Cultural matter in the development of an interactive multimedia self-paced educational health program for aboriginal health workers

Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander health workers are key providers of primary health services to Aboriginal communities especially in remote and rural areas. They are often overloaded with competing demands. There has been limited attention given to the maintenance and ongoing enhancement of their skills and knowledge following the completion of formal training. A culturally appropriated interactive multimedia self-paced health program as a mechanism to improve the accessibility and the use of scientific data and information for health purposes is proposed as a basic method for better supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care workers in their practice locations. This paper explores different approaches for the development of a culturally appropriate interactive multimedia educational health program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander health workers and it also explore cultural matters concerning program development in the light of existing literature

EFFECT OF EXTRUSION TEMPERATURE AND MOISTURE ON PHYSICAL, FUNCTIONAL AND NUTRITIONAL PROPERTIES OF KABULI CHICKPEA, SORGHUM, MAIZE AND THEIR BLENDS

The overall goal of this research was to investigate extrusion and the effect of extrusion temperature (120 and 150oC) and moisture (20 and 24%) on the physical, functional and nutritional properties of raw and/or extruded Kabuli chickpea, sorghum and maize flours in the first study, as well as their blends (chickpea-cereal) in the second study. The extrudates were analyzed for physical properties—expansion ratio, bulk density and hardness, and were then milled into flours for functional properties including water hydration capacity, oil holding capacity, foaming capacity and stability, emulsion activity and stability, and pasting property; in vitro protein digestibility and in vitro protein digestibility corrected amino acid score were analyzed for nutritional properties, and were compared to the WHO/FAO requirement for protein quality to determine the feasibility of the blends to be used as a food aid product or other potential applications. Nitrogen solubility and thermal properties were analyzed for some samples to demonstrate the effect of extrusion on protein solubility and starch gelatinization respectively. The effect of extrusion temperature and moisture on different properties varied among samples. Generally, higher temperature and lower moisture content resulted in greater expansion, less hardness and bulk density. Extrusion reduced protein solubility and gelatinized/melted all detectable starch, which affected the functional and nutritional properties of the flours. Extrusion significantly increased (2-3 times) water hydration capacity, whereas decreased pasting viscosities (8-40 times) due to shear and gelatinization of starch. Oil holding capacity slightly decreased for the blends but remained relatively unchanged at the same level for the individual flours. None of the extruded samples showed foaming activity. Emulsion properties varied for the individual flours but showed a general decrease for the blends. Extrusion did not improve protein quality (in vitro protein digestibility corrected amino acid score) of the blends by much due to the loss of limiting amino acid lysine. Only chickpea-maize blend reached the 70% requirement by WHO to be used as food aid for the moderately malnourished. The great hydration property of the extrudates indicates the potential use as instant cold/hot beverage or porridge

Translating environmental and development agendas: influences of environmental NGOs on rural landscapes in China

Environmental NGOs (eNGOs) have become increasingly important in addressing environment and development issues in China. The majority of Chinese eNGO research views eNGOs as contributing to a democratic society and/or sustainable development. Some studies suggest that eNGOs in China are constrained by Chinese politics. This thesis aims to critically examine how eNGOs play their parts in China’s environmental and development issues, particularly in the context of rural resource use, which is central to livelihoods of rural populations. This research, adopting political ecology as the conceptual framework, seeks to understand how interactions among Chinese eNGOs and other institutional actors, including donors, international NGOs, different levels of government, and local communities, influence rural landscapes in China, a country wherein eNGO practices are embedded in their relationships with these actors across scales. The argument of this thesis is largely drawn from the case study of Green Watershed, a domestic eNGO, and its participatory resource management programme in Yunnan province. Three elements were employed in the methodology: discourse analysis, organisational ethnography and village ethnography. Discourse analysis was conducted to understand both the context within which Green Watershed operates and Green Watershed’s practices. The organisational ethnography and the village ethnographies of three villages in the organisation’s project area not only revealed interactions between the eNGO and other actors, but also the interactions within the eNGO itself. The key argument of this thesis is that the influences of eNGO practices on China’s rural landscapes are not merely inherited from eNGOs’ international linkages or simply constrained by government policy. Instead, the influences are the outcomes of the interactions between various actors across scales, which arise due to power relations, different world views and different priorities and interests of the various actors. The interactions influence the ways which environment and development philosophies translate from international agendas into local practice through eNGO projects. Rural landscapes, in which social relations and human-nature relationships take place, are consequently shaped by these interactions. The interactions between the projects and the local communities are particularly crucial in translating the agendas into practice, because of the critical roles played by the individual agency of the local communities. Local communities do not simply accept the external agendas. They may selectively adopt, translate or even reject the external agendas and/or philosophies. As community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) has gradually become popular among eNGOs for addressing resource issues in rural China, this thesis has taken the CBNRM model as a focus in order to produce a deep understanding of eNGOs’ influence on the ground. Based on empirical findings from the village case studies, I suggest that limitations exist in participatory CBNRM. First, participation is often complicated by politics and social relations, and therefore there is gap between the theory and the reality. Second, although participation is supposed to achieve empowerment, that empowerment programme may fall short of radically challenging power structure. Finally, there is a paradox in the concept of empowerment. Even when empowerment is achieved by participation, it does not guarantee good environmental governance as often expected in a CBNRM project. This is because that empowerment means enabling individual agents to have wider choices when making decisions, which may not follow environmental principles

Emotions predict policy support: Why it matters how people feel about climate change

Current research shows that emotions can motivate climate engagement and action, but precisely how has received scant attention. We propose that strong emotional responses to climate change result from perceiving one\u27s “objects of care” as threatened by climate change, which motivates caring about climate change itself, and in turn predicts behaviour. In two studies, we find that climate scientists (N = 44) experience greater emotional intensity about climate change than do students (N = 94) and the general population (N = 205), and that patterns of emotional responses explain differences in support for climate change policy. Scientists tied their emotional responses to concern about consequences of climate change to future generations and the planet, as well as personal identities associated with responsibility to act. Our findings suggest that “objects of care” that link people to climate change may be crucial to understanding why some people feel more strongly about the issue than others, and how emotions can prompt actio

Interactions between Zooplankton and Crude Oil: Toxic Effects and Bioaccumulation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

We conducted ship-, shore- and laboratory-based crude oil exposure experiments to investigate (1) the effects of crude oil (Louisiana light sweet oil) on survival and bioaccumulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in mesozooplankton communities, (2) the lethal effects of dispersant (Corexit 9500A) and dispersant-treated oil on mesozooplankton, (3) the influence of UVB radiation/sunlight exposure on the toxicity of dispersed crude oil to mesozooplankton, and (4) the role of marine protozoans on the sublethal effects of crude oil and in the bioaccumulation of PAHs in the copepod Acartia tonsa. Mortality of mesozooplankton increased with increasing oil concentration following a sigmoid model with a median lethal concentration of 32.4 ml L21 in 16 h. At the ratio of dispersant to oil commonly used in the treatment of oil spills (i.e. 1:20), dispersant (0.25 ml L21 ) and dispersant- treated oil were 2.3 and 3.4 times more toxic, respectively, than crude oil alone (5 ml L21 ) to mesozooplankton. UVB radiation increased the lethal effects of dispersed crude oil in mesozooplankton communities by 35%. We observed selective bioaccumulation of five PAHs, fluoranthene, phenanthrene, pyrene, chrysene and benzo[b]fluoranthene in both mesozooplankton communities and in the copepod A. tonsa. The presence of the protozoan Oxyrrhis marina reduced sublethal effects of oil on A. tonsa and was related to lower accumulations of PAHs in tissues and fecal pellets, suggesting that protozoa may be important in mitigating the harmful effects of crude oil exposure in copepods and the transfer of PAHs to higher trophic levels. Overall, our results indicate that the negative impact of oil spills on mesozooplankton may be increased by the use of chemical dispersant and UV radiation, but attenuated by crude oil-microbial food webs interactions, and that both mesozooplankton and protozoans may play an important role in fate of PAHs in marine environments.Zoe Wambaugh was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program (grant OCE- 1062745). This research was made possible by a grant from BP/The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative through the University of Texas Marine Science Institute (DROPPS consortium: ‘Dispersion Research on Oil: Physics and Plankton Studies’). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Marine Scienc

Uptake of groundwater nitrogen by a near-shore coral reef community on Bermuda

Nutrient enrichment can slow growth, enhance bioerosion rates, and intensify algal competition for reef-building corals. In areas of high human population density and/or limited waste management, submarine groundwater discharge can transfer anthropogenic nutrients from polluted groundwater to coastal reefs. In this case study, we investigate the impact of submarine groundwater discharge on a near-shore reef in Bermuda, where over 60% of sewage generated by the island’s 64,000 residents enters the groundwater through untreated cesspits. Temperature, salinity, pH, and alkalinity were monitored at a groundwater discharge vent, three locations across the adjacent coral reef (0–30 m from shore), and a comparison patch reef site 2 km from shore. Groundwater discharge was characterized by low salinity, low aragonite saturation state (Ω_(ar)), high alkalinity, elevated nitrate + nitrite (NO₃₋ + NO₂₋; hereafter, “NO₃₋”) concentrations (> 400 µM), and an elevated ¹⁵N/¹⁴N ratio of NO₃₋ (δ¹⁵N = 10.9 ± 0.02‰ vs. air, mean ± SD). Rainfall and tidal cycles strongly impacted groundwater discharge, with maximum discharge during low tide. NO₃₋ concentrations on the near-shore reef averaged 4 µM, ten times higher than that found at the control site 2 km away, and elevated NO₃₋ δ¹⁵N at the near-shore reef indicated sewage-contaminated groundwater as a significant nitrogen source. Tissue δ¹⁵N of Porites astreoides, a dominant reef-building coral, was elevated by ~ 3‰ on the near-shore reef compared to the control site, indicating that corals across the near-shore reef were assimilating groundwater-derived nitrogen. In addition, coral skeletal density and calcification rates across the near-shore reef were inversely correlated with NO₃₋ concentration and δ¹⁵N, indicating a negative coral health response to groundwater-borne nutrient inputs. P. astreoides bioerosion rates, in contrast, did not show an effect from the groundwater input

Impact of Implementing Delirium Precautions on Pharmacological and Non-Pharmacological Interventions in a Veteran Inpatient Hospice Population

Retrospective Study from July 2017 thru January 2019 on United States veteran admitted to Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Medical Center\u27s inpatient hospice unit who developed terminal delirium on their last days of life

White-Matter Pathways for Statistical Learning of Temporal Structures.

Extracting the statistics of event streams in natural environments is critical for interpreting current events and predicting future ones. The brain is known to rapidly find structure and meaning in unfamiliar streams of sensory experience, often by mere exposure to the environment (i.e., without explicit feedback). Yet, we know little about the brain pathways that support this type of statistical learning. Here, we test whether changes in white-matter (WM) connectivity due to training relate to our ability to extract temporal regularities. By combining behavioral training and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), we demonstrate that humans adapt to the environment's statistics as they change over time from simple repetition to probabilistic combinations. In particular, we show that learning relates to the decision strategy that individuals adopt when extracting temporal statistics. We next test for learning-dependent changes in WM connectivity and ask whether they relate to individual variability in decision strategy. Our DTI results provide evidence for dissociable WM pathways that relate to individual strategy: extracting the exact sequence statistics (i.e., matching) relates to connectivity changes between caudate and hippocampus, while selecting the most probable outcomes in a given context (i.e., maximizing) relates to connectivity changes between prefrontal, cingulate and basal ganglia (caudate, putamen) regions. Thus, our findings provide evidence for distinct cortico-striatal circuits that show learning-dependent changes of WM connectivity and support individual ability to learn behaviorally-relevant statistics