Reflecting on the architecture curriculum through a survey on career switching

Due to the deteriorating investment environment, many real-estate companies in China have started transferring their business out of the construction industry. This leads to the shrinkage of the design market and also architects’ salary. A great number of architects have switched career to maintain the same living quality as before. Meanwhile, architectural education in China is not able to integrate itself with emerging science and technologies, losing possibilities to explore new employment channels for its graduates. There is a huge gap between qualities needed in the current or future labour market and the architectural education in schools. An online survey was conducted to investigate the current state of architects’ career shifting, trying to expose the problem mentioned above. In the second part of this paper, education missions from 50 universities are analysed and detailed education curriculums from three top universities are scrutinised. At the end, the education boundary is suggested to be reconstructed from three aspects: integrating the emerging technologies; reducing unnecessary content; and training in self-learning skills

From amplitudes to gravitational radiation with cubic interactions and tidal effects

We study the effect of cubic and tidal interactions on the spectrum of gravitational waves emitted in the inspiral phase of the merger of two nonspinning objects. There are two independent parity-even cubic interaction terms, which we take to be I 1 = R α β μ ν R μ ν ρ σ R ρ σ α β and G 3 = I 1 − 2 R α μ β ν R μ ρ ν σ R ρ α σ β . The latter has vanishing pure graviton amplitudes but modifies mixed scalar/graviton amplitudes which are crucial for our study. Working in an effective field theory setup, we compute the modifications to the quadrupole moment due to I 1 , G 3 and tidal interactions, from which we obtain the power of gravitational waves radiated in the process to first order in the perturbations and leading order in the post-Minkowskian expansion. The I 1 predictions are novel, and we find that our results for G 3 are related to the known quadrupole corrections arising from tidal perturbations, although the physical origin of the G 3 coupling is unrelated to the finite-size effects underlying tidal interactions. We show this by recomputing such tidal corrections and by presenting an explicit field redefinition. In the post-Newtonian expansion our results are complete at leading order, which for the gravitational-wave flux is 5PN for G 3 and tidal interactions and 6PN for I 1 . Finally, we compute the corresponding modifications to the waveforms

Note on the absence of R-2 corrections to Newton's potential

We consider Einstein gravity with the addition of $R^2$ and $R^{\mu \nu} R_{\mu \nu}$ interactions in the context of effective field theory, and the corresponding scattering amplitudes of gravitons and minimally-coupled heavy scalars. First, we recover the known fact that graviton amplitudes are the same as in Einstein gravity. Then we show that all amplitudes with two heavy scalars and an arbitrary number of gravitons are also not affected by these interactions. We prove this by direct computations, using field redefinitions known from earlier applications in string theory, and with a combination of factorisation and power-counting arguments. Combined with unitarity, these results imply that, in an effective field theory approach, the Newtonian potential receives neither classical nor quantum corrections from terms quadratic in the curvature.Comment: 15 page

Reflecting on the architecture curriculum through a survey on career switching

Architectural education in China was a contributor to the super-fast urbanization process during the past 20 years. However, due to the economy bubble in the construction industry, many real-estate companies started transferring investments to other fields. This lead to the shrinkage of the architecture design market and the decrease of architects’ salary. A great number of architects switched careers to maintain the same living quality as before. Meanwhile, architectural education in China is not able to integrate itself with emerging science and technologies, losing the possibilities to explore new employment channels for its graduates. An online survey is conducted to investigate the current state of architects shifting their careers, trying to analyse the feedback and exposure to the existing problems. In the second part of this paper, education curriculum from three top universities is scrutinized and the education boundary is reconstructed from three aspects: integrating the emerging technologies into the architectural curriculum; reducing unnecessary content from the teaching program; training the ability to learn. &nbsp

Risk factors for delay in symptomatic presentation: a survey of cancer patients

Background: Delay in symptomatic presentation leading to advanced stage at diagnosis may contribute to poor cancer survival. To inform public health approaches to promoting early symptomatic presentation, we aimed to identify risk factors for delay in presentation across several cancers. Methods: We surveyed 2371 patients with 15 cancers about nature and duration of symptoms using a postal questionnaire. We calculated relative risks for delay in presentation (time from symptom onset to first presentation >3 months) by cancer, symptoms leading to diagnosis and reasons for putting off going to the doctor, controlling for age, sex and deprivation group. Results: Among 1999 cancer patients reporting symptoms, 21% delayed presentation for >3 months. Delay was associated with greater socioeconomic deprivation but not age or sex. Patients with prostate (44%) and rectal cancer (37%) were most likely to delay and patients with breast cancer least likely to delay (8%). Urinary difficulties, change of bowel habit, systemic symptoms (fatigue, weight loss and loss of appetite) and skin symptoms were all common and associated with delay. Overall, patients with bleeding symptoms were no more likely to delay presentation than patients who did not have bleeding symptoms. However, within the group of patients with bleeding symptoms, there were significant differences in risk of delay by source of bleeding: 35% of patients with rectal bleeding delayed presentation, but only 9% of patients with urinary bleeding. A lump was a common symptom but not associated with delay in presentation. Twenty-eight percent had not recognised their symptoms as serious and this was associated with a doubling in risk of delay. Embarrassment, worry about what the doctor might find, being too busy to go to the doctor and worry about wasting the doctor’s time were also strong risk factors for delay, but were much less commonly reported (<6%). Interpretation: Approaches to promote early presentation should aim to increase awareness of the significance of cancer symptoms and should be designed to work for people of the lowest socioeconomic status. In particular, awareness that rectal bleeding is a possible symptom of cancer should be raised

Ultrasound stimulus to enhance the bone regeneration capability of gelatin cryogels

In the present study, gelatin-based cryogels have been seeded with human SAOS-2 osteoblasts. In order to overcome the drawbacks associated with in vitro culture systems, such as limited diffusion and inhomogeneous cell-matrix distribution, this work describes the application of ultrasounds (average power, 149 mW; frequency, 1.5 MHz) to physically enhance the cell culture in vitro. The results indicate that the physical stimulation of cell-seeded gelatin-based cryogels upregulates the bone matrix production

Reliability and validity of the adapted Greek version of scoliosis research society – 22 (SRS-22) questionnaire

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The SRS-22 is a valid instrument for the assessment of the health related quality of life of patients with Idiopathic scoliosis. The SRS-22 questionnaire was developed in USA and has been widely used in the English speaking countries. Recently it has been translated and validated in many other languages. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the reliability and validity of the adapted Greek version of the refined Scoliosis Research Society-22 Questionnaire.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Following the steps of cross – cultural adaptation the adapted Greek version of the SRS-22 questionnaire and a validated Greek version of the SF-36 questionnaire were mailed to 68 patients treated surgically for Idiopathic Scoliosis. 51 out of the 68 patients returned the 1^stset of questionnaires, while a second set was emailed to 30 randomly selected patients of the first time responders. 20 out of the 30 patients returned the 2^ndset. The mean age at the time of operation was16,2 years and the mean age at the time of evaluation was 21,2 years. Descriptive statistics for content analysis were calculated. Reliability assessment was determined by estimating Cronbach's α and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) respectively. Concurrent validity was evaluated by comparing SRS-22 domains with relevant domains in the SF-36 questionnaire using Pearson's Correlation Coefficient (r).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The calculated Cronbach's α of internal consistency for three of the corresponding domains (pain 0.85; mental health 0.87; self image 0.83) were very satisfactory and for two domains (function/activity 0.72 and satisfaction 0.67) were good. The ICC of all domains of SRS-22 questionnaire was high (ICC>0.70), demonstrating very satisfactory or excellent test/retest reproducibility. Considering concurrent validity all correlations were found to be statistically significant at the 0.01 level among related domains and generally demonstrated high correlation coefficient.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The adapted Greek version of the SRS-22 questionnaire is valid and reliable and can be used for the assessment of the outcome of the treatment of the Greek speaking patients with idiopathic scoliosis.</p