International education developments in Singapore.

This paper considers contemporary higher education in Singapore and its relationship to the larger international context. It shows that international education has been established as a result of fundamentally different motives than the current full fee-paying programs found in western countries. It argues that on-shore international education in Singapore is a catalyst to prepare local institutions for the next wave of the nation's economic development, as it is orients itself to be the regional hegemonic player in a 'knowledge economy' driven by a world class tertiary sector. Considerations of history, culture and economic development add substance and depth to the claim that Singapore, by necessity and design, is on the verge of creating a unique 'hub' of international education which will challenge traditional western models that have been so dominant throughout the final years of the last millennium

Contemporary themes in the research enterprise

This paper discusses themes associated with the enterprise of educational research, particularly as it applies to notions of ontology and epistemology in 'quantitative' and 'qualitative' methodologies. It begins by identifying the 'space' that educational research occupies in the contemporary social setting and indicates the growing complexities of the 'real world' which researchers contemplate. The development of empirical and interpretive methodologies is traced through an historical analysis of educational research that highlights the emergence of the postmodern platform. This leads to an examination of the traditions of both the 'quantitative' and 'qualitative' approaches with a view to understanding their positioning in the field of educational research. It is maintained that these two methodologies are examples of paradigms which exist within traditions. They are often said to be incommensurable paradigms. The authors propose a solution to their seeming incommensurability, which in part involves assessing the coherence of the idea of a 'paradigm'. [Author abstract, ed

Automated classification metrics for energy modelling of residential buildings in the UK with open algorithms

Estimating residential building energy use across large spatial extents is vital for identifying and testing effective strategies to reduce carbon emissions and improve urban sustainability. This task is underpinned by the availability of accurate models of building stock from which appropriate parameters may be extracted. For example, the form of a building, such as whether it is detached, semi-detached, terraced etc and its shape may be used as part of a typology for defining its likely energy use. When these details are combined with information on building construction materials or glazing ratio, it can be used to infer the heat transfer characteristics of different properties. However, these data are not readily available for energy modelling or urban simulation. Although this is not a problem when the geographic scope corresponds to a small area and can be hand-collected, such manual approaches cannot be easily applied at the city or national scale. In this paper, we demonstrate an approach that can automatically extract this information at the city scale using off-the-shelf products supplied by a National Mapping Agency. We present two novel techniques to create this knowledge directly from input geometry. The first technique is used to identify built form based upon the physical relationships between buildings. The second technique is used to determine a more refined internal/external wall measurement and ratio. The second technique has greater metric accuracy and can also be used to address problems identified in extracting the built form. A case study is presented for the City of Nottingham in the United Kingdom using two data products provided by the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain (OSGB): MasterMap and AddressBase. This is followed by a discussion of a new categorisation approach for housing form for urban energy assessment

An interlaboratory investigation of intrinsic dissolution rate determination using surface dissolution

The pur­pose of this study was to con­duct an in­ter­lab­o­ra­tory ring-study, with six part­ners (aca­d­e­mic and in­dus­trial), in­ves­ti­gat­ing the mea­sure­ment of in­trin­sic dis­so­lu­tion rate (IDR) us­ing sur­face dis­so­lu­tion imag­ing (SDI) equip­ment. Mea­sure­ment of IDR is im­por­tant in phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal re­search as it pro­vides char­ac­ter­is­ing in­for­ma­tion on drugs and their for­mu­la­tions. This work al­lowed us to as­sess the SDI’s in­ter­lab­o­ra­tory per­for­mance for mea­sur­ing IDR us­ing a de­fined stan­dard op­er­at­ing pro­ce­dure (see sup­port­ing in­for­ma­tion) and six drugs as­signed as low (tadalafil, bromocrip­tine me­sy­late), medium (carvedilol, in­domethacin) and high (ibupro­fen, val­sar­tan) sol­u­bil­ity com­pounds. Fasted State Sim­u­lated In­testi­nal Fluid (FaS­SIF) and blank FaS­SIF (with­out sodium tau­ro­cholate and lecithin) (pH 6.5) were used as me­dia. Us­ing the stan­dard­ised pro­to­col an IDR value was ob­tained for all com­pounds and the re­sults show that the over­all IDR rank or­der matched the sol­u­bil­ity rank or­der. In­ter­lab­o­ra­tory vari­abil­ity was also ex­am­ined and it was ob­served that the vari­abil­ity for lower sol­u­bil­ity com­pounds was higher, co­ef­fi­cient of vari­a­tion >50%, than for in­ter­me­di­ate and high sol­u­bil­ity com­pounds, with the ex­cep­tion of in­domethacin in FaS­SIF medium. In­ter lab­o­ra­tory vari­abil­ity is a use­ful de­scrip­tor for un­der­stand­ing the ro­bust­ness of the pro­to­col and the sys­tem vari­abil­ity. On com­par­i­son to an­other pub­lished small-scale IDR study the rank or­der­ing with re­spect to dis­so­lu­tion rate is iden­ti­cal ex­cept for the high sol­u­bil­ity com­pounds. This re­sults in­di­cates that the SDI ro­bustly mea­sures IDR how­ever, no rec­om­men­da­tion on the use of one small scale method over the other is made

Higher antioxidant and lower cadmium concentrations and lower incidence of pesticide residues in organically grown crops: a systematic literature review and meta-analyses

201

Synergistic malaria vaccine combinations identified by systematic antigen screening.

A highly effective vaccine would be a valuable weapon in the drive toward malaria elimination. No such vaccine currently exists, and only a handful of the hundreds of potential candidates in the parasite genome have been evaluated. In this study, we systematically evaluated 29 antigens likely to be involved in erythrocyte invasion, an essential developmental stage during which the malaria parasite is vulnerable to antibody-mediated inhibition. Testing antigens alone and in combination identified several strain-transcending targets that had synergistic combinatorial effects in vitro, while studies in an endemic population revealed that combinations of the same antigens were associated with protection from febrile malaria. Video microscopy established that the most effective combinations targeted multiple discrete stages of invasion, suggesting a mechanistic explanation for synergy. Overall, this study both identifies specific antigen combinations for high-priority clinical testing and establishes a generalizable approach that is more likely to produce effective vaccines

A Salmochelin S4-inspired Ciprofloxacin Trojan Horse Conjugate

A novel ciprofloxacin-siderophore Trojan Horse antimicrobial was prepared by incorporating key design features of salmochelin S4, a stealth siderophore that evades mammalian siderocalin capture via its glycosylated catechol units. As-sessment of the antimicrobial activity of the conjugate revealed that attachment of the salmochelin mimic resulted in decreased potency, compared to ciprofloxacin, against two Escherichia coli strains, K12 and Nissle 1917, in both iron-replete and deplete conditions. This observation could be attributed to a combination of reduced DNA gyrase inhibi-tion, as confirmed by in vitro DNA gyrase assays, and reduced bacterial uptake. Uptake was monitored using radio-labelling with iron-mimetic 67Ga3+, which revealed limited cellular uptake in E. coli K12. In contrast, previously reported staphyloferrin-based conjugates displayed measurable uptake in analogous 67Ga3+, labelling studies. These results suggest that in designing Trojan Horse antimicrobials, the choice of siderophore and the nature and length of the link-er remains a significant challenge

Higher PUFA and omega-3 PUFA, CLA, α-tocopherol and iron, but lower iodine and selenium concentrations in organic milk: a systematic literature review and meta- and redundancy analyses

Demand for organic milk is partially driven by consumer perceptions that it is more nutritious. However, there is still considerable uncertainty over whether the use of organic production standards affects milk quality. Here we report results of meta-analyses based on 170 published studies comparing the nutrient content of organic and conventional bovine milk. There were no significant differences in total SFA and MUFA concentrations between organic and conventional milk. However, concentrations of total PUFA and n-3 PUFA were significantly higher in organic milk, by an estimated 7 (95 % CI −1, 15) % and 56 (95 % CI 38, 74) %, respectively. Concentrations of α-linolenic acid (ALA), very long-chain n-3 fatty acids (EPA+DPA+DHA) and conjugated linoleic acid were also significantly higher in organic milk, by an 69 (95 % CI 53, 84) %, 57 (95 % CI 27, 87) % and 41 (95 % CI 14, 68) %, respectively. As there were no significant differences in total n-6 PUFA and linoleic acid (LA) concentrations, the n-6:n-3 and LA:ALA ratios were lower in organic milk, by an estimated 71 (95 % CI −122, −20) % and 93 (95 % CI −116, −70) %. It is concluded that organic bovine milk has a more desirable fatty acid composition than conventional milk. Meta-analyses also showed that organic milk has significantly higher α-tocopherol and Fe, but lower I and Se concentrations. Redundancy analysis of data from a large cross-European milk quality survey indicates that the higher grazing/conserved forage intakes in organic systems were the main reason for milk composition differences