28,170 research outputs found
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From Particularities to Context: Refining Our Thinking on Illness Narratives.
This paper examines how illness narratives are used in medical education and their implications for clinicians' thinking and care of patients. Ideally, collecting and reading illness narratives can enhance clinicians' sensitivity and contextual thinking. And yet these narratives have become part of institutionalizing cultural competency requirements in ways that tend to favor standardization. Stereotyping and reductionistic thinking can result from these pedagogic approaches and obscure structural inequities. We end by asking how we might best teach and read illness narratives to fulfill the ethical obligations of listening and asking more informative clinical interview questions that can better meet the needs of patients and the community
Eco-hydrology of dynamic wetlands in an Australian agricultural landscape: a whole of system approach for understanding climate change impacts
Increasing rates of water extraction and regulation of hydrologic processes, coupled with destruction of natural vegetation, pollution and climate change, are jeopardizing the future persistence of wetlands and the ecological and socio-economic functions they support. Globally, it is estimated that 50% of wetlands have been lost since the 1900âs, with agricultural changes being the main cause. In
some agricultural areas of Australia, losses as high as 98% have occurred. Wetlands remaining in agricultural landscapes suffer degradation and their resilience and ability to continue functioning under hydrologic and land use changes resulting from climate change may be significantly inhibited. However, information on floodplain wetlands is sparse and knowledge of how ecological functioning and resilience may change under future land use intensification and climate change is lacking in many
landscapes. These knowledge gaps pose significant problems for the future sustainable management of biodiversity and agricultural activities which rely on the important services supplied by wetland ecosystems. This research evaluates the impact that hydrology and land use has on the perennial vegetation associated with wetlands in an agricultural landscape, the Condamine Catchment of southeast
Queensland, Australia. A geographical information system (GIS) was used to measure hydrological and land use variables and a bayesian modeling averaging approach was used to generate generalised linear models for vegetation response variables. Connectivity with the river and
hydrological variability had consistently significant positive relationships with vegetation cover and abundance. Land use practices such as, irrigated agriculture and grazing had consistently significant negative impacts. Consequently, to understand how climate change will impact on the ecohydrological functioning of wetlands, both hydrological and land use changes need to be considered.
Results from this research will now be used to investigate how resilient these systems will be to different potential scenarios of climate change
The Effect of Children on Specialization and Coordination of Partners' Activities
This paper first documents the extent of the specialization in time use in couple families, and the impact of children on this specialization. It then examines the links between the time allocations of partners in couple families, the impact of children on these links, and the effects these factors have on specialization in time use. Children are shown to intensify the specialization in time use in couple families through reducing the apparent complementarity in time allocations of their parents.coordination, gender, time allocations, specialisation
Connected Choice and the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem
We study the computational content of the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem in the
Weihrauch lattice. Connected choice is the operation that finds a point in a
non-empty connected closed set given by negative information. One of our main
results is that for any fixed dimension the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem of that
dimension is computably equivalent to connected choice of the Euclidean unit
cube of the same dimension. Another main result is that connected choice is
complete for dimension greater than or equal to two in the sense that it is
computably equivalent to Weak K\H{o}nig's Lemma. While we can present two
independent proofs for dimension three and upwards that are either based on a
simple geometric construction or a combinatorial argument, the proof for
dimension two is based on a more involved inverse limit construction. The
connected choice operation in dimension one is known to be equivalent to the
Intermediate Value Theorem; we prove that this problem is not idempotent in
contrast to the case of dimension two and upwards. We also prove that Lipschitz
continuity with Lipschitz constants strictly larger than one does not simplify
finding fixed points. Finally, we prove that finding a connectedness component
of a closed subset of the Euclidean unit cube of any dimension greater or equal
to one is equivalent to Weak K\H{o}nig's Lemma. In order to describe these
results, we introduce a representation of closed subsets of the unit cube by
trees of rational complexes.Comment: 36 page
The Immigrant-Native Born Earnings Gap in the US: a Quantile Regression Analysis and International Comparison
Immigrants, Earnings Distributions, Rates of Return, Quantile Regression
Different landscape factors explain establishment and persistence of river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) in agricultural landscapes of southeast Queensland
Riparian and floodplain ecosystems in production landscapes are considerably degraded and under continued pressure from surrounding land use. However, little is known about how remnant ecosystems respond to land use and hydrological factors in small non-riverine wetlands. River red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) is a dominant tree species within these scattered remnants, which provides critical ecological functions for the remaining biodiversity. In this study, we investigated how different life stages of E. camaldulensis responded to land use and hydrological variables in the Condamine catchment of south east Queensland. We used logistic regression to develop models for different life stages of E. camaldulensis in two regions with differing land use intensity histories. Broad regional differences and land use practices at smaller scales best explained differences in E. camaldulensis occurrence for younger life stages, while hydrology (groundwater and connectivity to rivers) and land use practices (dryland agriculture and grazing) best explained differences in older life stages. The results indicate that different factors are important in determining the establishment and persistence of E. camaldulensis and that land use practices at the regional scale are key factors in determining the establishment and potential future persistence of E. camaldulensis in floodplain wetlands
Modeling reactivity to biological macromolecules with a deep multitask network
Most
small-molecule drug candidates fail before entering the market,
frequently because of unexpected toxicity. Often, toxicity is detected
only late in drug development, because many types of toxicities, especially
idiosyncratic adverse drug reactions (IADRs), are particularly hard
to predict and detect. Moreover, drug-induced liver injury (DILI)
is the most frequent reason drugs are withdrawn from the market and
causes 50% of acute liver failure cases in the United States. A common
mechanism often underlies many types of drug toxicities, including
both DILI and IADRs. Drugs are bioactivated by drug-metabolizing enzymes
into reactive metabolites, which then conjugate to sites in proteins
or DNA to form adducts. DNA adducts are often mutagenic and may alter
the reading and copying of genes and their regulatory elements, causing
gene dysregulation and even triggering cancer. Similarly, protein
adducts can disrupt their normal biological functions and induce harmful
immune responses. Unfortunately, reactive metabolites are not reliably
detected by experiments, and it is also expensive to test drug candidates
for potential to form DNA or protein adducts during the early stages
of drug development. In contrast, computational methods have the potential
to quickly screen for covalent binding potential, thereby flagging
problematic molecules and reducing the total number of necessary experiments.
Here, we train a deep convolution neural networkî¸the XenoSite
reactivity modelî¸using literature data to accurately predict
both sites and probability of reactivity for molecules with glutathione,
cyanide, protein, and DNA. On the site level, cross-validated predictions
had area under the curve (AUC) performances of 89.8% for DNA and 94.4%
for protein. Furthermore, the model separated molecules electrophilically
reactive with DNA and protein from nonreactive molecules with cross-validated
AUC performances of 78.7% and 79.8%, respectively. On both the site-
and molecule-level, the modelâs performances significantly
outperformed reactivity indices derived from quantum simulations that
are reported in the literature. Moreover, we developed and applied
a selectivity score to assess preferential reactions with the macromolecules
as opposed to the common screening traps. For the entire data set
of 2803 molecules, this approach yielded totals of 257 (9.2%) and
227 (8.1%) molecules predicted to be reactive only with DNA and protein,
respectively, and hence those that would be missed by standard reactivity
screening experiments. Site of reactivity data is an underutilized
resource that can be used to not only predict if molecules are reactive,
but also show where they might be modified to reduce toxicity while
retaining efficacy. The XenoSite reactivity model is available at http://swami.wustl.edu/xenosite/p/reactivity
Development of a Faculty Learning Community to support Scholarship and Feedback
In an effort to explore the ideas of Scholarship of Learning and Teaching, and to comply with Glasgowâs Universityâs career development programme, a small group of academics from the College of Medicine, Veterinary and Life Sciences established a Learning Community. The LC has several aims:
⢠To create and design a Learning Community to support scholarship and progression for lecturers on learning & teaching track
⢠To understand how a Learning Community can be used to support staff on career development pathways
⢠To empower participants to engage in the Universityâs career development programme through peer support and peer mentorship within the Learning Community
⢠provide practical support for scholarship projects (it is hoped that all members will be supported to drive their scholarship âfrom idea to manuscriptâ)
It is hoped that through the sharing of ideas, and collaboration between schools, the LC hope to publish and disseminate scholarship, and provide a series of recommendations regarding scholarship support. Planned scholarship outputs include papers in educational journals, conference abstracts and presentations, and a significant ambition to influence policy within the university regarding scholarship and career development
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The lived experiences of access to healthcare for people seeking and refused asylum
This research aims to explore the lived experiences of accessing healthcare among people currently seeking asylum and those who have had their claim for asylum refused, as well as the experiences of health service providers working with these communities.
It examines the extent to which people are able to exercise their rights to access healthcare. It looks at the differences between those currently in the asylum system and those who have had their claim refused in England, Scotland and Wales.
This report, and the partner report providing a review of evidence (https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication-download/access-healthcare-people-seeking-and-refused-asylum-great-britain-review), will be of interest to people who play an important role in delivering healthcare and related support services to people seeking or refused asylum.
We have also made recommendations for what changes are needed (https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication-download/making-sure-people-seeking-and-refused-asylum-can-access-healthcare-what-needs) to make sure that people seeking and refused asylum have full enjoyment of their right to health.
This report was produced in collaboration with Imperial College London and Doctors of the World UK
Are Attitudes Towards Economic Risk Heritable? Analyses Using the Australian Twin Study of Gambling
This study employs multiple regression models based on DeFries and Fulker (1985), and a large sample of twins, to assess heritability in attitudes towards economic risk, and the extent to which this heritability differs between males and females. Consistent with Cesarini, Dawes, Johannesson, Lichtenstein and Wallace (2009), it is found that attitudes towards risk are moderately heritable, with about 20 percent of the variation in these attitudes across individuals being linked to genetic differences. This value is less than one-half the estimates reported by Zyphur, Narayanan, Arvey and Alexander (2009) and Zhong, Chew, Set, Zhang, Xue, Sham, Ebstein and Israel (2009). While females are more risk averse than males, there is no evidence that heritability in attitudes towards risk differs between males and females. Even though heritability is shown to be important to economic risk taking, the analyses suggest that multivariate studies of the determinants of attitudes towards risk which to not take heritability into consideration still provide reliable estimates of the partial effects of other key variables, such as gender and educational attainment.risk, heritability, gender
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