Adding lemon juice to poison: examining the oxymoronic nature of mindfulness in education and its future direction

This article seeks to amplify a debate initiated in this journal by Hyland (2016)by deepening a number of conceptual, methodological and implementationalissues concerning the application of mindfulness based interventions (MBIs) toschools and other places of learning. It argues that the pursuit of the by-products of mindfulness, enhanced focus and well-being, serve a neoliberalagenda for education. This is lemon-juice to poison as it encourages students toaccept and cope with oppressive structures partially responsible for suffering insociety rather than develop the deepened awareness necessary to challenge andtransform them. Reconnecting mindfulness with its original meaning ofremembrance and discernment is highlighted as a means for engaging studentswith more agentic possibilities. The article begins to make the case formindfulnessaseducation, rather than mindfulnessineducation, realised as anembodied approach rather than psychological intervention with key roles forcontemplative pedagogy and mindful inter-personal relationships

Remote sensing in Michigan for land resource management: Waterfowl habitat management at Pointe Mouillee

For many years the Pointe Mouillee State Game Area, located on the Lake Erie shoreline just south of Detroit, has been a prime waterfowl habitat. The usefulness of the site for this purpose has been impaired because of the gradual deterioration of the marshland and severe flooding and storms during the spring of 1973. Also, it has been proposed that a dredge spoils area be located in or near the marsh. To aid the future management of a diked refuge area of 148 hectares within the State Game Area, a detailed vegetation inventory was prepared by photointerpretation and a generalized vegetation inventory was obtained by processing multispectral scanner imagery. Also, an analysis was conducted to determine the magnitude of past losses of marshland and the possibilities of replacing this lost habitat. The analysis indicated that large additions to waterfowl habitat could be provided by changes in management of vegetation in existing sections of the State Game Area, through acquisition and conversion of adjacent land by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, and by the proposed construction of a barrier dike offshore of Pointe Mouillee. Altogether, the various measures considered in this report could affect a total area of nearly 13 sq. km

Effects of regional differences and demography in modelling foot-and-mouth disease in cattle at the national scale

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a fast-spreading viral infection that can produce large and costly outbreaks in livestock populations. Transmission occurs at multiple spatial scales, as can the actions used to control outbreaks. The US cattle industry is spatially expansive, with heterogeneous distributions of animals and infrastructure. We have developed a model that incorporates the effects of scale for both disease transmission and control actions, applied here in simulating FMD outbreaks in US cattle. We simulated infection initiating in each of the 3049 counties in the contiguous US, 100 times per county. When initial infection was located in specific regions, large outbreaks were more likely to occur, driven by infrastructure and other demographic attributes such as premises clustering and number of cattle on premises. Sensitivity analyses suggest these attributes had more impact on outbreak metrics than the ranges of estimated disease parameter values. Additionally, although shipping accounted for a small percentage of overall transmission, areas receiving the most animal shipments tended to have other attributes that increase the probability of large outbreaks. The importance of including spatial and demographic heterogeneity in modelling outbreak trajectories and control actions is illustrated by specific regions consistently producing larger outbreaks than others

A framework for variable content document generation with multiple actors

“NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Information and Software Technology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Information and Software Technology, Volume 56, Issue 9, September 2014, Pages 1101–1121 DOI10.1016/j.infsof.2013.12.006Context - Advances in customization have highlighted the need for tools supporting variable content document management and generation in many domains. Current tools allow the generation of highly customized documents that are variable in both content and layout. However, most frameworks are technology-oriented, and their use requires advanced skills in implementation-related tools, which means their use by end users (i.e. document designers) is severely limited. Objective - Starting from past and current trends for customized document authoring, our goal is to provide a document generation alternative in which variants are specified at a high level of abstraction and content reuse can be maximized in high variability scenarios. Method Based on our experience in Document Engineering, we identified areas in the variable content document management and generation field open to further improvement. We first classified the primary sources of variability in document composition processes and then developed a methodology, which we called DPL based on Software Product Lines principles to support document generation in high variability scenarios. Results - In order to validate the applicability of our methodology we implemented a tool DPLfw to carry out DPL processes. After using this in different scenarios, we compared our proposal with other state-of-the-art tools for variable content document management and generation. Conclusion - The DPLfw showed a good capacity for the automatic generation of variable content documents equal to or in some cases surpassing other currently available approaches. To the best of our knowledge, DPLfw is the only framework that combines variable content and document workflow facilities, easing the generation of variable content documents in which multiple actors play different roles.This work has been partially funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad under Grant TIPEx (TIN2010-19859-C03-03).Gómez Llana, A.; Penadés Gramage, MC.; Canos Cerda, JH.; Borges, MR.; Llavador Campos, M. (2014). A framework for variable content document generation with multiple actors. Information and Software Technology. 56(9):1101-1121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2013.12.006S1101112156

Building resilience in contemporary nursing practice

YesThe nursing profession is being threatened by staff shortages. Catherine Best explains why building resilience from within the profession is vital to safeguarding its future, by keeping newly qualified nurses in the job and preventing emotional ‘burnout’ across disciplines Resilience in nursing has been critiqued and challenged throughout the nursing literature. Trends in nursing have led to many nurses leaving the profession early in their career, often due to the immense pressures that they work under. There are many opinions on how nurses can develop the resilience needed to maintain professional integrity and continue to provide safe and effective care, while attempting to shoulder the considerable impact of political and professional drivers. This not only leaves nurses exhausted but often without hope. By taking collective action, this article argues that nurses may benefit from sharing ideas and learning from others, and in so doing rekindle hope and a belief that things can change

The Metaethics of Nursing Codes of Ethics and Conduct

Nursing codes of ethics and conduct are features of professional practice across the world, and in the UK, the regulator has recently consulted on and published a new code. Initially part of a professionalising agenda, nursing codes have recently come to represent a managerialist and disciplinary agenda and nursing can no longer be regarded as a self-regulating profession.This paper argues that codes of ethics and codes of conduct are significantly different in form and function similar to the difference between ethics and law in everyday life. Some codes successfully integrate these two functions within the same document, while others, principally the UK Code, conflate them resulting in an ambiguous document unable to fulfil its functions effectively. The paper analyses the differences between ethical- codes and conduct-codes by discussing titles, authorship, level, scope for disagreement, consequences of transgression, language and finally and possibly most importantly agent-centeredness. It is argued that conduct codes cannot require nurses to be compassionate because compassion involves an emotional response. The concept of kindness provides a plausible alternative for conduct-codes as it is possible to understand it solely in terms of acts. But if kindness is required in conduct-codes, investigation and possible censure follows from its absence. Using examples it is argued that there are at last five possible accounts of the absence of kindness. As well as being potentially problematic for disciplinary panels, difficulty in understanding the features of blameworthy absence of kindness may challenge UK nurses who, following a recently introduced revalidation procedure, are required to reflect on their practice in relation to The Code. It is concluded that closer attention to metaethical concerns by code writers will better support the functions of their issuing organisations

Molecularly specific detection of bacterial lipoteichoic acid for diagnosis of prosthetic joint infection of the bone

Discriminating sterile inflammation from infection, especially in cases of aseptic loosening versus an actual prosthetic joint infection, is challenging and has significant treatment implications. Our goal was to evaluate a novel human monoclonal antibody (mAb) probe directed against the Gram-positive bacterial surface molecule lipoteichoic acid (LTA). Specificity and affinity were assessed in vitro. We then radiolabeled the anti-LTA mAb and evaluated its effectiveness as a diagnostic imaging tool for detecting infection via immunoPET imaging in an in vivo mouse model of prosthetic joint infection (PJI). In vitro and ex vivo binding of the anti-LTA mAb to pathogenic bacteria was measured with Octet, ELISA, and flow cytometry. The in vivo PJI mouse model was assessed using traditional imaging modalities, including positron emission tomography (PET) with [18F]FDG and [18F]NaF as well as X-ray computed tomography (CT), before being evaluated with the zirconium-89-labeled antibody specific for LTA ([89Zr]SAC55). The anti-LTA mAb exhibited specific binding in vitro to LTA-expressing bacteria. Results from imaging showed that our model could reliably simulate infection at the surgical site by bioluminescent imaging, conventional PET tracer imaging, and bone morphological changes by CT. One day following injection of both the radiolabeled anti-LTA and isotype control antibodies, the anti-LTA antibody demonstrated significantly greater (P < 0.05) uptake at S. aureus-infected prosthesis sites over either the same antibody at sterile prosthesis sites or of control non-specific antibody at infected prosthesis sites. Taken together, the radiolabeled anti-LTA mAb, [89Zr]SAC55, may serve as a valuable diagnostic molecular imaging probe to help distinguish between sterile inflammation and infection in the setting of PJI. Future studies are needed to determine whether these findings will translate to human PJI

Dominant Negative Mutants of Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1Ab Toxin Function as Anti-Toxins: Demonstration of the Role of Oligomerization in Toxicity

BACKGROUND:Bacillus thuringiensis Cry toxins, that are used worldwide in insect control, kill insects by a mechanism that depends on their ability to form oligomeric pores that insert into the insect-midgut cells. These toxins are being used worldwide in transgenic plants or spray to control insect pests in agriculture. However, a major concern has been the possible effects of these insecticidal proteins on non-target organisms mainly in ecosystems adjacent to agricultural fields. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:We isolated and characterized 11 non-toxic mutants of Cry1Ab toxin affected in different steps of the mechanism of action namely binding to receptors, oligomerization and pore-formation. These mutant toxins were analyzed for their capacity to block wild type toxin activity, presenting a dominant negative phenotype. The dominant negative phenotype was analyzed at two levels, in vivo by toxicity bioassays against susceptible Manduca sexta larvae and in vitro by pore formation activity in black lipid bilayers. We demonstrate that some mutations located in helix alpha-4 completely block the wild type toxin activity at sub-stoichiometric level confirming a dominant negative phenotype, thereby functioning as potent antitoxins. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:This is the first reported case of a Cry toxin dominant inhibitor. These data demonstrate that oligomerization is a fundamental step in Cry toxin action and represent a potential mechanism to protect special ecosystems from the possible effect of Cry toxins on non-target organisms

The importance of livestock demography and infrastructure in driving Foot and Mouth disease dynamics

Transboundary animal diseases, such as foot and mouth disease (FMD) pose a significant and ongoing threat to global food security. Such diseases can produce large, spatially complex outbreaks. Mathematical models are often used to understand the spatio-temporal dynamics and create response plans for possible disease introductions. Model assumptions regarding transmission behavior of premises and movement patterns of livestock directly impact our understanding of the ecological drivers of outbreaks and how to best control them. Here, we investigate the impact that these assumptions have on model predictions of FMD outbreaks in the U.S. using models of livestock shipment networks and disease spread. We explore the impact of changing assumptions about premises transmission behavior, both by including within-herd dynamics, and by accounting for premises type and increasing the accuracy of shipment predictions. We find that the impact these assumptions have on outbreak predictions is less than the impact of the underlying livestock demography, but that they are important for investigating some response objectives, such as the impact on trade. These results suggest that demography is a key ecological driver of outbreaks and is critical for making robust predictions but that understanding management objectives is also important when making choices about model assumptions

Experiences of the implementation of a tool for lifestyle intervention in primary health care: a qualitative study among managers and professional groups

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In recent years there has been increasing interest in transferring new knowledge into health care practices, a process often referred to as implementation. The various subcultures that exist among health care workers may be an obstacle in this process. The aim of this study was to explore how professional groups and managers experienced the implementation of a new tool for lifestyle intervention in primary health care (PHC). The computer-based tool was introduced with the intention of facilitating the delivery of preventive services.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Focus group interviews with staff and individual interviews with managers at six PHC units in the southeast of Sweden were performed 9 months after the introduction of the new working tool. Staff interviews were conducted in groups according to profession, and were analysed using manifest content analysis. Experiences and opinions from the different staff groups and from managers were analysed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Implementation preconditions, opinions about the lifestyle test, and opinions about usage were the main areas identified. In each of the groups, managers and professionals, factors related to the existing subcultures seemed to influence their experiences of the implementation. Managers were visionary, GPs were reluctant, nurses were open, and nurse assistants were indifferent.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study indicates that the existing subcultures in PHC influence how the implementation of an innovation is perceived by managers and the different professionals. In PHC, an organization with several subcultures and an established hierarchical structure, an implementation strategy aimed at all groups did not seem to result in a successful uptake of the new method.</p