Papers by Christopher Patterson
Cultural Studies, 2019
This paper treats the documentaries Sunday Beauty Queen (2017) and The Helper (2017) to explore h... more This paper treats the documentaries Sunday Beauty Queen (2017) and The Helper (2017) to explore how domestic workers in Hong Kong are represented as forcibly queered, forced by circumstance to operate on the queer time of nonnormative gender roles, rather than the 'natural' straight time of maternity and unpaid domestic labour for their own family. Popular media, including documentaries, see this queering as a violent act, one at the heart of the domestic worker's exploitation, and thus attempt to 'rescue' this queered figure by reinforcing her heteronormativitynot as Filipina/Indonesian, not as workers, but as women and mothers above all else. I consider how, in these films, unspoken forms of queer culture and queer relationships contrast dominant depictions of asexual matronly caretakers. Attempts to capture domestic workers through the documentary camera inevitably reveal the queer practices and desires that migrancy makes available, as the communal and nonfilial intimacies within these films also depict domestic workers outside of the 'straight time' of motherhood and reproduction, and within a 'queer time' of non-biological reproduction and same-sex community. To better understand the preoccupation with the workers' 'voice', this paper also reflects on the intersections of queerness and migration with brownness, a racial optic that signifies ambiguity and mixture, but also restricts brown women into lower-class migrant labour, and imports colonial attitudes towards Southeast Asian sexuality.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2008
Background: Evidence that vitamin E may preserve cognitive function in elderly subjects is confli... more Background: Evidence that vitamin E may preserve cognitive function in elderly subjects is conflicting. The most abundant and most investigated form of vitamin E in humans is ␣-tocopherol, but other antioxidant tocopherols (, ␥, and ␦) exist in nature. Objective: We aimed to investigate plasma concentrations of the natural tocopherols and the tocopherol oxidation markers ␣-tocopherylquinone (␣TQ) and 5-nitro-␥-tocopherol (5NGT) in relation to cognitive function in the elderly. Design: Baseline plasma tocopherols and their oxidation markers were measured in 761 elderly Italian subjects from a populationbased cohort assessed in 1999-2000 for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. In 2003-2004, information about cognitive status was collected for 615 of the 666 subjects without baseline cognitive impairment. Tocopherols and oxidation markers were analyzed as plasma absolute values divided by serum total cholesterol because lipids affect their blood availability. Analyses were adjusted for sociodemographic, genetic, lifestyle, and medical confounders. Results: Compared with the corresponding lowest tertile, the risk of prevalent dementia was higher for the highest tertile of ␦-tocopherolÖcholesterol [odds ratio (OR): 3.87; 95% CI: 1.46, 10.27] and ␣TQÖcholesterol (4.02; 1.45, 11.14), but the risk of incident dementia was not directly associated with plasma vitamin E metabolites. A U-shaped association, with lower risk for intermediate tertiles, was found for prevalent MCI with 5NGTÖcholesterol (0.39; 0.17, 0.91) and for incident dementia with ␥-tocopherolÖcholesterol (hazard ratio: 0.42; 95% CI: 0.22, 0.84). Conclusions: Plasma concentrations of some non-␣-tocopherol forms of vitamin E are associated with cognitive impairment in elderly people. However, the associations depend on concurrent cholesterol concentration and need further investigation.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2006
Background: Apolipoprotein E (APOE) plays a central role in VLDL metabolism. Both APOE e4 allele ... more Background: Apolipoprotein E (APOE) plays a central role in VLDL metabolism. Both APOE e4 allele (APOE4) and C-reactive protein (CRP) are associated with greater risk of dementia and vascular disease, but APOE4 carriers have lower blood concentrations of CRP than do noncarriers, possibly through a mechanism favoring the clearance of the CRP VLDL-bound fraction. Homocysteine, another risk factor for vascular disease and dementia, also binds to VLDL in blood. However, the association between APOE4 and hyperhomocysteinemia has never been thoroughly investigated. Objective: We investigated in an elderly population whether 1) APOE4 is associated with hyperhomocysteinemia [plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) 15 mol/L], 2) hyperhomocysteinemia affects the association between APOE4 and high CRP (serum CRP 3 mg/L), and 3) B vitamin status affects these associations. Design: APOE4 genotypes were assessed and tHcy, CRP, and serum concentrations of folate and vitamin B-12 were measured in 671 cognitively healthy subjects (52% women; mean age: 73 y) from an Italian population-based prospective cohort study. Results: APOE4 carriers without high CRP [multivariate-adjusted odds ratio (OR): 0.22; 95% CI: 0.08, 0.59] had a lower risk of hyperhomocysteinemia than did noncarriers. The risk of high CRP was lower in APOE4 carriers without hyperhomocysteinemia (multivariate-adjusted OR: 0.51; 95% CI: 0.31, 0.85) than in noncarriers. The associations were not affected by B vitamin status. Conclusion: Independently from B vitamin status, APOE4 carriers have a lower risk of hyperhomocysteinemia and of high CRP than do noncarriers, but the presence of one condition attenuates the association of APOE4 with the other condition.
Nurse Education Today, 2017
Background: Personal learning environments (PLE) have been shown to be a critical part of how stu... more Background: Personal learning environments (PLE) have been shown to be a critical part of how students negotiate and manage their own learning. Understandings of PLEs appear to be constrained by narrow definitions that focus primarily on technological engagement with a range of web tools and associated applications. This paper addresses a gap in the literature around PLEs for students currently enrolled in undergraduate nursing degrees. Purpose: To provide in-depth insights into how undergraduate students of nursing manage and experience their learning. Methods: This was an international multi-site qualitative study, utilizing focus groups. A schedule of 10 questions and nominal group techniques were used. Findings: Whilst the focus groups took place in very different geographical locations, there were strong similarities in student understandings of effective PLEs. These went well beyond current technological definitions. Findings were organized into three major themes; technologies, learning modalities and influencing factors. Discussion: We propose a broader understanding of PLEs that acknowledges individual personal and cultural contexts which we call the personally significant learning environment (PSLE). There is a need for greater investigation of how students understand and systematize their PSLE. Conclusions: This paper and our findings will be of interest to educators, researchers and institutions for developing appropriate frameworks that may maximize learning outcomes, encourage cultural sensitivities and facilitate greater understandings of how to support students to create appropriate PSLEs.
J Geriatr Psychiatr Neurol, 1994
Games and Culture, 2014
This article explores the shared game mechanics seen throughout BioWare games, especially their M... more This article explores the shared game mechanics seen throughout BioWare games, especially their Mass Effect and Dragon Age series, as systems that invoke multiculturalist values and teach liberal tolerance. In both BioWare series, the player is set on a course to manage ethnic bodies into a racially determined division of labor (as military force), assuming the neutral position of a “multiculturalist umpire.” I investigate Mass Effect’s loyalty mechanic and its genre mixture of the role-playing game with the military shooter to consider how BioWare’s signature emphasis on team cooperation and supporting characters can express meanings that value American multiculturalism as exceptional, thus permitting forms of patriarchal and imperial violence to continue unabated. Finally, I consider how the player’s choice to play as female rather than male can shift the player’s experience from an imperialist attitude toward one of multiracial coalition that focuses on structures of patriarchal ...
Seasonal variation in month of diagnosis in children with type 1 diabetes registered in 23 EURODI... more Seasonal variation in month of diagnosis in children with type 1 diabetes registered in 23 EURODIAB centres during 1989-2008: little short-term influence of sunshine hours or average temperature.
Neurobiology of Aging, 2007
Incidence studies of blood inflammatory markers as predictors of dementia in older age are few an... more Incidence studies of blood inflammatory markers as predictors of dementia in older age are few and did not take into account hyperhomocysteinemia, although this condition is associated with both inflammation and increased risk of dementia. We investigated the relationships of baseline serum C-reactive protein (CRP), serum interleukin 6 (IL6), plasma alpha-1-antichymotrypsin, and hyperhomocysteinemia (defined as plasma total homocysteine > 15 mol/L) with risk of incident Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD) in a dementia-free Italian population-based elderly cohort (n = 804, 53.2% women, mean age 74 years) with 4 years of follow-up. No inflammatory marker, alone or in combination, predicted AD risk whereas the combination of high CRP and high IL6 was associated with risk of VaD (HR, 2.56; 95%CI, 1.21-5.50) independently of socio-demographic confounders, traditional risk factors and hyperhomocysteinemia. By contrast, in the same model, hyperhomocysteinemia was independently associated with AD (HR, 1.91; 95%CI, 1.02-3.56) but not VaD risk. Blood inflammatory markers are associated with increased VaD risk but do not predict AD, which seems selectively associated with hyperhomocysteinemia.
MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, 2014
In Peter Bacho’s novel Cebu (1991), Ben Lucero, a Filipino American Catholic priest living in Sea... more In Peter Bacho’s novel Cebu (1991), Ben Lucero, a Filipino American Catholic priest living in Seattle, makes his first trip to the Philippines to bury his deceased mother. While returning to his roots in Cebu and Manila, Ben witnesses surges of religious and political violence that prompt his quick retreat from the poverty and corruption of the Philippines back to the “order” and “sanctuary” of Seattle (133). Literary scholars such as Elizabeth H. Pisares interpret Ben’s retreat as an escape from his social debt to the Philippines, arguing that Ben “evades what he perceives as a foreign Filipino discourse represented by utang na loob, or reciprocal indebtedness” (80). Yet Ben’s return can also be seen as a way of paying off a different social debt: his debt to the Pacific Northwest for providing a space of liberal tolerance. Throughout the novel, Ben shows gratitude to the Northwest for providing a space where violence, corruption, and poverty are displaced onto the history and geography of the Filipino homeland. Despite Ben’s imagined removal from violence, in the second half of the novel the Filipino migrants living in Seattle become entangled in cycles of revenge and murder that rupture the distancing of spatial and historic violence in the Philippines. To pay off his debt to both his host country and homeland, Ben performs as the Asian American model minority and encourages his Filipino congregation to do the same by abandoning their diasporic cultural practices, which he reads as gang violence in the case of Filipino men and sexual promiscuity in the case of Filipina women. Ben sees such practices, such as loyalty to one’s barkada (one’s peer group and community), as cultural attitudes that are intolerable to the Northwest’s multicultural social space because they foster religious ignorance and gang violence. As murders continue to pile up in Seattle’s International District and migrant Filipinos are thrown into cycles of revenge, Ben identifies the violence as a Filipino cultural aberration, discovering “something in [Filipino] culture, however diluted it was by life in America, that allowed wild swings in cruelty and
Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 2005
Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 2012
Introduction: Implementation of prophylaxis for venous thomboembolism (VTE) through risk assessme... more Introduction: Implementation of prophylaxis for venous thomboembolism (VTE) through risk assessment based on clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) is variably adopted in long term care facilities (LTCF). Current guidelines recommend venous thromboembolism prophylaxis (VTE-P) following risk assessment, individualized to patient status. In LTCF, differing comorbidity, life-expectancy, ethical, and quality-of-life issues may warrant a unique approach. This article examines VTE-P practices in LTCF before and after educational intervention to bring practice patterns consistent with CPGs. Methods: Phase 1 (preceding article in this issue) identified current practice to assess risk and implement VTE-P (17 geographically diverse LTCFs, 3260 total beds). Phase 2 (educational intervention using CPGs) and Phase 3 (outcomes) reexamined VTE-P at the same 17 centers. Results: The frequency of indications for VTE-P and contraindications to anticoagulation were similar during Phases 1 and 3 (all P > .05). In Phase 3, use of aspirin alone decreased more than 50% (P < .0005), whereas use of compression devices increased (P < .0005). Regression models predicted no relationship between any indication or contraindication and VTE-P in Phase 1 (all P > .05) but identified significant relationships between indication and contraindications and VTE-P in Phase 3 (P ¼ .022 to P < .0005), suggesting adequate understanding of current CPGs following education as the basis for improved VTE-P. Conclusions: The study confirms the presence of significant comorbidity in LTC residents, many with indications for VTE-P, some with contraindications for anticoagulation. Following educational intervention, more residents received VTE-P, influenced by risk-benefit ratio favoring treatment. These findings suggest that even a modest educational intervention significantly improves provider knowledge pertinent to risk assessment consistent with CPG and more appropriate VTE-P.
Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 2012
Introduction: Current guidelines recommend antithrombotic prophylaxis for venous thromboembolism ... more Introduction: Current guidelines recommend antithrombotic prophylaxis for venous thromboembolism (VTE) using risk assessment, factoring contraindications. This report represents a summary of current practice patterns to prevent VTE in long term care as Phase 1 of a 3-phase educational intervention study. Phase 1 Participants: Participants were 376 new admissions/readmissions (77 AE 12 [SD] years; 67% female) from 17 geographically diverse long term care facilities (3260 total beds). Measurements: The process describes current VTE prophylaxis (VTE-P) practices; a companion article describes the educational intervention (Phase 2) and outcome (Phase 3). Phase 1 data were collected on use of nonpharmacological measures and antithrombotic drugs for VTE-P between July and September 2009. Results: Indications for VTE-P were evident in 85% of new admissions, of which two-thirds received VTE-P. Contraindications for anticoagulation were observed in 54.8% of admissions, including quality of life or patient/caregiver wishes. Logistic regression analysis predicted no relationship between any indication for or any contraindication to VTE-P and use of VTE-P, suggesting an inadequate understanding of current clinical practice guidelines. Conclusions: Residents of long term care have significant comorbidity that poses risk for VTE; although many received VTE-P, contraindications were common, warranting individualized considerations. The likelihood of VTE-P was greatest following orthopedic surgery, severe trauma, and medical illness.
Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 1990
The tetragonal-to-orthorhombic phase transition in RbAlF4 at approximately= 290 K has been invest... more The tetragonal-to-orthorhombic phase transition in RbAlF4 at approximately= 290 K has been investigated using X-ray scattering techniques. For temperatures above approximately= 290 K, the wavevector dependence of the critical scattering at the X point was measured and was well described by an anisotropic Lorentzian, with no evidence for a second Lorentzian-squared component as has recently been reported close to the anti-ferrodistortive transition in several perovskites. The critical exponents describing the temperature dependence of the primary and secondary order parameters, inverse correlation length and static susceptibility were determined and found to be consistent with those expected for the isotropic n=2, d=3 model.
The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 2007
Background. Hospitalization for acute illness is associated with higher rates of mortality and mo... more Background. Hospitalization for acute illness is associated with higher rates of mortality and morbidity, as well as functional decline, for older patients. We have previously shown that treatment in Hospital in the Home (HITH) results in less confusion and fewer bowel and bladder problems for these patients. However, it is not clear what impact HITH has on physical and cognitive function. Methods. One hundred patients (mean age 70) presenting to the emergency department and assessed by a senior doctor to require admission were randomized to be treated in hospital or at home. We measured the Barthel index, Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) index, and Mental Status Questionnaire (MSQ) on admission and at discharge. Results. The HITH-treated group improved in the IADL and MSQ indices, whereas the hospital-treated group improved only in the MSQ. The improvement in IADL scores remained significant after adjusting for age, sex, living arrangements, development of confusion, and length of stay. Conclusions. HITH offers a safe option for treatment of older patients with a functional advantage over inhospital care.
International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, 1999
We derive simple expressions for the energy corrections to the Born-Oppenheimer approximation val... more We derive simple expressions for the energy corrections to the Born-Oppenheimer approximation valid for a harmonic oscillator. We apply these corrections to the electronic and rotational ground state of H2+ and show that the diabatic energy corrections are linearly dependent on the vibrational quantum numbers as seen in recent variational calculations [D. A
Europhysics Letters (EPL), 1991
The dispersion relationship for spin waves propagating the c-axis in the one–spin-slip phase of h... more The dispersion relationship for spin waves propagating the c-axis in the one–spin-slip phase of holmium at 19.5 K has been measured using a neutron triple-axis spectrometer. A gap in the spin-wave spectrum of approximately 0.6 meV is resolved clearly at a reduced wave vector transfer with respect to the magnetic unit cell of qm = (5/11) c*, and the presence of a second gap at qm = (6/11) c* is inferred from the anomalous behaviour of the intrinsic spin-wave width. Our results are discussed in the light of recent calculations of the spin waves in holmium.
Diabetes Care, 2006
OBJECTIVE—Little is known about the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome among elderly people in ... more OBJECTIVE—Little is known about the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome among elderly people in Italy, its association with all-cause mortality, and whether measurement of serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin (IL)-6 affects this association. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—The baseline prevalence of metabolic syndrome, diagnosed according to the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) criteria, and all-cause mortality at 4 years were recorded in an Italian population-based cohort (981 subjects, 55% women, aged 65–97 years). A Cox model adjusted for sociodemographic, lifestyle, and medical variables was used to investigate 1) whether metabolic syndrome was a predictor of mortality and 2) how the association was affected by baseline high CRP (>3 mg/l) and IL-6 (>1.33 pg/ml). RESULTS—Overall, metabolic syndrome prevalence was 27.2% [95% CI 24.0–30.5] and higher in women (33.3% [28.7–38.0]) than in men (19.6% [15.5–24.2]). During follow-up, 137 deaths occurred. Using ...
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Papers by Christopher Patterson