Ormonde

This is a cycle of poems presented alongside personal and historical archives to chart the 1947 journey of SS Ormonde, the first post-WW2 ship (followed within a year by the Almanzora and the more famous Empire Windrush) to carry significant numbers of immigrants from Jamaica to the UK. On board was the poet’s father; his daughter writes poignantly of his and his fellow passengers’ hopes and aspirations, and the issues they faced. Alongside poems written in voices ranging from a stowaway to a dressmaker to a schoolboy, are fragments of historical material giving real-life clues to this elusive episode. Designed to echo the look the ship’s post-war literature, the front cover features a sticker of an Ormonde postcard. An essay by the author discusses her quest to find out more about this forgotten liner, while an introduction by historian Mike Phillips puts Lowe’s story into the wider context of black British immigration

Hannah Lowe, Phineas Pemberton, January 29, 1697

Letter dated January 29, 1697 (January 19, 1696 Old Style) from Hannah Lowe to Phineas Pemberton

Writing the Empire Windrush (critical thesis) and Chan (poetry collection)

PhD ThesisThis doctorate is comprised of a critical thesis (30%) and a creative submission of poetry (70%). The critical thesis examines representations of the arrival of the Empire Windrush at Tilbury on 22 June 1948, interrogating how it became symbolic shorthand for the beginnings of the post-war Caribbean diaspora to Britain, with a central place in the national historical imagination. Critics argue that the representation of the Windrush has undergone a dramatic transformation in its 65-year history, from its deployment in media discourses highlighting the problems of immigration, to its reclamation as a positive symbol of Black Britain at the turn of the century. The 1998 commemorations of the fiftieth anniversary were instrumental in this re-appropriation. This thesis examines depictions of the Windrush from the moment of its arrival to the present day, to argue that the ongoing centrality of the Windrush in the story of the Caribbean–British diaspora has obscured a longer, richer history of black presence in Britain while overlooking the imperial history which prompted the diasporic movements of Caribbean people to the imperial centre. The critical work of Chapters One and Two provides the context for my poetry collection Chan, which is discussed in Chapter Three. The Ormonde sequence of Chan responds to my interrogation of the Windrush creatively, by reconstructing the 1947 voyage of its predecessor, the Ormonde. The remaining sections are thematically linked by their engagement with suppressed or unknown histories, writing from personal and public archives and their exploration of migration, diaspora and mixed-race identities

New Analysis Indicates No Thermal Inversion in the Atmosphere of HD 209458b

An important focus of exoplanet research is the determination of the atmospheric temperature structure of strongly irradiated gas giant planets, or hot Jupiters. HD 209458b is the prototypical exoplanet for atmospheric thermal inversions, but this assertion does not take into account recently obtained data or newer data reduction techniques. We re-examine this claim by investigating all publicly available Spitzer Space Telescope secondary-eclipse photometric data of HD 209458b and performing a self-consistent analysis. We employ data reduction techniques that minimize stellar centroid variations, apply sophisticated models to known Spitzer systematics, and account for time-correlated noise in the data. We derive new secondary-eclipse depths of 0.119 +/- 0.007%, 0.123 +/- 0.006%, 0.134 +/- 0.035%, and 0.215 +/- 0.008% in the 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 micron bandpasses, respectively. We feed these results into a Bayesian atmospheric retrieval analysis and determine that it is unnecessary to invoke a thermal inversion to explain our secondary-eclipse depths. The data are well-fitted by a temperature model that decreases monotonically between pressure levels of 1 and 0.01 bars. We conclude that there is no evidence for a thermal inversion in the atmosphere of HD 209458b.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in Ap

Investigating the Misrepresentation of Statistical Significance in Empirical Articles

In an attempt to preserve research integrity, the aim of this study is to examine how often statistical results are being misrepresented in empirical studies by using terms such as “marginally significant,” “approached significance,” or “trend toward significance” when interpreting findings. The use of these terms gives ambiguous significance to results that are in fact nonsignificant, which threatens future research by contributing to issues such as the replication crisis. For this study, data were coded from 437 empirical articles published online in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP) over a 4-year period between 2017 and 2020. According to our findings, although misrepresentation of statistical results are prevalent within JPSP articles, rates decreased significantly over the four-year time period examined. Additionally, as the number of studies published in JPSP increased each year during the four-year period examined, there may be a potential rise in representatively sound studies and decrease of misrepresentation within this discipline

Diagnostic modalities for distant metastasis in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: Are we changing life expectancy?

Objectives/Hypothesis: To determine if the various imaging modalities for distant metastasis (DM) diagnosis alters life expectancy in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Study Design: Retrospective. Methods: One hundred seventy patients (mean age, 59.1 years; male:female, 135:35) with HNSCC who developed DM were reviewed. The main outcome measures were the method of DM diagnosis and time from DM diagnosis to death while controlling for clinical parameters (age, gender, tobacco status, primary tumor site, initial TNM classification, number and site of DM, administration of palliative chemotherapy). Results: Tumor subsites were: 40 oral cavity, 75 oropharynx, 36 larynx, 10 hypopharynx, one nasopharynx, and eight unknown primary. Of the patients, 16.5% (28/170) had distant metastasis at presentation; the remaining 142 patients were diagnosed with DM at a median of 324 days from diagnosis. Although patients diagnosed with DM by positron‐emission tomography (PET) scan were more likely to have multiple DM sites ( P = .0001), there were no differences in life expectancy in patients who were diagnosed with or without PET scan (median, 185 vs. 165 days, P = .833). There were no differences in life expectancy based on age, gender, site of primary tumor, or number/site of DM. The use of palliative chemotherapy resulted in a significantly longer life expectancy (median, 285 vs. 70 days; P = .001). Conclusions: Although a PET scan is more likely to diagnose multiple DM sites, there was no difference in life expectancy based on imaging modality. Patients who are symptomatic from their distant metastasis have a worse life expectancy, and palliative chemotherapy was able to increase life expectancy, even in patients who were symptomatic from the distant metastasis.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/92128/1/23264_ftp.pd

Competition as a Potential Motivator for Blood Donation

Introduction. Investigating motivational factors for blood donation is invaluable to understanding how to increase blood availability. Our study evaluates the perceived effect of competition as an intrinsic motivator for blood donation.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1193/thumbnail.jp

How women's experiences and perceptions of care influence uptake of postnatal care across sub-Saharan Africa: a qualitative systematic review

Background The burden of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality is a global health concern with the highest burden documented after childbirth in women and babies living in sub-Saharan Africa. To date, there is limited information on the quality of postnatal care and/or whether evidence-based interventions to improve postnatal care in a way that meets the specific health needs of each mother and her baby have been lacking. There is also limited data related to how quality of care (respectful or disrespectful) influences women's decision to access postnatal care. Objective To systematically review available qualitative evidence for how quality of care (respectful or disrespectful) influences perceptions and experiences of, and decisions to, access postnatal care for women living in sub-Saharan Africa. Search strategy CINAHL plus, Cochrane library, Global Health, Medline, PubMed, Web of Science were searched from 2009—2019. Grey literature was searched on Google Scholar. Selection criteria Qualitative literature in English describing women’s perceptions and experiences of the quality of care they received after childbirth and how this influenced their perceptions of and decisions to access postnatal care. Data analysis Thematic analysis was performed to extract subthemes and themes. Outcomes were themes from the qualitative data used to form a thematic synthesis. Results Fifteen studies were included with data from 985 women interviewed face-to-face across eight countries. Descriptions of respectful care included healthcare providers being kind, supportive and attentive to women’s needs. Women described preferring healthcare services where the healthcare providers communicated in a respectful and caring manner. Descriptions of disrespectful care included verbal and/or physical abuse and power imbalances between women and healthcare providers. Some women were denied postnatal care when attending a healthcare facility after giving birth at home. There is evidence to suggest that vulnerable women (adolescents; women with poor socioeconomic status; women who are HIV positive) are more likely to receive disrespectful care. Conclusions This systematic review describes how aspects of respectful and disrespectful maternity care influence women’s perceptions and experiences of, and decisions to access postnatal care services. There is a need for a renewed focus to prioritise respectful maternity care and to sustainably provide good quality postnatal care to all women and their babies in a way that meets their expectations and health needs