An exploratory investigation examining male and female students' initial impressions and expectancies of lecturers

The aim of this study was to examine the informational cues that male and female students perceive to be influential when developing initial impressions and expectancies of a lecturer. University students (n 752) rated the extent to which 30 informational cues influence their initial perceptions of a lecturer. Following exploratory factor analysis (EFA), a five-factor model (i.e. appearance (APP), accessories (ACC), third-party reports (TPR), communication skills (CS) and nationality/ethnicity (NE)) was extracted for male students and a five-factor model (i.e. ACC, TPR, APP, interpersonal skills (IPS) and engagement (ENG)) extracted for female students. Inspection of mean scores identified that male students rated CS (e.g. clarity of voice) and TPR (e.g. qualifications) and female students IPS (e.g. control of class), ENG (e.g. eye contact) and TPR to be influential factors in forming initial impressions and expectancies of a lecturer. The findings further identify the potential for expectancy effects within student lecturer interactions

Children's exposure to second-hand smoke 10 years on from smoke-free legislation in England: Cotinine data from the Health Survey for England 1998-2018

BACKGROUND: We aimed to investigate trends in children's exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke in England from 1998 to 2018. METHODS: We used twenty-one years of data from the Health Survey for England, a yearly repeated cross-sectional population study. A total of 49,460 children participated between 1998 and 2018, of whom 17,463 were biochemically confirmed non-smokers aged 4-15. We examined changes in (i) the proportion of children living in reported smoke-free homes and (ii) second-hand smoke uptake, measured quantitatively using saliva cotinine concentration. FINDINGS: The percentage of children living in a home reported to be smoke-free increased from 63.0% (95% CI 60.5%-65.2%) in 1998 to 93.3% (91.8%-94.6%) in 2018. This increase was most pronounced among children with a smoker parent, rising from 17.1% (14.7%-19.8%) to 75.9% (70.8%-80.4%). Segmented regression showed that the rate of adoption of smoke-free homes accelerated leading up to the 2007 ban on smoking in public places, growing most rapidly in the four years after its entry into law. Between 1998 and 2018, there was a ten-fold decline in geometric mean cotinine among non-smoking children, from 0.50 ng/ml (0.46-0.56) to 0.05 ng/ml (0.04-0.06). A total of 65.0% (61.2%-68.6%) of children had undetectable cotinine in 2018, up from 14.3% (12.7%-16.0%) in 1998. Children living in rented accommodation were more exposed than those from owner-occupied households, but they experienced similar relative declines across years. INTERPRETATION: Cotinine data show that children's exposure to second-hand smoke has fallen by some 90% since 1998, with an apparent acceleration in adoption of smoke-free homes since the 2007 ban on smoking in public places. A norm has emerged that sees smoking in the home as inappropriate, almost universally where parents are non-smokers, but also increasingly among smoking parents

Material parameter estimation and hypothesis testing on a 1D viscoelastic stenosis model: Methodology

This is the post-print version of the final published paper that is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2013 Walter de Gruyter GmbH.Non-invasive detection, localization and characterization of an arterial stenosis (a blockage or partial blockage in the artery) continues to be an important problem in medicine. Partial blockage stenoses are known to generate disturbances in blood flow which generate shear waves in the chest cavity. We examine a one-dimensional viscoelastic model that incorporates Kelvin–Voigt damping and internal variables, and develop a proof-of-concept methodology using simulated data. We first develop an estimation procedure for the material parameters. We use this procedure to determine confidence intervals for the estimated parameters, which indicates the efficacy of finding parameter estimates in practice. Confidence intervals are computed using asymptotic error theory as well as bootstrapping. We then develop a model comparison test to be used in determining if a particular data set came from a low input amplitude or a high input amplitude; this we anticipate will aid in determining when stenosis is present. These two thrusts together will serve as the methodological basis for our continuing analysis using experimental data currently being collected.National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Department of Education, and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

High-order space-time finite element schemes for acoustic and viscodynamic wave equations with temporal decoupling

Copyright @ 2014 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.We revisit a method originally introduced by Werder et al. (in Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg., 190:6685–6708, 2001) for temporally discontinuous Galerkin FEMs applied to a parabolic partial differential equation. In that approach, block systems arise because of the coupling of the spatial systems through inner products of the temporal basis functions. If the spatial finite element space is of dimension D and polynomials of degree r are used in time, the block system has dimension (r + 1)D and is usually regarded as being too large when r > 1. Werder et al. found that the space-time coupling matrices are diagonalizable over inline image for r ⩽100, and this means that the time-coupled computations within a time step can actually be decoupled. By using either continuous Galerkin or spectral element methods in space, we apply this DG-in-time methodology, for the first time, to second-order wave equations including elastodynamics with and without Kelvin–Voigt and Maxwell–Zener viscoelasticity. An example set of numerical results is given to demonstrate the favourable effect on error and computational work of the moderately high-order (up to degree 7) temporal and spatio-temporal approximations, and we also touch on an application of this method to an ambitious problem related to the diagnosis of coronary artery disease

Comparison of Cartesian and Non-Cartesian Real-Time MRI Sequences at 1.5T to Assess Velar Motion and Velopharyngeal Closure during Speech

This project is funded by CLEFT (CLEFT-2013-1) and an Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) Innovation and Research Award for computer equipment. MEM is partly (20%) funded by the National Institute for Health Research Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit at Barts. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript

Cancer mortality in 13 to 29-year-olds in England and Wales, 1981–2005

We examined cancer mortality at ages 13–29 years in England and Wales between 1981 and 2005, a total of 20 026 deaths over approximately 303 million person-years (mpy) at risk by sex, age group and time period. Overall, the mortality rate was 65.6 per mpy. Malignant neoplasms of the central nervous system showed the highest rate (8.5), followed by myeloid and monocytic leukaemia (6.6), lymphoid leukaemia (6.4), malignant bone tumours (5.4) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (5.2). These groups together accounted for almost 50% of all cancer deaths. The mortality rate for males (72.4) was 23% higher than for females (58.6) (P-value <0.0001). Males showed significantly higher mortality rates than females in almost all diagnostic groups, in general, mortality increasing with age (P-value <0.0001). There were significant decreases in mortality over time, the annual percentage change between 1981 and 2005 being minus 1.86 (95% confidence interval −2.09 to −1.62). Cancer groups with the highest mortality differed from those with the highest incidence

Elastin is Localised to the Interfascicular Matrix of Energy Storing Tendons and Becomes Increasingly Disorganised With Ageing

Tendon is composed of fascicles bound together by the interfascicular matrix (IFM). Energy storing tendons are more elastic and extensible than positional tendons; behaviour provided by specialisation of the IFM to enable repeated interfascicular sliding and recoil. With ageing, the IFM becomes stiffer and less fatigue resistant, potentially explaining why older tendons become more injury-prone. Recent data indicates enrichment of elastin within the IFM, but this has yet to be quantified. We hypothesised that elastin is more prevalent in energy storing than positional tendons, and is mainly localised to the IFM. Further, we hypothesised that elastin becomes disorganised and fragmented, and decreases in amount with ageing, especially in energy storing tendons. Biochemical analyses and immunohistochemical techniques were used to determine elastin content and organisation, in young and old equine energy storing and positional tendons. Supporting the hypothesis, elastin localises to the IFM of energy storing tendons, reducing in quantity and becoming more disorganised with ageing. These changes may contribute to the increased injury risk in aged energy storing tendons. Full understanding of the processes leading to loss of elastin and its disorganisation with ageing may aid in the development of treatments to prevent age related tendinopathy

Application of the speed-duration relationship to normalize the intensity of high-intensity interval training

The tolerable duration of continuous high-intensity exercise is determined by the hyperbolic Speed-tolerable duration (S-tLIM) relationship. However, application of the S-tLIM relationship to normalize the intensity of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) has yet to be considered, with this the aim of present study. Subjects completed a ramp-incremental test, and series of 4 constant-speed tests to determine the S-tLIM relationship. A sub-group of subjects (n = 8) then repeated 4 min bouts of exercise at the speeds predicted to induce intolerance at 4 min (WR4), 6 min (WR6) and 8 min (WR8), interspersed with bouts of 4 min recovery, to the point of exercise intolerance (fixed WR HIIT) on different days, with the aim of establishing the work rate that could be sustained for 960 s (i.e. 4×4 min). A sub-group of subjects (n = 6) also completed 4 bouts of exercise interspersed with 4 min recovery, with each bout continued to the point of exercise intolerance (maximal HIIT) to determine the appropriate protocol for maximizing the amount of high-intensity work that can be completed during 4×4 min HIIT. For fixed WR HIIT tLIM of HIIT sessions was 399±81 s for WR4, 892±181 s for WR6 and 1517±346 s for WR8, with total exercise durations all significantly different from each other (P&#60;0.050). For maximal HIIT, there was no difference in tLIM of each of the 4 bouts (Bout 1: 229±27 s; Bout 2: 262±37 s; Bout 3: 235±49 s; Bout 4: 235±53 s; P&#62;0.050). However, there was significantly less high-intensity work completed during bouts 2 (153.5±40. 9 m), 3 (136.9±38.9 m), and 4 (136.7±39.3 m), compared with bout 1 (264.9±58.7 m; P&#62;0.050). These data establish that WR6 provides the appropriate work rate to normalize the intensity of HIIT between subjects. Maximal HIIT provides a protocol which allows the relative contribution of the work rate profile to physiological adaptations to be considered during alternative intensity-matched HIIT protocols