Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) study of hepatocytes cultured on collagen films and gels

Summary of paper describing the process whereby primary hepatocyte cultures form an integral part of many hybrid artificial liver designs, and the extracellular matrix environment of the cultures is an important factor for optimal expression of hepatocyte-specific phenotype. This study investigates the effect of incorporating 20% chondroitin-6-sulphate (Ch6SO4), a glycosaminoglycan (GAG), into collagen films and gels, and crosslinking the films and the gels with 1,6-diaminohexane (DAH) on the viability of hepatocytes cultured for 48 hours

Applying coupon-collecting theory to computer-aided assessments

Computer-based tests with randomly generated questions allow a large number of different tests to be generated. Given a fixed number of alternatives for each question, the number of tests that need to be generated before all possible questions have appeared is surprisingly low.Comment: 19 pages; bibliographic information added as follows. To appear in Bingham, N. H., and Goldie, C. M. (eds), Probability and Mathematical Genetics: Papers in Honour of Sir John Kingman. London Math. Soc. Lecture Note Series. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pres

Chaplaincy in a New Scottish University: The Issue of Worship

This paper sets out to examine the expectations of the office of Chaplain in a new university, particularly with respect to the function of leading public worship. Based on the author's personal experience, it explores tensions between the university administration, who principally sought broadly secular input such as student counselling, and religious stakeholders who were looking for someone to undertake a role more akin to that of a Minister of Word and Sacrament. A research project enabled the author to formulate a number of questions for the church to address around the area of defining what it expected from chaplains and in developing a model for ministry within non-church institutions

Australian climate extremes in the 21st century according to a regional climate model ensemble: Implications for health and agriculture

The negative impacts of climate extremes on socioeconomic sectors in Australia makes understanding their behaviour under future climate change necessary for regional planning. Providing robust and actionable climate information at regional scales relies on the downscaling of global climate model data and its translation into impact-relevant information. The New South Wales/Australian Capital Territory Regional Climate Modelling (NARCliM) project contains downscaled climate data over all of Australia at a 50 km resolution, with ensembles of simulations for the recent past (1990–2009), near future (2020–2039) and far future (2060–2079). Here we calculate and examine sector-relevant indices of climate extremes recommended by the Expert Team on Sector-specific Climate Indices (ET-SCI). We demonstrate the utility of NARCliM and the ET-SCI indices in understanding how future changes in climate extremes could impact aspects of the health and agricultural sectors in Australia. Consistent with previous climate projections, our results indicate that increases in heat and drought related extremes throughout the 21st century will occur. In the far future, maximum day time temperatures are projected to increase by up to 3.5 °C depending on season and location. The number of heatwaves and the duration of the most intense heatwaves will increase significantly in the near and far future, with greater increases in the north than south. All capital cities are projected to experience at least a tripling of heatwave days each year by the far future, compared to the recent past. Applying published heat-health relationships to projected changes in temperature shows that increases in mortality due to high temperatures for all cities examined would occur if projected future climates occurred today. Drought and the number of days above 30 °C are also projected to increase over the major wheat-growing regions of the country, particularly during spring when sensitivity of wheat to heat stress is greatest. Assuming no adaptation or acclimatisation, published statistical relationships between drought and national wheat yield suggest that national yields will have a less than one quarter chance of exceeding the annual historical average under far future precipitation change (excluding impacts of future temperature change and CO2 fertilization). The NARCliM data examined here, along with the ET-SCI indices calculated, provide a powerful and publicly available dataset for regional planning against future changes in climate extremes