Honoring a Family’s Goals about a Meaningful Life and Death: A case study

Honoring a Family’s Goals about a Meaningful Life and Death: A case study: Lauren Schmidt, MSW, LICSW, palliative care consultant in the Division of Bioethics and Palliative Care at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Objectives: To explore how a family’s own micro culture impacts views on quality of life and their child’s death. To identify how a family’s understanding of their child’s illness can evolve and change over time and how that impacts their choices. To talk about and understand some of our own internal biases, why they are normal, and how we can incorporate awareness into our practice so that is does not impact patient care

Agency of the South Sudanese: Compensating for Health Care in Mungula Refugee Settlement

In reaction to the endemic violence, which has forced many South Sudanese to flee their homes and seek refuge within Uganda’s borders, the researcher spent the practicum interning with the Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) in Mungula refugee settlement, under academic advisor Steven Mawa. As the organization is the leading health provider in the settlement, the researcher gained insight into the provision of social services to the population, which allowed an extensive study on the ability of the South Sudanese to compensate for shortages in care and various complications associated with doing so. The researcher sought to entertain these inquiries by employing various research methods- including: participant observation, informal and formal interviews, independent observation- with the support of maps, surveys, interview guides, checklists, and translators. The primary data was then cross-referenced with existing literature relevant to the subject, analyzed and organized to create a comprehensive project. Although many challenges were present throughout the process of both ethically gathering research, and objectively analyzing it, the investigator was able to gain insight into the topic of interest. The research revealed the enormous challenges healthcare providers and beneficiaries face when securing the health of Mungula as a result of scarcity of resources. Although the shortages in public health are largely mitigated by way of international intervention, their effects are still experienced by the refugee and host communities. Furthermore, enormous challenges are faced by individuals attempting to compensate for limited health services. The economic, political, and cultural obstacles faced are further complicated by their status as refugees, and often exacerbate the vulnerability of the population

Effect of Carbon Black Electrocatalyst Thickness and Composition on Electrosynthesis of Hydrogen Peroxide on Gas Diffusion Electrodes

The in-situ electrosynthesis of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) from reduction of oxygen is a promising method to produce a strong oxidant and disinfectant for application in the water and wastewater treatment industry. Capable of producing low concentrations of H2O2 with no aeration requirements and harmless by-products of water and oxygen, the electrosynthesis of H2O2 using gas diffusion electrodes is advantageous. This research examines the impact that electrocatalyst thickness and composition have on the production efficiency of H2O2 at the gas diffusion layer of a gas diffusion electrode. From these results, the optimum electrocatalyst loading and composition with its respective energy requirements is assessed. An increase in electrocatalyst loading on the gas diffusion layer saw a greater thickness of the electrocatalyst layer, increasing the perpendicular diffusion pathway required for H2O2 to reach the electrolyte solution. At a current density of 1 mA/cm2, the lowest electrocatalyst loading of 0.5 mg/cm2 produced the highest H2O2 concentration of 807.54 mg/L and maximum current coulombic efficiency of 53%. The H2O2 produced from the additional three electrocatalyst loadings of 1.5, 3.0, and 5.0 mg/cm2 decreased linearly with increasing loading. An increase in the length of the diffusion pathway allows more time for H2O2 to accumulate and degrade to H2O or O2. As current density was increased, higher yields of H2O2 were achieved for all loadings, suggesting less chemical degradation of H2O2 to O2 as the higher electrocatalyst loadings significantly improved current efficiencies to match the lower electrocatalyst loadings. An energy input analysis calculating the mass produced/energy input in kg H2O2/kWh demonstrated a benefit in selecting higher electrocatalyst loadings at higher current densities. Although the highest electrocatalyst loading of 5.0 mg/cm2 produced the lowest concentrations of H2O2 at a current density of 5 mA/cm2, it accomplishes the greatest mass produced/energy input of 3.84 kg H2O2/kWh. The effect of electrocatalyst composition was examined as electrocatalyst loadings of 1.5 and 5.0 mg/cm2 were tested with and without proton exchange polymer, Nafion, in the electrocatalyst carbon ink. The electrocatalyst loadings comprised of a carbon ink without Nafion resulted in greater H2O2 concentrations and current efficiencies, with smaller differences between loadings compared to the results for loadings containing Nafion. At the cathode surface, pH increases rapidly, where H2O2 exists as its anion, hydroperoxide (HO2-). Interaction with the negatively charged sulfonic groups (SO3-) in the proton exchange polymer, Nafion, causes resistance to the mass transport of HO2- through the electrocatalyst layer. The HO2- can then accumulate, be degraded, and result in lower measured concentrations of H2O2 in the electrolyte

Lesson Plan For Teaching Shirley Jackson\u27s The Lottery

A teacher\u27s aid for introducing this deservedly famous story to students, including teaching some basic principles of good reading and interpretation. With a special focus on high school teachers, but applicable to many kinds of classrooms, including community colleges, liberal arts colleges and universities, etc. Developed by a Swarthmore College student, Lauren Hee Won Chung, in consultation with Professor Peter Schmidt, as a final assignment in English 71D, The Short Story in the U.S., fall 2018

Spirituality: What Does it Mean and to Whom?

While there is increasing interest in the topic of spirituality, scholars have limited data on its meaning among ordinary Americans. Based on an open‐ended question in a new nationally representative survey, this article documents the elements that make up people's views of spirituality. We find that theism is the dominant focus of American spirituality, with a relatively small percentage of people offering exclusively immanent descriptions. Cognitive and relational orientations are more prominent than behavioral or ethical orientations. Using latent class analysis, we identify seven distinctive views of spirituality that vary considerably in their prevalence and social profiles. Binary logit regression shows that spiritual self‐identification, belief in God, and worship attendance are the religious factors most strongly associated with views of spirituality. Among sociodemographic predictors, significant associations with gender, race, education, and income are limited or absent. In contrast, the influences of age and political ideology are more substantial

Meaning and compositionality as statistical induction of categories and constraints

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, 2009."September 2009." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-201).What do words and phrases mean? How do we infer their meaning in a given context? How do we know which sets of words have sensible meanings when combined, as opposed to being nonsense? As language learners and speakers, we can solve these problems starting at a young age, but as scientists, our understanding of these processes is limited. This thesis seeks to address these questions using a computational approach. Bayesian modeling provides a method of combining categories and logical constraints with probabilistic inference, yielding word and phrase meanings that involve graded category memberships and are governed by probabilistically inferred structures. The Bayesian approach also allows an investigation to separately identify the prior beliefs a language user brings to a particular situation involving meaning-based inference (e.g., learning a word meaning or identifying which objects an adjective applies to within a given context), and to identify what the language user can infer from the context. This approach therefore provides the foundation also for investigations of how different prior beliefs affect what a language user infers in a given situation, and how prior beliefs can develop over time. Using a computational approach, I address the following questions: (1) How do people generalize about a word's meaning from limited evidence? (2) How do people understand and use phrases, particularly when some of the words in those phrases depend on context for interpretation? (3) How do people know and learn which combinations of predicates and noun phrases can sensibly be combined and which are nonsensical?(cont.) I show how each of these topics involves the probabilistic induction of categories, and I examine the constraints on inference in each domain. I also explore which of these constraints may themselves be learned.by Lauren A. Schmidt.Ph.D

Lesbian, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgendered, and Queer (LGBTQ) People and Adult Education: An Examination of Literature in Adult Education 2010-2020

We discuss our review of LGBTQ issues in adult education journals between 2010 and 2020. We pose several topics for discussion based on our findings