Measurements of static and dynamic displacement from visual monitoring of the Humber Bridge

Author's manuscript version. The final published version is available from the publisher via doi:10.1016/0141-0296(93)90054-8. Copyright © 1993 Published by Elsevier Ltd.A visual tracking system has been employed in the measurement of deck displacements at the centre of the 1410 m span of the Humber Bridge in the UK. The transputer-based system was developed for applications such as the monitoring or testing of large physical structures, where the actual displacements may not easily be otherwise determined. The system employs parallel processing techniques to track predictively the motion of multiple, independent objects at video frame rate. Results obtained using the system in a monitoring programme of the bridge are presented and discussed. © 1993

Connectivity-based parcellation of the thalamus explains specific cognitive and behavioural symptoms in patients with bilateral thalamic infarct

A novel approach based on diffusion tractography was used here to characterise the cortico-thalamic connectivity in two patients, both presenting with an isolated bilateral infarct in the thalamus, but exhibiting partially different cognitive and behavioural profiles. Both patients (G.P. and R.F.) had a pervasive deficit in episodic memory, but only one of them (R.F.) suffered also from a dysexecutive syndrome. Both patients had an MRI scan at 3T, including a T1-weighted volume. Their lesions were manually segmented. T1-volumes were normalised to standard space, and the same transformations were applied to the lesion masks. Nineteen healthy controls underwent a diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) scan. Their DTI data were normalised to standard space and averaged. An atlas of Brodmann areas was used to parcellate the prefrontal cortex. Probabilistic tractography was used to assess the probability of connection between each voxel of the thalamus and a set of prefrontal areas. The resulting map of corticothalamic connections was superimposed onto the patients' lesion masks, to assess whether the location of the thalamic lesions in R.F. (but not in G. P.) implied connections with prefrontal areas involved in dysexecutive syndromes. In G.P., the lesion fell within areas of the thalamus poorly connected with prefrontal areas, showing only a modest probability of connection with the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Conversely, R.F.'s lesion fell within thalamic areas extensively connected with the ACC bilaterally, with the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and with the left supplementary motor area. Despite a similar, bilateral involvement of the thalamus, the use of connectivity-based segmentation clarified that R.F.'s lesions only were located within nuclei highly connected with the prefrontal cortical areas, thus explaining the patient's frontal syndrome. This study confirms that DTI tractography is a useful tool to examine in vivo the effect of focal lesions on interconnectivity brain patterns

Care farming and green care in Salford

This report presents a University of Salford (UoS) investigation into the potential for care farming in Salford as part of the University’s teaching, research and enterprise activities. The work has critically engaged with the notion of care farming with a view to better understand how this approach can contribute to helping communities with diverse needs in terms of physical and mental health as well as wider determinants of health such as social inclusion and employability. Through the establishment of, and engagement with a network of key local stakeholders, the work developed a model that has explored the potential of a care farm. What has emerged is a first step towards the design and establishment of an urban care farm that that could serve as a centre for learning and research as well as integrate existing activities as part of a green and blue network identified through the stakeholder engagement work. This report provides a direction for future work on care farming in Salford in general, and in terms of the University’s teaching and learning activities in particular

The conceptual and practical ethical dilemmas of using health discussion board posts as research data.

Increasing numbers of people living with a long-term health condition are putting personal health information online, including on discussion boards. Many discussion boards contain material of potential use to researchers; however, it is unclear how this information can and should be used by researchers. To date there has been no evaluation of the views of those individuals sharing health information online regarding the use of their shared information for research purposes

Posterior Vitreous Detachment and the Posterior Hyaloid Membrane

PURPOSE: Despite posterior vitreous detachment being a common ocular event affecting most individuals in an aging population, there is little consensus regarding its precise anatomic definition. We investigated the morphologic appearance and molecular composition of the posterior hyaloid membrane to determine whether the structure clinically observed enveloping the posterior vitreous surface after posterior vitreous detachment is a true basement membrane and to postulate its origin. Understanding the relationship between the vitreous (in both its attached and detached state) and the internal limiting membrane of the retina is essential to understanding the cause of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment and vitreoretinal interface disorders, as well as potential future prophylactic and treatment strategies. DESIGN: Clinicohistologic correlation study. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-six human donor globes. METHODS: Vitreous bodies identified to have posterior vitreous detachment were examined with phase-contrast microscopy and confocal microscopy after immunohistochemically staining for collagen IV basement membrane markers, in addition to extracellular proteins that characterize the vitreoretinal junction (fibronectin, laminin) and vitreous gel (opticin) markers. The posterior retina similarly was stained to evaluate the internal limiting membrane. Findings were correlated to the clinical appearance of the posterior hyaloid membrane observed during slit-lamp biomicroscopy after posterior vitreous detachment and compared with previously published studies. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Morphologic appearance and molecular composition of the posterior hyaloid membrane. RESULTS: Phase-contrast microscopy consistently identified a creased and distinct glassy membranous sheet enveloping the posterior vitreous surface, correlating closely with the posterior hyaloid membrane observed during slit-lamp biomicroscopy in patients with posterior vitreous detachment. Immunofluorescent confocal micrographs demonstrated the enveloping membranous structure identified on phase-contrast microscopy to show positive stain results for type IV collagen. Immunofluorescence of the residual intact internal limiting membrane on the retinal surface also showed positive stain results for type IV collagen. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study provide immunohistochemical evidence that the posterior hyaloid membrane is a true basement membrane enveloping the posterior hyaloid surface. Because this membranous structure is observed only after posterior vitreous detachment, the results of this study indicate that it forms part of the internal limiting membrane when the vitreous is in its attached state

Optimization viewpoint on Kalman smoothing, with applications to robust and sparse estimation

In this paper, we present the optimization formulation of the Kalman filtering and smoothing problems, and use this perspective to develop a variety of extensions and applications. We first formulate classic Kalman smoothing as a least squares problem, highlight special structure, and show that the classic filtering and smoothing algorithms are equivalent to a particular algorithm for solving this problem. Once this equivalence is established, we present extensions of Kalman smoothing to systems with nonlinear process and measurement models, systems with linear and nonlinear inequality constraints, systems with outliers in the measurements or sudden changes in the state, and systems where the sparsity of the state sequence must be accounted for. All extensions preserve the computational efficiency of the classic algorithms, and most of the extensions are illustrated with numerical examples, which are part of an open source Kalman smoothing Matlab/Octave package.Comment: 46 pages, 11 figure

Structure and dynamics of aqueous 2-propanol: a THz-TDS, NMR and neutron diffraction study.

Aqueous liquid mixtures, in particular, those involving amphiphilic species, play an important role in many physical, chemical and biological processes. Of particular interest are alcohol/water mixtures; however, the structural dynamics of such systems are still not fully understood. Herein, a combination of terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) and NMR relaxation time analysis has been applied to investigate 2-propanol/water mixtures across the entire composition range; while neutron diffraction studies have been carried out at two specific concentrations. Excellent agreement is seen between the techniques with a maximum in both the relative absorption coefficient and the activation energy to molecular motion occurring at ∼90 mol% H2O. Furthermore, this is the same value at which well-established excess thermodynamic functions exhibit a maximum/minimum. Additionally, both neutron diffraction and THz-TDS have been used to provide estimates of the size of the hydration shell around 2-propanol in solution. Both methods determine that between 4 and 5 H2O molecules per 2-propanol are found in the 2-propanol/water clusters at 90 mol% H2O. Based on the acquired data, a description of the structure of 2-propanol/water across the composition range is presented.The authors would like to acknowledge CASTech (EPSRC grant EP/G011397/1), RCUK Basic Technology Grant (EP/E048811/1), STFC for beamtime allocation (RB910286) and Jon Mitchell (Cambridge) for valuable discussions.This is the final version of the article. It was first available from RSC via http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C5CP01132

Effects of Thyroxine Exposure on Osteogenesis in Mouse Calvarial Pre-Osteoblasts

The incidence of craniosynostosis is one in every 1,800-2500 births. The gene-environment model proposes that if a genetic predisposition is coupled with environmental exposures, the effects can be multiplicative resulting in severely abnormal phenotypes. At present, very little is known about the role of gene-environment interactions in modulating craniosynostosis phenotypes, but prior evidence suggests a role for endocrine factors. Here we provide a report of the effects of thyroid hormone exposure on murine calvaria cells. Murine derived calvaria cells were exposed to critical doses of pharmaceutical thyroxine and analyzed after 3 and 7 days of treatment. Endpoint assays were designed to determine the effects of the hormone exposure on markers of osteogenesis and included, proliferation assay, quantitative ALP activity assay, targeted qPCR for mRNA expression of Runx2, Alp, Ocn, and Twist1, genechip array for 28,853 targets, and targeted osteogenic microarray with qPCR confirmations. Exposure to thyroxine stimulated the cells to express ALP in a dose dependent manner. There were no patterns of difference observed for proliferation. Targeted RNA expression data confirmed expression increases for Alp and Ocn at 7 days in culture. The genechip array suggests substantive expression differences for 46 gene targets and the targeted osteogenesis microarray indicated 23 targets with substantive differences. 11 gene targets were chosen for qPCR confirmation because of their known association with bone or craniosynostosis (Col2a1, Dmp1, Fgf1, 2, Igf1, Mmp9, Phex, Tnf, Htra1, Por, and Dcn). We confirmed substantive increases in mRNA for Phex, FGF1, 2, Tnf, Dmp1, Htra1, Por, Igf1 and Mmp9, and substantive decreases for Dcn. It appears thyroid hormone may exert its effects through increasing osteogenesis. Targets isolated suggest a possible interaction for those gene products associated with calvarial suture growth and homeostasis as well as craniosynostosis. © 2013 Cray et al

Photoswitchable diacylglycerols enable optical control of protein kinase C.

Increased levels of the second messenger lipid diacylglycerol (DAG) induce downstream signaling events including the translocation of C1-domain-containing proteins toward the plasma membrane. Here, we introduce three light-sensitive DAGs, termed PhoDAGs, which feature a photoswitchable acyl chain. The PhoDAGs are inactive in the dark and promote the translocation of proteins that feature C1 domains toward the plasma membrane upon a flash of UV-A light. This effect is quickly reversed after the termination of photostimulation or by irradiation with blue light, permitting the generation of oscillation patterns. Both protein kinase C and Munc13 can thus be put under optical control. PhoDAGs control vesicle release in excitable cells, such as mouse pancreatic islets and hippocampal neurons, and modulate synaptic transmission in Caenorhabditis elegans. As such, the PhoDAGs afford an unprecedented degree of spatiotemporal control and are broadly applicable tools to study DAG signaling

Arming the Outlaws: On the Moral Limits of the Arms Trade

There is a general presumption against arming outlaw states. But can that presumption sometimes be overturned? The argument considered here maintains that outlaw states can have legitimate security interests, and that transferring weapons to these states can be an appropriate way of promoting those interests. Weapons enable governments to engage in wrongful oppression and aggression, but they also enable them to fend off predators in a manner that can be beneficial to their citizens. It clearly does not follow from the fact that a state is oppressive or aggressive that it will never be a victim of wrongful aggression itself, and while an outlaw state’s primary aim in repelling such aggression will often be the preservation of its own power, its defensive manoeuvres will sometimes also serve its citizens’ interests. In short, supplying weapons to outlaw states may sometimes contribute to the protection of innocents