Exploring change processes in an equine-assisted intervention

Section A presents a review of recent literature exploring the effects of equine-assisted interventions (EAIs) for children and young people (CYP). It summarises the nature of interventions offered, and the quantitative and qualitative findings from eleven studies. The review highlights the diversity in the field in the nature of interventions, research methods, and identified areas of change. The variable findings were consistent with other research which attributes the diversity in the field to a lack of a clear underlying theory for EAIs. The lack of theory is suggested to be an important limiting factor in the development of conclusive evidence in the field. Implications for practice and research are discussed. Section B presents a study exploring perceptions of change in order to develop a grounded theory of change processes in an EAI. Interview data from thirteen participants (seven CYP, 2 referrers, two facilitators, and two parents) was analysed using Glaserian grounded theory methodology. The proposed theory suggests a complex, multi-stage model which highlights key components of the EAI that are theorised as contributing to change. The theory is outlined in detail and considered in relation to wider research. Limitations and implications for practice and research are summarised

Coating method enables low-temperature brazing of stainless steel

Gold coated stainless steel tubes containing insulated electrical conductors are brazed at a low temperature to a copper coated stainless steel sealing block with a gold-copper eutectic. This produces an effective seal without using flux or damaging the electrical conductors

Investigating Automatic Static Analysis Results to Identify Quality Problems: an Inductive Study

Background: Automatic static analysis (ASA) tools examine source code to discover "issues", i.e. code patterns that are symptoms of bad programming practices and that can lead to defective behavior. Studies in the literature have shown that these tools find defects earlier than other verification activities, but they produce a substantial number of false positive warnings. For this reason, an alternative approach is to use the set of ASA issues to identify defect prone files and components rather than focusing on the individual issues. Aim: We conducted an exploratory study to investigate whether ASA issues can be used as early indicators of faulty files and components and, for the first time, whether they point to a decay of specific software quality attributes, such as maintainability or functionality. Our aim is to understand the critical parameters and feasibility of such an approach to feed into future research on more specific quality and defect prediction models. Method: We analyzed an industrial C# web application using the Resharper ASA tool and explored if significant correlations exist in such a data set. Results: We found promising results when predicting defect-prone files. A set of specific Resharper categories are better indicators of faulty files than common software metrics or the collection of issues of all issue categories, and these categories correlate to different software quality attributes. Conclusions: Our advice for future research is to perform analysis on file rather component level and to evaluate the generalizability of categories. We also recommend using larger datasets as we learned that data sparseness can lead to challenges in the proposed analysis proces

Alcohol and healthy ageing: a challenge for alcohol policy

Objectives: This paper presents findings of a qualitative study of older people's use of alcohol during retirement and identifies ways that an improved understanding of older people's drinking can inform policy approaches to alcohol and active and healthy ageing. Study design: Qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted with a self-selecting sample of retired people. Methods: Participants were recruited from three geographical locations in the West of Scotland. A quota sampling design was used to ensure a broad spread of participants in terms of socio-economic position, age and gender. In total 40 participants were interviewed and the data analysed thematically using Braun and Clarke's (2006) approach. Results: Amongst those who used alcohol, it was most often framed in terms of pleasure, relaxation, socialising and as a way to mark the passage of time. Alcohol was often associated with social occasions and interactions both in private and in public spaces. There were also many examples of the use of imposed routines to limit alcohol use and of a decreasing volume of alcohol being consumed as participants aged. This suggests that older people are often active in constructing what they regard as ‘healthier’ routines around alcohol use. However, processes and circumstances associated with ageing can lead to risk of social isolation and/or increased alcohol consumption. Such processes include retirement from paid work and other ‘biographical disruptions’ such as caring for a partner, bereavement and/or loss of social networks. Conclusions: These findings highlight processes that can result in changes in drinking habits and routines. Whilst these processes can be associated with a reduction or cessation of alcohol use as people age, they can also be associated with increased risk of harmful alcohol consumption. Fractured or disrupted routines, particularly those associated with bereavement or the burden of caring responsibilities, through increasing the risk of loneliness and isolation, can construct increased risk of harmful alcohol consumption. These findings reframe the pathway of risk between ageing and alcohol-related harm by highlighting the vulnerability to harmful drinking practices brought by fracture or sudden change of routine. The findings point to a role for public health in supporting the reconstruction of routines that provide structure and meaning and can be used to actively manage the benefits and harms associated with drinking

Separation of lymphocytes by electrophoresis under terrestrial conditions and at zero gravity, phase 3

Electrophoretic mobilities (EPM) of peripheral lymphocytes were studied from normal subjects, chronic hemodialysis patients and kidney transplant recipients. A technique to separate B lymphocytes and null cells from non-T lymphocyte preparation was developed. The experiments were designed to determine which subpopulation of the non-T lymphocytes is primarily affected and shows a decreased EPM in chronic hemodialysis patients and kidney transplant recipients

A normative study of tachistoscopic localization skill

A normative study of tachistoscopic localization skil

Latex samples for RAMSES electrophoresis experiment on IML 2

The objectives of these reported studies were to provide ground based support services for the flight experiment team for the RAMSES experiment to be flown aboard IML-2. The specific areas of support included consultation on the performance of particle based electrophoresis studies, development of methods for the preparation of suitable samples for the flight hardware, the screening of particles to obtain suitable candidates for the flight experiment, and the electrophoretic characterization of sample particle preparations. The first phases of these studies were performed under this contract, while the follow on work was performed under grant number NAG8 1081, 'Preparation and Characterization of Latex Samples for RAMSES Experiment on IML 2.' During this first phase of the experiment the following benchmarks were achieved: Methods were tested for the concentration and resuspension of latex samples in the greater than 0.4 micron diameter range to provide moderately high solids content samples free of particle aggregation which interferred with the normal functioning of the RAMSES hardware. Various candidate latex preparations were screened and two candidate types of latex were identified for use in the flight experiments, carboxylate modified latex (CML) and acrylic acid-acrylamide modified latex (AAM). These latexes have relatively hydrophilic surfaces, are not prone to aggregate, and display sufficiently low electrophoretic mobilities in the flight buffer so that they can be used to make mixtures to test the resolving power of the flight hardware

Development and horizontal gene transfer of triclosan resistance in Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of hospital-acquired infections that are becoming increasingly difficult to treat because of the organism's ability to acquire resistance to current antimicrobial agents. Particular attention has been focussed on the evolution of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) - strains of S. aureus that are, in some cases, resistant to almost all known antibiotic classes. One method used to control the spread of MRSA has been the use of topical washes that include triclosan, a potent antimicrobial with particular activity against Gram-positive organisms. Triclosan has traditionally been classed as a biocide and is also used in a broad spectrum of consumer healthcare products, including toothpastes and deodorants. It has also been used to prevent bacterial growth through incorporation into plastics used during food preparation or sutures used to close wounds following surgery. However, in 1991 resistance to triclosan was reported and was described to transfer in association with mupirocin resistance. This was followed by reports that resistance was present in 7.5% of S. aureus isolates and that MRSA was less susceptible to triclosan than methicillin- sensitive S. aureus (MSSA). It later emerged that, contrary to previous thinking, triclosan targets a specific bacterial protein, Fabl. We aimed to characterize the development of reduced susceptibility to triclosan in MSSA and MRSA and to identify whether triclosan does have a single, specific target. We also set out to elucidate the potential for triclosan resistance to be disseminated by horizontal gene transfer (HGT). By using extensive microbiological and genetic techniques we found that S. aureus can evolve reduced susceptibility to triclosan through spontaneous mutation. MICs of 1-4 mg/L were achieved by a C284T mutation offabl, compared to wild-type MICs of -0.03 mg/L. However, reduced susceptibility was also observed in non-fabl mutants, implying that other mechanisms of resistance are available (and that triclosan has targets other than Fabl). We have shown that triclosan induces the leakage of potassium ions from cells, an indication that triclosan targets the cytoplasmic membrane. However, whilst reduced susceptibility to triclosan did confer reduced susceptibility to the lethal effects of 7.5 mg/L triclosan, this effect was ameliorated by higher concentrations of triclosan. Indeed, in-use concentrations of the commercial preparation of triclosan, Irgacide LP 10, are equally active against reduced susceptibility S. aureus and wild-type. Therefore, the evolution of reduced-susceptibility to triclosan is of ambiguous clinical significance. We found that spontaneous mutation to reduced susceptibility was not associated with a significant fitness cost, augmenting its potential for emergence in nature. Evolution of reduced susceptibility did not confer co-resistance to other antimicrobials and MRSA and MSSA strains were equally susceptible. An assessment of commensal S. aureus carried amongst the student population of Cardiff revealed that reduced susceptibility to triclosan is rare in this population. However, coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) showed consistently higher MICs for triclosan and may represent an amenable reservoir of resistance. There was no indication that mupirocin and triclosan resistance have co-transferred in the past. Indeed, there appeared to be no relationship between resistance to either of these compounds in S. aureus. Reduced susceptibility to triclosan could not be disseminated amongst 5". aureus, or related Gram-positive bacteria by transduction, conjugation or transformation. Importantly, during the course of this work we discovered that triclosan could select for S. aureus small-colony variants (SCVs) that were coincidently resistant to gentamicin and penicillin. These were slow growing and illustrated the typical SCV phenotype. SCVs were more readily transformable than wild-type cells and may represent an enduring reservoir of resistance determinants. In conclusion, we found that S. aureus could develop reduced susceptibility to triclosan by spontaneous mutation or the evolution of SCVs. However, the level of resistance is of ambiguous significance. We propose that triclosan does target Fabl, but also has other cellular targets, particularly at higher concentrations. Whilst the evolution of reduced susceptibility and the occurrence of SCVs should be monitored these should not preclude the use of triclosan as part of infection control procedures. However, to reduce the opportunities for resistance, infection control procedures should not rely upon a single antimicrobial to provide the panacea for nosocomial infections.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo