Through Their Lens: The Potential of Photovice for Documentation of Environmental Perspectives among Kenyan Teachers

This study explores the potential of photovoice for understanding environmental perspectives of teachers in the Narok District of Kenya. The objective of this paper is to share this photo-methodology with environmental educators so they may use it as an innovative methodological tool to understand the construction of environmental perspectives. The researchers analyzed the digital images and the accompanying narratives for themes emerging for each of the key terms. The researchers utilized Critical Visual Methodology to guide the data analysis. Each photograph was coded according to its site of audiencing (including both compositionality and social modalities). The themes - shares local knowledge, documents context, documents knowledge emerged from the participants’ photovoice. The researchers theorize this tool illustrated the ways in which this community valued the environment, their community, and the ways in which they conceptualize the solutions

A Randomized, Double-Blinded, Phase II Trial of Gemcitabine and Nab-Paclitaxel Plus Apatorsen or Placebo in Patients with Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer: The RAINIER Trial.

Lessons learnedThe addition of the heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27)-targeting antisense oligonucleotide, apatorsen, to a standard first-line chemotherapy regimen did not result in improved survival in unselected patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.Findings from this trial hint at the possible prognostic and predictive value of serum Hsp27 that may warrant further investigation.BackgroundThis randomized, double-blinded, phase II trial evaluated the efficacy of gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel plus either apatorsen, an antisense oligonucleotide targeting heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27) mRNA, or placebo in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.MethodsPatients were randomized 1:1 to Arm A (gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel plus apatorsen) or Arm B (gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel plus placebo). Treatment was administered in 28-day cycles, with restaging every 2 cycles, until progression or intolerable toxicity. Serum Hsp27 levels were analyzed at baseline and on treatment. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS).ResultsOne hundred thirty-two patients were enrolled, 66 per arm. Cytopenias and fatigue were the most frequent grade 3/4 treatment-related adverse events for both arms. Median progression-free survival (PFS) and OS were 2.7 and 5.3 months, respectively, for arm A, and 3.8 and 6.9 months, respectively, for arm B. Objective response rate was 18% for both arms. Patients with high serum level of Hsp27 represented a poor-prognosis subgroup who may have derived modest benefit from addition of apatorsen.ConclusionAddition of apatorsen to chemotherapy does not improve outcomes in unselected patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer in the first-line setting, although a trend toward prolonged PFS and OS in patients with high baseline serum Hsp27 suggests this therapy may warrant further evaluation in this subgroup

Bottom sediments of Lake Rotoma

Lake Rotoma is a deep (70-80 m), oligotrophic, warm monomictic lake of volcanic origin with insignificant stream inflow and no clearly defined outflow. For at least 60 years up to 1972 the lake level fluctuated markedly about an overall rising trend of some 6-10 m. Nearshore profiles are related to the prevailing wave climate superimposed upon the overall rising lake level, shelves being wider, less steep, and deeper about the more exposed eastern and southern shorelines. The outer portions of shelves extending well below modern storm wave base into waters as deep as 15-25 m are relict features from lower lake level stands. Sediments fine from sand-gravel mixtures nearshore to silts in basinal areas. Their composition reflects a composite provenance involving the lavas and tephras about the lake, as well as intralake diatom frustules and organic matter. The distribution pattern of surficial bottom sediments is an interplay between grains of both biological and terrigenous origin, supplied presently and in the past by a variety of processes, that have been dispersed either by the modern hydrodynamic regime or by former ones associated with lower lake levels. These interrelationships are structured by erecting 5 process-age sediment classes in the lake, namely neoteric, amphoteric, proteric, palimpsest, and relict sediments, analogous to categories postulated for sediments on oceanic continental shelves. Short-core stratigraphy includes the Kaharoa (A.D. -1020) and Tarawera (A.D. 1886) tephras. The rates of sedimentation of diatomaceous silts in basinal areas have more than doubled since the Tarawera eruption, indicating an overall increase in the fertility level of lake waters associated, perhaps, with recent farm development in the catchment

A Face with a View

This thesis serves to examine my practice as a visual artist. In its contents I consider both the internal image and the external image and the constant negotiation that happens between these two sets of images. What comes to represent the internal is my own image, in particular, my face. What comes to represent the external are prevailing images of socially idealized beauty. Likewise, I argue that the face becomes especially important in this negotiation as it is the intersection between the internal and the external; the self and the social. Using artists such as Vito Acconci, Orlan, and Andy Warhol, as well as other thinkers such as Jean Baudrillard, Judith Butler, David Byrne, Amelia Jones, Carl Jung, Jacques Lacan, Susan Stewart, Kurt Vonnegut and Brian Wilson, I assert that what makes my artistic images powerful is simply my willingness to enact and display a kind of tangible struggle that is absent from these external images

Caregivers’ interactions with health care services: mediator of stress or added strain? Experiences and perceptions of informal caregivers of people with dementia: a qualitative study

Background: There are an estimated 46.8 million people worldwide living with dementia in 2015, being cared for usually by family members or friends (informal caregivers). The challenges faced by informal caregivers often lead to increased levels of stress, burden and risk of care-recipient institutionalisation. Aim: The overarching aim of this study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of informal caregivers of people with dementia when interacting with the health care system, and whether the support received acted as a mediator of caregiver stress. The secondary aim was to investigate healthcare professionals’ views and current practice regarding people with dementia and their interactions with informal caregivers. Method: We employed a qualitative research design, using focus groups and one face-to-face interview with a purposive sample of informal caregivers and healthcare professionals (HCPs) in Lincolnshire, UK. Data were collected between March and July 2015. We used the stress-process model of stress in caregivers as a theoretical framework. Results: We interviewed 18 caregivers and 17 HCPs. Five themes, mapped to the stress-process in caregivers’ model, captured the main challenges faced by caregivers and the type of support they wanted from health care services. Primary stressors included the challenge of diagnosing dementia; caregivers’ needs and expectations of an in-depth knowledge and understanding of dementia from HCPs; and need for carer education. Secondary role strain included lack of support and mismatch of communication and expectations. Caregiver involvement in monitoring care and disease was a potential mediator tool. Conclusions: Fragmentation of dementia care services, lack of training for HCPs and the dearth of information for caregivers means health care services are only partially fulfilling a support role. In turn, lack of support may be intensifying caregiver stress leading to worsening in their health and well-being; thus, potentially increasing the risk of institutionalisation of their care-recipient

Performance loss of proton exchange membrane fuel cell due to hydrophobicity loss in gas diffusion layer: Analysis by multiscale approach combining pore network and performance modelling

Loss of hydrophobicity in the gas diffusion layers (GDL) is sometimes suggested as a potential mechanism to explain in part the performance loss of PEMFC. The present study proposes a numerical methodology to analyse this effect by combining pore network modelling (PNM) and performance modelling (PM): the PNM/PM approach. PNM allows simulating the decrease of through-plane gas diffusion coefficient in the GDL as a function of the hydrophobicity loss, which is taken into account through the increase in the fraction of hydrophilic pores in GDL. Then PM based on Darcy equations allows simulating performance loss of PEMFC as a function of gas diffusion decay. This coupling shows that the loss of hydrophobic treatment increases flooding, decreases performance, and increases current density heterogeneities between inlet and outlet of the cell. Interestingly, this degradation is found to be highly non-linear, mainly because of the non-linear influence of the fraction of hydrophilic pores on gas diffusion (this is due to the existence of a percolation threshold associated with the hydrophilic pore sub-network) as well as the non-linear behaviour of electrochemistry with gas diffusion. This study also shows that the loss of hydrophobicity in a GDL is a very suitable candidate to explain performance loss rates that are classically observed during long-term tests. The proposed methodology may also help linking other local properties of components to fuel cell global performance

Berkeley Supernova Ia Program I: Observations, Data Reduction, and Spectroscopic Sample of 582 Low-Redshift Type Ia Supernovae

In this first paper in a series we present 1298 low-redshift (z\leq0.2) optical spectra of 582 Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) observed from 1989 through 2008 as part of the Berkeley SN Ia Program (BSNIP). 584 spectra of 199 SNe Ia have well-calibrated light curves with measured distance moduli, and many of the spectra have been corrected for host-galaxy contamination. Most of the data were obtained using the Kast double spectrograph mounted on the Shane 3 m telescope at Lick Observatory and have a typical wavelength range of 3300-10,400 Ang., roughly twice as wide as spectra from most previously published datasets. We present our observing and reduction procedures, and we describe the resulting SN Database (SNDB), which will be an online, public, searchable database containing all of our fully reduced spectra and companion photometry. In addition, we discuss our spectral classification scheme (using the SuperNova IDentification code, SNID; Blondin & Tonry 2007), utilising our newly constructed set of SNID spectral templates. These templates allow us to accurately classify our entire dataset, and by doing so we are able to reclassify a handful of objects as bona fide SNe Ia and a few other objects as members of some of the peculiar SN Ia subtypes. In fact, our dataset includes spectra of nearly 90 spectroscopically peculiar SNe Ia. We also present spectroscopic host-galaxy redshifts of some SNe Ia where these values were previously unknown. [Abridged]Comment: 34 pages, 11 figures, 11 tables, revised version, re-submitted to MNRAS. Spectra will be released in January 2013. The SN Database homepage (http://hercules.berkeley.edu/database/index_public.html) contains the full tables, plots of all spectra, and our new SNID template