support as an immediate or potential value although mentors were often the conduit for participants’ engagement in WPE

Improving Glycemic Control among Incarcerated Men

In the California state prison environment, many diabetic inmates have poor glycemic control and are at risk for complications which include heart disease, retinopathy, renal failure and peripheral vascular disease. An established program permitted diabetic inmates to carry a glucometer and perform their own blood glucose finger sticks. As a quality improvement process, in addition to allowing inmates to carry a glucometer one institution developed an individualized interdisciplinary educational program. The purpose of this report is to summarize a Quality Improvement project assessing the addition of a health promotion educational program, and to retrospectively compare existing data to determine if such a program might improve glycemic control among participating inmates. In a prison setting where no dietary modification is provided, it is important to identify strategies which have been shown to promote glycemic control in this population. Additionally, with the increasing incidence of diabetes taking both an economic and human toll, successful glycemic control strategies should be incorporated into the design of care models