Lean towards learning: connecting Lean Thinking and human resource management in UK higher education

From its origins in the automotive industry, Lean Thinking is increasingly being seen as a solution to problems of efficiency and quality in other industries and sectors. In recent years attempts have been made to transfer Lean principles and practice to the higher education sector with indications of mixed consequences and debate over its suitability. This paper contributes to the debate by drawing evidence from thirty-four interviews conducted across two UK universities that have implemented Lean in some of their activities and we pay particular attention to the role of the HR function in facilitating its introduction. The findings suggest there are problems in understanding, communicating and transferring Lean Thinking in the higher education context; that, despite HR systems being vital facets of Lean, HR professionals are excluded from participation; and that as a consequence the depth and breadth of Lean application in the two institutions is very limited

A Regulatory Model for Context-Aware Abstract Framework

Proceedings of: 23rd International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Other Applications of Applied Intelligent Systems, IEA/AIE 2010, Cordoba, Spain, June 1-4, 2010.This paper presents a general framework to define a context aware application and analyzes social guarantees to be considered to develop this kind of applications following legal assumptions as privacy, human rights, etc. We present a review of legal issues in biometric user identification where several legal aspects have been developed in European Union regulation and a general framework to define context aware applications. As main result, paper presents a legal framework to be taken into account in any context-based application to ensure a harmonious and coherent system for the protection of fundamental rights.This work was supported in part by Projects CICYT TIN2008-06742-C02-02/TSI, CICYT TEC2008-06732-C02-02/TEC, CAM CONTEXTS (S2009/TIC-1485) and DPS2008-07029- C02-02.Publicad

Optimal Concentration of Light in Turbid Materials

In turbid materials it is impossible to concentrate light into a focus with conventional optics. Recently it has been shown that the intensity on a dyed probe inside a turbid material can be enhanced by spatially shaping the wave front of light before it enters a turbid medium. Here we show that this enhancement is due to concentration of light energy to a spot much smaller than a wavelength. We focus light on a dyed probe sphere that is hidden under an opaque layer. The light is optimally concentrated to a focus which does not exceed the smallest focal area physically possible by more than 68%. A comparison between the intensity enhancements of both the emission and excitation light supports the conclusion of optimal light concentration.Comment: We corrected an ambiguous description of the focus size in our abstract and text pointed out by an anonymous refere

Oncostatin-M inhibits luteinizing hormone stimulated Leydig cell progenitor formation in vitro

Background: The initial steps of stem Leydig cell differentiation into steroid producing progenitor cells are thought to take place independent of luteinizing hormone (LH), under the influence of locally produced factors such as leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF), platelet derived growth factor A and stem cell factor. For the formation of a normal sized Leydig cell population in the adult testis, the presence of LH appears to be essential. Oncostatin M (OSM) is a multifunctional cytokine and member of the interleukin (IL)-6 family that also includes other cytokines such as LIF. In the rat OSM is highly expressed in the late fetal and neonatal testis, and may thus be a candidate factor involved in Leydig cell progenitor formation. Methods: Interstitial cells were isolated from 13-day-old rat testes and cultured for 1, 3 or 8 days in the presence of different doses of OSM ( range: 0.01 to 10 ng/ml) alone or in combination with LH ( 1 ng/ml). The effects of OSM and LH on cell proliferation were determined by incubating the cultures with [3H] thymidine or bromodeoxyuridine ( BrdU). Developing progenitor cells were identified histochemically by the presence of the marker enzyme 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3beta-HSD). Results: OSM, when added at a dose of 10 ng/ml, caused a nearly 2-fold increase in the percentage of Leydig cell progenitors after 8 days of culture. Immunohistochemical double labelling experiments with 3beta-HSD and BrdU antibodies showed that this increase was the result of differentiation of stem Leydig cells/precursor cells and not caused by proliferation of progenitor cells themselves. The addition of LH to the cultures consistently resulted in an increase in progenitor formation throughout the culture period. Surprisingly, when OSM and LH were added together, the LH induced rise in progenitor cells was significantly inhibited after 3 and 8 days of culture. Conclusion: Taken together, the results of the present study suggest that locally produced OSM may not only play a role in the regulation of Sertoli cell proliferation and the initiation of spermatogenesis but may also play a role in the regulation of Leydig cell progenitor formation by keeping the augmenting effects of LH on this process in abeyance

Does ureteral access sheath have an impact on ureteral injury?

Objective: To present a well-organized review about ureteral access sheath impact on ureteral injury. Materials and Methods: Systemic search on literature was done. Total of 3766 studies observed by two urologists and results were unified. A Prisma diagram was used for eliminating irrelevant studies and at the end of elimination process 28 studies were found eligible for this review. Results: Not only clinical studies but also comparative experimental animal studies show that there is no significant data to claim that ureteral access sheath insertion causes more ureteral injury. Pre-stented patients were found to be at lower risk for ureteral injury. Risk of progression to ureteral injury seems to be low even if ureteral injury occurs with insertion of ureteral access sheath. Conclusion: Summary of studies' results indicate that use of ureteral access sheath doesn't increase ureteral injury. This review may help understanding safety profile of ureteral access sheath on evidence-based level. There is not enough data to make a statement that ureteral access sheath prevents ureteral injury

High-performance versatile setup for simultaneous Brillouin-Raman micro-spectroscopy

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from American Physical Society via the DOI in this record.Brillouin and Raman scattering spectroscopy are established techniques for the nondestructive contactless and label-free readout of mechanical, chemical and structural properties of condensed matter. Brillouin-Raman investigations currently require separate measurements and a site-matched approach to obtain complementary information from a sample. Here we demonstrate a new concept of fully scanning multimodal micro-spectroscopy for simultaneous detection of Brillouin and Raman light scattering in an exceptionally wide spectral range, from fractions of GHz to hundreds of THz. It yields an unprecedented 150 dB contrast, which is especially important for the analysis of opaque or turbid media such as biomedical samples, and spatial resolution on a sub-cellular scale. We report the first applications of this new multimodal method to a range of systems, from a single cell to the fast reaction kinetics of a curing process, and the mechano-chemical mapping of highly scattering biological samples.S. Corezzi acknowledges financial support from MIUR-PRIN (Project No. 2012J8X57P). S. Caponi acknowledges support from PAT (Provincia Autonoma di Trento) (GP/PAT/2012) “Grandi Progetti 2012” Project “MaDEleNA.” P. S., A. M., M. P. acknowledge financial support from Centro Nazionale Trapianti (Project: “Studio di cellule per uso clinico umano, con particolare riferimento a modelli cellulari (liposomi) e linee cellulari in interazione con crioconservanti e con materiali biocompatibili”). L. C. and S. Caponi acknowledge financial support from Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto Officina dei Materiali. F. P. acnowledges support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grant No. EP/M028739/1 (F. P.)). The authors acknowledge Jacopo Scarponi for valuable help in setting up the hardware and software system for simultaneous Raman and BLS measurements

Planktonic foraminiferal depth habitat and δ18O calibrations : plankton tow results from the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean

Plankton tows conducted in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean allow analysis of the influence of water column structure on planktonic foraminiferal abundance and δ18O composition. Foraminiferal abundance varies by several orders of magnitude across a large gradient in sea surface temperature and other hydrographic features, demonstrating high sensitivity of foraminiferal populations to regional differences in water properties. The depth of maximum abundance for key species such as Globigerina bulloides and Neogloboquadrina pachyderma is not constant from station to station. The pattern suggests that their abundance and shell chemistry are tied to density horizons or other conditions (such as food availability) that become more sharply defined with depth in the northern subantarctic. The consistent observation of Globorotalia inflata and Globoratalia truncatulinoides as relatively deep-dwelling species confirms their utility as indicators of upper thermocline properties. In δ18O all species are observed to be isotopically lighter than predicted from water properties, but the species-specific offset is fairly uniform at all stations. These observations define the utility of multispecies δ18O for reconstructing temperature and density stratification from past surface oceans

Regulatory Model for AAL

Proceedings of: 6th International Conference on Soft Computing Models in Industrial and Environmental Applications (SOCO 2011). Salamanca, April 6-8, 2011Abstract: In this work, authors define a set of principles that should be contained in context-aware applications (including biometric sensors) to accomplish the legal aspect in Europe and USA. Paper presents the necessity to consider legal aspect, related with pri-vacy or human rights, into the development of the incipient context based services. Clearly, context based services and Ambient Intelligence (and the most promising work area in Europe that is Ambient Assisted Living, ALL) needs a great effort in research new identification procedures.Publicad