Emerging communities of child-healthcare practice in the management of long-term conditions such as chronic kidney disease: Qualitative study of parents' accounts

Background: Parents of children and young people with long-term conditions who need to deliver clinical care to their child at home with remote support from hospital-based professionals, often search the internet for care-giving information. However, there is little evidence that the information available online was developed and evaluated with parents or that it acknowledges the communities of practice that exist as parents and healthcare professionals share responsibility for condition management. Methods. The data reported here are part of a wider study that developed and tested a condition-specific, online parent information and support application with children and young people with chronic-kidney disease, parents and professionals. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 fathers and 24 mothers who had recently tested the novel application. Data were analysed using Framework Analysis and the Communities of Practice concept. Results: Evolving communities of child-healthcare practice were identified comprising three components and several sub components: (1) Experiencing (parents making sense of clinical tasks) through Normalising care, Normalising illness, Acceptance & action, Gaining strength from the affected child and Building relationships to formalise a routine; (2) Doing (Parents executing tasks according to their individual skills) illustrated by Developing coping strategies, Importance of parents' efficacy of care and Fear of the child's health failing; and (3) Belonging/Becoming (Parents defining task and group members' worth and creating a personal identity within the community) consisting of Information sharing, Negotiation with health professionals and Achieving expertise in care. Parents also recalled factors affecting the development of their respective communities of healthcare practice; these included Service transition, Poor parent social life, Psycho-social affects, Family chronic illness, Difficulty in learning new procedures, Shielding and avoidance, and Language and cultural barriers. Health care professionals will benefit from using the communities of child-healthcare practice model when they support parents of children with chronic kidney disease. Conclusions: Understanding some of the factors that may influence the development of communities of child-healthcare practice will help professionals to tailor information and support for parents learning to manage their child's healthcare. Our results are potentially transferrable to professionals managing the care of children and young people with other long-term conditions. © 2014 Carolan et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

NASA Lewis 8 by 6 foot supersonic wind tunnel

Performance data are presented for the tunnel, which has a Mach number range from 0.36 to 2.0. The tunnel circuit, test section, model support systems, auxiliary systems, instrumentation, control room equipment, and automatic recording and computing equipment are also described. Information is presented on criteria for designing models and on shop facilities available to prospective users

TOWARD ASSESSING THE NON-MARKET BENEFITS OF EXPERIMENT STATION RESEARCH: A CASE STUDY OF PUBLIC PREFERENCES FOR AES RESEARCH IN RHODE ISLAND

This study reports on a survey assessment of the public preferences for the Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station's research program. The study summarizes preferences to allocate effort to alternative research projects and estimates the public's willingness to pay to maintain or increase research effort.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Water, women and local social organization in the Western Kenya highlands

Safe water is widely recognized as both a fundamental human need and a key input into economic activity. Across the developing world, the typical approach to addressing these needs is to segregate supplies of water for domestic use from water for large-scale agricultural production. In that arrangement, the goal of domestic water supply is to provide small amounts of clean safe water for direct consumption, cleaning, bathing and sanitation, while the goal of agricultural water supply is to provide large amounts of lower quality water for irrigated agriculture. A new third use of water is now being given more attention by researchers: small amounts of water employed in selected household enterprises. This third use may be particularly important for women. There is a potential, therefore, that provision of modest amounts of water to smallholder farmers can enhance household economic production, save labor time for women and girls, and improve family health. This paper adds to the merger literature on the multiple values of improved water supplies – improved health, time savings, and small-scale production for individual farmers and collectives – for the case of a rural community in the western highlands of Kenya. With minimum external support, two groups in this community have managed to install and operate systems of spring protection and piped water to their members’ homesteads. A third group is in the process of replicating this success. The experience of this community also illustrates some of the challenges that must be faced for a community to effectively selforganize the investment and maintenance of a community-based water scheme. There are challenges of finance, gender relations, conflicts over scarce water supplies, group leadership, enforcement of community bi-laws, and policy. Data from a census of springs in the same area show that successful collective action for water management is unusual, but certainly not unique, in this region of Kenya. Although women emerge as the main beneficiaries of improved water management in the community, their substantial contributions are largely hidden behind social norms regarding gender roles and relations. Research methods need to carefully triangulate information sources in order to clarify the very substantial and active roles performed by women.Length: 21p.WomenGenderWater supplyWater rightsHealthCollective actionParticipatory management

MIDI Electronic Wind Instrument: A Study of the Instrument and Selected Works

The development of the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) electronic wind instrument (EWI) stemmed from earlier electronic instruments including analog/digital synthesizers, earlier control devices (Lyricon), and electronic instruments using a blow tube trigger generator (Yamaha WX) or breath controllers (Yamaha BC). Developing such devices began as early as the 1940s and were originally intended for compositional use instead of performance. However, the technology of electro-acoustic sounds continued to expand commercially from the 1950s through the 1970s, including more general access to sound synthesis and live performance. Various companies including Yamaha, Akai, Moog, Korg, and others would establish lines of synthesizers that shaped the music instrument industry throughout the rest of the century. During the 1970s, the technology used only allowed each company\u27s devices to communicate with those of the same brand and not others. This incompatibility would be resolved with the introduction of MIDI in 1983. MIDI is the current industry standard in compatible synthesizer technology and allows a musician to connect devices from different companies, as they communicate using the same signals. The EWI is uniquely designed so that it is accessible to a musician with prior experience on selected woodwind instruments. Many musicians including Michael Brecker and Bob Mintzer have performed on the EWI in addition to saxophone. During the mid-1980s, classical composers took interest in the instrument and composed specifically for the EWI. Some musicians believed that this would be the instrument of the future. However, this notion has faded away over the years. There is only a limited amount of classical music written for the EWI, primarily within a brief span between the late 1980s and early 1990s.;The document serves as a resource for teachers, students, and composers interested in studying the EWI. This presents a brief history of the EWI; performance analysis of selected works; and a guide to the instrument\u27s western art-music repertoire, recordings, technical specifications, and pedagogy. Works by Leonard V. Ball, Marilyn Shrude, Gil Trythall, and William Moylan are studied in this document, exploring techniques and solving possible issues a performer may encounter when learning the EWI repertoire. The detailed information provided the selected works may be beneficial for those seeking to perform works dedicated to the EWI. Since there are many technical components involved with the EWI, the author provides instruction on using these devices: MIDI tone generator, mixer, computer, and cable configurations. Tone generators studied include the Yamaha WT11, Yamaha TG55, and Korg Wavestation. All examples in this document are examined through the lens of the Yamaha WX5 EWI, covering its specifications and adaption to the selected works. A comprehensive fingering chart is included as a supplement. In addition to the examined works, this author has compiled a list of western art-music repertoire that includes pertinent information for each piece: composer, duration, composition date, specified equipment, publisher/contact, and library via WorldCat (OCLC). The compiled list of recordings consists of a combination of sources that may be obtained in both a tangible format (i.e. tape, CD) and/or online source (i.e. YouTube, SoundCloud)