2,321 research outputs found
Ex-servicemen's organisations and the Weimar Republic
The history of the ex-servicemen's associations during the Weimar
Republic is one of social and political disunity. Losing its monopoly,
semi-establishment role in 1918, the KyffhHuserbund had to fight for its survival against the new more definitely political organisations of
Right and Left, together with the new 'glitist' OffiziersverbHnde. The
Bund retrenched its position between 1919 and 1923 and adhered closely
to its statutory "Uberparteilichkeit", refraining from attacks on the
Republic. No so with the OffiziersverbHnde, particularly the National-
verband deutscher Offiziere, who joined the hostile "patriotic" opposition from the outset.
Between 1923 and 1928 even the KyffhHuserbund "moved to the Right". Despite close links re-established with the government, especially in the fields of military training and militarist propaganda, contacts with "right radical" associations tended to blur the distinctions between
them. General von Horn tried, albeit hesitantly, to redefine the Bund's ethical position after 1928, mainly by dropping ties with political
societies, criticising the radical agitation of the NSDAP, and even by
taking up contacts with the Evangelical Church. His opposition to Hitler in the 1932 presidential elections played an important part in
deferring the Nazi "Machtergreifung". Nevertheless the bulk of the propaganda of the veterans' associations tended in the long run to serve the ends of the DNVP and NSDAP, and Horn failed to maintain his moderate policy in the face of strenuous opposition from within the Bund.
In view of the size and prestige of the KyffhHuserbund it could well have made a more positive contribution to the cause of moderate conservatism,
even to that of constitutional monarchy. Nevertheless, the Kriegervereine differed from the KampfbUnde in the important question of motivation: Ex-servicemen generally joined them looking for comradeship and economic security, NOT for political or military activity
Managing uncertainty in data-derived densities to accelerate density functional theory
Faithful representations of atomic environments and general models for
regression can be harnessed to learn electron densities that are close to the
ground state. One of the applications of data-derived electron densities is to
orbital-free density functional theory. However, extrapolations of densities
learned from a training set to dissimilar structures could result in inaccurate
results, which would limit the applicability of the method. Here, we show that
a non-Bayesian approach can produce estimates of uncertainty which can
successfully distinguish accurate from inaccurate predictions of electron
density. We apply our approach to density functional theory where we initialise
calculations with data-derived densities only when we are confident about their
quality. This results in a guaranteed acceleration to self-consistency for
configurations that are similar to those seen during training and could be
useful for sampling based methods, where previous ground state densities cannot
be used to initialise subsequent calculations
Evaluating the use of lecture capture using a revealed preference approach
This article discusses the introduction of lecture capture technology on a large undergraduate module with diverse student cohorts. Literature has so far relied on surveying students to discover their use of the technology or attempted to quantify the impact of watching lecture recordings on assessment performance. Alternatively, the principal contribution of this article is an evaluation of the use of the recorded lectures using a revealed preference approach. Specifically we identify to what extent students watched lecture recordings, rather than simply claimed to watch them when asked to provide comments on the technology. Data indicates the number of distinct students who watched recordings, the frequency with which they watched recordings, the average length of viewings as well as the time of day when lectures were viewed. We monitored viewings over two academic years, identifying âspikesâ in the number of viewings in the days before tests, as well as regularities in the viewing patterns across the two years. We analyse the data to assess the extent to which students used the recordings, how and when they watched the recordings. We conclude that the students value lecture recordings, making more extensive use of the recordings than has been identified in the literature to date. Ultimately, lecture recordings are suggested to offer valuable support for studentsâ independent study
Awareness and perceptions of Long COVID among people in the REACT programme: early insights from a pilot interview study
BACKGROUND: Long COVID is a patient-made term describing new or persistent symptoms experienced following SARS-CoV-2 infection. The Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission-Long COVID (REACT-LC) study aims to understand variation in experiences following infection, and to identify biological, social, and environmental factors associated with Long COVID. We undertook a pilot interview study to inform the design, recruitment approach, and topic guide for the REACT-LC qualitative study. We sought to gain initial insights into the experience and attribution of new or persistent symptoms and the awareness or perceived applicability of the term Long COVID. METHODS: People were invited to REACT-LC assessment centres if they had taken part in REACT, a random community-based prevalence study, and had a documented history of SARS-CoV-2 infection. We invited people from REACT-LC assessment centres who had reported experiencing persistent symptoms for more than 12 weeks to take part in an interview. We conducted face to face and online semi-structured interviews which were transcribed and analysed using Thematic Analysis. RESULTS: We interviewed 13 participants (6 female, 7 male, median age 31). Participants reported a wide variation in both new and persistent symptoms which were often fluctuating or unpredictable in nature. Some participants were confident about the link between their persistent symptoms and COVID-19; however, others were unclear about the underlying cause of symptoms or felt that the impact of public health measures (such as lockdowns) played a role. We found differences in awareness and perceived applicability of the term Long COVID. CONCLUSION: This pilot has informed the design, recruitment approach and topic guide for our qualitative study. It offers preliminary insights into the varied experiences of people living with persistent symptoms including differences in symptom attribution and perceived applicability of the term Long COVID. This variation shows the value of recruiting from a nationally representative sample of participants who are experiencing persistent symptoms
Computer simulation of syringomyelia in dogs
Syringomyelia is a pathological condition in which fluid-filled cavities (syringes) form and expand in the spinal cord. Syringomyelia is often linked with obstruction of the craniocervical junction and a Chiari malformation, which is similar in both humans and animals. Some brachycephalic toy breed dogs such as Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (CKCS) are particularly predisposed. The exact mechanism of the formation of syringomyelia is undetermined and consequently with the lack of clinical explanation, engineers and mathematicians have resorted to computer models to identify possible physical mechanisms that can lead to syringes. We developed a computer model of the spinal cavity of a CKCS suffering from a large syrinx. The model was excited at the cranial end to simulate the movement of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and the spinal cord due to the shift of blood volume in the cranium related to the cardiac cycle. To simulate the normal condition, the movement was prescribed to the CSF. To simulate the pathological condition, the movement of CSF was blocked
A novel method for assessing design fidelity in web-based behavioral interventions.
Objective: Delivery is one of the most common ways of assessing fidelity in behavioral interventions.However, there is a lack of research reporting on how well an intervention protocol reflects its proposed theoretical principles (design fidelity). This study presents a systematic method for assessing design fidelity and applies it to the eMotion web-based intervention targeting physical activity and depression.Method: The eMotion intervention comprises of 13 web-based modules, designed according to an underlying intervention map. An independent rater with expertise in behavior change coded the presenceor absence of behavior change techniques (BCTs) in the content of eMotion. Results of coding werecompared to the intervention designersâ a priori specification for interrater reliability. Results: Afterdiscussion, the independent rater and the intervention designer had a high agreement for the presence ofBCTs relating to behavioral activation (AC1 0.91) with âdemonstration of behaviorâ and âmonitoringof emotional consequencesâ having the lowest agreement (AC1 0.4). There was also high agreementfor the presence of BCTs targeting physical activity (AC1 0.88) with âdemonstration of behaviorâ and âmonitoring of emotional consequencesâ having the lowest agreement (AC1 0.4). The eMotion description was then amended to align the interrater agreement. Conclusions: This study presents a novelmethod for assessing design fidelity. Developers of behavioral (and other multicomponent) interventions are encouraged to develop and refine this method and assess design fidelity in future interventions to ensure BCTs are operationalized as intended
Paraoxonase 2 protein is spatially expressed in the human placenta and selectively reduced in labour
Humans parturition involves interaction of hormonal, neurological, mechanical stretch and inflammatory pathways and the placenta plays a crucial role. The paraoxonases (PONs 1â3) protect against oxidative damage and lipid peroxidation, modulation of endoplasmic reticulum stress and regulation of apoptosis. Nothing is known about the role of PON2 in the placenta and labour. Since PON2 plays a role in oxidative stress and inflammation, both features of labour, we hypothesised that placental PON2 expression would alter during labour. PON2 was examined in placentas obtained from women who delivered by cesarean section and were not in labour and compared to the equivalent zone of placentas obtained from women who delivered vaginally following an uncomplicated labour. Samples were obtained from 12 sites within each placenta: 4 equally spaced apart pieces were sampled from the inner, middle and outer placental regions. PON2 expression was investigated by Western blotting and real time PCR. Two PON2 forms, one at 62 kDa and one at 43 kDa were found in all samples. No difference in protein expression of either isoform was found between the three sites in either the labour or non-labour group. At the middle site there was a highly significant decrease in PON2 expression in the labour group when compared to the non-labour group for both the 62 kDa form (p = 0.02) and the 43 kDa form (p = 0.006). No spatial differences were found within placentas at the mRNA level in either labour or non-labour. There was, paradoxically, an increase in PON2 mRNA in the labour group at the middle site only. This is the first report to describe changes in PON2 in the placenta in labour. The physiological and pathological significance of these remains to be elucidated but since PON2 is anti-inflammatory further studies are warranted to understand its role
The cylindromatosis gene product, CYLD, interacts with MIB2 to regulate notch signalling.
CYLD, an ubiquitin hydrolase, has an expanding repertoire of regulatory roles in cell signalling and is dysregulated in a number of cancers. To dissect CYLD function we used a proteomics approach to identify CYLD interacting proteins and identified MIB2, an ubiquitin ligase enzyme involved in Notch signalling, as a protein which interacts with CYLD. Coexpression of CYLD and MIB2 resulted in stabilisation of MIB2 protein levels and was associated with reduced levels of JAG2, a ligand implicated in Notch signalling. Conversely, gene silencing of CYLD using siRNA, resulted in increased JAG2 expression and upregulation of Notch signalling. We investigated Notch pathway activity in skin tumours from patients with germline mutations in CYLD and found that JAG2 protein levels and Notch target genes were upregulated. In particular, RUNX1 was overexpressed in CYLD defective tumour cells. Finally, primary cell cultures of CYLD defective tumours demonstrated reduced viability when exposed to Îł-secretase inhibitors that pharmacologically target Notch signalling. Taken together these data indicate an oncogenic dependency on Notch signalling and suggest potential novel therapeutic approaches for patients with CYLD defective tumours
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