Finding the right fit: Enhancing the academic-industry link in the sector for Nutrition undergraduates – a pilot study

Academic learning experience prepares students for professional life, enriches their scientific-evidence knowledge, whereas laboratory practicals upskill their experiences applying theory into “real world” scenarios. As most undergraduate programmes are not offering placement year, students rely heavily on their initiatives and networking to maximise their continuous professional development (CPD). This study evaluated the supporting mechanisms between academia and industry/ sector and examined staff and students’ perceptions of existing academia-industry collaborations. An online survey was designed to record perceptions of undergraduate’s nutrition students. This was followed by focus groups to establish students’ perceptions of the relevant professional organisations and their related experiences outside academia. Captured students’ feedback together with the nutrition teaching academics responses in individual semi-structured interviews have portrayed the current academic-industry links, the perceived challenges/barriers and probed sensible roadmap. Six themes uncovered the need for extra nutrition-related work experiences, while the students’ perceptions reflected their learning through course progression, awareness of external opportunities and underpinned that graduate readiness improved progressively with years spent in study. The Academics’ interviews recognized the limited academic-industry collaborations and underpinned many barriers faced; more “top-down” support was identified as a strategy to enhance external links. The study provides a clear lens into the present academic-industry links within the nutrition programmes and ascertained the perceived challenges experienced by students and academics. Collaborations and centralised university communications shall promote a better university experience. Equally, staff-student partnerships will facilitate a new approach to understand both staff and students’ perspectives and enhance learning experiences within the sector

Topological Defects and Interactions in Nematic Emulsions

Inverse nematic emulsions in which surfactant-coated water droplets are dispersed in a nematic host fluid have distinctive properties that set them apart from dispersions of two isotropic fluids or of nematic droplets in an isotropic fluid. We present a comprehensive theoretical study of the distortions produced in the nematic host by the dispersed droplets and of solvent mediated dipolar interactions between droplets that lead to their experimentally observed chaining. A single droplet in a nematic host acts like a macroscopic hedgehog defect. Global boundary conditions force the nucleation of compensating topological defects in the nematic host. Using variational techniques, we show that in the lowest energy configuration, a single water droplet draws a single hedgehog out of the nematic host to form a tightly bound dipole. Configurations in which the water droplet is encircled by a disclination ring have higher energy. The droplet-dipole induces distortions in the nematic host that lead to an effective dipole-dipole interaction between droplets and hence to chaining.Comment: 17 double column pages prepared by RevTex, 15 eps figures included in text, 2 gif figures for Fig. 1

Comparison of exhaled breath condensate pH using two commercially available devices in healthy controls, asthma and COPD patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Analysis of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is a non-invasive method for studying the acidity (pH) of airway secretions in patients with inflammatory lung diseases.</p> <p>Aim</p> <p>To assess the reproducibility of EBC pH for two commercially available devices (portable RTube and non-portable ECoScreen) in healthy controls, patients with asthma or COPD, and subjects suffering from an acute cold with lower-airway symptoms. In addition, we assessed the repeatability in healthy controls.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>EBC was collected from 40 subjects (n = 10 in each of the above groups) using RTube and ECoScreen. EBC was collected from controls on two separate occasions within 5 days. pH in EBC was assessed after degasification with argon for 20 min.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In controls, pH-measurements in EBC collected by RTube or ECoScreen showed no significant difference between devices (p = 0.754) or between days (repeatability coefficient RTube: 0.47; ECoScreen: 0.42) of collection. A comparison between EBC pH collected by the two devices in asthma, COPD and cold patients also showed good reproducibility. No differences in pH values were observed between controls (mean pH 8.27; RTube) and patients with COPD (pH 7.97) or asthma (pH 8.20), but lower values were found using both devices in patients with a cold (pH 7.56; RTube, p < 0.01; ECoScreen, p < 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that pH measurements in EBC collected by RTube and ECoScreen are repeatable and reproducible in healthy controls, and are reproducible and comparable in healthy controls, COPD and asthma patients, and subjects with a common cold.</p

Topology by Design in Magnetic nano-Materials: Artificial Spin Ice

Artificial Spin Ices are two dimensional arrays of magnetic, interacting nano-structures whose geometry can be chosen at will, and whose elementary degrees of freedom can be characterized directly. They were introduced at first to study frustration in a controllable setting, to mimic the behavior of spin ice rare earth pyrochlores, but at more useful temperature and field ranges and with direct characterization, and to provide practical implementation to celebrated, exactly solvable models of statistical mechanics previously devised to gain an understanding of degenerate ensembles with residual entropy. With the evolution of nano--fabrication and of experimental protocols it is now possible to characterize the material in real-time, real-space, and to realize virtually any geometry, for direct control over the collective dynamics. This has recently opened a path toward the deliberate design of novel, exotic states, not found in natural materials, and often characterized by topological properties. Without any pretense of exhaustiveness, we will provide an introduction to the material, the early works, and then, by reporting on more recent results, we will proceed to describe the new direction, which includes the design of desired topological states and their implications to kinetics.Comment: 29 pages, 13 figures, 116 references, Book Chapte

A new genus of ptyctodont (Placodermi) from the late Devonian of Baltic area

© Texas A and M University. All rights reserved. The ptyctodont fish first referred to as Chelyophorus pskovensis Obruchev, 1947 from the Early Frasnian (Late Devonian) of Velikaya River, Pskov Region, Russia, is redescribed following the collection of additional materials from the contemporaneous Meeksi Mill outcrop, Estonia; Piskovichi and Snetnaya Gora outcrops, Russia and is here referred to Meeksiella gen. nov. With the exception of an articulated skull roof, the fossils occur as three dimensionally preserved isolated plates, and this has allowed accurate reconstruction of the dermal skeleton. A phylogenetic analysis resolves Meeksiella pskovensis gen. et sp. nov. within a previously recovered cluster of taxa which includes Ctenurella from Europe and Austroptyctodus from Western Australia, demonstrating global distribution of this clade during the Late Devonian

A new genus of ptyctodont (Placodermi) from the late Devonian of Baltic area

© Texas A and M University. All rights reserved. The ptyctodont fish first referred to as Chelyophorus pskovensis Obruchev, 1947 from the Early Frasnian (Late Devonian) of Velikaya River, Pskov Region, Russia, is redescribed following the collection of additional materials from the contemporaneous Meeksi Mill outcrop, Estonia; Piskovichi and Snetnaya Gora outcrops, Russia and is here referred to Meeksiella gen. nov. With the exception of an articulated skull roof, the fossils occur as three dimensionally preserved isolated plates, and this has allowed accurate reconstruction of the dermal skeleton. A phylogenetic analysis resolves Meeksiella pskovensis gen. et sp. nov. within a previously recovered cluster of taxa which includes Ctenurella from Europe and Austroptyctodus from Western Australia, demonstrating global distribution of this clade during the Late Devonian