Making Sense of Shame in Response to Racism

Some people of colour feel shame in response to racist incidents. This phenomenon seems puzzling since, plausibly, they have nothing to feel shame about. This puzzle arises because we assume that targets of racism feel shame about their race. However, I propose that when an individual is racialised as non-White in a racist incident, shame is sometimes prompted, not by a negative self-assessment of her race, but by her inability to choose when her stigmatised race is made salient. I argue that this can make sense of some shame responses to racism. My account also helps to highlight some of the emotional and cognitive costs of racism that have their root in shame as well as a new form of hermeneutical injustice and distinctive communicative harms, contributing to a fuller picture of what is objectionable about racism

Does religious faith make people healthier and happier?

As immigrants from around the world have joined Australia’s cultural mix, an inevitable rise in religious diversity has followed. But has this made for a healthier society? A recent VicHealth study showed that while religion can protect against illness, religious discrimination can harm health. This has led to a renewed call to embrace and respect religious diversity

Community health workers and stand-alone or integrated case management of malaria: a systematic literature review.

A systematic literature review was conducted to assess the effectiveness of strategies to improve community case management (CCM) of malaria. Forty-three studies were included; most (38) reported indicators of community health worker (CHW) performance, 14 reported on malaria CCM integrated with other child health interventions, 16 reported on health system capacity, and 13 reported on referral. The CHWs are able to provide good quality malaria care, including performing procedures such as rapid diagnostic tests. Appropriate training, clear guidelines, and regular supportive supervision are important facilitating factors. Crucial to sustainable success of CHW programs is strengthening health system capacity to support commodity supply, supervision, and appropriate treatment of referred cases. The little evidence available on referral from community to health facility level suggests that this is an area that needs priority attention. The studies of integrated CCM suggest that additional tasks do not reduce the quality of malaria CCM provided sufficient training and supervision is maintained

Mapping aerial metal deposition in metropolitan areas from tree bark : a case study in Sheffield, England

We investigated the use of metals accumulated on tree bark for mapping their deposition across metropolitan Sheffield by sampling 642 trees of three common species. Mean concentrations of metals were generally an order of magnitude greater than in samples from a remote uncontaminated site. We found trivially small differences among tree species with respect to metal concentrations on bark, and in subsequent statistical analyses did not discriminate between them. We mapped the concentrations of As, Cd and Ni by lognormal universal kriging using parameters estimated by residual maximum likelihood ({\sc reml}). The concentrations of Ni and Cd were greatest close to a large steel works, their probable source, and declined markedly within 500~metres of it and from there more gradually over several kilometres. Arsenic was much more evenly distributed, probably as a result of locally mined coal burned in domestic fires for many years. Tree bark seems to integrate airborne pollution over time, and our findings show that sampling and analysing it are cost-effective means of mapping and identifying sources

In Vitro Scaffold Construction for a Bio-artificial Liver

The main focus of this investigation is to design a scaffold that will accommodate a growing Bio-Artificial Liver (BAL) with oxygen. The two design objectives are to find the maximum length and the distance between the artificial capillaries of the scaffold to provide adequate oxygen supply above 1.98 x 10-19 g/um3 to prevent hypoxia to the growing liver tissues. By utilizing industrial modeling software, FIDAP and GAMBIT, a model of a single capillary with liver tissue attached directly was constructed to simulate the oxygen delivery by means of diffusion and convection from the capillary wall to the tissue and the uptake by metabolism. From the results obtained, it was concluded that diffusion, not convection of the oxygen flow within the capillary was the dominant process of oxygen transport throughout the tissue. The maximum distance traveled into the tissue with capillary length of 60 ?m was 147 ?m from the capillary at the inlet side of the tissue while diffusion at the outlet tissue was at a modest 108 ?m. These values are unacceptable for the feasible construction of oxygen transport system solely based on diffusion. Thus, this investigation concludes that novel methods of greater complexity are needed to construct a more efficient and economically applicable oxygen delivery system for the mass production of bio-organs

The role of the basic state in the ENSO-monsoon relationship and implications for predictability

The impact of systematic model errors on a coupled simulation of the Asian Summer monsoon and its interannual variability is studied. Although the mean monsoon climate is reasonably well captured, systematic errors in the equatorial Pacific mean that the monsoon-ENSO teleconnection is rather poorly represented in the GCM. A system of ocean-surface heat flux adjustments is implemented in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans in order to reduce the systematic biases. In this version of the GCM, the monsoon-ENSO teleconnection is better simulated, particularly the lag-lead relationships in which weak monsoons precede the peak of El Nino. In part this is related to changes in the characteristics of El Nino, which has a more realistic evolution in its developing phase. A stronger ENSO amplitude in the new model version also feeds back to further strengthen the teleconnection. These results have important implications for the use of coupled models for seasonal prediction of systems such as the monsoon, and suggest that some form of flux correction may have significant benefits where model systematic error compromises important teleconnections and modes of interannual variability

Electrospun nanofibers for improved angiogenesis: Promises for tissue engineering applications

Angiogenesis (or the development of new blood vessels) is a key event in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine; thus, a number of biomaterials have been developed and combined with stem cells and/or bioactive molecules to produce three-dimensional (3D) pro-angiogenic constructs. Among the various biomaterials, electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds offer great opportunities for pro-angiogenic approaches in tissue repair and regeneration. Nanofibers made of natural and synthetic polymers are often used to incorporate bioactive components (e.g., bioactive glasses (BGs)) and load biomolecules (e.g., vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)) that exert pro-angiogenic activity. Furthermore, seeding of specific types of stem cells (e.g., endothelial progenitor cells) onto nanofibrous scaffolds is considered as a valuable alternative for inducing angiogenesis. The effectiveness of these strategies has been extensively examined both in vitro and in vivo and the outcomes have shown promise in the reconstruction of hard and soft tissues (mainly bone and skin, respectively). However, the translational of electrospun scaffolds with pro-angiogenic molecules or cells is only at its beginning, requiring more research to prove their usefulness in the repair and regeneration of other highly-vascularized vital tissues and organs. This review will cover the latest progress in designing and developing pro-angiogenic electrospun nanofibers and evaluate their usefulness in a tissue engineering and regenerative medicine setting