Connecting with children’s geographies in education

COVID-19 has prompted the authors to examine children’s everyday geographies, with a focus on neighbourhood spaces and activities

Human agency in disaster planning: a systems approach

This is the final version of the article. Available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.Current approaches to risk management place insufficient emphasis on the system knowledge available to the assessor, particularly in respect of the dynamic behaviour of the system under threat, the role of human agents and the knowledge availability to those agents. In this paper, we address the second of these issues. We are concerned with a class of systems containing human agents playing a variety of roles as significant system elements - as decision makers, cognitive agents or implementers. i.e. Human Activity Systems (Checkland, 1999). Within this family of HASs we focus upon safety and mission critical systems, referring to this sub-class as critical human activity systems or CHASs. Identification of the role and contribution of these human elements to a system is a nontrivial problem whether in an engineering context, or, as is the case here, in a wider social and public context. Frequently they are treated as standing apart from the system in design or policy terms. Regardless of the process of policy definition followed, analysis of the risk and threats to such a CHAS requires a holistic approach, since the effect of undesirable, uninformed or erroneous actions on the part of the human elements is both potentially significant to the system output and inextricably bound together with the non-human elements of the system. We present a procedure for identifying the potential threats and risks emerging from the role(s) and activity of those human agents, using the 2014 flooding in SW England and the Thames Valley as a contemporary example.The project was partially supported the EU-CIRCLE (A pan-European framework for strengthening critical infrastructure resilience) project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No 653824)

Examination of inequivalent wetting on the crystal habit surfaces of RS-ibuprofen using grid-based molecular modelling

Synthonic engineering tools, including grid-based searching molecular modelling, are applied to investigate the wetting interactions of the solute and four crystallisation solvents (ethanol, ethyl acetate, acetonitrile and toluene) with the {100}, {001} and {011} forms of RS-ibuprofen. The grid-based methods, in particular the construction of a crystal slab parallel to a given plane in a coordinate system with one axis perpendicular to the surface, are defined in detail. The interaction strengths and nature (dispersive, hydrogen bonding (H-bonding) or coulombic forces) are related to the crystal growth rates and morphologies. The solute is found to interact strongest with the capping {011}, then the side {001} and weakest with the top {100} habit surfaces. The solute interactions with the {100} and {001} surfaces are found to be almost solely dominated by dispersive force contributions, whilst the same with the {011} surfaces are found to have a greater contribution from H-bonding and coulombic forces. The increased surface rugosity, at the molecular level of the {011} surfaces, results in a favourable docking site in a surface 'valley', not present in the {100} and {001} surfaces. The H-bonding solvents ethanol, acetonitrile and ethyl acetate are found to strongly interact with the {011} surfaces and weakly with the {001} surfaces, with the {011} interactions having a much greater contribution from H-bonding and coulombic forces. The interaction energies of the apolar and aprotic solvent toluene, with the {011} and {001} surfaces, are found to be very close. Toluene is found having slightly stronger interactions with the {001} than the {011} surfaces, which are all dominated by dispersive interactions. The ratio of the average energy of the top 100 solvent interactions with the {001} surface divided by the average energy of the top 100 interactions with the {011} surface is compared to the ratio of the experimentally measured growth rates of the same forms. In general, the interaction energy ratio is found to have an inverse ratio with the growth rates, implying that the solvents which are calculated to interact strongly with a particular surface are impeding the growth of that surface and reducing the growth rate, in turn impacting upon the final morphology of the material

The articulation of lexical palatalization in Scottish Gaelic

Session 4aSC - Speech Communication: Cross-Language Topics in Speech Communication (Poster Session) - Contributed Paper: 4aSC6Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig, henceforth SG) exhibits a rich system of consonant mutation, which is mostly governed by its morphology (Ladefoged et al. 1998; Gillies 2002; Stewart 2004). For instance, bàta “boat” changes to [v] when the word undergoes morphological inflection—e.g., a bhàta “his boat”, in which the sound spelled bh is pronounced as [v]. Using ultrasound imaging, the present study investigates palatalization in SG, which is considered as one of lexicalized consonant mutation types. Experimental data was collected in Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, a college on the Isle of Skye. Preliminary results show a clear sign of palatalization across different consonant types in palatalization environments (i.e., when morphologically conditioned), represented by higher tongue contours in the front region of tongue. While the articulatory distinction between plain and palatalized consonants is significant, different syllabic positions (i.e., word-initial vs. -final palatalization) often yield individualized patterns.published_or_final_versio

A Digital Workflow Supporting the Selection of Solvents for Optimizing the Crystallizability of p-Aminobenzoic Acid

We present a grid-based molecular modeling approach and software application for screening the solute–solvent and solute–solute interactions of organic molecules. This tool can provide a deeper understanding of solubilization of organic molecules, intended to guide scientists to intuitive conclusions about whether a solute/solvent pair may provide desired physical properties, such as crystallizability, solubility, and crystal polymorphism. This study focused on solutions of p-aminobenzoic acid in acetonitrile, ethanol, and water. Acetonitrile molecules are found to form the weakest interactions with the solute molecule, although they also form weak interactions with themselves. In contrast, water forms strong interactions with the solute molecule, with a strong preference to interact with the carboxylic acid group, although they also form strong self-interactions. Ethanol forms strong interactions with all of the solute molecules, along with reasonably strong interactions with itself. The looser solvation of the carboxylic acid group by acetonitrile is thought to drive the crystallization of the α polymorph, by lowering the crystallization kinetic energy barrier. In ethanol, the strong interactions of the solvent are thought to contribute to significant undercooling of ethanolic solutions observed in previous studies. Water’s strong interactions with the carboxylic acid of the solute may drive the self-assembly of the α-form by interactions of the phenyl groups and also contribute to the nucleation of the β-form from this solvent. This workflow can provide valuable guidance on the solvation properties of organic molecules and clusters, producing low-energy solvation shells of molecules and clusters to be utilized as starting points for more sophisticated simulations, such as molecular dynamics

Elective Modernism and the Politics of (Bio) Ethical Expertise

In this essay I consider whether the political perspective of third wave science studies – ‘elective modernism’ – offers a suitable framework for understanding the policy-making contributions that (bio)ethical experts might make. The question arises as a consequence of the fact that I have taken inspiration from the third wave in order to develop an account of (bio)ethical expertise. I offer a précis of this work and a brief summary of elective modernism before considering their relation. The view I set out suggests that elective modernism is a political philosophy and that although its use in relation to the use of scientific expertise in political and policy-making process has implications for the role of (bio)ethical expertise it does not, in the final analysis, provide an account that is appropriate for this latter form of specialist expertise. Nevertheless, it is an informative perspective, and one that can help us make sense of the political uses of (bio)ethical expertise

Team approach concept in management of oro-facial clefts: a survey of Nigerian practitioners

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cleft palate craniofacial teams have evolved across the globe in the last 20 years in compliance with the interdisciplinary concept of management of oro-facial clefts. An interdisciplinary care allows a coordinated treatment protocol for the patient. The objective of this study was to evaluate oro-facial cleft care in Nigeria with particular emphasis on the compliance of the practitioners to the team approach concept.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A snapshot survey was conducted among specialists that attended the Pan African Congress on Cleft Lip and Palate, at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Nigeria in February 2007.</p> <p>Result</p> <p>Sixty three respondents successfully completed and returned the questionnaire for analysis. Mean age of respondents was 43.5 years and the range was 38–62 years.</p> <p>Male to female ratio was 2.7:1. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and Plastic Surgeons constituted the majority of respondents (38.1% and 22.2%) respectively. Only 47.6% (n = 30) of the specialists belonged to cleft teams. Majority of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and Plastic Surgeons belonged to cleft teams (70% and 63.3% respectively) while speech pathologists and orthodontists were less represented (20% and 36.7% respectively) in teams.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Findings from this study suggests that interdisciplinary care for the cleft patient does not appear to have been fully embraced in Nigeria. This may be a result of several reasons ranging from non availability of the requisite specialists, the relatively young age of cleft care practice in this part of the world to the poor state of infrastructure.</p

A phase II study on safety and efficacy of high-dose N-acetylcysteine in patients with cystic fibrosis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>We conducted a single-centre, randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled phase II clinical study to test safety and efficacy of a 12-week therapy with low-dose (700 mg/daily) or high-dose (2800 mg/daily) of NAC.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twenty-one patients (ΔF508 homo/heterozygous, FEV₁> 40% pred.) were included in the study. After a 3-weeks placebo run-in phase, 11 patients received low-dose NAC, and 10 patients received high-dose NAC. Outcomes included safety and clinical parameters, inflammatory (total leukocyte numbers, cell differentials, TNF-α, IL-8) measures in induced sputum, and concentrations of extracellular glutathione in induced sputum and blood.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>High-dose NAC was a well-tolerated and safe medication. High-dose NAC did not alter clinical or inflammatory parameters. However, extracellular glutathione in induced sputum tended to increase on high-dose NAC.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>High-dose NAC is a well-tolerated and safe medication for a prolonged therapy of patients with CF with a potential to increase extracellular glutathione in CF airways.</p

Single-Species Microarrays and Comparative Transcriptomics

BACKGROUND: Prefabricated expression microarrays are currently available for only a few species but methods have been proposed to extend their application to comparisons between divergent genomes. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we demonstrate that the hybridization intensity of genomic DNA is a poor basis on which to select unbiased probes on Affymetrix expression arrays for studies of comparative transcriptomics, and that doing so produces spurious results. We used the Affymetrix Xenopus laevis microarray to evaluate expression divergence between X. laevis, X. borealis, and their F1 hybrids. When data are analyzed with probes that interrogate only sequences with confirmed identity in both species, we recover results that differ substantially analyses that use genomic DNA hybridizations to select probes. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings have implications for the experimental design of comparative expression studies that use single-species microarrays, and for our understanding of divergent expression in hybrid clawed frogs. These findings also highlight important limitations of single-species microarrays for studies of comparative transcriptomics of polyploid species