Re-Imaging the 'Kiwi Bloke': Low Places and Anxious Spaces in Aotearoa New Zealand

This thesis extends mental health geographies by examining how and in what ways emotions are performed and negotiated in place by men who experience anxiety and depression. The research seeks to explain men’s responses to, and lived experiences of, contemporary mental health campaigns and discourses in Aotearoa New Zealand. The research has two main questions. First, how do men respond to gendered mental health discourses in New Zealand media? Second, how do men, with anxiety and depression, emotionally experience and negotiate different spaces? The thesis aims to promote greater awareness of men’s mental health in Aotearoa New Zealand, and broaden critical geographical literature, by offering a new geography of hope. New Zealand masculinity has been historically shaped alongside working-class culture, rugby union and ‘hard man’ stereotypes. These discourses marginalise men who experience emotional and mental ill-health. The research seeks to re-image the ‘kiwi bloke’ and make space for alternative health stories to be heard. The research is framed within health geography literature and feminist poststructuralist theories. I maintain that mental and emotional ill-health are affected through biopsychosocial relations and a myriad of spaces and places. I conducted critical discourse analysis on contemporary mental health campaigns. Nine men, who identify with or live in New Zealand, participated in semi-structured interviews, solicited diaries and follow-up questionnaires. The methodology is theoretically and empirically innovative, and seeks to find more appropriate interfaces for conducting critical gender and mental health research. My findings are organised around two spatial scales: the discursive space of mental health promotion and hegemonic New Zealand masculinity; and, the everyday emotional spatialities of men who experience anxiety and depression. I maintain that there is a ‘new national imaginary’ around men’s mental health promotion which influences a more intimate geography of hope. I assert social spaces prescribe men’s bodies with performances of hegemonic masculinity and that spatial power relations position men as object to marginalization in ‘peopled places’. I discuss how the men find ways to create meaningful healthy spaces in order to avoid the pressure felt in social spaces. Some men find wellbeing through embodying their home spaces, while others seek attachment to place, outside of their residential dwellings. Ultimately, this thesis provides a geography of hope by illustrating how some men elicit power, domination and control and resist mental illness stigma through their embodied spaces

Problems and possibilities on the margins: LGBT experiences in the 2011 Queensland floods

Vulnerability to disasters is not inherent to particular social groups but results from existing marginality. Marginalisation from social, political and economic resources and recognition underpins vulnerability and impedes recovery. Yet concurrently, disasters can reveal the resilient capacities of some marginal groups, who often develop specific means of coping with marginality. This article applies these perspectives to the experiences of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans) people during the 2011 disaster in Queensland, Australia, which resulted from catastrophic flooding of Brisbane and South-East Queensland. The findings come from a survey conducted by the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities (QAHC) a year after the floods, which sought to understand LGBT experiences, resources and needs. An agreement was established between QAHC and university researchers to facilitate data analysis. This article analyses some key findings using the concept of marginality to understand both vulnerability and resilience. This framework helps grasp the particular issues facing LGBT people. The data reveal vulnerability due to social and political marginality, including discrimination and inhibited access to assistance, but simultaneously examples of resilience borne by self-reliance and coping strategies developed in a context of marginality. Understanding LGBT marginality, vulnerability and resilience helps contribute to inclusive and effective disaster preparation, response and recovery.Australian Research Council-DP13010265

Detecting transient gravitational waves in non-Gaussian noise with partially redundant analysis methods

There is a broad class of astrophysical sources that produce detectable, transient, gravitational waves. Some searches for transient gravitational waves are tailored to known features of these sources. Other searches make few assumptions about the sources. Typically events are observable with multiple search techniques. This work describes how to combine the results of searches that are not independent, treating each search as a classifier for a given event. This will be shown to improve the overall sensitivity to gravitational-wave events while directly addressing the problem of consistent interpretation of multiple trials.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Nb superconductive thin film coating on flat Cu disks for high gradient applications

In this work we present the characterization of Nb superconductive films deposed on copper substrates with two different techniques: the PVD magnetron sputtering and the Pulsed Laser Ablation. In the first method Nb films ∼ 3µm thick were deposited with an average roughness of 160 nm. The superconductivity properties of these films were also determined with a 4-probe resistivity measurement. Data show a superconducting transition at 9.6K as expected from Nb films. With the second technique thick Nb films were deposited on copper substrates using the Pulsed Laser Ablation. In this case the Rutherford Backscattering was used to determine the thickness and the chemical state of these films that show different degrees of oxidation

Likelihood-ratio ranking of gravitational-wave candidates in a non-Gaussian background

We describe a general approach to detection of transient gravitational-wave signals in the presence of non-Gaussian background noise. We prove that under quite general conditions, the ratio of the likelihood of observed data to contain a signal to the likelihood of it being a noise fluctuation provides optimal ranking for the candidate events found in an experiment. The likelihood-ratio ranking allows us to combine different kinds of data into a single analysis. We apply the general framework to the problem of unifying the results of independent experiments and the problem of accounting for non-Gaussian artifacts in the searches for gravitational waves from compact binary coalescence in LIGO data. We show analytically and confirm through simulations that in both cases the likelihood ratio statistic results in an improved analysis.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Effects of Anacetrapib in Patients with Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: Patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease remain at high risk for cardiovascular events despite effective statin-based treatment of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. The inhibition of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) by anacetrapib reduces LDL cholesterol levels and increases high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. However, trials of other CETP inhibitors have shown neutral or adverse effects on cardiovascular outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 30,449 adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive atorvastatin therapy and who had a mean LDL cholesterol level of 61 mg per deciliter (1.58 mmol per liter), a mean non-HDL cholesterol level of 92 mg per deciliter (2.38 mmol per liter), and a mean HDL cholesterol level of 40 mg per deciliter (1.03 mmol per liter). The patients were assigned to receive either 100 mg of anacetrapib once daily (15,225 patients) or matching placebo (15,224 patients). The primary outcome was the first major coronary event, a composite of coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization. RESULTS: During the median follow-up period of 4.1 years, the primary outcome occurred in significantly fewer patients in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (1640 of 15,225 patients [10.8%] vs. 1803 of 15,224 patients [11.8%]; rate ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.85 to 0.97; P=0.004). The relative difference in risk was similar across multiple prespecified subgroups. At the trial midpoint, the mean level of HDL cholesterol was higher by 43 mg per deciliter (1.12 mmol per liter) in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (a relative difference of 104%), and the mean level of non-HDL cholesterol was lower by 17 mg per deciliter (0.44 mmol per liter), a relative difference of -18%. There were no significant between-group differences in the risk of death, cancer, or other serious adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive statin therapy, the use of anacetrapib resulted in a lower incidence of major coronary events than the use of placebo. (Funded by Merck and others; Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN48678192 ; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01252953 ; and EudraCT number, 2010-023467-18 .)

Problems and possibilities on the margins: LGBT experiences in the 2011 Queensland floods

Vulnerability to disasters is not inherent to particular social groups but results from existing marginality. Marginalisation from social, political and economic resources and recognition underpins vulnerability and impedes recovery. Yet concurrently, disasters can reveal the resilient capacities of some marginal groups, who often develop specific means of coping with marginality. This article applies these perspectives to the experiences of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans) people during the 2011 disaster in Queensland, Australia, which resulted from catastrophic flooding of Brisbane and South-East Queensland. The findings come from a survey conducted by the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities (QAHC) a year after the floods, which sought to understand LGBT experiences, resources and needs. An agreement was established between QAHC and university researchers to facilitate data analysis. This article analyses some key findings using the concept of marginality to understand both vulnerability and resilience. This framework helps grasp the particular issues facing LGBT people. The data reveal vulnerability due to social and political marginality, including discrimination and inhibited access to assistance, but simultaneously examples of resilience borne by self-reliance and coping strategies developed in a context of marginality. Understanding LGBT marginality, vulnerability and resilience helps contribute to inclusive and effective disaster preparation, response and recovery

The LGBTI community in the 2011 Queensland floods : marginality, vulnerability and resilience

Vulnerability to disasters is not inherent to particular social groups but results from existing marginality. Marginalisation from social, political and economic resources and recognition underpins vulnerability and impedes recovery. Yet concurrently, disasters can reveal the resilient capacities of some marginal groups, who often develop specific means of coping with marginality. This paper applies these perspective to the experiences of LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex) sexual minorities during the 2011 disasters in Queensland, Australia. The findings come from a survey conducted by the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities (QAHC) a year after the floods. An agreement was established between QAHC and university researchers to facilitate data analysis. This paper analyses some key findings using the concepts of marginality, vulnerability and resilience. The data reveal vulnerability due to social and political marginality, including discrimination and issues of access to assistance, but simultaneously examples of resilience borne by self-reliance in a context of marginality

hTERT inhibition triggers Epstein-Barr virus lytic cycle and apoptosis in immortalized and transformed B cells: a basis for new therapies

Purpose: Induction of viral lytic cycle, which induces death of host cells, may constitute a useful adjunct to current therapeutic regimens for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-driven malignancies. Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), essential for the oncogenic process, may modulate the switch from latent to lytic infection. The possible therapeutic role of hTERT inhibition combined with antiviral drugs was investigated. Experimental Design: EBV-negative BL41 and convertant EBV-positive BL41/B95.8 Burkitt's lymphoma cell lines and lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) were infected with retroviral vector encoding short hairpin RNA (shRNA) anti-hTERT and cultured with or without the prodrug ganciclovir. The effects on EBV lytic replication, cell proliferation, and apoptosis were characterized. Results: hTERT silencing by shRNA induced the expression of BZLF1, EA-D, and gp350 EBV lytic proteins and triggered a complete lytic cycle. This effect was associated with downregulation of BATF, a negative regulator of BZLF1 transcription. hTERT silencing also resulted in antiproliferative and proapoptotic effects. In particular, hTERT inhibition induced an accumulation of cells in the S-phase, an effect likely due to the dephosphorylation of 4E-BP1, an AKT1-dependent substrate, which results in a decreased availability of proteins needed for cell-cycle progression. Besides inducing cell death through activation of complete EBV lytic replication, hTERT inhibition triggered AKT1/FOXO3/NOXA-dependent apoptosis in EBV-positive and -negative Burkitt's lymphoma cells. Finally, ganciclovir enhanced the apoptotic effect induced by hTERT inhibition in EBV-positive Burkitt's lymphomas and LCLs. Conclusions: These results suggest that combination of antiviral drugs with strategies able to inhibit hTERT expression may result in therapeutically relevant effects in patients with EBV-related malignancies