3,463 research outputs found
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Addressing the needs of international postgraduate students: the role of social capital
Self-evidently, international students are likely to have considerable informational and social needs when coming to study in the UK. This paper reports the findings of a small study of such needs among international postgraduate students in the School of Health Sciences. It was an interview study, with twelve students participating. Though the study was designed to support the creation of an online resource, the findings suggest that meeting those needs satisfactorily requires a multi-faceted approach. Both face-to-face and online processes are needed to help students to develop the social capital necessary to success in undertaking the course, getting to know the university, and adjusting to life in England
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Immersive simulated reality scenarios for enhancing students' experience of people with learning disabilities across all fields of nurse education
Poor preparation of nurses, regarding learning disabilities can have devastating consequences. Highprofile reports and the Nursing and Midwifery Council requirements led this University to introduce Shareville into the undergraduate and postgraduate nursing curriculum. Shareville is a virtual environment developed at Birmingham City University, in which student nurses learn from realistic, problem-based scenarios featuring people with learning disabilities. Following the implementation of the resource an evaluation of both staff and student experience was undertaken. Students reported that problem-based scenarios were sufficiently real and immersive. Scenarios presented previously unanticipated considerations, offering new insights, and giving students the opportunity to practise decision-making in challenging scenarios before encountering them in practice. The interface and the quality of the graphics were criticised, but, this did not interfere with learning. Nine lecturers were interviewed, they generally felt positively towards the resource and identified strengths in terms of blended learning and collaborative teaching. The evaluation contributes to understandings of learning via simulated reality, and identifies process issues that will inform the development of further resources and their roll-out locally, and may guide other education providers in developing and implementing resources of this nature. There was signifi- cant parity between lecturers' expectations of students' experience of Shareville
Electrochromic properties of a poly(dithienylfuran) derivative featuring a redox-active dithiin unit
A teraryl monomer containing a 1,4-dithiin-furan central unit has been synthesised and characterised by single crystal X-ray crystallography. The di(thienyl)furan monomer 11 was successfully polymerised electrochemically and shown to possess a lower electrochemical band gap than its terthiophene analogue (1.97 eV cf. 2.11 eV). The electrochromic properties of this polymer proved to be superior to PEDOT, with fast switching and reversible colour transformation at high colour contrast (CE = 212 cm(2) C-1 cf. 183 cm(2) C-1 for PEDOT at 95% optical switch)
Coexistence of amplitude and frequency modulations in intracellular calcium dynamics
The complex dynamics of intracellular calcium regulates cellular responses to
information encoded in extracellular signals. Here, we study the encoding of
these external signals in the context of the Li-Rinzel model. We show that by
control of biophysical parameters the information can be encoded in amplitude
modulation, frequency modulation or mixed (AM and FM) modulation. We briefly
discuss the possible implications of this new role of information encoding for
astrocytes.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Addiction in Europe, 1860s-1960s: Concepts and Responses in Italy, Poland, Austria, and the United Kingdom
Concepts play a central part in the formulation of problems and proposed solutions to the use of substances. This article reports the initial results from a cross European historical study, carried out to a common methodology, of the language of addiction and policy responses in two key periods, 1860–1930 and the 1950s and 1960s. It concludes that the language of addiction was varied and nonstandard in the first period. The Anglo-American model of inebriety did not apply across Europe but there was a common focus on theories of heredity and national degeneration. After World War II, there was a more homogenous language but still distinct national differences in emphasis and national interests and policy responses to different substances. More research will be needed to deepen understanding of the conditions under which these changes took place and the social and policy appeal of disease theories
A multiscale hybrid model for pro-angiogenic calcium signals in a vascular endothelial cell
Cytosolic calcium machinery is one of the principal signaling mechanisms by which endothelial cells (ECs) respond to external stimuli during several biological processes, including vascular progression in both physiological and pathological conditions. Low concentrations of angiogenic factors (such as VEGF) activate in fact complex pathways involving, among others, second messengers arachidonic acid (AA) and nitric oxide (NO), which in turn control the activity of plasma membrane calcium channels. The subsequent increase in the intracellular level of the ion regulates fundamental biophysical properties of ECs (such as elasticity, intrinsic motility, and chemical strength), enhancing their migratory capacity. Previously, a number of continuous models have represented cytosolic calcium dynamics, while EC migration in angiogenesis has been separately approached with discrete, lattice-based techniques. These two components are here integrated and interfaced to provide a multiscale and hybrid Cellular Potts Model (CPM), where the phenomenology of a motile EC is realistically mediated by its calcium-dependent subcellular events. The model, based on a realistic 3-D cell morphology with a nuclear and a cytosolic region, is set with known biochemical and electrophysiological data. In particular, the resulting simulations are able to reproduce and describe the polarization process, typical of stimulated vascular cells, in various experimental conditions.Moreover, by analyzing the mutual interactions between multilevel biochemical and biomechanical aspects, our study investigates ways to inhibit cell migration: such strategies have in fact the potential to result in pharmacological interventions useful to disrupt malignant vascular progressio
The experience of long-term opiate maintenance treatment and reported barriers to recovery: A qualitative systematic review
Background/Aim: To inform understanding of the experience of long-term opiate maintenance and identify barriers to recovery. Methods: A qualitative systematic review. Results: 14 studies in 17 papers, mainly from the USA (65%), met inclusion criteria, involving 1,088 participants. Studies focused on methadone prescribing. Participants reported stability; however, many disliked methadone. Barriers to full recovery were primarily ‘inward focused'. Conclusion: This is the first review of qualitative literature on long-term maintenance, finding that universal service improvements could be made to address reported barriers to recovery, including involving ex-users as positive role models, and increasing access to psychological support. Treatment policies combining harm minimisation and abstinence-orientated approaches may best support individualised recovery
Autonomous Bursting in a Homoclinic System
A continuous train of irregularly spaced spikes, peculiar of homoclinic
chaos, transforms into clusters of regularly spaced spikes, with quiescent
periods in between (bursting regime), by feeding back a low frequency portion
of the dynamical output. Such autonomous bursting results to be extremely
robust against noise; we provide experimental evidence of it in a CO2 laser
with feedback. The phenomen here presented display qualitative analogies with
bursting phenomena in neurons.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett., 14 pages, 5 figure
The geometry of spontaneous spiking in neuronal networks
The mathematical theory of pattern formation in electrically coupled networks
of excitable neurons forced by small noise is presented in this work. Using the
Freidlin-Wentzell large deviation theory for randomly perturbed dynamical
systems and the elements of the algebraic graph theory, we identify and analyze
the main regimes in the network dynamics in terms of the key control
parameters: excitability, coupling strength, and network topology. The analysis
reveals the geometry of spontaneous dynamics in electrically coupled network.
Specifically, we show that the location of the minima of a certain continuous
function on the surface of the unit n-cube encodes the most likely activity
patterns generated by the network. By studying how the minima of this function
evolve under the variation of the coupling strength, we describe the principal
transformations in the network dynamics. The minimization problem is also used
for the quantitative description of the main dynamical regimes and transitions
between them. In particular, for the weak and strong coupling regimes, we
present asymptotic formulas for the network activity rate as a function of the
coupling strength and the degree of the network. The variational analysis is
complemented by the stability analysis of the synchronous state in the strong
coupling regime. The stability estimates reveal the contribution of the network
connectivity and the properties of the cycle subspace associated with the graph
of the network to its synchronization properties. This work is motivated by the
experimental and modeling studies of the ensemble of neurons in the Locus
Coeruleus, a nucleus in the brainstem involved in the regulation of cognitive
performance and behavior
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