Quality of perception to quality of service mapping using a dynamically reconfigurable communication system

We present an innovative approach for providing en-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees in a distributed multimedia setting. Quality of Perception (QoP) is a term which encompasses not only a user's satisfaction with the quality of multimedia presentations, but also his/her ability to analyse, synthesise and assimilate the informational content of multimedia displays. The basics of a mapping linking QoP to QoS are then presented and the case for including it in an adaptable protocol is made. A proof of concept implementation based on the Dynamically Reconfigurable Protocol Stacks (DRoPS) project show that such applications can be used to improve QoP, especially in the case of dynamic and complex sequences

Historic landmarks in clinical transplantation: Conclusions from the consensus conference at the University of California, Los Angeles

The transplantation of organs, cells, and tissues has burgeoned during the last quarter century, with the development of multiple new specialty fields. However, the basic principles that made this possible were established over a three-decade period, beginning during World War II and ending in 1974. At the historical consensus conference held at UCLA in March 1999, 11 early workers in the basic science or clinical practice of transplantation (or both) reached agreement on the most significant contribution of this era that ultimately made transplantation the robust clinical discipline it is today. These discoveries and achievements are summarized here is six tables and annotated with references

Board review course effect on resident in-training examination

Background The in-training examination is a national and yearly exam administered by the American Board of Emergency Medicine to all emergency medicine residents in the USA. The purpose of the examination is to evaluate a resident’s progress toward obtaining the fundamental knowledge to practice independent emergency medicine. Aims The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a 40 hour board review lecture course on the resident in-training examination in emergency medicine. Methods A 40 hour board review lecture course was designed and implemented during the weekly 5 hour long resident conferences during the 8 weeks preceding the in-training examination date in 2006. Attendance was manda-tory at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) standard of 70 % or greater. A positive result was considered to be a 10 % increase or greater in the resident’s individual national class percentile ranking among their national peers for their class year for the emergency medicine in-training examination. A resident was excluded from the study if there was no 2005 in-training examination score for self-comparison. The 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to analyze the results. Results Of 16 residents, 1 (6.25%; 95 % CI: 0–18%) showed a positive result of increasing their national class percentile ranking by 10 % or greater. For the PGY2, one of the eight had a positive result (12.5%; 95 % CI: 0–35.4%). For PGY3, no resident (0%; 95 % CI: 0–35.4%) had a positive result. Conclusions A 40 hour board review lecture course has no positive effect on improving a resident’s in-training examination score

The Spatial Limitations of Current Neutral Models of Biodiversity

The unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography is increasingly accepted as an informative null model of community composition and dynamics. It has successfully produced macro-ecological patterns such as species-area relationships and species abundance distributions. However, the models employed make many unrealistic auxiliary assumptions. For example, the popular spatially implicit version assumes a local plot exchanging migrants with a large panmictic regional source pool. This simple structure allows rigorous testing of its fit to data. In contrast, spatially explicit models assume that offspring disperse only limited distances from their parents, but one cannot as yet test the significance of their fit to data. Here we compare the spatially explicit and the spatially implicit model, fitting the most-used implicit model (with two levels, local and regional) to data simulated by the most-used spatially explicit model (where offspring are distributed about their parent on a grid according to either a radially symmetric Gaussian or a ‘fat-tailed’ distribution). Based on these fits, we express spatially implicit parameters in terms of spatially explicit parameters. This suggests how we may obtain estimates of spatially explicit parameters from spatially implicit ones. The relationship between these parameters, however, makes no intuitive sense. Furthermore, the spatially implicit model usually fits observed species-abundance distributions better than those calculated from the spatially explicit model's simulated data. Current spatially explicit neutral models therefore have limited descriptive power. However, our results suggest that a fatter tail of the dispersal kernel seems to improve the fit, suggesting that dispersal kernels with even fatter tails should be studied in future. We conclude that more advanced spatially explicit models and tools to analyze them need to be developed

Seed bank dynamics govern persistence of Brassica hybrids in crop and natural habitats

This is the final version. Available on open access from Oxford University Press via the DOI in this record• Background and Aims: Gene flow from crops to their wild relatives has the potential to alter population growth rates and demography of hybrid populations, especially when a new crop has been genetically modified (GM). This study introduces a comprehensive approach to assess this potential for altered population fitness, and uses a combination of demographic data in two habitat types and mathematical (matrix) models that include crop rotations and outcrossing between parental species. • Methods: Full life-cycle demographic rates, including seed bank survival, of non-GM Brassica rapa x B. napus F1 hybrids and their parent species were estimated from experiments in both agricultural and semi-natural habitats. Altered fitness potential was modelled using periodic matrices including crop rotations and outcrossing between parent species. • Key Results: The demographic vital rates (i.e. For major stage transitions) of the hybrid population were intermediate between or lower than both parental species. The population growth rate (λ) of hybrids indicated decreases in both habitat types, and in a semi-natural habitat hybrids became extinct at two sites. Elasticity analyses indicated that seed bank survival was the greatest contributor to λ. In agricultural habitats, hybrid populations were projected to decline, but with persistence times up to 20 years. The seed bank survival rate was the main driver determining persistence. It was found that λ of the hybrids was largely determined by parental seed bank survival and subsequent replenishment of the hybrid population through outcrossing of B. Rapa with B. napus. • Conclusions: Hybrid persistence was found to be highly dependent on the seed bank, suggesting that targeting hybrid seed survival could be an important management option in controlling hybrid persistence. For local risk mitigation, an increased focus on the wild parent is suggested. Management actions, such as control of B. Rapa, could indirectly reduce hybrid populations by blocking hybrid replenishment.Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)Natural Environment Research Council (NERC