End of Life Care: The Importance of Culture and Ethnicity

Despite Australia's cultural diversity, there is little doubt that ethnic minority groups continue to have less access to health care systems, let alone culturally appropriate care, including palliative and end of life care. Such disparity of access for all individuals requiring such care ignores a basic human right to live and die in comfort. This article will discuss some barriers that may limit people of different cultural backgrounds receiving appropriate palliative and end of life care, and provides some generic approaches that may assist general practitioners when considering care needs of people from different cultural backgrounds. It also highlights care issues that GPs may need to consider when providing terminal care for someone from a different cultural background

Aligned cellular and acellular collagen guidance substrates for peripheral nerve repair

There is a clinical demand to shorten the delay of reinnervation and improve functional recovery after peripheral nerve injury. A peripheral nerve repair device with the ability to direct and promote axon growth across a lesion would be a promising alternative to nerve autograft repair, the current gold standard treatment. The growth of axons across a lesion is most effective when supported by columns of aligned Schwann cells, as found in an autograft. Here we report the development of a robust aligned cellular collagen biomaterial that supports and directs neuronal growth. We also investigate the potential of these aligned cells to precondition the collagen biomaterial, before they are freeze-killed, leaving an acellular guidance matrix

Literature of Societal Trauma: A Study of Literature Following the Holocaust and the Dirty War

This is a study of the tangible effects of societal trauma that manifest themselves in the literature of a community in the years and decades following said traumas. This paper focuses on literature that follows the Holocaust from World War II Germany and the Dirty War from 1970\u27s Argentina

Identity Development as the Parent of a Lesbian or Gay Male

This study is designed to more fully understand the adaptational processes that parents of lesbians and gay men experience when their children come out to them. Seventeen parents described their experiences in semi-structured interviews. The interview transcripts were analyzed using grounded theory methodology to develop a model of parental adjustment over time. Parents experienced three broad phases of adjustment, each with different emphases: emotional responses were most dominant initially, cognitive and behavioral adjustments were the primary focus of the middle phase, and moral/spiritual issues were the major concern of the final phase. Some parents who successfully negotiated these adjustments came to view being the parent of a gay male or lesbian as an important component of their identities. Implications for further research and clinical practice are discussed

Direct Attachment of 4-Hydroxybenzoic Acid Polymers and Capture Agents to Flat Sheet and Microdialysis Membranes for Improved Mass Transport

Microdialysis (MD) sampling is a diffusion-based separation method which has the ability to sample any analyte that can diffuse across the semi-permeable membrane. However one challenge for MD is that for soluble proteins greater than 10 kDa, the relative recovery (RR) using a 100 kDa MD probe is between 1-5%.1 There are two major barriers that lead to these low recovery values - nonspecific adsorption (NSA) and poor solute mass transport. To overcome these two barriers, the modification of PES-based MD membranes has been initiated by laccase. Previous researchers have used laccase to modify PES flat sheet and hollow fiber membranes using 4HBA to create a hydrophilic polymer chain network.2 Furthermore by functionalizing the MD membranes with carboxylic acid functional groups from 4HBA, one can easily modify the surface.3 This study focuses on characterization of the PES membrane surface before and after attachment of 4HBA polymers and heparin. First the attachment of 4HBA and heparin has been confirmed using XPS and ATR-FTIR. Next protein adsorption measurements were performed for 4HBA modified flat sheets which showed an initial increase in BSA adsorption followed by a decrease in BSA adsorption after 24 hours of modification. However, for positively charged lysozyme the protein adsorption increased upon modification. RR experiments were performed using FITC-labeled dextrans, lysozyme, CCL2, VEGF, TNF-a, KC/GRO and aFGF. After modification with 4HBA for 2 hours, RR of CCL2, KC/GRO, and VEGF increased 2 to 3 times compared to the control relative recovery however, this increase in RR was not observed for aFGF and TNF-a. This difference could be due to the isoelectric points (pI) of these proteins indicating an electrostatic interaction between the surface and the protein. For 24 hour 4HBA-heparin modified membranes CCL2 RR increased twofold for hours 3 and 4 and for 2 hour 4HBA-heparin modified membranes aFGF RR increase threefold

Sang Pi

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College

A multidisciplinary examination of fast bowling talent development in cricket

Research on expertise, talent identification and development has tended to be mono-disciplinary, typically adopting geno-centric or environmentalist positions, with an overriding focus on operational issues. In this thesis, the validity of dualist positions on sport expertise is evaluated. It is argued that, to advance understanding of expertise and talent development, a shift towards a multidisciplinary and integrative science focus is necessary, along with the development of a comprehensive multidisciplinary theoretical rationale. Dynamical systems theory is utilised as a multidisciplinary theoretical rationale for the succession of studies, capturing how multiple interacting constraints can shape the development of expert performers. Phase I of the research examines experiential knowledge of coaches and players on the development of fast bowling talent utilising qualitative research methodology. It provides insights into the developmental histories of expert fast bowlers, as well as coaching philosophies on the constraints of fast bowling expertise. Results suggest talent development programmes should eschew the notion of common optimal performance models and emphasize the individual nature of pathways to expertise. Coaching and talent development programmes should identify the range of interacting constraints that impinge on the performance potential of individual athletes, rather than evaluating current performance on physical tests referenced to group norms. Phase II of this research comprises three further studies that investigate several of the key components identified as important for fast bowling expertise, talent identification and development extrapolated from Phase I of this research. This multidisciplinary programme of work involves a comprehensive analysis of fast bowling performance in a cross-section of the Cricket Australia high performance pathways, from the junior, emerging and national elite fast bowling squads. Briefly, differences were found in trunk kinematics associated with the generation of ball speed across the three groups. These differences in release mechanics indicated the functional adaptations in movement patterns as bowlers’ physical and anatomical characteristics changed during maturation. Second to the generation of ball speed, the ability to produce a range of delivery types was highlighted as a key component of expertise in the qualitative phase. The ability of athletes to produce consistent results on different surfaces and in different environments has drawn attention to the challenge of measuring consistency and flexibility in skill assessments. Examination of fast bowlers in Phase II demonstrated that national bowlers can make adjustments to the accuracy of subsequent deliveries during performance of a cricket bowling skills test, and perform a range of delivery types with increased accuracy and consistency. Finally, variability in selected delivery stride ground reaction force components in fast bowling revealed the degenerate nature of this complex multi-articular skill where the same performance outcome can be achieved with unique movement strategies. Utilising qualitative and quantitative methodologies to examine fast bowling expertise, the importance of degeneracy and adaptability in fast bowling has been highlighted alongside learning design that promotes dynamic learning environments

A Study of the Impact of Changing Business Processes and the Implementation of Computerised Systems on a Small Business’ Customer Relationships – a 2 Year Case Study on a Micro-organisation

This paper examines the impact of rolling out computerized systems within a micro organization focusing specifically on the impact of the roll out on customer relationships. The findings are based on a 2 year study on one micro-organization based in the North East of England, examining the nature of the implementation and the additional factors that affected the outcome and eventual detrimental impact on the relationship between the organization and the customer based. Alternative strategies will be discussed and redemption options examined. The primary research findings are based on observational evidence and interviews of the customer base, the researcher worked within the organization and were party to the business logic applied to the decisions made during the deployment perio