Energy-dependent tunneling from few-electron dynamic quantum dots

We measure the electron escape rate from surface-acoustic-wave dynamic quantum dots (QDs) through a tunnel barrier. Rate equations are used to extract the tunneling rates, which change by an order of magnitude with tunnel-barrier-gate voltage. We find that the tunneling rates depend on the number of electrons in each dynamic QD because of Coulomb energy. By comparing this dependence to a saddle-point-potential model, the addition energies of the second and third electron in each dynamic QD are estimated. The scale (similar to a few meV) is comparable to those in static QDs as expected

Kinetic studies in the electrocrystallisation of metals

PhD thesisNone availabl

CAD in mammography: lesion-level versus case-level analysis of the effects of prompts on human decisions

Object: To understand decision processes in CAD-supported breast screening by analysing how prompts affect readers’ judgements of individual mammographic features (lesions). To this end we analysed hitherto unexamined details of reports completed by mammogram readers in an earlier evaluation of a CAD tool. Material and methods: Assessments of lesions were extracted from 5,839 reports for 59 cancer cases. Statistical analyses of these data focused on what features readers considered when recalling a cancer case and how readers reacted to CAD prompts. Results: About 13.5% of recall decisions were found to be caused by responses to features other than those indicating actual cancer. Effects of CAD: lesions were more likely to be examined if prompted; the presence of a prompt on a cancer increased the probability of both detection and recall especially for less accurate readers in subtler cases; lack of prompts made cancer features less likely to be detected; false prompts made non-cancer features more likely to be classified as cancer. Conclusion: The apparent lack of impact reported for CAD in some studies is plausibly due to CAD systematically affecting readers’ identification of individual features, in a beneficial way for certain combinations of readers and features and a damaging way for others. Mammogram readers do not ignore prompts. Methodologically, assessing CAD by numbers of recalled cancer cases may be misleading

Finding a moral homeground: appropriately critical religious education and transmission of spiritual values

Values-inspired issues remain an important part of the British school curriculum. Avoiding moral relativism while fostering enthusiasm for spiritual values and applying them to non-curricular learning such as school ethos or children's home lives are challenges where spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development might benefit from leadership by critical religious education (RE). Whether the school's model of spirituality is that of an individual spiritual tradition (schools of a particular religious character) or universal pluralistic religiosity (schools of plural religious character), the pedagogy of RE thought capable of leading SMSC development would be the dialogical approach with examples of successful implementation described by Gates, Ipgrave and Skeie. Marton's phenomenography, is thought to provide a valuable framework to allow the teacher to be appropriately critical in the transmission of spiritual values in schools of a particular religious character as evidenced by Hella's work in Lutheran schools

Managing healthcare budgets in times of austerity: the role of program budgeting and marginal analysis

Given limited resources, priority setting or choice making will remain a reality at all levels of publicly funded healthcare across countries for many years to come. The pressures may well be even more acute as the impact of the economic crisis of 2008 continues to play out but, even as economies begin to turn around, resources within healthcare will be limited, thus some form of rationing will be required. Over the last few decades, research on healthcare priority setting has focused on methods of implementation as well as on the development of approaches related to fairness and legitimacy and on more technical aspects of decision making including the use of multi-criteria decision analysis. Recently, research has led to better understanding of evaluating priority setting activity including defining ‘success’ and articulating key elements for high performance. This body of research, however, often goes untapped by those charged with making challenging decisions and as such, in line with prevailing public sector incentives, decisions are often reliant on historical allocation patterns and/or political negotiation. These archaic and ineffective approaches not only lead to poor decisions in terms of value for money but further do not reflect basic ethical conditions that can lead to fairness in the decision-making process. The purpose of this paper is to outline a comprehensive approach to priority setting and resource allocation that has been used in different contexts across countries. This will provide decision makers with a single point of access for a basic understanding of relevant tools when faced with having to make difficult decisions about what healthcare services to fund and what not to fund. The paper also addresses several key issues related to priority setting including how health technology assessments can be used, how performance can be improved at a practical level, and what ongoing resource management practice should look like. In terms of future research, one of the most important areas of priority setting that needs further attention is how best to engage public members

Electric and hydrogen buses : Shifting from conventionally fuelled cars in the UK

This research was carried out under the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) as part of the ADdressing Valuation of Energy and Nature Together (ADVENT) funded project. Funding was received from the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/M019691/1), United Kingdom and the School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom. The authors would also like to thank Dr Christian Brand, University of Oxford, for giving them access to the Transport Energy and Air Pollution Model UK (TEAM - UK).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Antioxidant activity, total phenolics and flavonoids contents: should we ban in vitro screening methods?

As many studies are exploring the association between ingestion of bioactive compounds and decreased risk of non-communicable diseases, the scientific community continues to show considerable interest in these compounds. In addition, as many non-nutrients with putative health benefits are reducing agents, hydrogen donors, singlet oxygen quenchers or metal chelators, measurement of antioxidant activity using in vitro assays has become very popular over recent decades. Measuring concentrations of total phenolics, flavonoids, and other compound (sub)classes using UV/Vis spectrophotometry offers a rapid chemical index, but chromatographic techniques are necessary to establish structure-activity. For bioactive purposes, in vivo models are required or, at the very least, methods that employ distinct mechanisms of action (i.e., single electron transfer, transition metal chelating ability, and hydrogen atom transfer). In this regard, better understanding and application of in vitro screening methods should help design of future research studies on ‘bioactive compounds’

International Coercion, Emulation and Policy Diffusion: Market-Oriented Infrastructure Reforms, 1977-1999

Why do some countries adopt market-oriented reforms such as deregulation, privatization and liberalization of competition in their infrastructure industries while others do not? Why did the pace of adoption accelerate in the 1990s? Building on neo-institutional theory in sociology, we argue that the domestic adoption of market-oriented reforms is strongly influenced by international pressures of coercion and emulation. We find robust support for these arguments with an event-history analysis of the determinants of reform in the telecommunications and electricity sectors of as many as 205 countries and territories between 1977 and 1999. Our results also suggest that the coercive effect of multilateral lending from the IMF, the World Bank or Regional Development Banks is increasing over time, a finding that is consistent with anecdotal evidence that multilateral organizations have broadened the scope of the “conditionality” terms specifying market-oriented reforms imposed on borrowing countries. We discuss the possibility that, by pressuring countries into policy reform, cross-national coercion and emulation may not produce ideal outcomes.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40099/3/wp713.pd

Synthetic Lethal Targeting of ARID1A-Mutant Ovarian Clear Cell Tumors with Dasatinib

New targeted approaches to ovarian clear cell carcinomas (OCCC) are needed, given the limited treatment options in this disease and the poor response to standard chemotherapy. Using a series of high-throughput cell-based drug screens in OCCC tumor cell models, we have identified a synthetic lethal (SL) interaction between the kinase inhibitor dasatinib and a key driver in OCCC, ARID1A mutation. Imposing ARID1A deficiency upon a variety of human or mouse cells induced dasatinib sensitivity, both in vitro and in vivo, suggesting that this is a robust synthetic lethal interaction. The sensitivity of ARID1A-deficient cells to dasatinib was associated with G1 -S cell-cycle arrest and was dependent upon both p21 and Rb. Using focused siRNA screens and kinase profiling, we showed that ARID1A-mutant OCCC tumor cells are addicted to the dasatinib target YES1. This suggests that dasatinib merits investigation for the treatment of patients with ARID1Amutant OCCC. Mol Cancer Ther; 15(7); 1472-84. Ó2016 AACR.</p