Image-sharing in Twitter-based professional conversations

This paper reports on ongoing research into the image-sharing practices of two informal professional networks, one dedicated to midwives and the other dedicated to teachers, on Twitter. Each network is brought together through regular, loosely synchronous Twitter conversations, created through the use of an identifying hashtag. In both cases, the conversations have been initiated by practitioners with the explicit intention of creating a space for sharing ideas, practice, experience and opinions. Community members are relied on to provide facilitation, to promote the conversations and, in one case, to suggest conversations themes. These kinds of informal professional conversation may thus serve as somewhat hidden, but potentially influential, sites of professional learning. As with most social media and mobile communications, Twitter has become increasingly saturated with images. Indeed this may be a particularly strong trend on Twitter because images can be used to convey a great deal more than might easily be said in the 140 characters users are limited to in each tweet. Professional conversations are no exception to this, with images accompanying tweets with increasing frequency. Images, then, may provide a rich alternative to research focusing on the text of tweets. This paper describes research using such images as foci for the study of the flow of information, opinion and affect amongst the two professional groups described above. Starting with a period of extended observation of both conversations, the research proceeded to in-depth interviews with a small number of practitioners who were also active participants, in which images previously published during the Twitter conversations were used as prompts. Methods developed to visualise and make sense of the relations between images and users during the conversations, and ultimately to identify candidate interviewees and prompt images are described. The research makes use of philosopher Gilles Deleuze's concepts of lines of articulation, lines of flight and knots to draw out some of the factors affecting flows through the conversation-spaces. It appears that there are at least three broad factors - the technical affordances for communication provided by Twitter, individuals' notions of online professionalism, and individuals' sense of the purpose of the conversation-space - that create lines of articulation and flight, constraints and uncertainties that accelerate, amplify or impede these flows. These lines twist and knot, resulting in a socio-technical disciplining that conditions the conversations and both reveals and hides aspects of professional life

Research-led education: challenges and experiences

The role of a university education in science is changing. In the new knowledge economy, the factcentred, narrowly-focussed education often acquired in a traditional science degree is no longer valued for its own sake, partly because such knowledge, and associated technical skills, can rapidly become outdated, but also because people entering the workforce can expect to have to change jobs and duties several times during their lifetimes. Instead, the skills that are most valued in the science graduate are the logical approach, the inquisitiveness and the adaptability that characterise a lifelong learner. This change is reflected in the new emphasis on training students in ‘research skills’ evident in the changing nature of science degrees in many Australian universities, since the skills of the lifelong learner are similar to those of the effective researcher

Sub-m s−1^{-1} upper limits from a deep HARPS-N radial-velocity search for planets orbiting HD 166620 and HD 144579

Minimising the impact of stellar variability in Radial Velocity (RV) measurements is a critical challenge in achieving the 10 cm s$^{-1}$ precision needed to hunt for Earth twins. Since 2012, a dedicated programme has been underway with HARPS-N, to conduct a blind RV Rocky Planets Search (RPS) around bright stars in the Northern Hemisphere. Here we describe the results of a comprehensive search for planetary systems in two RPS targets, HD 166620 and HD 144579. Using wavelength-domain line-profile decorrelation vectors to mitigate the stellar activity and performing a deep search for planetary reflex motions using a trans-dimensional nested sampler, we found no significant planetary signals in the data sets of either of the stars. We validated the results via data-splitting and injection recovery tests. Additionally, we obtained the 95th percentile detection limits on the HARPS-N RVs. We found that the likelihood of finding a low-mass planet increases noticeably across a wide period range when the inherent stellar variability is corrected for using scalpels U-vectors. We are able to detect planet signals with $M\sin i \leq 1$ M$_\oplus$ for orbital periods shorter than 10 days. We demonstrate that with our decorrelation technique, we are able to detect signals as low as 54 cm s$^{-1}$, which brings us closer to the calibration limit of 50 cm s$^{-1}$ demonstrated by HARPS-N. Therefore, we show that we can push down towards the RV precision required to find Earth analogues using high-precision radial velocity data with novel data-analysis techniques.Comment: 7 tables, 24 figures (including those in appendix

Early life environment and natural history of inflammatory bowel diseases

Background: Early life exposures may modify risk of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD; Crohn’s disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC)). However, the relationship between early life exposures and natural history of IBD has not been previously examined. Methods: This single center study included patients with CD or UC recruited in a prospective IBD registry. Enrolled patients completed a detailed environmental questionnaire that assessed various early life environmental exposures. Our primary outcome was requirement for disease-related surgery in CD and UC. Logistic regression models defined independent effect of early life exposures, adjusting for potential confounders. Results: Our study included 333 CD and 270 UC patients. Just over half were female with a median age at diagnosis of 25 years. One-third of the cohort had history of bowel surgery (31%) and nearly half had used at least one biologic agent (47%). Among those with CD, being breastfed was associated with reduced risk of CD-related surgery (34% vs. 55%), while childhood cigarette smoke exposure was associated with increased risk. On multivariate analysis, history of being breastfed (odds ratio (OR) 0.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.09–0.46) and cigarette smoke exposure as a child (OR 2.17, 95% CI 1.10–4.29) remained independently associated with surgery. None of the early life variables influenced disease phenotype or outcome in UC. Conclusion: A history of being breastfed was associated with a decreased risk while childhood cigarette smoke exposure was associated with an increased risk of surgery in patients with CD. Further investigation to examine biological mechanisms is warranted. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12876-014-0216-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Modelling radiation-induced cell cycle delays

Ionizing radiation is known to delay the cell cycle progression. In particular after particle exposure significant delays have been observed and it has been shown that the extent of delay affects the expression of damage such as chromosome aberrations. Thus, to predict how cells respond to ionizing radiation and to derive reliable estimates of radiation risks, information about radiation-induced cell cycle perturbations is required. In the present study we describe and apply a method for retrieval of information about the time-course of all cell cycle phases from experimental data on the mitotic index only. We study the progression of mammalian cells through the cell cycle after exposure. The analysis reveals a prolonged block of damaged cells in the G2 phase. Furthermore, by performing an error analysis on simulated data valuable information for the design of experimental studies has been obtained. The analysis showed that the number of cells analyzed in an experimental sample should be at least 100 to obtain a relative error less than 20%.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Radiation and Environmental Biophysic

Capacity of Public Health Surveillance to Comply with Revised International Health Regulations, USA

Most states have the reporting capacity to comply

Pathologic gene network rewiring implicates PPP1R3A as a central regulator in pressure overload heart failure

Heart failure is a leading cause of mortality, yet our understanding of the genetic interactions underlying this disease remains incomplete. Here, we harvest 1352 healthy and failing human hearts directly from transplant center operating rooms, and obtain genome-wide genotyping and gene expression measurements for a subset of 313. We build failing and non-failing cardiac regulatory gene networks, revealing important regulators and cardiac expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs). PPP1R3A emerges as a regulator whose network connectivity changes significantly between health and disease. RNA sequencing after PPP1R3A knockdown validates network-based predictions, and highlights metabolic pathway regulation associated with increased cardiomyocyte size and perturbed respiratory metabolism. Mice lacking PPP1R3A are protected against pressure-overload heart failure. We present a global gene interaction map of the human heart failure transition, identify previously unreported cardiac eQTLs, and demonstrate the discovery potential of disease-specific networks through the description of PPP1R3A as a central regulator in heart failure

The breakdown of the municipality as caring platform: lessons for co-design and co-learning in the age of platform capitalism

If municipalities were the caring platforms of the 19-20th century sharing economy, how does care manifest in civic structures of the current period? We consider how platforms - from the local initiatives of communities transforming neighbourhoods, to the city, in the form of the local authority - are involved, trusted and/or relied on in the design of shared services and amenities for the public good. We use contrasting cases of interaction between local government and civil society organisations in Sweden and the UK to explore trends in public service provision. We look at how care can manifest between state and citizens and at the roles that co-design and co-learning play in developing contextually sensitive opportunities for caring platforms. In this way, we seek to learn from platforms in transition about the importance of co-learning in political and structural contexts and make recommendations for the co-design of (digital) platforms to care with and for civil society

Evolution of collective and noncollective structures in Xe-123

An experiment involving a heavy-ion-induced fusion-evaporation reaction was carried out where high-spin states of 123Xe were populated in the 80Se (48Ca,5n) 123Xe reaction at 207 MeV beam energy. Gamma-ray coincidence events were recorded with the Gammasphere Ge detector array. The previously known level scheme was confirmed and enhanced with the addition of five new band structures and several interband transitions. Cranked Nilsson-Strutinsky (CNS) calculations were performed and compared with the experimental results in order to assign configurations to the bands.Additional co-authors: T Lauritsen, S Zhu, A Korichi, P Fallon, B M Nyakó, and J Timá