Navigating uncertainty and complexity: Higher education and the dilemma of employability

This paper reinforces growing social and economic demands for graduates who can navigate the uncertainty and complexity of rapidly transforming employment contexts. This aim is first addressed with an overview of the research on employability and the changing nature of work and employment. This is followed with a discussion of employability and career development within higher education. The article concludes by considering the implications for higher education institutions. Recommendations include the development of graduate employability measures that record multiple employments and the refinement of employability models. The authors challenge higher education institutions to place the development of self and career at the core of every program

Testing Above- and Below-Canopy Representations of Turbulent Fluxes in an Energy Balance Snowmelt Model

Turbulent fluxes of sensible and latent heat are important processes in the surface energy balance that drives snowmelt. Modeling these fluxes in a forested environment is complicated because of the canopy effects on the wind field. This paper presents and tests a turbulent flux model developed to represent these processes in an energy balance snowmelt model. The goal is to model these processes using the readily available inputs of canopy height and leaf area index in a way that minimizes the number of parameters, state variables, and assumptions about hard to quantify processes. Selected periods from 9 years of eddy-covariance (EC) measurements at Niwot Ridge, Colorado, were used to evaluate the effectiveness of this modeling approach. The model was able to reproduce the above-canopy sensible and latent heat fluxes reasonably with the correlation higher for sensible heat than latent heat. The modeled values of the below-canopy latent heat fluxes also matched the EC-measured values. The model captured the nighttime below-canopy sensible heat flux quite well, but there were discrepancies in daytime sensible heat flux possibly due to mountain slope circulation not quantifiable in this kind of model. Despite the uncertainties in the below-canopy sensible heat fluxes, the results are encouraging and suggest that reasonable predictions of turbulent flux energy exchanges and subsequent vapor losses from snow in forested environments can be obtained with a parsimonious single-layer representation of the canopy. The model contributes an improved physically based capability for predicting the snow accumulation and melt in a forested environment

Comparison of PfHRP-2/pLDH ELISA, qPCR and microscopy for the detection of Plasmodium events and prediction of sick visits during a malaria vaccine study.

BACKGROUND: Compared to expert malaria microscopy, malaria biomarkers such as Plasmodium falciparum histidine rich protein-2 (PfHRP-2), and PCR provide superior analytical sensitivity and specificity for quantifying malaria parasites infections. This study reports on parasite prevalence, sick visits parasite density and species composition by different diagnostic methods during a phase-I malaria vaccine trial. METHODS: Blood samples for microscopy, PfHRP-2 and Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH) ELISAs and real time quantitative PCR (qPCR) were collected during scheduled (n = 298) or sick visits (n = 38) from 30 adults participating in a 112-day vaccine trial. The four methods were used to assess parasite prevalence, as well as parasite density over a 42-day period for patients with clinical episodes. RESULTS: During scheduled visits, qPCR (39.9%, N = 119) and PfHRP-2 ELISA (36.9%, N = 110) detected higher parasite prevalence than pLDH ELISA (16.8%, N = 50) and all methods were more sensitive than microscopy (13.4%, N = 40). All microscopically detected infections contained P. falciparum, as mono-infections (95%) or with P. malariae (5%). By qPCR, 102/119 infections were speciated. P. falciparum predominated either as monoinfections (71.6%), with P. malariae (8.8%), P. ovale (4.9%) or both (3.9%). P. malariae (6.9%) and P. ovale (1.0%) also occurred as co-infections (2.9%). As expected, higher prevalences were detected during sick visits, with prevalences of 65.8% (qPCR), 60.5% (PfHRP-2 ELISA), 21.1% (pLDH ELISA) and 31.6% (microscopy). PfHRP-2 showed biomass build-up that climaxed (1813±3410 ng/mL SD) at clinical episodes. CONCLUSION: PfHRP-2 ELISA and qPCR may be needed for accurately quantifying the malaria parasite burden. In addition, qPCR improves parasite speciation, whilst PfHRP-2 ELISA is a potential predictor for clinical disease caused by P. falciparum. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00666380

Reviewing the evidence on effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of HIV prevention strategies in Thailand

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Following universal access to antiretroviral therapy in Thailand, evidence from National AIDS Spending Assessment indicates a decreasing proportion of expenditure on prevention interventions. To prompt policymakers to revitalize HIV prevention, this study identifies a comprehensive list of HIV/AIDs preventive interventions that are likely to be effective and cost-effective in Thailand.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A systematic review of the national and international literature on HIV prevention strategies from 1997 to 2008 was undertaken. The outcomes used to consider the effectiveness of HIV prevention interventions were changes in HIV risk behaviour and HIV incidence. Economic evaluations that presented their results in terms of cost per HIV infection averted or cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained were also included. All studies were assessed against quality criteria.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The findings demonstrated that school based-sex education plus life-skill programs, voluntary and routine HIV counselling and testing, male condoms, street outreach programs, needle and syringe programs, programs for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission, male circumcision, screening blood products and donated organs for HIV, and increased alcohol tax were all effective in reducing HIV infection among target populations in a cost-effective manner.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We found very limited local evidence regarding the effectiveness of HIV interventions amongst specific high risk populations. This underlines the urgent need to prioritise health research resources to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of HIV interventions aimed at reducing HIV infection among high risk groups in Thailand.</p

A Unified Approach for Process-Based Hydrologic Modeling: 2. Model Implementation and Case Studies

This work advances a unified approach to process-based hydrologic modeling, which we term the “Structure for Unifying Multiple Modeling Alternatives (SUMMA).” The modeling framework, introduced in the companion paper, uses a general set of conservation equations with flexibility in the choice of process parameterizations (closure relationships) and spatial architecture. This second paper specifies the model equations and their spatial approximations, describes the hydrologic and biophysical process parameterizations currently supported within the framework, and illustrates how the framework can be used in conjunction with multivariate observations to identify model improvements and future research and data needs. The case studies illustrate the use of SUMMA to select among competing modeling approaches based on both observed data and theoretical considerations. Specific examples of preferable modeling approaches include the use of physiological methods to estimate stomatal resistance, careful specification of the shape of the within-canopy and below-canopy wind profile, explicitly accounting for dust concentrations within the snowpack, and explicitly representing distributed lateral flow processes. Results also demonstrate that changes in parameter values can make as much or more difference to the model predictions than changes in the process representation. This emphasizes that improvements in model fidelity require a sagacious choice of both process parameterizations and model parameters. In conclusion, we envisage that SUMMA can facilitate ongoing model development efforts, the diagnosis and correction of model structural errors, and improved characterization of model uncertainty

Education professionals' attitudes towards the inclusion of children with ADHD : the role of knowledge and stigma

Attitudes play a pivotal role in the inclusion of children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in mainstream schools but little is known about factors that influence these. This study investigated the effect of ADHD knowledge and stigma on professionals attitudes towards mainstream inclusion. Teachers, support staff, school managers and educational psychologists completed questionnaires assessing ADHD knowledge, stigma and attitudes towards inclusion. Psychologists displayed more knowledge, had less stigmatising beliefs and more inclusive attitudes than other professions. Regression analyses revealed those with more knowledge of ADHD and less stigma held more positive attitudes towards mainstream inclusion. Results have implications for how to promote inclusive beliefs about ADHD

The Future of Rheumatoid Arthritis and Hand Surgery - Combining Evolutionary Pharmacology and Surgical Technique

Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic autoimmune disease of uncertain aetiology, which is characterized primarily by synovial inflammation with secondary skeletal destructions

Introduction: Human ecology in the Himalaya

Knowledge of human adaptation in the Himalayas has developed more slowly than that for other world mountain systems. At the same time, the opening of the region to research has focused attention toward description in a “natural history” mode until quite recently. Where these studies have addressed issues of adaptation they have tended to do so more as a heuristic tool rather than in terms of contributing to the development of adaptive perspectives from a uniquely Himalayan vantage point. The contributions to this special issue suggest some of Himalayan cultural ecology's new themes as it more directly assumes a truly processual approach that incorporates the individual and domestic dimensions of adaptation within historical and social contexts .Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44482/1/10745_2004_Article_BF00889710.pd