The Power of Location: Predictive Modeling and GIS

In the past two decades, nautical archaeology has turned its attention to identifying and locating the ships used during the Atlantic Slave Trade. While the archival evidence exists, only a small number of these ships has been found, and even less have been excavated. Spatial analysis tools like GIS can be a powerful tool to help further this research. This thesis is an exploration of how predictive modeling and GIS could make the identification of slave wrecks plausible, and an overview of the ethical issues that surround the use of GIS within the context of the African Diaspora. With more representative sampling of ships, archaeologists can continue analyzing the slave trade not only from the archival documents of the owners, but also from the artifacts of those on board. Locating and identifying wrecks that are suitable for excavation will add invaluable data to the understanding of this journey; yet, numerous ethical issues must be taken into consideration. As this data deals with a crucial element of the African Diaspora, the larger anthropological community must involve the present descendants of these captives. If GIS is used in a larger theoretical context, it should also actively engage with present-day community stakeholders

Offshore Pipeline Corridors and Landfalls in Coastal Virginia Volume One

This report is a product of the Virginia Coastal Resources Management (CRM) Program. Along with other coastal states, Virginia is preparing a management program for coastal land and water resources and uses under grants from the Office of Coastal Zone Management (OCZM), of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended in 1976, enumerates the elements which coastal states and their political subdivisions must include in their program. This report commences the response of the Commonwealth of Virginia to the national concern expressed in Sec. 305(B) (8) of the Act, that is, that states should develop a process for planning the location of energy facilities and for managing their effects on coastal resources. This report is a planning effort aimed at anticipating and planning for the implications of oil and gas drilling on the Atlantic Continental Shelf. Specifically, it is designed to provide technical information on pipeline siting and construction requirements as well as on the potential environmental impacts associated with pipelines. It is intended to assist state and local officials in making decisions about pipelines coming ashore in Virginia-whether to allow or not allow pipelines and, if they are to be allowed, to determine the coastal areas which would be most suitable as landfall sites. The report does not intend to promote or discourage pipelines but rather to Identify and discuss the range of potential problems and opportunities associated with pipeline activities. In addition, this is a technical planning document only and does not attempt to establish policy for the Commonwealth of Virginia with respect to pipelines or any other OCS activity. Every effort has been made to use the most current and accurate resources available and to be objective as possible in presenting the facts and conclusions of this report

Offshore Pipeline Corridors and Landfalls in Coastal Virginia Volume Two - Appendices

This report is a product the Virginia Coastal Resources Management (CRM) Program. Along with other coastal states, Virginia is preparing a mangement program for coastal land water resources and uses under grants from the Office of Coastal Zone Management (OCZM), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended in 1976, enumerates the elements which coastal states and their political subdivisions must include in their program. This report commences the response of the Comm~nwealth of Virginia to the national concern expressed in Sec. 305(B) (8) of the Act, that is, that states should develop a process for planning the location of energy facilities and for managing their effects on coastal resources. This report is a planning effort aimed at anticipating and planning for the implications of oil and gas drilling on the Atlantic Continental Shelf. Specifically, it is designed to provide technical information on pipeline siting and construction requirements as well as on the potential environmental impacts associated with pipelines. It is intended to assist state and local officials in making decisions about pipelines coming ashore in Virginia-whether to allow or not allow pipelines and, if they are to be allowed, to determine the coastal areas which would be most suitable as landfall sites. The report does not intent to promote or discourage pipelines but rather to identify and discuss the range of potential problems and opportunities associated with pipeline activities. In addition, this is a technical planning document and it does not attempt to establish policy for the Commonwealth of Virginia with respect to pipelines or any other OCS activity. Every effort has been made to use the most current and accurate resources available and to be objective as possible in presenting the facts and conclusions of this report

Leaving it at the gate:Phenomenological exploration of resilience in mental health nurses in a high secure personality disorder unit

Aims & design:This study reports a qualitative phenomenological investigation of resilience in nursing staff working in a high secure personality disorder service.Method:Interviews were carried with six nursing staff, and these captured the richness and complexity of the lived experience of nursing staff.Results:Four superordinate themes emerged from the analysis: Management of emotions: participants showed an awareness that their job is about giving care to patients who may present with very challenging behaviours. The care that they offered appeared to be conceptualised as something that needed to be provided in a measured way, with boundaries. A clear distinction was drawn between ‘caring personally’ for patients, and ‘providing care’. Teamwork: teamwork was cited as a major influencing factor by all participants. This was seen as directly impacting on the smooth running of the ward, and therefore on the wellbeing of staff, but also of patients. Understanding: staff were acutely aware that they were working in an environment where everyday interactions would be open to intense scrutiny and possible misinterpretation by patients. Work-life balance: All participants spoke of making a conscious effort to have a separate work and home life, which appeared to be influenced by a number of factors.Conclusion:There was an acknowledgment of the emotional labour of the work, and discussions about how they managed within this demonstrated an emotionally intelligent approach to their own health, wellbeing and resilience.Impact:In secure environments mental health nurses need organisational support and assistance to develop ways of managing difficult experiences with patients, systems that promote recovery, and the educational and supervisory support to help understand and process the effects on them. This paper provides evidence to support the work of managers and clinicians in these environment

Ethical Aspects of Chesapeake Bay Use

https://scholarworks.wm.edu/vimsbooks/1000/thumbnail.jp

Leaving it at the gate:Phenomenological exploration of resilience in mental health nurses in a high secure personality disorder unit

Aims & design:This study reports a qualitative phenomenological investigation of resilience in nursing staff working in a high secure personality disorder service.Method:Interviews were carried with six nursing staff, and these captured the richness and complexity of the lived experience of nursing staff.Results:Four superordinate themes emerged from the analysis: Management of emotions: participants showed an awareness that their job is about giving care to patients who may present with very challenging behaviours. The care that they offered appeared to be conceptualised as something that needed to be provided in a measured way, with boundaries. A clear distinction was drawn between ‘caring personally’ for patients, and ‘providing care’. Teamwork: teamwork was cited as a major influencing factor by all participants. This was seen as directly impacting on the smooth running of the ward, and therefore on the wellbeing of staff, but also of patients. Understanding: staff were acutely aware that they were working in an environment where everyday interactions would be open to intense scrutiny and possible misinterpretation by patients. Work-life balance: All participants spoke of making a conscious effort to have a separate work and home life, which appeared to be influenced by a number of factors.Conclusion:There was an acknowledgment of the emotional labour of the work, and discussions about how they managed within this demonstrated an emotionally intelligent approach to their own health, wellbeing and resilience.Impact:In secure environments mental health nurses need organisational support and assistance to develop ways of managing difficult experiences with patients, systems that promote recovery, and the educational and supervisory support to help understand and process the effects on them. This paper provides evidence to support the work of managers and clinicians in these environment

Risk Factors and Correlates of Hurting Animals by Children

Thesis advisor: Betty BlytheThis dissertation is a secondary analysis of a preexisting dataset, the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN), Assessments 0-4 produced by the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) located in the Family Development Center at Cornell University (2001). This is a large scale dataset employing five sites across the United States. Three sites are used: the Northwest, South and Southwest as they contain the largest numbers exhibiting the behavior of interest, hurting animals by children. These sites have sample sizes of 261, 221 and 327 children, respectively. The samples were chosen for varying levels of risk for child abuse and neglect; data collection began in 1991 and is ongoing. The children were born between 1989 and 1996. The number of children who hurt animals at each site was as follows: 16 (South Site), 25 (Northwest Site) and 36 (Southwest Site). Hypotheses were that more males than females would hurt animals; females who hurt animals would show more internalizing problems than males who hurt animals; males who hurt animals would show more externalizing problems than females who hurt animals and children who hurt animals would experience higher rates of physical abuse than children who have not hurt animals. An additional hypothesis was that hurting animals would correlate with aggressive and delinquent behaviors and attention problems as measured by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL, Achenbach, 1991). Only one hypothesis was fully supported: aggression, delinquent behavior and attention problems all correlate with higher rates of these behaviors exhibited by children who hurt animals. Aggression, in particular, was associated with the behavior of hurting animals. Physical abuse was not correlated with hurting animals and only one site (the Southwest) showed a statistically significant difference between males and females for this behavior with males more likely to do so. Other findings of interest show correlations between hurting animals and aspects of parenting, day care utilization and foster care placement at at least one site.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work.Discipline: Social Work

Testing Accuracy and Convergence of GPUSPH for Free-Surface Flows

The effect of vegetation on the dissipation of waves is important in understanding the vegetation's role in protecting coastal communities during extreme events such as hurricanes and tsunamis. Numerical modeling makes it possible to study the flow through vegetation fields, but it is important to understand the flow dynamics around one piece of vegetation and validate the numerical model used, before the dynamics of an entire vegetated patch can be modeled and understood. This project validated GPUSPH, a Lagrangian mesh-free numerical model, by determining the optimal characteristics to obtain accurate simulations for flow through a flume with and without an obstruction. The validation of GPUSPH and determination of optimal characteristics was accomplished by varying model particle spacing, sub-particle scale (SPS) turbulence inclusion in the conservation of momentum equation, and kernel weighting function for two test cases. The model particle spacing sets the initial distance between the moving grid points, known as particles, in the system. The SPS turbulence term is intended to account for turbulence generated at the sub-particle scale between the particles. The kernel weighting functions used are the quadratic kernel and the cubic spline kernel. These kernels determine how much influence surrounding particles have on the flow characteristics of an individual particle. The numerical results of these tests were compared with experimental results to obtain conclusions about the accuracy of these simulations. Based on comparisons with experimental velocities and forces, the optimal particle spacing was found to occur when the number of particles was in the high 100,000s for single precision calculations, or mid-range capabilities, for the hardware used in this project. The sub-particle scale turbulence term was only necessary when there was large-scale turbulence in the system and created less accurate results when there was no large-scale turbulence present. There was no definitive conclusion regarding the best kernel weighting function because neither kernel had overall more accurate results than the other. Based on these conclusions, GPUSPH was shown to be a viable option for modeling free-surface flows for certain conditions concerning the particle spacing and the inclusion of the subparticle scale turbulence term

Resilience in mental health nurses working in secure environments

This study explored aspects of resilience as experienced by mental health nurses in a high secure service. The aim of this research was to explore resilience for the participants and to develop a concept analysis of resilience in settings of this kind. There have been many studies on the occupational challenges for nurses (Sabo 2006, Van Den Tooren and De Jonge 2008, Riahi 2011) although relatively few have focussed exclusively on mental health nurses (Jones et al 1987, Dunn and Ritter 1995, Nihiwatiwa 2001, Gilbody et al 2006). Several studies have noted distinct features of the work which are particular to mental health nurses: the intense nature of the interactions with patients (Cronin-Stubbs and Brophy 1985); the regular confrontation of difficult and challenging behaviours (Sullivan 1993); violence and threats from patients and relatives (Tillett 2003); and resources and staffing (Alexander et al 1998). Caring for patients with a personality disorder is noted in the literature as being particularly challenging and demanding for mental health nurses (Murphy and McVey 2003, Bowers 2002, Wright, Haigh and McKeown 2007, Westwood and Baker 2010, Bodner et al 2015, Dickens et al 2015, Dickens et al 2016. Mixed methodology was used to profile nurses’ resilience in this environment, using a validated questionnaire. In-depth semi-structured interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). A concept analysis of resilience in this environment was developed using the data gathered in this way, synthesised with existing literature. The profile of resilience demonstrated that that the majority of the respondents felt in control, enjoy a challenge, work to achieve goals and take pride in their achievements. The characteristics of ‘hardiness’, ‘bounce back’ and ‘cognitive appraisal’ emerged as key characteristics associated with resilience. Four superordinate themes emerged from the analysis of the staff interviews: management of emotions, teamwork, understanding and work-life balance. The theme of management of emotions highlighted that boundaries were necessary, and it was essential not to get caught up in the patients’ emotions. ‘Giving care’ rather than caring personally was felt to be important. Team work emerged as a key issue, and involved the need to talk things over with trusted colleagues, the expectation that team members and managers would notice and intervene when someone appeared to be in need of support; and having managers who were approachable and available. The theme of understanding included an awareness of the nature of personality disorders and the effect this can have on interactions; and a need for reflection, supervision and coping with interpersonal challenges was highlighted. All of the participants spoke of the need for a work-life balance, making a conscious effort to keep the worlds of work and home separate, keeping physically healthy, and spending time with family and friends. This was embodied in the phrase ‘leaving it at the gate’ which was used to characterise the separation of the two worlds. A concept analysis of resilience was developed by synthesising new empirical data along with existing literature. The study developed a practice-based definition of resilience in the context of working with personality disordered patients in a secure environment, together with the identification of characteristics of the workplace environment that can assist with and facilitate the capacity for ‘bouncing back’. The three main findings of the study were that the constituents of resilience in this staff group are hardiness, bounce back and cognitive appraisal. This adds new perspectives about what helps staff to work positively with challenging patients in mental health nursing. These new contributions to knowledge and practice can be used by organisations to develop targeted interventions in promoting wellbeing at work, reducing work related stress, and aiding recruitment and retention. In secure environments mental health nurses need organisational support and assistance with developing ways of managing difficult experiences with patients, systems that promote recovery, and the educational and supervisory support to help understand and process the effects on them

Generation of Multivirus-specific T Cells to Prevent/treat Viral Infections after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant

Viral infections cause morbidity and mortality in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients. We and others have successfully generated and infused T-cells specific for Epstein Barr virus (EBV), cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Adenovirus (Adv) using monocytes and EBV-transformed lymphoblastoid cell (EBV-LCL) gene-modified with an adenovirus vector as antigen presenting cells (APCs). As few as 2x105/kg trivirus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) proliferated by several logs after infusion and appeared to prevent and treat even severe viral disease resistant to other available therapies. The broader implementation of this encouraging approach is limited by high production costs, complexity of manufacture and the prolonged time (4-6 weeks for EBV-LCL generation, and 4-8 weeks for CTL manufacture – total 10-14 weeks) for preparation. To overcome these limitations we have developed a new, GMP-compliant CTL production protocol. First, in place of adenovectors to stimulate T-cells we use dendritic cells (DCs) nucleofected with DNA plasmids encoding LMP2, EBNA1 and BZLF1 (EBV), Hexon and Penton (Adv), and pp65 and IE1 (CMV) as antigen-presenting cells. These APCs reactivate T cells specific for all the stimulating antigens. Second, culture of activated T-cells in the presence of IL-4 (1,000U/ml) and IL-7 (10ng/ml) increases and sustains the repertoire and frequency of specific T cells in our lines. Third, we have used a new, gas permeable culture device (G-Rex) that promotes the expansion and survival of large cell numbers after a single stimulation, thus removing the requirement for EBV-LCLs and reducing technician intervention. By implementing these changes we can now produce multispecific CTL targeting EBV, CMV, and Adv at a cost per 106 cells that is reduced by >90%, and in just 10 days rather than 10 weeks using an approach that may be extended to additional protective viral antigens. Our FDA-approved approach should be of value for prophylactic and treatment applications for high risk allogeneic HSCT recipients