The construction of a manual for speech correction to be used at St. Mary's clinic, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

How did we get there? Supporting older adults’ spatial orientation within the built environment.

Older adults exhibit marked declines in navigation skills; these difficulties become worse if individuals are showing early signs of cognitive impairment, which often results in disorientation, particularly in unfamiliar environments. Many of these individuals eventually face the challenge of having to learn their way around new surroundings e.g. with potential increased visits to hospitals or when moving into retirement housing or care-home environments. This PhD thesis aims to develop a clearer understanding of older adults’ route learning and route knowledge when learning routes through built environments. To gain a more complete understanding of the experiences typical and early atypical ageing adults encounter, I adopted a mixed- methods approach. Chapters 3, 4 and 8 report on data following a quantitative experimental psychology approach to measure route learning and route knowledge in virtual and real environments, whilst Chapters 6 and 7 report on data using a qualitative approach to data collection and analysis to gain an understanding of the lived orientation experiences people living in and visiting retirement settings encounter. The findings from the data chapters are discussed in relation to existing theory and literature surrounding the effects that typical and early atypical ageing has on the abilities to learn and remember routes. In particular this thesis contributes towards the understanding of how typical and atypical ageing affects route learning and route knowledge, and how the findings can be applied to critically improve the suggestions made in dementia friendly design guidelines. The thesis concludes that simplistic VR environments do reliably capture real world navigation performance, but are additionally beneficial in that they detect the earliest symptoms of early atypical ageing more so than real world navigation. This can have benefits in detecting and diagnosing early atypical ageing in a clinical setting

The natural place for the play: outdoor Shakespeares, environment, and an ethnography of audience experience

This thesis asks, in what ways do audience members perceive the environment to be contributing to outdoor Shakespeares, even when the performance-makers are not attempting site-specificity in their practice? It seeks to consider where practice, research, and theory arising in connection with site-specific and ecological theatre and performance-making might illuminate the reception of Shakespeare’s plays in outdoor settings, and whether there is potential for the audience responses to be put into a dialogue with some of the claims made for self-consciously site-specific and ecological performance forms in turn. How might audience responses productively challenge the ways we think about place and environment at these performances? And what, if anything, might be at stake for nature, environment, and ecology in the reception of this very particular kind of cultural event? Working with ethnographic observations and with the records of conversations gathered through one hundred and fifty-six semi-structured interviews conducted face-to-face with two hundred and seventy-three participants during summers 2013 and 2014, the four chapters analyse these encounters with audiences, environment, and Shakespeare. The ethnographic methodology aspires to allow previously unheard audience members to account for their own experiences, despite the ethnographer’s role in crafting of the final chapters, and despite the acknowledgement that ‘experience’ in the positivist sense cannot be captured and served up as writing. The written ethnography puts themes identified in the interviews into conversation with theoretical discourses around place and environment, shifting carefully between ecophenomenological and broadly materialist approaches. Extracts of audience interviews form the core and the through-line of the chapters. The research subsequently contributes to the fields of Shakespearean ecocriticism, site-specific theatre, ecology and performance, and audience research. Throughout, the argument is that turning our attention towards the nonhuman world, and to how it is perceived and framed by audience members at these performance events, urges us to consider outdoor Shakespeares as united by their happening outdoors, in weather, and contingent upon their (culturally contingent) outdoor contexts, prior to classifying them by other spatial configurations or aesthetic arrangements.Arts and Humanities Research Counci

While Standing in Front of Henri Rousseau's Woman Walking in an Exotic Forest

Poe

Structural studies and characterisation of Kir7.1 and its role in retinal disease

Inward rectifying potassium channel 7.1 (Kir7.1) is a vital ion channel involved in maintaining cellular homeostasis and electrical signalling across various tissues and organs. Dysfunctions in Kir7.1 have been linked to rare retinal diseases, including Snowflake Vitreoretinal Degeneration (SVD) and Leber Congenital Amaurosis. Here, we resolved three cryo-EM structures of Kir7.1 that elucidate channel activation and how a R162W mutation contributes to SVD. While PIP2 is known to activate all human Kir channels by inducing conformational changes, the observed structures of Kir7.1 did not exhibit docking of the cytoplasmic domain as seen in other Kir channels. However, upon PIP2 binding to Kir7.1, the helix bundle crossing widens producing an open channel pore. The opening of the channel without docking of the cytoplasmic domain represents a novel mechanism for Kir channel activation. Cryo-EM analysis of the R162W mutation, responsible for SVD, revealed a structure with a more constricted pore compared to the wild type structure. The presence of the tryptophan residue at position 162 appears to impede potassium ion flow, contributing to the loss of Kir7.1 function and the pathology of SVD, providing a possible mechanism for the basis of the disease. By providing detailed insights into Kir7.1's overall architecture, channel gating, and involvement in retinal diseases, this thesis significantly contributes to our understanding of Kir7.1's structure-function relationship and regulatory mechanisms

Lessons learnt from delivering the public and patient involvement forums within a younger onset dementia project

Including the ‘voices’ of people living with dementia in a meaningful way is pivotal in shaping local, national and international health and social dementia care research. The Alzheimer’s Society (United Kingdom) funded Angela Project (2016–19) was aimed at improving the diagnosis and post-diagnostic support for younger people living with dementia. From the outset, the Project Team ensured that the knowledge and expertise of people living with a younger onset dementia was integral to all decisions taken in respect to overall project design, implementation, and dissemination processes. This was achieved by establishing two project public and patient involvement (PPI) forums; a London PPI Forum and a Bradford-based local PPI Hub. This paper describes how the two groups were formed; the format of the meetings; and the key points learnt by the Project Team from involving people with dementia in all aspects of developing and delivering the Angela Project. Ultimately, the aim is to demonstrate to other researchers in the dementia field how the perspectives of those with a diagnosis can be included in research studies in an active and meaningful way

Aspects of Irish Energy Policy. ESRI Policy Series No. 57. September 2005

The challenges facing those responsible for energy policy in Ireland are considerable, spanning a wide range of different areas and a number of difficult economic and organisational problems. This paper considers some of the key energy policy issues facing Ireland over the next decade suggesting how best they might be resolved by policy initiatives. We draw on a range of recent research in The Economic and Social Research Institute and elsewhere that has informed our understanding of how some of these knotty problems in the area of energy policy might best be addressed