Communities of knowledge and knowledge of communities: An appreciative inquiry into rural wellbeing

This article offers a retrospective examination of the use of appreciative inquiry (AI) in a study on rural wellbeing. It provides a reflection on the rationale for choosing AI as a suitable methodology, critiques the application of AI in rural settings and considers its suitability for this inquiry into individual and community wellbeing. The article also considers the value of AI as a participatory research approach for community-university partnerships. A review of the literature on AI is distilled to examine the limitations as well as the utility of AI. Through an effective use of AI, communities of knowledge can be fostered and the knowledge of communities can be valued and harvested to enhance the wellbeing of rural communities.Keywords: appreciative inquiry, wellbeing, rural community, community-university partnership

Understandings of participation in behavioural research: a qualitative study of gay and bisexual men in Scotland

An array of empirical research has emerged related to public participation in health research. To date, few studies have explored the particular perspectives of gay and bisexual men taking part in behavioural surveillance research, which includes the donation of saliva swabs to investigate HIV prevalence and rates of undiagnosed HIV. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-nine gay and bisexual men in Scotland who had participated in a bar-based survey. Thematic analysis of men’s accounts of their motives for participation and their perceptions of not receiving individual feedback on HIV status suggested a shared understanding of participation in research as a means of contributing to ‘community’ efforts to prevent the spread of HIV. Most men expressed sophisticated understandings of the purpose of behavioural research and distinguished between this and individual diagnostic testing. Despite calls for feedback on HIV results broadly, for these men feedback on HIV status was not deemed crucial

Cookery of the cheaper cuts of beef

Citation: Perry, Clara Jeanette. A sheet of paper. Senior thesis, Kansas State Agricultural College, 1898.Morse Department of Special CollectionsIntroduction: The subject of the cookery of the cheaper cuts of meats is one which is probably very little thought of, and much less studied. One concludes that unless he can pay a good price and secure the popular or choice cuts, that he must go without meat or limit it to a very great extent in his dietary. This conclusion is erroneous because the cheaper meats are as nutritious and often more highly flavored than some of the more expensive cuts. It is true that the most of the cheaper meats require a greater length of time for cooking. This is no factor against them in winter because as a rule the fire is kept up most of the day, and it is no waste of fuel to cook the meat a long time; even in summer there are usually several days of each week when long fires are used. Since the invention of the fireless cooker, there is no reason why every one should not own one as they are of little or no expense. With this cooker the extra cost and inconvenience of keeping up a fire on a summer day is dispensed with. If, then, we can cook cheap meat both winter and summer without extra expense for fuel, and since the meat is as nutritious and often more highly flavored, does it not pay to give a little study to the ways to prepare the cheaper cuts to take the place of high priced, but no more nutritious cuts? "Many people cannot afford to buy the expensive meats for every day use, and, having the false idea that the cheaper pieces are undesirable, they deprive themselves of much needed proteid; or if they buy meat they must lessen the cost by going without some other necessary article of diet. In either case the body is not properly nourished. A bulletin on Scientific Research, in treating the subject of errors in food economy, states that

International Criminal Law and the Inner Morality of Law

Larry May, W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy and Professor Law Vanderbilt University, investigates what Fuller called “procedural natural law” in contemporary international criminal law. Respondent: Margaret Martin, University of Western Ontari

Testosterone Trajectories and Reference Ranges in a Large Longitudinal Sample of Male Adolescents

Pubertal dynamics plays an important role in physical and psychological development of children and adolescents. We aim to provide reference ranges of plasma testosterone in a large longitudinal sample. Furthermore, we describe a measure of testosterone trajectories during adolescence that can be used in future investigations of development.We carried out longitudinal measurements of plasma testosterone in 2,216 samples obtained from 513 males (9 to 17 years of age) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. We used integration of a model fitted to each participant's testosterone trajectory to calculate a measure of average exposure to testosterone over adolescence. We pooled these data with corresponding values reported in the literature to provide a reference range of testosterone levels in males between the ages of 6 and 19 years.The average values of total testosterone in the ALSPAC sample range from 0.82 nmol/L (Standard Deviation [SD]: 0.09) at 9 years of age to 16.5 (SD: 2.65) nmol/L at 17 years of age; these values are congruent with other reports in the literature. The average exposure to testosterone is associated with different features of testosterone trajectories such as Peak Testosterone Change, Age at Peak Testosterone Change, and Testosterone at 17 years of age as well as the timing of the growth spurt during puberty.The average exposure to testosterone is a useful measure for future investigations using testosterone trajectories to examine pubertal dynamics