Giant Cell Arteritis: Clinical Guide for the Eyecare Professional

Purpose The purpose of this article is to review giant cell arteritis, with a focus on ophthalmic manifestations, and provide a quick reference for clinical identification, diagnosis and appropriate management. Summary Giant cell arteritis is one of a few true medical emergencies that may present initially to the eyecare professional. Understanding the clinical picture of disease course and management arms the eyecare professional with the ability to detect and manage early in the disease process, potentially preventing blindness and life-threatening systemic manifestations

Artérite temporale ou maladie de Horton : Guide clinique du professionnel des soins oculovisuels

Objet Le présent article a pour but de passer en revue la problématique de l’artérite temporale, en mettant l’accent sur les manifestations ophtalmiques, et de fournir un guide de référence rapide pour l’identification clinique, le diagnostic et la prise en charge appropriée. Résumé L’artérite temporale est l’une des rares urgences médicales qui peut amener un patient à se présenter initialement chez un professionnel des soins oculovisuels. La compréhension de l’évolution de la maladie et de sa prise en charge aidera le professionnel des soins oculovisuels à la détecter et à la prendre en charge tôt dans le processus, pouvant ainsi prévenir la cécité et des manifestations systémiques potentiellement mortelles

The evolution of online teaching and learning in engineering at Deakin University

This paper presents a brief history of the use of online technologies in the support of teaching and learning in the School of Engineering and Technology at Deakin University, Victoria, Australia. It addresses the following topics: flexible engineering programs at Deakin University; computer-based learning in the School of Engineering and Technology; progression from individual efforts to formal, centralized control of the World Wide Web (Web); the costs of information technology; experiences with grant funded development projects; managing the development of online material; student access and equity; and staff development and cultural change. A sustainable online content development model is proposed to carry the School&rsquo;s online initiatives in support of teaching and learning activities into the future.<br /

Search for the Standard Model Higgs Boson with the OPAL Detector at LEP

This paper summarises the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies up to 209 GeV performed by the OPAL Collaboration at LEP. The consistency of the data with the background hypothesis and various Higgs boson mass hypotheses is examined. No indication of a signal is found in the data and a lower bound of 112.7GeV/C^2 is obtained on the mass of the Standard Model Higgs boson at the 95% CL.Comment: 51 pages, 21 figure

Measurement of the Hadronic Photon Structure Function F_2^gamma at LEP2

The hadronic structure function of the photon F_2^gamma is measured as a function of Bjorken x and of the factorisation scale Q^2 using data taken by the OPAL detector at LEP. Previous OPAL measurements of the x dependence of F_2^gamma are extended to an average Q^2 of 767 GeV^2. The Q^2 evolution of F_2^gamma is studied for average Q^2 between 11.9 and 1051 GeV^2. As predicted by QCD, the data show positive scaling violations in F_2^gamma. Several parameterisations of F_2^gamma are in agreement with the measurements whereas the quark-parton model prediction fails to describe the data.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of Photon 2001, Ascona, Switzerlan

Earth BioGenome Project: Sequencing life for the future of life.

Increasing our understanding of Earth's biodiversity and responsibly stewarding its resources are among the most crucial scientific and social challenges of the new millennium. These challenges require fundamental new knowledge of the organization, evolution, functions, and interactions among millions of the planet's organisms. Herein, we present a perspective on the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), a moonshot for biology that aims to sequence, catalog, and characterize the genomes of all of Earth's eukaryotic biodiversity over a period of 10 years. The outcomes of the EBP will inform a broad range of major issues facing humanity, such as the impact of climate change on biodiversity, the conservation of endangered species and ecosystems, and the preservation and enhancement of ecosystem services. We describe hurdles that the project faces, including data-sharing policies that ensure a permanent, freely available resource for future scientific discovery while respecting access and benefit sharing guidelines of the Nagoya Protocol. We also describe scientific and organizational challenges in executing such an ambitious project, and the structure proposed to achieve the project's goals. The far-reaching potential benefits of creating an open digital repository of genomic information for life on Earth can be realized only by a coordinated international effort

The role of conversation in health care interventions: enabling sensemaking and learning

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Those attempting to implement changes in health care settings often find that intervention efforts do not progress as expected. Unexpected outcomes are often attributed to variation and/or error in implementation processes. We argue that some unanticipated variation in intervention outcomes arises because unexpected conversations emerge during intervention attempts. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of conversation in shaping interventions and to explain why conversation is important in intervention efforts in health care organizations. We draw on literature from sociolinguistics and complex adaptive systems theory to create an interpretive framework and develop our theory. We use insights from a fourteen-year program of research, including both descriptive and intervention studies undertaken to understand and assist primary care practices in making sustainable changes. We enfold these literatures and these insights to articulate a common failure of overlooking the role of conversation in intervention success, and to develop a theoretical argument for the importance of paying attention to the role of conversation in health care interventions.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Conversation between organizational members plays an important role in the success of interventions aimed at improving health care delivery. Conversation can facilitate intervention success because interventions often rely on new sensemaking and learning, and these are accomplished through conversation. Conversely, conversation can block the success of an intervention by inhibiting sensemaking and learning. Furthermore, the existing relationship contexts of an organization can influence these conversational possibilities. We argue that the likelihood of intervention success will increase if the role of conversation is considered in the intervention process.</p> <p>Summary</p> <p>The generation of productive conversation should be considered as one of the foundations of intervention efforts. We suggest that intervention facilitators consider the following actions as strategies for reducing the barriers that conversation can present and for using conversation to leverage improvement change: evaluate existing conversation and relationship systems, look for and leverage unexpected conversation, create time and space where conversation can unfold, use conversation to help people manage uncertainty, use conversation to help reorganize relationships, and build social interaction competence.</p

Gonadal Transcriptome Alterations in Response to Dietary Energy Intake: Sensing the Reproductive Environment

Reproductive capacity and nutritional input are tightly linked and animals' specific responses to alterations in their physical environment and food availability are crucial to ensuring sustainability of that species. We have assessed how alterations in dietary energy intake (both reductions and excess), as well as in food availability, via intermittent fasting (IF), affect the gonadal transcriptome of both male and female rats. Starting at four months of age, male and female rats were subjected to a 20% or 40% caloric restriction (CR) dietary regime, every other day feeding (IF) or a high fat-high glucose (HFG) diet for six months. The transcriptional activity of the gonadal response to these variations in dietary energy intake was assessed at the individual gene level as well as at the parametric functional level. At the individual gene level, the females showed a higher degree of coherency in gonadal gene alterations to CR than the males. The gonadal transcriptional and hormonal response to IF was also significantly different between the male and female rats. The number of genes significantly regulated by IF in male animals was almost 5 times greater than in the females. These IF males also showed the highest testosterone to estrogen ratio in their plasma. Our data show that at the level of gonadal gene responses, the male rats on the IF regime adapt to their environment in a manner that is expected to increase the probability of eventual fertilization of females that the males predict are likely to be sub-fertile due to their perception of a food deficient environment