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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reframe transformative and culturally sustaining leadership for a diverse global society by addressing the need for educational systems to better serve people of color, situated in the urban Auckland area of Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), who have been marginalized by the societies to which they immigrate. Design/methodology/approach: Grounded in an applied critical theoretical framework, this qualitative inquiry uses raw auto-ethnographical data gleaned from a case study featuring the voice of Deva, a Malaysian Punjabi woman educator, who is also an aspiring school leader. In aspects of her auto-ethnography, she candidly shares experiences of racism, discrimination, and oppression germane to her professional educational experiences in Aotearoa NZ. Findings: Findings inform practice and policy to foster more inclusive school improvement in a bicultural and increasingly multicultural context that has historically recognized Maori (indigenous to Aotearoa NZ), Pakeha (of European descent), and Pacific Islander (e.g. Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Niue, Cook Islands) achievement in a national context. Global and international implications are included. Originality/value: This contribution presents a unique perspective showcasing Deva's direct experiences with acknowledgment of and professional positioning around Te Tiriti o Waitangi--The Treaty of Waitangi, the principles of which are now being applied not only to the rights of Maori and Pakeha, but also Pacific Islander and immigrants to the country.

The present work focuses on the study of effect of Cd-doping on the structural, optical, and photocatalytic degradation efficiency of methylene blue (MB) and methylene orange (MO) dyes on ball-milled cum solid-state reaction synthesized copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles. X-ray diffraction reveals the presence of a monoclinic CuO phase only, which confirms the successful doping of Cd in the CuO matrix. The XRD and TEM analysis suggests the shrinkage of particle size (47 to 40 nm) of CuO nanoparticles with increase of Cd-doping content. The optical studies also reveal the narrowing of CuO band gap from 3.48 to 3.43 eV with increase of doping percentage. XRD and PL analysis confirms the enrichment of structural defects of CuO lattice with introduction of dopant into it. Further, the DFT + U approach was used for crystal structure, state of density, and band structure evaluation. The sunlight-driven photocatalytic degradation activity of the samples was tested against pollutants (MO and MB dyes). The degradation efficiency of CuO nanoparticles was found to be enhanced with Cd-doping concentration. 3 mol% doped Cd-CuO shows the best degradation efficiency and successfully degrades 59% and 75% of MO and MB dyes in 240 min under sunlight irradiation. This excellent performance of Cd-doped CuO nanostructure makes it an appropriate candidate for various environmental applications such as removal of water pollutant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Rural primary care is a complex environment in which multiple patient safety challenges can arise. To make progress in improving safety with limited resources, each practice needs to identify those safety problems that pose the greatest threat to patients and focus efforts on these. Purpose: To describe and field-test a novel approach to prioritizing safety problems in rural primary care based on the method of Failure Modes and Effects Analysis. Methods: A survey instrument designed to assess perceptions of medical error frequency, severity, and cause was administered anonymously to staff of 2 rural primary care practices in New York State. Responses were converted to quantitative hazard scores, which were used to make priority rankings of safety problems. Concordance analysis was conducted. Results: Response rate was 94% at each site. Analysis yielded a list of priorities for each site. Comparison between staff groups (provider vs nursing vs administration), based on the top 10 priorities perceived by staff, showed 53% concordance at one site and 30% at the other. Concordance between sites was lower, at 20%. Conclusions: Initial field-testing of a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis approach in rural primary care suggests that it is feasible and can be used to estimate, based on staff perceptions, the greatest threats to patient safety in an individual practice so that limited resources can be focused appropriately. Higher concordance between staff within a practice than between practices lends preliminary support to the validity of the approach.

A bone implant is one of the important areas in biomedical applications where biomaterial like polymers, ceramics and metals plays a deciding role. Polymethyl(methacrylate) (PMMA) is one of the biocompatible materials that can be used for fabricating bone implants. In this work, the combinations of PMMA, PMMA/HA, PMMA/Mg and PMMA/HA/Mg scaffolds were fabricated by the freeze casting process. The variation of pore size, porosity and compressive strength was studied for PMMA and its combinations with HA and Mg. The pore size in all four combinations was greater than 200 µm. This indicates that all four types of scaffolds are suitable for bone implants in their biological functions. The compressive strength of the PMMA/HA (26.08 MPa) scaffold was higher than the cancellous bone. In this work, PMMA/HA scaffold with better pore size and compressive strength was fabricated which has given way to fabricate bone implants in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]