Software Requirements Specification of A University Class Scheduler

The University Class Scheduler (UCS) presented in this paper is a novel scheduling tool intended to be used by universities to schedule classes into classrooms. In essence, UCS allows university administrators to enter relevant college and building information, schedule the input classes (courses) into input classrooms, and create web pages that provide detailed schedule information on a semester-by-semester basis. The UCS, which performs the scheduling of classes according to a number of user-selected parameters, can be easily adapted for applications outside the academic realm. This paper presents the main aspects of the University Class Scheduler’s UML-based specification, gives details of the UCS’ current development status, and points to a series of possible extensions that we intend to investigate in the near future

Collaboration between Science and Religious Education teachers in Scottish Secondary schools

The article reports on quantitative research that examines: (1) the current practice in collaboration; and (2) potential for collaboration between Science and Religious Education teachers in a large sample of Scottish secondary schools. The authors adopt and adapt three models (conflict; concordat and consonance) to interrogate the relationship between science and religion (and the perceived relation between these two subjects in schools) (Astley and Francis 2010). The findings indicate that there is evidence of limited collaboration and, in a few cases, a dismissive attitude towards collaboration (conflict and concordat and very weak consonance). There is, however, evidence of a genuine aspiration for greater collaboration among many teachers (moving towards a more robust consonance model). The article concludes by discussing a number of key factors that must be realised for this greater collaboration to be enacted

Mapping pneumonia research: a systematic analysis of UK investments and published outputs 1997–2013

BackgroundThe burden of pneumonia continues to be substantial, particularly among the poorest in global society. We describe here the trends for UK pneumonia R&D investment and published outputs, and correlate with 2013 global mortality.MethodsData related to awards to UK institutions for pneumonia research from 1997 to 2013 were systematically sourced and categorised by disease area and type of science. Investment was compared to mortality figures in 2010 and 2013 for pneumonia, tuberculosis and influenza. Investment was also compared to publication data.ResultsOf all infectious disease research between 2011 and 2013 (£917.0 million), £28.8 million (3.1%) was for pneumonia. This was an absolute and proportionate increase from previous time periods. Translational pneumonia research (33.3%) received increased funding compared with 1997–2010 where funding was almost entirely preclinical (87.5%, here 30.9%), but high-burden areas such as paediatrics, elderly care and antimicrobial resistance received little investment. Annual investment remains volatile; publication temporal trends show a consistent increase. When comparing investment to global burden with a novel ‘investment by mortality observed’ metric, tuberculosis (£48.36) and influenza (£484.21) receive relatively more funding than pneumonia (£43.08), despite investment for pneumonia greatly increasing in 2013 compared to 2010 (£7.39). Limitations include a lack of private sector data and the need for careful interpretation of the comparisons with burden, plus categorisation is subjective.ConclusionsThere has been a welcome increase for pneumonia funding awarded to UK institutions in 2011–2013 compared with 1997–2010, along with increases for more translational research. Published outputs relating to pneumonia rose steadily from 1997 to 2013. Investment relative to mortality for pneumonia has increased, but it remains low compared to other respiratory infections and clear inequities remain. Analyses that measure investments in pneumonia can provide an insight into funding trends and research gaps.Research in contextPneumonia continues to be a high-burden illness around the globe. This paper shows that although research funding is increasing in the UK (between 1997 and 2013), it remains poorly funded compared to other important respiratory infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and influenza. Publications about pneumonia have been steadily increasing over time, indicating continuing academic and clinical interest in the topic. Though global mortality of pneumonia is declining, it should still be an area of high priority for funders, policymakers and researchers

Insulin-stimulated phosphorylation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase at serine-615 contributes to nitric oxide synthesis

Insulin stimulates endothelial NO (nitric oxide) synthesis via PKB (protein kinase B)/Akt-mediated phosphorylation and activation of eNOS (endothelial NO synthase) at Ser-1177. In previous studies, we have demonstrated that stimulation of eNOS phosphorylation at Ser-1177 may be required, yet is not sufficient for insulin-stimulated NO synthesis. We therefore investigated the role of phosphorylation of eNOS at alternative sites to Ser-1177 as candidate parallel mechanisms contributing to insulin-stimulated NO synthesis. Stimulation of human aortic endothelial cells with insulin rapidly stimulated phosphorylation of both Ser-615 and Ser-1177 on eNOS, whereas phosphorylation of Ser-114, Thr-495 and Ser-633 was unaffected. Insulin-stimulated Ser-615 phosphorylation was abrogated by incubation with the PI3K (phosphoinositide 3-kinase) inhibitor wortmannin, infection with adenoviruses expressing a dominant-negative mutant PKB/Akt or pre-incubation with TNFα (tumour necrosis factor α), but was unaffected by high culture glucose concentrations. Mutation of Ser-615 to alanine reduced insulin-stimulated NO synthesis, whereas mutation of Ser-615 to aspartic acid increased NO production by NOS in which Ser-1177 had been mutated to an aspartic acid residue. We propose that the rapid PKB-mediated stimulation of phosphorylation of Ser-615 contributes to insulin-stimulated NO synthesis

War with Iraq?

On 11 September 2001 terrorists from the amorphous transnational Al Qaeda network killed thousands of Americans and other nationals by flying planes into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Washington, and a field in Pennsylvania. A year later the United States is preparing to launch a war against the state of Iraq, emphasising the grave and imminent danger posed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, but animated also by a long-standing goal of 'regime change'. What explains this 'statising' of the so-called 'war against terrorism'? What risks does it pose for regional and world order? This Keynote brings together some of Australia's leading thinkers and commentators on American foreign policy, the politics of the Middle East, strategic and defence issues, and global governance to reflect on the multiple issues raised by the prospect of war with Iraq

The occupation of a box as a toy model for the seismic cycle of a fault

We illustrate how a simple statistical model can describe the quasiperiodic occurrence of large earthquakes. The model idealizes the loading of elastic energy in a seismic fault by the stochastic filling of a box. The emptying of the box after it is full is analogous to the generation of a large earthquake in which the fault relaxes after having been loaded to its failure threshold. The duration of the filling process is analogous to the seismic cycle, the time interval between two successive large earthquakes in a particular fault. The simplicity of the model enables us to derive the statistical distribution of its seismic cycle. We use this distribution to fit the series of earthquakes with magnitude around 6 that occurred at the Parkfield segment of the San Andreas fault in California. Using this fit, we estimate the probability of the next large earthquake at Parkfield and devise a simple forecasting strategy.Comment: Final version of the published paper, with an erratum and an unpublished appendix with some proof

The Galaxy Zoo survey for giant AGN-ionized clouds: past and present black hole accretion events

Some active galactic nuclei (AGN) are surrounded by extended emission-line regions (EELRs), which trace both the illumination pattern of escaping radiation and its history over the light travel time from the AGN to the gas. From a new set of such EELRs, we present evidence that the AGN in many Seyfert galaxies undergo luminous episodes 0.2–2 ×105 years in duration. Motivated by the discovery of the spectacular nebula known as Hanny’s Voorwerp, ionized by a powerful AGN which has apparently faded dramatically within ≈ 105 years, Galaxy Zoo volunteers have carried out both targeted and serendipitous searches for similar emission-line clouds around low-redshift galaxies. We present the resulting list of candidates and describe spectroscopy identifying 19 galaxies with AGN-ionized regions at projected radii rproj \u3e 10 kpc. This search recovered known EELRs (such as Mrk 78, Mrk 266 and NGC 5252) and identified additional previously unknown cases, one with detected emission to r = 37 kpc. One new Sy 2 was identified. At least 14/19 are in interacting or merging systems, suggesting that tidal tails are a prime source of distant gas out of the galaxy plane to be ionized by an AGN. We see a mix of one-and two-sided structures, with observed cone angles from 23◦ to 112◦. We consider the energy balance in the ionized clouds, with lower and upper bounds on ionizing luminosity from recombination and ionization-parameter arguments, and estimate the luminosity of the core from the far-infrared data. The implied ratio of ionizing radiation seen by the clouds to that emitted by the nucleus, on the assumption of a non-variable nuclear source, ranges from 0.02 to \u3e12; 7/19 exceed unity. Small values fit well with a heavily obscured AGN in which only a small fraction of the ionizing output escapes to be traced by surrounding gas. However, large values may require that the AGN has faded over tens of thousands of years, giving us several examples of systems in which such dramatic long-period variation has occurred; this is the only current technique for addressing these time-scales in AGN history. The relative numbers of faded and non-faded objects we infer, and the projected extents of the ionized regions, give our estimate (0.2–2×105 years) for the length of individual bright phases