Art+Politics

For the exhibition Art + Politics, students worked closely with the holdings of Gettysburg College\u27s Special Collections and College Archives to curate an exhibition in Schmucker Art Gallery that engages with issues of public policy, activism, war, propaganda, and other critical socio-political themes. Each of the students worked diligently to contextualize the objects historically, politically, and art-historically. The art and artifacts presented in this exhibition reveal how various political events and social issues have been interpreted through various visual and printed materials, including posters, pins, illustrations, song sheets, as well as a Chinese shoe for bound feet. The students\u27 essays that follow demonstrate careful research and thoughtful reflection on the American Civil War, nineteenth-century politics, the First and Second World Wars, World\u27s Fairs, Dwight D. Eisenhower\u27s campaign, Vietnam-War era protests, and the Cultural Revolution in China. [excerpt]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1009/thumbnail.jp

Central and peripheral determinants of fatigue in acute hypoxia

Fatigue is defined as an exercise-induced decrease in maximal voluntary force produced by a muscle. Fatigue may arise from central and/or peripheral mechanisms. Supraspinal fatigue (a component of central fatigue) is defined as a suboptimal output from the motor cortex and measured using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Reductions in O2 supply (hypoxia) exacerbate fatigue and as the severity of hypoxia increases, central mechanisms of fatigue are thought to contribute more to exercise intolerance. In study 1, the feasibility of TMS to measure cortical voluntary activation and supraspinal fatigue of human knee-extensors was determined. TMS produced reliable measurements of cortical voluntary activation within- and between-days, and enabled the assessment of supraspinal fatigue. In study 2, the mechanisms of fatigue during single-limb exercise in normoxia (arterial O2 saturation [SaO2] ~98%), and mild to severe hypoxia (SaO2 93-80%) were determined. Hypoxia did not alter neuromuscular function or cortical voluntary activation of the knee-extensors at rest, despite large reductions in cerebral oxygenation. Maximal force declined by ~30% after single-limb exercise in all conditions, despite reduced exercise time in severe-hypoxia compared to normoxia (15.9 ± 5.4 vs. 24.7 ± 5.5 min; p < 0.05). Peripheral mechanisms of fatigue contributed more to the reduction in force generating capacity of the knee-extensors following single-limb exercise in normoxia and mild- to moderate-hypoxia, whereas supraspinal fatigue played a greater role in severe-hypoxia. In study 3, the effect of constant-load cycling exercise to the limit of tolerance in hypoxia (SaO2 ~80%) and normoxia was investigated. Time to the limit of tolerance was significantly shorter in hypoxia compared to normoxia (3.6 ± 1.3 vs. 8.1 ± 2.9 min; p < 0.001). The reductions in maximal voluntary force and knee-extensor twitch force at task-failure were not different in hypoxia compared to normoxia. However, the level of supraspinal fatigue was exacerbated in hypoxia, and occurred in parallel with reductions in cerebral oxygenation and O2 delivery. Supraspinal fatigue contributes to the decrease in whole-body exercise tolerance in hypoxia, presumably as a consequence of inadequate O2 delivery to the brain.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Factors Associated with the Diversification of the Gut Microbial Communities within Chimpanzees from Gombe National Park.

The gastrointestinal tract harbors large and diverse populations of bacteria that vary among individuals and within individuals over time. Numerous internal and external factors can influence the contents of these microbial communities, including diet, geography, physiology, and the extent of contact among hosts. To investigate the contributions of such factors to the variation and changes in gut microbial communities, we analyzed the distal gut microbiota of individual chimpanzees from two communities in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. These samples, which were derived from 35 chimpanzees, many of whom have been monitored for multiple years, provide an unusually comprehensive longitudinal depth for individuals of known genetic relationships. Although the composition of the great-ape microbiota has been shown to codiversify with host species, indicating that host genetics and phylogeny have played a major role in its differentiation over evolutionary timescales, the geneaological relationships of individual chimpanzees did not coincide with the similarity in their gut microbial communities. However, the inhabitants from adjacent chimpanzee communities could be distinguished based on the contents of their gut microbiota. Despite the broad similarity of community members, as would be expected from shared diet or interactions, long-term immigrants to a community often harbored the most distinctive gut microbiota, suggesting that individuals retain hallmarks of their previous gut microbial communities for extended periods. This pattern was reinforced in several chimpanzees sampled over long temporal scales, in which the major constituents of the gut microbiota were maintained for nearly a decade

Development of a novel Ni-based multi-principal element alloy filler metal, using an alternative melting point depressant

Brazing is a crucial joining technology in industries where nickel-superalloy components must be joined. Nickel-based brazing filler metals are extensively employed, possessing excellent mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, and retained strength at elevated temperatures. To function as a filler metal, the alloy melting point must be reduced to below that of the materials being joined, but the addition of melting point depressants (MPDs) such as boron, silicon, and phosphorus can, however, lead to the formation of brittle intermetallics, potentially compromising the joint performance. In the present work, a novel multi-principal element brazing alloy (in the style of a high entropy alloy), utilizing Ge as an alternative MPD along with a reduced B addition, is investigated. The design process considered binary phase diagrams and predictions based on Thermo-Calc software and empirical thermodynamic parameters. The alloy was used to vacuum braze nickel-superalloy Inconel-718, and microstructural and mechanical investigations are reported. The maximum shear strength achieved was 297 MPa with a brazing temperature of 1100 °C and 60-minute hold time, with isothermal solidification completed. Shear strength was only slightly reduced with increased joint width. Assessments are made of the ability to accurately predict properties of multi-principle element alloys using Thermo-Calc software and empirical thermodynamic parameters

A Resource Centric Approach For Advancing Collaboration Through Hydrologic Data And Model Sharing

HydroShare is an online, collaborative system being developed for open sharing of hydrologic data and models. The goal of HydroShare is to enable scientists to easily discover and access hydrologic data and models, retrieve them to their desktop or perform analyses in a distributed computing environment that may include grid, cloud or high performance computing model instances as necessary. Scientists may also publish outcomes (data, results or models) into HydroShare, using the system as a collaboration platform for sharing data, models and analyses. HydroShare is expanding the data sharing capability of the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System by broadening the classes of data accommodated, creating new capability to share models and model components, and taking advantage of emerging social media functionality to enhance information about and collaboration around hydrologic data and models. One of the fundamental concepts in HydroShare is that of a Resource. All content is represented using a Resource Data Model that separates system and science metadata and has elements common to all resources as well as elements specific to the types of resources HydroShare will support. These will include different data types used in the hydrology community and models and workflows that require metadata on execution functionality. The HydroShare web interface and social media functions are being developed using the Drupal content management system. A geospatial visualization and analysis component enables searching, visualizing, and analyzing geographic datasets. The integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) is being used to manage federated data content and perform rule-based background actions on data and model resources, including parsing to generate metadata catalog information and the execution of models and workflows. This presentation will introduce the HydroShare functionality developed to date, describe key elements of the Resource Data Model and outline the roadmap for future development

Australian long-term care personnel's knowledge and attitudes regarding palliative care for people with advanced dementia.

This study aimed to describe Australian long-term care (LTC) personnel's knowledge and attitudes concerning palliative care for residents with advanced dementia, and explore relationships with LTC facility/personnel characteristics. An analysis was undertaken of baseline data from a cluster randomised controlled trial of facilitated family case conferencing for improving palliative care of LTC residents with advanced dementia (the 'IDEAL Study'). Participants included any LTC personnel directly involved in residents' care. Knowledge and attitudes concerning palliative care for people with advanced dementia were measured using the questionnaire on Palliative Care for Advanced Dementia. Univariate and multivariate analyses explored relationships between personnel knowledge/attitudes and facility/personnel characteristics. Of 307 personnel in the IDEAL Study, 290 (94.5%) from 19/20 LTCFs provided sufficient data for inclusion. Participants included 9 (2.8%) nurse managers, 59 (20.5%) registered nurses, 25 (8.7%) enrolled nurses, 187 (64.9%) assistants in nursing/personal care assistants and 9 (3.1%) care service employees. In multivariate analyses, a facility policy not to rotate personnel through dementia units was the only variable associated with more favourable overall personnel knowledge and attitudes. Other variables associated with favourable knowledge were a designation of nursing manager or registered or enrolled nurse, and having a preferred language of English. Other variables associated with favourable attitudes were tertiary level of education and greater experience in dementia care. Like previous international research, this study found Australian LTC personnel knowledge and attitudes regarding palliative care for people with advanced dementia to be associated with both facility and personnel characteristics. Future longitudinal research is needed to better understand the relationships between knowledge and attitudes, as well as between these attributes and quality of care

The interview as narrative ethnography : seeking and shaping connections in qualitative research.

Acts of counter-subjectification in qualitative research are always present but are often submerged in accounts that seek to locate the power of subjectification entirely with the researcher. This is particularly so when talking to people about sensitive issues. Based on an interview-based study of infertility and reproductive disruption among British Pakistanis in Northeast England, we explore how we, as researchers, sought and were drawn into various kinds of connections with the study participants; connections that were actively and performatively constructed through time. The three of us that conducted interviews are all female academics with Ph.Ds in anthropology, but thereafter our backgrounds, life stories and experiences diverge in ways that intersected with those of our informants in complex and shifting ways. We describe how these processes shaped the production of narrative accounts and consider some of the associated analytical and ethical implications

Potentially Inappropriate Prescribing in Australian Nursing Home Residents with Advanced Dementia: A Substudy of the IDEAL Study

© 2018, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Background: Prescribing medications for nursing home residents with advanced dementia should focus on optimizing function and comfort, reducing unnecessary harms and aligning care goals with a palliative approach. Objective: The aim of the study was to estimate the proportion of Australian nursing home residents with advanced dementia receiving potentially inappropriate medications, and identify those most commonly prescribed and factors associated with their use. Design: Data were collected through retrospective audit of medication charts. Setting/Subjects: Two hundred eighteen nursing home residents with advanced dementia from 20 nursing homes participated in a cluster-randomized controlled trial of case conferencing (the IDEAL Study) from June 2013 to December 2014. Measurements: Inappropriate drug use was defined as medications classified as "never appropriate" by the Palliative Excellence in Alzheimer Care Efforts (PEACE) program criteria. Generalized linear mixed models were used to identify variables predicting use of "never" appropriate medications. Results: Over a quarter (n = 65, 30%) of residents received at least one medication classed as "never" appropriate, the most common being lipid-lowering agents (n = 38, 17.4%), antiplatelet agents (n = 18, 8.3%), and acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (n = 16, 7.3%). Residents who had been at the nursing home for ≤10 months (odds ratio [OR] 5.60, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.74-18.06) and 11-21 months (OR 5.41, 95% CI 1.67-17.75) had significantly greater odds of receiving a never appropriate medication compared with residents who had been at the nursing home for >5 years. Conclusions: Use of potentially inappropriate medications in Australian nursing home residents with advanced dementia is common. A greater understanding of the rationale that underpins prescribing of medications is required

Effects of facilitated family case conferencing for advanced dementia: A cluster randomised clinical trial

© 2017 Agar et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Background: Palliative care planning for nursing home residents with advanced dementia is often suboptimal. This study compared effects of facilitated case conferencing (FCC) with usual care (UC) on end-of-life care. Methods: A two arm parallel cluster randomised controlled trial was conducted. The sample included people with advanced dementia from 20 Australian nursing homes and their families and professional caregivers. In each intervention nursing home (n = 10), Palliative Care Planning Coordinators (PCPCs) facilitated family case conferences and trained staff in person-centred palliative care for 16 hours per week over 18 months. The primary outcome was family-rated quality of end-of-life care (End-of-Life Dementia [EOLD] Scales). Secondary outcomes included nurse-rated EOLD scales, resident quality of life (Quality of Life in Late-stage Dementia [QUALID]) and quality of care over the last month of life (pharmacological/ non-pharmacological palliative strategies, hospitalization or inappropriate interventions). Results: Two-hundred-eighty-six people with advanced dementia took part but only 131 died (64 in UC and 67 in FCC which was fewer than anticipated), rendering the primary analysis underpowered with no group effect seen in EOLD scales. Significant differences in pharmacological (P < 0.01) and non-pharmacological (P < 0.05) palliative management in last month of life were seen. Intercurrent illness was associated with lower family-rated EOLD Satisfaction with Care (coefficient 2.97, P < 0.05) and lower staff-rated EOLD Comfort Assessment with Dying (coefficient 4.37, P < 0.01). Per protocol analyses showed positive relationships between EOLD and staff hours to bed ratios, proportion of residents with dementia and staff attitudes. Conclusion: FCC facilitates a palliative approach to care. Future trials of case conferencing should consider outcomes and processes regarding decision making and planning for anticipated events and acute illness. Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry ACTRN12612001164886