Interactions in Aqueous Mixtures of Cationic Hydroxyethyl Cellulose and Different Anionic Bile Salts

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Does the engagement of clinicians and organisations in research improve healthcare performance: a three-stage review

Objective: There is a widely held assumption that engagement by clinicians and healthcare organisations in research improves healthcare performance at various levels, but little direct empirical evidence has previously been collated. The objective of this study was to address the question: Does research engagement (by clinicians and organizations) improve healthcare performance? Methods: An hourglass-shaped review was developed, consisting of three stages: (1) a planning and mapping stage; (2) a focused review concentrating on the core question of whether or not research engagement improves healthcare performance; and (3) a wider (but less systematic) review of papers identified during the two earlier stages, focusing on mechanisms. Results: Of the 33 papers included in the focused review, 28 identified improvements in health services performance. Seven out of these papers reported some improvement in health outcomes, with others reporting improved processes of care. The wider review demonstrated that mechanisms such as collaborative and action research can encourage some progress along the pathway from research engagement towards improved healthcare performance. Organisations that have deliberately integrated the research function into organisational structures demonstrate how research engagement can, among other factors, contribute to improved healthcare performance. Conclusions: Current evidence suggests that there is an association between the engagement of individuals and healthcare organisations in research and improvements in healthcare performance. The mechanisms through which research engagement might improve healthcare performance overlap and rarely act in isolation, and their effectiveness often depends on the context in which they operate. Strengths and limitations of this study • This review brings together for the first time a diverse body of literature addressing whether engaging clinicians and healthcare organisations in research is the likely to improve healthcare performance • It also explores the mechanisms through which improvement is achieved to try and understand how any improvements might come about • However, it relies on the quality and coverage of the existing literature • It is an extremely complex topic, but nonetheless one worthy of further exploration, particularly given the pressure to justify research spending in healthcare systems, and to encourage its implementation.UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Service Delivery and Organisation (SDO) programme ( project number HS&DR- 10/1012/09

Auditory Spatial Acuity Approximates the Resolving Power of Space-Specific Neurons

The relationship between neuronal acuity and behavioral performance was assessed in the barn owl (Tyto alba), a nocturnal raptor renowned for its ability to localize sounds and for the topographic representation of auditory space found in the midbrain. We measured discrimination of sound-source separation using a newly developed procedure involving the habituation and recovery of the pupillary dilation response. The smallest discriminable change of source location was found to be about two times finer in azimuth than in elevation. Recordings from neurons in its midbrain space map revealed that their spatial tuning, like the spatial discrimination behavior, was also better in azimuth than in elevation by a factor of about two. Because the PDR behavioral assay is mediated by the same circuitry whether discrimination is assessed in azimuth or in elevation, this difference in vertical and horizontal acuity is likely to reflect a true difference in sensory resolution, without additional confounding effects of differences in motor performance in the two dimensions. Our results, therefore, are consistent with the hypothesis that the acuity of the midbrain space map determines auditory spatial discrimination

Variational Methods for Biomolecular Modeling

Structure, function and dynamics of many biomolecular systems can be characterized by the energetic variational principle and the corresponding systems of partial differential equations (PDEs). This principle allows us to focus on the identification of essential energetic components, the optimal parametrization of energies, and the efficient computational implementation of energy variation or minimization. Given the fact that complex biomolecular systems are structurally non-uniform and their interactions occur through contact interfaces, their free energies are associated with various interfaces as well, such as solute-solvent interface, molecular binding interface, lipid domain interface, and membrane surfaces. This fact motivates the inclusion of interface geometry, particular its curvatures, to the parametrization of free energies. Applications of such interface geometry based energetic variational principles are illustrated through three concrete topics: the multiscale modeling of biomolecular electrostatics and solvation that includes the curvature energy of the molecular surface, the formation of microdomains on lipid membrane due to the geometric and molecular mechanics at the lipid interface, and the mean curvature driven protein localization on membrane surfaces. By further implicitly representing the interface using a phase field function over the entire domain, one can simulate the dynamics of the interface and the corresponding energy variation by evolving the phase field function, achieving significant reduction of the number of degrees of freedom and computational complexity. Strategies for improving the efficiency of computational implementations and for extending applications to coarse-graining or multiscale molecular simulations are outlined.Comment: 36 page

Responses of Tectal Neurons to Contrasting Stimuli: An Electrophysiological Study in the Barn Owl

The saliency of visual objects is based on the center to background contrast. Particularly objects differing in one feature from the background may be perceived as more salient. It is not clear to what extent this so called “pop-out” effect observed in humans and primates governs saliency perception in non-primates as well. In this study we searched for neural-correlates of pop-out perception in neurons located in the optic tectum of the barn owl. We measured the responses of tectal neurons to stimuli appearing within the visual receptive field, embedded in a large array of additional stimuli (the background). Responses were compared between contrasting and uniform conditions. In a contrasting condition the center was different from the background while in the uniform condition it was identical to the background. Most tectal neurons responded better to stimuli in the contrsating condition compared to the uniform condition when the contrast between center and background was the direction of motion but not when it was the orientation of a bar. Tectal neurons also preferred contrasting over uniform stimuli when the center was looming and the background receding but not when the center was receding and the background looming. Therefore, our results do not support the hypothesis that tectal neurons are sensitive to pop-out per-se. The specific sensitivity to the motion contrasting stimulus is consistent with the idea that object motion and not large field motion (e.g., self-induced motion) is coded in the neural responses of tectal neurons

PENGENDALIAN LAMPU BERBASIS MIKROKONTROLER ARDUINO MENGGUNAKAN SMARTPHONE ANDROID

ABSTRAKPersediaan listrik yang terbatas menuntut untuk berhemat dalampenggunaannya. Salah satu hal yang bisa dilakukan untuk menghemat listrik yaitudengan penggunaan lampu rumah seperlunya saja. Sistem operasi open source padaponsel android dapat dimanfaatkan untuk membuat aplikasi pengendali lampu rumahdengan menggunakan Arduino UNO (Mikrokontroler ATmega328) dan relay sebagaipengganti saklar. Aplikasi android digunakan sebagai input perintah kepadarangkaian arduino UNO (Mikrokontroler ATmega328) melalui media penghubungmodul Bluetooth. Arduino UNO akan merespon input dengan output berupa logikalow (0V) dan logika high (5V) melalui pin- pin yang telah ditentukan, pin-pin inidihubungkan ke Relay modul. Relay modul digunakan sebagai pengganti saklar yangdihubungkan ke lampu rumah. Ketika mendapat input logika low (0V) relay akanaktif dan akan mengalirkan listrik ke lampu sehingga lampu menyala, dan ketikamendapat input logika high (5V) relay akan tidak aktif sehingga aliran listrik kelampu terputus dan lampu akan mati.Kata kunci: Aplikasi Android, Arduino UNO (mikrokontroler ATmega328), Relay,Lampu rumah.ABSTRACKLimited power supply requires to conserve its use. One of the things that can bedone to save electricity is to use the house lights as needed. Open source operating system onandroid phones can be used to make the house light controller applications using theArduino UNO (Microcontroller ATmega328) and relay instead of a switch. Androidapplication is used as input commands to the circuit arduino UNO (microcontrollerATmega328) through media liaison Bluetooth module. Arduino UNO will respond to inputwith the output of a logic low (0V) and logic high (5V) via pins that have been determined,the pins are connected to the Relay module. Relay module is used instead of a switch that isconnected to the lamp house. When it gets input logic low (0V) the relay will be active andwill supply power to the light so that the light is on, and when it gets a high logic input (5V)relay will not be activated so that the flow of electricity to the lights and the lights will cut offthe dead.Keywords : Android Applications, Arduino UNO (microcontroller ATmega328), Relay,Lamp house.Banda Ace