The Role of Tapping in Improving Connected Speech Comprehension of a Non-Native Variety of English

No abstract available

Data and data illustrations supporting the analysis of transcripts from interviews exploring the views and experiences of young men and their parents/guardians regarding testicular health

Abstract Evidence shows young men have poor outcomes from testicular torsion directly attributable to delay in presentation to hospital [1]. Only a third to a half of adolescents present within 6 h with testicular pain, [2,3] There is poor understanding of why adolescents delay in presenting with testicular pain. The authors started without an a-priori hypothesis and designed a thematic qualitative research protocol to explore the phenomena is a naturalistic setting [4,5] . Sixteen young men (11–19 years) and their parents or guardians underwent semi-structured interviews, directed by a topic guide which evolved with subsequent interview findings. Young men were recruited from out of school clubs to minimise the bias associated with schools or hospital recruitment, and were naïve to testicular disease. Verbatim transcriptions were coded, categories and themes formed and final concepts derived utilising a framework methodology. The figure included shows the initial topic guide. The data tables presented show the emergent themes and the final code book. The authors have utilised the analysis to explore the factors impeding young men in presenting early to hospital with testicular pain [6]. The authors feel the data tables and raw data will be of interest to other researchers interested in adolescent health, health access, public health, linguistics and healthcare qualitative methodology

Major Powers and Militarized Conflict

This article attempts to answer the question of why major powers engage in more active foreign policy behaviors than minor powers. It does so by comparing two explanations for the increased conflict propensity of major powers. The first explanation focuses on major powers’ observable capabilities, while the second stresses their different behavior. We incorporate both into an ultimatum model of conflict in which a state’s cost of conflict consists of both observable and behavioral components. Using data from the period from 1870 to 2001, we empirically illustrate the observable and behavioral differences between major and minor powers. We then utilize a decomposition model to assess the relative significance of the two explanations. The results suggest that most of the difference in conflict propensity between major and minor powers can be attributed to observable differences

Revisiting rho 1 Cancri e: A New Mass Determination Of The Transiting super-Earth

We present a mass determination for the transiting super-Earth rho 1 Cancri e based on nearly 700 precise radial velocity (RV) measurements. This extensive RV data set consists of data collected by the McDonald Observatory planet search and published data from Lick and Keck observatories (Fischer et al. 2008). We obtained 212 RV measurements with the Tull Coude Spectrograph at the Harlan J. Smith 2.7 m Telescope and combined them with a new Doppler reduction of the 131 spectra that we have taken in 2003-2004 with the High-Resolution-Spectrograph (HRS) at the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) for the original discovery of rho 1 Cancri e. Using this large data set we obtain a 5-planet Keplerian orbital solution for the system and measure an RV semi-amplitude of K = 6.29 +/- 0.21 m/s for rho 1 Cnc e and determine a mass of 8.37 +/- 0.38 M_Earth. The uncertainty in mass is thus less than 5%. This planet was previously found to transit its parent star (Winn et al. 2011, Demory et al. 2011), which allowed them to estimate its radius. Combined with the latest radius estimate from Gillon et al. (2012), we obtain a mean density of rho = 4.50 +/- 0.20 g/cm^3. The location of rho 1 Cnc e in the mass-radius diagram suggests that the planet contains a significant amount of volitales, possibly a water-rich envelope surrounding a rocky core.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (the 300+ RV measurements will be published as online tables or can be obtained from the author

Increasing Hospital Admissions for Pneumonia, England

This rise in recorded incidence from 2001 to 2005 was particularly marked among the elderly

Summative behaviour change evaluation of up-to-date metered energy feedback in European public buildings

Energy consumption practices and behaviour are increasingly an important focus of attention, for energy efficiency measures. Such is the demand caused by behaviour at the level of the individual, it may cancel out the benefits of engineering solutions, such as more energy efficient appliances (Adua, 2010). This paper focuses on an evaluation of the SMARTSPACES project and its effect on energy-related behaviour change. The project provided two services: an energy management service (EMS) and an energy decision support service (EDSS). These services were implemented in over 450 public buildings across 11 European cities in 8 European countries (Serbia, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and United Kingdom). Building professionals (energy managers) primarily used the EMS and building staff used the EDSS. These services intended to inform, support and enable target audiences to use up-to-date metered feedback to reduce energy use in public buildings. The theory of change that underpins the evaluation framework is based in the Elaboration Likelihood Model which aims to understand how communication can influence attitudes and the Theory of Planned Behaviour that examines which attitudes are more likely to predict intentions and behaviours (Wilson, 2014). The paper presents results of ex-ante and ex-post surveys to building staff about their levels of awareness, attitudes, perceived control behaviour and intentions in three selected cities: Bristol, Leicester and Venlo. Outcomes varied across the examined cities depending upon the type of information presented, the level of engagement of users with the energy saving campaigns and the amount of previous energy management work undertaken by buildings’ facilities and energy management professionals