Community recording and monitoring of vulnerable sites in England

Significant archaeological sites along England’s sinuous coast and on the foreshores of tidal estuaries are continually eroded by winds, waves and tidal scour. Alarmed by the rate of loss, the location of many of these sites has been noted during the national ‘Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey’ programme initiated by English Heritage (now Historic England) and also by archaeological groups around the country. But until recently there had been no national standardised system in place to record these vulnerable sites in detail or to regularly monitor their fate over the longer term. CITiZAN: the Coastal and InterTidal Zone Archaeological Network provides a systematic national response to natural and anthropogenic forces threatening coastal and intertidal archaeology in England. The project employs similar methodologies to the recording and monitoring of fragile intertidal archaeology as its sister project, the Thames Discovery Programme, which has for the last decade monitored the archaeology of the Greater London Thames foreshore. Both projects employ a system of community-based training and outreach programmes, creating an infrastructure to support a network of volunteers with the skills and systems in place to enable them to monitor and survey the highly significant but threatened archaeological sites around England’s coast and foreshores. This paper looks at the evolution of the methodologies employed by these projects, both archaeological and educational, as well as the implementation of standardised recording and monitoring using crowd-sourced data, and presents key findings from this ‘citizen science’ programme. Coastal erosion can rarely be halted, but the hope of TDP and CITiZAN is to involve the public in such a way that will help ensure archaeological sites can be recorded before they are destroyed

Dementia care initiative in primary practice – study protocol of a cluster randomized trial on dementia management in a general practice setting

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Current guidelines for dementia care recommend the combination of drug therapy with non-pharmaceutical measures like counselling and social support. However, the scientific evidence concerning non-pharmaceutical interventions for dementia patients and their informal caregivers remains inconclusive. Targets of modern comprehensive dementia care are to enable patients to live at home as long and as independent as possible and to reduce the burden of caregivers. The objective of the study is to compare a complex intervention including caregiver support groups and counselling against usual care in terms of time to nursing home placement. In this paper the study protocol is described.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>The IDA (Initiative Demenzversorgung in der Allgemeinmedizin) project is designed as a three armed cluster-randomized trial where dementia patients and their informal caregivers are recruited by general practitioners. Patients in the study region of Middle Franconia, Germany, are included if they have mild or moderate dementia, are at least 65 years old, and are members of the German AOK (Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse) sickness fund. In the control group patients receive regular treatment, whereas in the two intervention groups general practitioners participate in a training course in evidence based dementia treatment, recommend support groups and offer counseling to the family caregivers either beginning at baseline or after the 1-year follow-up. The study recruitment and follow-up took place from July 2005 to January 2009. 303 general practitioners were randomized of which 129 recruited a total of 390 patients. Time to nursing home admission within the two year intervention and follow-up period is the primary endpoint. Secondary endpoints are cognitive status, activities of daily living, burden of care giving as well as healthcare costs. For an economic analysis from the societal perspective, data are collected from caregivers as well as by the use of routine data from statutory health insurance and long-term care insurance.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>From a public health perspective, the IDA trial is expected to lead to evidence based results on the community effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical support measures for dementia patients and their caregivers in the primary care sector. For health policy makers it is necessary to make their decisions about financing new services based on strong knowledge about the acceptance of measures in the population and their cost-effectiveness.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>ISRCTN68329593</p

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Abstracts from the 8th International Conference on cGMP Generators, Effectors and Therapeutic Implications

This work was supported by a restricted research grant of Bayer AG

Review of \u3ci\u3eSaskatchewan: Uncommon Views\u3c/i\u3e Photographs by John Conway

In his acknowledgments, John Conway writes: I have \u27gone out photographing\u27 with only one other person in my life, my friend Garth Abrams. When we arrived at a place, we usually walked off in different directions, each preferring our own way. That statement defines Saskatchewan: Uncommon Views. As a Saskatchewan landscape photographer, I too resonate deeply with the solitude the Great Plains invites, if not commands. Conway\u27s spartan landscapes form the mouthpiece for a haunting lament shared by all who choose to spend time alone here. To recognize these unadorned one hundred sweeps and unpretentious corners is to acknowledge our own unfinished edges, and to confront vast space as an end in itself rather than a medium through which to escape into wishful thinking. The enigma, I believe, has to do with the pushpull, love-hate, hot-cold dualities that the land fosters. Initially it can be a daunting proposition to spend long periods of solitude in a place that feels like nowhere. Conway\u27s landscapes, laced with their patches and traces of human intention, past and present, invite us to show up alone and to pay full attention. As a chronicler, he records, not as an occupation but with an enquiring mind. By being totally present, hunched into a tripod, he allows the landscape to speak in ways that present-day occupants might not hear, perhaps because the all-too-familiar scenery has become a mere backdrop to the task of feeding a family or conducting a profitable agribusiness. A common reaction might very well be Now why would you want to take a picture of that? The most poignant answer lies in the images themselves. Each photograph evokes its own dialogue with the viewer. I particularly appreciate the generous layout of one image per double page. The book is designed to invite one to linger and contemplate rather than, like big business interests, to plow through the landscapes. The accompanying text is provided as a mere whisper, the pictures speaking louder than words. The essays, though not essential to the book, provide three unique frames through which to gain perspective on Conway\u27s epic portfolio. This is a book to be absorbed, if not also dissected

Visualizing and sonifying mathematical music theory with software applications : implications of computer-based models for practice and education

This chapter discusses what software applications offer to the practice of mathematical music theory and, more broadly, to music education. Traditionally, mathematical music theory uses the formalisms of mathematics (such as equations and graphs) to represent and produce models of musical phenomena that serve explanatory, predictive, or generative purposes. By contrast, computer-based models use interactive elements to represent and model musical phenomena within a software environment. These two approaches support quite distinct working, thinking, and learning. The former entails process, constrained by step-wise workings and ways of a slow analytic calculations, and the latter allows for faster and more intuitive experimentation and hypothesis testing. While for most learners, learning to model musical phenomena in purely mathematical terms is cumbersome and challenging, well-designed software may enable such model-based learning to become more accessible and fluent. Thus, we argue that software can uniquely help visualize and sonify challenging concepts in mathematical music theory, helping students learn them more intuitively, and in ways that are more likely to support transfer to real musical situations

Teaching mathematics with music : a pilot study

A solid foundation in mathematics is paramount to a comprehensive STEM education. Many students, however, struggle with connecting mathematical concepts with their everyday life and find its symbolic nomenclature unintuitive; subsequently this can be a significant barrier for many students in undertaking further STEM studies. In this paper we describe a pilot study which aims to determine whether understanding in mathematics, and specifically, fractions, equivalence, ordinance, and division, improves when we employ music and musical rhythm in our lessons. This pilot study is currently being trialed at a public high school in Sydney's South-West and despite the fact that the study is ongoing, preliminary data suggest students are responding to this novel teaching methodology. In this paper we report increases in both test performance and, importantly, student engagement