3,843 research outputs found
Collaborative multidisciplinary learning : quantity surveying students’ perspectives
The construction industry is highly fragmented and is known for its adversarial culture, culminating
in poor quality projects not completed on time or within budget. The aim of this study is thus to
guide the design of QS programme curricula in order to help students develop the requisite
knowledge and skills to work more collaboratively in their multi-disciplinary future workplaces.
A qualitative approach was considered appropriate as the authors were concerned with gathering an
initial understanding of what students think of multi-disciplinary learning. The data collection
method used was a questionnaire which was developed by the Behaviours4Collaboration (B4C)
team.
Knowledge gaps were still found across all the key areas where a future QS practitioner needs to be
collaborative (either as a project contributor or as a project leader) despite the need for change
instigated by the multi-disciplinary (BIM) education revolution.
The study concludes that universities will need to be selective in teaching, and innovative in
reorienting, QS education so that a collaborative BIM education can be effected in stages, increasing
in complexity as the students’ technical knowledge grows. This will help students to build the
competencies needed to make them future leaders. It will also support programme currency and
delivery
Sick-leave track record and other potential predictors of a disability pension. A population based study of 8,218 men and women followed for 16 years
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A number of previous studies have investigated various predictors for being granted a disability pension. The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of sick-leave track record as a predictor of being granted a disability pension in a large dataset based on subjects sampled from the general population and followed for a long time.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data from five ongoing population-based Swedish studies was used, supplemented with data on all compensated sick leave periods, disability pensions granted, and vital status, obtained from official registers. The data set included 8,218 men and women followed for 16 years, generated 109,369 person years of observation and 97,160 sickness spells. Various measures of days of sick leave during follow up were used as independent variables and disability pension grant was used as outcome.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There was a strong relationship between individual sickness spell duration and annual cumulative days of sick leave on the one hand and being granted a disability pension on the other, among both men and women, after adjustment for the effects of marital status, education, household size, smoking habits, geographical area and calendar time period, a proxy for position in the business cycle. The interval between sickness spells showed a corresponding inverse relationship. Of all the variables studied, the number of days of sick leave per year was the most powerful predictor of a disability pension. For both men and women 245 annual sick leave days were needed to reach a 50% probability of transition to disability. The independent variables, taken together, explained 96% of the variation in disability pension grantings.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The sick-leave track record was the most important predictor of the probability of being granted a disability pension in this study, even when the influences of other variables affecting the outcome were taken into account.</p
Building an end user focused THz based ultra high bandwidth wireless access network: The TERAPOD approach
The TERAPOD project aims to investigate and demonstrate the feasibility of ultra high bandwidth wireless access networks operating in the Terahertz (THz) band. The proposed TERAPOD THz communication system will be developed, driven by end user usage scenario requirements and will be demonstrated within a first adopter operational setting of a Data Centre. In this article, we define the full communications stack approach that will be taken in TERAPOD, highlighting the specific challenges and aimed innovations that are targeted
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Preparation and crystallization of hollow α-Fe<inf>2</inf>O<inf>3</inf> microspheres following the gas-bubble template method
In this work we report the formation of hollow α-Fe2O3 (hematite) microspheres by the gas-bubble template method. This technique is simple and it does not require hard templates, surfactants, special conditions of atmosphere or complex steps. After reacting Fe(NO3)3.9H2O and citric acid in water by sol-gel, the precursor was annealed in air at different temperatures between 180 and 600 ºC. Annealing at 550 and 600 ºC generates bubbles on the melt which crystallize and oxidizes to form hematite hollow spheres after condensation. The morphology and crystal evolution are studied by means of X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. We found that after annealing at 250-400 ºC, the sample consist of a mixture of magnetite, maghemite and hematite. Single hematite phase in the form of hollow microspheres is obtained after annealing at 500 and 600 ºC. The crystallization and crystal size of the hematite shells increase with annealing temperature. A possible mechanism for hollow sphere formation is presented.This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC No. EP/J003638/1). The work in Peru has been supported by CONCYTEC. The work in Brazil was supported by CNPq (307552/2012-8), CAPES (PNPD- 230.007518/2011-11) and FACEPE (APQ-0589-1.05/08).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2015.11.02
Dimensionality, topology, energy, the cosmological constant, and signature change
Using the concept of real tunneling configurations (classical signature
change) and nucleation energy, we explore the consequences of an alternative
minimization procedure for the Euclidean action in multiple-dimensional quantum
cosmology. In both standard Hartle-Hawking type as well as Coleman type
wormhole-based approaches, it is suggested that the action should be minimized
among configurations of equal energy. In a simplified model, allowing for
arbitrary products of spheres as Euclidean solutions, the favoured space-time
dimension is 4, the global topology of spacelike slices being (hence predicting a universe of Kantowski-Sachs type). There is,
however, some freedom for a Kaluza-Klein scenario, in which case the observed
spacelike slices are . In this case, the internal space is a product
of two-spheres, and the total space-time dimension is 6, 8, 10 or 12.Comment: 34 pages, LaTeX, no figure
Annexin-A5 assembled into two-dimensional arrays promotes cell membrane repair
Eukaryotic cells possess a universal repair machinery that ensures rapid resealing of plasma membrane disruptions. Before resealing, the torn membrane is submitted to considerable tension, which functions to expand the disruption. Here we show that annexin-A5 (AnxA5), a protein that self-assembles into two-dimensional (2D) arrays on membranes upon Ca2+ activation, promotes membrane repair. Compared with wild-type mouse perivascular cells, AnxA5-null cells exhibit a severe membrane repair defect. Membrane repair in AnxA5-null cells is rescued by addition of AnxA5, which binds exclusively to disrupted membrane areas. In contrast, an AnxA5 mutant that lacks the ability of forming 2D arrays is unable to promote membrane repair. We propose that AnxA5 participates in a previously unrecognized step of the membrane repair process: triggered by the local influx of Ca2+, AnxA5 proteins bind to torn membrane edges and form a 2D array, which prevents wound expansion and promotes membrane resealing
The High Voltage Feedthroughs for the ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeters
The purpose, design specifications, construction techniques, and testing
methods are described for the high voltage feedthrough ports and filters of the
ATLAS Liquid Argon calorimeters. These feedthroughs carry about 5000 high
voltage wires from a room-temperature environment (300 K) through the cryostat
walls to the calorimeters cells (89 K) while maintaining the electrical and
cryogenic integrity of the system. The feedthrough wiring and filters operate
at a maximum high voltage of 2.5 kV without danger of degradation by corona
discharges or radiation at the Large Hadron Collider
High School Exit Examinations: When Do Learning Effects Generalize?
This paper reviews international and domestic evidence on the effects of three types of high school exit exam systems: voluntary curriculum-based external exit exams, universal curriculum-based external exit exam systems and minimum competency tests that must be passed to receive a regular high school diploma. The nations and provinces that use Universal CBEEES (and typically teacher grades as well) to signal student achievement have significantly higher achievement levels and smaller differentials by family background than otherwise comparable jurisdictions that base high stakes decisions on voluntary college admissions tests and/or teacher grades. The introduction of Universal CBEEES in New York and North Carolina during the 1990s was associated with large increases in math achievement on NAEP tests. Research on MCTs and high school accountability tests is less conclusive because these systems are new and have only been implemented in one country. Cross-section studies using a comprehensive set of controls for family background have not found that students in MCT states score higher on audit tests like the NAEP that carry no stakes for the test taker. The analysis reported in table 1 tells us that the five states that introduced MCTs during the 1990s had significantly larger improvements on NAEP tests than states that made no change in their student accountability regime. The gains, however, are smaller than for the states introducing Universal CBEEES. New York and North Carolina. The most positive finding about MCTs is that students in MCT states earn significantly more during the first eight years after graduation than comparable students in other states suggesting that MCTs improve employer perceptions of the quality of the recent graduates of local high schools
Class I major histocompatibility complexes loaded by a periodate trigger
Class I major histocompatibility complexes (MHCs) present peptide ligands on the cell surface for recognition by appropriate cytotoxic T cells. The unstable nature of unliganded MHC necessitates the production of recombinant class I complexes through in vitro refolding reactions in the presence of an added excess of peptides. This strategy is not amenable to high-throughput production of vast collections of class I complexes. To address this issue, we recently designed photocaged MHC ligands that can be cleaved by a UV light trigger in the MHC bound state under conditions that do not affect the integrity of the MHC structure. The results obtained with photocaged MHC ligands demonstrate that conditional MHC ligands can form a generally applicable concept for the creation of defined peptide−MHCs. However, the use of UV exposure to mediate ligand exchange is unsuited for a number of applications, due to the lack of UV penetration through cell culture systems and due to the transfer of heat upon UV irradiation, which can induce evaporation. To overcome these limitations, here, we provide proof-of-concept for the generation of defined peptide−MHCs by chemical trigger-induced ligand exchange. The crystal structure of the MHC with the novel chemosensitive ligand showcases that the ligand occupies the expected binding site, in a conformation where the hydroxyl groups should be reactive to periodate. We proceed to validate this technology by producing peptide−MHCs that can be used for T cell detection. The methodology that we describe here should allow loading of MHCs with defined peptides in cell culture devices, thereby permitting antigen-specific T cell expansion and purification for cell therapy. In addition, this technology will be useful to develop miniaturized assay systems for performing high-throughput screens for natural and unnatural MHC ligands
Measurement of the Negative Muon Anomalous Magnetic Moment to 0.7 ppm
The anomalous magnetic moment of the negative muon has been measured to a
precision of 0.7 parts per million (ppm) at the Brookhaven Alternating Gradient
Synchrotron. This result is based on data collected in 2001, and is over an
order of magnitude more precise than the previous measurement of the negative
muon. The result a_mu= 11 659 214(8)(3) \times 10^{-10} (0.7 ppm), where the
first uncertainty is statistical and the second is sytematic, is consistend
with previous measurements of the anomaly for the positive and negative muon.
The average for the muon anomaly a_{mu}(exp) = 11 659 208(6) \times 10^{-10}
(0.5ppm).Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letters, revised to
reflect referee comments. Text further revised to reflect additional referee
comments and a corrected Fig. 3 replaces the older versio
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