An interactive model for delivery of a distance learning LLM programme using the eXe learning tool - our journey

In order to keep pace with the changing demands of our distance learning master’s students and to take advantage of advances in technology, in 2016 the interactive delivery of the LLM Employment Law in Practice began, replacing the traditional work book style delivery. The new model delivery is designed to encourage and support the distance learning students to become part of a collaborative learning community. The delivery of the module is via Blackboard and includes discussion boards, virtual classrooms using Blackboard collaborate, and materials provided through the eXe learning tool. The design is to encourage online communities to flourish by offering a variety of opportunities for the students to interact with their peers. The eXe learning tool is an open source authoring application to assist academics in providing materials electronically on the web, but do not require the academic to have advanced programming skills etc. The finished materials offer a much more modern look that is user friendly and a digestible method of providing the materials. The application means that the students can keep pace and measure their learning as it offers a wide variety of instant formative feedback. The summative assessment is also marked electronically giving the student instant access to their mark, individual feedback and feedforward comments. This paper explores our journey from old style delivery to a modern technology based online delivery. The trials and tribulations, the significant development of our information technology skills, the lessons learned and initial student feedback from a cohort who had optional access to both types of delivery

Risk disclosure, causation and the role of Chester

This article explores the scope and application of Chester v Afshar following Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board and more recent decisions that have followed Montgomery. It will attempt to address residual confusion concerning the impact of the decision in Chester and argue that inappropriate recourse to Chester is the source of much of the confusion surrounding causation and risk disclosure. Following the recent decisions in Duce v Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and Diamond v Royal Devon & Exeter NHSFT this article argues that far from being an exceptional case Chester is a very ordinary case and not the special solution to tricky causation problems

Doctors are aggrieved – should they be? Gross negligence manslaughter and the culpable doctor.

Doctors may also be criminals. Mercifully, this is a rare event but no health professional is infallible, mistakes happen and the challenge is to distinguish inadvertence from wilful disregard for the consequences. Healthcare professionals are uneasy about the readiness of the current law to attribute criminal responsibility accompanied by a failure to recognise the highly pressurised context in which sub-standard practice occurs. This article argues that the offence of gross negligence manslaughter is improperly defined and fails to target those doctors whom society should criminalise. Alternatives to gross negligence manslaughter to include culpable homicide adopted in Scotland and the major departure test favoured by New Zealand are considered before advocating a more radical approach—the sliding scale of negligence. Using existing tests in civil and administrative law, a more objective test of gross negligence is proposed, with culpability as a mandatory requirement for a doctor to be convicted of a crime. It is contended the law must move away from the stance a patient’s death is required for medical negligence to become a crime, an outcome bias, to a conduct biased offence. There is no underlying reason why culpable gross negligence causing serious harm should not also be subject to criminal sanction. The recent sentencing guidelines demonstrate the law is sophisticated enough to distinguish reprehensible conduct from careless behaviour. It is now time for the legal test to also acknowledge all the circumstances of the alleged crime

Control of contaminants during introduction and establishment of Bambusa vulgaris in vitro

The aim of this work was to test techniques to reduce microbial contamination in the phases of introduction and establishment of the in vitro cultivation of Bambusa vulgaris through two experiments. The first experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design using a factorial arrangement (pre-treatment of nodal segments using or not a solution of Derosal 500 SC® and Chloramphenicol × culture medium with half or full concentration of salts × culture medium with presence or absence of sucrose × culture medium with presence or absence of Plant Preservative MixtureTM). In a second experiment, carried out in a completely randomized design, the effect of different fungicides associated to Chloramphenicol in a liquid culture medium was tested. It was possible to verify that the isolated effects of the pre-treatment by immersion of the nodal segments in a solution of 4 mL L-1 of Derosal 500 SC® and 200 mg L-1 of Chloramphenicol for 30 minutes and explants placed in a sucrose-free medium reduced fungal contamination. In the second experiment, the treatment that reduced fungal contamination corresponded to explants placed for seven days in a liquid medium with half the concentration of salts, sucrose-free, with 2 mL L-1 of Plant Preservative MixtureTM and with 4 mL L-1 of  Derosal 500 SC® and 200 mg L-1 of Chloramphenicol

A comparative study of mentoring for new teachers

The research conducted in Scotland was funded by the Scottish GovernmentPeer reviewedPostprin

Effects of the bendazol fungicide on in vitro development of the nim (Azadirachta indica A. JUSS)

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate Bendazol fungicidal effects in neem micropropagation. In these experiments, the nodal segment explants from in vitro plants were used. In the first experiment, the explants remained in DKW culture medium for a period of 30 days containing different concentrations of Bendazol (M1 -50, M2 - 100, M3 - 200, and M4 - 400 mg.L-1). The control treatment (M0) was prepared with DKW medium + BAP (0.225 mg.L-1). In the second experiment, the explants were maintained for only one week in media supplemented with Bendazol or BAP, and then they were transferred and kept in free Bendazol/BAP media for three weeks. In each experiment, the design was completely randomized with five treatments, 10 replicates per treatment, and one explant/cultivation flask.  The variables analyzed included the formation of calluses and roots, lateral bud development, shoot height, contamination and plant death. There was no significant difference in tree variables (shoot, callus formation and shoot height) between treatments in both experiments. There was no death, plant contamination and rooting during the experiment. The results indicate that Bendazol can be used at low doses for in vitro neem cloning thereby replacing BAP and ultimately reducing production costs

Considerations for Dietary Assessment in the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project

Dietary factors are leading contributors to chronic disease and mortality globally and in Canada (1–3), and have been recognized as modifiable risk factors for certain cancers (4). However, much remains to be learned about how dietary factors interact with other modifiable and nonmodifiable exposures and physiologic variables to influence disease risk in humans (5,6). Information collected from large prospective cohorts plays an important role in furthering our understanding of diet-disease relationships (7,8). To advance knowledge on how to promote health and prevent disease, it is critically important to use robust tools for collecting dietary information from participants in such cohorts (9). This guide is intended to be utilized by researchers designing nutritional epidemiological research and in particular, to guide the implementation of dietary assessment tools within the CPTP cohorts. The aim is to provide guidance on method selection, data collection, and analyses of dietary data, as well as stimulate discussions of harmonization of methods across cohorts to advance the evidence base. Because objective measures such as biomarkers of diet are currently few, burdensome, costly, and limited in the information they provide about the types of foods and beverages people consume (5,6), researchers typically rely upon self-report tools. However, it has long been recognized that self-reported dietary data are affected by error, including systematic error or bias (9,10), leading some commentators to suggest that research should no longer rely on selfreport approaches (11,12). However, much work has been conducted to better understand and address error in self-report dietary intake data (9,10). Such work has informed the development of novel technology-enabled tools to allow collection of the least-biased data possible, as well as the development of rigorous statistical approaches to mitigate the effects of error (13–16). Based on what is known about sources and types of error in data captured using different types of tools, it has been recommended that a combination of tools may be the optimal way forward for cohort studies. Specifically, multiple 24-hour recalls (24HRs), administered in combination with a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), may allow researchers to leverage the strengths of each instrument (10,14,17). Data from 24HRs provide comprehensive detail on intake and measure consumption with less bias than FFQs. On the other hand, FFQs measure intake over a longer period (e.g. past month or year) (18–20), meaning they are better able to capture intake of foods and beverages that may be consumed more episodically (e.g., whole grains, dark-green vegetables) but that may be important to diet-disease relationships. The availability of weband mobile device-based dietary assessment tools for use in Canada and emerging statistical techniques to analyze the resulting data makes this multiple-tool scenario a realistic consideration for Alberta’s Tomorrow Project (21), other cohorts within the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project (CPTP) (22), and other health-related studies. With comprehensive and standardized measurement of dietary exposures across cohorts, the identification of promising strategies to reduce diet-related disease risk among Canadians can be furthered (9)

Ongoing studies on the bats of Danum Valley Borneo

Here we provide an update on the batting activities of the James Cook University's biannual undergraduate field trip to Danum Valley Field Centre in Borneo. The 2013 trip focussed on various bat surveying techniques, with an emphasis on the use and effectiveness of the EM3 full-spectrum and Anabat II ZCAM ultrasonic detectors. We captured a total of thirty-three individuals of 12 different species in harp traps and mist nets, three species of which had not been encountered on previous surveys. We collected an additional 16,500 call files and in total, we now have a call library of 43 microbat species (of which 28 can be allocated to individual species) along with high-quality photographs of 20 micro- and megabats. It will be no surprise that Terry Reardon also took dynamic photographs of individuals in flight upon release, and generously donated his flash-setup to the staff of Danum Valley. Future field trips will continue to build the call and photo library as well as collect tissue samples for collaborative studies with scientists in Malaysia and Australia. We plan to make the calls and photos available via an open-access WWW page

Archaeological bone lipids as palaeodietary markers

Rationale Stable isotope analysis of archaeological and fossil bone samples can provide important insights into past environments, ecologies and diets. Previous studies have focused on stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in bone collagen, or carbon isotopes in bone mineral (bioapatite). Carbon isotope analysis of lipids from archaeological bone has received much less attention, partly due to the lack of suitable methodologies allowing sufficient recovery of compounds for structural and isotopic characterisation. Here we show that lipids can be easily and reliably recovered from archaeological bone using a modified protocol, and that these provide complementary dietary information to other bone components. Methods Human and animal bones were obtained from a variety of archaeological contexts. Lipids were sequentially extracted using solvent extraction (dichloromethane/methanol), followed by acidified methanol extraction (methanol/H2SO4). The lipids were then analysed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and gas chromatography/combustion/isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC/C/IRMS). Results Appreciable amounts of endogenous lipid were recovered from archaeological bone. Importantly, a comparison between compound-specific and bulk collagen isotopic data shows that archaeological bone lipids reflect dietary input and can be used to distinguish between marine and terrestrial consumers, as well as between C3 and C4 plant consumers. Furthermore, the presence of essential fatty acids directly incorporated from diet to bone may provide additional palaeodietary information. Conclusions Our findings suggest that archaeological bone lipids are a hitherto untapped resource of dietary information that offer additional insights to those gained from other isotopic analyses of bone