Your Humble Servant Shows Himself: Don Saltero and Public Coffeehouse Space

In 1695, James Salter, who fashioned himself as “Don Saltero,” opened a coffeehouse on a respectable corner in Chelsea. The chief attraction of the coffeehouse, from Salter’s point of view, was the array of natural science detritus and colonial souvenirs displayed on the walls and ceiling. For the price of a cup of coffee, patrons could view the immensity of England’s global grasp, and ponder the bizarre workings of far-away lands and the earth’s creatures. What is noteworthy about Salter’s collection, however, is not the oddities on display—and there were many—but that his collection overlapped considerably with that of the esteemed collection held by Sir Hans Sloane, whose natural science collection became the basis for the British Museum. One collection was marked for Science and Knowledge in a museum; the other for Entertainment and Amusement in a coffeehouse. Coffeehouse space provided the foil for museum space. Taken together, they provide a significant narrative of the British empire, masculinity, and the formation of scientific hegemony in the modern era. This cultural studies analysis examines the role played by these two dissimilar men and their similar collections, their roles in British society, and the spaces they inhabited. Ultimately the paper suggests that overdetermined cultural pressures ensured that the realms of science and entertainment remained polar opposites in British modern culture, constituting competing epistemological formations

The cognitive and personality profile of successful and unsuccessful engineering students

M.A. (Counselling Psychology)Please refer to full text to view abstrac

Preconception Care - Issues Paper

The evidence for the link between maternal risk factors (including smoking, obesity, alcohol use and maternal mental health) and perinatal morbidity and mortality rates among Australian women is clear. There is also a growing body of evidence that Indigenous women are significantly more likely than their non-Indigenous counterparts to be impacted by these risk factors. Risk factors originate from genetic, environmental and behavioural factors. In alignment with the Health and Social Policy Branch’s Strategic Plan, Healthy, Safe and Well, the purpose of this paper is to focus on those risk factors that have a behavioural element and can, therefore, be modified, or impacted by strategies to minimise associated harms. Smoking in pregnancy has been highlighted as the most significant preventable cause of morbidity and death among women and infants. The risk of smoking increases among Indigenous and other disadvantaged women. A combination of policy and social marketing interventions involving comprehensive bans on advertising and sponsorship, tobacco price increases, bans on smoking in work and public places, health warnings on packs, mass media, QUIT telephone coaching and monitoring by a physician have been found to be most effective. Trends in nutrition, physical activity and obesity suggest a need for greater awareness and education of women in their reproductive years, prior to conception. Given women who are overweight or obese at conception are at increased risk of excessive gestational weight gain, parenting education and the setting of weight management goals have had some traction in antenatal care, however, the success of such programs relies on regular attendance and health practitioner skill. Although targeted health promotion interventions have increased acceptance of the importance of a healthy diet and exercise, many health practitioners lack skills to manage the problem, and evidence of the efficacy of such interventions in achieving reductions in obesity at the population level is lacking. Aboriginal women are at increased risk of obesity and government support for culturally appropriate programs targeting lifestyle behaviours and supporting health eating and physical activity in local communities have the potential to impact positively. Alcohol consumption among young women and pregnant women in NSW represents a significant risk factor potentially impacting the unborn fetus. Whilst the proportion of women engaged in heavy drinking in pregnancy is low, the adverse outcomes (including FASD) of heavy gestational alcohol consumption and the lack of evidence around safe levels of consumption highlight the issue as a high public health priority. Mandatory labelling of alcohol products and training of health professionals have been proposed as best practice interventions, in combination with addressing issues of pricing and taxation and advocating abstinence from drinking during pregnancy. The estimated prevalence of harmful drinking in Indigenous populations is twice that of non-Indigenous populations and the normalisation of harmful consumption highlights the need to target Indigenous populations, Aboriginal Medical Services (AMS) and Aboriginal clinicians to give health practitioners the skills and resources needed to advocate for reduced alcohol consumption in pre-pregnancy. Key components of effective interventions targeting Aboriginal women and health practitioners in contact with women in preconception and pregnancy are interactive community-based education, culturally appropriate printed resources and ongoing community engagement. Maternal mental health issues are estimated to affect 10-15% of women in high income countries during the perinatal period. Policy frameworks in NSW reflect recognition of the need for greater awareness of maternal mental health and the requirement to integrate programs that provide support for women’s well-being in the antenatal and postnatal phase into policy, planning and delivery of health services. An evidence-based health home visiting program called Sustaining NSW Families, developed for the identification and treatment of women at risk of antenatal and postnatal depression, has been found to be effective as an early intervention tool. Factors impacting the health and well-being of Aboriginal people include spirituality, the relationship with family, land and culture and these factors are all intertwined. Programs targeting these women need to be culturally appropriate, driven by the community and run by a workforce who understands the psycho-social risks resulting from intergenerational trauma.Health and Social Policy Branch, NSW Ministry of Healt

The role of culture and diversity in the prevention of falls among older Chinese people

Original article can be found at : http://journals.cambridge.org/ Copyright Canadian Association on GerontologyThis grounded-theory study explored the perceptions of Chinese older people, living in England, on falls and fear of falling, and identified facilitators and barriers to fall prevention interventions. With a sample of 30 Chinese older people, we conducted two focus groups and 10 in-depth interviews in Mandarin or Cantonese. Interview transcripts, back translated, were analyzed using N6. Constant comparative analysis highlighted a range of health-seeking behaviors after a fall: Chinese older people were reluctant to use formal health services; talking about falls was avoided; older people hid falls from their adult children to avoid worrying them; and fatalistic views about falls and poor knowledge about availability and content of interventions were prevalent. Cost of interventions was important. Chinese older adults valued their independence, and cultural intergenerational relations had an impact on taking action to prevent falls. Cultural diversity affects older adults’ acceptance of fall prevention interventions.Peer reviewe

A Graphical, Orbital Gravity Simulator for Planetarium

The planetarium director at Kutztown University has expressed interest in having a way to allow public attendees to control a game-like, graphical gravity simulation on the dome. The present project is the design and implementation of that system, with attendees using hand-held Android tablets as controllers for the projected graphical simulator. Novel aspects of this proposal include the creation of an interdisciplinary team project from two or more disciplines, and design, construction, deployment, and support of a set of graphical applications to be used in a planetarium or similar immersive environment. The poster illustrates the animated orbit of planets around their star and highlights the graphical Android user interface and the user experience. The presentation also includes an interactive demo using a laptop and an Android tablet

The tRNAscan-SE, snoscan and snoGPS web servers for the detection of tRNAs and snoRNAs

Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are two of the largest classes of non-protein-coding RNAs. Conventional gene finders that detect protein-coding genes do not find tRNA and snoRNA genes because they lack the codon structure and statistical signatures of protein-coding genes. Previously, we developed tRNAscan-SE, snoscan and snoGPS for the detection of tRNAs, methylation-guide snoRNAs and pseudouridylation-guide snoRNAs, respectively. tRNAscan-SE is routinely applied to completed genomes, resulting in the identification of thousands of tRNA genes. Snoscan has successfully detected methylation-guide snoRNAs in a variety of eukaryotes and archaea, and snoGPS has identified novel pseudouridylation-guide snoRNAs in yeast and mammals. Although these programs have been quite successful at RNA gene detection, their use has been limited by the need to install and configure the software packages on UNIX workstations. Here, we describe online implementations of these RNA detection tools that make these programs accessible to a wider range of research biologists. The tRNAscan-SE, snoscan and snoGPS servers are available at , and , respectively

Ethnicity or cultural group identity of pregnant women in Sydney, Australia: is country of birth a reliable proxy measure?

Background: Australia has one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse maternal populations in the world. Routinely few variables are recorded in clinical data or health research to capture this diversity. This paper explores and how pregnant women, Australian-born and overseas-born, respond to survey questions on ethnicity or a cultural group identity, and whether country of birth is a reliable proxy measure. Methods: Frequency tabulations and inductive qualitative analysis of data from two questions on country of birth, and identification with an ethnicity or cultural group from a larger survey of pregnant women attending public antenatal clinics across four hospitals in Sydney, Australia. Results: Responses varied widely among the 762 with 75 individual cultural groups or ethnicities and 68 countries of birth reported. For Australian-born women (n=293), 23% identified with a cultural group or ethnicity, and 77% did not. For overseas-born women (n=469), 44% identified with a cultural group or ethnicity and 56% did not. Responses were coded under five emerging themes. Conclusions: Ethnicity and cultural group identity are complex concepts; women across and within countries of birth identified differently. Over three quarters of Australian-born, and over half of over-seas born women, reported no ethnicity or cultural group identity, indicating country of birth is not a reliable measure for identifying diversity. Researchers should scrutinise research questions and data usage, policy makers consider the complexity of ethnicity or cultural group identity, and the limitations of a single variable measure to identify ethnically and culturally diverse pregnant women and deliver woman-centred care.NHMR

Examining hope as a transdiagnostic mechanism of change across anxiety disorders and CBT treatment protocols.

Hope is a trait that represents the capacity to identify strategies or pathways to achieve goals and the motivation or agency to effectively pursue those pathways. Hope has been demonstrated to be a robust source of resilience to anxiety and stress and there is limited evidence that, as has been suggested for decades, hope may function as a core process or transdiagnostic mechanism of change in psychotherapy. The current study examined the role of hope in predicting recovery in a clinical trial in which 223 individuals with 1 of 4 anxiety disorders were randomized to transdiagnostic cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), disorder-specific CBT, or a waitlist controlled condition. Effect size results indicated moderate to large intraindividual increases in hope, that changes in hope were consistent across the five CBT treatment protocols, that changes in hope were significantly greater in CBT relative to waitlist, and that changes in hope began early in treatment. Results of growth curve analyses indicated that CBT was a robust predictor of trajectories of change in hope compared to waitlist, and that changes in hope predicted changes in both self-reported and clinician-rated anxiety. Finally, a statistically significant indirect effect was found indicating that the effects of treatment on changes in anxiety were mediated by treatment effects on hope. Together, these results suggest that hope may be a promising transdiagnostic mechanism of change that is relevant across anxiety disorders and treatment protocols.R01 MH090053 - NIMH NIH HHSAccepted manuscrip

Testing a health research instrument to develop a statewide survey on maternity care

Partnerships between researchers and end users are an important strategy for research uptake in policy and practice. This paper describes how collaboration between an academic research organisation (the Kolling Institute) and a government performance reporting agency (the NSW Bureau of Health Information (BHI)), contributed to the development of a new statewide maternity care survey for NSW.NHMR