Correlation effects in the transition metals and the screening of non-transition element impurities in iron and nickel

Imperial Users onl

Managing \u27shades of grey\u27: a focus group study exploring community-dwellers’ views on advance care planning in older people

Background: Community-dwelling consumers of healthcare are increasing, many aging with life-limiting conditions and deteriorating cognition. However, few have had advance care planning discussions or completed documentation to ensure future care preferences are acted upon. This study examines the awareness, attitudes, and experiences of advance care planning amongst older people and unrelated offspring/caregivers of older people residing in the community. Methods: Qualitative descriptive research, which included focus groups with older people (55+ years) and older people’s offspring/caregivers living in an Australian city and surrounding rural region. Data was analysed using an inductive and comparative approach. Sampling was both convenience and purposive. Participants responded to web-based, newsletter or email invitations from an agency, which aims to support healthcare consumers, a dementia support group, or community health centres in areas with high proportions of culturally and linguistically diverse community-dwellers. Results: Eight focus groups were attended by a homogenous sample of 15 older people and 27 offspring/ caregivers, with 43% born overseas. The overarching theme, ‘shades of grey’: struggles in transition, reflects challenges faced by older people and their offspring/caregivers as older people often erratically transition from independence and capacity to dependence and/or incapacity. Offspring/caregivers regularly struggled with older people’s fluctuating autonomy and dependency as older people endeavoured to remain at home, and with conceptualising “best times” to actualise advance care planning with substitute decision maker involvement. Advance care planning was supported and welcomed, x advance care planning literacy was evident. Difficulties planning for hypothetical health events and socio-cultural attitudes thwarting death-related discussions were emphasised. Occasional offspring/caregivers with previous substitute decision maker experience reported distress related to their decisions. Conclusions: Advance care planning programs traditionally assume participants are ‘planning ready’ to legally appoint a substitute decision maker (power of attorney) and record end-of-life treatment preferences in short time frames. This contrasts with how community dwelling older people and offspring/caregivers conceive future care decisions over time. Advance care planning programs need to include provision of information, which supports older people’s advance care planning understanding and management, and also supports offspring/caregivers’ development of strategies for broaching advance care planning with older people, and preparing for potential substitute decision maker roles. Development and integration of strategies to support older people’s decision making when in the ‘grey zone’, with fluctuating cognitive capacities, needs further consideration. Findings support an advance care planning model with conversations occurring at key points across a person’s lifespan

CHARACTERIZING FRESHWATER PHYTOPLANKTON DYNAMICS WITH ELECTRO-OPTICAL REMOTE SENSING

Freshwater lakes are an important component contributing to ecosystem health and biodiversity on local, regional, and global scales. And while lakes only represent \u3c5% of the global surface area, they are often very productive systems which contribute significantly to carbon cycling dynamics and freshwater fish production on a number of spatial scales. Due to the remote location and sheer size of some of these lakes it has proven difficult to adequately document changes in water quality. Significant challenges exist to adequately monitor water quality, and in particular phytoplankton dynamics, over large spatial and temporal scales using traditional in situ methods. Satellite electro-optical remote sensing offers a potential tool to provide better characterization of phytoplankton dynamics for a variety of freshwater systems. This work resulted in an approach to quantify global summer phytoplankton abundance using a newly developed remote sensing derived chlorophyll-a product. This product was also used in conjunction with a newly created carbon fixation model to assess global freshwater phytoplankton production which provided new insights into the role freshwater systems play in the global carbon budget. Spatial and temporal assessments of specific populations of phytoplankton and cyanobacteria were established through the development of a new remote sensing algorithm to isolate high biomass assemblages in the Laurentian Great Lakes (Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan). The algorithm was developed to facilitate the fusion of multiple remote sensing data sources (SeaWiFS and MODIS) in order to generate a new 20-year time-series data product to better understand the factors controlling bloom dynamics. Finally, a spatio-temporal analysis documenting the variability of inherent optical properties (IOPs) in Lake Erie established a seasonal progression of phytoplankton/cyanobacteria community structures for two years over the vegetative season, the findings of which are critical for the development of the next generation of hyperspectral remote sensing algorithms to improve phytoplankton community characterizations from space. These documented results clearly show the utility of electro-optical remote sensing to provide characterization of phytoplankton dynamics and insights at both community and population scales in freshwater systems

Identification of a novel regulatory mechanism for the disease associated protein, uPAR

Expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs), as determined through a series of statistical association studies collectively known as genome-wide association (GWA) studies, have provided us with a hypothesis free approach for the investigation into regulatory loci for disease and disease-associated proteins. This has led to the identification of multiple novel gene-disease interactions, especially in the field of respiratory medicine. This review describes the case study of a GWA approach in order to identify eQTLs for the soluble form of the urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR), a protein associated with obstructive respiratory disease. Molecular and cellular investigations based on the eQTLs identified for this GWA study has led to the identification of a novel regulatory mechanism with implications in the disease processes with which this protein is associated. This highlights the potential of eQTLs defined associations in the identification of novel mechanisms, with implications in disease.peer-reviewe

Making Design Explicit in Organisational Change: Detour or Latour

This paper explores a Latourian approach in addressing the challenge for Design Management to integrate design strategically within small, medium enterprises (SMEs). Design thinking’s positioning towards providing an accessible and open process for organisational change is argued to currently manifest a rhetorical detour around the role of design practice. The proposal is that the role of design can be expressed in the repeated interactions between participants and design artefacts, and how these are then translated into the organisation. The paper uses a case-­‐study method to produce a situated account of design work within a strategic design intervention with an SME. Drawing on Latourian principles around actor-­‐network theory (ANT), observations and accounts of the intervention are grounded in the use of tools, artefacts and activities deployed. This allows for analysis exploring the traceable influences design artefacts have on the work being performed and a reflective space for designers to assess their performative agency. The paper proposes an approach to the constraints and opportunities that design management encounter around the matters of concern for organisational change; and in so doing, how this can inform reflective design practice

Photoemission Spectroscopy

Contains reports on two research projects.Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAG29-78-C-0020

Genetic risk factors for the development of allergic disease identified by genome-wide association

An increasing proportion of the worldwide population is affected by allergic diseases such as allergic rhinitis (AR), atopic dermatitis (AD) and allergic asthma and improved treatment options are needed particularly for severe, refractory disease. Allergic diseases are complex and development involves both environmental and genetic factors. Although the existence of a genetic component for allergy was first described almost 100 years ago, progress in gene identification has been hindered by lack of high throughput technologies to investigate genetic variation in large numbers of subjects. The development of Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS), a hypothesis-free method of interrogating large numbers of common variants spanning the entire genome in disease and non-disease subjects has revolutionised our understanding of the genetics of allergic disease. Susceptibility genes for asthma, AR and AD have now been identified with confidence, suggesting there are common and distinct genetic loci associated with these diseases, providing novel insights into potential disease pathways and mechanisms. Genes involved in both adaptive and innate immune mechanisms have been identified, notably including multiple genes involved in epithelial function/secretion, suggesting that the airway epithelium may be particularly important in asthma. Interestingly, concordance/discordance between the genetic factors driving allergic traits such as IgE levels and disease states such as asthma have further supported the accumulating evidence for heterogeneity in these diseases. While GWAS have been useful and continue to identify novel genes for allergic diseases through increased sample sizes and phenotype refinement, future approaches will integrate analyses of rare variants, epigenetic mechanisms and eQTL approaches, leading to greater insight into the genetic basis of these diseases. Gene identification will improve our understanding of disease mechanisms and generate potential therapeutic opportunities

Chrysler/UMTRI wind-steer vehicle simulation - reference manual, version 1.4 (volume II).

Notes: Report covers the period June 1986 - March 1990Chrysler Corporation, Highland Park, Mich.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/882/2/79669.0001.001.pd

An enhanced simulation capability for studying the braking, steering, and ride of commercial vehicles. Final report

Notes: Report covers the period July 1985 - June 1986Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association, Detroit, Mich.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/60/2/74162.0001.001.pd