1,198 research outputs found
Best practice in police social media adaptation
Summary:
Best Practice in Police Social Media Adaptation.
This document describes best practice of European
police forces in adapting social media. The description
of these practices stems from a workshop series and
other events where police ICT experts met with academics
and industry experts; and from a study of the
Twitter usage of British police forces during the 2011
riots. Grouped in nine categories, we describe different
uses and implementation strategies of social media by
police forces. Based on these examples, we show that
there have been numerous ways in which police forces
benefitted from adopting social media, ranging from
improved information for investigations and an improved
relationship with the public to a more efficient
use of resources
Transfer of Parahydrogen Induced Polarization in Scalar Coupled Systems at Variable Magnetic Field
Para-Hydrogen Induced Polarization (PHIP) experiments were performed in
coupled multispin systems at variable magnetic fields. We studied the magnetic
field dependence of PHIP in styrene, which is the product of hydrogenation of
phenylacetylene. At low magnetic fields where the spins are coupled strongly
by scalar interaction efficient polarization transfer among the interacting
protons takes place. The experimentally observed spectra are in good agreement
with the simulation, which takes into account eight coupled spins. We also
demonstrate effects of nuclear spin level anti-crossings on the PHIP pattern.
It is shown that rapid passage through the level anti-crossing enables highly
efficient polarization transfer between specific spin orders. In addition, we
studied PHIP transfer to 13C and 19F hetero-nuclei. It is shown that hetero-
nuclei can be efficiently polarized in a wide field range; in particular, for
polarizing them it is not necessary to go to ultra-low fields, which provide
their strong coupling to protons. The resulting polarization is of the
multiplet type and gives strong enhancements of the individual NMR lines. In
general, variation of the magnetic field gives the opportunity for
manipulating PHIP patterns and transferring polarization to target spins of
choice
Linking burst-only X-ray binary sources to faint X-ray transients
Burst-only sources are X-ray sources showing up only during short bursts but
with no persistent emission (at least with the monitoring instrument which led
to their discovery). These bursts have spectral characteristics consistent with
thermonuclear (type I) burst from the neutron star surface, linking burst-only
sources to neutron star X-ray binary transients. We have carried out a series
of snapshot observations of the entire sample of burst-only sources with the
Swift satellite. We found a few sources in outburst and detect faint candidates
likely representing their quiescent counterparts. In addition, we observed
three quasi-persistent faint X-ray binary transients. Finally we discuss
burst-only sources and quasi-persistent sources in the framework of neutron
star transients.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication on Ap
General practitioners' prescribing behaviour as a determinant of poor persistence with inhaled corticosteroids in children with respiratory symptoms:Mixed methods study
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate general practitionersâ (GPsâ) prescribing behaviour as a determinant of persistence with and adherence to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in children. DESIGN: Prospective observational study of persistence with and adherence to ICS followed by a focus group study of the GPs prescribing this treatment. SETTING: 7 primary care practices in the area of Zwolle, the Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS: 134 children aged 2â12â
years had been prescribed ICS in the year before the study started by their 19 GPs. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patterns and motives of GPsâ prescribing behaviour and the relationship with persistence with and adherence to ICS. RESULTS: GPsâ prescribing behaviour was characterised by prescribing short courses of ICS to children with various respiratory symptoms without follow-up for making a diagnosis of asthma. This was driven by the GPsâ pragmatic approach to deal with the large number of children with respiratory symptoms, and by beliefs about ICS which differed from currently available evidence. This prescribing behaviour was the main reason why 68 (51%) children did not persist with the use of ICS. In children with persistent use of ICS and a GP's advice to use ICS on a daily basis, the median (IQR) adherence was 70% (41â84%), and was similar for patients with persistent asthma and children lacking a diagnosis or symptoms of asthma. CONCLUSIONS: Inappropriate prescription of ICS to children by GPs is common and drives the lack of persistence with ICS therapy in primary care. This finding should be taken into account when interpreting data from large prescription database studies. Improving primary healthcare providersâ knowledge and competence in diagnosing and managing asthma in children is needed
Sedimentation and Type I X-ray Bursts at Low Accretion Rates
Neutron stars, with their strong surface gravity, have interestingly short
timescales for the sedimentation of heavy elements. Motivated by observations
of Type I X-ray bursts from sources with extremely low persistent accretion
luminosities, L_X < 10^{36}\usp\ergspersecond (\simeq
0.01\ensuremath{L_{\mathrm{Edd}}}), we study how sedimentation affects the
distribution of isotopes and the ignition of H and He in the envelope of an
accreting neutron star. For local mass accretion rates \mdot \lesssim
10^{-2}\medd (for which the ignition of H is unstable), where \medd =
8.8\times 10^{4}\nsp\gpscps, the helium and CNO elements sediment out of the
accreted fuel before reaching a temperature where H would ignite. Using
one-zone calculations of the thermonuclear burning, we find a range of
accretion rates for which the unstable H ignition does not trigger unstable He
burning. This range depends on the emergent flux from reactions in the deep
neutron star crust; for F = 0.1\nsp\MeV(\dot{m}/\mb), the range is 3\times
10^{-3}\medd\lesssim\mdot\lesssim 10^{-2}\medd. We speculate that sources
accreting in this range will build up a massive He layer that later produces an
energetic and long X-ray burst. At mass accretion rates lower than this range,
we find that the H flash leads to a strong mixed H/He flash. Surprisingly, even
at accretion rates \mdot \gtrsim 0.1\medd, although the H and He do not
completely segregate, the H abundance at the base of the accumulated layer is
still reduced. While following the evolution of the X-ray burst is beyond the
scope of this introductory paper, we note that the reduced proton-to-seed ratio
favors the production of \iso{12}{C}--an important ingredient for subsequent
superbursts.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, submitted to ApJ, revised versio
Expression of chicken hepatic type I and type III iodothyronine deiodinases during embryonic development
In embryonic chicken liver (ECL) two types of iodothyronine deiodinases
are expressed: D1 and D3. D1 catalyzes the activation as well as the
inactivation of thyroid hormone by outer and inner ring deiodination,
respectively. D3 only catalyzes inner ring deiodination. D1 and D3 have
been cloned from mammals and amphibians and shown to contain a
selenocysteine (Sec) residue. We characterized chicken D1 and D3
complementary DNAs (cDNAs) and studied the expression of hepatic D1 and D3
messenger RNAs (mRNAs) during embryonic development. Oligonucleotides
based on two amino acid sequences strongly conserved in the different
deiodinases (NFGSCTSecP and YIEEAH) were used for reverse
transcription-PCR of poly(A+) RNA isolated from embryonic day 17 (E17)
chicken liver, resulting in the amplification of two 117-bp DNA fragments.
Screening of an E17 chicken liver cDNA library with these probes led to
the isolation of two cDNA clones, ECL1711 and ECL1715. The ECL1711 clone
was 1360 bp long and lacked a translation start site. Sequence alignment
showed that it shared highest sequence identity with D1s from other
vertebrates and that the coding sequence probably lacked the first five
nucleotides. An ATG start codon was engineered by site-directed
mutagenesis, generating a mutant (ECL1711M) with four additional codons
(coding for MGTR). The open reading frame of ECL1711M coded for a
249-amino acid protein showing 58-62% identity with mammalian D1s. An
in-frame TGA codon was located at position 127, which is translated as Sec
in the presence ofa Sec insertion sequence (SECIS) identified in the
3'-untranslated region. Enzyme activity expressed in COS-1 cells by
transfection with ECL1711M showed the same catalytic, substrate, and
inhibitor specificities as native chicken D1. The ECL1715 clone was 1366
bp long and also lacked a translation start site. Sequence alignment
showed that it was most homologous with D3 from other species and that the
coding sequence lacked approximately the first 46 nucleotides. The deduced
amino acid sequence showed 62-72% identity with the D3 sequences from
other species, including a putative Sec residue at a corresponding
position. The 3'-untranslated region of ECL1715 also contained a SECIS
element. These results indicate that ECL1711 and ECL1715 are
near-full-length cDNA clones for chicken D1 and D3 selenoproteins,
respectively. The ontogeny of D1 and D3 expression in chicken liver was
studied between E14 and 1 day after hatching (C1). D1 activity showed a
gradual increase from E14 until C1, whereas D1 mRNA level remained
relatively constant. D3 activity and mRNA level were highly significantly
correlated, showing an increase from E14 to E17 and a strong decrease
thereafter. These results suggest that the regulation of chicken hepatic
D3 expression during embryonic development occurs predominantly at the
pretranslational level
Actual persuasiveness : Impact of personality, age and gender on message type susceptibility
The authors would like to acknowledge and thank all the volunteers who participated in the experiment and provided helpful comments. The first author is funded by an EPSRC doctoral training grant.Postprin
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