Heiner Goebbels's Stifters Dinge and the Arendtian Public Sphere

Heiner Goebbels’s works are examples of “postdramatic” theatre works that engage with the political by seeking to challenge socially ingrained habits of perception rather than by presenting traditional, literary-based theatre of political didacticism or agitation. Goebbels claims to work toward a “non-hierarchical” theatre in the contexts of his arrangement of the various theatrical elements, in fostering collaborative working processes between the artists involved, and in the creation of audience-artist relationships. In offering a reading of Goebbels’s “no-man show” Stifters Dinge, this paper seeks to situate Goebbels’s practice within a theoretical tradition that also encompasses Hannah Arendt’s deployment of the theatre as a metaphor for the public sphere. Within this analysis, I suggest, theatre can be seen to offer the possibility of a participatory democracy through its attention to disappearance and absence

Using found poetry to explore creativity in the professional lives of English teachers

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice on 26/04/2023, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2023.2201422This arts-based research considers creativity in the professional lives of English teachers in a school in England within the context of a progressively performative education system. In addition, it explores how found poetry can represent participants' voices in an illuminating and authentic manner. The teachers who participated in the study were able to scrutinise, reflect and comment upon the content of poems created from the words found in an initial interview transcript. This recursive process supports a credible way of seeing and knowing the teachers’ voices in a representation that gives a deeper understanding of the participants' creative experiences. The construction, interrogation, and presentation of the found poems reveal that the teachers of English believe they have reduced freedom to be creative or to act with agency in their professional lives. The reduced freedom to be creative stems from the normalising practices of working within a culture of performance. The restrictions are both tangible and self-imposed by the participants

Assessing the Adequacy of a Newly Developed Corneal Abrasion Prevention Guide in High-Risk Cases (Spinal Surgeries) at A Large Academic Medical Center

Corneal abrasions can occur during and after general anesthesia. CRNAs are required to ensure protective measures are implemented, remain intact throughout the duration of surgery, and to document protection measures implemented. There are currently no nationally recommended standards of practice for CRNAs to implement to protect their patients from perioperative corneal abrasions. The purpose of this QI project was to assess CRNAs’ preferences and practices regarding eye care and corneal abrasion prevention and whether or not they perceived a newly developed corneal abrasion quick reference guide as a useful tool for their practice to prevent corneal abrasions. In this QI project, a simple educational initiative involving the use of a corneal abrasion quick reference guide and educational PowerPoint improved CRNA reported confidence in their ability to identify patients at high risk, implement appropriate prevention practices, and diagnose and treat corneal abrasions. CRNAs reported that the corneal abrasion quick reference guide was useful for their practice, was a good reminder of high risk cases, and provided guidance on how to best prevent corneal abrasions. This QI project also led to the development of an improved documentation method at the partnering institution. Anesthesia led treatment of corneal abrasions, as opposed to ophthalmology management, has been demonstrated to reduce the time to treatment. The improvement in CRNA perceived confidence in ability to treat corneal abrasions could lead to faster PACU discharge, decreased operating room delays and the cost associated with each.D.N.P

The 10kTrees Website: A New Online Resource for Primate Phylogeny

The comparative method plays a central role in efforts to uncover the adaptive basis for primate behaviors, morphological traits, and cognitive abilities.[1-4] The comparative method has been used, for example, to infer that living in a larger group selects for a larger neocortex,[5][6] that primate territoriality favors a longer day range relative to home range size,[7] and that sperm competition can account for the evolution of primate testes size.[8][9] Comparison is fundamental for reconstructing behavioral traits in the fossil record, for example, in studies of locomotion and diet.[10-13] Recent advances in comparative methods require phylogenetic information,[2][14-16] but our knowledge of phylogenetic information is imperfect. In the face of uncertainty about evolutionary relationships, which phylogeny should one use? Here we provide a new resource for comparative studies of primates that enables users to run comparative analyses on multiple primate phylogenies Importantly, the 10,000 trees that we provide are not random, but instead use recent systematic methods to create a plausible set of topologies that reflect our certainty about some nodes on the tree and uncertainty about other nodes, given the dataset. The trees also reflect uncertainty about branch lengths.Human Evolutionary Biolog

Magic, Religion, and Science: Secularization Trends and Continued Coexistence

While multiple studies have applied cultural evolutionary perspectives to the study of religion, few studies have examined the cultural evolutionary dynamics of a more secretive but equally ubiquitous form of supernatural belief: magic. We conducted two studies, an American nationally representative survey and a comparative phylogenetic analysis of religious traditions, to test three hypothesized cultural evolutionary drivers for beliefs in magic. We find the greatest support for the hypothesis that magic is employed when it provides its users benefits that are distinct from those provided by either science or religion, some support for secularization (broadly conceived) trends applying to magic, and no evidence that innate and unavoidable features of human cognition are primary drivers of the cultural evolution of magical beliefs. We conclude by suggesting specific hypothesized benefits for magic that may account for the evolution of humanity's facultative (i.e., context‐dependent) use of magical beliefs

Primate Extinction Risk and Historical Patterns of Speciation and Extinction in Relation to Body Mass

Body mass is thought to influence diversification rates, but previous studies have produced ambiguous results. We investigated patterns of diversification across 100 trees obtained from a new Bayesian inference of primate phylogeny that sampled trees in proportion to their posterior probabilities. First, we used simulations to assess the validity of previous studies that used linear models to investigate the links between IUCN Red List status and body mass. These analyses support the use of linear models for ordinal ranked data on threat status, and phylogenetic generalized linear models revealed a significant positive correlation between current extinction risk and body mass across our tree block. We then investigated historical patterns of speciation and extinction rates using a recently developed maximum-likelihood method. Specifically, we predicted that body mass correlates positively with extinction rate because larger bodied organisms reproduce more slowly, and body mass correlates negatively with speciation rate because smaller bodied organisms are better able to partition niche space. We failed to find evidence that extinction rates covary with body mass across primate phylogeny. Similarly, the speciation rate was generally unrelated to body mass, except in some tests that indicated an increase in the speciation rate with increasing body mass. Importantly, we discovered that our data violated a key assumption of sample randomness with respect to body mass. After correcting for this bias, we found no association between diversification rates and mass.Human Evolutionary Biolog

The Impact of an Electrical Mini-grid on the Development of a Rural Community in Kenya

Electrical mini-grids can provide electrification to rural communities far from the national network. However the benefits of such schemes are disputed. We observed changes in two matched trading-centres in Makueni County, Kenya, neither of which were initially electrified. During the study a solar photovoltaic mini-grid scheme (13.5 kWp) was constructed in one of the trading-centres. After electrification there were relative increases in the number of businesses and business income. Comparing the households in the areas around the trading centres, perceived wealth increased more around the electrified trading centre. Qualitative interviews indicated improvements in service provision by the local school and health centre. The cooperative set up to run the mini-grid was free to set its own kWh tariff and chose to reduce it to a level that covers operating costs and would recover 70% of the initial investment interest-free. However, the tariff finally agreed is higher than the national grid tariff, which would be difficult to achieve if the mini-grid was not owned by and run for the benefit of the local community. Overall, we found that the mini-grid had a positive effect over background development, recovered some of its cost and charged a higher tariff than the national rate

Empirically identified networks of healthcare providers for adults with mental illness

Background Policies target networks of providers who treat people with mental illnesses, but little is known about the empirical structures of these networks and related variation in patient care. The goal of this paper is to describe networks of providers who treat adults with mental illness in a multi-payer database based medical claims data in a U.S. state. Methods Provider networks were identified and characterized using paid inpatient, outpatient and pharmacy claims related to care for people with a mental health diagnosis from an all-payer claims dataset that covers both public and private payers. Results Three nested levels of network structures were identified: an overall network, which included 21% of providers (N = 8256) and 97% of patients (N = 476,802), five communities and 24 sub-communities. Sub-communities were characterized by size, provider composition, continuity-of-care (CoC), and network structure measures including mean number of connections per provider (degree) and average number of connections who were connected to each other (transitivity). Sub-community size was positively associated with number of connections (r = .37) and the proportion of psychiatrists (r = .41) and uncorrelated with network transitivity (r = −.02) and continuity of care (r = .00). Network transitivity was not associated with CoC after adjustment for provider type, number of patients, and average connection CoC (p = .85). Conclusions These exploratory analyses suggest that network analysis can provide information about the networks of providers that treat people with mental illness that is not captured in traditional measures and may be useful in designing, implementing, and studying interventions to improve systems of care. Though initial results are promising, additional empirical work is needed to develop network-based measures and tools for policymakers

Habitual physical activity and cardiometabolic risk factors in adults with cerebral palsy

2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Adults with cerebral palsy (CP) are known to participate in reduced levels of total physical activity. There is no information available however, regarding levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in this population. Reduced participation in MVPA is associated with several cardiometabolic risk factors. The purpose of this study was firstly to compare levels of sedentary, light, MVPA and total activity in adults with CP to adults without CP. Secondly, the objective was to investigate the association between physical activity components, sedentary behavior and cardiometabolic risk factors in adults with CP. Adults with CP (n = 41) age 18–62 yr (mean ± SD = 36.5 ± 12.5 yr), classified in Gross Motor Function Classification System level I (n = 13), II (n = 18) and III (n = 10) participated in this study. Physical activity was measured by accelerometry in adults with CP and in age- and sex-matched adults without CP over 7 days. Anthropometric indicators of obesity, blood pressure and several biomarkers of cardiometabolic disease were also measured in adults with CP. Adults with CP spent less time in light, moderate, vigorous and total activity, and more time in sedentary activity than adults without CP (p < 0.01 for all). Moderate physical activity was associated with waist-height ratio when adjusted for age and sex (β = −0.314, p < 0.05). When further adjustment was made for total activity, moderate activity was associated with waist-height ratio (β = −0.538, p < 0.05), waist circumference (β = −0.518, p < 0.05), systolic blood pressure (β = −0.592, p < 0.05) and diastolic blood pressure (β = −0.636, p < 0.05). Sedentary activity was not associated with any risk factor. The findings provide evidence that relatively young adults with CP participate in reduced levels of MVPA and spend increased time in sedentary behavior, potentially increasing their risk of developing cardiometabolic disease

CONCEPTS FOR POWER AND ENERGY ANALYSIS IN NASTIC STRUCTURES

ABSTRACT Nastic structures are potentially high-energy density smart materials that will be capable of achieving controllable deformation and shape change due to internal microactuation that functions on principles found in the biological process of nastic motion. In plants, nastic motion is accomplished through osmotic pressure changes causing a respective increase or decrease in cell volume, thereby causing net movement. In nastic structures, osmotic pressure is increased by moving fluid from low concentration to high concentration areas by means of active transport, powered by adenosine triphosphate (ATP) hydrolysis. Power analysis involves calculating possible ranges of actuation as a result of interior pressure exchanges and hydraulic flux rates which will determine the speed of actuation. Because pressure inside the actuating cylinder is uniform, the cylinder undergoes deformation in all the three dimensions. Predicting the work-energy balance involves considering the factors that determine the total volumetric change, including cylinder wall expansion, surface bulging and stretching, and outside forces that oppose the actuation. The hydraulic flux rates determine both the force magnitude and the actuation speed. Energy analysis considers the pressure variation range needed to accomplish the desired actuation deflection, and the energy required for active transport mechanisms to move the volume of fluid into the nastic actuator. Nonlinear effects are present, as the pressure inside the actuation cylinder increases, it takes more energy for active transport to continue moving fluid into it. The chemical reaction of ATP hydrolysis supplies the energy for active transport, which is related to the ratio of the reactants, to the products, as well as to the pH level. As the pH lowers, more energy is released through ATP hydrolysis. Therefore, as pH decreases, ATP Hydrolysis releases more energy, enabling active transport to move more fluid into the actuation cylinder, thereby increasing the internal osmotic pressure and causing material deformation work and actuation