American Sign Language Interpreting for Deaf Individuals with Disabilities

Undergraduate Theoretical Proposa

Volatile metal degassing from volcanoes: source processes, atmospheric transport and deposition

Volcanoes emit metal and metalloid elements in the gas phase at rates that are comparable to industrial emissions of entire countries or regions. These elements (e.g., Cu, Zn, Pb, As, Se), collectively referred to as ‘metal pollutants’ or ‘heavy metals’, can be critical nutrients at low levels, but sustained exposure has been connected with high incidence of diseases such as multiple sclerosis and some cancers in the communities living around volcanoes. This thesis examines the systematics of volcanogenic trace element degassing in multiple tectonic settings (arcs, ocean islands, and continental rifts) and outgassing environments (magmatic vents and lava-seawater interactions), and extends to the compositional evolution of volcanic plumes in the atmosphere. Starting within the magmatic system, in Chapter 3 I use gas and melt compositions, equilibrium chemical speciation modelling, and partitioning data, to interrogate the origins of metal/metalloid enrichments in arc emissions. Chapter 4 moves on to ocean island volcanoes, and compares different, but genetically-related, outgassing environments associated with the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea, Hawai‘i: 1) degassing from the source vent, and 2) lava-seawater interactions at the ocean entry. Speciation modelling of magmatic gases highlights the importance of the S²⁻ ligand in highly volatile trace element degassing (e.g., Se, Te). In contrast, the high availability of seawater-derived Cl⁻ at the ocean entry facilitates enhanced degassing of Cl⁻-complexing elements (e.g., Cu). In Chapter 5 I trace the downwind evolution of atmospheric concentrations of metal and metalloid elements during the 2018 eruption. Specifically, I demonstrate that volatile metal pollutants were rapidly depleted from the atmosphere – up to 100 times faster than refractory species. High rainfall over early stages of downwind plume transport leads to early wet deposition of soluble complexes, with implications for hazard assessment. In Chapter 6 I consider metal transport in the atmosphere during explosive volcanism, using ice core records of the massive halogen-rich ~17.7 ka eruptions of Mt. Takahe, an alkaline volcano on the West Antarctic Rift System. I suggest that the residence time of metals in the atmosphere may be limited by their affinity for chloride, with implications for the utility of metals in ice cores as tracers of volcanism. Overall, this thesis demonstrates the importance of volatility, ligand-availability and oxygen fugacity in both the degassing and downwind transport of volcanogenic metals and metalloids.EPSRC studentshi

American Sign Language Interpreting for d/Deaf Individuals with Disabilities: A Qualitative Study and Practical Guide

American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting for d/Deaf individuals with disabilities (DWD) is a complex task, and one which lacks an adequate research-base to inform best practices. Using the foundation of existing literature on closely related topics such as the field of ASL interpreting, educational interpreting, education of DWD individuals, and research about specific disabilities occurring with d/Deafness, I compiled a literature review and created a theoretical conceptual framework concerning this topic. In further investigation of this subject, I also conducted a qualitative study through online questionnaires sent out by email to ASL interpreters located through snowball sampling. The data collected included participants’ responses to open-ended questions about strategies used, and unique challenges and rewards faced, when working with this unique population. Data was analyzed through content analysis to uncover primary themes and trends prevalent throughout participants’ responses, in order to better understand the practical experiences of ASL interpreters working with DWD individuals. The major themes discovered were individualization, flexibility, and collaboration, three concepts that largely fit with existing practices in the fields of special education and ASL interpreting. This research positively impacts the field of ASL interpreting by beginning to establish a framework for further research on this topic, as well as by laying the foundation for a guidebook of suggested practices for interpreting for d/Deaf individuals with various disabilities, drawn from existing literature in the fields of special education and ASL interpreting and from primary research

Learning about Professionalism within Practice-based Education: what are we looking for?

Health and social care professions are being held to account concerning their professionalism in ways that would have been unprecedented in the recent past. Students of the School of Health Sciences (HSC) within the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the United Kingdom have professionalism taught and assessed in a number of ways and have overt opportunities to develop their professional performance during practice education. In order to augment this further, a UEA Professionalism Charter has been developed, which helps students to define, learn and apply professionalism in a particular way. Since professionalism is being scrutinised by a number of bodies it is important that there is agreement about its nature. Without an overt definition of professionalism from the Health and Care Professions Council (the regulatory body for occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy) this study set out to explore what could be learned about this body’s perspective through analysis of its Fitness to Practice hearings. The outcome revealed that a definition could be identified and that this bears a close resemblance to that used within the UEA Professionalism Charter. The study therefore supports the continued use of the Charte

Differential Inhibition of Human Nav1.2 Resurgent and Persistent Sodium Currents by Cannabidiol and GS967

Many epilepsy patients are refractory to conventional antiepileptic drugs. Resurgent and persistent currents can be enhanced by epilepsy mutations in the Nav1.2 channel, but conventional antiepileptic drugs inhibit normal transient currents through these channels, along with aberrant resurgent and persistent currents that are enhanced by Nav1.2 epilepsy mutations. Pharmacotherapies that specifically target aberrant resurgent and/or persistent currents would likely have fewer unwanted side effects and be effective in many patients with refractory epilepsy. This study investigated the effects of cannbidiol (CBD) and GS967 (each at 1 μM) on transient, resurgent, and persistent currents in human embryonic kidney (HEK) cells stably expressing wild-type hNav1.2 channels. We found that CBD preferentially inhibits resurgent currents over transient currents in this paradigm; and that GS967 preferentially inhibits persistent currents over transient currents. Therefore, CBD and GS967 may represent a new class of more targeted and effective antiepileptic drugs

Statistical Evidence for Small-Scale Interchange Reconnection at a Coronal Hole Boundary

Much of coronal hole (CH) research is focused upon determining the boundary and calculating the open flux as accurately as possible. However, the observed boundary itself is worthy of investigation, and holds important clues to the physics transpiring at the interface between the open and closed fields. This Letter reports a powerful new method, an application of the correlation integral which we call correlation dimension mapping (CDM), by which the irregularity of a CH boundary can be objectively quantified. This method highlights the most important spatial scales involved in boundary dynamics, and also allows for easy temporal analysis of the boundary. We apply this method to an equatorial CH bounded on two sides by helmet streamers and on the third by a small pseudostreamer, which we observed at maximum cadence for an hour on 2015 June 4. We argue that the relevant spatial scales are in the range of $\sim 5-20$ Mm, and we find that boundary complexity depends measurably upon the nature of the neighboring closed structure. The boundary along the pseudostreamer shows signs of highly-localized, intermittent complexity variability, likely associated with abrupt changes in the magnetic topology, which would be elegantly explained by interchange reconnection. By contrast, the helmet streamer boundary supports long-lived high-complexity regions. These findings support the recent predictions of interchange reconnection occurring at very small scales in the corona.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

To Rain or Not to Rain: Correlating GOES Flare Class and Coronal Rain Statistics

Post-flare arcades are well-known components of solar flare evolution, which have been observed for several decades. Coronal rain, cascades of catastrophically-cooled plasma, outline the loops and provide eye-catching evidence of the recent flare. These events are acknowledged to be common, but the scientific literature does not include any statistical overview documenting just how common the phenomenon actually is. This study reviews Solar Dynamics Observatory Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (SDO AIA) observations of 241 flares collected from the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) database between 2011 and 2018. The flares cover the entire strength range of the C, M, and X GOES classes, and are distributed evenly across the SDO-observed majority of Solar Cycle 24. We find that post-flare arcade rain occurs for nearly all X and most M-class flares, but that it tapers off rapidly within C-class flares. There appears to be a cut-off point around C5, below which the occurrence of post-flare arcade rain drops significantly. There is also a general positive correlation between GOES class and the average duration of post-flare rain events. Post-flare arcade rain events in C-class flares appear to track with the sunspot number, providing a potential new tool for estimating, if not predicting, solar cycle strength. Furthermore, condensations appear to be suppressed in the shortest-length arcade loops of any class observed, suggesting that active region heating is height-constrained. These results open up further avenues for future research, including new methods to estimate energy deposition and to gain greater insight into steady active region heating

An investigation exploring the biological and affective pathway to psychosis

Three projects were undertaken. 1) In developing a measure of mental health literacy, literature review and thematic analysis of both mental health service user interviews and students were conducted to decipher what where gaps in knowledge lie. Quotes from transcripts were modified and collated across three sources of data to develop items for a measure of mental health literacy. 2) As part of Early Intervention Services (EIS) for psychosis a literature review on social recovery was conducted. The review revealed that aspects outside of symptomatic recovery are important in psychosis remission to ensure quality of life and reduce relapse. Only with social recovery can fully functional recovery occur. Based on the evidence the EIS propose a protocol where underlying variables are used to streamline individuals into low, medium and high intensity intervention groups. 3) An investigation of the biological and affective pathway to psychosis was conducted using analysis of data from a study on autism and psychosis. The overlap between autism and psychosis is suggestive of biological underpinnings however there’s also evidence for the effect of stress induced onset. Autistic traits, family history and childhood trauma were looked at to differentiate causal influence. Results supported the hypothesis of two pathways