Pluralism after scarcity: the benefits of digital technologies

In this latest post in our series on the role of digital intermediaries and media plurality, Peter Barron, Google’s head of communications for Europe, Middle East and Africa, and his colleague Simon Morrison, Public Policy Manager, argue that the Internet and digital technologies have only increased media pluralism

Emotional and Cognitive Responses of Children Attending Summer Camps in Occupied Palestine: A Pilot Study

Background: The current study sought to address the lack of evaluation for summer camps which seek to offer emotional and cognitive support for children in occupied Palestine.Objective: To assess children’s emotional and cognitive response to summer camps, children who attended camps were compared to those who did not attend on a standardised measure of emotion and cognition within situations of adversity.Methods: A mixed methods quasi-experimental post-test only design was used.Children, aged 8-10 years, who attended a summer camp (n=62), were compared to those who had not attended a camp (n=22) on the Child Post-traumatic Cognitions Inventory and on a qualitative summer experience questionnaire. Camp workers (n= 16) also completed a summer experiences questionnaire for comparison of perceptions between workers and children. Statistical analysis involved t-test and ANOVA for within and between group differences and a six-step quasi-qualitative analysis was used to assess summer experience questionnaire responses.Results: Unexpectedly,children who had attended a summer camp presented higher levels of traumatic cognition; however, they also reported more hopefulness for the future than children who did not attend a camp. It is uncertain if camp attendees are a self-selecting group because of higher levels of traumatic exposure and/or cognitions or because summer camps may have unintended negative consequences.Conclusion: The current study, with its unexpected results, emphasises the importance of embedding evaluation into summer camp delivery. More robust experimental designs, however, are necessary in order to be confident that the outcomes are related to program rather than contextual factors. A range of potential summer camp and environmental influencing factors on outcomes were identified for future research

A state of delirium: deciphering the effect of inflammation on tau pathology in Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD), the predominant form of dementia, is highly correlated with the abnormal hyperphosphorylation and aggregation of tau. Immune responses are key drivers of AD and how they contribute to tau pathology in human disease remains largely unknown. This review summarises current knowledge on the association between inflammatory processes and tau pathology. While, preclinical evidence suggests that inflammation can indeed induce tau hyperphosphorylation at both pre- and post-tangles epitopes, a better understanding of whether this develops into advanced pathological features such as neurofibrillary tangles is needed. Microglial cells, the immune phagocytes in the central nervous system, appear to play a key role in regulating tau pathology, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Their activation can be detrimental via the secretion of pro-inflammatory mediators, particularly interleukin-1β, but also potentially beneficial through phagocytosis of extracellular toxic tau oligomers. Nevertheless, anti-inflammatory treatments in animal models were found protective, but whether or not they affect microglial phagocytosis of tau species is unknown. However, one major challenge to our understanding of the role of inflammation in the progression of tau pathology is the preclinical models used to address this question. They mostly rely on the use of septic doses of lipopolysaccharide that do not reflect the inflammatory conditions experienced AD patients, questioning whether the impact of inflammation on tau pathology in these models is dose-dependent and relevant to the human disease. The use of more translational models of inflammation corroborated with verification in clinical investigations are necessary to progress our understanding of the interplay between inflammation and tau pathology

Social and political context of summer camps in occupied Palestine:A brief commentary

The unique social and political context of the occupied Palestinian Territories (oPT) hasseveral implications for conducting research there. The cumulative violence of decadesof military occupation has resulted in intergenerational psychological disorders. Due tothe lack of funding and poor economic climate, Palestinians seek psychologicaltreatment through communal and creative outlets. One common method Palestiniancommunities use is summer camps, held across the oPT for children. We investigatedthe cognitive and emotional responses of children attending summer camps, to explorehow effective these camps are in alleviating symptoms of trauma and stress (Oudeh, Nizam, Barron, Abdullah & Willatts, 2014). The current commentary highlights the importance of taking into account the social and political context in which summer camps are delivered. Factors identified for analysis include the geographical situation and the relationship to military violence, the nature and impact of 'area' administrative control, the extent of poverty and dependence on aid, and the local decision-making on the purpose and activities of camps as well as the selection criteria for children who attend camps. Recommendations are provided for future research

Eliminating mother to child HIV transmission in South Africa

PROBLEM: The World Health Organization has produced clear guidelines for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). However, ensuring that all PMTCT programme components are implemented to a high quality in all facilities presents challenges. APPROACH: Although South Africa initiated its PMTCT programme in 2002, later than most other countries, political support has increased since 2008. Operational research has received more attention and objective data have been used more effectively. LOCAL SETTING: In 2010, around 30% of all pregnant women in South Africa were HIV-positive and half of all deaths in children younger than 5 years were associated with the virus. RELEVANT CHANGES: Between 2008 and 2011, the estimated proportion of HIV-exposed infants younger than 2 months who underwent routine polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to detect early HIV transmission increased from 36.6% to 70.4%. The estimated HIV transmission rate decreased from 9.6% to 2.8%. Population-based surveys in 2010 and 2011 reported transmission rates of 3.5% and 2.7%, respectively. LESSONS LEARNT: Critical actions for improving programme outcomes included: ensuring rapid implementation of changes in PMTCT policy at the field level through training and guideline dissemination; ensuring good coordination with technical partners, such as international health agencies and international and local nongovernmental organizations; and making use of data and indicators on all aspects of the PMTCT programme. Enabling health-care staff at primary care facilities to initiate antiretroviral therapy and expanding laboratory services for measuring CD4+ T-cell counts and for PCR testing were also helpful.Department of HE and Training approved lis

A modified model for the Lobula Giant Movement Detector and its FPGA implementation

The Lobula Giant Movement Detector (LGMD) is a wide-field visual neuron located in the Lobula layer of the Locust nervous system. The LGMD increases its firing rate in response to both the velocity of an approaching object and the proximity of this object. It has been found that it can respond to looming stimuli very quickly and trigger avoidance reactions. It has been successfully applied in visual collision avoidance systems for vehicles and robots. This paper introduces a modified neural model for LGMD that provides additional depth direction information for the movement. The proposed model retains the simplicity of the previous model by adding only a few new cells. It has been simplified and implemented on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), taking advantage of the inherent parallelism exhibited by the LGMD, and tested on real-time video streams. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness as a fast motion detector

Absolute polarization angle calibration using polarized diffuse Galactic emission observed by BICEP

We present a method of cross-calibrating the polarization angle of a polarimeter using BICEP Galactic observations. \bicep\ was a ground based experiment using an array of 49 pairs of polarization sensitive bolometers observing from the geographic South Pole at 100 and 150 GHz. The BICEP polarimeter is calibrated to +/-0.01 in cross-polarization and less than +/-0.7 degrees in absolute polarization orientation. BICEP observed the temperature and polarization of the Galactic plane (R.A= 100 degrees ~ 270 degrees and Dec. = -67 degrees ~ -48 degrees). We show that the statistical error in the 100 GHz BICEP Galaxy map can constrain the polarization angle offset of WMAP Wband to 0.6 degrees +\- 1.4 degrees. The expected 1 sigma errors on the polarization angle cross-calibration for Planck or EPIC are 1.3 degrees and 0.3 degrees at 100 and 150 GHz, respectively. We also discuss the expected improvement of the BICEP Galactic field observations with forthcoming BICEP2 and Keck observations.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures and 2 tables. To appear in Proceedings of SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 201

When Good Intentions Aren\u27t Good Enough: Dismantling Colonial Praxis in Educational Leadership

Addressing the inequitable educational outcomes of Indigenous students in K-12 education in Alberta is a moral imperative, a mandate of the provincial government and a response to Call to Action #10 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This dissertation-in-practice, viewed through the lens of critical theory, interrogates systemic barriers within Three Bear Hills School Division (a pseudonym) that hinder Indigenous students\u27 graduation and post-secondary transition rates. Indigenous students in K-12 education are adversely impacted by the influence of settler colonialism on leadership praxis, as evidenced by the achievement gap discourse, deficit thinking, and unconscious bias. These factors lead to the over-representation of Indigenous students in lower academic streams and special education classes. Historical efforts to address these issues through decolonizing reforms at provincial and national levels have been largely unsuccessful. This dissertation-in-practice employs transformative and adaptive leadership approaches, utilizing Stroh’s 4-stage change model to dismantle leadership’s colonial mental models. Education partners collaboratively create a shared vision of a preferred future using an appreciative inquiry methodology. Transformative learning theory supports third-order change among school leaders through reflexivity and dialogic practices. Third-order change, grounded in the decolonization of leadership, must precede second-order decolonizing practices such as land-based learning and language programming to achieve equitable educational outcomes for Indigenous students. Through personal transformation, educational leaders can reconsider their mental models and develop critical consciousness, paving the way for meaningful, systemic change

The demands of vertical ladder ergometer climbing relating to the wind energy industry.

The current medical fitness standard guidelines issued by Renewable UK for wind turbine technicians were adopted from the UK Fire and Rescue service. However, on the face of it, the two industries have different demands. This thesis aimed to ascertain the day-to-day nature of the role of a wind turbine technician - specifically, it aimed to understand the effect of external loads on vertical ladder ergometer climbing, the effect of a climb assist device and the effect of space restriction on ladder climbing. A further aim was to understand the difference between climbing a pitched and vertical ladder ergometer. Using an online survey, it was found that 50% of respondents climbed wind turbines on four, five or six days per week. The median turbine height climbed was 36 m whilst carrying external loads up to 15 kg. Finally, of the specific wind turbines involved, only 25% contained climb assist devices. This thesis ascertained that vertical ladder ergometer climbing was significantly (p 0.05) change in the horizontal space required for climbing when a space constraint was applied to participants (0.88 m, 1.03 m or 1.23 m). This thesis found that, depending on the speed and/or the presence of an external load, the intensity of vertical ladder ergometer climbing exceeds that of the medical fitness guidelines. This thesis therefore proposes that future work should re-examine the medical fitness standard - the research also highlights that more studies are needed in order to create an evidence base from which to design a bespoke industry fitness standard