Physiotherapy students\u27 perceptions and experiences of clinical prediction rules

Objectives: Clinical reasoning can be difficult to teach to pre-professional physiotherapy students due to their lack of clinical experience. It may be that tools such as clinical prediction rules (CPRs) could aid the process, but there has been little investigation into their use in physiotherapy clinical education. This study aimed to determine the perceptions and experiences of physiotherapy students regarding CPRs, and whether they are learning about CPRs on clinical placement. Design: Cross-sectional survey using a paper-based questionnaire. Participants: Final year pre-professional physiotherapy students (n=371, response rate 77%) from five universities across five states of Australia. Results: Sixty percent of respondents had not heard of CPRs, and a further 19% had not clinically used CPRs. Only 21% reported using CPRs, and of these nearly three-quarters were rarely, if ever, learning about CPRs in the clinical setting. However most of those who used CPRs (78%) believed CPRs assisted in the development of clinical reasoning skills and none (0%) was opposed to the teaching of CPRs to students. The CPRs most commonly recognised and used by students were those for determining the need for an X-ray following injuries to the ankle and foot (67%), and for identifying deep venous thrombosis (63%). Conclusions: The large majority of students in this sample knew little, if anything, about CPRs and few had learned about, experienced or practiced them on clinical placement. However, students who were aware of CPRs found them helpful for their clinical reasoning and were in favour of learning more about them

Ground-based monitoring of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko gas activity throughout the <i>Rosetta</i> mission

Simultaneously to the ESA Rosetta mission, a world-wide ground-based campaign provided measurements of the large scale activity of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko through measurement of optically active gas species and imaging of the overall dust coma. We present more than two years of observations performed with the FORS2 low resolution spectrograph at the VLT, TRAPPIST, and ACAM at the WHT. We focus on the evolution of the CN production, as a tracer of the comet activity. We find that it is asymmetric with respect to perihelion and different from that of the dust. The CN emission is detected for the first time at 1.34 au pre-perihelion and production rates then increase steeply to peak about two weeks after perihelion at (1.00±0.10) ×1025 molecules s−1, while the post-perihelion decrease is more shallow. The evolution of the comet activity is strongly influenced by seasonal effects, with enhanced CN production when the Southern hemisphere is illuminated

Transboundary Movement of Atlantic Istiophorid Billfishes Among International and U.S. Domestic Management Areas Inferred from Mark-Recapture Studies

Billfish movements relative to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas management areas, as well as U.S. domestic data collection areas within the western North Atlantic basin, were investigated with mark-recapture data from 769 blue marlin, Makaira nigricans, 961 white marlin, Tetrapturus albidus, and 1,801 sailfish, Istiophorus platypterus. Linear displacement between release and recapture locations ranged from zero (all species) to 15,744 km (mean 575, median 119, SE 44) for blue marlin, 6,523 km (mean 719, median 216, SE 33) for white marlin, and 3,845 km (mean 294, median 98, SE 13) for sailfish. In total, 2,824 (80.0%) billfish were recaptured in the same management area of release. Days at liberty ranged from zero (all species) to 4,591 (mean 619, median 409, SE 24) for blue marlin, 5,488 (mean 692, median 448, SE 22) for white marlin, and 6,568 (mean 404, median 320, SE 11) for sailfish. The proportions (per species) of visits were highest in the Caribbean area for blue marlin and white marlin, and the Florida East Coast area for sailfish. Blue marlin and sailfish were nearly identical when comparing the percent of individuals vs. the number of areas visited. Overall, white marlin visited more areas than either blue marlin or sailfish. Seasonality was evident for all species, with overall results generally reflecting the efforts of the catch and release recreational fishing sector, particularly in the western North Atlantic. This information may be practical in reducing the uncertainties in billfish stock assessments and may offer valuable insight into management consideration of time-area closure regulations to reduce bycatch mortality of Atlantic billfishes

The comet 17P/Holmes 2007 outburst: the early motion of the outburst material

Context. On October 24, 2007 the periodic comet 17P/Holmes underwent an astonishing outburst that increased its apparent total brightness from magnitude V\sim17 up to V\sim2.5 in roughly two days. We report on Wendelstein 0.8 m telescope (WST) photometric observations of the early evolution stages of the outburst. Aims. We studied the evolution of the structure morphology, its kinematic, and estimated the ejected dust mass. Methods. We analized 126 images in the BVRI photometric bands spread between 26/10/2007 and 20/11/2007. The bright comet core appeared well separated from that one of a quickly expanding dust cloud in all the data, and the bulk of the latter was contained in the field of view of our instrument. The ejected dust mass was derived on the base of differential photometry on background stars occulted by the moving cloud. Results. The two cores were moving apart from each other at a relative projected constant velocity of (9.87 +/- 0.07) arcsec/day (0.135 +/-0.001 km/sec). In the inner regions of the dust cloud we observed a linear increase in size at a mean constant velocity of (14.6+/-0.3) arcsec/day (0.200+/-0.004 km/sec). Evidence of a radial velocity gradient in the expanding cloud was also found. Our estimate for the expanding coma's mass was of the order of 10^{-2}-1 comet's mass implying a significant disintegration event. Conclusions. We interpreted our observations in the context of an explosive scenario which was more probably originated by some internal instability processes, rather than an impact with an asteroidal body. Due to the peculiar characteristics of this event, further observations and investigations are necessary in order to enlight the nature of the physical processes that determined it.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, A&A accepte

The Refractory-to-Ice Mass Ratio in Comets

We review the complex relationship between the dust-to-gas mass ratio usually estimated in the material lost by comets, and the Refractory-to-Ice mass ratio inside the nucleus, which constrains the origin of comets. Such a relationship is dominated by the mass transfer from the perihelion erosion to fallout over most of the nucleus surface. This makes the Refractory-to-Ice mass ratio inside the nucleus up to ten times larger than the dust-to-gas mass ratio in the lost material, because the lost material is missing most of the refractories which were inside the pristine nucleus before the erosion. We review the Refractory-to-Ice mass ratios available for the comet nuclei visited by space missions, and for the Kuiper Belt Objects with well defined bulk density, finding the 1-σ lower limit of 3. Therefore, comets and KBOs may have less water than CI-chondrites, as predicted by models of comet formation by the gravitational collapse of cm-sized pebbles driven by streaming instabilities in the protoplanetary disc

Movements and Habitat Utilization of Two Longbill Spearfish Tetrapturus pfluegeri in the Eastern Tropical South Atlantic Ocean

The longbill spearfish Tetrapturus pfleugeri Robins and de Sylva, 1963, is a small istiophorid billfish found in the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas that occurs as an infrequent by-catch in recreational and commercial pelagic fisheries. Although some data exist on diet and reproduction based on dead specimens, little is known of the species’ habitat preferences or individual movement patterns. In 2004, two longbill spearfish were tagged with pop-up satellite archival tags (PSATs) near Ascencion Island in the South Atlantic for 11 d and 45 d. Individual movement tracks derived from light-based geolocation estimates suggested little relationship with sea surface temperature fronts, although both animals demonstrated a clear preference away from the West African subsurface hypoxic plume. Overall temperature at depth distributions for both fish were narrow; between 22–26 °C for 97% and 82% respectively of the total time at liberty durations. Almost all of the 8-h time-at-depth periods for both day and combined periods showed that these two fish remained within 150 m of the surface. However, time at depth utilization analyses suggest a slightly bimodal distribution, with the majority of the time at depths \u3c 25 m and a secondary grouping at 50–100 m. Depth utilization data are consistent with the hypothesis that interactions between this species and deep-set pelagic longline fisheries for bigeye tuna in the eastern tropical South Atlantic occurs primarily at set and retrieval of the gear

Penetrators as a deployment tool for Mass Spectrometer instrumentation

We discuss penetrator deployment systems and Mass Spectrometer (MS) based instrumentation that offer the potential for future characterization and understanding of the volatile content at the surface and near-surface of airless bodies in the Solar System. We review previous penetrator missions, systems and instrumentation, before considering future options to bodies such as the moon and small solar system bodies

A Comprehensive Survey of Brane Tilings

An infinite class of $4d$ $\mathcal{N}=1$ gauge theories can be engineered on the worldvolume of D3-branes probing toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds. This kind of setup has multiple applications, ranging from the gauge/gravity correspondence to local model building in string phenomenology. Brane tilings fully encode the gauge theories on the D3-branes and have substantially simplified their connection to the probed geometries. The purpose of this paper is to push the boundaries of computation and to produce as comprehensive a database of brane tilings as possible. We develop efficient implementations of brane tiling tools particularly suited for this search. We present the first complete classification of toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds with toric diagrams up to area 8 and the corresponding brane tilings. This classification is of interest to both physicists and mathematicians alike.Comment: 39 pages. Link to Mathematica modules provide

MUSE observations of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko:A reference for future comet observations with MUSE

Observations of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko were performed with MUSE at large heliocentric distances post-perihelion, between March 3 and 7, 2016. Those observations were part of a simultaneous ground-based campaign aimed at providing large-scale information about comet 67P that complement the ESA/Rosetta mission. We obtained a total of 38 datacubes over 5 nights. We take advantage of the integral field unit (IFU) nature of the instrument to study simultaneously the spectrum of 67P's dust and its spatial distribution in the coma. We also look for evidence of gas emission in the coma. We produce a high quality spectrum of the dust coma over the optical range that could be used as a reference for future comet observations with the instrument. The slope of the dust reflectivity is of 10%$/100$ nm over the 480-900 nm interval, with a shallower slope towards redder wavelengths. We use the $\mathrm{Af\rho}$ to quantify the dust production and measure values of 65$\pm$4 cm, 75$\pm$4 cm, and 82$\pm$4 cm in the V, R, and I bands respectively. We detect several jets in the coma, as well as the dust trail. Finally, using a novel method combining spectral and spatial information, we detect the forbidden oxygen emission line at 630 nm. Using this line we derive a water production rate of $1.5\pm0.6 \times 10^{26} \mathrm{molec./s}$, assuming all oxygen atoms come from the photo-dissociation of water.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

On the Semantics of "Now" in Databases

While "now" is expressed in SQL as CURRENT-TIMESTAMP within queries, this value cannot be stored in the database. However, this notion of an ever-increasing current-time value has been reflected in some temporal data models by inclusion of database-resident variables, such as "now," "until-changed," "â," "@" and "-." Time variables are very desirable, but their use also leads to a new type of database, consisting of tuples with variables, termed a variable database. This paper proposes a framework for defining the semantics of the variable databases of temporal relational data models. A framework is presented because several reasonable meanings may be given to databases that use some of the specific temporal variables that have appeared in the literature. Using the framework, the paper defines a useful semantics for such databases. Because situations occur where the existing time variables are inadequate, two new types of modeling entities that address these shortcomings, timestamps which we call now-relative and now-relative indeterminate, are introduced and defined within the framework. Moreover, the paper provides a foundation, using algebraic bind operators, for the querying of variable databases via existing query languages. This transition to variable databases presented here requires minimal change to the query processor. Finally, to underline the practical feasibility of variable databases, we show that database variables can be precisely specified and efficiently implemented in conventional query languages, such as SQL, and in temporal query languages, such as TSQL2.Information Systems Working Papers Serie