Development of children's assent documents using a child-centred approach

The call for researchers to obtain childrens informed assent, prior to their participation in medical procedures and research, has increased over recent years and parallels moves to implement child-centred approaches to health care. This article describes the processes used to include children in developing a research information sheet and assent form for use in future research into childrens understandings of their surgery and hospital experiences. The process involved primary school children aged between six and 12 years. Children worked in small groups to consider information to include in these documents. Their words were collated to construct the research information sheet and assent form. Working with children resulted in documents that were more understandable for their intended audience. The article includes discussion of `language, `understandability and `readability; concepts that researchers seeking to work with children need to come to terms with if they are to obtain `informed assent

Teaching narrative journalism and the APN Professional Development Program

This paper extends the familiar concept of ‘journalism-as-storytelling’ into a description of some of its practical applications in a university and industry partnership resulting in a commercial training arrangement in early 2007. It describes the APN/USQ Professional Development Program for newspaper employees (with no formal journalism qualification) and exemplifies how print journalism courses may be adapted to teach narrative writing techniques. It demonstrates how foundation skills in journalistic practice may be incorporated into an adapted teaching model, suggesting that “the basics” of narrative writing should not be thought of as discrete components of journalism education. This argument is further supported by the description of a robust pedagogical approach informed by Mezirows’ transformative learning theory for a cross-disciplinary knowledge base

Impact of EHR Usability on Provider Efficiency and Patient Safety in Non-Hospital Settings

Healthcare organizations may reap benefits transitioning to electronic health records (EHRs), such as decreased healthcare costs and better care. However, severe unintended consequences from implementation and design of these systems have emerged. Poorly implemented EHR systems may endanger the integrity of clinical or administrative data. That, in turn, can lead to errors jeopardizing patient safety or quality of care. A literature review of 40 sources identified how EHR implementation and design can impact provider centric, patient centric, and outcomes. These categories provided the basis for a comprehensive EHR impact model that was evaluated in non-hospital settings through focus groups interviews

The H1 Forward Track Detector at HERA II

In order to maintain efficient tracking in the forward region of H1 after the luminosity upgrade of the HERA machine, the H1 Forward Track Detector was also upgraded. While much of the original software and techniques used for the HERA I phase could be reused, the software for pattern recognition was completely rewritten. This, along with several other improvements in hit finding and high-level track reconstruction, are described in detail together with a summary of the performance of the detector.Comment: Minor revision requested by journal (JINST) edito

Approximate ab initio calculation of vibrational properties of hydrogenated amorphous silicon with inner voids

We have performed an approximate ab initio calculation of vibrational properties of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) using a molecular dynamics method. A 216 atom model for pure amorphous silicon (a-Si) has been employed as a starting point for our a-Si:H models with voids that were made by removing a cluster of silicon atoms out of the bulk and terminating the resulting dangling bonds with hydrogens. Our calculation shows that the presence of voids leads to localized low energy (30-50 cm^{-1}) states in the vibrational spectrum of the system. The nature and localization properties of these states are analyzed by various visualization techniques.Comment: 15 pages with 6 PS figures, to appear in PRB in December 199

Fiber-Cavity-Based Optomechanical Device

We describe an optomechanical device consisting of a fiber-based optical cavity containing a silicon nitiride membrane. In comparison with typical free-space cavities, the fiber-cavity's small mode size (10 {\mu}m waist, 80 {\mu}m length) allows the use of smaller, lighter membranes and increases the cavity-membrane linear coupling to 3 GHz/nm and quadratic coupling to 20 GHz/nm^2. This device is also intrinsically fiber-coupled and uses glass ferrules for passive alignment. These improvements will greatly simplify the use of optomechanical systems, particularly in cryogenic settings. At room temperature, we expect these devices to be able to detect the shot noise of radiation pressure.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; the following article has been submitted to Applied Physics Letter

Local origins impart conserved bone type-related differences in human osteoblast behaviour

Osteogenic behaviour of osteoblasts from trabecular, cortical and subchondral bone were examined to determine any bone type-selective differences in samples from both osteoarthritic (OA) and osteoporotic (OP) patients. Cell growth, differentiation; alkaline phosphatase (TNAP) mRNA and activity, Runt-related transcription factor-2 (RUNX2), SP7-transcription factor (SP7), bone sialoprotein-II (BSP-II), osteocalcin/bone gamma-carboxyglutamate (BGLAP), osteoprotegerin (OPG, TNFRSF11B), receptor activator of nuclear factor-κβ ligand (RANKL, TNFSF11) mRNA levels and proangiogenic vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) mRNA and protein release were assessed in osteoblasts from paired humeral head samples from age-matched, human OA/OP (n = 5/4) patients. Initial outgrowth and increase in cell number were significantly faster (p < 0.01) in subchondral and cortical than trabecular osteoblasts, in OA and OP, and this bone type-related differences were conserved despite consistently faster growth in OA. RUNX2/SP7 levels and TNAP mRNA and protein activity were, however, greater in trabecular than subchondral and cortical osteoblasts in OA and OP. BSP-II levels were significantly greater in trabecular and lowest in cortical osteoblasts in both OA and OP. In contrast, BGLAP levels showed divergent bone type-selective behaviour; highest in osteoblasts from subchondral origins in OA and trabecular origins in OP. We found virtually identical bone type-related differences, however, in TNFRSF11B:TNFSF11 in OA and OP, consistent with greater potential for paracrine effects on osteoclasts in trabecular osteoblasts. Subchondral osteoblasts (OA) exhibited highest VEGF-A mRNA levels and release. Our data indicate that human osteoblasts in trabecular, subchondral and cortical bone have inherent, programmed diversity, with specific bone type-related differences in growth, differentiation and pro-angiogenic potential in vitro

Gap soliton formation by nonlinear supratransmission in Bragg media

A Bragg medium in the nonlinear Kerr regime, submitted to incident cw-radiation at a frequency in a band gap, switches from total reflection to transmission when the incident energy overcomes some threshold. We demonstrate that this is a result of nonlinear supratransmission, which allows to prove that i) the threshold incident amplitude is simply expressed in terms of the deviation from the Bragg resonance, ii) the process is not the result of a shift of the gap in the nonlinear dispersion relation, iii) the transmission does occur by means of gap soliton trains, as experimentally observed [D. Taverner et al., Opt Lett 23 (1998) 328], iv) the required energy tends to zero close to the band edge.Comment: 5 figures, submitted to EuroPhysics Letter