THE CAMPAIGNS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The army of Alexander the great

The purpose of this thesis is to be an examination of the army of Alexander the Great, concentrating upon questions of organization and equipment. Chapter 1 considers the Macedonian heavy infantry, the pezhetairoi. Chapter 2 is an examination of the hypaspists, the elite heavy infantry units of the Macedonian order of battle. Chapter 3 is a discussion of the Macedonian cavalry. This includes the prodromoi as well as the more famous Companion cavalry. Chapter 4 concentrates on the Thessalian cavalry. Chapter 5 contains a discussion of the mercenaries and allied troops employed by Alexander. Chapter 6 considers Alexander's Mediterranean fleets. Chapter 7 is an examination of the siege equipment used by Alexander, particularly during siege warfare but also during field operations on occasion. Chapter 8 is a summing up of the overall command structure of the army. The conclusion reached is that Alexander's army was an extremely complex organization with individual elements specifically trained an equipped to perform specific tasks

Online Learning Communities for Creative Practice

This research project proposes to model the activities and roles of a visiting Research Fellow and an Artist-in-Residence (AIR) with the intent of applying the key educational features and strategies to the online environment. Where feasible, the aim is replicate the role of a Research Fellow online by enlisting the services of well-known artists to contribute their expertise and creative input to the teaching activities of a University School of Art. The primary purpose is to support and enhance the delivery of quality learning outcomes for the Curtin BA (Art) Online degree. The project presents an opportunity to establish wider contact with audiences that have an interest in interacting with an online AIR site to access or contribute research materials and participate in creative activities.In the online environment students are empowered to learn both autonomously as well as actively explore opportunities to teach one another. This emphasis on independent learning is particularly prevalent when asynchronous discussion groups (bulletin boards) are used as an integral part of the learning experience. Students are given the incentive to explain, share, comment, critique, and develop course materials among themselves in ways rarely seen in a traditional classroom setting. The use of electronic alternatives to face-to-face dialogue often results in high quality discussions as students often refer to course materials and reflect on their answers before responding to the lecturer's questions or to classmates' comments. As a result, students have the opportunity to post well-considered comments without experiencing the immediate demands of in-class discussions.The potential of online learning communities will be examined in terms of fostering independent self-directed learning and to encourage online mentoring. Existing examples of practice in online learning will be considered with a view to devising a suitable model for application to online learning communities engaged in creative practices.Of equal importance, the project represents an example of how Curtin is able to form unique collaborations between divergent areas of interest. In this instance, the partnership combines the expertise of the Faculty of Built Environment (BEAD), the School of Art and Design, and the Learning Support Network (LSN)

The Bead Research Fellow Online - A Pilot Projet

This project proposes to model the activities and roles of a visiting Research Fellow and an Artist-in-Residence (AIR) with the intention of applying the key educational features and strategies to the online environment. Where feasible, the aim is to replicate the role of a Research Fellow online by enlisting the services of well-known artists to contribute their expertise and creative input to the teaching activities of a University School of Art. The primary purpose is to support and enhance the delivery of quality learning outcomes for the Curtin BA (Art) Online degree. The project also presents an opportunity to establish wider contact with audiences that have an interest in interacting with an online AIR site to access or contribute research materials and participate in the available creative activities. Of equal importance, the project represents an example of how Curtin is able to form unique collaborations between divergent areas of interest. In this instance, the partnership combines the expertise of the Faculty of Built Environment (BEAD), the School of Art and Design, and the Learning Support Network (LSN). The project will support the enhancement of several established Teaching and Learning programmes, namely: • the on-campus Teaching and Learning programmes at the Curtin campus at Bentley in Western Australia • the online Bachelor of Arts (Art) degree delivered through Open Learning Australia (OLA) • the Biennale of Electronic Arts (BEAP) 2004 conference programme

Scaffolding Video Assignments in Cyber Security

This talk reflects on two cases of introducing assignments into two different computing courses related to cyber security that required students to create and submit videos. On reflection, analysis of the use of such assignments suggests that student success could be further improved by considering appropriate scaffolding not just within the courses themselves, but across degree programmes. The analysis led us to draw some practical recommendations that could be used to improve future learning designs

What College Freshmen Admit To Not Knowing About Personal Finance

The problem of the study was to determine college freshmen’s level of financial knowledge through testing, but also to determine what they admit to not knowing with regard to important financial topics. The entire freshman English 101, College Reading and Writing class at Texas A&M University-Commerce was surveyed. There were a total of 407 students enrolled in these classes. The highest test score was 80 percent achieved only by one student and lowest was 0 achieved by six students. The average score was 34.8% for all students and the median score was 32.5%. Unlike previous studies, students were offered the opportunity to respond “don’t know” to each question. On 9 of the 20 questions more students selected the “don’t know” response than those selecting an incorrect answer

Most Common Statistical Methodologies in Recent Clinical Studies of Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Background: Training new individuals in pneumonia research is imperative to produce a new generation of clinical investigators with the expertise necessary to fill gaps in knowledge. Clinical investigators are often intimidated by their unfamiliarity with statistics. The objective of this study is to define the most common statistical methodologies in recent clinical studies of CAP to inform teaching approaches in the field. Methods: Articles met inclusion criteria if they were clinical research with an emphasis on incidence, epidemiology, or patient outcomes, searchable via PubMed or Google Scholar, published within the timeframe of January 1st 2012 to August 1st 2017, and contained Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) keywords of “pneumonia” and one of the following: “epidemiologic studies”, “health services research”, or “comparative effectiveness research” or search keywords of community-acquired pneumonia” and one of the following: “cohort study”, “observational study”, “prospective study”, “retrospective study”, “clinical trial”, “controlled trial”, or “clinical study”. Descriptive statistics for the most common statistical methods were reported. Results: Thirty articles were included in the analysis. Descriptive statistics most commonly contained within articles were frequency (n=30 [100%]) and percent (n=30 [100%]), along with medians (n=22 [73%]) and interquartile ranges (n=19 [63%]). Most commonly performed analytical statistics were the Chi-squared test (n=20 [67%]), logistic regression (n=18 [60%]), Fisher’s exact test (n=17 [57%]), Wilcoxon rank sum test (n=16 [53%]), T-test (n=13 [43%]), and Cox proportional hazards regression (n=10 [33%]). Conclusions: We identified the most common clinical research tests performed in studies of hospitalized patients with CAP. Junior investigators should become very familiar with these tests early in their research careers

Routes to improving the reliability of low level DNA analysis using real-time PCR

BACKGROUND: Accurate quantification of DNA using quantitative real-time PCR at low levels is increasingly important for clinical, environmental and forensic applications. At low concentration levels (here referring to under 100 target copies) DNA quantification is sensitive to losses during preparation, and suffers from appreciable valid non-detection rates for sampling reasons. This paper reports studies on a real-time quantitative PCR assay targeting a region of the human SRY gene over a concentration range of 0.5 to 1000 target copies. The effects of different sample preparation and calibration methods on quantitative accuracy were investigated. RESULTS: At very low target concentrations of 0.5–10 genome equivalents (g.e.) eliminating any replicates within each DNA standard concentration with no measurable signal (non-detects) compromised calibration. Improved calibration could be achieved by eliminating all calibration replicates for any calibration standard concentration with non-detects ('elimination by sample'). Test samples also showed positive bias if non-detects were removed prior to averaging; less biased results were obtained by converting to concentration, including non-detects as zero concentration, and averaging all values. Tube plastic proved to have a strongly significant effect on DNA quantitation at low levels (p = 1.8 × 10(-4)). At low concentrations (under 10 g.e.), results for assays prepared in standard plastic were reduced by about 50% compared to the low-retention plastic. Preparation solution (carrier DNA or stabiliser) was not found to have a significant effect in this study. Detection probabilities were calculated using logistic regression. Logistic regression over large concentration ranges proved sensitive to non-detected replicate reactions due to amplification failure at high concentrations; the effect could be reduced by regression against log (concentration) or, better, by eliminating invalid responses. CONCLUSION: Use of low-retention plastic tubes is advised for quantification of DNA solutions at levels below 100 g.e. For low-level calibration using linear least squares, it is better to eliminate the entire replicate group for any standard that shows non-detects reasonably attributable to sampling effects than to either eliminate non-detects or to assign arbitrary high Ct values. In calculating concentrations for low-level test samples with non-detects, concentrations should be calculated for each replicate, zero concentration assigned to non-detects, and all resulting concentration values averaged. Logistic regression is a useful method of estimating detection probability at low DNA concentrations

Artificial intelligence to enhance prehospital stroke diagnosis and triage: a perspective

As health systems organize to deliver the highest quality stroke care to their patients, there is increasing emphasis being placed on prehospital stroke recognition, accurate diagnosis, and efficient triage to improve outcomes after stroke. Emergency medical services (EMS) personnel currently rely heavily on dispatch accuracy, stroke screening tools, bypass protocols and prehospital notification to care for patients with suspected stroke, but novel tools including mobile stroke units and telemedicine-enabled ambulances are already changing the landscape of prehospital stroke care. Herein, the authors provide our perspective on the current state of prehospital stroke diagnosis and triage including several of these emerging trends. Then, we provide commentary to highlight potential artificial intelligence (AI) applications to improve stroke detection, improve accurate and timely dispatch, enhance EMS training and performance, and develop novel stroke diagnostic tools for prehospital use

Assessment of Pneumonia Severity Indices as Mortality Predictors

BACKGROUND The leading cause of infectious disease death in the United States is community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Several pneumonia severity indices exist and are widely used as tools to assist physicians regarding site of care based on risk of death. However, limited data exists that discerns which of the most commonly used severity scores is the best predictor of mortality across multiple time points. The objective of this study is to determine the best mortality predictor at different time points between four of the most commonly used pneumonia severity scores. METHODS This was a secondary analysis of a prospective, multicenter, population-based, observational study of patients hospitalized with CAP in the city of Louisville, KY. The severity indices used were the American Thoracic Society (ATS) criteria, the Pneumonia Severity Index (PSI), the British Thoracic Society criteria (CURB-65), Quick Sepsis-Related Organ Failure Assessment (QSOFA), and direct ICU admission to represent physician discretion. The accuracy, kappa statistic, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated for the ability to predict in-hospital, 30-day, 6-month, and 1-year mortality. 95% confidence intervals for each variable were generated by bootstrapping with random sampling and resampling of the subjects 1000 times. In addition, the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated for each severity score and mortality time point. RESULTS There were 6013 eligible patients included in this analysis with data collected between the years 2014 and 2016. At each time point, the QSOFA had the highest sensitivity and NPV, while the PSI had the highest specificity and PPV. QSOFA had the highest accuracy for in-hospital mortality, 30-day mortality, and 6-month mortality, and the CURB-65 had highest mortality for 1-year mortality. The QSOFA had the highest kappa statistic for in-hospital mortality, the CURB-65 had the highest kappa statistic for 30-day mortality, and the PSI had the highest kappa statistic for 6-month and 1-year mortality. The AUC was highest for the ATS criteria for in-hospital mortality, and was highest for the PSI at the remaining time points. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study show that QSOFA and the PSI are the most reliable severity indices for mortality predictions based on these measures. QSOFA was found, on average, to have the highest accuracy, sensitivity, and NPV. Additionally, PSI was found, on average, to have the highest kappa statistic, specificity, and PPV. The AUC, on average, was best with PSI as the predictor. QSOFA is most capable of making true negative predictions and the PSI is the most capable of making true positive predictions across the four time points