Developing and modelling complex social interventions: introducing the Connecting People Intervention

Objectives: Modeling the processes involved in complex social interventions is important in social work practice, as it facilitates their implementation and translation into different contexts. This article reports the process of developing and modeling the connecting people intervention (CPI), a model of practice that supports people with mental health problems to enhance their social networks. Method: The CPI model was developed through an iterative process of focus group discussions with practitioners and service users and a two-stage Delphi consultation with relevant experts. Results: We discuss the intervention model and the processes it articulates to provide an example of the benefits of intervention modeling. Conclusions: Intervention modeling provides a visual representation of the process and outcomes of an intervention, which can assist practice development and lead to improved outcomes for service users

Explicit Discourse Connectives / Implicit Discourse Relations

While explicit discourse connectives can signal coherence relations, a common assumption is that only their absence or ambiguity necessitates relation inference. Using a crowdsourced conjunction completion task to collect 40K+ judgments on 50 discourse adverbials, we find this common assumption to be false. Instead, naive subjects systematically infer an implicit connective alongside an explicit discourse adverbial. But sometimes different subsets of subjects may each endorse different connectives. The size of these subsets means that such differences cannot be written off as error. Rather, they demonstrate how the coherence associated with explicit adverbials relates to coherence inferred between the clauses themselves

Cemetery Preservation Workshop: Public History at Work

The Ouachita Public History Program conducted a grant funded workshop in cemetery preservation for the public as an exercise in public history

Maine’s Potential to Be a Global Leader in Sustainable Seaweed Harvesting and Management

A multitude of macroalgae (i.e., seaweed) species that are harvested in Maine are economically and ecologically important. Currently, management of these resources in Maine is focused on rockweed (Ascophyllum nodosum). This seaweed grows in abundance along intertidal rocky shores and provides a number of benefits including serving as habitat and nursery for many species including fin-fish, coastal protection from storms and sea level rise, carbon sequestration, and is a harvestable natural resource used primarily in fertilizer and animal feed production. It is critical that these functions and benefits are maintained and harvesting activities managed to ensure a sustainable fishery and healthy ecosystem. In 2014, Maine drafted a rockweed fisheries management plan; however, this plan has yet to be adopted. The delay in adoption is now an opportunity to re-examine the plan from an ecosystem-based management (EBM) perspective. We compare EBM strategies to the existing rockweed fisheries management plan, and identify areas of synergy as well as gaps in the management of Maine’s seaweeds and harvesting activities. Based on this analysis we propose Maine adopt an EBM approach and strategies for wild as well as farmed seaweeds

Anti-Insulin Receptor Antibodies Improve Hyperglycemia in a Mouse Model of Human Insulin Receptoropathy.

Loss-of-function mutations in both alleles of the human insulin receptor gene (INSR) cause extreme insulin resistance (IR) and usually death in childhood, with few effective therapeutic options. Bivalent antireceptor antibodies can elicit insulin-like signaling by mutant INSR in cultured cells, but whether this translates into meaningful metabolic benefits in vivo, wherein the dynamics of insulin signaling and receptor recycling are more complex, is unknown. To address this, we adopted a strategy to model human insulin receptoropathy in mice, using Cre recombinase delivered by adeno-associated virus to knockout endogenous hepatic Insr acutely in floxed Insr mice (liver insulin receptor knockout [L-IRKO] + GFP), before adenovirus-mediated add back of wild-type (WT) or mutant human INSR Two murine anti-INSR monoclonal antibodies, previously shown to be surrogate agonists for mutant INSR, were then tested by intraperitoneal injections. As expected, L-IRKO + GFP mice showed glucose intolerance and severe hyperinsulinemia. This was fully corrected by add back of WT but not with either D734A or S350L mutant INSR. Antibody injection improved glucose tolerance in D734A INSR-expressing mice and reduced hyperinsulinemia in both S350L and D734A INSR-expressing animals. It did not cause hypoglycemia in WT INSR-expressing mice. Antibody treatment also downregulated both WT and mutant INSR protein, attenuating its beneficial metabolic effects. Anti-INSR antibodies thus improve IR in an acute model of insulin receptoropathy, but these findings imply a narrow therapeutic window determined by competing effects of antibodies to stimulate receptors and induce their downregulation

Engineering semiconductor nanowires for photodetection: From visible to terahertz

III-V semiconductor nanowires combine the properties of III-V materials with the unique advantages of the nanowire geometry, allowing efficient room temperature photodetection across a wide range of photon energies, from a few eV down to meV. For example, due to their nanoscale size, these show great promise as sub-wavelength terahertz (THz) detectors for near-field imaging or detecting elements within a highly integrated on-chip THz spectrometer. We discuss recent advances in engineering a number of sensitive photonic devices based on III-V nanowires, including InAs nanowires with tunable photoresponse, THz polarisers and THz detectors.The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant ACrossWire), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK), the Australian Research Council, and the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF). J. A. Alexander-Webber and H. J. Joyce especially thank the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 for their research fellowships