Reading the rocks

Emrys Phillips and Elizabeth Pickett explain how rocks – even a grain of sand – tell us about long-lost landscape

Sex, Handedness, and Use of Visual Cues for Wayfinding in a Virtual Environment

Research has indicated that that men and women utilize different strategies in wayfinding, with men using more directional information and women using more positional information (Barkley \u26 Gabriel, 2007; Lawton, 2010; Sandstrom, Kaufman, \u26 Huettel, 1998). In the current research, the relationship between navigational strategies and brain organization was examined, using handedness as an indirect measure of brain lateralization. Specifically, we examined how handedness, sex, and the use of color cues in navigating a virtual environment were related. Because women who are strongly right-handed tend to perform more poorly than moderately right-handed women on mental rotations (Annett, 1992; Casey, 1996), it was predicted that strongly right-handed women would be more reliant on the color cues while navigating the virtual environment than would moderately right-handed women. We predicted no effect of handedness for men. Participants (71 male and 113 female right-handed undergraduate students) were first asked to complete a self-report inventory of hand preference. They were then exposed to a virtual building in which the walls were either gray, or “painted” with a gradation of colors. They were told to navigate from a landmark on one side of the building to a landmark on the other side of the building until they had completed two successive trials in less than 1 minute. After that, the participants were asked to reverse the path, starting at the “ending” landmark and navigating back to the original “starting” landmark on 5 test trials. The mean path distance was calculated for the 5 test trials for each participant. There was a significant interaction between sex, handedness, and building color. Women who were strongly right-handed had longer mean path distances than did women who were moderately right-handed in the color building, but there was no significant difference between the two groups of women in the gray building. Men’s performance was not affected by building color or handedness. These results suggest that strongly right-handed women are less reliant upon their right hemisphere (which is associated with spatial functioning) than are men or moderately right-handed women. Instead, it seems like strongly right-handed women may rely more on the left hemisphere, which controls verbal and analytic skills. This includes the use of color cues to indicate where the participant needs to turn in order to reach the target landmark. Because the color cues would be different when the path is reversed, participants who rely more on color cues as a wayfinding aid would have a more difficult time navigating back to the target landmark than participants who may use a cognitive map for wayfinding. Therefore, findings indicate that brain organization is more related to differences in wayfinding strategies for women than for men.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2014/1057/thumbnail.jp

Identifying systems barriers that may prevent bereavement service access to bereaved carers: A report from an Australian specialist palliative care service

Background: Bereavement follow up is an integral element of palliative care. However, little is known about the systems that link bereavement services with bereaved carers. Aim: To map how effectively a specialist palliative care service linked bereavement service to bereaved carers. Methodology: A retrospective medical audit, using process mapping was undertaken within one Australian specialist palliative care service to identify the systems that linked bereavement services to a consecutive cohort of palliative care decedents (n=60) next of kin. Results: Bereavement records were located for 80% of decedents. Nearly all (98%) had a nominated next of kin, with just over half (54%) of those nominated contacted by bereavement services. Incomplete or missing contact details was the main reason (75%) that the bereavement service was unable to contact the decedents’ next of kin. Conclusion: Having access to a designated bereavement service can ensure that bereaved next of kin are contract routinely and in a timely way. However the effectiveness of this type of service is dependent upon the bereavement service having access to all relevant contact information. There are numerous opportunities to refine and strengthen the recording of palliative care next of kin details to optimize follow up

The VOICE Study: Valuing Opinions, Individual Communication and Experience: Building the evidence base for undertaking patient-centred family meetings in palliative care - a mixed methods study

Background: Despite family meetings being widely used to facilitate discussion among patients, families, and clinicians in palliative care, there is limited evidence to support their use. This study aims to assess the acceptability and feasibility of Patient-Centred Family Meetings in specialist inpatient palliative care units for patients, families, and clinicians and determine the suitability and feasibility of validated outcome measures from the patient and family perspectives. Methods: The study is a mixed-methods quasi-experimental design with pre-planned Patient-Centred Family Meetings at the intervention site. The patient will set the meeting agenda a priori allowing an opportunity for their issues to be prioritised and addressed. At the control site, usual care will be maintained which may include a family meeting. Each site will recruit 20 dyads comprising a terminally ill inpatient and their nominated family member. Pre- and post-test administration of the Distress Thermometer, QUAL-EC, QUAL-E, and Patient Health Questionnaire-4 will assess patient and family distress and satisfaction with quality of life. Patient, family, and clinician interviews post-meeting will provide insights into the meeting feasibility and outcome measures. Recruitment percentages and outcome measure completion will also inform feasibility. Descriptive statistics will summarise pre- and post-meeting data generated by the outcome measures. SPSS will analyse the quantitative data. Grounded theory will guide the qualitative data analysis. Discussion: This study will determine whether planned Patient-Centred Family Meetings are feasible and acceptable and assess the suitability and feasibility of the outcome measures. It will inform a future phase III randomised controlled trial. Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12616001083482 on 11 August 201

Between Philosophy and Art

Similarity and difference, patterns of variation, consistency and coherence: these are the reference points of the philosopher. Understanding experience, exploring ideas through particular instantiations, novel and innovative thinking: these are the reference points of the artist. However, at certain points in the proceedings of our Symposium titled, Next to Nothing: Art as Performance, this characterisation of philosopher and artist respectively might have been construed the other way around. The commentator/philosophers referenced their philosophical interests through the particular examples/instantiations created by the artist and in virtue of which they were then able to engage with novel and innovative thinking. From the artists’ presentations, on the other hand, emerged a series of contrasts within which philosophical and artistic ideas resonated. This interface of philosopher-artist bore witness to the fact that just as art approaches philosophy in providing its own analysis, philosophy approaches art in being a co-creator of art’s meaning. In what follows, we discuss the conception of philosophy-art that emerged from the Symposium, and the methodological minimalism which we employed in order to achieve it. We conclude by drawing out an implication of the Symposium’s achievement which is that a counterpoint to Institutional theories of art may well be the point from which future directions will take hold, if philosophy-art gains traction

An Exploratory Study of Suboxone (Buprenorphine/ Naloxone) Film Splitting: Cutting Methods, Content Uniformity, and Stability

Suboxone films are U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved to treat opioid dependence. While the package insert states that films should not be cut, physicians often prescribe film fractions for treatment and tapering. There is no data to support this practice, and this study was initiated to evaluate cutting methods, content uniformity, and stability of split films. Suboxone 8-mg buprenorphine/2-mg naloxone films were split using four methods: 1) ruler/razor cut, 2) scissor cut, 3) fold/rip, and 4) fold/scissor cut. United States Pharmacopeia Chapter \u3c905\u3e was used to evaluate the weight variation and content uniformity of split films. The stability of split films stored in polybags was evaluated over 7 days. A stability-indicating high-performance liquid chromatography method was used for content uniformity and stability evaluation. The weight variation results were acceptable for the half films from all four cutting methods, but this was not true for the quarter films. The method of ruler/razor cut was determined most favorable and used for the content uniformity test. Based on the high-performance liquid chromatography results, the half films from the ruler/razor cut method met the passing criteria of United States Pharmacopeia Chapter \u3c905\u3e with acceptance values of 9.8 to 10.4 for buprenorphine and 8.4 to 11.5 for naloxone (≤15 is considered passing). The stability results indicated that both actives retained \u3e97.7% of initial strength. Four cutting methods were found to be acceptable for splitting Suboxone films into half but not quarter fractions. The half films from the ruler/razor cut method also passed United States Pharmacopeia Chapter \u3c905\u3e content uniformity test. Both actives remained stable for 7 days when the half films were stored in polybags at room temperature