Towards an institutional PLE

PLEs in their broader sense (the ad-hoc, serendipitous and potentially chaotic set of tools that learners bring to their learning) are increasingly important for learners in the context of formal study. In this paper we outline the approach that we are taking at the University of Southampton in redesigning our teaching and learning infrastructure into an Institutional PLE. We do not see this term as an oxymoron. We define an Institutional PLE as an environment that provides a personalised interface to University data and services and at the same time exposes that data and services to a student’s personal tools. Our goal is to provide a digital platform that can cope with an evolving learning and teaching environment, as well as support the social and community aspects of the institution

Taylor‐vortex membrane reactor for continuous gas–liquid reactions

A unique Taylor-vortex membrane reactor (TVMR) design for continuous gas–liquid reactions is presented in this work. The reactor consists of a cylindrical rotor inside a stationary concentric cylindrical vessel, and a flexible system of equispaced baffle rings surrounding the rotor. This restricts the annular cross section to a small gap between the baffles and the rotor, and divides the annulus into 18 mixing zones. The baffles support a 6 m long PFA tubular membrane that is woven around the rotor. At 4 mL/min inlet flow rate, the TVMR showed a plug-flow behavior and outperformed the unbaffled reactor, having 5–12 times lower axial dispersion. The continuous aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol was performed for 7 h using the Pd(OAc)2/pyridine catalyst in toluene at 100 °C and 1.1 MPa oxygen pressure. A stable conversion of 30% was achieved with 85% benzaldehyde selectivity, and no pervaporation of organics into the gas phase

Facility Targeting, Protection and Mission Decision Making Using the VISAC Code

The Visual Interactive Site Analysis Code (VISAC) has been used by DTRA and several other agencies to aid in targeting facilities and to predict the associated collateral effects for the go, no go mission decision making process. VISAC integrates the three concepts of target geometric modeling, damage assessment capabilities, and an event/fault tree methodology for evaluating accident/incident consequences. It can analyze a variety of accidents/incidents at nuclear or industrial facilities, ranging from simple component sabotage to an attack with military or terrorist weapons. For nuclear facilities, VISAC predicts the facility damage, estimated downtime, amount and timing of any radionuclides released. Used in conjunction with DTRA's HPAC code, VISAC also can analyze transport and dispersion of the radionuclides, levels of contamination of the surrounding area, and the population at risk. VISAC has also been used by the NRC to aid in the development of protective measures for nuclear facilities that may be subjected to attacks by car/truck bombs

Adaptive Resonance Theory and Diffusion Maps for Clustering Applications in Pattern Analysis

Adaptive Resonance is primarily a theory that learning is regulated by resonance phenomena in neural circuits. Diffusion maps are a class of kernel methods on edge-weighted graphs. While either of these approaches have demonstrated success in image analysis, their combination is particularly effective. These techniques are reviewed and some example applications are given

Verbal and visuospatial deficits in dementia with Lewy bodies

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://www.neurology.org/content/65/8/1232.Objective: To investigate the cognitive decline in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLBs) and characterize the contribution of Lewy bodies (LBs) to cognitive impairment in the presence of concurrent Alzheimer disease (AD). Methods: Cognitive deficits and rates of progression attributable to DLB and AD neuropathology were investigated in three groups of participants from the longitudinal cohort of the Alzheimer Disease Research Center at Washington University with autopsy-confirmed diagnoses of pure DLB (n = 9), mixed DLB/AD (n = 57), and pure AD (n = 66). Factor analysis was used to recover latent constructs in a comprehensive psychometric test battery, analysis of variance was used to test group differences on the observed dimensions, and random effects models were used to test longitudinal rates of cognitive decline. Results: Patients with AD pathology performed worse on the verbal memory dimension. Patients with LB pathology performed worse on the visuospatial dimension. Combined pathology affected visuospatial performance but not verbal memory. The rate of cognitive decline in the DLB, DLB/AD combined, and the pure AD groups was equivalent. Conclusions: The comorbid presence of DLB and AD alters the cognitive presentation of visuospatial deficits in dementia but does not alter dementia progression. Both visuospatial and verbal abilities declined at similar rates across the three patient groups. DLB diagnosis may be improved, particularly when there is comorbid AD, by using domain-specific testing

Systematic Analysis of Quantitative Logic Model Ensembles Predicts Drug Combination Effects on Cell Signaling Networks

A major challenge in developing anticancer therapies is determining the efficacies of drugs and their combinations in physiologically relevant microenvironments. We describe here our application of “constrained fuzzy logic” (CFL) ensemble modeling of the intracellular signaling network for predicting inhibitor treatments that reduce the phospho-levels of key transcription factors downstream of growth factors and inflammatory cytokines representative of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) microenvironments. We observed that the CFL models successfully predicted the effects of several kinase inhibitor combinations. Furthermore, the ensemble predictions revealed ambiguous predictions that could be traced to a specific structural feature of these models, which we resolved with dedicated experiments, finding that IL-1α activates downstream signals through TAK1 and not MEKK1 in HepG2 cells. We conclude that CFL-Q2LM (Querying Quantitative Logic Models) is a promising approach for predicting effective anticancer drug combinations in cancer-relevant microenvironments.United States. Army Research Office (W911NF-09-0001

Social Media Goes to the Movies: Fear of Missing Out, Social Capital, and Social Motivations of Cinema Attendance

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of participation in social media networks on theatrical movie attendance, with particular attention paid to the fear-of-missing-out (FoMO) and social media social capital. Using an online survey (N = 472), it was determined that the direct social utility of the theatrical experience was a better predictor of theatrical attendance than social media FoMO or social capital. However, both bridging social capital and FoMO were predictors of the post-viewing social media sharing of the film experience, with bridging social capital best predicting social media sharing. Furthermore, FoMO did not moderate the relation between bridging social capital and social media sharing, suggesting these traits exert influence on social media behaviors independently. While participation in social networks did not influence theatrical movie attendance, it was an important predictor of social media conversations after viewing, with the opportunity to maintain and build bridging social capital exerting the greatest influence on social media sharing