Missed opportunities: Module design to meet the learning and access needs of practitioners - A work based learning pilot in the rehabilitation setting

It is with great pleasure that this report is presented as a result of an exciting project that truly exemplified partnership working. For a Higher Education Institution to come together with an NHS organisation to negotiate and tailor an education initiative in direct response to the needs of both the organisation and its staff is a very positive direction of travel. The project has been possible through the enthusiasm and commitment of its partners, their contribution of resources including time and funding, and the support of others who have played a part in enabling it to happen. The willingness of the students taking part in the pilot module should be recognised as much of what we have learnt from the process and the evaluation of it, will more directly benefit future students rather than the participating students themselves. As with any pilot, there are risks and where challenges have not been foreseen they have been addressed along the way, flexibly and promptly. Whilst a relatively small project, it has generated much interest from others interested in work based learning approaches and potential students from across the health care professions wanting to take part in future courses. On behalf of the Project Team, I hope you find the report useful and encourage you to make contact if you require further information, wish to explore work based learning opportunities (uni-discipline or multi-professional) here at the University or would like to discuss research or evaluation

Switched Linear Model Predictive Controllers for Periodic Exogenous Signals

This paper develops linear switched controllers for periodic exogenous signals using the framework of a continuous-time model predictive control. In this framework, the control signal is generated by an algorithm that uses receding horizon control principle with an on-line optimization scheme that permits inclusion of operational constraints. Unlike traditional repetitive controllers, applying this method in the form of switched linear controllers ensures rumpless transfer from one controller to another. Simulation studies are included to demonstrate the efficacy of the design with or without hard constraints

Admit your weakness: Verifying correctness on TSO architectures

“The final publication is available at http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-15317-9_22 ”.Linearizability has become the standard correctness criterion for fine-grained non-atomic concurrent algorithms, however, most approaches assume a sequentially consistent memory model, which is not always realised in practice. In this paper we study the correctness of concurrent algorithms on a weak memory model: the TSO (Total Store Order) memory model, which is commonly implemented by multicore architectures. Here, linearizability is often too strict, and hence, we prove a weaker criterion, quiescent consistency instead. Like linearizability, quiescent consistency is compositional making it an ideal correctness criterion in a component-based context. We demonstrate how to model a typical concurrent algorithm, seqlock, and prove it quiescent consistent using a simulation-based approach. Previous approaches to proving correctness on TSO architectures have been based on linearizabilty which makes it necessary to modify the algorithm’s high-level requirements. Our approach is the first, to our knowledge, for proving correctness without the need for such a modification

Insights into GABA receptor signalling in TM3 Leydig cells

gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an emerging signalling molecule in endocrine organs, since it is produced by endocrine cells and acts via GABA(A) receptors in a paracrine/autocrine fashion. Testicular Leydig cells are producers and targets for GABA. These cells express GABA(A) receptor subunits and in the murine Leydig cell line TM3 pharmacological activation leads to increased proliferation. The signalling pathway of GABA in these cells is not known in this study. We therefore attempted to elucidate details of GABA(A) signalling in TM3 and adult mouse Leydig cells using several experimental approaches. TM3 cells not only express GABA(A) receptor subunits, but also bind the GABA agonist {[}H-3] muscimol with a binding affinity in the range reported for other endocrine cells (K-d = 2.740 +/- 0.721 nM). However, they exhibit a low B-max value of 28.08 fmol/mg protein. Typical GABA(A) receptor-associated events, including Cl- currents, changes in resting membrane potential, intracellular Ca2+ or cAMP, were not measurable with the methods employed in TM3 cells, or, as studied in part, in primary mouse Leydig cells. GABA or GABA(A) agonist isoguvacine treatment resulted in increased or decreased levels of several mRNAs, including transcription factors (c-fos, hsf-1, egr-1) and cell cycle-associated genes (Cdk2, cyclin D1). In an attempt to verify the cDNA array results and because egr-1 was recently implied in Leydig cell development, we further studied this factor. RT-PCR and Western blotting confirmed a time-dependent regulation of egr-1 in TM3. In the postnatal testis egr-1 was seen in cytoplasmic and nuclear locations of developing Leydig cells, which bear GABA(A) receptors and correspond well to TM3 cells. Thus, GABA acts via an untypical novel signalling pathway in TM3 cells. Further details of this pathway remain to be elucidated. Copyright (c) 2005 S. Karger AG, Base

Coronal mass ejections are not coherent magnetohydrodynamic structures

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are episodic eruptions of solar plasma and magnetic flux that travel out through the solar system, driving extreme space weather. Interpretation of CME observations and their interaction with the solar wind typically assumes CMEs are coherent, almost solid-like objects. We show that supersonic radial propagation of CMEs away from the Sun results in geometric expansion of CME plasma parcels at a speed faster than the local wave speed. Thus information cannot propagate across the CME. Comparing our results with observed properties of over 400 CMEs, we show that CMEs cease to be coherent magnetohydrodynamic structures within 0.3 AU of the Sun. This suggests Earth-directed CMEs are less like billiard balls and more like dust clouds, with apparent coherence only due to similar initial conditions and quasi homogeneity of the medium through which they travel. The incoherence of CMEs suggests interpretation of CME observations requires accurate reconstruction of the ambient solar wind with which they interact, and that simple assumptions about the shape of the CMEs are likely to be invalid when significant spatial/temporal gradients in ambient solar wind conditions are present

High-performance transistors for bioelectronics through tuning of channel thickness.

UNLABELLED: Despite recent interest in organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs), sparked by their straightforward fabrication and high performance, the fundamental mechanism behind their operation remains largely unexplored. OECTs use an electrolyte in direct contact with a polymer channel as part of their device structure. Hence, they offer facile integration with biological milieux and are currently used as amplifying transducers for bioelectronics. Ion exchange between electrolyte and channel is believed to take place in OECTs, although the extent of this process and its impact on device characteristics are still unknown. We show that the uptake of ions from an electrolyte into a film of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with polystyrene sulfonate ( PEDOT: PSS) leads to a purely volumetric capacitance of 39 F/cm(3). This results in a dependence of the transconductance on channel thickness, a new degree of freedom that we exploit to demonstrate high-quality recordings of human brain rhythms. Our results bring to the forefront a transistor class in which performance can be tuned independently of device footprint and provide guidelines for the design of materials that will lead to state-of-the-art transistor performance

Clostridium difficile ribotypes in Austria: a multicenter, hospital-based survey

A prospective, noninterventional survey was conducted among Clostridium difficile positive patients identified in the time period of July until October 2012 in 18 hospitals distributed across all nine Austrian provinces. Participating hospitals were asked to send stool samples or isolates from ten successive patients with C.difficile infection to the National Clostridium difficile Reference Laboratory at the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety for PCR-ribotyping and in vitro susceptibility testing. A total of 171 eligible patients were identified, including 73 patients with toxin-positive stool specimens and 98 patients from which C. difficile isolates were provided. Of the 159 patients with known age, 127 (74.3 %) were 65 years or older, the median age was 76 years (range: 9–97 years), and the male to female ratio 2.2. Among these patients, 73 % had health care-associated and 20 % community-acquired C. difficile infection (indeterminable 7 %). The all-cause, 30-day mortality was 8.8 % (15/171). Stool samples yielded 46 different PCR-ribotypes, of which ribotypes 027 (20 %), 014 (15.8 %), 053 (10.5 %), 078 (5.3 %), and 002 (4.7 %) were the five most prevalent. Ribotype 027 was found only in the provinces Vienna, Burgenland, and Lower Austria. Severe outcome of C. difficile infection was found to be associated with ribotype 053 (prevalence ratio: 3.04; 95 % CI: 1.24, 7.44), not with the so-called hypervirulent ribotypes 027 and 078. All 027 and 053 isolates exhibited in vitro resistance against moxifloxacin. Fluoroquinolone use in the health care setting must be considered as a factor favoring the spread of these fluoroquinolone resistant C. difficile clones