Access to Specialist Palliative Care Services and Place of Death in Ireland

The aim of this report is to provide data, analysis and commentary to stimulate discussion on emerging trends in relation to the provision of specialist palliative care in Ireland. The report mines existing data from four key sources -- the Health Service Executive's (HSE) Minimum Data Set for Palliative Care; the National Cancer Registry; the Hospital Inpatient Enquiry, and HSE population records (2011) -- to compare and contrast administrative regions of the health service against national averages on a number of key indicators (number of hospice beds, waiting times for first assessment of patient, place of death, etc), and to examine the impact of varying levels of investment in palliative care on access to services and service activity. In particular, the report seeks to explore possible relationships between access to specialist palliative care services and place of death. It is clear from the data emerging from all four sources that there is a marked correlation between the availability or otherwise of hospice/palliative care services and where people die

To Wandiligong : a visual journey through memory, time, space, light, landscape and fourteen layers of glass

This research project examines the process of conceptualisation and its effects on the development of layers of meaning in a visual context. It explores a journey over time, within an observed environment. It explores the conceptual processes which, like a physical journey, runs through many landscapes. Memory and emotion, analysis and observation, recording and interpretation and as a final destination, the practical application in the making of the pictures. This exegesis compares the differences between the theoretical stances artists have taken in the pursuit of creating work based on the depiction of the landscape. It considers a variety of approaches to image and meaning and determines the effect of disruption as it relates to art practice over centuries and to my own practice. Throughout the work there is an exploration of the different forms of disruption on the landscape, from colonisation through to the visual effects of a changing climate. Consideration is given to the similarities and differences between the practices of visual art and communication design particularly in relation to the role of the audience. The process of research and experimentation in the making of 16 digitally augmented inkjet print, photographic images and an accompanying story map drawing of the journey is described. This involved the investigation of the conceptual development processes and approaches in relation to landscape imagery and the effect of a changing climate on their visual outcomes. The results of my experimentation in capturing images through drawing and photography using graphite pencils and paper and a camera, in a car moving through the landscape, are described. This is followed by a description of my experimentation of the use of a disruptive digital drawing application on photographic images located within an iPad and how the resulting images were conceptualised and created.Masters by Researc

Seeing the World Through Their Eyes: The Impact of Place Attachment on Teachers\u27 Understanding of Worldviews

Over the past 20 years, Long Island, New York, has seen an increase in linguistic and racial diversity within its schools. The growth in linguistic diversity has brought with it an increase in English language learners (ELLs), representing almost a 50% increase since 2012. As the ELL population has grown, so has the achievement gap between ELLs and their non-ELL peers. The current teaching staff on Long Island does not match the diversity of its student population. Prior research has shown that the cultural mismatch between the teachers and students is one contributing factor to the aforementioned achievement gap. In order for educators to understand their students, they must first recognize their own worldview and appreciate that the worldviews of their students may vary greatly from their own. This multimodal hermeneutic phenomenological study examines the influence of place attachment and topophilia on the formation of the worldview of educators who return to their childhood school districts to teach, where the ELL population has grown greatly. The study utilized the combined theoretical frameworks of sociocultural theory, place attachment, and topophilia to explore educators’ formation and understanding of their own worldviews and those of others. Through three semistructured interviews, including the exploration of photos and community tours, the participants described how bonds within their school and community shaped who they are today. Using thematic analysis, four themes arose: bonds are created through connections within the community and family; bonds are formed through attachment with the school; bonds are developed through relationships with people; and changes in the school and community present challenges to the sense of identity and hom

Nuclear polyhedrosis virus of the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar L.) : environmental and ecological factors influencing transmission and host susceptibility.

The gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar L., is one of the most important forest pests in the United States. Insecticides are frequently used to suppress outbreaks, however, untreated outbreaks generally collapse due to disease epizootics caused by a nuclear polyhedrosis virus (NPV). Knowledge of NPV epizootiology could aid in the use of NPV as a biological control agent. In this study, the mechanisms by which the NPV is transmitted across host generations, factors affecting host susceptibility to the pathogen, and the effects of NPV on the behavior and distribution of infected larvae in natural populations were investigated. A series of experiments were conducted in the field to determine whether maternal or environmental mechanisms are responsible for transgenerational transmission of the pathogen. Larvae hatching from egg masses oviposited in NPV-contaminated environments became infected, whereas, progeny of NPV-fed parents did not, indicating that environmental contamination of egg masses, rather than maternal transmission, is the principle means of transmission across generations. Further tests showed that egg masses acquire inoculum from the substrate during oviposition, rather than through rain-caused leaching. The pathogenesis of the virus in gypsy moth larvae, pupae, and adults was followed using nucleic acid-hybridization techniques. Virus was not detected in adult moths suggesting that vertical transmission of NPV from infected moths to progeny may not be possible in the gypsy moth. Susceptibility to disease may also be affected by disease prevalence. In laboratory assays, larvae from populations with more heavily NPV-contaminated eggs were more resistant to NPV than were populations with little inoculum present. These results suggest that exposure to NPV may favor selection for resistance to the pathogen. It was also demonstrated that NPV infection alters the behavior of larvae, resulting in the tendency of infected larvae to die in the upper crowns of trees. Thus, samples of larvae collected from the upper canopy contain a higher proportion of infected larvae compared with those collected from under burlap bands wrapped around tree trunks. Therefore, NPV prevalence is more precisely estimated by rearing larvae collecting by a stratified-random sampling design

Microplastics Recovered from Galveston Bay Oysters: Trends in Recorded Measurements

Filter feeders in marine ecosystems are vulnerable to pollutants on a microscopic level which has presented a growing concern for the unknown health risks, as species exposed to ubiquitous plastic particulate are commonly sold for human consumption. The parameters of such species’ intake of microscopic plastic debris has been the subject of research due to these potential risks. For the purposes of this study, the biomass of an oyster was hypothesized to show a positive linear relationship with the size of plastic debris found in its tissue. The plastics in this instance were microplastics, measuring between 0.1µm and 5mm. This study presents the analysis of size distributions of microplastics recovered from chemically digested oyster tissues in comparison to the recorded tissue weight of oysters that fell within the same size range of oysters commonly available for consumption. The null hypothesis would then indicate that the biomass of the market-sized oysters cannot be used to predict the size of the microplastics they intake. To test the hypothesis, isolated tissues from Crassostrea virginica collected from oyster reefs in the sub-bays of the greater Galveston Bay estuary underwent KOH digestion protocol to extract identifiable microplastics from bivalve tissues. The image analysis of recovered microplastic data helped to consolidate the range in size variability of the microplastic content against the range in oyster tissue weight. Using regression to analyze microplastic size (mean, median, minimum, and maximum) by oyster tissue mass, no definitive correlation was found between the response and predictor variables. These findings supported the null hypothesis, suggesting that the biomass of the market-sized oysters cannot be used to predict the size of the microplastics they retain in their tissues

Quick response (QR) codes for audio support in foreign language learning

This study explored the potential benefits and barriers of using quick response (QR) codes as a means by which to provide audio materials to middle-school students learning Spanish as a foreign language. Eleven teachers of Spanish to middle-school students created transmedia materials containing QR codes linking to audio resources. Students accessed the audio tracks by scanning the QR code with an application on a smartphone while completing a homework task. The teachers assigned two tasks in a systems approach model: first a formative, and then a revised summative trial. After each attempt, the Spanish teachers shared their experiences of creating and using the transmedia materials by participating in interviews. Data was collected by means of a needs analysis survey, recordings and transcription of the two interviews, and by obtaining copies of the transmedia materials. The data analysis included a content analysis of the coded interviews, the results of which were triangulated with the responses collected in the needs analysis survey and an examination of the teacher-created materials. Several benefits to using audio QR codes were identified as a result of the analyses. These include the minimal amount of time and expertise required for teachers to create the transmedia materials, an increased student exposure to audio-only materials to aid listening comprehension, and the way in which the use of this technique allowed for transformative learning activities and a conservation of instructional minutes in the classroom. Some barriers were also noted, the largest being that device ownership and Internet access were not universal among students. Additionally, parental restrictions on smartphone use and some school administration polices regarding personal devices made the practice of using mobile technology for homework tasks difficult in certain cases. Implications include the possibility that training pre-service and in-service teachers in the use of transmedia materials that link to audio-only content may help decrease students’ cognitive load and lead to an increase in foreign language learners’ listening comprehension skills. Further study in the use of transmedia materials and mobile technology to support foreign language learning is recommended

Why do School-leavers Study Engineering in the Technological University Dublin and How Do They Get There: a Report of a Survey of 390 First Year Engineering Students in the Technological University Dublin and a Summary of the Data Collected Since 2003.

This report sets out the findings of a survey of 389 first year engineering students who commenced studying in the Technological University Dublin (DIT) in September 2007. The questionnaire was completed online using WebCT. The background information on students is taken from DIT records.This data is based on the records of 525 students who were attending DIT courses in October 2007