Strategies used in the pursuit of achievability during goal setting in rehabilitation

We used conversation analysis of six audio- and video-recorded goal setting meetings that were attended by patients and their respective treating team to explore and describe the interaction of participants during interdisciplinary goal setting, and to identify the strategies used to agree goals. The health care professionals involved in the six sessions included four physiotherapists, four occupational therapists, four nurses, one speech and language therapist, and one neuropsychologist. The participants included 3 patients with multiple sclerosis, 2 patients with spinal cord lesions, and 1 patient with stroke from an inpatient neurological rehabilitation unit. Detailed analysis revealed how the treating team shaped the meetings. The most notable finding was that there was rarely a straightforward translation of patient wishes into agreed-on written goals, with the treating team leading goal modification so that goals were achievable. Despite professional dominance, patients also influenced the course of the interaction, particularly when offering resistance to goals proposed by the treating team

Systems, interactions and macrotheory

A significant proportion of early HCI research was guided by one very clear vision: that the existing theory base in psychology and cognitive science could be developed to yield engineering tools for use in the interdisciplinary context of HCI design. While interface technologies and heuristic methods for behavioral evaluation have rapidly advanced in both capability and breadth of application, progress toward deeper theory has been modest, and some now believe it to be unnecessary. A case is presented for developing new forms of theory, based around generic “systems of interactors.” An overlapping, layered structure of macro- and microtheories could then serve an explanatory role, and could also bind together contributions from the different disciplines. Novel routes to formalizing and applying such theories provide a host of interesting and tractable problems for future basic research in HCI

Local variation in helminth burdens of Egyptian spiny mice (Acomys cahirinus dimidiatus) from ecologically similar sites: relationships with hormone concentrations and social behaviour

Populations of Egyptian spiny mice (Acomys cahirinus dimidiatus) in a fragmented montane wadi system in the Sinai showed significant differences in the abundance of gut helminths. Differences in parasite load between populations were positively associated with measures of androgen activity but showed no significant relationship with glucocorticoid activity. Social discrimination tests with adult males from different wadis showed that those from sites with greater helminth abundance were less likely to investigate odours from other males and were less aggressive when subsequently interacting with the odour donors. Subjects showed markedly more investigation towards the odours of males from distant wadis compared with those from their own or immediately neighbouring wadi, but were less aggressive when confronted with odour donors from distant wadis. Despite this, there was a positive relationship between the amount of investigation towards distant male odour and subsequent aggression towards the male. While aggressiveness was positively associated with measures of androgen and glucocorticoid activity, no significant relationship emerged with individual helminth infection. Thus aggressiveness appeared to relate to overall local population levels of infection rather than individual challenge

SCUBA observations of the host galaxies of four dark gamma-ray bursts

We present the results of a search for submillimetre-luminous host galaxies of optically dark gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) using the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). We made photometry measurements of the 850-micron flux at the location of four `dark bursts', which are those with no detected optical afterglow despite rapid deep searches, and which may therefore be within galaxies containing substantial amounts of dust. We were unable to detect any individual source significantly. Our results are consistent with predictions for the host galaxy population as a whole, rather than for a subset of dusty hosts. This indicates that optically dark GRBs are not especially associated with very submillimetre-luminous galaxies and so cannot be used as reliable indicators of dust-enshrouded massive star-formation activity. Further observations are required to establish the relationship between the wider GRB host galaxy population and SCUBA galaxies.Comment: 6 pages. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Multiplex Touchdown PCR for Rapid Typing of the Opportunistic Pathogen Propionibacterium acnes

The opportunistic human pathogen Propionibacterium acnes is composed of a number of distinct phylogroups, designated types IA(1), IA(2), IB, IC, II, and III, which vary in their production of putative virulence factors, their inflammatory potential, and their biochemical, aggregative, and morphological characteristics. Although multilocus sequence typing (MLST) currently represents the gold standard for unambiguous phylogroup classification and individual strain identification, it is a labor-intensive and time-consuming technique. As a consequence, we developed a multiplex touchdown PCR assay that in a single reaction can confirm the species identity and phylogeny of an isolate based on its pattern of reaction with six primer sets that target the 16S rRNA gene (all isolates), ATPase (types IA(1), IA(2), and IC), sodA (types IA(2) and IB), atpD (type II), and recA (type III) housekeeping genes, as well as a Fic family toxin gene (type IC). When applied to 312 P. acnes isolates previously characterized by MLST and representing types IA(1) (n = 145), IA(2) (n = 20), IB (n = 65), IC (n = 7), II (n = 45), and III (n = 30), the multiplex displayed 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity for detecting isolates within each targeted phylogroup. No cross-reactivity with isolates from other bacterial species was observed. This multiplex assay will provide researchers with a rapid, high-throughput, and technically undemanding typing method for epidemiological and phylogenetic investigations. It will facilitate studies investigating the association of lineages with various infections and clinical conditions, and it will serve as a prescreening tool to maximize the number of genetically diverse isolates selected for downstream higher-resolution sequence-based analyses

Recovering Grammar Relationships for the Java Language Specification

Grammar convergence is a method that helps discovering relationships between different grammars of the same language or different language versions. The key element of the method is the operational, transformation-based representation of those relationships. Given input grammars for convergence, they are transformed until they are structurally equal. The transformations are composed from primitive operators; properties of these operators and the composed chains provide quantitative and qualitative insight into the relationships between the grammars at hand. We describe a refined method for grammar convergence, and we use it in a major study, where we recover the relationships between all the grammars that occur in the different versions of the Java Language Specification (JLS). The relationships are represented as grammar transformation chains that capture all accidental or intended differences between the JLS grammars. This method is mechanized and driven by nominal and structural differences between pairs of grammars that are subject to asymmetric, binary convergence steps. We present the underlying operator suite for grammar transformation in detail, and we illustrate the suite with many examples of transformations on the JLS grammars. We also describe the extraction effort, which was needed to make the JLS grammars amenable to automated processing. We include substantial metadata about the convergence process for the JLS so that the effort becomes reproducible and transparent

SCUBA Observations of the Host Galaxies of Gamma-Ray Bursts

In recent years, a population of galaxies with huge infrared luminosities and dust masses has been discovered in the submillimetre. Observations suggest that the AGN contribution to the luminosities of these submillimetre-selected galaxies is low; instead their luminosities are thought to be mainly due to strong episodes of star formation following merger events. Our current understanding of GRBs as the endpoints in the life of massive stars suggest that they will be located in such galaxies.We have observed a sample of well-located GRB host galaxies in the submillimetre. Comparing the results with the general submillimetre-selected galaxy population, we find that at low fluxes (S850 ≤ 4 mJy), the two agree well. However, there is a lack of bright GRB hosts in the submillimetre. This finding is reinforced when the results of other groups are included. Possible explanations are discussed. These results help us assess the roles of both GRB host galaxies and submillimetre-selected galaxies in the evolution of the Universe

An expanded multilocus sequence typing scheme for propionibacterium acnes : investigation of 'pathogenic', 'commensal' and antibiotic resistant strains

The Gram-positive bacterium Propionibacterium acnes is a member of the normal human skin microbiota and is associated with various infections and clinical conditions. There is tentative evidence to suggest that certain lineages may be associated with disease and others with health. We recently described a multilocus sequence typing scheme (MLST) for P. acnes based on seven housekeeping genes (http://pubmlst.org/pacnes). We now describe an expanded eight gene version based on six housekeeping genes and two ‘putative virulence’ genes (eMLST) that provides improved high resolution typing (91eSTs from 285 isolates), and generates phylogenies congruent with those based on whole genome analysis. When compared with the nine gene MLST scheme developed at the University of Bath, UK, and utilised by researchers at Aarhus University, Denmark, the eMLST method offers greater resolution. Using the scheme, we examined 208 isolates from disparate clinical sources, and 77 isolates from healthy skin. Acne was predominately associated with type IA1 clonal complexes CC1, CC3 and CC4; with eST1 and eST3 lineages being highly represented. In contrast, type IA2 strains were recovered at a rate similar to type IB and II organisms. Ophthalmic infections were predominately associated with type IA1 and IA2 strains, while type IB and II were more frequently recovered from soft tissue and retrieved medical devices. Strains with rRNA mutations conferring resistance to antibiotics used in acne treatment were dominated by eST3, with some evidence for intercontinental spread. In contrast, despite its high association with acne, only a small number of resistant CC1 eSTs were identified. A number of eSTs were only recovered from healthy skin, particularly eSTs representing CC72 (type II) and CC77 (type III). Collectively our data lends support to the view that pathogenic versus truly commensal lineages of P. acnes may exist. This is likely to have important therapeutic and diagnostic implications