44 research outputs found
The Lived Experience of a Mother of a Young Adult with Intellectual Disability: âMy Daughter as My Enlightenmentâ
There is a paucity of research exploring the experiences of mothers of a young adult with intellectual disability sharing the family home. A case study using a phenomenological life story approach was conducted to gather and analyse data from 11 in-depth interviews held with a mother, Linda, about her experiences. Lindaâs story yielded three main themes, 1) an intense struggle and hardship of living âin the voidâ, 2) gathering resources and coping to counter the âmasters of the universeâ and 3) developing a new âpersonal infrastructureâ to exit the void. Discussion underscores the value of stories of mothers and people with disability, including those of ableism, oppression, and stigma. Lindaâs story depicts a complex and intricate life with both challenging and enriching times and a strong need for belonging to community. Future research is suggested, such as how mothers manage and negotiate barriers and systems within their lives
Negotiating identity and alterity: Cultural competence, colonization and cultural voyeurism in studentsâ work-based learning
yesThere is increasing demand for work-based learning experiences to form part of undergraduate degrees concerned with working with people. Social justice and anti-oppressive practice underpin the philosophies of many such degrees which attract students with the promise of working within diverse communities and with the marginalized and vulnerable.
Benefits to students include the development of a professional identity, an anti-oppressive approach and culturally competent practices. Despite this, critical approaches to work-based learning highlight ways in which the student can be colonized by dominant values via âcultural voyeurismâ. This can lead to power inequalities being replicated and perpetuated by the student rather than challenged.
The roles of identity and alterity in these learning processes are examined and the concept of professional identity is questioned. The article concludes that the tasks of negotiating identity and alterity are characterized by uncertainty and unfinalizability, and that the notion of cultural competence is itself problematic
Improved functionalization of oleic acid-coated iron oxide nanoparticles for biomedical applications
Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles
can providemultiple benefits for biomedical applications
in aqueous environments such asmagnetic separation or
magnetic resonance imaging. To increase the colloidal
stability and allow subsequent reactions, the introduction
of hydrophilic functional groups onto the particlesâ
surface is essential. During this process, the original
coating is exchanged by preferably covalently bonded
ligands such as trialkoxysilanes. The duration of the
silane exchange reaction, which commonly takes more
than 24 h, is an important drawback for this approach. In
this paper, we present a novel method, which introduces
ultrasonication as an energy source to dramatically
accelerate this process, resulting in high-quality waterdispersible nanoparticles around 10 nmin size. To prove
the generic character, different functional groups were
introduced on the surface including polyethylene glycol
chains, carboxylic acid, amine, and thiol groups. Their
colloidal stability in various aqueous buffer solutions as
well as human plasma and serum was investigated to
allow implementation in biomedical and sensing
applications.status: publishe
Effect of sitagliptin on cardiovascular outcomes in type 2 diabetes
BACKGROUND: Data are lacking on the long-term effect on cardiovascular events of adding sitagliptin, a dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitor, to usual care in patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. METHODS: In this randomized, double-blind study, we assigned 14,671 patients to add either sitagliptin or placebo to their existing therapy. Open-label use of antihyperglycemic therapy was encouraged as required, aimed at reaching individually appropriate glycemic targets in all patients. To determine whether sitagliptin was noninferior to placebo, we used a relative risk of 1.3 as the marginal upper boundary. The primary cardiovascular outcome was a composite of cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for unstable angina. RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 3.0 years, there was a small difference in glycated hemoglobin levels (least-squares mean difference for sitagliptin vs. placebo, -0.29 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.32 to -0.27). Overall, the primary outcome occurred in 839 patients in the sitagliptin group (11.4%; 4.06 per 100 person-years) and 851 patients in the placebo group (11.6%; 4.17 per 100 person-years). Sitagliptin was noninferior to placebo for the primary composite cardiovascular outcome (hazard ratio, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.88 to 1.09; P<0.001). Rates of hospitalization for heart failure did not differ between the two groups (hazard ratio, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.20; P = 0.98). There were no significant between-group differences in rates of acute pancreatitis (P = 0.07) or pancreatic cancer (P = 0.32). CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with type 2 diabetes and established cardiovascular disease, adding sitagliptin to usual care did not appear to increase the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events, hospitalization for heart failure, or other adverse events
Commentary: Making sense of identity dialogues
In this commentary an alternative conceptual model of identity construction is proposed. In this model, identity construction is seen as part of a personâs ongoing sense-making. Identity is perceived as a subjective sense of continuity and sameness that renders oneâs being in the world meaningful. Drawing on empirical examples provided in the target articles, it is shown how this model, which is built around the notions of rupture, identity dialogues and striving towards meaningfulness, can be utilized to analyse identity dynamics in different space and time contexts. The importance of examining links between an individualâs sense-making and collective meaning field, in which sense-making is embedded, is also highlighted
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https://www.ester.ee/record=b5508367*es
Identity in dialogue : identity as hyper-generalized personal sense
In this paper I propose that identity is momentary, fluid, and multiple while simultaneously providing us with a sense of sameness and continuity. Building on Valsinerâs ideas about human sense-making I suggest that we can reasonably deal with the multiplicity/unity paradox if we conceive of this process as resulting in the construction of a fuzzy field of hyper-generalized personal sense, which ordinarily functions as an implicit and unspeakable background of our everyday functioning, while being constantly re-created through momentary instances of foregrounded and explicit identity-dialogues. I illustrate the ideas put forward in the paper by analysing a case of a young woman experiencing a change in her being. Finally, in an attempt to illustrate and further develop the case I introduce a metaphor of carpet-weaving as an apposite image for thinking about identity as a process of a multiple and fragmented, yet also a united and constant being
Some Reflections on the Emergence of Multimodal Assemblages of Meaning
In this commentary I reflect upon the conceptualisation of human meaning-making, utilised in the two target articles, that relies heavily on speech as the main mode of semiosis and considers time only in its chronological form. Instead I argue that human existence is embodied and lived through multiple modalities, and involves not only sequential experience of time, but also experience of emergence. In order to move towards a conception of meaning-making that takes this into account, I introduce the social-semiotic theory of multimodality (Kress 2010) and discuss notions of âreal durationâ (Bergson 1907/1998) and âlived timeâ (Martin-Vallas 2009). I argue that dialogical (idiographic) researchers need to develop analytic and methodological tools that allow exploring the emergence of multimodal assemblages of meaning in addition to trying to avoid the monologisation of complex dynamic dialogical phenomena