Exploring clinicians' experiences of working with people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.This study uses an explorative, qualitative design to sketch an understanding of clinicians’ experiences of working with BPD, including their instrumental knowledge of the disorder, their personal experiences of working with people diagnosed with BPD and the impact of the apparent stigmatisation of BPD on the participants’ conceptualisation of the disorder and on the therapeutic relationship with a BPD patient. Nine clinicians, who have had direct experience of working with BPD patients were interviewed using semi-structured interviews

Manipulation of the follicular phase: Uterodomes and pregnancy - is there a correlation?

BACKGROUND: Manipulation of the follicular phase uterine epithelium in women undergoing infertility treatment, has not generally shown differing morphological effects on uterine epithelial characteristics using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and resultant pregnancy rates have remained suboptimal utilising these manipulations. The present study observed manipulation of the proliferative epithelium, with either 7 or 14 days of sequential oestrogen (E) therapy followed by progesterone (P) and assessed the appearance of pinopods (now called uterodomes) for their usefulness as potential implantation markers in seven women who subsequently became pregnant. Three endometrial biopsies per patient were taken during consecutive cycles: day 19 of a natural cycle - (group 1), days 11/12 of a second cycle after 7 days E then P - (group 2), and days 19/22 of a third cycle after 14 days E then P - (group 3). Embryo transfer (ET) was performed in a subsequent long treatment cycle (as per Group 3). RESULTS: Seven pregnancies resulted in seven viable births including one twins and one miscarriage. Analysis of the individual regimes showed 5 days of P treatment to have a higher correlation for uterodomes in all 3 cycles observed individually. It was also observed that all 7 women demonstrated the appearance of uterodomes in at least one of their cycles. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that manipulation of the follicular phase by shortening the period of E exposure to 7 days, does not compromise uterine epithelial morphology and we add weight to the conclusion that uterodomes indicate a receptive endometrium for implantation

Journey to the Flat Side: dualism, subdominants, stacked fourths, pentatonics, and the ‘musical left’

My dissertation examines several interconnected binaries in music theory: flat/sharp, subdominant/dominant, and minor/major. Traditional theory positions the marked member of each pair (flat, subdominant, and minor, respectively) conceptually LEFT, DOWN and OUTSIDE of the privileged term (sharp, dominant, and major), leading to further marginalization. In my theoretical, historical, analytical and aesthetic inquiry into the ‘musical left,’ I take on Riemannian dualism, mirroring, flat side transformations, stacked fourths, and the pentatonic scale. My deconstruction of 19th century major-minor dualism reveals the surprising “Othering” of the minor mode. Mirroring—from fugues to Riemannian dualism—cannot fully integrate with a ground-up, hierarchical practice like tonality; twentieth-century atonal musics constitute better vehicles for sustained, pure inversions. Unlike ‘structural’ authentic cadences, the subdominant is analyzed by Schenkerians as ‘surface-level’ embellishment, but I assert that composers use autonomous applied plagals to go the ‘wrong way’ around the circle of fifths. In contrast to applied dominants, secondary subdominants—the flatted seventh double plagal, the triple plagal “backdoor” cadence, and the flatted sixth quadruple subdominant—have rarely been studied. For composers of these structures, going flat serves revolutionary ends. Stacked fourths—commonly misinterpreted as purposeless for their tendency to “plane” non-functionally—are used by McCoy Tyner in “Blues on the Corner” to target the subdominant in what I term a “trapdoor cadence.” My taxonomy of stacked fourth chords leads to an analysis of Paul Hindemith’s ic-5 crossing over in Mathis der Maler. Motion in the flat direction is usually right to left—that is, it represents tracking back to the tonic-in-the-past, but by traveling 23 steps into the flatside, Hindemith transforms the past into the future. Quartals are the ideal vehicle for this kind of time travel, for they represent both the past (rustic antiquity) and the future (technological progress). Some theorists and composers have treated the ic-5/7 pentatonic scale as ‘incomplete’ or primitive, but I present compositions, such as John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, that use segmented pentatonics as building blocks for ic-5 cyclic completion. Since pentatonic melodies are commonly accompanied by non-pentatonic harmonies (the so-called “melodic-harmonic divorce”), I propose a system of melodic-harmonic differentiation, as practiced by African-American musicians. I believe that this refusal to succumb to organic unity mimics heterophony, in which the individual stands out from the group

Journey to the Flat Side: dualism, subdominants, stacked fourths, pentatonics, and the ‘musical left’

My dissertation examines several interconnected binaries in music theory: flat/sharp, subdominant/dominant, and minor/major. Traditional theory positions the marked member of each pair (flat, subdominant, and minor, respectively) conceptually LEFT, DOWN and OUTSIDE of the privileged term (sharp, dominant, and major), leading to further marginalization. In my theoretical, historical, analytical and aesthetic inquiry into the ‘musical left,’ I take on Riemannian dualism, mirroring, flat side transformations, stacked fourths, and the pentatonic scale. My deconstruction of 19th century major-minor dualism reveals the surprising “Othering” of the minor mode. Mirroring—from fugues to Riemannian dualism—cannot fully integrate with a ground-up, hierarchical practice like tonality; twentieth-century atonal musics constitute better vehicles for sustained, pure inversions. Unlike ‘structural’ authentic cadences, the subdominant is analyzed by Schenkerians as ‘surface-level’ embellishment, but I assert that composers use autonomous applied plagals to go the ‘wrong way’ around the circle of fifths. In contrast to applied dominants, secondary subdominants—the flatted seventh double plagal, the triple plagal “backdoor” cadence, and the flatted sixth quadruple subdominant—have rarely been studied. For composers of these structures, going flat serves revolutionary ends. Stacked fourths—commonly misinterpreted as purposeless for their tendency to “plane” non-functionally—are used by McCoy Tyner in “Blues on the Corner” to target the subdominant in what I term a “trapdoor cadence.” My taxonomy of stacked fourth chords leads to an analysis of Paul Hindemith’s ic-5 crossing over in Mathis der Maler. Motion in the flat direction is usually right to left—that is, it represents tracking back to the tonic-in-the-past, but by traveling 23 steps into the flatside, Hindemith transforms the past into the future. Quartals are the ideal vehicle for this kind of time travel, for they represent both the past (rustic antiquity) and the future (technological progress). Some theorists and composers have treated the ic-5/7 pentatonic scale as ‘incomplete’ or primitive, but I present compositions, such as John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, that use segmented pentatonics as building blocks for ic-5 cyclic completion. Since pentatonic melodies are commonly accompanied by non-pentatonic harmonies (the so-called “melodic-harmonic divorce”), I propose a system of melodic-harmonic differentiation, as practiced by African-American musicians. I believe that this refusal to succumb to organic unity mimics heterophony, in which the individual stands out from the group