3D-2D crossover in the naturally layered superconductor (LaSe)1.14(NbSe2)

The temperature and angular dependencies of the resistive upper critical magnetic field $B_{c2}$ reveal a dimensional crossover of the superconducting state in the highly anisotropic misfit-layer single crystal of (LaSe)$_{1.14}$(NbSe$_2$) with the critical temperature $T_c$ of 1.23 K. The temperature dependence of the upper critical field $B_{c2\parallel ab}(T)$ for a field orientation along the conducting $(ab)$-planes displays a characteristic upturn at 1.1 K and below this temperature the angular dependence of $B_{c2}$ has a cusp around the parallel field orientation. Both these typical features are observed for the first time in a naturally crystalline layered system.Comment: 7 pages incl. 3 figure

Supplementary report to the final report of the coral reef expert group: S8. Monitoring site planner - choosing where to monitor coral reefs on the Great Barrier Reef

[Extract] In this project we develop a multi-criteria analysis and optimisation tool, called the Monitoring Site Planner, to assist in the evaluation of the existing and new proposed coral reef monitoring programs for the Great Barrier Reef (the Reef). This tool allows the performance of a given monitoring survey design (a set of reefs that will be monitored) to be evaluated against a set of performance criteria. This tool can be run as an interactive web application that is available for use from https://tools.eatlas.org.au/msp.An accessible copy of this report is not yet available from this repository, please contact [email protected] for more information

05-17-1971 Preliminary Memorandum

Section 406 (a) of the Social Security Act, 42 u.s.c. 606 (a) provides in part: [T]he term \u27dependent child means a needy child...who has been deprived of parental support or care by reason of the death continued absence from the horne, or physical incapacity of a parent..

Partial Homology Relations - Satisfiability in terms of Di-Cographs

Directed cographs (di-cographs) play a crucial role in the reconstruction of evolutionary histories of genes based on homology relations which are binary relations between genes. A variety of methods based on pairwise sequence comparisons can be used to infer such homology relations (e.g.\ orthology, paralogy, xenology). They are \emph{satisfiable} if the relations can be explained by an event-labeled gene tree, i.e., they can simultaneously co-exist in an evolutionary history of the underlying genes. Every gene tree is equivalently interpreted as a so-called cotree that entirely encodes the structure of a di-cograph. Thus, satisfiable homology relations must necessarily form a di-cograph. The inferred homology relations might not cover each pair of genes and thus, provide only partial knowledge on the full set of homology relations. Moreover, for particular pairs of genes, it might be known with a high degree of certainty that they are not orthologs (resp.\ paralogs, xenologs) which yields forbidden pairs of genes. Motivated by this observation, we characterize (partial) satisfiable homology relations with or without forbidden gene pairs, provide a quadratic-time algorithm for their recognition and for the computation of a cotree that explains the given relations

Negotiating professional boundaries: professional and organisational contingencies for pharmacist prescribing

This thesis explores boundary work, practices and changes in the pharmacy profession. Specifically it examines boundary changes that support non-medical prescribing practice for pharmacists in the context of prescribing policies and strategies which both utilise the skills of the pharmacist and also give patients greater choice and access to services. The last decade has observed a transformation in the boundaries of health professionals enabled through the creation of new roles and the expansion of traditional roles. With reference to the principles set out in the NHS Plan, NHS modernisation and the subsequent introduction of non-medical prescribing have brought about a number of changes in policy and practice for health care professionals. In addition, The Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s 2013 Medicines Optimisation, good practice guidance outlines guiding principles for medicine optimisation that compliment and support improved patient outcomes and NHS policy – in particular empowering patients and the public to make the most of medicines. Research shows that while there are increasing numbers of pharmacists registered as nonmedical prescribers and the numbers of those who are actually practicing as non-medical prescribers has continued to rise, there are still areas where groups are having to make “significant personal sacrifices” to implement and maintain the necessary competence to prescribe. Research suggests that there is still more that needs to be done in order to achieve more supportive environments for non-medical prescribers. Pharmacists have been referred to for many years as being “underutilised” and “over trained” and capable of a far greater remit than the dispensing of medication that has typically been associated with pharmacists. In addition, the policies that developed to address different health care needs and outcomes also go some way towards changing boundaries and adapting the roles that pharmacists have. This thesis first considers, the role of the pharmacist and what their occupational and professional boundaries are perceived to be. The thesis goes on to examine how pharmacists enact extended roles in practice. Lastly, the institutional and organisational factors that impact the subsequent practices of pharmacists and the services they deliver is explored. Using qualitative research techniques, this study was carried out in three NHS Trusts across a range of settings with a range of health care practitioners. The study was organised in two parts. First, a series of exploratory interviews were carried out with a pharmacists, medical and support staff. Second, ethnographic non-participant observations with pharmacists in different settings were undertaken. The empirical findings suggest that the boundary work between third parties is not a tension point or a point of conflict as suggested in theory and previous research around boundary work in the health care setting and the inter-professional context. Rather, the boundary is a non-issue in relation to role expansion of pharmacist non-medical prescribers. The findings imply that the ability to share tasks, expand, and change roles is largely shaped by changing contexts and organisational factors. The study data has been used to help develop a model whereby different practices and principles that affect and guide the position of pharmacists and their boundaries as well as negotiations of practice are considered. The model uses the principles Scott’s (2008b) Three Pillar and combines elements of Zietma and Lawrence’s (2010) boundary and practice work cyclical diagram. The model in this thesis is developed alongside the data analysis. The intention of the model is to provide a template that with further refinement could be used when looking at other professionals or professional groups interchangeably. The features of the model in theory will be able to be adapted when considering different professional interactions, task sharing or role identification within an organisation for example. The model and its development will be discussed in further detail throughout the thesis. The overall research findings, suggest that the scale to which non- medical prescribing is practiced by pharmacists across the range of settings is greatly determined by the organisation. This includes the way in which pharmacist nonmedical prescribing is used in practice, its ease of implementation and the subsequent role of the practicing health care professional

Visualizing Antigen Specific CD4+ T Cells using MHC Class II Tetramers

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II tetramers allow the direct visualization of antigen specific CD4+ T cells by flow cytometry. This method relies on the highly specific interaction between peptide loaded MHC and the corresponding T-cell receptor. While the affinity of a single MHC/peptide molecule is low, cross-linking MHC/peptide complexes with streptavidin increases the avidity of the interaction, enabling their use as staining reagents. Because of the relatively low frequencies of CD4+ T cells (~1 in 300,000 for a single specificity) this assay utilizes an in vitro amplification step to increase its threshold of detection. Mononuclear cells are purified from peripheral blood by Ficoll underlay. CD4+ cells are then separated by negative selection using biotinylated antibody cocktail and anti-biotin labeled magnetic beads. Using adherent cells from the CD4- cell fraction as antigen presenting cells, CD4+ T cells are expanded in media by adding an antigenic peptide and IL-2. The expanded cells are stained with the corresponding class II tetramer by incubating at 37 C for one hour and subsequently stained using surface antibodies such as anti-CD4, anti-CD3, and anti-CD25. After labeling, the cells can be directly analyzed by flow cytometry. The tetramer positive cells typically form a distinct population among the expanded CD4+ cells. Tetramer positive cells are usually CD25+ and often CD4 high. Because the level of background tetramer staining can vary, positive staining results should always be compared to the staining of the same cells with an irrelevant tetramer. Multiple variations of this basic assay are possible. Tetramer positive cells may be sorted for further phenotypic analysis, inclusion in ELISPOT or proliferation assays, or other secondary assays. Several groups have also demonstrated co-staining using tetramers and either anti-cytokine or anti-FoxP3 antibodies

Management of fertility in the pulse-based cropping systems of western Canada

Non-Peer Reviewe

Effect of “starter” N and P on nodulation and seed yield in field pea, lentil, and chickpea in semiarid Canadian prairies

Non-Peer Reviewe

Long-term tillage and crop rotation effect on soil aggregation

Non-Peer ReviewedTillage and cropping sequences play a key role in controlling soil aggregation. We measured water-stable aggregate (WSA), wind erodible fraction (WEF), and geometric mean diameter (GMD) for six mid to longterm (8 to 25 years) experiments comparing tillage and cropping sequences in the Brown, Dark Brown, and Black Chernozemic soils of Saskatchewan. In the coarse-textured soil, no-tillage (NT) had a higher value of WSA by 49% more than in the wheat-phase of fallow-wheat (F-W), and had a lower value of WEF by 27% less than in the fallow-phase of F-W compared with minimum tillage (MT). In the medium-textured soils, NT had a higher WAS, ranged from 17 to 38%, and a lower WEF, ranged from 37 to 64% compared with conventional tillage (CT), depending on crop rotation systems. The reduced WEF under NT in the medium-textured soils was due mainly to increased GMD. In the fine-textured soils, NT had a higher WSA, ranged from 10 to 19% compared with MT or CT, and a lower WEF by 47% compared with MT only in the heavy clay soil. Change in GMD was not detectable in the light- and fine-textured soils. Continuous cropping compared with rotations containing fallow improved soil physical properties by increasing WSA, reducing WEF in the medium and fine-textured soils, and increasing GMD only in the medium-textured soils. Of the three soil physical properties determined in this study, WSA was the most sensitive to changes in tillage and crop rotations, then WEF and the least GMD

Inferring Energy Bounds via Static Program Analysis and Evolutionary Modeling of Basic Blocks

The ever increasing number and complexity of energy-bound devices (such as the ones used in Internet of Things applications, smart phones, and mission critical systems) pose an important challenge on techniques to optimize their energy consumption and to verify that they will perform their function within the available energy budget. In this work we address this challenge from the software point of view and propose a novel parametric approach to estimating tight bounds on the energy consumed by program executions that are practical for their application to energy verification and optimization. Our approach divides a program into basic (branchless) blocks and estimates the maximal and minimal energy consumption for each block using an evolutionary algorithm. Then it combines the obtained values according to the program control flow, using static analysis, to infer functions that give both upper and lower bounds on the energy consumption of the whole program and its procedures as functions on input data sizes. We have tested our approach on (C-like) embedded programs running on the XMOS hardware platform. However, our method is general enough to be applied to other microprocessor architectures and programming languages. The bounds obtained by our prototype implementation can be tight while remaining on the safe side of budgets in practice, as shown by our experimental evaluation.Comment: Pre-proceedings paper presented at the 27th International Symposium on Logic-Based Program Synthesis and Transformation (LOPSTR 2017), Namur, Belgium, 10-12 October 2017 (arXiv:1708.07854). Improved version of the one presented at the HIP3ES 2016 workshop (v1): more experimental results (added benchmark to Table 1, added figure for new benchmark, added Table 3), improved Fig. 1, added Fig.