Continuous Casting Development for Steel

Continuous casting processes for steel have all had their origin in some form of pilot Plant development and experience, the importance of gaining "know-how" being a Predominant feature. The first pilot plant to cast metal continuously was built by Henry Bessemer just over one hundred years ago. Whilst machines were developed for non-ferrous metals, progress with liquid steel was more difficult, mainly due to the high handling temperatures and to its low thermal conductivity when solidified

On the use of low-cost computer peripherals for the assessment of motor dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease – Quantification of bradykinesia using target tracking tasks

The potential of computer games peripherals to measure the motor dysfunction in Parkinson’s diseases is assessed. Of particular interest is the quantification of bradykinesia. Previous studies used modified or custom haptic interfaces, here an unmodified force feedback joystick and steering wheel are used with a laptop. During testing an on screen cursor moves in response to movements of the peripheral, the user has to track a continuously moving target (pursuit tracking), or move to a predetermined target (step tracking). All tasks use movement in the horizontal axis, allowing use of joystick or steering wheel. Two pursuit tracking tasks are evaluated, pseudo random movement, and a swept frequency task. Two step tracking tasks are evaluated, movement between two or between two of five fixed targets. Thirteen patients and five controls took part on a weekly basis. Patients were assessed for bradykinesia at each session using standard clinical measures. A range of quantitative measures was developed to allow comparison between and within patients and controls using ANOVA. Both peripherals are capable of discriminating between controls and patients, and between patients with different levels of bradykinesia. Recommendations for test procedures and peripherals are given

Patient and Family Caregivers’ Experiences of Living With a Jejunostomy Feeding Tube After Surgery for Esophagogastric Cancer

BACKGROUND: Jejunostomy feeding tubes (JFTs) can be used to provide nutrition support to patients who have had surgery for esophagogastric cancer. Although previous research reports how patients cope with a gastrostomy tube, little is known about the impact of having a JFT. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore how patients and their informal caregivers experience living with a JFT in the first months following surgery. METHODS: Participants were purposively sampled from a cohort of patients recruited to a trial investigating home enteral nutrition vs standard care after esophagogastric surgery for cancer. The sampling framework considered age, sex, and marital status. Informal caregivers were also invited to participate. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and anonymized. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify key themes related to living with a JFT. RESULTS: Fifteen patient interviews were conducted; 8 also included a family caregiver. Analysis of the data resulted in 2 main themes: "challenges" and "facilitators" when living with a JFT. While "physical effects," "worries" and "impact on routine" were the main challenges, "support," "adaptation" and "perceived benefit" were what motivated continuation of the intervention. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that participants coped well with a JFT, describing high levels of compliance with stoma care and the feeding regimen. Nonetheless, disturbed sleep patterns and stoma-related problems proved troublesome. A better understanding of these practical challenges, from the patient and family caregiver perspective, should guide healthcare teams in providing proactive support to avoid preventable problems

National Evaluation of the Capacity Building Programme in English Local Government: Evaluation of the National Programmes: Annex 2: Evaluation of the National Programmes

The report is one of a series of outputs from the national evaluation of the CBP, being undertaken by a team of researchers at the Policy Research Institute (PRI) at Leeds Metropolitan University and the Cities Research Unit at the University of West of England. The Capacity Building Programme for local government was launched in 2003 as a joint Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) / Local Government Association (LGA) initiative to support capacity building and improvement activities within local authorities in England. The evaluation of the Capacity Building Programme has been underway since late 2004. A scoping phase was conducted until May 2005, including a short evaluation of the Pilot Programmes. The main phase of the evaluation commenced in September 2005 and encompassed four main phases (see Section 1.3: p10)

Food security, nutrition and health of food bank attendees in an English city: A cross-sectional study

Food banks in contemporary Britain are feeding record numbers of people. Little is known about attendees’ level of food insecurity, background diet quality or health. We surveyed 112 food bank attendees. Over 50% had experienced food shortage with hunger on a weekly basis or more often. Obesity and mental health problems were prevalent in women. Diet quality was poor, with energy, protein, fibre, iron and calcium intakes inadequate, while saturated fat and sugars intake were disproportionate. Women had poorer diet quality than men. Such patterns may lead to ill health

Open challenges in the management of autoimmune hepatitis

Autoimmune Hepatitis (AIH) is a rare autoimmune disease of the liver with many open questions as regards its aetiopathogenesis, natural history and clinical management. The classical picture of AIH is chronic hepatitis with fluctuating elevation of serum transaminases and Immunoglobulin G levels, the presence of circulating autoantibodies and typical histological features. However, atypical presentations do occur and are not well captured by current diagnostic scores, with important consequences in terms of missed diagnoses and delayed treatments. AIH is treated with corticosteroids and immunosuppressive drugs but up to 40% of patients do not achieve full biochemical response and are at risk of progressing to cirrhosis and liver failure. Moreover, standard therapies are associated by significant side-effects which may impair the quality of life of patients living with AIH. However, advances in the understanding of the underlying immunology of AIH is raising the prospect of novel therapies and optimisation of existing therapeutic approaches to reduce side-effect burdens and potentially restore immunological tolerance. In this review we outline the clinical characteristics, aetiopathogenesis and management of AIH and current challenges in the diagnosis and management of AIH and provide evidence underlying the evolution of diagnostic and clinical management protocols

Sustaining Educational Reforms in Introductory Physics

While it is well known which curricular practices can improve student performance on measures of conceptual understanding, the sustaining of these practices and the role of faculty members in implementing these practices are less well understood. We present a study of the hand-off of Tutorials in Introductory Physics from initial adopters to other instructors at the University of Colorado, including traditional faculty not involved in physics education research. The study examines the impact of implementation of Tutorials on student conceptual learning across eight first-semester, and seven second-semester courses, for fifteen faculty over twelve semesters, and includes roughly 4000 students. It is possible to demonstrate consistently high, and statistically indistinguishable, student learning gains for different faculty members; however, such results are not the norm, and appear to rely on a variety of factors. Student performance varies by faculty background - faculty involved in, or informed by physics education research, consistently post higher student learning gains than less-informed faculty. Student performance in these courses also varies by curricula used - all semesters in which the research-based Tutorials and Learning Assistants are used have higher student learning gains than those semesters that rely on non-research based materials and do not employ Learning Assistants.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures, and other essential inf

Observing the build-up of the colour-magnitude relation at redshift ~0.8

We analyse the rest-frame (U-V) colour-magnitude relation for 2 clusters at redshift 0.7 and 0.8, drawn from the ESO Distant Cluster Survey. By comparing with the population of red galaxies in the Coma cluster, we show that the high redshift clusters exhibit a deficit of passive faint red galaxies. Our results show that the red-sequence population cannot be explained in terms of a monolithic and synchronous formation scenario. A large fraction of faint passive galaxies in clusters today has moved onto the red sequence relatively recently as a consequence of the fact that their star formation activity has come to an end at z<0.8.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Proc. of IAU Colloq. 195: "Outskirts of Galaxy Clusters: Intense Life in the Suburbs" -- minor typos correcte