Sustainable Paths for Data-Intensive Research Communities at the University of Melbourne: A Report for the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories

This report presents the local project findings with a view to identifying how these findings may add to the knowledge base for informing an e-research strategy for the University of Melbourne. It also provides important considerations for how major Government initiatives in research policy and funding might impact on research data and records management requirements. Eleven research communities from diverse disciplines were consulted for an audit of their data management practices. Researchers from these communities represent a number of diverse disciplines: Applied Economics; Astrophysics; Computer Science and Software Engineering; Education; Ethnography; Experimental Particle Physics; Humanities informatics; Hydrology and Environmental Engineering; Linguistics; Medical informatics; Neuroscience and the Performing Arts. In addition to the specific findings for each group audited, the project findings also provide information about sustainability issues around research data management practices at the university

Le témoignage public des femmes vivant avec le VIH/sida au sein du projet VIHsibilité : analyse féministe et interactionniste d'une forme d'intervention sociale

La présente recherche s'inscrit dans le cadre du projet de recherche-action VIHsibilité, dont le but est d'étudier l'environnement social et médiatique dans lequel les femmes et les hommes vivant avec le VIH témoignent publiquement de leur expérience de la séropositivité, afin de comprendre les retombées que ces représentations ont dans la vie des personnes séropositives et les façons dont ces récits transforment le discours social sur le VIH/sida. Nous avons circonscrit une partie du problème à l'étude afin d'explorer les enjeux individuels et collectifs qui sont spécifiques au témoignage public des femmes vivant avec le VIH (FVVIH). Au niveau individuel, le rejet social et la stigmatisation compliquent le dévoilement de la séropositivité. Le caractère déviant attribué à l'identité séropositive entraine souvent un sentiment de honte ainsi que la peur des préjugés et de la discrimination sociale chez les FVVIH. De plus, elles sont nombreuses à être préoccupées par les conséquences possibles de leur témoignage sur leurs proches et leurs enfants. Au plan collectif, on constate qu'une compréhension partielle et erronée du VIH/sida et de la réalité des FVVIH persiste encore aujourd'hui. La moins grande visibilité des femmes séropositives et la place occupée par les hommes gais dans la réponse communautaire au VIH/sida ont construit un portrait stéréotypé de l'épidémie. Ce mémoire vise à connaitre les conditions dans lesquelles les FVVIH témoignent, leurs motivations à témoigner ainsi que leurs perceptions des retombées possibles de cette révélation. Les dimensions théoriques qui sous-tendent notre analyse sont l'interactionnisme symbolique qui permet de comprendre le témoignage comme un processus dynamique et conjoint de construction de sens et d'action, et les analyses féministes qui permettent de cibler les spécificités genrées du témoignage. Pour procéder à la collecte et à l'analyse des résultats, nous avons privilégié une méthode qualitative de type exploratoire fondée sur une approche compréhensive. Nous avons procédé à la réalisation de sept (7) entretiens semi-dirigés auprès de femmes qui ont témoigné publiquement de leur séropositivité au Québec. Il ressort des résultats que le témoignage public apporte plusieurs bénéfices aux FVVIH, tels qu'un sentiment de libération, l'acceptation de la maladie et l'ouverture. Au niveau de la communauté des femmes séropositives, il permet la re-signification de l'identité souillée, l'élargissement de la participation citoyenne et l'empowerment des FVVIH. L'analyse démontre aussi que le témoignage révèle une expérience genrée de la maladie qui permet de transformer l'image de la population séropositive, de consolider la communauté des FVVIH, d'éduquer la population et de transformer le discours sur la maladie. Finalement, nous formulons des recommandations à l'intention des organismes communautaires et du travail social afin d'améliorer l'accompagnement des FVVIH qui témoignent publiquement.\ud ______________________________________________________________________________ \ud MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : femmes, VIH/sida, témoignage, travail social, intervention sociale, VIHsibilité

Effectiveness of melarsoprol and eflornithine as first-line regimens for gambiense sleeping sickness in nine Médecins Sans Frontières programmes

This paper describes the effectiveness of first-line regimens for stage 2 human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) due to Trypanosoma brucei gambiense infection in nine Médecins Sans Frontières HAT treatment programmes in Angola, Republic of Congo, Sudan and Uganda. Regimens included eflornithine and standard- and short-course melarsoprol. Outcomes for 10461 naïve stage 2 patients fitting a standardised case definition and allocated to one of the above regimens were analysed by intention-to-treat analysis. Effectiveness was quantified by the case fatality rate (CFR) during treatment, the proportion probably and definitely cured and the Kaplan-Meier probability of relapse-free survival at 12 months and 24 months post admission. The CFR was similar for the standard- and short-course melarsoprol regimens (4.9% and 4.2%, respectively). The CFR for eflornithine was 1.2%. Kaplan-Meier survival probabilities varied from 71.4-91.8% at 1 year and 56.5-87.9% at 2 years for standard-course melarsoprol, to 73.0-91.1% at 1 year for short-course melarsoprol, and 79.9-97.4% at 1 year and 68.6-93.7% at 2 years for eflornithine. With the exception of one programme, survival at 12 months was >90% for eflornithine, whilst for melarsoprol it was <90% except in two sites. Eflornithine is recommended where feasible, especially in areas with low melarsoprol effectivenes

Reshaping Health Care Delivery for Adolescent Parents: Healthy Steps and Telemedicine

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/153056203772744725.Healthy Steps over Telemedicine uses telemedicine technology to bring child development services to adolescent parents in an urban school district. Videoconferencing units link teen parents at a Kansas City high school to developmental specialists and physicians at the Kansas University Medical Center (KUMC). Program participants receive developmental services and valuable health care information without leaving the school. The Healthy Steps goals are to educate parents about health care issues and to help them access medical care for their children and themselves. The telehealth goals are to implement the established Health Steps program effectively over the new medium. This article describes the process of delivering Healthy Steps services via telemedicine, specifically, selection and description of the site, selection of the technology, services provided, research evaluation, and lessons learned

The Spitzer c2d Survey of Large, Nearby, Interstellar Clouds. VII. Ophiuchus Observed with MIPS

We present maps of 14.4 deg^2 of the Ophiuchus dark clouds observed by the Spitzer Space Telescope Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS). These high-quality maps depict both numerous point sources and extended dust emission within the star-forming and non–star-forming portions of these clouds. Using PSF-fitting photometry, we detect 5779 sources at 24 μm and 81 sources at 70 μm at the 10 σ level of significance. Three hundred twenty-three candidate young stellar objects (YSOs) were identified according to their positions on the MIPS/2MASS K versus color-magnitude diagrams, as compared to 24 μm detections in the SWIRE extragalactic survey. We find that more than half of the YSO candidates, and almost all those with protostellar Class I spectral energy distributions, are confined to the known cluster and aggregates

Modeling CO Emission: II. The Physical Characteristics that Determine the X factor in Galactic Molecular Clouds

We investigate how the X factor, the ratio of H_2 column density (NH2) to velocity-integrated CO intensity (W), is determined by the physical properties of gas in model molecular clouds (MCs). We perform radiative transfer calculations on chemical-MHD models to compute X. Using integrated NH2 and W reproduces the limited range in X found in observations, resulting in a mean value X=2\times10^20 s/cm^2/K^1/km^1 from the Galactic MC model. However, in limited velocity intervals, X can take on a much larger range due to CO line saturation. Thus, X strongly depends on both the range in gas velocities and volume densities. The temperature (T) variations within individual MCs do not strongly affect X, as dense gas contributes most to setting X. For fixed velocity and density structure, gas with higher T has higher W, yielding X ~ T^-1/2 for T~20-100 K. We demonstrate that the linewidth-size scaling relation does not influence the X factor - only the range in velocities is important. Clouds with larger linewidths, regardless of the linewidth-size relation, have a higher W, corresponding to a lower value of X, scaling roughly as X ~ sigma^-1/2. The "mist" model, consisting of optically thick cloudlets with well-separated velocities, does not accurately reflect the conditions in a turbulent MC. We propose that the observed cloud-average values of X ~ XGal is simply a result of the limited range in NH2, temperatures, and velocities found in Galactic MCs - a ~constant value of X therefore does not require any linewidth-size relation, or that MCs are virialized objects. Since gas properties likely differ (slightly) between clouds, masses derived through a standard X should only be considered as a rough first estimate. For temperatures T~10-20 K, velocity dispersions ~1-6 km/s, and NH2~2-20\times10^21 cm^-2, we find cloud-averaged X ~ 2-4\times10^20 s/cm^2/K^1/km^1 for Solar-metallicity models.Comment: 24 pages, including 21 Figures, Accepted to MNRA

Methodologies for Housing Justice Resource Guide

This Resource Guide is the outcome of a Summer Institute on Methodologies for Housing Justice convened by the Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA Luskin as part of the Housing Justice in Unequal Cities Network, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (BCS 1758774). Held in Los Angeles in August 2019, the Summer Institute brought together participants from cities around the world. As is the case with the overall scope and purpose of the Housing Justice in Unequal Cities Network, it created a shared terrain of scholarship for movement-based and university-based scholars. Dissatisfied with the canonical methods that are in use in housing studies and guided by housing justice movements that are active research communities, the Summer Institute was premised on the assertion that methodology is political. Methodology is rooted in arguments about the world and involves relations of power and knowledge. The method itself – be it countermapping or people’s diaries – does not ensure an ethics of solidarity and a purpose of justice. Such goals&nbsp;require methodologies for liberation. Thus, as is evident in this Resource Guide, our endeavor foregrounds innovative methods that are being used by researchers across academia and activism and explicitly situates such methods in an orientation towards housing justice

Quest Volume 19 Number 2

Contents: South Africa’s energy transition - An overall analysis of what a just transition would (and should) mean for the country: The national power crisis - Going off the grid works for the wealthy - but could deepen injustice for the poor: Global and local energy crises?: - A look at what is meant by an energy crisis, and the shared responsibility of energy conservation: Green hydrogen - Sounds like a win for developing countries, but cost and transport are problems: Water-Energy-Food (WEF) - The challenges of the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus in South Africa: From waste to watts -Leveraging agrowaste to address South Africa’s power crisis: Hello Iani! - South African sedimentologist part of team to discover new species of dinosaur in Utah: Using nanophotonic biosensors - Laser light used for advanced disease detection: The approaching storm... - ...of disinfectant resistance: ZA App Alert! - Looking at two new proudly South African apps: Winning essays - The first “Welcome to the Blue Planet” competition shows SA youth has tons of promise: Yellow jacket wasps, zoomed in - Using microscopy to see fascinating details on the bodies and wings of wasps: Apple takes on VR - The Vision Pro is billed as the first ‘spatial computer’: Deceptive daisy - Clever flower’s ability to create fake flies finally explained: ’Ghost’ imaging - SA team makes giant leap towards a 3D quantum camera: Medicinal mushroom - Matie student identifies species of medicinal mushroom endemic to Knysna forest: Book review: Subscription:The Department of Science and Innovation: Academy of Science of South Afric