Interprofessional clinical placement involving speech pathology and counselling psychology

This paper examines the interprofessional learning of a speech pathology and counselling psychology student in an interprofessional placement within an institution of the Department of Corrective Services in Perth, Western Australia. The institution is a pre-release centre that promotes rehabilitation and community reintegration in which up to six women are able to have their children, aged 0–4 years of age, live with them. The students provided a program to the mothers to facilitate development of a healthy mother–child relationship and the children’s communication development. This paper utilised qualitative descriptive analysis to explore two examples of student learning and found perceived growth in the students’ clinical skills, their understanding of the other profession and the concept of interprofessional collaboration. While students experience growth in a range of placements, the journey described in this paper is unusual in both the nature of the student collaboration and the placement itself. The research highlights the importance of joint clinical placements in the development of interprofessional collaborative relationships

Interprofessional clinical placement involving speech pathology and counselling psychology

This paper examines the interprofessional learning of a speech pathology and counselling psychology student in an interprofessional placement within an institution of the Department of Corrective Services in Perth, Western Australia. The institution is a pre-release centre that promotes rehabilitation and community reintegration in which up to six women are able to have their children, aged 0–4 years of age, live with them. The students provided a program to the mothers to facilitate development of a healthy mother–child relationship and the children’s communication development. This paper utilised qualitative descriptive analysis to explore two examples of student learning and found perceived growth in the students’ clinical skills, their understanding of the other profession and the concept of interprofessional collaboration. While students experience growth in a range of placements, the journey described in this paper is unusual in both the nature of the student collaboration and the placement itself. The research highlights the importance of joint clinical placements in the development of interprofessional collaborative relationships

Characterizing human vestibular sensory epithelia for experimental studies: new hair bundles on old tissue and implications for therapeutic interventions in ageing.

Balance disequilibrium is a significant contributor to falls in the elderly. The most common cause of balance dysfunction is loss of sensory cells from the vestibular sensory epithelia of the inner ear. However, inaccessibility of inner ear tissue in humans severely restricts possibilities for experimental manipulation to develop therapies to ameliorate this loss. We provide a structural and functional analysis of human vestibular sensory epithelia harvested at trans-labyrinthine surgery. We demonstrate the viability of the tissue and labeling with specific markers of hair cell function and of ion homeostasis in the epithelium. Samples obtained from the oldest patients revealed a significant loss of hair cells across the tissue surface, but we found immature hair bundles present in epithelia harvested from patients >60 years of age. These results suggest that the environment of the human vestibular sensory epithelium could be responsive to stimulation of developmental pathways to enhance hair cell regeneration, as has been demonstrated successfully in the vestibular organs of adult mice

Identification of Late Embryogenesis Abundant (LEA) Protein Putative Interactors Using Phage Display

Arabidopsis thaliana seeds without functional SEED MATURATION PROTEIN1 (SMP1), a boiling soluble protein predicted to be of intrinsic disorder, presumed to be a LATE EMBRYOGENESIS ABUNDANT (LEA) family protein based on sequence homology, do not enter secondary dormancy after 3 days at 40 °C. We hypothesized that SMP1 may protect a heat labile protein involved in the promotion of secondary dormancy. Recombinant SMP1 and GmPM28, its soybean (Glycine max), LEA4 homologue, protected the labile GLUCOSE-6-PHOSPHATE DEHYROGENASE enzyme from heat stress, as did a known protectant, Bovine Serum Albumin, whether the LEA protein was in solution or attached to the bottom of microtiter plates. Maintenance of a biological function for both recombinant LEA proteins when immobilized encouraged a biopanning approach to screen for potential protein interactors. Phage display with two Arabidopsis seed, T7 phage, cDNA libraries, normalized for transcripts present in the mature, dehydrated, 12-, 24-, or 36-h imbibed seeds, were used in biopans against recombinant SMP1 and GmPM28. Phage titer increased considerably over four rounds of biopanning for both LEA proteins, but not for BSA, at both 25 and at 41 °C, regardless of the library used. The prevalence of multiple, independent clones encoding portions of specific proteins repeatedly retrieved from different libraries, temperatures and baits, provides evidence suggesting these LEA proteins are discriminating which proteins they protect, a novel finding. The identification of putative LEA-interacting proteins provides targets for reverse genetic approaches to further dissect the induction of secondary dormancy in seeds in response to heat stress

Sub-system mechanical design for an eLISA optical bench

We present the design and development status of the opto-mechanical sub-systems that will be used in an experimental demonstration of imaging systems for eLISA. An optical bench test bed design incorporates a Zerodur® baseplate with lenses, photodetectors, and other opto-mechanics that must be both adjustable - with an accuracy of a few micrometers - and stable over a 0 to 40°C temperature range. The alignment of a multi-lens imaging system and the characterisation of the system in multiple degrees of freedom is particularly challenging. We describe the mechanical design of the precision mechanisms, including thermally stable flexure-based optical mounts and complex multi-lens, multi-axis adjuster mechanisms, and update on the integration of the mechanisms on the optical bench

Biogenic methane in shale gas and coal bed methane : a review of current knowledge and gaps

Biogenic CH4 generation has been observed in many shallow, low temperature shale gas basins and coal seams. The depletion of conventional resources and the increasing demand of natural gas for human consumption have spurred the development of so-called unconventional gas resources such as shale gas (SG) and coal-bed methane (CBM). Such unconventional systems represent the opportunity for the stimulation of biogenic CH4 generation. Biogenic CH4 in shale and coal is produced by anaerobic biodegradation of organic matter (OM): methanogenic Archaea represent only the final step of biogenic CH4 generation. Several communities of microorganisms are involved in the initial breakdown of complex geopolymers and the production of intermediate compounds used by methanogens. There are several key knowledge gaps on biogenic CH4 production in unconventional gas systems, such as the exact fraction of bioavailable OM, the microbial communities involved and how they can be stimulated to enhance microbial methanogenesis. Progress on biodegradation studies, isotopic signatures, as well as DNA analyses and proteomics could help unravel interactions within the syntrophic community involved in the methanogenic biodegradation of OM. Questions also remain regarding the environmental impact of unconventional gas production, such as water quality and the mobility of toxic metals and radionuclides. The answers to these questions might have implications for both recovery practices and a sustainable development of unconventional resources. This review summarises the current knowledge regarding biogenic CH4 in SG and CBM: from the nature of the rocks to the producing microbial community and the indicators of biogenic CH4, illustrating how these two environments show remarkably similar opportunities for the stimulation of biogenic CH4 generation

An Automated Method for the Detection and Extraction of HI Self-Absorption in High-Resolution 21cm Line Surveys

We describe algorithms that detect 21cm line HI self-absorption (HISA) in large data sets and extract it for analysis. Our search method identifies HISA as spatially and spectrally confined dark HI features that appear as negative residuals after removing larger-scale emission components with a modified CLEAN algorithm. Adjacent HISA volume-pixels (voxels) are grouped into features in (l,b,v) space, and the HI brightness of voxels outside the 3-D feature boundaries is smoothly interpolated to estimate the absorption amplitude and the unabsorbed HI emission brightness. The reliability and completeness of our HISA detection scheme have been tested extensively with model data. We detect most features over a wide range of sizes, linewidths, amplitudes, and background levels, with poor detection only where the absorption brightness temperature amplitude is weak, the absorption scale approaches that of the correlated noise, or the background level is too faint for HISA to be distinguished reliably from emission gaps. False detection rates are very low in all parts of the parameter space except at sizes and amplitudes approaching those of noise fluctuations. Absorption measurement biases introduced by the method are generally small and appear to arise from cases of incomplete HISA detection. This paper is the third in a series examining HISA at high angular resolution. A companion paper (Paper II) uses our HISA search and extraction method to investigate the cold atomic gas distribution in the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey.Comment: 39 pages, including 14 figure pages; to appear in June 10 ApJ, volume 626; figure quality significantly reduced for astro-ph; for full resolution, please see http://www.ras.ucalgary.ca/~gibson/hisa/cgps1_survey

Medicines management at home during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study exploring the UK patient/carer perspective

OBJECTIVES: To explore home medicine practices and safety for people shielding and/or over the age of 70 during the COVID-19 pandemic and to create guidance, from the patient/carer perspective, for enabling safe medicine practices for this population. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 50 UK participants who were shielding and/or over the age of 70 and who used medicines for a long-term condition, using telephone or video conferencing. Participants were recruited through personal/professional networks and through patient/carer organisations. Participants were asked about their experiences of managing medicines during the pandemic and how this differed from previous practices. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. KEY FINDINGS: Patients' and their families' experiences of managing medicines safely during the pandemic varied greatly. Analysis suggests that this was based on the patient's own agency, the functioning of their medicines system pre-pandemic and their relationships with family, friends, community networks and pharmacy staff. Medicine safety issues reported included omitted doses and less-effective formulations being used. Participants also described experiencing high levels of anxiety related to obtaining medicines, monitoring medicines and feeling at risk of contracting COVID-19 while accessing healthcare services for medicine-related issues. Effects of the pandemic on medicines adherence were reported to be positive by some and negative by others. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacy staff have a key role to play by establishing good relationships with patients and their families, working with prescribers to ensure medicines systems are as joined up as possible, and signposting to community networks that can help with medicines collection