The Effect of Vincristine Sulphate on the Axoplasmic Flow of Proteins in Cultured Sympathetic Neurons

The effect of vincristine sulphate on the axoplasmic flow of labelled proteins in neurites of chick embryo sympathetic neurons growing in tissue culture was studied by autoradiography. In control neurons most of the 3H-proteins synthesized during a 90-min pulse with a 3H-amino acid were localized in cell bodies. There was a diminishing gradient of labelled proteins in the neurites which was highest in portions adjacent to the cell bodies and lowest at the periphery. During a physiological chase there was a gradual increase in the amount of label in the neurites, so that after a 15-h chase even the most peripheral portions were well labelled. This indicates that a portion of the labelled proteins synthesized in the cell bodies are transported peripherally into the neurites. The centrifugal movement of labelled proteins in neurites was markedly decreased when cells were grown in medium containing 10 µg/ml vincristine sulphate. After a 15-h chase in the presence of drug only a small amount of label was in the peripheral portion of the neurites. Treatment with vincristine did not decrease the rate of amino acid incorporation or alter the rate of protein turnover during the course of the experiment. Thus an explanation of the results based on an altered rate of total cell protein synthesis or degradation is unlikely. The capacity of sympathetic neurons to take up and concentrate exogenous [3H]norepinephrine in their neurites was only slightly reduced by vincristine. This indicates that at least some cellular activities requiring metabolic energy are relatively unaffected by the interruption in axoplasmic flow caused by vincristine and that the mechanism by which vincristine interferes with axoplasmic flow does not involve general cellular toxicity. The major morphological differences between control and vincristine-treated neurons were the absence of microtubules and the presence of crystal-like structures within the cells. The relationship between the effect of vincristine on the axoplasmic flow of proteins and the arrangement of the microtubule system is discussed

Study of techniques for the reduction of creep in plated wire memories Final report, 28 Jun. 1967 - 28 Aug. 1968

Magnetization reversal in thin films of plated wire memory element

EMPOWERCARE: EMPOWERing individuals & communities to manage their own CARE

EMPOWERing individuals and communities to manage their own CARE (EMPOWERCARE) was a 3-year social innovation project involving 13 cross border European partners. EMPOWERCARE developed a holistic community asset approach to respond to current gaps in the care of people in the target group (those aged 65+ and those aged 50+ with at least one chronic condition). It aimed to address challenges facing our societies concerning the care of our ageing populations and when older people are not being involved in decisions concerning their own health and wellbeing. The project ensured that older people are at the forefront of improved technology and better care from within their communities. This sought to improve their situation but also tackle the financial issues of an ageing population and improve social cohesion. The main key messages from the evaluation of the project initiatives were: • Self-efficacy – Across all sites, ‘inactive’ participants at baseline showed a statistically significant increase in self-efficacy at the end of the initiatives. Qualitative data confirmed end-users’ increased levels of selfconfidence and self-efficacy around taking action in relation to their own health. • Emotional and social wellbeing - When considering all project sites, there was no significant decrease of the level of reported loneliness, overall and by type (emotional and social), for participants who reported feeling lonely at the start of the initiative. For participants from philosophically focused initiatives, who reported being lonely at the start of the initiative, there was a slight decrease in emotional loneliness from baseline, although this change was not statistically significant. Overall, there was no decrease, but for initiatives that were philosophically focused there was a negative trend. Qualitative data evidenced the positive impact initiatives had in tackling end-users’ loneliness. • Digital literacy - When analysing survey responses from all sites, end-users reported internet healthseeking behaviour did change at the end of initiatives. Nonetheless, for the sites focusing more on technology, internet health-seeking behaviour increased from baseline to end of initiative, although the positive change was not statistically significant. Qualitative data from end-users confirms the survey results that those participating in the initiatives felt more digitally literate and confident in using technology for their physical and mental health needs and to keep connected with their social networks. • Internet health-seeking behaviour – There was no significant change in this area for end-users. This could be explained by them receiving help in-person and therefore they felt less need to go online for help with their health. For technology focused initiatives there was still no significant change, but there was a positive trend for technology enthusiasm. Anxiety around technology use remained and the qualitative data relating to this indicated there was room to build on technology skills. • Person centred care - Across all sites, for those that had a baseline of below average person-centredness or lower, mean scores increased from baseline to end of initiatives, and this improvement was statistically significant, indicating that the project initiatives significantly increased workforce person-centeredness. There were also similar significant improvements in the specific areas of this scale of Climate of Safety, Climate of Everydayness, Climate of community and Climate of Comprehensibility, indicating that the project initiatives significantly increased workforce feelings of whether the workplace is a place where the patients are in safe hands, staff use language that the patients can understand, it is easy for patients to talk to the staff and where the patients have someone to talk to if they so wish. Qualitative data reflected these results, talking about the transformation in people’s lives that was possible through being focused on the needs of the individuals and what matters to them. • Workforce technology uptake - Across all sites, survey results from workforce attitudes towards technology did not show any change from baseline to end of initiatives. Similarly, there was no difference between workforce participants in technology-focused and philosophical initiatives. Qualitative data from the workforce showed an understanding of the need to embrace technology in their work and that some of the drive for that need came from the implementation of COVID-19 restrictions. • Job satisfaction and workforce training embeddedness – for job satisfaction there was no significant change, although there was a positive trend for those who started below the top 15%. The context of working through COVID-19 may have had a negative impact on job satisfaction. Across all sites, there were higher average scores on certain areas of efficacy in relation to workforce training in implementing, embedding, and integrating a complex healthcare initiative, such as reflective monitoring and collective action compared to coherence, and cognitive participation findings suggest that overall workforce members showed they are willing to engage in reflexive monitoring and collective action across all sites – so they were willing to self-monitor and take time to think about their behaviour and work together to take action. The qualitative data indicated that embedding training has enabled the workforce to understand the value of taking time, reflecting and connecting, which are some of the key person-centred competencies and attributes you would want to see in a transformed workforce. The Cost Benefit Analysis showed: • Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) evaluation indicate that individuals are willing to pay (WTP) on average €10.31 per month from their own out of pocket expenses to use and obtain the health benefits and wellbeing effects of participating in the EMPOWERCARE initiatives. • WTP is positively influenced by the value individuals place on the technically focused initiatives, willingness to participate in an alternative initiative along with improvements gained in emotional and social loneliness because of the EMPOWERCARE initiatives. • The WTP estimates defined in this evaluation provide significant insights for decision makers and healthcare commissioners on the value that previous participants place on the services provided through the EMPOWERCARE initiatives in local communities. • Insights from the ‘Good Ancestor’ principles in FGD promotes the deliberation of long-term thinking which can lead to the power of change, reshaping decisions to take account of future generations, while promoting and encouraging sustainability in respect for future generations. The evaluation results provide some positive results on the success of the EMPOWERCARE initiatives across the 4 countries. More analysis has been done per site to understand the different aspects of the EMPOWERCARE Strategy, Workforce Transformation Package and Technology Blueprint that made a positive difference to end-users and members of the workforce. This further analysis will provide a more comprehensive picture of the impact of the EMPOWERCARE initiatives, as well as inform the next stages of work

Are HIV smartphone apps and online interventions fit for purpose?

Sexual health is an under-explored area of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), particularly sexually transmitted infections such as HIV. Due to the stigma associated with these infections, people are often motivated to seek information online. With the rise of smartphone and web apps, there is enormous potential for technology to provide easily accessible information and resources. However, using online information raises important concerns about the trustworthiness of these resources and whether they are fit for purpose. We conducted a review of smartphone and web apps to investigate the landscape of currently available online apps and whether they meet the diverse needs of people seeking information on HIV online. Our functionality review revealed that existing technology interventions have a one-size-fits-all approach and do not support the breadth and complexity of HIV-related support needs. We argue that technology-based interventions need to signpost their offering and provide tailored support for different stages of HIV, including prevention, testing, diagnosis and management

The Paradox of Compacts: final report to the Home Office on monitoring the impact of Compacts

The Compact is an important building block in achieving a better relationship between Government and the voluntary and community sector. We are fully committed to partnership working with the sector and increasing their role in civil society and in the delivery of public s e rvices. The Compact helps us to work better together, so that we can better meet the needs of communities

Analisis Pencatatan dan Pelaporan Belanja Barang pada Dinas Perpustakaan dan Kearsipan Kabupaten Pohuwato: Indonesia

Abstrak-Satuan Kerja Perangkat Daerah (SKPD) merupakan bagian dari pemerintah daerah selaku pengguna anggaran yang memiliki tugas dalam pelayanan publik, baik secara langsung ataupun tidak langsung. Satuan kerja perangkat daerah diberikan alokasi dana dalam pelaksanaan tugas pokok. Penelitian ini dilakukan di Dinas Perpustakaan dan Kearsipan Kabupaten Pohuwato. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis pencatatan dan pelaporan belanja barang apakah sesuai dengan Permendagro. 64 Tahun 2013 penerapan standar akuntansi pemerintahan berbasis akrual. Metode yang digunakan adalah metode kualitatif dengan menggunakan studi kasus. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa Dinas Perpustakaan dan Kearsipan Kabupaten Pohuwato telah menerapkan pencatatan dan pelaporan khususnya pada belanja barang sesuai dengan Permendagri No. 64 Tahun 2013 tentang penerapan standar akuntansi pemerintahan berbasis akrual

Emission-aware Energy Storage Scheduling for a Greener Grid

Reducing our reliance on carbon-intensive energy sources is vital for reducing the carbon footprint of the electric grid. Although the grid is seeing increasing deployments of clean, renewable sources of energy, a significant portion of the grid demand is still met using traditional carbon-intensive energy sources. In this paper, we study the problem of using energy storage deployed in the grid to reduce the grid's carbon emissions. While energy storage has previously been used for grid optimizations such as peak shaving and smoothing intermittent sources, our insight is to use distributed storage to enable utilities to reduce their reliance on their less efficient and most carbon-intensive power plants and thereby reduce their overall emission footprint. We formulate the problem of emission-aware scheduling of distributed energy storage as an optimization problem, and use a robust optimization approach that is well-suited for handling the uncertainty in load predictions, especially in the presence of intermittent renewables such as solar and wind. We evaluate our approach using a state of the art neural network load forecasting technique and real load traces from a distribution grid with 1,341 homes. Our results show a reduction of >0.5 million kg in annual carbon emissions -- equivalent to a drop of 23.3% in our electric grid emissions.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure, This paper will appear in the Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Future Energy Systems (e-Energy 20) June 2020, Australi

Scholarly Communication Practices in Humanities and Social Sciences: A Study of Researchers’ Attitudes and Awareness of Open Access

This paper examines issues relating to the perceptions and adoption of open access (OA) and institutional repositories. Using a survey research design, we collected data from academics and other researchers in the humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS) at a university in Australia. We looked at factors influencing choice of publishers and journal outlets, as well as the use of social media and nontraditional channels for scholarly communication. We used an online questionnaire to collect data and used descriptive statistics to analyse the data. Our findings suggest that researchers are highly influenced by traditional measures of quality, such as journal impact factor, and are less concerned with making their work more findable and promoting it through social media. This highlights a disconnect between researchers’ desired outcomes and the efforts that they put in toward the same. Our findings also suggest that institutional policies have the potential to increase OA awareness and adoption. This study contributes to the growing literature on scholarly communication by offering evidence from the HASS field, where limited studies have been conducted. Based on the findings, we recommend that academic librarians engage with faculty through outreach and workshops to change perceptions of OA and the institutional repository