504 research outputs found
Unsung Heroes: Military Families After Ten Years of War
This report describes the economic and educational impact of service on families, the strains of the deployment cycle, and gives suggestions on how to support America's veterans, including a recommended reading list and a list of resources for military families
STB-White
The final design of a hypersonic, SCRAMjet research aircraft, which is to be dropped from a carrier plane, is considered. Topics such as propulsion systems, aerodynamics, component weight analysis, and aircraft design with waverider analyses are stressed with smaller emphasis placed on aircraft systems such as cockpit design and landing gear configurations. Propulsion systems include analysis of the turbofanramjet for acceleration to low hypersonic speed (Mach 6.0) and analysis of the SCRAMjets themselves to carry the aircraft to Mach 10.0. Both analyses include the use of liquid hydrogen as fuel. Inlet design for both propulsion systems is analyzed as well. Aerodynamic properties are found using empirical and theoretical formulas for lift and drag on delta-wing aircraft. The aircraft design involves the integration of all preliminary studies into a modified waverider configuration
Supporting staff to respond effectively to informal complaints: findings from an action research study
Aim: to understand how nurses and midwives manage informal complaints at ward level.
Background: the provision of high quality, compassionate clinical nursing and midwifery is a global priority. Complaints management systems have been established within the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom (UK) to improve patient experience yet little is known about effective responses to informal complaints in clinical practice by nurses and midwives.
Design: collaborative action research.
Methods: four phases of data collection and analysis relating to primarily one NHS trust during 2011-2014 including: scoping of complaints data, interviews with five service users and six key stakeholders and eight reflective discussion groups with six midwives over a period of nine months, two sessions of communications training with separate groups of midwives and one focus group with four nurses in the collaborating trust.
Results: three key themes emerged from these data: multiple and domino complaints; ward staff need support; and unclear complaints systems.
Conclusions: current research does not capture the complexities of complaints and the nursing and midwifery response to informal complaints.
Relevance to clinical practice: robust systems are required to support clinical staff to improve their response to informal complaints and thereby improve the patient experience
The Convex Body Isoperimetric Conjecture in the Plane
The Convex Body Isoperimetric Conjecture states that the least perimeter needed to enclose a volume within a ball is greater than the least perimeter needed to enclose the same volume within any other convex body of the same volume in Rn. We focus on the conjecture in the plane and prove a new sharp lower bound for the isoperimetric profile of the disk in this case. We prove the conjecture in the case of regular polygons, and show that in a general planar convex body the conjecture holds for small areas
Disability as Psycho-emotional Disablism: A Theoretical and Philosophical Review of Education Theory and Practice
Reflecting on action research exploring informal complaints management by nurses and midwives in an NHS trust: Transformation or maintaining the status quo?
Background: Little is known about how nurses and midwives manage informal complaints at ward level or if effective communication at this level can improve service delivery and reduce the number of formal complaints in NHS trusts in the UK. Aims and objectives: Working in partnership with a local NHS trust, the RESPONSE project uses action research methodology to explore the role of communication in the management of informal complaints in the trust. The aim of the project is to develop a guide for best practice. This paper presents a critical reflection informed by transformative learning theory on the use of action research methodology in this context. Conclusions and implications for practice: Action research is a valuable tool for transformative learning, practice development and improved patient experience in acute NHS trusts. It requires a high level of commitment to âpower sharingâ and perseverance. This is particularly so in relation to sustained participation, a core premise of action research, which necessitates: An inclusive, pragmatic, flexible and creative approach A continuous questioning and pre-Ââempting of participantsâ needs An acceptance of the fact that participation may vary over the course of a project and that this in itself may facilitate participation
OvMark: a user-friendly system for the identification of prognostic biomarkers in publically available ovarian cancer gene expression datasets
Background: Ovarian cancer has the lowest survival rate of all gynaecologic cancers and is characterised by a lack of early symptoms and frequent late stage diagnosis. There is a paucity of robust molecular markers that are independent of and complementary to clinical parameters such as disease stage and tumour grade.
METHODS: We have developed a user-friendly, web-based system to evaluate the association of genes/miRNAs with outcome in ovarian cancer. The OvMark algorithm combines data from multiple microarray platforms (including probesets targeting miRNAs) and correlates them with clinical parameters (e.g. tumour grade, stage) and outcomes (disease free survival (DFS), overall survival). In total, OvMark combines 14 datasets from 7 different array platforms measuring the expression of ~17,000 genes and 341 miRNAs across 2,129 ovarian cancer samples.
RESULTS: To demonstrate the utility of the system we confirmed the prognostic ability of 14 genes and 2 miRNAs known to play a role in ovarian cancer. Of these genes, CXCL12 was the most significant predictor of DFS (HRâ=â1.42, p-valueâ=â2.42x10-6). Surprisingly, those genes found to have the greatest correlation with outcome have not been heavily studied in ovarian cancer, or in some cases in any cancer. For instance, the three genes with the greatest association with survival are SNAI3, VWA3A and DNAH12.
CONCLUSIONS/IMPACT:
OvMark is a powerful tool for examining putative gene/miRNA prognostic biomarkers in ovarian cancer (available at http://glados.ucd.ie/OvMark/index.html). The impact of this tool will be in the preliminary assessment of putative biomarkers in ovarian cancer, particularly for research groups with limited bioinformatics facilities
Exploring the Energetics of Intracluster Gas with a Simple and Accurate Model
The state of the hot gas in clusters of galaxies is investigated with a set
of model clusters, created by assuming a polytropic equation of state
(Gamma=1.2) and hydrostatic equilibrium inside gravitational potential wells
drawn from a dark matter simulation. Star formation, energy input, and
nonthermal pressure support are included. To match the gas fractions seen in
non-radiative hydrodynamical simulations, roughly 5% of the binding energy of
the dark matter must be transferred to the gas during cluster formation; the
presence of nonthermal pressure support increases this value. In order to match
X-ray observations, scale-free behavior must be broken. This can be due to
either variation of the efficiency of star formation with cluster mass M_500,
or the input of additional energy proportional to the formed stellar mass M_F.
These two processes have similar effects on X-ray scalings. If 9% of the gas is
converted into stars, independent of cluster mass, then feedback energy input
of 1.2e-5*M_Fc^2 (or ~1.0 keV per particle) is required to match observed
clusters. Alternatively, if the stellar mass fraction varies as M_500^-0.26
then a lower feedback of 4e-6*M_Fc^2 is needed, and if the stellar fraction
varies as steeply as M_500^-0.49 then no additional feedback is necessary. The
model clusters reproduce the observed trends of gas temperature and gas mass
fraction with cluster mass, as well as observed entropy and pressure profiles;
thus they provide a calibrated basis with which to interpret upcoming SZ
surveys. One consequence of the increased gas energy is that the baryon
fraction inside the virial radius is less than roughly 90% of the cosmic mean,
even for the most massive clusters.Comment: Accepted by ApJ; 28 pages, 12 figure
Climate change impacts on working people (the HOTHAPS initiative): findings of the South African pilot study
Star Formation in Dwarf Galaxies of the Nearby Centaurus A Group
We present Halpha narrow-band imaging of 17 dwarf irregular galaxies (dIs) in
the nearby Centaurus A Group. Although all large galaxies of the group have a
current or recent enhanced star formation episode, the dIs have normal star
formation rates and do not contain a larger fraction of dwarf starbursts than
other nearby groups. Relative distances between dIs and larger galaxies of the
group can be computed in 3D since most of them have now fairly accurately known
distances. We find that the dI star formation rates do not depend on local
environment, and in particular they do not show any correlation with the
distance of the dI to the nearest large galaxy of the group. There is a clear
morphology-density relation in the Centaurus A Group, similarly to the Sculptor
and Local Groups, in the sense that dEs/dSphs tend to be at small distances
from the more massive galaxies of the group, while dIs are on average at larger
distances. We find four transition dwarfs in the Group, dwarfs that show
characteristics of both dE/dSphs and dIs, and which contain cold gas but no
current star formation. Interestingly the transition dwarfs have an average
distance to the more massive galaxies which is intermediate between those of
the dEs/dSphs and dIs, and which is quite large: 0.54 +- 0.31 Mpc. This large
distance poses some difficulty for the most popular scenarios proposed for
transforming a dI into a dE/dSph (ram-pressure with tidal stripping or galaxy
harassment). If the observed transition dwarfs are indeed missing links between
dIs and dE/dSphs, their relative isolation makes it less likely to have been
produced by these mechanisms. We propose that an inhomogeneous IGM containing
higher density clumps would be able to ram-pressure stripped the dIs at such
large distances.Comment: 57 pages, 10 fi5gure
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