The Breathe Urban Village competition: Why did it fail to deliver?

Successful urban regeneration projects generate benefits that are realised over a much longer timeframe than normal market developments and benefits well beyond those that can be uplifted by a market developer. Consequently there is substantial evidence in the literature that successful place-making and urban regeneration projects are usually public-private partnerships and involve a funder, usually local or central government, willing to contribute ‘patient’ capital. Following the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes that devastated the centre of Christchurch, there was an urgent need to rebuild and revitalise the heart of the city, and increasing the number of people living in or near the city centre was seen as a key ingredient of that. In October 2010, an international competition was launched to design and build an Urban Village, a project intended to stimulate renewed residential development in the city. The competition attracted 58 entrants from around world, and in October 2013 the winning team was chosen from four finalists. However the team failed to secure sufficient finance, and in November 2015 the Government announced that the development would not proceed. The Government was unwilling or unable to recognise that an insistence on a pure market approach would not deliver the innovative sustainable village asked for in the competition brief, and failed to factor in the opportunity cost to government, local government, local businesses and the wider Christchurch community of delaying by many years the residential development of the eastern side of the city. As a result, the early vision of the vitality that a thriving residential neighbourhood would bring to the city has not yet been realised

Mandatory Nurse-Patient Ratios and Nursing Outcomes Related to Patient Falls

The issue of mandatory nurse-patient ratios remains controversial among many vested stakeholders, including nurses, patients, physicians, unions, nursing organizations, researchers, employers (in particular hospitals), and federal and state governments (Douglas, 2010). The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between patient falls and day-to-day, shift-to-shift variations in unit level staffing on the Medical / Surgical Unit at a small hospital in the southern area of the country. The goal of the study was to examine the association between nurse-patient ratios and patient outcomes as it relates to a culture of safety. Over a three month period from January 01, 2013, through March 31, 2013, patient falls was compared with registered nurse staffing on the busy Medical Surgical Unit with the bed capacity of 52. Data analysis revealed no significant differences in the patient falls and nurse staffing ratios (p\u3e .05). Hourly rounding was found to be imperative to patient safety and the most valued intervention to prevent falls in this acute care facility

Image, Narrative, & Concept of Time in Valerie Capers\u27s Song Cycle Song of the Seasons

Once I was a classical pianist, then I was a jazz pianist, but now I’m a pianist – No label. And in my writing, I’m not concerned with any particular style. I’ve found that if you have musical groundwork and some idea of the emotional impact the music should have, the musical style will hang together. —Valerie Capers Primarily known as a renowned jazz pianist, Valerie Capers is a blind, African-American woman composer who defied all odds by becoming the first blind graduate of The Juilliard School. Dr. Capers also became valedictorian of the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind, the Chair of Bronx Community College, and her jazz curriculum was used as a model for schools to implement jazz programs at colleges throughout the United States. While her base is in New York, she continues to make strides as a composer and performer on the national and international level. The purpose of this document is to provide a stylistic analysis of the text, musical setting, and overall form of Valerie Capers’s Song of the Seasons, a song cycle of four songs for soprano, cello, and piano. Although Capers wrote pieces for various mediums, her love for words and music inspired her to write for the voice, which she proclaims as “powerful.” Song of the Seasons is the first large-scale classical vocal work written by Capers, for which she also wrote the text. The work was commissioned in 1987 by the Smithsonian Institute and received rave reviews by the Washington Post. According to Capers, Song of the Seasons is “a celebration of life” and was inspired by Japanese Haiku, a Japanese poetic form that illuminates the human condition through imagistic themes of nature, love, and death. The cycle of revolving seasons is connected through figurative language of the composer’s own text, European art song, opera, and African-American Jazz. Like other great American composers of her time, the incorporation of multiple influences--such as Wagner, Beethoven, Monk, and Ellington—helped establish her unique style which has culminated into what I refer to as Valerie Capers’s “American Art Song Aesthetic.” Specifically, her style is a post-modern hybrid that combines impressionism and African-American jazz. Therefore, because of Capers’s uniqueness, I will explore and analyze her contribution to the development of post-modern American song cycles in the English language and show why Valerie Capers’s songs deserve to be included in American art song anthologies

Doctoral Recital

List of performers and performances

Master\u27s Recital

List of performers and performances

Degrowth, green growth, a-growth and post-growth: The debate on ways forward from our growth addiction

It is widely recognised that averting catastrophic climate change and ecological disaster requires society to relinquish the current growth-focused economic system. However, what this change might include and how it can be implemented is less clear. Different solutions have been envisioned, with advocates for variants of “green growth,” “post-growth” or “de-growth” all presenting possible options for a new economic and social system that can exist within planetary boundaries. This annotated bibliography includes a range of articles which engage with and critique these concepts, consider how they might work in practice and propose strategies for overcoming the obstacles to implementation. The papers were selected by Lincoln University postgraduate students taking the course ERST636: Aspects of Sustainability: an international perspective, in preparation for a class debate of the moot “Green growth is simply designed to perpetuate current unsustainable practices and divert attention away from the need for more fundamental change”. For each paper, the author’s abstract is presented, followed by a discussion of key points. In cases where the paper lacked an abstract, a brief summary has been included instead. Key points and summaries are based on the students work, where necessary edited for clarity

Women's views about the timing of birth

Background: Estimated date of birth (EDB) is used to guide clinical management of women during pregnancy and birth, although its imprecision is recognised. Alternatives to the EDB have been suggested for use with women however their attitudes to timing of birth information have not been examined. Aims: To explore women’s expectations of giving birth on or near their EDB, and their attitudes to alternative estimates for timing of birth. Methods: A survey of pregnant women attending four public hospitals in Sydney, Australia, between July and December 2012. Results: Among 769 surveyed women, 42% expected to birth before their due date, 16% after the due date, 15% within a day or so of the due date, and 27% had no expectations. Nulliparous women were more likely to expect to give birth before their due date. Women in the earlier stages of pregnancy were more likely to have no expectations or to expect to birth before the EDB while women in later pregnancy were more likely to expect birth after their due date. For timing of birth information, only 30% of women preferred an EDB; the remainder favoured other options. Conclusions: Most women understood the EDB is imprecise. The majority of women expressed a preference for timing of birth information in a format other than an EDB. In support of woman-centred care, it may be helpful to ask each woman how she would like to receive estimated timing of birth information.NHMR

Update on Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder: Focus on Cariprazine

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are severe psychiatric disorders that are frequently associated with persistent symptoms and significant dysfunction. While there are a multitude of psychopharmacologic agents are available for treatment of these illnesses, suboptimal response and significant adverse consequences limit their utility. Cariprazine is a new, novel antipsychotic medication with dopamine D2 and D3 partial agonist effects. Its safety and efficacy have been investigated in acute psychosis of schizophrenia, bipolar mania, bipolar depression, and unipolar depression. Efficacy has been demonstrated in schizophrenia and mania. It is unclear if cariprazine is effective in depression associated with unipolar or bipolar illness. Adverse consequences include extrapyramidal symptoms including akathisia, and various gastrointestinal symptoms. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved cariprazine. This review will provide clinicians with basic information regarding the research program of cariprazine

UNLV Symphony Orchestra Concert Singers Chamber Chorale

Program listing performers and works performed

Single-center task analysis and user-centered assessment of physical space impacts on emergency Cesarean delivery

Cesarean delivery is the most common surgery performed in the United States, accounting for approximately 32% of all births. Emergency Cesarean deliveries are performed in the event of critical maternal or fetal distress and require effective collaboration and coordination of care by a multidisciplinary team with a high level of technical expertise. It is not well understood how the physical environment of the operating room (OR) impacts performance and how specialties work together in the space. Objective This study aimed to begin to address this gap using validated techniques in human factors to perform a participatory user-centered analysis of physical space during emergency Cesarean. Methods This study employed a mixed-methods design. Focus group interviews and surveys were administered to a convenience sample (n = 34) of multidisciplinary obstetric teams. Data collected from focus group interviews were used to perform a task and equipment analysis. Survey data were coded and mapped by specialty to identify reported areas of congestion and time spent, and to identify themes related to physical space of the OR and labor and delivery unit. Results Task analysis revealed complex interdependencies between specialties. Thirty task groupings requiring over 20 pieces of equipment were identified. Perceived areas of congestion and areas of time spent in the OR varied by clinical specialty. The following categories emerged as main challenges encountered during an emergency Cesarean: 1) size of physical space and equipment, 2) layout and orientation, and 3) patient transport. Conclusion User insights on physical space and workflow processes during emergency Cesarean section at the institution studied revealed challenges related to getting the patients into the OR expediently and having space to perform tasks without crowding or staff injury. By utilizing human factors techniques, other institutions may build upon our findings to improve safety during emergency situations on labor and delivery