UBA XXII, Programa de Estudios de la UBA en el Servicio Penitenciario Federal : un desafío con más de 20 años de historia

Fil: Laferriere, Marta. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Programa UBA XXII; Argentina.Todos los aspectos del quehacer educativo en las prisiones tienen implicancias políticas. Su fundamento\ndebe reconocerse en la creación y el sostenimiento de un espacio de ejercicio de derechos, que rompe la\nlógica del premio-castigo. La UBA no llega a la cárcel desde una mirada piadosa, sino profundamente\npolítica en el sentido de herramienta que permite transformaciones

I Saw the Sunrise in Their Eyes: An Endeavor in the Novel Writing Process

Mystery novels are a well-respected genre of literature. They have rose to fame through authors such as Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle. Mysteries challenge us to solve the puzzle presented, they make the reader question their own morals, and so much more. As a longtime fan of the genre, I have wondered what it takes to write a novel that not only captivates the reader, but that makes sense. Using “Save the Cat! Writes a Novel” by Jessica Brody, I have tried to do this by writing a novel of my own. In this project, I have outlined how to systematically create a plot, through separate essential plot points, and how to create an engaging story. Additionally, I have included my own original plot line. Using this, I have written the beginning chapters of my novel, “I Saw the Sunrise In Their Eyes.” The story revolves around a struggling, young woman in high school. Without her parents’ knowledge, she stays in the woods overnight drinking with a group of her friends. She wakes up to find all of her friends dead around her, throats slashed. Who would have the motive to kill a bunch of high school students? Some think she did it, she knows she didn’t. The question that disturbs her more is, Why was she the only one left alive

Assessment of Pain in The Older Adult with Dementia

Pain is common in the older adult as they continue to age regardless of their cognitive ability . Whether the older adult resides in the community, in a nursing facility or is hospitalized, pain is prevalent in this population. The assessment and management of pain in the older adult with cognitive impaim1ent is a challenge for those in healthcare. Based on the severity of the dementia, the older adult may not be able to verbalize or describe their pain. Therefore, it is vital that healthcare providers are able to identify pain in th is population. Observational assessment scales, such as the Abbey Pain Scale, CNP!, Doloplus-2, PAINAD, PACSLAC and NOPPAIN, can be utilized to better recognize pain in the older adult with cognitive impaim1ent. This paper set out to answer the following questions: Is pain properly assessed in the older adult with dementia? and Which observational tools are found to be effective in the older adult with dementia? Throughout this paper, observational assessment scales will be evaluated and critiqued. Behavioral indicators of pain are also introduced. Implementations for healthcare providers and the development of an educational project will be discusse

Euthanasia in laboratory rodents : alternatives to intraperitoneal injection of sodium pentobarbital

L'utilisation du pentobarbital de sodium (PB), injecté par voie intrapéritonéale (IP), est décrite comme une technique acceptable par les directives d'euthanasie de l'AVMA et du CCPA pour tuer les rongeurs. Cependant, de plus en plus de preuves contestent l'acceptabilité de l'IP PB. Celle-ci a été décrite comme inconsistante et il existe des données suggérant que cette technique pourrait induire de la douleur et du stress. L'objectif de cette thèse était donc de développer et d'évaluer des méthodes alternatives d'euthanasie. Au cours de l'étude pilote, nous avons développé un protocole d'injection pour les injections intrahépatiques (IH) de PB. Ensuite, nous avons testé cette injection sur des souris et des rats. Comme objectif secondaire, nous avons évalué l'utilisation de l'éthanol (ET) comme alternative au PB pour l’euthanasie des souris. Pour les souris, quatre-vingts souris CD1 adultes (mâles et femelles- 26,8 g [23-34 g], moyenne [intervalle]) ont été assignées au hasard à 6 groupes de traitement et ont été tuées par des injections IH ou des injections IP, en utilisant soit ET ou PB. Le taux de mauvaise injection (mauvais placement du contenu de l'injection) pour les essais IH était de 93% (28/30), y compris 14% intrathoracique (4/28), le reste ayant abouti dans la cavité péritonéale telle une injection IP. Ainsi, seulement 7% (2/30) des injections ont donné lieu à une administration hépatique (selon l’évaluation d'autopsie). Les injections IH ayant abouti dans le foie ont entraîné des décès quasi instantanés. Ces données montrent que les injections IH ne sont pas réalisables chez la souris étant donné la difficulté à frapper le foie et le risque d'injections intrathoraciques. D'autre part, l'IP ET a produit des temps significativement (p = 0.010; Mann-Whitney) plus courts de l'injection à l'arrêt du rythme cardiaque (CHB) (115s [88-185] médian [intervalle]) par rapport à l'IP PB (176s [123-260]), confirmant que l'ET est une alternative viable et potentiellement supérieure à la PB. Pour les rats, 66 injections IH et 14 injections IP ont été tentées sur des rats Sprague-Dawley mâles et femelles adultes (poids médian 371g, plage 170-730g), et ont entraîné un délai significativement plus rapide pour la perte du réflexe de redressement (LORR) (p < 0.0001, 95%CI 68 to 88s, Mann-Whitney) et temps de CHB (p < 0.0001, 95%CI 82 to 234s, Mann-Whitney) par rapport aux injections IP. Le temps médian de LORR et CHB après les injections IH était de 4s [1 to 96] et 142.5s [2 to 330] respectivement; alors que le temps médian de LORR et CHB après les injections IP était de 89.5s [73 to 110] et 275s [237 to 423], respectivement. Le taux de mauvaise injection, basé sur les évaluations d’autopsie, était plus élevé avec les injections IH qu'avec les injections IP (IH: 59%, IP: 29%); cependant, 97% des mauvaises injections IH ont tout de même produit une euthanasie réussie et rapide (LORR: 29s [1 to 96], CHB: 216s [12 to 330]. Les injections IH sont donc une alternative efficace aux injections IP pour l'euthanasie chez le rat, et présentent moins de risques d'échec des tentatives d'euthanasie.The use of sodium pentobarbital (PB), injected intraperitoneally (IP), for killing rodents is described as an acceptable technique by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) euthanasia guidelines. However, there is a growing body of evidence challenging the acceptability of IP PB. It has been described as inconsistent and there is evidence that it may induce pain and stress. The objective of this thesis was to develop and evaluate alternative methods of euthanasia. During the pilot study, an injection protocol for intrahepatic (IH) injections of PB was developed and then tested on both mice and rats. As a secondary objective, the use of ethanol (ET) was evaluated as an alternative to PB for mice. For mice, eighty adult (male and female) CD1 mice (26.8g [23-34g], mean [range]) were randomly assigned to 6 treatment groups and were killed by IH injections or IP injections, using either ET or PB. the misinjection rate (misplacement of injectate) for IH injections was 93% (28/30), including 14% intrathoracic (4/28), and the remainder were IP delivery. Only 7% (2/30) of IH attempts resulted in successful IH delivery, per necropsy evaluation. These yielded quasi-instantaneous deaths. These data show that IH injections are not feasible in mice given the difficulty in hitting the liver and the risk of intrathoracic injections. On the other hand, IP ET produced significantly (p = 0.010; Mann-Whitney) shorter time from injection to cessation of heartbeat (CHB) (115s [88-185] median [range]) compared with IP PB (176s [123-260]), confirming that ET is a viable and potentially superior alternative to PB. For rats, 66 IH injections and 14 IP injections were attempted on adult male and female Sprague-Dawley rats (median weight 371g, range 170-730g), and resulted in significantly faster time to loss of righting reflex (LORR) (p < 0.0001, 95%CI 68 to 88s, Mann-Whitney) and time to CHB (p < 0.0001, 95%CI 82 to 234s, Mann-Whitney) compared with IP injections. Time to LORR and CHB following IH injections were: LORR of 4s [1 to 96], CHB of 142.5s [2 to 330]; compared with IP injections: LORR of 89.5s [73 to 110], CHB of 275s [237 to 423). The misinjection rate was higher with IH injections than with IP injections (IH: 59%, IP: 29%); however, 97 % of IH misinjections resulted in fast and successful euthanasia (LORR: 29s [1 to 96], CHB: 216s [12 to 330]. IH injections are thus an efficacious alternative to IP injections for rat euthanasia and pose less risk of failed euthanasia attempts

Women and volunteering : perspectives on development, gender roles and social issues.

EducationDoctor of Education (Ed.D.

Alien Registration- Laferriere, Napoleon (Waterville, Kennebec County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/15096/thumbnail.jp

Alien Registration- Laferriere, Felix (Brunswick, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/31514/thumbnail.jp

Alien Registration- Laferriere, Felix (Brunswick, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/31514/thumbnail.jp

Implementing the PHQ-9 tool to as a Standard of Practice in a Mental Health Setting: A Quality Improvement Project

The objective of this project was to implement the Patient Health Questionaire-9 (PHQ-9) tool as a standardized protocol for depression screening on patients being treated at an outpatient mental health facility in Central Connecticut, where there was no depression screening protocol in place. The clinical question being asked was, is there any correlation between use of the PHQ-9 tool and changes being made to a patient’s depression treatment plan? Methods: A data collection form was completed by the psychiatric nurse practitioner on each patient who met the following criteria: Depression and/or anxiety was the patient’s primary diagnosis and patient was age 18 or older. The following data was collected on the data collection form: PHQ-9 tool completion, pre-appointment treatment, and post-appointment treatment. No patient identifiers were ever collected in this study. Results: Of the 39 data collection forms completed by the practice site’s psychiatric nurse practitioner, there was an 87% (n=34) patient compliance in completion of the PHQ-9 tool. Of the 34 patients who completed the PHQ-9 tool, 88% (n=30) showed a change was made to their treatment plan during that office visit. Conclusion: This study concluded a positive correlation between use of the PHQ-9 tool and changes being initiated to a patient’s plan of treatment. Literature review supports the validity and reliability of the PHQ-9 depression screening tool. Implementing the PHQ-9 tool as a standardized practice in screening patients for depression and in monitoring depression treatment outcomes should be considered as an ongoing quality improvement initiative at this practice site

K-distribution fading models for Bayesian estimation of an underwater acoustic channel

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution February 2011Current underwater acoustic channel estimation techniques generally apply linear MMSE estimation. This approach is optimal in a mean square error sense under the assumption that the impulse response fluctuations are well characterized by Gaussian statistics, leading to a Rayleigh distributed envelope. However, the envelope statistics of the underwater acoustic communication channel are often better modeled by the K-distribution. In this thesis, by presenting and analyzing field data to support this claim, I demonstrate the need to investigate channel estimation algorithms that exploit K-distributed fading statistics. The impact that environmental conditions and system parameters have on the resulting distribution are analyzed. In doing so, the shape parameter of the K-distribution is found to be correlated with the source-to-receiver distance, bandwidth, and wave height. Next, simulations of the scattering behavior are carried out in order to gain insight into the physical mechanism that cause these statistics to arise. Finally, MAP and MMSE based algorithms are derived assuming K-distributed fading models. The implementation of these estimation algorithms on simulated data demonstrates an improvement in performance over linear MMSE estimation.This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research grant #N00014-05-10085 and the National Science Foundation grant #OCE-0519903