Depth resolved snapshot energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction using a conical shell beam

We demonstrate a novel imaging architecture to collect range encoded diffraction patterns from overlapping samples in a single conical shell projection. The patterns were measured in the dark area encompassed by the beam via a centrally positioned aperture optically coupled to a pixelated energy-resolving detector. We show that a single exposure measurement of 0.3 mAs enables d-spacing values to be calculated. The axial positions of the samples were not required and the resultant measurements were robust in the presence of crystallographic textures. Our results demonstrate rapid volumetric materials characterization and the potential for a direct imaging method, which is of great relevance to applications in medicine, non-destructive testing and security screening

Physical education at preschools: practitioners’ and children’s engagements with physical activity and health discourses

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in British Journal of Sociology of Education on December 2013, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01425692.2013.848780This paper focuses on one aspect of a qualitative study concerned with investigating the place and meaning of ‘physical education’ to practitioners and children at three preschools in Scotland. We examine the ways in which the participants engaged with discourses related to physical activity and health in order to construct their subjectivities. Fourteen practitioners and 70 children participated. Research methods employed were observations, interviews with adults, a group drawing and discussion activity with children, and interviews with children. Both the adults’ and children’s talk illustrated the dominance of neoliberal, healthism meanings which position individuals as responsible for their own health. While the children’s talk primarily centred on health as a corporeal notion, the practitioners tended to talk about physical activity and health in both corporeal terms and in relation to the self more holistically. The practitioners also talked about physical activity as a means of regulating children’s behaviour

Political boundary spanning:politicians at the interface between collaborative governance and representative democracy

Research finds that productive interfaces between collaborative and bureaucratic forms of governance hinges on the extent t

Enterprise Education Competitions: A Theoretically Flawed Intervention?

The demand for including enterprise in the education system, at all levels and for all pupils is now a global phenomenon. Within this context, the use of competitions and competitive learning activities is presented as a popular and effective vehicle for learning. The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate how a realist method of enquiry – which utilises theory as the unit of analysis – can shed new light on the assumed and unintended outcomes of enterprise education competitions. The case developed here is that there are inherent flaws in assuming that competitions will ‘work’ in the ways set out in policy and guidance. Some of the most prevalent stated outcomes – that competitions will motivate and reward young people, that they will enable the development of entrepreneurial skills, and that learners will be inspired by their peers – are challenged by theory from psychology and education. The issue at stake is that the expansion of enterprise education policy into primary and secondary education increases the likelihood that more learners will be sheep dipped in competitions, and competitive activities, without a clear recognition of the potential unintended effects. In this chapter, we employ a realist-informed approach to critically evaluate the theoretical basis that underpins the use of competitions and competitive learning activities in school-based enterprise education. We believe that our findings and subsequent recommendations will provide those who promote and practice the use of competitions with a richer, more sophisticated picture of the potential flaws within such activities.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Detecting Endometrial Cancer by Blood Spectroscopy: A Diagnostic Cross-Sectional Study

Endometrial cancer is the sixth most common cancer in women, with a rising incidence worldwide. Current approaches for the diagnosis and screening of endometrial cancer are invasive, expensive or of moderate diagnostic accuracy, limiting their clinical utility. There is a need for cost-effective and minimally invasive approaches to facilitate the early detection and timely management of endometrial cancer. We analysed blood plasma samples in a cross-sectional diagnostic accuracy study of women with endometrial cancer (n = 342), its precursor lesion atypical hyperplasia (n = 68) and healthy controls (n = 242, total n = 652) using attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy and machine learning algorithms. We show that blood-based infrared spectroscopy has the potential to detect endometrial cancer with 87% sensitivity and 78% specificity. Its accuracy is highest for Type I endometrial cancer, the most common subtype, and for atypical hyperplasia, with sensitivities of 91% and 100%, and specificities of 81% and 88%, respectively. Our large-cohort study shows that a simple blood test could enable the early detection of endometrial cancer of all stages in symptomatic women and provide the basis of a screening tool in high-risk groups. Such a test has the potential not only to differentially diagnose endometrial cancer but also to detect its precursor lesion atypical hyperplasia—the early recognition of which may allow fertility sparing management and cancer prevention

Strain relaxation dynamics of multiferroic orthorhombic manganites

Abstract: Resonant ultrasound spectroscopy has been used to characterise strain coupling and relaxation behavior associated with magnetic/magnetoelectric phase transitions in GdMnO3, TbMnO3 and TbMn0.98Fe0.02O3 through their influence on elastic/anelastic properties. Acoustic attenuation ahead of the paramagnetic to colinear-sinusoidal incommensurate antiferromagnetic transition at ∼41 K correlates with anomalies in dielectric properties and is interpreted in terms of Debye-like freezing processes. A loss peak at ∼150 K is related to a steep increase in electrical conductivity with a polaron mechanism. The activation energy, E a, of ≳0.04 eV from a loss peak at ∼80 K is consistent with the existence of a well-defined temperature interval in which the paramagnetic structure is stabilised by local, dynamic correlations of electric and magnetic polarisation that couple with strain and have relaxation times in the vicinity of ∼10−6 s. Comparison with previously published data for Sm0.6Y0.4MnO3 confirms that this pattern may be typical for multiferroic orthorhombic RMnO3 perovskites (R = Gd, Tb, Dy). A frequency-dependent loss peak near 10 K observed for TbMnO3 and TbMn0.98Fe0.02O3, but not for GdMnO3, yielded E a ⩾ ∼0.002 eV and is interpreted as freezing of some magnetoelastic component of the cycloid structure. Small anomalies in elastic properties associated with the incommensurate and cycloidal magnetic transitions confirm results from thermal expansion data that the magnetic order parameters have weak but significant coupling with strain. Even at strain magnitudes of ∼0.1–1‰, polaron-like strain effects are clearly important in defining the development and evolution of magnetoelectric properties in these materials. Strains associated with the cubic–orthorhombic transition due to the combined Jahn–Teller/octahedral tilting transition in the vicinity of 1500 K are 2–3 orders of magnitude greater. It is inevitable that ferroelastic twin walls due to this transition would have significantly different magnetoelectric properties from homogeneous domains due to magnetoelastic coupling with steep strain gradients

Stereotactically guided breast biopsy: a review

The aims of this review are to compare and contrast the available stereotactic equipment, and to describe the variety of needle types used and their affect on pathological results and subsequent patient management. Initial stereotactic devices were “added-on” to analogue mammography units and have been replaced by prone or ducubitus equipment using digital image acquisition. Biopsies use either 14-G core biopsy (CB) needles or vacuum-assisted biopsies (VAB). Vacuum-assisted biopsy systems consistently out-perform 14-G CB with reduced need for diagnostic or multi-treatment surgery. The false-negative rate is 8% for 14-G CB compared with 0.7% for VAB. There is a risk of underestimating the disease present for lesions of uncertain malignant potential (Cat B3) and suspicious of malignancy (Cat B4) results with 25% of patients with a B3 biopsy found to have cancer at subsequent surgery and 66% of those with a B4 biopsy. A CB diagnosis of in situ malignancy is upgraded to invasive disease at surgery in 15-36% of patients undergoing CB and of the order of 10% with VAB. A high degree of diagnostic accuracy and hence safe patient care can only be achieved by meticulous attention to technique and multi-disciplinary cooperation