People and Place: The West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island in History and Literature.

In his poem “Zoetropes,” Bill Manhire, writing from London in 1981, notes the exhilaration with which an expat Kiwi keenly notices the letter ‘Z’ in any text, instinctively scanning down the page, hoping to find the word New Zealand, that jolt-to-the-heart moment in which one is reminded of home. There is a local variant even within Aotearoa-New Zealand experienced by West Coasters who no longer live there, ever on the lookout for mention of Westland or for meeting other people with a connection to it. In media, however, the Coast only very occasionally makes an appearance outside of the weather report. 2020 was quite an exception, with the much-anticipated mini-series dramatisation of Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, as well as A Madness of Sunshine, a thriller novel by bestseller romance writer, Nalini Singh, and an academic history by Greymouth expat Len Richardson, People and Place: The West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island in History and Literature. And so, like Manhire in London, I scan the screen and pages on the lookout for recognisable signals from home, of characters and place that capture West Coast experience

People and Place: The West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island in History and Literature.

In his poem “Zoetropes,” Bill Manhire, writing from London in 1981, notes the exhilaration with which an expat Kiwi keenly notices the letter ‘Z’ in any text, instinctively scanning down the page, hoping to find the word New Zealand, that jolt-to-the-heart moment in which one is reminded of home. There is a local variant even within Aotearoa-New Zealand experienced by West Coasters who no longer live there, ever on the lookout for mention of Westland or for meeting other people with a connection to it. In media, however, the Coast only very occasionally makes an appearance outside of the weather report. 2020 was quite an exception, with the much-anticipated mini-series dramatisation of Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, as well as A Madness of Sunshine, a thriller novel by bestseller romance writer, Nalini Singh, and an academic history by Greymouth expat Len Richardson, People and Place: The West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island in History and Literature. And so, like Manhire in London, I scan the screen and pages on the lookout for recognisable signals from home, of characters and place that capture West Coast experience

Influences on the Mother\u27s Decision to Breastfeed her Infant

Background Nutrition is essential to the health and development of infants and children\u27 The American Academy of pediatrics, [the American Academy of Family Physicians] and the world Health organization recommend breast milk as the best form of nutrition for at least the first year of an infant\u27s life due to the health benefits it provides children and mothers (American Academy of Family physicians, 2000, Pletta, Eglash, & Choby, 2000). Increasing the rates of both initiation of breastfeeding and duration of breastfeeding are national health objectives. Methods The research design is a prospective descriptive study. The study included 43 pregnant women who were receiving prenatal care at a small, private clinic in Buffalo, MN. The data was obtained using u-r*r-o.signed survey tool to assess the major factors that influence a woman\u27s infant feeding decision. The purpose of this design was to determine the factors that influence a mother\u27s decision on how she intends to feed her infant, find out breastfeeding an#or bottle initiation rates, as well as to determine the duration that women intend to breastfeed\u27 Results significant results obtained indicated that in this community,465% of the pregnant women intended to breastfeed their infant for the first 4-6 months, 23.3% intended to formula feed, and 25.6% intended to use a combination. The majority of women, 65.go/o,made this infant feeding decision prior to pregnancy\u27 of the women intending to breastfeed, 16.3% intended to continue for 2 months and 20\u279% intended to breastfeed for 6 or 7 months. Most women (41.5%) reported that they received information regarding infant feeding choices from books. sixty percent of the women cite,c health benefits as being the number one reason why they choose breastfeeding\u27 Conclusions The results obtained from this study place a high emphasis on the importance of educating both women and men on the benefits of breastmilk for their children\u27 Due to the high number of women who make their infant feeding decision prior to pregnancy\u27 healthcare providers need to find a way to educate these people before their first OB visit on the health benefits of breastmilk. The results also indicated that men have a big influence on their partner,s decision to breastfeed or formula feed. breastmilk encouragement needs to be directed towards both men and woman at a young age in order to increase breastfeeding initiation rates to meet national health goals

Notable Employee Benefits Articles of 2018, 163 Tax Notes 1829 (2019)

Kathryn J. Kennedy and Melissa Travis summarize 10 noteworthy law review articles published in 2018

Sources of Community for Older Adults: Findings from the COVID-19 Coping Study

One of the most challenging aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic for individuals has been losing a sense of community and connectedness with others. In this presentation we discuss preliminary findings about the impacts on sources of community for older adult participants in the COVID-19 Coping Study, a national longitudinal study that aims to understand how the pandemic is affecting the mental health and well-being of older adults in America. We have been using a collaborative process to code and qualitatively analyze responses from a randomized subset of 500 participants. We will share overarching themes of sources of community that are important to older adults; how the pandemic has affected their engagement with and interactions in these communities; and feelings expressed by participants regarding what they value, miss, and find challenging about their communities during the pandemic. This study has implications for understanding the most important sources of community for older adults and how to better help support those who are struggling with loss of these sources during a crisis or emergency such as this pandemic

Double, Triple, Quadruple the Recipe: Serve Library Instruction to a Crowd (and Assess It, Too!) with LibGuides and PollEverywhere

Offering library instruction to a class of over 200 may sound impossible -- or crazy -- but some library instruction recipes can be scaled up to serve a crowd. The presenters (a political science instructor and a librarian) embedded library activities on politics and the media by creating an online guide to help students find news and information on political campaigns and then evaluate that information. Students participated in class discussion and shared their findings and reflections through cellphone voting. In this session we’ll share our strategies and results, and invite the audience to participate with PollEverywhere! At many institutions class sizes are growing, which can make active learning more difficult to plan and carry out. In addition to the pressures of larger classes, some librarians have more instruction demands than they can handle. If that sounds familiar, then this session is for you. We will present a model for delivering library instruction to many students at once, which can be both efficient and effective. In our presentation we will share strategies for getting students involved and engaged in a lecture hall, our methods for assessing student learning from the library activities, and results of our assessment

Burn wound classification model using spatial frequency-domain imaging and machine learning.

Accurate assessment of burn severity is critical for wound care and the course of treatment. Delays in classification translate to delays in burn management, increasing the risk of scarring and infection. To this end, numerous imaging techniques have been used to examine tissue properties to infer burn severity. Spatial frequency-domain imaging (SFDI) has also been used to characterize burns based on the relationships between histologic observations and changes in tissue properties. Recently, machine learning has been used to classify burns by combining optical features from multispectral or hyperspectral imaging. Rather than employ models of light propagation to deduce tissue optical properties, we investigated the feasibility of using SFDI reflectance data at multiple spatial frequencies, with a support vector machine (SVM) classifier, to predict severity in a porcine model of graded burns. Calibrated reflectance images were collected using SFDI at eight wavelengths (471 to 851 nm) and five spatial frequencies (0 to 0.2  mm  -  1). Three models were built from subsets of this initial dataset. The first subset included data taken at all wavelengths with the planar (0  mm  -  1) spatial frequency, the second comprised data at all wavelengths and spatial frequencies, and the third used all collected data at values relative to unburned tissue. These data subsets were used to train and test cubic SVM models, and compared against burn status 28 days after injury. Model accuracy was established through leave-one-out cross-validation testing. The model based on images obtained at all wavelengths and spatial frequencies predicted burn severity at 24 h with 92.5% accuracy. The model composed of all values relative to unburned skin was 94.4% accurate. By comparison, the model that employed only planar illumination was 88.8% accurate. This investigation suggests that the combination of SFDI with machine learning has potential for accurately predicting burn severity

Kaizen: Improving Patient flow

Background: Since Cobb & Douglas Public Health (CDPH) achieved accreditation in May 2015, efforts to mature a culture of quality have been emphasized. In addition, the Adult Health Clinic moved to a new facility in Spring 2016. This move has improved many patient flow issues, but also has had unexpected consequences that spurred interest in doing several quality improvement (QI) projects. Methods: Rather than doing one QI project at a time, a kaizen event was held. Kaizen is a Japanese term for continuous improvement. This workshop allowed the Adult Health Team to plan seven QI projects and implement them simultaneously over the next several weeks. After the first six weeks of implementation, nearly 14 different projects were in various stages of the PlanDo-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle. Baseline average patient flow for 1880 patient encounters was 75.11 minutes. Results: Results are still pending. Preliminary results reflect increased collaboration among clinic staff and an increase in staff members taking the initiative to make improvements. Employee morale has improved, and employee and customer satisfaction seems to be improved. Conclusions: The Adult Health Clinic used the LEAN methodology to reduce waste in the patient flow process and used the PDSA framework to structure their 14 QI projects. A kaizen event allows rapid improvements to be planned and implemented in a short period of time

A Clostridium perfringens Outbreak Traced to Improper Cooking of Prime Rib in Rochester, New York 2011

In December 2011, the Monroe County Department of Public Health investigated a report of gastrointestinal illness from two separate parties that had dined at a restaurant on the same day. An environmental and epidemiological investigation identified 17 individuals who met the outbreak case definition. A detailed questionnaire based on the restaurant’s menu was administered to patrons from both parties and statistically analyzed. Based on this investigation, it was hypothesized that consuming the prime rib (P \u3c 0.001) was associated with becoming ill. The environmental investigation indicated that the prime rib was not cooked to a proper temperature and was held at an improper temperature before being served. A prime rib sample and three stool samples from ill patrons were collected and sent for laboratory testing. Clostridium perfringens was identified in all of the samples by the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) Wadsworth Laboratory. This outbreak demonstrates the importance of proper food safety techniques for restaurants to prevent illness

Betacoronavirus genomes: How genomic information has been used to deal with past outbreaks and the COVID-19 pandemic

In the 21st century, three highly pathogenic betacoronaviruses have emerged, with an alarming rate of human morbidity and case fatality. Genomic information has been widely used to understand the pathogenesis, animal origin and mode of transmission of betacoronaviruses in the aftermath of the 2002-03 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreaks. Furthermore, genome sequencing and bioinformatic analysis have had an unprecedented relevance in the battle against the 2019-20 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the newest and most devastating outbreak caused by a coronavirus in the history of mankind, allowing the follow up of disease spread and transmission dynamics in near real time. Here, we review how genomic information has been used to tackle outbreaks caused by emerging, highly pathogenic, betacoronavirus strains, emphasizing on SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2.In the 21st century, three highly pathogenic betacoronaviruses have emerged, with an alarming rate of human morbidity and case fatality. Genomic information has been widely used to understand the pathogenesis, animal origin and mode of transmission of betacoronaviruses in the aftermath of the 2002-03 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreaks. Furthermore, genome sequencing and bioinformatic analysis have had an unprecedented relevance in the battle against the 2019-20 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the newest and most devastating outbreak caused by a coronavirus in the history of mankind, allowing the follow up of disease spread and transmission dynamics in near real time. Here, we review how genomic information has been used to tackle outbreaks caused by emerging, highly pathogenic, betacoronavirus strains, emphasizing on SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2