Physical and Electrochemical Area Determination of Electrodeposited Ni, Co, and NiCo Thin Films

The surface area of electrodeposited thin films of Ni, Co, and NiCo was evaluated using electrochemical double-layer capacitance, electrochemical area measurements using the [Ru(NH$_3$)$_6$]$^{3+}$/[Ru(NH$_3$)$_6$]$^{2+}$ redox couple, and topographic atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging. These three methods were compared to each other for each composition separately and for the entire set of samples regardless of composition. Double-layer capacitance measurements were found to be positively correlated to the roughness factors determined by AFM topography. Electrochemical area measurements were found to be less correlated with measured roughness factors as well as applicable only to two of the three compositions studied. The results indicate that in situ double-layer capacitance measurements are a practical, versatile technique for estimating the accessible surface area of a metal sample.Comment: Accepted for publication in Nano Convergence, 6 figure

The Effect of Marinating on Fatty Acid Composition of Sous-Vide Semimembranosus Muscle from Holstein-Friesian Bulls

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of two commercial oil marinades on marinated bovine semimembranosus muscles’ (n = 12) fatty acid composition. Fatty acids were determined in unmarinated raw and sous-vide beef and marinated muscles with two different marinades. The application of marinating changed the fatty acid composition in sous-vide beef. The sum of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and n-6/n-3 ratio decreased. However, the sum of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), including n-6 and n-3, increased in marinated sous-vide beef, while a proportion of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and arachidonic acid (AA) de-creased. The concentration (mg/100 g) of the sum of SFA and CLA in sous-vide beef was unaffected by marinating; however, the treatment significantly increased the sum of MUFA, PUFA, n-6 fatty and n-3 fatty acid concentrations. Using marinades containing canola oil and spices prior to the sous-vide treatment of beef was effective in improving its fatty acid composition

Automated analysis of free-text comments and dashboard representations in patient experience surveys: a multimethod co-design study

BACKGROUND: Patient experience surveys (PESs) often include informative free-text comments, but with no way of systematically, efficiently and usefully analysing and reporting these. The National Cancer Patient Experience Survey (CPES), used to model the approach reported here, generates > 70,000 free-text comments annually. MAIN AIM: To improve the use and usefulness of PES free-text comments in driving health service changes that improve the patient experience. SECONDARY AIMS: (1) To structure CPES free-text comments using rule-based information retrieval (IR) (‘text engineering’), drawing on health-care domain-specific gazetteers of terms, with in-built transferability to other surveys and conditions; (2) to display the results usefully for health-care professionals, in a digital toolkit dashboard display that drills down to the original free text; (3) to explore the usefulness of interdisciplinary mixed stakeholder co-design and consensus-forming approaches in technology development, ensuring that outputs have meaning for all; and (4) to explore the usefulness of Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) in structuring outputs for implementation and sustainability. DESIGN: A scoping review, rapid review and surveys with stakeholders in health care (patients, carers, health-care providers, commissioners, policy-makers and charities) explored clinical dashboard design/patient experience themes. The findings informed the rules for the draft rule-based IR [developed using half of the 2013 Wales CPES (WCPES) data set] and prototype toolkit dashboards summarising PES data. These were refined following mixed stakeholder, concept-mapping workshops and interviews, which were structured to enable consensus-forming ‘co-design’ work. IR validation used the second half of the WCPES, with comparison against its manual analysis; transferability was tested using further health-care data sets. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) explored which toolkit features were preferred by health-care professionals, with a simple cost–benefit analysis. Structured walk-throughs with NHS managers in Wessex, London and Leeds explored usability and general implementation into practice. KEY OUTCOMES: A taxonomy of ranked PES themes, a checklist of key features recommended for digital clinical toolkits, rule-based IR validation and transferability scores, usability, and goal-oriented, cost–benefit and marketability results. The secondary outputs were a survey, scoping and rapid review findings, and concordance and discordance between stakeholders and methods. RESULTS: (1) The surveys, rapid review and workshops showed that stakeholders differed in their understandings of the patient experience and priorities for change, but that they reached consensus on a shortlist of 19 themes; six were considered to be core; (2) the scoping review and one survey explored the clinical toolkit design, emphasising that such toolkits should be quick and easy to use, and embedded in workflows; the workshop discussions, the DCE and the walk-throughs confirmed this and foregrounded other features to form the toolkit design checklist; and (3) the rule-based IR, developed using noun and verb phrases and lookup gazetteers, was 86% accurate on the WCPES, but needs modification to improve this and to be accurate with other data sets. The DCE and the walk-through suggest that the toolkit would be well accepted, with a favourable cost–benefit ratio, if implemented into practice with appropriate infrastructure support. LIMITATIONS: Small participant numbers and sampling bias across component studies. The scoping review studies mostly used top-down approaches and focused on professional dashboards. The rapid review of themes had limited scope, with no second reviewer. The IR needs further refinement, especially for transferability. New governance restrictions further limit immediate use. CONCLUSIONS: Using a multidisciplinary, mixed stakeholder, use of co-design, proof of concept was shown for an automated display of patient experience free-text comments in a way that could drive health-care improvements in real time. The approach is easily modified for transferable application. FUTURE WORK: Further exploration is needed of implementation into practice, transferable uses and technology development co-design approaches. FUNDING: The National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme

‘Engage the World’: examining conflicts of engagement in public museums

Public engagement has become a central theme in the mission statements of many cultural institutions, and in scholarly research into museums and heritage. Engagement has emerged as the go-to-it-word for generating, improving or repairing relations between museums and society at large. But engagement is frequently an unexamined term that might embed assumptions and ignore power relationships. This article describes and examines the implications of conflicting and misleading uses of ‘engagement’ in relation to institutional dealings with contested questions about culture and heritage. It considers the development of an exhibition on the Dead Sea Scrolls by the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto in 2009 within the new institutional goal to ‘Engage the World’. The chapter analyses the motivations, processes and decisions deployed by management and staff to ‘Engage the World’, and the degree to which the museum was able to re-think its strategies of public engagement, especially in relation to subjects,issues and publics that were more controversial in nature

Poor competitiveness of Bradyrhizobium in pigeon pea root colonisation in Indian soils

Background Pigeon pea, a legume crop native to India, is the primary source of protein for more than a billion people in developing countries. The plant can form symbioses with N2-fixing bacteria, however reports of poor crop nodulation in agricultural soils abound. We report here study of the microbiota associated with pigeon pea, with a special focus on the symbiont population in different soils and vegetative and non-vegetative plant growth. Results Location with respect to the plant roots was determined to be the main factor controlling the microbiota followed by developmental stage and soil type. Plant genotype plays only a minor role. Pigeon pea roots have a reduced microbial diversity compared to the surrounding soil and select for Proteobacteria and especially for Rhizobium spp. during vegetative growth. While Bradyrhizobium, a native symbiont of pigeon pea, can be found associating with roots, its presence is dependent on plant variety and soil conditions. A combination of metagenomic survey, strain isolation and co-inoculation with nodule forming Bradyrhizobium spp. and non-N2 fixing Rhizobium spp. demonstrated that the latter is a much more successful coloniser of pigeon pea roots. Conclusions Poor nodulation of pigeon pea in Indian soils may be caused by a poor Bradyrhizobium competitiveness against non-nodulating root colonisers such as Rhizobium. Hence, inoculant strain selection of symbionts for pigeon pea should not only be based on their nitrogen fixation potential but more importantly on their competitiveness in agricultural soils