Interim evaluation of Flying Start

The Flying Start programme was launched by the Welsh Assembly Government in 2006/07 as a pilot with the aim ‘to make a decisive difference to the life chances of children aged under 4 in the areas which it runs’. This 2010 report presents the findings of the interim evaluation with regards to: the effectiveness of the programme in establishing the conditions necessary for later improvements in life chances, and whether it did so in ways that offered good value for money

Evaluation of Cymorth: final report

This is and evaluation report of Cymorth, which was introduced in 2003/04 by the Welsh Assembly Government to provide a network of targeted support for children and young people (up to 25 years of age) within a framework of universal provision

It is always on your mind: Experiences and perceptions of falling of older people and their carers and the potential of a mobile falls detection device

Copyright © 2013 Veronika Williams et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background. Falls and fear of falling present a major risk to older people as both can affect their quality of life and independence. Mobile assistive technologies (AT) fall detection devices may maximise the potential for older people to live independently for as long as possible within their own homes by facilitating early detection of falls. Aims. To explore the experiences and perceptions of older people and their carers as to the potential of a mobile falls detection AT device. Methods. Nine focus groups with 47 participants including both older people with a range of health conditions and their carers. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and thematically analysed. Results. Four key themes were identified relating to participants’ experiences and perceptions of falling and the potential impact of a mobile falls detector: cause of falling, falling as everyday vulnerability, the environmental context of falling, and regaining confidence and independence by having a mobile falls detector. Conclusion. The perceived benefits of a mobile falls detector may differ between older people and their carers. The experience of falling has to be taken into account when designing mobile assistive technology devices as these may influence perceptions of such devices and how older people utilise them.European Commissio

Hybridization of optical plasmonics with terahertz metamaterials to create multi-spectral filters

Multi-spectral imaging systems typically require the cumbersome integration of disparate filtering materials in order to work simultaneously in multiple spectral regions. We show for the first time how a single nano-patterned metal film can be used to filter multi-spectral content from the visible, near infrared and terahertz bands by hybridizing plasmonics and metamaterials. Plasmonic structures are well-suited to the visible band owing to the resonant dielectric properties of metals, whereas metamaterials are preferable at terahertz frequencies where metal conductivity is high. We present the simulated and experimental characteristics of our new hybrid synthetic multi-spectral material filters and demonstrate the independence of the metamaterial and plasmonic responses with respect to each other

Assessment of Levels of V, Cr, Mn, Sr, Cd, Pb and U in Bovine Meat

Pollution of the environment with heavy metals can be a serious problem. In South Africa, particularly, there are many sources of heavy metals, often due to smelter and mining activities. This has led to toxic metals in the environment that directly affect air, water and food. The presence of heavy metal residues in foodstuffs is potentially hazardous to humans and animals. Heavy metals accumulate in certain organs, particularly in the liver and kidney. The objective of this study was to determine the levels of V, Cr, Mn,Sr, Cd, Pb andUin bovine organs and tissues obtained from polluted areas of North West Province, South Africa. Bovine liver, kidney, muscle, fat and bone samples were freeze-dried, homogenized and mineralized using a microwave-assisted digestion system. The levels were quantified using dynamic reaction cell inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry(DRC-ICP-MS).A bovine muscle (NIST-RM8414) and bovine liver, reference material (NIST-RM1577b), were also analyzed and results agreed with certified values. The study revealed accumulation of Sr in bone, Cd, Pb and U in kidney and bone, Mn in liver and, V and Cr in kidney tissues of cattle.Keywords: Bovine meat, heavy metals, DRC-ICP-M

Synthetic Studies in Natural Product Chemistry

I. A stereospecific total synthesis of D-(-)-shikimic acid: The evidence which led to assignment of the structure and absolute stereochemistry of shikimic acid is reviewed. The role of shikimic acid in biosyntnesis is discussed, including its transformation into aromatic amino-acids, lignin and alkaloids, as is its formation from carbohydrates. A synthetic approach to shikimic acid via the dehydroacid corresponding to XXII was unsuccessful. The Diels-Alder adduct (XXXI) of trans-trans-1,4-diacetoxybutadiene and acrylic acid provided the starting point for a successful synthesis. Hydroxylation with osmium tetroxide, isoprepylation and elimination of acetic acid led to (+/-)-shikimic acid which was resolved via the quinine methohydroxy-salt of the corresponding triacetate. II. The catalytic hydrogenation of cyclic anhydrides: Catalytic hydrogenation of the adduct (XXIV) prepared in Part (I) led, in addition to the expected saturated anhydride (XXIX), to the lactol (XXXV), the lactone (XXXVIII) and the acid (XXXIX). A series of anhydrides, chosen to throw light on the influence of structure on the course of hydrogenation, were subjected to catalytic reduction. The three possible products were not obtained in all cases. An attempt is made to rationalise the observed products in terms of the structures of the initial adducts and postulated intermediates. III. Approaches to the total synthesis of diterpenoids:- Published diterpene synthesis are briefly reviewed. Two projected routes to dl-ambreinolide, which is capable of further transformation into the naturally occurring bicyclic diterpenes such as manool, sclareol, cativic acid, and labdanolic acid, are outlined. The first route, based on the condensation of 2-methyl-cyclopentane-1,3-dione with ethyl vinyl ketone, failed when elaboration of the bicyclic enone (CXVI) was attempted. A second approach envisaged the simultaneous formation of rings (A) and (B) by condensation of the vinyl ketone (CXLVI) with the cyclopentanedione. The preparation of this vinyl ketone is recorded

Primary care practitioners' knowledge, attitudes and current practice in managing oral health conditions

Background: Primary care practitioners are at the forefront of the health service and therefore have an opportunity to promote oral health, manage certain oral conditions, or refer appropriately to the closest dental service. In under-resourced areas, patients are more likely to present initially to a primary health care nurse or doctor, with oral or dental needs. Studies abroad have revealed that general practitioners do not always examine the oral cavity, enquire about oral health, or manage oral disease particularly well and have expressed an interest to learn more about oral health. A literature search for similar South African studies did not yield results. This study aims to describe current oral health care practice provided by primary care practitioners in Cape Town and to assess whether this level of service might benefit from interventions to improve the quality of care. Methods: The Nominal Group technique (NGT) was used to identify and achieve consensus among 8 community health centre primary care practitioners regarding the main challenges to providing oral health care and offer suggestions for strengthening oral health care. This assisted the development of a questionnaire, which was then distributed to practitioners at five Community Health Centres in the Cape Town Metropole. The questionnaire aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes and current practices of practitioners in the area of oral health. Results: The NGT yielded valuable information to inform the questionnaire; two main topics were discussed which helped inform two sections of the 9-part questionnaire. A total of 53 doctors and clinical nurse practitioners completed the questionnaire. Only 17% of participants reported routinely examining the oral cavity, others examined it on request of the patient or suspicion of an abnormality. A minority (13.2%) stated that they routinely promote oral health in the consultation and reported limiting factors to include: insufficient time during consultations, forgetting to include oral health promotion, a limited knowledge of oral disease, and limited access to Oral Health Services. Suggestions for strengthening the oral health care included training clinicians in oral health, motivating clinicians to provide better oral health care, improving patient education on the importance of oral health care, and improving the integration of Primary Care services with Oral Health services. Limitations of this study include a small sample size, studying only urban community health centres in Cape Town, the absence of input from oral health experts, the absence of input from patients and missing data. Conclusion: It is apparent from this study that oral health is inadequately managed, for a number of reasons; including time constraints, limited knowledge of treating clinicians, and limited available oral health services. Possible interventions to improve this clinical area can be posed to relevant authorities and may include examining undergraduate curricula (medicine and nursing) to assess the content and quality of oral health education, provide in-house training to CHC staff by local dentists and oral hygienists, provide information sessions for staff at CHC about the local Oral Health Service available in their areas, and offering education to patients in the waiting room on the topic of good oral health

Inverse software configuration management

Software systems are playing an increasingly important role in almost every aspect of today’s society such that they impact on our businesses, industry, leisure, health and safety. Many of these systems are extremely large and complex and depend upon the correct interaction of many hundreds or even thousands of heterogeneous components. Commensurate with this increased reliance on software is the need for high quality products that meet customer expectations, perform reliably and which can be cost-effectively and safely maintained. Techniques such as software configuration management have proved to be invaluable during the development process to ensure that this is the case. However, there are a very large number of legacy systems which were not developed under controlled conditions, but which still, need to be maintained due to the heavy investment incorporated within them. Such systems are characterised by extremely high program comprehension overheads and the probability that new errors will be introduced during the maintenance process often with serious consequences. To address the issues concerning maintenance of legacy systems this thesis has defined and developed a new process and associated maintenance model, Inverse Software Configuration Management (ISCM). This model centres on a layered approach to the program comprehension process through the definition of a number of software configuration abstractions. This information together with the set of rules for reclaiming the information is stored within an Extensible System Information Base (ESIB) via, die definition of a Programming-in-the- Environment (PITE) language, the Inverse Configuration Description Language (ICDL). In order to assist the application of the ISCM process across a wide range of software applications and system architectures, die PISCES (Proforma Identification Scheme for Configurations of Existing Systems) method has been developed as a series of defined procedures and guidelines. To underpin the method and to offer a user-friendly interface to the process a series of templates, the Proforma Increasing Complexity Series (PICS) has been developed. To enable the useful employment of these techniques on large-scale systems, the subject of automation has been addressed through the development of a flexible meta-CASE environment, the PISCES M4 (MultiMedia Maintenance Manager) system. Of particular interest within this environment is the provision of a multimedia user interface (MUI) to die maintenance process. As a means of evaluating the PISCES method and to provide feedback into die ISCM process a number of practical applications have been modelled. In summary, this research has considered a number of concepts some of which are innovative in themselves, others of which are used in an innovative manner. In combination these concepts may be considered to considerably advance the knowledge and understanding of die comprehension process during the maintenance of legacy software systems. A number of publications have already resulted from the research and several more are in preparation. Additionally a number of areas for further study have been identified some of which are already underway as funded research and development projects

CloudEx: a novel cloud-based task execution framework

In recent years cloud computing has seen steady adoption due to its unique features such as computing resource elasticity, fault-tolerance and utility billing. Cloud computing Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) enables unique architectures that can dynamically scale and configure computing resources from a catalogue of available features. In addition to provisioning long running homogeneous clusters of Virtual Machines (VMs), it can also be feasible to provision ephemeral and heterogeneous per-job VMs. This is made possible due to the reduced VM startup time and per- minute billing for cloud VMs. In this paper we design and implement CloudEx, a generic and novel framework for executing jobs on public clouds by leveraging the Google Cloud Platform. CloudEx enables users to split jobs into a sequence of smaller tasks that can be distributed using Bin Packing or user-defined algorithm. Additionally, users can specify the VM specification per job or per task, CloudEx then provisions the required VMs, coordinates the job execution and terminates these VMs once the job is completed